After 3 days in the mountains, we made our way back down to the reality of urban China to get on the next train. We were assured that advanced reservations were not needed to get a sleeper seat for the 10-hr journey to our next destination. WRONG!!! We got to the scrubby little train station in Wudang Town only to find that the train to Beijing (we would be getting off somewhere on the way) had no sleeper seats. Well... for a 10-hr ride, soft seats, in an air-conditioned car could not be so bad. WRONG AGAIN!!!
True, the seats were comfy (if not a bit cramped for our long western legs), and there was AC (thank god!!)... but apparently there does not seems to be any restriction on how many tickets they sell for the train. They sell standing room only tickets... and the standing room only passengers are like leeches, clinging to anything that remotely resembles an empty seat, or patch of seat.
Getting on the train involved the usual mad rush and shoving at the door to get on. But at this point, we are well practiced in this art, and are also much bigger so have a definite advantage. We get on the train only to find the aisle jammed with people and no overhead space.. and surprise, there are people in our seats. It took a good half hour to convince the squatters that we would not be intimidated by the language barrier and simply go away. So finally we got our seats vacated after much shoulder tapping and arguing. Of course, the conducters don't even venture into this car... as they know its futile! But at last, we got our seats - and we did not leave them for 10 hours!! If we did, a standing room only passenger would have snagged it straight away.
It was really amazing - we were lucky to be in a 4-seat, rather than 6 seat section. The 6 seat sections had as many as 10 passengers squished into them. Four squeezed into each side, one squatting on the floor and one leaning on the table... often with one more leaning at the end of each row of seats. And you could just feel all eyes watching for even a sliver of seat to appear where we were sitting... Hence, we did not move from our seats for the duration for fear of losing our seats.
Needless to say, we were hot, sweaty, achy and rather tired when the train rolled in at 3AM, so rather than our usual budget accomodations, we treated ourselves to a night and day of air conditioned luxury and excellent movie watching before we moved on to our final destination for this leg of the trip - Shaolin.
Yes.. we were headed to the birthplace of Kung Fu, home of the Shaolin monks for a day of hard core Kung Fu training. To tell the truth.. we only made it through half a day, this was no joke!!
The area known as Shaolin has about 10 - 15 different Kung Fu schools, as well as the main temple where the monks train. There were literally thousands of kids training their tails off, presumably this is summer camp season. They were amazing to watch. Any of those kids, even the tiniest ones, who couldn't have been more than 5, could easily have taken us out!
One of the main schools, the most 'important' school, Wushu Tangou, offers daily classes as well as longer term classes for foreigners. And they are intense. The 3 hours we spent learning our King Fu baby steps were harder than any set of stairs we climbed. We were sore for days after!!
As well as trying our hand at Kung Fu, we were able to catch some amazing displays of talent on the part of the students when we stumbled upon what appeared to be an end of session competetition where groups of students performed various acts of Kung Fu and acrobatics in front of judges. As well saw the Shaolin Boxers training. This seemed to be a sort of kick-boxing, and these guys were vicious and huge!! In fact, these demonstrations were far more impressive that the 'official' Shaolin show that we saw a few days later in a Shanghai theatre.
This is definitley the place to come if one is interested in martial arts and wants to do some serious Kung Fu training.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Day 23 - 26: More Stairs..... Wudang Shan
Truly.. we must be insane... our next destination involved, yes, more stairs!! Wudang Shan is the bithplace of T'ai Chi, and home of numerous mountain temples populated with bad ass, T'ai Chi practicing monks. But before getting to that it is worthwhile sharing our adventure in getting there, as this was a great example of how helpful and nice people can be here to a couple of wayward travelers.
We took another train from Chengdu to Shiyen (a very non-descript town near our final destination). This time we opted for the much cushier first class car, which involved A/C and comfy sleepers. Though our cabin-mates were great snorers. After stumbling off the train at 3AM we checked ourselves into the closest flea-bag hotel and caught a few more hrs of sleep.
Wudang Shan is not the big tourist destination that Emei Shan is, therefore the surrounding areas and access is far less populated with English speakers and signage. And strangeley enough every moving vehicle around seemed to be trying to get us on their bus no matter where they were headed. So needless to say, with our limited mandarin abilities, we were somewhat challenged in figuring out which bus would get us to our final destination (not to mention this town was not in our trusty guidebook!). Thanks to a couple of very nice people we were walked over to the right bus and chaperoned all the way to our final destination.
We stayed at a hotel about 25 km up the mountain, at the foot of the many paths up to the peak, we were surrounded by mountains, cool mountain air and clouds.. we were literally staying in the clouds.
While there we met a super nice local guy named 'Peter' (many people take english names). Peter was our chaperone for the 3 days we were there, taking us around to all the temples, to the local martial arts school, making sure we didnt get ripped off buying souvenirs.
The place was really beautiful.. the scenery and temples were right out of a kung fu movie.... stony temples built into the side of the mountain with long, steep steps climbing through the mist. Rocky walkways meandering along the side of the mountain, chinese characters for long-live, happiness, prosperity, peace carved into the mountainside painted a blazing red.
One day we clinbed up to the Golden Summit - this was only two-days after our previously insane climb. Fortunately, our legs had just about recovered and this was only a 9 km climb... by this time we were pros and it was a breeze. It was very cloudy that day so we were literally climbing through the clouds. When we would look over a precipice all we saw was a thick white mist.... while it would have been nice to see the view, as we were quite high up, it was really mystical walking through these clouds....
The highlight of this walk was the scene at the temple at the very top of the mountain. There was a group of Taiwanese, members of some sect of Daoism, there on some pilgrimage. There were about 10-15 of them, dressed in white silk jammies going through some very interesting religious rites. Their leader guided them individually up the last set of stairs... which involved a lot of burping noises, dramatic hand gestures and lunging. There seemed to be some exorcising of bad spirits, as well as lots of wailing, crying, bizarre singing, flapping and flailing about at the alter. Our guide, Peter, admitted that he had never seen 'anything so crazy' (his words) so this was definitely some extreme, or fringe sect that we happened upon.
We were extremely lucky to have met Peter - he was a really great guy and definitely made our experience there. His parents ran a small restaurant so, in a town where there where no English menus, we actually got to taste some decent food and we got to see sites we would otherwise have missed.
We took another train from Chengdu to Shiyen (a very non-descript town near our final destination). This time we opted for the much cushier first class car, which involved A/C and comfy sleepers. Though our cabin-mates were great snorers. After stumbling off the train at 3AM we checked ourselves into the closest flea-bag hotel and caught a few more hrs of sleep.
Wudang Shan is not the big tourist destination that Emei Shan is, therefore the surrounding areas and access is far less populated with English speakers and signage. And strangeley enough every moving vehicle around seemed to be trying to get us on their bus no matter where they were headed. So needless to say, with our limited mandarin abilities, we were somewhat challenged in figuring out which bus would get us to our final destination (not to mention this town was not in our trusty guidebook!). Thanks to a couple of very nice people we were walked over to the right bus and chaperoned all the way to our final destination.
We stayed at a hotel about 25 km up the mountain, at the foot of the many paths up to the peak, we were surrounded by mountains, cool mountain air and clouds.. we were literally staying in the clouds.
While there we met a super nice local guy named 'Peter' (many people take english names). Peter was our chaperone for the 3 days we were there, taking us around to all the temples, to the local martial arts school, making sure we didnt get ripped off buying souvenirs.
The place was really beautiful.. the scenery and temples were right out of a kung fu movie.... stony temples built into the side of the mountain with long, steep steps climbing through the mist. Rocky walkways meandering along the side of the mountain, chinese characters for long-live, happiness, prosperity, peace carved into the mountainside painted a blazing red.
One day we clinbed up to the Golden Summit - this was only two-days after our previously insane climb. Fortunately, our legs had just about recovered and this was only a 9 km climb... by this time we were pros and it was a breeze. It was very cloudy that day so we were literally climbing through the clouds. When we would look over a precipice all we saw was a thick white mist.... while it would have been nice to see the view, as we were quite high up, it was really mystical walking through these clouds....
The highlight of this walk was the scene at the temple at the very top of the mountain. There was a group of Taiwanese, members of some sect of Daoism, there on some pilgrimage. There were about 10-15 of them, dressed in white silk jammies going through some very interesting religious rites. Their leader guided them individually up the last set of stairs... which involved a lot of burping noises, dramatic hand gestures and lunging. There seemed to be some exorcising of bad spirits, as well as lots of wailing, crying, bizarre singing, flapping and flailing about at the alter. Our guide, Peter, admitted that he had never seen 'anything so crazy' (his words) so this was definitely some extreme, or fringe sect that we happened upon.
We were extremely lucky to have met Peter - he was a really great guy and definitely made our experience there. His parents ran a small restaurant so, in a town where there where no English menus, we actually got to taste some decent food and we got to see sites we would otherwise have missed.
Day 20 - 22: The Stairs of Emei Shan
The main attraction on our Sichuan visit was Emei Shan. a sacred buddhist mountain! All we can say is stairs, stairs and more stairs... and ohhh the soreness after!
Day 1 - climed approximately 28 km of stairs... up, straight up, for about 8.5 hours. We climbed until truly, we could climb no more. Along the way were amazing mountain views, especially as we climbed higher and higher, becoming level with the surrounding peaks. As it was rather cloudy, we were literally in the clouds - it was amazing. We spent the night at a not very quiet monestary. Apparently not only do buddhist monks not take a vow of silence, but its also ok for the them to watch very loud TV until all hours of the morning. We were, however, very grateful for the presence of some electric blankets as it was rather chilly and very damp. The monks also cooked up a fine meal of veggies and rice.. I don't know if it was because we were absolutly starving, but it was by far one of the tastiest meals that we had.
Day 2 - we finished the climb to the peak 3077m to be met by more tourist hordes who had bussed it up (apparently we are insane masochists who would rather climb millions of stairs than sit on a bus). The view was amazing... once we got away from, you guessed it, the tourists and tourist stalls selling the usual monk beads and fungus. A big thing to do here is to buy a lock, engrave it with your name and lock iit onto chains strung along the edge of the mountain.. so of course, we purchased one and locked it on the highest point!
Now, one would think the way down would be a breeze... but truly going down is far more painful than going up.. especially as we returned by a different, longer (albeit far more beautiful) route. It took us about 10 hours to walk the 35 or so km down the mountain. We definitely came to appreciate our borrowed walking sticks both to help relieve the pressure of the downhill climb, as well as to fend off the wild monkeys.
As well as the endless, torturous stairs, and of course the sacred buddhist sites, Emei Shan is known for its not very shy wild monkeys. These guys were hilarious.... if not sometimes a bit scary in their advances. On the way down one stole my water bottle from me, and at another point, a very big male, with very large teeth decided to empty my pockets to see what kind of treats I might be hiding in there. Of course, this whole event is captured in pixels and will be shared. The little ones were soooo cute - monkeying around, as it were, and generally hamming it up for the cameras.
The last 10 km or so of the walk were absolutley gorgeous as we walked alongside numerous waterfalls and a crystal clear river, with amazingly fresh and cold water... a nice treat for our hot and tired feet.
We made it back to the base at about 8PM on the second day, absolutely destroyed... but feeling great for our climb.... It was truly amazing.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Day 18 - 19: Chengdu
Yes.. missed a day, the 17th was a day in transit, remarkable only for the fact that we opted out of a 22-hr train ride, in favour of an 8-hr bus ride and a one-hour flight. Of course, as a lovely reminder of our 'real lives' the flight was delayed for almost 3 hours. Also of note is the fun that is involved in getting on planes here. Apparently, they are still strangers to the 'zone system' and boarding the plane involves a mad dash and scramble at the door to squeeze your way in! That's public transportation in China!!
Finally we arrived in Chengdu - the capital of Sichuan. We were very lucky to get a room... in the pouring rain at about 1AM, as all rooms in any semi-desireable place in town were full. In fact we would have been completely out of luck if it weren't for a rather portly french couple ahead of us that decided to decline the one room left, intended for one person. Fortunately, we have shed a few pounds along the way and were able to squeeze into the rather narrow single bed! Lucky us!!
Since Hong Kong, seems like ages ago, Chengdu is the biggest city we've been in. At 11M people its no small town. It was also the first time we were able to experience the pleasure of what we have come to call the 'White Sky' of China. At first we thought it was just cloudy... but no, its pollution. Its very eerie.. just out of a sci-fi flick. There is no sun, no clouds... not even a patch of blue, just a think white blanket of haze. Even wierder s that they seem to favor white tile as the exterior of the buildings, so they just dissappear into the haze.
While in search of a famous Daoist temple we came across a very funny park (which the temple was housed inside). They had all sorts of low-budget carnival games, so we treated ourselves to some whack-a-mole (I won), and some water ballon target shooting (Tawfik won) as well as a new treat - green pea (yes pea, not tea) ice cream bars.... actually, they were really tasty.
The other highlight of Chengdu was without a doubt the food. Sichuan lived up to its promise. Less oily / greasy, and SPICY!!! Yum!! We had a dinner where we were able to sample about 13 dishes plus 8 deserts (all for the steep price of $7 per person). This was one of the first meals where the meat did not involve picking your way through a maze of bones. (As an aside... the great mystery of China is where does all the chicken meat go??? Any time we have chicken or duck it's all bones with no meat... If anyone knows - please tell us!!). We tried several different noodle dishes, meat dishes and some interesting veggies.... The sweets were all gelatinous, gooey treats... not bad, but our real dessert was way better. Chengdu is home to an actual Haagen Daaz reastaurant where an absolutely to-die-for ice cream concoction goes for more than our dinner... but oh so worth it. We are anxiously awaiting the next Haagen daaz restaurant location in Shanghai!
Finally we arrived in Chengdu - the capital of Sichuan. We were very lucky to get a room... in the pouring rain at about 1AM, as all rooms in any semi-desireable place in town were full. In fact we would have been completely out of luck if it weren't for a rather portly french couple ahead of us that decided to decline the one room left, intended for one person. Fortunately, we have shed a few pounds along the way and were able to squeeze into the rather narrow single bed! Lucky us!!
Since Hong Kong, seems like ages ago, Chengdu is the biggest city we've been in. At 11M people its no small town. It was also the first time we were able to experience the pleasure of what we have come to call the 'White Sky' of China. At first we thought it was just cloudy... but no, its pollution. Its very eerie.. just out of a sci-fi flick. There is no sun, no clouds... not even a patch of blue, just a think white blanket of haze. Even wierder s that they seem to favor white tile as the exterior of the buildings, so they just dissappear into the haze.
While in search of a famous Daoist temple we came across a very funny park (which the temple was housed inside). They had all sorts of low-budget carnival games, so we treated ourselves to some whack-a-mole (I won), and some water ballon target shooting (Tawfik won) as well as a new treat - green pea (yes pea, not tea) ice cream bars.... actually, they were really tasty.
The other highlight of Chengdu was without a doubt the food. Sichuan lived up to its promise. Less oily / greasy, and SPICY!!! Yum!! We had a dinner where we were able to sample about 13 dishes plus 8 deserts (all for the steep price of $7 per person). This was one of the first meals where the meat did not involve picking your way through a maze of bones. (As an aside... the great mystery of China is where does all the chicken meat go??? Any time we have chicken or duck it's all bones with no meat... If anyone knows - please tell us!!). We tried several different noodle dishes, meat dishes and some interesting veggies.... The sweets were all gelatinous, gooey treats... not bad, but our real dessert was way better. Chengdu is home to an actual Haagen Daaz reastaurant where an absolutely to-die-for ice cream concoction goes for more than our dinner... but oh so worth it. We are anxiously awaiting the next Haagen daaz restaurant location in Shanghai!
Days 12 - 16: Lijiang & Zhongdian (a.k.a. Shangri-La)
Given the cool climes of Yunnan province we decided to extend our stay in this area... which also leads to an extended stay in China (we still won't see half of what we want to see!!! So much to do).
Entering Lijiang we were greeted by hordes and hordes of tourists... but after having some time to tour the town, it is easy to see why. Its a very quaint old town, characterized by cobblestone streets, lots of gushing canals, tons of little bridges, weeping willows and traditional Naxi architecture. They are known for a very strong style of stone, court-yard building, which survived some major earthquake about 20 yrs ago...
The Naxi are an ethnic minority in China, which up to recently were a completely matriarchal society. Lijiang is also getting close to Tibet, hence a very different cooking style than we had seen previously. Lot's of Yak meat in use and very greasy, heavy cooking... in fact, this was the first time we were actually tempted to go to one of the few western style restaurants for a change of food. We did go for some dried yak meat though, rather tasty, if not a bit salty!
But the town offered lots of opportunity to get away from the tourist throngs, which we did, and we spent many hours strolling along the back streets where real life was going on. We came across the town market, where much to our dismay we saw dogs for sale (as food, not pets), as well as the usual assortment of live fish of all kinds, eels, snakes, frogs etc... Its always fun watching the fish vendors chase after their fish as they leap out of the buckets!!
Lijiang also had some great opportunities outside of the town to explore. As the weather had improved (no more rain) we rented bikes one day and made off for a nearby village (about 18 KM). We cycled through farmland and a few dusty little villages with walled houses and canals. We have definitely seen a huge diversity of lifestyles on this trip between big gleaming cities, attractive tourist destinations, rural farmland and villages, and (to come later) some truly awful cities. The most memorable aspect of this ride was the mud bath we took on our back-road return route.... this was some serious offroad biking... it was so bad we actually had to dip our bikes (and ourselves) in one of the canals before returning the bikes before returning them, for fear that we'd lose our deposit!!
Several hours northwest of Lijiang... getting even closer to Tibet, is the town of Zhongdian, which was dubbed Shangri-La about 10 yrs ago. Apparently some people got together and decided that this was, in fact, the Shangr-La reffered to in James Hilton's Lost Horizon. As a result major preparations are underway to make this a major tourist attraction, in the mold of Dali and Zhongdian. For the moment however, it is a destination in the making... it was surreal, kind of like a movie set going up... literally every building in the old part of town was being renovated or rebuilt. It was actually amazing to watch them at work... everything is manual. You have these scrawny little guys lifting absolutely massive stones and wood pillars. But asid from that - it was really a beautiful place. We were at about 3200 m - so quite high and the air was so clear and colours sooo bright the blue and the white of the sky, against the emerald (or rather, jade) green of the mountains was surreal.
OK.. this is a long post... but the last thought is regarding the drive to and from Zhongdian. It was absolutely amazing. We drove through beautiful mountain scenery, along a high gorge and rushing river. The road was brand new, cut alongside some mountains. In fact, work was still underway on the road as well as on a huge damn. Again - the work is all manual, so you have hundreds of people clinging to the side of the mountain, off scaffoldings, building retention walls, chipping stone... truly amazing what they do, not through technology, but with sheer man power. Safety standards are virtually non-existant. We saw women and children hanging out along the construction sites, not a hard hat in sight. The best was a guy hanging off a rope from a few hundred feet up the mountain side, smoking!!
Also remarkable is the fact that we have yet to be anywhere in China that does not have construction going on. Hard to say if this is in preparation for 2008, or a result of the growing tourism and commercialization of the country... but in either case, it is really impressive.
Ok.. have bored you enough for now... next stop heading back eastward to Sichuan province, where the food promises to improve greatly!!
Entering Lijiang we were greeted by hordes and hordes of tourists... but after having some time to tour the town, it is easy to see why. Its a very quaint old town, characterized by cobblestone streets, lots of gushing canals, tons of little bridges, weeping willows and traditional Naxi architecture. They are known for a very strong style of stone, court-yard building, which survived some major earthquake about 20 yrs ago...
The Naxi are an ethnic minority in China, which up to recently were a completely matriarchal society. Lijiang is also getting close to Tibet, hence a very different cooking style than we had seen previously. Lot's of Yak meat in use and very greasy, heavy cooking... in fact, this was the first time we were actually tempted to go to one of the few western style restaurants for a change of food. We did go for some dried yak meat though, rather tasty, if not a bit salty!
But the town offered lots of opportunity to get away from the tourist throngs, which we did, and we spent many hours strolling along the back streets where real life was going on. We came across the town market, where much to our dismay we saw dogs for sale (as food, not pets), as well as the usual assortment of live fish of all kinds, eels, snakes, frogs etc... Its always fun watching the fish vendors chase after their fish as they leap out of the buckets!!
Lijiang also had some great opportunities outside of the town to explore. As the weather had improved (no more rain) we rented bikes one day and made off for a nearby village (about 18 KM). We cycled through farmland and a few dusty little villages with walled houses and canals. We have definitely seen a huge diversity of lifestyles on this trip between big gleaming cities, attractive tourist destinations, rural farmland and villages, and (to come later) some truly awful cities. The most memorable aspect of this ride was the mud bath we took on our back-road return route.... this was some serious offroad biking... it was so bad we actually had to dip our bikes (and ourselves) in one of the canals before returning the bikes before returning them, for fear that we'd lose our deposit!!
Several hours northwest of Lijiang... getting even closer to Tibet, is the town of Zhongdian, which was dubbed Shangri-La about 10 yrs ago. Apparently some people got together and decided that this was, in fact, the Shangr-La reffered to in James Hilton's Lost Horizon. As a result major preparations are underway to make this a major tourist attraction, in the mold of Dali and Zhongdian. For the moment however, it is a destination in the making... it was surreal, kind of like a movie set going up... literally every building in the old part of town was being renovated or rebuilt. It was actually amazing to watch them at work... everything is manual. You have these scrawny little guys lifting absolutely massive stones and wood pillars. But asid from that - it was really a beautiful place. We were at about 3200 m - so quite high and the air was so clear and colours sooo bright the blue and the white of the sky, against the emerald (or rather, jade) green of the mountains was surreal.
OK.. this is a long post... but the last thought is regarding the drive to and from Zhongdian. It was absolutely amazing. We drove through beautiful mountain scenery, along a high gorge and rushing river. The road was brand new, cut alongside some mountains. In fact, work was still underway on the road as well as on a huge damn. Again - the work is all manual, so you have hundreds of people clinging to the side of the mountain, off scaffoldings, building retention walls, chipping stone... truly amazing what they do, not through technology, but with sheer man power. Safety standards are virtually non-existant. We saw women and children hanging out along the construction sites, not a hard hat in sight. The best was a guy hanging off a rope from a few hundred feet up the mountain side, smoking!!
Also remarkable is the fact that we have yet to be anywhere in China that does not have construction going on. Hard to say if this is in preparation for 2008, or a result of the growing tourism and commercialization of the country... but in either case, it is really impressive.
Ok.. have bored you enough for now... next stop heading back eastward to Sichuan province, where the food promises to improve greatly!!
Days 9 - 11: Dali
Finally we stopped for a breather...
Dali was a very charming town within an old walled city. The air was cool (though rainy), which was a very welcome change from the sweltering heat of the first week. SO we decided this would be a great place to settle down and explore for a few days.
We found a great hotel all dolled-up in a Tibetan style... This room would have easily gone for $200 or more back home... but we paid a cool $20 for it. We also indulged in the neighborhood cappuccino place (yes there was one) and spent many a rainy afternoon there. It was nice to experience some creature comforts of the west.
While the town was also swarming with tourists.. it was possible to get away from the crowds and to explore all of the winding back alleys and willow lined streets.
With the high mountains peeking through the clouds, it was easy to see the inspiration for Chinese paintings an poetry. Coming to this place was our first experience in China which recalled the movies, stories and art that we see of China back home... an interesting contrast to the other modern cities and ever growing industrialism of the other places we visited.
We ventured out to one of the neighboring villages, which got us evern further away from the booming commercialsim of China. It was interesting to see how people live and survive in the rural areas of China - such a contradiction to life that we saw in the cities.
The improvement in the food was also noteable... while Hong Kong and the south east of China is known for its 'sophisticated' cuisine.. we were happy to have access to some more 'simple food'.. fish hotpots, spicy chicken and peanuts, fresh veggies, and a noteable lack of innards were greatly appreciated culinary experiences.
Dali was a very charming town within an old walled city. The air was cool (though rainy), which was a very welcome change from the sweltering heat of the first week. SO we decided this would be a great place to settle down and explore for a few days.
We found a great hotel all dolled-up in a Tibetan style... This room would have easily gone for $200 or more back home... but we paid a cool $20 for it. We also indulged in the neighborhood cappuccino place (yes there was one) and spent many a rainy afternoon there. It was nice to experience some creature comforts of the west.
While the town was also swarming with tourists.. it was possible to get away from the crowds and to explore all of the winding back alleys and willow lined streets.
With the high mountains peeking through the clouds, it was easy to see the inspiration for Chinese paintings an poetry. Coming to this place was our first experience in China which recalled the movies, stories and art that we see of China back home... an interesting contrast to the other modern cities and ever growing industrialism of the other places we visited.
We ventured out to one of the neighboring villages, which got us evern further away from the booming commercialsim of China. It was interesting to see how people live and survive in the rural areas of China - such a contradiction to life that we saw in the cities.
The improvement in the food was also noteable... while Hong Kong and the south east of China is known for its 'sophisticated' cuisine.. we were happy to have access to some more 'simple food'.. fish hotpots, spicy chicken and peanuts, fresh veggies, and a noteable lack of innards were greatly appreciated culinary experiences.
Day 8: The Train Trip
To continue our journey westward we embarked on a 22-hr train ride, followed by a 5 hr bus ride. We left at 7AM on July 9th and arrived at 12:ooPM on July 10th in our final destination of Dali, Yunnan Province.
The train ride was certainly an experience. In spite of being interminally long (and hot) it was a great way to see the contryside. Miles and miles of farms, rice paddys and town after town after town...
The first leg of our journey we were stuck in the cattle car. We had supposed 'soft seat tickets' - cannot imagine what the hard seats would be like. We crammed in like sardines with seemingly thousands of students off on their summer break. The smell of humanity was quite overwhelming, a perfume we lovingly now refer to as 'Breeze of Summer'.
The last 16 hours of our journey were spent in a 2nd class sleeper car (apparently all that airline status doens'ny get us very far on the Chinese trains). This was still a welcome change from the other car - at least now we could s[read out a bit and sneak into the first class car for some AC and a clean bathroom.
As we fell asleep.. very greasy and diry and stinky from 14 hours of hot train riding... the train thankfully began to ascend to the cooler altitudes of the Yunnan province - so we slept peacefully and awoke refreshed and ready to step into the fresh air and rain of Kunming. From where we caught our next bus!
And so the adventure continues....
PS - We've been unable to post pictures but will try to attache a link to another site.
The train ride was certainly an experience. In spite of being interminally long (and hot) it was a great way to see the contryside. Miles and miles of farms, rice paddys and town after town after town...
The first leg of our journey we were stuck in the cattle car. We had supposed 'soft seat tickets' - cannot imagine what the hard seats would be like. We crammed in like sardines with seemingly thousands of students off on their summer break. The smell of humanity was quite overwhelming, a perfume we lovingly now refer to as 'Breeze of Summer'.
The last 16 hours of our journey were spent in a 2nd class sleeper car (apparently all that airline status doens'ny get us very far on the Chinese trains). This was still a welcome change from the other car - at least now we could s[read out a bit and sneak into the first class car for some AC and a clean bathroom.
As we fell asleep.. very greasy and diry and stinky from 14 hours of hot train riding... the train thankfully began to ascend to the cooler altitudes of the Yunnan province - so we slept peacefully and awoke refreshed and ready to step into the fresh air and rain of Kunming. From where we caught our next bus!
And so the adventure continues....
PS - We've been unable to post pictures but will try to attache a link to another site.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Day 7: Yangshuo
A 12-hr bus ride later and we disembarked, bleary eyed in the city of Yangshuo. While we were completely out of it, the local hotel touts were bright-eyed and bushy tailed and ready to sell us everything from a hotel room to myriad tours, tickets and otherwise. We finally gave in to Larry (surely that was not his real name) to hook us up with a nice room and train tickets to our next destination.
Yangshuo is notable for its scenery of karst peaks and its setting on the river. This was our first exposure to the tourism boom currently happening within China. When after a morning of wandering through the residential part of town, we stumbled upon the 'tourist section' full of shop after shop selling everything from DVDs (at a dollar a piece), fake jade and personalized fans (we couldn't resist getting one of those). This was a far cry from the market we walked through earlier in the day, which offered up all kinds of interesting fungi, meats (sitting in the sun all day - yummy) and every kind of vegetable, fresh off the farm.
Nonetheless, Yangshuo was a very charming stop on our trip. We enjoyed both the 'real' side of it, seeing how people live in a small chinese town, as well as the bustle of the tourist side.
One other point of note is the young gguys we met hanging out by a scenic spot on the river. It was amazing how eager they were to learn English. In fact, their sole intent for hanging out there was to practice their English with the tourists. Also amazing how well informed these guys from a tiny Chinese village were... and the questions!! The first question out of their mouths was our thoughts in the impact of globalization on Chinese culture!!
Day 6: Crossing to Mainland China (and a day in Guanzhou)
After a fabulous time in Hong Kong and Macau.. meccas of shopping and culinary delights (or not, depending on your feelings towards intestines and small rodents) we were ready for the big plunge into Mainland China.
We hopped a bus to cross the border, taking us to the port town of Guanzhou. While the multiple border crossings (one to get out of Macua, and one to get into China) were a bit redundant, they were nonetheless, very efficient, zipping us through in no time.
After a rather pleasant 3hr busride, passing through some nice coastal cities, we were in the city of Ghuanzhou (the city formerly known as Canton). As our bus-ride to our next destination was an afternoon away, we spent the day exploring the port-city of Guanzhou.
We wandered the streets, experimented with the local cuisine and even ventured on the local subway system... here we virtually the only foreigners in site.
We wandered down one street with stall after stall of different knick-knacks (certainly destined for the US0 for less than pennies - zippers, buckles, chains, grommets, silly little toys, all at wholesale and ridiculously cheap.. we will certainly think twice before buying stuff retail in the states again.
Oh yeah, did we mention it was hot? REALLY hot and humid.... so after a day of wandering around through a virtual swamp, we were ready to get on our air-con bus headed west for the lovely township of Yangshuo.....
PS - we are flying a bit blind from here on out as our actual blog site seems to be blocked from the mainland.. I guess blogging is a no-no here. So while we are able to post, we can't actually see our site.. and no, it is not because of the perhaps questionable order of our initials!!
Also no pics.. blogger does not like my huge RAW files and Tawfik did not take any pics
We hopped a bus to cross the border, taking us to the port town of Guanzhou. While the multiple border crossings (one to get out of Macua, and one to get into China) were a bit redundant, they were nonetheless, very efficient, zipping us through in no time.
After a rather pleasant 3hr busride, passing through some nice coastal cities, we were in the city of Ghuanzhou (the city formerly known as Canton). As our bus-ride to our next destination was an afternoon away, we spent the day exploring the port-city of Guanzhou.
We wandered the streets, experimented with the local cuisine and even ventured on the local subway system... here we virtually the only foreigners in site.
We wandered down one street with stall after stall of different knick-knacks (certainly destined for the US0 for less than pennies - zippers, buckles, chains, grommets, silly little toys, all at wholesale and ridiculously cheap.. we will certainly think twice before buying stuff retail in the states again.
Oh yeah, did we mention it was hot? REALLY hot and humid.... so after a day of wandering around through a virtual swamp, we were ready to get on our air-con bus headed west for the lovely township of Yangshuo.....
PS - we are flying a bit blind from here on out as our actual blog site seems to be blocked from the mainland.. I guess blogging is a no-no here. So while we are able to post, we can't actually see our site.. and no, it is not because of the perhaps questionable order of our initials!!
Also no pics.. blogger does not like my huge RAW files and Tawfik did not take any pics
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Day 3-5: Macau
Got spicy fillet of piglet???
Two days in Macau... a region with heavy Portuguese influence - beautiful
colonial architecture, portuguese influenced food and a nice, laid back
feel. Though we did encounter our first major language issues, where we had to resort to pointing out places on the map to our cab driver - more of that
to come for sure!
As you can see from this picture - they are big on their Jerky here.
Today we finally set out for our true 'China Adventure' as we set out for our first bone-jarring bus-ride to the Chinese mainland.. should be fun!!
Monday, July 04, 2005
Day 1 - 2: Hong Kong
2 Days in Hong Kong... an amazing city. No shortage of stuff to buy and
interesting thinfgs to eat... though we are playing it safe for the moment.
We have yet to indulge in the offerings of roasted rat or pig foetus (mmmm).
In two days we checked out just about every market in Hong Kong and
Kowloon.. the goldfish market, the flower market, the bird market, th
eladies market (no - they do not sell ladies there), and the night market.
On both days we put in a good 14 hrs of walking, walking, walking... and
lots of picture taking. Two samples here.
Till next time!
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