CHINA |
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I've finally completed the story of this trip! Don't know why but it has become a rather long story! In case you want to find out about one specific location I suggest you'll scroll down to that city directly. My itinerary includes these cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhuo, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Guilin, Yangshuo and Hong Kong.
Have a look at my photographs as well!
Beijing
Beijing (aka Peking) is a big city. I mean it. It is just one big city. Interestingly enough it is not like other big cities I have seen. There obviously some high rise buildings, but surprisingly enough the city’s centre does have a bit of a small town feel to it for a city with 12 million inhabitants.
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I have landed this morning in Beijing’s brand new airport for a five-week trip that will take me throughout the country. The pre-arranged guide is waiting for me at the airport and takes me to my hotel in a chauffeur driven car. Somewhere halfway to my hotel we stop to drop of the driver’s mother in law who also sat in the car acting like a piece of luggage but suddenly springs to life when we get close to the area where she disembarks. Two hours in the country I encounter my first language problems. The street signs are in Chinese and the people speak Chinese. I don’t. The guide that picked me up from the airport has a vocabulary of about 10 English words, so the conversation in the car is rather limited. I am glad I have a printed version of the name and address of my hotel in Chinese characters so I have won’t have to sleep under a bridge tonight. Once I have dropped of my luggage in the hotel and have enjoyed a long shower I hit the streets to explore this magnificent city. The weather is great. The pouring rain that pelted down on the car when we drove to the hotel has been replaced by a nice and warm sun. |
I am approached several times by young and innocent looking students. The fourth time I decide to join them when they invite me to see their university. We’re having a rudimentary conversation and walk to a part of town where the streets look a lot less inviting. The tarmac ends and there is hardly any people on the street. We enter a non-descript building. Slowly I begin to feel a bit uncomfortable and when we enter an elevator that takes to the fourth underground level this feeling does not really disappears. When I exit the elevator I find myself in an art gallery where the products of the art students are on sale. I resist the temptation to buy something that is slightly above the level of kindergarten for about the price of a Rembrandt and tell them that I’m in Bejing to see the Forbidden City instead.
The Tianmen square is big. It is so big I can’t believe it, which makes it an unbelievable big square. It is roughly the size of a runway for a 747 in both directions. At one end is the gate of the Forbidden City and somewhere near the horizon is the mausoleum of Mao. (with it’s own metro station underneath)
By now (13:00 hrs) it is too late to enter the Forbidden City as its size warrants a full day visit so I decide to visit the Temple of Heaven instead. On my way to the Temple of Heaven I have to walk through a street lined with shops. To advertise their wares each shop is equipped with an enormous PA system on the sidewalk. The salesmen are shouting into a microphone in an attempt to address their message to as many customers as possible in one go. In a street of 40 shops this obviously results in an incredible noise.
The lake provides great photo opportunities. Unfortunately gravity gets hold of my new Sigma 100-300/f4 zoom lens and I introduce some international language in China. It seems to have survived the crash at first sight but as of that moment the image quality deteriorates rapidly.
The Temple of Heaven is located in an enormous park south of the Tianamen square. It is great to see it really resembles its copy that I have seen 20 years ago in EpCot centre in Florida, hahaha! It really looks very Chinese. (that should not surprise me as I am in the country’s capital) Here I also encounter the first of many Chinese tour groups, a phenomenon hard to miss. All members of the group sport the same baseball cap and the guide usually walks around with an enormous megaphone in which he shouts at the top of his lungs. In location like the Temple of heaven where somewhere between 10 and 20 of these groups converge the noise is deafening but the mingling of the baseball caps is fun to see. The following day I wrestle myself through the crowds of people to get into the Forbidden City. It is a lovely day and it feels like half the country’s population has decided to visit the Forbidden City today. Once inside the crowds thin as the sheer size of the Forbidden City is sufficient to digest the largest number of people. It is a palace of 9999 rooms. (Odd numbers bring good fortune, three, five and seven are for the generals and other notables and only the emperor is allowed to use the number 9!) It is a shame to see that in the centre of this 1 by 2 square kilometer palace one of the ancient buildings has been converted into a Starbucks café. (see my story about the USA) Once I have examined all the 9999 rooms of this magnificent palace cum city I leave the palace via the North gate and climb the hill which provides a great view of the enormous palace. The Summer Palace is located some 40 minutes by car north of the city. It was built by the empress to escape the city’s heat. It is a great place. Probably one of the few places in the world with a boat made of marble. |
 Hungry anyone? Menu of a foodstall in Beijing (Read carefully!) |
90% of the visitors visit the great wall at Badalin. If you feel like marching in large crowds of bright colored tourists that is probably a good idea. I, on the other hand had already planned to visit the Great Wall at the site in Jinshanling. This turns out to be a bit problematic. According to the guide I’d hired that was because it is too dangerous, I think it is because I am the only person in China who wants to visit the 6400 km long structure at that specific point. As a compromise we decide I’ll join some 8 other travellers and go to Simaitai. Simaitai is located some 120 kilometers north of Bejing which takes some three hours in the tiny van.
Tip for the traveler |
It is hot, so I am very happy to see that there is a chairlift. (I have only had one beer so far that day, so my mood is sub-optimal). Once at the top of the chairlift, I have to walk for about 100 meters before entering a sort of rollercoaster construction that lifts me another 100 meters to the top of the mountain which happens to coincide with the foot of the Great Wall.I climb another 50 meter and than onto the wall. It is magnificient. In fact, it is so incredibly cool it is just breathtaking (luckily I manage to catch my breath in time not to suffocate). |
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"Don't visit the great wall at Bandalin. Go to Simaitai or Jinshalin instead..." |
It sure is a great wall.
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It is hot. In fact, it is so hot that I am surprised that the rocks that make up the Great Wall have not melted and turned into lava as it feels like close to 1500 degrees Centigrade. Probably it is not that bad, but even so I wouldn’t mind a cold beer.
What probably adds to the beauty is the serenity since as far as the eye can see there are no more than 15 people. In the bright sunlight it is easy to see the Great Wall meander across the mountain tops as far as I can see. It is hard to believe this is a man made construction and this version was actually constructed 500 years ago. (that is even before I was tramping around in my diapers). There was a older version of the Great Wall as well for which construction began in 221 BC, but the wall as we know it today is the one constructed in the Ming Dynasty in 1449).
At the parking lot I team up with some other travelers from practically everywhere across the globe and after some boxes of beer we become friends for life. (at least that evening)
For my trip through China I have brought 10 rolls of slide film with me. After my trip to the wall I have gone thru five of those already so am in dire need of extra slide film. Easy though this may sound, this turns out to be one of the more challenging activities of my journey since slide film has not yet made it to China. After a few phone calls to friends back home I get the address of (most likely) the only place in the country that sells my brand color slide films. I venture out in a taxi to this place at the outskirts of the city. Bejing Camera Equipment City Wukesong is not like anything you have ever seen before. It is a large hall with tiny shops in it all dedicated to a specific niche of the photographic world. There is stores with nothing but camera bags. Others have specialized on electronic flashes only. I see shops dedicated to background rolls, posing stools, but they even go so far to have shops dedicated to make-up and other even only sell wigs. Fortunately one of them is selling color slide film so I buy their entire stock (all 10 rolls).
The night train from Beijing to Shanghai leaves from Beijing’s enormous central station. The platform numbers are only signposted in Chinese and so are the destinations on the trains leaving from them. This makes navigating the enormous station quite a challenge, but eventually I find my train. I am impressed. My sleeper cabin is at least as comfortable as any other night train I have been in. There are four berths and I have number 34, the top one on the left. The bed is very comfy and made with crisp, clean sheets. One of the other ones is occupied by a teacher from the Shanghai conservatory who speaks surprisingly good English. Meals and beer are served as well, so this really is a comformtable way of traveling this vast country.
The current weather in Beijing:
Shanghai
Shanghai greets me with rain. It is a substantially different city than Beijing. Shanghai is a one very, very big city. I try to count the construction cranes I can see at the skyline of the city but loose track somewhere after number 70. It looks like you’re considered to be a looser if you build something with less than 35 floors. I explore the city with the metro. By comparing the Chinese characters on the signs with those in my travel guide I can find my way. I walk down Nanjing Lu, the main shopping street towards the Bund.
 Shanghai street cleaners with a sense of art.... |
In the 1920s Shanghai was dubbed the Paris of the East and the Bund was considered to be the Champs Ellysee of Shanghai. Well, let me tell you: things have changed drastically since those days. (and that is putting it mildly) The Bund these days is nothing more than a thoroughfare with 6 lanes of traffic in all six directions. At the waterfront is a promenade providing a view onto the business district across the river with the fancy looking high rises. If the weather had been better I would have gone across the river as some of the high office buildings provide viewing platforms. The views across the city are said be cool, but since some of the office towers are only partially visible due to the low hanging clouds this seems pointless. When I walk up the stairs of one of the tunnels under the Bund back to the city, somewhere behind me somebody starts to scream at the top of her lungs. When I turn around I look into a face at 10 cm distance. |
One of the hands belonging to the face is stuck in my camera bag and its owner decides to pull very hard in an attempt to relieve me of at least some of my camera gear. As I am 1.95 m (6’ 5” ) and one step higher on the stairs than the face it doesn't take a lot of violence to persuade the owner of the face to let go of my stuff.
The old parts of Shanghai are much more interesting. Unfortunately these parts are disappearing rapidly as they are replaced by fancy looking apartment blocks. I am surprised to find a Bavarian Bierstube in one these neighborhoods. The Chinese waitresses in German dirndl dresses look odd and exceptionally out of place, but the 1 liter glasses of German beers they serve suddenly seem to be very much at the right spot at the right time.
Suzhuo
Suzhuo is to Chinese standards just a small town. The large number of canals has earned it the reputation “the Venice of China” which frankly I think is a bit too much credit. It is only some two hours by train from Shanghai and is also the place where the typical Chinese gardens originated. Many of the original gardens are still open to public and as my hotel is across the street I obviously check out the majority of them. They are cool. They all have very interesting names like “humble administrator’s Garden”, “Master of the Nets Garden” and “ Lingering Garden”.
There are approximately 1,000,000 inhabitants in this “small town” and it seems all of them make their money as a bicycle-taxi driver. There are hundreds of them at every street corner in town offering their services to everybody within shouting distance.The first 967 bicycle-taxi’s approaching me I manage to ignore, but I finally give in and strike a deal with nr 968. I get to see a lot of the city but after a while the driver is getting second thoughts about the deal we made. When we are in the middle of nowhere he suddenly stops and demands roughly four times the price we had agreed at the start. Although it is raining I get out and start walking back to the hotel without even looking back at him. When he realizes that I am not giving in and he is about to loose the money he would have made, his attitude suddenly changes again and we finish to trip for the originally agreed amount.
When I visit the West temple the next day I see busloads of Chinese visitors burn incense with their prayers. It turns out that the more incense you burn the more successful your prayer will be. (or so it seems) Some people literally light up hundreds of sticks in one go. They push each other away from the specially erected incense racks to ensure that all their bundles of hundreds of incense sticks will get the best spot. As the concept of waste bins has not really made it to the Chinese temples the red paper packaging of the incense is flying around in the wind giving the scene a bit of an surrealistic air.
Hangzhou
After a few days I take a train to Hangzhou. The pre-arranged guide who meets me at the Hangshuo train station that night is called Tim. Now the interesting thing about Tim is that he thinks he’s identified a niche market. Obviously there are thousands and thousands of English speaking foreign travelers in China. Apparently lately there are more and more German speaking tourists in the country with a limited ability to speak any English so Tim has opted to follow his training for official CITS Guide in the German language.
As a result I find myself speaking German with my guide while 20,000 kilometers away from that country. It has a bit of a bizarre sound to it and I cannot shake off the comparison with the Western movies dubbed in German I saw on TV when I was a kid. Most memorable of these movies is dialogues like “Hände hoch, Winnetou!” Fortunately Tim does not request me to reach for the sky so we decide he will show me around in Hangzhou and the vicinity while he explains everything in German.
Hangzhou is a completely different city than Suzhou. Marco Polo had dubbed it the most appealing city in China. Although I am sure he would not recognize the place 734 years after his trip in 1271, I can see where’s coming from (Venice) hahaha!
Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang province and its political, economic and cultural center. The West Lake is the most renowned feature of Hangzhou, noted for the scenic beauty that blends with its historical sights. In this area the Solitary Hill, the Six Harmonies Pagoda and the Ling Yin Temple are probably the most frequently visited attractions.
Although it’s misty the boat trip on the West Lake Tim has arranged is very cool. I get to see the Ling Yin temple where groups of Chinese tourists are herded around by their guides using enormous PA speakers. The noise is enormous in the cavernous halls of the temples especially when two groups get into the same room. At lunch I get introduced to the concept of the “beggar’s chicken”.
The legend has it that a beggar stole a chicken but (obviously) did not have a pots or pans to prepare it. To resolve that he packed it in palm leaves and clay and buried it in a fire pit. When he dug it up again after a few hours it turned out to be delicious and that’s why this recipe is still extensively in use in the Hangzhou area. A large chunk of clay is dumped on the table and the waiters use saws and hammers to cut open the baked clay to release the by now very tender and yummy chicken. ( click here to see it!)
Xi'an
My next stop is Xi'an. This used to be the capital of China which is why for example the Silk route ended here and the emperor used to live here. Today it is a small town to Chinese standards (7 million inhabitants (!)) and there is plenty of proof that this used to be the centre of China. To my surprise the old city walls still exist. Although the rain is chucking down I rent a bike and ride as far as possible on this enormous construction. The total circumference is some 14 km, but unfortunately it is not possible to ride the the full circle (or rectangle actually)
The oneway raincoat I have bought gets caught into the bike's chain so the chain ends up better protected against this tropical rain than this traveller. The Bell tower is completely surrounded by a roundabout and large shopping arcades, but the Drum Tower is still standing strong. Do visit this if you plan to go to Xi'an as not only is it a great structure to see with hundreds of (guess what) drums, it also provides a great view on the old Muslim quarters of Xi'an.
The number one reason to visit Xi'an these days is obviously the Terracotta Army. For those of you who haven't heard about this, here's the story: In the dry summer of 1974 local farmers were digging a hole for their new water well. However they did not discover any water. Instead they found what is thought to be the most significant find of modern archeology. In an underground fault long trenches were discovered inhabited by thousands of life-size statues of soldiers. These figures are the army that was to protect emperor Qin in the afterlife and were made between 247 and 221 BC.
I had read my guide book carefully before setting out here to be prepared but even so I have to admit that it took me a while to comprehend the sheer size of it. It is mindboggling. It is enormous. I stare at it in awe, baffled by the enormity and the knowledge that this was made 2200 years ago. 'Pit 1" is some 200 by 60 meters. A large hall has been built in the 1990's to accomodate the excavations (and tourists) Thousands of terracotta warriors stand in long rows in the ten underground corridors.To add to its beauty: each warrior IS DIFFERENT! Some wear the same uniform, but each face is different. It is thought that the artists modelled the faces of their creations based on their own face or on their colleagues. |
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There are three faults in total, each in a different state of excavation. Pit #3, he most recent find, is the smallest with only some 70 figures. This is thought to be the command post of the army.
All in all, a visit to the terracotta warriors in Xi'an is an unforgettable experience!
Guilin - Yangshuo
After Xi'an I fly on to Guilin. Located on the Li Jiang River it is the scenery around the town that has made Guilin famous. In Chinese restaurants around the globe you'll find these typical paintings of strange looking mountains. Well, that is the scenery you'll find around the city of Guilin. Again I am surprised by the size of this small town: 1,500,000 inhabitants. I am glad to finally leave the rain behind me that accompanied me all the way from Shanghai to Xi'an but I guess I get slightly more than I bargained for: it is incredibily hot. Liquid air is hanging on me like a suffocating blanket. pfffff.
I explore the city and the surroundings and visit interesting stuff like the Solitary Beauty Peak and the Seven Star Park. A bit more out of the way is a mountain called Yao Shan. Although it is not listed in my guide book, I venture out there in a taxi which takes approximately 40 minutes. Highly recommended as an Austrian made chairlift takes you to the top of the mountain from where you'll have a great view of the surrounding.
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A few days later I board the boat to the next town, Yangshuo. Although this boat trip is a bit touristy, it is actually very cool! I sail down the Li Jiang and get to see the karst mountains in their full glory. Arriving in Yangshuo means you'll have to struggle your way through the souvenir sellling crowds who obviously know exactly when the boat from Guilin arrives. The town of Yangshuo is very cool. In fact I think this is one of the spots in China I enjoyed most. It is a laid back town with a very relaxed atmosphere attracting backpackers and alike from all over the world. Its main street (Xi'Jie) is a pedestrain zone with plenty of bars and restaurants all serving good food and (more important:) great beers. After a few days I rent a bike and ride through the surroundings to the Moon hill. On my way there I get invited for lunch at a local's place. This is a great moment to realise again how lucky I am being able to travel like I do. |
Hong Kong
The flight from Guiling to Hong Kong only takes some 75 minutes but the difference feels more like 75 year. Where Yangshuo and Guilin are relaxed and quiet, Hong Kong is a hectic metropole with what I thought to be typical London double decker busses driving on the left side of the road. (main land China drives on the right side of the road). Ferrari's and Porsches zip by whereas yesterday in Yangshuo the majority of the traffic is made up of bicycles. There is neon signs everywhere topped up by a laserlight show. All in all everything is different! Hong Kong has this bizarre mix of modern, western and traditional Chinese combined into one city. It reminds me a bit of London and a bit of Singapore, two cities where I've spent considerable amount of time for business.
Tip for the traveler |
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"When heading to Hong Kong's new airport you can already check in at the Airport Express train stations in the city. Not only does this save you time at the aiport, it also means you do not have to carry your luggage any further than the train station where it is checked in for your final destination directly!!" |
When I shop around for photo gear I find out that it is the small stores where you need to go, whereas in Europe and the US the best deal are usually to be had in the larger outfits. Warning: if you intend to buy photo stuff in Hong Kong do make sure that you'll know exactly what type you want and check the contents of the box before you'll pay! Before I went out there I heard horror stories about stores selling stuff very cheap to the unsuspicious traveller but "forgetting" to put the battery or something small but vital into the box and these people had to get back to the store the next day to pay dearly for the item they (rightfully) assumed to be included in the deal.
There is a few things in Hong Kong that I HAVE TO check out: the Star ferry, the peak tram and last but not least, the world's longest escalator. The first two, well these will be hard to miss should you visit Hong Kong for yourself. The latter though is something at least as spectacular, but something rarely mentioned in guidebooks. It runs for 800 meters (!!!!) from the Graham Street Market on Hong Kong Island upwards. In the morning the direction is downwards, (to transport workers from their homes around the Peak down to Central) the rest of the day it moves upwards. You have to see this!
If you feel like you have missed Western food and beers while travelling through mainland China you want to check out Lan Kwai Fong.
The current weather in Hong Kong:
I had a great time in China!!!! Four weeks is not even half enough to see what one should see in this enormous country with all the stuff and varieties one should see. Still haven't seen anything from the Silk road, the Himalayas, the Yangste, the desserts, the jungles with giant Pandas....
Go check it out for yourself and enjoy yourself like I did!
If you have questions about this trip click here to send me a note!
| I have some photographs I want to share with you from that trip as well. Have look at them: | |
Equipment used on this trip:
Nikon F90x (2 x)
Nikon 24-85 f/2.8~4.0 AF-D
Sigma EX 100-300 f/4
Pentax Optio S4