Japan - 30 August 2014

Had a wander around Tokyo, photo 1 is by Asakusa Kannon Temple, photos 2 and 3 are at the temple.
There were lots of vibrant colours and clothing around.

Got up at 2.50am to queue for a look at the tuna auction in the Tsukiji Fish market.
Only 120 people can get in each day so you need to be early.
Had to wait until 5.20am to get inside and you only get about 20 to 25 minutes in there.  We had some sushi afterwards of course.

People working in the area around the Tsukiji Fish market.

Jonathan buying some marinated tuna.  Views of Tokyo from 45th floor of The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

Went to the town of Matsumoto which is the tidiest town I have ever been to.  Stayed at Marumo Ryokan, traditional 

Japanese accommodation - photo 4 is our room.  Matsumoto castle and view of Matsumoto.

Jonathan and I at Matsumoto castle with a new friend.  One of the trains we used getting from Matsumoto to the city of Toyama, it was only 1 carriage and the driver was in the front on the left.  Jonathan and I with our nephew Nik Rae who is living and teaching in Toyama.  The 3 of us went to Unazuki, then by tourist train into the Kurobe Gorge. 

In Inage on our last night in Japan with Ena and Mathew Hollinshead at a Korean restaurant.

Guilin and Yangshuo - Guangxi. 18-25 August 2014

Welcome back, or welcome….

Yangshuo was where our China adventure began one year earlier.  We decided to head back to this area as the scenery is absolutely stunning and we did not really get a chance to take it in as we got shipped out to Huaian immediately our orientation had finished – so here we are back again.

Started in Guilin after arriving on the plane from Xian, where I got to leave my Swiss army knife as I forgot to pack it in my checked luggage and got busted by the X-ray machine at the airport – bugger.

Made our way to a hostel in the main part of town and near to the Li River.  It has a great lounge/bar set-up here and the pizzas are pretty good so all in all a good place to stay.  Spent a day wandering around the town and included a visit to the Elephant Hill park which is a big attraction here and of course you have to pay to get into the park.  A little ho-hum to be honest and felt there was far better scenery in this area to be viewed for free.

One of the reasons for heading back this way was to visit the rice terraces which we did by joining a day bus tour which was sorted by the hostel.  On the way there we were told that some access to the terraces was blocked by slips in the mountainous area, luckily there are several areas of terracing available to visit. 

Part of the tour was a stop at a village occupied by people of the Yao ethnic minority. The main feature here is the woman have extremely long hair, up to 1.7mtrs long and they are often called  the “long hair minority”.  The other interesting fact here was the village is run by the women with the men pretty much doing as they are told – didn’t fancy hanging out here for long!

On the road again and once at the main town servicing the terrace tourist industry we had to change into smaller buses which then wound up some pretty dodgy “goat track” roads and arrived at another carpark and then proceeded to walk for about 30 minutes to a small village in the midst of the Longji Terraces.  After an organised lunch, which was pretty average, we wandered around the terraced hillsides and amongst the houses, some of which were over 100 years old.  Was quite a hike back to the buses as we had gone quite a distance past the village in pursuit of the “next good picture.”

Next day we caught a local bus to Yangshuo which took about one and a half hours.  Upon arrival we made our way to Tiffany’s Hostel which is very close to the Bucklands school/office – this is the company we worked for in China.  Went for a wander around town and in the space of 1 year we noticed a few changes, the biggest being a whole new roading tunnel through a hill – they sure don’t muck around here;  RMA? Consent? Opposition? –forget it!!

During our walk we enquired about an evening cormorant fishing display, first place 80RMB, second place 60RMB and then the next place was 60RMB which quickly went to 40RMB when I said we would think about it.  OK, so we go back at 7pm to meet the ‘guide’ who turns up and we walk through town collecting several other tourist groups, Chinese and foreigners, and we are led towards the river and then a gravel track in the dark towards a flat bottomed boat equipped with rows of seats.  This is looking pretty dodgy by this time and of course there are no life-jackets.

The skipper shoves off and we go around several old boats tied up on the river-bank and next thing this small boat comes alongside driven by an old Chinese guy with about 6 cormorant birds on the front.  These birds are fish catchers and the Chinese worked out by putting a ring on their neck they cannot swallow the fish and the handler uses a hook set-up to grab the bird and retrieve the fish, all pretty good –for the fisherman, fish and bird not so much.

So cruising in the semi dark in a sheltered arm of the river and these birds are diving into the dirty brown water beside our boat and all of a sudden there is a splash and a bird dives and appears with a fish which is duly retrieved and the bird released to continue.  Now call me a cynic but I was sure I had seen this fish ‘dive’ into the water a split second before said bird ‘caught it’.  The crowd on the boat thought this was pretty good and so I watched and waited.  That is I watched the ‘guide’ at the back of our boat and sure enough after a short time he threw another small fish over the top of our boat in front of the birds and was again snapped up by the diving birds.  The whole thing was just such a scam it actually became funny and we had a good laugh with another couple about the whole thing – except they had paid 80RMB –haha.  And then when we got dropped off back at the edge of the river there was another 25 odd people waiting to get on the boat for the “Cormorant Fishing Show/Scam”.  Remember, TIC and often things are not what you see in the advertising picture.

The next day we hired bicycles and headed off to discover some of the surrounding countryside amongst the beautiful Karst hills.  We covered quite a bit of ground on both sides of the river and sure earned our pizza dinner and a couple of beers at the Alley Bar in downtown that evening.  So you think China is a large place? – and there we are cycling down some random track outside of Yangshuo near the Li River when you run into an American couple I had chatted to for 10 minutes in a pizza bar 2 weeks earlier and nearly two thousand kilometres away in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.

We had run into an Irish family along the way and they had hired motor-scooters which seemed like a better idea so we organised a scooter for the next day.

It sure was a better way to get around and this time we went far and wide.  One track through a village to the river was a dead end and had to back-track.  Was great though as we ended up talking to a Chinese couple from Harbin.  They had just sent their 15 year old son to college in Texas and they are expecting him to go on to University and are budgeting 5 million RMB for this 8 year exercise.  He works for one of the major banks and she at a Telecom company –must have pretty good jobs is all I can say.

Visited the ancient Dragon Bridge after passing through the town of Baisha. Along the river there were simply hundreds of bamboo rafts ferrying tourists on the Li River and all the associated stalls that go with people gathering.  Then back to Baisha and we decided to do a loop out amongst the hills and back into Yangshuo another way and planning to be back in town at the Alley Bar to catch the second half of the All Blacks vs Australia test.

It was a great ride and the scenery magnificent until……there was a loud bang as we headed up a hill.  I stopped and the scooter wouldn’t start as well as a strong smell of burnt rubber.  We coasted back down the hill and pushed it to a very small community we had just passed through.  At the intersection, which way?  Right, and there was a small shed which was a motor-cycle repair business.  We pushed it in and this guy-looked about 15, got stuck into it and the whole wiring loom was burnt and the battery had exploded.  A lady in the village was summonsed who spoke English and the bike hire company were contacted and arranged for repairs and a new battery.  About 2 hours and 200RMB later we headed off for the remaining 15km ride back to town.  The repairs were a lesson in ingenuity and use of scraps lying around in this guys workshop, but hey they worked. -photos

Following day we went on a river boat trip which was really good and included a mini-van trip to the starting point.  A feature of this trip was the scenery which is featured on the 20RMB note and we joined the crowds getting the photo.  –photo.

Having finally spent some time exploring this area we were pleased we had come back and taken the time to wander and soak up the atmosphere here.  Highly recommend visiting this part of the world. Next day it was time to hit the road and head back to Huaian and get ready to leave China.

Longji rice terraces, local women.  Red chilli peppers being dried on a roof.  Jonathan in Guilin, and cormorant fishing display.

The amazing country side around Yangshou.

Motor scooter repairs, a lady I got to photograph while waiting for the scooter to be fixed.  View on the way back to Yangshou.  Jonathan with the 20 RMB note that matches the hills behind.

X’ian – Shaanxi. 13-18 August 2014

Welcome back, or welcome….

Arrived in X’ian after another trip on a bullet train, this time 3 hours of streaking across the Chinese countryside at 245km/h. The countryside seemed to be covered in corn/maize and the sky was a grey haze of pollution pretty much the whole way – not flash.  The bullet train line from Pingyao to Xian is only new and in fact the Pingyao station was well out of town and some of the roads, parking, entry stairs and general infrastructure around the station were still being finished.

Our hostel in Xian was just inside the Great City Wall and was recommended to us by a fellow teacher here and it was a great place to stay with pretty good facilities and handy to the main sights within the city wall.  So Xian….a must visit city on a trip of China along with the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors.

We decided to hire bicycles and ride around the top of the city wall.  There is basically a city within a city and the tall high-rise buildings are on the outside of the wall in an attempt to retain some of the original feeling.  The ride was 2 hours at a steady pace stopping for photographs along the way, - it was a fantastic way to take it all in.  It’s 14 kms around the wall, 12 metres high, 12-14 metres wide at the top and has 98 watchtowers.  The top is so wide they even have electric karts (think 12 seater golf karts) which they take people around in and it must be like a busy road in peak season.  Luckily for us there were few people-for Chinese standards- on the wall and it made for a great experience, highly recommend this activity.  –photos

On the wall there was of all things a display to the bicycles of the Revolution era.  A couple of the bikes had write-ups that just have to be shared.   From a 1950 model..…this vehicle was labelled as strong, light and beautiful so workers called it the ‘Flying Pigeon’.  A 1962 model……with its frame of heavy-load vehicle, farmers called the Forever PA-13 ‘the little donkey not feeding grass”  Gotta love the propaganda.

The day we visited the Terracotta Warriors we left the hostel at 7am, caught the local bus to the train station and then another bus to the Terracotta Warrior site.  We were there before the ticket booths opened and this enabled us to get into the main viewing pit as it opened and had the place to ourselves with about 40 others for a while – believe me this is rare!  We hired a guide, which we have come to recognise is at times important to ensure you get the most from places like this and to help overcome the language barrier.  What can one say about the Warriors?....superlatives don’t really do this place justice and you will just have to go there yourselves!  It’s been on our list of ‘must see’ places for so long it was almost spine tingling to be standing there viewing it in all its wonder. -photos 

Xian is more than the City Wall and the Terracotta Warriors and there are plenty of other things to see and do.  We visited the Wild Goose Pagoda, a Buddhist temple built in the early 700’s standing 65mtrs tall.  Did the climb to the top for the city views as well as watched the water fountain display in the grounds of the Pagoda- quite impressive.  

The Muslim Quarter inside the Xian Wall is a definite place to visit and just wander around – and you need to go at least a couple of times as the markets and in particular the main food street area is a heaving mass of people wandering the street and watching the sights as locals cook and prepare meals on the street, many in front of their restaurants.  –photos.  It is just too much to try and take in at one pass, or even one evening of wandering – it seems to really come alive in the evening when locals mix with the tourists, both local and foreigners.  In fact there was quite a number of us foreign travellers in Xian on reflection.

We visited the Great Mosque in Xian, which is a feature of the Muslim Quarter and started in 742.  Was interesting to see that there was several references to Buddhist and Indian influence in some of the statues – and thinking about it this was also referenced in the statues of Buddha at the Yungang Grottoes, so cross cultural influences way back then.  It was quite noticeable here, particularly in the Muslim Quarter, that the Chinese features were not so dominant and at times some of the people could almost pass as being of Maori descent – or is that the other way around?

One of the joys of traveling for us is eating “locally” from street vendors.  Sure it does come with some risks but we do try and minimise it by watching where the locals go and look for food that is being cooked in front of you as opposed to already cooked.  One evening in Xian we stopped at a number of small local stalls- mostly small homemade bicycle wheel trolley type arrangements. From one vendor we each got a plate of fried noodles with herbs and spices, from another a container of baby potatoes deep fried then tossed in a wok with a mix of seasonings and then a couple of bottles of local beer, all of which we then sat down on small stools about 6 inches high and ate at a low table on the sidewalk. It was absolutely lovely, filling, entertaining – and all for 28RMB or NZ$5.80!!  -photos

Xian – plenty to see and do, great food, easy to get around, in fact quite foreigner friendly, most enjoyable!

Xian city wall and changing of the guard at the wall.  Terracotta Warriors.

Food being cooked in the Muslim quarter, there was such a variety.

Dining on the street in the Muslim quarter.  In the grounds of the Great Mosque.

Datong and Pingyao, Shanxi Province

Welcome back, or welcome…

Departing Hohhot was nowhere near as spectacular as it was arriving – no sandstorm, no electrical storm, just a straightforward taxi ride to the station and a 4 hour train trip to Datong.  The train was pretty crowded and there were a lot of people with standing tickets – they just keep on selling tickets and people stand in the aisles, between carriages and I have heard sometimes even standing in the toilets!

Our Hostel in Datong is fairly new and is located on the 21^st and 22^nd floor of a building in downtown giving great views of the city and surroundings on a clear day, -yes we did get a couple of clear days and another sandstorm which had the hostel staff running around shutting windows.  It was again quite the experience to see it coming across the city as a great rolling cloud.

Whilst doing some research for this trip it quickly becomes obvious that each town/city has either the largest/tallest/oldest/most statues or caves and it would be easy to become cynical if you tried to see them all.  I found a couple of references to the Yungang Grottoes just outside Datong which went along the lines, “if you only have time or want to see one set of caves and Buddha statues this is the place to go”.  Can report that we reckon this would have to be pretty accurate.  And it was as easy as catching a local bus right outside our hostel.

The Yungang Grottoes were simply amazing. Caves and Buddha effigies carved into a series of hills along the side of a valley.  Some had huge temples built onto the front of the rock face creating a temple/cave structure for the statues.  At the museum later in the day we learnt that most of the caves had temple structures built over them but had been destroyed over the years, mostly by fire and war.  So how many of these Buddha statues were there?  The smallest ones were about 150mm high and a whole series of them might have covered the entrance way into a cave, some were around 3 metres tall and the grand-daddy of them all – 72metres high! –carved inside a grotto hewn into the side of a hill…most impressive.  On site was also a very flash museum which was also well worth a visit. –photos

Next day we hired a taxi with a couple of Swiss guys and headed out at 7.30am on a pre-arranged journey.  First up after an hour was the Hanging Monastery at Hengshan. This Monastery is over 1500 years old and built on a sheer cliff face overlooking a river valley in a gorge.  It is seriously cool and dwarfed by the size of the rock face it precariously clings to -the poles that appear to help prop the buildings up are for appearances only as we saw some guy shake a couple of them and they wobbled- apparently the support beams are all wedged horizontally into the cliff face. -photos

We then went further on through the gorge and up a cable car to another part of the mountain which again had many temples but nothing as spectacular as one on the side of a cliff.  On the way back we visited the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, at 66 metres tall and built in 1056 with a huge Buddhist statue inside.   Back at the hostel we teamed up with others from the hostel and went out for a local meal and a couple of the guys had just done the Trans-Siberian train trip, St Petersburg to Beijing –now that sure sounded interesting!

From Datong we made our way to Pingyao which is an ancient walled town which is reasonably well preserved – may have something to do with the fact that it was the financial centre of China until the early 1900’s when modern banking saw the old systems decline.  We visited an old banking house premises which had underground vaults for all the silver and gold reserves that they held. It was a large courtyard style premises with different small offices for staff according to the geographical area they served, their specific trade expertise and seniority.  Found this all very interesting.

There were many other “courtyard” style museums of other businesses and activities and another one we visited was a newspaper museum.  Whilst obviously the vast majority was in Chinese there were a selection of Western newspapers with front pages of International significance; USA puts man on moon, September 11 Twin Towers,  –that sort of thing.  What about this one I found, a copy of a paper printed and circulated by the CPC, The Anti-Japanese Daily! 

We walked the streets and alleys of Pingyao and also about 3.5 kms on top of the old wall – parts were blocked off so couldn’t do the whole 6kms. Did a day trip which included visiting an old village, Zhang Bi, which back in the day was a small fortified town but the point of difference was it had an underground defence system which ran for 15kms on three levels.  We did the guided tour in the tunnels as was not keen on getting lost down there.

In many of these towns there are always temples with a variety of statues. At times it is clear to see that the statues are replicas or not of the same age as the buildings they are in and at times you may wonder-why?  Part of China’s more recent history included a period known as the “Cultural Revolution” from 1966 till 1976 during which the idea was to enforce communism by removing among other things cultural elements from Chinese society.  Across the country historical relics and artefacts were destroyed and cultural and religious sites were ransacked by Mao’s Red Guard.  Now to have someone publicly discuss this period is just a big no-no so was more than a little surprised to have our guide openly say that the statues were all copies of the originals that were destroyed during but that the paintings and art on the actual walls were original was in a way refreshing to hear some actual truth about what happened in those dark times.

Again some great meals were had, one with a Micrsoft executive and his wife, he works in Beijing and was present when a couple of weeks earlier the Chinese had raided the offices as part of “anti-competitive” inquiries.  Seems the Chinese don’t like overseas companies making what they consider to be too much profit and investigate them – and often they end up getting fined!  At the moment they are targeting the motor vehicle industry and the profits they are making.  But how about this? – earlier we had met a young German guy working in Beijing for Volkswagon who told us they employ 85,000 people in China.  Apparently some manufacturers are considering their future in China due to these “anti-foreign and excessive profit” activities and then what will happen to all the jobs??

Anyway, Datong and Pingyao were great places with plenty to see and do and many of our fellow travellers seemed to be on the Hohhot-Datong-Pingyao-Xian, (or reverse) trail as part of their China adventures.

Off to Xian next!!

1, On the train.  2, Datong.  3-6 Yungang Grottoes.

Hanging Monastery at Hengshan.

1-3, Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, 66 metres tall and built in 1056. 4, Dust storm in Datong.
5, Tourist street in Pingyao. 6, Jonathan on the Pingyao wall with a friend.

1, On Pingyao wall.  2, Our room. 3, Street vendor. 4, Vault in old banking house in Pingyao.
5, Glass maker, 6, Family burning items to remember ancestors.

1-3, Wang family courtyard/village. 4, Zhang Bi Ancient Fortress, 5-6 lady reading by the the God of literature.7-8, tunnels under the fortress.

Hohhot –Inner Mongolia

Welcome back, or welcome…

Re-packing completed and down to only what we will need for one month of travelling, and even then I think I am carrying too much stuff.  We head off from Huaian on the overnight train in our soft-sleeper carriage departing at 10pm – overnight transport is often a great idea getting the journey done and saving a night’s accommodation.  Arrived in Beijing at 7.30am and had to make our way across Beijing to the West train station to catch the train to Hohhot.  There is a huge amount of security/Police around the train stations due in part to internal terrorism attacks at a number of train and bus stations around China.  It’s not uncommon to see Police in these areas armed with sub-machine guns.

Our hard seat train trip to Hohhot was pretty uneventful, apart from highlighting just how massive this country is. We also provide a certain “novelty factor” on the train as we are in the standard hard seat carriages with the masses. A new experience on the train – one of the train crew came through and started what I suspect was a well-rehearsed and well-used sales pitch in the middle of the carriage. This went on for some time with the product being passed around up and down the carriage and then closing the deal with money changing hands.  Talk about a captive audience with nowhere to go!  This happened several times over the day and the products? – a super absorbent cleaning cloth which had its absorbent properties displayed as part of the sales pitch; some puzzle games, a Mongolian style animal skin wrapped water bottle and a range of headphones and battery pack phone chargers.  We did manage to avoid buying anything, but there were plenty sold by the entrepreneurial train staff.

On our arrival in Hohhot there was a sandstorm sweeping through and was quite surreal to see it coming towards you through the high rise buildings in the distance.  About an hour later this was followed by a huge electrical storm and heavy rain.

From our hostel we arranged a couple of trips. First was a day trip out of Hohhot and started with a stop at the Wanbu Huayanjing Pagoda, known as the White Pagoda, which is just outside of town. It was still raining and so there was no-one else there and was quite nice.  We then spent about 2 hours driving south to the Liangcheng area where the Great Wall continues its march across China. However, this time the Wall has not been repaired and is in an “as is” condition.  The construction here was mainly from clay bricks which over the years have simply eroded away and now the remnants are the watchtowers- as large mounds, and a crumbling wall between which in places has nearly washed away.  We walked along the top of the wall here for some way, in places about one foot wide due to erosion and requiring a steady step in places, and all the while there was not a single person in sight. This area is not on the tourist trail at all and there is some effort required to visit so was well worth it.  Here also lies a classic Chinese contrast between the old and new - in the fields around the Wall were a number of massive wind turbines that were part of a large wind farm. -photos

The second trip was north to the “Grasslands” area where the rolling plains appear to be endless.  We pass a lot of “tourist” style Mongolian yurt accommodation –basically round concrete water tanks with a hole for a door and painted traditional colours.  Start to wonder where we will end up. It was 15 minutes off the road along tracks across huge fields to a small, traditional, family run operation with 6 yurts in total beside a small lake.  It was absolutely fantastic and miles away from the run-of-the-mill Chinese operations.

After doing the sunset/sunrise bit out in the Grasslands we head off west passing Batou and Dalad to an area on the edge of a desert where we head into the dunes and there is another yurt for the night. This time that is all that is there. Sure there are sleeping bags and some ground mats –however it had rained and they were all on the floor in a wet heap.  We pitched in and made some racks outside to hang/dry them on and then went for a wander in the desert which included some tobogganing on a couple of sleds conveniently hidden for our use.  Gathered firewood and had a huge bonfire that evening after sunset.  In the morning our ride out of the desert arrived – two humped camels were the transport for the next hour out to the meeting point.  Glad it wasn’t any further really, bums and bits knew all about it for a few days afterwards. The lack of stirrups meaning there was no way to remove any pressure/weight from…..let’s just say where the rubber meets the road!

Heading back to Hohhot we passed over the Yellow River in its early stage as it heads east for miles on its way to the coast below Beijing.  It was a wide, braided river with a huge alluvial plain and the bridge that spanned the river and plain went for some 6kms between floodbanks on either side.

Back in Hohhot we enjoyed a great pizza dinner with the others from our tour. One of them, Travis from America, is also teaching English and he originally came to China 3 years ago – as it turned out also with the same crowd we came with and further his mate from his first year is still with Bucklands and is going to be teaching at the school in Huaian we have just left.  Isn’t it amazing how you can meet people with common connections wherever you may be – or maybe the world is not such a big place after-all!!

1, Spot Jonathan with the traditional Mongolian clothing.  2, This guy was flying the highest kite we have ever seen,  trying to spot it was near impossible.  3, Penmanship in the park. 4 & 5 The great wall of China. 6, White Pagoda.

The grasslands in Inner Mongolia.

In the desert.