China

I enjoyed spending a few days in Xian, probably the nicest city I've been to in China so far. It's a very modern city, but still has a lot of historical sites that have been built. Like the bell tower, one of the main sites is now basically in the middle of a major road junction and can only be accessed from a subway. But the city was very clean and seemed a lot less polluted than other places. The city also has a big Muslim area that was interesting to look around and had a very good market where I got a few souveniers and some good food. After the duck heads in Beijing, I decided against trying the sheeps heads. Was also interesting to look around the great mosque as it was a complete contrast to the Budhist monastries that I've been too. The monastries are all decorated in a very over the top way with a lot of gold and hundreds of statues, where as the mosque was a lot simpler, more relaxing and peaceful. Spent a few days looking at the museums and some of the historical sites. The most impresive was going to see the Terracotta Army just outside the city. I've heard some of them have been taken to the British Museum this summer, but it would be nothing like seeing them here. There are 3 huge pits with literally thousands of warriors in them, and they are all unique, with different faces etc, so just the size of the place was impresive.
Came up with a vague plan for the rest of my time in China, so heading to Chengdu, in central China next.

From Beijing I got the train to Datong, a large industrial town to the west of Beijing. Theres not really anything very interesting in the city itself, but I did a day trip to a couple of sites just outside the city. The first was a hanging temple which was built on the side of a cliff about 100m above a valley. It's about 1500 years old and was built to try and prevent the villages below from flooding. It was very impressive and in good condition considering how old it is and it must have been very difficult to build but I think the building of a big dam at the end of the valley was probably more successful in preventing the flooding.

The other place I went to was the Yungang caves that were carved at around the same time as the temple was built. There were about 50 caves each with carvings of different Budhas and Budhist stories etc. I think the biggest was about 20m tall, so they were also very impressive and made the trip to Datong worth it. Datong isn't really one of the main places Western tourists seem to go, so there are no hostels. When I got off the train the CITS (Chinese travel agency) just took all Western people into their office and allocated everyone a bed in any hotel. The room I ended up in wasn't too bad, but the shared bathroom was to be avoided as much as possible. Basically for the whole hotel there seemed to be just one toilet that was somehow supposed to also be used as a shower. This might not have been too bad if it had looked like it had been cleaned sometime in the past few years. But instead of actually cleaning it there always just seemed to be 3 members of staff sitting on a sofa outside it watching people going in and out.

From Datong I got a bus to Wutai Shan. This is a group of holy mountains to the South of Datong, where there are hundreds of Budhist temples which are still lived in by monks. Went to see a couple of the temples but due to my lack of knowledge on Budhism they all seem a bit the same to me so spent most of the time there wandering round the hills. This was a very welcome break to escape the smog of the city and all the people that are constantly hasseling you when you walk around anywhere else. Theres always people trying to get you to buy stuff, go in restraunts, hotels, taxis, shouting random stuff at you, trying to take photos of you etc., so its not always the most relaxing place to be. It has taken a while to get used to that and some of the habits of the Chinese, like spitting everywhere. Also ended up staying in a bit of a strange hotel in Wutai Shan, as its another place where there are very few Western tourists. The owners of the hotel seemed to think that by 5am everyone should be awake and went round banging on all the doors and shouting something. But other than that it was a nice relaxing couple of days.

The last couple of days I have spent in Pingyao, which has been completly different from both Datong and Wutai Shan. It is an ancient walled city where no cars so everyone gets around by bike, donkey or walking. It seems to be a very popular tourist place, (half the people here must be French) so its very easy to get around and I'm pleased to be staying in a proper hostel again. Been to various historical sites around the city and its been a nice place just to walk around.

Moving on again tonight, getting a train to Xian

I know I've mentioned food a lot, but had an interesting meal the last night I stayed in Beijing. Most restaurants have either a menu in English which is normally so badly translated that you still don't actually know what you are ordering or a menu in Chinese with a few out of focus photos. Was in a restaurant that had an 'English' menu and ordered the mixed starter thinking it would be things like spring rolls, but it actually turned out to be a plate of cold meats. Couldn't really tell what they were but our best guess was some kind of stomach/intestine type of thing, possibly some tounge and a row of ducks heads. Did actually manage to eat most of it (with a lot of chili sauce) but eating one ducks head with chopsticks was enough of a challenge as I didn't even know what bit of it I was supposed to be trying to eat. Have to say I was relieved when the main course came and it was quite a normal sweet and sour pork.

Arrived in Beijing nearly a week ago now. Was a bit of a shock arriving from Mongolia, the least densely populated country in the world, but have got used to all the crowds of people everywhere and have been enjoying the city. Spent the first couple of days looking round Tianaman Square and the Forbidden City, which are both very impressive due to the size of them. Yesterday I went to the Emeprors summer palace, which is a bit further out of the city and is set around a massive lake. Also had a day trip out to the Great Wall. The restored sections of the wall closest to the city are also very crowded so I went on a tour with a few other people to a section a bit further away that hadn't been restored. Spent the day walking along the wall up in the mountains, so it was a very nice break from the crowds and the smog in the city. Went to the Beijing Opera in the evening, which was very strange to see but quite enjoyed it. Luckily there were subtitles at the side of the stage in both Chinese and English because without them you would have no idea what was going on. The costumes and everything were all very elaborate but I think there was a lot of symbolic gestures and things that were all a bit lost on me, but it was good to see even if the singing was a bit painful at times.

So far the food in China has been very good, a lot more varied then in Mongolia. Never really now what you are going to get though, but sticking to the rule of only going in places where there are only Chinese people and not Western people seems to be working well. Went to the night market for dinner one night. There were loads of stalls baisically selling skewers of anything and everything, things like scorpians, starfish, seahorses, centipedes (and thats just the things we could recognise).

Have also speant alot of time just walking round different areas of the city, as the place is so varied. There are very modern areas with massive skyscrappers and roadsd with 8 lanes of traffic and then 10 minutes walk down the road you can be in an area of narrow alleyways where everyone is on bikes and rickshaws, so its a very intersting city to be in. Its definetly developing fast and they are getting ready for the olympics next year. Went passed the main athletics stadium and swimming pool. They are not quite finished yet but look amazing.

Staying in Beijing until the weekend and then I'm getting the train to Datong, a city about 6 hours from here. other than that I still don't actually have much of a plan where I'm going to be going in China