Travelling Diary... Day Four & Five.

I am finally back to Beijing, with my bike. There was some complication, once again, but it ended all right. When I asked if it was all right to bring the bike in the bus the people at the bus station started a debate in Chinese in front of my face. After 5 min and still no answer I decided to go and put the bike in the trunk myself, without waiting for their consentment. They didn't stop me, so it was all right. The driver still tried to take some money from me, of course. But I got to Beijing without having to throw away my bike as I thought. Still nice. Tomorrow I'll go to my room at the university and start the formalities before starting classes. So now I'm just reading Harry Potter because Sabrina forced me to buy it and read it. What a life.

Travelling Diary... Day Three.

Still in Wutai shan. This morning I really had a hard time to get out of bed because I so tired it's just amazing. And my arse hurts just too much. I will never understand the guys who do the Tour de France... Mad. After breakfast I just went bad to bed to read my Paolo Coelho's Devil and Miss Prim. Later on I went on a stroll to visit some of the numerous temples around the town (which by the way is being relocated 30miles souther by the Chinese government, in order to have just the temples left, a couple of hotels, and nice trees and grass, to attract more tourists... They just decided to raze the whole town to the ground and tell the people that from now on they would live 30 miles away!!!).

And then I met a living Buddha from inner Mongolia who spoke English (he had graduated with a major in English before turning Buddhist). A very nice fellow with whom I visited more temples and had a long discussion in his room at his monastery. He explained me something very interesting about why the Chinese are so rude and disrespectful toward each others. His theory was they all learned to hate each other during the cultural revolution, with all the denunciation meetings that were taking place. They all lost the concept of respect. (Sabrina noticed it notably in queue lines where people walk on top of each other...) That could explain the rudeness. He told me that Taiwanese and Hong Kong people are very different on this domain.

He also told me that he gets his teachings directly from his master who is in India with the Dalai Lama through telepathy, and that the reason for which Tibetan and Mongolian lamas appear to be rich (he had a laptop in his room, one of the only computer in town...) is that masters give teachings in exchange of donations, because donations create a bound. So he in turn make big donations to his master and the receives his teaching back. So he'll go to India to meet his master when he'll have accumulated enough riches to offer, which apparently is a lot. I also had a cup of Mongolian tea (like the Tibetan one, without the yak yak yak). In the end he offered me a bracelet with his benediction. Very nice guy. My first encounter with a living Buddha.

Tomorrow I decided to head to Beijing by bus, and dump the bike. More that 200km in 2 days killed me. And anyway it's not that fun since it's only big roads with lots of trucks that vomit their black exhaust smoke straight into my lungs, which hurts by now. Maybe the cold air from the downhill after the pass didn't help, but still. These trucks! And when I was hooked on them going uphill I of course had to breathe through the exhaust pipe... And I'm so tired!

And I haven't seen a foreigner in 3 days, since the night in Datong where I met the Spanish guy going to Kashkar... which usually I like, but here it means that everyone constantly point their finger at me, take pictures of me, try to make me come to their restaurant 60 times a day, and when I finally accept the invitation 3 times a day (I still have to eat) I get surrounded by all the neighbors who came to observe the foreigner eating. Lots of old people just stare at me without blinking, as if looking at some alien creature, with their mouth open. (of course they don't meet so often some french guys biking around...) When I start writing in my diary it's even worse, for they don't do diaries, so they actually come on top of me to look at what I'm writing, even though they don't understand anything of course. Aah, China. What a love - hate relationship. So tomorrow night I should be in Beijing, and I'll put some movies on this blog.

Zaitian.

Wutai Shan from the mountain

Big stuppa...

Nice shop...

Workers busy at razing a whole neighborhood in Wutai Shan, so the place becomes more attractiveto tourists...

Travelling Diary... Day Two.

Wutai Shan !!! I finally got there, after so many ambitious kilometers... 130 in total, from YingXian... and 2 passes on top of it, the second one being at least 2000m hight above the sea, if not more! I don't know how I did it. Of course my truck-catching technique was extremely usefull, either I would never have been able to reach Wutai Shan. Even in 10 days. As soon as the road starts being very slightly up hill, just a couple of degrees - one would not even feel it walking - it becomes a hell with the bike. It seems to weight 3 tonns... really. When the road becomes steeper, trucks have to slow down also, and then I can catch them, but wen it's not steep enough it's just me and the bike.

Arriving in a small village...




In the village...

Leaving Yingxian I went through a couple of small villages, which was very nice. Not so much trucks, and flat roads. But soon enough it started to climb, but quite fast I managed to catch a truck so I didn't have such a hard time. Then it was flat for some km (too much), and then it went down. Paradise. Then I reached Shahe after 80km, and I had my lunch. Not too bad until then, thanks to the trucks and the downhill. When I told the truck drivers at the diner that I was going to Wutai Shan they laughed at my face! I asked if it was far, so they told me it was 50km away, but I would have to climb the damn pass. One of them was just amazed by the hairs on my legs. But I thought: I'll just have to catch trucks! So I went on. Except that for 20km the road was just a bit uphill... and it was in a valley, and the sun was stronger than I ever thought it could be. I was really dying when I saw a truck coming quite slowly... so I accelerated in order to take the lift, but I wasn't fast enough. I nearly puked after the effort. But I was another truck coming!!! And this one I didn't miss, even though it nearly tore off my shoulder. But I was on. And there was very few of these trucks on this road, of course. So I stayed hooked on the truck all the way up, even though it was very long (close to 1hour...) and my arms very hurting a lot. But I reached the pass, and then I went down once again. Fantastic, magnific, ecstasy, wowee, everything. Cool. I could have prayed if I was religious, for you never know about Chinese brakes... but they held on. (either I would not be writing this beautiful thing here). So I reached the most Buddhist sacred place in Asia (or it was for a long time, now I don't know) at 6:30pm, after 8 hours on zee bike. Then a woman ripped me off by making me pay 8 yuan for a bowl of rice. Nice. And I went to sleep exhausted, once again.

Finally, reaching the pass!!! Both my arms were giving up..

The truck drivers who pulled me, now checking the brakes before going down. You never know with Chinese trucks...

The road and the valley, with Wutai Shan in the bottom. I'm ready to go down!

Picture stop.

Travelling Diary... Day One.

The shadow of communism is still strong in the country side...

The itinerary is doomed! Yesterday, when I finally arrived at the bus station with my bicycle, it took me half an hour to understand that I couldn't bring the damn bike to Shacheng... So I went to Datong instead, which is in the north of Shanxi province. Then, a couple of meters after getting down of the bus and on the bike, I broke the damn chain (so an average of 90 minutes using the bike after taking it from the store...). So I had to walk the the hotel on the other side of the damn city. At lrast this morning I got the stuff repaired for 1 yuan... Chinese know the trick. And then I biked.

First I had to make my way between trucks and factories, and a couple of coal power plants. Slightly dusty. Then, 3 hours and 45km later, I realized my hands were shaking. Of course, I had forgotten to eat since the day before, before taking the damn bus. So I ate. Eggs and tomato tasting fish. Nice. At that point I was exhausted as a bat, dusty like a desert rat, and already sunburn like a toad. Damn. Then I thought: what the f#$k am I doing here? Bike trips are hell. But after a long break, I got back on the bike (the chain is still in one piece) and continued. But I had not seen that there was a mini pass to go throught... So I started to climb, and after 500 meters I was already on the point of giving up. Tada! Then, unespectedly as a unicorn having a shower in downtown Montreal, a truck tried to pass me, but couldn't, because it was going at maybe 10 or 15km/h... So I let it pass and grabbed the back... and I climbed the whole damn pass thanks to this truck! My arm was starting to shake long before the top but I managed, and it was so cool to not have to paddle! And then it when down, for some km, and it was fantastic.

But then I saw that there was still 50km left, at least, before reaching Yinxian, where one of the oldest wooden building on earth stands: a 68m high damn pagoda. Impressive hein? Bon.

And I got totally exhausted (second time in one day), so I managed to get a lift for some km in the back of a truck machine, with the damn bike. So I still did close to 100km in a day, and that's way beyond my capacity, as I just realised. My arse hurts more that a wooden pagoda, and my legs... So now I go to sleep. Tomorrow I'll try to reach Wutai Shan.

ciao.

Something quite funny: facebook has been closed down by the Chinese government, but I now have access to my blog! And people are blowing up fireworks in the middle of the street right in front of the internet cafe.

Being in the mini truck with my bike...

Into the Wild

Today is a profund mix of anthology, expectancy, sorrow, and everything. Sabrina went back to Oslo this morning (sadness), and I'm now preparing to go into the wild (wowee). I just bought a bike for 300 RMB, and I will now try to get this bike into a bus to Shacheng and hopefully the bus driver will accept this exceptional luggage... And tonight the aim is a little village called Jimingyi, where it is supposed to be very nice.



The Itinerary:

July 01st (today) : From Shacheng to Jimingyi. Easy.
02 : From Jimingyi to Xiheying (another small village) = around 100km...
03 : From Xiheying to Hunyuan (same smallness...) = another 100km...

04 : From Hunyuan to Wutai Shan mountain range, where sacred mountain and temple
overdoze is a risk... But the region is supposed to be very nice.
05 : Exploration of the surrealist surrounding. Spirituality, youth, carnaval, all of this...
06 : On the way to Datong...
07 : From Datong to Beijing, starght to Beijing Culture and Language Unuiversity.........
July 10 : School starts!!! And it will go on for 6 weeks of intense chinese... So I'll be a perfect
Chinese...

Voila. My legs are my propellers, and China is mine!

Émerveillé et désilutionné...

Voilà longtemps que je n'ai pas écrit... Nous sommes finalement de retour pour une 2ème fois à Lijiang, haut lieu touristique de Chine. Près de 3 semaines se sont écoulées depuis mon dernier post, à Chengdu. Nous sommes allés à Zhongdian, renomé Shangri La après le fameux livre "The Lost Horizon" de James Hilton, il y a seulement quelques années - une tentative du régime de promouvoir le site aux millions de touristes chinois... Nous avons donc forcément rendu visite aà límmense monastére tibétain, mais les hordes sauvages de touristes gâchaient légèrement l'atmosphère spirituelle. On sést alors rabatu vers les nombreux petits villages tibétains parsemés dans la vallée de Shangri La, à quelques kilomètres au dessus du niveau de la mer. Nous avons eu l'agréable surprise d'y rencontrer les habitants, toujours souriants et contents de nous voir, ce qui change des Chinois en général. Et cette impression ne fit que se confirmer alors qu'on progressait vers le nord du Yunnan, toujours plus près de la frontière du Tibet interdit et mystique, vers Deqin.


Depuis Deqin nous avons rejoint le parc regional de Meili XueShan, où on a fait 3 jours de trek dans les montagnes. Le premier jour nous avons du franchir un col à 3800m d'altitude, soit 1500m de dénivelé, puis redescendre de presque 1000m à nouveau. Épuisant, mais magnifique. Arrivé au col le ciel s'est soudain dégagé pour nous offrir la superbe vue de la montagne Meili XueShan (où montagne enneigée) qui culmine à près de 7000m d'altitude, et qui reste vierge à ce jour. Le deuxième jour nous avons gambadé sous la pluis glacante, et le troisième jour nous sommes rentré par un itinéraire bis, peu emprunté et dont il était recommendé de prendre un guide. Sabrina a pas du tout apprécié le fait que la plus grande partie du sentier faisait 20 à 30 centimètre de large, avec d'un côté un cannal d'irrigation le long de la montagne, et de l'autre un gouffre de quelques centaines de mètres avec le torrent en contre-bas. Mais c'étais magnifique encore une fois.





Enfin nous avons pris la route du lac Lugu Hu, plus précisément le village Lige, où supposément on aurait du se retrouvé seul avec les Mosuo, dernier peuple matriarchal au monde, et peut être quelques routards chinois paummés. Seuleument depuis la dernière édition de nôtre pitoyable guide Lonely Planet, une bonnes centaines d'hotels et auberges de jeunesse ont fleuries, probablement suite aux prêts massif alloués par le gouvernement avec la promesse du flot de touristes s'ensuivant... Seulement la calme atmosphère est détruite et les touristes ne sont jamais venus, et si l'on ajoute le fait que la moitié des hotels sont encore en construction on obtient l'ambience bizarre qui rêgnait à Lige, au peu un village fantôme avec des locaux prets à tout pour vous vendre quoi que ce soit... Pas très agréable... Nous avons donc racourcit notre sejour là-bas, et nous voilà donc de retour à Lijiang.

Ah la Chine...

Bon j'ai maintenant decide d'ecrire en francais, meme si les accents se font rares par ici. Nous sommes donc depuis hier soir a Chengdu, 4eme ville de Chine avec 13 millions d'habitants. Il me semble que des mois se sont ecoules depuis que nous avons quittes Beijing, il n'y a de cela qu'une semaine. Nous avons d'abords rejoind Xi'an, ancienne capitale de plusieur dynasties successives. Un enorme mur entoure toujours la vieille ville, qui compte quand meme 3 millions d'habitants... Pas mal! La premiere activite touristique fut l'ascenssion de la montagne Hua Shan, lieu de haute spiritualite Taoiste. Et on n'a pas ete decu. Au coeur de notre douleureuse ascenssion, un pretre Taoiste nous a ratrape et s'est mit a jouer de sa flute en bambou, le son se repercutant dans la montagne. Magnifique. Et quand il a vu que j'essayais de le prendre en photo, il a recommence a jouer pour nous! Voila la video. (le son est tres faible, mais bon...).

Apres 8km, dont 4km d'escalier, certain etant pratiquement a la verticale, nous sommes finalement arrive au sommet, a 2100m d'altitude... Puis le lendemain matin nous avons essaye de voir le lever du soleil, mais on a ete submerge de Chinois fous qui poussaient des hurlements sauvages et qui ont acclame l'apparition du tant recherche soleil...

Finalement la redescente s'est revelee presque aussi eprouvante que la montee, et nous sommes enfin rentre a Xi'an. Puis nous avons visite le musee d'exposition de l'armee terracotta qui s'est revele plutot recevant. Puis nous avons pris le train pour Lanzhou. De la le plan etait de rejoindre Xiahe, sauf que on s'est rendu compte au terminal de bus que la ville est fermee aux touristes, car c'est un monatere tibetain important. Tous nos plan ce sont donc averes obsolete, vu que de nombreuses autres villes sont fermees aux touristes. Apres dure reflexion (ce qui peu etre plus dur qu'il ne parait quand on est coince dans une ville moche de 8 millions d'habitants, ultra polluee, pauvre et sale......) nous avons decide de changer radicalement de plan de route. Un inconditionel pourrait dire "fuck the itinerary" (darjeeling limited). J'ai donc reussi a nous acheter 2 tiquets de train pour Chengdu, capitale du Sichuan, dans le but de rejoindre Lijiang dans le Yunnan. Alors apres 12h de train, on s'est tape un autre 30h pour rejoindre Chengdu. En effet j'aurai du me mefier de prix tres/trop bon marche, car c'etait un train local qui s'est arrete a toutes les petites gares locales existantes... Et comme si c'etait pas assez, le staff impressionant du train (environ 30 personnes, si c'est pas plus!) a arrete le train pour 2h environs pour que le chauffeur puisse manger et faire sa sieste!!!! Du jamais vu. Et comme si c'etait pas assez la temperature moyene dans le train etait de 30/35 degres, dans air conditionne bien sur... Au total on a passe une cinquentainne d'heure a rien faire, de Xi'an a Chengdu... Enfin bon, c'est ca le voyage... Demain soir nous partirons pour le Yunnan et on verra bien...