China so far...


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September 11th 2010
Published: September 12th 2010
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Hello family and friends!! We have begun our 100 day trip and are on day 11 right now! Here are a few pics and stories from our trip so far! We have yet to finish the blogs for our Japan trip last month so keep your eye out for those soon too hopefully...things may be a little out of order for a while...

Beautiful Beijing
As our first step into China, Beijing (formally known as Peking) was both a shock and an amazing few days of seeing some of the best sights China and the world have to offer. With an unsure grip regarding our feelings toward a population with renowned repulsive characteristics, we emerged ourselves into the thick of it, and decided this is where we were and what we had expected. The locals have a habit of spitting and horking up whatever it is that resides in the back of their throats, their driving skills can only be matched to those who support chaos and illogical reasoning, and of course, their bathroom manors aren’t quite par with the western world. But if it was the western world we wanted, we wouldn’t be strolling around Asia.
We kick started our trip with a day trip to the famous Great Wall. We opted to skip the over-touristed Badaling section that has been completely restored and try our hand at an unrestored section of the wall, which to us, was much more authentic. Perhaps it didn’t give quite the same awe-inspiring effect as the restored part of the wall, but it was surreal to walk along sections of the wall where it was crumbled away and weeds and flowers were growing throughout the wall. It was a tough 10km hike but the views were breathtaking, to see the wall snaking in all directions along the mountains as far as the eye can see!

When we returned to the city, we wandered around Tiananmen Square, intrigued by the large buildings and the power they held for so many years when Communist China was proudly run by the great Chairman Mao.

Day 2 took us on gander around much of the city, as we attempted to walk to the Temple of Heaven. The unscaled and disproportionate map lead us on a misleading 6km walk eventually coming upon the ancient temple. The Temple of Heaven had some very different architecture (round, rather than the usual rectangle buildings) and many features that we have not seen so far on our travels. The best was this round wall surrounding a building and if 2 people stood on their side of the wall (west and east), facing the wall and spoke to each other, their words would travel the length of the wall and sure enough as I stood beside the wall I heard a faint “Danielle, can you hear me?” from Mike nearly 50m away. After this we went to the Pearl market, famous for pearls and cheap, fake souvenirs and clothes. This was quite the experience, with every single vendor wanting to take some of your money, quoting ridiculously high prices for items and finally settling for a price that is a fraction of the one they first quoted. When you didn’t like a price they gave(250RMB for a set of chopsticks) and walked away, all you could hear was them yelling after you “Ok…because you friend I give 150 for you…130…100…ok ok 80” haha. We could only walk away and smile at the atrociousness of market bargaining, something neither Mike or I have much patience for.

The next day we went out to visit the Summer Palace, where the Emporer would go to escape the summer heat of Beijing city. This place was amazing! There was a traditional street with a river running through the centre of it with colourful shops and lovely lotus flowers. There were many buildings to explore on the small mountain overlooking a small lake. We rented a boat and cruised around the lake for an hour checking out more of the enormous grounds of this palace. Getting off the boat, we realized that what we thought had been the main part of the palace that we had already seen was in fact just a small side-part and the biggest and grandest was yet to come! This place amazed us from start to finish! We could only imagine how magnificent it would have been when it wasn’t filled with tourists, and it was simply an escape from the bustling city. We managed to spend the better half of the day at the Summer Palace and we eventually headed off back into the city center.

After that we visited a Taoist temple which was pretty cool. It was decorated with lots of red and had many different statues representing the different ruling departments in Tao religion, such as the Department of Life and Death, the Department of Aqautic Animals, The Department of Wind, Department of Ghosts…and the list goes on! It was the first Taoist temple we have come across on our travels, the architecture was very similar but the beliefs seem quite different to some of the Buddhist rituals.

We climbed a small mountain after which gave us breathtaking views of the Forbidden City, the ancient royal grounds. The Forbidden City is enormous and every building has a golden roof! All we could see stretching for a great distance was the golden peaks of different sizes and shapes! It was quite breathtaking to see the glimmering city below. In the background of the city was the enormous Tiananmen Square (which holds just as much of its own history as the ancient city).

The following day we entered the Forbidden City which is simply a grand palace with thousands of buildings. It is so grand that pictures can’t even do it justice! We spent the better part of a day here trying to see every nook and cranny of this amazing palace! We also visited the interesting Clock Exhibition featuring intricate and ornate clocks given to the Emperors as gifts from all over the world! We were lucky enough to pass through right as they were demonstrating some clocks chiming - dancing, turning, signing, lighting up- and it was cool! That night we finally had our long-awaited Peking Duck dinner. Beijing is famous for it’s roasted duck. We went to the most famous duck restaurant for the real deal experience (and as such could only afford to get half a duck). The chef comes out with the roasted duck and carves it in front of your table and mmmmm it was delicious! Best duck we’ve ever had!

Our last day in Beijing we were feeling brave so we took to the streets on 2 wheels cycling around to give our feet a rest. Beijing is made for cycling with wide bike lanes on most streets but since the rules of the road are so lax, (if you can even call them rules - more like guidelines which rarely get followed or enforced) it was an adventure of a day! Luckily at first the traffic was light so we got used to the flow of things pretty easily and before long we were swerving, ringing our bells and cruising along with the best of them! We visited the Lama Temple which was a gorgeous Tibetan style temple! Smack in the middle of the city, it’s amazing how a 10 foot wall around the temple completely erased the sounds of the traffic and city around you - it was so peaceful! People visit this temple armed with big packs of incense to pray to Buddha at each of the various halls in the complex. When we were finished we headed out to lunch at a small restaurant outside of the temple walls. We got stuck in the back where the cooks and waiting staff hangout in between the rush of meals. We ate a delicious stew with beef, potatoes and rice. After that and a nearby park for a rest, we headed back to the hotel - right in rush hour traffic! This was a little more tricky of a ride, getting pushed around by the cars and buses on the road and there might have been a few close calls but we made it back to the hostel in one piece, both our minds and our bums (not used to the bicycle seat) thankful to be back on firm ground.

That night we boarded a 12 hour train to Xi’an. We could only get hard seat tickets for the train so we were prepared for a restless night, but in no way were we prepared for what we got! When a train sells out, they sell ‘standing room’ only tickets so our train car with 118 seats easily had 200 people on it standing and squatting in the aisles. Luckily we had our seats but there was no room on the racks for your luggage so we sat, cramped for 12 hours holding our packs. This was not a fun night and not an experience we would want to repeat again! Leaving Beijing definitely opened our eyes to a world we could never imagine. The streets were filled with unfortunate souls begging for money or trying to sell the simplest and most useless of gadgets. The insanity of the road ways and simple pedestrian crossings was a task we could still not understand. And of course finishing with a ridiculous train ride filled with pushing, shoving, heavy smoking, spitting, and anything else you can imagine… we were ready to see a different part of China

Xtraordinary Xi’an
Happily, Xi’an was amazing and well worth the terrible train ride! Xian was an ancient capital back in the day. It has a large Sino-muslim based society in which must of the city is cultured around. Getting checked in at our hostel and getting our next leg train tickets booked took most of the morning so we finally set out to see the city around noon. We walked out to the Big Goose Pagoda passing our first Chinese Wal-mart on the way (!). We were quite tired from the train ride and so we toured the pagoda pretty quickly and made our way back to the city where we walked along the ancient city wall and saw the Drum and Bell Towers. For dinner we had a local specialty, a soup with mutton and glass noodles and flat bread cake. They bring you 2 pieces of think round bread and it’s your job to break the bread into teeny tiny pieces before you can eat the meal! It was delicious! Yum! Back at the hostel, we met some great Aussies and ended up sharing stories and beers for the rest of the night. This hostel we stayed at was amazing and they offered a free tasting party that night were we got to sample 27 local specialty foods including pigs ear (the cartilage was crunchy and it was weird) and pigs lung.

Day 2 in Xi’an we went to the “most significant archeological finds of the 20th century”, the terracotta warriors (some call the “8th Wonder of the World”). They were only discovered in 1976 but date from over 2000 years ago. The emperor at that time was worried about his body after death so he had this enormous army of stone statues made to protect his corpse. They were buried underground with him and not discovered until some farmers were digging a well some 2000 years later! So far over 7000 warriors and horses have been found, some still in remarkably great condition. This was an incredible sight and very interesting! We headed back on the bus to Xi’an.

** When we arrived at the train station to transfer buses to head to the Muslim Quarter, we got our first hand experience of a large problem through out China. While we were boarding the bus, Mike was the last in line. As he was focused on the progressing line, he stepped up on the bus just in time to feel a tug on his camera bag. As he turned around, he could only see the sly face of a man trying to pick-pocket his bag. With a few words and confusion of whether or not he should approach the situation further, he simply got on the bus (afraid of it leaving without him), only to the snickering and calmness of the local Chinese on the bus. This situation didn’t even occur to them as strange, nor did it occur to them to say anything when the incident was happening, they simply sat there and watched.

We had just enough time for a quick tour through the Muslim Quarter and their markets and to see the Great Mosque before practically running to catch yet another night train, to Shanghai this time. Luckily (for us, but not for our wallets) we were only able to get soft sleeper tickets so the ride was comfortable in a 4 bunk couchette, if you don’t count the snoring elderly couple we were sharing the bunk with! Aside from the consistent snoring match between the old husband and wife and her charming orgasmic moans through the night, we managed a decent nights sleep and were prepared for a great day in Shanghai.



Additional photos below
Photos: 31, Displayed: 31


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Old watch towerOld watch tower
Old watch tower

We found the names of some allied soldiers from 1900 engraved into the bricks on this building!


13th September 2010

cool!
Wow Danielle, that looks fantstic! You're trip is great timing for me too-I'm going to use your blog as a tour guide :-) I hope the rest of your travels are as interesting and spectacular as this beginning. knee-how? (that's a bad pun on Chinese for hello...sorry!) It should be 'ankle-how'? for you 2 anyway! Kx
29th January 2011
Steep Great Wall

First to go, last to arrive
Haha, is that me coming down as the very latest person in the group? Found your blog by just typing in Mike + Daniëlle + Great + Wall. Nice photo's! Hope you're doing well. I've actually got some pictures of the two of you on the wall - not of the quality you shot of course - but if you want to I could send them ;) Didn't choose to study in Canada next year because I couldn't take any classes in French on partner universities of the UVA. So I'm going for Paris, France for my bachelor and hopefully Canada for my Masters! How was your trip back from the wall? Traffic jams, smog and more South Park? I found it nice to do the climb - it was nothing like my expectations! - but the way there (and back + the guide) was a disappointment. The nature on the wall made up for it though; a good day! Greetings from Holland, Daniël
30th January 2011

Hey Daniel - great to hear from you! How was the rest of your trip? We pretty much agreed with you about the Wall trip - the wall was amazing but the drive and guide were nothing special. The rest of our trip was great too! Studying in Paris! I am sooo jealous! I love that city! If you want to send the photos you have of us, that would be awesome! dano_beaugrand@hotmail.com and if you ever do make it to Canada, be sure to let us know! Take care!

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