Chinglish

We were warned in our guide book about some of the hilarious signs you will see in China in "english" - well, really it's Chinglish. Some are just too amusing to ignore, such as a sign in a department store in Shanghai: "Level 2: Vigorous and Graceful Wear"! and the Beijing Tourist Information Center who in a sign explaining the extent of their services offered a "Help Deformity Service!".


So we've started this entry to include photos of entertaining Chinglish signs. We will update it as we find more (and I know we will!):

Andrew disobeying the sign "HELP PROTECT THE CULTURAL RELICS, HELP PROTECT THE RAILINGS" at the summer palace:



We did our best to ensure that "RUBBISH WILL NEVER BE HOMELESS" at the Great Wall:



A guesthouse in Pingow - Is this where Foreign guests are made examples of at receptions?



Need some financial groceries at this supermarket?



Is this a coffee house or a language school. Anyway it's for tomorrow (Ming Tien)



A really welcoming ad for a hotel:



Do you think Manchester United knows about this sponsorship deal?



"Traffic Brings about Fine Invironmnt" "Everyone Creates Wealth" - we still haven't figured this out!



A Telephone that consults, helps and complains:



This trail sign on the hike up Hua Shan should read "No multi-taskers allowed":



Line #2 and the bottom line are the highlights on this sign for the cable car down from Hua Shan:

Ancient Chinese Suprise

We made it to the small city (really!!! only 40,000 people) of Pingyao last night and are loving it. It is the coolest old-fashioned city we could've imagined coming to, complete with a 6km long ancient city wall and many pagoda-like gates around the city. Inside are some old brick/stone mansions with several courtyards: the first one for guests, the second one for the family, and servants quarters off to the side. There are narrow back alleyways, red lanterns hanging from most store-fronts, and to add to it all, we got a nice dusting of snow to make it all that much more picturesque.

Yes, it is cold, but luckily for us that means it's low season -- making it cheap and making us feel like special guests of this country. On the way here we took a bus (2 actually), and a train, and managed to make friends with just about everyone on the train -- or at least we provided entertainment for them, as they watched us with keen interest the entire way. Though this could seem duanting at first, we are used to the attention by now and find people generally friendly and willing to help.

When we arrived at the train station in Taiyuan looking to buy a ticket, we stood in a long line but a train official immediately ushered us to the proper line, and then proceeded to get us to the front of the line and buy our ticket within seconds. Then when we went the wrong direction to the departure area, she ran us down and pointed us the right way!

Food is fun now that we've figured out how to order vegetarian even without an English menu ("boo sh ro", but you have to get the right pitch or else they'll think you're insulting their mother;) ), and also that cheaper places generally serve better food.

The courtyard of our hotel:



John, Emily & Mandy freezing by the city tower in Pingow:



A typical chinese courtyard:



Snow covered courtyard:



John, Liu (our local guide) and Andrew:



At a lacquerware studio:



Walking around town with Liu:



A courtyard that hasn't been restored (where most of the real locals live):

Wutai Shan - the mountain monastaries

We saw a great photo in our guide book of a sacred moutain, and realised that it was Wutai Shan, and close to Datong, so we decided to go. As it happened, the photo was of another sacred mountain - not Wutai Shan, but we had a good time anyway. We arrived at 1pm after a 5hr bus from Dataong to find it snowing! It was freezing and the visibility was basically zero. We found a cold, fairly crappy place to stay, with heat (minimal) from 5-12pm and hot water (if it came out) from 8-11pm. The most amusing part of this hotel was the fact that the owner came unannounced into our rooms about 3-4 times a day (while we were there). He'd just knock then unlock and walk straight in, checking the water, the heat, the toilet or whatever, mutter something and then leave - very odd!

Anyway, we did see some nice sights, met some great people, ate at some tasty vegetarian restaurants and played a lot of cards. The weather cleared up every so often so we didn't freeze the entire time.

Making friends in Wutai Shan with a few shots of chinese liquor!:



Emily and Mandy in traditional head dress at a friendly restaurant:



John & Andrew in drag ;)



Outside one of the many monastaries in Wutai Shan (see the 1080 stairs going up the hill on the back right - that was the walk for the next day!)



Downtown Taihuai (the main town in Wutai Shan)



In the snow at a mountain monastary:



Emily, Mandy & John at another monastary:






The view from the monastary with the 1080 steps leading up to it:






I guess monks like satellite TV too!

Datong and the Surrounding Sights

Datong

We were excited to leave Beijing and head to what we thought of as "the small town of Datong". We soon discovered that it has 2million people (1/2 the popullation of NZ!) Still, it was a very friendly place, and an excellent base to check out some sights.


Andrew, Emily in John - with one of the many Chinese beers we sampled -- this one has a nice imitation Budweiser label:



A friendly chinese family at dinner, who obviously had dares running, because the kids kept running over and saying "hello what is your name, nice to meet you " and then ran off laughing. Mandy reciprocated by doing the same in chinese (without the running away) and then we sat with them for ages trying to chat!.

The Hanging Monastary

The Hanging Monastary is a 1400yr old wooden structure hanging precariously off a cliff near Datong:



A Buddist altar up the hill from the monastary (near a huge dam):



Looking back at the Monastary from near the Dam:



Tucked into the rock (Emily, John & Andrew):



The dam overflow a the bottom of the cliff - it is really cold here!!

The Cloud Ridge Caves

Also near Datong, the Cloud Ridge caves were carved in the 7th Century. Every cave was different, some with giant buddhas, others with delicate detailed carvings. It was incredible - and completely exceeded any expectations we had!

Our first enormous Buddha (Andrew with Emily & John):






Another enormous one (with gold):



Mandrew outside some of the more detailed work:



Mandrew with the 26 metre high Buddha



A cute chinese family who wanted their photo taken with us (note that it's sunday, yet they're all in their uniforms and suits!):

Language Barriers

We've now been in China for over a week, and though we are getting the hang of it, the language barrier can drive us nuts at times. Yesterday it took us forever to find the train ticketing office near our hostel, as asking for directions on the street is no easy task. When we finally found it, we did lots of pointing at guide books and writing numbers on paper in order for the lady behind the counter to understand which train we wanted. We asked how much, and the woman behind the counter told us 390 Yuan for the 4 of us (we are now travelling with our new friends John and Emily). We took out 400 Yuan, and she proceeded to do all kinds of paperwork, for what we thought was our ticket.

Wrong assumption. As we waited, each of us in turn recounted some of the worst customer service stories from our travels, and shared a few laughs about some of the ridiculously long waits we've had to endure for very simple things. In this case, the laugh was on us.

After waiting for 20 minutes, we finally asked her if our tickets were ready. She was surprised and asked us again what tickets we wanted. We pointed to the piece of paper still on the counter with her handwriting for the train we wanted. She was surprised but within seconds printed our tickets out and took our money. Either she has extreme short-term memory loss, or waiting at a counter with money in hand is not an international symbol for "I want to buy those now please". Pretty ironic that the whole time we were waiting we were telling stories about long waits.

Where is everybody?

For being the most populous country in the world, we don't seem to see a lot of people around. We were expecting crowded sidewalks, buses, trains -- everywhere we turned to be bombarded with people. But in Shanghai and Beijing the streets are wide, the sidewalks are too, and it is not nearly as chaotic as quite a few places we've been. The other thing that is striking is how modern the buildings are. These are wealthy cities, on par with any western city, from what we can see. Hotels and housing are expensive by Asian standards.

Food Adventure

We've sworn off the Golden Arches, at least until our next horse-bottom meal, as we found some really good vegetarian Chinese food in Beijing. Tonight we went by train to Datong, a "small" city (only 2+ million people -- half the population of Mandy's home country!), where we intend to check out some caves and a monastary tomorrow. Our chances of finding English speakers or English signs dropped from near-zero to infinitesimaly low, so we decided to chance it at a small local restaurant. We managed to just point to a few things in our book, and were served with a delicious and filling meal. Our adventure paid off when we got our bill: 4 large beers, 3 big stir-fried dishes, 4 big bowls of noodles, 2 steamed buns & tea for the absurdly low price of 35 Yuan total (about USD $4). We did a double or triple take on the amount, checked that it wasn't 350, and happily paid our bill. Last night we had paid more than that for one glass of beer.

Monkey in a Cage

Most of the time, instead of us being the tourist looking at the locals, it is the locals staring at us like we are monkeys in a cage. This has happenned all over Asia, but it is particularly prominent here, as we are in the off-season and there are not many other travellers around. Today on the train, we wanted to start swinging from the ceiling and beating our chest every time a Chinese person walked by our "cabin" (it was open with no door) and stopped to stare at us.

The Sights in Beijing

So what have we actually done so far in China?

The Great Wall

The highlight so far was the Great Wall at Simatai. It was another adventure of miscommunications and mishaps getting this trip even organized, but once we made it there, a 2+ hour drive from Beijing, it was incredible. It was a perfect blue-sky day, and we had the place almost entirely to ourselves, apart from the 4 local guides/postcard-salespeople who stuck to us the entire way and held us down when the wind threatened to blow us off the wall.

Mandrew at the wall:



The view from one of the many towers along the wall:



The great wall (and it is pretty great!):



Looking the other way:



Some steep stairs up:



Morna, Sian, John, Emily & Mandrew - with the wall stretching along the jagged ridge in the background:

The Summer Place

Although it would have been better to visit in Summer, the Summer Palace in Beijing was still pretty stunning. A huge park with interesting buildings, pagodas, bridges and a giant lake in the middle.

At the Summer Palace:



The long outdoor corridor at the summer palace:



One of the many cute bridges in the expansive gardens of the summer palace:

The Forbidden City & Tianamen Square

The Forbidden City was cool to see because it was totally off-limits to most people for 500 years, and because our audio-guide that we rented was recorded by Roger Moore, i.e. James Bond. Tianamen Square is basically a big concrete gathering area that is securely patrolled nowadays. Our first attempt to visit it failed because the national congress was in session ratifying the new constitution, and they didn't want anybody congregating there. I don't think anyone would've protested this one though, because it finally gives Chinese citizens the official right to own private property.

Tianamen Square:



Andrew in front of the Red gate in the Forbidden City:



The Beijing Pollution (with the Forbidden City in the background!):



Not really a tourist sight, but fun to watch - window cleaning in Beijing: