China Sept/Oct 2009

Map of Provinces of China 

" My 29 days solo visit to China (Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou, Chongqing, Yichang, Luoyang, Pingyao, Datong, Beijing & Tianjin) - fulfilling my dream to see the UNESCO Heritage Sites (Civilized and Natural Wonders) in China (10/9 - 8/10/09) & sharing the joy in China's 60 year national anniversary celebrations in Tiananmen Square, Beijing "

Total Expenses incurred (29 days) = CNY6,000 + Rm805 = Rm3,865

Airline Flight Itinerary: Booking Date: 7-8-09 & 7-9-09
Flight No: AK102
Depart LCCT Kuala Lumpur on Thursday 10-9-09 at 06.40
Arrive Guilin, China on same day at 10.40
Return: D72613 Depart Tianjin Airport on Thursday 8-10-09 at 10.20 ( original time 08.20)
Arrive LCCT KL on Thursday on same day at 16.35
1) Air tickets: KL>Tianjin return -Rm692; KL>Guilin one way Rm400.90 (incl meals, GoInsure & Skybus)
2) AIG Travel Insurance: Rm113
3) Land transport:
Train tickets-CNY583
Bus & Metro-CNY713
4) Local tour package ( incl transport, entrance fees, meals & hostel, Ins & cable car): CNY2,632
- Jiuzhaigou & Huanglong (CNY980)
- Yangzi River (CNY950)
- Dazu day tour + entrance fee (CNY80) = CNY200
- Shaolin Temple day tour + lunch+ entrance fee (CNY100) = CNY190
- Hanging Monastry (taxi) + entrance fee (CNY60) = CNY132
- Eastern Qin Tombs day tour + entrance fee (CNY110) = CNY180
5) Entrance fees: CNY552
- Sanxingdui Museum, Sichuan (CNY80-CNY15 discount for Panda card pass holder)
- Leshan Grand Buddha, Sichuan (CNY90)
- QinYang Gong, Chengdu (CNY10)
- Longmen Grottoes, Luoyang (CNY80)
- Xuan Zang birth place,Luoyang (CNY30)
- Kwang Hua Si, Luoyang (CNY15)
- Pingyao ancient city (CNY120)
- Yungang Grottoes,Datong (CNY60)
- Nine Dragon Screen,Datong(CNY10)
- Old Summer Palace, Beijing (CNY25)
- Site of Pekingman, Zhoukoudian (CNY30)
- Confucian Temple (CNY10)
- Temple of the Land (CNY7)
6) Food & groceries: CNY670
7) Sundries: CNY150
8) Hostels:CNY700

Travel itinerary:

Kuala Lummpur > Guilin > Chengdu > Jiuzhaigou & Huanglong Chengdu > Chongqing > Yangzi river cruise > Yichang
Yichang > Luoyang > Pingyao > Datong > Beijing > Tianjin > Kuala Lumpur

After my return from the Europe/Tran-Siberian trip on 16 June 09, the idea of visiting China crossed my mind. In mid-August. Air Asia had a sales promotion and I took the opportunity to buy online a return ticket (Rm692) to Tianjin. For this China trip, I had in mind to visit the various UNESCO sites and civilised & natural wonders of the world in Northern provinces of China ie Heilongjiang (Harbin), Lioning (Shenyang), Jilin (Changchun), Inner Mongolia (Manzouli) and then travel south to Shanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, Henan & Beijing.

I had a bad start for this China trip as I missed my Air Asia flight from KL to Tienjin on 7 Sept 09 (departing 01.00). I got mix up with the time thinking the departure time is at 1.00pm. As I had already pre-booked all the hostels in China, I had to find an alternative plan so to right the wrong, I decided to buy a one way ticket (Rm400) flying off on 10 Sept from KL to Guilin (departing 06.40) As a result of this last minute change, I have to re-schedule my travel and decided to start my travel from the southern provinces and skip the three north east provinces as planned earlier.

On 10 Sept, I had another bad experience. I missed the airport Skybus at Sentral Station - the last bus left Sentral at 22.30 and I missed it by 15 mins. My wife had to drive me all the way to the airport.

For this China trip, I visited 11 UNESCO sites, 1 Natural Wonder and 1 Civilised Wonder of The World. As my Oct 09 visit coincides with the China's 60 year's anniversary celebration, I took the opportunity to visit the Tiananmen Square and the two iconic Olympic stadiums ie Bird Nest & Water Cube. A happy ending indeed though I had a bad start from the beginning ! You will probably concur with me after seeing the pictures I had posted in this travel blog.

As I was about to pen off, I have just received an email from one of my retiree colleagues forwarding a powerpoint attachment entitled "Secrets of Life" for retirees . I took the liberty to quote some of the words of wisdom expressed in the slides in this travel blog. Happy reading !

UNESCO sites:
1) Leshan Grand Buddha, Sichuan
2) Sanxingdui Museum, Sichuan
3) Dujiangyan Dam, Sichuan
4) Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve, Sichuan
5) Huanglong Nature Reserve, Sichuan
6) Dazu Rock Carving Museum, Chongqing
7) Longmen Caves, Henan
8) Pingyao Ancient City, Shanxi
9) Yungang Grottoes, Shanxi
10) Eastern Royal Tombs of Qin Dynasty, Beijing
11) Site of the Peking Man at Zhoukuodian, Beijing

Natural Wonder of the World:
12) Yangzi River

Civilised Wonder of the World
13) Old Summer Palace

Travel highlights :

1) Guilin, Guangxi - I had been to Guilin, Yangshuo & Li Jiang River with my family members in 2004. Just a stopover for a night and my next destination is Chengdu. Took this picture from a train to Chengdu.



2) Leshan Grand Buddha (UNESCO heritage site), Sichuan - 233ft tall. World largest stone sculptures of Buddha, carved out of a mountain. Built in AD713 by a senior monk, Haitong and completed 90 years after his death.

3) Sanxingdui Museum (UNESCO heritage site), Chengdu, Sichuan - houses one of the most remarkable collections of ancient sculpture, masks & ritual bronzes in China dating back to 14th century BC !

4) Dujiangyan Irrigation Project (UNESCO heritage site), Sichuan - Built in 3rd century BC by a famous engineer Li Bing to divert fast flowing water from Min River into irrigation canals benefitting a million hectares of land in Sichuan.



5) Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve (UNESCO heritage site), Sichuan - Incredible ! A fairyland ! A world natural heritage, a world biosphere reserve and a "Green Globe 21" site. A must see world heritage site in China.



6) HuangLong Natural Park (UNESCO heritage site), Sichuan - The world largest travertine formation landscape. Quite similar scenery to that of Pamukkale in Turkey when I visited the place in Sept 08. Waterfalls and terraced, colored limestone ponds of blue, yellow, white & green created a natural beauty out of this place.



7) Dazu Rock Carving Museum (UNESCO heritage site), Chongqing - built between 892 and 1249, the site has extensive Buddhist cave paintings, sculptures and carvings. Among the 4 grottos I had so far visited (Dun Huang, Longmen, Yungang), Dazu is perhaps the most sophisticated and unusual. The carvings carried the Buddhist images, Daoist and Confucian statues and themes.

8) Yangzi River Cruise (a natural wonder of the world), Chongqing - despite the building of the Three Gorges dam, I think it is worthwhile to take a 3-4 day cruise to admire the natural beauty of the Three Georges and the surrounding environment.

9) Yichang, Hubei - the gateway city to the massive Three Gorges hydroelectric project at Sandouping, 40km from Yi Chang. Major battles were fought in this place during the Period of Three Kingdoms. 

10) Longmen Caves (UNESCO heritage site), Luoyang, Henan - More than 100,000 images and statues of Buddha were carved into the cliff walls of Longmen caves during the Northern Wei dynasty from AD494 over a period of 200 years !

11) Pingyao Ancient City (UNESCO heritage site), Shanxi  - this 6km Ming dynasty city wall has a very well preserved traditional Han Chinese city inside, the old heritage architectural buildings resembled to that of imperial China !

12) Yungang Caves, Datong, Shanxi (UNESCO heritage site) - the caves have 50,000 Buddhist statutes and stretch for 1km east to west and were carved between 460 and 465 during the Wei dynasty.

13) Hanging Monastery, Datong, Shanxi - built during the Northern Wei dynasty. This monastery clinging to the sides of a cliff has 40 connected halls supported by wooden stilts look like toothpicks from far !

14) Old Summer Palace (A civilised wonder of the world), Beijing - built by Emperor Qian Long using European design for their palaces, fountains and gardens. During the 2nd Opium War (1856-60) , all the palaces were destroyed by fire set by the French and British troops, only broken columns and marble chunks remain. The French and British soldiers looted all the precious & priceless items and some are now on displays in overseas museums. Others are no longer in trace and their whereabouts unknown.



15) Eastern Royal Tomb of Qing Dynasty (UNESCO heritage site), Beijing - houses the tombs of 5 emperors, 14 empresses & 136 imperial consorts. Emperor Qianlong & Empress Dowager Cixi tombs were plundered in the 1920s.

16) Site of Peking man at Zhoukoudian, Beijing (UNESCO heritage site) - discovered by a Swedish scholar in 1921. Some 200 fossils of cave dwellers dating back 18,900 years ago were dug out from several caves / sites in Zhoukoudian. The first Peking man fossil (700,000 years ago) was discovered in 1927 and it went missing during the 1941 Pacific War.

17) Tiananmen Square, Beijing - visit in conjunction with China 60th Year National Anniversary Celebration (1 Oct 2009) - I was one of the million visitors who visited the Tiananmen Square on 3rd Oct 2009 despite massive security, presence of SWAT police guards, closing of some subway underground stations, huge crowd & shutting of Chang Ann street to ensure the place is free of undesirable elements ! Tiananmen Square was off limits to outsiders & tourists from 30 Sept - 2 Oct to allow 60 floats, 8,000 soldiers and 100,000 civilians to participate peacefully in this grand event !

18)  Bird Nest Olympic Stadium, Olympic Park, Beijing - colorful lightings , musical fountains, festive moods (coincide with the traditional mooncake festival which falls on 3rd Oct); thousands pour into the Olympic Forest Park to share the nation's pride in celebrating the 60 year anniversary event.

19) Water Cube Olympic Stadium, Olympic Park, Beijing - Like the iconic Bird Nest Stadium, the Water Cube Olympic venue is one of the greatest modern architecture ever built in China. A really "feel good" feeling when I was there to admire these buildings.

" My wonderful trip to China, in pursuit of the World Heritage sites, civilized and natural wonders of China. UNESCO has over the last 30 years identified and approved 800 sites in 135 countries. By visiting these sites, it provides an avid traveler a historical memory of this planet

The Secrets of life - As long as it is physically possible, visit places you wish. Enjoy the life while you can ! "

China (Chongqing City) Sept 2009 D-10 & D-11

Map of Chongqing (in red), China

After the Chengdu visit, I took a double decker express train (CNY47 hard seat) to Chongqing. The train ride took around 5 hrs. From the Chongqing train station, I took a bus and checked into Perfect Time International Youth Hostel (CNY20 dorm), located in Ciqikou ancient town, a tourist haven. The hostel arranges day tour to Dazu Rock Carving Museum and Yangzi River Cruise. I paid CNY200 for a day tour to Dazu (inclusive entrance fee of CNY80) and CNY950 for a 3 day 2 night Yangzi river cruise (covered 5 side trips to Changfei Temple, Baidi Cheng, Little Three Gorges, Jiuwan Stream & Three Gorges Dam). You have the option not to visit all these side trips and remain on board the boat or wonder around the nearby places.

While in Chongqing, I went to a local branch of the Agricultural Bank of China to change some local currency (US$100=CNY676.05) .

1) Ciqikou Ancient Town, Chongqing - A Ming dynasty ancient town along the Jialing River. The old buildings have been restored and preserved for tourists.

2) Chongqing City Centre - Chongqing means "double happiness". A treaty port in 1890 and became the Kuomintang's wartime capital from 1938-45. The city is overpopulated with many high rise buildings. I enjoyed the cable car ride overlooking the Yangzi River and had a great view of the city on both sides of the Jialing & Yangzi River. Also visited the Liberation Monument and the Chaotianmen Dock. Chongqing has a twin tower buildings look similar to our Petronas Twin Tower !

3) Dazu Rock Carving Museum, Chongqing (entrance fee CNY80) - A civilized wonder. Thousands of cliff carvings and statues, small & large of Buddhist, Taoist & Confucian influences dating back to the Tang & Song dynasties.

" Kuomintang, Communist party, Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, Chiang Kai Shek, the damned Yangzi & Dazu - history, the Three Gorges & the magnificent stone carvings - if you are after historical sights, the famous Yangzi River cruise & artistic religious monuments, Chongqing will surely greet you with a broad smile .

The Secret of Life - Once a year, go some place you've never been before "

China (Yangzi River Cruise, Chongqing) Sept 2009 D-12, D-13 & D-14

Map of Yangzi River Cruise
Chongqing > Yichang

As I booked a Yangzi river cruise tour package via my hostel, I had to meet our travel agent at Chaotianmen Square at around 2.00pm so as to join the rest of the tour group for a bus ride to Wanzhou, which took 4 hours with a short break mid-way. You could also book your tour at any of the travel agency operating near the Chaotianmen Square. Our group arrived at Wanzhou around 7.00pm, where our local tourist boat was anchored. If you like to have more comforts, opt for a luxury cruise liner eg Victoria Cruises but you probably have to pay 5-6 times more !

The excitement was about to start as our group boarded a 3 storey (6 double decker beds per cabin) local tourist boat to begin our 3 day tour of the Yangzi River from Wanzhou to Yichang.

In the bus, I met a Malaysian traveler from Ipoh, Michael Ong and we became friend and chatted with each other on our travel experiences in Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou.

As soon as I checked into my cabin and after using the cabin's bathroom, I discovered my waist pouch (inside there was a camera, a rechargeable battery and a wallet) went missing. I felt uneasy and reported this to the tour guide and the boat's security chief. After checking with the bus driver, nothing was found in the bus.

Feeling dejected, I went back to my cabin and as I had a stomach upset, I dashed to our cabin's bathroom cum toilet. Guessed what, I found my waist pouch hanging on the side wall inside the cabin's toilet ! Lost but found within a short period of time ! I think I left it hanging there without me realizing it. I was to be blamed for causing this trouble and the unnecessary works I had created to our tour guide and security staffs. I apologized to them profusely and blamed myself for been so absent minded. As for me, I was so relieved that evening and indeed I slept well that night.

The boat departed around 9.00pm and at around 12.00pm, our first stop was the Changfei Temple.

1) Changfei Temple - The temple facing the Yangzi River, was constructed in Shu-Han dynasty. Numerous collections dating back to Han & Tang dynasty are at present exhibited in the temple.

2) Baidi Cheng (White Emperor City) - located at the jaw of the Qutang Gorge. A number of stone tablets are displayed in the temple. Many poems were written here.

3) Local village food to whet your appetite at a stopover in Wushan - must be very tasty by the look of it ! Don't ask me how these food were prepared ! If today is my birthday, I will go for a pig trotter ! Yummy Yummy - lah ! But do you dare to eat, my friend ?

4) Qutang Gorge - Beginning from the Baidi City in the west to the Daxi Town in the east, Qutang Gorge is 8km long. The south bank has the Mt Baiyan and the north bank, Mt Chijia. Both mountains facing each other like a grandiosity gate called Kuimen. Some meaningful Chinese words were inscribed onto a cliff as our boat coasted along. Our group sighted a Rhinocerous-watching-the Moon peak ! Hanging coffins were seen at a few higher points in Qutang Gorge. I spotted one and quicky took a picture of the hanging coffin inside a small cave high up of the mountain- see below.

5) The Lesser or Little Three Gorges in Wushan - Our boat stopped for 5 hrs in Wushan to allow tourists to board a smaller boat to tour the scenic Lesser Three Gorges, which make up of three separate valleys of Danning River ie Dragon Gate Gorge (3km), Misty Gorge (10km) & Emerald Gorge (20km)

In between Qutang & Wu Gorges, the Lesser Three Gorges are much narrower and more impressive than their counterparts and this allows us to have a closer view of the rock formations. The mini Three Gorges of Madu River are made up of Changtan Gorge , Qinwang Gorge & Sancheng Gorge. This side trip (CNY200) was the most expensive among the five I signed up .

6) Sunset at Yangzi River and a quick snapshot on Badong Bridge when our boat passed by this place at night.

7) Madu River - Another side trip in Lesser Three Gorge. Another joyful boat ride !

8) Wu Gorge - Runs 44 km from the mouth of the Daning River to Guandukou in Badong County. Along this gorge, there are 12 peaks and the famous one is the Goddess Peak which looks like a beautiful girl.

9) Jiuwan Stream, Xiling Gorge - I really enjoyed this "dragon" boat ride. At the mid-point, all of us were given the opportunity to use the oar to pedal our long boat for 5 minutes. What a fun ! On arrival at the gorge, our group had to walk for 500m on a plastic made floating walk-path and climbed our way up to capture a panoramic view of the Xiling Gorge ! Not an easy climb but we made it. Before leaving the Gorge, we sat at a concert hall and watched an ancient legendary play about a great poet in the state of Chu , Qu Yuan who thrown himself into the river after losing out of favour in the state's politics. Come the 5th day of May of the Chinese lunar month each year, most Chinese will celebrate the Dragon Boat festival and make rice dumplings in remembrance of this great poet & patriot.

10) Nearing the end of the Yangzi River cruise - After the Jiuwan Stream boat ride, we were taken back to our tourist boat. We were given 1 hour rest and I took the opportunity to walk uphill to some local food stalls and ordered a deep fried river fish (CNY10) together with a plate of fried rice (CNY5) - what a sumptuous lunch of the day !

" The Yangzi River (Chang Jiang) is China's longest river and at 6,300km is the 3rd longest in the world. The Lonely Planet commented that by 2009 when the mega-project Three Gorges Dam is completed, the gorges will be part of history, 1.5 million people will have been displaced and south western China will never be the same. Despite the damned Yangzi, I still enjoyed the New Yangzi downriver cruise. I spotted this clock hanging on the wall at the guest lounge of the boat. It provides information (clockwise) on each destination covering the 3 day Yangzi River cruise starting from Chongqing followed by Fengdu Ghost City, Wanzhou, Wushan (at six o'clock) and ending in Yichang. A time table made simple for tourists taking this downriver cruise !

The Secrets of Life - Things which are not good for health, eat a little, eat once a while, but do not abstain them totally "