Hello friends and stalkers,
There hasn’t been too much to blog since my last post…We stayed in Hangzhou for 2 nights. I really liked this place, particularly the hostel we stayed at (despite the early morning noise). Here the main attraction for Alex and I was the lake…unfortunately it was quite misty and so the photographs don’t do it justice. On the day we arrived we casually walked approximately 10km around the lake, having numerous popcorn stops a long the way. The next day we hired a rowing boat and spent an hour on the lake. Other than that Hangzhou was very chilled out, updating blogs, catching up on Eastenders and eating some Chinese food.
From Hangzhou we took a 22 hour sleeper train to Xi’an…it wasn’t too bad…although it was on this train that some of the Chinese’s bad habits began to grate on me. I was shocked to see parents holding their children up going to the toilet on the floor in the area that you washed your hands…even though there were 4 toilets free next door…(I sense many of my gfs faces horrified at this point…it gets worse!). As expected we only spent 2 nights in Xi’an, taking a trip to see the ‘Terracotta Warriors’ on our full day there. For those who have not heard of this tourist attraction, in 1974, whilst digging a well a Farmer discovered a cabin full of terracotta warriors. Since this day approximately 8,000 warriors have been unearthed, and it is likely that there are more. It is believed that the purpose of the warriors was to safeguard the first Emperor of China - Qin Shi Huang’s rule in the afterlife. As guided by the Lonely Plant we toured the 3 pits backwards… pit 3 being the least impressive and pit 1 the most. In pit 1 6,000 warriors have been unearthed…see photographs below… For those of you who don’t know, each warrior has a different face making it more impressive (Although you can’t really notice this from the distance we stood). There were thousands of Chinese tourists; all of which allowed you to take photos without getting in your way…
The 18 hour sleeper train to Chengdu was horrendous. Whilst cleaning my teeth I had the pleasure of observing parents taking their children to the bin bags to go to the toilet. I also felt very ill the majority of the night and for the next few days. We originally intended on spending just 2 nights in Chengdu, taking the tour to see the pandas and the gymnastics. The first evening we arrived we did manage to see the gymnastics which turned out to be a very unusual opera. Some parts were really good. In particular a puppet act, and a hand shadow act. The shadow act was brilliant. The man doing it made all sorts out of his hands, birds, dogs, horse, rabbits… even a dog eating a rabbit (Which Alex found hilarious.). We couldn’t see the pandas the next day as I was still feeling ill. Instead we went to get our bus tickets which ended up taking hours. We did see the pandas the next day though which was one of my highlights. I don’t think I have ever seen pandas in real life, and as they look slightly like my dog they reminded me of her. We have taken so many photographs of the pandas, so hopefully you will enjoy the ones I have selected.
I am currently sitting at a hostel at our next stop, Kangding. Alex has convinced me that a 7 day road trip around the mountains is the thing to do in China. I’m glad to be out of the city at the moment. Most of the Chinese are so friendly and have been so helpful on our trip, but as I mentioned previously some of their habits are quite disgusting. Someone burped in my face the other day and then looked at me like it was normal! Girlies be prepared for some toilet nightmare stories!
xoxo
Hangzhou
Chengdu
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