Réinitialiser la recherche
China 2017China 2017
SatelliteModifier l’itinéraire

China 2017

novembre 2017
Une aventure de 12 jours par Johanne En savoir plus
  • 44empreintes
  • 4pays
  • 12jours
  • 150photos
  • 0vidéos
  • 11,9kmiles
  • 10,1kmiles
S’abonner Calendrier Partager Liste de choses à faire
Date ascendante
  • VoyageurChina 2017
    Jour 9

    Waiting to fly to Hong Kong

    12 novembre 2017, Chine ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    So up at 6:30 this morning as Lily and Mr Li were collecting us at 7:30. A hasty breakfast and some fluffing about and we were ready to go. The roads were quiet and so we got to the airport in about 30 mins. It's a big new toll motorway out to the airport, yet more evidence of China's massive infrastructure investment.
    On the drive back Lily gave us some more details on Jingdi's mausoleum, 28 years to make the figurines and other artifacts for his tomb. They have only scratched the surface yet they think there are some 160 burial pits. They reckon it took 720,000 crafts people to build the tombs and all the artifacts.
    I think it should be as well known as the warriors but it isn't and it is a much less commercial enterprise... No random "experiences" and a raft of food stalls run from the backs of people's vans..... If we had has longer...!

    Lily brought us right through the airport and checked us in. There was security screening before we could even enter the airport. Then check - in which did not open until 1.5 hrs before departure! So we had to wait, which was on this occasion good because we had more time to chat with Lily. She, in common with lots of people here, commented on how young Dad looks...sadly no one says that to me.... They often assume that I am his wife!! We also compared notes on holiday allowances, the cost of things. Lily wanted to understand the difference between clothes and dress. Which is quite a subtle distinction when you try to explain it... Soon we were checked in and we said goodbye to Lily, she said we were polite and friendly and she would like to be our guide again if we return to Xi'an (I bet she says that to all the tourists! 😉). But we did have fun and we made her laugh.

    After checking in we went to immigration departure: passport, departure card (at least this time we were told) and visa / passport check. Then security... Very thorough... All the usuals on the scaning machine and through the gate to a good intimate pat down by security, then we had to remove our footwear which was sent through the machine whilst our feet were investigated, then I got called back for my kindle to be rechecked... And taken out of its case... And switched on... Then another trip round for my powerbank ... And repeated questions about batteries... And eventually we were released to the gate / departure area...a short wait there and they started boarding us. We were loaded and ready to go about 15 mins before departure time but we used all that and more taxiing to the runway... I was beginning to think that we were driving to HK.    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • VoyageurChina 2017
    Jour 9

    In Flight Entertainment

    12 novembre 2017, Chine ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    Eastern Airlines economy in flight entertainment is a really random selection. It is on drop down screens every 4-5 rows... So far I have watched how to clean taps with potato peel, how to clean coffee cups and how to wash my dusters. In addition we have had magic tricks and their explanations, movie trailers and health tips from an actor (with subtitles) and a recipe for "prawns with wine flavour".

    Contrary to our expectations we got an in-flight meal (auto correct offered inflicted... But it wasn't quite that bad). Chicken and rice or beef noodles (looked like dodgy spag bol to me). Salad of unknown meat and probably mushrooms. Frequent drinks service too. The flying time is about 2:40 so I am hoping to spend some time with the Mandibles (Lionel Shriver). I packed lots of books and have read virtually nothing so far...    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • VoyageurChina 2017
    Jour 9

    Random China bits

    12 novembre 2017, Chine ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Bits that I forgot or are cause for reflection.

    I discovered that it is possible to make potatoes into an unpleasant food... One of the street food options was spicy potatoes but they managed to make them gelatinous urrrgghh.

    Air quality is awful. When it is really bad you can taste it. Most power stations are coal and it has huge reserves so they are burning it with little or no clean air tech as far as I can see. However electric cars, bikes and scooters are very much in evidence so change is probably coming.

    Very security conscious our rucksacks have been scanned at least once at every place we have visited.

    The parks were beautifully maintained. There were armies of people tweaking flowers moving them in and out, creating displays etc. Litter pickers and street sweepers with huge straw brooms were much in evidence.

    Seeing the general attitude and massive capital investments I am not at all surprised that China is wanting to make its presence felt in the global political arena. If it marshals its resources I would think they are unstoppable. Larger than the US by far and more outward looking it will be interesting to see what the next 10 years brings.    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • VoyageurChina 2017
    Jour 9

    A damp arrival in Hong Kong

    12 novembre 2017, Hong Kong ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    So we arrived about 3/4 hr early at HK airport an we walked down the steps and into warm rain, slow bus to the terminal some distance away and we were fed into a very efficient immigration system. Even stopping to fill in an arrival card we were through in 5 mins despite long queues and thus optimistic we would be out and away very shortly. But the bags took ages to come out about 45 mins. Just as we were beginning to twitch they appeared and we scooted to arrivals to find our lift. The poor woman was frantic, apparently she had been phoning to make sure we were still coming to HK. For the first 20 mins in the car what we got apart from welcome to HK was an explanation of how many phone calls she had made ...and on a sunday too. I felt quite guilty, but we had no way of knowing a) that it was excessive (it was still quicker than any baggage arrival at Fumicino) B) how to contact her. Anyway after that we srttled in for a slow drive to our hotel. I hate to say but I didnt catch her name and we won't see her again - we are on our own now. but she gave us subway maps and a map of Kowloon and Central. Much of the traffic was caused by roadworks restricing the roads from Lamma & the airport whilst they build a new Arts and cultural centre. Ms Guide was very scathing - "I dont know why they are building another one, we have one already and we aren't interested in art". Anyhow at about 3:30pm we arrived at the Salisbury.

    The Salisbury is he Kowloon YMCA! but actually it is a good hotel and we got upgraded to a partial harbour view, we even have a bowl of fruit. Also it feels very plush after China, all the hotels were fine but just slightly below par in someway - a patched up bath or grubby corners.

    After we had admired our view we set off in the rain to visit the Hong Kong History Museum. I didn't have enormous expectations but it was excellent, lots of information about Hong Kong's development, it was very good on recent stuff opium wars and early colonialism ...enough to push my guilt buttons ..and reminded me of the scratched pots in the Forbidden City. It also had a whole recreated turn of the 20th C or so street. All in all good and we both enjoyed it. Also it was free (not sure why) - always cheers Dad up.

    After that we went to find money - we needed HK $ now. We found an ATM but it was a Union Pay one (which is the big Chinese ATM system), I didn't have this problem last time I'm sure. Anyway eventually we found an HSBC and could therefore go and get dinner. Beef, pistachios and asparagus for me, prawns and crabmeat in spicy sauce for dad. Plus fried rice and eggplant with minced pork all washed down with copious quantities of tea. We came back via the 7-11 with a beer each for consumption whilst admiring the view.    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • VoyageurChina 2017
    Jour 10

    How could I forget?

    13 novembre 2017, Hong Kong ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Last night we walked back from the museum area all along the harbour causeway (on the Kowloon side) so we had the spectacular Hong Kong sky line to look at. Then we watched the Symphony of Lights around the harbour. Which wasn't as impressive as I remembered but still fun, and huge crowds of people all around the star ferry area watching it too.En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • VoyageurChina 2017
    Jour 10

    Peak Time

    13 novembre 2017, Hong Kong ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

    Slack start this morning so we didn't get up till gone 7:30. A leisurely start then down from North Tower where our room is to the dining room in South Tower. Excellent breakfast and attentive staff who greet you by name. Trying to work out the best use of our time given the weather.. It is very grey and overcast this morning.

    We decided to ride the star ferry to Central and try the peak anyway. So an interesting walk across huge new reclaimed area that didn't exist 12 years ago as along a raised walkway that gave views of skyscrapers and traffic before we arrived at Central.. A quick bob down to buy an octopus card (another sodding no change incident at the star ferry convinced us that what ever yesterday's guide said it was just easier even for 2 days). Round Central is peak shopping country for the wealthy denizens of HK: Gucci, Harvey Nicks etc etc. Then a walk to the peak tram past the Cathedral, a relic of HK's colonial times,. We then walked along Battery Path... Past the missionary headquarters and just below government house... All so colonial.

    Huge queues at the tram but after a short while we realised that if you had an octopus card you could skip the cash desk and go to the gate.. We had to wait for a member of staff to drop the rope but it saved a bit of queueing. Sadly we then ended up with a large noisy party who irritated Dad and who occupied all the decent seats so we were spread up the tram. By the time we got to the top it was intermittently cloudy. Then we saw the enormous queue to go back down stretching for miles. We walked to the viewpoint and took some photos but there were more vocal tourists and by now Dad was very grumpy. So we went for a restorative Starbucks coffee and muffin (well Dad did, I had a cup of tea and a blueberry yogurt). Balance restored we wandered to see if the queue had decreased or whether we should play hunt the bus. Hallelujah the queue was nothing, we got seats on the view side and all was well. The only down side was the lashing rain....    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • VoyageurChina 2017
    Jour 10

    Soaked

    13 novembre 2017, Hong Kong ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We go down from the peak and found a convenient bus stop heading to Central, we would have walked but we would have been soaked. At Central we hopped off on Des Voeux road so we could ride a ding ding tram. We trundled along hoping that the rain would stop but it kept on coming. We hopped off to walk up to Man Mo on Hollywood Rd. The first street was fascinating.. All rubber stamps and Chinese chop sales... Definitely local not for tourists. We tried to dodge from canopy to canopy having made the excellent decision to trust the weather forecast and leave our waterproofs at home. We hoped to see an umbrella or too for sale but we were near Cat St and it was all sodding antiques.. Which might have been interesting if we weren't dripping. Soaked to the point of it being so funny we are bordering on hysteria. Ladder street nearly did for us, climbing to Man Mo temple was like walking in a waterfall. Man Mo is the God of Literature so I had to pay my respects though. We dripped back to the tram and decided that the sensible thing to do was to go back to the hotel, get changed and pick up our waterproofs.
    Not many photos - too wet. And the last update will have to wait till tomorrow.. I need to pack, flight home tomorrow night.    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • VoyageurChina 2017
    21
    Jour 10

    Drying out and haggling.

    13 novembre 2017, Hong Kong ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    So drying out and getting changed seemed to drop us in another time zone... We were aiming to get back out by 4pm and go to Wong Tai Sin Temple (one of my favourites... Full of fortune tellers, people praying, lighting incense and paper objects being ritually burnt. However despite a relatively short MTR ride we did not get there till after it had closed. Pah!
    We decided to head for the Temple Street night market for a bit of tat shopping. But by the time we got there things were frazzling and we needed a restorative starbucks again.
    Fortified we set off again and launched into the melee. Dad wanted another T-shirt and I wanted some bits and pieces. The place was full of Australians who didn't seem to be haggling and I got the impression that the stall holders missed the wrangling.. I was complemented on my haggling skills at a couple of stalls. Lots of hand-shaking and congratulations to Dad on having a good haggling woman with him! Best bargain was a new case... Lily was lovely but she insisted on dragging my bag for me... Sadly the wrong way... And two trips like that and the nylon was starting to hole... So for £20 I got a rather excellent hard-shell case in lime green... No problem spotting that on the luggage return belt.
    We had dinner at the Spicy Crab stall on the edge of the market. Food was good although they seemed to be increasing their income by subtly increasing the bill and then having a failure to understand the tourists. We didn't care, what we had was good and it was a great people watching spot. A very pernickety group arrived on the table next door and didn't stop whining... We need an extra stool (they could have grabbed one themselves, we need the table wiping again... Then when it was wiped they wiped it again with their own stash of tissues...... If you're going to eat at a street food type place you just have to be relaxed about it all... They were the sort of people who give tourists a bad name. We left them whingeing and headed back to the hotel via the 7-11 where we got a beer each, with the intention of taking in the harbour view with a beer once we had sorted the packing.

    Can't add photos from the big camera... Will follow when home...    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • VoyageurChina 2017
    Jour 11

    A Last Day in Hong Kong

    14 novembre 2017, Hong Kong ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    So in an attempt to pack as much in as possible we set the alarm for 7am. Up, finally packed and in for breakfast before 8am. Th weather was overcast but not wet so we rashly packed our waterproofs, deposited our cases and headed out for another star ferry ride. From the Ferry we wandered through the commuters to find the bus to Stanley, we dropped in the tourism office to pick up a new map (the last one having become papier mache) and the guide helpfully told us to get the 260 express bus rather than the standard service which I recall as a) long and b) hair-raising. Not that the 260 was necessarily going to be better on the latter count - we got the front seats on the top deck and they had seatbelts - no other seats did, and there was a notice suggesting we should wear them.

    The bus ride was great, fabulous views over Repulse Bay and into the mega-mansions that occasionally dotted the hillsides. the road is narrow and rollercoaster-like and very quick - about 30 mins. When we arrived in Stanley the sun was shining and the sea was a turquoise colour. We wandered around the promenade and admired the views, took photos, ate ice-cream (which I heartlessly sent Dad to buy) and generally enjoyed ourselves. A quick walk through the market, which is smaller than Temple Street but mostly has the same stuff, and we thought we could head back - and we got the front seat again :-). No photos - if the bus was moving then it was too rocky to photograph and if we were at a bus stop something was always blocking the view.

    The bus ride did give fabulous views of Hong Kong. There was a very promising looking graveyard right by the exit from the Aberdeen tunnel, absolutely packed and very, very tightly packed. Some of the architecture is spectacular but it is often right next door to something that looks pretty squalid. I don't know quite where HK sits on the list of economically divided cities but I would suspect is must be one of the most. Maseratis in WanChai and coffin apartments by the docks..

    We got back to Central and I offered Dad the choice of another trip to Wong Tai Sin or a ride on the world's longest escalators... So we rode the escalators to to the top.. All 25 minutes of it, again fabulous looks at tiny alleys, expensive apartments, and bamboo scaffolding. Then we walked down the steep streets back to Des Voeux Road, past the Sun Yat Sen museum... Didn't look very busy and the smallest hardware shop I have ever seen. It was about the size of a telephone box and stuffed with taps, hoses, piping, fans....

    Back at Central we walked to the MTR and caught it back to the hotel to pick up our cases. We then trundled back to the in-town check-in to deposit our stuff. Armed with boarding passes and lounge tickets we dived back on to the MTR to go out to NingPo and Big Buddha    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction