Moving On.. Out of China....

First of all, I wanted to let everyone know that I have made it to Vietnam safe and sound! I ended up meeting up with my Italian friend in Kunming and hopped a night bus to Hekou on the Vietnam/China border. We had exchanged messages when I was still in Dali and he purchased the bus ticket for me. I literally had 30 minutes between exiting one bus and catching the other; I had to run to another station (lucky for me, it was the right one and only a couple blocks away, and I was especially lucky since there are 4 stations only a couple blocks away from each other).

The bus ride from Kunming could not have been any more, well, rough and sleepless. Sleeper buses are not always the best, and after yelling for a couple minutes in Chinese that one was my seat and that I would not sleep at the back in a 5 person bed with random Chinese (because afterall, it was not my seat), I was finally in rest mode. At least, that's what I thought. The bus driver said to me as I got on hao kan nide dongxi... which means good look your things... aka people are going to try and steal your stuff. My rusty Italian allowed me to eek out a warning to Alfonso about watching his things during night. Alfonso had already met the Dutch couple that joined us on the bus, both of them would later become our travel partners to Sapa.

The bus stopped maybe 8 times all together for the occasional repair, dropping off construction materials, the driver's proper dinner, and all sorts of other things I couldn't really figure out. The most surprising this is that the bus was still on-time, meaning that they knew how long each of the stops would take. But in the end we made it and the border was only 5 blocks away from the bus station (extremely easy to walk to, don't listen to what anyone tells you). [Head right from the bus station and walk towards the river]. I think the border crossing is much easier going from China into Vietnam and in the wee hours of the morning. We were there at 8:30 AM (Vietnam time, China is an hour behind since there is only one time zone for the extremely large country), and we slipped through without a second glance. I thought maybe as an American that I would encounter some hostility, but there was none. There were tons of Vietnamese crossing over into China, perhaps for the start of their work day and the others seemed to have cheap wares to sell.

Random tip: Don't exchange money at the border (Yuan into Dong or US Dollars at all). There will be plenty of places to buy your money. I get the feeling that Yuan is heavily demanded as people almost fought each other to exchange with us. US Dollars are preferred to Dong, most prices are even quoted in USD first. Always ask the exchange rate, if you can't haggle the price, then try to haggle the exchange rate.

I managed to avoid all hassle with my visa for China being so extremely close to expiration and move on to the next country, while finding a travel mate in the process. Life is good and I feel fortunate to keep finding such luck. I hope every0ne is enjoying their summer at home. I hope to be able to post pictures again soon, good internet access is hard to find for long periods and on computers without viruses...

Leaving China!

Leaving China, and I am ready for a change of scenery. I have spent over 6 months in Chinese speaking areas with similar cultural norms and ancestry, so Vietnam might be just what I am looking for. My Chinese at this point is passable, which means I can haggle, buy tickets, food, anything necessary, and get directions. I am satisfied with the progress, but expect that I will lose it as I leave the country. I can still understand quite a bit of Italian, but end up speaking Chinese instead (strange, eh?).

I woke up this morning with a question of whether I should attempt visiting the rice paddy fields in Yuanyang, Yunnan or head straight for the border. I have decided to go for the straight shot to Sapa in Northern Vietnam to avoid the risk of overstaying my Chinese visa. I have heard rumors that they charge up to 500Y a day (about $90) for overstaying. I have met an Italian guy who is heading the same way and I am hoping to meet up with him in Kunming before catching a night bus to the border.

Old Dali is very nice, but of course a lot of the touristy things to do in China are heavily over-developed and lacking any originality. Yunnan, at least, has the very best coffee I have had yet in China. So after a cup or two today, I am ready to catch my 1:30 pm bus back to Kunming.

I managed to have a kind of mixed up day yesterday. I attempted to hike up the Changban Shan, but once I arrived at the muddy excuse for a path, I decided that wandering around in the woods by myself for 4 hours was too precarious for me (which was a good decision as I read later that a many solo-hikers were robbed hiking the path) and paid for the chairlift to the top. I had assumed that there would be other hikers to meet up with, but there were none, and the Chinese tend to only hike on paved paths. On the way up, I was trying to remove my camera from my purse and lost the case in the process. Upon my return down after 3 hours or so of hiking around and overlooking the Erhai Hu (Ear-Shaped Lake), I spent 20 minutes with the hopefulness that I would regain my case, no luck. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and catching up on some reading and planning my approach to the border. I imagine the crossing is easier from this side anyway.

I just wanted to post this in case anyone was worried about my location and plans. My Chinese phone will no longer work once I cross, but at least I will have uncensored Internet, which means Facebook and actual access to my blog (right now I use a proxy). Thank you to anyone who is reading this blog and supporting my adventures, it really means a lot.

Riding the Rails Down to Yunnan

After a very very long train ride from Xian to Kunming, I found my way through the somewhat small city to my hostel. The train ride was 41 hours long and filled with little Chinese girls calling me jiejie (older sister) and pictures with the conductor. There was an interesting British fellow for the first 15 hours and after that I was left to fumble through Chinese and English with my fellow hard-sleeping-compartment-mates alone. After the 36th hour, I was definitely ready to be off the train.

I decided (sorry Sarah) to skip Chengdu and head directly south, especially since my visa for China is running out. I have to get into Vietnam by August 10th or I run the risk of violating the terms of my visa (not really something I intend on doing).

After a day in Kunming, I met a fellow traveler to accompany me to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is about two hours directly north outside Qiaotou. We were told that the hike was very long and managed to finish after 7.5 hours. We found out that most do it spread out over two days. The views were absolutely breath taking and sometimes the trail was a bit rough. This is perhaps a trail that I would avoid in rainy weather, especially since you have to watch out for falling rocks. I will definitely upload pictures soon, so that people can see.

I am currently in Lijiang and will be heading to Dali tomorrow, and once again heading south towards the rice paddies bordering Vietnam. I will not be making it to the Laos border to do some jungle trekking, perhaps I will just have to on the other side.

I have learned a great deal about the minorities in China. Yunnan has a great deal of Naxi people and Hui (Chinese Muslims). You can definitely see the influences in the dress and knick-knacks. The Naxi traditional dress resembles the ones I saw during the Hmong presentations in elementary school. Embroidered clothing and tapestries with brightly colored thread and intricate patterns. The influences of southeast Asia are particularly strong here.

Okay! I should go and catch up on some sleep after a bit of walking the last couple days. Traveling isn't always a vacation, I think often it can be frustrating and tiring planning the logistics, but much much more rewarding and educational than anything else. I have continued to improve my Chinese, and I cannot believe how handy speaking a little actually is. I hope everyone is doing well!

Still in China

I just wanted to post this so people knew that I am still alive and in China. The govt here blocks FB and blogs, which just happen to be my primary means for contacting people at home. Reporters are not allowed in Xinjiang and even international phone calls are blocked from Xinjiang.

I am currently in Xi'an and have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences here in China thus far. I will spend about a week in Yunnan before I cross the border into Vietnam. I will see the infamous rice paddies of Sapa and southern Yunnan.

I have been meeting lots of other travels and people. Traveling by yourself seems like a daunting experience, but I have enjoyed it a lot. Traveling alone means that you are more likely to meet locals and other travellers. I have not had any problems finding a sidekick for a day. Also, I think that by being a female the locals are much more receptive of me, even when I cannot understand one word of their thickly accented Chinese.

I will write a bit more about my actual experiences when I am out of China and in Vietnam. In my belief the censors are only harming the citizens of and visitors to China. They are even installing software on every computer sold within the country to quell the ability to get around the censors (like I am with a proxy) permanently.

Shanghai is Next

I managed to find a way to Shanghai, even though every single ticket for every single train is sold out. I bought a plane ticket, a little more expensive, but better than being stuck in Beijing for the next week. I cannot believe how hard it is, my advice buy ahead for any logistical stuff in China. After Shanghai, I will be heading to Xi'an and Guilin, and off to Vietnam. I pick up my passport on Thursday for my Visa and fly out on Friday.

I will get to see the eclipse after all!!

Beijing Beijing

So I have spent the last 5 days here, crashing at a friend's place. I have really enjoyed meeting so many people and attempting to navigate this enormous city. I have been to the Summer's Palace, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Lama Temple, Ritan Park, and other random places around the city. I like the city a lot,. but the pollution and transportation is a bit hard to handle. Transportation is only hard, because everything is so far from each other, it is like if someone took a suburb and stretched it so it could hold over 10 million people. The streets are wide and busy, and people are packed into every crevice. I imagine that Shanghai will be worse, but I like being snug rather than spending 20 minutes walking 'one' block.

China feels a lot more safe than I expected and some people are nice. People are very happy if you speak a bit of Chinese. But once it passes the basic level of daily transactional-stuff, it is beyond me. They speak very fast and with a 'r' that Taiwanese do not have. I have forgotten a lot of Italian and replaced it with Chinese.

I managed to negiotiate a taxi for me and 4 Poles I met to go to the Great Wall and all in Chinese. I love it, but often people are not patient. The rest of China will definitely be a trip, and each place is full of diversity, so different from the last place. I met a couple other really nice people and have no trouble meeting fellow travelers to hang out with for the day.

I hope everyone is well at home, and I hope I will be able to post again soon. I'm not sure how thorough the 100,000 people censoring the internet are with their programming. Let's see if I can get this to work.

Much love,

Erica

The Joys of Censorship

I am in China and as we all know that they have censors and make it incredibly difficult to post on a blog. I am fine and well. My local phone number is +8613436614082. If you want to get ahold of me please call or send me an email. I have limited ability to check my Skype and no access to Facebook after today.

I am using a friend's computer with a VPN to by-pass the censorship using a North American proxy. Sounds high-tech huh? Well, it's actually easier than you would think.

Keep in touch! I will try to post through email from now on.

Off to China!

By now I have taken tons and tons of pictures in Hong Kong, but will not have the chance right now to up load them. I am sitting in my friends apartment getting everything ready to head to China. I am a little nervous for the 24 hour train ride by myself. I still need to  buy food for it, but I have heard that I will be just fine. Still it's probably a good thing to be a little nervous, so that I will be paying attention all the more. I have spent 8 days here, and probably less than that is needed. I managed to visit Macau for the better part of a day and see all the highlights here. I will be visiting a couple friends in Beijing, so no worries. 

I'll be posting again soon!

China Visa

I went to go get my visa at the Chinese visa office in Wan Chai. I was incredibly surprised by how efficient the process was. They only issued numbers to those with a correctly and completely filled out form. Also, there is photo booth to get pictures. The visa is so expensive $1170HKD or $150USD (ouch). 

I was set and choose the express 3 day service. I was also able to purchase a train ticket to Beijing. I will start there and make my way south and west. I am so excited! 

Happy Birthday America or Freedom Day, whatever people want to call it. I am missing one of my favorite holidays and I hope everyone at home has a really good weekend :). We are going to have fun here and meet up with some American's at a British pub (ironic huh?). We meaning my Singaporean, Hong Konger and Chinese friends. :)

Planning for China

I have applied for my visa, should get it quickly. I cannot believe how expensive the visa is! For U.S. citizens it costs $131 plus a rush fee if needed. 

I have decided to take the 24 hour train from Hong Kong to Beijing and go from there. It looks like I will be in Beijing for about 5 days (I need to get my Vietnam visa there, I expect that to take 5 days) and then head to Xi'an. After 4 days there, I will head to Shanghai and Hangzhou. I think I will spend 5 days and then head to Guilin, Guanxi. I'll end up in Guangzhou and take the bus/train from there to Vietnam. I hope all goes to plan. I looked at flights and realized how expensive they are for getting around. I will probably bus a couple of the legs of the trip, but I look forward to nice train rides with amazing vistas.

Solar Eclipse July 22nd--Shanghai

I am sure that most people have seen a solar eclipse during their lifetimes, but how many of you can say you saw one in China? I will be in China this July and I am determined to see the solar eclipse over central China, Nepal and northern India. Totally cool, huh?

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_22,_2009). I am doing research on my adventure. It's all just starting and I cannot wait.

"This solar eclipse is the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the twenty-first century, and will not be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132. Totality will last for up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds, with the maximum eclipse occurring in the ocean at 02:35:21 UTCabout 100 km south of the Bonin Islands, southeast of Japan. The North Iwo Jima island is the landmass with totality time closest to maximum."

I am really excited to see one of my good friends and my old roommate from Italy in Hong Kong in just one week. I am getting a little sad over all the goodbyes here in Taiwan. Too many good friends all parting at the same time.