I am so pleased Caitlin and I have made it out of the country and finally made our dreams a reality!! Sorry that this blog is a little later than I intended; China has blocked and banned my blog site from use!
BEIJING
This was a great city to start in, we had so many things to do. We spent most of our time exploring the city and seeing the sites which included Beihai and Jingshan (the city parks), the Temple of Heaven, some of the 2008 olympic stadiums, The Forbidden City - where Caitlin and I were reminded that China has the largest population in the world as we were hearded round like being in a cattle market!
The rest of our time was spent checking out the street food zoo and other traditional dishes when we were taken out by our room mate Dickson to try the infamous Pekking Duck.
XI'AN
After a long train journey we arrived at our second destination, Xi'an. We only had a short stay here so we sussed out the city on our first day wandering the streets and markets and visited the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. The Bell Tower was rung at dawn and it's alter ego The Drum Tower marked night fall. On our second day we took a bus ride out of town to see The Terra Cotta Warriors; a life size army of thousands built to protect the Emporer from the evils in the afterlife. It was amazing to see that each of the soldiers was completly unique from each other!!
CHENGDU
Chengdu marked the half way point of our trip over China. On the train journey to the city we shared a cabin with a chinese couple who seemed to take great pride in telling us how to make our pot noodle dinner! The city had a more "English summer" like climate which was welcomed after the heat and humidity we had previously been put through.
On arrival we checked out the Tibeten Quarter of the city and the Peoples Park to find the locals singing, dancing and practicing Thai Chi. However at times Caitlin and I felt like the stars of thwe show becasue of the amount of camera lenses pointed in our dirrention. The photographers are not as sublte and discreet as they think! But I think that it was indeering.
The next day we got up early and spent the day at The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. The panda were so sweet, obviously, but it was strange to see them so captive. On the way home we snacked on bean curd pastries and fat flechy litchies. When we got back to our hostel we were greated with a treat from our room mates who wer two chinese girls.....DUCK NECK! Then spent the rest of the evening getting lost in translation.
KUNMING
Kunming was our penultamate destination in China and we were introduced to the city after a TWENTY HOUR TRAIN JOURNEY! This was another city of sight seeing; Green Lake Park, The Golden Temple (where I became Caitlin's personal trainer to get her to the top of the 1000's of steps!) and taking the danger bus up the mountains to see the Buddist Monks at The Bamboo Temple. We took a day out of the city to visit The Dian Chi Lake and The West Hills. It was good to get away from all the smog and air pollution of the city but we were disturbed by the opaque pea green color of the lake which of course was the result of more pollution.
That evening we tried the local speciality "Across the Briodge Rice Noodles". This dish resembles findu, where we were given a hot bowl of stock which we had to crack an egg into and add meat (chicken, fish, beef and pork), vegetable and of course rice noodles to cook itself in the heat of the stock!
On our last day we strolled the streets of The Flower and Bird Market, the market is now not exclusive to just flowers and birds and also has stalls devoted to selling mushrooms, tea, jewellery etc. and chewing gum! With my last few hours I spent my time in a free tea drinking seesion at the hostel and taking full advantage of the the fact that no money was being exchanged!
NANNING
Arriving at our last stop early in the morning we were able to find our hostel only a short walk away from the station. As we got hungry it decided to rain - absolutly pour down! We ran into a chinese fast food joint, soaking wet, and managed to get oven more funny looks than usual. The rest of our afternoon was fun as we found the Farmers Market, where we saw the head of a fish (that was cut away from the body) gulping for air!? and the Peoples Park "Enjoying the fish at Dragons Lake". That evening we headed to the Night Mraket for dinner. We came out with our tummies full of interesting things... roasted sparrow, crocodile, dove and other ambiguous dishes that we had no idea what was in them. Felt like we definitly earned some back packers credentials!!! On the way home we walked along the Chaoyang stream through Chaoyang Gardens and whitnessed crazy local line dancing type moves all over the place along to dodgy electric pop music, worth a watch!
We are now in Vietnam, I'll let you know how it goes! xx
BEIJING
This was a great city to start in, we had so many things to do. We spent most of our time exploring the city and seeing the sites which included Beihai and Jingshan (the city parks), the Temple of Heaven, some of the 2008 olympic stadiums, The Forbidden City - where Caitlin and I were reminded that China has the largest population in the world as we were hearded round like being in a cattle market!
My best day in Beijing was our trip to The Great Wall!!! We went to the Badaling section which is particularly (unknowingly) steep. I managed to climb and complete a section of the wall which I am proud of myself for doing in the 42 degree heat!! Especially as Caitlin's legs could only carry her up 10 steps, apparently her legs are too short!?
The rest of our time was spent checking out the street food zoo and other traditional dishes when we were taken out by our room mate Dickson to try the infamous Pekking Duck.
XI'AN
After a long train journey we arrived at our second destination, Xi'an. We only had a short stay here so we sussed out the city on our first day wandering the streets and markets and visited the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. The Bell Tower was rung at dawn and it's alter ego The Drum Tower marked night fall. On our second day we took a bus ride out of town to see The Terra Cotta Warriors; a life size army of thousands built to protect the Emporer from the evils in the afterlife. It was amazing to see that each of the soldiers was completly unique from each other!!
CHENGDU
Chengdu marked the half way point of our trip over China. On the train journey to the city we shared a cabin with a chinese couple who seemed to take great pride in telling us how to make our pot noodle dinner! The city had a more "English summer" like climate which was welcomed after the heat and humidity we had previously been put through.
On arrival we checked out the Tibeten Quarter of the city and the Peoples Park to find the locals singing, dancing and practicing Thai Chi. However at times Caitlin and I felt like the stars of thwe show becasue of the amount of camera lenses pointed in our dirrention. The photographers are not as sublte and discreet as they think! But I think that it was indeering.
The next day we got up early and spent the day at The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. The panda were so sweet, obviously, but it was strange to see them so captive. On the way home we snacked on bean curd pastries and fat flechy litchies. When we got back to our hostel we were greated with a treat from our room mates who wer two chinese girls.....DUCK NECK! Then spent the rest of the evening getting lost in translation.
KUNMING
Kunming was our penultamate destination in China and we were introduced to the city after a TWENTY HOUR TRAIN JOURNEY! This was another city of sight seeing; Green Lake Park, The Golden Temple (where I became Caitlin's personal trainer to get her to the top of the 1000's of steps!) and taking the danger bus up the mountains to see the Buddist Monks at The Bamboo Temple. We took a day out of the city to visit The Dian Chi Lake and The West Hills. It was good to get away from all the smog and air pollution of the city but we were disturbed by the opaque pea green color of the lake which of course was the result of more pollution.
That evening we tried the local speciality "Across the Briodge Rice Noodles". This dish resembles findu, where we were given a hot bowl of stock which we had to crack an egg into and add meat (chicken, fish, beef and pork), vegetable and of course rice noodles to cook itself in the heat of the stock!
On our last day we strolled the streets of The Flower and Bird Market, the market is now not exclusive to just flowers and birds and also has stalls devoted to selling mushrooms, tea, jewellery etc. and chewing gum! With my last few hours I spent my time in a free tea drinking seesion at the hostel and taking full advantage of the the fact that no money was being exchanged!
NANNING
Arriving at our last stop early in the morning we were able to find our hostel only a short walk away from the station. As we got hungry it decided to rain - absolutly pour down! We ran into a chinese fast food joint, soaking wet, and managed to get oven more funny looks than usual. The rest of our afternoon was fun as we found the Farmers Market, where we saw the head of a fish (that was cut away from the body) gulping for air!? and the Peoples Park "Enjoying the fish at Dragons Lake". That evening we headed to the Night Mraket for dinner. We came out with our tummies full of interesting things... roasted sparrow, crocodile, dove and other ambiguous dishes that we had no idea what was in them. Felt like we definitly earned some back packers credentials!!! On the way home we walked along the Chaoyang stream through Chaoyang Gardens and whitnessed crazy local line dancing type moves all over the place along to dodgy electric pop music, worth a watch!
We are now in Vietnam, I'll let you know how it goes! xx
