I traveled far and wide across China in what I thought was a very short time. I saw and did so much that I'll have to break the blog up into two posts so I don't make you regret being interested in my life.
Our itinerary was as follows: Chengdu, Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Hainan Island
On the 29th of January Bryne and I flew to Chengdu in Sichuan province which is in the midwest of China geographically. Chengdu is kind of viewed the way St. Louis was around 1804. It is the last bastion of civilization before getting to China's 'wild west'. Scott Dedels resides in Chengdu. Scott is a friend I met at the seminar at the beginning of the year and he is a former roommate of Bryne's from back in England. We flew during the day and from the air we could really see the rugged terrain that surrounds Beijing. We could also see the Great Wall snaking its way along the ridges of the mountains that cushion Beijing's north side. The first and most striking thing I noticed about Chengdu was the color green. The streets are lined with trees that, due to the warm and humid environment, remain green all year. This was a nice change from the gray that dominates Beijing in the winter. Scott has a great apartment very close to his school's campus. I'm jealous. Sichuan province is known across China as home to the most beautiful women in all the land. I must say that this stereotype holds true based on my limited travel experience. Scott is a lucky man.
Scott showed Bryne and I the nightlife in Chengdu and we were not disappointed. The clubs and bars were packed with people. It was in Chengdu where I succumbed to a Chinese tradition which I had avoided since my arrival. Buying bottles of liquor to split among a group is a very popular method of drinking in China. On the surface it seems ok until I tell you that it is only one kind of liquor, Chivas Regal, and one kind of mixer, green tea. The Chivas and the tea are mixed together in a pitcher and dolled out in little glasses for people to drink quickly. Going out in China requires you to participate in drinking rituals that amount to peer pressure in the west. When you go out to a bar everyone is drinking Chivas and tea and everyone is toasting one another. You must always accept a toast and must always offer another one in return. The toast is 'Gan Bei' which means bottoms up. So by strictly adhering to cultural norms and not wanting to offend anyone you can get quite drunk quite quickly.
The next day we finalized our plans for the next two weeks. We decided to head south from Sichuan to Yunnan province. First we would go to Kunming, then to Dali, and finally to Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge near by. Having confirmed our plans Bryne and I set out to see the sites in and around Chengdu. The main attraction around Chengdu is the panda preserve just outside of the city. Sichuan province is the only place in the world where giant pandas are found and as a result there are many different preserves around the province. We spent a day at one such preserve and I learned a lot of interesting things about pandas such as they are doomed to be extinct. The panda has to be the most evolutionarily ill equipped animal that is not already extinct. It is can eat meat but doesn't because it would expend too much energy in the process so instead it eats bamboo which has almost zero nutritional value so it has to eat a lot of it. It has to eat so much bamboo to sustain itself that it does nothing but eat bamboo. Pandas can eat 60 different species of bamboo but only like to eat 27 of them. It will turn it's nose at the other 33
varieties. They also refuse to mate. It doesn't get more Darwinian than having zero sex drive. They have to be forced together and the male has to physically be placed on top of the female by handlers. This last point has nothing to do with reasons they will become extinct but they make the weakest noises, kind of like a pouting baby. I'm really glad I got to go see the pandas because they are not going to be around 1 generation from now. No way. I also got to hold a red panda which is more like a large raccoon than a bear. It was soft and ate apples from my hand.The other major site near Chengdu is in Leshan. Carved into the face of the cliff that looks out on the confluence of three rivers, the Leshan Buddha is 233 feet high and is damn imposing if you ask me (which is kind of weird because its Buddha). The seated statue is about 1300 years old and was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 1996 (I forgot to mention that the panda preserve that we visited was also some sort of world heritage site. This was a sort of theme for the trip as we ended up visiting 4 such sites). Bryne and I hired a car and traveled along with two Australian girls that Scott had met in Xi'an at the beginning of his holiday. The Buddha was breathtaking. The original paint is still visible on the chest and lap. I just imagine being a fisherman in the year 700 AD cruising downriver and happening upon this giant, fully painted, Buddha seated on the side of a cliff. Ridiculous.
We spent one more day in Chengdu before we headed off to Kunming in Yunnan province. During this down day we scheduled a trip to Hainan island in the South China Sea. We paid to fly and be housed with a tour group as to reduce the overall cost. We booked the tickets and reserved the hotel for the 14th to the 18th of February (more on this part of the trip in part 2 of this blog). After finalizing our plans for the last part of our vacation we flew from Chengdu to Kunming. Yunnan province is home to 60% of all minority ethnic groups in China so to say it is an ethnically diverse place is an understatement. Many people in smaller villages and towns (and some in the cities) still wear their traditional clothing every day. This is a vast departure from the Armani suits and Louis Vutton bags in Beijing. Kunming was very similar to Chengdu in its foliage but the weather seemed to be a bit colder. We stayed at a fabulous hostel near a busy shopping area in Kunming. The hostel also provided a menu of western food which we were happy about. We arrived in the evening so the next morning we wanted to see the sites of Kunming. This is a problem because there are no sites of historical or cultural significance in Kunming. In western Yunnan there was a mini Muslim empire formed by allies of Kublai Khan after he took over China. The Muslims used Dali as a base of their power and repeatedly sacked Kunming. If this wasn't enough Kunming was hit hard by the Cultural Revolution as well. One culinary delight that Kunming is known for is Crossing-The-Bridge noodles. This delightful dish was created by a woman who would have to cross a bridge to give her husband his lunch. She'd take a boiling hot bowl of broth with a thin layer of oil on the surface and walk it over the bridge. Once on the other side she would add the noodles, meats, and veggies and they would all cook in the broth. It amounts to the best Ramen Noodles of all time with a diverse mix of ingredients including tripe and quail egg.
Day 2 in Kunming Scott and I booked bus tickets to Shilin, commonly known as the Stone Forest. Bryne could not join us this day as he was feeling unwell. The Stone Forest is located
about 2 hours southeast of Kunming and is yet another UN sponsored site. It is a surreal place. It looks like something from a fantasy or science fiction movie. The pictures I have do not do it justice. The park is broken up into two sections. One section is set up like an over grown rock garden with patches of green grass and reflecting pools placed between the rocks. The other part is more natural with narrow footpaths looping under, over, and around massive rock formations. Scott and I spent four hours there just wandering around in constant amazement of our surroundings. I think it has to be one of the top five 'Must-Sees' in China. After we left the park we headed into the town of Shilin to have some lunch. Of course we had Crossing-The-Bridge again. This time we ate at a street cafe where they also served fried bees and crickets. I couldn't resist the opportunity to add to my insects eaten list. The bees were saturated with oil and lightly fried...about 1 day before I ate them. I feel that this may have ruined the bee eating experience for me. Who knows, maybe there is nothing as tasty as a plate of freshly fried bees. After lunch we headed back to Kunming. It was at this point that Scott began to complain about his stomach. Once we got back to the hostel he turned in for the night while Bryne and I stayed up and chatted with other travelers (I was trying to find a hot lead on a place to watch the Super Bowl which was the next morning, no luck). When we returned to the room Scott was doubled over in pain and could not stop vomiting. It was scary stuff. I offered him some medicine which he took and promptly evacuated all over the floor of the room. Luckily I had a cold so I avoided the smell. And I was the one who ate the bees. Two days later Scott was back in action and we boarded a bus headed west for Dali.This is where our story ends for now. Stay tuned for the next installment featuring heroin dealing grannies, the mini version of The Long March, and Monkey Island. Take care. Dsai Jien.
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