21.08.09
The Yungang Caves is today's task and it all starts off with a round trip on the bus much like my first Vladivostock adventure. Apparently the bus everyone told me to catch isn't running for some reason, so I have to catch a number 4 and then change for 3-1. I obviously have no idea where to get off and change, but charge on into the journey blind. 45 mins later and I'm back at the train station and asking people again, all of whom tell me to jump on the 4 and change onto the 3-1. The second time round I stand right next to the driver and bother him every few minutes so he doesn't forget me. He eventually tells me where to get off and change to jump on the 3-1 and I end up arriving at the entrance to the caves at about midday.
The Yungang caves are a series of Buddhist caves carved straight out of the cliff face and when you see a 17m high Buddha statue sitting in a cave that's all be carved out of the cliff face over 1500 years ago, it's phenomenal. In contrast I also take a more extensive walk around Datong when I get back and come to the conclusion that it's a bit of a rough city. I jump on my hard sleeper at night and totally paranoid that I will my miss my stop at 6am I wake up ritually every 20 minutes and freak out. Although there was no need as the attendant wakes you up when you get to your stop anyway.
Wednesday 26 August 2009
Day 29 - Beijing & Datong
20.08.09
It's hard seat time! On Chinese trains, you essentially have 5 modes of travel, soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, hard seat and standing. I asked for the cheapest fare to get Datong and she wouldn't sell me standing, so I got a hard seat. I'm at the station nearly two hours early, to make sure I have no chance of missing my train and join a mass of people already waiting. As time ticks on more people arrive and they start queuing to get on the platform about an hour before the train is even leaving, I join in as I've got nothing else to do. The queue gradually turns from a line into a general mass all facing the same direction and then a general free for all once it's a few mins to go, with people pushing to get closer and what was a 50m or so reasonably ordered huddle, immediately condensed into around 15m of concentrated super eager Chinese travelers. When the gates finally open it's just pure chaos, but because I'm roughly 6ft1 which puts me at about 5ft1 taller than everyone else I join right in and make my way to the platform in good time.
Once on the train I get talking to a Chinese school student called Danny who was in Beijing studying English. She's 16, lives in Datong, her name is blatantly not Danny, but everyone seems to have a Chinese name. It's funny how everyone wants to speak to a foreigner to practice their English and when we get to Datong, she insists on helping my buy my next train ticket and then shows me around the city centre, introduces me to her family and gives me some food and tells me how to get to the Buddhist Caves tomorrow. Once again another show of brilliant Chinese friendliness and hospitality and in return all that she asks is that I speak to her and help her improve her English.
It's hard seat time! On Chinese trains, you essentially have 5 modes of travel, soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, hard seat and standing. I asked for the cheapest fare to get Datong and she wouldn't sell me standing, so I got a hard seat. I'm at the station nearly two hours early, to make sure I have no chance of missing my train and join a mass of people already waiting. As time ticks on more people arrive and they start queuing to get on the platform about an hour before the train is even leaving, I join in as I've got nothing else to do. The queue gradually turns from a line into a general mass all facing the same direction and then a general free for all once it's a few mins to go, with people pushing to get closer and what was a 50m or so reasonably ordered huddle, immediately condensed into around 15m of concentrated super eager Chinese travelers. When the gates finally open it's just pure chaos, but because I'm roughly 6ft1 which puts me at about 5ft1 taller than everyone else I join right in and make my way to the platform in good time.
Once on the train I get talking to a Chinese school student called Danny who was in Beijing studying English. She's 16, lives in Datong, her name is blatantly not Danny, but everyone seems to have a Chinese name. It's funny how everyone wants to speak to a foreigner to practice their English and when we get to Datong, she insists on helping my buy my next train ticket and then shows me around the city centre, introduces me to her family and gives me some food and tells me how to get to the Buddhist Caves tomorrow. Once again another show of brilliant Chinese friendliness and hospitality and in return all that she asks is that I speak to her and help her improve her English.
Day 28 - Beijing
19.08.09
I occupy my self with the truly epic task of wandering around the forbidden city today. It's absolutely epic and is literally like a small town enclosed in the walls. It's just under a kilometre long and over 700m wide and takes ages to fully explore. I think I hit every room, but it was at a fair pace and I started at 9am. As with everywhere else it was rammed to the brim with Chinese tour groups, I can't work how all these Chinese tourists can afford the entry fees to the sights and the guide fees. It's roughly £6 to get in, which doesn't sound like much, but considering you can get a good meal for about 80p it's an awful lot. The palace has some amazing history behind it and some of the exhibitions are fascinating, especially the one surrounding the last Emperor. He was not allowed to live in most of the palace after the Qing Dynasty was overthrown and then he abdicated, ended up being a Japanese puppet emperor during the war, and ended life married to a nurse and working in the botanical gardens in Beijing.
After the miles of walking around the Forbidden City, I decide more walking is what I need and walk through one of Beijing's main shopping drags. Live scorpions impaled on skewers ready to be grilled or deep fried, massive shopping malls with escalators spanning six floors, chic fashion boutiques, Chinese models in extravagant bridal dresses posing outside Beijing's premier church for photo shoots, it's all part of the scenery.
I occupy my self with the truly epic task of wandering around the forbidden city today. It's absolutely epic and is literally like a small town enclosed in the walls. It's just under a kilometre long and over 700m wide and takes ages to fully explore. I think I hit every room, but it was at a fair pace and I started at 9am. As with everywhere else it was rammed to the brim with Chinese tour groups, I can't work how all these Chinese tourists can afford the entry fees to the sights and the guide fees. It's roughly £6 to get in, which doesn't sound like much, but considering you can get a good meal for about 80p it's an awful lot. The palace has some amazing history behind it and some of the exhibitions are fascinating, especially the one surrounding the last Emperor. He was not allowed to live in most of the palace after the Qing Dynasty was overthrown and then he abdicated, ended up being a Japanese puppet emperor during the war, and ended life married to a nurse and working in the botanical gardens in Beijing.
After the miles of walking around the Forbidden City, I decide more walking is what I need and walk through one of Beijing's main shopping drags. Live scorpions impaled on skewers ready to be grilled or deep fried, massive shopping malls with escalators spanning six floors, chic fashion boutiques, Chinese models in extravagant bridal dresses posing outside Beijing's premier church for photo shoots, it's all part of the scenery.
Day 27 - Beijing
18.08.09
Back to the embassy district early today to pick up my visa, which cost 550Yuan for next day service. It's about £50 which is a bargain, considering I paid over a hundred for my Chinese one to get a three day turnaround. I take a walk to the local embassy park and just as I thought, it was full of people using the exercise machines again, fantastic! There also seems to be an abundance of cafes around all serving coffee and western style cakes, definitely a by product of the embassies.
I get spiritual in the afternoon and visit the Lama temple, which one of the largest Buddhist temples outside of Tibet. It's a massive temple and has a huge Guinness Book of World Records Buddha carved out of a single epic sandalwood tree. The whole complex is full of incense sticks, people praying and the usual mass of tourists. Just down the road is the Confucian Temple and the Imperial College which is one of China's and so civilization's oldest universities/colleges/teaching institutions. China is definitely not short of world famous or
important sights.
Back to the embassy district early today to pick up my visa, which cost 550Yuan for next day service. It's about £50 which is a bargain, considering I paid over a hundred for my Chinese one to get a three day turnaround. I take a walk to the local embassy park and just as I thought, it was full of people using the exercise machines again, fantastic! There also seems to be an abundance of cafes around all serving coffee and western style cakes, definitely a by product of the embassies.
I get spiritual in the afternoon and visit the Lama temple, which one of the largest Buddhist temples outside of Tibet. It's a massive temple and has a huge Guinness Book of World Records Buddha carved out of a single epic sandalwood tree. The whole complex is full of incense sticks, people praying and the usual mass of tourists. Just down the road is the Confucian Temple and the Imperial College which is one of China's and so civilization's oldest universities/colleges/teaching institutions. China is definitely not short of world famous or
important sights.
Day 26 - Beijing
17.08.09
It's Beijing embassy district time, which also turns out to be the Russian quarter of the city and most shop signs are also in Russian, which is weird.
I need to go to the Vietnamese embassy to get a visa. It's like a small village and every embassy is protected by a Chinese soldier standing to attention at the gates, with more soldiers in groups patrolling around all marching in time with each other. Some embassies are ridiculous: the Thai one looks like a country club; the American like a fortress with extra fencing, walls and a massive satellite dish; although the best of all has to be the British, which just resembles some kind of colonial style country house and looks so stereotypically empirish it's amazing.
I venture to Beijing Xie station to get my onward travel tickets, it's the biggest station in Beijing and I am seriously impressed. It is like a small airport and makes all the other stations seem miniature.
After getting my onward ticket to Datong, which was £3 for a 7 hour train journey (BARGAIN), I explore the narrow alleyways and parks around the station. What's amazing are the daily exercise routines that people do. They walk backwards, clap their hands while walking, swing off trees and use the communal exercise equipment provided in the parks, and the people are all over 60 and still keeping very active. Inspired by the sight of exercise I take a late night trip to the Olympic Park. All that needs to be said is we don't have a hope in hell, it's phenomenal.
It's Beijing embassy district time, which also turns out to be the Russian quarter of the city and most shop signs are also in Russian, which is weird.
I need to go to the Vietnamese embassy to get a visa. It's like a small village and every embassy is protected by a Chinese soldier standing to attention at the gates, with more soldiers in groups patrolling around all marching in time with each other. Some embassies are ridiculous: the Thai one looks like a country club; the American like a fortress with extra fencing, walls and a massive satellite dish; although the best of all has to be the British, which just resembles some kind of colonial style country house and looks so stereotypically empirish it's amazing.
I venture to Beijing Xie station to get my onward travel tickets, it's the biggest station in Beijing and I am seriously impressed. It is like a small airport and makes all the other stations seem miniature.
After getting my onward ticket to Datong, which was £3 for a 7 hour train journey (BARGAIN), I explore the narrow alleyways and parks around the station. What's amazing are the daily exercise routines that people do. They walk backwards, clap their hands while walking, swing off trees and use the communal exercise equipment provided in the parks, and the people are all over 60 and still keeping very active. Inspired by the sight of exercise I take a late night trip to the Olympic Park. All that needs to be said is we don't have a hope in hell, it's phenomenal.
Day 25 - Beijing
16.08.09
Living it up like Chinese royalty in the Summer Palace is on the agenda today. I'm following Xiao's instructions and on the number 10 bus, which is a double decked air conditioned affair. Waking up at the crack of dawn I make it to the Palace at about 8.45 and considering the doors open at 8.30, it should be quite quiet. However this is not the case and over the next two hours it goes from being quite busy to absolutely rammed.
It's an amazing place to walk around and the grounds are ridiculously big, the Emperors and Empresses really did live it up back in the day. The only downside is that like most of Beijing there seems to be a low level mist/fog that has engulfed everything and puts visibility down to around 150-200m, after that you can't see a thing. I'm not sure if it is weather based or a by product of the endless building work, cars, factories and general pollution. For the sake of my lungs, I'm hoping it's just the weather.
Xiao and Yu leave today to go back to Shanhaiguan, so I meet up with them to see them off and yet again I'm in amazement at people's generosity and kind hearted spirit. Learning from my mistakes, I book into a hostel in both Xi'an and and Pingyao, so I definitely have places to stay when I arrive. I'm also amazed to find out that online you can get some ridiculous deals and I
basically pay about £1.80 for two nights in a hostel in Pingyao and £15 for five nights in Xi'an, wonderfully cheap. I've come to the conclusion, that if you don't visit the expensive tourist sites, then you can easily live for around £10-12 a day, including money to travel between the cities every couple of days.
Living it up like Chinese royalty in the Summer Palace is on the agenda today. I'm following Xiao's instructions and on the number 10 bus, which is a double decked air conditioned affair. Waking up at the crack of dawn I make it to the Palace at about 8.45 and considering the doors open at 8.30, it should be quite quiet. However this is not the case and over the next two hours it goes from being quite busy to absolutely rammed.
It's an amazing place to walk around and the grounds are ridiculously big, the Emperors and Empresses really did live it up back in the day. The only downside is that like most of Beijing there seems to be a low level mist/fog that has engulfed everything and puts visibility down to around 150-200m, after that you can't see a thing. I'm not sure if it is weather based or a by product of the endless building work, cars, factories and general pollution. For the sake of my lungs, I'm hoping it's just the weather.
Xiao and Yu leave today to go back to Shanhaiguan, so I meet up with them to see them off and yet again I'm in amazement at people's generosity and kind hearted spirit. Learning from my mistakes, I book into a hostel in both Xi'an and and Pingyao, so I definitely have places to stay when I arrive. I'm also amazed to find out that online you can get some ridiculous deals and I
basically pay about £1.80 for two nights in a hostel in Pingyao and £15 for five nights in Xi'an, wonderfully cheap. I've come to the conclusion, that if you don't visit the expensive tourist sites, then you can easily live for around £10-12 a day, including money to travel between the cities every couple of days.
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