Tiger Worldwide: China – August

Friday, Aug 28 [Sofia + Leon]

The flight to Bejiing took about 14 hours flying over Canada, the Arctic, and Siberia. I managed to connect to United WiFi and catch up on some work emails. It's great to know that we will be away from the office for over two weeks. Our tour guide Jenny and driver Mr. Fong met us at the airport and took us to New World Beijing Hotel which is very new and spacious, with a nice gym, infinity swimming pool and a tall water feature in the lobby. We crashed as soon as we got to our room. We woke up just after 8:00 pm and decided to go outside on a reconnaissance mission. We found a big shopping street called Wangfujing with lots of different stores. At a snack market in one of the side streets we saw vendors selling live scorpions on a stick as well as other food. Most of the stores were closing, and with our jet lag we did not feel all that hungry. So, after walking around for a bit, we took a taxi back to our hotel.

Snacks in hutong off Wangfujing

Saturday, Aug 29 [Sofia + Leon]

Leon managed to sleep until 6:00 am while I woke up at 3:00 am and suffered quietly. At this point, we were quite hungry, so we went for a large and delicious breakfast at a very spacious restaurant in our hotel. We found our guide Jenny in the lobby and drove to Jingshan Park, formerly a private imperial garden attached to the grounds of Forbidden City. At this point, you may start wondering, why didn’t we go see Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City? Aren’t those the most famous tourist attractions in Beijing? All true, however both Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City were closed to public in preparation for a military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of World War II victory over Japan. So, we had to settle for secondary sights. Anyway, we read in our Fodor’s China guide that from a hill in Jingshan Park on a clear day one could see a great panorama of Forbidden City. Jenny did not know about this, however with combined efforts we found the hill in question and she reluctantly climbed it with us. The view was great – red walls and gates and traditional yellow tiled roofs, with other buildings and greenery further away.

View from Jingshan hill

After Jingshan Park, we drove to Niujie Mosque, which was first built in 996 AD, and subsequently rebuilt and expanded in 17th century. The mosque was very well preserved and functional. We could hear the imam leading a prayer or a class in a language that sounded like a mix of Chinese and Arabic. At the exit we saw a pomegranate tree with big ripe fruits.

At Niujie Mosque

We flatly refused to go to our next scheduled stop – the pearl store – and instead drove to Summer Palace, which was located in another part of Beijing, about an hour away. Summer Palace is a very nice complex of gardens, man-made lakes, and palace buildings, pagodas, and temples. We saw the Hall of Benevolent Longevity, where Empress Dowager Cixi held court in early 1900s. Supposedly, first electric lights in China were installed here. We also walked the Long Corridor – a covered wooden walkway with a richly painted ceiling and rafters, running along the shoreline of Kunming Lake. This man-made lake occupies most of the Summer Palace complex. At the end of the walkway, we saw the Marble Boat sitting in the water. This stationary marble boat was commissioned by Empress Cixi and paid for with the money earmarked for Chinese navy. We took a funky dragon-boat, not made of marble, across the lake and met up again with our driver. He brought us for lunch to a local chain restaurant famous for its pear soup, where we had eggplant, shrimp, and fried mushrooms with beer. After lunch, we made a quick photo stop at Olympic Bird’s Nest and Water Cube stadiums. Both were closed to public and we couldn’t get very near. Then we went to see Dongbianmen Watch Tower – the last surviving Ming dynasty watchtower in Beijing. The Red Gallery located on the first floor inside the tower had a nice collection of contemporary Chinese art. Then our guided tour for the day was over, and we asked to be dropped off on the main shopping street Wangfujing. Before dropping us off, Jenny helped us find the duck restaurant we wanted to have dinner at – Siji Minfu – which was highly recommended on TripAdvisor. It was located on a small side street off Wangfujing. We visited a few stores, grumbled at high prices – easily 50% higher than in the U.S. for brand-name clothes, even Uniqlo – had Starbucks iced coffee in the mall, and finally made it to our hotel. We struggled to stay awake but finally gave up and took a quick nap and felt much better afterwards. The dinner at Siji Minfu consisted of traditional smoked duck with scallions and pancakes. It was simple but very tasty.

At Summer Palace

At Summer Palace - Marble Boat

Duck at Siji Minfu

Sunday, Aug 30 [Sofia]

This morning we drove out of the city to see the Great Wall. On the way, we stopped at the Ming Tombs where 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) were buried. We visited the Dingling Tomb of the 13th Ming emperor and his two empresses, built in 1584 – 1590. It was a very large and impressive underground mausoleum, located about 40 meters under the surface. The coffins were apparently looted by farmers in the 20th century and everything displayed there now are just replicas. Many valuable artifacts were recovered or later unearthed at the site by archaeologists, however these items are now all in various museums in Beijing, Shanghai, and elsewhere.

At Dingling Tomb - carving of dragon and phoenix

Then we drove for another hour and finally got to Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. It started raining soon after, first a slight drizzle and then a hard rain. We took a shuttle bus and a cable car to get to the top where we ended up standing around in one of the towers waiting for the rain to stop. After 15 minutes the rain turned to drizzle again, and we decided to brave it and come out. The view from the wall was all cloudy and foggy and stone steps were wet, but we still went for a walk for about an hour and saw a few watch towers. Towards the end, the rain stopped completely, the fog lifted, and we got to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery – the ancient wall snaking over green hills.

Great Wall

After a highly unremarkable lunch in a tourist-trap restaurant close to Mutianyu, we drove back to the city and stopped at the Silk Road Market. This place was rebuilt a few years ago and is well-known for selling cheap knockoffs of brand name merchandise. I bargained for a couple of keychains just to keep my negotiating skills sharp. For dinner we went to a Yunnan cuisine restaurant called Lost Heaven, located about a mile from our hotel in a courtyard right off Tiananmen Square. Lost Heaven was absolutely amazing – dark decor, dim lights, red lamps, custom furniture, and copper dome shaped plate covers. We ordered fish, eggplant, and shrimp – all very delicate fusion of Thai, Chinese, and Indonesian flavors.

Monday, Aug 31 [Sofia]

This morning we visited the Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple), which served as a residence of Prince Yong in late 1600s – early 1700s, and was later converted to a lamasery – a monastery for Tibetan Buddhist monks. It was a very important Buddhist temple – a national center of Lama administration. Supposedly, it survived Cultural Revolution due to personal intervention of Premier Zhou Enlai, but perhaps it was just because of general superstition. Even communists wanted to hedge their bets somewhat and not anger the gods too much. The site was re-opened to the public in 1981 and is still a functioning Buddhist temple with several buildings and courtyards. We lit some incense sticks, made a wish, and stuck them in the incense burner. The Confucius Temple was very close – just a short walk away. It was built in 1302 and contained several courtyards and buildings, including a school for high-ranking officials and royalty. There were several ancient trees in the courtyards, including one cypress tree that supposedly hit a corrupt Ming Dynasty official over the head with its branch. There were also several nice stone carvings of dragons and phoenixes.

At Lama Temple

At Confucius Temple

The weather was finally improving – no rain and not too hot. We drove up to a hutong – an old neighborhood of narrow pedestrian streets and little stone houses. Rickshaw tour of hutong was surprisingly fun and gave us a good view of streets, houses, and other glimpses of a hutong life. Afterwards, we went for lunch to a nearby place famous for its dumplings. We had 2 types of dumplings, amazing spicy and crispy eggplant, and sweet and sour ribs. After lunch, we went to the Temple of Heaven where Ming and Qing emperors worshipped heaven and prayed for good harvest. It is an enormous space with a few tiered buildings, all richly covered in blue, green red and gold frescos with dragons. Many features of the temple complex symbolize the connection between Heaven and Earth, where the former is represented by a circle and the latter by a square.

At Temple of Heaven

Afterwards, we asked Jenny and Mr. Fong to drop us off at the gate to Tiananmen Square. Even though it was closed, we figured we could take a walk on the side and still see some of the sights. We spent about 2 hours walking there among crowds of other tourists, mainly Chinese. We saw the Great Hall of the People, Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall, and National Museum of China. It was very similar to Moscow’s Red Square in layout and in spirit, if not in the actual architecture. Of course, the red brick walls of the Kremlin and the onion domes of St. Basil’s were missing.

At Tiananmen Square

Then we took a leisurely walk back to our hotel past rows of old buildings that looked strangely Soviet, with their glassed-in balconies. Coming back to our room, we found an email message from our tour agency that our flight to Xi’an is actually at 8:05 am rather than 8:50 am. We called Jenny and rescheduled next morning’s pickup for 5:30 am; and then asked for breakfast boxes at hotel’s reception. After yesterday's great dinner at Lost Heaven, we wanted to try more of Yunnan cuisine. So, we took a taxi to another restaurant called Little Yunnan, located on a small side street about 2-3 miles from our hotel. It was a little homey place with friendly staff. We ordered the most exotic looking things on the menu – whole deep fried carp with lemongrass, a plate of fiery crawfish, and a half a pineapple stuffed with sticky rice. The food looked intimidating and exotic even to us but we bravely dug in, and it tasted great. By the time we were done with dinner, it started raining and the restaurant staff didn't know how to call us a taxi. Leon had a bright idea to try calling Uber – the restaurant had free WiFi. I accepted 2.2x rate and Uber driver on a Volkswagen Passat arrived in 15 minutes as promised. The entire ride back to the hotel cost us 22 RMB – less than $5.

Dinner at Little Yunnan

Tuesday, Sep 1 [Sofia + Leon]

Rainy morning again. Our driver arrived at 5:30 am and we rolled out of the hotel on the way to the airport. Airport security was pretty stringent and they took a special interest in my hair appliances. The plane arrived to Xi'an on time, but it took us an hour to catch our bags and change into shorts. Our new guide Linda seems to be very knowledgeable and speaks good bookish English with a somewhat British accent. On our way from the airport, we stopped by Hanyangling Excavation, where we could walk on a glass floor above the long excavated corridors filled with imprints of wheels and chariots, many clay figures of horses and other domestic animals, soldiers and civilians, as well as weapons and other articles of everyday use. The site was excavated fairly recently and opened to the public only in 2006. It’s a joint tomb of Liu Qi, a notable emperor of Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – 24 AD) and his empress Wang. As Linda told us, this emperor ruled during a period of relative peace and prosperity, so faces of pottery figures are placid and even smiling, not stern like those of Terracotta Warriors we would see the next day.

At Hanyangling Excavation

Afterwards, on a drive to Xi’an, we saw many industrial buildings on both sides of the highway, as well as rows after rows of tall modern residential high-rises. Apparently, Xi’an industry is booming and construction is going full speed ahead. Once we arrived to Xi’an, Linda took us for lunch to China Folks’ Restaurant located in a modern mall next to our Westin hotel. We ordered way too much food – ribs, chicken with walnuts and lots of dry red pepper, eggplant with green beans, and a mound of chili rice. Most of the dishes were excellent, especially ribs and spicy rice. After eating almost everything, we went to Shaanxi Provincial Museum, which was also nearby. It was filled with Chinese tourists, which we found pretty amazing. After all, a historical museum in United States would be nearly empty, especially in a comparable provincial capital. The museum had a very thorough exposition of human civilization in the local area, from Paleolithic and Neolithic periods all the way up to Silk Route trading culture. Xi’an was an ancient Chinese capital during thirteen dynasties, including Zhou (1046 BC – 256 BC), Han (202 BC – 220 AD) and Tang (618 – 907), and museum had tons of artifacts from different historic periods – tri-color glazed pottery, gold and silver articles, coins and coin-making molds, weapons, and other useful items. Linda’s commentary was very detailed and informative; and we learned a lot about Chinese history during this visit.

At Shaanxi Provincial Museum

We left museum around 5:00 pm, checked into our hotel, and feeling exhausted after this long day decided to take a nap. When we woke up, we could not decide whether we were hungry, since our lunch was so filling. So we just went for a walk outside and marveled at all the modern development surrounding us – huge shopping malls with enormous outdoor TV screens, restaurants, squares and boulevards with fountains and Tang dynasty imitation statues. The 4-day national holiday to commemorate victory over Japan was about to start, so the streets were full of people. After walking around for a couple of hours and realizing that we still weren’t hungry, we decided to skip dinner and went to sleep.

At Xi'an Mall - under outdoor screen

Wednesday, Sep 2 [Leon]

After breakfast at the hotel, we went to see Terracotta Warriors and Horses. The site was discovered in 1974 and has been undergoing continuous restoration work ever since. The army of terracotta soldiers was commissioned by Emperor Qin and buried with him in 210 – 209 BC to accompany him in his afterlife battles. The soldiers were all life-sized, varying in height, facial features, uniform, and hairstyle. You could tell different ranks based on figure’s size and the style of uniform and boots. There were three different pits – the largest one with foot soldiers and some horses and chariots, the second one with more chariots and headquarters staff, and the last one with archers and cavalry. There were also some weapons and other artifacts on the exhibit, such as the sword of chromium coated bronze alloy that remained sharp and rust-free after being buried for 2,000 years. Supposedly, all terracotta warriors held real weapons when the tomb was constructed – swords, scimitars, halberds, spears, and crossbows. However, several years after the tomb was sealed, a rebellion broke out. The rebels entered the tomb, looted most of the weapons and valuables, smashed many terracotta figures, and set the place on fire. Ever since the site was discovered in 1970s, archaeologists have been painstakingly putting terracotta figures together by hand from fragments, based on several that were found intact. It was an enormous site, and huge effort went into excavating and restoring it.

Terracotta Warriors

Terracotta Archer

Terracotta General

Afterwards, we drove to the center of old walled city of Xi'an and had lunch in a Muslim restaurant. We expected middle-eastern food, but it was really just Chinese food with a slight twist and no beer. Then we walked through the streets of Muslim quarter filled with vendors selling snacks and food of all kinds, t-shirts, souvenirs, and the like. Linda called it a Chinatown inside China. Then we reached the Great Mosque, endowed by a Tang dynasty emperor in 742 to attract Muslim traders and artisans to the city. It was built in a traditional Chinese courtyard style, with some Persian influenced elements and Arabic inscriptions – very different from any other mosque, as it had no traditional domes or minarets. The majority of present day buildings were constructed during Ming dynasty and expanded during Qing dynasty.

At Xi'an Muslim Quarter - a noodle maker

At Xi'an Great Mosque

Exiting the mosque, we walked further and looked at Drum Tower and Bell Tower. The bell inside Bell Tower was rung in the morning, while the drum was beat in the evening. Then we jumped in the car and drove to South Gate, where we climbed the city wall. The wall was very wide – about 20 meters at the base and 15 or so at the top. It enclosed the entire old city of Xi’an, running over 13 km (8.5 miles) in length. There were watchtowers every 120 meters – twice the range of a longbow arrow shot. The towers extended out from the wall, so that defenders could shoot arrows alongside the wall without exposing themselves to enemy projectiles. The gates were constructed in a very sophisticated way as well. They had several layers of defenses, including blind traps to slow down and ultimately destroy any invading forces that managed to break down the outer gates. After walking along the wall for about 30 minutes, we got too hot and went back to our hotel.

On Xi'an old city wall

Thursday, Sep 3 [Sofia]

The flight this morning was easy and relatively painless. The airport in Xi'an was new and spacious, and we even had time to watch the beginning of Beijing parade dedicated to victory in WWII – the part where various world leaders arrived and were greeted by President Xi and his wife. The airport in Shanghai was just a 30 min drive from city center. Shanghai looks busy and bustling, more crowded than usual due to public holiday. Our hotel was right next to Nanjing Road – the main shopping street running the length of 10 km. There was a slight mishap with the hotel reservation, but it worked out in our favor. The staff at Central Hotel indicated on our itinerary could not find our reservation. Then we looked at the actual hotel voucher and realized that it’s from Grand Central Hotel across the street. Seems like our agency made a mistake, but Grand Central Hotel is newer and better, so no complains on our part. We went to Nanjing Road for lunch of traditional Shanghai-style soup crab dumplings and sausage and pork rice while waiting for our room to be ready. After changing into shorts, we decided to master Shanghai subway system and took one stop on Line 2 to the financial center in Pudong. It is very impressive – big and new, with multiple modern tall towers, each with its own unique architecture, high-end shopping malls and restaurants, and bridge walkways in-between. We spent an hour in line waiting to get to observation deck of Shanghai World Financial Center tower known as the "bottle opener". The tower is 492 meters tall, and the observation deck is on 100th floor, 474 meters above ground level, in the top part of bottle opener. You can see great panoramic views of Shanghai all around, and even look down through the glass floor. The futuristic-looking twisting Shanghai Tower next door was not open to public yet. At 632 meters high, it is going to be the tallest building in China and the second tallest in the world after Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Shanghai Financial Center

View from the top of "bottle opener"

The way back to our hotel took longer than we expected, so we didn't have any time for dinner. The restaurant at Central Hotel next to us was famous for its crab dishes, so we changed and went to at least look at the menu. Our guide Helen picked us up at 6:45 pm to go to the acrobatic show at Ritz Carlton. I especially liked clowns – good old traditional circus jokes. Leon was impressed by hoop jumping acrobats the most, even though the hoops were not flaming. Coming back to the room, we caught a few minutes of Beijing military parade on TV – it is amazing how format is identical to Soviet era parades on Red Square.

Friday, Sep 4 [Leon]

This morning we headed out of the city for a tour of the old Zhujiajiao Water Town, established about 1,700 years ago. It had narrow canals and old stone and wood bridges arching over them, with traditional wooden boats navigating the canals. Sort of like a Chinese version of Venice, and about as crowded with tourists, and full of shops selling pearls, souvenirs, and food of all kinds. After walking narrow streets, looking at the canals, and fighting the crowds for about 1.5 hours, we headed back to Shanghai. We stopped in the former French Concession area, currently called Xintiandi. It's a nice place with several old stone buildings in French style circa early 1900s, European style sidewalk cafes, and many funky bars and restaurants. We had a very nice lunch of traditional Shanghainese food in a restaurant called Shanghai Min. Then we walked around Xintiandi some more and headed to the Yu Garden. The garden was beautiful, with several manmade ponds and streams full of koi fish, traditional Chinese pavilions for tea ceremony, study and reflection, or an opera performance. There were also lots of lush greenery, beautiful rocks, and carvings and statues of dragons, phoenixes, lions, and other creatures. The garden was built in 1577 by the former governor of Sichuan province upon his return to Shanghai. It took 26 years to build and occupies an area of 5 acres. It was declared a national monument in 1982 and has been beautifully restored and maintained.

At Zhujiajiao Water Town

At Xintiandi

Yu Garden

Afterwards, we got back to our hotel and relaxed for a couple of hours. Then we headed out again and walked along Nanjing Road towards the Bund. The streets were full of people and vendors spellings everything – from t-shirts to selfie sticks, drones, and wheels to attach to shoes. The Bund – a riverside promenade looking out to neoclassical 1920s buildings on one side and financial center across Pu River – was also packed. However, despite the crowds and gathering clouds, the views were still amazing, especially as it got dark and all the financial center skyscrapers lit up. We walked along the Bund for about an hour, gazing at the view and trying to take selfies. Then we made our way to Lost Heaven restaurant about a block away from the Bund. It was so much busier than the one we went to in Beijing! Almost every table was occupied, but then of course it was a Friday night and a holiday. A big group of mostly Westerner expats next to us celebrated something. We ordered lamb chops and crab in coconut tomato sauce, and both were excellent.

On the Bund

Saturday, Sep 5 [Sofia]

It's been raining all night and all morning, and we slept until 7:00 am instead of waking up at our usual 5:00 am. Perhaps we are finally getting over jet lag. Met Helen in the lobby and headed out to Shanghai Museum under light rain. We spent a couple of hours there, running through a few interesting galleries – lacquered Ming and Qing dynasty furniture, old jades, ink stones, typical costumes of various Chinese ethnic minorities, ancient coins and paintings. Nearby Urban Planning Museum had a scaled down model of the entire city of Shanghai and a number of photo galleries showing how Shanghai developed and grew over the years. It has been a very international cosmopolitan city and an important trading port for well over 100 years, and still the scale of development in the last 30 years has been astounding.

Shanghai - People's Square

At Shanghai Urban Planning Museum

For lunch we went to a chain restaurant called South Beauty, where Leon ordered big and light pork meatballs. The next stop was at Silk Museum or rather a silk shop where they first showed us how silk worms make silk, and then tried – unsuccessfully – to sell us some silk quilts and other silk products. After that we went to Hongkou district and saw Shanghai Synagogue where 20,000 mainly German and Austrian Jewish refugees fled before and during WWII. Some of then traveled through Palestine, Suez Canal, India and Singapore, others took a train to Moscow followed by two weeks on a Trans-Siberian train. Most people lived in a square-mile section around this synagogue and opened little businesses. For a while, the area was known as Little Vienna. They all went through some very tough times during Japanese occupation, and most moved to Israel, United States, or Australia after the war. The museum had displays of some personal items and photos accompanied by personal stories and interviews with the refugees.

Shanghai Synagogue and Jewish Refugee Museum

Old Jewish neighborhood

For dinner, we decided to take a break from Chinese food and set our sights on a highly-rated Japanese restaurant called Shintori. After taking a quick break back in our hotel, we took subway a couple of stops and walked through a nice upscale neighborhood and under Yan’an Elevated Highway, which was all lit up with blue LEDs. Leon and his built-in compass worked without a glitch this time again – he led us directly to Shintori. The restaurant was amazing – firstly, there is no name on the street entrance, just a house number (803); then a dimly lit path through a bamboo garden leads you to an interior entrance with silently opening automatic doors; and then you walk into a huge remodeled warehouse space, all stainless steel and poured polished concrete. We sat on a second floor and had a full view of entire kitchen and sushi bar on the lower level. The sushi – salmon, tuna, shimesaba (vinegar mackerel), and spicy tuna roll were all up to Tokyo standards. Using free WiFi, we called Uber which took us to the Bund with amazing night view of all the skyscrapers. It was a clear evening, so the view was much better than the night before. The Oriental Pearl Tower with multiple blue and pink gradient lights was my favorite out of all the buildings.

Shintori

On the Bund

Sunday, Sep 6 [Sofia]

We had no tours scheduled for this morning so we decided to find the former house/museum of Sun Yat-sen. Leon's built-in compass led us straight to it through the narrow streets. However, the sign on museum gates said it was closed for renovations for the next 6 months. It was a nice morning, and we took a walk through tree-lined streets of the former French Concession area towards XinTianDi. On the way, we passed through a very nice modern neighborhood called Sinan Mansions – a collection of mostly Western restaurants and luxury condominiums, including a place called Boxing Cat Brewery. We hung out in XinTianDi area for a while, and went for an early lunch to famous Taiwanese dumpling chain restaurant – Din Tai Fung. We had 3 types of dumplings and one mysterious leafy vegetable with garlic. The dumplings were amazing, and we were happy to see that Din Tai Fung has locations in Hong Kong as well.

At Sinan Mansions - Boxing Cat Brewery

Tesla dealership in Xintiandi

Caught a taxi back to our hotel, checked out, and headed with our guide Helen and driver for a bullet train session next to the airport. The train session was very large but extremely busy. We boarded our first class car which had huge but non-reclining and strangely uncomfortable seats and no good place to store luggage. At least it was quiet and the bathroom was spacious and clean. The ride to Hangzhou took only an hour. Hangzhou train station is the largest in China, according to our tour guide Cindy, who talks a lot and very fast. She and the driver took us to our Shangri-La Hotel which has a great location right next to West Lake. We unpacked and took a long walk on the lakeside, and then a short 1 km Baidi Causeway to a large island. The restaurant we went to for dinner was called Louwailou. It’s a local landmark – over 100 years old, located in a huge lakeside building, and apparently formerly frequented by cadres based on the number of huge crystal chandeliers, red carpet, and wood carvings. We sat on a second floor open terrace with a good view of the lake and ordered local lake fish. The fish was brought out by staff and shown to us in an orange bucket for approval, then cooked in a brown vinegar sauce. It was tasty but a bit plain. The small river shrimp we also ordered was lacking flavor, and service was not great either. We took a short bridge back to mainland and spent 15 minutes unsuccessfully searching for ice cream.

On the red carpet at Louwailou

Monday, Sep 7 [Sofia + Leon]

After a good big breakfast at our hotel, we met up with Cindy and headed for a West Lake boat cruise. While waiting for the boat, we went around a pretty garden with lotus flowers and gazebos. The boat was packed with a couple Western tour groups, but we still got very good views of the lake and surroundings. Apparently it is against the law to swim in the lake, according to Cindy, "because there is so many Chinese people and the lake would get dirty". We got off the boat in a big lakeside park with more lotus flowers and beautiful scenery. Then we met up with our driver and went to Linyin Temple. Before entering the temple, we explored a very pretty mountainous area around Feilai Feng (Flying Peak) with 338 preserved carvings of Buddha, including one famous big statue of a happy fat laughing Buddha. We climbed the stairs up to the top of the Flying Peak, for a view of the wooded area. Following the path down, we went over to the actual Linyin Temple, which was founded in 328 AD and is still one of the largest and wealthiest Buddhist temples in China. Its name is translated as Temple of the Soul’s Retreat. The main central hero temple dedicated to the founder of Buddhism in India was under remodeling, but we visited garden hall, medicine hall, the hall of zodiac warriors which bore no resemblance to the actual animals, and the Hall of Heavenly Kings. We also could light incense sticks and make a wish to each of four temples for a good job, health, money, and good family. Which we dutifully did just in case. We also visited the Hall of Five Hundred Disciples, which contained bronze sculptures of famous Buddhist scholars.

On West Lake

View of Hangzhou from West Lake

Park next to West Lake

Next to West Lake

On the way to Linyian Temple

On the way to Linyian Temple - Happy Buddha

At Linyian Temple

Then we drove up to a tea farmer’s house to have their home style lunch consisting of clay pot chicken and very tasty eggplant in brown sauce. The house had a great view of a terraced tea plantation. After lunch, we went to the actual Dragon Well tea plantation at Meijiawu. There we looked at tea plants which apparently can produce leaves for over 100 years. Spring tea gathered in March and April is considered to be the most valuable, tasty and expensive tea. Apparently, tea that goes into teabags is the worst quality tea – basically just leftover crumbles. We tried various types of loose-leaf green tea, including “gold” tea, which is produced for officials only. You could totally taste the difference between these teas and the stuff we make using teabags at home, which by the way is also Chinese and not cheap. So, we bought some good loose-leaf tea to bring back home with us. After that we drove up to Mr. Guo’s lake-side villa. According to Cindy, Mr. Guo was “a very smart man because he built a very small house but with a view of entire West Lake”. Mr. Hu's house was next on the agenda. Mr. Hu was a Qing dynasty official and a successful merchant, who built this very large and richly appointed house for itself, his many concubines and children, in a mix of Chinese and Western traditions. Mr. Hu was also “a very smart man, because he built a big house and put a very tall strong wall around it”. His personal quarters had multi-color glass, bonsai trees, decorative rocks, zigzag bridges to protect against evil spirits, and wooden gazebos. The house hosted a factory until 1991 when it was closed and restored to its prior splendor to serve as a tourist attraction. It was a great example of how Chinese government is trying to reconnect people with their country's rich history.

Dragon Well tea plantation at Meijiawu

Mr. Guo's villa

Mr. Hu's house

Afterwards, Cindy took us back to our hotel, where we changed, rested a bit, and took a taxi to downtown Hangzhou for dinner at Hubin 28, supposedly a great restaurant in Hyatt hotel. The restaurant won multiple awards and was highly rated on TripAdvisor. The food was generally solid, however the service was spotty. For example, we got curry crab which should have really been cracked given the amount of sauce on it. Well, it was not cracked and we did not get the utensils to crack the claws until we asked for them. The dirty martini I ordered was good, but nobody checked to offer another one... Anyway, we finished dinner just in time to see an amazing show of colorful dancing fountains on West Lake, similar to Bellagio fountains in Vegas.

Tuesday, Sep 8 [Sofia + Leon]

Long drive to the airport, where we had to say goodbye to our fun tour guide Cindy. Our flight was delayed and assigned seats were uncomfortable, so we were in a grumpy mood upon arrival to Guilin. Our new tour guide Susan is a little woman with a very British accent. We had to settle for a quick lunch in the airport restaurant, and after that drove to Li River to take a motorized bamboo raft tour. The area is amazingly green and hilly, with unusual tall slim Karst hills – very old and formed from dissolution of limestone. The scenery along the river was beautiful, with these limestone hills on both sides, greenery, and occasional water buffalo. There was also a lot of boat traffic on the river – both big cruise boats out of Guilin, and small bamboo rafts like ours. It was actually not made out of real bamboo, but rather of big PVC pipes in the style of old bamboo rafts. It had what looked like a modified lawnmower engine which made a decent amount of noise. The ride on the river was shorter than we expected, probably because we got there a bit late and the pilot was driving it faster than usual to get his workday over with. Then of course, he caught something on the propeller – perhaps a piece of a fishing net, and had to stop and whack it with a big stick a few times to get it going again. After getting off the boat, we walked through an old stone fishing village where most people now make their living catering to tourists. Then we caught up with our driver and got to our Yangshuo Mountain Retreat hotel around 7:30 pm. It was almost dark but we could see that we were right next to the river, which was rushing over a small rapid. We had a solid but unremarkable dinner at the hotel and feeling exhausted went to bed.

On Li River

On Li River - "bamboo" rafts

At Yangshuo Mountain Retreat - making new friends

Wednesday, Sep 9 [Sofia + Leon]

Long day today. We started with a good big breakfast – omelets and banana pancakes – in a beautiful riverside setting at Yangshuo Mountain Retreat. As we learned, this river was called Yulong River, which means Dragon River. The tour guide picked us up at 9:00 am and we headed for the Big Banyan Tree. The tree is apparently over 1,000 years old. Various people in supposedly ethnic costumes tried to do some bad dancing around it, all while trying to sell us souvenirs and water. Then we went to the Silver Cave, which is a limestone cave with many stalactites and stalagmites. The cave was all paved and lit with bright colorful lights. Nevertheless, it was large and very impressive, with many rock formations taking almost organic form. The reflection of these rock curtains in the underground lake was amazing. The lights reflected on some walls and they sparkled like silver.

Quiet morning on Yulong River at Yangshuo Mountain Retreat

Big Banyan Tree

Silver Cave

After that, we drove up to Moon Hill – a mountain with a half-moon shaped hole at the top. Susan gave us a quick overview of the hiking trail, which we could see for ourselves on the board, and set us free to climb up. This again confirmed Sofia’s theory that most Chinese tour guides are very smart and know how to avoid climbing at all costs. The 17-minute climb had 800 steps and led us to the bottom of the moon-shaped opening. The view of surrounding countryside from the top was very nice. After we came down, we went for lunch to a nearby place appropriately called Moon Hill Cafe, where we had shrimp baked with tea leaves and dumplings in a bean-curd type dough.

Moon Hill

View from Moon Hill

Moon Hill - under the arch

Then, Susan very efficiently ushered us back down to the car, to go to Yangshuo West Street “crazy market”. We even bought a few things artfully made by the local Miao people – a silver fish pendant and an embroidered bag. Our tour guide suggested that the long day like this calls for a foot massage break, and brought us to the place for a 45 minute foot massage. We were out and at our cooking class at 4:00 pm. The class consisted of instructions on how to make steamed pork-stuffed mushroom and tofu, eggplant with black bean paste, beer fish, cashew chicken, and bok choy – all in a wok, with lots of soy sauce and oyster sauce. We ate what we cooked, which was pretty salty and greasy but lots of fun.

Cooking class

Cooking class - final exam

The Impression Sanjie Liu light show designed by a producer who later worked on Beijing Olympics opening ceremony started at 7:45 pm. The show content was based on the customs and costumes of various Chinese ethnic minorities. The stage decorations were really out of this world and didn't require much work – river and mountains in the background. The show was pretty good and consisted of red impressions, blue impressions and silver impressions – lots of people with LED lights built into their costumes. They even brought our water buffalo and cormorant birds which are used for fishing. We drove back to the hotel and spent some quiet time hanging out in front listening to the dark river. All in all, this turned out to be possibly the best day of the entire trip.

Impression Sanjie Liu

Thursday, Sep 10 [Leon]

We spent a relaxing morning watching the river and little rafts floating by. It was an amazing view – quiet green river with big high hills all around. Sofia used this downtime as an opportunity to do her manicure and hair, and proclaimed that we should schedule half a day of relaxation during every long trip. Susan and the driver picked us up at noon, and we went for lunch to the same place as yesterday – Moon Hill Cafe.

Another quiet morning on Yulong River

On Yulong River - watching the rafts float by

The drive to the airport was a bit shorter than expected, since we took a newer highway. After eating tangerines and completing border control procedures, since we were leaving mainland China, we had to wait for our Dragonair flight which was delayed by about 40 minutes. Finally we got to Hong Kong and met our guide who transferred us to our hotel by car. Our hotel – InterContinental Hong Kong – is located right on the waterfront of Kowloon's bustling Tsim Sha Tsui area, across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island. I booked this hotel myself and chose to splurge on a harbor view room. It was absolutely the right decision as the Hong Kong skyline panorama across the harbor was simply amazing. We were also automatically upgraded to a room with a terrace, which was great for enjoying the view. After settling in and marveling at all the luxury cars in hotel's parking lot (including a Tesla Roadster I’ve never seen before), we went for a walk and a dumpling dinner at Din Tai Fung. The streets were full of people but nowhere near as crowded as in big mainland cities like Shanghai. Shopping malls were still open and all lit up, and luxury boutiques lined every block – Breguet, Cartier, Shanghai Tang, Burberry, and all the other usual suspects. People looked relaxed and happy – shopping, eating, drinking, and just strolling around. We found Din Tai Fung in the Silvercord mall on Canton Road and had a great dinner. Tired after a long day, we opted for a brief walk on Nathan Road and Avenue of the Stars, enjoying the views of Hong Kong skyline.

Friday, Sep 11 [Leon]

The day started with a very nice breakfast in our hotel, at the Harbourside Cafe overlooking Victoria Harbor and Hong Kong skyline. We met our guide at 9:00 am for a half-day tour of the city. First we drove to Victoria Peak and took the Peak Tram up to enjoy panoramic views of Hong Kong and Kowloon. Our guide pointed out notable tall buildings – Bank of China tower designed by I. M. Pei, HSBC building, and of course the International Finance Center and World Finance Center across the harbor from each other.

View from Victoria Peak

Then we drove to Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter where fishermen still live on old wooden boats in this protected harbor. We took a 15-minute sampan ride through the lagoon and saw modern yachts alongside old wooden house-boats. Apparently, some fishermen rent out their mooring spots to other boat owners. Afterwards, we drove along the south coast of the Hong Kong Island. The views of green hills, the ocean, and small islands offshore were beautiful and in sharp contrast with extreme urbanity of Hong Kong Central and Kowloon's Tsim Sha Tsui. However, the road was narrow and construction or tree trimming crews were hard at work, at times slowing the traffic to standstill. We saw the beach at Repulse Bay, which was very nice. Too bad we had neither the time to stop nor our swimwear with us... One of the apartment buildings directly across the road from the beach had a large opening in the middle according to Feng Shui principles, to allow the dragon living in the hills to fly down freely to drink water from the bay. Then we drove to Stanley Market – a typical local indoor-outdoor market selling souvenirs, t-shirts, electronics, and other knick-knacks. We spent some time browsing around and bought a little Bluetooth keyboard for iPad. I am using it right now on the plane to write this section.

At Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter

Then our half-day guided tour was over and we asked to be dropped off in Hong Kong’s Central district. This is a financial and business area, and now during lunch hour it was crowded with well-dressed office workers. We made our way through the streets and into IFC mall, which occupies first few floors of IFC building. It's a sprawling complex with stores, restaurants, a subway (metro) and Airport Express train stations, and even a hotel on the top several floors. Many buildings are connected via covered walkways, so you don't even have to come out when it's raining. After looking through a few stores, we headed for Star Ferry piers and took the ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui. The water was calm, the sun was shining, and slight warm breeze was blowing – a perfect day to ride the Star Ferry across. Disembarking, we quickly found the dim sum place we targeted for lunch – Jade Garden in Star House building right in front of the ferry dock. It was after 2:00 pm so the place was not busy, and we had a great dim sum lunch. The barbecue pork and steamed pork buns were outstanding and even minced carp balls were surprisingly good. Feeling happy and lazy after lunch, we headed back to our hotel and spent a couple of hours relaxing on the pool deck. Then we headed out for a walk and to explore the new Harbourside Mall, which had 700 stores conveniently grouped by merchandise category – watches, bags, different types of clothing, etc. We got back just in time to watch the Symphony of Lights laser show over the harbor from our room's terrace at 8:00 pm. We finished the day with a dinner at Yan Toh Heen – an upscale Chinese restaurant at our hotel, recipient of 2 Michelin stars. The food was excellent and the service impeccable, though perhaps a bit fussy.

Riding the Star Ferry

View from our private terrace

Symphony of lights - view from our private terrace

Dinner at Yan Toh Heen

Saturday, Sep 12 [Leon]

After a relaxed breakfast at our hotel, we headed out to Lantau Island to see Po Lin monastery and the Big Buddha statue. The subway ride took about 40 minutes, and it was nice to see a clean comfortable subway with clear easy to navigate signs. And then the fun started. We knew that cable car to Lantau Peak and Buddha statue was down for repairs. However, we didn't realize that blue Lantau taxis are extremely rare and difficult to catch. So, we got on No. 23 bus instead, and spent the next hour on twisting hilly vertigo-inducing roads. At the end, the trek was totally worth it. The Buddha statue was huge and serene, looking down as we climbed up 400 steps leading to it. The Po Lin temple was equally impressive, with its tall gates and gilded halls. Then we took a short 15-minute trail through the woods, past some phlegmatic cows, and walked the Wisdom Path. On the way back, we had to squeeze past a few cows that decided to occupy the trail at that very moment.

Lantau Peak - Big Buddha

Lantau Peak

Lantau Peak - Po Lin monastery

Lantau Peak - Wisdom Path

Then we caught a blue taxi back to subway station, and took the train to Hong Kong Central. We wanted to try dim sum at Maxim's – a famous restaurant located right in the city hall. It was not easy to find, even with Google Maps' help. Finally, we peeked in and decided to head back to Jade Garden across the harbor, where we could order from the menu instead of waiting for trolleys with the good stuff to roll by. Another Star Ferry ride, and another perfect dim sum lunch at Jade Garden! Then we once again spent an hour or two relaxing by the pool at our hotel, and headed down for drinks at the lounge downstairs. We went out around 7:30 pm and took a stroll on the Avenue of the Stars; and then parked ourselves to watch the Symphony of Lights again, this time from the outside. The view was almost exactly the same as from our room's deck, just a slightly different experience. Afterwards, we went for another perfect dumpling dinner at Din Tai Fung, and another walk along Canton and Nathan streets. We finished the day with another round of drinks at our hotel's lounge.

On Avenue of the Stars

Symphony of Lights - view from Avenue of the Stars

Dumplings at Din Tai Fung

Sunday, Sep 13 [Leon]

After a quick breakfast, we headed for the airport. It was a calm clear Sunday morning and the roads were not busy at all. There was a swarm of about 30 different Porsches all racing towards Lantau Peak. According to our taxi driver, that’s what Porsche owners do in Hong Kong on Sundays – drive to see the Big Buddha.

Bye Hong Kong! Until next time!

Tiger Worldwide

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

China – August – September 2015