Advertisement
Another fantastic high speed train took us further north from Chengdu towards Xi’an, the home of the famous Terracotta Warriors and the end of the Silk Road. Being a walled city, I was expecting it to be quaint and filled with old houses and temples. I mean I couldn't have been more wrong. With almost 13 million people living there it'd be hard for it to be described as quaint. It took almost an hour for us to drive from the train station to our hotel in the centre, through a sprawling city of bright lights. The centre is full of designer labels and big brands - Louis Vuitton, Rolls Royce - the Silk Road’s products may have changed but the marketplace is very much still in action. We were feeling a bit down as it was tipping it down with rain, which was limiting our options of things to do. We met up with the same friends who we were with earlier in the trip, Erik and Kat, and after an unsuccessful attempt at going to the museum (the 6000 free tickets had sold out if you can believe that, and to pay full price cost 300 yuan, about £35!),
we had a wet walk around the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. By now we were beginning to get a bit fed up of all the admission fees - at the pagoda you had to pay to get through the gates and into the grounds, and then pay again to go inside the pagoda itself! At three or four pounds every time it does begin to add up. Eventually we decided the best thing for it was to eat some hotpot and drink some beer. We went to a restaurant next to our hotel where they asked for a rough idea of things we liked. We were served long platters loaded with thin slices of lamb, bowls of mushrooms, plates of thinly sliced potatoes and loads of veg. The hotpot was split in two - one bright red, boiling and spicy, and the other a tasty vegetable broth, all served with beautiful spices and an amazing sesame dip. It was one of the best meals we had in China, and even one of the best we've had this year!
The next day Amy and I headed off to see the Terracotta Warriors. Discovered back in 1974 by a couple of
peasant farmers digging a well (who must have had quite the shock), the three uncovered pits apparently contain around 8000 soldiers, all of which are life-sized and unique. The level of detail is astounding, right down to facial expressions and hairstyles. The amount of time that this must have taken is extraordinary, all apparently done to protect the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, in the afterlife. But unfortunately the dreaded tour groups struck again - this time some orange hatters being the worst culprits - pushing and shoving, shouting and screaming, and even spitting on what is arguably one of China's most important historical sites! Grrr. Breathe in breathe out. Trying to be tolerant of some of the behaviour can be tough sometimes! I'm not sure which was more imposing in the end - the tour groups or the warriors!
Another interesting area of Xi’an, near to the impressive Drum and Bell Towers, is the Muslim Quarter. Turning a corner you are suddenly faced with men wearing taqiyahs and the women dressed in headscarves, a long and exciting bazaar full of convincing fake goods, stone circular doorways, and street food stalls galore. The food here was also
amazing - the Chinese style hamburgers made with flat bread and stuffed with marinated pulled pork, spicy lamb skewers, and rolled yoghurt ice cream being the standouts. Again it had been turned into a bit of a theme park, full of domestic tourists and lined with the usual handicraft shops with people out the front making the goods. Here we saw women with piles of oysters, taking the pearls out and polishing them in machines right in front of you. No need to worry about fakes here! But as with all of these tourist hot spots in China, it doesn't take much to get away from the crowds. Just turning off the main street into one of the smaller roads left all the crowds behind and meant that you could see the more genuine side to the area.
The train to our next destination, Pingyao, took us through plains as far as the eye could see, alongside miles of quarries and tilled rice paddies cut out of the red earth. We had been covering such huge distances on these high speed trains it was interesting to see how the landscape was changing. Pingyao is another walled ancient town, well
preserved and somehow untouched by the Cultural Revolution, with its dusty dry and cobbled streets lined either side by low houses with tiled roofs and strung with red lanterns, packed with temples and historic residences. Willow catkin pollen, like cotton, was gently falling all around. Some houses were being restored in the traditional way, the walls being rebuilt with wattle and daub from piles of manure lying in the street. Old men and women sat outside on the streets guarding the entrances to their courtyards, sitting quietly and staring into space with nothing to do other than the occasional gossip with their neighbours. I waved and offered a
nihao to one as I walked by, and watched her eyes light up as she waved excitedly back. Houses sit behind the gates, built around beautiful courtyards, all decorated with these hanging red lanterns. Our hotel was in one of these traditional courtyards, where we slept on a traditional
kang bed (a raised platform with an oven inside, traditionally slept upon to keep warm during the bitter winters). At night time the soft red glow from the lanterns delicately lit up the courtyard and sent us back hundreds of years. It is
a really pretty town, and I couldn't help but peer through the gateways whenever the gates had been left open to see what might lie beyond. I think that it is exactly the kind of place you imagine when you picture an old Chinese town. Amy had unfortunately come down with something nasty, so I had to explore alone, leaving her cursing the man that had sneezed directly in her face a couple of days earlier! The tour groups were still here, whizzing around the streets in their electric golf buggies, but again it was easy enough to stay clear of the crowds.
A supposedly easy day trip from Pingyao is to the religious mountain of Mian Shan. We couldn't find out much information on how to get there, so just made our way to the train station so we could try and get one step closer to it. Of course we managed to forget our passports, which you need in order to get on any of the faster trains, and no amount of pleading or showing of pictures of the passports would appease the ticket master. So to save time we jumped in a taxi to take us
to the nearby town, where there were supposed to be buses taking us to the mountain. This was the first and only time where someone tried to cheat us in China, where upon arrival one of the taxi drivers tried to tell us that we had missed all the buses for the day, which I felt couldn't be true. Everywhere else in China we were offered fair prices right off the bat by taxi drivers and they were nothing but honest. Finally we found a bus that was apparently going in that direction, although you can never be sure in China. By a stroke of luck we did end up at the base of the mountain, two and a half hours after we had left Pingyao! The landscape had been an interesting one, full of quarries and little caves where it looked like people might be living inside. Yet another bus took us up the steep and winding roads to the top of the mountain, where we were greeted by the Dragon Head Temple, clinging to the edge of a cliff face with a drop of hundreds of metres to the plains below. It was staggeringly beautiful, and what I
have always imagined the temples in the mountains of Tibet to look like. The mountain is full of Buddhist and Taoist temples like this, all different but just as elaborate, and all precariously perched on or built into the cliff face. As is usual with Chinese tourist sites, a bus can take you between the main sights, so we hopped on one to visit the next stop, Daluo temple. Built into the cliff face this thirteen storied Taoist temple is quite a sight, and a real leg burner to get to the top. The mountain road connecting these temples is literally on the edge of an absolutely dizzyingly high cliff, and is not worth thinking about as the bus rallies round it. We went to temple after temple, not getting bored of them for once as each one was just as spectacular as the last, and had their own unique features. One had a ‘sky bridge’, where we walked along a wooden path fixed to the cliff face a couple of hundred metres above the temple below. These temples have been established for hundreds of years and must have been the definition of remote back in the day. Perhaps the
highlight for me was the Qixian Valley Gorge, which the guidebook had described as ‘exhilarating’. I had been wondering how a walk along a gorge could be exhilarating, and was soon to find out. A steep and narrow gorge formed by a fast flowing stream had been made ‘accessible’ by fixing some dodgy looking iron chains and wooden ladders, literally submerged in the water. As an alternative, narrow steel granny's teeth had been fixed into the rock, some of which were twisted and sloping. I must admit, I was absolutely terrified as I started to climb, wisely leaving Amy behind at the bottom (she was still feeling a little bit ropey). One wrong foot and you'd be bouncing down the wet rockface. It kept going and going, the ladders make their way over pools of water and up sheer rockfaces. I decided to turn back before long as I thought Amy would be starting to get worried. Getting down was even worse! Exhilarating was definitely the word. For once there were hardly any tourists on the mountain, perhaps due to the number of steps at each of the temples - quite amazing considering how beautiful it was.
The next
stop was Beijing. Although Pingyao was by far the smallest of the train stations we visited, it had the tightest security. Our deodorant was confiscated, and they also tried to take my expensive penknife. The problem is that unlike an airport there is no checked luggage you can put these things in. After a long argument with the head of security they eventually wrapped it up in tape, told me not to touch it whilst on the train, and then informed me that I'd have to go to an ‘important meeting’ when we arrived in Beijing (which of course never happened).
We had decided to stay in an Airbnb in Beijing, initially because it was the cheapest option (the accommodation in Beijing was a lot more expensive than anywhere else), but it actually turned out very well as we found a place in one of Beijing’s famous
hutongs. These are neighbourhoods of narrow walled alleyways, behind which lie traditional courtyards and houses, all joined together in a mazelike jumble. Many of these
hutongs in Beijing have been demolished, but some remain, and some have now been turned into tourist areas after the government realised their charm and therefore money
making potential. Apparently most people that live in the
hutongs are either in their twenties or in their sixties because either the rent is cheap or because they've lived there all their lives. The notable thing about staying in the
hutongs is that there are no toilets in the houses, and instead everyone uses the public toilets, which are provided throughout the neighbourhoods. The slightly disconcerting thing about these toilets is that there are no cubicles, and you squat next to your neighbour while you both do your thing. I will never forget my first time - I had just gone to use the urinal which was basically in the entrance, and I turned round just to see a guy squatting and staring at me. Definitely a new experience that took a bit of getting used to! You quickly realise that no one cares though, I went in once and found three guys all squatting there smoking cigarettes and having a good old chat! Although I can't even imagine how bad it must be if you're not feeling very well…
I think the first impression of Beijing has to be the security. It is so ubiquitous and formal, to
the point of paranoia. Queues of people line up to put their bags through the scanners and to get a pat down just to go into the subway. Soldiers clad in their green caps and uniforms with red epaulettes march through the underground, on the streets, and silently stand statuesque guarding the entrances to every subway station. It certainly feels like you're being watched at every corner. And it was even more tightly controlled in Tiananmen Square, where we had to queue for ages for all the security and passport checks. Anyone who knows a bit of modern history regarding Tiananmen Square may have some insight as to why this might be - the student's revolution of 1989 where hundreds of protestors were killed when government forces opened fire on them - although there is obviously no mention of this anywhere there.
Just north of Tiananmen Square lies the Forbidden City, the huge palace that was home to the Emperor, which back in the day was forbidden for any normal person to enter. Of course now all you need to do is pay the admission fee. It is absolutely huge, far bigger than I expected (and 60% is still
off limits) and full of quite amazing halls and buildings. But of course, being China's number one tourist attraction, the crowds were out in force again! The view across the yellow glazed roofs of the Forbidden City from the top of Jinshang Park which lies just behind was also an impressive sight. We were stopped by a Chinese guy who wanted a photo, and who ended up giving us quite a comprehensive history of the place!
No visit to Beijing would be complete without stopping at the Pearl Street and Silk Street markets. These are huge complexes full of little stalls, selling everything you could ever wish for, including some pretty high quality fake goods! I think the authorities have tried to clamp down on it a little bit, as we kept being shown well known bags without the branding as we walked past, and then ushered quietly into stairwells or behind closed curtains to be shown the real (fake) things!
Another must see in Beijing is the Temple of Heaven. The centrepiece of this park is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests - a beautiful intricately decorated circular wooden building with a three tiered roof, set
on top of a three tiered marble base. It is remarkable and I have never seen a building that is even remotely similar to it - and I've been to a lot of temples in my time! The grounds are an interesting place to wander too, as many local people go about their hobbies here in between the pine trees, whether it's tai chi, singing, or the ancient martial art of sword fighting - it's great people watching.
And of course how could we leave Beijing without trying Peking Duck?! There was a famous restaurant tucked into one of the
hutong courtyards just down the road from our Airbnb. We ordered a whole duck and were treated to yet another one the best meals of the year - perfect slices of duck covered in rich sauces and all wrapped up, delicious.
We made our way north on the bus towards Jinshanling, where we would be able to see the Great Wall. We decided to visit a section that was further away from Beijing, in order to avoid the crowds and to see a section of ‘wild wall’, as much of the sections nearer to Beijing have been completely
restored, and although they look very nice are not very authentic. We arrived in the afternoon and were hoping for a nice sunset over the wall, but it wasn't to be as there was a large bank of cloud. But there was a great view of the wall from where we were staying - you could see it snaking its way across the ridges and off into the distance as far as the eye could see, with tumble down towers perched on top of every peak. We set off early the next morning to head for the main gate expecting to see the usual crowds, but it was eerily quiet, with only us there. We avoided the cable car and headed up a small path, to try and get to a particularly wild (aka unrestored) section. After a long climb we eventually reached one of the towers, only to find that the gate was locked. Walking up and down we couldn't find any other way up, and the next section was under military control and was definitely not accessible. I was beginning to contemplate doing things the Mongolian way and trying to scale the outside, but Amy spotted a sign
with a phone number and decided to call instead. This was bound to fail and I was resigned to having to walk back down to the bottom and then all the way back up another path again, but miraculously they spoke English and said they'd send someone to unlock the gate. If only Gengis Khan knew it was that easy!
Stepping onto a completely unrestored section of the wall in the mist is unforgettable. With not a soul in sight and in total silence the wall weaves it way through the mountains and forest, disappearing into the mist with only outlines of the towers visible. This 500 year old section of wall has crumbling parapets and rotten sections toppling to the ground below. The towers are in various states of disrepair, and seeing them in this way is utterly magical. This is an amazing feat of engineering, to build a wall in such difficult terrain over such a long distance (13,171 miles - that's half the length of the equator!!!) is astounding. Donald Trump should make notes. We walked slowly along the wall, being careful not to fall over all the rubble (it's a big drop off the edge)
through the partly restored Jinshanling section all the way to the wild Simitai West section. The restored wall is also great to see, as it shows what it must have looked like in its former glory. The Simitai end was even more wild, with sections so collapsed they were impassible and we had to walk around them and climb back on top. Some sections were incredibly steep too, with almost vertical climbs up steep staircases. Amazingly, we hardly saw anyone else the whole day. The only busy parts were where the cable car joined and at another entrance where people could get golf buggies up there. As usual, it doesn't take much to get away from the crowds here.
Our final stop was Shanghai, and we had booked tickets on the fastest passenger train in the world. Travelling at 350 km/h it covers the 1300 kilometre journey in less than four and a half hours. Cars travelling along the highways alongside look almost still in comparison. Shanghai is a completely different side of China. Where Beijing feels traditional and controlled, Shanghai feels modern, Western-facing and open. It's reflected by the number of expats living and working out there. We
really loved it there, it has a great vibe with lots of things to do, and the food is just unbeatable. Our favourite place to eat was Yang’s dumplings - a Shanghai staple - these little pockets of goodness are filled with prawns, meat or vegetables and a soup, and are then fried on the bottom until they are super crispy. It takes a bit of practice to be able to eat them without getting it all down yourself - we found the trick was to bite into the top and suck out all the juice and then bite into the crispy bag of filling. I won't say how many times we went but let's say we got a lot of practice. In a similar vein we queued up to buy some
xiao long bao, Shanghai’s famous soup dumplings. These were filled with crabmeat and a buttery soup and were just as delicious. Shanghai is also known for its Xinjiang cuisine (an area in China's North East, where the food is more similar to central Asian dishes than to the typical Chinese fare). We're talking lamb pilaf, beautifully spiced lamb skewers, hand pulled noodles and tasty breads. We were staying
in the old part of Shanghai, and there was plenty of great street food here too, including some really delicious flat naan breads filled with tasty savoury or sweet fillings. We were literally eating our way around the city.
Being the Labor Day holidays with everyone off work for a few days, it was manically busy around the city, particularly at the major tourist spots. We got caught up in a crowd of thousands marching towards Shanghai’s famous waterfront Bund that looks out across the Pudong skyline. It was so busy that the military were lining the streets, pointing and shouting orders, and creating a weird marching line to usher people across the major roads. It looked like a military drill straight out of the streets of Pyongyang. Being in the crowd was actually quite unpleasant, so after a cursory look at the Bund we bailed and found other things to do. Similarly the area around the Yuan Garden was busy beyond belief, so we ducked into a Chinese medicine museum out of curiosity. One of the guys in there told us that they had an amazing roof terrace and did a tea ceremony for only 50 yuan each.
I was a bit cautious as last time I was in Shanghai I almost got scammed by a fake tea ceremony, but in the end this turned out to be a real one. We sat with a great view out over Shanghai whilst we were poured several different types of tea in the traditional way. Our favourite demonstration was a blossoming flower. Dried and tightly packed it was plopped into the boiling water within a tall glass, where it began to unfurl and blossom into a beautiful colourful flower within the glass.
One of our favourite stops in Shanghai was at a small animal, flower, bird and insect market tucked in behind the backstreets. We were exposed to a whole new world. Old Chinese men were poking their way through hundreds of boxed crickets, testing each one. We found out that these crickets are used for gambling, where two crickets are pitted against each other. Beautiful handmade tiny bamboo cages were on sale for people to keep their crickets in the house. It was a cacophony in there, the menagerie forming an orchestra of clicking, chirping and squawking. There were all sorts of water plants and water gardens on
show also.
The Former French Concession area of Shanghai is arguably its trendiest, with wide leafy boulevards lined with nice boutiques, cafés, bars and restaurants. With people eating and drinking outside in the sunshine with the clinking and clanking of cutlery and chatter, it had a familiar European feel. We spent quite a bit of time wandering round and looking at all the shops and old buildings, enjoying the change of style.
There's plenty of shopping in Shangai, with a couple of interesting areas, such as the arts and crafts enclave of Tianzifang - a maze of shops and cafés; and the more upmarket Xintiandi area in a traditional area of stone
shikummen gates which guard internal courtyards. The rest of our time was spent exploring various temples and wandering round the old areas of town, watching the locals sing karaoke and holding dance classes on the pavements in the evening. I also risked a haircut and as could have been predicted I ended up with another local cut - this time with totally shaved sides and long on top. I had to send Amy out of the salon halfway through as she was sitting there with her
head in her hands, but it was of course too late to do anything about it! Having said that it has, quite literally, grown on me...
And that brought us to the end of our time in China. It couldn't have been more different to what we were expecting. The domestic tourism scene, although sometimes annoying, was fascinating. The food, although at times quite oily, was varied and delicious. I rarely found myself craving Western food. The people were a lot more friendly than I had expected - always curious and often keen for a chat, despite the communication barrier. Never once did we feel unsafe, even walking in cities at night time. And the landscapes and sights are out of this world, and we only scratched the surface. I'd love to go back and just explore one or two provinces more thoroughly, getting right into the depths of them rather than just hitting the highlights. China surprised us in so many ways and felt like a real adventure as you never knew what was coming next - it sometimes felt like we were in some kind of parallel universe.
It is a country in flux, changing so
rapidly it is hard to keep up. They say that there is a generation gap every five years here, maybe even every three. Just imagine that - someone born just five years behind you will have a totally different experience of growing up than you did. Where is it all going? I honestly have no idea. But if you haven't already you should come and see it for yourself now, before it changes again!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.035s; cc: 9; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0379s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Mianshan Mountain, Jinzhong
I have been to all the places in your blog except Mianshan Mountain in Shanxi Provence. So I've looked how to get there and it is SW of Taiyuan so one could fly in and access it from there. Your pics blow me away. How come I did not have this on my list when I travelled through Shanxi? Reason - there are so many treasures in China, it is hard to pick which ones to see! Definitely on my wish list for next time. Stunning is an understatement.