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Journeys, a Creative Travel Blog
What motivates us to travel? It is certainly the need to get away from our daily routine, but more than that, it is our unquenchable curiosity about the way other people live, think, and work. Come blog with us! Send your contribution to
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Unique China, unique entertainment, unique arts - 30 december 2009  | | Exquisite roof lines of China - Ph. D. Santal |
When we prepared and then finally left for our four-week Chinese adventure, we thought that it would be our only visit; after all, there are so many other places to see in the world... We are already doing research in order to visit Vietnam and Cambodia in March 2011!
But special places and events were strewn all over those four weeks, and every time we think about them, we wish we were in China again. Let's see... There was the 798 Art District, the Peking Opera and Peking Duck in Beijing; the breathtaking Terra Cotta Army, the city wall, and the Tang Dynasty performance in Xian; the medieval center of Lijiang with its maze-like streets as well as the concert of ancient Chinese music performed on ancient instruments by some ancient musicians; the night cruise on the Li River in Guilin; the Giant Panda Base in Chengdu; the Yangtze cruise and the majestic landscapes that awed us, not forgetting the magnificent caves we explored along the way as well as the dams and locks. As cities go, Shanghai was our favorite, very much the way New York is our favorite in the United States: full of energy, busy, friendly, elegant and also gaudy: we saw the justifiably famous Chinese acrobats in a theater built by the English in the early 20th century and fully restored -- we explored all its museums, gawked at its 21st century architecture, even rode the fastest elevator in the world to the top of the Jin Mao Tower, dined at restaurants we discovered on our own, and 'Simply Thai' stands out in our taste buds' memory, and we rode the subway (I "collect" subways all over the world, from Moscow to Istanbul, Montreal to Prague, London and Paris, of course...)
And in all the parks, everywhere, we saw people gathering to dance, by themselves. or couples, especially ballroom dancing, there were amateur orchestras playing classical Chinese music, and choirs forming spontaneously. There were exercise groups, mostly older people doing Tai Chi, as the young prefer to jog or skip rope! The orchestras and the choirs were of very high quality. There were also storytellers, but we could not understand them: from the reaction of the audience, it was obvious that everyone enjoyed that.
The Chinese make a huge effort to welcome foreign visitors by providing bilingual signage as well as translators; most of it is in English, except for guides. English has become a widely understood, if not always spoken language around the world.
| Chengdu, we finally visit the pandas - 12 december 2009  | | Shy Red Panda at the Chengdu Panda Base - Ph. D. Santal |
I love animals, and pandas have a special place in my heart. The Chengdu Panda Base had to be on our Chinese itinerary - it is a very large and beautiful park: visiting the giant pandas is made easy from the beginning. They can be seen from when they are one week-old (in what looks like an incubator), they are pink and fuzzy, their eyes are completely closed; as they get a little older they show their "spots", that is the areas of their bodies that will have black or white hair. At one-year old, they are often playful and I found them very much aware of their environment and of our filming them: they show off by rolling around, doing calesthenics, or so it seems, and staring at us. Everyone laughs heartily! The older ones are very blasé: they sleep soundly or munch on bamboo shoots or play with one another. Then, all of a sudden, one of them decides that it's time for a performance: we are convinced that they know about the world famous Chinese acrobats.
It is possible to have your picture taken holding a panda, for a small fee that goes to the park and its animals: but we missed the time of the day when this is possible! There are also red pandas, they are very shy and hide in the bushes; I managed to catch one with my camera.
| Reminiscing... China 2009 - 2 december 2009  | | The China Knot- Ph. D. Santal |
After our flight to Guilin, we were tired and not very hungry... The Chinese have been feeding us so abundantly, that most of the time it was too much: it is difficult to refuse those superb fresh and crisp vegetables, and the wok-prepared morsels of meat in a variety of sauces and wonderful additions such as peanuts, or mushrooms, and/or spices! Our new guide, Sandy, offered to take us to a local cafe for tea and sandwich: the chef proudly prepared grilled cheese sandwiches: a truly nice surprise as Chinese cheese, this one not unlike American cheese, was tastier between the slices of whole wheat bread!.
We were not prepared for the events of the next day as we found ourselves testing the skills of Chinese doctors and hospitals! When Mao Tse Tung's revenge hit my husband, after a brief visit from a physician's assistant, we were taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital, barely two minutes away; an English-speaking doctor did a general check-up, took a blood sample, prepared a prescription and reassuringly told us: "Don't worry, it's nothing much, just rest and enjoy your visit to our country!" Sandy walked us back to the hotel and waited for the blood-test results. By evening, things were back in order, even our pocketbook was not taxed too much: the whole thing, including ambulance and medicines, cost a mere 75 US dollars! Amazing!
The planned cruise to Yangshuo, on the Li River was incredibly beautiful, though a bit long: the landscape is striking and we understood how Chinese landscape painters get their inspiration. It was a restful time until we arrived and enjoyed the shops at the landing; some of them are tacky, but many show the beautiful crafts the local Chinese produce; we bought a handsome wooden mask to add to our collection: we already have some from British Columbia, Cuba, Thailand, etc. They are so decorative! We also did some pre-Christmas shopping, most successfully. Prices are quite reasonable once you get the hang of negociating. Almost everyone speaks some English, and when that did not work, Sandy helped.
In Yangshuo, we visited a very elderly couple who, when they retired turned their 300-year old farm into a museum showing how local people live: they were delightful to chat with and so hospitable! That evening we toured Guilin on the river: the nightlights are lovely -- we enjoyed ourselves immensely: the pilot let me have the huge China Knot that decorates his boat: it now hangs at one of the windows of our Connecticut home.
| China is still on my mind... - 23 november 2009  | | The Yunan Stone Forest - Ph. by D. Santal |
Another domestic flight took us from Xian to Lijiang. We knew little about that city but had requested a couple of days there because I had read really interesting details about the area.
Our guide and driver took us to the edge of the old town, that was as far as traffic was allowed. Our first contact with Lijiang was on foot, over its difficult to walk cobble-stones: Lijiang is 800-years old, the streets are narrow, full of small shops, very crowded and absolutely charming: it reminded me of some of France's or Germany's medieval towns, a veritable labyrinth. We arrived at our hotel, it had an unpronounceable name - in western script it reads as "Yinxianggucheng Wenyuan": it was beautiful with an interior courtyard, plants and flowers everywhere, all the rooms opened on that courtyard onto a balcony. The rooms were smallish, quaintly furnished to say the least (fake French Provincial, and very ornate), but extremely comfortable. During our visit, we relied entirely on Rodney, our guide, afraid to get lost in the daedal maze of streets...
We were driven to a Baisha village where the Naxi people have made their home. We walked around the village, mostly uphill and enjoyed the picturesque lifestyle: most tourists ride donkeys instead of walk... I was not tempted, just amused! We vistied a marvelous embroidery school and watched advanced students work: the thread they use is as thin as human baby hair, the embroidery is so fine that once finished it looks like a photograph! The Naxi (pronounced 'na-shi') also do intricate tie-dying, very beautiful, colorful and finely designed. We had a delicious lunch and the cutest little dog stayed with us begging for food: after we were finished, he ran across the street... home: we surmised this was his daily routine, taking advantage of gullible tourists! By the way, he always spit out anything that was not meat!
Another wonderful opportunity came up that evening: a concert of Naxi music on ancient instruments, one of them existed in ancient Egypt as shown on Egyptian tomb paintings -- some of the musicians were ancient as well, in their late 80's: they teach how to play on those astonishing instruments, hoping that their traditions will not be ignored and forgotten by the young who prefer rock music. The M.C. explained the music both in Chinese and in English, adding to our enjoyment.
As in most Chinese cities, even the smallest, there is a magnificent park with plants and trees we had never seen before. One of the "fun" things to see was the Chinese brides and grooms having their pictures taken in the most scenic spots.
Next, an early morning flight took us to Kunming, so there was plenty of time to explore as we arrived. We were driven to the top of a mountain, 250 meters above the city: we had a chance to enjoy the peace and quiet of a beautiful Buddhist Temple. Before checking in at the hotel, we drove to a spectacular park to enjoy the 2009 Chrysanthemum Festival: I had never seen such a variety of flowers, all shapes and colors, such arrangements -- the Chinese are very talented garden designers, as we had seen before -- this park was truly exceptional. It was very crowded, we concluded that the people love flowers and gardens everywhere. On the way back to the city we had a lunch at a nearby hotel and I ate seaweed for the first time: somewhat nutty tasting, a very pleasant surprise indeed.
From Kunming, the next day, we drove to the Yunan Stone Forest: it formed some 400 thousand years ago, when China was still under the sea: you can see vestiges of sealife in the stones. It reminded us of Capadoccia and Petra in the Middle East.
| Visiting China, Part II - 10 november 2009  | | Carving from one single stone slab - Ph. by D. Santal |
There will never be enough time or enough space to describe all the other marvels we saw in and around Beijing from the Peking Opera, to the National Art Museum (mostly a review of Chinese modern history with huge paintings telling the story of the Revolution... appropriate exhibit as China was celebrating its 60th anniversary), to the Beijing Zoo where we enjoyed watching two baby white tigers play, growl at each other and devour meat their keepers had given them, to the Hutong tour. We were invited, by prior arrangement, to visit a home there; our host, a retired archeologist had a lot to tell us about his life and about the area. We also visited the Lama Temple, a working temple, where the monks happened to be chanting at the time when we visited. To visit the Ming Tombs we walked along a broad avenue lined with weeping willows and statues of lions, elephants, camels, also human figures, etc...
Before leaving Beijing, we visited the Summer Palace, another extraordinary place with gardens, a lake, houses with residences for the emperor, his wife, his mother, the eunuchs... An elderly flutist played American folk tunes just for us, his thoughtful way of honoring his visitors... Another elderly gentleman invited me to write something on the large flagstones that line the street, and he handed me a huge paintbrush he had dipped in ink: as I cannot write in Chinese, I simply wrote "China the Beautiful", a cry from my own heart.
Then we headed for the airport to travel on to Xian where Julia our new guide, and Mr. Zhong, our new driver, were waiting for us.
Of course, the reason for going there is to see the famed terracotta warriors. A museum has been built on the site where they were accidently found (a farmer was digging a well on his land): the warriors have been rebuilt from the millions of fragments that were found: each warrior is different from all the others, each face is different, there are horses and charriots, infantry, cavalry, archers, guards, lookouts, camels... they seem alive, ready to perform their duties...
In 1994, as a new highway was being constructed, a new terracotta army was discovered in Hanyangling, and dug up. There -- Mausoleum of Western Han Emperor Lui Qi--, the personnages are much smaller, but the life they led is much more diverse: there are soldiers, but alsp farmers, courtiers, farm animals and pets.
Xian itself is a charming city: its wall, well inside the city limits today, is so thick that today, one can take a walk on it, or ride a bicycle or hire a carriage. During our free time, we just walked around, enjoying the crowds, the vendors, the stores... One of the must see museums is the Provincial History Museum with pieces dating back to 6000 B.C,, and very well preserved: I am amazed not just at the craftsmanship, but at ancient man as well - making beautiful things, not just practical objects for everyday use, was just as necessary as it is to us today. There were also pieces of gold and of silver, there was Celadon china, etc... Chinese curators are superb in the way they arrange displays. All signs and explanations are in English as well as, of course, in Chinese.
One of the great surprises was the Great Mosque, very unusual as it is done in Chinese style, very unlike what we saw in the Muslim countries that we had visited before, Morocco, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt... It has four courtyards, like many Chinese buildings, and a garden with roses and other plants and unusual trees: Muslims came to China in the early days of the Silk Road, they converted the Chinese, and often stayed: as few Chinese can read Arabic, there are translations of the Koran in Chinese. The Bazaar around the Mosque is very similar to what we had seen in Istanbul, and even more geared to tourists.
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