A flavour of the Orient
Rai & Stephie in Asia

I think Raimon needs a beard trim!

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After ~5 months on the road we had arrived in China, the most populous nation in the world with 1.4 billion people within an area of 9.6 million square kilometres, the fourth largest country in the world. China is really full of people especially in the more industrialised southern and eastern margins of the country....you only have to look at the queues outside the main train stations...huge swarms of eager travellers pushing their way through the tight  security controls to get onto the hundreds of trains that leave 24 hours a day to every corner of China. And if you are Rai and Stephie who speak no chinese then buying a train ticket at a station in China can be no easy thing!

Comparing it to other countries we have visited on this trip, China is like a more civilised and cleaner version of India minus the continuous spitting...one of China's favourite pastime, especially among the men. They even like to spit inside a restaurant, on the bus, next to your sleeper bed..just about everywhere !  

Food in China is delicious....from the hot pot sessions to the street stalls where you point to the veggies and they do a wonderful stir fry in 30 seconds; from the local dumpling joints found along the hutong lanes of Beijing to the amazing Crispy duck; from the noodles to the more bizarre adventurous dishes. Take for example our last lunch of 2011. We ordered the strangest looking fish dish on the menu which had as translation " East Lakes Seethes with excitement the wild murrel" (see photo). Within minutes we felt a strong tingling sensation on our lips and tongue followed by numbness...it lasted for more than one hour...and we were paying for this!? Great stuff!

Our journey through China took us initially from the flashy skyscrapers and hectic dim sum breakfasts of Hong Kong to the bustling seaside city of Xiamen in SE China with its colonial charm, early morning parks full of tai-chi practitioners and enormous sea clams and snails for Rai to dig into !

With Christmas fast approaching we headed further up the coast to the fabolous metropolis of Shanghai, another city in China with an impressive historical as well as modern skyline. We were staying with friends in a nice appartment in the financial district of Pudong,  overlooking the "bottle opener", China's tallest building - a welcome break from hostels, shared bathrooms and noisy neighbours !  After taking it far to easy for nearly a week on yummy food, wine, siestas, art galleries, strolls in the park, we took the train to the middle reaches of the Yellow River (central China) where we celebrated new years with chinese red wine and Snickers (a lovely combination) in one of China's ancient capitals: Kaifeng. Unfortunately the city has lost most of its original appearance with the majority of its historical buildings having either been knocked down or replaced by white bathroom tiled appartment blocks or even worse made into a theme park ! 

The China National Tourism Authority love their theme parks....What's the point of having a beautiful 11th century iron pagoda surrounded by huge plastic birds attached to a living tree and some ridiculous pleasure boats floating in the nearby lake or adding life size green dinosaurs along a nice meandering river in the mountains ! It's completely unnecessary!

Visiting China in winter (but before the Chinese spring festival) has been a blessing in disguise providing you are not planning on a beach holiday! Yes it's cold but the big bonus is that it is empty of tourists as we discovered when we headed to the beautiful Huixian mountain ranges and the very peaceful village of Guoliangcun for some light trekking. The jacket, gloves and scarf that we had used in the Himalayas were however back on. Further north and getting closer to Beijing we froze as we cycled through the lovely alleyways of the beautifully preserved fortified town of Pingyao. In summer the place is swarming with backpackers. The town in winter felt like it was reserved for the locals, Stephie, Rai and some angry dogs. The Great wall was another highlight...we were smart on choosing a less well known section of the wall but had no idea we wouldn't meet a single soul ! Noooow if you really want to experience cold temperatures then the best place on our journey was Harbin in North Eastern China and the exotic, fairy-tale Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. A very cool minus 20-25 degrees! With Harbin lying in close proximity to Russia,  vodka is readily available in case you need warming up!

With our chinese visa unfortunately running out it was time to move on. As we left the port harbour of Dalian (~600km south of Harbin) on our 20hr ferry journey to South Korea, impressive fireworks lit up the evening sky. China was saying goodbye to Rai and Stephie: "zai jian",  "xiexie" and see you soon. We will miss China and all fun moments lost in translation.

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In January you have this amazing, colourful, dream-like ice festival in Harbin, NE China close to Russia. Highly recommended but only if you enjoy minus 20-25 degrees !! Good excuse for lots of coffee and beer stops. You can also buy warm patches for your poor feet...

Can you believe it... we were all alone on the Great Wall...unbelievable...not one single tourist! 10 points to Rai and Steph. Location: secret.

They love the winter. They even even fish in the winter....and they even go for a swim. Raimon likes his cold winter swims but this is really taking the piss ! One of the best moments of the trip was renting the ice bikes in Beijing or crossing the huge Songhua river in Harbin on foot.

One of the most authentic old towns in China - 18 and 19th century houses enclosed within a city wall. No "Chinafication" here like cheap bathroom tiled buildings and ugly high rises. Visit off-season in the middle of winter, rent a bike and it's an even bigger bonus. Few tourists but wrap up warm !!!! its freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing ! but what a gem of a place.....

Jeremy Johnson, wonder kid geologist - we missed your geology chats in Guoliangcun !

3 bus rides but worth the effort! Great to get back to the countryside! Guoliangcun village built on 1.4 billion year old cliffs (even if you hate rocks this place is really astonishing...!). Prior to the 1970s the only access to the village was via a series of dangerous steps overlooking the cliff (referred to as the sky ladder). Locals fed up with the isolation went onto building some incredible mountain tunnels - check the photos !

Really, really good times ! Thanks guys !