Hong Kong

Posted on 2011-01-15 by Björn

About half a year back I had managed to get some good flight deals into Hong Kong for my parents, my sister and myself.

We made it to Hong Kong after an eleven hours flight on an aging Lufthansa 747 around midday. To fight the jetlag we headed out directly to see the main attractions. First we took the star ferry to cross over from Kowloon to Hong Kong island to then make our way to the Bank of China Tower, where we managed to get up to the viewing platform on the 43rd floor. After taking in the views here, we continued our way heading on to the Peak Tram station to get up on the Peak for even more fabulous views.

We started our second day in Hong Kong with a sumptuous breakfast; after which we continued to Lantau island by MTR, there changing to cable car, to get up to the giant Buddha near Po Lin Monastery.
From here we did proceed to Diamond Hill to see Nan Lian Garden and the nearby Chi Lin Nunnery. From the nunnery we MTR’ed to the next station to see one of the most popular temples in Hong Kong – the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple – home of three religions: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

Lijiang

Posted on 2005-10-07 by Björn

Once more we found ourselves in transport for a close to a full day – on our way to Lijiang, which would be the last stop for the tour. A nice town with a huge old city.
Lijiang has been partially destroyed during an earthquake in 1996; however most of the old buildings – built in the Naxi way – survived. Today Lijiang is a famous tourist attraction for Chinese tourists. We spent the day mostly wandering around – in the touristy and less touristy parts of town.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Posted on 2005-10-05 by Björn

Day 1: After a transfer from Dali to Qiao Tou and a late lunch in the Gorged Tiger Cafe we started our trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge with the short hike up to the Naxi Family guest house.

Day 2: The next we left the Naxi Family guesthouse at around 08:30 – with the 28 bends directly ahead of us (elevation gain of roughly 400m). After a shorter stop in the Tea Horse house and a longer at the Halfway House we arrived at Tina’s guesthouse in the late afternoon — after a day of incredible views, superb and ever changing vegetation – or one of the best hikes I ever did — unfortunately followed by the worst accommodation of the whole trip…

Day 3: We left Tina’s in the early morning for yet another hike – this time down into the gorge close to the river; after a short stop at Sean’s we had a transfer to the ferry bus stop (and another walk down to the river to catch the ferry – and another climb up on the other shore as well).

Dali

Posted on 2005-10-03 by Björn

We made it into Dali in the early afternoon after a six hour bus ride from Kunming, enough time to explore the old town of Dali.
The following day the group split; I joined the group going for a bike ride. At first we headed down to the port to get a ferry to the other side of ErHai sea. Here we passed through a temple complex to finally follow a street to the next bigger village – and ended up doing a 40 km loop.

Kunming

Posted on 2005-10-01 by Björn

We spent a whole day traveling from YangShuo to Kunming. This was now a full day in Kunming, which could easily be called Temple Day.
We started of with the grottoes, sculptures and pavilions just called Dragon Gate built by Taoist monks. Later in the day we visited several temples in the area, as well as famous Bamboo Temple.

On to YangShuo

Posted on 2005-09-29 by Björn

We continued from Chongqing to Guilin by plane; here we got picked up and made our way to YangShuo and its strange limestone pinnacles by bus. We made it to YangShuo in the late afternoon – with just enough time for some exploration of town.

The next day was fully dedicated to YangShup and performed by bike. We kicked if off through rice paddies and small villages to arrive near Moon Hill shortly before lunch. In the afternoon the group split up; some went to do some cooking; Marc and myself ended up visiting Water Cave (the real one of course!). In the evening we had an introduction to Cormorant Fishing.

On to Wanxian and Chongqing

Posted on 2005-09-28 by Björn

This day after the spectacular cruise through the Three Gorges started of in Wanxian. During an excursion in the morning we visited the local tourist trap aka Three Gorges Museum, afterwards we spent some time on a local food market. The afternoon we cruised slowly up the Jangtze to our final destination Chongqing.

Three Gorges Cruise

Posted on 2005-09-26 by Björn

We arrived in Yichang in the morning and were straight transferred to our five star cruise boat Princess Jeannie. Here we got the choice between having lunch or going on an excursion to see the Three Gorges Dam from various viewing points. In the late afternoon we passed through the ship lock to reach the upper Yangtze river.

In the morning of the second day of our cruise along the Yangtze an excursion to see the Shen Nong river small gorges was offered. At first we transferred to a ferry to then switch to traditional wooden flat boats for a more intimate experience in the small gorges. In the afternoon if was back to the big gorges – we passed through Wu and Qutang Gorge.

Xi’An

Posted on 2005-09-24 by Björn

We had spent the night on a train and made it into Xi’An in the early morning, From the train station we directly transferred to the Terracotta Warrior site, where we had an extensive tour. Afterwards we drove back to town, checked into our hotel and started to explore the city and the nearby Muslim quarter.

On a second day in Xi’An we had further opportunity for exploration, I used that to walk a portion of the old city wall. The afternoon was spent shopping and preparing for another train journey; this time a 17 hours trip bound for Yichang.