China part 4 (K)

Oh I am so behind with my updates - but trying to keep them in sequence. So will try to keep them brief.


From Chengdu we caught a brand new train to Chongqing that reached speeds of over 200km/h and had so much leg room, even Yao Ming* could have sat comfortably in them. Chongqing is a real go-ahead city, with a brand new jade green opera house and skyscrapers everywhere. It's hillier than most big Chinese cities and we got thoroughly lost taking the bus. There are a few old wooden houses clinging to the hillsides, which are very picturesque, and the style has been copied for a new building we visited, which managed to combine: shops, a hotel, a food market street, a waterfall, a pirate ship (no really) and a Starbucks all spread out over 11 floors from the riverside to the top of the hill! The food street was the best as we managed to top up on our favourite snacks of candied ginger and spiced peanuts.

We also went out for a day to see some buddhist carvings at Dazu. Very impressive and a totally different setting from those at Datong (if you've been following the blogs!) as they are on a cliffside that snakes around and utilise natural features such as springs coming out through dragons' mouths.

Next stop Guiyang - arriving at 6am, we woke our hotel staff to find we were only 6 hours too early to check-in, so spent a morning exploring the city - highlights included mass public dancing on the steps of the cultural centre, inside which was an excellent exhibition on the local ethnic minorities. In front of the centre is a pleasant park with some strange glass pyramids, a la the Louvre. Underneath was not a gallery but a large Walmart and a KFC, which turned out to be the only place we could find at that time to sit down inside and get a hot drink. Unfortunately we were unable to sort out our planned trips out to the countryside and the noise and pollution of Chinese cities just caught up on us. so we escaped to Yangshuo, legendary backpacker hangout set amidst beautiful scenery that I had a great time in on my last visit. In the intervening 7 years, it's moved on a bit, and the number of tourists has expanded greatly, especially Chinese, and the activities have got more organised and packaged. So it wasn't quite the chill-out zone of my rose-tinted memory, but we had fun learning more chinese recipes, came 2nd in the weekly pub quiz, got poled down a river on a bamboo raft, did some Xmas shopping, and had the best orange daiquiris of all time! so not a bad way to relax. I even got Adrienne on a tandem for the first time, and probably the last...

One comfy bus ride later we got to Nanning - another big city, but our luck was in. The station staff were helpful and friendly, we bought a sleeper to Hanoi leaving that evening, and the train staff moved the other people in our compartment elsewhere, so we had it to ourselves. A nice reminder that travelling in china isn't such a slog.

* - very tall famous chinese basketball player