Where to even begin? I’ve had many people ask me where my blog entry about China is hiding, and I am sad to admit that I simply didn’t want to write it. After everywhere I have been, I was excited to see China. I think so much of the future of our world revolves around China, which makes it a very intriguing place to see and understand. However, I didn’t like China. I don’t know why. There isn’t one specific piece or location that I can put my finger on. For some reason, I just didn’t love it there and was counting down my remaining days there. It was unfortunate since I was spending nearly a month in the country. Don’t get me wrong – I had some wonderful days and met some incredible people, but in general I didn’t enjoy China. However, instead of focusing on the negative aspects of the country, it is more fun to tell you about the good parts.
First and foremost, the Great Wall!!! This monument is the biggest reason I went to China. It is one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” and the only one I had not yet been to. Seeing them all was one of my goals so I was extremely excited to tick this off the list. The wall was amazing – we drove 3 hours outside of Beijing to a section of the wall where there were no other tourists. As we started climbing up onto the wall, we were followed by a group of 6 local women. There were 7 of us in my group so it was nearly a one to one relationship. The raced us up the wall and beat us, hands down. Since there were no other tourists, we were able to wander and not be disturbed at all. The wall goes on and on for ages (I know, the name would never give that away!). We spent a few hours walking along it, had a picnic lunch and just had a wonderful day. Definitely worth the visit!
One of the other places we visited was the Terracotta Warriors. I had heard so much about the site and was so excited to visit it, but once I arrived there I was terribly disappointed. There are just huge, open garage door type structures over lines of the warriors. You are not allowed to get very close to them and it’s not possible to see much detail at all. There are a few in glass cases, but the pictures you get are terrible. I felt like it is a very hyped up site with not a lot of excitement or interesting history behind it, very overrated.
The same day we went to another site, the Qianling Mausoleum, which was amazing. They have a mausoleum and tombs, of course, but they also have midget warriors! You were able to get up really close to everything and it was quiet and really well preserved – I was much happier with this than I was with the Terracotta Warriors. How odd the day ended up being!
Our next stop was Shanghai. I enjoyed the feeling of the city very much – they had great food and a good variety both Asian and European style buildings. It is very much a modern city, a nice change from some of the small towns in China. However, everything in China was so far apart and it took forever to get anywhere. During my month there, we took 6 overnight trains. The longest one was 28 hours. Imagine being on a train, stuck in your bed, for 28 hours. There is nowhere to go, nobody to talk to since nobody outside your small group can speak English, and the bathrooms are completely disgusting. We had the option to do an overnight to a small “local” village outside of Shanghai, but due to the 3 hour distance each direction, I was just not motivated enough to go. I hate to say it, but I think I was just really burned out on travelling. I was sick of packing my bag every single morning, tired of eating noodles or rice with every meal, tired of trains and busses, just tired. I knew if I just one more UNESCO World Heritage Site, I would scream! Maybe my dislike for China has less to do with the country itself and more to do with my own breaking point. Either way, I know by the time I was leaving in Shanghai, I was ready for a change of pace.
Unfortunately, I was less than half way through my China tour at this point. I seriously considered leaving the tour and heading down to the islands in Thailand for 2 weeks before Christmas. I could lie on the beach and just do nothing for a while. However, the logical portion of my brain would not allow me to throw so much money away. I was determined to stick it out, no matter how unhappy I was with the tour. The one redeeming fact of the trip was that we were mostly done with the large cities. I have learned I much prefer the small villages with lots of outdoor activities to the large cities where you just wander around and look at old buildings. I would much rather go for a hike, kayak or bike ride than take a bus tour of a city. I feel you get a much better feel for the country and its people by being outside, so that is what I would search for on tours in the future.
With the decision made to continue on the tour, we had a few good places left to go. We spent a few amazing days in Yangshao. It is a small town with lots of activities – I took a cooking class in the morning and a Kung Fu class in the afternoon. Let me tell you, Kung Fu is really hard! The next day we went on an 8 hour bike ride through the countryside. We had to ride through rice patty fields on a path that was only slightly larger than our tires. It took so much concentration and a few of us failed and fell off the bikes – oops! We also had to cross the river a couple of times, which meant renting a small raft, piling us and the bikes on it, and crossing our fingers that we did not fall off. It was an incredible day!
Our next stop was another outdoorsy location – the Longji Terraces. We did a 3 day, 2 night trek, stopping in guesthouses each night. The best part of the trek was that we were able to see a full lunar eclipse! I’ve never seen one before and I was so excited for it! We were lucky because it happened between 9 and 11 in the evening, so we didn’t even have to get up in the middle of the night to see it. We stood outside by the fire watching the moon disappear – a very unique experience J
The next few weeks were really quiet with not a whole lot of memorable places. We did spend a day gambling in Macau, which was lots of fun! I didn’t spend too much but I did win – can’t complain about that! I enjoyed the city of Beijing – seeing the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Olympic Park. After crossing the border we spent 2 days hiking around the Sapa region of Vietnam. It was quite a beautiful region, except one of the girls stepped off the path and was bitten by a leech. So glad that wasn’t me! Finally, we made our way back down to Hanoi. I really enjoyed the city of Hanoi the first time so I was happy to be back there. We were there for Christmas Eve and it was completely crazy! Everybody in town comes out, hangs out around the lake and eats street food. A walk that would normally take us 20 took over an hour! It was interesting to see how excited they all got for Christmas Eve in a country that is not Christian and does not even celebrate the Christmas holiday.
Finally, it was time to leave this portion of my trip and head to Australia. I really loved all of my time in Asia, but I was ready to leave. Some places in Asia were incredible, such as Nepal, Laos and Cambodia, while others I would be happy never to return to. Asia is so vast and so diverse and I am so happy that I was able to spend 3 months exploring this part of the word. Now on to the next adventure!
One of the other places we visited was the Terracotta Warriors. I had heard so much about the site and was so excited to visit it, but once I arrived there I was terribly disappointed. There are just huge, open garage door type structures over lines of the warriors. You are not allowed to get very close to them and it’s not possible to see much detail at all. There are a few in glass cases, but the pictures you get are terrible. I felt like it is a very hyped up site with not a lot of excitement or interesting history behind it, very overrated.
The same day we went to another site, the Qianling Mausoleum, which was amazing. They have a mausoleum and tombs, of course, but they also have midget warriors! You were able to get up really close to everything and it was quiet and really well preserved – I was much happier with this than I was with the Terracotta Warriors. How odd the day ended up being!
Our next stop was Shanghai. I enjoyed the feeling of the city very much – they had great food and a good variety both Asian and European style buildings. It is very much a modern city, a nice change from some of the small towns in China. However, everything in China was so far apart and it took forever to get anywhere. During my month there, we took 6 overnight trains. The longest one was 28 hours. Imagine being on a train, stuck in your bed, for 28 hours. There is nowhere to go, nobody to talk to since nobody outside your small group can speak English, and the bathrooms are completely disgusting. We had the option to do an overnight to a small “local” village outside of Shanghai, but due to the 3 hour distance each direction, I was just not motivated enough to go. I hate to say it, but I think I was just really burned out on travelling. I was sick of packing my bag every single morning, tired of eating noodles or rice with every meal, tired of trains and busses, just tired. I knew if I just one more UNESCO World Heritage Site, I would scream! Maybe my dislike for China has less to do with the country itself and more to do with my own breaking point. Either way, I know by the time I was leaving in Shanghai, I was ready for a change of pace.
Unfortunately, I was less than half way through my China tour at this point. I seriously considered leaving the tour and heading down to the islands in Thailand for 2 weeks before Christmas. I could lie on the beach and just do nothing for a while. However, the logical portion of my brain would not allow me to throw so much money away. I was determined to stick it out, no matter how unhappy I was with the tour. The one redeeming fact of the trip was that we were mostly done with the large cities. I have learned I much prefer the small villages with lots of outdoor activities to the large cities where you just wander around and look at old buildings. I would much rather go for a hike, kayak or bike ride than take a bus tour of a city. I feel you get a much better feel for the country and its people by being outside, so that is what I would search for on tours in the future.
With the decision made to continue on the tour, we had a few good places left to go. We spent a few amazing days in Yangshao. It is a small town with lots of activities – I took a cooking class in the morning and a Kung Fu class in the afternoon. Let me tell you, Kung Fu is really hard! The next day we went on an 8 hour bike ride through the countryside. We had to ride through rice patty fields on a path that was only slightly larger than our tires. It took so much concentration and a few of us failed and fell off the bikes – oops! We also had to cross the river a couple of times, which meant renting a small raft, piling us and the bikes on it, and crossing our fingers that we did not fall off. It was an incredible day!
Our next stop was another outdoorsy location – the Longji Terraces. We did a 3 day, 2 night trek, stopping in guesthouses each night. The best part of the trek was that we were able to see a full lunar eclipse! I’ve never seen one before and I was so excited for it! We were lucky because it happened between 9 and 11 in the evening, so we didn’t even have to get up in the middle of the night to see it. We stood outside by the fire watching the moon disappear – a very unique experience J
Finally, it was time to leave this portion of my trip and head to Australia. I really loved all of my time in Asia, but I was ready to leave. Some places in Asia were incredible, such as Nepal, Laos and Cambodia, while others I would be happy never to return to. Asia is so vast and so diverse and I am so happy that I was able to spend 3 months exploring this part of the word. Now on to the next adventure!
