China By Train

Okay, so China blocks Blogger, and India had no computers that our hard drive worked on. So, finally, Cape Town is allowing us to finally get a blog done! So sorry for the wait!

We departed Hanoi, and took a bus to the border crossing town of Dong Deng, where the entire process of entering China was the easiest border crossing yet! We had heard that Chinese officials had confiscated Lonely Planet China books as they don't include Taiwan as part of the country, so we hid our counterfeit copy (shhh, don't tell LP!) beneath the cover of our Vietnam LP. Luckily, no one seemed to care so, we continued on to Nanning, the first big city from Vietnam. Being a completely non-touristy town, our first night in China was not the best.

Chinese Border Crossing Gate

We met YuPeng Xeng walking from the bus station to the rail station like we were, and he kindly pointed us in the direction of some hotels. Turns out he is from Chengdu, which was our next destination, so we planned on meeting up again. Our first impression of China was: big but organized, and they like to stare as if they've never seen a Westerner. Nanning wasn't a great city to start with, which we realized when we got to Chengdu.

Trains in China are the easiest way to get around, so the next day we boarded a Chengdu-bound train - but not without an interesting confrontation with a local: this curious fellow looked as if he wanted to rob us in broad daylight. He even tried to sit next to Anna and fidgeted with her combo lock. Luckily, he left after receiving many stares.

Once safe inside the train, we had 2 middle berths on a sleeper car, which was good and bad considering it was a 33-hour train ride. Bad because we had to climb up to get in them and couldn't sit up once up there - only laying down; good because no one else could use them as a place to sit and our bags were close. Instant noodles are a must on any Chinese train ride and luckily for us they sold them on the train.

We read a lot, slept a lot, and gazed at the landscape passing by during the day. Much of the countryside was beautiful - with karst mountains, rice paddies, and gardens everywhere. Unfortunately, their apartment buildings were not very pretty.

After one and a half days, we got off the train at 9:00pm in Chengdu (the Sichuan Province) and took a taxi (luckily we had a map to point at as the taxi drivers don't speak any English) to Sims Cozy Garden Guesthouse- by far the nicest hostel we've stayed in. It is run by 2 former backpackers and they've got everything right. The first night, exhausted, we stayed in a dorm where all the beds had their own privacy curtains, which you don't usually see, along with a private bathroom. However, as we weren't quite used to sharing a room (this may has to change for future places) and Anna almost fell out of the top bunk, we changed the next day to a private room with bathroom that even had a DVD player! The facilities themselves were great - restaurant, bar, internet, books, laundry and a travel desk.

After settling in we took a bus to explore the downtown area. We visited the People's Park of Chengdu where everyone was getting their exercise through organized dancing and there was a ton of dancing going on. In fact, we saw this throughout China. Any little park usually had a group getting their dance on!

That night we decided to go out and try the famed Sichuan hotpot where you cook your choice of meats and veggies in a cauldron of broth and red hot peppers. We had heard that this was even too hot for many locals to handle, so we wimped out and used the non-spicy broth that came along with it. We did try a touch of the red broth, which was all we needed as it was by far the spiciest thing we've ever tried (Chengdu is referred to as the Spice City).

The next morning, we went to see one of the most obvious things you would see in China - Pandas! The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center is about an hours drive away, a perfect opportunity, and is one of the largest breeding centers in China with 83 giant pandas in the reserve. We got our moneys worth when it came to watching the youngsters play with one another:



Anna also gave a little donation and was able to hold one of the smaller red pandas. Panda cubs are just too darn expensive!

That night we hooked up with Peng, who took us out to a wonderful hot pot dinner downtown (Thanks Peng, we owe you one!), and walked around a restored traditional neighborhood.

We boarded another train the next morning, now bound for Xi'an. Luckily, this train ride was only 18 hours, and we knew what to expect. This time, we really enjoyed our noodles. Here's proof:

The train arrived at 5:30am and we hopped on a taxi and found our hostel near the south gate of the city. Ancient Xi'an was a walled city and is one of the few cities where the entire wall remains.

Although the wall was impressive, Xi'an is more famous because it is close to the Army of Terracotta Warriors, which we visited on our third day in the city. The sight was impressive with hundreds of warriors that have been unearthed so far, and hundreds more still underground. The grounds were also very beautiful and we couldn't have picked a better summer day to visit:



We also got in a bit of exercise at the park near our hostel:

The following evening, we boarded our last train bound for Beijing and it was a short 11 hour overnight trip. After two nights in a not-so-great hostel we stumbled upon No. 161 Hostel, a just-opened place with friendly staff, where we would spend our remaining 5 nights. We didn't have any trouble filling our week in Beijing. We spent another perfect day at the Summer Palace (where royalty would spend their summers) and another exploring the endless halls of the Forbidden City:


Our main highlight, however, was taking a day trip to hike 10 km of the Great Wall, from Jinshanling to Simitai. It ended up being another excellent day weather-wise and the Great Wall was more impressive than we imagined. Although there were many people also hiking beside us, it was easy to stop, take in the views, and start off again without feeling like we were in a crowd. We highly recommend hiking this part of the wall!




We ended up really liking Beijing with its cheap and easy transportation (with signs in English!), endless food options (the scorpions are tasty!) and multitude of sights and activities.