China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin Region)

The first seven days in China we spent in Beijing. Compared to Russia (apart from Moscow) and Mongolia, China is a country with a long history. This is evident in the beautiful old buildings and temples. With 21.5 million inhabitants, Beijing is also one of the largest cities we have ever been to. We needed the first day to recover :D Adjusting to a new country, people, and cultures is quite exhausting. The Chinese are quite different.. They spit on the streets and every time someone sniffs up their nose, we shudder. And that happens every two minutes when you walk around outside. Plus, everything is sweet: bread, pastries, coffee, tea... The worst part is that many Chinese try to rip off tourists. One trick, for example, is that a few nice girls pretend to have gotten off the same train and strike up a conversation. Eventually, they ask if you want to have coffee with them and then they order a lot of food and claim to have no money or simply disappear to the bathroom. Then you have to pay outrageous prices to settle the bill (several hundred euros), as the store owners are in cahoots with the 'students'.. Or tourists are charged five times the price for something and that money goes straight into their pockets (so you always have to check prices beforehand). Another example is that when you try to pay for something, the store owner exchanges the money with counterfeit money and says they won't accept it.. Luckily, we had done extensive research beforehand and didn't get scammed badly anywhere. But it was scary how many tried. On the other hand, Chinese people are fascinated by Europeans. We can't even count how many photos we have taken with us (asked or not). It's strange to be celebrated just because of our origin and slightly different appearance.

In the following days, we visited the beautiful old town, the Forbidden City, the Palace Garden, the Summer Palace, and various temples. Beijing has a lot to offer :) For the Great Wall, we rented a car to visit various restored and unrestored sections of the wall. But after searching for the car rental for over two hours (Europcar.. should have been easy to find), we were told that there is no car rental in Beijing. Plus, Germans aren't even allowed to drive in China.. That was really annoying because we wasted too much time searching and couldn't visit the wall that day. So we spontaneously booked a trip at the Tourist Information Center for the next day. Unfortunately, that meant we didn't have a chance to visit Mao's mausoleum.. After not being able to see Lenin in Moscow, that was really disappointing. The trip to the wall was supposed to last from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, and our train to Shanghai would depart at 7:30 pm. When our guide picked us up in the morning, she told us that we each had to pay a tip of 50 yuan (6.50 euros) at the end of the tour. We weren't really happy about that because if we give a tip, it should be as much as we find appropriate. But we couldn't do anything but agree and set off. The morning was really great, we drove to a temple complex and our guide told us a lot, also about general things about China. For example, the lucky number for the Chinese is 9 and the unlucky number is 4. For license plates for cars, you have to pay a lot if the number 9 should be included. You can easily recognize wealthy people by the number of nines on their license plate. In contrast, hotels usually don't have a floor or room number with the number 4. The elevator shows 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8.... After that, we had 2 hours on the wall. We were lucky and there were not many tourists in December. We were also fast and went far without any other tourists (the steps were really huge and it was just uphill). Then we had lunch. That was also very good. That was the part we had actually paid for and it was only 12 o'clock noon. And then the scams started... First, we went to a 'Jade Museum' (all included). In the end, we were told about jade for 5 minutes and then we had 20 minutes to shop. Then we went for a free foot massage. It consisted of 'Tibetan doctors' diagnosing us with low blood pressure and hormonal disorders just by reading our palms. And then they wanted to sell us great homeopathic medicines. They quickly lowered the prices to 200 yuan instead of 900 yuan.. The doctors were also pretty aggressive when we didn't want to buy anything. Then we had a tea ceremony, which was actually quite nice, but it was also just a way to make us buy tea, cups, and teapots from them. At 4 pm we were already back in Beijing and had to wait for our train for a long time.

The train to Shanghai was not one of our smartest decisions of the trip. There was the option to take a high-speed train, which takes 5 hours for the 1000 km journey, or the slow train, which takes 16 hours. We thought we would save money and take the overnight train since we were experts in train travel by now. Cheapest option, that should work out. In the end, it was the worst ride of our lives. There were always three benches on each side and a table in the middle. Two people would barely fit on the benches.. but there we were, sitting three people for 16 hours. We couldn't even stretch our feet because the people opposite us had their knees already against ours. In the night, strangers slept on our shoulders and got angry when we gently pushed them away (apparently, in China it's common to use a stranger's shoulder as a pillow). And of course, people smoked in the train and ate weird sausage soups. The sleepless night was a lesson for us..

When we arrived in Shanghai, we were picked up by Julia and Felix (Selis classmates from Ulm, who had done a semester abroad in Shanghai). We stayed with them for 8 days. Shanghai was even bigger than Beijing and super modern with its skyline and fancy bars and restaurants. We had some great days here, thanks to Julia and Felix. We ate really well because the two of them wanted to visit all their favorite restaurants in their last days (lucky us :D) and then we were also lucky to be able to use a fitness studio for free for a week, which is actually more like a spa (with a swimming pool, free drinks, massage beds...). When we went partying in the evenings, it was also advantageous to be a European girl. You can get in everywhere for free and there are free drinks too. So we really had a good time. Our highlight was also the water town Suchou. The temple complexes and canals were simply beautiful. And there were hardly any tourists there.

Guilin is said to have the most beautiful scenery on Earth, if you want to believe the internet. Luckily, Felix and Julia had already tempered our expectations a bit, because Guilin is still a Chinese city with everything that comes with it: loud traffic, poor air quality, and people spitting and sniffling as far as the eye can see. We arrived in bad weather after a whole day of travel and could only force ourselves to eat something in front of the door. The day had started at 3:30 am because our flight was supposed to leave the airport at 7 am, and since the subway in Shanghai doesn't run that early, we had also taken a taxi. For nothing and for what, because our flight had already been canceled a long time ago. Why? "Comunism Plan canceled it". You can't argue with that, that's just the way it is. We were allowed to board the next plane five hours later, but when we arrived at Guilin from the airport by bus, it was already evening.

The next day, we took the bicycles and tried to escape the city. It didn't really work because construction was going on everywhere and we always had traffic and hustle and bustle around us except for a few moments of peace (but we actually cycled about 40 km out of the city). The beautiful karst mountains in the background are still majestic despite the many skyscrapers, but the overall impression suffers a lot. You can still see that Guilin must have been enchantingly beautiful at some point. But at least a decade ago. After the sobering trip, we decided to leave the city earlier than planned and explore the neighboring towns. The next day, we took the bus to the dry rice terraces at this time of year and walked among the hills. The following day, we took a bamboo boat down the river to the neighboring town of Xingping, which was finally as small and idyllic as we had originally imagined Guilin to be. The river cruise was breathtaking in any case. The view of the karst peaks is so beautiful that it adorns the 20 yuan banknote. We could walk directly to the viewpoint depicted on the banknote. The next morning, we climbed one of the peaks for an even better view of the landscape and then took the ferry to the other side of the river for a small day hike among mandarin plantations and dense forest. The last stop of the China trip was the nearby town of Yangshuo, which is enchanting with its picturesque old town. And because there are so many tourists here, we actually stumbled upon a German restaurant with a German chef who made Seli delicious cheese spaetzle. A bit of home far away 😉 The next day, we split up for the first time, Seli went cycling and climbed Moon Hill, and Jolene went climbing. But we were both very happy to be together again in the evening!

In conclusion, Guilin was initially disappointing, but the surrounding area more than made up for it and gave us many moments of pure bliss.