Train from Beijing to Lhasa

This was something very new to me - being on a train for 48 hours. Over 4000 km, reaching altitudes of 4500 m, this was impressive. The washrooms were less so. We could not get tickets together so I opted to stay by myself with a bunch of people I don't know. This turned out to be quite fun as I learned a pile of Mandarin and was 'adopted' by Auntie Zhao, who was this nice 55 y/o woman from Shandong province. I was fed well with a variety of things I could not identify and that might explain a little stomach turbulence I feel :). The view from the train was phenomenal and pictures cannot do any justice.

Beijing

This was my second time in Beijing - still could stare at the sun no problem. When I was there in 2004, Tiananmen Square was closed, so it was nice to be able to actually set foot in there this time around. Went to a more remote section of the Great Wall, which was good. This marks the end of my solo travel, and the beginning of meeting my fellow group members, led by Tristan from NZ. Travelling with 13 other people will be quite different and I'm not really used to the whole 'tour' thing (dragonboat doesn't count!)

Pingyao

Ah Pingyao - competing with Guilin as my favourite place in China, so far. This town is remarkably well-preserved since Ming Dynasty times 600 years ago. I fell in love with this place - it's so quiet, the people so friendly, and such a fantastic atmosphere. I stayed at Harmony Guesthouse where Mr. and Mrs. Deng took very good care of me and the other handful of guests from all parts of the globe. They were excellent chefs as well, having the chance to try several obscure kinds of noodles (i.e. oat floar, cat ear noodles [no, not made from cats], etc). This is the only city that has a completely intact Ming Dynasty wall surrounding it as well (~6 km), and many of the houses are that old as well. As with the rest of China, there was a lot of poverty, but people here seemed much happier than their large urban counterparts. It's a simple life and the value of personal relationships have not yet been lost here.



I had a chance to rent a bicycle and go to similarly aged temples (somewhat neglected with time) in the surrounding region. The bike was a little tempermental but that added to the fun as I had a chance to meet a local farmer who had a screwdriver handy when the chain jammed itself into the assembly. Yeah, lots of pics on this one (in case my camera gets ripped off again).



Thank you, Bo Bo, for the recommendation to come here.

Hangzhou

I can't say I got much of a chance to see Hangzhou in all its glory (day trip from Shanghai), but I did see the most important part, being West Lake, an artificial lake criss-crossed by a number of causeways dredged from clay quite some time ago. Another impressive feat of Chinese engineering. Also had a chance to check out a silk museum and finally learned how they harvest, cultivate and weave the material. Extensive botanical gardens, also. Unfortunately it was like 36C and high humidity so I can't say I enjoyed walking around too much.

Lack of Posts

Hi everyone - sorry for lack of posts. Still alive. Have been to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Pingyao and am currently in Beijing. It's either been - PC with no USB port (so no pics), or garbage internet connection (so no blog, period). Hopefully I can update before I head to Tibet and Nepal in a couple of days.

Cheers

Shanghai

Shanghai was an interesting place. It was just immense! While most of the city is general sprawl there are some very quaint and very European-like pockets filled with ex-pats. I met Xiao Chao from Guilin here and he was nice enough to show me around Tongji University. I have mixed feelings about this city - while it is nice to see the 'new China' out in full force, one can clearly see the cracks of extreme poverty lurking. One has to question if the price was too high.

Luoyang (Shaolin Temple + Longmen Caves)

I guess it is a little bit inaccurate to call this post Luoyang considering I didn't do much more than sleep there. Well, I did come across the night market, but it was closed at 10pm on a Saturday night - LAME. For a city of 6 million it sure goes to bed early.

Anyways, so I had the great fortune of going to the Shaolin Temple and surrounding area - yes, the place where kung fu was born! I also had the chance to see quite possible the oldest living thing I'll ever know - a 4500 year old cyprus tree. 2500 BC.... what was humanity then?

The kung fu show was pretty amazing - especially the guy who bent the sharp spear with his neck. Too bad I didn't have a picture of that. Also went to Longmen caves, where there are about 100,000 Buddhas carved right into the rock face. Unfortunately many were vandalized :(.