Roundtrip China 17 Septerber tot 15 October 2011

day 1 Schiphol-Beijing At five o'clock pm we leave Schiphol airport heading for Beijing. We fly eleven hours and have to deal with a time difference of six hours. We make the trip with travel agency Shoestring. They provide a basic package. Flight, local transport, hotel accommodation and a Chinese / English speaking guide are included. You are free to spend the days as you like or make a tour with the guide. You may also do some self organization. day 2 Beijing In the morning we arrive in Beijing. Just buy water and visit the market next door. Then a few hours sleep. During the afternoon we walk to the Temple of Heaven. Situated in the park of the Temple of Heaven is. It is very crowded. Chinese live in small appartments and often spend their free time in a park. There are people playing cards or Chinese chess. Others are singing, playing music or doing gymnastic exercises. Called Thai chi. day 3 Beijing At the hotel we rent two bicycles. The counter agent inflates the tires. We head for the Square of Heavenly Peace. (Tiananmen Square) What is striking, is that right-turning traffic has priority over cyclists and pedestrians. They drive just about zebras. Even though the pedestrian light has green, you have to be carefull crossing the street. We can not get used to it. Zebras have no purpose at all. Every moment a vehicle may come around the corner. Later I found on Internet, that right-turning traffic in China indeed has priority. They even may ignore a red light. The Square of Heavenly Peace has enormous dimensions. The mausoleum of Mao is well guarded by soldiers. On the square police officers are provided with Segways. North of the celestial square is the Forbidden City. An impressive collection of buildings, building startet in the year 1422. From here hundreds of years China was ruled by many emperors. Some were rarely outside the Forbidden City. In 1912, the last emperor has been dismissed. The city has survived the cultural revolution and is now a museum. Since 1987, the city belongs to the Worlds Heretage. day 4 Beijing Visit to the Great Wall. The Great Wall was built as a fortification against wandering armies invading from the north. The first part of this building dates from around 200 BC. Between 1350 and 1650 AD (Ming Dynasty), the wall gor its current shape. The artwork is one hours drive outside Beijing. We are lucky with the weather. The brick barrier bathed in sunshine. We walk a few miles over the wall. Well, walking? It is mostly stairs going up and down. In the afternoon we visit the summer palace. Large crowds of mostly Chinese tourists visiting this place. The summer palace is decorated with beautiful roofs. Cruise boats with Chinese roofs and dragon heads are sailing on the lake. The western tourist is an attraction. We are regularly photographed or filmed. day 5 Beijing-Pingyao Bike ride with a guide through the Hutong. The Hutong is a traditional district of Beijing. People live there with whole families in homes with a courtyard. Sometimes these courtyards packed with living quarters for the children. Many of these courtyards were replaced by gray skyscrapers. We visit a big market. Wee see strange vegetables and eggs. Meat is always fresh, because the animals are slaughtered before your eyes. Fish are sold alive. We visit the Drum Tower. Previously, during the day using a large drum beaten all hours. At night it happened in another tower with a large bell. Named the bell tower. In the afternoon we relax in a park. In the evening the night train leaves for Pingyau. day 6 Pingyao In the morning we arrive in Pingyao. We are picked up at the station by an electric trolley. The hotel has a beautiful courtyard. The room features a huge stone bed. Previously it was heated up by a flue. The forerunner of the electric blanket. Pingyao is a great walled city. We walk the city walls. They have a special motorbike to fight fires in the narrow streets. Chinese are playing card on the street. day 7 Pingyao-Xian Another day in Pingyao. It is very quiet in the city. Well, there are a lot of people, but most vehicles are electric driven. At night we leave with a night train to the next destination. day 8 Xian Our journey actually started in the Asser museum in 2008. The museum has borrowed a few Terracotta soldiers from Xian to Assen. Helen liked toe see more of those warriors. A group of peasants uncovered some pottery while digging for a well nearby the royal tomb in 1974. They are relics from the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (221-214 BC). The army had to protect his tomb. We have lunch with the group. Usually the dishes are put on a turntable. So you get different dishes in front of you. In general the food is delicious. Occasionally it is too spicy. In the afternoon we visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. day 9 Xian-Chengdu A lazy morning with some shopping. In the afternoon we depart by train to Chengdu. We are happy with the nighttrains. On other roundtrips we spent ten to twelve hours a day on a bumpy road by bus. We travel in so-called hard sleepers. Three bunk beds. The hardness is not too bad. We sleep well on trains. In advance we buy dried noodle meals and beer. The railway company provides hot water to prepare the meals. Hot water over the noodles, join the vegetables and spices and it's ready to eat. Often it is tough stuff and half of the spices is enough for us. day 10 Chengdu We walk to the Temple Wenshu. The route runs through a park along a river. Chinese people enjoy themselves in the park singing and doing gymnastics. There is given a music class in the open air. In China there are a lot op public toilets. Not all that neat but you can at least get rid of your message. Sometimes there are no separate partitions. So you're just sitting together. Men and women are separated. After an hour we reach the Wenshu Temple. It's very smokey caused by the large incense poles. You may not take pictures inside. A monk has find a practical solution. Just take pictures being outsite. Have lunch with dumplings. Vegetables and meat wrapped in dough and steamed. Coincidentally we pass a subway station. That saves a long walk to the People's Park. The metro costs 24 euro cents, or 2 or Juan. The bus is usually twelve cents, or 1 juan. In the People's Park it's very noisy. Electronically amplified musicians play as hard as possible. In a quiet place, people are writing Chinese characters with water. It dries quickly. Has this a therapeutic effect or has this a religious purpose? We don't know. day 11 Chengdu A visit to the giant pandas in Chengdu you may not miss. There is a breeding center for this animals. After years of research and experience they succeed in keeping alive newborn pandas. Especially the young pandas have a big cuddly level. The animals feed on bamboo stalks. There are still a thousand animals living in the wild. Not enough to survive. They try to increase the number. A difficult task because they are not that easy to breed. Nice to see how the panda peels the bamboo stalk and eats the inner portion. René feeding fish in the Panda Park In the afternoon we go to a cooking class. We all passed the course. day 12 Chengdu-Panzihua Another quiet day. In the morning we walk again to the Wenshu Temple. The Temple is situated in a nice neighborhood with shops, street vendors and restaurants. For lunch we choose for delicious dumplings. At the end of the day we leave with the night train to Lijiang. Fourteen hours by train over a distance of 750 km. To morrow we wake up in another city. Ready for new experiences. day 13 Panzihua-Lijiang In Panzihua we hop of the train and climb into a bus for a ride of seven hours. (310 km) Due to an accident on the road the ride takes a little longer. Chinese drive like idiots. Even at blind corners they pass other cars. Nothing can stop them. Along the road farmers are harvesting rice. The ride takes us through a mountainous area. Lijiang is flooded by mostly Chinese tourists. There is a large pedestrian area in the old town. day 14 Lijiang Walking around in Lijiang. We climb to the Wangu Tower and have a nice view over the city. day 15 Lijiang We rent two mountain bikes. There is even an advertisement in Dutch. Outside the city there are few western people. Old men on a bench look at us like we come from another planet. By chance we get to Dr. Ho. A well-known herbalist. He claims that Maxima and JP Balkenende visited with him. On the internet is nothing to find about this visit. day 16 Lijiang-Zhongdian (Shangri-la) By bus we go to Zhongdian. We pass the Tiger Leaping Gorge. The Yangste Kiang (Yellow River) squeezes through a narrow gorge. By a footpath we reach the narrowest part of the gorge. At a few places the trail passes through a tunnel in the rocks. The water is not yellow, but gray. Well, we turn all gray when we get older. At the end of the day we reach Zhongdian. (Shangri-la) Here is the largest prayer wheel in the world. The holy device weighs 60 tons. Unfortunately the monster gets serviced and we can not turn is around. Zhongdian is situated at a level of 3200 meters in the foothills of the Himalayas. The residents are Tibetans. At night it is cold here. At the hotel we have an electric blanket on the bed. day 17 Zhongdian With a local bus we go to the Ganden Gompa Sumtseling. (Gompa = monastery) A wonderful complex. Almost we pass over the monastery , but a Chinese removed us from the bus. Apparently they know that tourists arrive by the bus The Chinese brings us to a counter where we can buy an entrance ticket. day 18 Zhongdian-Dali We have breakfast on the covered courtyard. The breakfast is not much, but the scene is beautiful. We go by bus to Dali. We see farmers working on the rice harvest. We have lunch with the group. Our guide knows wher to eat. He makes a phonecall when we are near a restaurant. Once there, in no time the table is full of dilicious dishes. Costs are € 4.50 per person. + € 1.10 for a pint of beer or 50 cents for a Coke. Coffee is expensive compared to other drinks. Two to three euros for a cup. A cup of coffee is more expensive then a pint of lager. So it's easy to choose. day 19 Dali A cable car takes us up. Here is the largest Chinese chess board. To replace the pieces you need two strong men. We walk in the mountains. In the afternoon we arrive at a market. We see unfamiliar vegetables. Further, there are crabs and other vermin strung on sticks. day 20 Dali Morning market in Xizhou. Twenty kilometers north of Dali. Chicken and fish are sold alive. So it's always fresh. The chickens are slaughtered before your eyes. Throats cut, a few minutes into boiling water and then a device removes the feathers. The fish are killed by a knock on the head with a piece of wood. We notice that this trip nobody has problems with his intestines. On other trips (Egypt, Morocco, Turkey) is not unusual that travellers are sick for a few days caused by the food. Women are shopping with a cane "backpacks". Sometimes there is a baby or small child in the basket. You can also buy a new set of teeth on the market. In the afternoon we take a boat trip on the lake nearby Dali. We sail to a fishing village on the other side of the lake. Of course there is a fish market. On the boat there is a girl attracting our attention. Contact with Western tourists is a beloved entertainment. day 21 Dali-Guilin By bus to the Stone Forest. A collection of strange rock formations. A wonderful world. Just as you can let your imagination on clouds, you may see everything in the stones. The rocks reflect in the water, which delivers beautiful pictures. After the Stone Forest, we leave the overnight train to Guilin. We yield for it, because we haven't seen a train for a couple of days. day 22 Guilin-Ping'an The hotel in Ping'an is only accessible by foot. Local women carry your luggage to the hotels for a small amount of money. Later I find out that the same women serves our meal in the hotel. From the room we have a wonderful view over the rice fields. day 23 Ping'an In the morning we make with our guide a walk through the rice fields. The lunch includes chicken steamed in a bamboo stalk. The bamboo stalk is hold in a fire. Regularly the bamboo is cooled in a bucket of water to prevent burning. The chicken tastes good, but it seems that only waste from the chicken is used. There's even a piece of leg. I mean the lower leg part where the nails are. (See photo at day 12) In the Netherlands you never get this part on your plate. Anyway, the chicken is fresh. There are still a few chickens in a basket grumbling at the small cage they are in. After lunch we set off by ourselves. We walk along the ricefields. It's a beautiful sight. There is a lot of people for day trips. But in the meanwhile we know that in China it is busy everywhere. day 24 Ping'an-Yangshuo Late afternoon we take a boat trip on the Li River. After dinner we return to the river with a fisherman. The man is fishing with cormorants. When the cormorant catches a fish, the fisherman pulls the cormorant inboard and removes the fish from it's throat. The fisherman takes a break, so we may take pictures. The cormorants spread their wings to dry. day 25 Yangshuo Rent a bicycle. We ride to the Yulong River. Bamboo rafts are waiting for us for a trip across the water. The bicycles are transported by the landlord to the landing of the boat trip. There are rafts on the river where vendors try to sell drinks and food. Our "gondolier" likes a beer. After the beer he starts to sing. After sailing the raft we make a short ride to the Moon Hill. We climbed up the hill and had a good view over the mountains. In the evening we visit a sound and light show. A wonderful spectacle on the river. In the background are the karst mountains lit by floodlights. There are about 600 people performing the show. The design of the show is made by the same man who composed the opening of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. day 26 Yangshuo Our last day of cycling this holiday. An ordinary bike costs € 2.20, a normal mountain € 4.40 and a brand new mountain bike € 6.60 per day. Deposit is 12 euros per bike. We see a fisherman fishing with a net. The cormorants are watching. Do they have a day off? We don't know. Coincidentally, we end up behind the podium of the sound and light show. We recognize the moon where the woman last night was dancing on. The show also play with two water buffaloes. The sound and light buffaloes are grazing calmly, without anything to fear the two paparazzi photographers from the Netherlands. day 27 Yangshuo-Guangzhou It's a rainy day today. Fortunately we have indoor activity on the program. In the morning we do a second cooking class. It is an international group of Belgians, Danes, Australians, Swiss, and some other world citizens. First the course leader takes us to the market for shopping. Actually a nice market, but we see some dogs and cats. Not for salw as a pet, but for consumption. Happely they are not on the menu at the cooking class. Afternoon packing. To morrow we have little time in Guangzhou (old name is Canton) before we fly home. day 28 Guangzhou We have a short stay in Gangzhou. In the morning we arrive on the night train. The driver, who retrieves the group by bus from the railway station, is the same one who has to drive us to the airport. We have a different flight than the rest of the group. Fortunately, we have everything prepared for flight yesterday. We leave the group behind drive directly to the airport. We fly to Shanghai where we have to wait seven hours on the flight to Schiphol. The last Chinese money we spend on two beers and some souvenirs. The rest of our money is given for charities. day 29 Guangzhou-Assen Comfortable flight home without delay. At five o'clock am we landed at Schiphol airport. Unfortunately our train home has a few hours delay. Quarter past eleven we are home. Mollie (our cat) is happy to see us again. The first days she keeps us in sight. Afraid of being abandonned again.