A little on my China trip

[Rick Lee]

Just returned on Friday from a three week, super adventure in China. I'd have to write a book (under a pseudonym) to tell all I saw and did there. Short version is I flew to Hong Kong, got picked up by some friends, took the ferry to Shenzhen, stayed there a night and flew to Chengdu (Sichuan) the next day. Then a perfect-English-speaking friend and I took a minivan tour about four hours NW of Chengdu into a Tibetan community where we lived as they live for a few days. It was like going back in time about 500 yrs. We could see the far eastern edge of the Himilayas and they were snow-capped and gorgeous. We slept on boards with spiders and roaches for our roommates, used a hole in the ground for a bathroom, I got one ice-cold shower in three days and we had a few brushes with death on the drive there and crossing hokey wooden foot bridges in the mountains.

Made it back to Chengdu in one piece, had super hot hot pot and then I took a bus to Chongqing the next day. A cute girl sitting next to me was looking over my shoulder as I did sudoku puzzles. Pretty soon she had my book and was doing them on her own. We exchanged info and she called me later that night. So I joined her and her friend for beers on the river walk on the south side of the Yangtze. After a few more days there, I flew to Guangzhou to visit some friends. One of the girls brought some of her friends along to dinner one night. One of them handed me her business card and said she worked for the company that handles the importing for Porsche. She asked me if I knew what Porsches were. Ha!!!! How did I get so lucky? After a few more days and foot massages there, I flew to Beijing to meet up with my best friend from home. Beijing was sort of disappointing, as it was chock full of foreigners. It almost felt like the Chinese people were trucked in for decorations. Still, the Forbidden City was just awesome and Tiananmen Sq. was cool to see up close too. Food and foot massages, again, were great, cheap and plentiful.

Luckily, my friend wasn't real impressed with Beijing, so I suggested we head to Chengdu so he could see the real China. But first we hired a driver to take us to Mutianyu, one of the less touristy parts of the Great Wall. En route we saw a grisly, fatal car accident and were no more than 15' away when we drove past with our windows down, watching the firemen cut a mangleded and lifeless woman from an overturned car. It was horrible.

Back in Chengdu, we ate and drank like vikings, got foot and full body massages, shopped, saw the Panda breeding center and just had a super time. I'll write about the climax in Shenzhen a little later.

Anyway, if you want a dirt cheap and unforgettable adventure, winging it on your own around the Mainland is the way to go. I was afraid this trip could never top the last one. But it did. China is simply the most amazing place I can imagine and if not for my guns and cars, I could easily live there.

Here are some photos.

China trip photos part 1

[widebody911]

So, you're saying you 'got a little' on your China trip?

I learned the hard way that chicks will find this forum!

[nostatic]

A week in Shanghai whetted my appetite...I'm ready to go back. My g/f has traveled all through China, worked on an Imax film on Pandas, and in the fall leads a posh tour group from Beijing to Moscow via rail. Helps when you've written the book. Sichuan is her favorite part of the country.

Pics of the sudoku girl? I sense there is more to that story...

[Jim Richards]

RL's post looks like it was extensively redacted.

[RickM]

Awesome narrative and pics.

Can you comment more on the Yangtze? A recent news article mentioned how troubled this river is due to years of abuse.

[Rick Lee]

Actually, I won't be writing about any.....er....extra-curricular activities here. What happened in China stays in China. The sudoku girl was very cool, but nothing happened. She's coming to study in Los Angeles for a year in a few mos., so Nostatic or Thom, maybe I'll PM you her info.

Sichuan is my favorite part of the country too. My gf is from Nanjing, which I've visited, but it didn't blow me away. Shenzhen was pretty out of control, but it was mostly because of our INSANE host. I'm glad we got out of there alive and even with no marks on my body.

[Rick Lee]

Rick, the environmental situation in China makes any other look negligible by comparison. It's BAD and the fact that they have a state-controlled media that rarely ever reports bad news doesn't help. The Three Gorges Dam will change China forever and they poured the last concrete section of it while I was in Chongqing. I went to the museum on the dam and came away with probably the opposite impression the government had intended. The museum was stuffed with absolutely priceless, ancient artifacts taken from areas soon to be flooded when the dam goes fully online. Some of this stuff - jewely, pottery, mummies, carvings, tools, robes, weapons, etc. - were well over 2000 yrs. old. One can't help but think it was all hastily excavated to show the gov't. cares about history. But then with that much stuff dug up in only the last 12 yrs., they can't be scratching more than the tip of the iceberg of the treasures out there. Soon it will all be under 100m of water, gone forever. And this says nothing of the 1.5 million people who've been displaced by the dam project. They say it can withstand a nuclear strike, but I don't think anyone believes it. I'm sure it's on Taiwan's hit list if the Mainland comes after them. How'd you like to live downstream from that? And it's in an earthquake zone.

[bigchillcar]

i have a buddy who makes frequent trips to china (loves the foot massages as well..but stops at that). he stays about a month at a time, works with an interpreter and buys things until he has enough to fill a container, then returns to atlanta, warehouses the stuff and travels to local flea markets and sells the merchandise. he's been bugging me to go for a while now..probably will at some point.
ryan