I have lived in and visited China many times in the past 25 years. I recommend: Lhasa (Tibet). Do not stay in the rebuilt part of town (where the Holiday Inn is located). I stayed at some cool hostel called the Yak Inn or Yak Hotel, but that was in 1994. I drank a lot of water and wasnt bothered by the altitude that much. Chengdu...its where you fly to Lhasa from, spend an evening at the teahouses on the river. Its amazing. Guillin is cool, but down the river in Yangshou its much cooler. Arrive in Guilin and travel down the river to Yanhshou. Xian. The terracotta soldiers and pagodas are the top tourist spots in this ancient walled city in far west China. Beijing. Hell, you have the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs (get a tour guide to take you to the non-tourist Ming Tombs...they are awesome), Tienmen Square, etc....hell its got a lot to see there. Shanghai. The San Fran of China. Good live music scene. If there is any way to still do this (I know days are numbered), take a cruise down the Yangtze through the Three Gorges. Soon the dams will be built and temples will be submerged. Make this a priority. I didn't and I regret it. Thinking about going there myself since the govt just gave my Dad a new gig in Beijing.
I was just about to go to China next week and the ^&**ing Chinese consulate in Chicago is giving me the bureaucratic runaround. Something about needing a medical examination, including a chest X-ray and going to Chicago in person, I'm in Minneapolis so not exactly next door. Also the Chicago Consulate doesn't seem really up on customer service. I think most of the YOF's from China here on Clutchfans seem to know English better than them. I guess customer service isn't a big thing with communist countries. I'm guessing this whole brouhaha probably has something to do with the latest SARS outbreak. Or maybe there is a spy scoping out the D&D forum here who has reported certain Taiwanese sympathetic statements I've made to the PRC? Anyway I'm tempted to tell them I'm a Chinese American from Houston who is a friend of Yao's and see if that expedites things.
Man they start them young over there. I can't wait until 20 years from now when the Chinese media gets as sensationalists as ours and that kid shows up on the Chinese equivalent of Jerry Springer talking about how the mayor of Qingdao made him a child alcoholic for publicity purposes.
go to Shanghai. Check out the play grounds and u will see some nice ballers. Those guys can play. China is slowly but surely catching up in basketball.
Do not go to Guilin, it's too tourist. Yangshuo is better, but not it used to be. ChenDu-->Lahsa, and Xian--->Silk route, would be good choices. Kunming has plenty to do also. Maybe you need special approval to go to Tibet, not sure about the policy now.
Sam is going to have a great time in Ching hanging out with all the Yao haters there. May be it's time for the formation of a YaoMingSucks fans club... Sorry Sam...just joking... Seriously, three years ago, because of the hit movie Crounching Tiger Hidden Dragon, a lot of my friends wanted to visit the Wudan (sp?) Mountain from which the girl jumped down at the end of the movie. Should be a fun place to visit from what I saw in the movie.
All right guys I have narrowed it down to two choices: 1. a two week trek in Tibet, that goes from Chengdu to Lhasa to Himilayas to kathmandu 2. a 3 week trek along the Silk Road, starting in Beijing and going through Xian to Lanzhou, Dianhuang, Kashgar, then across the mountains to Kyrgizstan and Uzbekistan (to sammarkand & buhkhara and ending in Tashkent) Help me out...I am truly torn between the two.
Who do you think you are? J Peterman? Elaine: "You speak Burmese?" PETERMAN: Oh, Elaine. That was gibberish. So did you have any trouble finding the place? ELAINE: Well, you’re the only white, poet warlord in the neighborhood. PETERMAN: Are you an assassin? ELAINE: I . . . I work for your mail order catalogue. PETERMAN: You’re an errand girl sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill.
I'd say number 2 because you said "two (2)" 3 times in that post...means you want to really go there no seriously I like number 2...the Silk road seems fascinating
Wtf, I go back to shanghai ever couple of years and I didn't eat none of that crap. I also lived there for 7 years. I don't know which part of China you went to or from but where I come from, we don't try that sh#$%t. Though for anyone who is going back to China try to stick to the big cities like Shanghai and Beijing and try to stick to the south, it does get a little dangerous and weird outside of those places.
I'd take door number two. -- but door number one sounds pretty amazing also.... perhaps do that one in the fall?
