Shanghai knights

Hello everyone!

It almost has been a week since you've heard from us. As you know we are travelling through China and because we want to see a lot in the time we are here, we don't have a lot time to keep you guys up to date. Time passes by when you are having a good time. But since we owe you a full report of China, I'm going to describe what we've done one Wednesday and Thursday.

The second stop on our tight schedule was Shanghai, the most crowded city of the country.

We already had decided to visit this city in the preparations of our journey. We knew Shanghai is a wealthy city because of its flourishing economy and its industry. So we knew we were going to arrive in a rather touristic part of the country. Still, it seemed interesting to us because we hear a lot about the strong and upcoming economy of China so we needed to check that out. We hoped to have a complete view of China after our lodging there so that includes fashion and finances as well. Too bad we didn't have a lot time but we did the possible to see as much of the city as we could.

The first part of the day we decided to act like real tourists and we visited the touristic center of Shanghai. Soon we noticed why the city is one of the most prosperous in the world. The city looks very modern and even a bit futuristic. Gigantic buildings with illuminated signs, just as other enormous cities like New York. Shanghai really has a cosmopolitan character. We couldn't help it to take a look in the big shopping streets and shopping centers. Everywhere in the city, you see shops and financial institutes. Business and economy are everything in Shanghai. After a half day of shopping, we had lunch in a nice restaurant. In the afternoon, we decided to go visit some of the eccentric buildings in the financial district. The city has set up a complete financial institution including commercial banks, securities companies, insurance companies etc. A well known area in that district is the Pudong, home of several financial institutions including the stock exchange. It's also well known for its beautiful skyline with the symbolic Oriental Pearl Tower. You definitely have to see this skyline at night! Shanghai was worth the visit, too bad we already had to leave after one day.

On Thursday morning, we packed our bags and took the train to ZhengZhou, a city not that far from Shanghai. Zhengzhou is totally different compared to Shanghai. Most of the buildings are more traditional but off course there's a modern city center as well. Wednesday was all about economy, finances and the modern way of life. Thursday, we learned more about the tradition and culture of China. We visited the Shaolin center. The temple is not only a Buddhist shrine but also the ancient center of Chines kung-fu. The Western world knows the monastery from the martial arts but its also part of the UNESCO world heritage. In the past, the monastery has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. We've heard a lot of anecdotes about the Shaolin and their monks but I've remembered one to tell you guys. The anecdote is about the spreading of the Shaoling kung-fu and the martial arts in general. After one of the many attacks on the monastery, five monks had to flee. In order to stay alive and save the monastery, they needed to recruit some new fighters. In that way, the Shaolin kung-fu has spread trough the country and later on, even through the world.

After we had visited the Shaolin center, we anticipated the rest of the day to walk in one of the five sacred mountains of Taoism in China, the Mount Song or Song Shan. Mount Song is the home of the Shaolin temple and considered to be the birthplace of Zen Buddhism. In that way, the mount represents Buddhism as well as Taoism, another Chinese religious path where they focus on nature. That's not surprising of you see the nature around there.

We walked 1500 meters above sea level and the nature was really thrilling. Everywhere around the mountain, you find Buddhist and Taoist temples and tribes amongst the beautiful trees and vegetation.

Thursday was a tiring day and we were glad when we made it back to the hotel. In the morning, it was already time to leave this beautiful city as well...

China: The climax of our trip?

Hi there once again!

Tonight, we don't feel like doing too much so we found it the right time to update you guys once more about our travel adventures. As you could have already deducted from the title of this blog, we are on the area of China right now. Before the start of our trip, we already had agreed together that we would definitely be visiting China. Because it is such a large country with a lot of different cultural and natural aspects, we will stay in China for about ten days, which is longer than any other counry we will visit.

To make things clear, now we are finding ourselves in our room of a little hotel in the city centre of Hangzhou, a well-known city in China. We had quite a nice day so we provide you of a little summary below.

Hangzhou

At first, our idea was to travel by bus from Laos to China but someone told us that we could experience some troubles at the border so we decided to, once again, travel by plane. Because Laos is located southward of China and because China's major cities are located in the eastern part of the country, we decided to start our trip in Hanghzou. After visiting hangzhou we will march on northward to reach other cities. We have found a nice train route so we will not have to pay plane-tickets anymore in China. After our arrival Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport early this morning, we took a taxi very quickly to our hotel in the city centre. After we were installed, it became clear that we would definitely need a guide for today. The combination of a big city in a country that we had never been in before with an unintelligible language made it impossible to travel alone. The receptionist at our hotel told us where to find a tourist centre where we could fix a guide. We asked the guide to visit some of the most special places in Hangzhou today and we ended up with two activities. In the forenoon, we would visit the 'Immaculate Conception Cathedral', one of the oldest catholic churches in China. In the afternoon our activity was to take a look at the 'West Lake', the most attractive touristical spot in Hangzhou.

The Cathedral

It seemed really interesting to us to compare a Chinese catholic cathedral to the cathedrals we know in Belgium and Ghent, specifically. From outside the building looked completely different from what we know. It was quite a low building with two colors: blue and white. The inside of the cathedral was rather comparable with the cathedrals we know so that's at least something that catholicism has in common all over the world. Our lovely guide gave us a lot of explanation about the birth and the history of that cathedral but that's secret information that we will not be sharing here.

When we completed our visit to the cathedral, we took a bus to move to our next destination but on our way, we would hold on for a minute to eat something. During the bus trip, I was personally surprised about the fact that Hangzhou seemed to be a pretty prosperous city. I didn't see any signs of poverty. Moreover, the city was a maginificent mixture of modern skyscrapers and typical old Chinese buildings. As we had planned, we stopped at a restaurant to provide ourselves of some energy to complete the day. Surprisingly, the food was not spicy but it had a very soft and sweet taste. We also got some tea to drink. It was not just a random drink since it was 'Longjing Tea', a local speciallity that worked refreshing and relaxing.

West Lake

This lake was announced as the major touristical attraction of Hangzhou so we were quite curious about what to expect. The most awesome thing about this lake is that it is surrounded with breathtaking nature and rest. Alongside the lake, there are numerous authentical Chinese buildings refering to old Chinese leaders and things like that. The fact that the lake is not one of the largest with its 6.2 square kilometres gets completely compensated by the beauty of the sightseeing on the boat. This lake delivered us a nice variation between wide, open spaces with nice panoramas and small, cosy passages through Jungles etc. We can conclude that visiting West Lake was a very nice way to finish our day in Hangzhou, despite the fact that it was not how we had expected it to be.

It was a beautiful day for us but we have yet to discover what China really is about because we have only been here one day, in one city. We plan to move on to our next destination tomorrow or the day after tomorrow so make sure you keep your eyes focused on the screen to miss nothing of the action!

Greetings,

The Travelling Team