China!

A new world for a country kid….

My trip in China proper started with a 24 hour train ride from Hong Hom Station, Hong Kong to Shanghai where I would spend the next three days. In the modern city of Shanghai I walked around the Bund, an old British section of the city by the river, which was beautifully lit at night, I took a tunnel under the river, which doubled as a light show, and went up one of the highest towers in the city. As in all of China, Shanghai was quite polluted, full of bicycles, and busy as hell. I didn’t hit me as hard coming from Hong Kong, but when I stepped into this city coming from Lhasa, Tibet it made me realize how quickly China is changing. It’s trying to take its huge foot and step out of the third world, and it’s going to make a big footprint when it does. It is said that China is putting 1000 new cars on the road a day! With the entire country already extremely polluted it’s hard to imagine what’s coming. After spending only a couple of nights in Shanghai I headed up to more historic Beijing.



In Beijing I started off with the normal tourist attractions of the Great Wall and the Forbidden Palace. The second day I was there I signed up for a tour of the “Secret Wall” where we got taken to an un-restored part of the wall and were allowed to explore. I couldn’t have hoped for more. When we got up to the wall I got a nod from the Chinese guide and took off running up and over the crumbling wall, leaving the other 7 tourists behind. I was filled with a great feeling of accomplishment that I had succeeded…..I had traveled across the sea, made it to one of the world’s wonders, and was now running along it alone! Back with the group we eventually did a big loop climbing up to the wall walking along it for a couple of kilometers and then back down into the town we started from. It was a nice loop and for me a perfect tour of the Great Wall. The next day I visited the Forbidden Palace and had a good time, but after about 2 hours it did all look the same. For a few more days I checked out Tiananmen Square, biked around, relaxed and ate some good food. From Beijing I took another train south-west to Xi’an (Shi-an).



In Xi’an I stayed with a family who I had met through the volunteer program (WWOOF). I was supposed to teach English to their 20 year old daughter, who was hoping to go to Germany to study, however she wasn’t very interested and spent most of her time watching TV. The meals with the family were by far the best part. All kinds of dishes I had never tried and the father continually poured me rice wine, which I struggled to drink. Not only was the food good, but it was fun eating it. They slurped, talked with their mouth full, chewed with their mouth open, fed the dog at the table, basically anything went. I know slurping was polite in some parts of China but I didn’t expect this, I wasn’t shy and lived up the culture. :)



Anywhere in China if you ask for a price in a market and have a western face like mine and speak 0 Mandarin you always get a price about 5 times what you should pay. Its ok at first but after a while you get sick of it and it’s a chore bartering for a damn bar of soap. Sometimes a fixed price would be nice. In a market in Xi’an they were selling old Chinese coins, but they had mixed in some recent ones. I picked up a 1-Yuan coin and for kicks asked how much in sign language. The woman got out here calculator and typed 10 Yuan! HAHA Basically she was trying to sell me a dime for a dollar. It seemed like everything was like that, they would do anything to make money. All in all, my days in the main part of China were filled with wide eyes and fascination about everything that was going on around me. When I left Xi’an I had no idea that I was headed for the most amazing place on my trip so far.…….. Tibet!

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