My Backpacking Stuff

I am not the type of backpackers who often risk their own lives. If I go to somewhere dangerous, I will definitely hire a guide. Here I just want to share something I will bring when I am travelling alone.

Weapons

Do not get scared. I am not telling anything about crimes. I think for it is necessary for a backpacker to take something, such as a knife, alone with himself. I have an army knife. If someone wants to rob me, I will show him the knife. If robbers see an army knife, they may think you really want to fight against them. If you only show them a fruit knife, they may think you will not try your best to fight. If they do not think you will try your best, they will try them best.

Food and Water

Although I normally do not stay in the wild, I always prepare food and water, which can support for two days. If the views really appeals to me, I may stay a bit longer, so I need enough food to make me not so hungry.

Cell phone

I have to make sure there is enough power in my cell phone. I think everyone knows why.

Camera

It is indispensable for every backpacker. Record beautiful views, post them on forums and wait for other people’s likes!

Electric torch

I like to go to the top of mountains to see sunrise. It is exiting to climb mountains in dark before the sunrise. So an electric torch is necessary.

Dunhuang - Starting Point of the Silk Road

Dunhuang is the starting point of the famous ancient Silk Road. For the people from south or east China, Dunhuang looks like a foreign country, because the culture and landscape in Dunhuang are very different their hometown.

On the Train
I could choose airplane. It is even cheaper than the train, but my friends told me that I won’t be disappointed if I choose train. The views outside are free! See what I saw on the train below.

Statue of Dunhuang Fairy 
It is the logo of Dunhuang. Who can play the Chinese lute in that way?

Mogao Grottoes
It is the most famous tourist attraction in Duhuang and elite of Buddhist culture. Fresco in every grotto is priceless. Only 40 grottos out of 735 are open to tourists. We are not allowed to take photo in the grottoes, so the photos below were scanned from the pamphlet.

Yumen Pass
In ancient times, it is the entrance for western merchants, but now it is desert…

Great Wall Built in Han Dynasty (B.C. 202)
Most sections of the Great Wall we can see now were built in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368). It is really fortunate to see the relics of Han Dynasty

Crescent Spring
It is amazing to see a spring in desert.

Pattaya – Travel with a Group

This is my friend Pavel Hernandez’s travel experience.

Our company is good to us. We can travel to Pattaya for free! I have got this message for over half a year, so I have enough time to search about it. Pattaya is a small city near Bangkok. Yes, it has to be near Bangkok, because Thailand is not a so big country as China. By the way, I am not a Chinese. You can see it from my name. I was born in Chile, but I have been working in China for over 6 years.

Our flight takes off at 23:00 and will arrive in Bangkok at 00:40, local time. We arrived on time. Although we are in south China, but it still surprises us to wear shorts in April.

We got up at 8:00. You have to get up on time if you choose to travel with a tour group. In the dinner hall, we hear Chinese, and Chinese, and perhaps my local dialect. My group mate asks me:” Are we in Thailand?”… Good question. People in other countries often call Chinese “walking wallet”. You will strongly doubt whether China is still a developing country when you see so many Chinese are traveling and shopping all around the world.

Menam River Cruise

Today we travel inside Bangkok. The first activity is Menam River cruise. It is really fantastic! I can see almost every major architecture in Bangkok during the cruise. Then a group of fish comes to us. The owner of the boat sells us bread to feed the fish. They are so big that I think what they want to eat are live animals, but not bread. I can even see their teeth clearly! Several deluxe boats came into view. Our guide told us these boats are used to celebrate the birthday of the King of Thailand.

Fish fighting for bread

There is a lady boy show in the afternoon. There are some adult content, so I don’t share in my post.

Songkran Festival

The Songkran Festival is like China’s Water-Splashing Festival. People splash water to each other and smear a kind of mud made by the local people onto other people’s faces. It is harmless, so when I thanked the buddy who did it to my face. The festival is really necessary, otherwise everyone would be dried by the sun. On our way to Pattaya, lots of kids are splashing water to our bus. How happy they are!

Songkran Festival

Pattaya Beach

I really can’t believe what I see on the beach of Pattaya. Russian tourists planted their national flag on the beach. It means they like the beach very much, but it can also mean they own the beach… Normally, tourists want to enjoy the sunshine on the beach, but I am scared by the sun in Thailand. What I want to do is lying in any shadow I can find. In fact I love the sea. It is the type of tour who switched me off. I WILL NEVER JOIN A TOUR GROUP FROM NOW ON, even if it is free. I have to follow our guide’s order in a tour group. This make me tired very soon.

The highlights is the diner on the beach. I never saw so big shrimps and crabs before!

Miscellaneous

Thailand is a Buddhist country. I can see Buddha in every lobby of the hotels we stay. However, I don’t understand why there are so many red-light district in a Buddhist country…

Cruise to Gulangyu Island

I cruised to Gulangyu Island last month. Actually I went there by plane and boat, but my thought was cruising! Lots of my friends told me the Gulangyu Island in Xiamen is one the most attractive islands in China. It is near the land of Xiamen, so I can either stay on the island or go back to Xiamen to pass the night. I stayed on the island, even though the hotels on the island are three times more expensive than the hotels with the same star rank on the land. I believe the night is the best time to understand the local culture of a place.
My plane arrived in Xiamen Gaoqi Airport on time. I took a taxi to the port. About half of my colleagues have ever been to Xiamen, so it was impossible for the driver to charge me more than reasonable taxi fare. Fortunately, I arrived at the port at 17:15. That means I can see the sunset on the island. It is not unusual to see a plane delay in China because of lots of reasons they won’t let passengers know… I jumped onto my boat. My actual journey starts now.

The boat will go around the island before send us to the island. On our way to the island, we can see the Jinmen Island, which is under the control of Taiwan. Although the government of China does not acknowledge that Taiwan is a country, actually it is. It is the first time I see a sea. The sea is blue, endless, in a word, it is unbelievably beautiful.

Jinmen Island

We finally land on the island. It is the time for sunset. The sun is falling down slowly as if the sea is going to eat it. The sunshine of a falling sun is the most fascinating. It is gentle and won’t make my eyes hard to open. Nightlife begins. The most famous food on the island is jerky, but not some kind of seafood. I bought eight bags of different jerky for only 100 RMB. I think the jerky can support me for three days. The nightlife on the island is not so different from the land. I think the only difference is the wind from the sea.
I do not like bars, so I chose to lie on my bed to appreciate the moon. It is light, big, round… and I wake up. Today is beach time. I do not do anything except enjoy the sunshine on the beach. Sometimes, I swim in the sea. The sea water is not so beautiful as it looks like. I can feel it is biting my skin every minute. In my city, people go to the Li River to swim. The water is clean and cool, and makes me feel much more comfortable than the sea water.

Jerky jerky!

I do not go to any attraction which need entrance ticket on the island. I will do it when my husband travels with me next time… He pays everything!

Never So Close to Terracotta Warriors Before

Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors are perhaps the two most renowned tourist attractions in China. I had been to the Great Wall in Beijing last century, but for the Terracotta Warriors, I had only seen them on TV programmes.
Last month, I got the opportunity to see the real Terracotta Warriors by myself. Our plane landed on the Xianyang Airport, Xian. Immediately, I could feel the air is full of history. Besides, the landform of Xian also appeals to me. I live in mountainous areas, but in Xian, I can’t see even a single hill from every direction!

I am not only interested in the Terracotta Warriors in Xian, but also the fields. Xian and its nearby areas have been prosperous since the first feudal dynasty of China, Qin Dynasty (2000 years ago). If I can dig something out from the field in Xian, it might be an ancient relic with a history of over thousands of years. That was how the Terracotta Warriors were discovered!

Unfortunately, the lovely local people didn’t allow me to dig their fields. So I was on my way to the Terracotta Warriors Museum. The Terracotta Warriors were the Qin Shihuang’s funeral objects. He wanted to continue his rule even after his death, so he made these warriors. Qin Shihuang was a war maniac. I can see this from his warriors’ expressions and actions. They are divided into several squads. Every squad has its own captain and different kinds of soldiers. Every soldier is serious and disciplined. That was why Qin Shihuang’s army could defeat other 6 countries to unite China.

Disciplined Soldiers

It is a pity that the Terracotta Warriors were more or less broken because of the wars and oxidization, and that they are being exhibited in the pit about 4 meters deep. I can’t see them clearly. I understand. If everyone can touch the warriors, they would have been destroyed completely…

Out of the museum, I saw some imitations of the Terracotta Warriors. They are perhaps the best presents for my family.

Guilin and Yangshuo in This Summer

I learned Guilin from text book in primary school and I dreamed of travelling to Guilin someday. This summer, I finally made some time to realize my dream. We set out from Changsha by train for the convenient of the railway transportation. We arrived at Guilin in the afternoon. Guilin Railway Station was a little worse than we expected. It is small and crowded, but the good thing was the convenient location in downtown Guilin. We found a hotel near the Bus Station.
For the economical reason, we didn’t join a team, instead, we bought a tour brochure and experienced the beauty of Guilin with our eyes. After 11 hours train tour, we were tired, so we spent several hours to sleep in the hotel. We were shock at the beauty night of Guilin when we went out the hotel to find some food. The night was both quite and lively. Walking on the Xicheng Pedestrian Street, where bustling with noise, we saw many different faces from many countries, black Africans, white Europeans shuttling in different booths that sell antique and other small things. The bargain sounds from the owners and the tourists constantly came into my ears, but even so, I felt quiet and peaceful in my mind, some kind of feeling that I couldn’t express. The beautiful night gave me a beautiful sleep, sweet and happy.

Xicheng Pedestrian Street

The next day, we took a cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo, we bought our tickets from the travel agency. We appreciated the picturesque scenery along the Li River and the distinct mountains. Different views at every new bend gave us surprise with a special angle. Along the Li River, we saw many fishermen rowing narrow raft. The captain told me that if we were lucky enough, we might see cormorants catching fish, but it was a pity, we did not have such good luck. Upon our arrival in Yangshuo County, we were recommended to experience an interesting activity. Wondering around the county, enjoying the beautiful scene, and communicating with the passionate local people, we were moved. Yangshuo West Street is a foreign street, where you could find a lot of foreigners, even the vegetable sellers could speak English. The famous dish in Yangshuo is Beer Fish. That was no doubt that we had this dish for dinner. The fresh fish meat was authentic than any other places in Guilin.

Yangshuo West Street

The third day, we took a bus from Yangshuo to downtown Guilin, the ticket was only 15 yuan. Then we visited the Reed Flute Cave in the afternoon. Being famous as the State Guest Cave in China, we were told that Reed Flute Cave has received lots of celebrities like former US presidents Nixon and Carter. There are reeds used for making flutes and pipes that grow at the cave's entrance, so that it is called Reed Flute Cave. This time, we were fortune enough for there was a group of tourists with a guide. Watching the magic landscape of stalagmites, stone pillars and stones in fantastic shapes and colors, and listening to the guide introducing the cave, we learned that the cave is 240 meters long and the length of the tour is about 550 meters in about 40-minute visit. My friends seemed much happier than I when visiting the Reed Flute Cave. It was much beyond our expectation. The final stop of our tour was to the Elephant Trunk Hill, it is where I knew Guilin from the picture of my text book. The Elephant Trunk Hill was the same to the picture in my memory, but much authentic. The hill looks like an elephant drinking water with its trunk from afar. We took some pictures even though I know I wouldn’t forget Guilin.

Elephant Trunk Hill