Xi'an, China

After just one day in Chengdu I decided that it was not a place that could hold my attention for the next 6 days so I took a look at the map and decided to head to Xi’an, only a 16 hour train ride or 1 hour flight away.  I had hoped to take the train but Xi’an is a popular tourist destination and tickets for the night I wanted to depart were already booked so I settled for flying which surprisingly was only a little bit more expensive.

Xi’an is known for the Terracotta Warrior’s Museum.

Terracotta warrior 

In 1974 farmers digging a well near Xi’an uncovered pieces of pottery.  What they really uncovered was the underground terracotta army of the first Emperor of China, Emperor Quin Shi Huang (259-210 BC), which had been buried for over 2,000 years!  Emperor Qin had countless numbers of warriors made to guard his tomb and protect him in the afterlife.  To date over 7,000 life size soldiers, 1,000 horses, chariots, and even weapons have been unearthed.

Bits and pieces of warriors before being reconstructed

It took over 70,000 people to create this army and what’s amazing is that each warrior is about 6-feet tall and no two have the same facial features.  It is believe that the warriors were designed after actual people who were then killed since they knew the Emperor’s secret. 

Warriors as they were found - guarding the Emperor's tomb

Lijiang, China

After saying goodbye to my new Canadian friend (who bless her, thought I was 26!) and promising to meet up in Nepal for the Nepali New Year mid-April, I hopped on the bus heading for Lijiang.  The ride was quite scenic but very dusty and bumpy and 4 hours later we thankfully arrived.  After settling into my very hard to find hostel I set out to stretch my legs and explore town. 

Streets of Lijiang

Lijiang was a very scenic village filled with a maze of cobblestone streets.  If you weren’t paying attention you’d find yourself lost but eventually all roads led back to the center of town.  So far this was the most touristy spot I had been in China.  Outside of China I was use to the term tourist referring to “western tourists” but here the town was completely overrun by domestic tourists!  The Chinese are beginning to have more and more disposable income so it’s quite common for them to hop on tour buses to see the sights of their country.

Lijiang at dusk

Dali, China

I thought that with my English/Chinese map in hand, and having had the girl at the hostel write out (in Chinese characters) what bus ticket I wanted to purchase I could find my way to the bus station and get on the right bus to Dali.  Wrong… 

I hailed a taxi and pointed on my map to what I believed said “bus station” in Chinese since it was right below “bus station” written in English.  The taxi driver nodded that she understood and we set off.  A few minutes later she stopped the taxi and motioned for me to get off – signaling that this was my stop.  This was not the bus station and plus the meter was only at 8Y and it should have cost me 25Y.  I pulled out other maps that I had and looked in my Lonely Planet to see if the bus station it was spelled out in Chinese characters.  I find something and she nods that she understands. 

Surprisingly we arrived to the bus station and I walked up to the ticket window with my pre-written note describing exactly what I wanted (express bus to Dali) and just like that the woman gave me the right ticket with the best seat. 

Lesson Learned:  life is so much easier if you can anticipate exactly what you’ll need to ask or say and have the hostel write it for you in Chinese characters on a piece of paper.  Seriously, this makes life so much less complicated.

My $4 hostel in Dali

Since it was a warm night and Dali was such a cute village I stopped off at this little café for dinner with cozy outdoor seating right on the street.  Almost immediately I was approached by an older “traditionally dressed” woman asking if I wanted to buy some silver bracelets.  She then leaned over and in a quieter voice asked “you smoke the ganja”?  She was trying to sell me dope right there on the street!  Before the end of the night I had at least 4 other women approach me asking if I wanted ganja.   Crazy! 

The woman who tried to sell me ganja on the street

Kunming, China

After saying goodbye to Charles and Henry at the train station I jumped on a train bound for Kunming - 24 hours away.  I’ve noticed that the Chinese are in the habit of talking to each other in a very loud voice.  Most of the time it sounds like they are yelling at each other but it’s just the way they communicate. 

Unfortunately for me, the people in my 6-bunk train compartment were a very social and loud group who decided to talk (yell) nonstop until the lights went out at 11pm.  On the upside, that’s the nice thing about staying in the hard sleeper on the train  – at 11pm the lights go out and everyone goes to bed but at 7am the lights come back on along with the loud music, signaling time to get up.

After a somewhat painless 24 hours I arrived to Kunming and it was heaven – sunny and warm! 

Kunming was just a stopover on my way to Dali so I stayed the night at this great little $4 hostel and spent the afternoon wandering around the city, soaking up the great weather, and trying not to let the disgusting (and very common) sounds of the Chinese hacking up a lung and then spitting the mucus onto the sidewalk or into garbage cans ruin my day. 

I found myself on the local bus at rush hour, pushed up next to 2 young girls who obviously wanted to speak English with me as they were practicing (in English) what they are going to say to me.  To break the ice I asked them “do you speak English”?  From that point on I was bombarded with questions until it was time for one of us to get off.

I was quite surprised at how good their English was as just 12 years old.  When they asked me “do you think China is beautiful”?  I replied that I though China was very beautiful which prompted one of them to say “well I think you are very beautiful”!  As I got off the bus one of the girls calls out to me “I love you”.  Such a funny conversation!

Shenzhen, China

Two friends of mine were in Shenzhen for the weekend so I decided to stop over and see them.  Shenzhen, a big city of about 9 million people, is located right across the border from Hong Kong and was just a short trip from where I was in Guilin:  13 hours by train.  For China travel, that’s considered nearby so nobody thought I was crazy to travel for 13 hours in order to see friends for just 2 days.

At the train station in Guilin, I had my first introduction to Chinese “public” toilets.  I’ve gotten use to the fact that most toilets in China are “squat toilets” but here in the train station the “trough toilets” were far worse than anything I had seen before and smelly!  This type of toilet consists of door-less stalls with a long trough running through the stalls (sometimes with running water but most often not).  You basically squat over the trough while trying not to look over at your neighbor doing her business (who is typically squatting while texting on their cell phone – a funny sight).  Since the trough is shared by many people it’s common to see other people’s poo floating by.  Not the most pleasant experience!

My first introduction to China toilets!

China trains have several different seating options for travel but the ones I was most concerned with involved sleeping:  hard sleeper and soft sleeper.  Hard sleeper has open compartments with 6 bunks (upper/middle/lower).  Soft sleeper has compartments with 4 bunks (upper/lower) and the luxury of a door.  Since hard sleeper is quite a bit cheaper and I was only taking a short 13 hour train ride I decided that was the way to go.  Miraculously the travel agent had booked me the middle bunk which was a godsend once I actually stepped onto the train.  Turns out that everyone sits on the lower bunk during the day and well into the night and the upper bunk is where the speakers and lights are so if you are trying to sleep it’s nearly impossible.  The middle bunk was perfect and from then on I would always request the middle bunk anytime I took the train (which was often).

Hard sleeper on China trains

The 13 hour train ride was a breeze (except for the fact that I was near the disgusting toilets (a hole in the floor that empties onto the track) which also happened to be the place that all the chain-smoking men hung out) and I arrived to Shenzhen in the morning.  I met up with Charles and Henry who were all set to do a little shopping at the famous “Lo Wu Shopping Center”.  This is the place you dream about coming to for cheap knock-off brands but I have to admit it was a little too intense for me. 

After a delightful Chinese dinner (with something like 20 dishes) we treated ourselves to $5 Chinese foot massages.  The masseuse took one look at my feet and demanded that first she scrape off all the dead skin with something that resembled a chisel.  I guess that’s what happens to your feet when you live shoeless on a boat for 4 months.

Guilin & Yangshuo, China

After flying from Kuala Lumpur to Guilin I went straight from the airport to the hostel and I must have been in “cold weather” shock since I found myself “staying in” at the hostel for the next day until I was forced to leave in order to catch my bus to Yangshuo. 

Hostels in China typically charge around $4/night for a bed and throughout my travels I was continually impressed with the quality of the places I stayed (except for the fact that they all had hard as a rock 2” foam padding disguised as mattresses).  Almost always the staff at the hostels spoke good English and provided a fun atmosphere to swap stories with other travelers.

Typical mattress in $4 Chinese hostels

Yangshuo was a great place to begin my travels in China.… Not only because of the amazing scenery but also because it was super touristic, meaning that more people here speak English than in other parts of China and I could find a “western breakfast” and not have to settle for the typical Asian breakfast of noodles or rice.  I don’t mind that so much at other times of the day but not for breakfast! 

There was one day when it was not raining so ventured out with 2 Israeli guys from the hostel.  We rented bicycles and toured the countryside for 3 very muddy, misty, and cold hours.  It was incredibly scenic and fascinating to bike through little Chinese villages and see what daily life was like. 

The beautiful Li River in Yangshuo

After we got back into town I stopped off at the “wet market” where you can buy produce and other things.  I was shocked when I looked in the back and saw several stalls selling dog meat.  Dogs were crammed into cages, barely able to bark, while the butcher was chopping up meat from another that had been freshly slaughtered, and adjacent to that he was roasting a dog (just like you would roast a pig).  It was a very sad and disturbing sight.

Adventures with a Chinese Bus

At the hostel in Guilin I overhear 2 English guys ask the girl at the front desk about getting the bus to Yangshuo and I ask if I can tag along.  I’ve heard that travel in China can be a bit stressful due to the language barrier and I have to admit that I feel more comfortable traveling with others in situations like this. 

The girl at the front desk tell us “oh yah… the bus Yangshuo, very easy”.  She attempts to give us directions and afterwards we find ourselves more confused.  We end up at some kind of major transportation center with the routes and fares displayed on billboards high above the ticket counters but it’s written in Chinese symbols so we have no idea what’s being said.  After waiting in the long line we figure out that we’re at the train station, not the bus station. 

Standing in the rain, looking at our Lonely Planet maps, trying to figure out where the bus station is, we’re hounded by many Chinese touts trying to sell us overly priced tickets on their “buses” to Yangshuo. 

We’re determined to find the bus station and the map says it is only a few blocks from the train station so we set out on foot.  Ten minutes later we come upon loads of buses but can’t seem to find the ticket counter.  Looking lost in the bus parking lot we are approached by a guy telling us to get on his bus.  It’s going to Yangshuo and costs 20 Yuan which is close to what the Lonely Planet says it should be so we hop on and hope for the best.

Five minutes later the bus stops and we look out the bus window to see our hostel.  We all look at each other and burst out laughing.  Why the girl at the hostel desk could not have just told us to wait in front of the hostel to catch the bus is beyond me.  It would have saved us our sanity and at least an hour of hassle.

Once in Yangshuo the bus drops us off not where we expected to be dropped so we find ourselves standing on the curb once again looking at our Lonely Planet maps, trying to determine our location when we are approached by a local Chinese guy speaking English and trying to sell us on his hostel.  He tells us “other hotels, they rip you off; they suck your blood”.   Nice.

Li River in Yangshuo, China

Welcome to China

Some countries require you to apply for a visa to enter the country prior to arrival. India and China are two of those countries.  Both specifically state that they want you to apply for the visa in your home country, but since that was not going to happen, I decided to give it a shot and apply for both in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

After paying $20 and waiting over 5 days to be told by the Indian Embassy that my visa application was “rejected” I was excited when the Chinese Embassy told me that they “approved” my visa application and I would have my visa in 3 days.  The only downside was that the Chinese visa was expensive.  Every other nation who wants to visit China pays $40 for a visa but U.S. Citizens have to pay $150!

As I stepped off the plane in China I was in for a big shock…  for past 11 months I had been accustomed to warm, sunny days with temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s and here in the Guangxi Province of China I was greeted with chilly and rainy 40 degree weather.  Considering that I only had 1 pair of pants and 1 sweatshirt I was in serious trouble. 

-- Map of China --

I'll be traveling the southwestern provinces of Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, and hopefully Tibet.

Arriving to the hostel in the city of Guilin I soon realized that most places do not have heating. Sometimes you will see little clay pots where they burn small pieces of firewood to heat a room and it’s common to see Chinese drinking hot water to keep warm.   Luckily the hostels I have stayed at have thick blankets to keep me warm when the night temperatures dip down into the 30’s.  And the Israeli boys in my dorm room in Yangshuo have discovered that if you turn the air conditioner as hot as it will go it heats the room to the point of needing to remove your sweatshirt.  

Back on Land

Four months on the boat was a long time with too little physical activity.  After walking around Singapore and waking up the following day with sore leg muscles I knew I needed to spend some time getting back into shape before attempting to trek Nepal for 7 days at an altitude of 16,000 feet.  So I headed over to the more budget friendly Kuala Lumpur and made it my mission to search out a gym that would do weekly memberships.  After visiting many fitness centers with no such luck I settled on paying for an entire month… but it was worth it.

For the next 18 days I had a fantastic time in Kuala Lumpur.  I stayed in 3 different hostels, met loads of tourists (it’s amazing how friendly people become when you ask the simple question of “where are you from”); worked out daily next to 2 young German actors/stunt men filming a movie in Kuala Lumpur; tried to get use to the image of countless veiled Muslim women walking around covered from head to toe in black with only their eyes showing; was greeted every morning by a man with a scooter literally covered with numerous well behaved cats and a very naughty monkey; learned a few necessary Chinese words from the friendly lady running the hostel who also loved to feed me Malaysian fruits in the morning since she knew I was not a fan of the “free breakfast” of bread and butter; and enjoyed the daily ear piercing thunderstorms and less so the Malaysian singers attempting to sing American pop songs.