Day 280 August 15th 2007, Roadworks - Pingyao


Aside from the city wall Pingyao is famous for being the banking center of China during the Qing dynasty. During this time it was home to over half of China's banks, 20 in total. Today there seem to be this many on one street in Beijing. I'm not sure what the creature above is, half turtle and half dragon either way it represented good luck or wealth.


Above is a nine dragon screen. In China the number 9 is seen as lucky as it's the largest single digit number. There are 9 forms of the dragon and each has 9 children. The dragon is one of the 12 zodiac animals of China, as you can imagine more babies are born during this year than any other. The year is only one aspect of the zodiac which represents how you or others view yourself, you also have your inner animal depending on what time of the year you were born and the secret animal depending on what hour. The inner animal is said to represent what motivates a person whilst the secret animal represents a persons true personality. So without consulting an astrologer does this sound like anyone you know.

Year: Snake - Deep thinker, wise, mystic, graceful, soft-spoken, sensual, creative, prudent, shrewd, ambitious, elegant, cautious, responsible, calm, strong, constant, purposeful. Can be loner, bad communicator, possessive, hedonistic, self-doubting, distrustful, mendacious

Month: Rat - Forthright, disciplined, systematic, meticulous, charismatic, hardworking, industrious, charming, eloquent, sociable, shrewd. Can be manipulative, selfish, obstinate, critical, over-ambitious, ruthless, intolerant, scheming.

Hour: Snake - Deep thinker, wise, mystic, graceful, soft-spoken, sensual, creative, prudent, shrewd, ambitious, elegant, cautious, responsible, calm, strong, constant, purposeful. Can be loner, bad communicator, possessive, hedonistic, self-doubting, distrustful, mendacious

Quite ironic as I really don't like snakes


Above and below photos from the city wall



In China there is construction everywhere, the road outside our hotel was no exception. I have to give them credit though they did wait until night before digging up the road. This though was road works old fashioned style, using pick axes. They even let me have a go but I don't think I helped much. The police not wanting to miss out on the action drove straight through the middle of it all in their golf buggy,

Highlights: Checking out China's banking history and doing my bit for Chinese infrastructure

Day 279 August 14th 2007, Ancient China, Wutai Shan to Pingyao


We had quite some fun trying to buy a bus ticket for our journey today to Pingyao, after stating that I wanted a ticket for tomorrow, my guide book, which I was using to translate was thrown back at me amongst a volley of abuse, what is it with the women in this town. Today though no such problems and we were soon on our way, the 7AM bus actually left after 8AM when it was full.


So far there hasn't been a lot of charm on display in China, its certainly been interesting, after all its not often you visit a capital city the size of Belgium. Now that we are over 700km South of Beijing it seems that the charm has arrived. Here within the walled city of Pingyao, there are only 70,000 people, its a world heritage site with over 300 ancient ruins and 4,000 old houses and shops left over from the Ming and Qing dynasties 1300-1600 AD. So why has Pingyao stayed in its ancient form when the rest of China is busy rebuilding itself? Basically despite being the banking capital of China all those years ago it ran out of money.


This though could be its saviour today with tourists flocking to catch a glimpse of ancient China, the locals seem to be quick on the uptake with the restoration of shops, cafes and guesthouses underway in every street. Above is the entrance to our guesthouse. Below is the view from the front of our guesthouse towards the center of the city. As you can see no cars ;-)


The city wall is impressive

12 meters high
60,000m perimeter
4 towers one at each corner
72 watch towers and 3,000 battlements

It also makes a very impressive photo at sunset


The quiet streets were transformed as night fell, the central tower brilliantly lit with rows of lanterns lining the streets, very magical


Highlights: The tranquility of ancient China

Day 278 August 13th 2007, The Monks are in town - Wutai Shan


After last nights Chinese meal I am now on my 4th course of antibiotics this trip. With much of last nights dinner down the train I was lacking a bit of energy as we explored the town and surrounding hills today. I'm sure it was the food and not the altitude, Wutai Shan is situated at 10,000 ft. There are 3 ways to climb the peaks of Wutai Shan, foot, donkey or cable car, needless to say the cable car was worth every Yuan.


Wutai Shan is one of the 4 sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism, each one home to one of the great 4 Bodhisattvas. Wutai Shan being home to the Bodhisattva of wisdom. Above you can see Buddhist Monks from Tibet on pilgrimage. They seemed to be sliding their way around the center of one of the temples, this was when they were not being picked up by Chinese tourists for photos. Below: A Buddhist prayer bell and prayer flags.


Below: Buddhist Monks from Tibet with their prayer mats.


Its a constant competition between myself and Shelley to take the best photo, I still think my photo of the 3 pigs in Vietnam is a winner but I have to admit that the photo below from Shelley really captures Wutai Shan.


Highlights: The beautiful scenery of Wutai Shan

Day 277 August 12th 2007, The sound of noise - Datong to Wutai Shan


Setting off from the mountains would surely provide a break from all the noise, traffic and construction sites that appear to consume the China we have seen so far. How wrong could I be, after the coach wound its way through the mountains for almost 4 hours it started to descend into what looked like a small mountain town.


Above: I was surprised to learn that this chap hadn't heard of catalytic converters

The official Chinese Tourist Agency in Datong had booked us into what I would describe as the most appalling hotel I have ever come across, the rooms were underground, a barred window let some light in from the street above and the beds didn't even have proper mattresses on them. Add to this the bathroom that has never seen bleach and we were outta here pretty quickly. Before we could get into the taxi the hotel receptionist unleashed a volley of abuse, realising that we were ignoring here she turned on the taxi driver, who thought it best to laugh at the whole scenario.

We then looked for another hotel, dodging traffic on the 4 lane road running through the town, amongst the building sites we eventually found something more suitable. So much for the quiet Buddhist Mountain hideaway we had expected.

Highlights: Taxi getaway from our first hotel

Day 276 August 11th 2007, Hanging about - Datong


In China, when something is old it really is old, the Hanging Monastery / Temple (Above) was built 1400 years ago. The old and dusty looking souvenirs in its gift shop, about 2 weeks ago. In Japan it was not uncommon to see both Buddhist and Shinto beliefs represented in the same building, here Buddhism, Taoism and Confucian are all represented.


After almost a week in Beijing it was great to see what I would call Chinese Architecture, the air also lacking in pollution was refreshing. They must have built the monastery well as it seemed at any one time that there were alt least 200-300 tourists climbing round it.




Its always a good idea on long journeys to carry a spare tyre / inner tube.


Also on the outskirts of Datong are the Yungang Grottes a collection of about 250 caves with more than 51,000 statues of Buddha and friends. For each Statue there is at least one tourist, well in the larger caves anyway. You don't need to walk round you can just get carried by the crows. If you stand aside and let the tour parties go by you can soon find some piece and quiet to admire the stone carvings.






Highlights: Getting to see some of old China

Day 275 August 10th 2007, And you thought King's X was bad - Beijing to Datong


A city's train station is always a hive for the slime of society, Beijing's West Train Station (Below) is no exception. Whilst in the mile long queue, there was a domestic occurring to the left, general pick pockets in every other direction. All nothing compared to the regular incidents at the tickets counters that require police involvement to diffuse. It appears that whilst there may be one person in the queue, the represent about 10 family members, who when its time to pay all turn up to get involved. The result a slow but amusing time queuing for train tickets.


After buying our tickets last night (soft sleeper even though its daytime) we made sure we were at the platform gates long before they opened. Why? Well firstly you have the lack of queuing in Beijing, its easier to start at the front of the queue and try to hold onto this position rather than work your way from the back. Secondly the locals don't have much regard for seat numbering. In our cabin of 4 bunks there were at least 6 people in addition to myself and Shelley, all looking at us as though we should give up our beds for them.

One other observation is that whatever the journey the Chinese never turn up empty handed, everyone seems to bring with them quite a picnic. A lady, who appeared to be the mother and grandmother of a young lady and baby in our cabin, even tucked into some baby food when her daughter left the cabin for a few minutes. Open a pack of biscuits and you soon attract plenty of attention.

The train journey to Datong wasn't too bad, a couple of hours and we were there. Datong itself could be mistaken for Beirut, except that Beirut doesn't have its own toxic dump. So why come here, well just outside of town are some of China's oldest Buddhist sites, which we plan to visit tomorrow.

Highlights: Our hotel was only a 2 minute walk from the train station.

Day 274 August 9th 2007, The not so Forbidden City - Beijing


After the Great Wall the other famous attraction in Beijing is the Forbidden city, forbidden no more and today basking in glorious sunshine. Its a year today until the start of the Olympics. There is a huge display planned for Tienanmen sq this evening, so it seems from what we have heard that the government put into play its pollution busting tactics. This involved taking 1 million cars of the road, shutting down factories and seeding the clouds with I have no idea what, to disperse them. Compare this to the photo I took at the start of the week and you would think its a different city.


The Forbidden city is an amazing set of buildings that are slowly being restored to their former glory, you can easily spend several hours just wondering round admiring the architecture. There's supposed to be a Starbucks in here but we couldn't find it, instead we wondered across a pretty interesting clock museum. A palace this size required quite a few clocks and the most spectacular now have their own museum. This dimly lit hall was a haven from the crowds and with its air con on full power, also the heat.


Above: Two Chinese dragons guard the entrance to one of the halls. Below: Inside one of the halls, what you don't see is the crowd I had to barge through to take this picture


Some interesting facts about the city:

The Forbidden City is the largest palace complex in the world. In comparison with other palaces around the world, the Forbidden City occupies 720,000 square meters. The Topkapi Palace in Istanbul measures 700,000 square meters, the Vatican measures 440,000 square meters and the Kremlin measures 275,000 square meters.

Using 200,000 laborers, the main part of the Forbidden City was constructed from 1407 to 1420 during the Ming Dynasty. Many of the building supplies and materials were shipped to Beijing from all over China via its canals constructed in the 6th and 7th centuries.

The Forbidden City palaces contain 999 buildings and 9,999 rooms. (Nine is a lucky number to the Chinese.)

All the buildings are made of painted wood. Giant bronze cauldrons filled with water are placed throughout the palace in case of fire.

Below: Tienanmen Square, this time without the smog


Highlights: Fantastic weather showing the Forbidden City in all its glory

Day 273 August 8th 2007, The World's largest wall - Beijing


No visit to China would be complete without a visit to the Great Wall, catching a Chinese tour bus from Tienanmen sq (great idea if you cant speak mandarin) we first stopped off at the Ming tombs ( Above) This vast complex of tombs is pretty impressive above ground, there is one tomb open to the public, however you would find a walk through the London underground as interesting. All of the artifacts have been removed and the actual burial site is encased in steel, so there is nothing to see except stone walls. The Chinese tourists seemed to be very excited, perhaps because its a past emperor who is buried here.


You could be forgiven for thinking that you were at Disney World when arriving at the Great Wall, sure there are plenty of coaches, hundreds of Chinese tourists but I didn't expect there to be a theme park style ride that takes you up to the wall. We could have walked but where's the fun in that (lazy I know).


The wall is certainly impressive, built along the ridge lines of the hills and mountains it separates China from Inner Mongolia. I always remember being told at school you could see the wall with the naked eye from outer space. This myth has now even been removed from Chinese school text books. After all if you could see the wall you would also be able to see every single lane road in the world. Certain sections of the wall have so many tourists on them it looks like the wall is shimmering its way across the mountains.

Highlights: Walking on the Worlds largest wall

Day 272 August 7th 2007, So how's the food - Beijing


Above: The lights of Wanfujing street. When ever travel to China comes up in conversation it quickly reverts to the subject of food. So far we haven't come across anything too strange and the food has been pretty good. One of the reasons is the underground food hall at Wanfujing station. This is a modern underground mall full of restaurants serving everything from western style fast food to sushi.


With the Olympics (nice website worth checking out) in Beijing next year you don't have to go far to see one of the mascots. The logo, which is a damn sight better than London's for 2012 is everywhere. There are five mascots, one for every Olympic ring, above is Huanhuan who represents the Olympic flame. A great idea, having 5 mascots means there are 5 different versions of every merchandise for sale. The government is trying to quickly clean the place up before the worlds media descends here. This week they banned the sale of Peking Duck at public toilets.

Although there is some negative publicity around I think the Chinese will do a great job of hosting the games, along with winning almost everything. Each night on TV there are reports on construction progress along with reports on the Chinese athletes. Its a real source of pride for the country.


Now if you want to find something a little stranger to eat, you just have to venture above ground and to the North of Wanfujing street. Here you can find a night market serving everything from snake to squid, along with plenty of creepy crawlies. Below: The skewer on the top right is snake.


Highlights: The array of tasty snacks for sale

Day 271 August 6th 2007, Land of the Smog - Beijing


The first stop on our tour of Beijing was the Indian embassy to submit our Visa applications. Think British Bureaucracy x Indian politics x Chinese form filling and you have the picture. Next stop Tienanmen square. The worlds largest square and you can see from the picture above its so large you cant see from one end to the other. No that would be the smog. Below is the entrance to the Forbidden City.


Deciding to take refuge from the smog we visited the Great Hall of the People, pictured below. Built in 1959, aside from the 10,000 seat auditorium and 5,000 seat banquet room (which we gave a miss) the Hall has 29 rooms each one dedicated to one of the provinces that make up China. The Beijing room below with a picture on the wall of the Forbidden City, painted on a sunny day.




Highlights: Chinese architecture from the 1960's

Day 270 August 5th 2007, Land of the Dragon - Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China


Arriving in China was a lot more straight forward than I thought it would be. All 3 forms that you have to fill out were collected and added to the pile without so much as a glance from the customs officials. It seems that people don't like to queue in China and this ensured a swift exit from the airport. We were met by a taxi we had booked, slight problem in that he couldn't remember where he had booked his car. At least that's what I assume had happened, either that or a walking tour of Beijing Airport car park was included in the price.

The stories of Beijings pollution are not exaggerated. Before we landed the pilot described the weather as hazy, I think that the word he was looking for was smoggy.

Highlights: No smog in the hotel

Day 269 August 4th 2007, To China Part 1 - Semporna to Kuala Lumpur via Tawau


The nearest airport to Semporna is Tawau, about an hours ride by taxi. A flight of about 2 hours and we were back in KL, with an early flight tomorrow to Beijing we just checked into a boring old airport hotel.

Highlights: Walking down the street and not having to jump over the rats of Semporna

Day 268 August 3rd 2007, Awesome once again - Semporna - Diving at Sipadan


We were planning on having a rest day today as after 9 dives in the last 3 days we were getting a bit tired. But after the amazing dives yesterday we couldn't resist another trip to Sipadan. All the photos were taken by one of the other divers. Above: A box fish Below: Myself and Shelley above a Green Sea Turtle.

The dive at Barracuda Point was once again the best, as soon as we entered the water we found ourselves next to a shoal of Bump head Parrotfish, munching their way across the reef. We visited a cave about 20m down the wall, venturing only a few meters in it was quite spooky.

The Barracuda were here again and you can see the shoal in the two pictures below. Towards the end of the dive we got stuck between a couple of strong currents and had to surface early, it was a still a fantastic dive though.


Highlights: The shoals of Barracuda were incredible