On the 30th of June 2012, Diego, Andrés and I started an adventure around China. It was the first time that we travelled all alone and we were 18 years old, so as you can imagine, we were a bundle of nerves.
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| FLIGHT DETAILS |
DAY 1. BEIJING
DAY 2. BEIJING
DAY 3. BEIJING-PINGYAO
DAY 4. PINGYAO-XI’AN
DAY 5. XI’AN
DAY 6. XI’AN-CHENGDU
DAY 7. CHENGDU
DAY 8. CHENGDU-LESHAN-EMEI SHAN
DAY 9. EMEI SHAN
DAY 11. EMEISHAN-CHENGDU
DAY 12. CHENGDU-KANGDING
DAY 13. KANGDING-CHENGDU
DAY 14. CHENGDU-PANZHIHUA
DAY 15. PANZHIHUA-DALI
DAY 16. DALI
DAY 17. LIJIANG
DAY 18. LIJIANG
DAY 19. LIJIANG (BAISHA, SUHE) -KUNMING
DAY 20. KUNMING-GUILIN
DAY 21. YANGSHUO
DAY 22. YANGSHUO (Arrozales)
DAY 23. YANGSHUO-XINPING
DAY 24. YANGSHUO
DAY 25. GUILIN-SHANGAI
DAY 26. SHANGHAI
DAY 27. SHANGHAI (Zhujiajiao)
DAY 28. SHANGHAI-BEIJING
DAY 29. BEIJING
DAY 30. BEIJING (Badaling Wall)
DAY 31. BEIJING (Airport)
SATURDAY 30th: MADRID-MUNICH-BEIJING
It was around 10 a.m. when we arrived at the airport (Madrid Barajas). We checked in, went through airport security and reached the boarding gate. The plane took off on time and Lufthansa served us some food. It was a short journey so we arrived in Munich only two hours later.
We spent four hours
at Munich’s airport, where we found free chocolate/coffee machines so we had some coffee before taking our next plane.
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| OUR FIRST CHINESE "MEAL" |
After a 10 hour flight we finally arrived in Beijing. It was around 11:30 a.m. when we left the plane and the very moment we set foot on the runway, a suffocating heat wave hit us. The air was humid and the whole city was covered by a gigantic pollution cloud. Beijing’s Airport is huge and we had to catch a train to move around the different terminals.
The express train (25 RMB) took us to the city center in barely 20 minutes. Beijing’s subway is very efficient so we arrived at our destination (Dongsi) pretty fast. The fare for a single ride is 20 RMB.
When we got off, we experienced for the first time Beijing’s chaotic traffic. The government could easily save some money by cutting traffic light’s expenses as nobody pays attention to them.
Anyway, we managed to find the Happy Dragon Hostel, which was located in a Hutong. The rooms are comfortable and spacious (bathroom attached, AC, TV and Wi-Fi for 180 RMB/room/night), helpful staff and flawless service! The hallways were full of drawings and comments made by customers.
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| RECEIPT FROM HAPPY DRAGON HOSTEL |
After leaving our luggage in the room, we took a shower and then we went out to withdraw some money and buy food from the supermarket. Here you have some of the prices:
- Soda 0,5l → 2,5 RMB
- Water 0,5l → 0,9 RMB
- Ice creams → 3 RMB Ice lollies → 1,5 RMB
- Biscuits → 2/3 RMB
- Oreo → 5 RMB
- Juices/Milkshakes
0,25l → 1,5 RMB
- Peanuts 100g → 4 RMB
- Fried pees
100 g → 3 RMB
- Ramen → 3/4 RMB
- Vacuum
packed meat (ew) → 5 RMB
It was only 7 p.m. but
we were exhausted, so we decided to get back to the hostel and go to bed early
that night. Before heading up to our room, the staff booked for us the Beijing-Pingyao
(82 RMB) and Pingyao-Xi’an (41 RMB) train tickets. There were no "hard
sleepers" left so we had to get along with "hard seats".
We set our alarm for
2.45 a.m. to watch the Football European Championship (not that I was very
interested…), and although we wanted watch it in a bar, laziness took over us so we just turned on the TV and
enjoyed the match (in Chinese of course).
MONDAY 2nd: BEIJING
MONDAY 2nd: BEIJING
We woke up at 7 a.m. and got ready for our first tour around Beijing. One minute away from the hostel there was this food stand where we bought our “breakfast” consisting of
three bowls of noodles and three squid skewers. So yummy and cheap! (All that
for only 25 RMB).
We then took the subway to Qianmen station and walked around Tian’anmen Square. There, we visited the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong and the Monument to the People’s Heroes. Tian’anmen Square is endless but after walking for a while, you finally reach The Forbidden City (60 RMB), the Imperial Palace for both Ming and Qing dynasties.
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| SQUID SKEWER WITH CHILI |
We then took the subway to Qianmen station and walked around Tian’anmen Square. There, we visited the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong and the Monument to the People’s Heroes. Tian’anmen Square is endless but after walking for a while, you finally reach The Forbidden City (60 RMB), the Imperial Palace for both Ming and Qing dynasties.
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| TIAN'ANMEN SQUARE |
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| ACCESS TO THE FORBIDDEN CITY FROM TIAN'ANMEN SQUARE |
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| TICKET |
We visited the
Forbidden City for about 2 hours and then went up to Jingshan Park’s temple (5
RMB). You get some outstanding views of the Forbidden City so I highly
recommend that you include this small park in your itinerary.
After that, we walked
to Bei Hai (10 RMB), a huge park with a big lake in the middle.
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| JINGSHAN PARK |
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| THE FORBIDDEN CITY FROM JINGSHAN PARK |
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| BEIHAI PARK |
We spent the evening
in Wangfunjing Street, a crowded pedestrian street with
countless shops. Next to Wangfunjing Street, it's located Dong’anmen Street that holds the main food market in Beijing. It’s
full of food stands with a huge variety of exotic “delicacies” (insects,
scorpions, spiders, starfish, sea urchins, sea snakes, seahorses and small
sharks). I doubt that Chinese people eat any of that, because all the locals
looked at the products with a mixture of surprise and fear. Anyway, we were
tourists so we tried most of the things available.
We reached the end of the street, took the subway and went back to the hostel.
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| ZARA STORE IN WANGFUNJING |
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| MINI-SHARK WITH CHILI |
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| STARFISH, CRICKETS AND SPIDERS |
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| STARFISH, SEAHORSES AND SCORPIONS |
We reached the end of the street, took the subway and went back to the hostel.
TUESDAY 3rd: BEIJING-PINGYAO
We woke up at 7 a.m. to visit The
Temple of Heaven (20 RMB). The complex consists of a big park with some
temples, such us The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests or The Circular Mound
Altar. This was the first time (of the many that would come) that a couple of chinese girls would ask us to
take a picture with them.
It was unbearably hot so we decided to buy this green pea ice-cream that everyone was eating...It was inedible, dreadful, toxic, ewwwwww.
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| THE HALL OF PRAYER FOR GOOD HARVESTS |
It was unbearably hot so we decided to buy this green pea ice-cream that everyone was eating...It was inedible, dreadful, toxic, ewwwwww.
Once back
at the hostel, the staff recommended us to try
Pecking’s Duck in Liu’s House, a small restaurant hidden in the most hideous
alley in town. By the time we got there, they had already run out of duck, but
we ate lunch there anyway.
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| LIU'S HOUSE RESTAURANT |
The train to Pingyao was leaving at 19.03. Before going to the railway station, we bought some food for the journey. Beijing West Railroad Station is massive and very crowded. According to Diego, there were 100000 people (he counted them). Among them, 1% ate Ramen, 5% spat on the floor and 94% did both things (simultaneously?).
When it was time to get into the train, everyone suddenly started running
towards it, so we ran as well. We found our wagon but when we reached our
seats, they were occupied. The conductor came and shouted at us in Chinese. He didn’t help AT ALL, so we went back to our seats
and showed our tickets to the Chinese guys who were on them. The very
second they saw our tickets; they stood up, helped us with our luggage and let
us sit. Although we were confused at that time, we later found out that there were more tickets on sale than seats available, that is, they sell some tickets with
no seats assigned. People who get this deal go from one seat to
another when they empty.
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| BEIJING-PINGYAO TRAIN TICKET |
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| WAITING ROOM AT BEIJING'S RAILWAY STATION |
Andrés became friends with a Chinese guy who was travelling with his dad.
They could barely speak English but they got along well. They offered Andrés some
fried green peas, and in exchange, Andrés gave them some Jamón and Lomo Ibérico
(I know it wasn't the fairest deal haha :P).
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| OUR FELLOW COMPANIONS |
It took us 12.30 hours to cover 670 kms. From time to time, waiters came
with food carts. One of them carried rice/noodles with veggies, meat and eggs
(10-15RMB); the other one included vacuum-packed food (peanuts, raw chicken
legs), Ramen and beverages (5-6 RMB). Finally, there was a cart full of
fruits: bananas, apples, peaches, grapes, lychees…You could also find some random
sellers who offered the most unexpected stuff: music balls, toothbrush,
microfiber towels, herbal medicines, doggy toys, portable batteries…
Even though we tried to sleep, hard seats were too uncomfortable to have a good rest.
WEDNESDAY 4th: PINGYAO-XI’AN
We arrived at Pingyao at 7.30 a.m. Pingyao’s Railway station is tiny and
as soon as we got out, there were a bunch of people offering transportation to
the city centre. It took us barely 10 minutes to get there. The road was very
bumpy and our tuk-tuk drove in the opposite direction the whole time. It was like being on a roller-coaster.
Pingyao is a XIV century fortified city that belonged to both Ming and
Qing dynasties. It’s a small pedestrian city (2,6 km2), with two
main streets that cross the city from North to South and from West to East.
Following Lonely Planet’s recommendation, we had lunch at Dejuyuan Binguan. Food was exceptional: chicken with cashew nuts, spinach omelette, pork with veggies and some dumplings (100 RMB in total).
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| WARRIORS |
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| MAIN STREET |
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| MARKET TOWER |
Following Lonely Planet’s recommendation, we had lunch at Dejuyuan Binguan. Food was exceptional: chicken with cashew nuts, spinach omelette, pork with veggies and some dumplings (100 RMB in total).
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| PORK WITH VEGGIES AND CHILI |
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| CHICKEN WITH CASHEW NUTS |
It doesn’t take long to visit Pingyao. One of the main spots is
The Market Tower, from where you can get a good view of the whole city. It was
only around 4 p.m. and our train was leaving at 20:47, so we took a nap in a park
right outside the wall.
Once at the station, we played cards
until our train arrived. As Pingyao isn’t a popular tourist destination, we were
surrounded by locals, who stared at us with great curiosity. We took some
pictures with them before stepping on the train.
Our fellow travellers this time were three Chinese guys our age. Nice chaps ^^. Again, we had “hard seats” so we couldn’t sleep well.
THURSDAY 5th: XI’AN
After 10 hours and 48 minutes (550 km) we arrived at Xi’an (7:35 am). We
were exhausted and it was extremely hot so we took a cab to get to our Hostel:
Xinagzimen International Youth Hostel.
We had breakfast and got ready for visiting Xi’an. First, we went to The
Bell Tower (we bought tickets for both The Bell Tower and The Drum Tower: 40
RMB). The Bell Tower is an ancient temple in the middle of a modern city, so it felt like it was a bit out of place. The Drum Tower is in front of The
Bell Tower and we were lucky enough to enjoy a live show in which students played
typical chinese drums. Both towers were built in the Ming dynasty and besides
serving as clocks, they also alerted the population when an emergency occurred.
Later on, we bought the train tickets for our next journey: Xi’an-Chengdu. As always, they were no sleepers left so we had to resign ourselves to taking hard seats again (115 RMB). After that, we went to Xi’an’s Muslim quarter where the Hui people live. We found the very well hidden Great Mosque of Xi’an, built in 742 and which mixes Chinese architecture with Arab symbology and decoration (12 RMB).
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| THE DRUM TOWER |
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| DRUM SHOW AT THE DRUM TOWER |
Later on, we bought the train tickets for our next journey: Xi’an-Chengdu. As always, they were no sleepers left so we had to resign ourselves to taking hard seats again (115 RMB). After that, we went to Xi’an’s Muslim quarter where the Hui people live. We found the very well hidden Great Mosque of Xi’an, built in 742 and which mixes Chinese architecture with Arab symbology and decoration (12 RMB).
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| GREAT MOSQUE OF XI'AN COMPLEX |
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| GREAT MOSQUE OF XI'AN |
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| LOCAL DESSERT: RICE, PEANUTS, SUGAR AND RUM |
The Muslim quarter is
full of street markets where you can find food, handicraft, clothing,
wallets, belts, glasses or watches…so we did some shopping.
Our next stop was The
Small Wild Goose Pagoda, located in a huge park. In the complex, there
is a museum as well, so we visited everything and then we went back to the hostel to rest.
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| THE SMALL WILD GOOSE PAGODA |
FRIDAY 6th: XI’AN-CHENGDU
We woke up at 7a.m. to go
to the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor home to the famous
Terracotta Army. They were built in 209 BC to defend the deceased emperor in
his tomb. Buried for more than 2000 years, the Terracotta Army has been
recently exposed and it has been declared UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We took the bus number
603 (1 RMB) and we got off at Xi’an Railway Station. Once there, we transferred
into bus 306, which leaves you right in front of the mausoleum.
We bought a typical set
of clay Terracotta Warriors from a pedlar for 20 RMB.
The fare is 90 RMB
per person. There are three excavations and we started at pit 3. It’s a very
big hall but most of the warriors are partially broken. Archaeologists found out
that the warriors’ coat of paint was damaged when exposed to sun light and air
after being underground for 2200 years. Therefore, the digging has been
suspended until they find new techniques to assure the paint’s conservation.
Pit 2 is a small hall
where the army generals (and their horses) are located.
Finally, Pit 1, is a
massive hall with over 6000 warriors.
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| TERRACOTA WARRIORS |
Although it didn’t live up to our expectations (there
was too many people and you couldn’t get close enough to fully appreciate the
warriors), the Terracotta Army is a must if you are in the area!
We got back to Xi’an by
bus. When we got there, we still had some spare time until our next train’s
departure so we stopped by the Muslim quarter again. People were charming and
the ambience couldn’t be any better; the street was crowded and the scent of the
infinite spices flooded the air. We tried some local specialties and then we
returned to the hostel.
It was 6.30 p.m. and our train was leaving at 8 pm so we
were in quite a bit of a hurry. When you are in a rush, things always go wrong.
The traffic was terrible and the queue at the station was the longest we had
seen so far. We only had 10 more minutes to reach there or we’d had lost our train. We finally
made it to the waiting room at 8 p.m. sharp, but as soon as we got
there, they announced over the loudspeaker that our train would be delayed by 1
hour… then 30 more minutes, and then 30 more minutes again. In the end, the
rush was unnecessary and we left Xi’an at 10 p.m. We had a 16 hours journey in
the most uncomfortable Chinese hard seats!
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| COBCORN WITH CHILI |
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| CARAMEL FIGURES |
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| XI'AN RAILWAY STATION'S WAITING ROOM |
SATURDAY 7th: CHENGDU
It was only 6 a.m. and… what a mess!! Everyone was shouting, kids were
running so we couldn’t sleep any longer. We arrived at Chengdu at 1.30 pm.
Once we were out of the station, we tried
to grab a taxi. Finding a taxi in Chengdu is impossible: most of them are
occupied. But if by any chance the taxi is free, it probably won’t stop, and if it
does, the driver won’t know how to get to wherever you want to go.
After many tries, a woman helped us and
explained to the driver the directions to the Hostel (Lazybones hostel) which
is located near Chengdu’s main square, Tianfu Square.
It was 5 p.m. when we got there and we headed up to check our rooms: AC, TV, clean attached bathroom…We bought some food from a nearby supermarket for our next day trip, we had dinner at the hostel and then went to bed early.
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| TSINGTAO BEER |
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| ANDRÉS PLAYING POOL |
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| CUTE KITTEN |
It was 5 p.m. when we got there and we headed up to check our rooms: AC, TV, clean attached bathroom…We bought some food from a nearby supermarket for our next day trip, we had dinner at the hostel and then went to bed early.
SUNDAY 8th: CHENGDU-LESHAN-EMEISHAN
It was time to visit Leshan Giant
Buddha. The bus leaves from Xinnamen bus station (49 RMB, they leave every
20 minutes). It takes two hours to get to Xiaoba Station (肖坝站) in Leshan. Once there, you have to take bus 13 (1 RMB) to the North
Gate. The complex includes The Giant Buddha and the Oriental Buddha Park.
Tip: If you arrive at the North Gate, you are forced
to buy tickets for both the Buddha and the park (90 RMB). If you only want to
visit the Buddha, you need to get off at the EAST GATE instead.
We learned later that there are some fake buses that
don’t stop at the east gate so that tourist pay both tickets –> DANGER:
FRAUD!!
Our bus to Emei Shan was leaving at 5 p.m. so we had to hurry as it was
already 2:30 p.m. The park is spectacular, with lots of temples, statues and
inscriptions. The Giant Buddha is a 71-meter stone statue (it’s the highest
Buddha statue in the world) placed in a cliff on Dadu river. You can actually
go down to the Buddha’s feet, but the queue was too long and we didn’t have
much time, so we took some pictures from above.
We went back to Xiaoba Station to take the bus from Leshan to Emeishan (11 RMB and 30 minutes). Baguo is a hillside town near Emei Mountain, where our Hotel is located: Teddy Bear Hotel. As usual, the room was big, clean and fully equipped.
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| BUDDHA'S HEAD |
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| BUDDHA'S FEET |
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| QUEUE |
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| BUDDHIST MONKS IN LESHAN |
We went back to Xiaoba Station to take the bus from Leshan to Emeishan (11 RMB and 30 minutes). Baguo is a hillside town near Emei Mountain, where our Hotel is located: Teddy Bear Hotel. As usual, the room was big, clean and fully equipped.
Baguo is a very small town with a street
full of restaurants, so we had dinner there. We also bought some bamboo sticks
for next day’s trekking.
MONDAY 9th: EMEI SHAN
It was 6 am when the alarm went off. Emei
Shan is one of the four Buddhist sacred mountains. Apparently, there was a Shaolin temple where martial arts were practiced during the XVI and
XVII centuries. Mount Emei is very humid and it has a very lush vegetation as
well as a great variety of animals. Along this idyllic location, you can find
many temples and sanctuaries. The first temple in our route was Baguo Temple, 1 km away from town. From
there, we walked another kilometre to Fuhu
Temple, and then we arrived at Leiyin
Temple. They are all very isolated temples in the middle of the woods; you
can really feel the presence of nature as you contemplate the millenary
sanctuaries. The next stop was Qingyin
Pavilion, 10 kms away. On our way there, something inexplicable happened
that we’ll never forget: we realized we had lost our map at some point of the
trekking. We had marked the itinerary and it had been quite useful so we were
determined to get a new one as soon as we could. Twenty minutes later, in the
middle of nowhere there was a very old man selling some Ramen. Luckily, he also
had some maps and when we took a closer look, we found out it was our map! Yes,
the very map we had lost a few hours earlier!!! Same marks, same creases, same
everything! We looked at the old man with fear, surprise and fascination, and
he gave us a mysterious smile. He knew it was our map. How did it get there?!
You may draw your own conclusions! :P
We arrived at Quingyin Pavilion at 10 am
and we saw people for the first time because buses stop there so that tourists
can see Tibetan macaques, which is an endemic species of this region. These
monkeys were fearless, they weren’t scared by people at all (actually it was
the other way around); they’d jump on the track, open people’s bags and steal
everything they found. As a matter of fact, one macaque started running towards
Diego so he threw his coke bottle to distract the monkey. Then the macaque
grabbed the bottle, drove its fangs into the plastic and slurped the coke until
he finished it! A few minutes later, another monkey jumped on Diego’s back and
almost threw him on the ground.
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| THE MACAQUE THAT STOLE DIEGO'S COKE |
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| HANGING BRIDGE |
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| "I GET CLOSE TO THE MACAQUE...BUT NOT TOO MUCH" |
TUESDAY 10th: EMEI SHAN
Even though we slept well, we weren’t fully recovered and
our legs were extremely sore. An old woman warmingly served us some hot noodles to
begin our journey with some energy. We arrived at Yuxian Temple and I was
literally dying, so I decided to follow a downhill route. Diego and Andrés
wanted to go further up so they reached a bus station (most of the tourists
take a bus which leaves them practically on top of the mountain so they only
have to walk a few kilometres to reach the peak). Although the peak wasn’t too
far away, they were exhausted, there were many Chinese tourists and they
didn’t want to spend another night in the mountain, so they went down as well.
Back in Baguo, we had some dinner at the
hostel and we hung out for a while. We met Patty, a Chinese English teacher at
Hangzhou University. She gave us her phone number so we could call her if we
needed any help during our trip. Although at that time, we didn’t believe we’d
make use of it, a few days later we found ourselves desperately looking for help.
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| DIEGO SMOKING A TRADITIONAL SICHUAN CIGAR |
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| ANDRÉS HAVING RAMEN WITH BEEF |
WEDNESDAY 11th: EMEI SHAN - CHENGDU
The bus to Chengdu left the station at 10
a.m. (50 RMB). We arrived to Chengdu pretty quickly and we bought the
Kunming-Guilin train tickets for the 20th. We booked them 9 days in
advance, hence we managed to get hard sleepers for the first time! Yaaaaaay! (284
RMB)
Our next stop was Litang, a Tibetan town in
Sichuan. However we got very disappointed when we learned that China closed
Tibet to foreign tourists (we already knew that entry to Tibet was banned this
month, but what we didn’t know was that the rule also applied to towns with
Tibetan culture in the province of Sichuan, not Tibet). We really wanted to
experience the Tibetan culture and lifestyle so we considered going to other
Tibetan towns in the region. Finally, and following the recommendation of the
hostel staff, we decided to go to Daocheng (via Kangding).
It was quite late to visit anything in
Chengdu, so we just bought the Lijiang-Kunming train tickets for the 19th.
Luckily, we got hard sleepers again! We had dinner at the hostel (chicken with
courgette and peanuts, traditional Chinese noodles…) and then we headed up to our
rooms.
THURSDAY 12th: CHENGDU-KANGDING
It was 8 a.m. and we were back again at
Chengdu’s Xinnamen bus station to take our bus to Kangding. It’s a 360 kms ride on the bumpiest road in the world (of course there were no security belts).
Although it was an 8 hour journey, we kept ourselves entertained by hearing the
Tibetans talk or contemplating the landscape. There was a river on our right
side that accompanied us the whole trip.
We arrived at Kangding at 4 p.m. Kangding is a
little town located in a valley and it’s the main entrance to the Tibetan
villages in Sichan. 50% of the population are Chinese of the Han ethnic group,
and the other half are Tibetans.
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| KANDING |
We stayed at Dangba Hostel, the shabbiest hostel
we found in China. It’s hidden behind an alley, and the staff doesn’t speak
English at all so communication wasn’t easy. We left our stuff in the room and
then went to the bus station to buy the tickets to Daocheng. The cashier looked
at us and said NO NO NO NO NO. We didn’t know what to do, so we called Patty
(the English teacher we found in Baguo a few days before) and asked for help.
She translated what the cashier was saying and, unfortunately, Daocheng was
closed as well to foreign tourists. It was a new let down and it seemed that we
wouldn’t be able to visit Sichuan’s Tibetan region. Right outside the bus
station some Chinese people offered private cars to take us to Tibet for around
800 dollars, a complete rip-off. We were very disappointed and we walked back
to our hostel. Our last chance to experience the Tibetan lifestyle was going to
Shangri-La. To do that, we had to go back to Chengdu (yeh, for the zillionth
time), then take a train to Panzhihua and finally a bus that would get us to
Shangri-La.
FRIDAY 13th: KANGDING-CHENGDU
We took the early
morning bus back to Chengdu. It was the same journey, with the same landscape, the same river on our left side and the same bumps. At 4 p.m. we arrived to Chengdu for
the 3rd time on this trip. We book the train tickets to Panzhihua
for the following morning. We then walked around Chengdu for a while. We went
to Tianfu square where the Mao Zedong statue is located. Once there, we took
bus number 57 to visit the Tibetan quarter which was quite disappointing: no
ambience, there was nothing whatsoever to do there.
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| MAO'S STATUE IN CHENGDU |
SATURDAY 14th: CHENGDU-PANZHIHUA
Our train to Panzhihua
left at 9:30 a.m. When the boarding gate opens, you better hurry (you literally
have to run) because, although your seats are booked, the overhead compartments
fill up fast.
This journey was the
most entertaining so far. As it was a day trip, we enjoyed 13 hours of
coexistence with Chinese people. There were many sellers offering the most bizarre stuff that can be sold in a
train. By the end of the
journey, we started singing some Beatles songs and the remaining passengers
turned their heads to watch us. It was a bit embarrassing but we had great fun.
I was sleeping, Andrés was peacefully
listening to Bach and meanwhile Diego became friends with two Chinese girls.
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| ANDRÉS & BACH |
We arrived at Panzhihua at midnight and stayed at the Sunshine Hotel, right next to the train station. They didn’t have
triple rooms and they wouldn’t let the three of us sleep in a double room (we
had to pay for a double room plus a single room). Diego didn’t want to pay so
he slept in a sleeping bag right outside the hotel behind a bush :_(
SUNDAY 15th: PANZHIHUA-DALI
We were supposed to wake up at 6 am to meet Diego but we overslept.
Luckily, a young man called Kenny, who worked at the hotel, invited Diego into
the lobby. He even gave him a chocolate milkshake for free. We hurried to meet
Diego and went straight to the train station to buy the train tickets to
Shangri-La, but guess what they told us!! Right, Shangri-La was ALSO closed to
foreign visitors. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but well, it was
obvious that Tibet didn’t want us.
We accepted that we wouldn’t be able to visit Tibet so we continued the journey to
our next stop: Dali. The bus was leaving Panzhihua at 1 p.m. When we saw the
bus, it wasn’t a regular one, it was a sleeper bus with proper beds inside!
That was brilliant because we managed to take a nap during the trip.
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| SLEEPER BUS |
Dali is the capital of
the Bai ethnic group, which is a minority in China. However, in Dali they reach
the 65% of the population. You can also find Tibetans in Dali: Yi, Hui, Han,
Naxi.
The city is surrounded
by the mountains and by Erhai Lake. Dali is divided in two areas: the new city
(Xiaguan) and Dali old town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Right after we arrived
at Dali, an old woman invited us to stay at her hotel. We went there and it
looked pretty good and the price was reasonable (triple room for 100 RMB).
Diego had a stomach
ache so he stayed in the room while Andrés and me bought dinner. We found a
little restaurant where the owner invited us inside the kitchen. Once there,
the cook served us three bowls of rice, veggies and beef. Andrés and I
absolutely loved it but, as usual, Diego thought it was bland so he took some
soy sauce to flood his rice with it.
MONDAY 16th: PANZHIHUA-DALI
The Chongsheng Temple
and the Three Pagodas (崇圣寺三塔) are located 1.5
kilometres away from Dali. By the main entrance, you can find a street market
with an immense of exotic fruits. The ticket was 60 RMB, a good deal because
the complex is huge and apart from the three pagodas there are plenty of
Buddhist temples.
Inside the park, we saw many little shops where I bought two traditional flutes, a Hulusi among them. We reached the last temple, which is the best of all because almost nobody gets that far so we were completely alone there. On top of it, you get some amazing views of the whole park.
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| FRUIT STAND |
Inside the park, we saw many little shops where I bought two traditional flutes, a Hulusi among them. We reached the last temple, which is the best of all because almost nobody gets that far so we were completely alone there. On top of it, you get some amazing views of the whole park.
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| THE THREE PAGODAS |
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| BUDDHA |
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| SHIVA |
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| THE THREE PAGODAS, DALI AND THE ERHAI LAKE |
We left the Pagodas at
noon and went back to Dali, visiting Fuxing Street, Foreign Street and
People’s street. Food in Dali is outstanding; there are many food stands
selling pastries, pies and fried cheese with sugar on top (NOM NOM NOM).
In Fuxing Street we
found a group of stutterers. The “leader” was an English teacher and he
insisted that we sing a song with them. They were holding a placard so I guess
they were protesting against something. We had great fun to be honest.
We had some dinner and
bought the bus tickets to Lijiang (60 RMB).
TUESDAY 17th: DALI-LIJIANG
TUESDAY 17th: DALI-LIJIANG
We left
Dali at 9:30 am and arrived at Lijiang four hours later.
Lijiang
is the capital of the Naxi ethnic group. The Naxi are a nomadic Tibetan group
(they speak a dialect which is a mixture of Burmese and Tibetan), and they settled
down in the Lijiang area, in Baisha town specifically, making it their capital.
Lijiang Old town (UNESCO World Heritage Site) is full of canals and bridges.
It’s a wonderful city, which keeps the traditional architecture.
From the
bus station, we took a tuk-tuk to Panba Hostel. The triple room was 70 RMB per
person, the best room we had had so far! There was a bathroom attached, TV, a
little hall and a couch. Right outside the room there was a courtyard with some
hammocks.
The staff was friendly and very helpful; they were always ready to lend a hand whenever we needed any help. Actually, they bought the Guilin-Shanghai train ticket for us (hard seats AGAIN and it was a 20 hours journey…).
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| STORM IN LIJIANG |
The staff was friendly and very helpful; they were always ready to lend a hand whenever we needed any help. Actually, they bought the Guilin-Shanghai train ticket for us (hard seats AGAIN and it was a 20 hours journey…).
The
staff also offered us the possibility to have dinner with them but it was only
3 pm so we went out and when we had walked for 10 minutes, it started raining
buckets! We were completely soaked and suddenly two girls who were around 15
years old approached us and said something in Chinese. Then, they entered a
store and bought two umbrellas for us. We didn’t know what was going on and we
tried to pay them but they wouldn’t let us, they just ran away! The generosity
of those who don’t have much is breath-taking.
We went back to the hostel and had dinner with the staff and some other guests (a
Chinese woman and a couple of Swiss). The food was tasty and the ambience
unbeatable.
WEDNESDAY
18th: LIJIANG
When we
woke up it wasn’t raining, so we enjoyed our tour around Lijiang’s busy
streets. Lijiang is full of Yak meat shops. The yak is a bovid that lives on
the Himalaya’s plateau (4000-6000 metres). They are domesticated in the
Himalayas, Pamir and Kakakorum (Tibet, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan
and Mongolia) and people used their meat, leather, horns and milk. They have
samples in all the shops so you can easily have lunch just by jumping from one
shop to another. The Yak meat is very tasty and flavoured, marinated with many
different spices. However, it’s quite expensive, around 90 RMB for half a kilogram.
It was lunch time and we wanted to try the famous Lijiang’s Hot Pot, which is a boiling broth where you can cook different ingredients (meat, veggies, mushrooms…). To be honest, most of the meat was pure bones so it was quite a rip off.
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| YAK'S MILK |
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| LIJIANG'S CANALS |
It was lunch time and we wanted to try the famous Lijiang’s Hot Pot, which is a boiling broth where you can cook different ingredients (meat, veggies, mushrooms…). To be honest, most of the meat was pure bones so it was quite a rip off.
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| YAK HOT POT |
We walked
around the city for a bit, went back to the hostel and played pool. We also
watched a film and played cards. When it was dinner time we went to a skewer
food stand. There was a huge variety of food, from veggies to meat and
everything was delicious, specially the mushrooms!
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| SKEWERS |
THURSDAY 19th:
LIJIANG-BAISHA-SUHE-KUNMING
We had
already visited Lijiang so we spent the day at the villages nearby: Baisha and
Suhe.
We took
bus number 6 (4 RMB) to Baisha, a village located in the Jade Dragon Mountain.
It was very important for the Naxi, firstly because it’s the first place where
they settled down, and also because it’s where the Mu clan was born, that would
rule the Naxi for centuries.
Baisha
is a very small town not as beautiful as Lijiang but much more authentic and it
preserves the traditional Naxi constructions. We had lunch there, and then we
walked to Suhe village (4 kms). Suhe looks very similar to Lijiang (same
canals, bridges, shops and tourists). We visited the village and
went back to Lijiang by bus.
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| MAO'S STATUE |
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| ONE OF MANY EXAMPLES OF A SWASTIKA IN ORIENTAL ART |
That
evening we had to catch the train to Kunming, so we took a taxi to the train
station and started our journey.
FRIDAY 20th:
KUNMING-GUILIN
We arrived at Kunming at 6 a.m. We had to
transfer to another train to continue our journey to Guilin. We bought some
food for the trip and got on the train at 8 a.m. We had hard sleepers again and
we slept the whole day.
SATURDAY 21ST: KUNMING-GUILIN
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| GUILIN'S RAILWAY STATION |
 | |
|
SATURDAY 21ST: KUNMING-GUILIN
We arrived at Guilin and took a train to
Yangshuo right away.
Yangshuo is a big town surrounded by some
spectacular mountains and river Li. It was extremely hot and we couldn’t find
our hostel. A young lady around 20 years old and her younger brother came to
help us. Not only did she take us to our hostel but she also instructed her brother
to take our bags. Even though I tried to carry my bag, I couldn’t stop the
little boy from taking it. We tried to invite them to some drinks but they said
they were busy.
The hotel was great and the staff was very kind.
The rooms had TV and AC.
Of all the cities we had already been to,
Yangshuo was the one with the most international tourists. We were walking
around the city when a couple of guys asked us to complete a test. They were
doing a summer English course at Yangshuo. The oldest girl, Linky, told Diego
he looked like Harry Potter and took a picture with him! They also invited us
to their school to attend a play they were doing that evening. We got there, had free dinner and got ready for the show. It was some weird remake of the Titanic but the whole experience was great fun. When the show ended, we
all sang My Heart Will Go On.
Later, we had some drinks with the teachers and went to a pretty dull bar. We expected it to be a typical Chinese pub, but it was very similar to any regular European bar. In fact, it was managed by a Dutch guy who was married to a Chinese woman. They had a child who looked very much like his dad (he was very blond and he didn’t have slanted eyes), and it was stunning seeing a kid with Caucasian feature, speaking Chinese as his mother tongue.
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| ANDRÉS WITH A YUEQIN |
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| VIEWS FROM YANGSHUO |
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| RIVER COVERED WITH WATER LILIES |
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| ENGLISH CAMP |
Later, we had some drinks with the teachers and went to a pretty dull bar. We expected it to be a typical Chinese pub, but it was very similar to any regular European bar. In fact, it was managed by a Dutch guy who was married to a Chinese woman. They had a child who looked very much like his dad (he was very blond and he didn’t have slanted eyes), and it was stunning seeing a kid with Caucasian feature, speaking Chinese as his mother tongue.
SUNDAY 22ND: YANGSHUO
Today we made an exception and instead of
travelling on our own, we decided to book a tour to the Longji rice terraces in
Longsheng. We arranged the visit with the hotel (160 RMB pp) and it included
the transportation (3 hours each way), a guide and the entrance to the
terraces.
The bus picked us up at 7.40 a.m. At 11 a.m. we
stopped at Huang Luo, a tiny village where the ethnic group Yao lives. Yao
women are known for their extremely long hair, which can reach two metres. They
usually wear their hair tied-back, but if you pay them 10 RMB, they loosen it
for you.
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| HUANG LUO |
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| HUANG LUO |
It was noon when we arrived to the Longji rice
terraces. We had lunch in a local restaurant and we had some free time (not
even 3 hours) to walk up to a lookout and take some pictures. Ping’an village
is located in the middle of these terraces. It’s a lovely town with wooden
houses.
At 4 p.m. we went back to the bus. To sum up, we
paid 160 RMB for being 6 hours in a bus and just 2 hours at the rice terraces.
This experience reaffirmed our opinion on arranged tours.
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| PING'AN AND THE RICE TERRACES |
On our way back, we met a 23 years old Chinese
girl called Wind (her English name). She was very kind and had a very decent
level of English. She was determined to teach us Chinese, so we had to learn
this horribly hard tongue twister: sì shì sì shí shì shí shí sì shì shí sì sì
shí shì sì shí sì shí sì zhī shí shī zǐ shì sǐ de. It means: four is four, ten
is ten, fourteen is fourteen, forty is forty…She was a proper teacher; she timed and marked us. It’s literally impossible to pronounce that tongue twister
correctly, so we ended up speaking gibberish…
We got back to Yangshuo at 7pm and Wind walked
us to this shop where you could find all different kinds of Chinese liquors and
we bought the most famous one, Baiju (56%!!). We then had dinner with Wind. We
ordered some skewers and she invited us to two snail dishes. We also tried
traditional horse meat.
Finally we said goodbye to our new friend and
went back to the hotel.
MONDAY 23rd: YANGSHUO-XINPING
Our plan today was sailing along Li River on a
bamboo boat and spending the night in Xinping. We woke up at 7am, took a bus to
Yangdi (12 RMB) where we set sail and started our journey. The landscape was
stunning, there were countless Karst mountains bordering the river.
We arrived at Xinping at noon, and then went to our Hostel, Xinping This Old Place Hostel. We had dinner in a restaurant nearby where I ordered Dragon Fish, Diego had a soup and Andrés tried a pizza (which was expensive and bland. So the moral was: Always stick to local food when you travel). Then, we walked around Xinping, a small isolated village. If you get away from the main street, you can find very authentic spots with no tourists at all.
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| DIEGO AND ME IN THE LI RIVER |
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| KARST MOUNTAINS |
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| CHINESE POLICE |
We arrived at Xinping at noon, and then went to our Hostel, Xinping This Old Place Hostel. We had dinner in a restaurant nearby where I ordered Dragon Fish, Diego had a soup and Andrés tried a pizza (which was expensive and bland. So the moral was: Always stick to local food when you travel). Then, we walked around Xinping, a small isolated village. If you get away from the main street, you can find very authentic spots with no tourists at all.
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| SHIRTS FOR ALL SIZES |
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| SOUP |
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| DRAGON FISH STEW |
We wanted to make an excursion to the Fishers
Town but it was too late so we had to turn around when we were half way there.
TUESDAY 24TH: XINPING-YANGSHUO
We had breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant and
then took a bus back to Yangshuo (8 RMB). It was raining heavily so we had to
stay in the room until 7 p.m. When it cleared up, we went shopping. We bought the
typical conical straw hat and some more traditional flutes (Dízi).
We had some dinner and went back to the hotel.
Due to the storm, there was a blackout in the whole building, so we had to use
candles to light up.
WEDNESDAY 25TH: YANGSHUO-GUILIN-SHANGHAI
Our train to Shanghai left at 7pm so we still
had time to properly say goodbye to Yangshuo. After walking around the city for
the very last time, we took a bus to Guilin.
We had bought food for the trip and got on the
train. It was the longest journey so far (21 hours) and we had hard seats!
However, we managed to sleep some hours. I guess our bodies were already used
to sleep under all types of circumstances.
THURSDAY 26TH: SHANGHAI
The journey had been pretty boring until we
reached Hangzhou where a young lady got on the train and talked to us for the
rest of the trip.
We got off at Shanghai South Railway Station
and took the subway. Our hostel (Mingtown Nanjing Road Youth Hostel) was in
Tianjing Road, a parallel street to East Nanjing Road. Mingtown Hostel is a
much more urban hostel than any other we had been to so far. It has six floors and
a lift. The hostel is very clean and well maintained, but most of the staff was
very rude. People usually are warmer and more polite in the countryside than in
the city.
Firstly, we went to People’s Square, then to
Renmin Park and we saw the main buildings in that area: Park Hotel, Tomorrow
Square, Hong Kong New World Tower, Shanghai’s Grand Theatre, The Art Museum,
The Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre, Shimao
International Plaza...
From there, we walked the pedestrian part of East
Nanjing Road. It was 8 p.m. and the street was completely crowded. At the end of
the street, you reach Huangpu River (Yangtse River tributary). On the west side
of the river (where we were), there is a Bund quarter, a pedestrian area with
many buildings from the European colonialism with a great variety of
architectural styles: Asia Building, Shanghai Club, the Customs House, HSBC
building, North China Daily News, Cathay Hotel…
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| APPLE STORE |
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| PUDONG VIEW FROM THE BUND |
FRIDAY
27TH: SHANGHAI (ZHUJIAJIAO)
We woke up at 7 am and walked to Puan Lu bus
station. We took the bus to Zhujiajiao (7RMB), which is surrounded by water and
has many bridges and canals (it’s known as the Chinese Venice). It’s a
beautiful town, with many local restaurants and manufacturers. We had a
pleasant time walking around the streets and looking at the boats that
traversed the canals.
We went back to Shanghai in the afternoon, and walked to West Nanjing Road, where the fake market is located. It’s a gigantic fake market: it has 5 floors, hundreds of shops and many products. Most of them are found in many shops so it’s better to compare the prices of different shops to get the best deal. And you always NEED to haggle. You have to be persistent and not get fooled by the seller’s reactions: they are experts. If they say: that’s worth 500 RMB, gather some courage and say: I give you 50 RMB. He/She will probably look offended and say: that’s no money!! Just walk away and he/she will call you back.
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| ZHUJIAJIAO CANALS |
We went back to Shanghai in the afternoon, and walked to West Nanjing Road, where the fake market is located. It’s a gigantic fake market: it has 5 floors, hundreds of shops and many products. Most of them are found in many shops so it’s better to compare the prices of different shops to get the best deal. And you always NEED to haggle. You have to be persistent and not get fooled by the seller’s reactions: they are experts. If they say: that’s worth 500 RMB, gather some courage and say: I give you 50 RMB. He/She will probably look offended and say: that’s no money!! Just walk away and he/she will call you back.
All of the products are non-genuine. but there is a
very wide range of quality (a purse may cost you 20 dollars or 500 dollars even
if both of them are fake).
We spent four hours there and by the time we
finished we were exhausted. Haggling is fun but also very tiring. Here you have
the lowest prices you can get for some products:
• Underwear (10 RMB)
• Leather wallets (35 RMB)
• Armani shirts (40 RMB)
• Pendrives (it says 900 GB
XD for 30 RMB)
• Trainers (70Y)
• T-shirts (30 RMB)
• Beats Headphones (165 RMB)
• Fountain pen (30 RMB)
SATURDAY 28TH: SHANGHAI-BEIJING
Our train to Beijing was leaving in the
evening, so we could enjoy some hours in Shanghai. We walked the city centre
and we found a Spanish supermarket (DIA) where we bought some food for the
journey.
This train was different that the rest. We had private cabins with four bunk beds.
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| CHINESE ICE-CREAMS |
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| SPANISH SUPERMARKET IN CHINA!! |
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| BAMBOO SCAFFOLDING |
This train was different that the rest. We had private cabins with four bunk beds.
SUNDAY 29TH: BEIJING
We arrived at Beijing at 7am, and we went to
the Hostel where our adventured had started almost one month earlier. We went
to the Silk Market, another fake market that looks like a huge mall. It was
funny that during the whole trip we had had trouble to communicate with people,
and here everyone spoke English and even Spanish!!
MONDAY 30TH: BEIJING
The best is yet to come, right? Well, it
finally came. We had been in China for a month and we hadn’t visited yet the
Great Wall of China, so we took a bus to the Badaling Wall, very close to
Beijing. It's outstanding and, although you barely visit one mile, you shiver
when you think that it measures almost 5500 miles. I have to admit that there
are many many tourists, but the landscape is amazing and having been in one of
the most incredible human constructions, that ain’t hay!!
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| YES, IT'S AS STEEP AS IT LOOKS |
TUESDAY 31ST: BEIJING-MADRID
Our trip to China was coming to an end and we
genuinely didn’t want to leave, we had had an amazing time. It was the best
month of my life (and my friends would probably think the same). We encourage
you to go to this marvellous country if you get the chance, because it’s a
cultural treasure, people are extremely warm and helpful, and you will have
countless anecdotes to tell when you go back to your country!
I hope you liked the post and I also hope it
helped anyone who is thinking about travelling to China.
ANEX:
We have gathered some of the usual prices you can find in restaurants:
We have gathered some of the usual prices you can find in restaurants:
- Noodles or Rice (veggies and eggs, 10 RMB. With meat, 15RMB).
- Soups (8-12 RMB)
- Chicken/tomato/mushrooms omelettes (8-12 RMB)
- Pork with peanuts or veggies (20 RMB)
- Chicken with peanuts or veggies (25 RMB)
...and in food
stands:
- Bowl of noodles/rice (5-8 RMB)
- Maize (4-6 RMB)
- Sweet/sour dumpling (2-6 RMB)
- Squid skewer (3-6 RMB)
- Pork/chicken skewer (3-5 RMB)
- Mushrooms/veggies skewer (1-2 RMB)
A bottle of water is
0.9 RMB at the supermarket and around 2-3 RMB if you purchase it in the street.
If you go to a very touristic place, the price may raise up to 8 RMB!
You can buy sodas for
2.8 RMB at the supermarket, and for 3-4 RMB in the streets.
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