good bye China...

I can't tell you how difficult it is for me to start this story. I spent two months in China - two months is not enough at all to get this huge country. Looking at my travel-map I did indeed see quite a lot of places but still not even 10% of this country. Especially these last 2-3 weeks - since I left Yangshuo - I was rushing through places and towns worth seeing - sometimes for sure too fast. But the expiring date of my visas was approaching and chasing me...

So now here I am, in Ha Noi Vietnam, with loads of pictures - in my head and on my computer - and I do feel a bit helpless regarding the overflow of impressions I want to sort before having all the new impressions from Vietnam flushing them away...

Where to start then?
In the Lonely Planet (yes, again...) they wrote that when heading to Yunnan - the region I spent these last two weeks in - you should double the time planned. I can only agree: if it had been possible for me I would have doubled it for sure!! Seeing these pics, you'll understand why:

Lugu Lake

Lijiang in the morning

 Lugu Lake in the morning

Tiger Leaping Gorge

 Black Dragon Pool Park in Lijiang

 Sunset over the rice terraces of Yuanyang

Erhai Lake at Dali

However, it is not only for the breathtaking landscape that people are heading to Yunnan but also because of the many different minority people (China recognises 56 ethnic groups, with the Han Chinese as the biggest group), of whom many are still living their traditional lives in the very villages of Yunnan (more than 50% of Yunnan are non-Han):

Naxi-women dancing on the mainsquare in Lijiang

Mosuo-people paddling us over the Lugu lake

 A Yi-woman on the way to Lugu lake

 

 

Dai-women (I'm not 100% sure) selling chicken on the Sunday market in Lao Meng

 A Mosuo-women at Lugu Lake 

 

A woman (no idea - I think Dai as well) selling a pig on the Sunday market

Kids with traditional haircovers in Yuanyang (I think Miao)

So, how did I finally spend these last 2 weeks in China?

After a few days in Yunnans capital Kunming, where I just relaxed and hang out with friends I got to know via CS I headed North:

Lijiang

I was lucky to arrive early in the morning so I could walk through the really nice but definitely kitsch old town before all the touristy shops opened and the masses hit the town. What should I say: it does look like Disney Land...

Lugu Lake

Even though the trip to this very lake at the border between Yunnan and Sichuan province took 7 hours on quite shitty roads it was soooo much worth it! The lake and the landscape around it are so beautiful! 

With some young Chinese people from the bus (I had been the only non-Chinese person on the bus...) we made an extended trip around the lake the next day. This gave us the opportunity to see all parts of the lake, the small villages bordering it, the farmers living there and their way of living and farming: till then I had never seen farmers plowing their fields with an old horse- or ox-driven plow - appart from in films of course... 

Tiger Leaping Gorge

This very gorge is a quite known challenging two day hiking trek. It was part of the Ancient Tea-Horse-Route where horses were transporting tea from the South of Yunnan (Xishuangbanna) to Tibet. And today you would still see loads of horses packed with goods when hikingk. I guess it's not tea anymore they are transporting though...One woman on the trek sold big bags of marihuana, next to refreshing drinks and snacks - however, I don't think these horses were transporting marihuana neither :)

Dali

I didn't have any time left before heading back to Kunming, so I had only one night and one day in this nice little town next to the quite big Erhai Lake. I had a great evening in a pub run by two brits - I had really been in the mood (or should I even say need?) of having an evening out like back home... 

Yes yes, I admit: I am in no sense better than the people I was criticising in my last post :D

Yuanyang

Before heading on to Vietnam I really wanted to visit the rice terrasses of Yuanyang. After having seen those of Langli I wanted to see some paddies filled with water so I spent my last 3 days in this very mountainous region. It is really amazing: as far as your eyes can see there are only rice paddies, the mountains end up looking like layers over layers...

But the most impressive view you can get of these rice paddies is for sure in the very early morning at sunrise. It is worth getting up at 6am for that!

Staying in Yuanyang for 3 nights was definitely a good place to end my trip to China. Not only that I could see these very rice paddies. But also becausw this region is not yet overcrowded with people and it is in fact still really rural. So you are walking around in the small villages, making your way through wild pigs and chicken walking around your feet. Women from very different minority groups are all wearing their traditional clothes all the time. I wished I had had more time to learn more about their lifes - now I can only guess how their lives are after having seen bits of it...

On Sunday we went to a really interesting market in another village two hours away: instead of the usual stuff you'd see on classical markets - vegetables, flowers,... - it was a rural market indeed where mainly animals were sold. While in the rest of China people would always more or less look at you or pay bigger attention to you when you're a Westerner, here they didn't give a damn about us. I guess it was clear that we wouldn't buy one of their piglets anyways...

All this will change in the very near future: at the moment you can really feel that Yunnan is still a quite poor region in comparison to others. The majority is working in agriculture, many streets are still in a really bad condition and everything is comparably cheap. However, in the North I saw loads of constructions for future motorways. And in the mountainous regions of Yuanyang were constructions going on literally everywhere: on the roads, in the very villages (mainly hotels and guesthouses), viewing platforms,... They are aiming to become an Unesco World Heritage site. So far they couldn't cope with the huge amout of people this very title would bring them. (Jacky, the amazingly nice owner of the Guesthouse I stayed in, told us that during the peak season you wouldn't get a single bed without a reservation.) But they are doing everything to be able to cope with it in the future. 

In the end this will of course kill what I enjoyed the most in this region: the authecity, the rural life and the calmness. However, it would be arrogant to say that this is a bad 

development: not wishing these people another source of income, of much higher income than they can have through agriculture, is an arrogant point of view of Western people: we are lucky having grown up with this great standard of living, but please, let us at least when we are travelling in foreign countries see some of the real poverty, can't we?!

In this sense I can only say: I am happy and lucky having been there while it was still what I'd call authentic - in order to be call Lijiang authentic in my eyes I came too late...

The only thing that is left for me to say now is: 再见中国 (Good bye China)!!

Chinese vs. Western Tourism - part two

This very story I shall start with a middle-long but worth-reading passage out of a book I've read recently: it's called "Wohin du auch gehst" by Benjamin Prüfer. Not the type of book I would choose in other circumstances, but the book-swapping-shelfs of hostels don't offer too many books of my choice ;) But finally it was quite nice and the fact that it's a real story made it more interesting.

I chose this passage because even before having read it, I had exactly the same thoughts and found Prüfers way describing my thoughts simply perfect (I translated this passage it into English by myself):

"Going there and Getting away

I hate being a tourist. You can't avoid looking stupid when being a tourist. You are always in a manicly friendly but illusory world. I will call it Backpackerland. It is not important, if you are travelling through Asia, Australia or South America. Backpackerland is everywhere. Everything you need to know about Backpackerland can be found in the Lonely Planet Guidebook. It is structured in the sections 'Going there and Getting away', 'Accomodation', 'Things to do and to see' and 'Danger and Annoyances'. There are no real people in Backpackerland. There are only wily truckdrivers, endless-smiling stewardesses, hostel-owners and tourist-guides, who have a cousin in Germany. Everybody is really nice to you, they call you 'my friend', even though you have never met them before. And all ask you the same questions straight away: 'Where' you from?' - And when you answer 'Germany' they would say: 'Ah, Germany! I love Germany! Mick'ael Ballack! Number one football player!'

During my trip I had the feeling that everything around me was just a coulisse which had been built up only for me. I was there enclosed in a big bubble of western reality; with credit cards, MP3-players and a travelinsurance. I was not in Asia, I have always only been in Backpackerland. And I was sitting in the middle of all the others, who were also looking for something, who also had the Lonely Planet in their hands. They had necklaces with shark-teeth, tatoos or a buddha-pendants, to borrow an identity from the different culture. This attempt to give themselves some kind of individuality always ends in the same way: that they all look the same: Che-Guevara-shirts, army-trousers and flip-flops. And always the same T-shirts bought on Khao Sun Road in Bangkok. It is like an uniform.

Me as well I always had my Lonely Planet Guidebook with me and by consequence only saw, what was mentionned in the book. I have wondered sometimes, if I shouldn't rather just throw away the book. But then I would have been kicked out of the secure Backpackerland - this would have made my trip frightingly real. Only the imagination made me panic.

In Backpackerland there are only nodding acquaintances. You get to know a person, drink with him for a night, for a few days he's your best friend, but you know that as soon as he's on the next bus he will already have forgotten about you. You are never alone in Backpackerland, but you are lonely very often."

Me as well, I am travelling with the Lonely Planet, and me as well I have often thought about just getting rid of this book. But it is so useful, even though the information concerning prices and bus-times are  often not accurate. And it helps you getting an idea of where to head to. Still, you end up seeing only the places mentionned in the book, and nothing else, and being where everybody else is. But I say to myself:  there usually is a reason - something worth seeing - which makes many people heading to the same place. And - call me uncool - finally I don't really know what to do when going to a random Chinese village not mentionned in any guidebook at all...

But I HATE one side-effect of the Lonely Planet: all these backpackers in the hostels, this superficial world... And being one of them makes me even more hating this world, because I can't just ignore it, I feel I need to have an oppinion about it.

Why writing about this now?

Because I just spent one week in Yangshuo, a really nice little town in the middle of a breathtakingly beautiful area - together with hundreds of other Western backpackers (and some Chinese tourists). This small little town is in fact nothing but a big touristspot: the main street (surprise surprise, it's called "West Street") is full with souvenir shops, travel agencies, bars and restaurants (offering Chinese and Western food) hotels and hostels, bike-rental stores and anything else regular tourists and backpackers might need.

And as already mentionned before I had the feeling of beeing in a big bubble, that 

could be just anywhere - like describd in the passage above.
But I admit: of course it is nice to eat a burger after having eaten only rice and noodles for weeks (no, not half as good as Shebeen-burgers...) and have some beers in a nice bar which meets the wishes of Western tourists. And the rooftop-bars in Yangshuo definitely met these wishes- they were nice indeed with great views over the beautifully lit streets and rocks.

The gros of Western tourists could therefore be found in these very rooftopbars. Many special offers like cocktail-happy-hours and cheap local beers made them even more attractive to them. And you can see that loads of Americans are visiting Yangshuo - I have no other explanation for the fact that all these places have beer-pong-tables. And being there, just among Westerners, watching them drink and play beer-pong made me again having the impression of being inside this bubble; made me hate this superficial world. I have never been there but I thought that this is just a smaller version of Mallorca or Ibiza.

However, I do of course understand them all: it is the need of feeling a bit home, feeling secure, having somebody with the same experiences to talk to, out there in this unknown culture, that makes us Westerners sometimes aiming for Western places.

And I am no better than they are: me as well I ended up having a preferred pub, non of the rooftopbars, which gave me a bit the feeling of being back home, back in Shebeen ;) a place with great music, many different beers on tap and in bottles (btw: you can get Erdinger, the beer you see on the umbrella in the pic, simply everywhere in China), burgers, a TV-screen with football behind the bar - oh yes, home sweet home. And posters of cool movies on the wall as well as two posters of Salzburg :)

The Lonely Planet writes about Yangshuo: "Let's get a few things straight from the start. Yes, Yangshuo is extremely touristy. Yes, parts of it are very Western indeed. And yes, you will be hassled by touts during every day of your stay. But if you use any of the above as an excuse for avoiding the area altogether, you're making a big mistake."
And that's all so right! It is simply beautiful and there is soooo much you can do in the area.

If you want you can easily avoid all the tourists: just rent a bike and ride into

the countryside through the many small villages. Or go hiking, rockclimbing, or whatever...As long as Niku was still here, we went for a few long biking trips and a long hiking trip along the Li-River. We went jogging, which I now try to continue again no matter where I am as I really saw how much I was missing sports.
(She left after 5 days, I stayed 3 more days - Niku, it was great travelling with you these two weeks!!)



Here is my little excuse or escape from being a typical backpacker in Yangshuo: - and something that made my trip being a bit more senseful:
We were volunteering as English conversation partners in the ZhuoYue English College. I found this school by coincidence through CouchSurfing (another reason to love this network and we simply loved the opportunity. Many Chinese students (all adults) are staying in this school (some even for months...) having English classes every day from the morning to the evening. And foreigners can just stay there as volunteers, sleep in the dormitory and get free food. In exchange they have to do the English corner: talking 2 hours with the students in the evenings. I really enjoyed the time with the students as we could talk about anything we wanted. So I learned far more about Chinese tradition and they learnt more about Austrian or European in general, than you could learn through any book.

Already beforehand I have had a few doubts about my trip because just travelling around without doing anything meaningful, and moreover hanging out in hostels where I only met other backpackers but nobody from the country I actually travelled in, seemed all so senseless to me. Couchsurfing had so far at least offered me the opportunity of seeing the places I've been through the eyes of my hosts, and not through the Lonely-Planet-reading backpackers-eyes. But you don't always find CS-hosts and even if you are, you're not doing anything meaningful. So my goal is now to find more places where I can change my trip into something more meaningful... wish me luck my dears!

Chinese vs. Western Tourism - part one

back to China...

I must admit it was a bit of a shock - there are a few (ok, I admit many) things, that I don't like about China and they all hit me hard. And they hit you even harder when you're tired and find yourself AGAIN in an overcrowded hard-seat-compartment of a train. (no, I was NOT in the mood of smiling more on this pic)


But this story is not about trains (even though I could now write a lot about trains now) but about Chinese tourism...

As mentionned in my last story I continued travelling after Hong Kong with Niku, a girl from Sweden, who spent her 4 weeks holidays in China. As she was into hiking as well and I wanted to go into the great Natural Park of Zhangjiajie (surprise surprise: Unesco World Heritage Site - and again not without a reason...) I was really happy to have found a great hiking and travelling partner in her.

As it was already the case in Jiuzhaigou, Zhangjiajie is not really known among Western tourists, but even more among Chinese tourists. We arrived after a horrible train ride in the middle of the night, checked in and just went straight to bed. The next day we were preoccupied with organising our upcoming hiking days, as we not only knew thanks to some forum entries that you should really plan this trip: You don't want to pay this rather high entry-fee and end up seing only the most touristy parts. And the maps don't really help you as Chinese maps are made to look nice, but they are not at scale (can't tell you how annoying this is!!)...

Perfectly organised we finally entered the Natural park the next day - together with loaaaaads of Chinese tourists. You get the impression, that Chinese people can't travel independently, they would always take tour groups. It is not hard to recognise a Chinese tour-group: one guide in the front, with a flag, shouting into his microphone (they would never talk silently, even with a microphone they shout into it...) Reaaaally annoying I can tell you. At the most important scenic points in Zhangjiajie you are not only surrounded by one or two groups, but you would not be able to count all flags and all the different shouting noices.

However, there is one good thing about these tour groups: they are lazy!
We entered the park, went up the first mountain with the cable car and then continued walking around this mountains top before going down. In lets say 50m distance from the cable car exit, you'll have tons of people, unbearable sounds, many small stands trying to sell you shit loads of stuff. But after having passed the first overcrowded scenic point you find yourself alone with the few indeptendent travellers, who are ready to hike instead of taking the cable car back down and taking a bus to the next overcrowded scenic point. So all in all Niku and me we managed to avoid the tourgroups quite successfully, had two great hiking days and saw soooo much that all the people taking organised tours never saw!

Of course we couldn't avoid the tour groups completely as there is a reason why they are going to some view points - because the views there are really good. But at one point I ended up being a far more interesting attraction to the tons of tourists than the great views: OH MY GOD, A GIRL WITH BLOND HAIR!! WHAT AN ATTRACTION!! I ended up standing there for at least 3-4min (considering that taking a photo takes a few seconds, this is a looong time) smiling while being taken on photo with many Chinese tour-group-participants... But well, I'm already used to being taken on photo - asked or unasked...

This park is simply breathtaking! Photos can only give you a slight idea of the place - you have to see it in real (maybe you should watch "The Avatar", which took the idea of it's scenery from this very park). But still, I will just write a few comments on these few photos - for more photos just check my Zhangjiajie-gallery!

The viewpoint I took this picture from is called "Bridge Viewing Point" - and if you look precisely you can see the "World Number 1 Natural Bridge", which is in fact amazing:

This are the "Fields in the sky" - and these rice fields are literally in the sky on the top of one of the big stone-pillar!

At this very point your heart stops beating for a few seconds: you can go to the edge and look down without any fence (no wonder they don't guide the groups here...)

This photo doesn't need a comment - I simply find it really beautiful :)

But ok, when seeing these pictures - all taken from viewpoints where Chinese tour groups wouldn't go to - you may: why are they then participating in one of these stupid tours??

Well, just one week later we ended up taking a tour myself: From Yangshuo, a super-touristy village (more about that in my next story), we wanted to see the Dragon Backbone Riceterraces on a daytrip. Taking public transportation would have ment taking 3 different busses and still paying entry into the area. And with the tour we got it all included - very comfortable, but well - it is a tourgroup...

So instead of just driving us to the area, not annoying us in the bus and leaving us alone for a few hours, our tourguide explained us about the tour details during the bus ride. And of course it included a folklore-show (no joke: the "long hair village") on the way for extra money... So all those, who didn't want to see this stupid show had to wait for an hour till the others came back to the tourbus.
 

In the area itself we ended up having only 2-3 hours to walk around - of course where all the other tourgroups were walking around. But taking a "only for farmers"-route Niku and me ended up again being all by ourselfs and enjoying the beautiful scenery (one month earlier before the harvest it would have been really beautiful - you can't have it all)...

I feel like it was ok, as we only had time for a daytrip. But to be honest: I don't know what I missed - I was part of a stupid tour group so I was obliged to be back at the bus after 3 hours...

So I only got an idea of it - but this idea is still really nice indeed:

Am I unfair treating tyical Chinese tourist-groups like this?? Well, don't worry, in my next story, which is already in my head, I won't be nice to Western type of tourism in this region neither - or lets say it in a German way: "I won't leave a good hair on Western tourims" :)