Alive in Beijing!

We haven't had time to update our blog as the past 10 days or so have been filled with all sorts of activities. We've seen cuddly pandas, cruised down the Yangtze River, gazed at the teracotta warriors, almost fallen off the Great Wall, wandered through the Forbidden City, bargained hard in the Silk Market and eaten way too many spring rolls and dumplings! The rest of our adventures will have to be updated once we arrive back in Canada. We hope to spend today with Ruth and then we leave tomorrow afternoon from Beijing.

Chinese Opera, Leshan & FIFA Soccer!

We had a busy day today so this probably won't be a long post. We went to a Chinese opera last night which was much better than we thought it would be. It had about 8 different scenes, including some singing, dancing, puppetry, a hand shadow show, a spitting fire show and also the famous changing faces show. We left this morning just after 9 to head to Leshan to see the largest outdoor buddah in China. The trip there took about 2.5 hours, with one washroom break. Since the buddah is so tall the best way to view it is to take a boat out into the harbour and see it that way. We had the option to climb up and down around it but the line up was over 2 hours long. We ate lunch at a CHinese resturant and then Jonathan and I headed back to Chengdu on the public bus as we didn't want to miss the soccer game. Our Chinese guide wrote out notes for us in Chinese so that we could get to the bus station with no problem and purchase two tickets for Chengdu. The tickets cost 42 yuan which is about $6 CND and the bus was similar to a Grey Hound bus. We even got free bottles of water during the trip. Thankfully we got to the station about 15 minutes before the bus left so we were able to get on it at 2:30 and were back in CHengdu by 5. We had to take a taxi from the CHengdu bus station to the stadium and we arrived just as they were played the AUstralian national anthem. Our free tickets were in a much better spot than the ones we had previously purchased so we had a great view of the field. The stadium wasn't full but there were still lots of people there. YOu could spot all the Canadians because they all had their flags flying! The game started off with a goal from Canada and at half time it was the only goal. The Aussies scored early in the second and then the Canadians scored again near the end of regulation time. There were 3 minutes tacked on the end for injury time and the Aussies managed to score again so the game ended in a tie. We're not sure if Canada will more on to the next round as they needed a win to guarentee them a spot. We meet some Canadians teaching in CHengdu so had a nice chat with them during half time. (One was from Deep RIver and the other from Toronto.)
TOmorrow we're headed to see the pandas and then will head to the Yangtze river for our three day cruise. We won't have internet access while we're on the boat so you probably won't hear from us for 3 or 4 days.

Dali, Lijiang & Chengdu

We're still alive! China seems to have the worst internet connections in the world so I haven't been able to update my blog at all. I've tried a number of times but it seems that it's only possible to open one window at a time in China, so viewing hotmail, facebook and blogger all at once is not possible.
We took the overnight train to Dali on Sunday and the trip wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The cabins were quite small and since it was a double decker train, we had no overhead storage so had to dump all our luggage in between the bunks. The train didn't come until 10 pm so we headed to bed as soon as we got on the train. Thankfully each train car had one western toilet and one squat toilet so I always made sure to stand in line for the western toilet. The bunks were just as hard as every other bed in China but I think we were all so tired that we slept pretty well. We arrived in Dali around 7 pm, checked into our hotel and headed out for breakfast. Our hotel was a huge complex of different buildings, with no elevators, so it involved lots of grunting to get my suitcase to our room. (One of these days I will learn how to pack less stuff in my pack!) We went for breakfast at a nearby hostel which had a great breakfast. I still cannot bring myself to eat noodles and rice for breakfast so every time I see western type food, I go crazy. This place had yogurt, granola and fruit as well as eggs and some sort of potato pancake. Haven't been able to find a good cup of coffee in China yet, except for Starbucks, and even the tea looks strange to me. I've been using up our supply of granola bars and fruit bars for breakfast as the further we get into China, the less recognizable breakfast seems to be. (Ruth, don't worry, we haven't had to hit up your box of Harvest Crunch just yet! ;-)
After a wonderful breakfast I headed back to our room to catch up on my sleep, while Jonathan wandered around town snapping pictures. Dali is very picturesque and has many little shops selling a variety of items. We spent the afternoon looking around the shops and picked up some items for our families. All the shops tried to convince us that their goods were homemade but it's hard to believe them when all the shops carry identical items. The other thing that I found rather annoying was when I was looking at clothes and the shop keeper would bring out a different size for me to try on. They always brought out XL items! I know the Chinese people are tiny but I'm not that big! Our most interesting find of the day was a man making animals out of caramelized sugar or some sort of honey. He had a charge with different animals on it and you could choose one and he would take the hot liquid, make a shape on his board and when it cooled he would hand it to you on a giant stick for you to eat. Very tasty!
In the evening we all got together at a Tibetan restaurant to celebrate Gareth and Liz's first anniversary. Alex had arranged a huge feast for us which included sweets and a cake. Since Liz is a vegetarian there was no meat in the meal but it included lots of different dishes - deep fried banana, Tibetan hot pot, spring rolls, potato cakes, a cold cucumber dish, a tomato, garlic and greens dish and curried vegetables and noodles.
On Monday we left Dali and took a bus to Lijiang which was about a 4 hour drive. We had lunch as soon as we arrived and tried out the local speciality which is called Babba. It's a type of flaky pastry which is about the shape and size of a small pizza. We had a sweet one with honey which is now my favourite Chinese food. After lunch we wandered around Lijiang for a bit but because it was cold and very rainy it was hard to enjoy the town. Jonathan had a jacket that repelled the rain but I bought a giant blue rain coat (only 10 Yuan) which was definitely worth the money. Lijiang was full of tourists, mostly Chinese, so it was hard to move through the narrow streets. Apparently the old town of Lijiang is considered a World Heritage Site and no one can build or repair any of the houses or shops without permission. There is quite a maze of streets there but most of them have a little street flowing through them so Alex told us that if we were to get lost just to follow the water upstream and that would take us back to the entrance of the old town. For someone like me, who has no sense of direction, it was very good advice! In the evening some of the group headed out to hear the Naixi orchestra play, but we decided the cost wasn't worth it, so we stayed in our hotel, did some reading and headed to bed early.
On Tuesday we all met around 8:30 am, rented bikes and cycled to Baisha, a small town close to Lijiang. The biking wasn't hard as the roads were all paved, but we had the most uncomfortable bikes in the entire world. I was actually glad when my butt went numb so I couldn't feel the discomfort any more. The bike ride took about an hour, but we were going at a very slow pace, stopping to take water and picture breaks. We wandered around Baisha for just over an hour, observing the rural way of life and taking pictures. We had lunch before we left and enjoyed a Naixi sandwich - some sort of pita bread, tomatoes, potato pancake and a strange smelling cheese. (Goat, perhaps?) Also had some steamed dumplings, which are usually guaranteed to be good no matter where you are in the country. Jonathan, Gareth, Liz and I headed back before the rest of the group and the ride back only took us 30 min or so. Once we arrived back in Lijiang we headed to a nearby park and wandered around for a bit. Gareth and Liz decided to do some hiking in the park but we headed back to the market for another look around. We all meet for supper around 6 pm and I enjoyed another honey Babba along with fruit, yogurt and granola. Our flight to Chengdu left at 10 pm so we spent the evening in the airport. We arrived last night in Chengdu around 11:30, all quite tired and ready to crash.
Before we arrived in Chengdu, Jonathan noticed that the women's FIFA soccer was being played here in Chengdu and he was hoping to get tickets. When we arrived at our hotel last night he checked out the schedule but it appeared that the soccer games had ended the day before we arrived. He was quite disappointed, but when we checked the schedule early this morning it seems that we had our dates mixed up and there was actually a game today between Canada and Australia. Jonathan immediately booked tickets for tonight at 5 pm and we spent part of the morning trying to get the one Canada shirt I brought with me, clean in time for the game. There was a laundry mat next to our hotel but when I brought the shirt over they said it wouldn't be ready until 5. After many hand signals the staff at the laundry mat called over some one from the hotel who could speak English and who also happened to be a FIFA representative.
I wasn't feeling well this morning so I went back to bed which Jonathan checked out the stadium, which is actually only a 10 minute walk from out hotel. Some of the teams are staying at our hotel so there is security on every floor. Sadly our seats were in the nosebleed section but Jonathan was hoping that we could move down as the stadium holds 30,000 people and he doubted that it would be full.
We left our hotel around 4 this afternoon to go to the game but we were met with a crowd outside the gate and it seemed that nobody was getting through the gates. According to the FIFA volunteers who spoke English, the game was delayed for a day because of a typhoon in Shanghai. Since the game in Shanghai was delayed they delayed all of the other games as well. We stuck around for a bit trying to see what the situation was and when the next game would be and met a fellow Canadian from Montreal in the process. She was friends with one of the team members and said that as of 1 this afternoon the team hadn't heard that it was cancelled so I guess this was a last minute decision. While we were talking an English speaking news team came over and interviewed us! They wanted to know what we thought of the game being delayed and what information we had been given. We also had some Chinese people taking pictures of us in our red and white gear! Some of the officials finally brought out a sign saying the game would be tomorrow at 5 pm and then the police came out and started to disperse the crowd. We met some Australian's who had come to the game as well and since they were flying to Nepal tomorrow they wanted to get rid of their tickets. They offered us their tickets, which were in a better area than ours, so we glady took them. (We noticed that they only paid 60 Yuan for theirs, while ours had cost us 150 Yuan!) We offered them money for them, but they said they were leaving China so they didn't want it. When we got back to our hotel we told the front desk that the game had been delayed so they gave us our money back! Our group is supposed to head to Leshan tomorrow to see a giant buddha so we're not sure if we'll make it back in time. (It takes 2.5 hours to get to the site) We hoping that if we can convince the 6 Aussies that they should come to the game with us everyone will want to come back to the hotel early =)
We'll be in Chengdu until Friday afternoon and then we'll be boarding our Yangtze River cruise for a couple of days. The weather here is not as hot as at the beginning of our tour but the city is quite smoggy. We're heading out to see the opera tonight and then tomorrow will be a full day trip to Leshan to see the giant buddha.

Kunming

Our resturant for dinner tonight has an internet cafe, so I came a little early to update my blog before the rest of the group gets here.
We arrived in Kumming last night around 6 pm, after taking a 1 hour flight from Guilin. We were going to eat at the airport in Guilin but they only had 4 resturants, all with the same menu, and it was quite expensive so we all picked up snacks to last until we got to Kunming. IN the airports there are hot water dispensors so you can buy instant noodles at the airport and make your own meal there. The noodles even come with a spoon.
Upon arriving in Kunming we were greated with some fresh, cool air which is much nicer than the warm humid weather we've had in the rest of China. Our hotel definitely looked more than a 3 star, which is what we get on this trip, and a couple of us managed to get upgraded to suites. We originally had a room with two singles beds but when we arrived in our room, we discovered that someone was already using it. THe staff upgraded us to a suite on the 15th floor which had two bathrooms, a huge bedroom and a living room. Too bad were only got to stay there for one night. (Even though this is the best hotel we've had so far, it had the hardest bed in the world and the worst breakfast ever. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too - or would that be "your noodles", in China?)
After checking in we all went out for supper across the road from the hotel. Alex was originally going to take us to a different resturant but apparently some one on the last tour got sick after eating there and they were cooking the veggetarian dishes in the same oil as the meat so the tour decided not to use that resturant again. Apparently Imaginative Traveller also checks their hotels every 6 months and if the standards are slipping, they stop using them. We didn't have anything too exotic for supper - fried goat cheese with ham, spicy chicken with peanuts, a beef and veggie dish and something else which I can't remember. We usually order a few dishes and then share with Liz and Gareth, the couple from England who are our age and have travelled quite a bit.
I had hoped to see the Stone Forest while in Kunming but it was two hours out of town and getting there and back would have taken the whole day so we opted not to do that. Instead we spent the day with Gareth and Liz and went to the Bamboo Temple, a older Budhist temple, a strange vegetarian resturant and also the bird and pet market. Kunming is quite a big city and very spread out so we took a taxi everywhere. They are metered taxis here so that definitely makes it easier for paying at the end of your trip. We found both the temples quite interesting and ornate and since it is Saturday there were quite a number of people at both temples touring around and offering insense to all the different statues. (I'm not a big insense fan - the place smelled like a giant mosquito coil!) One of the temples had a number of ponds with fish and at least 100 turles all swimming around. Some of the turles has painted shells on them.
After lunch we wandered through the bird and pet markets which sold everything from squirlls and chipmonks to scorpians and mice. We also passed through a clothing market and a flower market which were quite busy but interesting to look at.
Tonight we catch a 10 pm train to take to Dali where we'll be for at least one night. The overnight train is 9 hours and I must say that I am not looking forward to the trip. I did have to use my first squat toilet today (almost lasted a week without using one!) and it wasn't that bad of an experience so hopefully the trains won't be as well.
(posted at 5:45 pm local time)

Yangshuo the Beautiful

Yesterday was a fun filled crazy day in Yangshuo. We all meet for breakfast around 6:30 and headed to one of the local cafes since our hotel doesn't serve breakfast. We enjoyed a great western breakfast of bacon and eggs and fruit, as well as some very strong coffee. They claimed they made better coffee than Starbucks but I haven't seen a Starbucks since Hong Kong so I don't know if they've tasted Starbucks before. The coffee was pretty strong (my spoon wilted) but at least it keep me going for the day which is more than green tea can do! Our first activity for the day was biking. We all rented bikes and spent 4 hours (8 am - noon) biking through the country side. It was a little tricky getting out of town as everyon was on their way to work and the streest were quite crowded. Thankfully everyone uses their horns so you knew by the sound of the horn whether you were going to be hit by something small (ie mophed) or bike (ie truck!) Once we were out of the town things because quite nice and we were able to enjoy ourselves. The road was quite rough but we did have mountain bikes and an escort following us on a mophed so we were quite safe. We biked for over 2 hours, stopping to take pictures along the way, before we reached Moon Hill. Most of us decided to climb the 800 steps to the top to get a great view of the valley and sourrounding area. It was quite humid yesterday so the climb was quite tough. I can run and I can bike, but I am not a climber. Evern if there are steps to take! A number of the local ladies followed us up carrying water in little coolers and fanning some of our group while they walked up. I did notice that they fanned all the men and not the women, so I didn't get the benefit of a breeze on the way up. The view from the top was quite spectacular, even though there does seem to be a haze that hangs around Yagnshuo all the time. After our climb it took us another hour to get back to town where part of the group opted to go swimming in the Li River while the rest of us headed for our showers. (The hot water is only turned on in the morning and the evening and up until last night I hadn't been able to hit the hot time! Thankfully after our bike ride I did get a bit of hot water.) I didn't bring my bathing suit with me plus I wasn't keen on swimming in the river but Jonathan decided to go for it. On the Li River cruise he decided not to eat the soup because he was afraid they were taking the water from the Li RIver but he had no problems swimming in the River!
I spent the afternoon receving a wonderful back and foot massage while Jonathan poked around town and picked up some water. We all meet around 3:30 to do a cooking class with one of the chefs from the Cloud Nine Resturant. The cooking class (and the meal too) was one of my best experiences in China so far. We had to decide as a group what three dishes to make and then the chef took us to the local market to pick up all the fresh ingredients. (The meat had been bought in the morning, thankfully!) We decided to make meat dumplings, sweet and sour pork and another chicken dish. The trip to the market was an experience in itself. There's a section for everything - meat, veggies, tofu, spices, dried food and fish. I'm not usually someone who is bothered by strong smells, but the combination of the heat, lots of people and raw meat made me feel a bit quesey! The meat area was the most interesting and I actually saw a couple of ducks meeting their end. (Their throats were slit) We also saw dead dogs, frogs, turtles, snails, els and many other interesting sites.
Our cooking class was held on the roof of the Cloud Nine resturant where we had a great view of the area. All of us had our own station with a gas burner, wok, cutting board, cleaver and a variety of spices and oils. (rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, oyster sauce, salt, white pepper, sunflower oil, cornstarch etc) I recognized all the ingredients that we used except for custard powder. We prepared all three dishes first and then cooked then one at a time. The chicken dish was stir fried, the sweet and sour pork deep fried and the dumplings were steamed. We didn't have pineapple for the sweet and sour pork so we used cucumbers and tomates which tasted excellant. After we cooked each dish we had a taste and then headed back to finish up the rest of our cooking. Everyone throughly enjoyed the cooking and we're all hoping that we can go home and reproduce the results again since the chef gave us the recipes.
The cooking class went from 3:30 - 7 so we had time to make a quick stop at our hotel before we headed out for an outdoor theatre type of show. It was all in Chinese so we couldn't follow the story line, but the atmosphere and acting was quite amazing. (Even if we could have understood Chinese all the locals around us ate, smoked and talked for the entire show so we wouldn't have gotten much out of it anyhow!) We all sat in bleachers on the side of a hill and then watched the story below which was on a lake with the mountains illuminated in the background. We estimated that there must have been between 400 and 500 preformers, many of them children and local farmers who preform this show when the River isn't flooded. The show lasted for about an hour and then we headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep!
We have the morning today in Yangshou before we catch our flight to Guilin and then head to Kunming. I've tried to post pictures to facebook but the internet here is really slow and the interface is all in Chinese so it's hard to figure everything out. Also discovered that although I can post to blogger in China I cannot read my site, as it's blocked. I can view comments through my email, so feel free to leave them at anytime.
(posted at 9 am local time)

Li River Cruise and Yangshou

I'm tired, the computer is slow and the interface is in Chinese so hopefully this post will make sense tonight. We are now in Yangshou, having arrived this afternoon around 1:30. We had an uneventful flight to Guilin last night and arrived at our hotel around 9 pm. Breakfast was around 7 this morning and then we took a 30 minute bus ride to the Li River where we spent the day cruising down the river and enjoying the scenery. The weather was quite muggy and hazy today so the limestone peaks weren't that clear but it was still a nice ride. There were probably over 30 boats on the river today, all following one after another. Every once in a while one of the little local boats would come up behind a bigger boat and give it some local goods. I'm guessing that's where our fish at lunch came from! Along the river there are lots of farmers and people washing clothes or even making bricks. Lots of water buffalo and ducks and even some cormorants too. (The fishermen usually fish with them in the evening as apparently their vision is better at night.) Besides our group of 15 there was a Japanese tour group, a European tour group and also some random Chinese tourists. While I was up on deck taking some pictures, one of the Chinese tourists started talking to me. She thought I looked quite young and wanted to know how old I was. When she found out that I was 27 she was quite surprised and told me that I looked 17. Then she got her boyfriend to take our picture together! (She was 31.) Lunch on the boat was a variety of things - rice, soup, different meats with veggies, eggplant, fish, fried dumplings and peanuts. After we arrived in Yangshou we had about an hour to freshen up before we had a 1 hour lesson in Chinese. (Our hotel here is quite nice and quaint and close to many little shops and eating places. ) The Chinese lesson was quite basic - we learned how to count in Chinese and some simple phrases as well. The school that we went to also does other lessons - feng shui, kung fu, cooking, calligraphy etc. The owner said that he could even teach people how to use chopsticks, as he is the national chopstick champion. He can pick up 102 peanuts in a minute with his chopsticks. My chopstick skills are getting better but they are definitely not that good.
After our lesson we wandered around for a bit and looked at the markets and shops. There wasn't an arranged dinner tonight so Jonathan and I ate by ourselves. Nothing too adventurous - spring rolls, stir fry and rice.
Tomorrow will be a busy day so I might not have time to post. We have a bike ride to the country side planned for tomorrow morning, an afternoon massage and 3 hour cooking classes and then a sound and light show in the evening. We stay in Yangshou until Friday morning so I'm sure I will post before then as the Internet at this hotel is free.
(posted at 8 pm local time)

Still in Hong Kong

We thought we would be in China by now, but when we met up with our tour leader last night she informed us that our flight to Guilin didn't leave until tonight. I guess they book the cheapest flight each day and it could be at any time of the day.
We met up with our group last night and there is quite a variety of people : 3 couples from Tasmania, one couple from England, two ladies from Australia and one couple from California. Except for the couple from England, everyone else is much older than us. Our tour leader, Alexandra, is originally from Poland but has been leading tours in China for about a year now. After a brief meeting last night around 6 pm we all decided to go to the sound and light show on Victoria Harbour and then go out for dinner together. The Harbour is only about a 15 minute walk from the hotel and there is seating all along the water front. The lights appear on all the huge buildings along the water front and according to the Guinness Book of World Records, this is the world's largest permanent sound and light show. After the 15 minute show, we took the ferry to the main Hong Kong Island (our hotel is on Kowloon Island) and all went out for dinner at a "healthy" Cantonese restaurant. (no oil or msg) Alex told us that she usually orders a huge meal for everyone and then we split it, but Jonathan and I opted to order our own last night because we had a large lunch. We didn't get back to the hotel until almost 11 pm but since we're still adjusting to the time difference it didn't feel that late.
We got up early this morning, mostly because I thought the alarm clock said 7:30 when it said 5:30, and decided that we would head over to one of the other islands to see some sights. We had to check out of our hotel room by noon and be ready with our luggage to leave for the airport for 4:30 pm so we thought we would do some early sight seeing and then head back to our room to pack up. Unfortunately we didn't time things too well and by the time we took two ferries and got to the other island it was after 9:30 and we didn't have time to see anything. We grabbed some water and got back on another ferry so it was a bit of a long trip just to get a cold drink. We did manage to get a quicker ferry back to the Hong Kong mainland and were back at the hotel around 11. We definitely got our share of sea air today! After checking out we spent the afternoon wandering around the shops outside and spending some time in some of the air conditioned malls. It's very hot here and my hair has turned into a giant frizz ball!
We've had quite the taste of international food while we're been here - we had a North American breakfast (bacon, eggs etc), Starbucks drinks and hazelnut gelato part way through the day and then we ate panzerotti for lunch. (It had ham and pineapple on it and corn too, so I'm not sure how Italian that really is!) They also have lots of 7 11's here as well, although they are definitely more fishy smelling than the ones back home!
Our flight for Guilin leaves this evening so we won't be spending much time there as we leave for Yangshou (sp?) tomorrow morning. Will write more in the next couple of days.
Thanks for the comments, "honorable father!" Anyone else wanna say hi? =)
(posted from Hong Kong, Tuesday Sept 11 at 2:55 pm)