Travel China Planner

I have finally reached my destination. Not to view the marvelous Olympics, but to head East to Tibet. I arrived in the magnificient Shanghai Podang International Airport, which is truly a showpiece. After NOT finding my name on a paper sign as i exited the customs area, I could have panicked, fallen on my knees and started to cry, but I decided, as often I do, to just let it be what it was. I strolled around one more time looking for my name. Nope! So, I borrowed a phone from a very tall and exquisite Chinese beauty who was very friendly, and after a few tries with phoning managed to get my hostel IN ENGLISH on the phone. “Oh, sorry, sorry, we will come.” How long will that be, I asked as my head veered from side to side wondering where it could find a pillow. “One hour, sorry, sorry.” Two hours later, after another phone call, along comes my drive holding my name on a sign.

shanghai downtown

Le Tour is otherwise great. Terrific location, just a half block from the ATM, near lots of great cafes, and really delicious dumplings (two nights in a row, YUM!). Also you can catch the underground without a problem. something I have not had the opportunity, or should I say bravery (one day not enough, by any means) to venture. My first day, yesterday, I went to the Venice of China, called, (OK, I will tell you later when I can write more about it - this should keep you in some amount of suspense:) AND, if you check back I will be posting the photos as well.

Anyway, the day trip from Shanghai to the mystery city was 6am to 6pm, they pick you up, we had to taxi ourselves over to some pick up spot. Fun and funny, since we two could laugh so much about it. Alone, this tour would have NOT been good!

There was also a great Chinese girl, 18, who hung out with us. Very mature for 18. After they dropped Alisa off, she helped put me in a taxi after the tour dropped us in the middle of the city. Oh, how I would have panicked without these two marvelous new friends.

So, today, I really like the shanghai tour from the hostel, I am off to Beijing and then to Xining tonight. I will be there for 5 days with more time to write in my blog and post photos. And hopefully rest up and do some writing. I will then write more about yesterdays attractions and post our photos. No one cares about your age, your nationality, your race, your creed. We are all travelers, we all have a commonality, as with the human family, we are all one when it comes right down to it. This is timeless and truly a remarkable experience.

The Bottle Women of Beijing

You can’t help but notice these people around because if you are anywhere near your last drop of water in a bottle they suddenly appear out of no where and take the bottle from you. It works well for both parties…you don’t have to haul it around until you find a bin and they can get a small fee at a recycling center for it and sustain themselves that littler bit easier! If you travel Beijing and bought a Beijing tours then you will experience more when you travel in BeijingAnd if you are thinking that they only bring the bottles home to refill with water and sell on tomorrow, they don’t as when they take them off you they crumple them up as small as possible in order to put as many into their bags. But if you take a break at a park and see these women competing for the bottles you can’t help to feel a little sad. These woman, many of which are quite old and frail are here day in day out, week after week, year after year cometing for in essence what is only a few pence. Sure it keeps food on the table but is it any sort of life?

Chop Sticks/ Cockroaches/ and Squat Toilets?
One of us have it wrong. Its really a game of east versus west
here. The west has knife and fork/ SMALL (Squashable) little insects
and well toilets that you sit on and think about life for a
while….The east has Chop Stick/ Roaches that could easily feed a
family for a week around here and well toilets that frankly double as
ab training centers!

Smog!
You just can’t get away from it in Beijing. They say that being out and about in Beijing is the equivilant of smoking over 70 ciggarettes a day! And traffic cops out here have reached the half way mark of their life at their 21st birthday! At the moment in preperation for the olympics its meant to be a whole lot better. They are forcing factories and certain building sites to close and on certain days only odd or even numbered cars are allowed to drive the roads. Normally, It is not unknown for roads to be closed due to poor visability because of the smog. So, if you travel to China, please check for more China travel information in details.

The Tourist Spots.
Fasinating but remeber in a country of 1.3billion there are tourist, tourists everywhere! So prepare to que and only half see everything! After seeing what it was like in Beijing and hearing the report back of not even being able to see the warriors through the crowds we made a concious decision to bypass Xian. Thats where the Qingdao came in!

Chinese Torture - Crossing the Street.
No matter where I have been in the past, it all pales into insignificance for crossing the street than when trying cross the street in China. The green light is not really a “safe to cross now” sign. Its more of a “Well its no safer now but hey you can’t stay there all day so why don’t you give it a go!”. That was reall brought home to me when I realised that the second the green man came on to cross the street, the green feeder lights also came on for traffic turning onto the street from other roads. No wonder the buses were always blowing there horns at me!

Queing for trains.
March of the Penguins…need I say more!

Welcome to Lhasa

Though before I began gushing about the wonders of Tibet I should preface this by saying that I was on a tour. I’m not talking about a massive bus, wearing matching jackets and following a flag or plastic flower. Actually, it was just Jason and I, set up with a Tibetan guide and driver.

The moment I stepped off the plane I felt the breathless, light-headed, panicky feeling one gets at such an altitude. I had expected this to affect me, just not so immediately. Lhasa has an altitude of 11,975 feet above sea level. The altitude has less effect if you are younger, at least in terms of developing life-threatening AMS. The main symptoms we noticed were being constantly out of breath and also the inability to get a sound night’s sleep.

Another surprise to me was the arid, brown landscape. I had imagined Lhasa would be buried under mounds of white snow, but this idea was no doubt influenced by too many Ads and movies. In reality, Lhasa’s location on a plateau hemmed by mountains keeps the climate relatively moderate year round.

Our guide and driver were both Tibetan, extremely knowledgeable about the region, culture, and Buddhist faith. Lhasa has a population of about 250, 000. We were told now that nearly half of these are Han Chinese, who are immigrating in waves spurred on by better business opportunities in the area and government incentives.

Despite this growth only a tiny portion of the Tibetan plateau is inhabited, with Tibetans still holding the majority outside of the larger cities. Most are nomadic herdsmen; others farm barley, wheat, and potatoes. Some of these nomads and villagers only see the city once in their lifetime, if at all.

The next day our first stop was the Potala Palace. Books have been written on this fascinating building, so I won’t attempt a detailed description. A few interesting things that stuck with me:

-Since traditionally the Dalai Lama is both the spiritual and political leader of Tibet the palace is also divided into two sections. The “red” buildings had housed the members of the Tibetan government while the “white” palace was home to the Buddhist monks.

-Tibetans pay a much smaller fee to enter than tourists. Those from outside the city often only get to come once a year. Families, including children of all ages, come to pray and leave offerings.

-Before the palace was built there existed only a cave shrine, built by King Songtsen Gampo in 637, the first Tibetan king to convert to Buddhism. Construction was begun on the actual palace in 1645 under the supervision of the fifth Dalai Lama, but the sacred cave remains. Thus our guide’s claim that the Potala has 999 rooms and one cave.

-The artwork is astounding. The majority of the previous Dalai Lamas are buried here. Nearly everyone in Tibet is given a water burial or sky burial except for the lamas, who are buried in giant gold stupas. Another amazing piece of art was the giant, three-dimensional Kalachakra Mandala in one of the galleries made from copper and gold.

After visiting the Potala we headed to the Sera Monastery, just outside of Lhasa. The main purposeof out visit was to see the monk’s debate. This is standard practice every afternoon in the courtyard.

On one side the younger monks debate enthusiastically with much gesturing, yelling, smiling, and clapping of hands each time they made a point. The older monks congregated in small groups sitting in the shade and and have much more reserved conversations. Both Tibetans and tourists are welcome to come and watch, though our guide said that since they were using the very technical language of the old scriptures.

The following day we visited the Medicine Buddha wall where many Tibetans come to pray for good health. The wall is a large rock slab covered in painted carvings of the Medicine Buddha and other deities. The rocks in front of the Buddha were literally worn smooth from the prostrations of worshippers.

We finished off the day visiting a traditional medicine clinic, a nunnery, and wandering around market amid stalls selling cloth, giant parcels of yak butter, household items, jewelry, metalwork, nuts, and other miscellany. It was all a strange mixture of the old world meets the new. It is common to see monks clad in traditional burgundy robes wearing a pair of worn Nike sneakers and talking on a cell phone.

Next, we are on the road to Shigatse, Tibet’s 2nd largest city.

Its hard to believe we have only been here 1 month. It’s feeling like home every day and we have done so much without even leaving Wuhan during that period.

In 2 weeks, we will be heading back to Xian for our summer traveling adventure. We leave here next week, stay overnight in Chengdu,and then fly on to Xian. We leave Chengdu at about 5:30 pm and arrive in Xian at 8:30 am the same day.

Wuhan Skyline

We plan to get to Yan’an by bus on Monday, May 26.

It is lights out at 10pm for the residences but they have told me many times that they work in the washrooms after that, where the lights stay on all night!!

Last night we returned to the a Sichuan restaurant for hotpot. The taxi driver had a good chuckle as we ended up taking a long way back home after missing one turn. However, we know the city well enough now that we were able to tell him how to get us back despite our mistake.

Chinese Panda in Chengdu

Tonight we are off to our weekly party…hmmm…what’s the excuse this week, let me think. Oh yeah, Wendy turns 25 this weekend.

Well, that’s it for now. Words and pictures will pick up again once we begin our summer trip, I’m sure.

I spent the entire week of June 2 with a bad case of the sniffles that started around the time I was in Hangzhou. I noticed some stuffiness before the trip, but that’s when it got really bad.

This week seemed to go by even faster than the one before. Sunday was taken up by working out. I am happy to meet people who are “living the dream,” but I was hoping to make some connections with folks that can help me in my career.

Monday consisted of class and a presentation, one of the alumni from Sunday night’s gathering.Tommy, he’s running a successful business in Chengdu, a city located in the Sichuan province of China. His company helps foreigners establish businesses in China. He talked to us about running a business here, and about the earthquake that recently hit Sichuan province.

Dinner on Monday was interesting as well. I went with Sarah and some other students to a hotpot.