Pingyao to Beijing to Hong Kong

After the overly touristed small town of Pingyao we caught a 2 hour bus to Taiyuan to catch the 6 hour bus to Beijing. Another shock of a contrast moving from small town to a city of 13 million. We stayed in a true hostel in dorm beds and noisy revellers to all hours of the night. Hurrah for ear plugs.

We went to Tiananmen Square to the first day and walked around the gardens. After a short nap at the hostel we went to check our the famous Silk Market. Wow! I never knew that 'Hello' actually meant 'come in and buy some plastic crap.' With shouts of 'special price', 'cheaper for you', and 'looky, looky' and people actually grabbing us and pulling us into the stalls it was quite fun. It's so hard for us westerners to get used to the haggling scene. We're used to paying the price we see on the tag. Here everything starts at about 10 times what it's actually worth and you work it down to the almost-not-getting-ripped-off price. I bought a shirt that started out at 800 kwai and ended up at 80. We also checked out the Pearl market, which is bigger and a little less pushy.

The second day we went to the Secret Great Wall, a tour through the hostel which visits an untouristed part of the Wall where the is almost no restoration. It was pretty cool to see how some parts have lasted so long and others have gone almost entirely back to nature.

No trip to Beijing would be complete without some Peking Duck so of course we had it 3 nights in a row. One of those nights was with my cousin Sarah who is teaching English in Beijing. We went to a very posh restaurant (at least compared to the fare we ate as backpackers) complete with the drunk French table who sang the entire night through.

The last day was reserved for the Forbidden City, whcih was definitely a highlight. Sadly, they're doing a lot of renos on some of the major buildings for the Olympics so they were all covered over. It was still an amazing sight. One more meal of duck and we caught our train back to Hong Kong (making it by only 3 minutes).

Now we're back to 30+ and 80% humidity for the next 3 days to recoop before we head back for home. More pictures are to come, but this will be the last post before we get home.

Xi'an to Pingyao

Sorry for the lack of postage. There was lots to see and do in Xi'an and lack of time to blog. We saw the Terracotta warriors the first day to avoid the crowds of the weekend and spent the rest of the time exploring the city. Erika and I had our anniversary and spent the day by ourselves exploring the bell tower and drum tower and shopping in the Muslim Quarter. The weather was somewhat hot you might say. The forcast was for 38, but it only got to 36 then 35 the next day and 33 and 35 the next two! I remind you that this is still May and not the middle of summer. At least Xi'an is inland so it's a dry heat and bottles of water are mercifully cheap (1 kwai if you look, 2 or 3 otherwise).

From Xi'an we boarded a train to Datong, which we thought was 6 hours (noon to 6pm), but was actually noon to 6am the next morning. Since we bought the hard seat tickets and not the sleepers we decided to get off early at Pingyao, a place we thought about checking out anyway. We got here at about 10pm and jumped on a rickshaw after much haggling to wind through narrow alleys and the ancient Ming wall which surrounds the town of 40000. Our fears of possibly being robbed on this tour through the dark were alleviated when we ended up at a lovely guesthouse with hosts who speak fluent English and had a suite for 6 available.

The weather finally broke with rain last night and sprinkling through the day. A little bit of shopping and some engagement photos of the newly betrothed couple have lead to a nice relaxing day in the now insanely overtouristed town. Pingyao used to be a very rich financial center 200 years ago and then fell upon hard times, which has left it almost unchanged over the intervening decades. Supposedly the last complete Ming wall, cobbled streets, and quaint shops along the main drag all lead to a feeling of stepping back in time.

From here its an adventure of trying to secure passage to Beijing, the last stop on our trip before returning to Hong Kong for a pre-return-trip rest.

What A Contrast

After visiting the most poluted city in the world (which wasn't all that bad because it rained a bit while we were there) we tool a 3 hour bus to Linxia where we were most definitely among the minority. Apparently there are 150 mosques 120 temples and 1 church and almost no reason for westerners to go there (other than to see a place that is so lopsided in the religious department). It's amazing having people stop on the street to turn and stare at you as you walk.

Another 3 hour bus to Xiahe placed us in a whole other world. This is a Tibetan monastery town (one of the biggest outside Tibet) and filled with tourists, Chinese, and monks alike. Seeing monks in full robes talking on cell phones and listening to the latest Chinese hip hop through ear buds is quite something. We also went outside the town to the Sangke grasslands, where we rode some very small Chinese horses and had milk tea and yoghurt. We ended up paying way more than we should have, but once we converted it to cnd$ we realized that it still only cost us about $8 for the taxi, horses, and food...not so bad. We did a little bartering, which was quite fun. I think I managed to work the prices down to the almost-not-getting-ripped-off stage.

Next it's back to Lanzhou for a little shopping with someone who knows how not to get scammed and an overnight train to Xian.

I've posted all my pics up to today on the old flickr account so nimen kan kan (have a look).

Hello From Lanzhou

I'll try to write this quickly on my defunct keyboard (made in Canada no doubt!). We made it to Hong Kong after our sweet 14 hour flight (just getting over the jet lag now). We made it through customs without a problem and met up with good old Mack, who was holding up a cardboard sign with our name on it, just in case we couldn't pick his pasty white, 6'4" self out of the crowd of 5' asians.

I've never felt so much like a sheep in my life after following blindly as Keith led us from one bus to another, down streets, through shops, etc. He knows HK pretty well so we just let him work his magic and will try to make up by leading some of the rest of China. We stayed at the WYAM base, which at least had AC as it was around 30C and 199% humidity (give or take) and was cheaper than anywhere else in HK at $70 a night (that's HK dollars - equivalent to $10). We got to partake in their morning worship service, which was a great way to start the trip.

Had some sweet BBQ pork and mango juice the next day and did some shopping for odds and ends. HK is pretty managable since englich is everywhere and most people speak it too. We will be spending more time here on our way back so picture taking was minimal.

We barely caught our bus to cross the border into China and took a flight to Lanzhou, which is very central China and about 2.5 mil. The Lonely Planet guide says about Lanzhou not to spend more than a day here if not absolutely necessary. Good thing we plan to visit the surrounding towns as Lanzhou is pretty plain. We met our 'host' who showed us our hotel ($14 a night, which Mack still sees as expensive compared to the rest of SE Asia) and took us for dinner. We plan to go with he and his wife to visit a Muslim town and a Bhuddist one later.

Today we bought some mangoes (they'll nevwer taste the same back home) and dragonfruit. I think I managed to pull off the transaction without getting too ripped off. For luch we had noodles for 3 kwai (about $0.40!).

It's quite fun being the center of attention everywhere you go. It's also interesting when someone tries speaking English with you. Where we had noodles today I talked with a lady who knew a little English and I tried responding with my little bit of Chinese. It was great!

The atmosphere of Lanzhou is much more laid back than that of HK and I can't wait to experience small town life in Linxia, where we plan to go tomorrow.

I think that's all I can think of for now and I don't want to waste time as it costs a whole 3 kwai for an hour of time here (again about $0.40 for an hour!!!). I forgot to bring my camera with me to the internet place, but I will bring it next time and have pictures of Linxia and the rest of the trip thus far.

I'll probably post again over the weekend so until then...

Zaijian!

I can't honestly say I've ever had a busier week. What with moving over 2 days, throwing my back out, cleaning up my roommates' mess, driving to Calgary to pick up visas, cleaning more roommates' mess, packing for trip, last-minute shopping for trip, getting sick, attempting to unpack from the move and set up some semblance of life in the new place, and meeting everyone who wants to see us before we go I think I ate once or twice...maybe, but I can't remember. And it's only Friday...but Sunday's a comin!

Just like all other well-intentioned people I will attempt to blog and post pictures throughout my trip, but no promises. I will promise to get all pictures up on Flickr...eventually.

Zaijian!!!