Posted by: travelra on: September 10, 2009
Our flight from London Heathrow to China Beijing was a 10 hour flight. We were lucky that we had no delays or changing planes along the way. When we arrived there lots of the Chinese people looked at my sister and I like we were aliens because of our hair. Everyone in China had black or dark brown hair, unless they died it blonde. Getting out of the airport and to our hotel took a bit of time. They could barley understand what we were saying, even if we said it slowly. But we understood that the Chinese people had their own language and couldn’t understand us.
Finally we got through to them and they took us to our booked hotel. Our hotel was called Warick International Apartments. Fortunately it wasn’t too far out from the sightseeing places. The time was only 8am so we all had a sleep then went out for a walk. We went to Long Tan Park. Long Tan Park was a large grassy park with lots of visitors sightseeing or just wanting a nice walk. There were loads of people dancing around in a specific spot for a specific reason. It was the 60th Anniversary for Long Tan Park. We watched them dance for a while then left back to the hotel and relax because the next 5 days we were going to the Temple of Heaven, Pearl Markets, Great Wall of China, Ming Tombs, Summer Palace, the Birds Nest and the Water Cube, Tien en nam Square and the Forbidden City.
Temple of Heaven- the Temple of Heaven were lots of beautiful Chinese buildings built for ceremonies of praying to Heaven for good harvesting or something special to a person. We strolled around this lovely area then left to finish the day at Pearl Markets.
Pearl Markets- A crazy place we called it. Every Chinese person in the Pearl Markets hassled you to buy there gadgets, clothes, jewellery, shoes, bags and many more things. The only thing that they could say was do you want to buy, big sale, cheap and come here. It was very funny because all of the ladies pulled my dad to their market and dressed him up in bags and accessories.
Great Wall of China- It blew my mind away. We took a cable car up to the top of the Wall. We went to the Minataya part. The view was amazing. There were masses of mountains as far as the eye could see. We walked about 1.5km, when we got to the point that we were tired of walking up and down the crooked stairs we tobogganed down the humongous hill.
Ming Tombs- On the same day as the Great Wall we went to Ming Tombs. Ming Tombs is where the Emperors and Empresses of 13 dynasties out of 16 dynasties were buried when they died. It was well under ground so we had to walk a long way. Lots of money had been thrown on top of their tomb; we threw a dollar onto one of the Emperors tomb.
Summer Palace- The Summer Palace looked very similar to the Temple of Heaven. There was a pretty lake with little boats paddling around. We walked around and saw plenty of gorgeous colourful buildings. Before we went inside there was a young girl tour guide that was studying English at her university that offered us a tour for only 80 Yuan. We took her along and she told us some history on the Summer Palace.
Birds Nest and Water Cube- Going to where the 2008 Olympics were held was very special to me. When we went to the Birds Nest we took a lot of photos and bought some souvenirs. But the best part about that day was that we actually got to swim inside the Water Cube where Olympic Champions had swum. We also got to watch the Russian Synchronise Swimmer champions do a routine while the Russian Swan Lake champions practised for the next day’s performance in the Water Cube. It was a fluke.
Tien Ne Nam Square and the Forbidden City- An 8km walk to Tien Ne Nam Square and the Forbidden City wasn’t very pleasant after a very busy week. When we got to Tien Ne Nam Square we walked around and through these enormous gateways to the Forbidden City. You had to pay a lot of money to go inside the Forbidden City so we didn’t go in; just looked from on the outside.
From Beijing to Xi an we took the hard seats… on the 13 hour train. My eyes were sleepy and my body was tired; I could barley stay awake. That night was terrible. There was people talking throughout the whole night, lots of people bought a standing ticket for the train and they lent all over our table and chairs and last but not least the food trolley ran over my toes twice. Eventually I got a few hours sleep still in an uncomfortable position. My mum got the most sleep out of all of us.
There were heaps of things to see and do in Xiang; for example the Terra Cotta Warriors. When we arrived in Xi an a lady named Sabrina asked us if we would like a lift to our hotel or have her as our tour guide for 2 days. We said yes and then we hoped into her van and headed towards our hotel. Along the way dad, mum and Sabrina figured out what we were going to do in Xi an. They decided on doing the Terra Cotta Warriors, the Terra Cotta Museum, the Emperors Hot spring Palace and the silk factory.
First up was the Terra Cotta Museum. This was where people now a day’s try to recreate more Terra Cotta Warriors. We had a look through with Sabrina. She told us about all of the Terra Cotta Warriors and the paintings, statues and furniture that were for show in the Terra Cotta Museum. Shortly after learning a bit about the Terra Cotta Warriors we went to go see them.
Where the Terra Cotta Warriors were there were three pits. We went from pit number 3 to 2 to 1. Pit no. 3 had the most Terra Cotta Warriors found and people were still finding more when we were there. The whole of Pit no. 3 had over 6,000 statues containing the figures of strong warriors, horses, archers and officials. Out of all three pits they hold 8,000 statues which being strong warriors, horses, chariots, officials, generals, musicians, cavalry horses, standing warriors, kneeling warriors, crossbowman, kneeling crossbowman, horse leading driver, on chariot warrior, junior officer and senior officer. After the men made the warriors Emperor Qin Shi Huang the first Emperor of China killed them so they could not make the Terra Cotta Warriors ever again. The Terra Cotta Army was built to protect the tomb of Qin Shi Huang (the first Emperor of China) and the boast the Emperors power and show loyalty to him after his death.
The Terra Cotta Warriors were found on a family’s farming land when the men were digging for their water well in 1979. It was just sheer coincidence that the found them. If the men had dug a few more inches away from the corner of pit three they wouldn’t be found at all. Pit 3 was found 1.5km east of Qin Shi Huang’s tomb. The farming men found an arm of a Terra Cotta Warrior, after three days that arm faded from colour to just plain grey clay.
From Xi an to Shanghai we took another train. It wasn’t as bad because we had already done a long train trip before. Our hotel was close to one of the biggest shopping streets in the world. Later in the evening we went out to have a look. There were heaps of bright lights in your eyes, people selling things on the streets and tons of shopping malls. We didn’t go inside any; we just window shopped. That night we met two young English men doing a radio station about Shanghai and they had been in Shanghai for over 3 years. They asked us what our worst smell and our favourite sound had been throughout Shanghai. We said our worst smell was the dark alley ways down the sides of the streets and our favourite sound was the car horns tooting every 5 seconds.
The couple of days we didn’t do much. We walked down towards the bund; a very English area with a massive lake and lots of sky scrapers. Underneath the lake was a walk way tunnel. You had to pay to get across so we didn’t go. Once again we took another train, this time to Guilin City.
Guilin is a peaceful place full of many mountains, pagoda’s and rice fields. When we got off the train a bunch of tourist guides ran over to us. We picked the best English speaking person and we were off to our hotel in central Guilin. The tour guide people’s names were Mike and Julie. While we were in Guilin they took us to Yung Shou on Bamboo boats, the Rice Fields, to beautiful mountains and pagodas.
I thought the Bamboo rides were the best out of everything in Guilin. We also went to an amazing show in Yung Shou. They had 600 people performing in their show; so many acts for so many people. Each act was different but my favourite one was the lights show. There was about 400 people all dressed up in special suits that glowed brightly.
The Rice Fields were completely amazing to see. People had lived up the tops of mountains in little villages living off mainly rice, stream water and vegetables they grew. We drove to almost the top of the most important mountain. This mountain had a special name; it was called Dragon Mountain. When we walked up Dragon Mountain and we could see a small river flowing down the bottom; the view was brilliant. Many people still lived up the top of Dragon Mountain and grow foods.
Guilin had been absolutely unbelievable but we had to catch the bus to Ping Jing. Ping Jing was a town where most tourists stopped for the night before crossing the border of Vietnam and China. It was 17 km to the border from Ping Jing so we went ahead and caught a taxi to the border at night time. We crossed the border by foot because we thought it would be a better experience then just catching the golf buggy to the other side. Before crossing we had to fill out a few forms, go through metal detectors and show our passports to the Vietnamese security people. We wouldn’t have known what to do if one of us wasn’t allowed into Vietnam. It would be a disaster but we all got through fine and dandy.
