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Published: September 15th 2009
Hello. We've just limped into Xi'an. Both of us are struggling a bit after taking on a mountain called Emei Shan. It is a sacred place for Buddhists and they climb it as a pilgrimage, maybe that should have given us a hint as to what to expect - over 3,000m high and stairs all the way! We worked out that we covered a full marathon distance in stairs, ouch! We stayed in a Buddist monastery on the mountain overnight. Sounds cool but not all it's cracked up to be. It was damp, expensive and the monks were pretty disappointing though it was good to wake up to the chanting in the morning. We also encountered a few wild monkeys on the way. Nice to watch them from a distance but quite intimidating when a group of them block the path. One of them really growled at Lisa as we edged past!
Just before we left Chengdu, we met an aussie chef who was travelling China to research different foods. He also spoke Mandarin. An ideal person to go out for food with then! We went for some hotpot, a traditional food in Sichuan province not be be confused with
Stairway to...?
No more steps. I'm clutching my monkey defence brolly!!the lancashire variety. They put a wok of spicy liquid in the middle of the table and you put meat, fish etc in to cook then wash down with lots of beer. Very tasty but here they eat the little fish whole including head and bones mmmmmmm crunchy.....
We then moved on to a town called Langzhong. Apparently this is where Chinese civilisation originated. The whole place is designed around Feng Shui and we stayed in a lovely hostel in the feng shui museum. We were shown round by a guide who told us that there were just 20 western tourists in the past year. In most places people stare at us but here people actually took photos of the white people! Everyone is super friendly though as has been our experience all through China so far.
Then back on the bus and train for the 18 hour trip to Xi'an....
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rachel
non-member comment
food and exercise!
what great luck to find an chinese speaking aussie and get some great local food and know it doesnt contain frogs from that supermarket you visited! 8) food i had in singapore was equally interesting but at least they spoke english and were also super friendly! My actaul half marathon is in 10 days so unlike chinese hot pot im tucking into good old pasta! 8) keep the blog coming, this is really an ace read and better than any travel book - where else would you get videos of pandas! rach x