I enjoy taking December holidays in cold places. Having done 东北 and 西北 the last two years, I decided to make my trip to 黄山 to see the infamous 长青松柏 (evergreen pine trees) this December.
Day #1 - 7 Dec 2017
The trip started with me finding ¥100 on the ground at 海上世界 while walking to dinner. Not a bad start!
But the plane ride was a nightmare. As with many things in this place, hardware is great, it’s always the software that’s the issue. I was sitting on the aisle seat and the two passengers on the aisle seats in front of me talked so loudly that one might mistake them for trying to broadcast their conversation to all passengers on the plane. And boy, they talked non-stop for the entire 1 hour 45 min. After take off, my silly brain decided that it might be a good idea to move to the window seat away from their loud conversation, and nightmare no. 2 started. The toddler behind me kept kicking the chair (which was bearable, I mean, it’s like free massage) and after going at it for some time decided to kick the table up and down continuously. Now, that’s annoying. I turned around to look at the Mother and told her nicely to stop her toddler from misbehaving. She had the audacity to stare at me unapologetically, as if it was my fault that I felt uncomfortable. I stared back at her and she tried half heartedly to stop her toddler. Food was served and life was back to normal with the occasional kicking which I have come to acceot as free back massage. Then, when the toddler finished his food, the table banging resumed. I kept quiet and fell asleep but got rudely awoken by a heavy bang of the table against the back of my head. I turned back and gave the family a deadly stare and the dad was polite enough to apologise. Meanwhile, the passengers in front continued to broadcast their conversation; how the hell can anyone talk so loudly for so long?!
I finally landed in 黄山屯溪机场 and breezed through immigration. Not having any check in luggage is awesome. I had a pleasant surprise when I reached my hotel in 屯溪老街 . It’s a tastefully done up boutique hotel with wood furniture, a tranquil lil garden, and a lobby with modern oriental design. The best thing is - it’s awesomely quiet! 😃 I do need the silence very much; my ears ached from my plane ride.
Day #2: 宏村 + 西递
I felt a lil having to leave my lil sanctuary in the hotel. On hindsight, this hotel was the best thing of the whole trip. At least it was quiet.
宏村 and 西递 were alright. Perhaps I’ve seen too many old villages in China. It feels like Chins has so many ancient villages that what it takes to make one a tourist attraction are money and marketing. Ok but I learnt some stuff, like 安徽 is well known for its biz men 徽商 , it’s the province that produced the largest no. of imperial scholars in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties combined, and some of these ancient houses built by the rich and famous then are still inhabited by their descendants today. It was rather weird to kind of visit houses with gold gilded walls inhabited by poor descendants today; one of the house owners demanded RMB1 from a fellow tourist for taking photos in the house. One of those houses were built at a cost equivalent to RMB70mil today. Sanitation and ventilation in those expensive houses seemed poor too.
I also concluded from this trip that I’m not touching 徽菜 for the rest of my life. 毛豆腐 was the worst ever tofu I’ve tasted; 臭鳜鱼 was indeed very 臭; and their 烧饼 tasted really weird 😨 The random snacks I had, like 桂花糕 were underwhelming too.
I also realised there’s quite a lot of Taiwanese tourists at Huangshan, compared to the other places I’ve visited in China. And of course, loads of Cantonese people too. It’s true that Guangdong is a rich province. U see Cantonese tourists everywhere u visit in China.
Day #3: 黄山
Finally, I was on my way to 黄山，which was the principal purpose of this trip. The scenery was beautiful, yes. But the sheer number of people pushing, talking at the top of their voices, shouting, spitting, turning on their music on loud speakers and smoking in non smoking areas was enough to kill the joy. By evening time I was looking forward to leaving the mountain. Crowds stress me out, my ears hurt. 😩😨😢😭 I also concluded that I’m way fitter than the average Chinese. I spent a lot of time waiting for people omg. I think if I’ve done the trip myself I’d have taken at most 75% of the time.
Somehow I’m kind of underwhelmed by Huangshan. Perhaps cos I expected too much and the experience of fighting with so many people to see the scenery (yes it was that bad, there were so many heads and humans blocking my view) killed all the joy. I had to push people to capture a shot of the sunset. And it’s supposedly lulll season?! I can’t imagine how the crowds would be like if I had come in spring summer or autumn.
If it was as quiet as Banff /Jasper, I’d probably have loved it.
The only good thing that happened on Day 3 was I paid a lot of money for a double room. Thank goodness I didn’t scrimp on accommodation. I can’t imagine bunking in with crazy tourists talking and snoring loudly. Most of the accommodation at the top of the mountain is bunk bed style, 8-10 people in a room. My room cost a whopping RMB1000+ a night. But the silence and peace was worth it. Like totally.
Day #4: 黄山 + 上海
I’m sitting at the bus station now waiting for the coach to take me to SH. Yay! I left earlier and didn’t wait for the tour group to eat their lunch, and managed to get ticket for the 2pm bus! 😃😂 I spent the whole morning waiting for people and pushing people so I had wanted to get out of Huangshan asap. Dream came true!
The coach would take me 6 hours at ¥135 while the high speed train would take be 4 hours at ¥305. Notwithstanding the fact that I didn’t get my train tickets in time, taking the coach seemed more value for money :D
Ok, I’m totally looking forward to my civilised 2 day holiday in Shanghai 😃
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Thursday, December 29, 2016
2016/17 西部之旅
Sometime back in Oct/Nov 2016, my friends were all telling me where they were going for their December holidays... I had not planned to travel anymore for 2016, since I've visited Myanmar, Japan, US and Canada already, and spent a bomb trying to save dear Gummy.
But the wunderlust side of me started to tickle my soul when PK suggested 七彩丹霞 at 张掖。Then during a very boring sharing session at year-end review, someone commented that Qinghai was missing from our coverage and Jireh told me that he did the 西宁敦煌张掖环线 over the national day holidays.
Meanwhile, 携程 had a sale for round trip tickets for 广州-西宁 : ¥1700. When I booked my tickets I didn't even know which province 西宁 was at. I only knew people started the 环线 here and I booked the tickets anyway.
And tadah here I am in West China !
I'm now sitting at the (totes pathetic) "first class lounge" at the airport waiting for my 2pm flight back to Guangzhou. Honestly I've never felt this happy and grateful that I'm finally gonna make my way back to Gz (I'm not quite a fan of the city I live in). I miss my bed, I miss Cantonese food.
This trip had been a bit too eventful. I started having diarrhoea the moment I checked into my 西宁 hotel last Wednesday, 28 Dec. And the LS continued for the next SIX days - yes, I had diarrhoea for seven days straight 😱 , from Wednesday to Tuesday. I even FAINTED from my diarrhoea on day 4 in 敦煌 - that's 31 Dec 2016, and spent my new year's eve nursing my diarrhoea in bed 😥
In summary, my diarrhoea followed me from 西宁 to 兰州 to 敦煌 to 张掖. My sg stash of diarrhoea medication was neither sufficient nor efficient - I got alright on day 5 after whacking double dosage x2 of the medication, but breakfast on day 6 basically started the whole diarrhoea process again and I was forced to buy dubious Chinese diarrhoea medicine on day 7. The medication took some time to work. So meanwhile my diarrhoea caused me to be LOCKED in the 莫高窟展示厅 toilet because everyone had left the building - I had to break into the information/ticketing counter to look for a directory of numbers to call while my driver outside tried frantically to find someone to open the door for me. Then my FIRST CLASS CABIN on the sleeper train had a BABY who cried for more than an hour and the toilet was SPOILT. I was so grateful when I reached my hotel room at 0315 hours and was finally able to let it all out in peace and comfort omg. I continued to whack double dosage of whatever Chinese medicine it was and by the morning of day 8 I was alright. Never had my tummy felt so fine over the last week. Dubious medication worked after all!
Well, since we were talking about the not so glamorous part of my trip, perhaps I could continue with stories related to this before we get to the more enjoyable parts.
Having diarrhoea all day long meant I didn't have much appetite. And since I suspected it was 水土不服 - the diarrhoea started the moment I started eating, I decided to STOP EATING. This meant that over the last 8 days, the total amount of food I consumed amounted to -
- 4 very small bowls of millet porridge
- 2 half bowls of 牛肉拉面
- about 10 mouthfuls of 张掖搓鱼面
- 6 to 8 muesli bars
- 4 apples
- some 香辣龙虾该饭 from meituan (this was the only decent meal I had)
- unfinished super salty 炖汤 + 蕃茄炒蛋 (I'm very sure this was the meal that caused my major LS from 兰州 onwards) from meituan
- a block of chocolate
Would this be considered semi-starvation?
Another stupid thing that happened was I FLEW from 西宁 to 兰州 😓😥😣, which meant instead of taking 3 hours by car / train, I took more than 12 hours. 兰州 is less than 300km from 西宁 and I did a silly detour of flying through 西安. All thanks to ctrip. Their algorithms must have been down that particular day when I booked my tickets. IT recommended me to fly like this. And I spent the whole day feeling angry w myself for being so stupid.
Now, we can move on to the more enjoyable parts haha.
Qinghai 青海
I only went to 2 destinations in 青海, both in the vicinity of 西宁 Xining, the capital - 塔尔寺 Kambun Monastery and 青海湖 Qinghai Lake. You can do both destinations in one day, which was what I did via a tour I booked from ctrip.
It was inspiring to visit Lama Tsongkhapa's birthplace ☺🙏, to see fellow Buddhists making pilgrimages to the temple for prostrations. One strange thing though was people there offered alcohol to the deities. I guess it's a cultural thing.
Next stop was 青海湖 - it was a scenic drive through the 拉脊山 mountain range ! Highest elevation was 3820m and I felt alright apart from a bit of drowsiness 😃😄 It was empty at the lake, and the four of us from the tour were the only visitors. Guess it's due to winter season and the Lake was semi-frozen. It was beautiful though ❤
What came to mind when I was there was 李白's 汉下白登道, 胡窥青海湾, 由来政战地, 不见有人还.. Such a beautiful place was where many were laid to rest, albeit most probably due to violent deaths in the wars they had fought.
西宁 is populated by the Han, Tibetan and Hui people. I was rather surprised by how much animosity I felt from the Han people against those of the other races. All drivers I had taught me how to identify them and told me to "stay away" from them. 🙁
Lanzhou 兰州
Lanzhou is a major transit point for travelling in the west. Train and flight connectivity here is awesome, which explains why you get international hotel chains here - only IHG though. The most eventful thing that happened here was I ate my 美团外卖 tomato egg with rice and soup dinner which caused major LS thereafter.
There's a mosque 清真大寺, which is supposedly more impressive at night (but I was sick) , the yellow river and the 黄河母亲 statue, 中山大桥, oh and a museum which I didn't manage to visit. 兰州 is also famous for their 牛肉拉面. One other thing to note is Lanzhou city centre is 55km away from the 中川机场 airport, which is freaking far away.
Langzhou is populated by mostly Hui and Han people, and again, I felt animosity from the Han against the Hui. I had to endure almost an hour of "dislike speech" by my driver on the way to the airport 😑
Dunhuang 敦煌
The highlight of my trip!!! It was awesome! I loved almost everything about the place, apart from the food and their sense of time. My hotel was 敦煌山庄 which was totes beautiful ❤, right next to huge sand dunes. The breakfast area was where you can see sunrise over the dunes. Dunhuang was a major node of the silk road, and the grottoes were awesome! Major places to visit include 莫高窟, 鸣沙山, 月牙泉, 雅丹魔鬼城 (to see yardang!), 玉门关 and go star gazing at 无人区
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Dongbei Trip January 2016 (2016年东北之旅) - Overview
We embarked on our Dongbei 2016 Trip on 1 Jan 2016.
But we enjoyed our stay as our hosts were really friendly. The room was also well heated, which is an important consideration where average temperatures were around minus 20 degrees!
The trip lasted a total of 10 days, where we covered Shenyang 沈阳, Wusong Island 雾凇岛, Changbaishan 长白山 and Harbin 哈尔滨.
Itinerary
1 Jan - Guangzhou / Singapore, Beijing, Shenyang
2 Jan - Shenyang
3 Jan - Shenyang, Jilin
4 Jan - Wusong Island
5 Jan - Wusong Island, Changbaishan
6 Jan - Changbaishan
7 Jan - Changbaishan, Harbin
8 Jan - Harbin
9 Jan - Harbin, Beijing
10 Jan - Beijing, Guangzhou / Singapore
In retrospect and after learning from people whom we met in Dongbei, we could have saved money had we changed our trip flow, covering instead Harbin -> Snow Country -> Changbaishan -> Wusong Island -> Shenyang -> Beijing.
Being geographers and people from the equator who were scared of the cold, doing the trip our way allowed us to slowly acclimatise, as we gradually moved north. But that meant spending quite a bit more money.
Here's a short comparison
Travel cost incurred per pax
Train ticket from Beijing to Shenyang: RMB 206 (5 hrs)
Train ticket from Shenyang to Jilin: RMB 176 (2.5 hrs)
Car ride from Jilin to Wusong Island: RMB 50 (1 hr)
Car ride from Wusong Island to Changchun airport: RMB 150 (2.5 hrs)
Air ticket from Changchun airport to Changbaishan airport: RMB 1090 (30 mins)
Air ticket from Changbaishan to Harbin: RMB 551 (1.5 hrs, budget airline)
Air ticket from Harbin to Beijing: RMB 515 (2 hrs)
Travel cost per pax that we would have incurred had we changed our itinerary
Air tickets from Beijing to Harbin: ~RMB 550 (2 hrs)
Car ride from Harbin to Snow Country: RMB 250 (6 hrs)
Car ride from Snow Country to Changbaishan (Erdaobaihe): RMB 250 (6 hrs)
Car ride from Changbaishan (Erdaobaihe) to Wusong Island: RMB 250 (6 hrs)
Car ride form Wusong Island to Jilin: RMB 50 (1 hr)
Train ticket from Jilin to Shenyang: RMB 176 (2.5 hrs)
Train ticket from Shenyang to Beijing: RMB 206 (5 hrs)
We had no intention of going to Snow Country, so we wouldn't have taken the recommended itinerary anyways. Moreover, we don't quite fancy long car rides. Nonetheless, it was good to know!
Accommodation cost
Shenyang
Sheraton Shenyang South City Hotel (we managed to claim free nights)
We do not recommend staying here because of its location - it was some 18km away from the city centre and some taxi drivers do not wish to send passengers to somewhere so far away. But taxi drivers in Shenyang were friendly in general so we didn't face much problem. However, one of them commented that where we were staying was really rural, and suggested that we changed hotels the next night.
Wusong Island
付家客栈 Fu family's Motel
It costs RMB 100 per night per pax, inclusive of 3 meals. We stayed in a kang room 炕房, which was a bed heated with coal. Note that there wasn't much cushioning on the bed. Only one of us enjoyed the hardness of the bed; the other two weren't too pleased. The bathroom consisted of a squatting toilet, a sink and a shower head. It was a rather small bathroom, comparable to what you get in hostels in Hong Kong.
But we enjoyed our stay as our hosts were really friendly. The room was also well heated, which is an important consideration where average temperatures were around minus 20 degrees!
Changbaishan (CBS)
Sheraton Changbaishan Resort (we managed to claim free nights)
We stayed at the resort area of CBS. Travellers to CBS either stay at Erdaobaihe 二道白河, where there is a concentration of budget accommodation, or at the resort area. We opted for the resort area as we could claim free nights. The resort are was a 20 min coach ride (complimentary) from the airport, 30 min car ride from the West Slope 西坡, and 2 hours car ride to the North Slope 北坡.
Harbin
勃莱梅假日酒店 Bremen Holiday Hotel
We paid RMB 720 per night for a 3 bedder "European Room" 欧陆特色房, without breakfast.
The heating was good, shower head water pressure was good and all 3 of us liked our beds. The person who liked hard beds had a hard bed, while the 2 others who preferred softer beds got soft beds too, so it was perfect.
But we had a smoking room, and the hotel was not very well kept (it was built in 1995, but the century old Imperial Hotel in Tokyo felt much newer than it). Also, the shower room had a perfectly flat floor with no door cordoning off the shower area, so the floor was very wet after every shower session. Considering the fact that Holiday Inn located some 700m away from us cost about S$350-400 a night for a double room, I guess there's nothing much to complain.
Beijing
桔子水晶酒店 (北京崇文门店) Crystal Orange Hotel
We paid RMB 589 per night for a "Deluxe Tatami Big Bed Room" 精选榻榻米大床房.
The bed was very small, the smallest among all the rooms that we lived in. Moreover, the heating did not work that night, and we were all freezing. On hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise that the bed was small, so that we could all hug each other. Also, luckily we came from places with average temperatures of minus 10 to 25 degrees Celsius, so we could still withstand Beijing weather. Nonetheless, one of us wore a down jacket to sleep while the other two wore fleece. Finally, the bathroom was perpetually flooded (worse than Bremen), despite a door that cordoned off the shower area.
However, we had nothing to pick on for the service rendered by the hotel. They offered us an extra set of shower robes, towel, slippers, toothbrush etc, as there were 3 of us. One of us had gastroenteritis that night, and the hotel staff was helpful - they called a cab for us in the middle of night, and made us an extra room card when we came back, so that we didn't have to wake up the other person sleeping in the room.
Also, they came by to soak up the water in the flooded toilet without us asking them to.
The next few posts detail our travels.
Disclaimer - there are quite a number of Ctrip links above as we booked our trip almost exclusively via Ctrip, and it's easier to refer to websites that we have visited before. In no way does this post endorse Ctrip as a service provider.
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