C & C globetrotting around the world…

From Guilin, we took the bus for an hour and a half to Yangshuo. In Yangshuo we quickly found a great restaurant “Dumpling Dynasty” that we kept on going back to for quick, cheap and tasty bites. West Street is where it’s happening at in Yangshuo, but it was way to loud and crowded for us (I guess we’re getting older…) with its many little shops, bars and clubs. It was nice to stroll along though once in a while. It was crowded, but it’s only one street. We had expected a lot worse, but compared to Golden Week in Lijiang, it’s nothing, hehe.

The following day, we went for a bike tour in the surrounding country-side. We rented bikes and got a local guide to show us small bike paths since we didn’t want to bike on the road beside trucks and buses, and the paths are not well marked. Our guide took us past rice fields, osmanthus tree nurseries and through little old villages. One of the villages was 700 years old and was once a wealthy one, as he pointed out the village wall, expensive gateways, large houses and elaborate wood work.

Quick facts about rice: In the Yangshuo area there are 2 rice harvests (May-July and August-October). He also explained to us that the rice is first planted in an area close to the water and very close together. When the plants are about 10cm high, they get transplanted in the actual rice fields. When it is ripe is turns golden and then the farmers harvest it. The plants grow in bundles with the rice kernels being at the top, sort of like wheat. With a sickle, they cut a bundle at the time and lay it down in the field (usually done by women). Then the next person (usually the men) come and stick the top part containing the rice kernels into a machine that collects them. They then lay down the rest of the plant in the field and let it dry. When it’s dry, it gets tied together in little upside-down bundles that look like hats and is fed to the animals as hay. The rice kernels are then spread out on a stone platform in the village with a broom-like tool and let to dry for about 3 days.

We arrived at Dragon bridge over the Yulong river, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty, crossed the bridge and followed the river downstream on our bikes, passing a few more villages. On this side it was a lot more quiet though, with no tourists. At some point we took a Bamboo boat for 1.5hours down the river. It was nice, but there were “floating islands”, bamboo rafts with Chinese women wanting to sell us beer, along the way. The scenery was great though, the calm river reflecting the limestone peaks. There are some dams the farmers built in order to control the water level for their rice fields. To pass these dams, the bamboo boat drifts over them. However, now the water level is pretty low (it’s the dry season), so sometimes we had to get off and hop back on. When we went over the dams, the front of the boat and then the entire bamboo raft would be under water. It was a bit like rafting and we had fun, but one time our butts got pretty wet. At the end of our bamboo ride, our guide was waiting and the bikes were brought by truck. We biked back to Yangshuo and stopped at a bee farm (apiculturrist) for honey on the way. The bike tour was great and we would have never found those quiet places without our guide Daniel, but the paths were very bumpy at times. This gave us the excuse to get a long-awaited massage. Cecilia had a therapeutic one, while Christoph got a great foot massage. Finally.Unfortunately we don’t have an insurance that pays for it, but luckily the prices are the same as in Canada, only in RMB, not CAD, hehe.

On the 3^rd day, we went to the Big Banyan Tree, a tree that is 1400 years old and really huge. From its branches it sends down roots that serve as support and also to get nutriments. We then walked up Moon Hill, which got its name from the hole in the mountain looking like a full or crescent moon, depending on the angle you look from. Although hazy, the view from the top was nice, seeing lots of karst peaks in the distance. We had heard about the fun cooking course in Yangshuo, so we signed up for it. The chef took us to the market and showed us some fruits and vegetables that we are not used to (persimmon, pomelo, fresh mushrooms, dried spices, garlic sprouts, taro, roots) and also the meat market, where we saw chickens, ducks and rabbits, as well as cats and dogs. Then she went to the cooking school, which was beautifully located by the Li River, the river flowing through Yangshuo. The view was still nice even though the water level was pretty low because of the dry season. We haven’t cooked since we moved out of our apartment June 1^st, so we were excited to cook again. In total we cooked 5 dishes: Eggplant Yangshuo style (really yummy), stir-fried veggies (a bit bland), stuffed mushrooms with minced pork (ok, but not special), beer fish (not great, but we didn’t add the tomato) and chicken with cashews (good). The Eggplant Yangshuo style was our favourite and we’ll try to reproduce it at home. It was interesting to watch the chef chop everything up, especially since we had never used a cleaver (Asian knife). She even used that to crush the garlic cloves and ginger. Also some tricks we learnt is that the wok has to be smoking before you put the oil in and that once you add water to your stir-fry, you don’t mix until the water starts to boil. Usually everything had to be done very fast (high flame, quick cooking), which probably explains part of the chef’s “choppy” nature. We got to eat our creations afterwards and were happy with our the outcome. In the evening we met up with a couple from Quebec City who we had met in Guilin. It was Halloween and although we didn’t dress up, we had a few drinks together and nice chats. After midnight, we celebrated Christoph’s birthday and had a great time.

On Christoph’s birthday, we spent a chill day in Yangshuo, strolling on West Street and buying some souvenirs. Having perfected our bargaining skills in the last 3 months, we got some good deals. We know how much stuff is worth and by how much they inflate the prices usually. On the special occasion, we went to Kelly’s for dinner. We had sizzling curry chicken and sweet & sour pork, both dishes being extremely delicious. For dessert we went to Lucy’s Cafe and had the apple crumble Christoph had spotted a few days earlier. It was also very delicious and a great birthday “cake”.

On the 5^th day in Yangshuo (it feels good to stay in one place for longer sometimes) we were very active again. We climbed up a karst peak where the TV Tower is. The steep stairs were exhausting, but the nice views rewarding. From there we saw Yangshuo, the Li River and lots of karst peaks surrounding us and slowly disappearing in the haze. Now that we’ll soon be in Vietnam, we need to read up on it more and plan the next few weeks, so we spent some time on that in Yangshuo. In the evening we attended the “Impressions on San Jie”, a show set against the backdrop of 8 karst peaks. It‘s a story similar to “Romeo & Juliet” but involves 400 performers, ethnic minorities and local fishermen on the Li River. We had been told it wasn’t that good, so our expectations were really low. Actually we enjoyed the show, especially the red scene (the fishermen with the red plastic thing) and the end, where the performers were dressed in costumes with LED lights. The choreographer is the same guy who did the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and the show was impressive.

Day 100 in China! Youhou! We hopped on a bus to Xingping, the village close to which the scenery on the 20RMB bill is. Here we got annoyed with all the ladies trying to sell us bamboo boat trips, especially since they wouldn’t take No for an answer. We anticipate it will get worse in Vietnam… After walking around a bit, we found the spot. The scenery is nice indeed, but again with the water level low, it’s not quite as spectacular. And now you have lots of bamboo boats (actually fake bamboo boats, since the “bamboo” is made of plastic and they have engines). We were happy the one we took on the Yulong river at least was made of really bamboo and a fisherman was paddling. Back in Yangshuo, we had a great dinner to end our long trip to China.

After our last overnight train ride in China, we arrived in Guilin. We were disappointed about the city of Guilin because we thought the Li River is nice here as well, but for that you need to go to Yangshuo, so we’ll have to wait a few days. The reason we stopped in Guilin is to go see and hike in the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces. In the morning we hopped on a bus and went to Dazhai, the village in the valley by the entrance. We hiked to the Golden Buddha Hill, which was a detour on our way to Tiantouzhai village. The scenery was really nice, but the weather was cloudy and pretty cold. The Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces are an incredible feat of farm engineering used for over a millennium where the terraces rise 1000m high and the area is dotted with minority villages. We were greeted by the Red Yao women, with their super long hair (they never cut it) and nice costumes. While we didn’t catch a good season, it was still cool to see. The terraces are at their best either after the summer rains that leave them glistening with reflections, in the fall just before harvest when they turn golden or in winter when they are coated with snow. We saw them in between season, just after harvest but before the first snow, so we have a reason to go back some time in the future. On our way to Tiantouzhai village, we hiked between rice terraces, through some bamboo groves and along little creeks. It was really nice and peaceful with great views of the surrounding villages. Tiantouzhai is a hilltop village made of wooden houses and we witnessed one being built while we were there. The entire village was participating, some up on the scaffolding, some sawing while others were just watching and giving their opinion. The houses are built on a concrete platform, but the beams are not anchored to the floor and there are no nails used in the construction. Really interesting to see. After dark we went to bed, since there is nothing to do there and it was also cold. There is no heating in the houses and it was below 10 degrees, so we hid under double blankets. What a disappointment on the second day! We were hoping to do a 4 hours hike through the rice fields to Ping’an village, but we woke up to lots and lots of fog and rain. Not really weather conditions conducive to hiking, so we slept a little longer and then headed down to Dazhai to catch a bus back to Guilin. Bad timing, but still a nice place.

Yes, Macau makes more money than Las Vegas, but there is so much more to Macau than its casinos.

It was the first and last European colony in China. Portuguese traders first settled here in the 16th century and Portugal administered the city until the handover to China in 1999. Now Macau has a status similar to Hong Kong, with its own systems. It also has its own currency (patacas), but actually Hong Kong dollars are widely used. In most casinos you can actually only play with HKD.  The first inhabitants are said to have moved to Macau when fleeing the Mongols (around 1000AD), but it didn’t actually develop into a major settlement until the Portuguese settled there. First Portuguese traders were just allowed to anchor there and trade, not actually stay onshore, but slowly slowly they acquired more rights and in 1557 they were renting land and had built houses. They used the port as a hub on their trading routes with their other colonies and trading partners, such as Mozambique, Goa and Indonesia.

Unfortunately its Portuguese past is only seen by the buildings and the official names of everything, but Portuguese is hardly spoken anymore, with 95% of the population being Chinese and only 2% being Macanese (of Portuguese descent or mixed Portuguese descent). Along with Cantonese, Portuguese is still an official language though. Since Macau’s industry heavily relies on tourism and gambling, 25% of the workforce works either in hotels and restaurants (15%) or in the gambling industry (10%). There are also many immigrants working in Macau, many of whom come from the Philippines and speak better English than the Macanese.

From Hong Kong we took the ferry to Macau. The ferries go every 15 minutes, one to Macau and another to the Cotai Strip (also on Macau, where the casinos are), which is crazy. Not to mention the Sky Shuttle, a helicoter that costs 300USD per person and also flies every 15-30 minutes. This is only for Hong Kong. There is another ferry to Shenzhen and a bridge to mainland China. That is a lot of people gambling!

Upon arrival in Macau, we went to the “travel agencies” in the ferry terminal to ask about hostels and hotel specials. The people there didn’t speak Portuguese, or English or Mandarin!!! Luckily the hostel where we had reserved the first night was available for 2 more nights as well. After dinner, we walked a bit around and went to the Grand Lisboa Casino and the MGM Casino. The MGM, which is really nice inside, also hosted an Oktoberfest while we were there, but we didn’t go to it.

Our room was tiny with bunk beds, but clean and good enough since we didn’t want to pay 1,000HKD per night. We had brunch at a Portuguese restaurant: pasteis de bacalhau and grilled chorizo sandwiches. Afterwards we started the Historic Walk suggested by the Tourism Office through the old Portuguese settlement. Our first stop was Largo de Senado, Macao’s urban centre for centuries and still popular today. The neo-classical pastel-coloured buildings surrounding it are nicely renovated and create a nice Mediterranean atmosphere. We explored more of the Portuguese sights, mainly churches, such as the Cathedral, the St-Augustine and St-Lawrence churches, but also the Dom Pedro V Theatre and the Moorish Barracks. The barracks were constructed to house an Indian regiment from Goa (then a Potuguese colony as well) appointed to reinforce Macao’s police force. At the tip of the Macao Peninsula we passed in front of the A-Ma Temple, which existed before the city of Macao came into being. It is said that when the Portuguese first arrived on this spot and asked for the name of the place, they were told “A-Ma Gau” (bay of A-Ma), and hence the name of Macao. There is a legend that A-Ma, a poor girl looking for passage to Canton (now Guangzhou) was turned away by wealthy junk owners. A poor fisherman took her on board and shortly after a storm blew up, wrecking all the junks but leaving the fishing boat unscathed. When it returned to the Inner Harbour, A-Ma walked to the top of nearby Barra Hill and ascended to Heaven. In her honour, the fisherman built a temple on the spot where they had landed safely.

We then hurried to the Macao Tower, where Ben and Maayan were going to bungee jump. It is the highest jump in the world at 233m and we watched them from the bottom. Just seeing them jump our hearts were racing! After a coffee and cake break, we went to the Grand Prix F3 Museum and the Wine Museum. Both were free, completely empty and really well made. In the F3 Museum, we got to race on the Macao circuit, which was lots of fun. In the Wine Museum we had a little wine tasting, also very good.

In the evening we went to the Lusofonia Festival. The timing of our Macao visit was really good since the Lusofonia Festival took place exactly those few days. All Portuguese-speaking countries had their stands, selling artifacts, food and presenting their countries. We had dinner which was delicious and walked around, having small bites here and there and drinking free sangria from the stand of Portugal. Christoph got to talk in Portuguese with some people and we had a good time.

The next morning we hopped on the bus to Coloane Island and Coloane village. It was nice with mostly Portuguese architecture and we walked around and had lunch at a famous bakery. Afterwards we took the bus to Taipa Island (these 2 islands used to be separate, but have now become one due to landfill). It was really hot outside and we welcomed the cool of the casino when we went into the Venetian Casino. Unlike the other ones, the Venetian really looks like that inside as well and has gondoliers on its canals.

We then went to watch the Lusofonia Parade in Taipa village, which was lots of fun. As the groups were preparing, some were dancing, some chanting and it was great to see. Especially the group from Mozambique, they seemed to have the most fun and Christoph found the little Indian guy totally hilarious. And let’s not forget the Brazilian chicks! Christoph felt lucky so we went to the Galaxy Casino. We had fun playing and even came out with a small profit. Happy, we returned to the Lusofonia festival for dinner and had great food again. There was a show as well, which we enjoyed (great performances by the Goa, Damau & Diu groups) with more free sangria.

On our last day in Macau, we went to the A-Ma Temple to watch a Portuguese Folk Dancing group in front of it. Some of the performers were Chinese, but everyone knew the songs and sang along. We suspect that some were of Portuguese descent. The dances were really cool and we joined in the dancing as well. Lots of fun! We then walked back North through the small winding streets and back to the Historic Centre where it was really crowded. It was Sunday, when there are even more tourists (hotel prices more than double on week-ends). We walked in the small street with lots of shops giving out dried meat and cookie samples. We tried many different kinds and finally also bought 1, but after all that nibbling, we didn’t need to have lunch anymore, hehe. We passed by the Lu Kou Mansion, pointed out in the “Historic Walk” as an example of Chinese and Portuguese history coexisting, but it wasn’t very impressive. Then we arrived at the Ruins of St-Paul, the remains of a Jesuit church from the 17^th century that burned down 3 times. The 3^rd time they decided not to rebuild it and have left the facade standing. Right beside it is Fortaleza da Monte (Mount Fort), also built by Jesuits to defend Macau against foreign invasion by sea. Now the Macau Museum displaying the history of Macau (Portuguese & Chinese influence) is also housed there. One cool thing that we learnt there is why some languages say “tea” while others say “cha”. The countries that imported tea from Fujian province say “tea” because in their dialect it sounds like that (ex. Germany, England, France). The countries that imported tea from Canton say “cha” because it sounds like that in Cantonese (India, Russia, Portugal).

The museum was our last stop in Macau and then we picked up our stuff at the hostel before taking the ferry to Shenzhen. We really enjoyed the days in Macau as it was a good mix between culture, history, food and fun.

We crossed the border to Hong Kong by… foot! You take the metro to a specific station in Shenzhen, walk over the border and then get on the metro in Hong Kong again, so it’s pretty funny.

Imagine the landscape of Vancouver (aka Vankong or Hongcouver) with its ocean on a mountainous backdrop. Add the skyscrapers and hustle&bustle of Manhattan NYC and it’s going to start to look like Hong Kong. Then double the NYC prices, add lots of street vendors and Chinese fake watches and you will have a picture of HK. After the 99 years of British rule that ended on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong is not China. It still has different judicial and political systems, a different currency and enjoys more economic freedom than mainland China (called the one country, two systems principle). But let’s not forget the print the British left: driving on the wrong side of the street and widely spoken English.

Actually, this is only about 20% of Hong Kong, where the city is. The other 80% of Hong Kong is covered by jungle and is a lot quieter. It was interesting to discover the urban jungle of the city and skyscrapers, and then heading to the islands around the peninsula and seeing ancient fisher villages, untouched jungle and pedestrian islands.

On our first day there, we went to various famous markets in Hong Kong, like the flower market with its thousands of orchids, the bird market and the goldfish market where many fish are already put in a plastic bag ready for you to take home. After dark we watched the “Symphony of Lights” from the Kowloon side over Hong Kong Island. The idea is nice, but they could do so much more with it. The view of the waterfront and its skyscrapers is beautiful and we also walked on the Avenue of Stars, taking pictures with Bruce Lee’s bronze statue.

Luckily we were able to Couchsurf the first 2 nights in Hong Kong because the city is just unbelievably expensive, especially if you’ve travelled through Mainland China before. Our CS hosts were Raphaele (a French teacher from Poitiers) and Shane (a Kungfu Master from Shijiazhuang) who moved to HK over a year ago in their tiny apartment. The apartment is so tiny, that where we slept was the hallway/kitchen/living room/office/guest room. Their bedroom was not any bigger: only the mattress and a wardrobe fit, while the bathroom was crazy small. It was very nice of them to have us and it was interesting for us to see how people live, but I don’t think we could live like that for more than a few days. It’s interesting to see how people make do.

On the second day, we got up early and applied for our Vietnamese Visa, which was surprisingly quick and cheaper than in mainland China. We then walked through the neighbourhood called Central on Hong Kong Island, which is the business district of HK and passed the 70-storied Bank of China building. We got to a nice park and discovered that the CIBC building was just across from it. A bit like in Montreal with the Cathedral and the small park on University Street. We went up to the 36^th floor where the CIBC Office is, enjoyed the views and had the chance to talk to the managing director. From there we walked again through the city, passed the St-John’s Cathedral (one of the few colonial buildings still standing in Central) and had lunch at McD. It was really annoying seeing delicious food around us, but because of budget limitations we couldn’t have it, so we had McD’s more often than we would have liked. After that we headed to the Mid-Levels Escalator, the longest covered escalator in the world at a length of 800m, taking 20min one way and transporting 20,000-30,000 people daily. From there we could look down on SoHo with its fancy restaurants. We also passed the Government House, formerly the office and residence of the Governor of HK during the British rule, and St-Joseph’s Church, a strange-looking blue church.

We took the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak to 396m above sea level. The tram opened in 1888 and was powered by coal fired steam boilers. It is said to be a landmark in HK and the most enduring emblem of HK’s past. The leaning gradient varies between 4 and 27 degrees, but it feels more like 45 degrees (especially going down when you stand). Before its construction, one was carried up by sedan bamboo chairs strapped to 2 poles and carried by 2 people. At the top, we went to a look-out point and then walked the 3.5km Victoria Peak garden park trail with nice views all around. From the top we also watched the sunset with Keith and Sarah, whom we coincidentally met up there and knew from Lijiang. We took the tram back down together and walked under the HSBC main building. Feng shui (wind water) influences the construction of many buildings in Hong Kong (lifted HSBC building, wholes through entire buildings or missing floors) in order to allow bad spirits to pass through the structure, not to stop at it.

On the third day it was time for us to explore the other side of Hong Kong: its nature. Christoph went hiking with 2 Hong Kongnese from CS, while Cecilia stayed in the hostel sorting pictures and reading about the Outlying Islands and Macau to plan the upcoming days. Christoph was happy to discover a different side of Hong Kong while hiking on the Yuen Tsuen Ancient Trail in the New Territories. The 6-hour hike was beautiful, passing through unspoilt tropical forests and alongside quiet creaks.

On our fourth day, we got up pretty early and rode the metro to the end of one of the lines on Lantau Island. We took the bus winding the road up to the Ngong Plateau and visited the Tian Tan Buddha, the world’s tallest outside seated bronze Buddha. You climb up 268 steps to reach the feet of this 26m tall gilded statue and get rewarded with nice views of the surrounding area. From there we followed the road to tranquillity on the “Wisdom Path”, an outdoor replica of the centuries old Heart Sutra, one of the world’s best-known prayers that is revered by Confucians, Buddhists and Taoists alike, displayed on 38 wooden steles which are arranged like an 8 shape to symbolise infinity. We then went to Tai O, a small fishing village with houses on stilts. What’s interesting is that the houses are connected, with the passageway of one going through the living room of another house. We also walked though them and were surprised to see Western toilets and flat screen T.V.s in these rustic houses. We also had a nice lunch here before hopping on the next bus to beautiful Cheung Sha Beach, before going to Mui Wo and taking the ferry back to Central on HK Island.

Then we took another ferry to Yung Sheu Wan on Lamma Island, a small island with no cars and laid-back people. We arrived just as it was getting dark and found an apartment to share with Ben and Maayan for 500HKD, a great price compared to Kowloon. After dark the small fisher harbour looked like Crete in Greece with the fisher boats and little houses on the hills.

On our last day, we had breakfast in the room with baguette, cheese and fruits before heading out to the Family Trail for a hike to the other side of the island, the fisher village of Sok Kwu Wan. We passed a look-out point and a beach and then had a delicious seafood lunch. We took the ferry back to Central to go pick up our Vietnamese visa. Afterwards we walked to the Golden Bauhinia, the symbol of Hong Kong since the 1997 British handover and is also the flower on the flag. Right next to it was the Convention Center, a huge construction by the waterfront.

On Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (the peninsula), we felt like in Manhattan, but on Lantau Island with its hilly drive, ocean and beaches, it felt like Hawaii. Then on Lamma Island we could have been in a Greek fisher village by night and in Costa Rica during the day. And all of this in Hong Kong, a city-state of only 1,104 square km (half the size of Luxembourg!).

Kunming was a stop-over on our way to Guangzhou, but it was nice. It was also our first Couchsurfing experience and we were excited about how it would turn out. Our host – Edgar – welcomed us and cooked dinner for us. He’s a pretty interesting character and a wealthy Chinese travelling overseas twice a year. He also gave us his business card and we saw that he’s the DEAN and associate professor of the Yunnan Business School. Wow! We didn’t expect to CS at the dean’s place, but it was a good start, hehe.

The Stone Forest is the main attraction around Kunming, but after the long train ride we didn’t feel like taking the bus for 6 hours that day, so we explored the city instead. We visited the Yuangtong Temple, the largest Buddhist Temple in Kunming which is over 1200 years old, but many parts have been reconstructed in the Qing period (1644-1912). It’s a very nice and peaceful place, with lots of people lighting incense and many little turtles in the water. To the back, there is also a statue of Sakyamuni, a gift from the Thai king, where we met a retired couple from Longueuil (recognized them by the La Cordee hat) and then had lunch with them at a Vegetarian Restaurant close by recommended by the LP. From there we went to the Green Lake Park to walk around and people-watch. When we left the park, we were looking for Renmin Lu (Main street) and a mature Chinese man stopped to ask us if he could help us. We said Renmin Lu and he pointed us in the right direction (first time someone stops to ask us if we need directions and also in English). People in Kunming are really friendly! We took the bus back to Edgar’s place and were pleasantly surprised that Kunming has reserved lanes for buses. We had read that the city is trying to be the “greenest” in China, but it’s nice to see some concrete steps towards it as well.

And another 24-hour train ride: Kunming to Guangzhou. We are always happy when we get a sleeper since it is infinite times more comfortable. In our “compartment” we had 2 couples, one of which had just gotten married in their hometown near Dali during the “Golden Week”. They shared they cookies and fruits with us, we gave them nuts and seeds. The people were really friendly and we wished we spoke Chinese to be able to better communicate with them. It was probably the most pleasant train ride and the landscape was beautiful with mountains and rice fields. We also had good old boxed soup, an essential part of any long train ride.

We arrived in Guangzhou at noon and were hit by the heat and humidity! We had forgotten how hot it was in some parts of China, especially here with its humid, sub-tropical climate. Since we left Chongqing, we had had pretty chilly weather, so it was a slap in the face. The name of the province of Guangdong means vast East and the language spoken here is Cantonese, like in Hong Kong. Guangdong has about 80 million residents and 35 million more migrant workers, many of whom labour in the factories but are not given the resident status and go home to their families on public holidays. The people of Guangdong have been disdained by northerners as culture-less and barbaric due to their trader ways. Geographic isolation has forced people to rely on their innovation for survival and they have made their homeland one of the wealthiest regions in China. The Cantonese have always looked to the sea for their livelihood, starting with the Ancient Maritime Silk Road and seafood for their diet. Because they have been more exposed to the outside world, they are said to have more liberal ideas. We have witnessed the fact that a lot more people speak English, probably also because of their proximity to Hong Kong.

The city of Guangzhou is said to have been founded by five immortals who descended from the sky to save the city from starvation back in 214 BC. Since then its history has been dominated by trade and revolution, and after 1949 the city’s mission is to make money, we were told.

We walked on Shamian Island, which was acquired as a foreign concession after the 2 Opium Wars and has many beautiful French and British buildings, along with the little Church of our Lady of Lourdes built by the French in 1892. There we saw many couples taking wedding pictures, like in the vicinity of most churches in China. The island is very quiet and you wouldn’t believe you’re in a city of over 10 million people. We then walked along the Pearl River, passed the Sun Yatsen Memorial Hall and up to the Cathedral of the Scared Heart, a huge and beautiful cathedral in neo-Gothic style also built in the 19^th century. It is entirely of granite and its massive towers reach a height of 48m.

We then walked on some narrow lanes in the neighbourhood where we saw dumpling with peanut sauce (called Hunan dumplings in Canada) for 8RMB (20 dumplings for $1.30), so we had to have some. They were delicious and gave us energy to keep on walking. We kept on walking through the streets (some had lots of electronic shops and Christoph looked for some WECO products, but he only found some similar connectors) before reaching the Mosque Dedicated to the Prophet. We couldn’t go in because it was prayer time, but the “smooth minaret” looked interesting. We then took the metro to the meeting point with Ciro, our CS host here, who was an amazing guy and super host. With him we went to a CS event where someone presented a previous trip to Mongolia and Siberia. Afterwards we went to a Light Show. It was nice to see, but the most interesting part started when one of the light screens caught fire. The police on the premises first took pictures and it took about 30 minutes if not more until we heard the fire trucks approach. When the fire trucks arrived, they couldn’t access the building, so it took even longer. All this time the screen thing is burning and burning pieces are falling on the ground. One fire fighter came, took some pictures and finally the truck made its way there as well. It started shooting water, but it was parallel to the building instead of towards it. They finally managed to extinguish the fire, but about an hour had passed. Unbelievable! We called them fire “watchers” not fire fighters!

The next day we hopped on a fast train to Shenzhen. It’s amazing that there’s a train every 10 minutes between Guangzhou and Shenzhen and they are all full! The 165km took 1 hour because of the stops in between, but it’s very comfortable and goes by fast (especially after a 24-hr train ride, 🙂 ). We met up with Barrett (a friend that we had met in Qingdao) who was kind enough to host us at his place during our stay. World travellers are really cool people! There is nothing much to see and do in Shenzhen, but we came here to celebrate Cecilia’s birthday with people we met on our trip so far: Barrett, Brandon & Kerry, as well as Cedrick. Shenzhen was a small fishermen’s village only 30 years ago, but now it has over 15 million inhabitants. Pretty crazy! At midnight, Christoph sang me La Multi Ani and gave me a small walnut cake that we all shared. It was a nice way to start my birthday. One of the best birthday presents ever: got to sleep in. We all had a nice breakfast and walked around the neighbourhood to find a restaurant for the party. In the evening we met up with everyone and went to the resto. It was really good, although not local, but Szechuan dishes. In one dish there was the Szechuan pepper, which is said to make your mouth numb. It did indeed! First the tongue and then the rest of the mouth, spreading slowly. It’s was very strange sensation and lasted 10 minutes or so. You can still eat and talk, but it feels a bit different. We talked a lot, had lots of laughs and a good time. Afterwards we decided it would be fun to go to Karaoke (KTV), a typical Chinese thing to do. Cedrick knew a place, got us a KTV room and we sang the night away. With all the birthday wishes from overseas and the great party in Shenzhen, it was a great birthday far away from home. Thanks everyone!

The “Golden Week” in China is 10 days long where people celebrate the National Day, so after hiding from the masses in Lijiang, we went to Dali to lay low there for the last few days. Our bus ride took 4.5 hours, but some other people took 7-8 hours in bumper to bumper traffic for 175km. On the way we saw people working in the rice fields, harvesting. Our first day in Dali was freezing! Dali is at an altitude of 1900m, but we expected warmer temperatures. So we didn’t do anything besides chilling in the hostel and watching movies cuddled up in blankets. Felt really good though; the only thing missing was Gluehwein, but you can’t have everything in life, right?

On the second day we met up with Ben and Maayan from Israel, whom we had met in Chengdu and Lijiang again and they showed us around Dali a bit.

The old town of Dali is sandwiched between the 4000m-tall Cang Shan (Green Mountains) and Erhai (Ear-shaped) Lake. It used to be the backpacker hang-out place and is also said to be very touristy. Although we saw tourists (and Westerners, some of who moved here), the place was definitely not as crowded as Lijiang since there were no tourist groups there, only Chinese backpackers. The town was pretty small and not so pretty, but we liked the fact that it’s inhabited and you can see locals going about their daily business: going to the market, getting freshly ground beef at the butcher or carrying their kids around in the traditional back-packs.

One day we went with Ben and Maayan to watch Cormorant Fishing. The local fishermen use these birds to catch fish, a technique used since 1000AD. From the documentary we had seen in Canada, the fishermen would tie the cormorants’ necks so they cannot swallow the fish they caught. What we saw, the birds didn’t have their necks tied, but they speared the fish and the fisherman would then grab the fish. It was also cool the way he took the birds either by their necks or their beaks to move them around. It was interesting to see the whole fishing practice, but we didn’t stay very long on the boat, just enough to see them catch a few fish. The area around Dali is inhabited by the Bai minority and the lady rowing our boat was a Bai, with a nice costume and headdress.

In Dali there is a small Catholic Church, which an English couple told us about. It was built by the French in 1938, but got shot down during the Cultural Revolution. It has reopened since 1998 and even has a seminary now. It was interesting to see this small and cute church with Bai architecture. It was also nice because there was a boy playing piano while we visited, so it gave the place a serene atmosphere. The weather in Dali was pretty capricious and it rained every evening with the mornings being very humid and foggy. The last day there, we decided to go up Cang Shan, but didn’t make it to the top as we wanted to be back before dark. At least we got a bit of exercise.

In Dali we also had delicious food, both Chinese (Sweet and sour pork, yak steak, plum spirit, roasted chestnuts and green walnuts as snacks while watching movies and “Friends”) and Western (Belgian Waffles, burgers, carrot cake).

After the Tiger Leaping Gorge, we returned to Lijiang. We had heard Lijiang is very nice, so we thought it would be a good place to spend time and avoid traveling during the “Golden Week”. October 1^st is the Chinese National Holiday and the entire week following that is chaos everywhere in China. Most Chinese people are on holidays during this time, so 100 million Chinese travel every day (that’s right: 100,000,000 ppl!) and we definitely didn’t want to be part of this craziness. We stayed for a week in Lijiang, a pedestrian town with beautiful small alleys, canals and flowers everywhere, avoiding trains and buses. It was really nice and reminded us of the floral villages in Alsace, except for the Chinese tourists. The town is touristy in normal times as well, but since October 1^st there are masses of people.

In the surroundings of Lijiang live the Naxi, an ethnic minority who still have a hieroglyphic language and a matriarchal society. In the town there were so many shops selling traditional hand-made Naxi colourful shawls, scarfs, skirts and shirts. There were also many places selling knickknacks and wood carvings. The most remarkable thing is that the million tiny shops selling CDs are all playing ONE song: “Darling, darling…”. There were also lots of restaurants and bars and we had the impression that nobody really lived there; that it was all for tourists, but it was still very nice. One day we had lunch at a small restaurant and Christoph ordered “Ants climbing a tree” (rice noodles with chicken and veggies) which was delicious, but a few times we went to our hostel’s family dinner (Mama Naxi dinner).

There are not many attractions in town, but wandering through the alleyways was very nice. It’s like a maze though, so you cannot be in a hurry. What’s funny is that 99% of tourists stay in a few alleys where most of the shops are, so if you go an alley left or right, you might find a peaceful corner. We didn’t do much while in Lijiang, so working on the blog and relaxing while talking to other travelers were our top priorities.

Christoph did go on a day trip to Shuhe village with a Dutch guy, which was supposed to be an ancient Naxi village, but it turned out to be a miniature of Lijiang. One evening we also went to the Naxi Orchestra concert. What was interesting was the fact that most of the musicians are over 80 years old and they play ancient traditional instruments. We hope this tradition will get passed on. The old guys were funny to watch, some falling asleep as a guy held a speech, while others were popping Mentos all evening. We had planned on doing one more day trip to Baisha village by bike, but the rain (any laziness?) kept us indoors. We did go to a market, where you could buy anything from fruits and veggies to brooms and car tires. We only bought peaches and a melon though. There is also the Black Dragon Pool Park (where the spring of the town river is located) which is supposed to be pretty nice, but with the drizzle and high entrance fee, we decided to skip it.

In one hostel we were staying (Garden Inn), there was a dog barking from midnight to 6am, so we switched hostels. We traded the barking dog for a screaming 2-yr-old! Because many hostels are guesthouses, the family actually also sleeps in one of the rooms. The kid of the family here can do whatever he wants to, even at 7am when the guests sleep. The Chinese don’t control their kids at all, so they do what they want. With each family having only one child, and therefore 4 grand-parents spoiling this one child, the kids are known as “Little Emperors”. There is a lot of pressure on these kids for supporting the family later, an issue called the 1-2-4 problem where 1 kid has to support 2 parents and 4 grand-parents. It’s going to be interesting to see what is going to happen to these generations in time.

After Lijiang we are going to Dali, where we will spend few more days until the “Golden Week” is over.

From Chengdu we had to switch trains in Guangtong with only one hour waiting time before boarding the second one. For the 6 hours to Lijiang we would not have really needed a sleeper, but it was either that or standing, so we obviously took the sleeper. We also managed to dose a little bit, so that was great. And of course we had the box soup, the classic food on train rides. We had booked a room at the Lonely Planet recommended “Mama Naxi Guesthouse”, but we had a hard time finding it. It’s amazing how the Chinese cannot read maps and point you to a direction even though they have no idea. You always have to ask at least 3 people. We finally called Mama and she sent someone to pick us up. From Lijiang we did a 3-day trek to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, a tall and narrow canyon formed by the Yangtze River as it winds between the Jade Dragon Snow and the Haba Mountains (both above 5000m high). The trail is 22km long and follows the steep cliff 2000m above the water. Legend has it that a tiger jumped over the river at its narrowest point (25m) to escape a hunter, hence the name.

Day 1: We had breakfast at Mama Naxi’s before our departure for the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek. Cecilia ordered a pancake with sugar and lemon, got sugar and tomato instead. Theoretically tomatoes are also a fruit, but not exactly what she wanted. Martin, a guy from PEI with whom we did the trek, ordered an egg and tomato sandwich. He got a banana pancake and when he said he ordered egg, Baba (Mama Naxi’s husband) said the egg was inside the pancake. Funny people! So we took the bus to Qiaotou which is 3.5 hours away. Actually the distance is only 75km, but the driver stopped on the way, had breakfast to go and picked up some rice bags. We were totally puzzled when he stopped on the side of the road, put the 2 rice bags a meter apart, opened them and then we drove off. To this day we don’t know what that was about. When we arrived in Qiaotou at the beginning on the gorge, we had a small lunch before starting our hike. We had 2 guys follow us with their mules, hoping we would give in and take one instead of walking. Martin and we walked a little quicker and left a couple (Raymond & Lorraine) from Gainsville, Florida who had been on our bus behind. The first part of the hike was not so close to the gorge and the 28 bends (the steepest part) were pretty difficult, where we had to take lots of breaks. It’s funny because just before the 28 bends there’s a stand with people selling weed and they tell you that everyone buys it before the 28 bends. We don’t think so! The 28 bends were strenuous, but once you get to the top, you are rewarded with a breath-taking view. There is a cliff protruding into the gorge to get an even better view, but there is an old guy sitting there charging 8RMB to take a picture. It’s worth the money ($1.25) though. Christoph also came quickly, although the pictures of him look like he pooed in his pants. Cecilia is proud of him that he at least came out. From there to the Tea-Horse Guesthouse (named so because of a famous tea- and horse-trading route here) was mainly downhill. We arrived at the GH around 5pm, where we decided to stay for the night. We were chilling on the terrace with Martin, Raymond & Lorraine and some time after dark 3 more people arrived (Garrett, Brandon & Kerry). They had hiked in the dark, which we can’t even imagine! The whole evening we were laughing and telling funny stories about the Chinese. Martin told us about 2 signs he saw: “no shitting in the toilet’s water tank” and “no peaking at girls when they shower” (we found them online too). Then Brandon mentioned he walked in on his room mate who was squatting on the western toilet seat to take a dump. Pretty disturbing sight! And then Lorraine & Raymond started telling us about Gainsville. They definitely did not work for the tourism board! The most memorable phrases were: “you might not get eaten” and “very few get killed”, talking about alligators on the university campus. We had good food, lots of beers and really great laughs.

Day 2: We slept in so that when we woke up everyone except Martin, Brandon & Kerry were gone. We had breakfast and left on our hike around 12. The hike was an easy stroll with beautiful scenery. After about an hour we arrived at the Half-Way Guesthouse, where we stopped for tea. We went out to the Inspiration Terrace from where you have an amazing view of the gorge. We had lots of time, so we really enjoyed the sun and quiet out there. The hike was spectacular, crossing waterfalls and always very close to the ridge. Christoph was scared at times, but he was very brave. Then we stopped at another look-out point, free this time. From there it started going downhill and certain parts were pretty slippery, especially the red soil. At the end of the gorge hike, we went to “Le Chateau de Woody”. We had lunch there and enjoyed the view, while also playing “Pass the pigs”. When a Chinese group arrived, we decided to leave and go find Brandon & Kerry. They were at Sean’s Guesthouse, so we decided to stay there. We chilled on the terrace (the view was also nice). At some point after dark the lights went out, but Sean brought us candles, so we had a nice atmosphere. Later we decided to star-watch, so we dragged out some mattresses from the rooms and lied down on the terrace. We were the only ones in the entire guesthouse, so we didn’t bother anyone.

Day 3: We slept in again and had breakfast before attacking the last day of our trek. Most people do it in 2 days, but we wanted to take our time, enjoy the fresh air, the peace & quiet in nature. After breakfast a Dutch couple arrived at Sean’s GH and they also wanted to take the bus to Lijiang, so we decided to take it together. Instead of taking our stuff with us on the hike down to the water, we left it with the Dutch couple. Shortly after we left Sean’s and our bags, we were wondering if it was such a good idea leaving our stuff with strangers we had met 5 minutes earlier. It’s funny, we would never do that back home, but for some reason travelling is different. There were no valuables in the bags (except some dirty socks and sweaty t-shirts), but still. We walked to Tina’s GH, down the winding road passed Zhang’s GH and then took the little path down to the river after paying the 10RMB entrance fee. There were no Chinese on the upper trail, but the bottom trail has been paved so Chinese tourist buses drive there. Those people then also go down to the water, so we were walking down behind Chinese princesses in high heels, white shoes and people that had obviously never hiked. We passed them pretty quickly and made it down in 45 minutes. We stayed there a bit, admiring the gushing water and the perspective from down below. Then we decided to go up another way (the ladder way), which turned out to be very very difficult. We thought the 28 bends were exhausting, well this was at least double as hard, but the views were nice and it was definitely rewarding. It was also the hardest hike we’ve done so far in China! Cecilia is very proud of Christoph (although he only took the little ladder) and he will get a medal soon.

Around 4pm the mini-bus with the Dutch couple came to pick us up and we were relieved that they hadn’t taken off with our stuff. The drive back was also long and bumpy, but we made it back safe and sound. We were tired after the 3-day trek, but also very happy to have done it and felt a great sense of accomplishment.

The bus ride from Songpan to Chengdu took forever (7.5 hours to be exact). The road was very winding and Chinese driving is always an adventure since they always pass in blind turns and dark tunnels. Christoph was sweating the entire drive, especially since the ravine was so close. Luckily the driver wasn’t driving fast, but he was on his cell phone non-stop. Arrived in Chengdu we were totally drained. We checked in at Sim’s Cozy Garden Hostel, the largest and coolest hostel we’ve ever been. We had heard amazing things about it and now we saw why. They have a nice garden with bunnies running around, many terraces and chilling corners, and although it was huge, there was still a nice feel to it. And then there was a very big DVD collection and DVD players in every room (on top of the DVD room that’s like a small movie theatre). Cecilia had diarrhoea, but if there is one place that’s not so bad to have it, Sim’s Cozy is it. She took advantage of the DVD collection and watched some comedies, which was lots of fun, especially when you can’t go very far from the room…

There’s not much to see in Chengdu, so we spent more time inside the hostel talking to other travelers and watching some movies while Cecilia got better. The hostel organized activities every evening in the bar, from birthday parties where everyone got free beer all evening to Trivia Games where the winning team got beer each round. Very awesome. We also met lots of people, so that was lots of fun.

The main reason to come to Chengdu is because of the pandas, so one day we went to see these almost extinct animals. They are just adorable!!! Like live teddy bears! Totally cute! We went to the Panda Breeding and Research Centre with a tour from the hostel. The Giant Panda, a solitary animal, lives about 18 yrs in wildlife, 20-25 in captivity. There used to be a lot, from Beijing to Yunnan, but now their habitat has been destroyed, so the numbers have dwindled dramatically with only 2000 still living in the world (there are 70 here). Females reach maturity at age 5, while males when they are around 6 or 7 years old (men, always maturing later!). A female will usually have a baby every 2 years, but in captivity that can happen more often. However, natural coupling is often unsuccessful, so the researchers actually resort to artificial insemination (they collect the semen by electrically stimulating the male). The gestation period is between 32 and 50 weeks, after which 1 baby is born. Sometimes twins are born, but in wildlife only one would survive since the mother cannot care for both. What’s really impressive is that although the mother weighs about 150kg, the baby only weighs about 150g at birth (1/1000)! At birth they are actually pretty ugly, looking more like rats than pandas. Slowly they develop the black spots and then the hair starts to grow. The babies we saw in the incubator were a bit over a month old. Their eyes are closed in the beginning and they learn to walk only when they are 6 months old. They stay with their mother until about 18 to 24 months of age, when they get their own territory. It’s very interesting to see how close to humans this behaviour is, when you consider that most other animals can walk right after birth. From then on the young pandas are pretty playful, climbing trees and running around. However, the pandas usually spend about 16 out of every 24 hours eating bamboo. The ones we saw were eating bamboo sitting on their butts – so cute (I know I’ve said it before, but they are just loveable). I guess because they are such big animals and bamboo is not as nutritious, they just have to eat all day. We also saw red pandas, but those look more like racoons than pandas.

We also went to Carrefour to buy groceries and saw some interesting articles: pig feet, pig intestines, pig face, chicken feet. The funny part is that these are considered delicacies and are more expensive than chicken breast. Weird foreigners eating chicken breast, the thing with less taste…

The last day in Chengdu we decided to go down-town. We went to Renmin (People’s) Park and that was really interesting! There were lots of tea houses with (mainly old) people chilling and playing games, while not far there were about 10 different groups of people playing blaring music and dancing to it. Some was karaoke and some was completely out of tune. We really don’t know how they can listen to it, but we were laughing our heads off the whole time. We’ve never seen anything like it before. And the people dancing, they were not even nearly moving to the beat of the music, not to mention that since the musics were playing one next to the other, there was an indescribable cacophony!!! Not so far from the music place still inside the park, there were people offering to clean your….ears! The cherry on the sundae!

Then it was time for another 24-hour train ride. Initially we had wanted to take the backroute to ShangriLa and Lijiang in Yunnan over the Szechuan-Tibetan Highway passing through the mountains and beautiful landscape, but then we decided that taking buses for 8 hours a day for 3-4 days in a row was maybe not that exciting. We had been to Tibetan villages, so we decided to skip the Tibetan villages around ShangriLa. The train is just so much more comfortable. Christoph also slept on the train, a first!

From Xiahe we continued further South. We had met a Dutch couple (Britt and Tim) in Xiahe and with them, we hopped on an early bus to Langmusi, supposedly to arrive at 11:40am. We passed through Hezuo, a town on the way where we stopped for a quick break. About an hour after Hezuo the bus stopped on the side of the road. Cecilia was feeling kind of nauseous due to the bumpy ride, so she was sort of happy for the respite. We didn’t know why we had stopped, but were speculating that maybe the driver forgot something and someone was going to bring it from Hezuo. After a while, a car with 4 cops arrived and starting looking at the bus and taking pictures. This is when someone told us that the bus had hit something. We didn’t really think so since we hadn’t felt anything and there were no marks on the bus, but let the police do their job. Soon after they left, the bus driver told us to get back on the bus. We were happy to finally go since we had been waiting for an hour. We weren’t so happy though when the bus turned around, heading back to Hezuo and driving 10km/h. The ride back took forever! The whole time we were making jokes with Britt and Tim, but deep down it wasn’t that funny after all. When we arrived back in Hezuo, one of the guys on the bus told us that apparently our bus had hit a person and the person had died, so the police needed to investigate and question us. We didn’t really think that was possible and were hoping to catch the last bus from Hezuo to Langmusi, otherwise we would have had to stay a day in this ugly town. Luckily the police came pretty quickly and our bus driver was absolved of the accusation, so we were able to catch the next bus to Langmusi, where we arrived at 3:30pm instead of 11:40am… At least we got there!

We checked into the hotel and went to the Snowy Mountain Cafe to book our trekking tour. Not that we wanted to do a horse trek, but when the girl saw Christoph, she told us that the horses are for people weighing under 85kg. Luckily we were planning on walking anyway. Britt and Tim decided to come with us, so we booked a 2-day trek for the 4 of us (it worked out to be cheaper, so that was cool). We were told that it would be cold at night, so we walked around town to buy some gloves and hats since we hadn’t packed thick clothes.

Langmusi, a Tibetan village, is at the border between Gansu and Szechuan province separated by the White Dragon River, surrounded by grassy meadows and mountains. We also walked around town (there is one street) and took a quick look at the two monasteries. Sertri Gompa on the Gansu side dates back to 1748 and is a little higher up the hills, while Kerti Gompa on the Szechuan side was built in 1413 and is home to about 700 monks. Christoph and Tim went for a walk on the hills behind the hotel to get some nice views of the surrounding area. The girls were cold, so we went directly to the rooms to take a nice hot shower (after 2 days of only cold water in Xiahe).

After a pancake breakfast at Leisha Cafe to get a good start to the day, we met up with our Tibetan guide: Chita. He was a 24-year-old guy of medium stature and very friendly. On this 2 day trek we will hike through the grasslands and sleep at a nomad family’s place. The nomads are called Goloks and have their own Tibetan dialect, but luckily our guide also spoke Mandarin so Cecilia was able to communicate with him. Her Chinese definitely got better. The fact that the Tibetans are so friendly helps a lot, as well as the fact that they also speak standard Mandarin (no Chinese local dialect) since they also learnt it in school. So we began our 35km trek at 9am walking through the village and then on a road by the White Dragon River. A little motorized tricycle came along and Chita suggested we take it. So we hopped on it for a very bumpy ride. After a while we told him we want to get off since we were sitting very uncomfortably, but it was fun. Soon we came to a place where we were supposed to cross the creek, but it was too wide for us to jump over it. Chita tried to throw some rocks in it that we could step over, but even the biggest rock (that Christoph and Tim couldn’t lift together but Chita just grabbed and threw in the water) was not enough. We were ready to take our shoes off and walk through the creek when Chita told Christoph to hop on his back. He carried Christoph and his backpack through the river and we were just staring, not able to believe our eyes. He then carried us all through the river while we were laughing. We realized this thin and not-too-large fellow was as strong as a bull.

For lunch we stopped at a tent in the Xiu’re Valley where a Chinese group of horse trekkers came to join us. Christoph helped make fire with dried yak shit (that’s what the nomads use for making fire) – luckily it doesn’t stink – and then we had rice with a cabbage stew, a very hearty meal. The horse trekkers had Tibetan guides dressed in the traditional Tibetan cloak and Christoph got to try one. The cloak is pretty heavy, but doesn’t feel as warm as it seems. Christoph looked very funny in it and he enjoyed walking around in it. At the end of this valley, the Xiu’re God Mountain Home God Festival is held twice a year. Once upon a time tribes decided not to fight anymore, so men got together and put their weapons on the summit of high mountains to offer them to the gods. They still do it to this day, putting down wooden swords and holding horse races.

Then came the hardest part of our trek, where we hiked to the White Dragon River Source (from above it looks like a dragon claw ) and to a pass in the grasslands at an altitude of 3800m. Langmusi lies already at an altitude of 3000m, so even though the hike is not very steep, the altitude really took a toll on us. We were often out of breath and had to take breaks while our guide was running up the hill. The views were really nice and we enjoyed the fresh air and the clear skies, admiring the natural beauty of the area. After the pass we saw the “Ocean of Flower”, a big grassland with streams inside and lots of wild flowers in summer. It is used as the autumn grassland by nomads, each family having 3-4 grasslands where they graze the sheep and yaks according to season. Usually a few families live close to each other, but each family has its own tent. We walked through the herds of sheep and yak in the bumpy and muddy grassland slowly making our way towards the nomad family’s tent. Traditionally the tents are made of yak hair, which is so strong that it can be used for 20 years. Since yaks cannot be shore though, a little bit of hair is cut off every year and made into a section of yak hair tent, replacing the oldest section. The family we stayed with was not living in one of these because they were better off and could afford a fabric tent, we were told. Arrived at the tent, we were greeted by the very friendly mother who immediately served us yak yoghourt. We rested a bit and were looking forward to experiencing the nomad lifestyle.

Being a Tibetan nomad woman is not the easiest thing in the world since she does all the work. In the evening she was gathering dried yak dung and piling it into the corner of the tent to use it as fire, a task Christoph helped her with. The yak dung fire produces more smoke than wood. As it was starting to get a little darker, it was time to bring the herds back – the only thing the man does (besides drinking tea with his friends)! Some nomads still heard their animals by horse, while others have motorcycles. We were planning on going to bring back the yaks from the grassland, but when we saw the family dad being attacked by the neighbour’s dog, we changed our minds and stayed to help the mother peel green beans. The dogs are used to protect against wolves and thieves, but they are very aggressive and we armed ourselves with rocks for the remainder of our stay there. Luckily we didn’t need to use them. So once the man brought back the yaks, he was finished working for the day. Some yaks automatically went into a fenced-off area, while the ones with babies were tied up by the woman. Christoph helped Chita tie up the baby yaks, which are not as big, but still very strong. During this time, the man was drinking tea with his friends and we were sitting there, incredulous to the fact that he didn’t help her. We were told each family has about 80 yaks and 300 sheep, but it seemed to us that there were more than 80 yaks. What’s interesting is that the horns don’t tell the difference between male and female. Some have them, others not, but the animals are definitely impressive. Then she had to cook dinner, a stew of zucchini with dried yak meat over rice. We had dinner with the family, but were disappointed that they were watching TV (they had a laptop hooked up to a sun-powered battery). We also talked to them and found out that the son was going to school in Hezuo 4 days a week, sleeping there in a dorm and coming home on the week-ends. The mother called him “baby”, although he was already 14 years old. When we were ready for bed, they prepared the sleeping area and Chita tucked us into the sleeping bags we had brought with us. We were very warm, despite the fact that air was flowing through the tent.

The next morning the woman woke up at 6am and started milking the yaks (the man woke up at 8am). First she would let the baby yak drink a little bit to get the milk flowing, then tie him up again while she milked the yak mother. When she had milked it enough, she would let the baby drink again. In spring and fall she milks them once a day, while she milks them twice in summer and not at all in winter. Unlike cows, female yaks only produce milk when they have a calf. They also only let their own calf drink, no other one. Once the lady finishes milking (it took her over 3 hours!), she sends off the yaks to the grassland and starts gathering their shit and spreading it into a thin layer. Within 4 days it is dry enough to be used for fire. After a plain breakfast, we started off our second day of trekking. Our guide hiked very quickly and we tried to keep up. It is surprising how wet the grasslands are; we were wondering where the water was coming from and why it wasn’t draining. For a big part of the day we were hiking on the side of hills, so our ankles started hurting from walking at an angle. We told Chita we wanted to go home the quickest possible, but that still took another 4 hours, so it was a very long day. Overall it was a really nice experience; the trek and the nomads, and the fact that Britt and Tim were also there made it more fun.

We left for Songpan in Szechuan province (continuing South towards Chengdu) early the next morning. The way the departure of the bus is announced is by honking super loud for half an hour before departure, even if that’s at 6am and the whole village wakes up. On the way to Songpan there were many decorated villages, but we don’t know what festivities were going on, unfortunately. As we approached Songpan, many villages seemed rebuilt and almost every house had a Chinese flag. Our theory is that the Chinese government rebuilt many of these places after the 2008 earthquake, but in return the people had to put up the flag. The houses are really nice and look like in Switzerland, but the flagpole on every house reminded us of the US. The old town of Songpan is walled, but here too everything has been rebuilt. Christoph calls it “Disney” since it seems to have been built only for tourists. What’s funny is that every shop and restaurant has an English name displayed as well, but some of them are horrible and hilarious at the same time.