The first part to our trip to China consisted of four major stops: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xi'an, and Beijing. We were with the rest of the family and our experiences there were written down at some point. However, the real adventure began once my sister, Jess, and I were on our own. Here starts our first back-packing trip...
Jess and I departed for Tianjin, as was planned, arrived there by
bus and took a pedicab to the address of the hotel that we had booked
online the day before: 98 Hebei Lu. We arrived at exactly this address
but discovered that it was nothing more than a clothing store - a
closed clothing store, for that matter. Our pedicab driver dropped us
off at another hotel in town and explained our predicament to the
non-English speaking staff. After nearly an hour of sign language and
passing our dictionary back and forth between us and the hotel workers,
we were gestured into a cab. Following an exchange of nods (which we
assumed was an understanding of where we were going) between the
hostess and the cabbie we felt confident and were off. Some 20 minutes
into the drive we realized that we were driving OUT of Tianjin, and
about an hour later, ended up in the small, near seaside town of
Tanggu. Apparently our hotel was located in the municipality of
Tianjin, not the actual city - furthermore, the Jinjiang Inn that we
had "booked" had no record of our confirmation number. Needless to say,
I was a little upset at this complete failure of day, but reassured
myself at the thought of some hot potted noodles. We dumped our bags,
brought out the water heater - and then it broke. So those hot noodles
I was dreaming of turned into semi-crisp noodles soaked for 20 minutes
in luke-warm purified bathroom tap water. We set off bright and early
the next day, determined to find a cheaper way back to Tianjin than the
120 yuan ride TO Tanggu. On our way to the light rail, we stopped off
for some brekkie at a bakery. The supposed "pizza bun" that I picked up
ended up being some strange concoction of a sweet sesame seed bun with
grated carrots (?) and chunks of jalapeno (??) but it filled the void.
We got off at the terminal station of the light rail which was still a
few kilometres outside of Tianjin, but no worry: the bright yellow
schoolbus that is my backpack and the confused looks on our faces
always gets us some attention, and sometimes, we attract help. This was
the case on this particular day and a nice girl who spoke some English
offered to accompany us on the hour's ride to the Nankai University
Campus, which was where we planned to find some accomodation. Once on
campus, we bumped into some foreign students: Ben, from Israel who came
to China solo to study Kung Fu, and a group of Colombians, who offered
to take us for lunch. From here, "girl-who-would-not-tell-u
s-her-name"
(she just wouldn't) left us. Ben's first comment to us, after realizing
the trouble we had gone through, was: "What the hell are you doing in
Tianjin? There's nothing to do here. Absolutely nothing." We got the
hint, and recruited their help in getting us an immediate train ticket
back to Beijing so that we could do some serious replanning...
So we arrived back in Beijing. Our friend Eva was kind enough, even on
such short notice, to let us crash on her floor for a couple of nights,
and we really appreciated the chance to regroup. We went to Ziggy
Marley's concert on our first night back and, among the music and small
venue, discovered all of the white people who were in Beijing at the
time.
NEXT. To Nanjing! We were relieved to find that an underground subway
system had been built inbetween the time that our guide had been
published and we were visiting Nanjing, so that at least got us part of
the way to our hotel, and we were quite happy to enjoy the subtropical
weather and flora the rest of the way. We were eager to go see at least
one sight that day and made our way to the Martyr's Cemetary, which was
a beautiful park and truly fantastic memorial to (just some of) the
people who lost their lives during the war. On our way out, we dropped
by Nanjing's Bell Tower (failed to locate the Drum Tower), which was a
surprisingly quiet little historical pocket that could be found just
beyond the facade of the city. Most cities have both a bell tower and a
drum tower - as it was not too long ago, the bell was rung at sunrise
in order to begin the day, and the drum was sounded at dusk to end the
day's work.
The following day, we made our way out to a park just outside of the
city walls. In fact, we even tackled the public transportation system
and let me tell you, I have never seen a bus more manual than the one
that we were riding on...So this park houses Sun Yatsen's Mausoleum,
which is its main attraction as Sun Yatsen was a significant figure in
China's history - however (there's always one of these when it comes to
finances) the ticket price was a little steep for the likes of our
penny-pockets, so we admired a postcard view of the Mausoleum and
walked on. Instead, we visited the Ming Xiaoling Tomb, which was a good
decision seeming that every other attraction at the park was infact
undergoing restoration. Leading to the tomb itself was a
kilometre-long, very grand avenue that was lined with large stone
animals, 6 types of animals in total, but 12 pairs, each was standing
then sitting. What was particularly special about this tomb and the
area surrounding it was actually the fauna - the blossoms were just
amazing in colour and bountiful. As if we hadn't done enough walking
already, we decided to make our way to a mountain (still contained
within the park) called Zijin Shan. We cable-carred it up, got a great
view of the city from outside of its walls, walked the 40 minutes down,
snagged an ice lolly on our way out, and bussed back on the ever
faithful, No. 9 bus. This still left us with a 25 minutes walk back to
the hotel, but like we couldn't handle it...
For our last day in Nanjing, we had reserved the Memorial Hall of the
Nanjing Massacre. It was located on the other side of the city and
quite a ways out of the city walls, so we got back on the No. 9 (with
the same lady driver and her Santa teddy infact) and trusted that it
would just keep on going straight. We got off quite a ways off, and our
"map" didn't have any road names, but we were "pointed" in the right
direction by the locals. We arrived only to discover that the Hall was
little more than a construction site and wouldn't be completed until
December. Needless to say, Jess and I were severly disappointed - not
only was this the motivation behind our stopover in Nanjing, but the
subject matter of the Hall also addressed one of the largest atrocities
that China experienced during the Japanese invasion, and that in itself
was relevant to the purpose of our trip. Fortunately, we did happen
upon an English fellow who happened to be from Kennington, London
(where Jess and I had been staying with our brother in February) and
his English-speaking guide explained to us the situation regarding the
Hall. Kennington Man had also planned his trip in Nanjing around this
museum and so we spent some time discussing our diappoint and lamenting
the Hall's inaccessability. We did decide, eventually, to move on, so
we took our pictures outside of what we supposed was the ticket hall
just to say we'd been (but not done) and Kennington Man offered us a
ride back into town in his van. A good chat and pat on the back later,
and Jess and I were back in central Nanjing. With a good portion of the
day still left, we visited some Ming Palace Ruins for the dear price of
1 yuan and ten minutes later we were back on the street having visited.
Not wanting to see the day wasted, we determined to spend the afternoon
in cyberspace :) but were unable to find an internet cafe. So, upon
spotting a foreigner, we decided that he may be able to help us and
low-and-behold, our newly-made Nigerian friend, who was appropriately
named Moses, guided us in the right direction. He was so calm and
contemplative, with his deep voice, and slow-pace...he was the Big
Friendly Giant. We bid adieu to Moses and spent the afternoon doing
just this . Spent the night packin' up for Suzhou.
NEXT. In our desperation to get to the next destination, we blindly
asked for tickets on the next train to Suzhou. It was a Sunday morning,
incidentally the most popular time to travel, and the next train was
leaving in 15 minutes. We grabbed our tickets and rushed onto the train
only to find that we had booked hard seats, and were infact, not even
assigned seats (which is mostly how hardseat works). We plopped our
bags in the aisle and sat on them, like birds on a perch - this
probably pleased our "viewers" as we were now in a great spot to be
spectacled and also more likely to be targeted by The Spit. Needless to
say, it wasn't the most comfortable 2 and half hours of my life, and
the melodic blend of hacking and spitting didn't add to the ambiance. A
while later, we finally left behind those wet floors and KFC-infused
curtains, and made our way through one form of chaos into another - the
public buses (we found you again, sweet buses). A young girl - the
young ones are the most likely to be able to speak English we have
discovered - saw The Bus and our faces, and tried to help us with her
broken English. I thought that we came to some sort of understanding -
but that was not so. We arrived with the Girl at Suzhou's University
Campus some 8km from the city center - a long way when you're walking
with 50lbs on your back, believe it or not. Map in hand this time, we
told her where we wanted to go and she sent us off on another bus. Long
story shorter, we did arrive at the Home Inn which was wonderfully
central, but just around the corner from a stall that sells rotten bean
curd (which smells quite revolting actually) and located ontop of a
huge department store generator - so the mornings certainly weren't
quiet, but the location was ace. We spent the better part of the day
trying to organize a trip to Hangzhou (the next destination) by boat,
but found out eventually - once we actually went all the way to the
boat terminal in the south - that they don't run until the summer
(April 20th). In our search to find these tickets, we asked a foreigner
if he knew where we could book them, but judging from his stern "NO"
and strange, prolonged stare at us he considered this to be an
inappropriate question (?). Which maybe it was. He had map in hand,
fuzzy blond locks that curled around his bald spot, an overwhelming
mustache, enormous thick-rimmed, square glasses, and an old Canon
hanging around his neck - he wasn't hard to miss, so remember this
image because, unfortunately for him, this wasn't the last time that we
would meet (or exchange awkward glances). We spent out only full day in
Suzhou seeing the sights - Suzhou is known for its extensive canal
system and stone gardens, so we visited the Master-of-Nets Garden which
could be found after following a maze of small streets and homes. It
was incredible just getting there, and had it not been for the rather
illegible signs, we may have never made it (and if we didn't, David
Bowie would have found us). The garden was cool, but the market at its
exit was cooler, with its Maobilia and random souvenirs. On our way to
get some cheap dumplings, we spotted a woman crouching in the long,
thin planters that separate the bicycle lane from the main road. Here,
the children are pretty much potty-trained before they can walk (if you
consider a zipper in the bum and peeing when you "feel like it" on the
street potty-trained, but still, it's impressive), and I should expect
adults to be aswell. But this was unusual. We saw her crouched there in
the planters, saw the straining, saw the wipe and realized that she was
taking a poo in this not-so-private place! I think she was a little
loopy, but anyhow, she pulled up her pants, hopped off the half-wall,
and sauntered off seeming somewhat relieved. I don't know...the lunch
was good, nevertheless, and we spent some time afterwards getting lost
in the side streets and their adjacent canals. On our way to the
supposed Museum of Opera & Theatre we travelled along a road called
Pingjiang Lu (the museum was not so impressive and we didn't spend more
than 10 minutes in its under-lit, single-room exhibition). Pingjiang Lu
was such a treat - I finally got to feel and see old China. Here it
was, tucked away behind the busy streets, just a few blocks away with
its houses literally stepping down to the canal. It was so
unbelieveably quiet - not only did it feel miles away from sound, but
it felt hundreds of years away from today. It was undescribable, so
that's the best I can do. We spent the evening wandering the hub of
Guangian Lu - a series of cheap clothing stores and KFCs (a very
popular choice of cuisine here) - and even packed in a quick visit to
the Temple of Mystery (there wasn't much mystery to it incase you were
wondering).
NEXT. We made sure to book actual seats for the train to Hangzhou and
it was far more pleasant, but not as much of an experience as the hard
seats :) AND when we were in the train station in Suzhou, we saw the
Doctor again, but he was quick to get up when he saw us coming and
moved to the other side of the station in fact (?). All over the bus
thing, we braved yet another city's public transportation system and
got it completely wrong. However, we did make it to our hotel, and had
it not been for our extremely long trip getting there and perhaps good
timing, we wouldn't have met Peter. Peter helped us get a discount on
our hotel room (in excess of 50%!!) and offered to help us book our
ticket to Changsha AND a trip to Huang Shan. Peter was born in
Hangzhou, but he and his wife have been living in Sydney, Australia for
over 20 years, where he is a professor at the university there - they
were back in Hangzhou for three week for the annual tomb-cleaning that
goes on all over the country during the first week of April. It is a
huge tradition, complete with fireworks, and sees hundreds and
thousands of people returning to their hometowns and tombs of their
ancestors.
We spent the next day wandering around China's most famous lake, West
Lake (and we made eye contact with the Doctor, it was this "We found
you...again" kind of a look because now we knew that we was avoiding
us, but clearly would never be able to escape our company. Mua ha ha!)
- there are many lakes in China that go by the same name, but none,
apparently, like this one. And it was remarkable - we walked for two
hours around the lake and across its causeways, stopping for lunch on
one island, and then caught a boat out to a few of the other islands
within the lake. One part of one of these islands is called Three Pools
Mirroring the Moon, which consists of three stone pagodas. At night,
during the Autumn Festival people light candles in the pagodas arriving
at them by boat, and the light that passes through the holes in the
pagodas is supposed to resemble small moons mirroring on the water -
hence the name. Anyhow, the islands had a lot of history to them and
besides that, were a great display of one of the many things that China
does best: gardens.
NEXT. We left the following day at 6:30am for our "tour" to Huang Shan
- this tour actually ended up being cheaper than doing it on our own
AND we didn't have to go through the hassle by ourselves - the only
thing is that it was a Chinese Tour so we wouldn't be able to
understand anything. We were picked up by a man, who muttered little
else than "Huang Shan," and then, while waiting with us at the front
desk while we checked out, let out a long and loud burp (the girl at
the front desk didn't even flinch, so presumably this is custom). We
got on the bus and went to pick up the rest of the Chinese Tour Group.
5 hours later, we arrived at the base town of Tangkou where everyone
else ate hot food and Jess and I had some free green tea and dug into
our backpacks for the sandwiches that I had made us the previous day -
creamed cheese on a sesame bun, smushed flat as a ten-page book by this
point. When we arrived at the top, the guide was asking us for money,
to which we replied that we had already paid - then we discovered that
everyone else was taking the cable car up (the dress shoes and earrings
should have been a giveaway). So Jess and I took the path apparently
less-travelled. And it really was - the only people that we saw on our
way up were labourers, who carried everything from steel frames to
laundry from the hotels, to flats of Coke up the mountain three times a
day! The cable car is far more expensive to run than actual people, so
this is the way they do it, and yet despite the heavy loads that these
guys are lugging up the mountain, they still managed to find it
impressive that we were carrying our packs! We had a few people pet our
bags and try and lift them, but mostly it was just the occasional gasp,
and for the people passing us on their way down, it was staring at us
until we were out of sight (we could turn around at any point and
they'd still be looking...). Once at the top, we called the number we
were given, and some lady who we couldn't communicate with took us to
the hostel. It was stupid cold at the top and even worse in our room.
There was no radiator, the bunks were these slivers of rusty metal with
a thick plank of wood as its "mattress," the blanket was soggy, and I
swear that the only life that was being bred on the peak was the mold
that was my pillow. We layered up intensely and headed straight back
out of the dorm. On our way out, we happened upon three guys from
Denmark: Janus, Daniel, and Johan. It was only 4pm, and with many hours
to pass on the peak, we agreed to meet up with them after we'd done a
bit of exploring in the daylight. First thing was first, we found a
bathroom that was reasonably clean and sought refuge in it for a few
minutes for warmth - Jess went to wash her hands and the water was
freezing, so she went to dry her hands and the heater didn't work. So
we decided to jet out of there. We hopped from peak to peak, took some
pics, and, seeming that we were patrons, went into restaurant that was
attached to the actual Beihai hotel (the Beihai hotel's hostel part was
just a bunch of cabins spotted in the woods with a little detached
bathroom that you could find by following your nose from any point on
the peak). We figured that at the least we could browse the menu while
sipping on some complimentary green tea before deciding not to order
anything. But as it turns out, we found the cheapest items on the menu
at the back and in the dessert section - so fried rice and pork
dumplings it was! I don't know how to justify any of those items as
being dessert, but it is a very odd country at times and oftentimes
things get lost in translation. Like "Recycling" and "Unrecycling" at
the garbage bins. SO just as we were wrapping up our leftover fried
rice for the next day's meal (yes, we're that cheap) the Danes walked
in and sat down with us, gaining us a few more hours in the warmth of
the restaurant. We ordered a few beers, the light and delectable (and
cheap) Tsingtao, and had a chat, then moved back to the dorms, where we
planned to play cards in their room because it had a radiator, but
there was no table, so had a bit more beer and pistachios. No table,
but a radiator - you gotta give a little to get a little. At a late
10pm, Jess and I decided that we should go back to our room so that we
wouldn't have to wake anyone up AND so that we could maybe get a little
bit of sleep before our 4:30am departure. But FIRST we had to brave the
bathroom in the back. It was nightmarish and a thing I just don't want
to have to recall so we'll leave it at that. I suspected that I
wouldn't sleep very well with the soggy blanket and with my big
backpack as my pillow, but I didn't think that I wouldn't sleep at all.
The girl in the top bunk next to me, poor girl, was stuffed full of
cold and when she wasn't blowing her nose, sneezing, sniffing,
coughing, or doing this weird thing with the snot IN her nose (she
needs Buckley's) she was text-messaging people from her cell phone, so
there was, in addition, the occasional "ba-da-ling!!" It wasn't cute.
That would've kept me up all night anyways, so the girl underneath me
who, in her unconsious state, spent the whole night farting, didn't
make much of a difference to my "quality" of sleep. 4:30am finally
rolled around and, quite frankly, I was relieved to hear that alarm
sound...a nice guy who was travelling with the four other girls in our
dorm on a school trip from the University of Nanjing made sure to wake
us up and have us travel to the top for the sunrise with his group at
least. From there we would relocate our original group in order to
climb down the mountain. The sunrise, which is only worth seeing 54% of
the time (according to the statistics), was amazing - we got lucky. The
sky was clear, the clouds were few, and the timing was impeccable.
However, the crowd was suffocating, so I plopped my bag ontop of Jess'
and stood on it while Jess scaled the railing above us for some quality
pictures. Once the sun had risen, so to speak, we began the search for
someone that we might recognize , which actually wasn't that difficult.
We actually ended up teaming up with a guy who spoke some English, who
we'll call Hikerman, and his wife and sister. They wanted to do an
extra climb and agreed with the tour guide to go ahead of the "group"
so we tagged along, liking the sound of that much better. It was the
most incredble day - it was still cold of course, but completely clear.
We hiked the stairs at the tallest peak, Lotus Peak, whose surrounding
rockery was comical in its smooth, conical shapes, then moved onto
Heavenly Capital Peak, whose steep stairs had us really huffing and
puffing (and other hikers nearly fainting at seeing us with our packs -
most people bring just a purse or a light backpack; if you couldn't
guess from the dress shoes most "hikers" take the cable car at least
one way) but the view was truly heavenly. The 3000 steps down weren't
so heavenly and Jess and I, with the additional weight on us, did some
serious damage to our calves (still recovering today, four days later,
AND up until today, could't walk down any sort of stair). We arrived at
the bottom about 4 hours after the sunrise and still beat the group
down, so Hikerman took us for lunch with one of his friends who owns a
hotel in Tangkou. The food was all local, with the fish from the stream
on the mountain, the vegetables also from the mountain, local pork,
etc, AND this was free so we were happy. Satiated, but unbearably
tired, we waited for our bus to take us back to Hangzhou. By 7pm that
night we arrived back at West Lake, and for some reason, we decided
that we couldn't possibly be that far from the hotel, so pulled our
backpacks on and walked the subsequent 3km back. We stepped into the
lobby and were re-checking ourselves in, when Peter walked in with his
wife, having just returned from dinner and asked us if we'd eaten yet.
We told him, no, and so he offered to show us a cheap place to eat. He
had also offered to hold onto some of our heavier items while we were
hiking so we picked those up, dropped off our packs, washed our sweaty
faces, and walked right back out the door. Peter insisted that we have
a "good, hot meal" after all the hot work and took us for some
traditional noodles in a 100-year-old restaurant, renowned for their
noodles in particular. Then we wandered the night market and were back
in the hotel by 10pm and ready to sleep. I think my head hit the pillow
(it must have) and I was out for the count.
The next morning, Peter dropped in to say goodbye, and we were up and
out of there for a quick morning visit to Wushan Square, a shopping
street in the city whose building have been well-preserved. We paid a
visit to West Lake one last time, picked up some food for the train,
and went to the train station to catch the overnighter to Changsha,
which is where we are now. For now. We've spent a few relaxing days
here in Changsha, since our legs have been begging us to stop, and
also, there's not a whole lot to do here, which makes it an ideal stop
at this point. Yesterday we did visit a few Maoist Pilgrimage Spots and
got to see where the Former Hunan CPC used to meet and where he
developed his ideas (the same place he went to school at and was
headmaster at for 2 years) so that was worth seeing. Then we made a
trip to the Provincial Museum, which didn't have much to howcase about
the province, but it's main attraction is the corpse of a Han dynasty
woman that has been completely preserved and is on display at this
museum. And they really don't hide anything - the organs are all on
display, as is the body itself, and it's really an amazing show of
preservation but also incredible to see the clothing that was buried
with her and that was worn by the higher echelons during the Han
dynasty (over 2100 years ago). We returned to the hotel around 4pm, and
just sat and it was wonderful...as for today, we checked out at the
last possible moment so that it would just be one less minute that we'd
have to drag our backpacks around the city until our 10:00pm departure
to Hong Kong. Obviously we're passing some time in this internet palace
and then, who knows. But we are planning on getting some dumplings for
dinner (3 for about 20 cents) and probably just people-watch for a few
hours, I know they'll be watching us! I was dreaming about a gin and
tonic (thinking of you ma!) but it's pretty unlikely that a) I'll be
able to find it or b) I will be able to afford it. I'll dream on.
