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Published: September 21st 2007
We started off early on Sunday morning to catch the bus to Guilin where we would catch our flight to Beijing. We got to the bus station early but the bus was booked out. So back to our home for a morning nap and by 11.30 we were on our way.
The bus trip was SO long but we arrived in Guilin stepping off the bus to ladies pushing lists of hotels in our face. We bargained like usual and ended up staying in a modest hotel 5 minutes from the Bus station.
Guilin, our first taste of decent western food in 5 months. We headed straight to Pizza Hut. We found a pedistrian mall and sat outside a cafe and fested on Coronas and Carlsberg.
We headed off early to catch our plane to Beijing and we were collected at the Beijing Airport by our guide. His name was Chen Chen (horror-head for short!). We had a couple of hours wait until mum and aunty pam arrived so again Damo and i checked out everywhere they sold western food. We went to starbucks for a $10 coffee and an Irish bar for a $10 kilkenny.
Mum
and Aunty arrived safe and sound and we were driven to our hotel. We noticed that there werent as many people in Beijing as we had envisioned and the roads were wider and it seemed alot cleaner than expected. We arrived at our new and luxuriously hotel. What a delight with a buffet breakfast every morning. Once we had settled in we decided to go for a walk and find a restuarant for dinner. A street away from our hotel, we found a resturant that had many people in it - hopefully a good sign. We ordered Chinese beer which mum and Pam loved and many traditional dishes including Peking (Beijing) Duck. Eating Peking Duck in Peking (Beijing), what a buzz!!
Our first full day in Beijing and we were off to Tianamen Square. WOW! It was extremely smoggy on our first day. We missed out on going into the Museleum to see Chairman Maos body in a glass case, damn it, as it was being renovated. While I was there all i could think about were the '89 demonstrations and that, right now, if anyone is caught in a public debate about it they could be sent to
jail. It was errie and overwhelming as everywhere there were people trying to sell postcards, kites, books, bags, jewellery, nicknaks etc. Chen Chen got so frustrated by them he kicked one of them in the arse!!HA! - That was our first experience of his bad temper.
Next off we were off to the forbidden City with its 8000 rooms. It was huge and amazing to think that it was to house one Emperor and all his people. It was a very hot day and many things were being renovated, but it was interesting to see where the Emperor lived and where the concubines and other important officals stayed.
The afternoon was spent at Beihai Park where i was really surprised that such a lovely, peaceful place, full of trees, a big lake and elderly folk leisurely singing could exist, as it was in the centre of Beijing.Back at the hotel, I was lucky enough to have such a generous mum and godmother to bring a HUGE care-package over for me. So the evening was spent in our hotel room eating Caburys chocolate and drinking Cockatoo Ridge Champagne. Delightful.
Wednesday morning we were off to The Great Wall,
but first we were taken to our first tourist trap, a Jade factory. Mum bought a cabbage!
The Great Wall was TRUELY GREAT. Amazing to have been built by hand and the length of it. Damo and I climbed to one of the lookout points and the steps were so steep. All along the path there were locals selling everything from postcards to scarves to paintings to t-shirts to peeing statues to beer. Of course we had to stop for a beer on the Great Wall.
Second tourist trap was the copper factory - for 3 hours. We had lunch there and we all tried a 10RMB ($A1.5) bottle of Bijou (a cherished kind of rice wine). It was terrible, perhap worse than drinking metho.
After we left the Copper/vase factory, we were driven through an area where there were 100's of Tombs from the people of the Ming Dynasty. It was really beautiful to see. Driving through the farms and trees seeing tombs stones that had been there since AD1368.
We were also driven past the Olympic grounds, the arena for the opening ceremony, called the birds nest and the area that the athletes
will be housed.Off to the 3rd tourist trap for the day, the Silk factory.
Evening came upon us very quickly and we were off to see a Beijing Opera. It was absolutely awesome. The costumes, make up, acrobatics and singing (although it did sound a little like a dying cat) was spectacular. Dinner was sitting outside for hot pot. A non-spicy fondu kind of arrangement with slivers of meats, potato, mushroom, tofu and of course a few Chinese beers.
Walking back through the streets of downtown Beijing we were sucked into having a massage by people with a fold up chairs on the street. Its a hard life, I know!
Thursday, and we were off to the summer palace. It was so beautiful. Apparently the emperess would eat 108 dishes for every meal, loved to talk to her dogs and had beautiful colourful paintings made all around the Summer Palace (we wondered if she liked a bit of the opium).
After much convincing to Chen Chen to pleeeease take us to a local resturant for some 'local' food instead of the horror of tourist/Chinese food our driver took us to a wonderful underground restuarant where they
made our noodles fresh while we waited. They were made into noodle soup and the fresh noodles melted in our mouths.
Mum and Pam just hadnt had enough of our 2 hour trip to the Silk Factory the day before so they were off again. Then Damo and I went to the beautiful temple called The Temple of Heaven. My absolute favourite place in Beijing. It was very spacious. The air was clear and the sky blue. The colours on the temple were blues and greens, it was 3 tiered. 1 tier for earth, 1 tier for humans and 1 tier for heaven/the sky. There were pictures and artifacts about ceremonies that occured there and sacrifices that happened. I felt a real connection to the history of that Temple of Heaven.
Our time in Beijing was jam packed and that night we were dropped off at the train station to catch the overnight train to Xi'an. We had a hard sleeper which means we were on bunkbeds 3 high with 50 others but we had a partition between each set of 6 beds. Walking onto the train I turned around to look at mum and Damo and i
could see they were thinking what the hell have you gotten us into Daniella.... It was squashy, smoky, stinking and we were tired and a little overwhelmed. But they had to trust me. Once we were settled in it was lovely. We spent about 5 hours in the dining car drinking light beer, eating 2 minutes noodles and playing Uno. Mum nearly fell down the toilet and Aunty stole the conducters hat and ran around with it... (maybe I'm exaggerating a little??)
Xi'an. Home of the terricotta Warriors. We arrived into Xi'an at 6AM and were taken to our hotel by our lovely guide called Dominic. We booked into our hotel and then went over to the Marriott for a buffet breakfast.It rained quite a bit while we were in Xi'an but it didnt matter. We went to The Wild Goose Temple which is were Tripitaka (The priest that rides the horse on the ABC series Monkey Magic), the first person to bring Buddism to China (from India) and we were in the exact place were he translated all the transcripts, and there were thousands of them.
Xi'an is surrounded by a great wall of its own, so
we climbed it and went to a Feng Shui Museum. It was only open 72 days a year depending on the date. We rubbed a statue of a Lion Horse that had ears, a beard, sides and a rump. A big mouth so big fortune can come in but no tail or bottom so the fortune could not get out. Still in X'an we ate at a local restuarant and were given a meat dish which they said was chicken. There's no way it was chicken.. Im betting it was woof.
Again, we were taken to a tourist trap but this time it was a rug and tie die silk factory.After that, we had a free afternoon so we walked around and tried some local delicacies, pasties with sweet and satay fillings. All four of us stopped a motorbike taxi and although nearly broke the suspension got a lift back into the center of the city. Many people wouldn't have stared so much if they hadnt heard the incredible laughing and giggles coming from within. The poor driver didnt know what he was getting himself into.
Saturday was our day to see the famous Terricott Warriors. It was
very eerie with every warrior having its own character. The Warriors are still being excavated 30 years later.The afternoon was spent in a local massage house. It included a shoulder massage, foot massage and foot sauna. It was divine. Now we were all very relaxed and happy and we were off to eat.. again!
Sunday we had an early check out as we were off to the airport to catch our 8AM flight to Chongqing to begin our river cruise down the Yangtze River.
We arrived into Chongqing and were met by a lovely girl names Nile (Like the river) We hopped in our minibus and were driven around the windy, mountainous roads of Chongqing to the cities lookout. It was a very smoggy and foggy city and we could hardly see a thing. We were taken to a murial which showed the Yangtze River now and what will happen once the mighty Three Gorges Dam is complete in 2009. It is the largest wall mural in the world - just like the dam is gonna be the biggest in the world.
The river will rise 130 feet by 2009 and we were about to take a
4 day cruise up it before this happens. But first it was time for dinner. Our restuarant had a spectacular view of the city of Chongqing and we had traditional hot (very spicy) pot which this area is famous for. In this spicy fonde type arrangement we had Eel, Pork, sword fish, beef, tofu skin, mushrooms, quail eggs and a coupla beers to wash it down with.
We checked into our cabins on the cruise ship and settled onto mum and pams balcony for a drink before bedtime.
Our first morning on the big boat and we were awoken by relaxing music in our cabins with a good morning message saying breakfast was ready.
During our time on the cruise we attended a talk on Traditional Chinese Medicine. Aunty was a volunteer for the massage, I was a volunteer for the accupunture and some kind of burning method over the accupuncture point. It hurt.
We all booked in for massages and a full treatment of accupunture. It was wonderful to be away from the busyness, struggle and rip offs of the tourist areas we had been over the past week. We got to really unwind and
spend some valuable time together.The scenery was spectacular - see pictures. Although throughout the whole trip in the back of my mind I really wondered what will happen once the great dam is complete?
In the future it will flood 13 cities, 140 towns and 1,352 villages, it will swamp 650 factories and 139 power stations. The garbage dumps and the chemical deposits will be held stagnant in the new reservoir. Over 380 million people live in the Yangtzes watershed, more than in America and Canada combined. That is 1 person out of every 12 on earth that will perhaps be displaced.
See pictures to get a feel for the beauty of this area of China. It seems that life is slow on the banks of the Yangtze and if i was lucky enough I would get a glance at a temple amongst the forest on the mountains that overlooked this mighty river. And it was a mighty and powerful river, muddy and brown and full of strength and direction. It had a place to get to and it wasn't waiting for anything or anyone to get there.
Every time we would walk into our cabin there
would be relaxing music playing, there would be crisp clean white sheets on our beds and the staff were so wonderful and I am a very bad critic when it comes to service.
On the second day we docked to hop on a smaller boat to go down a (obviously) smaller river. The cliffs along this river were very steep with deep narrow caves. Many of the caves had 'hanging coffins'. The guides said they have no idea where the hanging coffins came from as they are so high and it seems it would be very difficult to get to the top of them with a coffin and a body inside. The cobwebs were so big and thick we could see them from the boat.
Before we hopped on the ship we were going to get ripped off big time for buying some beers to take on with us. We were taken to a place and it would've cost over $A30 for 12 long necks. But we were smart and said we didnt want the 'Laiwai (foreigner) discount' so we were taken to the local market and got a box of beer for around $A4. Anyway the morning
we were to leave the boat we had many beers left, so we took the chairs from our cabin and sat at the back of the boat. A small astroterfed area and watched the river pass us by. Im sure it was 12 noon somewhere in the world, but it certainly wasnt on our little deck.
The end to our trip down the Yangzte River came to an end very quickly and before we knew it, it was time to disembark and catch a bus, mini bus and local bus to Wuhan (The Oven State of China).
We stayed in Wuhan the night after travelling all the way to the airport thinking our plane left at 8pm that night, then to be told by the airline staff at the counter that it was 8pm the next night. So another taxi ride back to our hotel, which was perhaps run by the Chinese mafia (am I watching too much Sapranos? I dont know.).
Our day in Wuhan, although was extremely hot and humid was a nice rest day. We checked out a couple of local temples and returned to a good restuarant we tried the night before.
The next night was our flight from Wuhan to Guilin. We were picked up by Mike our tour guide and taken to the most derilict hotel I have ever seen or stayed in. I was terrified to enter the lift by myself. I just crossed my fingers and went to sleep.
Friday morning we were off to a pearl factory then to catch a small boat to take us on a day trip down the Li River to Yangshou.
The boat could fit maybe 8 people and was made of wood. We sat at the front of it looking at the again spectacular scenery, with our feet dangling into the clear cool water. This area is so spectacular that it is printed on the 20 RMB note.
We stayed 2 days in Yangshou. You may think I rave on about loving western food whenever i can get it. I can tell you that mum and Pam were ready for Western food after 2 weeks too.
Yangshou is where I started off in China. Where the company that I work for is and there is a great West street. It is full of markets, with great bargains,
atmosphere and many many western cafes.From Yangshou we caught a bus to my home town of Guigang, Guangxi.
Once there we did daily life stuff for a couple of days before mum and aunty had to return to Australia. Such as massage, hair washes, eating, drinking and shopping.It was a good ending to a 'fabulous' holiday.
After mum and pam left it was time for me to pack up my things and say goodbye to Guigang. I was to head back to Yangshou and find out what new adventures I had in store and to which City and school I would be heading off to next.Damo left China to follow his dreams and I followed my dream of teaching in China.
This has been one big ass blog, so if you're still with me I hope you enjoyed it. I'm thinking of you and know that now 2 months after these events, I am happier than I could have ever imagined being in China. Bye for now.Dani xxxx
P.S. Much of the stats I have used in this blog regarding the Yangtze River were taken from a book called River Town by Peter Hessler. It's a
fabulous book of an English teachers 2 year account living in a small town on the Yangtze River. I highly recommend it.
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Damo
non-member comment
Hello
Hi Dani, reading about our trip brings back so many memories, the hot pot was great..... Many more adventures ahead.... Miss you .. xx