China

China. May 2010. China was fantastic! I loved it. Every minute of it. The yucky toilets, the bumpy noisy bus rides, the adventures of trying to cross a street, the wierd and wonderful food, the adorable children and elderly and all the amazing sites. Oh ya and I can't leave out the undescribable shopping.

We travelled from Beijing in the north to a coastal city of Dalian. There we visited family, ate yummy real chinese food, went out with a local in his junket to see seaweed, clams and oysters in mid-crop season, hiked a mountain, splashed our way through freezing tide rising ocean to a hidden cave, explored local seaweed factories and fishing villages, stayed in a mansion and had custom made cashmere coats, suits and dresses made.
Off to the south to Nanning. Here we explored the night market to see the really wierd food and caught a long bus ride to Bama. Deep in the lush, hot, humid countryside surrounded by limestone mountains, we explored Bama area. Here we met locals, went to a christian baptism in the river, explored massive caves, saw a local putting a live cobra into a huge bottle of vodka in mid flare, met a lovely young local girl named Cecelia, ate local food, plucked a chicken, swam 2km through a historic cave, drove way up into the mountains squished with a chinese family, drank 'long life' water from the mountains of the centurians, got stuck in a traffic jam because the president was leaving from the same airport as us and got to the airport 10 min before the flight left (but we still made it because it was a tiny little plane and everyone on the flight had been stuck in the traffic jam).


Flight east to Guilin in southern central china. Hot tourist spot and completely different atmosphere than anywhere so far. People everywhere and things were so much more expensive. You even had to pay to take pictures of people. Here we had massages, shopped for art, took a motor boat for a 5hr ride down river to admire the amazing limestone cliffs and mountains of the area to Yangshou. Rented motorbikes for two days and rode around through the local villages, talked to locals and gave away treats and gifts to the kids, scaled a huge mountain for magnificent views, watched a farmer ploughing his rice patty barefoot with his water buffalo up close, and took a bus ride with a crazy driver that was willing to drive at any speed and straight into oncoming traffic horns blaring to get us back in time.


Shenzhen was next and here we met with the gentlemen from China that we do business with. We ate the finest food I have ever tasted, toured the China cultural village and saw a couple of chinese shows complete with dancers, acrobats, chinese dragons, fire spinning, trick horse riding, moving stages and fire works - it was amazing! We went shopping for cool electronics and cheap clothes, bags and accessories, shopped for art at the largest oil painting market in the world, saw the factory where our cameras are made, went for massages again and had several business meetings.

Beijing was our last stop. Here we shopped. Oh, and one day was spent hiking the most amazing great wall of China!! It was spectacular and a tough 5 hr hike complete with a rickety old zip line at the end to get to the bottom of the mountain. Totally china style. We did manage to make it to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City but mostly we spent the remainder of our time in China dealing on pearls, electronics, bags, and clothes - and all kinds of wonderous things. We spent one of the last evenings at the spa where we enjoyed several hours of massage, free food and drinks and the best pedicure ever! Then we packed up the four extra suitcases that were purchased there (one each) plus our giant backpacks that had arrived half empty and climbed on the flight for the 3 min. flight home (just joking it was about 24hrs but because of the time change) we arrived 3 min. after we left. Ha ha.

I highly recommend china to anyone who wants to go on an adventure. It is not for the weak stomached or those very afraid of dirty everything (but this is Chase and he still had fun:)) - but the best shopping in the world, the most amazing culture and sites, and friendly people if you make the effort to communicate with them. I am already planning a trip back!