Sunday 15 July
It rained heavily in the morning, but on clearing in
the afternoon we headed out, with packed sandwiches, to visit the old city
centre. We caught the metro to the
Kuanzhaixiangzi station, where, emerging out, we discovered that lots of others
had thought the same thing on a Sunday afternoon. So, we found a sitting area on the roadside
and ate our sammies while people-watching.
Opposite our picnic spot was a Rosa Cake shop, which the girls took
photos of to show to cousin Rosa.
We wandered around the local area, which is a bit like
the old hutongs in Beijing, and has been done up as an old-style modern
shopping area. There were plenty of
street-side skilled artisans sells their wares.
We passed by several dripping a treacle-like liquid onto a
marble-looking bench to make clever shapes/pictures, which then hardened for
people to eat. Another was also using a
sugary heated goo to make edible balloon animals, which also hardened on
cooling. We saw people walking around drinking
multi-coloured and/or steaming drinks.
Another shop had interesting musical instruments. (The girls and I learnt here of a different
musical notation system, which uses numbers with dots above/below for
sharps/flats. Mama was surprised we
didn’t know it. Maybe it is just local
Chinese?)
Miya got a bit overwhelmed by all the noise, and we
exited the area in search of a quieter park.
We came across the People’s Park, which was a little more restful,
though Miya complained about the noisy cicadas!
Sufficiently recovered, we investigated the park and
discovered it to be like its namesake park in Shanghai, where in one area
oldies were lining the pathways advertising their descendants and trying to
find good marriage partners for them.
Mulan and Miya are still a bit too young for marriage,
so we left that area and headed to the central lake, where we found rowboats
for hire. This was just the thing to
relax the mind, and the four of us hopped into a boat with two narrow paddles
to very slowly push us around on the water.
Our hour up, just before 6 pm we headed for
shore. The boat-hire business was
closing for the day, and we were almost ready for dinner. More walking, and we found a suitable restaurant. Yet another shared meal, and my stomach has
grown hugely in the two weeks. I’m
looking more pregnant than gym-fit, and this time I refused to squeeze in the
leftovers. We doggy-bagged one dish into
the boxes that had previously housed our lunchtime sammies.
The bus stop to the metro was opposite the market
entrance — we needed to catch bus number 1.
Our driver, whose name Mulan translated as Tall Sun, was even crazier
than usual for a bus driver. We’d just
found a spot to stand near the back door, and were luckily mostly holding on,
when the driver stopped suddenly and people literally went flying. Mulan, Miya and I managed to keep hold, but
Mama didn’t, and stumbled into the door-opening area. I stuck one arm out towards Mulan, and a leg
towards Mama (and my chest for Miya), which I think may have slowed her
down a bit. Mama was unhurt, though
she'd had a fright. My ankle was
slightly twisted, and took a couple of days for the pain to go. Unfortunately, the driver hadn’t learnt his
lesson, and continued to make several more sudden stops (though not quite as
sudden as the first). But it was a good
lesson for the girls, and both are now making sure to hold on properly at all
times (Miya has been a bit nervous about buses since, not liking any bumps, but
is still riding them).
Monday 16 July
Around midday, while the others were relaxing at home,
I went out for a couple of hours on my own, walking around our neighbourhood
taking photos. I walked past the Global Center and into
Jincheng Park, doing a circuit around the lake.
I returned home via a scenic route, doing a lap around our block.
For most of our stay in Chengdu, Mama had been
talking about a huge aquarium that we should go and see, and so after lunch we
set out in search of it. It was pretty
far away — we caught the metro to the Wuhou Ave station before catching the
368A bus for about 40 minutes to the end of the line.
When we got out of the metro station we saw a big
black cloud of smoke rising in the distance.
It looked fairly newly started, and later on the cloud was darkening
more of the sky. Was it a huge building
fire? Was it an explosion? Was it a terrorist attack? Most locals were ignoring it and just going
about their business. But one old man
stood by us watching it and seems very curious, too. It wasn’t in the direction we were going, and
eventually we continued on our way.
Mama couldn’t find any news about it later, so either it wasn’t
serious enough, or it was too serious and the news was suppressed.
Getting out of bus 368A, we arrived at yet another
shopping centre, indistinguishable from the hundreds of others. But inside there was supposed to be a giant
fish tank with a huge glass viewing wall.
Well, the fish tank and impressive glass wall was there, but it was done
as only China could do it. The two-story
high glass wall was set in an atrium with about four or so floors viewing
it. But rather than make a feature of
it, with easy public viewing, they had built temp-style shops in front of it,
obscuring large parts of it from being seen, as well as significantly
restricting the standing areas available to see it. But don’t worry, you could pay to get in to a
fenced-off section up close to the glass.
And when, after a few minutes, you were bored with looking, there was
plenty of the usual noisy entertainment, including a mini-train circling around
every few minutes.
As I said to the family, our expedition to see the
giant aquarium was a bit like climbing a mountain. Lots of effort to get to the top, then we
look at the nice view for a few minutes before starting the long journey home
again. In total we were out for over
four hours. Mulan and Miya said it was
worth it.
After dinner at home, we went downstairs for pudding —
another cheese-tea drink. I tried a
chocolate-cheese one. It was still nice,
but it didn’t have the interesting taste combination of the tea, which made it
so special.
Tuesday 17 July
We had a rest day, in preparation for leaving Chengdu
for Guiyang. Mama had lunch out with
the extended family.
Wednesday 18 July
Mama is not quite at the level of Pussy Riot, but
she did get caught rebelling against the system.
We left Chengdu in the morning, catching the 10:39 am
train to Guiyang. The girls and I
insisted on leaving home a bit earlier than needed, and it was a much more
peaceful journey to the intercity train station.
Mama’s rebellion was against the train
company. They have a ticket payment
system in which half-fares are for children who are both (a) less than 150 cm
tall and (b) 15 years (we think) or younger.
Mulan, at age 11, is now over 150 cm tall, so according to the train
regulations she is supposed to pay full fare.
By most standards, this is a strange system, where
some 11-year-olds pay adult fares, while some 15-year-olds pay child
fares. Or alternatively, if,
implausibly, the train company’s reasoning is based on the size of their
passengers, because of the resources used in transporting them, then surely
adults under 150 cm should just pay half fares.
(When we got to Guiyang we passed by a male guard outside a restaurant
who we are sure was shorter than Miya!)
As far as we can work out, this payment system is a
relic of the past, when Chinese IDs with ages were not so trustworthy. So, it was easier for the various Chinese
companies to use height rather than age.
But these days IDs are reliable, and other transport in China, like
planes, use age-based systems only.
We think the train company should update its system,
and so Mama, as a token rebellion, bought half-fare tickets for Mulan. This was the only time the attendants on the
train took notice, and they asked Mulan to stand up and be measured. On finding that Mulan was over 150 cm, they
required that we pay the price difference to upgrade her to full fare. Mama paid this on the train. We think that everyone with children 15 or
under should do the same, creating extra work for the train company, until the
train company gets the message.
Our train journey took about five hours. We passed through areas where the train
display told us that the outside temperature was up to 39 degrees. It was slightly cooler than that in Guiyang,
and moreover, upon exiting the train we were delighted to feel it was more of a
dry heat than a humid heat, and really quite pleasant.
We had been very spoilt in our Chengdu lifestyle, and
our apartment in Guiyang was more typical hotel-room style. There was a tiny little room (which in other
apartments was a mini-kitchen) that had been set up as an extra bedroom, where
the girls slept, top-and-tail. But the
balcony was a lovely closed-in sun-room.
Mulan's friend Dudu (now known as Lily) and family
(Mum, Dad and little sister Kaka) had come to join us in our travels for the
next several days. They had flown in,
arriving not long before us, and we said a quick hello to them while they ate
at a nearby restaurant. In the evening
we all (both families) walked to an old bridge area for a spot of
sightseeing. The river was very low, but
the riverside area was pleasant.
Our family was getting hungry so we said our goodbyes
and us family went in search of a restaurant.
This would have to be the worst restaurant in our travels this time —
the food arrived so slowly (and the restaurant was only about half full), and
in the end after waiting ages we cancelled the last dish which apparently
hadn’t even been started yet. Our first
dish, though, was a very interesting local one.
We received a tray containing about 20 small dishes of various chopped
veggies — some recognisable, some not — as well as a pile of thin sticky
pastry. We put the veggies in the pastry
and closed it up, dripping some vinegary liquid over it. Apparently we paid for extra pastry, while
the veggies were free to top up. Most
people at other tables seemed to leave most of their veggies, which were thrown
away. I mostly finished ours off, as our
third dish, a potato one, turned out to have bits of meat tucked away inside
(Miya just ate the potato parts).
In retrospect it was probably a mistake for me to eat
the raw veggies (and so much of them).
Often I feel like a Chinese local, and so get relaxed about my eating
habits, but my stomach is still a foreigner, and as we all know, eating raw
veggies while travelling is not terribly wise.
I had about a week of feeling a little uncomfortable (and I had to visit
a hospital for a couple of hours).
Thursday 19 July
It was just a one-night stay in this apartment in
Guiyang, before moving on. We had to leave
home at 10:30 am to catch the train, but about an hour before leaving the power
went off in the building — no idea if it was scheduled or unplanned. Luckily, the lifts still worked, so we didn’t
have to walk down from the 20th floor.
We caught a bus through the crowded streets to the
intercity train station (a different one from the one we arrived at). Mama said Guiyang reminded her of how
Guangzhou used to look in the olden days, with chaotic traffic and lots of
construction (lots of metro lines being built).
Our train to Anshun, which left 10 minutes late, was
also a return to the olden days, being an old two-level slow train (though it
did have air-con!). Unfortunately, the
double-glazed windows were fogged up inside, and it was hard to see the
scenery.
Why were we here?
Anshun is the train stop to get to Huangguoshu, the world’s largest
waterfall cluster, containing 18 waterfalls.
From the train station we (both families) took a 30-minute taxi ride to
our hotel in the falls area, where we were staying one night. Our plan was to walk one waterfall area this
afternoon and another one the following morning. Mama had done her research, and thought
she knew where to go at what times, to (slightly) avoid the crowds.
So, first up, after dumping our bags and grabbing food
for our walk, we got another taxi to the Tianxingqiao Falls area. Our walk, which took about three or four
hours, was pleasant and not too crowded by Chinese standards. The first part of the walking track had
stepping stones that each had a day of the year written on them. The four children had fun finding their
birthdays, and I guess it was a good way to keep the interest alive in kids who
don’t normally do much walking.
(The Bridge Forest Bridge Forest Bridge is both to the left and to the right.)
(Outside a toilet block, this sign helpfully told us which cubicles were currently occupied.)
There was also plenty of the usual Chinese thing of
named natural features (rocks, trees, etc) that supposedly look like people or
animals. Mostly, I couldn’t recognise
the lions and dragons and so on that they claimed were there. I saw a few, though not all, of the
curvy-women-tree-roots, which was supposed to be an indicator of manly
lustfulness. The Tianxingqiao Fall
itself was a beautifully shaped fall, and well worth the walk.
The park closed at 7:30 pm (the entire falls area is
State-controlled, and only approved taxis go in and out of the area), and we
arrived at the taxi pickup area just after 7 pm. A taxi driver was busy on his phone ordering
more taxis one-by-one as visitors straggled out of the park just before
closing. I am not sure what would have
happened if we had exited too late.
We had dinner at our hotel before crashing into
bed. Our hotel was a typical Chinese
small-town one — a basic, clean, four-floors-and-no-lift, concrete building
with tiled floors. We were on the fourth
floor. Our toilet was squat-style. The restaurant, on the ground floor, had
plenty of mozzies.
Friday 20 July
We were up at 6 am, aiming to prove that Mama’s
research had paid off. According to her
research, the best plan for seeing the main Huangguoshu waterfall was to get in
there immediately when it opened. Too
much later and the crowds would be horrendous, even by Chinese standards.
The taxis to the area started moving at 7 am, so we
grabbed a quick breakfast out on the footpath of the neighbouring hotel, and
jumped into our (late) taxis about 7:30 am.
Apparently another group of tourists from the next door hotel had also
ordered two taxis, and there was some dispute as to whether the arriving pair
were ours or theirs (the drivers seemed to say they were ours). Compromising, we took one of the first pair,
while Lily’s family took one of the second pair.
Before seeing the falls themselves, the walk through
the park was pleasant. The potted banzai
trees near the beginning were interesting, and the girls and I tried to decide which
ones looked most like shrunken normal-sized trees.
To avoid the suspense, Mama’s research was
correct. We got to see the falls before
the crowds became too much, and even as we were leaving the falls we could see
that the paths leading in were getting ridiculously busy.
But the waterfall was indeed spectacular, and a
definite must-see. At 74 m high and 81 m
wide, it has a unique natural(ish) path in the rocks behind the waterfall where
we could see out through the curtain of falling water. Behind the falls it was quite wet, and we had
to wear raincoats to walk through. We
brought our own raincoats, but once again, just like at the panda park, the
raincoat salespeople were doing excellent business with disposable plastic ones
(but no plastic boots this time!). Just
after the falls, there were dozens of sacks of disposed-of raincoats — ten
minutes and done.
On exiting this park area above the falls, we walked
the short distance to the Doutangpo falls, the widest falls in the Huangguoshu
area. This waterfall was also pretty
nice, but after the other two earlier falls, it didn’t have quite the impact it
would have had on its own.
We finished our walk around midday and grabbed taxis
back to our hotel, where we picked up our (packed) bags and some food and
hopped into another couple of taxis for the return drive to Anshun train
station. Our train, again old-style but
this time single level with clear windows, left at 3:24 pm, returning us to
Guiyang. We had booked an apartment in
the same building as before (9th floor this time) for another two nights.
Mama and the girls ate at Pizza Hut just opposite
our apartment building, but I stayed home because of the slight food-poisoning
tummy.
Saturday 21 July
Mulan got her boil dressed at the nearby hospital for
the final time this morning (they had been going daily for the past two weeks). It had healed enough that we could do it
ourselves after this.
Mama and the girls, with Lily’s family, went to
Hebin Park for a few hours, while I stayed resting at home, fighting the
food-poisoning. They tell me that they
had a fun time at an amusement park there.
They were going to visit a mini-zoo with monkeys, but it was too
crowded.
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