| 12/4 - Up earlyish and packed up. Went for some lunch. Hopped on bus to Shanghai's train station (like an airport ut 10x more crowded!). Jumped on a sleeper to Wuhan about 18 hrs south west. Cabin was open plan with 6 beds in it. Kath and I took the top 2 (everybody sits on the bottom beds). Had some noodles/fruit for dinner. Trains were pretty decent and there was a constant stream of folk getting hot water for noodles/teas. I have started to drink at left at every opportune moment. Lights were out at 10ish - we discovered... 13/4 - Wuhan I woke at 8ish with the all the locals sitting sipping tea watching me...I grabbed some noodles for brekkie andjust watched the world go by. Chatted to some local folk in the next cabin who lived in Wuhan. We arrived at 10ish to discover that ferries don't leave from here anymore [due to the dam blocking the rver]. So we hopped in a us which we don't know for about an hour was the right one - a bit of a worry. Bus was a mini-bus with constant movies. 300k later [5hrs] we arrived at Yichang and booked our ferry tkts for the following morning. We tried to find the hostel that the LP recommended - which turned out to be a tastefully decorated brothel whose staff run a mile when they saw me... Eventually we found the hostel and managed to have a nice cold shower. Went to the st vendors for some amazing food then went for a walk along river and across a big bridge [China likes its big bridges] for our first first glimpse of the Yangtze river. Bought some food for ferry ride later - introduced Kath to the pleasures of eating sunflower seeds... Yichang had loads of brothels disguised as hairdressers [like elsewhere in China] with nice pink mood lighting! 14/4 - Yichang - Chongquig Jumped on the 7am bus to just past the dam. The dam and project is huge, worlds biggest, and we saw it almost completed in the morning mist. Boarded boat and sussed out cabin/others. The cain had 10 beds and TV with doors opening into the boat and out on deck. Basic but nice, this was 3rd class...for Y200! Stood and watched our departure and readied ourselves for the 3 gorges later. There were no other westerners on board, so we were the most interesting things on board. All the locals were staring at us constantly and even more so when we brought out sunflower seeds and started to litter the deck, Chinese style! We passed thru the 3 gorges in brillant sunshine. The first one was 80ks long...they were amazing, steep gorges with sheer cliff faces and cities built into the the sides of cliffs, hanging on! So good...as my bro's pics were all cloudy! I went to sleep after 2nd gorge [all too much for me] for an h r then woke to suss out the final small but equalyl stunning gorge with more dramatic scenery and steeper sides. Grabbed our staple of noodles then went to bed for 10pm. They are creating the worlds biggest reservior and flooding loads of villages in the process. 2m people are being moved. Abandended towns line the river and the new towns with faceless apartment blocks stand further up the river. They are building gigantic bridges over the river that are testament to the eventual height of the river. 15/4 - After waking up unexpectandly early with the devil kid in our room screaming at 7am, i took noodles for brekkie. Kath woke to find me inches from her head with noodles...nice to wake up to! Watched the amazing scenery today ad ate loads of fruit. Went for my afternoon nap at 2pm (Satin's fault!). The Yangtze today is very wieand full of commercial traffic; lugging cars,coal, people and produce to the markets in the east. Read in the afternoon and watched the sunset over a warm beer...nice! 16/4 - Arrived into Chongquing at 10ish and unloaded. Caught a cab to the bus station and the 11am bus to Chengdu (5hrs). Bus was full of locals, crowded and hot. I dozed on bus. We pulled into a service station and we both got off...not thinking. About a min later the driver asked where the final passenger was (all in Chinese), then they all turned around and talked to us...which we didn't understand. I did though, once they started pointing at our bags...our camera's had been nicked...The guy had just run off with them and no one saw him??? They left everything else though, incl my TC's. Jumped back on the bus and continued to Chengdu, there was nothing else we could do. Got into a cab to traffic hotel and grabbed some dinner. I was pretty upset about camera's, more so as the chinks had beaten me today. Tomorrow I will be nasty to them all... 17/4 - PSB Headed after Brekkie to the PSB [they were responsibe for killing folks inTinanmen Sq], to report the loss and get a police report. That was pretty painless. Droppedof reports at hostel then headed into town to price/buy new cameras... After about anhour I bought a Olympus 140 zoom compact 35mm [digitals were too expensive and all instructions in Chinese] nice and light though! Walked to a park after a McD's shake and rode a train thru an underground bomb shelter (agains the Japs). They had made stuffedcowoys/animals and santa claus in their examination of history - so tacky and but good! Headed back to base via net. Went to a Sichan style food place for dinner with a few beers, then went to a bar nr the hostel to watch some Tibetian dancing. Pretty good,v similiar to Indian as the dancers never touched and just walked round in a circle. Kath was feeling tired, so we left early. back at the hostel I felt bad and tried to sleep. Kath was asleep, then I suddenly ran out of bed and grabbed the bucket and vomited dinner/beer up! Kath was awoken suddenly - I felt better though! 18/4 - Panda Mysterys Up early and caught the small tour to the Panda sanctuary. As we started to walk up the path, the heavens opened up and we got drenched. Saw the Giant Panda's eating and chilling in the rain (similiair to old men!) They were so cute and cuddly. Went to see the Red Panda next [the one that Kathsaid never existed - she will beleive everyting I sayow on!] then went to the nursey to see the baby Panda's. The kids [3yrs old] were playing with tins/sticks like a id would...funny! They managed to get stuck in chairs and it was good watching it stuggle out. Went to the museam after some t. Back at hostel for lunch and went to a Chinese burger chain, Dicos. Yummy! I sat on net for a while while Kath did some shopping then caught a bus to train station for train to Xian [20hrs]. had some beers on train, and went to bed pretty early. Arrived into Xian then checked into private hotel nr station for 40Y each (v nice though!) We got a call from a prostitute you was looking for business, usual thing! Went to the Muslim qtr for kebabs which were delish. 20/4 The next morning we caught the first bus to the warriors and checked them whilst no one was there (it was gr8). They were good, on such a scale and so much hasn't been dug up yet. All three pits were good. Amazing place, def a highlight! The figures have so much detail,down to the horses armour and shoulders belt buckles. There was a pit no4,but the emperor died b4 completion so it was empty. Bought some figures and ended up with loads as they didn't have change of 5Y or 40p... Camera is working well at the min and getting some cracking fotos. We ran onto the 2pm train, secured bags and seats and sorted out food [noodles] for journey. We had some noodles and a couple of beers and went to bed at 9ish (lights out at 10). 21/4 - Datong. I was awake at 7ish. I have been sleeping better on trains/ferries than in hotels! Very few westerners around (SARS) is scaring folks! Arrived into the coldest place on earth at 8am. Booked a CITS tour to take us to the hanging monastry (a monastry built into the rock face 150m above the ground. It was built by the guys hanging off the clif face with ropes attached from the top of the mt at 400m... There were snow flurries there and it was baltic! Then went to the cloud ridge caves to see all the budda's. Caves were built to honor Budda, but some of the caves were decorated right up to the ceiling with amazing colours and stories built into the wall frescos. There were so many, with so many designs and colours - truely amazing place, again it was deserted (SARS?) apart from us 8 on tour and sovenir folks. Staying overnite in really nice hotel by train station, too cold to walk anywhere else. 22/4 - Beijing Train this morning at 8am, was empty and the folks who were there, all wore masks! Arrived into town and then rushed to PSB. I realised on train 2 days ago that my visa was up on Sunday. So I handed in my passport which I will pick up on Sat and will have another extension for a month. I also need to get my mongolia and vietam visa (although, I may get the latter on my return to Beijing). So potentially I will be staying in China till Tues/Weds when I will hop on trans Mongolian train. Canny buy tkt till I have Mongolian visa... Here are my tips from China... it is a beautiful place, much nicer than I expected. Such a place of contrasts. The three gorges, the great wall and the landscape outside Datong where stunning. It was good that there were few tourists there, both locals and westerners. The people are generally nice, although I always felt that some where looking at us like dollar bills. The others were quite friendly. Its a shame as now i am more suspicious to these Thai chaps, whom most seem to be nice. Its such a cheap place for quality fakes and DVD's etc. Travelling there was great (partly cos M had primed me so well) and so easy. The overnite train journeys become more desirable for me to sleep than the hostels... Easy stuff as the networks are so good. They are spending Billions on new rds/railways thru the town. They don't need it but they are communist, and want to show off! the bridges we saw being built over the Yangtze were so high (cos of the new lake soon to be filled) and huge...I doubt that in the Uk we could as spectacularly as they do there. |