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During our few days in Beijing we met out new tour group and visited the Forbidden City (in the photo) and Tiananmen Square and the Temple of heaven. We spent a lot of time eating at great restaurants and walking through some of the lovely parks. We did give in and have a couple of starbucks coffee though! We passed on the deep fried scorpions - they were pierced on sticks and still wriggling about waiting to be fried. I never would have imagined myself sympathising with a scorpion but there you go! We walked along the Great Wall which was amazing and the weather was beautiful. No more freezing Mongolia!
We took an overnight train to Shanghai which was interesting. Three bunks to a wall and on the top bunk was really near the ceiling so was a tad claustrophobic. In Shaghai we went to its big museum and then went to an acrobat show in the evening. There were lots of men doing amazing somersaulting routines on ropes and contorsionist girls. At the end they brought a metal ball onto the stage and managed to fit 5 people on motorbikes inside going round and round at different angles to avoid each other which was really amazing. However, what will forever stay with me from the evening will be the titanic routine. A man and woman were hanging froms ropes from the ceiling and swinging about in a very impressive style. Unfortunately this was completely overshadowed by the 'my heart will go on music' and the prow of the ship scene from titanic being played on huge screens at the sides of the stage. Some moments really are too surreal for words! The next day we did a bit of shopping in the French Concession area and tried some great dumplings after walking round the super relaxing Yu Garden. All cultured out we succumbed to out first glass of wine of the trip - beautiful.
We took another overnight train to Xi'an. Other amy worked out that we'll have done about 10,000km by train with the transsiberian and China: I've never liked to do things by halves! There was a great Muslim quarter in Xi'an where we filled up on some of the wonderful nan bread. It also has one of the largest mosques in China and a good market. The old city walls are still intact so we had a walk round which was a great way to see the buildings. The real point of our Xi'an stop off was to see the Terracotta warriors which were really impressive. I didn't see them when they came to london so was good to finally manage it! There were some archaeologists on site as well who were interesting to watch. I also got an earl grey tea capachinno outside which was bizarre but nice and will now always be associated with the warriors in my mind!
We took a flight to Chengdu which is another big city but felt much more relaxed than the previous three. We found a nice park with lots of tea houses. After a slight false start (we walked into a tea garden with only local Chinese and after being stared at for a few minutes had to walk out again as though that was the plan all along) we found one that would serve us. All the other people there were locals playing Mahjong. Seeing as the only game that any of us had was Hannah Montanna top trumps (god knows why) we gave that a go whilst drinking the lovely tea. I'm sure we fitted right in! I wasn't tempted to join the locals in having my ear canals cleaned out though. The Sichuan hot pot we did give a go although we had 1/2 hot and 1/2 spicy - ie the wimp version!
The next day we headed to the Giant Panda Breeding research centre nice and early so we could see the Pandas before they had their breakfast and went to sleep for the rest of the day! They were all wonderful especially the babies in the nursery. The enclosures are pretty big but the holding pens were concrete and didn't look particularly big - one was glass fronted and had a panda pacing away inside. The workers giving the food rubbed the pandas tummies and they seemed very tame. They have released a couple of pandas but they both died and they don't have any plans to release anymore. It was really interesting though and apparently a life sentence or execution is imposed on convicted poachers of pandas in the wild! There are laws strictly forbidding tree felling in Giant Panda habitat as well.
After the panda sanctuary we got a 5hr train to Chongqing where we were picking up out boat for a river trip. It was great to see the scenery from the train. I was just what I'd imagined when I'd dreamed of visiting China - rolling hills with rice paddies (and lots of trees which looked like the ones you got in lego sets!). Once out of the train we got taxis and for some reason we got put in unmarked ones by our tour guide (like sheep we follow!). These then got very very lost so we circled Chongqing for quite a while so I now feel I know it rather well. It seemed to befull of sky scrapers next to much more traditional buildings and full of fog. It looked impressive lit up at night.
Our boat itself was lovely. During the three gorges trip we visited Fengdu a rather touristy 'city of ghosts'. The temples for money, health and judgement were all there to see but unfortunately we couldn't see heaven because as out guide gravely informed us whilst pointing the a small building site" 'heaven was still under construction'. Classic. The next day we transferred to a smaller boat to visit the three lesser gorges and the scenery was all stunning. It was very misty and rained a lot but cleared well on our last day. Because of a huge dam built to help with flooding further down stream the water level has been raised 90m. It was interesting to see the before and after photos and to think that we were floating over the old towns which had been submerged.
Today we left the boat and are now in Yichang where we are staying overnight. Tomorrow we have a 5 hour bus then an overnight train and then another bus! We will finally get to a small countryside town called Yangshuo though which should be great. I hope everyone is ok and I'll message again soon,
Amyxox
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