As promised, we won’t tell you again some stories about the nice Chinese we met (although they keep being friendly, helpful and open-minded). So instead, let’s tell a story about a nice Pakistani we met. After our relaxing cruise we spent a night in Wuhan and headed to “Huang Shan”, another sacred peak in China, also known as “Yellow Mountain”. We were quite happy when we finally arrived there, because our taxi driver – like so many Chinese – seemed to love the risk (actually they drive much worse than in South-America where I was never frightened, whereas honestly in China I am). He overtook the other cars at any place, may it be possible or not. When he tried to do so at a construction site where we had a slow truck in front of us, the road was obviously too narrow, in a bad shape and with limited view. This did not prevent our driver from overtaking and what should happen happened: the stones proved not to be the best underground to drive on and with a terrible noise, they caused some damage in the motor. So the driver had to lay with his designer clothes on the dust under the car to repair it. At least he surprised us with his technical skills. And at the end, the delay turned out to be beneficial because while queueing at the hostel check-in, we met Nabeel.

Nabeel is a Computer Science student from Pakistan, currently terminating his Master’s Degree in Istanbul before hopefully going to the US to do a PhD. More important, he loves travelling and despite the tough visa issues for Pakistanis, he has already seen lots of countries in Europe and Asia. We went out for dinner and did the hike on the “Huang Shan” together. In hours of talking, we learned a lot about reality in Pakistan: the different ethnic groups and everyone speaking at least 5 local languages (REAL languages, not dialects), the problems with the amount of drone attacks and the terrorism induced by that, the remote nomadic tribes susceptible to the Taliban, the pros and cons of the Madrassas, the bad international reputation and the role and consequences of the media reporting false facts (may it be on purpose or not). But we also talked about more positive topics like food, the people and the beautiful and safe areas worth travelling to. Thank to Nabeel we have a new country we definitely still have to visit, and we also know which region better not to got to! Apart from that, “Yellow Mountain” was overcrowded but the landscape is stunning …. we just cannot see stairs anymore and are looking towards trekking on natural trails in Nepal. Continue reading →

We know it might get boring if we talk about every single conversation we had with some friendly Chinese. So, once and for all, we’ll give a summary: we had thought the great contact to Chinese was at least partly due to the company of a native speaker. However, Chengdu was the first station in China where we travelled on our own without Wu Jiqing. Of course, having large conversations is much more difficult and telling a taxi driver where we want to go has become a challenge. Nevertheless, we are maybe even more surprised now about the friendliness, helpfulness and open-mindedness of the Chinese we meet. Those speaking at least a little English are keen on practising their language skills and making friends with us. And the others are also interested in talking with us. Although often “hello” is the only word they know, they do not hesitate starting the communication with exactly that word. And by drawing and using signs and hands it works better than you may think. On the other hand, when we need some help or service from them (for example buying train tickets or ordering meals), they are extremely patient and creative. They will call someone by phone who can speak English, draw some images or search for a map. And if you move just two blocks away from the touristy zone, they are super happy a western citizen visits them – and they laugh at our apparently awful Chinese accent.

The first day in Chengdu (where we were housed at the Mix Hostel) we spent walking around and exploring the every day life. Chengdu is an unspectacular but nice city, there is no smog and it has a rather relaxed atmosphere. We liked the “People’s Park” most, a place where the inhabitants enjoy their weekend with a wide variety of activities: dancing, singing, doing maths with the best professor ever, drawing letters with water, watching shows and colliding with their row-boats on a pleasant lake. We also visited the “Wenshu Monastery” and experienced once more the religious life in China, which seems quite strange to European eyes. There are millions of gods and holy places for different tasks, God of Education, Shrine of Wealth, Buddha of this city, Temple of that Province, …. Even young people and students take the opportunity to worship them once they are there, hoping that this old tradition may give them luck as well. Nonetheless, they would not go to such a place only for praying, but if they are there anyway, it cannot cause damage to give it a try. Apart from that, religion does not seem to play any role in the society, it is not even religion in the sense we would understand it, with a clearer approach to explain the most important things and some moral demands derived from the explanations. Here in China, it appears to us that instead of religion there is rather an accepted form of superstition. Continue reading →

“So, please don’t queue in chaos, but stand in a straight line!” – that’s what the attendant told us when we waited for the train from Pingyao to Xi’an. Having said this, she hurried away without looking back. The funny thing was that there were just the 3 of us plus another German backpacker “queueing in chaos”, and that the train stopped 20 m farther, so we had to walk to the entry anyway. Somehow this situation is typical for China. You will be told to follow the rules – may they make sense or not – but no one controls whether you really do it. Nevertheless, Chinese still tend to comply strictly with how they are supposed to behave. On the other hand, if they are not officers, they find it very cool when you don’t.

Sometimes this obsession with rules is a bit annoying, but fortunately we continue meeting great people here. Same day, same place, when we were walking to the train station, James started talking to us and accompanied us. He is a young student who comes to touristy Pingyao at least once a week to improve his English speaking skills. By discussing with him, showing him our passports and laughing a lot, we soon became the main attraction in the whole station and were surrounded by shy, but interested Chinese persons. We really had the impression that they would love participating in the conversation. Once again we experienced that many Chinese are open-minded. Continue reading →

Our travel from the capital to the famous “Terracotta Warriors” in Xi’an lead us through the historic heart-land of China, where you can experience the Middle-Kingdom as you would draw it in a postcard. The pictures at the end say it all, but they may be better comprehensible with a few explanations. Our first station were the “Yungang Caves”, a Buddhist holy site built around 500 AD under the rule of Turk speaking Chinese emperors. A lot of the once 51000 statues in 45 caves can still be seen, revealing some Indian, Persian and even Greek influence. Also without this knowledge of history of art they are simply beautiful and astonishingly huge. In the same period the temples in “Heng Shan” were constructed masterly on the mountainside. Standing on the balconies, we really understood why this area is sacred and even one of the “Five Great Mountains of Taoism” – we could imagine how the monks woke up, walked out of the door and were overwhelmed by the view over the valley. Other constructors in China had seen those temples not only as a beauty but also as a challenge. This is probably the reason why 10 km further you can find the “Hanging Monastery”. To be honest, it would have been nice to know in advance that the tiny wooden pillars are NOT for supporting the construction but just for decoration. Actually the bridge is stabilized by beams anchored in the stone. Nevertheless, this way it was not a comfortable feeling realizing that the wood is rotten and the pillars are shaky! At the end of the day, we had a short stop at the oldest and highest (67 m) wooden pagoda in the world, located at Fogong Temple in Muta. Moreover, this temple is supposed to contain some of the surprisingly many bones of Buddha, which may even exceed the amount of fragments of Jesus’ cross ….

The next destination was Pingyao (where we had a great hostel in a beautiful old house), the best preserved medieval town in whole China. Walking through the old streets is really nice but the historic center is a bit too touristy. Fortunately there are some great spots around the city. Two hours by bus away we visited “Wang Family Compound”. Until ~100 years ago a very rich Chinese family lived in this city-like place, which nowadays is a popular location for films. Nearby there is a 1400 years old underground castle with at that time more than 10 km of tunnels. But what was even more fascinating was the Zhangbi village. Here time literally seems to have stopped, or at least to go very slow. People are still living in simple mud-houses of up to 800 years of age. You see bikes, mopeds and donkeys in the streets, and the inhabitants practise agriculture like in the past, even though air and land are heavily polluted. Seeing how hundreds of millions of Chinese are still living was extremely valuable, giving us a big contrast to what we had seen before. Continue reading →

If you got the impression that we experienced Hong-Kong as a rather uncomfortable city to live in, well, then you are perfectly right. So we departed to Beijing with a frown, expecting the metropolis to be similar, or even more difficult. How wrong we were! First of all, we met Wu Jiqing, Steve’s former mathematics study-mate in Darmstadt, who now lives and studies at the ETH Zürich. He will accompany us through China during 2 weeks, whereas he’ll see the different places for the first time, simply like we do. We are very glad to travel with him and don’t know how we will survive in China after his return to Europe. He is not just a great help in organizing things but it is also a pleasure to talk with him about everything we notice and think about.

But this is not the only aspect we like in Beijing, where we stayed at the highly recommendable “Lucky Family Hostel” and met Mathias Boegner, internationally renowned violin player and professor. The city appeared to us totally different from our expectations. Yes, there is smog, but it is bearable and nearly vanishes on the weekend (just a pity that sometimes the view is not very clear). Apart from that, the capital is a fascinating mix of wide and monumental communist architecture, harmonic traditional Chinese style and bold modernity. Due to the large Stalinist-like avenues and the rather low buildings (seldom more than 15 floors), the metropolis appears bright, very bike-friendly and is able to deal with the masses without hassle and stress. Especially in the center there are also many “Hutongs”, old little labyrinthine streets with small houses of not more than two floors, often lined by trees. The atmosphere is so relaxed that you would never think you are in the capital of one of the most dynamic countries of the word. Finally, huge green parks with lovely lakes contribute to the high quality of life. Continue reading →