Day two in Beijing took in a few more random sights. First up was a trip to the Lama Temple, the most famous Tibetan temple outside of Tibet. The way my itinerary was looking, I figured this was about as close to Tibet as I was going to get this summer. It was quite a cool place, and had a huge carved wood standing Buddha inside the rearmost hall. Quite impressive, and apparently carved out of a single piece of sandalwood. Apparently anyway. Every fact was off-set with the get-out clause 'It could be said that...', which I reckon is code for couldn't-be-arsed-to-find-out.
It was interesting to see all the signs in dual languages though. I'd never seen written Tibetan before, and it surprised me how obvious its affinity to Indian script is than to anything more typically Chinese. Very interesting.
Following the Lama Temple we wandered the Hutongs, the little alleyways of grey brick single-storey buildings that used to dominate Beijing and now fill in the remaining gaps between the construction projects and new-builds. It seemed strange that people would be living right in the centre of the capital in much the same conditions as they did in Lanshan, even worse in many cases - with public toilet blocks being the rule. It was however encouraging that real people still live in this area, and that it's not some lifeless mass of business and commerce. Guide books rave about the Hutongs and men in rickshaws shout 'Hello Hutong!' at you on every corner, trying to entice you to take a tour, but I really didn't see the attraction. Seemingly each and every one is signposted off the main roads but walking down some of them, all that remained was the streetplan, the buildings themselves long ago having been swept away for development or replaced with cheap mock-ups. It's like advertising your losses.
We found our way out of the maze to discover Beijing's Drum and Bell Towers. Many towns used to possess these and they were used in quite a complicated way to tell the time. The Drum Tower was the oldest, about 700 years old, and contained some reproduction drums, the originals all having been smashed in a rebellion some hundred years ago or so. It also had an ancient water clock with a little man that banged his cymbals together every 15 minutes. I'd imagined it'd be all manic like the duracell bunny, but was much less amusing in reality...
The Bell Tower was rebuilt a few hundred years ago, and had a big bell in it. It was about as exciting as that last sentence.
There is a little bit of the old city walls still standing in one corner of the city and we decided to finish off the day by taking a look. The taxi driver we tried to get to take us refused because it was 'too far', so dropped us off at the subway station back up by the Lama Temple, in the opposite direction. I worry for this city, I really do.
The wall was quite good really and had a restored corner defence tower with an art exhibtion inside. If we hadn't been charged an unbelievable 40 yuan for two cokes at a crap cafe in the nearby park I'd have said it was a pretty good.
We didn't try to do anything exciting that evening. Our experience the night before was enough to convince us we really shouldn't try anymore. We'd tried to find some kind of entertainment and came across a 'club' that had a song and dance show on. Whatever, we walked in and sat down. The song and dance show was absolutely hilarious. Two of the dancers obviously hadn't taken part before and were trying their best to follow the others and keep up. One was enjoying the ridiculous futility of it as much as we were but the other, bless her, was concentrating as hard as she could, while still being a full two moves behind everyone else. It was great.
To be fair it was a Monday night, so we weren't expecting much, but the place was still reasonably busy, so after the dancers had finished and sat down at the front we still ordered another drink. And so we sat for a while. Something in the back of my mind hadn't quite been right since we'd been there. For a start there were too many doors in the corridor down to the toilets. I thought they may have been KTV rooms, but my worst fears were realised when the boss came out from behind the bar, clapped his hands three times and all of the girls sat around us in the bar stood up and formed an orderly queue beside one of the doors, where a man with a very big smile on his face was waiting patiently. We looked around us and besides the dancers sat in one corner realised to our horror that we were the only people in this bar who were not on the pay-roll!! We finished up our drinks and left quickly. What is it with this country?! I just want a good clean night out. Is that so hard to find?!!
After running around caves in the rain in Henan I took a fast train up to Beijing ready to welcome my mate Russell to the country on July 16th.
With Russell collected from the airport, we went exploring. Not too far away from our hostel was Tiananmen Square. It certainly is a big old square and the haze from the pollution almost prevented you seeing from one end to the other. At one end is the famous Gate of Heavenly Peace, hung with Mao's portrait, while at the other end is the Front Gate, a relic of the old city walls. In between, severely disrupting the flow of energy according to Feng Shui (not just an interior designer's whimsy - the Chinese take this seriously), is Mr Mao's Mausoleum. Unfortunately Mr Mao was under repair when we were there so we couldn't see him in the formaldehyded flesh. There are other things to see there though, and once we'd shaken off the hustlers who wanted to take us to a 'tea ceremony' (and then charge us 4000 yuan afterwards) or to a student art exhibition so we could 'give some advice' (like what, eh? - Try lighter brush strokes? Stay away from Cubism? Watercolour is for wimps?! Use more black?!!) we were free to take a couple of pictures and wander off for dinner, which of course was Peking Duck.
Deciding that the best cure for jetlag is beer, and seeing as we had a lot to catch up on, we later tried to find a bar. I'd looked up a decent one in my guide and set off to try and find it. Beijing is of course host of the Olympics in 2008, and the whole country is about ready to burst with pride and excitement about that fact. One of the consequences for Beijing is that the entire city is being rebuilt. Small stores near the central areas are having fake traditional fronts tacked onto them in an attempt to recreate the traditional, low-rise alley-way housing 'Hutong' atmosphere that is being lost elsewhere as these grubbier areas are simultaneously being torn down or replaced. This all makes trying to find anything a very tricky task indeed.
It is enormous. We spent the entire day there and hours had passed before we'd even made it past the complex of gateways and outer courtyards to the palace proper. The buildings were masterpieces in red and gold. I've seen a lot of Chinese traditional architecture, but they really do take first prize.
Not so many interiors were open for view, but the ones that we did see were pretty lavish. We'd hired an audio guide to share between us that gave quite a lot of much needed information and insight, though sometimes it was a little too much to relay between whoever was listening at the time and whoever was not. As a fully automatic guide it was a bit surreal. You'd be walking along quite happily, chatting away when quite suddenly without warning the voices would start talking to you. It was funny to watch as the wearer would stop mid-conversation and turn to look at something, the eyes glazing over in concentration before beginning to relay the most obscure information like they were channelling some psychic waves. 
A lot of the complex had undergone renovation, or was in the middle of it. It was unfortuate for us that the most impressive hall of all, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, had it's turn during our visit and was hidden from view. No matter, there was still plenty else to look at and we by no means saw it all. Whatever you want to say about Beijing, it's taxis, the dodgy nightlife, the pollution..., you cannot deny that it has the best selection of attractions. The Forbidden City was just the first, but in my opinon, the best.
Luoyang was capital of China from around 500AD to about a thousand years ago, when the capital moved to Kaifeng. In those days Buddhism was the national religion and the emperors and wealthy classes were devout in their religion, building huge complexes of caves containing rich carvings of Buddhas and associated figures wherever they went. Longmen is one of the top three Buddhist cave complexes in China, and was the first of the three that I visited.
Unfortunately it rained the whole time, but dodging past the umbrellas I managed to get a good look and take some decent photos. There were literally hundreds of caves, of all sizes. A lot of the sculptures were in pretty bad shape, having been exposed to the elements for so long. Others had been plundered in the past and had had their heads lopped off and whole lengths of carvings cut away. But some were still in good condition and odd well-sheltered ones still had original paint inside. A rainy morning well spent.
After my fun on Huangshan, the next day was a day for travelling. Two very long bus rides starting at 7am and ending at 2am left me in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province. Not a huge amount in Zhengzhou to do really, but the nearby attractions in Kaifeng and Luoyang promised to be worthwhile visiting, both being ancient centres for Chinese civilisation and previous capitals of the country.
The second tower was down some back alley in a scruffy part of town, but is the oldest in Kaifeng, and more than 1000 years old in itself. Following a pretty devastating earthquake way back in the past there're only two storeys remaining, but what is left is very, very cool. The whole thing is covered inside and out in moulded bricks depicting images of different Buddhist figures. There are dozens of different figures and I spent ages looking around for all of them. These two towers redeemed Kaifeng slightly for me, but I would still rather have spent a bit more time in Luoyang instead.
Leaving Wuyuan I caught a bus across the provincial border to Anhui and nearby Huangshan. This is one of the most famous mountains in China and translates as Yellow Mountain. Coming from Lanshan (Blue Mountain) it's like I'm visiting all the colourful mountains of the world. There has to be a red and green mountain out here somewhere. I'll find them someday...
A little while ago, when I was still on a quest to visit every province in China, I was not coming up with much for Anhui. It's a poor province, often hit by flooding (it is at the moment), that really does not feature on the tourist trail, with the exception of one place - Huangshan. In theory I'm not much of a hiker or climber or desolate wilderness kinda man, and I did wonder if I really ought to be coming here to climb a mountain in the first place. I thought of skipping it, but it was so close to Wuyuan and so different from all the other planned destinations I had on the agenda so I gave it a go. I am so glad I did. My God it was absolutely amazing.
I went up the cable car as originally planned and had the most amazing views. Definitely chose the right side to ascend, and even if I didn't see that sunrise I still saw how the cloud-filled valley resembled an ocean with the craggy peaks jutting through the surface like islands in the sea. Pretty cool. The area that dropped us off at was in my opinion the most stunning of all and, at that point, still fairly quiet. I knew that Huangshan was a major tourist spot among the Chinese, and that all Chinese absolutely love mountains in general, but I was not quite prepared for what I saw a little further along. As I approached the central part of the route the empty paths began to fill until they were absolutely jammed full of tourists. You could barely move. It was crazy. So many tour groups in their coloured hats following their flag-waving guides - this is China in tourist mode.
Still, if you tried a little and pushed to the edge of the pathways and fences, the views were still as immense and unspoilt as to make you feel that you really were alone up there. Prices for food and drink up there on the summit were extortionate, but I soon found out why. Everything is brought up there by hand. Along the way we (I was adopted by a family from Shandong and shown the way) passed several men carrying poles slung across their back balanced by crates of beer and water or baskets of fruit and vegetables. Back in Lanshan I would wonder just how people could carry around such heavy loads this way, and now here they were, climbing up stone steps to a height of around 1500 metres fully laden. That is impressive.
The highest peak was under repair, so I couldn't climb all the way to the top, but that really wasn't a problem... Trust me. I was up there for the best part of 8 hours walking, and in an attempt to find some further peace, decided to walk down instead of take another cable car. Worth it, but peace was still not there to be found. Still, I had a fantastic time and slept very well that night.
So we went back to some of the houses and I learnt a bit more about the history of the place - how most of the larger houses were built by rich merchants and imperial officials a few hundred years ago and that others acted as holding pens for local virgins. Young girls in this town were not allowed outside until they were married and instead were kept together in houses where they learnt useful things like sewing and whatnot. They were restricted to the first floor and their only window on the world was from balconies such as the one below.
It was a nice little place but soon we moved on to the next destination. We got off first by a pretty little bridge and walked up a small path to the 'upside-down tree'. This is pretty much what it says it is, and can be seen in the middle of the second picture below, but the how and the why eluded me so it's still a bit of a mystery I'm afraid. The one thing that made sense is that it's old. Very, very old. A lot of the trees in this area are around the 1000 year old mark and it was while here that I realised just how much I missed trees. Lanshan had suffered badly from deforestation but this place was untouched and reminded me so much of home.
After that short stop we got back on the bike and drove a little further up the valley to another village. After passing a water buffalo doing what water buffaloes do best, we began walking up along the little stream further up the steepening valley and into the mountain. I'm not really sure where this was exactly, my guide called it Wuqi Shan, which translates (literally) as 'five-seven mountain', but it was a highlight amongst highlights.
Along the way up the stream we met another local guide who was walking with two Chinese women, from Shanghai and Zhengzhou. They were friendly and spoke a little English too. It was good to spend a little time with some other people so we all agreed to eat lunch together at another local's house. The hightlight of the meal was a ten-year-old fish from one of the village's fishponds. The house-owner went and caught it there and then and weighed it in front of us while it was still alive to give us a price. The live fish was then placed on a block in the courtyard and to my horror the wife picked up a heavy cleaver, turned it over and with the blunt edge began to hack at the fish's side, scraping the edge back against the grain causing scales to fly everywhere. When the fish put up a struggle and began to flap about a bit, instead of whacking it over the head she just chopped into it's tail, not quite all the way through, flexed the two sections back a bit, turned it over and began to hack away again. At this point I went inside. I realised afterwards that they didn't kill it by a blow to the head as the head is (as per usual) the most prized portion of the fish, and any damage would really affect the quality of the dish. I realised also that all fish I've eaten must have been prepared in exactly the same way and effectively cooked alive. I am now sworn off fish.
Apart from that little episode lunch was enjoyable and the other dishes quite delicious! Leaving the two women behind my guide began our drive back towards Wuyuan, stopping by a few places along the way. The water here is as clean as anything you're going to get in China, and although I refused an offer to go swimming, I did take a chance of a trip on a fisherman's little log raft. I managed to take one or two pictures but what you don't see is me crouched down as low as possible in the middle of this narrow little raft trying hard not to move for fear of tipping the thing over or for getting my feet even wetter aas the leading edge dipped down into the river. An experience... 
Next was the Rainbow Bridge near Qinghua but this was a big disappointment. It was a tourist trap with the actual bridge shielded from sight and behind a complex of shops selling the usual tourist tat. It took all my time just trying to find a spot where the fleet of bamboo tourist rafts and orange lifejackets was hidden from view to take a good photo. This was it. And then we left. Knowing that some areas had been commandeered in this way by the tourist industry really made me quite angry. This place is so beautiful and serene. Partitioning it off from it's landscape and importing in a load of ridiculous 'local speciality' stores and hecklers really spoils things. This kind of exploitation seems to be what the Chinese do best. 
Last village of the day was Hongcun, I think, but I'm not sure anymore. It was much of the same but still worth the trip. Outside many of the houses the villagers were drying leaves that would later be used to make Zongzi, small triangular parcels filled with sticky rice and beans or peanuts, and eaten mostly around the dragon-boat festival in May. That was interesting.
From there it was a long bike ride back to Wuyuan town, where I spent the night. The town was nothing special, but a nice relaxed place to chill and catch up with emails etc.
