Pingyao

The overnight train from Xian to Pingyao was an experience. We booked the most expensive seats called soft sleeper. That meant we had a narrow hard bed in a room of 2 double bunks. Hard sleeper would have been an even harder bed in a room of 2 triple bunks. So we arrived at 7 am a tad tired and headed to our traditional courtyard hotel, where we were shown to our room even at that early hour. The owner proudly showed us the kang (traditional Chinese bed) and said how soft it was. Hah! Thank heavens I brought a thermarest with me. The courtyard however is delightful, decorated with red lanterns and very atmospheric at night. The film 'Raise the Red Lantern' was filmed in the Pingyao region, as no doubt were many other period Chinese films.

Pingyao has the best preserved city walls in the country. The buildings within the walls all date from the Qing or Ming dynasties. This town is where finance and banking started in the 1300's. Now there are many buildings from that era that are small museums, explaining the banking background. The rest of the old city is all tourism - hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops. You can have a 45 minute foot massage for $5, and rent a bike for a $ 1.50 per day.

Some of the signage here has hilarious English translations. Ming the Step seems quite appropriate since there are buildings from the Ming dynasty here. One sign talked about men being superior and women being 'interior'. Or maybe the translator had a Freudian slip.

Tomorrow we head to Beijing by ultra high speed train - 300 kph.

- Kitty

Xian

Having seen the Bell Tower, Drum Tower, city wall, and Muslim Quarter after flying in on Sunday, the main attraction remained - the terracotta warriors. We hired a driver and guide to take us - a good decision as it was raining hard this morning, and the guide proved to be really informative.

The warriors are amazing. There are 1000's of them, each with different facial features. They were discovered by a group of farmers digging a well in 1974. The farmers barely got any recognition, and of course lost their farmland. There is a lot of stuff online about their shameful treatment.

We have just finished a dumpling banquet prior to a Tang Dynasty show. Then we are off to tiny Pingyao on an overnight train.

- Kitty

Hua Shan (Flower Mountan)

120 km from Xian but only 35 minutes by high speed train is Hua Shan, so called because it's N,S,E,W peaks are like the petals of a flower. We took the west cable car up - a spectacular 4 km trip which at times seemed vertical. We then hiked to the 4 peaks and came down on the north cable car. Once again we were really lucky with the weather. The highlight of the day was walking the plank - a .3m ledge on a vertical cliff face with a sheer drop a long way down.

- Kitty

Juizhaigou (9 villages) national park

The Chinese know a good nature spot when they find one and charge accordingly. It's about $35 entry each day here, but we oldies get in for half price. No discount on the bus though which is another $14 each day per person.

The valley is Y shaped with the total distance on the Y being about 40 km. Frequent buses take you to various spots and you can walk or not walk or partly walk, partly bus it as you choose. The entire 40 km has timber boardwalk hiking paths, with frequent toilets, rubbish bins and rest stops. Cleaning staff patrol the paths picking up all rubbish, no matter how small, with their picker-uppers.

Graeme and I parted ways after an hour as I wanted to hike a lot more than him. As soon as you get away from the bus stops there is virtually no-one else walking with you, and you can really enjoy the peace and scenery.

The scenery is stunning - the following photos say it all I think. And we still have one side of the Y to do tomorrow!

The Tibetan girl in the photo with the giant prayer wheel is here visiting her family; she lives in Alma Rd, Caulfield and is married to a Jewish guy. What a small world it is!
As you can see there was no problem getting a taxi at the end.

 

 

Whisked to high altitude

A one hour flight NW from Chongqing whisked us to Juizhaihuanglong airport 3400m above sea level and only 16 degrees C. We joined a few others on a detour to our hotel in the Juizhaigou valley, via the Huanglong valley. The 70 minute drive there was spectacular with huge snow capped mountains in the background. 

 

At Huanglong we took a cable car up and did the walk to see the travertine terraces and coloured pools, followed by a huge descent back to the bottom. It was about 8 km and nearly 4 hours (we did not know that in advance). Graeme was suffering with the altitude change and was quite exhausted by the time we finished. Then followed a lengthy minibus trip to the Juizhaigou valley. We did not arrive until after 9 pm, where we gratefully collapsed into our comfortable twin double beds at the Sheraton.

Today's hiking in the Juizhaigou valley should be easier as we have a bus option between main sights.

Chongqing (pronounced Chongching)

Our cruise ended in Chongqing, a huge city of about 15 million people, the third largest in China. There are a few sights to see but it's extremely hot here at present (about 35) so we have not seen as much as we could have, instead retreating to our spacious air conditioned apartment (with separate lounge, two TVs, washing machine).

The CBD is at the top of a hilly narrow peninsula, with lots of high rise buildings. We have a great view from our 23rd floor apartment. It's a hard slog up steps from the river. Chongqing is at the junction of the Yangtze and the Jialing Rivers.

We walked around the peninsula tip, took a cable car across the river and back and spent a few hours in the old town 15 km to the west. We are in Sichuan food territory with heavy use of chillies. The local speciality is hotpot, with the mildest variety still being very hot. Needless to say we have not tried it, even though it has added pepper flower to numb your mouth. "Bu la de" has become my favourite phrase (no chillies).