Xian and the 2,200 years old Terracotta Warriors

The overnight train journey to Xian was eventful. Some of the group were lucky enough have be in soft sleepers, so nominated they cabin to be the party cabin.

The hardsleepers we're very 'hard': used bed sheets, pillow and duvet! Even I brought out my sleeping bag for this journey.

Xin taught us a 'devils and angels', a game where at 'night' a devil kills an angel and the 'next morning', we have to try and find out who the devil was. Losers had to have baizhou, a nasty Chinese spirit. We neutralised the taste by have sweet biscuits that looked like pigs' ears.



As promised by the cabin attendant, they played 'Beijing huan ying ni' as we entered Beijing. The past two hours on the train was spent being entertained by a young girl who came into our cabin with her grandfather and wanted to dance to the music coming from my speakers.

We had to get off at South Xian, 30km south of Xian. While we waited for a minibus to take us into the city, we witnessed a police raid on the platform (we think drugs related) and a little bit took an interest in each of us, finally wanting a photo of me and caught my attention by calling me the 'black one'.

Xian is the ancient capital of China, having been the capital from around 1000BC to 1000AD. We walked around the centre of the city and the vibrant Muslim quarter. We had a great meal, including awesome kebab sticks. Chris and I also were informed of the trip gossip, which we were not aware of at all! We then went to a bar briefly and then headed back to our hotel. However, on our way back, we lost Nicola! She refused to cross a 6-lane road, decided to tackle the subway instead and got lost. Chris, Chris and I went looking for her and found her, but not until 20 minutes of panic. No harm done in the end.

The next day, we went to see the Terracotta Warriors, which are around an hour out of the city. The Army was built to guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, about 2,200 years ago.



The Army was only discovered in 1974 when peasants we're digging a well. There are three vaults, of which Vault 2 is yet to be completed uncovered as they are still struggling with maintaining the Warriors once excavated. All in all, it was very impressive, although very touristy.

After an afternoon of chilling, some of us met up in the evening. We were bar hopping, first at the ride Hutong Bar, then at the cheap, but empty Kingsway Bar, and finally at the 1+1 club, which was brilliant fun. The night ended around 4am.

The next day, I hadn't done any sightseeing the day before in the city, so was determined to check out as much as I could before we got a train to Beijing at 5pm, even though it was raining.

I managed to see the Big Goose Pagoda and the Small Goose Pagoda, both very impressive. The Small Goose Pagoda was set amongst beautiful gardens and artifical lakes, and was also next to the very impressive Xian Museum, which explains well how civilisation developed in Xian and the Shaanxi Province.

I then bumped into Leon on the City Wall and we decided to rent bikes and cycle around the 14km perimeter. It began to rain heavily and we got soaked. Worse, we walked back to the hotel as we couldn't find a taxi and ended up rushing for a shower before leaving for our overnight trip to Beijing.

The Giant Buddha, Emei Shan and a whole lot more

We took a short bus ride from Chengdu to Leshan, home of Dafo, the largest Buddha sculpture in the world. Dafo took almost 100 years to build and stands at 71 metres in height.



We then got a bus to Emei Shan where we would stay at the Baoguo Monastery. The monastery was amazing; very tranquil. The living facilities were much better than I expected - comfortable rooms, clean squat loos, hot water 24hrs a day as long as you're willing to use the Chinese showers.

The next morning, most of us (not me) were woken up by the monks' chanting at 4am.



Our local guide, Patrick, who was clearly the man around town, brought an attractive local guide, Aries, with him the next morning who would come with us to the top of Emei Shan.



We took a bus to a spot best the top of the mountain and then a cable car the rest of the way. The buildings and scenery up top was stunning and we could easily have spent an entire day up there.

After lunch together, the group split. Most of the group took a bus back down, while Chris, Dave and I decided to walk down to our nightspot, the Hongchunping Monastery. Chris and I didn't have any sticks to fend off any potential monkey attacks (very common). It turned out that we encountered very few monkeys; we later found out that most of them were on the touristy path that the others took. The scenery was by no means spectacular, but it was a much quieter track. At one point, it was 5pm and we were 15km away from our nightstay, so we were worried we wouldn't get back before dark. As a result, we put our foot on it and dragged Dave with us.

After playing Mallett's Mallet at dinner, we crashed out, but I didn't get much sleep as Chris was snoring like a demon in the room next door!

The following day we walked back down to Baoguo Monastery and then headed to the nearby 5 star hotel to treat ourselves to their hot springs facilities. There were more than 10 different pools, indoor and outdoor, as well as a traditional swimming pool. Aries wanted me to teach her how to swim, but within 5 minutes of the lesson I handed responsibility over to Rachel, who seemed to love it. There was even a pool where fish eat any dead skin you have on your body - couple of the guys were bleeding! I also had a full body massage.

It was Christine's birthday and Patrick and Xin had arranged dinner at the local market. Dinner was awesome, even though we had hoards of locals taking photos of us while eating. Patrick had also arranged a birthday cake and for a musician to play for us - after Happy Birthday in Chinese and English, we also heard Royal Britannia and Beijing Huan Jing Ni (my request). The entire evening for great fun, probably one of my best nights in China and it didn't involve a bar or a club (not possible as monastery had a curfew of 9:30pm).



The following day, most of the group went for a countryside tour. I had agreed to meet up with Aries at her university. It was a stark contrast to anything back home. Students often lived in 8-person dorm rooms, and girls and boys had separate dorm buildings. I had lunch at the canteen which was average at best, but it was an experience at least. Probably every student and teacher who walked into the canteen
must have stared at me - I didn't see a non-Chinese person on campus all day. We then played ping pong with some of her friends (I was surprisingly ok) and a young girl who was keen to try and play, and then spent the remainder of the afternoon chilling.

I met up with the rest of the group and we then headed for dinner and the train station for our journey to Xian.

Chengdu, home of the giant panda

It was time to head to Sichuan Province, which was hit by a huge earthquake only a few months ago. Sichuan is famous for its natural beauty, spicy hotpot, attractive girls and most of all, the giant panda.

The overnight train to Chengdu was not great. We passed the time by playing card games. The loser had to have some horrid salt and onion biscuits.

The hotel was very nice (much needed after boat trip) and we had a great lunch on arrival. Thus far, the food in China had been excellent and I was eating loads (but not putting any weight on of course).



Leon and I decided to rent out some bikes and tackle the chaotic streets of Chengdu. It was brilliant fun, and definitely the best way to navigate around the city. We must have nearly got run over at least half a dozen times. We stopped at a teahouse in one of the many parks in Chengdu and had some excellent tea - can't tell you what it was as menu was in Chinese. We got in trouble a few times with security police as we were caught riding bikes on pedestrian only roads. We got very lost on our way back, but managed to return back to the hotel just in time to catch the group heading to the Sichuan cultural show.

The show was spectacular. It is famous for performers who can change their masks and sometimes their entire costumes in a split second without the audience realising. The mask performance was amazing, but so was the puppet show, kung fu dudes, music etc.



To top of a great day, a few of us headed to a restaurant for a spicy Sichuan hotpot with our local guide. We had a great meal and entertained others in the restaurant at the same time with our basic Chinese.



The next day was a big one - panda time! We were all very excited, especially the girls. We got to see pandas of all ages, from one week old pandas to fully grown adults. It was amazing to see them in the flesh - climbing, playing with each other, falling off trees etc. It was a little disappointing to see a few in our group pay £80 or so to cuddle a 1yr panda as it is not good for the pandas. It was also clear that the pandas were very aware of human presence, often hiding behind trees when many people gathered in one place.

After that, a few of us went to visit the Wenshu Temple, which is a Buddhist temple. The entire complex was great and the calming influence of buddhism was evident as the street hawkers were not as loud and aggressive. We ate at the vegetarian restaurant inside before returning home.



Rather than get a taxi back, I convinced the others that we should take a bus for the local experience. We somehow managed to find the right bus going in the right direction and we befriended this random girl on the bus who told us when to get off.



After another hotpot for dinner, a few of us headed out. First stop was an outdoor amusement park area where I got my ears cleaned by some dude for 20RMB (less than £2). I think it was more traumatic for those watching it than me as I couldn't see the various tools he was using. We then went to a club which was good fun and didn't leave until around 3am.

Unexpectedly eventful boat ride on the Yangzi River

Our journey to Yichang, from where we would explore the Yangzi River and infamous Three Gorges Dam, was very complicated. We first took a four hour bus, and then an overnight train, although we were in soft sleepers this time, so only four per cabin and we had a door - luxury! Dinner on the train was not the best, but edible. This was followed by another lengthy bus ride to where we would board our boat. It was further complicated by the fact that Leon, one of the Kiwis in the group, was always late and Xin, our group leader, was always hurrying is everyone, often with no reason.

The room on the boat where we would spend two nights was muggy, the bed linen damp, the AC wasn't working and the carpet was wet. Other than that, they were fine. However, whilst fast asleep, I woke up at 6am the next morning to a lady blurts out a "Chinese" wake up call on the boat's speaker system. This was follows by some loud and bad Chinese music, just to make sure you didn't go back to bed. There was no missing the very average Chinese breakfast in favour of a lie in on this boat.

Most of the group decided to skip the welcome party. I joined in one of the games where the instructions were given in Chinese - not a surprise that I didn't win. Having said that, Patrick from another Intrepid group won - hmmm. Leon, Dave, Leon's dad, and I joined the other Intrepid group for a few games: musical chairs, leap frog, human pyramid and best of all, karaoke. This included each of us singing our national anthems which was quite amusing. The boat ride through the first gorge wasn't great, mainly as the weather was very overcast. We took a rowing boat out where our sweet local guide entertained is with her singing (yes, more Chinese ballads). The views got better through the second gorge. It reminded me of the high, green hills of Marlborough in New Zealand's South Island. Due to the building of the dam, some one million people had to be relocated, and according to our local guide, were all happy with it - believe that if you want. We had the dull opportunity to walk around a town built for some of those relocated. Whilst there was little to look at, our walk proved very interesting as this random Chinese girl kept on saying Hello to me as I passed with some others from the group. As I bought ice cream for others in the group, she asked me to buy her one. Guide said I should for a laugh and she then decided she wanted a photo with me and felt that I should have her phone number and home address. The group found all this hilarious. We visited the dam itself the following day. The dam, though a very ambitious project, was not visually appealing - it was basically a very large block of concrete, but the Chinese were clearly very proud of this project, which will be completely next year. The dam is almost 2km long creating an artificial lake extending 670km upsteam. Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Yangshuo, the beginning of my group trip It was time to leave Beijing (for now) and head to Hong Kong for the start of my 3-week Intrepid trip through central China. I was being cheap so I took a flight to Shenzhen and then got a bus across the "border" - the Chinese don't consider Hong Kong within "mainland China", so flights to HK are way more expensive. I was struggling big time, mainly because I didn't sleep the night before thanks to a heavy night out. I was in Hong Kong for less than 24 hours, but I did manage to have lunch with Sachin and Sheryl, get a temporary AMEX card (as I had lost of my cards in Beijing), and met the people I would be travelling with for the next 3 weeks. It was a very different experience being with a group, especially having been travelling alone with all the freedom in the world for the previous 2 months. There were clearly some who would struggle with the Chinese culture (spitting, no privacy etc) and food, but I was hoping this wouldn't lesser my experience. Only time will tell. We left Hong Kong, back across the border to Shenzhen and then an overnight train to Guilinm, a city in the southern Guangxi province of China. We were in the hard sleepers cabins, ie 6 beds to an open cabin. Some of the group weren't very unimpressed with the standard of accommodation (which shouldn't have come as a surprise), but I actually thought it was pretty good and got a good night's sleep. But before I did, a few of us spent some time in the dining cart and bar where the barman was getting molestered by some female waitresses, but I think he enjoyed it! When we got into Guilin, we took a private bus to Yangshuo, a small town situated along the Li River and surrounded by karst peaks. It was a very touristy town, but most of the tourists were Chinese, and even though there were several hawkers trying to sell you anything and everything, I found it very pleasant. The views of the surrounding peaks were awesome, especially from the Monkey Janes bar. During our two days there, I went bamboo rafting along the Li River and cormorant fishing, which is a strange method of fishing whereby cormorant birds are released into the water to catch fish. They have thin piece of rope around their necks so they cannot swallow the fish and the fishermen grabs the fish out of their mouths. Never quite got to the bottom of why they used this method of fishing. We also went for a light show in the evening, which was designed by the same guy who masterminded the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. Most of the performance was out on a lake and quite spectacular. The highlight of my stay in Yangshuo was definitely the bike ride around the surrounding hills. We walked up to Moon Hill where there were good views od neighbouring peaks, although it was fairly smoggy. The short walk to Moon Hill was very slippery. The Chinese built very slippery stairs everywhere! We then had lunch at our local guide's house before heading back into town. The town although very small had great food and a few good nightspots. Nicola and Chris, a couple from London, and I went for dinner and then a few drinks at Coco Bar where we learnt a game with dice. Dice games are a very popular pasttime for Chinese people, especially on the streets and in the bars and clubs. The following night I also tried beerfish, the local specialty, which was delicious, and then the group played the dice game, which was very entertaining! Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) Videos Our own volleyball cheerleaders Danish chant performed by Joanne White Han and I having singing lessons Sappingi's laugh, Kiau Little kid with moves in Alley Boo, Saigon Getting my ears cleaned! 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After taking a gap year having completed my A-levels, I went to the London School of Economics where I received a BSc in Economics. After graduating in 2001, I spent the best part of four months travelling through South America. It was during this trip that I caught the travel bug and have travelled as much as possible ever since, dragging as many friends along with me as possible. In 2002, I joined UBS Investment Bank. During my 6 years at UBS, I was also able to travel a significant amount, both on business and pleasure. It was a trip to Antarctica in February 2008 where I finally decided that I want to leave the corporate world behind for a little while and spend serious time travelling. Thus far my travels have taken me to parts of Continental Europe, the US, South America, Northern, Eastern and Southern Africa, New Zealand, but other than India and Thailand, I have seen little of Asia. This journey is intended to correct this. View my complete profile Alkit