Xinhua Fandian Chengde

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

The day of the 4th and 5th we took a long distance bus to the nearby prefecture-level city of Chengde. Chengde is well knows as the Summer Resort during the dynasties where the emperors would travel to escape the heat. Much of the mountain city is taken up by 'Bishushanzhuang', aka the Summer Resort. And, of course, this was our highest order to see.<br><br> The summer resort itself is basically a ...

... 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 ...

Well, I'll keep the personal bits of this leg of my trip to a minimum. Let me just say that this was the first time I met with my gals parents and family (basically all of whom were home for the holiday), with which we stayed for 7 days all while taking in the sites and new experiences of the surrounding lands.<br><br> The rest of the drive from Jixian was very fun and I took a lot of ...

Bonjour, j'espere que ca va bien chez vous, on me dit que la meteo est repugnante au Quebec... Ici il fait trop chaud et on reve qu'il fasse 18 hehe.<br><br>Ca fait plus d'une semaine que Facebook est bloque. On suppose que c'est du aux tueries qui ont eu lieu dans l'ouset du pays. En esperant que ca se reglera bientot.<br><br>Nous voici a Chengde, une ville a peu pres a 4h de route au nord est de Beijing meme si c'est a moins de 200km. Desormais nos ...

... Puning, was my favorite and Matt liked the second, Putuozongcheng, best. Though the temples were impressive, for the locals, me biking by was the more intriguing sight (or so their stares and comments would suggest). <br><br><br> The Puning temple was built in 1755 as the emperor anticipated victory over the Mongol tribes. There are 3 really cool stelea at the entrance of the temple where each side is written in a different ...

... station around 7AM and the journey took around 4 hours. I decided to go on soft seater. The journey was nothing exciting, passing though local town, so bring your ipod, book or if you like me, sleep, eat, sleep, wake up, eat then sleep again.<br><br>Chengde train station is small. It is possible to walk to the main city centre, but I decided to catch the local bus to my hotel, opposite Bishu Sanzhuang. After paying $50 for my newly refurbished ...

... minority populations in China. The replica of Potala Place (in Lhasa) was quite impressive. We hired bikes from the hotel and rode around Chengde for the day - they had actually run out so they rented their own bikes out to us - a tiny foldable bike and a 1950's racing bike!! Guess which one I got to ride??? We also ate 42 dumplings for less than $3 Australian dollars. Probably one of the best value meals I've had in China!!

Hey guys, ive got to make this quick because i only have like 20 minutes left on the computer. yesterday we moved into the dorms at the local medical school. the accomodations are not soo bad i guess. when i first moved in the tv didnt work which is no big deal but there we all these cracks on the walls and the furniture is quite old. nothing i cant deal with though. its nice being out of the bug infested ...

... to have lunch. Unfortunately none of the restaurants in the area had an english menu so we plumped for one with pictures. We selected a chicken and a vegetable dish. The vegetable dish was cold (it was meant to be but cold veggies weren't to our taste) and the chicken was dry and fried. The worst meal we've had in china. We finally headed to the palace and park. Again our book described it as tranquil mountain resort but it was heaving with ...