krisalis

“It really is a great wall.”

- President Nixon, upon visiting The Great Wall of China in 1972.

Mark and I hiked 10km along The Great Wall yesterday. We started at Jinshanleng, which is about 120km north-east of Beijing, and we finished at Simatai, 10km to the west of where we started.

It was fantastic.

If you ever get a chance to do this, I highly recommend it.

It was hard going in places, especially when the wind was blowing strongly or where the wall was steep and uneven, in varying degrees of disrepair. The weather was cold but clear and sunny, which meant we had excellent visibility and fabulous views along the length of the wall, which stretched along the mountain tops winding away into the distance for as far as the eye could see.

We were both worried that we would be cold, and were wrapped up to the eyeballs in layer after layer of warm clothing. Of course, once we got moving, the effort of clambering up and down and all around the steps and turrets along the wall, we soon overheated and ended up stripping the layers of and stuffing them into our daypacks.

The hike took us about 4 hours in total, including plenty of stops for taking photos and a picnic lunch of bread, bananas and chocolate chip cookies.

One of the things that I most enjoyed about the hike was that for the most part, we were totally alone on the Wall. We did not meet a single other tourist throughout the hike, the only people we came across were a few local “tour guides”, who were persistently offering their services, trailing along with us at a distance, but who all eventually fell back after we said “no, thanks” for the 38th time.

It was just so amazing to stand at the top of this giant structure, looking out over vast expanses of mountainous countryside and hear absolutely nothing but the sound of our own breathing.

Of course, the legs are sore today, especially my quads and calves from all the steps and slopes we tackled. Totally worth it though.

An utterly amazing day.

Damn, it’s cold here. Like, really fricking cold. I think I’d forgotton that this sort of cold existed.

It’s the sort of cold where the sky is a cloudless pale watery blue and the sun shines valiantly throughout the day, yet never seems to manage to supply any heat. Every breath sends little puffs of warmth out into the cold clear air.

Mark and I appear to be morphing into marshmallow people, smothered in layers of hats and coats and scarves and gloves, causing havoc every time we need to refer to a map or look something up in the guidebook. I am becoming increasingly adept at operating my camera using partially-frozen-yet-still-gloved fingers.

It’s the sort of cold that starts off innocuously enough as ‘refreshing’ but soon starts to seep into your bones as the wind finds tiny gaps through the layers of clothing, preying on fingers and toes, gradually freezing you in a way that can only be remedied by comsuming hot drinks and steaming bowls of noodle soup at regular intervals.

We explored the Forbidden City today, wandering around the massive stone courtyards and beautiful ancient palace buildings under the vocal guidance of Roger Moore’s dulcet tones on our audio tour cassettes.

Tomorrow we tackle The Wall.

Mark and I have been on holiday and travelling around China for a few weeks now, causing the weekdays melt into the weekends in a pleasant blur. We don’t really need to know what day or date it is, and without easy access to English language media, I have gradually sunk into my own little world, oblivious to the storms that are undoubtedly raging in the international scene of world events and general politics. The only thing that has defined ‘weekend’ from ‘weekday’ since we have arrived in China is that Neil and Andrea don’t work on weekends. (Well, except that Neil has to work on Saturdays, but that’s another story.)

Xiamen is not exactly a tourist hot spot, but we’ve been happily pottering about, exploring the local shops and wandering around the Botanical Gardens and University campus. We’ve been getting around on the bus – a bone rattling and sometimes sardine-ish experience with people of questionable hygiene. But for 1Y a pop – about 20c Singapore, 15c US or 7p UK – we can hardly complain.

We spent a day at the island of Gulang Yu, which is probably the most ‘touristy’ thing Xiamen has to offer. It is a lovely little island with a population of about 18000 people (and 600 pianos, according to the amusing Chinglish tourist guide). It was one of the original Chinese ports opened up after the Opium War, and it housed the initial embassies which were set up to accomodate international travel and trade, leaving behind a legacy of old colonial buildings. There are no cars or bikes allowed on the island, so it feels a lot quieter and more calm than the mainland. There are a few museums and parks to explore, in addition to the beaches, shops and restaurant that seem to pepper touristy coastal areas the world over. A good day out.

Other activites have included an engagement party at Havana – champagne and tapas all round. Andrea and I jogged about 10km along the length of Hudong Lu – lovely views, Xiamen’s equivalent to Singapore’s East Coast area. We watched the England v Scotland rugby game at the pub – good atmosphere, shame about the end score. We’ve played several games of pool and one of darts – I suck at both. We visited Noodle Man and Pau Woman on numerous occasions – how can food that tastes that good be soooo cheap, dinner for 4 for less than S$4? We’ve sampled a good portion of the menu at Tutto Benne and The House – not cheap, but still tasty! I’ve expanded my miniscule Mandarin vocabulary to include the words for ‘water’, ‘dumpling noodle soup’, ‘I don’t understand’ and I can now count up to 8; or at least I could ten minutes ago. We’ve slept lots and read lots and generally chilled out. Today, in search of new adventure, we went and had one of Xiamen’s famous foot massages – bliss.

Tomorrow we leave the comfortable cocoon of Xiamen life with Andrea and Neil, and head to Beijing. It looks like we’re in for some chillier weather there. Brrr. At least it means we might finally use all this winter wear we’ve been carting about!

Oh, and I did this Yankee or Dixie quiz, out of curiosity to see what the results might yield. Apparently I am 68% Dixie – a definitive Southern score! Watch out Texas, I’m going native already.

[quiz via kris]

We are currently still in Xiamen, enjoying Andrea and Neil’s excellent hospitality. It has been a fairly calm week – we’ve done some sightseeing and exploring, but also a lot of reading and relaxing and a fair amount of laundry! We’ve been out on the town a few places, eating and drinking at the local expat haunts. We’re enjoying this oasis of calm away from the hustle and bustle of ‘real China’.

Rugby tonight. The game is showing at The Londoner, and we’ll be watching. My parents, meanwhile, will be seeing the real deal at Murrayfield.

Have some fish and chips for me, and make sure you sing ‘Flower of Scotland’ at the top of your lungs, OK? And when you do, know that I’ll be singing along from a dingy little bar in China, raising my bottle of Tsingtao to Scotland’s success.

Billie, if they play ‘The Proclaimers’, I’ll be sure to give you a call.

sh1ft.org is running another of the ‘Day In The Life’ projects to take pictures to document the leap year gift of an extra day on February 29.

We should be in Beijing by then, and I will be taking photos, as usual, though I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post them.

I’ve been happily snapping away with the G5 throughout the travels so far, but have not been able to connect the camera to a computer since we left Australia to upload any images. Oh well.

Today, Andrea took Mark and I on a tour of the local shops near her flat.

We wandered around the small back streets and alleys, browsing in the little stores, laughing at the funny use of english words and phrases on various garments and at the bad 80′s styles that seem to reside in even the chicest of boutiques.

The picture below shows my star purchase of the day. Aiii!

In other news – Al, I can’t access your site from China. You appear to have been banned! Or maybe it’s not personal? I can’t seem to access any blogspot sites from China. Hrm.

It seems Jen has been dooced. Does anyone have any more news about how, what, where or when this all happened? And most importantly, if Jen is OK?

I’ve been writing postcards this evening. If you want one, go ahead send me your address, and I’ll see what I can do about popping one in the post.

• Had a lovely, if somewhat expensive, dinner in Shanghai at “M On The Bund. Lovely food. Especially the pavlova.
• Checked out of our hotel and waved bye bye to Shanghai.
• Caught a plane from Shanghai to Xiamen, where Andrea and Neil were duly waiting for us.
• Went out for dinner with Andrea and Neil, and Mark (of course) to The House, which was in full swing for Valentine’s Day. The food was lovely, the beer was plentiful. Shame about the rugby, however.
• Watched France beat Ireland and the first half of Scotland losing painfully to the Welsh before beating a retreat to The Londoner.
• Got nipped on the nose by a St. Bernard called Chubby. He didn’t do it on purpose. He was only playing. My fault for blowing in his big droopy eyes and chasing him around the pool table.
• Acquired approximately 21 pairs of sunglasses from Ben the Sunglasses Man, who brought a sack of production samples to the pub, and donated them to the clientele in a noisy free-for-all.
• Experienced the joy of dining at Noodle Man’s fine dining establishment. Lunch for 4 for 15RMB – that’s about S$3, less than 2 quid in total!
• Did laundry. Oh, the joy of clean clothes!
• Had a nap. Loading the washing machine and digesting noodles is hard work, you know.
• Went out for dinner to Tutto Bene – lasagne and some of Mark’s apple pie. Mmm.

So, we haven’t seen much of Xiamen as of yet, but we’re here for a wee while yet and I’m sure we’ll get round to it eventually. This sofa is pretty comfy though.

[see here for Andrea's account of the weekend!]

Number of accidents we have seen: 2 bicycle mis-haps and 1 taxi-minibus collision. Frankly, I am astounded that we haven’t seen more. Cars and buses and motorbikes and bicycles and people zoom around on the roads and pavements with reckless abandon. The bicycle accidents both involved heavily-laden delivery bikes tipping over on street corners, presumably from taking the corner too fast with their cargo.

Number of people who have come dashing up to us to take our picture: 1 A little old granny came racing up to us waving a camera as we walked along the street, heading towards the French Concession area. She said she was an English teacher, and would we mind taking a photo with her. I clamped my handbag firmly underneath my arm, wary of some sort of scam being played out, but in the end she was so smiley and earnest and flustered and funny that we somehow agreed. I think she just wanted a photo of Mark’s goatee! We laughed at the bizarre encounter as she walked off once the photos were taken. And then we checked that all our valuables were still where they were supposed to be.

Number of blisters aquired: me – 1, Mark – 2. Again, I am very surprised we have escaped so lightly given the amount of walking we have done. We have done most of our sightseeing by foot, with some minor assistance from the Metro and the little psychadelic tourist train that goes under the river from one side of The Bund to the other. We have walked the length of Nanjing Dong Lu and The Bund, covered a fair bit of ground in and around the French Concession area and also around the skyscrapers and a shopping mall on the eastern side of The Bund.

Number of jackets purchased: me – 3, Mark – 1. I know. 3 jackets. But they are so nice! And so cheap! And I’m going to be living in a cold climate at last. Well, colder than Singapore anyway. I got a baby blue and navy North Face (knock off) ski-jacket, a regular day-to-day jacket in powder blue, which is so cute, I’m going to have to lock it away so Lennie doesn’t steal it from me, and a funky little chinoiserie jacket in a lovely dark green floral pattern.

Number of dumplings eaten: so many, I have lost count!! The food in Shanghai is amazing. We have eaten so many delcious meals and at such incredibly inexpensive prices. My Singaporean friends would be extremely proud of me.

Hello from Shanghai!

Mark and I arrived at the Shanghai Pudong airport very early this morning, feeling gross and over-tired from the long journey and lack of quality sleep.

My first impression of the city is a strange hodge-podge of old and new, all jumbled together. Silvery skyscrapers sit nestled next to ugly square concrete buildings, small rundown shophouses beside modern apartments. Traffic zooms from every direction and road rules seem to be taken more as ‘guidelines’.

There seem to be a lot of Chinese tourists in Shanghai, happily snapping pictures of everything and blatantly staring wide-eyed at the strange white people.

People seem to be pretty friendly. There are plenty of guys standing on street corners trying to flog fake Rolex and Tag Hauer watches, or tourist maps, or postcards, or Louis Vuitton knock-offs, or ‘Chinese art’, but they smile easily and back off when we say ‘no thanks’, unlike the touts in, say, Thailand or Bali, who hound potential customers with the hard-sell.

We had a gorgeous lunch today. The restaurant we ended at up in had no english menu, and no pictures for pointing at and the staff did not speak English. My knowledge of chinese is close to non-existant, and what I do know is a bad mix of cantonese, hokkien and mandarin (with a few malay phrases thrown in for good measure). Fortunately, we somehow ended up with two bowls of delicious noodle soup and two steamer baskets of dumplings. Yum.

So far, so good.

Here are my ‘predictions’ for the 2004 Oscars competition that Kris is running:

Best Picture: “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”

Directing: Peter Jackson, “The Return of the King”

Writing (Original Screenplay): Sofia Coppola, “Lost in Translation”

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Gary Ross, “Seabiscuit”

Best Actor: Bill Murray, “Lost in Translation”

Best Actress: Charlize Theron, “Monster”

Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins, “Mystic River”

Best Supporting Actress: Renee Zellweger, “Cold Mountain”

Best Foreign Film: “The Barbarian Invasions”

C’mon, lady luck, I want that sock monkey!