China Part II – Huang Shan and Tai Shan

Huang Shan aka Yellow Mountain isn’t one of China’s sacred peaks but certainly looks the part.

Shrouded in mist until you’re a couple of hours into the walk, it appears and its immediately clear just how this one mountain alone inspired a whole new type of Chinese watercolour painting.

Aside from the Chinese tour groups with leader and megaphone slightly tainting the peaceful atmosphere we climbed it with a group of Swedish students from Shanghai and towards the end of the day definitely found the best secluded spot to enjoy the views from.

Along with the Swedes we visited a Huizhou-style village, typically known for their white walls and dark tiled roofs.

Tom and I continued up the east coast, destination Beijing. We had a pit-stop in a town near the sacred Tai Shan mountain and spent an afternoon wandering around the ancient scholar Confucius’ home-town of Qufu.

Intricate carvings

The local barber shop

China Part I - Yangshuo to Shanghai

Marx and Lenin having a good old chat in the park, Shanghai

We arrived in China after a short train journey from Hong Kong and everything felt very, very different. I think it was the first time on our trip that it was literally impossible to know what to do or where to go. For example, after crossing the border we had to go to a bus station to take an overnight bus to our first destination, Yangshuo. So imagine the scene – we were waved through the border gate by a Chinese man in Communist-looking uniform with a large gun. We both had large, heavy backpacks on our backs and a rucksack each on our front. Nothing is in English. All signs are in indecipherable Chinese script. Nobody speaks English; at all. No amount of broken Spanish, French, Italian or German that has helped us thus far will work. In fact even body language doesn’t seem to work – pointing and motioning results in blank stares or nervous laughter. We had absolutely no idea where to go in a large, noisy and manically busy city. And everybody was staring at us. Welcome to China - I have to say that we were loving it!

To cut a long story short we ended up finding the bus and travelled overnight to our first stop, Yangshuo. Yangshuo is quite touristy for China, although the vast majority of tourists are Chinese but it is also set in a beautiful setting, surrounded by karsts (giant granite spires) often shrouded in mist and its a very picturesque town. We hired bikes and explored the area, strolled around the town and took a two day trip to a place called the Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces, several hours away its a stunning area where rice terraces have been sculpted into the land by the locals over hundreds of years (thus resulting in what looks like a dragon’s spine).

Yangshuo by day...

...and Yangshuo at night (the view from our terrace)

Some views at the Dragon's Backbone rice terraces

The sign on our 'hotel' at the rice terraces. The family we stayed with were unbelievably welcoming and kind

Very impressed with our first stop in China we boarded a 24hr train for Shanghai.

Elizabeth in the subway, Shanghai

Shanghai is exactly how you would imagine – daunting sky scrapers, its hot, its busy, its China (but somehow not the China that Elizabeth’s Granny would have known being born here in 1913...)

Shanghai - lots of neon and skyscrapers

We found a park to have a moment’s peace in and sat people-watching next to a large statue of Marx and Lenin. Parks typically are where the older locals hang out and exercise (if you can call it that). Apart from the traditional Tai Chi there are people also walking backwards around the park and screaming at full volume (apparently it's called therapeutic screaming).

Shanghai park

I had another classic Chinese experience in Shanghai when I was trying to get some more anti-malarial tablets. I went to the hospital pharmacy (having given up trying to explain to the chemists) armed with an old box of the pills and the Chinese translation written down on a piece of paper. Every time I reached the front of the queue they pointed me to a different counter, followed by more queuing and more pointing. After this happened several times I was sent to what looked like the grumpy old lady in charge:

Me: Do you have this [pointing and holding up box and translation].
The boss: No [nodding her head].
Me: Yes? [nodding] or no? [shaking my head]
The boss: No [nodding her head again].
Me: No? [shaking head]
The boss: No! [nodding her head and shaking her hand in a non-descript manner]

Again we Couch Surfed, this time with a German couple working at the Expo. We spent Elizabeth’s birthday wandering around the Expo which was incredible....

The entrance to the British pavilion at the expo

The inside of the British pavilion- each tube is filled with a different type of seeds

Outside the pavilion

The Chinese pavilion (in true Chinese style it dwarfed all the others)

A light introduction to China - Hong Kong and Macau

One of the world's best skylines

An unidentifiable tail

 

Breakfast of delicious dim sum and jasmine tea

We were both really excited about our time in Hong Kong, which came around sooner than expected thanks to the palaver of getting hold of Chinese visas. We made a beeline for Kowloon on the tip of the peninsula and checked in to quite possibly the smallest bedroom known to man but ironically one of our most expensive – it was about 2m x 2.5m (including the bathroom).

Our days began with dim sum and jasmine tea at a fantastic restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. We took the well-loved, rickety Star Ferry over the South China Sea to Hong Kong island, a journey all of about 5 minutes, and explored the shops, restaurants and sights. We were very quickly hit with the prospect of returning to working in a busy city and so escaped to the top of Victoria Peak on the Peak tram to get a view across the island. It felt good to be in Hong Kong after so much time in South East Asia. On the one hand it’s a return to a less chaotic and smoother running city but at the same time feels very Chinese and exciting, especially as a preview of things to come in mainland China. It’s also nice to be in a place where an adequate meal in a restaurant is not considered to be a small pile of rice and a couple of shreds of beef.

It took considerable time to sort out our Chinese and Indian visas in HK so we had just shy of a week to explore the place. For our last few nights before heading to China we ‘upgraded’ from our small box room and went to stay with Ben, a Danish guy working in Hong Kong, who had very kindly agreed to host us as “Couch Surfers”. We stayed in his apartment on Lamma Island which is a relaxed, bohemian place with beaches and nice cafes and feels a million miles away from the bustle of HK island rather than just a thirty minute ferry journey.

Macau, a former Portuguese colony, is reported to be the Las Vegas of the East and as we had had such a good time in the real Las Vegas at the start of our trip (incredibly 11 months ago now) and since it’s just a one hour ferry ride from HK we decided to check it out. We spent the morning and afternoon sightseeing around the island (unlike Vegas it’s got a lot of historical sights, a park and a museum). We also took full advantage of the free sugary-almond biscuits (a nod to the Portuguese) on offer along the backstreets. A definite highlight for me was going to the street that was used to film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (opening scene where ‘Shorty’ the young Chinese boy drives them through the city to the airport after he jumps out of a window). Also going off a friend’s recommendation we hunted down what is according to someone in the know one of the best tea shops in Asia.

A slice of colonial Europe in Asia

As it got dark we noticed some restaurants with fish tanks stocked with some rather odd delicacies - live turtles desperately trying to escape before meeting their doomed fate, huge slug-like sea cucumbers and other things beyond description. The town turned neon so we hit the casinos and had a great time watching the Chinese manically gambling, shouting, throwing tantrums and celebrating crazily. We took a stroll around the Wynn hotel’s immaculate high-roller casino and noted how our trip has changed as our very first hotel was the 5* Wynn in Vegas! We kept being given free “tea” only it’s actually tea and coffee mixed together (the more caffeine the better I guess) and a slice of cake. Lots of guys wear red jackets (red being a lucky colour for the Chinese) and every fifteen minutes a stage would burst into life with western dancers and a crowd of gawping Chinese. We left on the late ferry back to Hong Kong exhausted and having had a really great day!

 A cannon positioned directly towards the biggest casino...

 Macau by night

North Vietnam (at long last!)

After a delay of weeks and weeks we are finally updating the blog! Below is what we wrote after North Vietnam (a very long time ago now).

Floating homes and restaurants in Cat Ba bay

Continuing up the east Vietnamese coast we strolled around Hue, Vietnam’s cultural capital, for a day to break up an extremely long bus ride linking Hoi An to Hanoi. Hue is also the closest city to the Demilitarized zone separating the north from the south.

The ancient city of Hue

Arriving in Hanoi, the country’s capital, we were struck by how incredibly noisy it was! The Lonely Planet’s description “A city with a blend of Parisian grace and Asian pace” is true but it took us a couple of days to recognise the “grace” through the “pace”. There are more motorbikes whizzing around the winding streets than you would think is possible and drivers do not hold back on using their horns...

Everything travels by motorbike in hectic Hanoi

Hanoi is an extremely busy city. We took time out from the hectic streets and went to visit “Uncle Ho” as the locals refer to him, in his mausoleum. The queues were endless and we were among the only non-Vietnamese at the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum complex. Uncle Ho looked rather fragile but was very well preserved probably thanks to his annual two week clean in Russia. The complex includes a really interesting Soviet-style museum as well as two of his former homes which both have rooms set-up in the way they were when he lived there – Lenin and Marx portraits on the walls of course.

A religious offering - burning fake money

After our standard Pho Bo lunch (beef in noodle soup) we headed to the city’s Temple of Literature which was built in dedication to the ancient scholar Confucius - it was Vietnam’s first museum set up in 1076 in order to teach the sons of mandarins.

Hanoi was also our jumping off point for a few days in Halong Bay. We stayed on an island called Cat Ba, a popular holiday spot for the locals, and although it rained for the entirety of our first day (possibly in preparation for our return home!), our second day on the island was gorgeous and we relaxed in a little bay overlooking the limestone karsts emerging from the water which Halong Bay is famous for.

Our beach in Cat Ba

Sunset views in Cat Ba

This concluded our whistle-stop through South East Asia and onto China!

Twelve months on the road!

Due to China's internet spies and ban of Blogger we realise our blog is well out of date (I can barely remember Vietnam!)

We've landed in India and after a couple of insanely hectic days in Delhi we're now in Rajasthan (The Land of Kings). We will do our best to get the blog up to date in the next few days (internet access permitting) but to leave you with one thought - China. Was. Brilliant.