Gmann Sven's Blog

Ok so I arrived in Guangzhou this morning so the relaxing, exploring, travelling portion of my travels is over. Not exactly sure what this next week will hold but I’m confident it will be a lot of fun. Below are my observation from last week including how much fun I’ve found keeping a journal.

- Not having YouTube really sucks. I don’t spend a lot of time checking out weird videos on it so that’s no the reason, its more that there are quite a few websites I use that post their videos on YouTube so it’s a real pain in the ass. I even found a website which had really good reviews to learn a bit of Chinese and yep you guessed it the video content is on YouTube!!

- Getting my visa renewers was a breeze. The only down side was it took 7 days, that’s 5 working days and 2 days for the weekend!

- I still haven’t used a squat toilet. Not sure why I’m affair to use one. May be it has something to do with worrying that I might poop on my feet.

- Chinese winter is very mild in the south of the country. Apart for 2-3 days when it’s been zero or a bit below, the temperature has been in the mid teens most of the time which is a nice change from European winters of the last few years.

- I’ve made a break through in my use of chopsticks! The other night I was eating fried noodles and all of a sudden (not sure what changed) but things just got easier.

- I’m the most considerate person I’ve come across when it comes to respecting other people in hostel dorms. Other people are completely mad!! E.g. They’ll come back after 12 or leave really early. They happily turn on all the lights and take 10mins sorting out their shit. If I come back and everyone is asleep I don’t even turn on the light or brush my teeth I just jump straight into bed. If I’m heading out early ill pack my stuff up the night before. Also I don’t snore! Fucking hate snorers!! Is it so hard to be a little considerate of others?

- I’m enjoying keeping my daily spend journal. I have a max daily spend, target spend (17% less than max spend) and then I try to see how much I can come in below my target spend every day. Best effort so far was 50% under my target spend.

- For the last 5 days of my holiday I started keeping a daily journal of what I wanted to achieve and did achieve each day. I’ve found it much more fun than I thought it would be. It’s nice to see all of my “to do’s” in the done column at the end of the day. It’s something that the power of habit book describes as a small win an I’d like them. I plan on keeping it for February also.

- Totally bummed! Just notice 3 tiny scratches on my iPad’s screen!! Might be time for a screen protector.

- Why doesn’t my keyboard have a delete key? It’s so annoying to always have to move the curser to the right of the thing you want to delete as the backspace key only works going from right to left!!!

- Arrived in Guangzhou this morning and its a much nicer city than I thought it would be. I knew it was going to be big, but its big and (the parts I’ve seen so far) beautiful! Really cool buildings, nice river, parks and the weather today is very nice, early 20′s and sunny and should be like that for the next week or so. Not too shabby for winter.

- Noticed that Chinese phone numbers have 11 digits. Guess that’s what you need with 1.3 billion people.

- Audible is really cool!! It’s the audio book company. I listened to a great book called “power of habit”. Having someone read you the words is So much better and enjoyable than reading them.

So that’s it for this week. Next weeks update should have something to do with networking, opportunity seeking and general impressions on my first week in a big Chinese city.

Until then….

I started out early it was a lovely day, I picked up some fresh bread along the way to my jumping off point. The plan was to make it as far as possible so I was either going to Dali (circa 180km) or if I had enough day light Kunming (circa 400km) which according to google maps was some 8 hrs away. When I got to the main road that would take me all the way to Kunming I decided to walk just a little further thinking that I would find a better spot just outside the city. Boy was that did that a mistake! I soon came across a barrier that separated the two lane highway from a small path with was used by scooters and small 3 wheeled delivery vans. I thought that it couldn’t last too long so I kept walking looking for a place to start hitching. Kilometre after kilometre went by as did the hours. I tried hitching from the other side of the barrier a couple of times when there was a break in it for a small road used by farmers but no luck so I kept going and going. 5km turned into 10 into 15 when finally I got what I was looking for… An end to that fucking barrier!!!

Any way I had found my self a good spot and the sun was shining so I calmed down and stuck out my thumb. That was around 12:15pm some 3 hrs after I set off from my hostel.

10 mins passed when a rather dirty but brand new X5 came I to view.

I always hope to be picked up by a nice car but I’m not disappointed when they drive by. Fortune was smiling on me, perhaps paying me back for the long long walk when it would have been easy just to turn back and get a bus or train. What ever the reason there I was standing beside what would become my ride all the way to Kunming. While I was trying to get my book out to show that I wanted to go to Dali or Kunming a voice out of the back seat yelled out in english “you going Dali” I said yes and after putting my backpack into the boot I climbed aboard with 4 of the nicest, happiest most welcoming people you could hope to meet. With in 2 mins I had been offered every imaginable snack as Chen (The lady in the yellow jacket & monkey on cap) sells them on a commercial scale. As it turns out I was in a car with 4 entrepreneurs. The others I would come to find out later were into selling tea (Yin, far left of photo glasses) buying property (Chang Hong, red cap) and selling generators ( short hair, far right can’t remember her name).

With in 5 mins they invited me to a fish restaurant in Dali. They were all really excited to eat there. I figured it must be good so I accepted their invitation. Around 30mins of chat later I worked out that they actually lived in Kunming. I said I was headed that way and they said they would be happy to take me all the way. Whoo hooo!

We stopped for lunch at the fish restaurant and while we waited for our food they played a game called TWO KILL. It didn’t take long for our food to arrive and when it did there was a surprise (check out he video below). They ordered so much even though we ate for around 1hr there was still loads left, but it was time to go so we jumped back into the X5 and headed off to Kunming.

We had around 4 1/2 hrs ahead of us and I was looking forward to it as I could learn more about my new friends. Yin was the interpreter and relayed my questions to the others and visa versa. I learned that they were all successful in their own way and wondered if that’s why they were so happy, constantly laughing and joking around.

After a while the big lunch took its toll and we got more quite before drifting off to sleep for an hour or so. When we awoke we were around 2 hrs short of Kunming and the stars were out. Yin asked me what music I like and instead of trying to explain I just handed over my iPod. With no prompting from me he soon found Smashing Pumpkins and Silverchair as his favourites. He then asked me about my headphones which aren’t top of the range but are very good for the price and substantially better than the standard apple earphones he was using. He asked me how much they cost and I said €35. After converting that into rmb, he opened his wallet and gave me ¥300 as he wanted me to get him a pair. I said it wasn’t a good idea as I would only be able to get him the earphones in April and for all he knew I could just keep the money. He said that he trusted me and could wait until then. I was really happy that he would have that level of confidence in me and also dubious of whether I could do the same with a stranger I had met 3hrs earlier.

Any way the last couple of hours passed pretty quickly. The contents of my iPod got the seal of approval of every one in the car as they all had a good listen. Yin’s english was coming back to him after 4 years of not speaking it, so we were able to ask and answer more interesting questions along the way.

I came to China hoping to meet interesting and successful people and here I was conversing with 4 of them. As we neared the city they asked me what I was doing the following night, I said I had no plans and they insisted that we have dinner. I’m not sure if they knew it but I was over the moon to say yes, as they are just he type of people I want to be having dinner with while I’m here in China.

As we got close to they city Yin said that we would be dropped off at his place then he would show me how to get to my hostel which looked like it was around 2kms from his place. When we got there everyone got out to stretch their legs and they all said it was really nice to meet me and looked forward to dinner the next day.

I in turn thanked them for:
a) picking me up from the side of the road
b) taking me for lunch
c) their generosity
d) interesting conversation
e) taking me circa 400km right into Kunming
f) so much more!

As is becoming routine they said it was their pleasure and they would see me tomorrow. With that they jumped back aboard the X5 and headed off home. Yin dropped his bag off and then decided that he would take me all the way to my hostel. I said I knew the way and it wasn’t necessary but he just shook his head and started walking. I did the only thing I could and followed him. Soon we reached my hostel and he came in for a drink and a chat. He also brought with him a small bag which contained 2 bricks of top notch Yunnan tea. He gave them to me as a present and told me if he had the time he would show me how to prepare and drink it properly. I offered to pay but as usual he didn’t want to know.

Around 10:30pm he headed off home as he had a big day the following day. I thanked him for everything and confirmed when and where we would meet the next day, then headed off for a well deserved sleep.

I’d say that with the experience I had and the people I met, that day hitchhiking was my best day in China and it’ll take a very special day to top it! I think I may just have made my first successful, entrepreneurial friends in China and I couldn’t be happier.

I’ll be back with another hitchhiking update about my failed attempt to get from Kunming to Nanning. What went wrong, what I learned and how I can avoid a similar occurrence in the future.

Until then….

8 weeks wow… Feels like a long time and short time all at the same time. It depends on the day and what I’m doing I’ve found. This week involved extending my visa which was actually painless and rather pleasant. It also involved moving through 3 Chinese cities and 2 provinces. The rest of this weeks happenings are below.

- There are some super weird looking pastries here. As I’m not eating very healthily at the moment I’ve tried a few with mixed results. Some are nice while a couple I’ve tried were super gross!

- Nanning is the first place that I’ve felt like there are loads of Chinese people. I went for an explore on Sunday. The streets, side walks were completely full, as were the scooter lanes and the traffic was bumper to bumper. It was a little overwhelming for 5mins but got used to it pretty quickly.

- As many babies as I’ve seen here, and there are a lot!!!! The one child policy is not in effect any more that’s for sure. I’ve seen less than 10 prams. Parents seem to carry their kids on their backs using a traditional looking piece of cloth with some straps to tie the baby on. Another thing relating to kids/babies is as many as there are you don’t see pregnant women walking around. For me that’s wonderful! May be its what I’ve been saying for a long time which is once they get fat they should just stay indoors. I like!

- A Chinese cities I’ve been to have some interesting and cool skyscrapers. In Nanning they have a few buildings with large ball shaped protrusions coming out like the one below. I read today that at some point in the 1st quarter this year china will be home tone tallest building in the world. Take that Dubai!

- In Nanning lots of the buildings have burglar bars on the windows. Not sure why this city has so much more than other cities. Also not sure why if you live on the 20th or 30th floor you would bother with them, I mean who’s gonna rob you? Spiderman?

- This scooter only costs ¥2650 brand new which is around $430. No wonder there are so many of them on the roads. Also I’m not sure if there is an age limit to ride one because I see some very young people (can’t be older than 12) riding them around. The fold up bicycle cots only around $75 not too bad!

- Walking around Guilin is pretty cool. A few mins in any direction and you run into one of these cool mini mountains which spring up out of no where. I also saw something really cool while walking along the river. I saw a few fisherman on their long bamboo boats with pyramid shaped nets trying to catch their lunch. Then I noticed one of them had a bird on his boat that was helping him fish!! Was so cool, I watched for about 20 mins. The bird dove in a few times but didn’t catch anything while I was watching but he must have earlier as when they returned to shore the guy had a big net full of fish and he didn’t have any other way to catch them. The black smudge at the end of the boat is the bird.

- The river that runs through Guilin looks very clear and clean but when you get close you can see loads of trash and other junk in it.

- They like to paint the trunks of trees white here. Not sure why? My best guess is the ones along the side of the road are painted so you don’t have people driving into trees on a dark night but no clue why the others are white.

- Chinese cities and towns come alive once the sun goes down. Absolutely everything get light up, from buildings, to trees, tourist attractions and everything in-between. It’s a pity my iPad takes such poor photos once the sun goes down.

- I’ve been eating McDonalds for lunch for the last 10 days. I know it’s not healthy but I don’t like eating noodles or dumplings 3 times a day, plus McDonalds happy hour makes it very cheap. By the way KFC has happy hour too but they’ve had some bad press here about hormone stuffed chickens and if your getting bad press about food standards in China you know it must be bad!!!

- I was walking past a hairdressers the other night and saw the weirdest contraption I’ve ever seen relating to hair.

- I lost one of my ear plugs!!!!! Arrrgggggg!!!! Bugger. I’ve found I don’t like / can’t sleep with out them. I’ve been listening to an app called ” relax melodies hd” when I go to sleep as a replacement which is great but while I was sleeping my iPad fell of the bed and pulled my earphones now the right one doesn’t work properly!!! Crap!

- I went ten pin bowling in Guilin. Was super fun! Bowled two games first was the better of the two getting 140 which considering I hadn’t bowled in 2 years was pretty good. The 2nd game, not so good only got 94. On the way home saw my first really drunk guys coming out of a restaurant. Was super funny watching them walk down the street trying to stop each other from falling over.

- Chinese people love eating seeds. It doesn’t matter what kind, watermelon, pumpkin, sunflower and lots of other weird and wonderful kinds. They also eat bamboo, panda style. It’s very strange to see some one snacking on a tree.

- Arrived in Yangshuo this afternoon. Check out the view from my rooftop. Pretty sweeeeeet!

This next week is my last week of being a tourist. I have to wait for my visa which will be ready next week so just going to lay low, relax and prepare for Guangzhou! So next weeks update will probably have a lot to do with my preparations!

Until then….

I decided early on Friday morning that I was being a bit of a pussy and using the fact that there isn’t much traffic and the roads near Lijiang and Shangri La are quite small as a big fat excuse because I didn’t want to feel uncomfortable standing by the side of the road potentially for many hours to get a lift so I decided to man up!

Around 10:45am I left the hostel and walked out to the G214 which is the main road that takes you back to Lijiang. It took around 20 mins to get there so I first stuck my thumb out around 11:05.

As I expected there wasn’t a hole lot of traffic and what there was, was lot mini buses and tractors. No one said hitching in China would be easy so I was prepared to stay there till 5pm to get a lift.

Around 20 mins later a guy in a pickup truck stopped. I showed him were I was going but before I could show him the characters for “where are you going” he shook his head and drove off.

Next thing on the horizon was 3 young Chinese girls also hitching. I saw them walking out of the road from the old town and was cursing my luck. Reason? Well if I was in a car and had to decide between picking up 3 girls or a scruffy looking westerner, 3 girls wins every time. Fortunately they walked past my spot and some way down the road so we both had space to do our thing. Unsurprisingly they got picked up in less than 15 mins but I wasn’t complaining as the scenery was lovely and the sun was out.

Pick up # 1. Nice lady in an old VW passat. I showed here were I was going and fortunately for me she was going there too!! She pointed for me to sit in the back. The inside of her car was immaculate even though there were 247,500 kms on the clock. Every inside area was covered, seat, floor, steering wheel etc. The inside door panels, dials, radio, switches and seat belts looked brand new. She clearly loved her car and took great care of it. She also had a Buddhist trinket on the dash board which spun around as the car moved. This was my most quite ride so far as she was in the front and I didn’t want to distract her from the road ahead. I was told that people who don’t have nice cars in China probably don’t have a lot of money so I decided to give her some money when we got to Lijiang. I thought 30rmb was a fair amount as she was going there any way so I put that amount in my pocket. I was quite surprised that as soon as we stopped she spun around and asked for 50. I gave her the 30 that was in my pocket and got out. While I don’t think she was 100% happy she wasn’t yelling or screaming either so perhaps it was a fair amount after all.

Not the best hitching experience. It’s really up to me to clarify things up front in the future to make sure that we both get what we want out of the journey.

A learning experience for sure. Like I said no one said it would be easy considering cultural differences and the BIG BAD language barrier.

Still looking forward to the next one.

Until then….

I had avoided hitching in China for a few days as I knew the language barrier could be a problem but enough was enough so I sat down with one of the staff at my hostel in Dali and wrote down some Chinese characters to enable me to communicate what I was looking to do and where I was looking to go.

The next morning I awoke pretty early had a nice breakfast and departed around 9am. I walked through Dali old town to the S221 highway which according to the map is the most direct route to Lijiang. It took me around 35 mins to get there and what I quickly realised was it was probably the wrong choice. You see it was a small one lane road with no pull off area and little traffic. My other choice was the G214 which was a) just out side my hostel and b) a 4 lane highway. Oppssss!

I tried on the S221 for around 20mins and then decided I would have much more luck on the other road so another 30min walk back to where I could have started the day. I wasted around 2 hrs but it was a nice day and I got an early start so it wasn’t the end of the world.

The first guy to stop was in a new Toyota Camry with all the bells and whistles. Big wheels, body kit and loud sound system. I was happy to be able to try out my little book of Chinese characters and I was even more happy that it worked! He understood me… Whoo hooo! He was also going to Lijiang and I was super happy and about to get in when he gave me the Chinese hand gesture for 60rmb. I clarified it with him by showing him that amount in cash. When it was clear I shook my head thanked him and he was on his way.

Pick up #1. I’ll call him Mr. Kia. (as i didn’t have the characters to ask his name) He was driving a 3-4 year old Kia. I showed him the book and it worked its magic once again. He understood me and was going to Shangri La which is the town after Lijiang so it worked out nicely. A picture of him below.

I think he was a sales rep as the back of his car was filled with cartons of Orange Juice. He helped me to make some space in the back for my backpack and cleared out the passenger side footwell. After a few more adjustments we were on our way. I noticed very quickly that this was a smokers car. Every cubby hole was filled with cigarettes so I was expecting a smoky ride. It didn’t eventuate. I’m not sure if he was so considerate he subdued his cravings for the 3 hr journey or if he was a rep for cigarettes also. The ride up was pretty cool with lots of amazing views as we got higher up into the mountains and “interesting” road activities which included a large flock of goats, loads of crazy mini bus drivers, giant pot holes, tractors etc

He either really like Michael Jackson or his favourite radio station was having an MJ day as pretty much the whole way we were listing to his entire back catalog. While there wasn’t too much communication we did agree that MJ had some good songs, that the scenery was beautiful and some of the other road users were a bit crazy.

Around 3 1/2 hrs later he dropped me right off at entrance to Lijiang old town. I had offered to pay the toll on the way and offered again to give some money but he said no shook my hand and we parted ways.

First hitching experience in China was under my belt and I was feeling good.

Bring on the next one I say!

Until then….

Ok week 7 is in the books and it was a good one. I hung out with my friends from the university as well as my new friends who picked my up while hiking from Lijiang to Kunming. I still have to put down my thoughts and explain what I’ve learned about china and my self but that’s for another post. In the mean time my observation of the past week.

- Chinese food is served piping hot! See my super nice and super hot dumplings below.

- I learned today that I don’t need to leave China to renew my visa!!! Whooo hoooo! It was going to be a major pain in the ass to leave go to Hanoi or Hong Kong to renew plus it would be expensive. I can now stay in China and renew my visa a further 2 times for a month a piece. SCORE!

- I’m missing a few things after 7 weeks away.
1. My girlfriend
2. My electric toothbrush. Lots of manual things are just fine but in my humble opinion a toothbrush is not one of them!
3. A rad sandwich! I’m starting to obsess over some lovely fresh bread or rolls with ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce and hot mustard. You can get some of the ingredients above but good luck finding a nice piece of cheese or mustard or the type of bread I’m talking about. My observations so far suggest that dairy (anything) is not a big thing here.
4. Pancakes! You can get them here and I’ve had a decent one but nothing comes close to the ones I prepare on my magic crep pan… Then some brown sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice… Mmmmmmmmm

- I found out that doctors in China don’t have to have a Phd’s. This basically means once they get a bachelors degree they can do the same things as a Phd doctor in the west! How crazy is that? I really hope I don’t get sick here! I also heard that to supplement their incomes which are pretty low, they prescribe medicines that make them the most money. WOW!

- The BMW X5 I got a lift in costs around ¥900,000 in China, thats around $144,000 mostly due to tax! I also found out why you see lots of BMW’s but not many 3 series. The reason is STATUS. If you can afford a BMW make sure it’s a 5 or 7 or people will think less of you. I’m sure BMW aren’t complaining.

- I went to my first bar/club this week in Lijiang. It was a really cool place, very cosy with open fires on tables and a band with 3 different singers rocking out Chinese songs. It was a good night. I also saw girls smoking for the first time. Apparently it’s pretty common in clubs.

- Why are tennis chicks such sumos?? You would think that running around a tennis court all day every day would be the perfect antidote to being fat… apparently not!

- I ate donkey!! Feelin a bit weird about it, would rather have gone through life not having done that, but my friends wanted to take me to a place that was very traditional and some what famous in Kunming so I arrived in the restaurant and saw a big mural on the wall just like the picture below. The food that you can see in the second picture was good and bad. The big pot was the “good” one as it was a really nice spicy soup with lots of donkey meat. The smaller pot on the right was the not so good one. I think it was stomach cut into small strips, the soup was nice but the stomach as you might expect tasted like sloppy elastic bands.

- My friends at yunnan university (Yunnan crew) showed me two awesome apps which allow me to watch pretty much any TV show, Movie or Live TV. I really hope I can catch the last weekend of the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl. The best part is you don’t have to worry about getting busted because in China it’s totally acceptable to download / stream any and everything.

- Saw a really cool TV in a department store. If you look at it from one angle you see one movie, tv show etc, and from a different angle another. So they both run at the same time which should reduce arguments over who watches what. The one things I’m not sure about is what happens with the sound??

- When I was hanging out with the “Yunnan crew” in their dorm I needed to go to the bathroom and when I did I realised that the little bucket they all have in their rooms with their toiletries in it isn’t simply a convenient place to keep everything it’s their shower. I had been to the toilet there before but no one else was there and I just assumed that the showers were in a different part of the building. NOPE!! What I saw when I went to the toilet was a Chinese dude having a “shower” out of his bucket. He was totally naked and having a good old wash with the help of the hand basin. I guess that’s what you get if you pay 400rmb per year for accommodation.

- I’m still trying to figure out why Chinese people are sooooooooo friendly and generous. The guys who picked me up in the X5 took me out for dinner last night and again refused to let me pay and they want to take me out again tonight. It’s hard not to feel like a freeloader and leaves me a little uneasy but they insist that it’s their pleasure and they would feel just as uneasy if I were to pay. Not sure i’ll ever get used to that.

- There are circa 10,000 Chinese characters!! Apparently you need to know between 3-4,000 to read a newspaper or magazine. Obviously they can’t have a keyboard with 10,000 characters so they use something called pinion which allows you to type a few letters in english then the Chinese character that corresponds comes up and you select it and move on to the next part of the word or sentence. I’ve also seen a hand writing recognition app that one of my friends uses on her iPhone.

Well that’s all for this week. Ill be back with 3 updates on my hitchhiking in China and possibly a small guide on how to hitchhike in China.

Until then….

It was my 3rd day in Kunming and the 1st day that it wasn’t below freezing. The sun was shining and I decided I would go to the western hills. Basically it’s a really big hill/mountain with a great view over Kunming.

I got 2 local buses to the foot hills for 1 rmb a piece. When I got dropped off there were a hoard of mini buses all wanting to take me and the others who got off the bus to the top.

I wanted to walk and wasn’t going to pay 100 rmb to go 5 mins up the hill so I set off. I soon realised that it wasn’t going to be a 5 mins, if fact it was going to be more like 1 hr plus.

On the way up there were lots and lots of bends with the road switching back on its self over and over. I soon got the idea that you could cut through the bushes and cut a few hundred meters at a time so the next bend I took a short cut. I had no idea taking the short cut would turn an interesting and enjoyable day into the best day in China to date.

A couple of short cuts later I ran into a group of 5 young guys heading up the mountain. They soon began taking more and more adventurous short cuts and as this walk was taking longer and longer I decided to follow them.

We got to a really steep part and every one was struggling to get up so they were helping each other. I was the last in the line and I expected them to continue on and I’d be left to figure out how to get up on my own. Wrong! As soon as they noticed me the last guy up offered me his hand and helped me up.

After that he (Linzeyun) was constantly looking back and making sure I was ok. Soon we got to talking. He was asking me where I was from, my name and how long I had been in China. He then introduced me to the other guys most of whom didn’t speak english but they still welcomed me to join them on the trek up the mountain. A shot of me and the guys.

After what seemed like an age we finally got to a town. We had been walking for over an hour and were all hungry. They invited me to have lunch with them and I accepted. We were walking through the town trying to find a Muslim restaurant as one of the guys was Muslim and couldn’t eat at any of the other places.

Along the way we passed some people on the side of the road who set up a stall with balloons on a wall and a pellet gun to shoot them. They insisted I try and insisted on paying. I was terrible which they found pretty funny.

After that we soon found a place and I left it to them to select what we would be eating. The place we found had a full size snooker table so we entertained our selves while the owner cooked up our food. While we were playing the wife of the owner killed, plucked and cleaned a chicken next to us which was strange for me but the other guys didn’t blink and eye. After what seemed like an age, the owner called us over to the table and then started brining out the food, huge plate after huge plate. It all looked delicious accept for the eggplant!! Yuuuuk!! The food was super good and tasty.

We ate, talked and joked around for around 40 mins. When it came time to settle up they said I was their guest and I couldn’t pay. I fought them on it for a while but they weren’t having any of it. I did all I could which was to thank them warmly.

Next stop was the national park where we would climb to the top of the mountain and get our reward… The view. When we got there we realised there was a 40 rmb entry fee. The guys decided it was too expensive and we would walk down the road a bit and try to jump the fence.

We managed or get in and were approaching the top when we were confronted by a guy with a walkie-talkie. It soon became clear he worked for the park and had come to bust us for not paying. The guys were trying to negotiate with him but he wasn’t listening. He instructed us to start heading down, we got a few hundred meters and then ran into another guy from the park. The two of them go to talking about what to do with us. Soon one of our group started talking with them and trying to negotiate our “release”. Things went back and forth for at least 20 mins. Eventually a fine was agreed and paid. As I had no idea what was happening and didn’t want to ask too many questions, once we were lead to the fence and allowed to continue up the mountain I asked them how much the fine was and how much I owed. Again they weren’t playing ball. I was trying to say buying me lunch as their guest was one thing but paying a fine that I should have paid was too generous. They weren’t budging and said it wouldn’t be acceptable for me to pay anything. I could tell I wasn’t going to get anywhere so I decided to enjoy the climb to the top and the company of my new friends.

When we reached the top we were all admiring the view and chatting about this and that. All of them were either 20 or 21 so I was pretty happy I was able to (more or less) keep up. There were only a few places where I couldn’t play the young mans game. One place in particular was a 2.5m gap with uneven footing on both sides with a 15m drop if you didnt take off or land properly. They all jumped across with ease and landed safely but when I got up to the edge I couldn’t do it so I had to take a slightly longer route.

During our chat they asked me if I wanted to play basketball at their university once we were done and after that have dinner with them. They also said I was now officially their friend. What else could I say but yes!

We spent another hour or so climbing around before we headed down. We caught the bus back to their university. They showed me their dorm where 6 of them lived. It was pretty cramped with 3 bunk beds on either side of the room with a long table in the middle where they eat, do their homework, play games and use their computers. Fortunately they all got on very well. Later on my guided tour of their campus they told me that there were some new dorms which were much nicer and more spacious but they were too expensive. How much I asked. 1200 rmb which didn’t sound too bad to me for a month, but they only paid 400. I then found out that both numbers are yearly amounts. So my new friends pay 400rmb a piece for the full year. Not too bad!

Next it was basketball time. It was just me and Linzeyun playing as the other guys were too tired. We hit the courts and soon were playing 2 on 2 against some other students. We played 6 games in total. First to 6 points wins. I’m happy to report that my basketballs skills haven’t totally deserted me and with Linzeyun help we managed to win 5 of 6 games.

Dinner soon followed with all 6 of us heading out to the local noodle soup joint. Mine was super good and in keeping with the theme of the day I wasn’t allowed to pay. I was starting to feel like a bit of a freeloader which wasn’t nice but I really think they were happy to look after me.

Final part of the day was the tour of their campus. They explained the function of every building and took me into a couple of them to show me their class rooms. They also said their university (Kunming) was around the 100th rated university in the country and there were over 30,000 students on the various campuses throughout the city.

After we were done it was time to head off. I thanked them all and headed off to the bus to head back. Linzeyun came with me and insisted that I come back to play more basketball and have some diner with them when I get back to Kunming. Linzeyun and me.

I’m heading back that way tomorrow and will defiantly be meeting up with them for some more fun.

Looking back on that day (10 days ago), I really can’t believe how friendly and generous they all were considering the are all students so don’t have lots of money and I was a total stranger so they didn’t have to do anything for me.

I know that, that would never happen in the west. When I’m back there I’m going to look hard for an opportunity to do the same for someone else.

Until then ill keep enjoying the hell out of China!!

- Men seem to be the only ones who smoke here. Some one told me that some women do smoke just not in public. Either way I’m glad as the less 2nd hand smoke I have to inhale the better.

- The squat toilet. What’s up with people still using them. I’ve been in toilets where there are both squat and western toilets and the squat toilet seems to be more popular. Also why is there no toilet paper in bathrooms?? I went to this super nice looking toilet in Lijiang with marble on the floors and really nice expensive looking fixtures but no TP! The one that looks like a slipper is the squat toilet.

- I’m continually amazed by the generosity of Chinese people. I got to Lijiang after my hitchhike and realised that the old town is quite literally a maze. I was looking at a map after walking around a few mins when a young guy (far left in photo) called Ron asked where I was going. He was a tourist like me so didn’t know where my hostel was but decided to help me find it. He asked 3 or 4 people and we were going in the right direction. We them bumped into the 2 guys on the right. Ron was speaking to them in Chinese and they were also looking for their hostel. From their reaction I thought they were staying at my hostel or at least on the same road. So there I was with 3 total strangers helping me to find my way. 5mins and a few more people consulted we found it. I then realised that the guys on the right weren’t staying on my street or at my hostel, so all of them had decided to help me, a total stranger! I of course thanked them profusely and they were off. WOW!

- China just keeps getting better. I arrived in Jinghong which was so so, then on to Kunming which was pretty cool, then on to Dali which as I said in last weeks post was very cool. I then arrived in Lijiang and was blown away not only by the ancient city but the wicked mountain with an equally wicked name JADE DRAGON SNOW MOUNTAIN. The photos don’t really do this place justice.

- I found out this morning that China only has ONE time zone. In a county the size and width of the US which has 4 time zones they have one. This morning I woke up early to catch a bus and there were kids going to school in the dark, time? almost 730am. They don’t even have day light savings. Crazy

- I learned this week that circa 85% of tourism in China is home grown. I also learned that some people are total idiots! I was speaking to a nice guy from the US he told me that his friend also from the US was visiting some place in CHINA! And had the audacity to complain that there were “too many Chinese tourists”. Can you imagine being in your own country and visiting some city or land mark (in your own country) and some tourist from another country complaining that you are there? MADDDD!

- Tiger leaping gorge is awesome! Highlight of my travel to date. It’s not super cheap with a 65 rmb entry fee, you then have people along the way trying to get you to pay for taking pictures at certain spots as well as selling you expensive water or snickers bars. When you get to the end and you want to climb down to see the tiger leaping stone you have to pay 10rmb. When you finally get down to the bottom there are families who have built bridges and they try to charge you 5 or 10rmb to cross them. All that being said that its totally worth it. It’s the best nature hike type thing I’ve ever done by far!

- Some places seem to be difficult to hitchhike to for 2 reasons. 1. Very little traffic 2. Tiny roads with no area to pull off. For example I got a bus from Lijiang to the entrance of tiger leaping gorge, the road is very small and I realised on the way up its the same road to shangrila which put a wet blanket on my idea to hitch to There… Pity!

- I spent a day in Shangri la and it was enough. It’s a decent sized little city but the old town which is the nice looking part is very small and you can walk around it in about an hour. Read the information relating to the big golden wheel thing (1st picture).

Best thing for me about shangrila. Rice noodle and yak soup! Super super good!

- I feel like a bit of a dick Hitchhiking in China mainly because once I get into the car, I only really know how to say thank you and hello. It would be great to interact and find out more about the people who pick me up. I think its time to get some more Chinese written down so I can communicate better!

I’ll be back soon with a post which will have something to do with my trip Chengdu, pandas and giant Buddhas so should be cool.

Until then……