Once by train through China!

After a few weeks in Shanghai, where we spent Christmas and New Year's Eve, we set off on January 3rd to explore China. The first city that Katharina wanted to visit was Suzhou. Philipp had already visited Suzhou with his friends and had written a detailed post about it. He knew exactly what we had to see and where we could make the most of our one day. For this reason, we booked a hostel that was located right by the old canals that gave Suzhou the name "Venice of the East". What we didn't know was that it was located in an old, traditionally designed house that was almost exclusively furnished with old teak furniture, giving us a little feeling of old China. This was supported by the entire look of the city, which consisted of beautiful old Chinese houses that Kati had not seen in Shanghai.

After just one night, we continued to Tai'an on December 4th. This not very well-known city is characterized by a mountain, Tai'shan. At its peak, there is a temple that Confucius and his people climbed. Unfortunately, a snowstorm hit China on that day, and all trains to the northern part of the country were canceled. After waiting for a while, we decided to change our travel plans at short notice and go to Nanjing instead. In addition to Xi'an and Beijing, this was also an ancient imperial city and therefore has many beautiful sights to offer. Our hostel was located in the area of the Confucian Temple, which was not only crossed by a canal, but also inhabited by many small shops and merchants. Since there was so much to see and we only had one full day in Nanjing, we limited our sightseeing to the city wall and the Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen, which was located on a hill and surrounded by a park. We walked up the hill for almost two hours, which was a good compensation for our 'lost' hike on Tai'shan. Another highlight of this stop was our last dinner, which we enjoyed in a restaurant called 'Impressions Nanjing'. Here, we were served typical dishes from the region, and we especially enjoyed the salted duck and the mushroom-pork pan with soy sauce. There were also duck heads - a Chinese specialty!

Next, we finally went to Beijing, as Philipp had already been there, we chose a slightly remote part of the Great Wall for our visit, to which we headed early in the morning after visiting the Olympic Park the day before. Our travel group, consisting of one Japanese, one American, two English and two New Zealanders, had the chance to walk along the restored part as well as the already decaying part of the wall for over 6 km. We liked this mix very much, as we could imagine the old times very well on the restored part and the second part reminded us how old the wall actually was. An interesting aspect that our tour guide Chan (according to him: "Like Jackie Chan, but not as pretty") explained to us were the names of the producers of the bricks, which were engraved on them. If one of these bricks broke, you could trace back exactly who had produced it and then kill that person, which was supposed to lead to a higher quality of the wall. Another example of how cruel the background of this wonder of the world really was.

To also discover the more modern part of Beijing, we ended our first day with a visit to the 798 Art Zone, a neighborhood that was completely populated with galleries and street art.

Since we actually wanted to visit the Forbidden City in Beijing on the second day, but it was closed due to Monday, we only visited Tiananmen Square, the Place of Heavenly Peace, and the Temple of Heaven, and visited the Forbidden City early the next morning. Unfortunately, we chose to visit during the stay of French President Macron, so we couldn't set foot on the square or explore the entire Forbidden City as parts of it were closed for this occasion. All in all, we were able to enjoy these very impressive places in our own way. For us, especially the Great Wall and the Forbidden City were something very special!

Our last stop was Xi'an, where the main attraction is the Terracotta Army. We went there directly on the first day, and since we both caught a cold in the cold of Beijing, that was almost it. The only thing we saw in Xi'an was the impressive city wall, which surpassed the one in Nanjing, and the Muslim Quarter. Here, we were not only surprised by an incredible noise, but also by delicious lamb skewers and kebabs.

After this adventure, it was time for us to say goodbye to China and go back to Shanghai, from where we are now in Bangkok!