Huang Shan Mountain and Nearby Villages

It has been a while since my last update..... The pics below are from our visit to Huang Shan Mountain and the surrounding villages located at the base of the Mountain.

We spent a day before heading up to the mountain, touring some of the local villages with a local guide, one of the villages was where the movie 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' was filmed (they are pretty proud about that and didn't fail to tell us!) The little villages were very charming with lots of history from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. So here are a few pics...


here is a pic taken from one of the villages which was filled with chinese art students (they have time on location away as part of their studies... ) painting and sketching the pituresque scenes available around every corner.


This pic is taken down one of the many alleyways... it was difficult to choose a pic to upload...as per usual... there is even a water network running through this village which is still operable today. This means that you can hear running water continuously as you walk thru the village...tis very calming... and feng shui like.





These pics are taken from some of the old village houses.... they were huge! Wooden carvings date back to both Qing and Ming dynasties and we were told that these are some of the best wooden carving to be found in the whole of china. In this pic below you can see how the wooden carvings are 3D in nature and... we were totally impressed. Amazing works of art which still survive today...

And now for the Mountain.....

there are 3 ways up the mountain...

the hard way....

the easier way.....

and then the very easy way....

The hard way is the Western Steps

The easier way is the Eastern Steps and

the very easy way is by cable car!!

We decided to take the Cable car (half way up the Eastern steps Route) and then walk the rest of the way to the top and then walk down the summit via the Western Steps route the next day.

We had pre-arranged accomodation on top of the summit for one night so that we could rise early and see the sunrise....

Here is my first shot taken above the mountain from the cable car....

And we really couldn't complain when we saw the porters carrying food and supplies up the mountain. These guys are so muscly!!! Buns of steel! And they were ascending the mountain faster than any of the tourists... quite embarrassing to admit!

Some of the gorgeous views.. Breath taking.... Here we were amongst the clouds.... not the usual pollution of China!

These shots were taken at dusk....

We were happily told by the girl at reception where to go for the best views for both the sunset and sunrise. I found it quite strange that it was located at the same point on the map.. but thankful for her 'tip' we headed off to watch the sun set.... innocently trusting her.

Upon arriving at the 'best viewing point for sunset' strangely enough there were only western tourists.. and no Chineses tourists to be found. Wierd??? I mean every other monument in China is full of Chinese tourists... tis hard to actually take a photo without them in it .....something smelled a bit fishy... didn't seem right to me. I mean there were plenty of chinese tour groups at the hotel... tour group upon tour group in fact... so where were they now?

We enjoyed the sunset... it was beautiful and well.........we didn't know any better.. but i swore to Do that the girl at hotel reception had sent the western tourists to one point and the Chinese tourists to another (better) point. Already we were being overcharged all over China and ripped off at every corner.. paying inflated entrance fees just to even see the monuments... so it made made me angry to know that she had even tried to rip us off from having the same experience.

The next morning we arose early to see our sunset.

We were down at reception at 5am (up for showers at 4.30am) and lucky for us we had ignored the suggestion from the receptionist that the sun was to rise at 6am. At 5 in the morning the hotel lobby was full of chinese tour groups heading out the door. We checked out from our room as fast as we could... and chased down the path after the tour groups.. of course walking in the opposite direction to which she had suggested to us the day before. Unbelievable!!!

So we were pretty chuffed with ourselves for not falling for the reception girl's scam and even happier when we found ourselves fitter than the chinese tour groups.. we had walked our way towards the front of the groups, in the dark mind you.

We had been walking for 40mins already..... the sun has just started to come up and we were finally approaching the viewing point... where we found all and i mean ALL!!! the chinese groups present. These groups must have been up an hour before us.... more than 1000 people were already poised for the sun to rise.

And....... there were no other western tourists in sight at all!!!!

So..... at first of course, we were pretty happy.... we hadn't been fooled twice! The only problem was though, we now had to fight amongst the masses for any viewing space at all. In the end..... we didn't even get close to actually viewing the sunrise... the crowd was more than 6 deep from the front.. everyone with camera in hand trying to get 'the shot' so.... as we'd grown used to by now on our travels... we got pushed amongst the chinese pushing each other around... (as the russian and mongolians also do to each other...) and happily made our descent down the mountain taking in the beautiful scenery on the way.....

There are many more sunrises to be seen.......................

Some of the lush forest we walked through on our descent.. we found our own way down the mountain. :)

Shiny Shanghai

Shanghai stories....

Shanghai is ultra modern and you can tell that it's where the money is, in China. It is a shop til you drop kind of city with shopping centres everywhere you look. We were able to resist... well not entirely (we both have new handbags!) most of the people on the street who stopped us with their standard "you want shoes, watch, bags.. gucci, prada louis vuitton" sentence. And i don't just mean on one street, i mean on most of the streets!! 'twas funny and the only way we could get rid of them was to say the sentence in chorus with them verbatim. It got a laugh and they left us alone, understanding that we had been in the city for a few days (we stayed 5! we loved it so much) already

Our main reason for going to Shanghai, i'll admit, was on my mum's recommmendation of the Shanghai acrobatics. And we were not let down at all. it was amazing!! Way better than the opera in Beijing that's for sure! And.. we were lucky enough to get 6th row seats!The guy next to told me he had bought his tickets months before so i think we had cancellation tickets. Yay! It was a fantastic show and here you can see 6 girls balancing on chairs (they scramble up one another and sometimes use springboards!) with one arm..... crazy and we even got some video footage which will have to wait til we get home. These people are too talented for words... and if you think chinese gymnasts (where the girls are picked at age 2 or 3 and train 6 days a week! their whole childhood) then you can maybe begin to imagine how good these acrobats are... i'm guessing they train just as hard..... It was fantastic and i don't have stong enough superlatives right now.................... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED/A MUST SEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The famous Shanghai 'Bund' lit up at night.

We also did a night cruise on the Huangpo River, went to the Shanghia Urban planning exhibit, the Shanghi museum, Yuyuan gardens, Strolled through ther French concession and visited the ultra new and modern Xintiandi area. We also went to the Art district at Taikang rd (not as good as factory 798 in Bejing) which was very trendy, expensive and clearly the place to be seen.

This pic is taken in trendy Xintiandi ouside a bar. We were impressed with the design, it didn't really have a chinese feel... more european.

here is a pic from the Old Town and the Yuyuan bazaar at night. We loved walking through this area, we went their twice and happily invested in some beautiful jasmine tea (full flower style which open up after a minute with boiling water).


The main shoping street. East Nanjing Road! See what i mean about how many Chinese people there are in China. We stick out in a crowd which is why we have so many people approach us to buy theier goods. The people on the street work in the black market (fakes of the big brand names) and we were taken to some shops that were hidden within and behind shop walls (think of the bookcase in Anne Frank's house) and then there were more rooms even behind those walls. They acted as if it was so normal and we found it hilarious!

Shangai scene inclusive of typical pollution, skyscrapers and bicycle rider.

Bejing bits

Beijing highlights.....
We stayed at a wonderful hostel called the 'Red Lantern Hostel' and so...... here is a pic i took outside our room on our first night. Typical chinese lanterns!







Beijing is currently busy with (so much) construction as everyone knows... and.... it is also on the big clean up! We were pleasantly surprised at how little pollution there was (after having read it is one of the world's most polluted cities...) and at how clean the streets are. We actually found the hutuong (what't left of them anyway) a little inauthentic and too clean. Funny. What we were also surprised at was at how the construction is so super fast. The road near our hostel was pulled up and changed and ready for action...literally overnight. They work around the clock here and building construction sites are made up of bamboo! They are not really complying with our safety standards here.. but then again... nothing much complies with western standards here..... pedestrian crossings..... no-one stops for you... food hygiene ... what is refridgeration? and then there is the whole toilet situation. Some toliets... we just can't deal with and we have to hold on til we find another one...... A whole blog could be written on teh spitting and the amount og phlegm ion China. Constantly clearing their throats and we stil can't get used to it. It's disgusting and they still have a long way to go b4 the olympics to eduacte their people on western manners.

In addition to the typical chinese calligraphy and wall hangings painted on rice paper, we managed to find some really funky art at a place called Factory 798. Now housed in an old electronics factory (798). We were expecting something small..... ok maybe even a big factory, but what we found was a whole art area/suburb which could easily take a day if you went to all the studios and small galleries and hung out in some of the cafes. A lovely hidden gem! Unfortunately we were there on our last day and had a (super speedy Z2 fast) train to catch to Shanghai but we both said that facotry 798 was a very good excuse to return to Beijing. Might do that on a stopvoer trip for next time i visit home? Anyway i highly recommend Factory 798 for anyone visiting Bejing and who is after some contemporary art. Very cool and i hope to give it some more justice on a return trip.








A piece from the Beijng Tokyo Art project








We also went to the Beijing Opera which although not a must see... was entertaining! We think this one was mainly for tourists but we had the experience anyway.... opera is not my thing anyway. I still remember that i once fell asleep at the Opera of Romeo and Juliet at the Sydney Opera house....





What a must see is..... the Great wall of China! Here are some of the padlocks that lovers have locked onto chains at the Wall as a symbol of their never-ending love. Ultra Romantic!






At the wall, we even found some of the terracotta Warriors (from XI'AN) i guess some have been moved for tourist value.....

No update from China would be complete without mentioning the huge number of chinese people in China. No surprise but they are everywhere! This pic on the subway is nothing. Modesty is a thing of the past and although the trains come every 1 or 2 minutes... they are full especially pre and post the bigger/busier stations. We found it super easy to get around and were even lucky ebnough to be on Line 5 the day of it's opening. Made getting round easier for us and 'twas also nice to see how proud the Beijingers are of their city. poeple were taking pics of themselves at signs in Line 5 and it was super shiny and clean having just opened the day we arrived.

here is typical scene of some of the bikes stopped at a traffic light.








A sneaky shot i took of a man at the Summer Palace. There are so many magical sights to see in Beijing that you could easilyu spend a week here and be busy every day.. we had to pick and choose.


and here is our friend Olivier the Octopus (thankx Jo) who is now travelling with us. He jumps in a few pics now and then.... here he is at the Temple of Heaven.


And to our suprprise everyone wants to take pics of us or have us join them in their photos. I guess we want pics of them so it makes sense. Here are some students at the Temple of Heaven who we had some fun with



and then there is the 'weird' cuisine we found at the Donghuamen Night Market. It is here where we ate (well i had to try...) fried small scorpions on a stick - very crunchy and actually nice...) and also silk worms... - not that nice..... as well as squid on stick which is not that strange but still delicious. Didn't eat these frog axolotl thing either!





I didn't eat these centipedes.. ...or one of the star fish on a stick or the sea horses on a stick or the big black scorpions (just the little ones) for the record

Some pics from the Gobi Desert (details to come)

I just wanted to put these pics up before we get on the train for Beijing. This all (uploading) takes a while which is why i haven't written as much as i would have liked to... will keep on blogging on in Beijing.








Ush sand dunes

















Mongolian camels have 2 humps













Me running up the sand dunes











This camel needs some tooth floss and paste












the things you find in the Gobi desert













Yours truly on a camel

















Our tent at sunset by the ger















Camel

Some pics from our Trip to Lake Hovsgol (details to come)

Sunset by the lake











We have been in the Mongolian countryside for most of the past month, hence no real contact from me. Mongolia is lacking in tourist infrastructure which i guess is both a positive and a negative.

The positive being that we truly feel we have experienced the real mongolia, the negative being, that at times it has been frustrating. Internet is only really accessible in UlanBator the capital which is where we are today.

We are heading to Beijing tomorrow morning by train which is very exciting because the food here is not much to write about... but i will when i can!

But for now i figure you will be more patient for the details if i upload some pics xxx



My Horse (he had no name?)



Our guide for 6 days- 'Bata'




















Mongolian Landscapes are gorgeous





















The Lake has crystal clear blue water