Jul 24, 2012 - Airport Interlude

Okay, so I lied. I did have something interesting happen on the plane. I got to the airport with no problems, but they would not give me my connecting flight’s boarding pass. For whatever reason, they said that I must get my luggage and then check back in. While I was not worried about the time, I thought this was odd. When I arrived at Jinan, the halfway point to Changchun in the Northeast of China, I did get my luggage and recheck in. I accidentally told the woman at the desk I was going to Chongqing….instead of Changchun. Slight slip of...

Jun 19, 2011 - Arriving in China

Long check-in in Soekarno-Hatta (well, it takes 1 hour). Luckilly, the immigration takes a quite a good pace. CZ388 good flight, good food, plane is too small. Transit at Guangzhou, have to drag the baggage alone to the transfer counter, it's a really close call, we got to the plane last. Arrived at Jinan 2hr45min later. Better flight than CGK-CAN. Stayed at Huan Lian Holiday Hotel, a 3-star hotel, but comfortable enough.

Jan 21, 2008 - Day 2, Arriving in Jinan, drive to Dezhou

OK, so I'm finally in China proper... I arrived at Jinan and hit straight up by the very cold air even in the closed airport. So I went straight into the toilet and added some more layers and got out my possum merino scarf gloves and hat I bought in Brisbane... I also experienced my first Chinglish which I should have taken a photo of but didn't want to draw even more attention to myself. It was in the bathroom and was along the lines of "recycle save bumf" I'm not even sure what it meant. Nikki and Tony were waiting for me and we headed...

Sep 9, 2006 - To Mount Tai

Today, September7, we got to sleep in. We were free until 11:00 A.M. so what did I do? Of course, I woke up at 5:00 A.M. and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got dressed and went for a walk. I got out there just as the city was waking up and the street venders were getting set up for breakfast. At 11:00 A.M. we checked out of the hotel, got onto the bus and went for lunch. After lunch we headed south through the mountains to the city of Tai'an. Interesting note 1: for each lunch and dinner, in addition to the food our group is allotted two...

Sep 6, 2006 - Our day off

Today, Monday, is supposed to be a day to ourselves but they offered an optional tour for a nominal fee so we decided to go with them. I wanted to visit a "hutong" and figured it would be easier to get pictures if I was with a tour group. You could really get some amazing pictures by being a little aggressive but I can't bring myself to be that "in your face'. I find the ordinary chinese to be very shy and private and really don't want their pictures taken. If you ask someone if you can take their picture nine times out of ten they'll say...

Aug 17, 2006 - Finish sightseeing in Qufu and then drive to Tai Shan, "walk" up mountain

Up and at it this morning - Off to see the Confucious Temple and Mansion. Confucious was born into a noble family in 551BC on September 28th. His father was 64 and his mother in her 20's. He married at 19 and had 1 son; all the temples were built after his death as the Emperors all respected the Kong family and built pavillions and temples to Confucious. From the 44th descendant to the 77th, the title of Duke Yantsen has been given to each of the descendants. The last descendant lived at the mansion in 1924. At the beginning of the Republic...

Nov 18, 2005 - Mt. Taishan

On our way to Beijing we planned to stop at a small town called Tai'an and try to go and see one of China's five sacred montains, Mt. Taishan. The weather was sunny, but really cold in in the city. We decided to spend the night and go to the top in the morning. There are 6600 steps to the top of the mountain, but Dustin and I took the easy way out. We took a taxi to the base, a bus to the midway point, then the cable car to the top and we only had to take about 100 steps to reach the summit!! It was beautiful up there. There were temples,...

Sep 12, 2004 - Watching the grass grow

Well hard sleeper was certainly better than hard seat, but it still wasn't very nice. How it works is the carriage is made up into groups of six bunks, if you're taller than me at least I would strongly recommend the top one. Lights out 10 pm, no air-conditioning, lots of snoring and the ubiquitous hawking - though thank god no gobbing on the flooor like the bad old days - everyone sleeping in their clothes, and much racket every time we are in a station. So not a lot of sleep all in all. I needn't have woried about missing my stop either,...