Three Gorges, Yangtze River, CHONGQING PROVINCE

(J) Following on from our long day in Chengdu, it was a day of bus riding. We had a very modest breakfast, for me interrupted by constant reminders of the previous nights spicey food. We were on our way at 7:00 am. The bus ride was subdued. Eventually we arrived at some Buddist rock carvings. These were quite amazing...as so many things here in China seem to be. They dated back to around 1200 AD and depicted life and times, standing many meters high and occupying a scenic gorge. The whole thing being started by a local.....let's call him a war lord, who was feeling a bit guilty about his past deeds and wanted to redeem himself in the eyes of heaven....maybe he should have become a catholic and confessed....would have been quicker and cheaper!

After the rock carvings we had a lunch then another long bus ride to the place where our cruise was due to start. Unfortunately, at this time of year there is inadequate water in the Yangtze for the cruise boat to rendezvous with us at this point, so we fair welled our guide, Andy, and our driver with a generous tip and on to another bus with lots of other cruise patrons for a three hour journey to the new starting point.
Numb bum is the only turn of phrase I can come up with for how I was feeling when finally we arrived at our destination, Fengdu. We hired what we thought was two porters to carry our luggage to the ship across numerous pontoons. As it turned out one modestly sized man undertook the task, carry two cases on one end of a bamboo pole that rested on his shoulder with two others nicely balancing things on the other end...all up around 80kgs. He received a very generous tip indeed.
The ship was pretty nice and after negotiating an upgrade to a better room was absolute luxury after the last few days. It was a perfectly timed down time for us all, being tired and frayed...China is not the easiest holiday.

We had heated pool and sauna access plus more food than we could handle. The gorges were something to see and we managed a couple of shore trips, one to a 12 storey pagoda and the other down a tributary of the river, where an indigenous minority lived.
The dams on the Yangtze have changed the behaviour of the river and now there is more water than was previously the case up stream of the dams. This means a number of villages have been relocated, as in the wetter part of the year, the old villages were being inundated. We walked through a new town when Ian and I visited the pagoda (it was raining so the girls dogged it), it was clean and tidy but lacked vitality, it was actually rather depressing. There were only old people and their grandchildren living in the village, with the younger adults working in the big cities, only visiting the children at Chinese New Year!!! There were lots of local market stalls for tourists but nothing in them was worth buying, nothing that was regional or different. It was all very sad and a bit desperate in my view.
After we returned to the boat that evening, there were welcoming drinks in the bar being held by the captain. I wore my best wrinkled t-shirt for the occasion and accordingly thought better of having my photo taken with the skipper. I did however suspect that the captain was in fact a cabin boy I had seen earlier in the day but decked out in a white uniform. There was a table of finger food that was not touched until after the captains welcoming speech and a "gam bei" (cheers) with a very sweet champagne. The table of food was attacked as if no-one on board had managed a feed in a week. It was like a plague of locust!

The three gorges dam is an engineering marvel. To navigate the dam, the boating traffic has to negotiate a lock comprising 5 separate compartments (probably not the right terminology) and dropping over 100 meters in total. We started through this lock at midnight on our last night of the cruise. About 200 ships can move through the lock system in a day. A lift is also being built that will move a large number of small craft down steam of the dam in a much quicker time period. It takes a ship about three hours to go through the 5 compartments of the lock.

It would have been nice to stay longer on the boat. But refreshed we ventured onward to out next destination, cosmopolitan Shanghai.
(C) On our second day we had an excursion up a smaller tributary stream called Shenny stream where we were ferried in smaller chinese style timber boats in groups of 20-30 people to a rock platform where we watched some singing of the local minority group and did some of their traditional dancing with them. Quite an unusual thing to do but relaxing and enjoyable as we had a reasonably sunny day.

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CHENGDU, SICHUAN PROVINCE

Land of pandas and spicy hotpots.

 

(J) I am sitting in a 1st class cushioned wicker chair near the stage of the Chengdu opera theatre, the tea is aromatic but mild, the beer is cold and the atmosphere sedate. The show is yet to start. The chairs of my companions are currently empty. Ian and Julie are off having of all things, their ears cleaned, Chez is having a nail painted in the style of a performers mask. It has been a trying couple of days but after a spicey hot pot meal, for which the locals are famous, and now this, I am feeling pretty good.

The overnight train rides, there have now been two, are ok but it is hard to get decent sleep, so you are very tired by the end. Last nights didn't actually end until almost midday today. We thought we would be heading to the hotel for a shower & relax before heading out for an evening stroll, but no, "due to unforseen blah blah blah the itinerary was changing so if it is alright with you we are off to see the pandas right now!" The pandas were great, the Obama woman had been to see them in the morning so the whole place had been closed. It just opened when we arrived and the sanctuary was therefore quite empty. I must confess to a bit of trudging however, as the weariness was not easy to shake off.

No food since a few snacks on the train the previous evening didn't help, but given what a good paddock I have been in these last few weeks, it is hard to complain about that. When I did finally eat the hot pot meal I mentioned earlier, it was a great pick me up. The food is cooked in one of two broths heating on the table, a spicey and not so spicey...most people would know the deal. It was very tasty and is a fun way to eat. It takes time and is an opportunity to relax and enjoy.

Chengdu seems a pretty nice little town, only about 8 million in the town proper. It did seem relaxed by comparison with some of the other places we have been, but our stay was very brief. Our hotel was a bit dilapidated but that too is part of the fun. After the show and a few beers the bed was very inviting.

(C) Chengdu would definitely be on the itinerary if we ever return to China. It has a more relaxed and cheerful atmosphere than everywhere else we have been so far. The street our hotel was in was on a 'beautiful' river according to our first female guide, Andy. It was more quaint than beautiful but given some time to explore I'm sure we would have found that it was quite charmingly beautiful. Something I am noticing with the way our guides have described places and attractions to us is that they are always the most beautiful, the most magnificent, the most fantastic, the best in the world or number 1.

We had to cram one and a half days worth of touring into half a day but it was certainly half a day well spent. The Panda Base had plenty of Giant Pandas of various maturity and even the ones sleeping were amusing to see in their various sleeping positions on bamboo platforms or perched in trees. Some covering there eyes from the sun. The adult and young adult pandas that weren't sleeping were busily eating bamboo some of them like pigs in mud just immersed in the bamboo lying there eating. The juvenile pandas (approx 8months old) were practicing there climbing skills up trees or rolling down a hill..very funny to see. There were also a few Red Pandas in another area of the base. They were also very cute and would wonder right up to you and sniff your legs as they crossed the pathways to get to the other side. A couple of them were quite fascinated by Ian's hairy legs.

Andy also took us to the Broad and Narrow Alleys which were pedestrian streets lined with restaurants, shops, many tea houses and bars. Drinking tea in the afternoons is a very big thing in Chengdu to relax and catch up with friends. Once again no time to stop and linger over a bing pijou or a pot of Oolong Tea. We did however just have enough time to visit Andy's favourite tea shop back near our hotel where we were treated to tastings of different teas before purchasing. We even tried Bamboo Leaf Tea. Our next stop right across the road was for our magnificent (as described by me) Hotpot Dinner. Now my favourite meal in China.

 

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XI'AN, SHAANXI PROVINCE

(J) Tour guide White Jade (aka David) tells a joke;
Chinese man is learning English. Has so far learnt only a little, mainly counting to five. This man accidentally treads on foreigners foot and says "I am sorry". Foreigner polite and says "it is ok, I am sorry to". Chinese man smile and says "I sorry three", foreigner confused and says "what you sorry for". Chinese man says "i sorry five". Chinese man worried what comes next.
Xi'an is a small town, only 8 million people live here. During China's long history Xi'an has been the capital longer than any other city. Even now it is considered the western capital, as Beijing is the norther capital and Guangzhau is the southern capital....the eastern capital is apparently Tokyo (another little local joke).
(C) We had our first overnight train ride from Beijing to Xi'an. Thankfully the four of us were in a 4 berth soft sleeper. It was reasonably comfortable and a fairly smooth ride so a bit of sporadic sleep was possible. We were well prepared with a picnic bag of pot noodles, leftover peking duck, beers, breezers and other goodies. Boiling hot water isupplied on the train for our noodles.

Our new guide White Jade aka David was waiting for us when we walked out of the station platform and quickly led us to Mr Lee our driver for our stay in Xi'an. After some breakfast and a freshen up at our hotel we went to visit the city wall. Our original itinerary was to visit the Terracotta Warriors today but Michelle was there so best to steer clear. She also visited the city wall today but only half was closed off. We opted to ride pushbikes on the wall as a change from walking which was a bit bumpy with lots of big potholes but great fun. About 14 kms from the east gate to the west gate and back.

A couple of hours in the afternoon in the muslim quarter where we tried fresh squeezed pomegranate juice and an unusual lamb and bread soup for lunch. Watched vendors making noodles as thick as a belt and their version of peanut brittle which was devine. In the afternoon we went in search of bing piuju (cold beer) which is hard to find as most chinamen drink their beer and other beverages warm. Often drinks are on display in fridges that are not turned on. David suggested bar street which was about a 30 minute walk from our hotel. Hashmen will walk for miles for a bing piuju so thats what we did. After a couple of cold beers at Old Henrys Bar we wandered a few doors down for a couple more beers for the boys, a bottle of ghastly chinese red wine for the girls, some yummy dumplings and chicken curry and rice. Unfortunately the piuju here was not bing so the owner brought the boys a pitcher of ice to add to their beers...ha ha...that was a first! On our walk back home we were treated to a stunning view of the bell tower all lit up at night. Gorgeous!

(J) On our second day here we ventured out of town to see the terracotta warriors. Unknown until 1974, which for a civilisation such as China is hard to fathom. Not one record referring to the emperors tomb and its contents remained anywhere? The effort involved in building it all took 40 odd years and it barely lasted a few years in tact. The emporer Qi united the country for the first time but it seems his dynasty scarcely out lasted him. The tomb was destroyed by revolting peasants not long after his death and his dynasty over thrown.
The presentation of the three vaults is really well done. The main vault that contains the "army" is huge, the warriors set out in a battle formation with vanguard and flanking archers surrounding the main body of armoured solidiers. Many have been reconstructed but many also lay untouched in the state they were found. The other two vaults are smaller the 2nd being the "head quarters" including generals and other significant figures, such as crouching archers. The third is a temple of worship which contains about 60 terracotta guards and was apparently used actively by the emporer before his death.
The faces of the figures were all hand carved to give them a unique appearance, supposedly representing members of the army of the day. They are however inconsistent with the size of your average chinese of the day, being much taller and broader....presumably to look more imposing. What I didn't know was that each was hand painted. Apparently the paint disintegrates rapidly once the pieces are dug up and exposed to the atmosphere. This is why so many of the warriors have been left in situ, so that once the technology to preserve the paints has been achieved, they can be excavated and pieced together. Apparently a Japanese company has offered such technology but for an unacceptable price, so the locals are trying to figure it out for themselves.
A good day out to one of the main attractions in the country.

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BEIJING, BEIJING

(C) Our first taste of Beijing, after our taxi ride from the airport, was dragging our luggage 2 blocks through narrow alleyways called hutongs in one of the old parts of Beijing. We had booked to stay at a traditional courtyard style hotel ( Courtyard 7 recommended by Lonely Planet) which was very pleasant and quiet. The hotel was just down from south luogu lane, a very popular hutong street with shops, eateries and The Pass By Bar. This was mostly a pedestrian street being narrow and cobblestones. I say mostly as the occasional car still passed by, not to mention bikes and rickshaws with tourists on board. We spent 3 nights here before moving to another hotel down the other end of the forbidden city for the beginning of our tour. The rickshaw drivers were always very keen to encourage you to go on one if their rather overpriced tours through the hutongs. One even offered to take us to our new hotel for 200RMB. Not a particularly good deal considering the taxi we caught was only about 30RMB. we were quite amused with the visual of how we would have fit with all our luggage with only a seat for 2 small butts. He must be crazy to think it was possible.

The Temple of. Heaven was situated south of the Forbidden City in the middle of parklands. It was one of the few places in Beijing where you didn't have to go through a security check. What a stunnng building particularly with the gorgeous blue sky. On our way to the restaurant from there our guide took us through an area of the park that was a popular place for mothers to meet with the purpose of networking with each other with the aim of matchmaking and setting up introductions of suitable dates for their son or daughter to give them a bit of a kick start.

We had some great chinese food in Beijing including Kung Pao spicy chicken with peanuts, whole bbq squid on a stick, goat kebabs, toffee strawberry kebabs, the chinese version of french fries that looked like a huge nest of noodles but was actually very finely julienne potatoes fried and of course the famous Beijing duck. And thats just to name a few.

(J) I have been led to believe, by our guide, that we were blessed in Beijing with beautiful blue skies for two consecutive days. They happened to be the days we visited the forbidden city and the wall...how good is that!
The rest of the time it was rather grey and cold. The smog that we had read about before arriving maybe not as bad as it had been. There are a lot of people wearing face masks and in any crowd there is always that lovely hacking sound to be heard. Notably the parents seemed to ensure their young ones had the masks. In the middle class single child families, the kids are called the little emporers & empresses, given they are all so spoilt.
We seemed to be haunted by red Mazda 6's. As a proud owner I noticed one on the first day and then another and another until by our last day there seemed to be no other car on the road. There must have been a huge sale a few years ago as they are all the same model as my own....the red is a bit brighter....you can have any colour you like as long as it is red (the happy colour in China).
We are being harassed by the Obama woman. Her schedule and ours are crossing regularly. At the forbidden city there was a big hold up. We thought the locals were making room for us, but alas, it seems everyone was being stopped from entering whilst the First Lady did her rounds. There was a nice photo of her waving to the crowds in the forbidden city in the local paper the next day....I can tell ya that didn't happen, no one was able to get within cooee of the place.
We are on the way to Xian to see the terracotta warriors by overnight train and she is on our tail, no doubt her helicopter will land in time to stop us getting in.
The wall was right up there as an experience. The forbidden city was good, as was the summer palace. The city museum was a commemorative to Mao. We witnessed the drumming at the drum tower (now I know where jemba jemba comes from!) and took a bullet train ride to Tianjin, which was wet and 5 degrees colder than the capital....that was the day the mariners played in Beijing at the workers stadium...not the birds nest....it was a bit too far away and a bit too cold after a long day.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, given the amount of traffic in cars, bikes etc, the principle mode of transport in the capital, for us, was walking. Yes we tried the metro, yes we caught a bus, but for the most part it was walk to this and walk to that.
We have dined on all manner of local cuisine thanks to our guide Little Dragon (aka Frank) who has been a convivial host. The food is a lot spicier than I was expecting, which for me has been a bonus. We have been through more security checks and passport checks than I care to remember, but I guess that is a reflection of what has been going down in this country and elsewhere of late.

(C) Our daytrip to the Great Wall is right up there with our top travel experiences just like our gondola ride in venice but with a different kind of wow. We visited the Mutianyu section. We had 3 hours to spend there so when given the choice of walk up a few hundred metre elevation to get it or ride the cable car we decided to save our energy for walking on the wall. There was writing on the window of our cable car to tell us that Bill Clinton had also been in this car. There was some large chinese characters on the side of the mountain so we asked Frank if they said Hollywood. He laughed. They read 'Loyal to Mao'. We arrived at Tower 14 and walked to Tower 19. Frank had suggested we walk to Tower 20 but as they weren't numbered we lost count. Aftwr our ver steep climb to Tower 20 we headed back and walked down to base from Tower 8. Absolutely an incredible day.

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HAIKOU, HAINAN ISLAND

(J) So this island "paradise" was mainly about hashing again. But in truth the interhash was probably not as well organised as the prelube ( many many more people of course). The food was average at best, the accommodation was ok, the runs less than spectacular...and by Sunday after 6 runs in 8 days I for one had pretty well had it, including head cold and sore throat from the cold and smog.

Just some observations; the traffic in China seems to be completely chaotic, but after a while you gain a sense of what is going on. Where as in Oz most people tend to race, here everyone is just trying to keep moving. Right turners merge in with the through traffic getting out of the way, lanes are not observed at all, the paint something of a waste. As are the pedestrian crossings which are universally ignored. The traffic hierarchy in Haikou goes trucks, buses, cars, motorised bikes, push bikes and pedestrians. The footpaths are used by everyone but mainly the motorised and push bikes. Pedestrians are playing chicken pretty much full time! Horns & bells the order of the day. There is of course a lot of traffic of every type but everyone stays calm and pushes on.

There is little evidence that the economy here works any different to anywhere else, at least on surface. Everyone seems really keen to make a buck....markets, restaurants, shopping malls all doing their best to attract the buyer. Whilst a lot of the fancy shops seem to be fairly empty, I think there is potential for that to change in time. I guess a lot of the real changes that occurred here in the past relate to farmers and industry workers.

Sunday is the universal day of rest it seems with the local park brim full of families having a day out. Singing is prevalent everywhere, there is a lot of exercise equipment and bikes of different configurations for hire. Even a ballroom dancing area! Chez also spied an enormous rat doing a floor sweep in one of the bike hire spots. He was quite unperturbed by our interest (not too close!).

Our next stop is the capital, no more hashing, the real tourist stuff begins.

(C) Hainan does seem like an island paradise when you walk out of the airport. Well, when you see the palm tree lined streets and even the design of the airport building it does feel kind of tropical. In other parts of China the locals will even tell you that it's the place Chinese people like to go for holidays. I guess not too many Chinese have been to a tropical island then.

Our transfer from the airport to our hotel was a bit of an adventure in itself. Shuttle buses were being offered free of charge to us hashers from the airport to our hotel or main venue to register for the interhash. Once on the bus we were soon to find out that the bus would take us to register at the main venue first then we would get on a different bus to our hotel. By this stage Patsy and Maradonna were also on the same shuttle buses after flying from Hong Kong. It all seemed reasonable and practical. So after registering, collecting our goodie bags and free beer plus a couple more we asked one of the volunteers where the bus was. He quickly advised us that the buses weren't running yet so we would have to get a taxi from the other side of the very busy road out front. Not an easy thing to do with all our luggage while dodging bikes, cars and buses but we made it. Twenty minutes later, after 4 taxis stopped but then refused to take us and numerous other empty ones drove right passed we trudged back to the venue and managed to get a lift with another volunteer, Mother Duck, who was from the US and had been living there for 8 years. Mother Duck gave us some good tactics for next time we were after a taxi in China. As soon as the taxi pulls up the lady jumps in then you let the taxi driver know where you want to go. If he doesn't want to take you there, the lady refuses to get out which gives him no choice but to take you where you want to go.

Our mission in Haikou, apart from participate in the 2014 Interhash was to buy a new camera to replace our damaged one and to set up a VPN so that we could share some travel pictures and travel blog with our family on Facebook. Facebook and other social media are banned in China. We didn't even consider that possibility before we left home. Both were achieved thanks to Kathy aka Wizz Bizz who already had a VPN and a lovely Chinese girl in the Samsung mobile shop who escorted us halfway across town to the BIG Samsung shop that sold cameras.

The first run/walk we did in Haikou was the Hammersley offshore run. Hammersley are a men only club in Perth. They traditionally always set a run prior to every Interhash in the host city. During the circle after the run a lot of dirty ditties were sung, beer was down downed and bare bums were sat on the ice lounge for various charges.

The interhash was a bit disappointing compared to others we had been to in Perth and Kuching Borneo but the massages were good. 60RMB (approx $13) for 45 mins at the main venue for the hash. They had about 10 female masseuses working constantly during the hash. Very strong massage from such small ladies. I managed a full body massage and feet/leg massage on 2 separate occasions in the few days we were there. Certainly helped with the aches from travelling and our 6 hash run/walks in 8 days.

 

 

 

 

 

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GUANGZHOU, GUANGDONG PROVINCE

Guangzhou, pronounced something like gwong-jo, was where we spent our first few days in China with a population the same as all of Australia, 26 million.

(J) The mission for our time in Guangzhou to seek out the local hash house harrier club and partake in a little pre interhash tom foolery known as a pre lube. We went along with three others from our own C2H3 club, Vic, Kath & Don.

The GH3 met at a little place in town known as the Gold Mango bar which was of course a little expats bar in the Chineseness of Guangzhou, although the club did include a number of locals we had plainly warmed to the idea of hashing.....they do drink more beer in this country than any other you know.

The Saturday run was a killer and Sunday was about the same. We didn't see the sun but it did rain most of Sunday and it was cold cold cold campers!!! The mud was thick on the ground and I managed one spectacular stumble near the start of the Saturday run, so ran with a wet muddy bum for 11 kms. One of the locals tried telling me it was unseasonably cool during our stay...yeah right!! Both runs finished with a decent feed in a restaurant somewhere. We were out in the sticks for the runs so it's a pretty good guess that if we didn't go hashing we would never have experienced these places.

On Monday there was a full moon run (that means night time non hashers) so we had the day to fill in. We set off to find a restaurant in town using the subway where some of the hashers were meeting up for lunch. By Kaths trusty GPS we eventually got where we were going about an hour late....we got to the right train station but found it hard to locate the restaurant, our only guide (until Kath intervened) being a business card and a bunch of bemused locals who were confused by the influx of 'big noses' in their neighbourhood.

Full moon run was through parts of the city, most notably the ....gardens. Lots of pictures as we elected to walk (and subway) rather than run. More good food and loads of beer to finish. Good job GH3, a great time had by all at an excellent pre lube to interhash.

(C) While John was running with the hash I stuck with the walking hashers to avoid upsetting my dodgy knees this gave me the chance to have a good chat with a couple of the young local Chinese harriettes whose hash names were Mattress Pad and Angry Dragon. They liked to converse with foreigners to help improve their English language skills. May have helped with their English but didn't help with my Chinese much.

Our taxi ride from Guangzhou Baiyun International airport to our hotel was a bit of a different story. Kathy and Vic were also with us at this stage and while waiting in line a taxi for the 4 of us and our 4 suitcases we soon realised we would need 2 taxis. The drivers spoke negligible English so lucky I had the hotel address in Chinese. Our taxi driver seemed to have more of an idea of the hotel location so there was a bit of conversing between the two drivers through the windows as we drove along.

Our hotel bed was to say the least rather on the firm side which seems to be the way they like them in China. When we first entered the room and sat on the bed, as you do to see how comfy it is, there was no movement it felt like we had just sat on a desk or table. After a couple of nights I found a spare doona to lie on top of which helped a little. Hopefully they won't all be this hard.

You don't need to be running to fall down on your bum in the mud. I too managed this on the Sunday run, just lost my concentration momentarily after taking a photo of a pretty little waterfall, next thing I new my feet slid out from under me on the muddy dirt road and with camera in hand landed hard on my tailbone planting the lens side of the camera in the road to brace my fall. The hashers I was walking with rushed over to see if I was okay and all I was concerned about was the camera...until I stood up that is ...ouch..still pretty tender over a week later. I might add that it was in full view of other hashers waiting at the beer stop just across the lake. Camera lens now has a big scratch on it so camera shopping next stop.

All in all though somewhat cold and damp we had a fun time and some great chinese Cantonese food with the hashers in Guangzhou. Some of the food highlights were the crispy skin chicken and duck, dumplings and steamed buns. Our most adventurous culinary delight was the chicken feet at the dim sum lunch.

 

 

 

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