Hi!

And you all thought we would be in Cambodia now... However, being convinced that South East Asia will not get any better than Myanmar, we significantly changed our plans for the remaining time en route. So surprise surprise.... Ni hao from China!

Unfortunately the stereotypes are true. There seem to be no Chinese characters to express the word 'polite', but there seem to be plenty to express 'rudeness'. The Chinese like to spit just in front of your feet accompanied by the loudest grunts coming from deep inside. They like to smoke where ever they can (systematically ignoring the 'no- smoking' signs in public places). They like to stare at eachother peeing and pooing in the public toilets which is made very easy because toilets are not equipped with doors. They like nosepicking for which they let grow the nail of their little finger (which in fact symbolises 'richness'...). They like looking at you without any expression on their face, resembling zobies, like you are an alien and when you do the same they don't seem to understand and not able to mirror their own behaviour. They throw their garbage everywhere they possibly can, knowing that someone else will clean it after them (China's cities are pretty clean...). Besides some exceptions, the Chinese people are not the country's greatest assets. But there are enough fantastic things to tell about our trip through a tiny part of China.

From Bangkok we arrived in sweaty Guangzhou, also known as Canton, situated in the Southeastern province of Guangdong. This is as far Air Asia goes... Welcomed by unexpected chaos just outside the airport consisting of taxidrivers fighting for customers, we had to keep our heads cool. Finding a taxi that would take us to the city center for a reasonable price, meant some serious haggling, about 2 hours waiting and allowing taxidrivers to pluck the hairs on my arms.... But we finally made it to our hotel. Welcome to China!

Travelling in China turned out to be quite challenging. When our question 'Do you speak English?' was replied with 'I don't know', we knew immediately that we would not get anywhere without Chinese. Besides these language barriers, the ongoing Spring Festival, which are the most important holidays in China, is another complicating factor for travelling here. Just about 1,4 billion Chinese are travelling with us during this period.... We, being pretty naive, thought that we were better off just to go to the trainstation to buy tickets ourselves instead of asking the hotel to organize them (what's the use if don't understand you anyway?). But arriving at the trainstation in Guangzhou we were shocked! What is going on! Is there a bomb-alarm and is the station being evacuated? Or are workers on a strike? Man, hundreds of thousands of people were put behind fences, crowds strictly regulated by the police... and, after the shock was finally reduced to a 'normal' level and we slowly got to understand that this is business as usual, a friendly policeofficer helped us out to pursue tickets. Something we didn't know was that during the Spring Festival you need to have your ID with you to actually buy tickets.... So, in the end we went back to the hotel in total disillusion and without tickets... But we learned to only trust in ourself and the next day we tried another option. The bus. We went to one of the busstations in town and there we got our tickets without too much difficulties. From then on we didn't encounter any serious problems anymore getting from A to B. The secret is only to believe in yourself (and sometimes in Lonely Planet...)

By the way, the city of Guangzhou is nothing special. A huge (about 10 million inhabitants... ) typically modern and rather ugly city with the Shamian Island, the Yuexiu Park withthe impressive Zhenhai Tower, the Six Banyan Trees pagoda and being refused to eat at a local restaurant ('only rich and business') as highlights, we were not reluctant to leave Guangzhou.

From Guangzhou we were dropped in the early morning in the city of Yangshuo in the province of Guangxi, from where we took another bus to the village of Xingping. Arriving in Xingping in the early morning it is clear that we crossed some climate zones... it's f&@king freezing here... and we don't have any warm clothes except one sweater each... Apart from the search for a winterjacket (yes, it was close to zero degrees Celsius....) which was a little frustrating because of the Chinese sizes (and lovely models and colours) of the jackets, Xingping was one of the best places we visited on our trip so far. The village itself is an ancient township with old houses dating back to the Qing and Ming Dynasty and red lanterns are everywhere. This is how you imagine rural China to be. The countryside surrounding Xingping is spectacular. The higgly piggly limestone karst mountains, the Li River meandering its way through the fields, the orange tree orchards, the friendly monks of a mountain monastery in Shawan inviting us for dinner....

Our days here consisted of hiking and biking through the countryside. The 6 hour hike between Xingping and Yangdi, crossing the Li River several times and floating all the way back with a bamboo raft (which in fact was plastic....hey, we are in China...), was very spectacular. The foggy weather made the mountain peaks partly disappear which made things even more dramatic and impressive. This stretch of the Li River is worldfamous in China because it is depicted on the 20 Yuan banknotes, making it a popular stop with the Chinese tourists arriving in their golfcarts, taking a picture, and running (= sitting in the golfcart...) to the next designated hotspot.

After a day of hiking it was time for some leisurely biking to the second oldest stone bridge in China, the Dragon's Bridge. Together with Noam and Shany, our new Israeli friends, we took a bus to Yangshuo where we hired some bikes. And off we went... After a few kilometers we already were confused about directions (because of some local loser who wanted us to use a 'bamboo, bamboo') and even the Chinese just sent us in every imaginable (and opposing) direction. In the end we split up and got lost. A friendly 'local' mountainbiker, a guy named Zhuo, showed us the way to the Dragon's Bridge. You can't imagine how happy we were to see that bridge (... is this it?). After a reunion with our friends it was about time to head back to Yangshuo. Together with Zhuo and some other Chinese bikers who also didn't seem know the way, the way back was even worse. We didn't know that 'biking' in Chinese in fact means 'walking with a bike in your hand' .... But after some hours of Chinese 'biking', we finally reached Yangshuo. Tired to the bone, McDonald's never tasted better...

And again, Happy New Year! Happy Tiger Year! The 'highlight' of the Spring Festival, Chinese new year, at midnight on the 13th of February, was celebrated in a low-key village-like way, with some booze, 'jiaozi' (dumplings), Taki (the Israeli version of the cardgame Uno) and a lot of fireworks giving the village an almost warzone-like appearance. However, no parades with dragons whatsoever... We are still in Xingping....

Leaving Xingping with sentiments we moved on to the village of Dazhai. Dazhai is located in the middle of the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces, the world's largest. This masterpiece of agricultural architecture dates back to the Yuan dynasty (1271- 1368) and encompasses about 70 square kilometer with terraces rising up to a 1000m high. Wow! Although winter is not really the best season to visit the area, the contours of the terraces are still clearly visible. The magnificent half day hike from Dazhai to Ping' An was very spectacular. Being amongst the rice terraces somewhere high in the mountains, passing through traditional wooden villages, our heads in the clouds, not seeing any other people except some of the local Zhuang women with hair as long as toilet paper, breathtaking views from the platforms with poetic names like 'Music from Paradise', 'Golden Buddha Top' and 'Seven Stars accompanying the Moon' resembling abstract patterns, was simply enjoying to the max. Ending our hike in Ping' An however was a slight deception as the village is completely devoted to the Chinese 'how-to-see-as-much-as-possible-within-as-little-time-as-possible-without-burning-any-calories'- way of travelling. A parking place about 100 meters from the main viewpoint, imperial sedan chairs to let themself carry from the parking place to the viewpoint (and back)... and not to forget the numerous souvenir stalls along the way to the viewpoint to buy the standard shit. Man, we are happy that we stay in Dazhai!

In the city of Guilin, close to Dazhai, we bought some bustickets to Xi'an. After an afternoon sightseeing in Guilin we were 'kidnapped' by a man in black who guided us (and some other Chinese fellow travellers) to some small parking place outside the busstation where we were told to wait. And we waited... Some doom-thoughts crossed our minds... will Guilin really be the end? Nobody seemed to know what was next... But suddenly a bus appeared and opened its doors and we could take our beds in the luxury sleeperbus. Ready for the 22 hour busride to Xi'an. Everything started off fine. Although we knew we had to change buses somewhere (God knows where....) we slept ok until an unexpected visit of our 'friend', mr. D.Iarrhea spoilt the pleasure...

Early in the morning we were dumped in the not so inspiring city of Jingmen. Soon it became clear that 'changing to a connecting bus', in fact meant one day waiting in Jingmen and boarding the other bus late in the afternoon. The face of that bitch at the agency in Guilin, saying 'no train tickets, bus is faster...' will be haunting us for a long time. In a shitty condition we had to kill a day in Jingmen where we seemed to be the first 'white meat' people had ever seen. Tired and a little stressed we waited and waited and finally we boarded the 'connecting' sleeperbus to Xi'an. Although the trip was horrible our hotel in Xi'an was a great place to arrive after such a journey. A good night sleep and some Western food to soothe the stomach gave the world back its colours...

Xi'an in the Eastern province of Shanxi is a great city. The sun was shining, the temperature was pleasant and the smog was breathtaking. The 8 traffic wards on every streetcrossing shadowing the traffic lights (yes, also in China the traffic lights are showing the universal colours green, orange and red but apparently without any meaning), undisturbedly keep on carrying out their useless duties. In contrast to this well-organized chaos, the huge kitschy fountain show at Big Goose Square measuring about a soccer field, is extremely well organised and harmonious. Very Zen actually.... Yep, no doubt, we are still in China.

Xi'an was the terminus of the Silk Road and you can still see and feel its roots, especially in the Muslim Quarter with its narrow lanes with exotic food being sold everywhere. The Hui people (Chinese muslims) in this quarter look different from the rest of the city's inhabitants, the atmosphere is more of the Middle East than China and the architecture is a mixture of Chinese and Islamic styles with mosques looking like Chinese temples. Besides the Muslim Quarter, the ancient city walls, arguably the best preserved in China that are still standing, were built in 1370 during the Ming dynasty. On a leisurely afternoon we walked the 14 km long walls, enjoying the different faces of the city. With one foot Xi'an is still in the past with its old temples, narrow lanes of the Muslim Quarter, the quiet and relaxing grounds of the Big Goose Pagoda. With the other foot Xi'an has entered the future with high rise apartment blocks, IT-malls selling the latest electronical gadgets, dense smog which makes it impossible to clearly outline the city's contours (we now understand that China is not signing the Kyoto- protocol...), fastfood chains on every street corner, electronical scooters making crossing a street even more challenging... (you don't hear these basterds approaching...).

By the way, we saw some terracotta warriors too....

From Xi'an we took a nighttrain to the city of Pingyao, located halfway between Xi'an and Beijing, which is a village according to Chinese standards with its 450.000 inhabitants. The train trip to Pingyao is best described as 'interesting'. At Xi'an railway station a police officer (yep, again...) helped us out to queu the right line to get in the right train. Following him meant passing hunderds of people already standing in line and squeezing in just in front of the security checkpoint (if looks could kill we were dead by now...). In the waiting hall we were the main attraction. Apparently we look different and are very funny ... duh.... The 'hard sleeper' traincar had 3 beds on top of each other, snorring and spitting locals, a wagonlady resembling the 'iron lady'... So arriving in Pingyao at 6.30h in the morning was quite a relief.

Pingyao is a place where the old China is still alive. The two mainstreets are horrible, as they are filled with souvenir shops, restaurants and all other imaginable shit for the pleasure of the Chinese tourists. But as soon as we got off the mainstreets, Pingyao turned out to be a true delight. The old Ming and Qing houses with their grey brick walls and red lanterns all located within the ancient city walls, the smoke of charcoal coming out of the chimneys from the small local factories making the air smell like the old days, the sound and smell of fireworks blending in naturally. Watching 'village'-life pass by from the city walls was relaxing and mindsoothing, preparing for the urban chaos of Beijing...

In Pingyao we took a bus to Taiyuan, the capital of the province of Shanxi. From here we jumped on the CRH bullet train to Beijing. The travel time to Beijing, just over 600 km, was just a mere 3 hours... What to say about Beijing? Beijing is huge. The Beijing municipality is roughly the size of Belgium offering a home for about 15,6 million people. Beijing is ugly, Beijing is gorgeous, Beijing is a like a diamond which is getting more beautiful every day. It needs time. But when it's finally getting to you, the treasures which reveal themselves slowly are numerous ...

The orange-tiled roofs of the Forbidden City which were now white for a change, Mao Zedong's huge Mausoleum on Tian'anmen Square where the leader's mummified corpse is displayed covered with a red flag with yellow hammer and sickle, the Gate of Heavenly Peace with a huge Mao picture dominating Tian'anmen Square, the frozen lakes of Beihan park, the heavenly Temple of Heaven, the Olympic Birdnest Stadium (where are the birds by the way?) and the bubbly-blue Olympic Aquatic Centre, the old Hu Tongs connecting the modern broad and charmless streets from east to west (very Feng Shui...), the friendly locals who at least seem to know some english, although their vocabulary remains rather limited ('you, motherfucker...'), the Chinglish (= Chinese + English) expressions which systematically torture the grammatical laws of the English language ('Take care of the stairs' meaning 'watch out for the steps', 'Recovery' bins point at 'Recycle' bins), the completely out of this world fireworks on the 28th of February (Lantern Festival) finally announcing the end of the Spring Festival (although the streets are still white from the f&*king snow...), the gigantic Summer Palace which is also beautiful in winter, the instant noodles which made up a daily and above all excellent value lunch for 0,30 Eurocent, the artificial SOHO- wannabe 798 Art District, and of course .... Changcheng! The Great Wall!

As Mao Zedong said 'He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man' we decided to make our visit a true pilgimage. The Great Wall is accessible at several places close to Beijing. We went to Jinshanling, about 120 km from the city and supposedly one of the most rough, largely unrestored, and hence most beautiful places to experience the wall. Having climbed up the uncountable stairs to get to the wall and ultimately having the Wall for ourselves with no other tourists in sight, was almost a spiritual event. It is truly so impressive to see the wall wriggling its way through the mountains like a snake. The 10km hike over the wall from Jinshanling to Simatai made a deep impact both mentally and physically (man, so many stairs...).

All the above- mentioned makes Beijing a great place to spend about a week before moving to our last destination in China. Qingdao. Travelling from Beijing to Qingdao with the CRH bullet train reduced traveltime to a louzy 5 hours. And coastal Qingdao is a surprise... The German architecture, the long seaside promenade and the huge St. Michael's church confused us a little. Is this still China? Or are we in Bavaria? The food though was still typically Chinese... we are still not sure whether it was pigs ears or kidneys or maybe even something else... But the Tsingtao beer which is brewed in Qingdao made it all acceptable. Yes, Qingdao is an unusual but relaxing place to end our China expedition in style. Tomorrow we will board the Orient Ferry to our next destination..... guess where...

See you later!