We traveled the 30 days our visa permitted throughout China's southwestern provinces: Guangxi, Sichuan and Yunnan. This was definitely not enough! Nevertheless, we now know it can be easily done without a common language. This introduction to China also was an immense eye opener and some of the negative concepts we had of this country we corrected or simply vanished!

What was so different from the image we had and from what we actually expected? When thinking about China, which aspects will stay in our memories?

(x) Chinese people are very friendly, helpful and mostly open towards Westerners. (x) Communication was always possible, even though we do not speak a word of Chinese (ok, "Thank you", "Hello", "Rice"…). No matter where, we always found people eager to communicate, making great efforts to understand us and getting out of their ways to help us. We would almost always find someone who knew the few words of English necessary to help us. (x) Southwest China is definitely off the beaten tracks, for Westerners. Mostly, we would be the only non-Chinese on a bus, on a plane or on a train and only very few could be seen even in touristy areas. The only exceptions were the few backpacker hostels we stayed in. (x) On the other hand, every tourist attraction is now overrun by Chinese tourists, who with a few exceptions travel in bigger groups. The number of Chinese tourists is sometimes simply overwhelming. A small paths leading to rice terraces can be as busy as Grand Central Station or the Champs Elysees at rush hour. (x) Do environmental concerns only exist in Western, developed countries? Not really! In several cities in China, all scooters and motorbikes are run on electric engines. No noise, no pollution. Is Europe ready for this? Also all taxis are powered by liquid gas. So this shows environmental concerns exist in China, and they act! (x) Food is simply great even in the most simple food stall. Often we had very little idea of what we ordered, but we usually enjoyed delicious dishes. True, we sometimes found delicacies that surprised us... (x) People, to be precise men, are chain-smokers! On a bus, in the restaurant while eating, always a lit cigarette in one hand and chopsticks in the other... (x) And last but not least, the unforgettable experience of the disastrous earthquake: Monday, May 12th at 14:28. Those were the longest two minutes in our lives. But we were so lucky, Chengdu, only 90 kilometers from the epicenter, was hardly damaged. People in the region of Wenchuen were the hardest hit. The death toll of 71.000 is only an estimate, since 25.000 people are still missing.

The highlights of this trip were:

(x) Traveling in China is simply overwhelming: at every street corner, you discover something new; every bus ride offers something unexpected; in every restaurant, you find dishes you do not know. (x) Traveling through the Southwest of China is mostly off the beaten tracks: we met extremely few Westerners. Due to language barriers traveling can be challenging, but that is what we came here for! (x) The landscapes are simply breathtaking: the rock formations around Yangshuo, the rice terraces of Yuanyang, the peaceful scenery near Sanjiang... (x) The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in Chengdu! If you do not go gaga watching the Great Pandas having their bamboo breakfast, you will definitely do so when seeing the younger ones, between 8 and 18 months. They play all kind of games that only a baby panda can imagine… (x) The beautiful and crazy alike city of Lijiang - there we watched Chinese tourists party hard, but on the other hand enjoyed the serene Wenbi monastery and its surroundings.

Would we do something differently the next time? Yes, actually!

(x) Take more time! Each province offers so much. One month would hardly be enough to discover Yunnan alone. This is especially true if you do not want to hurry from one touristy place to the other and stray a little off the beaten tracks where there are no Chinese tourists groups. (x) Avoid some of the so-called "highlights" of Southwest China and go to more remote places. Dali, for instance, is not worth the trip, but the bad weather probably prevented us from enjoying the scenic surroundings. (x) Did we have bad luck with the weather? Yes, except in Xishuangbanna, we never saw the sun! In Yunnan it rained us in completely. So May is maybe not such a great month to visit Southwest China after all...

Last but not least, what about politics?

Yes, China is very far from being a model democracy! The excessive use of capital punishment is one issue; the press is tightly controlled; repression in Tibet is intolerable and corruption is common at a local level. These issues are frequently discussed in the western media and rightly criticized. Nevertheless, we now think that there is a different side of China that is not covered by the mainstream media. To name a few:

(x) The country is served by an infrastructure that can easily compete with European standards, paved roads and telecommunication reaches a most remote village. (x) People are very well educated and enterprising, but also compassionate as we were able to witness after the earthquake, when thousands took off from work and went to the disaster area to volunteer. (x)China's immense economic growth has created a wide prosperous middle class and not just some millionaires. The fact that no other Asian country, except Japan, has so many domestic tourists is the very proof. (x) Most important, the country develops and learns at an unbelievable pace. This might very well also change the political environment.

China’s Southwest is unbelievably cheap to travel for western tourists: even though we significantly upgraded our standard of living and traveling, no longer really taking care of what we spent, we spent about 35 Euros a person per day. This could have been cut by at least one third, of course if we wanted to!

On average we spent 11 Euros per night on accommodation for a nice double room with private bath. A bargain!

Chinese food is tasty and diverse, but due to the language barrier, we surely only tasted a very small range of dishes. We spent on average of 7.5 Euros a day per person on food and drinks, even though we regularly ate at much more expensive tourist restaurants and for dinner, we most likely enjoyed a beer or two or eventually some Great Wall wine.

The costs for traveling naturally depend on the level of comfort and how fast you want to move. For instance, a 14 hour train ride in a soft sleeper can almost be as expensive as a discounted plane ticket. Plane tickets we always booked on www.eLong.com, which had the best prices, with up to 65% discount! Creating an account was a bit of a hassle (take photos of your credit card, passport and required form and send it via eMail). However, once it is done, it is very efficient. When traveling long distance, we usually choose the faster and more comfortable version: we flew three times and took one overnight train, soft sleeper. Still, we did not spend more than 300 Euros per person for traveling almost 5.500 kilometers!

What really add up are entry fees: temples, museums, old towns, mountains, villages, you name it... The concept of allowing tourists to stroll through a village or rice terraces free of charge by making money on souvenirs and food does not exist yet. Thus we spent an incredible 190 Euros per person just on that.

Just to get a perspective of our purchasing power: women planting rice seedlings earn 40 Yuan (3.85 Euros) per day for back braking work, a seamstress who fixed our torn clothes asked for 0.5 Euro for half an hour of work.

Eating was heaven!

Even though we never consulted the Lonely Plant when it came to choosing restaurants in the last 10 months, because the places recommended are always far more expensive, in China we have come to appreciate those recommendations: the places mentioned in the guide usually have an English menu!

Do we sound like loosing our sense of adventure? To be frank, pointing at other people’s dishes or at veggies & meat displayed in restaurants is fun for a while, but it got boring because we always played it safe in such situations and went very conservatively for vegetable only. That is fine for a day or two, but even Heidi who is not a meat lover like Gilles, found this diet dissatisfactory after a while.

So we did enjoy the change in diet at times at travelers’ places, like the Mei Mei Café in Jinghong or the Sims’s Guesthouse in Chengdu, where they knew how to prepare western food. There are lots of other places who serve western food, but it is usually horrid: spaghetti cooked into a puree or pizza made of sweet dough!

Naturally, we were excited about the low prices of food in restaurants in general, but once you eat in those food stalls, the difference is quite something.

When we visited Yuanyang, we were rather close to Jinghong, the capital of the Xishuangbanna province. However, the bus trip would have taken two full days on very bumpy roads. So we took the bus back to Kunming and flew the 40 minutes from there to Jinghong, where we were in for another surprise.

We simply loved this place! We expected a dull provincial town, but we found everything you may want. It has the infrastructure of a tourist town, but it is not cramped like Lijiang or Yuangshuo, where Chinese tour groups all move around a few streets. It is rather small, there is little traffic, great food, especially many exotic fruits on every corner and above all, the temperature is so different from anything we have experienced in China’s Southwest: hot and humid!

The city’s wide boulevards are lined with palm trees as well as chic shops. Thy kitschy glitter and sparkle of the multi-colored neon lights that adorn palm trees, roofs and street lamps create a real holiday feel. No, we have not lost our mind when we say neon lights are great! Nevertheless, here they are... Cities in China are usually rather bland, so this is such a nice change! Also people look very different here, with the majority being Dai. This is why all the signs here are both in Chinese and in Dai, which reminds a lot of Burmese script.

This place seems like the Chinese Riviera, without the sea. Chinese city dwellers come here to enjoy the exotic flair and the balmy temperatures. Some ladies shrieked when they stepped out of the airplane and the hot temperature swallowed us up, got rid of their sweaters and stepped down the gangway smiling.

For the very few foreign tourists, Jinghong is not the primary destination, but the base to explore the minority villages in the surroundings, which of course we had planned to do as well. To be honest, we never left and simply wandered all over the place. One reason was that Gilles was still somehow feeling sick. On the other hand, we liked it so much here.

For 60 Yuan, less than 6 Euros, we stayed at a very comfortable air-con room at the Jing Yong Fandian Hotel. Of course, we tried many different eateries, but the very place to meet other travelers and share experience is Mei Mei Café. For example, we informed a surprised French traveler that he should start to reconsider his itinerary: he had not heard that the border to Tibet was closed to foreign tourists, as well as the northwest of Sichuan.

The best place to enjoy a late evening here is the Peacock Lake Park next to the artificial lake, where all kinds of activities go on. One night, we watched what seemed to be ballroom dancing, hilarious! The next evening, it was some kind of Chinese group dance. It seemed pretty much open floor: some of the dancers knew what they were doing, others just had fun. This was so much more entertaining than the expensive Dai Dance Performances aimed at the Chinese tour groups! Another very interesting “act” was a kind of sung dialogue between a man and a woman, we could not tell whether they were true artists or if this was spontaneous.

One hot afternoon, Heidi went to the swimming pool at the Golden Banna Hotel. Very pleasant grounds, but being the only western tourist and the only woman in a bathing suit was a strange feeling. Although everybody was smiling and saying hello, she constantly felt observed and thus only once quickly used the pool, otherwise hiding in a corner with her book.

Our fellow travelers in Yuanyang were, as usually, most interesting! Martin has traveled to China 11 times since 1992 (!) and knows every corner of Northwest & Southwest of China. He had lots to tell about how the country has transformed in a positive way. Especially the attitude towards foreigners has changed dramatically, reflecting the official government policy.

The Swiss ladies, Murielle & Camille, studied near Shanghai and spoke Chinese really well, which came in handy in a place where nobody masters the English language yet. Especially funny were their stories about eating habits in China, so different from anything we experienced in almost one month here. For instance, in a good restaurant or in a well-off family, rice will be served at the end of the dinner!

Less funny and rather revolting were their stories about the way animals are treated in China. Vietnam was already a shock for us, but China is even worse. Of course, they had stories about fishes cut up alive and skinned alive, but also one of small chickens having their feathers plucked alive… “Why not do it now, they will die anyway” (!)

For us, it was the first dinner in a group so we got to taste lots of different dishes. Martin and the two of us successfully thwarted Murielle’s culinary adventure to order a big frog, obviously a delicacy here.

Later a young German joined us, who, together with his girlfriend, has been biking for two years, from Freiburg in Germany, through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal (in the winter) and partly Tibet, where they were arrested and made to leave by train “for their own safety because of the riots in Lhasa”. They are currently pedaling through Southwest China. This, for us incomprehensible way of traveling, will later take them through Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, East Timor and finally to Australia, where they plan to work for a year to finance their further traveling.

As so often before, when we met people biking around the globe, we wondered what drives them and how this can be endured. Apparently, Germans and Swiss enjoy this way of traveling in particular. Unsurprisingly it is the cheapest way of traveling: that couple had spent 10.000 Euros in two years. This is less than what we spent per person in seven months in South America!

At 05:00 am, we set off and arrived at the village of Duoyishu, long before the sun peeked around the mountain edge. We listened to the village coming to life and gasped at the unreal scenery, an enormous area of terraces carved from the mountain slopes, still sitting there in the semi-darkness. Even the chilly temperatures could not distract us from this most impressive scenery. It was just the six of us enjoying this magic awakening.

For two hours, we watched the ever changing light and took photo after photo. Later five (!) Chinese tourists joined us. One of them had state of the art photography equipment and took photographing very seriously. A young lady with her adorable son tied to her back came up from the village to sell hard-boiled eggs. We were hungry then and the eggs were still very hot, so we first used them to get our hands warm: the temperature was still a bit “fresco”.

Later on, we stopped at many other view points, each breathtaking, literally. We had “breakfast” in a small village, buying various foods from the Hani ladies: dumplings filled with sweet cream and many fruits. We soaked in the village life at these wee hours. The most amazing thing was how unconcerned people were with the presence of tourists.

It took us a while to realize what was so striking about this environment. All these people who dress and work their fields like a hundred years ago, all live in modern houses, built of bricked and covered with whitish tiles, like everywhere in China. The roads are paved and all kinds of vehicles plough the narrow streets… It was a contrast that was difficult to comprehend!

Around noon, we were back in Yuanyang and we started out again at 04:00 pm to see the sunset at a place 25 kilometers northwest. We arrived two hours too early so wandered around and found a nice view point, closer to the terraces. Again, it was our little group and the same Chinese tourists. We looked into a valley of terraces cascading down the surrounding mountain slopes. The vastness of the cultivated area was simply overwhelming.

Unfortunately, this place lacked the quietness we enjoyed so much when watching the sunrise. It was the usual: ladies trying to sell postcards and artifacts. One of them even offered to take us to a view point a few minutes down for 50 Yuan! When we made it there on our own, the next entrepreneurial villager “attacked” us: she wanted money since we were supposedly sitting in front of her home. The Chinese tourists flat out refused to pay, but we gave her a little so she would leave us alone.

Sometimes it is tough to decide what to do: the amount asked is often so small considering our purchasing power! On the other hand, we now have an idea what locals earn, what things cost and then the perspective is different. We already experienced quotes that were 50 times the amount it should have been…

Squashed in our narrow seats riding the bus for almost 8 hours from Kunming to Yuanyang, we often asked ourselves if this trip was worth the trouble. The air was stuffy and worst, some passengers smoked. When the first person was lighting a cigarette, Gilles immediately went up front to the driver to complain. However, when he saw that the driver was smoking as well and that no “No smoking” sign could be seen, he gave in. The trip took us along farmland where rice, tobacco and corn are grown. Often we passed long stretches plastered with greenhouses.

The old town of Yuanyang is on top of a mountain, an hour from the new town. To our surprise, we found the most relaxed place we have seen so far in China, without the typical crowds of tourists, souvenir shops, but lots of Hani and Yi women wandering around wearing traditional dresses. These two groups indeed constitute the larger minority groups in the area.

The best time to visit the “prime spots” of the vast rice terraces is at sunrise and sunset. There are numerous viewpoints near small villages about 20 kilometers west of the old town of Yuanyang. At our hostel, Yuanyang Chenjia Fangshe, we joined forces with Martin from Holland and Michael, Murielle and Camille from Switzerland to rent a small bus for 200 Yuan for the whole day.

When we arrived in Kunming, after a five hour bus ride from Dali, Gilles finally decided to go to the hospital because he had had an upset stomach for more than one week. Needless to say that this was some kind of an adventure in a place where not a single person spoke more than two or three words of English! After running around for about one hour, going from one desk to the next queue to the next information center, where embarrassed nurses laughed but could not help, he finally managed to pay the registration fee and find the room with the right doctor.

There, a chaotic waiting started, with people trying to jump the line and others screaming at them, forcing a doctor to intervene twice. After another hour, it was Gilles turn, but also the lady doctor only spoke Chinese! Gilles had to use the Lonely Planet dictionary pointing at the word “Diarrhea” and “It hurts here” pointing at his stomach. The doctor seemed to understand what was needed, sent him for the compulsory blood test (sounds easy, but was not), looked worried when she read the result and prescribed tones of medication.

Well, neither will we ever know what the doctor diagnosed, nor which of the six packets of pills prescribed had which effect. This deficit led to another situation where all forces had to be joined in order to solve the issue. One day later in Yuangyang, Gilles decided to it was time to stop taking pills against diarrhea, but we did not know which of the six packets was the very one. Nobody in the guesthouse spoke a word of English, so we asked Martin, a Dutch tourist in our hostel for help, since he knew some Chinese. Well, he spoke it but could not read it, so we all went down to the lobby to ask the family for help. They were not sure either, but walked us to the neighbor, a doctor, who finally identified the right box.

Same day Heidi had a similar success story, she mastered getting around Kunming, a huge Chinese metropolis, in no time. One hour after arriving in this city, she zipped around on buses, found the right bus station out of 4, bought tickets for the next day and made her way back. None of the person she dealt with, like bus drivers, policemen, the people at various ticket counters, spoke any English, and Heidi is only firm in four words: “hello”, “thank you”, “rice” and… a swear word! It really felt as we both had accomplished something big.

The little we saw from Kunming was while riding buses across town. From this perspective, it seemed to be a big, modern city with massive traffic jams, but we are sure there is a different angle to that. We just did not have the time to explore it.

Sunday evening the mood on Chinese TV changed significantly, quiet classical music, speakers addressed an audience, many of them sobbing. It seemed the people were being prepared for the sad truth that for the victims buried in the rubble, there was little hope.

On Monday May 19th at 14:28, exactly a week after the Wenchuan earthquake, sirens announced a three minute nationwide silence. We had just stepped off the bus in Kunming when we witnessed this very touching moment. People stood still with their heads lowered, often the entire staff of a shop lined up outside in the streets. The intersections were blocked for traffic and drivers blew their horns. It was their way to honor the victims, which to us was a bit of a contradiction to the silence all around.

The reports on TV now concentrate on rebuilding, healing and prevention. For the first time it shows images that clearly, but delicately indicate that the person carried away is not alive. Temporary housing is being built, psychologists are sent into the area and prevention is being discussed.

We have said it before and say it again: it is so impressive to watch how the whole country sticks together, works together and shows their support for the many victims. As of today, the authorities estimate that 71.000 people were killed, 220.000 injured and 5 million have lost their homes. Neither of us has ever been so close to a disaster of this dimension and it makes a difference about how you feel, that is for sure!

Dali’s Old Town is surrounded by high walls, its four big gates leading to the city center at the “Point of the four directions of the wind”. As a different to Lijiang, “real” people live here, but the architecture is nowhere as remarkable. Basically, there is a main drag with souvenir shops where Chinese tourists are shown around by local tour guides dressed in Bai costumes. Our lack of enthusiasm for this place may also have to do with the fact that it rained, rained, rained…

Luckily, we found a very comfortable place to stay, the MCA Hotel, with big, heated rooms and lots of outdoor space. Against our usual practice, we followed a Lonely Planet recommendation for a restaurant, Marley’s Café. Great, cheap food! But the best stuff there are the yoghurt drinks. The owner is also a great source of information about the area without trying to sell you anything, something highly unusual here!

The thing to do around Dali is to bike along Lake Erhai and visit some of the markets & Bai villages. There are tracks around Green Jade Mountain, so lots of things to do! However, on the second day of our stay, it was not only raining, it was gushing from the skies. Our only option to get to some of the places was by hiring a car & driver for 20 Euros.

This whole trip was very disappointing! In the village of Xizhou, we could see some of the so much advertised Bai architecture. It was okay, but nothing special! Every single tourist eventually ends up at the house of a former tea merchant who struck riches and now lives in Canada. Yes, the building is interesting and the performance of Bai dancing was at least funny. Afterwards, you get to sample four different teas, which of course we were expected to buy for 30 Yuan each. We saw the same for 6 Yuan at the supermarket, so we politely turned down the offer.

Without having a chance to see more of Xizhou, we drove to the village of Zhoucheng, which the Lonely Planet describes as “interesting”. Knowing the Lonely Planet language by now, we should have known better! Anyway, our first stop was a place where batik, a Dali specialty, is produced. We must admit though, it was the first time that the technique of making batik was explained and demonstrated in a way that we fully understood, like how to create the shape of a butterfly. The labor involved to produce such material seemed agonizing, so we bought a very nice table cloth for 10 Euros without bargaining, nevertheless resisted all other offers.

When our driver wanted to move on to the next destination, we put our foot down and took a little stroll. We found absolutely nothing in the village that would get our attention, except the fact that this is big batik cottage industry. Many women could be seen “tying” the knots according to the patterns on the off white cotton cloth.

The last stop of our journey would have been Haidong, on the other side of the lake, with a Buddha statue and a few temples. When we heard the boat ride was 150 Yuan per person, we just shook our head in disbelief. At the pier, we got out off the car to take a few photos of the lake. By then, the rain was torrential and we were drenched after a few minutes. We could not see the other side of the lake, so we decided it was time to call it a day.

Again, it was lousy weather and we saw nothing of the beautiful scenery that surrounds the lake, but still we think the trip to the two villages is not worth the money.

Another entertaining bus ride took us from Lijiang to Dali. Of course, as usually we were the only foreigners on the bus. We left Lijiang in the morning and for the next three hours passed little communities or rural areas with people working in rice fields. Our Chinese co-travelers always found a reason to loudly, repeat loudly, discuss various issues. The card games going on around us repeatedly seemed to turn into a veritable fight, but when we turned our heads, everybody was smiling at us.

Of course, if we had any question, someone was identified on the bus knowing three words of English to help us. With the cool outside temperatures, soon the windows inside got completely fogged up. Again our co-travelers lent a helping hand, brought us paper to clean the window from condensation water so that we could enjoy the landscape.

After riding the bus for 3 hours, we stopped 20 minutes for lunch, although we were only ten minutes (!) from our final destination. Needless to say there was no English menu so Heidi was asked into kitchen of the restaurant where a few people were cooking at a frenetic tempo to feed all the passengers during the brief stop. There, lots of big plastic bowls with super fresh veggies were waiting. Heidi took her pick, one of the girls understood the word “pork” and minutes later she was served a delicious meal and tea for 1.5 Euro. Since Gilles was an upset stomach, he decided to skip lunch.

This experience is very representative for all our travel on public transport. We always felt helped and looked after. People would go out of their way to get us the service we were looking for. Most people take an incredible interest in western tourists and try to use their English whenever they have a chance and no matter how good or little they know the language.

A few times, we decided to join a tour because it was the most convenient way to reach a place. Again, our fellow passengers made sure we knew what was going on and when we had to be back on the bus. We noticed that they were always checking on us so that we would not get lost in a big crowd. Yes, we had to get used to loud talking and noticed an occasional disregard for waiting in line. Manners can be a bit unpolished, but always well meaning.

The best example was a trip on a crowded city bus in Chengdu with all our bags and backpacks. We felt a bit embarrassed taking up so much room, when suddenly somebody got up from his seat. Heidi was pushed and pulled into the vacant seat, her backpack lifted on top of her lap and everybody was smiling. When Heidi said “Thank you” in Chinese, the girl sitting next to her did not stop talking. Something we watched before, this urge to communicate, even if we had no chance understanding each other.

Depending on which way you choose to walk up to the “Looking at the Past Pavilion”, you may pass Wenchu Temple. There, we were taken for a ride, big time!

Young English speaking ladies in traditional dresses usher you into the temple where we met the “Taoist Master”. He asked for our Chinese signs and made us turn a small horn on large map of all Chinese signs. This round map was surrounded by small stacks of paper. Wherever the horn pointed, that piece of paper was yours. When we were asked to pay 20 Yuan for each slip, we thought this was a creative way to increase donations for the temple...

Then, we were asked inside the temple. The pieces of paper were translated and a piece of cloth was stamped with our names on it. The “Taoist Master” started with Heidi and told her that she had her second husband, which she vehemently denied pointing at Gilles and said, “No, first!”. He glanced puzzled at Gilles birth date and said, “Of course, first husband!” Then, there were two children (!!!), a beautiful face, a long life, happiness and of course … A lot of money. “Good, very good!” he kept saying. Our palms, foreheads and brows were touched and considered okay. The scenario for Gilles future was surprisingly (?) identical!

We were given two small glass mascots and a few other rituals were performed. We still thought this was part of the 20 Yuans, 2 Euros deal. Then came the big bang! Our “Taoist Master” showed the booklet so typical for tourist sites, stating who gave how much. The usual donation throughout Southwest China is 10 to 20 Yuans, exceptionally 50. Here we stared at numbers like 900 to 1.200 Yuans! He seemed really surprised when we told him we would not pay nearly as much. Then he started negotiating like any good souvenirs seller. Finally, we caved in and gave a hundred, which the master commented is per person. At this point we simply said “njet”! He nevertheless wrote 200 in his book. Maybe now, our souls burn in some Taoist hell…

Our visit of Wenbi Monastery 10 kilometers south of Lijiang was one of the highlights of this trip through Southwest China. We followed the advice of our host who warned us against visiting Jade Peak Monastery, which is packed with Chinese tour groups. He also organized our transport, because it would have been even very difficult to reach the village at the foot of the mountain by public transport, not talking about the steep road up to the monastery.

Wenbi is a “real” monastery with very strong Tibetan features, high up on a mountain. When we got there, a group of pilgrims had just piled up their offerings in front of two burners and the monks sat lined up against the wall of a building chanting. Except us, there was not a single tourist in this place, something we have never, ever experienced since we arrived in China.

Naturally, we felt a bit out of place and stayed on the side watching the offering. The pilgrims, who seemed to be a large family, threw burnable food in the burner as well as tons of fake paper money from the “Hell Bank”. Soon, one of them offered us tea and later included us in the ceremony by giving us stacks of paper money and incense sticks to be burned. By then, the fire was going really strong, but more and more stuff was piled on top.

This was one experience we will never forget. In times when religious fanatics run amok in many parts of the world, here, complete strangers, foreigners, were included in a religious ceremony without much fuss, in the most natural manner.

Then, we went 10 kilometers north of Lijiang to Baisha, a quaint little village with well preserved old temples and some frescos from the 5th and 6th century done by Tibetan, Naxi and Han artists. They were later restored during the Qing dynasty and depict Buddhist themes. What little can be seen today, survived the Red Guards and the Cultural Revolution.

The Old Town of Lijiang is Yunnan’s number one tourist destination, famous for its Naxi architecture. The Naxi are the prominent ethnic group in the area with a very interesting history and a religion that shows their Tibetan ties. The city’s cobble-stone streets are lined with houses built in traditional Naxi style. These buildings have been tastefully restored and together with the red lantern give this area an irresistible romantic charm. The many small canals that crisscross Old Town even manage to emit a certain peacefulness, despite the hordes of Chinese tour groups that come and go in waves.

Even with the crowds, we found the city gorgeous and great fun. For those few western tourists who travel South West China: if you thought Yangshuo was touristy, you have seen nothing yet! True, there are quiet corners, further away from Old Market Square, but the narrow promenades along the tiny Yu River turn into sheer madness when night falls. There must be a mile of restaurants, bars, clubs and karaoke bars that each plays their own type of music at max. volume.

The stream of people passing by is endless. While they are drifting along, they take photos of their friends or spouses flanked by some of the numerous girls in glittery traditional dresses, whose job it is to bring in customers. The later the evening, the less concerned these teenagers are about their mission - the places are packed anyway - but move to the rhythm of the loud thumping that comes from inside. Some bars had people dressed in traditional costumes dancing to deafening disco music. Others had groups that moved to what was obviously traditional music, again at a clear hazardous decibel level.

Two places managed to be even unique in this orgy of noise. One was a karaoke bar, where a confident woman shrieked into the microphone, while some guests loudly banged on the table. Unfamiliar with this ambience, it was not clear to us whether they disapproved or showed their delight. The other one was a bar were three African drummers got a young crowd so worked up that they frenetically hit some drums with wooden pedals and repeated, like a chorus, the African (???) chants the drummers were singing. Some of these youngsters seemed almost bewitched.

We were glad that our hostel, Dongba Hotel, was at the other end of Old Town. Not that too many residents would be troubled by the noise anyway, because very few locals still live there! The rents are astronomically high and those who owned property rent it or sold it to businesses people. For awhile, the local government even paid residents to remain living in the Old Town, in vain. Now, it decided to give out no more licenses to prevent Old Town from sprawling further and further.

Maybe in this current situation is it worth mentioning that these old Naxi houses resisted the 7.0 earthquake in 1996. The government rebuilt Lijiang County based on the principle of Naxi architecture, mainly using wood instead of cement.

Nevertheless, believe it or not, there is a quiet side to this popular tourist destination! One is a walk around the “Looking at the Past Pavilion” on the green hill in the center of town, actually the one separating old and new town. From the top of the pavilion, you have a great view of the city and the surroundings. While we were up there, the clouds tore open and let us have a glimpse of the nearby snow-covered mountains. In case we have not mentioned it yet, this was the first day since we arrived in Asia that we saw the sky!

After our flight Chengdu - Lijiang for Tuesday was canceled, we looked at alternatives. Unfortunately, none seemed really practical: we thought about taking a bus to Chongqing and fly from there, but it would have meant a 5 hour bus drive, not being sure when and especially if we were able to get tickets.

The other option was of course to go back to the airport the next day. In the morning, we checked online the flight status of all planes leaving. It looked like the airport was slowly resuming a normal activity, with planes delayed but somehow leaving and only few of the 270 departing commercial flights scheduled (!) canceled. So we bought new tickets for Lijiang, only 60 minutes by plane, and headed to the airport through a terrible traffic jam.

There again, the long, nerve-wrecking wait started with nobody able to tell us when or even if the plane would leave. At 04:30 pm, suddenly the check in for our 03:00 pm flight was opened. Each passenger was told to immediately go to the gate and wait there for boarding. After a while and contradictory information, the small crowd of passengers was rushed to another gate to board the half empty plane. On the tarmac, waiting… then food and drinks (!) was served, this did not look good. There was not a peep of information from the otherwise friendly crew. We ended up sitting on the plane for four hours before we took off.

Observing for so many hours what was going on outside on the tarmac, we only had one explanation for our excruciating long wait: The many cargo planes coming in and those bringing in the rescue teams were giving priority landing and taking off. If only they had told us right away…We could watch the rescue teams in their orange overalls getting off the planes, collecting their huge bags and board a bus.

We arrived in Lijiang late at night. No taxi driver at the airport could read the address of our hostel, so we had to take the bus, which generally has proven the better option anyway: among a busload of passengers, there is always somebody who speaks some English. We were tired, hungry and not able to enjoy our arrival in Yunnan at that point.

We had booked a flight from Chengdu, Sichuan to Lijiang, Yunnan, before the earthquake hit, but now, whether you have a ticket or not makes very little difference, there are just not enough flights. Not to mention that all train stations are closed until further notice and that busses are just totally overbooked!

We went to the airport although fellow travelers warned us it was chaotic, a mild understatement, as it turned out! People were literally camping out here. There must have been thousands, eating, sleeping, playing cards, talking amongst each other but above all screaming at the helpless airline employees. Nobody had any information as when or if a certain plane was departing. When we were finally told, after three hours of running around, that our plane was cancelled, we almost felt relieved. Except a handful of western tourists, all others were Chinese, who showed little mercy with the staff overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of passengers who wanted to leave.

We had to take public buses all the way back to our hostel because taxis were all occupied. Later we heard that one thousand of them were taken to help out in the disaster area. Drivers of private vehicles - cars and scooters - soon saw the demand and offered their services. We never hesitated to accept this in Latin America but here we did not know what it involved.

Soon a young Chinese saw us desperately looking for transport and guided us to a bus stop. He explained excitedly how his strong belief and God had saved him from the terrible earthquake. With a quick “God bless you all”, he sent us off on a bus heading to our hostel.

After trying a whole afternoon to leave Chengdu, we were back at our beloved Sim’s Cozy Garden Guesthouse, even though at this point, we were not especially pleased to be back again… Here we were questioned about the situation at the airport, but what could we say? There were planes leaving, at least a few, but it was impossible to say to where and when.

Later in the evening, we both gave a telephone interview with the Austrian ORF, arranged by Heidi’s friend Bettina Roither. Well, together with the BBC, it was our third interview in two days…

Aftershocks could still be felt throughout the day. Two definitively did not go unnoticed, one almost creating a panic at the airport and a really violent one later at night. But somehow, we all got used to it and did not even leave the hostel.

We were in Chengdu / Sichuan, 92 kilometres from the epicentre when the earthquake hit with full force Monday afternoon at 02:30 pm, with an incredible strength of 7.8 on the Richter Scale (max. is 9.0). We needed a few seconds to realize what was happening. We then rushed into a doorway to look for shelter.

What followed were probably the longest two minutes of our life. The building was shaking like mad, creaking and plaster fell from the walls. We had a full view of another building: it was swaying violently. We never thought that it would resist the tremor, but it did, apparently like most buildings in Chengdu. This metropolis of 10 millions people suffered relatively little damage, although BBC reported 45 fatalities only here. The only damage we personally have noticed are cracks in the wall of our hostel, broken windows and plaster fallen off the wall. But we have not left the area because of the indescribably traffic jam that followed the quake. Everybody poured into the streets, including us!

At this point, we had no idea about the whole disaster and actually a lot of people here did not seem very concerned. Drivers angrily rushed by those people who tried to get away from the buildings and waited in the middle of a six lane main road. Others, in buses, were using their mobiles to take photos of us squeezed against the hedge separating this road.

After two “minor aftershocks” of 6.0 and 5.4 (!), we dared to go back inside, where soon the whole tragedy unfolded. Since we were online when the earthquake hit, we still had our laptop, so from the garden of the hostel we accessed the Internet. Within minutes we knew (1) of the enormity of the tremor, (2) how close the epicentre was, only 90 kilometres northwest, which seemed so terribly close then and (3) of the fact that it was a shallow earthquake, with specialist calling it a potentially very dangerous one!

Especially after BBC and CNN reported that the tremor was felt not only in Beijing, but also Hanoi (Vietnam) and Bangkok (Thailand, 3.300 kilometres away), we assumed that we must have been right in the middle of it and got off easily. The radio in Chengdu initially only talked about the traffic jams, but after two hours there was TV footage. It showed people hiding under desks and running outside. The earthquake was on the news all evening, but since there were no photos or films from the worst hit areas, Wen Chuen and Du Jiang Yan, we had not idea what was going on.

These places are only 50 to 90 kilometres away from us. Eventually, we stopped asking the staff what is being reported: they were as disturbed as we were and many could not contact their families because the phone lines were down, since so many people were calling or trying to call.

Gilles reacted swiftly to the first BBC report online and described briefly what we experienced. He did not imagine that this small contribution led to two interviews via telephone, one being broadcast live on the radio at 11:00 am C.E.T.

Only later at night, first news reached us about the extent of the disaster, with the death toll rising by the minute. Since early Tuesday morning, the Chinese TV brings heartbreaking images, soldiers pulling little children from the rubble, covered in dust. The details we know only through western media, again we cannot expect that the employees standby to translate for us.

In the meantime, BBC talks about 10.000 people killed and many still buried. We still have difficulties to comprehend that “only” 50 kilometres made such a difference: from going “only” through a two-minute horrid scare to being killed or buried alive, like the 900 school children! To makes things worse, the road to these two places is inaccessible and during the night it started to rain, which makes all rescue efforts even more difficult.

The Chinese government reacted with surprising openness and swiftness: the army was immediately sent to the area and help from outside is welcome. There is no doubt to us that the Chinese government will do anything in their power to show the world that right before the Olympic Games, they can cope with such a situation.

The night was not quiet either. We were told in the evening that an aftershock was to be expected between 08:00 and 11:00 pm local time, but nothing happened, so around 12:30 am, many decided to call it a night… Only to run into the street again at 04:20 am when we were woken by another strong quake!

By then it had started to rain and people sat on the roadside, with umbrellas and their pets. Many, especially elderly people, have spent all night outside, fearing the aftershocks.

Monday, airport, bus and train service were suspended but we hope that we can fly to Lijiang as we had planned Tuesday in the afternoon…

Since we spent more than five days in this city on and off we strayed to all kinds of places. Our favorite was People’s Park. Its entrance is guarded by the statue of a ferocious looking soldier pointing his gun at the people’s enemies? The inside of the park is very peaceful with lots of elderly people joining Tai Chi groups or just dance away, alone with a partner, all to the same music.

When we stopped at a corner, our map wide open, since we could not find the bus stop to take us back to our hostel, an elderly man approached us and offered his help. He spoke really good English, although he only had one year of English in middle school (!), as he fluently explained. He walked us around for some time till he found the right bus station with the help of many other people. We were so touched that we asked permission to take a photo of him. Both of us find it difficult to picture this kind of helpfulness in our home towns, Vienna or Paris.

Once we were on the bus, a young lady started chatting with us. She was about to be a primary teacher and had attended private English lesson for three years. These encounters left us very impressed. Despite the fact that these people hardly ever have a chance to speak English, they could carry on a conversation and above all used every possibility to practice, like approaching complete strangers.

Another unique experience was Heidi’s trip to a seamstress to have some clothes mended. In Europe, we would not dare to give them to charity, but we have become so sentimental of the faded, worn T-shirts and pants that have accompanied us during this trip that we could not part with it and had it stitched together.

The lady worked about 20 minutes on these three pieces, minor repairs, and charged 0.6 Euros. The discrepancy between this ridiculous low income on the one hand and prices at tourist destinations on the other hand left us a bit puzzled. Most of the services seem very cheap for us, but Chinese tourists usually pay the same for bus tickets and entry fees…

One reason we stopped again in Chengdu was this incredible hostel, one of the best we have stayed during our 10 month travel. Comfortable, squeaky clean and quiet rooms with AC, TV & DVD player, two big and airy inner court yards, a competent travel desk, a big terrace to enjoy the superb food or a late night drink and lots of cozy communal space, are just a few features that make this place irresistible. For us, two adorable very young cats, an extensive book exchange, the free DVD library and WiFi in the whole building made it even more difficult to leave this oasis.

Moreover, we were both rather tired of traveling to a different place every day, which was pretty much the case since we have arrived in China, except our four days in Yangshuo. Not to talk about the fact that Heidi’s cold was not getting better and Gilles was also getting sick. So he decided to crash there for a few days to rest and enjoy doing nothing, which Heidi reluctantly but finally accepted. We settled down here, read a lot, ate a lot and spent a lot of time online consulting travel forums to plan our new itinerary.

A lot of travelers here in Chengdu had to rearrange their travel plans completely, after the nearby Tibetan border, the west of Sichuan and the north of Yunnan were closed for foreign tourists.

Besides, we started to like Chengdu, despite being China’s fifth most populous city. Yes, its main boulevard, Renmin Lu, is choked with traffic, but once you get away from the main drag, it becomes unusually quiet. Once the noisy buses are gone, only a few cars are left and the silent fleet of bikes and scooters all with electric motors noiselessly pass by, no roaring mufflers. Unfortunately, we missed the speedy service of Chengdu’s soon- to-come subway by 2 years: it will start in 2010.

Strolling along the tree-lined promenade of the Brocade Rive, there are restaurants were the city’s wealthier residents wine and dine. Sometimes, only a few meters from what looked to us like a handful of homeless people camping out in the park. We hardly allowed ourselves such heretic interpretations, but after we met a Canadian couple who told us that they saw people begging in the street of various cities, our observations seemed correct. The socialist system is not even flawless in this aspect. Heidi’s experiences with China’s medical care are described in a previous report: it is cash or no service / treatment, quite simple!

Who would not like to see the tallest Buddha in the world sculptured into a cliff overlooking the river?

So naturally, we stopped in Leshan, where we checked into the “Post and Telecommunication Hotel”. If the name is a turn off - maybe the nearby post office is to blame - the rooms are super and quiet, but it lacks all the facilities of a traveler hostel. The price included a Chinese breakfast which was rice porridge and pickled, spicy vegetable. We really tried…Nevertheless, the best place to stay in Leshan!

Although it must have been a quiet day, the crowd control devices were in place, the stairs down to the Buddha’s feet were jam-packed with Chinese tourists. So we simply looked for an exit sign in this milling crowd and now have to go on with our life without standing next to its 8.5 meter long toes…

Luckily, the day before we had hopped on boat that takes you across the river and stops in front of the Giant Buddha for about ten minutes. This way, you get a good view from the river and have time to take photos. Of course, there were no westerners on the boat and the explanations were “Chinese to us”.

However, there was also a group of cheerful tourists from Singapore on board, who immediately approached and quizzed us with all kind of questions. One of them, a retired policeman, explained that we do not have to be afraid when Chinese people shout at each other. It is their way of communicating. We somehow had noticed… As a regular visitor to China, he could also report that a lot less people spit on the floor (gee, what must it have been like before!) and less beggars can be seen in the streets. This fact, in his opinion, is part of China’s effort to present itself favorably to the world audience arriving for the Olympics.

The riverfront in Leshan is big fun in the evening, since a lot of people stroll along the boardwalk, swim in the river or join the aerobic classes on the streets.

Dinner in Leshan was also special, since we came across this small restaurant that offered a kind of Chinese Fondue. Tables are equipped with deep pots filled with broth that can be brought to boil by propane gas. Then bundles of vegetable or meat that you chose beforehand from a kind of buffet were thrown into the boiling broth. A side dish made of peanuts, coriander, garlic and chili gives it its final touch.

Emai Shan is one of China’s four famous Buddhist mountains and thus the destination for zillions of Chinese tourists and pilgrims. Not that we could distinguish who was making its way up or down Emai Shan for what purpose, but what was so overwhelming was the sheer number of people on a normal weekday in the low season.

There are many ways to conquer the summit at 3.099 meters… Take the bus and cable both ways. This can be done in high-heels, which some ladies actually did. One thing that we could not get over were the many Chinese tourists who had themselves carried all over the mountain by porters. Only some of the very few western tourists take the time and effort to climb up and down, which can be done in two long days. And of course, there are many options in between, like taking the bus only half way up and then join the trek.

Our plan was taking the bus / cable car all the way up to Golden Summit and hike down. Lots of people spend the night in one the monasteries or hotels up on the mountain to watch the sunrise. After listening to some very frustrated travelers, who, after a tough climb, had spent the night in an ice cold room, ate lousy food and saw nothing but fog, we decided against watching the so much advertised sunrise.

What a wise decision! The top was completely engulfed in such a fog that we could not even see the Golden Elephant even when we were standing right next to it… Same for the temple! The people around us were moving behind a thick haze, which created a special ambience, but that is not what you come here for. Besides that, a nasty cold drizzle had set in, so there was only one way down: by cable car / bus. We guess everybody hopes that their day up will be the one of blue skies, but those are so rare…

Luckily, we had done a four hour walk in the lower parts of the mountain on the previous day, right after our arrival and got a good taste of what this destination is like. The path runs through lush vegetation, often along a creek and mainly consists of steps, made to accommodate the masses of tourists. Stalls along the way are selling tea, mushrooms, food and souvenirs. The most popular one is a stuffed toy monkey that can be wrapped around your hips or neck.

During this hike, we passed the “monkey reserve” where about twenty people with sticks would watch that the cheeky monkeys, accustomed to human contact and food, stayed away from the people. We found this a bit overprotective. The next day, near Golden Summit, Heidi was attacked by a big macaque, which must have smelled the food in her bag. Since she went off the path and was at that time standing on uneven, slippery rocks, she froze. None of the many Chinese tourists around had a stick but they all screamed. Finally, a man fought this cheeky animal off. A rather scary experience!

Down in the village, the Teddy Bear Hotel is the place that caters to the few non-Chinese tourists in Emai Shan. Any “foreigner” whether traveling by taxi or bus is dropped off there, assuming this is the place where they want to go. This is an excellent place to stay. The rooms are “3 stars” but the prices are backpackers with less than 15 Euros for a big double with TV, bathroom and … WiFi. The Chinese owner, Andy, speaks perfect English and has all the advice on hiking.

No tourist leaves this city without visiting the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, with its 50 giant and red pandas. May is the end of the “falling in love period”, so in September we would have seen the very young ones. Nevertheless, they are not a pretty sight right after they are born.

It has all been said, but we cannot help it. These wooly creatures are just sooooo cute and lovable! They are the pride of every zoo and there is reason for this, except the fact that they are so rare and close to extinction. The way they munch away on bamboo leaves and stems is hilarious, lying in their back or propped up like a Roman patrician enjoying a feast. Their moves when stuffing themselves with their favorite diet are so human, made possible by their fake thumb.

After we watched some adult pandas enjoying breakfast, we thought that such adorable behavior cannot be topped. However, then we came to the area where the young pandas are kept, those 8 months to 18 months old. Their act was simply too much! They roll over each other, try to climb tree and fall off, get stuck between branches and use their swing for exercises that only a baby panda can think of. It was almost impossible to walk away!

The adjacent museum provides interesting displays and an informative video on panda habits and reproduction. The most surprising piece of information for us was one regarding female pandas, who give birth for the first time. They are so confused by the tiny hairless thing popping out of them that they whack the newly born with their paws. According to the video, this is why in the wilderness the first born never survives, only after this experience do female pandas become caring and loving mothers. In captivity, the newly born are taken from the mother immediately and bottle fed.

In Chengdou, there are also quite a few temples. Some are more like a monastery, as Wenshu, with living quarters for the monks, various temples, shrines & a tea house. Unless some Chinese tourists are screaming into their mobiles, it can also be place to soak up a bit of tranquility in this big city.

Jinjiang Theater is Chengdu’s cultural pride, with Chinese opera performances aiming at the many Chinese tourists who visit this city. For the few foreigners, there is a digital display that tries to translate what is being sung or said. It was a great evening with a little bit of everything, luckily!

The Chinese opera singers and soloists playing traditional Chinese instruments were top artists, but nevertheless our ears only slowly adjusted to this kind of music. It is simply incomprehensible that somebody can sing in such a high-pitched voice. So we were glad, surely as well as the rest of the audience, that in between the music sessions there were other types of artistic performances, like hand shadowing, sketches and acrobatic acts of every kind. The most fascinating was one where the artists all wore masks that changed in color, shape or design in a split of a second or imply disappeared at all from their faces.

From Ping’An, we zipped to Guilin by bus. From there we continued by plane to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan. Airline tickets bought online are indeed often so discounted that they are cheaper than a soft sleeper on the train!

After several days in rural China, we actually enjoyed the center of Guilin, the pedestrian area with chic shops, great restaurants, a romantic river walk and only a mild version of touting. The Backstreet Youth Hostel turned out to be a fantastic choice, with a perfect location, nice and cheap rooms and a comfy common area with WiFi. It was a lot cheaper than a midrange hotel we checked out, but offered so much more. Rosemary Café around the corner from our hostel offered a very tasty change in our diet: we were just absolutely happy.

The early flight to Chengdu was unspectacular, except that we saw a blue sky for the first time since we left New Zealand. Here in Chengdu, we made Sim’s Cozy Garden Hostel is our new home. It has only moved to this new location a few months ago and could not offer a more comfortable environment and friendlier service.

Two inner courtyards with lots of greenery are an oasis of tranquility in a town of 4 million. The tasty inexpensive food can be enjoyed on a quiet outdoor terrace and the rooms are quiet, super clean and very efficiently organized. Travel desk, WiFi, TV with DVD-player in the room and all other usual amenities complete this traveler’s paradise.

After the madness of Ping’An, it was such a relief to find Ma’an, famous for its Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge, a quiet relaxed place. The about 100 year old bridge was built by the villagers only using wood, no nails and is covered by what looks like a cascade of roofs. The rice paddies next to the river are irrigated by large squeaking waterwheels.

The 5 hour bus trip from Ping’an was just smooth, despite having to take three different buses. It seemed like hop on, hop off with buses just waiting for us. The new Yang’s Guesthouse right in the village seems to be the new favorite for the handful of foreign tourists with very simple but extremely cheap rooms, good but pricey food, free internet and a nice terrace that brings you in the midst of village life.

Unfortunately it rained a lot when we where there, which strongly hampered our hiking plans. Nevertheless, we managed to do a four hour walk around the neighboring Dong minority villages. These are famous for their drum towers, which are basically assembly halls or places to meet socially. Although it is easy to find your way around, we asked a local to join us. Our lovely guide, Wu Shu Je, spoke some English. We are sure we saw and learned things we would have missed walking by ourselves.

For instance, she told us about a big fire in the village of Pingtan Zhai caused by a stove in a kitchen that destroyed many of the wooden houses. This is the reason why more and more houses are built from bricks, or at least the walls of the kitchen in some old buildings are replaced by brickwork.

In this village, we were offered to come inside the Drum Tower, where a group of elderly men was playing cards. Some were watching a hilarious TV program, a man and a woman were competing screaming “Miau” in high-pitched voices. When we were ushered in by one of the man, they gave us big welcoming smiles and then went on with their business. Tea was offered and of course some smoke for Gilles, both pipe and cigarettes.

Then we were presented the modest “guest book”, where previous visitors left their comments. There was an English translation at the front page, but bits of it did not make much sense. Together with Wu Shu Je, we finally figured out what the word “bookkeeping” was supposed to convey: “donation”, which is what the rare visitors are asked to give to maintain the Drum Tower. In return donors are asked to write down their name on a large stone with a marker. Afterwards this name plus the amount donated is chiseled into the stone, a testimony of our generosity for future generations.

In one village, an official note on a wall asked young people to remain living in the village even offering a small financial incentive. Considering the big difference in the standard of living between cities and rural communities, we wondered how successful this campaign might be.

Another interesting observation we made was that children in these villages had no toys. They played with stones, wooden sticks, strings and above all with each other. Once we saw a group of boys proudly hammering away on some kind of game boy that children in Europe would never dare to use in front of others.

The last evening in Ma’an, we chatted and laughed away with two Argentineans and their Chinese tour guide. She was quite a character who had a command of English that was almost native like. An extremely outgoing personality! This evening will be remembered!

We were well aware that visiting a main tourist attraction in China during the May 1st holiday week would not be a lonely affair! Nevertheless, what we experienced in the tiny village of Ping’An was beyond our wildest imaginations. The area is famous for its extensive and elaborately sculptured rice terraces, a truly magnificent place. BUT! Since it caters mainly to Chinese tour groups coming up for the day from Guilin or Yangshuo, the place turns into a zoo during the busy holiday season.

Not that Ping’An is a village just off a major highway: it requires quite some traveling to get there, all in all at least 3 hours from Guilin for instance. The last bit is a steep, narrow, windy road that ends at the path that leads to village. For 50 Yuan, you may pass the entrance gate. From there, it is another 15 to 20 minute walk uphill to the village proper.

This path is lined with souvenir stalls, men waiting in their “sedans” offering their services to carry people up the few hundred meters to the village. Every female who could walk was shoving postcards, silver bracelets and embroidery in your face. This madness continued way until we left the village to climb the various viewing points. Women preyed at various scenic outlooks posing in super elegant tribal attire for photos or offering to take their hair and up again.

The Yan women are famous for their super long, pitch-black hair that they whirl around their head like a turban. This ritual is of course part of a folklore show that takes place a few times a day at the foot of the windy road going up to the village. For those interested in taking photos of the “hair ritual”, we would recommend to pay the ladies waiting up on the mountain instead of dishing 50 Yuan for a mediocre show in a brand new wooden barn!

Since it was such a busy weekend, we joined a Chinese Tour group going to Ping’An, instead of taking three different buses. There we left the group and stayed overnight in the new addition of the Countryside Café and Inn. This turned out to be an experience in itself. When we came back from dinner around 11:00 pm, the bar downstairs was packed with young Chinese tourists and thumping with loud disco music. Our room also faced the only even stretch in the village and was milling with people shouting. This, plus the horrendous noise from the bar made us ask for another room. When no quiet place in this building was found, we moved down to the older part of this accommodation. The owner was very understanding, but what a commotion! On top of that, at the other place, we could follow every conversation in the restaurant downstairs or the neighboring rooms.

Many western tourists complain about Yangshuo being so terribly touristy, but there we knew what to expect and enjoyed the carnival like atmosphere. Who can blame all these people coming to see this amazing landscape? And yes, there is money to be made! But in Yangshuo, a few streets away from West Street, you have a lively Chinese city and you can easily get away from the masses by cycling out into the countryside, whereas in Ping’an, you are simply trapped! Especially when it rains, you cannot get away and the music from the bars carries all over the tiny village.

In this place, the word mass tourism took on a dimension we did not think was possible. We tried to focus on the positive side and see it an attraction of its own.

One morning we joined a lesson at Yangshuo Cooking School, run by an energetic young lady with a good sense of humor. The class started with a trip to the local market where our little group was introduced to ingredients typically used in Chinese cuisine. The “school” is located in the country side in the midst of rice paddies.

The five dishes we produced under the observant eye of our teacher were really delicious. We even mastered the famous beer fish, a regional specialty. To be quite honest, the beer fish we cooked was the best we ever ate while in this region.

On our last evening, the highly recommended “Impressions of Liu Sanjie” was on our agenda, a lightshow with 600 performers and most impressive effects. It tells the story of a young woman, a heroine from the times of the Japanese invasion of China. Of course, no heroine exists without a touch of romance. The show was truly spectacular with the main setting on water with illuminated karst hills in the background.

What struck as a rather odd was the behavior of the audience. While these artists were singing their heart out, some spectators were talking really loudly, others took a nap and a lot left before the show ended to avoid the indescribable traffic jam that followed after the show: thousands of people were picked up in minibuses, while others were dropped off for the next show.

Since Heidi suffered from a persistent cold, she decided to see a doctor in Yangshuo. Accompanied by Sally, a young lady who works at our hotel, she headed for the local hospital. Unlike many people in Yangshuo, nobody spoke a word of English there! Her experience at this provincial hospital made us curious and we dug a bit deeper to learn more about health care in China.

Standard procedure in a Chinese hospital is to pay beforehand for every service. To see a specialist is 0.2 Euro. Afterwards, you most likely end up at the lab to undergo a blood test, for 1.4 Euros. Then, you go back to the doctor to hear the diagnosis and pick up your prescription. There again, you first have to go down to the cashier to pay for those… Heidi got lots for only 4 Euros.

Obviously, medical assistance is extremely cheap for European standards, but surprisingly there is no public health system in communist China: people have to pay for every consultation and for medication. We wondered what happens when it comes to major surgery or accidents. Well, two French journalists, who travel China frequently and write for Le Guide du Routard, told us the following anecdote. A Chinese student they befriended while they were studying Chinese in Kumming needed surgery. She was shopping around for months, bargaining with various surgeons to get a price she could afford!

Probably this explains the fact that there were few people seeking help in hospitals. Actually, some doctors sat in their bland rooms waiting for patients. Apparently for the local farming population, costs for consulting a doctor are too high, so this is an affair not to be considered light heartedly.

The doctor that attended to Heidi was not really full of smiles and kind gestures. Only after she returned with a perfect lab report did he seem more relaxed and subscribed tons of medication, offered an injection and advice. Having a chance to see some of the equipment, Heidi kindly said no to the injection. Also curious was the, for China so typical, disregard for non-smoking areas. Despite the big signs clearly asking for not lighting up, many of the patients and staff were smoking inside the hospital.

The other personal experience with Chinese doctors was with Dr. Lily Li, who runs a massage and traditional Chinese medicine business just off West Street. The place is a gold mine! Western tourists line up for a 60 minute massage for 7 Euros. Gilles chose the Relaxation Massage, which was actually only relaxing afterwards and Heidi left with a bag of “strong tea”, which tastes revolting and a 20 day ration of “weak tea” for 27 Euros, all this to cure her cold... This is a fortune in a rural area in China and up to now shows very little effect!

It appears that China abandoned all true real achievements of socialism, like national health care plans and free education, but only sticks to sinister principles, as tough rule and little freedom of expression. Secondary Education, by the way, is also not free and for the vast majority of the people very expensive.

Since we first entered China, we observed a fascination of Chinese tourists with Western tourists and their children in particular. During a boat ride on the Li River, there was an American family with small boys on board. Everybody tried to hold them, pat them, have them sit on their lap in the overcrowded bus from Xingpin back to Yangshuo. Or at least have their photo taken together with the kids!

This curiosity extends to western tourists in general. On West Street, we often watched young Chinese women, who usually come here with a tour group, asking young western men to have their photo taken with them, giggling like mad. The first time we became aware of this passion with westerns was during our very first bus ride after crossing the border from Macau. The local bus we were on stopped at a gas station, so did lots of others. We found people staring at us or taking photos of us. We figured these might be people from far away provinces, who have little contact with foreigners, but the Chinese tourists in Yangshuo are mainly well-off city people from Guangzhou or Shanghai.

Sally, the young lady who works at the Bamboo Hotel, where we stayed, even claimed that the presence of so many foreign tourists in Yangshuo was an additional incentive for Chinese tourists to come there. With so many hotels, restaurants and bars concentrated in such a small area, there is a 100% chance to have good viewing of westerners.

Our hostel, the new Bamboo Hotel, is a place we can highly recommend. The staff speaks good English, the rooms are clean and comfortable and they organize any excursion possible in the area. The top floor has a great view of the river and the hills.

Another place we learned to appreciate is the Yak Café on Gui Hua Road, parallel to West Street, right in the center of things happening. It is run by Andrew & Sula, one of the two will most likely carry their 4 months old son around. The food is great and the place is a smoke-free environment, something hard to find in China.

One of the best ways to see the extraordinary scenery is riding a bike along the Yuling River. Here tourism is presently finding its way into the local farmer communities along the river. This area is undergoing a major transition: you see farmers working their rice paddies or taking their animals home in the evening, while others are building bamboo rafts or taking tourists down the river on these floating devices. Some people try to sell conic hats or fruits and most farmers along the river have added a few floors onto their modest dwellings, probably expecting tourists soon wanting to stay out there, away from the hustle of West Street.

All in all, the activities are still in a very innocent phase. Only recently, the dusty dirt road along river was sealed. Right now, the embankment is being added. Apart from the many bikers, tour groups are taken along this new small strip of concrete in small open-air mini-buses.

Another possibility to see the stunning rock formation close up is taking a boat trip along the Li River. There are many options, a full-day trip from Guilin to Yangshuo in a big tour boat, or covering only the most scenic stretch in a bamboo raft equipped with a little engine. We went the cheapest way, which means taking a public bus to the small town of Xingping and then another vehicle seating 6 people pulled by a motorbike (!) to a boat landing in the middle of nowhere.

Our vessel looked like a mini house-boat and only the tiny children’s chairs hinted at the fact that it was about to transport passengers. After going upriver for about an hour, we stopped at a pebble beach where villagers sold food and polished stone. Others had already joined in the “global photo option” and brought out their buffalo or cormorants to have their photo taken. Even though we have observed this “production” in so many countries all over the world, it is still amazing how absolutely identical these scenes are. Although here, it still had a bit of a naïve touch.

The trip back was a bit disrupted because the police was patrolling the river and our boat had no licence, so we pulled over on the shore. One of the Chinese tourists on board knew English well and kept us updated while we waited for them to leave.

What makes this area a prime tourist location are the amazing rock formations that are especially spectacular near the Li or Yulong River. They are best described as a never ending string of pointed hills covered with lush green vegetation, often coming in bizarre shapes given names like Moon Hill, Nine Horse Fresco Hill...

One range follows the other, the ones further away mysteriously disappearing in the haze, typical for this area near two rivers. It reminded us a lot of Halong Bay in Vietnam, without the ocean of course and more, slimmer hills. This natural wonder plus the relentless promotion of nearby Guilin, as “the number one city in Guangxi” by Chinese tourist literature has turned the area it into a major tourist hub.

Yangshuo is final destination for the boats floating down the Li River from Guilin. Though catering mainly to Chinese tour groups, Yangshuo is also visited by a good number of “Westerns”, quite a few staying for a while attending Tai Chi or Kung Fu courses or learning Chinese.

Whatever the reasons, all this has created a tourist enclave along Xi Jie or “West Street” that hardly finds an equal in the whole of China. This street and a few short alleys branching off are lined with Western style shops, restaurants, bars with bright neon multi-coloured signs and staffed with young people speaking English like nowhere else in China.

Even small eateries outside this tourist cosmos can provide basic information about their services in English! Although prices within the Xi Jie ghetto are favourable for tourists with dollars or Euros in their pockets, a few hundred meters away you can get a tray of dim sums for 50 cents or a good lunch for one Euro.

We decided to describe his first stretch of our trip in “China proper” in great detail, simply to show how easy it is to travel in an environment where communication is rather difficult. It took us about 23 hours to cover the approx. 750 kilometres between Macau and Yangshuo, but it was hardly tiring or boring. The public bus in Macau took us to the border at “Portas de Cerco” where we crossed into Mainland China together with zillions of gamblers who had spent the weekend in Macau. Despite the big crowd things moved smoothly.

Once outside the immigration building a small visitors’ desk helped us to find the way to the underground bus station. Actually, we were the only “Westerns” crossing the border there. There were however quite a few other Asian nationalities. This very comfortable bus took us Guangzhou in about 2.5 hours.

Again, there were a few young people at an info desk eagerly telling us how to get to the railway station, which involved taking the subway. They even walked us to the nearby subway stop equipped with a bilingual subway map! The rest was a piece of cake. We were so surprised how easy it was to travel with mostly Chinese writing all around us, but this feeling changed once we approached the square in front of Guangzhou’s train station. Although we were not even quite sure whether it was the train station, we just moved with the crowd, assuming that if sooooo many people with luggage want to enter a building, it must be the train station!

The crowd was huge, many sitting on the ground in large groups, others making their way to the entrance. Although there are three huge entrances, only two small passages were open and the pushing and shoving got worse and worse the closer we came to the door. Once we were pushed through the gap, the reason for the congestion became clear: every luggage was screened!

There was no place to change money inside the train station and although the train did not leave for another two hours, we could not see ourselves fighting the crowd entering the train station again. For this reason, we also chose the only (!) eatery inside. We expected this place to be equalled mobbed with people, but we were wrong. Most people had brought instant noodle dishes or other snacks. The time till our departure we spent in the very comfortable “soft sleeper” waiting room, discovering how the system worked.

Once a train was leaving a lady with a big megaphone would enter the lounge and shout orders, apparently asking the passengers to go to the platform. Only then passengers are allowed there, obviously to move such crowd, rigid organisation is necessary. Since we had no clue what her commands were, we carefully watched the clock, but when it was time to board the megaphone lady waved us over and again we rolled with the crowd. Again the only foreigners!

Now our ticket did the talking, the attendant that stands like a sentry at the door of each carriage passed us on to another who showed us our compartment, which, to our relief, we did not have to share with anybody. Actually only half of the compartments in our carriage were occupied, apparently the 40 Euros being too expensive for the vast majority of Chinese travellers.

Of course, we checked out the dinning car, most customers were the many conductors and other employees who enjoyed themselves there, especially when it came to who was going o take OUR order. After a brief discussion amongst the waitresses, a young girl was sent over to our table with a little piece of paper in Chinese, the menu (?), looking embarrassed and shrugging her shoulders. She asked all the other passengers for help but in vain. Eventually, Heidi got up and pointed at some dishes at the neighbouring tables - those that could be somehow identified - and we ended up with a delicious dinner for a few Euros.

Once in Guilin, things took a different turn, we were immediately approached by touts and people working for the small bus companies speaking good English. Of course they tried to badly overcharge us, but Gilles knew what the bus ticket should cost, so we eventually paid approx. the normal price. Within minutes, we were put on the bus to Yangshuo and off we went for the last 1.5 hour of our trip.

After crossing the border coming from Laos, we will first visit the Jinghong Region in the far south, before heading towards Kunming, Dali & Lijiang.

We will then take the train to the famous Guilin, and spend time enjoying the less touristy Yangshuo & Sanjiang.

Finally, we plan to visit Guangzhou, Macau & Hong Kong, our last stop before flying back to Europe …