China done and dusted…Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge and Dali

Tiger Leaping Gorge is proof that there is a China beyond the concrete sprawl of its cities whilst Lijang and Dali are the proof that even some of its urban centres can have charm and life beyond shopping malls and internet cafes.

Spent 2 days trekking up to and along the Tiger Leaping Gorge. It was a stunning walk and although taxing at times, it was totally worth the effort. The most difficult part of the trek was getting up the ’28 bends’ that lead to stunning views of the valley below. We had local ladies on the way trying to sell us Cannabis although how that is supposed to help you get up to the top of a steep hill, I am not quite sure. The Chinese are certainly very business minded…there was a very savvy chap charging to take photos from the best spot at the top!

In Lijiang I went to see a performance by a traditional Naxi (pronounce Nashi) orchestra. So much cultural heritage has been lost in this part of the world that it was really great to have the opportunity to experience some of what remains. Who knows how long it will continue though as most of the orchestra are octogenarians…seriously cool old dudes for the most part!

Dali was also very quaint by Chinese standards. Less touristy that Lijiang with a bit more of a hippy vibe but I loved it for it’s market town feel. I especially love the variety of hats that the women wear.

My last stop in China before crossing into Vietnam was Kunming. A huge sprawling city…I know this because I spent the best part of an hour racing round the ring-road in 3 different taxis trying to find the right bus station to get to Vietnam. From South to East to North, back to South and finally to the West to find that I had missed the bus by seconds! Just as well there was another one first thing in the morning…

From Chengdu – Jiuzhaigou & Huang Long

Having successfully renewed my Chinese visa they let me back in and I headed for the West to Chengdu. From there I took a hairy 9 hour bus ride (should have been 13) to Juizhaigou National Park which was very cold so a bit of a shock to the system but also incredibly beautiful. Made good use of my woolly hat (thanks James) and some newly purchased gloves. I also visited Huanglong which was very high and even colder but equally beautiful. Was adopted by a group of Chinese business men who walked all the way up and back with me stopping for us all to pose for photos every five paces! Stopping so often was probably a good thing as I was a bit wary of going too fast at such a high altitude…as this usually results in me being physically sick and being carried off by a horse somewhere! Don’t ask me how high as I have a bad memory for facts and figures but it was high! Enjoyed an oxygen pillow half way up – not sure it did much other than make me feel more starved of Oxygen after I had finished it but was interesting all the same!

Back in Chengdu I met up with new Japanese friend Kenji and we went to visit the Pandas. I have to be honest, I am not actually that big a fan of animals – in fact I am the least animal loving vegetarian I know but I have to admit to liking the pandas just a little bit – OK, fine – they were awesome! Especially the babies! (weren’t allowed to take pictures of them though – due to top secret panda breeding confidentiality or something). I do however seem to have taken an awful lot of photos on this bit of my trip in general and I have just discovered a new function that lets me insert a gallery – woo – so that is exactly what I am going to do…me rambling on about how pretty it was really doesn’t do it justice!

Honk Konk

Sort of goodbye China (although not technically) and hello Hong Kong!

It was nice to be back in Hong Kong. Having done all the touristy things on my last visit from Japan in 2008 this time round was much more relaxed. I was also better prepared for the behemoth that is Chung King Mansions – the notorious guesthouse destination for most backpackers in HK.

I had warned Jesus to expect a cell of a room with no windows, no air-con and probably a few friendly bed bugs. So was delighted when we turned up to find a pristine room with fully functioning cooling system and not 1 window but 2 – score! Downstairs was still the same as always trying to squeeze into a tiny lift with the rest of Hong Kong’s immigrant population and their worldly possessions in tow. I love the maze of shops on the ground floor, from curry counters to electrical goods and the ubiquitous suitcases. Note to self: curry for breakfast is not the future!

Much to my excitement I got to meet up with Jamie and Lydia from home who were in HK on a trekking holiday – yes, you can go trekking in HK!

On the Star Ferry from HK Island to Kowloon

We spent one day walking round Lamma island which was beautiful.

Jamie ready for trekking!

Nearly missed the ferry back to HK having fallen asleep on the beach…they had jet-lag to blame and I had taken one too many drowse inducing travel sick pills, or so I will claim!

First beach of my trip...despite Jamie protesting that I have been a beach bum since leaving home!

Also on this trip I managed to successfully get a new China visa and completely blow my budget on a new camera oops!

Guilin, Yangshuo & Dazhai

Guilin

40 hours on a train, 3 card games learned and forgotten, 1 giant pomelo devoured and 2 new friends later I arrived in hot and steamy Guilin. Actually one friend and one slightly creepy lady who wanted to be my friend a bit too much.

The overwhelming excitement of train travel in China

Miraculously I managed to be sleeping above someone who actually spoke good English. Another mid-twenties going on twelve year old called ‘Roget’. That was his ‘English’ name.

Roget loving the train back from his trip to the Shanghai Expo!

Despite being the most popular tourist destination in China I didn’t actually like Guilin that much. I think the reasons behind this are probably three-fold:

1. Within the first 5 minutes of leaving my hostel I caught a kid with his hand in my bag. He made off with the contents of my wallet but lucky for me it was only my fake and ingenious ‘drop-wallet’ (thanks Gary). I would have loved to have seen his face when he realised that his heist had got him 300 Nigerian Naira, a Wallis and Gromit WH Smiths card and 2 commemorative football coins.

2. I temporarily lost my shoes. This may not seem like a disaster but I am a size 7 which means that in Asia I am classed as having giant feet with shoes that are not easily replaced. I was also due to be going hiking and didn’t fancy it in flipflops. The real sartorial disaster however was actually the loss of the bottom half of my zip off trousers…which is not unconnected to the shoe incident. The above mentioned articles plus my scarf went missing from my room at the hostel but were luckily retrieved later on from a plastic bag in the cleaners cupboard! Sadly my trouser legs were gone for good.

3. Monkey Attack! In the 7 star Park which is beautiful, there are lots of signs saying ‘Beware wild monkeys’ to which I paid due attention but there wasn’t much I could when I was surrounded by them on a footpath. I tried to move out of their way but the dominant male obviously took this as me threatening his family so decided to attack and came after me scratching and attempting to bite me! I still have a small scar but but fortunately no foaming at the mouth so think I am rabies-free!

Not as cute as they look!

The Sun and Moon Pagoda - Guilin

The real reason for me to be in Guilin in the first place is because it is the gateway to a stunning Karst landscape of limestone hills. The best place to see said hills is on the river between Guilin and Yangshuo.

Yangshuo

Having picked up Jesus from the train station (recently arrived from Shanghai) we set off from Guilin on a ‘bamboo’ raft. I say ‘bamboo’ because really they are all made from plastic piping nowadays -much to the chagrin of many of my fellow travelers. To be honest I didn’t really care what it looked like as long as it floated and got me and my bag down the river safe and dry. In any case I wasn’t looking at the raft because I was too busy gawping at the stunning karst scenery framing the river on both sides. Imagine the HSBC advert with the cormorant fishermen – alternatively I could just insert a photo below:

Not my raft luckily but a cool fisherman!

Once in Yangshuo I convinced Jesus to stay a bit out of town to avoid bar street and stay a bit closer to the countryside that we’d come to see. I have to admit also to being swayed by the name of the hostel which was the ‘Giggling Tree’.

The Giggling Tree - Yangshuo

Her pose - not mine!

Had lots of fun hiring bikes and getting lost in the neighbouring villages and rice paddi (just learned that that word exists yesterday!). Also cycled to an amazing market where the local people were just as curious about us as we were about them!

Had some delicious local rice noodles from this guy

Keen to carry on with my temporarily active lifestyle I also went kayaking which was a brilliant way to see the scenery from the river without the constant noise of boat motors. Back on dry land we ended up in a village that felt like it was lost in time with Mao portraits still hanging above most mantle places. I’ve only really scratched the surface of Chinese history by reading a tiny bit about the ‘cultural revolution’ but that man certainly has a lot to answer for.

Dazhai

Having returned briefly to Guilin I managed to convince Jesus to go with me to visit some rice terraces. Not to the closest and most readily accessible, oh no that would be too easy…I wanted to go to a place called Dazhai which was more obscure and harder to get to, but luckily Jesus was up for the challenge. We took a very local bus with some very local people up a very curvy road to get there but the journey in itself was worth it! As well as the passengers all sorts of things were thrown into the minibus to be transported up to the top of the hill; from 10 dozen eggs (which miraculously made the journey in one piece) to stacks of stools, sacks of rice and 101 other miscellaneous boxes.

Dazhai was well worth the trip and we came at harvest time which meant that the fields were buzzing with people cutting, collecting and threshing the rice – all by hand! The vallley was criss-crossed with tiny farming paths zig-zagging up and down the hills, along which we bumped into many of the friendly locals from the Yao (long hair) ethnic minority group. It was stunning and one of my favourite places on my travels so far!

The rice terraces of Dazhai

Surreal Shanghai

Shanghai Shanghai…

What can I say about Shanghai – it is unlike almost anywhere else in China. Because of the prominence of the port it has a history of foreign trade and therefore foreign people. There is definitely a very international vibe and many a Western face which took a bit of getting used to. So many in fact that the urge you usually get in less tourist-populated zones to say hello to or at least sheepishly acknowledge every foreigner you see on the street subsided after a day or two. The foreignness of it all reminded me of Hong Kong. The view you get from the Bund of the skyscrapers in the Pudong business district is also reminiscent of the view you get from Kowloon looking over to HK island.

The Bund at night

Pudong business district

Surreal event no. 1

Look at the photo below taken in the People’s Park in central Shanghai and guess what you think is going on. (On the signs is written various personal information…sex, age, brief physical description).

I sat pondering this for a while and I came to the conclusion that they were looking for missing people. But no, it’s not people looking to find their lost relatives but a ‘marriage market’ – Shanghai’s answer to Internet dating for parents eager to set up their offspring with an eligible match. Almost none of the signs had photos but they had lots of other information alongside the standard bio: hobbies, likes and dislikes, even salaries. One lady got excited when she caught me looking at a sign and thinking I was German (!?) rushed over saying, “Yes, German, very good, we like German!” I made a hasty retreat. The system obviously works though as there were lots of people scribbling down phone numbers in notebooks to make contact at a later point. And there were lots of potentials to chose from…

Surreal event no. 2

Also in People’s Park – I was approached by a lady who introduced herself as Liz. She had been looking for the English club which traditionally takes place in the park every Sunday and had had no luck in finding it. Every week people get together to have an opportunity to practice their English. I had read about it and was quite intrigued so offered to try and help her track it down. I was expecting it to be a mix of locals and ex-pats but when we finally found it I was pounced upon as I turned out to be the only native speaker! I was suddenly surrounded by a group of very excitable Chinese who were all trying to out-English each other – all talking and asking questions at the same time!! There were quite some characters in the group including one guy who was proudly telling me  how much he loved reading Chaucer and seemed a bit disappointed that I didn’t share his enthusiasm! After an hour of trying to answer everyone’s questions I was thankfully rescued by Liz.

Liz and I in People's Park

English club!

Liz basically adopted me for the day. We had the most delicious dumplings I have ever eaten and wandered around the Bund and Nanjing shopping street trying to avoid all the people who sidle up to you with catalogues full of fake Louis Vuitton hoping that you will buy something. She invited me to her home for dinner and so I met her 1-year old daughter, the nanny and the maid! Amazing views of the city from the 27th floor – funny how such a view becomes mundane to dwellers in a sky-scraper city like Shanghai.

On the way back to the metro we went past a market. One minute it was there…the next minute there was a mummer and suddenly the market was gone. I have never seen people move so fast! Whole racks of clothes dismantled and in the back of a van, a stall folded in two and peddled off on a bike. Within a matter of seconds you would never have known that there was a market there at all. Didn’t see any police which is who they were supposedly running from but they were obviously well practiced at this disappearing act!

I met some nice English blokes at the hostel who had come from Osaka on a boat and made me want to jump ship, onto a ship and go to Japan! But that will have to wait a few more months! We explored the Yuyan garden area together and got some foot massages which were good and cheap and especially welcome after my exploits on the great wall!

I also made a Spanish friend at the hostel, Jesus. We spent the next day together wandering around the Expo. I hadn’t intended to go at first but the whole city was Expo crazy – I was brainwashed by the advertising and actually it would have been a shame to miss it. We managed to VIP ourselves into the UK Pavillion with my passport and the Spanish and Finnish pavillions with Jesus’ multi-identity kit! The UK one was impressive from the outside and the ‘seed Cathedral’ as it was known was nice to look at inside but I’ve no idea how a random wax-work figure of David Beckham fitted the theme of ecological awareness!

UK Pavillion

The Spanish pavillion was amazing with Flamenco and a brilliant video installation but then they kind of ruined it the classical cultural vibe at the end with a really, really weird giant baby that had moving facial expressions and was surrounded by a cloud of bubbles at all times! The giant baby was all anyone talked about as soon as Jesus told them he was from Spain! We also visited: Brazil, Cuba (for a cheeky mojito), Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia (my favourite), Malaysia, Holland (pretty sure they were not entirely sober when they put together the design for their pavillion which was utterly weird!), Canada, the South Pacific and China among others!

Shanghai feels like a very new and cosmopolitan city so I thought I should try and seek out at least one old thing and pumped for the Jiang Temple. Unfortunately when I got there it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment as it felt more like a concrete car park disguised as a temple. The Jade Buddha Temple on the other hand was much nicer and more what I had been looking for. A little insense-filled retreat in the middle of the city! There was a slightly crazy calligrapher there though who kept repeating weird phrases at me that he had scribbled down in a note book like ‘no pain, no gain’ and ‘I betray oneself’ which I tried to correct for him but he insisted on repeating his mantra as was. Maybe I should have pointed him in the direction of the English corner in People’s Park!

Concrete car-park temple

Decided I couldn’t come to Shanghai and not visit at least one swanky cocktail bar in some ridiculously tall building. We chose Cloud 9 bar at the Grand Hyatt. They were kind enough to let us in even though we were clearly rif-raf and we had some lovely drinks overlooking the lights of the city by night!

For my last meal in the city before I rushed off to catch the Guilin train I dragged Jesus to a place called Vegetarian Lifestyle which specialised in fake meat. I’ve had fake meat a lot in China and I don’t particulary like it as they try as hard as possible to make tofu or other non-meaty products look and taste like meat! Not so good for those of us who don’t like the flavour or don’t want to see goose-pimples on a fake duck breast! After a good half an hour trying to choose something from the mammoth menu I went for the fake fish just for a change – weird in a fishy kind of way!

Jesus at Vegetarian Lifestyle

 

Beijing and the Great Wall

In an effort to catch up with myself (I realise I am now 7 weeks behind with this blog eek) the next few posts will be mostly photos and less chat, which is probably how I intended it to be in the first place before I got carried away.

So…Beijing, or more accurately Beijing during the National Holiday week which runs from 1st-7th October is….an experience! The crowds flock to every temple, museum, park and palace.  Nearly 95% of the tourists in Beijing when I was there were Chinese which oddly made it feel sometimes like I was the only tourist – despite 1000s of other people all taking the same photos and queuing to get into the same attractions.

I stayed in a hostel in one of the Hutong which are the old low-rise districts in the city.

The Hutong are mazes of narrow streets with gated courtyard houses, communal bathrooms, little shops and people wandering around in their pajamas day and night.

I liked Beijing a lot.  The metro is amazing – clean, fast and efficient making it really easy to get around (3 of the lines had been built for the Olympics). There is lots of cultural heritage and plenty of markets and other fun stuff. I was in the city for 6 days and there was still lots of things that I didn’t get to see.

The highlights for me (despite the crowds) were:

1. The Temple of Heaven
2. The Summer Palace
3. The Forbidden City
4. 798 art district

Crowds at the Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven and a rare bit of blue sky!

Grounds of the Summer Palace where every bridge it seems was burnt down by Anglo-French troops eek

 

My NZ friends Sarah and Evan at the Forbidden City

 

Morning smog over the Forbidden City - I can believe people that say Beijing is the most poluted city on earth

In culinary terms Beijing was a case of highs and lows. I became addicted to the local yogurt which you get in little clay pots and is delicious! I got them so often that the lady at the corner shop had one ready waiting for me when she saw me coming!

I also went to the most ridiculously nice Vegetarian restaurant – possibly the most luxurious dining experience I have ever had – felt more like being at a spa than a restaurant! They poured rose water on my hands as I entered and gave me a lotus flower when I left.  It is a Buddhist-run place and all the food had amazing names like ‘Loving heart of a Rabbit Mother Carrot Cake’ and ‘Romantic rythmic movement jobe’ tear winter melon cup soup’ – I couldn’t make these things up if I tried!

Floating Lotus vegetarian restuarant

At quite the other end of the scale was the Donghuamen Dajie night market. Hundreds of people squeeze down this tiny alley in the evenings to look at, and if brave enough, to eat all sorts of weird food from scorpions and spiders to bats and sea stars.

You will be pleased to hear that I am still vegetarian and steered well clear of the barbecued terrapins. I thought foolishly that I would be safe with some tofu. Wrong. What I later discovered to be known as ‘Smelly Tofu’ is probably the most foul thing I have ever eaten. They cover it in a brown sauce which made it all but impossible to eat. It is a local delicacy here but it stank and as much as I hate to waste food I couldn’t physically eat more than one mouthful.

Shopping at the markets was fun although it’s quite tiring trying to politely refuse all the sales people selling you the same thing over and over every 5 steps you take calling behind you ‘You wanna Cashmere Girrrrrlll??’. No thank you.

Actual silk at the silk market - most of the stalls were selling Ralph Lauren T-shirts and fake North Face back packs

Incense for sale at the Lama Temple

Random wires picture for Sal!

 

The Great Wall – Jiankou to Mu Tian Yu

After 6 days in Beijing it was time to get out of the city. Had arranged to go on a 2 day hike with Sarah and Evan – friends from New Zealand that I met in Moscow. Together with our guide Andy we set off from Jiankou. Jiankou is part of the wall that hasn’t been restored and in places it is literally crumbling. We stayed over night on a farm and set off on the 2nd day to walk as far as Mu Tian Yu which is the part of the wall which was been restored. The difference was huge. Both were interesting in their own way but I probably preferred the 1st day if only because there was no-one else on that section of the wall. Both new and old had very steep sections so it was quite challenging but definitely worth it for the views even despite the mist.

Our farm stay with traditional 'Kan' brick beds!

 

It was all just too much for some people!

So much for less chat – sorry! At least I kept to the bit about more photos!

Xian

The overnight journey from Urumqi to Xian was my first experience of a Chinese train and I was pleasantly surprised. To be fair I was in ‘soft sleeper’ which is the highest available class of ticket but even so it was more comfortable than I had expected – especially compared to the Kazak train.

Some mountains making a nice change from Steppe!

I was sharing my compartment with 25 year old Wang who looked like he could have been 12! He bought my last English tenner from me as a souvenir. We were also sharing with a grandmother and grandfather who were traveling with their 1 year old granddaughter – Chinese kids always seem to be in the care of their grandparents.

The baby and I got on very well seeing as we had about the same level of Chinese language ability!

Whilst on the subject of babies I can’t ignore the fact that in China they have a very unique alternative to nappies. Rather than waste thousands of disposable pampers the kids simply have a slit in their trousers and whenever they need to go to the toilet, they go! In the park, on the street – everywhere and anywhere! Took quite some getting used to but in hindsight probably a much sounder alternative for the environment!

Exiting the train station in Xian I was swept along in a sea of people. Luckily the guy picking me up was exceptionally tall for a Chinese person and I could see him above the rest of the crowd. I really liked Xian – it had a really nice atmosphere about it, maybe due in part to the excitement surrounding the fast approaching National Holiday.

I especially liked the chaotic Beiyuanmen Street which was the heart of the Muslim district. It was best at night when it came alive with a market and endless food stalls.

Here I developed my penchant for stick food…the next few days I ate so many things from a stick – some more identifiable than others. Probably not the most healthy way to eat but lots of fun! Small apple type things covered in caramel, rice cakes, candy floss, eggs…

Whilst in Xian I visited the Bell and Drum Towers, walked around the ancient city wall and got lost down offal street looking for the Grand Mosque – possibly the most horrible thing my nose has ever experienced!

'Audrey' and Che Kuan who I met at the Bell Tower

The Drum Tower

The Grand Mosque

Some sort of tower at the Mosque...a little bit lost in translation

The ancient city wall

My main reason for being there however was to visit the Terracotta Warriors and they did not disappoint. They were discovered in 1974 by a farmer digging a well – luckily after the cultural revolution! They estimate that there are around 6-8000 soldiers in total. I had been expecting them to be quite small but they are actually life size, or even a bit bigger. Each one is different with distinctive facial features and hairstyles. They are said to have been modeled on real soldiers from Emperor Qin’s army. He had them built to guard his mausoleum- crazy man!

There were plenty of Chinese tourists visiting but luckily I was there the day before the national holidays started and just missed the massive crowds….that joy was waiting for me in Beijing!