Beijing

April 16th-April 18th

And the fun just doesn’t stop. Beijing was filled with people, and people, and people, and more people. Here I saw the most foreign tourists. Immediately I felt like I related more to them than the Chinese faces I saw.

I didn’t have a chance to see much of Beijing. We went to Tiananmen Square and toured the Forbidden City.

These huge iron “bowls” were used to store emergency water.

I spent an afternoon walking around jingshan park, which provides views of the Forbidden City.

I’m pretty sure that I was fooled into thinking it was a foggy day. More likely it’s the pollution.

Yes, the tulips are nice. I find it almost comical that so many people all line up to take pictures.

The lady beside the saxophone player began singing along in a soprano voice. It’s always neat watching music bring people together.

Flowers and Grottoes

April 14th: A train ride and the peony flower festival

Train ride number 2 from Guilin, Guangxi, to Luoyang, Henan.

Part of the peony flower festival in Luoyang.

April 15th: A morning at the Longmen Grottoes

The rain and cold weather dampened our day at the grottoes.

Longmen Grottoes contains over 2300 caves and niches.

Vairocana Buddha is over 56 feet tall. I regret not taking a picture with a person for comparison sake. Maybe next time…

Carving began in year 493. It continued through the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties.

 

Although it was quite rainy and cold the day we went to the Longmen Grottoes, it was definitely worth seeing a part of Chinese history that has lasted so long. Pictures can’t do the carvings justice in their detail and size. The amount of work put into the site is astounding, especially considering the kind of technology that was used when they were carved. Here is more information about the caves with descriptions and stats of how big they are. The UNESCO site gives a brief history of the different phases and dynasties involved in carving the grottoes.

Luoyang was the smallest city we visited with less than 2 million people.

Goodbye Guilin

April 13

My last day in Guilin comprised of a visit to the Elephant Rock. They keep this site pretty well hidden until you pay the entrance fee to get into the park. Then a lunch of fresh noodles. Right before getting on the train, I had my feet exfoliated by fish.

The famous elephant rock.

These felt whimsical to me.

Buildings are just a cool site to see.

The beginning of a delicious bowl of noodles.

I watched lunch being made right in front of me. These noodles are never-ending.

Yes it was delicious as it looks. I never have quite gotten the hang of eating noodles with chopsticks though. No matter how I tried, I never could find the end of these noodles.

It tickled a little in the beginning. I had to keep pulling my feet out. I did notice softer feet afterward. 10 for 20 minutes. It was a pretty good deal.

Don’t let the bus leave you behind

April 12th

I find these kind of photos ironic because in fact there are several hundred people in places like this.

Yangshuo Big Banyan Tree

All around the old tree were people dressed up taking photos.

I tried to get a picture of a car driving across this road. Unfortunately this car ended up backing up and not going across. I didn’t have time to wait for another one…

Well you know it’s chicken.

While I don’t agree with ruining natural things like this, the lights and water do make for awesome photos.

Seriously you can’t get away from people. This is on the boat ride we took on the Li River.

The foreign tourists had more room. We waved from our boat. I was just a bit envious of the chairs and walking space they had. Although, they probably paid more for their boat ride than we did for ours.

Pictures can be deceiving. Doesn’t this just look like a peaceful day. With awesome views of cool stuff? Yes, it was that. But put that in combination with we’re only at this spot for an hour. Oh where did the bus go? It’s lunch now, yay. Wait we aren’t done eating yet. Well it’s time to go.

That was a pretty neat cave. Kind of like Carlsbad…plus colorful lights, thousands of more people, and water. Now we’re going through three different shopping areas. Where’s the exit?

Now I’m sorry, but you’ll have to sit through a live infomercial of products made with bamboo. I’m sure you want to buy those products now. Check out the store. The exit is at the other end.

30 more minutes on the bus to the Li River. Enjoy this boat ride with two hundred other people. Smoking is allowed. Here’s your chance to practice taking photos without anybody in them. It’s possible if you push yourself to a spot on the railing and stick your camera out. Come on it’s time to go. Is that everyone?

But in all seriousness. It was a great day. Despite the rushed feel of it all. I did get to see and do a lot. I certainly slept well that night.

 

Dragon’s Backbone

April 11th

Barely off of the overnight train from Nanchang to Guilin and we’re off and running. I had my first taste of Chinese Tourism. It was a bit gimmicky and strange to observe. I felt like I was going through a museum. I probably would have gotten more out of the experience if I had understood the tour guide. We stopped at this Yao village, which was clearly setup for tourism.

Yao Dance

The women never cut their hair but once in their life when they enter adulthood. 18 years old.

I paid the equivalent of a little more than $4 for a 30 second ride on a zip line across the river.

Chinese do enjoy photos. It was fun to see everyone always wanting pictures of where they were and what they were doing. The peace sign is popular.

After an interesting hour and half of partaking in Chinese tourism, we headed to the rice terraces.

A lot of places worth visiting have an entrance gate.

After a little hike up a few hundred steps we had a delicious lunch on the mountain. They served and cooked the rice in bamboo stalks.

While eating lunch I observed a man taking a smoke break.

Everywhere you look they are building. This community is thriving on tourism. Chinese and foreign tourists alike.

This is why we came up here. Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces.

All the way on top.

Every view is breathtaking.

Someone working in the rice fields.

One of my favorite afternoons in China.

I would love to come back and visit another time of year too. While you may not escape people, you do escape the city.

Another plane, another city

April 7th-April 10th

Just two days later I found myself in another city. I finally felt like I was in China. Because I was traveling with a Chinese family, we went to visit May’s hometown.

Nanchang, Jiangxi Province

Population 5,042,565

I took a walk down the street.

This is what felt like China to me.

I felt a bit conspicuous taking photos, so I put my camera away after a few shots.

The food is always fresh.

Finally some countryside and fresh air.

Probably the best meal I had in China.

These two ladies made our lunch.

Shorting through the bamboo shoots we collected that afternoon.

I tried to avoid toilets like this. I much prefer looking at a distance.

I did the most walking in Nanchang.

Although I did manage to get photos without people in them, it’s always a challenge. There are in fact always many people. Everywhere.

Walked into Walmart. Even though it’s in a different country, you know it’s Walmart.

I walked almost two hours to get here as I had almost a full day to myself. I decided to just look at it from the outside as I thought I would be visiting other pavilions. Now I wish I had just paid to go inside.

China always seems to be constructing things.

I stumbled across a bunch of school children playing at recess.

Nanchang has a Beverly Hills.

I guess I did see blue sky when I was in China.

The skyscrapers are a light show.

Autumn Square. Free water show every night. Similar to Bellagio in Las Vegas. Only it’s set to Chinese music and a bit more colorful.

 

Shanghai

April 5th and 6th

And the sightseeing begins.

The first two days in China felt like I was touring a massive Chinatown and city. There weren’t a lot of foreigners, but the streets were clean. The spaces felt wide open. We took a city tour on a bus. The first day everyone was kicked off of the bus after ten minutes and we proceeded to wait probably for another hour before we were able to get on another bus.

That afternoon we went to the oriental pearl tower, which is just tall interesting shaped building made for tourists. The line was long, but as we already had tickets for ¥160 ($25.50). Little did we know that we would stand in line for two hours to walk around the entirety of the building and when we finally got inside the building there was more line to wait in. After we got through the security check we ended up leaving because it would have been another hour to go up and an hour to wait to come down. We certainly learned our lesson there. We had no idea what kind of lines we would be experiencing. The experience was worsened by the fact that everyone was impatient to go up, which resulted in a few people cutting in line several times.

The second day was better, as we made sure to ask questions first. We took a nice ride around the city bus to see the bridge and skyline. We weren’t tied town by waiting in lines. Also, took taxis around in Shanghai which was quite simple.

And that’s just part one in Shanghai. More to come about navigating my way through the largest populated city in China (also in the world depending on how you define city). 24 million people, over twice as big as NYC.

No wonder why the streets are so clean.

你好中国 China, the beginning

April 4th-First Night

I thought when I landed in China I would be immediately be overwhelmed with a sense of “wow this is China.” Maybe it was because I was sleep deprived, but it didn’t feel like I was in China. It didn’t really feel like I was anywhere, certainly not on the other side of the world from my home.

I was happy to not be traveling alone and to be traveling with Chinese speakers. May and Dan, and their 4 year old triplet daughters. May is a native Chinese speaker, whose family is in China. She moved to the US when she married Dan. In the airport we met up with her cousin who took us on the subway. It was early evening, about 6pm. I was surprised at the lack of trash. There weren’t even that many people riding the subway. Of course that quickly changed as we got closer into the city and had to switch trains. Basically you push your way into a car so that the doors can close. There is no elbow room. Barely enough room to breathe. Little did I know that I would experience worse…

May’s cousin took us to a restaurant where we met up with his wife. In the center of the table is a turntable so that multiple dishes can be ordered and shared with everyone. The triplets were falling asleep halfway through the meal. There is no comparison of real Chinese food and American Chinese food. There are no words to describe how good the seafood was, especially the steamed fish. I could go to China just for the fish.

Then it was off to bed. Shanghai, see you in the morning.

 

How to Get to China

Option One: Start digging, eventually you’ll make it to the other side of the world.

If option one is not possible, then the process is a bit more complicated.

You need to purchase a plane ticket. If you live somewhere like the great southwest you’ll undoubtably have to fly on more than one plane.

Apply for a visa to China. If you do not live in a city that processes visas you will have to use a visa service. I paid $215 for the visa, shipping, and processing fee.

Then start packing. Check out my post about packing.

Get to the airport two hours in advance of your flight time. This meant that I had to go down to Albuquerque the night before as my flight was at 6:20am. I arrived in San Francisco at 8:00am. Since I already had gone through security I didn’t have to go back through even for an international flight. Basically I had four hours to kill. In hindsight, I could have taken a later flight from Albuquerque to San Francisco.

Finally board the plane and endure the 13 hour plane ride. Thankfully it’s a little more bearable as they do show recent movies and tv shows for the entire flight. I watched frozen Frozen and Saving Mr. Banks. Eating helps pass the time as well.

I really had no idea what time it was when we were served food. We were chasing the sun all the way there. It’s funny they served us “Chinese” food on the flight. We had sesame chicken with fried rice, a roll, salad, and chocolate cake.

There was an option of noodles or eggs for breakfast.

We also were served a midway snack flight of a ham sandwich and ice cream sandwich.

So after a few movies, tv shows, a little nap, and lots of sitting, China was beneath the wings of the plane.

After the landing, it’s a shuffle of people getting off the plane, a wait in a line for customs, and a walk to find the exit. At this point it just feels like an airport, not a new country (except the signs are in 中文 as well as English).

Welcome to China.

 

Unpause

Well I’m back and in the world of responsibility. I didn’t want to come back home because it would break the spell I was in. I was in another world and another time. Literally I was in a different time zone, but I was also experiencing time differently. For 18 days I was constantly on the move. Everything started mashing together, I could hardly remember what I had for breakfast. I was living a different life, smelling, seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, observing a new culture. I was a person free of things to tie me down.

And then I came back home, and it’s as if nothing has changed. My room is unchanged. I can pick up where I left off, resume the same projects. It’s as if time paused. The changes in the city and in people’s lives all seem relatively insignificant. I suppose though, that I’m the one who experienced the change by stepping into another culture. Kind of like when you read a book and put it down to read another one and then come back to where you left off. That’s how it feels for me to come home. Even when I was gone for three months and came back, nothing seemed to really have changed.

Unfortunately, while I was in China I was unable to post anything. So, be prepared for a wave of posts and pictures. I have some work ahead of me for a while…