Damn the internet and hello from China
Well the Taiwan earthquake continues to stuff me around. In case you haven't heard there was an earthquake in Taiwan about two weeks ago. It was fairly minor...except for the fact that it distroyed three of the four underwater internet cables which runs across the Pacific. At the moment they are STILL fixing it.
As a result its really hard to access non-Chinese websites (I only managed to access this website today) and still can't access all my email adresses. DAGH!!!
Anyway I'm at this random little town called Menghai in southern Yunnan province near the border with Burma. I should be back in Hong Kong a little earlier then expected (the 16th) but I will be trevelling back into the PRC as soon as I can get an extension on my Hong Kong student visa.
Yunnan province has been great. I have visted the 'ancient' and 'cultural' towns of Lijhang and Dali which were really cool (both in temperature and fun) but were both completely overrun with Chinese tourists...you know the ones, they travel around in swarms following someone waving a little flag...you see them in Australia as well. Some of them have little matching hats which are really cute...
Anyway the 'minority' culture that the people come to see have been essentially lost in these cities. All they do is put on little dancing displays and sell cheap crafty stuff to the tourists. Cheap or not, some of the art was fantastic. Too bad it was too big to send home.
As well as visiting these two cities we treked through the spectacualar Tiger Leeping Gorge which is at the base of the Yangtze river. The hike was fairly tough since we were carrying all of our stuff but the scenery was worth it.
At the moment I am in the far south of the province in a region called Xishangbanna which is VERY DIFFERENT from the rest of China. Its almost like being in Thailand and feels so much like South-East Asia. Once again the region is very beautiful but unfortunently very poor. And the toilets...we won't go there.
Anyway I will post again when I get back to HK as well as adding a few photos.
Until then take care!!
Matt
As a result its really hard to access non-Chinese websites (I only managed to access this website today) and still can't access all my email adresses. DAGH!!!
Anyway I'm at this random little town called Menghai in southern Yunnan province near the border with Burma. I should be back in Hong Kong a little earlier then expected (the 16th) but I will be trevelling back into the PRC as soon as I can get an extension on my Hong Kong student visa.
Yunnan province has been great. I have visted the 'ancient' and 'cultural' towns of Lijhang and Dali which were really cool (both in temperature and fun) but were both completely overrun with Chinese tourists...you know the ones, they travel around in swarms following someone waving a little flag...you see them in Australia as well. Some of them have little matching hats which are really cute...
Anyway the 'minority' culture that the people come to see have been essentially lost in these cities. All they do is put on little dancing displays and sell cheap crafty stuff to the tourists. Cheap or not, some of the art was fantastic. Too bad it was too big to send home.
As well as visiting these two cities we treked through the spectacualar Tiger Leeping Gorge which is at the base of the Yangtze river. The hike was fairly tough since we were carrying all of our stuff but the scenery was worth it.
At the moment I am in the far south of the province in a region called Xishangbanna which is VERY DIFFERENT from the rest of China. Its almost like being in Thailand and feels so much like South-East Asia. Once again the region is very beautiful but unfortunently very poor. And the toilets...we won't go there.
Anyway I will post again when I get back to HK as well as adding a few photos.
Until then take care!!
Matt
posted by Matt at Sunday, January 14, 2007
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