The Kinetic Canuck

Linxia’s Lovely Locals

We arrived in Linxia after an awful taxi ride from Lanzhou. Not only was there a bonus person in the car, (which meant Ian, Dave and I had to squish into the back), but they also added on a 55% fee for the long distance we took. We did manage to argue our way down to a 26% fee, but it was still a pretty terrible 2 hour ride anyway!

Luckily, things got much better once we arrived in Linxia. I honestly had no idea what to expect from this destination, because my friend Andy planned most of this part of this trip. I imagined it would just be a bit of a pit stop on our way to Xiahe. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this small city of 240,000 people actually has a lot to offer. We met so many lovely people there, so I will organize this post with the 4 people who made this trip memorable for us.

Fan-Girl

A delicious dessert we discovered in Linxia

While we were looking for a nice place to have dinner, we enjoyed the sights of Linxia’s tourist area. We came upon one restaurant that caught our eye because there was this funny kid doing Gong-fu, while his sister (?) did traditional Chinese dancing with a fan. The menu looked good, and they had a cute shtick, so we went in.

Near the end of the dinner, the girl and boy who had been entertaining guests outside shyly came in and asked if we would take a photo with them. We did, of course, and I made sure to get a photo as well.

Now, this is where the story gets really cute. As soon as she walked out of the time, she squealed, danced and jumped up and down with excitement. We may as well have been the Backstreet Boys circa 1999! She sat down in the next room and actually fanned herself, she was so excited to have met us and gotten a photo with us! Later on we heard her trying to learn how to say ‘welcome to China’ in English for us. The phrase burst out of her as we left the restaurant. She was such a sweet girl!

Mosque Men

You might not believe me, but this is a mosque!

After dinner, we started walking towards the hotel, but went slow and wound our way through the streets on the way. The area was beautiful and surprisingly new looking, for such a small city!

They had lights going over the streets. Perfect for playing lava monster!

We came across a couple of women taking a photo in front of a beautiful building. It took us a moment to realize that we weren’t actually looking at a Buddhist temple, but a Muslim Mosque!

As we stood outside, admiring the architecture, a man wearing a white prayer cap came over and greeted us. I told him in Mandarin that we thought the building was very beautiful and he invited us in. I was actually very hesitant to enter because I had forgotten my scarf back in the room and my shoulders were very bare. He welcomed me in anyway, so I joined the others.

Yesterday at Labrang Monestary the wind kept flapping my scarf over my head.

We walked around and saw many worshippers peeping out of their rooms to see us. A crowd formed while we looked around and admired the beautiful mosque.

After a few minutes, one of the men in the quicky growing crowd came over and spoke to us. He asked where we are from and made some small talk. He laughed playfully at Elizabeth for not wearing her scarf around herself ‘properly’ and then teased me for not wearing one at all. He was funny and cheeky about it and we all had a laugh. Then we took a group photo for all the guys who wanted proof that they’d met foreigners.

I’ve said this many times through my travels, but I really love all the different people we meet on the road. These guys have a very different set of beliefs than I do, but we were nice to each other, respectful, and even joked about it. They didn’t make me feel uncomfortable or unwelcomed… They were just thrilled that we found their place of worship beautiful. These types of encounters are easily one of my favorite parts of traveling.

Multilingual Michael

After our visit at the mosque, we wandered our way down to a scenic area of town that was very obviously very recently built or reconstructed. As always, the lights in China were lovely at night.

At 11pm every one of these lights were turned off.

As we made our way through, we ran into a man who asked in English where we are from. We get asked this question all the time, but usually in Mandarin, or very broken English (Which country!?!?). I told him that 2 of us are Canadian, 2 American and 2 British. He welcomed us all to China (which always makes us chuckle, because 4/6 of us have been here 7 years or longer and none of us have left in a year and a half). That’s one of the nicest things about meeting new people when traveling in remote (er) China: they always make a point of welcoming us to their country.

We continued chatting and learned that the man (his name was Michael), speaks 4 languages and that he lived in Pakistan for several years. Ian and Andy were there in January of 2020, so the topic quickly moved into Pakistan and how much the guys both loved their time there.

People often think of Pakistan as the sum of its difficulties, when really there is a vibrant and welcoming culture there as well. I’d love the opportunity to visit some day, when the world opens back up.

Michael also told us a bit about the local area. We asked when the tourist area was built and he told us that until 6 years ago, the area was mostly inhabited by poorer citizens. When the government decided to revitalize the area, rich people bought out the properties and rent became much too expensive for most people, so they were essentially forced to move to other areas of Linxia The cost of progress…

At 11pm all the lights went out and we took it as our cue to head back to the hotel. Michael kindly invited us for tea and watermelon, but given the time, we had to decline. I’m very happy that we bumped into him. It’s always nice to hear local perspectives, and his was especially unique given his own travels.

Social Media Influencer

We didn’t have much time in Linxia so we set out early the following morning to see as much of the city as we could. It wasn’t long before we were greeted by a woman on the street who quickly welcomed us to China and told us about a market nearby.

Sadly, the market was closing up. We did see some cool looking noodles being made though.

We kept walking towards the temple we saw in the distance, and then suddenly, the friendly woman we had met was with us again.

She followed Andy, who easily has the best Chinese of all of us.

She showed us over to a little park, and told us about the dance and music performances that happen there. Then, right in front of us, a show began! Well… It wasn’t really supposed to be a show, but it turned out to be!

In every other city I’ve been to, there are ‘dancing grannies’. Older women who get together and dance in parks basically any night that isn’t rainy. It’s one of China’s most endearing qualities, in my opinion. But in Linxia, they don’t seem to have dancing grannies. They have ‘Catwalk’ grannies. They went around in a circle like that for the entire 20 minutes we sat there.

Once more, a crowd gathered to watch the foreigners (who were watching the locals)

I feel kind of terrible because I never got this woman’s name, but in fairness, she never asked mine either. I’ve dubbed her ‘social media influencer’ simply because she spent a lot of her time with us showing us the things she posted on social media.

Google and Facebook may be banned in China, but the country has a huge list of their own apps that are used in their place.

In fact, when we finally did part ways with this very friendly and enthusiastic woman, she added several of us to Wechat and we’ve been seeing a constant stream of her updates ever since.

It was a lovely day though, and although the social media influencer was a bit odd, she was also very friendly and genuinely wanted us to like her city.

It’s funny that these 4 people were so different. A young girl, a worshipper of Islam, a local who has traveled abroad, and a Muslim woman who loves social media… But they all impacted our trip and forever influenced my opinions of Linxia; a warm and friendly city filled with lovely people.

And a really cool view from our hotel window!!

Next up, I have posts about Labrang Monestary and Travelling in Gansu!! Check back soon!

Museums

As I’ve said many times in past posts: I really like museums. We’ve seen some really cool museums through our travels. The UXO Museum in Laos and the War Remnants Museum in Vietnam opened our eyes about a war we knew surprisingly little about. The Schindler museum in Krakow taught me how the Nazis managed to convince so many people to hate. I particularly like Anthropology museums.

Vancouver’s Anthropology museum really amazed me. I hope to go back again some day!

Wherever we go, we end up visiting a museum. On this trip across the Tibetan Plateau, we’ve already visited 2 museums: one about Tibetan Culture and Gansu’s provincial Museum. Here’s some info on both.

Tibetan Buddhism Museum

Located a couple of kilometers away from Kumbum Monestary, this small museum is an ok way to spend an hour or two, as long as you can read Chinese, or are very patient with a translator.

There are plenty of beautiful artifacts to see

Of course, even if you can’t understand everything, there is always something to see in these types of displays. I actually did use Wechat to translate but sections of text (they have a cool feature where you can translate text from photos!), but even without that life hack, I got a lot out of the visit.

There are several feature videos explaining the history of the area, but they were also in Chinese and quite difficult to follow. Probably the strangest part of the museum was the collection of masks we saw.

One thing I really did like about The Tibetan Culture Museum was the lovely art they had set up outside. These sculptures were beautifully detailed, and of course, there were some magnificent prayer Flags flapping in the wind as well.

Gansu Provincial Museum

After leaving Xining, we head to Gansu Province. We were in Gansu during the October holiday last year, but we didn’t the southern part of the province. We did get to see Danxia and Dunhuang, but we missed the Tibetan Plateau.

I wouldn’t trade our time in Zhangye area! It was stunning! But Gansu has more to offer than just colorful mountains!

Our first real stop in Gansu was Linxia, but after leaving Xining, we had a layover in Lanzhou, so we decided to hit up a museum while we were there.

We did the circled areas in the north back in October. All our Gansu destinations this dinner are in the southern part of the Province.

We went straight from the train station to the gallery, so we had all our bags. I was very happy to see that they have a luggage center set up just outside the museum specifically for people doing exactly what we did!

The last thing I wanted was to be rolling around a suitcase while learning about Buddhism and dinosaurs.

This stop was quite different from the one near Kumbum Monestary. There was still plenty about Buddhism, which is a major religion in the Tibetan Plateau, but there was also a lot about other history in the area as well. There were several sections to explore: Paleontology, Communist History, Pottery & Buddhist Art.

Gansu is where many of China’s Dinosaur fossils have been found!

Our first stop was to see some fossils and learn about the geological history of Gansu. They had a lot of small fossils on display, but sadly only 2 full dinosaur displays out to see. Still, there was plenty to learn as we walked around.

We skipped over the communist section because we had limited time, and went over to the Anthropology section, which was definitely my favourite area.

Anthropology is the study of humans through history. You will find everything from tools, to pottery to musical instruments in an anthropology display

I was especially impressed by the pottery and the Buddha’s on display. They had pots that are 8000 years old! They did a great job of showing the evolution of this pottery making as well. I spent quite a lot of time studying Greek and Roman pottery, so it was nice to see a whole new style.

The Buddha’s on display could be photographed. They aren’t as grand as the massive golden ones in the Monestaries, but they were very detailed and beautiful nonetheless. I especially liked seeing people so interested in them. So often, people are just staring at their phones in museums. These crowds seemed truly engaged though.

The final area was very similar to the Tibetan Cultural museum we had visited the day before. There was more English, but it was much smaller than the anthropology section.

Stuppas similar to the ones we saw at Kumbum

It took us 1.5 hours to make it through the parts of the museum we saw, so if you’re planning to visit, you should set aside about that much time or more. There is plenty to see!!

Should You Go?

Honestly, I would say that the Buddhist Culture museum was overpriced for what it was. For 60rmb ($12) per guest, there could have been SOME English available. With only 1 or two sentences in English, we really missed out on a lot. After all, I’m always telling my students that translators cannot replace the human mind. They aren’t that smart.

For more proof that translators don’t always work, you can read this hilarious article by Bored Panda

Having said that, if you’re in the area and have an hour to kill, the price isn’t outrageous. You’ll learn a thing or two and see some cool stuff.

With such a rich culture, Tibetan Buddhism is worth learning more about!

As for The Gansu Provincial Museum, I would highly recommend it. Not only is there no entrance fee, there is also a huge range of displays to see, so there’s really something for everyone. If you’re in Lanzhou, try and make the trip down there. You’ll be impressed, I promise!!

The museum has lots of information on the silk road as well, including some very old silk pieces.

We’ve moved into some of the smaller areas of Gansu now! More on Lingxia & Xiahe soon!

Kumbum Monestary

In 1577, a monestary was built at the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa sect of Buddhism. It was called Kumbum Jampa Ling, which means “supreme Buddhist temple with one hundred thousand lions’ roar Buddhist images”.

These stupas greet you at the entrance of the monestary.

In its hay day, this temple was home to 3600 monks. Rulers during the Qing dynasty donated Buddhist art, stupas, statues and many other treasures. Even today, Kumbum is home to more than 100,000 relics. In other words, it is a very important location for Buddhism, and also for history.

Judging by this photo courtesy of Wikipedia, the monestary looked like more of a village than a monestary. The place was huge!!

Now, around 400 monks still live at the monestary, and even though it isn’t the same as it once was, it is still a very impressive place to visit. We spent 3 hours roaming around the monestary, admiring the architecture, Buddha’s, art, and the scenic environment.

Photography is forbidden in the temples, so most of my photos are of the outside of the buildings.

What impressed me most about Kumbum temple was the architecture. I’ve never seen so many colours (except maybe in India!). Every building has elaborate designs and the most vibrant colors! There were a few rooms that allowed photos, so I was able to get some examples for you.

We saw worshippers praying, enormous prayer wheels and so many impressive Buddha’s. So much of the most beautiful things in the temple couldn’t be photographed, of course, but I was very happy that there were a few places where it was permitted.

There were quite a few tourists and pilgrims at the monestary. Kumbum is considered one of the most important temples in the Tibetan Plateau. Many people were there to pray, light candles, and worship in various ways. It always upsets me when I see people taking photos of pilgrims or items of religious importance. When we first walked in, several monks were telling off some Chinese tourists for photographing them as they were walking around the Stupas. I had actually been photographing the Stupas at that time and I made sure those pilgrims knew that I had my camera up and focusing on the structures, and not on them.

There are plenty of interesting things to take photos of without disrespecting the people there worshipping.

One other thing that really made me feel good about monestary was the wildlife. There were also many friendly felines roaming the monestary. They seemed well fed and friendly. A good sign that the people living there treat them well.

I certainly recommend this monestary for anyone visiting Qinghai. Located about a 1 hour Didi ride from Xining, Kumbum is a beautiful place to visit and with an entrance fee of less than 100rmb ($20), it’s an affordable place to see.

We’re just getting started on this trip! Check back soon for more!!

TAR vs Tibetan Plateau

Over the last few days, I’ve had several people send me messages, assuming that we are in Tibet. Although we ARE surrounded by Tibetan Culture, we are actually not in the province of Tibet. We were planning to go to Lhasa and mount Everest initially, but our plans were thwarted due to permit issues. I understand that this part of China can be a little confusing, so let me begin by explaining more clearly.

Cultural Tibet

Red = Tibetan Autonomous Region
Grey, Green & Purple = Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Autonomous Region is a special area of China. If you’ve paid attention to global news over the last few decades, you’ve surely heard about the conflict there. Tibet has long wanted its independence, but of course, China does not want this. So, instead, they’ve given them a special ‘autonomous region’s status.

Potala Palace and Mount Everest are both found in the TAR, so we weren’t able to see them this year, because…

You need a special permit to be able to enter the TAR. Hypothetically speaking, this shouldn’t have been a problem. We had everything in order long before the trip. Until recently, Tibet WAS closed to tourism for foreigners, but in May, the ban was lifted. Still, the government isn’t actually issuing any permits, so even if we can technically should be able to go to TAR now, without that piece of paper, we wouldn’t be allowed to enter.

Luckily, Tibet is more than just the TAR. You can get a great feel for Tibetan culture and life by visiting the rest of the plateau, and this is exactly what we decided to do.

Tibetan Buddhism

Just as there are different forms of Christianity (Protestant, Catholic, Mormons…), there are also different forms of Buddhism. Although they are all similar, there are key differences in the different sects of Buddhism. I won’t go into much detail here because I’m no an expert on this stuff, but what I will say is that most Buddhism falls under one of the following categories: Theravada Vinaya (located in south east Asia mostly), Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (mostly found in China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan) and Mulasarvastivada Vinaya (practiced on the Tibetan Plateau as well as in Mongolia and northern India). There are many sub sects within each of these categories, of course. Buddhism is a very old and complex faith. You can learn more about the finer details of Buddhism here

Golden statues of Buddha are found among most of the major Buddhist sects.

Up until recently, Dave and I had only ever experienced the first 2 categories of Buddhism. We’ve seen many temples in south east Asia, of course. So many that we have actually started skipping many of those temples when we travel. Tibetan temples though, have been a completely new experience for us.

This is a newly renovated Buddhist temple that we visited last year in Lijiang, China.

Prayer Flags

Another thing that sets Tibetan Buddhism apart from many other sects is their use of Prayer Flags. I learned about these since arriving here and I’ve gotta say, they’re kind of a nice idea.

Each color of the flag represents different elements of the earth (wind, water, fire, etc.), and each flag has an Om written on it. The idea is that the wind will carry the good wishes of the Om through the wind that makes the flags flap. That’s why these flags are only found in windy places like Nepal and the Tibetan plateau.

The sounds they make while flapping in the wind is actually beautiful and LOUD!

These Buddhist prayer flags are found everywhere we’ve gone so far on this trip. One other interesting thing I discovered while learning about them is that the older the flags get, the more auspicious they are considered. If you see a prayer flag with faded colors, it means that it’s done it’s job, and spread compassion, ethics, patience, diligence, wisdom and other values out into the world. Nice tradition, I think!

I always knew these flags were meaningful, but after seeing (and hearing) them up close, I appreciate them that much more.

We visited Kumbum monestary yesterday, near Xining. It was a beautiful visit and I’ll have more on that soon!

Qinghai Lake

Qinghai is a massive province in China. I hadn’t actually realized how big it is, until I started deciding what we would do here. And in this massive province, there is also an enormous lake by the same name: Qinghai.

It is so large it even shows up on most maps.

Qinghai is China’s biggest lake, but it only actually ranks 36th in the world. Lake Superior, Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg are all bigger, but I have to say that Qinghai’s setting was still something quite beautiful to see!

Nearly 4500kms square, this giant body of water is located in part of the Tibetan Plateau. There is Tibetan culture here everywhere you look. From the Yaks to the prayer flags, you can feel that you aren’t on the east coast of China anymore!

On the lake itself, there isn’t a lot to do. You can rent a motorbike or bicycle, but we chose to walk along the beach instead, taking in the cool, fresh air. All along that particular area, you can rent traditional Tibetan Robes for photo ops, and you can even ride a Yak into the water.

Of course, getting to Qinghai Lake is half the fun, as far as I’m concerned. We originally intended to take the bus, but when we saw the lineup, we opted to hire a van instead. The roads were a little scary, and our driver was under the impression that we were in a Nascar race, but we made a few stops that certainly made the trip worth it.

Not that Qinghai wasn’t spectacular… But it was nice to get more than just this one thing out of 5 hours on the road.

On our way to the lake, we stopped at one lookout, and got some photos. I was happy to have my Canon with me so that I could zoom in. We didn’t get very close by, but at least I got to see some of the beautiful art!

On our way back, we also stopped for some more Tibetan culture at Jia Yi Temple. This particular spot was a bit off of a road and we were able to get out of the car and explore a little bit.

I actually prefer taking buses over hiring a van most of the time, but this last stop actually made the van ride worth it, as far as I was concerned. Sometimes it’s better to be a little cramped, and to spend a little more, because you might end up with extra experiences too!

Tomorrow we check out more Tibetan Culture! Check back!!

Xining – First Impressions

As COVID continues to affect the world, we continue to be unable to go home. Although Canada did recently lift the mandatory 2 week quarantine for vaccinated people coming into Canada, they are not recognizing the Chinese vaccines, so we were forced to stay here for the second summer in a row.

Dave and I are now fully vaccinated, but we still need COVID tests to travel through China, and most other countries don’t recognize China’s vaccine, although it has been proven to offer quite a lot of protection and reduced symptoms if you do happen to catch the virus.

Of course, staying in Suzhou didn’t really appeal to us, so we decided to plan an epic 5 week trip across 10 provinces and a huge range of places in China. Our first stop: Qinghai Province

Qinghai, where the average elevation is over 3000 meters above sea level!

Our original plan was to go to Tibet and see Everest and Lhasa, but those plans were thwarted due to permit issues. Even with a valid Chinese visa, you can’t actually visit TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) without a special permit issued by the government. And although Tibet opened again for international tourists in May, permits still aren’t actually being issued. So, we decided to see other areas of the Tibetan Plateau instead.

TAR is Tibet as you know it (the part that is furthest west), but the Tibetan Plateau also includes a much larger space, where you will still see Tibetan culture.

This morning, we flew to Xining, which is the capital of Qinghai Province. Although the Province is huge, there are only a handful of really popular tourist spots in the area. Xining itself is a pretty city, with much cleaner air than we have on the east coast. I prefer it to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu, where we spent our October Holiday. People here are friendlier and the city is more modern.

The flight in was on a tiny plane, and we were lucky enough to have a bunch of kids sitting directly behind us, screaming the entire way…

We spent today exploring the area with the friends we are spending the next week with: Ian and Andy. A couple of Andy’s friends have joined as well, and the 6 of us enjoyed a chill day of sight seeing and COVID tests.

We got the throat AND nose swabs this time. I feel like they are always so excessive with them. Why do you have to swipe at the back of my throat 6 times? Isn’t 3 enough!?

We found 2 beautiful mosques today. They were quite different from one another. The first seemed a lot older, but with several modern (and culturally Chinese) elements added.

A beautiful spot. The carvings were especially nice

The second mosque seemed newer and was definitely more grand. There was a secondary area near the back, where the walls were brown (the rest of the mosque was white). The whole area was very peaceful and beautiful.

Quite detailed and somehow peaceful, although in the middle of a city. The main building was huge, as you can see from the photo I took of Dave for scale

Our last stop for the day was at the old city wall. We were there after dark and got to see part of it all lit up and beautiful!! Definitely one of my favorite things about China is the way they use lights to keep things intriguing, even in the dark.

Our first day in Xining was lovely! Looking forward to tomorrow, when we head out to Qinghai Lake!!!

Check back for day 2!

Hot Springs – Sanya Edition

We’ve been to Hot Springs all over the world. It all began with a impromptu trip to some hidden springs near Jasper back in 2014, right before we moved to China.

I lost all my photos from this part of our trip. Luckily, I found a couple of photos online. Now I wish I was back there! Miette Hot springs are still the most beautiful I’ve ever seen

Andorra was also a beautiful hot spring destination, located up in the cool mountains. The venue there was very well-maintained and I’d strongly encourage people to make a visit if they’re in this tiny country, doing some skiing or shopping.

I don’t tend to take my camera into pools, so this photo of Andorra will have to suffice to give you an idea of how beautiful the scenery was in the outdoor springs.

This is a photo of what the inside of the Andorra springs look like

In Vietnam, we visited the hot springs near Danang. They were also well maintained. They had mud baths, saunas, and different temperatures of pools. We made a day of it and a year later, it’s still one of my favorite memories of our Danang trip.

These springs were also very nice, but quite different than the north American and European ones we visited

China also has plenty of hot springs. There are a few near Suzhou, though we still haven’t visited them. We did visit hot springs up in northern Guizhou province. Aside from the food poisoning we all got from the hotel on that trip, it was a nice experience.

There was a performance to enjoy from the comfort of the hot springs in Zunyi.

In Sanya, once more, we sought out the pools of naturally heated water, along with all their health benefits (there are actually plenty).

They’re also a beautiful place to spend the day!

Now…we did plan to visit a well-rated place that we found online called “Pearl River Nantian Hot springs Resort”. It is supposed to be quite nice and better maintained than others in the area. Unfortunately for us, they were closed for repairs during our visit. Luckily, there was another facility nearby.

Like in Vietnam and Guizhou, these hot springs were made to look quite natural, and were made up of many pools. Most pools we’ve seen in China have ‘flavours’ including “red wine”, “coffee” and “tumeric”. I actually found the tumeric one really nice and it made my lower back feel a lot better (I’ve been dealing with sciatic pain for the last year or so). Still, some of the baths had some pretty questionable descriptions…

When visiting hot springs, we tend to go for the day, and make the most of it. We did eat a bit of breakfast, but not much. If you’re planning to visit these particular springs, you should be warned that their restaurant is closed for most of the day, and that the food available outside of the restaurant includes steamed taro, steamed corn, and sweet Chinese sausages.

They advertise “hot spring eggs” and at first we were fooled into thinking that they might actually be cooking the eggs that way. It turns out they’re fake.

And we never found out what the ‘gold berries’ were supposed to be…

These springs have another gimmick to pull in tourists: fish that will eat your dead skin. I’ve done this a few times in little foot baths, but this was my first time submerging into a pool of these little creatures. It tickles to no end and kinda hurts if they grab a mole or a patch of sensitive skin. Still, it’s good for a laugh!

We were all fighting the urge not to laugh here because it tickled so much!

I wouldn’t say these were the best springs we’ve been to, but when you’ve been lucky enough to soak in Jasper and Andorra’s hot springs… You’ve been kinda spoiled.

And I mean… We’ve seen much nicer springs in China too. These ones weren’t all very well maintained. It’s like they decided to only keep up a certain number of the pools and then others were left to dry up…

The easiest way to get to these springs (and the way we chose) was by Didi. There are buses that can get you there too, but in terms of time and money saved, we opted to pay a bit more a enjoy more time soaking.

I also made a cat friend at the springs. Well worth the trip!

I still have more to write about for Hainan! Stay tuned!

Haikou’s Volcano Park

This feature image may not look like much. You can see green trees, but what you don’t know, is that this is actually a photo of a massive volcanic caldera, right in Haikou!

The Haikou Volcanic Cluster Global Geopark (long name!) is a main tourist attraction in Haikou. It only takes about 30 minutes to get to the park from downtown, and it’s easily accessible via Didi or taxi.

There are about 40 volcanoes in this volcanic field, but don’t worry, none of them have erupted seriously in about 16,000 years. The area is a popular tourist attraction and a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

Thanks to past volcanic activity, the park itself is very lush and green. There are areas where the earth is almost alien, and made up of dried lava flow, ash and volcanic rocks.

It looks like a patch of muddy land, but lava once flowed here.

There’s an educational element to the park as well. I really liked the info about how people lived in this region long ago. Volcanic soil is great for agriculture, and people learned how to live from the land.

There was plenty of info on volcanoes as well, with photos of volcanoes from all around the world.

Of course, the best part of our trip to the volcano park was seeing the big volcano itself. A lot of stairs are involved, but that’s almost always true in China, so we were prepared. Our walk around the top of the caldera was beautiful.

And you can even climb down to a cave inside as well. It was equally beautiful and wonderfully cool!

Most of the inside of the cave covered with moss and ferns.

There was plenty to see in the park, including some very nice cactuses, wood carvings and places where you can worship the volcano gods. There were some unexpected wood carvings too. I’m still not sure how they were connected to this geo park…

If you’re in Haikou, a trip to the Volcano Park is a must!! Stay tuned for more about our Hainan Roadtrip!!

Hungry for Haikou!

Sanya is a hot spot for tourism in China. It’s considered the Hawaii of China, and every Christmas and Spring Festival tourists flock to the beaches to catch some sun and do some surfing. It is quite possibly one of the most touristy areas in China, and it’s easy to see why.

I do think that a lot of tourists make the mistake of never leaving Sanya though. Aside from a few days trips, people head to the south coast of Hainan province and don’t really venture out to the rest of the island. It’s a shame, because there’s so much more to Hainan than just Sanya! The island’s capital, for example, has been one of the highlights of our trip!

From our very first stop in the city, we were in love. You’ll find Coconut ‘everything’ in Haikou!! This was a small cafe we found just a few doors down from the hotel where we were staying.

We didn’t get to spend a lot of time in Haikou, unfortunately, but we made the most of the time we had. There were 2 things that really stood out to us in this city (aside from seeing our friends Jonathan and Duygu, of course): The Food and the Volcano Park.

The Food

We tried several great restaurants in Haikou. The first was for Christmas dinner. The Chimac is a popular western restaurant. The owner, David Chon, is a Korean American who clearly takes pride in his restaurant. He put together a special menu for Christmas dinner and we were lucky enough to get a table. I was so impressed with the smoked salmon! They smoked it themselves and ran out so quickly that they had to get more in before their Christmas event!!

A lovely way to spend Christmas Dinner!!

Chimack is not the only place to get great food in Haikou either. We also enjoyed a great dinner at an Indian restaurant near the train station and University. Chilli Delhi honestly had some of the best Indian food I’ve had in China, and at much better prices than we pay in Suzhou. Best of all, there’s no loss of quality!

Chicken in a saffron and almond gravy! Unreal!!!

Our favorite foodie stop in Haikou though, was for breakfast. Now… I’m not really much of a fan of Chinese breakfasts. I’ve never cared for congee, which is essentially watery rice, and the dough sticks are pretty flavourless. I did like the spicy pancakes they serve in Guiyang, but overall, I generally stick with fruit here, if I have breakfast at all. Of course, there is 1 exception to this general rule of mine: DIM SUM!!

Dim Sum is a collection of many different types of dishes. My favourites are the steamed dumplings, but there are also plenty of meat choices, noodles and steamed bread.

When we found out about Yipinwei Food Garden, we knew we were going… Even if we had to drive the wrong way across the city to get there (which is exactly what we did). We were not disappointed! The food was fabulous. The service was fast and efficient. The price was amazing!! From start to finish we were impressed. The first thing our server asked when we sat down was if we wanted coffee! I think this was the first time that ever happened to us living in China! There are plenty of coffee shops in Haikou… Just one more thing making it a great city!!

They even made it with a Syphon…. Possibly my favourite method of making coffee!!!

Honestly, as I write this, I wish I was back there now! If we lived in Haikou, we would be at Yipinwei Food Garden every weekend!! Unfortunately, there isn’t much about the place available in English online, but the link I imbeded above does at least give you the address. (Just click on the blue text!) I encourage you to try the place out!!

Any restaurant this busy is gonna be good. Finding good places to eat in China is easy! Just look for a loud, happy group of diners!

We didn’t have a single disappointing meal in Haikou, but food isn’t the only reason to make a trip to Hainan’s capital! I’ll be writing more about that in my next post!

Huge thank you to Jonathan and Duygu who recommended all these awesome places!

Guanyin of Nanshan

Although now China is considered a secular country, there has been Buddhism here for many years. Back in October, we were lucky enough to visit the Mogao Grottos in Gansu. While in Sanya, we saw a more modern monument celebrating this 2500 year old religion: The Nanshan Temple.

The Mogao grottos were incredible. You can read about our trip to see them here

The area is also known as the Nanshan Buddhism Cultural Zone, and contains Tang dynasty relics, temples in and pagodas, and the 12th largest statue in the world: The Guanyin of Nanshan.

This Buddha is taller than the statue of Liberty, which is actually only the 48th tallest statue in the world.

Towering at 78 meters (108 Meters if you include the pedestal and building at the base), this Buddha is even taller than the Leshan Buddha we saw this summer, when we were in Sichuan!

Although only 71 meters tall, I would still argue that the Leshan Buddha is more incredible than the modern one in Sanya. After all, this stone beauty is more than 1300 years old! You can read more about it here

The park was quite far from Dadong Hai, where we were staying, so a good part of our day was spent traveling to and from the park. There are plenty of ways to get there, including Didi (China’s Uber), but we decided to do public transportation instead. It cost 1/10th of what a Didi would, and I kinda like taking buses because I always see more of the city that way.

Still, we are in a pandemic, so we geared up for the transit ride there. Everyone is required to wear masks when taking public transportation like buses, trains or airplanes. I’m fully on board with that rule.

We stopped for a fabulous lunch at the entrance of the park and paid our entrance fees into the park. It costs about 130rmb per person (roughly $25 Canadian), which was a bit steep in my opinion, given what we quickly realized upon entering the park…

My delicious plate of Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings). The restaurant we went to outside the park was reasonably priced and very tasty! We get the feeling that most people who come to Sanya can’t speak much Chinese though, because they always seem very surprised when we know what things are called.

The park is kept very clean and well maintained. There wasn’t any garbage laying around and everything is still quite new. What disappointed us though, was that the whole area felt more like a shopping mall than a religious or cultural site. Everywhere you look, there is jewelery, golden Buddhas, trinkets and souvenirs for sale. To get to the little road that leads to the Guanyin’s statue, you need to pass through a strategically designed maze of shops. Your way back takes you through yet another maze.

We were glad that the shop keepers weren’t very aggressive, but it still felt more commercial than cultural.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s worth going. The statue itself is very impressive. It has 3 ‘faces’, and took 6 years to construct. Its whiteness makes it appear to glow against the ocean background. Although it wasn’t sunny when we visited, it was still a beautiful site to see.

From near or far you can appreciate this monument.

I found it pretty ironic that no photography is allowed once you’re in the base of the Buddha, given how commercial the area is, but still, we respected the rules and kept our cameras in our bags. There are several beautiful carvings and startues within the buildings, and the walls are lined with small Buddha statues that show donor’s names engraved on little plaques. There are still plenty of empty cases, so it appears you can still donate towards the building’s maintenance. Once more, this felt a little too commercial for my liking. Still, we were impressed by the art that surrounded us.

Once inside, you can climb up to the base of the statue as well, and see all 3 of Guanyin’s faces. It’s about 7 floors up, but there are some breaks as you walk around corridors so it isn’t too bad

Once more, I’ve borrowed from the internet. You can actually see the tiny print standing on top of the golden section of the statue. That’s how tall this statue is!

There’s a gorgeous breeze up there. You can walk around the base and see all 3 facets of the statue. 2 face the ocean and only one can be fully viewed from the land, so it’s definitely worth the 7 flights of stairs. Buddhists pray at the Guanyin’s feet, and tourists are allowed to take photos once more.

The view right before you go into the base of the statue.

There is actually more to see in this Cultural Zone, but we got there a bit late and didn’t have time to visit the pagoda or temples. The grounds we did see were lovely though.

I’m glad we visited the Nanshan Buddhism Cultural Zone. The grounds were beautiful and it’s quite amazing to see the monument. Don’t be expecting a whole lot of culture there, but if you’re in the market for a gold Buddha or some jewelry, this’ll be the place for you!!