POSTCARD FROM CHINA - 22 October–8 November 2015

I left Heathrow on Thursday afternoon in one of BA’s Dreamliners, which was very comfortable indeed, although it was a bit rough during dinner.  However, unbelievably, I slept almost all the way to Chengdu.  It was a little damp and hazy on arrival but after checking into the Shangri-La Hotel, my guide took me to visit the Marquis Wu Shrine and the Sichuan Embroidery Museum, and then we strolled along the ancient Jinli Street, to soak up the local atmosphere.  That evening it was a spicy Sichuan supper and an early bed!

On day two I went off to visit the Giant Pandas – what a wonderful cuddly lot they are.  Spent the morning wondering around the Chengdu Panda Centre – and saw them all, large Giant Pandas, teenage pandas, baby pandas and even Red Pandas.  Some pandas were just in front of us, some up trees – they were everywhere.  A great morning!  

We finished up by walking around Swan Lake and saw some beautiful Black Swans.  From there we went on to visit the stunning Wenshu Monastery and then we wondered around Dufu Cottage, a large sprawling place in memory of the Chinese poet.  In the evening I visited the Sichuan Opera – an amazing production, especially when they change clothes and face masks at the flick of a fan!

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On Monday I visited Huanglong National Park – a 3 hour drive from my hotel to the Park entrance.  The road was a good one tarmac-wise, but it was at times a terrifying drive, as the Chinese drivers, and particularly the bus drivers, seem to think a hairpin bend is just the moment to overtake and there were very sharp bends almost all the way!  How we didn’t crash once or twice I will never know. However if you could try and keep your eye off the road and on the scenery it was absolutely stunning, beautiful mountains, colourful trees, not to mention yaks, goats, horses, cows etc.   We started off in rain/snow, but that soon cleared and we had a lovely day.  We took the cable car to the top of the very cold Park – 4000 feet and then spent two hours gradually walking down to 3000 feet!   My guide couldn’t get his head around the fact that a 2-3 hour walk at such a height was a doddle to me!  It certainly wasn’t to him!   The walk was on wooden floors, with hundreds of steps up and [mostly!] down.  It was all amazing – the blue pools were extraordinary, and the colours in the park were dramatic.  After a brief lunch it was another 3 hour terrifying/amazing drive back to the hotel, where I immediately headed for the swimming pool to loosen up the backs of my legs in readiness for the next park the next day!

 

At 8 o’clock on Tuesday morning I set off for my day in Jiuzhaigou National Park.  Unfortunately no private cars are allowed in the park so you have to join the hoi polloi and get on the hop-on-hop-off park buses.  The difficulty is that about 40,000 people, mostly Chinese, visit the park every day so you might imagine what it was like trying to get on a bus in the morning and at some of the ‘bus-stops’ in the park.  The Chinese pushed, shoved and shouted [not mention spitting!] and even stared at me, a Westerner, a rare sight in that part of the world!  However, once on board the first bus it was, for most of the day, a truly exhilarating experience.  The sheer beauty of the park was unbelievable.  I walked almost nine miles in the park, up and down thousands of steps along wooden paths, with the odd bus journey to get us closer to the next lake!  The autumn colours and blue lakes were incredible, almost better in the morning when the sky was grey than in the afternoon when the sun came out.   We stopped for a Chinese lunch, which I had difficulty in tackling as there no names on the dishes, and fortunately there was a ‘western’ loo at the restaurant, a rare treat in that part of China.  The awful squat loos and the filth in them have been a bit of a nightmare!  The other nightmare has been the Chinese love for the selfie stick!  I am surprised I didn’t get poked in the eye, and it was tricky to avoid them in when taking photographs!  But all in all it was a lovely day with lots of exercise [9 miles] in good, if very chilly weather.  My guide was totally exhausted!  I was not and went back to the hotel for a swim [indoors of course!] and dinner.

 

Wednesday was a free day so I took walk into the town – not much to see or do but I managed to walk four miles after which I went back to my room to sort emails and packing, so an easy day.  On Thursday 29^th, I set off for Chongqing at 6.30am.  Fortunately the flight was on time, arriving just before 11am.  I couldn’t find my guide to start with, but eventually we met up and he took me to an unappetising lunch, which I really didn’t want.  He did take me on a couple of good tours before I embarked on my river boat, the Yangtze Explorer, and then spent the afternoon unpacking and finding my way around before we sailed.  After a good dinner and a briefing I had an early night.

On the first morning aboard I went on an excursion to Fengdu old town to visit a relocated village and to visit a local kindergarten and market, and then back on the ship to continue our cruise down the Yangtze.  After lunch listened to a few interesting talks, then it was the Captain’s drinks party, followed by dinner and the cruise show.  At 7am on day two we entered our first gorge, Qutan Gorge, on a rather rainy and misty morning, which rather spoilt the scenery!  At 8.30 we entered the second gorge, Wu Gorge, and just about saw Goddess Peak on the rather misty and chilly transit. We were then picked up by a large ferry and taken down the Shennong Stream for an hour before transferring to sampons for an excursion down the river which was good fun, if sadly not good views as the weather was pretty awful.  After three hours we got back to the ship for a quiet afternoon, but when called up to deck to watch the next gorge transit I tripped on my very large bathroom step and really scrapped my shins badly.  The doctor fortunately was to hand and after spending two hours with my legs up, it looks like it will hopefully mend quickly even if not a pretty sight. At 6.45 that evening we transited the Three Gorges Dam – it took three and a half hours, quite an experience!

On Sunday 1^st November, my final morning on board, we were taken to see the Three Gorges Dam Exhibition Centre and then to a park to see the Dam for real, and for the first time since we boarded the sun came out!  We were offered a snack on board as we transited the final part of the Xiling Gorge up to Yichan where I disembarked.  I went to an Embroidery factory before my guide took me to the Yichan railway station.  With the guide’s help I eventually got on the train with my luggage – all a bit scary and difficult – and then managed to get off at the right stop [Hankow] where another guide met me and took me to the airport for my flight to Sanya.  Fortunately this flight was first/business class, and thank God, as it was all quite difficult.  Arrival in Sanya was another nightmare, with a million people trying to get their luggage, and then having found my driver we had to take a public bus to the car park – another nightmare!  However I was eventually installed in the wonderful Park Hyatt at Sanya where I took a while to unpack and relax! The hotel is absolutely enormous, and looks a bit like a prison from the outside, but the staff were absolutely wonderful and I was treated like a Queen!  My room was fantastic with a great view and what I called the “magic loo” – the moment you stepped into the loo the lid opened, the seat was warm and there were numerous buttons to press for any cleaning required.   As you got up the flush activated and as you walked out the lid went down!!!!

Thankfully my first three days in Sanya were perfect sunshine so I spent the time relaxing by their quiet pool!  A black pool rather than blue one which was slightly uninviting. Sadly day four was a complete washout with torrential rain all day, so I did some catching up on my computer and packing up for my departure early on day five.  I had an interesting journey from Sanya to Hong Kong.  We were the only flight of the morning, so we had to queue up to get into the departure area.  There I made friends with the guy who runs “Miss World” amongst other things.  He kindly invited me into the Business Lounge while we waited for our flight and also sent me a glass of champagne in my economy seat once on board!  Helped me to get through the wearing business of flying economy! 

Once in Hong Kong life returned to normality!  The excellent Grand Hyatt looked after me well, but sadly the weather wasn’t up to much.  There was a lot of rain around.  After 36 hours it was back to the airport for my long flight home.  It was an amazing holiday in China, but probably a bit too much of an adventure.  It was very scary at times and always rather difficult with not much English being spoken.  I am not sure I would be brave enough to do it again on my own.