We arrived in Bejing after a rather uncomfortable flight, as it was bumpy all the way through. We even got offered a full meal, but Raf refused - this shows how bad we felt, 2 nights no sleep and a bumpy flight.
Bejing is really overwhelming. When we arrived we only managed to buy our train tickets to Xian and go to Tianmen Square - the biggest square in the world - which took us 6 hours in total - is this normal?? It was impressive though, with big screens, thousands of people and massive monuments. One the second day we went on another tour (are we tourists or backpackers??? Hello??) as it sounded good value for money, to see the Great Wall of China, Badaling. We bought the ticket and walked away happily, when Raf noticed that we actually booked a tour, which meant to go to a Palace, jade factory and have lunch before we are heading to the Great Wall. Oh dear - maybe we should stick to our backpacker`s technique next time! In the end it was not too bad though. Well, the Wax Museum of the Ming Dynasty turned out to be the most boring thing we have ever paid for during our 4 months travel, the jade factory was nice to look at, but who needs jewelery as a backpacker?? and the food was horrible. In the end, we arrived at the Great Wall at 2pm and only had 2 hours to discover a few kilometers out of 8882km in total! - not that we were trying to do them all..;) It was very touristy as expected but in the end we have seen what we wanted to see and it is a very uplifting experience, walking along one of the most stunning world wonders that exist on earth. Oh my Buddha!
Later this afternoon we decided to check out some of the night markets that are supposed to sell weird food stuff. Weird? This is definitively underestimated. You walk through the market and think "WTF? IS THIS REAL?" They eat snakes, spiders, beetles, worms - anything that moves. It is unbelievable. If you are bored with the stuff we eat at home, come along and help yourself here!
On the second day we went to the Summer Palace, not expecting very much other than a palace - we were pleasantly surprised by this massive and beautiful setting of lakes, temples, pagodas, rivers, boats - just like in a movie. Not really astonishing that it is also on UNESCO`s World Heritage List. Situated on Longevity Hill, it took us more than 4 hours to check out the main buildings such as The Cloud-Dispelling Hall, the Temple of Buddhist Virtue, the Sea of Wisdom Temple and many others. We also managed to find a nice and affordable restaurant, so we did not collapse in the heat. All in all, we were really surprised by the beauty of the Summer Palace and had a very nice, less-hectic afternoon. On the third day, we headed to the Forbidden City (so-called, as it was forbidden to enter this area for more than 500 years. Everybody who tried got executed straight away!). The masses of people meant it is another one of "must-see" attractions in Bejing and it did not disappoint. Not at all. Nobody can imagine how big it really is unless you were there. It is a city within a city and the buildings, especially the Garden and the Hall of Harmony are masterpieces of architecture.
Raf did not feel too well, so we tried to be quick and squeezed through all Chinese tour groups as fast as we could. On the same day, we took an overnight train to Xi`an and we realized that it`s such a long time ago since we last took any overnight buses or trains that we were slightly demotivated to get on it! In the end it was one of the best journeys we had, also because we invested a bit more money this time to have soft seats rather than hard seats (what a difference it makes!!) and we arrived in Xi`an.
For the first time in ages somebody was actually waiting for us outside the train station...it is such a great feeling to see your name on a piece of paper - oh yes, I am Melanie Groeber and please pick us up!! The hostel, Xiangziemen Youth Hostel in Xian is just great. The rooms are clean, the atmosphere is amazing and the food superb. Yes, we are happy. The main attraction here is, of course, the Terracotta Warriors: world-famous and listed as the 8th World Wonder. We decided to go by our own this time, so no tour that drives us to places we don` t want to see. And it the end we had an absolute great day, no stress, no guides, just us and the army;) There are three pits in total, however, the first pit is the most impressive one. The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. After discovering around 8000 warriors and restoring some of them, many archeologists believe that there are many pits still waiting to be discovered. Definitively worth checking out in the future!
The second day was also called "the-day-we-did-nothing-absolutely-nothing", also the day called "oh-my-Buddha-we-are-slightly-bored!". And we could not believe it, we had no plans, only a great English breakfast which was definitively our highlight of the day.
And there they went: heading back to Shanghai on a 15-hour-train...to see the Expo! What were we thinking?? Are we sure we want to ge queuing up with half a million Chinese?? Well, we expected queues and lots of people but...not quite THAT! As we found out, it was even in the news that they had a record number of visitors on that day. Of course, it cound not have been any other day. And of course, we had 2 really bad nights in our hostel, due to very persistent and incredibly nasty mosquitos who bit you everywhere even when you also stuck your nose out the blanket! They even managed to bit me so my face looked like somebody punched me...
The Expo itself was great and a truly overwhelming idea to create a few dozen buildings and invest millions of Euros to promote and represent your country. A few pavillions looked rather odd but a few were absolutely stunning. Our favourite was the UK pavillion (not too impressive inside but the outside was really great!) and of course, the Italian, German and also the Swiss one. So after 8hours of queuing - including 2 hours for the Chinese pavillion, for nothing, as we did not even see the tickets we were supposed to get for the entry as they were "sold out" in seconds...- 30 minutes for India, 1,5h for Switzerland, 40 Minutes for Italy, 2h for Germany - amongst the most popular ones OF COURSE hehe - 30 Minutes for France and another 40 Minutes for UAE) - we were rather exhausted. Not only that waiting under clear blue sky and a hammering sun is not the most fun thing to do, also, the Chinese behavious or MASS behaviour makes you feel even more warm or..angry. Queuing really isn`t their thing. They try to sneak through whenever, wherever they can. Once you turn round you notice that you look at the person`s hair, who was behind you a minute ago. In the end, we were really impressed about the effort that went into the design and planning of this Expo. Denmark even brought the original Mermaid, that has not been moved for more than 100 years!! Crazy stuff...
We were actually really glad that we took a 20 hours train to Guanghzou (towards Hong Kong) at 11am, so we could lay down in our hard sleepers...And we cannot wait to stay in a place for a few nights..even Hong Kong is said to have the tiniest rooms ever...
Raf and Mel aka. Peoplemania!
No comments:
Post a Comment