Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Goodbye Guangzhou!

It has now been over a year since I last saw you and time has flown since then! After the New Year I quit my job at EF to travel around China with my sister, Katharine. After a couple of days sights-seeing in Guangzhou we flew to Beijing as trains were all booked up due to the approaching Chinese New Year. Beijing was fun as always. We stayed at Leo Hostel where I stayed last time (really recommend this place if you ever go to Beijing as staff are really friendly and helpful, and hostel is central located and well set-up for travelers). Spent a few days doing the main sights (Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, Temple of Heaven, and of course the Great Wall), all of which I have written about in another email on a previous trip, so will spare the repetition here.
We also visited the Summer Palace, where ironically, the lake had been frozen solid by the winter weather allowing us to walk across it. We also went to the silk market, which in addition to selling silks, sells everything from pirate DVDs, to fake North Face trekking gear. It is really hard to walk through this market as hundreds of arms reach out and grab you -'Hello where you from? You buy bag for girlfriend! Nice T shirt for you mister!' - while others block your path with LV suitcases or pairs of Levis, none of them taking no for an answer. In the end I brought a strong green laser whose beam is visible for over 1KM, which is proving great fun to play with on nights out! :-) After a few beers at the hostel with an old colleague from when I used to work in Beijing we got a taxi to San Li Tun, Beijing's bar street but the driver tried to charge us double the price shown on the metre so I managed to make good use of my stock of Chinese swear words, before entering the bars so sample some 4RMB (28p shots!)
We wanted to take a night train to Xian, home of the Terracotta Warriors, but everything was booked for the Chinese New Year so we had to pay eight times more for a flight. Xian is a well designed town with a North - South grid system making it easy to find your way around. We stayed inside the city walls next to the South Gate which is a massive ornate gate marking the entry/exit of the city and looks beautiful at night when all lit up. The key attraction of Xian is the Bell Tower which houses a massive bell - exciting huh? - and the Muslim Quarter which has lots of tasty street food. We did a tour to the Terracotta Warriors, but like most Chinese tours, there was a lot of waiting around and pressure to buy touristy things, taking up four hours off our day! When we finally got to see the warriors we realised that we couldn't get very close to them at all. We were kept several metres back and several metres higher which made getting a decent photograph almost impossible. Apparently you can go to see a third excavation pit where you can get close to them but this was under restoration due to the forthcoming Beijing Olympics. Nevertheless it was great to be able to witness such an archaeological sight first hand like this, something I will never forget. A better photo op was at our hostel which had some replicas decorating the bar, all painted in their bright original colours, unlike the real ones whose paint has disappeared over the centuries.

We managed to get a night train to Shanghai, saving us from forking out for another flight, but the conditions were very cramped and unhygienic. The whole journey we could hear the constant Chinese soundtrack of men clearing mucus from their throats and spitting from every window and door, and toilets were so bad you did not want to touch anything! One even had a used nappy lying on the floor! There was six beds (three sets of bunk beds to a cabin) which made sitting up, (or even turning over) impossible, while men sat i the corridors smoking beneath the non smoking signs and spitting under the 'Do not spit' signs - yes they really have them! On arrival in Shanghai we decided to book our onward train journey straight away to avoid paying for another flight. We queued up for nearly an hour at a local ticket office, full of people spitting on the floor and just about everywhere! This office must have had a policy forcing everyone to smoke too, as we were the only people there not sucking on an 'oxygen stick'. Also people kept walking into the office and straight to the head of he queue, ignoring the 30-40 people shouting angrily behind them, (this si a VERY common practice in China). When we finally reached the window, and asked for our destination (Xiamen), we were met with a stare - 'No Tickets!' 'How about the next day?' 'No Tickets!' 'The day after?' 'No Tickets!' How about straight to Guangzhou?' 'No Tickets!' We then went to the bus and train stations where I tried to use my Chinese to buy a ticket from one of the many touts. (Chinese people like to buy up lots of tickets prior to peak travel periods and resell them for profit). The best offer we got was for an overnight bus which cost almost the same as the airfare would have done, so we had to cut our losses, book a flight at eight times the price again, then make the most of our remaining time in Shanghai.

I had heard from many people that there is not much to see in Shanghai and we found that to be true, with the exception of the Bund (European colonial style buildings), and Shanghai's tallest landmark, the Oriental Pearl tower. We paid about four pounds to ride the lift to the viewing platform, only to find out that we couldn't see anything due to the fog. It wasn't just a case of not being able to see a lot, we could not see ANYTHING, just grey for miles and miles, not even a silhouette of a building in sight. (Apparently the ticket seller didn't think this was important when she took our money). One redeeming feature of Shanghai was the traditional gardens we found, and the fantastic decorations for Chinese New Year that were displayed around the entrance. There were many larger than life fabric creations of people, lanterns, money and of course the rat (the animal for this lunar year). The display was amazing and I took many photos! On the way back to Guangzhou I noticed that Shanghai's airport had a 'delayed flight lounge'. Apparently flights there are delayed so often they have a special lounge! Fortunately we didn't need to use it.

We spent Chinese New Year in Guangzhou, with a visit to the flower market which appears once a year, then I had all the Westerner's and Chinese away from their families for a pot luck dinner. After that we went to watch the fireworks on nearby Shamian Island at the house of one of my student's family. The police were blocking off most of the main roads due to the crowds (and China does crowds REALLY well!) but I managed to blag our party through the blockade with my charm and white face. :-) The fireworks were great, some of the best I have ever seen. (Pictures on the links below).

After the new year we did one last trip, this time to Hainan Island, south east of the main land. It is China's biggest island and also the agricultural centre. We stayed a couple of nights with a friend in Haikou (Northern tip of the island), before going to Sanya (southern tip where the beaches are). Unfortunately for us, all the hotels had been book by enterprisingly travel agents and ticket resellers so we were forced to join a tour group who had prebooked some of the rooms. If there is ever one piece of advice I give you about travel in China, its DO NOT join a tour. Under any circumstances DO NOT DO IT! I had experience the Chinese idea of a 'tour' and 'tourism' on a previous trip to Yunnan province in South China, and had sworn never to do so again, but without any available hotel rooms, this was our only choice.
Tours always start early in China, so generally that means meeting for breakfast around 6.30 - 7am, to eat warm(ish) rice, boiled eggs, sweet bread, and other 'delicacies', not forgetting a few lungs of cigarette smoke! After hanging around for a while, we would board the bus and sit for around two hours while our guide shouting at us in Chinese through the microphone. The bus would make several stops each day, the first usually being some short of shop where we could buy clothes, jewelry or tacky souvenirs at inflated prices, from which the tour guide would obviously make a commission. Then we would be taken to see some sights, stopping for an hour then then travelling for a couple more hours to the next sight. The problem is that you do much more travelling then sight seeing, and the time at each place is very limited. In addition to this, your guide shouts in Chinese through a megaphone the whole time, as he is trying to be heard above the 30+ tour directly in front, and the 30+ tour directly behind. Basically all tours go to the same spots and look at the same things at exactly the same time, which really spoils the idea of being on holiday! This tour was no exception, with regional specialties such as Hainan coffee warehouses which we were taken to see. Even the 'deer park' we were taken too was just a scam to sell us 'deer penis wine' (supposedly good for the men). Other than that it only housed five manky deer in very small cages, not at all a good tourist attraction. We were also taken to a 'South Mountain' where hundreds of willing Chinese tourists stood in their 30+ groups looking at a group of rocks whilst being verbally harassed through megaphones and physically harassed by the hawkers. At this point we wandered off on our own having long decided that we would ditch the tour group once we arrived in Sanya and had located our hotel (the only reason for joining the tour). We spent a night en route to Sanya at a hotel with a hot spring swimming pool. The idea was we were supposed to join the guide to see a show and pay an extra 10 pounds (all tours try to force you to do extra and pay additional costs to the tour guide). A lot of people complained about this and were first told that we had to go as he had already booked the tickets, then that we could go and pay afterwards if we enjoyed the show. Eventually we managed to get away and spent some relaxing time away from the guide (and most of the group) in the hot spring whilst drinking fresh milk out of the coconut. The next day we arrived in Sanya early in the morning (thanks to the early starts and breakfast rituals) and were taken to a beach and told we needed to pay 20 pounds to go diving. After we protested that all we wanted to do was get to the hotel and we didn't want to keep paying out for the extras the guide acted very surprised and told us we could sit and wait for them to come back. Finally we asked him to give us the name of the hotel so we could go and check in and get on with what we wanted to be doing and he acted surprised again and insisted that we couldn't leave the group as we were 'one of them'. It was as if he couldn't believe why we wanted to leave such a great tour, and kept asking us why we didn't want to do all the 'amazing activities' he had lined up for us. After a lot of arguing on both our parts, with him trying a lot of tricks to make us stay, like the hotel was very far and too difficult for us to find, or he was going to take us to a great place, etc etc, he finally agreed to let us go, but only after one more 'lunch' with the group.
At last we were free! We then spent the next two days relaxing on the beach and enjoying the end of our holiday together. At night children gathered to sell cheap Chinese fireworks and tourists and locals alike lit up the night sky with giant explosions of sound and colour. One firework cost just 3RMB (21p) but contained so much gunpowder that it was a big, loud and beautiful as those used in professional displays! Children as young as five were playing with these giant fireworks, using their parents cigarette to light them! (I don't think social services exist in China!) One child was even giving me instructions as to he best way fire them!
After Katharine left China I spent a couple of weeks to say goodbye to my friends, flatmate, and of course my girlfriend, so naturally lots of festivities took place culminating with a goodbye party in my apartment where the police did the usual visit at 23:01 to inform us that no music is allowed after 23:00 (the Chinese national bedtime). However this is not goodbye for good as I am flying home out of Hong Kong after I finish my South east Asian Adventure, as Oasis have some good deals from Hong Kong to London and I can also leave some winter clothes and books in my apartment to avoid carrying so much on my travels.
So I will leave you with some pictures of my China experience which you can browse at your leisure. I have uploaded them to my facebook account, you can view them even if you don't have an account, although I recommend you sign up as its a very good site!
Back in Beijing
Xian & The Terracotta Warriors
Shanghai
Chinese New Year!!!
Hainan
Qing Ping Market
Six Banyan Trees Temple
This is Phil signing off for SE Asia!
Wish me luck!
Phil :-)
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