Archive for March, 2007
I took my first flight of the trip (aside from getting here) from Shanghai to Qingdao on Sunday, as the price was actually less than a train ticket. The layout of the coastline makes the distance the train has to go much further (20 hours) than the flight (1 hour). Upon arrival, however, I learned that the airport bus I was hoping to take into town had stopped running at 7:30 pm, while I didn’t get in and get my bag until close to 10. There were plenty of cab drivers waiting by the bus terminal ready to take people on the long drive into town. They all started shouting out rates and I finally got one guy to say ¥70, which is what the hostel had posted on their website as a good rate into town would be. About halfway through the ride, however, while we were in the middle of no where, the cab driver slows down and says “maybe today is ¥150″ and stares at me. I didn’t know what to do, so after protesting a bit I agreed to pay him when we got to the hostel. He continued on and was satisfied. We finally arrived and I quickly grabbed my bags, handed him ¥70 and ran inside the hostel. He was not pleased, but he didn’t follow me in so I guess it worked out. By this time it was close to 11 pm, so I just turned in for the night.
The next day I did my usual first day in town deal of walking around and seeing the sights the guidebook recommends. Qingdao is a port town that was occupied by Germany for about 30 years at the turn of last century, and the whole place feels like a German city. There are narrow, cobblestone streets and all the architecture looks very German. The Catholic Church is one of the more famous places in town. The other reason to come to Qingdao is the beaches, and they are pretty nice, though it’s still fairly cold and windy there this time of year, so I didn’t get to spend much time soaking up the sun.
The next day I really wanted to see the Tsingtao Brewery, which is probably the only reason this city is internationally known. The girl at the front desk said I had two options, there was a Museum of Beer near by, or the real brewery, called the World of Beer far to the east part of town. Feeling adventurous, I decided to opt for the far away one and see the real brewery. She was mistaken. The World of Beer is not the brewery at all, but rather a big amusement park, which looks to have been abandoned for a number of years. I walked around the fenced off outside looking for someone who could point me in the right direction, and eventually found a single gate open. I walked in, and found some cars parked in front of a building with a girl standing outside, so I walked up and went in. Turns out, this building has been converted into a “massage parlor”, and they were very embarrassed when they realized that’s not why I was there. However, since no one else was around and I was now inside, I was free to explore the rest of the park on my own and I took a bunch of pictures. Few things are as creepy/cool as an abandoned amusement park, though during the day and surrounded by luxury high rises, it wasn’t as creepy as it could have been. After that it was still fairly early, so I caught a bus back and set off to the museum.
The museum is where I should have gone in the first place. The actual brewery is in the same complex, and the entire area is obviously devoted to beer (the street it’s on is literally called “Beer Street”). The tour was very good, obviously promoting how successful Tsingtao beer is compared with all other Chinese beers. Also at the end they are anything but skimpy with the samples, and I got a free glass. Hopefully it’ll survive in my pack for a while!
Near my hostel there is a little market running down one of the streets (Qingdao is also very hilly, which is different from pretty much every other city I’ve been in so far). Every morning I’ve been there and picked up some fresh fruit and pastries for breakfast, which has been very nice and convenient, as finding good breakfast in this country has been difficult at best (the locals all eat noodles and soup for breakfast and I’m sorry but I can’t handle that). Being a port city, there’s a lot of seafood at the market as well, and last night I went there with the chef from the hostel and bought a bunch of fresh oysters for him to cook for me. It was delicious and 8 huge oysters cost $1.50 including the chef’s cooking fee.
Today I’m going to catch an overnight ferry to Incheon, South Korea (the port near Seoul, my first destination). After spending a while in China it should be interesting to see the differences (or lack of them) in another Asian country. I’ll be traveling there for almost 2 weeks, then catch either a ferry or flight (not sure about cost yet) back to Beijing.
Here’s my photos from Qingdao:
Qingdao, China
Don’t let anyone tell you differently, 26 hours is a long time. That’s how long the train trip from Xiamen to Shanghai takes. Even with the 7 or so hours of sleep I got (not consecutively, still no luck sleeping very well on trains), that’s still 6 hours longer than the flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong took. I managed to read through almost 2 books in that time and still had time to kill. But finally we rolled into Shanghai and I caught the metro to my hostel. Exhausted, I went to bed pretty early and slept for about 11 hours. In the morning I woke up refreshed and ready to see the city.
And I immediately felt like gagging. I’ve definitely noticed the pollution in China, but this is the first city where I was able to taste it strongly in the air. Every few hours that day I had to duck inside somewhere for a bit and breath some “fresh air”. I didn’t let that stop me though, and I went down to The Bund, the stretch along the west side of the Huangpu River that was the center of Old Shanghai, and is still covered with much of the old Victorian era buildings from that time. While there, I decided to book a tour up the Huangpu to the mouth of the Yangzi which took about 3 hours total. While 100 years ago I have a feeling this same cruise was part of the romance of Shanghai, now it serves more to illustrate the vast commercial shipping that is served by the river. The shoreline the whole way is covered with nothing but shipping container yards and cranes, and along the water is almost a traffic jam of boats. It’s just a small percentage of the goods being transfered in and out of China, which really puts into perspective how much this country exports. After about 90 minutes, you reach the Yangzi river, which dwarves the respectively large Huangpu. You can’t see the shoreline on the other side, but the entire horizon line is again nothing but commercial shipping boats. By the time that finished it was getting dark, so I grabbed some dinner and, after a brief time checking out some of the same sites around the Bund I had previously seen, now at night, I headed back to the hostel.
The next day I started off with the Shanghai Museum, which my guide book reported to be one of the best in China. Yet again it did not disappoint (I hear people talk a lot of trash about Lonely Planet, but this Rough Guide book has been right on and great, highly recommend them). There were great exhibits showing Chinese pottery, sculpture, calligraphy, scroll painting, and jade work, all over the past 5000 years.
After that I went to see the rest of the famous areas of Shanghai. The Old Quarter was, in the old days, the ghetto of the city and where all the Chinese lived at that time. It’s since become somewhat nicer, though still no where near as polished and westernized as the Bund and that area. There was a market here, so I had a walk through and saw something I had read about but never thought I’d see. A group of men were all crowding around one of the stalls in the market looking at something, so I though I’d better see what was so interesting. I pushed my way in and saw two men, sitting in reclining chairs, having their teeth drilled! I assume by dentists of some kind, they were wearing white coats. Also they were in front of a barbershop, which I know long ago was the place to go for dental work, so perhaps nothing has changed here. After seeing that, though, I decided it was time to move on to the French Quarter.
Again this is a very polished and westernized area, with huge shopping centers everywhere that would feel just as at home in LA or New York. This area was the first place I’ve seen real houses on the side streets, however. They were all old French Victorian style homes, obviously inhabited by wealthy people and very securely gated up, even in this seemingly nice location. Other than that, though, I’ve seen enough fancy shopping centers already, so I didn’t stick around there too long. One nice thing about being in such a westernized city is the variety of food available, and that night especially I was happy to find a really excellent Indian food restaurant. I can only do so much rice and noodles.
The next day I caught a train to Suzhou, a smaller city about an hour away, which is famous for it’s Chinese gardens. The city itself, like a lot of places I’ve been in China, looked almost like one giant construction project. I think this whole country is going to be rebuilt from the ground up in 10 years. The gardens themselves were really nice, though it’s hard to enjoy them as the serene, tranquil places their original creators had intended while dozens of Chinese tour groups mingle about loudly, stopping long enough at each scenic spot to take a picture there and then dashing off to the next. The final garden I went to was relatively unpatronized, thankfully, and also much larger than the others. Also, it randomly had a zoo in the middle of it, though it was really a sad sight. Most of the animals were in small cages and looked pretty unhealthy and unhappy. There were lions and tigers and bears, lots monkeys and gazelles, and even a camel (which are huge by the way). I got a bunch of pictures of all the places I went in Suzhou:
Suzhou, China
On the train ride home, I met a group of British and Danish kids who were also in Suzhou for the day and staying at another hostel in Shanghai. I tried to meet them for a drink later in the night, but they ended up being tired from the night before, and after looking around the Bund at night for a bit, they took off and I went back to my place. It was a little odd anyway, hanging out with a bunch of kids who just graduated high school and were on their “gap year” (apparently in Europe about 40% of kids take a year off between high school and college, though most don’t travel or anything really).
Yesterday I called up Meijin, a friend of Lily’s she had met in her travels a few years ago. She was busy at work all day (on a Saturday, pretty normal here to work 13 hour days 6 days a week apparently) but told me I should check out some art galleries near by. I must say I’m really glad I did too, it was a little hidden district I never would have found on my own, behind some warehouses, that had been renovated into well over 100 different galleries exhibiting local artists. There was some really great stuff (as well as some really weird and not so great), and a lot of it was really cheap compared to what you would pay in the states. For $500 you could get a very nice, huge oil painting by a variety of up and coming artists. I’m starting to think that a trip back to Shanghai, Hong Kong, and maybe a few other cities in a few years when I’m working and want to do some serious bargain shopping might be in order.
That night I met up with Meijin and her boyfriend at a club on the Bund that had a nice view of the city skyline over the river, but was pretty overpriced for my budget on this trip, so I just hung out with them for a while and talked, and then I headed home. They invited me to have endless Dim Sum this morning with them, which I just returned from. It was really good, I had tried to order Dim Sum in Guangzhou, which is supposed to be the place to get it, but unfortunately the place I went to had a really bad English menu, and I had ended up kind of frustrated trying to communicate with the waitress (who obviously was upset about having to deal with a foreigner) and didn’t get much food. This time we almost had too much, and it was all delicious, so next time I know what to do.
Tonight I’ve got a flight up to Qingdao, home of the Tsingtao brewery (not sure why they aren’t spelled the same way, same pronunciation) and the old German concession. I’m planning on spending about 3 days there and then catching a ferry to Inchon, South Korea, for a little time in that country.
I’ve got a bunch of pictures from all around Shanghai here:
Shanghai, China
I’d also like to take this as an opportunity to talk about some of the differences in culture I’ve noticed over here, as this was something Meijin was very curious to hear what I thought about. First thing, everyone spits and blows their nose on the street. I mean everyone, from children to grandparents, men and women, inside (on tile and carpet) and outside. The only exception is in the nicer westernized parts of town there are generally signs prohibiting it, but even that doesn’t stop a lot of people. I know it’s just a difference in culture, but I can’t help be disgusted by it, constantly having people around you hawking up a bunch of phlegm and then spitting it out in front of you. It’s especially put me off of any attraction to Chinese women.
Second, people are very self-centered. I’m not sure if this part of the culture in general or a result of the one-child policy (my guide book aptly calls it a generation of “little emperors”, pretty much anyone under 30 is an only child), but people are always just paying attention to their own world and needs, more so than I ever noticed in the US. It could also be stemming from the overpopulation in general, I have a feeling that brings out a need to take care of yourself and your own and no one else even more, when there aren’t enough resources or space to go around.
Thirdly, babies don’t wear diapers. They just have these pants with a split in the middle, basically just two pant legs, and when the baby needs to go the parent just finds the nearest garbage can and holds it over. Now I’m still not sure how they know when to do this, that I know of babies don’t let you know when they need to go, they just do, but I have a feeling that, judging by the general standard of cleanliness I’ve seen, the baby just starts to go and you move it over the trash as soon as you can. This is a very traditional Chinese way of doing things apparently, and though I haven’t seen it, the more upper class people do use diapers.
Lastly (for now), everything is exactly the minimum required. The name of the game in Chinese business is cutting costs, so anything that is deemed unnecessary is cut. This can range from rarely cleaned bathrooms to small accommodation to only being served a dish of fried rice and egg because that’s all that was understood. I know it’s just a difference in culture, but it leaves a westerner like me with the feeling that this country is unclean and inhospitable. The exception is, of course, any place that is specifically designed for westerners.
Oh one last little thing for Nick Miller and anyone who remembers his Chinese foreign exchange roommate Kai from freshman year at LMU. I know we all thought Kai was pretty strange, but I can now safely say that he was a pretty normal Chinese guy for his age, so take that as you will.
That’s all for now, I’ll post more from Qingdao before heading to Korea.
Been a little while since my last entry. I’ve traveled quite a ways across the country in the past week or so, as you can see on the map. But I’ll start with where I left off last time.
I spent the day on a tour of the terraced hills north of Guilin, near Longshen. Now there are terraces all over China, and the better part of Asia, but there are few places they cover the vast area and altitudes they do here. A tour bus picked me up at my hotel in the morning and whisked me, a group of Chinese tourists, and a swiss man who, as the only other person who spoke English, quickly became my friend for the day. The trip was about 2 hours long, up winding hills and narrow roads, and our driver was as crazy as any other bus driver I’ve ridden with in China, passing around blind corners, along cliffs, and barely faster than the car being passed. All the while our guide chattered along in Chinese, occasionally mentioning the important things in English as well, such as “toilet here!”.
Once we arrived at the gates, cars are not allowed inside the area and we had to hike up to the village near the terraces, Ping An. Before I got sick in Yangshuo I had planned to stay in Ping An, there are a number of guest houses here and it’s a pretty popular spot to stay in the summer. With the rain and cold weather, however, I was glad to just be spending a day there, as the prospect of taking my pack up the hundreds slippery, sharp rock steps probably wouldn’t have ended well. The views along the way up were great though. I tried to take some photos, but the weather and fog prevents you from really grasping how high up these hills of terraces go. Long ago, the villagers here realized the land they lived on was fertile for farming, yet there was no flat land to use. Rather than destroy the hills or move to another area, they decided to painstakingly cut small terraces, stepping their way up the hills. The result looks somewhat like a topographic map come to life, and it’s spectacular. The amount of work it must have taken over years and years to achieve this is staggering, and the terraces are still used for farming to this day by the locals. You can have a look at my photos in this set:
Ping An, China
Following an equally precarious bus ride back to Guilin (where I was staying), I bid my new Swiss friend fairwell (his bus left that night) and headed to bed. The next day I had an evening train to Nanchang, so I spent the day having a look around Guilin. For the most part, Guilin isn’t much different than any other moderately large Chinese city. The landscape is covered with the same limestone rock formations that surround Yangshuo, though in the city surrounded by skyscrapers their beauty is somewhat diminished. In the center of the city there is a park for what was the Ming Prince’s Palace. Supposed to somewhat resemble a miniaturized version of the Forbidden City, the best thing to see here was a limestone formation you can climb to the top of and get a view of the whole city. After ascending that I spent the rest of the day walking around the city, eventually heading back to pick up my bags and walk over to the train station. For some photos of Guilin, here’s a set:
Guilin, China
Nanchang was supposed to be a quick stop on my way to Xiamen, unfortunately the same day tickets sold out sometime while I was in the looooong line at the train station there, so I was forced to spend the night in a hotel near the train station. I didn’t look much around the city beyond near my hotel when looking for something to eat, but there isn’t much there for a tourist and the weather was even worse than Guilin (very cold!) so I just stayed in my hotel room and read, and the next day I was off again to Xiamen. If you’re keeping track, that’s 3 nights total it took to get from Guilin to Xiamen.
As soon as I arrived in Xiamen I could tell that this city was doing much better economically than any I had yet been to in China. The guide book says this is a result of being designated a Special Economic Zone back in the late 80’s, which brought all kinds of business to the city. Xiamen is a fairly large city on an island off the coast of Fujian province (joined by a bridge) and my final destination was an even smaller island just off of Xiamen, Gulangyu.
Similar to Shamian, Gulangyu had been the foreigner’s quarters in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and similarly it’s covered in the requisite Victorian architecture. This island is a little larger and more touristy than Shamian, however, and it reminds me a lot of Catalina Island in Southern California. I found a little family owned guest house to stay in, which has provided the first internet connection in about a week that’s successfully allowed me to upload photos to Flickr again, albeit one at a time. After grabbing some lunch I went to Sunrise Rock park, which allows you to climb to the top of the aforementioned rock and look out over the whole island. While I was up there, for probably the third time now while I’ve been at a tourist spot, a tour group of Chinese girls ran over toward me and all wanted to take pictures with me. I guess being the only white person on the island makes me something of a rock star here. When they were done they all ran away again saying “Hallo!” and “Sank You!” giggling together. A cable car from the top of the rock takes you across to an aviary full of exotic birds.
By this time it was getting late so I left the park to have some dinner from one of the seafood places that cover the island, where there are a number of different creatures in tubs outside ranging from fish to crabs to eels (not as bad as in Guangzhou with their worms and toads and beetles). I picked out a nice looking crab and the chef turned it into a delicious fried crab in some kind of sauce. One of the more expensive meals I’ve eaten on this trip at around $15 with rice, veggies and an extra large Tsingtao (my St. Patrick’s day celebration woo!).
Today in the morning I went to Underwater World Xiamen, an aquarium and marine animal amusement park, which turned out to be much smaller than I was hoping. They did have some really cool things on exhibit though, such as the world’s largest complete sperm whale skeleton and skin, a tank of stone fish, an electric eel, and some huge sea turtles. There was also a sea lion/dolphin show at the end, though it was pretty simple compared to the ones I remember seeing at Marine World a long time ago. Following the aquarium, I had a walk around the island looking at all the old buildings and the beaches. On one of the beaches they had these huge plastic balls that were tethered to the beach, and kids would get inside of them and run into the water. It was a really funny sight, all these little Chinese kids running around like hamsters in balls and then at one point they would suddenly get yanked to a stop and fall over inside when the line went taught.
Here’s a bunch of photos from the island:
Xiamen, China - Gulangyu
In the late afternoon today I took the ferry back over to the mainland of Xiamen to take a look at the city. I would say so far, this place reminds me the most of Hong Kong inside China. The city is very clean, everyone for the most part is dressed well and looks like they have some money, the buildings are much newer and there’s lots of construction going on, and even the traffic follows the rules of the road for the most part! Took a few photos today:
Xiamen, China
That brings things up to current. Tomorrow I’ve got a long (26 hour) train trip up to Shanghai where I’ll be staying for 5 days or so. I’m feeling much better health-wise, and hoping that will keep up, and the weather has been nicer here and should continue to be so in Shanghai, so things are going great and I’m having a great time. Lots of people have been keeping in touch, and if you want to the best ways are via IM (I’m usually on in the morning here before I go out, which is early evening in the US) or email. Love to hear from everyone!
One last thing, I posted the rest of my pics from Yangshuo that I hadn’t been able to upload before, so they are in the same set:
Yangshuo, China
It’s been a long 6 days since coming to Yangshuo. The weather on this trip has gone from hot and humid (Hong Kong) to mild but pleasant (Guangzhou) to now cold and rain. The train trip from Guangzhou to Guilin was an interesting trip to say the least, and from now on I think I’m going to spend the extra 15% for the soft sleeper class. The train was an overnight ride, and stopped about every 45 minutes. And at almost every stop, some crazy person would get on, only to be quickly (and loudly, the Chinese aren’t very good at being quiet in general) kicked out out the train. But that meant even if I was sleeping (which half the time I wasn’t even able to) I was woken up. The better class (soft-sleeper) is supposed to have private berths of 4 beds each, rather than an open car of 60 beds like I was in. We’ll see if it makes much difference on my next trip.
Arriving in Guilin with very little sleep, suddenly thrust into freezing rain, and it being 6:30 am local time, I was fortunately able to find a bus to my destination, Yangshuo, right away. It’s here that I got my first glimpse into real Chinese transit styles. Buses try to fill as much as they can at their first point of departure, but invariably there aren’t enough people to fill the seats. That’s no problem, as it’s generally understood apparently that you can just flag a bus down anywhere on it’s route and get on, even have it stop for you anywhere else on the route to get off. So this normally not very far bus ride takes much longer with all the locals getting on and off. The other new experience was putting my life in the hands of the driver. The rule of the road is, if you are slower than me, I will pass you, as long as the oncoming car is smaller than me or not there. My favorite was, on another day, being in a bus which was passing a truck, which were both passing a tractor, on a 2 lane road, in the rain, with an oncoming car having to swerve into the shoulder. The cities, fortunately, seem to be a little more controlled, though still pretty hazardous by US standards.
I made it to my hotel unscathed however, and after a little nap and a shower I rented a bike (the preferred method of transit) and started out to the countryside. It’s hard to do justice in words to the experience of riding around amongst the limestone peaks and small villages that surround Yangshuo; I spent the latter half of the day I arrived and the entire next doing just that. Even in the cold weather with mild rain, it was a wonderful experience, and if it wasn’t so cold, the rain wouldn’t have been so bad, and in fact it really added to the atmosphere.
The third day I took a bus up to an area a ways north of Yangshuo to do a hike down the Li River. The popular way to do the river is either to get on a ferry from Guilin (costing around $50) US or to have a local take you on a bamboo boat. The second option is apparently illegal, and according to some tour guides who were also staying at my guest house, becoming an infraction that is harshly enforced for a fine of around $65 US. Here’s China for you though: the reason it’s illegal to hire a local (and also to take a ferry back to Guilin) is that the way you get back from Yangshuo to Guilin is by bus, and obviously the bus driver needs a job as much as the ferry boat driver, so both must be accommodated. The hike was suggested as an alternative to both by the same tour guide, so I took that and am glad I did. The hike winds down the Li River through all the scenic spots, and requires that you take a few short ferries across when the shore becomes impassible cliff. At some point I got off the right path and fortunately found a local farmer to take me across on her boat, after spending about 45 minutes trying to explain what I wanted. Ami if you’re reading this, thank you so much for that dictionary! Having the Chinese characters next to the words I need saved me! After that little adventure it was pretty smooth the rest of the way, I saw even more beautiful scenery and got a lot of interesting looks from locals (the weather being what it was, I was pretty much the only hiker on the trail right up until I got back to town).
That night I got home, and 3 days of being out in the nasty weather felt like they had given me a bit of a cold, so I decided to book one additional night instead of departing for Guilin the next day as I had planned. And that’s when all hell broke loose. The next day I felt a little feverish and tired, so I just lounged around reading, when suddenly I felt really tired, followed quickly by very bad. To keep this pleasant, I’ll just stay I came down with a bad case of “traveler’s stomach”. If you’ve ever had that, you know it’s anything but pleasant. I ended up having to book yet another night in Yangshuo, as though the first day was by far the worst, I hadn’t slept much and I was still feeling pretty bad. I’m still not 100% by far, but I think the worst is behind me, and I caught a bus back to the main city in the area, Guilin. Tomorrow I’ve booked an all day trip up to the other big site around here, the rice terraces of Longshen, which I had planned to stay in for a couple nights but obviously that didn’t work out too well, so hopefully this will be better. The day after that I have an onward train ticket to Nanchang, and fingers crossed I’ll be able to just get another ticket for a train the same day I arrive to the place I’m really trying to get, Xiamen.
I’ve taken a bunch of photos of the area, though for whatever reason I haven’t been able to post all of them yet. Here’s the set as of now, and hopefully I can add the rest to it soon!
Yangshuo & the Li River, China
Getting into China was hardly the ordeal I thought it was going to be. I left Hong Kong via the train station, heading toward Guangzhou, a 2 hour or so trip that gave me my first glimpse into real China. It’s immediately apparent how much of a developing country this is. Though the buildings in Hong Kong look run down and by American standards it may not seem sparkling and clean, the people that I saw, for the most part, seemed to be doing fairly well for themselves, and there weren’t too many signs of extreme poverty. As soon as you get into China, however, that all changes. In between the even more dilapidated high rises everywhere are mud huts and small, halfway destroyed brick houses that are still homes to people. China may own America’s economy, but it’s privately owned by a few, and most of the populace isn’t seeing a dime.
Upon arrival in China, my trip through customs was surprisingly quick, but then again it was a Sunday afternoon so maybe not too many people are making the trip. The difference between Hong Kong and Guangzhou could not be more marked by their train stations. In Hong Kong, the station looks similar to ones in America, it was fairly calm and clean, with a nice waiting area. Arriving in Guangzhou I was thrown into a huge concrete walled hall lined with little stalls and every 5 feet was someone jumping in my face wanting to sell me something. The ground was wet with who knows what, and I suddenly felt a long way from home. I made it to the subway, which was much nicer actually, and got to my stop. As a contrast, take a look at what the exit from the subway looked like (felt like being in Tijuana) and then I walked 500 feet or so across a bridge to the island I was staying on and my heaven for the next two days: Shamian.
Subway
Shamian
Apparently in the 1800’s China closed all of it’s doors to foreign trade except for a few traders in Guangzhou (then called Canton). However, they were not allowed to leave their section of town, which was Shamian Island. The result was some beautiful Victorian architecture and gardens. Now it’s the most Westerner-friendly place to stay in Guangzhou, and where the hostel is located. Also, according to my guide book, Guangzhou is the place that all the white people come to adopt Asian babies, and it’s true! I’m surrounded by mid-western white families with little Asian kids, and every store here rents strollers and sells baby clothes! But, more than anything, it’s quiet and serene, just what I needed after nearly a week in Hong Kong. Have a look at the picture set for more, including some night shots of the Pearl River.
Guangzhou - Shamian
I was tempted to ride out my two nights in Guangzhou solely on Shamian island, especially with how confrontational my introduction to the rest of the city had been. I thought better of that, however, and ventured out to see some of the rest of the city (plus I had to buy an onward train ticket). If the train station I came into was bad (the east one), the main one in the north was a nightmare. It’s huge, loud, filled with smoke, there’s people sitting around waiting everywhere to the point of being hard to walk around, and of course, nothing is in English. Fortunately I eventually found one window that had English text alternating with Chinese characters and I was able to book a ticket to my next stop, Guilin. Tonight I’ll be taking the sleeper car overnight and arriving around 6:30am, then need to catch a bus to my destination, Yangshuo. The scenery there is supposed to be beautiful, mist covered limestone rock formations lining a river and number of rural farming villages. I can’t wait.
After the train station I did make it out to see some of the rest of the city, and I’m very glad I did. Guangzhou is actually a very pleasant place, the parts I had previously seen seemed to be the only ones that were in fact really bad. Most of the streets are lined with nice little trees, dotted with little shops selling everything from buttons to dried pigs feet to door handles. Unfortunately I had already packed up my camera in preparation for the train trip when, this morning, I stumbled into a little market covering a series of back alleyways that was something out of a book, only to walk 3 blocks and suddenly be in a shopping street on the level of Times Square! The contrasts here continue to astound me. I’ve got another set of photos I took of various places I saw around Guangzhou to give you an idea of the rest of the city.
Guangzhou
That’s all for now, hopefully I’ll have some great pics to be posting after I make it (cross your fingers) to Yangshuo.
Yesterday I made my first move of the trip, albeit to another region of Hong Kong: Kowloon. Turns out this is the more traditional tourist area of Hong Kong, and I probably should have just started from here. I was able to find a somewhat less expensive room in a hotel off of Nathan Road, the large main street running through the middle of Kowloon. Being less expensive, this hotel is a lot more like what I’ll probably be staying in throughout China: fairly run down, narrow corridors on each floor, and a room that looks pretty shabby but is, for all intents and purposes, clean.
After getting settled, I set off to explore the area around Kowloon. Near my hotel there are a few sights on the tourist map I have that I decided to check out. The first is the Ladies’ Market (just a name), which is a street market selling all the fake designer stuff you expect to see in Hong Kong for dirt cheap. The market goes on for blocks and blocks, and although there are probably 50+ stalls, there are really only maybe 8 or 10 different types, such as bags, jeans, jewelry, or DVDs, and then they just repeat. Since I’m at the beginning of the trip and not looking to acquire anything I don’t need, I just passed through browsing and then moved on.
The next stop was the flower market, which is on a shaded little side street somewhat north of the Ladies’ Market. The street is about 4 blocks of nothing but flower and plant shops, all with huge displays out front. There was fairly limited variety as well here, though the bamboo sculptures for sale were definitely very cool, and I think I might try to find one in the states when I get back if I can; I doubt I could get one through customs. At the end of the street was my next stop, the Bird Garden. Again this is a large collection of shops selling all types of birds, as well as a number of bird enthusiasts showing off their own. I know, I know, visiting a place with a bunch of birds in close quarters, probably not the smartest thing to do in Asia, but I decided to take my chances.
After that I decided to catch the MTR down to Tsim Sha Tsui, generally known for being the spot for tourists to stay in Hong Kong. Before I get into that, I have to say the mass transit system here is amazing. The MTR trains run to almost all parts of the city, and where they don’t go there’s an easy bus to catch. And the best part is the Octopus card. You buy this card, put money on it, and then whenever you go somewhere you just hold it over a sensor on the way in, and again on the way out, and it figures out the fare you owe and deducts it. Most of the chain stores like 7-11(possibly more prevalent here than the States) take it as payment as well. I believe it uses RFID, and I just can’t say how easy it makes traveling around. Unfortunately, as far as I know the rest of China doesn’t have anything like it, so I only get to enjoy it a little while longer. But back to TST.
Once I got off the train I headed towards the water, my first stop being the HK Museum of Art. I wish I could have taken pictures inside, because the collection of Chinese scroll paintings was amazing. They also had a very cool exhibit going on showing modern Chinese impressionism over the last 70 years. I had no idea such a movement was going on in China, and there were some very impressive works here as well.
I finished up my museum visit right around 6 pm as they were closing. The exit from the museum put me right out on the waterfront looking out on the Hong Kong skyline. That was an impressive sight. I had heard there was a light show every night at 8 pm, and not having anything else on my agenda I found a snack and just sat down to enjoy the view until then. While taking pictures I met a Canadian named Tom who was here to do the same thing. It was nice to meet someone who speaks English to talk to, seems like even most of the white people I see here don’t speak it, let alone the locals. He mentioned he was going down to meet a friend at the ferry terminal a little west of here, and they were going to watch the light show and then grab a drink, and invited me to join them. I went down and met his friend, Martin, who has been living in HK with his wife for the past 15 years, but is originally from Canada as well. It’s funny how being a traveler in a city makes you aware of all sorts of things that a local may not even know about: Martin had no idea they even did a light show. The show is kind of crazy. All the buildings on both sides of the bay have lights on the top and all along their faces, and some even have lasers. That lasted about 15 minutes, and after we caught the ferry across the bay to HK Island for some dinner at a cool Thai place Martin knew. After dinner they headed to Martin’s place and I said farewell.
Today I caught the MTR out to Lantau island, which is much less developed than the rest of Hong Kong, but has a few attractions: the Airport, Disneyland, Lantau Country Park, and Po Lin Monastery, home of the Big Buddha. Recently a cable sky tram opened up that takes you up the mountain to Ngong Ping, the village right below the Monastery. The views from the tram are breathtaking, and it’s almost frightening when you realize how high up it’s taking you. If you look at the pictures, the high-rises directly right of the bridge are where it starts, which should give you an idea of how far it goes. Ngong Ping village, on the other hand, is a bit of a disappointment. As I mentioned the other big tourist attraction on Lantau is Disneyland, and Ngong Ping looks as if the same people created a traditional Chinese village, complete with Starbucks and 7-11. I didn’t spend too much time there, and moved on to the Buddha.
Po Lin is home to the world’s largest seated bronze Buddha, which is a pretty specific distinction. I think there’s mention of it in the move The Family Stone, and while it’s not quite the remote, spiritual journey the movie makes it out to be (it wasn’t even built until the mid 90’s), it’s an impressive sight and there were many people who looked to have made a journey to get here and pay their respects. The monastery was serene and pleasant despite the large crowds of people, and much more along the lines of what you want to see on a trip like this. I’m still kind of upset with how Disney-like Ngong Ping was. They even had animatronics shows and people in big monkey costumes! On the train ride back I sat next to a boy and his father, and as we passed the stop to head to Disneyland (the train on the opposite side of the platform to the park is covered in Mickey ears), the boy was looking longingly across the platform, I can only imagine wishing, instead of going to Buddhist Disneyland, that he’d gone to the real one.
Tomorrow I’m going to make my trek into real China, via the train from Kowloon to Guangzhou. This is probably where things are going to get hard. Hong Kong is fairly English friendly, at least from a getting around point of view. From what I understand, China is not nearly as accommodating to the non-speaking. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll probably only stay in Guangzhou for a day or two, as I don’t think there are a lot of sights there, and then try and catch a train to Guilin, home of the large limestone rock formations and the Li River.
Photos:
Hong Kong - Kowloon
Hong Kong - Lantau, Po Lin, and the Big Buddha
So I’m here. After a few months of planning and a couple hectic final weeks, I’ve made it to Hong Kong and begun my journey. The flight was long but actually passed somewhat quickly considering. Once we landed, finding my way to the hotel was easy enough, almost all the signs are marked in English. I got checked in and proceeded out to scope out the area a little and grab some food.
The streets proved to be somewhat confusing, curving and twisting, not well marked, and crossing from one side to the other sometimes means walking half a block up and back. Eventually I found a small hole in the wall place with English menus, and had some sort of dumpling in noodle soup. Probably going to have to get used to ordering something and not knowing exactly what it is. After that I was pretty exhausted and managed to get a decent night of sleep on local time.
The next day I did some more extensive exploring of the surrounding areas of Wan Chai and Causeway Bay. One of the big highlights here is Times Square, a 9-story shopping plaza. It was interesting, but not much different than any other high-end shopping center I’ve been to. After that I just walked around the area looking at various shops and stopped for some lunch. It’s interesting here, most shops don’t open before 10 am, and it’s pretty much whenever the owner feels like it, even if that ends up being more like 11:30. They probably figure everyone is at work in the morning, and that’s probably true. Later that night I discovered that the surprisingly open streets were suddenly overwhelmed between the hours of 6pm and 8pm, the end of work crowd.
That afternoon I hoped on a bus to the southern part of the island, known as Stanley. It’s mostly a residential district, though there is a small market here selling the same trinkets and clothing that you see on every street corner. And just as everywhere else on the island, Stanley is covered with the somewhat dilapidated looking high-rises that seem to be everywhere but the US. There’s also supposedly Hong Kong’s best beach here, though it’s been so overcast (probably due to pollution as much as climate) that it wasn’t much to see. The main tourist attraction here is the group of bars and restaurants with a taste of home for tourists, such as British pubs and Indian restaurants. They were all priced as such though, and I passed. I made a stop into the Maritime Museum here as well, which chronicled Asia’s seafaring history.
That night, after catching the bus back, I checked out what are supposed to be Hong Kong’s two major computer shopping centers, looking for a cell phone and/or possibly a laptop if a deal was to be had. I ended up finding a used 12″ iBook and haggled the guy down to about $500 US. They even give it a 3 month, full money back warranty, which although I won’t be around to take advantage of if it breaks, makes me feel confident that it’s probably in good shape. Crossing my fingers on this one. So far it’s working pretty good and I’m writing this using my hotel’s free wifi. I also decided not to get a cell phone, as there didn’t seem to be an easy way to keep a single number the whole way through. So if you need to get a hold of me, it’ll have to be email, or maybe you’ll be lucky and our paths with cross on AIM.
This morning I took the tram ride up to The Peak, which overlooks the entire city. The tram is pretty cool, at some points it’s pulling you up at a 45 degree angle. Once you get to the top, there’s some pretty spectacular views, even on an overcast day like today (I had hoped to wait for the weather to clear, but I don’t think that’s happening any time soon). Also on top of the peak is, you guessed it, another huge shopping mall. Money definitely rules all here, everyone is dressed in the latest designer clothes and driving expensive cars. I’ve noticed I get either ignored or stared at almost with contempt for dressing like a backpacker. Tomorrow I’m going to be moving on to Kowloon for a few days, and that area is the more traditional budget traveler area, so hopefully that will be a little more friendly.
I’ve posted a bunch of photo’s I’ve taken already and split them up into three sets:
WanChai and Causeway Bay
Stanley
The Peak, Central, and SoHo