It is only 10 days until school starts again and I’m taking a quick trip to the beach for the weekend. We traveled to huizhou which is in the province and just a few hours drive away to snorkel and visit a national sea turtle refuge. The food for lunch was great: tofu, green beans and eggplant, and lotus root. I have not had lotus root this way and it is more like the shoots.
We took a speedboat to Xiaoxinshan Island. The water was pretty murky as we had a typhoon a short time back but we could see sea urchins on the rocks. It was good to swim in salt water and I was not really expecting to see a large amount of marine life as I have in Thailand or the Great Barrier Reef.
We took the speedboat back and then a short ride to the turtle bay hotel. It is not where the beach is which is just fine. It is quiet and right next to where we are visiting the next day. We cleaned up and went to the village for seafood.
The next morning I went to the pool for a swim and caught the sunrise.
After breakfast we walked to the double moon Bay. We had taken the speedboat from the left side the day before to go snorkeling.
We then walked to the national sea turtle breeding ground facility which was near the hotel. Despite removing mangrove forests and disrupting the actual places sea turtles need, they do have a breeding program here.
They are able to leave the large tanks during breeding season to lay eggs on the attached beach.
It was a very relaxing weekend. Fire the test of the time I’m going to relax in my new apartment, do some work, and enjoy swimming in the pool. COVID cases are making travel unpredictable as it is the summer holiday. I will have a six week holiday in December and January and hopefully cases are much less by then.
I didn’t plan many trips this summer. I and excited for this one as the hotel is amazing and I have not been in the southern part of this province. To get to Guangxi, we took a high speed train and then transferred to a bus. A COVID test was required but many of the places when we arrived did not know what to do with our passports so just let us through. We took a COVID test at the final train station just in case it was needed. So Guangdong is the province I live in and ends in dong, which means east. I am visiting guangxi, which ends in xi which means west. Guang means vast. Guangxi is the province just west of where I live. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop.
Near the village there was a border checkpoint. As we are close to Vietnam they take it seriously due to trafficking. It takes a long time for them to input the information and take pictures of everything. Of course, Chinese ID holders they just take a picture without uploading anything. Crazy, since in the news Chinese men have been arrested for coming back into China from Vietnam after illegal activity.
The hotel in the village is beautiful. Large rooms with a huge bathtub and full windows on two sides of the room. We faced the mountains and the fields for a beautiful view from the window and balcony.
Of course we went to the rooftop pool first.
The villagers were sowing the rice seeds when we arrived. The next morning I went for a run to look around the village.
We also rode bikes the last day. it was a beautiful 15km ride through the villages and fields. Gorgeous area. I would definitely come here again.
Our first place to visit was Tongling Canyon. There were several checkpoints and the road was along a river where you could see much barbed wire. We were right along the border to Vietnam.
The canyon was average with a waterfall. It was great to be in nature. The rain which was heavy earlier stopped as we began the hike. After 4km of walking the highlight was walking behind the waterfall. Of course we were not supposed to be there. It was roped off as a lot of rain made it too dangerous to go behind…..
A butterfly was intent to stay landed on my leg and feet….. I’m easily amused.
After lunch at a nearby restaurant, we headed to Detian Waterfall. It is on the border between China and Vietnam.
We waved at people across the river and they waved back! So exciting…. It was sad as we all want to visit other countries but can’t… We really miss that.
Houses on the Vietnam side.The boats only run from the Vietnam side.This is considered the Niagara falls of Asia.Detian temple.We took a special escalator to the top where there were awesome views and a great slide to get back to the bottom. It was pretty fun.You put on these great pants which helped you go down the slide much faster….Some of us chilling at the bottom waiting for others.On the way back, you could see the houses and people in Vietnam.
An end of the day dip in the pool, barbeque, and beer rounded out the day.
This is a classic recipe you will love and can make with a variety of mushrooms. Here I show with two different mushrooms.
Trim the bottom of the cabbage by cutting off the bottom part of the white stems. Also trim the bottom of the mushrooms.
Heat up 1 TBS oil in a skillet or wok. Fry 3 cloves of garlic until light brown. Add about 3 to 4 cups of Napa cabbage and 4 – 8 ounces of mushroom and stir fry for about a minute. It may be a few minutes if you are using a skillet. Add 1 tsp of oyster sauce and combine well. You can add some water if needed at this point. You want the cabbage to have crunch, so don’t overcook the cabbage.
Here is actually the favorite mushroom I use in the dish!
The Leshan Giant Buddha is 71-meters tall. It is a stone statue, built between 713 and 803 AD. It is carved out of the cliff face of red sandstones found at the confluence of the Min River and Dadu River in the southern Sichuan province.
The entrance is beautiful.After climbing 36 steps you are at the top of the buddha head. It is suggested to not look back as you climb, only look forward.You can see the Buddha’s head on three sides before going down to the feet and back up again.The back side of the buddha head shows the detail of the hair. It is designed so that Easter runs off the back or side of the head and not in the face.You can see on the left side the zig zag stairs going from the head to the feet. On the upper right is okay of the path to return to the top After descending all the stairs, you can see the buddha but the light was not the best. We will be seeing it by boat as well. Check out the toenails!The pagoda at the top of the hill along the way to leaving the park.You can pay to burn a candle for prayer at the Temple.Back of the Temple.The Buddha’s taken from the top deck of a boat.Some of the Buddha’s were destroyed during the cultural revolution.In the bottom right is the tail of a dragon and right below the sun rays is the head of the dragon with water pouring out of its mouth. He is curled inside of the mountain.Symbol for happiness.Dragon fountain.Dancers at the entrance
We had a slower morning to relax a little and then assembled to go to Qingcheng mountain which has many Taoist temples. It is one of the four Taoist mountains in China and considered the birthplace of taoism. We visited the front mountain which contained the cultural and historical relics.
This is a shrine for prayers for a good harvest for local villagers.
These lions represent obtaining wealth (mouth open) and keeping that wealth ( mouth closed).
We took a cable car up to bypass much of the steepest parts. The gentleman here did not seem happy we were there and covered his mouth. Our tour guide seated next to him told him he should be wearing a mask which was required in the first place.
As we started climbing the stairs to the top, we passed through several temples.
Of course there are other ways to get up the stairs if you are willing to pay.
On each side of the Temple are other places to pray for something specific. In this one, the right side is for health. The left side is for fertility.
These are female monks or as we would know them as nuns.
At the next temple, there was a cute kitten that wanted some attention. It was so cute and playful I stopped to play on the way down too.
The Taoist monk at the Temple.
I’m folklore, the dragon had 9 children but they are a combination of dragon and turtle. It symbolizes strength and easy pace.
We stopped to enjoy the view from the top and cool off in the nice breezes.
We followed a different path down. Besides the temples, all other structures blend into nature.
From here, we learned our flight was cancelled and we had to book an earlier flight making the next day’s itinerary difficult to complete. We also need to get a COVID test to fly. So we headed to another panda base where testing was nearby and hoped we would see pandas. Of course they were all sleeping inside as it was very hot out. We were supposed to do this the next morning when it was cooler, but the change in flight changed those plans.
These are barely one year old. There were no births this year at the pandas base.
We went to the hotel to clean up then ride a bike 2 km to Jingli street. This is a pedestrian street similar to what we went to in the other town. It is a good place to people watch and eat street food. As it turned out, it was a great place for us to be watched. Many people took videos and our pictures which were slightly annoying.
We did not make it very far before we decided we should have a beer as we walked a lot today in hot conditions. Actually, who needs a reason? We also ate sticks with thin sliced veggies and dunked in a spicy sauce. Potato, lotus root, bitter melon…. We also stopped to try other food but I chose stinky tofu. It is fermented but does not taste as some people think. It was pretty spicy.
There was entertainment on the center stage.
There were places to buy and hang prayers for yourself or loved ones.
I have been wanting to try ear picking and they were set up everywhere along this street. They clean your ears and it feels so good as often the inner part of my ear is itchy. They do this thing with a tuning fork kind of device and it feels like the inside of your canal is being tumbled. Not sure how to describe it. In the end I didn’t feel a lot different but over the next few hours my ears felt less clogged.
Outside of Chengdu, is the ancient town of Dujiangyan. It is also home to one of the three panda bases here.
It was only a one hour drive outside of Chengdu and our tour guide, Sophia talked with us about trip we planned and even prepared a panda quiz to learn about pandas.
Pandas eat all of those things thought at the pandas base they do not give them meat.They actually poop 20 kg per day.
It is the only scientific research institution in China that focuses on preventing and controlling panda disease and rescuing pandas from the wild. The black and white giant pandas have plenty of space for sleeping, chewing bamboo, climbing trees and wrestling with each other.
Our activities were to act as the caretakers to clean up the old bamboo and scoop poop to prepare the area for the morning food of bamboo.
Removing the old bamboo.Yes, that is panda poop.
We then broke up the long sticks of bamboo and placed the sticks and fronds of bamboo leaves for them.
The panda was in the inner enclosure at the time. They let her out for breakfast and we then cleaned the inside. In the end we also cleaned the bamboo prep area in the courtyard.
We were told by Sophia if we were not lazy in our duties we would have more opportunities to feed the pandas. We took a break and walked around to look at all the pandas and other animals in the park. Our park guide was named Jake and he answered our questions and talked about the different pandas. I took a lot of pictures but here are a few.
They also had red pandas and brown bears. The brown bears were rescued from a situation where they had been purchased but not taken care of.
Then it was time to feed the pandas a snack. They get a mid morning snack of apples, carrots, and panda cake made of rice and corn flour. This panda is Yoyo. She is very calm but we are still not to touch them. She loves carrots. Standing over a panda is threatening to them which is why we crouch down. It is also why in a panda enclosure their platform is higher than the people watching them.
We then took a break and walked around some more, then ate lunch in their canteen. They had great fish, noodles with a spicy Sichuan sauce, and bamboo shoots which I love. We were ahead of schedule as we are not lazy.
After lunch we watched a video explaining how the research centers learned about panda breeding and giving birth and their attempts to rewild pandas who demonstrated being able to live in naturally habitats.
We then made panda cake. The dough is shaped tightly to air dry for three hours. I made a heart, a mouse (it didn’t look like it) and a panda head.
We then we’re able to feed Yoyo her second snack. Today dignitaries were there so we waited until they were gone to give the snack. While we waited, we watched the young male have a snack of sugarcane.
Feeding Yoyo a second snack.
At the end we received a certificate of completion, some postcards, and a bag. We get to keep the shirt.
Afterwards we went to the irrigation canal which helped to stop flooding in the area and a build up of silt and sand that would destroy the town. This was created in the Qing dynasty and still used today. It is a marvel of engineering and physics.
Unfortunately, our health code had not updated to show test results to go in which is just as well as we were tired and have had little downtime in the last week. We headed to check into the hotel and rest before going to the pedestrian streets to look around. It is along one of the canals of the irrigation system.
The Dujiangyan Irrigation System is a clever utilization of the natural conditions. Built at the site where the Minjiang River’s trunk stream in the upper reaches flows out of the mountains and joins the Chengdu Plain, the System is able to control hundreds of canals with just one diversion passage.
There were some pretty cool shops and street food and restaurants. We are in Sichuan, so the food even at mild is pretty spicy.
We were exhausted so went back to the hotel early to get a good night of sleep. Our code finally updated. This is good as seeing anything else and getting on an airplane depended upon the results being there. We actually tested a second time in case results from the airport did not show. At every airport here you test for free and now most provinces require 2 tests in 3 days and they must be 24 hours apart. If you don’t, they turn your code yellow until you do. That means you cannot go anywhere.
I will start by saying that the landscape is breathtaking, the people here are friendly and so excited to see foreigners. One transportation center had a management person not interested in checking our code when we entered but instead wanted a picture taken with us. We waited while his friend came out to do so…I would have taken a picture with him, but I had to use the bathroom…. The young boys we met after eating lunch wanted to practice their English…. The local people we met on the street were excited to see us and take our picture. They said they had not seen foreigners in years.
The farmland houses we saw along the trip to the airport in Urumqi are among the fields of cotton and corn.
That being said, the checkpoints were grueling with the information being asked and the time required. It made the travel time much longer than necessary. I had expected some of this as I have experienced this almost everywhere in the past, but there was a greater level of not knowing how to handle passport numbers or which name is our surname. They write it differently here in China. Our tour guide had all the information written for them at every checkpoint, but they would not use that.
Hotel staff told us opening times for breakfast that were an hour later than when they actually opened. Whether that was to keep us away from other Chinese or a request of the people who were following us, I don’t know but very odd.
The fact that local police need to review our documents after going through checkpoints, everyone wanted to know when we arrived in China, and so many people have pictures of our passports on what could be their personal phone…. Again some of that I’ve experienced before. They seemed to not know which was our entry stamp to China even though it is in Chinese. The checkpoints in Tibet were difficult but at least it was for everyone there.
But being surveilled is not something I know to have happened. Another person in our group saw people scrambling to get in the car as we approached a checkpoint and made a turn. They followed us until the next rest stop. It now appears we have been followed the whole time and by more than one car.
At the rest stop, this guy in the light blue shirt was first to get out of the car and go to the convenience store while we used the bathroom. We bought two containers of melon. We knew there were three guys in the car.
The melon is great in case you are wondering.
Their car was the third from the back and parked at a different angle from the rest. The UK ex-military guy and I took the melon to the car and asked them if they wanted any. They said no and the two up front were laughing at the whole thing. We laughed and smiled too and said good day. They know we knew this whole trip as we would often turn around because we noticed.
We were waved aside at the last checkpoint not even 40 minutes from the airport. They took pictures of our passports and wanting to look at entry stamps. We had another COVID test even though we had one 12 hours ago and showed them the results. They detained us for some time even though they knew we needed to be at the airport. The guys in the car did their own nasal test and the officer was the one that did ours. Not the medical worker and add you would guess, they never ran the test.
We hardly look like terrorists. I would recommend people coming to see the scenery but not to go here if you are a foreigner. And all of this extra attention happened the moment we landed and we were pulled off the plane. Yes, I know acknowledging their presence may have provoked the last COVID test, but maybe not. We were definitely given the impression from the authorities that we were not welcome here and that really changed how we viewed some things. The local people though gave a different impression.
I woke up in the morning before dawn to run to the village and take pictures of sunrise. Surrounded by mountains, the village can be seen with wisps of fog as the sun rises. It is only 3km away with a nice loop that goes around the village. But it was very cold which was still a nice change from the Guangzhou heat.
Breakfast had some wonderful small dishes of cucumbers, eggplant, eggs, Russian brown bread, baozi, and others. The air was still cool but the sun was warm.
We really wanted to stay longer here. Hemu village was a very peaceful place with beautiful scenery. But it was the beginning of a very long day of driving to begin heading back to Urumqi.
And yes, the car still followed us switching back to the black car (I think they switched to the white car because they knew we spotted them as there was a white car at the Hemu police station – I notice a lot of things when I run). When we stopped to take a picture of the winding road and scenery, they pulled off behind us. Of course I let them know we saw them. They followed us until the checkpoint area where we first entered Kanas reserve.
We passed by Karamy (which is Ulghur for oil), the famous oil city, and travelled along the Gurbantunggut Desert to the Urho Ghost City. It is also known as Wuerhe Wind City. It is a wind-eroded geological area. It gets its name because of the frequent howling winds. They are called Yadan Landforms. The shuttles are little trains. At the various stops you can take pictures, ride camels, or take a ride in a powered paraglide, which I did.
If you look closely, that is me coming in for a landing. There is also a short video of the landing below. A video of the flight is here.
We stayed in Karamy for the night and it was a very luxurious hotel. After a long day of travel and a ridiculous amount of time spent at checkpoints, it was great to soak in a big tub and sleep in a really soft bed.
In the morning, I was happy to see herds of cows and sheep moving outside of the window by the Khazak people.
Today we went to Kanas Nature preserve to view the bays below the lake. You have to transfer to a bus that takes you to the hub of the preserve. From there, you take a bus that goes into a specific direction. Before we left the hotel, we noticed the car. We were really hoping we were wrong, but we weren’t. I positioned myself in the back of the bus to take selfies. It is the black car.
We went to Moon Bay and from there we walked to the next bay.
By this time we were enjoying the scenery but noticed we were still being followed. It really was unsettling. We did not see any other foreigners on this trip and it is really ridiculous considering we are on a guided tour. At Dragon Bay we made sure to look at them. They might as well know that we know they are watching.
In the park they had cool monitors to tell you which bathroom was open. Funny.
Back at the transfer center, there is the car.
We then traveled to Hemu Village where the Tuva minority lives. Very peaceful. We stayed at a place 3 km outside of the village.
We took a shuttle bus to the village to look around and get something to eat. The people were very friendly and wanted to take pictures. They said that they had not seen foreigners in a few years.
We noticed that there were many eagles staying and swooping around. The restaurant owners would take chunks of lamb and throw it in the air for the eagles to catch or glide along the ground to pick it up.
I ate mushrooms and greens grilled on a stick and seasoned with a spicy mix.
I paid to wear a Tuva costume and take pictures. We did have a lot of fun.
And yes, we were still being followed but this time they changed cars (or there was always more than one). They sat in the car for some time. I only had seen the one person but think the other may have followed us into a building on our return to the hotel but just turned around and left again. I know, pretty risky, but we were pretty upset about it all.
