Darby
08-19-2005, 02:10
Hello, A cold beer, Thank you.
That was all the Chinese I learnt to speak but it got me by ok. So nice to be home. The trip was fantastic. Climbed the wall, the Great wall that is, visited the terracotta warriors which was mind boggling (the scale of the excavations). Even got to see the old farmer who discovered them. He now spends every day sitting in a museum signing books for tourists and hides behind a fan everytime someone points a camera at him. I feel he now wishes that he had thrown that peice of pottery back down the well he was digging at the time.
The Great Wall is equally mind boggling and treacherously steep to climb. As I got to the top exhausted and near dead, the first thing I heard was "hello sir, you like beautiful 'Rolex' watch???." Capitalism has reached China big time.
Saw lots of temples and gardens and ate lots of exotic food and also avoided a lot of other exotic food. Anything and everything is for sale in China. I did have a tiny bit of tummy trouble for a few days and the toilets away from the hotel are often the squat model or a lot less than that. I did the best I could and my good advice is, always take a roll of toilet paper with you when travelling around in China.
The military are everywhere and don't like being photographed. I had a white gloved admonishing finger waved at me a few times but I snuck a couple in. :tsk:
I learnt in Beijing that the barber shop you are having a haircut in may also turn out to be a place where young ladies offer you more than you thought you were bargaining for and in Shanghai I learnt that even tho you haggled hard and got a good price for the kite you just bought, you still got ripped off.
I bought a nice 100% silk shirt (with a gaurantee) in a government owned silk manufacturing factory and some other 'designer label' shirts in a market. I also bought 3 kites (the Chinese love to fly kites every evening and morning) and finally did haggle hard and bought 6 'Rolex' watches for 100 yuen (about 16 aussies dollars the lot. I have already distributed these out at the pub. I was a big hit but by now I'm sure the second hands on those 'rolex' watches will be running backwards. Also bought a few other nick knacks to give away but I am keeping my 100% silk doona.
I went on their fast train from Shanghai to the airport. 30 kilometers in 7 minutes. It got up to 433 kph. A real buzz. The trains in China are fast and run on time and the internal airlines are also reliable although the security you have to go through to board them is something else.
The trip home was unfortunately a nightmare due to 'mechanical problem' on the Air China B777. 6 hours delay from Shanghai to Melbourne then when leaving to go on to Sydney it would not start. Another big delay in transferring to a Qantas flight to Sydney and finally getting here at 7.00pm instead of 9.00am as scheduled.
China is a great place to visit, can certainly recommend a trip there. Beer is cheaper than bottled water and its good beer too. You just have to be forceful and relentless to make sure its cold. I still have a few days off from work so can use the time to edit the 600+ pics I took. And of course fire up the sim and have a flight or two.
Cheers all. it is nice to be home :coffee:
That was all the Chinese I learnt to speak but it got me by ok. So nice to be home. The trip was fantastic. Climbed the wall, the Great wall that is, visited the terracotta warriors which was mind boggling (the scale of the excavations). Even got to see the old farmer who discovered them. He now spends every day sitting in a museum signing books for tourists and hides behind a fan everytime someone points a camera at him. I feel he now wishes that he had thrown that peice of pottery back down the well he was digging at the time.
The Great Wall is equally mind boggling and treacherously steep to climb. As I got to the top exhausted and near dead, the first thing I heard was "hello sir, you like beautiful 'Rolex' watch???." Capitalism has reached China big time.
Saw lots of temples and gardens and ate lots of exotic food and also avoided a lot of other exotic food. Anything and everything is for sale in China. I did have a tiny bit of tummy trouble for a few days and the toilets away from the hotel are often the squat model or a lot less than that. I did the best I could and my good advice is, always take a roll of toilet paper with you when travelling around in China.
The military are everywhere and don't like being photographed. I had a white gloved admonishing finger waved at me a few times but I snuck a couple in. :tsk:
I learnt in Beijing that the barber shop you are having a haircut in may also turn out to be a place where young ladies offer you more than you thought you were bargaining for and in Shanghai I learnt that even tho you haggled hard and got a good price for the kite you just bought, you still got ripped off.
I bought a nice 100% silk shirt (with a gaurantee) in a government owned silk manufacturing factory and some other 'designer label' shirts in a market. I also bought 3 kites (the Chinese love to fly kites every evening and morning) and finally did haggle hard and bought 6 'Rolex' watches for 100 yuen (about 16 aussies dollars the lot. I have already distributed these out at the pub. I was a big hit but by now I'm sure the second hands on those 'rolex' watches will be running backwards. Also bought a few other nick knacks to give away but I am keeping my 100% silk doona.
I went on their fast train from Shanghai to the airport. 30 kilometers in 7 minutes. It got up to 433 kph. A real buzz. The trains in China are fast and run on time and the internal airlines are also reliable although the security you have to go through to board them is something else.
The trip home was unfortunately a nightmare due to 'mechanical problem' on the Air China B777. 6 hours delay from Shanghai to Melbourne then when leaving to go on to Sydney it would not start. Another big delay in transferring to a Qantas flight to Sydney and finally getting here at 7.00pm instead of 9.00am as scheduled.
China is a great place to visit, can certainly recommend a trip there. Beer is cheaper than bottled water and its good beer too. You just have to be forceful and relentless to make sure its cold. I still have a few days off from work so can use the time to edit the 600+ pics I took. And of course fire up the sim and have a flight or two.
Cheers all. it is nice to be home :coffee: