China Holiday

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Melbourne - Beijing Day 1 Wednesday 23/9/09

To all my friends and family around the world. This blog entry is a little longer than the others, so if you are not interested, perhaps just look at the pictures 😊


DAY 1 ITINERARY:
Check in at the airport bound for Beijing. On arrival into Beijing you will be met by your friendly tour guide. Your hotel will be Novotel Beijing Sanyuan Hotel.

We left home at 3am in the dark on a cold Wednesday morning, for the airport. Our first of seven flights in 2 weeks, was from Melbourne to Sydney. This flight went well, but once in Sydney we had a small problem, our flight was delayed and delayed and delayed again due to a dust storm. And so there we waited for our flight from Sydney to Shanghai. The delay was roughly 3 hours during which time, I felt as though I had spent all my travel spending money in the airport terminal food court and newsagents. Finally our plane left, although this unfortunate delay did mean that other people had missed their flights and therefore we had lots of empty seats around us for the 14 hour flight. I lay across 2 seats, while Tim sat behind me with Leona and Charlotte sat with Anna-Louise in the center isle area. A very bumpy flight and a huge headache caused me to get motion sickness and by the time we had landed in Shanghai I was trying very hard not to be sick and my head was thumping. As soon as we got off the plane, we were met by airport staff who were waiting with a list of passenger names, obviously those who were supposed to be on the connecting flight but may nearly miss it because of the delay. The air was so thick and sticky with heat, and this just contributed to the already uncomfortable situation we were experiencing. We collected our luggage first off the carousel which was nice, and rushed through the airport following the airport staff, ducking and weaving through the people like we were famous. We were so late that our next flight to Beijing had already boarded and the plane was waiting for us. After a short tiff with the airport staff regarding our luggage, we settled in for another 2 hour flight, with me still sick, nauseas and with a migraine and Tim and Charlotte sleep walking with tiredness. Somehow Leona had managed to stay awake the entire flight from Melbourne to Beijing and still managed to wake us all at 6am the next morning!

The China Holidays tour guide (Jack) met us at the airport with the bus and bus driver Mr Lu and drove us to the hotel, together with about 5 other people on our tour who had also just arrived from other parts of Australia and New Zealand. It was very late and nobody really could be bothered introducing themselves or making small talk until we were feeling a little more refreshed and normal tomorrow.

It was about an hour drive to our hotel but it was worth the wait. Our hotel ARIVA was absolutely lovely. Much more comfortable and cleaner than I had expected. I shared a room with Leona on the first night and on the second night we had arranged for a fold out bed for Tim to be in our room also. Anna-Louise and Charlotte shared the room next door. Our heads hit the pillows pretty fast and my first night in China was spent restless and with a migraine.

Beijing - Day 2 Thursday 24/9/09

DAY 2 ITINERARY:
Visit some of the sights of Beijing. The Forbidden City, Tianamen square & the Temple of Heaven.

Unwillingly, we were up and on the bus by 8.30am. We met the other lovely people on our tour, and enjoyed a brief introduction to China by our guide Jack. Excited for what was going to be experienced over the next few days, we listened intently to our program for our first day, and our first stop was the Temple of Heaven. The Temple is surrounded by a large park land area where retired and elderly spend their day playing cards, dancing, ribbon twirling, playing hacky sack and music. A very festive area filled with lovely happy people enjoying the warm air and each others company.

Leona and Anna-Louise had a try at dancing with the other Chinese ladies, while Tim kicked a hacky sack.

The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing, in Xuanwu District. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.

The actually temple seemed smaller than expected and was built using no nails, but interlocking beams instead. This is how lots of temples and buildings were constructed such a long time ago. This temple was where the Emperor would come to pray for a good harvest. Tourists aren't allowed inside the temple, but we could look through the doors and windows and into the musty large room.

After a long walk in the heat through the temple and park areas, we climbed back on the bus. Where are we going next? I'm hungry!

Lunch was at a restaurant not far away, that was down a level underground. It was an ok Chinese banquet, although no fried rice or dim sims! The Chinese food in China so far, is very different to our more Westernised Chinese restaurant meals, and this is something I am going to have to get used to over the next 10 days. Lots of the dishes were unidentifiable and we needed translation. Pork was commonly used in cooking, and green beans, watermelon and steamed rice were on the table.

After lunch Mr Lu drove us towards Tienanmen Square. But on the way to the square, we stopped off at a pearl factory. This wasn't in our itinerary,so it was a nice surprise. At the factory, or display rooms, we were shown how pearls are taken from the fresh water oyster shell and had a wander around the large jewelery and ornament displays. I bought some face moisturisor made from pearls.

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, culminating in the deaths of hundreds of civilian protestors referred to in most of the Western world as the Tiananmen Square massacre and in the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the June Fourth Incident (ostensibly to avoid confusion with two prior Tiananmen Square protests), were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the PRC beginning on 14 April. Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of communist governments around the world. The movement lasted seven weeks, from Hu's death on 15 April until tanks cleared Tiananmen Square on 4 June. In Beijing, the resulting military response to the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or severely injured. The number of deaths is not known and many different estimates exist. Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times estimated the death toll at 400-800 based on information he gathered from multiple medical sources.

Tienanmen Square was much as I had imagined it to be. A very large flat pedestrian area surrounded by 4 main roads. There were a few large buildings on the square and the meridian line of China runs though its centre. The body of one of China's famous political leaders Chairman Mao is on display in one of the buildings in the square, and his portrait also hangs in the square. It was a pleasant walk around the area but we were continually followed by Chinese people trying to take photos of Tim and Charlotte. It was very hot, but luckily for us China's sky is so grey and muddy that the sun had no chance of getting through and burning us too much.

We kept walking on further from the square to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was once home to two dynasties of Emperors spanning 500 years. The only people who were allowed inside the temple back in the Emperors time were the Emperor, his concubines and uniques. The were possibly up to 3000 people living in the city at any one time because if an Emperor died, his concubines would continue to live in the city.

Our tour guide Jack told us some wonderful stories of past Emperors and in particular the last Emperor who kept pet crickets under his thrown. Crickets are now a common household pet for Chinese children.

The forbidden city was very large and was contained within a huge wall and a river running around it as well to keep anyone out. The ground inside the city was paved stone which was also 5 layers thick in order to prevent anyone trying to dig their way in. After a stroll through the garden and a peek in the Emperors thrown room and bedroom, and ice creams in hand we headed back to the bus absolutely exhausted.

It was an early night for everyone. Back at the hotel I crawled straight into bed for a lie down while Tim and Leona went for a swim in the hotel pool, and Charlotte and Anna-Louise rested. I still had a headache which soon became a migraine, so I went downstairs to the hotel spa for a massage before a small buffet dinner and bed.

Beijing - Day 3 Friday 25/9/09

DAY 3 ITINERARY:
Visit the Great Wall of China in Beijing at Badaling. Visit the Silk market and at night see 'Legends of Kung Fu' performance.

We were up and ready to leave at 8.30am again. Our breakfasts have so far been at at the hotel each morning and have consisted of Western food such as eggs and bacon as well as dumplings, won ton soup and other smelly unidentifiable Chinese foods.

On the way to the Great Wall of China we stopped at a Jade factory. It wasn't really a 'factory' as such because Jade isn't manufactured, but it was more of a exhibition of the process of polishing and turning the Jade into jewelery and statues etc. I didn't realise that Jade isn't only green in colour, but can be all different colours from yellow, purple, white and blue. We stayed here for about an hour and then continued onto the Great Wall.

The section of the Great Wall of China which we visited was also called The Great Wall of Badaling, because this was the town area which the wall passed through. Lots of people died while building the wall, so their bodies were buried in the wall. This makes the Great Wall even more sacred to the people of China. The wall was also built over two thousand years.

We climbed the few stairs and walked along the top of the wall. It was so sleep walking along the top, even though there weren't many stairs, it was a very steep footpath that wound its way up and down as far as you could see. There weren't many people visiting the wall at the time, which was good and made it easier to take photos.

We spent about 2 hours at the wall in total and had a cold drink after our tiring adventure. The Chinese say that in order to be hero, you must climb the Great Wall of China. so I guess we are all going to be coming home heroes!

Lunch was at a place called The Friendship Store. There are apparently these stores all over China. It was kind of like a giant souvenir shop which had a large restaurant big enough to take a tour group. I bought a pink Jade bracelet before we left.

Along our way to the next stop for the day, we drove past the 'Birds nest' and 'Water cube', which were built for the 2008 Olympic games. The water cube was designed by an Australian architect, and apparently the birds nest building was made from Australian steel. Both buildings were very large, modern and impressive and we asked the bus driver to pull over so as we could take a few pictures.

Before dinner we explored the famous Silk Market. The market is indoors and spans a large area and is 6 stories high. Busy busy bustling aisles with Chinese women yelling out for us to look at their little stall or shop. If we kept walking, they would follow us. They brought us things to look at and followed us to see what we were perhaps interested in buying. Tim bought a couple of snow domes and I bought some small token gifts for friends.

Across the busy street we found a cute little sidewalk restaurant that looked clean enough compared to its competitors. Even though the raw food was on display out in the open air, it looked fresh and we were hungry. Dumplings? Do you sell dumplings? Yes? We found an unoccupied plastic table and chairs and one of the other women on the tour sat with us also. For 10 Yuan, feasted on 5 different flavored dumplings. Probably the best meal I have had in China yet! We scoffed down the last of the dumpling and raced back to the bus as we had to get to a live theatre performance at The Red Theatre called, The Legend of Kung Fu.

The Theatre was very large and funnily enough, it all lit up very red! We pushed inside through all the other tour groups waiting and hustled our way to our seats. The performance was absolutely amazing! Very professional and a great story. This particular theatre company had performed this show about 4000 times, and it was obvious.

It was very late by the time we left the theatre and everybody seemed very tired after a long day. We went straight back to the hotel and collapsed once again onto our hard beds.



Day 4 -Saturday 26/9/09 - Beijing

DAY 4 ITINERARY:
Beijing/Xi'an visit Tibetan Buddhist Temple outside Tibet, the Lama Temple and the 'Hutongs'. Enjoy a traditional peking duck dinner. At night be transferred to Beijing railway station for your onward night train to Xian.

Lucky for us, today we had a later start, but sharing a room with Leona and Tim meant that I was still woken at 6am. We needed to spend this morning packing our suitcases and carry on bags for an overnight journey on a train. Our main suitcases had to be checked in for the whole duration of the train ride, so we had to pack everything we would need for 2 days and 1 night into our small carry on. This proved to be a little easier for me to do than Leona, but it was manageable. I had a long shower and hair wash, my last for at least 48 hours. Goodbye hair straightener and personal space!

At 11am we met the rest of our group in the hotel foyer and prepared for the next chapter of our trip. After sorting out our luggage on the bus, we went straight to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Once again, lunch consisted of a large banquet, where the waitresses brought out plates and plates of food and squashed them all onto the table. The meals are all starting to be similar, and by now most of the group seems to be craving a McDonalds burger or a roast chicken and vegetables.

Today consisted of much less walking. Before we left Beijing, we had a couple more places to visit and explore. The first of these was a Buddhist temple. The temple wasn't just one building but lots of buildings with small courtyard gardens scattered around the outside of them. This temple was still a working temple and we were able to see the monks chanting and clanging their bells. The monks sat on cushions in a large hall, shoes off , in rows with little desk lamps in front of them so as they could read the chants written in front of them. The chanting continued for the whole time we were there, and I only wish I knew what they were saying.

Outside, tourists were taking photos, and Chinese people were lighting large bunches of incense and preying for their wishes to come true. The smoky air was pleasant with smell, and the sounds of the monks chanting really made the energy in the temple quite magical.

Our next little stop was one that I had personally been looking forward to. A visit to the Hutongs, or the local resident area where only around 30% of people still live. Hutongs basically refers to the little narrow side lanes that run between the houses.

The bus pulled up on the side of the road, in a very poor looking area. The people were brushing their teeth in the gutters on the side of the road, while others stared at us disembarking the bus as if we were aliens. It didn't take long for word to spread that we had arrived, and people started hassling us to buy their street wares. A Rolex watch? A silk scarf made from nylon? A musical instrument that looked as though it had been made out of things from a rubbish bin? No? You don't want to buy my things?.... Along the footpath were 5 waiting rickshaws ready to take us on a little ride through the lanes.

We hoped on the back of the rickshaws and were taken through the Hutongs for a closer look at the life of the Chinese. These houses didn't have their own toilets, so scattered amongst them were very stinky public toilet blocks. We were invited into a residents home to have a look closer at how they live in the hutongs. Their houses are built around courtyards, and consist of only a couple of small rooms. Kitchen, sitting area, bedroom, and bathroom (but no toilet). Two or three generations of a family live in the same little house. This particular family had pet crickets in a cage and some pet birds in their courtyard, very common household pets.

A small change to the itinerary. Anyone for a foot massage? The Beijing Chinese Medical Centre wasn't far away and we had some time to kill. 21 of us sat around the edge of a large room with feet in wooden buckets of warm water and herbs, while our feet were massaged. Ahhh so relaxing. We listened to a Chinese medicine doctor talk about different uses of herbs and causes of pain, and were later treated to a free medical check up with a Chinese medicine professor.

Relaxed and smelling nice, we left the medical centre and went for dinner. This dinner was one I had been waiting for! A peking duck dinner, at Beijing's most famous Peking Duck restaurant. We stuffed ourselves silly with Peking duck, and other duck dishes and then the dreaded time had come that we must navigate our way through the bisy train station and prepare ourselves for the unknown experience of a night on a Chinese train.

Day 5 - Sunday 27/9/09 - Xian

DAY 5 ITINERARY:

Visit the Big Goose Pagoda and the ancient city wall, check in at the Aurum hotel for 2 nights.


The overnight train wasn't as bad as I had thought. It was relatively clean and did have a Western style toilet on board, which made things more comfortable. The cabins slept 4, so I shared with Leona and Tim and Charlotte,while Anna-louise stayed in another cabin. A drinks trolley came past the door a couple of times, and people stood in the narrow passage way chatting before they retired to bed. It was a good chance to get to know others and rest before arriving in a new city.

In the early morning we arrived I Xian, and were met by a second guide Wendy, who was going to show us around the city. First stop, McDonalds breakfast!

The city of Xian was once surrounded by a large rectangular stone wall, with a perimeter of 13km. Over time,the city has developed and gown to spread to outside the wall. We climbed the stairs to the top of the wall and took a ride on a golf cart around the top of the city wall. Some other people in our group rode a bike and others walked some of the way.


DAY 6 ITINERARY:
Xian - Terracotta warriors museum, make chinese dumplings, and enjoy a performance of a Tang Dynasty Cultural show.


DAY 7 ITINERARY:
Xian/Guilin
Go to the airport for your onward flight to Guilin. Visit the Reed flute cave and stay at the Guilin Bravo Hotel.

DAY 8 ITINERARY:
Guilin/Yangshuo
Enjoy a cruise along the Li river, arrive at Yangshou and check in to New Century Hotel, free time amoungst the market stalls.

DAY 9 ITINERARY:
Yangshou/Shanghai
Return to Guilin, visit Elephant trunk hill, depart at airport for flight to Shanghai. Stay at Holiday Inn Vista Shanghai for 2 nights. Enjoy a visit to an acrobatics show.

DAY 10 ITINERARY:
Shanghai
Full day tour of Shanghai. Visit the Yu Gardens, old chinatown and Bund. Pudong to visit the Jin Mao Tower, a short cruise on the Huangpu river.

DAY 11 ITINERARY:
Shanghai
Depart Shanghai to fly home.

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