The journey back

After we completed the trek, we were expecting a straightforward little trip down the newly completed road.  Once we got in the minibus a German woman told us that the 20km trip to the next town would likely take about 1 1/2 hours due to various things including a landslide.  Sure enough, the road was still under construction, so it all took a little longer to negotiate than you might think.  Half way through we had to get out of our minibus, walk through a tunnel and wait at the other end whilst some boulders rolled down the hill (this was the "landslide" - basically just a digger a bit higher the hill).  We then jumped in another minibus and discovered some road which had been introduced to tarmac.  As predicted, after a total of about 1.5 hours and about 20 km we made it to Qiaotou where we needed to find another bus to get us back to Lijiang.  Thankfully, one of our minibus companions was a Mandarin speaker and all went swimmingly.  She was travelling with a French guy and thus our minibus seemed to reflect accurately the travellers we have encountered here - primarily French and German, with some Israelis thrown in.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

The Lonely Planet describes Tiger Leaping Gorge thus "File a trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge under the category 'things that probably won't kill you but could'."  This naturally made us a little apprehensive and we thought we might give it a miss.  However, after chatting with an (admittedly slightly odd) English chap at the hostel in Lijiang we decided to give it a go (his name was John and he seemed to be the lacky at the hostel where Mama Naxi would order him order him around - he had also developed this very strange broken English which had no doubt been developed from years of travelling speaking to people who did not speak English as a first language).  Turns out that the Lonely Planet deserves the "Alarmist of the Year" award for its description.  The description goes on "the path constricts and crumbles".  Having now done the trek, I interpret this as meaning "the path is not made of concrete".

We were so glad we did the trek - it really is brilliant.  It's one of the world's highest gorges and you can look down on the mighty Yangtze as you go.  We stayed the night at the wonderfully named Tea Horse Guesthouse (tea and horses being the main things which were traded in the area), which had fabulous views out on to the mountains surrounding the gorge.  We got chatting to Christian and Annie, an Austrian-French Canadian couple who had just come back from Mongolia.  It sounds like the infrastructure there is a little underdeveloped.  They had 17 hours on a bus where the road was so bumpy that Annie (who could be no more than 5 foot 5) was bouncing up and down so much her head hit the ceiling repeatedly.  They were also saying that in the capital every car is a taxi.  You just stick your hand out and whoever is driving past will likely stop and take you where you wanna go.  Our conversation was supplemented by comments from a Korean chap who had relatively limited English - his phrases being restricted to "China alcohol very good" and, relating to treks, "Nepal number 1, India number 2, China number 3".

The next morning, we got up a bit later than the others staying at our guesthouse, which meant that we had the gorge to ourselves, which was great.  We spent the whole day wondering when the dangerous bit was going to appear and it never did - the worst there was was crossing a couple of waterfalls and that was just fun.

Photos!

Now visible on flickr

Okay, I think I may have had some flickr success: try clicking on www.flickr.com/photos/trickymouse1

Lijiang

We're back in Lijiang after a couple of days at the fantastic Tiger Leaping Gorge.  I'll fill you in in more detail when we get to our friends' place tomorrow, but we had a great trek and any reservations we had arising from the Lonely Planet warnings were entirely unfounded!  Lijiang itself has a lovely old town with wooden buildings, cobbled streets and little waterways flowing through it.  Really idyllic

Eve and the Pandas

So, the day of the Panda finally came and boy was Eve excited.  Despite the 6.30am start she sprang out of bed like a kid on Christmas Day as soon as the alarm went off (not a regular occurrence I can assure you).  The excitement built as we trundled to the Panda Base just north of Chengdu.  Having jettisoned the tour, we went exploring on our own and I have to admit it was great.  They are amazing creatures - not quite like anything else I have seen.  They look a bit like real bears, but are cuddly and friendly like teddy bears.  They are also able to grip things in the way that a human would.  They enjoy lying on their back whilst feeding too - something I intend to emulate.  I've got a ton of photos and will try to get something accessible on to flickr, but a combination of connection speeds and chinese pop ups are preventing me as things stand.

I thought I might mention some more of the people we have come across on our travels.  On the way to the boat to Yangshuo we chatted to a German couple who we reckon must have been in their late forties.  They have three children - the youngest of which is 15.  They are currently on a year long travelling programme - dropping back into Germany to see their youngest son during school holidays.

In Yangshuo we met another German, Claus, and his Vietnamese gilrfriend Hang.  Claus is a judge in Leipzig, having taken the unusual route of leaving the Western part of Germany and going East.  Oddly, his work took him there - usually it is the other way around (the search for work takes you west).  Hang works at the university in Ho Chi Minh City - we may hook up with them again in Lijiang (where we fly tomorrow).

Where we have been staying for the last couple of nights is the first place we have come across the proper backpacker types - dreadlocks gallore and wannabe hippies strumming unamplified electric guitars as they walk towards their dorms - I kid you not.  They don't seem to be enjoying themselves all that much, but may be that is a future stop on their voyage of discovery.

Paddy fields, water buffalo and no punctures

On Tuesday we hired some bikes and took to the road (well, track really) out to the river.  The scenery on the way and along the river was great - paddy fields and water buffalo abounded - stereotypical traditional China I guess.  Similar to the last few days, it also felt seriously hot and humid.  The cycling provided a nice breeze to take the edge off.

The journey took a slightly comical twist when my back tyre got a puncture as we were between villages.  Almost put of nowhere a friendly chap jumped out of a ditch and suggested (through his broken English and our broken Mandarin) that we pop the bike on the back of his motorbike (waiting just off stage in another ditch) and go off to the local village to get it fixed.  So we strapped it on and went on our way.  An old chap (who reminded me a bit of my Grampy who was also in the bike trade) did a meticulous job identifying the puncture, checking the tyre and adjusting the brakes.  We were then on our way again to the 600 year old Dragon Bridge.  Having waived our helpful motorbiking friend goodbye, the going seemed to be getting tougher again.  Hey presto - the same tyre was flat and we were again a little way from the repair shop.  As we pushed our bikes back towards the main road, our new friend happened to be riding by and deja vu struck as we strapped my bike back on and went back to the same old man for a second go (perhaps he wasn't quite as meticulous as I had thought first time around!).

Anyway, the second time was a complete success and we were soon at the bridge - not that the bridge itself was anything spectacular, but the scenery around was stunning.  The Lonely Planet had a field day in its description of the area (only a thesaurus was really lacking) - "otherwordly" and "karst" appeared about 3 times in 3 paragraphs.  We crossed the river and made our way down some lovely tracks by the river and through what appeared to be paddy fields in people's backgardens, but they didn't seem to mind too much.  As our legs were tiring, a guy driving a little 3 wheeler electric pick up truck suggested we throw our bikes and me in the back (Eve was nice and comfortable sat up front with him) and he'd take us home for 20 yuan (about 2 quid).  We couldn't turn that down!  Particularly as we had tickets for a show that evening - 600 performers set on the river just outside Yangshuo.  It was seriously impressive - directed by the guy who did the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics, who is a well known Chinese film director I'm told.

Paddy fields, water buffalo and no punctures

The next day we played it safe and went for a trek.  Again, paddy fields and water buffalo were the order of the day - as well as spectacular mountain scenery.  Yangshuo itself is packed, but we didn't have to go too far to avoid the crowds.  Apparently, it gets something close to 15 million visitors a year and it doesn't feel any bigger than Witney.  I think most people come on organised tours, so you only have to step off those well trodden paths to get some peace and quiet.  After our trek, we were chauffeured back down the river on a bamboo raft - the perfect way to end the day with the sun setting, locals fishing with snorkels and the water buffalo cooling off in the water.

After a quick noodle snack, it was off to the airport to fly up to Chengdu.  We were served the most extraordinary tasteless snack on board - I saved the packet because the English was so special too.  I'll post that next time.  Although it did remind me of some of the comedy translations we have seen so far - my favourite one being at Huang Shan where we were warned that we should not look at the scenery whilst trekking.

Tomorrow is the day Eve has been looking forward to like no other - the Pandas!

[posted by jonnyjpg for tricky mouse who is in google free china]

Second day in Guilin

Our second day in Guilin took us to the Reed Flute Caves.  Apparently there are some reeds growing nearby which you can make into flutes - makes sense I guess.  The caves are brilliant - they have amazing stalactites and stalagmites growing in them.  They also have the classic Chinese twist - the ability to light them up in garish colours.  Greens and purples abound - I'm trying to put some photos up on flickr tonight - look for photos posted by trickymouse1 if it works (they should include Shanghai and wedding photos all being well).  The Chinese have a different way of displaying natural phenomena (the some colour regime was used for the trees surrounding the lakes in the centre of town).  Whereas we tend to go for just lighting stuff up in neutral colours and letting the features speak for themselves, colourful lighting seems to be the order of the day here.

After sampling the local delicacy last night (beer fish), we took a four and a bit hour boat trip over to Yangshuo this morning.  The guy who picked us up from the hotel appeared to have mastered English from American films and a book of idioms - not to say that we could really work out what he was going on about though.

Given our aversion for organised tours, you can imagine how delighted we were that we were in the "Panda team" for our trip to Yangshuo.  Thankfully, the tour only really got us to the boat and we were fairly free to roam about the boat as we pleased.  Yangshuo is lovely and the boat trip is spectacular.  One view is so great that it makes the back of the 20 yuan note.  Again, I'll try to get some photos up over the next day or so - if connection speed and patience allows.

We sat down by the river with our mandarin MP3s and we were befriended by a local independent tour guide who constantly reminded us how great his English was.  He was a likeable chap - a local farmer who realised that his traditional job was not going to be around forever, so he took it upon himself to learn English and become a tour guide.  It sounds like he did this by accosting tourists and trying out his English on them - to be fair it worked.  I admired his initiative - we may go out for a cycle ride with him in the next couple of days.

Guilin

We arrived in Guilin early this morning and the place is fantastic.  Green hills surrounding a number of lakes in the centre of the city - very peaceful and relaxing.  You really do notice the differences between Hong Kong and Mainland China.  Spitting is a national pastime on the mainland it appears - in Hong Kong they fine you HK$5k for the privilege.  On a bus last week, we heard the repetitive clearing of a throat behind us (the iPod could only mask so much).  We both assumed that it was some uncouth chap - turned out to be a girl who looked to be in her early 20s!

There also seems to be more prolific use of the car horn on the mainland.  The interesting thing though is that it is usually not meant rudely or aggressively.  In fact, I haven't seen or heard any road rage at all.  The horn seems to be more of a polite "here I am, just so you know" rather than a "get out of my way".

Hong Kong pt2

We had one more full day left in Hong Kong and spent the afternoon on Lamma island.  The weather was warm and the water looked fairly inviting, so I stripped down to my boxers and went for a dip - wonderful cooling off.  It's a pretty hot time of year and the water was so inviting - although you had to be careful to get a good view.  In one direction were green rolling hills - in the other, a power station!  More contrasts.  We finished our little trip with some very tasty seafood down at the little harbour before setting sail for Hong Kong Island.

Eve's highlight of Wednesday was the trip to Marks & Spencer to fill up on picnic food for our overnight train to Guilin.  We also spent a couple of hours in the Hong Kong History Museum.  There are two sides to every story as ever, but it was a fascinating insight into the Chinese view on Hong Kong's history.  Not for the first time, it sounds like we did not entirely cover ourselves in glory.

The record of the Japanese occupation reminded me of my trip to the Japanese Imperial War Museum in Tokyo a few years back.  That really did show that there are two extreme sides to every story.  Most strikingly the Japanese sought to take credit for most of the post world war two colonial independence movements - apparently because their occupation of places like Singapore showed the locals just how good life could be without the British.  Oddly, the locals in Singapore don't seem so convinced of this version of events and it sounds like Hongkongers did not massively enjoy the Japanese occupation either.

Hong Kong

I have finally managed to find an internet cafe where I can make my own posts - hurrah for Hong Kong and its liberal internet policies.  I can also use a computer in an internet cafe without needing to show my passport, which I also regard as a bonus.

After coming down from the mountain, we had another night in Tungxi before heading off on a 6 hour bus journey back to Shanghai followed 2 hours later by a 20 hour sleeper train to Hong Kong.  We had a lovely journey - a couple of games of chess and draughts and a long sleep.  Last minute hotel deals abound and we are staying in a lovely spot - I'm most taken by the outdoor pool, Eve is more taken with the high quality western buffet breakfast - all that Chinese food had been taking its toll.

The weather this time of year is a little unpredictable.  Yesterday it absolutely threw it down for most of the day as we tried to get good views from up on the Peak.  However, today was gorgeous - blue sky and sunshine abounded.  We met a someone I know through work for a fine lunch looking out over the Harbour and then headed off East to take in a quieter side of the Territory.  Hong Kong is really a city of extremes.  The northern strip of Hong Kong Island is packed with high rise - as is the southern strip of Kowloon.  Where we were today was the flip side of the coin: a sleepy fishing village where the sea is peppered with beautiful little islands where you can have a cold beer and watch the sun go down.

Having said that, our peace was disturbed a little by two budding bugle players who are no doubt hoping to hit a note soon - although it is not entirely clear how long "soon" will be in this case.

Jump on a bus for 30 minutes and you're back into the hubbub.  The shops are so well lit and advertised that it is as light as it would be during the day.  We were also treated to further musical treats - a lady (initially thought it was a bloke) in her 60s playing rock classics on the electric guitar carefully observed by her rather weary looking dog (which was clearly more vicious than it looked because there were 3 signs warning people not to stroke the dog for fear of violent consequences).


Eve had a real high point this evening - she spotted a Marks and Spencer and it looks like it has food!

Huangshan mountain and other reflections

We got back from Huangshan mountain this evening after a couple of days out there (incidentally, it is another of China's AAAAA rated sights - 66 or so of them I'm told).  The scenery is spectacular but the weather is more than a little unpredictable.  It absolutely threw it down yesterday as we got off the cable car.  Reassuring ourselves that it was easing off, we stepped out on to the trail.  Sadly, we were a little optimistic and ended up sheltering between two toilet cubicles for 15 minutes before again deciding that it was easing off - hey presto it started throwing it down again and rumbles of thunder could be heard from the distance.  Thankfully, it cleared up and we could take in the cracking scenery.  The mist rolls in and out on a regular basis and the peaks jut through to create a fabulous painting-like views.  The weather today, however, was beautiful - gorgeous blue sky (coupled with the mist).  I am sporting a lovely lobster red tan this evening.

I thought I would throw in a few more reflections on what we've seen so far.  Despite the rampant pollution, there does seem to be a recognition that measures to tackle it are necessary.  Almost every motor bike I have seen around the towns and cities has been electric (which creates its own dangers as they are whisper quiet and the driving is somewhat unpredictable).  There are also solar panels everywhere.  I don't whether this is a measure to tackle some of the driving excesses, but the traffic lights have countdown clocks on them to tell you how long it is until the lights are going to change - perhaps to convince people that there's no need to jump the lights if they are going to go green in 30 seconds.

May be those countdown clocks are just there to create jobs.  There is an impressive level of technology and overemployment here.  Take the museums where one person sells you the ticket, you then go through security, then (as you you approach the automated ticket barrier) someone takes your ticket and puts it through the barrier for you.  Nothing is left to chance.  Marketing is presumably another overmanned department: our hostel in Shanghai proudly boasted "windows" as one of its main selling points.

One further thing which has only occurred to me since we've been here is that Tony Blair's reference to Diana being the "People's Princess", which sparked a whole number of "People's" prefixes, was being used in China for years before that.  Obviously, the country's name incldues it, but there are also a whole stack of "People's Parks" and "People's Squares".  Turns out that New Labour was more Left Wing than it appeared.

My final one for now is that nappies are not that regularly used in China, so you get the curious sight of toddlers wandering around with big splits in their trousers around their backsides.  Yan mentioned that they are trained to go to the toilet in response to a whistle (some form of Pavlovian response).

Tungxi

Our travelling companions having left for home, yesterday we left Shanghai for a 5 hour bus journey inland to Tungxi so we can make our way up China's most beautiful mountain tomorrow.  No worries Rory, this is nowhere near 5895m, but it is supposed to have some cracking scenery.  This was a slight change of plan as we were hoping to make out to Putuoshan island, but a typhoon warning saw to
that trip.  We were looking forward to having empty beaches - I'm told that the Chinese (similar to what I have seen in India) do not go in for tans.  In fact, quite the opposite, a lot of the facial creams have some form of bleach in them I hear.  The grass is always greener - on the plus side, it must make me some
form of supermodel.

My only other reflection for you for now is that most Chinese toilet rolls I have seen do not have a hole in the middle of it.  Make of that what you will.

Expo

While we were in Shanghai we went to the Expo.  I assumed that it was about showcasing new inventions and the like.  Turns out that - under the title of "Better cities, better life" it is a bizarre mix of tourism fair, self-promotion and abstract thought.  There are broadly three types of country pavilion: please come and spend/invest money; aren't we great and those self-confident enough to be more abstract or philosophical.  The first group tended to be third world nations.  The second group included the likes of Venezuela (they make the place sound like utopia - come the revolution and all that).  The Australian Pavilion was in this category too - slightly odd.  One of the great successes which they celebrated was the Sydney Opera House which they acknowledges was designed by a Dane and the engineers were British.  I also seem to remember reading that it was extensively panned in Oz when it was first built.  The UK Pavilion is really cool by the way.

Shanghai

From Xi'an it was off to Shanghai on a 20+ hour overnight train - a huge step up from our previous overnighter to Xi'an.  This one had air con and I had a bottom bunk which was built in such a way that my toes could dangle into the gangway - so none of the hot and cramped up conditions of the previous trip.  Our little group was quite the novelty - we got a little crowd gathered for our card game.

I can't remember if I put this in a previous post, but the train journeys and our trip to the Xia tombs gave us our first insight into the "developing country" side of China.  In Ningxia, we went through a coal mining town where some local residents make their living from picking up the coal which falls off
the big trucks and selling it back to the mines.  The other striking feature (which is similar to other developing countries I have been to) is the half built buildings which you see.  The cities are full of pristine new skyscrapers, but the smaller towns are littered with buildings which were started but never
completed.  I am not sure why there is this common theme.  Lack of access to
capital?  Speculative building projects?  Poor business plans?  Aspirational buildings?  International development graduates and others add your thoughts!

The other thing we noticed was the large number of huge cities which we had never heard of before.  Cities of 6 million+ are all over the place and they appear to be growing fast.  High rises are going up everywhere and we saw massive infrastructure being built too.  The country is really going places.

Shanghai suffers from no such half built projects.  Apparently, 10,000 high rises have gone up in the last decade or so and you can believe it.  John and I saw a scale model of the whole city in a museum and every square inch looks like it has a high rise on it.  They've also taken to lighting them in the craziest ways.  Not content with a simple flashing light to ward off the odd plane, they have all kinds of colours and shapes flying around.  One or two look like they've got full on TV screens which are about 40 stories high.  Similar to Singapore, the older bits have been renovated in such a way that they feel a bit like Disney Land - just a bit too well renovated that they look new and shiny.

Other sights include the site of the first convention of the Chinese Communist Party - all 13 of them.  Mao was there (along with a slightly random Dutch chap), but it is striking that not many of them lasted the distance - having emigrated or been labelled as traitors.  It's also interesting that Shanghai was the birthplace - it may have something to do with being the place where the Brits, Yanks and French turned up and carved out bits of the city for themselves where Chinese law and customs did not apply.  Apparently, one park had the sign "No dogs and Chinese".

Tombs and warriors

I think the last blog covered the evening of the wedding.  The day after that our local hosts took us on a fine outing to some of the sights of their lesser known province.  First it was off to the tombs of the Xia emperors - a people group obliterated by the Mongols, so the tombs are all that is left to tell us what their civilisation was like.  There appears to be a preoccupation with death and the after life generally amongst the various dynasties.  The mausolia we have seen were all massive (we saw Mao's in Beijing too - apparently he's lowered into the freezer every night).  Apparently, building his mausoleum was the first thing any emperor did. The scale was extraordinary - none bigger than the famous ones found at Xi'an (our next stop after Ningxia).  I hadn't appreciated that the Terracotta Warriors were the thousands of life size soldiers made to accompany the emperor into the afterlife (the logic being that he needed them in life, so he'd no doubt need them in death too).  The scale is phenomenal - they estimate up to about 6,000 soldiers, plus horses and chariots.  We were wondering whether the guys who had to make them all were as taken with the project as the emperor himself.

After the tombs, we stopped in on what we were told was the Chinese Hollywood - the set of 100+ films.  None of which I'd seen.

Note

So, I've finally got some time to put something more substantial together again.  Thanks to Matt by the way for putting these posts up so far (and to Jonny for doing this one) - a google blog was perhaps not the best move for a trip to China.

Wedding Part Deux

So, the evening session of the wedding was suitably eventful.  t's not uncommon for one or two people to over-indulge at a wedding, but to have both the bride and the groom carried out is quite an achievement.  It turns out that this result is almost inevitable when they are basically required to go round the whole room toasting each guest with the rice wine spirit I mentioned in a previous post.  The toasting thing was quite fun for the rest of us though. John and I had a wonderful time toasting the parents of our translators and telling them they should be very proud - seemed to push the right cultural buttons and make us very popular.  In case you find yourself at a Chinese wedding, the cry of "Gambei!" is what follows the toast text and precipates the downing of the shot.

 

With the bride and groom departed, it was time for the guests that remained to go next door for a stint of karaoke, which was curtailed shortly before midnight when the bride's father appeared and told us that the gates to our government-run hotel were going to be shut shortly and we should get moving if we wanted to get back in.

 

I'm very behind on these blogs as I'm writing this shortly before midnight on Friday and the wedding was last Saturday.  There are other fun and games to fill you in on and I'm hoping to do that in the next day or so, but in short we saw some more of the sights of Ningxia province and then shofted on down to Xi'an via a very hot overnight train.  The carriage we were in resembled a youth hostel dorm - 10 triple decker bunks side by side down the carriage.  Usually they're air conditioned I'm told, but not this one.  The beds also don't seem to be designed for anyone over about 5' 10" (turns out I'm just over that mark) and the top bunk left me a little cramped as a result.  Plus, for reasons unknown, the fans go off and windows are shut just as everyone is trying to sleep.  The mind boggles.

The Train

It's just after 1am in Shanghai where we arrived this morning after a 20 hour train journey from Xi'an.  I'll fill you in on the goings on of the last few days in the next day or so, but suffice it to say that Round 2 of the wedding was somewhat more eventful than than Round 1.  Marc and Yan also made the front page of the local paper as anticipated.

 

I also need to update you on our trip through rural China (where the rules of the road appear to be optional and we saw our first real insight into the poorer side of China).  The smog also appears to be ever present.  Be in touch.