China phase 1 - Chengdu, Yangtze and Xi'an


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Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an
May 3rd 2008
Published: May 4th 2008
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We hadn’t really been looking forward to visiting Chengdu; it was a filler. A poor alternative to Tibet. How wrong can you get!!

Anyhow - that’s racing ahead. We finished our stay in Nepal with a great meal at the Third Eye restaurant in Thamel with Tina from Responsible Travellers, and Yalamber from KEEP, and as promised we have a picture of them on the blog this time. This was a traditional Newari restaurant with low tables and us sitting on the floor. The thalis that we had were superb. Wandering “home” afterwards we are struck by the number of young street homeless setting up their beds for the night and also the number of transvestites. Tina had said that the weekend starts at lunchtime on Friday and these guys obviously put a lot of effort into looking good for partying. Tina also joined us next morning to get us safely to the airport - that or she was ensuring we didn’t take up squatters rights in the Shanker!

The flight to Chengdu was tantalising, interesting and awful - for different reasons. Tantalising because we landed in Lhasa but only had a tour of the airport - and experienced Chinese efficiency and rigour in their customs & immigration processes. The folks in their uniforms looked pretty impressive & the airport was spotless. Interesting, because we flew low enough to get great views of Everest and the Himalaya on leaving Kathmandu (sit on the left side of the plane) and of the Tibetan terrain below - very bleak and barren surprisingly. And awful because Air China definitely get the vote of the trip so far for worst plane food (& warm beer!) - though the Chinese red wine was pretty good.

We wonder what our Tibet journey would have held. The Friendship highway from KTM to Lhasa must involve hours of driving through deserted mountains. Lhasa from the air was a sort of oasis in the desert of high mountains. Though one wonders if there is much to do or see other than the Potala Palace? All questions that will have to wait to be answered for now.

Chengdu, in Sichuan province, is a revelation however. The airport is really modern and spotless - and because we went through immigration formalities in Lhasa we just collect the bags and go. The city is huge. We’d expected a much smaller place though not sure why as it is in fact the 5th most populous city in China with a population of 13.5m. We are met (despite the fact that we gave the wrong arrival time) by a rep from Sim’s Cozy Garden Hostel who takes us to the hostel where we are given a lovely room and great service. For £10 per night we have a simple but comfortable double en suite room with air con, tv & dvd, fruit, sweets and water on tap (excuse the pun) and free wireless internet. There are 2 serene water gardens, a good bar and pretty good food as we discover later. All in all a really nice vibe with extremely helpful & friendly English speaking staff - two Crystal and Selina need a special mention! We’d definitely come back. There is also so much to do based here - which we hadn’t realised - Leshan & the giant Buddha, Mt Emei 3077m high with awesome sunrises, home stays in a local village, trips to Tibet from the China side etc etc.

Chengdu could in fact be a modern city anywhere in the world - except for the fact that all the signs are in Chinese and the vast majority of people do not speak English! Communicating with the locals is a real test for us - the first time we’ve been really dependent on sign language. People are incredibly helpful though, so we manage to get a local SIM card, C’s sunglasses fixed and some great food and cold beers! (The Chinese drink their beer warm; apparently cold beer isn’t good for the stomach. Quite often we end up with iced beer as a compromise. Satish - definitely not your bag!). Although there are no English menus, thankfully some places have pics of food which we can point at. Everything we have tried has been fab & cheap. We’re obviously a bit of a novelty though; lots of folks stare at us, especially older people, and giggle a lot when we say thank you in mandarin - the only words we’ve mastered so far! We think it gets us a few Brownie points!

The local food speciality is a “hotpot” - more in the style of a fondue - and the “hot” in the title really refers to the fact that it‘s spicy as hell! The sauce to cook the meat & vegetables in is floating with red chillies - yummy!! The table has a sunken burner in the middle on which they place a huge bowl of a cooking potion - oils and spices and stock. You then add anything you order - chicken gizzards, mutton, noodles, potatoes, mushrooms & Chinese greens in our case, and pick them out with chopsticks when they’re ready, dip them in a dressing and eat. Simple! I’m sure they picked slippery noodles for us deliberately; the darn things were like snakes and in the end fingers were the only way to get them out! Rice is provided free of charge. Anyhow, it was a great experience. All for Yuan 60 or £4 including beer!!!

Intermingled with the modern (Armani, Cartier, Boss, Louis Vuitton, Miss Sixty, Dior, MacDonalds, Pizza Hut & Starbucks - to name but a few) is plenty of old. Buddhist and Taoist Temples & Nunneries and beautiful old pagoda style buildings from Ming and Tang dynasties; some have been commercialised, Covent Garden style, to create the feel of an age gone by. As we go down back streets we find modern markets with old ways & produce - pig snout, fried guinea pigs, chicken feet, pigs intestine etc - not for the squeamish - however who makes the rules as to what is ok to eat or not!!!. Fruit sellers carry their produce on bicycles or baskets on a long pole carried on the shoulders. Clothes vary from ordinary modern to Mao style jackets & trousers to what can best be described as individual; chic meets grunge meets glam! Cars of all models mainly Japanese and some Chinese, (a few VWs, Merc’s & BMW’s and one Porsche 4x4) pack the roads but cyclists and electric scooters (which are almost silent which really reduces the noise pollution and cost only 2000 Yuan) have a whole lane to themselves and usually with a barrier between them & the cars. As we rent bikes for 3 days this is great; getting around is easy, and feels pretty safe - as long as you’re prepared for the odd bike travelling in the wrong direction and pedestrians who clearly believe that it’s your responsibility to miss them regardless how stupid they are!

Chengdu is well planned - loads of open spaces & parks including exercise areas which are well used, clean and well tended, wide roads - no road works, there are quite good disabled facilities in most places, no load shedding (a euphemism for power cuts in India, Nepal and most of Africa) and outside the central shopping area there are distinct shopping districts for different types of goods e g computer street, sports wear, medical equipment etc. The driving can be slightly chaotic - especially by taxis and buses who don’t have any concern for anyone but there are traffic controllers - volunteers we think - who desperately try to make some sense of road crossings - with orange uniforms, red flags and a whistle on the go constantly pulling folks into order.

The main square in Chengdu, Tianfu Square has a huge statue of Mao (no idea what he would make of contemporary China) and a lovely water garden. At night the fountains are lit with coloured lights and flow in time with really nice Chinese classical music (opera no less and enjoyable). We spend days visiting the highlights of the city - the Green Ram Taoist temple, Wenshu Temple, the Manjushri Monastery, and the Aidao Nunnery. All have beautiful buildings, many from the Tang Dynasty 1000 years ago. Huge cauldrons filled with burning incense sticks give a lovely aroma and also a mystical haze - and a very peaceful sense to the temples. All are busy with devotees praying and in Wenshu Temple, a number of people practicing Tai Chi. Tea is big in China & we mean the variety & some of them can be very expensive. There are a plethora of Teahouses all over the city - with lovely gardens and water features - quite relaxing venues.

There were two reasons for coming to Chengdu. One was it’s proximity to the Three Rivers Gorge - a trip we book through Sim‘s, and the other is the Panda Bears. We take a morning trip to the Giant Panda breeding & research facility which is well worth it. There are only 1200 or so left in existence and the ones we see are soooo cute! They are incredibly laid back - eating bamboo, climbing over each other and then when it all gets too much, just finding a good spot to lie down. There are red panda’s too though they look nothing like the Giant Panda - more like raccoons with their long tails. They look very cute though some have no ears as a result of fights - it seems they’re actually vicious little critters.

M is certain that the world could learn a lot from China & visa versa. Everything about Chengdu makes us question our pre conceptions. Perhaps we in the west don’t give China the credit it deserves for the significant transformation it has gone through in a short time - politically, socially and economically. It is an enormous country with fantastic potential which we don’t fully appreciate perhaps. It is early days but we have found no restrictions of our movements, the place is clean - no graffiti/vandalism - if only we had as much civic pride. The people are amazingly friendly, they are very spiritual/religious - in a country we are told in the media is anti religion. They seem generally very gentle and respectful - however, can sometimes speak quite loudly to friends giving the impression that a fight is about to ensue! We are impressed by the fact that all the school kids turn up in trainers and designer track suits - perhaps sponsored by Nike, Addidas etc - quite practical and income generating no doubt for the school. The style is western in dress but not in culture - unlike India where there is a rush (particularly in the main cities) to become Americanised as soon as possible - or so it seems.

For a nation that is reportedly severely censored newsagents sell all the usual magazines (including gay and girlie mags). TV is however restricted - there is only one English speaking channel and the news programmes are mainly China or sport focussed. It is interesting hearing the reporting on Tibet from a Chinese perspective. M’s conspiracy theory is that China has moved on intellectually from Mao - despite his statues all over - which suit’s the politburo, and he will be phased out in time. The Chinese are very entrepreneurial, creative, capitalists and also very nationalistic - they are very proud hosts of the Olympics. There is wall to wall coverage 24/7 on TV on the Games & preparations. The super powers clearly understand the consumer power and might of the nation which is why the response to the Tibet issue has been so muted. China has everything in lots of ways including a diversity of people and cultures - Tibetan, Mongolian, central Asians etc - it has mountains - including part of Everest, desert, lush valleys and plains - some awesome scenery - and this is just the beginning of our visit; we’ll see how the rest compares. China has the potential to be the number 1 tourist spot in the world - with ski trips, treks, beach holidays etc. That’s a goal they have set themselves.

After 5 days in Chengdu it is time to move on to our Yangtze river trip. We catch an early bus for the trip to Chongqing - allegedly the fastest growing city in China. After a 4 hour drive on the Super Highway - a relatively quiet toll motorway - through countryside which resembles parts of Europe, then Nepal with the rice terraces, we arrive to find a dreary city on the Yangtze where all the cruises start from. There really is nothing to commend the place! It’s grey & dull - not helped by the weather which is overcast - but transforms at night when the neon lights come on.

We set sail at 9 pm leaving the lights of the city behind. Not a place to return to by choice. We are booked into a 1st class cabin on the Long Xiang (comfortable twin with window on the top deck with own TV - all Chinese - air con that doesn’t work (and which we don’t need really), and private basic shower/toilet). This is a Chinese cruise with the guide speaking little or no English - an interesting experience lies ahead!!! We knew this when we booked. Most folks have brought their own food - we have stocked up on fruit, drinks and snacks - junk food for 3 days we suspect.

The cruise through the night is smooth though we are awakened at 4.30 am by the fog horn when the ship docks for our first visitor site - Ming Shan and the Ghost Palace, Fengdu. The walk up to Ming Shan is well worth it for lovely temples and great views as the mist clears. The Ghost Palace however all seems a bit tacky ( polite word!!) - train ride through the netherworld!! Perhaps you need to understand this aspect of Chinese culture to really appreciate it. There are masses of food and drink stalls so we stock up on more snacks and beer. The hillside around has a graveyard - lots of small tombs clustered together, and abandoned houses and factories. Apparently much of this area will be submerged as a result of the new Three Gorges Dam. As we cruise along for the rest of the day we try to guess what will remain of the hills and communities along the river. This is quite saddening at times when you see lifetimes of effort in cultivating the land (and continuing to be cultivated right up to the waters edge in places) which will be lost.

We’ve met a French couple, Jerome and Helene, who are good company and have a surprisingly good dinner on the boat pooling our choices - thanks to their Chinese ( they had about 80 lessons before embarking on this trip). Then M goes to visit yet another cheesy temple. It’s neon lit at night and C see’s enough from the boat to put her off! This is Zhang Fei temple, the original of which was built 1700 years ago but has now been relocated as the new Dam will submerge it’s original site. It is dedicated to a great general of yesteryear - a common theme in China - one pays more to see temples of warrior chiefs than religious temples!!!

The next day is definitely the most scenic, and more interesting as we leave the big boat to travel on a smaller cruiser through the Lesser Three Gorges of Wushan and then transfer to a small sampan style boat into the Mini Three Gorges. The Lesser Three Gorges have some towering peaks and sheer sided rock faces which is pretty impressive - even with a rising water level. We also see the hanging coffins - put in caves high in the rock face by an ancient race to ensure the bodies aren’t eaten by worms/birds/fish etc. It must have been an amazing feat to get the coffins up sheer sided cliffs. The lowlight of the day is definitely the trip to Dachang ancient town. The town has been relocated to the edge of a new town to preserve it from the effect of the Dam and in the process clearly has lost something in the translation! What would have been a beautiful stone and woodwork town is now a theme park; all souvenir shops and no soul. The street food outside is good though! The new town is interesting as it is much more attractive than many of the towns we pass; whitewashed facades and carved wooden windows. Not sure if this is typical of new construction or because it’s on the tourist trail.

One feature of cruising that contrasts sharply with the cleanliness we saw in Chengdu is the amount of rubbish in the Yangtze, much of it from the cruise boats unfortunately. Lots of plastic, tins and (bizarrely!) odd shoes. The river changes colour as we proceed; muddy brown at first and then green & cleaner as we go in to the gorges. There are very few water birds and also not as many fishing boats as we’d expected. This is possibly due to the water quality. We’ve read that many factories pour untreated waste into the river.

We share another good dinner with Jerome & Helene, and can’t help but notice how quickly the Chinese eat. We are amongst the first in to the dining room and are really only just starting our meal by the time all the locals have finished. One can only liken them to a swarm of locusts who swoop, devour most things in their path & move on in 5 minutes leaving a mess. The amount of wasted food is alarming. We notice this more generally throughout China; people order vast quantities of food and then leave a lot. Whether this is some ritual to impress their partners or guests or the host of their wealth is open to conjecture. Sometimes it goes into doggy bags but usually straight to the bin. Heartbreaking when it’s food we’d have loved to have ordered but couldn’t as we couldn’t read the menu!

The other things we note on the cruise is the passion for mah jong and card games, both for gambling, amongst the men. They don’t even look at the scenery! They also smoke constantly despite the no smoking signs! The Chinese could compete easily with the Japanese about who takes the most number of photographs - and all have to have someone in it with the scenery in the background. There are also a number of folk who dress up for the cruise - suits & ties, smart dresses etc and one mad couple with a poodle that had to get snapped regularly with owner in tow!!

The final day is quite dull and the mist that usually goes with the Wu Gorge didn’t show so not quite as impressive as anticipated. We spend the day watching the scenery and relaxing (other than the challenge of rearranging our taxi pick up when we find out that we’re not stopping where we were told we would!). We have decided not to go to the Quyuan temple - we quite liked the idea of dragon boat races to get there but not the singing performance at the temple! J&H go and from their report back we made a good decision. We go through the final gorge - Xiling - and arrive at the Dam - the end of the journey. We had been told the Dam wasn’t open for tours so we haven’t allowed time to visit it not that we would have anyway. Overall we’re not sure the trip was worth it. Only one day has really nice scenery and in places the towns we pass are really quite drab - grey and industrialised ( a lot of coal production which is ferried down the Yangtze) with lots of monolithic & monotonous tower blocks. A true reflection of modern China but they don’t add anything to the cruise experience. We say our goodbye’s to J&H and breathe a sigh of relief that our taxi is there.

We get to Yichang airport two hours later. Along the route we follow the Yangtze at the top of the gorge, so get good views and also lots of jasmine scents. Our driver obviously doesn’t want to pay the road toll so has taken the secondary road - much of which is in poor condition and with long stretches of road works in contrast to the roads in the cities. The houses in the towns are pretty much a standard design - monotonous grey/white square buildings in blocks 2 to 5 stories high with tiles or white render on the outside. The build form is largely concrete - China is the largest producer of the stuff in the world! We also pass through an area with lots of rock carvings and huge polished rocks/boulders on the side of the road for sale. They look impressive but God knows how you get them home if you buy one!! Yichang seems pretty big with new apartment blocks going up everywhere - some stylish designs & colours. We see a small development which could sit neatly in the UK - Victorian style houses & bungalows ready to market. We also see a Christian Church - the only one in this part of our travels.

The flight to Xi’an is on a 30 seater by China Express Air. Pretty comfortable and with good views of the city as we come into land. Again, it’s much bigger than we ’d expected. We are met at the airport by a taxi from the hostel and as we enter central Xian it is all lit up - neon lights on modern buildings and coloured lights framing the pagoda’s and City Walls - looks promising.

Xiangzimen youth hostel is a relatively new hostel that sits just inside the city walls and has been designed and decorated to look like an original city building. It has several internal and external courtyards, lots of wood and colourful lanterns and banners and great rooms; almost designer with lovely furniture and a huge bed!. Certainly a bit different from our experience of the YHA’s in the UK. The staff are very friendly and speak pretty good English - just as well. We meet Olivia who serves at the bar - a qualified English teacher who prefers bar work as it pays more - she gets Yuan 800 per month (£250) for which she does 12 hour shifts - some through the night. The staff get fed some basic meals here which is a feature of employment in India as well in some industries which we didn’t mention before. The others who have been great are Alice, Jack, Ruth and Freya. Pics will follow on the next blog. They all have English names given to them by their English teachers in addition to their Chinese names which we have difficulty pronouncing let alone spelling!

It’s location is great too; only 5 minutes walk from the Bell and Drum towers - feature pagoda’s in the centre of old Xi’an, 10 minutes from the Muslim Quarter (see below) and right next to a well renovated Ming dynasty area that specialises in calligraphy - paintings and materials. There are some amazing shops selling all types of paper, pens and brushes of all sizes - including huge! Some great characters there too.

As we wander around the city over the next few days we are struck by the sense that Xi’an is much busier with more people than Chengdu, yet it is only a quarter of the size with a population of only 3.5m. M is of the view that the folks here aren’t as attractive as those in Chengdu. People seem more affluent here - plenty of BMWs & one Bentley! There are also more expensive/designer shops even within the city walls which has far more areas of older buildings which have been well preserved & retain a sense of originality. It is slightly less clean in places though and has more visible beggars & street homeless. Holiday season starts on May 1st for a week so there are many Chinese visitors & young people on holidays as well as lots of foreign visitors; we are much less of a novelty here than in Chengdu. The added bonus for us are the extra decorations and some of the shows put on for Labour day. Cycling is a slightly less attractive option here for us - the roads seem much more chaotic and busy and in fact there are less bicycles & electric scooters around - and those that do venture out frequently use the pavements much to our consternation. One noticeable feature is despite the chaotic driving there is little or no road rage displayed - it’s as if folk take it as “that’s the way we all do things here”.

Food wise we discover some great stuff. Just a few doors down from the hostel is a place that does great dumplings. We’d gone armed with a “how to say” guide from the hostel staff but still ended up with a magical mystery tour. So, we took a photo of the menu which the hostel staff translated for our next visit!! Near the Bell Tower is WuYi Fandian - a fast food joint that is great because it has menu’s in English but even better all the food cooked fresh in front of you so you can point and pick fairly confidently (we still got the odd surprise but nothing ghastly!). The Muslim quarter (an area where Chinese Muslims have lived for thousands of years), is a fascinating area of real old China and comes alive in the evening with hundreds of stalls of street food; Chinese pizzas stuffed with meat and greens or cabbage, dumplings, sweet pastries, kebabs and - our favourite - huge slabs of grilled lamb chopped and served with a coating of chillies, cumin and fennel seeds. Delish! The Chinese definitely are big meat eaters - a complete contrast to our experiences in India, Sri Lanka & Nepal.

We had planned to take a couple of days to visit Pingyao, a (relatively) nearby town that is apparently one of the best preserved in China - a suggestion by a young English couple from Bedford. However, we’ve left it too late to get a return train or bus so decide to stay here & relax a little to await Sarah’s arrival though hold off seeing any of the main sites till Sarah gets here.

We decide to check out the City wall which was built 700 years ago. It’s in pretty good condition - it surrounds the inner city and one has a choice of hiring a bicycle and riding around it in about 2 hours or walking the 14km distance in about 4 hours - allowing for pictures etc. It’s quite impressive and we intend to have a go at cycling the distance when Sarah is here - at night to see the city all lit up from various vantage points. We witness a few musical performances by the local folk because it’s Labour day - a key bank holiday for the Chinese. After walking in the heat for about 4 km or so we arrive at the East Gate and get off to try Xian’s famous dish yangrou paomo (a soup dish where you crumble bread into a bowl to which is added mutton broth & noodles; very filling) at the Lao Sun Jia restaurant famous for this. It’s pretty good.

We also go to the Muslim quarter to see the Great Mosque which is unusual in that unlike most mosques its architecture is Chinese not Arabic with Feng Sui touches all around the gardens. Its lovely & would be really peaceful but for the wailing pre recorded music being played which destroyed the feel of the place - an d we are not being disrespectful - the music ( if one can call it that was not like any we have heard in a Muslim mosque - and we’ve visited a few in our time). We successfully negotiate our way through a dumpling dinner at night.

And so the big day arrives. Sarah joins us for the next 2 weeks in China - visiting Xian, Beijing, Guilin, and Honk Kong. We book a taxi to take us to meet her at the airport & bring us back to the hostel …… so to China Part 2 Sarah and all ……

















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