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Published: August 14th 2008
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Day 26 - 11.07.2008
Arrive at Beijing Railway Station at 1400. We just walked over the road to get to our new Hostel, the 'Beijing City Center Youth Hostel'. Nice hostel, but the staff had some problems with booking.
Last evening with our travel companions from the Transiberian railroad. We started with signature dish for Beijing, the Peking duck. Then we head for a 12 m2 bar, but before that I had to cut my hair. Did not have time to do it before I left, so now was the time. Expensive stuff, 20 Yuan. (15 NOK)
The night ended in Partyworld with karaoke, and everyone agree I had the best performing. :-) (even Bernie)
When we left the karaoke place, I found myself in the middle of a KungFu movie. I mean that 6 Chinese people start to fight with 2 others. One took a broomstick and start waiving it as a Shoaling master. Everything happens very fast. But it ended well, do not think anybody was serious hurt.
Our group starts to split up after some days. Some left after 3 days and others after 4 and some had plans to continue the same track as us.
It
Wuhan Statue
at Yellow Crane Tower is a lot to see and do in Beijing, you need a week or more. We went on Rickshaw ride in Hutong’s, visiting the Mutianyu Great Wall. Spent a day in the Forbidden City and a day in Temple of Heaven. Did some hard barging at the Silkmarked, very important to start really low and walk away if you do not get your price. Then they come after you and you get your price.
A small group of us went to see a show, 'The Flying Acrobats'. A great show, impressive.
5 Nights later we jumped on a train to Xi'an to see the Terra-Cotta Army, had to see that one.
Arrived Xi’an 2 hours before we expected, Paula and Adam overslept. They came on the platform 10 min after us, good for them this was last station. And info to Michael, we meet our new contact Jacki Sweat. He fixes us with hotel, tours and tickets to Yangtze River. Great hotel, only 24 NOK including free internet and beer! Great work J.Sweat !
We did the mistake to take a tour to see the Terra-Cotta Army. That means you will be taken to different factory's that makes souvenirs.
Wuhan
Yellow Crane Tower Everything has a big overprice at those places. You can get your souvenirs at the street markets 10 times lower. And I did not buy any!!
The other thing to see in Xi'an is the City Wall, Drum tower and Islamic quarter. Last one has a night marked.
Time to hit the train again, this time to Chongqing. We are now 6 people traveling together. Wake up at 0700 in 3 class ‘hard sleeper’, no clean sheets on this cabin. Good to have the silk travel sleepingbag. Time to make some tea and put on Jethro Tull on the Ipod. Can see the nature has changed a lot since yesterday. Tonight we are going to get on the cruise on Yangtze River, and I have to send a sms to my brother and congratulate him with his birthday.The 4 days cruise on Yangtze River was a mixed experience. It was a Chinese boat, so there was no western stuff there. The toilet was at the exact same spot as the shower. I am guessing it is nice if you like to take a shit while you shower. But watch your feet so you don’t step in it. Nature was
nice but a lot of rain. After 2 nights we changed boat for 6 hours to go upstream the Little Three Gorges. Also great nature, but Chinese tour boats with extremely load noise on the speaker all the time. Even Metallica on full power on my Ipod could not overcome that. In the evening we spent the time playing cards and drinking beer and vine.
The good thing I remember is that I learn to play Chinese chess on the boat. Very interesting game, a lot of special rules compared to traditional chess. More pieces and they move different. The King has to Guards, and they cannot exit the palace. The horse cannot jump and we have Cannons that can shoot over a piece. The bishop cannot gross the river. (middle of the board) And some other rules, have to get me one of these games. The worst part is how to figure out which piece is what, it is all Chinese writing, and different on both sides. Funfun.
After the Yangtze we took a bus to Yichang and then another to Wuhan. And this is the day I ran out of SNUS. It last for 38 days. Spent the
day alone sighting the city, good to have a break from my travel companions.
Then we went on the night train to Shanghai.
In Shanghai everything cost a lot more. And there is a big electronic marked where Børre and I can spend our money, and we did. First night here we want to have some real BEEF. So we went to this great place that had big Beefs to almost Norwegian prices. Nothing special with this metropolis as a city, huge as it was. In the crowded metro I lost my cell phone. So all communications from now on are on internet, it is no big problem. Specially now, since I got some new gadgets that I can log on to the net everywhere they have wifi. Can use msn, facebook, email and Skype when it’s necessary.
After Shanghai, we are going south in China. Guilin is next stop on the railway. 25 hours on train, by air it would be 2 hours and 20 min. And the price is the same. But we insisted to go overland all the way to Thailand. It is really nice to go to the quiet south, away from the big
cities.
Couple of days in Guilin, then a boat trip on Li River to Yangshou. Beautiful boat ride but too fast, since we hired a taxi boat. And I can tell you that at all of us love Yangshou. Great scenery and lot of possibility to explore the countryside. Highly recommended! Big thanks to Torgeir back in Norway that recommended the spot to me. We did some rock climbing on a limestone mountain.
After Yangshou we took a bus back to Guiling to catch the overnight train to Kunming, another 18 hours on the train….. Kunming is located north of Laos and is in latitude of 1890 meter. The temperature is cooler here, I like that since I am from Norway. Day after 8.5 hours on a bus to Jinghong, our last stop in China before Laos. There is Rainforest in this area, so I decided finely to start on Malaria tablets, some started on them already in Yangtz. This place is also a great area, relaxing place. The local coffee I had to breakfast was really good. Much better than the instance coffee you can get everywhere. We will spend couple of days here before we go to Laos.
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Anders
non-member comment
Se der ja!
Ser ut som en veldig bra tur sålangt! Wuhan er vel senteret for shaolin kung fu, er det ikke? Så bra du fikk med deg ordentlig slossing der, ble det noen bilder? Fjellklatring er vel forferdelig slitsomt kan jeg tenke meg, men det ser jo ut som du har gått ned i vekt. Vinner jeg i lotto tar jeg en tur jeg også!!! God tur videre! -Anders