Rivers, lakes and cute little towns

I'm in Yunnan province in south west China, in the northern mountains bordering the Himalayas. There are some Chinese ethnic minorities here, and some tradtional old towns, a bit touristified with lots of hanging lanterns and people in traditional costumes wandering about. But it's a beautiful area, and a nice bit cooler than elsewhere in China so far.

Dali is a square town with the remains of some walls and gates. Water is the over-riding theme in this area, and Dali is situated between a mountain range on the west and a lake on the east. Numerous small streams run down from mountain to lake, some through the town, and in places this has turned into a feature, with a stream running down the middle of the street and walkways on either side connected by little bridges. You can sit outside here to eat and drink, and it's very pleasant. Other parts of town are refreshingly normal with a produce market and shops selling ordinary household stuff as opposed to endless souvenirs.

I really liked my hostel in Dali: the staff were really friendly. You can join them for an evening meal, which is a great way of trying lots of dishes at once, and is very convivial.

I took a local bus one day to explore some of the villages. One of them was meant to have a harbour with boats across the lake. I walked all around this village and could not find a harbour anywhere. It took an hour to get to the lakeside. When I got back, the hostel manager swore blind there was a harbour. It's a mystery that'll never be solved. The most likely thing is that I was in a completely different village, or the wrong part of it. It's an example of the general state of confusion and uncertainty that accompanies a trip in a country where you can't speak the language or read any signs. And where there aren't any maps. The government and military have good quality maps but they are not available publicly. You just have to go with the flow and enjoy the scenery, even if it wasn't what was planned!

I've spent the last couple of days hiking in Tiger Leaping Gorge, where the Yangtse River passes through a deep narrow gorge and the scenery is dramatic. The hike felt very much like a walk in the Alps, with mainly westerners on the path and a lovely overnight hostel right in the mountains. The distinctiveness came from the dense fog that lifted throughout each morning and hung around the peaks, and the chocolate-coloured Yangtse River roaring its way through far below.

You have to buy a ticket to get into the gorge, which I don't mind, but do draw the line at being asked to pay again to take photographs at scenic spots. The rationale is that local people "maintain" these viewpoints, not the government, so the overall fee doesn't cover it. I can picture in a few years' time the whole route being a series of fee-paying sections, and indeed it's like that at the bottom of the gorge, where each route down requires a payment, and you pay again if you cross into the neighbouring area. This is really a stupid way of doing things, and illustrates the Chinese contradiction between top-down government control on the one hand, and a chaotic free-for-all on the other.

Back to Lijiang tonight, another scenic town but this time with winding cobbled streets and no wall. I'll try to get out to some of the villages again before I leave for the big city, Chengdu in the middle of the country, in a day or so.

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Photos - Beijing

A few highlights - on a cycle tour near the Forbidden City, the Great Wall looking unusually quiet, and another quiet museum I went to about astronomy, and how the Chinese had everything sorted out in terms of length of days and seasons etc way before anyone in Europe knew which way was up.

Fantasy Landscapes in the South

I'm about to leave Guanxi province in Southern China, after a few days in Yangshuo, near to Guilin. This is a big tourist area, attracting 50 million visitors a year, most of them Chinese. It's geared up for people who are staying anything up to a week, with loads of things to look at and do, including bamboo rafting (check), caves/mud baths/spa (check), cycling (check), cookery classes, Tai Chi classes, kayaking, climbing, hiking, a light show spectacular (check), and loads of clubs and bars. So that probably explains why I'm feeling quite tired, even though I was expecting these few days to be a chill-out, with just the scenery to enjoy.   The mud bath spa was an accident. I thought I was buying a ticket to Moon Hill, a mountain with a hole at the top you can look through at the fantastic karst peak landscape. But in fact I had a ticket for some underground caves. Not wanting to waste my money, I went for it, even though it involved entering the cave wearing nothing but swimwear and a hard hat with no real clue what was going to happen. In the end it was quite good fun, with me and another solo traveller (Chinese) being the only two in our group willing to immerse ourselves in the mud bath. There are photographs to prove it. After that you get cleaned up and soak in an underground spa for a while. All rather unexpected.   Eventually I made it to Moon Hill, which provided the best view of this unique landscape. What they call the karst peaks are perhaps like how a child would draw a mountain - straight up, round on top, stright down the other side. Covered in thick forest, they stretch away as far as the eye can see, layer on layer of them, the spaces between them filled with rice paddies and winding rivers. It really is like something out of a fairytale. You only get this view by climbing right to the top of the peak, by means of the path clearly marked "no entry". It was a very well-used path.   Cycling here is good, as the land between the peaks is flat and there are numerous small roads. However, the road I took was pretty much jammed up with enormous tourist buses parking and blocking the way. It's almost frightening to see how much domestic tourism has expanded here, and to consider how much more potential for growth there is.   The light show was choreographed by the person who did the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. It took place on a lagoon surrounded by floodlit peaks, and had a cast of 600. Very spectacular, even without being able to follow the sory. At one point, a long row of dancers holding hands formed a chain across the lagoon on floating pontoons. The chain got longer and longer and double-backed on itself, until there must have been a couple of hundred people. They were all wearing costumes lit with strips of small white lights, which was all you could see. Suddenly all the costume lights went out and stage was in darkness. Then only some of the dancers' lights came on, then off. Different dancers were lit up then disappeared again. I would love to know how that was done. Then all the lights went off and yellow floodlights came on, so that you could see the dancers properly. The effect was as if they had all disappeared and been replaced with a different set of dancers. Amazing.   Off to Kunming now, in Yunnan province in the south west to visit some old minority towns in the mountains and maybe do some hiking. Best wishes to all!

Huang Shan - in praise of the vertical

I travelled quite a long way east to get to Huang Shan National Park, while most people I know headed straight down to Xi'an (where the terracotta army is). I'd heard mixed things - a couple of Chinese people on the train said that they were basically just some mountains, and I'd be better off going somewhere closer instead. And when I got to the hostel, the Italian girl sharing my dorm had just spent a day there and hadn't liked it because of the crowds, although she did mention that the scenery was nice. So I wasn't sure if it would be worth the journey.

I thought it was amazing. The national park is not visible from outside and was quite a way from the hostel town, so there was no preview. The weather was overcast with some mist, which is normal for this time of year, and swirling mist is all part of the experience. I decided to walk up instead of taking the cable car, so came to the first good viewpoint after an hour or so of steps. When the mist cleared, it was spectacular. Huge rocks loom up on all sides, with trees growing out of every crevice. It's really like a fantasy world, and indeed is meant to be the inspiration for all those scroll paintings that China is famous for.

It's the steepness and verticality that's so breathtaking. A lot of it wouldn't be accessible if it weren't for the paths, which are basically staircases built into the rocks. You can see them stretching into the distance, winding around the peaks, most of them full of people looking like colourful colonies of ants crawling over huge boulders.

It was crowded, of course, on a Sunday in August. Apparently every Chinese person has an ambition to come here (apart from those two I met on the train, it seems) and no wonder. I think it's as impressive as any other natural wonder I've seen. I didn't walk the length of the park, but I walked from bottom to top - the entrance to the highest point - and back again. It was chaos at the top where the cable car delivers to, but the crowds lessen (slightly) as you move away. And it's good-natured chaos as ever. Chinese people are just used to being in large noisy groups, and don't understand that westerners find it difficult.

So after reviewing all my photos I now have a free day in the small town of Tunxi to rest my aching legs. It has a charming old town full of shops selling calligraphy, artwork, local dried funghi and some kind of sweet that you make by bashing something with a very large hammer. I am sitting in a huge restaurant with wooden floors, tables, chairs and screens, and white teapots and crockery on every table. You have to go to the counter where all the food is on display and write down the numbers of what you want on a little clipboard. It's all very pleasant.

I'll be getting on a train to Guilin this evening, where it's meant to be very scenic again. More from there!

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Ancient Walls and Kung Fu

I'm in the city of Pingyao (Shanxi province, south west of Beijing), which is a Unesco World Heritage site and a beautifully preserved walled town. It became a commerce and finance centre during the 18th and 19th centuries, and the wealthy merchants built themselves some nice pads and a wall around the outside. Many of the pads are now museums and I think I've visited around 15 of them. It's great to see things that relate to daily lives, and the buildings really are beautiful, often made up of several courtyards and gardens, with rooms displaying fantastic artwork, wooden carved furniture, lacquerware screens, embroidered tapestries, scrolls and calligraphy, paintings and vases. There's a mass of information, too, although most of it is only in Chinese, a good thing as it would really be information overload otherwise.

Some of the banks set up branches across China, and had a well developed messaging system for carrying out transactions. They also had bodyguards to escort the gold and silver, and bodyguard companies developed, based on the reputations of their staff, all kung fu masters. There are courtyards for practising, with many fearsome weapons on show. The goods were transported in special cases with the flags of the bodyguard company on display. I do wonder if they might have had less trouble if they had been a bit less conspicuous!

Pingyao has a tourist trade, but it's much quieter here than the hotspots of Beijing. (I spent all day at the Forbidden City just before leaving. It was worth it but quite exhausting.) Most tourists are Chinese but lots of couples and a few families, not so many large groups, although every now and then a courtyard will suddenly be swamped with 25 people all wearing identical yellow caps. There are some westerners around but not many, so you do get stared at a bit (that happened in Beijing also). I've been asked to pose in photos with people a few times. One girl was so excited about being in a photo with me that she jumped up and down on the spot. Another family wanted a picture of me and their two-year-old boy, but he wasn't having any of it, so we had to give up. Talking of photography, this is a great place for it and I've seen some flash gear around. I've finally got my monopod out of the backpack and am having some success with indoor shots and narrow aperture shots in daylight. It's not much use at night though. Sorry, some camera geekiness there. I'm having trouble collapsing it back now that I've extended it, so whether it will go back into the backpack when I leave tomorrow is another matter.

I have a private room here, which is great as it's an old-style room with a kang (bed on a brick base) and traditional furniture, off a beautiful wooden courtyard. It does mean you don't get talking to other people like you do in a dorm. But I was pleased to bump into German Chris on my first night, who did the same Mongolia tour as me. He was staying at the hostel across the street! And this morning I bumped into Patrick, who I also met in Mongolia. I'm meeting him and his girlfried Julie tonight for dinner. Maybe between us we can sort out my monopod - I might take it along just in case.

Next stop Huang Shan national park. Till then take care.
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Avoiding the crowds in Beijing

Beijing certainly takes some getting used to: the heat, the crowds, the language, the directness of the people. I think the key with all big cities is to seek out the things you'll like and ignore the rest. I'm not a big fan of the pushy selling tactics and bargaining, so after making a few (probably unwise) purchases on the first day, have avoided markets and the like. My favourite things so far:

A guided tour of some of the hutongs (narrow alleyways of old Beijing) by bicycle. This was a great way to whizz around some of the nice old areas which haven't changed much over the years and where daily life for many Beijingers is very much on view.

The Great Wall. I took a tour which went to a section further away, and was glad I did. Of course there were plenty of people, but not crammed in, and every now and then there was a stretch of the wall to be seen with no people on it. Really beautiful.

Beihai Park. This smallish park just outside the Forbidden City is mainly a big lake, and it was a real treat to walk around it on Friday evening and see loads of locals getting away from the hustle and bustle. The heat is draining, but it makes these waterside oases of calm so important.

The Beijing museum of Urban Planning. Not a very exciting sounding name but a really interesting place with loads of 3D, model and film exhibits showing the historical development of the city and what the plan is for the next 10 years. It probably gives a better feeling of the scale of the Foribidden City than the place itself (which I'm planning to visit after the weekend). And the other great thing is that there were hardly any people there!

Not-so-great things: my sore feet, trying to book train tickets for the rest of the trip, failing to communicate entirely, even so far as ordering a cup of tea, very slow internet. But on the whole it's going well. Tomorrow: first sleeper train to the small walled town of Pingyao. Looking forward to it (I think...)


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