In March of 2009 I spent a little over one month traveling through China. My trip started in Beijing, and I traveled overland following the coast and finishing in Hong Kong.--Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guilin, Yangshuo, Longjii Terraces, Hong Kong...Fantastic adventure! 
Posted: Aug.2010, Written: Mar.2009
Ni Hao!
Finally I have the time to sit down and catch up on an email! Things are going fast up here, and China is full of surprises every day!
I spent one week in Beijing already, and had my eyes opened wide. I don't know what I was expecting, but Beijing was clean, efficient, incredibly easy to navigate and really enjoyable (considering I usually hate big cities.) THE FOOD IS AWESOME!
My first night in Beijing was a bit of a struggle...I ended up booking a hotel in a small 'Hutong' (alley way) just outside of the main downtown area. The restaurants that lined the streets were in the hundreds, unfortunately though with no menus with pictures or any staff that knew any English more than 'Hello'. My first night and meal in China was a failure: only managed to order a handful of pork dumplings and left the resto with my tail tucked firmly between my legs.
I definitely took it for granted how widely English is spoken in SE Asia...this is not the case in China! If I'm not communicating by pointing or hand signals, I'm using my guidebook and looking completely ridiculous 100% of the time.
Second day, I was determined to eat like a king! Took my handy Rough Guide and feasted on Mongolian Hot Pot (lamb stewed in chilis and spices) and more steamed buns and dumplings...I felt victorious and glowed happily over my meal all day :)
Beijing sights: Tian'men Square, Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, Olympic Park, the Lama (Tibetan) Temple...so much I packed into my short stay there! I managed to make some friends quick, and now have a travelling crew (8 of us total from Australia and England) to keep me company until we part ways again. I even made friends with a Chinese tour guide who was a wealth of information in the Forbidden City and really taught me a lot...the history of China, one dynasty after another, one Emperor after another doesn't really seem to sink in too much until after WW1. I'm trying though...
Me and my friends made our way to the Great Wall a couple days ago, and we trekked along the most remote part of the wall known as the Jinshaling section. We were warned that this was off the beaten path, and often proved to be too difficult for a lot of tourists to actually complete...sounded perfect for us!
The wall was more crumbling debris than actual paved wall to trek on, which made our adventure a hell of a lot more difficult than what we expected. This section of the wall was deserted since the original wall hasn't been repaired like its famous counterparts: so we trekked on actual wall dating back to the 1400s!
From the top of the Great Wall all you see are mountain ranges with snow-capped peaks and rice terraces laying flat against the side of the moutains...beautiful and quiet. We had the entire section to ourselves and managed to complete the wall in 6 hours. The trek definitely kicked my ass. At the end of the wall we ziplined (YES, YOU CAN ZIPLINE OFF THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA) since it was the only way to get across the river to our hostel.
Since then, one overnight train to Xi'an where we landed in our hotel this morning. Xi'an, known more for its famous Terracotta Soldiers (which we're thinking about going to on Wednesday). It's a smaller square city, but by no means any smaller than the feel in Beijing. It's got a huge Muslim influence, with a section called the Muslim Quarter specializing in street foods: dried fruits, nuts of every kind, kebabs, pu ziao (steamed buns), dumplings, mutton noodle soups, pastries and buns filled with sweet black beans...I spent about 3 hours today just exploring these food alleys. I also went to the Great Mosque, a mix of Arabic features and Chinese architecture built in 742 and a form of 'mecca' for all Chinese worshippers from all over the country.
Tonight we're talking about going to a night time 'water fountain' show...we're not sure what's to come, we just know that the water shoots from the fountain in rhythm with the music and light show...it's free, so we'll go to check it out on the way to the bar street :)
So far everything's been pretty smooth. The Chinese are a funny people, and the spitting and the hawking everywhere is fine by me (as long as they don't shoot one on my foot!) They like to shove aggressively into lines which makes sense since everywhere is absolutely crowded, and I watched a few men take pictures of me and put them on their phone wallpapers...ha, haven't had that happen since India last year.
Me and my friends made our way to the Great Wall a couple days ago, and we trekked along the most remote part of the wall known as the Jinshaling section. We were warned that this was off the beaten path, and often proved to be too difficult for a lot of tourists to actually complete...sounded perfect for us!
The wall was more crumbling debris than actual paved wall to trek on, which made our adventure a hell of a lot more difficult than what we expected. This section of the wall was deserted since the original wall hasn't been repaired like its famous counterparts: so we trekked on actual wall dating back to the 1400s!
From the top of the Great Wall all you see are mountain ranges with snow-capped peaks and rice terraces laying flat against the side of the moutains...beautiful and quiet. We had the entire section to ourselves and managed to complete the wall in 6 hours. The trek definitely kicked my ass. At the end of the wall we ziplined (YES, YOU CAN ZIPLINE OFF THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA) since it was the only way to get across the river to our hostel.
Since then, one overnight train to Xi'an where we landed in our hotel this morning. Xi'an, known more for its famous Terracotta Soldiers (which we're thinking about going to on Wednesday). It's a smaller square city, but by no means any smaller than the feel in Beijing. It's got a huge Muslim influence, with a section called the Muslim Quarter specializing in street foods: dried fruits, nuts of every kind, kebabs, pu ziao (steamed buns), dumplings, mutton noodle soups, pastries and buns filled with sweet black beans...I spent about 3 hours today just exploring these food alleys. I also went to the Great Mosque, a mix of Arabic features and Chinese architecture built in 742 and a form of 'mecca' for all Chinese worshippers from all over the country.
Tonight we're talking about going to a night time 'water fountain' show...we're not sure what's to come, we just know that the water shoots from the fountain in rhythm with the music and light show...it's free, so we'll go to check it out on the way to the bar street :)
So far everything's been pretty smooth. The Chinese are a funny people, and the spitting and the hawking everywhere is fine by me (as long as they don't shoot one on my foot!) They like to shove aggressively into lines which makes sense since everywhere is absolutely crowded, and I watched a few men take pictures of me and put them on their phone wallpapers...ha, haven't had that happen since India last year.
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