Blogs from Yunnan, China, Asia - page 14

Ni Hao! Since I cannot access Facebook here I thought it would be a good idea to create a blog. This can work like Facebook. I would love to hear what everyone is up to, so we should start a chat forum here on my blog! The Chinese government blocks Facebook in China because they don't want people getting on the site and slandering China. It sounds weird but it has apparently been an issue. I have already tried to get an IP blocker but they have blocked those sites too....lol China is really awesome, especially where I am at. The city I live in is beautiful and the weather is AMAZING! It never gets over 75 degrees! This place reminds me of Manhattan but with 2 million more people! There is a lot of shopping ... read more

Arrived in Chengdu after a long overnight train ride, having provided entertainment and photo opportunities as exotic foreigners at the stations. A quick explore of the relaxed city was followed by a pleasant cafe beer, a very spicy 'cook-your-own' Sichuan hotpot dinner and later a visit to a teahouse opera variety show, including shadow puppetry, fire breathing and local speciality super-fast 'face changing' complete with lavish costumes. The next day we headed out for a morning at the nearby Giant Panda breeding centre at Bifengxia, teeming with the cute but bamboo-obsessed bears (see photos). Driving on we arrived in Leshan, home of the giant (71m !) Buddha - the world's tallest - carved out of the cliffs overlooking a river confluence. Joined a long queue of jostling Chinese tourists (due to a national holiday) to climb ... read more

I had some serious doubts whether to do this trek or not… I definitely wanted to do it, but wasn’t exactly keen on doing it on my own… but then decided to go for it after all, you never know, maybe it’s the first and last time I put my foot around here… and what’s more this place might not look the same after a few years anymore as there are some serious works going on around here at the river at the moment… As soon as I decided to do this trip I found out that my new Slovenian friends from Dali were doing it on the same day as well, so it looked like I would be having a company after all! Great! :)I booked a bus from the old town to Qiaotou (35 ... read more

I woke up a bit earlier just in case there were any troubles in reaching the bus station – like getting lost when changing buses or taking the bus in the wrong direction for example… ;) Well… getting there couldn’t have been easier though – there was actually very good information at my hostel as to which buses to take and where to change so following the instructions I got there without any problems at all – 10 stops with bus 95, then another 10 with bus 80 and taraaa! …arrived at East Bus Station! And the journey cost me 2yuan only! Happy days! It was funny though when I was getting on the first bus, I let through an old Chinese man, he just couldn’t stop smiling to me later on and even wanted to ... read more

Originally I was supposed to enter China from a totally different side – through Tibet, but had to change my plans in the end… Than I thought that maybe it was for the best as thinking of going to an altitude of over 4,000m was making me slightly uneasy – I think I’ve had enough of high altitudes for a while… The new plan was to start off in Yunnan, then through Sichuan head all the way to Beijing and finally back south through Shanghai to Hong Kong. But then since I was applying for a Chinese visa in Kathmandu, only got a visa for a month, which definitely wasn’t enough time for my itinerary. Ah well… I decided to stick to the plan though and see how far that would take me… Coming from Kathmandu ... read more