15th May - Travelling to Hong Kong

After 3 days in Yangshou, we did have to leave. Another bus then overnight sleeper train took us to Shenzhen, the border crossing into HK. The swine flu concerns had become magnified since several people had been identified with in in China, one even in Chengdu where we had been. The border customs had heat detection machines to isolate those suspected of being fluey. But we all got through even though one woman in our group had a really bad cough.

The humidity & heat had been getting stronger from Yangshou down, & it was taking its toll on me - not a hot weather fan. After checking in to the West Hotel, we were given the customary orientation tour & then allowed to wander. I must admit, I didn't see very much of HK as my stomach wasn't the best there. I only got to see the main attractions in the city centre. I did get to meet & have dinner with a lovely couple from just outside London on my last eve there. But whether it was my mood or what I saw, HK wasn't my favourite place. I'll give it a better chance next time I visit.

12th May - Yangshou

After a full days travel, including one of those lovely overnight sleeper trains, we arrived in Yangshou. A funky vibrant town which has been somewhat westernised in a hippy kind of way. The hotel here - Jinding Hotel - was the best I've stayed at so far in China. There is so much to see & do in Yangshou, & took the opportunity to book in several optional activities.

One was a private tuition session with a Tai Chi master - fantastic! Another was a light spectacular choreographed by the same man who created the opening ceremony in Beijing. And the third activity was a 3-hr cooking class with a visit first to the market to check out the fare - everything including fruit, veges, eels, snake, frog & dog. A cycling trip around the beautiful countryside here was magnificent, but really hard on the bum after a few hours.

Yangshou was also great for its 2-for-1 cocktails during an extended happy hour - pina colada please. And the food - delicious! I almost didn't want to leave.

19 - The Yangtze River

At about 8am the next morning, we finally set off down (or up) the Yangtze. The views were really very good from the cabin with big wide & tall windows. Along the way, there are water level markers on the shoreline now & then - the river is meant to rise by 8 metres each year (for how many years?) now it’s been dammed. Something like 20 million people have been displaced, many having to move from where their families have lived for generations. The government has built so many new apartment blocks to house the displaced people, but many of these just lie vacant, not being used & wasting away.

Over the 3 night river journey, we did a couple of shore excursions - one to a Taoist temple, a small boat trip up a tributary, & the final one was checking out the dam site. The highlight of the trip though was traversing through the 5 gates of the dam over a four hour period on the last night. Watching from the roof of the ship as the boat quickly lowered with the falling water level. Seemingly, this is the biggest fresh water dam passage in the world - incredible!

18 - A country toilet stop

On the 7th May we took a long long public bus trip to Chongqing - did I mention that it was long? We were on the bus for at least 8 hours & the bus only stopped when the driver needed to go to the loo & we didn’t ever know when that was going to be. So it was a bit of a guessing game. I was busting about 3 hours in to the trip & he finally pulled up in the middle of this farming community - thank goodness. I tried to be graceful as I bolted for the toilet, but grace went by the wayside & shock set in as I saw where it was I was heading.
The toilet block was this little mud brick dwelling that had 5 squat toilets side-by-side, no doors, so that you were literally rubbing knees with the woman next to you. They did have sense enough to separate men’s from women’s as there were also people standing smack bang in front of you watching you with your pants down doing a full frontal. As I happened to be the only westerner who took part in this toilet break activity, the Chinese women were quite fascinated by me - pants down, making sure the bottom of my pants didn’t rub on the urine covered ground, toilet paper in one hand, not really knowing what on earth to do with the other but try & balance, keeping from falling over from the weight of the small daypack on my back, worrying that people in the bus could also see into the squat block. A very Chinese experience indeed!

17 - Fish Therapy

Some of us headed over to the Hot Springs which were only a 5 min drive from the monastery. There were all different varieties of hot springs you could try out - some with chrysanthemum, ginseng, rose, etc - & just the plain old stinking hot springs as well, with a lovely rotten egg sulphur odour. But it was here that I tried something truly special - fish therapy. Seemingly only two places in the world offer you the chance of immersing your body in to a pool of warm water & then get nibbled on all over by literally thousands of guppy-sized fish.
At first the feeling was almost unbearable - so ticklish & just plain weird as you watched these fish cover your body a take a few nibbles. But then I became addicted, especially when I realised they were taking off a complete layer of dead skin cells - truly a symbiotic process - win:win all round! I had to drag myself out after being in there on & off for about 2 hours. They started to nibble too much on my moles & the little buggers were persistent & it was hurting a tad.

16 - The Monasteries of Mt Emei

The bus finally arrived at the Baoguo Monastery, a Buddhist temple & monastery where we would be spending 2 nights. There were people everywhere worshipping the massive Buddha statues in the temple. It really was a very serene environment. We were staying where visiting monks usually stay - right up the back in basic but tidy rooms. The showers were a treat - you went into this almost cave-like structure with a metal grill for a floor a single incandescent light & a smell you could write home about (I don’t think people only showered there).

The second day we were there, we caught a public bus to the summit of the mountain - Jinding Peak. It seemed to take ages to get there - maybe an hour or so - obviously a huge mountain. The scenery along the route was breathtaking - deep green gullies with rivers flowing through them. Of course, you have to completely surrender your fate to universal forces prior to getting on the bus. A two lane road which bends & twists the full journey, the mini buses thought nothing of overtaking on blind corners, unable to see if there was any oncoming traffic. But we got to the top alive & it was cold & drizzly & foggy. You couldn’t see too much at all. There was, at the peak of the mountain, this huge gold Buddha with four elephants you could barely make out through the fog standing at the base

Mt Emei is a beautifully green environment which is perhaps one of the most spiritual places I’ve been to in China. There are temples & monasteries everywhere, all over the mountain, & there’s this incredibly peaceful vibe about the area.

15 - Leshan

The next morning we packed up once again & this time boarded a private bus out to Leshan to see the Giant Buddha before heading to the Bagaou Monsatery at Mt Emei for the evening. The Giant Buddha is this really enormous stone statue - I believe the biggest stone Buddha in the world - carved in to the side of this cliff. Ages ago (not sure how long ago exactly), this monk wanted to protect the surrounding villages from the flooding that caused loss of lives & homes. He offered to begin a project to carve the giant Buddha, & it was agreed by the village people. But at the time of his death, he had only completed the head. The villagers committed to completing the Buddha & they finished off the statue which overlooks the merging of two giant rivers. The grounds of the Giant Buddha are superb with lots of tranquil nooks & crannies to explore.