Well, I’m back in Shenzhen from my 3 ½ week trip around China! It was a really amazing experience and I think the biggest thing I noticed was how drastically different each part of the country was and how much variety there is.
Sorry about the lack of pictures...there's an explanation later on! Maybe later I'll be able to add some photos in, but in the meantime look at my picasa site (address is at the top of this page.)
I started my journey by taking a 24-hour express sleeper train from Shenzhen to Beijing. Once in Beijing, I set out the next day to hike the Great Wall and it was so impressive! We had to drive a bit further than usual, but then we were away from the crowds and got to experience part of the unrestored sections as well. I was surprised at how steep some of the section were – basically like a wide stone ladder! Next I visited the Forbidden City and although it was raining most of the time (which actually helped keep away some of the hordes) it was neat to see how huge the place was; I don’t know how people found their way around. I also visited the Olympic Park and saw the Bird’s Nest and Watercube lit up – again, the scale was impressive! During my stay there I met some fun people in my hostel and we had some good nights out complete with Beijing duck, local beer, an introduction to huasheng – a berry that tastes like juniper soap and has strong natural numbing qualities; it’s used medicinally as well as in various dishes, and lots of laughs.
Claire then flew in to Beijing and we met up to take a train to Xi’an. Now, I knew the trains were busy in China, but I really had no idea just how busy. I went to purchase our tickets 4 days in advance and figured I had left enough time to get the tickets we wanted…but after I waited in line for a sweaty and pushy hour with the throngs of others at the station, I was told there were only seats (not sleeper cars) left for the 18 hour journey. I chanced it and bought them…..and what an experience it turned out to be! The first 3 or 4 hours weren’t so bad, but after 6 hours of sitting completely upright with no armrests, having an old man continually falling asleep on me, people smoking, and the smell of toilets wafting through the car, I was ready to be there already….but we still had another 12 hours! By the time we got off in Xi’an, we vowed never to buy seat tickets again.
Xi’an itself was a pretty city with much cooler weather than Beijing. We rented bicycles and rode around the city walls where we could see the interesting mix of old (temples, the Muslim Quarter, the bell and drum towers) with the new (huge shopping malls and luxury stores.) Our main reason for coming here was to see the Terra Cotta Warriors but when we journeyed to check them out, we were actually a little underwhelmed. There are 3 pits that have been excavated, but only 1 of them has much of interest. It was neat to see how each soldier was just a bit different (the hair, or height, or uniform) but there was no way to really see them up close. The museum area was way, way too packed full with loud Chinese tour groups so we basically just did a walk through of that part. Also, the whole area has been extremely commercialized with shops and brand new buildings everywhere around. Good to see, but I wouldn't go back.
Next we were off to Kunming (flying this time – no way were we going to sit for a 36 hour train!) which lies in southern Yunnan province, so that we could get to the Tiger Leaping Gorge area. To do this, we needed to take an overnight sleeper bus to the small town of Lijiang. Our journey started out a bit confusingly, then about 2 hours in we came to a stand still. The ensuing hour and a half delay was due to the driver of a semi-truck, which was carrying 14 vans, falling asleep at the wheel and therefore crashing….blocking both lanes of traffic. Turns out this isn’t terribly uncommon. We also found out the hard way that petty theft is common on these buses, so upon awaking around 2 AM, Claire and I realized that despite our bags being right next to us, we were both missing all our cash and my camera (later we also realized that in addition to the obvious things stolen, our thief apparently needed cheap sunglasses, 1 sock and Bananagrams…how odd!) So when we arrived in Lijiang we were promptly picked up by the police (never thought I’d be in a Chinese police car!) and driven to the station to file a report. After this several hour long procedure, we were finally able to get out of there and head to the start of Tiger Leaping Gorge (in a harrowing 2 hour minivan ride where we were again delayed by an accident on the windy roads.)
Next day we started the trek, which we were apparently much better prepared for than we thought! We had read that it was a strenuous hike, even for serious hikers, so we allowed extra time. Maybe it was both of us growing up in the Rockies and hiking all while growing up, but we were nicely surprised. The views were absolutely amazing and it really made me feel tiny with the mountains rising straight up from the gorge bottom and disappearing into the misty clouds above. There were a few rustic guest houses along the way to stop either for the night or just for some tea and rice; it was one of my favorite things that I did on this trip (although if I do it again I would make sure my camera wasn’t stolen first!) I would highly recommend going here.
Next we made it back down to Lijiang (surprise, surprise; there was another accident on the way down!) and spent a few days in and around the old town of Lijiang. It’s fairly touristy, but still a gorgeous little place with windy cobblestone streets and small bridges over the streams that flow through the town. We also rented bicycles here and ventured out into the farmland on little dirt roads. The whole area is up at higher altitude and surrounded by tall mountains, which combined with fields of sunflowers and a perfectly sunny day, made for an amazing day (although we felt like fried chicken from the sun and lack of sunblock - oops.)
From there we took a 4 hour bus ride to the west to Dali (comical since most of the journey was over half constructed bumpy roads, the driver was playing chicken with oncoming buses on the particularly windy parts, greasy haired toothless men were yelling over and over ‘eeen-gu-leesh, een-gu-leesh!’ at us since we were the only 'weiguoren' [foreigners] onboard.) We joined up with a Spaniard who we’d first met on our fateful journey to Lijiang and visited some of the little villages in the area. One of them had a crazy market where absolutely anything was for sale…cheap plastic rain boots, medieval-looking farm tools, huge melons, woven baskets, watches made in 'Switzerland,' majhong sets, traditionally dyed blue and white batik clothes, pig’s heads, jewellery, incense sticks the size of industrial fireworks, ugly sunglasses, Karma Sutra tiles, and potatoes by the truckload.
Our next destination was Yangshuo, which is famous for its numerous craggy limestone peaks that sprout up everywhere. It’s also the scene on the 20 Yuan note. It’s a really gorgeous place and also fairly touristy (interestingly enough this was the only place we saw ‘deep fried cat’ on a menu – either it was for real or it was a mistranslation; both are equally likely.) We rented bicycles to cycle around the area. It was fun, minus the Chinese drivers who incessantly honk, honk, honk, and we saw some really pretty areas. We also went down the Li River on a bamboo raft, where I managed to lose just one of my flipflops in the river and had to walk around barefoot the rest of the afternoon, which led to even more stares than usual.
The last place I went was the Longsheng rice terraces. We signed up for a tour through our hostel – big mistake! This is how we accidentally took a Chinese tour, complete with a long bus ride where the tour guide yacked away for most of the 3 hour journey through a megaphone, then informed us we needed to pay more for something else we didn’t want to do (with our only other option to just stay on the bus for an hour.) When we finally arrived, we were given only an hour and a half to eat lunch and view the terraces…luckily I (Claire needed to go back with the bus to catch her next train North) ditched the group and started the 5 hour hike through to another village. It was absolutely stunning – like something out of a movie! Midway through it started dumping typhoon level rain and we met a few of the local women who were out picking firewood. Since it was nearing the end of the day and we were only about half finished the hike, I decided/got convinced to stay in their village for the night. It felt like a complete time warp where everything was so simple and idyllic and location could not have been better. I toured through the 800-person village (where we saw a large portrait of Stalin next to pictures of naked women on the walls of one of the old women’s houses) then got a home cooked meal, complete with home brewed rice wine for dinner AND breakfast, and stayed in their house….then was off the next morning. It was just stunning with each curve around the hill showing yet another beautiful scene.
This trip was truly amazing and I was awed at just how huge and diverse the country is. Yet again, I’m left feeling that I only scratched the surface and want to see so much more of it! Luckily I’ll be in the country for a bit yet. I'm just starting up full-time Chinese classes next week, so I'll be busy for the next few months being a student again!
