Kiwi See the World through my eyes - Hongkong, China
HONG KONG & CHINA
A glittering Metropolis of glinting sky rises, shops, bars and restaurants and we loved it! Hong kong was an amazing city, although our first impression was to turn around and go home. We arrived in the early hours of the morning after a delayed flight from Cambodia, tired hot and irritable. Our taxi driver warning us our hotel wasn’t great, which turned out to be situated 6 floors above a seedy looking shopping complex, strangely enough in the heart of downtown Kowloon. We stayed in the taxi while Jason hunted it down and gasped as we watched a man get attacked and beaten in the street, leaving Michael terrified, screaming for us to leave before even finding our hotel. On seeing our room, he promptly broke down into inconsolable tears. I have to say I felt like doing the same. A shoe box was an exaggeration to describe our new home. An over sized single bed masquerading as a double and a single wedged into a 2 x 4m room which also housed a bathroom, a shower directly over a toilet. Only one of us could stand at a time, the others having to stay on the bed having to wait their turn. Claustrophobic conditions were an understatement and Michael hated it. Being now 3am there was no relocating, so we had to just suck it up, and he eventually closed his eyes and went to sleep still protesting.
The next morning, we ventured out to the city streets below to realise we were in the best location we could ask for. An easy 5-minute walk to the harbour and the dark scary streets had transformed into a bright glittering array of fine malls, shops and restaurants. An Irish bar offering a full English breakfast and real coffee was all it took to reignite our enthusiasm and we decided to stay. Michael was very unhappy about our decision and in protest refused to spend any time in the room. A real 'win' for us as it meant for the duration of our stay we were up early and out till late in to the evenings exploring and only returned to fall into an exhausted sleep.
We were amazed at just how much Michael enjoyed Hong Kong.
Given the sheer scale of the city and number of people we had been expecting some
adverse reactions, but they never came. There was actually very little traffic
and no incessant beeping of horns and although busy the thoroughfares were wide
and spacious, and you could walk freely without feeling congested. The streets
were clean and well kept and there were people from all over the world, so
Michael blended into the city wall paper and really enjoyed himself. He became
quite aware of how scruffy we all looked as backpackers and given he had
outgrown many of his clothes we treated him to some new trainers which we wore
like a millionaire strutting along the streets like he owned them. All his fears and anxieties in Cambodia
abated in Hong Kong. He loved the clean restaurants, swept streets and
glittering shopping malls. Ants, flies and rubbish seeming like a distant
memory. When reminding him that we are still in Asia and Hong Kong is a part of
China, he protested no it was British as Hong Kong is more civilised. It appears I’ve
bred a snob.
The Big Bus City Tour was a fun and cost effective way to see
Hong kong in its entirety and a first for Michael who loved the Double Decker
bus, less so in the rain. It was an ideal way to reach the must do attractions
and enabled us to bypass any queues. Top picks included taking the tram to
Victoria Peak to check out the views, ride the Star ferry between Hong Kong and
Kowloon taking in the skylines on both sides. Taking a harbour cruise and of course the shopping ! We were fortunate enough to time our stay with the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival which showcased the best of Hong Kong hospitality as well as lots of free beer.
Hong Kong was simply put, just amazing! A
great start to China.
We quickly discovered that Hong Kong and mainland China are
two very different beasts! Crossing the border felt like landing on another
planet. A high speed train from Hong Kong to Yangzhou, Xing Ping was an impressive leap across the country at
staggering 245 Km. Foreigners are obviously not that common on the trains, as
we instantly felt like celebrities. Lots of people staring, waves and small children
scuttling behind mum’s legs for fear of strangers and much to his
dismay, Michael was thrown back into centre stage.
Xing Ping
Guilin
Obviously not many foreigners visit Southern China and even rarer children. In Guilin we stood out as outsiders and were stared at constantly while exploring the cities network of beautiful waterways and parks that come alive at night. Elephant trunk hill was a popular tourist destination and an enjoyable walk, as was the Seven Star Park and caves complex. Michael had his first real experience of wild monkeys while high up in the park and came face to face with an aggressive monkey who warned him to keep his distance from its young. Frozen to the spot Michael was terrified and stood screaming while Jason gingerly circumvented the barking beast to rescue him from danger. Our hero! Michael and Jason became a popular tourist attraction for Guilin’s many Chinese visitors, all keen to get their photo taken with the foreigners. Michael has started to ask them for money in return which is a little embarrassing, but those that understood laughed it off in good humour.
Unfortunately not all the paparazzi have been so polite, with a man just pushing his camera into Micheal's face before we could intervene. Shocked and angry at the intrusion he lost his temper screaming at him to go away and leave him alone. Obviously a much more interesting photo opportunity now, so he kept taking photos, even as we physically restrained Michael and pulled him away. Thereafter we have been forced to bribe Michael when we have been asked for photos with phone time to stand quietly and reluctantly smile for his fans! While pretty, Guilin was particularly touristy and gimmicky and felt a little staged for the tourists. A couple of nights is more than enough to take in the sites so we were keen to move on.
Chengdu
Probably one of our favourite places in China. A huge city
with over 16 million people but to walk the streets you wouldn't know it. Had
there had been an apocalypse? Where is everyone? Hidden away inside tall sky-scraping
housing and business towers or underground on the mass Metro subway network and
chic underground shopping centres. Many reappearing each evening to walk and
play in the cities various beautiful parks adorned with pagodas, towers and
arches. Michael really enjoyed Chengdu. Never feeling overwhelmed, he visibly
relaxed in the parks, walking along smiling and singing to himself.
Our presence is still causing a stir . In particular Jason,
tall and now with a mop of longer blond hair, looks like an ageing Rock star and
draws his own fan club of predominately young females wanting their photo with
him. He’s obviously lapping up all the attention with good humour. Whether it’s
a sign of respect or getting old, but I don't seem to get asked for pictures, much to the amusement of the boys! Stared at constantly
in denim shorts, lugging a backpack with tats on display, I'm obviously a sharp contrast to
the more femininely dressed Chinese woman, sporting frocks and matching glittering heels!
Xian
Xian the ancient capital of China is where we based
ourselves to visit the Terracotta Warriors, but it had so many more surprises
than we expected. The old city is situated within renovated city walls, made
for an interesting historical trip.
Easily accessible it was a fun way to walk and take in the views of the
city from above. There were plenty of historical sites to visit including the Xian
Bell Tower and Drum tower which served as city timing for thousands of years
We took an organised tour to visit the Terracotta Warriors
which were spectacular but not what we were expecting. In fact, there are 3
fully excavated pits with over 8000 warriors, chariots and horses buried to
guard the tomb of Emperor Qin in his afterlife.
However, they were all but destroyed by collapsing roofs and subsequent armies
looting the site looking for weapons. What stands proud today was carefully
excavated and pieced together over the last 40 years. Each warrior was individually crafted by
artisans from all over the world who were killed on completion to ensure the tomb
remain secret. This fact played heavily on Michaels mind who proceeded to tell everyone
Emperor Qin was just another mass murderer which was obviously irritating to
our guide. The sheer size of the place and numbers of visitors was full on and
Michael struggled with being pushed and became quite stressed. With his anxiety
levels high, he needed constant reassurance, needed to know exactly what we
were doing, when and how it was going to happen. Our guide was lovely but didn’t
really understand his barrage of repetitive questions. While we understood what he was doing, she was
clearly exasperated by his questioning and Michael became quite stressed and
annoyed by her lack of answers. There is little point of using his ‘label’ to
explain his reaction. We are struggling enough just to be understood with basic
English. Instead we just cringe awkwardly and try to help him manage his
environment, poised ready to extract him in case hell breaks loose!
We enjoyed our visit to Xian even persuaded Michael to try some
of the local cuisine which has been difficult to do given the lack of English
spoken in China. Holding our image
translator over menus has offered up some great delicacies such as ‘Killer duck’
and ‘poisonous mushrooms’ which has done nothing to reassure Michael and we had
some very unfortunate experiences by just pointing at pictures and putting up 3
fingers. We have got the hang of
dumplings fortunately so haven’t starved but keeping Michael fed and watered is
a basic for travelling. ‘Hangry’ we have discovered is really a thing!
While we still get stared at we haven’t had so many requests
for photos and Michael has enjoyed slipping into the background more, feeling
less on show. We have allowed him to use his headphones constantly now.
Listening to music has helped distract him from feeling overwhelmed and reduced
the moaning we are subjected too given the amount of walking we are doing! It
was also particularly useful to avoid Michael abusing anyone that spits around
him. While It’s disgusting, a full guttural
throat clearing hack is enough to send Michael gagging into a wild rant where
he calls the offender disgusting. While he says what we are all thinking, he
needs to learn to engage brain before opening mouth! A frantic rush to the train station, stuck in
traffic nearly became a lot worse after our driver spat out the window. I had
to physically put my hands over his mouth to restrain him from berating the
driver for fear of being evicted from the taxi and missing our train to Beijing.
Beijing
Well this was an entirely different fish to the rest of
China. There was no hiding the 21 million people who occupy this city. Waiting
in the heat of the day to access Tiananmen square in lines of hot sweaty
tourists to undergo the various security checks was a challenge for us all, not
just Michael. We armed him with headphones and we positioned ourselves to keep
as many people as we could out of his space, but he still felt overwhelmed and
glared at any one who attempted to speak to him. Its been interesting for me as
his parent watching his responses to feeling stressed. Aggression being one of
them, tears as we’ve seen many times, but we’ve noticed that simply being
touched when he’s agitated is enough to tip him into an explosive state. My
instinct as a mother to touch and reassure being more than he can cope with on
some occasions. Interestingly mum still tends to be the one he fires his
frustrations towards but he in fact gravitates more towards Dad who is more
laid back and matter of fact in the way he deals with him. Room to exploit this
situation mum thinks!!
Tiananmen square is just a huge concrete parade ground and we
read not worth the visit. However, with an avid interest in history, I sat down
taking in the vast surroundings in awe. The
site where Mao announced the establishment of the People Republic of China and
the site where thousands of young protesters died in the late 80s. It is strictly
forbidden to mention the squares history or engage in political conversations
there, a stark reminder of the strict regime that Chinese still live under.
The forbidden city accessed from one end of Tiananmen Square
was vast. Built in the 15th Century the Palace served as the
residence to 24 Emperors and was a full day of wandering through the elegantly
adorned pagodas, palaces and Feng Shui design. The scale of the place was
staggering but certainly too big to hold Michael's attention given the heat and
the sheer number of visitors. Ancient architecture was certainly impressive but
once you had seen one building you had pretty much seen them all. We took him
into the sites 4d cinema for a learning experience which sadly went horribly
wrong. With a 4D headset covering his eyes, headphones and a vibrating chair he
was overwhelmed, and he still couldn’t hear what was being said due to a large
group of Chinese tourists in the back ground. He leaped up threw off the headset
and proceeded to scream at the group to be quiet. Proclaiming ‘this was the
reason he hated Asia, you are all so loud, why can’t you just be quiet! He then
proceeded to run from the gallery leaving Jason and I trying to unplug
ourselves to find him. OMG Fortunately he hadn’t gone too far, and I managed to
grab him and calm him down. Jason had arranged for him to do it again and this
time he plugged in to a quiet corner and successfully enjoyed the show while
mum stood guard to keep everyone away from him. 
The highlight of our trip to China was without doubt the Great wall. We had heard horror stories from travellers
who had been and experienced huge crowds on heavily restored areas of the wall
which simply did not appeal to us. Fortunately, we had been advised by a friend
living in Beijing on the ideal spot to avoid the congestion. She was spot on!
We had the most breath-taking fabulous encounter with the wall virtually to
ourselves. Even walking on parts of the wall that had not been renovated and
stood still in its fabulous, unsafe, ruined state. This was just the best
experience. Michael absolutely exhausted by climbing up and down hundreds of
steps and slopes on broken treacherous path was challenged on a few occasions
to overcome his anxiety. Our location in the middle of no where however limited
his choices. There was one way up and one way down. Joined by foreign walkers
doing the same, they encouraged him on and he was thrilled to sit feeling
accomplished in a spot that not many people in the world would have been,
looking back over his tremendous climb as the wall meandered across the
mountains far into the distance. It was
the perfect way to end our stay in China.
China has really blown away any preconceptions we had. The
pushy loud Chinese abroad was not what we encountered overall at home. Far from
it. We were continually greeted with smiles, waves and offers of help and stood
out for us, as one of the friendliest places we have visited so far. While
Michael still adamantly refuses to acknowledge he likes China or the Chinese he
has copied well on this leg of our journey. Apart from the crowds, China is
exceptionally clean and structured society where he has felt comfortable and
safe wandering around.
We are all however at the point where we are looking
forward to escaping the heat. As we
boarded the flight we reflected on the amazing adventure that Asia has given us
but are all excited to see family and friends and the comfort of familiar
surroundings that Europe has to offer.
London
here we come!
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