So, 3rd May, Sarah’s due at lunchtime, and once we’re back, the plan is to walk around the city, eat at Wu Yi early and then let Sarah get, hopefully, a good nights sleep.
The reality is there are thunderstorms all over Beijing so she gets diverted to Dalian, near to the Korea border, and while we sit at Xi’an airport waiting for her - sans mobile - she is desperately trying to contact us to find out what to do!! By the time we make contact Sarah has made it to Beijing and is waiting for her flight to leave for Xi’an. Eventually the flight arrivals board says her flight will arrive at 20-30, although with only a parent’s instinct M goes out at 19-30, when another flight from Beijing arrives, and next thing Sarah is flying across the hall for a huge hug. It’s fantastic to see her!!
Sarah’s in very good form considering she’s been on the “road” for 24 hours so we go for a walk to the Bell Tower and back through “bar & coffee street” and then have a couple of beers in the hostel bar and some noodle soup & dumplings before
crashing for the night.
Next day we mooch around - visit the Bell Tower & Drum Tower for the “performances” ; bell and drum shows respectively - both pretty good - and take lots of great photos of the city and towers, and also visit the Muslim quarter. This is heaven for Sarah (Ray Bans for £1-50, Gucci bags for £1) so we’ll definitely be back before we leave Xian. We had planned to go to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda after dinner but spend too long relaxing over beers so plan to cycle the City Walls instead. We go to the local Dumpling house (Da Qing Hua) and have a fantastic meal - ribs and spinach with shrimp, rib chop and duck dumplings. With lots of rice wine - which Sarah doesn’t like! By the time we’re finished it’s too late to do anything but go to bed - but we’ve had a great meal.
The visit to the Museum of the Terracotta Army is supposed to be the highlight of any trip to Xi’an. It is pretty impressive. We start the day at the Ban Po Neolithic Village - the remains of a settlement that dates
back over 6,000 years. Only the foundations and dried out moat remain (& many skeletons of the tribe) but even so it’s well worth a visit (though the recreations of the village huts next to the site definitely include some artistic licence). On the way to the Army museum we divert to the obligatory craft shop! However, this also has a factory that shows how the statues might have been made. You can buy miniature replicas for a small fortune!! The Museum itself is in a pretty uninspiring modern complex - the Army was only uncovered in the late 1970’s. Lunch is a bonus though - we have freshly made noodle soup; the chef stretches the noodles like a cats cradle until they are long thin strands. Delish too!
In the museum are 3 pits where the Terracotta soldiers (and horses) were uncovered. Most had been smashed when the roof to the tomb in which they were encased 2000 years ago collapsed, so it is a credit to the archaeologists that have reconstructed them so well. When they were first uncovered the soldiers were colourful - reds, blues, bronzes, yellows etc, but this disintegrated within days of being uncovered.
As a result they have recovered large sections of the army to preserve it in it’s original form as much as possible. There are four soldiers mounted in glass cases so you can see them close up - the detailing is exquisite. Patterns on the soles of the shoes, hair braids, shirts and skirts patterns. The craftsmen who created them must have been incredibly talented and the Emperor (Qin) who commissioned this work must have had both a huge ego and a real paranoia. He didn’t want anyone to know about the tomb so had all 750,00 craftsmen killed when they’d finished! And he’s regarded as a great Emperor - largely because he was the first to unify China’s various kingdoms & introduce standardisation on such things as weights, currency, metric system for measurement etc. The museum also contains the bronze half size horse drawn carriages that were found in the tomb, again stunning for their detail - including flower patterns on the inside of the carriage’s. Definitely a good day out. The Emperor’s tomb has yet to be excavated - from documents it has various traps including mercury rivers designed to foil any intruder. The treasures of the tomb
will one day be on show no doubt. Finish the day off with great street food from the Muslim Quarter.
One “feature” of Xi’an that we don’t appreciate is the very aggressive begging that foreign tourists have to put up with - begging bowls (metal) are thrust into you - its amazing we don’t suffer any cuts and bruises!! Another feature of begging is the use of children (pretty healthy looking) by their parents (equally fit & well) as props to get the emotional vote; mostly ignored by the locals. Fortunately we don’t see this elsewhere in China.
Our final day in Xi’an and we rent bikes and cycle along the City Walls. It’s a really hot day so we’re glad to start early. The views are good but mainly it’s great fun, even if all the bouncing around left the bum numb! Then it’s lunch at Wu Yi (keep trying different things) and shopping in the Muslim Quarter for souvenirs; Sarah gets some Ray Ban Aviator’s for 20 Yuan - starting price 220 Yuan! Obviously takes after her father on the negotiating front.
At 6-30pm we say our thank you’s and goodbyes to the helpful staff
& some fellow travellers we have met along the way & catch a cab to the station. OMG! It’s huge and packed. Looks chaotic but is really very organised. We’re directed to the “soft seater” lounge - honestly, it’s like a first class air lounge! Then all aboard the Z20 direct, non-stop train to Beijing. We have booked soft sleeper tickets so get a 4 berth cabin (our room mate is very quiet - sleeps all the time in fact) which has it’s own lockable door, free boiling water for tea and really clean loo’s and separate wash room. Oh, and each bed has it’s own tv screen including films with English subtitles! An 11 hour non stop journey for Yuan 417 (£28 to you at home) (Virgin et al Please read this!!!).
Beijing West train station is even bigger than Xi’an! We join a very long queue for metered taxi’s. Well worth it though. 23 Yuan compared to the Y200 we’re quoted by a hawker!
Leo Hostel is in one of the hutong areas (small back streets packed with small shops, food stalls and people living in close quarters) - just off Ti’ananmen Square. The whole area
is in the process of renovation - as are so many of the hutongs, we discover - and seems fairly dishevelled. The room and facilities are certainly more basic than Xiangzimen or Sims Cozy. Beers are only 6Y though - and cold!
We’ve booked a tour guide recommended by friends in London (thanks David & Mary) - Kathleen Cove, who meets us at 10-00 and will take us to the city highlights over the next two days. Well worth it as we have limited time and there’s so much history in the palaces and temples we visit, it’s good to get the full briefing. We start off in Ti’ananmen Sq with it’s huge picture of Chairman Mao overlooking the square - which is thronging with tourists, mostly Chinese, all wearing red caps! Tourism is new even for the Chinese who are fast discovering their own country. They all seem to have mobile phones which they use constantly as cameras. The obligatory visit to the Mao Mausoleum is very quick! The guards rush you through - 30 mins queuing for less than 2 mins seeing! Mind you - looked a bit plasticky to S&C!!
M revises his earlier perception
about Mao’s position in Chinese political life. He is pretty much revered here - largely because he created the Peoples Republic of China and brought about an enormous sense of national pride which is ingrained in the people - all his economic failures and mistakes are forgotten/forgiven given the current economic prosperity the country has.
The Forbidden City - which was the home of the Qing and Ming dynasties for 500 years (locals were not allowed in) is stunning. By the end of 2 hours we are palaced and templed out! The colours of the frescoes, opulence of the living quarters and intricacy of the carvings and paintings is amazing. Kathleen also explains all the nuances of the Feng Shui influences, the importance of certain animals and plants (crane’s = longevity, bats = happiness, dragon’s for Emperors = power and phoenix’s for Empresses, peonies, crab-apples and magnolia - the words for which when combined mean good fortune etc etc etc), and how the number 9 features as it is considered lucky - so 9 steps up to the Temple and multitudes of 9 in the number of paving squares. Also, the temples are round sitting on square bases which
reflects the belief at the time that heaven was round and earth square. Many of the buildings are being renovated - paintwork redone etc. This gives the colours even more brilliance though the older faded colours look more in keeping with ancient monuments.
We need food! So head off to a local restaurant (Zhajiang Noodle King) for some very good noodles and tea. Then it’s on to the Temple of Heaven Park where the Emperors used to come to pray for good harvests etc. More opulence, colour and history - and also lovely gardens which are well used by older folk for singing, dancing, playing cards and just whiling the time away, and by younger people for courting. The Chinese have no qualms about couples showing affection in public - unlike India and Nepal. The temple includes an echo wall which has two special phenomenon; first, two people can stand on opposite sides of the circular wall and have a conversation by speaking at the wall. Second, there are three slabs in front of the temple, and if you stand on each and clap once the first will give one echo, the 2nd two echoes and the 3rd three.
We test both and neither works! Though C & Kathleen can hear each other when they are over 25 yards apart and there is a definite echo from the clapping. We decide all the people there are interfering with the sound waves.
People are a challenge at times - especially for M. The Chinese seem to lack any form of spatial awareness and so walk in front when you’re trying to take photo’s or stop just close enough to be in picture! Or, worse, just push you out the way so they can take the picture they want. Tempers fray a little on more than one occasion for most foreign travellers! It’s a habit that manifests’ itself in their everyday action - walking, driving etc - its as if the philosophy is “I’m all right Jack - I’m doing what I need to or going where I want to, the rest of you (including their own) have a responsibility to avoid me“!!!! And amazingly it seems to work for them - especially when driving (they are supposed to use the right hand side of the road) - and amazingly they hardly use their horns. The general philosophy seems to
be if a sign says don’t do something - it’s open season for doing just that - smoking, taking pictures etc where they shouldn’t!!
That evening we eat at place right opposite the hostel. Hadn’t planned to but the owner shouts at you very loudly to get your attention and the next thing we know we’re eating there. Not bad food fortunately and our first Peking Duck in China - yum!
Next day we have a van to take us around and start at the Summer Palace - a fine example of Qing Dynasty excess. Beautiful Buddhist temples and palaces where the Emperor and family would go to escape the heat of the Forbidden City in summer, and a huge lake. Running alongside the lake is a 750m “corridor” - a sort of covered walkway with beautiful paintings and frescoes, that leads to the marble ship - built by the Empress Dowager Cixi using the money that was to have been spent on the navy. We take a dragon boat ride across to an island and cross a bridge that looks like it could be in Venice. The area is now largely a park for local folk &
has a Disney like quality - which is a feature of a lot of the Chinese attractions - they seem to have perfected the art of tackiness & taken it to new levels!!
Needing food again we go to place that specialises in dumplings. We have a selection of mutton and leek & egg (50 in total) for 26Y. The tea that goes with it is 30Y!! Then we visit a tea house for a teach in on the correct way to serve & taste different teas. We try oolong, jasmine, a medicinal tea and some lychee with rose - a bit sweet but lovely. The service is exquisite - very precise and delicate - wish we hadn’t wasted 30Y on the tea with lunch! On the way we pass the Birds Nest - the new Olympic stadium. Very impressive looking from the road. What we also notice is how attractive the central reservations look - planted out with roses, irises and other shrubs. Flowers feature a lot in China - in Parks, Mall squares etc - which make their cities quite attractive & they are all well maintained.
Then on to the Lamasery Temple - originally a
palace that was converted to a temple and is still a place of worship. There are lots of people praying and burning incense - so much so that our eyes are sore later! The centrepiece here is a 26m high Buddha carved out of a single piece of white sandalwood (confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records so it must be true!). 8m are below ground and the 18m above ground takes your breath away; the temple was built around it. There are lots of colourful Buddha’s and prayer cloths inside the temple buildings but photo’s aren’t allowed unfortunately - Chinese torture for M!
The day finishes with a tour of one of the hutongs near the Bell and Drum towers. We notice that these are all being renovated too and many converted into café’s and souvenir shops. The fact that they have become tourist attractions seems to have changed the essence of the areas - for the worse. The hutongs are largely romanticised by guide books; while they represent a historical past, today they have become more a tourist attraction which the locals, as true entrepreneurs, exploit for what it’s worth. Kathleen tells us that the folk that
live in the hutongs are offered compensation to leave - between Y1m and Y2m in some of the larger hutongs - but many resist as they say they can’t get somewhere else for the money on offer - many households will live in one hutong.
House prices in Beijing are very high compared to average incomes. A 100m² pad in the 5th ring road (way out of the city) costs about Y500,000 and nearer to the centre can be anything from Y1m - Y3m. Someone working in a bar or restaurant probably earns about Y1200 pm - and no tips; they don’t do tipping in China. They have a similar mortgage system to the UK (25 year mortgages and interest rates currently at 6%). Other costs are low though, petrol is only 30 pence a litre. We hear on the news that the demand for affordable housing is so high, and as a means of avoiding fraud, all applicants for housing have to declare their incomes in the local newspaper.
Beijing is definitely a boom city - there are new developments going up all over. Given our experience is China this far it’s interesting to consider why it
is perceived as a developing country and when will it become a developed country and more importantly who decides??? From our experience it will knock the spots off many so called developed countries.
We thank Kathleen for being a great tour guide even though we didn’t take up her offer of going to the Kung Fu show, the Acrobatics show and the Beijing Opera. We could have enjoyed the Acrobatics and whilst it would have be fabulous to see the colourful costumes and art of the traditional Opera, the prospect of sitting through 1 hour of very high pitched Chinese singing (a big deal in most cities - with local women giving it all on many street corners surrounded by big appreciative and applauding crowds) was a challenge too far for any of us. Kathleen’s been commissioned by some blue-chip companies for Olympics hospitality work so she’s definitely a good choice.
We spend a day relaxing - trying out the metro which is spotlessly clean and easy to navigate, and wandering around one of the main shopping areas. We try some pretty ropey street food (though decline the lizards, beetles and scorpions - ready for fondue!) so end
up having MacDonalds!! But do manage to find an English version Lonely Planet guide to Mexico in the Foreign Language Bookshop to prepare for us our next country stop, an Olympic T-shirt for M, and Sarah gets some Jasmine tea to take home for gifts.
The Chinese media coverage of the ascent to Everest, or Qomolongma as they call it, with the Olympic torch is exhaustive - having lasted all week - however, it’s non the less an amazing achievement by the climbing team - mixed gender and quite a few did not use oxygen masks!
One thing we feel by the end of three days here is that Beijing seems nor to have an obvious centre - and so it has no heart or soul. It is as large as Belgium - so the scale of the place is enormous but well set out in a grid style with wide roads. We didn’t feel that there were too many cars or people & didn’t feel there was any smog - London can be worse - though we suspect that things get worse in summer. The sights are fantastic but the city is one which you love or hate
- it doesn’t do it for us.
We find a cafe bar opposite Leo’s, called Sakura, that has a great chilled out feel, plays great music (reggae, Jack Johnson, Bob Dylan etc) and does the most amazing hot chocolate - made from real chocolate melted! That does it for S & C!! with some awesome Yunnan coffee for M! We find out later that this is also a hostel - Beijing 365 which seems much better than Leo‘s. We wish we’d known as we’d have transferred across.
One of the high points of the Beijing days is the trip to the Great Wall - although as M points out, a bit strange to be fascinated by what turned out to be a folly! It didn’t keep invaders out and much is now in disrepair. We go to the section at Mutianyu, 2 hours drive north west of Beijing; it has a reasonable section in good repair and enough close by that’s overgrown. We didn’t realise quite how steep some sections were and by the end of 3 hours on the wall our leg muscles are well stretched! Bloody steps again! But, some relief on the way down; for
a mere Y40 you can toboggan down which we did. Completely surreal but great fun!
We wander around our own Hutong area for the afternoon - Shitou Hutong is still largely unrenovated so it’s good to see a non-gentrified area. The sanitation is not brilliant - even though new public toilets abound. When you peek inside open doorways you can see that many of the passages go back quite deeply with lots of homes/rooms off. They are mainly occupied by elderly folk. Then finish the day with another highlight - traditional Peking Roast Duck at one of the Quanjude chain - which has a good reputation. The one we go to is on 5 floors - all packed - and has the feel of a glamorous ballroom!! Chandeliers and all. The chef carves the duck at your table - including the head - a delicacy apparently. We wander back via Ti’ananmen Square which is all lit up at night, but can’t get in there as it’s closed off for security reasons; a real shame as it would probably have a nice feel.
An early start the next day for a 6-30 a.m cab to the airport to Guilin.
We grab some steamed dumplings and Chinese style churros (without the chocolate) for breakfast enroute. As we come in to land in Guilin we get our first glimpses of the karsts landscape for which it is famous. Tree covered mountains that stand up like lots of odd shaped thimbles or needles. With many of the more distant ones shrouded in mist it’s a stunning landscape. We get plenty of time to look in the cab from the airport - we have the slowest driver in the world!
Guilin Backstreet Youth Hostel is just off the central square with lots of shops and restaurants and next to the river so really well located. It also has a room with 3 proper beds so Sarah is looking forward to a good nights sleep! We take a walk around town; it has a really nice feel with a large promenade along the riverside with lots of overhanging trees and old fishing boats on the water. Also Shan Hu, a lake in the centre of the town with two pagodas which looks lovely lit up at night. We visit Fubo Hill and subject our legs to more steps - but get some great
views over the town and neighbouring countryside as a result. It also has some lovely caves with carved Buddhas etc but the usual tackiness destroys the ambience somewhat. While there we get our first sight of the cormorant fishermen who use cormorants to catch fish by restricting entry to their throats - fascinating. We should see lots more when we get to Yangshuo tomorrow - travelling by boat along the Li river - a highlight and one of M’s lifetime ambitions. Dinner is a at a great local place with table outside and things we could point at and a semi English menu. A mix of dumplings, noodles, veg and sweet & sour pork. One of the delicacies of the area is snake - cooked or in wine (you can see the poor things stewed in booze) and despite various offers to try this we graciously decline.
We take the bus at 8am to catch the River boat - 20km away. It’s for English speaking folk with guide et al & costs a bit more than the Chinese version but it’s Sarah’s big holiday so we go for it. We set sail at 9.30am and the 4 hour cruise
has some awesome scenery - well worth it & possibly our highlight of the whole China experience. The karst scenery we’d seen in Guilin continues but is even more awesome away from the town with only local villages and fishermen and farmers (other than the odd dozen or so river tour boats!!). Lunch is included - which means no problems ordering & it’s pretty good - not spicy enough though for M‘s taste. We arrive in Yangshuo at about 1.30pm and book into the West street International Youth Hostel - who are great, clean and cheap and located at the top end of the busy main street.
Yangshuo is lovely sitting in the midst of the limestone hills. It’s an unashamed tourist town - Benidorm meets China - but with a great deal more charm and well worth staying a night or two. Internet access is not as easy as in the rest of China where Wi Fi was the norm and internet free at many hostels. It’s hot and with time on our hands we decide to do the trip to Silver Caves - a gap filler. Wow what a treat! The underground caves here are amazing. Definitely
competition for Wookey Hole caves in Somerset. The highlight is a huge cavern with a lake at the bottom in which you get the most amazing reflection. It’s really hard to work out where the real floor is.
In the evening we do the “watch the cormorant fisherman do his thing” trip. C’s not convinced that it’s not cruel - but it’s certainly effective. They catch loads. Then dinner at a local place where we try the local food speciality Beer Fish; a stew of the fresh fish from the river cooked in beer - quite nice. It reminds Sarah of the goldfish at home so she’s not too keen.
Sadly we hear about the earthquake which appears to have devastated towns and villages near Chengdu where we were two weeks or so earlier. But for the grace of God we could have been affected!!! Thanks to all family & friends who emailed to check we were ok. The TV pictures show the scale of the devastation. At the time of publishing the death toll was feared as being 50,000.
Our final day in Guangxi province we spend at a place near Yangshuo called the Giggling Tree
- a converted farmhouse guesthouse run by a Dutch couple. We’d heard about it from Jerome and Helene. It’s stunning! Great rooms, really relaxing and with fantastic scenery surrounded by karst mountains and paddy fields and a lovely feel. Probably the most beautiful scenery anywhere in the world and one which you cannot get tired of. Despite the heat we go for a walk through the paddy and fruit fields to the riverside where you can take bamboo boat rides. The saleswomen are persistent to say the least! At sunset, hot air balloons go up from a nearby field - must get fabulous views. Dinner is taken outside in the lantern lit courtyard. In the morning we rent cycles and tour round the local area. It’s a fun 3 hours doing about 13 miles to Yulong village and back. The paths largely run along the Li river and the views are breathtaking with local farmers going about their work as normal. We finish at about lunch time and chill out with some beers and a light lunch before showering and catching a cab for the 2 hour drive to Guilin airport for our flight to Hong Kong. For some reason
HK is considered an international port and so we leave China at Guilin ……. Strange!
So onto our final phase in this part of the world when we say farewell to Sarah who leaves us to fly home from HK.
China's Flag
Map of China