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| DESTINATIONS
LIBRARY: No. 7 China Pictures © Jean and Harry Wickens |
| Jean
and Harry Wickens visited China over Easter 2001, starting in Hong Kong
and then making a twenty one day tour, ‘Yangtse and the South West’, with
Imaginative Traveller.They concluded their trip in Beijing with extra
time there to explore before returning home……. "We stayed in hotels (which varied in the quality of facilities provided and style – some very basic and with somewhat unreliable electrics and water supplies) and experienced a wide range of transport, including lots of walking. There were eight of us on the tour plus our guide, starting in Hong Kong (too noisy and brash for our liking) and then we flew to Guilin in Southern China." |
| We had a wonderful day cruise on the Li River to Yangshuo through limestone karst scenery. Yangshuo is a small town (compared to most cities in China which have populations in the millions) and very friendly. |  |
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A cycle ride (motorcycle rickshaw for those not so fit) to Moon Hill which has a hole in the middle – has to be seen to be believed, plus a visit to a local school to speak to the children and answer questions (lots of amazement when I told them I had three children).Back to Guilin by minibus (and visit to the Reed Flute Caves) to fly to Kunming in the southwest – where we went to the amazing Shilin stone forest – eroded rocks of the most fantastic shapes, and visit to the Bamboo Temple, with its surfing Buddhas. Overnight train (with couchettes) to Leshan (more temples and Buddhas) and then to Chengdu and the Panda Research Institute. Although the enclosures were larger than in most zoos they were nevertheless enclosures and quite bare compared to the Pandas’ natural habitat of bamboo forests. | |
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 The Stone forest south of Kunming |
 Panda at Chendu |
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| By overnight train to Luoyang and more temples (White Horse Temple and Buddhas in the Longmen Caves - by then we were starting to feel ‘Buddha’d out’!). On to Xian where we arrived in snow, but warmed up the following day when we visited the Terracotta Warriors – awe-inspiring (and so were the sheer numbers of souvenir sellers!). Finally to Beijing and visits to the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, the Summer Palace and Chairman Mao’s embalmed body in his mausoleum and then perhaps the overall highlight of the trip – a 12 kilometre trek on the Great Wall. We were blessed with a beautifully clear day and sunshine and could see for miles. However 12k on an uneven surface which goes up and down at 45º angles is very tiring and hard on the knees and legs. |  View across the river at the end of our Wall trek to the section where most visitors walk |
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| General
impressions: Overall a wonderful trip with many highlights. A huge amount of building going on in every city – mostly by manual labour with very little machinery. Food was excellent and cheap. We had a good guide – necessary unless you can read/speak Chinese There are very few English signs and the ones we saw were in very quaint/semi-Dickensian English. Traffic is awful – thousands of bicycles plus taxis and overcrowded buses – have to be careful crossing roads in the cities. The cities have early morning exercise in the squares – Tai Chi, Karate, dancing etc and they are happy (and very amused) when you join in! |
Useful tips: A reasonable level of fitness is needed – and be prepared for a culture shock! Clothing and equipment – walking boots for trek on the Great Wall. Take a strong rucksack or grip bag for belongings rather than a suitcase. We went at Easter – temperatures varied from snow in Xian to over 30º C in the South and Beijing. In the summer it can be excessively hot and humid. It was also very dusty – uncomfortable for wearers of contact lenses, and there is a lot of pollution haze. Organised group travel with a guide is advisable because of the language difficulties. We were stared at a lot but in a friendly way (in many places the locals were not used to seeing tourists) – but we never felt threatened. |
| To see enlargements of these pictures and more go to http://homepage.ntlworld.com/harry.wickens |