A city of old and new

Shanghai, China

Shanghai was a mixing pot: modern and traditional, eastern and western, tasteful and tacky… it has it all. But it all seems to work so well together, you can walk from the French concession – an area filled with bakeries, small cafes and quaint souvenir shops and within minutes find yourself in an ancient Chinese garden, or face to face with the stone banks of The Bund, or staring up at the towering, futuristic landscape of the riverfront skyline. It’s an awesome mix that provides something for everybody. We spent our days exploring the city, visiting the different districts and taking in the sights.

The journey to Shanghaiwas also… interesting. We shared our second hard sleeper train with a family consisting of; one woman who insisted on picking her veruca on the bed, two very polite and well mannered girls, and finally, two young children, both boys, who spent most of the journey being as loud as it’s physically and vocally possible to be. They climbed all over our beds, using them as climbing frames whilst screaming and shouting. One found a really fun game which involved flinging his yo-yo into the metal handrail of my bed, trying to make it clang as loud as he could. Another flew his spaceship around Kerry’s head – this spaceship was great too, it had a button on it that made it make laser beam noises, which of course had to pressed continuously for hours on end.

Then they found a new game.

 It involved creeping up to my bunk, and stroking my leg hair. At first, it was so unusual and just plain weird that Kerry and I found it hilarious. Unfortunately, this might have encouraged them to try it a few more times throughout the journey. 

Photos - Xian

Riding round the city wall

So many warriors

The fanciest candyfloss I've ever had

Fascinating markets and the Terracotta Army

Xian, China

Xian was a fascinating city with part of it surrounded by a huge city wall. You can rent bicycles and ride along the top. We got some great views of the city and managed to ride the 8 mile parameter in time to return our bike despite being stopped on multiple occasions by locals wanting pictures with us. We’ve got a taste of what fame might feel like whilst travelling China, children gawp – and sometimes even cry at the sight of me. People take sneaky but blatantly obvious pictures of us, and sometimes we are stopped to pose with entire families.

Another highlight of Xian was the Muslim quarter, an area filled with street vendors and ram packed with consumers. Noodles, dumplings, barbequed meat, chicken feet, pig snouts, trotters, fried squid, potatoes and countless things I don’t know the name for fill every inch of the place. The stall that caught Kerry’s eye the most was a candyfloss stall, but not just ordinary candyfloss. It was multi-coloured candyfloss spun with talent into incredible shapes before your eyes.
The main reason for our visit to Xian was, of course, to visit the famous archaeological site of the Terracotta Soldiers. The site is incredible. The skill of the archaeologists who have recovered the site is amazing. Thousands of life-size figures stood before us.

On our last night in Xian, we had a BBQ dinner – Chinese style – on the rooftop of our hostel that looks out over the wall towards the neon city skyline. It was a great way to finish our time here. 

Photos - Chengdu

Munching

Chilling

Playing

Look at that face!

Friends, this is a 6 day old panda!

Cuteness overload

Panda bears

Chengdu, China

We arrived in Chengduvia our first sleeper train. We booked ourselves into a four birth cabin and were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in a modern, comfortable, air conditioned room.  We passed the 27 hour journey watching films and eventually sleeping soundly in the beds - probably our best journey so far.

The main object of Chengduwas always the pandas. Kerry was giddy with excitement from the moment we arrived, in-fact, she was giddy with excitement months before we even started our trip.

We arrived at the breeding and research centre as early as possible after being warned of large crowds, and before long we were face to furry face with our first panda. Yeah, they’re pretty damn cute. The research and breeding centre’s primary goal is to take care of these endangered animals and provide a safe and life-like environment for them. As a result, the enclosures were really large and impressive and not just a cage for tourists to gawp through, it was great to see the care and the attention given to the animals. The baby pandas were little-girl-shriek-worthy and had hordes of people cooing and awing. The only downside was that Kerry, who was more than willing to spend the £200 it costs to hold a panda, wasn’t able to due to a past incident in which the pandas got ill from the experience.

We also got to try our first hot pot – a traditional Chinese meal of various foods cooked in a boiling spicy pot in the middle of the table. We struggled massively with translating what we wanted but a lady nearby who spoke some English was nice enough to help out. The first few bites and tastes were delicious, but after most of our taste buds had been stripped from our tongue, we soon found ourselves feeling more pain than enjoyment and were barely able to get through the rest of the incredibly spicy dish.

Ordering food in general has remained a task in China, on numerous occasions we’ve found ourselves leaving restaurants with empty stomachs due to our inability to communicate, and the owners not wishing to get it wrong. We’ve tried great food through trail and error but we guiltily hit McDonalds a few days running too.  

Photos - Yangshuo

The town

Our lovely bamboo raft 'driver'

 Our stylish ride, ha!

Bamboo rafting

Guilin and Yangshuo, China

We experienced our first high-speed train journey from Nanningto Guilin which was very smooth. A lovely Chinese couple sitting next to us offered Jack and I some of their food. We accepted, feeling it would be rude to say no, and how bad could it be? … Chicken feet! Toe nails and all … After Jack pulled out his, I thanked them and said I’d share Jack’s but they kindly insisted I had my own. Great. We sat there looking at them for a while wondering which part to eat. Jack ended up putting the whole thing in his mouth and chewed around the bone. I nibbled the skin off the toe and decided that was enough for me and put the rest in a sick-bag that was conveniently placed in the pocket in front of me.

We stayed in Guilinfor a couple of nights to break up our journey to Yangshuo. Yangshuo was a quirky little town situated between beautiful mountainous countryside. In between the cute little gift shops, bakeries and restaurants were multiple pole dancing clubs which looked very out of place.

We did a bamboo raft trip down the Yulong river which was really relaxing. Especially after getting lost and being 2 hours late for the trip due to our non-existent Chinese language skills. The locals were friendly and tried to help us out, but we had no idea what they were telling us and they didn’t speak a word of English. We eventually found our way back to where our bamboo raft guide was waiting for us. After a peaceful float down the river, we cycled (by tandem bike), through beautiful countryside, back to the Yangshuo town.