China Tour 2013

The next morning we enjoyed another breakfast in N'kitchen and headed for Lijiang airport.
Maggie had the same flight with us to Kunming, there she changed to another plane back to Shanghai (see you in a week!) and Markus and me went on for Hong Kong.
We arrived in the late afternoon, we had booked a hotel on Hong Kong Island and the location was pretty good: a bit up the hill but easy and cheap to reach by taxi either from Central or Wan Chai (name is "2 Mac Donnell"). We walked down from here to Wyndham road, one of the bar areas in Hong Kong and met my very good friends Ian and Gisi, an Australian couple which I know since many years from Shanghai and Beijing. We had some drinks and a good Italian dinner together, was really great to meet them here. Afterwards Markus and me had some beer in Lan Kwai Fong, party area just down from Wyndham road,



before getting prepared for the Champions League final between Bayern Muenchen and Borussia Dortmund. Game just started at 2.45 am local time,



but in Wanchai area the bars still have been packed with people. The day ended with a glorious victory of Bayern and happy and tired we went to bed around 5.30.

The next morning we made a slowly start, after getting up we took the bus to Stanley on the south side of Hong Kong island. I love this place and usually come here when I am staying in Hong Kong. There we met Christine with her husband Florian and the two girls, another old friend still from high school time in Garmisch. She is living in Hong Kong since a couple of years and usually we meet when I am around. We enjoyed the sea view with some beers



and afterwards took the bus to North Point with a short look to the specialities of the seafood market



and changed to the old tram railway which is running through Hong Kong Island.



We met Christine again for a typical Dim Sum dinner and afterwards took the star ferry to cross the harbor to Kowloon. Here they have currently the worlds biggest rubber duck (5 stories high!), a big photo shooting happening.



Also the view of the skyline of Hong Kong Island from here is really breathtaking, even if the weather was not too good.






We checked out temple street night market,



but honestly not really anything interesting there, the usual touri stuff. We took subway back to Hong Kong island and reached the hotel shortly before midnight to have a good sleep on our shared queen size bed.

Monday morning we woke up again in misty weather but at least no rain. Decided to go for a visit of famous IFC mall, one of the big and usual shopping malls in Hong Kong. As both of us are no shopping maniacs we kept the visit short and boarded a bus up to the peak. As further the bus drove up as less we could see and when we finally arrived, even the observation building was hardly to see in this misty fog.



Made a small walk and took the old cable car (now running since 125 years) down to Garden road, grabbed a quick lunch and already it was time to get our luggage from the hotel and take the bus which brought us from Wan Chai over the border to Shenzhen airport. From here we take our last flight to Guiling, Yangshuo and the rice terraces before our trip comes to an end and we will have to fly back to Shanghai.

The next morning leaving the hotel at 7 am for the bus to Qiaotou, which is the starting point for the 2 day hike of the upper way through the Tiger Leaping Gorge.
The bus ride was 2.5 hours so we (Maggie, Francesco, Markus and me) arrived around 10 am and started the hike. Weather was cloudy and misty again, but at least not too hot. The Jiang river runs through this gorge, on one side you have the trail which starts in 1800 m above sea level on one side of the gorge. In the beginning it winds up slowly and not too steep, a nice mountain walk. On the other side of the river the snowy mountains rise up to more than 5000 m, a breathtaking view (this time we could not see too much due to clouds, but I made the tour already once in 2006). After 2 hours we made a small lunch break in one of the little guest houses along the trail,



to get prepared for the more steep way up the so called 28 bends to the highest point of the trail in 2600 m altitude.



Doesnt sound too high, but the 28 bends a rocky, steep and sweaty. We made it



and afterwards the path is slowly going down and around 3 pm we arrived at another guest house and as it seemed cosy and rain clouds were getting more dark we decided to stay here. Rooms were ok, Francesco negotiated the beer price down from 10 RMB to 8 per bottle and eventually we meet some other travelers from USA, Canada and Israel and together we had a good evening at this mountain place.



The next morning we found the weather like the day before, but at least no rain. From here we continued hiking down for another 2.5 hours,





until we reached the road which leads back to Qiaotou at so called Tina's guesthouse. From here you can descend to the bottom of the gorge and reach the river, so after a short break we decided to do so. Honestly, for me and Markus not such a good idea: The trail goes down extremely steep, partly climb down (and later up) some ladders,



in total about 400 m down on a very rocky trail. We reached the bottom of the gorge, the wild water was amazing and the sound, whooa!



The way down already brought us to the limit of our physical fitness, but we still needed to go back up, as our bus back to Lijiang was scheduled for 15.30.



Gasping for air we climbed up, tempted to use a horse for the last third part back to the street, but finally we both have been to proud (main reason was I think, that this lady of the horse said we have to pay extra with a clear look on our bellies...) and walked all the way up back to Tina's guesthouse. Arrived there extremely exhausted, just waiting for the bus back to Lijiang.
In the evening we had a real nice dinner with Francesco:
He had convinced the owner of the hostel where he stayed to leave his kitchen to him



and he prepared 2 very nice pasta dishes for us: Penne with a mango/bell pepper sauce and another one with tomato, chilli and mint leaves, fantastico Francesco, thanks a lot for this nice dinner!

The next morning we were lucky as we could afford to sleep until 9 am, great feeling!
Enjoyed the (also western style) breakfast in the hotel with real cappucino and left to the Chengdu airport to catch our flight to Lijiang in Yunnan Province.
About 1.5 hours later we arrived in Lijiang airport where we were supposed to meet Maggie, who took some days off to join us for the old town of Lijiang and the hike through Tiger Leaping gorge.
This time Maggies flight was delayed so we took first the booked taxi and drove to Lijiang. A young girl from the booked hotel picked us up at the entrance to the old town and leaded us to a really lovely place: a small hotel in a courtyard in the middle of the old town, just a few rooms, a family run business by a Shanghainese guy who moved here. Rooms were simpe but cosy and we immediately liked the place.
Markus and me were strolling around the little streets, packed with Chinese tourists and were waiting for Maggie to arrive. Around 6 pm she finally made it to Lijiang and I was so happy to see her, after 3 weeks!
Together we continued sightseeing and window shopping (no windows there, just many many shops...) when I got an email from our Italian friend Francesco whom we met before: He also arrived in Lijiang so we caught up with him and spend the rest of the evening together.

The next morning early picture session by Markus















and afterwards we enjoyed a nice breakfast in N'kitchen, a small cafe/restaurant place at one of the quieter squares in Lijiang. Afterwards started a nice walk out of Lijiang to another old town, Shuhe. In principal it is a smaller version of Lijiang, same kind of shops, just smaller. We had lunch in a small place, no menu, you just go to the fridge and show the guys what you want to eat and they cook.



Delicious food (veggie, I loved the eggplant) and unbelievable cheap.
Back to Lijiang was a small hazzle as we were to stubborn and stingy to pay more than the double price than the locals for the small taxi (they asked for 5 RMB per person instead of 2), but with the convincing negotiation skills of our friend Francesco (I dont leave your car if you dont drive for 3 RMB and playing this game for 20 minutes until the driver gave up)



we made it. Immediately invested this huge saving into the next beer...
Evening was quiet as we went to bed early to be prepared for the next morning, our way to Tiger Leaping gorge.

Again a early wake up and taking a taxi to the so called JiuzhaiHuanglong airport, about 40 minutes driving from Songpan and to my surprise driving up into the mountains, as this aiport lies on 3500 m! Weather was cloudy and misty, close to snow and as a frequent passenger of China Eastern Airlines I expected to hear my most loved announcement on Chinese airports: "We are sorry to announce, that flight xxx is delayed due do late arrival of the aircraft..."
I was right, no airplane there, but finally the delay was just about 40 minutes (I guess Deutsche Bahn counts this as still in time...).
A very short flight to Chengdu, where we arrived around 10 am at 28 degrees, what a temperature shock.
A quick drive into the hotel (yes, this time a real hotel, not a hostel or a B&B without breakfast), took a marvelous hot shower and went off to the panda breeding base near Chengdu.



There we saw the downside of the warm weather: Too hot for the giant pandas, none of them outside, all staying inside the air cooled houses and cages.



Only some of the red pandas were crawling around on the trees, but also them quite lazy.



After the base we decided to enjoy the pool in the hotel, before we went out with my old friend Huang for an original Sichuan hot pot dinner, my god was this spicy, after about one hour eating I couldnt feel my lips anymore. But very tasty and with a lot of beer we cooled it down as much as possible.



Afterwards went for singing in a nearby KTV place, again a lot of beer and when we thought its time to call it a day to return to the hotel, Huang had a better idea: Time for street food barbeque (you can find many of them in Chengdu and they stay open till late, or better said early).



Finally around 3 am we made it to our nice hotel and enjoyed a clean and comfy bed.