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Tips For The Independent Traveler
My one-month trip to China was extremely interesting and surprisingly easy.
I will not be very original if I say that China is like a different planet. I saw things that are so different from the many places on earth I have seen.
I did not mind the rather poor accommodations in some places, rough
travel conditions in others, nor the generally poor hygiene and cleanliness.
This is part of the package, as is the different pace of life there.
Lack of information and communication difficulties can make things difficult and frustrating, or interesting and challenging, depending on how you look at it. Coping with these difficulties, and trying to overcome the language and cultural barriers required creativity and patience, and was much fun.
I found the Chinese people I met very willing to help. They typically did it in fluent Chinese.
As a foreigner or a stranger, and one that does not look native, I got many reactions to my presence, first and foremost from kids, and they were all positive. Wherever I went I felt comfortable. There was never (except once) any hostility or anger or any negative reaction. I found the Chinese people I met either indifferent (more in the big cities) or friendly (more in the villages and remote places). In some cases people, I guess, felt embarrassed, but in most cases when I smiled or waved, I got a friendly reaction. In fact I often saw the locals happy and smiling. I cannot recall seeing Chinese people angry or impatient towards each other. They seem to be mostly easy-going and tolerant.
I felt very secure wherever I went. Seeing everywhere peddlers and bus drivers with stacks of bills in their hands, with no fear, makes you feel secure. Yes they did quote sky-high prices in many cases, expecting to make a quick profit or bargain, but they were honest. Never cheated in change, and they did or sold whatever had been agreed upon. I could always go back and change my mind, even after money and goods had changed hands.
Traveling in China isn’t safe, because drivers keep trying to kill you, and because there are uncovered pits, open unprotected water channels along pavements, steep stairs with no railings, and many low things to bump your head against.
On many occasions people pushed hard when I was in their way, touched me repeatedly when they were trying to aggressively sell something, blew smoke in my face, stared at me, or peeped with unrestrained into any book or piece of written material I had in my hand. This is not being impolite. It is a different culture, and one has to accept it if one is to be in China and enjoy it.
I certainly did, and hope to return for more.
Fri, 28/11/03
Took an evening El-Al flight to Beijing. Arrived at 4 PM to the cold city. Long wait for the luggage and a 100-Yuan (Y) taxi ride to the Novotel Xinqiao hotel. A very nice hotel at ~ 77 USD a night.
Sat, 29/11/03
A walk in the cold morning to Tiananman Square and north all along the Forbidden City. Nothing too impressive IMHO.
Walked into the Jewelry Exhibition and the Clock Museum, which were quite dull.
A coffee and a cheese cake (yes, in China, where you “can not find dairy products”) in Starbucks (located in the middle of the Forbidden City) and out through the north gate, where you have many “Nudniks” – those peddlers or guides, or anyone who is trying aggressively to sell you something and won’t give up. They block your way, surround you, shove their goods under your nose, pull your arm and say “ looka looka”.
Saying no, waving your hands, ignoring them, crying out loud, cursing in your mother tongue does not help. They are tough. Bu-Yao (don’t want) does magic. The idea that you “speak” their language is so funny that they laugh and let you off the hook.
Took a Rickshaw – (3-seat bicycle “taxi” on a one-hour tour of Hutung.
The driver wanted 120Y, got 70, which later I realized was far too much.
Hutung is an “untouched” poorish quarter of Beijing, immediately north of the Forbidden City. A chance to look at a spot which is not a real tourist attraction. People there were nice. If you smile or say hello, or “Nee How”, they respond amicably, although you can hardly communicate.
In Hutung I had the first encounter with Chinese public toilets (most locals will know what WC means).
Many Chinese “WCs” are very sociable places. You sit or actually bend above a hole or a slot in the floor together with your new Chinese friends. No doors, and in many cases no partitions whatsoever. Side by side with a group of complete strangers before you walked in, now a close intimate party, bonded by a powerful overwhelming experience.
In many of these attractive sites you’ll find no running water, and paper is unheard of.
When you walk out of a Chinese public (and many other) toilets, you will never be the same person again, having been through a personality forging experience and taking with you unforgettable memories of the overwhelming odor
A long walk through the very cold city from Hutung to the hotel, feeding on dried persimmons.
Sun, 30/11/03
Followed Lonely Planet (LP) instructions and toured the Great Wall in Huanghua. The instructions were accurate.
Took the underground to Dongzhimen station and then bus 916 to Huairou.
From there, instead of taking a minibus for a round trip (60Y), negotiated an 80Y trip to Huanghua and then to the Ming Graves. The verbal contract with the driver included a non-smoking clause. The trip to Huanghua was my first encounter with Chinese driving style. This style requires bumpy narrow roads, overloaded with trucks, bicycles, playing kids, donkeys, farmers slaughtering a cow and what have you.
The driver is required to press the gas pedal down as far as it goes, and to overtake any obstacle on the road, regardless of the oncoming traffic. The use of brakes should be avoided at all costs. Instead, the driver should blow his horn continuously.
The journey went well. We only hit a German Shepherd dog to the enormous amusement of the chauffeur, who could not stop turning back to me with a big smile on his face, saying “dogu dogu” again and again.
The 4 km snowy Great Wall was a real chilly experience, following LP to the letter.
After it, the driver was more than happy to drop me off at the Ming Graves site, and go home (had to help him with navigation, as he was not very good at it).
I wanted to see the “7 km long road” leading to the graves, which is described in LP. When I found out that this road had become a closed site, where you had to pay to get in, it was already getting dark, so I took a public bus to go back to Beijing. In this one-hour long ride, I found out that a trained Chinese passenger could spit in a very crowded bus, without hitting anyone. What can you expect from a 1 HR ride for 2Y ?
I did not want to spend more time in Beijing. The weather was cold, and I wanted to the see the real China, outside the big gray city.
I bought a (discounted) 970Y Hainan Air ticket to Kunming in the travel agency in the hotel.
Also changed some traveler cheques in the hotel. The rate was exactly the same as in the airport.
Mon, 1/12/03
100Y and an early morning taxi got me within 45 minutes to Beijing airport. The airport is very much like any other western airport. Very clean, efficient, mostly non-smoking, but with high airport tax (50Y).
The flight was very pleasant. A new plane, very organized, clean and tidy. The service was quick, and passengers quiet and polite.
There was a certain ceremony which I did not quite get. It looked like an auction. One stewardess was talking to the passengers, using the loudspeaker. Some passengers responded by hand signals which were repeated by staff standing in the isles, communicating the signals to the talking stewardess.
The Kunming area looks reddish from above because of the rich clay soil.
A taxi (15Y as LP quotes) to the famous Camellia hotel ,which was my first encounter with non – fancy Chinese hotels. It maybe a high-level hotel for backpackers, but low quality (1 star?) to those who are used to hotels and not dormitories.
A walk through the Kunming center left me with a very nice impression. Nice weather, clear sky, friendly people, and no Nudniks like in Beijing. A nice change.
The main streets in the city look very western (and they do have Kentucky Fried Chicken. LP was not updated on this vital information). The different, more Chinese if you would, character of Kunming is evident in the areas remote from the center, and in the Pets Market and Food Market. In the Pet Market you have pets ( birds, fish, cockroaches) and many other things you can expect in a market. Unlike in Beijing, people here did not expect to bargain. Again, a nice change.
The food market is actually a street with “restaurants” which serve food to match the local taste, in establishments that leaves a lot to be desired. Some of the cooking is done on the street.
A dinner at Mama-Fu (LP).
Tue, 2/12/03
Rented a bike ( 2Y per hour + 400Y !!! deposit ) from a shop located at the very entrance to the Camellia hotel. Took a ride north to the Golden Pagoda. A 90 min ride ( and walking some slopes alongside my bike ).
Paid the mandatory entrance fees and toured the site for a while. Overall quite nice.
Back to the Camellia hotel, downhill, went much faster.
Wed, 3/12/03
Took a taxi from the Camellia to a bus station north of the railway station, where minibuses to Shilin (Stone Forest) can be found in the morning. Paid 20Y and I am on the bus waiting for it to fill up. 8:30 and we are off on the 86 km drive.
After an hour or so, the bus stops at a large shop which sells items made of jade.. A quick “90 second hold your breath” visit to the toilets, and another 45 minutes waiting for the Chinese tourists to finish their shopping. Another hour went by, and the bus stops at a temple of some sort. Another 45 minutes gone, and we are back on the road. A short drive and we stopped for lunch. At this point, a young French speaking couple expressed their anger out loud. Even some Chinese tourists aboard showed some weak signs of rebellion, all in vain.
To my relief, the people who went to eat came back after 2 minutes. The restaurant could not feed them for some reason. The relief was short. After another short drive and, only 2 km away from Shilin, they found another restaurant. 5 minutes of photographing the Sany ladies selling hand crafted souvenirs, and another 40 minutes of waiting.
When we finally got to Shilin, it was 12:30. The sun was high in the sky – the kind of light which washes all the colors off your pictures.
Walked away from the crowds into the wilder area, were there were no tourists, grass lawns nor ponds. A 4- hour long walk in this very unique scenery. Ended my walk at the adjacent Bai village, which was different and interesting.
When I got back to the bus parking, it was empty and deserted. All the tourist buses and minibuses had left. I asked some locals (meaning I said Kunming and pointed to the word in my notepad) and they pointed the way. I could even understand that I should walk about 2 km. One young lady said that I have to take bus number ninety-seven. To be sure, I asked her to write it down in my magic notepad, and she wrote 87. So after long enquiries I knew I had to walk 2 km to a near junction, and take bus 87 to Kunming. Presto.
Half an hour walk, asked again, waited a while, and got on a bus to Kunming with some groceries I bought on the corner to survive. It was totally dark outside.
I wish I had known about bus 87 in the morning, saving me a lot of time and frustrations.
Thu, 4/12/03
Went to Xishan. Bus number 5 from the
Camellia to its last stop. From there bus number 6 to its last stop (Gao Yao) as described in LP. A few more Yuans for a
minibus up to Long Men.
Took the cable car to the top of the
hill and walked all the way down back to Gao Yao,
and back to Kunming by bus.
Had a late lunch in the vegetarian restaurant recommended by LP (which is opposite to the Buddhist temple, not 2 buildings west, as LP says). Collected my luggage from the Camellia and went to the train station by taxi.
A couple of days earlier , I had bought a 131Y soft-sleeper ticket for the 21:16 k722 train to Dali. It was my first experience with a Chinese train, boarding it with thousands of others.
After walking for 20 minutes or so with my luggage, I got to the train. The computer-printed ticket showed the car number and bed number. All very organized smooth and clean. The little cabin with the 4 beds, 2 at the bottom and 2 above, even had a “no smoking” sign in it. The cabin was a little small and crowded but ok.
Washed a little in the “bathroom” at the end of the car, and went to sleep when the loudspeakers became silent. At 4:30 am, one hour before arrival, the loudspeakers went on again, with this charming Chinese folk music.
Got off the train, and took a taxi to the Jinhua Dajiudian hotel (LP).
Only then I realized that the train did not stop in Dali but in Xiangyun and the train ride was not going to be a cheap one (45Y).
Fri, 5/12/03
Got to the Jinhua Dajiudian hotel at 6 am and woke the receptionist up. She told me that the hotel was fully booked, and she’ll have a room for me only at 10 am.
I strolled the very dark and very cold streets to find an alternative, but couldn’t find a reasonable one. At around 7 am the receptionist informed me that she’ll have a room for me soon (150Y). The hot shower and a short sleep was very welcome after the night in the train.
Had breakfast at the sunny 2nd floor of Marley’s (LP).
Took a bus (4Y) to Xizhou, a village of the Bai minority, about 18 km north of Dali. An interesting short trip and walk to see village life. Walking the village streets I came across an interesting funeral ceremony.
Went back to Dali, had a coffee and a good brownie in the Sunshine café (LP) and then spent some time in the colorful dynamic, yet very commercial and touristic Dali.
Sat, 6/12/03
A nice one hour morning walk to the lake. Nice photography opportunities under the warm morning light and the farmers and fields along the way. Arrived at a small harbor of twenty or more “tourist boats” and many locals who urge you to go for a “Cormorant fishing trip”. I didn’t. Horse and carriage trip back to old Dali (2Y) and another coffee at the Marley’s, this time with excellent brownies from a bakery just next to my hotel.
Bought a 30Y minibus ticket from the ticket office located between the bakery and my hotel, checked out, and took the 11:30 am minibus to Lijiang. The minibus was fine, the road was quite good, and the driver did not try to kill his passengers. The minibus even had a small “no smoking” sign inside. As in other cases, when I asked the smokers politely, they stopped smoking.
About 10 km south of Heqin I started seeing very picturesque Naxi villages, with their nice unique architecture surrounded by green terraced fields. Closer to Lijiang, after we drove by the airport which is about 25km south of the town, I saw such villages again.
I arrived at Lijiang after about 3 hours drive, and had a long walk with my luggage to find a reasonable heated hotel. Eventually found one for 200Y per night.
Sun, 7/12/03
I started at sunrise at the nice Black Dragon park. Paid the 20Y entrance fee, while locals just walked in free. The park was rather small and very nice. Very good site for photography, even more so in the early morning light and snowy mountains in the background.
Later I spent many hours in the pleasant old Lijiang. It is very clean, organized, colorful and dynamic. It is full of shops, many of which offer hand made goods. Many of the goods (leather work, paintings, embroidery, wood carving and more) were very original and unique. In many shops you can see the artist or crafts person working in the shop.
At night, the lit old town looks different and very appealing.
I found out that a clean guesthouse (70Y) is more pleasant than a run-out hotel.
Mon, 8/12/03
I left my hotel ( not before paying 140Y for laundry ) and moved to the “Blue Moon Valley Inn”, run by Sam who speaks some English. Very rare here.
Had a nice 16Y breakfast at the Sakura coffee shop (LP) and took a bus which goes to the airport (10Y from one of the 2 CAAC ticket offices) for a trip which does not appear on LP. The bus goes towards the airport, leaving Lijiang on a wide road going south and gets to a toll booth. About two kilometers after the toll booth you see a magnificent green terraced valley with 3 Naxi villages spotting it. This is where I asked the driver to stop (and he did although it is a “direct” bus) and got off. Walking downhill along the main road I found one of many narrow footpaths, going down to the villages. Starting from the village nearest to the main road, I spent the next 4 hours walking in the villages, from village to village. It was a very pleasant experience. Warm day, blue sky, very special architecture of the Naxi buildings, very friendly people, and amazingly nice green terraces.
The Naxi buildings are made of blocks made of the local soil, which gives them a unique look and the colors of the soil in the area (some of it yellow, and some reddish clay soil). It also has nicely shaped roofs made of dark black roof tiles.
The village itself presented some very nice photography opportunities.
The nice green terraces slit with streams, channels and rivers. The nice people, especially kids, were a nice surprise.
The kids, a bit shy at first, enjoyed being photographed. I bought a handful of candies and gave it to the kids who came forward to be photographed. The kids were delighted with this the whole new experience and the candies. Many came back to be photographed again. After the first few attempts, the word spread in the villages, and kids, and even more so moms and some fathers with their kids, were waiting wherever I went to have the young princes photographed.
Most adults were also very friendly. The looked a bit indifferent at first, but when I smiled and said hello, they always responded with a smile, hello, or a gesture.
Some adults also enjoyed being photographed. Others refused.
After a long walk, and 3 rolls of film, I climbed back to the main road and stopped a crowded minibus back to Lijiang’s south bus stop. The driver wanted 5Y. Gave him 1Y and he was satisfied.
In the bus station I approached the information desk and to my surprise managed to get some answers, communicating with basic English, LP, my map and my notepad.
The notepad is an essential communication aid. In it you ask the hotel staff or any English speaking Chinese to write down in an orderly fashion the list of places, buses, stops, sites, etc, which you plan for the day.
In this pad you collect Chinese words you need for existence (market, one way, last stop, mineral water….the list grows every day).
Some Chinese people can read some English, and also write, but find it more difficult to speak or understand. So it may go like this:
You show your destination on a map or LP (the Chinese name of course), point on the word bus in LP, write down the required date in your pad (03/12/16 – is 16th of December 2003 the way the write it in China). In return, the lady over the counter will (hopefully) write in your pad a list of departure times. You signal with your fingers the universal gesture for money or show her a bill, and she’ll write down the price.
You say Xie-Xie (pronounced Shay – Shay) and she is happy, and you are happy.
Tue,9/12/03
At 7:15 am I was already in the south bus station of Lijiang. I bought a 12Y ticket and boarded bus number 21 to Qia-Tou, on my way to the Leaping Tiger Gorge. The ticket was printed with date, bus number, seat number and time. I was assigned seat number 3, at the front of the bus. There were only 5 passengers at this early morning time. The guy smoked, but when I asked him to stop, he did. His wife kept opening the window, clearing her throat and spitting out.
First thing you hear when you are in a public place in China is CHHHHHHHH…
The roaring deep sound of someone clearing his throat. A deep sound which sounds like it came from someone with a serious lung disease. Then a pause. He or she is looking for the proper target while preparing the dose to be delivered. This is the right time to take shelter. And then it comes: “ptuiiii a juicy spit.
I got off the bus at Qia-Tou after 3 hours of freezing on the bus, and took the higher trail of the Leaping Tiger Gorge.
Simple hand-drawn effective maps are available at Lijiang’s coffee shops (get one at the Delta).
Climbed 2 hours to Nuo-Yu village, and another 3 exhausting hours up the “24” (actually more) bends. It was not an easy climb.
About an hour and a half after the peak, I arrived at Ya Cha village and stayed at the Tea Horse guesthouse (10Y per night). (There are many more guesthouses on the trek than in LP).
The guesthouse which was empty at first, became full, so the lady running it (calls herself Mama Naxi) slaughtered a chicken for dinner.
The guesthouse had a shower and toilets in a separate small hut, and water heated on wood. I had my first experience of using the toilets in a team..
Wed, 10/12/03
Had breakfast in the Tea Horse and left. The Tea Horse and the Naxi lady running it were very nice.
On my way down I stopped for a coffee at the Half-Way guesthouse (which is run by Chinese, not Naxi).
A three and a half hour- walk brought me back down to the main road (by Tina’s guesthouse) which is actually the lower trail.
The views at the gorge were nice, but the visibility was not. As I am not a trekking freak, but a keen photographer, the trek was not what I expected.
15Y got me back to Qia-Tou cramped with 5 more passengers in a little car. Another 15Y and 2 hour- ride got me back to Lijiang just in time for a nice dinner.
The ride was a bone- breaking experience in a micro-van loaded with cargo and passengers. The good news was that they did not smoke.
Thu, 11/12/03
I went to a CAAC office and bought a 420Y flight ticket to Kunming, and a 40% discounted ticket from Kunming to Guilin (440Y) for tomorrow.
Had a nice breakfast in the Sakura (my 4th meal there) and headed to take the Shanghai airlines FM452 14:00 flight to Kunming. The flight was fine, apart from a delay of half an hour. Kunming was cloudy and gray this time. I checked into the Cungcheng hotel (about as bad as the Camellia for half the price – 98Y), did some shopping, had a Big Mac for a change, and called it a day.
Fri, 12/12/03
Got up before 6 am, checked out of the lovely hotel, and took a taxi to the airport. The baggage compartment of the taxi was out of order and stayed open all along the journey, and one of the fenders dropped midway, but we made it.
Check-in and security were fast and efficient as in my previous experiences with Chinese airports. In all three internal flights I took, I asked that my handbag, full of exposed and unexposed films, be hand-searched and not scanned. In all cases the security staff gladly did so.
Every time I went through an airport, I had to pay the high (50Y) airport fee. The airport fee was even more expensive than a cup of coffee at the airport (30Y compared to 5-8Y in Lijiang or Dali).
Took the CAAC minibus from Guilin airport to the city and walked to the bus station to take a minibus to Yangshou. As soon as I stepped out of the airport bus, many nudniks started offering and pushing minibus tickets to Yangshou for 20Y. When I got closer to the bus station the price went down to 15Y. Finally I bought it on the bus for 10Y. Driving out towards Yangshou, Guilin looked dirty, messy, poor and ugly.
After an hour or so in the jumpy minibus, crowded with many smokers and some passengers who smelled of beer, it arrived at Yangshou bus station. Walking around to look for accommodation, I had a party of about 10 ladies, armed with photos, offering me accommodation solutions, and wouldn’t let go.
The Jinye Fandian (Golden Leaves hotel) merged with Hauyuan Fandian (Yangshou Youth Hostel) which offered nice spacious heated and clean rooms, with a shower, for 60Y per night. I took one.
Everything in Yangshou and Guilin was under a heavy haze. The visibility was very poor. Local people told me that this is always the case in wintertime. A great disappointment for a photographer. Is the hot summer any better?
I came across Light Travel travel agency. Bill, the manager, is also a photographer and he organizes photography trips. Bill was very helpful. Light Travel is located at 95 West St. Yangshou,
Sat, 13/12/03
Had an early morning walk to see if the visibility was any better at dorm. It wasn’t. Rented a bike and chose a bike track from one of the maps. Rode through the countryside and villages for 6 hours. I did not follow the planned track (got a bit lost) but it didn’t really matter. It is nice everywhere. Driving along the river I came across a cormorant fisher, with his birds on his bamboo boat. He wasn’t fishing (they fish at night) but was willing to let me take some pictures.
I also came across some local people preparing a meal in the field. A chicken, well packed in mud baked in open fire. It actually looked like a mud block in a fire.
Visibility was poor all day long.
Back in Yangshou I had a nice duck dish in Lisa’s hotel for dinner, and changed money in the Bank of China. The exchange rate is fixed. In all the exchanges I made, be it in China Bank or hotels, I always got the exact same amount.
Sun, 14/12/03
Had breakfast and rented a bike again from Jack who runs the Youth Hostel.
Took a bus, with the bike to Xingping (10Y). The driver loaded the bike onto the roof of the bus. Rode all the way back to Yangshou. The ride was along the main paved road, and was not very interesting. People were not as friendly as the day before, when I rode through the countryside and more remote villages. As always, I carried with me my photography gear and some water. Food was never a problem. One can always find someone who sells fruits or something.
Today I went into a local grocery shop, which was on my way. Bought water, and few things to eat. I bought 3 different things, 14Y altogether, hoping that at least one would be edible . They were all fine).
Riding from Xingping to Yangshou, I heard ,twice , many “gunshots” or firework explosions. I guess these were the locals making gun powder as described in LP.
Visibility was still poor. Very poor.
Had a very good dinner at Mickey Mao’s (LP).
Mon, 15/12/03
I am in the bus station, on the bus to Guilin. Jack from the Youth Hostel told me that while buses to Guilin cost 10Y, an express bus is available for the outrageous fee of 13Y. The express bus is very clean, air-conditioned and of course non-smoking. The driver of the bus parked right next to the express bus just finished half of his morning sandwich. The other half with its bag was immediately thrown out the window.
This morning, before boarding the bus, I asked a seller how to say “good morning” in Chinese. I got a puzzled look in return. Tried again to explain, and demonstrated my question. Eventually she seemed to grasp it and said : “8 o’clock” .
Later I found out from Jack that good morning is something like “Chao Shang Ho”.
The Youth Hostel was real good value for money. Large spacious rooms, clean, heated, good bed for a change, all for 60Y. Jack who runs the place is on jackguilin@21cn.com, and mobile 13558436590.
The TV on the bus is on. It plays a full Karaoke poem, which is all an advertisement for ICQ, with 2 animated figures and lots of “I miss you” and “I love you”.
The express bus also had a stewardess, which serves mineral water and thanked the passengers for using it, when the journey was over.
Checked into the first hotel I saw after walking out of Guilin’s bus station. Tai He (?) – 200Y off the season price for the suite.
Took bus number 3 to go to Ludi Yan stalactite cave. Off-season entry fee was 40Y.
The cave was nice. Similar to many other such caves around the world, and offers some nice photography opportunities.
On the bus, going to the cave, I discovered the northern part of Guilin. The area north of the bus station, along the main road (Zhongshan, Zhonglu ) looks very modern. A modern city center along the Lijiang river. Very pleasant and much nicer than the areas I saw going from Guilin to Yangshou.
Had a very hot chili dish for dinner, Sichuan style, in Yiyuan Fandian (LP). In the menu they also had “Whole crap cooked in Sichuan style”.
I made some inquiries in the train station and the bus station to plan my next steps, and bought a 16Y express bus ticket to go to Longsheng tomorrow morning.
Tue, 16/12/03
Less than 2 -hour ride on the express bus from Guilin to Longsheng.
I looked into the Riverside Hotel (LP). A very basic yet reasonable accommodation for “20Y a bed” with a shower next to the toilet or in some rooms above it.
I crossed the bridge and saw the “Longsheng Hotel” (not in LP. Tel 0773-7517718) which looked new.
The rooms were nice, relatively clean, heated and new indeed. Checked in for 150Y (off season discounted).
It had a sign by the bed saying: “ please pull in case of safety when you go to bed” !
In all the hotels I have been to, even the basic ones, I always got disposable “bathing slippers”, tooth brush, toothpaste, and a comb. There was also always a hot water thermos available (all with the very same shape and size).
Took a minibus (4Y) to go to Longji Titian, with the nice rice terraces. The minibus was a typical local one. Picking passengers up and letting passengers off everywhere. Midway it went into Heping and stopped in its narrow market street. All the people on the bus, including the driver and the driver’s assistant (in most cases a lady, which I found on every Chinese bus or minibus, collecting money, and dealing with the passengers) got off and went shopping. First one came back after 15 minutes or so, with a live chicken in a plastic bag, its head sticking out from one hole, and legs from another. He left the chicken in the bus, and went back to the mall.
One by one all passengers came back with their shopping. Then the driver started his bus and drove from one stall to the next, loading all the sacks that his passengers bought. Door to door service.
Eventually after an hour or so, filled with passengers, livestock, and sacks of goods, the bus drove on. After 1 kilometer or so, the bus stopped again. The road was blocked by a truck. The truck was trying to load an asphalt roller, but there was no ramp for it.
It took a complex improvised engineering operation to load it before we could continue. The minibus passed the ticket office (no fees collected this time) and went toward Tiger Mountain. I got off at Jinjiang and climbed for 40 minutes or so towards Longji Titian, and then to Pingan and then back down to the road at Huanglo.
My entire route went through the unique rice terraces. Whole mountains turned into rice terraces, with different shapes and sizes. Every little piece of land, be it 50 cm wide, is turned into a rice field. Every terrace, whether big or small is watered. The whole area is gridded with water supply channels and bamboo water pipes.
Although the colors were dull brownish winter colors, the scenery was very special. The visibility was still very poor. I will have to go back when visibility is good, and the colors are vivid.
The women of the local minority (Dong) have very long hair, which is typically all combed up on their heads, covered with colorful hats (I saw yellow and cyan hats). It seemed that the women were better groomed than those I saw in other places in China. Some of them were very willing to be photographed. I had an incident where a woman offered to be photographed, and after I did, asked for money.
Wed, 17/12/03
I took a morning walk through the market of Longsheng, near the hotel. It was a very colorful, educational and very different experience. The market was full of goods of many different kinds, with different colors, shapes and smells.
The first thing I saw was fruit and vegetables everywhere. The fruit I ate in China was very good: apples, pears (which look more like a roundish yellow apple), Litchi, tangerines, oranges, banana, watermelons, and more. These are offered at every corner, and very cheap. Also widely available on the streets, are baked potatoes or pumpkins, and in some places chestnuts. In Kunming as well as in this market and some other places, I saw a fruit which looks like a big chestnut. When they take the dark brown peel off there is an off-white fruit inside, with a taste which has some characteristics of a coconut. It is called Mar Tai or something.
When I went deeper into the market, I discovered the livestock, or what used to be livestock. This was not always a pleasant sight. Caged chicken and ducks, and live fish and sea creatures in water tanks, were quite common.
One can also see there small pigs, dogs, pigeons, pheasant and more. These can be frequently seen in markets, and in front of restaurants offering them).
In the market there were many small stalls offering different body parts of different animals. I saw pig heads, legs, livers, brains and lungs. I saw slaughtered animals, which looked like small goats, and also butchered dogs.
In other stalls I saw dried bats, and some kind of rat.
On one of the corners on a certain big dark hall, there were big metal hooks hanging from rails, with big chunks of meat hanging on them. It looked like a place where the animals were first butchered.
It was a very colorful, different and odd experience, which I recorded on a full roll of film.
I checked out of the Longsheng hotel, bought some fruit for the way, and crossed the bridge to the nearby main bus station.
I took an express bus to go to Sanjiang (10Y). It took 3 hours, on a slow and nice road (I estimate we only went 70-80 kilometers). The whole route was along a nice wide greenish river. Along a certain section of the road there where many collections of small and large rocks, in different odd shapes. I could also see people working on the rocks: cleaning, wiping and brushing the rocks. It looked like some kind of local business of collecting, working on and selling attractive looking rocks.
I got off the bus and tried to find accommodation, following LP directions and recommendations. It did not work. Later when I returned to the bus station to make some enquiries about going to Liping, a woman working at the station took out an old torn piece of paper, which said:
“This bus station is on the east side of the river. Please go to the bus station on the west side of the river”.
Only then did I realize that the bus had stopped on the east side of the river, and LP directions (which were confusing) were apparently from the other bus stop.
I went into the first guesthouse I saw (Feng Yu Qian Hotel) which wasn’t very clean nor too appealing (70Y for a room with a shower). I asked the receptionist to keep my luggage for a while (did it many times to avoid wandering around, looking for accommodations with all my luggage) and continued my search. The next guesthouse (both near the east end of the bridge) which had a business card with the name “Dong Yue Gues Thouse” was slightly better (80Y). I crossed the bridge to the west, and found a relatively good (2-3 stars I guess) hotel: Guang Yu Hotel, with nicer rooms. Later I found out that it was just next to the Ceng Yang Qiao hotel (LP).
The receptionist wanted 128Y, I offered 75, and she accepted 80.
Sanjiang is a small little town, quite ugly and dusty. The center is a long road on the east side of the river, and a more or less parallel one on the west side. The bridge links the two roads.
I toured the east and west side of the river the travel agency which is mentioned in LP, but in vain. I also couldn’t find anyone who could speak English. Eventually, a Rickshaw (Motorcycle “taxi” with a small passenger cabin) took me to the west (main) bus station and tried to help with the very little English he knew. We did not make much progress, so I went into the bus station to try and find out about transportation to Liping. After a few minutes, the Rickshaw driver reemerged. This time he brought Tim with him. Tim “studied English for 2 years in Guilin”, runs with his father the Chang Yang Bridge National Hostel, speaks surprisingly good English, knows everything and was very willing to help.
Tim Wu told me that his father had the travel agency (LP), but closed it.
Within 5 minutes I had all the information I needed about buses to Liping (2 buses a day: 6:55 and 14:30, not very regular), trains from Sanjiang to Zhangjiajie and more.
I also made a plan with Tim that he would come and pick me up from the bus the two days later, and take me to his hostel, which is near the Cheng Yang covered bridge.
As there was no reasonably clean restaurant in sight, I bought some food (fruit, biscuits, coffee, milk, mineral water) for a few coins and spent the evening at the hotel.
Thu, 18/12/03
Checked out and left the hotel at 6:30 to catch the 6:55 am bus to Liping, to go to Zhaoxing. When I got to the bus station the lady at the ticket counter could say only two things: “no bus” and “tomorrow”. Later I found out that there is a 14:30 bus to Zhaoxing (Guizhou province).
One has to be flexible to travel in China ….. I left my luggage at the checkroom at the station, and took a bus to Chengyang Qiao. The bus driver’s door wouldn’t lock, so the bus driver assistant took a rope and tied it so it remained closed.
A 40- minute ride to the Dong village where the covered bridge is (one of many),the annoying 5Y ticket office and typical many Nudniks.
Had a nice walk in this Dong village, and then started walking back towards Sanjiang.
In the fields there where high stacks of hay, kept well above ground level supported by three wood logs. They looked like big statues of three-legged ostriches.
The day was cloudy and gray again, not very good for photography.
When I got back to Sanjiang, I felt brave enough, or hungry enough, to go to one of the local restaurants. I chose one that looked less dirty than others, and went in.
I wanted just simple rice, but no one understood what I wanted. The word was not in the LP glossary. One of the ladies over the stainless-steel counter, put her arm into a big pot, and fished a handful of slippery noodles. I nodded my head and pointed to a plate of rice, which was on one of the tables. She still did not understand what I wanted. Another, more resourceful girl came to my rescue, and I got my rice.
I also pointed at soy sauce, a bamboo dish, a pumpkin dish, and another pale-brown unidentified vegetable. It was all tasty. When I finished I went back to the bus station, bought a 18Y ticket to Zhaoxing and collected my luggage. The lady at the ticket counter said it was a 3 -hour drive. The 3- hour drive took 5.
A filthy - looking bus, loaded with lots of smoking guys and their cargo (sacks).
The whole way is on a bumpy unpaved gravel road
The bus was covered with dust, moving quite fast on this narrow road. It was like a 4x4 track with a bus.
There were many pedestrians, geese, cattle and road workers. The bus driver had to use all his maneuvering skills when other buses or trucks came in the opposite direction, or when he tried to overtake one.
We headed west for about two and a half hours, with a river on our left. It actually was like a big artificial lake, until we got to a big dam, which formed this lake. Then it became a rather wide river.
After two and a half hours, we turned north at (Long E I guess) and drove through a long winding valley, spotted with nice Dong villages.
After an hour or so, the bus left the valley, and started climbing. It was about 6 pm, and it was getting dark. At night, driving on the steep roads, the roller coaster drive became a night-mare.
After 7 pm, not a minute too soon, we stopped. The journey, which I thought would never end, came to its end.
A woman and a younger man waited outside the bus, each offering me their “hotel”. Both places were very close to where the bus had stopped. I walked with both of them to the first one. It was a rather ugly and dirty concrete-floor room with a shower which had a small pond on the floor.
The competition (Country Inn) was better. A wooden room and floor, which looked cleaner but had no private bathroom. The bathroom was a shared one, with some other rooms which were all empty.
I took the room, which like the other was freezing cold. I went out to buy batteries in one of the local “shops” and asked the guy who ran the place to make me some food. The food was good. I had it in the family room, with the whole family there watching TV.
Had a hot shower to warm up, and went to sleep under 4 blankets.
Fri, 19/12/03
I got up in the frozen room. Music was playing in the nearby school, and small kids were exercising in the schoolyard.
Had a morning walk in the main street, which, like many other “main streets” looked like a market. Walking through it I saw some caged dogs, and butchered ones.
I went into a shop sign posted “tourist Information” and “Coffee” !!
Had a cup of coffee (with powdered milk), bought a map and got some useful information from the guy who spoke some English.I also had a hand-drawn map, which I got at the guesthouse.
Took a local minibus for a 5km replay of the dusty and bumpy roller coaster ride, and then walked 2 km to She-Ge village. The sky was blue, visibility was good, and the view was magnificent.
Looking west I saw a long valley spotted with oddly shaped green terraces, and Dong villages with their dark roofs. At the bottom of the valley I saw Zhaoxing.
The mountains, the villages, the green colors, looked a bit Swiss-like, but with very distinct differences.
From She-Ge I climbed up the hill on a
footpath to Tang-An. Tang-An
lies higher so the view was even more impressive.
Many of the terraces were green, some water-silverish, and others red from the algae on the water. This
area and its views were the nicest I have seen so far in China.
I walked 2 km back to the main road, and took uphill transportation to Ping-Shan.
This time the mode of transportation was one of the unique products of the Chinese industry. It looked like a vehicle, which had a front, made of a two-wheeled tractor, and the back of it was a two-wheeler trailer for human and other cargo. A joint linked the front and the back. This thing was noisy, emitted a lot of smoke, and was very slow. China is not about being in a hurry.
The passengers (about 6, sometimes 16) travel standing up.
The village is not a Dong village, but a Mio (different minority) village, and was much cleaner than the others. It had a “drum-tower” which looked different from the Dong’s.
As I learnt later, when I got back to the guesthouse, each big family builds a drum-tower. Zhaoxing had 5 big families, hence 5 drum-towers. The drum-tower is used for celebrations, festivals and ceremonies, as well as for alerting the village (by drumming) when there is a fire or any other disaster.
Walking back from Ping-Shan to the main road, the view was very impressive, this time above a valley stretching east.
On the main road I stopped a local “bus”. It was actually a truck, which carried people on this bad road. The passengers travel in the cabin (up to four), standing at the back of the truck, and sitting on its roof. Such trucks are also used as school buses.
I did not have time to go to Ji-Tang. A Japanese traveler told me over dinner at the family room in the guesthouse, that it was the nicest.
Over the very same dinner, a local guy told me about a place called Fenghuang, south of Jishou (Hunan province). He was the second Chinese who mentioned this place as a very nice one. I couldn’t find it on LP.
Here are some pictures I found on the web.
Walking back to the guesthouse through the main road, I saw a small crowd around an elderly Dong lady with a yellow hat. I went closer, and saw that she was selling dead rats. There was a big pile of those on the pavement. Her customers were lifting rats by their tails, touching them to feel how good they were, and smelling them.
Each choose his favorite rat or rats, weighed it, paid for it and walked home happily carrying the dead creatures by their tails to the dinner table.
Sat, 20/12/03
I Got up at 6:30 am in the frozen room and went out at 7 when there was some light outside. I climbed up at the general direction of Ji-Tang and had a last look at the nice views. The green terraces (most of them planted with radishes) had a white frosty layer on top. The temperatures at night drop below freezing point.
I checked out of the Country Inn and sat at the “Tourist Information”, brought my own cookies and real milk, had a coffee and waited for the bus.
The guy from the “Tourist Information” said that there are 3 buses a day to Sanjiang: 7:00, 9:30 and 10:30 am.
At 9:30 am the bus showed up. It went from one village to the next, loading and unloading passengers. Sometimes packed with 5- passengers and their bags and sacks, and sometimes with 50.
The road started as a hilly and twisting road. After less than two hours we got to Dipping, and about 15 minutes later to Long-E. In the Long-E bus turned east towards Sanjiang, along the nice wide river.
The bus driver was an inferior version of a Chinese driver. He was not aware that he should press on the right pedal as far as it goes, regardless of the road condition, cars, pedestrians or other obstacles. The driver did not use his horn, not even once. Maybe it was out of order.
Some of the buses and trucks had water tanks fitted on their roofs, and a hose going down into the engine compartment. Another of the wonders of the Chinese car industry.
After four hours we got to Sanjiang. I made a bad mistake leaving my luggage in the baggage compartment of the bus. When I took it out, the black suitcase was all white from dust.
I went to the familiar Quang Yu hotel and rented a room for six hours (40Y). I cleaned my suitcase and stuff, had a hot shower to undo the damages. And had fruit coffee and biscuits for lunch.
In the evening, after dark, I took a micro-van to go to Sanjiang train station (20Y).
After a15-minute drive in the darkness, the driver stopped the car by a narrow steep alley and pointed at it. The dirty alley, with a shop and some houses did not look like a train station. The driver explained in good Chinese that he couldn’t drive up the alley.
For obvious reasons I was a bit skeptical about the presence of a train station there. I asked the driver to come with me to the alleged station.
I Climbed up the dark alley, dragging my heavy suitcase. The first thing I saw when I got to the top of the alley was rubble. The place looked like it was demolished. Rubble, big stones everywhere, piles of unidentified stuff, and digging all around. When I looked around I saw 3 train rails in the dark. On one of the tracks there was a train, and people were walking up and down a wooden slope, loading sacks from a truck to the train.
A young Chinese guy, with long messy hair, wandered around like a sleepwalker, all covered with dust, looking for something in the rubble.
I walked around some piles of rubble, trying to find my way in the darkness, and discovered a small shop and a waiting hall. The waiting hall was old and ugly, with antique long wooden benches. Some people were sitting there, and there was a “ticket window”. It was closed.
I continued my tour of the place in the dim light, and found an office with two train employees, sitting and working on a big sheet of paper in a heated room. I opened the metal bar, which blocked the door. The two guys asked me in.
With the help of my notepad, and LP I found out that yes, there was a train to Zhangjiajie, It was to leave at 21:43, and a ticket (hard seat) was 32Y. I went back to the waiting hall, and later, when the window opened I bought a ticket. I asked the old person behind the ticket window and he confirmed that it was a 9-hour ride (arrival 6 am) and that I might be able to buy an upgrade for soft or hard-sleeper car on the train. He also made some gestures suggesting that he will take me to the sleeping cars when the train arrives.
With his very-dirty black hands on the keyboard of a new computer, he printed a ticket for me.
At 20:30 a guy wearing a uniform, as well as the ranks of a 2-star general came. He was carrying a torch. The crowd followed him into the dark night, and I followed the crowed. We walked along the tracks, and then we stopped.
Two guys emerged from the darkness and disappeared, running, back into the darkness. Each was carrying two cages of small dogs on a carrying pole, 10 puppies or so per cage.
The officer with the torch stood there to signal to the train. The train arrived and we crossed one track and approached it.The nice old guy from the ticket counter came and walked me to the back of the train, to the sleeping cars.
When we got there with my heavy suitcase, the woman on the car said – Mei-You (meaning – none. No upgrades available), so I had to go all the way back to and climb (a real climb. The lowest part of the ladder was chest high) to a hard-seat car of this old train.
My first encounter with the hard-seat car was not pleasant. Dirt, leftovers, smoke, and very crowded. There was not a single seat available and many were standing. The kind guy from the ticket counter was still with me and pointed me to go to the back of the train, and I did.
Walking through some lovely hard-seat cars we got to what looked like a restaurant car for the staff.
I got the same Mei-You again, and was requested to head back to the nice cars I had come from. I stood in the corridor leading to this restaurant, because the corridor was less crowded, cleaner and not full of smoke.
After a short while, the staff in the restaurant decided to be nice to me, and invited me to sit by a table. Things were getting better. The table was quite filthy but it was certainly better than standing in the corridor for 9 hours.
I sat there for a few minutes (offered the people seated there beer, but they refused) and a 3-star-lady-general appeared and sold me a 42Y upgrade ticket to a hard-sleeper car. In China things always work out eventually.
The old hard-sleeper car was not a sight for sore eyes, but better than sitting in the restaurant car for 9 hours.
At 10 pm the lights in the car went off, so I could not read or write anymore.
I used the ladder to climb to my bed, which was at the 3rd level, and slept for a few hours, with the car ceiling just 40 centimeters above me.
At 5:20 am my cell-phone-alarm-clock woke me up to start a new day.
Sat, 21/12/03
Ten minutes after I woke up and brushed my teeth, a very energetic Chinese guy appeared and presented himself (in real English) as an CITS employee who works in Zhangjiajie. From the moment he arrived until we parted ways, he did not stop talking, offering me maps, tours, hotels, flights, train tickets, guides and what have you.
While I was trying to wakeup, he told me about the weather, the city, the villages, and offered “help”. He was very pushy and determined to take me to his office which was “very near the station”. Later I found out that it was a 10-minute walk.
I had no map of the city or the area. LP had little information about Zhangjiajie and listed very few hotels.
I decided to stay in the city at least one night, and organize the journey to my next destination. From the CITS guy I learned that the city center was 13 km from the train station. I boarded a bus and wrote in my notepad: “city center”. The driver assistant showed the note to a young guy who broke the code and translated.
After about 10 minutes the bus stopped at a corner. It was 6:30 am, and it was still dark.
Around the corner I saw something which looked like a dark shopping street.
Two elderly ladies, with golden teeth, were exercising on the street. I said “Fandain, Binguan (These words are used for hotel as well as restaurant), and made a gesture of sleeping. One lady showed with her hand: “high or low?” I assumed she was asking about the price. I signaled “high” with my hand and she walked me to the nearby hotel, which was actually the 4-star hotel listed in LP (Dragon International hotel – Fu Wu Zha Nan ).
The rate displayed there was $80 plus 15% additional charges for a standard room. The clerk offered $60 (about 490Y) off-season price. I went to see the room. It was fine. I offered 300Y inclusive of taxes and breakfast (about 38$) and he accepted.
It was a day of organizing the rest of the trip.
The restaurants in the area did not have menus in English. I went into a restaurant, pointed to the word vegetarian in LP (not to end up eating dog-casserole), and pointed to 3 vegetarian dishes in the menu. Two dishes and the rice were fine.
Mon, 22/12/03
I had a 10-minute morning walk to change money at the Bank of China, and 10 minutes back. I bought a 620Y flight ticket from Yichang to Guangzhou on Christmas day.
I had a good breakfast at the hotel, and walked to the main bus station which was down the road. I took a minibus to Suoxi (8y) to go to the Wulingyuan National Park.
The national park is a large area, guarded by 4 ticket offices and gates. To enter I had to pay the outrageous 158Y entrance fee (the price was raised from a 62Y ticket valid for one day, to 158Y valid for two days. A “preferred ticket”, I guess for Chinese people was 100Y).
When I crossed the gate, they not only checked the magnetic-ticket, but also scanned my fingerprint.
The views at the park were magnificent. I found it more impressive than the scenery in Yangshou and Shilin. High mountains, high and steep cliffs, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and caves. I saw only a tiny bit of it. I walked in a deep canyon with very high vertical rock walls and many pillar-like, oddly-shaped mountains.
The temperature was nice and cool, but gray and misty. Not a good day to for taking pictures.
I had a long walk in the canyon. After walking about three hours up-hill, I found myself in a dead-end and realized I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Signs were rare, and hardly any in English. I had to walk all the way back.
I left the park and went back to Zhangjiajie the same way I came.
I did not want to return to the park the following day because of the bad visibility. I will have to go back some day in a better season to photograph.
Back in Zhangjiajie I went into a restaurant to have dinner. I pointed arbitrarily at some dishes on the menu. On one of them, the waitress was able to comment that it was chicken. I ordered it, and another vegetarian dish. The chicken, which was mainly bones, came with many side dishes that were ok. The “vegetarian” dish was patties made of corn flour, slightly sweet and tasty.
Tue, 23/12/04
I got up at 4:40 am, checked out and took a taxi to the train station to catch the 5:57 train to Yichang. I had a 32Y hard-seat ticket for the 147K train, the very same train which brought me to Zhangjiajie two days before. The hard-seat ticket was the only one available at the station (It was actually bought by the hotel staff for a 10Y service fee).
Once again had to walk up and down many stairs with hundreds of other people, to board the train.
I boarded a hard-seat car. It was crowded, the floor covered with garbage, and the unventilated dark car smelled of cigarettes.
I saw a lady in train staff uniform, and said “Bupio” (upgrade) and a gesture of money with my hand. The lady took out a big printed table and a smaller notepad ( every little thing in China requires a lot of paper work). At the end of a long process, I got a 40y upgrade to a hard-sleeper car. I dragged my luggage to the car I was assigned.
I got a bed on the 2nd level, where I placed my luggage, and sat on one of the seats in the corridor.
It was before sunrise, the car was dark, and most people asleep. The car was cleaner than the hard-seat car, less crowded, and there were fewer smokers.
About an hour later, when it got lighter outside, just before sunrise, light and music came on in the car. The car attendant was kind enough to “upgrade” my ticket to a lower level bed, which is a bed you can sit on.
I walked along the train to take some pictures, until an angry train-employee-in-uniform, came, waving his hands, and demanded that I go back to my car.
There was another angry lady next to him. I think she was complaining that I was taking pictures. I tried to understand where I had gone wrong, and wanted to take more pictures, but a lady car attendant from my car came, and actually pushed me away, back to where I “belonged”.
On the bed opposite to mine, there was a young couple. They were happy and active and laughing.
They wanted to know (I think) where I was from. I wrote down: ISRAEL. As many other people I met, they had no clue.
I got to Yichang after 6 hours, and took a taxi to the best hotel I found on LP: Yangze International Hotel.
I got a nice room for 300Y (regular rate for a standard room was over 450Y) and went for a walk in the city. The city looked more western than other cities I have seen here.
Prices seemed to be high, goods were of high quality, and the streets were relatively clean.
Fruits at the market looked good and tasted very good. There were coffee shops, in Yichang, something which I did not see in other places (only in tourist spots like Dali and Lijiang). Even bread was available in shops and restaurants.
I did not see any foreigners in the street. People seemed to be curious (staring at me) which I found quite common, but not as friendly and smiling as I found in other places.
The weather was warm but very hazy. I wanted to take a short sail to the “three small Yangze gorges” but not with such poor visibility.
Wed, 24/12/03
The city was dressed for Christmas. Shops were decorated, many of the employees everywhere were dressed in red and had Santa Claus hats.
Santa Claus was also on his reindeer-driven sled in front of my hotel.
I went into a big supermarket to get some food and found plenty of good products. There was bread, yogurt and other products that I did not often see in China. People were queuing up without pushing.
I walked around the city center and the river for most of the day. Tomorrow I’ll be leaving for Hong Kong so I regarded it as my last day in “real China”.
Having walked the streets for the better part of the day, I also noticed that people in Yichang are taller than in other places in China I have been to.
The weather was nice for being outdoors (sunny and cool) but the visibility was still very bad. Nevertheless, I took some street pictures and market pictures. The markets were very nice. Very nice colors of fruits, vegetables, spices and some less appealing sights of meat and poultry and pork goods.
All the fruits I tried were excellent, pineapple, apples, pears, tangerines, sugar cane and more.
There was also a certain fruit widely available in street stalls as snacks. It had the brownish colors and shape of a big chestnut. After they take the peel off (it is sold peeled) it has the apple-whitish color of a peeled apple. It has a nice, not very sweet, unique taste and texture (in Hong Kong it was called something like Mar-Tai).
I also saw a vegetable, which looked like a long yellowish pumpkin. Actually it came in “chains”, like a chain of small yellowish pumpkins, connected to each other. The link is narrower than the vegetable itself, so it gives it the chain look. The cross section of this vegetable, when cut, has many holes. When cooked, it had some resemblance to potatoes, and no distinct taste, but acquires the taste of the sauce.
I went to the boat terminal and saw the huge industry of shipping thousands of tourists in big ships through the Yangze gorges. Not my cup of tea.
Many restaurants had special Christmas dinners with sky-high prices (like 156Y per person in the revolving restaurant at the top of my hotel).
I had dinner in the Chinese restaurant in the hotel. On the menu I found a whole zoo.
In addition to the regular selection of chicken, fish, pork, oysters, shrimps, duck, ostrich, squid and more, I found snake, donkey, pigeon, camel, dog, eel, tortoise in its shell, frogs, sea-slug (whatever this means) and birds nest.
I had a hot pot of a local fish. It is some kind of soup in a pot placed on a small hot-plate on the table. It comes with uncooked vegetables, and noodles, which you add to the soup to be cooked. The soup was creamy, with fish, onion and tofu. The fish was mostly bones, but the soup and the rest were fine.
Thu, 25/12/03
I took a morning taxi from the hotel to Yichang airport (80Y). Paid again the high (50Y) airport tax and checked my luggage in.
The China Eastern Airlines flight was a 3- hour flight to Guangzhxou with a stop in Wuhan. The airport looked rather empty. Not too many passengers at Christmas.
I arrived at Guangzhxou at 14:30. It was hazy and warm with bad visibility.
I made some inquiries about transportation to Hong Kong and took a taxi to go to the east railway station (40Y) to take a train to Hong Kong (Kowloon). Driving through Guangzhxou outskirts, it looked very modern with high residential buildings, skyscrapers, highways and interchanges. It was even sign posted in English.
I bought a first class ticket (253Y) to Hong Kong. The train was new and fast. First class seats were spacious and the passengers enjoyed the service of a stewardess.
Train employees dressed as Santa Claus went through the train giving a small chocolate gift to the passengers.
Fri, 26/12/03
I left the Novotel at 9:00 am and walked through Hong Kong island for more than 12 hours, with only 2 short stops. One for coffee and one for a light meal.
Real good coffee shops were a nice change after a month or so in the country of tea. Prices were also much different.
It was not my first time in Hong Kong, but the city looked more active and dynamic than in my previous visits. It might have been because it was still Christmas vacation.
I walked the island from Central to Wan-Chai to Causeway bay.
The city was flooded with shoppers. In some places like in Causeway at dusk, the streets were covered with people, shoulder to shoulder, wherever I looked.
At the end of my long walk I got to the huge Time Square mall.
It was a 12- story huge mall in a very central location, part of this big complex puzzle of this ultra modern city, with some very distinct Chinese characteristics.
Sat, 27/12/03
Another day of 12 hours on my feet with my heavy photography gear. Today I toured Kowloon from the Flower market and the Bird market in the north of Mongkok, through the long street markets and shops of Mongkok, along Nathan road in the daytime and at night. At night, with the lit buildings, neon signs and colorful busses, Nathan road becomes much different.
I walked through the active night market of Temple Street and went up to Festival Walk near Tong station. Festival Walk is another huge indoor mall, six floors or so high.
The number of malls, shops and shoppers is incredible.
Sun, 28/12/03
I had a relaxed day of packing and shopping.
I wanted to go up to the Peak, but the queue for the peak-tram, on a Sunday, was much too long.
I took a night flight (LY076) to Tel-Aviv.
1. Keep a notepad and pen. It is an essential communication tool (Use it to draw a fork, when you want one).
2. Take your time. Take it easy. Things have their own pace and way in China. Things work nicely and effectively when you want get to know the system. Lack of information and communication difficulties makes traveling slow and sometimes inefficient. It’s part of the package.
3. Be prepared for noise, smoke, dust and dirt.
4. Practice your aiming skills. You will need them. Once you overcome the cultural and odor shock of Chinese public and other toilets, you can blend into the general atmosphere and start to enjoy.
5. Use every source of information available to you before you get to China. Take as much information, as updated as you can get, with you. In China information is in Chinese. For non-Chinese readers, Duncan Peattie produces an English version of the Chinese national timetable, US$15.00 in .pdf format. Lots of info including a station list in English and Chinese, tips for travelers, and a booking form to hand to ticket office staff for non-Chinese speakers. Contact Duncan at chinatt@eudoramail.com for your copy.
6. Practice your bargaining skills. In many cases you’ll be quoted sky-high prices and expected to bargain.
7. Be ready for less privacy and respect for the individual (best demonstrated in the Chinese toilets!). It’s a society of masses – crowded, with very little individual space. My experience was that they don’t yield – they push, without hesitating to touch you. I guess it’s a cultural difference.
8. Use travelers’ cheques or cash. I found that credit cards are not widely accepted. Travelers’ cheques can only be exchanged in the “Bank of China” and some high-class hotels.
9. In most cases English is of little use. A written or spoken word in Chinese does magic. To survive you may need to know that Mi-Fan is rice, Mineral water – you simply point, Cesou – toilets, Buyao – don’t want, Mei-You – no, none.
10. If you are a keen photographer like I am, here are some more tips:
· Choose the right season for photography (and write to tell me which it is). I went in the winter, and in most scenic places, the visibility was poor.
· Take enough film and the right sort. I took loads of my favorite Velvia 50, which is fine for nice scenic places and good weather. I found many interesting shooting opportunities in streets, markets, busses, alleys, villages and trains. Many were of people. For this I needed faster film (I use Sensia 400), of which I did not have enough.
· A tripod was of little use to me. I did use it, but not very often.
· Take cleaning materials and a good protective bag for your gear. In many cases I was covered with dust or in highly polluted places.
· Hand-search of my photography gear in airports was never a problem.
Ethnic Monitories ( Naxi,Bai,Miao)
Far-East Guide (China) (in Hebrew)
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