So I arrived well in Guangzhou around noon and luckily found a nice quiet place to park in a backyard. Again my e-bike proved to be invaluable as it enabled me to go for a first quick city exploration tour. I quite liked what I saw. The city has still quite a few old relics to admire especially in the area that used to be reserved for the foreigners. What I also liked was the many little streets with markets or series of shops selling the various foodstuffs of the Chinese cuisine like spices, chilis, mushrooms, etc. It is unbelievable the variety available. Shops specialize and so you also find shops with a dozen different kinds of rice.
People of Guangzhou also like their food fresh which means that fish and crabs are still alive in little basins at the stores or at least somewhat alive. Chicken and ducks are in little cages squished together and not making pleasant noises. As soon as a customer decides out they are picked and slaughtered at the spot so the customer sees that the product is fresh… I can't say, I liked that but fascinated I was. And also here: the variety available is unbelievable.
And there is also a large Dr. Sun Yat-sen memorial with quite a nice documentation of his life. And the landmark of Goagzhou is the 4 Ram Statue which I had to visit as it was near the museum of the tomb of Emperor ZaoTuo who was buried there and his untouched grave was only discovered 1983 when digging for the foundation of an apartment block. This indeed was very interesting not least due to the gruesome detail of 4 concubines and 11 servants who had to die also to be buried with their master….
After that I couldn't help but again driving through the shop areas; the most impressive was a street maybe 6 or 700 m long with nothing else than wedding dress shops on both sides of it! Where would you find that anywhere else on this planet? I never will understand the Chinese custom of concentrating the same kind of shops in one area thereby creating an incredible competition. If you wanted to get married you had to come here from all over Guangzhou as I don't believe that in any other part you could buy a wedding dress… Aside from clothing, which you find everywhere, other specialty shops will be in one area and if you don't know that area chances are you would not be able to find that product.
Next stop was Guilin, a lovely little town in the middle of those famous steep but rounded and covered in trees mountains China is famous for. The drive up there prepared me for the sight but it is still impressive if in the middle of town all of a sudden steep hills are springing up. I found a pleasant place for the night at a shopping center and proceeded the next morning to a 'bamboo boat' tour down the Li river and then by bus to Yangshou and back to Guilin by bus too. The 'bamboo' in realty are about 7 or 8 steel tubes tied together to form a raft on which 2-3 benches can take up to 6 passengers behind whom a boatman is dealing with an incredibly loud diesel engine which propels the contraption up and down the river. The views are impressive and each mountain (and there are many) has a poetic name referring to its appearance which I immediately forgot. If the motors were electric one could get romantic but with the noise I ultimately was glad to be back in the bus…
Yangshuo again is a tourist town with all its disadvantages. But it is nice enough and has a market that mostly sells kitsch. But only mostly, in between there actually were islands of reasonably good taste when looking at the textiles…
Ultimately I was glad to be back in Guilin and my 'Datcha'.
The next morning I took a quick tour around the former imperial palace, or what is being 'sold' for that. Most of it is reconstructed and for most of its time was used as regional administration center. Impressive though is the big boulder rising behind the 'palace', about 200m high and accessible by stairs and providing a nice view over the otherwise not very attractive town. But it was good for my fitness at least…
I left with the target of Longsheng and the Dong minority villages nearby. First they didn't want to let me drive there as my car is oversize but then they relented. The road was very 'Austrian' in the sense that it was a typical mountain road but well kept and no problem for an Austrian. In effect the architecture of the Dong has similarities to ours as it is mostly of wood with 'Alpine' roof shapes, quite pleasant. On the way I even saw Dong girls presenting their about 1m long hair to tourists at the river while they were winding it to a knot. The village I visited was Ping An which was at a little over 1000m altitude.
The Chinese are masters of marketing their sites. To get there one had to pay about EUR 10 and once I arrived I had to pay another EUR 2.50 for parking, but that's ok. But when you get there you walk up the mountain for about 1.5 kms though endless rows of souvenir stalls. Some admittedly not so bad as they show at least, how the textiles are woven or how the comps are cut from horn. The restaurants, however, are not bad and quite reasonable. I had some chicken rice prepared in bamboo which was quite nice. The real attraction though are the famous rice terraces, really beautiful to look at. Unfortunately my pictures aren't as nice 'as in the book' as the whole day it was quite hazy, my suspicion is that the haze was a result of the heavy pollution in the whole area.
Longsheng, nondescript, was my night stop in a quiet side road, quiet save for a very loud family dispute about midnight….
The drive there and on to Guiyang was insofar 'interesting' as first I had to pass a bridge with a width limit of 2m but my car is 2.15m. I checked and went through as there was plenty of space left. A little later I met a height limit of 2.9m, ok, the car is 2.85m but when shortly afterwards I read a sign and had to pass a height measuring bar across the road reading 2.8m I got a little uptight. Well, it worked without scratch… Luckily at several places the road had been damaged by mudslides or broken off but was passable. When I reached the motorway I had to think about our Tauernautobahn as the similarity was striking at times…
On the way I wanted to see a covered bridge but although they claimed to have an English speaking guide or at least a brochure nothing was available. So I took a picture from a distance and went on without paying the requested EUR 10, this was clearly vastly overpriced!
I spent the night at the center of Guiyang which was a nice but not quiet place to park as the inner town is one huge 24hrs (re-)construction site and the trucks kept passing through. Nevertheless I slept soundly.
The next morning I continued towards Zunyi the place where during the Long March in Jan 1935 Mao emerged as the leader of the Communist Party after a meeting of the leadership in a building in the middle of the town. Considering the historical importance of the place it was remarkable that there was not a single sign or description in English save for 'no smoking' and 'keep off the grass'. Lesser important houses where other people stayed at that time were much better in this respect.
I managed to get to Chongqing before the evening. I wanted to stay at a hotel and had picked the one and only that seemed to have outside parking but it didn't. Luckily, as I was about to give up a legal space across from the hotel became available. Originally I had hoped to do a short '3 Gorges' excursion from there but as it was drizzling I decided it was not worth it and went on, even more so as Chongqing does not have to offer much old substance as it had suffered during the Sino-Japanese war. It was the temporary capital of China as Nanjing had been captured by the Japanese. But also here redevelopment everywhere…
My target were the famous Dazu Rock Carvings. They were breathtaking! Although there are several in the area 2 are made available to tourist (against a small charge, naturally…). I first went to the ones in Bei Shan which were very impressive. But the real hit are the ones at Baoding Shan. They simply are mind blowing from quality and quantity and are from the 12th and 13th century and amazingly well preserved and quite rightly a Unesco World Heritage Site. A real high point of this trip… It was too late to visit the inside of a very nice temple next door but the outside was impressive enough… It was getting dark as I returned to Dazu where I spent the night in a side street very peacefully…
Unfortunately due to the problems mentioned the pictures will have to wait as it is too complicated due to the 'Chinese Wall'…
My next stop was Chengdu. The city didn't impress me very much as there is little to see except a huge Mao statue he raising his arm as if hailing a taxi and a very Chinese looking mosque and a Buddhist monastery. The only real attraction is the Panda Research Center a little outside of town. It is practically a very large zoo specializing in Pandas and is done very nicely. Thanks also to their work the Panda population is increasing and the extinction at least for the time being is no longer a danger.
This is it for now so there is something for you to read. I am meanwhile already on the Northern Silk Road but this will be in my next contribution…
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Saturday, October 13, 2012
From Beijing to Zhuhai
So I left Beijing on Friday Sept. 21st and drove south towards Jinan which is about 430 km toll road. Traffic was moderate with a few accident caused back-ups but otherwise ok. I had intended to visit one of China's holiest places the Taishan Mountain but since the weather was very hazy and basically no view I skipped it as climbing to 1545m for hours and not being able to enjoy the view was not to my taste.
Therefore I continued a few kms more to Qufu which is the birthplace of Confucius and also the place he died and he and his descendents are buried. As he lived from 551BC 479 BC and there are so far 80 generations the burial ground is huge as are the descendents are numerous (about 3 mio according to Wikipedia) . About 50% of the population of Qufu with the last name of Kong claims to be related.
I found a nice place in a quiet side road to stay and went sightseeing the next morning. Huge hoards of Chinese tourists with guides with amplifiers and loudspeakers mad the exercise somewhat stressful. The Confucius mansion is quite large and was inhabited by family members until 1940 when the then last descendant fled to Taiwain during the Japanese invasion. For those interested in more detail here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius
The visit to the cemetery was more quiet but impressive because of its size. Sadly the Cultural Revolution did not spare the site but much seems to have been put right again.
I went on to Nanjing which I wanted to visit as I wanted to know the city where the Nanjing massacre was committed by the Japanese in 1937/8 one of the worst war crimes of WW II. I have read the diary of John Rabe the Siemens representative who at that time established a 'safety zone' thereby saving about 200000 people from being murdered.
For those interested in more detail… :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre
I also visited the memorial which was erected at the place of one of the mass graves and contains an highly detailed but gruesome documentation center/museum and John Rabe's house where he protected some 600 refugees personally and which was restored a few years ago with the partial sponsorship of Siemens China. Unfortunately the museum was closed due to major rebuilding but the former presidential palace kept me busy as it is practically a memorial to Dr. Sun Yat-sen the political/revolutional hero both Chinas honor. I was impressed by the balanced comments of the museum about all events involving the Kuomintang Chiang Kai Shek's.
The next station was Shanghai where I arrived on Monday and left Saturday afternoon. There I was invited by the Consul General Michael Heinz and his wife Mirka to stay at their residence which, of course was extremely comfortable and nice. From there I used my e-bike to tour that wonderful city. It wasn't my first time there but Shanghai changed (again) so much that I couldn't remember much from about 13 years ago except the Bund. I spent significant time just driving around and enjoying the various remainders of the European architecture but also visited Dr. Sun's former residence and that of his wife Soong Ching Ling in which she lived during Communist time. Unfortunately taking photos was forbidden for reasons unknown. This happens in many museums although no artifacts but only copies of documents are shown. Soong Ching Lin was somewhat like a Chinese 'Evita Peron' except that she lived until her eighties and was for a while Head of State of the PRC. While visiting the museum though I kept asking myself what her real position towards the actions of the communist leadership between the 'Great Leap Forward' and 'Cultural Revolution' must have been…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soong_Ching-ling
Her house, that she got assigned from the party and that still today is in one of the nicest areas of Shanghai, was very comfortable but she mostly lived and died in Beijing. For me interesting was her garage which contained one car given to her by Mr. Stalin and another state limousine produced in China.
One excursion took me to Suzhou which is famous for its gardens but also has a for me very interesting silk museum and the tallest Chinese pagoda south of the Yangzi which would offer quite spectacular views if there weren't so much pollution…
Saturday noon I had a little operation to take out a little tumor from my left arm after which I left Shanghai with target of Tongli near Suzhou which I missed on my first trip. Tongli is charming little town with a canal system and a lot of old building substance that miraculously survived and now is a tourist attraction. As I arrived late in the day most of the mob had left and it was quite enjoyable.
As it was not far I continued to Hangzhou, which is a town famous for its lake and scenery and rightfully so. I found a wonderful place in a side street not far from the lake which I surrounded starting at 8. There was already quite some 'competition' out but when I returned about 3 hours later it looked like 'Getreidegasse' in Salzburg on a cloudy day in summer when all tourist descend on the city. Hangzhou's main attraction is its lake, the burial place and temple of one of China's most famous generals and a huge pagoda on a hill next to the lake which provides lovely views over the city. The pagoda is a replica the original having suffered from normal and 'Cultural Revolution' decay. Now escalators and lifts make the ascend easy…
By 11am I was on my way again, this time the target was Fuzhou where my hosts from Beijing were waiting to introduce me to Stephen Lau's mother and sister. As it was about a 600km drive it took me till about 9 pm to get there. The next morning Stephen and Fangfei showed me the town which has maintained quite some Ming Period mansions. A second night followed and late the next morning we all left, my hosts for the north and I for the South my next major target being Xiamen which I reached in the early evening and met Harriet Hu. Her Boss Mr. Reichel had left a day earlier for Germany as during the first week in October everything in China shuts one week for the Autumn Festival. We had a nice dinner but I disappointed her by not wanting to stay in Xiamen for lack of time reasons and as I had been there 3 years ago and had seen most of its sights. I spent the night in a side street and left in the morning for Zhuhai.
As the distance there is over 600 kms I had to stop at a place called Shangwei where I found a place near the sea and close to a temple. Early in the morning I quickly looked at the temple which was quite attractive. It was at the bottom of a hill the top of which sported a huge statue of a female Buddhist deity the name of whom escaped me.
Via Shenzhen where I stopped briefly for lunch and was impressed by its development as I didn't recognize anything from my last visit about 10 years ago I continued to Zhuhai. There I fought with the imprecision of Chinese addresses. It took me 1 1/2 hours until my GPS was able to find my hotel! Maybe I should change to a male voice as women are notorious for a bad sense of orientation? Susanne Zhang thankfully had arranged everything and so I spent 4 nights in a nice hotel for a change.
Zhuhai was full of social activities, grill evenings at Susanne's lovely house about 20 kms outside the city where I met Christian, a Viennese and professor at the local university and another one at one of her friends married to a charming Italian (here again the lack of proper address made finding the house a challenge). My attempts to solve my gas problem remained unsuccessful despite the support of our local staff.
The town is rather clean compared to other cities, has a lot of green and wide roads with relatively few traffic jams but, like Shenzhen, is part of the Special Economic Zone program and therefore has basically only about 30 years of history. The history bit is next door in Macao which is in walking distance from the center.
On Sunday I got up early and took the first ferry to Hong Kong to meet Edmond and his wife for lunch and stroll around a bit. We ended up being invited for a delicious lunch by Stephen Lau in his hotel together with his older son. At 4 I was picked up by Stephen Wong and his wife Rita who used to be head of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in Berlin and who I met several times in Vienna. He now is Principal Government Counsel Secretary of the HK Law Reform Commission and took me to his new residence right next to the Peak cable car. The views were spectacular and the food excellent… I also met a friend of his with his wife who is a Kung Fu master in Vienna.
So on Monday Oct 8th I left Zhuhai for Guangzhou and now, on Saturday I arrived in Guiyang. But this is for the next sequel of my blog as it is midnight and I am tired… Also with the pictures you will have to be patient as it is really difficult to do from China due to their internet restrictions…
Therefore I continued a few kms more to Qufu which is the birthplace of Confucius and also the place he died and he and his descendents are buried. As he lived from 551BC 479 BC and there are so far 80 generations the burial ground is huge as are the descendents are numerous (about 3 mio according to Wikipedia) . About 50% of the population of Qufu with the last name of Kong claims to be related.
I found a nice place in a quiet side road to stay and went sightseeing the next morning. Huge hoards of Chinese tourists with guides with amplifiers and loudspeakers mad the exercise somewhat stressful. The Confucius mansion is quite large and was inhabited by family members until 1940 when the then last descendant fled to Taiwain during the Japanese invasion. For those interested in more detail here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius
The visit to the cemetery was more quiet but impressive because of its size. Sadly the Cultural Revolution did not spare the site but much seems to have been put right again.
I went on to Nanjing which I wanted to visit as I wanted to know the city where the Nanjing massacre was committed by the Japanese in 1937/8 one of the worst war crimes of WW II. I have read the diary of John Rabe the Siemens representative who at that time established a 'safety zone' thereby saving about 200000 people from being murdered.
For those interested in more detail… :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre
I also visited the memorial which was erected at the place of one of the mass graves and contains an highly detailed but gruesome documentation center/museum and John Rabe's house where he protected some 600 refugees personally and which was restored a few years ago with the partial sponsorship of Siemens China. Unfortunately the museum was closed due to major rebuilding but the former presidential palace kept me busy as it is practically a memorial to Dr. Sun Yat-sen the political/revolutional hero both Chinas honor. I was impressed by the balanced comments of the museum about all events involving the Kuomintang Chiang Kai Shek's.
The next station was Shanghai where I arrived on Monday and left Saturday afternoon. There I was invited by the Consul General Michael Heinz and his wife Mirka to stay at their residence which, of course was extremely comfortable and nice. From there I used my e-bike to tour that wonderful city. It wasn't my first time there but Shanghai changed (again) so much that I couldn't remember much from about 13 years ago except the Bund. I spent significant time just driving around and enjoying the various remainders of the European architecture but also visited Dr. Sun's former residence and that of his wife Soong Ching Ling in which she lived during Communist time. Unfortunately taking photos was forbidden for reasons unknown. This happens in many museums although no artifacts but only copies of documents are shown. Soong Ching Lin was somewhat like a Chinese 'Evita Peron' except that she lived until her eighties and was for a while Head of State of the PRC. While visiting the museum though I kept asking myself what her real position towards the actions of the communist leadership between the 'Great Leap Forward' and 'Cultural Revolution' must have been…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soong_Ching-ling
Her house, that she got assigned from the party and that still today is in one of the nicest areas of Shanghai, was very comfortable but she mostly lived and died in Beijing. For me interesting was her garage which contained one car given to her by Mr. Stalin and another state limousine produced in China.
One excursion took me to Suzhou which is famous for its gardens but also has a for me very interesting silk museum and the tallest Chinese pagoda south of the Yangzi which would offer quite spectacular views if there weren't so much pollution…
Saturday noon I had a little operation to take out a little tumor from my left arm after which I left Shanghai with target of Tongli near Suzhou which I missed on my first trip. Tongli is charming little town with a canal system and a lot of old building substance that miraculously survived and now is a tourist attraction. As I arrived late in the day most of the mob had left and it was quite enjoyable.
As it was not far I continued to Hangzhou, which is a town famous for its lake and scenery and rightfully so. I found a wonderful place in a side street not far from the lake which I surrounded starting at 8. There was already quite some 'competition' out but when I returned about 3 hours later it looked like 'Getreidegasse' in Salzburg on a cloudy day in summer when all tourist descend on the city. Hangzhou's main attraction is its lake, the burial place and temple of one of China's most famous generals and a huge pagoda on a hill next to the lake which provides lovely views over the city. The pagoda is a replica the original having suffered from normal and 'Cultural Revolution' decay. Now escalators and lifts make the ascend easy…
By 11am I was on my way again, this time the target was Fuzhou where my hosts from Beijing were waiting to introduce me to Stephen Lau's mother and sister. As it was about a 600km drive it took me till about 9 pm to get there. The next morning Stephen and Fangfei showed me the town which has maintained quite some Ming Period mansions. A second night followed and late the next morning we all left, my hosts for the north and I for the South my next major target being Xiamen which I reached in the early evening and met Harriet Hu. Her Boss Mr. Reichel had left a day earlier for Germany as during the first week in October everything in China shuts one week for the Autumn Festival. We had a nice dinner but I disappointed her by not wanting to stay in Xiamen for lack of time reasons and as I had been there 3 years ago and had seen most of its sights. I spent the night in a side street and left in the morning for Zhuhai.
As the distance there is over 600 kms I had to stop at a place called Shangwei where I found a place near the sea and close to a temple. Early in the morning I quickly looked at the temple which was quite attractive. It was at the bottom of a hill the top of which sported a huge statue of a female Buddhist deity the name of whom escaped me.
Via Shenzhen where I stopped briefly for lunch and was impressed by its development as I didn't recognize anything from my last visit about 10 years ago I continued to Zhuhai. There I fought with the imprecision of Chinese addresses. It took me 1 1/2 hours until my GPS was able to find my hotel! Maybe I should change to a male voice as women are notorious for a bad sense of orientation? Susanne Zhang thankfully had arranged everything and so I spent 4 nights in a nice hotel for a change.
Zhuhai was full of social activities, grill evenings at Susanne's lovely house about 20 kms outside the city where I met Christian, a Viennese and professor at the local university and another one at one of her friends married to a charming Italian (here again the lack of proper address made finding the house a challenge). My attempts to solve my gas problem remained unsuccessful despite the support of our local staff.
The town is rather clean compared to other cities, has a lot of green and wide roads with relatively few traffic jams but, like Shenzhen, is part of the Special Economic Zone program and therefore has basically only about 30 years of history. The history bit is next door in Macao which is in walking distance from the center.
On Sunday I got up early and took the first ferry to Hong Kong to meet Edmond and his wife for lunch and stroll around a bit. We ended up being invited for a delicious lunch by Stephen Lau in his hotel together with his older son. At 4 I was picked up by Stephen Wong and his wife Rita who used to be head of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in Berlin and who I met several times in Vienna. He now is Principal Government Counsel Secretary of the HK Law Reform Commission and took me to his new residence right next to the Peak cable car. The views were spectacular and the food excellent… I also met a friend of his with his wife who is a Kung Fu master in Vienna.
So on Monday Oct 8th I left Zhuhai for Guangzhou and now, on Saturday I arrived in Guiyang. But this is for the next sequel of my blog as it is midnight and I am tired… Also with the pictures you will have to be patient as it is really difficult to do from China due to their internet restrictions…
Friday, October 5, 2012
Week 2 and 3 in Beijing
Today is Oct 2nd and I just realize that it is already much too many days since my last post. I apologize but I really have only little time between sightseeing, maintaining my 'household', social and other activities… Also it is a bit of a problem to service my blogspot account from here as it is blocked by the local authorities forcing me to do all kind of tricks to circumvent… This also makes loading pictures a pain. But let me try to recapitulate:
Let me start with the sightseeing: I visited the 'Forbidden City' since 1949 called the Palace Museum which naturally is the most important museum in Beijing. I broke off my first attempt to visit on Saturday as the crowds were simply too much and went (window) shopping instead in the area of Wanfujing which is nearby. More interesting than the malls though was the market next door, which admittedly is quite touristy with a lot of kitsch but still also some local originality.
Sunday I tried to beat the crowds and went out to the Summer Palace early. Well, I managed to find a nice close parking place but when I got to the gate the crowds had beaten me… Anyway, the gardens and the palace are big and so after the initial pushing huge tour groups and deafening tour guides with their loudspeakers I also enjoyed the quieter parts of the gardens. I even found a part where about 200 Chinese were giving an what looked to me like a more or less impromptu choir concert. I guess on Sundays they gather there just to sing for their enjoyment. Really nice and I couldn't stay as long as I wanted to as I had a lunch invitation by the Werners…
Monday then was my 'Forbidden City' Day and despite being early it again was quite crowded. It is vast. Lots of the contents have been taken to Taiwan by Chiang Kai Shek and are now shown at the Palace Museum there. Nevertheless what's left or better what couldn't be taken away is impressive and what was intended to be 2 hours ended up to be 4. What was a bit annoying was the crowd that would gather at the main sights and make taking pictures very difficult. Another problem was that most of the rooms are behind glass panes which would reflect and make it sometimes almost impossible to see the inside. As it turned out putting the camera lens against the window would at least enable to admire the interior at home…
While at the palace I tried to sort out the problem of my spare parts for my air suspension for my rear axle. The company in Germany proved to be utterly unprofessional and after several interventions and also delays at customs I finally got the parts on Wednesday 19th and got the repair, which was simple and took only an hour on the 20th.
Further sites I visited in Beijing were Jingshan Park right behind the Forbidden City which by itself is beautiful but offers wonderful views of it and the city, the area south of Tianmen Square which was restored and is now a tourist area with all disadvantages but offers decent shops and an abundance of excellent food.
Another important tourist spot is the Lama Temple, only a short distance from my 'home'. It is remarkable as it was a former imperial palace turned into a temple. The inscriptions there are all in 4 languages: Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese and Manchu, a tribute of the emperor to the various peoples of China and to promote unity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonghe_Temple
A further 'must' was a visit to the Temple of Heaven which I had seen before but not the Fasting Palace in its garden which served as a preparatory place for the emperor before the annual sacrifice event.
On the weekend before I left Beijing again I went to Tianjin which was one of the 'Concession Cities' which had various European settlements: English, French, Italian and, yes, even Austrian. The Austro Hungarian Consulate building I discovered on my e-bike 'power sightseeing' tour. It now is a restaurant. Although many buildings did not survive there is still a distinct European feel for some areas. Tianjing was the base from where the allied troops stormed towards Beijing after the Boxer uprising.
After that half day I continued east to Beidaihe which is about 320 km east if Beijing at the sea and always was a Beach Resort for the rich, then for the party bosses and now for both of them plus plane loads of Russians. Practically all shops have signs in Russian and when I went for breakfast after parking my 'Datcha' in the local parking lot for the night I got the Russian menu automatically…
Another 30 kms further east is Shanhaiguan, the beginning (or end) of the Great Wall. I had to see that and quite enjoyed it despite the crowds as it is combined with a nice museum and the town is a still completely walled town albeit restored for tourism. Unfortunately the cable car didn't work and so I decided not to hike up the wall (again) particularly as the visibility wasn't great and it was hot.
The drive home was uneventful save for a few jams due to road construction (as on the way out).
There were plenty of social activities with which I won't bore you. Just for the record: there was a nice farewell for Monika Fan who decided to emigrate to Canada, while cleaning up my car, a German speaking (student in Germany) Chinese walked up and told me that his father also had a motor home and that mine was the first foreign one he saw in Beijing. It soon came out that he also had a Chang Jiang motorcycle with side car (in the 1950s Russia sold a the old production facilities of BMW R 71 to China and those bikes are still being produced). What followed was an invitation to the club which indeed was a pleasure to me…
I also was invited by my hostess who would do the presentation at that event to see (and hear) a concert on occasion of the national holiday in the new Beijing Opera House. this, of course, was a high point as the architecture is remarkable and the acoustics were great. The music was mostly Chinese but pleasant as were the choirs (3).
On Friday the 21st I said good bye to my hosts of 3 weeks and left Beijing to go South. But that will be in my next blog…
Let me start with the sightseeing: I visited the 'Forbidden City' since 1949 called the Palace Museum which naturally is the most important museum in Beijing. I broke off my first attempt to visit on Saturday as the crowds were simply too much and went (window) shopping instead in the area of Wanfujing which is nearby. More interesting than the malls though was the market next door, which admittedly is quite touristy with a lot of kitsch but still also some local originality.
Sunday I tried to beat the crowds and went out to the Summer Palace early. Well, I managed to find a nice close parking place but when I got to the gate the crowds had beaten me… Anyway, the gardens and the palace are big and so after the initial pushing huge tour groups and deafening tour guides with their loudspeakers I also enjoyed the quieter parts of the gardens. I even found a part where about 200 Chinese were giving an what looked to me like a more or less impromptu choir concert. I guess on Sundays they gather there just to sing for their enjoyment. Really nice and I couldn't stay as long as I wanted to as I had a lunch invitation by the Werners…
Monday then was my 'Forbidden City' Day and despite being early it again was quite crowded. It is vast. Lots of the contents have been taken to Taiwan by Chiang Kai Shek and are now shown at the Palace Museum there. Nevertheless what's left or better what couldn't be taken away is impressive and what was intended to be 2 hours ended up to be 4. What was a bit annoying was the crowd that would gather at the main sights and make taking pictures very difficult. Another problem was that most of the rooms are behind glass panes which would reflect and make it sometimes almost impossible to see the inside. As it turned out putting the camera lens against the window would at least enable to admire the interior at home…
While at the palace I tried to sort out the problem of my spare parts for my air suspension for my rear axle. The company in Germany proved to be utterly unprofessional and after several interventions and also delays at customs I finally got the parts on Wednesday 19th and got the repair, which was simple and took only an hour on the 20th.
Further sites I visited in Beijing were Jingshan Park right behind the Forbidden City which by itself is beautiful but offers wonderful views of it and the city, the area south of Tianmen Square which was restored and is now a tourist area with all disadvantages but offers decent shops and an abundance of excellent food.
Another important tourist spot is the Lama Temple, only a short distance from my 'home'. It is remarkable as it was a former imperial palace turned into a temple. The inscriptions there are all in 4 languages: Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese and Manchu, a tribute of the emperor to the various peoples of China and to promote unity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonghe_Temple
A further 'must' was a visit to the Temple of Heaven which I had seen before but not the Fasting Palace in its garden which served as a preparatory place for the emperor before the annual sacrifice event.
On the weekend before I left Beijing again I went to Tianjin which was one of the 'Concession Cities' which had various European settlements: English, French, Italian and, yes, even Austrian. The Austro Hungarian Consulate building I discovered on my e-bike 'power sightseeing' tour. It now is a restaurant. Although many buildings did not survive there is still a distinct European feel for some areas. Tianjing was the base from where the allied troops stormed towards Beijing after the Boxer uprising.
After that half day I continued east to Beidaihe which is about 320 km east if Beijing at the sea and always was a Beach Resort for the rich, then for the party bosses and now for both of them plus plane loads of Russians. Practically all shops have signs in Russian and when I went for breakfast after parking my 'Datcha' in the local parking lot for the night I got the Russian menu automatically…
Another 30 kms further east is Shanhaiguan, the beginning (or end) of the Great Wall. I had to see that and quite enjoyed it despite the crowds as it is combined with a nice museum and the town is a still completely walled town albeit restored for tourism. Unfortunately the cable car didn't work and so I decided not to hike up the wall (again) particularly as the visibility wasn't great and it was hot.
The drive home was uneventful save for a few jams due to road construction (as on the way out).
There were plenty of social activities with which I won't bore you. Just for the record: there was a nice farewell for Monika Fan who decided to emigrate to Canada, while cleaning up my car, a German speaking (student in Germany) Chinese walked up and told me that his father also had a motor home and that mine was the first foreign one he saw in Beijing. It soon came out that he also had a Chang Jiang motorcycle with side car (in the 1950s Russia sold a the old production facilities of BMW R 71 to China and those bikes are still being produced). What followed was an invitation to the club which indeed was a pleasure to me…
I also was invited by my hostess who would do the presentation at that event to see (and hear) a concert on occasion of the national holiday in the new Beijing Opera House. this, of course, was a high point as the architecture is remarkable and the acoustics were great. The music was mostly Chinese but pleasant as were the choirs (3).
On Friday the 21st I said good bye to my hosts of 3 weeks and left Beijing to go South. But that will be in my next blog…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)