The Yaghtze River and 3 gorges dam and Yangshuo

We arrived in Chongqing quite late so made our way to our boat for our River Cruise, dumped our bags then headed out for dinner…..in an enormous restaurant that looked like it would seat about 200 people but we were the only ones there.  It was very odd!

So we were on the Yaghtze River Princess for the next 3 nights.  The cabins were quite cute, plenty of space and we all had windows looking out on to the river. The boat was bigger than I expected as I think it takes 100 people.  All our meals were included and that was quite an experience in itself. Breakfast and Lunch were buffets and dinner was table service.  Well those Chinese LOVE their food – just before the meal service was announced they would all be down there lining up outside the door and then all hell broke loose.  You had to get your elbows at the ready if you wanted to get your pick of stuff, and although it was open for an hour, if you weren’t there in the first 15 minutes you probably missed out on stuff.  It was kind of hilarious and kind of annoying all at the same time. 

The first day we had some Chinese calligraphy demonstrated to us.  Then we hit the gorges.  They were a great sight, however because the river had been flooded to create the dam I think they were a lot less spectacular than they used to be.  Basically there was some flooding of the towns along the Yagthze River and so the Chinese Government said that to “protect and prevent” the loss of life they would create the Dam which would raise the water levels in parts but also meant that over 1 million people lost their homes and their lands and were relocated to other parts of the area or further up the banks.  Its hard to get any Chinese persons viewpoint on it other than it was a good thing – they never seem to disagree with what the government does.  You could see the difference in the water levels when we eventually passed through the dam and it was amazing how much the river had been flooded.  I have to say that apart from saying it was great to see the gorges and they were quite spectacular the river cruise was very relaxing as we didn’t do too much. 

Later that day though we took a trip off the boat to Fengdu where there is this temple.  In honesty this was more funny than anything else.  Our local guide was rubbish and we could hardly understand him and the whole place looked completely touristy.  There were some hilarious statues though and a very funny collection of torture statues.

     

The next day was much better as the weather cleared up (most of the time in China it has been really foggy, murky and cold, not to mention the pollution (but being on the river we were away from all that). At first I didn’t think the weather was that great but then the clouds broke and out came the sun.  It was still freezing cold though on the boat as we were moving so lots of wind.  We had to disembark our big boat and get on to a ferry to visit the Lesser Three Gorges which was really beautiful.

    

That night we continued on to the dam.  To give you an idea of the difference in water levels we had to go down through 5 locks to get through it and it took about 4 hours.  

The last day on the boat we were up early to go and see the dam.  Erm what can I say about it – well we got another rubbish local guide who we could hardly understand.  However I did get to see the dam from another viewpoint. 

  

That day was FREEZING though. They forecast snow but it didn’t come during the day. The boat went a bit further down river and we drove after that to Yichang. We had a short walk around town, got a gourmet lunch from Pizza Hut, got our supplies for our 24 hour travelling and then I went back and hibernated in our hotel as it was soooo freezing outside and they had free internet access in the room :-)

So the next 24 hours are travelling – up at 6am and we ended up having to leave at 7am as the snow was definitely forecast for the next day and Olive was worried that with the snow they would close the highways. It was a good plan as we got on the road and it was fine……then the snow started coming down heavily.  The driver got notices on his gps that the highways were gradually closing behind us as the conditions got worse and we saw 2 really bad accidents along the way on the other side of the road.  I was just slightly worried we were going to crash as well – but thankfully we were fine (or you wouldn’t be reading this!).  On the road for 4 and a half hours and then we got to Wuhan train station for our next sleeper train.  We had about 3 hours to kill and then boarded our sleeper about 3pm for our 14 hour journey to Guilin – due in at 5am, which needless to say was of course late :-) But not by too much.  We found the public bus, and I think it would have been more of an experience if we weren't all so tired!    

Anyway the journey was well worth it as Yangshuo was my favourite place by far.  Very quiet, in the countryside, pretty, just what I needed - apart from it being freezing cold!!  Our Hotel, Lisa's Mountain View Lodge, we were not impressed with.  We had breakfast there although I have no idea why as the breakfast room had no glass in the windows so it was freezing cold and they were crap bringing out the orders. I think we were all too tired to bother saying anything though.  However, things did improve as the town is beautiful. As i've been posting this online in Thailand I've realised I didn't actually finish writing about China and the end of the trip so now I am trying to remember - however I have the main things it just might vary the order of things!!  We took a trip on the river that I can't remember the name of (oops!) on bamboo rafts (well they were supposed to be bamboo but they were large tubes of plastic!)  It was really beautfiul - however it was FREEZING cold again so I think it marred my enjoyment slightly. 

 The next day was a free day and we could take a kung fu or tai chi lesson - or a cooking class! Guess which one I opted for :-) It was great fun though and there was another 4 people from our group who wanted to do it, Maria, Martin, Rehka and Suzanne. We had to tell them what we wanted to cook so decided on sweet and sour, sizzling beef and dumplings, next was a trip to the market to buy the ingredients.  The teacher actually did all the buying etc so we didn't have to do that but we did go round the market, the most interesting bit was the meat section as of course, all the animals are there, alive as well as dead.

There was of course the weird and wonderful fish that had been cut up but their nerves were still working so they flipped about and you had birds that had been plucked and sliced open just displayed waiting to be bought.  There were cages and cages full of live chickens and ducks and rabbits as well - all of which I could handle. However one thing that will stick with me forever is seeing dogs available.  It was horrible.  They have them alive in a cage behind a stall, all jammed in, then I saw it in the different stages, one dead lying on the floor, then the next stage hung up and skinned but whole and then the next bit cut up in to bits.  And I managed to get all that in 5 seconds as I couldn't even look at it properly.  I don't know why but it just doesn't seem right to eat dog, and for whatever reason I could handle seeing the chickens and rabbits being treated the same way, I couldn't handle it with dog.  So, moving on from that not very nice experience, we went off to become chinese chefs!

   

 

So first up was our dumplings, using this really fine pastry that they already bought for us, but they were quite easy to make, its just fiddly getting them to look nice putting them together!

Then our sizzling beef, and then of course the sweet and sour pork! So what can I tell you about the cooking without going through the whole method which i'm sure you don't want to read! It was great being shown how to do it and when I had to deep fry the pork i managed to drip hot oil on our teacher - whoops!

     

So we had the afternoon free after our lovely cooking and went off to do some final looking around the shops.  That evening we had our final sleeper train quite late into Shenzhan.  By this point i'm an old hand at the sleeper trains so it wasn't too bad, got into Shenzhan early for a change!  Then as we are in China we have to depart the train and then cross the border into Hong Kong by foot! Eventually we get through, then have to do another metro train to get to Kowloon to our hotel.  I have to say it was a nice finish to our trip as if you compare my Hostel in Hong Kong to the Hotel we were staying in you couldn't get much more of a difference!  We got there quite late in the day so all headed off for a farewell lunch together.  I had plans for hong kong - unfortunately a pair of my trousers ripped halfway through China and although I got them repaired, they tore again, and I realised I just didn't have enough clothes still, so I had to trek off to Marks and spencers again to get myself well prepared for the rest of my trips! Strangely enough Suzanne on my tour was catching the same flight as me the next day to Singapore (although I was only stopping for an hour!) so we went to the airport together the next day.........next up Thailand :-)

Chengdu and the Pandas! soooo cute!

Now we are about halfway through the trip and its time for my flight to Chengdu and THE PANDAS!!  This was definitely a highlight of the trip.  Chengdu is a lovely city – although another enormous one we were lucky enough to be staying by an area which also has lots of little lanes mainly with bars and restaurants but also stalls and shops.  It was so quiet in comparison to everything else it was like I was breathing a sigh of relief walking around there and I completely relaxed.  That evening 4 of us went for a couple of drinks there – it was really nice as none of us had been out in the evening before that.

       

So first up before the Panda’s was a 3 hour drive (one way) to the Leshan Buddha – the largest in the world I think.  It’s a massive statue I think about 700 ft high.  We had to walk up a “small” mountain in Olive’s words to get to it at the top and then we took these stairs down to the bottom, and then back up again!  Just to be able to walk back to the stairs where we go down again!  I got a fair bit of exercise that day again!  I have to say that the stairs down and up around the Buddha were a challenge purely because you are walking down the edge of a cliff face and it was bloody high and bloody scary!  I’m definitely challenging my fear of heights. Then we had our lovely 3 hour drive back. 

      

The next day we were up early to see the pandas as they are most active in the morning between 8 and 10 am – I think after they have stuffed themselves full of bamboo they go to sleep.  There are only about 1000 giant pandas left in the wild (or the world – I can’t remember which) and the Chengdu Giant Panda breeding centre is one of the largest in the world trying to increase their numbers. I wasn’t sure what to expect, whether I would  hate it and feel sad like I do when I see animals in the zoo.  Acutally it was fine.  The centre is huge (and they are building more to make it enourmous) and the enclosures are quite big.  I don’t think it bothered me too much either as Pandas do sleep most of the time – eating and sleeping – sounds like my kind of life!!!

What can I say about them – they are so CUTE! Ha ha – that probably is the best thing to say, it was great as we saw them being fed and them playing with each other. We watched a film showing what work they do at the centre and about them trying to get the pandas to mate, and if they don’t do it naturally – artificially inseminating them.  When the mothers give birth for the first time they don’t have any idea what is going on and half attack the little thing that has popped out of them and knock it about with their paws, the keepers have to go into the cages to get the little babies before the mothers kill them.

Because they rear them from babies too we even saw some really tiny newborns about 2 months old (but weren’t allowed to take photos L).  You had the opportunity to get your photo taken with a panda but it cost about £100!!!!  One of the girls in the group did it, but she only got about 5 minutes with it – if that. 

   

    

We had some spare time afterwards and then had to go to the train station for our 5 hour hard seat train to Chongqing.  Not too bad – a bit like a standard train seat on the long distance trains at home, I’m getting used to these long journeys now though so 5 hours is easy. 

I think this is enough of an update for 1 day.....i might just finish off telling you all about China tomorrow and even tell you a little bit about what I have been up to in Thailand!! 

Xian - The Terracotta Warriors

We arrived in X’ian. ANOTHER huge city with a massive population.  As a city – I really didn’t like X’ian. I think by this point I was just fed up with the amount of people, the dirt, smog, pushing and shoving etc.  I was shattered. The only plus points about X’ian itself was the muslim quarter which had cool little market streets to walk around and China’s largest mosque which was a really beautiful place.

        

The next day we headed to the Terracotta Warriors.  A great thing to see but again, not what I was expecting I think in terms of a “wow” factor.  It really is enormous but it didn’t give me the wow I thought it would.  The statues are amazing though as every single one is different and so detailed. So far they have uncovered about 1000 but they estimate there are still another 8000 to be uncovered.  Its amazing to think that they discovered it by accident only 35 years ago.  Unfortunately most of the warriors have been broken as the tombs were raided thousands of years ago and attacked and attempted to be destroyed.  A  lot of the warriors we saw had actually been put back together again by the Chinese government. 

Seeing the warriors only took up the morning so in the afternoon we decided to go to the City walls and bike around it.  Oh my god.  Its 14km.  I cycled it in about an hour and 5 minutes.  Are you impressed? I couldn’t walk afterwards of course though and everything hurt!!     

That evening we headed to another part of the city to see the Golden Goose Pagoda (I think!) and see the fountain and light show which is to music – quite cool.   

Another early night was had and off we went to bed to ready ourselves for a big highlight - Chengdu and the Pandas!!

Finally a new update - Shanghai and maybe more :-)

So we arrived into Shanghai – another MASSIVE city.  However I preferred Shanghai – more modern, more western and it seemed easier to get around. We headed over to the Shanghai Museum – what can I say about it?  Well the guidebook says its not to be missed as China doesn’t do Museums very well with bad descriptions and lighting, and you would need a day and a half to get round everything in this museum.  We walked around it in 1 hour 20 minutes. I don’t really do museums very well, however I did enjoy the ceramics exhibition after doing my pottery course. There’s a new building in Shanghai called the World Finance Centre which is the tallest building there (maybe in the world – I can’t remember) but it has over 100 floors.  The trouble was all the big buildings there cost about £15 to go up and look out at the view – quite expensive for a view when on a budget.  I wanted to go to the Grand Hyatt Hotel which I had been told also had a great view but was free to get in – apart from the drink that you had to pay for J Well I thought – at least I get something back in return for the money as well as the view!  However you have to dress smartly to get in and it seems like I was the only one on the trip with something nice to wear (how strange is that – me being the backpacker!). 

So everyone wanted to go up to the WFC but I decided to wait at the bottom for them as I thought I’d rather spend my money on something other than another nice view as I got a few of them in Hong Kong. I ended up going into the building anyway as there were shops and toilets in there and I needed an ATM and a pee!  That was an adventure in itself!  I found the toilets – talk about space age – and the first time I  have ever wanted to take a photo of the toilet!!!  It had a heated seat, buttons to control: rear cleansing, soft rear cleansing, front cleansing, pressure, position, temperature for the water and the seat, an energy saver, wand cleaning, plus the stop button!  I was almost too scared to use it.  I have to say having a heated toilet seat is certainly a different experience.

       

Next up was the ATM, once I finally found it, it wouldn’t give me any money – very annoying and worrying! I ended up calling the bank whilst I was there and for some reason they had decided to take off the note about the fact I was travelling for a year and put a block on my card!!! Very very annoying! (sorted out in the end though and they even refunded me the £20!!!! The call cost me!). 

The following day was a Friday and I had managed to make contact with Caitie who I met in Beijing to meet up with her for a Friday night out in Shanghai with her and her friends. We spent the morning in a park in the old part of Shanghai which was really really nice and peaceful and a very beautiful place.

        

I then split off from the group to go and meet Caitie – I had a bit of a panic as I was at the station she said to meet at on time and was waiting and waiting and she wasn’t there.  I sent her a text message and then turned around and there she was – very bizarrely she seemed to have got there at the same time as me but we had both missed each other! 

We headed off for her to show me round the French Concession area of Shanghai but sadly its all disappearing with the Chinese penchant for ripping things down and rebuilding things keeping only the odd building which someone famous once lived in.  The odd building is nice but it means that the character of the area is going.  The roads are very different there though as they are all tree lined and it is a more attractive area.  However I was so pleased to be with Caitie as she took me to an area that I can’t remember the name of! But is lots of little alleys filled with shops, bars and cafes.  There’s no traffic and its tiny little walkways and shops but full of character.  It did remind me of being in Europe but its great as its full of locals and they all live round there too. 

       It was quite early so we headed over to her apartment so she could change after work – also really interesting to see a more residential area and I was really surprised at the size of the apartment as I expected it to be tiny. We headed over to a bar called the Boxing Cat Brewery which is Shanghais first micro brewery – this girl was my kinda girl! It was really really great a they have all sorts of beers on tap – a bit like a real ale pub! After a couple of surprisingly strong beers we headed out to meet the rest of her friends in a local restaurant – very local – like a little shack – very basic. I have to say that after that meal I think Olive had been sheltering us with the food as everything she ordered for us has been great, whereas the food in this place was ok, but mainly too spicy for me – but it had great bread! We ended up heading back to the pub for a couple more beers after that and then I said goodbye to my new friends – but it was a great night out and really good to get away from the group for a few hours. 

     

 

It wasn’t too late a night – but it was 1.30am by the time I made it back to the hotel. The next day we had nothing to do until our sleeper train in the late afternoon. Luckily our hotel in Shanghai was great with soft comfy beds and a great duvet so I snuggled in bed all morning watching stuff on my computer and then got up in time to go for lunch before the train. Not much different to say about this train other than it was the afternoon and evening we had on the train and then got off in the morning – but later than planned as it was delayed (typical).