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.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?threadid=286382&perpage=20&pagenumber=1