I will start the trip from the beginning, so I also refresh my mind and do not miss anything… I will try not to to bore you… 😉
I already wrote part of my first impressions of China in this post. I flew to Hong Kong and crossed the border to Shenzen to benefit from the cheap internal flights in China. Hong Kong area is full of islands, and the ferries are a common transport there. So, I found the fastest way for my purposes to reach an airport in Mainland China using the Turbo Jet Sea Express ferry linking Hong Kong International Airport and Shenzen Airport. Really easy way to go to Mainland. Just remember that you have to pick up your luggage before the customs, and that there is a free bus from the pier to the airport (just 2 km).
The first image I got when I jumped off from the boat was this one:
Nice sunset, isn’t it? It is a pity that it was cloudy… Cloudy? No. China is the most polluted country I have ever been (ok, I have only been within Europe, Canada and Japan, but anyway…) and that could be seen at simple sight. The “cloud” is always present: in Shenzen, in Beijing, in Xi’an and even in Shanghai. But, of course, this was just the beginning, in one of the most industrialized areas of China, also called Special Economic Zones, where more factories are placed, and where tougher controls are carried out to avoid an overpopulation around it.
So, after this shock and the issue with the taxis, I took one of the last flights to Beijing, where it was snowing during the night… Nice image, but bad omen for the rest of the days there regarding the climate… Thanks to God, I was prepared. 🙂
Here you are some photos from a grey Shanghai (due to the weather, of course)… You can see The Bund, some traditional area with lots of people (quite common, there are people everywhere), one of the buddhist temples (which have a different taste to the ones in Japan) and the new financial area with the tall skyscrapers (the tallest is also the tallest in China).
I am in Xi’an, one of the ancient capitals of China. I arrived this morning after travelling the whole night by train from Beijing. Pretty good and convenient, as you do not need to waste time by going to the airport and so on, just sleeping in the train, and you get up in your next destination.
I stayed four days in Beijing and was ok. The first day I just walked around without almost any direction (I was about to get frozen), so I visited Tiannamen square, the Olympics area, and walked around some centric areas. The second day I did the Palace day: the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace (I was delighted with both of them). The third day I took it easy (do not forget I am on vacation), so I just walked around, through some Hutong (old neighbourhood), the Bell Tower, and went to Karaoke (I had to make the comparison China-Japan in this). The last day was the Great Wall day. Impressive to see even if you go to the touristic part, as I did. I might have found things to do for one more day, but I am looking forward to getting some warmer weather, so I preferred to skip some shopping and start moving south.
Now, Xi’an is impressing me in a quite positive way… Apart from the famous Terracotta warriors, it has a quite well preserved old city, with a complete wall, some old buildings, and a nice Christmas’ evening happening… I do not know what was it, but people were in the city centre with balloons, playing games, eating sweets, wearing hats, …
Tomorrow I will visit the rest of the city, and tomorrow I will head towards Shanghai.
Japan is the best place to be a dog… In fact, it is probably a better place to be if you are a dog, than a human being. 🙂 All dogs here are very spoiled, and people treat them as they were children. This, I know, it is very common in many other places, but here you find more of that. Here are some examples:
The store with clothes for dogs (one of them):
The dogs ready for the snow, and with the same clothes, so they do not become jealous.
And, of course, nappies for the dogs…
And, in previous posts, we also talked about the costumes for dogs.
Izakaya is the typical Japanese bar. There you can eat and drink, as in any other bar in the world. For some reason, it looks like some students’ (and not that students) flats, where a collection of empty bottles of different spirituous drinks matches the Living Room as good as a nice picture (or even better).
Of course, the star drink of this kind of places is “sake”, the japanese rice wine, which is served both hot and cold. Let’s drink a toast together: Kampai!
