exploring the infinite abyss

... but here's a final look at the map!

I’m currently typing this in Word as I wait at the Tokyo Station en route to Utsunomiya. Just “finished up” (can you ever really?) at Kyoto which was a really nice city. As cliché as it sounds, I simply must go back there at one point or another. Yeah, that’s right, I’m writing about China when I’m already in Japan. Got a problem with that? Anyways, this post is about BEIJING and not Japan just yet.
Beijing was like a breeze of fresh air compared to Shanghai. There is no comparison! I was actually shocked arriving into Beijing and seeing clear blue skies. Where was all this smog I keep hearing about? Anyways, I eventually made my way to the hostel (it was down a rather shady alley) and unloaded there. I had to get my Japan Rail Pass so I decided to save some money and take a stroll to the office which I thought was about 6-7 blocks away. I later found out that Beijing has the biggest city blocks ever.
Anyways, after successfully getting the rail pass, I checked out the Forbidden City, starting with the north entrance (it was the one closest to the hostel). I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when I see that the emperors here were living in some ridiculous luxury. I thought Versailles was pimped (in terms of area and building sizes… not pomp and treasures, at least from the outside)! It was pretty funny because you would walk up and down the steps for buildings, and coming out the next size you would see another building which was even bigger and more grand than the previous one. This probably repeated itself about 3-4 times.
Tian’anmen Square was next and that’s probably the least welcoming and friendly square I’ve seen. Your bags need to go through x-ray machines, and there is more security there than in some airports (and apparently there are some plain-clothes policemen lurking)… not exactly the square you would go out to visit for a family picnic or to toss the frisbee around. Anyways, it was pretty interesting to see in person after hearing all about it in History class. Unfortunately my camera battery died shortly after taking a few photos so I figured I’d come back later to see it more thoroughly (that never happened).
After resting up, I decided to go out for dinner somewhere… partially because no one else in the hostel was eating there and it just seemed like they didn’t serve food (which they did). There was a street called Nanluogoxiang that had a few places to eat found in LP so I thought I’d wander around there. What a pleasant surprise that place was! Turns out it was just a small walking street, full of tiny cafes, bars, restaurants and shops. They were so small one bar was actually called “12 mm^2 bar”. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and you could tell this is where the young, hip crowd (along with the expats) liked to hang out. I walked around a bit, did some window shopping and ended up running into a Kiwi couple who I also happened to run into in Chengdu and Xi’an. Who would’ve thought it’d be possible have unplanned encounters with the same people three times in the most populated country in the world? After a nice dinner at a Tibetan café, we called it a night rather early because we were all going to the Great Wall bright and early the next day…

Woke up the next morning bright and early at 5:50 AM. Walking outside I noticed some cloud cover so I figured this was the typical weather I kept hearing about (wrong). I was embarking on the 10 km hike from the Jiamanting to Simatai sections of the Great Wall. Skip ahead about 3.5 hours and 140 km outside of Beijing later, and we’ve arrived… where the skies are as blue as can be.
To save some time and energy, we elected to take the cable car up… and the higher it went, the more breathtaking the view of the Wall became. In fact, not until I had started hiking could I really appreciate the beauty, wonder and magnificence of the Great Wall. I wasn’t really expecting much from it, and to be honest, I had probably signed up for it more out of obligation than pure desire. As cliché and typical as it sounds (funny how most cliché things are actually true), the Great Wall was the thing I most enjoyed about China. Seriously, combined with the fantastic weather which allowed you see the Wall for miles and miles away, words couldn’t do what I saw that day justice. Plus, I don’t think I have a strong enough vocabulary. I don’t think I’ve been in that much awe since Kilimanjaro and the sunrise on the Serengeti.
Just to be clear, it absolutely completely DOES matter which section of the Great Wall you do. Badaling is the one most commonly seen in photos, is closest to Beijing, and it’s where most tourists flock. The section opened up after that was opened up afterwards, and is supposed to be pretty cool and with fewer tourists. However, unless you’re really adverse to hiking and steep slopes, I would highly highly recommend doing the Jiamanting-Simatai route for the following reasons: (1) It is the least crowded section by far due to its distance and well, as I said… steep sections. I would even be pretty scared to do some of those areas if it was raining. Oh yeah, it takes most people 4 hours to hike the 10 km. As a result, fewer people = better photos and more time to stare in awe; (2) Most of this section is unrestored, and quite frankly look like those ancient ruins (which they are)… but there is a certain authenticity about it that makes you further appreciate it. In fact, I actually walked through the restored parts kind of quickly because I thought it made the Wall look a lot duller than the original sections.
Ok, enough gushing. So yeah, the sun was out, the walk was awesome, and it was pretty challenging too, which I’d say adds the fun element to it. Got pretty tired near the end especially because of the incredibly steep/large/long flight of stairs. To finish off a nice 3.5 hours of hiking, they had a zip line which you could take down for an extra 40 RMB. I figured since I’m here, why wouldn’t I? Swallowed a bit of anxiety and went for it! “Don’t worry, it’s pretty good; only 1 in 3 die on the line,” joked a guy in front of me. A great day was capped off with a solid 30 seconds on the line as you whiz over the river and see a gorgeous view of that valley.
(Lunch… etc… long bus ride home… etc)
I was pretty exhausted by the time I got back to the hostel but I knew this was my last evening in Beijing. I told my body to stop complaining and took a taxi to snap a few shots of the Water Cube and Birds Nest. It was nightfall by this time, so they were both lit up beautifully in their own way. I walked past the Birds Nest first, and it had some subtle red and orange lighting in between the seemingly random cross-hatches. The construction workers must’ve been thinking “wtf” the whole time they were laboring over that thing. Kind of shame it just sits there now. I hear they’re turning it into an “entertainment/shopping complex” which is a real pity. Next door was the Water Cube which was lit up brightly in a sort of aqua-navy blue if that makes any sense. Nevertheless, it was a cool shade of blue, and I spent some time trying to play with my camera to truly capture the blue. I don’t think I did get it right in the end, but close enough… I really need to learn how to use that White Balance properly.
Finished off my last time in Beijing with a nice stroll in the squares nearby. Of course, given China’s seemingly love affair with massive slabs of concrete, that’s pretty much what they were… but it was still a pleasant walk and a nice way to end Beijing for me.

Don't mean to sound so negative, but Shanghai is the first city in my travels I wish I had skipped over. I guess I was swayed by its metropolitan allure, but unless you're into miles of walking to shop and most things being overpriced, then maybe you'll like it. The only real history it had here was the Shanghai Museum, which was conveniently only a couple of blocks away. Alas, it was pretty comparable to the National Taiwan Museum in that after about the halfway point I started to get a bit bored. I guess for some reason, there's only so much Chinese history I can take?
The Bund is under heavy construction for the 2010 Expo, so we decided to give that a skip. On top of that, the unbearable weather really made it difficult to do any exploring.
Not much else to say about Shanghai except I'm glad to be leaving in a couple of hours. Fortunately Beijing looks like it's chock-full of things to do which should occupy me enough until I get the hell out of China!

Wow, I didn't realize how difficult it is to keep up with this blogging thing on the road. Fortunately I have some time to burn before AV gets in so I can catch up here. Don't want to stay too long because it's 20:22 and there are still beads of sweat on my forehead even though I'm just sitting here.
Anyways, the train ride to Xi'an was smoother than I thought. Got a good night's sleep, met some friendly people on the train too. The most striking thing to me on the ride over was the number of radio spires there are dotting the countryside, and in the city too, whether they're on the ground or on buildings. My (un)educated guess is that they're remnants of Communist China; they have that sort of ominous aura about them in their jet-black/Eiffel-tower-like structure. Or maybe I'm just on crack.
Got into Xi'an around noon and right off the bat you can tell this place is seeping with history. The first thing you see are the massive city walls surrounding the city which is pretty cool. I didn't get a chance to bike on them this time around, but really there is so much to do/see in Xi'an. Spent a couple of hours getting the next train ticket ready, settling in, etc., before heading over to the Big Goose Pagoda. Got off the bus in front of the square that is right beside the pagoda, but the opposite side of the entrance. It's a big slab of concrete, but apparently there's a fountain show that they have late in the evening which I missed (oh well). Upon gaining entry to the pagoda's grounds, it's really amazing seeing the different Buddhist carvings, sculptures and figures throughout the area. Pictures aren't allowed though, but I was caught offguard - I was pretty blown away by what they had inside the temples. The pagoda itself wasn't anything special unfortunately. It towers over the area around it, but inside is pretty much just 7 flights of stairs with some Buddhist artifacts along the way. Again, the buildings around the pagoda were much more impressive and made the site worth visiting.
I headed over to the Muslim Quarter in the evening. They had lots of cool little stands there, but being the cheap-ass I am, and knowing that most figurines/knick-knacks I buy end up just sitting in a corner of my house after a while, I didn't buy anything except for some tea for my dad. I wandered around so much that I got to the Great Mosque after it had closed. Oops. But yeah, the Muslim Quarter was quite cool, and I would've gone back the next day had I not been so pressed for time.
The next day was pretty much all Terracotta Army! I took the bus to the railway station and was looking to connect to another bus there, but it took me about half an hour to find the right bus because that station is so damn huge. From the station, it took an hour to get to the site. On top of that, it takes a good 15-20 minutes to get to the pits themselves. I followed Lonely Planet's recommendation of visiting Pit 1 (the biggest, most famous one) last and I'm glad I did because it made me appreciate what I saw in the smaller Pits 2 and 3 a lot more. For some reason, I found the higher-ranking officials particularly interesting. Maybe it's because of the contrast between the way they looked so boss-like and authoritative, and the pawns in Pit 1 looked so dinky hahaha. But yeah, Pit 1 is gigantic and I'm pretty sure they're not even halfway done uncovering the whole thing. One thought that came to mind - they paved/developed pretty much everywhere behind and around the pits... how do they know there's not more underneath? There's probably some easy, fast and high-tech way of doing it that I don't know about. Meh, I'm not an archeologist. Anyways, it'll be cool to see what it's like again in 5-10 years from now to see how much more they've uncovered and if there's been any headway with the mausoleum nearby.
So after I was finished there (I took my slow, sweet time and was done in about 3 hours), the buses back to the hostel were so dreadfully slow that I almost missed my train. I sweated my brains out running to the train, only to realize I got on the wrong car and had to do the walk of shame through 5 other carriages on the way to the right spot. I was exhausted.

Ok, that's enough for tonight!

Left Taipei on the 14th. It was actually pretty sad... the night before, Lim and his roommates pulled a prank on me (the story: the waitress at the place we ate at the day before thought we were flirting with her and had gone crazy and wanted to kill us, so in the morning we would have to go to the police to file a police report and I'd have to delay my flight)... which was followed by a surprise birthday cake. Seriously, those guys were too nice to me. I miss them already!

Got into Hong Kong where I found out shortly that Celina had given me the wrong number (haha), but thank goodness for facebook (sick), because I saw the new message she sent with her new number. Spent a few hours wandering around a small small area of Hong Kong. Our time included walking past the slew of nannies sitting on cardboard boxes on their day off, her slipping on some water in the mall (bahahah), and each of us getting some cheap and ridiculous-looking sunglasses (which I am wearing on my head right now). After a day of running around, she gave me some directions on how to get into Shenzhen. Bye Celi!

How is this for a welcoming party into China? Getting scammed by the cab driver! He tried to charge me 280 RMB to drive me to Rene's place, which I managed to bargain down to 150 RMB which was still a major ripoff. I tried to tell him to turn on the meter but he pretty much ignored me. China and I totally got off the wrong foot.

Flew into Chengdu the next day and my impression hadn't improved very much at all. Coming in, it was a very dreary city full of grey everywhere. I don't know if I was just tired from the nights of sleeplessness but it just looked massive, dull and busy yet uneventful. Fortunately Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel was a completely different atmosphere. Full of green everywhere, you could relax by the pond, at the bar, in the restaurant, upstairs, on the terrace. I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. Kept it low key that night because by the time I sorted out my train and plane tickets, pretty much everywhere was closed... that's ok though because I pretty much only came for one thing: the pandas.

The next morning we went to the Chengdu Panda Breeding Base (?) to check out the pandas. I was worried because this could be the biggest hit-or-miss thing on the trip, especially since Chengdu was so out of the way. The weather was actually PERFECT for panda-viewing - cool, misty and overcast. As a result, the pandas were able to stay outside the entire time we were there. I took about 200 photos that day (no joke) because you can't get enough pandas. My previous exposures to them were crowded zoos where two or three of them were the main attractions and it was impossible to get a good look at them. This time, the entire base was devoted to them, and although there were crowds, they would come and go and it would be easy to get awesome looks and photos of them as they played (mainly the babies), ate and lied down in laziness.

I HAD to get time with one of them. I knew coming in you could spend time with a baby, which costs an arm and a leg, or an adult. I eventually bit the bullet and went all out - got about 2 minutes of panda cub time. Amazing! That little bundle of joy felt as fluffy as it looked as I cradled it in my arms and on my lap. The staff there did a great job with my camera and got a few dozen photos in that short time. It was expensive, but to me at least, it was definitely worth it. The photo-ops with the adult looked just plain awful in comparison. You had to stand behind it and all you could do was pat it on the head. Anyways, I was pretty much on cloud-nine the rest of the day. Mission accomplished (and with flying colours too)!

I'll finish the recap later (including train ride to Xi'an, etc) because this is already way way way too long!