Ten Days China June 2004

ShangHai

We arrived around nine o'clock in the morning at ShangHai airport. We had a very good flight thanks to my colleagues at Amsterdam Airport. Diana, a friend of John-Paul was waiting for us at the airport. Very convenient. It really makes a difference if there is someone with you who speaks Chinese and knows where to go. After getting some money from an ATM machine, we took the taxi to the city. The ride took around 45 minutes. The taxi ride was already very interesting. Everywhere they were building big apartment buildings. Very modern buildings. Also was it good to see that the Chinese take care of the environment. Along the streets you see a lot borders with flowers. They all look like small parks. A lot of people were busy with sweeping the roadsides.

We planned to go the Pujiang hotel. This hotel was close to the Bund and John-Paul stayed there last time (three years ago he made a trip through China). But there were no budget rooms available so we decide to go somewhere else. Diana knew an other hotel and they had a room available. So we walked to the NanJing Hotel. This hotel is located at a site street of the NanJing Street. This meant that we were very close to all the interesting spots of ShangHai City. After a short rest we went out to explore the city.

Believe it or not but our first stop was at the Mac Donalds. That also happens when you have a Chinese friend with you. For them Mac D is very special. And we liked the air co. After this stop we walked to the Bund. The Bund is a boulevard along the Huangpu Jiang river. From the Bund you have spectacular views of the high-rise buildings and the pearl Tower across the river in Pudong. It is nice to stroll along the river and watch the Chinese families who are walking along the river too. Unfortunately it started to rain so went back to the hotel.
Diana went to her friend where she stayed during our stay in ShangHai.

Before we were going to have diner, we walked through the NanJing Donglu. Not the shopping street of ShangHai but still very busy and nice to be. Especially at night when all the buildings are lighted by lots of colourful lights. It was still raining so we could not really enjoy all the beautiful lights we saw. We had diner in a small restaurant. My first encounter with real Chinese food was a good one.

Day two started with breakfast at the hotel. You have to get used at the sight of noodles, soup (dumplings), eggs cooked in tea, dim sum snacks and rice at the breakfast buffet but if you are and you tasted some of it, you will even start to like it. Diana was at 10 a.m. at the hotel. We made plans to go to old "old China town". This was a 30-minute walk from the hotel.



Why is it called "old China town"? Well this is because there are no high rise buildings and the houses and shops are built the "old Chinese way" with dragons on the roofs and a lot of red painting. It was quite busy in this area. So after a quick look in this touristy area (lots of souvenir shops and little restaurants) we escaped to a garden. Although there were quite some other visitors, it was an oasis of quietness in the busy city. We spent more than an hour in this garden.





Afterwards we went to the Bund again. From here we took a ferry across the river to the Pudong area. We wanted to go to the top of the Pearl Tower to enjoy the view of the city. And we went to the top. Only it took a while because there were more people with the same intentions and only one elevator to bring all those people to the top. But the waiting (two hours) was really worth it. The views were excellent. Amazing how many buildings ShangHai has. And how much buildings they are building. Of course you have also a good view of the river and the harbours in ShangHai. We spent an hour on the top and than we went down again.



The next mission was getting train tickets for our trip to HangZhou the next day. We took the subway to ShangHai Central Station. You really don't believe your eyes when you are at a Chinese railway station. So many people with all kinds of luggage. To buy tickets, normally as a tourist, you have to go to a special ticket office. Because of Diana we didn't had to go to a special counter. It took us about one hour to get the tickets. Only 33 RMB for a two-hour train ride. (8 euro)

After this adventure it was dinnertime. We went to a restaurant across our hotel. The food was good again. After diner Diana was meeting a friend downtown for shopping. We went with her, so we saw something of the ultramodern city centre of ShangHai. We walked back and enjoyed again all the lights in the city. No rain tonight so we stayed for a while at People square. I think that ShangHai by night was the best experience for me in this city.

HangZhou

How can I describe the train ride from ShangHai to HangZhou? It is almost impossible put I will do my best to describe what happened.





We took a taxi to the railway station. We arrived 45 minutes before the departure of the train. Normally you should go somewhere for a cup of coffee but not in China. You have to go to a huge waiting room. People everywhere. Four lines of people waiting to go through the ticket check. We shove on at the end of one line. Most of the people had a lot of baggage with them. You might think that they where moving with the whole family. Half an hour before departure they open the "gate". Step by step we moved forward. After 20 minutes we came at the platform. A long train (18 carriages) was waiting. We had seats in carriage number twelve. By every door there was a person checking the tickets again. Arriving in the carriage we found out that it was already very packed. And of course someone was sitting on our seats, but this was solved very fast. In China they first sell all the seats and than they start selling more tickets but without seat number so if you have a ticket like that you have to stand the whole trip.



Most of the luggage is stored above the seats but after the second stop this was not possible anymore. It shouldn't be a problem but every 15 minutes a railway agent is passing with a trolley and than there is a problem. You should hear the agent shouting when when he is stopped by the luggage in the aisle. Really great.

I expected China to be a "dirty" country, but the opposite is reality. There is only one thing that I think they need to change and that is the way they who they coop with the toilet training of the infants. Babies don't wear napkins. The simple have a big hole in their clothes. And if a parent thinks that the baby needs to do a pee, they hang the child above the ground and the water goes everywhere. If you see this happening and I saw it happening, you add some question marks. But that's the way it goes in China.

More about the train trip. It lasted for 2.5 hour. Every time it stopped it was a swarming of people getting in and out the train. This was mostly caused by the luggage. Than of course we were a curiosity. People were staring at us the whole time. And we were watching them.

In HangZhou we took a taxi to the West lake hotel. We booked this hotel via the hotel in ShangHai. The hotel was right across the new railway station of HangZhou. After a little rest we went out, looking for the famous Xi Hu (West Lake). This is quite a big lake in the middle of the town. We walked for 30 minutes. We first things we saw at the lake were a Haagen Dass ice cream parlour and a Starbucks coffee shop. So you would say that HangZhou is developed for western tourists but this is absolute not the way it is. There are many tourists in HangZhou buy mainly Chinese tourists. For example it was hard to find a restaurant were they had an English menu. Luckily Diana travelled with us so we could explore HangZhou without difficulties.

We walked along the lake and we took some nice pictures. It is a very romantic place to be. After this we went to an Internet cafe and went for diner. The first night it was hard to find a nice, payable, restaurant. We walked along the lake again, but we only found expensive looking restaurants. Finally we went to a restaurant were 5 girls in nice purple dresses were waiting downstairs to welcome you. Upstairs there were at least 30 people to serve the food. Ridiculous much staff. But not for China. Everywhere you see to much staff comparing to the work, but the people are always working and that is a good thing.



The next day we started as usual with a breakfast. But this time it was not possible to have breakfast at the hotel so we had to go somewhere else. We took the restaurant next door. Diane asked if I would like dumplings. Not knowing what dumplings exactly where I said OK. But when I got a big bowl of soup with a lot of little shrimps in it, I thought this is not my breakfast. But of course I tried a bit. The taste wasn't bad but the thought I could not eat it. So instead I bought some biscuits at a small supermarket.

We planned to go to the Lingyin Si (Temple of the soul's retreat). According to the Lonely Planet travel guide, the main attraction of HangZhou. We took a taxi to the temple. First we took a cable car to summit of the northern peak. We were unlucky because the sky was not clear. So no-good views of the lake. So we went to the temple. It was pretty crowded. All Chinese tourist. The temple is situated in a big garden and in the garden are a lot of statues of Buddha. We walked through the garden and tried to make photos of the statues without a Chinese on the photo. Almost impossible. After this short walk we entered the temple. Seven buildings with a lot of Buddha statues in every building. One building even had 500 Buddhas in it. The Chinese visitors did a lot of praying.

For Diana this visit was a big experience. I liked the first building, the Hall of the Four heavenly guardians, the best, so colourful. For every temple you have to climb a little bit. So the highest temple is the newest. This one was very impressive too. Three enormous Buddhas in gold and blue.



It was a very warm day again. So after spending almost three hours in Lingyin Si we decided to go back to the lake again. It took us a while to get a taxi back. The ride was nice. Along the lake. Some much nice gardens. I think HangZhou is really popular for Chinese honeymoons. Diana and John-Paul went to an Internet cafe to check the e-mail. I decided to go the Starbucks to have a nice cup of coffee. Because there was no connection possible at the Internet cafe, John-Paul and Diana joined me at the Starbucks. Besides the coffee we really enjoyed the view at the lake. We ended the day with diner and we walked back to the hotel. A very well spent day again.



The next day we decided to go to the Liuhe Ta (Six Harmonies Pagoda). We had breakfast at a restaurant across the street. Better this time. I took a steamed bread role. The Chinese don't have special food for breakfast or lunch. They just eat everything. So also at this early time of the day it is possible to have a full meal. Meat, vegetables and rice of noodles. It is very special to see is how they make the noodles.

Again we took a taxi. Off course you can take a bus but, to us a taxi is not very expensive and because of the heat much more convenient. We climbed the pagoda. On the top we had a beautiful view of the river. Worth mentioning are also the paintings at the ceilings of the pagoda. If you are in HangZhou it is nice to go to this pagoda. Also because there is a nice garden where you can make charming walks through terraces dotted with sculptures, bells, shrines and inscriptions. We enjoyed the quietness in the park.



I mentioned before the temperature. Today is was again bloody hot. So we decided to go back to lake. Looking for some cooling. This time we went to Baidi causeway. This causeway and the Sudi causeway split the lake in sections. Both causeways have a number of arches bridges. Boats and water bikes can pass under. This causeway is really a touristy spot. You can rent bicycles to cross the causeway or take a boat to sail to the other side. We walked. It was nice to see all the people enjoying the lake. We were looking for a terrace at the waterfront but we ended up in a small pavilion. Resting in the shade and having a nice ice cream. We stayed there for more than an hour. We almost fell a sleep. So nice and quiet is was over there.

Our last night in HangZhou was not really different from the other nights we spent in China. We had a nice meal and we walked back to the hotel. We showed Diana the photos on the TV. That is something we did every night. To select the photos and of course to revive the day again. The sad thing about this evening was the fact that it was the last evening with Diana. We had a great time and it was nice to have a friend as guide and interpreter. Thanks Diana.

We flew from HangZhou to GuiLin. HangZhou has a very modern airport, like most of the airports in China and also the aircrafts are modern and it seemed all pretty safe. The flight was not so long. In GuiLin it was really, really hot again.





GuiLin

When we made our travel plans we didn't have the intention to stay in GuiLin. Our main goal was the boat trip from GuiLin to YangShuo over the Li Jiang. Because the boats are leaving at 09.00 am we had to spent a night in GuiLin. But this was really worthwhile. We flew from HangZhou to GuiLin. We took a China Eastern flight. Domestic Chinese flights are cheap comparing to European flights and it saves so much time. We arrived at GuiLin airport around one o'clock. Lucy, another Chinese friend, arranged transportation and an hotel. So Robert, a guide from the CITS (Chinese international travel service) picked us up. CITS is more expensive than other private tour operators or travel agents but you are sure they speak English and everything is well arranged. In GuiLin it was even warmer, so we were very happy with the air co in the car of Robert. He brought us to the Golden Elephant hotel. This hotel was right across one of the tourist highlights of GuiLin, Xiangbi Shan (Elephant Trunk Hill). Because of the heat, we decided not to do much. So we crossed the street and entered the Elephant Trunk Hill Park. We sat down at the waterfront and enjoyed watching the Chinese people at their day out in the park.

That evening we went to a marvellous show. Robert advised us to go there and this was a really good advise. We enjoyed a show full of dance and acrobatics.
Very colourful and with very powerful music. Really spectacular.

The next morning we were picked up for the boat trip to YangShuo. It was raining, so we were a little disappointed but luckily the weather changed and we had a very beautiful boat trip. It is really, really touristy. More than 50 boats make the trip every day. So it is really a queue of boats. But the surrounding around the river are so beautiful that you have to accept all the boats and all the tourists.





In 30 minutes the bus takes you to the harbour. The boat trip is around 4 hours and includes lunch. Directly from the beginning it is beautiful. You have to take pictures every minute. Not only the mountains are beautiful but it is also very nice to watch the live of the people at the river. Selling their catch at the boats, trying to sell souvenirs along the sides of the tourist boats, or a lonely farmer with one cow, sitting in the shade. I really enjoyed every minute of this trip.





YangShuo

The brother of Lucy picked us up from the boat. John-Paul stayed in 2001 in the Happy Hotel and he had a good time there so we booked a room there again. Yasmin, the owner of the Happy Hotel, was happy that John-Paul "returned" to her hotel, so she upgraded us to the honeymoon suite. Quite a luxury. We rested for approximately an hour and after this we went to explore the city.

Comparing to the other places we saw in China, YangShuo is pretty westernised. It is really well known as a backpacker's destination. It is a good place either to get used to China and prepare your self for the "real" China, or when you travelled through China, to relax and prepare your self to return to the western world. We walked to and through the West Street. West Street has plenty of restaurants and bars with nice outdoors areas and this alternates with great shops. When I saw the prices at the shops, I became very greedy. I just wanted to buy it all. So I went shopping and John-Paul went to an Internet cafe.





At six we did meet Lucy. We went for a drink and made arrangements for the next day. Lucy invited us for a bicycle tour through the country to her house in Moon Hill Village. Unfortunately Lucy had no time to stay for diner. We had diner at Cafe under the moon. A nice please at the West Street. The food was good and we really enjoyed watching the people passing by. While sitting there Annelee contacted us and joined us for a drink. Annelee is also one of John-Paul's friends who he met in 2001.



Around 24.00 we went back to the hotel. I have to mention that it is very warm in YangShuo and in the hotel. Even if you stay in the honeymoon suite. So it was difficult to sleep.

The next morning around 10.00 a.m. Lucy picked us up. We rented bikes from the store next door to the hotel. We had to bike a short way through the city. This is quite a challenge, because there are no traffic rules. YangShuo is extending fairly fast and you also see that the farmers in the fields like to take part in the possibilities the tourists bring. For example they will have a fridge/freezer with cool drinks and ice creams next to there little rice field. But luckily we still had the feeling that we were biking through authentic China. Women with a typical triangle China head working in fields or walking though the fields carrying a frame on their shoulders with a bucket on both sides.





The landscape was also great. Again lots of karst mountains everywhere. This makes the scenery very interesting. Flat fields surrounded with karst Mountains, (limestone pinnacles). After two hours we arrived at Moon Hill Village. Lucy owns a resort here, together with her brother. It was not completely finished yet, but they did start the business and they had a contract with a Dutch tour operator already. If we had more time to spend, we would definitely stay there for a couple of days.

Lucy prepared a great lunch for us. Four different choices and everything tasted superb. She also showed us her house where is lived with her parents. And we did meet her parents. Everybody was very friendly and we received a warm welcome.



After an hour we started the trip back. It was even warmer than in the morning and quite fast the beads of sweat stood on my brow. We took another way back to the city. This time we saw a lot of farmers taking their cow back home. Although I got very tired at the end, and I thought it was a bit to hot, I am really happy I made this trip. I would not have missed it for all the tea in China.

Around 4 o'clock we were back in the hotel. We really needed a shower and some rest. Around six Lucy picked us up again and we had diner at the cafe under the moon again. It was already our last night in China. So we felt a bit sad, but we are sure we will return again, because there is so more to see and of course we like to meet all our friends again.

Last days of a holiday are always strange. You know you still have a day to enjoy everything, but also you are preparing your self to leave. So it feels like a waiting day. During the morning we went back to the shops and bought some souvenirs for the family at home. Of course we spend some on an outside area of one of the bars at West Street. China was also sad that we had to leave. Lots of tears fall from heaven. So we had to shelter. Luckily it was a typical tropical shower. Without getting really wet we got back to the hotel, to pack and say goodbye.

At 16.00 hours a taxi brought us to GuiLin Airport. The trip was 1.5 hours. We had booked a flight from GuiLin to HongKong. From HongKong we flew directly to Europe. Ten days China is of course too short, but it was a great chance to get a good impression of this wonderful country and to meet our friends. I am looking forward to go back again. Hopefully in 2008, during the BeiJing Olympics.