Gosh, China is a lot more bearable this time around. Beijing's day temperature was around 25 degrees and 15 degrees at night. We spent 4 days there just to relax and plan where we wanted to go. I have to say that the quality and taste of food in China is so much more superior than what we had in Mongolia. We actually had some real vegetables and decent fruit.
I also bought a camera in Beijing. Since Panasonic Lumix is the best the market has to offer right now, I decided to buy a Lumix ZR1 for 2250RMB (A$375). It was a pretty good price and it seems to work well so far.
Naomi also had to visit the hospital a couple of times for some injections. Poor girl, a scratch by a cute kitten cost her around AU$350. She's still hearing back from the travel insurance company. Hope that she gets some $$$ back.
We visited the Forbidden City (again) and the Great Wall. The Forbidden City was pretty quiet compared to last time we were there. We actually got to see some sites in there this time! It was so crowded last time, all I could see was flags from tour guides. We were absolutely exhausted walking around for 5 hours in there. I am not sure how the emperors had the energy to walk everywhere in the past. It was HUGE. It's a real pity that golf buggies weren't invented earlier...
The Great Wall was pretty amazing too. We decided to join a tour from our hostel rather than doing it independently. It was 180RMB each for us to hike for 4 hours from one section of the Wall (Jinshanling) to Simatai. The hike took us through both crumbled and restored sections. I was genuinely impressed by the craftsmanship and the enormity of the construction. The sections we were in were pretty much built on top of the mountain ranges and cliffs. The view on the top part was amazing as you could see the Wall winding through the mountains. Some of the crumbled parts were very sheer to climb. We had to use our hands to push ourselves up.
The tour guide just nodded her head when I asked her whether the restored part of Simatai was where Angelina Jolie rode on in Tome Raider 2. But I think she had no idea but just wanted to please every tourist who asked the same question. :)
It's really weird that people in China all think that I am Naomi's translator or tour guide. It's great because I often use it to my advantage to get discounts. We caught up with a French couple whom we met in Mongolia and all of us went out for dinner. As I was the only Asian-appearance person in the group, this restaurant owner automatically assumed that I was their tour guide. He firstly asked me whether I was paying or my customers. When I said I was as my customers already paid up-front, he offered me a 10% discount on all the food and 2RMB per beer consumed. I could not believe my luck. The Frenchies were amused with the whole transaction and said that they had never had a 2RMB beer before! Seriously.....
The night before we left for Mongolia, Naomi and I went into the backstreets to buy some fruits. I was between the fruit lady and Naomi when I asked how much were those peaches. She told me 2RMB per kilo. The fruit lady noticed Naomi for the first time when she elbowed me and told me that in English that she wanted 2kg worth. The lady was so surprised that she was with me and asked that whether the peaches were for me or for Naomi. When I told her that they were for her, she was like, "Why didn't you tell me they were for her, I could've charged 10RMB for 1kg and she would still pay for them". I mean, seriously.....
The worst was when they were doing it in front of me to other travellers and told me in Mandarin not to say anything to them.
I had the funniest converation when I was talking to this camera salesman when I went shopping for my camera. It was like this:
Salesman : "Where are you from? Sounds like you are from the south."
Me: "Yeah, a long way south".
Salesman: "ME TOO!!! Where abouts in the south?"
Me: "Oh, a long, long way south".
Salesman: "ME TOO!! We're probably from the same town!"
Me: "Oh, I don't think so. Where are you from?"
Salesman: "I am from this town in Fujian (Hokkien)".
Me: "Oh, no.....I'm not from there".
Salesman: "Oh....".
Oh, when we were in Beijing, we also went to see Nadal vs Safin in the China Open. It was pretty much a one-sided match, but I was excited to see two former No 1s playing. Nadal was too good for the veteran in the end, but the crowd was mainly going for Safin as it was his last China Open (He's been there for 7 or 8 years straight). We sat in front of these fanatic Safin fans. It was so embarrassing that they just yelled out crap during the point. After the match, the tournament also did a huge farewell ceremony for Safin. Poor Rafa was ignored most of the time and was asked only question by the commentator. They hit the balls pretty hard....and accurately. I can probably hit the ball as hard as them, but I am probably a little rusty with the accuracy side of things :) Oh, we also were on TV too. It was so weird seeing yourselves on the Chinese national news the next day.
After Beijing, we caught an overnight train to the ancient capital, Xi-an. As all the train tickets were again sold out, we were fortunate enough to find tickets on the internet.
Xi-an
Xi-an was very interesting. It was where the terracota warriors and the tomb of the first emperor of China are. Because it was the ancient capital during the ancient silk road trade, there were a lot of central Asian immigrants there. We stayed near the Muslim quarter and ate heaps of their hand-pulled fresh noodles. I could not believe how different they tasted to not-so-fresh noodles. They are Naomi's favourite now.
We spent the first day exploring the Big Goose Pagoda, the amazing Shaanxi Provincial Museum and the Drum/Bell Towers. The Pagoda was big time over-rated. It was expensive to get in (luckily I had my student card), and there was nothing in there. It supposed to be this ancient pagoda built in 652AD, but it was renovated a few times and most of the ancient paintings, budda scultures and calligraphy were all moved to the Museum.
Now, the Museum really was amazing. I actually enjoyed it better than the museums in Beijing and Shanghai. All the artefacts were very well presented. There were a LOT of artefacts as this place was the capital city for so long and they kept discovering these ancient civilisations all over the place.
We went to see the terracota warriors on our second day. They were pretty good too. Not much to report here really. I love how they were all looked different fom one another and were so beautifully preserved. It was so amazing standing in front of these terracota horses and chariots and soldiers knowing that the last time they saw sunshine was probably more than 2000 years ago.
We also went jeans shopping for Naomi. It was very exhausting for me as I had to sit there and wait for her to try many jeans on and she didn't buy anything in the end anyway. Aaaaaarr.
Xi-an was an interesting city. I thought it was pretty well developed. It had its old areas and its modern areas. The Drum and Bell towers were well preserved and looked quite romantic at night. We caught the buses everywhere and it was simple. Generally speaking, it was good by Chinese standards.
We then did another overnight train to Chengdu.
Chengdu
Chengdu has so much history once again. It seemed that most cities in China have at least a couple of thousand years behind them. Chengdu was the old capital of a Chinese kingdom back almost 2000 years ago. It's also the centre of Sichuan province, the home of pandas.
I quite like Chengdu too. It seemed that people were friendly and would try to help you when you were lost. It's quite different in Beijing and Shanghai. The only issue about Chengdu is its spicy food. Gosh, we often had to ask them not to put too much chilli or no chilli in the food. I don't know how the people handle it. We had this hot pot thing that was seriously one of the most spicy things I've ever had. My lips were burning for hours afterwards. The restaurant people gave us aloe vera chewing gums to soothe our mouths afterwards.
We went to visit the pandas, Wenshu temple, the Da Fu cottage, the Ginsha relics museum, and the Wuhou temple when I was there. All of them were peacefull and well decorated in their own ways. Da Fu temple was especially tranquil with bamboo forests, beautiful Chinese gardens, and many out style Chinese buildings. It was like a walk in the past there.
We also did some shopping there as it had apparently the best outdoor gears in Western China. I bought myself a good LED head torch for AU$40. I have started to come to the realisation that you do pay more for good quality stuff. The head torch that I bought on eBay for $10 was just a piece of junk. It worked, but it drained so much battery power and it wasn't very bright compared to some other ones I've seen. I wish I had this head torch when I was in Mongolia. It would have been perfect!
We spent much time organising Tibet when we were in Chengdu. It was a LOT of effort trying to get everybody organised. In fact, we started organising as soon as we got to China. But we found 6 other people who were keen to do the same trip. With 8 people all over the place, it was extremely difficult to cordinate everyone. I was so frustrated at one stage that I nearly wanted to ditch the 4 new people we met in Chengdu and just go with the French couple we met in Mongolia, even for 500RMB more expensive. In the end, we had to ditch a Malaysian girl as she was too slow responding to our emails. We also only got our permit on the day of our departure. So as you could imagine, it was all very, very stressful.
The pandas were pretty cute. Naomi couldn't have enough of looking at them. They were just like giant teddy bears and all you wanted to do was to hug them. And you can, for the small price of 1000RMB per person. There were many many pandas: the infants, the 1-2 year olds, the teenage ones (in panda age) and the adult pandas. They were all black and white like what you see in the picture books too. It was so easy to get there. We caught 2 buses with no trouble at all.
We found out that we could have got some panda cards which cost 1RMB and we could have gone to 12 sights including the panda base for free! I bought one later and used on temples etc.
Langzhong - 23/10/09
Now, this was what I thought China would look like with old architectures from hundreds of years ago with wooden roofs and old bricks. It was really nice taking a relaxing walk in the old town just to absorb the atmosphere. There were many tea and vinegar (its famous for) houses on the street. And old style restaurants with wooden tables and benches.
We even had a vinegar cocktail at night in a vinegar bar. It was really nice. Apparently the town was very famous in the old times and it was well known for its scenery and the art. Langzhong was surrounded by mountains on all sides and had 2 rivers ran around the town. If not for the constant pollution as you often experience in China, I am sure the scenery would have been top class.
Again, this was a town filled with history. It was a well-sought after place between the 3 kingdoms around 220AD. We visited the remains of many beautiful ancient towers and examination halls. I could picture the place was once full of scholars, poets and artists.
We had the Zhang Fei beef – another speciality in Langzhong. It was just salted dry beef, but quite expensive though.
It was probably the only town that we've been to that was relatively free of tourists and still had the old China feel to it.
We actually found that people in the west seemed a lot nicer than people from Beijing to Shanghai. People in Xi-an, Chengdu and Langzhong were very helpful in terms of giving us directions when we were lost, or just voluntarily coming up to see whether we needed a hand. We also found the atmosphere was slightly more relaxed than the Eastern coast. I actually really like Chengdu and Xi-an. I think many torists would agree with me on that.
Chongqing - 25/10/09
We came here for pretty much 2 day s and 1 night just to see the Yangtze River and the 3 Gorges Museum. It was either very polluted or very misty when we were there. As it was slightly raining, I tend to think it was mist, but Naomi was very persistent that it was DEFINITELY pollution. Either way, it was very bad. We could barely see past 10m.
I went to see the ancient Luohan temple and where the 2 rivers (the Yangtze and the Jialing) meet by myself the second day as Naomi was a little ill. It was really weird as the Yangtze was so brown and muddy and the Jialing was green and seemed clean. Oh, this is also where the 3 gorge Yangtze cruise starts. I really wanted to do the cruise, but we didn't have enough time.....Vida and Gintas said the scenery was beautiful but a lot of it was ruined because of the dam project.
My Chinese friend Cheng told me that Chongqing has the most beautiful girls in China. I am not sure where she got her intel because it was clearly wrong. Naomi didn't even like the fashion of the people here. It clearly was over-exaggerated then. :)
We went back to Chengdu on the D5130. We really only had 1 seating (first class) ticket and 1 second class standing ticket. Fortune was on our side as we both got seats in the first class section for the whole 2 hours. It was so comfortable sitting there. Not many spitters in the aisle and the toilet was super clean with toilet paper and handwash. Man, that was really really luxurious for trains in China. The attendants even came around to make sure the bag straps didn't overhang from the overhead rack. That was so weird......they must had too much time on their hands. The leg room was enormous on the deluxe class. When I stretched my legs out, I barely touched the seat in front me. Angus Ball – if you ever come to China, D class deluxe train is the way to go mate.
Chengdu – Round 2 (26/10/09)
We were back to Chengdu the day before our train departure. It was so stressful as we still had no permit yet and it and all our berths on the train were all over the place and not in the same compartment. And I was the only person who could speak the language I knew I would have to try to talk to other passengers on the train to change beds.
We had organised to go and see the Sichuan opera the night before we left for Tibet. We got some really good discounts from this online travel agency and it ended up costing us 100RMB each (saving of 80RMB). It was very exciting to see the real Sichuan opera. We saw hand puppets, hand shadows, Chinese Hu-ching (ancient viola like instrument) performance, some acrobatics and the face-changing act. The secret of Sichuan face-changing is regarded as a national secret. It was like they have many masks and dresses on and with one swing of their sleeve, they have a different mask on and/or different dress on. It was like magic. I was so impressed by it. It was definitely the highlight for me. In fact, most of the performances were top class. It was definitely worth the money.
On the day of our departure to Tibet (27/10), we did some boring stuff like getting travellers cheques and buying blank DVDs for photos. I managed to squeeze in some time to visit the Wuhou temple. It was celebrating Chengdu being the capital of the Shu Kingdom back in the 3 Kingdom days (220AD). They had the tomb of the king and his generals there. It was pleasant to walk around. But if you are not into history too much, it may be bit boring.
By 8:15pm, all 7 of us were sitting in the train station waiting for our train to go to Tibet. We were sooooo excited. We were finally going to Tibet, after weeks of stressful planning! Hopefully the 44 hour journey would be as beautiful as the Trans-Mongolian...
