China Round-up

We spent almost 2 months in China - very diverse 2 months. The country is so big that you cannot sum it up as a whole. China is larger then Europe? Each area has its own charm, it's own food and it's own traditions. Like home.

The country is so big that we really underestimated the traveling times in between. The trains are very slow in china. They are so old, you feel like you are in a old western movie. Also the People walk on the trails so the driver has to honk every second of the ride. The busses are crowed and cars drive like crazy, as we may expect in Asia. However, coming from Japan and Korea it was still something to get used too.

Visiting the big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai showed us that the country can be very modern. Especially Shanghai is very western and very easy for travelers. Beijing is much more traditional which makes it also more beautiful. But compared to the cities, the country side is really undeveloped. Nobody speaks English: we had to speak sign language for almost 4 weeks. There are no tourists or at least it feels like that there are no tourists (only Chinese!). Even when we took a plane, we were the only western people in the planes.

Wherever we went , we were the biggest attraction. We thought that they should be used to westenr tourists, but somehow everyone wanted a picture of us. Sometimes to tried to be sneaky and hide their phone to take a picture, but most of the time they screamed: Hello or Nihaooo and asked for a picture with one of us (most of the time it was Lea or Tom). One moment in Dali was our highlight. We were just chilling at the lake when a boat full with Chinese tourists arrived. All of a sudden, we had 3 children sitting on our laps, 5 people standing behind us making the peace sign and 10 other people taking pictures. But not enough: everyone wanted a picture with us. So this whole scene went on for 15 minutes just switching the children on our laps and the people standing or sitting next to us. It was hilarious seeing these people going crazy to get a picture with you!

The countryside in china is a (the) real adventure. It's nothing like any of the other countries we have been to before. The lack of English and western tourism make it sometimes very depressing to travel. But on the other side most amazing. We remember places like Thailand, overcrowded with annoying tourists. We kind of developed a bad habit against the "normal" tourist. But, the countryside, is most beautiful while it is still there!! The Chinese are building everywhere like crazy, removing even mountains to build their high ugly buildings to house (more like store)  their 1.3 billion people.

We are glad that we went before every beautiful thing in China will be destroyed by pollution and buildings. in 5-10 years we'd like to go back to see what is left. Will Yangshuo still be magical? or will you only see buildings instead of mountains, the start of that was showing already.

All by all, China is something different. Especially the people. Tom likes to phrase them as barbarians. Why? They will fight for everything, their spot in the train, bus, car, plane, waiting lines. If they give up a spot, it simply means they lost. Unacceptable. Toilets smell like sewers (always), people spit, fart, burp everywhere even restaurants. They have no manners.

Yet still I do wonder, is it better then at home? We are always afraid what will someone think of me when I do this or that. In china it is, I do whatever I want and no one cares anyway. If you want you can pie on the middle of the road and no one bats an aye. Weird, awesome, place that China.

Chilltime in Dali

We were actually in Lijiang, close by Dali, before we went to Dali. But Lijiang was so full of chinese tourist, no culture, only shops with same stuff and no atmosphere nor ambiance that we had to escape . That's why we went to Dali, 4 hour ride from Lijiang but still high in the mountains. Around 2200 meters high.

Dali was simply perfect, a nice room outside of town with free bikes and lovey people who run the hotel as their hobby and enjoy it. That's the best, otherwise the chinese hotels are rather unfriendly and not interested in you. A culture thing perhaps. The owner also invited us for a tea ceremony, crazy!! We drank a lot of tea talked random stuff like we are in the bar and even got some sort of drunk cause of it. Tea is weird, ok! It Was like a detox and barhopping at the same time. But a good expierence, China is rather serious with their tea. 

But Dali, a good laid back place with not to many, still many, (chinese) tourist. We went biking their everyday next to the big lake high  in the mountains. We even went swimming once in the river with the owner and his family, it was good for us to see the friendly side (again) of chinese people again. I'm so happy to be reminded of this beautiful side of china. 

Non Chinese style - hiking the Tiger leaping Gorge

The Tiger Leaping Gorge, located between Shiangri-La and Lijiang. Yet another legendary mountain! Here the legend says that a tiger jumped over the river. In the pictures you'll find that this tiger must have been scary big to make this jump ;-)

With hiking and climbing Mt. Jerisan far enough behind us and seeing to many city's in the last weeks it was time for a new adventure in the nature. We got what we wanted! This trail is roughly 25 kilometers. Sounds easy but it's on 2500 meter up and down, and falling down to the wrong side (down) could mean the end of it all. 

The trail starts in a small village after a 2 hour bus ride from Shiangri-La. We dropped our backpacks for a small fee in a guesthouse. The upcoming days we would live with 2 small bags filled with water, food, 1 fresh shirt and 1 fresh underwear... Fun to see Nina packing her bag ;-) After dropping the bag we started the trail, right away a French guy came along asking if he could join. In these parts of china the European seem to search for English speakers for conversations, no day goes without meeting new people. Before we knew it we where hiking with 5 Europeans.

The trail, dammmmm! Since we biked the whole day before the muscles were protesting. This was quite hard and especially dangerous. It rained a little which made the way up a bit slippery. When reading the map it states that the first part till half way is the hard part, after that it's supposed to be quite easy. The first part is 15 kilometer, this is our goal. 

We come across a few people who all seem to take horses up, a whole group of 20 Koreans fully clothed for the hike took the silly horses up.. But.. I'll say.. I wish I did the same! It took us seven hours to get to the half way, just before dark, I (Tom) slipped once to the good side and Nina remained steady all the way. But what was the way worth it! Proud once again.

We found a great place to stay with nice Indian fusion food. Everyday you can skip the oil of chinese food is a good day hahaha. Waking up high in the mountains with a magnificent view of clouds playing in the mountains. We would love to sit there all day doing nothing but reading a book. We would have if we had brought one... Time to go further!

Part two (day 2) was indeed a lot easier, good, more time to watch the view instead of your own feet. Yet due to the rain of the night and the morning we slept trough as baby's we had waterfalls over the road! That was something. Seems easy on pictures but so slippery and such a long way down! Yet a few hours later we arrived at the end of the trail.

Due to the view, the atmosphere and the silence we stayed a bit longer. The Two day trip extended to a four day trip. With spending the last two days with a Tibetan family guest house. One of the two days we hiked down to the river and we were struck by the noise and rush of the river. So strong and magnificent. By the way, the way down to the river was something.. Check the ladder picture for example, yay adventure!

The legend of Shiangri-La

Shiangri-La, supposed to be a legendary story about eternal youth. This small village, 3200 meter high in the Himalaya mountains, renamed itself to this supposenly legendary hidden place. It's a shame that half of the old town is burned down to ruins in January 2014. We still smelled the fire, but the rebuilding has begun.

We arrived from Chengdu by plane. This seemed like a good plan! Since we would not have to travel dubble from kunming to dali to lijiang to Shiangri-La and back but in one way. But! From 100 meter high Chengdu to 3200 meter high Chengdu in a hour, you feel that in a dizzy way. Luckily it stayed with dizziness, and not really attitude sickness! It is quite commen the locals say. 

Shiangri-La is the closest we will get to Tibet and real Tibetans. You can clearly see the difference between Tibetan people and chinees people. I (Tom) find the Tibetan woman a lot prettier then the chinese but ye hahaha. It is a quite traditional place and due to the fire there were not so many tourist especially no chinese tourist which is a warm welcome to us. But even here we met a dutch couple who was biking the north of china. Imagine biking these mountains higher then the alps up and down.

It was only around 15 degrees Celsius outside!! I loved it. No need for airco, but Nina needed to use her warming blanky hahaha. Perfect weather to be a little active. We hired two bikes a road across the grasslands were horses, yaks and pigs are walking freely and around the lake. Beautiful area, especially wit he good weather.

Dragon backbone rice terraces

Yanshuo is the most beautiful place there is so far for us in China. Not far from here are the dragon backbone rice terraces. We all know Nina loves rice and everything about rice, so a must go day trip this was. The rice Terrace is famous for the mountains all covered with rices plants. Unfortunately, we could only go there with a chinese tour bus, so we had to attend a weird hair show (the folks that live there are famous for their long hair) yaaaay. But to finally see the rice terraces was totally worth the trip!

  

Riders on the road

The area around yanshuo is very flat, so it's perfect for biking. However, it is so humid here that biking more than 3 hours is just impossible because it's too hot. But ye budget! Biking was awesome, in the mountain area with most stunning views. We want to see more!! So, We decided to rent scooters for one day and explore the whole area for 2 others days on a scooter, which was simply perfect.

The yanshuo area is just so beautiful, we got to see small cute Chinese villages, a lot of farmers and the beautiful river area of the li river. Enjoy the pictures!