How everything started…

My 2 months trip from north to south of China is hardly to describe in words…out of a few hundred pictures I just show some few…and even this won’t be able to give you the impressions I made by myself…the best would be just to come over to china yourself and dive into the diverse culture and countryside.

Pictures of my trip (sorted by destination):

Beijing I, Datong, Xi’an, Taishan, Beijing II, Inner Mongolia, Qingdao, Chengdu, Lijiang, Yangshou

Coming to Beijing by plane form Frankfurt via Copenhagen was the start of an adventure which end shell not be set right now. The last thing which I thought should happen to me is loosing my luggage during this flight; so the last thing I did was loosing my luggage… or lets say it was SAS who didn’t manage the transit in Copenhagen properly and I wait another day for my cloths. In the meanwhile my friend Da Li helped me out with the need especially getting back my backpack in time. The first days I spend at his place enjoying his great hospitality, food and introduction to Beijing nightlife.

During the daytime I explored the city by myself or by free guiding tours offered by Chinese English students improving their spoken English. Next to them a few “students of Art” tried to get me to their fairs…or better sell me some paintings which all looked the same and where part of tourist rip offs in Beijing…

One night I had my first Kung Fu lesson in a club owned by Da Li and actually had lots of fun trying to coordinate my movements…(which didn’t worked out at all ;)

Sightseeing highlights: Forbidden City, Summer palace, City lakes, Hutongs

Datong

My first train trip in china was an adventure for itself J. 5h surrounded only by Chinese staring at me like I was an alien form another world in a quite heated wagon without AC and train service staff cleaning every 2h the whole train, people throwing their garbage right out of the window…etc.

AND almost everyone got his teaglas with some herbs or green tea inside getting once in a while another flush of hot water provided free of charge by the train service staff.

The city itself is not that nice ..even you can find some nice places and temples in the center. The main reason why I came to that coal mining city was the hanging temple and the Buddha graves. It’s really worth going their and taking some time exploring the details in the carves … little buddhas of 2cm next to 17m high ones… the life of Buddha carved into the sandy rocks…etc. just some 60 km next to Datong I visited a monastery which is hanging at a mountain only fixed by some wooden pillars in the rock… and that since already some centuries…it was build to calm the river which was floating below until a huge dam is now stopping the water and there is not even a stream anymore…

Sightseeing highlights: hanging temple, Buddha carves

Xi’an

The former capital of China is located very central which means as well it is quite hot and dusty in general…not when I was there the first day! After a 4h odyssey thru the rainy city without a map not able to find the center I went back home to my hotel quite disappointed. The first time I really felt the challenge not speaking at all Chinese and not even being able to read bus tables, etc…

But after rain you can usually see the sun and so it was J. Spend a nice evening in the city center, read about the history of the city etc… So I could go and visit the Army of terracotta next day and find out more insides of the city.

Even better than the Army was the old Muslim part of Xi’an: with its old great Mosque, the Muslim market and open slaughterhouses…it says more about the people than any Army could do.

Sightseeing highlights: city wall, Army of terracotta, great mosque, Muslim quarter

Taishan

 After some days in dusty cities, traffic and air-pollution I wanted to explore the nature, experience silence again, taking some time for reflection upon university, aiesec and life in general. What could be better than climbing the holiest of fife taoistic mountain? Well, it’s not the Mount Everest…but still more than what I was used in BerlinJ. The complete way to the summit is made by steps which pilgrims form all over the country climb up at least once in their life (or cheat by taking the cable car). I did the climbing and arrived four hours later quite exhausted on top of the mountain hoping for a nice sun downer…but being forced to get a room while a thunder came up and rain was too heavy (actually just too uncomfortable) to climb down before darkness. But by this chance I had a saw a nice sun rise next morning…

On the summit more important than anywhere else in China: bargain like hell – or you will get ripped off…

Down on the foot of the mountain I spend a relaxing day in the park of a huge temple reading books and writing some thought into my personal diary.

Next day had a quick visit to Qufu – the hometown of the Confucius Clan before heading back to Beijing for a job interview.

Sightseeing highlights: Taian temple, view form summit

Beijing II

Back in Beijing I spend my day mainly in the Lama temple and developing my photos I took so far. In the night it was a birthday party of the intl. MC member of China so I went there getting to know more people and meeting Hui Wen who introduced me to CNET where the interview was the other day.

This night I got to know Wing with whom I talked almost the whole time and she invited me to a weekend trip with nine others to Inner Mongolia (province) next day. I didn’t had to think for long and agreed to join this tour J. Next day the interview was quite interesting… and so different from what I was used before… I was dressed in a business suit, white collar and tie…while it was Friday and everybody including the interviewer where dressed very casual…the most formal was a corporate polo-shirt…the interview itself last for two hours but basically the first hour was only small talk about my trip so far and my life and so on…in the second hour she asked some questions concerning my CV and that’s it…Finally I asked some questions bout job and company before I left to Da Li. Getting the first drink after 3 hours in a  35 degree day…taking a cold shower, packed my small bag and head to the northern train station meeting the other dudes for…

Sightseeing highlights: Lama temple

Inner Mongolia

After a while everyone dropt in and we’ve been in the and Hui Wen and her boyfriend (both Malaysia), Rohit (Indian), Justin and his Niece and this Dave-guy (all Canada), Angel and Wing (both China)…so we spend a night trip in a hard-seater to our destination were we arrived at 4 am. Wing and I talked the whole time while the rest fall asleep somehow…ready to switch into a mini bus for another 3h ride to our final place to stay. We had some really good time doing horse riding, waiting for water in our hotel…waiting again for hot water…and finally all took a shower in the darkness as there was a blackout in the evening lasting till morning…quite tricky as the water in the shower was only hot…almost boiling…but with some bowl one could manage to get a bit of ice cold water out of the tab (sink) and mix it in the shower to get in the end some 300ml of well temperature water J. But you would do everything to clean after one day in the edge of the desert riding smelly horses…

The blackout was quite useful though to get closer to Wing ;) No kidding … but indeed we came together in that night which completely messed up all my plans for discovering China. But I never regret this and am more than happy having met her and get my life ‘messed up’.

Actually I wanted to continue my trip to central and southern china waiting for results of applications and having a good time just on myself but came different. I decided to have a fantastic time though but have it with Wing! Getting some new insides of Beijing, life of a Chinese student, etc. WE went together to…

Sightseeing highlights: No specific sightseeing but awesome nature

Qingdao

 AS an city conquered by the Germans in the beginning of the last century you still can find a lot of German architecture esp. in these old villas next to the beach… We both ahd an awesome time walking thru the city, swimming in the sea and getting to know us better and better…

At our last day (I finally convinced Wing :) we headed to visit the famous Qingdao brewery after locking our backpack in the train station…unfortunately the beer museum was closed when we arrived L. On the way back to the beach some pickpocket had stolen the wallet of Wing out of her bag… bad luck … as next to her money, bank- and ID-cards our train tickets and the voucher of the left luggage…which made us argue for one hour to get back our stuff…it wasn’t the problem that they didn’t believed us (they even recognized us again as I look ‘different’…but we had to show a passport/id-card to prove… and as Wings has been stolen before the only one left was mine…they couldn’t read though …

Beside this Qingdao was brilliant and definitely a place I will return for sure (I still have to visit the brewery ;)

Sightseeing highlights: German architecture, beach

Chengdu

After some more days in Beijing I really had to move on as I had a job offer by CNET and they wanted to start me asap. So I decided to skip the central part and will just go to the southwest for about four weeks straight away.

After a 30h (OK, I choose soft-sleeper which mad the time flue by) I arrived in Chengdu the capital of Sichuan province. The region is famous for its spicy food, gorgeous landscape (clear lakes, huge forests, etc) and its pandas (not the Fiat one, dude!). As a gate to Tibet, many backpackers and somehow freaky mid-aged Britain’s can be found here waiting for their flights and visa. I went their manly cause of the giant Buddha in Leshan and the Panda research station and to take the possibility of taking a rest before heading to Yunnan province.

The Giant Buddha is actually a 70m high sitting one right next to the river trying to calm it not to destroy the city on opposite site. On my trip to that place I met some really nice people, esp. Ruth & Paul from Austria/Canada whom I met by instant later on in Yangshou again. The other day I went to this panda station watching this cute bears during feeding time J. The better would be observing them in the bamboo forests but hardly possible cause of the less number.

After a relaxing afternoon in one of the many teahouses of Chengdu’s parks I took a night train to then border of Sichuan and Yunnan province switching to a long distance bus at Panzhihua to Lijiang. The bus was actually a sleeper bus means a handmade one…instead of normal seats they put bunk beds (50 cm x 140) which made it quite uncomfortable especially when you are going thru mountain area, many S-curves and bad roads (as far as you can call them roads). We had to stop every 3h to get new water for the cooling system of the bus (some kind of tank on the roof with pipes thru the whole bus to the front and back)…during the first hour after each stop I couldn’t really open my window as in each second curve the water from the roof came down my side…

The bus which was supposed to take 12h did it in 10 (thanks the driver! Who showed me that it is actually possible to overtake in up-hill S-curves). But the good thing about this trip was the view of huge rice-terraces – finally got to this part of China which feed the nation.

Sightseeing highlights: Giant Buddha, Pandas, Teahouses

Lijiang

Arriving in Lijiang was one of the most positive moments in china. The old city is a really nice spot with tiny wooden houses, plenty of cafes and small streams next to the three main streets. People are Naxi – one of the minorities in china living in the starting of the Himalaya. Women are playing the major role in this society, means that they are as well the ones working hard on construction sites and farming.

I spend more days than planed as the nature was so marvelous. Exploring the countryside by bike, visiting temples in the mountain, drinking tea with locals in old tiny villages, sitting a kitchen between a wood-fired stove, boiling water onto my right and a teeth-less grandmother smiling as if she had taken drugs on my left, etc…

After some days I went for a hiking tour into the tiger-leaping gorge, a hiking trail on 2500m which takes you at least 2 days to come thru.

Somehow quite a risky adventure as in rainy season the trail isn’t very secure and rocks crash town once in a while. Anyway it was an amazing tour with awesome views on snowcapped mountain.

Sightseeing highlights: snowcapped mountain, old city, tigerleaping gorge

Yangshou

After a long long 35h journey I arrived in Guilin with stopovers in Kumning and Nanning welcomed by tropical temperatures. Once again I really get mad using the Lonely Planet as no address was right and I walked around the train station to find this one bloody cheap hotel which was supposed to be just opposite side… After some time I gave up and decided to find a budget hotel by myself which shouldn’t be more than 10 min away form the station as I wanted to pick up Wing the following day at 6 am… I must have looked really dirty, poor and desperate as the girl in a random hotel didn’t tried to bargain a lot with me when I asked for a room or bad for one night costing me not more than 50 RMB (when the assigned price was 400 for a single bed-room). Just a short call later she agreed to have a room for me a asked me to follow her having a look first (I actually didn’t care anymore about anything just wanted to take a shower…). I decided to take it trying to lower the price even a bit more to 45 (as it was dirty as I clamed) and she agreed (what me surprised). Anyway, locking my self in the room, someone knocked the door after some minutes expressing to clean up the room first. After some 20 min the double bed room with AC, TV and bathroom was actually quite a nice place, esp. for just 45 RMB J.

Next day I picked up wing in the morning and we headed by bus straight to Yangshou, an amazing little town at the Lijiang river (not to mix up with Lijiang above!).

I don’t wanna write too much about this spot as the pictures will say more than words can do about beauty of the limestone pinnacles and scenery.

Just one remark on a trip Wing and I did to a water cave. Equipped with helmets, torch and “special” shoes (actually quite normal bath sandals) we went by small boats into the cave getting of in a huge dark room. The following 3 hours we were guided in a small group along/thru an underwater stream watching& touching stalactites and stalagmites around us, taking a mug-bath and cleaning our selves under a 25 meter waterfall in the cave. A really nice experience!

Sightseeing highlights: water cave, limestone pinnacles, bamboo boat tour

Canton

 Almost the end of my trip as I arrived in southern china and I just had 10 more days before starting work in Beijing when Wing and me came to Foshan ( a small city next to Guangzhou (Canton), which is the hometown of Wing.

So we actually spend some really nice days there, enjoying our time and lives as well as the Cantonese food and sweet desserts. After almost one week I had to leave China to Hong Kong as my visa expired and Wing went on a trip to Tibet (which I will hopefully do as well in the close future).