Konga Shan – China

 The day we arrived in Kangding (9 hours from Chengdu), we found a nice, cheap hostel near the bus station. We thought next day we would go to Sertar or somewhere else. But finally we decided to stay one day in Kangding and then go for a two day trip somewhere that we didn’t know but somebody proposed it to us so we said ‘yes’.

Some guys from the hostel were going to Konga Shan (Konga Mountain) for a two day trip. It seemed a bit to expensive for us, the price that they proposed but, at the end, we accepted the offer. We really didn’t know where we were going, just, we saw some photos of this mountain and we thought it looks nice to visit 🙂 We were two foreigners with a few Chinese guys and our Chinese driver. Mostly all the time we have been in the car, driving from one place to another but it was totally worth it! Why? Just look at the photos 🙂

Finally we saw our Konga Mountain (7556 m above the sea level), the highest mountain in Sichuan province. We had to wait a bit to have a nice view on the moutain.

On our way back we were passing some Tibetan villages. As soon as we saw that something is going on in one of these villages, we stopped the car and decided to stay in that village for some time. We saw so many people in their traditional clothes, talking to each other in a big circle. Actually, there was only one man in the middle of the circle talking to other men who were standing near him. The Tibetan women were sitting somewhere else, watching the men. Finally, they told us that today is a horse race in this village and all people from nearby came to see the competition! How happy we were to see it! We just thought that we are so lucky to be able to participate in such a relevant event for this people and of course for us – foreigners. Other Chinese who were with us in the car weren’t that happy as we were but it didn’t matter for us 😉

Later, we went back to Kangding. So how to get to Kangding? You just need to take a bus from Chengdu (don’t remember exactly the name of the bus station but it is easy to find online). The bus takes you about 9 hours, it depends on the road conditions. There is no possibility to change money in Kangding so if you want to change money, do it in Chengdu. However, you can easily find an ATM in Kangding.

What to visit in Kangding? There are some really original buddhist monasteries. Kangding is like a first city from Chengdu to see Tibetan influence, smiling monks on the road, old monasteries etc…

If you want to see more photos go to this page: http://nicolascastermans.wix.com/the-wangders#!konga-mountain/yf47i

VISIT CHINA – SICHUAN PROVINCE

VISITING SICHUAN

For me, one of the most beautiful and authentic region in China is Sichuan province. Located in the southern- west part of China and very famous for its capital city Chengdu where you can visit pandas!

Chengdu is a very accessible city. But if you want to visit something more than pandas and Leshan or Emei Shan, then you have to take long buses and be prepared to spend lots of time on transportation…The first place that is worth visiting from Chengdu is the city called Kangding. Why Kangding?

• first place from Chengdu where you can admire real, authentic tibetan culture and tibetan people
• it has a huge and amazing tibetan temple (lama si 喇嘛寺) about 30 minutes from the city centre
• it’s like a hub from where you can start discovering sichuan off the beaten path
• you can buy here very beautiful tibetan jewelry
• it’s a first place to have a good acclimatization (2500m) before going to the upper parts of Sichuan

This time my desired place was Yading Natural Reserve Park. To go there I flew from Beijing to Chengdu. Then I spent a few days in Chengu obviously to visit pandas! I have a friend in this city so I could stay at her place for a few days. She took me to one of those spicy hot-pots in the town, where for me it was the spiciest food I’ve ever eaten but for her, it was not spicy at all…

So let’s start from pandas! I visited Chengdu Research Base  of Giant Panda Breeding. It’s quite far from Chengdu’s center. You need to take a metro line 3 to Chengdu ZOO and later a local bus (station written only in chinese). I spent there about 3 hours, pandas were so cute that you could stay there forever ❤ You can have a look at some photos below:

Then I went to Leshan, but it didn’t surprised me that much. Full of tourists, fog all the time etc…But I got this photo:

Let’s move on to Yading…

Finally, I bought my bus ticket to Kangding! You can buy it in Xinanmen 西南门 station in Chengdu. The journey takes about 7 hours and the ticket costs you about 114 yuan. I stayed one night in Kangding and visit a lama monastery. I visited it already two years ago, but I really like this one so I went there again. When you arrive in Kangding, you should buy a bus ticket to Daocheng. Daocheng is like a capital city of Yading. You can have a direct ticket from Chengdu to Daocheng, but it stops in Kangding, where you have to sleepover. So, either you buy a ticket Chengdu- Kangding; Kangding – Daocheng or Chengu- Daocheng. I prefer the first option as you can stay in Kangding two nights and visit this place. Then maybe from Kangding you can go to different places before going to Daocheng. The bus from Kangding to Daocheng takes you about 11 hours…so be prepared for a long journey in a bus. I arrive to Daocheng about 5pm and I took directly a pingche 平车 (shared mini-van) to go to Shangri-la (Riwa) which is the starting place of Yading Reserve. Do not make a mistake, this is not the famous Shangri-la town from Yunnan! This is Shangri-la (second name: Riwa) from Sichuan. From Daocheng to Riwa takes you about 2 hours and the shared car costs you 50 yuan. You can’t bargain. It is a fixed price. I arrived to Riwa at about 7pm so I stayed there for a night in an International Youth Hostel (very popular in China). There I met a few Chinese with whom I visited Yading reserve later. I spent two days in Yading reserve but if you would like to do the real trek with the tent, then you may think about staying there a bit longer! As I was alone, I didn’t do the trek…I did a casual visit of this park which contains of walking a lot!

The first day I took a bus from Riwa to Yading (about 30 minutes). You have to buy the entrance and inside bus tickets which cost you a lot! I pais 270 yuan for that. In my opinion, it’s very expensive to pay 270 yuan to see the natural park…but hello, it’s C H I N A! You have to pay for everything.  After you buy the tickets, you can take an inside park bus which takes you to the heart of Yading Reserve.

My first part of visit was going to the Milk Lake (niunaihu-牛奶湖) and 5- color- lake (wusehai 五色海). Don’t think that it is an easy walk. The whole day took me about 9 hours with the breaks. This place is not known for foreigners. Expect that you gonna see thousands of Chinese people (especially in October as it is one of the best season to go there) with their oxygen bottles…It would be good if you have a few days for an acclimatization because the Yading Reserved is situated on 4000m above the sea level, and the highest point you reach is 4600m – 5-color lake. You don’t need a guide. You can easily go there alone, as there is a special path to go to all the lakes that you want to visit – Milk Lake- 5 color lake and the Pearl Lake. From the starting point (where the bus drops you off) it takes you about 2 hours to get to Luorong Grassland (amazing place to enjoy the grassland) or you can take an electric cab to go there for 50 yuan one way or 80 yuan both ways. Then it takes you about 3 hours (from Luorong Grassland) to get to Milk Lake and 20 more minutes to get to 5- color lake. You go back the same path. What’s more, as probably you will be one of only few foreigners there, Chinese people would like to talk to you and take pics with you. For my whole journey, I was never alone. I met some Chinese in the bus and then we went together to Yading & even Lijiang. If you think that Chinese people are not backpackers, you are in a huge mistake. On my way, I met so many Chinese backpackers. It’s quite famous now to travel like this in China for Chinese people. They are keen on visiting their own country and they are very open to meet new people. For two weeks, I have been only with Chinese people, improving my Chinese (a lot of them didn’t speak English) and getting to know them!

5-color Lake:

Milk Lake:

The second day was very easy because I just went to the Pearl Lake and the Chung-un Monastery which are situated very close to the starting point of Yading Reserve. You need like 3 hours to do this.

Where to stay in Yading?

I slept in a hostel in Yading Village. There is no problem to book it, there are a lot of hostels there.

To sum up, the atmosphere there is pretty much touristic. The hostels are built in a Tibetan way, but you won’t see any tibetans. It is all made for tourists so don’t expect too much. However, the Yading Natural Reserve is extraordinary! It is like a treasure for Chinese. The lakes, snow capped mountains, colors…all of it does a real beautiful place to visit. For sure, you won’t regret many hours of spending in a bus to get here. I had a perfect weather and it was October so the colors of the trees were incredible. I would recommend you to do the trek there (after the Milk Lake). But you need to have your own stuff. If I was there with Nicolas, for sure I would do it. Then, you can see all of these beauties without any tourists.

My trip to Yading in a shortcut:

1. Take the bus from Chengdu to Kangding (7 hours, 114 yuan)
2. Sleep in Kangding and visit Kangding the other day
3. Take a morning bus (there is only one at 6am) from Kangding to Daocheng (10-12 hours, 155 yuan), arrive in Daocheng at 5pm and take a pingche (shared-car) to to Riwa (Shangri-la in Sichuan), 2 hours, costs you 50 yuan, arrive in Riwa, sleep in a hostel
4. Wake up in the morning and take a 5 yuan bus to the entrance of Yading Reserve, buy an entrance ticket and inside bus ticket (270 yuan). Get off in Yading Village to put your bags in a hotel room, take an inside bus (that you have already paid) and go to the starting point of the visit. Visit Milk Lake and 5-color lake or the Pearl Lake. Go back to your hotel in Yading Village.
5. Visit Milk Lake/5 color lake or the Pearl Lake with the monastery
6. If you are a trekker then trek for a few days
7. After Yading you can go from Daocheng to Shangri-la (but Shangri-la in Yunnan!), it takes about 12 hours by bus.

ENJOY CHINA!!!!

If you would like to travel with me to China, let me know! Contact on alpinca.contact@gmail.com 🙂

Beauties of Yunnan

While I was travelling in Yunnan at the same time I was reading a book “Niebo w kolorze Indygo”  written by Polish writer and traveler- Anna Jaklewicz. She used to live in China for two years and as well she was a guide here. I think one year ago she went for a travel for four months to discover Chinese minorities in most famous parts of China. Everything I was reading in this book was happening to me as well. While travelling in Yunnan, everyday I would met unique people from different Chinese minorities. Women who are purely beautiful in their traditional clothes, selling fruits on the market. That’s the beauty of travelling. You just randomly meet women from Yunnan minorities while taking the local bus to your next travel destination. Isn’t it magical? Together with Magdalena we couldn’t resist taking the photos of them and just admiring these lovely ladies. Mostly we saw Hani, Yao, Dai and Yi minorities.

Here They Are :

Yao minority

Take a look at the hand-made decorations on her clothes.

everything hand-made!

The above lady was our Angel. When she smiled I can’t describe how her face was delicate and pure. She couldn’t speak Mandarin but she was such a perfect model that I think every break of our bus journey we were taking photos of her and she never said ‘no’ to us.

Woman from Hani minority

Hani minority (picture taken near Yuanyang)

What was quite special is that while taking the local buses I was reading this book with the photos of the ladies from these Chinese minorities. Women who were with us in the bus were so curious about it, they wanted to see the book and they were speaking to each other and describing other minorities and telling us who they are. A M A Z I N G!

Lady from Dali city, I guess she could be Bai minority but not sure

Ladies found at the Jianshui market

Hani as well

and the last, youngest Beauty 😉

Christmas in Asia

Before ever coming to China, everybody was telling me that I should definitely visit Yunnan (south-western province of China) as, indeed, it is the most amazing region of China. So here I am. Two weeks is too little to say that I know this province but a lot to say that it’s one of the most beautiful provinces in China that I have visited.

I did this trip with my friend- Magdalena who came to visit me here in China for 3 weeks. We started the trip in Shanghai, flying to Kunming and then taking local buses to our destinations.

The first destination that we chose to visit was Yuanyang- place very known from its rice terraces. While getting there we stopped for a night in Jianshui. This small, quite touristic town still gives its visitors impression of moving back to old China. Personally, I liked a lot this city.

Meet Magdalena 🙂

We found really cheap accommodation in this city. We payed 40 yuan (about 6euro) for the room with the bathroom. The ridiculous thing was that the owner wanted our passports and then she left me alone in the ‘reception desk’ and asked me to put all our information in her computer. That’s China 😉

We spent in Jianshui only one night but we were quite lucky because the day that we arrived there was a huge market where all the Chinese people, from the nearby villages, came to buy or sell the food. What’s more, on this market we could see some Yunnan minorities in their traditional clothes! I remember I was running after them like a spy just to take couple of photos but finally I dared to ask them 😀 The interesting thing is that usually all the ladies, from minorities that we met on our way, couldn’t speak or understand Chinese(mandarin). They have their own dialects that they are using everyday.

Women from Yi minority (if I’m not wrong ;p)

I’ve been living in China for 6 months now and I have to admit that this country is indeed the country for old people. While walking on the street all the time you can remark old people dancing to the music, playing Madzong, doing some tai chi in the temples…The best thing is daily aerobic usually for old ladies who meet in the park every evening. There is always one lady who is a leader and plenty of Chinese women (even men) who are following the moves.

playing Madzong

Finally Suzhou – 苏州

So finally I decided to start writing about my city which is Suzhou. At the beginning I didn’t like this city a lot. Too many tourists, I didn’t find something that I liked. But, one day I went alone to finally find something that I could like in this city. And after all I found 🙂

Suzhou is one of the cities in China which are regarded as the ‘Venice of China’ because of a huge number of river canals. What’s more, Suzhou is very famous for its beautiful gardens however, I’m not gonna concentrate on gardens here as I still didn’t visit enough of them and I’m not a huge fan of gardens. I’m will try to show you what I caught on the photos and I really liked in here.

Suzhou is a city where most Chinese people would love to live. I heard from many Chinese that this city is very convenient for them to live in. It’s very clean, old, beautiful and safe.

Most of the cities where I went to China were very safe for me. I have to tell you that when I’m travelling in China alone, this country (from all that I visited) is the safest for me. I have never had the situation which was dangerous or I would feel afraid. That’s true that if you want to travel alone in China, you should be able to communicate at least a bit in Chinese but the other things like safety of the travel I find the best. Always, in the trains, buses, all kinds of transportation, people when they see you, a foreigner, they will react so friendly and open that you would never expect it from somebody that you completely do not know. When I was going to Inner Mongolia by train, for about 10 hours I was sitting with five Chinese blue- collar workers who probably were sitting near to the foreigner for their first time, but they wanted so much to be nice with me that after a few minutes of a small talk I was eating their food and drinking beer with them. There were no borders. Nothing. Just human kindness.

Suzhou by night

What else I love in China?

of course Chinese street food. Near our dormitory everyday at 9.30 pm there are plenty of small vendors who have little kitchens on their vehicles and they are selling delicious noodles, dumplins or Chinese pancakes. And even though China is getting more and more expensive, this street chinese food still remains very very cheap.

What I don’t like in China?

when you are travelling in China, the one thing that is driving you crazy is that each time you have to pay for the entrance to get mostly everywhere! These fees are a bit (even more than a bit) exaggerated. What’s more, everywhere are plenty of people  in these places that you want to visit. So, at the end, I feel like I’m not satisfied from visiting something because I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted. Thus, when YOU want to visit China, I recommend to you to do it as fast as possible. Everything in China is going more and more commercial.

Panna Justyna z Szanghaju tez odwiedzila piekne Suzhou 🙂

Just to come back to that day when I discovered the beauty of Suzhou… I went early morning to see the Tiger Hill (photo below) it was about 9 am, it was friday, no people there. I was deeply amazed that there was so few people. Just from the beginning I liked it and I could feel the atmosphere of the place. Right after that, I went to some quiet street which at the end came up with a huge market with plenty of vegetables, meat, everything and only Chinese people. I loved it. And what’s more, to sum up my day, when I went to get a bit of the Sun from a little café I met some Chinese people who invited me to drink coffee with them and we were just chatting about life and of course taking pictures together. How lucky I am?!

Tiger Hill

Pingjiang Lu- 平江路

My future roommates Melissa and Beilan taking fun with fish… lol

Shantang Jie 山塘街