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Travelling Through China

Part 2, Where to go and what to do

By Bridie Published 3 years ago 7 min read
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If you’ve read part 1 of Travelling through China then you’re all set to get started on this adventure. Follow on for where to go and what to do while you’re there.

First up, some interesting facts about China and what lead us to choose China Town.

1. The National animal is the Giant Panda.

This was my number one reason for wanting to go to China. I'm that girl in primary school that never grows out of her love for horses. Over time as your love keeps growing, people tend to find you a little weird. Except with Pandas. Pillows, pyjamas, slippers, stuffed teddies, jewellery and even a panda tattoo. One of my life's dreams, ambitions, goals is to feed and work with Pandas. CHECK

2. China's railway lines are so long they could loop around Earth twice.

We figured with so many railways and trains available, including the bullet trains (Which was awesome by the way! Flying through China at 320kms an hour was insane) we shouldn't have any issues getting out of the cities and into the wilder side of China. On a side note, if you haven’t checked it out or heard of it already, look up the Vodka Train. We almost booked this but dates didn’t match up. Maybe it was for the best seeing as I’m not great with vodka!

3. Over 100 million people in China live on less than $1 (US) a day.

Meaning, if we didn't save up as much as we'd hoped before leaving, we should be fine to have a pretty low food budget when travelling around and not have to make any huge sacrifices on sight-seeing.

Here's the places Cenny and I ventured to and a little of what we did there!

Beijing

What a place. Over 21 million people live in China's capital, it's known as the "Billionaire capital of the world".

The Forbidden City

Commissioned in 1406 in the Ming Dynasty. This 178 acre compound is the largest palace complex in the world and was only accessible to government officials and the Emperor. With 980 buildings and over 8000 rooms, imperial gardens and museums, this could take a whole day to explore. The Forbidden City was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The city is surrounded by a large wall and a 6 metre deep moat and was heavily guarded at 4 impressive gates. The traditional architecture is stunning and so detailed it honestly left me wondering how on Earth such intricate design and detail could have been built over 600 years ago.

Each temple is designed and built to showcase imperial power. The more important the building, the more intricate and detailed the design work. The most important buildings apparently face south to honour the sun, as is Chinese culture and tradition to do so. This City and the Imperial Palace is definitely one way of showing power over the people that's for sure.

The Great Wall of China and Gubei Water Town

This wall is old. It took around 2000 years to build, is 21,000kms long and some parts reach up to 8 metres high.

I suggest climbing the Simatai section of the wall in Jinshanling, 2 hours north of Beijing. You can stop at Gubei Water Town on the way, an ancient village surrounded by a moat with architecture from the Qing Dynasty, 1644.

The Simatai Great Wall section is known as one of the most dangerous sections of the great wall. Steep and mostly unrestored, be prepared for a strenuous and literally breath-taking hike. Wear your good hiking boots or trainers or anticipate the future blisters.

@gemgemdrums hiking The Great Wall of China

Qianmen Street - Night Market

This street alone has a history of over 570 years. Ranging from meat markets, craftsmen stores, jewellery and cloth markets, it's a great place to visit for some traditional and modern Chinese culture as well as traditional Chinese food.

Zhangjiajie

A city surrounded by huge mountain ranges as far as the eye can see. Zhangjiajie is in the Hunan Province, central China, and human settlement in this area dates back 100,000 years. The Wulingyuan District in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After coming from a not so great experience for our first night in Beijing and arriving in Zhangjiajie after a long 24 hour hard seat journey on the slowest train we've ever been on. It was a warm and welcome sight to see this incredible, bustling with life province. Another recommendation? Try a traditional hot pot from a little shop on a side street. And Dumplings, don't forget the dumplings.

Tianmen Mountain

Heavens Gate Mountain, it lives up to its name, truly. Take the bus around the 99 bends, hike up the 999 steps, enter the Tianmen Cave, walk through the Fairy Mountain and glass-bottom skywalks to the Tianmen Mountain Temple at the peak at 4982 ft and feast your eyes on the magic that is Tianmen Mountain. The cable car to take on the way down is the worlds longest cable car at 7455 metres! Insane right?

Taken from the cable car, Tongtian Avenue (The 99 Bends)

Chengdu, Sichuan Province

What a place! There are so many things to do around Chengdu I could have stayed here for months. Grab your comfy shoes and walk, explore Sichuan by foot!

Dujiangyan Giant Panda Base

60km Northwest of Chengdu, through roads built under mountains, drive past some of the devastation of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, find your way to this Giant Panda Base for a closer Panda encounter. This base is fairly new as it was built after the earthquake to relocate the pandas effected by the disaster. We organised a private tour and that included a car and a guide. It's a research and breeding base, so there's plenty to learn while you're there. Pay a little extra for a chance to work in the Panda Sanctuary and handfeed these gorgeous, clumsy creatures.

Aidao Nunnery

Find peace among the busy streets of Chengdu in this quiet Temple oasis of cool, calm and collected. Enjoy a wholesome vegetarian meal alongside the female monks, leave a generous donation and enjoy the atmosphere. Also, don't leave the lunch room expecting someone else to do your dishes. Follow the small crowd to the wash area and clean up after yourself. If you arrive at 11:30am you'll be in time for the monks chanting and prayers. A little warning here, the food is bloody spicy! Don't take more than you can handle either, it's bad manners not to eat all of it. The food doesn't look very appetizing, but it is delicious.

Photo taken by @gemgemdrums featuring me and the rain in Aidao Nunnery

Jinjiang Theatre

Get your Chinese History Lessons from a theatre show! Can highly recommend you watch the Face Changing Show, presented as Sichuan Opera. Dancing, singing, orchestra, brilliant costumes, magic, sword fighting, fire spitting and a love story.

Jinli Old Street – night market

Jinli Old Street is one of the oldest shopping streets in Sichuan Province, and it can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms Period, over 1,800 years ago. Theatre shows, cocktail flutes, red lanterns, delicacies you've never seen before, historic folk lore and twisting alleyways to explore every corner of this 350 metre long cultural street. Clear your evening schedule and explore all night, try foods you haven't eaten before, get your ears cleaned by the ear specialists. It's so full of life here, one of my happiest nights in China was here in Jinli Old Street, and not just because of the cocktail flutes!

The historic Jinli market at night.

Trains and flights are easy to book last minute if you need to make alterations to your schedule. Try to get yourself on a high speed bullet train! I recommend sticking to the plan as much as possible though because of the tight visa restrictions. Hopefully these tips and recommendations help you through some of the first stages of your China Travel plans :)

Keep and eye out for the last blog of the series, Travelling Through China, Part 3, Our Story!

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About the Creator

Bridie

Just your average adventure loving Aussie gal travelling the UK and writing about stuff and things.

23 countries, around 111 cities (and that's only 10% of the world)

☁️

Lets try to save the world while we're at it?

Instagram; @bridie.marie

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