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Published: August 29th 2012
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Day 62 Friday 17
th August 2012 to Day 74 Wednesday 29
thAugust
Ni hao (G’Day) from China
The last 12 days have seen us visit 3 main areas of China. Beijing, Shanghai and Yangshuo. The last time I was in Beijing was back in 2008 to watch Dunc win a Gold Medal. The number of volunteers around who spoke English during the Olympics made it very easy to get around. Well, it’s not 2008 anymore and all the volunteers have all long gone home.
We crossed the Mongolian/Chinese border late at night on the 17
th August at the edge of the Gobi Desert. Once we arrived at the border, every train carriage is lifted up and a new set of undercarriage wheel sets are attached due to the different gauge of the Chinese tracks. This process takes around 2 hours. Then we roll into the station just down the track to this very loud and annoying Chinese music that is somewhat military to remind us who runs the country!!!
The following morning as we head to Beijing, we see our first glimpse (through the thick smog of Beijing) of The Great Wall of China in the distant mountains.
We arrived at Beijing Train Station at 2pm. This concluded our Trans-Mongolian experience from St Petersburg to Beijing. What a trip to remember. We loved every minute of it, even though we are now completely sick of noodles.
Once in Beijing, we quickly found our hotel. If you are ever in Beijing, we recommend that you DO NOT stay at the Super 8 at Dong Si. As much as the location was good, it’s as dodgy as hell, but hey, this is all a part of the stories that we will remember.
We had 3 days in Beijing and we visited the usual sites such as Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, Beihai Park and of course The Great Wall of China. Amazingly the weather was perfect and the smog had dissipated for the 3 days we were in Beijing, except for the one day we went to The Wall. Such is life!!!
We found a favourite Chinese Restaurant not far from our hotel and I think we ended up eating their 4-5 times. The boys are all now coming to terms with using chop-sticks on a regular basis (plus the use of their fingers to assist).
I took Melissa and the boys to the infamous ‘Silk Markets’. They loved it. Even though we are backpacking and don’t have any room for too many things, they all managed to purchase a few bargains of some ‘genuine fake’ quality Chinese products. Melissa was happy with some jewellery as it doesn’t take up too much room in her backpack.
The boys were keen to go to the Beijing Zoo to see the Pandas, however, Melissa and I weren’t as keen as we have only heard bad things about how some of the animals are treated. We decided to check it out for ourselves. It was slightly better than we thought. The Pandas are certainly well looked after along with most of the animals, but some looked somewhat stressed. I’m sure the standard has certainly increased in the last 20 years, but they still have some way to go to be considered world class. The behaviour of some of the Chinese tourists is unbelievably bad. Banging on the glass windows, throwing things at the animals and I even caught one guys shinning a high powered laser pointer at a baby monkey. Well, he won’t be doing that anymore, because
I’ve now got his laser!!! He got upset when I took it off him, but as soon as I said ‘let’s go to the police’ he quickly walked away. Nice score!!!
The crowds in China are amazing, especially on the subway and at train stations. It’s every man and woman for themselves. We do OK, especially when we’re all between 6 inches and 12 inches taller than everyone else. Our backpacks work as a good defence system too. No one would attempt to ‘shoulder charge’ Jackson. We think Jackson has grown another 2 or 3 inches so far this trip, along with both Harrison and Hunter. Their hair has grown even more!!!
Unfortunately we could not organise train tickets to Xian as it was sold out and we would have to wait over a week to get 5 seats. This is part of the adverture of making it up as we go. You win some, like Switzerland, and you lose some. Therefore we headed to Shanghai instead on the fast train at over 300km/h. The boys loved it. 1,200km in 4 hours. We found a larger hotel room in Shanghai to make up for the Super 8 in
Beijing and this allowed the boys to ‘chill’ for a few days. We mainly headed out late afternoon each day as it cooled off in the evenings. ’The Bund’ is definitely the highlight of Shanghai. This is where you get amazing views of the famous financial district skyline at night. The food in Shanghai is also impressive along with the number of coffee shops around.
The 3 boys, especially Hunter and Harrison, are super-stars here in China. Their blonde hair stands out a mile and the number of Chinese that want their photo with them is truly astonishing. They were a bit standoffish to start with, but now they are seasoned professionals. I too am a bit of a super-star for having fathered 3 boys!!!!
After 3 nights we organised another overnight train down to Guilin. Guilin is where everyone comes to get to Yangshuo. Yangshuo is truly one special place that you must visit. You need to stay out of town, like we have, to truly take in the scenery and enjoy the peace and quiet of such a unique location. Plus hotel rooms are also cheaper and nicer out of town. This easily covers the $3-$4
taxi ride to the hotel. The view from our room is spectacular looking at the hundreds (maybe thousands) of Karst Mountain formations that were formed over millions of years ago. This is where James Cameron got the idea for the floating mountains in the movie Avatar.
The driving in this part of the world is crazy. The taxi drivers, like in Mongolia like to go where ever they like. Lanes mean nothing. The funny thing is that they go slow when we would go fast and go fast we we would go slow!!! The only thing we can do is to wear seatbelts and I’m prepared to grab the steering wheel if required!!!
The hotel we are staying at offers the best customer service we have experienced so far this trip. This is also the first time we have actually booked anything through our hotel. Yes, we pay a small service fee, but they drive us around in the hotel minibus. We went down the Li River on motorised bamboo rafts from Yangdi to XingPing. This is where you can get the best views of these mountains. The boys were happy to be by themselves for a few
hours (well 20-50 metres away on their own raft).
We also went to the Impression Light Show. This is an open air production on the river with light and sounds that only the Chinese can 'pull off' as it has a cast of over 600 and runs twice a night. It’s very interesting to note the cultural difference in what is considered ‘appropriate behaviour’. The constant talking during the performance would be considered rude in most western cultures, but seems acceptable in China. As we were warned (on tripadvisor.com) to expect this, it wasn’t as bad as some of the reviews made out. With the sound and light spectacle production being so impressive, we could easily ignore the talking. You could maybe compare it to foreigners coming to Australia and going to a AFL or NRL game and complaining about people talking, shouting abuse at the umpire (Jason Churchill) during the game and even getting up and leaving before the end.
Tonight we are catching an overnight sleeper bus from Yangshuo to Shenzhen. We will then head across the border to Hong Kong.
“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you
comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Cliffton Fadiman. This is so true for China.
Until next time........
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Linylle Syntageros
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Melissa the Super Star!!!!!
OK someone has to state the obvious...Melissa is the Super Star of the Free Family!!!! Mothering 3 boys (& the bigger one lol) has got to win this title hands down :-) Not a feminist viewpoint...just stating the obvious :-)) I can also hear you laughing Marcus....waiting for 'bites' from 'the girls' hahahaha "There's one!!" "There's another...." lol :-) It's great to read your entries for my future travels. The 'heads up' re the pro's/ con's, up's & down's of the various locations has been very interesting. Glad you're all having a fab time. Great photos too. Happy travelling Cheers Linylle