Our Real China Touchdown

Suzhou  and Tongli (May 24th, 2009)

Hello, we continue our travelogue on the nomads.com. The day before yesterday evening in Macao, we walked to the border of Suzhou then to fly to Shanghai. Here we were met by our private guide and began the Real China tour. We have beautiful roads to drive in Suzhou, a 2500 years old city.

We first visited  the Lingering Garden, a picturesque traditional Chinese garden, and then went to a silk factory where you could follow the silk-making process closely. Then we boarded on a large boat cruising on the Grand Canal, which was dug from Beijing to Hangzhou in order to provide the Emperor with all products from these parts of China more than 1000 years ago. The Grand Canal is amazingly 1800 kilometers long! How wonderful if we could take a cruise on the Canal from Beijing. However, we only went a short distance to the waterway of the city and see a lot of old houses on the waters.

Today we began our tour with a pagoda and an ancient defense city of Suzhou. Later, we traveled to Tongli

, reputed as the Venice of China. All the paths we take were all small canals and saw lots of local old houses. It was a little Chinese tourists crowded, but really very nice. An old woman gave a presentation on her boat (paid of course) with her water birds catching fishes in the water, which is very interesting, too.

At the end of the afternoon, we drove to Shanghai to stay. We dived ourselves into an underground shopping mall, crowd with kinds of lights and glitter shops as well as millions of beautiful items. Now we are back in the hotel and have some time to get on the internet. Tomorrow we will see Shanghai and in the evening we will fly to Huangshan on Tuesday where we will climb the Yellow Mountain. We try it again when we can skype.

Shanghai (May 26, 2009)

On Sunday evening, we were in Shanghai. After having checked into the hotel, we went on adventures. The metro was close and we are happy see how quickly we found in the town to come in the vehicle. We were out shopping in the modern city of China, with thousands of kinds of shops with glittering neon lights. Also, you could very well see new buildings all lit; on the other side of the river (where our hotel was), it is not a very modern area of Shanghai built in less than 20 years time and it is called Pudong. If you search Pudong Skyline on Google Images, you will get an idea. We have a delicious meal with chopsticks in a local tent, which obviously looks pretty good.

On Monday morning, we were waited by our guide in the hotel. Andy, he called himself, studied IT and spoke very good English. We didn't have a good breakfast because the hotel had no restaurant and the dinner next door was so exotic in Chinese style. With some ways, we got something we prefer to eat, but we thought that milk was not as nice.

Then we first went to the Shanghai Museum, one of China's best museums it seemed. After that, we went to the Jade Buddha Temple, a famous Buddhist temple which was impressive. We had lunch on the waters near the Bund, a gift of travel as a compensation for the breakfast. We search the Bund on google.com, but there were not pretty pictures to make because everything light on the shovel for the Shanghai World Expo in the next year.

In the afternoon, we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower to enjoy the city view. Though it was a little smoggy, it was very nice to have a kind of floor skywalk on the tower top. You could walk over and look through a glass to the ground, nearly one hundred meters down below your feet. For people suffering vertigo, a good exercise in the building was a museum named Shang History Musuem at the bottom telling the history of Shanghai, what we really liked.

We were already at the airport at 17:30, well on time, but our plane was delayed a few hours so we bought a booklet to read.

After an hour's flight, we arrived in Huangshan City at 23:30. As always, our guide waited and brought us to the hotel in a private car. Jessica calls them. (They gave all English names for convenience.) small smooth aunt. We sleep a little, Jan Willem has slept badly last night because the beds in China are very hard and he had no pads for his hips.

Today, we will visit the Yellow Mountain, the world renowned Mountain Huangshan. It had been forecasted that it might be some rains today so we hope that we are not too wet. We will sleep in a hotel on the top of the mountain and will get up early tomorrow morning to admire the fabulous Huangshan Sunrise if the weather permits. 

I will download some pictures and then we will prepare the next blog. I can only write some tomorrow after we come back to this hotel.

Huangshan (May 27, 2009)

Yesterday we went to Mount Huangshan, or called as the Yellow Mountain. We climbed somewhat by a cable car and then take a walk on the stairs of the mountain for half an hour until we get to the hotel on the top where we had lunch. And soon we were hiking. The weather was a bit cloudy, which meant the possibility of seeing far and taking some beautiful photos.

Today we saw the marvelous Huangshan Sunrise in the dawning (5:09 am) from a peak and then made a long and exhausting walk by stairs in the mountains, up and down until another peak. Around the Yellow Mountain, we came across to some local people working on their crops. They irrigated their field using buffaloes, small tractors and even planted soy or rice cropping and then replanted seedlings. Then we went to the city to visit a museum of calligraphyand ancient ink and took some tea in an old store where already 5 generations live under the same roof. They explained to us a lot about tea to relax and then we went to a massage parlor for a feet massage, I mean legs. It is very good after a heavy hike the mountains though a little painful. We went to dinner with other tourists, among whom a Russian, emigrated from China to Australia, was visiting their home country now.

Hongcun and Xidi (May 29, 2009)

Today, May 28th, we were in two small noted Chinese villages, Hongcun and Xidi, which are still very original and both fall within a World Heritage protection. Many Chinese historical films are included here. People just have to live in the houses and the village is a great water-channel system where they eat and wash their clothes clean. (The sewer, we can not detect ...) Some people have a shop in their room selling trinkets to tourists, and almost all of them call, "Hello and look inside, please!" when we walk across. So far we are an exception as foreign tourists, most visitor are Chinese in large groups leading by guides with flags and portable microphones in their hand which the flock may follow. It is a little noisy because they have also benefited the habit to speak loudly. Sometimes, when they began talking, there is a normal conversation undergoing, which is rather interesting. After lunch, we were brought back to the bus and heading to Hangzhou, where another guide and driver were waiting for us at the bus station.

Hangzhou (May 30, 2009)

Today we visited a museum on Chinese medicine, especially herbs, roots, etc. Then we went on a boat ride on West Lake, a famous large lake in the city of Hangzhou. In the neighborhoods, we also saw Lingyin Buddhist Temple, with many Buddhas carved in rock and a huge Buddha inside the temple. Then we went to tea plantation and museum, where they make Dragon Well green tea, one of the best China teas. The tea tasted very good but very expensive. We finished our morning tour with a visit to the known Leifeng Pagoda, a sort of tower with odd number of floors to Buddhism. The Pagoda was first built in 970 AD but fell in 1120 AD. Leifeng Pagoda we could see now was rebuilt in 1156 and renovated in recent years.

Expo in Hohhot (June 2, 2009)

The day before yesterday, we had all day presentations/lectures and yesterday we went to the China National Dairy Expo ...... cow was not to see a fair! A lot of plastic cows and calves at the various booths set up and some sound much more interesting. We ended with lunch in the Holland Pavilion because captive life was obviously well represented. We have a dairy lunch in the Yangtze Delta Area where we were studying a variety of figures from the Dairy Assoc, Shanghai.

In the evening, we flew 2.5 hours to the Urumchi, the capital of Inner Mongolia. After a short night, we left by bus with companies to watch Mongolians early in the morning. We started with a known dairy village where people have a house with walled garden in which they keep some cows. There is a common parlor where they milk their animals 2 times a day. Small peasants can not supply the factories directly after the melanin scandal last year. Later we saw a project still under construction and then we rode to a business model woks with 5000 cows milked in a parlor of 4 different setting: rotor, side by side, herring, robot. Advanced visitor center from a central point where you could see everything and accompanied by an English-speaking guide from Mengliu, the biggest dairy product company in China. We also had the factory to see where we walked round a special path of 1 kilometer from the factory (behind glass) full of automated everything, and finally we got an ice cream from the brand: an ice cream peas. They also have red bean ice in China, which was soon called "Dutch pea soup ice".

After a Chinese lunch in the cafeteria, we head back to the bus and travel to another project that was built by another dairy company. There were 500 cows from small backyard held by peasants. Another company ran the business and the farmers lease their cows, and go to a salary work for the company. The improved infrastructure better feed the cows and it obviously seems to have a win-win situation there. Finally, it formed the 2nd largest industry in China, which is particularly strong in powder. After that, we began a visit to factory making ice creams, desserts and cheese.  At bout 7 hours later, we got back to the hotel where we all had to quickly prepare for a dinner with local specialties. Endless toasts were delivered with a Chinese liquor. Fortunately, everyone was told ahead and we still could not eat them all.

Tomorrow morning, we will get up early to work because a lot of things are to proceed when we get back. And the evening, we fly to Beijing for the last 2 days of China tour.

Hohhot and Beijing (June 4, 2009)

hi,

Yesterday and today, we have been busy with many conference presentations and discussions. Last night, we had a dinner of Inner-Mongolia dishes and were invited to folk dancing and karaoke. We drank a lot before flying to Beijing late at night.

Today was also so in commodious hall to have a dinner and then to enjoy a beautiful Beijing Opera Show of dance from different parts of China in a theater.


Until next time, bye.

Beijing (June 5, 2009)

Today we first but once broken sleep because after a very festive farewell dinner. We have taken a farewell to our dairy friends. Then we moved to our hotel in Beijing, which is really an old fashioned house with a courtyard that is very typical. This area is the only old parts of Beijing because lots of ancient buildings had been torn down to make way for city development. We are a stone's throw from the subway so we quickly by metro to the Imperial Palace, the Forbidden City. It was very hot today and we have 2 hours in the heat walking around with an automatic guide to our ears hung. Enormous, indeed it is a town in itself but you could actually almost see a lot everywhere. If you stand behind a fence and see the empty halls or a throne in it each time, so grandeur of the past, you could have a lot of imagination. Then we went to the underground to the Temple of the Heaven which went beautifully (restored), which is very worthwhile. We have a kind bicycle to be going to that one away from us came (we were not there at the 50 meter across an entry, but the trip was fun. After we go shopping in pearl market on hotel's opposite, so yes, there are now negotiating and we really bought some gifts (and a new suitcase for everything to do ...) Tomorrow morning at 5:15 we will have to go to the airport to go because we have to fly half past seven to Xian where we will be there for 2 days. The day after tomorrow we come back in this little hotel. They just have very nice things for us in the breakfast room. So we will soon bathe and sleep. 

Xi'an (June 6 & 7, 2009)

On Saturday morning, we got up early to fly to Xi'an. We were there, again waited by a guide with a car at the airport.

Often it is necessary to have a guide there because most airports are quite far from the city in China. Without a useful guide, you are like a illiterate out there with incomprehensible symbols and signs and most people (even in the hotels ...) often do not speak English.

After having checked into the Bell Tower Hotel, whose rooms overlook the Bell Tower, (you can have a look at the pictures in the photo gallery on the right of the page), we went to the Old City Wall of Xi'an. It is an ancient fortified wall with a circumference of 12 km and several defense towers. This was the so-called inner city wall of Xi'an because there was ever a wall outside but lost years ago. Xi'an was once an imperial city in Qin Dynasty, the first feudal dynasty of China, and a major point in the Silk Route in the history. Xi'an was also one of the world's largest cities with mixes of cultures.

Then we visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and Shaanxi Museum which has an impressive collection source. This region was inhabited very early in the remnants of several nearby villages 7000 years old and found it full of tombs that the hills prove.

In the evening, we had a dumpling dinner with Tang Dynasty Show, a show that music and dance from the Tang Dynasty performed. Our hotel sat really heartily super because when we came back we could enjoy the Night Market and catch up in the Muslim neighborhood behind the Drum Tower. Chinese Muslims are clearly not as strict in theory because not all female there were wearing with black robes and towels. Luckily, we were not the pressure and their handcrafts were nice and were really sold out.

The next morning we started with a visit to an excavation of a village of a 6000 years old, named Hanyang if I remember it correctly , what behanlve contours in the ground where once the shacks / houses had stood. Then we brought in a state-owned factory where COPIES of the Terracotta Soldiers were made and sold expensive models so we were glad that we have at the night market had begun.

Finally we went to the Terracotta Army. The largest collection is No. 2 in an excavation pit which is covered by a huge hall. 720,000 people have worked on the project megalomaniac for the Emperor of Qin 2200 years ago. The Emperor who had commissioned the army was buried there after his death. Much of the terracotta figures were partly destroyed in the rooms once on fire or stabbed. All the figures you see now are restored and there are also many fragments. There is currently little further digging since the figures were painted entirely of origin because once they were uncovered from the ground, they lose their color. Scientists and historists there are looking for a way to avoid the historical and artistical loss. A separate museum was built for cars with 2 bronze horses, showing that indeed wonderful.

The end of the afternoon, we flew to Beijing, back to our cozy little hotel courtyard where we could walk on the Night Market. Very different, in Xian, here you could buy with skewers: little live scorpion, sea horses, starfish, cockroaches etc. Did no one of those things we eat and had no need to try; shoot was enough.

Beijing Summer Palace and the Great Wall (June 12, 2009)

Today we woke up and found thunderstorms and pouring rain outside, the first rainy day of the whole trip. At about 8 o'clock, we were picked up by Joe Qiao, a guide I had discovered through a site, who is really a safe rider and cozy talker. He took us first to the Summer Palace, the royal palace of China's last dynasty who apparently stayed happy. Beautiful gardens and a 800-meter-long covered walkway for the empress who now came in handy with the wet weather. We had almost 2 hours needed to see your stuff, very worthwhile. Quickly go to the Mutianyu Section of the Chinese Great Wall. Eight hours driving in a mountainous area. Unfortunately it is still raining, we went with a cable car up because it was too muddy and slippery to walk to the mountain top. The Wall is literally built on a ridge and partly along steep cliffs. In came the hazy, you could see this not so far but it also gave back a mystical atmosphere to the towers. The clouds blew right through the watchtowers around. We have walked almost ninety minutes and were soaked at the end, despite our Chinese rain coats which is a little short for us. In a village near the Great Wall, we have our last Chinese lunch eaten of this tour in China. Joe dropped us at the airport and took cordial farewell. After more than 3 weeks was it there we went back home (another 3 flights to go and 9 behind the molars). What a country, many new contrasts old, rich poor, overcrowded cities (41 with more than one million inhabitants), idle countryside of everything we have seen and it was only a little bit. Too bad we do about 2 days to get there from Brazil else would we see once again planning a trip. This is the last story in our blog.