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I touched down in Chendu for which the literal English translation is perfect metropolis. ‘Perfect’ though is obviously from a Chinese point of view. It is basically the same as any Chinese city….. characterless sprawling grid of freeways, buildings put up in haste. China is embracing the western life while remaining a communist state which basically means it’s ‘out with the old in with the new’ on a scale you just cannot imagine. It’s hard to put a date on but I would say nothing in these cities is over 20 years old whatever was there before has been demolished and replaced by this formulated urban sprawl.

Little Trouble in Big China

Stucros
2006-01-13 18:46:19

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was the nicest place I’ve been in China yet. It’s a proper old Chinese town which for some reason has escaped the bulldozers. Water meanders throughout the old town and a bridge has to crossed to enter almost every shop,

The ladies we're quite exciting
restaurant and bar. Reminded me of Strasbourg but nice. The shopping too is incredible lots of arts and crafts. The only down side to the town is the Chinese tourists everywhere but for me they're only really noticeable when donning their yellow caps and the guides holding up their flags. Advice i'd get there quick before the westerners arrive on mass!!!!
It seems strange but we’ve found the best way to see a country of such size has been by bike. Lijing was for the hub for the first of such trips. A small village It was here that we meet Dr Ho - He’s actually quite famous and amounst other tings has appeared on two of Michael Palins travel programs. And for two hours we enjoyed his hospitality and herbal tea (He’s also given us a take away portion). A very very interesting man who has curred many people from various cancers.

From Lijiang We‘d planned to trek to the tiger leaping gauge which almost seems a mandatory activity while in the area but the weather had turned for the worse and most sources were recommending not to go. So we jumped on a bus to Dali.... or i should

the water city
say we bought a ticket for Dali and jumped on a bus.... About three hours into the bus ride the conductor started shouting at us about Dali.... thinking we were on a Dali bus we just agreed however a couple of km down the road it became apparent this bus did not go to Dali and the initial commotion had happened where they would drop us off a couple of km’s away. Laden with backpacks and without a taxi in sight we started to flag down everything that moved…… and so it’s official we did our first hitchhiking in China. ...