Goodbye Dandong, Hello Chengde and Beijing

Time for an update!

Our last day in Dandong, before leaving for Chengde, included a trip to find the "Museum to Commemorate Aiding Korea Against US Agression". This is a story all of its own... a story of pain, suffering, and hunger - on our part!!! We were supposed to take a bus (directed by some dude on the internet) out of Dandong and get off at the sports stadium. Simple.

However, we ended up on a 2 hour bus journey so far out of Dandong that we started driving through potholes and flooded roads in rural China. No sports stadium in sight. I even forced us to get off at one stage (it was POURING with rain! serious thunderstorm) to investigate a building that looked like the one he'd seen on the internet... unfortunately it was only a school, surrounded by a moat of fast flowing flood water (which we crossed... Kate in trainers!). I felt bad! But now I'm over it.

What to do? After securing the help of the bus driver, the bus ticket lady and many locals from the streets, we decided to take the same bus back into Dandong and try again. We'd tried all our Chinese, even drawn a little picture of a fighter jet, and American, Korean and Chinese flag - all to no avail. No one had any clue of where we were trying to go.
At last, when almost back at the bus station where we'd started our journey, a guy pointed out the elusive sports stadium! Success!! We jumped off the bus feeling elated and ready to see the museum.
But Murphy was out to get us again!

After another hour walk around following all the instructions from the internet and even searching up random streets we were still no closer to finding the damn museum. The only thing we could see was a huge memorial column on a hill. It couldn't be that we thought.
But in the end... it bloody was. After snacking on a few sandwiches we'd made earlier, we climbed up the hill and discovered to our frustration that the museum was there all the time!! By now it was 4:30pm and it shut at 5pm so we were reluctant to spend a lot of money on the entrance fee to get in. I did manage a good wander around and an oggle at all the manly machines outside though :)

Chengde:

So we took an overnight train to Chengde, a great idea because it saves money for a hotel and we wake up in the new town early in the morning ready for the day! This was the plan, however, we made the critical mistake of picking the cheap upper bunks. They were stinking hot and mosquitoes ate us while we stewed in our own sweat (like when you wake up from smelling your own odour, sweating in a sticky tent). The fans turned off at 10pm and all the Chinese people wanted the windows closed... why? We're not so sure. So we sneakily tried to open the windows after everyone had gone to sleep, but the old man underneath us decided to close them again! Fool.

In Chengde we had a massive slice of sightseeing pie, but at a cost. Oh the pain of handing over all our hard earned cash to get a glipse of a temple and some mountains! We went to the "Temple of Universal Peace", which is one of the twelve temples built on the outskirts of Chengde during the Qing dynasty. Inside we were treated to the TALLEST, oh yes, TALLEST wooden Buddha in the WORLD. ("The Goddess of Mercy" rising to a staggering 22.3 metres, with 42 arms and weighing 110 tons, even if this was mostly dust!)

After this we headed for the Imperial Summer Villa, a vast area of land that is walled in and was home and office to many emperors, including my favourite Kangxie (spelling?). He was the emperor during China's imperial boom period.

While wandering the acres of beautiful pagoda-dotted land in the Villa, we ate gross stawberry jam-filled rolls that we'd bought thinking they were normal plain ones in the shop! We went for a paddle in a paddle boat around the lake, saw some wild reindeer with massive antlers and generally had a relaxing day. We went for a walk into the outer regions, not bothering to take the internal bus (too expensive) and headed up the hills. What luck... we trekked for some time and then came upon a beautiful pagoda where we watched the sunset behind the mountains. Quite stunning! Perfect end to a perfect day.

We left the next day and now find ourselves super relaxed in a cheap Beijing hostel. Tomorrow we're going to get our jabs (last ones) and then it's Datong. I will read up on it tomorrow, but I think there is cheap accomodation and temples, bits of the Great Wall and other stuff worth investigating. Cool. Inner Mongolia here we come. The West of China is our next conquest. The north east has been fun but time for more beauty and cheapness!! (I hope)

Bye for now.

MC