Guillin - Guillin at Night

Factory Work

Visited the Theatre in Guillin on the representation of the girl at the airport tourism desk.

This is my first taste of Chinese culture 'real'.

Here's some pictures..


Managed to get some pictures of the cast backstage.

Guillin - Guanxi Province

Spent the day travelling.

Am now In Guillin.

Which looks like this.


View from Hotel roof.


View from Window.

Sort of like a dirty version of Vancouver.
If you've been there.

Lijiang Waterfall
The Hotel is called the Lijiang Waterfall Hotel, 5 star.
It's in the Guinness book of records for having the largest artificial waterfall at 75 meters.

eLong/Ctrip

Made my first sino-internet booking yesterday.

Elong
ELong are part of the Expedia group of companies one of their representatives Adam Clayton, VP of Sales was speaking at the eye for travel conference.

System
The system over here is very different. Suffice to say I got better service out of Elong than I did Ctrip, another travel operator staking claim to the internet travel market in China.
Ctrip refused to recognise cities I was typing into the search. It may have been my mistake.
Elong got the booking.

The system is still cash based so don't expect real-time confirmations, credit card details and e-tickets. A Chinese person will turn up at your hotel on a scruffy rickshall with a set of paper tickets in hand, take your money, then ride off.
Nothing more advanced than that.

Mine are due to turn up tomorrow, so we'll see how this techno-poor approach deals with the demands of modern western travel expectations.

Xingcheng - Trip to the Sea

Xingcheng is China's oldest seaside resort.

This is not saying much.
Don't expect a promenade and kiss me kwik hats, this is not Brighton.

Sino Tricks
The taxi driver tried to drop me in the old town. I insisted he drove me to the beach.

I took these pictures of the beach and resort at Xingcheng.

A sign?

This guy had a few to many drinks and fell over.

Famous blogger.

I'm looking to visit more Chinese beaches later in the blog.

In the sake of continuity and fairness I'll leave scathing comments until I've seen a little more of what China has to offer.

Quinhaungdao - Where the great wall meets the sea

Where the great wall meets the sea.

Quinhaungdao - Where the great wall meets the sea

Film crew

Quinhaungdao - Great Wall of China

Figure from the Monastery on the route of the great wall near Quinhaungdao.

Quinhaungdao - Great Wall of China

Quinhaungdao - Great Wall of China

Quinhaungdao - Great Wall of China

Quinhaungdao - Great Wall of China

Train Journey

Took train journey to Quinhuangdao roughly 200km north of Beijing, this cost about ?1.30.

Less than 1p a mile.

Quinhuangdao (chin-hun-dao) is the location of the start of the Wall of China and close to the popular beach resort of Xingcheng (shing-chen).

Farang
I was the along Farang on the train and also the only farang at Beijing station which, if you're a fearfull traveller, will put you off.
The language is different the enunciation is more pronounced and the symbols mean nothing to the western traveller.

Off putting.

Luckily I have found a Holiday Inn with Broadband connection.


Bejong
I have learnt the following Chinese phrases:

How much is it?
Where is it?
Hotel
Train
Restaurant

I will add to my repertoire as things progress.

One more I forgot.

Bejong - Beer.

Tianamen Square

Had a discussion with Taxi driver. Aparently it was Dung Xiao Ping who ordered the tanks into the square which earned him the name Shingsoo accompanied with a downwards pointing thumb which he made a spitting gesticulation on.

Mao was a thumbs up and the current elected leader, erm Ming se Tao he was quite excited about.

He asked about Tony Blair who I didn't vote for in the last election or the one before. So I made a couple of gesticulations. I get the impression we have room to be a little more derogatory about our leaders out west.

The square
Friendly taxi driver drops me off at the square which is the largest public square in China.

Crossing the road is difficult as it is a 6 laner.

Take a couple of pictures then bugger off back to the hotel.

More later.

Forbiden Palace

All these things ad up to somewhere worth seeing.

Other Pictures

Pagoda

Hall of Military Excellence

Forbidden Palace - View of the Golden Stream

View of the Golden Stream

Forbidden Palace - Meridian Gate

Meridian Gate

Reservoir

Reservoir

Forbidden Palace - Palace of Heavenly Parity

Palace of Heavenly Parity

Forbidden Palace - Palace of Earthly Peace

Palace of Earthly Peace

Forbidden Palace - Hall of Martial Victory

Hall of Martial Victory

Beijing - Forbidden City - Map

Beijing - Forbidden City

Most of the main features of the Palace were visible and I've got some good shots to illustate the different parts.

This one has been given UNESCO status and is undergoing major renevations ready for the influx of Olympic tourists in 2008.

Entering the Palace.

Beijing - SUmmer Palace

Yesterday visited the Beijing Summer Palace. So called because the Pricess Royal's used to hold office from there when the weather was hot and they felt lazy.

It's about the size of Alton Towers so don't expect to get round there, then go on and do Tianamen square or one of the markets.

Audio guides are avialable.

Pictures.

Things to do In Beijing

Before we start, I am staying at the 5 star Lufthanser hotel.

The last couple of nights I've been trying to seek out by my own means the main tourist bar area which I found last night and had a couple of drinks with some other tourists.

Had some sheeps testicles. No pictures there. Although a before and after would have been nice. Which was in the 1000 nights Lebanese Palace in the diplomatic zone not far from the clothing market. I have a map below which I have marked a couple of spots I would recommend to give you a good idea what the city is about.

Trip to China

Recently attended an Eye for Travel conference in Emerging Markets in Beijing, which was a two dayer.

I have decided to make my own investigation on China, the host of the forthcoming Olympics and remove my preconceptions about what I see as a grey destination and replace it with some researched blog about different things to do in CHina.

Let's get things straight before we start, I'm not massively into culture, historical fact or architecture but hopefully this guide will pick out some of the spots you might visit if you were to come over as a tourist.




So let's not overbore you.

Seeing

As there as nothing too do as I missed my plane, i'm here in the Sofitel, a first for me.

My room is on the 7th floor.

I've got a view of the runway watching the planes taking off whilst I sip stella from the Sofitsal mini-bar.

Hail BA
Travelling with BA Connect.

Terrorist Threat
Yeah it's all plastic bags and long queues. I've still got my bag it looks like this.




I don't really have any advice for anyone travelling under this terrorist threat.

You can check my site lonelyplanetexchange.
I've kept a log of the operators with cancellations.

The budget operators are worst affected because their slots are shorter.

Here's a picture of me.




Working.

Terrorist Threat

Flying to Iceland tommorrow morning from Gatwick.

Hopefully we won't be blown out of the air by some explosive baby food.

Israel - A lesson in ideological cleansing

Commencing random bombing in Hezbollah strongholds of south Beirut. Obviously aimed at the civilian population, support for Hezbollah being the pre-amble.

Is this the world's first lesson in ideological cleansing.