7 days in Tibet!

(By Tovah)
When we got off the plane in Lhasa, after the most turbulent flight I can remember having, we noticed right away that the air was thin and breathing was more difficult.  Since we had an entire week in Tibet, our tour took us in a large loop beginning and ending in Lhasa, but we stayed the first 2 nights in a town called Tsedang, about 2 hours from Lhasa, and the former capital of Tibet.  The drive to Tsedang was pretty, but not as magnificent as we expected.  Instead of snow-capped mountains, we found that the terrain was more desert and the main vegetation were juniper berry bushes (purple berries with few leaves).  By the time we made it to the hotel, the altitude was getting to us and we both had headaches and felt very tired. Luckily, our guide had planned for this and we had nothing planned except resting in the hotel all afternoon and evening, which we promptly did after taking a couple Tylenol. 

The next morning we felt much better and were eager to visit our first Tibetan monastery and to get a better feel for how the Tibetan culture differs from the Chinese. Our first monastery was a bit of a disappointment, yet it represented one of the very first in the country.  Currently, two hundred monks live at this particular monastery, though we only saw about 10 of them.  Surprisingly, what stood out the most was the awful smell from inside the temple!  It was mainly from the oil they use for the candles, which is more of a buttery-wax than oil, but there was also a blend of dust, mildew and body odor that permeated the stale air.  Not exactly the impression we had in our heads going in! Regardless, we learned about the history of Tibet starting with their story of how the Tibetan people began as monkeys, and continuing through the 42 kings, as well as the what the different buddhas represent.  Our guide told us that 100% of the population is Buddhist, and there was a history of Bundism (not sure about spelling) that perished some time around the revolution. We also found some interesting details about the way monks live (for instance, what and how they eat) and their complicated beliefs in reincarnation both for the general population and the Dalai Lamas.

The following days included several long drives and we finally experienced the beautiful scenery we had expected of Tibet.  We saw lovely rivers, not so impressive, but very high glaciers, snow-capped mountains.  We also visited the world’s highest saltwater lake, which is at 4700 meters.   Simply strolling around the lake was all it took to wear us out!  I guess that is why they have yaks and horses there to walk you around, but we preferred to suffer through rather than get on a tiny horse or a smelly yak.  It was also great to drive through villages and see the way different peoples live, including nomad people that still live on the mountains during the warmer seasons.  It was all very picturesque.

As the days carried on, we visited several more monasteries and temples.  We found the other monasteries smelled better but not great. One day we were incredibly lucky to be finishing up touring a large monastery of 800 monks when they were gathering for a chanting session.  We were allowed watch as all of them gathered first in a courtyard and then in the temple.   We were shocked to see boys as young as 9 years old as monks!  They acted just like boys would expect to act at that age, except they wore robes and had shaved heads! (Su, can you imagine Corey going off to a monastery???)

We found many differences between Tibet and mainland China.   For one, Tibet is much poorer; it is evident in the housing, facilities and general upkeep of the city, The people stand out from the Chinese people – they are incredibly devout, and pray all the time including walking pilgrimages for up to 7 years and they hang prayer flags in many places they consider holy; the flags are a sign of devotion but actually looked trashy.  The people are quick to smile with faces that draw you in.  Also, Tibetans are much more conservative in the way they dress.  We saw many dogs and according to our guide, they do not eat them (nor do they seem to take incredibly good care of them).    The menus we saw were still very scary and they eat a lot of yak, which we didn’t particularly like the taste of.  Instead of dog and turtle on menus, we saw “sheep’s head” and yak testicle… hungry?  We had the opportunity to walk through a part of a city where farmers live with their “farm” animals tied up outside – very sad living conditions.  The air is clean and thin which means the sky is the bluest blue we have ever seen!

Our guide and driver were from Tibet, as is usual for foreign tourists, but when Chinese people visit Tibet, they have to have Chinese guides.  We had heard from a couple of American travelers that had already visited Tibet that their guide was afraid to talk about the political tensions between China and Tibet so waited for the right opportunity to broach the subject with our own guide.  When he pointed out some “relics” of destroyed Tibetan monasteries from the cultural revolution, we delicately brought it up.   Our guide was only mildly reluctant to discuss the issue and opened up a bit more when he realized we weren’t interested in starting a protest riot  and were genuinely curious as to how the Tibetan people feel about it at this point.  According to him, there are mixed feelings;  people who have government jobs that pay very well are obviously quite pleased with the arrangement.  Additionally, the Chinese government does a great deal to help farmers in various ways, so they seem generally satisfied as well. On the other hand, there are many who continue to resent the situation and we found out that there are still uprisings quite often, usually based in Lhasa.  Our guides personal opinion was that he didn’t care who was in control as long as whichever government it was was taking care of the people and most importantly, allowing the Tibetan culture and religion to prosper without interference.  However, he did express confusion of Tibet’s history and told us what Tibetans are taught in school, which is quite different from the Westerners understanding of what happened between mainland China and Tibet.

Yangtse River Cruise

We arrived in Yichang in the afternoon, and met our new guide and driver who told us about the city and took us to a government run museum that was dedicated to artifacts from the three gorges project excavation. Although this museum seemed a little run down and was by no means as big as the Shanghai museum we’d been to, our museum guide did a great job explaining how they’d found artifacts dating back 6000 years. He told us that thousands of archeologists excavated for over two years before the whole area was flooded and the three gorges dam project was complete (2009). Later he took us to another room that had jade, ceramic pottery and bronze artifacts they’d found that were relatively young (100 to 150 years old). The museum was selling a few of these items in order to raise money for renovations. Although we are not antique collectors, a number of items caught our eye and we unexpectedly bought a beautiful red jade incense holder dating back 125 years. Hopefully it makes it back to the USA (China shipping).

Later we had a yummy and spicy dinner and then our guide took us to our river boat, which is really a big cruise ship (not Royal Caribbean size, but larger than expected). When we got to our room we were surprised by the size of it and gladly unpacked for the next 4 nights (we hadn’t stayed anywhere long enough to bother unpacking since Auckland). The rest of the ship didn’t offer much entertainment so we were thrilled to have a large room with a balcony.  We spent a lot of time playing cards and enjoying the scenery from the privacy of our own space.  

The Yangtse River Cruise took us through gorges, the now famous dam, stepped farmland, new towns and absolutely beautiful scenery.  It was hard to imagine how the river must have looked before it was filled because it is still dramatic after rising an average of 155 meters.   The river is much safer now for boats to travel, but the downside of this is that there are now many more boats and barges.  It is difficult to imagine how the water will not end up incredibly polluted with the extra traffic and changes to the natural purification process of before (the air is already rather polluted).  We were especially curious to hear the local people’s opinion of the project since so many people’s villages were flooded (over 900,000 people were displaced by the project).  Generally, their impression seemed mixed, with the younger generations having more favorable opinions because they ended up with larger homes and more space, and the older populations being less thrilled because they watched an entire lifetime of memories be flooded and have a harder time adapting to the many changes.

The day we went to the dam and passed through the 5 lock system was very interesting. The dam is enormous,  but not at all attractive.  The power the station generates is now critical for Shanghai and many other cities on the east coast.  Another day, we went on a smaller boat through the lesser (a.k.a. smaller) gorges which are too narrow for the big ship we were on.  This was some of the most spectacular scenery with many waterfalls, caves and tombs in the mountain.  We also had the pleasure of hearing a local boat man singing, as well as our day guide and both of them had lovely voices and sang beautifully.

The cruise ended in the incredibly large, yet virtually unknown city of Chongqing (pronounced chong-ching).   Though we only had one full day there, we saw so much and had a couple of adventures.  Our guide, Tina, first took us to their zoo where we saw many pandas.  These pandas actually have very nice habitats in the zoo and we were able to get incredible close!   Unfortunately, many of the other animals we saw were not quite as lucky; the elephant and giraffe habitats especially were a bit sad.  We also visited the General Stillwell residence and museum, which is the only museum in China that is dedicated to a foreigner. We realized how incredibly ignorant we were of the alliance between the US and China during WWII in fighting the Japanese.  US General Stillwell is still very highly regarded here in China for the help he supplied during the war (and resentment towards Japan still runs deep).  The museum, also government run, provided us an opportunity to see a local painter paint a beautiful watercolor in less than 10 minutes.  Here, we finally found traditional paintings of the 4 seasons that we had been searching for as souvenirs.  We are quite proud of how effective our negotiating has become and can’t wait to enjoy the 4 paintings in our home – again, assuming China mail gets them to us!  We are definitely done buying souvenirs for ourselves!

After our incredibly spicy yet delicious lunch, Tina walked us through a more local food market that in almost any country other than China would have been where we’d want to eat, except we suspect the menus included mostly things we would prefer not to eat.  Still, seeing and smelling it firsthand was worth it.  Tina recommended that we plan on going to a “hot pot” restaurant for dinner near our hotel as hot pots are very traditional for the area.  Basically, a large steel pan is build right into the table and filled with oil, and then you order skewers of different meats and vegetables to cook in the oil.  On the surface, the experience is not so different from fondue, right?  Except in China, the skewers that are most popular are ox stomach, duck throat and chicken feet. While we thought we could be brave at the time she said to go and we really planned on it, when we walked up to the restaurant later that evening, it all felt a little “too” local for us and without our guide with us to make sure we didn’t order something we didn’t want to eat, we essentially chickened out (no pun intended).

One of the problems with travelling so long is that certain comforts are unattainable. In Chongqing, I finally gave into my need for a haircut.  Tina had pointed out where she goes to get her haircut and it was practically across the street from our hotel, so Raj and I took a walk to check it out.  In much the same way as shop workers usher you into their stores if you show any interest, a young man encouraged me to enter when I looked in.  With a deep breath, I went in and with some sign language indicated I wanted a trim.  The guy took me into the back to wash my hair and it all seemed relatively similar to how it would be in the US.  Then he transferred me to a chair and the man who was actually cutting my hair came over. I tried to indicate that I just wanted a little bit cut off and he went to work.  The first bit seemed fine, but as time went on, it seemed like he was cutting more and more. With the language barrier, I had no way to make sure it was okay, and Raj had decided to go for a walk rather than sit and watch.  So, in the end, I have a new hair style with lots of short layers – not the best look for me :(  Oh well, I’ve learned my lesson – next time, I’ll just buy barrettes and tie it all back :)  In the end, it cost me 45 RmB (less that $7), and I’m pretty sure they upped the price for me!  In any case, don’t be surprised if you don’t see me in too many pictures for the next few weeks!

Shanghai and Suzhou

We arrived in Shanghai pretty late and our guide, Tina (English name), picked us up from the airport and took us to the hotel. The city was was lit up and modern like Hong Kong, but was a lot bigger (over 20 million) and more spread out. We were amazed by how many high-end stores there were – seriously, there seemed to be a Louis Vitton or Gucci on every block!   In the morning our guide and driver took us to a garden in the middle of the city. “Gardens” in China are more like peaceful retreats that have more to do with the buildings, landscaping, and yin-yang harmony. We had a great time walking through the garden and learning about Chinese culture. Later that night we went to see an Acrobatic show. Tovah and I were somewhat reluctant to get our hopes up after our NZ shows. Luckily the show was amazing, and we were treated to 13 different acts, each unique and unbelievable. For about $40 we saw a show that would easily rival any Cirque de Soleil production!  No doubt, this was the highlight of Shanghai – unfortunately, we were too busy trying to pick our jaws up off the floor to get any good pictures or videos for you.  One other high point was when we broke down and had our very first meal from an American chain since leaving Atlanta;  our last night in Shanghai we treated ourselves to a break from Chinese food and instead enjoyed California Pizza Kitchen!  The only downer about Shanghai was our guide – she clearly wasn’t feeling well but continually cleared her throat and nose and generally lacked energy and enthusiasm in every way.

Next we took a train to Suzhou (pronounced sue-joe), which is known for its many gardens.  Our guide was really great (reminded Raj of his mum); she told us many stories, taught us Chinese words, and talked openly about her own experiences with the cultural revolution. We explored many residences, a leaning Pagoda, and two large gardens, as well as took another river boat cruise through canals.   These gardens were much larger than the one in the middle of Shanghai, and one of them took 16 years to build.  Since Suzhou is known for its arts and crafts, we also went to an embroidery museum and a silk painting gallery, both of which absolutely blew us away!  When we walked into the embroidery museum, the first thing they showed us was a picture of Princess Diana, and our initial (internal) reaction was “oh jeez, do we have to hear about how she visited 20 years ago?”  However, when the guide asked us to look closer, we found that the “picture” was actually an embroidered image that was incredibly realistic! We really enjoyed perusing the gallery and seeing amazing landscape, animal, and human pictures that were so incredible that we desperately wanted to buy a large one. However, it turns out we had found the one thing that is actually quite expensive in China. Who would have though we could be so impressed by embroidery?

The next day we drove to a smaller town called Zhouzhuang that’s known for its rivers and is called the Venice of Asia. We saw a few residential buildings that dated back to the 12th century. Unfortunately the weather that day was not great and after lunch we did a bit of souvenir shopping and then drove back to Shanghai where we picked up some laundry and said goodbye to our Suzhou guide and driver.

As many of you may know, Tovah was a bit reluctant to come to China because of some the government’s policies and human/animal rights violations.  While we have certainly noticed their tendency to shelter the citizens through blocking internet sites to editing TV shows, we do want to note a couple of positive things we’ve learned about China’s government.  To begin with, the infrastructure of this country is much better than we expected and certainly eases transportation both locally and long distances.  Also, since we expected to find many homeless and poor people as in India, we have learned that the government does an amazing job keeping people off the streets and providing assistance.  There have also been many positive changes toward education and helping farmers subsidize housing and build irrigation systems.  From what we gather, there have been many changes in the past decade that the people here are quite pleased with.