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Published: September 2nd 2007
Well, as it turns out, China isn't half as scary as we had been led to believe. Despite the language barrier - and it is a BIG one (have only met a handful of people who speak English) people have been incredibly helpful, and armed with our phrase book and a handy finger for pointing, we seem to have managed to get pretty much everywhere we intended to, without too many problems!!
Having said that, I nearly didn't even make it into the country. On leaving Vietnam, the immigration officials decided it was time to take a good look at my passport (why they cared when I was leaving, I don’t know!) unfortunately, due to a lot of bashing around, getting wet at songkran, and just generally being poorly looked after by me, the back page with the photo on it has started to peel away, looking like you could possibly pull the photo out - oh dear, the immigration man wasn't happy, he studied it for ages, demanding other ID (which I did have, but I wasn't going to let him know as it was right at the bottom of my pack!), after about half an hour of him
asking, and me saying I didn't have any, he threw my passport back at me and let me leave the country. Now, why he thought I would steel someone’s battered passport and replace their photo with one of me about 7 years ago, which frankly looks very little like me is beyond me, but I held my breath as I passed through the notoriously vigilant Chinese authorities (I was worried enough about having a business visa when my scruffy appearance fools no-one!), luckily for me, they were bright and breezy and after a slightly perplexed look, they waved me through without too much trouble, phew!!!
Our second obstacle to overcome was getting to Guangzhou so we could get a connecting train to Hong Kong. Apparently our attempts at pronouncing Chinese are incredibly amusing and however we said it we were met with giggles or blank looks, finally a very helpful girl came along, said something that looked nothing like the way Guangzhou was written, and we were on our way. One night in Guangzhou (supposedly to book our Nepal flights, but as is typical with the hassle we had been having to get the darned things booked, the office
was closed!!) before heading to the bright lights of Hong Kong.
As we arrived in Hong Kong we headed for Kowloon (the cheapie part) and the not-so-aptly named Mirador Mansions - sounds nice doesn't it? Hmm, you'd be wrong! But I didn't want to stay in the even more infamous Chunking Mansions (seriously people, calling at mansion really doesn't fool anyone!) however, my wishes were short lived as we found ourselves being hustled over to Chunking by a guy who owned a cheaper hotel there. After squeezing into the tiny lift and ascending the 17 floors to the hotel, we swiftly turned around and descended the same 17 stories after deciding that as we were too young to die, we really didn't need a room that was smaller than a coffin! Luckily for us we had met a guy in the lobby (who Emma insisted on calling Taj for the whole time we were there despite my insistence that just because that was the name of the hotel (ha-ha), really didn't mean that he had to be called that too! In actual fact it was a tiny little room but had two beds and a bathroom and was cheaper
than we had expected and despite one slightly dodgy moment when someone came in, told us that 'Taj' hadn't paid his rent and not to give him any money, it was a great place to stay.
Hong Kong itself was everything we had imagined, bright lights, noisy loads of shops and generally very cosmopolitan. We spent our time there wandering the malls, going up to victory hill for incredible views over the bay, and even made a day trip to the beach where they had warning of a shark carcass being washed up on shore. We were advised to avoid swimming near the 'shark safety net' as it obviously had a big-ass hole somewhere and a group of children went around singing a self-composed song about shark attacks to poor unsuspecting sunbathers (I still get the darned thing stuck in my head sometimes!!)
We reluctantly left the bright lights and relative ease of Hong Kong and headed straight up to Shanghai on a 24 hour sleeper train. Trust me, if I had been worried about the coffin room before, after this trip it would have been pure luxury. We were rammed up to the top bunks in a
stack of 3 (after hauling our bags up there first - me shoving from the bottom, Em hanging precariously from the top and pulling - no help from any of them men around, who said Chivalry is dead?!) So up we were on our home for the next 24 hours, giggling uncontrollably at the sight of each other attempting to sit in a weird head bent down to the knees pose whilst trying to eat our take away dinner that we had brought with us - the novelty soon wore off!! 24 hours later, we emerged, necks cricked and a few bruises from bag-lugging, but ready to face Shanghai "full of eastern promise" as Emma kept repeating!!
Unfortunately our excitement for Shanghai soon turned to disappointment and then loathing (on my part!) for the city after having to spend 6 hours (that’s right 6 whole hours) with our 25kg backpacks on walking around the huge city for one supposed guest house address to another only to find that all of them were either closed, a pile of rubble, a brand spanking new shopping centre ready to open in time for the Olympics, or (the most embarrassing as we swooshed
in sweating buckets and smelling less than sweet after our long journey) turned into a swanky hotel, full of exceptionally dressed wedding guests - lovely!!
We eventually found a very nice place to stay (though it cost double anything we have spent before) After everything, it wasn't my favorite city, but when you were standing on the bund, overlooking the lights , it didn't seem so bad - that was until our 3rd day when we were unceremoniously thrown out of our hard earned hotel. Seriously, we did nothing wrong, I think the lady was just a bit crazy, she kept shouting in rapid Chinese until we pointed out we had already paid and were not going anywhere, she then changed to Chinese, interspersed with "sorry" every 4th word and making signs that we could only translate to 'police' so whether she wasn't allowed to have foreigners stay (quite common) and she had just failed to tell us this originally or she just didn't like us, we'll never know, but the hunt began again and I couldn't wait to leave the place!
Off we headed to Souzhou, the town of Zen garden and peacefulness, just what we needed
after our stressful few days in Shanghai. It was a really lovely place and I even managed to meet up with a friend from home who took us out for an evening (thanks Chris!), though I did feel very jealous as he headed back to his plush hotel, and off we went to our little room with a shared bathroom which had communal showers (no curtains) and a certain 'prison' feel about it (Jane and Jo, remember Playa del Carmen?!) it was made slightly worse by the fact that we had to go through the posh part of the hotel before we got to our scummy quarters out the back!!
So after a little relax we decided it was time to do something a little more taxing. This came in the form of a mammoth stair climb to the top of Huang Shan. It was about an 8 hour round trip, starting with a 7000 stair climb. This was hard enough in the sweaty heat, but little did I know that once we got to the top, there were a whole load of walks to do around the summits of the range. Now I normally like down parts, but
not when you know it's going to be followed by a huge up section a few minutes later - build a bridge!! Despite my complaining I thoroughly enjoyed the mountain, the views were breath taking and after an initial period of being totally lost (as always!) we managed to escape the crowds and have a great wander around- though the calves definitely ached the next day!!
From Huang Shan we headed to the walled city of Keifeng, a huge journey involving several bus and train changes, though all went amazingly smoothly. Keifing itself though was a bit of a dissappointment, it was billed as a lovely place to just walk around and soak up the culture - we found it very similar to all Chinese cities, smoggy, busy and not particularly attractive, on top of that, someone from the hotel kept insisting on calling our phone at all hours, saying hello, sorry and hanging up, really not amusing, though there was an excellent bakery just accross the road so it wasn't all bad! after a couple of days we decided it was time to leave and excitedly head to Xi'an to see the famouse Terracotta warriors. I'd been looking
forward to the warriors ever since we decided to go to China and they certainly didn't disappoint. I was surprised to find them inside three seperate hangers (i think i expected them to be just out in a field somewhere with people just wandering between them!) the first building was the biggest and housed the most warriors. As you walk in there is quite a strange atmosphere, it is very hazy which gives the impression that the warriors are shrouded in mist, and they look really quite intimidating. Stupid really as I know that they are just clay, however I guess they do their job, they were meant to look like a fierce army and that is exactly how they do look, and I dont mind admitting that I wouldn't like to be left alone with them at night! The only downside was the huge number of people there, it turned into a bit of a shoving battle o see some of the exhibits and I soon got fed up of being stood on, so was content to wander around the lesser visited statues whilest Emma braved the masses to take photos! (oh yeah, we must be some of the
only people who nearly didn't find them, we first got off the bus a stop early, just realising in time to jump back on, with Em getting slightly squished in the doors. We then got to the sight and walked around in circles for about half an hour before having to ask somewhere where the entrance was, us at the vatican springs to mind!)
Xi'an itself is a lovely little town to walk around and we spent a good few days strolling the streets, getting lost and finding lovely little alleyways and markets to wander around. Our train to Pingyao didn't leave until midnight so we had another day to kill, this time we took advantage of the hostels DVD palyer and actual;ly got to watch a few films, quite a luxury after so many months! So at midnight we went to get on our train, my watch was slow so we got there fairly late anyway, ran to the train and jumped on our carriage, only to find some people in our beds. After accusing them of stealing our bunks they took a look at our tickets and dispite our insistance that we were booking the tickets for
tomorrow, the lady had sold us tickets for the same day, meaning that we were a day late for our train - oops! On came the ticket inspector, who despite there being spare bunks, unceremoniously threw us off. I was ready to admit defeat, it was our fault after all, we shoul;d have checked the date. Emm was far more stubbourn than me and armed with her phrase book went up to a guard a couple of carriages down and asked him if there was any room. He promptly snatched here tickets out of her hand, looked at them and shoved us both on, just as the train was pulling out of the station. He then duley walked us back up the train, obviously assuming we were to stupid to read the ticket, and cheerfully brought us back to our origional carriage and the ticket lady who had initially thrown us off. Then all hell broke loose, there was screeming, pushing, arguing, all aimed in our direction but we both played dumb, shrugging our shoulders and pretending we didn't understand what was wrong with the tickets - after all the train was moving what could they do? Well apparently, that
didn't stop the origional ticket lady as she tried to wrench the door open to throw us off (lovely!) luckily I assume the train was moving too fast by this point for the doors to open (phew!) so after looking very sheepishly at them, they finally agreed there was nothing they could do but let us stay on - yay there are benefits to not understanding a word!
Pingyao is like every other Chinese ity, big, sprawling etc. except this one has a tiny city hidden inside some intact qing dinasty walls. As soon as you step inside it is like being transported to another world, the China that I imagined, all red lanterns, tiny houses and cobbled streets. It really was a little paradise and we spent a few days just wandering around, walking to a few temples and perusing the many shops there. There was one slightly disturbing monkey, dressed as a red indian which you could pay for the privilage of having your photo taken with - no thanks!
From Pingyao we boarded yet another night train ( that's all we do in China, have 2 nights somewhere then a night on the train, the
bags under my eyes are going to make me pay excess baggage when i get to the airport!) to the industrial city of Datong, I know, sounds lovely doesn't it?! but we didn't go for the town, just outside the city there are some amazing caves which house hundreds of Buddha statues dating back to 500 AD, there were some really impressively big ones, Em would hold her breath in excitement as a foot came into view that was as big as us! we spent a few hours wandering around trying to avoid the hoards of tour groups with their loud speakers. After the Shaolin temple music had brain washed us sufficiently (monks chanting, over and over again!) we headed off to find an apparently deserted section of the great wall, unfortunately for us there were severalk sections of broken walls on hills in the area, and we had no idea which ones were great and which ones were just regualr walls, do we ditched our intrepid explorer attempts and jumped on yet another night train to Tai'An - a particualrly long one as we had to sit on a hard bench foir the first 12 hour journey, wait in
beijing for 18 hours and then finally get a bed for the next 12 hour journey, who said travelling was fun?!
Tai'An was the spot for climbing another mountain staricase of 7,000 steps, this one quite a bit steeper than the first, but with loads of monastries to visit on the way up, beautiful sceenery and a whole host of pesky monkeys (with whom signs urged you not to flirt! I obviously had a problem with this!) i had my usual dodgy grandma hip so wasn't sure if I'd make it, but determined not to be one of the wimps who gets the cable car I hobbled up there, earning the prize of living to 100 years (apparently!) We were staying in a really swanky place with key card access and a mini bar ( a big deal for us, especially as it was a bargain, Em kept checking the price and I had to kick her in case he changed his mind!) so that was enough to enable me to speed down the hill like a woman only twice my age! We really enjoyed the peace and quite there, and our little piece of luxury, and I was
a little reluctant to leave for the bustle of Beijing, but the big city was calling and with only a few days before we headed off to Nepal, we had a whole host pf sight seeing (and step climbing, ugghh!) to do! We were very excited to be boarding our very last sleeper train, not too excited however to turn up on time, whcih resulted in a mad dash along the platform and a quick leap on the train, just in time - would have been typical to miss the last one!
When we woke up we were in Beijing, and now came the time to find somewhere to stay. Having learnt from our Shanghai escapade that the Lonely Planet isn't to be trusted, I dumped my bags on a bench and left Emma to guard while I went on a hostel mission. Taking slightly longer than I had anticipated, I returned over an hour later to find Emma being harrassed by a young guy trying to get her to go to his Calligraphy factory ( a new take on the 'tea festival' scam) or look at his tour guiding shop - how she was supposed to lug all
of our bags there I dont know, but I quickly shoo-ed him away and off we headed. We only had a couple of days in Beijing so they were spent in a mad rush, doing a lot of sight seeing and a bit of shopping!
We decided to go to the Great Wall at Jin Shan Ling and walk the 4 hours to Simatai, as we got there fairly late there were apparently no more buses so we had to hop in a taxi with a couple of Austrian guys and speed there, being told the whole time that we had to walk in super quick time as the last bus back to Beijing was in about 2 hours. The two guys raced off, but me and Em decided that there was no point in coming if we didn't enjoy it (plus we didn't believe the bus line)
so we abled along, and for our efforts were blessed with having the whole stretch of The Wall completely to ourselves, which I think is fairly unheard of. The walk itself was really quite tough, constant up and down of steps in between watch towers, even the supposed flat bits were
incredibly sloped, but the views were totally worth it, we got to clamber over some of the unrestored old parts of the wall (which was a bonus as the restored bits looked like someone had just put up a brick wall for a new house, not sensitvely done at all). All the way along mongolian farmers were offering to take us on short cuts which avoid the wall (why we would want to when we came to see it i dont know!) but we managed to shake them off and make it to the other side, where we found that no buses were to be found! we decided that if we walked to the main road we would have more luck, after about 20 mins (10 of which we were followed by a curb-crawling taxi insisting that he was the only option!) we were strating to worry slightly. Luckily for us, along came a very nice guy in what looked like his dads posh car, obviously feeling like a night in shining armour he rescued us from the road and drove us the several miles (oops!) to the cross roads, smiling nicely turned around and drove off, how sweet!! So
huang shan
Emma fresh as a daisy, me red as a beet!we were then stuck at the cross-roads waiting for yet another bus, after waiting for quite sometime and getting slightly anxious, we were rescued for a second time by another helpful soul, who despite me demanding he stop until he tell us how much he was going to charge ("NO how much, you pay NOTHING"!) got us to the bus safe and sound, the only payment needed was a group photo to show his friends!!
Beijing is a great city, the forbidden city is incredible to walk around (if a little over crowded) and we are definately looking forward to going back in October for a few days, but for now we are in Nepal having been to Kathmandu and chased tigers in Chitwan National Park we are about to embark on another adventure, trekking the Annapurna circuit and Sanctuary. It should take about 3 1/2 weeks and at points will take us to 3 x the height of Ben Nevis, I'm a little scared, but on the whole totally excited, the mountains look absolutely awsome and after three weeks I had better come back with buns of steel!!
So thats me for now, when I return I
will teel you of how I nearly got eaten by a tiger in the national park, almost ended up climbing a tree to escape the Rhino and whatever else happens during my trek!! For now, take care, love to you all.
Sarah xx
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