I thought I was done with China for a while after my visit last summer, but apparently China was not done with me. Thus, Hong Kong next.

Btw: Concerning my last post. I have fallen in love with fortune cookies. Their messages are so simplistic, but yet sufficient. I like their hopefulness. The one on the picture is one I carry around with me in my pencil house. I have another one in my wallet saying: Your own path is the best.

I know.

More delayed news from Shangeli-la.

Finally I find a computer fast enough to upload pictures again (and I've learned a trick: to make the files smaller on paint.)


Last time I wrote here we were still in Shangri-la, so I though I'd start again there. To have some consistency in this mean.


Anyhow: It's quite funny that the Chinese goverment has changed the name of Zhingdian to that of the valley mentioned in James Hilton's famous book to attrack tourist, when the Chinese is in fact not able to pronounce the R and they end up pronouncing the words more like: Shangeli-la. But everything for the tourists. It is also very peculiar how the Chinese government like to promote the Tibetan culture in the area, when we often hear stories of people who have been to Lhasa, and seen that the monks are not even allowed to leave their monasteries.

The hostel we stayed in had to very nice owners that we had a so-called "family dinner" with each night. And one of the nights we had an encounter with the infamous Chinese liqeur "Baijo", something that proved to be a tougher experiece for dear David. Since he was a boy(man) he had to dink every time the men yelled campeii (cheers), which was a bout every 3rd minute.

I guess I have to mention that there is 50% alcohol in baijio. For those interested I have his state of being at 1 am on video. We can arrage a movie-night when I come home.

In Shangri-la we hiked around the countryside in some small Tibetan villages were there was many horses, but even more yaks. And we discovered that I'm suffering from Yakophobia. They are just to big, and everywhere. Brr.

Now people are getting angry about my extensive computer use. I'll write more later. So pics:

Also look at Davids blog for more great pics. Aspecially the one with my and my favourite tibetan man.

Shangri-la/Zhondigan

After having been looking for a computer that works faster then a snail for almost a week without luck, I have decided to write anyways. And maybe even upload some pics , although I believe it is maybe to much to expect from this computer.

Right now we are in Shangri la (Or Zhondigan before 1999. Then the governmnet changed the name), a mostly Tibetan city in North-Western Yunnan. We arrived yesterday both with a mild headeache because the altitude is around 3100m (I think). But despite of this we were able to go to the local horse racing festival that is taking place around here these days. Well, actually, I dont think it was so much about racing, but rather about which horse and rider looked the coolest (by Tibetan standards of course).

There is dancing in the main square here each night. A sort of a line (or rather ring) dance with Tibetan music with a bit more beat. Actually when we heard about it we were scared it was some tourist scheme. But we were definitly wrong. I there was women and men from around 90 to small kids which had just learned to walk. And everyone danced. We felt stupid not to, so to night I think we will also.

Today we have visited a Buddhist temple that has the biggest prayer wheel in the world. We spinned it three times like you are supposed to, and boy, I'll tell you its hard work to be a Buddhist. This truth was proved again only an hour later as we climed one of the small mountains around the city to reach a monestary that was on top. Very hard, very high altitude and definitly no breath.

The monestary was beautiful with prayer flags and petit Buddhas everywhere on the moutain-top. When we entered the room with the big Buddha the strangest thing happened. We were recieved by a little boy I guess cant have been more than 5 years old. He showed us how to do all the prayer rituals and gave us incence to light. I was like he was grown up and a kid at the same time. I cant say I belive very much in incarnation or anything, but really, there was something strange with that boy.

A little extra-post showing some of our mind-blowing tour from Xi'an to Chengdu.
Soldiers heading for the earthquake area.

Some people waiting for the train in Xi'an.
A guy just as bored as me in Lanzhou.
Beautiful veiw from the train.
Perhaps better. Ricefields.

PS! David put a video of the taoist monk suddenly playing the flute on the holy mountain we were. Although hard to capture on tape, in the moment it actually made me cry. So look at enigmatic worthlessness.

The last days ,luck, or actually, the Chinese government, has not exactly been on our side. Tuesday, after seeing a disapointingly small terracotta army, we headed for Lanzhou with plans of getting further to Xiahe, which is the town where the largest Tibetan monestary outside of Lasha is located . But after 9 hours on a train and probably a couple more running around the city trying to find the correct bus station (of course there is several. 'Cause Lanzhou is just a mid-size Chinese city of 8 mill.), we were refused to buy bus tickets since they dont allow for forigners into the city.

So, after the intitial anger with propaganda and mock-communism (and an awful fried burger at Dico's) we changed our route completly. Thus, we bough tickets for Chengdu, where we are now, and is today heading for the train station to buy tickets for Kunming in the Yunnan province and then head further on to Lijiang.

The tickets we bough were extremly cheap and we soon understood why. The trainride was awfully long. We though it would take 16 hours, but it did not. It took 28. The heat was extreme and only got worse when the train stopped for two whole hours in the middle of nowhere since the driver needed a luch break. Of course.

The worst was actually to pass trough the first class cart(soft sleeper), where the were blessed with air con, on our way to eat. And when actually getting there, to the eating cart, having to wait for food for 1.5 hours only then to be mocked by the waitress in front of the thirty people sitting there and being told that they actually did not have more rice left. An then being given a cabbage. Donc. C'est ca. On the train we:

Listened to music.
Ate vitamin bears.
Tried to order food on Chinese.
Read about universal travellers or evolutional biology.
Or of course: slept.

And one more thing. Finally David revealed to me why he is so funny: It is because he swallowed a clown when he was little.

Stairway to heaven?

Yes, the redness is a mix of sunburn and tiredness.
Cat's obviously have better balance than me.

We were there. On top.
Everyone put locks symbolizing love at the passes on he top.
This was ours.

Yesterday we walked the Taoist holy mountain, Hua Shan, just two hours outside of Xi'an. And well, I'm guessing it must have been the most tiering 8km I have walked in my whole life because half of the trip (ergo 4km) was done in very steep stairs. The trip goes from an altitude of around 1-100m to 2100 . Just now, after searching the internet, I found out that the trip has actually been called the most dangerous tourist trail in the world.

Mamma: I swear I did not know about that before.

Anyways, I'm still alive. Donc, I'm feeling, well yes, a bit of proudness now seeing that I tend to get very tired from just walking up from the metro station home in Montreal.

All in all. It was very beauiful. I got to offer incence to the taoist gods, drink tea with a monk and see how mad Chinese are about sunrises. But although you still see the caves in the hillsides where hermits chose to spend the rest of their lifes meditating in earlier times, the mountain is now apperantly taken over hordes of Chinese tourists. Still we were quite lucky doing the trip sunday night and monday morning and did therefore not bump into that many.

When you see how huge the summer palace and the forbidden city is, which was owned by only one emperor, you see why there was revolutions.
Also in the Summer Palace.
Someone has stolen Buddha's head. That must surly lead to bad karma.
We slept in the top-bunk. Which was quite high up.
Little room...
Also some parts of the summer palace.
Love in China.
Chinese shoes in China.

Yesterday we went to the Summer Palace and David's university in Beijing to find a nice room for him for july. Still, the most impressive part of he's school for me was definitly the large cantine. For I while I though my dream of eating in a school cantine with the tray and everything would come true. But that was untill I realized that you needed a student card to be fed.

The summer palace was beautiful, but crammed with what seemed to be half of the chinese population. But in reality I guess it was not more than 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of it. Yes, I'm definitly realizing how many chinese there actually is. When you see the masses moving around from one place to another you are actually amazed how smooth it all goes. Still, yesterday we used 3 hours to travel 15km by bus. Puh.

Last night we took the train to Xi'an, where we are now. The train was really a positive suprise because the standard was very good. Except the toilet (of course), in which I almost vommited because of the SMELL, which is only ehanced by the fact that you almost have to sit on the ground cause' the toilets are what norwegians would refer to as "just a hole in the ground".

Ni hao!

Nice guys at the forbidden city.
Scorpion and stail kebabs at the night marked..
Pui #1 AND #2 on Tianiamen Square= The Square of Heavenly Peace.
The White Pagoda in a very widy afternoon.

From the forbidden city.
On top of the white Pogoda.

First: 1. I'm sorry about the gramatical mistakes that will occur cause this computer doesnt have spell check. 2. The fact that the pics come first (no cut and past, only 指定搜索语言).

So, after having a couple of days here in Beijing without being able to enter my blog I finally found a way of posting new posts.

Here everything is good. The last two days we've stayed at a great hostel here with the even more magnificient name: Sitting On the City Walls Courtyard House.

The culture shock is actually not that bad (yet). Probably much due to the fact that I live in Montreal and is used to not understanding much of what people around me is saying. And, actually, after having traveled in Central America I'm kinda shocked when guys are not whisteling after me in the street:) But still we had big problems ordering our first meal here and ended up with a soup of what I believe was sheep brain and cartilege. We also ended up walking all the way from the train station, where the bus from the airport dropped us of, to the hostel which was about 5km, cause we where not able to give directions to the cab driver. But that was yesterday. Today we have been masters of the Beijingese bus system and ordered both kebab and train tickets.

Tomorrow we'll take the night train to Xi'an, where the terracotta soldiers lives. More news will come then. Zaijian.

Preparations for the big world out there...

Today I felt I had to take the red star of the communist hat that Silje bought for me in Cuba, because although a Maoist hat might flatter PSB, the Chinese Security Bureau, I really don't want to offend the possible old grandmother that got half her family killed during the Cultural Revolution.

Ni Hao!

Finally I've gotten a Chinese name. From now on(or at least for this summer in China) you may call me Bai LiNa or more correctly 白丽娜.

So, according to Chinese "name rules", Bai will be my family name while LiNa, which (of course) means the beautiful and graceful, will be my personal one.

Thank you Silje's-Chinese-Friend!

Life

Today we went to Silje's fund raising dinner for the orphanage she'll work in this summer in India. The history of how the home started is quite amazing and inspirational.
Read it : here. And Silje, you are inspirational also, for going there (and maybe biking to Torp-festivalen)!

Well, as some may know, we were planning to go to the provinces Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu in China this summer. But, typically, with normal Sabrina-luck, these are 4 of the 5 Chinese provinces there is Tibetan riots these days. So now the moments between paper-writing and exam-practising is used on reading about other alternative travel routs/areas. Because, really, before I never thought about the fact that China is actually as large and diverse as Europe and that you can not see it all (unless you have time to see it all of course).

More on China: One of my papers these days is about what might happen to the international system now as China is rising. And no matter which approach I use I seem to come back to the fact that we will soon enter a new Cold War. So you were right Daniel. Sad! (Btw: Foreign Policy had a great issue on the subject. Here!)

Alors. Now it's time for much needed sleep! Night!

Middle Kingdom here I come.

"Operation: Sabrina goes to China soon" has started. The plan was to start eating every meal with sticks but it really proves hard to eat Wasa (knekkebrod), which I eat a lot(!) with them, so that plan is a bit delayed until I have been able to incorporate more oriental-chopped-up-food into my diet.

I have also started to stand closer to people in the sub-way though. Because, like my very philosophical friend Daniel told me after having spent a month in Kerala, 'People are generally more close here. Physically I mean.' But what have I discovered? People really do smell!

xièxie!