Good Morning, Good Morning: China Diary

12/12/87 Saturday - Melbourne to Hong Kong

The flight took 9 hours. I sat next to a girl from HK called Suzanna. I followed her through the customs but because I was Australian I was allowed through customs without being checked at all. I just walked right through. I changed some money then caught a taxi to STB Hotel. I sat in my room just looking out the window. Then two American girls took me to the night market. I watched the bargaining for about 3 hours. Most interesting.

Hong Kong is great by night. Noisy place.

I slept like a log until 9am.

13/12/87 - Hong Kong

I got up and went to Youth for Christ building around the corner. I crashed in on a service. They were singing 'We bring the sacrifice of praise...'. It was a Filipino service in English. They invited me to spend the afternoon with them and to live with them. I accepted and they took me to Central on Hong Kong Island in the Star Ferry. Fascinating place. I took a few photos. Had my first meal in Hong Kong. Pork chop and rice and soup, and horrors of horrors, COKE.

Star Ferry

Connaught Centre [Now Jardine House]

I rang Mum at 7:30pm.

14/12/87 Monday - Hong Kong

I woke up early and wandered around the streets. I took a few photos. Then I had breakfast at McDonalds. It's amazing that although there are plenty of Europeans, you still get stared at a lot. I met Ju at 9am and went to his place in the New Territories. It is very nice there and is only 20 mins from China.

I went back to Kowloon and walked around. I am so tired.

There are many different nationalities here, Indian, German, English, Swedish. Heaps.

17/12/87 - Tai Po Market

I am on a bus to Tai Po Central. The notices are very interesting. Besides disallowing spitting and hanging out the window, No. 6 says, 'During typhoons, windows must remain opened'. Weird.

Tuesday I went to Tai Po Market and wandered around there. When I came back I met Naomi and we went to her place to look at guidebooks.

On Wednesday I babysat Dornelle until 2pm. Then I went with Naomi to Kowloon. Now I am in Kowloon to pick up a visa for China.

18/12/87 - Prince of Wales Hospital

I went to Sha in Prince of Wales Hospital. Well, I'd hate to by dying! Yuck. Dornelle was bitten by a dog yesterday.

The bamboo scaffolding is a scream. It's all over 20 storey buildings and looks flimsy enough.

21/12/87 Monday - Guangzhou

I had a good weekend. I slept at Naomi's house Sunday night and we left on the 7am train to Lo Vic. We met Mike Farell and John Newman at Customs. Naomi went through then me. Then we met Annette, Cathy, Suzanne and Fay. We went to Bobby's house then left at 10:45am in a van to Guangzhou.

In Guangzhou we met 3 leaders in the underground church. It was great. I felt such love from these Chinese people (1 man & 2 women) from Hunan province. We heard that in Hunan they have meetings with 1000-2000 people and many baptisms EACH DAY. They have to chip holes in the ice to baptise.

Then I went with Mike & the rest to the China Hotel. We had lunch then Mike & I took Naomi to the airport. It cost her HKD $692 return to Hunring.

Then Mike and I went to CAAC for Mike's flight to Nanjing. Then we caught the train back to Kowloon which cost HKD $117. It took 3 hours.

22/12/87 Tuesday - Hong Kong shopping

I did a bit of Christmas shopping today. I met a boy on the bus home called Keith (Chu Hing Bong).

23/12/87 Wednesday - Christmas Party

Finished my Christmas shopping in Tai Po. Then I went to Sha Zin for an American Christmas party. Rosemary Hayones invited me when Mike & I met her on Monday night on the train from Kowloon to Tai Po. It was great, and I appreciated it immensely. I met an American called Mary Brye from Pennsylvania, and a German from Schwartzwald called Unshi.

24/12/87 Thursday - Yum Cha

I went to Yau Ma Tei to meet Mary to help her with luggage to the airport. Then we had lunch in Prince Edward and I had Yum Cha. Their roast pork buns weren't bad and they understood my Chinese when I asked for roast duck with noodles.

25/12/87 - Christmas!

Christmas morning was nice. I rang Carolin and talked for a couple of minutes.

I went with Bong to Stanley [a coastal Hong Kong town] which was OK. Repulse Bay looked like a nice beach. We had yum cha and that was good too.

When I returned to Wong Y Au I joined the Christmas party at Vic and Leny's. We played some good games. Filipino people seem very nice.

26/12/87 - Carolin arrives

I biked from Tai Po to Sha Tin with Bong at 9am this morning. The I took my passport in to Revival Church and we went to a movie in Shan Shui Po. We saw 'Bigfoot and the Hendersons'.

Then we went to the airport to pick up Carolin. I was very glad to see her.

We went to STB Hotel and with Bong to the Night Market.

27/12/87 - Church and pottering about

Well, we went to church and it was very good. It was a 3 hour service with quite a few being baptised.

Then I dragged Carolin to Central and we pottered around. We went back to STB.

28/12/87 - Tai Po shopping with Carolin

Carolin and I went to Tai Po to meet Vic and Leny. We went to Tai Po plaza to do some last minute shopping for Cina.

29/12/87 - To Guangzhou with Carolin

Up early to get ready. We had so much luggage and it was so heavy! Yet there was no one at the X-ray so Carolin and I just walked right through.

The 3 hour ride on the train to Canton was an experience. We were with a man called Ramsey and a woman called Denise. Denise stayed in New Mainland Hotel with us. She is from Vancouver. A missionary in the Philippines. She is a very nice woman.

We wandered around Guangzhou trying to find a sight to look at but probably all we succeeded in was creating our own. The Chinese find us fascinating subjects. We holed up in a dive of a place for about AUD 4.72 a night. Yuck! The toilet was a hole in the floor.

30/12/87 - Guangzhou sightseeing

We actually saw a few sights of Guangzhou today. After Carolin and I booked into a more upmarket hotel we went to see a statue of some goats. I'm still not sure of their significance, if any.

It's actually the Five Ram Sculpture on Yuexiu Hill.
There's a Wikipedia page about it.

Then we trooped off to Sun Yat Sen's Memorial.

We pottered around to find some temple but gave up although the people are friendly and helpful. Trouble is we can't understand their directions.

We had lunch at the China Hotel. Then we said goodbye to Denise and she went back to Hong Kong.

Carolin and I booked seats on a train that is hopefully going to Guilin tomorrow. We shall see. The hotel (New Mainland) is very nice.

31/12/87 - From Guangzhou to Guilin on the sleeper train

We went to the White Swan Hotel for lunch - to look at its shops. It is so western. It ahs a waterfall in its lobby. Decadent capitalist influence I should think. We walked around back streets fore ages trying to find the Roman Catholic church. We gave up and tried to find a taxi and walked right into the church.

There were some religious Chinese ladies, very old, saying the rosary at the stations of the cross.

We returned to the hotel to pick up our luggage and we went to the station at 5pm for a 6:05pm departure. We had no trouble finding our way. The Chinese people are very willing to help.

The sleeping compartments were funny. Six bunks per section, lower middle and upper. I had middle and Carolin had lower. We had two chinese girls, a chinese man and a chinese couple to share with. I had a conversation with a girl called Fu with our phrasebooks. They are sadly lacking. She put up with me for about half an hour while I flicked through teh books to find the right sentences.

1/1/88 - Arriving at Guilin and the shonky hotel

The train trip was ok. We arived in Guilin by about 2:30pm so the train trip was about 20 hours long.

We were ripped off by the taxi driver as it cost ¥10 to the Lijiang. They wanted ¥100 a night which was 3x the guidebook price so we went to the Heddon Hill hotel. As I was in no state to troop all over Guilin looking for a bed we stayed there. It was shonky to say the least, a bit like the rest of Guilin.

We walked around back streets trying to find the Li River after having tea at the Garland Hotel.

We went down a street with an entrance at the end with bright lights only to be ushered back by a Chinese woman speaking chinese with a lot of hand waving indicating a negative attitude. We weren't allowed there, whatever it was. Carolin had just finished photographing it as well!

We retreated to our hotel room - ¥40. No hot water at all.

2/1/88 - Guilin in the nice hotel

We checked out and moved to the Lijiang Hotel. ¥100 per night. But nice! Although the service was spasmodic. The staff did things when we didn't want them, and didn't do things when we wanted them. Strange mob. And it got stranger as things went along.

We walked to Duxiu Peak ('Solitary Beauty Peak') which was closed. It has great potential though. The Chinese people didn't seem to be concerned about conservation at all.

We walked down from Duxiu Peak to Fubo Hill and down the river past the bird market. Carolin ended up buying two stamp things with no carving.

We went to Fuboshan Park and wandered around there. Then went back to Elephant Trunk Hill and met a Chinese couple studying teaching. They gave us a postcard.

We returned to the hotel.

3/1/88 - Guilin Disco

Well, I think I woke up at 10am! We had lunch and then went to the Guilin Travel Agency. A girl there called Ting volunteered to take us to the Reed Flute cave as our guide. We bought some tickets for ¥50 to Yangshuo on the boat.

The reed Flute cave was great. Very pretty and quite large.

Ting told us the best way to get there was by bike. So Carolin and I hired some bikes and boked 6km to the cave and 6km back. As we came to the hotel Ting invited us to go dancing that night. Well, Carolin lept at the chance and had to drag me there too!

So, at 8pm in my trackie daks waited in the cold outside our hotel. Ting and a friend called Alan arrived and doubled us to a Chinese disco. Well, I still don't believe it. Here I was clutching some strange Chinese guy's waist and wobbling almost suicidally through the dark Guilin streets. Carolin liked it but I was about as impressed with Chinese discos as I am with Australian ones.

We caught a taxi back. The toilet packed up. I think I was sick during the night.

4/1/88 - Yangti and Yangshuo

Up early, we left most of our luggage in Guilin and caught the bus to Yangti. The boat trip was an experience. The day was very cold and overcast. Lunch was a hot pot with supicious looking things floating around in it.

Yangshuo was great! We stayed at the Youth Hotel for ¥8 each a night. Yangshuo is a cute little town. The food in the restaurants there is great. Quite western.

5/1/88 - Yangshuo to Guilin

I had fried egg and toast for breakfast this morning. The eggs in china are great I reckon.

We pottered around Yangshuo until 12pm when we got our bus tickets to Guilin for ¥2. We left at 1:30pm and it took 2 hours to Guilin with a fuel stop.

We booked a flight to Shanghai for 7:50pm tomorrow with CAAC for ¥30,000.

We stayed at the Lijiang with hot water coming on at 8:30pm for our first shower since 3 Jan.

6/1/88 - Guilin to Shanghai

For the most part we parked ourselves in the hotel lobby. That mob must be one of the slackest places on earth I reckon.

We went to CAAC at 5pm for the 6pm bus, only to find it left at 6:30pm. A swiss guy called Christian was going to Shanghai too so we stayed with him.

The flight was non-eventful. Just an ordinary domestic flight on a DC-9. We were fed too although the chicken looked strange. The coffee was nice. It took about 2 hours.

It was 5°C when we landed at 10pm in Shanghai. The taxi drivers accosted us at the luggage claim. One was quite persistent and pulled me by the elbow through the airport and across the carpark. It cost us ¥10 to the Peace Hotel which apparently is a real good deal. But his car was a wee Fiat 500. How we managed to get us and all our stuff in there I'll never know.

The Peace Hotel was full apparently but I suspect they didn't want to work at 11pm. We walked down the street to dormitories at Pu Jiang Hotel. We met Christian and two Taiwanese girls and were given a dorm for 17 people all to ourselves. It costs ¥20 a night here.

7/1/88 - Shanghai Museum

We were up early for breakfast. It was great toast. Strange butter but the jam was good.

Carolin and I went to the Shanghai Museum and the No 1 Department Store. We booked into the Peace Hotel and went to the Friendship Store and bought Mars Bars and chips and cheese.

We had a bit of dinner at the Pu Jiang and retired to the dorm where we were entertained by Dutch, Swedish, English, American and Chinese. Strange and stranger.

8/1/88 - Shanghai - Huangpu Park and chores

We moved into the Peace Hotel (Room 356). It was ¥209 per night so we queried it with the hotel staff who, as it turned out, didn't understand us. We were originally told ¥132.

We walked along the Bund in Huangpu Park. Went to the bank.

金行 - Bank (maybe!)

Carolin was definitely not well so we went back to the hotel. I finally got my laundry done so I had jeans to wear instead of trackie daks. I found a great bakery across the road with wonderful croissants.

9/1/88 - Shanghai - Changing film and mailing a package

We had brunch in the Peace Coffee Shop. Two sandwiches and two coffees was about ¥25! Rip-off.

We went to the GPO where no one spoke English. It took us nearly 1 hour to finally get Carolin's small package posted to Australia.

Walking to the GPO I had to change film. A man who spoke English a little stopped and talked to us and all of a sudden we were surrounded by Chinese all watching me change my film. I had cold hands so it took longer, or maybe I wanted to entertain the crowd for a bit longer.

We walked through the old town and my boots were killing me! We stopped on a street corner to read the map and another group of chinese gathered around looking at the map and discussing our actions with each other. So we learned to read maps and change film while walking if at all possible. We pottered around Yuyuan Gardens which I thought was boring except for the hundreds of goldfish in the ponds.

The Huadong Electrical Power Distribution Building
from the Peace Hotel

Back at the hotel we actually watched an English movie, ancient though it was, on TV. An inhouse movie called 'Invaders from Mars'. Supposedly quite serious but now very comical.

10/1/88 - Shanghai - Jade Buddha Temple (not)

We had lunch on the 8th floor which set us back ¥82. But the food was great. We had breast of chicken and vegetables. Great.

We met Christian again and after getting train tickets to Beijing for ¥104 each we went to see the Jade Buddha Temple. While we were walking along the street a small van's universal joint fell off from the bottom of the car somewhere. What a laugh!

We visited the temple and because they requested our shoes to be taken off we ended up not seeing it. No big loss as far as I could see.

Jade Buddha Temple, only the outside

On the inside (stock photo). "No big loss."

Then we visited this family whose address Carolin had from a Chinese student in Melbourne. It was fun! The daughter gave me a soldier.

11/1/88 - Shanghai to Beijing

Well, checking out of the Peace Hotel turned into quite an epic.

We ended up paying ¥200 a night + laundry but no service charge. Well I should hope not! Honestly the assistant manager was virtually calling us liars. I was not happy!

We didn't want to leave our luggage there so we carried it to the Pu Jiang. We met up with a Chinese fellow who wanted to change money. We had lunch with him which wasn't half bad although the place was unclean to say the least. Carolin was shocked at the state of the floor and we drank from the coke tins rather than the suspicious looking glasses on our table.

We changed money down a little alley feeling like we were in some gangster movie. Quite an amusing process.

We went to the friendship store and he met us there and we changed ¥20 more for some obscure reason. Anyhow, I think we ended up with the better deal.

We caught a taxi van to the station and were ushered onto the train with the minimum amount of fuss and bother.

I looked out the window during the night and saw a bit of snow around.

12/1/88 - Beijing

We arrived in Beijing about one hour late, at 10am. We walked to the Beijing International Hotel and caught a taxi to the Xinqiao Hotel. We left our luggage there and had lunch in their restaurant. It was nice. I had a chicken cutlet and Carolin had spaghetti.

We booked in at the Qiao Yuan for ¥33 per night. It was ok apart from the distance to the city centre. Cockroaches abounded! But it wasn't dirty or anything so we tolerated it.

We visited the Friendship Store, and had dinner at KFC. Wonderful! We collected our bags and retired for the night. Two Iranians from next door (room 118) wanted to socialise but we didn't have a bar of it. They were visiting China because it was one of the few countries that would give them a visa. They offered some pistachios and I accepted. Quite nice.

13/1/88 - Beijing - Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City

Lunch at KFC. We went to Tiananmen Square and I took quite a few photos, then we went through the Gate of Heavenly Peace under Mao's face and visited The Forbidden City. It was OK. It cost ¥0.50 or 50 fen to enter Wuhan Gate and ¥3 for the Hall of Jewellery. We had dinner at the Lion Restaurant at the Xinqiao Hotel. I had 2 raw fillets and sent them back to finish cooking. We booked at CITS and Chongwenmen Hotel for the Great Wall tomorrow.

Tiananmen Square

Mao's tomb

Tiananmen Square, Entrance to Forbidden City

Forbidden City

Opera on Friday (day after tomorrow). Carolin rang her mum and ended up with NZ at one stage.

14/1/88 - Beijing - Great Wall

Up at 6am to shower. We left at 7am for the Beijing-Toronto Hotel. It took about 25 mins to get there so we had breakfast for ¥22 each. There was cornflakes and bacon and all sorts of nice things. At 8:10 we got in the bus and after a short round of some hotels we went to the Great Wall. It was about 1 1/2 hours from the city in some wonderful looking hills. There was still a little bit of snow around the place.

The wall was fantastic. I had a great time. There was a girl on the tour called Vicki from Melbourne. She studies at William Angliss Hotel Management.

At the wall we walked (climbed?) to the right which supposedly was the easy way but we weren't totally convinced.

We had an hour there and I took heaps of photos.

Souvenir shops in 1988

MATTERS TO BE NOTED
Don't carve or write anything on the Great Wall.
Don't spit or litter.
No smoking in the area.
Go ahead on the right side.
Don't stand on the ledge.

Angela going ahead on the left side

Carolin is right

Then we drove to a small town and had lunch. There was so much food. There were only 10 people on the tour meant for 30 so heaps of food. About 12 courses.

Town near the tombs

Then we visited the Ming tombs. They were rather boring cellars as far as I was concerned. Nothing to me at all. Still, it's another place I've been I suppose.

I didn't mention the statues on the avenue to the Ming Tombs

Guardian

Camel

This tour cost ¥50 each but it was worth it I think. We got back at about 5pm. We had a quick look at the Ginglun Hotel, and went back to our Hotel. It was quite a tiring day.

15/1/88 - Beijing - doing hardly anything until the Opera

Did hardly anything today. We stayed in bed until 11:30am! Then we left at about 1pm and had lunch at KFC !!!

Bicycles

I tried this candied fruit!

实行计划生育是
公民应尽的义务
Family planning is
Duties of Citizens

We walked to the main shopping street and looked at the department store. Somehow we ended up at a hotel where we caught a taxi to Chang'an Theatre. After asking 4 people for directions and getting 3 different responses we found the theatre. We sat next to 2 French women. The opera was very entertaining with acrobatics and strange Chinese music. I enjoyed it! It was quite funny. It started at 7pm and finished at 9pm.

Well, the taxis in Beijing have a tendency to shut down at 7pm so we walked for a while down Chang'an Ave trying to flag one down. At 9:30 one finally stopped which was good because my feet were numb.

16/1/88 - Beijing - Summer Palace and the ice skating drama

We got up at 6:30am and left at 7:15am to have breakfast at the Beijing-Toronto Hotel. We went to the Friendship store and caught a taxi to the Summer Palace. It took 40 min and cost ¥30.

The Summer Palace was very nice. We got to the lake and I was approached by a Chinese guy hiring ice skates. Well, I figured, why not? So I sat on the side and put one on and he started to put the other one on. Then some men gathered around and talked a bit. Then this guy started taking them off again. Then thei sman flashed a red ID card with chinese characters and carted the chinese guy off. Well, I suppose I didn't help because I didn't know what was happening and was waving RMB around. I think this fellow had no licence to hire ice skates. It put me off the idea and although we were accosted by more hirers and even money changers as we walked across the lake I declined.

Ice skating on the lake

This boy was cute

So was she

Summer Palace on the hill

Dragon

Painted ceiling

Tower in the distance

Marble boat

We looked at the marble boat and the Long Corridor and caught a taxi back to Xinqiao Hotel for ¥22. We had lunch at the Lion and walked to the station and bought tickets to Xian for the next day. They cost ¥75 each.

We walked to the Friendship Store because no taxi drivers wanted to take us to our hotel at the station. But outside the Friendship Store we still couldn't find a taxi driver willing to take us to our hotel. I was cross! We walked to the Beijing-Toronto Hotel and I bought some yoghurt. The taxi driver outside had no choice but to take us to our hotel.

17/1/88 - Beijing to Xian

We ate our own breakfast today. The yoghurt was Swiss and very nice. Last night we bought some UCC coffee from Japan and it was great.

We left Qiao Yuan at 12pm and it cost us ¥12 to taxi to the station.

The train left at 1:30pm and we had 2 top bunks. There were a few other tourists on the train with us. Near the ceiling has a definite claustrophobic feel about it.

We arrived in Xian the next day.

18/1/88 Xian

We saw the terracotta army. Kinda cool. I bought a small model warrior. We weren't allowed to take photos. What a shame.

We went to a park as well. There was a little stream flowing through it.

20/1/88 Chengdu - Leshan Giant Buddha

We went for dinner in Chengdu and there was no English spoken, or anything on the menu. The waitress spoke just a little English. "Chicken?" we said. The waitress nodded. "Chicken! Like chicken."

After a short wait we were given two clay pots with soup. We fished around in the soup and found to our horror, an entire baby bird floating about each one.

Carolin didn't eat hers. I did. It tasted like chicken.