China On My Mind

Saturday, June 25, 2011 Eva 0 Comments

My musings, ramblings and observations on China (purely opinion, only) …….

A basic smattering of Chinese has been most helpful in getting by in China, and I have been thankful that I had done a basic short course in Mandarin before leaving home (thank you, Wang Jing) although a longer course would have been more beneficial had I thought of it sooner. Accommodation places have someone on staff who can speak English but I found it frustrating not being able to strike up a conversation with the locals.  Many Chinese people know at least 2 words in English –“ hello” and “bye bye”. The younger ones know more. In Shanghai, I was lucky enough to have the chance to sit in on one of Penn’s private Chinese lessons in her home. Penn & Alister’s driver, Andy, was also another source of help with language tips that helped me get by in my very limited way through China.
Oh, bless!
China is a safe place to travel through and very cheap, but the biggest danger is trying to cross the street. Traffic will plough through pedestrian crossings, zigzagging around pedestrians, but no one ever seems to get hit.  The car rules…or bus or taxi or scooter! Many scooters are electric and some cars are battery-powered so it’s hard to hear them coming up from behind. The best bet when crossing a busy multiple-lane road is to step out across traffic alongside locals and cross one lane at a time.  When in Rome…….

As a westerner you are stared at or photographed as though they’re seeing a foreigner for the first time, regardless of the number of non-Asian tourists travelling.  Some call out “hello” in English and giggle when they get a reply, whilst others try to sneak a photo of you with cameras or mobile phones or approach you for that Kodak moment they are bursting to have.  Westerners are still a novelty for some. I enjoyed offering to take their photos for them so that everyone could be in it, calling out in Chinese “yi, er, san (1,2,3)….click”, which gave them a bit of a laugh.
So we all know about the Chinese government’s one-child policy. There were plenty of cute mini-emperors and empresses about, though very well-behaved from what I could see, many in the care of doting grandparents.  But we've been informed, to desperately want a second child costs an exorbitant amount, so that may account for the numerous pets.  However, a one-pet policy is apparently on the cards, if not already introduced. 
Tea drinking is huge here (surprise surprise!), even in taxis where drivers have their plastic flasks of green tea with them in their console.  Airports cater for tea drinkers by providing numerous hot water dispensing machines where local travellers top up their travel mugs and flasks of green tea leaves or pour the free scalding water into their take-away instant noodle bowls before boarding their aircraft.
The people here, as we’ve observed, are very industrious.  When idle they sweep (the number of early mornings where we’ve woken up hearing the sound of straw brooms sweeping the pavements!) or take a second job or do whatever it is that keeps them busy. The Chinese, it seems, are busy being busy!
Okay, now the worst parts about China:
·         I can put up with squat toilets (been there, done that many times before, unless they’re disgustingly smelly – and there’ve been quite a few of those) & throwing the toilet paper in the wastebasket next to it, but…….geez, I dislike brushing my teeth with bottled water (you know, just to be on the safe side).

·         masses of Chinese tourists in large tour groups everywhere you go, and we mean MASSES.  If you’re not used to crowds, you better get used to them fast.

·         Chinese plumbing (marginally effective at worst, OK at best) and having to provide your own toilet paper in many places. Public toilets are numerous in every city but only some will have a communal toilet paper dispenser outside the cubicles.

·         the phlegmy spitting on the streets.  Seriously, someone ought to look into the post-nasal drip that afflicts the nation.

·         Chinese ATM’s that dispense only small amounts of cash from their machines. This means regular trips to the hole in the wall, with added fees on top. Not ideal.

Best parts about China:
·         love the way people give and receive with both hands.  Even when change is handed over, it’s extended with both hands.  So very respectful and elegant.

·         it's great the way the people are so communal about their parks and public places. Taking a walk through these at any time of day you may see groups of elderly at early morning tai chi classes (some in their pyjamas), exercise classes to music, instrument or singing practice, card games or women’s dance lessons. The sidewalks are places for a game of mah-jong or to play cards or to sit and sip tea with friends. 

·         gorgeous public gardens - they’re peaceful, harmonious and an escape from city crowds and noise. Lakes, koi fish ponds, pagodas, pretty bridges, traditional teahouses are set in serene landscapes. Makes you want to take up serious contemplation of the navel.......or take up tai chi.

.·        the city streets are SO clean, not what I expected in a billion-plus populated country.

·         there have been some very memorable meals we’ve enjoyed, especially in Shanghai, Beijing and Xian.  The beers we sampled were also enjoyable, a lot milder and less bitter than the Aussie ones.  Of particular note was the local Guilin beer.  
Chopsticks for sale

Hmmm! Chicken tonight?


·         the people have been friendly and helpful.

·         recycling is taken seriously from collection men on little bikes to streetside rubbish bins that are divided into recyclable and non-recyclable sections.  Go the green movement.

·         no hooliganism, louts, bad-mouthing, rage, drunken aggressive behaviour or graffiti. Yay! Even all the car honking is done with a cool head. The worst behaviour we encountered were Chinese conversing on full volume into a mobile phone on the subway (they shout "WEI" - hello on answering the phone ) which had even some of the locals turning their heads and looking.

We’ve felt that we’ve seen and done a lot in the 3 ½ weeks we’ve travelled around, giving us the impression that we’ve been here for much longer and at other times not long enough.  Our time here has varied from exhausting to exhilarating.

A BIG thank you to Penn and Alister for room, board, language class, chauffeur service, advice, great conversations and wonderful dinners. A fabulous introduction into China and the ex-pat way of life in Shanghai.

Now, it’s time to leave China’s perpetually grey hazy skies and move on to other landscapes aboard the Trans-Mongolian train bound for Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.  

Zai jian, China.  Thanks for the amazing memories and experiences.




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Beijing

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 Eva 0 Comments
 This was it - our final destination in the PRC.  5 days to cram as much Chinese culture and sightseeing in as possible before leaving the country.

As we were booked in to a private guesthouse east of the Forbidden City, but not sure quite where, it was easier taking a taxi directly there. The taxi driver stopped a few times to enquire about its exact location and then deposited us in an alleyway outside a small green door set in a red surround and topped by a tiny tiled roof.


Entry to Cong's hutong
 
LiShi Hutong - the alleyway to Cong's place


Cong's courtyard
How delighted we were when we entered the quiet compound of our bed and breakfast guesthouse, Cong’s Hutong, down Li Shi Hutong.  After hostelling it for so many days we wanted to splurge out on a nice place that didn’t involve staying at an impersonal high-rise hotel.  Since seeing a TV program back home of the Beijing Olympics and the preservation and revitalisation of its hutongs (ancient narrow alleyways) I knew that the hutong area was where I wanted to stay.

Our sitting room

My internet search as we travelled through China had me returning longingly to Cong's Hutong website and its photos of 4 exquisitely decorated rooms. The reality didn’t disappoint.  Hongbin Cong, the owner, and his wife May extended us such warm hospitality in their courtyard home, produced a map and pointed out areas of interest that we may wish to explore. Our room was full of charm - handpainted wall mural, Chinese slippers and traditional-styled furniture - and had the biggest shower stall that we’d encountered in our time in China, with a brilliant rainshower.  Their quiet, self-composed ‘ai’ (maid) prepared us lovely breakfasts served alfresco in the sunny courtyard. Whilst outside the walls of this courtyard home was the noise of traffic and people, in here all we heard were the sounds of birds.

Fine warm weather greeted us on our first day and gave us enough time to walk the long distance to collect our Trans-Mongolian train tickets, eat a cheap meal at the expansive Oriental Plaza shopping mall and pick up some supplies, for our upcoming train trip, on the walk back before a sudden late afternoon thunderstorm cracked the skies open.

That evening we caught a taxi to the Dadong Peking Duck restaurant which Hongbin had recommended when we spoke about Beijing’s famous duck dish.  It ranked as one of the outstanding memories of our stay in Beijing.  This was a swanky establishment decked out in glass, black granite and gleaming steel.  The chef is renowned for creating a crispy, less fatty version of this dish.  With gin and tonic in hand, we watched from behind a glass display window the numerous chefs in white aprons & high chefs’ hats briskly whizzing around the kitchen serving and checking all the ducks hanging in brick roasting ovens with open fires.
Duck a la Peking style
After ordering, a chef was appointed to our table to thinly slice the duck with military precision whilst a waitress showed us how to fill and fold duck pancakes and how to use the various accompaniments – scallions, plum sauce, garlic sauce, pickles, sugar and radish.  Who in the world would have thought that pieces of crispy succulent duck fat seized between a pair of chopsticks and dipped into white sugar could taste so spectacular!  Obviously, the chef of this restaurant did. We were in Chinese heaven.  At the end of the night, bloated on rich duck meat, it was a long wait and walk to find and hail down a taxi that was willing to take us back. 

The mighty Forbidden City
The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square were next on our hit list and we tackled this mammoth task with great gusto. Eight hours of it - pounding the pavements from one end of the Forbidden City to the other, around the vast perimeter of Tiananmen Square and partly by foot and by bus up to the hillside Jingshan Park for a panoramic overview of the Forbidden City.
Superlatives and words cannot describe the splendour, majesty and enormous scale of the ancient walled home of China’s many emperors. Entry upon invitation, otherwise executed was the rule of the times.  Nowadays, the torture one faces is the hordes of tourists pushing past and blocking views to see exactly what you are hoping to capture on camera. The complex houses a huge number of halls, gated entries, temples, royal jewellery, royal residences and palaces.  They have beautiful names such as Gate of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Mental Cultivation, Hall of Preserving Harmony, Palace of Heavenly Purity and Earthly Tranquility Palace.  Don’t you just love the gracefulness of it all.
Palace grounds at Forbidden City 

The return back to our accommodation at the end of such an enormous day out was a challenge.  After half an hour of unsuccessfully hailing a taxi, a short walk, followed by a 20 minute ride standing squished up in a crowded local bus that managed to crawl about a kilometre through traffic, we gave up, descended from the bus and walked the remaining distance to the nearest metro. There in the metro station we queued up and joined the throngs of people sardined into each carriage before it spewed us out near our destination – an ordeal of 2 hours duration.  Welcome to Beijing at peak hour. An added delay upon entering Beijing’s metros each time is that all bags must go through x-ray machines. It was certainly a huge relief to return to the serene sanctuary of our room after an exhausting day in the hustle and bustle of such a BIG city.

Whilst wandering through some of the touristy hutongs lined with cafes, bars, accommodation places, souvenirs and craft shops, we came across a hostel which drew us inside and had us booking a tour to the Great Wall.  Hongbin had described the many sections of wall and their level of difficulty so we knew which part we wanted to climb, and this hostel was offering just the right tour.

Watch towers at Mutianyu section of Great Wall
Early the next day we were hurtling north-east out of town in a minibus with an international mix of travellers up the mountain slopes to Mutianyu.  This section of wall is neither too hard-core nor too easy or tourist-choked.  At the base we caught a chairlift up to the Ming-dynasty watch towers and spent the next couple of hours pitching the strength of our leg muscles against the steep stone steps along the walls from one watch tower to the next, stopping every so often to admire the views and take photos (and needless to say.....suck air into our lungs). 

Boy, they bred them tough in those days – not only to have hauled these massive building blocks up such steep slopes and erect the walls on the crests of the heavily forested hills, but to then stand guard in the isolation of these watchtowers, like eagles in their nests through heat and snow.  Nowadays, the landscape is filled with a huge array of fruit trees that grow in the area.

Hang on!


A long way down

It was fortuitous that it was an overcast day as we sweated litres climbing the Great Wall. Had the sun been out and the temperature slighter warmer we would have melted to puddles.  We’d earned ourselves lunch and our young tour guide took the group out to a local Chinese restaurant where we devoured a banquet of delicious dishes and got to know each other  better. 
A short trip followed to one of the cavernous underground Ming tombs (with the unfortunate or melodic name, depending on your point of view, of Dingling Tomb) belonging to Emperor Wanli. Upon exiting the necropolis and reaching the entry gate we were asked to follow superstitious legend and hold hands with a loved one as you step over the threshold (right foot for males, left foot first for females) and repeat the words “I’m back”. This would ensure that we wouldn’t become trapped in the afterlife that we’d just visited and that whoever we held hands with over the threshold we’d meet again in the afterlife. We’ll let you know if it works.

We had seen enough pagodas, museums, temples and drum and bell towers in other parts of China so we skipped Beijing’s long list of them and chose to make our own way out to the Summer Palace, about 12 km out of the city. This was where royalty would escape to during the summer heat in the Forbidden City. Our plan was to metro it part of the way and then take a boat ride along the canal for the remainder.
It was a fairly long metro ride to our jumping off point.  As usual, Max referred to his compass when exiting the metro station to ensure we were heading in the right direction, then it was a 15 minute walk to the Beijing Exhibition Centre where boats were apparently moored behind the building. We mistakenly thought we’d have to enter through the Exhibition Centre which was crowded with mostly young people queuing up to purchase entry tickets. Max lined up and purchased us tickets, coming away laughing.  “I’ve just bought us tickets to a wedding expo” he explained.  Okay, this was not on our agenda so Max gave them away to a passing couple and we eventually found the way to the canal boats (not signposted).

As the only 2 foreigners in a boat depicting a huge dragon’s head at the bow, we slowly floated along past the Beijing Zoo, the Aquarium, under little bridges and finally near the edge of the Palace’s huge Kunming Lake – sailing for about an hour and a half. To reach the palace was about a kilometre’s walk, then a ferry ride across to the opposite side of the lake. Each ferry was styled to look like a dragon carrying passengers in a temple on its back. All up about half a day’s travelling needed to finally reach our destination.  By that stage, hunger had set in so sightseeing was pushed aside for more important matters of the stomach.

The Summer Palace, set on a hill, is on a huge estate that stretches for miles with lakes, temples, pagodas, pretty bridges, long boardwalks with elaborate paintings and a reproduction of a mini canal town. As lovely as it was, after our time in China it was, however, beginning to all look more of the same. What was even more daunting was that we did not relish the long, tiring metro ride back. 


Beijing canal boat
Summer Palace estate

Our final evening in Beijing had us seeking out Snack Alley.  In this alley was a small set of roadside stalls set up with foods from the exotic to the bizarre such as toffeed tropical fruits to snake meat, skewered silkworm pupae, centipedes, seahorses, honey bees, sheep testicles, locusts and scorpions.  It did have a bit of a touristy, contrived kind of feel to it, but we watched in abhorrent surprise at how some of the Asian tourists were prepared to sample the creepy crawlies. 

Snack Alley
Beijing has been a test of our stamina and endurance.  You need a certain level of fitness and mobility to tackle the great distances by foot and by metro as taxis often proved difficult to find or hail down. Taxi drivers refuse to take you if they don’t want to go in your direction, particularly at peak hour times or evenings, or they may tell you that the meter is broken so that they can extort higher prices out of foreigners.  This is the city where we would have been thankful for the services of Penn’s and Alister’s Shanghai driver.  

But Beijing is great in lots of different ways – not only by the sheer size of its city, landmarks and population but by its fascinating history and traditions. And let’s not forget the shopping.  A visit to Silk Market, a complex of 5 floors of shopaholics’ paradise, and others like it, made me wish that we were at the end of our trip and not the start. I could have gone crazy with the huge array of handbags, clothing and shoes, but restrained myself to 3 silk scarves and 1 pashmina that are weightless and fit nicely into a backpack.

A big thank you to Hongbin for his help and late-night phone calls in regards to our rail tickets and for making our stay one of the best highlights of Beijing.

Xiexie, Zhongguo for the memories. (Thank you, China)

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Xian

Monday, June 20, 2011 Eva 1 Comments


So here we were at the legendary start (or finish) of the Silk Route and China’s original capital city in bygone days for a 3 day stay.
Drum Tower, Xian

From Xian airport we caught the airport express bus, a much cheaper option than taxi, where it dropped us off inside the walled city centre.  Our hostel in Chengdu had phoned ahead and booked our Xian hostel for us, giving us their recommendation as to which one of these were better. With the help of Max’s trusty compass, our guidebook and a local woman who spoke no English following us to ensure that we got there, we eventually found the place tucked away near the South Gate wall.
Our hostel entrance
The Xiangzimen Youth Hostel, set just inside the ancient city walls, was behind a traditional Chinese gated entry. Whilst the room was quite basic and on the small side, I loved the traditional architecture within the hostel and its great restaurant/bar area that served a wide range of food.  Staff here were also friendly and most helpful especially when it came to booking tickets and transport to sights as well as airport transfers and rail and flight bookings.  They booked our flight to Beijing for us as only hard sleeper compartments on the overnight train were available – no thanks.  Again, we didn’t need convincing that a 2 hour flight instead of a 12 hour train trip was a good choice.  Plenty of time to savour the discomfort of overnight rail travel when we complete the Trans-Mongolian route.

The Army in battle formation
Our small group tour to the Army of Terracotta Warriors lived up to our expectations and more. Our hostel arranged for us to be picked up by minivan where we joined 7 others from Belgium, Holland, India and England.  Our group gelled well and it was an entertaining drive out of town and back again as we all got to know each other better and laughed at the light-hearted rivalry and banter between Belgium and Holland. First stop was to the pottery factory where we were shown the kilns and how they make the reproduction statuettes (wallet tightly closed here), on through to the furniture gallery (beautifully painted and tempting lacquer furniture but hardly packable) and finally to what we’d been waiting for.

Detail of soldier's hairstyle
Nothing prepared us for the sheer scale of this famous archaeological site or the vast undercover halls of excavated terracotta warriors. This massive site of China’s first Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s army was truly mind-boggling - and still it hasn’t been completely dug up. In various pits were army headquarters, terracotta horses and of course all the individualised warriors numbering in the hundreds (dug up, so far) in position ready for battle.  
It was explained to us how to differentiate between an archer, foot soldier, middle officer, General, etc.  Their hairstyle, headgear, footwear and coat distinguished their rank.  Of course, the highest ranked officers such as a General had the most rotund and widest girth.  Whilst we might call it a beer belly in Australia, it’s called a General’s belly in China.  Now hands up who owns one of those! 

We worked on acquiring one of those at lunchtime when we were taken for a traditional Chinese lunch banquet with our small group before heading off to see the hillside of the tomb of Qin Shi Huang.  Nothing is visible from the outside, but archaeologists don’t want to excavate the huge burial mound it as it is believed to be too dangerous.  His tomb apparently contained palaces of treasures but also a river of mercury.  The thousands of workers who built it were buried alive within the tomb’s walls.  Urgghh, gruesome!
Tang Dynasty show
A prettier aspect of Xian’s history was booking tickets for a Tang Dynasty cultural show, a very colourful display of songs, masks and elegant dancing in elaborate costumes.  This was followed by a dumpling banquet at the theatre restaurant.  Max and I ate our way through dumplings with pork, dumplings with chicken, dumplings with mushroom, dumplings with beef, dumplings with pickles……(pause, catch breath)……. dumpling soup, dumplings with fish, dumplings with scallops, steamed dumplings, boiled dumplings, dumplings with duck, dumplings with shrimp….. with warm rice wine and Chinese beer.  The waitresses kept bringing out more just when we were relieved to think that that was the end of it. Very tasty, but we are now well and truly all dumplinged out.  This certainly aided and abetted us in developing that General’s belly.
Like ourselves, I guess the only reason most tourists come to Xian is to see the Terracotta Warriors.  However, we loved exploring the many facets to this city, especially the small neighbourhoods within the old stone walls, which are an attraction themselves.  The city centre is dominated by the huge Bell Tower at one end of the street and the Drum Tower at the other.  Climbing up these towers gives you great views across Xian and an overview of its many floral displays (not all of them natural) as Xian, one of the driest cities in China, gears up for its 2011 Horticultural Expo.
Simple pleasures - tea & cigarettes
Muslim Quarter
The Muslim Quarter near our hostel is a hive of activity within a small pocket of narrow alleyways, food stalls and mosques. It is home to the Chinese Muslim community of the Hui people who have been here for centuries and are distinctive with their Muslim skullcaps and headscarves. There were souvenir stalls, hot bread ovens, soups being ladled out of furnace-hot stockpots, displays of massive dates and dried fruits, decorative flatbreads and unusual sweets for sale such as Eight Treasure rice pudding.   

Another fascinating neighbourhood within walking distance from our hostel was filled with small, traditional built homes that look as though they are being revitalised. We followed the city’s stone walls then followed our noses down the laneways until we reached a crowd that had gathered around a temporary stage in one of its tiny squares where a talent show was in full swing.  High-pitched male and female voices pierced the air with shrill Chinese melodies.

Further along we stumbled across an arts and crafts street where stalls were getting ready to close down as dusk was falling. All manner of papers lined shelves and calligraphy brushes from the smallest to the most enormous sizes hung in doorways. Strangely, out in front of all these stalls was a man who had brought out his space telescope mounted on the back of a 3-wheeler motorbike.  He was showing it off to interested passers-by – and for free!  As we edged closer for a better look, the man took the camera out of my hands, set it to full zoom, pointed it through the telescope lens and took a photo. “Saturn” he told me. And there on the camera screen was a planet with a clearly visible ring. Wow! 
Space telescope

Our final tourist stop in Xian was to the Big Goose Pagoda, a short local bus ride away outside the city walls. This 7-storey high Buddhist pagoda was built to store important Buddhist texts brought across from India by a monk.  We climbed all 7 levels (just because the steps were there, really) where we got great views across the city and to the park and square below. It was fortunate that our arrival at the huge square coincided with a fountain show. During the half-hour performance, hundreds of fountains spray, spout and squirt water in synchronised movement to music.  This outrivals Las Vegas’ Bellagio fountains for size. Chinese tourists couldn’t help themselves – they ducked and weaved in between the streams of water to pose amongst the fountains for that special photo.
Huh??  Xian alleyway

Big Goose Pagoda
Our time in Xian ended all too quickly. It was time to fly on, this time with Hainan Airlines, to the big daddy of them all – Beijing.

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Chengdu & Jiuzhiagou National Park

Sunday, June 19, 2011 Eva 1 Comments




A smooth short flight from Guilin had us landing in Chengdu’s tropical and humid weather and wanting to reach for summer shorts from our packs. Our Guilin hotel had kindly phoned ahead and booked our choice of hostel for us, so a driver from the hostel was waiting for us at the airport.   
 
I must mention this hostel by name.  We’ve stayed at many hostels during our travels in the past, but the Loft Hostel in Chengdu has probably the coolest-designed hang out lounge area we’ve come across, with artworks adorning the wall spaces.  This place is a converted 1970’s printing factory. Upstairs a bunch of young local artists and designers work out of their studio. Staff here speak English well and are very friendly and helpful.  They have a really well-organised set up where they can arrange small group tours, rail and air tickets, theatre tickets, book your ongoing accommodation, you name it…. as well as a great little café/bar and book exchange.

After a hard day's work recycling on the streets of Chengdu

The sole priority for coming to Chengdu was to see the pandas, and early next morning, with breakfast in hand, we headed out in the hostel’s minivan to the Chengdu Panda Research Base for a half-day excursion.  This place protects and breeds endangered giant pandas in as natural a habitat as possible.  Max and I took it in turns to go snap-happy photographing all the these cuddly beasts in their myriad of poses – feeding, lounging, sleeping, sitting upright, reaching over each other for more bamboo.  At this time of day, the adult pandas were feeding out of large buckets of bamboo shoots that keepers fill, whilst cute sleeping baby pandas hung limply from tree branches in a different area of the park. It took me a while to comprehend that they were real animals as the image in my head had me waiting for someone to unzip and emerge from a black and white costume. The Research Centre also houses red pandas which up close look like russet and black coloured stripy-tailed racoons rather than any resemblance to a bear.

Happy bear pose!

The remainder of our 2 days in Chengdu was spent catching local buses and walking around some of the neighbourhoods which included serene and beautifully landscaped Buddhist and Taoist temples and parks, a Tibetan migrants’ neighbourhood and an interesting but very crowded touristy recreation of a traditional little settlement with cafes, souvenir stands, crafts, etc.  We gave up on entering one of Chengdu’s largest temple parks next door to this as the queue of Chinese people waiting patiently in line stretched for nearly 400 metres in a straight line before snaking its way back around itself.  Phew, not worth it in this warm weather.  Our hostel let us know belatedly that the reason for the huge crowds was that it was a free museum day.

Sichuan Opera

One of our evenings was spent enjoying a Sichuan opera show, quite a colourful display of various performances ranging from traditional opera singing, fire breathing, puppetry and “face changing” where performers change face masks with split-second timing – hands-free.  Don’t know how it’s done but it was amazing to see!

Onwards from Chengdu it was then a short side-trip by air to Jiuzhaigou National Park before returning back to Chengdu.  I had read and heard about this area as being one of China’s ‘national treasures’ in terms of beauty as well as a UNESCO natural heritage area, therefore we were curious to visit it.  Our Shanghai travel agent had given us the choice to either go by bus (approx. 13 hours each way) or a 1 hour flight.  This was a no-brainer.  We found that flights, however, are frequently delayed due to weather conditions in the high altitude area of Jiuzhaigou.  Great news for a nervous flyer like myself.  However, after a 2 hour delay at the airport and a bonus upgrade to business class on this small aircraft we arrived safely.

From Chengdu’s steamy temperatures in the low 30’s we were now in the snow-capped mountainous Jiuzhaigou (meaning Nine Villages Valley) on the Tibetan plateau where we experienced cold rainy weather in single digit temperatures.  Come rain, hail or shine, though, we were here to see the stunning scenery of Jiuzhaigou National Park.   

Snow in Jiuzhaigou National Park
The day after our arrival we were admiring beautiful lush green forests stretching out across mountain peaks, pretty turquoise lakes and numerous waterfalls.  We followed walking trails around scenic pools and cascades and, at the higher altitudes of around 300m, we traipsed through snowy forest trails as soft feathery snowflakes fell around us.  Jiuzhaigou reminded us of a miniature version of the Canadian Rockies all squished into one big nature reserve. A big difference, though, is the Tibetan settlements and the Tibetan culture which is very evident in the surrounding villages and peoples here.  However, we were sharing this park with what felt like thousands of Chinese package tourists.  We hadn’t anticipated seeing such big crowds nor snow at this time of the year. 
Well, it drizzled with rain for most of the day but this didn’t deter the masses upon masses of tour groups who pushed past with umbrellas, cameras and elbows.  As numerous National park buses pulled up to take us from one lake or viewpoint to another the rugby scrum was on to get onto each bus. Quite comical, actually!  That’s one thing we’ve come to accept in China is that there is no such thing as manners or ladies first – it’s everyone for himself.
We were 2 of only a small handful of Western tourists in the nature reserve that day and it amused us watching Chinese tourists blatantly stare at us or ask if they could take our photo.  At one stage one family had 3 cameras pointed at us whilst different family members took it in turns to pose with us.  Celebrities for a day!

I must share with you a brief moment of shock followed by hilarity.  Picture this……ladies’ toilets decked out in slippery granite tiles, masses of women with wet raincoats and soggy umbrellas queuing to use the squat toilets (bring your own toilet paper is one of the best tips I can give travellers to China), my turn to place wet boots on each side of the squat. To my horror my legs slip out from underneath me on the wet floor as I do a sideways split whilst pissing and wildly trying to clutch onto something to keep my balance.  You don’t know how many times I’ve been thankful for all my bootcamp and Pilates training I put in before starting this trip.  I imagine a pulled groin may have been the result had I not.





What a cutie!

In the township Max sampled cured yak meat at a local store that was touting it to passers-by. You see these horned hairy creatures grazing on the mountainsides as you drive through the country.  The yak meat comes in all different forms – cryovac, fresh, dried, powdered, chilli hot, pepper hot, sausages.  It did not have the expected gamey taste that you get with venison or other game animal.  We bought packets of dried yak from the airport that tasted like soft beef jerky.  A very handy snack to carry in the pack for emergencies. 

Stunning scenery, Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve


Tibetan hostel bed, Jiuzhaigou

Whilst we were initially thrilled to be staying near Jiuzhaigou park at a Tibetan-styled youth hostel in a room that included a traditional colourful canopied wooden bed, our enthusiasm was to be short lived. Within hours we discovered that the toilet wouldn’t flush properly, the cold water pipe burst from under the basin when turning the tap on or off, the shower’s hot water took forever to come through, we needed a demonstration on how to latch the door closed, the bed was too rock hard to sleep on and breakfast was served with mouldy butter.  It became a comedy of errors that all we could do was laugh and wish our stay here would end quickly.  Regardless of the weather, the hordes of tourists (the likes of which we’ve never seen in our lives!), the delays flying in and out due to bad weather, the distances we needed to cover to get here and all the other little shortcomings we endured, to see the natural wonders of the Park made it all worthwhile.

Jinli Guijie district, Chengdu
We flew back to warm Chengdu after a long delay at Jiuzhaigou airport (weather conditions, of course), back to the funky youth hostel, into a long hot shower (where the plumbing worked!), threw back a couple of gin and tonics in the lounge that evening and it felt a little like returning home. 

The serene Green Ram Buddhist Temple

An early morning transfer by the hostel back to the airport the following day had us leaving Sichuan province and boarding a flight for Xian in Shanxi province. So many flights in such a short period of time, however, China Eastern and China Southern domestic airlines have been great.


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Graceful Guilin

Saturday, June 18, 2011 Eva 0 Comments

Not having any accommodation pre-booked, Max and I took our chances, and on arrival organized our hotel and river cruise at the little tourist kiosk at the airport. 
Sun and Moon Pagodas, Guilin
After checking in and then out of the first hotel within minutes (no-one mentioned anything about jackhammering renovations) we eventually settled into one that was in our guidebook.  This budget-priced little boutique hotel had Chinese reproduction antique furniture and lots of charm. By now I was photographing amusing signs in Chinglish and I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read the following message in the hotel bathroom amongst the vibrating condoms and vaginal hygienic wipes – “Non-complimentary gift.  Breaks a seal regards as the use”.  Huh? What kind of place had we booked into?  Honestly though, it was all above board and lovely.
Card game, Guilin
Nearby were the tranquil Rong and Shan Lakes with their beautiful marble-arched bridges, Chinese teahouse sitting on a little island and the Sun and Moon pagodas. The setting was gorgeous.  Guilin is lush and ringed by mountains.  Despite the hordes of tourists, the two of us enjoyed our lakeside walks taking in the sights of Chinese tourists posing for photos in rented regional costumes from kiosks, locals sipping on green tea whilst playing mah-jong or cards on the sidewalks and women’s dance classes held out in the open as passers-by like ourselves stop to watch.
Misty Li River
A day cruise down the Li River to view the limestone karst landscape turned out a disappointment.  Thick clouds covered the sky that morning, mist descended and the rain began.  Dodging the raincoated masses and popped up umbrellas in the wind to take photos, whilst trying to protect the camera from the weather, was a challenge.  Jokingly, an American couple sitting with us pulled out a crisp 20 Yuan note that depicts this section of the river landscape and we took turns at photographing it as a memento of our cruise. 
The boat docked at the small town of Yangshuo, where we disembarked through a crush of tourists with our packs, raincoats and umbrellas for an overnight stop. It was still raining and the rain continued on and off through the evening, making it difficult to appreciate what the town had to offer apart from many market stalls.  
Guilin food
Yangshuo street scene
Relieved to have left the next day by bus, in the interminable rain, we arrived back to glorious mild sunny weather in Guilin.  The remainder of our time here was spent doing laundry,going for walks and climbing the steep Solitary Beauty Peak for city views.
Graceful marble bridge, Guilin
Teahouse, Shan Lake

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