China - Part 2: Tibet magic - money rules - hot Sichuan - life is great!

2nd part of our itinerary through China (overview)

2nd part of our itinerary through China (detail)

Our apologies again. China was the second country on our trip to give us a real hard time to access internet. Most of the time it was even worse than Iran. We are not allowed to buy a SIM Card, so we have to rely on WiFi in hotels, where we park for the night. Unfortunately these connections are terribly slow and often interrupted, so sometimes Torsten sits for hours in hotel lobbies trying to get a VPN to work to access our mail. Google is blocked totally, so gmail is off too, blogspot they consider off limit too, though Bing works really quick. Apparently Bing reached a very satisfying agreement with the Chinese government… :( And Chinese officials are even more perfidious than the Iranian ones: they don’t only block sites, but they also slow down any traffic. From what we heard, a lot of people get into the internet via VPN and apparently they don’t want to close that gate but make it as slow as possible. It’s a bit like letting people see the candy and let them taste sometimes, but actually they are far away from the real joy. So, we were five weeks almost without internet access and that is why it took some time to post the last four weeks!

In Zanghye, where went to see the sleeping Buddha we stay next to a park, where people go to do sports and relax. The whole park is equipped with loud speakers and from the early morning until late in the evening patriotic music is being played. Choirs and squeaky women’s voices sing about the great future of China. This phenomenon of public patriotic music playing we see/hear at a lot of places, overall at schools.
After Zhangye we enter the Qilin mountain range. On one day we cross two passes at more than 3500 m. There is snow and sun and Tibetan Buddhist temples, we enter the Tibetan mountain plateau. Actually we are not in the province of Tibet, but in the region of Qinghai, East-Tibet. When Tibet was an independent state it was much bigger than the province of today, that is why we are able to see a lot of Tibetan culture even outside of Tibet and don't need an expensive and difficult to obtain permit to enter.

On our way to Kumbum Monastary: Crossing passes

Next to the road on our way to Kumbum Monastary:
Johann checks out Budhist worship place.

Next to the road on our way to Kumbum Monastary: 
Colored flags all the way to the mountain tops.

On our way to Kumbum Monastary: 
Impressive mountain ranges beyond 4000m

Next to the road on our way to Kumbum Monastary: 
First Budhist Stupas arise behind the mountains.

... and Buddhist Temples. 

On our way to Kumbum Monastary: 
Climbing further up the mountains.

Next to the road on our way to Kumbum Monastary: 
Colorful worship places in the snow.

Right behind Xining, a two-million-smog-river-side-city lays the Tibetan monastery Kumbum. We arrive in the evening at around 3000 m, it is cold, cloudy and we are the only ones on the visitors parking. It is so empty that we are even able to enter the monastery through a back entrance and that means something, in high-surveillance-get-your-ticket-here-and-follow-this-way-China....;-)))
We see for the first time rows of Buddhist bidding rolls, ready to be turned on their handles from left to right. When I start turning them one after the other, the kids are so embarrassed about their mother, because they have never seen that before, that they shout: "Stop, Mama, was machst du da, das ist sooooo peeeeiiiiinlich!!!" :))) (Stop, Mama, you are so embarrassing!) We are getting closer to teenage years...
For the first time we see the monks in their red manteaus, golden temples and white stupas. We are excited to visit all this inside next day.
In the little village we find a little noodle restaurant that is still open and watch some last handy crafts man working on new bidding rolls. And gosh, it is cold. The night will bring temperatures way beyond zero, but we are fine in our car, we put the heating back on in the morning.
Kumbum monastery is one of six big monasteries of the "Yellow Hat order". The current Dalai Lama belongs to this order. Two of their monasteries are outside today's Tibet, three in Lhasa, one in Shigatse (Tibet). We visit both monasteries that are outside Tibet, Kumbum and later Labrang. Do you remember the movie "Seven years in Tibet"? The very young Dalai Lama in that film wears the soft yellow hat and that is what they look like.
It is a cold and grey day, but we enjoy Kumbum a lot. It is the first Buddhist monastery that we see and we feel like being in Tibet. All very exciting. This place is pretty touristy though, compared to the other places we will see. Ah yes and the kids start turning the bidding rolls themselves after they see all the visitors and monks doing it... ;-)))

At the Kumbum Monastary:
Watching the making of Tibetian prayer wheels.

At the Kumbum Monastary:
Teaming up of the young ones in a noodle restaurant.

Kumbum Monastary

Kumbum Monastary: Tibetan writing carved in stone.

Kumbum Monastary: Indescribable ambience.
Sounds, smells, colors ...

Kumbum Monastary: Tibetan Stupa (choerten).

Kumbum Monastary: Wooden tempels colorful decorated.

Kumbum Monastary: Monks at work.

Kumbum Monastary: Roof tiles.

Kumbum Monastary: Tibetians praying while walking (running)
around the temple, called Kora. I did not keep up with the speed.

Some lie down to the ground every meter they walk. 

Kumbum Monastary: richly decorated inside of a temple.

Kumbum Monastary:
The kids love to turn the prayer wheels.

Pauli tries without help.
But it does move!

Kumbum Monastary: Wandering ...

... around.

On our way to Tongren:
All cities we came acros seem to explode (here: Xining).
Consequence of ongoing urbanisation.
 In 2011 50% of Chineese lived in cities.

On our way to Tongren: Smog covers the city of Xining.
In winter times air quality goes bad due to coal and wood heatings.

On our way to Tongren: The cities do not spread a cosy ambience.

On our way deeper into the Tibetan mountains we pass the big Yellow River, Huang He and we stop to take pictures and to do some little geographic lesson. We repeat which big seas and rivers we have already seen on our journey, the kids are good at memorizing, seeing the spots in reality helps probably. :-)

On our way to Tongren: Yellow River ...

... is not always yellow.

On our way to Tongren: Emma surrounded by colorful dancers.

We stop for the night at Tongren, high up in the mountains. It used to be a Tibetan village, today it has more the appearance of a city, but is still the place of several big Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. It has gotten again colder, there is snow and that snow freezes during the night. We hear the cars crack-crack-crack driving through the icy snow the next morning long before we see the ice in front of our windows. The heating works well, we just have to watch out that the diesel does not freeze. Torsten still walks around in his a-million-times-fixed sandals and refuses boots. But the icy and overall dry cold give him a hard time. Every evening he has to put healing cream on his feet, because skin is too dry and rips. After Chengdu, when we leave the dry zones all is back normal again and his feet are fine. Interesting experience.
In the evening we go for food search and end up in a nice little restaurant, that is packed with people, so food must be great. While we wait for the food we see on the wall a big poster from the local food agency judging the food safety of the place. There is a green, yellow or red smiley that can be obtained. This restaurant got a red smiley, ooops. But food is really great, served in hot pots on the table and next day we are all also fine. :-)

Tongren monastery is fantastic. Sun is shining, the air is clear, the sky is blue and the surrounding mountains glitter covered with new snow, really magic! We are there in the morning and we join the people coming to do their morning prayers. They walk around the Buddha statues inside or outside the temples, always from left to right. While they walk they pray or turn bidding rolls, some people do their rounds on knees or bellies. They call this "walking the kora". All very impressing. And most interestingly this all seems to be a real morning sport, because people walk incredibly fast. We look for a little space in the temple- surrounding crowd and join the rounds. It is not easy to follow the pace and there are so many things to look at and soon we have friendly but still pushy arms in our backs to walk faster. :-))
Everyone is very friendly, we feel that we are at a holy place, but still there is a busy and open atmosphere. Monks are very friendly. When they see our kids they have suddenly an I-phone in their hands to take pictures. :-))) I have no idea where they put the phones in their red long dresses, but everyone seems to have one.
We see golden pagodas, temples, stupas, meeting halls, thousands of Buddhas, I cannot describe it, it is fantastic. Leo, our Chinese guide has been here before, but still like us he doesn't stop taking pictures of the wonderful houses and details. I stand next to him and suddenly he says: "Geil, oder?" :-))))) I can't believe my ears, where did he learn that? But of course I fully agree. :-)))
The smell in the temple comes from the yak butter candles, the colors in the temples are stunning, we see milk being sacrificed, as well as all kinds of scents and some food. This is an experience for all senses!

Torsten has some discussions with Leo about Tibet and the political situation here. He is of course very much on line with the official opinion and later we learn: in China you better don’t mention the three T’s. Tibet, Tiananmen and Taiwan.

Tongren: Rongwo Monastery.

Tongren: Police man posing in
front of the Rongwo Monastery.

Tongren: Police woman posing in front of the Rongwo Monastery.

Rongwo Monastery: Johann and a monk playing 
soccer with ice floe.

Rongwo Monastery: Many monks asked to get
a picture from us with their smart phone.

Rongwo Monastery: Impressions.

Rongwo Monastery: Impressions.

Rongwo Monastery: Impressions.

Rongwo Monastery: Monks shoveling snow.

Rongwo Monastery: Pauli impressed by the shrines.

Rongwo Monastery: Monk shows us to lighten incense sticks.

Now it's Antonias turn. 

Rongwo Monastery: Impressions.

Rongwo Monastery: Doesn't ring a bell.

Rongwo Monastery: With help of Johann, it does ring a bell!

Rongwo Monastery: Monk cleaning the jars of 
yak butter candles.

Rongwo Monastery: Cold impressions.

Rongwo Monastery: People donate spirits.
Among the bottles you even find a Jack Daniels.

Rongwo Monastery: The kids love the icicles.

Rongwo Monastery: View through the main gate.

Rongwo Monastery: Next or within the Tibetan Monasteries
red-blue-blinking Police Buses are parked surveiling the site
with a series of mounted cameras.

Tongren: You got Tuktuks!

There is another monastery a little further outside town. Tongren is an old Tibetan place and has developed its own style of painting of so called thangkas, holy paintings showing Buddha or other holy figures from Buddhism. It is a very fine and detailed painting, and the monasteries of Tongren have their own style. They can be very small or really huge. On a small one monks work around one month, the big ones sometimes take years. We are happy to buy a real small one to take home with us in one of the monasteries outside town.

Near Tongren: Wutun Si Monastery.

Wutun Si Monastery: Monks love Emma.

... and like to see the inside.

... and like pictures with our kids.

... and like more pictures with our kids.

... taken with two smart phones.
(There was one trying to handle three smart phones,
but didn't succeed ;))

Wutun Si Monastery: Splendourious temples.

Wutun Si Monastery: Impressions.

The sun has helped us a bit in the meantime, because we have to pass high mountain ranges and the street has also a snow cover. All goes well, there a lot of other trucks on the road too. And the mountainside is fantastic!

On our way to Labrang: Snow-covered mountains.

On our way to Labrang: 1000s of Yaks looking for food.

On our way to Labrang: Roads turned bad and
Emma gets covered with mud.

On our way to Labrang: Enjoying the colors
next to the road.

On our way to Labrang: View ofver the grasslands.

Xiahe, with its big monastery called Labrang is our next stop. The whole town was locked up for two years after 2008 demonstrations against Chinese repression. Riots had started in Lhasa and soon other regions caught fire. Today everything is quiet, there is some tourist infrastructure, but still the place has kept its original face. Chinese haven't managed here to give this place the typical Disneyland-folklorists-atmosphere as in other touristic places. Still there is a lot of police around and of course cameras, cameras, cameras everywhere. China is a country of surveillance cameras. They are literally everywhere. I don't remember how many times we have seen the flash of a camera on the streets and I am not talking about speed cameras...
Street signs in Labrang are written in Tibetan and Chinese. The language is totally different from Chinese. They seem to be letters, while Chinese use signs.
I like the Chinese language signs. This is the oldest hero glyph language of the world still in use. We try to guess what signs mean, and sometimes we are right, because some similarities with the things they describe stayed. Tibetan is different, we can only admire the letters, no chance to understand anything.
In museums and parks in China, there are usually translations of signs into English, but sometimes they are really funny and we don't understand anything, because translation went wrong. "No loitering!" What could that mean? :-)) Sometimes even the same sign changes in writing over the course of the museum or park....
We want to try some Tibetan food, but for the first time in China we do not like the food. It is again all fat sheep (or yak) meat and table manners in the restaurant where we eat include the whole range of noises we hear everywhere in China and I think we will never get used to: spitting, loudly sniffing, snorting, in this restaurant it is really impressive. And when people start to scratch each other’s backs at the table it is time for us to leave…
This time our first visit to the monastery is from distance. We walk the kora that is high above the village on the top of the surrounding mountains. With the friendly help of some local we find the way. What a great view! The monastery is pretty big, some 2000 monks live here.
Then we do like everyone else and follow the inner kora, surrounding the monastery itself, turning the hundreds of bidding rolls.

Labrang: Hiking up the mountains
for a marvellous view over the city.

Labrang: Pauli enjoys the cuddles during the hike.

Labrang: Susanne all happy!

Labrang: Ruins of former hermit housings in the mountains.

Labrang: Johann found broken statue.

Labrang: View of the Tibetan Monastery.

Labrang: Johann loves the way how the monks sit.
Except that monks sit on the ground and not on parallel bars ;)

Labrang: Same as a car repair. When one of  my sandales
needed to be fixed,
so I got a temporary replacement sandale (right one!).

Labrang: Big prayer wheel.

Labrang: Prayer wheels around monastery are redone.

Labrang: Pauli loves to turn them!

Labrang Monastery: Impressions.

Labrang Monastery: Impressions.

Labrang Monastery: Impressions.

Labrang Monastery: Impressions from walking the Kora.

Labrang Monastery: Impressions from walking the Kora.
The traces on the ground are from the praying women,
who lies on the ground every step she walks.

Labrang Monastery: Tibetan boy learning the prayer.

Labrang: My sandale is ready to walk again.

Labrang: You'd like a Buddha? Here you go!

Labrang: Enjoying delicious Chinese Food.

Labrang; Picture!

There is a tour through the monastery, because some of the buildings can only be entered with a guide. When we show up for the tour, the monks try to tell us, that the only English speaking monk has left town and will only be back next day. Leo is so kind to join us and does the Chinese-German translation. We are not alone this time for the tour, a young German-Venezuelan-couple joins us. Very funny they have done the same tour like us from Europe, only have they started already in May and they have it all done by hitch hiking!!! We have a great time together and wonder if we will meet again, since their next stop is also Laos... :-))))
The guide does not stop talking Chinese and Leo has a hard time translating it all. The final destination is the big meeting hall, and as our tour started off really late because of the translation problem, we enter the hall at a time, when all the monks are already there to study and to pray. These ten minutes that we were allowed in that place, where the most interesting, stunning and magic of the whole visit. We hear the deep voices singing, have time to watch the rituals of praying and studying and see the head monk in full ornate. Never seen something like that, never to forget. The kids are very impressed too.

Labrang Monastery : Colorful Interieur.

Labrang Monastery: Guided walk with a monk.

Labrang Monastery: Tree of Life!

Labrang Monastery: Sculptures of yak butter and ...

... yes it smells odd in this temple building.

Labrang Monastery: Johann looking at ritual costumes.

Labrang Monastery: Shoes off!

Labrang Monastery: Monks following the lessons.

Labrang Monastery: Herbs on the stove plate. 

Labrang Monastery: A monk answering us questions.

Labrang Monastery: Two backpackers, who joined us during the walk.

Labrang Monastery: And still not selfie-stick.
BTW: Johann got also hit by them and changed sides ;)

Labrang Monastery: Impressions.

Labrang Monastery: Pictures with some co-travellers.

Labrang: Hui men, a muslim minority, living next
to Han Chinese and Tibetans in the region;
not always in a peaceful cohabitation (see 2008 riots)

Labrang Monastery: Impressions.

Labrang: Vegetarian Tibetan food.

Labrang: Antonia helps Pauli to pick his food.

Labrang is the only longer break we have on our trip through China and we are really tired. Back at our car we want to take a little nap, but Pauli doesn't want to and throws up instead, being really mad that he has to lay down in his bed. We're busy cleaning up the whole rest of the afternoon... Well, besides all the wonderful experiences, regular-I-am-in-a-bad-mood stress is of course also a part of our trip... :-(
Next day we wake up in a snowy Labrang. At least ten cm of new snow cover the village. We drive further in the mountains and some icy parts give us a hard time. We already think about our visit to Chengdu in a couple of days, because then the winter is over for us. Chengdu is already sub-tropical just outside the Tibetan mountain range. And as we will find out we are very right to presume that: Chengdu will greet us with warm temperatures.

Labrang: Snow on the morning we leave.

Labrang: Shared space.
This time with sheep - later on with yaks.

On our way to Jiuzhaigou: Lunch stop at Langmusi.
By the way: this is a minaret of a mosque!

Langmusi: Oh brother!

Langmusi: Great Leap!

Langmusi: Overcoming law of nature!

Langmusi: Copycat.

Langmusi: Beautiful nature!

Langmusi: Prayer wheels turned by the stream. Johann fixed one.

Langmusi: Buddhist worship place.

Langmusi: Right size for Pauli.

Langmusi: Prayer wheels turned by the stream.

Langmusi: Prayer wheels turned by the stream.

Langmusi: Impressions.

Langmusi: Impressions.

On our way to Jiuzhaigou: Temple-like decorated tunnel portal. 

Ah and yes, we found them. The 1.3 billion people. Suddenly they are there. They all seem to live in the region of Sichuan. :-))) Pauli is stunned too and repeats: "Viele, Mama, Viele!" when we see hundreds of people on the walk ways.
Before we leave the mountains to see Chengdu we take a stop at the Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark. A park called "nine villages in a valley": nine Tibetan villages in a marvelous valley of blue lakes and magic waterfalls. It all becomes less magic when we see the sheer masses of people visiting and last but not least the entrance prices.
We pay around 90 Euros to enter the park for one day and to hike a bit. Unfortunately half of the nice hiking paths are closed, so there is no possibility to flee the masses. Heartbreaking to see also, what is left of Tibetan culture in the valley. Since the 9th century they have been living here, today there is only a folkloristic masquerade left: Chinese guides in busses wear traditional Tibetan clothing; Stupas, holy little Buddhist temples are copied and made out of concrete to mark the way to the parking places. The villages are shopping towns for the tourists and we see pictures from the summer when "Tibetans" do traditional dancing in front of hundreds of tourists... Imagine one day you wake up and you realize, you have become part of a show. :-(
Still the nature is nice, high mountains, woods, lakes and waterfalls.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Fall colors.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Police is channeling the crowd.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Guides on the
buses wearing traditional ropes.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Colorful lakes.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Colorful Pauli.
Will we ever get rid of that bottle?

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Peekaboo!

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Fantastic scenery!

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Monkey on a tree.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Us!

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: We have self-heating rice.
Just add cold water and ...

it starts boiling (link). Secret behind: Magnesium.

Antonia loves it!

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Look they can be together
without fighting.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Impressions.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: This girl wants to practice English.

Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark: Yin Yang!

Chinese love to take pictures. Everyone has a phone in his/her hand all the time to take pictures. And they like to take pictures of us, most of all Pauli. We have had this for months now on our trip, it started somewhere in Turkey, that Pauli became an attraction. In one-child-China we are an even stranger group than in any country before: we are foreigners AND we have three kids with us. That seems to be too much sometimes, we often look into faces of disbelieve. People hold up three fingers, point to our kids and apparently want the confirmation that they are all ours. :-) Differently to other countries, Chinese don't stop insisting, pushing, jumping around us, until they have the picture they want, even if we show clear signs of not wanting to be photographed or being pushed around for the right picture (sometimes it gets too much, there are just too many Chinese...;-)). The kids have a hard time sometimes and had to develop some self-defense. Either they are pushed around for a picture or they are pushed away to make place for someone else who wants to take a picture. In both cases it can get very physical. Adults usually get their private zone respected, children not. Very strange.

First signs of travel fatigue and stress show up these days. We have been travelling for three weeks in China: driving, sightseeing, driving, sightseeing, there is no time for a break, we need to get through this country in five weeks. And Kyrgyzstan before was not a real relaxing place either...
It is all very interesting and exciting, China is not as stressful as for example Iran, but still it takes a lot of energy. We are looking forward to Laos, where we want to rest and stay for Christmas. After China, we don't have any plan anymore... Our trip was planned step by step until the 3rd of December, the date leaving China. We knew we had to reach Chengdu the latest mid-November, before the real winter hits us. Chengdu is the first place after high mountains and here we enter the sub-tropical zone. Afterwards all is open to discovery whenever we feel like it.

If you ever come to China, don’t forget to bring a lot of money. China is expensive. You can still find good and not pricy restaurants, but super markets are expensive, entrance prices between ten to thirty Euros per person are the usual amount asked, there are tolls for roads everywhere and last but not least our impression is, that a foreign face is always linked to having a lot of money, so where possible they try to squeeze money out of our pockets. Then it doesn't change too much that a noodle soup only comes for one Euro...

And we realize another thing: Communism is dead in this country. Mao tse tung is mau se tot. Karl Marx would cry in his grave if he would be able to see China today. This country follows rather a wild, everyone-does-what-he/she-can-to-raise-money-race, to be honest. And you can see it everywhere: the Chinese with money can live a nice life, while poor people have to work hard for their living. The difference between poor and rich is unbelievable high. The thousands-dollar-car parks right next to the cheap bike.
Well, China has been by far the most expensive travel country on this trip. And I don't think any other country will be able to top that.

It is a hell of a ride from Jiuzhaigou Nationalpark to Chengdu. We are pretty shocked by the driving. The road is narrow, leads through a valley that has been hit by an earthquake in 2008, today villages have been rebuilt, but infrastructure remains dangerous. We saw works for a bigger high way though. Trucks, Busses and cars share the narrow road and bus drivers are the worst. They love to pass in curves, dark tunnels and small towns with high speed and without knowing anything about the lane in front of them. They don't seem to care at all that they are carrying some 50 passengers in their cars. Totally crazy. And very stressful.
We talk about it with Leo, but his answer is, that it is worse in India. Ah ya. Since no one of us has ever been to India, the discussion ends here. And since we are in Sichuan we realize that Chinese drivers love to honk. They honk anytime, long and short, no matter. Noise pollution is besides the air pollution something that can get really stressful here. When cars are opened from a distance, shutting off alarms, think of anything that has to do with a car or a motor cycle: it makes noise, the louder the better. As if this was the last chance for the billions of Chinese to show that way that they are there and to get some attention.

On our way to Chengdu: 

Suicide drivers  

+ two-lane canyon road 

= one of the most dangerous roads we took so far.

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan. It receives us with warm temperatures and we get rid of our winter wear.
We have a couple of days time here and use it to fill up stock in a Carrefour(!) supermarket, that is expensive, but has things from heaven that we have been missing so much: cheese, milk and chocolate. :-) But for the first time we don’t find Nutella or Nesquick anymore.
When we walk out of the mall our camera falls out of my bag and crashes on the floor. That was the last hit it needed to give up. Countless times it fell on the ground during our trip and nothing happened, but this last time was too much. So, we have a new project: get a new camera in Chengdu. I think we are lucky that this happened in such a big city and not on a mountain somewhere in nowhere... :-)) 

While on our search we have a very interesting encounter of hospitality: while searching for a shop to buy a camera we stop next to a shop and are surrounded immediately by a lot of people. Phones appear and the picture-taking-jumping-up-and-down-on-our-car-stamping-the-wheels-and-against-the-car-session begins, the usual non-distant and intrusive behavior. But there is one woman amongst them speaking some English and suddenly there is a gate to communicate. I talk to her and every information she gets she passes on to the others surrounding her. There is nodding, ahs and ohs and suddenly the picture taking and stamping the car thing stops and people start to discuss about how they can help. As if being able to tell our story to them made them realize that we are just people like them, not strange white monkeys that can be treated weirdly. At the end there is a kind man that takes Torsten on his motor bike to bring him to the right shop. ;)

Chengdu: white-knuckle e-scooter-ride looking for a camera.
I'll never forget that one!

Funny detail: They ask where we are from, but Germany does not seem to tell them anything. (I don’t even try “Belgium” anymore, since no one seems to know that lovely country at all.) When hearing “Europe” they nod a bit. Then I am asked where we head to next and I say “Kunming”, a city some 500 km from Chengdu. And they all start to aaahh and ooohhh and I get the translation that this is really really far away. ;)) Next day we have found the right camera! :-)
As we are in Sichuan, we want to see the Sichuan Opera. Someone has to stay with Baby Paul, so the first evening of opera is for Antonia and me, the second one for Torsten and Johann. Well, it is fun, such a Chinese opera. Unusual for European ears and eyes, but very interesting. The highlight are dancers changing their face masques really quick and no one knows how they do it. The show also includes some extras like getting a massage, ear cleaning or make up. Antonia gets an amazing opera make up, before the show starts. Did you recognize her?

Chengdu: Emma needs a shower.

First time on our trip.

We hardly recognize Emma, after they are done with her.

Kids happy, since they can look out the window again!

Chengdu: Just to explain:
The two right lanes are actually my direction.

Chengdu: Enlarge this one and check out the wiring.

Chengdu: Antonia gets make-up before Chinese Opera starts ...

... and people are curious ...

... how she changes.

And here she is!

Not to forget: Photo!

Antonia together with Leo.

Chengdu: Make-up brushes ready to use.

Chengdu: Ordering some food when
watching a Chinese Opera?
No problem!

Chengdu: First picture with our new camera!

We have learned a lot about the religions we have seen on our way. Antonia has a little book where we write and draw what we have learnt and if we can we paste post cards of the places afterwards. Also in China, we read about the three different big religions: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. In Chengdu we finally get to see a big Taosim Temple. The temple of the “Green Goats”, which is not only a temple, but a very impressing and fascinating monastery. After having seen a lot of Buddhist temples this one does not seem very different on first sight, but still there are a lot of new things to discover. We see Laotse and animal sculptures from the signs of the zodiac. We have already learned from Leo, that Paul is a snake, Antonia a pig, Johann a chicken and Torsten and me we are a horse in the Chinese system of zodiac signs. ;) The ying yang sign can be seen everywhere and monks do exercises of Thai Chi while praying. In the middle of the loud city a place of quietness and old tradition.

Chengdu: Visiting a Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.
Kids love the incense sticks.

... for all Johann ...

Pauli needs some help to sneak over the edge.
Good to have an older sister.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'. 

Chengdu: Impressions from visit
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit 
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit 
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'. The chineses zodiac circle.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit 
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit 
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit 
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit 
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: sculpture on the roof of 
Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: Antonia and Pauli try to look more grimly than
'mad turtle' at the Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: Something must be fascinating about the stones.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit 
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit 
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Chengdu: Impressions from visit 
of Taoist Temple 'Qingyang Palace'.

Torsten has found out where SAP has its office in Chengdu and has gotten in contact with the managers of the site. It is in the middle of a software park in the outer skirts of Chengdu and we are invited to visit. We have a great time with the nice people of the SAP team! What a warm welcome! They all even come to say hello to us in the car and we have rounds of visits of the inside of our car. It is so nice to finally meet Chinese that speak English! Finally we can talk and ask questions! :-))) A real nice visit and an insight in Chinese work life we haven't had before.

Chengdu: Visit of the SAP Office in Chengdu.

Chengdu: The colleagues of the SAP Offices gave me a 
warm welcome.
We really appreciated that. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Chengdu: Colleagues checking out the inside of our car,
while Pauli is running around on the lawn.

... all of them very nice ...

... and since they speak excellent English
we enjoyed chatting with them.

... and they also made us aware that Emma became a local Twitter-Star.
Translation: 'Just Now, I was wandering on the street
and ran into this giant truck. I thought it was some military car,
but when I went up close to check it, Jesus Christ!
A German license plate on it! I cannot believe my eyes,
so I check it again,  they DO have a passport.'

Chengdu: Visit of the SAP Office in Chengdu.
I needed some help from the colleagues to pick the right coffee.
Chinese Labels ;)

The weekend is starting off great and it is going to get even better: Denise and Shane are coming from Beijing to visit us in Chengdu! Both are friends from Brussels, having moved to China for work; Shane is a young diplomat at the Irish embassy. We are so excited and happy to see them!!! (BTW, they have a great blog about their life in China: https://deniseandshanegotonaplane.wordpress.com/) There are so many things to talk about, we haven't seen each other since we all left Brussels. Really really nice, that the two took the time and money to come over to Chengdu!!!
We miss friends like hell. That is really the hard part of the trip: we miss you all terribly. (Next time we take you all along, that would make things perfect. :-)))
Anyone who wants to come visit us in the next weeks? Want to flee Christmas stress in Europe? Come join us for a couple of days/ weeks, we would be really happy!! :-))))

We meet up at the Chengdu Panda Center, the place where we have a great time watching this incredibly cute species of a bear. We arrive at breakfast time and watch them eating their crunchy bamboo leaves. Full grown pandas eat around 40 kg of Bamboo leaves per day. Wonder where they grow that stuff in Belgium for the pandas in Pairidaiza Park. A lot of panda babies have been born lately, they are very active and we can admire all ages of little ones in the nursery centers. Really wonderful and the kids love it. Pauli gets really excited watching them: "Panda, bamboo essen!!!" Since we have been in Chengdu he says that he is a Panda. ;)

Chengdu: The morning hours in the bamboo forest
in the Panda Park spread a magic ambience. 

Chengdu: Pandas having breakfast.

... and they really enjoy ...

... we have to explain Pauli that this is not the behaviour
that we expect at the breakfast table ;)

... some scenes reminded us of Kungfu Panda ;)

Chengdu: Not only the Pandas are an attraction. So is Pauli.

Chengdu: Having a look into the Panada nursery.

Chengdu: Playtime in the Panda Kindergarden.

Chengdu: Later Denise & Shane from Beijing
join us. We spend some great days together!

Chengdu: After breakfast the bears chill in the tree tops.

... or snooze on a bamboo bar ...

... or simply have more food.

Chengdu: What a great visit at the Panda Park!

Chengdu: Pauli walking with Leo

The next stop is something we really have been looking for and you have heard of in our blog already: we want to visit a school. This time in China. Already in Kashgar I saw, that schools in China are very huge, highly secured and parents are not allowed in to pick up their kids, they always wait outside. So I thought that it would not be easy to just knock at the door of a school to get in for a little visit, as we have done elsewhere. The travel agency we are with has its seat in Chengdu and they are so kind to organize the school visit for us. The manager’s daughter is in primary school and we are invited to come visit her school. But as everything Chinese organize it is all perfect and an absolutely wonderful win-win-situation, as Shane resumes. We are invited on a Saturday, actually a day of no school, but then the whole class is invited for the afternoon to come visit our car and to join an extra-organized-special Chinese calligraphy painting lesson, while we are allowed to join the class and the painting and visit the school. Win-win as I said. :-))) And we all have a wonderful time. Really really interesting. First everyone comes to visit our car, kids are very kind and most of them try their English that they learn form first grade on! It is a funny chaos that I see in the school yard. :-)) In the class we are greeted with a power point presentation about the school life, saying: Willkommen in unserer Schule! Kids stand up when giving answers and they love to present their knowledge, all very impressing. They translate for us into Chinese: "We are a crazy family from Europe. Can you tell us the way to the Pacific Ocean?" These sentences are a task from friends of us from Hamburg. They asked us to bring back a translation of these sentences from each country we are in. So far we were successful. :-)))
Later on we all go to the painting room and are taught how to paint a panda bear and the word "peace". It is really a lot of fun. I have the English teacher at my side and can ask her all my questions, we really have a nice talk and she explains how the school works. What a great afternoon!!!

Chengdu: Visiting a school in China.

Chengdu: The kids love Emma ...

... and are curious ...

... to come ...

... and see (every child has his own brand new phone)...

... the inside.

We had all a lot of fun!

Chengdu: Classroom

Antonia liked the sphere of being back in a class.

We were welcomed in German ;)

Me asking the class for help to translate
our homework into Chinese.

'We are a crazy family from Europe.
Please tell me how to get to the Pacific Ocean.'

Chengdu: Shane & Denise in a drawing lesson.

Chengdu: Antonia drawing with her class-mate

Chengdu: local TV team asking for an interview.

Chengdu: Learning how to draw ...

... a Panda.

I think we did really good for our first time.

Antonia gets help from the experts.

Chengdu: Inner court of the school.

'maximum development'

And to complete this great day, we have dinner at a Sichuan-hot-pot-restaurant. Sichuan is famous for its hot food and we will find tons of chilies, anise pepper and other unidentifiable herbs and spices in our pots… ;) Really tasty! Leo helps with ordering from the menu but when he leaves Denise takes over the communication with the waiters of the restaurant. And we are really impressed: Denise has been studying Chinese since September and it is fantastic to see how fluent she speaks it already!!

Only later we find out about the news, that Brussels has been shut down and suddenly we feel very lonely and strange being so far from home and not knowing how things are going. We have been thinking of you a lot and wish you all the best!

Chengdu: Pauli all happy on Denise's arm.

Chengdu: Enjoying together the ...

... legendary Sichuan Hotpot
(never eaten anything spicier than that) ...

... with Shane & Denise.

Chengdu: Before the Sichuan Opera started
we could get our ears cleaned (look at the tools they have).

I can't believe, we did that. 

Than the spectacle started.

Colorful and ...

... jarring. 

Different performances ...

... which reminds more ...

... on a variety ...

... or a cabaret than on a opera.

Shadow paly.

Chinese Mask Change.

Johann really liked it!

We take Denise and Shane along in our car further south to Leshan. We all want to visit the Buddha sitting next to the river. It is warm and humid, landscape changes from sparse to full green, we can feel that we are travelling south towards tropical temperatures.

The sitting Buddha is very impressing, he is more than 70 m high and more than 1000 years old. He is surrounded by temples and as usual there is a lot of space for visitors: endless rows of gates to manage thousands of visitors at once. Today it is quiet and late in the afternoon, so we are able to enjoy some quiet moments with Buddha. He has this wonderful peaceful smile on his face.

At the parking place peaceful time is over. The women collecting the parking fee have in the meantime decided to change prizes and want again more money from us. They are really unfriendly, screaming, mostly at Leo, to us they show the finger-rubbing-sign and at the end the even hold on to our car’s door. After having travelled for some time in China now, I have to admit I am totally fed up with the Chinese greed for money. Everywhere we go, everywhere we turn to, there is someone wanting money. At parking places usually either we are waved away like insects or we are presented high parking bills.

Leshan: Giant Buddha visit with  Denise & Shane

Leshan: Giant Buddha (on the right side).

Pauli really impressed.

Leshan: Pauli making friends.

Leshan: Ears are 7m high.

;)

Leshan: Giant Buddha. He's big ...

... really big!

Leshan: Shane gives Antonia a lift so she can induldge
her pyromanic likings.

Focus!

Focus!

Leshan: Giant Buddha. Pauli can't even reach the toes.

Leshan: Contrasts!

Leshan: stairs leading down to Buddhas' feet

Leshan: impression during sunset
from the temple next to the Buddha.

When I looked at Leshan on the map for the first time, it appeared to be a nice little home town for the giant Buddha. Being here shows us, I am wrong again, three million people live here, sky scrapers everywhere. We find a hotel for the night and to celebrate the great time we had together we have dinner at a nice little Sichuan restaurant with the greatest food ever. Grilled fish with a herb-spice-marinade that melts on our tongs, grilled spiced beans that Shane declares to be his favorite vegetable from now on: Please keep them bringing! he lets Denise translate. ;) Really wonderful. And not expensive. ;-)

When we have to say good bye we have a lot of tears running all the sudden. Antonia insists that she will fly back with Denise and Shane to Beijing. (Because the two will fly to Europe in February and she wants to go with them.) After weeks of not seeing any European face, let alone having good talks and fun with friends a wave of home sickness hits us. We sit together long that evening and try to remember the good things we have now and make plans for great things when we come home. ;)

Thanks again for coming to visit and thanks for the great time! See you in Beijing next year! ;-)

Leshan: Enjoying great food with Denise & Shane.
Best fish ever!

Leshan: When openingthe door in the morning,
a small crowd stare at us. By now we got used to that.

Leshan: On a boat with a smartphone armada.

Us in front of the attraction.

A little later: We are the attraction. 

We have some spare time and decide to take the short detour towards Emei Shan mountain one of the four holy Buddhist mountains in China. When we arrive the whole area is covered with fog, we don’t even see the mountain. The town is full with tourists and touristy shops and Lonely Planet already let us know that entrance fees for the mountain and cable car would not be under 30 Euros per person, so we decide to flee the place and return to our initial plan to go further south.

That day we see the famous river Jangtse. Majestic and pretty wild he flows in front of us. From here we turn towards rural areas, away from big cities for a couple of days.

We want to see the Bamboo Sea, a huge bamboo forest with wild rivers and water falls. Of course this is also a park with entrance fees and gates, concrete walking paths, cable cars and tourist stuff vendors. But still there is magic. We take time to walk underneath the elastic but strong, shiny green, very high bamboo trees. The sound in this forest is so different from what we know, we really enjoy being here. It is raining very heavily and therefore there are not too many tourists. We hike in the rain, even underneath waterfalls and get very wet, but it is not too cold and with the fog really fascinating. We eat great mushrooms that are harvested in the forest, as usual food is absolutely fantastic.

On our way to the Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Overland impressions.

On our way to the Shu'nan Bamboo Forest:
Catching a look on the Yangtse.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: In the rain ...

... even more impressive.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Guess who was here!

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Impressions.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Impressions.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Impressions.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Water coming from everywhere.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Impressions.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Impressions.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest:
Not worth taking the cable car today, I guess!

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Next Day weather is getting better ...

... and we 'fly' over the Bamboo covered canyon.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Hiking through the woods.

Shu'nan Bamboo Forest: Lifting up the trees!

Getting back to a bigger highway takes us one day of driving in rural areas on small bumpy streets, through little towns and alongside fields. It is a very nice and interesting insight in Chinese life away from the big industrial centers, here we can see the difference between life in big cities and life in little villages. The gap is huge. Out here even Leos Chinese navigation system is lost and we have to do some detours to find the right way.

When we stop to buy some things our car is surrounded immediately by a lot of people, smiling, waving, holding their little kids into our window, there is less picture taking here. Pauli is not scared and waves back and is happy to see the babies (I think it is because they are smaller than him… ;-).

Back at the express way south we want to stop in a town next to the street for the night, but only find out on the way that it is sitting on a hill top and most of the roads are closed for trucks. Very strange the 2,50 m high construction to stop trucks is built on a small road, no sign to let you know before and only when you are already right in front of it, the gate can be discovered. Once again we have to turn our car “auf einem Pfennig” (on a penny) as we call it. In the meantime we are pretty good: Torsten drives Emma as if he has never done something else and I know how to wave him cm per cm through the squeezes.

A lot of cars have red bands knotted on their bumpers. Red bands promise luck and safety to the driver of the car. Torsten jokes that the way red-band-people drive shows that believing in your own luck does not necessarily mean that they wish you luck too… ;-) In general China is full with superstition. In the temples we see counters where monks are ready to estimate the right date or number or whatever for whatever event. All three religions are filled with rules on how to do what and when. Even the long years of rational Communism where not able to change that.

On our way to Kunming: Stopping by for dinner.
Again it turned out to be delicious.

Kunming further south is a very old Chinese city, being inhabited for already 2000 years. We arrive tired from the long drive, have to fight for a place to park, since we are again waved away everywhere and actually are a bit tired of the stress. After a walk in a nice park, Lonely planet leads us to a hidden tiny restaurant, in an old Chinese house between high new apartment buildings. There they make pizza with real cheese and when we walk in we see a fridge with Hoegaarden- and La Chouffe-beer and it is even cold! (In China you never get beer served that is cold. It is always in a fridge, but they are never turned on.) What a feast, everyone happy! Pizza! ;)

Kunming: We pick the restaurant 'As you like' ...

...which servs Cheezy Pizza & Belgian Beer. We couldn't resist:
'May we have one Hoegaarden & one La Chouffe, PLEASE?!'

The kids loved the pizza and we created quite some
homesickness tonight.

In Janshui, one of our last stops in China we want to visit old classical Chinese architecture: one story high, wooden houses, with their vaulted roofs, arranged around courtyards for different members of one family. Actually there is not much left of old architecture in China in general. Everywhere we come to, we see bulldozers being busy to tear down old quartiers to build new incredibly huge apartment blocks for more people to come. Cities have seemed to change within few years entirely. In Janshui we follow a hint of Lonely Planet that is around two years old, on our search for food. When we arrive at the described place we see a total different scene than described: the barbecue vendors with open fire have made place for expensive phone and clothes shops. Printed travel books for China are sometimes outdated, even if they are the newest edition… ;)

So, no surprise the old houses that are left even in Janshui are declared museums with entrance fees or have a protected status, which does not always mean that they are treated that way. What we see of old architecture is very fascinating though and beautiful.

And again there is great food. This time in form of a ying-yang-hot pot, one side hot, the other side mildly spiced, really really good. We throw in, what they have and enjoy.

Jianshui: Tree climbing after a long ride.

Jianshui: Unfortunately the ancient bridge is under construction.

Jianshui: Pauli all professional at his next photo session.

Jianshui: It's raining, man!

Jianshui: Zhu Family Garden.

Jianshui: Zhu Family Garden.

Jianshui: Zhu Family Garden.

Jianshui: Zhu Family Garden.

Jianshui: Zhu Family Garden.

Jianshui: Zhu Family Garden.

Jianshui: Having fun!

Jianshui: Antonia playing with the
magic wand of the Monkey King from
'Journey to the West'

Jianshui: Dumpling sold in downtown.

Jianshui: Out for Yin Yang Pot. We love it!

In Janshui we finally get to see a Confucius temple, one of the biggest in China and the last Chinese religion of which we hadn’t seen a temple yet. When we arrive we see a lot of traditionally dressed up people, but at the same time it is very clear that they are wearing a sort of costumes, because their regular clothes and shoes show off underneath. There is musicians and a sort show master with micro phone installed on his head and there are young people also in costumes lined up waiting. Soon there starts a procession towards the main temple and we witness a sort “coming of age” ceremony, where young 18-year-olds are sworn into their new lives when leaving home. Parents also take part in the ceremony. It seems to be very emotional, overall for the parents, some cry during the speeches and vows. Confucianism is sometimes denied the status of being a religion and rather referred to as a system of social ethics. Main and most important point is that it sorts out a strict hierarchy amongst followers: the king (used to be) above a servant, parents above children, old above young, man above woman and so forth. All this was supposed to bring harmony and peace to society because from birth on everyone knows his or her place, no confusion or resistance foreseen. And that system we can see in the ceremony: the kids kneel in front of their parents, dutifulness of younger towards older we can see in every move they make. I am not sure if all of this is still showing real life, but during the ceremony it seemed pretty real. Chinese raised in the light of Confucianism are very proud of what they call children’s deference (in German: Pietät), which means that children have to be grateful to their parents all their life because they have given life to them. This gratefulness is of course linked to obedience. Very interestingly, they don’t see a problem to still describe their love to their children as unconditional, apparently not recognizing the tremendous burden they put on their children. We learn about that and realize: this is only the beginning of understanding mini bits and pieces of this culture. After the ceremony we have a long discussion with the kids about what we have seen and all agree that we like the idea, that one day the kids will be responsible for themselves and we will return to peace and take care only about our own lives. No lifelong finger pointing from our side... ;-)

Jianshui: Maingate to the confucius temple.

Jianshui: Candidates get ready ...

... the ritual is prepared ...

... and the master of ceremonies ...

... start the confucian coming of age ceremony. 

Antonia watches from the back.

Daugthers and sons bend down before their parents.

After the ceremony we were asked for photos.

Jianshui: We hang a wish pad with the others.
Ours in German; the others in Chinese.

Jianshui: We decide to buy this foldable bike and call it
'Molly' as the little sister of Emma.
Pauli immediately loves it.

Jianshui: Out for dinner in a backstreet.

Jianshui: Simple & delicious!

From Janshui we head towards our last sight in China: the rice terraces of Yuanyang. The drive up there is breathtaking and takes a lot of energy: small winding and bumpy roads on the mountain side. Later when we see busses with tourists up in the mountains, we realize that again Leo’s navigation system did not know new roads that have recently been built…

Even up here in the mountains, all alone with the rice farmers we pay an entrance fee, there is a visitors center and viewing platforms. The views on the fields from above are wonderful. We arrive in the evening, sun is about to set and light changes every minute. The fields are all flooded with water, there are almost no rice plants in November. The whole scenery looks as if someone has dropped a mirror that has fallen into thousands of pieces. Really fascinating, the whole steep mountain range is covered with rice fields, water runs down in cascades, a perfect piece of how mankind has conquered nature. We also come back very early in the morning before sun rise to watch the scenery come to life with its changing colors. As soon as daylight is there all is less magic, as if we had dreamed the wonderful glitter of the broken mirror.

We enjoy being here, we know this is our last stop in China and we start to say good bye.

At one of the viewpoints we meet a young couple from Hasselt in Belgium and a French couple travelling together. What a great fun to talk to them! ;) Finally we hear Belgian Dutch and French again and hear their experiences of travelling. Like us they are travelling a couple of months. All four join us in our car for a couple of kilometers and we can continue chitchatting. Check out Gert’s and Lieselotte’s real nice blog! https://intotherugzak.wordpress.com/

And Pauli is fascinated because she is called Lieselotte, just like his favorite cow from a kid’s book! We have a real Lieselotte in our car! ;)

On our way to the rice terraces: drive above the clouds.

Rice Terraces in Yunnan.

Rice Terraces in Yunnan.

Rice Terraces in Yunnan: Sunset turns the site in magical place.

From Yuangyang it is another 700 km drive to the border of Laos, there is no more sightseeing planned, no time left, we have to leave the country on the 3rd of December. We arrive at Yuanjiang late in the evening and find a parking place next to a hotel, that later turns out to be a place next to a dancing place, with the respective noise. We are all tired and hungry, Torsten feels especially tired and also shivery. We still go on search for food. While I wait at a barbecue, where they cook rice on grills with wonderful smelling ingredients I hear someone behind me in perfect English: “Hey where are you from, you are probably the only European face in town!” And I meet Yong. ;) Just at the right moment. We are so happy to have some nice and funny company! And as we will later find out, he will be our guardian angel for a couple of days. Yong is about our age, lives in Shanghai, where he used to be a teacher at the international school. At the moment he is travelling with his wife Chengcheng the South of China by motorbike. He was married to a French and has two kids in France, therefore he is very familiar with European culture and knows how we are feeling all alone the whole time amongst 1.3 billion Chinese… ;) We decide to meet again next day, as he is driving the same way south. And really we see each other again next day on the highway and have lunch break together. Yong then drives on before us to find a good place for the night at Jinghong, some 200 km further south where went want to have dinner and a nice evening together. We really look out to talk to him, it is so interesting to talk to him, he is open minded, friendly and answers all our questions. ;)

Kids find out anouther way of riding 
with Pauli.

And he is all happy about it!

On our way to Xishuangbanna: We meet Yong again
and stop at the next parking.

We like his motorbike.

We agree to meet in Xishuangbannain the evening.

Men smoking pipe.

Some 30 km before Jinghong we suddenly feel some bumps shaking the car, first very light, later harder, an even sound, as if there were suddenly waves on the high way. We check the motor, motor heat, oil, brakes, any other signs, nothing. We keep on driving because the high ways rolls well, the car is still driving. We want to reach the place for the night and a repair garage as quick as possible to check the car. It is dark already. We suspect that buffers cold be broken, they were already showing signs of weakness. When we arrive at the hotel that Yong has found we walk around the car and check the wheels and our hearts stand still. We have almost lost the back left tire on the side of the driver. All eight (!) screw nuts sit on the last edge. All bolts are worn out, the holes where they usually sit in tight are worn out. We cannot believe our eyes. First thing we realize is that we have been unbelievably lucky. Some kilometers or even meters more and damage would have been tremendous. Let alone if that had happened on the steep, curvy and fast high way; we would have been a line worth in the news next day. What a shock.

Later we start discussing how this could have happened. There are two possibilities: by accident or someone screwed on our car. All the other screws on the other three tires sit tight. We know that if a screw comes loose this can also affect the others and can lead in the worst case to the loss of a tire. But the whole scenery is too strange, too many coincidences. All screws that are loose sit on the same edge as if they had been moving all in the same speed away from the bolts. We did not lose any of the screws, they are all there.

We discuss to call the police. Leo and Yong don’t see any use in doing that. Torsten and me we discuss among us long that night and come to the same conclusion. We are one day away from leaving the country, calling the police would mean also having to contact the embassy, probably waiting for an expert to come down here to check the situation. Until that happens we would not be able to touch the broken wheel and start the repair. Days of delay and bureaucratic hassle, that would not change anything on our current situation.

And still there are questions: Why would someone do something like that? Well, there have been weird people on this world forever and I would most certainly not exclude Chinese from that pattern. More interesting still: HOW could someone loosen all the screws, without us noticing? One would need heavy tools to do that, without a machine you would need at least two people and some time. When could that have happened? The day before we parked on a very strange parking in Yuanjiang. Still, there were people around. But would having people around mean that someone would tell us that someone screwed on our car? How long does it take until screws sit on the last edge? How long have we been driving with the loose screws? We find pictures of our lunch break the same day, with pictures of the tire. We zoom in, but its too fuzzy, we don’t see the screws loose yet, which does not say that they had already moved some mm. Questions, questions, no answers. Only a strange feeling stays.

Now the wheel spider sits with us in the front of the car and we use it at every break we take until we have calmed down and regained confidence. ;-)

Xishuangbanna: When arrinving we are quite shocked.
We almost lost our real wheel.
All eight screw nuts sit on the last gear.

Yong takes us out for dinner that night and we enjoy it a lot. The town is really lovely. We even see a tea ceremony that evening, something we always wanted to, but did not have time yet.

Xishuangbanna: Yong & Chengcheng take
us out to celebrate that nothing happened to us.
About fixing the damage we will take care next day.

Xishuangbanna: Having a tea ceremony.

Xishuangbanna: The food on the street is great.

Next day Yong gets up early with us and drives around to find a repair shop. One hour later he is back with two experienced truck mechanics who immediately start taking off the tire. They explain that they have to make new bolts themselves since they don’t have our size on stock. We will have to wait until the evening until they are ready. Around nine in the evening the car is fixed and ready to roll again. The whole day Yong is there to translate, help, negotiate, in between he takes the kids for a ride on his motor bike. Chengcheng plays with Pauli and brings fruits and we all have lunch together. They are really wonderful. Without them all this would have taken a lot longer and most certainly we would have left China with a very negative picture in mind. Them being so helpful and kind takes the edge off of the shock we have just gone through. Neither Leo nor Navo, our tour company show a sign of trying to help. Leo shows up around ten to have a look how things are going. But by that time we are too busy to get things done to be able to leave China on time to worry about this behavior.

So we unload and reload all spare tires, which takes a lot of time. We have a little crane on the back side to help lift the stuff. We are busy the whole day.

Xishuangbanna: Next morning work starts to fix.

Bolts are all worn out.

Not many gears left.

They need to be taken out and replaced by new ones.

Holes of the rim.

Kids having fun with the damaged rim.

I get the spare tyre ready

The waiting time for the new bolts we use to get
the last vaccinations for Antonia.
Before it's our turn, we watch a kid doing his school work.

We at work.

Left: worn out rim.
Right: good spare tyre.

Getting the measures for a technical drawing.

Bridging more waiting time.

Johann gets his first ride on a motorbike.

So does Antonia.

Having Lunch with Yong, Chengcheng and his friends.

New bolts arrived.

Hammering the new bolts back in.

Xishuangbanna: View over the Mekong on the city skyline.

All new bolts had to be taken out again and reworked.
Late at night they arrive and are put back in again.

When all is ready Torsten follows the repair people to their garage to get the screws sit tight by a machine. There they tell him to make sure to change the bolts again as soon as possible, because they don’t trust the quality of the steel made in China. They tell him that they were really impressed to see what forces the old bolts were able to take without braking…

For tigthening the screw nuts we need to go to the shop
for heavy tools.

Thanks to Yong and the guy on the left Emma is fine again.

Late in the evening we have dinner with Leo and then leave town to drive up to the border because we have to leave the next day and there are still some 170 km to go on a road that is quite bumpy and narrow.

After midnight we arrive at the border to Laos, ending our
7000km tour through China.

Next day, 3rd of December it is time to leave. We get our passports stamped, administrational stuff for our car is done, the usual hassle. And suddenly Leo is gone. No word of good bye, no waving, nothing. The kids and me we have to walk through the passport counters, while Leo and Torsten go back to the car to drive through the border. At the passports I say: “See you in a minute!” to Leo and he nods. When Torsten arrives on the other side Leo is gone. Very strange. The kids don’t understand what’s going on, especially Paul. He liked being with Leo a lot. Leo had told me the day before, that he would not be allowed to come with us to the other side of the counters and in the stress of getting everything stamped I forgot because otherwise there would have been time to say good bye.

Well, a very strange end of our China trip.

Arriving on the Lao side we find out that Leo forgot to pass on the Chinese car papers to us, that we need to show like everyone else driving by car from China to Laos. More discussions. :( At the end they wave us through.

So what do we feel about the China we have seen?

First of all: it can all be different already next year. ;) This country changes really quick. We have seen only a certain time window. Travel blogs we have read, books we had with us were sometimes already outdated. There is a lot of impressive drive and speed in this country. We have seen roads completely being repaired in one night. Tourism infrastructure seems to have exploded in the last years. There is huge building works everywhere. But it is hard core capitalism here. Everyone cares about him- or herself. And there is this strange drive to copy western things. You walk through malls and shopping centers, centers of towns and you feel like being in Europe or the US, there is not much original China left. At the same time it is only a copy of the cover, all other measures to regulate wild consumption and spending that we have had for years don’t exist in China. It is a bit as if they were living on several fast lanes at once and I am not sure where this will end.
China is facing tremendous problems in the future. Here just a few that have impressed me the most: an over aging society, millions (!) of men without a chance to a have a family, because there are no women to get married to (consequence of one-child-politics), consequences for the environment cannot be overseen with the current politics of industrialization. Just an example: 4400 people die every day in China because of air pollution. There are other problems too, not even being touched yet: f.e. there are 600 000 dead per year in car accidents! Imagine 600 000. This is just a part of the whole list.

This whole strange mix of communist-propaganda-but-living-pure-capitalism is a big contradiction that will probably inherit some explosive moments for Chinese society. A lot of people have gotten very wealthy in the last couple of years and demands change when you know more about the world. Where will this lead to? Will the communist party be able to handle that change? Will they be able to go on restricting and patronizing people? A fall back into old patterns as for example the Cultural Revolution one day? Who knows.

My impression is that China will be overall busy with itself in the next couple of years. From the conversations we had, we hear that most Chinese consider the most important thing the unity of China and the possibility to control the country to avoid socially motivated uprisings and that all efforts should be put into that aim. And that is a lot of work for the dear comrades.

We will most certainly come back to China. We really want to see the rest of the country. Despite the stress with people not being able to handle xenophobic feelings, we really liked travelling here. The things to see are stunning and never to forget. The culture is rich and so old and the food is fantastic. Infrastructure to travel is in very good state, roads are in comparison to what we have seen until now really good and allow fast travelling. So if you come, have fun, but don’t forget to bring a suitcase full of money; ;-)

  Poster of Chinese Immigration Service.
First and last what we saw in China.
We taught Pauli that the sun greets 'nihao'.

*** Off-Topic Pictures ***

Most expensive cofee ever: €9 for 250g.
Subtitle of the box: "Showing Chinese Coffee Culture".
Seeing the effort it took me, to find and buy some coffee,
I must say, that I doubt about the existence of this culture ;)

Here another try! Funny filter coffee construction.

Okaaayyyy ...

We didn't always understand China.