China Highlights - Part 4: Best of the rest

I wanted to share just a few more moments and photos from China...

A sunny evening in the Hutong area of Beijing.

The word 'hutong' means side-street.  An unusual feature in the capital city to see an area of single or double story buildings rather than huge, tall buildings.  And also very pretty at night.

A peaceful walk around the Summer Palace, just outside Beijing.  This was the summer retreat for Empress Cixi, with beautiful walkways, lotus flowers and hundreds of bright goldfish.

An amazing umbrella covered area, called Tea Street!!

Hot Pot lunch - we each had our own wee stove and were able to choose ingredients from the revolving table to cook.  Added excitement was one of the guys setting his napkin on fire!

In Xi'an we visited the Terracotta Warriors.  I'd seen pictures of these, but was amazed when I saw them - it really was incredible to walk into the first 'pit' and see rows upon rows of statues.  Estimated to be 2,200 years old, these warriors were apparently built to protect Emperor Qin's tomb which lies about 2km from the site.

Many of the statues are still being restored and rebuilt, piece by piece.  There are also areas still uncovered, waiting for the right technology to develop which will allow the statues and their features to be better preserved.

This is the farmer who discovered the Terracotta Warriors back in 1974.  Suffice to say, he is no longer a farmer!!  His discovery has completely altered Xi'an into a tourist destination.

A M&Ms shop in Shanghai!!

The Great Wall of Chocolate

Shanghai's famous skyline

China Highlights - Part 3: From Rice Terrace to Viewing Terrace

When Clare and I had been looking at tours for China we very nearly settled for a shorter options, which excluded the 3 nights in Yangshuo and Guilin (the more rural areas).  Fortunately Clare had the wisdom to see it would be crazy to miss out on the chance to see this side of China.  She was totally right!

I’m a city girl, and I love living in Glasgow.  But there’s nothing quite like standing on a mountain taking in beautiful scenery.  Longsheng was one of these moments.  Translated as ‘Dragon’s Backbone’, this area is reached by driving up a narrow and increasingly twisty road, not designed for people who suffer from vertigo!  The road ends and a path leads visitors up to the village.  Rice terraces cascade all the way down the hillside into the valley and then back up the other side.  Louise (our guide) said that we had chosen a good week to visit, as the area was much greener than the previous week when she had been there.  The rice is planted in such neat rows, and each small field is kept full of water by a clever irrigation system that trickles and filters down the mountain.  We stopped at a restaurant in the village and had lunch, which included sticky rice, cooked in the middle of a big piece of bamboo – very tasty.  We then wandered along to the end of the village to a viewing point.  Photos just don’t do it justice.  I loved being there.

Three days later I found myself on a different terrace, taking in a very different view – Hong Kong’s skyline!  All of China was hot, but Hong Kong was on another level - I started sweating as soon as I stepped out of the air conditioned hotel lobby, and that was only as 9.30am!  Living in Scotland does not prepare you for 40 degree heat.  I eventually resorted to doing as the locals do and put my umbrella up for some well needed shade.  Hong Kong has lots of air conditioned shopping centres, which gave us temporary shelter and a chance to cool off.  We also found some shady spots in HK's parks and kept the exotic birds and monkeys company for a few hours during the hottest part of the day.

 

When we weren't avoiding the sun, we were taking in the sights.  The Star Ferry between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon gives a short but good view of both sides of the harbour - not bad for about 20p each way!  Skyscrapers of all shapes and sizes line the coast.  On Hong Kong Island, this soon gives way as the land rises steeply, culminating at around 522 metres above sea level at Victoria Peak.  Other than incoming flights, this has to be one of the best vantage points around, with spectacular views of the harbour, Kowloon, HK Island and other islands.  There is a footpath to walk up The Peak, but who in their right mind would walk up in this heat when you can get the tram to the top.  On this, you can enjoy watching the unlucky few who didn't get seats try not to fall over as the funicular railway becomes increasingly angled.  At the top there is, unsurprisingly, a shopping mall (admittedly a small one by HK standards), visitor centre, viewing platform and a Madame Tussauds...!  And apart from a rather dubious looking Brad and Angelina, it was actually pretty good!  Where else can you take cheesy, over-posed photos and get away with not feeling embarrassed?!  Understandably geared towards a Chinese audience, I didn't recognise many of the figures.  But I did have my photo taken with the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Albert Einstein, Tiger Woods, Jonny Depp, Barack Obama and The Hulk.  The last is definitely a contender for my next Facebook profile picture.

Post Madame Tussauds we wandered around the mall, had a leisurely dinner, got some ice cream from the Haagen Daaz shop and arrived on the roof in plenty of time to claim the viewing spot which we'd sussed out earlier in the day.  It was amazing watching dusk fall over Hong Kong and gradually see the buildings light up.  It's definitely not an environmentally friendly skyline, with buildings competing to have the best, brightest light show.  Some skyscrapers had multi-coloured lights, some had images and words projected into the side, and there were others with different light sequences.  Like a forest of tall, thin Christmas trees, the overall effect was like nothing I've ever seen before and I took dozen of photos of the view to try and capture just how impressive it was.

Shake a pom pom!

18. Do something arty that I've never tried before

 

Today I completed another item on my list - that's 2 ticked off now!  I'd noticed a few weeks ago that Paperchase were offering some craft classes, including one on how to make paper pom poms.  So, having never tried that before, I signed up and went along today.  Unfortunately I was the only one at the class, but the two members of staff were lovely and chatty, so it wasn't weird.  I made a big, blue and frouffy (there is no other word for it) pom pom from tissue paper.  It's pretty massive, and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it now!  I think these would look amazing if there were loads of them, all different colours and sizes, suspended from the ceiling in a room, perhaps for a wedding or a party.

 

 

The next thing I made, was less of a pom pom and more of an origami flower.  They had some nice coloured paper to use, which worked well, as it was a different colour on each side.  Again, so simple to make, but they look pretty!  They had several 'here's one we made earlier', including some that were hanging off a ribbon, almost like fairy lights.  I made a smaller one from handmade paper when I got home.

 

 

And I made some smaller versions of the pom poms at home as well.  They actually work better on a larger scale, than small, but it was good to experiment.  They might not be massively original, spectacularly arty, or a masterpiece of a creation, but it felt good just to sit for an hour and try something without any pressure.  I needed that.

China Highlights - Part 2: River Cruises and Rainstorms

As impressive as the cities and big tourist sites were, I think my favourite place that we visited was Yangshuo.  Located in Guangxi province (which neighbours Vietnam), Yangshuo is home to huge limestone karsts which jut out of the ground creating a spectacular landscape, often used in Chinese paintings.  We arrived in Yangshuo at night so had a nice surprise waking up in the morning.  Louise, our local tour guide, had organised a bike ride and river cruise for Clare and me (we were on a longer tour than the rest of our group).  So off we set on our bikes through the crazy streets.  Even though Yangshuo is a small town and not one of the big cities, I was still terrified of being mowed down by another vehicle!  Soon enough we turned off the main road and were cycling along quieter roads through farmland, rice paddies and fields full of lotus flowers.  I felt like Julia Roberts in ‘Eat, Pray, Love’!  We stopped to visit a local farmer and his family, who welcomed us into their home and showed us how to grind soya beans for milk.  The elderly man proudly showed us his bird who could ‘count’ in English, and his wall of photos, postcards and mementos from other tourists.  He also had a jar of pickled snakes (boke) and a picture of himself with Barack Obama (not real unfortunately). 

 

 

We continued cycling, stopping occasionally for a water break and sweaty selfies (it was SO hot).  Soon we came to the River Li and hopped off our bikes and onto our bamboo raft!  It was an amazing experience, taking in the landscape while being punted down the river by a guy at the back of the raft.  Fortunately there was a beach umbrella to keep us in the shade.  Although mostly a calm river, at points there were small dams which we went over, running the risk of getting wet feet and a wet bum!  The commercial savvy have set up platforms from which they can take photos of the tourists.  We gave it our best pose, but didn’t go and buy them.  There were also ‘drinks stalls’ – women on rafts in the middle of the river with cool boxes!

 

That evening we went to the Sanjie Liu Impression Show – an open air song, dance and light performance put together by Zhang Yimou who directed the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.  The show takes place on the river and features a cast of 600 people, including fishermen, children and local minority women.  It was an amazing setting, with illuminated limestone hills providing an impressive backdrop.  The show combines music, dance, moving platforms on the water, boats and lights.  One of the scenes included fishermen coming out with cormorants, which have been trained to dive into the water and swim back to the boat with a beak full of fish.  This age-old practice is still used in some areas of China.  The necks of the birds are tied to prevent them from swallowing the fish, although apparently they are allowed to eat every 7th fish as they refuse to work otherwise!  It was a fantastic show, very cleverly put together, and made all the more dramatic by the interruption of a huge thunderstorm in the middle!  I thought I’d seen some flashes of lightening in the distance, and as the show progressed the flashes came closer and closer.  It’s quite funny listening to the sound of several hundred ponchos (provided at the entrance) being opened up and put on, as the rain started and audience members scrambled for cover.  Our seats were at the back, directly in front of the covered ‘presidential’ seats, so we legged it over the barrier and took shelter with as many other people as could fit in.  It very quickly got to the point where an announcement was made to say the show was going to be stopped, and the cast members swiftly exited the now very choppy water.  There was something quite exciting and dramatic about it – pouring rain, thunder cracking directly overhead and horizontal lightening forking across the sky.  The storm gradually passed and another announcement was made to say the show would resume shortly.  I’m so glad we stayed put and hadn’t left like some of the audience.  It was an amazing show, and I loved watching it.