So, I have been travelling for about 2 weeks now, through China, and it's great! and not so great...it's high travel time, which means ridiculous amounts of people in an already ridiculously populated country, all travelling to the same places. My first destination in every city is always to find the english ticket office in the train station, then wait in line for anywhere from 10 minutes to 40 minutes, depending on whether you happen to be in line when the ticket agent goes on lunch. The train stations are insane right now with people, and it's disgustingly hot, everyday i am dripping sweat. my black clothes get nice salt sweat stains like how the bottom of my pants do in the winter from the salt on the road...it's quite attractive but everyone's in the same boat! I've been travelling along the same route as some other backpackers, so for the last couple of days we've been joking that we're in detox and cleansing right now, we drink water and tea, no beer, and sweat out all the bad stuff like there's no tomorrow.
So, I left Wuhan about July 3rd, went to Shanghai, big city and yes Chineider, great lights! It is probably the most modern and developed city I've seen, although being a country bumpkin, that doesn't say too much. Spent some time there, toured the bund and other such tourist spots, even went to a Shanghai night club with the most amazing bathrooms...to get in you had to push a red spot on the wall, and the wall just sort of slid open and ta-da! there was this posh bathroom of all black with red lighting and bathroom attendants and a pool with rose petals...all in all pretty impressive and apparently the newest and best bathroom in shanghai, according to my shanghainese friend. Shanghai is the biggest city in china, maybe something like 18 million people? not quite too sure on that, i'm having trouble keeping all my chinese city facts straight.
I then took an overnight train to Beijing, in first class, wow that was posh too, a little too posh for a scruffy backpacker! I spent the day in Beijing as the train to my intended destination wasn't until 11.30pm. So, a nice woman from my cabin (director of chinaquest.org) helped me to buy my ticket, store my bag for the day, and directed me towards tianamen square and forbidden city. Beijing was not nearly as impressive as Shanghai, there was just a smoggy haze over the city and it was very humid. Also, there was a ridiculous amount of tourists there which makes it really hard to enjoy the place. Even more ridiculous is the amount of times I was approached by a so-called "art student" who's class was having their final showing today and I should just come and have a look....luckily i knew about this scam from earlier travellers stories and guide books. These students have actually failed out of college or just can't find a job, so first they befriend you and ask you about your country, etc. then they mention about their art.... by the time i left the forbidden city, i was on my last straw. A Chinese girl came up to me and said hello, my immediate reply was "if you are here to talk to me about your art show, i'm not interested" and she walked away! At about 4pm, i decided I should take a load off and went for an 80min. foot massage....by far the best I've had in china (and most expensive..99yuan! it was in a nice posh spot, i watched a movie, drank lots of ice water with lemon and honey, and had a little meal afterwards. eventually i made my way back to the train station and was on my way to datong.
In Datong I saw a hanging temple, an ancient cave city where people are still living, and some buddhas carved into the hillside. the temple and ancient city were very cool, but the buddhas are just looking the same everywhere I go...although tomorrow I will go to see the biggest one in the world, Le Shan, Dafo. I also met up with one of my students who fed me donkey meat and other such local delicacies! At dinner, the donkey meat came first. Thinking it was beef, as that area is known for good beef, I was shovelling it in, and it was delicious! Then my student, Harry, said, "you like? it's small horse" ..........small horse?! sure enough, after using my handy phrasebook, yep donkey! The next day I went to his home for a huge lunch of mini lobsters, and mushrooms, and vegetables, and meat and fish, and it goes on and on, they must've had at least 15 dishes, all delicious.
My next stop was PIngyao, via Taiyuan. Pingyao is another ancient walled city, it was amazing! There are 2 streets in the entire city that are devoted to tourists, the rest is a full blown functioning city. It felt like authentic real China, what you expect China to look like. There are no cars allowed in the city walls. I rented a bike for the day and just meandered around the streets, side streets and alleyways. I even saw a traditional funeral procession which was quite interesting...I at first thought it was some sort of parade becaue there was a band and lots of big colourful things, so I took a video....but at the end, when there was loads of people following behind the procession crying, I realized it was in fact a funeral. I spent the night in Pingyao in one of the oldest buildings in the city, it was a traditional courtyard house so it felt like I was staying in ancient dynasty times. Oddly, there was only about 7 of us at the hostel, so I've been meeting up with and traveling with some of these others, which is nice because travelling along has pros and cons. PRO-you can go wherever you like whenever you like however fast you want. CONS-i've been eating mcdonalds and taking boring pictures. it's nearly impossible to eat at a restaurant in china by yourself unless you want ridiculous amounts of food, or only one dish (which is NOT an option for me because there are too many dishes to choose from and my palate is now accustomed to a true Chinese meal...I'm not looking forward to bland canadian food! except of course Pizza!)
Next stop was Xi'an, home of the terracotta warriors, it was quite impressive actually. I arrived on my birthday, and went out to a nice street, kinda like hess oddly enough, and had a chinese band sign happy birthday to me. Xi'an was an ok city, not much else to do there, but met lots of other single travellers there and now am here in Chengdu with some of them. Chengdu is in Sichuan province (Helen can tell you how to correctly pronounce it). I arrived yesterday and of course immediately went to the train station....but happened to arrive during the lunch break, so after about 45 minutes I got a ticket to my next destination. Here I have met up with my roommate and her father, so we just decided to tour around ourselves and see what the city is like. From what I had heard it's a 'lax city...and from what i've seen, it definitely is! First we went for a 2 hours facial/massage, amazing! and only about 7 cdn dollars. Then we strolled around the river, saw lots of people relaxing on reclining bamboo chairs, playing cards or chinese chess or mahjong, and drinking tea...this is a sight rarely seen in other parts of china. People don't usually sit outside and relax, it's ridiculously difficult to find a single place to sit down outside, but here in Chengdu, the lifestyle seems pretty laidback. Then we had some true Sichuan food, a chicken and bamboo hot pot (explained in a previous blog)....well I think the dog hot pot or the loach or pig gizzards is more of the local cuisines, but we opted for something a little more western instead. Also, I had some beef with lobster and chilli sauce which was delicious, and yes the food is spicey!!! but good... After dinner, Erin just happened to notice a sign in a window "chinese massage 15RMB" how could we pass that up! that's about $2cdn! So in we went for another one hour massage the was more like hitting pressure points and cracking all the bones in my body. Then I met up with some of the other backpackers i've met along the way and we had some water and tea to continue on with our detox program. This morning we woke up early and went to a panda breeding centre...unfortunately a little bit of a let down as it's too hot for the pandas to be outside so we got to view them behing a security line, and in their barred cages. However, we were there at feeding time so it was cool to see them munching down on bamboo. Now I'm just waiting around to meet up with some English guys I've been travelling with, to show them the massage place and to go for another 15yuan massage (it's perfectly located across the street from the hostel, haha), and possibly a hair wash / head massage after that. It's a tough life here in China! After bustling down the busy streets and standing in hot disgusting train station lines, I deserve 3 hours of pampering!
Since money's running low, and I've got potential visa and passport things to iron out, I'm heading back to Wuhan on Friday where I will attempt to find a teaching job for August, then travel again in September when hopefully everyone else in China is not! If that can't be sorted out, I'll spend 2 weeks in souther China (Yangshuo, Guangzhou...Chineider was it Guangzhou or Shenzhen that had the leather purse??) and then be home August 10th, but don't count on it H and J! Happy belated birthday to Diddy anyways, the big 5-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Entrance to Forbidden City
Great Wall, Mutianyu section
Longi Rice Terraces, probably my favourite tourist spot
Cormorant fishing birds and karst hills, Xing Ping (near Guilin)
Li River view from my hostel roof, Yangshuo
Bamboo rafting, Li River, Yangshuo
Pandas in Chengdu, Sichuan
Muslim Quarters, Xi'an (aka where you can buy any Chinese souvenir imaginable)
Terracotta Army, Xi'an
Outside city walls, Pingyao
Inside city walls, Pingyao
Souvenirs, Pingyao
Shanghai, view of Pudong from the Bund, Erin (my roommate) and me
Making silk comforters, Zhou Zuang (near Shanghai)
Zhouzhuang, old perserved canal town
Yungang Caves, Datong. Famous Buddha carving called "China's foreign minister" because it is seen on any tourist promo.
Hanging Temple, Datong
