From Shanghai to Kunming

After our Shanghai Expo tour, we are in Kunming, arrived a couple days ago after a 36 or so hour train ride across China, however, we have prepared for this, China is so vast, and we have plenty of time for our China trip. But, to back up, our first night in Shanghai worked out nicely- we hopped on the maglev train, a very fast airport train, then to the metro, and a taxi, and we were at the hotel on the Bund. It was a really old place with grand colonial styling.
The next day in Shanghai we walked around the Bund a little, and the Nanjing Lu pedestrian shopping district, had some good food, went into tea shops, etc. We had a taxi adventure getting to the train station- we were going to ride the metro, but at the last minute decided a taxi would be easier, since we had to taxi to the metro anyway. But the taxi took us to the wrong train station, and we had to pay off some dudes to get us another taxi since there was a huge line, and we needed to catch a train. So we haggled with the new taxi driver a little, then payed him to scoot us across town. It was an aggressive driver and he got us there in time. The train ride was fun, we met some people, entertained little kids, as they entertained us, ate train food, listened to crazy vendor woman selling stuff every couple hours, slept in hard bunks, and saw beautiful scenery. In Kunming, we met up with David, and had diner with him and his friend Samantha. Yesterday we rented bikes and rode across town to a park that has a bunch of pagodas and shrines on the cliff face of a mountain. Some monk a few hundred years ago went there and chiseled a bunch of trails in the stone. Now it is a big tourist spot, but pretty cool. A great view of the city, and a fun cable ride up. We did a lot of hiking up there too. Last night we finished up the day with dinner and massages. We were too tired to meet up with Alex for beers. Now it is time to meet him for breakfast, and plan our day. I think we are going to Anning, near here, for hot springs... Until next time, zaijien! Looking forward to my next China tour!

Yunnan Spectacular

For the Spring Festival, Maple Leaf shuts its doors for a week and lets both teachers and students free on the world. Some of my coworkers headed to the Philippines and Thailand, while others chose to lay low in DaLian and just recover from what felt like a long stretch in term 3. I went to Yunnan Province, and got as close to Tibet as I probably ever will, unless time and money suddenly afford themselves more frequently to me. We arrived in Kunming and things instantly went awry. My travel buddy hadn't printed off the Chinese directions to our hostel, and we couldn't get the number to work. We were both getting hungry and feeling pretty tired, so we went to a different hostel to get help in finding the place we had booked. In my haste, as we were checking in, I realized (with a deep, sinking, frantic realization) that I had left my purse in the taxi we had just exited. Inside that purse was my passport, Tom's passport, $200 cash, my credit card, my Canadian and Chinese bank cards, my ipod, my camera, all the information for our flights and hotels, and my house keys.
Next day, we took a four hour journey to Dali, an old, walled city north of Kunming. The bus was fine, but the rural toilets were not. I don't think I will ever get used to using a squat toilet with no door, while people cruise by looking for empty toilets. My sense of privacy is decidedly Western. When we arrived in Dali (and stayed at the Lily Pad, which I recommend), clouds had settled low over the city and the rain wasn't just threatening, it was starting to punch. We ducked inside a chicken restaurant to wait it out. From the chicken restaurant, we made our rounds through of several of the local bars. We didn't see much of Dali that night, but we sure did get to know their local brew. In the morning, we explored the Ancient City of Dali. Dali has the feel of a Southeast Asian city with its backpackers' guesthouses, restaurants, and banana pancakes, but it also feels like a small and ancient Chinese city (mission accomplished, Dali--I presume that's the feel you were going for), minus the busses and power lines. It's set against the mountains and a great lake. I would have liked to stay a little longer as it felt like a great place to unwind and explore. We had, however, booked a minibus to Lijiang for that afternoon (we rode with heavy smokers who tapped their ashes into sloshing buckets of water), and three hours later we arrived at the amazing Panba Hostel (more like guesthouse/mini hotel). It's set down a very quiet alley that is not far from the centre of Old Town Lijiang, but feels like worlds away from all the tourists and hard-bargaining shops. Our patio overlooked the roofs of the town and the mountains beyond. We explored a little and grabbed some dinner canal-side, then went back to our room to get ready for our two-day hike in Tiger Leaping Gorge. We took another (ugh) three hour minibus ride to Qiaotou and Jane's Tibetan Guesthouse, where the gorge hike officially starts. We got some info from Jane and then set off. The weather that day had started off freezing cold, but the sun quickly bore down on us. We climbed higher into the hills and looked down over terraced fields of rice, some bleached yellow from drought, some emerald green from close attention. We passed mule after mule, and goat shepherd after goat shepherd. We hit the 28 bends and climbed up, and up, and up, and up, and up (I would like to write that 28 times just so your eyes can begin to feel as tired as my legs did, but I'm nicer than that). After 4 hours, and around 5pm, we came across the Tea Horse Guesthouse and decided to call it a day. We sat around with a few other hikers and ate noodles. Our room was sparse but clean, and we had a gorgeous view of the soaring, snow-capped mountains. The only thing that was difficult for me was the bathroom: another open-door squat toilet with a strange, angled and tiled contraption that ran down between the concrete trough you had to stand over. I wish I'd taken a picture. However, despite my complaining, it was very clean. And it had a view of the rice terraces.

Dali, Shaxi, Home

Our second day in Dali, and will be leaving soon, as we do not have much time for our China tour. First day we went to the Ancient City of Dali, and also visited the Chongsheng Monastery&Three Pagodas. we rented bikes and had a nice day riding through little villages along Erhai lake. They were Bai minority villages that were comprised of farming land surrounding clusters of buildings. The streets and alleys were very narrow and fun to ride through. Between each little village, we would ride through the farm fields on gravel paths, sometimes getting a little lost. In one village, some kids were playing basketball and invited me in. I played one on one with their tallest guy. It was fun, but I wore out fast in the sun and heat- he was in a lot better shape, but I managed a few points.
My tire had a slow leak, so the guy I played against led us to a little shop that had a pump, and then we went on our way. Eventually we made it back to the bike shop and returned the bikes, and took showers and went out for dinner.
At dinner the night before, we were approached by a young woman who is a guide in the area. She offered to go to Shaxi with us, which is a place we had thought of going to, a small village valley about 4 hours away. So we agreed, and after the bike ride day, we got up early to catch a bus to Shaxi with our guide. We arrived in Shaxi around lunch time, and ate at a local restaurant.
Next we went for a hike up into the hills. We met a guy who was walking up to a minority village way up in the hills, it would have been about 2 to 3 hours. We hiked with him for a while, considered going all the way tehre, but it was getting dark, so we would have had to spend the night, and we already had a guest house in town, so we went back. Turned out to be a good thing, since my stomach was a bit upset from lunch, and got the Shaxi Sh**s.
We spent the evening visiting a local family in Shaxi, which was interesting. It was a household of Grandparents, their son, and his two sons,
and their wives. We ate dinner there, and talked with them as best we could. Our interpreter ate with the grandparents, leaving us with the son and his wife, and some of their workers. They were remodeling for a new room for one of the sons. I couldn';t eat much because of my stomach issue, but their food was good, and they also offered some baijeo, a locally made rice alcohol, very strong. Sharon and I shared a small glass.
It was interesting learning about the way they lived, and some of the history of their lives there.
The next day we headed back to Dali, got on an evening bus to Kunming, stayed at a pretty crappy hotel there, but it was only 5 minutes from the airport. Flew from Kunming to Shanghai, and had the afternoon and evening in Shanghai, where we recuperated, I got some stomach medicine that worked great, berberine, and then we went to an acrobat show that night. Of course it had the cage of death with 5 motorcycles riding around at once inside the sphere.
After the show, we found ourselves in a hip little area, turns out it was the French Concession district. We had a drink in a bar, walked around some, then went back to our nice hotel, same one as before, where we got a good night sleep before heading back home the next day. We rode the maglev train to the ariport, and it went 432 km/hr... about 250 mph or so, pretty speedy!
The international flight was great- good service, lots of stewardesses, and they actually are helpful. Two full meals as well as free beer and other drinks, all complimentary, free movies, etc. Nothing like domestic flights, which is too bad, we do a lousy job of customer service domestically.
After a day in Seattle, we got back here Friday. I came back first with Sam, then Sharon and Blaise came up later in the day. The boys were very good travelers. They had fun in Seattle, going places like the flight museum, children's museum, the zoo, and playgrounds.
It was a great time, hard to believe we got away for 3 weeks!
Now, it's back to school, and back to work.
Cup machines are headed this way, so I have a lot to do to prepare...

Kuming, Lijiang, to Dali

The third stop of my China tour, from Kunming, Lijiang, to Dali. The day train was about nine hours to Dali. Along the way I was previed to some nice Yunnan province scenery. One guy in my berth was playing the harmonica, badly, for almost the entire trip so I made my way between two of the coaches and looked out the window. The train pulled into Dali at around five PM and the first thing I noticed was that this town had tuk-tuks! I had no map or address, all I knew was that I needed to get to the old city, which had much more to see and do. Of course nobody spoke English, the joys of traveling through China! I used my phrasebook to attempt communication with some young guy at a bus stop about which bus to take to get there and although I wasn't certain if he understood me completely, I boarded the bus he pointed out.

After about a half hour on the bus, and wondering if I was indeed heading the right way, I noticed an old gate nearby and got off. Walking through it I discovered some beautiful cobblestone roads and old Chinese style archatecture on either side. I realized, much to my relief, that this must be the place. I continued walking up and saw more and more people and then surprisingly, I saw someone I recognized. It was Al, whom I'd met in Kunming. He brought me to the place he was staying at, called the Jade Emu, which was like a home away from home, and one of the best hostels I've yet stayed at on this trip. I hung out there that evening. Even the computers had access to websites like facebook which in China are normally censored.

I went on a walk with Al the following fay along the bottom of the mountains near the Old City for a few hours. We then walked back into town and ate some super spicy soup and then took off again to visit the famed three pagodas. After checking them out we walked a while longer. When we returned to the hostel we were both sunburnt. It was only a little sunny but I'm guessing the elevation of the place (2000 m) did us in. I later got a haircut and straight razor shave in town which was great.

The next day I walked down to the giant lake on the outskirts of town. Erhai lake just seemed to get bigger as I approached. I took a boat trip to the other side of the lake, visiting some random temples, but more importantly got to see some great scenery. On the way back the boat stopped off at a fishing village and I saw loads of seafood for sale.

I went down for breakfast the next morning and was intending to hike across part of the Cangshan mountains, when I met a Swedish couple, Jakob and Elsa, who were also going to do the same, so we decided to go together. We took a cable car up to the midpoint of one of the mountains. Upon arriving we saw several small gorges with streams, a huge Chinese chess board, which is a Guiness World Record for size, some caged monkeys which pained me since I'd gotten used to seeing them in the wild. For the next few hours we walked along the stone path that hugged along the mountains. The walk itself was quite easy and very relaxing, we took a few detours along the way to see backpaths and mountain temples. After about six hours we were starving
and climbed a bunch of stairs to this place called the Higherland Hostel and got food. We took a chairlift back down which afforded some of the nicest views of the whole day and then returned to the old city as night fell.
My last day in Dali I went bouldering at Climb Dali. I initially wanted to do some rock climbing but unfortunately it seems to be low season now and needed at least another person to do this. So instead I took advantage of the indoor bouldering wall, which worked out well because it started raining. Later I just watched a couple of movies back at the hostel and chilled out.
Then I will take a flight to Shanghai for Shanghai Expo, looking forward to another great China tour!

Memorable Kunming Tour

In the morning of our second day in Kunming, we all boarded the tourist car, we rode for about an hour before getting to this restaurant in a different county. It was somewhat near the Stone Forest and was famous for its Peking Duck and fish. Both of those dishes are apparently famed all over China, and they themselves are big attractions for a China trip. So it was pretty exciting to get to able to try it. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by the duck. It was served on a small plate and was basically slices of duck skin with a little meat clinging to it. It was oily and not too fantastic in my opinion. The other people at my table had the same impression. However the people at the other table were shocked that we had not finished our duck, so they took ours, among other dishes because they had most of the boys at their table. I wanted to like the duck, but I guess it just did not suit my taste buds.

The other famous dish, which was some kind of fish, came out in a big pot and I found it to be absolutely delicious. The broth it was in was spicy and the fish was full of small bones, but the fish meat was really savory and yummy. The other table had a blast eating the fish eyeballs again, so we gave them the head of our fish. Apparently the fish cheeks have the most delicious meat, but the fish cheeks of our fish had been separated from the head.

After that very filling lunch, we rode the bus to the Stone Forest. We all naturally split up into groups, so it ended up that Lewis, Jordan, Sammy, Carolyn, Sinead and I were in one group. We walked around and did our best to avoid the hordes of tourists who made it difficult to even see the popular sites. Still, we managed to take a lot of pictures and worm our way through the crowds to more isolated areas. We tried to follow some signs that said “Ancient Painted Rocks,” and even though we followed the whole path through, we never saw the painted rocks.

After that we followed signs that said “Eternal Mushroom,” and while we were walking the group shrunk a little further to just Lewis, Sinead, and me. Lewis began to whistle and sing Disney songs which he knew quite well. He is also a fantastic whistler, so it was a lot of fun listening to him. He also babbled a lot and we, including Lewis, concluded that he was delirious. We joined up with Jordan and Carolyn and walked a long way until finally finding the Eternal Mushroom, which in fact were five pillars of rocks with mushroom heads.

On our way back, we saw different rocks like the “Mother and Son,” which really did look like a son following his mother. We also saw a rock that looked like a mother holding her baby. We were really worried about making it back to the entrance in time since we were so far away, but we managed to make it back just before 4pm, which was when we were supposed to be there. The other groups trickled in and we left around 4:30pm. Apparently one of the groups, containing Peter and Kat, climbed a lot of the rocks and received scratches all over their hands and legs. However they got awesome pictures. I do not think I would have been able to climb like they did, knowing my fear of heights. The rocks they climbed on were at least several stories high, too.

All in all, it was a fun trip. The next cities for our China tour are Dali and Lijiang.

Zhouzhuang

Today was the first day we did some sightseeing on our China trip. We woke up in Kun Shan and drove to Zhouzhuang. Zhouzhuang is well known for its rivers and river boats, which I really wanted to see. I got lots of pictures and we got to see a ton of the old parts of town. We took a boat ride too which was really fun. I think I stand out as American because everyone stares at me and some people stop and want to get their pictures taken with me. But I'm also the only person in China who lifts weights, so that could be it too. After we toured Zhouzhuang all morning we drove to Suzhou. The hotel in Suzhou is great! My room has a kitchen, bed room, and living room. The balcony also has a really nice view. We saw an ancient garden in Suzhou already and we are going to go to two more tomorrow. I met a lot of Cindy’s dad's friends, we ate with them at breakfast and lunch. No one really speaks English except for Cindy. English is now required in schools here so most young people speak it. But businessmen and other older people don't really. Which is fine with me. I'm learning a lot of Chinese. I sent out a bunch of post cards today so we'll see how long it takes for them to get to America. We're finally done travelling for the day and we're resting in the hotel now. I've been taking in everything I see and I love China so far. It's so interesting. And at night there are so many bright colored lights in the city. Purple, green, yellow, red, orange, blue, all different colors, so when I arrived in Shanghai (6am my time, 6pm China time), I saw all these beautiful lights.
Some things about China:
The food is great. We had frog soup for dinner. Meals are always at a table and the food is put on a spinning circular plate in the middle and you just grab what you want and put it on your plate. There's usually a ton of food to choose from too. The waiters just keep bringing out dishes. When you sit down you always have a plate, chopsticks, a cup for tea (I've had more tea today then I did for the last two weeks) a small cup for soup, and a wet towel, for cleaning. We've had some really exotic food and some of it is really tasty. The weirdest so far is definately the frog, or pig's tongue. That one was interesting. We also bought some pig feet for me to take home, they're a specialty in Zhouzhuang. I also got a sun hat! You know, the pointy ones?
I've never been in a city as big as Shanghai before, or even Kun Shan which is smaller, but bigger than Raleigh. We decided to see Shanghai and the world fair at the end of the trip because it will be less crowded. Cindy’s mom really wants me to come back because she says
30 days isn't enough. She wants me to bring my family next time too.
Another thing is that none of the tap water is potable. You have to drink bottled water.
A lot more people here smoke than in America. I was always told you couldn't see a blue sky in China because of the pollution but I woke up to the brightest blue sky today. Cindy said it's because the government shut off the factories around Shanghai because of the world fair and they want it to look nice for tourists :P we'll see if he's right.
My camera died today because I forgot to charge it before the trip, but it's charged now and I'll be ready tomorrow. I also meet Cindy’s dad tomorrow so that will be interesting. After we finish the two ancient private gardens in Suzhou tomorrow, we will drive to Nanjing, Cindy’s hometown. And we will also visit Hangzhou, another famous tourist city in China.

Zhangjiajie

Zhangjiajie is situated in the northwest of the Hunan province, just south of the Yangtse river. The forest park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992. It is a well known in China, but not so much outside China. It is a bit difficult to get to, although there are connections by plane and a few trains connect the area to Changsha and other Chinese cities. I had read a little about it somewhere and because I love mountains and forests it seemed a place worth visiting. It is a big place, the park and surrounding areas cover 398 square kilometers, so one really needs a few days to really visit the major sights. As all Chinese parks we have visited it is very well organized, with buses and cable cars connecting the various spots, the trails are clearly marked and it is fairly easy to walk around, although here as in many other places there are a lot of stairs to climb.
We left Hong Kong by bus and a couple of hours later we had checked in at the Shenzhenairport. Our plane to Zhangjiajie was delayed. The passengers were clearly mostly Chinese holiday makers and fortunately a family of three took mercy on us as all the information was in Chinese. The family consisted of a very chic and beautiful mother which we believed was a company executive or government official (clearly used to be in charge), a daughter and son in their late teens, the daughter with a punk hair style. The children spoke excellent English and passed on all the information. We would meet the family every day in Zhangjiajie and exchange our experiences, it is often said that Chinese people are not very friendly, but this is not our experience. We have often been approached by Chinese people who just want to talk. Of course our ignorance of the language is a problem as so few people in China know good English. But every now and then we meet someone with whom we can talk and it is always interesting. The family in question was really surprised that we had three weeks to spend on holidays for a China trip, because they could at most get a week of vacation.
The first morning in Zhangjiajie we walked down the road to the entrance. Giorgos was shocked by the size of the village, it is probably the smallest place in China that we have ever visited. A main street with a few stores, a couple of hotels, a bazaar area with minority women selling their handicraft. That is all. There were no cafes nor restaurants. However, there were beautiful mountains surrounding us giving us a taste of what was about to come. The entrance fee of 250 Yuan bought us a ticket which was valid for two days and for identification we gave our electronic fingerprints . Very high tech. There were some “guides” trying to offer their services but we knew that the national parks in China are very well organized so no guide is necessary. First place we visited was the Yellow Stone Stronghold. Never could figure out why it is called like that. Nevermind, it is a rock standing high above the surrounding valleys with its sides being near vertical. We took the park bus to the cable car station and after a five minute or so ride we reached the top of the cliff. At the first viewing platform we met the family from the airport! The next three hours we leisurely walked around the summit among the trees. As soon as we got a bit further away from the cable car station we were alone, while the Chinese tour groups obviously were doing a shorter round. At regular intervals were viewing points giving uninterrupted views of the surrounding peaks, some just a few meters across and making up the strangest formations. I also appreciated that there were signs with information about the geology and biology of the area at intervals. Because one does wonder how anything like these rocks can be created. We will visit Huangshan as our second destination.

Tibet

Tibet does have a different feel to it - I think its real and not just me wanting it to be real. It is the most attractive place for my China trip. There are the obvious differences in the faces, the architecture of the houses, the chortens & prayer flags scattered across the landscape. But also the Tibetans seem to smile more, when we ride past on the bike there's enthusiastic waving and joy. In Xinjiang Province the people were quite reserved, when we rode past they just stared open mouthed and almost seemed afraid to wave.

We are currently bobbing along the Tibetan Plateau between 4200m and 4900m making our way east. The climbs over the passes aren't that big, only a few hundred meters but at the top of each pass there are a host of multi-coloured prayer flags fluttering in the breeze. Don't know why but they are really comforting, they are like a mini reward for achieving a few more miles and do seem to help you on your way. Perhaps its just seeing the bright colours in the sea of browness.

We are now far enough east to have the Himalayas as our constant companions to the south. Predictably they provide a spectacular backdrop
to the yellow steppe grasslands. Occasionally we come across a nomadic village with their herds of yaks. But here, the yurts of the Stans have been replaced by the oblong Tibetan tents decorated in colourful religious symbols. In the villages the same colourful symbols appear on the door curtains of each house.

From Douma to Ali we pass lots of salt lakes. At first you can't quite make out if its snow or salt but apparently its salt - I'm too lazy to stomp my way across the grasslands to double check. Then we skirt the northern and eastern shores of Pangong-tso. The southern shore is in Ladakh, India as are the snowy mountains we can see. The lake is famous for its fish, which is presumably why there are so many seagull hanging round. Anyway in the absolute middle of nowhere on the edge of the lake we come across and enormous fish restaurant. The locals tell us the fish is just like trout and cook us 2 large specimens - they obviously don't have a lot of trout in Tibet!!! Our resident fish expert said it was more like perch. Still it made a pleasant change from the usual lunch of top-box snacks.

Further down the road there is another treat in store - tarmac, and nice smooth tarmac at that. Its turning into a real day of treats; pre-historic petroglyphs at the side of the road, a real town with shops and restaurants and, after 4 days of wet-wipes, real showers and flushing toilets. We also passed some black necked cranes en-route, this is considered a very auspicious sign - so fingers crossed, we might make it to the end.

The treats keep coming the next day - from Ali to Lake Manasarovar we have a whole 180 miles of tarmac - luxury. There's no other traffic on the road, just the occasional truck and a few Tibetan motorbikes in their version of safety gear - see photo. This means we whiz along covering the miles which was the plan as we are headed for the most holy lake and mountain in Tibet.

Mt Kailash (6714m) might not be the highest mountain in these parts buts its certainly the most important. Its central to the mythology of over 1 billion people from 4 different religions: Buddhists (who believe the cleft on the south
face resembles a swastika, the symbol of spiritual strength), Hindus (who believe it is Mt Meru, the home of the god Shiva), Jains (who believe it is the site of emancipation of their 1st saint) and Bons (who believe this is where their founder, Shenrab, alighted from heaven). Many people spend their whole lives striving to come on a pilgrimage to this mountain, to make the 3 day kora round it. Some even prostrate themselves all the way round the kora circuit. And here we are just nonchalantly riding past. Compared to the pilgrims we have had a pretty easy journey here. Just to make us realise how lucky we are a tremendous storm comes in from the direction we need to go. It snows on us briefly then the skies clear and Kailash reveals herself in her full glory. To travel China, you always have lots to experience.

Nearby is Lake Manasarovar another pilgrimage site for Hindus and Buddhists and our home for the night. The lake is allegedly the source of Asia's 4 mightiest rivers which arise at the 4 cardinal point; the Indus to the north, a tributary of the Ganges to the south, the Brahmaputra to the east, the Sutlej to the west. Don't
look at a map too closely though, they might not all arise for the lake but they do all start in this watershed. At the lake we're back to homestays, no running water and communal toilet block. When I say communal I mean communal - behind the concrete there are 4 little holes in the ground lined up next to each with no partitions in between!!

We wander up to the little monastery on the hill, its good to stretch the legs after all that sitting on the bike. We even help the monk to carry the supplies up the hill. Its very peaceful and restful up here. There are clear blue skies now and sitting by the prayer flags there are views in every direction; down to the lake, over to Mt Kailash, down to the stupas and prayer flags and mani stones, over to the snowy mountains way off in the distance. It just reinforces how privileged we are, some people spend their whole lives hoping to make a pilgrimage to this spot. A few days of no showers and communal toilets outside Lhasa is a small price to pay.

Terra Cotta Warriors&Horses

On my way to Xian, I took a much needed layover in Taiyuan. I was able to clean up after my stint in the mountains and take care of a few errands. There, I visited the Shanxi Museum, which had one of the best collections I've seen. Artifacts over 4000 years old from China's first traces of civilization were impressive. Also on display were exquisite examples of ancient Chinese porcelain, currency, architecture, and Buddhist relics.

I arrived in Xian via overnight sleeper train, which was not that bad. My first day in Xian, once the capital of China, I made my way around the well-preserved city wall on bike. I also made my way to the Great Mosque near the center of the city. Xian's position along the Silk Road made it a fertile place for religious diffusion from the Mediterranean. Outside the Great Mosque was one of the best flea markets I've seen. One particular strength was the abundance of knock-offs: Ray-Bans, Lacoste, Bretling watches, whatever!

The following day, I visited one of the most anticipated sights of the entire trip, the Terracotta Warriors! Over 2200 years ago, the first emperor of the Qin dynasty (the same one
from the movie Hero) created a vast army of thousands of life-size porcelain soldiers, horses, and chariots, complete with weapons and gear. These were to accompany him in his tomb to the afterlife. Out of all the things that I've seen ever, this was for sure top three in terms of most amazing due to its sheer size, old age, and the interesting history surrounding emperor Qin. It was definitely worth the venture out to Xian and I'm glad I got it done. So good part of my China tour!

I'm enjoying my last night of solo travel and savoring the solitude, for tomorrow I head to Shanghai where I will meet up with a friend from Houston. In Taiwan, I will also be with friends and family so for the rest of my travels, I shall be in good company.

Suzhou

Suzhou is my second destination for my China trip. We usually eat in the hotel restaurants a lot, because they're usually big, nice, and have enough room for all the guests. I met Cindy’s dad and he's really nice. So anyways, we always eat with about 5-8 people. Last night we ate in a hotel restaurant with friends of Cindy’s dad and I could understand a lot of the conversation, and sometimes when they talk about me haha. I'm picking it up pretty quickly. The only thing I'm still stuck on is reading the Chinese signs, advertisements, and businesses because you can't tell how to pronounce a word by seeing the character. You have to know the "pinyin" or the romanized pronunciation guide. So 龙 is said "Long" and means "dragon". There's no way to tell how to say it from the chinese character. But the speaking and listening is coming to me quickly.
I'm going to take a video of some of the driving here, because most people in the US would not believe me. It's unbelievable haha.
So the touring- we woke up and Cindy said we were having a western style breakfast. Actually it was eastern but had bacon and fried eggs haha. After that Cindy and I went to the Administrators Private Garden. Another ancient garden. Suzhou is known for all the ancient garden estates here. Some of them are really old too. They have people tend to the gardens to keep them looking nice for tourists. It was a really beautiful and relaxing place, with a couple different buildings/houses. The big plant in the main picture is called "o" and the root is delicious!
We were pretty tired after this (lack of sleep and working out). So we went back for lunch and met Cindy’s dad. After we ate we checked out and Cindy’s dad's driver drove us to Wuxi. It's about an hour from Suzhou and it's on the way to Nanjing. It has a newly built Buddhist Temple attraction with an enormous Golden Palace and statue. We toured through the palace where you had to wear shoe covers, then saw a play/movie about Buddha. The palace was enormous, it must've cost 10's of millions at least. Everything was decorated and it looked beautiful I couldn't understand any of it because of the accent the narrator used, but I'm ok with that haha.

When we finished that we went to meet another of Cindy’s dad's friends and his wife. The man runs a tv station and his wife is one of the anchors. The man was really interested that I play drums because he majored in music at college. His wife spoke English really well so she's the first person I got to know. It's funny she said she only speaks a little English, but she understood everything I said. In America, people like to say, "oh I speak 3 languages" and then you find out they only know phrases. People outside the US are too modest about it.

This was probably the most exotic meal we had yet. We had a type of bamboo root, pork, shrimp, fish, snake soup, and a bunch of other things. The snake was actually pretty good.

An interesting thing Chinese people do is that they never take out the bones of a fish, even the small ones, so you have to find them yourself. Also, they bring out the whole fish, skin and all, just dead and chopped into slices. But they always leave the head.

After dinner we drove the rest of the way to Nanjing, the third stop for my China tour. I fell asleep in the car since it was a two hour drive. Now I stayed the night in a hotel about 5 minutes away from Cindy’s house. They said today can be a rest day if I want since I was so tired yesterday. But I slept well. I have to go get breakfast now in the hotel before it closes. I'll tell you how Nanjing is later :)

Summer Palace

In the morning of our second day in Beijing, we visited the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was originally commissioned by Emperor Qianlong as a giant retreat in honor of his mother's 60th birthday in 1750. In 1860 many of the palaces were burned down. The Summer Palace was rebuilt with funds that were supposed to be used for the Navy. By this point Empress Dowager Cixi retired here in 1889. As the guide books state the Palace represents first hand the corruption at the time, the opulence here was bought with siphoned money as China crumbled. The entire gardens were for the Empresses exclusive use. I was interested in seeing this site but at the same time had ambivalent feelings about the history.

We arrived at the West Gate of the Summer Palace. Well it appeared once Neil reached Dale by cell phone she had arrived at the more popular East Gate. Keeping in mind that this park is 700 acres in size it took us an hour to find Dale. Neil and I found out during our leisurely walk through the beautiful garden area that we both liked the peacefulness of this area and didn't much care for crowds. Once we found Dale we made introductions and I found that she was working on her undergraduate degree in economics at the same college as Neil. It was her hope to go to Graduate School in the US, she had a great command of the English language. She arrived with an English head set for me, and had down lots of research It became obvious that Neil had called her the evening before in a panic that he was assigned to take me on a tour. We proceeded on our tour for about another hour, and then the skies opened up and it began to pour. They opened up their umbrellas and were happy to continue with the entire tour. By this time, I was wet and had slipped no less then three times in my wonderful american croc sandels. It was now close to 1:00pm and I knew they wanted to take in lunch. By the look on Dale's face I realized I might have insulted her, I said is that ok if we enjoy lunch. She said, I fear I did not do a good enough job preparing I told her that she had done a wonderful job and that I had thoroughly enjoyed the China tour but with the rain I just felt getting out of the weather was a good idea. She agreed and I think accepted my apology.

We waited in the rain for our driver for about fifteen minutes and then headed towards their campus area for lunch. They wanted me to experience having what they called a Hot Pot Lunch. In about 30 minutes time we were dropped off at a mall area. There were a lot of students mulling around as we entered the shopping mall and proceeded to the third floor to find our restaurant. On China tip, the local food is also an attraction. I saw a lot of interesting shops along the way. Once again the menu with all the pictures came and Neil proceeded to make selections. Out came this large pot with one side full of a clear liquid and the other side with a liquid that was red in color. I was told that was the spicy side. Then platters of raw meat and vegetables came out. I was told they were lamb and beef. You prepared your food very similar to how we prepare fondue. It was very good and also filling. Before long more meat and shrimp came out. I think Neil could see from my eyes that I was amazed at all this food for three people. He tried to send some of it back but they of course would not take it. Dale explained to me that he was embarrassed at the amount of food he had ordered. He did not want to be wasteful. I tried to tell him not to worry but I think he was quite concerned that I was the wife of the big boss and he was wasteful so he prepared to eat everything!

I had a very nice conversation with Dale about the culture again, she seemed to have a passion to learn about how we raised our children. She told me that she was raised very strict and was not allowed to ever have friends or extra curricular activities. She said she was made to study all the time, and if she did not do well her mother would be very angry with her and shouted. She could not imagine that young adults in America were given the independence to make career choices, friend choices and were allowed to go out on the weekends. I tried to explain to her that her mother was not wrong in her views but that this was her culture. She thanked me over and over for talking to her. She said she was so afraid to go against her parents and come to the US to study. She explained to me she wanted to get her PhD in Child Psychology and stay in America to practice. I tried to encourage her to make the choice she wanted but also to continue to respect her parents and her culture. It was a very hard conversation to have, I hope I was successful. We finished lunch and Dale headed back to her Dorm and Neil and I headed back to the hotel. It was now 3:30pm.
Well tomorrow is Friday, we will visit the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and Beijing Hutongs.

Ningxia

This was a 4 days China trip to Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region which is the smallest province in China. About 30% of the population are the Hui minority group are Muslims who originated from Central Asia. Islamic architectural and food can be seen almost everywhere here.
We based ourselves in the province capital, Yinchuan and make day trips to surrounding places of interest.
Our China tour agency has arranged well for us the car and guide. Our first destination was Helan Mountain but we had to turn back because of rain, strong wind and lightning after having brought the tickets and entered.
We went to the Shapotuo desert on the 2nd day which is a key tourist destination because of its natural beauty especially at the section of the desert where the Yellow River runs through. It was interesting as it’s the first time we have seen a desert. The children enjoyed themselves with camel rides, playing in the sand and the speed boat ride on the yellow river. They also offer river rafting on rafts with
floats made from goatskin which was the local’s traditional way of crossing the river.

On the next day, we went to the Sand Lake which is a desert with a large lake and sand dunes. It has scenic view but climbing up the sand dunes was not easy at all. The activities offered there are similar to those at shapotou desert. Again the children were happily playing with the sand while we enjoy the view around us. On the way back to Yinchuan, we visited the Mausoleum of the Western Xia state. The pyramid shaped tombs are the burial sites of the kings whose kingdom was wiped out by Mongols in 1227 after 6 failed invasions.
The tombs design is one of its kinds found in China. There is also museum showcases the 200 years history, lifestyle and achievement of this kingdom. This reminds me of the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an.
On the last day, we went back to visit Helan Mountain to see the rock carvings that were created by different ethnic nomadic groups about 2000 years ago. The carvings include gods, animals and daily activities. You can viewed them by walking around a pavement but it take some imagination and good observation to see
of the of the cravings. Next destination city is Beijing, for the Forbidden City and the Great Wall!

Lama Temple

David and I had a great night sleep and thankfully I didn't wake up with a head the size of Texas. My back now was just itchy and still a little sore. David once again affirmed, yup I had gotten bit.

We were excited to for our private China tour today to see the Lama Temple, Hutongs, Drum Tower and to have a ride on a Rickshaw. We were to meet Alice in the lobby at 10am. Sure enough she was there waiting for us. We proceeded out to our driver and we were on our way.

I had told David so much about Alice I was excited for him to meet her. She had become more like a friend then a tour guide. David was enjoying talking with her as we drove and he was asking some general questions. She laughed and said, "are you a journalist?" In reality the people in China are leery about saying too much about their country and having their names associated with it. David immediately assured her he was not and apologized if he had frightened her. Honestly, his questions were very general in nature so I was somewhat surprised by her reaction.

Our first stop was going to be the Lama Temple. The temple is Beijing's most visited religious sites and one of the most important functioning Buddhist temples. Only about two dozen monks live in this complex today, but the temple once was home to as many as 500 monks. We were dropped off at the entrance and the first thing you smell and see is the thick spicy smoke of incense. There are five main halls to visit. One of the halls houses a 85 foot Maitreya Buddha carved from a single sandalwood block. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures inside any of the halls. The entire open courtyard is full of people burning three sticks of incense and bowing to the Buddhas. Jenny explained to us, even those that are not practicing Buddhist in China come here to ask for a wish and light the incense. If your wish is granted you are supposed to come back and thank the Buddha. She also said during one of the Chinese Holidays celebrated on January 1st the entire area is covered in smoke and the line to get into the Temple is very long. Outside of the temple are shops after shops selling incense. We wonder how they all stay in business.

After our visit to the Temple we proceeded to go to a restaurant for lunch. We went to a restaurant that was Sichuan style. We had some wonderful food that tasted much more like Chinese food in the states. After lunch we headed on to the Hutong area where we would have our first Rickshaw ride and a tour of a typical Chinese home. Hutongs are alleyways that are living museums of the old city. They are still used streets of courtyard houses and shops. They are full of life: washing is strung out from windows and telephone poles, vegetable and flowers are planted where ever space is available. Old folks sit playing chess, drinking beer or tea. Jenny pointed out that all the houses are painted grey or are grey brick, she explained this is because in ancient times the only house that could have colors other then grey were in the Forbidden City. I cannot imagine why they have stayed to this rule as it looks pretty sad to me. Especially since the sky seems to always be
grey as well. We enjoyed a Rickshaw ride through some of the area and then proceeded to tour a typical Chinese home. This seemed a bit touristy to us although it was interesting. The gentleman that owned the home sat across the street and waved to everybody as they went in to his home and paid the fee. Jenny did explain this home had been in his family for many years and this would be the only reason he still had it today. It was a typical courtyard home where four small individual rooms all opened up into a small courtyard. Each room was for different members of the family based on age or gender. She also explained to us that the number of posts over the door symbolized the importance of the family that lived there. She said most of the people that had lived in these homes during the time of the Dynasties were members of the government.

We then went on to our final stop which would be the Drum Tower. Until late in the 1920's this tower housed 24 drums and was Beijing's timepiece. Sadly all but one of the drums was destroyed and the
one remaining is in need of renovation. The climb to the tower consists of 67 stairs that are straight up, I figured this would be a piece of cake after the Great Wall but it actually took my breath for a few minutes. We were lucky that when we reached the top we would be able to hear the drum ceremony that they perform a few times a day. It was wonderful. We then headed downstairs to meet our driver and proceed back to our hotel. We said our good byes to Jenny, swapped emails and went back to our room. It is hard to explain but just being out for the day in China seems to make you feel dirty. I am not sure if it is the dust, the smog or just he amount of people. Once we were showered we decided that we would have a quiet night in the hotel...........or so we thought!

We headed downstairs to the lobby at around 7pm to take advantage of the happy hour. I ordered a cosmopolitan and David ordered a Gimlet. The offer is buy one get one free of each type of drink. As we were sitting enjoying our cocktails with no one else in site we were talking about our experiences over the last eleven days, and feeling pretty lucky that we lived in a country that was clean and allowed personal freedom. It seemed a little bit away from us on another sofa in the lounge was a young man that was acting a bit odd. I might tell you at this point that we had some previous issues with the hotel and the General Manager and his assistant had been in touch with David to make their apologies. I will not bore you with the details but the issues were around the services we were offered as part of the Executive package that we were not receiving. So back to the young man, he seemed harmless although I did mention to David that he was running around the lobby area quite strangely. Well he decided I guess that we were good company so he sat down with us, which was not a problem at first. He then proceeded to throw pillows at us, take our newspaper and then reached for Richard's drink. David kindly told him it would be best if he would leave.
I joked once again with David, that I really was not searching for blog material but somehow it just finds me. Well the young man would not leave so I motioned to the hostess to come over. As I have stated in the past most of the people in the hotel do not have a great command of the English language but she seemed to be aware of what was happening. Well in minutes there must have been an all points bulletin call that the "nice" Americans were having issues!! No less than five "suits" appeared into the area and tried to assist with the problem. Rich and I truly felt bad, it was obvious that his young man was mentally impaired and we really are accepting people but the throwing of the pillows and the attempt to drink our drinks was more then we could handle on our own. Well just as the suits appeared somehow so did the General Manager's assistant, he was off duty but stopping by. He at once came over to us to see what had happened now. We explained and low and behold here comes the General Manager of the hotel we proceeded to
have a few more cocktails with the two of them and enjoyed some great conversation about their lives. They asked where we would be dinning that evening and we told they we were going to the Japanese restaurant in the hotel. Within in minutes someone was walking us to the restaurant and making sure we were well taken care of.

We were seated in a private room around a typical Japanese cooking table. We made our selections and also purchased a good bottle of red wine! Dinner was wonderful. Since drinking wine is not a common part of the Chinese culture the young lady poured wine into our glasses a sip at a time and stood there with the bottle of wine all evening. David and I thought it might be morning before we finished this bottle as we took a sip and she replenished. Finally at one point the young lady left the room for a minute, David quickly got up and poured full glasses of wine and finished the bottle. When she returned to pour our next sip, she
smiled and left the room. I hope we did not insult her but we had finished eating quite sometime ago. So off we went to our room laughing about our quiet evening in the hotel.

Tomorrow is our last day for our China tour and Alice will be taking us shopping to the Silk and Pearl Market !!

Dali

On my China trip, I made a bike trip from Dali old town to Lijiang old town with my friend Jelly and my guide Li. The Chinese guide is a very nice boy. I have learnt a lot Chinese when we were travelling.

D1 Having no problem to find the guesthouse. The guide led me to the hotel directly and helped me check in. In previous China trip, I used to mistook the hotels in Xi’an, that was awesome experience. So this time I appreciate this very much. I have right name but the are three guesthouse was called four seasons guest house in Xi’an old town.And unfortunately they three such hotels with the same name.I found my friends at the last one.

We started our trip at 8am.We have very good landscape when we cycled between Mt.Cangshan and Erhai Lake.We have saw a lot of local people farming there.And above all the best thing is the hotspring in Xiashankou,and the guesthouse is a good price:80yuan for room with a bath room,and a small hotspring pool in the bath room.
We spent one night at a small village called Xiashankou(actually it’s was full of hotels because of the hotspring).People form the down of Dali come here very often,because it’s 75km from the downtown and 60km form the Dali old town.And it’s flat road is very good for cycling(very few mountain to climb in the trip).

D2 After a wonderful night at Xiashankou we started our cycling journey to Baihanchang(Jiu he bai zu xiang).The fresh milk in Xiashankou is so good,because Xiashankou is very close to Denchuan which is the major milk producing area of Yunnan province.You can buy the bottled and boiled fresh milk.
Today we have at least 50 km to climb up. According my GPS we have arrived at a mountain with the altitude 3000m,and we begun at 2200m..

D3 It’s a luckily day today.A road from Baihanchang to Lijiang was under construction so there is very few traffic,but actually there is few construction too.It seemed like that this road has been reserved for us.When we arrived at the peak of the mountain a beautiful landscape show in front of us!

Back to Home

Finally after 12 days and then 27 hours (and a half) on a train we arrived in Guangzhou, we were almost home!
By chance as soon as we came out of the train there were signs directing us to buy tickets to Shenzhen. Half an hour later we were on the train back to Shenzhen (albeit with no seat...until later when people got off).
When we finally grabbed some seats two women began talking to us. The contrast between the two women could not have been more striking. One was a young, skimpily dressed Cantonese who barely spoke English and had instantly fallen in love with my room-mate, the other was a middle-aged Harvard educated international business woman who spoke fluent English, had children working in banks all over China and Hong Kong and had many fascinating stories of life and business to tell us. Both women were amazed however that each of us spoke Chinese (even though we only said a few words). My room-mate got the number of the young lady who I definitely thought was a hooker, I on the other hand regret not getting the business card of that woman who was joined by the husband and grand children since I’m sure she would have been a good contact to have. Oh well, lesson for the future.
Then, finally after passing immigration and the like we were back in Hong Kong!
Home!
Many visitors to Hong Kong complain that it is crowded and polluted, but compared to most big cities in mainland China it is quiet and the air is fresh.
From Hung Hom we took a direct bus back to Pok Fu Lam. After a quick elevator ride to our floor, I rushed to the toilet for the most satisfying release of the entire two weeks.
This trip was tiring to say the least. After staying put in HK for a while I think I will return to the Mainland soon (especially now since I have a multiple entry Visa).
The top places I wanted for my China trip are:
Shanghai (post-Expo), Hangzhou, Huangshan, Suzhou and Nanjing (one trip)
Then Xinjiang Province and maybe Gansu
Hainan Island
Wudangshan Kung Fu temple in Hubei, along with the Three Gorges Dam and the Yangzte towards Sichuan.
Sichuan province: Emei Mountain, The Wulong Panda reserve, JiaZhaigou and Chengdu for Hot Pot!
And then back to Taiwan in the Republic of China.
I despite the complaints and stuff (which is just for humour), overall I do love travelling China!- it is such a fascinating country after all.

Tibet Impression

Tibet does have a different feel to it - I think its real and not just me wanting it to be real. It is the most attractive place for my China trip. There are the obvious differences in the faces, the architecture of the houses, the chortens & prayer flags scattered across the landscape. But also the Tibetans seem to smile more, when we ride past on the bike there's enthusiastic waving and joy. In Xinjiang Province the people were quite reserved, when we rode past they just stared open mouthed and almost seemed afraid to wave.

We are currently bobbing along the Tibetan Plateau between 4200m and 4900m making our way east. The climbs over the passes aren't that big, only a few hundred meters but at the top of each pass there are a host of multi-coloured prayer flags fluttering in the breeze. Don't know why but they are really comforting, they are like a mini reward for achieving a few more miles and do seem to help you on your way. Perhaps its just seeing the bright colours in the sea of browness.

We are now far enough east to have the Himalayas as our constant companions to the south. Predictably they provide a spectacular backdrop
to the yellow steppe grasslands. Occasionally we come across a nomadic village with their herds of yaks. But here, the yurts of the Stans have been replaced by the oblong Tibetan tents decorated in colourful religious symbols. In the villages the same colourful symbols appear on the door curtains of each house.

From Douma to Ali we pass lots of salt lakes. At first you can't quite make out if its snow or salt but apparently its salt - I'm too lazy to stomp my way across the grasslands to double check. Then we skirt the northern and eastern shores of Pangong-tso. The southern shore is in Ladakh, India as are the snowy mountains we can see. The lake is famous for its fish, which is presumably why there are so many seagull hanging round. Anyway in the absolute middle of nowhere on the edge of the lake we come across and enormous fish restaurant. The locals tell us the fish is just like trout and cook us 2 large specimens - they obviously don't have a lot of trout in Tibet!!! Our resident fish expert said it was more like perch. Still it made a pleasant change from the usual lunch of top-box snacks.

Further down the road there is another treat in store - tarmac, and nice smooth tarmac at that. Its turning into a real day of treats; pre-historic petroglyphs at the side of the road, a real town with shops and restaurants and, after 4 days of wet-wipes, real showers and flushing toilets. We also passed some black necked cranes en-route, this is considered a very auspicious sign - so fingers crossed, we might make it to the end.

The treats keep coming the next day - from Ali to Lake Manasarovar we have a whole 180 miles of tarmac - luxury. There's no other traffic on the road, just the occasional truck and a few Tibetan motorbikes in their version of safety gear - see photo. This means we whiz along covering the miles which was the plan as we are headed for the most holy lake and mountain in Tibet.

Mt Kailash (6714m) might not be the highest mountain in these parts buts its certainly the most important. Its central to the mythology of over 1 billion people from 4 different religions: Buddhists (who believe the cleft on the south
face resembles a swastika, the symbol of spiritual strength), Hindus (who believe it is Mt Meru, the home of the god Shiva), Jains (who believe it is the site of emancipation of their 1st saint) and Bons (who believe this is where their founder, Shenrab, alighted from heaven). Many people spend their whole lives striving to come on a pilgrimage to this mountain, to make the 3 day kora round it. Some even prostrate themselves all the way round the kora circuit. And here we are just nonchalantly riding past. Compared to the pilgrims we have had a pretty easy journey here. Just to make us realise how lucky we are a tremendous storm comes in from the direction we need to go. It snows on us briefly then the skies clear and Kailash reveals herself in her full glory. To travel China, you always have lots to experience.

Nearby is Lake Manasarovar another pilgrimage site for Hindus and Buddhists and our home for the night. The lake is allegedly the source of Asia's 4 mightiest rivers which arise at the 4 cardinal point; the Indus to the north, a tributary of the Ganges to the south, the Brahmaputra to the east, the Sutlej to the west. Don't
look at a map too closely though, they might not all arise for the lake but they do all start in this watershed. At the lake we're back to homestays, no running water and communal toilet block. When I say communal I mean communal - behind the concrete there are 4 little holes in the ground lined up next to each with no partitions in between!!

We wander up to the little monastery on the hill, its good to stretch the legs after all that sitting on the bike. We even help the monk to carry the supplies up the hill. Its very peaceful and restful up here. There are clear blue skies now and sitting by the prayer flags there are views in every direction; down to the lake, over to Mt Kailash, down to the stupas and prayer flags and mani stones, over to the snowy mountains way off in the distance. It just reinforces how privileged we are, some people spend their whole lives hoping to make a pilgrimage to this spot. A few days of no showers and communal toilets outside Lhasa is a small price to pay.

Memorable Yangtze Cruise

Yangtze River is most rich in water energy. It is the big attraction for China trip. The gross water energy exploited from the river is up to 200,000,000 kilowatt. The trunk line of the river for navigation is more than 2800 kilometers long, it claimed to be the Golden waterway for business and trade at home and abroad.

Between Chongqing and Yichang area is marvelously magnificent. This area is generally called Three Gorges area: Qutang Gorge, Wuxia Gorge, and Xiling Gorge. The world largest water conservancy project, the Three Gorges Dam is located in Xiling Gorge in Yangtze River drainage area. Some major cities along the river include Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai,
Yangtze River Delta is China's most dynamic place. It is roughly comprised of Jiangsu Province,Yangtze River Cruise, southeast part of Shanghai and northeast part of Zhejiang Province. Thanks to its rich rainfall and advanced waterways, the area is also called the water village. It has fertile farmland and the main produces include rice, cotton, wheat, cole, peanut, silk, shrink and fishes.

Different from the Mississippi, the Niro and the Amason,Yangtze River is the largest river in China, it starts from Tibetan Plateau and passes through Yunnan Province, Sichuan Province, Hubei Province, Hunan Province, Jiangxi Province, Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai and eventually flows into the East China Sea.

The highlighted golden travel attractions here are the Three Gorges and the Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project. After the completion of the whole Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project, there will be more attractions available and meanwhile more new attractions revealed soon.

Suggested Itinerary:

Day 1: Arrive in Chongqing, during the day. Board in the night, fantastic Yangtze River Cruise trip start.

Day 2: Shore excursion to Fengdu Ghost City.

Day 3: Via Qutang Gorge, via Wuxia Gorge & Goddess Peak, Shore excursion to Shennong Stream or Little Three Gorges, via Xiling Gorge

Day 4: Shore excursion to the Three Gorges Dam. Finish the Cruise trip.

Trip to Xi'an

I have been in Xi’an this summer, for a splendid China tour. And I learnt a lot and experienced a lot about China history.
Xi'an, the capital of Shannxi Province,is stuated in the fertile Wei River Valley. One of the few Chinese cities where the ancient fortress walls can still be seen. Xi'an dates back more than 3,000 years and has impressive collection of archaeological relies to help explain its rich history. Formerly known as Chang'an("eternal Peace"),the city of Xi'an had served as a capital under 13 dynasties.
Xi'an is vest known as within the local arts and crafts community for its thriving archaeological reproduction industry, which features painted Neolothic pottery; life-size Qin Terra-Cotta Warriors figures, glazed Tang funeral wares,and Tang tomb murals. A wide variety of folk crafts is also produced in the region,including needlework,ceramics,paper cuts,and rubbing(made from the impressions of stone carvings). For visitors who travel China, it is a big attraction to visit Xi’an.
China had 231 emperors and one ruling empress, 79 of whom were buried in Shaanxi. One imperial mausoleum in Shaanxi,which apples to most of visitors,is the Oianling Tomb where Wu Zetian, China's only tuling empress, and her hubband Li Zhi, who has Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Emperor Qin shihuang's Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses acclaimed as the "Star Pool" in the Zhou Dynasty 2,800 years ago,the Neolithic Banpo Museum with a history of 6,000 years---an important excavated restored Neolothic Chinese village, the China's best-preserved Ancient City Wall built in the early Ming Dynasty(1368-1644), the Big Wild Goose Pagoda erected in 652, the Forest of Steles, the largest stone library in China and also called a treasure house of Chinese calligraphy with a superb collection by famous calligraphers form Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) to Qing Dynasty(1644-1911).
My next destination is Luoyang, another ancient capital city in Chinese history, believe that I will get much to see.

Foreign guests visit Huangshan Mountain

On July 16, 2010, a group of foreign students from overseas universities climbed Huangshan Mountain, which is located at the south of Anhui Province. This is their second stop for their China trip, starting from Shanghai, and have just experience the Shanghai Expo. Mount Huangshan, literally translated as Yellow Mountain, located in the southeast of Anhui Province, one of the China’s most luring tourist attractions. Huangshan City is at the foot of the Mount Huangshan, also include the suburb Xidi and Hongcun Village.
Among many peaks, the three widely know are The Lotus Peak, The Brilliant Top Mountain, and The Celestial Capital. Besides these three peaks, Hot Spring, Jade Screen Tower, Xihai, Beihai, Yungu Temple and Songgu Nunnery.
The rain from the day before has cooled the air thus making the weather ideal for mountain climbing. With its clear skies and fresh air, visitors were able to get a clear and beautiful view of Huangshan Mountain’s stunning pine trees and magnificent rocks.
The group rode the Yungu cable car to White Goose Ridge Station before continuing their journey to Bright Peak, Baiyun Hotel, Beihai Hotel, Black Tiger Pine, Couple Pine and Shixin Peak.

They are invited by local universities in Anhui Province to learn about Hui Culture. All the foreign guests were excited about their experience.
"This is a great chance to explore Huangshan Mountains, which is totally unearthed and unexplored. This is like a dream come true. I’ve been told this is the most fantastic location in the world.” Said Sijle, student from the engineering major, who came to know of Huangshan Mountain from a tour guide when he was traveling in China’s Lijiang.
"It’s a big stress in Shanghai. You’ll find rural areas in Anhui are quite different now. If you don’t get out of the city, you’ll never know what the country is like,” said Jonny, who almost travel China every year.

Influenced by Heavy Rain, Longmen Grottoes Closed Today

News from Luoyang Net, 25 July, 2010. The reporter get the news from the Manage Bureau of Longmen Grottoes that, due to the influence of the heavy rainfall on 24 July, the water level of Yihe River rose, and has overflew the passage for the visitors in the scenic area. To make better preparation for the potential flood, and to make sure of the safety of the visitors, the Manage Committee of Longmen Cultural Tourism District have decided to temporarily close the Longmen Grottoes Scenic Area and the night visiting program, on July 25,2010. The concrete re-opening up date will be disclosed on the official website of the Longmen Grottoes Scenic Area. The telephone number for consultation is 0379-65980972.
The Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang is a very famous tourist site for China tours. It is in Henan Province. The Longmen Grottos are one of the three most important Buddhist sculptures and carvings in China, situated on the bank of the Yihe River, some 12 kilometers from Luoyang, about a 30 minutes drive. The Longmen Grottos are of great historical and cultural value. The site has been listed in the World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO. To protect such a valuable heritage site, the Chinese government as well as some influential world cultural organizations is trying hard to share this site with the whole world. A large-scale renovation was undertaken in 2003 to keep the grottos in good condition.
Also, in Henan Province, there is the world-famous Shaolin Temple, and the Shaolin Kungfu performance is a big attraction for foreign guests who travel China.
Visitors who want to visit China especially for the Buddhism culture are suggested to pay attention to the latest weather conditions in Luoyang.

Summer Vacation to World Expo

David and I arrived in Shanghai on the 22nd for the World Expo. During our 4 and a half day stay, a fantastic experience!
These are some of the highlights and common sights of the expo:
- On a lighter note, there were lots of nice pavilions that were actually worth waiting in line for vs. some that completely sucked and had next to nothing inside.... we would go to some just because they had short lines or quick moving long lines, usually to leave not really impressed by anything. The longer the line, the better the pavilion it seemed. Our China trip guide in Shanghai has already booked for us the tickets, and this is much more convenient for us.
- The passport: They were selling these souvenir passports that you would get stamped at every pavilion you went into, of course I got one.
The line ups to get these stamps easily rivalled the line-ups to get into the pavilion, so many people and you need to wait for your turn.

Some of the pavilion highlights included:
- Japan: turning sewage into safe drinking water, robots that play violin and can do other tasks, this sweet virtual wall that allows you to interact with it as if it is a touch screen computer: opening up screens were the TV will be, having a calendar, changing the backgrounds, pulling windows open bigger and shrinking them down for multiple screens- it was really cool. They also introduced the Canon 3D camera, flooring that generates power by people walking on it, and little electric one-person standing vehicles.
- Italy: one of my favourites, it was just really cool inside. There were walls of pastas, wines, mannequins in tailored beautiful clothes, roses hanging from the roof, sculptures hanging off of walls, and entire band hanging vertically on a wall. It was great. There were
ferraris and race cars, and miniatures of famous buildings, loved it!
- Korea: saving the world through dancing and magic
- Hungary - the introduction of a new shape?
- Canada: VIP access.
- Latvia: we thought it would suck - and the line did suck - but inside there was a big tube where people flew up and down in a wind tunnel... so that was interesting... hahaha

There were lots of other really good pavilions - lots of shows, tons of screens, creativity was definitely on high for the creators of these pavilions.

We normally got to the park around 9-9:30am and would leave around 10:30-11pm. long days of standing. Our feet, and low backs were in rough shape every single night. We saw a lot but didn't come anywhere close to seeing the whole thing.

The Expo left me with some mixed feelings. I really think it a good idea to visit China at this time, during the Expo, as you may have more experience than a single China tour. The Expo was excellent, so many peculiar things to watch, and so much to learn and experience. Some Chinese people would take photos of me when we were waiting in the queue. People who had the decency to ask first I would stop for a quick smile and keep going.
Tomorrow we get our visas for Vietnam, and Friday we start our adventure there! This week will be spent doing some touristy things in Shenzhen and hopefully catching up on some much needed sleep.

Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company:

Full-range measures to Facilitate Leap Increase of Passenger Volume

News from the Xihua Net. Reporters get from the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company that, since the beginning of July, there has been an evidently increasing warming trend in Tibet Tour. The visitors volume to enter Tibet increase dramatically. To ease the railway transportation tension of Qinghai—Tibet railway during the summer time, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corporation have begun to take various measures to facilitate passenger travel. Tibet has always been a major destination for China trip, and summer is the good time to travel China. From July on, the weather is good for sightseeing in Tibet, the tourist sites Potala Palace, Norbu Lingka, etc, all enjoy international fame.
Person in charge of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway said, with the support of the Ministry of Railways, in early July, the train T163 / 4 from Shanghai to Lhasa, which used to set off every other day, has changed to run a daily run rountine. Meanwhile, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corporation also has a timely manner to operate the L9813 / 4, K9811 / 2 passenger train from Xining to Lhasa, and add some hard sleeper and hard seat compartments to the passenger trains from Xining to Lhasa, and the trains from Xining to Beijing.
For the convenience of passengers to buy tickets in Xining, Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corporation has newly opened three ticket selling sites in Xining urban area. The ticket selling time at Xining Railway Station has been advanced to 7:30 am, and the ticket selling sites in the urban area begin to work from 7:50 am. Meanwhile, measures such as restricting the sale section, reasonable passenger flow diversion for short and long distance, etc. are taken to alleviate transport pressure.