Written by
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Xi’an, China by TravelPod blogger Angelagiampolo titled “Mt. Huashan” Angelagiampolo’s travel blog entry: “I initially thought that Xi’an would comprise of one entry in this blog; that is until I went to Mt. Huashan. At a height of 2160 meters above sea level Mt. Huashan literally translates into “Flower Moutain”. For centuries it has been deemed as one of China’s five sacred mountains and the most precipitous. The peaks from above are said to resemble the petals of a huge plant, with the middle peak as the corolla, hence the name. Of the five peaks, the southern peak is the largest, closely followed by those in the east and west. Anyways, there was a Chinese guided tour that left from my hotel but I figured it would be a hassle, for both the guide and myself. So, I decided to seek out an adventure. My day started out by getting coffee at KFC because that’s the only place open at 6am. If you’ve never had coffee from KFC, do me a favor and keep it that way. It was not only awful, but in Shakespearian style tragic foreshadowing, I spilled it all over myself on my way out the door. Let’s just say that the McDonald’s “hot coffee case” has not had a ripple effect on the coffee temperature policies in Xi’an. As I mentioned in the previous entry, I forgot my phrasebook at home. While it made it difficult to order certain foods, all in all I had been getting along. I was able to tell the taxi driver that I needed to go to the …
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Chouzhou, China by TravelPod blogger Hsa titled “Fast Boat to China, Slow Train to Chouzhou” Hsa’s travel blog entry: “The ferry from Macau takes about an hour to cross the Pearl River Delta to China, moving at speed because, unlike the journey from Hong Kong, there are no islands to sail round. The port of Shenzhen is a huge container port, with a number of carriers moving slowly in and out. We are picked up at the ferry quay and whisked to the train station. Shenzhen is one of the Special Economic Zones and is a high rise jungle, but quite a pleasant green one with shady streets and parks. This city houses 14 million people but was only a small town 30 years ago. The average age here is 28! Our timing leaves it difficult to get lunch and we are about to embark on an 8 hour train journey. We pick up a couple of the ubiquitous “pot noodles”, (more bucket sized really), some fruit and other snacks at the station. As it turns out they also sell snacks on the train (more pot noodles!) but we will need these to sustain us as we don’t arrive in Chauzhou until 11pm. No-one can understand why we are going to Chauzhou – it’s clearly right off the western tourist map. Oddly as a blonde I don’t seem to be as much of a curiosity in China as 10 years ago – but my destinations are puzzling people. It’s difficult to see which station is which so it’s just as well I have a map with me, but after about 4 hours on the train everyone …
