China and Hong Kong

Food was cheap. Tourist attractions? Not so much. China proved challenging to navigate despite being such a well known country and tourist destination. That being said, the cost and complications made a lot of things forbidding, but interesting as well. We had to get by without even the most basic English in most places and get lost enough times. Somehow, though, we didn't miss any of our train stops.

Early flights as usual. The cheap ones are always early. We met up with our friend Goha at the airport and flew to Qingdao (There the TsingTao beer is from) to spend the day there before taking a train to her hometown Zibo. We didn't know much about the town but it was quite pleasant and (relatively) clean. It also had a nice beach without any trash. It did have lots of shirtless old men in short-shorts playing volleyball though!

Qingdao seemed like a nice place to live, but then again we were on the nice side of town. We just walked around, saw the beach, a temple we came across and had some okay food. Then it was the train ride. Our first taste of the cheap, hard-seated trains. A relatively short, 3 hour ride. You sit 3 in a row facing another 2 or 3 seats with a tiny table between you. There is an acceptable amount of leg room but since you are back-to-back with the person behind you, the seats are straight upright. No reclining. 3 hours was okay though. We got there and were picked up by Goha's father. The next few days were mostly relaxation in a Chinese household. The most touristy thing we did was go to this area that was part of the original Silk Road where they had preserved old buildings and the like. It was a nice stroll.

We also made dumplings but unlike my experience, we made the wraps ourselves which didn't go that well. Plus I was wrapping them like won ton, turns out I got my dumplings all wrong.

Two kinds. One with green onion and the other with celery.

Goha and her dad.

We experienced great hospitality  and what it means to be a guest in China. More food than you could possibly eat, and then more food. Goha's dad wanted us to try as much as we could during our time there, so he cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. And each time we had between 3-5 dishes. It was painfully glorious, but we were perpetually full, meaning we never had the time to fully digest and work up an appetite before the next meal was already on its way out! It was an extreme belly-stretching experience.

We also learned that in the north, people don't really eat rice much. It's mostly bread and/or plain porridge (tastes a lot like unsweetened atol). The only time we had rice was when Yvonne an I cooked for them.

Next up was Beijing. The only time we took the fast train because we wanted to arrive early. The only comfortable train ride we had. The fast train is expensive, but it runs damn smooth.

Beijing was okay, but it was the beginning in realizing that much of China's reputation doesn't mean it is particularly better than anything else you could experience in another country. It's simply more well-known because it is, well, China. The air was awful, but that didn't stop people from lighting cigarettes everywhere, indoors or out. We arrived on Monday, dropped off our things in the cheapest hotel we could find, and headed straight to the Forbidden City. It's a big complicated to get in. You have to make lines for security, have your bags scanned and get "wanded". Beijing was full of this. Even the subway required you to go through security, and you have to show your passport everywhere. Anyway we foolishly went to the Forbidden City on a Monday, when it was closed. After that time wasted we decided to walk around. The surrounding area is quite nice, but very touristy as well. For dinner we wanted to get some street food but couldn't find any, so we had to resort to going to Wangfujin, a famous shopping district. The street food there was grossly overpriced so we didn't try much. Wanted to have the large scorpions but they were going for around 10$ and they weren't willing to bargain. We did get to have barbecued snake, which was a lot like squid though a bit harder, and large silkworm, which was creamy but not the weirdest thing I've had by now. We were also offered cat, dog and "beef penis" but we had spent enough already. Plus, how appetizing is it for a high-voiced Chinese man to insist "you want penis? you want penis" in the middle of some spicy snake-on-a-stick?

They are around the size of my thumb.

The most popular street dessert. Originally haw berries (which are like tiny, dry, tart apples) covered in caramel, but other fruits are offered as well. Tasty, but the caramel can be sharp so you have to bite carefully!

We also walked around some tourist markets and bought a couple of things. That's when it hit me. When you go to a tourist market in any other country, often you think "meh, why would I buy that. It was probably made in China" but when in China, you're not sure what to think of cheap looking tourist junk. I mean, it's locally made, but is that still a good thing? Another funny thing about Chinese tourist markets is the number of Obamas and Bin Ladens you'll see. Obama seems to be popular among East Asians, on a weird level and I knew that already, but Bin Laden? He was on playing cards, even hand-drawn street portrait displays. Like.... wut? I get Fidel Castro, Stalin, Kim Jong Il (or Un), but Bin Laden? ... There were also countless Maos. Of course that isn't surprising, but there were so many I was seriously tempted to buy one and send it home. Sure we got Buddha, and other statuettes of old Chinese men and symbols I don't even remember anymore, but it seems a good Chinese home isn't complete without a proud figure (or propaganda painting) of Chairman Mao!

Anyway the next days we saw the Forbidden City, an unhappy Beijing Zoo (but then again, Winter is the worst time to go there) and finally the Great Wall.

Sad Panda ):

I'm not sure how I feel about the Forbidden City. I had high expectations, too high perhaps. It was huge, intricately decorated and luxurious, but also one of those places I feel you can't really enjoy with crowds. If it was instead an open area where you could relax in leisure, then I'd say it would be a great place, but as a tourist site it's just a lot of walking through humongous walls and halls, all pretty much identical, none of which you can enter. You have to clamor outside with the crowds trying to peek through windows or fenced doorways, and we were there during the low season! I imagine during the high season it's hardly worth going at all. If it was more like a park, then I think I would've enjoyed it more, in a different way.

The great wall was also different than expected, and I feel it's reputation ruins the experience. It is amazing, yes, but I was expecting to be blown away. Since I already knew its scale, that didn't really happen. Still worth going though. We went in the early morning because we had to grab a flight later that day to go South (it was cheaper than the trains). Ended up being a good decision because there was hardly anybody there (but crowds built up quickly by the time we were leaving). Winter offered terrible visibility, but fortunately it started snowing while we were there making the scene more photogenic. Would be a great place to spend the day, unfortunately we only had a couple hours, carrying our backpacks because we left too early and the train station's luggage storage wasn't open yet. It was fun to climb the slippery rocks though, which were challenging enough before it even started snowing. Most steep areas had steps and handrails but some you simply had to crouch down and gingerly slide down, or slowly drag yourself up trying to hold the freezing walls. For every 3 steps you take, you slide down 2, or 3. This made progress slow, and we didn't get very far before having to turn back.

Once back in Beijing, we had lunch and waited for our plane to Zhangjiajie. We were now going our separate ways with Goha whom we had been relying on for most of the trip, so now the real adventure starts.

We arrive at Zhangjiajie at 9:30pm. The town itself is actually a bit far from the park, where you can find most of the hotels and hostels. We did not know this so when we asked at the airport information (through translation apps) they told us there were only taxis at that hour and it would cost us around 50$ to get there at that hour. Uh, no. We didn't know we were right outside of the Zhangjiajie city where we intended to stay. The lady at the desk later called someone to translate for us. They ended up arranging a discount price at the airport hotel for us, which was awesome, since it was quite nice and less than half the price. Probably because it was off season and the place was pretty much empty. The lady at the airport even gave us a ride there, right after the lady on the phone lightly scolded us for not planning better hehe. She told us to take a tour the next day because we don't speak Chinese and don't know how to get around. "Sure" I said. "We'll do that, thanks." We didn't. They brought us there and we called it a day, but the next we figured we should move since they only gave us the cheap price for the night. (We even had to ask for it at the hotel, they didn't offer it at first. The information lady had called to get us the price, so we had to confirm it there.) The next day we started early for a breakfast of bao, and hunting a new hotel before we made it to the park. We wasted a lot of time that day. When we finally found an ok-priced hotel in a fishy alley we later learned was full of brothels, we asked how to get to the bus station so we could take the minivan to Zhangjiajie National Park. The staff there didn't know English either so we asked by pointing at a little booklet where we had Goha write important things like "bus station," "train station," for us. He told us to take a local bus but couldn't tell us it was the last stop. So we got on a jam-packed public bus full of confused Chinese staring at us like we're insane, trying to figure out where to get off. We ended up getting off at a large parking lot full of buses, which wasn't it but was fortunately only 2 blocks away from the terminal so we still made it. Then we made lines to buy tickets only to learn that we just had to get on the bus and pay there. Then we had to find the bus, figure out if it was going to where we intended, and wait for departure. We managed, but this took time. Once there, we couldn't ask if it was the right stop. When we showed the booklet to the driver, she just yelled something at us so we got off, not even sure if it was the right place (it was). We were at one of 3 entrances to the park, which was essentially a small town made up almost purely of hotels, stores and restaurants, some quite massive and luxurious, many still under construction. But since it was the off season, it was almost deserted and we found nobody to ask for directions. We walked back and forth for maybe an hour until we found a sign that pointed toward an entrance that no longer existed since another massive construction was taking place there. More confusion, more wandering. When we finally made it, it was 1:30 pm. We grabbed lunch and went in. Fortunately the park had an information desk that did speak English (on some days, others they had a notebook that was sort of a F.A.Q. where someone wrote in English) so the lady told us the best route for us at that late hour (the park is massive, you are forced to buy a 4-day ticket). We hopped on the shuttle bus inside and were ready to go. It was called the Golden Whisp Stream or something like that (translations vary, A LOT) A pleasant, mostly flat walk through the mountains following a small stream. I didn't have too much time for photos unfortunately, since we had to get out the other side of the park and grab a bus back to the city.

The whole path takes around 2-3 hours. It is fully paved so it was funny to see people in full hiking gear, with two hiking sticks (and not just any stick they picked up, but aluminium ones with a handle). It's no more challenging than walking through a public park. It was mostly Koreans and some Chinese in their windbreakers, hiking boots and sports sunglasses. A silly sight.

Day two was up the mountains. This time we knew how to get there so we made it early. However, the night before our hotel decided to turn off the heating in the middle of the night and I wake up with a terrible cold. I was still good to go, but not at my best.

The park already had quite a steep entrance fee. Fortunately the combination of off-season and student discounts brought it down to around 14$, but regular prices are around 40$. The problem is, that's not the end of it. The mountains are high, and if you want to see a lot in decent time you need to take cable cars or an elevator (which they claim is the highest in the world, but not so sure I believe them). I was in no condition to climb 3000 steps (the exact number eludes me, I heard and read between 2800 and 3800) so we took the elevator which was about 11$ each way! The next day we decided to climb, and it wasn't nearly so bad as it sounded. Those however many steps were actually not very steep. It's tiring, but my out-of-shape-and-still-slightly-sick self handled it fine.

I have no idea what this means. It doesn't mean don't go this way since it was pointing there. But it was hilarious. Sadly, pretty much every sign with any English on it was like this, mostly unintelligible.

The monkeys are aggressive and used to people. If you get too close they try to snatch things away from you, and they're quite good at it. They were also used to opening junk-food packages to eat them. Quite sad, a lot of people were being very mean to them which leads to their behavior.

Zhangjiajie is very foggy. It can add to the mystery of the scene or it can ruin visibility. Sometimes it was so foggy you couldn't see anything, others (they were few) it got clear enough to see far. Also, Zhangjiajie was one of the shooting locations for Avatar, which I never saw. The Chinese are not shy to point this out. There are characters from the movie on everything, from maps to posters to ads. They also have a little statue at the top of one of the mountains where you can get your picture taken. The statue itself, though, is really just so crappy I don't get why anybody would want to take a picture there. (Asians, however, never seem to pass up an opportunity to have a picture of themselves in front of even the most mundane things, I find.)

After 3 days at the park it was time to head down to Guilin. A 12 hour, overnight, hard seat train ride, followed by 2 hours in a train station, followed by another 4 hours on the train. No matter how hard you try, you're not going to get much sleep on these trains. They are also about half the price of the fast train, so the choice was painfully obvious for us.

Trains aren't direct, so we had to go through many stops and get off at the right one. The only indicator of where you are is a faint announcement in Chinese and at some stops the train would depart after only 2-3 minutes, so you had to be ready to get off. Luckily the people next to us were going the same way. However their tickets looked different so we weren't 100% sure, so we were also on edge about whether we were going to get the right stop. We couldn't talk to them to confirm, just point at our tickets and look confused. Well somehow we made it, but it was exhausting. We arrived around 9am the next morning and found a hostel nearby. It was cheap, and they offered us a twin room for the price of dorms (I don't remember how much it was, maybe 5$) because it was in bad condition. And damn it was. The door wouldn't even lock when we arrived (they fixed that later), the bathroom door was gone (mostly) and half the floor was torn up. But it had a bed so who cares. We spent the day in Guilin, mostly walking around town. We quickly realized everything there was to see in the city had an entrance fee, some quite steep (at least for us) so we ended up not going to any. We just ate street food, fruit, and walked. The next day we went down the Li river to a small town called Yangshuo. We decided to take a tour. The place where you take the boat was out of town and we didn't want to end up wasting another day figuring out how to do it ourselves to save 10$. It was a beautiful ride though the "bamboo" boats are actually PVC pipes painted green. You're surrounded by tons of steep mountains that seem to just poke out of the ground.

This is called 9 Horses Peak. However, I count 2 horses at most, and one of them looks more like a llama.

Yangshuo is a beautiful town, but really touristy. Full of foreign restaurants and expensive tourist markets. They sold all manner of made-in-china stuff. And for some reason green lasers seem to be very popular. There was also a wax museum, an illusion museum, and one guy brought 2 alpacas and was charging 5$ to take a picture with them. It was weird. We had to go to the edge of town to find where the locals were eating, and damn it paid off. We called the place "pick-and-choose" because you get a small plate and some chopsticks where you can choose from some baskets which vegetables and meat you want them to cook. Grab one of each ingredient you want and it serves as a kind of recipe for the cooking lady. You can grab as many different things as you want and it stays at 2.5$.  Of course, the more you grab the less of it you get. Even comes with a huge bowl of steamed rice in a clay pot. It was delicious, we went back at least 3 times during our time there. (There were also few options that weren't really touristy and which we were capable of ordering at.)

Yangshuo is right smack in the middle of the mountains. They are just right there, at the edge of town, poking straight up into the air.

I caught a couple of sunrises, and we biked around the surrounding area (the town itself is tiny). There is a lot to explore without paying but there are also a lot of things they charge for. The only thing we paid for was the Big Banyan Tree which is a tree they claim is over 2,500 years old. Well it only cost us 1.5$ (regular price is 3$) but it wasn't worth it. It's a big tree, but it's fenced off, with a big no-littering sign in front, and its trunk was poorly wrapped in this red ribbon that looked more like trash then whatever it was supposed to be. There was also a traditional village we decided not to go to. It was 15$ for the entrance of what was probably going to be a very fake, made-up-for-tourist place. We biked through the countryside and a few villages, got lost a lot since the trails are not clearly marked, and ate at a kind old lady's restaurant. We passed tons and tons of kumquat and mandarin trees. A very pleasant ride.

Grandma's business abroad.

We were wondering what he was yelling. 1 minute later this fat pig comes running (not the one in the photo). It was feeding time!

One of the few remaining bird fishermen, the ones that tie the bird's neck so they can't swallow the fish they catch. I think this was actually a woman. Never got to see any in action. There was a "show" you could pay for to see it, but it was 8$.

Waking up for sunrise and walking for an hour paid off.

The water is that clear and very clean.

Some more bird fishermen.

Yangshuo was my favorite place in China, but it was time for Hong Kong, and a 13 hour train ride on a hard seat. Well I was prepared for it this time, somehow managed to sleep through half of it. We rode to Shenzen on the border, then walked through the train station to Hong Kong. Once getting through immigration we had our first experience in expensive public transportation. It was about 5$ to take the subway to the center of town. Buses had fixed prices and cost anywhere between 60 cents to 4$. Most subway rides were around 2-4$ so that added up quickly.

We made it to Franki's house, dropped off our things and he took us for some famous fishball noodles. Hong Kong is very crowded so it's common to be seated with strangers at a restaurant (happened quite often). We also walked around a seafood market (this was all in a nearby mall, Hong Kong is full of malls) and then I even bought a pair of shoes because, hell, it's Hong Kong!

Then for dinner we met up with Franki's wife Sylvia. Hong Kong food is a lot like home, and it was the best food of the trip. Hell it was some of the best food I've ever had.

That night we went to the harbor to see the cityscape. Unfortunately I didn't find a good point that wasn't obstructed, and didn't get a chance to go back so I wasn't able to capture Hong Kong's famous skyline.

The next day we met up with a friend we met on our first year in Korea. She showed us around, brought us to some glorious dim sum and then famous egg tarts. She's exactly the kind of friend you want to have abroad. She showed us some great places and food. Our last day there we met again with her mom who treated us to some seafood (and glorious fried pigeon). Damn great food.

We also went up Victoria Peak, which is where the famous view over the city is, but the weather was way too foggy so we didn't stay for long. Hong Kong feels a lot like Singapore, but they love to point out they have more freedom than Singapore. (Like the right to eat bubble gum.)

I love the signs in the downtown area. Unfortunately a lot of them actually belong to stores that don't even exist anymore, so they're abandoned and old, and there have been cases where they fall off.

On our third day Sylvia brought us to Po Toi island to explore and see the restaurant. A lot of people would arrive on the island in their private Yachts just for lunch at their restaurant. For lunch we ate what the staff eats, which is off-menu food. I was sure they had made something special but it turns out it was just regular food for them, but really good for us. I got to take a few photos of the kitchen but I couldn't be inside while they were working because I'd mess up the flow. It's a popular restaurant and they have served up to 1000 people at lunch time! (Though this time of year there aren't that many people). After that we explored the island, came back for "tea" which is like snack time. However they made fried rice and calamari off the menu for us to try so we walked off quite full and happy. After that we took the ferry back but stopped at Stanley Bay where Sylvia treated us to drinks. She took great care of us and we had a great time thanks to her.

Po Toi's old school. Now only about 15 people live on the island so it has a lot of abandoned buildings. Sylvia actually attended this school.

Stanley Bay

Belgian dark beer. Great stuff.

Hong Kong was great, but mostly because of the company. We were well fed and taken care of, and are very grateful to Franki, Sylvia and our friends there. It wouldn't been nearly as fun and pleasant without them and we hope we get a chance to show them around Korea sometime.