kjp

If you're in my contacts list, you'd already have received this. If not, read on for a summary of my China trip.

I flew into big Beijing - oversized buildings, roads; checking out Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden city, a day trip to a part of the Great Wall, and a few of the temples and parks around the city. Next was Xian the main attraction of which was the nearby buried Terracotta Warriors that were outside of the city. Thousands of life sized terracotta warriors were buried in 210 BC - impressive due to their number, intricacy and age.

After the first two cities, we passed through the Hexi corridor (a strategic passage when the silk road was used as a trade route between East and West) and headed for the Taklamakan Desert (the second largest desert in the world). The fort at the western end of the Great Wall near Jiayuguan (which was the last outpost of several Chinese dynasties) was very impressive - having the mountains of the Tibetan plateau on one side and the desert on the other. While further north west near Dunhuang, the Mogao caves had some impressive Buddist art created over 1000 years between the 4th and 14th centuries. Also at Dunhuang, a pre-dawn camel ride to see the sun rise over the sand dunes was pretty cool.

Moving into Xinjiang province to Turfan, exploring a quiet village near the Flaming Mountains was interesting; as was looking at their irrigation system (ancient over & underground runoff from nearby mountains). The first major mosque of the trip was the Emin Mosque and Minaret (relatively modern constructed in 1778); we also visited Jiaohe a ruined ancient city built on an island between two rivers. Camping in a yurt for 2 nights in the Heavenly Mountains was a good break (albeit very cold during the evenings). A horse ride from the camp up 1000 metres to the top of one of the mountains resulted in some great views of the nearby lake. We then took several days to cross the Taklamakan desert (Taklamakan means if you go in, you won't come out) - the worlds second largest desert. On the other side was Hotan, with its jade, silk and carpets. The final stop of the tour was the far North Western city of Kashgar the Sunday market (livestock) was interesting.

After Kashgar, I was on my own for three weeks in the South Western provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan...

Chengdu was the first city I stayed at after leaving the tour group. I enjoyed - it's got a relaxed feeling to it. Went and saw some Pandas nearby, a temple and the Sichuan University Museum had some very ornate clothing and paintings. Litang was the next major town: it is a high up (4400m above sea level) in western Sichuan. It was interesting watching the lamas and Tibetans go about their lives. I got altitude sickness here - headache; nausea; no energy; breathlessness, so I took it easy. Got similar symptoms when I was on a couple of bus rides in the region that had passes at 5000 m above sea level...

Crossing over from Chengdu to Yunnan, I stayed at Zhongdian for two nights. The old town was rather new (some building were being built done up for tourists), but behind the new old town was the real old town and was interesting to wander around. Walking along Tiger Leaping Gorge for 3 days / 2 nights was spectacular: 'Jade Dragon Snow Mountain' was high above me on the other side of the Yangtzee river that was far below. It's one of the deepest gorges in the world - 3900 m between the mountain top and the river.

My time in Lijiang was effected by bad weather, and meant that I didn't see several of the more scenic things around town. However, at this stage in the holiday (after being on the go for a while), I enjoyed taking it easy in the old town. Dali (old city) was also enjoyable to relax in - near Erhai Lake. The nearby 3 Pagodas were impressive. The final stop was Kunming which was interesting - the "Bird and Flower" market didn't have many birds or flowers - but did have things that would be hard to get past customs / quarantine / RSPCA... Walking along the cliff of XiShan amongst old grottos / caves / pagodas was interesting (but disconcerting when you're right on the edge of a cliff face and you hear blasting for a new road below you); as was visiting the 'Bamboo Temple' with it's many life-like figures.

After an overnight stopover in Kuala Lumpar; my journey ended when I got back to Brisbane last Sunday.

And lastly, a few impressions of China / other bits and pieces I haven't mentioned of the trip:

* The highlights would be Tiger Leaping Gorge, the fort at Jiayuguan, Heavenly Mountains, and the scenery of western Sichuan
* The lowlights would be the pollution in some of the cities (Xi'an in particular), getting altitude sickness in Litang, being sick on the tour (just a cold, but annoying), the bus on the ride from Kangding to Litang...
* If you weren't told what sort of system of government was in place, you'd swear it was a capitalistic society - everyone trying to make money, and fairly individualistic too... Communism in name only.
* There's a great disparity in the wealth of the people - some very rich in the big cities; but many very poor people in the rural areas.
* There was *heaps* of media hype about Shenzhou 6.
* The people are friendly, but you just have to start talking to them first - they initially appear a bit on the cold / arrogant side.
* Overall, the roads are ok. Some are pretty good (between major cities); some of them in 'the sticks' are shocking; some in western Sichuan are scary... having a steep cliff down to the Yangztee a few hundred metres below you, on an unsealed dirt road that, when the bus stalled, sunk by a fair bit is nerve racking...
* The 'sleeper' (overnight) trains are pretty good, provided you're in a hard or soft sleeper.
* The scenery is impressive, but several people who live in Europe weren't as impressed.
* Chinese food is yummy but oily, and nothing like Chinese food restaurants in Australia. Uighur food (in Xinjiang) has lots of lamb and skewers and pilaf in their night markets. Lots of food in the South West is spicy... burnt my mouth several times.
* I didn't (that I know of...) had dog meat. I did have donkey in Xinjiang and yak in west Sichuan.
* The standard beer in China is 500 mL. We were in Xinjiang (very Muslim) during Ramadan... no alcohol at some restaurants... oh dear...
* Xinjiang is vastly different to eastern China - you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a Middle Eastern country - the people are different (different ethnicity), different language, food, religion (Muslim).
* Buddist / Tibetan culture is apparent in western Sichuan; while parts of Yunnan have a reasonably strong Naxi (a local tribe) culture apparent.
* It's both a dirty and clean society - people litter, spit, etc; but there are many more (than Australia) people cleaning the streets.
* It's weird seeing a really old guy on a donkey/cart talking on a mobile phone.
* I still haven't figured out why Litang (high up in western Sichuan) has plastic palm trees down the main street...

I'm back in Brissy. Yay.

It's weird - such a relief to be back. So happy to see my the house, housemates (1 new), my room, etc, etc.

I got a free shoe cleaning courtesy of the Australian Government. Thanks all you Aussie taxpayers out there. :)

I'll be going to the coast (sunshine, probably) for a swim. The swell looks dodge for tomorrow - just 2 ft. Just not sure about the water temperature...??

Afterwards - some money out of the bank (hopefully my card will work...), and a nice salad sandwich from that place in the food court at Chermside.

Very happy.

am in kuala lumpar airport, waiting for myn flight hback to oz - brisbane. Have about 1/2 hr wait. stay o/n in kl was ok.

8 hrs to go.

kl is as i remember it from last time- humidy; with free internet but dodge keyboard.

anyhow.

internet is better than before - i'm using firefox on this machine!!

cool. looking forward to catching up with everyone and being in australia.

ohh... dali was good. - relaxing, one or two touristy things. kunming was great. a few touristy things - xishan and bamboo temple. was a relaxing stay. great way to end a trip.

bye now.

This am - went to 3 pagodas just a little outside of dali Old city. Was reasonably interesting. Took it easy in the afternoon (hired a bike thaat turned out to be dodgy, I couldn't be bothered as well). Was going to go up on the nearby mountains, but couldn't be bothered. I think I'm over trying to do everything that I can. Want to take it easy for a few days as it's the end of my trip.

Going to Kunming (final place before I fly out on Sat) tomorrow.

Ohhh, now, in Dali, my phone doesn't work... Even with the magic number put in first. The message in Chinese mentions Dali City (ie: the location). But the English message does not... So maybe better luck in Kunming?

Am in Dali Old City. Waiting for some lunch (it's 3.50 pm....).

Here for probably 2 nights. Kunming on Wednesday.

OK bye.

Yes, I know, the photos put up here today are totally out of order...

Anyhow. This was taken from one of the bus journies. There's fantastic country out there.

It's still bucketing down.

I think that tomorrow I'll be ditching Lijiang and going to Dali. If it's clear in the morning, I'll leave in the arvo, if rainy in morning, then leave in morning.

Well, actually (http://www.kjp.id.au/archive/2005/10/22/anyhow.html), I can ring Australia.

Note to anyone out there: if you find yourself in China and can't ring home on your SIM card, try putting 1795100 infront of the country code, then number as usual. Apparently it works but at a slightly higher rate. (Better a higher rate than not working at all).

Now, if only I knew how much credit I had left....

I'm staying somewhere in here - the old town of Lijiang. It's kind of cool really.

On the road to Zhongdian (in Yunnan) a truck took a corner too fast, blocking both lanes.... and leaking petrol.... while some people were smoking......

I walked back down the hill to the bus...

Temple at Litang

One of the wierd er things I've seen so far - in Litang (high up in Western Sichuan), plastic palm trees on the main N/S street.

Bizarre.

I can't remember what it's called. It and a small temple overlook the old part of town in Zhongdian. It rotates. But is very heavy. I could just (by myself) get it moving, but it's very hard work. A miscelaneous random Chinese tourist and I got it moving at a decent speed.

Big Buddist temple on the edge of Zhongdian. Interesting, but undergoing renovations at the moment. I think that I got blessed by some important lama dude. But he was a fair bit younger then me.... hhhmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Rain, rain, go away, come again:

never

(well at least until after I fly out).

It's kind of annoying. The sky is completely grey, with drizzle, and bugger all visability. Lijiang and it's surronds has some really great scenery. If you can't see them, then there doesn't seem to be much to do around here...

I planned to go to a really picturesque park on the northern side of town that has great views of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains (?) - the mountains that have the Tiger Leaping Gorge on the other side. I went to it this morning, but the Y60 (!!!!!!!!!! - tai gui le) and grey skies put me off a bit. If it clears up a bit in the arvo I'll give it another shot. I got up really early (7.30am!) to get there before the hoards of tourists. Anyhow. So annoyed about not going this am.

If the weather is dodgy still tomorrow, then I'll just head to Dali. I was thinking about a day trip up the mountains. But again, if dodgy weather, then dodgy views - not much point.

I suppose though, this is the first patch of bad weather that I've had for all of the trip. 5 weeks of good weather is nothing to complain at I suppose.

Anyhow.

Some useles fun facts:
* The reason why there's so many Israeli tourist around is that they have holidays this time of year - endnig at the end of October. They have military service after year 12. 3 years for men, 2 for women. After that a lot of them travel for a bit, then start uni when they are 23 or so...
* Apparently the most common word spoken in the world (across all languages) is 'okay'. The second most common is "coca cola'.
* Apparently a whole bunch of plants and flowers and stuff got taken (ie: samples) from Tiger Leaping Gorge to England, and are now common in Englsih gardens.

So day before yesterday, Wednesday, I left Zhongdian on to go to Qioatou, a town that is at one end of the Gorge. On the way there, met up with two English women who were doing it, and also over lunch at a cafe in Qoiatou, two Israels. The five of us ended up donig very similar walk, and going (back) to Lijiang.

My original plan was to stay overnight in Qioatou for the first night, then one or two nights in the gorge and 1 night at the town at the far end - Daju. But, on Wednesday, we went to The 'Naxi Family Guesthouse', 2hrs up the path from Qioatou. There's not much at Qioatou, so yuo may as well get the first two hours of the walk done. Then on Thursday we walked to 'Half Way Guesthouse' which was a pretty good place.

I'd heard from other people that after dropping down to the lower road, the scenery after crossnig the ferry (ie: the road up to Daju), is pretty boring, and not really worth it. So I canned that idea, and this morning dropped down to the low road and then caught bus back to Qioatou and then on to Lijiang. Goto to Lijiang 4.30 pm ish or so.

So, after Lijiang I'll stop in Dali ( old city) and then Kunming. And then that will be the China trip.

OK, back to TLG. I thought that the scenary - the very high craggy mountains above and the Yangztee below was very impressive scenery. Very. Very. A chick from France wasn't as impressed, so maybe my impressions are effected by the lack of seeing any big mountains before. ??.

Anyhow, there'll be a few photos momentarily. I found it ok, I feel fine now (but I'll sleep well tonight - ie: just tired). I took all of my pack which was kind of stupid, but not. When I left I was planning to walk all the way through to Daju and then onto Lijiang. Given that my plans changed (and I doubled back to Qioatou), I could of left my stuff there, and just taken only a few things in my daypack. Anyhow, such is life.

Lijiang seems to be a pretty cool place. I'm staying in a hostel in the 'Old Town'. The new town is just another city. The Old Town is the remains of an old town - stone paths, waterways / canals (that apparently used to be the town's water supply). The down side is the masses of tourists that are cruising around. And the souvenier stalls that apparently pushed out Naxi shops (? check?).

Everything is lit up pretty well - building, red lantern things on the side of the streets (allayways really - no cars allowed). There's ample opportunitiy for some really cool low light photography stuff (there's heaps of Han tourists with the same idea), however, would need my tripod. Anyhow.

I would also need some room on my camera's memory card. Which is full, yet again. I was hoping that some of the stupidly many photos of the gorge would be duds and could be deleted. Found only 1 so far. do'h.

There's also a section where there is a canal with restraunts / bars on either side of the canal. The thing to do is to shout / sing Naxi chants / songs in competition with people in the bars/restrautns on the other side of the canal. It's pretty cool.

Tomorrow I'll just explore Lijiang, and do a few jobs. Houtian, go to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (?). These are the mountains that are on one side of the TL Gorge. ie: Lijiang is on the other side to the walk.

Ohh, FYI: Listening to Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto with miscellaneous Chinese techno in the background isn't really a good combination.

Ohh, also, for some strange reasons I've started coughing funnily, and got a strange flu like sickness. And I've been clucking like a chicken. And eating seeds off the ground. I don't know why this is the case. It all started after patting that chicken on the gorge trail. Hmmm... Maybe I should see a doctor???

[ Nah, just kidding in the last paragraph, of course.
[[ My humour is on par form as per usual.......... :), coughs...

Apparently my mobile phone here (or rather the SIM card I got all the way back in Beijing) is only good for SMS back to Aus. Tried calling, but got error message - something needed activiation. Too hard to do myself. Anyhow.

Wenshu Temple in Chengdu

Panda just outside Chengdu. Pandas - 23.5 hrs / day eaiting and sleeping. They've got it made...

The Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar. It's smaller than it looks.

From Kashgar (last Sunday week). These guys were just arriving at the livestock market.

Things are pretty good, I've gotten over the altitude sickness. I'm currently relatively high up in Zhongdian, 3.4 km above sea level (I think), but this is ok - no headaches, etc. It's just slightly (but not very much) hard to breath. But this probably has more to do with the cold. It's 'see your breathe temperature' - similar to Canberra winter. Brings back memories :). I've basically been in my thermals all the time since last Thursday night (when I started moving up in the world... har har).

I'm in Zhongdian for tonight as well. Staying in a relatively nice place (I'm lashing out (!) - $15 room instead of $4 dorm bed)... Off to one of the important lmastries in SW China in a little bit (once I'm done here). Internet here typically costs Y2 or Y3 (50c) per hour...

I can't really complain about the bus rides - they've been pretty good really, just 1 was a bit average. The last two have been interupted for some reason or another. The roads are narrow and windy.. Yesterday a truck had overturned, the day before there was a Rockside... Also yesterday when going along a dirt unreinforced road just above the Yangstze (quite steep, but not very, drop), feeling the ground sink beneath the bus is 'interesting' ..........

Yup, remote is the right word. It was either this or more touristy places (yup, like I'm going to do that...), and I felt like this was a better option anyway. Having just paid out touristy stuff, the walk that I'll be doing later this week is on several tourist backpacker trails. Anyhow.

We had a shortish bus trip this morning - 4 1/2 hrs. (Leaving at 7 am....). I've been feeling a lot better (although not 100%) than yesterday. It's kind of weird seeing trees on the tops of mountains way down below you, and being happy with that (as that's were you'll be soon). There was some weird landscapes - just rocks and a few low lying (< 0.50 m) shrubs. Nothing can live up there, pretty much.

There isn't much in XiangCheng - it's a Tibetan town that has an influx of Han Chinese people coming in and building a new town around the old town.... There's a pretty cool 1600's (Buddist) monestry at the top of the hill overlooking the town which I've just got back from checking out - it's pretty impressive. 1/2 hr from the end of the trip a whole bunch of locals got on the bus (to get a ride into town). The guy who sat next to me looked like a Tibetan Nelson Mandella. XiangCheng is pretty much an overnight stop to break up the journey to Zhongdian in Yunnan province.

Today I've felt pretty average. Headache all day, tired - presumably it's too high for me here. I checked out one of the Buddist temples on the edge of town in the morning, and all the Tibetan homes leading up to it. Tibetan stuff is a lot more colourful than other stuff I've seen. They've got those nifty whirlly things (brass?? drums) that you try and keep moving. It was in a big 'Chorten' thingy - ie: a Buddist tower, white, circular. What a great description.....

I bought my ticket to XiangCheng tomorrow. It will be just an overnighter there, the following day is to ZhongDian, where I'll stay 2 nights, probably. There's apparently not much in XiangCheng.

I just hope that my seat tomorrow isn't cramped, etc. My knees / legs are sore - probably the temperature / height (although I've had thermals on all day...). Needless to say, I'm kind of glad to leave here (XiangCheng is 2.something km up; but ZhongDian is apparently 3.4 km...) Anyhow. I don't really want to do 3 days of bus in a row (ie: here --> XG --> ZD --> TLG). Although, from a scenery point of view I wouldn't mind it, it is very spectacular in this part of the world.

I'm not sure I'm in a place to complain about knees / legs on buses, etc... Earlier this arvy I was talking to a giant French guy who had just arrived who would be 7 feet or so....

After Zhongdian, it will be a shortish bus ride to the village at the start of the Tiger Leaping Gorge... Dodgy knees on the days leading up to a walk probably isn't the best of all things.

Hmmmm.. Tired and sore, want it to be 7am tomorrow when we leave... I was glad when I found out that the buses run tomorrow (even though it is Sunday).

Anyhow. If you ever find yourself in Litang, head to Mr Chen's (just left a few shops of the Crane guesthouse) - he's got decent food, a bit of English and a personality...

We got into Litang about 1 hr ago. Just been wandering around, trying to get out of the sun (very bright, clear sky, don't want to add to my headache...).

Yesterday morning got what was apparently a chartered bus to Kangding. I thought I had paid a bit extra to the guesthouse I was with for getting the ticket & transfer (didn't have the time / couldn't be bothered to go to the bus station myself). But turned out to be a roomy cushy seats bus. Bad things - the smoking of some people (and lack of openable windows / no air con). Anyhow, at Kangding there was a person trying to flog hostel beds - her place was on my list of 'possibles', so that was that.

Kangding is a nice place, in the valley with steep mountains either side, river running through the middle of town. There didn't seem to be much to do there, and the bus ride was pretty good, so decided to go on to Litang today (ie: just stay one night).

In Kangding I met up with a Korean guy who is backpacking around China, and has a similar itinery as me for the next few weeks. Ie: night or 2 in Litang, Xiangcheng, Zhongdian in Yunnan, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lijiang, Dali, Kunming... seems like a decent person which is very good.

The bus to Litang was vastly different to yesterdays. Crowded, I moved from the back seat (where my head was touching the roof, and any of the multiple bumps in the road would have seen me going through the roof... Moved to the fold out in the isle seat next to Korean guy (yes, I've unsurprisingly forgotten his name). But this had: (a) a metal rod in a really unconfortable position - really sore bum now; (b) noisy Tibetans carrying on all around (although they quietened down a bit after lunch); (c) dodgy road in places... Fortunately there was only a few unsealed bits and these didn't have precarious drops on either side...

Speaking of the trip... there were some fanastic views as we climbed through the mountains. Some photos later. Need to explore Litang. There's heaps of Tibetans / lamas cruising around, places to explore.

Ohh, if there was any doubt, Western Sichuan is ***vastly*** different to Xinjiang or any of the other bits of China I've been do. Mountainous, active Buddist, etc.

I found a good internet cafe - windows xp. But my camera isn't being recognised.... so I can't transfer pictures.,, dang. anyhow. I'm off to Kanding tomorrow, following by Litang the day after.

Front of the Mogao Caves - inside - a very big buddha.

This was one of the views from the top part of the Horse ride when we were camping in the HEavenly mountains... We were staying just near the lake (1 km below)....

Jiaohe was an ancient city sandwiched between two rivers. They dug most of it out (instead of building ontop of the land). Near Turpan.

Flaming Mountains - northern side of Xinjiang.

This is the Emin Minaret + Mosque in Turpan - built 1777. Pretty nice building.

Ohh, I'm on a decent computer for a change. A few more photos to come (fingers crossed), but in no particular order.

So,

there was no photos last night because I couldn't upload - same problem on that computer. Couldn't sort it / get it sorted out. Anyhow. Also couldn't regenerate for the same reason (but was done automatically overnight).

Anyhow. So the cafe across the road has windows 98, so I can't access my flash drive or camera. So no photos yet again. When I next go, I'll go back to the previous internet cafe and hope for a better machine...

So this morning I went to the Panda research centre. saw a whole bunch of them, including a 1 month, 1 year, and 2 yr old. very cute. Also saw some red pandas.

Then back to the apartment. Walked into town - aiming for a particular bookstore for a Sichuan map. Got there eventually, but nothing appropriate. Chengdu has heaps of little places where you get a bit of food / snack on the run. I had a few skewers with some sort of meat on them. After the person cooks them in presumably very hot oil; you let them cool for a bit; then dip them in the spicy powder stuff. On one I had a bit, another just a tiny bit and the l last had none. Given that I'm in Sichuan (ie: hot food); the one with spice kept my mouth burning for a while.

For my second bit of Western food this trip; I had a Macas icecream cone - 2 Yuan; Thank goodness pig fat tastes the same everywhere :).

A bus trip to the other side of town and I checked out Wenshu temple (active), nice buildings, buddha statues.

Strangely, the fare going there was 1Yuan, going back south it was 2Y.

Anyhow. Someday I may get a few more pictures up here. I also need to sort out transport Westward. This arvy I'm sending out a whole bunch of postcards - look out mum and dad......... (if I knew the smily emoticon for 'sly grin' I'd do it....)

Am in Chengdu, Sichuan - ok, fairly tired - just slightly (2hrs) later than expected.

Things started of slightly dodge when in Kashgar, the chick behind the counter crossed out my flight number from Urumqi to Chengdu and put another flight. Fantastic. I also bucked the system at Urumqi, when I had taken off my sticker that apparently told the airline person that I was a transfer passenger (I'm such a rebel... har har). Anyhow, I was told to go to the arrivals area.... (I was worried then), but after a while someone found me and put me in the departure area.... silly westerners.

Anyhow, back to the flight - I think that my second leg was canned for some reason, and was put on the other flight. Anyhow. This meant that I saw most of my fellow group (10 people out of the 13 person group from Beijing to Kashgar) off from Urumqi. It was a *very* weird feeling - 'Crickey, that's it - I'm on my own' sort of thing.

Anyhow. The flights were boring. In keeping of the weird food from airlines - the snack on the Kashgar to Urumqi leg was ---- a roll (the annoyingly sweet fake fairy bread that they have in China) and a cucumber. Anyhow. Ohh, actually, there were some cool scences on the flight to Urumqi - craggy mountains poking through clouds. Urumqi was pretty cold - you could see your breath in the outside air.... Someone heard that apparently a cold front from Siberia had come in.

So Chengdu is: dark (it's night, durr). a bit smokey (probably smog, yuck). The area I'm in seems to have lots of students around. Probably a few schools in the area.

I'm booked to go and see the Pandas first thing tomorrow morning. Have booked 3 nights in the place I'm in. It's basic but fine. I'm going to have to start being more careful with money... ie: get more out from the bank (cheques)... more regularily. Hmmm.

This internet cafe is riduculously expensive (10 Yuan), but is modern computers. But - the settings on the computer mean - I can't reply to messages in Yahoo, or compose or check (ie: any of the buttons). I think it's the security settings. But movabletype works fine, and I can read yahoo messages. I'll find a better cafe tomorrow...... Mum, please pay the Telstra bill. That's fine.

Oh, a word from the wise. If you find yourself in China, Ctrl - Shift typically changes the data entry mode from English to Chinese. Anyhow. OK, so I've explored enough for the day (am tired...), so a bit more time here, so now for a few photos.

Well, we weren't effected by the earthquake at all. When it occured we were in a bus going to Kashgar - on a bumpy road...

Kashgar is pretty cool. We went to the livestock market in the morning which was heeps of cool fun. Cool watching all the sheep, goats, cows, horses, donkeys, etc, etc be tied up, examined, sold, test riden (horses).

The Sunday market after that was ok, but is probably more aimed at the locals - mostly food, stuff around the home, clothes, etc.

Then went to Id Kah mosque in the centre of town, built in 1442 apparently. It's a lot smaller than in the pictures I've seen. Smaller than the Emin Minaret (sp???) and mosque (well, the front is a lot smaller). Id Kah has a fair bit of shady / greeny areas in it.

Anyhow. This internet cafe doesn't have usb ports on their computers. dang. so no photos.

Plane to Sichuan - Chengdu tomorrow. It will be good to get my body clock in sync with the real time / daylight time. We've been working with Beijing time (mostly). Theoretically China is all one time zone; but Xinjiang is often 2hrs behind (but only for non official stuff).

I was a bit worried last night about the time zone issue - it was 11.30 pm and hadn't eated since midday or so -- and felt ill. Just ate some dinner slowly, and was ok this morning. I've almost used my 1 Yuan (15 cents or so) worth of internet, so I'll sign off here. Bye from Western China!

I really should get some souveniers or presents or something...... And send some postcards.

Hey, I've found an internet cafe with a working keyboard, and windows xp so my camera and flash drive will be recognised. And it's 2Yuan per hour - cheep!

Woo hoo.

This place has just cleared out - it's just gone dusk, and most people around here are fasting for Ramadan. Or feasting as of a couple of minutes ago.

I cruised through the Bazaar earlier this evening - it's pretty crazy - so much going on around you. So much stuff to check out.

Earlier today we were doing the touristy things around Hotan - checking out the Jade, Silk, and Carpet manufacturing / processing. Also went to a guy that makes Mulberry Paper - stronger and lasts long than paper from wood pulp apparently.

Anyhow. I have major issues with storage of my photos. Ie: no space at all. anyhow. Got to sort it out and then onto the nightmarket near the hotel.

Travelling tomorrow to Kashgar, then Kashgar Sunday market, then monday = fly to Chengdu.

Yup, the travelling (well really, the exploring) is cool fun. We've just had 2 1/2 days of travelling on a bus through the desert. It was kind of boring, but interesting and fun to drop into little towns on the way, and see the scenary change. It's kind of weird seeing sandy sand dunes with mountains in the background that have snow and glaciers on them.

The bus travel has meant I've been able to catch up on some sleep. The previous two nights were camping in a Yurt in the alpine forest on the north side of the desert (we're now on the south west side). I slept pretty poorly on both nights. The first night I ws too cold, second night I was too hot (and maybe had drunk too much earlier that night.... anyhow).

Today and tomorrow we're in Hotan - lots of Jade sellers on the street. It's a fairly strongly muslim area - 80% of women have some sort of head scarf - 5% you can't see anything but there eyes. Having said that, all of the head scarfs I've seen are trendy and fit into the clothing of the person wearing it (ie: there's a fair bit of fashion involved).

Dodgy keyboards seem to be a common factor in internet cafes over here.

So it's late - 10.44 pm Beijing, 8.44 pm local. Today we crossed the Taklamakan (sp?) desert. The second largest in the world. It got a bit boring. Repeatitive sand dunes do that to you.

The sunset was pretty cool - a new moon jus peaking over the colourfu horizon with just 1 star (probably a planet) in the sky.

Ohh, ths keyboard is crud. The enter, space, caps all have burn holes in them most of the other keys don't work first time you press them.

Anyhow.

Our driver was a cheeky bugger. Said that we would be getting in at 12 midnight (!!); but really was 9pm arrival time. Our 7 am start was delayed to 8am due to a short on the battery terminals or something....

Anyhow.

Past two days have been fairly long travel days - in the bus crossing territory. The previous couple of days were camping in a Yurt near what is called 'Heavenly Lake' - which is a picturesque lake in a mountain range. Alpine forests. Pictures tomorrow or later.

Horse ride up from the camp at 2000m to the top of a nearby (but not the highest) hill at 3000m resulted in fantastic views of the lake, snow cpaped mountains, pine trees glaciers, etc. Although the sun fairly close to the glaciers, so not the best phjotos.

The last 10 minutes of yesterdays bus trip (at 8pm) lasted 2hrs due to a 4wd getting squished between a semi-trailer and a 'sleeper bus' (bus with beds and seats in it). But no cops directing traffic flow, etc. The 2hr wait was helped by Kaula + Vodka. anyhow that last night.

Anyhow. Am tired. it's now 11 am. At least we have a decent start to tomorrow. breakfast at 8, leave at 8.30am.

The guy next to me )who is playing cunterstrike) is smoking and checking out what i'm doing.

Ohhh, I've sent exactly 1 postcard so far, a big batch will be sent from either Kashgar or Chengdu.

bye for now.

So there's pretty much zero I can do. We leave Dunhuang in 40 minutes at 4pm. I'm all packed, ready, etc. So there's not much to do - just 15 minutes to kill or so. Anyhow.

I had lunch with 2 other of the people in the tour group at a very local restraunt (when we walked in the volume in the place dropped a bit...). We had donkey. Eee-oor. It was pretty tasty - a strong taste like old beef that had been cooked for ages. And was quite rich, and stringy.

This morning (early) we were riding on camels across the sand dunes nearby, watching the sun rise over the dunes. Nice, but cold. Camels have got very dodgy teeth. It's a pretty smooth ride, just the getting up and down bit is a bit worrying - you feel as though you're almost going to go head first if you don't hold on.

The early morning start (5am) was a bit hard given that the previous night our group was out being raucous at a karaoke (yes, karaoke) place until 1 or 2 am or so.... Aussies drinking lots and being raucous. What a surprise.

I'm in Dunhuang at the moment. 1/2 hr by bus outside of town there is the Mogao Caves. These are bunch (700+) of caves that have Buddist paintings / muruals and statues in them. They were created between 300 AD and 1300 AD. ie: they were being worked on by people over 1000 years, over 10(?) Chinese dynasties. Pretty impessive.

Some of them were to praise various buddhas. Some where done by travellers about to embark on travel over the silk road (in particular the desert in western China), so that they would have good fortune.

We went in about 10 or so of them. At any one time there's only a limited number open. No bags, cameras, etc allowed inside, so no pretty pictures.

There were some pretty big buddhas - standing at the base of a 35+(?) metre buddha with all of the walls, ceiling, background painted / with statues that were made 1500 years ago is pretty awesome. Very interesting art.

The night before last (in Jiayuguan) was pretty interesting - enroute to the night markets I ended up talking to a mother and (school aged) son (both wanted to practice their English). I had skewers and beer with 2 local engineers at the market themselves. All 4 were very friendly and open people. Was prety cool. Last night was at the Dunhuang night market. Similar deal of skewers with mutton, along with noodles, and a breadish thing, and potato skewers. Very yum.

Boo magoo.

Hey. I'd be having a better time if I didn't have this cold..... had it for a few days now. dang nabbit. at least we're out of the pollution zone now (beijing xian). there's just other people's smoking to worry about. great.

anyhow, we're in jaiyuguan at the moment, which has a nearby fort which is at the western end of the great wall. it's pretty cool, methinks. we're in whats called the hexi ("hershi") corridor: tibetan plateau to the south, gobi desert to the north. the corridor used to be very important strategically as it was the gateway between east and west. this fortress has got to be one of the most impressive places I've ever been too. it was hardto get a good shot of the snow capped mountains that are very high up in teh background. the downside to it was the tacky lighting that has been put on the walls of the fortress.

Out the front of heaps of building in China there's two lions either side of an entrance way. This is a male lion (he's playing with a ball, females have a cub under their paw), which is in the Lama Temple in Beijing. Quite a few 100 years old.

I liked the cast for some reason.

The forbidden city, taken from the top of JingShang park (Jing Mountain park), which is an artificial hill created from the excavation of the moat of the forbidden city. It's just north of the forbidden city.

Hey, I've just reallised I can listen to my music...

Another email for you, yes, I'm a bludger. I'm taking it easy this afternoon after riding around (on a dodgy bike that I couldn't raise the seat of the so my efficiency in pedalling was not as high as I would have liked....) Xi'an city wall this morning, and not feeling 100%. Which is a bit of a bummer. It's just my throat / sinus neck of the wood that is a bit on the iffy side.

Anyhow.

====================================================

China has been great so far. The first 1/2 week or so in Beijing were great. It's an amazingly big / oversized place. Heaps of big buildings, very wide roads that you can't cross on foot (there's heaps of underpasses everywhere). It took ages to go anywhere by foot. Anyhow, our day trip to the great wall was 'great' (funny that) - it's very impressive when you're walking on top of it. See attached - peace!! Tiannanem square and the forbidden city (where the emporers used to live when Beijing was the capital) were interesting and, of course, big as well.

Ohh yes, before I forget, my room mate is non existant... there's 12 people in the group - 5 couples and me and one other woman from Canada. So, no crazy partners for me...

At the moment I'm in Xi'an, a city south west of Beijing. It's the site of the Terracotta Warriors that you might have seen pictures of. It's an amazing site - 8000 or so ornate life sized teracotta models of warriors - foot soldiers, archers, cavalry, etc. They were burried as part of the first emporer of China (Qin) journey into the afterlife.

Xi'an used to be the end of the Silk road (at the eastern end). So in Xi'an there's a strong muslim community, and also buddist communities as well. There were some weird but yummy smells (and some foods I had no idea what they were) as I was cruising through the Muslim quarter yesterday. Xi'an used to be the capital in the Tang dynasty (600 - 900 AD or so - and was one of the high points of Chinese civilisation). We went to a show of Tang dynasty dancing and music last night which was really good.

Since ariving in Xi'an (morning of day before yesterday) I've got a funny feeling of almost getting a cold / sick. Hopefully it is just the polution in the air. Xi'an seems to have more people smoking than Beijing; but maybe thats just the places I went to. But it's good because it means that I can take it easy and catch up on my emails!

This afternoon we're going to head west - start of the silk road proper. And starting to get into the desert / more strongly muslim areas. Camel riding and kebabs await!

Anyhow, stay cool,

Kevin

A bit of the great wall of china. It's not actually one wall, just different sections here and there.

I went up to the watchtower that is the one below the one on the crest of hill (up a very long flight of steep stairs)

Hey, this actually works. But uploading a file is painfully slow.

Anyhow, I forgot to send a quite important email yesterday (my accomation in Chengdu - immediately after I finish the tour). Anhow, that's sent now.

I've spent this morning cruising around the Muslim quarter of town - really interesting, and the Xi'an great mosque. Xi'an is the start (or end) of the Silk route, and so has muslim influences.

Last night was kind of hilarious, kind of disturbing. We were eating at an all you could eat place - which had heap and heaps of variety in food. I'd need another 5 or so visits there just to get a sample of everything. On the weird side was the sushi, which was being made in front of you and placed on a rotating circular table thing. but - in the middle of the table was a gold fish in a bowl (alive). This is either funny, disturbing, cruel or just plain wierd. Anyhow.

I'll try and put a couple more photos now that i know it actually works (this is from a different internet cafe to last night).

no upload from this computer ???? so no fotos for u

In case you can't pick out the change in style of writing from the usual schlock on this site, below is a copy and paste from an email.

Anyhow, we got to Xi'an this morning (overnight train). Xi'an was the capital city of China for quite a few 100 years (not sure how long exactly, but it was for ages).

Previous two days in Beijing doing touristy things. Yes, it is a massive place. Went to great Wall (or a part thereof). I didn't realise that it wasn't one wall - there's bits and pieces of it everywhere. anyhow. had a couple of hours walking on it - spectacular engineering construction and scenary.

Also went to Tiananmen SQuare, and Forbidden City. Forbidden city is massive, as everyone says it is. There's the outer court and the inner court. Outer part = bigger courtyards / open spaces (what's the word?). inner court = the residencies for the emporer and his concubines and hangers on, etc. Apparently one of the emporers once had 3000 concubines. Nice work being an emporer if you can get it... :)

In the inner court we went to where a famous concubine, who I can't remember the name of, but known as 'Dragon Lady' killed off the emporer and had the next two emporers under her control or something like that. Crazy stuyff. Also, Apparently there's a Starbucks in the inner court somehwhere. This is a big yuckky i think.

OK, back to today.
Outside of Xi'an are the burried terracota warriors which were really impressive. Thousands of clay statues, all were ornate. They were buried as part of the first emporer of China's burial + journey into the afterlife. This was 220 BC... This first emporer (Qing - pronouced Ching) was the first guy to unite cChina - before that fo several hundred / thousand years, China was a bunch of states that were continually fighting each other. Qing was a pretty cool guy as he joined them all together, albiet by conquering the other states and killing quite a few people.

Anyhow. enought of a history lesson.

No, I haven't dried dog, cat, or rat. We had Peking duck on Monday night, which was nice. (It's a special way of cooking the duck). On that menu there was 'Fur Seal Penis' no joke. I stayed away from that. There were also snakes in jars near the counter.... hmmm That restraunt, and all those around it, had dwarfs (yes, reall short people) out the front encouraging people to come in. What will they think of next.

So I've now copied my files from my camera to this computer, and can view those images on the harddrive. And...

This computer has a weird O/S... somewhere between Windows and on of the *nixs that I used at uni but can't remember the name of....

And, I've now got a folder view of my flash drive!!! woo hoo. (this took several minutes to accomplish - there's no windows explorer / start bar, etc/...)

It's weird how the small things are accomplishments when you're out of your usual surrounds.

Anyhow. I lost a big long post because I put the computer into some wierd data entry mode. Such things happen on computers that are set up to input Chinese characters on a standard QWERTY keyboard.

Anyhow. There's a chick nearby who started smoking a little bit ago, and is still going and is annoying me. So I won't write much more, just (fingers crossed) a couple of fotos.

this works!

i`VE JUST LOST ALL OF MY TEXT AND CAN'T TURN OFF CAPS LOCK。 DANG。 （ＯＴＨＥＲＷＩＳＥ　Ｉ　ＣＮＡ'Ｔ　ＴＹＰＥ　ＥＮＧＬＳＩＨ）。　　i　ＨＡＤ　ＡＢＯＵＴ　１／４ＨＲ　ＮＯＴＥＳ　ＷＲＩＴＴＥＮ　ＵＰ　ＡＮＤ　ＬＯＳＴ　ＩＴ。　　　　ＹＯＵ　ＭＩＧＨＴ　ＧＥＴ　ＭＯＲＥ　ＳＯＯＮ。

In the internet cafe again. I've got a slight problem - this is the second computer that has windows 98 on it... And it doesn't recognise either my camera or my flash drive.... So I may have a storage issue, unless I can find a different / better internet conection.. But this may be a problem - there doesn't seem to be too many of them around that I can find easily. Otherwise. No photos for a future spam or two; or this website.

OK some random stuff about the past 2 days: No order - just as things come...

* crossing the big roads in Beijing is on the hazordous side of things... A honk / bell means that someone is coming through, regardless of the colour of the light. I always wait 5 / 10 seconds after getting a green walk light to cross - lots of people pushing the green light..
* The view from Jingshan park (just nrth of the forbidden city) is very good. Went up there yesterday - which was the moon festival or somehting. There were heaps of groupps singing. Just random people I think, as just random people were joining in. So they were folk tunes, I suppose.
* Beijing is big - big buildings; big distances; big roads, etc, etc.
* Exploring a hutong / backstreet or two is pretty good fun.
* The Buddist lama temple (went there this morning) is pretty cool - old, ornate stuff. unfortunately, could not take photos from withing the temples - just outside.
* beijing subway is pretty fast / effecient. Good valuefor Y3.
* Getting a sim card for my phone was a bit of a challenge.
* I haven't been to the hotel restraunt - just to local stuff. There's a small place just over the corner
* Getting stared is a bit weird. I am somewhere between weird / strange / curious to some people.
* Lunch at the equivalent of maccas for chinese was a bit bland today. Although there are Maccas and KFC stores. Although the Maccas are very small - just icecreams and deserts. Weir.d
* bottled water is Y5 for 1.5Litre. It tastes a bit wierd. I think that I prefer "Canberra juice" (!)
* It's cool watching old guys do their caligaraphy on the stones in the parks.
* At a park earlier today it was cool to see heaps of old people and grannys / grandpas do their excersises and taichi... (you would have fit in j&s!)
* I've had t use wo zai nar (where am I?) already....
* Beijing seems to be a city of contrasts - big modern buildings with run down old (very old) hutongs right next door.

I want to get some fruit, and see what a maccas icecream tastes like

I need some more cash.-- need to visit a bank. The hotel will give me Y807 for USD100. I can probably do a bit better.

the guy over there's ciagerette smoke is anoying me. (Although in the trip this hasn't been too much of a problem for me so far).

ok,
bye.

I'm safe in China.

The plane from KL to Beijing was pretty uneventful. Was at the back of the plane so farely noisy. Able to get a bit of sleep anyhow.

Got picked up from the airport - arranged beforehand. Figured it was extra $5 but almost certainly worth it, I think. The guy grew up in Chengdu. His dad was from Urumqi originally. He thought it was funny that I didn't have a 'lady'. I asked about a bit of fruit that he had. Found it in the dictionary, but didn't know what the English meant. (!). Anyhow.

My initial impression of Beijing is big. Lots of the building around where I am staying a big. Very wide roads. Special bike lanes on the side of the roads which is good... It's also pretty flat. No hills anywhere.

Anyhow.

I'm getting hungry, and it's starting to get dark. So head off soon. Probably early to bed. Tomorrow I plan to hire a bike, and cruise around town. Too big to walk around.

am in kulua lumpar internat airport at a prety dodgy free internet kiosk thing. slept on the flight here - good. was one of the last to b oard the flight - was talking for too long at brissy.

anyhow. all ok. flight to beijing leave in 1 1/2 hrs.

in case you care:) -
tandas = toilet
keluar = exit in malaysian.

it's pretty hjumid; smoky outsid.

the keboard is dodge and can't type properly. yahoo mail is taking ages to load up.... longer than writing this. anyhow.

bye.

yahoo still hasn't loaded yet. ....

One sleep to go before I jet off on my adventure to China.

It's amazing how fast time has flown by to this point.

Everything seems to be in readyness. I was all packed last Saturday, stuff, documents ready, etc. Most of this week I've been working on my QUT assignment which I sent in today. It's slightly annoying because I didn't answer the last part of the last question (too busy with other stuff), but this should only be a few marks off my total - shouldn't hurt me too badly.

The two past nights of not much sleep (staying up to 1 / 2 am to work on assignment), plus the stress of the trip, plus dodgy bugs floating around, have mean that I've coughed and snifled a bit today. Hopefully that will be the worst of it.

I'm surprised at how nervous I've become - only very recently. It's hit me in the past hour or 2 when driving home from coffee. I suppose I haven't had the time to be nervous / think about it all. Now I have little to do before I leave - just waiting. It's just the worry of whether I will cope in a strange land / environment all not, and whether I will be ok.

You don't know if you don't give it a try.

Anyhow, my neice is the cutest girl in the world, in case I haven't told you already. She was extremely cute earlier tonight. :)

Well, that's it (not that it's been much). So I suppose the next post on here will be from Beijing...