Hong Kong

Our trip by bus from Xichang to Wuhan took about five hours and passed through a lush agricultural region. The highways, as we saw in the rest of China, were as good as any we see in the US, but without much traffic except around cities. We reached our hotel in Wuhan, and after settling into our rooms, we walked a short distance to a restaurant for dinner. After dinner, a number of us went exploring on the street near the hotel and found a grocery store to check out. We were interested in their wine selection which included many brands of Chinese wine and a few from the US and other western countries. The store was similar in many respects to grocery stores everywhere, but with a limited selection of fruit, vegetables and meat, probably because there seem to be street markets throughout the cities and towns that specialize in those foods.

After a good night’s sleep, our bus took us to the airport where we caught a flight to Hong Kong, our last stop in China. Downtown Hong Kong is about an hour’s bus ride from the airport. It is a city filled with high rise office buildings and condominiums, most of them fairly new. After a severe economic downturn that followed the reintegration with China in 1998, the city is booming, as was apparent as soon as we approached the outskirts.

Hong Kong was an outpost of the Chinese empire until the early 19th century, when British traders started importing opium into the country. China’s attempts to stop the opium trade resulted in two “Opium Wars” in 1841 and 1860 which resulted in the British taking possession of Hong Kong and Kowloon Islands. In 1898, the British were granted a 99-year lease on the “New Territories” which adjoins the two islands. In 1997, with the lease coming to an end, China was unwilling to renew or extend the lease. Negotiations resulted in the entire territory taken over as a “Special Administrative Region” by China, but with the provision that Hong Kong would retain its free-market economy as well as its social and legal systems for 50 years.

Once settled into our hotel, our guide, Mike, pointed out restaurant, store and bank locations and oriented us to the local transportation system. We stepped across the street to a tiny noodle shop and had an excellent late lunch.
Later that evening Mike led a group of us to the Star Ferry for the seven minute trip across Victoria Harbor to Kowloon. The fare is $1.70 in Hong Kong dollars or about 15 cents US, but seniors ride free!

Every evening at dusk, there is a choreographed light and music show on the buildings that front on Victoria Harbor. Tourists flock to the harbor wall for the show, so we took our positions early enough so that our view wouldn’t be blocked by others.

The show lasts about 15 minutes and is very entertaining. At the conclusion of the show, we made our way back to the Star Ferry for the short voyage back to Hong Kong Island and our hotel.


The next morning we took a bus and walking tour that included a stop in SoHo (South of Hollywood Blvd.) to ride the Mid-Levels Escalator, the longest passenger escalator in the world, at 800 meters in length.
It transports pedestrians from the many condo and apartment neighborhoods to the downtown business area. A couple of blocks from the escalator, we passed through the Graham Street Food Market to see all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish sold from open stalls along the street.

From there we caught our bus and stopped at the incense-filled Man Mo Temple built in 1847 and one of the oldest in Hong Kong.
Large coils of incense are lit and hung from the temple’s rafters to smolder for hours, along with smaller incense offerings burning in the temple. Escaping from the smoke, we went across the street to an internet café for a coffee and quick email check while waiting for the rest of our group.

We then made a stop at a jewelry manufacturing company where we watched several jewelers at work on intricate and beautiful pieces of jewelry. Of course, they had a large show room for us to visit before departing. We felt we’d “shot our wad” in other places, so despite the persistent shopkeepers, we didn’t purchase anything.

Our next stop was Aberdeen Harbor at the south end of Hong Kong Island. The large harbor is home port for a large fishing fleet as well as many live-aboard sampans and other vessels. We took a harbor cruise on a motorized sampan, and saw all sorts of vessels, including the famous three-story Jumbo Floating Restaurant.

After returning to our hotel, we had the afternoon free, so we once again took the Star Ferry to Kowloon where we shopped along Nathan Road, the neon-lit main drag. It was very hot and muggy so we walked to the well-known Peninsula Hotel for a drink or two. Those British sure know how to mix a gin and tonic! We were picked up by our tour bus and had dinner at an “Asian” restaurant which served Thai and other Asian dishes, as well as Chinese.

After dinner we visited the Temple Street night market, the liveliest place in town to bargain for cheap clothes, fake name-brand goods and knockoff DVDs. Debbie purchased a couple of Chinese-design pillow cases for decorative pillows. It was interesting to wander through. Following our market stop, we reboarded the bus and took a winding road up the hillside to Victoria Peak.
Besides the gorgeous view of downtown, the mountaintop shopping mall had many of the same stores we see at malls in the US. Our bus took us down Victoria Peak, and then we got off to ride a double-decked streetcar back to our hotel. It was a great ride.

The next day was a free day, so after breakfast, we embarked on a “Mike Tour” which, after paying our own bus fare, Mike took us on a city bus ride along the edge of Repulse Bay to the town of Stanley. There we spent some time at the Stanley Market, a market of covered stalls that sell all sorts of trinkets, clothing and other goods for locals and tourists alike. While there, we bought a carry-on suitcase for $15 US, to take some of the weight out of our bulging suitcases. On domestic flights in China, passengers are allowed one checked suitcase and one carry-on, but on international flights, passengers are allowed two checked bags, and the new carry-on could serve as that second checked bag.


After returning to our hotel, we had some time to rest before joining the rest of our group for our farewell dinner at a wonderful seafood restaurant within walking distance. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and spent an hour or so reminiscing with our tour group and Mike about the adventures we had shared. Then it was time to get back to our rooms and pack for the long trip home.

The next day we checked out of the hotel and took a small bus to the airport to catch our 12:45 PM flight to SFO. The 12-hour flight was uneventful, except that we had bulkhead seating which gave us practically unlimited leg room; much better than the cramped seats we had on the flight to China. We arrived in San Francisco at 9 AM the same day, which made up for the day we lost on the trip over.

What were the highlights of the trip? For Debbie it was the terracotta warriors in Xi’An, for Tom it was our tourist-free visit to the Great Wall. For both of us, a highlight was our time in Tibet. Our impressions of China were significantly different than we had expected. China is a thriving, modern country, with excellent public and private transportation. Their cities are huge and crowded with the traffic you would expect in any large city. Their agriculture is family-based and is very labor intensive, although there seems to be an abundance of food everywhere in the country.

Would we go back? In a heartbeat!!

Yangtze River Cruise

When we arrived back in Chengdu, we were met at the airport by a driver and his very large and very comfortable bus. That was a good thing, because we had a five-hour bus ride through the countryside to Chongqing, known in the Cantonese language as Chungking, just like the canned noodles. Chongqing was the temporary capital of China during the Second World War, as the Japanese had occupied Nanjing, the previous capital of the Republic of China.


Our bus ride took us through some beautiful agricultural scenery. Rice is the main crop grown in southern China, but we also saw wheat, corn, taro, lotus and other crops. Farming in China is very different than what we are used to in the U.S. During the Mao years and the Cultural Revolution which followed, farms were large collectives, with conscripted laborers providing the work. Farm production suffered and the country had a hard time supplying enough food for its citizens. Farm laborers were finally allowed to cultivate small individual plots to supplement their family’s food supply, and it became apparent that the production from these small plots was significantly better than the collectives, themselves. Following the collapse of the Cultural Revolution, the collective system was scrapped and farmers were given small plots of land on which to grow crops for sale. Crops could be sold to the government at a fixed price, or the farmers could choose to sell on the open market. Food production soared, even though individual farms are very small by our standards.

Production is not very mechanized; we saw a few small tractors, actually more like large rototillers, and also saw many water buffalo used to plow the fields. Rice seed is sprouted in trays, and then transplanted by hand to flooded fields. When the rice is ready for harvest, it is also done by hand.

Upon arrival in Chongqing, we had dinner in a local restaurant, and then transferred to our cruise ship, the Victoria Queen, for our three-day cruise down the Yangtze River. The ship carries about 200 passengers and 110 crew members. It is pretty much a miniature version of other cruise ships we have been on, with a large dining room, a bar, a showroom, a beauty salon, etc. Our room was on the top deck, and we had a private balcony. Most of the passengers were overseas tourists from the U.S., Europe and Australia. Most were travelling in groups, but a few had booked their travel independently. As we prepared to depart Chongqing that evening, the buildings fronting the Yangtze River were lit up by a colorful light show.

We sailed through the night and the next morning after breakfast, we sat in on lectures about the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges area we would be passing through in the next two days. There was also a lecture by the ship’s doctor on acupuncture. Our friend Andy volunteered to participate in the demonstration and treatment for a sore shoulder. It was very interesting, and Andy said it helped his shoulder, at least for a little while. The lecture and demonstration resulted in Tom deciding to try acupuncture to get relief from sciatica which he periodically experiences in his right hip and leg. So, he made an appointment with the doctor, who is both an acupuncturist and an internist. Tom had two acupuncture treatments over the next two days, and, TA-DA, the sciatica has not bothered him since. If it comes back, he says he’ll try acupuncture again.

Later that day, the ship docked near the city of Fengdu which has been relocated to escape inundation as the river rises from the completion of the downstream Three Gorges Dam. We had a shore excursion to visit a nearby farming village which had also been relocated to higher ground. We visited the home of a local family who run a small store and tea house in their home, as well as raising pigs in their basement. It appears that they lead a very comfortable life in their new village. On the way back to our ship, we stopped for a visit to a local market with stalls and shops selling all sorts of meats and vegetables, including live chickens and ducks. Once back on board, we continued our sail down the river and after dinner the crew put on a show to demonstrate the various regional costumes of China.

The next morning we sailed through the first of the fabled Three Gorges. The canyons of rock rise hundreds of feet on either side of the river which varies from 300 meters to less than 100 meters wide. The scenery is spectacular and the various types of other river traffic are fascinating. We passed an area where a number of coffins have been found, set in caves high on the cliffs, probably placed there by an ancient tribe. Later in the day, we docked at the town of Wushan and transferred to smaller sightseeing boats for a trip up the Daning River to the Lesser Three Gorges. After traveling through the gorges to a very narrow section of river, we transferred again, this time to motorized sampans, to travel even further through the gorges. Finally, at a spot wide enough to turn around, we proceeded back down the river to our ship.

That evening, we traversed the ship locks at the Three Gorges Dam.
Going through the five locks took most of the night, and the next morning we woke up docked at the base of the Three Gorges Dam. After breakfast, we took a bus for a tour of the dam site. The dam measures 600 feet high and is about 1¼ miles long. Its hydroelectric capacity is equivalent to 18 nuclear power plants. It was constructed to provide hydroelectric power to western China, to improve navigation on the river which already transports 70% of the entire country’s shipping and to provide flood control to an area where flooding had claimed more than 1 million lives in the past 100 years.
Dam construction cost approximately $75 billion dollars, and more than 1.5 million people were moved from areas which will be inundated when the river behind the dam is at full capacity. The dam is essentially finished, but the complete hydroelectric generating power system has not been fully installed, and a ship elevator, which is supposed to lift and lower ships in less than an hour instead of the lock system which takes up to five hours, apparently doesn’t work, and the engineers aren’t sure how to fix it, or so we were told.

The water level in the upstream reservoir varies with the season, and when we passed through, it was about 150 meters above sea level. Last winter it reached 171 meters, and the maximum level is at 175 meters above sea level. The dam itself is at 185 meters above sea level.

We were docked for the night, and in the morning we went through the single lock at the Gezhou Dam, just downstream from the Three Gorges Dam. The Gezhou Dam was built as a test before the Three Gorges Dam was built. After traveling another 30 kilometers or so, we reached the city of Yichang, a city of about 4 million, where we disembarked. When we originally boarded our ship, our luggage had preceded us, and we assumed it had been carried in luggage carts or something like that. As we disembarked, we found it to be entirely different than we had believed. Laborers, known as “stick soldiers”, came aboard the ship, placed up to four large suitcases in rope slings attached to long sticks, hoisted the sticks to their shoulders and proceeded to carry the luggage out of the ship, across a long dock and up the stairs to the top of the river bank. It was a shocking and amazing sight!

We were met by a bus which loaded us and our luggage, then headed out for another five-hour journey to the city of Wuhan, another city of 4 million people, where we transferred to a flight to Hong Kong, our last stop in China.

Tibet - "the Rooftop of the World"

As we mentioned at the end of our last update, the flight we were scheduled to take from Chengdu to Lhasa, Tibet was cancelled. We didn’t find out about the cancellation until we reached the airport, and then Mike, our guide, had to really scurry to get us all through flight and baggage check in. While waiting in line, we noticed large market displays of fresh fruit. It all looked delicious, but in our hurry to get checked in, we passed on the opportunity to purchase some. Once through the check in process, we were rapidly on our way.

We reached the Lhasa Airport in about three hours, then had a one-hour bus ride into the city. The bus, with its driver and guide, had dropped another OAT tour group at the airport for their flight out of Tibet, and they were returning to the city, when they got a call that we were arriving earlier than planned, so they turned around and were able to meet us as we cleared the baggage area.

For the first time since our arrival in China, the sky was bright blue and the air was crystal-clear. Lhasa is over 12,000 feet in elevation, and we guessed that the winds were able to keep air pollution away. On our way into the city, we saw a number of yaks in fields and along the road. We were told that these were domesticated yaks that are used to pull plows and give milk. There is also a large population of wild yaks in Tibet, but we didn’t see any sign of them. Because of the country’s high elevation, crops seem to be primarily grown or at least started in hot houses. There were a number of roadside stands selling all sorts of vegetables from beans to watermelon, which our local guide said were all dependent on the hot houses.

Buddhism is the universal religion in Tibet. It spread from India during the 3rd through 7th centuries AD. In 1641, two Buddhist sects fought, and the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) sect won. Their leader adopted the title of Dalai Lama, and presided over both religion and politics. Each Dalai Lama was considered a reincarnation of the previous one. With the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Tibet enjoyed a period of de facto independence until 1950, when Chinese forces invaded. China brought modernization and mandatory schooling to the region, but by 1959, growing popular unrest resulted in a revolt that was crushed by the Chinese army. The Dalai Lama, fearing a plot to kidnap him, fled to India where he continues to represent over 100,000 Tibetans in exile.

One of the first sights we saw as we approached Lhasa was the impressive Potala Palace, once the seat of the Tibetan government and the winter home of the Dalai Lama. It rises 13 stories on a hill and contains more than a thousand rooms. Parts of the palace are painted red, other parts are white. The red section is full of chapels which are used for religious functions, and it contains the tombs of a number of previous Dalai Lamas. The white section was used as the living quarters for the Dalai Lama and it now functions primarily as a museum.

Our hotel was located in a section of the old city near the Jokhang Temple, and is in the midst of a large bazaar. The streets are very narrow and crowded with pedestrians and Buddhist worshippers, who walk, prayer wheels in hand, round and round the periphery of the temple area. Many of them prostrate themselves over and over as they go around the area. Spiritual items and tourist baubles are sold in shops and stands that line the route.

Since many travelers suffer from altitude sickness upon arrival at the high altitude of Lhasa, the rest of the day was at leisure, although a number of the more adventurous walked and shopped their way around the bazaar until dinner was served in our hotel.

The next morning we visited the Potala Palace and climbed the more than 600 steps from the street to the top floors of the palace itself. The present palace was built in the 17th century, and supposedly took 7,000 workers and 1,500 artists and craftsmen more than 50 years to complete. At the time it was built, it was the world’s tallest building. The views of Lhasa from the top are spectacular.

After lunch we took the afternoon’s optional tour to the Sera Monastery, about three miles north of Lhasa. The monastery, founded in 1419, was one of two great monasteries in Lhasa. Originally the home of 5,000 monks, about 600 are still in residence. We arrived to find their daily “debate” in full swing. Held in a garden in the center of the monastery, teaching monks quiz their students in a hubbub of loud and emphatic chatter while tourists, both local and foreign, skirt the perimeter, snapping photos as fast as they can. It was a mesmerizing exercise held in a captivating setting.

From the monastery, we traveled to a small mountain village near Lhasa and visited the home of a local farmer. They live a fairly primitive life, for while their homes have electricity; they draw their water from community wells and heat their homes with dried yak dung.


After leaving the village, we returned to our hotel and soon were having dinner at “The Original Crazy Yak Restaurant”. Dinner also included a music and dance show featuring typical Tibetan culture. At least it did until several of us “big nose people” were encouraged to join in the show. The cultural experience rapidly deteriorated from that point on.

The next morning found us at the 1,300 year-old Jokhang Temple, where we were able to observe worshippers prostrating themselves and making clockwise circles of the bazaar on their hands and knees in reverence to this sacred site. Smoke from burning incense and thousands of yak butter candles filled the air in the temple, built to house the 7th century Sakyamuni Buddha statue. Other religious observances that we saw included large brass prayer wheels that the faithful spin as they walk past in prayer, and thousands of prayer flags flying from rooftops.

That afternoon we visited the De Ji Orphanage and school, which is supported in part by donations from Overseas Adventure Foundation. Started a number of years ago by a woman who saw an urgent need for housing and schooling local orphans, it has recently moved to a much larger facility which provides for about 60 children from infants through their teen years. We were impressed with the large room full of computers for the kids’ use, and the beautiful artwork that they have produced. While we were there, several other groups were visiting as well; most of them bringing various supplies for the orphanage.

Following the orphanage visit, we were welcomed into a local home where we enjoyed Tibetan snacks and yak butter tea, which we decided was definitely an acquired taste. This local family, like what appeared to us to be a very large majority of Tibetans, practices their Buddhist religion enthusiastically. They have a room in their home set aside as a spiritual shrine. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to interact with the local culture.

It rained in Lhasa during our last night, and we woke up in the morning to snow topping the nearby mountains. We loaded ourselves and our luggage onto our bus and, after a stop at the Potala Palace for a group photo, headed for the airport, and our flight back to Chengdu and a bus transfer to our Yangtze River cruise.

More later.

Chengdu and the Panda Sanctuary

We took an afternoon flight for the 500 mile trip from Xi’An to Chengdu, a city of 5.2 million people, the capital of Sichuan Province. We were met at the airport by our local guide and bus driver. That was one thing that was really great on the whole trip; we had a local or city guide and a bus and bus driver in addition to our national guide, Mike. After settling into our hotel, we enjoyed an excellent but spicy Sichuan dinner at a local restaurant.

From the restaurant we traveled to a theater to observe a “Changing Faces Opera”. Face changing is an ancient Chinese dramatic art that is part of the traditional Sichuan-style of opera. The above photo is a link to a short video of the Changing Faces. Double click on it to view the video. When you are finished, click the Back button on your browser to return to this blog.
The performers wore brightly colored costumes and vivid masks. What was amazing was their ability to change the masks and even the costumes in just seconds. The “changing faces” was only one of several dramatic performances. Other acts included music, dance and comedy which were all very entertaining. Shortly before the performance began, we were treated to another ancient tradition, Chinese massage. We each experienced a 30-minute neck, shoulder and back massage while remaining seated in the theater. It was relaxing and enjoyable, but Tom had some back soreness for a couple of days after the massage.


The next day we boarded our bus to visit the Giant Panda Sanctuary, located just outside of Chengdu. Sichuan Province is the native habitat of the giant panda, and the sanctuary is a simulated habitat, with acres of space for the pandas to roam and thrive as nature intended.
More pandas can be seen here than at any other location in the world.

China has embarked on an ambitious conservation program to preserve existing wild habitat, expand existing reserves and create new reserves in an effort to stave off the extinction of pandas. Only about 1,000 animals are still living in the wild in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi Provinces. The giant panda is under siege due to habitat eradication, but also from poachers who can sell a giant panda hide for as much as $10,000 in Hong Kong or Japan.

We took an extensive guided tour of the sanctuary and observed adult pandas sleeping, eating and playing. We also saw a number of juvenile pandas and visited the panda nursery where the little ones are kept and cared for.

For a fee, visitors are able to touch an adult panda, and for a larger fee, they can hold a baby panda. Mary Ann came to China with the intent to touch or hold a panda, and she was able to satisfy that wish. We also had the opportunity to observe the other panda at the Sanctuary, the Red Panda, which looks sort of like a large, reddish-brown raccoon.

After lunch at a local restaurant, we had the afternoon free. Mike, our guide, offered to take us to a local park and teahouse, if we’d like. Most of us chose to go, and it was a fun afternoon. Since this was a “Mike Tour”, we paid our own expenses, including taxis and refreshments.
The park has a lovely lake with boats to rent, an extensive bonsai garden, and a large old teahouse under the trees. A number of types of tea are available as well as other snacks. It’s a very popular place for locals as well as tourists to spend some free time. Vendors roam around through the teahouse, including “ear cleaners” who, for just a few Yuan, will clean your ears with picks and cotton balls on long sticks. After leaving the park, we returned to our hotel for dinner on our own.

The next morning we took our bus to the airport, only to find that our scheduled flight to Lhasa, Tibet, had been canceled and we had been rebooked onto an earlier flight. We just barely made it through check-in and security in time to board the plane. We’ll tell you all about our adventures in Tibet in the next posting.