wanderlust ASAP: wild china

Well, it may have taken us several weeks, but we finally (FINALLY!!) sorted through and organized our photos from China. All 1200+ of them… A country that we both loved and, at times, hated (we’ll get into that), Aman and I agree that China looks pretty spectacular in photos… at least our photos.

We spent a total of 18 days in China, which, I have to admit, was enough for me. As we expected, China is a very difficult country to travel in. The language barrier, for one, is a ridiculously huge obstacle for non-Mandarin speakers. We found that while hotel receptionists usually had basic knowledge of the English language, most other hotel employees did not. And forget about taxi drivers. We found it essential to bring a note with us whenever leaving our hotel, instructing the taxi driver exactly where to bring us, as well as a business card from the hotel, if we wanted to ever make it back.

On top of that, it was exceedingly rare to find a street sign in English.

Thus, between the inability to communicate with people and the impossibility of figuring things out for ourselves, we were very limited in our capacity to explore. China, after all, is VAST. Unlike Bali, for instance, where we would revel in our ability to get lost and find our way back to the starting point in a matter of hours, China is intimidatingly large. Since we had little confidence in our ability to find our way back if we made a wrong turn along the way, we hesitated slightly before wandering off alone.

As far as general observations go, we also found China, for the most part, to be a “no” country. This is the complete opposite of Vietnam, where everything is “yes.” If you ask your waitress for a cup of coffee with milk in Vietnam and she doesn’t understand you, she will most likely say yes and disappear (or come back with something completely random). If you ask your waitress for a cup of coffee with milk in China, on the other hand, she will most likely say no. You’re never really sure if she doesn’t have coffee, or doesn’t have milk, or if she sold the last cup to the guy sitting next to you who is drinking coffee with milk, or she really doesn’t understand what you’re asking for…. But, the answer is usually “no.”

In addition, we got the feeling (repeatedly) that we were not incredibly welcome… In Kunming, for example, we got daring one night and tried a local restaurant that came highly recommended from an ex-pat that we met earlier that day. It was “the restaurant with the red walls.” The food was good, especially this plate of mushrooms and pan-fried goat cheese that we ordered (think saganaki). But, it was impossible to get napkins, soy sauce, chili sauce, rice, etc. We tried every hand gesture possible, but every time, the waitress would run away to a group of other waitresses standing in the corner, where they would stare and giggle at us from behind their little notepads. In Xi’an, it happened again. We decided one night to try a Muslim-Chinese restaurant in the Muslim Quarter, which was amazing. But, it was impossible at first to get anyone to take our order… Table after table sat down after us and, time after time, their order was promptly taken. Aman and I watched in a state of annoyed confusion… Finally, we waved down Waitress No. 1 and pointed to our picture menus. Can we order food please? Waitress No. 1 flagged down nearby Waitress No. 2 and pointed to us. To my amazement, Waitress No. 2 rolled her eyes and turned on her heels without so much as a word in reply to Waitress No. 1 (who was then nice enough to then take our order). By the time we got to Shanghai, I had had enough. We were ordering breakfast from a street food vendor one morning. The woman behind the counter told Aman (in Mandarin) how much we owed for a savory crepe/pancake with chili sauce (delish). Aman, who has infinite more patience than I do, held out some Yuan and asked if it was enough. The woman next to us said something in Mandarin to the food vendor as she jerked her head towards Aman, and started laughing loudly. Baffled, I asked her (in English) what was so funny. She stopped smiling. After that episode, Aman told me to channel the Dalai Lama – a phrase we use whenever one of us begins to lose our patience. I tried to calm down, but couldn’t help but point out that the Dalai Lama is not allowed in China…

Don’t get us wrong. Apart from not being able to communicate and not feeling terribly welcome, China was awesome. The history, the culture, the food… In our 18 days, we visited four cities – Kunming, Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai – all of which were fascinating in one way or another.

Kunming

Kunming made it onto our China itinerary because Aman was particularly keen to see what “a smaller town” in China looked like compared to some of the more urban centers that we planned to visit, such as Beijing and Shanghai. Relatively speaking, Kunming was the least populated city we visited in China. But, make no mistake, when we got there, Aman and I quickly realized that Kunming is no small town. Kunming, in fact, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan Province in Southwestern China. With a population of 6.4 million, it is a flourishing city.

We decided to enter China through Kunming because, well, it made sense for two people flying in from Hong Kong. Two of four foreigners on the plane, we were quickly aware of how much we would stand out in Kunming.

After our late night flight, things indeed got off to an interesting start as we left the airport via taxi. We were hopeful, but not 100 percent sure, that our driver knew where our hotel was located. As we drove away from the terminal building, I saw something come flying at me through the open window of the car. Before I had time to react, a leaflet hit me smack-dab in the face. What the…? The driver rolled up my window before another one assailed me. Confused, we peered out into the dark night and saw that it was a bunch of kids “working” for local travel agents/tour guide services by throwing leaflets at every passing taxi. I told Aman that this better not be any indication of the next two and a half weeks…

Thankfully, things improved from there. We made it to our hotel without incident, and, the next day – armed with three maps – we explored the city by foot. It was a decent walk from our hotel to the neighborhood surrounding Green Lake Park, where we had heard we could find some good restaurants, cafes and bars. Traffic was busy down the main boulevard lined with shopping malls and retail stores and, as we walked, we were impressed that all of the motor scooters seemed to be electric (air pollution in China is awful). Once we got in close vicinity of the park, we were famished. We found an awesome café-restaurant, Salvador’s Coffee House, where all the expats hung out. The food was tasty, and the iced cappuccinos were so good we ordered two rounds.

Sufficiently caffeinated, we set off after lunch for the Green Lake Park, which is a major public green in Kunming. The park consists mostly of winding pathways that cross over and between small lake-ponds, as opposed to lawns. It was a perfect spring day, and the park was full of people doing all sorts of leisurely activities. The men in the last photo were flying some serious kites.

The troops of people dancing were probably our favorite people in the park. We must have passed by a dozen of them, several of which we stopped to watch, all dancing to a different beat. Side to side, back and forth, in circles – they moved in every direction. Regardless their routine, they were all very into it. Some were even dressed in festive costumes. Fascinating!

After a couple hours of people watching in the park, we decided to go back to Salvador’s to grab a couple of beers. By that time, the place was packed with a lively mix of locals and ex-pats.

Not long after we sat at the large communal table, Aman decided that it would be a good time to run to the China Unicom store that we had passed earlier on so that he could buy a local SIM card for our phone – this is typically one of our first priorities upon entering a new country. Shouldn’t be too hard, Aman said before setting off. Clearly, he forgot that nothing is simple in China (at least for a bunch of non-Mandarin-speaking foreigners). Sure enough, what was supposed to be a quick run slowly turned into an eternity. Where was he, I thought to myself, trying to stay calm. Finally, a very exhausted looking Aman appeared in the doorway of the restaurant. That was the most difficult conversation I’ve ever had in my life, he said as he sat down. But did you get the SIM card, I asked after listening to how he was misdirected, misunderstood and misinformed about obtaining a SIM card with international dialing capabilities. Yeah, I got it. But you have no idea. That was about the most difficult conversation that I’ve ever had in my life. That was more difficult than trying to convince a CEO why it makes sense to take his publicly listed company private… We ordered another round, and called it a night.

The next day, as opposed to getting lost, we arranged to have a car take us to the Bamboo Temple and Xishan Forest Park, both of which were located a short distance outside of the city. We thought the temple was underwhelming, but Xishan (otherwise known as the Western Hills) overlooking Lake Dian was very cool.

At Xishan, everyone was required to take a bus from the base of the hill to the midpoint, where we then had a choice to take a tram or walk to the top. Given an option that involved fresh air and a walk through the woods, we chose to hike. Beginning on a good paved road, the end of our trek brought us through a series of staircases and narrow corridors, which were carved into the vertical face of the hill. Along the way, we passed several small temples in quintessential Chinese design, shrines and the famous Dragon Gate. There were also some pretty spectacular views of Kunming.

Dragon Gate:

Temple at the base of Xishan:

After hours of hiking in the park, we made our way back to the city. It was evening by then, and we were in need of a cold beer, as well as something to eat. The obvious choice was to head back to the neighborhood by Green Lake Park, where all the good restaurants were located. The hard part was communicating this to our non-English-speaking driver, a super nice man who smiled a lot and spoke to us in Mandarin all day as if we understood him. After a few calls to the woman who arranged our car and helped us translate our wishes, we were on our way. We ended up at a small restaurant, As You Like, which came highly recommended by an ex-pat who we had met the day before. The cozy, little restaurant was located in a converted house down a small, gray alley off the main road. When we sat down, it felt as though we were sitting not in a restaurant, but in someone’s living room. Besides the food (amazingly good thin crust pizza), the highlight of the evening was when Aman asked for a place to wash his hands, and one of the employees led him into the alley with a spigot for the tap and some hand soap. Interesting place…

Our final day in Kunming was, by far, the best. We arranged another car for the day to take us to the Stone Forest, a fairly popular tourist destination outside of Kunming, and Fuxian Lake, the third largest lake in Yunnan province. Our tour guide for the day, Mike, was a Canadian ex-pat who we had met two nights earlier at Salvador’s. He had been living in Kunming for several years, and was currently operating a paragliding business in addition to doing private tours with his sweet wife Jenny, who joined us for the day.

Located about an hour outside of Kunming, the Stone Forest was very cool. Mike took us to a couple of remote spots where we climbed on these amazing rock formations made of limestone. Jutting straight out of the ragged brush, they were massive! And the greatest part was that there was no one there but us. Aman and I would highly recommend an off-the-beaten-path approach to anyone planning to visit Kunming and the Stone Forest. Apparently, if you join a more organized tour, they bring you to a very popular part of the forest, which is overrun with tourists. Also, from what we heard, the touristy spot consists of a bunch of manicured pathways that let you wander around the rock formations, but do not allow you to climb on them, which is really the fun part.

After a morning of rock climbing, we drove to a small village to check out a new temple that was under construction. When we pulled up, we found three men working on the gate to the walled complex, which was set at the base of another huge limestone formation.

Amazingly, they let us walk in and check out their (very active) construction site. We climbed some steps carved into the limestone of the adjacent hill, across some wooden planks that would one day be replaced with concrete pathways, to watch what was going on below in various sections of the complex where several temple buildings were being erected. Workers with shovels, workers with jackhammers, workers moving huge rocks with their bare hands, people swinging picks and axes – it was cool to watch.

Leaving the village, we stopped briefly to admire a local bull, which was accompanying his owner on a walk to the village post office. Hugest horns we had ever seen on a bull, for sure.

The ride to Lake Fuxian took almost an hour and a half from there. Along the way, we drove down modern roads surrounded by rolling hills of farmland. (The region of Kunming is well known for its ability to sustain various types of agriculture.) Wheat, in particular, was being widely harvested in the passing fields.

When we reached the crystal blue lake, we made a quick stop for lunch in a local restaurant overlooking the water. There was no menu, but rather, a showcase of fresh meat and vegetables. Jenny did an amazing job in taking the lead and ordering our meal – sliced pork, chicken with mushrooms, spicy lotus root, a soup of cabbage and tofu, spicy cucumbers with wild greens and dried red chilies, another plate of green leafy vegetables. Incredibly good, and probably the most authentic meal we had in Kunming.

Over lunch, Mike gave us some options on what we could do around the lake that afternoon. Aman and I decided that we wanted to take a drive up the mountain to a tiny remote village, from where we would do a 2-kilometer hike to a point overlooking the lake. The drive itself was a bit of a nail biter. We traversed the mountain on a single-lane road, which consisted of hairpin turns and loose gravel. Mike pointed out that, when it rains, it was too dangerous to use that particular road. Nonetheless, the further along we got, the more breathtaking the views. We passed by several fields bearing China Tobacco signs. Mike explained that the land is leased by the government to the farmers. The farmers grow the tobacco, and sell it back to the government, which guarantees its purchase.

After climbing and climbing the mountain, we stopped in a tiny, remote village where 15-20 families lived. Their houses were made out of brick and dried red mud - the same red mud that we had seen all day in the countryside surrounding Kunming. A couple of dogs barked nearby, and little elderly women trailed us in curiosity as we walked through the village. We got the immediate impression that the village folk didn't often see visitors, let alone foreigners, in these parts. Indeed, this is the reaction that Aman got when he tried to take a picture of this adorable, albeit distraught, little boy.

I got a similar reaction from the boy when I tried to give him a piece of candy...

On the opposite side of the village, we found the red dirt hiking path that would take us to the lookout point. It was most likely created by goats, at least in part. In fact, the only person we saw on the path that day was a goat herder and his herd.

In the late afternoon with the sun setting behind the mountains behind us, the solitude of the mountains was blissful and the views of the lake below were gorgeous.

On the way back through the village, we found men and women threshing wheat with both machines and flails. Despite being unaccustomed to strangers, they were super friendly, stopping us to offer sweet cherries from a nearby tree that had just began to ripen. There was something beautiful about the simplicity with which they lived in the remote mountains.