Hong Kong: 8-12 Oct 2013

At the top of the Peak

Rach says:

We were both really excited about Hong Kong. From the airport it was an easy 20 minutes on the MTR to Central, then 4 more stops to Causeway Bay. We had to buzz in to our tower block, pass the guard sitting in a little cubby hole, then get the lift to our floor. Pete reckons it was like the setting for a 1980s New York cop film, I reckon it was like having our own (tiny!) Hong Kong apartment for 4 days. It was like a cupboard. The bed wasn't even full size and pushed against a wall, so every night I'd wake up with a dead arm. The view from our room was Hong Kong as I'd imagined, looking down through the yellowish light to the trams and buses at the intersection below, swarms of people and the surrounding tower blocks adorned with Chinese neon signs.

Chinese Food

Steamed pork dumplings

"If the animal's back faces the sky, it's good to eat." (Chinese saying once told to me by a Malaysian-Chinese friend.)

Starting out in Beijing, much of the food was quite accessible to the Westerner - mainly 'Chinese as we know it' and most of the menus had decent English translations. We enjoyed satay beef, seaweed (but cold and floppy, not crispy), incredible dry spicy ribs and broccoli with garlic. It immediately struck us how fresh and light the food tasted compared to British-Chinese food. Vegetables were crunchy, everything was flavoursome and nothing was drenched in the classic Chinese takeaway gloop. The more 'interesting' menu items included frozen pig's skin in jelly, pickled fatty intestine, sea cucumber with tofu and blood tofu (yukkk!!). We also discovered that the Chinese have a taste for fried insects on sticks...silk worm chrysallis, locusts, scorpions, seahorses and even tarantulas!

We travelled over 2,750 miles across China on trains...

Security levels are high. All bags are scanned and you have to pass through metal detectors and sometimes get frisked on both underground and overground trains. Police are everywhere.

The stations are as busy as King's Cross at rush hour ALL the time. The waiting rooms are huge and packed with people, like departure gates at an airport. Trains are so oversubscribed that some popular routes/dates sell out in minutes when they go on sale 18 days beforehand.

Yangshuo: 28 Sep - 8 Oct 2013

Walking in the beautiful Chinese countryside

Rach says:

The 24 hour journey to Yangshuo was to be the most epic of our journeys so far and we weren't looking forward to it. Also for some reason, my backpack was causing me some serious shoulder pain. But it turned out to be not so bad...as ever, it was nice to sit down and do nothing! Each leg of the journey seemed to pass in a manageable chunk. The flight to Greece will feel like nothing after this trip!

Fenghuang: 25-27 Sep 2013

Rach says:

Due to the continuing hammering rain and the fact my cold was worsening, we were soooo pleased to discover that our room in Fenghuang was the height of luxury! Massive comfy bed, balcony overlooking the river with its wooden boats, traditional old houses and pagoda, and huge open plan bathroom with an inviting looking wooden bathtub! That was it, I was in! Amazing how good a hot bath can be when you've been travelling, are ill and just come in from the

Wulingyuan: 22-24 Sep 2013

At Baofeng Lake

Rach says:

Zhangjiajie was the first train station we arrived at without the luck to befriend a Chinese person going the same way. Somehow getting to our hostel in the town of Wulingyuan turned out to be a doddle - amazing how far the trusty Mandarin dictionary can get you! Hand gestures for the numbers 1-10 were another matter...you might think they were universal. Not so.

Wudangshan: 19-21 Sep 2013

Master Gu (right) and his student Wu

Rach says:

Wudang Mountain, the birthplace of Wudang Kung Fu, was the highlight of our trip so far. We stayed at a Taoist centre run by "Master Gu" who has lived on the mountain for 11 years and certainly looks the part. He spends his days practising Tai Chi and teaching the people who come to stay with him. Some stay for months on end. We did early morning exercises (6.45am can you believe it) on a training ground overlooking the mountains, learnt some simple "Crane style" moves and a bit about Taoist philosophy.

Chengdu: 13-18 Sep 2013

Pete says:

Our first night in Chengdu was unexpectedly eventful.

We had intended to catch up on some sleep, but on arrival the reception people told us they were having a dumpling making party that evening, so we joined that. We got talking to Robert from Taiwan who lives in USA spent a lot of time telling me how evil Mao was and how

Curiouser and curiouser...

They heard Pete and Rach were in town

Strangely, we seemed to be very interesting to the Chinese. People would stare as they walked by, even turning back to look a bit more, take candid photos and even ask to photograph themselves with us (regularly)! We have even had one person stop, stand in front of us, and just look! Groups of people would shout 'hello' in the street, then find it to be the most hilarious thing ever when we said 'ni hao' back. We didn't mind, it just kind of puzzled and amused us. Later on in the trip, we were told that because China is not that touristy a lot of the locals have only ever seen Westerners on TV. At one point in the trip, Pete even had someone tell him "You look like a movie star, you look a million dollars!" haha! So, if you want to know how it feels to be a celebrity - pop to China!

"These roads are insane"...

...we thought, as we speeded in our taxi from Beijing airport to our hostel... weaving in and out, moving into gaps that weren't there, overtaking in a hands-in-front-of-the-eyes kind of way, horns beeping constantly... The last bit was best of all as we drove down a narrow pedestrianised street at about 40mph, just beeping the horn to let people know they should leap out of the way. We never worked out if the Chinese are the worst or the best drivers in the world because despite all of this, we saw little evidence of bumps and scrapes.

Xian: 9-12 Sep 2013

Pete at the Terracotta Warriors

Rach says:

Xian was more of a necessary stop-off for us on the 24 hour journey to Chengdu, rather than somewhere we particularly wanted to visit and we arrived feeling city-weary to a vast grey place of huge buildings in thick polluted bad weather. Apart from the vast city walls, it seemed not to have much to recommend it. We arrived at the hostel at 6am, exhausted from our 8 hour train journey in a hard seat, to be given the dirtiest stinking damp room in the

Pingyao: 6-8 Sep 2013

With Bo Li and Ang outside the walled town of Pingyao

Rach says:

We loved Pingyao! It's amazing. Like being in a kung-fu film according to Peter. I was wowed by the beautifully preserved ancient streets, courtyard houses with their maze-like layouts and the intricate details of the decorative tiles, wall carvings and elaborate Chinese script. The centre is ultra touristy and the streets are lined with restaurants, bars and shops (gorgeous bags and jewellery, along with some seriously gaudy tat, 'new antiques' and Mao

The Great Wall of China: Jinshanling to Simatai

Nicely paved and restored at the start of the walk...

Rach says:

An early highlight was our hike along the Great Wall. Such stunning scenery and just amazing to be standing on the Great Wall of China! We visited a less touristy and undeveloped part of the wall about 3 hours drive from Beijing and walked from Jinshanling to Simatai - 22 towers and approx 6 km. But it was not a walk in the park!!! The walk TO the wall was one of the worst bits as there was no breeze at all and my head started to feel weird so I had to stop

Beijing: 30 Aug - 6 Sep 2013

View over the Forbidden City from Jingshan Park

Rach says:

On 30th August 2013, 26 hours, 2 flights and a hair raising taxi ride after leaving our house, we arrived at our hostel, the Beijing Downtown Backpackers Accommodation.

On our first night, we explored the lively local 'hutongs' and found that it was real 'old Peking' with narrow alleyways to wander, bikes and rickshaws to dodge, and elderly people gathered outside playing cards and mahjong.

A bit of a catch up...

With the "Great Firewall of China" blocking our blog as if it was some sort of threat to the nation we were unable to post anything until we left the country, so we will have to do a massive summary of what we got up to in China now that we have reached Vietnam. (Vietnam also has internet censorship but it seems less restrictive.) Well it wouldn't be our blog unless it was just a little bit late in arriving!

Interestingly terms such as "Freedom", "Democracy", "Human Rights" and "Dictatorship" are all blocked by the Chinese government, as is all information on events like the Tiananmen Square Massacre, various politicians and dissidents and anything relating to Tibetan independence. We were also unable to access Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, news and blog websites and occasionally even Google...

Happy reading (we hope you've got some time on your hands!)

Love Pete & Rach x