CHINA

BEIJING

Our foray into China with Trip a Deal began in Beijing, population 22 million. We arrived at the airport very late at night and after a relatively quick transit through immigration and customs it was a bit tricky finding our way onto an internal train and finally out into the night, to be met by our guides. Then it took at least 30 minutes for them to organise almost 120 ‘Trippers’ into our smaller groups of about 38 and get us onto our respective buses. It was about 1 a.m. by the time we got to the hotel. We were initially wary about handing our passports over to our guide, Jolly but you cannot book in anywhere in China without the hotel taking a copy of your passport so there is no choice but to comply – and anyway we were all in the same boat.

The hotel, China World Hotel, was impressive and relatively new – connected to a massive shopping centre – and quite grand. After a bit of tentative exploration, it is possible to find somewhere to eat in the centre. Fellow Trippers, Darren and Gayle, discovered the Blue Frog Bar and it proved to be great place to have a meal and a drink, with happy hour every day and two for one meals some nights as well. It can be a bit daunting finding your way around the shopping centres as they are multistorey and each storey has twists and turns. It’s worth the effort though as there are some nice little shops around. But this area of town is very high end, with Cartier, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani and others across the road so of course we shopped ‘til we dropped there!!!!!

The view from our room in Beijing. Opposite are Cartier, Dolce & Gabana and Gorgio Armani.

Our hotel lobby.

The flowers in the hotel were stunning.

One of several jade carvings on display at our hotel.

Fortunately, our first day didn’t start until 10 a.m. so after an excellent breakfast (this hotel turned out to have the best breakfasts) we boarded the bus and headed off to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Everyone grabbed either pieces of fruit or some pastries to take with them each morning at breakfast as snacks during the day although most of the time we managed to find somewhere reasonable to eat lunch, thanks to our guides’ help. It became obvious here that being on an organised tour was definitely an advantage as there were hundreds of people lining up to get the limited number of tickets that are sold each day. Needless to say the place was throbbing with sightseers and as it was warm day, the radiant heat from the concrete made it pretty hot.

Ready to head into Tiananmen Square.

Qian Men - one of the original gates to the city.

The Great Hall of the People.

Don't ask these guys if you can take a photo. They will say no! Just take one with them in it without being too obvious.

Many of the people were here to see Chairman Mao’s embalmed remains at his mausoleum. We didn’t get to go in there which was a bit disappointing and since the walk from the Square right through to the other end of the Forbidden City was a couple of kilometres we didn’t hang around for too long. The whole place was impressive but pretty much the same throughout. Ordinary visitors aren’t allowed inside the buildings and it was pretty hard just to get a look in some from the outside but we saw enough in the circumstances. The garden in the Forbidden City was interesting though with some beautiful and very old cypress trees. Can’t understand their fetish for big ugly rocks though.

Into the Forbidden City.

My first Chinese bird - an azure-winged magpie.

We passed through several huge gates to get to the Emperors throne-room.

The more animals on the roof, the more important the occupant. This is on the Emperor's roof. Note the guy riding the chook at the front.

These cauldrons with fires beneath were used to keep water from freezing in winter so that there was water available in case of fire.

Dress up time.

Inside a royal bedchamber.

The Royal Gardens.

A moat surrounds the Forbidden City.

Next it was off to lunch and a traditional Chinese banquet, the highlight being Peking duck but I have to say that most of it seemed to be crispy duck skin and not a lot of meat. Give me Cheng Mei barbequed duck any day. I found most of the food we ate wasn’t much different to the Chinese food you get in Australia – quite bland – but maybe a bit more traditional and far less meat. Naturally there were the oddities and curiosities like the chicken feet, insects and worms etc. Most intrepid eater in our group was one of the three Johns. He hoed into the duck etc at the street vendors while most of the group looked on shaking their heads and wondering when he would be trotting off to the ‘Happy House’! Fortunately that didn’t happen – as far as we know!

Beijing taxi.

After lunch we went straight to the OCT Theatre for the Golden Mask Dynasty Show – a combination of opera, dance, acrobatics and spectacular lighting and special effects. This show was the first of the optional activities and well worth the money. We all enjoyed it immensely. Then it was back to the hotel for a late dinner at the Blue Frog and an early night in preparation to become ‘Heroes of China” when we climbed the Great Wall.

Outside the theatre is the entrance to a fun park similar to our Dreamworld.

Some images from the show.

Yes they were real peacocks.

And that's real water!

Before we went to the wall we visited the ‘Jade Factory’. Here we discovered that as with all of the ‘factories’ we visited, there wasn’t much ‘making’ happening. They were really retail outlets for whatever product the local area was famous for. This was disappointing for us as we were more interested in the actual production of the stuff than buying it. Of course the pieces were very beautiful but they were also VERY expensive so unless you are specifically looking for jade it was off-putting, especially as the salespeople made you feel like you were being stalked and some got a bit narky if you didn’t want to buy.

This silk embroidery at the jade outlet was stunning.

Like most of the attractions we visited, the carpark at the Juyong Pass section of the Great Wall was chockers but the bus driver managed to squeeze us into a tiny space and off we went to scale the wall – and it was almost a matter of scaling in places as the steps varied in height from about 15 cm up to 40 cm. They were also extremely steep and the further up you go the more you worry about tripping up. Falling could have proven perilous although there were locals there climbing with crutches. Most of our group made it to the first tower although some went all the way up to the third and returned by a winding bush track. Of course, there were the obligatory souvenir stores and coffee shops. Although we had been warned that the “Happy House’ here might be less than ideal we found the one on the second level quite acceptable even for a squat. Most of the places we went to had squat toilets but our guides were very good at directing us to toilets where there was at least one sit down pedestal. NEVER go into a toilet in China though unless you have toilet paper/tissues with you. Most don’t have any  and also expect you to put used paper in a bin and NOT in the toilet. This can be a bit gross but we tried to co-operate.

The most interesting part of our Beijing leg was the second of the optional tours into a traditional hutong or alleyway type housing, where we visited a local market along the Grand Canal. I think this was supposed to be part of an area called the Shichahai Historic Scenic Area but not the area described in the brochure. Being a Saturday, the locals were all out strolling, taking boat and rickshaw rides and eating an unusual variety of snacks. The small shops here were interesting as was our rickshaw ride. I’m sure the riders had been specifically instructed to make it ‘exciting’ for us as they took off pedalling for all they were worth. We were probably lucky to avoid being hit by one of the many cars that were also driving through the narrow alleys. It was pretty good fun though.

Roof-top lounge.

Ice-cream cone above and candied apples below.

The empty cups are stacked to show customers how popular the food is at that stall.

Bell tower.

Modern transport vehicles.

Our next encounter was with Mr Liu, the cricket man. He was quite the showman, explaining the sport of cricket fighting and how to care for them with much flair. He was quite a character and took much pride in showing us magazine articles and of course his ‘Certificate’ that he received from the Government for his contributions to the cultural traditions of China. 







After his show we were treated to dinner by the house owner, who was once a renowned chef and also took pride in showing us his ‘Certificate’ from the Government. He seemed a lovely man though and he and his wife made us feel very welcome in their home, even bringing out the rice wine which tasted just like home-made grappa – and had as much kick. We all went very carefully there. The meal was probably the nicest Chinese meal we had. Although there wasn’t a lot of meat, the dishes were tasty and there was plenty.

The biggest source of amusement - although it is not really funny – was the visit to the communal toilet by a couple of our more intrepid or should I say desperate Trippers. There were no doors in the ladies and no walls either in the men’s so the sight of the locals just squatting side by side, mobile phones in hand, doing the business, was a bit of a shock. One guy even had a cigarette which he put on the floor beside him when he need both hands on the phone. Choice!

Street sweeper choosing his tools.

Day 3 in Beijing and we were off to the Beijing traditional medicine university to learn all about how to stay healthy. Again, it was really a retail exercise! The doctor who spoke to us first made a lot of sense, but then they trotted out more doctors to give us a free consultation consisting of feeling the pulse and looking at your tongue while asking probing questions, somewhat similar to those you would expect from a fortune teller. As would be expected, we all had at least a couple of serious ailments e.g. dirty liver/blood/kidneys which required detoxing, or high cholesterol/diabetes etc. My ‘elephant skin’ was of grave concern! It seemed to be the wives who had the most ailments and the husbands being told how sick the wives were. John was thinking of asking if he should look for a new one then. Most of us came away with lighter wallets – some more light than others. There were also 15 minute massages available, for a price of course! It will be interesting to see if the detox tea I bought has any effect.

After this we had an hour to spend roaming around the Wangfujing shopping district which was really a bit of a waste of time as the shops were again either high end or full of cheap junk. One highlight for some guys though was a trek down a side lane where they came across stalls selling fried everything – scorpions, grubs, spiders etc. They had a great time watching the locals hoe into these delicacies.

One of the more economical forms of transport in Beijing.

We noticed that the Chinese are very adventurous when it comes to architecture. There were lots of really beautiful and unusual buildings in Beijing and elsewhere. Below are just a few that we saw. Some you will recognise from the Beijing Olympics.

If we had known we were going to get so little time at the zoo we would definitely have said skip the shops. As it turned out, we were whisked into the panda area for about 15 minutes and then straight out and onto the bus because the guide and bus driver wanted to be able to take us back to the hotel and still have time to get those doing a side tour to the buried warriors to their train. This did not go down well with the rest of the group. It should have been organised so that those staying on the tour itinerary got to spend more time at the zoo.

Although the pandas were great to see and really amusing to watch, they didn't look too happy. Maybe it was the rainy weather. They seem to spend most of their time sleeping, just like our koalas.

HANGZHOU

Our ride on the high-speed bullet train to Hangzhou was really enjoyable as we got to see what the countryside outside the cities looked like. What amazed us most apart from the fact that the train travelled at around 305 kph, was the fact that every bit of land is being used for something – either growing rice or trees etc or housing. It was amazing to see blocks of high-rise buildings seemingly out in the middle of nowhere. Some areas too were obviously given over to intense manufacturing and of course we saw large numbers of power stations, all of which looked to be coal-fired. The only drawback on the train was the toilets. They got smellier and messier as the trip went on and after 6 hours you can imagine they were not very choice. We had to make sure we knew where our baggage was in the carriage too as each stop along the route is only about 2 minutes so you need to be ready to get off straight away.

Our porters tried desperately to stack 38 peoples' luggage onto two trolleys. Eventually they gave up and got another one.

One of the many high-rise housing developments we saw being constructed during our train trip.

An interesting hillside near the rail line

Our new guide, JoJo, met us at the station and took us to our hotel, the Grand New Century Hotel Yuhang. It was again a beautiful looking place but we didn’t eat there as most of the hotel restaurants are expensive. Our guide told us where to go nearby and we managed to find a little place to eat.

Hangzhou

Hangzhou is famous as a tea growing area. Apparently the soil here has the perfect Ph for growing green tea (there is only one other place in Sri Lanka as good). Our tea experience was in the village of Meijiawu in the hinterland of West Lake Park. Here they grow Longjing (Dragon Well) tea. Unfortunately, instead of picking tea and seeing it fried etc. We were herded into a room where we were lectured on the medicinal benefits of tea and then pressed to buy either tea leaves or tablets which would miraculously fix all our problems like blood pressure, cholesterol etc. etc. Again there wasn’t much time to enjoy the surroundings which were really pretty.

Next it was off to the famous West Lake Park where we had lunch and then a boat ride on the lake. This was really lovely as the weather was beautiful and the surrounding gardens and scenery was really picturesque.

After the Lake it was back on the bus for a two hour drive to Suzhou, our guide’s home town. On the bus, JoJo told us lots of amusing and really interesting stories about her family and life in China. She was really informative and entertaining as well as obliging, trying her best to help us out whenever she could. In Suzhou we stayed at the Grand Metro Park Hotel and again with JoJo’s help we found another big new shopping centre nearby where we managed to order a lovely meal with the help of the waitress and her phone translator. Biggest problem here was trying to get the voice recognition to work out that ‘rice’ wasn’t ‘Royce’.

SUZHOU

The view from our hotel window in Suzhou.

What we saw at the back of the hotel. The fountain below was lovely, but the rubbish beside it was disappointing as it had obviously been there quite a while.

Suzhou is known as the Venice of the East, as it was once a town built entirely along canals built to control the low water table. Our first outing here was a visit to a silk spinning factory but again the factory itself was nowhere in sight. We were given the obligatory lecture and hard sell about how wonderful silk is and then shown one row of machines spinning the thread from the cocoons and it was off to the salesroom to buy doonas, covers, scarves etc. all of which the factory made for big names such as Burberry etc. Prices were not cheap but I managed to buy the same thing in Shanghai for 500 yuan ($100) less at a shop having a silk sale in Shanghai.

All about silk.

Spinning the silk from the cocoons.

Spreading out the thread on the double cocoons.

Then we took an optional tour on the Grand Canal consisting of a boat ride down the old canal passing houses and old bridges. Then we spent an hour wandering through the local canal-side markets. This was a really enjoyable outing. The shops were diverse and reasonably priced and the atmosphere was pleasant and at times entertaining. 

Chinese wedding.

Council tip truck.

Next was a visit to the Lingering Garden which was indeed quite beautiful. Most impressive here was the huge collection of bonsai trees.

Please explain!!

WUXI

The next town on our itinerary was Wuxi, famous for its freshwater pearls. But first stop here was the Nanchan Temple, the oldest wooden building still standing in China today. The temple was built during the time of the Southern Dynasties between 420 – 589 AD. It was indeed a beautiful building with a huge array of buddas. 

We decided to find something for dinner here as our hotel, Raddison Blu Resort, was a bit out of the way. Thinking it would be a safe option, we went for the KFC. Bad move – we both ended up with a dose of trots. Should have stuck with the local fare!

The foyer of Raddison Blue Resort Hotel

Seen in the canal out the back. Gardens were nice but no doubt the mosquitoes could be a problem at times.

The following morning, what we visited wasn’t a pearl farm as stated in the itinerary. It was another retail outlet, with a small pond containing a few oyster shells, the only evidence of where the pearls might have come from. There was, however, an impressive array of pearl jewellery to select from and with some aggressive haggling you can knock the prices down considerably. Many of our group scored some great bargains.

At Li Lake Park, we were met by a very agile 80 year old chinese qigong master, who led us through a qigong set beside Haihu Lake, the second biggest freshwater lake in China. 

Then it was back on the bus for a two-hour drive to Shanghai and the Crowne Plaza Shanghai Pudong. 

Now we know why the crane is the national bird of China.

One of the many deep fried offerings at our lunch stop.
Still haven't worked out what they are.

Kentucky Fried express!

That night we had dinner with some of our group in the hotel bar and enjoyed listening to a local duo singing.

SHANGHAI

Some of our group took a quick ride on the Meglev train the next morning. It goes at over 430 kph and is powered by electromagnetism. It takes 7 minutes and 20 seconds to cover the 30 klm trip from Longyang Road to Pudong International Airport. The train actually hovers about 10 mm above the track on a magnetic cushion and is impressive. However, the company which runs the line has incurred huge losses since it opened. Apparently it was built purely for political reasons as a test for China's future transport needs without consideration of the actual needs of travellers. Rumour has it that the Government plan to build one of these between Beijing and Shanghai.

The Maglev train.

Magnetic coils umder the track.

Shanghai cat. What are you lookin' at?

Next was a visit to the Bund, which is a waterfront area  running along the western bank of the Huanqpu River. 

Sights on the way to the Bund.

Shanghai's answer to the Wall Street bull.

Flower wall at the Bund.

Unfortunately it seems impossible for fish to survive in the water here.
We saw at least 10 dead fish in a 20 metre stretch of water.

After the Bund, we supposedly visited the Shanghai Museum. But much to our disgust, we didn’t even get inside. We had one hour here and the line outside meant at least a 30 minute wait. There alternative was to find someone in the group over 70 and then you could go straight in as their escort through another door. Of course there weren’t enough 70 year olds in our group so only 6 people got to go through with them. Our guide did manage to get some more in through that door but we had already left the area when she arrived. Needless to say we were not happy campers.

The front entrance to the museum in Shanghai.

The most interesting thing we saw at the Shanghai museum was this garden around the back of the building.

Then we continued on to the former French Concession which was established in 1849 when the Governor of Shanghai conceded territory for a french settlement. The British and Americans also had a similar concession areas at the time.

Jacky Chan's house in the French Concession area.

The city-dwellers chook/pigeon coop.

The Chinese are besotted with their pet dogs and this guy was particularly proud to inform us that his doggy had been selected to appear in a national pet food ad.

From here we visited the busy shopping district of Chinatown where there was a great selection of shops selling just about everything. We had lunch here in a large cafeteria. The food was cheap and ok but the lack of cutlery was a bit of a challenge. Plastic spoons and chopsticks are not ideal for eating noodles.

Entrance to the markets.

Another impressive garden feature in the middle of the city.

Highlight of our time in Shanghai was the optional river cruise that evening. The lights on the many buildings along the river were spectacular and our view from the VIP lounge (30 yuan a head – about $7) was excellent and worth the bit extra.

Oriental Pearl Tower at left and Shanghai International Convention Centre
and Riverside Hotel in centre.

Next day there was an optional visit to the knock-off markets and a free elevator ride to the top of the highest building in Beijing. We opted out of this although the markets apparently were massive and a great place to grab a bargain if you are into clothes etc. While the practice of selling ‘genuine copies’ in China is illegal, apparently the Government turns a blind eye, probably because it is a very lucrative business. We spent the morning strolling around the district near our hotel, most of which consisted of tiny restaurants with the odd hardware shop, hairdresser etc. After checking out we all just chilled out in the hotel lobby until our bus picked us up at 2.30. Then it was off to the airport and our 24 hour journey back to Townsville.