Day 203 - Written by Aus aboard Flights from Shanghai, China to London, England, via Moscow, Russia, on April 6th, 2011, and finished up in Seaford on April 10th.
I guess I should start off this entry by officially confirming what I assume most readers already figured out, and that is that our last post was an April Fool's joke and a complete fabrication designed for our and your amusement. We received a lot of comments about that entry, and I think it goes down for me as one of the most fun to write, and certainly the most fun in terms of the comments we received. There were a few of you who told us that we'd managed to convince you that we were on the moon, and even more of you though not fooled, let us know that you got a laugh out of the story. So thanks for your comments, as much of the fun of the whole exercise was of course getting to hear some of the reactions. The whole thing had been schemed up in my head a long time ago, and we even had to go out of our way in Macau to find the science centre where we took the pictures. If you look carefully, you may figure out that those spacesuits were sized for children, and even Kim had a hard time squeezing in. Anyhow, now that April Fool's has past, and we are now on our way out of China on another marathon of flights, I have the time and opportunity to tell the real story of our time in China, which has been a great time, even if not ‘out of this this world’.
Our trip to China was certainly a highlight of the whole 7 months of travel, not only because it is such an interesting country, with such a unique culture, but also because we were to be joined by my parents, which was another adventure in itself. Having them along was so much fun, and we were so excited to see them after being away for so long. China was also likely our last new (previously-unvisited) country to be included on this trip. We had been hoping to make Iceland work but the costs are now prohibitive, so we will be spending the extra time in England and possibly making a little side tour to another European country if we can find something that fits with our budget.
Since we knew China would be our last 'exotic' destination, we knew we wanted to make it special, and we certainly feel we did that along with my parents. The trip has been planned since January, and we have been looking forward to it since that time, while obviously not wishing our time away. It came so quickly, and we were remarking how quickly this whole trip has flown by, and it is hard to believe that we have now crossed day 200 with less than 2 weeks remaining until we are back in Canada. But it has all been amazing and we are not unhappy about our fast-approaching return to Canada. We've just had too many great experiences to be unhappy about anything really, and seeing China in style along with my parents was a great way to finish up in the far east.
We really spared no expense when it came to our trip in China (well technically my parents spared no expense, as this portion of the trip was a gift for our honeymoon). We stayed in 5-star hotels throughout the trip, flew over all the big distances we had to cross, and travelled in private van with private guide for our time on the ground. We climbed the Great Wall, saw the famous Terracotta Warriors in Xian, celebrated Kim’s 29th birthday and visited the Giant Pandas, explored the modern megalopolises of Beijing and Shanghai, and saw some of the natural beauty of the country in Chengdu and Hangzhou. We could not have imagined a better trip. It is truly amazing how quickly time flies when you are having such a great time. China really blew our minds with how much is going on, both economically and culturally, and it was full of surprises.
Some of the things that I found most shocking were the level of affluence in the cities, with seemingly minimal or non-existent poverty. Every second shop was a Gucci or Rolex, or some other luxury outlet. There were numerous Lamborghini and Ferrari dealerships, and most cars you saw on the street were quite new and very nice, including many BMWs and other premium brands. Another surprise for me was the number of non-religious people, with apparently 80% of the population not practising any form of religion. Of the 20% who are religious, Buddhism is most popular, but is closely followed by Islam and Christianity. Who would have guessed?
China is the most populous country in the world, with about 1.3 billion people, and it is also one of the oldest cultures in the world, dating back to many centuries B.C.E. It is also one of the biggest countries geographically, and is therefore too big to have covered any significant amount of it in terms of landmass in the short two weeks that we had there. Our trip instead focused on the cultural highlights of China, starting in Beijing and finishing up in Shanghai. It was the second time to China for my parents and myself, as they took the family there on a trip when I was only 10, but our trip was short, and only included the far south in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Guilin. So this tour was all new territory for all of us, and we were quite happy with how much we got to do in the short time we had.
Our first stop was Beijing, where luxury awaited us at our first stay in a 6-star hotel, which was called the Legendale. Apparently it was built in anticipation of the Olympics in 2008, and like the venues the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, it was very impressive. It was nice to arrive in Beijing where the climate unexpectedly already felt very spring-like. It almost felt like a southern Canadian spring, which itself is now a bit of a novelty to Kim and I, as we have living so far north where Spring is very different all-together without all of the re-leafing trees, blossoming flowers and that smell of spring in the air. Anyhow, we enjoyed seeing some spring-like weather for the first time in years, and it added to the feeling of home we got when we finally saw my parents. It's always nice to see a familiar face and be reunited with family, but I think it is even ore enjoyable when you are in a foreign country and have been halfway across the world for 7 months.
Beijing is impressively large, with about 19 million people living there. We had a total of 4 nights there, and it was the base for 3 days of touring. Highlights included The Great Wall, Ming Tombs, a tour of the old city and the hutongs, a Kung-fu show, a Peking duck dinner, a glimpse at the Olympic venues, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven. I do have to admit that after a while, a temple is a temple is a temple, but they can be fun walking around and enjoying the scenery and people. Tiananmen Square is of course famous for the protests and subsequent government reaction that took place here in 1989, where a protester was run over by a Chinese tank. The Forbidden City is the former home of the emperors and place for the imperial staff etc. The Temple of Heaven was a temple for the emperor and other imperial big-wigs to practice their spiritual rituals. All of these places were extremely crowded with mostly Chinese tourists. We stuck out at most places, but there were a few other western tourists, interestingly our guide told us that the Chinese refer to as ‘Long Noses’, which they tell us is a great compliment, as many Chinese desire lighter skin and a bigger nose. It’s the opposite back home, so I suppose it is one of those grass is always greener type of situations. Rather than drone on about each of the places we visited, here are some photos to help describe them.
Checking in for luxury at the 6-star Legendale Hotel…
The Forbidden City….(but they allowed us in anyway)
Dad and I at Tiananmen Square…maybe it’s just the Chinese making me paranoid, but does my nose look big?
All of us at The Temple of Heaven….
Starting out at the Great Wall, where we had a fantastic hike along the badaling section of the wall…
Enjoying the experience with 10,000 of our closest friends…
After the wall, we had a lovely walk down the Spirit Way…
Kim doing what we do and imitating this lion statue…
A family shot taken at the entrance to the Spirit Way…
The hutong tour around old Beijing, when we had opportunity to see the old ‘hutong’ buildings that are being replaced by modern apartments, and we got to visit a family still living in one of those old buildings.….
This picture is near the bar area, where loads of bars line the edge of this lake. Looked like a great place for a drink, or pretty much anything, as it was a very nice part of the city.
I took the opportunity to try my hand at rickshaw driving. My driver said I was very good! Career change in my future?
The Summer Palace, which was a very nice leisurely walk around more nice gardens and a lake. Kim and Mom also took advantage of the fantastic offers on stylish hats that were going! Here is Kim sporting hers…
At the Summer Palace…. Kim and Mom wearing their fancy hats proudly!
After Beijing, our next stop was the ancient city of Xian, home of the Terracotta warriors, where a particularly vain emperor spent 40 years building an army of ceramic soldiers to be buried alongside him at his tomb so that his military rule could continue in the afterlife. Xian is the city to visit in China if you are interested in ancient history, as much of the history dates back many centuries B.C., and it is the ancient Chinese capital before moving to Beijing. It is now of course a modern city, and it is also very large with about 10 million people I believe. In addition to the warriors, Xian also lays claim to be being an eastern terminus of the silk route, and as such has a large Muslim population. Highlights here included the great Terracotta Warriors, the Shaanxi provincial museum, the Great mosque and the Muslim market, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and a great bike ride on the old City Wall. Here are some photos of our time in Xian..
A close-up look at one of the restored warriors at Shaanxi provincial museum. Amazingly, these things were not found until 1974 when a simple farmer stumbled upon them and thought he had unearthed mad mojo for himself by opening an emperor’s tomb. He was hated by his community for many years for his accidental discovery, as it brought big changes in the local way of life over the years as archaeologists uncovered the remainder of the warriors and other artefacts there. Happily though, he is now very well respected due to the positive economic benefit to the area, and is a local celebrity who pops into the warriors tourist site to sign books. He is over 80 years old and speaks no English, and is not literate.
Pit 1 of Terracotta Warriors. It is a large complex consisting of 3 pits, of which #1 is the best preserved. Each pit contained different types of soldiers including infantry, cavalry, archers, and specialized personnel such as generals and officers etc. Very fascinating stuff, especially considering all of the detail that went into building the things. Each one was unique and included great detail. I cant imagine what the people must have thought at the time of their emperor’s strange request. I guess it’s good to be emperor.
I found this statue that looked remarkably like someone I knew, but I just couldn't place who it was…
When I saw the setup below, I couldn’t pas it up….I had to get us all posed for this family photo. For the record, Kim is kneeling and not as small as she appears.
Now on to the bike ride at the old city wall. it was great fun and Kim and I took the opportunity to ride a tandem bike. Another first for us…
Great views and a fun way to see the city.
As it was spring, there were blossoms everywhere and most places we visited had beautiful gardens. Here you can see my beautiful wife stopping to smell the flowers at the great mosque…
After Xian, we were off by another very early morning light to Chengdu, where we would see the Giant Pandas, visit an impressively old giant infrastructure project, explore some more of the countryside and of course celebrate Kimmie’s birthday. We also had the project of trying to post our April 1st blog to our Chinese-blocked Google-based blog in China while in Chengdu, but with the help of my sister back in Canada we were able to make it happen. The highlight in Chengdu was definitely the day of Kim’s birthday, when we saw the giant pandas and had a great birthday dinner for Kim, but of course we enjoyed the rest of it as well. Here are some photos..
Kim enjoying some street candied strawberries on her birthday…..
Now at the Panda breeding centre, where we learned some curious facts about this strange little species. First of all, they are a very old species, about 8 million years old versus an average species life span of 5. Second, they survived changing environmental conditions and adapted their diet from carnivores to vegetarians, which they adhere to today. They eat loads of bamboo and are only able to absorb about 20% of its nutrients, so must eat almost 20kg per day. This ends up taking most of their energy so they are a fairly lazy species. Lastly, somewhere along the lines the males have lost their interest in sex, and have evolved tiny penises that often cannot successfully complete natural coupling. Therefore the survival of this species is now in the hands of a very lucky bunch who practice ‘massage’ on the bears. So perhaps there’s a good reason for being placed on the endangered species list, but nevertheless, they were cute and we enjoyed learning about them.
Panda bear eating a bamboo lunch….
The birthday girl and the panda…
Baby pandas…..
Mom and Dad posing with the pandas…
Kim’s birthday dinner. We had a great time and even had a cake waiting for her. Plus she was delighted that I had kept her favourite stylish hat from the Summer Palace in Beijing.
Kim with her cake….
The honeymooners…
Birthday antics…
The next day in Chengdu we visited Du Fu’s Thatched cottage and the general’s temple. Both had lovely gardens that we enjoyed walking around in..
In the afternoon we visited Mt Qingcheng and the Du Jiang Irrigation project, which is an impressive large scale irrigation scheme built back in the 2nd century B.C. and is still in use today too.
Kim at Mt. Qingcheng
Mom and Dad with a great shot at Mt. Qingcheng…
One of the more spontaneous events of our tour in China was when we had a tiny bit of extra time one day and mom wanted to stop in the countryside and get some pictures. My mom saw these fields at the side of the road and decided it was a good place to stop for some photos. So we had a brief stop there and mom was able to get some photos of several women working in the fields and all the colors etc. that she was hoping for. After a while taking photos mom inquired about touring a rural village, and our guide David was kind enough to escort us in search of some rural life. Luckily we did not have to go far as just off the side of the road we stumbled across a country home where a group of people were gathered playing Mahjong. They were very friendly and invited us all in for a tour of their home. With translation form our guide we were able to share some small tidbits about ourselves and learn a bit about their life in rural China. It was great fun and we all got a kick out of how much of a novelty we were to them as much as they were to us. Good times!
The village people…
They were keen to get pictures with us, too!
After Chengdu, we were off to Hangzhou, which is a very beautiful city near Shanghai, and another historically important city for ancient China, known for its natural beauty. It was formerly known by the Chinese as ‘Paradise on Earth’. We certainly found it to be a nice place, and were glad to have some free time there to explore as our itinerary included a day off from touring in addition to our one full day of sightseeing there. Highlights of our visit here included the beautiful West lake and its many gardens, the Flying Peak, and visiting a tea plantation known for its self-proclaimed ‘world-famous’ dragon wall tea, and I must admit that I also really enjoyed the day off where we got to take our time and relax, and even eat western food, which we were not getting much of with all new Chinese foods to try. Here are some photos of our time in Hangzhou…
Totally natural photograph, not posed or set-up at all.
Some beautiful shots around the lake…
Some shots taken at the Flying Peak, where Buddhist gods are carved into the surrounding stone…
After thoroughly enjoying ourselves and recharging our batteries a little bit in Hangzhou, we were transported by road to Shanghai, which was a true modern megalopolis. Shanghai is the new economic heart of China, and it shows. It is a well layed-out city of over 20 million people, and it has many beautiful parks and also a great waterfront area with a fantastic view of the skyline. Highlights of our Shanghai sightseeing included the Shanghai National Museum, Jade Buddha temple, Yu Yuan Gardens, The Bund, and an incredibly impressive Shanghai Acrobatics show. Again, seems silly to go on and on when I can just show you…
A lion statue covered in ribbons at Jade Buddha temple in honour of Chinese memorial day, where as we understand it they were honouring their dead ancestors.….
Another sight we still get a chuckle out of… the proliferation of mobile phones among all cultures around the world…
Taking in the fantastic Shanghai skyline at the Bund…
Scenes from Shanghai, including the colossal difference in height between me and many Chinese…
Skyline by night….
Enjoying the sunshine at Yu Yuan Gardens. I should mention now that we enjoyed amazingly good weather in our time in China, with only 1 day of rain on our day off in Hangzhou. It was mostly warm and sunny and perfectly spring-like.
Sad to say goodbye to China…
Shanghai was a great place to finish up our tour. It all came to an end too quickly, and it was sad to have to say goodbye again to my parents. It also meant the end to our unfamiliar destinations, and we are now fully in ‘trip wrap-up’ mode savouring every last minute of time we have over in England. Kim’s sister arrives tomorrow, and we are looking forward to showing her some of this country and hopefully a quick trip over to Paris or another European city. We are having a great time here in little old Seaford where we are enjoying time with family and old friends. We have managed to catch fantastic spring weather here so far, which is a bonus at any time of year in England! We will be back in Canada before we know it. Before I sign off, for those of you who are interested in a perhaps more lively and entertaining presentation of our pictures, please download and watch the slideshow I prepared for my parents which highlights our China tour with a little humour.
Click here to download slideshow.
We hope all is well with everyone back home and elsewhere reading this, and we hope you have enjoyed what is likely to be one of the final few entries of our round-the-world chronicles. All the best.
Cheers,
The Knotty Travellers
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