China Post #3 - will post photos when I get better internet

Yangshuo

Our first stop in mainland china was Yangshuo, a beautiful valley surrounded by karst limestone peaks. It's actually on the back of the 20 Yuan note http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:20_yuan_note.jpg). We took a "bamboo" (well it was actually PVC pipe styled to look like bamboo) raft cruise down Li River, for me one of the highlights of our trip to China.

Chengdu

About 10km from Chengdu is the Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre, where I could gush over a panda to my heart’s content. The older ones are a bit dirty looking and lethargic, and won't pose for the camera even when the keeper tempts them with an apple. “It's a whole 1 metre away and I can't be bothered” was the attitude displayed.

But the little pandas look exactly like fluffy stuffed toys, and they play and eat and generally behave in an adorable fashion! It's such a pity - there are only about 1000 of them left in the wild, and although captive breeding programs have been very successful, every panda released into the wild has soon died.

Leshan

A day trip from Chengdu, Leshan is home to the largest Buddha in the world. I believe it obtained this title after the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas in Afghanistan. Here are the facts on the Buddha: he is 71m tall, his ears are 7m long, his big toe is 8.5m and each toe is taller than the average human.

The Three Gorges

Rather than doing a 2 day cruise, we took a hydrofoil through the 3 gorges. I am glad we went this option - I don't think they are worth 2 days now, after being flooded by the dam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_gorges_dam). But interesting to see what the fuss is all about anyway.

Hangzhou

Probably the hottest place we've been to in China. Stepping out of the air-conditioned train, the heat is so intense you wonder if you ever really felt hot before, or everything was just mildly warm until now!

I was also amazed at the amount of money floating around the place. The streets are lined with swish restaurants, Ferrari and Porsche dealerships, and international high-end brands. I think they make their money from tea - if so, it's obviously a good business to be in.

Anyways, there are 36 lakes in China called the West Lake, but the one in Hangzhou is the original and the most famous. The lake was a getaway for the rich in imperial times, and has lots of gardens, pagodas and mansions around it. It's quite pretty.

I was really impressed however with the Buddhist carvings at Lingyn Temple. There are 470 of them, dating back to the 10th and 14th centuries. Obviously, we didn't see the vast majority of them. But the ones we did see some are just amazingly detailed in their execution and well preserved.


Shanghai

There are three main sights in Shanghai:

1) The Bund – a street the Europeans built in the 1920's and 1930's
2) Pudong - the new business centre, farmland just 15 years ago. Its home to some buildings of extremely dubious architectural value - notice the futuristic shocker (Oriental Pearl Tower)? The Chinese seriously regard this as a beautiful building.
3) China's golden mile - a frantic commercial strip fill of really bad fashion.

We were lucky enough to be in Shanghai in time (completely accidentally) for the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, complete darkness for around 6 minutes. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy and hazy in Shanghai, so we didn't see anything like this photo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_eclipse_22_July_2009_taken_by_Lutfar_Rahman_Nirjhar_from_Bangladesh.jpg.

What we did experience was day becoming night within a minute or two. It was actually rather unsettling, very end-of-the-world like. If I lived in times when such things were believed to be controlled by gods, I would scared shitless and buy whatever story I was being told.


Tongli

It was worth spending the time searching through people's feedback on Lonely Planet discussion board regarding which "water town" to visit. There are 7 of them around Shanghai, basically little picturesque towns build on canals. Some of them have become major tourists traps though, something we were keen to avoid after the Bangkok water market experience.

Tongli is not (yet) a tourist trap. It's been around since the 9th century, and many buildings have retained their traditional facades with whitewashed walls and black tiled roofs. It’s got little cobblestone streets, picturesque gardens and a maze of small stone bridges linings the canals – all very charming.

Xian

Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified China, centralized its government, standardised measurements, currency and writing and conquered 6 major kingdoms. He is best remembered though for the Army of Terracotta Warriors he built for his after-life rule.

Beijing

Due to unavailability of train tickets, we had to spend the entire night sitting up in seats that are basically two boards nailed together at a 90 degree angle. OK, maybe they are not as hard as two boards, but they are definitely very uncomfortable. In view of the fact that no one could possibly sleep in such conditions, the light remained on for the entire night as well. We were pretty tired when we got to Beijing!

We started our Beijing sightseeing with the Forbidden City, off limits to everyone by the Emperor, his women and his staff for 500 years. For security reasons he hardly ever left the place either. I wonder how he had any idea what he was governing. Despite being the best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China, it doesn't make as much impact as it should due to the slap-dash dulux-heavy restoration effort it has gone through. It makes it look and feel like the whole thing could have been built yesterday. But it’s still impressive for its size and history etc.

Similar Great Wall experience as well - we went to Badaling, the most photographed section of the wall, by virtue of being the closest to Beijing, and also the most restored. The restoration (carried out in the 50s and 80s) left much to be desired in terms of authenticity of method and appearance, but from a distance the view of the wall sneaking over the hills is romantic enough. After about 30 minutes on the wall we were overtaken by a heavy shower (umbrellas were useless as protection except for the spot on the very top of your head), and there wasn't much to do but walk back down and try to dry out at Starbucks. And we though the overcast was purely due to smog.

Tienanmen square and the pickled Mao - I have to say, even though I was 2 metres away from him at all times, and he was encased in a big crystal case, I sort of doubt his authenticity. He looks so perfect, exactly like one of Madame Tussaud’s wax statues. Surely even with the best preservatives in the world, the skin color would have changed a little in the last 30 years? Or maybe he is just wearing heavy make-up? I am suspicious whether we saw the real deal.

Haerbin

Haerbin was the first place anywhere in the world (aside from Russia of course) where my Russian language skills proved more useful than my English language skills. Usually when restaurant staff realise we can't read the menu or speak Chinese, they will produce someone (if available) who speaks a tiny amount of English. This time, it was someone who spoke a tiny amount of Russian! I guess it makes sense, being so close to the border etc, but its funny speaking Russian in China of all places. The place looks very European as well, due to the high number of Russian refugees who came here after the revolution.

Siberian Tiger Park - The mission of the park is to study, breed, release and ultimately save the Siberian tiger from extinction. It's not clear however exactly how the park is preparing these animals for the wild, when visitors are encouraged to purchase live chickens, goats or cows to throw to the tigers. It was pretty cool driving through the park to get an up-close and personal look at these magnificent animals. They are so cute when they are sleeping or scratching themselves, just like very big cats. You really feel like scratching them behind the ears or on the belly :)

We were however treated to a highly unpleasant spectacle of tourists teasing the tigers with a live chicken - with the staff's full encouragement and participation. I really felt the animals deserve more respect than jumping for the chickens for the benefit of a crowd of tourists. I guess the sign "don't tease or provoke the tigers" doesn't apply if you pay for the chicken.