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Published: January 25th 2010
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We really like China. It’s a far cry from where we’ve been. It’s like being back in the real world without having to go to work every day! There’s bins in the street and footpaths so no more near misses from tuk tuks. The hostels have HAIRDRYERS! AND 24 hour hot water. The public transport could be described as ‘delightful’ and the overnight trains are a dream. People are really friendly and are generally super willing to help with directions or advice, without wanting anything in return. If they can’t speak English they will find someone for you who can or do their best to help anyway. The rest of the locals just like shouting “HERRO!” or just giving you a big smile as you walk by. Theres really a lot we like here, and most of those things have been quite unexpected. But there are a few expections to the rule.
We arrived in Chengdu from Kathmandu on a frightingly turbulant flight but before we clung on for dear life and tried not to throw up - Tom took some snaps of the views coming over the Hymalaya. Chengdu is about as far west as you can get without
getting too close to Tibet which is where we wanted to head. No luck though. It seems the only way to get there is by getting roped into a HUGELY expensive tour and having a guide the whole time. You can’t even just buy a train ticket and go, you need a Tibet permit to get a ticket and you need a guide to get a permit. Nightmare. Eventually we gave up on the Tibet idea and went to look at Pandas instead. After the “No Rhino” situation in Nepal we were glad to see a whole bunch of happy little puffs of black and white behind big walls with viewing platforms, chewing away on their bamboo.
Next stop was an overnighter to Xi’an. I was finally on the way to the Terrcotta Warriors that I’d been looking forward to seeing in the flesh since year 9 art. First, we checked into Han Tang Inn which was excellent. It’s absolutely brand new and immaculate and the staff are SO SWEET! Everynight you get a free beer and bar snacks and a free cuddle from a kitten. On the first night the free beer did the job and we got
drinking. Tom sank several glasses of beer laced with tobasco and won us a free breakfast and there was more free beers going to guests who wanted to get up and sing. Try and stop me! It was horrendus but it meant Tom got his first Giuness in months. Anyway, in my drunken state I was blagging to one of the managers about Tom’s DJ skills and he asked if Tom wanted to go to another bar their hostel owned and DJ there the next night.
We were still hungover as hell when we got there but the big boss was stoked that he had a pommy DJ and bought us Guiness and cocktails all night. He loved what he heard and invited Tom to DJ the next night at his Irish bar. More beers, plus a dinner that night. He was so pleased we made the efford to get there he also offered to take care of our acoommodation costs too. Admittedly, we spent the whole three days wondering what the catch was but there was none. They were just really bloody nice people.
Anyway somewhere amongst all the booze we managed to get to see what
we came to see. The Terracotta Warriors are in a massive concrete complex behind a mile long maze of shops between the ticket booth and the entrance. When you finally get to the gate you’re confronted with three big gray warehouse-like blocks that house the digging pits. We visited them in reverse order. No.3 was pretty dire. There were a couple dozen smashed up statues and one standing horse in a small pit. No.2 was a huge expance of excavated land but no worriers, just a pit. The signs said they’d uncovered 127 sodiers in that pit but none were there. Where are they all? Pit No.1 was meant to be the prize taker. Don't get me wrong, it was certainlty facinating. For some reason I thought there were going to be 6000 of the buggers all waiting patiently to see us… but no. There may have been a couple of hundred, in little groups liotering, looking bored. The most impressive part is the fact that some bloke thought he would be protected by these men, frightening off armies of centuries to come. But he mustn’t have imagined a Chinese governent official of the 20th centurty being lead to the
pit full of priceless artifacts and in less than three years tearing it apart and implanting an international tourist destination, that’s scarey for other reasons entirely. The museum there was pretty useless and didn't mention anything about why the warriors were made. Just an extensive section about buiding the new site and how cool it is.
We took another overnight train to ChongQing which was where we would board the cruise for our trip down the Yangzi. The city itself was pretty dreary but we managed to find some amazing street food and the Three Gorges Dam Museum was also pretty cool to look at even though we couldn’t read anything. The cruise lasted three nights and three days. We shared a four sleeper cabin with a lovely couple from New Zealand who live in London which made the trip very bearable. The cabin was very small and unless we wanted to pay an extra 6 quid each, there was no where else to sit on the boat. There were a couple of outdoor decks which would have been nice in summer but it was freezing and grey outside so as good ex-pats do, we just sat in our
room and drank beer. We came outside sometimes with our cameras as we went through the gorges which was duely impressive and hopped off the boat a couple of times to buy pot noodles and chocolate.
Yichang is the last stop of the cruise but is pretty much just a stop before you head somewhere else. Directly from there we were lucky enough to get an overnight bus straight to our next destination, or so we thought.
The bus was fine to look at. A big tourist vehicle with beds, TVs and only about 6 other people on board. But about 3 hours after we left it took a turn for the worst. We turned down a laneway and pulled up beside a ute. Three guys started loading cages full of dogs into the luggage compartment. The cages were about 1m x 1m x 30cm each carrying about five full grown live dogs. They were literally being thrown off the back of the truck and smashing to the ground. It was horrific. About 3 hours later another half a dozen cages were loaded on from another place. When we stopped for dinner we couldn't stand by the bus,
the smell was unbearable, not to mention the sound. We’ve never heard so many animals in pain. This sort of stuff turns your opinions of a country around as quickly as it turns your stomach. They were offloaded at about 3am to a couple of guys with another ute. We think they were to be used for food.
We didn't sleep much and arrived here in Guilin at about 6am. After a scarey night and fours days without a shower it was a relief and we’ve used the shower and haridryer to our full advanatge. Today we went to visit the highlight of the city, the Reed Flute Caves and although it cost about 2 thirds of our daily budget it was SO worth it. It was certainly one of the best sights in China so far.
We have about another week in China, then we hop over to Hong Kong before coming back to the mainland. We’re really looking forward to the SHOPPING. Tom wants us to say prayers that the new Iphone comes out in the next week please so we can buy one on the cheap.
Miss you all lots, promise to be in
touch again soon!
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Lisa
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Happy Australia Day
Well, while you're in China, I'm heading to the northern beaches with a blow up thong, zinc on my cheeks, cricket bat and ball and a bucket hat made of the Australian flag print (made in China of course!). Happy Australia Day you two. Travel safe and happy, Lisa xox