New Photos are up (see Ivano, we listen to you)

During the afternoons in the desert heat, we selected photos for you. Digital photographs are a blessing and a curse... one takes too many, and has to invest a lot of time selecting them. Multiply that by two digital cameras and then square that sum by two opinions of the different specimens of the human race. Quite a fascinating and nerve-racking process. The results can be viewed on our flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeandjohanna/collections/

"Author's Choice sets" are Travel 08 and 09.

Hope you enjoy them.

Silk Road - Part 3 (still alive)

First of all, thanks for your comments, which make us chuckle. We were wondering why there weren't any male camels around (Lee spent a lot of time analyzing the sex of the beasts), but now we know: they are busy Westerners' bashing abroad:). Thanks for filling us in, B!

We were tempted to trade our jeans for some nuclear plant "seeds", but they didn't quite "blossom" in our harsh suitcase environment. They almost had us tricked. Thanks for the tip about the receipt, Ivano:)!

Dunhuang is a lovely place - sand dunes and Buddhist caves - both original and definitely recommended! Unfortunately, we didn't get to para-glide, and used our good old feet instead to watch a spectacular sunset.

Silk Route - Part 2

We are still in between deserts and Oasis towns, and it is a lovely yet surreal experience.

After having seen the very start of the Great Wall in Dangdong (North Korean border), we completed our personal "Great Wall circle" by also visiting the very last bit of it, the Last Fort - and thus the end of China - in Jiayuguan. There, we also stayed in a lovely, peaceful court-yard hotel. It really felt like the end of the world: quiet, surrounded by desert, and HOT. Still in hindsight one sympathizes with the people who were kicked out of China from here. Prospects of running into a camel - like you do as a tourist nowadays - probably didn't look so good then.

From there, we moved on to Dunhuang, famous for its Buddhist heritage. Also, the sand dunes around here are very appealing, and we're planning on paragliding over a lake today. Wish us luck. If this is our last blog, it's been nice knowing you.

The Silk Road - Part 1

We are writing this blog from Zhang Ye. That's about 5 hours from WuWei, which is 12 hours from YinChuan. YinChuan is another 12 hours from HotHot.

If you recognize any of these names, then you are more knowledgeable than both of us! We are in the lesser travelled part of China - which runs through Inner Mongolia, underneath Russia and to the East of Mongolia proper. It's the old (Northern) silk route.

You really don't see many white people here, and even KFC, McDonnald's and Star Bucks have not yet ventured this far. We are living on a mixture of veggie jiaozi's (like Chinese tortellinis), instant noddles, sweet bread, pizza with apple on it and other strange things. Despite the large cultural differences, the people here are some of the most friendly and genuine people that we have met to date (along with the other "Northerners"). They seem to be more lively and out-going than in other parts of China, and maybe because of the novelty factor, we feel like we get special treatment.

Today we made a day trip to Mati Si, which used to be a Tibetan Chinese Buddhist Monastery. They were crazy monks, in that they built a whole complex of temples 50 meters up into a solid rock cliff face (OK, it is sandstone...). The way in which the landscape changed was dramatic - one minute in desert, the next in corn fields and the next in mountain alpine. Lee spent the trip back playing "Spot the Pot" - a game of simple rules. When you see a pot plant, you shout "Spot the Pot". This has inspired Lee to write a book called "Pot in China - the definitive guide".

Yesterday we were driving along large stretches of the "Great Wall of China". Lee finds it hard to believe that this part is visible from space with a naked eye - it was more like a an Africa mud and straw sheep pen. But time is not always kind on beauty.

Apart from food being a little bit difficult here - we are really enjoying ourselves. There are less people everywhere - a nice change from the normal Chinese "Mega Cities". The skies are really blue, and the heat wave seems behind us.

More photos to follow... soonish...

Beijing - A very big city

Hello everybody,

Thanks for still reading, and those trusty friends who manage to add their comments! (You will be the lucky ones who are remembered for the Christmas Card List)

Due to trains being booked up to 10 days ahead of travel, we were forced to take our first airplane of our adventures - from Harbin to Beijing.

Although we left Beijing 5 days or so ago, we have been on an "Internet blackout" ever since. Either spending days on trains, or in hotels without the promised Internet connection.

We spent 6 days in Beijing, in a Hotel in one of the "Hutongs". This means "dirty slum" when translated to English. Lee is going against the current "let's preserve these cute little memories of the old days" folk, and thinks that the sky scrappers are a lot better place to live. He continues to think that we should photograph them, and then demolish them for things like Olympic Stadiums, language schools and shopping malls.

Beijing struck us both as a place that is very grand and rich with its massive architectural projects, but also very old and conservative. Of all of the cities that we have visited to date, Beijing is the most English unfriendly - no taxi driver spoke a word of the language, and even the sign posts were mainly in Chinese characters only. It's hard to believe that language will not be a problem for the 2008 Olympics.

Since we were 6 days there, in this massive city (can easily take 2 hours to get to the outskirts), the following is a list of the places, and some throw away comments along with each:

• Tianaman Square - Very large and uninteresting. No signs of student blood or tank tracks are left.
• Olympic Stadium (Birds nest) - We were both very impressed with this - a new wonder of the world, maybe?
• Olympic Stadium (Water Cube) - Looks very dirty and old. No sense of scale. Maybe after a wash and some light it will look ok.
• Gardens to north of Forbidden Palace - Really nice. This mountain was made from the mud left after digging the moat around the palace. Not too many people, and very calm.
• Kazakhstan Embassy - In a nice part of town, but the "service" was very "east block". Saying that the local security guards were nice, and we got a better visa than we had hoped for in a shorter time (no 'Borat jokes' helped, we believe)
• Forbidden City - If big is beautiful, then it's beautiful. We kept saying "But I have seen this before...", and "To big to be cosy". Still, its sheer scale is impressive.
• Summer Palace - See Forbidden City - took 100,000 men to make the lake bigger.
• Beijing Acrobatics - If you have no problems with very young actors, then this is a real gem - for one and a half hours we were stuck to our seat with admiration and "oh that will hurt if it goes wrong" sentiments.

We were there on 2007/08/08, which our more astute readers will recognize as exactly one year before the Olympics. We went with the big question "Will they be ready?" After living here for a year, and seeing what they can build overnight when they put their minds to it, then the infrastructure will be there. The only two problematic things are the pollution (which could really stick in your throat at times) and the language issues. If these are overcome, it could well be the most extravagant Olympics that we will probably ever witness.

Obviously we did other things, but this is enough for one blog!

Harbin - Russian China

We got here yesterday, and had a wonderful time strolling around, looking at beautiful Russian architecture and going on big wheels and the like.

The place was nothing more than a couple of tents before the Russians brought themselves over in 1898. In a few years they added train depots, Eastern Orthodox churches and the like. Probably some vodka bars too. Then the Japanese took it off them in the 1930's. Then something else happened, and the Chinese got it back eventually after the War part II. Bit of a shame really, since the old buildings are so beautiful, and a bit neglected now. The museum was funny, since it mentioned the "Liberation of the City" in 1946. Perhaps "Inheritance of a brand new City" would have been a more accurate phrase.

Today we have nothing but clear blue skies, fluffy clouds and a nice breeze. We went to a big Buddhist complex called "The Temple of Bliss", which was probably the calmest and most beautiful one that we have ever visited. Believe us when we can say that we have visited some temples here...

Harbin also boasts the "Most Drunk Chinese in China award" and wherever you go you cannot avoid seeing beer adverts. Last night we (well Lee) was lucky enough to see belly dancers on the street. They were promoting beer. Lee found his first dark beer in China. He describes it as: "The first mouthful tastes like the home-brew that I made when I was 15, but after a while it could pass for a bad Guinness with sugar added". But, so far, no "larger louts" have been seen on the streets.

So in conclusion - it is at the end of the Chinese world (above and not so far west of Vladivostok) but when the weather is good, a great place for a couple of days. The photos (that will be on Flickr) should show that Chinese - Russian fusion makes it a unique city.

Off the Lonely Planet Radar - Ever White Mountain and Heaven Lake

For the first time we trusted our Chinese enough to leave the (relatively) safe "Lonely Planet" territory. We ended up in Baishan, which is really close to China's biggest Nature Reserve "Chang Bai Shan-Ever White Mountain" including the "Heaven Lake" on top of a volcanic crater (2200 m high). Most of all, we're grateful for people's helpfulness, and many locals went out of their way to help us finding a place to stay, vegetarian food and a way to actually get to the Mountain Reserve.

The Mountain and the lake itself were magnificent. Although it was cold and misty, it surely is a very special place. The fact that it is bordering North Korea makes it even more mysterious.

Unfortunately, we aren't well equipped enough to go for longer hikes there. Also, one gets used to a life of luxury quite quickly, so we were glad to return to our room after a long day in the Nature Reserve.

Today we're in Tonghua, which seems to be a local coal town with all its characteristic "charms". Yet again, people prove to be kind and honest, which we really appreciate after sometimes being terrorized by touts in more touristy places.

From here, we'll be taking the night train to Harbin/ Haerbin, even further North with a strong Russian influence. We'll hopefully be seeing some nice Russian architecture and get hold of cheap vodka:).