Exploring the Great Wall

Firstly, I forgot to mention quite a few things that we have already done or have happened to us.

In Shanghai I forgot to mention that we visited the Jinmao Tower (the tallest in China - but not for long as they are building 2 taller ones right next to it - we got quite a few pictures of the contruction workers from the Jinmao Tower)

In Beijing, I forgot to mention that because of the 2008 Olympics the entire city is under construction and renovation...the hotel we were staying in was on a market street (and was also a sex shop street!) and the entire market is being torn down to make way for a snazzier and more tourist-friendly upper-class market. So most of the people working in these market stalls will have to go back to their home towns without compensation, as they only rent the space).

I also forgot to mention on saturday, after visiting the Forbidden City and the rickshaw ride we were left at the end of Behei Park where there were people offering massages ( we couldnt resist :) and there was an old man writing chinese characters with a huge brush and water on the pavement - after he spotted us he gave me the brush to write (well, I couldnt remember most of my characters even though I had an exam a month ago so I just wrote "wo shi hen hao" I am very well" :) well, the guy was happy! Afterwards, we got into a taxi to go to yet another photography shop (Jo is addicted!!) and our taxi got into an accident!!! He hit another car while changing lanes - quite interesting to watch, at first they werent mad, then they became mad, then the police came, and then they shook hands!

So, I think that is all I have forgotten so on with the trip :)

We went to the Great Wall - We had to get up at 3:40 in the morning because the guy with whom we booked the tour told us that the bus left at 5:00 (we wanted to see the sunrise in the wall so we said why not - however that was not what was in store for us!) Once we got on the bus and it started to move, ten minutes after it was stopping again - we didnt understand why but we followed the crowd - It is when you are standing around Tiananmen Square at 5 in the morning to witness the rising of the flag that you comprehend just how many chinese there are!! We were two needles in a hay stack among them!!!

- we were silly enough to book a tour by ourselves (meaning not going to a foreigners travel agency) and we ended up being the only waiguo ren (foreigners) on the bus!! Quite amusing, especially when we were trying to find out at what times we had to be back for the bus. We had a couple of "english" speaking chinese on the bus that would help us so we made a few friends (especially when they needed to open a bottle on the bus and we were the only ones with a swiss army knife :)
The weather was crap - estremely foggy (as opposed to 1999 when it was blue skies!!!) so we went up one side of the wall and took a couple of photos - Jo went as far as we were allowed but since the weather wasnt helping we didnt hang about long. After (as with all chinese tours) we visited shops (one was a jade shop and another a candy shop - I would like to know what commission the guides make when they take us there) Chinese candy is, well, different :)
Afterwards, instead of visiting the Ming Tombs as promised we were taken to the Ming Dynasty Museum - all made of realistic and well made wax works telling the story of the Ming Dynasty from rise to fall - that was quite interesting and luckily for us each work had an explanation in english so we didnt have to follow the guide and pretend to understand what she was saying!

When we got back to Beijing we still managed to visit the White Pagoda, where we ended up witnessing an amazing thunderstorm. On the way back we found that we couldnt take the normal route because there was a huge army celebration happening inside Tiananmen Square and all the roads were closed around it - we saw it on TV this morning from Xi'an :)

Our super deluxe train was leaving for Xi'an at 21:36 and we were told not to be late...so at 8:30 we figured it was a good time to head for the station - that was another adventure - no taxi would stop for us, even when they stopped to let people off I would go beg them and they would still say no - so we were forced to take a rickshjaw but Beijing is huge (and the map will fool you!!) so I told the guy to go fast (we dont have a photo but imagine us both in a rickshaw with our 2 big bags and our 2 small backpacks - we couldnt see a thing!) The guy was trying his hardest but when we told him the train was at 9 (just to make sure) he said we needed a taxi so then he spent 10 minutes while on the rickshaw trying to get a taxi to stop us - I kept saying that they dont like us but fortunately he was able to get one and we made it to the station on the time!!

All the time we feel like needles in hay stacks - there are just sooooo many of them!!! The station was packed!
But once we got into our super deluxe 2 person suite (thats the last time and only time that will happen!!) we were finally able to relax and let our feet take it easy for a while :) We even had our own private bathroom and tv hehehe

Observations Post

1 -Everything in China is HUGE!! Literally everything...I dont really know if they know how to construct small here. Also, Chinese people are mostly very nice and they enjoy it when we try to speak with them in Chinese...my only problem is that they answer back too fast and I have to keep asking them to repeat themselves until I actually get it, otherwise our favorite saying at the moment is "wo bu dong" (I dont understand) or "bu yao, xiexie" (no, thank you!) - we have been using those a lot. Back home we're used to the "chinese shops" where you can buy everything, well you can think of China as a big Chinese shop because there is nothing here you cant buy!

2 - I was in China the first time in 1999 and let me tell you that when we came there werent that many tourists and most importantly, you could still see the sky of most cities. Today the mass of tourists are actually Chinese - with the economic boom they can now afford to travel everywhere and en mass! And for the sky, the amount of pollution also caused by the economic boom has not done much for the skyline of the cities.

3 - In the cities there is not much difference from our own western cities - the big brands are here and just about everywhere ex. when we arrived at station in Beijing on friday we decided to buy a map of the city as the lonely planet one never has all the streets and the one being given as the official tourist guide has all the McDonalds of the city along with all the shopping streets!

4 - Chinese people are really amused with us. They love to take pictures with us and of us and talking to us, especially when we answer back in Mandarin :)

5 - After almost 2 weeks in China we have seen A LOT of children, however I have yet to see a pregnant woman (Jo spotted one on the train but that is it)!!!! Also, most parents still stick to the one child policy even though it is no longer law. And most of these single children seem to be pretty spoiled! :)

Ni hao from Beijing!!

Last time you heard from us we were still in Shanghai...We have now made our way up through Nanjing and to Beijing and will leave for Xi'an on Monday night.

Anyways, better start from the beginning (I will try to make this brief and we promise to put a lot of photos so you dont get bored with my monologue!)

We left Shanghai on thursday morning to Nanjing - I wanted to see the city as there is quite a lot of history to it but unfortunately when we got there we were told that the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre was closed for 13 months for renovation :( So we visited the city as best we could - we saw the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Museum and the Fuzi Temple where we tried the Teahouse where they serve you tea as it should be through a whole complicated process and after made our way upwards towards the station through a huge shopping district (there are many of those in every city here) - I wanted to see more but transportation was hard to come by as metro stations are very far apart and it was impossible to get a taxi during rushhour! Let's just say our feet will be happy to go home hehe

We left Nanjing towards Beijing with a night train (12 hours) - we figure we're going to spend most of our money on transportation while here, as comfort doesnt come cheap! - we took the soft-sleeper trains which means you have 4 beds to a compartment (for Xi'an there were no more 4 bed compartments available so we will be forced to take the 2 bed for double the price, ouch!) Anyways, quite comfortable transportation and luxurious as well - you sleep the entire way and are woken up with breakfast (that is if you dont have a China man snoring loudly next to you - that didnt really help!)

After getting accomodation and catching up on some needed sleep we made our way to Tiannanmen Square (biggest square in the world for those who dont know). However we were sideswept on the way there by a rickshaw man that wanted to take us around one of the many "ghettto" neighbourhoods of China - dont worry mum, they almost dont pedal anymore as they have electric bikes now - he then took us to a huge Beijing Roast duck restaurant (hey, when in Rome...) We spent quite a lot of money in this restaurant but the duck was great! We were the only tourists there (it was a 6 floor restaurant, each floor held 200 people so you do the math - like I said earlier - HUGE!)

Tiananmen - also HUGE and extremely crowded with Chinese tourists. By the time Jo took all the photos he wanted from the square it was already too late to do the Forbidden City so we just went into one of their many gardens to enjoy their tranquility :) Afterwards, we figured it was best to buy the tickets for Xi'an so we made our way to their -again- HUGE Beijing West Train Station where after much waiting in between impatient Chinese (who by the way are not very good at staying in line or not cutting) we were able to get our very expensive tickets to Xi'an.

Yesterday, we visited the Forbidden City (3 hours inside and we could have done more if we had gone to see all the exhibitions but we only saw the main halls and the clock exhibition). Then we took another rickshaw ride around yet another neighbourhood (this one was quite interesting because it was already around during the Ming and Qing dynasty and it was where the people who worked inside the Forbidden City during the day came to sleep at night) - we also "supposedly" passed Deng Xiaoping's house (before he was president). At night we visited the markets (our hotel is on the same street as one of them so we didnt have much to walk :) The trouble with China is that you want to buy everything because it is so cheap and completely different from back home but when you travel with backpacks you really have to be aware of your limitations! That night we also went to visit Tiananmen Square because Jo wanted to use his tripod for some night photos - good for me cause I got to interact with the people and practice my mandarin! I also got to fly a chinese kite (we ended up buying one of course!)

Today, we visited the Temple of Heaven Park - biggest architectural site to pray to Heaven. You have to hand it to the Chinese - they know how to enjoy their weekends - we arrived to a singing group and then made our way to a little hidden area where the older generation were practicing their instruments and singing opera but very relaxed and enjoying each others companies. A bit further along we ran into a game area where people where playing various games with each other - one was where you threw a fabric ring across to some one and the other person has to catch with their head - Jo was immediately invited to play :) We did also visit the temple of course, which was very nice (photos can speak for themselves) although I do remember that it was much nicer in 1999 when the sky was actually blue! When we were almost at the end Jo was yet again invited to play a type of tennis - but the rackets have a soft material and you are not actually supposed to hit the ball but let it fall gently on the racket and throw it to your partner - we ended up buying a set as well!

Afterwards we visited the Lama Temple - the biggest Buddhist temple in China outside of Tibet. Also very nice with a lot of halls and Buddha statues - it had one that was 80m tall and carved out of a single white sandalwood tree (it made it into the Guinness Book of Records) but again I thinkg the photos speak for themselves - I already bore you enough with the other details!

Tomorrow we are going to Badaling to visit the Great Wall of China - since we were forced to stay one more day we decided to keep this for last as it is worse to visit during the weekend! Then, hopefully if we have time (and since we are waking up at 5 to go to the Wall) we should still have time to visit the Summer Palace - our train isnt until 21:30 for Xi'an so we will see :)

Until then, Zaijian!!

Love
Jo and Fil

Hi from China!!!

Hey guys,

Its a new trip for us and this time we have picked China...well, actually we wanted Mongolia, and then New Zealand but its a long story and here we are!!

We have arrived in Shanghai yesterday morning after a 2 hour train from Brussels to Paris followed by an 11 hour flight (sleepless for Jo) where we were warmly welcomed by a choffeur nonetheless sent by my mother´s counterpart in Shanghai.

We decided not to sleep straightway otherwise it would have been murder for the jetlag. Anywas, after a nice shower (which by the way is a bit worthless here considering that it is close to 40º C with 80% humidity, meaning as soon as we leave the air conditioned apartment we are bathed in sweat!!) we went for lunch and then were dropped off in the Old City to visit the Yunnan Gardens (which I had already visited when I came to Shanghai before in 1999 when my dad moved to Macau but I came with my mum so it was a bit different)...

After visiting the Yunnan Gardens (and getting bitten coutnless times by invisible mosquitoes) we walked up the Bund (which follows the River Huanpu) and looks on to Pudong where you can see Jiamao Tower (the biggest skyscrapper in the whole of China but soon to be outtaken by another one being built right next to it)... It was monday afternoon and full of Chinese people enjoying the river breeze with their families...

After Jo spotted a photographer with a Benro trippod I tried in my miserable mandarin (quite proud actually that I can make myself understood) to ask where we could find the nearest store and after 10 min of "conversation" we managed to get an answer. We then spent the evening walking up Nanjing Road - a bit like Time´s Square in New York - and we did find that store where Jo did buy his "baby". We also ran into a groip of students who were all to happy to practice their english with us...

Anyways, enough of the boring stuff. We are now trying to figure out our next move up to Beijing and out west towards Xining to take the road less travelled...So watch this space for some more interesting and rural encounters with the provincial villages of inner China!!

lots of love,

Fil and Jo