17th September 2010
Shuher
Another Naxi town, but much less tourist orientated. We walked around the less busy parts of the town and saw a private museum run by a 5th generation Horse Gang Leader. His ancestors traded tea along the Tea Horse Trail from Nepal to Shuher. He still trades in tea and we had some really nice tea there and bought 2 tea bricks.
15th September 2010
Lijiang
A Naxi town. The town is very pretty – lots of well-maintained traditional wooden houses, but the whole town has been given over to tourism and is like visiting a Disney version of China. However, even here there are some great places. We visited the Mu residence. The Mu family were the ruling family in the town for many years and their house is like a palace. Also, there is an ancient concert hall in the town where an orchestra of mostly very old men play Tang dynasty music.
13th September 2010
We joined a tour to take a trip on the huge lake next to Dali. After the lake we were supposed to visit a very large temple – the biggest in China, but the guide was determined to make as much money as possible (her commission from shops) and kept stopping at different shops – tea, silver, jade – and we did not get to the temple until only one hour before it was due to close. This is a big problem with tours in China. I think this will be the last we go on – they make the visits cheaper, but the price one has to pay with waiting around in the car parks of large shops is too high.
12th September 2010
Dali
Dali is a Bai minority village that is very pretty, it has some wall intact and an impressive gate, but it has become quite tourist orientated in some of its streets. But the village is quite big so it is possible to walk around in quieter places.
11th September 2010
Visited the Golden Temple on the outskirts of Kunming. The temple is very nice and has a cable car to go up the mountain to get to it. The cable cars are large toboggans that run in between guard rails – they go quite fast and have lots of twists and turns in order to make it up the steep slopes.
Our last day in Kunming – we will return in a week after we visit some local villages.
10th September 2010
We went with Julia, a waitress from the hotel, to the Stone Forest. She grew up near to there, so was a really good guide. The forest is a huge area with stone pillars that are the result of 200 million years of erosion. It is all very strange – it is even possible to see perfect fault lines that accurately run across pillars standing in a row – as if the rock in between them were still there.
9th September 2010
We met Lin Amaiia who we contacted via Couchsurfing. She gavus loads of information about Kunming and the area around and also Vietnam. We had lunch with her near to the university.
8th September 2010
Kunming
All day on the bus from Anshun and we arrived in the early evening. The Jinjiang Hotel is nice though and is fairly near to the train and bus station which is useful for when we leave. We had a very nice meal in the hotel restaurant.
7th September 2010
Anshun
Visited Huangguoshu waterfalls – they are spectacular – there are several big falls in one area. They charge admission fees to see them though – £18 each and then a further £10 for transport – far too expensive. We also visited the Ye San caves which are pretty good.
5th September 2010
We visited Longjiang to see the Dhong Village there. Their costume is beautiful and their singing is fantastic – their singing is harsh but they stay in tune and harmonise with each other so well.
Congjiang Village – the women all seem to dress in traditional costume and even still keep their hair in the style of the Qing dynasty.
Zhaozhing Village – Dhong village. We heard music by local musicians. It has been supported by a Norwegian fund and is in great condition and very beautiful.
Longlee town. A walled town that was built by soldiers during the Ming Dynasty. Their descendents still live there. The wall is still intact, as are the four gates. The buildings are made of stone and were obviously built very strongly to have lasted so long. The town was a garrison to guard the main routes from South East Asia into China. It was attacked and the first garrison was wiped out by the Dhong people not long after they built the town. The replacement force took the town again finished building it and stayed there.
Chingping Village – Dhong Village. This used to be a very prosperous village for 500 years until trade routes changed because of modern transport. There are some old houses that were built by rich traders and quite a bit of stone was used to build the village. But now the village is dying. The population is ageing, there are a small number of children being looked after by grandparents, but it seems the village will not survive once the present adult population begins to die. We heard a group of 4 elderly women sing – it was beautiful.
Hon Yang – Miao village. The drive to the village was fantastic – rolling hills, rice terraces and we drove through clouds when we drove through one of the passes.
Back to Kaili
Thursday 30 September 2010
31st August 2010
We left for a 6 day trip around the local villages.
30th August 2010
Matang Village
The local people were holding a harvest festival. There was singing and dancing as well as bull-fighting. The water buffalo are taken to the river where they fight each other. The competition lasts the whole day and after a series of rounds one of the bulls is the champion. Many of the bouts are quite short because one of the bulls just decides against fighting and runs away. But others last for the full 5 minutes and the referee decides the winner. In one bout, unbelievably, one bull tossed the other onto its back after they had locked horns and the winner tossed its neck. Incredible – they are so big and heavy.
28th August 2010
Kaili
A small town that is the capital of the local area – lots of local ethnic minorities live here.
We booked a local guide in order to find local villages. We saw Xia huang, Langde and Ziyang – all are beautiful, old traditional places with nice old wooden buildings. We met Miaou people and had lunch with a local family.
27th August 2010
Guiyang museum is really good. It has lots of displays of ethnic minority costume.
26th August 2010
Guiyang
Went to a musical show, but it was disappointing - too much electronic music and miming. The performance was supposed to be folk music.
23rd August 2010
Kaiping
Kaiping is a good base from which to visit the Diaolou. They are towers that were built in the countryside up to the 1930's by returning overseas Chinese. The Diaolou were strongly built and provided them protection from people who would attack them for their money. They were mostly vacated during the Cultural Revolution. They are strongly built of reinforced concrete. Some of them are in the process of renovation although many of them still had original furniture inside, so they are good to visit.
21st August 2010
Guangzhou
We met John Wang our friend from London who is living in Guangzho for a while. He took us for a really good vegetarian meal and then we visited the Shamian island in the Pearl River. It was the base for Europeans before the second world war. The old buildings have been restored and they are great.
20th August 2010
Back to Shenzhen
We took the ferry back to Shenzhen and successfully renewed our Chinese visa in he process so it is good for a further 3 months – although we will not be staying that much longer. Guangzhou is the next place and we are taking the train.
19th August 2010
We went into town and visited the Pawn Museum. It is an actual old pawn shop that still has all the old shelves, counters, record books etc. Then we took a bus to Taipa, the other island of Macao and visited the Macao museum.
We left for a 6 day trip around the local villages.
30th August 2010
Matang Village
The local people were holding a harvest festival. There was singing and dancing as well as bull-fighting. The water buffalo are taken to the river where they fight each other. The competition lasts the whole day and after a series of rounds one of the bulls is the champion. Many of the bouts are quite short because one of the bulls just decides against fighting and runs away. But others last for the full 5 minutes and the referee decides the winner. In one bout, unbelievably, one bull tossed the other onto its back after they had locked horns and the winner tossed its neck. Incredible – they are so big and heavy.
28th August 2010
Kaili
A small town that is the capital of the local area – lots of local ethnic minorities live here.
We booked a local guide in order to find local villages. We saw Xia huang, Langde and Ziyang – all are beautiful, old traditional places with nice old wooden buildings. We met Miaou people and had lunch with a local family.
27th August 2010
Guiyang museum is really good. It has lots of displays of ethnic minority costume.
26th August 2010
Guiyang
Went to a musical show, but it was disappointing - too much electronic music and miming. The performance was supposed to be folk music.
23rd August 2010
Kaiping
Kaiping is a good base from which to visit the Diaolou. They are towers that were built in the countryside up to the 1930's by returning overseas Chinese. The Diaolou were strongly built and provided them protection from people who would attack them for their money. They were mostly vacated during the Cultural Revolution. They are strongly built of reinforced concrete. Some of them are in the process of renovation although many of them still had original furniture inside, so they are good to visit.
21st August 2010
Guangzhou
We met John Wang our friend from London who is living in Guangzho for a while. He took us for a really good vegetarian meal and then we visited the Shamian island in the Pearl River. It was the base for Europeans before the second world war. The old buildings have been restored and they are great.
20th August 2010
Back to Shenzhen
We took the ferry back to Shenzhen and successfully renewed our Chinese visa in he process so it is good for a further 3 months – although we will not be staying that much longer. Guangzhou is the next place and we are taking the train.
19th August 2010
We went into town and visited the Pawn Museum. It is an actual old pawn shop that still has all the old shelves, counters, record books etc. Then we took a bus to Taipa, the other island of Macao and visited the Macao museum.
Wednesday 29 September 2010
18th August 2010
Macao
Ferry to Macao – the trip was problem free. We even saved some money by buying a group ticket with some other passengers. We arrived in Macao and checked straight into our hotel – the Casa Real - near the ferry terminal. We were in time for an early lunch and had Dim Sum in the Hotel restaurant.
The we went to the centre and walked around the old town with its Portuguese buildings and churches. Also, we had great café con leit at a nice old Portuguese café. Lian Choo also had a pasteis de nata which was almost as nice as those in Belem in Lisbon.
17th August
Shenzhen
We took a long distance bus to Shenzhen where we had planned to go straight onto the ferry to Macao – but the bus was late and the last ferry had already gone. But friends who live in Shenzhen helped us and booked us a nice hotel in the grounds of the university. They also took us to a restaurant in the Overseas Chinese section of town. Shenzhen has this neighbourhood because of its status as a Special Economic Zone and many overseas Chinese have invested in it. Because it is next to Hong Kong it has been very successful – it grew from a small fishing village to a huge thriving city in 20years. There were posters of Deng Shao Peng all over town because they were about to celebrate the 2oth anniversary of special status. The city has been one of the main drivers of development in China. The contrast with the area where the Tulou are still lived in is huge.
15th August 2010
Tulou
We took a bus to Yongding which is a village in Fujian nearby many Tulou. The Tulou in this area are still occupied by whole families – some of whom are the 6th generation to live there. They are incredible places – communal living that is very practical and of course in the past offered safe shelter from animals and bandits. We visited the Hekeng village group, the Tianluokeng group and the Kuiju group. The Tulou are accessible and easy to view. Some offer rooms for the night – with very basic facilities.
14th August 2010
Visited the old town which has lots of buildings from the 1930’s that are in fairly good condition and are being used as shops. Visited the Phu Thor Temple – it has the usual architectural style and layout. Nice though.
Macao
Ferry to Macao – the trip was problem free. We even saved some money by buying a group ticket with some other passengers. We arrived in Macao and checked straight into our hotel – the Casa Real - near the ferry terminal. We were in time for an early lunch and had Dim Sum in the Hotel restaurant.
The we went to the centre and walked around the old town with its Portuguese buildings and churches. Also, we had great café con leit at a nice old Portuguese café. Lian Choo also had a pasteis de nata which was almost as nice as those in Belem in Lisbon.
17th August
Shenzhen
We took a long distance bus to Shenzhen where we had planned to go straight onto the ferry to Macao – but the bus was late and the last ferry had already gone. But friends who live in Shenzhen helped us and booked us a nice hotel in the grounds of the university. They also took us to a restaurant in the Overseas Chinese section of town. Shenzhen has this neighbourhood because of its status as a Special Economic Zone and many overseas Chinese have invested in it. Because it is next to Hong Kong it has been very successful – it grew from a small fishing village to a huge thriving city in 20years. There were posters of Deng Shao Peng all over town because they were about to celebrate the 2oth anniversary of special status. The city has been one of the main drivers of development in China. The contrast with the area where the Tulou are still lived in is huge.
15th August 2010
Tulou
We took a bus to Yongding which is a village in Fujian nearby many Tulou. The Tulou in this area are still occupied by whole families – some of whom are the 6th generation to live there. They are incredible places – communal living that is very practical and of course in the past offered safe shelter from animals and bandits. We visited the Hekeng village group, the Tianluokeng group and the Kuiju group. The Tulou are accessible and easy to view. Some offer rooms for the night – with very basic facilities.
14th August 2010
Visited the old town which has lots of buildings from the 1930’s that are in fairly good condition and are being used as shops. Visited the Phu Thor Temple – it has the usual architectural style and layout. Nice though.
12th August 2010
Xiamen
Xiamen is much nicer than Fuzhou – it is mostly modern but the buildings are nicer and it is on the coast and the coastline is good – there are lots of trees everywhere. We bought some lovely local tea from a small shop near our hotel. The people that run it also grow the tea in their plantation further inland in Fujian. The family are very friendly and we arranged to meet the son and daughter tomorrow afternoon to visit the beach where there are sand sculptures.
10th August 2010
Wenzhou to Fuzhou
Before taking the train we went to another old house – the home of Zhu Zhee Qin. The house was smaller than others we have seen, but with the same layout as bigger ones. Then we took another bullet train to Fuzhou. We visited the White and Wu Pagodas which are ancient – but it seems they are the only remaining older buildings left in the city. Fuzhou is not very nice – ugly modern buildings mostly and a bit dirty.
9th August 2010
We took the river ferry to get to Yantoucun and Furongcun. We took a taxi from the other side of the river to get to the villages. They are very beautiful – the buildings are made of wood and in good condition and they seem to be active with children, young adults and older people still living in them.
8th August 2010
Wenzhou
Bullet train from Hangzhou to Wehzhou. Wenzhou is a coastal town that is quite run-down but nice. It still has quite a few buildings that are older and low-rise – this is unusual for a big city. The Bund here is small but attractive. I bought a pen from a small designer shop near the waterfront in a great narrow shopping street.
7th August 2010
We joined a tour to visit Wu Cheng which is a lovely old town between Hangzhou and Shanghai, however, probably because of Expo, the crowds were huge and we could not really see the town. We walked outside the old town and went to a small restaurant and stayed there until it was time to go back
6th August 2010
Went to the Silk Museum – displays about the history of silk-making, clothing and the silk-route. We went to the old house of Wu Yen Chen – a rich merchant during the Qing Dynasty. It is amazing how Chinese houses, temples and palaces are all built to the same layout and appearance, with courtyards, gardens, pools.
5th August 2010
We took a water taxi along the Grand Canal. The view alog the banks is great – loads of trees and old buildings. We stopped at Wu Lin, a small quiet town where we visited the Fan and Umbrella Museum. We bought a fan each because the weather remains very hot. They also have a knife and sword museum with lots of old famous blades on display. We went to see the film Aftershock, the Chinese summer blockbuster. It is a sentimental film about the Tan Shan earthquake. It is very popular here – all the cinemas show it several times each day.
4th August 2010
Hangzhou
Took a bus around the famous West Lake – it is fabulous. We also visited the beautiful Yeh Fay Temple.
3rd August 2010
From Putoshan to Hangzhou
Ferry back to the mainland, then bullet train from Ningpo to Hangzhou. We are staying in a 3 star hotel, although it is one of the best we have stayed in China. The star system here is quirky. We had hoped to go straight to Xiamen after Hangzhou but the train tickets were all sold out so we bought tickets to Wenzhou, Fuzhou and then to Xiamen.
1st August 2010
Putoshan Island
We went to the river-port in Ningbo to take the ferry to the island. It took nearly 3 hours to get there. We had to buy entry tickets to get on to the island - £16 each. They say the fee goes to the maintenance of the island which is necessary because it get so many visitors. There are no private cars on the island so hotels run buses to collect guests. We are staying at the Purple Bamboo Hotel. Putoshan is the birthplace of Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy and there are many temples and statues of her.
30th July 2010
We went to the Peace Hotel. It re-opened yesterday after 3 years of renovation and it looks fantastic – it must have cost a fortune to achieve the results. They have tried to keep the Art Deco look that the hotel originally had. We had tea and cakes in one of the lobby tea rooms.
29th July 2010
We met Ling Hooi at Yuyuan Garden – an extensive Ming Dynasty garden and home. It is full of lakes, bridges, courtyards, moon gates and temples. We then went to the Bund again to see it in daylight and had coffee by the river on the Pudong side.
28th July 2010
We visited another old part of town and went to the Old Cinema Café, they were showing the Robert Donat version of the 39 Steps – and the coffee was nice. We went to the gardens where Lu Shun’s tomb is stiuated. Very beautiful.
27th July 2010
Went to Expo again – for the last time. The queues are just too long. We queued 3 hours to get into the German Pavillion. We met Ling Hooi, the daughter of one of Lian Choo’s schoolfriends and arranged to meet her later this week.
26th July 2010
We went to the Expo today – we went at 5.00pm in the hope that the crowds would be less, but we were wrong. The place is packed and there are long queues for everything. It is a shame, the pavilions are great and it would be good to be able to visit lots of them.
25th July 2010
We went to Shanxi Road in the French Concession and visited Sun Yat Sen’s and Chou En Lai’s Houses. Also we went to the Communist Party’s first headquarters. The French Concession is really nice. It is very different to other neighbourhoods in Chinese cities. The streets are narrower and quieter and there are many nice houses and buildings.
24th July 2010
Shanghai
We took the bullet train from Nanjing to Shanghai. The trip was smooth and on time. We are staying at the Anting Villa hotel in the French Concession. The hotel was built in the 1930’s and has been well renovated. We went into the centre on the metro, had dinner and then joined the huge crowd from Peoples Square that was heading along the Nanjing Road to Wangpu River. The walk took us to the Bund. The Bund has been renovated – both the buildings and the river bank. They look great and the buildings are all in use. The view across the river to the new Pudong area – it looks incredible at night. We went up to the top deck of the newly renovated Peninsula Hotel – the view of both sides of the river is fantastic. It is Saturday but incredibly the last metro leaves at 10pm – luckily we just made it.
23rd July 2010
Taxi to Jimizui Temple - old and beautiful nearby the north-east gate of the old Ming City Wall. We had a very nice vegetarian meal at the temple restaurant. We then went to the old Ming Drum Tower – the tower is beautiful.
22nd July 2010
Went to the Memorial for the Nanjing massacre victims. The displays are very detailed and therefore horrific. What on earth prompted such a thing?
21st July 2010
Went to Sun Zhong Shan Mausoleum and the Ming Emperor Tomb. They are in the same park and both are very impressive and beautiful. Then we went to the city wall which is well maintained – also very impressive.
20th July 2010
Nanjing
Bullet train to Nanjing. We just had time to visit the Confucian Temple.
19th July 2010
We decided to look for more, older European buildings – and this time found quite a few – along the river front. They were renovated a few years ago and are in good condition. They were built from about 1900 up until about 1930. They were mostly built as banks and they look like the buildings in the City of London. Now many of them are empty.
18th July
Bus to the Yellow Crane Tower. It is beautifully maintained and is in a prominent location overlooking the city and the views from the top of the tower are great. Then we went to Wuhan Museum which has a daily music performance in order to demonstrate their set of old Chinese bells. Then we tried to find some older buildings in the city that were built during the time of the euorpean concessions. But we could only find one and that had been turned into a shopping mall – with KFC and Mcdonalds inside. They have even let them put big signs on the outside of the building.
17th July 2010
Wuhan
Bus from Yichang to Wuhan. We are staying in an apartment hotel – the Sentosa – which is quite nice. It has much more space than a usual hotel room. We had our meal in a nice local restaurant near the hotel – the family have been running restaurants for over 100 years.
16th July 2010
We left the cruise at the Yangste Dam. The Dam is huge, it is hard to imagine how such a thing could be built. We are staying at the Yichang Hotel.
15th July 2010
We transferred to smaller boats today to sail along the smaller gorges. The whole area is fabulous.
14th July 2010
Yangste River
It is very relaxing to sit on the boat and watch the river go by. The river banks are already beautiful – green and hilly. We visited Fendu, a ‘Ghost City’.
13th July 2010
Yangste River Cruise
We boarded the boat late afternoon. The boat is very well kitted out, with comfortable cabins, viewing deck, restaurant and bar. When it was dark we saw the lights of the city on both sides of the river
11th July 2010
Went to and old town – Zhee Chi Koo. It has a memorial museum for the massacred communist party members by the Kuomingtang.
10th July 2010
No surprise – the mist turned into rain so we went to the 3 Gorges Museum – it is really good and has displays going back to 4,000 years. Then we went back to the centre of the city to see the Liberty Memorial. We visited the 1,000 year old Loh Hun Zi Temple. It has 500 Loh hun statues.
9th July 2010
Chongching
We took the bullet train. The train is very fast, although because of torrential rain in Chongching it was delayed. Chongching is on the Yangste river and the Jialing river and the city is incredibly humid and misty. The rivers are incredible – very wide.
8th July 2010
To Leshun to see the giant Bhudda. It is carved into the mountain and can only be seen from the river.
7th July 2010
We went to the Panda Centre. It is incredible. They are having great success at breeding Giant Pandas and have managed to prevent their extinction. There are over 100 Giant Pandas there, of all ages. They are slowly releasing some of the Pandas back into the wild. Also, the Red Pandas are doing well there.
6th July 2010
We joined a tour group to visit the Dujiang Irrigation project and the Taoist Chingcheng Mountain. Both were very interesting. The mountain has loads of deities inside.
5th July 2010
We went by bus to Pinleh a small old village by the river, about 200 kilometres from Chendgu. It is very beautiful and not too spoilt by touristification. It has a beautiful old bridge over the clean looking clear river. Lots of people were playing in the river and were enjoying themselves. A bit further along, some women were washing their clothes in the river.
4th July2010
We bought a bus map – we needed one because empty taxis are so difficult to find in Chengdu. So we took the bus to Wu Ho Temple to see Ju Geh Liang’s and Liu Pei’s 3 Kingdoms history at the Red Cliff exhibition. We went to Ram Tao Temple – the oldest in China. We saw famous Tao god and goddess statues. Some of the temple was damaged in the last earthquake and was being repaired.
3rd July 2010
Chengdu
We went to Dufu Chaudan. It is a beautiful garden in the city with temples, a pagoda, springs and landscaped gardens. Du Fu’s home is still there and can be visited – many of his poems are scripted on the walls of the old wooden buildings.
Then we went to a nearby famous hotpot restaurant – Huang Cheng Lau Ma. We had beef, chicken, venison and 3 kinds of vegetables. It cost 365 yen! That is the most expensive meal we have had in China. You have to cook the food yourself in the hotpot that has spicy chicken stock in one half and mild chicken stock in the other. I must say, I think hotpot is very over-rated. I think proper sechuan meals cooked by the restaurant are much better.
2nd July 2010
Lhasa to Chengdu
We posted our winter clothing to Penang and home from Lhasa Central Post Office to make our luggage lighter. Then we went to the airport to take the aeroplane to Chengdu. We took the airport bus to the city and then tried to get a taxi to our hotel – but we could not get one. There were many taxis but they all had customers already because it was during rush-hour. In the end we managed to walk to the hotel with all our luggage. We had booked a 4 star hotel so we could rest after the tiring Tibet trip.
We went for our first Sechuan meal at a lovely restaurant – it was great – smoked spare ribs, aubergine and beancurd. We took a motorised trishaw to get there from the hotel – all the taxis were still full.
1st July 2010
We drove from Lake Namsto back to Lhasa. We went for lunch with our guide and driver at the Nepalese restaurant and had chicken tikka again.
30th June 2010
Shigaste to Namsto Lak
It is the highest salt-water lake in the world. To get there we drove through beautiful valleys and farm land. We saw loads of yaks, sheep, bulls, rabbits and vultures. We stayed at the lake in the Sheep Hotel and ate in the Sheep Restaurant. The hotel is a row of metal huts and offered more insulation than the tents at Everest Base Camp, but it was still very basic and we decided to sleep in our sleeping bags. This helped – we should have done that at the Base Camp.
29th June 2010
We saw a beautiful sunrise from Everest Basecamp. We left after breakfast and drove back to Shigaste. We visited the wealthiest monastery in Tibet – Rongbuk Monastery. It has he largest bronze Bhudda in China.
28th June 2010
Everest Base Camp
Another long scenic drive through the Gyanste Shigaste Sheger Geula Pass – 5200 meters above sea level. We arrived at the Everest Base Camp in the early evening. We were early enough to have a great view of the peak from the second base camp. The clouds cleared just as we got there – the first time they had cleared for 4 days! The view was incredible – the peak is huge and of course covered in snow and it kept changing colour as the sun was setting. It became dark quickly and as the sky was now clear there was a fantastic night sky – absolutely full of stars. We were so high up that the thinner atmosphere allowed fainter stars to show through.
The camp is very basic and the accommodation is large square tents and it gets really cold – and windy. I thought the tent was going to blow away. Pretty much a sleepless night. We met some young Chinese people from Guangzhou – they said that since arriving in Tibet they had started calling bed-time - the time of suffering. I know what they meant – falling asleep at this altitude is difficult and I keep waking up because of a feeling of suffocation.
27th June 2010
Left Lhasa and went on a long scenic drive along the Friendship Highway to Yamdrok Lake. The lake is breathtaking, the water is clear and has clear reflections of the mountains surrounding it. We stopped at the Mama Dam and the Karola Glacier – 5020 meters above sea level. Even though it is so barren, windy and cold even in June – people live up there.
We stayed in a hotel in Jianzang where there is another temple – Baiju Temple. We climbed to the top of the Stupa – on the way up there are many rooms with various bhuddist deities.
26th June 2010
We went to Tsamkhung Convent and Ramoche Temple. We saw many nuns studying, praying and working hard in the garden and scripture rooms.
25th June 2010
We went to the Dalai Lama’s summer palace today. It is a fantastic building in beautiful tranquil gardens and lakes. Just outside the gardens is another really good coffee lounge and we had some great coffee there. We had lunch in the Lhasa Kitchen and had some nice curries.
After lunch we went to the monastery school and saw the afternoon debate in one of the gardens. Lots of loud talking and hand-clapping.
24th June 2010
We visited the Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple, which is the spiritual centre of Tibet. It is the main temple that Tibetans are going to when they go on their huge pilgrimages. The pilgimages can take up to 2 years because they have to walk – and frequently prostrate themselves on the floor.
The Potala Palace is very special and is the highest palace in the world. It is quite tiring to walk around it – there are many steep stairways and the thin air at this altitude is not easy.
23rd June 2010
Lhasa Express
The hard seats were not comfortable, the train was full and the lights are very bright and left on even at 4.00am. By the time the sun had risen, the scenery was already awesome with beautiful mountains, valleys, and plains. The journey took about 15 hours.
Our guide was waiting for us in Lhasa and took us straight to our hotel. The Yak Hotel is good and is decorated in traditional Tibetan style. Our guide showed us a Nepalese restaurant and we had Nan Bread and Chicken tikka.
22nd June 2010
Golmund
We took an overnight train to Golmund on hard sleeper. Fortunately this train was much newer than the one we took from Turpan and for some reason the other passengers were much quieter. John’s Café in Kashgar had booked us an okay hotel right by the station because we are taking the Lhasa Express early tomorrow morning. The only seats available are hard seats and the train leaves at 4.00am.
Golmund is a quiet town. Some wide modern streets lined by fairly modern shops and a market area next to the town main square. The town appears to mostly be under development and construction. We had lunch in a small spicy noodle restaurant in the market, next to a construction site.
We then had coffee in yet another very nice coffee lounge. There seems to be at least one of these in every town in China.
19th June 2010
Xining
We took a bus to Xining – it took 71/2 hours. We went for a late lunch in the market and had spicy noodles that were freshly cooked – they were really good. They had all the ingredients in the restaurant and you choose what you want to have with the noodles. We then went to a nice coffee place for really good coffee. One of the waitresses – Li Xe – showed Lian Choo how to use Han Ye Pinyin on the computer.
The next day we went to Xining Museum – the museums in china are really good. Well laid out, with good captions and fabulous exhibits. At this one we saw vases, pots, musical instruments – some of which were 5,000 years old. They were found in Xinghai province graves.
21st June 2010
We took a bus to Pinang and hired a taxi for the day. We went to Yu Lin Xi and the Dalai Lama’s birthplace. The roads were very bad and we were lucky to find a town taxi driver who knew all the places we wanted to go to, and how to get there. The area is very hilly and mountainous because we are on the edge of the Himalayas here. The temples are all in difficult to get to places and always involve a lot of climbing to get to them, but of course they are all beautiful.
Unfortunately we could not get into the Dalai Lama’s house. Apparently, it is very sensitive because of the political situation. Instead our taxi driver took us to his house to meet his family. They are very nice and they gave us home-made bread, water melon and tea.
17th June 2010
Zhangye
Zhangye has some very nice areas. In the evening we went to the wooden temple in the centre of town and saw many people doing their evening exercises, communal dncing and singing.
The next day we took a taxi to the Great Bhudda Temple which is also in the town. It is an extensive range of very beautiful buildings. Kublai Khan was born there. Then we went to the Mati Temple to see a 3,000 year old stone carved Bhudda. We climbed the hills where the ancient Bhudda and many others have been carved into the mountain.
15th June 2010
Jiayuguan
We took a bus from Dunhuang to Jiayuguan. We went to a modern shopping mall to have lunch a late lunch in a Taiwanese café. After we went to a nice lake in the town and had some beer and tea. The television tower in the tower is tall and shaped like a dolphin – don’t know why.
Next morning we hired a taxi for the day and visited ancient buildings in the area, a very large and beautiful Wei dynasty fort, a Wei dynasty tomb and museum, we climbed up the first fort along the Han dynasty Great Wall and visited the Great Wall museum.
When we returned to town we went to a great restaurant that is one of a chain opened by Mao Tse Tung’s children. It is decorated all in red and has a statue of Mao inside the entrance.
13th June 2010
DunHuang and surrounding area
This is a really good place to visit. The town is small, modern, clean, friendly, surrounded by the Gobi Desert and most of the new buildings are in a Chinese style. Each street has its own design for the street lights – many are Chinese lanterns and we saw one in the style of a Chinese bell. The town because of water supply from melted snow from the Tien Shen Mountains brought by the ancient underground irrigation system. Although, I guess there will need to be a solution because of the reducing snowfall, which is apparently increasingly worsening.
The hotel is one of the best we have ever stayed in – it is in the style if a medieval Chinese fort and looks as if it is built of sand – I guess they were going for an adobe appearance. It has a roof café with great views of the huge dunes in the Gobi Desert. We ate in the hotel restaurant twice and both meals were really great – and so cheap, about £7 and £5. The other meals we had in the Night Market, which is the cleanest and best organised I have seen. The meals there cost about £3.
Whilst here we visited Crescent Moon Lake which is an oasis in the sand dunes, the Mogao Caves, a bronze statue of Bhudda in the mountains which is the second largest in China, Yadan National Park – which is a huge eroded dried lake-bed with strange rock formations, the remains of the Han Dynasty Great Wall and the ruined Yu Men Pass Fort.
11th June 2010
Turpan to DunHuang
We took an overnight train that left about 11.30pm. It did not have the option of a soft- sleeper, so we had to book hard-sleeper places. We arrived at the station about 10.45pm and the station was packed – it seems there are many trains leaving from this station at night. Stations in China are so busy, that they keep passengers in the waiting room until just before the train arrives – otherwise the platforms would be chaotic. They let us through the barriers about 5 minutes before the train pulled in. Several hundred of us piled through on to the platform – then we had to try to find the spot where our carriage would be – otherwise we would not have enough time to board before the train departed. One of the guards directed us to where he thought it would be – along with about two hundred other people. We thought this a bit strange – how could one sleeper carriage hold so many people? The train pulled in on time and of course our carriage did not stop in front of us. Two hundred people then started racing to the correct carriage. Somehow Lian Choo got to the correct door first – quite an achievement considering she was pulling her huge rolling trunk and a carrying a backpack. I was about 150 people behind her. I saw her climb the stairs from the platform up to the door – it was dark so I could only just make out what was happening. She then disappeared into the train. I was wondering how she managed to carry the trunk up the stairs so quickly, but then I heard her shouting at the other people clambering on to the train. I then heard her voice drifting across the heads of the scrum in front of me asking where I was – unfortunately – I was still quite far from the door at this point so could not help her. What had happened: Lian Choo had pulled the trunk to the bottom of the stairs and then climbed them, expecting the men behind her to help her lift the trunk on to the train. Instead they just pushed the trunk out of the way and all bundled up the stairs on to the carriage and in the process pushed Lian Choo into the carriage - hence her shouting at them.
Luckily, the trunk had not fallen down the gap, so when I finally reached the stairs I lifted Lian Choo’s and my trunk up the stairs and we managed to pull them along the carriage to our bed space. We then realised why there was such a scramble to board the train – there was very little luggage storage space and we had to pull our trunks between our bunks, which meant there was no floor space left at all for us or the other passengers in our bay. Luckily, they were all nice about that. Also, we found out why so many people were on our carriage – the bunks were three tiers high – so there were six bunks in each bay. We had booked the two bottom bunks, which was just as well, because the two top ones were about ten feet or so high and climbing up to them was not easy – there were no steps – just two small foot plates on the wall.
We then tried to get to sleep. The bays had no door, so the noise from the other passengers was quite loud and the windows were open in the corridor because there was no air conditioning, so the noise from train wheel was also loud. Somehow though we got some sleep and arrived in DunHuang on time and we found a shared taxi which went straight to our Hotel
11th June 2010
Turpan and surrounding area
We stayed here just for 2 nights. It is the hottest city in China – the highest recorded temperature is 49.6C – we only experienced 38C which is hot enough. The town only exists because 2,000 years ago the people living in the area built an extensive underground irrigation system that brought melted snow from the Tien Shen Mountains – otherwise it would be desert. The system is still successful and the area grows grapes, melons and other fruit.
We visited historic sites in the areas around the city – including an old ruined desert town that was a resting place on the silk route, a vineyard, the Flaming Mountains – which aficionados of ‘The Journey West’ will know is the place where Monkey King doused the flames with a magic fan so that Sun Hoo Koong could continue the journey. The temperature at the Flaming Mountain was 55C when we visited – at 6.30 in the afternoon.
We had a really nice meal at a restaurant run by people from Harbin in the far north east. The dumplings were really good.
8th June 2010
Urumqi
Capital of Xin Jiang. A big busy city, where we only stayed for one night. We stopped here in order to get a bus to the areas around Turpan.
7th June 2010
Kashgar
We arrived in Kashgar after crossing the Torugart pass from Kyrgyzstan. We stayed in the Se Man Hotel which is on the site of the 19th century Russian Embassy. Both the British and the Russians had big Embassies here because Kashgar is so strategically important - on the borders of both Empires, so Kashgar was a major base for espionage and diplomatic activities with China, Central Asia, Afghanistan and northern India.
Kashgar has the biggest bazaar in Asia which is most active in Sundays. People come from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asian countries, China to trade. The livestock market is huge - they trade sheep, goats, donkeys, cattle, horses, camels. The men buying horses test them by riding them really fast around the market – usually with no saddle. Elsewhere, anything you can think of is sold from tents, stalls, goods arranged on blankets, the back of carts etc.
The city is looking quite prosperous – lots of new buildings are going up and the old Uighur town is being re-developed – many of the old adobe buildings are falling down anyway and modern buildings following the same design are replacing them although with modern amenities like running water – it is a big project and will take quite a few years yet. Some of the old adobe town is still functioning though – some of the buildings do look precarious – another mild earthquake would probably destroy most of it.
There are thousands of electric motorbikes here. I hardly saw any petrol powered. It means the streets are much quieter than usual for such a busy city. There are not many private cars – petrol vehicles are mostly taxis and small lorries, so you have to stay alert when walking around, they ride the bikes everywhere, on the pavements, pathways, even along the busy narrow walkways in the Bazaar.
4th June 2010
Issul-Kul to Kashgar
We left Issul-Kul at 3.00am in order to reach Naryn by 8.00am. The journey is about only about 250 kilometres but takes 4-5 hours because the road is in poor condition and very twisty when it passes through the Tien Shen mountains. We made it in good time – our driver kept going and we were in a Land cruiser which helped a lot. We then transferred to an Audi saloon to take us to the Chinese border – I was a bit concerned because I thought the roads might be too rough for an ordinary car, but the new driver was confident we would make it okay.
He makes the trip quite often and had all the necessary papers for him to take us to the Chinese side – which is necessary because it is 5 kilometres between the Kyrgysz and Chinese check-points along a very rugged mountain pass. We booked the driver via the Celestial Mountains Guesthouse who are experienced at getting people safely into China. The journey from Naryn to the border took about 4 hours. The road became progressively worse – it had completely collapsed in 2 places and we had to drive on the desert to get through. The traffic was very sparse and what there was, was mostly juggernaughts crossing from China to Kyrgyzstan bringing Chinese made goods into Central Asia. The Kyrgysz juggernaughts going to China were much less and mostly appeared to be carrying scrap metal.
The border crossing went smoothly – although we had to pass through 7 checkpoints and the actual crossing took about 5 hours. The last checkpoint in China was the main immigration and customs point even though it was about 100 kilometres from the border. Our luggage was searched only once – at the first Chinese checkpoint in the Pass. He seemed to be inspecting us to make sure we were not bringing censored printed materials. We only had some language books – which he approved of - saying it is good to learn foreign languages and that he is learning English. He was pleased to have an English person to do some practicing and he even tried out some Russian. Although his English was much better. It is strange how languages function – just 5 Kilometres away all the guards speak fluent Russian – and we met none who spoke English.
Our Chinese driver and Guide were waiting at the Chinese border when we arrived there. The journey to Kashgar took about another 4 hours.
The whole trip was memorable – from the mountain passes, to the terrible roads and the hundreds of Marmots we saw running about in the desert.
3rd June 2010
Kyrgysztan
We flew from Tashkent to Bishkek because we spoke to various people and decided that following the troubles in Kyrgysztan the Uzbekistan border might be too problematic. The flight was good, an Uzbek airways Boeing with good leg-room, although the flight only takes about an hour. The Tashkent airport was strange in that once through Passport control, there was no café, not even somewhere to buy a coffee and the Duty Free would not take Uzbek currency.
We had arranged a driver to take us to Issul-Kul and he was waiting for us. It took about 4 hours to get to the lake. The lake is huge – the second largest alpine lake in the world. It is beautiful, surrounded by the Tien Shen Mountains. We spent 3 days here and the trip into the mountains was the highlight – we drove up a canyon for about 4 hours – nearly to the Kazakhstan border.
I am just starting to put all the entries for China because this site is not accessible from China.
Xiamen
Xiamen is much nicer than Fuzhou – it is mostly modern but the buildings are nicer and it is on the coast and the coastline is good – there are lots of trees everywhere. We bought some lovely local tea from a small shop near our hotel. The people that run it also grow the tea in their plantation further inland in Fujian. The family are very friendly and we arranged to meet the son and daughter tomorrow afternoon to visit the beach where there are sand sculptures.
10th August 2010
Wenzhou to Fuzhou
Before taking the train we went to another old house – the home of Zhu Zhee Qin. The house was smaller than others we have seen, but with the same layout as bigger ones. Then we took another bullet train to Fuzhou. We visited the White and Wu Pagodas which are ancient – but it seems they are the only remaining older buildings left in the city. Fuzhou is not very nice – ugly modern buildings mostly and a bit dirty.
9th August 2010
We took the river ferry to get to Yantoucun and Furongcun. We took a taxi from the other side of the river to get to the villages. They are very beautiful – the buildings are made of wood and in good condition and they seem to be active with children, young adults and older people still living in them.
8th August 2010
Wenzhou
Bullet train from Hangzhou to Wehzhou. Wenzhou is a coastal town that is quite run-down but nice. It still has quite a few buildings that are older and low-rise – this is unusual for a big city. The Bund here is small but attractive. I bought a pen from a small designer shop near the waterfront in a great narrow shopping street.
7th August 2010
We joined a tour to visit Wu Cheng which is a lovely old town between Hangzhou and Shanghai, however, probably because of Expo, the crowds were huge and we could not really see the town. We walked outside the old town and went to a small restaurant and stayed there until it was time to go back
6th August 2010
Went to the Silk Museum – displays about the history of silk-making, clothing and the silk-route. We went to the old house of Wu Yen Chen – a rich merchant during the Qing Dynasty. It is amazing how Chinese houses, temples and palaces are all built to the same layout and appearance, with courtyards, gardens, pools.
5th August 2010
We took a water taxi along the Grand Canal. The view alog the banks is great – loads of trees and old buildings. We stopped at Wu Lin, a small quiet town where we visited the Fan and Umbrella Museum. We bought a fan each because the weather remains very hot. They also have a knife and sword museum with lots of old famous blades on display. We went to see the film Aftershock, the Chinese summer blockbuster. It is a sentimental film about the Tan Shan earthquake. It is very popular here – all the cinemas show it several times each day.
4th August 2010
Hangzhou
Took a bus around the famous West Lake – it is fabulous. We also visited the beautiful Yeh Fay Temple.
3rd August 2010
From Putoshan to Hangzhou
Ferry back to the mainland, then bullet train from Ningpo to Hangzhou. We are staying in a 3 star hotel, although it is one of the best we have stayed in China. The star system here is quirky. We had hoped to go straight to Xiamen after Hangzhou but the train tickets were all sold out so we bought tickets to Wenzhou, Fuzhou and then to Xiamen.
1st August 2010
Putoshan Island
We went to the river-port in Ningbo to take the ferry to the island. It took nearly 3 hours to get there. We had to buy entry tickets to get on to the island - £16 each. They say the fee goes to the maintenance of the island which is necessary because it get so many visitors. There are no private cars on the island so hotels run buses to collect guests. We are staying at the Purple Bamboo Hotel. Putoshan is the birthplace of Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy and there are many temples and statues of her.
30th July 2010
We went to the Peace Hotel. It re-opened yesterday after 3 years of renovation and it looks fantastic – it must have cost a fortune to achieve the results. They have tried to keep the Art Deco look that the hotel originally had. We had tea and cakes in one of the lobby tea rooms.
29th July 2010
We met Ling Hooi at Yuyuan Garden – an extensive Ming Dynasty garden and home. It is full of lakes, bridges, courtyards, moon gates and temples. We then went to the Bund again to see it in daylight and had coffee by the river on the Pudong side.
28th July 2010
We visited another old part of town and went to the Old Cinema Café, they were showing the Robert Donat version of the 39 Steps – and the coffee was nice. We went to the gardens where Lu Shun’s tomb is stiuated. Very beautiful.
27th July 2010
Went to Expo again – for the last time. The queues are just too long. We queued 3 hours to get into the German Pavillion. We met Ling Hooi, the daughter of one of Lian Choo’s schoolfriends and arranged to meet her later this week.
26th July 2010
We went to the Expo today – we went at 5.00pm in the hope that the crowds would be less, but we were wrong. The place is packed and there are long queues for everything. It is a shame, the pavilions are great and it would be good to be able to visit lots of them.
25th July 2010
We went to Shanxi Road in the French Concession and visited Sun Yat Sen’s and Chou En Lai’s Houses. Also we went to the Communist Party’s first headquarters. The French Concession is really nice. It is very different to other neighbourhoods in Chinese cities. The streets are narrower and quieter and there are many nice houses and buildings.
24th July 2010
Shanghai
We took the bullet train from Nanjing to Shanghai. The trip was smooth and on time. We are staying at the Anting Villa hotel in the French Concession. The hotel was built in the 1930’s and has been well renovated. We went into the centre on the metro, had dinner and then joined the huge crowd from Peoples Square that was heading along the Nanjing Road to Wangpu River. The walk took us to the Bund. The Bund has been renovated – both the buildings and the river bank. They look great and the buildings are all in use. The view across the river to the new Pudong area – it looks incredible at night. We went up to the top deck of the newly renovated Peninsula Hotel – the view of both sides of the river is fantastic. It is Saturday but incredibly the last metro leaves at 10pm – luckily we just made it.
23rd July 2010
Taxi to Jimizui Temple - old and beautiful nearby the north-east gate of the old Ming City Wall. We had a very nice vegetarian meal at the temple restaurant. We then went to the old Ming Drum Tower – the tower is beautiful.
22nd July 2010
Went to the Memorial for the Nanjing massacre victims. The displays are very detailed and therefore horrific. What on earth prompted such a thing?
21st July 2010
Went to Sun Zhong Shan Mausoleum and the Ming Emperor Tomb. They are in the same park and both are very impressive and beautiful. Then we went to the city wall which is well maintained – also very impressive.
20th July 2010
Nanjing
Bullet train to Nanjing. We just had time to visit the Confucian Temple.
19th July 2010
We decided to look for more, older European buildings – and this time found quite a few – along the river front. They were renovated a few years ago and are in good condition. They were built from about 1900 up until about 1930. They were mostly built as banks and they look like the buildings in the City of London. Now many of them are empty.
18th July
Bus to the Yellow Crane Tower. It is beautifully maintained and is in a prominent location overlooking the city and the views from the top of the tower are great. Then we went to Wuhan Museum which has a daily music performance in order to demonstrate their set of old Chinese bells. Then we tried to find some older buildings in the city that were built during the time of the euorpean concessions. But we could only find one and that had been turned into a shopping mall – with KFC and Mcdonalds inside. They have even let them put big signs on the outside of the building.
17th July 2010
Wuhan
Bus from Yichang to Wuhan. We are staying in an apartment hotel – the Sentosa – which is quite nice. It has much more space than a usual hotel room. We had our meal in a nice local restaurant near the hotel – the family have been running restaurants for over 100 years.
16th July 2010
We left the cruise at the Yangste Dam. The Dam is huge, it is hard to imagine how such a thing could be built. We are staying at the Yichang Hotel.
15th July 2010
We transferred to smaller boats today to sail along the smaller gorges. The whole area is fabulous.
14th July 2010
Yangste River
It is very relaxing to sit on the boat and watch the river go by. The river banks are already beautiful – green and hilly. We visited Fendu, a ‘Ghost City’.
13th July 2010
Yangste River Cruise
We boarded the boat late afternoon. The boat is very well kitted out, with comfortable cabins, viewing deck, restaurant and bar. When it was dark we saw the lights of the city on both sides of the river
11th July 2010
Went to and old town – Zhee Chi Koo. It has a memorial museum for the massacred communist party members by the Kuomingtang.
10th July 2010
No surprise – the mist turned into rain so we went to the 3 Gorges Museum – it is really good and has displays going back to 4,000 years. Then we went back to the centre of the city to see the Liberty Memorial. We visited the 1,000 year old Loh Hun Zi Temple. It has 500 Loh hun statues.
9th July 2010
Chongching
We took the bullet train. The train is very fast, although because of torrential rain in Chongching it was delayed. Chongching is on the Yangste river and the Jialing river and the city is incredibly humid and misty. The rivers are incredible – very wide.
8th July 2010
To Leshun to see the giant Bhudda. It is carved into the mountain and can only be seen from the river.
7th July 2010
We went to the Panda Centre. It is incredible. They are having great success at breeding Giant Pandas and have managed to prevent their extinction. There are over 100 Giant Pandas there, of all ages. They are slowly releasing some of the Pandas back into the wild. Also, the Red Pandas are doing well there.
6th July 2010
We joined a tour group to visit the Dujiang Irrigation project and the Taoist Chingcheng Mountain. Both were very interesting. The mountain has loads of deities inside.
5th July 2010
We went by bus to Pinleh a small old village by the river, about 200 kilometres from Chendgu. It is very beautiful and not too spoilt by touristification. It has a beautiful old bridge over the clean looking clear river. Lots of people were playing in the river and were enjoying themselves. A bit further along, some women were washing their clothes in the river.
4th July2010
We bought a bus map – we needed one because empty taxis are so difficult to find in Chengdu. So we took the bus to Wu Ho Temple to see Ju Geh Liang’s and Liu Pei’s 3 Kingdoms history at the Red Cliff exhibition. We went to Ram Tao Temple – the oldest in China. We saw famous Tao god and goddess statues. Some of the temple was damaged in the last earthquake and was being repaired.
3rd July 2010
Chengdu
We went to Dufu Chaudan. It is a beautiful garden in the city with temples, a pagoda, springs and landscaped gardens. Du Fu’s home is still there and can be visited – many of his poems are scripted on the walls of the old wooden buildings.
Then we went to a nearby famous hotpot restaurant – Huang Cheng Lau Ma. We had beef, chicken, venison and 3 kinds of vegetables. It cost 365 yen! That is the most expensive meal we have had in China. You have to cook the food yourself in the hotpot that has spicy chicken stock in one half and mild chicken stock in the other. I must say, I think hotpot is very over-rated. I think proper sechuan meals cooked by the restaurant are much better.
2nd July 2010
Lhasa to Chengdu
We posted our winter clothing to Penang and home from Lhasa Central Post Office to make our luggage lighter. Then we went to the airport to take the aeroplane to Chengdu. We took the airport bus to the city and then tried to get a taxi to our hotel – but we could not get one. There were many taxis but they all had customers already because it was during rush-hour. In the end we managed to walk to the hotel with all our luggage. We had booked a 4 star hotel so we could rest after the tiring Tibet trip.
We went for our first Sechuan meal at a lovely restaurant – it was great – smoked spare ribs, aubergine and beancurd. We took a motorised trishaw to get there from the hotel – all the taxis were still full.
1st July 2010
We drove from Lake Namsto back to Lhasa. We went for lunch with our guide and driver at the Nepalese restaurant and had chicken tikka again.
30th June 2010
Shigaste to Namsto Lak
It is the highest salt-water lake in the world. To get there we drove through beautiful valleys and farm land. We saw loads of yaks, sheep, bulls, rabbits and vultures. We stayed at the lake in the Sheep Hotel and ate in the Sheep Restaurant. The hotel is a row of metal huts and offered more insulation than the tents at Everest Base Camp, but it was still very basic and we decided to sleep in our sleeping bags. This helped – we should have done that at the Base Camp.
29th June 2010
We saw a beautiful sunrise from Everest Basecamp. We left after breakfast and drove back to Shigaste. We visited the wealthiest monastery in Tibet – Rongbuk Monastery. It has he largest bronze Bhudda in China.
28th June 2010
Everest Base Camp
Another long scenic drive through the Gyanste Shigaste Sheger Geula Pass – 5200 meters above sea level. We arrived at the Everest Base Camp in the early evening. We were early enough to have a great view of the peak from the second base camp. The clouds cleared just as we got there – the first time they had cleared for 4 days! The view was incredible – the peak is huge and of course covered in snow and it kept changing colour as the sun was setting. It became dark quickly and as the sky was now clear there was a fantastic night sky – absolutely full of stars. We were so high up that the thinner atmosphere allowed fainter stars to show through.
The camp is very basic and the accommodation is large square tents and it gets really cold – and windy. I thought the tent was going to blow away. Pretty much a sleepless night. We met some young Chinese people from Guangzhou – they said that since arriving in Tibet they had started calling bed-time - the time of suffering. I know what they meant – falling asleep at this altitude is difficult and I keep waking up because of a feeling of suffocation.
27th June 2010
Left Lhasa and went on a long scenic drive along the Friendship Highway to Yamdrok Lake. The lake is breathtaking, the water is clear and has clear reflections of the mountains surrounding it. We stopped at the Mama Dam and the Karola Glacier – 5020 meters above sea level. Even though it is so barren, windy and cold even in June – people live up there.
We stayed in a hotel in Jianzang where there is another temple – Baiju Temple. We climbed to the top of the Stupa – on the way up there are many rooms with various bhuddist deities.
26th June 2010
We went to Tsamkhung Convent and Ramoche Temple. We saw many nuns studying, praying and working hard in the garden and scripture rooms.
25th June 2010
We went to the Dalai Lama’s summer palace today. It is a fantastic building in beautiful tranquil gardens and lakes. Just outside the gardens is another really good coffee lounge and we had some great coffee there. We had lunch in the Lhasa Kitchen and had some nice curries.
After lunch we went to the monastery school and saw the afternoon debate in one of the gardens. Lots of loud talking and hand-clapping.
24th June 2010
We visited the Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple, which is the spiritual centre of Tibet. It is the main temple that Tibetans are going to when they go on their huge pilgrimages. The pilgimages can take up to 2 years because they have to walk – and frequently prostrate themselves on the floor.
The Potala Palace is very special and is the highest palace in the world. It is quite tiring to walk around it – there are many steep stairways and the thin air at this altitude is not easy.
23rd June 2010
Lhasa Express
The hard seats were not comfortable, the train was full and the lights are very bright and left on even at 4.00am. By the time the sun had risen, the scenery was already awesome with beautiful mountains, valleys, and plains. The journey took about 15 hours.
Our guide was waiting for us in Lhasa and took us straight to our hotel. The Yak Hotel is good and is decorated in traditional Tibetan style. Our guide showed us a Nepalese restaurant and we had Nan Bread and Chicken tikka.
22nd June 2010
Golmund
We took an overnight train to Golmund on hard sleeper. Fortunately this train was much newer than the one we took from Turpan and for some reason the other passengers were much quieter. John’s Café in Kashgar had booked us an okay hotel right by the station because we are taking the Lhasa Express early tomorrow morning. The only seats available are hard seats and the train leaves at 4.00am.
Golmund is a quiet town. Some wide modern streets lined by fairly modern shops and a market area next to the town main square. The town appears to mostly be under development and construction. We had lunch in a small spicy noodle restaurant in the market, next to a construction site.
We then had coffee in yet another very nice coffee lounge. There seems to be at least one of these in every town in China.
19th June 2010
Xining
We took a bus to Xining – it took 71/2 hours. We went for a late lunch in the market and had spicy noodles that were freshly cooked – they were really good. They had all the ingredients in the restaurant and you choose what you want to have with the noodles. We then went to a nice coffee place for really good coffee. One of the waitresses – Li Xe – showed Lian Choo how to use Han Ye Pinyin on the computer.
The next day we went to Xining Museum – the museums in china are really good. Well laid out, with good captions and fabulous exhibits. At this one we saw vases, pots, musical instruments – some of which were 5,000 years old. They were found in Xinghai province graves.
21st June 2010
We took a bus to Pinang and hired a taxi for the day. We went to Yu Lin Xi and the Dalai Lama’s birthplace. The roads were very bad and we were lucky to find a town taxi driver who knew all the places we wanted to go to, and how to get there. The area is very hilly and mountainous because we are on the edge of the Himalayas here. The temples are all in difficult to get to places and always involve a lot of climbing to get to them, but of course they are all beautiful.
Unfortunately we could not get into the Dalai Lama’s house. Apparently, it is very sensitive because of the political situation. Instead our taxi driver took us to his house to meet his family. They are very nice and they gave us home-made bread, water melon and tea.
17th June 2010
Zhangye
Zhangye has some very nice areas. In the evening we went to the wooden temple in the centre of town and saw many people doing their evening exercises, communal dncing and singing.
The next day we took a taxi to the Great Bhudda Temple which is also in the town. It is an extensive range of very beautiful buildings. Kublai Khan was born there. Then we went to the Mati Temple to see a 3,000 year old stone carved Bhudda. We climbed the hills where the ancient Bhudda and many others have been carved into the mountain.
15th June 2010
Jiayuguan
We took a bus from Dunhuang to Jiayuguan. We went to a modern shopping mall to have lunch a late lunch in a Taiwanese café. After we went to a nice lake in the town and had some beer and tea. The television tower in the tower is tall and shaped like a dolphin – don’t know why.
Next morning we hired a taxi for the day and visited ancient buildings in the area, a very large and beautiful Wei dynasty fort, a Wei dynasty tomb and museum, we climbed up the first fort along the Han dynasty Great Wall and visited the Great Wall museum.
When we returned to town we went to a great restaurant that is one of a chain opened by Mao Tse Tung’s children. It is decorated all in red and has a statue of Mao inside the entrance.
13th June 2010
DunHuang and surrounding area
This is a really good place to visit. The town is small, modern, clean, friendly, surrounded by the Gobi Desert and most of the new buildings are in a Chinese style. Each street has its own design for the street lights – many are Chinese lanterns and we saw one in the style of a Chinese bell. The town because of water supply from melted snow from the Tien Shen Mountains brought by the ancient underground irrigation system. Although, I guess there will need to be a solution because of the reducing snowfall, which is apparently increasingly worsening.
The hotel is one of the best we have ever stayed in – it is in the style if a medieval Chinese fort and looks as if it is built of sand – I guess they were going for an adobe appearance. It has a roof café with great views of the huge dunes in the Gobi Desert. We ate in the hotel restaurant twice and both meals were really great – and so cheap, about £7 and £5. The other meals we had in the Night Market, which is the cleanest and best organised I have seen. The meals there cost about £3.
Whilst here we visited Crescent Moon Lake which is an oasis in the sand dunes, the Mogao Caves, a bronze statue of Bhudda in the mountains which is the second largest in China, Yadan National Park – which is a huge eroded dried lake-bed with strange rock formations, the remains of the Han Dynasty Great Wall and the ruined Yu Men Pass Fort.
11th June 2010
Turpan to DunHuang
We took an overnight train that left about 11.30pm. It did not have the option of a soft- sleeper, so we had to book hard-sleeper places. We arrived at the station about 10.45pm and the station was packed – it seems there are many trains leaving from this station at night. Stations in China are so busy, that they keep passengers in the waiting room until just before the train arrives – otherwise the platforms would be chaotic. They let us through the barriers about 5 minutes before the train pulled in. Several hundred of us piled through on to the platform – then we had to try to find the spot where our carriage would be – otherwise we would not have enough time to board before the train departed. One of the guards directed us to where he thought it would be – along with about two hundred other people. We thought this a bit strange – how could one sleeper carriage hold so many people? The train pulled in on time and of course our carriage did not stop in front of us. Two hundred people then started racing to the correct carriage. Somehow Lian Choo got to the correct door first – quite an achievement considering she was pulling her huge rolling trunk and a carrying a backpack. I was about 150 people behind her. I saw her climb the stairs from the platform up to the door – it was dark so I could only just make out what was happening. She then disappeared into the train. I was wondering how she managed to carry the trunk up the stairs so quickly, but then I heard her shouting at the other people clambering on to the train. I then heard her voice drifting across the heads of the scrum in front of me asking where I was – unfortunately – I was still quite far from the door at this point so could not help her. What had happened: Lian Choo had pulled the trunk to the bottom of the stairs and then climbed them, expecting the men behind her to help her lift the trunk on to the train. Instead they just pushed the trunk out of the way and all bundled up the stairs on to the carriage and in the process pushed Lian Choo into the carriage - hence her shouting at them.
Luckily, the trunk had not fallen down the gap, so when I finally reached the stairs I lifted Lian Choo’s and my trunk up the stairs and we managed to pull them along the carriage to our bed space. We then realised why there was such a scramble to board the train – there was very little luggage storage space and we had to pull our trunks between our bunks, which meant there was no floor space left at all for us or the other passengers in our bay. Luckily, they were all nice about that. Also, we found out why so many people were on our carriage – the bunks were three tiers high – so there were six bunks in each bay. We had booked the two bottom bunks, which was just as well, because the two top ones were about ten feet or so high and climbing up to them was not easy – there were no steps – just two small foot plates on the wall.
We then tried to get to sleep. The bays had no door, so the noise from the other passengers was quite loud and the windows were open in the corridor because there was no air conditioning, so the noise from train wheel was also loud. Somehow though we got some sleep and arrived in DunHuang on time and we found a shared taxi which went straight to our Hotel
11th June 2010
Turpan and surrounding area
We stayed here just for 2 nights. It is the hottest city in China – the highest recorded temperature is 49.6C – we only experienced 38C which is hot enough. The town only exists because 2,000 years ago the people living in the area built an extensive underground irrigation system that brought melted snow from the Tien Shen Mountains – otherwise it would be desert. The system is still successful and the area grows grapes, melons and other fruit.
We visited historic sites in the areas around the city – including an old ruined desert town that was a resting place on the silk route, a vineyard, the Flaming Mountains – which aficionados of ‘The Journey West’ will know is the place where Monkey King doused the flames with a magic fan so that Sun Hoo Koong could continue the journey. The temperature at the Flaming Mountain was 55C when we visited – at 6.30 in the afternoon.
We had a really nice meal at a restaurant run by people from Harbin in the far north east. The dumplings were really good.
8th June 2010
Urumqi
Capital of Xin Jiang. A big busy city, where we only stayed for one night. We stopped here in order to get a bus to the areas around Turpan.
7th June 2010
Kashgar
We arrived in Kashgar after crossing the Torugart pass from Kyrgyzstan. We stayed in the Se Man Hotel which is on the site of the 19th century Russian Embassy. Both the British and the Russians had big Embassies here because Kashgar is so strategically important - on the borders of both Empires, so Kashgar was a major base for espionage and diplomatic activities with China, Central Asia, Afghanistan and northern India.
Kashgar has the biggest bazaar in Asia which is most active in Sundays. People come from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asian countries, China to trade. The livestock market is huge - they trade sheep, goats, donkeys, cattle, horses, camels. The men buying horses test them by riding them really fast around the market – usually with no saddle. Elsewhere, anything you can think of is sold from tents, stalls, goods arranged on blankets, the back of carts etc.
The city is looking quite prosperous – lots of new buildings are going up and the old Uighur town is being re-developed – many of the old adobe buildings are falling down anyway and modern buildings following the same design are replacing them although with modern amenities like running water – it is a big project and will take quite a few years yet. Some of the old adobe town is still functioning though – some of the buildings do look precarious – another mild earthquake would probably destroy most of it.
There are thousands of electric motorbikes here. I hardly saw any petrol powered. It means the streets are much quieter than usual for such a busy city. There are not many private cars – petrol vehicles are mostly taxis and small lorries, so you have to stay alert when walking around, they ride the bikes everywhere, on the pavements, pathways, even along the busy narrow walkways in the Bazaar.
4th June 2010
Issul-Kul to Kashgar
We left Issul-Kul at 3.00am in order to reach Naryn by 8.00am. The journey is about only about 250 kilometres but takes 4-5 hours because the road is in poor condition and very twisty when it passes through the Tien Shen mountains. We made it in good time – our driver kept going and we were in a Land cruiser which helped a lot. We then transferred to an Audi saloon to take us to the Chinese border – I was a bit concerned because I thought the roads might be too rough for an ordinary car, but the new driver was confident we would make it okay.
He makes the trip quite often and had all the necessary papers for him to take us to the Chinese side – which is necessary because it is 5 kilometres between the Kyrgysz and Chinese check-points along a very rugged mountain pass. We booked the driver via the Celestial Mountains Guesthouse who are experienced at getting people safely into China. The journey from Naryn to the border took about 4 hours. The road became progressively worse – it had completely collapsed in 2 places and we had to drive on the desert to get through. The traffic was very sparse and what there was, was mostly juggernaughts crossing from China to Kyrgyzstan bringing Chinese made goods into Central Asia. The Kyrgysz juggernaughts going to China were much less and mostly appeared to be carrying scrap metal.
The border crossing went smoothly – although we had to pass through 7 checkpoints and the actual crossing took about 5 hours. The last checkpoint in China was the main immigration and customs point even though it was about 100 kilometres from the border. Our luggage was searched only once – at the first Chinese checkpoint in the Pass. He seemed to be inspecting us to make sure we were not bringing censored printed materials. We only had some language books – which he approved of - saying it is good to learn foreign languages and that he is learning English. He was pleased to have an English person to do some practicing and he even tried out some Russian. Although his English was much better. It is strange how languages function – just 5 Kilometres away all the guards speak fluent Russian – and we met none who spoke English.
Our Chinese driver and Guide were waiting at the Chinese border when we arrived there. The journey to Kashgar took about another 4 hours.
The whole trip was memorable – from the mountain passes, to the terrible roads and the hundreds of Marmots we saw running about in the desert.
3rd June 2010
Kyrgysztan
We flew from Tashkent to Bishkek because we spoke to various people and decided that following the troubles in Kyrgysztan the Uzbekistan border might be too problematic. The flight was good, an Uzbek airways Boeing with good leg-room, although the flight only takes about an hour. The Tashkent airport was strange in that once through Passport control, there was no café, not even somewhere to buy a coffee and the Duty Free would not take Uzbek currency.
We had arranged a driver to take us to Issul-Kul and he was waiting for us. It took about 4 hours to get to the lake. The lake is huge – the second largest alpine lake in the world. It is beautiful, surrounded by the Tien Shen Mountains. We spent 3 days here and the trip into the mountains was the highlight – we drove up a canyon for about 4 hours – nearly to the Kazakhstan border.
I am just starting to put all the entries for China because this site is not accessible from China.
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