Tsai Gian China, Konichiwa Japan

Today we are leaving China for our next adventure in Japan. I will miss some things about this crazy country, mainly the scenery – which is breathtaking…it is a beautiful country.

Here are a few thoughts on China - things that make China unique
-Babies and crochless pants – this is something that I have only seen in China, so I can’t say if it happens anywhere else in the world, but the fact that little boys go crotchless during their all important potty training years is practical, but a tad off putting for a purell loving hand wipe toting germ-a-phobe like me.

-Fairytale scenery – the mountains, cityscapes, gardens, and temples of this country are from another world, so much so that photos barely do them justice.

-Public bathrooms = scratch that, holes with no water – I encountered more than one trench like bathroom with no TP and with no water, I can still smell them actually.

-Public water taps = scratch that, hot water taps – There are no water fountains, as the water is not potable. I haven’t encountered this anywhere else, and it makes a huge difference in how much water you consume. However, there are public hot water taps everywhere, and everyone carries a jar or bottle filled with tea

-Staring – In China, foreigners stand out, and it is not a bad thing to stare there, so doing a double, triple or even quadruple take as someone passes is normal. So getting used to having photos taken of us, or being stared at in a jaw dropping kind of way was pretty hard – at least I know now that I never want to be famous.

-Spitting – Clearing one’s throat and spitting is common practice in China (I had been warned about this but did not truly believe it until I saw it for myself). While it is illegal, it is pervasive, although I hear it has gotten much better than it used to be.

-Enthusiasm of the People – the Chinese people are some of the hardest working and enthusiastic folks that I have seen. As tiring as the hawkers were, they were doing their job to the max, and people’s enthusiasm over learning and speaking to foreigners was surprising, they were lovely.

-Paying 3-5 times as much as everyone else – I’m used to spending the same price for things as everyone else, but in China, everything is haggled for, and if you are a foreigner, you will pay 3-5 times as much as a native, that’s the rule.

-Craziest driving I have ever seen – As I have previously mentioned, there is a technique and style to driving in China that makes it unique, and quite seriously super scary. Anyone who has ever ridden in a cab knows that cabbies driving abilities vary by city, state, and country –I can attest that the scariest cab ride ever (no scratch that, scariest mode of any type of transportation I have ever taken) was the ride out to the Shanghai airport. Not only did our cabbie drive 20-40 KM over the speed limit (past numerous cops by the way), not only did he weave in and out of traffic like he was playing Grand Tourismo, but he was also encountering trucks that had stopped in the middle of the road, other weaving taxis, and vehicles that could not be considered road safe in any country.

Now for a bit about Shanghai

Ulises and I spent four days in Shanghai, the city of pirates and opium and forced labor aboard ships. It is a beautiful modern city situated along the Huangpu River with the old colonial section – The Bund – situated along a long promenade next to the river. The far side of the river houses Pudong, which is the skyscraper rich skyline that is often shown in photos of Shanghai. It has a different feel than the rest of China, and you can see how the different colonial sections have merged into the new Shanghai – an odd combination of Europe, China, Japan, and the uber modern.

Here are some highlights from our time in Shanghai –

August 30 -
We spent nearly the whole day wandering for hours through the 6 story, 10 block long walls that line the streets of the Nanjing Road from People’s Park to the Bund. If you thought that the US was all about shopping, you have never been to Asia! There are bronze statues of happy families of shoppers (complete with lots of shopping bags on their arms) at each end of the pedestrian mall, and people are thrilled to have their photos taken with these odd statues to commerce.

We made our way through all the shopping and to the Bund just in time to watch the sun set, and wander through the hordes of people selling roller-skate shoes, kites, wind up toys, and crap that lights up until we got tired, ate a bad pizza and made our way back to the hotel.

August 31-
We struck out to visit The National Museum in the middle of a rainstorm, and were stopped by some young folks who wanted to know if we were from the US. We said yes (despite a nagging desire to say that we were from Canada) and met our new best English Speaking Friends. No really, they were quite nice, two girls and a guy who were all English students and were looking for an opportunity to practice their American English on a couple of native speakers. After chatting for a while, they invited us to have afternoon tea, but given that we were on our way to the free day at the museum, we said thanks and parted ways with our English speaking buddies and got in line to wait for the museum.



After having seen countless museums over the past 5 months, the Shanghai museum, while well organized and with some of the best exhibit explanations in China, it was very furniture focused (which sadly isn’t my cup of tea). The best part about the museum was its exhibit of bronze works, particularly those which featured stylized abstract designs, which are sometimes called tao-tie. They are abstracted animal designs, which look surprisingly like the carvings and tribal imagery of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. It was beautiful, and incredibly impressive for the era.

September 1
I’m standing on top of the what?



Today we decided to do one of the touristiest things we have done to date, we headed to an observation deck in the Pudong area of town. The newly opened Shanghai World Financial Center tower (which Ulises and I refer to as the can / bottle opener building given that it looks exactly like a bottle opener) is not the tallest building in the world (although I think it is cheating to think of antenna’s being counted in height) but it has the highest public observation deck in the world. The total building is 492.3Meters high (about 1,600 Feet or so), the observation deck is on the 95, 97, and 100th floors.

We of course decided to pay our Yuan and go to the 100th floor. It was an interesting experience, somewhat like visiting the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas, as folks dressed in stiff purple futuristic suits and happily guiding us from one dimly lit room with super cool décor, to another dimly lit room with super cool animated décor. I guess when you have to take elevators 100 floors up, you’ve got to stall folks, so there is an elaborate animated sequence that you view before you finally enter the elevator.

For those who are disturbed by heights, I would not recommend a visit to this building, as a matter of fact; you might just lose it upon entry to the elevator. As you pass floors in the elevator, a spiral strobe light shows you how fast you are climbing in elevation – which is horribly disorienting as you climb to the 100th floor some 1,300 feet above the ground.





We stepped out and realized that not only were we ridiculously high up, but that the floors are made of tempered glass, and the ceilings of mirrors. This gives the odd feeling of standing on the air above the city – as the 100th floor is the floor at the top of the “bottle opener” part of the building. It was so cool!



We headed over to the Superbrands Mall to soak in some more of the consumer culture and have lunch at a yummy vegetarian restaurant and marvel that they are opening a Best Buy and a Hooters there (yup that’s right, Hooters). We sluggishly made our way to the metro station to our next stop.

We rounded out our day with a trip to the French Concession to wander through tree lined cobblestone streets that look like they are straight out of Europe, and for a wonderful dinner at a Thai restaurant. We had great intentions to go listen to some jazz at a well-reviewed jazz club, only to find that they were closed and the building gutted (this seems to happen a lot in Shanghai – as two restaurants we tried to visit were also closed). Slightly dejected, but full of Thai food, we called it a day.

September 2

This being our last day in Shanghai, we decided to go and see the Old City. This is the oldest part of the city, the portion of the city to which Chinese were confined during the colonial days. Now it is a mix of hawkers, traditional stores, tourist traps, temples, landmarks, and traditional Chinese architecture.

We hopped in a cab and made it over to the Old City for about 20 Yuan and explored the streets and shops, stopping to have some Pearl Milk Tea (or boba as you may know it). We walked through a modern park packed with families and picnickers and bamboo groves supported with a web of bamboo latticework running parallel to the ground.



We then headed to the ancient gardens of Yuyuan Gardens created in the 1500’s over a period of 18 years by a Ming dynasty family, and rebuilt after suffering damage during several conflicts over the course of the years. The gardens were spectacular, built with ponds overflowing with carp and dotted with statuary and incredible Ming era buildings. The gardens went on and on, with carefully sculpted rock formations and incredible bronzes.



We spent hours wandering throughout the gardens, when we realized that we were pretty hungry, so what better to do than head out to find the best-steamed dumplings in the city. We hopped in line to wait about 30 minutes for some amazingly good crab dumplings, and were yet again subjected to being the photographic subject of many cell phone holding Chinese tourists. In an effort to evade the paparazzi yet again, we decided to go have tea at one of the most famous teahouses in China – the Huzinting Teahouse. It was beautiful, and as many old buildings are, leaning precariously as if it had seen one too many storms. We had some Oolong and Green tea and were presented with a variety of snacks to have with our tea, some tea hard-boiled quail eggs, some pickled plums, and some gelatinous sweets. The quail eggs weren’t too bad, but I must say the food was a little more adventurous than I was counting on.



We finished off our visit to the Old City by catching a ride back with a motorcycle rickshaw driver, thinking that this would be the most economical option to get us back to our side of town, and the metro ride to our evening activity. Turns out that despite a ride through rush hour traffic that I will never forget, the rickshaw driver did not thin our ride should be economical, and charged us 30 Yuan (we thought he said 3). So after expressing our extreme displeasure over being ripped off, we hopped on the metro and headed over to Pudong to try and squeeze in a visit to the aquarium – which was open until 9.



Or that’s what the books said. Turns out the aquarium closes at 6 now, and we were left with our little noses pressed against the window and no cool fish to look at. So we headed to the riverside to watch the nightly parade of advertising boats and illuminated cruise ships, before we got back on the metro and headed back to eat dinner.

So long Shanghai

The Dragon's Backbone & Too Much Hair

Today we woke up relatively early as we had to head out by 9AM to get to the Longsheng Rice Terraces – otherwise known as Dragon’s Backbone. The rice terraces are 2 ½ hours away from Yangshuo and about 1 ½ hours from the airport, so we had to be pretty judicious with our time, or else we’d miss our flight. While you can take a bus to the Longsheng area, minibus is the only way, and most people take tours or hire a private car. Given our pinch for time, we hired a private car (complete with two drivers) and hit the road around 9:30. Driving around some crazy hairpin mountain roads, where honking before going around the corner is an absolute must.



We made it to Longsheng around noon, just in time to stop into a restaurant and eat a late breakfast before we started to hike around the two most popular areas in the Guilin Longji area – Five Tigers and Nine Dragons overlooks. We stumbled our way through paths that dead end into people’s gardens, steps that lead to no where, and slippery scrambles upwards until we finally reached what we thought was the "Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon" overlook only to find out that we were at the wrong point – and that we had attracted the unwanted attention of the ever present long haired ladies.



Who are they you might ask? While there are four main ethnic groups living in the Longsheng area, it is the Yao, that most folks remember when they leave the city. The ladies are known for their traditional dress, intricate embroidery, and most importantly – the longest hair in the world. This long hair not only provides for Guinness book status (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/human_body/extreme_bodies/longest_hair.aspx), but also for lots of paid photo ops. So, not once, or twice, but somewhere around 7 times, we were approached by these ladies, who spoke excellent English as a matter of fact, asking if we wanted our photo taken with the ladies from the village of longest hair. We politely said no numerous times, but what I think finally made them back off was Ulises comment that we had enough hair, and then they started pointing and giggling at the chest hairs peeping over his T-shirt line. Nothing is odder than standing in an amazingly picturesque locale with ladies in red traditional dress trying to touch your husband’s chest hair. Surreal to say the least.

We rounded out our trip to the Dragons Backbone terraces with a meandering walk back through town and its rooftops filled with drying corn and peppers, and got back to the car just in time to head out to the airport. We spent a thrilling food deprived 4 hours in the Guilin airport watching a very aggravated man have a near heart attach/phone conversation before we hopped on our flight to Shanghai.



Former British, French, Japanese, and Pirate Haven outpost Here We Come!

Dragon Bridge

Today we picked up our rental bikes and headed to Kelly’s restaurant in town to eat a hearty Western breakfast before we hopped on our bikes for the 16-25KM bike ride out to Dragon’s Bridge. The first part of our ride was very much the same as our ride out to Moon Hill; we entered new territory as we wove our way through the rice paddies, guesthouses, villages, and bamboo selling posts that dominate the land between the mountains and along the riverside.

It is gorgeous countryside, winding dirt roads and tiny paths darting between flooded rice paddies and small villages with your errant dog lounging along the road and a sky with sunshine to spare.

While we had good directions, there was a strong possibility of getting lost (particularly since so many of the roads are dirt) – we stopped in a park to get our bearings when we noticed – The Red Motorcycle Man. Ulises thought that TRMM was as cop, someone there to make sure that lost Westerners like us don’t get taken (either literally or figuratively), I thought that TRMM was up to more nefarious activities – or at the very least trying to sell us something.

TRMM rode his motorcycle in front of us for miles, waiting for us at stops to make sure we went the right way, helping us avoid hawkers, and in general being very helpful – who is this guy and why is he so nice?

Ah the truth will come to light though. As the tired, sweaty and cranky peddlers (that is Ulises and I) reach yet another turn, which they believe will bring them to Dragon Bridge – what do you know – it actually does. This is when TRMM reveals his true motivations. He owns a bamboo boat and wants us to take a ride. – imagine that. Since we knew that the near 25 KM ride was going to take the piss and vinegar out of us, we were planning on taking a boat ride back anyway, so after Ulises negotiated a reasonable price, and we drank two ice cold green tea’s we hopped on the bamboo boat and set sail (so to speak).




This ride we were on the Yulong River, perhaps the most vibrant and beautiful of the rivers we have seen so far in China. The bamboo ride took us over small waterfalls. Past small boys jumping into the river, women doing their washing, bamboo parties near peoples homes on the river, and around floating bottles (which I first thought were trash, but are actually bobbers used by the fishermen to hold their nets in the water).

We floated our way down the river, to about half the distance we had pedaled, bid farewell to our guide and headed back out by bike. By now it was late afternoon, and the heat was intolerable –particularly since we had been relaxing for nearly an hour and a half on the bamboo ride. We pedaled for quite a while, but stopped when we crossed a Dutch guest house near the main road – and popped in to have a couple of milk shakes and an ice cold bottle of water.



We hopped back on our bikes and made our way back to Yangshuo on rubbery legs and empty bellies, but with a wonderful adventure behind us. After a quick shower, we had mass quantities of Chinese Food at the hotel restaurant and watched the illegal copy of Zodiac – prepping for the next day’s adventure in Guilin, and our flight to Shanghai.

Dancing on the Water

Today we started out by asking the hotel to help us make some arrangements. We wanted to go for a bamboo cruise down a small portion of the Li river (that is only accessible through one small town -Xing Ping). The hotel staff made a couple of phone calls, getting us bus tickets, a person to take us to the bamboo boat, and the boat ride (all things that it would take us days to plan or at least a frustrated afternoon to give up on).

We also wanted to make sure we got to see the world famous water ballet/drama/local fishermen’s theater…more on this below. So, we also asked the hotel staff to reserve us two seats for that evening’s performance. We’d be cutting it close to jam pack all of this into one day, but given that it wasn’t raining…we were anxious to get the fun underway.

We started off by hopping on the back of a motorcycle (yup, both Ulises and I) behind a nice but sweaty young Chinese guy who drove us out to the right bus to go to Xing Ping. We got on the bus and without incident made it to the countryside, and ultimately to the bamboo boat. Our ferryman took us on the slow boat cruse from one end of the Li to the picturesque turn about just before the river joins up with the Yulong River.



The scenery was indescribable, dotted with water buffalo, children jumping from trees into the river, and fisherman doing what they do best. We traveled for over a half hour before stopping for a break and an impromptu beer with the local vendors who set up shop at the bends in the river. There we were joined by several Chinese tourists who had stopped to eat some watermelon and fried fish, and seemed to find it immensely funny that two sweaty Americans were sitting along the river drinking beer in the middle of the summer.

We hopped back on the boat enjoying the last bit of fresh air and open spaces before we crowded back into the bus for Yangshou. We accomplished all of this with a half hour to spare before that evening’s show. – so we grabbed a bite to eat and waited for our transportation.

Now this show – Impressions Liu Sanjie - is set and performed entirely outdoors in a park/temple setting along the river’s edge. We were prepping ourselves for anything with this show, as our idea of “must see” may not be the same as the folks in Yangshuo, however to give a little intro…




If you saw the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, the director (who also happened to direct a couple of little movies like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Raise the Red Lantern) well in his time off from being a Chinese national treasure, he came up with this show. It is performed by over 500 local village people, fishermen, and trained dancers – and while the show is a dramatized remake of a 1960’s popular musical movie, it is really all about the setting. It is performed on a moveable floating stage on the Li River and set between the up-lit crags of the Karst Mountains surrounding the river. It was breathtaking, amazing, crazy; awesome…the few snippets of video I caught do not do it justice.



If you are ever in Yangshuo, and happen to have a free evening, and want to see the most spectacular play/musical/synchronized swimming and boating event ever…you must see this!



The amazement at the visuals of the show even managed to overcome the fact that theater etiquette does not exist in China, and the incessant smoking, cell phone talking and eating don’t stop just because you have sat down to enjoy an evening of singing, dancing and live theater. Oh, and it is always a good reminder to keep aware in crowds, for while the practical potty training (which occurs with crotch less pants for boys) does not seem to instill in them a sense of when it is okay to use the picnic attachment outdoors. Let’s just say thank goodness for closed toe shoes!



All said and done, it was a great day in Yangshuo. Tomorrow we are planning to go to Dragon Bridge.

Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo

Once nice thing about arctic level AC and rain, is that it creates the perfect conditions to allow one to sleep until Noon, even after a day of doing absolutely nothing. We finally got up and headed out, as it seems as if the rain has decided to take a break again. We rented a couple of bikes and began our 14KM long bike ride from our hotel out to the site of Moon Hill.

Karst Mountains are ranges of unique looking peaks, which dot the countryside jutting out of the ground in a “do they really belong here” kind of way. If you ever made sand castles as a kid, and liked to make the drippy/blobby kind (as us Davis girls liked to call them) where you mix too much water with sand and let it pour out and form mounds which start to collapse upon themselves once they are piled too high – that is what the mountains remind me of. I know that isn’t how they are actually formed geologically, but I like to think of some giant kid dribbling the sand from his fingers and making these odd mountains.

The Moon Hill peak is famous as it has a near perfect half circle worn away in the top of the peak. Making a very picturesque backdrop for numerous photos, and a great place to sit and look at the hazy mountains and valleys filled with rice fields that seem to be never ending.



We rode our bikes for a while, making it through the giant round about in the middle of town, and then heading down a long stretch of highway. Now I may have mentioned before that vendors in China are an aggressive lot – out to get your business whatever it takes. This “go get 'em” attitude, while inspiring on some level, is exhausting when you simply want to go for a walk and not be approached by the hawkers – this is one of the nicest things about riding a bike….right? This is when the unexpected occurred, as we rode a scooter pulled up next to us – no big deal, we thought they wanted to pass so we pulled further to the right. That is when the woman started to talk to us…”Have you been to the Buddha cave? The best mud cave in Yangshou, I’ll give you a deal”

Ulises and I pedaled in shock for a minute – Really, we are getting a sales pitch as a woman rides along side us on a motorcycle…. seriously? Ulises politely declined, but no is never the right answer, so she kept on.

“Where are you from?”

“China, I’m Chinese” – said Ulises

“Chinese, no….you’re nose is too big” – said the laughing hawker lady.

After a little more banter back and forth, the sales lady rode off into the humidity, and that’s pretty much where the conversation ended, an odd footnote to the day.

We continued our ride when we happened to run into a biking couple from Barcelona, who rode with us for a while speaking Spanish to Ulises and wondering if they were heading in the right direction. As we parted ways with them, we continued on to cross a bridge, and ultimately to reach what appeared to be the entrance to Moon Hill. However, since everything is in Chinese, and the directions we had did not match the location we were at – we stopped to consult our map. A couple from the UK pulled up along side us on a motorcycle and asked us if we knew the way to Moon Hill – so since we were all clueless, we of course joined up.

Along with Andrew and Sara (I believe were their names – I am so bad with names), we made our way to the ticket gate, parked our bikes, and were immediately joined by a friendly local woman who led us up the path (despite our best efforts to deter her). We chatted along the way, learning that Andrew and Sara were scheduled to be in China for nearly 3 months and were just finishing up their first 10 weeks – after having visited Tibet and made their way over to Yangshou. For folks who were in their 20’s (and that was pushing it), they were extremely well traveled. Andrew also let us in on a tip regarding a discount airline website (elong) which allowed us later to get tickets to Japan at a quarter of the price we had found anywhere else.

We continued our semi strenuous, super duper humid, gallons of sweat inducing walk up the slippery steps to the summit of Moon Hill – all the while our helpful cold drink cooler carrying guide walking several steps ahead of us. We finally convinced her that we were not going to buy and drinks, and she could stop climbing (which made me wonder how many times in a day that she must walk up and down this mountain).

At the summit we were rewarded with a view of the surrounding valley, with its drastically peaked landscape and hazy green valleys. On the opposite side of the Moon Hill moon formation – you could overlook the entire Li River valley, which was breathtaking.



We stood around and oohed and ahhed until we had rested enough to make our way back down and to our bikes. We pedaled our way back to town and ended up grabbing some snacks and a beer before heading back to the hotel to make ourselves presentable. I can honestly say, I have never sweat that much before in my whole life - ever!

We were ready for a change of pace on Chinese food (at least I was) and we had read that one pub in town had good burritos – so we walked down to Yangshou proper and had a super delicious chicken burrito. Oh, how I have missed anything close to Mexican food. The price for having such a scrumptious tortilla dinner was that we had to walk back to the hotel in the dark. Thankfully with the light from our trusted flashlight and the spotlight training we received in Eco Training, we did not encounter any lions or elephants, and safely arrived back at the hotel for some much needed rest. Tomorrow we hope to try a bamboo ride!

Rain Rain Go Away

Today we woke up a little late and putzed around, as it is raining, and it seemingly will not stop! We wasted away most of the morning in the dry refuge of our room, trying to appreciate the scenery that increasingly looked runny and wet like a landscape painting painted with too much paint. We ended up heading down to the lobby to make some travel plans, skype calls, and waste some time, when finally the rain stopped (or at least took a break). We decided to head into town to grab a bite to eat and do some people watching – so we packed our raincoats and headed into Yangshou down town.

The town is an interesting meld of a little bit of tourist trap, national park, and European backpacker café scene. The center of town is defined by a street called West street, off of which numerous bars, hotels, curio shops, restaurants, travel agencies, and seal carving stores operate. We had read that one restaurant was known for its Pizza, so we headed over to have some good old Chinese Pizza (not too bad, but not that good either) and then walked around town for an hour or so, meeting a nice tour guide looking for clients, buying a much needed umbrella, and avoiding eye contact with the salesmen as much as possible.

We were exhausted by saying no so much, so we went to a restaurant/hotel/bar that caters to rock climbers (there is a big rock climbing draw to this town as well) and had a couple of cheap beers and when it began to drizzle again, we decided it best to head back to the hotel – despite the fact that this town is beautiful, the draw here is not museums or food, it is the outdoors – and with weather like this it is neigh impossible to enjoy the outdoors. So for the moment, we are kind of down on Yangshou – weather makes such a difference! Hopefully it clears up soon!

Yangshou Here We Come

Today we took full advantage of our last buffet breakfast, packed our bags, and hopped in a cab out to the Xi’an airport. The Xi’an airport is about 1 1/2hours outside of Xi’an, and it is huge. The only way to get there is by bus or taxi, and given that the busses only run once an hour we had no choice and took the taxi.

Taking a cab always seems like a good option – particularly in a country where we have been able to ride in a car for an hour and a half and pay the equivalent of $15 USD. So I wasn’t too fazed by the idea of taking a taxi to the airport – despite the distance of the drive. Little did I know that it would be a continuation of my experiences so far in what I like to call “Chinese Driving”.

This is a form of transportation which is typically undertaken by car, but can also be found in public transport and occasionally on bicycle, unicycle or roller-skates. Chinese driving happens on paved surfaces the majority of the time, but can also occur over gravel, water, and I believe lava. The driver (someone who no doubt holds a PHD in Chinese Driving) begins by driving on the right side of the road, at a speed limit that is exactly at or slightly above the posted KMPH limit. As the drive progresses, the driver will undoubtedly encounter people walking in the streets, livestock of some type, slow vehicles, motorcycles and bikes. As these obstacles all could impede the driving process, they are honked at and swung around, and if a turn is to be made as well – simply honk more and cut in front of oncoming traffic and the aforementioned obstacles. If said obstacles happen to be in the middle of the lane, then the solid line in the middle of the highway becomes “not really that solid” and with a deluge of honking – you drive on the wrong side of the road.

This double lane driving may occur for miles – as other folks practicing the Chinese Driving methods also try to pass by obstacles. Ulises and I had the pleasure of viewing first hand the maneuvering skill of our bus driver as we returned from the Terra Cotta Warriors. This is a gentleman so concerned with making sure that we weren’t late for dinner that he drove the bus on the wrong side of the street – head on into traffic – at night – to make sure that we arrived at our destination.

Anyhow – all sarcasm aside, riding in any vehicle in China is super scary – and drivers really don’t pay attention to any of the driving laws. So as we drove out to the airport, I should not have been surprised to see people pushing wheel barrels along the highway, or a stop sign in the middle of an freeway, or a guy driving a motorcycle taxi head on towards on the road. Nor should I have been surprised by the fact that the pavement actually disappeared at points along the highway, leaving large gaping drops that people flew over – leaving their suspension behind. Despite all of the road craziness, our driver was pretty tame in comparison, but I did get a bit nervous as he began to run out of gas, somewhere about 20KM outside of the airport.

Miraculously we made it to the airport, grabbed some quick food, and caught our plane to Guilin. When we arrived our ride – Henry – was waiting for us. We had emailed the hotel in Yangshou asking for transportation, as the bus options did not align with our flight arrival time very well. Henry was a nice guy, a private car hire driver who happens to practice Eastern Medicine on the side. His specialty being joint problems – for which he has an herbal cure that even he hasn’t found all of the ingredients for yet. He was interested to know if we had arthritis in the US, I readily assured him that we do, and with tons of other joint problems to boot…

It started to rain so as Ulises and Henry carried on a broken English conversation, I fell asleep and pretended we were already there. We pulled into Yanshuou in late afternoon, and despite the fact that we had a few hours of sunlight left, it was getting darker. We took a quick walk into town after checking into the hotel. The town is gorgeous, surrounded by the most surreal natural landscape I have seen yet. It is something out of a movie – and the main source of income for the town is tourism - hence the beginning of Bamboo!

The City is located at the crossing of a few rivers – the main river being the Li. The Li river is populated with hundreds of small homes and villages all of which live off of the river – fishing in it, washing in it, irrigating from it, swimming in it, drinking from it, and boating on it. The ability to float past these karst peaks with the silence of a paddle being the only means of propulsion – is an experience that most tourists cannot pass up. We wanted to take a boat tour, but after the hundredth approach by someone on the street selling “bamboo, bamboo” we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel.

Tomorrow biking and hiking.

Nancy Drew and the Case of the Missing Restaurants

Today we took it easy rolling out for our buffet breakfast and hanging out until early afternoon before we made our way to the Muslim Quarter and Grand Mosque. Xi’an is unique from quite a few Chinese cities in that it has several historic religious sites which are not Confucius, Taoist, or Buddhist, and Xi’an is known for the great food at the street stalls in the historic Muslim Quarter and the Grand Mosque, which in design and look is very Chinese in architecture, but very Muslim in decoration with the noticeable absence of any images of humans one would find in a typical temple complex in China.



We made our way past the rows of vendors all hawking to their hearts content, paid our $2 entry fee, and wandered. Unlike many of the other sites we have visited, the Mosque was nearly devoid of tourists, and it had a very serene atmosphere – despite the few tourists around it was nearly silent, and surprisingly I noticed the absence of the heavy incense that is nearly ever present near any temple in China.

We walked around the grounds, marveling at the ornate gate ways to courtyards and ante buildings – my favorite structure being the Phoenix gate – which looks abstractly bird like with the sweeping arches of it’s roof structure. Ulises was surprised to be approached by one of the kids making his way to afternoon prayer – and even more surprised when the kid asked him in Japanese if he spoke Japanese – odd thing is he was able to say, Hai, choto….(yes, a little).



We managed to beat the height of the afternoon heat in the shade of the gardens in the Mosque before we made our way to the Drum Tower – the next stop on the Xi’an tourist express.

Back in the day (and no I don’t mean 1985) the Drum Tower served a real purpose, telling the people of the city both the time (sunrise, noon, and sunset) and raising alarm – if needed. Now it is little more than a big awesome building in the middle of a super crowded modern city – which happens to house a small drum museum. We walked to the tower and were even able to catch a quick performance of some traditional drummers – you can check out a clip here:

While making our way via the subterranean city walkway over to the Bell Tower, we took a minor detour to try and find somewhere to eat at the large shopping plaza near the Bell Tower.



Now in Asia the malls are about 10 stories high and sell everything, typically with restaurants on the bottom or top floor and everything from socks to Cars in between. So we went to the mall thinking that we could find food easily – sadly, we forgot that we can’t read Chinese – and after a half hour of exploration, we found no restaurants (although I did find over 200 different brands of tank less hot water heaters that could be bought for less than $150 US – where were these 6 months ago?). So, we gave up and continued on our way to the Bell Tower.

Similar to the Drum Tower, the Bell Tower is another historic tower that was once used to house bells for symbolic and every day use. However, now a’ days it is another well-preserved remnant of the past, with some wonderful architectural elements, and daily musical performances inside. I caught a bit of this one as well – please make special note of the odd instrument that the woman is playing – it looks like something out of Dr. Seuss but it sounds like a big harmonica.




We left the Bell Tower tired, sweaty and hungry – so what do we do? We go and eat French toast and Melon Boba Tea at Star Ferry, a 24-hour restaurant near our hotel. We had wanted to try this place as it is a cruise ship themed restaurant. Let’s just say that the theme didn’t come across very well, but the Boba Tea was incredible!

Since we head out for our next stop tomorrow, we quickly did some laundry and got cleaned up so we could go out for a nice meal on the town – at a 100 year old restaurant called Lao Sun Jia. We started our walk down to the restaurant, and after about 20 minutes we thought that we might be lost – after another 20 minutes we realized that the restaurant simply isn’t there – and where it should be there is only a construction site.

So much for a fancy meal – we ended up wandering all around Xi’an, for another hour before we finally broke down and ate dinner at KFC – this then raised the huge question of…where do people eat around here? There are hundreds of stores, malls galore, but no restaurants other than US fast food places and guys grilling questionable meat on the back of their bikes. Do people only eat at home? Do they only eat at the street stalls in the Muslim Quarter? Where do they eat?

Oh well, the trip to find the restaurant did yield two interesting tidbits:
1) we have seen a lot of people begging in the streets in every country we have been to, but in Xi’an, they also perform for you….this night we saw a man singing with a small speaker attached to him, and in his hand he had a leash with a small man tied to it. Yes you read that right, a tiny man on a leash.
2) English translations are often hilarious – but this one just seems mean…who wants to buy dresses here?



Tomorrow we are off to Xi’an airport and on to Yangshou!

There's Something about Terra Cotta Warriors and Mary

Happy Birthday Holly!

Today we got up early, ate the buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant, accidentally put soy sauce with mayo into our coffee instead of milk – choked and swore off of coffee for a day, and then headed out for the Shaanxi History Museum. Xi’an was once the capitol of China, until the 10th century the Seen and Be Seen’s lived in and ruled from Xi’an (then known as Chang’an). There is a wealth of history here – quite a bit of it being currently housed in the museums, but scattered around this huge city there also lie the original gates for the North and South city walls, the Bell Tower, Drum Tower, Pagodas, the Muslim Quarter and ton’s more. We thought that a quick visit to the museum might help out with my complete lack of Chinese historical knowledge, so off we are…

We got to the ticket booth at 9AM only to discover that in August the Museums are free! Yippee – so with our free ticket (we saved all of $6) we began our journey through the history of China.



The museum was the best we had seen by far, with the majority of the exhibits in English as well as Chinese, (making it much easier to follow) and a chronologically arranged exhibit, leading you from prehistoric China, through early settlements, to unified China, and ultimately to the final Qing dynasty which ended in the 1900’s.



We saw some beautiful pottery and ceramic work, and some of my favorite “would that really work” items – such as the duck shaped oil lamp which captures the smoke in the decorative bent neck of the duck and filters it through water to prevent any smoke from escaping. We wandered through room after room of well-lit antiquity, stopping on occasion to ogle the weird nightmare animals that had been sculpted to guard burial sites, and to be ogled at by the Chinese museum goers as they touched, oohed, and aahed their way through the museum.



This museum experience was a bit of culture shock for me in that:
1- Everyone touches the exhibits. I saw children swing themselves around the arm of a 10th century ceremonial urn the way they would play on a swing set – and no one says anything. The tactile experience in a museum is very different than my “Western” museum experiences – where touching the art is a big no no.

2- No photos does not mean no photos with your cell phone. Everywhere in China people take photos with their cell phones, and this includes the museums – particularly in front of ancient stuff that says, “due to light exposure this display should not be photographed”. This made me feel slightly less guilty about snapping illegal shots of Confucius and Buddha statues on our previous outings.

3- There are no set prices – In the museum shop Ulises and I browsed to see if there was a good comprehensive book that we could use for the museum and later at the Terra Cotta Warriors site – only to find out that the salesperson was willing to offer us a discount on the book – 20% even. Everything can be haggled for here



We rounded out our museum experience with a quick meander outside and then hopped into a cab to head towards the bus stop at the train station, and ultimately to the number 15 bus to Emperor Qin’s Terra Cotta Warriors.

The bus experience was really quite nice, with copious amounts of AC (much needed after pushing our way through the hordes at the train station) and surprisingly a movie – starring none other than Jackie Chan (who had somehow been dropped via a covert military operation in a tribe in Africa and via a convenient case of amnesia comes to race in the Dakar overland- award winning Oscar type stuff). After a little over an hour we arrived at the entry gate to the Terra Cotta pits.

Now if I have not mentioned yet that in China every shop owner, restaurant, vendor of any type – sells their wares by exuberantly approaching potential customers in the street and extolling the virtues of their services. This can also be more simply coined as Hawking. This Hawking is also done for professional services such as tour guides – and upon our slow approach to the entrance gate Mary greeted us and offered to be our guide for a mere 100Yuan. We said sure, but we need to eat some lunch…No problem, she will wait for us in the restaurant.

So Ulises and I ate some rice, steamed veggies, and chicken while watching the fur stand outside try to sell furs to the tourists (passing off tabby cat as fox) and fortifying ourselves for a walk around the pits of Emperor Qin.

Mary walked us to the gates, and into the secondary gates surrounding the actual pits. She explained that a few years ago, they determined that the air pollution from the parking lot was causing the warriors to disintegrate at an alarming rate. Due to this, they moved the parking lot and placed a park between the site and the new parking lot – to try and cut down on the pollution.



The quick history of the site is as follows:

In 1974, before I was even born, a farmer was digging a new well in his fields, and stumbled upon a large amount of potshards. He ultimately uncovered a collapsed portion of Pit 1 (this is the biggest of the warrior pits) and in turn told the government of his discovery, ultimately turning it over to them for excavation. This first pit turned out to house over 8,000 life sized and larger than life sized soldiers and horses all formed in Terra Cotta. Believed to have been created by craftsmen during 200(something or other)BC, by the order of Emperor Qin. Emperor Qin started their construction in his 20’s and it continued for over 37 years until his death in his 50’s (be forgiving with the details…I didn’t take notes).

So Emperor Qin was the unifier of China, stifling territorial conflicts and localized powers, to unify the country, language and monetary system. That said, he also was a bit of a tyrant (burning books, ruling by an iron hand, etc) who also was looking to live forever. His sought several remedies for this thing we call mortality. He tried bathing in mineral baths, drinking mercury, and I am quite sure Jade (since everyone else does). Alas, nothing seemed to work, so he said (and I quote) “If I can’t live forever, than no one else should live after me”. Qin’s initial plans for his death involved the ceremonial burial of his entire army, family, artisans, and entertainers upon his death.

Needless to say, this did not go over very well – and at the end of the day – only his immediate family (wife, concubines, acrobats, etc) were sealed in his tomb until they slowly died of asphyxiation. The army was summarily spared, and recreated in clay to be completed by the day of Qin’s death and sealed for the afterlife.

With Qin dead a power struggle went on between his heirs and generals, and ultimately one general (I forget his name so we will call him X) enters the pits housing the armies, steal their weapons (which were real), knocks them down, and burns the wooden supports which hold up the tunnels in which they are housed. Leaving the whole army buried for a couple thousand years or so.

There are three pits at the Warriors site:

Pit #1 – housing 8,000 or so warriors, this is the most impressive and intimidating. Warriors with individually sculpted ears, noses and hands (all these were custom, other body parts were mostly moulds), and all arranged in true battle formation, with right guard, left guard, flanking cavalry and battalions of archers.

Pit #2 – housing the officers only. This pit looks a bit like an office meeting gone wrong. The statues in this pit were determined to be officers as their weapons were not real, but were ceremonial only. Also, they each are positioned facing each other, as if they are consulting on strategy before sending the minions off to fight – oh ,and none of the statues have heads.





Pit #3 – this is the last pit to have been opened, and still contains huge sections of collapsed corridors with innumerable warriors trapped beneath them.

One interesting thing to note, the Terra Cotta Warriors (like nearly all statuary in antiquity) was painted and highly decorated. Upon discovery and exposure to air, the paint pigments have nearly disappeared. The Chinese government has decided that since the current technology does not exist to prevent this instant oxidization from happening, it is better to leave the Warriors buried where they lie (and in some cases, re-bury them). So, while a few more pits have been discovered leading towards the small mound that is believed to be Qin’s burial site – no digging is allowed.



Mary was a pretty good tour guide, taking us through the pits, and answering our inane questions as we went along. Like our Beijing tour guide, she was incredulous that we did not want to buy a souvenir Warrior statue, or book, or pay to get the signature of the farmer who discovered the site. There simply isn’t an excuse that seems to make sense to her – and saying “I’m trying not to collect crap since I am traveling around the world “ just makes you sound truly pretentious and wealthy – so we just smile and say no for the hundredth time, and head back to the bus stop.

We manage to find our way back to the hotel and after a long hot day of site seeing only to settle into our excellent AC and watched BBC World News…

Xi’an – a Little Town of 15 Million or So

Our train pulled into Xi’an about 3 hours after I thought we were supposed to –so rested but starving, Ulises and I got off the train and tried to squeeze our way through the tens of thousands of people at the train station.

You might think, “oh that Tamani, she is exaggerating, thousands of people at the train station…right”. I swear, scouts honor, I have never in my life seen as many people in the same place at the same time. There are simply not enough words in the English language to explain the sounds, smells, and smothering that being pushed into this mass of humanity was like. It was overwhelming and very humbling at the same time. The station is nearly 5 stories tall, and 4 city blocks long, and each floor was packed, the hallways were packed, the sidewalks were packed, the path through the city walls was packed – people are EVERYWHERE! The crowds in Beijing were controlled due to the Olympics, so this was our first real exposure to the sheer size of a moderately sized city in China – and it is crazy!

I suggested that we stretch our legs and walk to the hotel – having been stuck in a sleeper car for the past 13 hours or so, and experiencing a surprisingly strong sense of claustrophobia, I was needing some air. We started walking, and somehow found our way to the center of town – which was of course much further than we estimated. After walking through our third underground tunnel to cross the street (the intersections are so large, people are not allowed to walk at the cross walks, so there are a series of underground tunnels to follow – all of which are lined with hidden stores and shops) we stumbled out into the daylight and what did I see…Starbucks Oh Yeah!

This is where I will confess that while I have always tried to be one of those Americans who doesn’t instantly go to American fast food chains when abroad – sometimes the promise of a consistent cup of coffee, AC, and the familiarity of knowing what it is you are ordering when everything is in Chinese – trumps personal objectives of beating the American Tourist stereotype. I needed caffeine and green tea wasn’t going to cut it.



We sat and cooled down a bit, soaking up the free AC into every last pore, and then put our packs back on and headed towards the hotel. I had moderate expectations for this hotel, as it was advertised as an apartment – complete with a laundry mat – and it did not disappoint – we arrived to our small but clean mini apartment ready to drop our heavy bags, drink the free water bottles in the hotel room, and figure out which site to explore first.



Today it is the Big Goose Pagoda. The Big Wild Goose Pagoda, is in the south of the city, and was built in the 6/700’s or so…it is pretty pivotal in the movement of Buddhism from India to China – as one of its key figures (the translator and Buddhist Monk Xuanzang) brought back some of the first written sutras and numerous statues from India to China. Near the Pagoda (which is really no more than a big layer cake of a building in the middle of a beautiful temple complex) are several gorgeous temples, one of which is the Temple of Great Maternal Grace (Da Ci’en). This temple was built in the 600s as well, in memory of Empress Wende – who became Emperess Wu Zhao – the only woman to ever be an Emperor of China..




The temple grounds are beautiful, with wide expanses of manicured trees, paved paths, and temples surrounded by stone lions, elephants, and Buddha’s. One of the most amazing temple buildings contains walls of carved and inlaid jade depicting the life of Buddha - it is breathtaking!

We were starving, but took a stroll through the park to try and make our way to a taxi stand to catch a ride back to the hotel…that’s when I saw the silliest and oddest statue that I may have ever seen.

To fully grasp how odd this statue is, you have to be from the states, and like me – you have to have been observing the fact that babies in China (boys in particular) wear crotch less pants, and no diapers. As Ulises and I have walked the streets of Beijing, Pingyao, and Xi’an, we have seen innumerable parents cradling their kids with bare bottoms to the wind. This is (as I mentioned in a previous post) a very pragmatic approach to potty training (I also personally think it is another way for parents to show off that they were lucky enough to be blessed with a boy) as the parents just grab the legs of their child, and let them pee. This is all fine and good, until you see people doing this everywhere, and start to wonder how much little boy pee is on the floor you are walking on. Anyway – this does make for early potty training, less landfill fodder, and probably less diaper rash – however it makes those first 3 years of photos embarrassing for the poor kid on prom night.

So, with that background in mind, I saw this statue (I didn’t take a photo of it - sadly), of a little boy being held by his father and peeing into the open air. Legions of mothers brought their little boy’s up to see and touch this statue, take photos, and while I saw none during our visit to the park - I have no doubt that a bit of side by side peeing has happened at this place in the past.




After making our way back to the hotel, we headed out to grab some food, and discovered that apparently, in Xi’an, people don’t eat – well at least we couldn’t find any open restaurants other than McDonalds, KFC, Haagen-Dazs and Yoshinoya. So we sidled up to a Big Mac and Chicken Sandwich and headed back to get some sleep and prep for our Terra Cotta Warrior outing!

What a Difference a Bed Makes!

So today we head out to Xi’an, our hotel is so cool and nice, that they have given us the room until we have to head out…at 9PM! So ULises and I have an unexpected whole day to waste, which we pretty much do. At 9 or so, we head out with a few of the other hotel guests to the train station – and just so happen to run into the hotel manager (Rainbow) as well – who is on the same train as us to Xi’an – small town!

This time Ulises and I asked our hotel to help us get train tickets in advance – so we ended up with two soft sleeper tickets to Xi’an – a supposed 8 hour train ride or so to our next destination. So Ulises and I stowed our luggage as efficiently as possible, trying not to wake the father and son on the bunks below ours - and settled in to enjoy a ride with AC, beds, linens and even a door…it was far superior travel than the hard seat experience we had on the way to Pingyao, and after putting on my headphones and listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone (the UK version of course…nothing puts me to sleep quicker than an British accent) I was out like a light.

An interesting note about the China rail system – just in case you ever decide to ride, you can buy tickets from most railway stations, but the train booking systems between stations do not work (even in the same city) so you have to have a ticket bought at a station and then either shipped to you or faxed – with the real ticket held by the conductor until your arrival – it makes getting around that much more challenging. Overall, the train system can take you pretty much anywhere in the country, the trains depart on time, and (if you have the right ticket) can be pretty comfortable…however – they never arrive on time – we got into town around 11AM the next day.

China Has More Bikes Than Any Other Country In The World

That's because you can ride anywhere....

Today we weren’t quite sure how to tackle the remainder of our China trip, so we went with the next logical big site seeing city of Xi’an – home of the Terra Cotta Warriors and former capital of China. After spending a few hours planning out our transportation and lodging, and generally wasting time while watching the Olympics in the oh so nice AC of our deluxe guest room digs – we finally decided to head outside and explore Pingyao some more.

We rented a couple of bikes from the hotel for the equivalent of 2$ I believe, and headed out to explore the Shuanglin Temple, which lies about 6 or so KM outside of the city. Now China has more bikes than any other country in the world. It has so many bikes that folks set up roadside stands to fix flats, broken chains, etc…so instead of your shoe shine man, you get your bike repair man and your shoe shine man.

We rode out through town, where all traffic laws – or lack thereof – seem to apply.
Can you ride bikes on the sidewalk – yes
Can you ride motorcycles on the sidewalk – yes,
Can you ride motorized mini trucks on the sidewalk – yes
Can your little boy pee in the middle of the sidewalk – yes
Can you set up a food stand on the back of your bike in the middle of the sidewalk – yes
Can you put flowers on the dinner table – nope – not hygienic

Any who, we rode through the throngs of food vendors, shoppers, kids, women, children, tuk tuks, rik shaws, motorcycles, and electric taxis and finally hit the highway – yes you can ride your bike on the highway.

We rode out of town past construction sites, sunflower fields, goats and shepherds, and your occasional fruit vendor till we finally made it to the Shuanglin Temple. The Shuanglin Temple is a Buddhist temple, originally built in the 6th century or so, and rebuilt in the temple a number of times over, the most recent rebuild being from the Ming and Qing Dynasty periods, so sometime in the 1500s or so. Anyway, its main claim to fame being its thousands of decorated clay statues spanning a 700 year period in the history of the temple.

The most visible of these is the many-armed Bodhisattva statue out front of the main temple complex. I am not sure if this is the Kannon – the 1000 armed Bodhisattva (well really 40 armed or 25 armed holding 25 or 40 worlds in each hand respectively) that you often find in Japanese Buddhist temples, but she/he sure does have a whole lot of arms.



We wandered around the temple complex for quite a while, trying to cool down from our dusty humid and bug filled bike ride – and enjoying the coolness of the interior temple complex. One of the most amazing things that I have seen in visiting these temples, are the trees, which often date back to the 900’s or more – and are nearly hollow with old disease, yet still sand in some ancient creepy fashion over temples that have burned and rebuilt many times over.



As you might guess, temples often come with priests and monks, so here Ulises and I ran into a couple of Buddhist monks doing Tai Chi in the middle of the August heat. They stopped to chat with me about the Olympics, America, and how old I was before they went back to doing their slow motion deep knee bends, and we continued to wander around the complex until it was time to ride on back home.

Tomorrow we head out to Xi’an, and another chapter in our Chinese adventure – for the time being, we are tired and ready for dinner.



Zaijian!