China

Illusion of Gaia: Great Wall of China

The People's Republic of China is a civilization with one of the oldest ancient histories. Nowadays, it is one of the largest countries in the world and also considered as a rising superpower despite global economical difficulties.

This August, I went to backpack for the first time, as I began my journey stepping over from Paris to Shanghai, while I traveled towards my hostels, train stations and attractions. I am glad to mention that I was able to visit every part I wanted to see.

This post will function only as a short summary of each location I have visited. There will be another blog written in Dutch, which will go more in detail per day. Once that one is finished, I will put the link up here should you desire to read that, translated or not, as well.

Shanghai

The largest city proper in the world and also a major port, my vacation started here. As I grew accustomed towards the weather and navigating around, I noticed that time was moving fast. Thus, I had to keep up with my tight schedule.

During the very first day, heavy rainfall happened in the afternoon. After a quick visit towards the famous Bund site, I met up with Belgians. We decided to eat at a hot pot restaurant and the next day, we properly visited the Bund and Pudong's financial district.

After splitting ways, I walked through the Yu Yuan gardens and walked through a lot of Nanjing Road as well during day and night. The neon signs, the massive amount of people and the shopping malls continue to be fun to experience.

There are some temples and a revolutionary martyr site situated here as well, but I decided not to go to them because I would visit both of those in the future many times anyway. Shanghai was a good start for me, unlike many people who start in the capital instead.

Guilin/Yangshuo

As my first train ride ended (which was horrible regarding comfort) I stepped outside into Guilin, and like before and any other location afterwards, I had trouble finding the hostel. Even though it's clear to find on the map I used in my travelbook, it did not consider the smaller streets.

So every time I came to a new place, in the end I had to give up looking and constantly take a taxi towards the destinations. I'm glad that many signs have english names under them, but still, navigation could be improved.

Upon arriving at what turned out to be my favorite hostel through the journey, I booked the Li river tour and the next day, as I was enjoying the natural scenery by bamboo boat on a hot day, I met up with Italians.

I think that I liked Guilin in overall because it was the most orderly city I visited and was in no way as busy as the others. Plus I enjoyed the evenings in here too, as I saw several street performances and drank beer while watching the locals mind their own lives.

Yangshuo is considered famous for it's beauty landscape, and I agree with that upon visiting it myself. I sat on a water buffalo and enjoyed another trip by boat. The sun was in our faces, but fortunately many shadows were present as well.

On the last day before departing, I went to the incredible Reed Flute Cave, which is a landmark and is filled with stalactites, stalagmites and rock formations in unusual shapes. I went with a Chinese tour group of about 50 people, and I was the only foreigner, so I ignored the tour guide's info and snapped up some nice shots inside.

Chengdu/Leshan

The second train ride was a nightmare because I had to stand for 25 hours. I am still amazed that I am back at home and alive. Chengdu was next on the list, and it continues to be an important central city in western China as it was in the past as well during certain dynasties and cultures.

Another heavy rainfall occurred here, but this would be the last one. The hostel was so close, but because of the rain I was still unable to find it. Afterwards, I met up with Dutch guys, but in my opinion they were the least company I had through the whole trip.

Still, on the next day, we visited the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base northeast, and we enjoyed their activities, how few they were. After departing from me, I explored the Giant Buddha in Leshan on my own, which was immense to experience, mostly because of it's size.

Miscellaneously I explored Chengdu by going through some national parks, tea houses and had my ears checked by this "ear master" who could massage them. I also visited a Tibetan street which sold all kinds of their culture, and I spotted some monks.

In the end, I think I disliked this city the most if you forget about the fun center square with the statue of Mao Zedong and the attactions surrounding the city, such as Mt.Emei, which I had no time to visit.

Still glad to have seen it though.

Xi'an

Another ancient city which has been the capital of China for several dynasties, Xi'an has interesting geography in the center because an old city wall is still present through the modern buildings found inside and around it.

I got deeply confused with the location of the hostel, and only after walking to the far east of the east city gate did I notice that I looked at the map entirely wrong. That doesn't mean walking all that was not worth it.

The next day, surprisingly and luckily as I traveled towards the exhibition of the famous Terracotta Army, I met up with a Canadian girl and I think her Chinese friend plus professor as well. We joined for this tour together and afterwards, I was in for a treat.

They gave me a free ride back to Xi'an and a free private tour towards the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda and some other scenes of interest as well, just like back at the Terracotta Army, which was also worth seeing. As I got a free dinner meal, they welcomed me into China.

Such kindness was extraordinary for me, as it made the day way better. Originally I wanted to see the Great Mosque and the Bell plus Drum towers in Xi'an, but I decided to stay with them because there was so much fun to be found.

After seeing the biggest watershow in Asia according to the professor, I slept back at the hostel, as it was time to move on. This was another city and memories worth remembering.

Beijing

This metropolis is definitely worth seeing not only because it is the current capital of China, but also because of it's many unique attractions and landmarks. If only the air wasn't so heavily polluted as I noticed especially on the first day, then it would be my favorite city.

My first day here felt short because I was about to attend a pre-tour meeting regarding North Korea, which will be updated as a post soon. I didn't actually really experience Beijing until returning on the 27th of August.

Staying at supposedly one of the best hostels in China called Leo Hostel, I booked a tour towards the ancient part of Badalung's Great Wall. The next day, I met up with an Israeli, Canadian and English, and together, we climbed one of the modern world wonders, which turned out to be my first one.

Afterwards, we quickly decided to visit the Temple of Heaven, where emperors used to bring offers for good intentions. We had some trouble with getting the "inner" tickets to see the temple and nearby buildings up close, but we managed to succeed.

The next day, only the Israeli was still around in Beijing, so naturally we decided to visit the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace next, which both were interesting, but also massively crowded and frankly repetitive the longer I stayed at each.

Before that, we took a good look inside the mausoleum at Mao Zedong, a revolutionary political leader of which I still have to learn a lot about considering the many achievements he has made. We also walked around on Qianmen Street and Tiananmen Square, of which I wasn't really impressed by it's size, which is a weird afterthought for me.

In the evening, after eating a mediocre Falafel for the first time, I met up with more Israelis, which were all fun and interesting people for me, and together we went to the Wangfujing district, where during the night there is a famous snack street open, which sells exotic food.

I ate a flying lizard for the first time and it was a great moment because not only did it got captured, the Israeli's and surrounding Chinese looked with interest at me, as I was tasting something entirely new. And luckily, I never got sick from it.

On the last full day, the original Israeli went with me towards the Military Museum, which I was interested about, and it turned out to be worth seeing if you dig war objects. After saying goodbye to a good friend I made, I visited the Beijing Zoo on my own, which was way too big and had way too many animals to view.

The very final attraction on my vacation turned out to be the National Museum of China, which is the largest museum in the world. Seeing as my time was running out and I was the last guy with a ticket to enter it, I only had time to visit the Ancient Part of China's history.

So many ancient artifacts, curious objects and other unknown devices for me, I wish I could see pretty much all of the objects displayed. But I'm sure that I will return to Beijing one day, as I am planning on returning to China to see other cities such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Macau and Lhasa anyway.

And after returning to Shanghai using the Bullet train, my circle through backpacking China alone was complete, and I look back at a journey full of exciting stories, adventurous people and many pretty pictures taken.

But this is only part one of my biggest trip yet. Part two was even more unforgettable, better and special for me. Expect to see this part appearing inside the blog soon!

Here's a link towards my Dutch written blog about China. It has different content than this post:

http://flowrush.waarbenjij.nu/reisverslag/4612293/china-2013