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Beijing, day two. We woke up reasonably early (for us) and headed off to check out the Beijing Underground City. After getting our hotelier to ring ahead to make sure it was open (no answer, but she was sure it was) we bundled into a taxi and made our way there.

After getting slightly lost and wandering around an old, decrepit neighbourhood we finally found the entrance. It didn’t impress from the outside, with the paint peeling off the sign, but we were keen to check out Mao’s folly, a tribute to Cold War era paranoia. Unfortunately, we never made it in. A lady grunted at us as we walked past and directed us to a tiny, inkjet printed sign. “The Beijing Underground City is closed”. Under that, someone had handwritten “Permanently”. Ah, crap.

So, that was the end of that. We instead spent the morning checking out the last remaining section of Beijing’s old wall. The walls used to encompass the whole city, and stood for hundreds of years until Mao dismantled them during the Cultural Revolution. What did he do with all those bricks, you ask? Why, he created a vast network of tunnels under the city to house 7 million people in case of nuclear war! That sounds like an awesome place to visit! Oh right. Damn.

After checking out the wall we headed out to the 798 art district. This is an old factory complex that has been converted (against the owner’s wishes) into an artist community. The Beijing art scene is thriving these days, and there was a lot of amazing and inspirational art to see. Michelle was like a kid in a candy shop, running left and right trying to take it all in. It was a fascinating blend of original artwork, (not so) cheap knock-offs and touristy crap. We even had lunch at a New Zealand Cafe. We had the nachos, very kiwi.

Our first full day in Beijing we decided to tackle the Forbidden City, which proved to be a near insurmountable task. The overcast weather and heavy smog made it almost impossible to take any good pictures, and the huge throngs of tourist pushing against us (we went back to front to avoid the queues) meant that most of the time we couldn’t be bothered getting the cameras out. Still, it was an awesome and unique experience.

Ah, Kunming. We had a pretty average time when we were first there; getting to the Stone Forest was an epic chore, the hotel staff was incompetent, there was a street vendor playing endless Happy Birthday tunes outside our window, and Michelle lost her shoes. We were happy to see the back of it and weren’t too keen on coming back. At least it was only for one night. Or so we thought.

Our travel agent had looked at the intrepid schedule and decided that we would need an extra night at either end of our trip. This was fine at the start, as we didn’t want to fly in and start our tour on the same day, but the last day of the tour is called ‘departure day’ for a reason. Nevertheless, the travel agent booked us in for an extra night to be safe, and so we would have to endure Kunming for one more day.

I was determined not to let Kunming get the better of us, and although Michelle was a bit over the whole thing we headed off to check out the recommended sites. Our hotel being absolutely useless, we had to head to one up the road to get travel advice. The receptionist helpfully laid out all the travel options, but it all seemed a bit too complicated and Michelle was advocating spending the entire day sleeping in the hotel room. After a minor domestic, we grabbed some snacks and hailed a taxi, keen to get on our way.

The first taxi took one look at the first destination (15km away in the hills) and waved us away. Advantage, Kunming. Undeterred, we managed to get into the next cab and were finally on our way. The driver turned out to be a really nice guy, and he quickly guessed that we would need a ride back after visiting the first temple. After a bit of negotiating we settled on a price for taking us around all day (about $50) which saved us from having to deal with public transport. The first temple was great and things were looking up. Advantage us.

There is a saying in Kunming (well, actually in the Lonely Planet section on Kunming) that goes “If you haven’t seen Xi Shan (the western hills) then you haven’t seen Kunming” and so off to the western hills we went. There is a walking track that takes you to the summit, but we were feeling lazy and so got the taxi to take us to the highlights. The very top is a place called Dragon Gate (“…and if you haven’t seen the Dragon Gate, you haven’t seen Xi Shan”) and so we made our way to the entrance and got ready to go. That was when the thunderstorm hit.

It had been getting a little cloudier at each stop along the way, as if Kunming was getting angry that we were enjoying ourselves so much. When we reached the entrance to the Dragon Gate, the skies opened and it started bucketing down. We hid with our driver in a parking building until it subsided, and he loaned us his umbrella so we could keep dry (he was unusually nice). We decided to by tickets on the tourist tram to avoid the hike, but the rain and thunder started again and we ended up camped under a shop awning until it passed again.

Michelle bought us some raincoats (at no doubt inflated prices) and we gave the Dragon Gate our best shot. The path has been literally carved into the side of a mountain, and in places there were sheer drops with only a flimsy handrail and a caution sign standing between you and a very messy end. Michelle got wobbly knees about half way up and so I made the last dash to the summit by myself. I was a bit too paranoid to get my camera out, so I made do with snaps from my iPhone.

Satisfied that we had given Kunming our best shot, we negotiated the slippery carved stone steps back to our driver and made our way back to the hotel. The driver then asked if we could pay him some more, as it took longer than he anticipated. I was planning to tip him anyway (he was really, very nice) so we were happy to pay. We finally arrived back in town, cold, wet and very tired. We paid the taxi driver and went to crash out, but Kunming wasn’t done with us yet. We had given the driver a deposit at the first stop, but had forgotten to deduct it from the final amount. Looks like he got a bit fat tip in the end anyway. He was probably laughing all the way home. Alright Kunming, we surrender. You win. 

Just a quick update as we make ourselves comfortable here in Beijing. These photos were taken as we left Zhongdian and headed back to Kunming. Michelle had the window seat and was rather snap happy on the way back.

Michelle here again …

While Phil and the others were enjoying the dizzying heights of the snowy mountains, I was below exploring the old town; visiting the museum, checking out the temples and giant prayer wheel and doing some sketching. It was pretty peaceful and you could go at your own pace unlike the crazy touristy Lijiang old town. I was starting to feel better too, which was a nice change. I was just starting to get used to the altitude. At the place we ate dinner at, (during our last night in Zhongdian) we found out the owner there also ran an orphanage. Born in Switzerland, he speaks many languages and being an orphan himself, he felt he needed to do something for the many orphans he saw when he first came back to Tibet to visit. He sold all his assets and moved back to start an orphanage. Now his cafe also employs the orphans and trains them in english and other skills. It is really inspiring.

After the temple Michelle was still feeling a little under the weather, so she stayed in town to shop and check out the giant prayer wheel (photos to follow) while the rest of us jumped into the nearest cable car and headed up into the mountains.

The cable car trip was broken into 2 sections and tops out at over 4,500m above sea level. Our tour leader, Benny, was initially only going to come as far as the first stop as she wasn’t dressed for the cold, but it was suprisingly warm and sunny, so she took us all the way to the top. At 4,500m the air was pretty thin, and I got light headed trying to scale the first few steps outside the platform. I had to switch to taking deep breaths through my mouth as the nose just wasn’t cutting it. Thankfully Michelle had bought me a scarf when I had a cold in Lijiang, and it sure came in handy.

The top of the mountain was still covered in snow, and the path would frequently disappear underneath the ice. The cold wind also made our noses run, giving us some fetching snot icicles. Despite being the most underdressed, Benny didn’t seem to feel the cold and was throwing snowballs around. I had no gloves and had my hands firmly tucked in my jacket pockets whenever I wasn’t taking photos.

From the mountain top you can see 13 other mountains in the region, but if you were to count all the visible peaks it would number in the dozens. It was a cool experience, even if the cable car ride was a bit scary. The cars would sway in the wind and often the line would stop if the wind got too high. Everyone was recalling Michelle’s comments about Chinese engineering, and there were some white knuckles on the hand rails. On the trip down the first car in our group was just a wooden platform. As we were wondering whether they had forgotten to build the first car, a soldier (there are a lot of these in China) came and loaded a bin full of rubbish on to the platform, and so for our entire return journey we had a big stinking pile of rubbish spoiling our view!

For our full day in Zhongdian we all went off to a Buddhist temple in the morning… not before stopping off for a quick yak ride though! Michelle was a bit disgusted at the way the owner pulled the yak around by a nose ring, and Jo (the only other person on the tour) was the only one brave (or foolish?) enough to go for a ride. She said that it smells even worse than it looks, but the owner was having a great time regardless and burst into song.

Shenanigans aside, we headed to the temple. You are not allowed to take photos inside any of the many temples in the sprawling complex, so you will have to make do with some exterior shots. The place was pretty cool, but not being very religious myself I didn’t get involved in any of the ceremonies or make any donations. We spotted one monk sorting through donation money (they even give change) and he had a huge wad of cash. They obviously don’t need my assistance!

In this particular branch of Buddhism (yellow? I can’t remember) the monks are allowed to eat meat, they have their own cars and mobile phones, and they are allowed to leave the order at any time. It kinda sounded like Buddhism Lite, but I guess it attracts the young people!

We are back in Kunming again, and although we had no internet last time, I managed to find a network cable when I was hunting around for some lost papers. A little more investigation revealed a network port previously hidden. Best of all, this being a large city it has the fastest internet connection yet! We plan on making the most of it before we head off to Beijing tomorrow.

Today’s photos were taken on the way to Zhongdian, a small city (still 1 million people!) in Yunnan that borders onto Tibet. In fact, 90% of the population are Tibetan. It is about 3,500m above sea level and has been known to cause altitude sickness. Michelle was still feeling a bit ropey from her food poisoning and she slept most of the way there.

Zhongdian was renamed Shangrila in 2001 or so in an effort to boost tourism. It doesn’t seem to have had much of an effect on the Chinese tourists, though, as this was the most relaxed and tourist-free city on our trip. Once again we stayed in the old town, but unlike Lijiang most of the shops were actually locals selling local products. And one of those products is yak.

I had been keen to try yak meat ever since I saw the dried yak meat shops in Lijiang. Our guide, Benny, told me there would be plenty in Shangrila, and she was right! The first meal we had I ordered yak cooked with hot rocks. It was delicious! Unfortunately, the other yak dishes I had didn’t really compare, but we ended up back in the same restaurant on the last night, so I got to have it again.

By the time we left I had tried stone cooked yak, curry yak, stewed yak, yak in noodle soup, yak butter tea and yak yoghurt. Michelle was alternating between telling me I was sprouting horns and that I was growing yak fur. I could have used the fur, though, as it was pretty damned cold! The hotels require a smart card to be inserted to keep the power on, so as soon as we left our room the aircon and electric blanket would turn off.

We figured out a solution though and were able to thoroughly enjoy our time there. Michelle was feeling better each day and was back to her usual self by the time we landed in Kunming, asking where we were going for lunch almost as soon as we touched down.

This is the third attempt to get this uploaded. I told you the internet was flaky!

Here are a few photos from our day in Lijiang. I skipped a day because we didn’t do a lot when we arrived and we both got sick here. I had a nasty sore throat and head cold when we arrived, but as I was getting better Michelle got sick from suspected food poisoning and spent most of the evening in the bathroom being sick.

We still managed to check out a bit of the town. It is a bit more old-worldy than Dali, with narrow winding streets and old buildings, but it is a lot more touristy. There seems to only be about half a dozen different shops and they are repeated everywhere… yak meat shop, scarf shop, shoe shop, bag shop, music shop, rinse, repeat. They all seem to play the same music too, which drove Michelle insane. The tight streets also mean you can’t avoid the tour groups. They move at glacial pace, and being China no one gets out of your way. When Michelle was feeling ill and we had to get back to the hotel in a hurry we were barging and pushing our way through. I don’t know the Chinese word for ‘excuse me’, but apparently it didn’t matter as no one uses it anyway.