Blogs from Henan, China, Asia - page 19

We have done so much in the last few days that we have decided just to concentrate on the highlights. We took a night train from Nanjing to Keifeng for a 10 hour trip, travelling soft sleeper. Hard sleeper folk sit up all night but we softies got bunk beds in a four bunk compartment. The corridor of the carriage was filled with cigarette smoke and we were apprehensive about our roomies-to-be. Fortunately when they turned up neither of them smoked and we were able to get a decent nights rest, arriving in Keifeng at 7.20 a.m. I had woken at 6 and we stopped at one or two stations, none of which had their name anywhere in English and so I was worried that we would not know when we reached our stop. Fortunately ... read more

Not long left now and I am currently in Luoyang visiting the Shaolin monks. I left Chengdu on an overnight sleeper train to Xi'an which went smoothly and actually got a good nights sleep by tying a zip top around my head covering my face. It was good to arrive in Xi'an (a city with around 8million people known for its shopping). The guesthouse was literally opposite the Bell Tower, the centre point of the walled city and the first day was spent exploring the muslim quarter with its antique shops, tea houses (and shops). The following day we went to see the Terracotta Warriors and museum....something you have see when in China but was a little disappointed. From Xi'an to Luoyang was a 6hr train....very pleasantly surprised by the trains out here so far. ... read more

My first outside Beijing trip. At this point I haven’t picked up enough Mandarin to do a trip to out of town. So glad I have my fluent mandarin pal -who has been taking care of me since the day I got in Beijing- going with me. Well actually I was going with him. We bought the train tickets to Henan province. My first time on a train with sleepers. We got the upper ones. The train’s atmosphere is really something for me, people talked to each other, visiting other people’s and introduce themselves to have a chat, even to play Chinese chess, every once in a while this cart passed by selling everything they yell every of it. “Kuang Quan Shui, Fangbian Mian, Kekou Kele” (Mineral water, Instant Noodles, Coca Cola), over and over. ... read more

Luoyang - 10.02.06 The 10th Feb was a pretty hectic day. Not only did we visit the Shaolin temple (previous entry) we also just managed to get a bus to Luoyang - over an hour away - and visit the Longmen caves before catching a midnight train to Xi'an. The Longmen caves are over 100,000 images and statues of the budda carved into the cliffs by the Yi River. Some are straight onto the cliff face and others are in little grottos. Many of the buddas have been partly destroyed over the years (souvenir hunters apparently) but it is still worth visiting if only for the Ancestor Worshipping Temple which is a large cave carved around AD 672 with a massive seated budda. We had a peaceful 2 hours stroll along the river and I had ... read more

Kaifeng is good, unlike all other Chinese cities weve been to town planners have restricted the hight of buildings to three stories, resulting in an atmospheric humanist enviroment. Charm is especially abundant at 6.15 each evening as a night market opens in the town centre creating a bustling gastronomic extravaganza with speciality foods from all over the country. Weve enjoying some delicious Uighur kebabs, spiced lamb roti, baozi (as opposed to jaozi), hand pulled noodles, and an unidentified strange looking but tasty desert of fruits, seeds, nuts and herbs swimming in a milky ectoplasm: all in one day and two nights! With the little time leftover from our eating weve visited the tourist sights. Longting park, including dragon pavilion, turned out to be the worlds naffest attraction: Gaudy luminously technicolour banners and floats, and an awful ... read more