Tomorrow we take off for yet another trip to China. We plan to combine it with a visit to Myanmar. We hope to go overland but this is increasingly looking impossible.

Our plan is to visit Beijing and then take the train to Kunming.

From Kunming we’ll try to get to a number of places in Yunnan, including: Heijing,Yunlong & Nuodeng, The Nujiang Valley,Tongcheng and around, Ruili (if it is possible to cross into Myanmar).

We still have a lot of material pending to put up on the blog, which we’ll do in October. I am not sure how much we can put up while we are on the road.

Tags: Travel, Uncategorized // Add Comment »

Xingyi 兴义

Whether you are leaving Guizhou Province from the West, or entering it from Eastern Yunnan, you’ll probably end up passing through Xingyi (see Map), a small town undergoing rapid development. To be honest, Xingyi is not the prettiest of towns, though we didn’t find it quite as grim as it was depicted in our guidebook. It is true that the town is entirely lacking in sights and has lost all its old neighbourhoods to the rampant white-tile and concrete construction that continues to proliferate in China. However, it’s a pretty laid- back place and its major sight, the Maling Gorge, just a few kilometres out of town and easy to reach, is truly spectacular.

Locals also recommend visiting nearby Fenghuang Shan (Phoenix Mountain 凤凰山), which they claim is another natural wonder not to be missed. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to check this out.
We arrived in Xingyi on a bus from Anshun 安顺. The journey took around six hours and passes through some of the most dramatic limestone scenery you are likely to see.

As in the rest of China, rapid changes are underway even in this remote corner of the country. The future cross-China East to West Highway, currently in the initial phases of construction, will eventually pass close to Xingyi. For the moment, it’s giving China’s civil engineers and [Read more →]

Tags: Guizhou Province, Travel // 3 Comments »

汉语 Chino

Cursos de Chino en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid

CURSOS INTENSIVOS DE 60 HORAS
DEL 5 AL 23 de JULIO

MATRÍCULA HASTA EL 25 DE JUNIO

MATRÍCULA: CENTRO SUPERIOR DE IDIOMAS MODERNOS
C/ Donoso Cortés, 63 – pl. baja
Horarios: lunes a viernes: 9.00 a 15.00 h
Para matrícula online consulten: www.ucm.es/info/idiomas
PRECIO: 256 € (alumnos y personal UCM) / 366 €
Consultar la página Web para otros descuentos.

INFORMACIÓN: www.ucm.es/info/idiomas

E-MAIL: csim@rect.ucm.es

TEL.: 91.394.64.41 / 25.21

CURSOS DE VERANO – JULIO 2010
UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID

NO SE PRECISA SER UNIVERSITARIO

CENTRO SUPERIOR DE IDIOMAS MODERNOS
CURSOS INTENSIVOS DE 60 HORAS
DEL 5 AL 23 de JULIO
De lunes a viernes: mañana (9:30 – 14:00)

NIVEL: INTRODUCCIÓN I
RECONOCIMIENTO CRÉDITOS
DE LIBRE ELECCIÓN DE LA UCM

Haz click aqui para ver el cartel:POSTER CIV CHINO 2010

Tags: Culture, Curiosities of Chinese // Add Comment »

Ciqikou Ancient Town

One of the easiest places you can get to from Chongqing is Ciqikou, a traditional village of late-Ming dynasty houses, set on the shores of the Jialing River, about 10 kms from downtown Chongqing.

As we approach Ciqikou, and comment excitedly on the many traditional dark wood and white plaster houses we can see, our taxi driver shrugs his shoulders and says: “Still so many old houses, but what can you do?”.

When Adam tells him there are a lot of old houses in London too, he asks incredulously: “Why? Is London not developed then?”
Ciqikou’s main drag promises to be the usual [Read more →]

Tags: Chongqing Province, Travel // 1 Comment »

Chongqing – August 2009

Chongqing at Night

A smooth two-and-a-half- hour train ride has taken us from Chengdu to Chongqing. As our taxi emerges from the modern station building we are amazed at the panorama in front of us: we can see a labyrinth of motorways and overpasses and a whole forest of gleaming tower blocks.

Chongqing at Dusk

Nothing we even remotely remember from our previous visit in 1991; that time we arrived in Chongqing by boat, all the way from Shanghai. Though we didn’t stay long, we did like the city. We still have fond memories of its steep, stepped streets, its colourful vegetable markets which invaded all the pavements, and its plucky women, defying the grey winter weather with their vivid outfits.

A Street Market in Central Chongqing 1991

This time, we will retrace our steps and leave Chongqing by boat, going downriver as far as Yichang, to check out the changes the Yangzi has undergone since the construction of the controversial Dam. But first, we’re planning to have a good look at the city itself.

The Green Fields in the picture are now the major highway along the Jialing River

Surprisingly, given the immense size of the city, the traffic is smooth. In fact, there are hardly any cars on the brand-new multi-lane motorways. In no time at all our taxi driver drops us at the Number Nine Hotel, conveniently located in downtown Jiefangbei district, close to the place where the cruise ships dock.

A bit of sightseeing

The Guildhall's Fantastic Eave Roofs

After a clean-up, we venture out into the scorching hot streets of Chongqing and head for its number one attraction: the Huguang Guild Hall. To our surprise, [Read more →]

Tags: Chongqing Province, Travel // 2 Comments »

Visiting Yellow Mountain ( Huangshan 黄山)
August 30 2001

The Slow train to Hefei was indeed slow. We left had Chengdu on the 28th of August some 47 hours earlier.

Hefei station was modern but had a sleazy feel to it at night. We immediately got hassled by a guy about taxis and hotels. Adam decided to enquire about tickets first – the hassle guy followed – I was watching him / and Adam’s money belt like a hawk. Next thing you know, Adam has bought 2 hard – sleeper tickets on a night train to Tunxi – now renamed Huangshan City: our third consecutive night on a train without a proper wash or a change of clothes! A record.

A friendly young man who studies in Chengdu helps us find our waiting room: there are several beggars and peasants who really stare at us and make comments. This is the first time it has happened on this trip.

We seem to have the only 2 free berths on this packed train which is going all the way to Xiamen. They are uppers unfortunately, [Read more →]

Tags: Anhui Province, From Our Diary // Add Comment »

Luodai Old Town

The ancient town of Luodai near the teeming Sichuan capital of Chengdu is a curious place: when one thinks of the Hakka people (Kejia in Chinese, or ‘guests’, also known as China’s gypsies) the first thing that comes to mind are the amazing round or square earth buildings, the Tulou, of Fujian and Jiangxi. Other Hakka claims to fame are the Taiping rebellion, or the Hokien cuisine, which is found in many South East Asian countries.

Hakka Tulou Fujian 客家土楼福建省

What doesn’t normally spring to mind is an impressive collection of Hakka guildhalls in a far- off small town in Sichuan! But that is exactly what Luodai is all about and why I had always wanted to go there.

The Hakka, originally from Hubei Province, suffered discrimination and persecution, and were forced to disperse; [Read more →]

Tags: Sichuan Province // 1 Comment »

Khampa man in Kangding 2004

Faces of Kangding 康定 (2004)

In 2004, having just returned to Kangding from Danba, we were lucky enough to stumble upon a one-off festival aimed at celebrating Tibetan Kham culture and promoting tourism in Western-Sichuan. The streets of Kangding were jammed packed with proud-swaggering Khampas, dressed up to the hilt in their finest clothes. One could easily have imagined that the entire population of these once warrior nomads, had rolled into town off the grasslands. And like in the wild-west of old, many had come in on horseback.

With so much going on, nobody paid much attention to me as I used up roll after roll of film. Kangding has changed and modernised radically since these photos were taken, so I hope you enjoy them. It was a magic moment.

Tags: Culture, Sichuan Province, Travel // Add Comment »

(The end of our route:  Xining 西宁 to Chengdu 成都 2009)

Our Route 2009

Leg One: Ganzi to Kangding

Tired and groggy after a week of sleepless nights due to altitude sickness, I stumbled out of the hotel and we walked into the adjacent bus station. We were taking the bus straight to Kangding as, apparently, Ma’erkang was closed to foreigners. Anyway, I don’t think Margie would have put up much longer with my hallucinations and the incoherent gibberish that I was producing every night. At last, we were heading down and off the Tibetan plateau.

Ganzi Old Town

Five years before, we had done the whole ride from Ganzi to Chengdu in 17 interminable hours on a smoke- filled bus, while witnessing at least 5 fatal accidents and nearly being involved in one ourselves. So, we had decided never to do it again. We thought that by breaking up the journey, it would be smoother and less painful; little did we know what had happened to the road.

Our broken down bus 2004

Most roads in China have improved over the years, but the Chengdu-Tibet highway has actually got worse, for now at least. Admittedly, [Read more →]

Tags: Sichuan Province, Travel // 1 Comment »

Tibetan Monks In central Yushu 2009

Reading foreign news reports about the Yushu earthquake, it was clear that large numbers of Tibetan monks had participated in the rescue efforts in the aftermath of the disaster. If, however, you had only relied on the Chinese state media, you would never have known they were there. In a classic case of Communist style photo-shopping that would make Mao proud, the Tibetan monks have been airbrushed from the picture. In the Chinese media, you can only see Han Chinese rescue workers and the Peoples’ Army, rescuing hapless and grateful Tibetans from the ruins.

To add insult to injury, the government is now actually ordering the monks out of Yushu, for fear that these burgundy-clad heroes might become too popular in an area where 97% of the population is ethnically Tibetan. Most of the monks have come from the neighbouring province of Sichuan, from the huge monasteries of Serxu/Serchul and those around Ganzi. These monasteries are known for their devotion to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Something we witnessed last year.

Yushu Main Street 2009

The pity is that the earthquake might have served to bring about a better understanding between the Han Chinese and the Tibetans. Instead, most Chinese will never know that the monks where there helping, and the Tibetans will again feel that the Chinese are now going to move in and control the area even more tightly than before.

There have been very few personal accounts of the tragedy in Yushu. But Losang, the creator of the Land of Snows Website, has written a first- hand account of how he and his family were caught in the earthquake.

Click here: http://kekexili.typepad.com/life_on_the_tibetan_plate/

Tags: Qinghai Province, news // 3 Comments »