Days 12-14 - Discovering Spiritual Tibet

Early on day 12 of our trip we were heading to the airport to fly from Xi'an to Xining, as the train to Lhasa only departs from the latter city. I did not mention that my visa to Lhasa got rejected two days before and I was in quite some unrest over that fact, until I received a last minute message that the papers eventually got approved in the second run. Consequently both of us valued the opportunity even more to be able to visit the Tibetan capital.

So after a quick stopover in Xining (a dusty city on the rise with a lot of construction in progress) we boarded our train looking forward to a 22 hour train ride on what is considered the world's highest rail track peaking at 5,072m above sea level.

Day 9-11: Living on the edge

I feel like our trip is getting better and better from day to day. Our next station was Xi'an, the place that motivated me personally to do that trip from the beginning because of Huashan. It was only a few months ago that I was doing some research on China when I found pictures of people posing on planks that are not broader than 30cm. It is hard to believe that we have done it now as well.

We spent our first day in Xi'an at the Terracotta army. I think most people know those figures. There are about 8,000 individual figures that were placed in the tomb of the first Chinese emperor in order to protect him. Each of them represent one real soldier in his army. Unfortunately, the museum did not meet our expectations. Maybe our expectations were too high but there were only three halls where little or no information about anything was provided. If you do not have a guide you will only see the statues and understand nothing. There is a museum about the museum itself and how it was founded but not e.g. why the statues were made. The whole area is not too big and it took us only about one hour to finish. Nevertheless, a must do in China if you are in Xi'an.

After visiting the Terra Cotta army, we went back to downtown Xi'an and visited the city wall. Xi'an is a pretty interesting city because it was also called Chang'an and served as the capital of ancient China for about 1,000 years. It was in a time when the silk road flourished and when China was the most powerful country in the world. It is also the only remaining walled city in China.

We were staying at a hostel where you could see the northern gates of the city wall. So far every single hostel in China surprised us by their location and beauty. The best thing about the hostels are that they are incredibly cheap. On average we spent 5€ per person per night.
On the next day, we went to the Muslim quarter. As you have to know, China is a multinational country. It consists of 54 ethnicities of which over 90% are Han Chinese (like me).

In the evening, we did something typical for Chinese: KARAOKE aka KTV with our new friend Minsong from South Korea.

On our last day in Xi'an, we went to Huashan (another mountain). This mountain was pretty tough because some of its stairs were extremely steep. Some of them almost had 90° but were closed recently due to safety reasons. It was a tough climb but totally worth it because at the end this amazing place awaited us:

I do not think that I will ever forget this moment again. I should mention that I am afraid of height but somehow got used to it when I was standing in the line.

 Some people were too afraid but wanted a picture...

Our next stop is Lhasa!

Day 8: A Quick Stopover in Nanjing

Our stay in Nanjing was planned to be only two days, therefore after having enjoyed the city in the evening of the first day (highly recommendable as the illumination of the ancient city center makes it look even more beautiful) we decided to visit the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. This museum memorializes those that were killed in the Nanking Massacre by the Imperial Japanese Army in and around the then capital of China, Nanjing, after it fell on December 13, 1937. The whole area contains several statues, halls and paths to remember the 300,000 people that were killed in this massacre.


After the museum we went straight to the airport to catch our flight to Xi'an. Unfortunately, due to bad weather the flight was delayed by several hours and as the waiting hall was stuffed with people we had to pass the time standing. Tired from the waiting and the recent days we arrived later than expected in Xi'an only to directly navigate to our hostel and call it an early night.

Special: How we cooked on the Yellow Mountains

Day 6 & 7: Sunrise, Hot Springs, and Ancient Villages

Our 6th day on our journey started at 4am in the morning. We wanted to see the sunrise. When we left the hotel, it was quite foggy/cloudy (you can't tell whether it's fog or clouds in that altitude) and were quite disappointed when we arrived at the spot where we wanted to see the sunrise because we could see nothing. Fortunately, we were patient and were able to capture this picture when the sun shined through a little hole in the clouds for five minutes.

Afterwards, we started climbing down the Yellow Mountains. It took us about 4 hours to get down. On our way down, we saw many workers again carrying shitloads of weights up the mountains.

You have to imagine that we were totally exhausted after we climbed up the mountains with nothing but a small backpack. These guys have to carry loads of stuff, such as several crates of beverages, huge cans of oil, whole windows, high voltage cables, and everything that could be needed up in the mountains.
At the bottom of the mountain we saw these cute monkeys.

The guide told us that you should not feed or tease them because they can be pretty aggressive. Woman in red clothes should watch out in particular because they can be pretty perverted (LOL).
When we arrived at the hotel we were exhausted and welcomed the opportunity to visit the famous hot springs at the Yellow Mountains. Here, we spent 5 hours (can't imagine that it's healthy) and bathed in aromatized pools, such as rice soup, green tea, ginseng, red wine, bamboo, Vitamin C, ore, coconut milk and many more.

The next day, we went to visit two ancient villages, Hongcun and Xidi, and tried to recover from all the climbing.

 At Hongcun, we saw a lot of art students painting and were pretty overwhelmed by their skills.

In the afternoon, we left the Yellow Mountains and traveled to Nanjing, the former capital of China. It has a beautiful old town and is also famous for its food.

 

The following map should give you a better understanding about or itinerary. Our next stop will be Xi'an! Follow the blog and stay updated :)

Day 5: Climbing Mount Huangshan

Early in the morning we took the bus to the starting point of the hiking track up the mountain. After some queuing, as there were quite some people around even at that time, we started the climb. We soon noticed that the whole track was artificially fortified and consisted of thousands of concrete stairs. This had a direct effect on our knees after climbing the mountain in two (instead of expected three) hours, even more so as all tracks on top as well consisted of stairs.

At the top Quanbo and I were faced with thick fog which hindered the sight considerably. Even though we managed to get a few glimpses here and there, we still had the feeling of missing out. We decided to do a short round of about four hours to get a feeling of the track and to bet on being lucky at least at some spots. As the weather got worse over time (and so did our knees) we made it an early night and went to bed at around 5pm, after having packed our bags for early departure the next morning.

Day 4: Arriving in the Yellow Mountains

Early in the morning of the fourth day, we took the first available bus from Suzhou to Huangshan (黃山) , the famous mountain range that reached 1,800m and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After a 6 hour ride we took a room in a hotel and started off to our first adventure to visit a nice and peaceful waterfall near the Huangshan mountains. The place itself offered a beautiful and quiet scenery and the water of the falls was crystal clear. The whole way up to the top however we were accompanied by some rather disturbing techno music blasting out of some random speakers, which did not seem to bother the Chinese visitors much (I was the only non-Chinese). At the top there was a pavilion featuring some live singing acts of semi-naked transvestites (even more disturbing), to entertain the local crowd. Fascinated by the scenery of the waterfall we did not pay too much attention to the entertainment program offered.

After returning from the falls we decided to spoil ourselves a bit with some amusement and went white-water rafting (kind of). The paddling along the river and the water slides in between were fun, but they cannot be compared with the intense water battles we had with some other Chinese boats during the ride. Soaked wet and tired we returned to the hotel to pack our bags for the departure to the Huangshan mountains hiking track early morning on the next day.