China

First stop was Beijing. Although I just missed the Olympics by a few days it was good to look around the city. Straight away you can appreciate how clean it is after previous destinations. During the games the government had bought new buses and limited the number of cars entering the city by registration to reduce the smog and it defiantely worked. Beijing is very much a show city for China but it takes along time to get used to how large it is. One day I hired a bike thinking I could quickly make my way around the centre but in the end I only got as far as Tiananmen Square before I was exhausted and starting to feel the heat.

You could easily spend a week in Beijing but as I only had 30 days to get right across China I was only there for a few days but went to the palace, Tiananmen Square and the great wall. Whilst visiting the wall it took a bit longer to get to the top than expect as Chinese people would sometimes stop you for a quick conversation or more often than not get their photograph taken

Typical Chinese Woman

with you. This pattern continued through China and people that could speak English were always helpful whenever they could but when you are reading a book it is not uncommon to get it grabbed of you so they could have a closer inspection!!

Xi’an was the next destination and very popular with tourists, I visited the Drum and Bell tower, Muslim quarter and Terracotta Army. All were impressive and like Beijing, Xi’an is a very large developed city which means you do have travel around to see the more distinct Chinese areas. In the evening it was quite late but a few people from the guest house were keen to go out so I ended up going to a club. The Chinese people in there were very excited to see a few British tourists, as we were the only ones there but you could not help but feel the presence of a number military police around the edge making sure things didn’t get out of hand!!

After a quick visit to Chengdu I went to Emei Shan which I China’s largest mountain and is very popular with Chinese tourists. It was good to get out of the towns

Chinese kitchen

and when I went there it was quite quiet. Probably due to the number of visitors it has stone steps and pathways to prevent too much erosion but they lead to various temples and monasteries. After being turned away from one of the monasteries the first night by a monk, I was stopped by a guide who managed to get me a room for a couple of nights. It was a very atmospheric place to stay for a couple of nights and on one of them I was woken up at 4:30am by a lightening storm, the chiming of bells and the sound of the monks chanting.

After quite a quick dash across China I was ready to take it easy for a few days and went on a river cruise down the Yangzi. After a bit of confusion in translation I arrived at the ship an hour late just before it was due to sail and was shown to the cabin where I would be for the next three days. The family I was sharing with were quite surprised to see me but after a few hand gestures and broken English conversations we started to get along and

Drum Tower - Xi'an

I offered them a couple of beers. In return they produced a bag of vacuum packed chickens feet……I thought I should try one but one was enough. After that we got on well and on the last night they took me out to dinner and the cruise ‘show’.

This wasn’t the last time I went out with some Chinese for dinner and in the village of Fenghuang I had ordered for me whole crabs on sticks, snails, grubs, larvae and wasps, amongst other things.

Finally I stopped at Yangshou and its surrounding villages before heading off to Hong Kong.

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