China 2002 Trip Report

Day 1

There was a nice young Chinese man "Oscar" waiting for us at the airport when we arrived. He used his cell phone to contact the car to take us to our hotel. The New World Courtyard is nice, but our room is looking a little worn. It's nice though, just like a Marriott at home. I think cell phones are a status symbol here, lots of young Chinese have them. All of the guides give us their numbers in case we get lost. It must be cool to give out your cell number! The nice thing about China is that the state runs the banks, so the exchange rate is the same everywhere, at the banks, markets, hotels. So it doesn't matter where you change money. You get 8.19 yuan for a dollar no matter what. We took a taxi to the pearl market, checked out all the stalls. Fake North Face backpacks, purses, and real pearls. I saw some beautiful South Sea Black Pearls, but they were expensive. The ring I liked was close to $1000 - didn't like it that much. I don't think I would wear a string of pearls that often, so I don't think I'll buy any. Two Chinese girls were really trying to sell us a backpack, we just didn't need one. They were funny though, they did like our North Face backpack from Thailand - they thought we did really well for the $10 we had paid. I bought 2 bags with a floral design for about $3 each. We went to the local dumpling shop across the street from our hotel for dinner. We had 2 types of dumplings (pork and triple delight (not sure what that was-probably don't want to know), and chicken soup. Plus 2 sodas, all for 22.50 yuan. We were the only foreigners there.

Day 2

We had a good tour today. We were on a small bus, 11 total in our group. We went to Tianamen Square , Forbidden City , Temple of Heaven , and the Summer Palace . We were glad we took a tour, it would have been difficult to cover so much area on our own. Our group was very diverse, 2 from the Phillipines, 4 from Britain , and 3 from Holland . The two from Britain just finished a 2 week journey on the TransSiberian railway from Moscow to Beijing . What a journey, they said it was incredible. Lunch was included in our tour, it was really good. Much better than the dumplings we had last night. We had about 7 different dishes that they put on a huge lazy susan and you share with the table. I still haven’t got the hang of chopsticks yet. We think we’ll all be on the same tour to the Ming Tombs and Great Wall tomorrow, so that’ll be nice. After the tour, Neil and I took a taxi to the silk market. They didn't have any silk there on bolts. It was all knock offs of clothing. Neil got a “North Face” jacket for $30, it looks authentic. I got a pashmina shawl. We've had trouble using ATM's - they won't give us money. We tried two at the airport and several near our hotel, they say unable to process and spit our our card. Coming back from silk market, we passed a Citibank, so we asked our cabby to turn around and take us there. We were able to get about $500 which will probably last us until Hong Kong . I had changed a $50 USD yesterday at the airport. Next time, I'll rely more on cash and/or traveler's checks.   Beijing is a lot more modern than I expected. New buildings going up everywhere. There aren't many of the communist looking apartment buildings like I expected to see.

Day 3

We had a day tour today to the Ming Tombs and to the Great Wall. The Ming tombs were ok, nothing earth shattering. We didn't get to go inside the tombs or anything. After lunch we went to the Great Wall at Badaling. Neil and I climbed the wall a ways until we couldn't go any farther - the wall turned into rubble. It was neat. For some reason when we climbed, we were one of the only ones, but on the way back there were tons of tourists. We went left when we entered which is the opposite direction that most of the tourists took. We found out later that if we would have gone to the right we would have eventually come to the end of the wall.  We stopped at a Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital on the way back into Beijing . A woman gave a brief discussion of traditional Chinese medicine and then some "doctors" came in to give us an evaluation. The doctor felt our pulses on both wrists, looked at our tongue, and asked a few questions. He knew right away that Neil had back problems and pain down his leg. It was interesting. We bought Neil some herbs, most people in our group bought what the doctor prescribed. Neil's has 4 or 5 ingredients, the one I can remember is crushed beetles! We paid ~$60 for a month of herbs for Neil. I think our tour group helped subsidize the Chinese health care system. We went back to the pearl market after our day tour. I bought some pearl earrings, bracelet, and necklace. The prices seemed good, my necklace was about $40.  So far, we really like China , the people are nice and it's really interesting to see the differences between our societies. We see men on 3 wheeled bikes hauling loads on the side of the roads. Some are hauling heavy loads of pressed coal. There are even bike repair shops set up on corners every few blocks. We're going to get a picture tomorrow for Mark. Another interesting thing is the exercise equipment set up in the parks. They have super heavy duty (think playground like equipment) exercise equipment set up in some of the parks - stationary bikes, etc. We are planning on getting up early tomorrow to see the people exercising in the parks. We fly to Xi'an tomorrow. We have a guide/driver picking us up at noon to take us to the airport. The food has been really good. The lunches included in the tours have been yummy. For dinner tonight we had delicious chicken with red pepper at one of the restaurants in the New World Shopping Center . Two entrees, egg rolls, and beverages were less than $10.  We haven't gone anywhere fancy yet, mostly to places catering to Chinese.

Day 4

Neil and I got up early today and went to the Temple of Heaven , it's a large park in Beijing . We saw a lot of older people exercising in the park, it was cool. People doing all kinds of different exercises – tai chi, dancing, hitting a ball back and forth with rackets, group singing. We also saw some guys with their birds there. They hang the cages in the tree so they can sing together. We also wandered through one of the old neighborhoods near our hotel, it was what they call a hutong – small old alleyways with houses off of them. They mustn’t have central plumbing because every so often, there were public toilets. We went to the pearl market again and I got a piece of blue silk. It's about 1.15 meters. I paid a little over $3, I don't think I got the greatest buy, but it was probably cheaper than at home. It's a deep blue, not royal but not really navy either.  We went to the food court at the mall adjoining our hotel for lunch. Neil and I had huge plates of fried rice and a side dish or marinated vegetables for $1 each. At noon , our guide picked us up to take us to the airport for our flight to Xi'an . The airport is nice in Beijing , very modern. We had to pay a 50 yuan departure tax each. The flight on Air China was better than I expected, the plane was a very new Boeing 777. Our guide met us at the airport in Xian for the slow ride to our hotel. The weather is crappy here about 55 and misty. The drive to Xian was over an hour and very herky-jerky. Gas-brake-gas-brake. The traffic here is incredible. Pretty much a free for all of buses, taxis, cars, pedestrians, and bikes. Tomorrow we have a day tour to the Terra Cotta warriors. We went to the Muslim district of the city tonight for dinner, it was very interesting. We ate at one of the restaurants, we had grilled mutton on skewers (grilled in front of the restaurant along the sidewalk) with a really spicy chili paste on it. We had 10 little skewers, fried noodles, a Coke, and iced tea for $3. Our hotel here is really nice it is called the Purple Mountain Hotel, a step above the Courtyard in Beijing . I asked our guide is she could ask for a room with one bed (we had twins in Beijing )so we were upgraded to a nicer room.

Day 5

We had a day tour to the Terra Cotta warriors, they were incredible. I guess back in the  80's UNESCO declared them the 8th Wonder of the World. We even saw the farmer who first discovered them while digging a well in '74. The weather was crappy about 55-60 and rainy all day. Our tour also stopped at BaPo village, which is an ancient village going back 6000 years. Next we stopped at a pottery factory, Neil and I bought a terra cotta warrior that is a foot or so tall to put in our garden. The tours have these obligatory shopping stops at state run shops. Next we stopped at the Xian Winter Palace before stopping for lunch. Lunch is always interesting because you get to meet the others on your tour (and hear about their travels). After lunch we went to see the warriors, they have quite a complex built there. Huge buildings over the pits housing the warriors. Once we got back into Xian we stopped at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. We decided to go to the Ting Dynasty dinner and show (it was $50 each). It was neat, Neil even liked it. We were seated next to a couple from our day tour, so that was a nice surprise.

Day 6

We had an early start this morning, left the hotel at 6:30 to get to the airport. The one good thing leaving early was that there was no traffic, the traffic in Xian was worse than Beijing . (Xian has 6 million people). The traffic in Beijing and Xian was worse than anywhere I can think of - NY, Bangkok , Rome , etc.  We had a good flight to Guilin , it's much warmer here - at least 80. We hired our guide to take us to the FuDong peak, we climbed the karst. Then went to the Reed Flute Cave . The stalagmites were incredible, it's definitely the most impressive cave I've been to. Today is the big mid-Autumn festival. We saw a light show in the square and everyone was out and about.   Most of the Chinese looked at us with curiosity, especially the kids.   I think I hear fireworks going off right now. I guess most people have a big dinner, so many people were bringing home live ducks and chickens to cook. They had them in the baskets on their bikes, in bags (with the head sticking out and the duck quacking), and tied up (alive) hanging from the handle bars.  Tomorrow we take the Li River cruise down to Yangshuo. I think it takes about 4 or 5 hours. Then we'll be there for 4 nights. Our guide had a lot of good things to say about it. He'll pick us up there and take us to the airport for when we go to Hong Kong . It's cool because everything is taken care of for us.

Day 7

We had a four hour cruise along the Li River today, it is very pretty with limestone karsts all over. It reminds us of the rock formations we saw in Thailand last year. The lunch was cooked in an open kitchen on the back of the boat. It was cool to look at the kitchen on the boat in front of us. We passed one boat with Americans and their newly adopted Chinese babies.  During peak tourist season our guide side as many as 10,000 people will do the cruise on 150 boats. Our boat had about 30 people on it, it was less than half full which was nice. We saw water buffalo in the river, rice paddies, fishing villages. The boat cruise was part of our package but otherwise runs 460 yuan each. We left the tour in Yangshuo and checked into our hotel the Paradise Resort for the next 4 nights. The town is very Western friendly, more like Thailand was. Internet cafes, western food, and loads of shops. This is the first place I've seen pretty wrap around silk skirts and batiks. We'll hire a guide and rent bikes the next few days to take us into the countryside. There are some very old villages to go to. I'm sure we'll hike up some of the peaks too. We had an ok dinner at Under the Moon Cafe, it cost about $7, but I wouldn't go back. While we were sitting there “Esther” approached us to see if we needed a guide for tomorrow. She had some journal type books with her that had other traveler’s comments. We read through some of them and decided to hire her for tomorrow. She said you basically pay want you want, my guess is 50 to 100 yuan or so. Some of the people said she cooked a great meal. It should be an interesting day. Her English is limited, but she is somewhat understandable. Esther will meet us at 9:00 tomorrow morning. Our local CITS tour guides from Guilin told us it was safe to go with these women. Neil and I figure she couldn't write the comments in her book.

Day 8

We found the "locals" internet cafe, its 25 cents per hour! Beats the $7 per hour we've paid at our hotels in other cities. The connection is quick and I have a big monitor. We met Esther at 9:00 this morning and rented 2 mountain bikes. The bikes were 20 yuan for both. We rode into the countryside on roads, then dirt paths/roads. At the scenic spots, old Chinese ladies would run up selling postcards and water (it got kind of annoying after a while). I had my picture taken sitting on top of a water buffalo. That cost 1 yuan. We rode to the Half Moon peak. Neil and I hiked to the top. We had a Chinese lady following us with a styrofoam cooler the whole way up and down (took an hour roundtrip). I bought a juice on the way up. Felt guilty and bought post cards (I told Neil she needed some new shoes and to consider it charity). I also got a Coke from her when we got back down. I guess it beats toiling in the fields. We rode our bikes to Esther's house which was near the Half Moon and had lunch there. Her sister and brother do the cooking. There were 2 other groups of foreigners that were there eating too. The food was really good, I think it was safe. I think the stuff is killed pretty much right before you eat it. We rode the hour back to town and found a place to have our laundry done. We're going to do our own thing tomorrow then meet up with Esther again on Wednesday. She'll take us by local boat to another village for their market day, then we'll take either a scenic motorbike (side car) or bicycle ride through the countryside.

Day 9

I bought 2 real batik short wrap skirts this morning for 45 yuan - that's about $5. I like to use them as  swimsuit cover-ups. I know real batik is expensive at home. I bought a batik tablecloth yesterday too. We got Hannah and Elizabeth painted t-shirts with Panda's on them and some Chinese writing for 25 yuan each. We are going on a one hour boat tour tonight to see the cormorant fishermen. The are the guys who fish with the birds. The wrap a string around their neck so they can't swallow the fish.

Day 10

We went on the cormorant fishing thing last night. It was really cool. You could see the birds swimming under the water, they'd come up with a fish. Eventually their necks would get swollen with fish so the fisherman would "reel" the bird in (they have a string hanging off their leg, he catches him with a poll with a hook on the end). Then he has the bird "cough" up the fish. They can't swallow the fish because they have a string tied around their neck. It was cool to see these birds trained to fish like that. The birds seemed to really like it, I guess it takes several years to train the birds. I got my picture with a bird and on the guys bamboo raft. Most of the Chinese do a lot of hard work for basically no money. We saw guys working on a bridge the other day. They were squatting and chiseling small rocks into gravel with a hammer and chisel. Can you imagine doing that all day for a few dollars? I saw a guy today making galvanized metal buckets by hand. Makes you appreciate what you have... We met Esther again this morning (our guide from Monday). She kind of had her own agenda. We rode our bikes about 1 1/2 hours through some small villages. This must have been a less touristy route because the old ladies weren't jumping out trying to sell us water and postcards. We eventually came to a boat dock and took a boat across the river. I took some pictures of the people on the boat with the digital camera and showed them the images. They thought it was really neat.  We were on our way to Fuli which had a local market today. They were selling veggies, chickens, ducks (all live), puppies, and kittens (for pets I hope). The poor people from the countryside were the main people at the market. It was really interesting to see. A peasant here makes about $20 per month.  I used a "toilet" at a paper fan shop we stopped at. It was a very basic Chinese toilet - think 2 footprints and stones. They had brown paper to use which was felt like a lunch bag (I brought my own kleenex to use).  Next, we boarded another local boat to an old village . It was interesting. We got back on our boat for another hour. We got hosed on the price of the boat by the way, paid 300 yuan  (almost $40) for a 2 hour boat ride. Definitely tourist price, now we know what the books mean when they say we're seen as rich foreigners. Neil and I both kind of questioned the price since it seemed very high. I don't know if our guide pocketed some of it or not. My guess is the boat should have been less than $10. We saw some German tourists on their bikes and they said our guide told them not to tell us what they had paid for their boat. So of course they did, they paid 160 yuan, which was also probably high. We got off with our bikes downriver. Our guide thought we'd bike back to Yangshuo. I had told her when we left this morning that I didn't want to bike another 2 hours in the afternoon. It was hot and sunny and I wanted to relax in Yangshuo for a bit in the afternoon. I've hardly biked in the last 7 years. Anyways, she hired a truck to take us back to Yangshuo (we paid 30 yuan for the 30 minute ride). Neil checked the distance on the odometer, it was 20km. We relaxed by the hotel's pool for a while when we got back.  We had  dinner at "Minnie Mao's" so I had 15 minutes of free internet with my meal order. Sometimes in Yangshuo, it's easy to forget you're in China. We sat next to a German couple who we talked to when we got off the boat this afternoon. Neil and I did hike up one of the karsts We watched the sun set a bit. Now I'll shop! I also have some books to trade, they have a lot of used English books for sale or trade. Tomorrow we get picked up by our official CITS guide from Guilin . CITS is the national Chinese agency that pretty much you have to use. The guides have been very reliable though, they do take care of you. He'll drive us the 1 1/2 hours to the airport and see us off. Then we have a short flight to Hong Kong where we'll finish up our trip.

Day 11

We arrived in Hong Kong today. We're staying at the BP International. The rooms are pretty basic, but it's fine. We're definitely back in the "West." It's interesting to see how different Hong Kong is from China . Very developed. The skyline is incredible, better than New York . We hope it'll be less hazy tomorrow so we can go up to Victoria Peak. We have to ride the Star Ferry too. (Those are the 2 must do's in HK along with maybe tea at the Peninsula Hotel.) We ate dinner at the Happy Noodle Shop, I had really good roast duck and Neil had barbecued pork on stir fried (crunchy) noodles. Dinner was about $10, but it is considered an inexpensive place. I think the sky is the limit here, prices are like what we're used to at home. We went to the Temple St Night Market. Hong Kong must be cracking down on knock off stuff. It was mostly trinkets.

Day 12

We walked to the Star Ferry Pier and took the ferry across to Hong Kong Island . It is a 7 minute ride from the Kowloon side to Hong Kong Island. The fare for the upper deck is 2.20 HKD, around 30 cents. We caught the #1 bus to the peak. It cost 7.40 HKD which is cheaper than the tram which is 20.00 each way. The view was incredible. The skyline here is just amazing. We plan to go back up tonight to see the city lights. We ate lunch at Le Marche at the peak, it's a Swiss chain that we've eaten at before. The restaurant was at the top of the peak, so it was worth it for the view. We took the tram down and went to the Bank of China building. We rode the elevator up to the 43rd floor where you can look out the windows. Next we took one of the double decker trams for a ride. The fare is 2 HKD, payable to the driver when you exit. We caught the #6 bus to Stanley market, the fare was 8.40. It was about a 30 minute ride. We passed by many gorgeous homes. I shopped at the market a bit, there seemed to be a lot of factory overruns especially in children's clothing. We took the 240 express bus back, it takes the tunnel to Central instead of the windy roads, and it cost 10.60. Once back to Central we road the MTR which is their subway, it is really nice. There's even an electronic map on the train to show you where you are, what the next stop is and there's an arrow showing you which direction the train is going. We hit the grocery store (called Wellcome) across the street from our hotel. We struck out on our first 2 restaurant choices for supper. One was no longer where it was supposed to be and the other was having a private party so we ended up taking  a taxi from the Star Ferry in Central to the Peak. We ate at the Peak Lookout, which was had a lodgey kind of feel. Our bill was 600 HKD. It was good, Neil has swordfish, I had Pad Thai and we had chicken satay for an appetizer. The skyline of Hong Kong at night is incredible. The camera just doesn't do it justice. We're at the Pacific Coffee Cafe now at the Peak, you get free internet when you make a purchase. Their coffee is really good.  There's also one by our hotel so we'll eat breakfast there tomorrow.

Day 13

We went to the software market and to the bird market this morning. Didn't buy anything at either. It is kind of neat to see the bird cages hanging in the trees though. They bring their birds out for a little fresh air and so they can sing together. We shopped in Kowloon later. We bought one of those inlaid stone globes that we had originally liked in Beijing. It was about $75 USD. The box is huge about 2 feet square. We plan to check it tomorrow, it's packed in styrofoam so it should be pretty safe. I got a carry on size rolling suitcase and a larger one to match in a charcoal color. We put Neil's backpack inside the suitcase, we paid $60 total for the 2 suitcases.  We ate dinner at Peking Duck at 227 Nathan Rd , it was north of Austin Road by a block or two and was located on the second floor. The food was excellent. We ordered stir fried mixed vegetables, egg rolls, sweet and sour pork, and fried noodles with shredded chicken. The sweet and sour pork was the best we've had. We could have done without the egg rolls, they were good but we just ordered too much food. Our waiter was very nice, we were seated at a large round table with about 7 other people. There was only one other Western couple in the entire restaurant. The restaurant filled up quickly and when we left there was a small line of people waiting to be seated. Our entire bill was HK $280 including toffee apples for dessert along with a beer and a coca cola.

Day 14

We got a taxi outside of our hotel at 5:30 AM to the airport. The meter fare said HK 240, but then the driver said there was a charge for our baggage and for the toll road. So the total charge ended up being HK 400. It took us less than 30 minutes to get there from Kowloon . Check in was fast, but most shops in the airport didn't open until 7:30 or 8:00 . The flights home were fine, with time only to find our connecting gates.

 
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