Mainland China Travels 2001-2002 [June 1 - July 1]

after the semester was over in my one year study at Chinese University of Hong Kong, I traveled to the mainland for one month with a friend.. This trip is a very memoriable one for me and it was a great adventure. I rode trains sometimes more than 30 hours, I ate lamb meat shish kebabs prepared by muslims, I got lost in a dark countryside, I rode bicycle in the pitch darkness and next to a freeway, I rode the notorius hardseat trains along with farmers and ordinary people, I hitchhiked to a hotel in a middle of no where, I walked up the sand dunes. .. . .

[PLACES TRAVELLED]

my trip.. ..

Guangdong Province
-Guangzhou

a month in guangzhou
people
ordinary life
weather
food
mystery of athletic shoes..


|~30 hour hard sleeper train ride

Chongqing: One of the four "furnaces" in China, it is said to be one of the hottest cities in China! However, i find that the city covered in a thick fog of smog.. visibility is not very high!

| hard sleeper train ride

Sichuan Province: Land of the pandas and spicy foods. A large province with many mountains and forests.. One of the dangerous places to travel on bus, especially in the northern region. (In Hong Kong newspapers, almost on a daily basis is a small blurb about a tourist bus accident there, even one about the bus brakes failing!)
-Chengdu

|26 hour HARD SEAT train ride.. @_@

Xi'an: Famous for the emperor's graves and tombs with the terra-cotta warriors. It is a very dry and hot place. Many of the houses in the countryside seem to be made of dried soil and hay.

|hard sleeper train ride: I slept on the bottom bunk again.. across from me is a Xinjiang ethnic minority young lady going to Urumiqu. She doesn't look like a Han Chinese, and looks more like a Middle Eastern person and speaks Mandarin with an accent. Using my poor Mandarin skills I talked with her.. She is a dancer and travelled many places (such as Shenzhen) to dance. She really wanted to learn English before but never had the oppurtunity to continue studying it. Everyone, including her, seemed so interested in my Lonely Planet travel book.. even though it is for China!! They like to look at the pictures.. .. I just leave it by the edge of my bottom bunk bed, and a few passer-bys would stop and flip through the pages.. (sweat drop rolling down).. then be surprised that it is in English! Anyway, many people sometimes just walk around to ask other people to borrow and read their newspaper.. even some of the train clean up staff!! :D :D

Gansu Province: north-west dry desert area in China.. on the silk road.
-Jiayuguan : where the "end" of the great wall is located.
-Dunhuang : famous for its numerous caves with Buddhist murals. Mogao Ku contains around 500 caves, all the walls painted with Buddhist murals! However, only 10 caves of the 500 are open to the public despite the 80 yuan admission to the caves (1/2 off if you are a student).

|14 hours(?) hot mini bus ride...-->cold mini bus ride (desert terrain changed to mountain terrain)

Qinghai province (blue sea) : province above Tibet, and in the past, used to be part of Tibet. It contains the largest lake in China: "Qinghai Hu" (blue sea lake). A very clean and traditional region where one can still see people dressed in traditional clothing, herds of hairy yaks or hairy sheep led by a herdsman on horseback in the rolling green hills, and Tibetan characters along with CHinese characters on stores.
-Golmud: as its name may imply, it's quite a depressing place.. I only stayed here for a few hours to change from bus to train But still, there was barely anyone in the train station... and i didn't see anything vague interesting during the ride to the staion.. Only thing I remember is the empty train station with dim lights and rows of empty plastic seats , and that .. public toilet at the bus station.. Its that "drop down the hole" kind, with flies buzzing around everywhere because even before going IN, you see droppings.. Of course it is disgusting.. However I can understand. why? This is not America. This is not Hong Kong. In these kind of places, you can not expect there to be electricity everywhere. So would you risk falling down the hole and do your business in a completely pitch darkness? well, just say i was lucky to go right at *SUNSET*, if it was evening.. hmmm... well.... "man gotta do what man gotta do.." :D :D :D :D

|HARD SEAT train ride.. @_@ ...
weather was COLD....... people dressed in dark blue colors and cap got on the train.. many of them carry a very large rice sack like bag .... .
|HITCH-HIKE

-niao dao(bird island)

|overfilled mini bus ride from hell.. (no kidding)..

-Xining (capital of Qinghai province)

Beijing: Capital of China.

~30 hours hard sleeper train ride: I listened to people's conversations on the train. Sleeping on the bottom bunk, the lady next to me talked with the people above me and her. She was a school teacher.. She spoke in Mandarin talking about her son who went to London as an artist. There, her son draws portraits of people in the streets and makes lots of money. The people above me spoke in Cantonese with what seems to be a bit of Toisan accent. I was surprised by him because the train was passing through some sort of famous place, and that man quickly got out his camera and went to the bathroom to take photos. (in the bathroom, you can open the window). I thought it was funny because I always took pictures of the scenery from the train.. and I also go to the bathroom to take pictures.. :D Anyway, he was talking about what places he travelled.. and he really did lots of travelling! He says that he has lots of time to travel unlike other people because he is a farmer. Other people have no time to do such things and can only have time to make money. I thought that was very good thing.. Here seems to be a content farmer that is well travelled (and we both are coming from Beijing!). No where but the train would I really meet such people.. I will never forget what that man said..

During in journey, the train ran into a heavy storm with strong wind, rain and lightning.. so the train had to stop because it uses electricity to run.
A disgusting part of this certain train was that it had those small German cockroches! I noticed that the woman across from me had a cockroach on her toe while she was sleeping! yuck! Later on, I found a cockroach running on my pillow!! And during the heavy storm, i found the cockroaches to sense the storm.. so many cockroaches crawl out in the bathroom, the walls, and the table!! >_< .... After getting off the train, I hoped that no cockroach crawling into my luggage.. making me a transporter of cockroaches!! +_+

return to Guangzhou

|3 hours bus ride s

return to Hong Kong (2 days)
leave for Tokyou, Japan (2 weeks)
return to United States of America

OTHER INFORMATION
[about Chinese TRAINS]

DISCOUNTS: usually you can get lots of discounts with your student ID card! However, I used my expired Chinese University of Hong Kong student ID card.. the main reason is that the CUHK student card is bilingual in Chinese and English.. I don't know if they would understand my UCLA student ID card!!

INTERNET ACCESS:

HOTELS:

"MANDATORY INSURANCE FEE"