Raining Pandas

So time to say goodbye to southern China and hello to the bigger, busier, smoggier cities of Chengdu, Xian and Beijing. 



Our flight to Chengdu went without a hitch but we were in for a bit more, hmmm, "adventure" with the taxi driver from the airport to the guesthouse we'd booked the night before. Most drivers in China are pretty reckless and the road rules don't really mean much but this guy really took it to the next level! 120km an hour in very heavy traffic, using his horn AND flashing his lights, swerving across lanes, shaking his fist out the window at vehicles that didn't get out of his way quick enough... What a nutter! But he did deliver us in one piece to Sims Cozy Guesthouse, a huge place with much more going on than any of our other accom, a pretty slick operation. They had a great cafe with excellent Chinese food and some Japanese options as well. 





Mummy Panda



The next morning it was time to go see the main highlight for me in Chengdu, PANDAS! We made our own way out to the Breeding and Rehab center so we could be there by 8am in time for feeding and the most active time for the Pandas. It was well worth it, we saw three 1 year old Pandas playing with each other and climbing trees under the watchful eye of an older female, a couple of adult Giant Panda's eating their morning bamboo and a whole lot of Red Pandas playing and eating. The complex is not too bad as far as zoos go, my only complaint would be that some of the Red Pandas looked pretty stressed out and a few had missing ears, which is a result of stress. We watched the "educational" video which outlines the reasons Panda's are so endangered in the wild - basically they are just not that into sex (hard to reproduce without this important step) and their very specific bamboo diets mean that they don't adapt at all to changes in environment... pretty silly animals really, lucky they are sooooo cute. 

Happy Red Panda

We took a bus from the Panda Center back into Chengdu city and had a look around some of the tourist areas, Jilin "Old Town" was pretty ridiculous, basically a Disneyfied version of ye olde China, absolutely packed with Chinese tourists. We wondered why they didn't just head out into the countryside to see the REAL old China. We also made our first purchases - new trekking pants for Tim and a quick-dry top for me - it was amazing how many proper travel shops there were in Chengdu, and with real products not rip offs!

The next day we headed to Emei Shan, a mountain a 2hr bus trip South of Chengdu. Mum had really raved about her experience on Emei and everyone else we met who'd been echoed her opinion. The plan was to spend three days climbing down the mountain covering about 25km and staying in Monastery's on our way but it didn't quite work out like that because of the weather. It seems the rains are following us! It was rainy and cold when we arrived in Emei town but we decided to head to the top of the mountain by bus (another 2hr trip) anyway in the hope that it would be fine in the morning and we could get an early start. Of course there wasn't much of a view on the way up because of the cloud but we did see that it would have been quite spectacular if we could have seen it! We stayed in Jilian Hall, a monastery near the top of the mountain. We were allocated a drafty room in the attic by a Chinese lady with no English but some great miming skills, no power and very simple but quite atmospheric. We thought food was included in the (quite expensive) price so ate with the monks - pretty terrible food actually, some weird brown rubbery shoelace things, sugary tomatoes and a tasteless soup. It wouldn't have been so bad but they actually expected us to pay EXTRA for it, thanks for the advanced notice. Wasn't much to do in the monastery in the dark so we went and hung out with an American Peace Corps English teacher in the rather grim hotel restaurant nearby.

It seems we are destined not to see a good sunrise - it was cloudy and raining when we woke the next morning but we decided we may as well rainsuit up and head to the peak anyway. Talk about lots of steps! We saw a very cute chipmunk who was twitching and jigging about so much it looked like he had ADHD. After about 1.5hr of constant upwards walking we reached the peak - freeezzzzzing - could only take my gloves off for long enough to snap a few pics and then fingers were so numb it was hard to put them back on again! It was a little spooky up the top with lots of cloud cover and swirling mists but no views... looks like we'll have to add Emei Shan to our come back list! After having a warm up hot chocolate (with jelly lumps, hmmm) and watching the Chinese tourist numbers grow and grow we made an executive decision not to hang around in the rain and cold and to catch the cable car and then walk to the bus stop and take the bus back down again - a shame but spending 2 more days walking in the rain and freezing cold with no views didn't really appeal.  

Cliff path to the Big Buddha

We went back to Chengdu via Le Shan which gave us an opportunity to see the biggest Buddha in the world, carved out of the cliffs next to Le Shan river. There was also a very large line of people waiting to do the walk down the cliffs, weekends definitely attract local tourists to Leshan. We braved the pushing and shoving elderly ladies and did the walk down and back up again - yep that is one big Buddha!

We headed back to Sims for another couple of nights, it was Tim's turn to have a cold so we didn't do too much, just did some planning for the next sections of our trip, did some washing and sleeping and DVD watching. A good place to chill out and as it was raining we didn't feel too slothful :) 

Another flight, this time to Xian - because of a very tantalizing offer from a couch host in Beijing to take us hiking and camping on lesser known parts of the great wall we only had one night and one day to squeeze in Xian. When we arrived we headed to the Muslim quarter and wandered around the markets, ("hey lady, you looky!") with the usual cheap tourist items plus some yummy looking nuts, fruit and Muslim style food, and had dinner in a Muslim restaurant. We were on the second storey and the massive window right next to our table opened straight out into the street - a good birds eye view of all the goings on even if it would never pass Australian safety standards!

The next morning we headed out to the Terracotta warriors on a frustratingly slow bus. The warriors were pretty amazing, we enjoyed seeing the ones that were still being unearthed and hadn't been "fixed up" the most. Definitely a must see, a little strange to think of the HUGE efforts some go to to ensure a good afterlife! We also tried the Chinese version of a hot pocket from a street stall which wasn't too bad and we are still alive so all is good. Unfortunately we didn't get time to do too much else because of the slooooowwww bus. We had a flight to Beijing that afternoon - we would have preferred to catch the sleeper train but apparently it books out about a week in advance - a bit different to the experience we had in the South of being able to pick up a ticket the same day we wanted to leave, who knew!

We arrived in Beijing late but made it to our couch host Bryan's (American English teacher for a private company) place at the university just after midnight, thanks to him giving instructions in Mandarin to our taxi driver. Its a bit frustrating that the buses and trains from airports in China finish a lot earlier than the flights! We sampled some Chinese tea with Bryan, tea aficionado, and his mates Daniel and Julie and got our stuff organised for the next days adventure to the Great Wall and rolled out our sleep mats for a few hours sleep before we headed off. 

Unfortunately Bryan checked the internet the next morning and after months of dry weather the Great Wall and Beijing were due a big storm - no Wall hiking/camping for us! A bit of a disappointment but Bryan is still keen to take us out to the wall when we head back to Beijing after Mongolia - fingers crossed our bad weather luck doesn't keep following us. After trying out the local Banzoi (yummy breakfast buns filled with veges and meat) with Bryan and Daniel we used our unexpected spare day in Beijing to check out the Summer Palace and wander around the Hutongs - old style alleyways. We even worked out the metro system and how to use the transport cards. Found a great little local restaurant where we tried the Szechuan friend eggplant with a sugary sauce and tongue-numbing Szechuan peppers - i think it is my favourite food so far in China, just gotta watch those peppers!

The next day we wandered around Tienanmen Square (that's a lot of concrete) and checked out the museum in the huge East Gate. We had our first hot pot for lunch - it was something different but i think we could find a better example! We also went into the "Tourist Hutongs" and surrendered to the call of Starbucks (or to the call of a clean, western toilet??).  Unfortunately we caught the wrong train on the way home and ended up doing a massive loop back to Bryans but we did eventually make it and joined him and his mates for local dumplings (yum!), some more sweet red sauce eggplant and had a few beers at the local expat dive. 

Early the next morning - flight to MONGOLIA!!! Country 2 here we come....

“If you don't scale the mountain, you can't view the plain” - Chinese Proverb

Well that's what i kept telling myself throughout Yunnan Province anyway... This is the sort of country that Tim craves, snow capped mountains, clear mountain lakes and streams, fresh mountain air - yep, a lot of mountain which means a fair bit of UP! Neither of us were disappointed.

Yep that's a cormorant on his head!

So we started in Dali, which is about 2200m above sea level (about the same height as Mt Kosciusko and higher than either of us had ever been!) and where people may start experiencing altitude sickness.  We did a good 1/2 day tour organised by the guesthouse out to an old town on the big Dali lake to see Cormorant fishing, pretty cool to see them catch the fish and bring them back - they still try to swallow the fish even though they have cord around their necks to stop this. They look glossy, healthy and happy and get lots of little rewards for doing the fishing from their owners so my fears of bird abuse were allayed! Yes mum, they did bring back memories of Ping Ping. Tim and i even had cormorants sit on our hands and heads, special treatment i think as the domestic tourists didn't get this opportunity - highly possible that the fisherman just thought it was funny to see foreigners with birds sitting on their heads! One thing i didn't know - cormorants have the most beautiful green eyes. 

Our taxi driver also gave us a bit of a tour thru the old town on the way back, where we got to try the local milk/cheese delicacy - not bad - and see the big banyan tree full of egrets. We shared some tea with him when we got back to the guesthouse, nice guy and much more than just a taxi driver. Tried our first Tibetan food this night, yummy lamb stew.

The next day we decided at the last minute to head up Cang Shan Mtn which sits overlooking Dali. We planned not to do the 12km walk at the top of the mtn because we had to get back in time to make our bus to Lijiang and because i had started getting a pretty bad flu (groan) however on our way up we changed our minds, it just looked too good to miss! So we did ultra speed  walking and saw some pretty waterfalls, green pools and lots of pine trees. No wildlife apart from small birds, this is a pretty common theme in China, they REALLY like hunting and eating their animals. We made it back down in time for our bus thanks to a short trip in a motorised rickshaw! Note - rickshaws and bumpy cobblestones don't mix well!

Pretty streets of Lijiang old town

The trip to Lijiang was slow and bumpy thanks to lots of roadwork but we did make it, with the added benefit of a gorgeous sunset and a double rainbow on our way in! We only stayed the night in Lijiang (at a sweet little courtyard guesthouse in the old town) before heading onto Qiaotou to start the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek - Tim starting calling it the Leaping Tiger Hidden Gorge about here, sigh...  

Sunset from Naxi Guesthouse, Tiger Leaping Gorge

After arriving we walked up (and up and up and up) to the first guesthouse run by a local Naxi minority family, but managed to get ourselves lost along the way - despite what the guidebooks say, at least one of the pony handlers at the gorge are helpful and ARE pointing you in the right direction not just trying to lure you onto their pony! We also helped out a lost Brit backpacker. After Tim tried his Mandarin out on a local farmer we were back on track and arrived in time to see the sunset. 

Sunset/Moonrise view from Halfway Guesthouse

The next morning we got up to see the sunrise but unfortunately only clouds... We then headed up the famed 28 bends to the highest point on the track - yep, there is 28 bends and they are steep! The scenery is beautiful with mountains on either side of the gorge and a raging river far below. We saw lots of goats and their minders as well as a wild White Tailed deer in the pine trees - not common due to hunting so we feel lucky. A good walk but by this stage my nose was running like a tap and my hacking cough made me sound like an 80 year old smoker - still i soldiered on thanks to Tim carrying all our stuff - who needs pack ponies. After about 5 hours of walking we reached the Halfway Guesthouse and had a nice evening with some other backpackers, watching the moon pop up from behind the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain from the guesthouse balcony - gorgeous.

The next morning, with me feeling like crap, we headed off on the last stretch. It was a bit miserable on the way down as rain storm hit and the wind made it very cold, our dry bags and pack liner passed the test and we definitely deserved our warm up coffee at the bottom. We also fit in a walk to the bottom of the gorge and then back up the mountain using a couple of ladders - this was awesome, though a looong way down and a loooong way up some steep paths. You realise just how much water is there when you are standing next to it, what looked like a brown ribbon from above is now a deep, crazy raging river.

We left Tiger Leaping Gorge that afternoon and headed for Shangri La - the furthest west and the highest town we were going to. We were lucky to be able to share a van with some domestic tourists and found a guesthouse pretty easily. The next day was a bit of recuperation, some grapefruit tea, sleeping in and clothes washing and an easy visit to the local Monastery - apparently one of the most important in China! We did have one bit of excitement here when the police just before the monastery ordered us off the local bus - turned out they just wanted us to pay and catch the "official bus" to get in but it was a bit disconcerting at first. Lots of Tibetans in Shangri La - who seem more outgoing and eager to chat to us - and the whole place had a bit of a "final frontier" feel to it. Chilly too, but nice after some of the humidity we've had.

Top of Shika Mtn, with views of the Himalayas!

The next day we went up Mt Shika which is very close to Shangri La with a Tibetan guide. It was 4459m and no, we didn't walk UP it (due to lack of time rather than any laziness, seriously!) we took the cable car, but we did walk down again. They actually sell oxygen bottles at the bottom, and while we found we were definitely breathless at the top we had no serious issues. Lots of the Chinese tourists were buying them though, especially the ladies, even though they weren't doing any actually walking, lol. Our guide was a friendly guy and it was interesting to talk to him about his thoughts on environmental preservation, the China-Tibet relationship and just general Tibetan life. The summit was covered in snow and we saw lots of wildflowers and birds on the way down. We also bumped into a group of young monks who invited us to join them for lunch at an alpine lake. They did their incense offerings etc and we shared a bit of picnic (lovely spot with snow on the edges of the lake and snow covered mountains in the background) - we're pretty sure they were eating pork sausages, naughty monks! They were very impressed that Tim and I had seen his holiness, the Dali Lama in Sydney and gave us some tiny little "prayer balls" to eat which are apparently good for your soul.

Local minority group ladies in
their MASSIVE hats

We headed back to Lijiang that afternoon and stayed in the same guesthouse. The next morning we wandered around the old town, old fashioned residences/shops, cobbled streets and pretty waterways. It was pretty touristified in areas but easy to get away from it down the less popular alleyways. Time to leave Yunnan province that afternoon, we flew from Lijiang to Chengdu to avoid backtracking to Kunming for the train. We feel like we really could have spent our whole China time in Yunnan, sooo much to see and so many possibilities of getting off the beaten track. Perhaps we'll come back!