China 2002

These are pictures I took during the various short-trips we made during our stay in Wuhan, China in summer 2002.

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Beijing

Before we came to Wuhan, we spent 4 days in Beijing, capital of China. Oh, my God! Arriving in China was definitely a shock. The signs, the language, the food, ... everything was just sooo different, I've never had experienced that before! We landed in Beijing in the morning. After we had made our way to the hostel (with two regular taxies and not a mini bus which would have been three times the price!) we decided to stroll along the road next to the hostel towards the town center. We didn't get very far! Everything was just so exciting, we spent a full hour in a supermarket staring at all the strange food, some of which we tried and still didn't know what it was!

A main road near our hostel.

The Emperor's Palace in the Forbidden City.

In a quiet park.

The Great Chinese Wall

In Beijing we took joined a day trip with the *BUS 100* to see the Great Chinese Wall and the famous Ming Tombs. Everything had to be very *quickly*!! "Buy tickets, you have 1 hour! Quickly, quickly!"

At the Great Wall.

Enjoying the sunset on the way back to Beijing.

Shanghai

We had the idea of going to Shanghai for a weekend. So we asked if it was O.K. for us to go. Then suddenly one Monday Till's Chinese link-man Shireman came to spread the word: "You go to Shanghai on Thursday and you will come back next Tuesday morning. Order the tickets tomorrow morning and then ask your link-men to ask the proffessors if it was O.K., but they will surely agree since the head of department has already agreed." Got it? Anyway, with Shireman's help we got the tickets and he didn't move from our side until he was convinced we had got onto the right train.
Shanghai appeared to me to be full of contrasts - old vs. modern, rich vs. poor, it seemed there was nothing in between. Additional to the many old small Chinese houses which are all mixed up with the most modern buildings, there are also the remains of Colonial European architecture, buildings you would expect to find in London or Paris, tightly squeezed in between the hundreds of sky-scrapers. Definitely a thrilling place to be!

We went up the Jin Mao Tower,
the third tallest building in the world!

Doing it like the Chinese -
a bike tour through the town center.

Nanjing Donglu - Shanghai's most
famous shopping street.

Shanghai by night - view from the Jin Mao Tower.

The Yangtzi Gorges

To thank us for our involvement with the projects we worked on, the HUST had invited us to spend our last days on a 3 days boat trip through the famous Yangtzi Gorges along what the Chinese call the Chan Jang - the great river. First we almost missed our bus when our Chinese companion put 3 of us in a taxi and asked the driver to follow the taxi he would sit in. Well, ... you have to know that in Wuhan every single cab you can find will be a red Citroen with a black roof ... we found them back in time eventually!
Apparently, we were amoungst the last to see this impressive landscape (which is also illustrated on the 5 Yuan bank note), since construction on the Yangtzi Damm has come to a stage where the whole area will be flooded within a few month. As a means to relocate inhabitants of the many cities in the area to a higher level (about 2 million peoople are affected!) authorities have started to tear down most of the houses below the future water level. However, in what looked like a war scene to us, the streets were still full of life, yet another striking contrast!
Like the trip to the Chinese Wall, our fate was in the hands of the tourist agency. After hours of waiting everything had to go very *quickly*! From time to time we were asked to get off the boat and bravely pass through a passage of stalls with souveniers, trying not to spend too many Yuan. By that time we knew how to bargain in Chinese and it seemed to me the prices got lower much faster than when we would stick to English.
Waking time was 6 am, so once the *gentle* music in the cabins and all over the boat was set on, I jumped out of my bed instantly to find we were already at the impressive gate to the first of the three gorges. Unfortunately the timing was so bad that we had breakfast downstairs when we were just in the second Gorge and lunch when we passed by the damm.

Passing through one of the three gorges.

The cloudy mountains where the Chinese once buried their emperors. Well, If I were a ghost I would surely enjoy that scenery!

At night little boats would dock on to our ship to sell drinks and food unknown to our Western tongues.

Hong Kong

Our last stop was Hong Kong. Although we were already overloaded with impressions, it was definitely worth it! A strange mixture of British infrastructure and British people (I almost felt home!) and Chinese culture and people. Moreover, on Hong Kong Island there are substropical forests on the mountains so our day started with a thrilling walk down the mountain from the youth hostel into the city! (If you ever come to Hong Kong, DO stay at Mt. Davis YH, it's definitely worth the trouble of coming up the mountain!)

Hong Kong - as seen from Victoria Peak - it took us 3 hours to walk up there! The view is similar to that from Jockey Club Mt. Davis Youth Hostel, which is located high up on a mountain overlooking the busy harbour.

Is this the quality of urban life ?

In a National Park on the walk up to the Peak.

Made in Hong Kong - Looking for colourful toys?.