平遥 成都 Pingyao Chengdu July 07

Traveling

Pingyao (Shanxi Province)

Chengdu (Sichuan Province)


PINGYAO

We left Beijing on 3rd July on the overnight traing to Pingyao.
Pingyao really is an old style town with ancient Chinese buidlings etc. cobbled streets. red latterns, the works. You have to see it, will post some photos later. It has an intact city wall. Within the city wall all the shops, houses and hotels are the style of ancient China. Most of them are the original ancient buildings. When you venture outside the city wall though the rest of the town is modern. The area within the city wall is very big. You can easily get lost.

NOW 7/7/07

8/7/07

Day in Xian. No plans yet.
I am traveling with 3 French people and 1 Australian. The Australian is my ex-boyfriend. We split up 2 months ago. I decided not to go on this trip and stay in Beijing. I thought I will get another opportunity to travel across China. I didn't want to travel with my ex. However, then I realised I really don't know what is going to happen next year- maybe I won't be in China. Who knows what is going to happen. I tried to find others to travel with but didn't know anyone who had time. I decided to go with him and his French friends. It is going fine so far. It is good we are able to remain friends.


9/7/07

We go to Chengdu. 16 hours. the longest train trip of the journey.

train trips so far

BJ - Pingyao 9 hours
Pingyao - Xian 11 hours
Xian - Chengdu 16 hours

Chengdu is a big city in Sichuan province. famous for spicy food. Sichuan is central west China, just next to Tibet. There are Pandas there and mountain views. This is the place I am looking forward to the most. After there we are going to Tibet.





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Today we went to The Small Goose Pagoda

climbed the old pagoda -- beautiful gardens, statues

went to a museum

ancient stone carved buddhas

the artifacts were so old and beautiful it brought tears to my eyes

i almost felt the buddhas were real people they had a presence

then there were tiny little artifacts carved from marble or jade,
so precious

Xian used to be the capital of China. Beijing has only been the capital for 600 years.

Things are a lot older in Xian, you can really tell.

I can see a difference in the sculptures and paintings in Beijing and Xian.
If I can generalise about the places

it seems that the stuff i have seen in Xian - the really old stuff just seems to
be made with love and care.

I get the impression that stuff in Beijing and been commanded or commissioned artist by the emperor.

I guess people were more religious mystical when some of the stuff in Xian was made.


This afternoon we went to the Forest of Steles. These are giant marble slats of stone that are carved Chinese characters. They have many Chinese classic books carved onto the steles.

There was the Analects of Confucious and The Book of Changes (The I Ching)

I marvelled at these.

In the morning I had seen the artistic beauty of the culture. Part of the reason I felt moved this morning was I was thinking about the artist who made these things. It is like they had left a little piece of their heart here. I really felt there is some good in the world, some love. (probably sounds so tacky)

Then in the afternoon I marvelled at the thought - the intellectual and philosophical inspiration of people.

I have an added appreciation for life.

I thought today - I am so thankful that I have been given the opportunity in my life to visit Xian. I feel so fortunate. It made me thankful for my life.

In backpackers right now. Lots of rowdy people talking about dubious topics. quite an aggressive vibe.

This morning I walked into the cafeteria to find John (my ex) talking to a pretty girl with blonde curly hair. I quickly turned around to leave them alone. Didn't want to ruin the moment for them. Went for a walk. My first instance was to feel happy for him.
no im not totally over him, he is beatuiful and he is so intelligent, speaks French and Chinese. he doesnt swear. there is so much good things about him. I am glad he is my friend but any girl who gets him is so lucky.

I am not suffering traveling with the ex because we communicate. I can be totally honest and tell him all the things even when i think "i should not tell him this".

RE: Tibet turns out it is quite difficult to get into Tibet. You need a special pass. blah blah.
The French could not get one. So John and I will try. fingers crossed. we have heaps more holiday to go so there is lots we can do. will keep you posted. will post photos soon.




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Yesterday we visited the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower in Xian.

The Bell Tower is in the centre of the town.
The town is surrounded by an intact city wall - with four gates - west, east, south, north
The four major roads lead to these gates and a big round about goes around the Bell Tower.
In old times the Bells would be rung 3 times a day.
The Drum tower is cool with massive drums with Chinese writting. Red laquer.
Also an ornate 'gong' thing. you know the ones - metal disk hanging.(like in a Kung Fu movie!!!!!!!!!!) (think Bruce Lee!)

In the afternoon we went to the temple of the 8 immortals - an operating Taoist temple.
There was a well. There was individual shrines to each of the immortals.
One immortal carries some sort of medication. One is the immortal of the 12 stars.
One is the immortal of money and fame.

There was a bridge where two major people in Taoism apparently met.
Under the bridge was a gigantic coin (with a square cut out of the middle)
legend has it that if you throw a coin and hit the coin you have a predestined relationship
with Taoism. There are actually two coins on each side - one for peace the other for luck.
The peace side i hit it at second go. The luck side I hit it first go. So dont know if that counts.

In the evening we got on a sleeper train to Chengdu.
All the hard sleepers (economy) were sold out so we
had to go soft sleeper (first class). It was very comfortable.
Last year I went soft sleeper on my first trip in China.
At the time I thought "this is soft sleeper!!"
I was dissapointed because I was imagining it to be luxurious.

Now I know China I realise it is pretty luxurious by China's standards.

Although I like the hard sleeper. The more the merrier.
Plus soft sleepers can be a bit of an "English Zone"
Hard sleeper - 6 per room, very basic, hospital like, no door
Soft Sleeper - 4 per room, colour coordinated, little nicities. , a closable door,

Backpackers are weird. knives and forks, english music, everyone speaks english, expensive tours
for people who can't read the bus timetables and speak enough to work out where to catch public transport.
if i came here as a backpacker i definitely would not get the same experience that i had living in China and working.
Backpackers claim to be international - but I am coming to realise international means -- westernised.

Arrived in Chengdu this morning. Felt great. The 16 hour train ride was great, very relaxing.
We are staying in an old Chinese style building with red latterns. We have our own room.
We are in a bustling part of Chengdu.

Chengdu is smaller than Xian but it looks much bigger. Chengdu has grey skies
and boiling hot weather. The sort of weather you can't get cool in.
Everyperson is carrying a fan. Bicycles have unbrellas welded onto them to sheild from the sun.
It is a very dirty city and I think it is ugly. Its like an immensly hot Beijing.

In the centre of Chengdu is a massive statue of Mao. He is saluting.
Then there is Tianfu square. This is an ugly looking modern concrete square.
However, I read about its history. Many of the designs in this sqare are taken
from pattern from artifacts dug up in archeological digs.
The designs in this square look very aztec. Also there was a map of the square which shows
and eagle eye view. The two statues represent two eyes and in the centre the red and gold thing is the
fire bird. I found that kinda interesting.

We went to the Peoples Park which huge, green and as expected 100s of people
exercising unselfconciously. - tai chi, badminton you name it. even solo grannies doing tai chi.

near my back packer oldies do dancing on the street corner.

in the west we need proper equipment, a studio, prof teacher, prof costume
the Chinese just get out there and do it.

went to an outside courtyard to eat dinner. there is so much outdoor dining, people on cane chairs, fanning themsleves, eating spicy foods adn kababs, drinking beer, shirts off. it is definitely summer. so much seafood. so much stuff being boiled, fried, simmered - the smell of spicy seafood wafting in the air

the satisfied plump faces of stuffed satisfied customers - giddy with beer, slight red tinge in their cheeks left over from a hot summers day

new day...

steped outside hotel room at 6.30am today. the heat hit me immediately. it is like Darwin. Local people say the weather is always like this.

will post some photos soon


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Today I went to the Panda breeding and research centre. Saw some baby Pandas, adult pandas and the red pandas.

We had a chill day and organised our stuff.

We inquired at the backpackers about trips to Tibet. We also went to a Chinese travel agency and John spoke in Chinese. It is looking quite expensive to get there. We will keep looking at hope we can find something reasonable. We want to go on the 20 hour train journey there and see the view. Im quite stressed I really want to go to Tibet but at the moment it looks like it is too expensive. Hopefully today we will track down a travel agent who can give us a permit and a train fare at a reasonable price - otherwise not sure where to go?? Kashgar? Yunnan? Fujian? Shanghai? Hopefully Tibet.

There is a flight, we want to catch the train so we have been visiting Chinese tourist agencies - John speaking in Chinese. Its kinda hard for me being kept in the dark not knowing what they are saying.

In the next week we will climb a mountain, visit Le Shan - giant buddha - and visit temples.

It is very hot here. Constantly sweating.
People have umbrellas welded to their bike handles to shade themselves. Men wear shirts with their bellies showing to keep cool. (same in Beijing).

What I love in China is seeing woman in high heels, flowing dress riding a motorcycle or a bike.

There is lots of food varieties here. Lots of different animals and animal parts are eaten.


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Today John and I set out at 10am to try our hardest to get an affordable ticket adn permit to Tibet.

Then we planned to go to the temples of Chengdu.

Anyway it wasn't till 3pm that we got to a temple.

We had lots of hiccups.

We found a place slightly cheaper.
John was not sure he still wanted to go.
I decided I definitly want to go.
I have just had some good experience at Buddhist places.

John has decided he wants to goWe picked a travel agent.. They will fax of an application which will take 3 days to process. We walked off to the temple and half an hour walking they said they need our student cards. we returned to them. explained i dont have a student card. but i HAVE to have one. So I rang my university who told me that they dont have a fax machine and will not fax a letter saying that I really am a student like it says on my visa. so we rang John's English friend and asked him to write a letter in Chinese characters get my uni to stamp it and fax it to the travel agent. it wasnt going through.then later it came through with no stamp. John and I found an office centre and got JOhns friend to fax it there. He missed his Chinese class to help us. We got the faxed letter with visible uni stamp and delivered in person to the travel agent by about 4pm. it takes 3 working days to get the permit. we REALLY need to go by monday or wed at the latest. (thank you so much S.L.)

Anyway quite frustrating. Even when i first rang my uni adn they didnt have a fax machine i cried and said "stuff it John this is too difficult" "its not worth it" plus i ddid not want to hassle SL Johns friend. So if this doesn't work then I am NOT going. I swear I have spent like 1 entire day at least 8 hours just doing the research and documents and stuff just to get there. Im over it. It better work out hope we make it there.

So fly there. You have to rest for the first day to get used to the high altitude. spend a few days.then we are going to catch a 20-40 hour train back to Chengdu. Can you imagine the views from that train -- coool. pluse i love trains. then we will fly to Beijing. back home. john flies to munich.

Today ----

Wuhou temple. it was really different to temples in Beijing and Xian. YOu can tell we are further south. it is more tropical with high ceilings, dark carved wood, straw and cane used. there was an unusual rock exhibition. there was a beautiful green garden filled with serine bonsai trees. so many willo trees.

We first entered and saw large sculptures and a giant bell and giant drum.

I find myself saying "that looks really Taoist" "that looks really Tang dynasty" "that looks really Qing dynasty" and stuff like that --- before all the dynasty were these abstract ideas in books and I could never remember which was which. now i keep reading little signs in temple so i have a visual idea.

then we walked down an alley of bamboo and came across two moon doors and a garden of pink lotus flowers. across the way was a white marble bridge with various animals carved. the roof shapes were different to xian and beijing.

anyway the park was well worth it. i always like to see something different.

i havent been too keen on Chengdu but it is starting to grow on me. near the wuhou temple are lots of interesting looking shops, buildings and markets. it seems to be the tibetan influenced area of town with lots of tibetan shops, restaurants and monks even.Chengdu has its charm but the weather is too hot. and it is not wonderful.

ok betta go people waiting to use the net. will post sme photos of temple soon.

love

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We stayed at Emei Shan (mountain) for 2 days, sleeping for a night on top of the mountain.

Emai Shan takes about 3 days to climb,people ususally stay in monastries on the way up. We were lazy and caught a bus up a fair bit and climbed just the top bit. However, just the top bit took 2.5 hours up stairs.

We reached the top for sunset. Despite the fact it is summer in China and sweltering heat in Chengdu it is freezing cold on top of Emei. 12 degrees. I was so slow climbing i made friends with lots of beautiful old people. We also made friends with some uni students from Yunnan province and ended up sharing a hotel room with them -- 6 people and 4 single beds. yes things are often cosy in China. I got my own single bed. John shared a bed with the male uni student. They were fun.

So this mountain is high altitude so I found I could not breath and the oxygen seemed to go from my muscles.

We woke at 5am to watch the sunrise. There is a gold temple and a silver temple on the top with a giant gold buddha which has about 12 faces 3 facing in each direction - north, east, south, west. there are lots of elephants and buddha prayer wheels. we were so hight up we were above the clouds. felt like heaven. I could see many mountains poking outof th clouds.even in the far distance I could see snow capped mountains. The sunrise was beautiful, plus it was interesting to watch people watching the sunrise.

So I wanted to climb down the entire mountain but John wanted to also go to Le Shan that day so we caught a cable car. then set of to walk to the mid level bus station. lucky we did. because to get to this mid level bus station took 8 hours. we left at 8am and arrived at 4pm. So yes I have spent 10 hours hiking in the last 2 days. Anyway the 8 hours was all down hill, which made it quick at first. However, after about 5 hours climbing down stairs my knees stuffed up and i was in pain for the last 3 hours slowley clambering down the stairs in a side step to take the weight off my knees. The mountain has porters that will carry you down on a hammock for 100 yuan ($18) . John was encouraging me to pay someone to carry me down the mountain. but NO WAY! even if it was free i would not. i may as well book myself into the retirement home. why go hiking to be carried. logic told me i should protect my knees from permanent damage. but i would not be able to live myself if i did not try my best. i said to john - i will get a porter if i start crying with the pain. porters all the way down noticing my injury would follow me for ages , offering cheaper prices. but i did not get one. there was another person with a problem with their leg. John said at least keep up with him, i said "what is this ?? a competition amongst the injured??"

So better cut this short,there rae people waiting for the free internet in the backpakckers.

ok so emei is famous for wild monkeys, cute hey???? dont be fooled. first time we just passed monkeys,sitting on trees, on the foot path etc.

second time they all surrounded us. John had a back pack on his front and back. one monkey jumped on his back backpack and unzipped it. i was shocked. they are so small. but are not teddy bears at all. then the monkey jumped on his front back pack. another one crawled on the ground and hissed. i was terrified. john was really relaxed. dont know how we got past. john lunged towards one, not too aggressively or anything but i think it showed them he was not afraid

after us 2 ladies walking down the path, i heard one scream. there was a monkey on her. she fell over they tried to beat the monkey off with sticks then ran away screaming. the monkey had prized off here 2 litre bottle of orange juice. i comforted the lady who had scratch marks on her arms and monkey prints on the back of her top. i looked up in the distance and saw the monkey unscrew the lid of the orange juice and skull it. -- they are so skilled. can unzip back packs and have an evil look in their eyes.

next we went to a restaurant and a horse came into it while we were eating.

betta go