The Haerbin Ice Festival

We added Harbin to our itinerary because we've heard so much about it and we were there for the ice festival, which they hold every January for a month. Harbin is further north from Beijing and is not too far Mongolia. Obviously with it being an ice festival, this meant that it was going to be freezing (-20 degrees to be precise). With all the trains being fully booked, we had to get an overnight 17 hour sleeper bus from Beijing to Harbin. It was our first experience on one of these, with there being no seats and three rows of small double bunks. They were small to us but the chinese seem to fit in them perfectly. We were already cramped up as it is, but they decided to fill the aisles with people, who slept on the floor (health and safety ey??)

We went to the festival late at night as it would all be lit up and were wrapped up with layers. We got in for half price because of our fake student cards (mine is my driving license) and worked our way around. Basically this festival had huge ice sculptures of famous buildings or achitecture from around the world and it was all lit up. My personal favourite was the empire state building, which was bang in the center of all of them. We went on a few slides and climbed up most of the sculptures wherever possible. We were there for about 2 hours and we've done well not slipping but then I fall flat on my arse posing for my last pic.

The next day we walked across the huge frozen river, where loads of different events were going on. There were slides, ice skating, sledging and you could get huskey dogs pull you across the river. It was crazy because standing on a frozen river can be a bit scary to start with, plus the fact I'm trying not to slip as well. Danny ice skated for a little bit but the blades were a bit rusty and he refused to carry on. We went for something to eat before we had to endure a 24-hr train to Tai'an and it turned out to be very hard work. No-one spoke English here and they didn't have any english menu's so we used our limited chinese and hoped for the best.

Haerbin Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2780790011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Beijing - City in a City and a Very Old Wall

We were both excited to reach China's capital city and im happy to say that it was worthy of the high expectations. We stayed at Leo Hostel, which is very close to Tiannamen Square, the location of the Forbidden City. First things first was to try and get our Chinese visa's extended, even though we had plenty of time remaining on them, it would have just made life easier up until Hong Kong. But for some reason the Public Security Bureau in Beijing (a type of police station) will only extend your visa for a ridiculous fee, plus you must open a Chinese bank account and have at least US$2000 in the account?!? Retarded, we give em the bird. It ended up working to our advantage as we took longer than expected to reach Hong Kong. Everything, and I say everything happens for a reason. Uncle Daz (1969).

We found a great Muslim food joint just around the corner from the hostel. Here they served the speciality of Dapan Gee, or Dapan Jizzle as it is more recently known. A large serving of chicken, potatoes, peppers and thick noodles in a spicy sauce, accompanied by a few lamb kebab skewers, mutton samsa's (little pies), Chinese Muslim style naan bread, rice and of course green tea. We must have ate this same meal 5 out of the 6 days we spent in Beijing, it was great. The other remaining night I convinced everyone to go eat some traditionally famous Peking Duck. It wasn't bad but I was expecting better.

We had much to do with our short time in Beijing but I think we saw everything we needed too. We visited the Lama Temple, which is supposed to China's greatest temple housing a 25m Buddha statue (Yep, another grand Buddha). We took a stroll through the Forbidden City, which was the Chinese imperial palace during the Ming – Qing Dynasty, built in 1406-1420, it has been amazingly preserved. This is where the emperor would live back in the day. This another UNESCO world heritage sight. Im sure if you are interested in Chinese history you would appreciate this place more than we did, even so, it was definitely worth the visit.

The metro system used in Beijing (and also Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong) is so efficient. Trains are more frequent than the Tube, they are in far better condition, with hardly any graffiti or litter anywhere, plus it was incredibly cheap, around 20p for a ticket anywhere in the city!

Ok, the one we had been waiting for, it was the day to go trek The Great Wall of China. We teamed up with a dude called Elliot for the trek, a skater boy from Croyden, who was a hybrid version of Jeff Goldblum and the Simpsons' Mr. Burns, he was now known as Jeff Burns. We made our own way to a more desolate section of the wall in the area of Jinshanling. From here we would hike the wall 10km to the Simatai area. It was really cold and windy the day of the trek and there was even settled snow around the wall, but this did not ruin the magnificence of the incredible structure one bit. The reason we chose this section of the wall is because there were parts that had not been renovated since its construction in mid 6^th Century, the stairs and towers were in ruins, which made the walk pretty intense at parts. The wall in total spans for an incredible 8850-odd km and is the only man made structure that is supposedly visible from space? The reason for the wall was to protect China from its northern border enemies, and a did a fair job at defending incoming attacks notably from Mongolia. The walk was great, I think because of the unsteady weather conditions we had the entire wall to ourselves. Not one beggar or woman selling bric-a-brac or army of tourists snapping away for miles, we were blessed. I think because of this, it will remain one of the highlights of the trip for sure, you have to see this one for yourselves.

We took a evening metro ride over to see the 2008 Olympic stadium, known as the Birds Nest. The athletics stadium and the aquatics stadium are directly across the road from one another and are lit up at night, in a deep orange and bubbles blue respectively. There is also the telecommunications tower at the west end of the road with the multicolored Olympic rings logo at the top in the distance. It must have been an amazing sight during the incredible open ceremony back in 2008.

We met so many people during our time at Leo hostel, who were all a good laugh to be around, except for one couple, a German woman who was pretty cool and her Australian boyfriend who everyone basically despised. He was a big guy (think rhinoceros) who was loud, obnoxious and wouldn't shut the f**k up! They had followed us to Beijing from Pingyao and were now asking questions about our next destination and whether they could join us. Despite the upcoming events Im about to share, we would have done everything in our power to avoid this from happening. Once again lady luck was on our side. The day the couple arrived they spent it drinking. An all day sesh to say the least. We had returned from the great wall to find them in a pretty smashed state (and just that little bit more annoying). We had been told the Rhino had already pissed a few people off by changing the music in the bar and being a control freak with the community card game. The night goes on, we play cards, Rhino suspects German girlfriend of getting too friendly with Maj, Rhino confesses his thoughts to another girl sat next to him, German girl hears this, the arguing begins, Maj is a home-wrecker. At this point everyone fled the bar area and went to bed.

The next moring........

I go for my morning shower and when I come out who should be there but Rhino, covered in blood! His own I might add, Yes! He tells me that his girlfriend had attacked him last night with a beer bottle and smashed him across the head a few times with it. I tried to control my laughter. He said he was going back to Oz and was leaving her. She had no money and was going to have to go back to Germany. And they were supposed to be working together for the next few months in Papau New Guinea, not anymore I guess. Call me a horrible person but I had one thought on my mind........At least they ain't coming to Haerbin!

Beijing was definitely the first place that I felt really reluctant to leave, especially as it was our last stop for Hassan our Turkish sidekick. We said our goodbyes and he looked really upset to see us depart, we also felt bad leaving him behind, but, the show must go on.

Beijing Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2760134011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Pingyao Underground

With the trains getting very busy because of the upcoming Chinese new year, the journey up to Pingyao was hard work. We had to sit on a night train on hard seats in a cabin full of smoke. None of us slept (Oh yeh Hassan 'the turkish delight' had been forced to come and travel with us) so when we got to our hostel-Harmony Guest House, we slept until 4 pm. With limited daylight-we decided that this day was dedicated to us chilling out, which involved us watching DVD's (Bruno and slumdog millionaire).




Pingyao is a very old village, enclosed within city walls. Everything is very traditional there with old buildings, cobbled roads and architecture that hasn't been touched. All is took was one walk around and that was pretty much everything seen. Luckily, there was an underground castle nearby so we decided to visit that. We got up late again the next day but we had enough time to go and see the castle. We booked a car through Jackie-the owner of the guest house and made the trip out.



It was recommended to take a guide to the underground castle because there were tunnels leading everywhere, so it was so easy to get lost. However there were only a handful of tunnels that we could visit because if they tried to preserve the other tunnels, they may collapse and obviosuly no more tunnels. The tunnel system was for protection against enemies and there were three floors underground in which they used to play their game Hide and Seek. There were seperate rooms for soldiers, royal family and prisoners, however when there was no war, these rooms would be used for food storage.

Pingyao Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2760241011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Xi'an - A Big Goose, A Terracotta Warrior and A Turkish Delight

After looking back at our time in Xi’an, we can say that it had one of the best hostels throughout our time in China. The bar area was great, the rooms were clean and spacious and we got to meet the legend that is Hassan. This Turk was a great guy to be around, he was sooo funny. He owns his own hostel ‘back in Turkaaay’ (as he would put it) and is known as Mr. Happy. We soon realized why. He had the most insane laugh ever! Honestly we thought he was having a seizure on a couple of occasions. He was nearing the end of his trip and was spending his final days just relaxing in Xi’an. Me and Maj soon convinced (or threatened) him to accompany us onward to Beijing.

The Terracotta Warriors from my previous knowledge of the Asian countries was one of my highlights of the trip. They did not disappoint. Although excavations are still in progress, I can see how it is one of the worlds greatest archaeological finds. Discovered in 1974 by peasant farmers drilling for a well, they found a complete army of soldiers and horses. Made of Terracotta to prevent erosion, these guys date back over two thousand years, guarding the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, a very controversial character in Chinese history (with protection like that, I should believe so). An amazing fact here, is that no two soldiers faces are alike! They really were an eye opener, and just get you thinking how many other sights like this are hidden around the world.

Xi’an itself is a real beautiful city despite the Chinese smog that seems to have followed us most places so far. It has a well kempt perimeter wall which surrounds the city limits, and is lit up in the evenings which was cool. Xi'an used to be the main city on the Chinese side of the Silk Road, which was used as main transportaion of goods between Asia and Europe. We picked up on many of the disgusting habits that most Chinese people have in Xi'an. They snort, spit and smoke everywhere, the little kiddies have rips in their bottoms for quick pooing access and their just damn rude when it comes to queing or doorways etc. The pointing and laughing can get frustrating at times too, but I guess we are alien lifeforms to them. I thought Indians smoked plenty, they have nothing on China's cigarette habit.

We took a day trip to see the Big Goose pagoda on one of our days in Xi’an, I think it might be the biggest in China, but not sure. The park surrounding it was nice to walk through and we watched some old women dressed up in traditional outfits with giant fake heads singing and dancing nearby. That evening Turkish took us to the Chinese muslim quarter for some food, where we bought some kebabs and Maj got to meet his first Chinese Muslim.

Xian Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2760222011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Luoyang- The Caves and The Temple

We arrived really early in the morning to Luoyang after experiencing the best overnight sleeper train ever. We had to get a train to Zhengzhou (Y178-10 hours) and then a short train journey to Luoyang (Y20-2 hours). We slept on the first train with the set up of bunks pretty similar to the ones in India but there were very big differences in everything else. The cabins were all heated, clean and very quiet. They provided us with a duvet and a pillow and the lights went off at 10pm. That is luxury when you've travelled India. After the Chinese kids practicing their English with Danny, we slept like babies until the cabin attendant woke us up ¨Oh ye that's another thing they do-wake you up just before you need to get up.

We stayed at Mingyang Hotel (Y100 per night) for 2 nights and all of a sudden it got real cold in Luoyang so we always wrapped up in layers. With us having a few heavy days, we decided to sleep until the afternoon, just enough time to see the Longman Caves. We got a local bus to the caves, which took about 30 mins and paid our heavy entrance fee (Y120 each). We always try to get in for students with Danny's old student card and my driving license but it never works because we're not Chinese students-DAMN!! The Longman caves is a world heritage sight and with us already visited the Ajanta Caves in India, it had a lot to live up to. There were so many little caves with Buddha statues inside, many of them with heads missing. Someone destroyed them years ago and apparently some of them are in museums across the world. For me it was not as impressive as the Ajanta caves, partly because this had such a touristy feel to it, with well paved steps and paths but the Ajanta caves had much more of a natural feel to it. The Longman caves however were very well preserved. There was a route around, which took us to a temple and a tomb of some famous guy.

The next morning was dedicated to see the Shaolin Temple, where the art of Shaolin boxing was invented. We got another local bus (Y20 each-2 hours) to the temple and paid another hefty entrance fee (Y100). The original temple was burnt down in 1928 by some crazy emperor so they have done there best by re-creating it from past photographs. The majority of temples were rebuilt in 1985 with some only being built a few years ago so it all did look kind of new. The temple for me was nothing special compared to the other temples we have seen but at least we can say we have seen it. The rest of the afternoon was spent looking at the Pagodas in the forrest and a Kung Fu demonstration. The demonstration itself made it worth while with each person representing a different skill in the art. Some used weapons, some represented animal styled kungfu and some demonstrated there inner strength by breaking things. We were allowed to take a pic with the Kung Fu warriors after so we could feel part of the crew for a short while.

Luoyang Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2760069011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Yangtze River Cruise (Chongqing - Yichang)

After a huge piss about with the usual ‘I know where that is’ taxi driver, we finally found our hostel in Chongching (which actually ended up being the wrong one, but whatever, we got some sleep). This is the main port for cruises along the Yangtze River. Also known in China as Chang Jiang, the Yangtze is the worlds 3^rd longest river, starting from the mountains in Tibet and ending in the East China sea near Shanghai. It is the main transportation for 70% of the entire countries shipping. We met two fellow Brits that evening who were also interested in doing a cruise, Kate and Ben. We eventually teamed up and went to buy tickets for the cruise together, beats sharing a cabin with some non-inglese speaking chineses. Before setting sail we went to do a bit of shopping to stock up for the voyage. It was the best trip to a supermarket ever. The selection of goods on show was crazy! From live fish, to every kind of animal meat imaginable and every part of them too. Chicken feet and eyeballs are a delicacy. Waste not, want not.

A three day cruise in the cheapest class, with a spin off tour to see the little three gorges, cost us Y730 each, Which was pretty good. We also met a grumpy German girl with a nice booty who also joined the booze cruise.

We were so glad that we had company during the cruise, otherwise it would have been shit! The main reason for joining the cruise is to see the spectacular 3 gorges (also known as Georges, to Germans, haha.) It really does remind you of the lord of the rings movie when they are sailing down the river surrounded on both sides by mountains. We had a real clear day, again, and the views were perfect. We had been told that it had been misty in the area lately, so luck was on our side. In the evenings we played cards in the cabin and watch Kate demolish two bottles of Baijot, which is Chinese rice wine, its 56%, tastes like hell, and that’s all you need to know.

The little 3 gorges were very similar, and not much smaller than their older brothers. The final stop of the cruise led us to the 3 gorges dam. It’s a incredible piece of construction, that has been China’s top engineering project since the Great Wall. I wont lie, I have straight plagiarized this part from the lonely planet, but it’s an interesting fact. The dam holds the record for the worlds largest, measuring 185m high and 2km wide. It cost US$75 billion to be made. It has backed up the Yangtze by 550km, causing floods the size of Singapore in total, and if, God forbid, the levee was to break, the entire city of nearby Yichang would be dead within the hour. Some piece of construction.

We arrived in Yichang late afternoon, and wasted no time finding the train station and skiddadling onto the next destination, Luoyang.

Yangtze River Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2760026011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Leshan and Mt Emei Shan

We travelled from Chengdu to Leshan on a bus (Y50) but it ended up being a mini bus (ah the changes already). Leshan is famous for its Big Buddha Park. This is where the biggest Buddha in the world sits at 77m high facing the river that runs through the city. It cost us Y150 for entrance (approx 15 pound), which proper surprised us but this was the wake up call that China was going to be an expensive country to travel.

The big Buddha Park is huge, with various temples and secluded areas dotted around. It took us about 3 hours to see the whole area, which also included us crossing the river to see a huge temple. The highlight for me was having a number 2 on a disabled toilet. When I finished doing my business, there were controls on the side, which activated an arm from underneath to spray the necessary section clean and if it wasn't in the right area, I could adjust it so it did. Whilst all this was happening, my seat was being warmed. I'm telling you-the disabled people are living it up here.

After visiting the Big Buddha park, we got another minibus to Emei, which is the town at the foot of the Buddhist mountain of Mt Emei. We stayed at Teddy Bear Youth Hostel (Y80), which helped us prepare for our journey up to the mountain. The next morning, we had breakfast and headed out to climb Mt Emei. The hostel gave me walking sticks and crampons because it was snowing up there. After my tough experience to the ABC, I needed any help I could get.

We got a bus to Wannian temple (Y20) and the entrance fee was Y90 for us to walk all the way up the top. The walk took us 8 hours in total (recommended 10 hours) and for most of the walk, we could not see a thing with how foggy and cold it was. We were climbing up steps with snow and ice after about 2 hours, where at one point I slipped and nearly lost my sticks off the edge. There were various temple checkpoints on the way but with the weather being so bad, we could not see a thing. When we got to Jinnu (the tourist area where you can get a bus to), we were only 1 1/2 hours away up the steepest staircase but the difference was that we were above the clouds and could see again. When we got to the golden summit (the top), there was a huge golden Buddha statue, with a golden, silver and bronze temples respectively (ooooo). We waited for sunset and found a place to stay. As you can imagine, it was very cold up there so they provided us with electric blankets (a must) and we endured a night.

We got up to see the sunrise, which was just unbelievable. The sun rose through the clouds slowly as we watched it from above the clouds and saw the other peak on the other side. The pics will do it some justice but you had to be there to really experience it. We walked down to Jinnu, which was even icier and got a bus down to the bottom (Y30-2 hours). With us being slightly ahead of time, we opted to travel to Chongqing, which meant we had to get a bus to Chengdu (Y40) and then a speedy train to Chongqing (Y98- 2 hours). There was such a big difference in the train quality compared to India but the language barrier makes it hard to travel in China, but we're getting there......... bit by bit.

Leshan & Emei Shan Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2760064011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Namaste China, Zaijian Nepal, Nihao Kung Fu Panda's in Chengdu

The day finally arrived to move onto our 3rd country of the trip, China. Because of the crooked-ass political situation between the Chinese government and the province of Tibet, we were unable to follow our original plan of passing overland from Nepal-Tibet-China. We would have gone over the Qinghai-Tibet Railway system (highest train line in the world), but we had to move to contingency plan 1, fly from Kathmandu to Chengdu.

During the flight we passed above the 8000m peaks of the Himalaya's, including Sagarmartha, or Mt. Everest as its better known. But because of the photo addictive chinks we didn't get a window spot, and didn't see the damn thing. (Guess we'll just have to incoorporate it into our next adventure). We actually had a stopover in Lhasa, Tibets capital (didn't see anything special) where we had to be screened for swine flu/influenza. We basically walked through the screening, through customs and all the security checks, walked around the airport and reboarded the exact same aeroplane, so pointless.

When we arrived in Chengdu as the only foreigners, yet again, we were approached by a few women taxi drivers, speaking complete gibberish to us. We ignored them for the time being to change what we had left of Nepali Rupees, only to find they could not be changed here (or anywhere else in China for that matter). So we were left with 20 pounds (currency, not weight, for any american reading) worth of Yuan (thats about Y-200 ). We had to be very carefull with the papes.

We stayed at Sims Cozy Guesthouse for our first few nights in China, as recommended by Lonely Planet China! (Yep, were back in buisness). Chengdu is famous for its Panda breeding research facility so of course we had to pay it a visit. It was exciting to see our first Giant Panda up close, but after a while (5 mins later) it got a little dull. They just lounge around in a pile of bamboo, munching foxes bisquits and trying to look sick, they got it made. The smaller redder panda were more entertaining, they move more. Then we saw an educational flick about the life cycle of a panda, they are taught to learn kung fu as soon as the black patches develop, and you could pay Y1000 to fight one.

That evening we took a walk to the central area in Chengdu, and let me tell you, Chengdu is a big city. They have an awesome musical fountain within the main square plus a huge golden statue of Mao Zedong (more about him later).

Finding our way around, ordering food, or asking the simplest of questions turned out to be such a hard task. Because of China's crazy independance it is rare to come across an English speaking Chinese person, especially out of the touristy areas. (With the exception of the hostels). We figured it was going to be a frustrating couple of months, requiring much patience (after India, no problem).

We visited the Wenshu temple (our firts of many) and also went to search out the home ground of the Chengdu Blades, Sheff Uniteds sister team in China. We found it, but were told they hadnt played in the previous season (Just as whack as the British counterpart).

Our final bit of excitement in Chengdu involved a meal at a restaurant called Yuan Yuan (Money-money maybe?) As me and Maj walked in, a gay little waiter instantly turned around and ran away, laughing his little yellow arse off! Racist bastard! This only increased our determination to stay and eat there. Again, no-one spoke English but we were lightly aided by a couple sat behing us. What we didnt realise was that we were eating at a 'hotpot' restaurant. You have to go collect your 'meat n veg' that are all on skewers, and cook them yourself in a spicy hotpot/broth that is bubbling away in the middle of your own table. Combined, me and Maj are probably the worst cooking team EVER! (Though I do whip up a good tuna sarnie and he can a cracking beans on toast). I enjoyed the food there for the most part, but Maj wasn't too keen (missing his curry already).

Afterwards we sneaked over to Dico's (Deezo's in Chinese) and he had a chicken burger, real Chinese cuisine......

Chengdu Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2341575011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/