up the wall

Once the Yangtze journey came to an end, it seemed like all I could think about was conquering the wall and heading home. Usually I dread the end of a trip but this time it couldn't come fast enough. It is too bad because Beijing has a lot of neat things to offer besides the wall. Of course all neat things lose their shine when you have FOOD POISONING!! Yes, after all the care I had taken up to this point, the salad bar on the boat took me down. Or at least I'm blaming the salad bar. And yes I know I shouldn't have eaten fresh veggies but it looked so good and so healthy. It didn't hit until the second night in Beijing so I got one good day in. So knowing that little tidbit, here's how the progression of events took place.

The night we landed we skipped dinner and headed straight for the hotel. Skipping dinner usually means we'll either get money back or in this case, a deal that secured us a Peking Duck meal for our second last night - an expensive Beijing's specialty.

Our first stop was Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Forbidden City, or Imperial Palace, was home to several emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperor's wife and the concubines.

The Forbidden City was packed with very pushy tourists. At this point in the trip I had seen a number of ornate buildings painted in a similar way so although the site is incredible, I was now just going through the sightseeing motions.

After several hours of being knocked around by people, I was grumpy, tired and not interested in being anywhere else that hoards of tourists would also be. Which of course brings us to our next stop, the Summer Palace.

Summer Palace was the vacation spot from the Imperial Palace - the emperor's cottage. And to my horror - more pushy tourists. We walked along the Long Corridor - yes that's really it's name - until we decided to break from the crowd to go for higher ground. The guide, who didn't like a strenuous walk, tried everything to convince us that there was nothing to see; that we would miss the Marble Boat if we went this way, that it would take too long, but in the end finally followed us up the hill. After I convinced her that we had all the time in the world, she decided to be a good sport and show us some of the sights away from the mob. Finally we could stop and take a picture without being elbowed out of the way. We proceeded to have a very pleasant walk through the Summer Palace to the Marble Boat.

Our last event of the day was an acrobatics show which was incredible although I chose not to take pictures and just enjoyed the show.

On the way to dinner, I started feeling queasy. I thought I was just dehydrated since I would avoid liquids throughout the day in fear of actually having to use a public toilet. As we sat down to our Peking Duck, I realized this was more than a little queasy, this was full blown 'need to hold my lunch down' nausea. While I was concentrating on not getting sick, I look over Peter's shoulder just in time to catch a man blowing his nose onto the floor. That is correct. ON THE FLOOR of a restaurant - no Kleenex, just ... well you get the picture. Done. Gotta go. I headed outside shortly after that to get some fresh air. Side note: Beijing has done a remarkable job of cleaning up the air for the Olympics.

We took off back to the hotel where I proceeded to fight nausea and stomach cramps for the next few hours. I finally started to fall asleep thinking the worst was over until at about 6:00 am. I found out that all the descriptions of food poisoning symptoms we heard in Food Micro class were not exaggerations. I will not go into further detail because nobody needs that kind of information. I COULD NOT believe this was happening. This was the Great Wall day. The only thing I was looking forward to in Beijing and I was in danger of not making it out of the hotel bathroom. So I did what any desperate traveller would do - loaded up on drugs, ate nothing, and hoped for a miracle. Well it worked. The drugs were my miracle.



The wall was amazing and much steeper than Peter and I imagined it to be.

There are other flatter parts but according to our guide, most foreigners want this part because they want to conquer the hill. I made it about 2/3 of the way to the top before I ran out of energy and the will to conquer. Peter went to the top of course and snapped these shots.

I was just happy I didn't have to stay in the hotel room. We skipped the Ming Tombs that afternoon for a full recovery period.

The next day was departure day - otherwise known as the 31 hours before I see a bed again. We had some time in the morning to head down to Old Beijing to see the hutongs or walled courtyard alleys that once populated most of Nanjing. Currently, many are being torn down to "clean-up" before the Olympics.



One million people have been moved or displaced to make sure everything is pretty for the Olympics. The picture below is the new ParaOlympic Villiage under construction where the hutongs once stood. I'm glad we wandered down there for a last look at these historical buildings.




Our departing shot was taken inside the front doors of the spectacular new airport built - yes, for the Olympics. It is a stunning piece of architecture.

I think Beijing is going to surprise the world. They are putting a gargantuan effort into putting on a show. I hope they do well because they already feel as if the world is against them. Maybe we could show them that we want to be friends and not enemies. And as friends maybe we can help them through some of their issues if we can. I, for one, wouldn't want to be enemies with them. They will be a super power one day and when that day comes, I would like to say "ni hao" with the confidence that we are on friendly terms.

Last comment: I still have lots of neat pictures so as I go through, I will post them. Check back if you are interested and thanks for following along. Knowing that I had people reading actually made me pay closer attention to content, pictures and my daily events. It was fun. Zai jian!

Up the Yangtze

Other than Tibet (which of course didn't happen), the three day cruise up the Yangtze was the second big highlight on our itinerary. We were a little apprehensive about a cruise since neither of us thought we would like being confined to a boat for three days. We also weren't sure if we would like all of the group activities and timed meals. As it turned out, we had a great time. The scenery from the boat was mesmerizing. We sat for hours on the balcony (beer in hand) watching the cliffs and ships go by (perhaps not on this particular day because of the fog/smog).





I had in my mind that this Yangtze trip would be the last time the Three Gorges would be in their natural state before the largest hydro project in the world, the Three Gorges Dam, closed its gates to change it forever. In actual fact, the river was already transformed by a 250ft rise from its original level. There is still another 60 feet to go, for a total of 175 meters (approx. 525ft).




The river was no less stunning and might even be prettier because the water wasn't as stirred up with mud. But the river has changed the lives of 1.5-2 million people who were displaced by the flooding, mostly farmers and fishermen. The exact number depends on which source you believe. Many of the farmers have either moved to higher ground or moved to the cities along the river. There are many pros and cons to this project but when you see the pollution caused by the number of factories along the river, there is no question that they need a better alternative to coal.






The Three Gorge Project, once completed, will supply 22,500 megawatts of power. In comparison, the largest MB hydro station is about 1,300 MW.


We stopped to see a few cultural highlights along the way including Fengdu or Ghost City.







You see a lot of temples in China but never ones for the afterlife. It had a whole new look to it (black) and focused on what happened to bad spirits such as these ones:









Good incentive to behave I would say. Ouch.


We also visited an area known for their "hanging coffins". The ancient people would somehow find a way to bury their ancestors in the crevices of sheer cliffs hundreds of feet from either the top of the cliff or from the river. Some of the coffins were removed due to the rising water, but some coffins still exist.

(look for the little wooden coffin and sticks to hold it up)












And for the final stage of the trip we passed through the locks of the grand project - the dam itself. It takes 3 1/2 hours to pass through 4 of the 5 locks. The 5th lock will be in use once the project has been completed. They pass through the locks at night, since it takes so long. It is a bit freaky to be locked into a concrete cell with five other boats and dropped 20meters, with a wall of water above you.




We went to sleep after the first lock probably due to the high co2 levels in the lock from all of the boats churning out exhaust.




The next morning we had a look around the dam. Once again, it is hard to see because of the smog but you can tell it is pretty big. I really don't know how people get blue sky pictures for the dam (as seen in many of their promotional material). It seemed to me that we were always in a "haze".









It is 2.3 km long and 40 metres wide at the top. I hope they got a good price on concrete because 27.2 million cubic metres of concrete was used. Pretty amazing piece of human effort. China can do some amazing things.

Last stop...Beijing and the Great Wall.

Yangshou and beyond

In my spare time I've been trying to edit 3.5 GB of pictures. That's a LOT of pictures. Digital photography is a blessing and a curse. It doesn't cost a thing to get the perfect shot except the time to go through everything afterwards. But it is a good way to re-live the trip too.


Alright then...back to the journey. Yangshou was one of the best parts of the trip. I've already posted that highlight. To get to Yangshou we took a four hour boat ride up the Li River. Just like our rice terrace day, it rained for a least three of the four hours. Fortunately it was intermittent so we were able to get a few pictures. The Li river is home to a famous landmark featured on the back of their $20 bill. I can't remember the exact name of the spot. They have names for everything, "Lion Roaring, Monkey Jumping Over Donkey, Apple Mountain (which actually is one of the names). It usually takes an active imagination to see the figure the mountain is named for. But the name for this particular spot was blocked out by the frantic cries of our guide, Hu, as I prepared to take the picture. He was a little overbearing and while I was waiting for the perfect shot to come into focus all I could hear was "take picture now, take it, you will miss it and we can't go back. Take picture now." BACK OFF HU! I got the shot finally and quickly retreated to the lower deck to escape yet another Hu story.




Yangshou was like a Chinese Banff. Beautiful town, small, easy to get around and set up for tourists. You could actually read the menu in most restaurants. This was a bit unfortunate since the menu often contained dog meat. I was assured by Hu that it wasn't "in season" so it wouldn't end up on my plate. Blech.


This is the front of our hotel. It is too bad we didn't stay more than one night. Who knew we would like it so much?





After Yangshou and Guilin, we flew to Chongqing, pronounced Chong-ching which has to be the most Chinese sounding name I've ever heard for a city. And what a city! The actual city center is about 4 million but Chongqing is a municipality of 31 million on 20 million acres. That's like putting all of Canada into Nova Scotia and maybe a bit of New Brunswick. It is one of the major manufacturing centers of China so when something says "made in China", chances are this was where it was made. Before it became it's own municipality it was part of the Sichuan province which means...spicy food. Chongqing is also the starting point for the Three Gorges tour. Before we got on the boat though, our very sweet little tour guide took us to dinner and gave us a tour of the city. We told her we liked spicy food so she ordered up a traditional Sichuan dinner. Talk about knocking your taste buds into another world. One dish had these little peppercorns that she called "dancing peppers". There was no real botanical translation into English so I really have no idea what they actually are. They made your tongue tingle and then go numb. I guess it was supposed to feel like the peppers were dancing in your mouth. If that was the case then these little guys were doing a hip-hop routine in mine. Pain and pleasure all rolled into one little dish. (and yes that is oil, lots and lots of oil. Most Chinese dishes are bathed in it. The meal looks a bit unappetizing but it tasted great -not the oil but the spices.)



After we sweated through our meal, we had a little tour. What a neat city. Polluted, but really nice. The best part of Chongqing was the People's Square nestled in between the People's Grand Hall and the Three Gorges Dam Museum. The square was packed with people of all ages - dancing, practicing Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and just generally hanging out. I've never seen anything like it. People just dancing away without a care if they were doing the right thing or had any rhythm at all. They would form these big line dancing areas - different ones for different types of music. What a great way to spend an evening.







After our brief tour we settled into our cabin on the boat and watch Chongqing's lights sparkle through the haze. China has a way of lighting up their cities that makes you forget how dirty they can look during the day. China must have been the birth place of rope lighting.





Next stop...the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River.

there IS no place like home

Wow does it feel good to be back home. First off the bed is WAY softer than anything China had to offer. They believe that sleeping on planks is good for your health. I think they are justifying their lack of access to pillow top mattresses.

I am so happy to be breathing pollution free air. It is astounding how much better I feel. We now have a theory that people in China are so sleepy because they lack oxygen. Seriously, some people can fall asleep anywhere - case in point.

Now that I have reliable Internet, I can post a bit more info on our journey around the incredibly diverse world of China. I won't put it all into one post because it is far too much to read and write in one sitting. So I'll start with Guilin. We flew to Guilin from Xi'an. I could post at least 20 more pictures of Terra-Cotta Warriors but I'll spare you. Instead we have a whole book at the house for any unsuspecting guests.

Guilin is an incredible part of China. It has only recently picked up on tourism primarily because of the weird landscape and rice terraces. Guilin and surrounding area was once an ocean bed according to our guide. This is what formed the huge outcroppings called karsts.

I already shared the rice terrace day, and like the warriors I have at least 20 more pictures that look fairly similar to the one posted already.

What I haven't shown yet is the cormorant fishing.

In the Guilin area, local fishermen raise cormorants from an egg to be working birds. They train the cormorants to fish, or rather, the cormorants already know how to fish but they train the birds to give up their catch. The fishermen tie a rope around the birds' necks preventing the bird from swallowing the fish. The weird things is, the birds aren't tied to the boat. They stay there on their own free will. When the birds have a number of fish in their pouch, the fisherman dips the pole in the water, the birds climb on and the fisherman proceeds to strangle, I mean extract, the fish from the bird. This is what it looks like live:

I think it is all a bit barbaric, especially when they hold the bird up by the throat. But you have to admit it is pretty ingenious. When you have mouths to feed, I guess this is an efficient way to do it.

(don't just stand there - fly away while you can...)

The other common site around Guilin was rice fields with water buffalo and those cool Chinese hats that you think only tourists buy. They really wear those hats. Who knew?

So again, way too many pictures of water buffalo including one where I got out in front of the herd. Peter questioned my sanity. So did I when I saw one hunch it's shoulders in a really angry way. I could see him/her eyeing me up. Then I found out kids play with them so it was all good.

Guilin and area is commonly found in many Chinese paintings so I bought a couple. Next stop is Yangshou and the trip down the Li River.

Off to bed now. Jet lag is still messing with me. I'm not tired but I know I should sleep. And we've been working like crazy since we got home on the renos. They are still going - heading into month 5 of the chaos. But at least it is Canadian chaos. So happy to be home.

homeward bound

We leave China today at 4:20 pm and I am counting the hours. I have never looked forward to going home as much as this trip. It's not that I don't like China I would just rather experience it in small doses. We've had a lifetime of experiences in the last week. We spent four days on a boat travelling up the Yangtze River, cruised through the Three Gorges, spent 3.5 hours going through the locks of the largest hydro project in the world, The Three Gorges Dam, walked around Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City and the grand finale - hiked the Great Wall. And that is how Peter spent his birthday - climbing the Great Wall. Not a bad way to spend a birthday.

I will post some of the pictures from the last week when I get home. I hope you have all enjoyed this little adventure with me. I'll keep the blog up for family and friends to see some of the latest projects around home but that will definitely be a little more mundane than the last two months.

Good bye China with your long history, famous sites, great shopping, pollution, spitting, crowds, food poisoning (I'm suffering through my second bout of it), crazy food, and painfully slow, limited Internet connections. Good bye China Blogger. I still have no idea what you say but I know you work.

There's no place like home ...

highlight of the trip

Memorable moments occur in some of the strangest places. China holds so many possible highlights - Terra-cotta Warriors, Li River, Great Wall, Three Gorges. Ours will be from a little town called Fuli; an ancient city about an hour bike ride from Yangshou. In the travel book, Fuli was thrown in almost as if it were an afterthought; a side trip if you had time. It was described as an ancient city built in the Song Dynasty (around 900 AD) that has maintained it's original buildings and streets.

It actually isn't much to look at especially if you don't know what to look for in an ancient city but the people were spectacular - especially this group:

These ladies are the self appointed mayors of Fuli. The senior ladies council set up a 3 yuan fee (about $0.50) to enter the water front "street" and temple. The fee is to help restoration and upkeep of their limited sites. The ladies were so excited to have visitors. It was like walking into a grandmother's kitchen when the cinnamon buns are coming out of the oven. They showed us an authentic and warm welcome with open arms. They escorted us through their two room temple, explained everything to us in Chinese as if we understood, animatedly encouraged us to take pictures, and for the grande finale, sang and danced for us. Throughout the 10 minute tour they smiled and laughed while they lead me by hand to see the sparely decorated and rundown rooms of their temple. It was fantastic. And they didn't try to sell us anything. Not one postcard, purse, bag, watch, painting - nothing. Just happy to show off their town. As an added bonus, there was only one other tourist there who I'm sure just received the same hospitality.

We also got a tour of this woman's house.

It was so tiny. One little bed in a separate room, kitchen with a wood stove in the back. When we walked into the house I noticed that she was making children's shoes so we asked her if we could buy a pair. She gladly gave us a price of 10 yuan ($1.50). For once I wished that I had given her more. After two months of being overcharged for everything because I'm a foreigner, it was so refreshing to get an honest price.

The ride to and from the town was also spectacular. People tilling the rice paddies with their water buffalo, orange trees and bok choy growing by the side of the road, mountains or what they call karsts as a backdrop to all the daily bustle of rural China.

Even our tour guide backed off a bit and let us explore a little on our own. We have been over handled by Hu, our Guilin tour guide, who repeats everything three times. We was reluctant to take us to Fuli but in the end it was the best part of our time here in Yangshou county.

And almost forgot, the Li River cruise was also nice - wet, but nice.

Off to Chongqing and the Three Gorges today. Good-bye Fuli. Good luck senior women's council in keeping your little community alive and authentic. You are the best China has to offer. Don't let tourism change you.

head in the clouds

This will be a brief post because it is 10 pm and we have an early day tomorrow. we are cruising down the Li River for Yangshou tomorrow. It is also the last night of free Internet until we return to Guilin so I am forced to do this:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! You could have avoided that by signing onto to Skype this morning. I know it is a little early but we are off the Internet for a few days so better sooner than never.

We had a big day today. We travelled 1.5 hrs out of Guilin to the Longji Rice Terraces - or Dragon's Back. It is in a mountain range outside of Guilin - top peak is about 900 metres and Guilin is around 200. We started hiking around 500 m. It was a rainy day so this is what the terraces looked like








Fortunately, a wind came up and blew this into view







so all was not lost. It was a soggy but interesting day. We ate fried bamboo (and not the shoots you are used to in Western Chinese cooking), steamed rice in bamboo and what I think was grass, although our guide is still trying to convince me it was a local vegetable. For protein we had "bacon" which was described as the skin that hangs out for days until the fat drips off and it turns black. mmmm.... rotten pork rinds. I'll get back to you on how Peter is feeling in a couple of days.

To top the day off we had a foot massage and a normal meal. early day tomorrow. rain, rain go away...

history overload

5000 years of history has been coming at us in full force.

On Saturday we left the familiar surroundings of Nanjing for Xi'an (pronounced cee' an). Xi'an is best known as home to the Terra-cotta Warriors - now considered the 8th wonder of the world. A well deserved handle I might add.

Quick history lesson: The Terra-cotta Warriors were constructed as a mausoleum for the first Emperor of China, Qin Shihuang (Qin Dynasty) in 246 B.C. - B.C.! Yoiks - that's old. He wanted to have an army in his after life so he instructed 750,000 workers to build these life sized warriors from clay. The enemy burnt down the structures housing the clay army leaving it undetected until 1974 when some farmers discovered the warriors while digging a well. Since 1974, they excavated 3 main sites or pits. It is estimate that there are 8,000 life sized warriors and horses in total although only about 1/4 have been uncovered and pieced together to date. They halted excavation because the colours painted on the warriors vanishes within hours of being exposed to air.

Pit 1: This is the most impressive site covering over 14,000 square metres. 204 soldiers have been pieced together and placed in their original formation They believe there are 6,000 soldiers in this area. Each warrior has different facial features to show the different ranks and ethnicity of Qin's army. This was Qin's infantry.

Pit 2: This pit contains archers, chariot horses and cavalry. They have x-rayed the area to determine the contents of the unearthed warriors.

Pit 3: Command Central where generals and special guards were discovered. It is amazing that they can piece this all together given the rubble that they uncover.

There is so much more to it but in the interest of not boring you I will stop the history lesson there. It is amazing. And to think we would have missed it if we had gone to Tibet.

The pictures aren't that great because it is dark in most of the areas to preserve the figures and I'm not very good at taking low light pictures.

The rest of Xi'an is, of course, full of historical sites. It is considered one of the the greatest cities in civilization and was once the capital of China during the Qin Dynasty. More recently though, they created the largest musical fountain in China which can be viewed from the Big Wild Goose Pagoda built in 652 AD - without cement to hold the bricks together, which I only found out after I climbed to the top.

Since I am on the world's slowest Internet connection I won't attempt to download the video of the fountain but if you hum the 1812 overture while blinking really quickly you might get the idea. People stand in the middle during the performance. It's wild.

New pictures are on the way tomorrow of rice terraces and strange mountains. I need sleep and time to assimilate the endless flow of information from our new guide, Hu. Good night from Guilin.