Chengde Puning Temple Hotel

After the pair of days spent sightseeing in the city, I had expected a bit of a relief day to come before the end of the vacation and the return to Tianjin. As usual, my expectations were poorly founded, and early on the morning of the 6th, before I knew what hit me, I was on a bike with my gal and a friend of hers from school heading towards a mountain village.

Biking in itself was an adventure for me, I didn't even like biking when I was a kid ...

... including ethnic Mongols and Manchus. From the top of the temple looking out was a wonderful view of the north end of Bishushanzhuang and the northern temples with the city.

The next day, returning to the city, we took a series of buses to the entrance of what is knows as 'Sledgehammer Peak'. This peak is a very unusual natural rock formation that looks like an inverted sledgehammer and ...

... at the various accessible points within a day-trip distance of Beijing. The closest of these are known to be over-run with tours and hawkers, which I was desperate to avoid, so I found myself on a minbus at 7a.m., for the three-hour drive to Jinshanling, which is supposed to be much less developed. It was a good choice, with only a handful of other visitors along the ancient trail - even the hawkers weren't too pushy ...

... of the 'rural China' towns as we passed through. Unfortunately, they were with my cell phone camera since my camera didn't have new batteries yet and so they turned out quite poorly.
The county level town of Xiabancheng (aka Chengde County), is built much like Jinghai. By that I mean, it's a small town with relatively few people yet it is very compacted and so the town center is built up ...

... an affront to our British sensibilities! As I wandered round a supermarket in a small town, searching in vain for a toothbrush, I turned around to find myself the source of much hilarity with a gaggle of no less than 6 assistants on my tail! Suppose business was slow - it seemed to have lightened their afternoon anyway! Another sure way to bring a bit of cheer is to agree to have your picture taken on their mobile phones - we've been temporary ...

... I am ready to go to the temples around town and get temple overload.

My first temple was Putuozongcheng Temple, which built based on the model of Potala Palace in Tibet. This is the closer I could get to Tibet as I can (on this trip anyway). It was interesting to gain a view on the Tibetan culture. As it was the beginning of spring, I was one of the few tourists there. The climb to the top of the temple is not for the faint hearted, but the ...

... gojila prijetne diplomatske odnose. Ravno ta palaca je znak koliko je kitajski cesar cenil takratnega Lamo, duhovnega in politicnega voditelja Tibeta, ki se je takrat prav tako udelezil cesarjevega praznovanja. Danes je majhna Potala za obiskovalca resnicno impresivna zgradba in pri nama je postala zelja, da bi nekoc obiskala Tibet le se vecja. Ker Kitajci tako zelo obozujejo preseznike in ker so jih ocitno obozevali tudi ze v ...

With all the excitement of Beijing and Tibet applications, we found ourselves with a few days to spare. So we tried Chengde - full of temples, Summer Palaces and dog stew - North East of Beijing on the train for 4 hours. We were told this is where city people get away from the summer heat for the weekend, in the mountains so a little cooler and not as many people as the Big B. Ok...so not as many people but still on the 2 million ...

... prevoiusly was not a patch on this. The new lens purchased in Singapore was quickly worked to within an inch of its life but we have many more pictures to show you when we get home. It was magical and ended another fantastic day. Amy has now decided that she may move to China. Firstly for the paper crafts but secondly because she keeps being told how beautiful she is by random Chinese strangers. A husband gets very protective ...

... but gets steeper and more treacherous as you go on. At times you could easily have fallen over the edge as the wall was crumbling away, especially on the steep parts. And there are sheer drops on either side of it too. Very dangerous. There were times when you felt like throwing some of the pesky locals over the edge, they keep pestering you for money and trying to charge you for using the wall. They're just chancing their arm though. But they can be very ...