Shanghai to Xian

China route 2009
Well here we are, headed to China for around 30 days.

Actually, we were headed to South Korea because Leigh had a conference there. She is on an OECD global working party on Measuring the Progress of Societies, and was facilitating a workshop at the conference.

But we have had China on our “do to” list for ages so it seemed like a good idea to tie them together.

Getting organised for China was a bit of a mission as we had planned to do it independently, rather than through a travel agent.

Marg in Shanghai
However, after several unsuccessful attempts to book transport within China online, we sought the help of a Chinese travel agency, China Highlights.

Michael Hu from that company was very helpful, and he eventually booked all of our internal transport.

We organised all of our own accommodation, food and sightseeing, and we were to be on our own once we arrived.

We decided our route and booked our flights from Wellington to Shanghai, then organised our visa.

Lucky for us, the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand is in Wellington, just up the road. No problem there.
Crowded Shanghai, viewed from our hotel window

Before long, we had landed in Shanghai, the biggest city in China with a population of around 13.7 million (2009).  It was hot busy and bustling, but oh so exciting.

The city has an eclectic mix of architecture ranging from the traditional Chinese to colonial to modern skyscrapers. We particularly loved the old traditional centre.

Unfortunately for us, they were in the process of renovating the famous Bund waterfront which made for very dusty and somewhat limited sightseeing in that area.

But we were undeterred. We walked and walked, did a wee riverboat trip and ate heaps. All good fun.
Leigh-the Stone Forest UNESCO site

Our next stop was Kunming. Arriving in Kunming was a huge shock. We found it to be a big, busy, grey and dirty city, and nothing at all like Shanghai.

Our accommodation was pretty dire but the most interesting thing was breakfast. We had to go downstairs, across a courtyard into another building.

At the entry we were given a bowl of stock (we think chicken) then stood in a queue to put whatever noodles and vegetables into our stock that we wished. So chicken soup with veges for breaky - yumm!

Marg on steps of temple in Dali
The next day we did a day trip to the Stone Forest, an interesting UNESCO World Heritage site around 90 km from Kunming. The “forest” is actually acres of huge pieces of stone, shooting up out of the ground making it look like a petrified forest.

A couple of days later, we headed off for our next stop, Dali.

Arriving in the ancient city of Dali was exciting. Dali dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1382AD) and is one of China’s historic cultural cities. Its population is mostly made up of Bai people.

The old city of Dali was where we were headed, and it didn't disappoint, with its beautiful temples, ancient buildings and colourful shops.
Leigh with the fishing cormorants

While in Dali, we visited the nearby Lake Erhai to see the fishing villages there. We were delighted to get out on the water in a fishing boat with one of the local fishermen.

They use cormorants to catch their fish. Not a humane practice we think, as each cormorant has a ring around the neck so fish cannot be swallowed.

But it’s certainly effective from a local point of view, as the fish are big and plentiful, and shared between the cormorants and the fishing families.

Leaving Dali, we headed for the equally enchanting town of Lijiang. Its old town is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, and home to the Naxi people.
Leigh and the Tea Boutique Hotel

We stayed in the most beautiful accommodation in the old town. It was actually an ancient family home with rooms used as guest rooms.

The bound wooden structure and ancient rafters creaked musically, while the cobblestones in the courtyard click-clacked with each chicken crossing.

Unfortunately, Leigh ate a hot-chilli dish of Sichuan prawns one night, and added to the musicality of the place for the next 24 hours.

We learned that you should never choose prawns in a landlocked area!

Locals in the Lijiang old town centre
While in Lijiang, we wandered around enjoying the wee narrow cobbled laneways and busy streets, many with a pretty waterway running through.

Each street seemed to lead to the centre of town, where you could always find the locals doing their thing.

We visited many places while in Lijiang including temples, ancient gates and other historic and interesting structures. We particularly liked the beautiful and serene, Black Dragon Pool.

We also visited the extremely high, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. This is part of a small mountain range just outside of Lijiang.
Black Dragon Pool

Its highest peak is 5,596 m above sea level, and it holds the southernmost glacier in the Northern Hemisphere.

When you look up at the glacier from Lijiang old town, it looks like a huge greenish lizard, or dragon laying in the clouds - hence the name Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. 

We arrived at the foot of the mountain and found a cable car that would take us up the mountain to 4,506 m.

That’s not quite to the top, but we heard that there was a walkway that would allow us to climb to 4,680 m with the absolute peak being inaccessible.

We figured that would work and jumped on without another thought.
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

It took about 40 minutes to get up there and the scenery viewed from the cable car was stunning.

Finally arriving at the 4,506 m mark, we excitedly exited the enclosed cable car only to feel like we had walked into a brick wall.

Then we quickly realized why all the stalls at the bottom of the cable car were selling tins of stuff. It was canisters of oxygen. 

Luckily they sold them at the top so we quickly bought one and after a few deep breaths, were ok to go further.

Leaving beautiful Lijiang, we flew to Chengdu. It is a very large city but we were there specifically to visit the giant panda sanctuary and breeding centre.
Cute and playful giant panda

This UNESCO sanctuary was set up to help bring giant panda’s back from the brink of extinction. They had pandas of all ages there including new born.

Boy those little bears are cute. They are so playful when they are young, and we spent ages there watching their antics.

From Chengdu, we visited Mt. Emei, the highest of the four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China, and another UNESCO World Heritage site.

Apparently, in the 1st century A.D, the first Buddhist temple in China was built on this mountain.

Over time, various monuments were built or carved into the mountain and one of these is a giant Buddha.
Giant Buddha on Mt Emei

It was carved in the 8th century and is the largest Buddha in the world at 71 m high.

We caught a local ferry onto the lake and were taken right underneath this enormous statue.

Then we were dropped off at the foot of the statue to climb the stairs to the top. 

A long climb but worth it. Some of the trees up there are more than 1,000 years old and the views were wonderful.

Our next stop was Xian to see the famous terracotta warriors. 

This is a an army of sculptures buried with the Emperor of China in 210 BC.

The sight of these carved warriors - thousands of them - was amazing. We could not see any two the same.

There were also horses, chariots and other war related articles from the time. It was like...wow! 
Terracotta Warriors

We liked Xian and visited its famous bell tower and many temples before moving on.

Then we headed to Chongqing where we were to pick up a 3 night cruise along the Yangtze River, the 3rd longest river in the world.

While we were in China the government was flooding the original Yangtze River valley to build the Three Gorges Dam.

We heard stories from men on the boat, about families who had lived alongside the river for many generations, only to lose their homes during the flooding process.
On the Yangtze River

It was fascinating but sad.

We stopped at the new Three Gorges Dam to see how the project had been developed. It was an enormous undertaking and you have to admire the engineering aspects. But we also felt for the families.

At the end of our cruise, we disembarked in Yichang and the next morning, grabbed a flight to Shanghai, ready for the next stage of our trip which is to Korea.

Overall, we loved this trip, particularly the people and the food. We also loved the areas outside the big main cites, such as the ancient town of Lijiang. We'll visit China again one day.