Yichang to Chongqing - The Three Gorges

Over a month ago my dear mother came to stay.  Let the lateness of the post publication in no way reflect my enjoyment of her visit.  China’s just been keeping me busy.  And doing a very good job of blocking blog sites.

Mummy Tan was fortunate enough to avoid most of the strangely early rainy season that Xiamen has been recently enduring.  On her first day, I took her to a beach party.  Now, I’m under strict instructions to only publish photos where Mum looks nice.

So here’s Nada and I at the beach party.

A couple of days later we headed north to the Yangtze River, where we would embark on a cruise along the most famous stretch – the Three Gorges.  After much deliberation, we decided to go upstream, as it gave us longer on the boat and meant that we would avoid an overnight stay in Wuhan.  However, this plan also meant that instead of boarding in a nice big, major, easily accessible city (Chongqing), we would dock in Yichang, another fairly sizeable city that I for some reason imagined to be a small fishing town.  


There were no direct flights so we flew to Wuhan first and got on a shuttle bus from the airport that dropped us on a random street that was fortunately just around the corner from a long-distance bus station.  As is protocol at Chinese train and bus stations, they tried to avoid selling us tickets by pretending to not understand me but after bypasssing their regulations we got on a bus, which eventually eased its way out of the station where it proceeded to crawl along the streets at the speed of a caterpillar.  When it stopped at a service station we presumed that they just needed petrol, but instead we picked up a small family (despite the bus being full) and continued along the road.

Then the bus broke down of course.

Luckily, another bus came and picked us up and about 4 hours later we arrived in Yichang.  We were dropped at what we thought was the port, since it was on the river and there were boats, and someone said it was the port.  So we wandered around a bit, had dinner, bought some fruit, then tried to find our way to our boat.  After asking many people I worked out that our ‘port’ was, in fact, nowhere near where we were but about 30km away.  A taxi driver told me you could take a bus for 2 hours and then walk a few km to get there, or he would take us.  After much bargaining we drove off.  It wasn’t until we were driving through some kind of mountain village slum that I started to worry about whether the driver really knew where we were going/was going to murder us for our passports.  We drove through back alleys and half formed roads, then down the side of a cliff where the road just ended.  There were 2 boats there; thankfully one was ours.

Everything was much less scary and much more fancy on the boat.  We got a cheap upgrade to VIP and everything.  There was a bath in the bathroom.  One usually only dreams of such luxury in China.

And so began 3 days of decadence – sitting on our balcony…

Sitting at dinner…

Sitting in our VIP coffee bar…

Etc.

We went on 3 excursions.  

Firstly, to see the Three Gorges Dam, a rather controversial feat of engineering that boasts the world’s largest power station and should reduce the risk of flooding, but involved the relocation of over a million residents and originally flooded many cultural sites.  Discuss.

Here’s our boat entering the first lock.  

There are 5 locks in the Three Gorges Dam so at first it was quite exciting.  Several hours later, not so much.

Secondly, we went on a small excursion down Shennong Stream to see the Lesser Three Gorges, which were probably more beautiful than the main ones as they were more narrow and less polluted.

We took small boats powered by locals who rowed 2 hours just to meet us and 2 hours home after our trip.  The oldest was 86 and he was still rowing with pride.  It was very impressive and just a little disconcerting.


Here's Mum on the boat from this boat back to the other boat.

The third trip was to Fendu Ghost city, where there were no ghosts, but a lot of steps.

Here’s Mum taking as many steps as possible over a bridge so that she’ll be very rich and healthy.

Here I am standing one-footed on a stone to see how pure my soul is.

Back on the boat I volunteered for an acupuncture demonstration, which hurt, but not as much as the ‘cupping’ demonstration that I did not volunteer for and left a beautiful red circle on my neck for 3 days, because I had too much yang and not enough yin.  Or was it too much yin…?

Each time we passed through one of the Three Gorges, Kylie, the boat manager/event coordinator/customer helpline/host/dancer would introduce the scenery.  Often it was quite windy up on top deck so no one wanted to be there.  But Kylie had to be.  Here I have captured the classic moment in which poor Kylie, sheltering from the vicious wind, is upstaged by Brian in his shorts.

All in all, the cruise was a very beautiful and relaxing experience.

Chongqing, when we docked, almost wasn’t.  It was a big city and you couldn’t really see anything for the smog.  Luckily, at the metro station, we met a guy whose name I forget, who directed us to the Chongqing Exposition, a massive area of lake, hills and gardens designed in the style of every culture (99% Chinese, but of course).  We spent the entire day here…

…before flying back to Xiamen, where I made sure Mum had the classic Xiamen experience:

The University

Good old Gulangyu

Coconuts on the beach boardwalks

And, of course, the karaoke that’s a treat for both the eyes and the ears: KTV.

I think Mum enjoyed China, despite the lack of English tea and corruption of the fine English tradition of queuing.  I, for one, very much enjoyed having her here.  Because whose life abroad isn’t improved by a visit from their Mum?  You can’t take a suitcase full of chocolate, magazines and moisturiser for granted out here.

Kunming

Just a quick account of Kunming, which is a lovely place but there’s not a lot to do there.  Of course, Kunming holds the reputation of most chilled out city in China and is known as the ‘city of eternal Spring’.  So really, it was a nice place to do not a lot.

Thanks to a strangely on time bus journey I arrived at Kunming West bus station at stupid o’clock, somewhere around 5am, so had to wait in the station for over an hour before the city buses started running.  A lot of people stared at me for over an hour.

Jumped on the first bus into the city centre to my hostel and it was still so early that I thought I’d make a day of it and head to Shilin, a famous scenic spot close to Kunming.  Several buses later I was on the coach, where I met 3 Parisians (the only other white people around) who I then spent the rest of the day with.  Shilin was an interesting place, but I certainly appreciated the company.   

Shilin translates as the ‘Stone Forest’, an area of intricate basalt formations that was apparently once entirely submerged in water.

It took a while to walk round but did feel kind of like being in a forest.  Of stone.

The next day I visited a bird and flower (and, oddly, reptile) market…

Spent a good afternoon on the roof terrace, sunning…

And had a head massage from one of many blind masseurs/masseuses who set up chairs lining a central pedestrian street.

So Yunnan really had everything.  It definitely wins the battle of the provinces so far.  Unfortunately I didn’t have time to do the far north (bordering Tibet) or the far south (where you can easily cross into Vietnam or Laos) but it’s certainly a place I would return to so who knows, maybe next time.  Until then I will remain content in my memories of endless sunshine, spectacular scenery, and not losing my camera again.

Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge

I’d heard Lijiang wasn’t great because it was all touristy and overcrowded but actually I had a very nice time there.  Apart from all the tourists and the overcrowding.

The bus from Dali arrives in Lijiang but the old part of the town is a little way out.  I was staying in the Panba hostel in Lijiang old town, which no taxi driver knew how to get to.  In the end I managed to evoke the sympathies of some kind of delivery man who drove me and my backpack round the narrow winding roads in his some kind of delivery motorbike truck.  Always the adventure.

I spent the first afternoon strolling around and taking pictures of the pretty streets and little canals of the old town…

I walked up a hill which had good views over the crowded roofs of the old town...

...and of the famous Jade Snow Mountain that presides over the surrounding area.

Back at the hostel I booked myself on the next early morning bus to Tiger Leaping Gorge and spent the rest of the evening trying to decide what to take and wondering who I could find to trek with me.  As my new China travel luck would have it, everyone else in my 8-bed dorm (bar one poor Belgian guy) was getting the early morning bus to Tiger Leaping Gorge.

So off we set around 7am, arriving at the start of the Gorge about 9.30am.  The bus driver gave us some tickets and then just sort of drove off, so we wandered around a bit asking locals where to start the trek, took a few wrong turnings and eventually ended up on the right path,the unmarked entrance to which was conveniently situated behind this old shack.

The weather was beautiful, the company was great and the Gorge was amazing.

We took it very leisurely, though after the first couple of hours of steep uphill climb it wasn’t too hard a trek.  There were 3 people working in Ningbo (Leo, Helen and Whitney), a couple of other students studying up in Beijing (Elisa and Richard) and a lone traveller (David).  Happily, we were all fans of the group photo.

There weren’t a lot of people out and about in the Gorge. We didn’t meet any other trekkers (until the guesthouse) and there were only a few Chinese ladies out trying to sell us sustenance for extortionate prices.  Our favourite was the lady just before the infamous ‘28 bends’ stretch (a long, steep climb with not one but 28 bends) who assured as that there was no one for hours who would sell us water (a lie) and harassed our break-time advertising her wares with frequent shouts of ‘Water!  Coca cola!  Marijuana!’

Only in China.

We spent most of the day ambling up and down the trails and arrived at our destination, a guesthouse called Halfway House late in the afternoon.  Halfway house had a sun terrace and the views were breathtaking.

It got quite cold at night though so we stayed inside mostly, eating traditional Naxi (the Lijiang minority ethnic group) food and sharing hostelling stories.  The bathroom was pretty novel: it consisted of a row of stalls sharing a common drain (standard Chinese practice) with open windows looking out into the Gorge.  Here's a view from the toilet:

Pretty as a picture.

The next day we continued on our trek, passing a couple of waterfalls.  Horses were crossing at waterfall no.1.

It wasn’t a very long walk at all to the ‘end’ of the trek, Tina’s Guesthouse, where we booked seats on the afternoon bus back to Lijiang.  Tina’s is the point at which you can walk all the way down to the river itself, and the infamous Tiger Leaping Rock…

It was a steep scramble down and a fairly exhausting climb back up but a beautiful trail. 
Tiger Leaping Gorge is so named because of a story in which a tiger, chased by a hunter, supposedly escaped by leaping across the gorge via a large rock.

Here are David and I claiming Tiger Leaping Rock.

And of course, the inevitable group photo.

By the time we were all back up we still had an hour or so to kill so a few of us walked on, just by road this time, to find Walnut Garden, where the vegetation was rumoured to be particularly (and suspiciously) green.

On the way back we hitched a ride in the back of the truck of some kind of farmer.  From the smell I’m going for pig.  Here we are trucking.

Another couple of hours on the bus and we were back in Lijiang.  Everyone was exhausted so we chose not to hit the wild and varied Chinese ‘bars’; instead, a few of us went to an initially tempting but ultimately ear-splitting concert of traditional Naxi music.

The next day I wandered around the town some more, took lots of pictures, left my camera on a bench, didn’t realise for a while, came back to find it gone, ran round in panicky circles looking distressed, asked everyone I could if they had seen a camera and was miraculously handed it by a lady cleaning the streets who had it tucked away in her dress.  I very nearly cried from happiness.  Some travelling experiences are best left unrepeated.

In the afternoon I went for a little solo bike ride to another old town called Shuhe.  I was stalked by a couple of Chinese cyclists, naturally, but managed to evade them by cycling more and more slowly until I eventually stopped and stared meanly at them until they went away.

Shuhe was very pleasant but the highlight was probably a pastry from a French bakery.  Without a doubt, Yunnan has the best bakeries in China.  What an excellent province.

Here’s a view from the road.

And sadly that was it for Lijiang and the stunning Tiger Leaping Gorge.  I think the Gorge might well have edged out Yangshuo as my favourite place in China.

In the evening I took my first sleeper bus (surprisingly pleasant experience, though I have since had far worse encounters with such buses!) back down to Kunming…

Dali

I apologise to Yunnan for the lateness of this blog; it really doesn’t deserve such neglect.  But the new term here in Xiamen is a busy one and somewhere in the midst of writing characters, memorising vocabulary and breaking my nose walking into a Starbucks door after a study session the blog got a little waylaid…

However, as is warranted, here follows extensive praise of the marvellous province that is Yunnan.  A province so marvellous, in fact, that I was willing to travel it alone...

Yunnan is situated in the south-west corner of China and it is amazing.  For a start, it's kind of a red colour.  See picture as viewed from the air.  I wanted to go last year but it needs a fair bit of time, which I ran out of last Spring Festival what with all the being robbed I had to do down in Sanya.  Anyway, I had a couple of weeks spare so I decided to take a leisurely trip, booking flights in and out of Kunming (the capital) but nothing much in between so I could take it as it came.

I spent the first night at a hostel in Kunming where my tourism just about stretched to a nearby park, after which I returned to the hostel and spent the remainder of the day with fellow hostelers sitting on the roof terrace with a few beers and getting alarmingly sunburnt for early February.  I think the weather was probably the main thing that sold Yunnan to me; there was not a day without sunshine and although the nights were a little cold all the hostel dorm beds had electric blankets!  What a thoughtful province.

The next day I jumped on a bus up to Dali then shared a motorbike taxi with some Greek guys to get to Dali Old Town, which looked every bit as beautiful as I’d been hoping.

The town lies in the south-west corner of a huge lake (Er Hai, which means ‘ear-shaped sea’) and at the base of mountains; all round the lake are villages where the Bai ethnic minority Chinese still live.  Though now rather touristy, much of the ancient town has been preserved and the blue skies and fresh air from the lake give Dali a wonderful atmosphere.

Of course, I’d only been there about an hour and a half when I got food poisoning.  I maintain that it was something I ate on the road or earlier that morning because I don’t think Dali is spiteful enough to give anybody food poisioning but nevertheless, I spent a good couple of days eating plain rice with soy sauce, tentatively sipping warm water and lamenting my misfortune. 

Fortunately, it was a misfortune that seemed to be doing the rounds of the Yunnan hostels.  I met 2 British girls, Kav and Harriette, who were also sick.  Misery loves company, so that was nice.  And we weren’t really that miserable.  We were staying in a really comfortable hostel called the Jade Emu.

It’s sister hostel, the Jade Roo, had a roof terrace.  So I was sold.

One day Kav and I wandered around the old city.  It was very pretty - ancient rooftops...

Set against a mountain backdrop.

Part of the old town wall still exists; from it you can see the lake.

And there was this amazingly beautiful church.

Another day we managed to drag ourselves out for an organised tour round the lake, which was stunning.   

We visited a very old village…

A temple of sorts on the lakeside…

A market town (you can see the women still wearing traditional headdress)…

And various beauty spots.

Other amazing things of note in Dali were…

The Y5 (about 50p) Tibetan vegetarian buffet where the only catch was you had to eat every single grain of rice on your plate.

The bakeries and sandwich shops (‘Sweet-tooth’s chocolate cheesecake muffin may be the best baked good I have ever tasted).

And Rice, a hostel worker who was always on hand to get me my warm water and who entered a pool tournament never having played before.  And his English name was Rice.

So that was about it in the charming old town of Dali; I didn't do an awful lot but it was just the sort of place I (and my food poisoning) needed.  After about 5 days in Dali I was recovered, relaxed and ready for Lijiang, a stepping stone to the Tiger Leaping Gorge and more roof terraces than I could dream of...