Fascinating
and Frustrating
My favorite place in Hong Kong was the Big Buddha.
You take a half hour cable car ride to the
mountain top.
Fresh air, open space and
of course lots of people.
There is a
mystical quality and it was a delightful day.
We then went to Shenzhen, followed by her home town, a
delightful night in West Lake and a beautiful stay in Xitang, water town.
Met Marsha and Jay in Shanghai and began our tour. Shanghai has a great skyline and beautiful
buildings, the museum is also worth a visit.
Beijing was great, standing in Tiananmen Square, visiting the Forbidden
City. I’m reading (sort of) from ”Emperor to citizen” and enjoying reading
about when the Forbidden City was inhabited, intrigue and opulence. The visit to the Great Wall was grand, I took
the cable car up, visited the Ming Tombs too.
On to Xi’an and the Terra Cotta Warriors. Impressive to visit the warriors home but I
also enjoyed the city walls and liveliness of Xi’an.
Then I embarked on my own.
Flew to Yichang to cruise the Yangtze River.
Set out in the morning to visit the Three
Gorges Dam, the biggest engineering feat in the world? What a bust from there
on out.
I was the only foreigner not on the executive level, meals with no English. I didn't know there was an executive level. Due to a landslide a big portion
of the river was closed. We sat in dock all day, went through the locks in the
middle of the night.
In the morning, we
sat again, then a short shore excursion.
At 6
pm they put us on a bus to go around the closed and supposedly most beautiful part.
We got on the other boat at 10pm.
At that point, I requested executive level meals. Enjoyed meals with a lively and friendly British group, instead. We cruised for the day with a visit to the Shibaozhai
Pagoda, built into the mountain side.
The cruise ended in Chongqing, a province with
the population of Canada.
Had a day tour, including the Three Gorges Museum and then the flight to the south.
Interesting English or propaganda?
From there I
flew to the south, Yunnan province, to the towns of Lijiang and Dali. Lijiang
was delightful, colorful, ethnic and friendly, even if I did have mystery meat
at a restaurant with bull frogs on the menu and in the tank outside. Took the train to Dali, another beautiful
ethnic town, where I visited the three pagodas.
I went to Kunming, reminded me of Los Angeles, so I could
see the Stone Forest.
I booked a tour
with the hotel, but it was a shopping tour.
The morning stop was a jade factory, then the stone forest, where I
ditched the Chinese speaking guide,
had
some time to wander, met them for the return. The afternoon stop was “Colorful
Yunnan”, sort of a shrine to tea.
On to
Anshun to visit the Huangguoshu
Waterfalls.
I wanted to see the natural wonders
but they were a trial, too many people, vendors everywhere and few quiet
Chinese spots. Met some local young people, college students and teachers. I went to a classroom and taught them "Row, row, row your boat"!
Colorful Yunnan
Lots of grapes in Anshun
Anshun Supermarket
Last stop Guillin to take the Li River Cruise.
Pretty city, leisurely tour, with beautiful
scenery.
China is immense in its numbers, ethnicity, people, water,
high rises etc., etc., etc.
I think it
is going through transitions.
It is
confusing, perhaps to the Chinese too.
They
are rebuilding and refurbishing ancients sites and building highrises at every
turn.
There are people that are
immensely rich, Cadillacs are among the popular cars and there are poverty
levels.
I found the people mostly
delightful, helpful, interesting but also loud.
China was fascinating but it never got easier.
I took more than 1000 pictures. The slide show below is the best 26, I think. If you click on it, it should open in a new window.
Enjoy and thanks for reading!
