Chengdu is pronounced...er... who knows? China has many diverse dialects and we seem to have moved from a place where they understood 5% of what we attempted to say in Chinese to one where no communication is possible. Luckily, English is a little more common here. We've found along the way that children are the best to approach as they've usually learned some English in school. It seems that this city of 10m people is firmly on the Westerner's tourist circuit although it's hard to know why. It's in the Sichuan province so the food is hot as hell. The streets reek of chillies and pepper. They liberally season everything with a mountain of chillies. Our hotel must be in the Lonely Planet book as it is stuffed with Westerners including a very drunk Russian playing House of the Rising Sun badly on his hippy traveller's guitar.
There's a panda research base just outside Chengdu which we visited. Unlike the zoo we'd witnessed a few weeks back, this facility was clearly in the best interest of these increasingly rare creatures. They have large open spaces to roam around although all they seem to do is sleep. We did get there in time to see them take breakfast. They eat in an incredibly stylised human type way. For a donation of 100 Yuan, Megan had the dubious privilege of having one of the pandas sit on her! Apparently, they're all nice and soft and fluffy - all together now...ahhh!
We met a man. He was from a school outside Chengdu and he wondered if we would like to come to the school and meet some pupils. It would give them some practise speaking English. Our idiomatic English would be better for them than the "Chinglish" their teachers taught them and it would be a "different" experience for us. It was only a 20 min journey. One hour later, Megan is strapping on a mic' in the main lecture theatre and 150 Chinese students are waiting with bated breath for her first words! Steve only had a class of 70 to deal with! We were entertained in the staff room and afterwards the school principal appeared for a photo session with his English guests. Talking about it afterwards, we feel it was a good and worthwhile thing to do. The teenagers we met had excellent written English and their vocab was pretty comprehensive. What they couldn't do was pronounce anything correctly. This is because their teachers are Chinese so they never hear the language spoken "properly". So this Northerner and Welsh lass put them straight!! Quite an unusual experience for all concerned!
From Chengdu, we took a trip to Tibet and afterwards we returned for one day to pick up our stuff - most of which we'd left in the hotel for the duration. After this we took the overnight sleeper to Kunming. We'd heard by e-mail that the Indian situation was none too good although Chinese news was reporting nothing. Many people seemed to be doing the overland route towards India but we were quite glad to be heading East again.
On the subject of news, we haven't managed to get any Western current affairs since we left the UK. Quite a number of the rooms we've rented have TVs with 30 or 40 channels but not one has been in English - ever! We've not seen a single Western newspaper and the only rag printed in English has been China daily. The most expensive hotels tend to carry a copy in their "Business Centre" which is generally only a week or so old. Of course, it's all Chinese propaganda with nothing about the outside world. Even paying 1270 Yuan for a flight to Tibet did not land us a comprehensible news paper.
The journey to Kunming by train takes you through some extraordinary scenery - immensely high mountains dissected by rushing rivers. As usual, the river banks are lined with disgusting belching factories but the scale of the landscape diminishes their impact. The only problem is that, because of the mountainous terrain, most of the railway line is inside tunnels. Only occasionally do we get glimpses of what's outside. Apparently there's more than 100 tunnels on this route. We have to share a cabin with some stuck up Chinese girl and her unfortunate fiancee who spends most of the journey fetching moistened towels with which to mop her brow - and massaging her ankles. A good slap was more in order!
Down in the South West it's getting very humid and the weather's a bit unstable. Thunder storms seem to be a daily occurrence. We took a day trip to see a famous sight in China - the Stone Forest. It's a limestone karst forest and pretty spectacular too. Weird and grotesquely shaped lumps of rock sit in the now all too common paddy fields. These lumps of rock are the size of houses and the water buffalo need to plough round them if every last inch of land is to be cultivated in the usual manner. The Stone Forest is such an important attraction in China that a 90km rail spur and station were built to service the park. As usual though, you get charged an extortionate amount to get in. For once we missed a trick and were upstaged by a German couple who refused to buy a ticket and simply walked round the corner to the other gate where the locals went in - drat must be getting tired!
From Kunming, we made an epic journey to Yangshuo. 20 hours on the overnight sleeper train followed immediately by 8 hours on a bus. We passed through famous Guilin en route. We'd planned to stay in this area which is well known for it's amazing rocky landscape but had advice that Guilin was a magnet for high-rolling American tour groups and gin-palace trips down the Li River to see the mountain scenery. So, we passed through Guilin which looked to us like every other anonymous Chinese city we've seen and headed another hour or so down the road to a reputedly smaller and friendlier place on the banks of the Li.
Yangshuo is an unusual town (more of a village really). It doesn't look particularly Chinese - which makes a nice change. It's on the river and is hemmed in on all sides by these huge limestone "lumps". Most people have seen pictures of the sheer-sided, round-topped and tree-clad mountains which make Guilin such a tourist trap... Well, actually, there aren't any mountains at Guilin - you have to take a very expensive boat trip down river to see them - to Yangshuo in fact. The landscape around Xingping and Yangshuo is covered in these mountainous formations, one view of which features on the 20 Yuan note. So, the trick is to not stay in Guilin - don't even go there! We got a room for £5 per night (en suite) and have been revelling in the Western breakfast - you can tell this is backpacker country! Steve even splashed out £2 for a cocktail (not for breakfast though) and we had our first bottle of wine in 2 months (vin de sino-plonk).
We took a boat out one evening to go cormorant fishing. This is where the birds dive for fish from a boat and then bring them back to the fisherman where they are regurgitated into a basket. The birds gets to keep every 7th fish otherwise they sulk and will not fish. We observed all this from a tiny, rocking fishing boat out on the Li River in pitch dark, with the most intense lightning storm going on around us and loads of invisible creatures flitting around giving off flashes of bioluminescence to aid navigation. By the way, the locals have found a very cunning way of training the cormorants not to greedily swallow all the fish they catch. It involves tying a piece of string very tightly around the bird's neck so they can't swallow! Skilful eh?
We've heard reports by e-mail that there's been some flooding in China although we heard nothing locally. A quick check on the CNN web site (the BBC site mysteriously is not available most of the time in China - hmm!) reveals that there has been extensive flooding in areas we were in a few weeks ago. The Chinese government is coming on strong about the need for decent flood defences. Of course, this is just propaganda to back up the 3 Gorges Dam project. People are starting to die from the floods but hopefully they won't be as bad as the catastrophic floods of 1998 where thousands died. Thinking about some of the places we've seen, it's not surprising that the locals suffer. The infrastructure is the countryside is so poor.
With only a few days until our second visa ran out we set off for the Hong Kong border. This involved a 10 hour bus ride through some pretty horrific tropical storms - it's really raining now! We finally made it to Guangzhou (Canton) where we ended up spending the night in a pretty flash hotel. So flash, in fact, that it had an English TV channel from which it became apparent that we'd actually been a lot closer to the flooding than we realised. Towns we'd been in a few days ago now seemed to be under water. We did see some pretty swollen rivers on our journeys but nothing like what was being reported.
We also learned from the news that 24 students had died in a fire in a cyber-cafe. Apparently, it's standard practise for the owner to sell tickets, lock the punters inside all night and then go home to bed. When an Internet cafe in Beijing caught fire, the inevitable happened. Apparently the students go to the cafes to surf and play games as they have a much better Internet connection than the university! The cafes need to be blacked out and locked to avoid raids by the police. Apparently these cyber- cafes are illegal (not sure why though). Chinese newspapers are branding the Internet as opium for kids - apparently they spend all night surfing and then fall asleep at school. The authorities are also denying that the swift action to close all the cafes is anything to do with people getting access to corrupting Western ideas - so that's OK then!
We made our crossing into Hong Kong with one day left on our visas for China. UK citizens don't need a visa for Hong Kong even though it's technically part of China. At the border crossing it's like going into another country. You have to fill out exit and entry forms and get the usual plethora of stamps the Chinese like. We've never seen so many border formalities to stay in the same country. Still, we've left mainland China behind us (for good) now. We've concluded that 2 months is plenty of time in China. We saw everything we wanted (and quite a few things we didn't) plus we got a good feel for what life in the PRC is actually like. Suffice to say neither of us has any plans to emigrate here!
When we originally planned the whole trip, we were going to spend 2 more weeks in China so we weren't due to leave HK until the end of June. After we realised we'd have problems getting another visa extension, we moved the flight out of HK to 24th June. After being in HK for about half an hour, we realised it would cost a fortune to stay any longer so we found a very obliging lady in the Quantas office who moved our flight again; now for 20th June...except she didn't. Guess where we were when we discovered this.
Before that drama though, we stayed Kowloon-side [as we travelling types say] in a place called the Miradoor Mansions. This is a famous apartment block where many of the apartments have been converted into a number of microscopically small rooms. Our double with bathroom measured 3m square (including the bathroom). Still, it was right in the centre of downtown Kowloon within walking distance of the harbour-side where you get the famous view across the water to Hong Kong island. This view is actually more spectacular than the postcards make out which is no trivial achievement.
As we only had 2 days, we did the touristy things only. We took the Star Ferry across from Kowloon to the island, took an open topped bus to the funicular which we rode to the top of the peak for the classic views down over the high-rise blocks. We walked to the opposite side of the island and visited Repulse Bay which has a beautiful beach and something of a naval history we think. All the while we marvelled at how expensive everything was. Most stuff seems to cost about 50% more than in the UK which was especially shocking after rural China. When you couple this with the population's brusque attitude which borders on rudeness, you don't tend to take to a place. Having said that, we did think it would be a nice place to work.
Having "done" Hong Kong and really done China to death, we were ready for Thailand. In truth we'd been looking forward to it for a week or so. Accordingly and in all innocence, we toddled off to Hong Kong's new airport which is most a most impressive place. Well, it is until you find out all your flights have been cancelled due to the incompetence of the Quantas Office, Jardine House, Hong Kong [you know who you are!]. They'd kindly changed all our flight dates for us but not notified any of their code-share partners; so Cathay Pacific, who were to take us to Bangkok, cancelled our booking (and the subsequent one from Bangkok to Singapore, so did BA on our homeward leg). Ho hum! So, we had to go on the standby list for that day's Bangkok flight after frantically rebooking everything. Luckily we made it on to an even earlier flight [hurrah!], only to be delayed for mechanical reasons [booo!]. It seemed like we were never destined to leave. Finally we were allowed to board just as a massive tropical storm engulfed the airport. Cathay Pacific staff were excellent and very helpful. They also seemed to know what they were doing which is always a plus. Eventually, however, we did get off and a mere 2 hours later we landed in Bangkok at exactly the time we would have arrived had we taken the flight we had tried to get but had been cancelled off... erm, we think!
And, on that note, that's it for China. Hopefully it's been at least a little interesting. It's been a tough "holiday", but very worthwhile although the feeling at the moment is that we'll not be coming back. We'll hassle you sometime later with something from Thailand. Just a reminder that our itinerary looks like this.
"Xiexie he wan an" i.e. thank you and good night.
One thing that is cheap in Hong Kong is electrical goods - gizmos and gadgets and Steve had been thinking about getting a new digital camera so one evening he set off down Nathan Street which is like Tottenham Court Road (London) on steroids. To cut a long story short, the scam works like this: you pick out the item you want in the window, which is duly brought out and demonstrated. You bargain down to an incredibly low price and hand over your plastic or cash. After the paying bit, they tell you that they need to get a new, boxed one for you from the warehouse up the road which will take 5 mins. They then use this time (20 mins) to try and sell you a more expensive and different product from the one you've just purchased all the while concentrating on how much better it is and how little extra money you would need to hand over. If you resist long enough and badger about the item you've paid for, they reluctantly go off, pretend to make a phone call and then announce that the warehouse is closed or there are none left in stock. Of course, you still have the option to go for the other item they tried to sell you. Otherwise, your option seems to be to start shouting, calling them dishonest and intercepting other potential punters telling them how bad the shop is. Only then do you get your money back!
So, in a nutshell, they scam you out of some money on false pretences, this makes you stay in the shop where you get the hard sell until you realise and demand a refund. Basically, you need to see the actual item you will be walking out of the door with before paying anything. You have been warned! We tried many shops on Nathan St and around and not one would show us the actual item we were buying until we'd paid. Even the demo item in the window can't be bought (no English manual, missing guarantee, foreign software, on loan from supplier, etc). This is a very well thought out scam and quite unsavoury to be mixed up in so beware, the bargains are not as good as they seem. One consolation is that the locals get quite upset when you call them dishonest liars - most pleasing.
There is a happy ending though and Steve did get his camera in the end after Megan calmed him down and persuaded him to try again. We'd seen the rather amusingly named chain "Fortress World" previously and speculated as to what it might sell - it's logo is a castle! We speculated incorrectly as it turned out to be cameras, liberal helpings of honesty and reasonable prices. So, if you end up in HK looking to buy a camera, check these people out! Otherwise it's caveat emptor, literally.
It's impossible not to notice that the Chinese go about their commuting with much more vigour than we do in the West. The cacophony of horn blowing and the seething mass of vehicles of all shapes, sizes and conditions are the hallmarks of the Chinese city. Accordingly, a few observations are in order...
The horn is often referred to as the Egyptian brake pedal. Well, it could also be viewed as the Chinese steering wheel. When an obstacle presents itself to the oriental driver, he simply leans on the horn and continues in the same direction, relying on the obstacle to move. Oddly we see surprisingly few accidents - say 1 a day.
In common with many other countries, buses race each other to get to the next stop first. This way they get to cram in all the waiting passengers; hence more money. Of course, when you stop to pick people up, your rival speeds past. We experienced an interesting overtaking tactic which involves accelerating towards speed bumps whilst your opposition foolishly slows down for them. This was on the holy mountain Huang Shan where the bumps were there to slow you down before a precipitous bend!
Pedestrians are the lowest of the low with no rights and never any priority over any other form of traffic, ever! Priority is deemed by size alone. Equally, road markings play no part in the driving experience. In fact there seems to be one law only. You must notify someone that you are about to overtake them by blowing your horn and the Chinese have taken to this rule with gusto. By extension, you blow your horn if you want to overtake too. We were in a bus which was stuck behind a lorry on a single lane motorway contraflow and our driver was repeatedly blowing his horn to get the lorry to move over - to where?
Pedestrian crossings are controlled by the usual red and green "walking man" symbol. A stationary red figure means traffic has right of way and you must not attempt to cross. An animated green figure means traffic has right of way. Spot the difference? You could be crossing on the green man on a one way street and a lorry might come at you against the traffic flow. It will not stop and you must leap out of the way. Doubly difficult at night, as there seems to be a law that public buses and bicycles mustn't show any lights.
For those of you familiar with the old arcade game "Frogger", crossing the road is identical to that. You take one lane at a time and dash into gaps between vehicles - scary.
For the first time in his life, Steve was hit by a bus - nothing to be worried about but a bit of a surprise! Mind you, we think the driver got more of a shock at the resultant tirade of English expletives he did not understand. Steve never was very good at Frogger!
Seen on a tee-shirt in Yangshuo. It's corny but seems to sum up our whole 2 months here...
We were handed a business card by a guy we approached when we were trying to organise the Tibet trip it made us wonder exactly what we were letting our selves in for...
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Now we're out of China, it's possible to reflect on what quite a few of you have asked about - ablutions. Without going into too many gory details, it's sufficient to say that the Chinese like to squat - generally above holes in the ground where there is no running water. A pair of wellington boots would have been most useful. On trains, you're met simply with a hole in the carriage floor. Sometimes, the carriage attendant will lock the loo door shortly before you pull into a station for the sake of the locals. Otherwise it's anything goes - anywhere. Not nice! Ranked along with the spitting, shouting and shoving, this had to be the downside of the whole China trip. Much easier, of course, for Steve than Megan. Generally, our lodgings had Western style facilities (a prerequisite really) but restaurants, trains, bus stations etc. forget it! If you want any more details on this, we'll be happy to provide them but it's not savoury.