Month: October 2018

We were walking at Black Dragon Pool Park today and drinking coffee. The lake has the color of Jade, just like the small river that flows through Lijiang.

Lijiang has a beautiful Old Town (Unesco World Heritage Site) reserved exclusively for pedestrians. Especially in the evening it is pretty, because hundreds of lampignons, flowers and lanterns create a romantic atmosphere.

Silke

Today we actually wanted to do a bike ride to the lake. Instead, we took the metro to the station and made a few rebookings. The night train today we now drive soft-not hardsleeper. We cancelled two subsequent train journeys and booked one flight for it. In addition, hotel reservations had to be adjusted. Thus Kunming has been a little shorter !

In any case, the night train is a positive surprise. It is double-storey. In the lower aisle are 4-bed compartments in which the odd numbers are the lower beds. In the upper aisle there are 7 VIP compartments with double bed at the bottom and single bed at the top.

Everything is very clean and the beds already covered. There is a thermos, slippers and toothbrushes in each compartment. Also the train restaurant is nicely furnished and it is freshly cooked! We enjoyed a portion of fried rice and a beer.

Silke

Today we started with the G1373 at 8:55 a.m. in Shanghai and arrived at Kunming South at 19:34!According to Wikipedia, this is the longest express train line in the world. 2264 Km at a top speed of 350 km/h. The line will probably not be completed until 2016. Before that, it took 34 hours! In the wide-body cars there are always 2 and 3 seats! This time we sat in wagon 4, row 3, place A+B. This is a 3-seater bank with a window seat. The 2-seat bench with seats D+F was already reserved. The train also has a restaurant, but we didn’t go. The service staff come to the place with hot, plastic-packed food and a caddy with sweetstuff and drinks. There is also a hot water heater in each car. You can see a bit of the landscape on the trip. Cities, fields and then mountains pass by. But there are also many tunnels. From Kunming South it is still over an hour metro into the city – so we did not reach our hotel until about 22:00.

Silke

Today we looked at the skyline from the other side. From the Shanghai Tower. It is currently the 2 tallest building in the world at 632 m. (The tallest is in Dubai) The elevator is even the fastest in the world. It brings one with 18 m / sec in under 1 min to the all-round glazed viewing platform on the 118 floor. The ticket office is located outside the building. We were there an hour before sunset and were lucky to be up in time. The queue was quite long! But upstairs you had a good view, because people are dispersed.

Silke

Strollday in Shanghai. We were able to buy the night train tickets with passport and cash, 2 streets away from our hostel, at the WuGong Hotel. There is a small Railway Ticket Office! Afterwards we walked a little through Shanghai’s streets, looked at people’s square and the promenade “Bund”.

It was fun just to sit there, wait for the sunset and watch people. One building after another is brightly lit and about 30 min after sunset you have a firework of colors. Just the Shanghai skyline.

Silke

Back on the train. From Wuhan to Shanghai 11:05 – 15:42, 807 KM! Right in the long-distance station we bought train tickets for our onward journeys in China! For the night trains we have to visit another railway ticket office tomorrow in Shanghai.In the evening we enjoyed deliciously stuffed pancakes at a street food stand! Then I got my husband retreaded! (Reiner paid the hairdresser via WeChat!)

Our Hostel Phoenix is very central lylocated and has a nice roof terrace with bar, where we enjoyed the view a little while a night long.

Silke

Today we visited our nephew Ron in Wuhan. ( small town only about 10 000 000 inhabitants) He goes to the technical university here for a semester.

It was a very nice evening with delicious food (e.g. pureed sweet potatoes, vegetable rings, mushrooms, tofu, cabbage, turtle rolls and dumplings,…) and finally a cocktail by the river! Ron has set up a payment function on WeChat (sometimes tense) and given Reiner a few more China tips.

Thank you Ron until next year!! Our hotel room is located in the 26th. Floor

Silke

Today we took a bike ride on the city wall of Xi’an.The wall, which is just over 12 km long, covers the old town in the rectangle, is well restored and wide enough for a nice bike ride. To get to the wall for one day you have to buy a ticket for 54 RMB. On the wall there are some shops with souvenirs and drinks, as well as toilet houses. Directly on the wall are several bike rental stations where you can rent a bike for 45 RMB (and 100 RMB Depot) for 3 hours.This is also possible with cash! The rental bikes in the city can only be rented cashless. The Chinese pay almost everything with their smartphone via an app. For example, via WeChat. We were able to download the app and use it for chatting, but we haven’t been able to get the payment function activated yet. Credit cards are rarely accepted. Only Bares is True – and WeChat!

Silke