DreamOn

Round up

kirank — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:46:00 GMT

You probably won't believe me when I say I will make a start at uploading my photographs next week, though it should be mentioned that I have 1000 photographs that need whitling down first. I just hope I can still remember where the shots were taken and what they are. I did have grand plans to name all the buildings in the Forbidden City but the only one I can remember is the ‘Hall of Supreme Tranquillity and Harmony’ and not for the best reason ;-)

With this in mind I think the next awesome product would be a camera which allowed you to tag an audio footnote to individual pictures as and when required. I'm not talking about a long commentary just a 10 second audio clip. It would certainly save the angst I'm sure to experience tomorrow.

As for the round up, this includes things that people have asked me about China since my return. I apologise if I am repeating myself but I can't be bothered to read my blog from start to finish so please bear with me. Should you have any questions ask them quick lest I forget.

Food

Chinese apples - I'm sure these will appear on our supermarket shelves in the very near future. The difference between these and our apples is analogous to the difference between our pears and Chinese pears. That is the latter have a higher water content and are sweeter.

Cucumbers - whilst they taste like our own they are a different variety. There skin is not green and smooth but green and bumpy. The skin is always peeled in restaurants. My aunt tells me we have these kind of cucumbers in India too. People sell these outside attractions like they would fruit.

Cherry tomatoes are treated like real fruit too. On trains when the fruit cart comes around it always contains tomatoes as well as cucumbers.

Cherries - these are everywhere. I avoided eating these for ages as I thought they were cherry tomatoes only later did I realise my mistake. They are not as darkly coloured as our own cherries, instead their colour resembles that of tomatoes. They taste exactly the same as ours though.

Seeds – these are very popular. Everywhere you go you will see pumpkin, sunflower and melon seeds on display not to mention a whole load more that I cannot identify. They are often flavoured too. The labelling can be ambiguous too – on a packet of money nuts it said they were food flavoured! A packet of biscuits had a huge label claiming 100% nutritious! Whilst they sure tasted good I wouldn’t agree with the labelling.

Transport

Their motorways are like ours in the UK as opposed to those in the US (i.e. exit on the right only) and they have roundabouts too. Rather than using just words to convey messages they use words and cartoons. Some great ones I came across were:

No driving when drunk - a cartoon figure holding onto a steering wheel with a bottle of beer and wine glass spinning around his head

Do not exceed maximum statutory weight - a car with an elephant on top

Do not exceed maximum statutory height - a car with a giraffe with his neck poking out of the sun roof

In cities the roads are very wide, two lanes for bikes, two - four lanes for cars. The bike lanes are just as wide as the car lanes. Bikes travel in both directions in a single bike lane. People riding electric scooters also use bike lanes. In rush hour I've seen buses and taxis make use of these lanes too though I suspect that is illegal.

When there is a green light for pedestrians to cross a road, care still needs to be taken as red lights don't apply to scooters or bicycles (a bit like cyclists in the UK, I hear people say). People on two wheels will cross your path and is it your duty to avoid them. There is a definitive pecking order with busses and lorries at the top and pedestrians at the bottom.

If you don't jaywalk by the time you make it across the other side of the road you will be ready to collect your pension. In Chengdu’s peak traffic hours people with fluorescent orange jackets and caps armed with a red flag and whistle enforce traffic light signals blowing their whistle and waving their flag at anyone who dares to disobey.

Pavements are very wide, in Xi'an I reckon you could have parked two Renault Clios back to back ACROSS a pavement. A good thing really as on one side cars were parked up, on the other side bikes AND still there was room for three people to walk down the pavement side by side. It should be mentioned that bicycles and scooters are ridden on pavements too so even when walking on a pavement care needs to be taken. I love the fact it is not a nanny state.

In cases where buses are carpeted you have to take off your shoes at the entrance and place them into the plastic bag provided before you are allowed to board the bus.

On trains, if someone wants to put something on the rack above a seat and can't reach it from the ground they will take off their shoes, move the seat cover aside before they stand on the seat. This respect for communal property is everywhere. In my two months in China I only ever saw one piece of graffiti. When I was discussing this with a friend we disagreed on the balance between restricted freedom vs respect.

I found a lot of Westerners shudder at the though of travelling by hard seat - the cheap seat on a train but I thought it was perfectly fine for a day time journey. I wouldn't advise for night time as the lights remain on all night and no-one tells you what stop you're at. This is very bad as trains make several stops during the early hours of the morning and it is up to you to stay awake and get off at the right station.

On trains the carriages have no smoking signs on display but trolleys selling cigarettes frequently do the rounds. I learnt very quickly that if you showed your displeasure either through a facial expression or a little cough smokers would quickly move to the area between the carriages to smoke.

Conductors on trains double as salesmen and will do demonstrations of products such as yoyos, spinning tops and give you socks and underwear to look at while the train is moving in an effort to sell it to you. To experience this though you have to be in the hard seat carriage.

The toilets on trains are a hole through which you see the train track below. Nice!

Whilst a lot of trains are air conditioned many are not. If a window can open the locals will throw anything and everything out of the window be it a empty plastic bottle, noodle boxes, all food packaging.

Environment

All public bins come in two sections – recyclable and non-recyclable however there seems to be a distinct lack of understanding of what exactly is recyclable given the bins contents. In the major cities this is not too bad as you will be approached by people for your plastic bottle when it is half full and they will encourage you to drink up else follow you until you’ve drank up and given it to them. I’ve also seen bottles disappear into someone’s bag in the time it takes me to let go of the bottle and for it to reach the top of the bin.

Shops

I'm sure I've said this before, whilst there are a lot of independent retailers there are chains too, some home grown like Yishion.

Kappa - the sports gear is as highly regarded as other Western sports brands and they have their own shops. I hate to admit it but they have some great items too. Found it very strange given our opinion of the brand. I suppose it's a bit like Longsdale being rated in Australia whereas we consider it run of the mill.

Mass market cosmetic brands such as Rimmel, Mabelline, Avon have stands in department stores like those we tend to reserve for the more exclusive brands such as Clinque, Estee Lauder etc. The main driving force behind this is that the price of these brands is the same as in the UK -apparently the result of high import taxes.

ATMs

Whenever you read travel guides on China they all mention the difficulty of accessing money. For me that was not the case thought I do have a Visa logo on my debit card and it was accepted by 95% of banks, national and local. The amount of money you’re allowed to take out does vary typically £200 limit however there were some cashpoints with a £10 limit which I found amusing.

Kids

Very young non-toilet trained kids do not use nappies. Instead the crotch of the trousers is not sewn together. When they want to go to the toilet parents simply left their legs up so that are in a seated position and let them do their business. They are permitted to do their business anywhere there is absolutely no embarrassment. I’ve seen it done on the side of pavements and have been told of a kid going for a wee on a train in the actual carriage where people were seated - though I’m not sure how credible the last claim is. I would have taken a picture but I didn’t want to be considered a paedophile. For anyone that thinks that is gross, my aunt reliably tells me they use to do it in India too in the olden days. Then I suppose nappies were discovered.

Spelling

Last and definitely least, I learnt that scenery has no 'a' in it ;-)

In summation, if you are thinking of going to China, don’t think, just do it. You will not regret it. For me it was the best holiday ever. You can quote me on this if you want but I will never do a beach holiday or a package holiday again. Travelling and exploring on your own or with friends is simply too awesome an experience to miss.

Chengde, Hebei

kirank — Sun, 20 May 2007 23:32:00 GMT

If my memory serves me correctly The Summer Palace in Chengde is four times bigger than that in Beijing. My book tells me it covers 100,000 squares metres. Whereas the Summer Palace in Beijing dominates its surroundings by being bright, colourful with a definite 'look at me' mentality the palace in Chengde is much more simplistic and understated. In fact it blends in beautifully with it's surroundings and makes for an idyllic day long stroll. The main palace buildings (somewhere between 6 -9 in total, I forget the number exactly) are close to the main entrance however there are another 17 - 20 scattered around the grounds. None of the buildings are more than a couple of storeys high. There are even some tame deer to admire whilst you walk around the artifical lakes, paths and buildings in amongst the forest. Needless to say I spent a relaxing four hours wandering around and loved every minute of it. To put it simply if you are visiting Beijing you would an idiot not to make the time to visit Chengde, it is definitely worth it and a complete contrast to busy Beijing.

Chengde also has eight temples unfortunately by the time I arrived here I was completely templed out. Whereas at the start of my trip I could easily spend a couple of hours in a temple visiting every room, looking at every Buddha by the end of my trip, fifteen minutes was all I could take. What can I say, when you've visited ten temples you've seen them all. I had time to kill before my return journey so I narrowed my choice of temples down to two. The Emperor was very clever he built temples for the religions in China to help persuade people that they were all one, all respected and therefore encourage them that they really shouldn't fight Chinese rule. It also gave visiting dignatories somewhere to worship too.

The first temple I went to see was Puning Si. It is famous for having the largest wooden statue in the world. I would have taken a photo of it but we were banned from using our cameras and it was wasn't all that and I couldn't be bothered to pay the extortionate postcard prices either though when you convert the price into English I was an idiot.

The second temple was Putuozongcheng Miao, it is based on the Polanta Palace in Lhasa and it is stunning. I took tons of pictures, within the main temple building there was central building three storeys high and surrounding it were three floors of great Tibetian artifacts. It was opulently decorated and made me want to visit the real Polanta Palace in Lhasa. There was a magnificant view from the inner courtyard, it looked like a great library. I would have taken a picture except that my camera battery died. I was more than willing to pay handsomely for some postcards but none had the picture I was seeking. A note for next time, when camera battery is low, see everything then take pictures of the best bits rather than taking pictures as you go around :-(

Pingyao, Shanxi

kirank — Fri, 18 May 2007 23:31:00 GMT

Had a really good journey from Datong to Pingyao as was travelling on a train where loads of people from my Datong tour were on the same train carriage.

I came to Pingyao for no other reason than David (Israeli guy from Emei Shan) said that his guide book rates it as a ‘must see’ and says ‘if you don’t visit it you haven’t been to China’. It’s always dangerous to rave about places like this as 9 times out of 10 it will result in grave disappointment.

Soon as we arrived, we went to the train station’s ticketing office, me to get a ticket to Beijing, the Americans to get tickets to Xi’an. We were pre-warned that tickets would be scarce. After being told no repeatedly a French Chinese woman with perfect English from our Datong tour came to help us out. She was immediately asked ‘Why she was helping us?’ Which for me says it all.

It turns out there is one train to Beijing and two to Xi’an per day. Typically ‘a middle man’ buys all the available tickets and is willing to sell them back to you via the hostels and hotels for a 40% commission. What no one will advertise (bar from Yamen hostel) is that there are copious amounts of buses going to these destinations too so you don’t need to be stuck in Pingyao for the night if you so wish. Unfortunately for me I’d already paid for my dormitory bed when I discovered this.

Pingyoa is one of the most beautiful towns I’ve seen in China. It has narrow cobbled streets, with Qing (1644 - 1900 & something) buildings that are no more than two storeys high. It's famous for having the first bank in China and was the place where the Emperors did their banking. The Empress took out loans to pay money to Allied forces for war reparations. She promptly defaulted on the loans and the town’s banks went belly up consequently it lost it finance status to Shanghai. The town itself has a great ambience this in part is due to the fact that cars are banned from the town during the daytime.

The tourist board have a good marketing trick in that they ask you to pay a flat fee of 120Y to see all attractions in Pingyao. For that you get to see a lot of banks, bodyguard armouries and temples but seriously the ONLY attraction worth seeing and walking on is the wall surrounding the town. The wall is built in the shape of a turtle which represents longevity I believe. I’m told the town is also sloped slightly so that all waste matter can leave the town through the turtle’s back passage.

Personally whilst I do recommend you visit, I would say don’t waste your money on the tourist ticket. Instead hire a bike for the day and ride around the town.

Food

What can I say, the food is below average the prices are very high and together they represent bad value for money. The worst I have had the pleasure of eating in the whole of China.

Datong, Shanxi

kirank — Wed, 16 May 2007 23:30:00 GMT

Time was starting to become a valuable commodity, so I booked an organised tour with the CITS to visit the Hanging Temples and the Datong caves in one day.

This was by far the best tour I have been on in China. For one, it was full of English speaking foreigners and we had an English speaking guide, an essential ingredient to a successful tour! There were six French people, four Americans, three of us Brits and an Irish bloke. We had an absolute ball.

Hanging Temples

Like I told my brother these look better on a postcard than in real life. For once the name is apt, these are hanging from a sheer cliff face. They’re attached to the cliff by means of wooden beams set into the rock. Underneath is a river, or should I say there was a river before the Chinese dammed it, surprise, surprise. The story goes the river used to flood and each time they built the temples higher and higher up the cliff face. It’s narrow, long and there are shrines to China’s three main religions of old – Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

Yungang Caves

Chinese started building these Buddha grottoes around 400AD for about 70-80 years when the Northern Wei’s made Datong their capital. The capital was later moved to Luoyang and they moved their grotto building to Longmen instead abandoning Yungang. Unlike the caves at Longmen, these are not UNESCO rated even though they have not been subjected to the vandalism and date from an earlier period.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this, the first that 300 years ago an Emperor decided to repaint the carvings to how they looked when they were originally created which incidentally makes them far more stunning than those in Longmen. Secondly the carvings are built in sandstone and are thus more susceptible to the effects of weathering. In order to protect them they were covered in plaster. Of course the plaster has fallen away and holes remain in the carvings where wooden pegs were placed to hold the plaster in place.

According to my book the Buddhas and associates look more Indian than Chinese - though I can't corroborate this as I don’t remember what they looked like in Luoyang. Feel free to compare the pictures.

Nine Dragon Screen

This is in Datong town centre, I checked this out as I had oodles of time to kill between finishing my tour and getting the night train to Pingyao. It is older than the one in the Forbidden City and its dragons only have 4 toes per foot, of course the one in the Forbidden City has 5 as it belongs to the Emperor. It took all of 2 minutes to check it out and it was alright, good use of gaudy tiles. I did try to take a picture as I thought it would make a great panoramic photo but quickly came to realise I have no idea how to use my brother’s camera.

Beijing, Beijing Shi

kirank — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:28:00 GMT

I arrived in Beijing via a very short flight from Shanghai. Met loads of lovely people staying at my hostel.

The hostel itself whilst clean, it's staff were absolutely shit because of that this hostel was the worst I have stayed in during my two month holiday. It's the kind of place where hospitality disappears the moment you've paid your money and informed them that you are not interested in any of their tours. In fact I would go so far as to say if they ran a tour to a place of interest (e.g. any of the three Great Wall sites) they claimed that you couldn't get there using public transport. Besides their tour, taxi was the only other alternative suggested. Which would be fine except the price they quoted for getting a taxi to Simatai was twice what I actually ended up having to pay. When the discrepancy is 500 Yuan it is by no means an insignificant amount, especially so when you consider a bed at a Beijing hostel for the night costs 60 Yuan and a meal at an average restaurant 15 - 25 Yuan.

Unfortunately I still had three places outside Beijing I wanted to visit during this my last week not to mention the sights in Beijing itself that I decided to put up with it, big mistake. Needless to say soon as I'd finished my out of town visits I changed hostel immediately and spent a lovely two days at a much, much better hostel. Funnily enough I met a few other people at the Jade International Hostel that had come here after falling out with their initial hostel too! Paul, these receptionists seriously love you. Just mentioning your name and the fact that you'd gone to Korea on Wednesday convinced them I knew you and immediately they accepted my lower accommodation offer without the usual bartering. Thanks mate. The hostel location is awesome - a couple of streets away from the Forbidden City and its staff are a whole lot nicer too.

Great Wall

On my first full day here I visited the Great Wall at Simatai, we bribed an official with 20 Yuan and got to go into the prohibited area. This area hasn't been restored and is more dangerous as a result. In places the wall was barely wide enough for one person to walk safely along it and I spent most of the time scared and hugged the sides of the wall for safety. Got loads of scrapes on my arms and legs as I climbed over bits of the wall. I chickened out when I had to climb a very, very steep part, we're talking almost 90 degree climb with very few foot and hand holdings. The blokes I was with saw it as a macho challenge, so glad I'm not a bloke.

It should be said that the wall has been restored quite heavily and asthetically speaking, badly. By that I mean sometimes the part of the wall you walk on meets a fort at the top window instead of at the door. You'll see what I mean when I finally get around to uploading the pictures. I'm assuming the forts are the originals hence the bad joins however my book says new forts were added along the route to aid tourism. I'm assuming that in that case the join would have been better.

Forbidden City

It was nice but due to the Beijing Olympics the pinnacle of the City - the Palace of Supreme Harmony was hidden by scaffolding and white plastic sheets - such a disappointment. Almost guarantees I will need to visit Beijing again, much to my distain.

Summer Palace

Beautiful, in my option, much more beautiful than the Forbidden City. This place was rebuilt by Empress Cixi after the British and French allied troops destroyed it during the opium wars. Some destroyed building in the gardens remain. The plaques around the palace and the blurb on the audio guide leave no doubt that they still hate us for it!

Temple of Heaven

A relaxing way to spend a day. I've read loads of books on China and it was nice to finally see the place that Emperors came to pray and give thanks for a good harvest. Though seeing Beijing 2008 memorabilia I was expecting the temple to be made from gold like the Golden Temple in Amritsar, it's not but it is lovely nonetheless.

I've written this blog honestly from the start and see no reason to change now. The sights in Beijing are worth seeing but please don't expect the majority (say 85%) of people in the tourist industry to be genuine or kind. I can only talk from an English speaker's perspective but I would advise being more wary of strangers than you would be in either London or New York or in the rest of China for that matter. Perhaps Shanghai is just as bad but I was with Yi and Wolfgang so was shielded to a large extent and found it to be a lovely, infinitely less ruthless and cruel city.

In Beijing I was made to feel like a country bumpkin thrown into a cage full of lions and wolves and when they'd had my fill of me, I was thrown into a tank full of sharks and piranhas for good measure. It was pure hell, there wasn't a day that I didn't have to argue/fight with someone to honour their initial spoken agreement with me. I pity the people going to see the Olympics for I am certain that they will be conned left, right and centre. I met a lass in Chengdu who thought China was hideous, she was travelling from North to South and having been to Beijing I can completely understand how she came to hold that point of view.

I'm so glad I used Beijing as my base and escaped it for days at a time to see the sights in the nearby towns and cities. If it wasn't for that I would have willingly paid to bring my flight forward. In fact, on Monday morning after another hideous argument I was seriously considering calling my airline to get an earlier flight home but decided not to let them win.

I left Beijing with no doubt that had this been the first city I visited in China some two months ago I would have been on the next flight out of there to New Zealand or Canada. I would have left China thinking the people were awful. On the good side, whereas in the rest of China I didn't think of home and would have happily stayed forever, Beijing made me desperate to return to the safety and comfort of home. Not to mention the unfriendliness of strangers and the fixed pricing!

I only felt comfortable and safe and consequently only enjoyed Beijing when I was inside a tourist attraction with friends or on my own else I was on the streets with a large group of friends. I now understand why asylum seekers in the UK feel the need to travel in groups outside their home - it has everything to do with safety and nothing to do with intimidation.

Now that I have had my rant let me give you solid examples of my awful experience and perhaps give advice to people travelling to Beijing who happen upon my blog.

- Do NOT get taxis at transport links. In fact I would advise using buses or the subway to transverse long distances and then simply walking. Unfortunately Beijing is spread out, so I realise this is probably easier said than done especially if you have luggage. I made the mistake of continually arriving in Beijing in the early hours of the morning of the two taxis I got near the transport links one ripped me off monstrously, with hindsight he used the outer most ring road to take me to my horrible hostel located inside the inner most ring road.

The second time when I got in the cab, I showed him the ring roads and asked that he didn't use them. Within a 30 seconds we were on a ring road. Asking him to get off it, was not sufficient I had to shout and scream and then I had to shout and scream some more to make him stop the cab and let me out. I eventually followed the subway line above ground and used it as soon as it opened in the morning. Fortunately I was carrying a rucksack which made walking miles feasible. Walking along the major roads in the early hours felt completely safe, more so than I have ever felt in any UK city.

Be aware of taxi drivers away from the transport links, they will try it on too. As much as I loathed it I had to use a cab to get to the train station early one morning as it was too early to catch the subway. When I got into his cab he did suggest we use the ring road as opposed to going through the city. I pointed in the direction I wanted to go and he accepted it without argument. Bliss.

My very last argument in Beijing was at 5 am on Wednesday morning (I’d been awake for 1.5 hours, this was NOT a record). It happened at the airport check in. The day before I called Dick, for whom I had a business card. He’d arranged a taxi to take us to the Great Wall and he seemed decent. He quoted me 50Y. I was expecting to pay around 85Y so repeated the price to him twice to ensure I heard correctly and he said it was low as I was only one, I thought I’d finally found a decent person in Beijing. In the morning I again confirmed the price with him over the phone. At a toll gate the taxi driver couldn’t “find” his money so I decided to pay as I had such a good bargain. The driver helped me with my bag and took me to the check in desk. I gave him 50Y and he refused it point blank and immediately called Dick on the phone. That bastard had the audacity to tell me “lady you misheard the price is 150Y not 50Y” of course an argument ensued, I was absolutely fuming, could I not spend one day, my last day of all days, in this fucking city without being ripped off. All the pieces were in my court, I had my bags, check in was just behind me but I was worn out, tired and fed up with arguing that I gave him 100Y. What can say other than Dick you are as you name suggests, a complete wanker.

My guide book says there are a lot of unscrupulous taxi drivers around but the vast majority are decent. My experience and the stories I heard from others relating to taxi drivers driving people around in circles, else pretending they didn’t know where infamous attraction were together lead me to believe otherwise.

- The buses in Beijing are jammed packed at all times of the day. Whereas in other cities and towns bus drivers and conductors would willing and happily tell you which stop you need to get off at, a significant number of conductors in Beijing felt the need to charge 50% in excess of the ticket price for said information. Enough said

- I lost count of the number of times I was approached by people who befriended me on my way to a tourist attraction. Once they’d gained my trust I was repeatedly told that the said attraction was either closed because of bad weather or renovation and then they suggested we go for tea or a meal at a local venue. Luckily Jane had warned me about them and my nice hostel also displayed a warning so I was never taken in however I was always left angry by the interaction. Quite quickly I developed another persona, which lessened my anger and eventually I simply ignored them.

- Souvenirs are insultingly overpriced. In the rest of China you started at a bargaining position of a third or a quarter of their initial offer if it was a big-ticket item else a half. In Beijing regardless of the item you must start at an eighth if not less.

If you don’t like bargaining hard or are bad at it buy inside tourist sights such as the Forbidden City. They are reasonably priced and certainly not a rip off. Admittedly if you are very good at bargaining you could get them slightly cheaper on the streets.

The first time I went out shopping in Beijing I found a shop from where I wanted to buy some souvenir chopsticks to give away to all and sundry. The young woman in the shop asked how many I wanted and I said six. Her starting offer for one was 80Y. I was flabbergasted, elsewhere in China they would have started at 20Y, considering the numbers I was buying I would have expected to pay somewhere between 6-8Y for each. Needless to say I walked away in shock and she was left shouting at ‘50’, ‘20’, ‘10’, ‘free’ to my back.

In my hostel, a couple of Americans staying in my room paid 150Y for a wooden carved picture which they though was antique, I wouldn’t have paid more than 20, perhaps 30 at a push. It certainly wasn’t antique. As my book says buy something because you like it not because you think it is old or valuable, the likelihood is that it isn’t either of those.

- Make sure you carry lots of small notes with you so that you can give sellers exactly what you’ve agreed upon. A couple of times I gave them more as didn’t have any smaller notes and they were reluctant to return my change and wanted to renegotiate. I had to argue to get my money back and once I grabbed my money and left the item behind. Both times it happened when there was a lack of other buyers around. Take heed.

- In the bar of my hostel one night I got talking to a whole load of people, most of us coming to the end of our journey and we all had a good whinge about Beijing. The general consensus is that people in Beijing will try and rip you off. If you speak some Mandarin, you will get ripped off too but to a lesser extent. You certainly won't be given the respect that the Chinese people get. We were unanimous in that we will all miss China as a whole but most definitely not Beijing.

In summation, if you're travelling to Beijing as part of a group you should be alright in that you can expect to be ripped off only sometimes. If however, you are travelling alone and don't speak the language or speak it very badly expect to be ripped off more often than not. For this reason and for your own sanity I would highly recommend travelling as part of an organised tour to keep your interactions with locals to a minimum or at least have a tour guide that can make sure you're not taken advantage of. As for the rest of the country, you do not need to go on a tour. In fact your money will last twice as long if you don't go on a tour! The people are absolutely lovely, very generous and kind willing to help and my experience has been that whenever I've needed an English speaker I've found one without looking too hard.

I'm aware that I've done the big management no-no of starting and ending my Beijing article on bad points with the good points lost somewhere in the middle. In case you missed it, by the good points I mean the sights. So let me highlight another good reason to visit Beijing - the food. The variety of food in Beijing is huge, there is no world cuisine that you will not find here. I can thoroughly recommend Russian food, it was simply divine. I would have tried Indian food but there was insufficient meal times ;-)

Almost forgot, hence re-editing of live article. I tried scorpion. There is a picture of me with said scorpion though it does look like I'm about to feed my nose as opposed to my mouth. In reality I did eat it. It was covered in salt and deep fried - how did it taste? Other than salty, the claws were crunchy, the legs and tail were nice, the best in fact. The body however was simply disgusting, very squishy and I was going to spit it out but I resisted so that I could tell the world that I'd eaten a scorpion. The body was very soft and squishy. Needless to say I swallowed quickly and promptly followed up with a dessert ;-)

Shanghai, Shanghai Shi

kirank — Sat, 12 May 2007 03:36:00 GMT

Shanghai was absolutely wicked, I was picked up at the train station by Wolfgang and asked what I wanted to do during my stay. I gave him a list of everything I’d read about on my long train ride over and told him my one wish was not to have to organize anything. As a lone traveller, you have absolutely no-one else to rely on and if you don’t organise it is doesn’t happen, simple as. After over a month of relying on myself it was nice to be able to take a back seat and know that I would be spoilt by Yi and Wolfgang.

First we opted for a return journey on the world’s only maglev train. The train is suspended above the track and magnetism is used to propel the train forwards. Top speed was approximately 269mph, we travelled at this speed for less a minute during our eight minute journey. My book lied, the buildings did not pass by in a blur you could see them properly. You only realised you were travelling so fast when a maglev train going in the opposite direction came and went in a couple of seconds max.

Vistied Yu Yuan, a lovely small garden dating from the sixteenth century. Once inside it is hard to believe you are in a major city. Had tea at Huxin Ting tea house, this has been visited by very many famous people including Queen Elizabeth and Bill Clinton. Unfortunately the price list reflects this so you find only a few tourists in here and no Chinese which is a pity as atmosphere is distinctly lacking.

Yi took a day's holiday and we all went and had lunch at Radisson’s revolving restaurant on a clear day - which I'm told is rare due to the pollution - and got to see the whole of Shanghai’s skyline. We went for some drinks at Bar Rouge on the Bund, as expected the prices were typical English bar prices and it had the obligatory escort sitting at the bar sipping a drink too. Wolfgang did point out a few more Chinese escorts for us too but I was not convinced. Afterwards went to Windows Bar, the hip bar of the moment and it was very relaxed, full of foreigners and Chinese people with a few pool tables thrown in. It was lovely.

Visited Shanghai museum, the only ‘museum’ I’ve visited in China and it was worth the time invested, it’s regarded as one of the best museums in China. It had lots of great Jade pieces, bronze pieces, Chinese calligraphy and paintings too. Could have stayed longer and took more time but we arrived late and had a short time to look around before it closed so I was prevented from doing my usual reading of everything.

Suzhou

I took a day trip to Suzhou from Shanghai. Wolfgang and Yi did mention that there were far better towns surrounding Shanghai with much nicer canals. I decided on this for several reasons – firstly my guide book mentions it as a nice place to visit. Both Jane and Heather recommended it as they’d been and I’d heard it called the Venice of the East many times. Having been to Venice I wanted to compare and contrast. The canals were alright but the buildings were no where near as grand as those in Venice, infact they were decidedly grubby, plain and boring.

The two classical gardens I visited in Suzhou were lovely. They were others but a day was too short to see them all. Of the two I visited I much preferred Shizi Lin (Lion Grove) to Zhouzheng Yuan (Humble Administrator’s Garden). I also visited the Silk museum and saw silk production

Whilst I was in Suzhou, Yi was kind enough to book me a plane ticket to Beijing. It was only when I got to Beijing that I realised what an awesome deal she had struck on my behalf. The cheapest tickets a couple of friends could get were almost double the price I paid – it helps to speak Chinese or at least know someone who does!

New Culinary Discoveries

Wheat flavoured drink – this discovery was down to Wolfgang. It was light and refreshing, tasted like I was drinking Shreddies. I thought I brought some back with me but having tasted it, it is green tea as opposed to the wheat drink - so disappointed.

Birds eggs – very small, about a centimetre long strong tasting but alright nonetheless.

Fish in duck’s blood – the fish was really nice, the liquid was not blood red which was a disappointment but a nice kind of disappointment if you know what I mean!

Fried sweet sesame balls – these became my favourite dessert instantly. It was the size of a tennis ball, contained a little red bean paste on the inside otherwise empty. Probably constitutes at least a day’s worth of calories, a cardiologist would certainly have a heart attack just looking at one but absolutely delicious. So glad I discovered them towards the end of my journey as opposed to the start or I would have been in trouble.

Thanks Yi for ordering all the food. In my opinion, the best food I’ve had is when I have dined out with Chinese people and left food decisions up to them. The next best is when food has been included with my hostel price. The worst has been when I’ve ordered alone. In order to get the very best food in China you ideally need to read or a least be able to speak Chinese.

Language

Whilst my Mandarin skills while laughably enough to get me by they were no where near as good as some other tourists who’d like me had picked it up on their travels. In my first week during my stay in Yangshou I’d gone on an hour long language course and thought I’d learn loads more during my travels in reality I added very few words to my vocabulary.

The dialect changed from region to region and whilst I was easily understood in some areas in others when I used the same words they stared at me blankly. Take the phrase ‘Thank you’. In Hong Kong it was pronounced ‘She she’, in Yangshuo as ‘Say say’, in Chengdu as ‘She say’ and in Xi’an as ‘Share share’. I had ‘goodbye’ memorised and sorted the first time I heard it though, that was probably because everyone understood ‘Bye, bye’ ;-)

Chinese people will tell you that there is no single word for ‘No’ however from my travels it is obvious that us foreigners have corrupted the use of the word ‘Mayo’ which means ‘Nothing’ to mean ‘No’, in reality we should be using ‘bu yao’ to mean ‘I don’t want’. In some places I think I got extra respect for using ‘bu yao’.

As everyone knows the Chinese language is tonal, if you use the correct Arabic letters but not the correct tones you will not be understood. At times it was down right frustrating. In a restaurant if you asked for rice using the words ‘be fan’ or ‘ba fan’ they would stare at you blankly until you pronounced it properly as ‘by fan’. Maybe I’m simple but to my eyes and ears given the setting it should be obvious that I want rice from the first pronunciation onwards.

Originally I tried speaking Chinese but I got stared at blankly or worse laughed at rather than corrected so often that I started writing sentences using Chinese characters. It was seriously hard the typo in my book was very small and difficult to follow I’m sure I missed out some strokes. My characters looked childish too probably analogous to how a five year old starts writing their native language. It’s funny to think about now but when I first started ‘writing’ Chinese I left gaps between words. Sometime later I learnt whilst each character looks like a picture there is a strict order in which the strokes should be drawn, to draw them in any other order is wrong basically you write from left to right, and from top to bottom. Then add dashes etc. It makes sense if you consider how else a Chinese dictionary would work.

Even though my efforts were crap, eventually through the writing, speaking, or should I say pointing to the name of the city in my guide book I got my tickets. I never argued about train or bus times I was just grateful they understood my destination. Through using buses I got to recognise a few characters and their pronunciation.

Before I left I knew the language would be difficult but took comfort in the fact that I would be able to understand numbers. A couple of days before I left Anika had me scared when she casually mentioned they use different characters for numbers too. In that moment I wished I’d chosen an ‘easier’ country like New Zealand. In China, yes they do use different characters for numbers than us but thanks to the Casio calculator and mobile phones they understand and can use our characters too. Using trains is very easy, for trains use Arabic characters either a letter and three digits or four digits. The downside of this is that you ‘learn’ far fewer Chinese characters using trains as opposed to buses.

Over time without realising gradually I resorted to asking the receptionists at my hostel to write down what I wanted on a piece of paper. I then showed this piece of paper to people or showed them the names of places I wanted to visit directly from my guide book. That got me to places and it was so easy. It wasn’t until I got to Xi’an that I realised that I was constantly doing this that I resolved to trying to speak Mandarin again. The first time I tried I went to the railway station in Xi’an to buy a ticket for Luoyang. I read the words in my book, memorised my sentence on the bus to the station and in the queue at the station. I was hyped up when I got to the counter. However I was soon disappointed as the lady behind the ticketing counter got up and went and got a person who could speak good English to take my booking. I was gutted.

It was only when I got back to the hostel that the receptionist told me that the structure of my sentence was all wrong. Thereafter I’m happy to report that I managed to book tickets at stations quite successfully on most occasions, though in Chengdu I did have to call Yi and ask her to speak to the ticketing lady as we didn’t understand each other.

Kaifeng, Henan

kirank — Tue, 8 May 2007 23:47:00 GMT

Here I made the mistake of being the last person to disembark from my train carriage. As I came to the exit I saw a huge group of 20+ people waiting to get on. When I was on the last step of the train, a woman tried to wrestle my suitcase off me, I assume, so that it would allow her and the others to get onto the train, the sheer weight of my suitcase thankfully stopped her or I think I would have lost it in the crowd. As soon as I got onto the platform they started pushing against me in their rush to get onto the train. I was horribly sandwiched between them and the train conductor who was sandwiched between me and the train. I tried to move out of their way but there was no room for me to move into and they were pushing against me.

To make matters worse, the conductor started pushing me forward forcefully whilst shouting at me. At least I think he was shouting at me as I don't understand Mandarin. If it hadn't been for the crowd I'm sure I would have toppled over my suitcase, in any case my left leg was in agony. After what seemed like ten minutes though in reality it could be no more than a minute I came to the end of teather and turned around to the conductor and clearly without using swear word (I was impressed) expressed my displeasure. His face was a picture. It displayed complete shock and horror. I'm assuming until the point that I turned around, he assumed I was Chinese for after turning around he instantly he changed his demeanour. Instead of shoving and shouting at me. He started shouting at the crowd and using his hands to part the crowd to make way for me. Of course this had zero effect and I was left to walk sideways along the platform edge to get away from the crowd and carriage entrance.

This place is known to contain China's biggest community of Jews though if I'm honest I didn't come for that instead I planned to go and visit the Yellow River from a local viewing platform. I was also promised that the food was very good here.

In the end I spent less than 6 waking hours in this place due to a language barrier at the train station which meant I got a very slow fourteen hour day train to Shanghai as opposed to a fast night train. I was grateful for this as I had to get the lady behind the ticketing desk to ask the entire ticketing hall if anyone could speak English so that I could book this ticket. When I say I ask, what I mean is point to the relevant phrase in the back of my guide book. Luckily one gent came to my rescue and then disappeared as fast as he came so that I couldn't get the exact ticket I wanted. I'm not complaining though, I struggled to get past the word 'No' on my own.

The Yellow River viewing didn't happen, the great street vendor food did. This has been the hardest town I have visited to date. Practically no-one speaks English - that's not a complaint I like to think I'm not so British in this respect! I saw very few foreigners though I was told the week before there were huge numbers of us as there was a marathan on.

In the end the only things I saw of Kaifeng was the outside of a temple (it was closed by the time I got there) and the old city wall. Not much to write home about.

Currently in Datong killing time before my train to Pingyao.

Luoyang, Henan

kirank — Mon, 7 May 2007 23:29:00 GMT

I stayed in the only hostel in Luoyang near the train station. Unfortunately it was slap bang in the middle of the red light district, it took me two days to work this out mind, so I figured if I'd lived with it for that long I can handle it for a couple of more nights, no bother. Though I must say I was grateful to look like an outsider.

This city itself is not interesting though it is known for it's peonies and people flock to the city in April to see these. It is said that in 800AD Empresses Wu Zetian banished peonies from her capital as they alone refused her command to bloom in the snow. Most were transplanted to Luoyang (the second capital) where they have flourished ever since. I used this city as a base to visit the more interesting places locally. By interesting I mean the Longmen Caves and THE Shaolin Temple, where Kung Fu originated from which Karate and the ilk derive from.

Longmen Caves

This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are 1km stretch of cliffs on both sides of the Li River into which 2000 caves and niches containing 110 000 statues of Buddhas and the like have been carved. Though I should point out India did this first and the practice was introduced to China via the Silk Road. The carvings were commisioned by emperors, imperial family, generals and wealthy families hoping to buy good fortune. The oldest carvings date from 500AD. The highest Buddha is 17m high the smallest 2cm. Some are in good condition others have been trashed, three emporers encouraged people to destroy them. Others have been chishelled away and illegially exported and sold abroad. They have an interesting board listing missing Buddhas, when they went missing and where they are. Only one is in our British Museum the majority are America either in the Boston or Washington museums others in France and Japan. The Buddha Caves in Datong date from an earlier period (Emperor Wei's reign) as the capital was moved from Datong to Luoyang and the artists moved with the emperor.

Shaolin Temple

I was determined not to go on a Chinese tour to see this temple as most Chinese tours stop at shops selling trinkets and curios in which the majority of foreign visitors have no interest in. You tyically arrive at your destination a mere two hours before it closes and then on the way home you visit yet more of the same shops. It takes a full day and is hard work. So going on what others had told me about visiting the temple I decided to spend as long as possible there to this end, I was at the bus station at 7 am to purchase my ticket. However somewhere between buying the ticket and getting on a bus I ended up on a tour bus. I then preceeded to wait an entire hour on the bus, waiting for it to fill up before it would set off. I wasn't too worried I figured I'd arrive at the temple at 10 as opposed to 9 o'clock but no, I was taken to four nice but irrelevant temples on route and arrived at the Shaolin Temple at 1 pm. I was not impressed.

First impressions were not good. I felt like I'd arrived at a theme park. There have this really huge and tacky plastic looking statute of a monk with this hands together on a plinth. I took a picture to prove just how bad it looked. Contrary to Chinese policy of not dual pricing, foreigners are charged twice as much as Chinese people to visit this place with government sanction. To get to the entrance you had to run a gauntlet of souvenier shops and old ladies thrusting postcards and hotel brochures in your face.

Once inside I visited a training academy and was able to enjoy a forty five minute kung fu show which was amazing, if you enjoy the shaolin monk shows in the UK you'd enjoy this too. Though it doesn't have nearly as many performers.

Next it was onto THE temple, it was not the original, that has been burnt down numerous times in it's history the last time being 1928. It has been restored to how it looked and obviously is 'newly' painted. At the entrance they have steles listing important people who have visited. The only one in English mentions a visit by American Kung Fu masters. There also have two steles listing the story of thirteen monks who rescued a prince/emperor - I can't remember which now but this rescue made the monks infamous. There are paintings in a temple hall showing the monks fighting. In another hall there are marked depressions on the stone floor where monks have repeatedly stood practicing their stance kicks. I have taken pictures but only when I upload them will I know if they are decent.

There were also outdoor shows during the time I was there too, a different show at each half an hour interval. Like I said I wanted to spend the entire day here, instead I got three hours which was not nearly enough to appreciate this place. I had to rush far too much for my liking and will definitely revisit this place should I return to China.

Whilst there are people of all ages from kids to grown men learning the art of Kung Fu here none are monks in the true sense, no mediation and the one guy I spoke to wanted to become a movie star! The ethos of this place seems to be being a tourist attraction first and foremost, even though I enjoyed the performances I felt sorry for the performers.

Food

Everybody probably thinks I regard my guide book as a bible but let me tell you even it can be horrendously wrong at times. I'd used it to order green pepper in black bean sauce in a small restaurant with no English menu. I got served with a dinner plate piled sky high with chillies in black bean sauce. I did try a couple of mouthfuls with copious amounts of rice but my tongue was on fire so even though I was starving I had to leave and find another restaurant with an English menu

In Luoyang I was truly bored with food I wish I did not need to eat. I also wished I'd packed my vitamin tablets as I'm sure nothing I ate here nourished my body.

The problem was of my own making entirely, if only I could read Mandarin. While the restaurants I visited had extensive Chinese menus the English menu was double sided only. It didn't matter which restaurant I went into the food was identical as were the prices. The food was of the kind you get in Chinese takeways not a patch on the real thing. I understand that we may not want to eat all the types of meat dishes the Chinese eat but I didn't want the plain boring dishes that were available to me either especially since I'd tried such lovely food at other places and knew exactly what I was missing out on. The only light I could see was that I was going to meet Wolfgang and Yi in Shanghai and would be eating delicious food soon.

Xi'an, Shaanxi

kirank — Thu, 3 May 2007 21:37:00 GMT

I arrived in Xi'an at 7 am after a very long train journey from Yichang, we're talking 16 hours. It's been a while since I've travelled this kind of distance.

Xi'an was nice, again it was baking hot, I think now we're in May this is going to become a recurring theme! I stayed at the Bell Tower hostel as recommended by so many (Paul, Gelan & Sean - thank you)

Spent three hours looking around the Terracotta Army. It was a bit like when I saw the pyramids in Egypt. I know they are amazing, yes they do look beautiful but seeing them with my own eyes didn't match my expectations which were sky high considering all the hype and pictures I've seen of them. I wouldn't go so far as to say they were a disappointment and I know my expectations were unrealistic but I was left thinking I should have felt more when I saw them.

When I was in Emei Shan, Gelan and Sean mentioned a Han Dynasty tomb near the airport that was as spectacular as the Terracotta Army, so recently discovered that very few Chinese people knew about it. I know I'm gullible but I'm certain they weren't winding me up so I asked absolutely loads of people staying and working at the hostel, the guides at the Terracotta Army as I desperately wanted to visit it but not one single person knew anything about it so I left Xi'an disappointed :-(

I also cycled along the entire length of the city wall and went and saw the water fountain show at a pagoda. i didn't think it was all that guys, did I miss something? I'll be honest though one pagodas or one temple is starting to look pretty much like another pagoda or temple - perhaps I've been on holiday too long, yeah right!

People were crammed everywhere in the city. Currently we're in the May holidays where it seems everyone from the countryside comes into the city to see the attractions and relax. Train and bus tickets are getting near impossible to get hold of for the next day whereas before it was breeze. I'm having to plan way ahead again now.

Food indiscretions so far:

OK so I've been in China for over a month and I pride myself on trying the local cuisine and not acting like a typical young British tourist. However even I'm not infallible and have decided to come clean on western food I've sneaked into my diet and offer some pretty valid excuses.

Starbucks Coffee - this was way back in Hong Kong. I agreed to meet a friend for breakfast and this was her choice.

McDonald's chocolate ice-cream - we don't have McDonald's chocolate ice cream in the UK, in the interests of market research I just had to try it. It was nice but not as nice as the vanilla flavour. Interesting in Guilin I saw a standalone McDonalds ice cream kiosk, we never get those back home. I stopped short of taking a picture as I thought it too sad. Typically though McDonald's is located on the first floor and on the ground floor they have an ice cream kiosk located beside the staircase.

Fried chicken and chips - for no other reason than I simply fancied them. Rather than go to KFC I decided to try a Chinese fast food chain called Disco's. The chips were great but the chicken tasted like chicken tikka. It wasn't the colour of chicken tikka and it had a batter around it like the KFC variety but it was definitely chicken tikka - wish I'd gone to KFC! Interestingly it was expensive compared to local cuisine 19Y as opposed to restaurant food that I've been picking up for around about 15Y. I'll have to pop into KFC sometime to see if the pricing holds true for it too.

And that's it, I don't think that's too bad, do you?

OK family and friends,

I've now spent near on ten hours in an Internet Cafe updating you on my travels. Mum, don't fret I went to a restaurant for dinner. I hope you've enjoyed reading them and Danny, did you read them all at once? You know you should be revising, come on, get back to it.

Whilst I hope there won't be a lull in the postings I can't promise it and will upload pictures another day. I'm thoroughly enjoying keeping this blog and it's fantastic for those days when I have no onward travel to organise but just can't be bothered to go sightseeing and just want to relax, days like today for instance.

Thanks for all your words of encouragement in the emails and postings on this blog. Though I think it is a conspiracy to ensure I didn't give up on the blog. Mum, dad and chachi I hope you're reassured that I am alive and well.

One of my friends even had the silly idea that I'd thoroughly researched and planned this trip before I set off, I won't mention any names, Amar :-) Whilst I did some research I didn't do loads - I read a few China travel blogs and Vin's present of long ago - a gem of a book called something like '1000 Places to See Before You Die' which gave me a skeleton plan. I only started reading my guide book when I got to Hong Kong as the in-flight movies were far more interesting! I knew I was here for two months so that has given me loads of flexibility and ability to act on recommendations from other travellers. Other than that I'm making it up as I go along. Though now, I think you will start recognising place names as I am on the typical tourist trail.

As any long term travellers will know you quickly start losing track of the days never mind the dates. As I see it I've had a few Sundays, a couple of Mondays and rest have been all Saturdays. About three weeks into my holiday when I was following whims left, right and centre I set an alarm in my phone for a week before my departure date saying 'get your arse to Beijing' It still remains in my phone to this day but as I'm nearing the end of my holiday I'm starting to remember days, mores the pity.

Love you all loads and looking forward to coming home in May. Though I'm happy it's near the end of May, if you know what I mean.

Kiran

Apologies to those that hate group mailings ;-)

Gallery: Yangze River Cruise

kirank — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 20:23:00 GMT

Yangzi River Cruise, Chongqing Shi and Hubei

kirank — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:07:00 GMT

We arrived at Chongqing early. Let me say now, there is no other reason to visit Chongqing than to go on the river cruise. Do you yourself a favour and arrive no earlier than a few hours before your cruise departure time as this place is nothing special.

We'd booked a public ferry as opposed to a luxury cruise and struck it lucky. We got a four star ferry, it was no where near as luxurious as the ship I cruised down the Nile on. It had no swimming pool, we had to pay for a pass that allowed us to go on the top deck which had a bar and observation deck. We also had to pay for our meals which were ok but expensive as you'd expect. We fared a lot better than our friend, Roland who opted for one class lower than ours and ended up on in the same class as us but on a more meagre ship, as he said, he'd have happily given up the upgrade to be on our boat instead.

We were promised an English speaking tour guide and got a Spanish tour guide, and had to use other people's tour guides to speak to our own. Nova, Kul I wished at least one of you were here.

If you're going to use a public ferry whilst you can go it alone I would recommend taking someone with you. The ferries have very few foreigners on board and I suspect it could get a bit lonely in the evenings otherwise. That's the thing with travelling alone, you don't mind sightseeing alone but in the evenings you want or should I say I need people to talk to. There's always plenty milling around the hostels but on a public ferry those that speak something other than the native language are few and far between.

All I can say is thank god I met Paul when I did, he saved me and he'd agree that I saved him. We were both saved by Elly and Maria. Elly is a lovely lady from Holland and Maria is a Chinese lady who speaks perfect English, bliss.

We spent the evenings playing cards and listening to karaoke at the bar and while some of the singing was good about half was appalling. I like that about China, people don't care if they are good or not it's just fun to sing and no-one seems to take the piss if someone is really bad. Everyone knows Japan is karaoke mad, let me say China is just as addicted. I would say every city and town I've been to has as many karaoke bars, recognisable by the acronym KTV, as Internet Cafes.

Against the recommendation of our tour guide we also went into town to watch a local musical extravaganza one evening. I couldn't believe our tour guide's cheek and glad we went against his wishes. Through an interpretor he said unless we went with a tour guide (read obviously not him) we should not go as hardly anyone in town spoke English and getting to and from the theatre would be too hard for us.

Fortuitously we'd met Roland earlier for dinner and then together we'd bumped into his friend, Wang from his ship. Wang got us there and back effortlessly. He saved us from being ripped off too. The minibus wanted to charge us 10Y whereas they offered him 2Y. Naturally we all paid 2 each.

There were at least a couple of excursions every day. No matter what time of day they were it be it 10 pm or 6 am the excursions would get announced over the tannoy in Chinese only and a few moments later one of the English speaking guides sent by our guide would knock on our door and give us an English translation ;-)

There's not really a lot to say about this trip except it was beautiful and relaxing. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Yes I did finish the trip by going to see the Three Gorges Dam, it is huge and they took us to four view points - definitely a bit of an overkill but glad to have done it.

Following the cruise I spent the night in Yichang and had a lovely evening with Elly and Roland. Maria decided to have a early night. The following day I caught an overnight train to Xi'an.

Culinary Discoveries:

Red Bean smoothie - nice would have been perfect if they hadn't added sugar or at least added much less of it.

Pork fat - doesn't matter what other ingredients or sauce it comes with, it is disgusting. I know Paul and Roland definitely disagree but they're blokes which I think says it all.

Pork intestine - at least that what I think it was, it was white and had a curve to it along it's length. Chewy and not nice either.

Sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken - these are so much better in China than in the UK mainly because they are not so sickly sweet.

Yes, you've guessed it pork is the most popular meat, chicken and beef do appear on menus but there are far fewer dishes containing these of which chicken and peanuts seems to be the most popular.

Fish - all types, China has yet again proved my theory that ALL countries cook fish better than Britain which is shameful considering we're an island. I'm waiting to find a land locked country that does fish better of which I'm sure there are plenty.

Chengdu (take 2!), Sichuan

kirank — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:07:00 GMT

So I bet you're wondering if my legs were like jelly after Emei Shan? Well they were aching but they hurt worse after the Great North Run. Admittedly they were too sore to touch and the plans I'd envisaged of a lovely massage were shelved.

As it was, it was probably a good thing as I spent seven hours sitting at an Internet Cafe uploading pictures. I REALLY hope you've enjoyed them, I don't think I would have had the patience to do that if my legs weren't sore ;-)

I also met Paul. a lad from Wakefield no less in the Mix Hostel and within a couple of hours of meeting we'd arranged to do the Yangtze River Cruise together and booked it that night.

On the Monday, I met my friends from Huanglongxi at their office as arranged and took them out to lunch and spent the afternoon exchanging pictures with them hence the picture overload for that day trip.

I did plan on writing stories that complimented the pictures on Tuesday before I left for my cruise. My ship left Chongqing at 11 pm and it was only a four hour bus ride to Chongqing but for some stupid reason the tour company felt the need to pick us up at 6.40 AM - I ask you! Hence the long silence on the blog.

Gallery: Emei Shan

kirank — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:59:00 GMT

Colossal, beautiful mountain, my pictures do not do it justice

Gallery: Lesham

kirank — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:51:00 GMT

Gallery: Huanglongxi

kirank — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:35:00 GMT

Gallery: Chengdu

kirank — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:32:00 GMT

Gallery: Zhongdian

kirank — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:15:00 GMT

Gallery: Lijang

kirank — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 16:48:00 GMT

Gallery: Kunming

kirank — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 16:32:00 GMT

Gallery: Guilin

kirank — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:33:00 GMT