After 10 hours flight we landed at Beijing the next morning at 10 am.
Click here for photos of this trip.
Spent the custom area very quickly.
We were 41 people. After the custom area we went to get our luggage ..... a
suitase was lost.
People we lost her luggage had to declare it and that
take some time ... nobody in the airport speaking French just Chinese or
English .....
12am at least we were out the airport and met our guides for Beijing a
nationale one(Hon-Wei) and a local Amy, two nice youngs ladies speaking
french language fluently.
No time to go to the hôtel first. We went to a restaurant where we had a
delicious meal.
Imagine, for 41 people : 4 round tables with a great round
plate in the center (which we can turn it) in which where settled several
dishes, vegetables, chicken, pork, beef, spicy sauce, soup in the middle
and rice of course.
Every guest had a small plate (same plate under a tea
cup) 1 bowl for rice, a bowl for soup, a glass and chopsticks instead of
fork, needless to tell you that the firsts day it was possible to read the
menu on our clothes.
After lunch we went to "Sky temple" we enjoyed buildings, roofs and garden
absolutely wonderful, the weather was fine.
About 5pm we went to the hotel, a modern one. Just time to have a shower
and change our clothes, already we had to go to restaurant because Beijing
streets are very crowded, everywhere bicycles, motos, trucks, cars in a big
mess.
(François said he prefers to drive in Paris)
One hour later we were at Ouigour restaurant a special one where we saw
girls dancing "Belly-dances" men enjoyed this soiree.
Some guests in this restaurant smoked narguilé.
(Narguilé is a long curved pipe with a water reservoir through which
smoke, generally opium, is cooled ......)
10pm at least we came back to our room and had a good sleep. But a short
one because the life of a tourist is a hard one !!!!!!!
Next morning got up at half past six.
The next day........
When you drive in Beijing with its large streets and high ways you could
think you are somewhere either in L.A. or Perth for example,
except all the bicycles because if there is only 1% of Chinese who have a car, imagine
how many cars are in the streets ......
There are many new very comfortable buses for tourists but, we crossed a
lot of some old ones.
Imagine jostling buses, with berths in which slumberous people were looking through dusty glasses and making a long trip
throughout China, sometimes more than 2,000 kilometers.
Our guide said to us ....that doesn't smell rose in them !!
And bicycles with 3 or 4 people or a heavy burden, but there are special
ways for bicycles, but to cross a road.
May I say : every one for himself and God for all .....
We stayed 4 days in Beijing, we visited the Forbidden City, we spent a whole
afternoon to visit buildings and gardens.
Your imagination runs, runs and you think of numerous emperors that lived in it and all people around
them.
It's wonderful even if several buildings are empty of pieces of
furniture.
We walked in the steps of the last empress Tseu Hi in her
"Summer Garden" and made a little cruise on a lake
where she loved to come and
where nowadays many Chineses sail and row, as every citizen in the world
for the week end.
We admired the famous marble boat in which she gave sumptuous
feasts.
We were lucky to go to Chinese Opera and see marvellous actors and
actresses.
We could follow the plot on side screens on which the story was
translated into English.
We could admire wonderful sommersaults.
From Beijing we went and climbed up and down more than 1890 steps at "The
great
Wall"
All around mountains seemed lost in blue mist and gave us a feeling
of a romantic scenery.
We walked though a shadowed park, lined with willow trees and statues of
soldiers or animals such as horses, elephants or dromedaries and where are
settled the Tombs of twelwe Ming emperors.
We also visited an interesting manufacture of cloisonnés. (enamel works)
Chinese people are good sellers .... and we bought, bought ...
How not to be tempted by such beautiful things ?
Our discoveries took us to "Place Tien an Men" nowadays on this enormous
place we only saw many people playing kites, it's the favorite game of
Chinese and in the sky there were many of different shapes, butterflies ,
birds, dragons and so on.
And on the last day in Beijing we tasted the famous lacquered duck cooked
in a Chinese
way.hummmmmm, yummy.
We admired the cooks behind great fireplace and where
ducks
hanging and grilling above the fires.
Next morning, a visit to a monks temple and already we had to leave
Beijing for new discoveries 2500 kilometers southwest so we went
to the airport and at 2pm we took off.
2 hours later we landed at XI-AN .......
--
Now we landed in XI-AN in southwest.
XI in chinese means West, and AN means : Paix
XI-AN was the first Chinese Capital under Han dynasty, and the reign of the
Emperor Qin Shi Huanghi, who began the construction of the the great wall
and was buried with a full baked-earth army.
So, we are at the airport and a new local guide is waiting for us. We go to
the
bus which takes us to Xi-An, one hour drive by High ways..
We step up in the car which must drive us to the town.
The highway being
closed we went by narrow roads and discovered another China, the peasants'one.
The SHAANZI country is an agricultural one, many corn and wheat fields,
orchards in which apples and peaches are growing. perhaps one more authentic but
poorer too.
All along village streets we crossed many people outdoors, some of them
before small shops waiting for customers, others walking along or squatting and looking around,
a lot of bicycles with heavy burdens on under a low sky
polluted by several manufacturies, dust of coal and loess. They still use
loess which give a red colour to the soil to build their houses.
Even some people live in caves which erosion dug in the hills.
Our bus driver has forgotten to change the schock-absorbers and also repair the gear-box, roads
are full of bumps and pot-holes and we suffered a lot.
We show our discontent to the driver about this discomfort, and next
morning we had a new bus, happily because our backs were sore.
Our first night in Xi-An was on the 8th of the month and this day there was
a feast in the town
and we saw great fireworks.
We stayed just two nights and 1 day in XI-AN, we visited ramparts and some
interesting towers full of precious treasures of the past, such as a forest
of stones on which are engraved Confusius's thoughts.
But chiefly we wanted to see this famous discovery "The Baked-Earth Army" It's not
possible to describe our feelings before it, that let us voiceless.
We bought a book which explains the story of this special army. We were
lucky to met one of the discoverers. I asked him to take a picture,
he took
my camera and gave it to my husband, took my hand and wanted to have the
picture with me.
Imagine this peasant boring a well to water his fields and
discovering the first part of more than 6,000 warriors and horses which
were the
keepers of the Emperor Qin Shi Huangi .
An army dating more than 2,000
years,
and now taken out of its sleep because of this unexpected discovery.
It was in 1974, his village was very poor and so was the country around,
nowadays it's a part of China where
thousands of visitors are coming in. All soldiers bear no weapons though
their gestures cleary show that they had bows or lances.
The explanation was that after the Emperor's burial, peasants revolted, invaded the trenches where
stood the warriors, snatched their weapons for their own use and burned the
caves.
As culinary speciality we tasted "Raviolis" steam-cooked and stuffed with
vegetables or meat, in the center of the table "The Mongol pan" put on a
small portable stove in which vegetable soup was boiling.
The soiree took end after we saw "Tang dances".
In front romantic decors, beautiful young girls danced with long wawing ribbons, sang or played
strange music on ancient instruments which gave nice sounds.
Got up very early as usual the next morning, visited a Pagoda (Wild geese
Pagoda) where a monk made a demonstration of a martial-art called the
"Ushu"
In the park some people were practising "Ty-she" In every place whatever,
early in the morning we could see people young and old doing it or dancing modern dances.
And such as migratory birds, a plane took us 3,000 kilometers farthest south to HANG-ZOU .....
Coming from the airport, 72 kilometers away from the town, we see pink and
ochre naked hills.
The silk road ran through them in the past In fact Hangzhou was some decades ago a great center of what was and is
still the most prestigious silk road in the world.
We could imagine Marco Polo's shadow..
Hangzhou is a little jewel where numerous people from Shanghai come and
spend their week-ends, because here is the superb lake Xihul (West lake)
Chinese people have put all their know how to make of this place a little
paradise.
The lake owes its name to a beautiful girl of the west, a statue
of whom can be seen on a park at the entrance to the lake.
In fact there are three lakes, each one on top of the others. Only one is open to cruises
and is 15 kilometers around.
We visited the "Six Harmonies Pagoda" located in the south of the town near
the river Qiangtang Jang.
This Pagoda is 60 meter high, and has 13 levels. It was built of wood and brick circa 970.
It was also used as a light house in the past.
What delighted us was the greenery and freshness
of landscapes around us in this part of southern China : first of all an
agricultural country, rice fields, tea plantations, the inhabitants are
slightly different, smaller and more tawnish.
In the morning we went to a traditional chinese chimist's. On our way back,
walking along a pedestrian avenue, we laughed a bit at seeing the local
fire machine ..... (photo)
But we enjoyed us a lot our cruise on the lake. I noted some names of the
landscapes around which are so.... romantic.
Rain of the osmanthus flowers, spring of the running tiger, the three pools
mirror of the moon, Song of the red-brest in the willow trees.
A lot of little islands, artificial or natural hills on which we can see
pagodas and pavilions, small zigzag bridges, lotus basins and Chinese
gardens.
A visit to the biggest buddhistic temple in southern China in which
interesting Statues (338 of them) representing the Boudha are standing and
ex-votos.
We even saw a Boudha whose hair was blue. Question, why blue ?
was it a representation of the colour of the sky ? were blue hair in vogue
in those days ? or more simply was it the result of birds'droppings ?
(Chinese joke)
It is built at the feet of "The pick that came in flying"
After lunch we were welcome in a tea installation.
In hall was an old man rubbing and twisting tea leaves by hand against an upturned drum,
120° C hot and that 3 times eight hours running.
The operation is necessary to make leaves more supple.
After that we went to a sitting room, sat at a
long table and were given a demonstration of how to prepare, serve and
taste tea by a 20 year old nice girl with a very soft voice and charming
smile.
The village in which this facility was built is just 300 ha., 30 of which
are devoted to tea growing and manufacturing.
So was spent our day in Hangzhou, after which we had a 2 hour drive to
Suzhou another little town on the silk road. which is even more of a
paradise than Hangzhou.
In this place we had a very interesting local guide, an ancien university
teacher and we had long exposés about the education in China.
If we are not very happy in our country where there are more than 30 or 32 pupils in a
class room, so imagine in China sometimes more than 70 pupils in them.
New
politics want a good education but even if the Chinese can only have one
child (a second one five years after if the first child is a girl) they
have to build new schools because old ones need restauration.
They are too small and sometimes in the cold part of China there's no heating in them.
The best pupils after elementary and high schools can go to university.
But they have to go through a very hard examination.
Those who have to
pass give it the name of "The 3 black days" It means that selection is
ferocious. Only the best are chosen.
For the others they have to learn a
manual craft. Plombers, carpenters are also necessary, so the Chinese say.
We had female guides and all have one child, a girl. But we have the
feeling that it is a ticklish subject for them because they always talked
about it, we got this impression that even though they enjoy new days of
freedom they miss something, being women and mothers after all.
I'll pass quickly on Suzhou a nice little town, which runs through canals,
a little like in Venice or Amsterdam, it's why Suzhou is also called
"Venice of
China".
We visited chiefly privative Chinese gardens.
One, "The Master of nets" had bonzaîs, and a quince-tree older than 400
y.o and on which fruit is still growing.
Chinese gardens aren't big but in every one we visited : there were pools
with golden fishes, small bridges, lotus, stones and trees in a perfect harmony
between architecture, landscape and some poetry emanated from these places.
You come into these private gardens through a door they call "Moon gate"
because it's a perfect round from which you can see the garden as if it
were a
picture.
When you come in through the front door, you have to step up
because there is
always a cross-beam put on the floor to keep ghosts out.
We learned a lot about silk-worms and how to work their cocoons when we
visited a silk manufactury.
Our men enjoyed a fashion-show in the shop
while women played with credit cards
in doing their shopping.
Shanghaï is an enormous town more than 17 millions. inhabitants,
skyscrapers make
your necks stiff and streets are crowded,
but they have kept some greener
parts, pedestrian streets as Nankin street and "The bund" along the sea
board are nice places for a stroll.
Our hotel was located in the old Shanghaï and from our room on the 22
floor we had a sight over the illuminated town.
And, next morning we
had our breackfast on the 27 floor.
This floor rotated 180° and we had
a wonderful point of view over the town, the harbour and the T.V. tower
more than 400 meters
high. .
We went to the Shanghaï circus, a true pleasure for the eyes.
From Shanghaï we had a flight to Guilin where we stayed 2 days.
We arrived at Guilin at noon.
On our program, a 4 hour cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo 83 kilometers farther on the river Li was programmed,
with lunch abroad. We would have had enough time to admire the landscapes.
It happens sometimes, but for us it was the first hitch in an otherwise
faultless
programm.
The local guide had simply forgotten to reserve the boat for us.
From then on an unpleasant contretemps started.
Instead of a lunch on the boat .... a lunch at the airport
and a quick drive to pick the boat at Yangshuo.
The man drove quickly and carelessly but we arrived safe at the wharf.
The last boat had infortunately just left....
Happily we had our national guide Marie and our gentle organizer.
After
long discussions, they succeeded to get a boat and we got a 2 hour cruise on the
river, it was 4 pm, already fishers were coming back and we were lucky to meet some of them
with their cormorants.
It's an astonishing performance to see these birds diving and bringing
back
fishes in their crops.
Along the rivers banks we could see buffalos lazzily lying in the river bed
or diving to browses herbs in the bottom of the river.
Men and women busy to fish, children playing in the river, others going and
bringing water back home or to their fields by mean of two heavy buckets
attached at both ends of a stick balanced on their shoulders.
Bamboos' shadows were reflecting in the green of the river here.White
cliffs were sloping down to the river which took iridiscent colours.
In the distance we could see high mountains which seemed almost unreal, wrapped in mist which tainted them in blue .
Our cruise lasted finally more than 2 hours and already the sun was setting
when we returned to the wharf.
We stepped down to the pier and quickly returned to the car.......
Walking through many a street to come back to the car we crossed some shops
and restaurants.
One of a restaurant's owner was a little provoking.
He didn't write his menus in chinese
but showed them in English on a electric-sign : Chicken, rabbit, pork, dog,
mouse meat..........
Rather disgusting, wasn't it !
The next morning we visited Guilin Caves.
I'm sure, like me you must have visited caves in some parts of the world, but these ones although they have
nothing special particularly ;
and are no bigger than other caves are made positively enthralling the
Chinese having had
the marvellous idea to illuminate them in different colours.
On the afternoon we took a plane to Hong-Kong where we arrived at night.
If we had enjoyed fine weather throughout all our trip in Hong Kong it was
raining cats and dogs.
Next morning we had some fair periods and we visited the town. Scyscrapers
everywhere, narrow streets.
We had our lunch on a floating boat, a visit to "Repulse bay" where a high
statue of a sea divinity is standing,
we stepped up in a cable-car which
took us to the top of a hillock to have a look over the town.
But alas, we were in the clouds which overspreaded and hid the view.
A last dinner together at this panoramic restaurant ..... and time to go to the airport.
So our China trip was over.
Next morning we were in Paris.
