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You can lose everything, but nobody will take away what you saw and what you experienced...
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May 14, 2006 02:00 PM Huangshan Mountains - most beautiful in China?
Huangshan - Yellow Mountains. They write in the guide books that for Chinese they are the most beautiful... I stayed in the little, dump family hotel close to the station. On the next day I found much better, new hostel half way between rail and bus stations. They charge 100 y per room and offer internet...
I spend whole day in the mountains. First you must g t the bottom of the mountains - there is minibus charging 13 y from Tunxi. They be prepared to pay hefty 200 yuan entry fee. Take yous student card with you for 50% discount! Weather was sunny so I enjoyed beautiful panoramic views. It is possible to see in one full day the most interesting places - if you are fit. I took cableway on eastern route to get up, then passed Bright Summit and came close to the Lotus Flower Peak. The access to the summit of Lotus is closed now, but you can climb nearest Capital Heaven Peak. Mountains are steep and rocky - there is a lot of interesting rock formations so I think that the opinion about Huangshan is not exagerated. I went down through the western route - all by stone steps - it was lovely, but very tiring day!
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May 13, 2006 02:00 PM China: three buses and one train...
Sailing through famous Three Gorges of Yangtze I saw in many places on the shore markers showing expected level on the water after they will finish Great Dam - 175m level. Now it is 139 m. So the true is that three Gorges will not dissapear! The river will be wider, some places looking like a small lake. The landscapes maybe will not be as impressive as today but the tourism will still exist here...
Disembarking at 6 am the ship at Yichang I was wandering if it will be possible to move in one day to the Huangshan Mountains. The approach from the west is complicated - no direct conections... The bus to Wuhan (private one cost me 70 yuan, Then in Wuhan I had 30 min to jump on the next one - to Jiujijang (80 y) and the I switched fast to next one to Jingdezhen (50y) - what a names! In Jingdezhen I took a taxi (they are inexpensive if metered) to the railway station - they announced that at 19.26 there will be a train to Huangshan. Great! It was ordinary train where I travelled in the smoke and rubbish with the hord of local people. But at 11 pm I reached Tunxi - the closest town to Huangshan Mountains!
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May 12, 2006 02:00 PM To the Great Dam of Three Gorges
We are sailing from Wushan early in the morning entering Wu Gorge - 44 km long and (people say) most impressive of Three Gorges. Bad luck! It is cloudy again when we pass between high, green mountains. Sometimes small waterfalls are also visible. The views are great, the tops of the mountains are in the clouds but again - the pictures will be poor. Weather, weather... Finally the ship reached little port Qu Yuan where local dances and singing were offered as optional tour.
Then we entered Third Gorge: Xiling - it is much wider and not as impressive as the brothers... Maybe the reason is that the waters of Yangtze are already higer then before...
In the late afternoon we arrived to the Great Dam and passed through the lock - can you imagine the 5-th stage lock?
We started from the level of 139 m and after passing through 4 locks we landed on 67 m level - 72 m down. I passed such high locks for the first time in my life!
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May 11, 2006 02:00 PM The first Gorge of Yangtze
They supply unlimited and free boliled water on the ship - so you should not cae about your morning tea of coffee - just take sufficient amount of bags! In the morning we enteed the first of famous gorges of Yangtze River - the Qutang - 8 km long. All aboard! Green mountains 500-600 m high are towering the river which sometimes is only 50-60 m wide... Great landscapes, but cloudy - bad luck - the pictures are dark...
At 1 pm we reached port Wushan - small boats are waiting there to take you to the Little Three Gorges. This is optional side trip - it costs like 300 yuan but it is definitely worth to inwest this money. Little Gorges are even more narrow and as picturesque as Qutang. Some people say they even prefere Little Gorges... Dragon Gate Gorge, Misty Gorge and Emerald Gorge are very impessive. At the end of the route there is stopover and all passengers go ashore to take 200 m path to the waterfall coming down from the rock. There is also small temple where local people pray... All tour takes 5 hours - take some food with you - the snack on the small boat is rather expensive! Great experience!
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May 10, 2006 02:00 PM Sailing Yangtze River...
Our ship has poetic name "Yangtze River Tourism No. 5" . Few people from the crew speak English but I can manage all problem anyway. First day of sailing took us to the Ghost Town. There is old monastery with impressive pagoda to see and very comercial, poor disneyland-style Chinese Ghost Town...
But afternoon was fantastic: I bought optional bus tour (80 yuan) from the port to the Green Dragon Waterfall - Qinglong. You know that I am great fan of the falls... We drove there through the rice fields country.
They say it is the biggest waterfall in Asia. Wow! 64 m high and 115 m wide. Not much water - sorry - but the water forms there like a courtain and you can take the walk behind it! Just wonderful! It remember only one such a place it was Sapo waterfall close to Canaima in Venezuela
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May 09, 2006 02:00 PM To the Yangtze River...
Yes, I want to see famous gorgez of Yangtze river before they dissapear in 2009... The best way is to take boat trip through the gorges from Chongqing to Yichang. Cruises on this route are popular so it is better to book in advance - I made it via Dragon Town Youth Hostel in Chengdu. They know that bacpackers are not rich so they offer the cruise on the tourist boat for local people, not for the luxury liners dedicated to the foreigners. Just make sure that you will pass through all 3 gorges in the daytime. Prices for 4 nights/3 days sail starts from 400 y in 6-bed bunk cabin, 600 in the 4-bed and 1000 for comfortable double with private shower. You can buy extra excursions from the ports.
I took a bus to Chongking - it takes 6 to 7 hours and went to the port. It was the first time face to face with the third river in the world. I saw Yangtze in the late afternoon - it is almost as huge as Amazon! We are sailing in the evening!
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May 08, 2006 02:00 PM Big Buddha in Leshan...
It is not far from Emeishan Mountains to Leshan - just 42 km. Leshan is famous of the Great Buddha statue cut of in the cliff overlooking the river in 8th century... I took a boat to see it... The boat 20-min round trip journey cost 50 hefty yuan. Sorry, no cheap ferry mentioned in the Lonely Planet book.
The sitting Buddha is 71 m high. Da Fo... Impressive! But it is second highest in the world: Years ago I saw two statues of Buddha in Bamian - Afganistan. One of them was even higher! You can also take bus no. 13 to cross the river and to climb the cliff to be closer to the Lord. But first you must pay again: 70 yuar entry fee unless you have a student card. China is still cheap to travel but do not expect to pay 10 or 20 yuan for entries to the tourist places as it was years ago... They learned how to make tourist business!
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May 07, 2006 02:00 PM To the Golden Summit...
At 5 am the monks pray in the main hall of the monastery... It is good opportunity to watch and to listen. Then rice porrige and steamed buns - mantou for breakfast and I we started to climb again. I am lucky - it is not raining but there is a lot of clouds ant visibility is poor. I wish you to have better weather in Emeishan! After two hours of climbing we reached Leidong with little temple and big car park - if you do not want to climb by foot the minibus from Baoguo will bring you by mountain road for 30 yuan. Then it is again 2 hours climb or cable car to the Golden Summit. Dissapointment! The Golden Summit now is a big construction place. They build new big and fancy monasteries there and new, huge terraces. I hope it will be ready next year. So far I enjoyed the huge, golden statue of Buddha located on the back of four golden elephants. It is like 30 m high! The sea of clouds below - it is 3000 m above the sea level - it is not easy to take your breath. The pilgrims use small, old monastery buildings for praying. Well, it was worth to climb Emeishan anyway, but not for the Golden Summit but for all those tiny monasteries on the trail...
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May 06, 2006 02:00 PM Climbing Mt Emeishan - China
The bus from Chengdu to Emei town cost 33 yuans. Then you must go to the tourist village Baoguo located at the bottom of Emeishan. Left your backpack at well known Teddy Bear Hotel and go... The most common trail to the one of four holy Buddist mountains in China goes via Wanian Monastery. It is large and old monastery beautifuly located in the lush forest on the altitude of 1000 m. There are many buildings to see but the most impressive is those who houses the statue of Buddha on the elephant... It was also first place where I saw nasty monkeys - they beg for the food. After visit in Wanian I took a trail to the the next places of worship located on the Emeishan peaks. The trail is well maintained - you just follow with local pilgrims the stone steps - up 100, 200, 1000 of them. Then 200, 300 down through the rainforest. And up again. A lot of sweat, but there are many snack shelters on the trail so you can buy water, coke etc...
At 6 pm we reached the old monastery of the "Elephant Bath Pool". It is far fom the crowds, a bit run down but very nice and authentic. They offer overnight stay there for 40 yuan a bed. What a place for the evening tea with clouds sailing below! The monastery is located on the level of 2070 m...
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May 05, 2006 02:00 PM A day in Sichuan...
The train from Beijing to Chengdu goes 34 hours! I decided to take Air China domestic flight for this segment to save a time.
I landed in Chengdu... Good news for you my friends: They confirmed that on 1st July the new railaway line will be open: the train will go to LHASA - Tibet!!! What a great journey ahead we have! Along the highest mountains of the world! Years ago I took transtibetan highway to get overland to Lhasa it was horrible journey in the crowded bus with smoking local passengers. Now it will be much more comfortable and it will allow the tourist to see the areas closed before.
Chengdu is nice provincial capital with more then 4 mln people... 28 deg Celsius. I stay in the little old part of the town: Dragon Town youth hostel is highly recommended - it is located in the old chineese mansion, has special atmosphere and friendly staff.
In Chengdu it is the must to see Wenshu Buddist Temple - 1400 years old monastery complex. It was nice to sip there green tea in the tea house located in the old pagoda pavillon... Tomorrow new adventure is waiting for me: I want to climb Emeishan - one of four holy mouintains in China... Hope the weather will be nice...
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