Kunming is the last major city in China before the southern border to Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. It is the capital of Yunnan province. The people here have there own way of life partly because Yunnan is surounded by quite high mountains and thus has been more separat from the rest of Chiana during its history. One thing I definitely noticed was that people are not as active and bustling as elsewhere. Together with the warm and clear weather this made me enjoy my time pretty much. When I strolled the streets I came by many tea shops, selling the famous [View Full Entry]

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The reason I went to Leshan is a giant Buddha carved out of the rock next to the river by some hard-working monks. Leshan is very nice itself because it is situated on the peninsula of a river mouth. Instead of joining all the tourists on the standard boat cruise to the huge feet I took a ferry to an island opposite the Buddha. Here, many locals spent there evening while having a picnic and enjoying the view. [View Full Entry]

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The bambu forrests of Sichuan province is one of the last refuges of the Giant Panda. Spoting one in the wild is rare and a better option for the tourist in a rush is the breeding center near Chengdu. Since I was runing out on my Chinese Visa (got ony four weeks to reach Laos) I went to this place. Togther with Raul I spent an evening walking around the different enclosures to find a Panda which is not sleeping... we found one. Supprise, supprise, he was eating instead, his second often 'activity'. Also in the breeding center, we saw a [View Full Entry]

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Together with Raul I took the bus from Xi'an to the nearby Tomb of Qin Shi Huang. The place is known better as 'Terracotta Army' because that's the main attraction to see. The Tomb itself is a rather uninteresting green mound. That would be all if not some local farmer drilling a well in the 70's had discovered a huge underground army of terracotta soldiers. They symbolically stand guard at the tomb and are arranged in several formations around it. Before they were discovered wooden structures supported the ground above them. These structures had collapsed or had been distroyed in many [View Full Entry]

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The actual reason for my stopover in Xi'an was the nearby Tomb of Qin Shi Huang. But the town itself was really nice, too. I arrived on the train from Beijing and just in front of the train station I was standing next to the old city wall. The whole city is structure very well inside this rectangular shaped city wall and around the central square with the old bell tower. It was in Xi'an that I discovered a Chinese basement hotel the first time. It's basically what the name tells you, the rooms are on floor -1. It's not so [View Full Entry]

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The best trip I did in China so far was to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. Starting from Beijing there are several possibilities to visit the Great Wall. And everybody will tell you another spot which is the most beautiful, the most remote, has the least tourists, is restored in the most original way, is by far the cheapest, features the 'Secret Wall', and so on. Especially the touts in Bejing selling all inclusive tours are very imaginative in praising their spot. And all the other tourist I met where quite certain that the place they had visited is the best. [View Full Entry]

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What life in China is like is by far beyond the scope of this journal, it is already difficult fro me to tell the part of it that I experienced. China has been the most interesting country so far, in term of diversity, in term of people, in terms of sightseeing, and in terms of difference from home. An impressive moment has been when I first visited a big Chinese Supermarket, a three storry building, bigger than any supermarket I have seen before. I had gone there in the hope of some European food. But I had to realize that there [View Full Entry]

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In the center of Beijing is the Tian'amen Square and north of it the Forbidden City. The whole layout of these is huge, somhow resembling the vatsness of the Chinese empire. On foot you walk a whole day just to explore all the gates, halls, gardens, and courtyards. Like this you can experience the Chinese peopels' taste for monumetal buildings very genuinly. The Forbidden City has several nested courtyards. So you are walking from gate to gate to the innermost courtyard. Here you find three halls, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Medium Harmony, and the Hall of Protective [View Full Entry]

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Distances in West-China are huge. So transport is often overnight. From Kashgar to Urumqi a fast (22h) connection is by sleeper bus. I haven't seen this kind of bus before. It contains three rows of bunk beds. A single bed is not to big, the feet are in a box below the head of the man in front. But it's still a lot more comfortable than a bus seat. Even nicer is going by train, hard sleeper. This possibility I used from Urumqi to Beijing. You get a good, long enough, clean and quite comfortable bed. And you can really sleep, [View Full Entry]

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Kashgar is the first major city in China when you come from Pakistan. At first it looks very Chinese. Big modern buildings, broad streets. One very big east-west street and one very big north-south street. Transport system is well organized, Chinese Supermarkets everywhere. A huge statue of Mao Zedong at the main street. But most of the people do not look Chinese at all. They look like people from central Asia. And when you take a second glance you can find signs of their culture everywhere. This becomes especially obvious at the markets. Kashgar is famous for its Sunday market. When [View Full Entry]

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