The ferry journey this time round was a bit rougher, so I was glad to set foot on terra firma again. We'd come ashore in the industrial port city of Qinhuangdao which has little to offer tourists, so we immediately headed to the train station to get ourselves the 300km or so west to Beijing. One of the many things we noticed on this train trip (and on pretty much all train trips to come) was the constant construction of massive apartment blocks which, once built, appeared to be left abandoned and empty. Literally millions of people could have been housed in these places, but that didn't appear to be the end objective. We would later learn that once completed, if only a mere 10% occupancy was achieved, then a profit was made for the owners. What a colossal and despicable waste of energy and resources. And that, my friends, set the tone for this country.
While it's not the largest city we've been to, nor even the largest in China, Beijing is still an absolute behemoth at over 21 million people. It's also pretty rammed with cultural and tourist attractions, so we spent a week here to get to as many of them as we could. Tiananmen Square, best known for the protests in 1989 which ended in the massacre of hundreds, maybe thousands, of civilians, is a huge city square in the centre of Beijing. The Mausoleum of Mao Zedong is located here, as is the National Museum of China. And just across the road to the north of the square is the Forbidden City, the enormous palace compound that was the home of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. As the name suggests, no one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission. We wandered around the complex for an hour or so, along with about a million other people, so we didn't hang around too long. It's pretty damn impossible to escape the masses in this city. Sticking with the royal theme, we checked out the Summer Palace which is about 15kms from central Beijing and is a sprawling royal park that was used by the royal families to get away from it all and entertain. Those poor bastards must have had it real tough if a palace in the city wasn't enough.
Keen to try some local street food, we checked out the famous Wangfujing Snack Street which is a popular tourist haunt at night. You can get all manner of fried critters on sticks, along with other weird and sometimes unidentifiable snacks. Donghuamen Street, further north and perpendicular to Wangfujing Street, also has a night food market with similar offerings. Probably the most disturbing thing we saw wasn't a strange fried insect on a stick, but rather a display of small baby sharks skewered on sticks. We're well aware that China has pretty much declared open season on the world and it's resources, but it was still shocking to see.
In a bid to try and find a relative oasis of calm and nature in this hectic city, we paid a visit to the Temple of Heaven Park. It covers a pretty sizeable area and contains some interesting buildings such as the Circular Mound Altar (used for sacrifices to Heaven), the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. On our travels to various religious sites around the world, we've learned that pretty much everything deserves a building, temple or shrine at which to pray for. Nothing is too insignificant apparently.
Whilst in Beijing we had to check out the Olympic Park and it's impressive buildings, constructed for the 2008 Olympics. The two we really wanted to see were the National Stadium, aka "Bird's Nest", and the National Aquatics Centre, or "Water Cube". Both are obvious feats of engineering and construction, and are also pretty damn cool to look at.
I think now would be a good time to mention the slight issue of pollution in this city. Granted, we were there in October which is winter and therefore not a great time to be visiting, but nothing, and I do mean nothing, could prepare us for the shocking reality. During the whole week we were in Beijing, I think we saw blue sky once. The rest of the time it was a horrible grey. But it wasn't just the usual winter grey skies you'd expect, the air itself was so thick and heavy with pollution you could actually taste it and feel it. So much so that after walking around outside for a while we had headaches, sore eyes and throat. No wonder half the population walks around with face masks on. We actually checked the Air Quality Index each day we were there (from the figures published by the American Embassy as the Chinese figures are always underestimated on purpose), and it got as high as 365 one day. Just to put that into perspective for you - a reading of 151-200 is considered 'Unhealthy'. Unsurprisingly, the levels we experienced were deemed 'Hazardous', and people are generally advised not to go outside if they can avoid it. What the fuck. And it wasn't just Beijing that was bad. Our entire time in China was spent under these horrible polluted grey skies - there was simply no escaping it. Seriously China, sort your shit out.
To round out our time in Beijing we of course had to visit the Great Wall. Because the Wall in its entirety runs for an estimated 8,000kms or more, there are several sections you can visit; so unless you have more than a day to explore you have to choose one. Some are better preserved than others and therefore easier to walk along, so that's a major factor when considering which section to visit. We didn't want to go to Badaling, which is the most popular section for tourists, so after some consideration we settled on the Jinshanling section, about 125km out of Beijing. It was a bit of a mission to get there, but after a frustrating few hours we made it. This section of the wall is 10km long and is well preserved, with 5 passes and 67 watchtowers. On the day we visited there weren't too many people to make it feel crowded, but the biggest miracle of all was that there was clear blue sky. What a difference it makes - we could see for miles which meant we had a clear view of the wall snaking off in either direction over the surrounding mountains. It really is as impressive as you'd imagine, and we were glad we made the effort to visit this section. Oh, and just in case you were wondering - the Great Wall isn't actually visible from the moon.
In between all this sightseeing we met some quality people at our hostel - three fellow Kiwi's actually. I think it was the largest gathering of Kiwi's either of us has been around for the entire trip! Joe, Hollie and Brad were good company to eat and get on the piss with, so despite all the pollution we had a great time in Beijing.
After a week it was time to move onto our next destination, so we got an overnight train to Xi'an. The trains in China are actually really good - comfortable, with 6 sleeper beds to a cabin (3 beds high on each side) with pillow and duvet provided. The only problem was, this was then ruined by the Chinese passengers all constantly spitting and smoking everywhere and talking loudly at all hours of the night. Nevertheless, we arrived in Xi'an with no problems. Once again, the pollution here was pretty bad so it wasn't exactly pleasant to be walking around outside. But there were a few things to check out in our four days here. The first night we went with a couple of guys from the hostel to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is a 64m high Buddhist pagoda that is lit up at night. In a square nearby there's a musical water show at night, with fountains spurting up in a carefully timed sequence. Afterwards we wandered around the Muslim Quarter, which is the best place for street food.
Xi'an is surrounded by a well-preserved city wall which you can walk or cycle around. We didn't feel the need to pay to do this though, so instead we just wandered around the city. There are plenty of temples in Xi'an, but we only visited one - the Temple of the Eight Immortals. It was actually a quiet place to be with few other people there, so we could escape the constant crowds for a while.
The most famous, and popular tourist site in Xi'an is the Terracotta Warriors (or Terracotta Army). It's a collection of terracotta sculptures which depict the armies of the First Emperor of China, and which were buried with the emperor when he died with the purpose of protecting him in the afterlife. The sculptures are quite impressive as they're life-sized, and have different uniforms, hairstyles and weapons according to rank. They even have different faces which is attention to detail (well, there are eight different faces which are repeated). There are estimated to be more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army. A lot of it is still buried and under excavation, and a large number of sculptures are broken, but there is still row upon row of soldiers standing at attention as though frozen in time.
After Xi'an we intended to go straight to Chengdu, but on recommendation from Joe and Holly we made the detour to Jiuzhaigou Valley. It was a bloody mission to get there as it's miles from anywhere, and when we eventually did arrive at night there was no power in the nearby village so we were shown to our room in the dark. We went to bed that night hoping we hadn't just wasted a lot of time. Luckily we could just walk to the national park the next morning and buy our tickets - unfortunately we were just days shy of the change-over to off-peak season, so we had to pay the full price of 220RMB rather than the 80RMB it would be in a few days time. Thankfully the price of the bus ticket was virtually the same regardless of timing. So all up it was a pretty damn expensive outing - AU$110 for both of us. We were hoping to be dazzled. And as it turns out, we weren't disappointed. It was quite possibly the most beautiful place we've ever been. In the freezing winter weather, under clear blue skies, there was a light cover of ice on the walkways that wind through the park and its breathtaking scenery of snow-capped peaks, multi-level waterfalls and unbelievably vibrant coloured lakes. There really are no words to properly describe the sheer beauty of this place, so I'll let the photos do the talking. Suffice it to say we spent an amazing few hours walking miles and miles in this pristine and peaceful valley of Eden.
After this welcome escape into a little bubble of beauty, we were back on a train to Chengdu - home of the Giant Pandas. Arriving at the hostel we met an English couple, Tom and Jo, who we ended up spending most of our time in this city with. Together we visited the panda breeding centre where we could see these cuddly looking black and white creatures, from gorgeous babies to large adults. Some of the information plaques outside the enclosures were hilarious, stating such things as: "Lulu is 8 years old. She is sporty and isn't fussy about what she eats". And here I was thinking all pandas did was lie around eating bamboo and doing sweet fuck all. Silly me.
Apart from the pandas, we didn't do too much. We got on the piss, I got sick (as in cold sick, not hungover), ate hot pot (very oily, not especially hot, with questionable 'meat' items) and visited the world's largest building which can fit 20 Sydney Opera Houses inside. What, you might ask, do you put inside such an enormous space? Basically everything - a university campus, two hotels, a shopping mall, an Imax cinema, offices, a convention centre, a 'seaside' resort with water lapping on a fake beach, an Olympic-size ice rink, a water park and a Mediterranean themed shopping village. Just a tad excessive don't you think?
Time to move on again, all the way east to Shanghai - the largest city in China. I'm sure there's plenty of things to see and do in this city, but to be honest, we weren't really interested. Pretty much all we did was check out the Bund - the famous waterfront area with a view across the river - both during the day and at night, took a brief walk through the People's Park, ate and drank. We went to a sports bar to watch the rugby, but we might as well have been at home with the extortionate price they were charging for a beer - $10! Daylight robbery that is. That clearly left us with no choice but to pop out at half time and between games for sneaky 7 Eleven beers for a fraction of the cost.
By now the first 30 days of our double entry visa were almost up, so we had to make tracks and leave the country. We'd chosen to head across to Taiwan for a few days, so we made our way down to Xiamen where we hopped on board yet another ferry. To be perfectly honest, we were more than happy to leave China, even if only briefly, as we'd pretty much had a gutsful by this point - of the inescapable and suffocating pollution, the oily food and the constant spitting, smoking and general rudeness of the Chinese people. As they say, change is as good as holiday. Here's hoping.
While it's not the largest city we've been to, nor even the largest in China, Beijing is still an absolute behemoth at over 21 million people. It's also pretty rammed with cultural and tourist attractions, so we spent a week here to get to as many of them as we could. Tiananmen Square, best known for the protests in 1989 which ended in the massacre of hundreds, maybe thousands, of civilians, is a huge city square in the centre of Beijing. The Mausoleum of Mao Zedong is located here, as is the National Museum of China. And just across the road to the north of the square is the Forbidden City, the enormous palace compound that was the home of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. As the name suggests, no one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission. We wandered around the complex for an hour or so, along with about a million other people, so we didn't hang around too long. It's pretty damn impossible to escape the masses in this city. Sticking with the royal theme, we checked out the Summer Palace which is about 15kms from central Beijing and is a sprawling royal park that was used by the royal families to get away from it all and entertain. Those poor bastards must have had it real tough if a palace in the city wasn't enough.
 |
| Tiananmen Square |
 |
| The Forbidden City |
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| Summer Palace |
Keen to try some local street food, we checked out the famous Wangfujing Snack Street which is a popular tourist haunt at night. You can get all manner of fried critters on sticks, along with other weird and sometimes unidentifiable snacks. Donghuamen Street, further north and perpendicular to Wangfujing Street, also has a night food market with similar offerings. Probably the most disturbing thing we saw wasn't a strange fried insect on a stick, but rather a display of small baby sharks skewered on sticks. We're well aware that China has pretty much declared open season on the world and it's resources, but it was still shocking to see.
In a bid to try and find a relative oasis of calm and nature in this hectic city, we paid a visit to the Temple of Heaven Park. It covers a pretty sizeable area and contains some interesting buildings such as the Circular Mound Altar (used for sacrifices to Heaven), the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. On our travels to various religious sites around the world, we've learned that pretty much everything deserves a building, temple or shrine at which to pray for. Nothing is too insignificant apparently.
Whilst in Beijing we had to check out the Olympic Park and it's impressive buildings, constructed for the 2008 Olympics. The two we really wanted to see were the National Stadium, aka "Bird's Nest", and the National Aquatics Centre, or "Water Cube". Both are obvious feats of engineering and construction, and are also pretty damn cool to look at.
 |
| Water Cube |
 |
| Bird's Nest |
I think now would be a good time to mention the slight issue of pollution in this city. Granted, we were there in October which is winter and therefore not a great time to be visiting, but nothing, and I do mean nothing, could prepare us for the shocking reality. During the whole week we were in Beijing, I think we saw blue sky once. The rest of the time it was a horrible grey. But it wasn't just the usual winter grey skies you'd expect, the air itself was so thick and heavy with pollution you could actually taste it and feel it. So much so that after walking around outside for a while we had headaches, sore eyes and throat. No wonder half the population walks around with face masks on. We actually checked the Air Quality Index each day we were there (from the figures published by the American Embassy as the Chinese figures are always underestimated on purpose), and it got as high as 365 one day. Just to put that into perspective for you - a reading of 151-200 is considered 'Unhealthy'. Unsurprisingly, the levels we experienced were deemed 'Hazardous', and people are generally advised not to go outside if they can avoid it. What the fuck. And it wasn't just Beijing that was bad. Our entire time in China was spent under these horrible polluted grey skies - there was simply no escaping it. Seriously China, sort your shit out.
To round out our time in Beijing we of course had to visit the Great Wall. Because the Wall in its entirety runs for an estimated 8,000kms or more, there are several sections you can visit; so unless you have more than a day to explore you have to choose one. Some are better preserved than others and therefore easier to walk along, so that's a major factor when considering which section to visit. We didn't want to go to Badaling, which is the most popular section for tourists, so after some consideration we settled on the Jinshanling section, about 125km out of Beijing. It was a bit of a mission to get there, but after a frustrating few hours we made it. This section of the wall is 10km long and is well preserved, with 5 passes and 67 watchtowers. On the day we visited there weren't too many people to make it feel crowded, but the biggest miracle of all was that there was clear blue sky. What a difference it makes - we could see for miles which meant we had a clear view of the wall snaking off in either direction over the surrounding mountains. It really is as impressive as you'd imagine, and we were glad we made the effort to visit this section. Oh, and just in case you were wondering - the Great Wall isn't actually visible from the moon.
In between all this sightseeing we met some quality people at our hostel - three fellow Kiwi's actually. I think it was the largest gathering of Kiwi's either of us has been around for the entire trip! Joe, Hollie and Brad were good company to eat and get on the piss with, so despite all the pollution we had a great time in Beijing.
After a week it was time to move onto our next destination, so we got an overnight train to Xi'an. The trains in China are actually really good - comfortable, with 6 sleeper beds to a cabin (3 beds high on each side) with pillow and duvet provided. The only problem was, this was then ruined by the Chinese passengers all constantly spitting and smoking everywhere and talking loudly at all hours of the night. Nevertheless, we arrived in Xi'an with no problems. Once again, the pollution here was pretty bad so it wasn't exactly pleasant to be walking around outside. But there were a few things to check out in our four days here. The first night we went with a couple of guys from the hostel to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is a 64m high Buddhist pagoda that is lit up at night. In a square nearby there's a musical water show at night, with fountains spurting up in a carefully timed sequence. Afterwards we wandered around the Muslim Quarter, which is the best place for street food.
 |
| Big Wild Goose Pagoda |
 |
| Just before the musical water fountain show started |
 |
| Muslim Quarter street food |
Xi'an is surrounded by a well-preserved city wall which you can walk or cycle around. We didn't feel the need to pay to do this though, so instead we just wandered around the city. There are plenty of temples in Xi'an, but we only visited one - the Temple of the Eight Immortals. It was actually a quiet place to be with few other people there, so we could escape the constant crowds for a while.
The most famous, and popular tourist site in Xi'an is the Terracotta Warriors (or Terracotta Army). It's a collection of terracotta sculptures which depict the armies of the First Emperor of China, and which were buried with the emperor when he died with the purpose of protecting him in the afterlife. The sculptures are quite impressive as they're life-sized, and have different uniforms, hairstyles and weapons according to rank. They even have different faces which is attention to detail (well, there are eight different faces which are repeated). There are estimated to be more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army. A lot of it is still buried and under excavation, and a large number of sculptures are broken, but there is still row upon row of soldiers standing at attention as though frozen in time.
After Xi'an we intended to go straight to Chengdu, but on recommendation from Joe and Holly we made the detour to Jiuzhaigou Valley. It was a bloody mission to get there as it's miles from anywhere, and when we eventually did arrive at night there was no power in the nearby village so we were shown to our room in the dark. We went to bed that night hoping we hadn't just wasted a lot of time. Luckily we could just walk to the national park the next morning and buy our tickets - unfortunately we were just days shy of the change-over to off-peak season, so we had to pay the full price of 220RMB rather than the 80RMB it would be in a few days time. Thankfully the price of the bus ticket was virtually the same regardless of timing. So all up it was a pretty damn expensive outing - AU$110 for both of us. We were hoping to be dazzled. And as it turns out, we weren't disappointed. It was quite possibly the most beautiful place we've ever been. In the freezing winter weather, under clear blue skies, there was a light cover of ice on the walkways that wind through the park and its breathtaking scenery of snow-capped peaks, multi-level waterfalls and unbelievably vibrant coloured lakes. There really are no words to properly describe the sheer beauty of this place, so I'll let the photos do the talking. Suffice it to say we spent an amazing few hours walking miles and miles in this pristine and peaceful valley of Eden.
After this welcome escape into a little bubble of beauty, we were back on a train to Chengdu - home of the Giant Pandas. Arriving at the hostel we met an English couple, Tom and Jo, who we ended up spending most of our time in this city with. Together we visited the panda breeding centre where we could see these cuddly looking black and white creatures, from gorgeous babies to large adults. Some of the information plaques outside the enclosures were hilarious, stating such things as: "Lulu is 8 years old. She is sporty and isn't fussy about what she eats". And here I was thinking all pandas did was lie around eating bamboo and doing sweet fuck all. Silly me.
Apart from the pandas, we didn't do too much. We got on the piss, I got sick (as in cold sick, not hungover), ate hot pot (very oily, not especially hot, with questionable 'meat' items) and visited the world's largest building which can fit 20 Sydney Opera Houses inside. What, you might ask, do you put inside such an enormous space? Basically everything - a university campus, two hotels, a shopping mall, an Imax cinema, offices, a convention centre, a 'seaside' resort with water lapping on a fake beach, an Olympic-size ice rink, a water park and a Mediterranean themed shopping village. Just a tad excessive don't you think?
Time to move on again, all the way east to Shanghai - the largest city in China. I'm sure there's plenty of things to see and do in this city, but to be honest, we weren't really interested. Pretty much all we did was check out the Bund - the famous waterfront area with a view across the river - both during the day and at night, took a brief walk through the People's Park, ate and drank. We went to a sports bar to watch the rugby, but we might as well have been at home with the extortionate price they were charging for a beer - $10! Daylight robbery that is. That clearly left us with no choice but to pop out at half time and between games for sneaky 7 Eleven beers for a fraction of the cost.
 |
| The People's Park |
By now the first 30 days of our double entry visa were almost up, so we had to make tracks and leave the country. We'd chosen to head across to Taiwan for a few days, so we made our way down to Xiamen where we hopped on board yet another ferry. To be perfectly honest, we were more than happy to leave China, even if only briefly, as we'd pretty much had a gutsful by this point - of the inescapable and suffocating pollution, the oily food and the constant spitting, smoking and general rudeness of the Chinese people. As they say, change is as good as holiday. Here's hoping.
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