China: Lijiang

This time our move involved a 1 hour domestic flight from Chengdu to Lijiang. Apparently, talking on a plane in China during daylight hours is a serious offence as when Sarah and Sam were having a conversation, a Chinese man started tapping Sam asking her to 'shhh!!'. After we refused to stop talking, his girlfriend then began kicking Sam's chair and persistently hitting Sarah's arm demanding that they be quiet (even though it was 2pm and she wasn't trying to sleep - ridiculous!). The fun police are definitely on board all China planes! However, we chose this option as opposed to an overnight sleeper train because Lijiang is not supported by a frequent rail service. Being semi-rural you can only get a train there from Kunming (the capital of Yunnan Province) which meant extra time and cost.  

Arriving in Lijiang, we were greeted by the most torrential weather conditions! Rain, and thunder and lightning were prevalent almost every day. We were dropped into the centre of Lijiang and decided to get a city bus to our hostel although within 2 minutes we were literally soaked through from the rain so we gave up and got a taxi. 

We stayed in the Panba Lakeside Lodge during our stay. This hostel is a little out of the main area, however, the view from our balcony made up for the 20 minute walk into town. It is located alongside a gorgeous lake (as the name suggests) and in the distance you can see the famous Jade Snow Mountain, which looks particularly beautiful in the morning. We're sooo glad we chose this hostel; it was truly amazing! The hostel is family-run and all of them were very welcoming - they could never do enough for us. They offered us impartial advice on trips of the surrounding area and one man even gave us his mobile number so we could phone him if we got lost - he was very concerned for us for some reason. He had amazing English and was always around when we needed him - most often to translate everything into Chinese which was required pretty much 24/7. Unfortunately, whilst in Lijiang Sam got quite ill and had to stay in bed for 3 days. The family were always checking in on her to see how she was doing and even allowed her to stay in bed 6 hours after check-out time so she could rest before getting our next train. As small as this gesture was, we really appreciated how caring they were; we felt like we were staying at their house rather than at a hostel which was so different to all the other hostels we had experienced so far.

We were mostly interested in visiting Lijiang because of its history - it was hit by quite a severe earthquake in 1996, killing 322 people and injuring 14,000. Around 300,000 people were forced to leave their homes because of the damage. In the years following the earthquake, Lijiang city had to be completely rebuilt and the Old Town reconstructed. It is now listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. We couldn't get enough of the town - we absolutely loved it! It's a series of alleys filled with cute trinkets, textiles, leather, and food shops with flowing streams running through. It had a very traditional feel, however, with it being fairly newly constructed, it was pedestrianised (which anyone travelling China will know is a massive plus!) and extremely clean. We enjoyed a naxi pastry in the centre of the town - one of our favourite snacks of China (it was basically like a Gregg's steak bake - heavenly) which we enjoyed in a cute little bar with live acoustic music and free lemon juice - win.

Most people who visit Yunnan Province visit Lijiang for the famous Tiger Leaping Gorge. Although in true Happy Wanderer style we missed out on the 'norm'. As previously mentioned, the weather was pretty horrendous which meant the hiking paths were shut off with overflowing waterfalls and rivers. We read that people were having to sign a waiver before being allowed to enter the park because it was pretty dangerous. As a group we didn't think a serious hike would be on our itinerary so didn't bring any good hiking boots. This mixed with the bad weather and torrential conditions meant we had to give this wonder a miss. :( A girl who was staying in our dorm room told us that she had to get carried along most of the way by a group of Chinese men because she physically couldn't do it herself which made us feel a little bit better about missing out though.

On what seemed like a reasonably sunny day, we hired bicycles from our hostel so we could explore a few other old towns in the area. The hostel provided us with a hand drawn map and off we went! Cycling on the roads of Lijiang didn't prove much of a problem as they were fairly quiet and we were glad of the exercise after the amount of junk we'd been eating over the last few days - cookies, chocolate, crisps, and Chinese pot noodles - nutritious! However, after about an hour of cycling and enjoying the scenery, the heavens opened and we were drenched once again - standard Lijiang. Sam resorted to tucking her umbrella into her jacket to make it back to the hostel - skills!

Here are our favourite pictures from Lijiang -

The view from the balcony at the hostel (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain) 

One of the bridges on the lake

Lijiang Old Town

Mastering the classic Chinese photo pose

Effortless with this nifty gadget!

Thanks for visiting! 

The Happy Wanderers 

♥

China: Chengdu

Our trip from Xi'An to Chengdu was an overnight one which meant we got to experience our first sleeper train of the travels. Fortunately we managed to get a 'soft sleeper' cabin which meant we had actual beds for the impending 16.5 hour journey - some CRAZY people did the whole journey on hard plastic seats! Each cabin sleeps four people which meant we ended up sharing with a cute Chinese lady, and has a door so is basically private. We were really surprised to find our cabin came complete with a TV (which we soon came to hate when we found out we had no control over when it was switched on or off), a cute little rose, a kettle (for the obligatory english tea craving) and even complementary flip flops. We would definitely recommend the soft sleeper for journeys of this length if affordable - the beds were really comfortable and came with a duvet and pillow for extra comfort so we managed to sleep right through the night (excluding the occasional train jerks which made us feel like we were going to end up flying across the cabin).

Our First Overnight Sleeper Train - Excited Teds!

The hostel we stayed at whilst in Chengdu was called the Flip Flop Hostel and was really cosy. It was really central (about a 5 minute walk away from the Pedestrian Street and the subway) and had a really cute park next door which was often filled with locals playing games, exercising, or just generally chilling out which was really nice to see. The staff at the hostel were really friendly and always ready to help with any questions we had. We also had our first experience of laundry during our stay which was eventful. Apparently hanging clothes up to dry in your dorm room is a criminal offence to the maid who ranted at us for about 10 minutes after we did so.

We spent a lot of time wandering around whilst in Chengdu - the city is so huge that we had plenty to do. One recommendation we had from our hostel was to visit Master Kong Chef's Restaurant - rated as the 'best beef noodle restaurant in Chengdu'. Although it took us absolutely ages to find, (the map of the city we had was more of a hindrance than a help because half of the streets were missing) it definitely didn't disappoint - we ended up going back for a second night because it was so good. Although a little more pricey than we had recently been spending on meals because of our traveller budget (¥28) it was sooooo worth it. We tried both the beef and mushroom noodles and the beef and mushroom with rice - both were delicious.

The highlight of our stay in Chengdu was our visit to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, home to the most beautiful animals eeeevvvveeeeerrrrrr. As with all of our trips, we decided to do this by ourselves rather than going with the planned tour by the hostel because it would save us money. We had to get two local buses to get there which were only ¥1 each per person and entrance fee was just ¥58 when we arrived (the hostel tour was over ¥100!) The park is filled with bamboo forests and woods to simulate the pandas' natural environment and there were lots of climbing apparatus for the pandas to play on - they all looked really happy and had so much room to roam around. There are soooo many pandas there, of all different ages and lots of signposts to explain which panda you were looking at, how old they were and their personality etc. which was really cute. We were told before going that the best time to visit was around 9:30am because that is when the pandas eat and following this they tend to sleep for the rest of the day. We were able to get really close to them whilst they were eating, playing, and resting, giving us the perfect opportunity to take 12894269619437 photos and make multiple 'awwwww', 'eeeeeeek', and 'ooooooh' sounds simultaneously. They are seriously the most amazing animals - many of them genuinely look like men dressed up in suits - it's crazy just how human-like they are in some of their mannerisms. As cute as the giant pandas were, when we finally got to see the baby pandas in their nursery we literally could not stop cooing over how adorable they were - definitely worth the ridiculous queue to see them (the biggest queue of the whole day). There is also the opportunity to spend a half day actually holding/feeding/learning about the pandas but that was around £200 and unfortunately a bit too over-budget for us.

Another one of our favourite spots in Chengdu were the Jinli Ancient Streets which were a number of streets filled with local food, handmade ornaments, bars, live music, and pretty lanterns. The atmosphere was thriving which made it a really nice place to spend the evening. We spent hours just wandering up and down and sampled some street food whilst sitting amongst the locals which gave us a real feel for the town.

Here are some of our favourite pictures of our time in Chengdu:

Flipflop Hostel, Chengdu

Flipflop Hostel, Chengdu

Someone is happy she found 'real' milk!

Hellooooo Pandas!!

Tough Day?

The babies having a nap in the nursery

Jinli Ancient Street

Peace out Chengdu!

The Happy Wanderers 

♥

China: Xi'an

After a 4 hour train journey on the famous bullet train, we finally arrived in Xi'an! Usually this trip would have taken about 20 hours on an overnight sleeper train, but thanks to the bullet train which travelled at 310 kmph (and Sporcle for keeping us entertained), we got there in no time.

Shuyuan Hostel, Xi'an

We didn't have much luck with the weather in Xi'an, it rained probably 85% of the time. However, this didn't dampen our fun! First up we visited the Bell Tower which was built in 1384 during the early Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). It is a symbol of the city which marks the geographical centre of the ancient city. A few minutes walk from here is the Drum Tower. In ancient times, each city would have had a Bell Tower and a Drum Tower as a way of keeping time. The bell would be rung at dawn to mark the beginning of the day and the drum beat at night to mark the end. If you enter the Bell Tower (¥35) you can get a panoramic view of the city. Views from the Drum Tower overlook the Muslim Quarter. 

Next we visited The Temple of Eight Immortals which is the biggest Tao Temple in Xi'an (¥3). This was an amazing experience as it is still a very active temple with people praying and burning incense. 

As controversial as it may be, we decided not to visit the Terracotta Warriors whilst in Xi'an. We spoke to numerous people at our hostel, all of which were very underwhelmed by the experience - at a cost of ¥150! We visited the Shaanxi Province History Museum (free entry with passport) where we learned a lot about how China has developed over its entire history throughout each Dynasty. There was a large section of the museum dedicated to the Terracotta Warriors where they even had some on display. This was enough for us as we didn't feel we would gain very much from visiting the site itself.

Here are a few of our favourite pictures from our time in Xi'an

The Bell Tower

Having Fun with the Locals  

Standard Chinese Child in the Background!

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

Sarah Becoming Mulan

The Temple of the Eight Immortals

Burning Incense at the Temple

Bridge at the Temple

Exploring the Market in the Muslim Quarter

The Happy Wanderers 

♥

China: Beijing

Here we goooo!

After a 2 hour drive to London Heathrow, 11 hour flight to Hong Kong and a 3 hour flight to Beijing...

We arrivedddd!

Disclaimer: Sarah is not actually upset, she was temporarily a snail.
P.s. she has since recovered fully

After all the travelling, the only thing we wanted to do was to jump into bed and sleep. However we all suffered with moderate jet lag for the first few nights which resulted in us staying up till 3am and sleeping till mid morning... woopsie! Nonetheless we still managed to explore Beijing and see lots of amazing sights. 

First on the list was The Forbidden City. For almost 500 years it served as the home of emperors as well as being the ceremonial and political centre of the Chinese government. Entrance fee for adults is ¥60 or ¥20 for students. It took us around 3 hours to walk around listening to our audio guide (¥20). We felt the extra price for this was worth it as it helped us learn more about the history of the Dynasties as most the sign posts were in Chinese. 

Next we visited the Great Wall of China. It was started in the 7th Century but what remains today was mostly built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and was created in order to protect China's northern border and to prevent invasions from the Huns. As the wall is massive (5,500 miles) it is split into many different sections. This meant that we had to choose which section we wanted to pay our visit. We read that most people go to the Badaling section of the Wall (8.75 million visitors on the 3rd October 2014!!!), so we decided to give that a miss and try our luck somewhere else in the hope it would be less busy. We decided on the Mutianyu section of the wall as this was accessible by public bus and then private taxi. We paid ¥12 for the bus and ¥10 for the taxi (per person each way) then ¥158 (per person) for entrance and a cable car to the Great Wall, a total cost of ¥202. This was an absolute bargain as tours from the hostel were ¥280 - got to look after those pennies! 

We also visited the area of Nan Luo Gu Xiang which is one of Beijing's oldest Hutongs (old alley). We particularly enjoyed the real mix of old and new, exploring until well into the evening as we couldn't get enough of the cute cafes, clothing and handicraft shops. There was plenty of street food on offer suitable for even the fussiest of eaters (Sarah *couughh*). Wandering through Nan Luo Gu Xiang lead us to Hou Hai Lake which was lined with bars and restaurants. The entire place had a very chilled out vibe with live music and plenty of sofas to relax on. Each bar was covered with bright neon signs which really made the lake glisten. 

Here are a few of our favourite pictures from our time in Beijing:

Night Market

Hou Hai Lake

Cute Postcard Shop

Forbidden City

Forbidden City

Princess of China

Getting the Cable Car up to the Great Wall

Arriving at the Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall

The Happy Wanderers 

♥

We're Back!

Very very veeeery sorry we haven't updated our blog all this time. We've been in China for 30 days and as you may or may not know China are extremely strict on what you can access online - we've had absolutely no access to any social media websites whatsoever! We're currently in Hong Kong though so we'll be playing catch up with the next few blog posts. Hopefully from now on we wont have this problem again and can continue blogging as much as we can.

The Happy Wanderers 

♥