In 2004 we made an excellent trip from Beijing to Hongkong, in China. In xx days, we've seen the project of the nearly finished Three Gorges Dam, the nearly finished preparation for the olympic games in 2008 (!), the overcrowded city of Beijing and the extremely peaceful countryside. This articly is only available in Dutch.

After a long period of doubt whether we should or shouldn't go to China, we finally booked the 'China Hoogtepunten' (China Highlights) trip with Koning Aap. A group travel, this time, as it seemed a little too difficult to travel through China on your own and see and much as possible at the same time. The trip of three weeks starts from Beijing to some other cities and touristic highlights to the countryside and finally to the southern part of Hong-Kong. We'd planned to leave on sunday August 1st 2004

About a week before leaving, we received our surprise a Koning Aap backpack including a small first aid emergency set and the participants list we've been expecting. There were two persons from Aalten (NL-east), six from Doesburg(NL-east), a couple from Limburg(NL-south), two individual travellers, a woman from Belgium and some people from the western part of the Netherlands. In total a group of 18 persons, the maximum number for this trip.

Because of a busy schedule at work, the wasn't much time for preparation, as usual. One day before we were leaving, we dropped out bunnies at Astrid's for a longer than usual stay. Because we were leaving in the the afternoon, we spent the morning packing our bags, which is precisely in time... Although the suitcases stayed at home this time and were replaced for the nearly-new-and-only-used-once-or-twice backpacks. As we normally have no problem at all to pack our suitcases to their maximum capacity, it took some effort to carefully pick the right clothes and stuff for the much smaller backpacks. It would be fairly warm in China, so we could bring along many t-shirts and shorts that wouldn't occopy that much space at all. However, to ease the transport we did have to buy some flightbags and transport covers for the backpacks, which seemed a good idea.

Our trip looks about the following:

In total we would be:
* taking three night-trains;
* spending two nights on the boart;
* taking 1 extra domestic flight;
and spending five night in extremely simple accomodations on the countryside.

After we watered the plants for the last time, and programmed the watering computer for the garden, we left around 11:30 by car. Half an hour later, we were in the parking garage in Leiden, and again half an hour later, expecting us at 12:30 as well, we were in time in the departure hall at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. There we got the ticket by a Koning Aap employee who told us we were the last to arrive at Schiphol. At the check-in counter, we could just meet Loes en Ivo, a couple about our age.

This time we did not even exceeded the baggage maximum, as we only managed to pack 22 kilo' for the both of us.

We went through passport control and got our last euro's from the ATM machines. With the euro's and the 100 American Dollar (in 5 dollar notes voor only 91 Euro) we should be able to make. In China we could use the ATM machines in the bigger cities.

We drank a last coffee in a restaurant and walked to the gate where we met Bart-Jan and Nienke from Hoofddorp. They told us about the information meeting where they had gone to and exchanged some of our expectations about China. Half an later we could board the plane and a bit later than expected we left for Frankfurt. It was a short flight with a window seat and with a first tomato juice as a drink. It is so strange that you never drink tomato juice at home, but once you're in a plane it seems that everybody is drinking tomato juice.

Arriving in Frankfurt, we had to wait for a little longer than an hour and we spent most of that time at the gate, after remembering that the toilets in the plane would actually be smaller (and dirtier) than the once at the airport. The plane was already parked at the gate. Finally a good-old Boeing 747 with the extra floor for first class. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a window seat, so we got seats near the isle on the middle row. The space for your legs was also less than on the previous flight. Around 17:25 we finally left for Beijing.

Dinner was served quite early already, and we could choose between chicken or spaghetti, garnished with the usual bit of camembert. Additionally, we got to minipacks of some yoghurt and some mini cake for dessert. The mini salad with exquisite dressing completed our dinner. A very decent two-choice dinner. The remainder of the flight was quite okay, although we couldn't fall asleep. Just closed our eyes for half an our, to be awake for some time again. Once in a while you could see on the television screen where you were, how cold it was, and how long the journey still was.

Early in the morning, we arrived in Beijing, where it was already getting light outside. During the flight, it had been dark for quite a while so it was actually nice to be able to look around. We had breakfast already in the plane, where we also filled out the embarkation form for the immigration. Besides that we needed to fill out a quarantaine form and declare that we didn't get in content with SARIS. After we all went throught an infrared scanner, measuring our body temperature to see if you didn't have a fever. It's bizarre to see how such a big country is still fighting the SARS disease.

When we arrived at the customs we were for the first time confronted with the kind of impolite chinese that weren't queing up properly. In a bit of hurry everybody rushed to one of the gates, to show their passports. We waited decently in the queue but because of that we were the last to pick up our baggage. With all our gear, and being guided through all the formalities we finally saw our travelling agent in the overcrowded arrivals hall. How many chinese can be at the same time at a particular location!

We've been waiting for a long time for a group of six persons from Doesburg (including Gerrit), who were travelling differently, and were arriving with KLM from Moscow a quarter of an hour later. The guy that was supposed to bring us to the hotel, wasn't there as weel, so we took the opportunity to the our first Yuans from the ATM machine at the airport.

After that we could finally take the bus, and we got our first impressions from Beijing: a very big city with a lot of tall buildings and constructions sites with even more tall buildings. Our travel agent told us that they were almost ready with the preparations for the Olympic Games in 2008 in Beijing; Greece can learn from that!

The Volkswagen and Citroen factories are running overtime in China. There is even a completely reincarnation of the volkswagen Jetta. Also the out of production type Santana is still driving here as a new car. Taxi's are usually of the type Citroen ZX and in the more expensive segment, the black audi A6 is doing a really good job. Even in China, economic wealth is becoming more and more common. On the other side a lot of riksja's or 'tooktook's and other motorized and non-motorized vehicles are still driving around.

We were staying at the Dong fang hotel, not far from the centre of Beijing, according to Koning Aap. At arrival we got an hour and a half to freshen up. During the welcome meeting, more details about the trip were announced and we had a chance to introduce ourselves properly to the group. Still a little bit groggy from the trip, we went directly to the Forbidden City, by foot. That was our first experience with the gigantic distances here in Beijing. Although for a newbie, it looks just like a small piece on the map, in reality despite the scale in turned out to be over an hour walking in Beijings heat. We managed to get ourselves through the enormous crowd and arrived at Tiananmen Square (dutch: Plein van de Hemelse Vrede) Also this square is huge of proportion, but makes a real impression if you think what happened on this square.

Together with hundreds of Chinese tourists we made a visit to the Forbidden City; A huge Chinese complex with of course the big portrait of Mao Zedong at the entrance of the port and a number of buildings and temples inside. Often it wasn't possible to look inside, so we wandered a little bit around. Also there were still restaurating a part of the buildings. We didn't have much time to visit the Forbidden City, as it closed at 16:30. At night we alrady had plans for a welcome dinner to get to know the group a little bit better and to eat the famous Peking Duck.

After an exhaustive stroll back, we walked that night a large part that we already walked before, through busy traffic and some rain, and arrived at the restaurant famous for its Peking Duck. We had two big round tables at the top floor. In China it is quite common to have the more extensive meals on the top floor, and eat the more simple foot at the ground floor.

This meal was the first test for eating with chopsticks. There was a variety of duck meals where everybody could take what he wanted. The only thing that was left behind were the greasy pieces of duck that nobody was able to pick up.

At the end of the day, everybody was extremely tired and after a big walk again, we arrived at the hotel where we could finally get some sleep and prepare for the next day.

There wasn't really much time for a good night sleep because we had to ready at six in the morning for the bus that would take us to the Great Wall. It was beautiful to admire to daily life sitting in the bus, being amazed about how many people are present at this early time. Despite this, we fell asleep before we even got to the Great Wall because we were really tired. An advantage of being so early, and arriving at around 8 o'clock, is that you will be there before the big groups of Chinese tourists arrive. We could choose between walking up to the Wall or taking the cable carts. At the end we decided to go walking, but we didn't really know how far we would have to that. That's what we figured out later, when the path there seemed to only consist of a number of steps. We had to climb over 900 steps to reach the Wall. Somewhere around half we were surprised by somebody in a cart, while waving at us, almost lost track...

We reached the top, completely exhausted and sweating all over. Unfortunately, it was a misty day, so we could really see how the Wall was going trough the landscape. Nevetheless it was very impressive to spend some time on such a powerfull construction and to realize how many people have worked here and lost their lives. At some of the many towers you could climb up to see if the fog had cleared, and decide if you would also go down the hill in such a funny cart, or just walk back. We choose the latter.

There was more scheduled that day, and the bus took us back to the Summer Palace at the border of Beijing. This palace was created for recreation of the emperor and consists of a big lake and a park, where you can find serveal building and temples. One of the highights was a boat, completely made of marble as an expression of the wealth of the empress. The complex was really huge and you could notice that many Chinese took the day off to visit the Summer Palace.

After this long day, the bus brought us back to the hotel. Again it turned out that some centimeters on the map between the Summer Palace and our hotel were actually several tens of kilometers in real life, driving on the wide six lanes roads that were constructed in the city...

Although it was already quite late, we had to eat somewhere so we decided to go to a restaurant where we say some foreigners eat the day before. It was packed and, because we asked for a table for, we were seated on a table where two Chinese were eating already. They didn't speak english, but fortunately the restautrant had an english menu. We ordered two meals and waited for hours. Some time later, the first meal arrived but we couldn't really tell which of the two it was. After that, nothing came, and we probably needed to order the rice separately. After several attempts to speak chinese with your hands and feet, asking where our food was, nothing happened so we finally left the restaurant...

Near the hotel there was another little restaurant and we had the courage to pass by the MacDonalds and try one more time. This time we ordered two meals _with_ rice and this time everything worked out fine and we got two delicious meals. Tired, but satisfied, we could enjoy a little longer good night sleep.

The first busy days in China also had a positive effect, because today we could spend our time freely and we could use a rental bike if we wanted to. China, and Beijing in particular, is a an exellent place to go cycling. There are many wide cycling lanes and it offers a good oppertunity to explore the city a little be more. We could pick up the bikes at a different hotel and after inspecting several bike (one had a flat tire, and the other one couldn't steer properly) we could finally get cycling!.

China doesn't know a bakery or bread that well, as they eat noodles and rice three times a day. So when we found the Delifrance in one of the city guides, we decided to go there. On the map it was only a couple of centimeters, but even on a bike it turned out to be quite a distance. Doing this by foot wouldn't be possible at all.

The streets in China are divided quite logically, mostly straight and divided into several blocks so that after a tough trip, we finally reached our destination. Fortunately we were helped by the road signs that also showed the english translations.

At our destination there would be a Friendship Store. Many government companies prefix the name Friendship, including the Friendship-pharmacy. Next to the Friendship Store, the supermarket, would be the Delifrance. But the only thing we could find was the Pizza Hut and the Starbucks coffehouse. Thinking back, it wasn't that weird at all because our travel guides dated back to 1998.

Hungry and tired from cycling, we found a breadshop nearby and we ate some extremely sweet bun. In the supermarket of the Friendship Store we did some shopping for the upcoming train trip. And we couldn't resist visiting the Starbuck for a delicious cappucino. They don't drink coffee that often in China, and when they do, it's usually Nescafe or filtered coffee, if you can get your hands on it.

Next we cycled slowly to Beihai park, enjoying the street life in Beijing. For the people that go by bike, there are extra lanes that can fit two cars next two eachother.

After a not so long ride, along the Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, we were able to locate the park. It had some resemblance with the Summer Palace, but it also seemed something like a adventure park and was again overcrowded with people.

In the center of the park there was a white dagoba. It looked like a big white bottle and it surely meant something historically, but for us it was just a sightseeing point with a beautiful view over the city. Next to the building and various paths, there was lots of water where you could go water cycles or do boat tour. Unfortunately we didn't have time for that.

After visiting the park, we crossed all kinds of Hutongs (sometimes some streets, and sometime complete villages with alleys and low buildings) along a beatiful tower to the Lama Temple. It was already that late that we didn't feel like going in, so we gradually cycled back to the hotel. We had to go through the city center where it was too crowded, and we had to get off the bikes. There were all kinds of little shops where they sold peaces of melon and other fruits. Tired of cycling and overheated from the effort we bought a big piece of watermelon for merely 12 Eurocents. The owner of the stand was an old, but very friendly, man that enjoyed very much having two foreigners eating his melon at his shop. Even many people around us seemed to enjoy it and kept watch us. The man was so happy that he offered us a piece of toilet paper to wipe our hands.

Cycling in Beijing was a marvelous experience and turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. We brought back the bikes, and saw a fruit stand where we bought some peaches, rambutans and grapes. We didn't know much about the price, but bought them when the price dropped from 60 to 40 Yuans. Later we realized that that might be three times too expensive!

Not far from our hotel, there was an open air restaurant that looked okay and where many Chinese were already eating. From outside it looked like a big illuminated circus and it was quite occupied which seemed like a nice place to be. Ordering however turned out to be extremely difficult. Nobody spoke english a single word but finally we received two handwritten A4 pieces of paper, with some english translation. Three quarters of the paper was about CocaCola and Spire. There were only three or four meals and the only thing that seemed reasonable were the 'pork trotters', baby tomatoes and cucumber. Using the lonely planet as a last resort we could even order additional rice.

What we got was a plate with only some cherry tomatoes, a plate of cucumber and a lot of garlic and cold pieces of bone that hardly had any meat on it. The rice was some kind of fried rice that was eatable, together with a naked tomato and a slice a garliced cucumber. In a attempt for some extra meat we ordered the same meat chops on a stick, that they had at the table next to us. Following, this new but very unfriendly waiter handed us two sticked where we had to pay 15 Yuan for (one and a half Euro), an amount that you cou;d get a whole meal for. And the end of the sticks there were two tentacles and it tasted a little bit weird so we left it as it was. We didn't feel that good, but were stubborn by not walking away (again) and tried to enjoy the rice and the naked tomato and the garliced cucumber.

When we walked back to the hotel, we thought we deserved an icecream for our courage and persistence and ordered a Magnum and a water-icecream. The latter tasted really well and strange, and had little rose leaves in it. Tired of the many impressions we went back to our hotel.

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David, travel guide

35 years and has been travel guide for at least 8 years, mostly in China, South-Afrika and Canada. He's a genuine traveller, doesn't have an address in the Netherlands and his parents live in Canada. He has plans to stop travelling in a few years from now, also because he has a girl-friend back in Holland.

Annie and Frans from Aaalten

A nice older couple that has travelled quite a lot and spent some years on Aruba. Frans is a technics teacher and very interested in how things are done in China. Together with him we visited a small carpenter shop on the countriside. Strange enough the made a similar trip through China about two years ago

Rit from Belgium

A woman travelling along, where ww didn't have much contact with. She shared a room together with Gerrit who was also travelling alone. They didn't seem to get along very well.

Gerrit from Avenhorn

A very prominent person. A nice guy of 33 that talks a little too much about fact and you-know's, but seems too listen to other a little to little

Daphne and Fred from Leidschendam

Also an older couple spending much time with Annie and Frans. Both of them are geologists and very interested in nature and animals ('I found the skin of a sprocket, for in my scrapbook!')

Ivo and Loes from Sevenum

A couple of approximately our age where we hung out with quite a lot. Loes works with psychiatry patients and Ivo works on the 'Studiehuis' of a school. We could get along quite well.

The group from Doesburg

The group from Doesburg consists of six people, Christa and Virgine, een lesbian couple, the twin Paul en Roger and de couple Louke(17) and Jerome. Virgine is the mother of the twins and Louke. Christa is a priest. The twins, of about age 18, spend much time in internet-cafe's.

Bart-Jan and Nienke from Hoofddorp

We also spend much time with Bart-Jan and Nienke in Xian, the train trip and the drinking party in Janxi. Bart-Jan is a geograpy teacher

1. Introduction
2. Day 1: Flying from Amsterdam to Frankfurt to Beijing
3. Day 2: Arrival at Beijing and Forbidden City
4. Day 3: Beijing, Great Wall and Summer Palace
5. Day 4: Cycling in Beijing
6. Day 5: From Beijing to Xi'an
7. Day 6: Xi'an and the terracotta army
8. Day 7: From Xi'an to Chongqing
9. Day 8: From Chongqing to Dazu to the beginning of the cruise on the Yangtze river
10. Day 9: Yangtze river
11. Day 10: Yangtze river and the three small gorges
12. Day 11: Yichang and the Three Gorges Dam
13. Day 12: The train from Yichang to Sanjiang
14. Day 13: From Sanjiang to Chenyang to Janxi
15. Day 14: Janxi
16. Day 15: From Janxi to Ping'an
17. Day 16: Walking in Ping'an
18. Day 17: From Ping'an to Yangshou
19. Day 18: Yangshuo
20. Day 19: From Yangshuo to Guangzhou
21. Day 20: From Guangzhou to Hong Kong
22. Day 21: From Hong Kong To Frankfurt to Amsterdam
23. Day 22: Introducing: the group

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