Day 7: Gardens, Shopping and Dragon's Pearl

We still had more to see around Shanghai! When we walked outside that morning it was sleeting out. Yeah no true story, it was freakin cold and the sky was dropping freezing ice on us, and the poor Australians were so confused, it’s snowing! No, it’s hail! Ask the American she’s from cold climate, Ashley is this hail or sleet? And where did we go site seeing on this lovely day? Another outside garden! It was great though. This was the only private garden in Shanghai and featured this big rock display that was about two stories high. It doesn’t sound so impressive until our guide tells us that Shanghai is such a flat area that 400 years ago when this garden was built this little rock hill was the highest point in the entire region.

Highest point in Shanghai 400 years ago

The garden also featured dragon guardians on the walls and we learned all about the symbolism of the dragon. The dragon guardian on the wall only had three claws because ultimately the dragon is the symbol of the emperor and so only the dragon’s guarding the emperor are allowed to have all five claws. The dragon always has a pearl in its mouth for the pearl is actually the soul of the dragon and if it loses the pearl, it dies. But sometimes there aren’t enough pearls to go around and you’ll see multiple dragons circling a single pearl. They have to share it in order to survive.

Awesome story related to the dragon pearl. When we were in Suzhou I took a picture of two dragons playing with a pepsi pearl. At the time I thought it was just silly because it was a pepsi gimmick. Once I heard the actual story about the pearl and I looked back at that picture it became so much more amusing.

Dragons playing with the Pepsi pearl!

We had some free time to wander around the markets that surrounded the garden, except when it was time to go we were counting heads and someone was missing again. Where’s Dorothy?! We lost Dorothy again! She turned up but we gave her such a hard time she was never late again!

We visited all the high end shopping districts that afternoon. Couple of notes of shopping in China. First of all, the fashions are very plain. Conservative styles and plain colors. Secondly, there aren’t really any big department stores. We did see a WalMart in one or two places but 90% of the stores are small, privately owned and only specialize in a couple of things. We walked down the main shopping street in Shanghai. This place was packed and apparently is the place to be seen if you want to be cool and be seen. Ryan and I called it the Queen’s Street of Shanghai. I found it to be the place where you get harassed by street sellers trying to sell you roller skates. And the older single men found it to be the place to be accosted by young pretty Asian girls. This guy, Dave, in our group is this older British gentleman with a bushy white beard. He told us within the hour we were there he was propositioned no less than twenty two times! And after the fifteenth proposition he was so amazed he went up to another guy in our group and laughed about it, “I’ve been accosted fifteen times!” and this girl pops out of nowhere and goes, “Fifteen dollar? I show you good time for fifteen dollar!”

For all you young men thinking this is the place to be, a word of warning. Our Dave didn’t go along with any of it, but towards the end of our trip we met another Wendy Wu tour group who was doing a shorter 10 day tour. They said one of the men in their group went to the same place and was dumb enough to take one of those girls up on their offer. She led him into a back ally anndd instead of getting sexy times the dude got mugged and robbed. Yeah. Stay away from those girls.

After dinner we went on a river cruise on the river between the CBD and the Bund. It was gorgeous! The city lights up like Vegas. Buildings have entire walls displaying lights and pictures. Both sides of the river were lit up and stunning. Though Ryan seemed more amused by the Star Wars concept art painted on the inside of the boat. But that’s okay. It was still a good way to end our stay in Shanghai

Shanghai at night

Day 8: Welcome to Guilin!

We slept in until noon then took a two hour flight to Guilin. Guilin is surrounded by mountains and the surrounding area is home to just 5 million people.  About a third of the population in this area are part of a minority group called the Zhung people. The main population of China are the Han people. There are over 55 minority groups in the country and they get minority perks like extra points on exams and if two minorities marry they are allowed to have two children instead of the one.

Our local guide, Jesse told us a little about his life growing up. He came from a small village of only 500 people and had to walk to a neighboring village for school every day. Every village in the area spoke a different dialect so most people there can speak several dialects along with the standard mandarin.

Also, our bus had heat which was a godsend after the frozen seats in Shanghai! There was a sign in the front of the hotel saying "Welcome Wendy Wu!" We felt all special. It was the off season, we thought we might be the only big group visiting at the time so they put it up to make us feel welcome. Later we found out they leave that sign up all year around. Still nice, but not quite as special anymore. 

We ate dinner and then went to the river to watch an old tradition of cormorant fishing. Cormorants are these big black birds that dive into the water to catch fish. The fishermen train them to come back to the boat after every time they catch a fish. They tie loose strings around the bird’s neck so they can’t swallow the fish so when the bird comes back the fisherman gets the fish. It looked very uncomfortable for the poor birds, but sometimes they get smart. The fishermen have to give them a treat once in a while or else the bird will stop fishing. It’s a dying profession. It’s a slow process and it doesn’t yield much result so it’s mostly just a tourist attraction now.

Cormorant Fishing, Guilin

Our hotel room had two notable things. The first was the shower door with a hole in it. It was a corner shower and when you opened the door it came right up to the corner of the sink. Someone had mismeasured either the shower or the sink but instead of getting a new shower or sink they simply carved out a little hole in the door so you could open it without it hitting. It was sort of the poster for Chinese development. They tend to cut corners sometimes instead of taking the time to re-measure. Let’s just say their standards would never pass inspection in a western country. The other interesting thing was the extra little room attached to ours which contained a poker table! It was a tiny little room and all it had was that table and chairs, the table was clearly designed for a specific type of game but I have no idea what game it was supposed to be. 

Day 9: The Li River

We got to take a cruise along the Li River! The Li River is famous for the stunning views and canal. We didn’t pass the canal but it was built back in 200 BC by the same Emperor who commissioned the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors. He did a lot of big projects. The canal connects the Li River to the Yellow River and still stands and works after two thousand years.

This river was absolutely stunning. The mountains that line the river are these chunks of Earth that just pop out of the ground. There are so many of them and they’re so oddly shaped that every two minutes the boat moved you would have a whole new view! And the front view would be different than the back view and it was amazing. I took a bajillion pictures and if the weather had been nicer I probably would have taken more. It was another blistering cold day so I could only spend about ten minutes on the top of the boat before my fingers started to go numb. Then I would run back inside for fifteen minutes, warm up, then run back out to take more pictures! A view from the Li river is actually pictured on the back of the 20yuan note.

Li River, Guilin China

It was really foggy out and rained towards the end of the tour. Our tour guide tried to make us feel better by calling it "romantic mist" and telling us this is how the artists all like the mountains. I still would have preferred sun shining off the bushes and water but nature happens. They told us those odd shaped mountains are actually the remains of ancient coral reefs. Several thousand years ago China was all under water and those mountains were carved by the ocean and fish and afterwards by rain and natural erosion. It makes for the most unbelievably beautiful views now.

It started raining as soon as we got off the boat and walked to our hotel. The cruise had taken most of the afternoon and had brought us to a small town called Yangshou. It was beautiful little town with the mountains randomly sticking up around. Our hotel was right next to one. Our room window was literally only about ten feet away from the side of the mountain. There were shops along the street on perfectly flat ground and rising up instantly behind the building would be these towering cliffs. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. 

Day 10: Reed Flute Cave, Haggling and Western Dinner

It was a two hour drive from Yangshou back to Guilin. We stopped twice on the way. The first to see the rice fields, but it was too early in the season so it was basically just a bunch of green rectangles. Farms are different over there. Instead of one family having a house and their big farmland surrounding the house, all the farmers in China live in villages grouped together then they go out to the fields where each family has their own plot of land they farm.  A lady came by with a water buffalo. It’s a standard tourist thing, she charges 10yuan for a photo with the buffalo.

The second stop was at another tiny town along the river. They were giving boat rides to tourists. We walked over the bridge on the river and watched as the little two person boats went under the bridge, over the little dyke under the bridge and then down the little fall into the water! It looked like tons of fun, I wished we had had enough time to try it but it was crowded and we had other things to do.

After lunch we made a brief visit to the pearl museum. They told us all about pearls, how long it takes them to grow, how to tell real from fake. I enjoyed the little fashion show they put on but I didn’t like feeling like an exploited tourist. That was okay though because the place we went to after the museum was one of the biggest highlights of the entire trip for me.

We visited the Reed Flute Cave! You need to go to google right now and look up pictures of this cave because it is the most spectacular display of lights you will ever see. This cave was massive and they used colored lights all around to accentuate the rock formations. They even put on a light show in the big cavern in the middle. It’s unbelievable how something as simple as a blue light can make a simple rock wall turn into something gorgeous.

Reed Flute Cave, Guilin

If you want a story about haggling in China you can’t beat this one. Of course before you entered the cave you had to walk through a gift shop. One of the guys in our group stopped and looked at some very nice scrolls hanging on the wall. A sales girl noticed him and casually mentioned the price of a scroll was $880yuan. He wasn’t actually interested in buying one, he was just admiring them, so he ignored her and walked away. As he turned she instantly started lowering the price. 600! 550! 300! By now our group was making our way to the entrance of the cave, she actually followed us out the store and down the stairs 200! 150! He was laughing quite hard at that point and explained what she was talking about to those of us around him. 100! She yelled out her last price. No joke, this lady came down from 880 to 100 and Dave never said one word to her. He didn’t take it, he didn’t want one to begin with, but it was amazing. We saw similar things happen several more times throughout the trip. It’s amazing how much they mark up their items for tourists.

Dinner that night was special. We had a Chinese “Western” style dinner. We sat at rectangle 4 person tables instead of the big round ones. There were no chop sticks, we had forks and knives (side note, we usually were provided with forks at our meals but hardly anyone used them and most of the time the forks were actually intended for serving the food, not for eating). Our appetizer was a spring roll which made me giggle because our western dinner was not starting out very western. But then they brought out minestrone soup and bread rolls, and for the main course we had a choice of chicken, beef and pork. I had the beef and Ryan tried the pork. Both were wonderfully done, absolutely delicious.

After dinner we wandered around the shops. Ryan bought some new jeans. I saw a terra cotta replica at one of the kiosks. I mentioned how I was planning to get one when we went and saw the real things in Xian. Ryan then prompted me to buy it now because it was likely to be more expensive at the actual attraction. It was a nice sized maybe 10 inch statue of a sitting archer. Just so I could get a price comparison I asked the lady how much for it. She said 120yuan. That was a bit more than I had anticipated so I shook my head and made to move on. She grabbed me (not literally but some people there will, you need to watch out for that) and we moved back and forth on the price. Finally after much uncomfortable debate (you all know how good I am with situations like that) I walked away with a terra cotta statue for 40 yuan. Roughly $6.5. Yes, that lady came down from 120 to 40 for that little statue. And I’m sure I’ll mention this again when I get to the part with the real things, but later at the official factory the exact same statue was selling for 400yuan. Yeah.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped to admire the Sun and Moo pagodas in the lake. One was lit up in all silver and the other in gold and they reflected on the lake. It was a gorgeous sight. 

Day 11: Elephant Trunk Hill

We weren’t meeting the group until 11am. Ryan and I actually managed to get our butts out of bed before 9 because we wanted to go see the Elephant Trunk Hill. It’s one of the more famous landmarks in Guilin and because of that I was really surprised it wasn’t on the official itinerary. It was only a few blocks from our hotel and it was about 60yuan ($10) to get into the park. There were hills to climb and caves to explore and an old pagoda that had been shut down. The hills we climbed were steep and the steps slippery from the rain and I decided the reason it wasn’t on the official list was because many of the people travelling were retired older people who could fall and break a hip on the slippery rocks. It sounded like a valid theory until we climbed several other hills later in the tour that were just as steep and slippery, if not more so, so I don’t know what their excuse was. It was a lot of fun though, to explore around with just the two of us without having to wait for a guide or stay with other group members.

Elephant Trunk Hill in Guilin

We rejoined the group at 11am for our official tour, which just happened to be at another park with hills to climb! This park was admittedly bigger than the Elephant Trunk hill and had lots of different routes you could climb. The hills ranged from mild with only about 100 steps to painful with over 500 very steep steps. Ryan was enthusiastic to see everything he could. We climbed the smaller hill then raced back down to try and find a cave on the map. It was up another steep hill and the cave was only half way up.

 I needed time to rest but gave the camera to Ryan and let him trot off. I managed to get up there eventually just not as quickly or gracefully as he could. From the top of the mountain we could see the bulk of the rest of the group on top of another slightly lower peak a couple hundred meters away. We made our way back down to the starting point. With only about 15 minutes until the designated departure time Ryan decides he just has to climb that last hill. After the first hill in the morning and the last killer I was done. I told him not to kill himself and I wouldn’t let them leave without him. He managed to make it all the way up and back down with a few minutes to spare.

After lunch we headed to airport to fly the Kunming. We had been checked in beforehand so our seats weren’t together. As I got on the plane I looked back and noticed there was someone in my seat! The row was filled with three big old Chinese guys. If anyone had spoken English I could have just switched with whatever seat they were supposed to have, but being the mute tourist all I could do was show my ticket to the stewardess. She looked at the seat number and the guy sitting in my seat and some very harsh words were exchanged back and forth (but all Chinese words sound harsh) Eventually she got him to move and let me sit down even though by that time I really didn’t want to. Most uncomfortable flight ever. 

Day 12: Welcome to Kunming and Stone Forest

Kunming is a nice tropical area so for the first day in two weeks we had beautiful sun and warm weather. The only activity for the day was going to the Stone Forest. On the way our guide gave us the introduction of Kunming and the area. It’s about 7 million people and is home to a ton of minority groups. He said of the 55 minority groups in China 22 of them live in the Kunming area. It’s also one of the worst cities for traffic but all cities in china are bad for traffic. They’re a well off area though, about half the families own a car, whereas most other cities the ratio is closer to 1 in 10. Still a couple million cars in one city will lead to some horrific rush hours. He said he was stuck in traffic with a friend one time. They watched as the lady got out of the car in front of them, walked over to the noddle shop, ate some noodles and came back 20 minutes later where no one had moved at all.

Stone Forest in Kunming

The Stone Forest was beautiful and very appropriately named. It’s this collection of giant stones that literally just pop out of the ground like trees. It’s very very cool. I wish we had had more time to explore there. It was very cool though, one of the local minority groups was in the middle of its spring festival so there were people everywhere dressed in traditional costumes and children in colorful hats and it was super cute.

That night there was an optional performance on at the theater. We had the option to see several shows throughout the trip but they all cost like 200yuan and I hadn’t budgeted for that sort of expense in every city (and of course they claim that every single show is the best show in China!) This one caught my attention though because it was longer than the rest of them (two hours long instead of just one), it had won actual awards and had toured internationally so I figured this might be the one actually worth seeing. (I heard the show we missed in Guilin with the lights was also spectacular for future reference) The show was called “Shangrila Dynamic Yunnan” it was a show that featured different songs and dances from the various minority groups in the area.

The star of the show was this lady, when I saw her picture on the brochure she was so skinny I thought it was photo shopped. But no, after the show we found out she had actually had surgery to remove two of her ribs to attain that skinny super curvy look. She was pretty spectacular though, she could twist and dance like no one I’ve ever seen. The other sort of star was this little girl they used in several of the acts, she was the cutest darn thing that ever happened. The last act of the show was this peacock dance which was one of the most elegant things I’ve ever seen. It was a fantastic show. 

Day 13: More Mountain Climbing and Welcome to Chongqing!

We visited another mountain this morning. Now, we all knew we had a flight to catch later that afternoon and lunch beforehand. Several times the question was asked, “what time do we need to be back to the bus?” but a specific answer was never given, which was unusual and kind of annoying.

 I wasn’t feeling too fantastic that day. Colds and bugs were starting to work their way around the bus. I only went about half way up the mountain before I decided I was done. Ryan still had energy so I gave him the camera and told him to stay with the guys, there were five of them all determined to get to the top. I slowly made my way back down and sat and chatted with some of the ladies at the coffee shop at the bottom of the mountain.

We watched as the group slowly made its way back down to the starting point. Again, we hadn’t been given a specific departure time so everyone just sort of came back when they felt like it. Half an hour passed, about half the group was back. An hour passed, about 75% of the group was there. An hour and a half…we were still missing some of the guys. Including Ryan. We talked to other guys who claimed they had made it all the way to the top and back down and had not seen our little group. We started getting a little worried. I was worried because the mountain was slippery and Ryan had a new hip that could have popped out if hit in the wrong place. One of the British wives was also about to call the cavalry, her husband was also having joint problems and she had specifically told him not to wander off. Gump even talked to the park workers to check if anyone had seen them.

It was probably two hours before we finally saw them strolling around the corner. They all had huge smiles on their faces because they knew they were in trouble. They had actually gone past the “top” part of the mountain to find a temple off the main trail. They made up stories about having to save the orphans on the mountain. Uhhuh. It was a stupid move but they were all okay and they still made it back in time for us to catch lunch. For the rest of the trip they were referred to as the famous five. 

After lunch we took our last flight to Chongqing and thankfully I didn’t get stuck next to any Chinese guys this time. The Chongqing province contains over 32 million people, making it the largest province in the entire world. We went to dinner at an art museum which sounded a lot more fancy than it looked. When we walked in it looked like we were walking into a back alley warehouse. But the basement of the art museum was cool, it looked like a European wine cellar type place and the food was fantastic. 

Day 14: Flying Tigers and Welcome to Dazu!

We got out half day tour of Chongqing. For being one of the largest cities in the world it sure didn’t have much to do. We started the day with a stroll through the park. There were tons of older people doing tai chi and morning exercises. There was a nice lookout of the city. We saw the original house of the first Australian Embassy in China.

I take it back, if you’re a war history nerd then Chongqing is probably your place to go. The city was a major landmark during World War II. After the park we visited the Flying Tiger museum which was all about the war efforts during that time. Flying Tigers was the code name given to the air force mission in Chongqing against the Japanese. The museum is inside the house that was used by the American military and is a common place to film movies from that era. They were actually shooting a TV show while we were there, we didn’t see any of the filming but the 1920’s cars were there and a small screw doing busy work around the set. There were a few rooms of pictures and a nice lady gave us a short presentation about the Flying Tigers, then after that we were herded through the galleries of unrelated paintings being sold to support the museum. Exploited tourists GO!

Our last stop in Chongqing was the public square in between the Three Gorges Museum and the government building that is hailed as one of the triumphs of modern architecture. We didn’t have time for the museum and we weren’t allowed inside the government building. We just got to look at them.

Government building in Chongqing

After lunch we drove 2 hours to Dazu. Now there’s a city with things to see! It only had 900k people but in the surrounding around it is home to more than 50,000 rock carvings dating back to 700AD. We had time for one mountain that afternoon. It had several hundred religious pictures carved straight into the rock side, almost all of them created in the Tong and Song dynasties between 800 and 1200AD. Many of the carvings there had their heads and hands knocked off. A result of the cultural revolution under Chairman Mao. All religious symbols had tried to be destroyed but it’s hard to destroy solid rock so the best they could do was knock off the head and hands. They were fantastic though, huge life size figures meticulously hand carved surviving through hundreds of years.

Dazu Rock Carvings

The hotel we stayed at in Dazu was by far the most impressive of our entire trip. It was a 5 star and for good reason. It was massive, it was gorgeous, it was decked out to the nines. Our room was huge and the best part of it all….inside the bathroom there was a switch next to the toilet that you could use to turn music on while you did your business. Best feature ever. 

Day 15: Rocks, Welcome to Chengdu and Pizza!

We visited another mountain of rock carvings and these ones were even more impressive than the ones the day before. These ones had escaped the destruction and were only broken where nature had eroded it. Our guide told us tons of stories and information about the carvings. Who they were and what lessons they told. There were mountain guardians next to a depiction of Lau Tzu, the emperor and empress of heaven with symbols representing long life. Stories of enlightenment and examples of punishment for betraying the family. 

Mountain Guardian and LauTzu Rock Carvings

They place was packed and we very quickly noticed that the local tourists were probably taking just as many pictures of us as we were of the rock carvings. Turns out white people are not that common over there.

Our local guide was by far the least skilled one we had on the tour. His group management skills were poor and his English was even worse. However, we learned that we were his first big English tour so we cut him a little slack, and when you could understand what he was saying he actually knew a lot about everything in the area.

After the rock carvings was a painful four hour drive to Chengdu. Chengdu is a city of about 5 million but I originally guessed much higher as we passed towering skyscrapers and brilliantly lit up shopping centers with expensive specialty stores. Chengdu is the world famous home to the panda and it receives many many tourists every year because of it.

Our hotel was right on a corner just a block off from the main shopping street, fantastic location. Ryan and I ditched the group at dinner. We had seen a restaurant on the way over that we could not possibly resist. Pizza Hut. Turns out “western” food is actually a sort of upscale hip dining experience for the Chinese. When we walked in we were formally seated at a table for two. All the people in there were young, high school aged or in their twenties, all friends and dates, we saw no families or small children.

In the front of the menu were set meals were you could choose a few things for a set price. I thought we were just there for pizza so I flipped straight to the back so see their selection. They had English translations below the Chinese characters for all the meals. I found a pizza I thought looked good and suggested it. Ryan was a little more impressed with the whole scene and wanted to try more than just a simple pizza, he asked if we could get one of the set meals in the front. I had only had a moment to glance at the first line when the waitress walked up. I wasn’t able to communicate that I needed five more minutes to look at the menu so I just jumped right in and pointed at the set menu. We got to choose two entrees from the selection. One of them was the pizza I had picked out before so I pointed to that and then spaghetti also sounded really good. Only after that I noticed just how many other choices we had. There were 6 lines of items and we got to pick one thing from each line! I was instantly overwhelmed with the waitress standing right above me so I tried to toss it over to Ryan,

“I picked the first two things you go ahead and pick out what you want.” I told him.
“No, you pick them out.” He says casually.
“I haven’t even had a chance to read this yet, you go.”
“Just point at things.”
“I don’t know what there is!”
“Doesn’t matter, pick random things.”

Arrg! So I read and ordered at the same time which made the whole process take a lot longer than it should have. Finally when we got it done and the waitress left I gave Ryan a good kick across the table for leaving me hanging, but he just laughed at my ability to get flustered so quickly.

The food came out in no particular order, just whenever it was ready, but let me describe it in a way that will emphasize how much food we actually got. We were served an appetizer of fried asparagus, which was delicious. We each got a plate of a simple salad and a bowl of ham and potato soup. On top of that were the entrees, a personal pan pizza (tasted just like home) and a big plate of spaghetti which was covered in some sort of chili sauce and very spicy. It was fantastic but too spicy to each too much of. We also both got drinks and a chocolate mousse dessert. The total bill came to 147yuan, or when split was about $13 each. For the price of an average meal back home we got three starters, two entrees, drinks and dessert. I love China. They wouldn’t take our tip though. We tried twice to give them extra money and they kept giving it back.

I was proud we managed to successfully feed ourselves in a foreign speaking country without the help of a guide. We also successfully managed to make our entire group jealous the next day as we told the story of the delicious pizza, and it sounded like we made a good choice because no one had been impressed with the group dinner. 

Day 16: Giant Buddha and Sword

We had been running a lot in the past week. It felt like half our days had been spent either on a bus or in an airport, so I was greatly looking forward to our three nights in Chengdu. Finally a few days to chill and just sightsee without all the traveling.

We met the group at the usual 9am meeting time where our local guide told us it was going to be a two and a half HOUR drive to see the big Buddha. Yaaaaay another day spent on a bus. We were going to visit the giant Leshan Buddha statue, carved straight into the mountain side and sitting at more than 70 meters high. On the way he told us the story of the statue which turned out to be a lot more interesting than the statue itself.

Leshan is a city located right where three rivers meet. Some thousand years ago a monk lived on top of one of the mountains overlooking the rivers. There was a spot where there must have been and underwater whirlpool because many boats would get stuck in that same spot and crash against the rocks. The monk watched this tragedy happen over and over again. One day he decided something needed to be done against the danger of the river. Being a monk he decided that carving a giant Buddha would help give the boats protection as they passed through that area. He went off and spent several years raising money to build his Buddha. When he finally collected enough he went back home and went to the county official for permission to carve in the side of the mountain. But the warlord was a greedy man and demanded some of the money for himself. The monk refused and the warlord said he would not give his permission unless the monk either gave him the money or his eyes. Without hesitation, the monk reached up and tore out one of his eyes and presented it to the warlord. Shocked and scared, the warlord gave his permission to build the Buddha. It took over 90 years to complete the sitting Buddha over 200 feet high, and once it was completed the river calmed and never again did the rocks claim a boater’s life.

Giant Buddha in Leshan

The science behind the conclusion is actually the hundreds of tons of rocks that were thrown into the river during the construction of the Buddha most likely filled the whirlpool hole or altered whatever was causing the problem in the first place. But hey, it worked.

We spent approximately 5 minutes admiring the Buddha. It was indeed impressive but for a two and a half hour drive it hardly seemed worth it. There were cliffs all around the Buddha, stairs and walkways built right into the side of the mountain, I would have loved to explore around the area, but alas, we didn't even get to walk up close to it. We only saw it from a boat on the river.

On the way back we got to stop at one of the most gorgeous little villages I’ve ever seen. It had a stream running through the middle of town down to the river so there were trees, bushes and little carvings that lined the entire town. It was beautiful. This was where Ryan got his sword. Yep. We often saw swords for sale and Ryan picked out this big beautiful sword for 190yuan ($30 or so). It was only after he paid for it that he wondered how he was going to transport it home…stay tuned for that story.

Dinner was a collection of “snacks” which were all delicious and left our table littered with dozens of little bowls. It was a wonderful meal and very amusing. 

Day 17: OMG PANDAS

Pandas!!!! Yes today was the day we visited the world renowned Panda research center in Chengdu. There are less than 2,000 panda’s in the world, most of which live in the Chengdu province. The research center has over 100, including 26 that are on loan to other zoos around the world. China will not export panda’s but you can rent one for $2 million dollars per year!

Pandas in Chengdu

They are the most adorable creatures, they’re like giant teddy bears. They’re huge and fuzzy and they roll around and it’s so cute. They were really active when we were there, some of them were hanging out in the trees and some were playing together, lots were eating. It was really interesting to watch them eat, they eat bamboo which is actually not very filling or even very nutritious for them but that’s what they eat. They strip it like a banana to get the outer layer off then eat the inner part. Apparently in the spring some of the females will fake being pregnant so they can get the better food. When pandas are born they’re about the size of a mouse so it’s really hard to tell when a female is pregnant or not. The Mom will stay with the baby for a year and a half until she lets it out on its own. Generally pandas are solitary creatures.

We had the opportunity to hold a baby panda. You got about 5 minutes to play with it and hold it and they would give you a commemorative T-shirt and pictures of your time together. But first you had to make a 1300yuan donation to the research center. About the same as $200. Pandas were cute buuuut I’m okay without the Tshirt, Kthxbye. That money went towards good use though, that place had the best bathroom of the entire trip, it had those super computer toilets, soft toilet paper and the place was actually clean. We also saw other western tourists which was something we actually didn’t see often.

We had sandwiches for lunch, which were heavenly, and after the panda center we were exploited at another factory that did both silk AND embroidery this time. We ended the day with a visit to a lovely city garden which boasted containing several hundred varieties of bamboo. I picked out about four and after that they all looked the same.

Day 18: Train Travel in China

We were leaving for Xi’an today and Ryan was confronted with his first problem, how to get his sword onto the train. We discovered you can’t mail swords through postal mail. Gump helped us get it boxed up and shipped over with the excess luggage, it cost about 80yuan. His cheap sword was suddenly not as cheap. I was feeling annoyingly sick so I was really glad it was a low key day.

We were taking an overnight train to Xi’an. Train is the most popular way to travel in China. Especially during the holidays when everyone is trying to go home all at the same time. There are four ways to ride the train. They had soft sleeper cars with bunks and mattress. They had hard sleepers which I assume is the bed without the mattress. They had chairs to sit in, and then they also sell standing tickets. Standing tickets means exactly what it sounds like, there aren’t enough chairs so people will stand during the entire trip. And China is not a small place, we were on a 14 hour train ride from Chengdu to Xi’an, I can’t even imagine how painful that would be to stand for 14 hours.

We got the soft sleeper cabins because we’re spoiled tourists and the expensive cars to them were probably only like $20 for us. Each cabin had two bunks, there was space in between the size of the door and no more. Ryan and I roomed with Anne and Ric. People socialized out in the train car hallway but I was still feeling sick so I just tried to rest for the trip. It was much more comfortable than a 14 hour plane ride, but that’s about it. 

Day 19: Welcome to Xi'an!

We arrived in Xian at 5:30am. We received an abrupt wake up call in the form of the door being violently thrown open and the lights being turned on. Our group sluggishly made our way out and over to the hotel. Turns out there’s no traffic at 6am on Sunday, even in China. We had the whole morning free which I think every one of us used to shower and nap.

Inside of our hotel was a giant 12 foot statue of Guan Yu. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Guan Yu was a famous general during the time of the first emperor. He is also a very popular character in the video game Dynasty Warriors, and book series Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Ryan’s nerd instincts kicked in instantly when he saw the statue and spent the rest of the day squeeing with delight that we had a giant Guan Yu statue in our hotel. Side note: When Ryan read what I had written there he didn't agree that a 12 foot tall warlord so badass they depict him eating goat heads for breakfast would approve being "squeed" over. He asked for a more manly way to describe the fact that he spent the entire day grinning and bouncing with delight. I couldn't think of any. =)

Giant Guan Yu Statue inside Xi'an Hotel

We met for lunch at noon and went to the small Wild Goose Pagoda. It was a nice peaceful temple area. We were able to wander around. 

Small Wild Goose Pagoda, Xi'an

The highlight of the day though was the dinner and show in the evening. We went to a dinner theater where we saw three whole rows of Wendy Wu tour groups. Xi'an is one of those cities that is included on pretty much every tour offered so there were people on one week, two week, all different kinds of tours. Dinner was a collection of dumplings. They were fantastic and they were all made into different shapes. If it was a port dumpling they made it into the shape of a pig and the fish dumpling was a fish and they even had chicken and a peacock dumpling. It was soooooo good.

Character dumplings for dinner

The show was a series of music and dances from the Tang dynasty. During that time they were apparently very much into big sleeves and sparkly hair ornaments. They had gorgeous costumes. It wasn’t as good as the other show we had seen but it was very fun.

Day 20: Terra Cotta Warriors

Today was the biggest day I had been looking forward to. This was one of the reasons I even wanted to go to China in the first place. Today we visited the Terra Cotta statues!

Terra Cotta Warriors

Background story: In 200BC the Qin emperor unified all of China. He commissioned the Great Wall, the Li River dam and the infamous Terra Cotta army. He had over 6,000 clay statues made of his soldiers. Every single one is life sized and unique. It was a grand achievement but the Qin emperor was a tyrant and soon after he was overthrown from power, farmers broke into his vault and smashed all of the statues. They were buried and forgotten.

Two thousand years later in 1971 there was a drought going on in that area. A couple farmers were digging around for a new well when they found a clay head. It freaked them out, they thought it was a god and buried it again, but news got out about the discovery. Some archeologists who knew of the legend of the terra cotta army went to investigate farmer’s field. They started digging and found thousands of fragmented statues.

The sign in the corner is the site of the original well

Before we went to the official museum we stopped at the factory where they made authentic replicas of the statues. You could buy small sets or individual statues ranging from about 6 inches to full sized. I found one identical to the one I had purchased in Guilin off a kiosk for 40 yuan, the authentic version cost 400. Not even kidding. There was also really pretty furniture to look at, but I was just anxious about seeing the real things.

There are three pits now at the official site. The first is largest and most impressive. There are just rows and rows of life sized statues. All pieced back together, many still fragmented in the pit. It’s just amazing when you look at them, every single one is different and modeled after someone who actually lived two thousand years ago.  It was crowded and made us glad we came during the off season. As you walk around the pits there are farmers trying to sell knock off replicas. The little set of 5 guys that cost over 100yuan at the official factory we were getting for 20 or 30yuan from the farmers at the pits.

Terra Cotta fragments before they are put together

They even had a small cinema that showed a 360degree movie of the history of the terra cotta warriors. It was made all the better that the film was obviously made in the 70s and hadn’t been updated since. The other really awesome thing was there was a book you could buy that explained everything about the terra cotta warriors and you could have it signed by one of the farmers who originally discovered the head! It was 150yuan and it was actually the most expensive souvenir item I bought, but it was totally awesome and worth it.

We spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon there. It was definitely one of the highlights of the whole trip for me. After dinner we went out on a night tour of Xi’an. We saw the big Wild Goose Pagoda all lit up and we watched this really awesome light water show. It was these massive fountains all lined up in a row and water would shoot up in time to music playing. There were signs all around saying don’t walk on the fountains but a couple songs in people started running through the water and once they started you couldn’t stop them. It was quite funny. We got to walk along the park and see statues of old Tang dynasty figure heads.

Xi’an was definitely the most beautiful city we visited. I would have liked to have stayed there longer and seen more things for sure. 

Statue of Emperor and officials from Tang Dynasty

Day 21 part 1: City Wall and Markets

We had a relaxing morning before going to the Xi’an history museum. There was the world’s largest guardian dragon, but other than that there wasn’t a whole lot in way of content. Different galleries talked about the different time eras of the area. I enjoyed the videos they had playing throughout the different galleries. There were subtitles so we could follow along. It was interesting but the Shanghai museum had a lot more stuff.

After lunch we got to walk on the city wall! There’s a massive wall that surrounds the entire inner part of the city. It was built during the Ming dynasty and has been very well preserved. It is a defining characteristic of the city and there’s a really neat policy that you can’t build anything higher than the wall within the borders. We walked for 20 minutes in one direction and we didn’t even get a quarter of the way around one side. It was a great place to stroll, they had music playing on the side. A lot of it was soft jazz which drove Ryan nuts and amused me greatly.

Xi'an City Wall

We also visited a popular market street. I had a love/hate relationship with the Chinese markets. On one hand, you could find anything you ever wanted for ridiculously cheap. On the other, getting that cheap thing you found involved much nagging and haggling. Even so, I got a collection of sparkly hair pieces for my girls back home. The lady originally wanted to charge me 90yuan for one. I ended up with five for 120. Ryan found a fantastic giant Guan Yu statue, no joke this thing was like an 18 inch fat statue and it looked amazing. I think he paid 180 for it and I know he could have gotten it for less but he actually really wanted it so he caved earlier than he should have. He also got a belt which was a great story. He wanted the belt for 20yuan. He haggled and haggled with the lady but she wouldn’t go below 40 so we walked away. As they always do when you walk away she kept lowering the price, eventually she yelled out 30. About 10 minutes later Ryan decides that he really did want the belt and he was willing to pay the 30 for it. So we go back, he picks up the belt and pulls 25yuan out of his wallet, turns out that was all the cash he had left, but the girl he was talking to before was busy. A different one walked up and with almost no words, he handed her the money and she put the belt in a bag for him. We decided there was a new element to the game. Have the money in hand and they’ll take it without all the back and forth. 

Markets in Xi'an

Day 21 part 2: Train Ride from Hell

We had another overnight train ride that night to get to Beijing, our last stop on the tour. I think almost every person on our tour will site this as one of the most memorable, impacting, and scariest evenings of our entire trip.

We got to this train station and it was the definition of a mad house. People were camped out outside sitting on their bags. The line to just get to security was jam packed with people literally mashed in together wobbling their way forward two tiny steps at a time whenever the crowd would inch ahead. Our group was instantly elongated and separated. I switched into pushy American mode and I was not letting anyone in front of me. Ryan was right behind me. I kept a hawk eye on our family in front of us and I pushed ahead with the Chinese. Except after a few minutes I turned around and Ryan was not right behind me. He was stuck in his wimpy pushover Australian mode and had somehow ended up about 5 people behind me in line! There was a tiny relief break when we moved from the line to get to security to the actual security line. He got behind me again and this time we were packed even tighter, like there was no way a person could even fit between two other people because our shoulders were squished together. Except by the time we got to security he again was three people behind me! How did that even happen?! Stay with me dognnamit you gotta be aggressive in these situations!

But here’s the scary part. I got through security first and I apparently was the half way mark of our group because our collection moved into the waiting room. Even the waiting room was packed and we had to stand by the door. I wasn’t worried at first because I was with the others and I knew Ryan was with Gump. It came time to board the train. I saw Gump come through the door of the waiting room and the rest of our group following him. Except I didn’t see Ryan. My two British friends Les and George started tugging on me to follow the group to the train. But I didn’t see Ryan. Don’t worry about him, they said, you need to stay with the group we’re not leaving you behind. So I followed them out to the hallway towards the train, but I kept looking back, I saw almost every other person in the group except Ryan and I started getting worried. Did he try and follow me after getting through security and get lost?? As we walked down the stairs I cornered Gump and asked him if Ryan was coming, he assured me he was but our poor guide looked like he was about to have a heart attack from the stress of trying to keep 28 people together in the most hectic train station that ever happened. Jenny was physically shoving people out of the way. Gump even grabbed a guy by the hair and tossed him away. It turned out to be a really long walk to the train and then our car was at the very end of the train and we had to walk all the way down to the end and we weren’t even 100% sure we were going in the right direction and I was freaking out thinking that Ryan had gotten himself lost!

I got on the train and went to our car, Ann and Ric joined me and as I was telling them how freaked out I was, suddenly Ryan walks in! He tells me that when people started moving he stopped to tie his shoe and ended up at the back of the group and I wanted to punch him in the face. You don’t tie your shoe until you’ve caught up with your crazy girlfriend inside the insanely crowded and stressful train station! Seriously, men sometimes. Gump was running back and forth on the train, sweating like a dog making sure everyone was accounted for and OK. The poor man.

That was one of those moments where I thought, I don’t know what that man gets paid but it is not enough. I had that thought a couple times on that trip. I cannot tell you how amazing of a guide Gump was. He was always looking out for us. Always attending to us. Always being a friend to us. He was our doctor, our father, our protector, our friend, he was everything and all of the people who had been on long trips before all agreed that he was the best guide they had ever had. Gump was amazing and if you ever travel to China with Wendy Wu, you must must must ask for him.

We were all accounted for. All 28 of us managed to get through the crowd and onto the right car on the right train. There was a huge sigh of relief as the train left the station. If you didn’t believe before that China was home to a billion people, that night had been our proof. Gump assured us later that he had never seen it that busy before and no one could quite figure out why.

I was more social that evening since I wasn’t feeling sick. Gilly had a spiritual gathering in her train car, just for the girls. She looked at our auras, she said mine was a bright green. There were stories told of miracles and children who could sense the other world. It was fascinating. 

Day 22: Welcome to Beijing!

Arrived in Beijing! We had traveled far enough back up north that we were in freezing weather again. Today was definitely a day for extra layers. We had breakfast in the hotel and learned, not for the first time, that throwing 50 people at a buffet at the same time is a bad idea. After breakfast we visited the Summer Palace. Can you say gorgeous? It was right on some bluffs on a huge lake. There were several buildings, a bridge going out to an island and a walkway that is labeled as the ‘longest art gallery’ in the country.

Summer Palace, Beijing

Can you see how cold we are in that picture? It was cold that day. Some people in our group were just impressed that the lake had ice on it (warm climate Australians, you guys really need to get out more) I was impressed by the palace on top of the hill. I so desperately wanted to climb up to the top and see the view, but after the formal tour we were given less than an hour to wander around on our own. I booked it down the art gallery walk way. It’s this long out door hallway and the entire thing is covered in hand painted drawings, it was beautiful but it wasn’t what I wanted to see.

Country's longest art gallery at the Summer Palace

I ditched Ryan at a coffee shop, he was freezing and didn’t want to run around in the cold. Without him I was able to move faster down to the very end of the palace where there was a solid jade boat tea house. (maybe it wasn’t jade but it was solid something fancy and it was pure white and stunning)

I turned up the stairs and ran past a couple of Asian tourists and managed to make it to the top of one of the palace levels. I had to rest and realized I didn’t have time to go up any higher which made me sad. But I got some nice pictures of the first view. Many times during that trip I was disappointed we didn’t get more time to explore.

History of the Summer Palace:

This is the story of the Dragon Lady who built the Summer Palace. She was born to a noble family and educated by her father. She was smart and beautiful and at the age of 17 became a concubine for the Emperor. She ended up bearing his only son so when the Emperor died, her son at the age of three became the next Emperor. Being so young, obviously a 3 year old can’t make state decisions, so she stood in for him as Empress. Even as her son grew she controlled the power and everyone knew it. Her son ended up dying early at age 16 and the Dragon Lady appointed her Sister’s son to be the next Emperor. He was also young and used as a puppet for the Dragon Lady to keep her power. Since women were traditionally not allowed in the men’s meeting halls she would sit behind a beaded curtain and conduct business. She ruled for 48 years.

Dinner was another “western” Chinese dinner except this one was a total failure compared to the first. The food we got was small and cold. The salad and dessert were served buffet style but they were really bad at keeping it stocked and once again, sending 50 people to a buffet at the same time is a BAD IDEA. Gump even put in a complaint to the restaurant.

Later that night we had a knock on our hotel door. Gump felt so bad he had gone out and bought us all apples. He was so sweet, best tour guide ever.