Whistle Stop Review Of Three Weeks In China

Three weeks is a pretty long while and China is a pretty big country (Even before you add on Hong Kong) so here's my attempt at an express review;

- It's been surprising.
Before I arrived in China I expected the worst from what I had heard from others. I thought that I would want to see The Great Wall and The Terracotta Army then get home but it has not been like that. China has actually been pretty nice!

- Forget Everything You Know About Chinese Food.
The food you buy from Chinese takeaways is nothing like the food you get in China, oddly. There isn't a battered prawn ball in sight and there's certainly no strangely red sauce that stains the carpet like no other substance on earth. Equally, it isn't all about turtle soups, shark tongues or boiled chicken feet either. Yes, those dishes exist but there is some amazing food in China too. From the popular Cantonese menus found in Hong Kong to the Middle-East inspired food of Northern China. If I could recommend one dish it would have to be pork steamed buns...delicious!

- It is old AND new at the same time.
China is an ancient country and therefore some fantasic history. Getting to see The Great Wall, The Terracotta Army and The Forbidden City up close was amazing but there are also so many new things too. The city of Xi'an is growing fast and a trip to Shanghai and Hong Kong will see you nestled in amongst shiny, modern skyscrapers towering over the streets. I just hope they keep working on the environment, the smog (A fog caused by pollution) is no fun to breathe in all day.

- There are some things that take more than 3 weeks to get used to.
Spitting. Well, not so much the spitting but the hocking. In China it is perfectly normal to spit out a wet, phlegmy spitball outdoors or indoors. Nothing has made me wince like a man or woman next to me hocking up what appears to be their attempt at a world-record sized spitball and then firing at the pavement/sink/floor of the train. Moon pants are also interesting, instead of nappies young children will wear no pants and trousers with the bum area cut out, this allows them to do a Number 1 (Or 2!) on the street. It is pretty good on saving plastic used to make nappies and I'm told it also means nearly every child is toilet trained by 2 years old but it still takes some getting used to seeing!

- The weather changes...like the weather.
Because China is such a huge country there is such a change in temperatures. When up in Beijing it was nice and just like a perfect British summer's day with blue skies and a breeze, Shanghai was a bit wet and smoggy when we were there and Hong Kong has been just like Mexico, pretty hot and sunny. On top of that are parts of China that are desert!

Overall, I have really enjoyed what China has had to offer and I can see myself coming back one day if I get the chance.

In The Photo: I spotted this for sale in Beijing. I'm actually pretty pleased to say I didn't try that creation.

One Direction Watch {China}

As with most of Asia there has been absolutely no sign of the fivesome so there's really not much to report!

Giant Duck

I did not expect to stumble across a 16m high giant rubber duck on my travels but today, while walking along the sunny Hong Kong waterfront, I did just that.

The duck started it's world tour back in 2007 and has since visited many cities including Amsterdam, Sydney and Sao Paolo. It has spent the past month in Hong Kong and it's creator, Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, has said he created it to bring people together. Judging by the crowds it is still drawing after a month I would say it has done just that!

Did You Know?: In mid-May a malfunction caused the duck to deflate entirely!

Hit The Lights

Hong Kong has one of the most famous skylines in the world, especially at night and every day at 8pm they put on the largest permanent light show in the world; The Symphony of Lights.

The music did sound a lot like one of those bad ITV quiz shows you might find on TV if you are off school for the day but the show was still impressive. A whole array of different skyscapers and other buildings work together to put lasers, spotlights and multicoloured lights in time to music and flash them across the bay. Quite a sight.

Disney

It might not have been the most cultural of attractions but that didn't matter to me today as I travelled to Disneyland Hong Kong with an excited grin on my face.

I am not ashamed to say that I absolutely love Disney parks and am lucky enough to have now visited three different ones. The atmosphere inside is always so upbeat and I have to admit that I even got a little bit starstruck as Nads and I had our photo taken with Mickey himself.

Did You Know?: The Disney parks in California, Florida, Paris and Tokyo are all bigger than the one in Hong Kong, making Disneyland Hong Kong one of the least known and officially the smallest Disney park in the world!

Name That Brand

After Thailand and Cambodia, China is the third country on the trip that doesn't use the same alphabet as the English language. Mandarin (China's most widely spoken language) has it's own set of characters to make words and I thought I would attach a few pictures of some snacks you can buy in China. Can you work out which famous brand is which?

Once you have worked it out, have a think. Is it just the name that's important for customers to recognise or are certain colours and the way words are written just as important?

One Week Left!

A week today I will be back in the UK! I can't believe how quickly the past five months and twelve countries have whizzed by. With just Hong Kong left as a new place to visit, Shanghai seems to be preparing me for getting back home as today I walked past a 'Marks & Spencer' and a 'Tesco'!

True Love Test

Found in Yuan Gardens, this huge piece of rock is a traditional way of testing true love.

The man is supposed to place his hand into the circular hole on the right and the lady is meant to put hers into the hole lower down and to the left. If the man and the woman are able to reach each other through the narrow space then it is said to be true love!

Being on our honeymoon, Nads and I thought we would try it out. We didn't hold out much hope as a few other couples before us just couldn't reach but, with a bit of manoeuvring, Nads and I could just about reach each others fingers. Phew! 

Shanghai Serenity

Nestled in amongst the busy streets of Shanghai is this place, Yuan Gardens or 'Gardens of Peace', and it is every bit the traditional Chinese gardens that you could picture in your head. There are rockeries that stand tall next to the serene water features filled with koi, turtles and ducks and then there are the beautifully constructed old-style buildings that are dotted throughout.

The gardens were first created nearly half a millennium ago and they cost so much money they nearly made the emperor at the time bankrupt! Since then they have changed owners many, many times and they have also been damaged in many wars, including World War II. Currently though they are owned by the Chinese government who take great care of the place to ensure that it remains a peaceful retreat for all those wishing to escape the hustle and bustle of one of China's biggest cities.

Did You Know?: When they created the rockeries they didn't have any fancy glues or cements so the heavy rocks were stuck together and held in place by a mixture that included crushed sticky rice!

Unusual Music

You know when you sing along to a song, it's in a foreign language and you realise you have no idea what you're actually saying (Gangnam Style anyone?)? Well, I think this happens a fair bit in China.

I have been here nearly two weeks now and in that time I have heard two different versions of 'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer', Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas' and 'Jingle Bells'!?! It has caused Nads and I to giggle and just check we haven't stayed 7 months too long without realising!

Army Of Warriors

In my opinion, The Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an should be included on any historical 'Wonders of the World' list. After highlighting them as the one thing I wanted to make sure I saw in China, I finally got to visit them today and, as a history nerd, I loved it.

What is really interesting is that their discovery in the 1970's was a total accident. A local farmer was out digging a hole for a new well and fell through into a huge chamber. Inside this chamber he found the first few of the thousands of warriors you can see in the photo and since that day excavations are still going. The photo shows 'Pit One' (The farmer fell through at the front of this area) and they have so far uncovered 2,000 soldiers and expect to find another 4,000+! Then there are Pits 2 and 3 where they are finding many more, it is one almight army. Amazingly, no record of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (The first Emperor of China) coming up with the idea, it being created or it being hidden has ever been found in Chinese records!

The warriors were created to look after the Emperor in the afterlife and, if you think about it, they have done just that. By becoming one of the most famous places in the whole world they have ensured that they, the Emperor's tomb and all of it's contents will be protected by historians, archaeologists and governments for many many years.

Did You Know?: Every single warrior has it's own individual face, they have never found two the same. Even each terracotta horse in the army is different!

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet?

This is easily the fastest (And probably the coolest looking) train I have ever been on; the high speed bullet train from Beijing to Xi'an.

At it's fastest it was speeding along through the smoggy Chinese landscape at 304kmph! To put that in perspective, the Eurostar only just pushes past 250kmph and this train can even get close to 400kmph on the right tracks!

High Flying

Tonight I went to watch the young acrobats of the Chinese National Acrobatic Troupe. It was absolutely incredible (Except for maybe the slightly creepy clown they used to try and make a story out of the performances)! 

In the photo you can see some of the young men performing their daring skills on vertical ropes. Here, some of them have hung themselves upside down with their feet while others spin around quickly while hanging on to ropes attached to their upside down friends!

There was also a beautiful performance with Chinese fans that ended with around 10 girls all on one bicycle at the same time as they cycled around the stage and another saw a group of girls doing amazing tricks with diablos. This included throwing it in the air, doing loads of somersaults across the stage and catching it again and then doing a dance routine in perfect unison...while all still throwing diablos about. I think I could get a diablo, practise every day for 2 years and not even be close to what I saw!

The Forbidden City

This is me, outside The Forbidden City in Beijing. Built just over 600 years ago it was home to two dynasties of Chinese emperors; The Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. It is a huge city within a city and has a rather large wall and 52m wide moat running around the outside to protect it.

Nads and I were just two of thousands upon thousands who visit the site every day making it one of Beijing's top attractions. It only cost us about £4 to get in but back when it was home of the emperors entry was free, the only hitch was that if you weren't invited you were killed!

Did You Know?: Throughout the site there are 309 large pots that used to hold lots of water. They were there to be used in case a fire broke out but ironically, during the cold winters, fires were lit under them to stop the ice freezing!

Kate Moss, Lily Cole, David Beckham...Wallace And Gromit?!

As you wander through one of Beijing's newest shopping malls (Which has the world's largest Adidas store spread over four floors!) you would expect to see some of the planet's most famous faces advertising new lines of clothing. There were two 'models' I didn't expect to lay my eyes on though; Wallace and Gromit!

Here you can see Wallace sporting a rather snazzy cap and Union Jack jumper and Gromit has a dashing scarf wrapped around his neck as they model the latest line for the clothing store Chocoolate.

Seeing this large advert brought mixed feelings...one being total surprise at seeing some fictional British animated characters as actual fashion models and also huge disappointment at realising that Chocoolate wasn't a sweet shop.

The Great Wall

Here I am at The Great Wall of China, the last of the 4 Seven New Wonders Of The World that I am visiting on this trip. The first thing to note is that The Great Wall isn't actually one really long wall, instead it is many quite long walls used to link up natural defences like impassable mountainsides.

I visited the Mutianyu part which is over 3,000 metres long and has 26 watchtowers (You can spot some of them in the photo). It was a truly impressive sight and there were lots of steps as the wall rose and fell with the hillside. They were those tiny types of steps that feel like you are doing lots of small footsteps in quick succession, so quite tiring!

Despite all the effort that went into building it though, it actually became pretty useless once invaders to China decided to come from the sea and even more useless once planes were invented. Funnily enough, if it wasn't for tourism it might not even exist like it does today and even now there are stretches that have totally collapsed and piles that are still illegally plundered for building materials!

Did You Know?: The Wall being visible from space is a myth and not true. It might be long but it's simply not wide enough!

To Tan Or Not To Tan? That Is The Question.

Walk in to nearly any European or North American pharmacy and you will find rows of products to help you fake tan and when the sun comes out loads of people head outside to get a real one.

Here in Asia it's the exact opposite. In each of the 6 different Asian countries I have visited I have spotted rows of 'whitening' products like this facemask in the photo. They have things in them to make skin lighter and in Vietnam I also learnt that women on mopeds will try and cover as much of their skin as possible to actually avoid tanning.

Isn't it funny that millions of white Western people are constantly trying to make their skin darker while millions of people in Asia, with naturally darker skin, are trying to make theirs lighter! 

The Summer Palace

Today I travelled to the outskirts of Beijing to visit The Summer Palace. Ever since an Emperor made Beijing the country's capital nearly a whole millennium ago this site has been important but most of what can be found there today was built in the 18th century.

The site includes an absolutely huge lake that was entirely man-made. Nads and I hired a pedalo and spent nearly an hour on the water and we only got round the tiniest part. It was a pretty grand place and full of lots of impressive Chinese style buildings and artwork. It was also pretty knackering walking over the hill you can see both on the way in and the way out! Good training for The Great Wall.

Did You Know?: In the late 19th century, Empress Dowager Cixi stole funds from the Chinese Navy to do up the palace as a holiday home to spend the rest of her life in!

The Birds Nest

Here I am in front of the 2008 Olympic Stadium in Beijing. It is called 'The Birds Nest' because of the way the metal looks like lots of twigs formed together to make a nest.

As a sports geek it was a very exciting place to visit and I had great fun wandering around it and seeing where the Olympic flame was left burning during the games. I even went inside and I got to wander around the seats and see the track where Usain Bolt made his name 5 years ago.

As well as the stadium, the famous 'Water Cube', which held all the aquatic events of the 2008 Games, is still standing and looking spectacular nearby.