Beijing Duck (China in Depth Tour Ends)

After a few days in the countryside we headed to the bustling city of Beijing. The entire population of Australia could fit into Beijing so as you can imagine there were people everywhere.

The first day in Beijing we went to Tian'amen Square and the Forbidden City which I had been to 1 month earlier on my first tour but I was so glad to be able to go back as the sky was blue this time and there were a few less people wandering around the Forbidden City. We walked up the hill near the Forbidden City for an AWESOME view of Beijing. Also on our first day we went on a rickshaw ride through the Hutongs. After a flying visit through the Hutongs it was onto the Temple of Heaven which was AWESOME. As evening was approaching we saw the Olympic Bird's Nest and the Water Cube.

The next day we were up early for a 3 hour drive out to the Jinshanling section of The Great Wall of China. We hiked about 7 km of the 6000km long wall which took us about 3 hours. Again I was so glad to be able to go back as there was no haze and you could see the wall stretch for miles over the mountains.......AWESOME :)

This evening was our last night on the tour and we went out for Beijing Duck....doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Peking Duck, does it? Anyway, being a vegetarian I did not enjoy this tradtional dish of Beijing but Jacki said it was AWESOME!!!

After 2 very busy days our last day in Beijing was spent at the Summer Palace. This a massive area with a man-made lake and what do you do with all the dirt you dig out to make a lake? That's right you make a hill beside it and build a temple and call it the Summer Palace.

We ended our stay in Beijing with the traditional Haagen Daaz.....Dolce de Leche, mmmmm.

Stay tuned for my next adventure in South America.

Pandas, Pandas Everywhere

Good news no change in our itinerary and we were able to catch the train to Chengdu. Just as well, cause Jacki and I were keen to visit the Pandas again (awh!!! they are so cute). With the weather being cooler we had more opportunity to see more Pandas (300 photos later).

Think this is the first time during our holidays that we were almost happy for the rainy weather cause this allowed for more Pandas to come out and play.

Unfortunatlly this is only a short visit in Chengdu. Next we visit the Sichuan Countryside.

Xi'an - Again!!

Back in Xi'an and lucky enough to be staying in the same hotel. I guess you could call me a local now. :) hee hee

With a second visit to the Terracotta Warriors I was just as excited and amazed at these clay/terracotta statues. This time the farmer that discovered the site was signing books.

After a long day at the warriors time to go and have a dinner of dumplings (see some are shaped like fish) and then a Tang Dynasty Show.

We took the opportunity with short time we had to visit the Great Mosque in the Muslim Quarter, Bell & Drum Tower and a night visit to see the water/light show (in the rain) at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. A cycle around the Xi'an city wall was cancelled due to bad weather (that's right we don't want another spill like in Shaolin do we Jacki :) hee hee).

We are scheduled to make a train journey to Chengdu but.... with mud slides and the bridges collapsing. There is talk of a re-routing of our journey.

Will keep you posted.

Rain, Rain Go Away!!!

Back on the road and we are now making our way to the Longmen Grottoes, where more than 100,000 Buddha images were carved into the side of a mountain some 1,500 years ago.

Such an AWESOME site well it could have been, that is if it just did not start raining. :( We all make a mad dash for cover. 10 minutes later the weather does not appear to be clearing, instead it is getting worse. We all still need to make our way back to the tour bus, Ummm ... its to far to make a run for it all the way back to the bus, instead we make a run to the Grottoes golf car service. Who would have thought that running 200 meters in torrential rain would create the appearance of someone that had been for a swim in the river fully clothed (I guess the wet look is back in fashion).

Todays visit to the Grottoes was short, sweet and wet.

Now time to dry off have a good nights sleep cause we have another day of rain (opps!!! train) travel to Xi'an.

Its raining its falling!

The weather starts to take a turn for the worse. With a heavy down pour of rain as we departed from Shanghai railway station, the group still appeared optimistic in the hope that the rain would pass before we arrived to Shaolin.

Rain stopped which gave us the opportunity to walk through and explore the Wushu Institute, Monastery and Temple. We were lucky enough to catch a Kung Fu demonstration by some of the highly talented students that attend the Wushu (Kung Fu) School. There are also a number of kids (students) training all around the Institute. This demonstration was not enough we wanted more. We were advised that the Institute has a early morning (5:30am wake-up) group training for all students.

Yawn!!! 5:30am wake up and really wanting to sleep in (some things just don't change). We get out side and it looks like its going to rain again. So Jacki thought better to be safe then sorry ran to get her rain jacket and Opps!!! slipped and fell with a thud. With a quick clean up and a band-aid on her knee we were ready to walk to the outdoor group training area only to find it was called off due to it being to slippery and dangerous. Good news is the rain held off - Sorry Jacki guess you did not need to run back (slip) and get your rain jacket (it does how ever make for a good story).


After seeing the demonstration yesterday and missing out on viewing the training this morning the group was keen to get down and dirty and learn some Kung Fu first hand. I now have a new found respect for the art of Kung Fu. Watch out if you do something wrong in class this could be your punishment for 30min each leg.

Next stop Luoyang (We can only hope this rainy weather goes away)

Shanghai

Well a new mode of transport was in order and well over due. We now fly from Chengdu to Shanghai Yay!!!! Its not all good news our flight in Chengdu was delayed by 30 - 45 min when we arrived in Shanghai all excited in the hope to catch the Maglev - the worlds fastest train in China (some say the World). We found out that the Maglev stops at 9:30pm and yep you guessed it that is when we arrived so we just missed it. Dam! I was looking forward to a 8-10 min speedy transfer to the city centre, guess I will have to settle for a taxi ride for 20 - 25 min. eh!!! We got to the hotel in time for dinner and a good rest ready for the next few days ahead in AWESOME Shanghai.

First things first a quick orientation tour of Shanghai and a walk to the Bund. On the ferry to the other side of the river to go up the Jin Mao Tower, Umm... OK View but very expensive drinks. eerrr!!! I will just have 1 Coca-Cola please.... AU$20 later (So we did not return to this place). Time to see what else the city had to offer and need to make our way back to the other side of the river, this appeared to the best time to travel along the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. Don't let the name fool you there is nothing sightseeing about it. Just a long Tunnel with a laser light show thing???? (I could only hope this was not the best thing Shanghai has to offer). After walking around the city in the heat and humidity it was time to get back to the hotel to get ready to see Shanghai best perform some acrobatics (as you can see some awesome tricks were shown!!! - Jacki lets go again)



As you can see we made the most of day 1 in Shanghai and it did not stop there. Here is a list of all the other sights that we went a visited. Nanjing Road, Yuyuan Gardens, Jade Buddha Temple, Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Longhua Pagoda & Temple, Shanghai Old Street, Jing'an Temple all this and more ..... Lucky the subway is so easy and cheap to travel on.

Now time to leave and catch the train to Shaolin. (Some heavy clouds are forming I hope it does not rain)

Black and White!

Chengdu is the next stop on this busy China itinerary. Before I start to explore the city and all it has to offer I need .... yes I need to go and visit the Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding Centre. With this Centre having approx 50 giant and red pandas, my chances of seeing pandas moving around their enclosure was high. Good news we got to see 4 pandas moving around and having breakfast, we were also lucky enough to see some red pandas getting fed.

Awe!!!! they are so cute. Do you think I can take one home.

With Chengdu being one of the biggest cities in China you can only imagine the large list of things that I need to tick off. First stop time for lunch at the Wenshu Temple for a vegetarian meal (who would of thought you could get a tofu in the shape of a fish). Time to walk off the lunch and make my way to the People's Park, on the way I stopped off at the City (Culture) Square where there is a giant Mao statue on display. Now just one final thing was to do and that was to experience a traditional night at the Sichuan Opera (Ummm... not a lot of singing at this Opera).

What has a grey sky and brown water?

What has a grey sky and brown water? Yangzi River

So expectations were dashed, due to a pollution/humidity haze and brown water.

We got on to our cruiser late evening and slept through most of the 3-4 hour time it takes for the ship to travel through the Dam Locks. I make my way to the top deck and we are in the 2nd last lock and just in time have the gates open.

Once we made it through the locks we docked and got off for a half day tour to the Dam, to get a closer look at the amazing engineering efforts.

The next few days allowed us to relax as we cruised through the Three Gorges and absorbed some breath taking views.

We enjoyed the cruise and the views but felt if we had blue sky and cleaner water we could have enjoyed it that much more.

Yangshuo

So after another overnight train we make it to Guilin ready to catch the bus for approx 1.5 hrs to Yangshuo where we will spend the next few days.

With a quick walking orientation tour of the town I felt like a local in no time. With only a small number of days in the town and so much scenery to see we set off to start exploring. First stop was a "bamboo raft" (others may call it PVC piping). down the Li River. I cant think of any better way to enjoy a few hours of relaxation.

Don't worry I was not relaxing all the time after a stressful time walking through the markets and seeing what this town had to offer, we did a 25km bike ride. This bike ride gave a good insight into the rual Chinese life. We did stop for lunch and did out best to recover as quick as we could. Hard to recover quickly when you have just done a 15km in 36 C heat/humidity.

The night had just has much to offer as the day. We spent our night in style watching a outdoor show staged by the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony director, a very unique and spectacular show.

Again we pack up our bags but this time we are heading for the Yangzi River.

Hong Kong & Macau

Hong Kong
Day 1 was a day of waiting for me as I sat around waiting for Jacki to arrive. I could only hope that nothing went wrong with her flights (OK! so you all know that she arrived safe and sound).

Jacki arrived at the hotel at approximately 2pm (Hong Kong Time). There was no time for a shower or relaxation before our tour introduction meeting at 6pm. Bags were dropped in the room and we headed right for the Subway to visit the Big Buddha and some lunch. Good news was it was a clear day and nothing but time was against us. As we rushed through this AWESOME site and through down some lunch it was now time to head back to the hotel for our meeting. OK so we did not make it to the hotel right on 6pm, but what’s 45 min between friends.

Macau
Day 2 – No rest for the wicked and we were on the move making our way to the ferry to Macau. What I would call the Las Vegas of Asia. We got to watch a few free shows and check out the local sites. Sorry Jacki but no time to eat the famous local treats, Portuguese Egg Tart.

Day 3 – Is a day of travelling as we leave Macau behind and make our way to Guilin & Yanshou by train. This train journey took approx 10 – 12 hours. So I am no stranger to long train rides but always amazed as the train stations and the way people act in new situations. Umm interesting.

We are now in Yanshou (China)

Awesome Adventure #2 - China in Depth

Second journey through China has already started. I am now travelling along the coast of China.

Starting in Hong Kong and making my way to Beijing. This trip will include Boats, Trains and Planes. I am sure you cant wait to hear all about the amazing (oh!!! Sorry AWESOME) things I get up to.

Good news I am not alone on this trip, my sister Jacki will be joining me on this wild adventure.

Here is a copy of the tour map we should be following.