The last two weeks we’ve
been touring the major and some medium size (like four or five times the size
of Stockholm) cities in China, slowly but surely getting ready to let go of the
rail and venture out into the Real China – the rural country side. But first
things first – here are our tales of miscommunications and other cultural
challenges in China
so far:
Beijing
Constant travelling can be
exhausting and from time to time it’s really nice to relax in a place that’s
familiar. So that’s what we did. Having already done all the sightseeing etc,
we just relaxed ‘at home’. Not setting the alarm clock – bliss! This time we
even had the heater on in our room! The Chinese government or whoever decides
on these matters finally admitted that winder had occurred early this year and
hostels, hotels and other establishments were at last allowed to pull the
magical switch and Hallelujah, warmth!
Xi’an - China's
first historic capital
With recharged batteries
we headed off to Xi’an,
to see the terracotta army made famous by the Scooby-Doo episode ‘Scooby-Doo and
the Year of the Emperor's Dragon’. Wow. It really does exist! We took the night
train here – the Chinese trains are a tad bit nicer than the Russian ones we
must say… We were sleeping on the top bunks though - three beds up - so I had
to quickly overcome my fear of heights. This is where the Russians stored
luggage and not people by the way. But then again, I guess Chinese are
generally more acrobatic and less drunk… No accidents occurred.
So, the terracotta army
was discovered in 1974 when some farmers were digging a well. BIG surprise!
They stumble across a huge burial pit belonging to the tomb of the first emperor
of China.
Unfortunately you can’t see the actual tomb because of all the booby traps including
a mercury river and what not, and because of the fact that it’s buried, but
you CAN see the life size terracotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in
battle formations. They are replicas of the imperial guard. It’s very cool… Go
to the first pit last as that will make a splendid grand finale. The other two
are not as impressive as most of the sculptures are broken or still uncovered.
Shanghai
We loved Shanghai. It’s great. The first night we did
search for the Bund a very long time, having made the rather stupid conclusion
that following some German tourists would be the very best way of getting there. We found out a few
days later when we were looking for the Old town that they were probably
heading there. Oh well. We found the Bund at last, but it was a tad bit late
and we had to bribe some guards to let us in so we could take a few
unobstructed photos of the skyline on the other side. We enjoyed a very nice
meal on the Bund, and then ran into a fellow former SSE student, Atta, in the
bar! Small world indeed! This, of course, led to a fab night out.
We stayed at a lovely
hostel. The best part was the street vendors
outside. They had a wok, a pot of boiling hotpot soup to dip veggies and meats
into, and a barbeque – and they could make you anything. For about 50 pence or
5 SEK a pop. Heaven. Some of the days we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner there.
And why not? Greeeat food, cooked right in front of you, so very safe as well. Yum!!
What else did we do in Shanghai? Oh yeah… Lars
found a cheap printer and printed some Spanish course. It was like watching a
kid with a wad of cash in a candy store at Disney Land,
on X-mas eve. High on Ecstasy. No kiddin’... :)
Hangzhou and Xiamen
On December first we
finally bid farewell to Shanghai as we had a hot
weekend date in Hong Kong and needed a few
days to get down there. We took the express train to Hangzhou
and spent the afternoon on the West
Lake – beautiful! Very
serene. One day is enough though. We jumped on a bus seeming to go in the right
direction towards the train station, but the bugger turned and we ended up in
Hammersmith. Took a 40 minute cab ride back (about GBP 5) and made our night
train to Xiamen,
very nice coastal city. We only had two days here which was a bit regrettable.
We spent one of those days on the so called Piano Island
where no motor vehicles are allowed. And we have finally reached warmer
climate! No need for five layers of clothing anymore! Food – mostly seafood of
course - was also great. We could evidently not understand the menu, but tried
to point to what others were having. Well, on one occasion Lars pointed at two
dishes plus rice. We ended up with three different dishes – not one resembling
what Lars had chosen… Still haven’t worked out what happened there. Not as
obvious as the times we have gestured for the bill and received a pen and some
paper to write on. Or when I pointed first at some live crayfish and fish, and
then at some pictures of dishes trying to explain that we wanted our seafood
and fish cooked up in some sauce of their choosing. We of course got fish,
crayfish and four other dishes served to us. The meal(s) was very yum though! In
the place where Lars had done the unambiguous pointing we also ordered beer –
one of few things we can say in Chinese – which our server got from another
restaurant. Total cost for this feast? 29 yuan. Less than three pounds. China is great.
Hong
Kong
Getting to Hong Kong by
train would take about 30 hours from Xiamen
as the costal train line isn’t the best, going up in the mountains and stopping
a lot etc. We opted for the night bus. Ten hours, should be no problem. And we
arrived safe and sound. Of course, not really well rested. On the seats just
around us we had three kids (high risk mini-people) of which one REALLY didn’t like riding a night bus,
one (adult) snorer and one (also adult) sleep-talker. Not like winning the lottery… But the bus was
very nice with big wide seats and a good inclination for sleeping. If you could
manage it.
We arrived, I had a nap,
Lars studied some Spanish, and then we met up with our good friend Olof for a
fantastic night out together with a bunch of his friends. We had a very nice
meal at a Cantonese restaurant and then went to a club with the most amazing
view! Hong Kong is immense. All other cities
are just city-wannabes. It’s a must see. The day after, after finally sleeping
in properly, we had some dim sum and saw a few more parts of the city, and
ended up in a sky bar just in time for the fab ‘Symphony of Lights’ show – a
show of lasers and search lights and lights on the building facades on more
than 40 sky scrapers on both sides of the Victoria harbor. It’s even better if
at the same time enjoying the synchronized sound track playing in some of the
bars. Finished off with another incredible meal – our host apparently wanted to
see if we could handle spicy food - but no clubbing. It was a school night for
some ;)
Soon (we’re only allowed
a week in Hong Kong without a visa) we’re leaving the civilization of China’s big
cities, and heading out into the even more unknown.
--(@
Lou
