china part ii - wuhan, suzhou and shanghai

after passing the three gorges dam the ship docked at yichang and we travelled by bus to wuhan, which took almost the whole day. the next day we visited the guiyuan temple and after this we took the train to suzhou. here we saw the ruiguang pagoda, the master of the nets garden, a silk factory, suzhou museum and finally sailed down the canals after dark.

after our day in suzhou we went by bus to shanghai, our final destination. first we visited the shanghai museum and then walked around the yuyuan-bazaar and down smaller streets to see how the people lived there. it was very different from anything i've seen before so it was very fascinating. we also stopped by nanjing lu for a quick look, and then went to the jin mao tower where we went up to the 88th floor to look at the view. unfortunately it was foggy so the view was a bit limited, but you could still feel how high up you were. the next day was the final day of the trip, and here we took the maglev train to the airport and back again, just to experience traveling 431 km/h (we'd be taking the bus there the next day). we also took a small trip on a tourist boat out on the river to see a bit more of the bund. it was sad to leave for oslo, i felt there was still so much i wanted to see. but i did get to see a lot while i was there, we pretty much went from one place to the next with hardly any breaks in between. i was exhausted by the end of the trip. not that i am complaining!

near the three gorges dam


between yichang and wuhan







sunrise over wuhan











the guiyuan temple











view from the ruiguang pagoda







at the silk factory



the master of the nets garden. so beautiful, but i would have loved to see it during the summer.



bonzai-tree inspiration! makes my bonsai hannibal look like a weed (yes i named my bonsai hannibal. i had an archibald too but it died)



sailing down the suzhou canals by night.











a cat at the people's square in shanghai



walking down some of the smaller streets in shanghai. someones dinner?







view from the jin mao tower



seen from the boat, with the jin mao tower in the middle



view from our hotel



shanghai by night

china part i - fengdu, the three gorges and the shennong stream

the second week of january, my mother and i traveled to china with a sort of danish group tour called albatros travel. we were a group of 30 people and i believe i was the only one under 50. which was a bit awkward at first, but they were all really nice and entertaining and some were very "danish" - sitting in the back of the bus drinking beer and discussing the low alcohol-percentage they have in china.

the trip started in chongqing and ended in shanghai, which is about 1700 km (according to google maps) and since i took a million photos for every metre we travelled i'll split up the posts.

we didn't have the best start though because when we arrived helsinki, where we were going to fly directly to chongqing, the flight said "peruttu" - or cancelled in finnish because of "technical problems". which meant we were booked over to a flight to shanghai instead. i don't know much about how airliners do things but i, and several others, thought it was a bit suspicious that they managed to fit everyone from the chongqing flight in the one to shanghai. as if they maybe thought there were too few on the one to chongqing and they had room for more on the shanghai flight, and suddenly the one to chongqing had technical problems... i don't know, but ending up 1700 km from where i was supposed to be has made me hold a slight grudge against finn air.

anyway, when we got to shanghai, we were flown to chongqing after waiting maybe 13 hours in shanghai. which meant the whole day in chongqing was lost. Also, we had to catch the cruise ship that was going to take us down the yangtze river but luckily they waited for us, if not we wouldn't have made it in time. it was supposed to sail at around 8pm and we didn't arrive until around midnight.

moving on (writing about it just frustrates me). We were sailed down the yangtze river and the next day we docked at fengdu, also called the ghost city. there we saw temples and buddhas and scenes from hell and demon statues. it was all very fascinating. some figures were pretty grotesque though, like a man being sawn in half from below.

after that we continued our trip down the river. it was a nice sized cruise ship, not too big and with a cosy atmosphere and very polite crew. i loved falling asleep to the sound of ship engines and splashing water. the next day was the one i had looked forward to the most, where we passed two of the three gorges, the qutang and wu gorge. the mountains were spectacular and the conditions were perfect with the slight fog and the sun shining through. just standing on the top deck, freezing and staring at those tall, steep mountains slowly pass by was pretty mesmerizing. later towards the evening we were taken by a smaller boat down the shennong stream which was just as amazing. just writing about it makes me want to go back!


fengdu:



















along the yangtze river







the qutang gorge























the wu gorge











the shennong stream