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Published: September 7th 2005
wanted
oh my god sombody call the copsI touched down in Chendu for which the literal English translation is perfect metropolis. ‘Perfect’ though is obviously from a Chinese point of view. It is basically the same as any Chinese city….. characterless sprawling grid of freeways, buildings put up in haste. China is embracing the western life while remaining a communist state which basically means it’s ‘out with the old in with the new’ on a scale you just cannot imagine. It’s hard to put a date on but I would say nothing in these cities is over 20 years old whatever was there before has been demolished and replaced by this formulated urban sprawl.
Chendu however was a great city to first walk amongst the Chinese. The walk to my hostel (a story in itself) from the airport bus was a barrage of hellos and ‘mi hao’ I even had a few people taking pictures??? As I was only just beginning to understand for Chinese people I’m a complete alien. They gawk at my height, laugh at my big feet, gaze at my mirrored sunnies, envy my white skin, pinch the hairs on my arms, marvel at my technology and look on in amazement as I carry a
hot dice
A reason to learn manderin backpack almost the size of them. This would probably be true of any country is SE Asia had they not had an influx of westerners in the last few decades (it’s not that china doesn’t have westerners but with 1.2billion people there’s still a lot of people to surprise). So I tourist have somehow become the attraction?????
The loney planet has Chendu down as a 'party town' feeling very confident and enjoying my new found status as a Lowey (foreigner) I decided to party. The LP didn’t list any particular bar but the receptionist at the hostel suggested an area of bars. Taking a map in hand i decided to try and navigate to the bar area on foot but this is a surprisingly big city for 4 million people and basically every street is at least dual carriage way only half of which are marked on my map. After 40 mins of walking and having no idea where I was I decided grab a cab. My first impression of the journey was that I was been taken down to China town after covering a distance that just didn't seem feasible with the map in my hand I was
Panda
very very bu-tiful dropped off on a street corner with no bars. I preceded wander round for another hour or so asking/signing various people along the way to point where i was on the map. English though is a hard commodity to come by in China although most of the hostel staff will have some English in the outside world you’ll be lucky to find anything. Another obstacle to navigation in cities is maps….. nobody uses them which is understandable as they bear no relation to reality!!!! So back to square only this time I decided to try another cab where would believe it ended back on the same street corner. I then went to sign that i wanted a drink having absolutely no idea what I was on about he called a friend who spoke English and finally I found a bar where Ii watched a the second half of Man U Newcastle over a local beer. With only ten locals as this wasn't quite the nightlife I sought so back to wandering the streets for another half an hour i was rewarded by one other bar consisting of only 4 locals but with one advantage a barman that spoke basic English
Bazil Brush
Ahh ahh ahh boom bomm!!! and even better he had in his possession an English phrase book. Eureka!!! the final hurdle was almost over come 5 mins down the street he described a nightclub - walking up i had no idea what to expect but the manager came out to meet me and escorted me to a table........ this was very different on my whole journey here i hadn't seen one westerner and inside the club was no different. After ordering (pointing to) a drink the manager came back gave me his business card and a VIP card his face beamed with excitement when i told him i was from london and that i liked his club. For the locals in the club i was a superstar everyone wanted to speak to me even if they didn't have the means. They seem so desperate to western that they actually looked to me as roll model..... very dangerous!!! So there I was rolling dice, downing drinks and dancing the night away with the locals on my first night in China! I made a few friends one guy wanted to marry me off to everyone to every girl he knew unfortunately that didn’t include the barmaid (see
Lijiang
pictures everywhere the pics she was quite an attraction!)
I only tell the story in so much detail as it's obvious no one else makes it there possibly cause Chendu isn't really as 'western easy' as other places but i consider that as good as any excitement i have had so far. Actually everyone i told to go afterwards loved it too...... downside was it ruined by exclusivity as the only westerner. So the club is called 'Age of Red' the managers name is Seven!!!!
Next day I was off to see the Pandas - there seem to be two schools of travelers for the Pandas some come back thinking it's no more than a Zoo and others being so overwhelmed by their charming good looks docile eating habits. I was really looking forward but perhaps my expectations where too high. It was enjoyable but was also my first experience of Chinese tourism (a new middle class travels round on mass taking pictures of literally everything). On balance they are instantly adorable creatures, you do get to see a number of them and more importantly by paying the entrance fee you're aiding their survival.
It also seems fitting that the nations
lost
when wrong follow the signs favorite animal also comes in the nations favorite colour (red). But for me they really don't have the appeal of their black and white cousins even if their behavior is a little more entertaining.
So Tuesday enter Kalmity Keys (KK) fully bearded and very skinny. He'd been stuck tibet for the last 5 days (due to mud slides) and had to 30 hour bus ride over three days to get to chendu (silver stu on this website). Full of stories which were actually entertaining for once we sat down had a few beers and headed to 'age red' had another night going nuts with the locals!!!
After taking a few of the city sights and local teas in we took the 20 hour train to Kumming. For the train i would have probably opted for the soft sleeper after speaking to one couple but KK insisted we take the hard sleeper.... which is baically a dorm of 40 or so beds with no compartments.... and i'm glad we did the hard sleeper!!! The beds aren't really long enough so your feet stick out into the passage way and it's a bit noisey but the experience is really cool!
Dr Ho
A true herbalist Kumming is another city which has been completely rebuilt although they have made it slightly more pedestrian friendly. It also has many more westerners and although you don't really see them out and about you can tell as the locals no longer smile, stare or gawk at you - which is actually missed! Of the two attraction outside of kumming we saw neither... problems with busses meant by lunch we were no closer so decided just to talk about the town some more.
From Kumming we headed to Lijiang a ten hour bus ride away. In kumming we'd met lots of people who had come from the area and their reports were all very different. The best was Maggie KK Chinese girlfriend(but don't worry people she was of typical kk standard). She'd told us that when Chinese are asked where they are they reply Lijiang or on the road to Lijiang. I thought this was more a reflection of the Chinese new obsession of tourism than it's beauty but it really was the nicest place I’ve been in China yet. It’s a proper old Chinese town which for some reason has escaped the bulldozers. Water meanders throughout the old
Everybody was Waterfighting
The ladies we're quite exciting town and a bridge has to crossed to enter almost every shop, restaurant and bar. Reminded me of Strasbourg but nice. The shopping too is incredible lots of arts and crafts. The only down side to the town is the Chinese tourists everywhere but for me they're only really noticeable when donning their yellow caps and the guides holding up their flags. Advice i'd get there quick before the westerners arrive on mass!!!!
It seems strange but we’ve found the best way to see a country of such size has been by bike. Lijing was for the hub for the first of such trips. A small village It was here that we meet Dr Ho - He’s actually quite famous and amounst other tings has appeared on two of Michael Palins travel programs. And for two hours we enjoyed his hospitality and herbal tea (He’s also given us a take away portion). A very very interesting man who has curred many people from various cancers.
From Lijiang We‘d planned to trek to the tiger leaping gauge which almost seems a mandatory activity while in the area but the weather had turned for the worse and most sources were recommending
refreshing
the water city not to go. So we jumped on a bus to Dali.... or i should say we bought a ticket for Dali and jumped on a bus.... About three hours into the bus ride the conductor started shouting at us about Dali.... thinking we were on a Dali bus we just agreed however a couple of km down the road it became apparent this bus did not go to Dali and the initial commotion had happened where they would drop us off a couple of km’s away. Laden with backpacks and without a taxi in sight we started to flag down everything that moved…… and so it’s official we did our first hitchhiking in China. From talking to other travelers we both thought that we’d enjoy Dali but what we found was a new ‘old town.’ Literally it seems the success of Lijing has spurred on the Dali people to build their own ‘Old Town’ out of concrete? It also seems to have become a western backpackers rest spot. There are Video bars and western food… reminded me of Thailand. I wouldn’t recommend t to anyone!!!!
Probably the only highlight was packing up an overnight bag and heading off on some
smile
a smile on every corner bikes. You don’t travel great distances but riding through these small villages is delightful. Kids come running out screaming at you and we even got invited in for a snack by a family.
From Dali it was back to Kumming to pick up some Laos visas. We didn’t really want to stay in Kumming long but when we were approached TV scout to appear in a Chinese TV Series we just couldn’t resist. After negotiating various requirements for my trailer we set about on a day of filming. The show is about Chinese and American Police trying to catch drug dealers and the scene we were filming was a New York court case. I was in the jury and although there were no speaking lines I was right behind the witness box so should be in a few shots…… I thought I do many things in China but appearing on a TV show was not one!!!!! It goes out on CCTV (Chinas version of the BBC) so anyone that has it please look out for me!!!
The day filming let us a day behind so another very very bumpy 15 hour bus ride we arrived in Jinghong. Given
My day in court
you can't handle the truth the success of all our bike outings we opted to spend our only day here doing another one. However our confidence got the better of us and chosen destination was 35km down Mekong river….. little did we know this would be this would be up and down the side of the mountain. The village was very well know for a water fight and that sounded the ideal refreshment from our journey. So not knowing what to expect we headed along. Basically the whole thing entailed getting kitted out in some traditional dress parading around a big fountain with a hareem of Asian minxes then jumping in the fountain and having a mass water fight with them. The whole thing was a little bit of a Chinese tourist trap but again we were the only westerners so it just didn’t seem too bad. I really have no idea how many pictures have been taken of me this whole trip but on this day alone there must a few hundred. The Chinese find it very funny when you indulge in their culture and dressed in our traditional attire it seemed only natural to pose for their pictures only thing is once you
start you can’t stop. Easily one of the best days of the trip and hats off to keys as there are not many travel companions that with only five hours sleep would get up at 8am rent some bikes, cycle 35km, do a water fight and then at night head out drinking till 2am.
So China you made me feel like a superstar and I’m sure we’ll meet again but you’re changing so fast I don’t know if I’ll recognise you.
Anyone thinking of coming here make sure you do before 2008!!!!!
......... Time to hit Laos
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Charley
non-member comment
Looks amazing. Reckon me and Rob should be in China around about March/April time - even more excited now!!