More pictures of Eastern and Southern China

Hangzhou

Quanzhou

ShanghaiXiamen
HaikouLongji RiceterracesGuilin
Yangshuo

China's south: Hainan and Guangxi

I love China. It is the country where the woman behind the 'English speaking' counter on the train station doesn't speak English. It is the country where a 26 year old woman wears a pink 'hello kitty' t-shirt without feeling embarrassed. It is the country where a group of nicotine addicts lean against a 'no smoking' sign. It is the country with the largest population and probably the most peaceful and hard-working people in the world. It is, besides the Netherlands, the country where I spent most of my life and I keep coming back to it. Already the 6th time I am visiting this fascinating and diverse country and it definitely won't be my last visit. This is China and I love this country.

This sixth journey through China started in the city I called home for the past 4 month: Hong Kong. It was a few days before Christmas and I started to arrange some 'check-out procedures' at the Chinese University. I already knew that after I crossed the border to China, I couldn't come back to Hong Kong, as I didn't had enough space in my passport for a new Hong Kong student-stamp (that is a good reason ha?). So I really had to arrange everything before crossing the border. I finished my last geography paper, packed all my stuff, said goodbye to my friends and moved to a guesthouse in Causeway Bay. I picked up my father from the airport and we stayed a few days in Hong Kong, visiting its major tourist sites. We went up Victoria Peak for some skyline views, walked around in Tsim Sha Tsui and Central for some skyscrapers and I showed him around the Chinese University. As a day-trip we took a ferry to Cheung Chau island, which has a totally different atmosphere than the city. One of the things I liked most of Hong Kong is the diversity of its territory. Standing in the middle of one of Asia's largest cities, you can be laying on an empty beach with a view over beautiful islands within half an hour. Hong Kong is much more than just a city; it has a huge backyard full of islands, mountains, forests and villages. So my father Frans and I went to Cheung Chau, which is a small island just half an hour by ferry from Central Hong Kong. We hiked a bit around the island, stopped at a few nice viewpoints and temples and enjoyed a cold Tsingtao beer afterward.

Back in the city, on Christmas eve, Hong Kong was absolutely flooded with people. It seemed that all the 7 million inhabitants were out on the streets that evening. In the masses, I met some friends from CUHK and joined them for a few beers that evening. Next day, Christmas, we took the quick MTR to the Chinese border and went to Shenzhen's Bao'an Airport for our flight to Hainan Island.
So we flew to Haikou, the capital of Hainan province. We chose to visit Hainan, because my father doesn't really like large cities and we were in the mood of some nice beaches and high temperatures. Hainan is the logical location to go to, as it has a reputation of being China's own 'Hawaii'. The sandy coastline of the island is surrounded by palmtrees and it is one of China's main domestic tourist destinations. Besides Chinese tourists, the island is also extremely popular for Russian tourists. A Swiss tourguide told me, that the Russians in Hainan mostly come from Eastern Russia (Siberia and the Far East), because for them Hainan offers tropical beaches relatively close to Siberia. We would see loads of Russian tourists in Sanya, but more on that later.
After arriving in Haikou, we went to the city center with an airport bus and with a taxi driver we searched for a place called the Banana guesthouse. Unfortunately we couldn't find the place and we ended up in some sort of brothel hotel. We drank a few beers in an outdoor restaurant before trying to sleep with noises of a shaking bed in the room next to us. Next day we walked a bit around town, visiting Haikou's market area and a nice Confucian temple. Due to rainy weather we didn't see much more of the city besides a noodle shop and the temple, so we continued southwards to Sanya in the hope of better weather.
The southern side of Hainan turned out to be as cloudy and rainy as the north, so also in Sanya we couldn't really enjoy the beaches. The atmosphere in the area we stayed in was nice however, and fruit shakes, beach views and a Chinese woman singing in four different languages still made our stay worthwhile. Around the beach are really loads of Russian tourists and the streets are even filled with Russian shops, which made communication with the Chinese a bit easier for me as a lot of them speak Russian. During our stay we hang a bit around, talked to some travelers in the guesthouse and I met two friends from CUHK who were traveling in Hainan as well. Besides beaches and Russians, Sanya is also famous for its navy base, which is the largest and most important in China. A whole area of the city is closed off to visitors because of this base and when we walked past the main entrance, some military guys started shouting at us as apparently we walked too close to the main entrance.

However, after a few days relaxing in Sanya, we flew to Guilin in Guangxi province. Stepping out of the small airport, we were reminded of the fact that it was late December, as Guilin was much colder than Hainan. We made our way to the city and stayed in a very friendly hostel. The rest of the day we visited some of Guilin's famous hills. We climbed Fubo Hill for some views over the city and visited strangely shaped Elephant Hill. Guilin is one of China's most popular tourist destinations and famous for its unique scenery. The area is surrounded by the strange karst formations and therefore one of the country's mostly photographed sights. The idyllic Li river flows through Guilin and completes the picture.

We spent our remaining days in Guilin by strolling around the nice city and visiting some lakes, pagodas and more hills. During a walk in 'Solitary Beauty Park', we saw loads of Chinese tour groups, all wearing caps and following a guide who holds a colored flag. This typical scene of domestic tourists can be seen all over China actually, I think it is really funny to see and it reveals some elements of Chinese culture. I met some of those Chinese on top of a hill in the park, who asked me to be on a photo with them. Really funny to be on someone's photo without knowing them, also a typical China experience. After the park, my dad and I went to another highlight of Guilin: the Lude cave. Guilin's karst formations host lots of caves and Lude probably is the most beautiful. The cave is absolutely huge and well lit inside. In a side cave we visited a 1000 year old turtle, who is kind of worshiped, the animal is so old that he barely moves.

Back in the hostel we met a French guy, Stephane, and a British guy, Oliver, with whom we drunk some Tsingtao beers and enjoyed some conversation. The day after, which was 31st December, we went for a 'New Year's dinner' in a steak restaurant with Stephane and celebrated the changing of 2008 into 2009 in a local disco. The Chinese didn't really celebrate the New Year, because their lunar calendar marks the point of year-change usually in late January or early February. In Guilin, obviously the Chinese New Year is much more important than the Western New Year, so no firework unfortunately. I still enjoyed our little celebration however.

From Guilin we continued our journey to the city Longsheng, where we had a quick lunch and went up a steep mountain road to a village called Pa'an. The village is beautifully located in the middle of the Longji riceterraces and consists of traditional wooden houses. We walked a bit around the amazing rice terraces up to a few viewpoints. Although the terraces probably look much better in summer, spring or autumn, the views we had are still stunning. Pa'an village is, besides tourism, based on agriculture. Chicken, dogs, ducks and pigs walk along its narrow streets, which make the scene of this picturesque village complete. We stayed in a friendly wooden guesthouse, but as the temperature dropped during the night it got freezing cold there. Two thick blankets made me survive the weather and next day we hiked a bit more and hopped on a bus back to Guilin.

We stayed the night in Guilin, where we met Stephane and Oliver again and moved on to Yangshuo by bus the day after. Yangshuo is a small town one hour by car along the Li river from Guilin. I visited the town on my 2005 China trip and arguably the scenery around Yangshuo is more beautiful than Guilin, although it doesn't get the attention. We found a room in the 'Bamboo guesthouse', a place where I stayed 3,5 years ago as well, and we talked a bit with some Israelis that evening. Our first full day in Yangshuo we hired bicycles and cycled around the paddy field and the gorgeous karst scenery. The area along Li river is filled with sleepy villages, rough country roads, rice fields and buffaloes. The atmosphere is more relaxed than in Guilin, although also Yangshuo sees a lot of tourist folks. Next day, we made a boat trip on the Li river, together with a Swiss guy and a Isreali girl. The scenery again is absolutely beautiful; however I couldn't enjoy the boat ride fully due to the cold and windy weather. One point along the Li river is especially famous in China, because it is printed on the 20 Yuan banknote. With the boat we arrived in a small village and took a bus back to Yangshuo. The day after we traveled back to Guilin and my father flew to Shenzhen and went back home from Hong Kong.

Myself, I took a flight to Shanghai to visit some friends and I made a day trip to nearby Suzhou. I didn't do much in Shanghai, I hang a bit around meeting friends and I prepared myself for the next destination, Myanmar. The daytrip to Suzhou wasn't very productive either, although I still got a glimpse of the city's famous gardens. After those few relaxing days in Shanghai, I moved back southwards as I had a flight booked from Shenzhen. I booked a train ticket to the southern city Guangzhou, but unfortunately I had to spend the 17 hour ride in the lowest class: hard seat. All sleeper tickets were sold out, so the long journey to Guangzhou turned out to be a tough one. I strolled a bit around in Guangzhou and went on to Shenzhen. I finished this sixth China journey at Shenzhen's Bao'an airport, from where I flew to Bangkok.

The soul of modern China, a short journey along the East coast

December 5th, Hong Kong, China

It is 9.30 in the morning and I am standing in front of the 7-eleven next to the University metro station in Hong Kong. I haven't slept last night as I had to finish two geography papers. I drank the 5th cup of coffee since midnight and I met two of my fellow exchange students Hans and Theresa (both German). Together we went on Hong Kong's perfect MTR metro system to the border with Mainland China at Lo Hu. At the Chinese immigrations the border guard looked at my passport picture for quite a long time and then, while pointing at my picture, asked me: 'is this you?'. For a second I thought telling him: 'no its that Chinese guy over there, can't you see?'. But I kept my patience and said: 'yes, its me'. Than the border guard flicked through my passport and found my Hong Kong student visa. He asked me: 'are you a student?' After that long night of studying, I almost lost control and for a while I thought of telling him: 'no I am a terrorist who is going to make a suicide attack in your country'. But I stayed cool and said: 'yes I study in Hong Kong'. OK sir, welcome to China!

Shenzhen is a huge city directly after the border from Hong Kong. It is one of the 'Special Economic Zones', which basically means it consists of kilometers of factories and concrete buildings. I guess most people never heard of Shenzhen, but it actually is one of the largest cities in China, population wise it is with 8 million inhabitants even bigger than Hong Kong. For tourists there is nothing to see in Shenzhen really, but flying from Shenzhen's airport is cheap, that's why we went there. We catched our China Southern flight to Shanghai's Hongqiao airport and after arrival we took a bus to our remarkably nice hostel smack in the center of bustling Shanghai.
Next day I went with Hans and Theresa on a day trip to Hangzhou. From Shanghai we hopped on one of China's newly developed high-speed trains, which brought us to Hangzhou in less than 2 hours. This high-speed railway system is one sign of China's rapid modernization. Within the last ten years, a high-speed railway system has been built around Beijing-Tianjin, Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou and in the Pearl River Delta (around Guangzhou and Shenzhen). To compare, it took the Dutch government over 25 years to work on a high-speed railway track from Amsterdam to the Belgium border (which is less than 200km). Still it is not completely finished. Not to mention the reconstruction of Amsterdam's main railway station, which has been a construction site for the past 5 years and isn't finished yet.
Anyway, we arrived in Hangzhou, a large typical Chinese city and the capital of Zhejiang province. We met some of Hans' friends at Hangzhou's railway station and we strolled along Hangzhou's famous 'West Lake' (Xi Hu). The beautiful lake, the boats in the lake, the colors of the trees and the peaceful atmosphere made it a really nice walk and we rewarded ourselves with a nice lunch afterwards. In the afternoon we visited a tea plantation and hiked a bit up a hill for a view over the city. On the hill we saw a colorful Chinese wedding ceremony in a small temple. We warmed up a bit with coffee and went back to Shanghai.
Back in Shanghai I continued my search for China's modern soul. With the Germans I went to some of Shanghai's best clubs, where the newly rich and famous Chinese spend their Renminbi on expensive Tsingtao beers and cocktails. By coincidence I met Joanne outside a club at 3am in the night. Joanne is a Shanghainese woman who works for a PR-company. The very strange thing here is that I met her for the first time in Beijing .... 3 weeks before; the world is very small. The following days she would show me some more of what Shanghai is all about and I met lots of her friends.
The Germans left Shanghai a few days earlier than me, because I had to spend some extra days in an internetcafe in order to finish another geography paper. In the few hours I wasn't studying, I went into the Grand Hyatt hotel, one of the most expensive hotels in Shanghai. The reason was a to see Shanghai's impressive skyline from the rooftop lounge bar on the 32nd floor of the hotel. Modern China at it's best.
Completely different than Beijing, Shanghai really represents the modern soul of China. The open-mindness of the Shanghainese contrasts with the more traditional way of living in Beijing. The city is the economic heart of China, while Beijing has the role of being the political center in the country. The flip side of the coin is the enormous gap between rich and poor people, which is enormous in Shanghai compared with other Chinese cities. Dressed up in nice suits and driving around in new BMWs, Shanghai is home for the richest Chinese. On the other hand, the city is filled with beggars, prostitutes and a high number of poor workers from the countryside. The contrast between rich and poor or traditional and modern is nowhere in China as huge as in Shanghai. But that is exactly what makes it a very interesting metropolis. After 5 days already, I was a bit sad to leave the booming city, but I decided to continue my journey southwards.
Next day I met some guys in People's Park, who invited me for a traditional Chinese tea ceremony, which turned out to be very nice. Afterward I rushed to the bus station to catch my relaxing sleeper to Quanzhou, 15 hours south of Shanghai in Fujian province. I arrived early in the morning and went to the city center on the back of a motorbike. I found myself some baozi for breakfast and strolled around the city. Quanzhou is for Chinese standards not a large city (population over 2 million....), but had historical importance in the time of the maritime silk road. In the days of Arabian traders, Quanzhou was one of the most important ports in the world and the Arab influence is still visible today in Quanzhou's large Muslim community and heritage. I visited the main mosque and strolled a bit through the old streets of the city. The chaotic streets of Quanzhou are filled with motorbikes, scooters and bicycles, which suit the subtropical climate of Fujian province. My walk brought me past some traditional houses to a temple with two beautiful pagodas. The area is surrounded by a park and made a worthwhile stop.
After several hours of sightseeing in Quanzhou, I hopped on a bus to one of China's major coastal cities, Xiamen. Like Quanzhou, also Xiamen is an important historical port, especially during the time of European trade when the city was called Amoy. Today, Xiamen still is one of China's major port cities, especially because it is (like Shenzhen) a Special Economic Zone. During my stay in Xiamen I went for a day to Gulangyu Island, which is just a 10 minute ferry ride away. The island had been a European enclave since the treaty of Nanking in 1842 and this is visible in the numerous European style buildings on the island. Walking on Gulangyu feels a bit like being in a mass of Chinese tourists somewhere in Portugal, as the island really looks like a Mediterranean town in Europe. I climbed a large rock in the middle of the island for a view over the Taiwan strait on one side and Xiamen city on the other. Afterwards I enjoyed a coconut on the subtropical beach and took a ferry to the city. Back in Xiamen I walked a bit around in the old part of the city and went to my hostel to get my backpacks. I walked to the bus station and catched a bumpy sleeper bus to Shenzhen, from where I crossed the Hong Kong immigrations.
In conclusion of this journey, all the cities I visited (probably with the exception of Quanzhou) are very much representing modern China. Skylines filled with flashy skyscrapers and the newly rich consuming their hardly earned Renminbi, it is very evident in China's eastern cities. On the other hand, the differences between rich and poor are much more vast here than in the West of the country. Totally different than agricultural based Western China, the East coast very much represents the ambitions of modernization. And Shanghai undoubtedly is the pearl of it.

A glimpse of Kim's Juche dreamstate - part 2

After a long karaoke night in our rocket-shaped hotel, we went next morning to the 'International Friendship Exhibition hall', which is also located in Mount Myohyang area. This exhibition hall consists of two huge palaces which display all the gifts to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il from other countries. The presents to Dear and Great Leader are mostly from (former) socialist states like Cuba, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, etc. but still the site is impressive. Especially the exhibition hall of Kim Il Sung is absolutely huge with over 200 rooms. On the balcony we drank a nice coffee from where with had a beautiful view over the mountains.
From the Friendship Exhibition Hall we drove towards the mountains for a short hike in North Korea's nature. The paths were surprisingly well marked and the steep hike uphill brought us some nice views. The cold November weather made me appreciate the nice lunch back in the hotel and afterwards we drove back to Pyongyang.
Back in the capital city we visited the planetarium of 'Three revolution exhibition', which showed us some Cold War stuff. It was interesting to hear our guide speak about North Korea's satellite Pyongyang-1 and she explained us some things about the planet system. The next stop on our tour was more interesting to me however. We visited the 'Fatherland Liberation War Museum', which (obviously) shows the Korean war from their perspective. The Americans are named 'US imperialist aggressors' and South Korea a 'puppet state'. What mostly impressed me is how alive the Japanese invasion of Korea in the 1930 still is in North Korea. While South Koreans live their life without caring to much about history, North Korea is pretty much stuck in their own interpretation of history. What North Koreans basically want is apologies from Japan and the US for invading the Korean peninsula. And walking around in the war museum really gives them good arguments to demand so. North Korea still sees the US military presence in South Korea as 'invasion', therefore they call South Korea a puppet state.

The creation of the European Union and the numerous apologies of Germany to the rest of the world brought stability in Europe and generally speaking most Europeans don't really judge Germany on their Nazi past. In East Asia things are very different as Japan never formally apologized for their cruelties in the first half of the 20th century. Although the average Chinese or South Korean people don't really seem to care much about it, like I mentioned, in North Korea it is very important.

On the other hand it is interesting that North Korea views itself as 'winner' of the Korean War in the 1950s (1950-1953). The material displayed in the museum suggests that Kim Il Sung almost solely beat the Japanese and Americans, but in reality (at least what I learned during history class) the military support from the Soviet Union and China brought the American army back to the 38th parallel. Concluding this history discussion, in my opinion both sides have strong arguments and I believe it is simply wrong to judge complicated wars like this one only by reading western history books. To me it was very interesting to hear the North Korean point of view, despite that they have different 'facts' and a bit naive way of displaying history.

After a hard topic like this, we visited an English language bookstore and we went to a bowling hall afterwards. It seems a bit strange to visit a bowling place during a tour through North Korea, but actually it was really nice to see how normal (read: wealthy) people enjoy themselves. We played a round of bowling and had dinner in a very good hot pot restaurant. Back in the hotel I played some games at the pool table.

Already the fourth day in North Korea started with a bus journey to Panmunjom, a small village in the Demilitarized Zone (the border with South Korea). The road towards Seoul is remarkably empty, it is a huge highway, but very few cars make use of it. On the way we passed some checkpoints and we stopped for coffee in a highway restaurant (we were obviously the only customers). The scenery on the way brought us a glimpse of North Korean countryside.

In Panmunjom we visited some meeting places where the US and North Koreans negotiated back in the 50s. Our guide (a soldier of the DPRK army) showed us the heavily guarded and fortified Demilitarized Zone (which ironically is one of the most heavily armed places in the world) and marched us at the actual border with South Korea. At the border we were able to visit one of the UN-blue colored negotiation buildings and I formally stand 2 meters in South Korea (inside the building). From a viewing platform we were looking straight at South Korea and we could see two huge flags weaving on each side. The flagpole with the North Korean flag is the largest in the world. This fact might explain a bit of the tensions I could feel at the Demilitarized Zone. Unfortunately I couldn't spot any South Korean soldier, but sometimes the North and South Korean soldiers are facing each other while guarding their side of the peninsula.

Back out of the Demilitarized Zone we visited the city of Kaesong, 15 kilometers back on the road to Pyongyang. In Kaesong we had lunch in a traditional restaurant, my lunch consisting of kimji (hope I spelled correctly) and dog soup (!). Korea is famous for its dog soups and although the thought wasn't so nice, the soup tasted really good. It has some spices and especially the cold winter day (the meter recorded -5 that morning) made me appreciate it a lot. After lunch we made a quick picture of a statue of Kim Il Sung and we drove back to Pyongyang.

Although this was the last full day in Korea, we still had some sights to visit. The first one is the reunification monument, again a huge monument dedicated to North Korea's wish of reunifying with the South. After that we drove to the Victorious Liberation War Monument, which has some decorations about soldiers during the Korean War. At the monument I spotted a group of young people marching passed us with a large red-colored flag.

The last stop of our tour perhaps is the most impressive one, the School Children's Palace. Inside we saw amazing performances by children who study instruments, sports or art. What they do is basically practising all day with enormous discipline. Some play ping pong, others learn to play piano and others practise calligraphy. At the end we went to an amazingly choreographed show with dancers and singers (all children up to 12 years or so). It is hard to describe their abilities, therefore a small video below (not the main performance). At the end of the show we gave some flowers and a crowd of kids weaved us enthusiastically goodbye.

We finished the North Korea 'winter tour' in a duck restaurant and a karaoke hall. Our guides from Koryo Tours Nick, Simon and Hannah proved that they all have been living in East Asia for a while with their singing skills and it was a nice last night in Pyongyang.

The next cold morning (again around -5) I said our lovely guides goodbye and hopped on the train back to Beijing. The 5 hour ride to the border gave me an impression of Korean life in the countryside, although I couldn't save a lot of that pictures, because the DPRK border guards deleted some on my camera at Dandong border. Back in China I stayed a few more days in Beijing, finishing a paper in the hostel. And I went to the Great Wall at Badaling together with a Swedish guy Fredrik, who was on the North Korea trip as well, before taking a train back to Hong Kong.