Arrived in Taiwan! 台湾到了！

Disclaimer: this is the first post in a long while that I create on the day of the experience itself. I am however still writing articles about my past experiences in China, so you can scroll down from time to time to see if I wrote something new.

Time for episode two of my great journey through China!
I have parted ways with my buddies Yixin, Jan and Alice in Shanghai. I now embark on a month of solo travelling. My first stop is Taipei. I have no other concrete plan for the 10 days of my stay in Taiwan, but I'm sure that I will have many opportunities. I'll figure something out. ;)

Airport to city shuttle. I'm the only passenger.

My arrival in Taiwan is not without trouble. My luggage has mistakenly been removed from the airplane when I transferred in Hong Kong and I have not yet received it. I will probably only get it this afternoon.

I am now in the hip hostel called "I'm Inn Taipei". The staff has been very kind with me, helping me with the return of my luggage and many other things. We've had an interesting conversation about travelling, China-Taiwan and Tomorrowland. Since I have a lot of work to do and because I don't have my luggage yet, I am dedicating this day to blogging and learning some more Chinese.

Me writing this artice. Blogception.

Wrote a message on the wall of the hostel, token of gratitude for the warm welcome the staff gave me.

I decided to try something new here in Taiwan: couch surfing. Tonight I meet up with my host. He's a cool guy called Kenneth, 25 y/o, so I expect that we're gonna have a good time together.

P.S.: one big remark! The climate in Taipei is a lot milder than in Shanghai. I was expecting to only climb the ladder of transpiration, but I just love the weather here. This definitely proves a lot of people wrong. :p

Zhangjiajie National Park: a hiker's paradise

Tianmen Mountain

Ah, Zhangjiajie. This area in northern Hunan province is reknowned for its unique mountainous scenery. People from all over China travel to Zhangjiajie to see its famous national park. Popularity has risen even higher since the mountains have inspired the flying rocks in the Avatar movie (with the blue guys, not The Last Airbender).

In the whole area, there are two main 5A attractions. The first one is Tianmen mountain, which can be accessed by cableway from the city centre. The second one is the national park at Wulingyuan. We visited both.

While the view from Tianmen mountain is definitely amazing, I would not recommend doing it, as it is very pricy to take the cable car and the queue is 5-7 hours long. Up the mountain are some nice paths you can take. There are also two glass floor "skywalks", but you have to pay about €2/p.p. extra for that.

Forest path on Tianmen mountain

The really interesting part about Zhangjiajie is the national park at Wulingyuan. Here you can find the scenery that made Zhangjiajie so famous. The park features stone paths and hiking trails that allow for several days of hiking. We stayed in a hostel up in the mountains, which was definitely a good idea, because you can see a lot more of the park that way. You should not expect any more comfort than the absolute mimimum though.

The famous Zhangjiajie scenery, as it is found in the national park.

The park is the most beautiful after the rain, when you can see a "sea of clouds" in between the sharp rocky cliffs.

Our travel party. One person is missing from this picture: Xu Haoshuang, who travelled with us for 10 days.

And to finish up this article: here's an old Chinese song I'm totally into. I think it fits my mood in Zhangjiajie well. :p

Night Train to Zhangjiajie

Uploaded a video of the first few moments on the 20 hour train trip from Kunming to Zhangjiajie. After this trip I feel I have to review my opinion about the Chinese trains a little. :p

I still think taking the train is relatively comfortable in China if you have beds, but there are some things that are very different from Europe and some of them can be quite annoying. I have listed my annoying experiences below.

1) There is absolutely no way to open a window. The freshest air you can get is thus by sucking it through the cracks at the intersection of the train compartiments. Okay, I'm exaggerating. But, the lack of fresh air is still very annoying, especially when the train stands still, because then the AC doesn't work.

2) This one is not about the train itself, but about the procedure to get on it. Taking the train in Europe is easy, right? You buy your ticket at the train station or online and simply hop on. Well, in China things are quite different... Taking the train is as troublesome as taking an airplane. The procedure is complete with at least one security check, at least two passport controls and at least 3 ticket controls. Why? 你们的安全! For your safety of course. A terrorist might get through the first two ticket controls, but will surely get caught at the third one.
Also: queueing. In big train stations you can expect to wait 1h30 to just get your ticket. Even if you booked it online, you still have to fetch it at the administrative desk in the train station. This is particularly frustrating, because I don't see any usefulness to it.

3) There is music at the most inappropriate times. You wanted to sleep early, because you get off the train at 5 am? Too bad. Here's some tacky Chinese pop music that'll prevent you from doing that. Sometimes it's even worse, because the train staff communicates safety information (安全，安全，安全!) or publicity over the music at a deafening volume.

4) Hot water. This is actually a positive element. I listed it because it so unique to Chinese trains. In every train there is a water boiler. People use it to fill up the tea cans they carry around at all times and to prepare their instant noodles (THE Chinese train and pick nick food). It is actually very useful. I might introduce it in Europe. ;)

Rant over. But take it with a sense of humour, will you? :)

Beautiful Lugu Hu

Our trip in Yunnan lead us to the upper northern border with Sichuan. This is the location of Lugu Hu (泸沽湖), a beautiful lake amidst the mountains. This place is perfect for hiking. Swimming is, as usually in China, not allowed. We spent 2 nights around the lake, which was enough to enjoy the scenery to the fullest. The second day, we drove around the lake by scooter. It only takes 3 hours that way. The soft climate here is very comfortable. 

It was fun to get into Chinese traffic for a while. Although nothing compared to the business of a bustling city, the driving around Lugu Hu is still the same as in the rest of China, meaning: hazardous takeovers, speeding on small roads and a lot of horn blowing. Below you can find a video shot from the back of the scooter. Unfortunately, nothing exciting happened while filming, but you can get a glimpse of what the roads around the lake look like.

Feeling badass on a scooter...

Improvised hiking trail, not on a map.

Old (?) Lijiang

Ahh, we've arrived in the famous old town of Lijiang (丽江) in northern Yunnan. We've had the luck of finding a very good hostel just by exploring the area of Shuhe (束河), which is the one of the three main areas in Lijiang that is the most comfortable to reside in.

First day, we've strolled around in the old town (古城). The old town has some beautiful parts, but is crowded with tourists, shops and street vendors. The buildings are in old Chinese/Naxi architecture and look very nice, maybe a bit too nice... While 古 translates to "ancient", the town itself did not seem to be very old. If the buildings are actually as old as touristic brochures claim they are, then they have been renovated to the point where their ancient roots have become invisible. The buildings could just as well have been built in 2010 as in 1800. Nonetheless, there is a lot to do in the area around Lijiang and there are a lot of fun pubs and cafés, so we did have a good time here.

Shuhe

Lijiang old town entrance

Overview of the old town

This is the view you get when you turn around...

Typical street in the old town of Lijiang

Arriving in Yunnan

Kunming train station

We've arrived by train in Kunming, capital of the Yunnan province early in the morning of  friday 10th of july. The plan was to immediately continue travelling to the northern part of Yunnan, more specifically the popular sightseeing areas of Lijiang and Lugu Hu. However, since we travelled from Guiyang, a transfer in Kunming was necessary. Guiyang - Kunming took about 9h, Kunming - Lijiang would be be an 8 hour long train journey. We spent one day in Kunming and tried to use our time as efficiently as possible. After a quick noodle soup for breakfast, we visited a Daoist temple, went to a museum about the local history and later on went to Cui Hu (翠湖) park to relax a little bit.

Although dental care is still a big issue in some parts of China, this doctor likes to show off his skills to  people passing by.

Kunming atmosphere.

Cui Hu park entrance.

After a short day in Kunming, we took the night train to Lijiang. If you have berths, travelling by train is actually really comfortable in China. The nasty part is that they wake you up with tacky Chinese music at 6 am for no good reason (even though your train only arrives at 8). ;)

P.S. No, this is not night time. Picture taken the next morning. ;)

Pipa concert

In Guiyang, we went to the pipa (Chinese lute) graduation concert of Cai Yina, Yixin's cousin. The concert took place in the music hall of the Guiyang Normal University. We were all asked to help a bit with the preparations and did some roadie work during the concert. While I did not see that much of the concert from the audience, I can say that it sounded exquisitely. :)

For the last performance, 5 other musicians joined.

The presenters for tonight, both in Chinese and English. Although there weren't many English speakers in the audience.

A picture backstage. The agitation was visible.

One of the many, many group pictures.

Participating in such a local event was an amazing experience.