Jac’s Journey

In China, no-one waits their turn. Ever. Train tickets, bus seats, metro seats. It’s a free for all. Survival of the fittest in front of your eyes. Just yesterday I was too late for two metro seats in a row and was left standing, hanging onto the loop, feeling like a right numpty.

Today. Different story.

I was in Tiananmen Square in time for the sunset flag ceremony. I happened to walk through the underpass just as the guards were getting into formation. I filmed them and then followed them up into the square. Standing right at the point where they entered the cordoned off area with the flagpole, I found myself in front of a seething mass of Chinese tourists. Carrying my day pack on my front I decided this was the time to be rude. I stuck my elbows out and didn’t let anyone past. I was pushed forward by the crowd and actually reached the barrier before some of the guards who leaped over the fence from behind me. I had this furious little Chinese woman behind me sticking her elbows into my back and loud mutterings of ‘laowai’ (foreigner). The Chinese man beside me who had done the same thing looked at me, smiled approvingly and nodded. I grinned back. The next 20 minutes were spent in a subtle wrestling match with the little Chinese woman behind me (and the 20 people behind her). I managed to stay at the front the whole time and have some amazing photos to show you…

Mum, I’m so sorry. I believe I have now completely lost my manners.

A couple of nights ago I got talking to this guy selling tours in the Muslim Quarter. Touts in the street normally get short shrift from me and I barely even break my step, but for some reason this guy seemed different. I stopped and had a chat. He showed me his book of comments from people who’d been on previous tours. There were about 5 different Scottish people in there (and I have yet to meet a Scottish person on my travels in China!). One of them had stuck in her address label – she lived in Doune – and had given her email address.

So a few days later, my new chum Eithne and I headed off into the mountains with Frank. We hiked about 8km up to a mountain pool, walking through villages, corn fields, past people working, resting and playing. The scenery was breathtaking, and we kept turning corners and stopping in our tracks to stare at it. Frank picked fruit from the trees and bushes and we peeled and ate them – delicious. A dip in the mountain pool was well earned by the time we got there and then after drying off in the sun, back to home base. It was a wonderful day, there was so much to enjoy, but there’s one thing the photos can’t show and I have to tell you about…

Remember I talked about how people stare in China? Well, kids are even worse. Toddlers look at you as if you’re from the moon. No matter how much you smile, wave, play peek-a-boo, dance around like an eejit…they just stare. Eithne and I were sitting on this rickety old bus that had stopped in a village and a little boy was toddling about on the pavement outside his house, with all his family sitting around him. As we smiled and waved, the little boy smiled back. And then waved! And then started blowing us kisses! We were in fits laughing and his family were too. So with everyone laughing and paying him loads of attention, this gorgeous little boy was blowing us kiss after kiss and laughing his head off. Just brilliant.

(Photos to be loaded later…now loaded…)

Xi'an 2

After a stressful last day in Xi’an (Eithne had her camera stolen and she ended up taking a ride in a police car, getting put into a cell and having a close encounter with the PSB…) we headed to Pingyao.

A UNESCO World Heritage site, Pingyao was a city that rose to fame at the height of the Silk Road and invented the bankers draft in China to save people carrying heavy silver over such long distances. It became impoverished and then never really had any money to do anything up, so ended up stuck in the 1930s (or earlier) and is now one of the few places in China that really looks like old China.

Driving from the train station was like coming onto the set of the movie ‘To Live’. This is a great Chinese film starring Gong Li that follows the fortunes of one family throughout the Cultural Revolution. It’s a brilliant film and must have been filmed in Pingyao. I really felt as if I was an extra in it!

We saw some of the sights around town; temples, museums, traditional houses, etc but generally had a bit of a lazy time.

One of the other really interesting things about Pingyao is that it’s set in the heart of the coal-mining area of China in Shanxi Province. The coal dust was thick everywhere. The air was heavy and the scent of sulphur often wafted through the town. Even the cold weather and rain didn’t clear the air. It’s only now that my bogies have stopped being coal-black! I did think that this was what Lanarkshire must have been like many years ago – directly after having said ‘Dear God, the air is awful, I could not live here!’

Pingyao

A great step back in time, but it was time to move onto Beijing – where I now find I am stuck for the next 12 days. I put my passport in for a visa extension (yes, been in China 30 days already!) and was told the earliest I can collect it is 10th October. Something to do with the whole of China being on holiday all of next week…

Stay tuned for photos and Beijing and China National Week Holiday stories…

Love Jacsxxx

Nah, don’t stay too long in Xi’an. Not a great place. Couple of days should do it and then move on. Not much to see. Terracotta Warriors and that’s about it.

So, with all this ringing in my ears about Xi’an, I looked ahead on my (loose) plan and realised I was likely to be in Xi’an for the National Day holiday at the beginning of October. This is a crazy time when the whole of China gets a week off. Hundreds of millions of people are on the move; people working away from their families go home and wealthier people go on a trip somewhere. Everybody and their dog is trying to move by plane, train, bus, ox-cart. The advice from all sources is find a place to be, hunker down and stay there til the madness is over. So, I decided against Xi’an and headed here after Nanjing, with the plan to be in Beijing for National Day (week).

What is everyone talking about? Xi’an is fabulous!

I arrived here early in the day after my sleeper train and explored the Ming Dynasty Bell and Drum Towers, then wandered around the Muslim Quarter. Wandered through a wealthy Ming Dynasty Official’s house, which has been turned into a museum and art studio for students from Xi’an University. Ambled round the stalls in the Islamic Market, muching on flat-bread snacks from street vendors and fell in love with the place. Into the Great Mosque, and then back to the hostel as night was falling and the kite sellers were flying their long kites over the Drum Tower – just stunning. Came back and had a quick look at the hostel menu then decided to head over the Muslim Quarter again for food. The most amazing spicy kebab skewers and spicy flatbread. Sitting in the street, 5 skewers at a time, washed down with beer. Mmmmm.

On the way back, bought some kites and then stopped in amazement at the sight of three huge telescopes mounted on the back of three-wheeled bikes. For ten yuan I looked through the telescope at Jupiter and the surface of the moon!

Within less than 24 hours, I’d seriously fallen for Xi’an.

Other exciting adventures included cycling round the top of the perfectly preserved Ming Dynasty City Walls, visiting the Terracotta Warriors, going to the light and fountain show at the Big Goose Pagoda and spending as much time as possible in the Muslim Quarter. Some great new friends from the hostel added loads to the enjoyment.

The Terracota Warriors was pretty amazing. The excavations are still very much ongoing, and the warriors still being unearthed and slowly catalogued and pieced back together. Incredible to think all this was created in about 200BC. What were people in the UK doing then? Certainly in Scotland, we were so crazy, warlike and backward that the Romans built Hadrian’s wall to keep us tucked away in the North! And in China, they were creating thousands of amazingly detailed terracota warriors and a massive tomb for the First Qin Emperor to unite China. Incredible.

You had to work hard to understand the enormity of looking at these Terracotta Warriors as the atmosphere created by lots of tourists and a modern platform over the pit made it hard to remember just how incredible it all is. Also loved seeing the site of the well, where it was all first discovered by farmers in 1974…

Still a few days to go in Xi’an, with an excursion out of the city tomorrow, then the museum and no doubt a few more meals in the Muslim Quarter…

Xi'an

My first Chinese Sleeper Train. Fifteen hours from Nanjing to Xi’an. Jings, Crivens and Help Ma Boab! I don’t think I’ve ever even contemplated a train for more than 7 hours let alone 15.

[Imagine super-hero voice] But this is no ordinary train! This is a Chinese Sleeper Train.

So, the things I’d heard about hard-sleeper class; brilliant, awful, horrendous, wonderful, way-better-than-hard-seat… ie, I didn’t have a clue what to expect!

There are four classes of train travel in China; hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper. I travelled hard seat from Ningbo to Hangzhou. For two hours. The seats have padding (albeit not much). Where are Trades Descriptions when you need them? It was fine for two hours but couldn’t take more than maybe 5-6 hours in hard-seat. Imagine the train from York to Edinburgh two days before Christmas. That’s hard-seat.

Hard Sleeper was a dream. I paid the grand total of about 17 quid for a bed for a 15 hour train journey. I didn’t even have to share it with anyone! And it wasn’t hard. It was really comfortable. I slept like a log.

I was the only westerner in my train compartment. They’re divided into berths of six, but in one big long compartment of about sixty people. The lights went out at half ten. Most people were asleep within minutes. Took me a bit longer, so I got to hear everyone snoring.

Who remembers Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus? …bmm, bmm, bmm, aria; bmm, bmm, bmm, aria. That’s what the snoring was like. Three males to one female, then the next lot went, and over again… I was trying so hard not to laugh and wake everyone up!

In my berth, one man spoke English. He was so interesting. I was reading a book about Chinese history by John Gittings, that has a picture of Chairman Mao on the front. Although few of us could speak the same language, we all knew what Chairman Mao looks like. I tried to explain that it was a history book, covering from 1949 to 2004. The man who spoke English told me that Chinese history was very interesting but not to believe anything the Communist Party writes. He told me that China needs democracy but that there is no way that the Chinese people can express their views. There is no way to think, or speak, differently. He told me about the hardship for people who live in the countryside versus those who live in the cities. People can’t rent, let alone buy, their own house. People are struggling in the most basic of ways. Yet the economy is growing at a rate of knots. These are the extremes that China is all about at the moment. He was so interesting to talk to. I feel priviliged that he spoke to me so freely. Maybe because he was speaking English he was more confident to say what he thought. He told me to get out into the countryside and not stay in the cities of China. I plan to do this anyway, but will definitely make sure I do.

So, my first sleeper train journey in China was wonderful. A great sleep. Conversation with people about what it’s like in China for them. What more could I possibly have hoped for?

Train

Nanjing is one of the places I’ve been most looking forward to visiting. Before heading to China I’d read two books, courtesy of the very active Jackie-Mairi book club, that were about Nanjing or predominantly set in Nanjing.

The first was The Rape of Nanjing by Iris Chang. It told the story of one of the greatest wartime massacres. In 1937, the Japanese invaded China. After being held up at Shanghai longer than expected, they eventually broke through and headed for Nanjing, then capital of China. On arrival at Nanjing there followed six weeks of torture, killing, rape and brutality. The number of people who died isn’t known. Conservative estimates sit around 300,000. In six weeks. The Japanese army, guided by the generals, one of whom was related to the Japanese Emperor, caused terror among the citizens of Nanjing. The story is heartbreaking. And even more so that the story is not widely known, nor even officially acknowledged by the Japanese government. No reparations have been paid. No apology made. The wound is still open for the people of Nanjing. Interestingly, this is the first place in China where I have not met any Japanese tourists or travellers.

The other book was To The Edge of the Sky by Anhua Gao. She tells the story of living in Nanjing throughout the Cultural Revolution. Her mother and father were cadres in the Communist Army, died and were honoured as revolutionary martyrs. This protected her from much of the ravages of the Cultural Revolution, but eventually she ended up as a political prisoner and struggled through the years until the madness subsided in the late-70s.

I loved both these books and couldn’t wait to visit Nanjing.

One of the first places I visited was the Revolutionary Martyr’s Cemetary/Garden in the southern suburbs of the city. This was the site where the Kuomintang killed communists during the civil war, which was then turned into a garden of remembrance. Anhua Gao’s dad did the calligraphy on the monument. It was a beautiful, peaceful place.

Then onto the Memorial Hall for the Nanjing Massacre. During Anhua Gao’s dad’s tenure as a senior party official in Nanjing, a mass grave was discovered near the banks of the Yangtze river. A Memorial Hall was built above it by his order. And there I was headed. To find a swarm of construction workers. So I paid my respects from outside.

Then to Zilin Mountain, for a visit to the Ming Tomb and Sun Yatsen Memorial. These were really excellent, and with beautiful weather, a lovely day to be up at the mountain.

Then, the rain came down… I think it was part of the weather pattern created by the typhoon near Shanghai, but boy did it rain! To help you understand how wet I got, here’s an example… Very few places in China provide loo roll. I’ve come to watch my toilet paper stocks as closely as my cash stocks. And after a day out in the rain in Nanjing, visiting the Ming Dynasty City Walls, I had a surprise ‘Andrex Moist’ experience…my loo roll was soaked! Along with everything else in my bag. And me. But I’m Scottish, so it doesn’t hold me back. My mum’s voice was in my head saying ‘och, it’s a wee bit o’ rain, ye’ll no’ shrink…’ The hostel I stayed at in Nanjing was quite small and there weren’t many people there. Three of them were Germans who didn’t cross the door without a poncho when it was raining. Me, I’m hard. I went out with a tee-shirt on (carrying a brolly). Hey, at least the rain’s a bit warmer here!

Nanjing

(More photos to come next time I log on…)

I’m now sitting in Xi’an (had a brill day today – more to follow) and smiling as I think about how the places you have highest expectations of (Nanjing) often don’t live up to the romantic vision you create in your head. Yet, I’ve arrived in Xi’an – a place I expected to stay for 2 or 3 days, and love it already. Life’s funny, eh?

Cream Crackered. Me legs ‘ave ‘ad it.

Huang Shan is one tall mountain! It’s 1873 metres high. Ben Nevis is 1350 metres. I didn’t know that when I set out – I looked it up on Google just now.

I arrived in Tangkou with no accommodation booked, but found some within 1 minute of getting off the bus. I had a conversation with some kind of tour guide on the bus and she offered me accommodation in her family’s home. I was a bit apprehensive but agreed to have a look at it. Turned out it was a family run guest house and a French guy (Ben) and Japanese guy (Takashi) both decided to stay there too in another room. So we had our climbing crew for Huang Shan.

Next morning, Takashi had been ill during the night and didn’t want to climb the mountain so it was just Ben and I. We got a taxi to what we thought was the gate everyone starts at. Except it wasn’t. The scamming taxi driver took us to a point at the very bottom of the mountain so we had to pay an extra entrance fee. They told us it would take 45 minutes to get to the point everyone else starts at. Ok, I thought, I can climb for an extra 45 minutes…

Two and a half hours later, we had ascended 900 metres and reached the other start point. It was 1.30pm, and the rest of the climb takes 2.5 hours. There’s loads to see on the top so I decided to take the cable car the rest of the way.

Ben steamed on ahead up the mountain and climbed the whole way. We met at the top and then wandered around all the various peaks with different views. Tried to find some accommodation, with no luck. It was either a room for 800RMB or a tent for 170RMB. So, a tent it was! Separate sleeping bags, of course. The tents were rented out by the police at the top of the mountain. The tent was cool – it was so much fun. It was pitched outside the police station, Bank of China and a Chemist. At the top of a flipping mountain! Only in China…

We bought dinner (instant noodles and beer) from the shop (yes, the top of the mountain had a shop) and sat eating while people were playing basketball (yes, there was also a basketball court). We asked in the shop for boiling water to make our noodles, but they wanted 10 yuan so we went back to the police station, where we got it for free. I love the police at the top of Huang Shan! Never again will I say “and where’s a policeman when you need him?”.

Up at 4.30am for the sunrise. Ben and I climbed up to a high peak to watch the sunrise, along with hundreds of Chinese tourists. Everywhere was rammed. Without a doubt the busiest sunrise I have ever, or probably will ever, watch. The sunrise itself was fairly unspectacular due to haze. The highlight was the massive crowd of Chinese tourists. Ben had found a quiet spot away from the crowds and we were busy congratulating ourselves on having found a quiet spot when around 50 chinese tourists followed us. Sunrise was a very noisy experience; the babble of so many people, the ooohs and aaaahs and the round of applause when the sun had fully risen.

Directly after the sunrise, most people left. That was when it got really beautiful. Ben and I sat there with about 5 other people for around an hour, then climbed back down, had some breakfast and headed off to the western steps – the long way down the mountain. About 2 and a half hours of climbing up various different peaks and down through caves and past rock formations, my knees were giving me jip. I decided that dodgy knees and another 6km downhill was not wise and took the cable car again… Some would say I cheated but that was one very high mountain and I was proud of how far I climbed.

Huang Shan was so beautiful, Ben was great company, there were so many funny moments, surprise camping was so much fun and the Chinese tourists were an endless source of entertainment. If only I had known while at the top of the mountain that Scotland had just beaten France 1-0, the experience would have been complete…

Huang Shan

Hey all, here are the photos I promised…

Click on the pics to get through to the Albums…

Shanghai

Shanghai 2

Putuoshan

Putuoshan

(There’s also a video on the Putuoshan blog entry of the view from the top of Foding Hill)

Hangzhou

Hangzhou

Enjoy!

Love Jacsxxx

That’s the Chinese word for ‘Excuse me’, as in, ‘please move over’.

It’s what I called out today cos my bike had no bell.

Originally, Caroline and I were heading for the tea villages. We met Troy at breakfast, who joined us, then two swedish girls and an american girl joined us, and all of a sudden we were six.

Six ‘laowai’ (foreigner) crazy people cycling around West Lake attracted loads of attention. We had people calling out to us, taking our photo and generally being amused. I’m not surprised; at times we were prone to singing and laughing far too loudly! It was hilarious too because the bikes were junk and the brakes needed written notice of our intention to slow down/stop.

We cycled up to Linyan Temple, which was fantastic and strolled around the grounds and the temple for a few hours. Then on for an adventure meal – where we order from a Chinese menu with no idea of what we’ll be presented with. An amazing banquet for about a pound each.

A few beers back at the hostel and it’s been a fabulous day.

Slight change of plans for the next step in the journey; I’ve decided to go to Huang Shan and climb the mountain. After that to Nanjing. So, a lazy day tomorrow to let my cycling legs recover before heading up the mountain. And maybe some more beer……..

Speak soon
Love Jacsxxx

And here we are at last – you’re in Hangzhou with me.

By the time I arrived in Hangzhou, I was feeling like superwoman. I’d successfully negotiated boat, bus, train and taxi all in one day!

Buying train tickets in China is no mean feat. The train stations are crazy. People milling everywhere, all trying to go somewhere fast. No such thing as queues, just push your way in. (I really do understand the lack of queuing – there are so many people in China if you waited your turn you’d never get anywhere!) I walked into the train station. Off with the pack, through the airport style scanner. Tried to buy a ticket. In the wrong place. Back outside again. I was adopted by a very kind young Chinese guy called Ge, who led me over to the ticket office (which I would never have found on my own – round the corner and up the street!), helped me buy a ticket and then led me to my platform. He was so helpful.

Hard-seat train. The cheapest class of travel. Once all the seats are gone, they sell standing tickets for hard seat. Luckily I got a seat, but some others didn’t. The carriage wasn’t too full though, and only a 2 hour journey, so it was fine. Believe it or not, the most stressful mode of transport was by taxi. Taxi drivers don’t like stopping for westerners. Invariably we can’t speak Chinese, and the taxi driver doesn’t understand where we want to go. He gets stressed out and I try hard to communicate with the help of my guidebook or phrasebook that has my destination written in Chinese – in tiny writing the driver can’t read when it’s dark. I don’t blame them really, but I thought the guy looking for my hostel was going to burst he was so stressed out.

Hangzhou has been wonderful. The hostel is great and I’ve met some lovely people. I was dorming with a lovely girl from Shanghai, a guy from Taiwan and another from Japan. We had a few drinks and went out for dinner. Another couple of their friends joined us. So, there were 6 of us round the table from four different countries. And I was the only non-chopstick-native… Imagine my delight when I was complimented on my use of chopsticks! Hey, inferiority complex over! After dinner, one of the guys asked if we wanted to go along to a place where they teach traditional Chinese musical instruments. This sounded great, so we all went along. It turned out it was Tony’s music lesson. He invited us into his lesson, introduced us to his teacher and then his teacher played some music for us – it was fantastic. He then invited me to sit down and try this instrument. I have no idea what it’s called. Some kind of long, flat stringed instrument. Tony’s teacher taught me some of the basic techniques and I managed to get a few notes out of it. I had such a huge smile on my face – an amazing experience. Then, after a few minutes, we left Tony to his lesson and went on for ice cream, then beer.

West Lake in Hangzhou is really beautiful. I’ve walked round it in different directions for the last 2 days and am planning to hire a bike tomorrow and head off into the hills and villages beyond the Lake with Caroline from my dorm. Really looking forward to it.

So, that’s you up to date. I’ll try and get some photos loaded soon for you.

Hangzhou

Lots of love
Jackie

I cupped my hand, blew on my fingers and rubbed them on my chest. I had just succeeded in buying my first ticket for public transport in China. This had been the most challenging thought for me before my trip. It’s the one thing that made me consider an organised tour in China rather than tackling the whole trip independently. And there I was, with a ferry and bus ticket in my hand. And very proud of myself!

Up very early and to the bus station. Damn, it’s all in Chinese – where’s my bus? Luckily I had arrived about 50 mins early, so wandered over to the shop, bought some breakfast and showed them my ticket. They pointed over to the right. I walked further. Still none the wiser. I asked someone else, who pointed in the same direction. Then another person, until I reached the end of the building. And yes, there it was!

That’s how I get directions here. I’ll try really hard to talk in Chinese (but fail miserably) and will get waved towards something. The trick is to ask someone else before you go past whatever it is you’re looking for. You won’t always notice it… I’ve never yet been in a situation where someone hasn’t helped me though.

Anyway, back to the Bus Station. Once you know where you are, and watch what’s going on, the bus stations are really well organised. You wait inside and go out a door marked 1,2,3 etc and it’s almost impossible to get on the wrong bus (although def still possible to miss your bus!)

The ferry was interesting as no-one travels outside on the boat. DVDs are played on TV screens inside the cabin and everyone just watches TV.

Putuoshan was really beautiful. Incredibly beautiful. The China I had imagined but didn’t expect to find. 17th century temples and pagodas. Hills shrouded in mist. Monks everywhere. Little bridges over lakes, trees, paved streets. I only saw 4 other westerners on the island – everyone else was Chinese – mostly tourists. It was really great, I felt like a real adventurer cos I didn’t meet anyone from the UK, but had the benefit of a great tourist infrastructure with little buses that pootle around the island from sight to sight. Chilling out in the village square was just lovely. I had planned to stay 2 days, but stayed 3 and just wound down from all the excitement of Shanghai.

I went for dinner one night to a little restaurant in the village. The waitress stood and watched me for the first 5 minutes. I smiled and said, very tasty. She still watched. I concentrated on the chopsticks. After a few minutes, she asked to borrow my Mandarin phrasebook, which was sitting beside me on the table. No problem! She read it for the whole time I was eating to try an practice her English. I got chatting to her and showed her my photos of family and friends, and talked about Scotland and Putuoshan, her English studies and my (very poor) Chinese. At the end of the meal, I tried to leave a tip and she came running after me saying, ‘No, No, No’ as she put the 5 yuan note back into my hand.

Putuoshan was perfect for some chilling out, but it was time to move on. Another public transport journey was waiting…

Putuoshan