After a wonderful stay in Hong Kong, we head back to China to check out Stephen’s aunt’s holiday home near Guangzhou. The journey involved two minibuses and three coaches mixed in with a couple or border checks… But actually it was really easy! Especially with Auntie Irene there to do the talking.
Minibus number 1
Coach number 1
Coach number 2
It's a proper holiday apartment - we must first turn on the water supply
Temperature: 21 degreesC
We disembark the train into the lovely warm weather of Guangzhou, with its population of just under 13 million people and still only the third largest city in China!
Here there is more Cantonese speaking and as importantly, Cantonese cuisine!!
Temperature: 6 degreesC
We head East to Luòyáng, another of the four great ancient capitals of China. We arrive to find that our hostel is in fact someone’s flat in a dodgypart of town 10km away from the city centre where we find out how many Chinese people really live! It is run by a father and son, who usually spend all day internet gaming. Because we stayed over for two nights they had to share a bed.
It is worth noting however that the first night was a historic one, when Chloé was given a Chinese name by the father, "uncle" and "nephew" after dinner! As below…
金花
We go to visit the incredible UNESCO World Heritage listed Longmen Grottoes, which are one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples, were carved into caves excavated from the limestone cliffs.
We go from one great bus journey to a terrible one, which is delayed for 2 hours and requires us to change buses in the middle of the road before delivering us to the wrong bus station, whilst costing a fortune… in Chinese terms anyway!
It is a while before we see any non Chinese people.
Temperature: 11 degreesC
We continue South West to Xi’an. A more friendly city than Beijing and one of the four ancient capitals of China with a population of more than 8 million people.
We go to see the Terracotta Army like all good tourists do. Despite the fascinating story surrounding them, i.e. a probably mad emperor who ordered the warriors and horses to be mde in clay to accompany him after death, we found that the exhibition of them was probably done better at the British Museum a few years ago. Bear in mind that neither of us even saw the exhibition at the British Museum.
We travel by road for 7 hours from Pingyao to Xi’an.
Temperature: 7 degreesC
After the sights we’ve already seen, we didn’t expect to be this pleasantly surprised again!
Pingyao is a Chinese city in central Shanxi province, about 715 km from Beijing – a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a population of 450,000.It retains its city layout from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and more than 300 sites in or near the city have ancient ruins.
The whole of our stay is characterised by heavy mist over the town. The rising damp comes halfway up the buildings, and you can see the bricks decaying quickly. We’re glad to see this place now, because it will soon be ruined by tourism! We found some very local places to eat, but the Old Town seems to be heading towards being a museum rather than a living community.
We leave China’s capital for China’s only intact original walled village. Ahead of us is…
an 11km drive to Beijing West, the largest train terminal in Asia,
a 5 hour standing train journey to Taiyuan
a 3km drive between Taiyuan train station and bus station
a 2 hour mini-bus to the Pingyao area
a 10 minute electric rickshaw into the walled village
As always，the best times were where we managed to find some authenticity and meet some real people who have lived in Beijing all of their lives。
These pictures are a few of those。Others would not upload!…
We also found the exact same stall where me and Jo were in 2006. Jo ate a starfish and a live scorpion (which apparently tastes like chicken wings). The rest is history…
Temperature – 9 degreesC
A few highlights from Beijing.
We managed to have an excellent time in between dodging the scammers that seem to have plagued the city since the Olympics！
We are unable to give a full account due to China’s OTHER Great （fire)wall。。。
londontoaustralia 