Blogs from Dali, Yunnan, China, Asia - page 15

Day 1 & 2 After the horrible 5 squashed trip from Kunming we finally arrived in outer Dali, not old city Dali like we thought, so we caught a taxi to the hostel which was great value for money except that the hot showers weren't working. So the next day we recieved a refreashing cold shower, but it was good because the weather was extremely hot and it looked like a sweaty day ahead of us. We walked straight out of the hostel into old town Dali, which was busy with Chinese tourists everywhere. Inside the town walls it had been converted into a tourist market. All of the traditional shops were now gift shops and there were westerners everywhere. Don't think I had seen so many westerners in China at one place. After leaving the ... read more

It's spring Break and ALL of China has hit the ground running. Plane tickets are three times the usual. Trains are all booked. Hostels can charge ungodly amounts for a bed that lacks a mattress and a shower that lacks hot water (even though they claim hot water). Chinese merchants can get away with anything this week.....it's May holiday. Just as in October, the government of China declared May 1- May 7....holiday. I doesn't matter that the days are Tuesday to Monday....that is when holiday is...done. Most of my teacher friends had to work Sat. Sun and then Mon., an 8 day week, which really takes the hot air out of the holiday celebration, but luckily I played dumb, blonde foreign teacher and escaped the 8-day work week by booking my ticket and apologizing later. So ... read more

We are in Dali (Yunnan Province) after a 15 hour bus ride, bus was nice to bad the road weren't. We just saw the three Pagodas park today. This park is centred around Pagodas erected in the 9th century still in great shape. The government also recreated all the temple structures that were razed in the cultural revolution that surrounded the Pagodas. This was one huge rebuilding effort.. It took over 3 hour to speed trough about half of the recreated Buddhist temples and structures. The effort of the building of the structures is what impressed me the most, the actual temples did not have the character that only time can give a structure. It's a little cooler here.. around 20 C, which is hard to get use to after 25+ C weather for the better ... read more

...Vanuit Yangshuo gaan we met de bus terug naar Guilin, een stad die toch leuker bleek dan verwacht en leuk genoeg om nog twee dagen te blijven hangen. Het hostel is gezellig en er zijn een hoop kleine tentjes in het centrum om wat te eten. De stad ziet er voor een vrij grote stad erg groen uit en in het midden van de stad ligt een meer waarin twee grote pagodes drijven. Het weer is er niet veel beter op geworden sinds de tocht over de Yangzi Rivier en de weersvoorspellingen voor Beihai zien er zonnig en warm uit: So let's go! Na de busreis van 7 uur arriveren we in een zonnig, warme en druk stadje met 800.000 inwoners. Zoals gewoonlijk in minder toeristische plekken zijn er een hoop "hello's" en is er ... read more

Die Zimmersuche in Dali gestaltete sich spannend. Es wurde mir ein Blick auf eine Mauer und eine Aussicht auf eine Baustelle angeboten, zu Preisen, die mich schlucken liessen. Dali ist touristisch, das spuert man sofort. Aber ich fand was schoenes. Ein Rad musste her, da ich zu diesen spektakulaeren drei Pagoden wollte. Die Pagoden konnte man nur von aussen besichtigen und der Eintrittspreis belief sich auf 22.- euro. Hallo!! So bin ich an dem Gelaende vorbei mit meinem schikken Moutainbike den Berg hochgestrampelt. Oben, welch Ueberraschung, sassen die Arbeiter des Steinbruchs zusammen und luden mich auf ein Schaelchen Essen ein. Die Freundlichkeit kennt kaum Grenzen in China. Dann hab ich mich in Grass gelegt, den Wolken zugeschaut und mein Buch gelesen. Für den naechsten Tag hatte ich bereits ein Busticket weiter nach Lijing. Als ich das ... read more