Day 45 - Zhangjiajie, Wulingyuan National Park

05.09.09

The train gets into Zhangjiajie a bit late, but it's still reasonably early in the morning. After a brief spell of confusion of how to get to the park, I am pointed in the right direction by a Chinese girl who just comes over to help me out. We get on our different buses, as Juste is staying in the city as she has an early train the next day, while I have an evening one so can stay in the park. Once I get to the park gates, I get several different stories as to the location of the hostel some people saying it doesn't even exist, but eventually I get it marked down on a map and then I set off. It's 248 Yuan to get in, which is the most expensive entrance ticket yet, but it's valid for two days and they even scan your fingerprint (I'm unsure as to whether it's to keep tabs on you in case you commit any crimes, or identify your body if you fall off one of the peaks...). Once inside the park the buses are all free to use that run around inside, but I decide to walk mostly as I want to see the scenery, I should also mention that I have my whole pack with me at the moment and although it's heavy, I think I am getting used to the weight as it feels a lot better than when I first started over a month ago.



Once I eventually reach the hostel, it's location is perfect, set in the middle of the park and around some stunning scenery, the peaks of the park rising up like pillars all around. In the evening I get talking to some of the other guests, a couple from Canada who have been traveling for around 9 months and are doing another 9, a guy who is from Guangzhou and a few students from the local area. I get some good tips on where to go and if I want to see it all, then I will have to wake up very early tomorrow. As I walk around at dusk a dog also decides to follow me and I keep thinking she will bite me and I'll end up getting rabies, but I guess it just likes my company.

Day 44 - Huang Shan, Hangzhou

4.09.09

A day of buses and trains is the main fare for today. We jump on our Hangzhou bound bus at 7.50am to catch our afternoon train to Zhangjiajie. At the train station it's the standard routine of everyone getting up and ready to rush the gates as soon as they open and then onto the platform like some kind of riot. We already have sleeper berths reserved, so don't really need to jump in with the Chaos, but it's fun to do, so we get stuck in anyway!

Once on the train I try and persist with some Mandarin learning on my MP3 player and then have my dinner consisting of the Chinese version of a pot noodle, customised by adding some sausage and fresh tomatoes. I think we have hit a carriage with a Chinese tour group as everyone is chatting to each other, playing games and eating together, like some kind of Chinese social club. It's fun to watch although we have to do it from our top bunks which probably have about 2 feet of room between the bed and the roof. The saving grace being that up high you are right next to the air conditioning, and on a hot train that's a god send.

Day 43 - Huang Shan Mountain

3.09.09

First bus at 6am get us to the base of the mountain by 7.30am, get our tickets and up the cable car sees us at the peak before 9am, not too bad for a 1600m ascent. It is a beautiful sight, but is rammed with tour groups who take the cable up in their thousands. They all come to see Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain), fabled as China's most picturesque and beautiful peak and painted by famous Chinese artists for centuries. We have a walk around the peak areas and then seemingly following me from Hua Shan 5 days before the mist comes in. At first it makes nice clouds and then it gets thick and you can't see anything about 50m in front of you. The most beautiful mountain with a £22 entry fee and £7 cable car fee is not really living up to it's name for me. Although for Juste, the mist makes the mountain mysterious and she enjoys the isolation of not being able to see, at least one of us is enjoying it. We walk around the summit area some more and on the other side of the mountain, the mist has lifted and you are treated to some stellar views. One section, accessible by narrow paths and steep steps far too narrow for the mass tour groups treats us to the best scenery we have seen yet and is phenomenal, the mist clouding over certain bits, but allowing you to see into the distance. This is beautiful and I can see why the peak could have it's name.

On the descent we walk at a good pace to make sure we don't miss the bus and end up being quite early back to the base. On the way down passing the sedan chair men, who for a fee will carry you like a VIP in a sedan chair up parts of the mountain, one at each end supporting your weight. I can only describe it as disgusting, it must be a cultural thing as Juste doesn't find it particularly appealing either. I wonder if people look up to the users as rich enough to be able to use the service and rising high over the other walkers.

Back to Huang Shan City and we take a night time walk around the old town, which has been dolled up for tourism and now the old looking buildings have a certain modern flair to them that says that have been built in the past few years and are definitely not old. Lots of people are lighting fires on the side of the river and around the City in general, just on the street pavements and waving incense sticks. It looks like some kind of religious ceremony or evening prayer and is an intriguing sight.

Day 42 - Huang Shan and the surrounding villages

2.09.09


Village hopping time and we start our day at 7am bashing through the country side around Huizhou Villages, which is so picturesque that hordes of art students pave the streets making sketches of the alleyways and the rivers running alongside the paths. In total we visit two of the villages and walk around past cows wading in streams and horses tied up in forested areas, up to a pagoda perched on a hill where we can see over one of the villages and meet a couple from Holland who have been traveling around China. One thing that strikes me, is how everybody can speak amazing English. Everyone I have met in Hostels, whether they are from Denmark, Holland, France, Italy, Germany, Chile, they all speak amazing English and when you have a Chilean, a German and a Brit in the room as we had in Xi'an, the default language of communication is English, as it's the only way they can communicate with each other. To check into their hostels and hotels they all have to speak English, which isn't even the first language of the country they are in, but it's the only common ground. I'm so impressed by it and feel so inadequate that I all I can do is hazard a guess at some passable french if I am pushed to.





When we get back to the hostel we book our bus to Huang Shan mountain leaving at 6am the next morning, this time round however it's a tourist mountain and isn't that dangerous. We will take the cable up, hike around the summit area for a couple of hours and then walk back down what is labeled as China's most beautiful peak.

Day 41 - Shanghai, Huang Shan

1.09.09

The 17.10 bus to Huang Shan has our name on it, but before we leave the cosmopolitan metropolis of Shanghai, we go and meet Sam for some lunch at his office block over looking the western side of Shanghai. It's supposed to be pork ribs, but is definitely breaded chicken or something like that, none the less it tastes great and it's nice to have a real meal. Sam's working for a company who send Chinese students from wealthy families overseas to the UK and America to study in boarding schools or Universities. They arrange the transport, fees
and all the complications and also help the students with English lessons so they can pass the entrance exams. It's an interesting concept and is a testament to how fast China is evolving and the amount of Chinese who have cashed in on it's development, especially when you consider the fees alone for the schools they deal with start at over £6,000 a year and you can eat a good meal in China for 50p.

We depart Sam and jump on our west bound bus for Huang Shan City (a.k.a. Tunxi), which has all of around 10 people including the driver conductor and us. It pulls into some where in Huang Shan at about 11.30 and we take the safe option and take a taxi to our hostel, which appears to be a massive complex and Juste shares her 6 person dorm with no one, while I have three people. The guy at reception tells us he will help us get our onward train tickets and also point us in the way of getting to the Huizhou villages tomorrow if we meet him when his shift ends at 7am. An aggressive start to the day tomorrow then.

Day 40 - Shanghai

31.08.09

Porridge breakfast as I have done nearly every day I have been in China and it's the best way to start the day, a bit of honey, some chopped banana and it's a healthy and nutritious meal. We get in around 2 hours late, which isn't too bad and a short jaunt on the Shanghai Metro sees me at the hostel in no time and just in time to meet up with Juste for breakfast. It's a random experience meeting someone from St Andrews in a city on the other side of the world, but feels fantastic. We go for breakfast at a vegetarian restaurant as Juste is Vegan and it turns out to be a nice and fresh affair, although a fruit salad with mayonnaise and 'hundreds and thousands' sprinkled on it is a new concept. We have a walk around Shanghai and it's different areas and then I give Sam a call who has been working in Shanghai for the past year since he graduated. A few hours later and we are sitting in Captains Bar overlooking the Bund and the Shanghai skyline drinking Tsing Tao beer. Absolutely fantastically marvelous.

[Quakers partly sponsors the opening of this entry, all other porridge makers please make cheques payable to Mr. Stacy Lee]

Day 39 - Xi'an

30.08.09

Today I leave my Xi'an home and make the journey to Shanghai, I could only get soft sleeper tickets, so it should be a relatively luxurious journey across to the cost. My body is punishing me for my mountain exploits and walking is painful, going up or down steps is just amusing. I pack out train food at the super market, leave my bags in the luggage room and then head out to the south of the city outside the walls with Mike, my Dane hostel friend. He's studying in Beijing for a few months and is visiting some places in China before he heads back to start studying. He climbed Hua Shan a couple of days before me, using the sensible day time method and was lucky enough to have clear weather. The City sprawls out past the walls much like other Chinese cities and doesn't really have any interesting points of note, but it's a good walk none the less and gets me stretching my legs out. I end buying one of those indestructible plastic water bottles for tea and drinking water and a SIGG flask to store hot water in.

In the evening when I board the train to Shanghai my 4 berth compartment is shared with an Aussie and a Chinese couple. It's a nice compartment with TVs, soft beds, individual lights and is very clean, what more can you ask for? The Aussie guy has some interesting stories to tell and as ever the Chinese couple offer us their food and are hospitable and friendly.