PC292 CHINESE GOVERNED AREAS :Stew Green

292 BEIJING GOVERNED AREAS (AKA CHina) I didn't really want to go to China, as the main purpose of my journey was to visit Siberia and Russia. So I wanted to concentrate on Russian Culture. But the easiest way to get to Siberia from Malaysia was to fly Air Asia to Macau and travel thro China first. I had been thinking of taking a cheaper flight from Singapore or Bangkok, but cos I took a direct flight and travelling in China was faster than I thought I had spare time. So I stopped off at a few places first as my CIS visa didn't begin until Thu 8th June. I spent 2 weeks in China travelling from Macau in the South upto Beijing to the northeast to avoid Mongolia as I needed a visa and this would have taken time and money, and then to Siberia border.

the Geocities website is banned in China so I couldn't update my webpages etc blog site, and on Yahoo photos

China tips .. great train time info

Wed - arrived in Macau (the old Portuguese trading port) - took a walk around a new theme village recreating famous buildings around the world like : The Colisium, Temple at Lhasa, Forbidden City. Then walked around the city up to the old fort where the museum is. Macau was quite European and very developed , also a little expensive.

I took a bus to the border which was bedlam (Same old China there are so many people everywhere seems to be crowded) ..and into China. It took me a while to sort out a bus to Guangzhou which was longer and more expensive than I expected ($15). Getting to the station and getting a overnight train ticket to Wuhan was not so bad. .

Thu 25 - Wuhan I dumped my bag and went to walk around. The ancient cranebird tower was $10 to visit. China is getting more expensive in parts so I looked from outside.

Then I took the ferry across the river Yang Tse to the old town. It was a suprise to a whole area of town had 1920 British Merchant buildings ..the Bund .. as it was once a British trading area

Now the city is getting more prosperous I passed lots of Wedding Boutiques and trendy shopping Malls and even Wallmart and B & Q. At one point I saw an internet cafe, inside were lots round tables with computers; but no one seemed to recognise te word internet. And then I realised the place was full of girls trying out makeup and dreesses thro the computer ... it wasn't an internet cafe at all. Down the street I found a small Italien Square with fountain and classical buildings .. purpose built for wedding photos. Seems the Chinese are going for the wedding dream big time (I'm sure there'll be a lot of divorces in the future)..
I tried to meet up with an American teacher, but he turned out to be at another Wallmart ! so I missed him. To save time I took another nighttrain.

Fri - smalltown (Angyang ?)- In the morning instead of getting off in another city I got down in a smalltown. Not so prosperous like the cities. A slice of the old China, but now electric bikes ,but quite busy with people and business.

Many Chinese people were friendly to the strange foreigners who don't speak Chinese. This rail worker presented me with a bracelet which he sells .. a sign of capitalism ..the rail workers make extra money selling things, newspapers, coffee. At the station different privatised luggage rooms compete for your business.

China has changed ! China is so busy with so many small businesses. There is no sign that it was ever communist. It's astonishing to see all the development like high rises going up all over the place.

I arrived in another small city . I was going to take an overnighttrain to Beijing, but now the trains are faster so I decided to take a cheaper day train and stay at the hostel in Beijing.

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