Intrepid part 3 - China

Sunday - Shanghai

After a short 3 hour flight from Tokyo, I arrived in Shanghai.  Took a taxi from the airport to my hotel but he got lost and after driving round several dodgy looking side streets, dumped me in the middle of nowhere (he didn"t speak a word of English).  This was about 11.30 at night but there were a few people around and a convenience store open so I showed them my hotel name and address and fortunately I was only one block away!  To add insult to injury the cabbie didn"t have change for the fare so he conned me outta 20 youan (about 1 pound 30) but I was too tired to argue.  Its a favourite trick in Asia to never have change!

Hotel looked ok but a couple of Arabic looking blokes in the lift spoke to me in English and warned me about locking my door and windows as it was dangerous!  Needless to say I was too scared to sleep!!!

Monday - Shanghai

My mission was to find a laundry and internet cafe.  Hotel instructions were worse than useless and the map they gave me was all in Chinese.  I wandered round for about an hour until I eventually found the laundry (not self service) and they didnt speak any English!  Internet was a bit easier to find and after being pushed and shoved by the hundreds of people on the street, I was pleased to take refuge in the huge, airconditioned place filled with hundreds of computers and teenagers playing games there. A local man came up to me on the street and said "watch bag" to which I thanked him for his care of my safety.  I later realised, after the 10th person had said the same that they were actually offering to sell me watches or bags!

Went back to the hotel and found 6 lovely Irish people who had just arrived and were part of my new group.  We went off in search of food and after checking out a couple of the local eateries, decided to play safe and eat in KFC!!  That was a mistake cos the chicken was soooo pink and gristly that we only ate the bun!

Met the rest of the group and leader in the evening, comprising of:  the 6 from Ireland, 3 from Oz, 2 from the UK and me.  One of the UK girls is the sister of one of Talia's friends from school - small world eh!!!

Went out for a group meal where the leader ordered several dishes for us to share - on a huge glass revolving tray in the middle of the table.  I couldn"t eat most of it, neither could the Ozzie vegetarian (didn't think any Ozzies were veggies!).  Went for a walk to the river and Bund area and gazed at the amazing skyscrapers in all shapes and sizes, all light up in neon with laser beams. Quite an impressive sight!

Tuesday - Shanghai

Morning visit to a museum (boring!) then another group lunch.  I ducked out of the afternoon activities as I was getting fed up of the people on the streets pushing and shoving and all the touts offering us watches, bags, tshirts etc!

Evening outing to an acrobat show which was fantastic  I took loads of pix but just put a couple on here - the grand finale was 5 motor cycle with riders in a round cage - amazing!

Wednesday - Shanghai/Nanjing

Wandered round the city for a few hours - went off the beaten track to find the old Jewish quater but either its disappeared or I missed it!  Nevertheless, I did find where real people live and there were no touts or people staring at a Western face!

Train to Nanjing was interesting!  Thousands of people pushing and shoving but we had allocated seats so we let them go first.  The train was very similar to the Shinkansen in Japan and the toilets were clean too!  It was only a 2 hour journey and then we took a local underground train closer to our hotel.

Went to the Confucious temple which was tucked away and not very popular.  Neon lights everywhere including the river which was popular for boat trips for tourists.  We counted 2 MacDonalds within 50 yards of each other, 1 KFC, 1 Burger King and 1 Haagen Daaz - Western food is quiet popular in China.

Thursday - Nanjing

Early start to go to the Purple Mountain to see Dr Sun Yat Sen (father of modern China) mausoleum.  We were told there were a lot of steps so no great surprises when faced with 392!  Quick trip up to look around, quick trip back down then into a Disney type train to go off to see a temple (closed) and a pagoda in the grounds.

Afternoon train to Xi'an - not very pleasant!  6 beds to a compartment with no door or privacy of any kind and locals spitting and doing all kinds of things which Westerner's find quite gross.  Our group was constantly being stared at by the locals who are intreagued buy Western faces, especially the tall, skinny blonde girls and the 7ft Irish guys!!

Friday - Xi'an

Arrived at 6.30am after a fairly sleepless night.  Taxi to hotel and slept till lunchtime.  Group lunch in the Moslem quarter - great I thought "no pork" but alas I was wrong and there was more pork served up. Not the nicest of restaurants but we were hungry and preferred to eat as a group as its quite a scarey experience to eat alone when we dont understand the menu and nobody speaks English!

Afternoon free to wander around town.  In the evening 10 of us went for dinner to Pizza Hut (hooray for recognisable Western food) and then found a posh bar with live pianist and singer, where we sipped cocktails for less than 2pounds (sterling). We were surprised that they let us jeans attired backpackers into this fancy establishment but I guess our money is as good as anybodies.

Saturday - Xi'an

Morning bike ride along the walls of the city. That was great fun especially as I haven't ridden a bike for years!  We had lunch in another Western type restaurant and then some of the girls went off for a massage.  I declined after my Cambodian experience and language barrier!!!

Evening was a "Dinner Dumpling Show" which comprised of several courses of dim sum dumplings as we watched a typical Chinese singing and dancing show.  All I can say is... different!

Sunday - Xi'an to Yichang

Finally got to see one of the places on my China list of interest - The Terracotta Warriers.  They were 'awesome' and the whole experience was better than I expected.  Basically a farmer, in 1974, was digging a well and found the first of the warriers, then he dug further and found more.  The area was turned into a museum in 1979 and there are thousands of lifesize soldiers and horses.  Some of the warriors have been sent to the British Museum for an exhibition (so I will go there when I get back to the UK and gloat that I saw them in China first!).

Took a flight to Yichang and then a bus to the dock where we boarded a 'cruise ship' (ha ha) for our trip down the Yangtzee river.  Our cabins were very basic and the guide said she was going to sleep on the deck but I felt sorry for her so I said she could sleep in my cabin.  Sat out with the group on the deck till well past midnight, in the cold and dark, drinking beer.

Monday - Yichang

River docked at 7am and we then took a smaller boat down river till we arrived at the Sanpan docking station.  There were thousands of Chinese people also following the same route as its a popular holiday destination for them.  We sailed down the 'Three Gorges', saw caves and highly perched coffins(!), and our sanpan boat oarsmen took part in their traditional boat turning over the rocks.  Its a bit hard to explain but in the old days, they would do this naked but of late the government has told them not to offend the ladies!  So we arrive at the rocky rapids and they jump off the boat, pull a homemade bamboo rope and climb over the rocks to enable them to turn the boats round.  There must have been about 30 boats in this location all doing the same thing, plus it was very heavy rain!

Went back to the main cruise liner and sailed to our next destination where 300 steps awaited us up to the road (the cable car was out of action).  Luckily the locals want to earn a bob or two and charged us equivalent of 1 pound sterling to carry one bag up.  They loaded themselves up and ran up the 300 steps whilst our group of 12 huffed and puffed our way up 'sans bags'!

Hotel not great - spent 20 mins chasing a cockroach round my bath.  Decided to drown him rather than squash him!

Tuesday - Yichang

Returned to dock via those same bloody 300 steps.  This time the 'baggage helpers' turned into vultures and boarded our bus, fighting over the bags.  I refused to let them grab my bag, preferring to carry it myself.  Another fight ensued and I just screamed at them to leave me alone.  I stormed down those 300 steps in a purple haze of anger with heavy backpack, daypack on front and 2 smaller bags!

This time we went on a hydrofoil to the 3 Gorges Dam Project - the biggest dam in the world.  It was a really hot day and we were bussed around the project, ooing and aahing at the amazing locks and hydro electric stuff going on.

Afternoon saw us boarding the overnight train to Beijing - 20.5 hour journey!!!  This time there were 4 of us per compartment - 1 bloke and 3 girls (his blog reads something like 'last night I slept with 3 women!".

Wednesday - Beijing

Arrived late in the afternoon but our reward was a lovely hotel!  No cockroaches this time :-) We had the most welcome shower ever and then went off to find food. Had a stroll around Tienanman Square and marvelled at the size and atmosphere there.

Thursday - Beijing

Morning stroll through Tienanman Square to the Forbidden City.  Inundated with touts selling all kinds of tat and ripping the tourists off.  We just named our prices and after a bit of haggling, got our bargains.  Spent a few hours wandering through the Forbidden City with thousands of other tourists.

Afternoon was a shopping trip to the Silk Market, which is 6 floors of market stalls selling all kinds of things from luggage to jewellery and everything else possible to spend cash on.  We bargained hard and had fun getting things for next to nothing.  They were still happy to make their profit.

Friday - Beijing

Well, as many of you know, today was Yom Kippur - the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.  Although not religious, I do take it seriously and always fast and go to synagogue.  Problem was, our itinerary had this as a free day and Saturdy as the highlight of the China trip - to the Great Wall.  After a fair bit of persuasion, I managed to get the leader to change the days over so that I could do both (strenuous walk on full stomach, and rest day on empty one!).

The Great Wall really was fantastic.  You've all seen pictures but nothing can describe how immense it is.  Its not a straight path, infact there are hundreds of steps and some go up and some go down, some are shallow and some are horribly steep.  We walked a very long way (over 2 hours in the blazing sun) and amazingly, there weren't many other tourists accompanying us!  It was a real sense of achievement to get to the end and the photos don't really do it justice.

In the evening I went to the Yom Kippur service (Kol Nidre) which was a Masorti service in a country club ballroom in an exclusive 'ex-pat' complex.  The congregation was mostly American and one crazy woman latched on to me and wouldn't let me go!  I didn't enjoy the service very much as it was sooo very different to our traditional service that I am used to so decided not to go back the following day.

Saturday - Beijing

Fast went well and I rested all day in the hotel room.  I admit that I did watch TV all day and it was funny because today  was National No Car Day across China.  Apparantly, the air is so polluted in Beijing that it is the equivalent of smoking 70 cigarettes!  Well, this no car lark didn't really work as only one tiny street was cordoned off, the rest of the roads were as busy as ever!

Final night dinner was Peking Duck - to be honest, most of us have had better from our local take aways back home!  Most people were suffering with dodgy stomachs anyway so we had a very brief evening.  People don't linger in restaurants here - they ask for the bill whilst people are still eating and there is no serving of coffee!

I tried to sleep but as our cab for the airport was booked for 3.30am, didn't really succeed.

Left China rather weary - not sure if it was cos I was fed up with Asia or just being organised in a group.  Never mind, its free reign from now on!

My final thoughts on China - I really only wanted to see 3 places - Terracotta warriors; Tienanmen Square (cos it all kicked off in June 1989 when I was 7mths pregnant with Talia, lying in bed (in mid Israeli summer) with CHICKENPOX! I remember those news broadcasts sooo well so wanted to see the area; and of course, the Great Wall.  I wasn't disappointed with these sights but the rest of China didn't really do much for me.  I didn't like the food and there were too many people.  Most of the men have disgusting habbits of clearing their throats and noses out onto the street - its really horrible!  Beijing is getting its act together in terms of building and infrastructure for the Olympic games next year.