China...as imagined by non-Chinese

Greetings,

Since our last blog entry we've moved from one river to another...this time to the Li River in Yangshuo. Visualize the most romantic Chinese rustic scene in your mind, and that's where we are. It's stunningly beautiful, charming, and apart from too many tourists, not too crowded. Here are some of the pictures we took...

An alley in an ancient village along the Li. If you peek in the open doorways, there are still posters of Mao (and sometimes of Lenin and Stalin) plastered on the walls.

Today we took a bike tour through the countryside. The peaks in the background are limestone karst formations, which is what this area is famous for.

More peaks and rice paddies.

Riding down dusty country lanes.

Along the way we had the opportunity to climb one of the karsts. Everyone had a "buddy" follow them up with a case of cold drinks to sell. She fanned us every time we took a break so we bought 3 drinks for completely unreasonable prices.

Shayne and I at the top (almost), with a view through the "moon mountain".

Now really at the top.

It was my birthday, so Shayne secretly ordered a cake for our group lunch in the country. Mmmmm...cake.

Another shot of Shayne on a bike.

We're almost finished our time in China (just Hong Kong left now), but we've gotten to see a lot of the country. Also, apart from the heat and humidity, we've been really lucky with the weather (it is "rainy season" after all). Here's hoping the next 3 weeks in south-east Asia will be as good.

See you in Hong Kong,

Shayne and Jo

The Mighty Yangtze

Greetings,

We're in Yichang now, having spent 3 days cruising down the third longest river in the world (for those keeping track, the Mississippi was bumped to number 4 in the 1990's). Here's a few of the photos we took along the way...

Our cabin on the "Yangtze Princess". Much better than we'd expected.

The Taoist gods of health in a temple in the City of Ghosts (so named because it's believed that the god of the underworld dwells there...not because it's a ghost town, which is what I thought).

Shayne posing with one of the newer statues in the City of Ghosts. This is one of a series of demons that punish sins...Shayne took to this one right away.

The entrance to the first of the Three Gorges from the west.

It's a house...made all the cooler by the fact that it's in one of the Three Gorges.

Us in the second Gorge.

On the second day we took an excursion down a small tributary, and we spotted this up in the cliff face. If you zoom in you'll see it's a coffin...I guess the wild dogs won't get you all the way up there.

One of the many new towns and cities built along the Yangtze and its tributaries in the past 10 years or so...the townspeople's old houses are either underwater now, or soon will be.

As the river got more shallow we switched to traditional river boats guided by teams of "trackers". For how much work they did paddling us upstream, I'm amazed they were still smiling.

The view from the back.

Back on the ship in the evening we finally made it to the Three Gorges Dam and spent 3 hours going through the boat locks.

On the other side the next morning. Now Shayne can add yet another "world's biggest" to his list. That's the real reason he's smiling.

Next we're off to Yangshuo and the Li River.

Until then,

Jo and Shayne

More Chi to the Na

Greetings

Well, It's 10:30 PM on Thursday and we finally found a computer that can access blogger.

Unfortunately we have to be back to our boat by 11:00 so this is going to be a short post. The pictures look a little strange on this computer though so we might have to repost later on...anyway...


We spent the last couple days exploring the central city of Chengdu, which is famous for its Tibetan quarter and its pandas.

A shot of one of the older fellows. The place we visited was a breeding grounds and it had around 200 or so pandas.

These guys have the right idea. Their whole life is just sitting, sleeping, eating...repeat. It's a good gig if you can get it.

A group of 10 or so baby pandas. This filled up my daily quota of cuteness and I had to skip the kitten t-shirt factory that the rest of the group visited later in the day.

Jo holding a red panda (looks strangely like the offspring of a raccoon and a panda that had a little too much wine for dinner). It should be noted that mere seconds after this photo was taken it attacked and now Jo has but one eye.

A shot of Jo and I in front of one of the many airplane hanger-like homes of the terracotta warriors.

A closer shot for you viewers at home.

The famous Bell Tower of Xian at night.

Jo and I in front of the massive 70 meter Buddha statue in Leshan. (Jo's note: Shayne can finally say he's seen the biggest of something in the world) (Shayne's note: hooray!)

Jo showing her support for both the Buddha and world peace.

Well, we're off to spend three days exploring the Yangtze so we probably won't be posting for a little while.

Cheers

Shayne

Greetings,

Well, we're in Xian and we found an internet cafe that allows USB cables. So, here are some pics from Shanghai and today in Xian....

A view of a "nong"...narrow alleys filled to bursting with families living in small, ancient apartments.

The Pearl Tower in Shanghai at night.

Shayne next to Dr. Sun Yat Sen at his former residence in Shanghai...now a museum.

The Yu Yuen Gardens in Shanghai.

More acrobats...the flying guy is about to land on that pole with his crotch.

"The Cage of Death"...this shot only shows three, but they got 5 motorcycles in there!

Now in Xian...walking to the South Gate of the city wall for some sightseeing.

What better way to explore over 13km of wall than by bike?

More bikes and wall.

Shayne carefully guarding his belongings at the market in the Muslim Quarter. We liked this market much better than the ones in Beijing...no one grabs you!

And here's Shayne working on the blog...it looks comfy, but if you had "smell-o-vision" you'd know better. All we can smell is cigarettes...blech.

Okay...that's it for now. Time to go get some shut-eye before the Terra Cotta Warriors tomorrow morning. Woo hoo!!

Cheers,

Shayne and Jo

P.S. We'll add titles to these blog entries when the damn Chinese computers let us. >:(

P.P.S. If you're wondering at the lack of text, it's because this place is filled with cigarette smoke and we're dog tired. :P

Well, we're just about to leave Shanghai for an overnight train to Xian, and we thought we should post some pictures. The problem is that this internet cafe won't let you plug in USB cables, so we had to pick photos from over the front desk with all the staff looking on. Given the pressure, and the fact that the photos were in thumbnail format, they are few and random. I hope you enjoy, and we'll post more when we have a chance.

We took a walking tour through a "nong", which are old, densely populated areas of Shanghai. We spotted this guy washing up down an alley. Maybe it's an invasion of privacy, but it was too cool of a shot to miss.

Shanghai by night. Not the best picture we took on the boat cruise, but like I said...we were searching through mini-photos over a desk.

Shayne in the Yu-Yuen Garden, a preserved 16th century aristocratic retreat in Old Shanghai.

One shot from the acrobat show. After watching two girls crash in the "trick cycling" segment, both of us were biting our nails during this one.

That's Shanghai in a nutshell. If the internet cafes in Xian are more lax with USBs, then we'll post more in a day or so.

Cheers,

Shayne and Jo

More Beijing

It's our last day in Beijing, so we thought we'd post some random photos from the past few days. Tonight we board an overnight train for Shanghai. Apparently it's going to be triple-decker bunk bed style, so wish us luck. Anyways, time is short so on to the pictures...

Yes, that is a starfish...and yes, Shayne actually ate it. Tastes like chicken (as all things do).

Ahhhh...the refreshing air of Beijing. Here we are at Tiananmen Square. It holds about a million people, which is good to know if you ever need a place to put a million people.

Jo, Shayne, and the Chairman at the entrance to the Forbidden City.

One of the many halls and palaces within the complex. It really is gigantic, and sadly it does contain a Starbucks (except that there are no signs indicating it, and there are screens on the doors so you can't see in). For those keeping track, no we didn't buy anything.

Detail on the corner of a roof. There are only 3 animals in the procession, meaning this was not an important building (it's now the washroom, strangely enough).

A throne...they have a few here.

Us in a rickshaw touring the hutongs (tightly-packed alleys full of old homes). Sadly thousands of these are being knocked down, so we were fortunate enough to see a few of them.

Riding down the alleys.

The best part of our hutong tour was eating lunch in one of the local's homes. The host was kind enough to wear an undershirt to give us the full athentic experience. But seriously, the food was excellent, and they were really kind. He even showed us his pet grasshopper.

Shayne bargaining at the "Pearl Market", which has a lot more than just pearls on offer. We managed to get a 2GB Kingston memory card for our camera for about 7 bucks. Not bad considering they wanted $50 to start. Here's hoping it works!

Jo in the Temple of Heaven gardens.

If we survive the night, we'll try to update again in Shanghai. Hopefully we'll be lucky again and find an internet cafe right by our hotel.

Cheers,

Shayne and Jo