Hong Kong

Hong Kong is not part of China. I don't care what the government says.

In Hong Kong, they speak another language (Cantonese not Mandarin). They use their Hong Kong Dollars instead of Chinese Yuan. You need a visa to enter China, but not Hong Kong. Flights from Hong Kong to mainland China land at the international terminal, and you have to then clear customs and immigration. You can even buy copies of 'Mao - the unknown story' in Hong Kong (this book is very critical of Chairman Mao, and is definitely banned in China).

Anyway, I don't have much else to say about Hong Kong, as I never actually saw any of it. I had a 12-hour layover there (on my way from Vancouver to Chengdu), but it was not possible to the airport.

Chengdu, Holland and Vancouver

When we set out for Chengdu, we meant to use the city as a base for trips out to the sites in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and as a departure point to Tibet. However as result of two events, we didn't really see very much of the Sichuan province or any of the surrounding provinces:

MARIEKE's STORY:

On the second morning that we were in Chengdu, I got an email from my mother saying that my Oma in Holland was stopping her dialysis treatment and that she was going to a hospice and would likely pass away within a few days. I was really shocked about this as when I had last seen my Oma in August she had been doing well and we had even taken a shopping trip together. In the two years that we had lived in Denmark, I was able to get to know Oma better. I had been really looking forward to being able to visit her often as Anthony and I are going to be moving to Utrecht in March. The following morning I left Chengdu and arrived in Amsterdam later in the evening (European time). Oma was still quite lucid and was so happy that I had been able to see her one last time. My mom and I spent a few days by Oma's side talking with and reminiscing about good times. Unfortunately, Oma struggled for 12 days without dialysis (normally dialysis patients only live for 3 of 4 days without treatment). Although when Oma passed away there was another wave of grief, we were all in many ways relieved for Oma. The funeral was on November 15th and the ceremony was really beautiful - my cousin played cello, I read a Bible verse in Dutch (that Oma chosen) and my mom and uncle wrote a touching eulogy about Oma.

My mom, my dad and I spent the following day moving Oma's furniture (the stuff that Anthony and I were going to use for our new place in Utrecht). I flew back to Chengdu on Sunday night, arriving on Monday afternoon. I was to spend a few days alone around Chengdu as Anthony had his own issue to contend with...

ANTHONY's STORY:

For much of our time in China, I had been experiencing some intermittent pain and visits to several doctors had led to several diagnoses of different infections and several different antibiotic treatments. A few days after Marieke's departure, I again visited a doctor as the pain was not abating, and he recommended that I return home for further treatment, as it would involve a lengthy treatment of IV antibiotics.

I basically went straight to the airport and got the first flight to Vancouver, via Beijing (pretty pissed off that my travel medical insurance wouldn't cover it!). After over 24 hours of planes, buses and ferries, I was able to see a doctor at the Duncan Hospital and he declared that my infection was cured. Still, I should stick around for a few days to see a specialist. The specialist confirmed that I am now healed (also that I probably never had an infection, but rather a prostate stone...). So, I basically went straight back to the airport and caught a flight back to Chengdu (via Hong Kong, as it was much cheaper).

Our intended travels south of Chengdu have been postponed to another trip, but we should still be able to see Tibet - on our way to Nepal.

Emeishan

China is surprisingly mountainous. There were recommended mountain hikes near every city we had visited, but one sounded best of all - Emeishan. It is a holy mountain, with many monasteries, but the main attractions are the monkeys. Our guidebook even had a section called 'When Monkeys Attack.' A hostel at the base of the mountain lends out walking sticks that you can use to defend yourself...
The mountain is over 3000m tall (2400m from the base) and it should take about 12 hours to climb. On the first day, we (Anthony and Dave) only climbed for about 3 hours, reaching a monastery where we could stay overnight. It was a very peaceful night, drifting off to sleep with monks chanting in the distance, and waking to join in some tai chi. Oh, and pancakes with banana, apple, chocolate and honey for breakfast at the Hard Wok Cafe!

The second day, we climbed for over 9 hours to the summit. This hike was unlike any other mountain I have climbed. First, it was stairs the whole way. And I mean concrete stairs, perfectly even, with concrete railings, all the way up. I figure we climbed at least 15-20,000 stairs! And, it was foggy the whole way too. You could just about make out the 50 stairs ahead of you, and some trees to either side of the path. This was a little disappointing, especially when we reached the top and it was still foggy. I have no proof that I actually climbed a mountain. No beautiful view. No glorious sunset or sunrise. And we could barely even make out the shape of the majestic temples and statues at the summit. Kind of a bummer.

(not my photo)

But the monkeys were fun! The first time we saw monkeys was in the 'Joking Monkey Zone' - a section of trail that felt more like a zoo. There were lots of monkeys right along the path, but they were gathered there because tourists would feed them. And there were 'keepers' to make sure the monkeys didn't get too aggressive. Just past this area, we met our first threatening monkeys. There were no keepers about, and three monkeys were blocking the stairs. We tried banging our sticks and showing the monkeys that we had no food, but they weren't fooled. They bared their teeth and moved towards us and we began to worry. Just then, some locals calmly walked by and the monkeys moved out of the way. We darted past.
Our only other encounter with monkeys was near the summit. This area was also very touristy and the monkeys were well fed. I tried to dart past a monkey on the righthand railing. He suddenly ran down the railing, across the path behind me and up onto the lefthand railing (right by me). Before I knew what was happening, this clever little monkey had stolen my bottle of orange juice that had been strapped to the side of my bag. He ran off down the stairs. Once he was sure that we were not following, he stopped, quickly bit off the top of the bottle and chugged the whole thing. I would have taken a picture, but I was now afraid of having my camera stolen too.

Xi'an

Xi'an is most famous for the nearby "Terracotta Warriors." We intended to spend only a couple of days here, but we ended up spending a while longer just relaxing at the hostel with friends.

We did (on our third day) go see the "Underground Army." We had already seen so many photos of the warriors that they weren't all that impressive. The first emperor of China had the army built in secret to defend him in the afterlife. There are over 6,000 warriors, although three-quarters of them still need to be excavated. They were originally vibrantly-coloured, but the paint fades quickly after excavation. Work continues (at night, when the tourists are gone) and they are making several attempts to preserve the original colours.

We also visited a Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Research Centre to see some pandas. Pandas do not seem overly concerned with the extinction of the their species: the female is only fertile for a few days a year, pandas would rather hang out by themselves than mate, a mother will often club her baby to death, and will only nurture one of her cubs (leaving any others in a litter to die). After 20 years of trying, the Breeding Research Centre have only successfully bred two panda cubs - and both in the last four years. Hopefully, they're getting the hang of it now...

The panda cubs were very cute, and we were able to feed and pet them. Unfortunately, the rest of the 'Rescue Centre' was quite depressing. They had a cheetah (which had been kept drugged by a village), black bears (which had been milked for their bile) and numerous other sad animals. While these animals were being rescued from terrible situations, the rescue center seriously lacked financial support. Each animal was kept in a rather small cage, which consisting of only a concrete pad and steel bars instead of attempting to mimic the animal's natural habitat. We left the centre feeling really sad for the animals.

We spent the last few days that we were in Xi'an, actually seeing Xi'an. The city centre is surrounded by a 14km long (in perimeter) wall. The wall has a path along the top (about 5m across) that you can walk or bike around. We decided to bike the wall, so we rented a bike at the top and cruised around for a couple of hours. It was a really cool feeling to be cycling 15m above street level. If it weren't for the admission price for the wall and the fact that you can't bring your own bike to the top of the wall, it'd be a good commuting strategy for the locals...

Another key part of seeing Xi'an was the Muslim quarter. Unbeknownst to us, Xi'an has a sizeable population of Muslims (called Huis, who are descendents of Arabian merchants and travelers that came to the northwest of China by way of Persia and Afghanistan). The quarter consists of a bussling market area and street vendors, and so we spent a bit of time walking through it. We especially enjoyed the fried persimmons, the variety of dried fruits that you could buy (kiwi, tomatoes, oranges, etc.!) and the tasty halva!

Pingyao

The old town of Pingyao, with it's city walls intact, would have been very impressive - if it hadn't been so polluted.

Our guidebook (published in 2004) claims that this small town has escaped the development of much of the rest of China. Obviously, in the past few years, the race to develop has begun. Old parts of town are being knocked down. New buildings are being erected. And, a thick smog of coal dust and desert sands sits over the whole city.

We spent several hours walking (and biking) around the walls, but the whole experience was marked by the sights, sounds and smells of "development."

Datong

Datong is not on the normal tourist route (probably due to the smog), but there were two excellent sites near the city. The Hanging Temple was built by monks, who dangled down from a cliff-top above a mighty river, to drill holes for the cantilever beams. Flooding in the valley below was a big problem, so they built Buddhist, Daoist and Confucianist shrines (praying to anyone who could help). All of the temples in Beijing are fully restored, so this was our first chance to see shrines that were desecrated during the Cultural Revolution (the eyes were knocked out of all of the statues).

On the other side of town, about fifty caves were created in a sandstone hill. Each cave centers around a giant Buddha, with thousands of smaller Buddhas decorating the walls. Ironically, the best preserved Buddha is outdoors (his cave collapsed in an earthquake). The caves are damp inside, and past restoration attempts have crumbled off, leaving pock-marked Buddhas.

The Great Wall

We wanted to climb the Great Wall and we didn't want to do it alongside thousands of other tourists and postcard vendors. So, we decided to head to Huanghuacheng- a section that was further away and much less touristic than some of the other sections. Considering we were already going to be heading out so far, we decided to also go to the Ming Tombs (mausoleums for the emperors from the Ming Dynasty from 1368 - 1644).

We met up with Aaron, an Australian that we met on the Trans-Manchurian, at 7am on Sunday morning. We headed off to find a bus that would take us to Chongping, a city closer to the sites we wanted to go to. We spent about an hour on the bus, along with some really talkative early-bird locals. When we got to Changping we hailed a cab and spent about 10 minutes bargaining with the cab driver for the price on hiring the cab for the entire day. When we'd finally agreed on a price, we headed to the Ming Tombs. The cab ride was really fun, striking up a conversation with the driver with our minimal Mandarin, and trying to learn some new words from him (mostly farm animals that were in the farms at the side of the road).

The Ming Tombs were interesting enough - we got to climb underground to actually look at the tombs but they were really restored and not overly exciting. After a couple of hours of walking around, we got back in the cab and headed to the Great Wall.

A few kilometers away from the section of the Great Wall we were going to, we could already see the wall snaking through the mountains. It was really exciting! At one point we could tell that the cab driver had no idea where he was going, but luckily he kept stopping and asking people in the nearby villages where we had to go. When we finally got to the wall, we were told by a guard that it was shut down...We were a bit disappointed as we assumed that we would have to ask the driver to take us to the more touristy sections. We were told however that we could head to a lake where we could hike and look at the wall.

The driver drove us there and then a woman who said she was an official tour guide said that we could pay 50 yuan (about $8) and she would take us to the wall. We thought it might be a waste of money, but we agreed and so she lead us through back alleys around the village, through a construction site and up a slope that would lead us to the section of the wall. She left us at the bottom of the hill and so we clambered up to the top. The view from the top was incredible, and high enough up that you began to feel a bit uneasy about where you were standing.

We ended up climbing for 2 hours - one hour up the mountain along the wall and one hour slowly easing yourself down the wall, sometimes on all fours. Given that our walk along the Great Wall was less than official, we were kind of worried that we would get fined or something as we came back through the village (passing "Do not climb on the wall" signs along the way). Fortunately, the only people we met were an older couple (the woman had a cane) who were heading up the slope to climb the wall. With no language in common we tried to convey to them that the climb was pretty steep and difficult - we hope that they got the message! Anyway, we got to experience something pretty unique!

And as Mao once said, we are now "true men" (and women).

China!

We got a really good feeling about China the minute we entered. At the border we were welcomed by the border guard, and by the fact that people actually smile in China.

Our first impressions of Beijing were much better than expected. While there are a lot of people everywhere and there is quite a bit of pollution, it is not as bad as we expected. However, crossing the street is VERY scary. Despite the fact that there are traffic lights at intersections, you can't be guaranteed that the cars, buses and bikes will actually stop. The tactic we've used so far is to wait at a corner until a few locals show up and then follow them across.

Another thing is that we've left the places where we can attempt to blend in with the locals. Anytime you go anywhere touristy, you get asked if you want to buy guidebooks, Olympic paraphanalia, rickshaws rides, etc. What I think is particularly hilarious is that we've been approached a number of times by people who want to take their picture with us. We've even been handed someone's baby so that they could have their baby's picture taken with some gangly foreigners!

We've also had great luck with finding vegetarian food! We've found so many delicious vegetarian restaurants (there a quite a few Buddhist monks in China) that serve a huge variety of delicious food, some of which are very realistic mock meats made of soy and mushrooms. Nevertheless, we are armed with key phrases (I don't eat meat and I am vegetarian) for when we leave the big cities...

Over the past few days we've seen quite a few of the sights as well, including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (where the Chinese emperors used to live and was closed off from the public until the 1920s), the Temple of Heaven (a park with Buddhist temples), and Beihai Park (a huge park on a lake with an imperial garden and ponds with kai fish). We've also had the opportunity to climb a bit of the Great Wall, which we'll describe in the next post.