Xiang Gang! - Day 1

After a few recent gig to Chongqing and various semester-starting meetings at SCCM, I finally have time to embark on the final chapter of my Chinese New Year trip. Guandong province's Hong Kong was our last stop before heading back to Sichuan this last february. We arrived in the morning and stayed for four nights, so the next four blogs should be a good guide if you want to get the most out of a five-day trip to Hong Kong.

Day 1
Because we entered Hong Kong from the mainland, there was an immigration process before we came into the city. Even though Hong Kong is officially part of China, there still is a different government, currency and language than the mainland. Therefore, before we took the train from Shenzhen to Kowloon we had to go through security checks, fill out immigration cards and wait in long lines before entering seemingly, another Chinese city. We got through customs and were in Hong Kong! Well, it was technically Kowloon, but you could consider Kowloon the peninsula half of Hong Kong. We bought MTR (Hong Kong's subway/metro) tickets at an computerized kiosk, waited about ten minutes for the next train, and we were off to find the Panda Hotel in the Tseun Wan district.

Hong Kong's hotels are much more expensive than mainland China. My advice is to do your homework and shop on the internet first. I was able to book the Panda，a four star hotel for only 400 hong kong dollars per night. We checked into our posh Norther Kowloon hotel, and we were off in the hotel shuttle to Tsim Sha Tsui then MTR to Hong Kong island. On the island we strolled around Central, checking out some cheap clothing shops, then ate at one at one of Hong Kong's famous diner-style restaurants.

The Peak was our first tourist trap of our Hong Kong experience. Hong Kong's Peak is located at the top of a small mountain where they have built a wok-shaped tower so you can get a view of the famous Hong Kong skyline. That area was also home to many junk shops, restaurants and a Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum. I thought it would be interesting to go to a wax museum featuring Chinese celebrities, so we planned ahead and bought discount tickets in the taobao.com (Chinese e-bay). I was impressed with the wax museum because it not only contained every Chinese celebrity in the last century (including a life-sized Yao Ming) but also had respresentations of most Western celebrities. We purused the shops and ate a small meal at Burger King (I hadn't seen one of those in a LONG time！）after that, is was about dusk, so we headed up five of six escalators to the top of the tower to check out the city lights. As you can see from the first picture in this blog, the view was pretty breath-taking. If walked around to the back of the Wok, you could also see huge houses on the hill, probably owned by Hong Kong movie stars we guessed.

The first day was a success. We checked into our hotel, learned the MTR system, saw most of Hong Kong island, including the Peak and wax museum. Coming up next...Lantau Island, home of the Big Buddha!

Shenzhen

Continuing my Chinese New Year trip, port-city Shenzhen was my next stop. It really was just a 'stop' because we flew there from Kunming enroute to Hong Kong. After shopping around for air tickets, we found it much cheaper to fly into Shenzhen, then take the train into Hong Kong. Not only did we save money, but got a chance to see another Chinese city.

Shenzhen the capitol of the Guandong province in Southern China. It's a moderate sized Chinese city (about 8.6 million people) and the second busiest ports behind Shanghai. As we drove into the city to find our hotel, I was first impressed by the towering skyscapers. Compared to where I live in Chengdu, the architects focused more on beauty rather than efficiency in their buildings.

Because I was in Shenzhen for only one night, I didn't have much time to see much of the city or surroundings, but I did get to eat the seafood. We took a taxi to the 乐园路 （le yuan road) and found a street lined with seafood restaurants. Each restaurant had an area outside the entrance with tanks filled with seafood of your wildest imagination. Pictured are just a couple items available. We also saw various sizes of shrimp, crabs, fish, some things I've never seen before and one place had live snakes. We couldn't eat everything, so we chose some shrimp, oysters and weird tube-worms things. Pretty tasty!

Stay tuned because next stop...Hong Kong!

Luoping & Nine Dragon Waterfall (罗平和九龙瀑布

Nearing the end of my time in the Yunnan province，we took a three hour train ride from Kunming to the farming town of Luoping. I was excited for this place because it contained the reason I wanted to go to Yunnan in the first place. Last year National Geographic magazine came out with a special issue featuring China. There was a picture inside with vast grasslands with sharp mountains poking out randomly. I had never seen anything like this in America and immediately wanted to visit the place in the caption.



The city of Luoping itself was not so accomidating. It was definitely a farming town, as we saw abandoned shops converted to grain and feed storage. Finding a decent hotel was the next almost impossible task. After holding our breath in the first few places we found a newly remodeled hotel for the bargain price of 80元/night. The next morning, after a breakfast of ersi we boarded a bus going to the rumoured natural spot. One vehicle change, endless potholed roads and a couple hours later, we were dropped off at what seemed like the exact spot where they took the photos for National Geographic. Unfortunately, this time of year the fog hangs in the valley until the afternoon, so my pictures didn't turn out so great. Still, the fields with limestone peaks jutting out were something you can only find here. We paid a couple 9 year old guids one rmb each to lead us to one of the peaks to get a better look. It was even more cloudy at the top of the small mountain, but the view of the patchwork farmlands was still very beautiful.



Our next stop on the Luoping tour was the Nine-Dragon Waterfall. By this time (around 12pm) the sun was out and starting to warm up. The area was a national park and it seemed this time of year most people had gone back to work as it was barren of tourists. The Nine-Dragon Waterfall got it's name from the nine different falls. However, as explained to us by the bamboo raft operator, there are actually ten now (due to natural causes). I found this place interesting because after the Nine Dragons, you can keep following a path to numerous falls behind it. If you get hungry along the way, you can find vendor selling local foods along the paths. I tried the pickled radish and local noodles; not bad. Luoping and the Nine-Dragon Waterfall are definitely a must see if travelling to the Yunnan province.

Stay tuned as we're off to Shenzhen and Hong Kong for the last leg of my journies.

Kunming - Part 5 - Cultural Diversity

As mentioned in my previous blog entry, the Yunnan province is a very culturally diverse place. Because it borders three countries (Burma, Laos and Vietnam) it's not surprising that Yunnan is home to numerous ethnic minorities. According to Yunnan Nationalities Museum, China is home to more than fifty minorities and Yunnan has a little bit of everybody! Just for perspective, most (over 1 billion) of the Chinese you see are descendants of the Han people. The other minorities include the Zhuang, Hui, Can, Naxi, Dai and the list goes on (for the other fifty or so ethnicities). Kunming celebrates all of the minorities in the Nationalties Museum and Minority Park across the street.

The Museum, which sounds boring, really was quite interesting. You get a chance to explore the costumes, art, architecture, history, lifestyle and most importantly, musical instruments of China's people. What I liked most about the Museum (besides the instrument exhibit) was the fact that at 10am, we were the only people in the museum! After paying the student rate of 10元 for admission, we were free to roam the grounds, uninterrupted and free from the shrieks of the unsupervised children.

The affiliated Minority Park was a little more spendy than the museum (70元/person) but don't forget your student ID to get 50% off. This place was more of a tourist destination as there were junk shops everywhere and people following you, asking you to dress up like one of the races and take overpriced photos. However, it was still an enjoyable place. 26 of the Chinese minorities were represented with actual reproductions of ancient villages and buildings. If you're lucky, you can catch a performance in the local style. When we stopped for some cross-bridge noodles (过桥米先) we were treated to a Naxi-style song and dance. After that, we wandered around the park to each of the villages. The only problem we faced was that because we waited until about 1pm to enter the park, we didn't have enough time to visit all 26 villages. By the time we made it to the Tibetan village, they were closing down. Fortunately, we caught the zip-line ride before they went home. That was the best 15元 I spent all day.

Kunming - Part 4 - 翠湖 Green Lake

Today, there aren't many places you can enjoy art in the raw. When I went to Kunming's Green Lake (翠湖), I found it thriving with music and dance. As you enter you are met by billboards and line of junk shops. Don't dismiss this place on first impressions; just across the bridge and a short walk to the right you can find public traditional dance classes, music of every Chinese ethnicity performed on local instruents, local tasty snack foods and crowds of Kunming's diverse people.


After a brief lesson in Naxi dancing we passed a little comedic performance with live singing and erhu playing. Under a pavillion was a group of musicians accompanying a couple dancers and a vocalist. Understand that most of these performers are part of the older community in Kunming. The music and dance they perform is mainly passed down by rote; from family to family...and it's amazing! Throughout the park, there was at least twenty small ensembles. In these little bands, you can find all types of instruments from those made in Yunnan, to Western instruements to those found as far North as Xinjiang. And the best part about this park is that it's all free!


Towards the center of the park we found a vendor selling sheet music. This music was all written in numbers and Chinese rhythm notation. This seemed like the place to go if you were interested in studying Chinese folk music. The music was all photocopied in small plastic binders and only cost 2-10元 depending on how many pieces were in the collection. After moving on to the next performance I notivced a group of people set up behind the venue with music stands but no instruements. We asked what they were doing and they responded: “just following along!" Sounds like something I could do after I retire.

Kunming - Part 3 - Stone Forest

The Yunnan province is a geologically special place in the world. Besides having amazing places like the Tiger Leaping Gorge, you can also find a unique limestone formation known as Karst. About two hours drive from Kunming is home to a significant outcropping of Karst. Here, known as the Stone Forest, you can find all four different formations of limestone Karst including: sword,



Like most national parks in China (this one protected by UNESCO) you can find English-speaking guides. Our's name was George and for the few hours we poked around the park, I was lucky enough to hear all about the geological, historical and mythical aspects of the Stone Forest. I found it interesting the local village was in the process of being relocated. George said this was due to the tourist's complaints of the 'terrible smells'. He also explained that over 15,000 km of Yunnan's topography contains Karst formations and was considered in ancient times to be one the natural wonders of the world. Today, although beautiful, the park has become an over-crowded tourist destination. So, if you don't mind wading through people and waiting in lines to take pictures in front of the famous formations, you'll have a great time! George explained that the park's popularity is one of the reasons that Yunnan keeps the air so clean. The revenue created by the millions of visitors each year is one of the reasons this province keeps factories away.











As we wandered through the winding maze of limestone we admired the names given to the famous formations. There was the Sword, Kissing-Birds, Elephant, Tom and Jerry, and Pair of Shoes formations. Surpisingly, they represented the names pretty well (except the sword rock which was broken in the last earthquake. There were certain places where the stone surface was perculiarily shiny. George explained that these were places that were rumored to give certain luck when touched. For example, if you able to jump and touch a certain rock, you would grow taller. Another place, if your neck was able to fit through, you would become rich. I hope that one come true.

At one of the resting points, we were able to watch part of a show put on by locals. Check out the video as they perform a song and dance in the traditional style.

Kunming - Part 2 - Light Festival

Today's addition to my Kunming adventure comes the night of the Chinese New Year (Jan. 26th) and takes place in Kunming's park/carnival. On new year's day, we spent most of the day visiting relatives and non-stop eating. That evening we went to Kunming's famous lantern-style light festival. For only 30元/person it was pretty nice. They constructed a collection of scenes and characters depicting famous Chinese historical icons...in lantern style. There was everything from old style lanterns to Dragons and even Ultra Man made. Now, these weren't the traditional lanterns with a candle or oil burning wicks inside, they were definitely lit with modern light bulbs. Due to China's energy problems, it was advertised that this year, all of the light bulbs were changed to halogen to help with the environment. The show was quite long, it lead all they way until the ride section of the park(maybe a 3km or so). When Even though by that time is was around 10pm, the midway and rides were open. It was quite busy that night as people probably had the same idea as us to take a break from the family. We played a couple money-stealing games and rode one ride before calling it a night and walking back through the lanterns enjoying them one more time.


Check out my flickr site for more pics!

Kunming - Part 1 - Chinese New Year

We arrived in Kunming, Yunnan on Jan. 23rd, so we had just a couple days to prepare for the Chinese New Year. And "what?" might you ask, does the typical Kunmingite to prepare for the holiday? Clean. Clean. Clean. It's said that if anything (house, clothes, you) is dirty during the arrival of the new year, then it will be dirty the whole next year. That sounded crazy to me, but who am I to argue with thousands years of tradition. So, clean everything we did: all of our clothing, every inch of her parents apartment including the food containers, etc. And then we ate. The eating never really stopped. Every meal was prepared to the excess with all of her family's favorite dishes. We ate pork, chicken, beef, fish, lamb, every kind of vegatable possible, local cheese, rice, noodles and it was all delicious. On the day of the new year, we visited most of Karen's relative's houses, eating more and more at each place. At her uncle's house we got a chance to witness an artist at work. In the below video, you can watch as 10 year old cousin wishes us happy and lucky new year in Chinese calligraphy. At about that point, the fireworks began and lasted until about a week later when the festivities died down.

If you ask a Chinese person how they celebrate the new year, the most common response is: 'be with my family'. This was definitely true as I got the chance to be a member of the Yi and Liu families this new year.

大理 Dali

The next stop in my Tour de Yunnan was the ancient city of 大理 (Dali). After the 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Lijiang, we arrived where people were waiting to escort you to their hotel. We were a little wary, but after being quoted just 30元 per night, how could we say no? The hotel was, like most Dali buildings, in the style of the Bai people. As I have been learning, Yunnan is famous for housing over 26 different Chinese minorities. The Bai style of architecture is similar to the Naxi, with the open courtyard in the center of the building, but the outside is generally painted white with ornate paintings in different quadrants. The first night, we relaxed by strolling through the ancient town, eating the local cheese, drinking fresh juice and admiring the ethnic diversity. I found Dali very pretty as it is surrounded by the misty 苍山 (Cangshan) mountains and 洱海 (Erhai lake). Dali was very welcome to foreigners, (as they most likely provide a large percentage of the economy) they even made a street named 洋人街 （foreigner street). Consequently, I had to take a picture under the gateway. Upon a quick walk down the street, I was surprised to see very few foreigners and actually more Chinese tourists. I guess they were happy to see me, an ACTUAL foreigner!

The next day in Dali, we had prepared a driver to take us around to the quality destinations. We began the day with a delicious meal of a local noodle dish called 饵丝 (ersi). The driver also acted as our tour guide; as he drove he pointed out different spots explaining the historical relevance. Our first stop after bypassing some tourist traps was a chair lift to some caves in the Cangshan Mountains. The caves were somewhat interesting as Chinese always enjoy naming rock formations after things in their culture. Although, the rainbow colored lighting inside was a little cheesey. After climbing endless stairs, we reached the top of the mountain and exited the cave to a really nice view of the Erhai lake. We enjoyed some local tea, a temple and adjoining gardens after we came down the mountain.

Dali is also famous for their tie-dyed fabrics. Our guide knew a place where they produce these textiles, so we decided to take a look. The place ended up being kind of a sham. It was just this run-down place where they took us upstairs and tried to sell us completely over-priced garmets. I knew they were too expensive because I saw the exact same ones in downtown Dali the night before. Can't win 'em all I guess. We took a rest at Erhai lake ate some local bread then headed to the famous Tang Dynasty Three Pagodas. Because the tickets to get in the pagodas were rather expensive, we opted to take a few pictures outside...for free! Because I needed to do some bank business, we headed cut the tour early and headed back to the hotel.

That night as we were looking for the Ersi restaurant, we heard some nice traditional Chinese music. We weren't sure where it was coming for, so we followed our ears to a building under construction. Check out the video as I documented this pretty cool moment. It turned out that these musicians were Dali natives celebrating the completion of part of the house before the Chinese New Year. The house itself belonged to a teacher at my school! Karen of course knew everyone there and we were both welcomed and invited to dinner on the coincidental encounter. After a night of good food and too much baijiu we retreated to our hotel to rest for the 5 hour bus ride to Kunming the next day.

After spending time in the ancient cities of Lijiang and Dali in the Yunnan province, I definitely liked Lijiang better. Although both places were overrun with tourists and locals, I liked the cleanliness and peacefulness of Lijiang. Next, on to Kunming!

丽江 Lijiang Day Four - 虎跳峡

From the beginning, I wanted to visit 虎跳峡 in the Yunnan Province. Not just because it's famous for being one of the worlds largest river canyon, but it has a pretty cool name: Tiger Leaping Gorge. Day four in Lijiang, I was feeling a lot better; cold pretty much gone and rested from a relaxing day in the city. Let's go on a mountain hike! The TLG (tiger leaping gorge) is a pretty big place where your could easily spend a week exploring. Karen and I only wanted to use a day, so we took a van about a quarter way down the gorge and hiked back to the mouth. That task was definitely easier said than done.

A little background on Tiger Leaping Gorge. The whole gorge is about 15 km long, located between the 5,596m Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山） and 5,396m Haba Xue Mountain (哈巴山). The narrowest point between the two mountains is about 25 meters, and it is said that a tiger was able to leap across this gap (thus the name). Throughout the gorge is abundant farmland, that today in January is still very green and plentiful. According to Wikipedia, the main crops are various grains, but after asking the locals, the main crop is soy beans. In 1993, the area was opened to tourists (mainly for hiking and sight-seeing). Now, there is an endless flow of tour busses, taxis and mostly foreign tourists traveling to the gorge.

After the 5km ride to the start of our hike, the driver pointed us to a gravel winding dangerously up the mountain. For some reason, my idea of the gorge was a leisurely hike along the river at the bottom. I guess that was the OTHER path. Living on the 7th floor of my apartment with no elevator, I felt in shape enough to attempt the climb. The beginning wasn't so beautiful, as we were basically hiking up a gravel driveway with cars passing by every 10 minutes kicking up all kinds of dust. It was interesting to see a goat farm complete with local Naxi farmer. After a few km, we his the first resting point, the Tea-Horse Trade Guest House. According to our crudely drawn map, after this point there would be a little trek to the top of the peak, then 24 switch-backs down the mountain and then we were home free. We ate a snack and drank some local Naxi tea and then we were back on the road. As we began the hike, we started to see more and more hikers coming the opposite direction. We always asked them how long until the top, the answer was usually "oh, about 10 minutes". After about an hour and a half of hiking the treacherously steep rocky path, passing mules packed with little Korean tourists, we reached the top! The was probably my first real moutain climb...and I was pretty exhausted.

Unfortunatly, this was not the end of the trail. We now had to brave the 24 switch-backs, dodge more mules, and battle the blinding 5,000 meter sun. Another two hours and we were on level ground again. This time, traversing actually through farmland. Each farm was set up with a little make-shift store selling, beverages and snacks. This was nice, as we just finished our 2 litre water bottle. We began our hike around 11am, and by the third farm was about 4:30pm. We were warned to hurry as the sun sets around 6pm. According to our map (although already untrustworthy) we only had about an hour hike left to where we began our journey. This time the map was accurate! After cutting through our last piece of farm land, we entered some more civilized land; schools, factories and stores began popping up foreshadowing the end of our day-trek. The last bus to Lijiang passed through the village around 6pm. We arrived at 5:30pm, grabbed some fast noodles and flagged down one of the last busses back to Lijiang.

After about 10kilometers distance, 5,000 meters altitude, and 200rmb poorer, we were very tired and a little sick from the crazy, winding drive home. However, I feel that this experience was not only one of the most beautiful places I had seen in China, but a true glimpse into one of the native cultures. I find it amazing how welcoming these people are as we unwittingly trespass through their 1000+ year old farm. We always tried to give a little back, if it was giving a few yuan for the tea or candy to children we saw along the way. I hope one day I can return to spend more time in this breathtaking place.

丽江Lijiang Days 2,3

Day 2 - Lashi Lake
After checking in at our new hotel (for the bargain rate of 40元/night) we set off to Lashi Lake. This was a cool place because we got to ride horses! A kindly gentleman led Karen and I on a 3-hour adventure which wound it's way through the farmland around the lake. After the horse-riding we hopped in a boat piloted by the same man who led the horses. I was amazed that after climbing a small mountain and trudging through mud and tall grass, this man didn't seem the least bit tired. We caught a car back to Lijiang and I noticed that most of the buildings were decorated with intersting artwork. The driver told us that this art was done by the locals and depicts the Naxi language and charactergrams. Very cool. I was still a bit sick that day, so I came back and crashed early in the hotel that night. My butt was also kind of sore.









Day 3 - Muhu Palace
I was hoping to recover from my cold, so we got started around 11am on day three. Due to my illness we planned a relaxing day enjoying Lijiang and seeing the Ming dynasty palace the town was built around. After a nice long walk trying to ignore the shopkeepers enticing us to buy their goods, we had a nice Naxi-style lunch. Just around the corner was the gate to the Muhu Palace. Besides the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, Muhu was one of the largest I had been to in China. It seemed to go on forever with many different palace buildings, gardens and apartments. We were also lucky to tag along with a Singaporean couple who had paid for a tour guide. It's always nice to get a history once in a while. The tour ended with a tasting of local teas. I found the Pu Er tea very interesting. Supposedly this is one of the more famous teas of the region. Dinner, and a little more shopping rounded out day 3 in Lijiang. Oh, and I got to hold a hawk.