Date: 2018-11-02 to 2018-11-07
I had a bit a hatd start in Shanghai and had to switch the hostel, because at the other one it was really messy and owner not really showing up.
My second choice then was better, at the centre near to the Bund.
Another good idea was going to a dumpling cooking course, which was really funny and interesting.
Date: 2018-10-28 to 2018-11-01
After one more sleeper train from Chengdu to Yichang and a crowded train I arrived in Zhangjiajie town. It was 18:30 and still dark, so I had contacted my hotel near the Yangjiajie entry of the park, to pick me up at the station. After a really off-road like journey over one hour, we finally reached the hotel.
Man was I am happy to have a real room with bed again which is not moving like on the sleeper train. The hotel and the staff were really nice and prepared dinner for me.
Next morning I talked with the hotel manager Lucas to give me some hints for the planning of my hiking routes. He was really nice, but the estimated times on his map were for Chinese hikers. Well Lucas himself told me last day, that most Chinese tourists do not like hiking, they only want to get to the famous spots. Knowing this, it is no wonder that in the park there is a complete bus system, cable cars to the peaks and even an elevator.
Well I picked up the schematic hiking map from Lucas and started my adventure. And it was a really impressive one. Well I hiked up the mountains, because I had a lot of time and it was really worth it because there are a lot of viewpoints on the way. But I was really the only one on these paths which made the experience even better. Because when I reached the top I had the Chinese hiking style again with a lot of people and queues to the famous viewpoints. It is really stunning to be there and see these unbelievable stone pillars. But as soon as I left the common route, which was with the elevator down, I was alone again on the stairway downwards. When I was down in the valley it was 3 pm, so I decided to explore it a bit. Well suddenly this bit was 2 hours and it was getting dark. I decided to take a more direct path which looked good in the beginning, but after half-way it turned out to be abandoned, and the surrounding apes made crazy sounds, so I felt a little creepy going there. But the path was amazing and so after a while I felt like Indiana Jones. So I hiked up a lot of stairs to a pass, where I was rewarded with an unbelievably great sunset view. I enjoyed my time there even though I was in a hurry to come down to the village back to the hotel, because night was coming.
So After this rest I hiked really fast and reached the hotel at about 18:30. So I hiked a path estimated for 3 hours in one and a half including a rest at the pass — not bad.
Next day I started again early morning and did a great tour around in the park with about 11 hours hiking.
And on the third day I relaxed a bit and made my laundry and going to the huang shan village in the afternoon.
So finally the day of departure came. This time I took a bus back to Zhangjiajie town, but I had a lot of time till my train was departing, so I decided to go up to Tianamen mountain. It is very famous because of it looks like a gate and some wing-suit flyers already used it in red bull spots to fly through. But I did it this time the Chinese hiking way. Going up by cable-car, driving by escalators inside the mountain to coming out at the gate and finally going back by bus. Never had such an artificial mountain experience ..
Date: 2018-10-27
After two nights on sleeper trains I arrived in Chengdu. I had to catch another sleeoer traib that night, so I left my luggage at the storafe at Chengdu East Station and headed directly to the Panda Base.
Chengdu has a very good metro system, so I took the subway and one bus to the base which is approximstly 10 km outside the city.
The base is a big reservat in the north east. First I decided to visit the museum, where they showed the history of pandas in China and how they support them and developed reproduction techniques.
Then I went to the pandas and it was great seeing this cute bear eating bamboo.
You can see there pandas of different age and red pandas. Really awesome – love these animals!
After the base I headed back to town. Actually Chengdu has about 11 million inhabitants, and so I got directly stuck in one of the biggest shipping streets. There were too many people. So I decided to take some pictures in the centre, and check something go eat and then going back to the station in the evening.
Date: 2018-10-21 to 2018-10-25
I arrived in Lhasa on the 21st in the evening. And the first impression when driving in taxi to the hotel was the Potala Palace properly light up in the night. It looked so amazing.
I shared a room with Roy, an Indian from Calcutta.
Next day I went with the group on a tour to see Drepung and Sera Monastery. We saw there a lot of statues of Buddhas and of an Indian who was invited to cleanse places from evil ghosts. And yeah the first Tibetan who got enlightened. I liked his statue best, because he was looking like a funny man. Very interesting was the monks preparing for their exams in the Sera monastery.
Next day we went to the old city centre and saw a lot of prayers walking round the Jokhang temple. Jokhang is one of the holiest places in Tibet. The prayers usually end their journey here.
In the afternoon we went up the amazing Potala Palace. The Potala has an older part, painted in red and a newer part from 17th centuary painted in white. Special fact is that the white colour is made of yoghurt and honey. The painting is done by Tibetian communities from different parts. And let me put is this way I won’t let them paint my flat, because they are more spraying the colour than painting on the wall and so the colour is almost everywhere — not only on the wall. In the palace every Lama built his own room for sleeping, and welcoming visitors.
We saw there the graves of the Lamas too.
In the evening I went out with Roy, my Indian room mate to have dinner and take some pictures around Jokhang Temple at night.
On the 24th after so many temples and monasteries, we went to Yamdrok lake which is up in the mountains at 4400 metres. There I saw Yaks. The locals there wanted to take a picture me riding on the Yak, but this is not my style of travelling to take these kinds of photos.
On my last day in Lhasa I have to wait till my train back to central China departed in the evening. So Nick a Swedish friend from the group and I went to Summer Palace in Lhasa.
I went from Xi’an to Lhasa and in Xining I had to change to the Tibet Train.
The train cars are equipped with oxygen outlets, further more the cars are standard Chinese train sleeping cars.
I took a hard sleeper which was fine for me.
Next morning when I woke up we were going through these fascinating landscape and had an unbelievable clear blue sky. The train went then up over 5000 metres above sea level to go then down to Lhasa (3762) again.
Just amazing.
Date: 2018-10-18
Near the city Luoyang at the shores of the Li river there are the famous Buddha caves.
I came from Xi’an with a highspeed train – it took only 90 minutes early in the morning. Then I went by taxi to the entrance of the cultural zone.
At the shores of the Li river there are small caves with Buddha statues engraved in the rocks.
Date: 2018-10-16
At the hostel in Xi’an I got the tip tjat hiking Mount Hua Shan is really beautiful. First I made some plans how I can get there and buy the tickets with my very limited Chinese language skills 😉
But I found a Chinese woman, who was staying at the same hostel and wanted to go to the mountain too. So it would be s lot easier for me, because she can manage the buying of the tickets and the Chinese conversations.
Thank you Maggie without you it won’t have been that easy to get there and back to Xi’an.
So we took an early morning bullet train to Hua Shan North, from there is a free bus going to the tourist centre of Hua Shan Mountain. There Maggie bought two entrance and bus tickets for us and we went by bus to the Hua Shan North base station. From there we took the cable car up, because we wanted to do all the five peaks up there.
On the mountain station we went up to the north peak, then we had a longer tour through a lot of steps to the Central peak. The mountain scenery was really impressive. And the special touch was that there are Buddhist temples just near the peaks.
From the central peak we again had to walk a lot of steps up and down and up again, had to climb up a sky latter and finally reached the east peak. Then we ha to go down again and then went again a lot of stairs up to the south peak, which was the highest point with 2150 metres.
From there we hiked to the west peak – and so we finally have managed to go to all peaks. The whole tour took us about 5 hours with breaks.
From the west peak we took another cable car down, which was really impressive because it crossed a valley and went up a mountain on the other side and them finally drove down tho the base station. From here we took the bus back to the tourists centre.
An finally took a bullet train back to Xi’an from Hua Shan North.
Date: 2018-10-14 to 2018-10-20
I lived in a hostel by the city wall in Xi’an. It was a perfect location in the centre and I could reach subway in a few minutes. The staff of the hostel was really nice, when I arrived they invited me for a special dish for Xi’an which is cold rice noodles with a spicy sauce. I liked it very much.
For a foodie like me Xi’an is the place to be. In the centre there are several markets, the biggest is the muslim market. There are small booths selling various kinds of food like Chinese Hamburger, seafood, different types of skewers, fruits, freshly prepared passion fruit juice, various kinds of teas. You can smell this try that – it was like a wonderland for me.
And Xi’an has an ancient city wall, where you can walk on. But most of the city is rather modern. In Xi’an you find as well small shops and big shopping malls.
A bit outside of town is the site where the terracotta army was found. It is really an impressive museum and you can see that there is still a lot of work on-going.
Date: 2018-10-12 to 2018-10-14
Pingyao is not so popular in Europe, but it is one of few cities in China which has an old city centre dating back to Ming Dynasty. The centre is circumvented by an ancient city wall too.
When I came first into the centre it was like going back several centuries. Really old small roads, little houses with typical Chinese style roofs. It was like in a film about old China. The houses have usually small backyards.
Actually Pingyao was in ancient times the financial centre of China. So there are museums in the city about ancient banking system an money transport.
Besides that I visited the city wall – you can partly walk on top of it, the ancient government building.
For all these and more sightseeing spots you can buy a ticket in the town.
Just when I have been there the International Pingyao Filmfestival started, but for the first days tickets still were sold out.
In my point of view Pingyao is very touristic and some kind of an Old-Chinese fantasy wonderland.
Date: 2018-10-11
On my last night in Beijing we got to the Quanjude restaurant for eating kǎoyā – roasted duck, in western world also known by Beijing Duck.
It was an awesome restaurant with dinner show and a really delicious duck.
