Left the hostel at 6.30am this morning to go to see the Great Wall. I can't remember what section it was, but it was J...... to Simatai, a non-touristy bit and a 10km hike.
Got to J...... at about 10.30am and decided to take the cable car to cut 40 minutes off. Thank goodness we did because it was quite some walk ahead.
The wall is fantastic - it's so hard to believe you're actually there. We walked 30 watchtowers in total, and quite a few of them were extremely steep. The first half of the walk was in blazing sunshine. It was tiring and pushed you quite hard physically. A couple of Mongolian ladies latched on to us hoping to sell souvenirs. But they were not overt about it and walked with us for about 40 minutes being very pleasant, so when the time came to leave them we agreed to buy a T-shirt for the startlingly high price (for China) of 100 yuan (8 pounds)
As the day wore on the weather began to turn bad and a storm closed in around us with fork lightening. It wasn't too bad until we got to a section that had no wall on either side, it was basically sheer drops on each side. Although I am not great with heights, this became the least of my worries as the storm was now directly overhead. The thunder boomed so loudly that a couple of American girls on the same section and me instinctively fell to our knees and covered our heads with our hands.
Barry had chosen this moment to bugger off(!) so I was left to scramble on my own on my back down the dangerous section and then sprint the last section with the American girls. Fork lightening struck close by and an older American lady's metal cane was flung out of her hand, attracted by the pull of the storm. Not the best place to be in a storm!
Torrential rain was falling by this point and in the absence of Barry I linked up with some Australians. It was all OK though and we reached the 30th watchtower safely, if a little wet and tired. I think Barry knew I was cross with him and he has been trying to make it up to me ever since(!)
The day wasn't over yet as now we had the option of either walking another 40 minutes to the bus or sliding down a death slide high, high over a river and dam. After a bit of deliberation we decided to go for the death slide! I was a bit apprehensive but once I had struck off it was fine and very enjoyable!
The wall experience overall was really fantastic, and I guess it was good that we saw it both in sunshine and at its moodiest best. Thank goodness I had bought the T-shirt off the Mongolian woman cos it meant I had some at least dry clothes to change into!
Will try to post some pictures soon.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Giant Panda
The centre of Beijing is closed for "Olympic Rehearsals" at the moment so we are going to the outlying sites first. Today we went to Beijing Zoo. Barry was very excited indeed to see a Giant Panda - there were two panda houses one built for the Asian games a few years ago and a new one built for this year's Olympics with about 8 pandas in. I can quite see how they are not surviving in the wild - all they do is lie there and eat bamboo(!) but I must admit they are very cute.
It was not the only attraction at the panda house, as the only Western-looking person I was quite a celebrity to the children present. One stared so much that his father asked if he could take some photos of me and him(!)
The pandas were housed quite palatially but the same could not be said of the rest - felt really sorry for the White Tiger, normal Tiger and Lion who were each in a 8x8 cell, poor dabs. There was also a noctural animal bit in which one exhibit was the "European hedgehog" but he must have been hiding!
It has been a bit of a strange day on the linguistic front. I learnt a new Mandarin word - I think it is "hen-hao" which mean "great" - think of "hen house" and leave the s out. But Cherry brought another of her many relatives along today - Lily, who just happens to be studying in France. We spent most of the day chatting in French since it is a lot stronger than her English, much to the bewilderment of Cherry's nephews who are struggling with English and didn't realise we'd departed from it!
At lunchtime we had a rather nice mango iced drink at a modern Beijing cafe - expensive by Chinese standards at 28 yuan, but this is only just over 2 pounds. In the afternoon we went for a look around a clothes market which had an incredible number of shops. Cherry went wild in the aisles and stocked up on T-shirts for 80p.
This evening we went to sing karaoke. The karaoke place is very like Japanese set-ups where you get your own room for 6 people and just get on with it. 3 hours of karaoke with an all-you-can-eat buffet and thousands of songs to chose from cost under 3 pounds. Bargain. Goodness knows how low cost things are in the country if this is the standard in Beijing.
During my conversations with Lily I learnt that Beijing has practically changed beyond all recognition for the Olympics - it's much cleaner and there's been loads of English put up whereas before there was hardly a word. At least 3 underground lines have been dug out and the existing ones improved. Taxis have been obliged by a by-law to keep their air-conditioning on for the duration of the Olympics. And the number of new buildings/skyscrapers is incredible. They've certainly pulled out all the stops for the Olympics.
I learnt a new fact today - there has been a change in China's one-child policy. Apparently if both you and your husband are only children, you can have two children instead of one. Cherry is very excited by this development and resolved to find an only child to marry!!
Off to the Summer Palace tomorrow. Time for bed now :)
It was not the only attraction at the panda house, as the only Western-looking person I was quite a celebrity to the children present. One stared so much that his father asked if he could take some photos of me and him(!)
The pandas were housed quite palatially but the same could not be said of the rest - felt really sorry for the White Tiger, normal Tiger and Lion who were each in a 8x8 cell, poor dabs. There was also a noctural animal bit in which one exhibit was the "European hedgehog" but he must have been hiding!
It has been a bit of a strange day on the linguistic front. I learnt a new Mandarin word - I think it is "hen-hao" which mean "great" - think of "hen house" and leave the s out. But Cherry brought another of her many relatives along today - Lily, who just happens to be studying in France. We spent most of the day chatting in French since it is a lot stronger than her English, much to the bewilderment of Cherry's nephews who are struggling with English and didn't realise we'd departed from it!
At lunchtime we had a rather nice mango iced drink at a modern Beijing cafe - expensive by Chinese standards at 28 yuan, but this is only just over 2 pounds. In the afternoon we went for a look around a clothes market which had an incredible number of shops. Cherry went wild in the aisles and stocked up on T-shirts for 80p.
This evening we went to sing karaoke. The karaoke place is very like Japanese set-ups where you get your own room for 6 people and just get on with it. 3 hours of karaoke with an all-you-can-eat buffet and thousands of songs to chose from cost under 3 pounds. Bargain. Goodness knows how low cost things are in the country if this is the standard in Beijing.
During my conversations with Lily I learnt that Beijing has practically changed beyond all recognition for the Olympics - it's much cleaner and there's been loads of English put up whereas before there was hardly a word. At least 3 underground lines have been dug out and the existing ones improved. Taxis have been obliged by a by-law to keep their air-conditioning on for the duration of the Olympics. And the number of new buildings/skyscrapers is incredible. They've certainly pulled out all the stops for the Olympics.
I learnt a new fact today - there has been a change in China's one-child policy. Apparently if both you and your husband are only children, you can have two children instead of one. Cherry is very excited by this development and resolved to find an only child to marry!!
Off to the Summer Palace tomorrow. Time for bed now :)
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Arrival in Beijing
Arrived in Beijing yesterday on a flight from Xi'an. Beijing, it has to be said, is totally obsessed with the Olympics. I mean, I know there are only 3 days to go, but literally every lamppost in the city has a flag with some variant of "One World, One Dream" on it.
We met up with Cherry and her two nephews last night and they're going to be here for the next 12 days, the same as us, so we have tour guides again!
Beijing is rumoured as the city of smog, and I must say a definite haze was hanging over the city when we arrived yesterday. Although the locals assure us that it's much better than it used to be - so the mind boggles! Cherry tells us that the traffic isn't as bad as usual because only cars with numberplates ending in odd numbers drive one day and even numbers the next, effectively halving the traffic.
Last night Cherry took us out to an area of Beijing - don't ask me where - and we went pedal-boating on the lake. It was great fun, although I had to step in and do some steering because we were in danger of capsizing at one point！ Afterwards we had a walk around some shops/stalls and took in the atmosphere.
Now, I am not usually one for complaining about Youth Hostels being grungy, but the place we are staying in (P Loft) takes the biscuit. For the extortionate price of $34 I was entitled to toilet, but no sink, literally a cell made of grey bricks with 4 people in it, no room to put the luggage at all, and most importantly of all no air conditioner! So it was rather like sleeping in a furnace - it must have been 35C in there and no exaggeration. It made the outside seem quite cool. Was forced to strip down the duvet and sleep naked with the duvet cover just protecting my modesty! More on this later. Barry, meanwhile, had had his reservation messed up so they had put him in a single room with ensuite and air conditioning! Lucky boy!
After approx 3 hours sleep(!) Barry and I and one of Cherry's nephew's went to pick up the Olympic tickets. Thank goodness he came with us as I think we'd still be wandering around now! Luckily all was well, we found the place and we're in row 26 of section M on 15th August 7pm-11pm. It's rumoured that the 100m relay is that night but I can't be sure!
Later this morning we met Cherry and her nephews and went to see a garden. Apparently the only way to translate it is "Garden that the British and French Armies burned" So we gelt suitably guilty on behalf of our people as we went round! It was pretty hot today, and Cherry and Barry felt they were dying of heat-stroke. Perhaps it is the effect of sleeping in such a ridiculously hot room, but I didn't find it two bad. Perhaps those two blistering Japanese summers made me 'ard ;-)
In the afternoon we went to have a look around an electronics village, but the prices weren't cheap at all - mostly the same as at home, but at times more expensive! and mostly the same stuff． Ｔｈｉｎｋ Ｉ＇ｍ ｇｏｉｎｇ ｔｏ ｈａｖｅ ａ ｌｏｏｋ ｉｎ Ｈｏｎｇ Ｋｏｎｇ ｉｎｓｔｅａｄ！
Ｈｍｍ，ｍｙ ｆｏｎｔ＇ｓ ｇｏｎｅ ａｌｌ ｆｕｎｎｙ． Ｎｅｖｅｒ ｍｉｎｄ．
After looking around the electrics, we made our way back to the Youth Hostel with Cherry in tow because she wanted to have a shout at the management about my sleeping hell-hole. Which she proceeded to do. It was all in Chinese, but I understand that she played the Olympic card "How can you enjoy the Olympics on 2 hours sleep a night" and so on. Anyway, I think Management were scared of her because the upshot of it is that they have given us a free upgrade to a twin room with air con for the rest of the 11 nights we are here (hooray!) It normally cost 960yuan against 240 yuan for a dormitory, so go Cherry!!
So it's looking good from a sleeping point of view for the rest of our stay. Tonight we went out to dinner with one of Cherry's friends from Essex and his wife. It had some very interesting translations on the menu. These included:
- Stewed forest frog's ovary in ice sugar
- Give birth to and fry the one of mushroom of lark
- Snake (meaning "Snack")!
- High Happy
- Aloe turtle and mythic fungus cream
- Tiger boils the sirloin in overcast work
- Highest ranking imperial Chicken leg
None of those sounded too appetising, so in the end I went for the duck. Well, this is Beijing after all ;-)
Now I am retreating to air-conditioned bliss and a nice sleep!
We met up with Cherry and her two nephews last night and they're going to be here for the next 12 days, the same as us, so we have tour guides again!
Beijing is rumoured as the city of smog, and I must say a definite haze was hanging over the city when we arrived yesterday. Although the locals assure us that it's much better than it used to be - so the mind boggles! Cherry tells us that the traffic isn't as bad as usual because only cars with numberplates ending in odd numbers drive one day and even numbers the next, effectively halving the traffic.
Last night Cherry took us out to an area of Beijing - don't ask me where - and we went pedal-boating on the lake. It was great fun, although I had to step in and do some steering because we were in danger of capsizing at one point！ Afterwards we had a walk around some shops/stalls and took in the atmosphere.
Now, I am not usually one for complaining about Youth Hostels being grungy, but the place we are staying in (P Loft) takes the biscuit. For the extortionate price of $34 I was entitled to toilet, but no sink, literally a cell made of grey bricks with 4 people in it, no room to put the luggage at all, and most importantly of all no air conditioner! So it was rather like sleeping in a furnace - it must have been 35C in there and no exaggeration. It made the outside seem quite cool. Was forced to strip down the duvet and sleep naked with the duvet cover just protecting my modesty! More on this later. Barry, meanwhile, had had his reservation messed up so they had put him in a single room with ensuite and air conditioning! Lucky boy!
After approx 3 hours sleep(!) Barry and I and one of Cherry's nephew's went to pick up the Olympic tickets. Thank goodness he came with us as I think we'd still be wandering around now! Luckily all was well, we found the place and we're in row 26 of section M on 15th August 7pm-11pm. It's rumoured that the 100m relay is that night but I can't be sure!
Later this morning we met Cherry and her nephews and went to see a garden. Apparently the only way to translate it is "Garden that the British and French Armies burned" So we gelt suitably guilty on behalf of our people as we went round! It was pretty hot today, and Cherry and Barry felt they were dying of heat-stroke. Perhaps it is the effect of sleeping in such a ridiculously hot room, but I didn't find it two bad. Perhaps those two blistering Japanese summers made me 'ard ;-)
In the afternoon we went to have a look around an electronics village, but the prices weren't cheap at all - mostly the same as at home, but at times more expensive! and mostly the same stuff． Ｔｈｉｎｋ Ｉ＇ｍ ｇｏｉｎｇ ｔｏ ｈａｖｅ ａ ｌｏｏｋ ｉｎ Ｈｏｎｇ Ｋｏｎｇ ｉｎｓｔｅａｄ！
Ｈｍｍ，ｍｙ ｆｏｎｔ＇ｓ ｇｏｎｅ ａｌｌ ｆｕｎｎｙ． Ｎｅｖｅｒ ｍｉｎｄ．
After looking around the electrics, we made our way back to the Youth Hostel with Cherry in tow because she wanted to have a shout at the management about my sleeping hell-hole. Which she proceeded to do. It was all in Chinese, but I understand that she played the Olympic card "How can you enjoy the Olympics on 2 hours sleep a night" and so on. Anyway, I think Management were scared of her because the upshot of it is that they have given us a free upgrade to a twin room with air con for the rest of the 11 nights we are here (hooray!) It normally cost 960yuan against 240 yuan for a dormitory, so go Cherry!!
So it's looking good from a sleeping point of view for the rest of our stay. Tonight we went out to dinner with one of Cherry's friends from Essex and his wife. It had some very interesting translations on the menu. These included:
- Stewed forest frog's ovary in ice sugar
- Give birth to and fry the one of mushroom of lark
- Snake (meaning "Snack")!
- High Happy
- Aloe turtle and mythic fungus cream
- Tiger boils the sirloin in overcast work
- Highest ranking imperial Chicken leg
None of those sounded too appetising, so in the end I went for the duck. Well, this is Beijing after all ;-)
Now I am retreating to air-conditioned bliss and a nice sleep!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Terracotta Warriors
Got the bus from outside Xi'an train station today. First we went to Hua Qing Springs or something like that - Hot springs that the old Chinese Emperors used to bathe in. There were lots of relics and that sort of thing and we had a poke about some of the old buildings.
Then in the afternoon, we went on to the Terracotta Warriors. Billed as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" and they definitely didn't disappoint! I couldn't believe I was actually there.
So far, since their initial discovery in March 1974 they have excavated about 1,000 warriors, but they think there are about 6,000 in total, so there's a long way to go yet. One interesting thing we learnt is that they were colourful when they were first dug out, but the air quickly dulled them into their uniform terracotta colour.
It's difficult to describe the scale, the biggest pit is enormous and the warriors are arranged in rows. They all seem to have a different face. It's hard to imagine the man power it must have taken to make them all.
Friday, August 1, 2008
A Day in Xian
Woke up at the vaguely respectable time of 10am (considering jetlag) and had a look around Xian, at the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. Also Barry found his spiritual home - McDonalds. Is there anywhere they don't get to?!
Cherry's nephew came to meet us in the afternoon. Nice guy and his English is pretty good too. At least, good enough for us! He took us to see the large wild goose pagoda - 7 floors high. Afterwards we waited in the square to see a light show with fountains. On the way home we nearly got run over by a bus!
Cherry's nephew came to meet us in the afternoon. Nice guy and his English is pretty good too. At least, good enough for us! He took us to see the large wild goose pagoda - 7 floors high. Afterwards we waited in the square to see a light show with fountains. On the way home we nearly got run over by a bus!
Across the World
Quite a smooth trip to China - all the way into Xian. We left Swansea at 8.30am and caught our flight at about 4pm from Heathrow. Then we changed in Copenhagen on to the Beijing flight.
We had only been in Beijing for 2 minutes when Barry was ripped off in a tea shop to the tune of 384 yuan (30 pounds!) We were trying to have a cup of tea so when they thrust a menu at him he assumed it was normal and picked one. They ended up bringing him a very small tea canister (3inches by 1inch) and reliving him of his money! LOL.
Got the most rickety minibus from Xian airport to the Youth Hostel, and everywhere there were people with bikes without lights and so on, motorbikes and crazy driving. But we finally got there all in one piece and fell into bed!
We had only been in Beijing for 2 minutes when Barry was ripped off in a tea shop to the tune of 384 yuan (30 pounds!) We were trying to have a cup of tea so when they thrust a menu at him he assumed it was normal and picked one. They ended up bringing him a very small tea canister (3inches by 1inch) and reliving him of his money! LOL.
Got the most rickety minibus from Xian airport to the Youth Hostel, and everywhere there were people with bikes without lights and so on, motorbikes and crazy driving. But we finally got there all in one piece and fell into bed!
Total Solar Eclipse
WE SAW IT!!!!!!
The weather has been hazy since we arrived in Xian (China) so I was not exactly holding out a lot of hope. We had Cherry's nephew with us (Chinese person) so he had a look on the internet and found that the best place to see the eclipse was in a park to the north of Xian. When we got there about 2pm the weather was still very cloudy indeed. It is a particular problem in these parts because the eclipse wasn't until 7.15pm when the sun is very low in the sky, so atmospheric conditions are even more difficult.
Lo and behold at 4pm the clouds parted and we had a clear blue sky to the horizon!!! First contact of the moon was at 6.27pm where it just started to nibble at the sun and it continued across the face.
I had the eclipse glasses which I ordered from a website in the UK before I left but there were loads of Chinese people who had made their own arrangements - one was looking through the negative of what looked like a brain scan(!)
The sun was setting by now (it's only 4 degrees above the horizon at eclipse time) but just before the treeline it reached totality and by 7.10pm there was hardly anything of the sun left, just looked like a street lamp hanging in the sky while it got darker and darker.
Then finally at 7.15pm we saw the whole of the sun covered by the moon and the sun's corona. We were only into the eclipse area by the skin of our teeth, so totality only lasted about 10 seconds, but what a 10 seconds, as they say. Fantastic! Then the diamond ring came into view as the moon moved off, and about 5 minutes later the sun had set.
Coming home there were thousands of people so it took ages to get a taxi. Two days ago I thought the people walking at the side of the road as the cars sped past were mental - now I am one of them!
Xiao Shuang (Cherry's nephew) has been telling us about sights around China and how they are rated as 5 star for the best, 4 star, 3 star etc. I said to him, "So, do you rate the solar eclipse as 5 star?" He thought for a while and then said, "Maybe six or even seven star!"
The weather has been hazy since we arrived in Xian (China) so I was not exactly holding out a lot of hope. We had Cherry's nephew with us (Chinese person) so he had a look on the internet and found that the best place to see the eclipse was in a park to the north of Xian. When we got there about 2pm the weather was still very cloudy indeed. It is a particular problem in these parts because the eclipse wasn't until 7.15pm when the sun is very low in the sky, so atmospheric conditions are even more difficult.
Lo and behold at 4pm the clouds parted and we had a clear blue sky to the horizon!!! First contact of the moon was at 6.27pm where it just started to nibble at the sun and it continued across the face.
I had the eclipse glasses which I ordered from a website in the UK before I left but there were loads of Chinese people who had made their own arrangements - one was looking through the negative of what looked like a brain scan(!)
The sun was setting by now (it's only 4 degrees above the horizon at eclipse time) but just before the treeline it reached totality and by 7.10pm there was hardly anything of the sun left, just looked like a street lamp hanging in the sky while it got darker and darker.
Then finally at 7.15pm we saw the whole of the sun covered by the moon and the sun's corona. We were only into the eclipse area by the skin of our teeth, so totality only lasted about 10 seconds, but what a 10 seconds, as they say. Fantastic! Then the diamond ring came into view as the moon moved off, and about 5 minutes later the sun had set.
Coming home there were thousands of people so it took ages to get a taxi. Two days ago I thought the people walking at the side of the road as the cars sped past were mental - now I am one of them!
Xiao Shuang (Cherry's nephew) has been telling us about sights around China and how they are rated as 5 star for the best, 4 star, 3 star etc. I said to him, "So, do you rate the solar eclipse as 5 star?" He thought for a while and then said, "Maybe six or even seven star!"
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