Finally out of the Mountains

After our last three days of very long bus trips, we have decided that we will NEVER do this again. The morning we left Xiangcheng (day 2 of bus travel), we again could not get on the bus without some other driver making a joke about us, again causing the whole bus to erupt into laughter. It was not much more pleasant when the bus got going either. The bus was really crowded, dirty as people were throwing their leftover food on the floor and there was constant spitting and smoking. The bus ride was 14 hours and the seats were horribly uncomfortable. To top it all off, I was nauseous for the first four and a half hours of the trip. S was very supportive and the orange juice he got me made me feel a lot better. When we finally arrived in Kanding at 8 PM, we were surrounded by 15-20 touts outside the bus station trying to get us to stay in their hotel or wanting to drive us another 7 hours to Chengdu. We were tired and frustrated and, even as we followed one tout to a hotel, the others kept following us and slapping our bags to get our attention. The icing on the cake was the tout gave us a freezing cold room with no hot water. We woke up yesterday morning deciding that we needed to get out of the mountains and close this exhausting chapter of the trip. We got a 10AM bus to Chengdu and we were so relieved when we arrived in the Sichuan capital, swearing off long bus rides forever!
The last few days of traveling have felt more difficult than any other part of the trip. We both felt like people had been going out of their way to be mean or unhelpful to us. It felt very strange because we have found that the Chinese often go out of their way to help and are incredibly gracious. We brushed it off the first day but felt something strange was going on as we continued to see and feel it happening. When we were in Qiatou after Tiger Leaping Gorge, we met a French couple that told us that they had experienced hostility from the Chinese while they were traveling in the Northwest. Like the southwestern part we were just in, the northwest is home to a large percentage of one of China's ethnic communities. In both areas, there is a history of tension between the minority community and the Han Chinese. We believe that it is this tension that has been causing people to be sometimes unhelpful or aggressive towards us.
We are happy to now be in Chengdu and plan to spend a few days recovering from the long and difficult journey. Today marks day 94 of our trip and have been to 35 different cities/towns in China and 50 places in total. This morning, we got up early to visit the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. We arrived during feeding time and so we saw the pandas during their most active part of the day, feasting on bamboo shoots and leaves. There were giant pandas as well as red pandas, which kind of look like raccoons, and we visited the nursery where were saw very small and adorable baby pandas. As Sichuan is home to spicy food, we had a fiery hotpot for lunch. As of now, we plan on spending 2 more nights here before heading off to Chongqing.

Sichuan Mountains

Stuck in the Southwestern Mountains

After Tiger Leaping Gorge (more on that later), S and I made the decision to travel overland via bus from northwestern Yunnan to Chendu in central Sichuan province. The book advertised this as a "5-6 day trip", involving several bus transfers, daily 10-hour bus rides and driving in the mountains at an average altitude at 3600 meters. It warned that sometimes the roads might be closed due to snow but we thought this journey would be a better way to see more of the country. The plan was to go from Shangri-La to Xiangcheng to Litang to Kanding to Chengdu. From our calcuations, we expected it to take no more than four days but we didn't really understand that this area is where you still see real examples of pure inefficiency.
We got on a bus yesterday morning at 7:30 AM from Shangri-La to Xiangcheng. The drive took the estimated 8 hours and we were surrounded by beautiful scenery the entire way- small ethnic villages and tremendous mountains covered in trees changing color along the winding dirt road we took. True to form, our driver was completely insane, chain-smoking the entire time and speeding around blind curves honking the car horn with all his might. It was legitimately scary as an accident would have sent the van tumbling down the side of a 3200-meter mountain. On top of that, we could not feel our toes as it was freezing cold until about noon. Even though we bought several more layers of clothes the night before, it still was not enough.
When we arrived in Xiangcheng, we tried to book tickets for the following morning to Litang but received conflicting information about whether or not the bus was still running to Litang and when the office opened. We decided to get up early the next day and try to get tickets for the 6AM bus. This morning, the driver kicked us off the bus after making a joke about us, making everyone erupt in laughter. He told us there were no buses to Litang, even though at least 5 people on the bus told us it was going to Litang. The nasty man told us to come back at 1PM to buy the ticket even though the ticket office was open. We went back to the "ticket office" at 12:30 and waited around with another 20 people for an hour and a half until the office finally opened at 2 o'clock. As the employee opened the gate, all the men rushed to the counter, shoving each other out of the way. They were waving money in her face and demanding tickets. I managed to squeeze my way through the mass of people as I knew the men would not shove me out of the way and was the second person to purchase tickets for the following morning. It did involve a fair amount of pushiness on my behalf but the idea of being stuck here for another day was painful. Tomorrow we head for Kanding, which was actually supposed to be the 3rd leg of our trip so we hope to get to Chengdu in two days and stay on schedule. By skipping Litang, we are avoiding what we have heard is the "most unhelpful bus station staff in the country". The bus ride should be at least 12 hours and we are driving at higher altitudes than before. Hopefully, our feet and bodies can endure the cold. We are very glad to have purchased all these warm clothes as we will be needing them over the next few weeks in China and Nepal.
Before this, we spent a day and half hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge, which definitely ranks as one of the best memories in China. It is 10-mile hike over a gorge that is sandwiched between two roughly 5,500-meter mountains. Over this part of the Yangtze River, there is a series of strong grapids that can be hiked down to. As tourist season is over, we basically had the entire hiking trail to ourselves. On our first day, we hiked up 900 meters on a winding trail known as "24 Bends" before arriving at a comfortable guesthouse with great food and where our room overlooked the mountains. On the second day, we hiked down to the middle gorge, which was swarmed with Chinese tourists, and then back up to Walnut Grove where the trail ends. The entire trail was picturesque. There were several waterfalls along the trail, locals tending to their mountain goats and the immensity of the mountains never stopped amazing me.
On another note, we were involved in minor car accident (no one was hurt) on our way to the gorge when our huge bus reared a small van cutting us off in the passing lane. It created quite a scene as all the locals came out of their houses and wanted to be eye witnesses for the police. S and I have already discussed numerous safety precautions to be taken should we be involved in future crashes. Hopefully, the drivers are less crazy in Nepal.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

China's Southwest

Kunming, Dali and Lijiang

Yangshuo was really amazing. Our last day there we hiked for 4 hours by the Li River, which was very picturesque. In town, there is a very popular light show directed by the guy who choreographed the 2008 Beijing Games' Opening Ceremony. When we looked into getting tickets the day before our hike, once the travel agent told us it was 130 yuan a ticket, we politely declined and started to walk away. She called us back and told us that she knew about some cheaper tickets for 50 yuan each. She vaguely explained to us that we would not be sitting with the show's audience but would be watching from a nearby mountain. She said a bus would take us to the show from the ticket office the following evening. It was pretty unclear but I really wanted to see the show so we got the tickets. When we showed up later on at the travel agent's office, there was no bus in sight and she was standing outside with two dudes on motorcycles. She told us to hop on and, as my driver zipped in and out of car traffic, I clutched on tight for my dear life. We passed the big tour buses parking by the show's entrance and went down several back alleys until we came to a big group of people standing by a well-lit desk. Steve's biker stopped and handed the woman in charge 50 yuan and she let us pass. We were led to a gate where there were many seats on a mountainside overlooking the left side of the stage. In the main seating section, there were about 30 Chinese people watching the show. Using his cell phone light, my biker led me down a path left of the "main seating area" to a "left wing" where there were two foldable chairs. We had our own special section and, though we were far away from the main stage, we enjoyed the show and the hilarity of the entire situation. Steve's biker stayed with us the whole time and kept informing us when a special part was coming up and insisting that we take photos. Before the show was fully over but after the main finale, the biker told us we had to leave and and we followed as all the other attendees on our side of the mountain were leaving too.

After that, we headed back to Guilin where we thought we were getting on a 6 hour train to Kunming in Yunnan province. A few hours into the ride, we realized we were really behind schedule and a nearby passenger informed us that the ride was actually 18 hours. We adjusted pretty quickly by purchasing some instant noodles.
Kunming was very beautiful. It was the first day in China that we had really clear blue skies and we spent the afternoon walking around the city. As it was Sunday, the city's largest temple was packed with worshippers and the nearby park had many music bands performing. The bands were so close to each other that each band was drowning the other nearby groups out.

From Kunming, we headed to the old town of Dali, a quiet city sandwiched in between Cang Shan mountain and Erhai Lake. The area around Dali is home to China's Bai ethnic minority. The older women wear traditional clothing, which I think looks very similar to ethnic clothing of the Quechua people in Peru. We walked through Dali's outdoor market where farmers were selling fruits, vegetables, chilis, old tires made into baskets, and traditional and trendy clothing. We even saw some dentistry being performed next to the fruit sellers. There were several dentists working in the market and I had to turn away when I thought a guy's tooth was about to get pulled. After the market, we took an afternoon trip to Xizhou, a nearby small town that has retained much of its old Bai architecture. All the children said "hello" to us as we walked by and we saw many farmers working on their land. We spent the next day climbing 1 km up Cang Shan, which had some amazing views of the entire area.
This morning, we left Dali for Lijiang, a 400 year-old town that has preserved most of its architecture. We spent the day walking through its cobbled-stoned alleys and had a leisurely dinner by the Yu River. We have one more day here before we hike to Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Rice Terraces and Limestone Peaks

Guilin and Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces

We are now in Guanxi province in the South and have spent the last few days enjoying the gorgeous natural sights here. Two days ago we visited Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. They are high mountains about 2 hours away from the provincial capital, Guilin, that are covered in rice terraces. There are many paths through these mountains that connect the small villages where many minority Chinese groups reside. We stayed in the town Ping'an where the local women have very long hair that stretches to the floor. They tie it up using a combination of different wraps and buns that, from afar, look like a decorative hat. We spent our day there walking from Ping'an towards the next village, through the rice terraces, around lakes and over bridges. The sights were quite impressive and I am left feeling nothing but respect for the laborers who spent centuries constructing these terraces into the mountainside. Under one of the biggest bridges on our walk, we ran into a bunch of teenagers who were very friendly towards us. One guy proudly told us, "I am the Dong people" and invited us to a perfomance that evening in the village. The young girls were literally screaming "hello" to us at the top of their lungs and had black ash all over their faces. They were all smiling and laughing.
Yesterday, we spent 5 hours on three different buses to get to Yangshuo. It is very beautiful here and it is understandable why this is one of the biggest tourist spots in the south. The very small town, walkable in 5 minutes, runs by the Li River and is surrounded by breathtaking limestone peaks that jut out of the landscape. As it is low season, we are staying in a very nice Chinese business hotel for an affordable price.
The best part of Yangshuo is the surrounding area. Today, we rode our bikes 9 km to the Dragon Bridge, a 600 year old stone bridge over the Yulong River. As we were walking around the village, some woman approached us and asked, "Lunchie?" My first instinct was to say "no", as we had previously been continuously harassed to go for a bamboo boat ride and wanted to be left alone, but we were hungry and thought it was better than eating the unappetizing steamed corn offered by the vendors by the bridge. The woman led us down a few narrow alleys and through a straw storage room to a simple restaurant with a nice riverside view. We had an enjoyable lunch as we watched fisherman work in the river and heard the Chinese men on the bamboo rafts below us partake in a competitive card game. Trying to take a different path back, we rode through small rural villages on our way back to Yangshuo. Chickens and ducks crossed the path before us and little children poked their heads from their home to say "hello". Men and women carried bamboo satchels over their back filled with fruits and vegetables and bulls were led through the town by a rope strung through their nostrils. We were surrounded by rice farms and the amazing karst peaks in every direction. We were very lucky that today was such a gorgeous day as it has been raining for most of our time in China, making outdoor activities less desirable.
Tomorrow we are going for a 4-5 hour hike along a stretch of the Li River that is over a 1000 years old and supposed to be quite stunning. The following day, we will take an 8 hour train to Kunming in Yunnan province. We plan to spend a day or two there before heading to Dali Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Hong Kong and Macau

Hong Kong and Macau

S and I are excellent. We spent the last 4 days in Hong Kong and Macau. We spent our first two days exploring Hong Kong Island, which is the first modern city that we have seen that has not demolished many of its older parts. On the first day, we took a tram up to Victoria Peak for beautiful sights of the city and ate in the trendy SoHo district (the Mexican was disappointing), riding the world's longest escalator to get there. On the second day, we explored the city's traditional markets: dried seafood, traditional medicine, ginseng root, bird's nests (used for soup), antiques and fabric. Hong Kong is a beautiful city that certainly has a very different feel from mainland China. It goes beyond the English-named streets- the city is clean, efficient and diverse. There seems to be a coexistence between the old and the new in Hong Kong that feels natural. In Shanghai, the old parts of town were torn down to make way for big skyscrapers and, in Seoul, the old parts of town felt as though they were hidden away down back alleys. On our 3rd day in Hong Kong, we went to Hong Kong Disney World, which was something else. While it is not as big as its American counterparts, they had some decent live shows and S and I had our photos taken with Belle and Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty asked us what kingdom we were from. We spent the entire day there, eating Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream and pizza, watching the parades, nighttime fireworks show and going on all of the rides. We enjoyed analyzing the "It's a Small World" ride, swirling around really fast on the teacups and Space Mountain, which got faster as the day went on. During our three nights in Hong Kong, we stayed in Kowloon, a very diverse neighborhood of Indians, Chinese and Africans who are all trying to sell you tailored suits, fake watches and purses. We stayed in Chungking Mansions, a huge complex in the center of the city known for its low-cost accommodations. We stayed in a closet room with no windows. It was certainly an experience. While it had AC, it would make the room freezing in 2 minutes, so we opted for the blistering heat instead of freezing to death. Also, we were able to find several bookstores that had great books about China, which are impossible to find on the mainland. We made sure to stock up.
We spend yesterday in Macau, the former Portuguese concession. The small city is known as the "Vegas of the East", with loads of casinos along the waterfront. There was beautiful colonial architecture and we spent the day walking through the side streets and visiting old churches, temples and government buildings. We had Portuguese for dinner.
We are now back on the mainland and planning on taking a train to Guilin this evening at 7PM. Crossing the border into China was refreshing. While we loved Hong Kong and Macau, there is something more exciting about the chaos on the mainland. Looking forward to explore the South over the next few weeks.

Have Uploaded Photos

Now that we are in Hong Kong, I have spent the last 6 hours uploading all of our China photos. They are all under previous blog entries. Hong Kong is great- too tired to write, as it is 2AM. Must get some sleep for a busy second day here.

The Joys of Golden Week

We had a crazy last 3 days. October 1st was the Communist Party's 60th anniversary. There was an all-day long celebration in Beijing that was on every single TV channel. There was a military parade, followed by speeches, songs, dances and quite an elaborate fireworks display. We watched parts of it on TV and I videotaped part of the military parade for later viewing.
On the 2nd, we couldn't book another night at our hotel because it is Golden Week here and couldn't find anything on the internet. We decided to walk around and, after turning down a side street, I walked into what I thought was a hotel. When I asked for a double room, she asked me if I wanted to buy it. When I told her it was for one night, the real estate agent told me to wait a moment. She called up a friend and she then told me that she had a room for two in a nearby apartment building for 150 yuan (24 dollars), which was much better than the 308Y some guy wanted to charge us at a dingy hotel up the block. We decided to take a look at it at and it was a really nice, large one bedroom in a huge Chinese apartment complex. We had a kitchen and big living room with a DVD player. It was the most wonderful treat. We spent the day at a nearby temple, having literally about 15 different groups of people ask to have their photo taken with us and another 10 take photos of us as they walked by. After that, we found a very cheap DVD shop and bought two to take home. We ordered in dinner and after spending 30 minutes fiddling with the broken DVD player, we got it to work. We had a very relaxing night and it was nice to stay in a place that felt like a home.
As a side note, I have recently become obsessed with the bubble tea drinks here. Yesterday, the 3rd, we took the bus to Yongding to see the roundhouses, which are either round or square, and were designed as a fortress and apartment building in one. They are huge and some can house up to 100 people. On the bus ride there, this man from Fuzhou started talking to us and told us he could get us into the roundhouses for free if we followed him. He was traveling with his wife and daughter to his parents' home for the mooncake festival, which was that day. Summarized nicely by Wikipedia, the mooncake festival is one of the few most important holidays in the Chinese calendar and is a legal holiday. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos together. When we approached the entrance gate to the tulou town of Liulian, all the security guards were telling him that we needed to buy a ticket. He kept saying we were his friends but the security guards ignored him. After trying to sneak us in through back entrances and being caught everytime, we wound up buying the ticket and then he invited us to his home for the mooncake festival and said we could sleep in his family's tulou. His family was very generous to us. They gave us lots of fruit and snacks when we arrived. His daughter and her younger male cousin took us on a tour of the tulous. Keep in mind, they hardly spoke any English. We had a grand feast for dinner, with about 15 different vegetable and meat dishes on the table. The guy kept clanging my beer cup and saying,"Gan bei" and kept telling me to finish my cup. After I finished the not-so-cold glass, he would refill it and shout "Gan bei" again. After the 3rd glass, I covered my cup so he could not refill it but he poured through my fingers. The 4th time, I filled my empty cup with Sprite and he left me alone. After dinner, we played cards for hours and thanked them profusely for their generosity. We spent the night in one of their rooms in the tulou.
The next morning, we ate breakfast with them and they said they would take us to the bus station. Before the guy flagged down a bus for us to Longyan, he gave us an extensive tour of the tulous.
Now in Longyan, we are heading to Guangzhou this evening. As it is the national holiday, we could not book a seat on this evening's train. So, we have 9-hour standing tickets on the 11:45 PM train. S is excited about the train. I think it will be brutally painful but it will certainly be an adventure.

Xiamen and Liulian, Yongding