I woke up at 7am and yes, cold as usual.

Dawa did not turn up at our appointed time and when we called him, he told us he’s still stuck in a queue for some permits.  He advised us to visit Norbulingka Palace on our own and he would meet us after lunch to visit Sera Monastery.

So we flagged a taxi to Norbulingka at 10 RMB.

Norbulingka means Treasure Park and was the summer residence of the Dalai Lamas.  It was from the Norbulingka that the 14th Dalai Lama escaped to India on 17 March 1959.  From Wikipedia:

On this day, the Dalai Lama dressed like an ordinary Tibetan carrying a rifle across his shoulder left the Norbulinga palace and Tibet to seek asylum in India. As there was a dust storm blowing at that time he was not recognized. According to Reuters, “The Dalai Lama and his officials, who had also escaped from the palace, rode out of the city on horses to join his family for the trek to India”. The Chinese discovered this “great escape” only two days later. The party journeyed through the Himalayas for two weeks and finally crossed the Indian border where they received political asylum.

The small movie theatre which Heinrich Harrer built for the 14th Dalai Lama was also in Norbulingka.

These days, the Norbulingka is a tourist attraction and has undergone numerous renovation works by the Chinese government.

Walking slowly on the vast grounds of Norbulingka led me to ponder over various things.  One frequent thought on my mind these days was the dynamics of walking in a group.  Some people automatically pairs off and walk in duos.  Some people slow their pace and let a person lead the way.  Some people walk so fast that others are left behind.  Just like when a friend gives us a car ride, we would automatically sit in the front instead of at the back.  But I guess when compared to walking, it’s easier in the car since the pace is controlled and you can’t really move around.  It’s interesting if you think more about it.  In any case, I feel it’s worthwhile putting in some effort when walking with others.

Albert Camus puts it nicely:

Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead.

Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow.

Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Tourists dressing up in traditional costumes for photo mementos.  I’m sure they will look back with fondness of these happy moments many years from now.

The Tibet Museum was closed on Monday.  It’s rather unfortunate as I really would like to see the Chinese government’s representation of the history of Tibet.

Lunch at Jazz Island Coffee.

At around 1pm, we headed for Sera Monastery.  Sera Monastery is one of the three most important Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet, the other two being Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery.

Sera Monastery used to house around 5000 monks but the numbers have been reduced due to Chinese government restrictions.  At 3pm to 5pm on weekdays, monks debates took place in the monastery’s debating courtyard.

After the monastery tour, J and I decided to do the Sera kora.  The ladies went to a teahouse with Dawa while J and I cleansed ourselves of sins.

You might noticed ladders drawn using chalks on stones in Tibet.  Please do not step on them as they represent the paths to heaven for the departed after sky burial.  Read more about sky burials at Wikipedia.

Do you know why Tibetans seldom eat fish?

Click on photo for a bigger view

J and I took around 45 mins for the kora.  We met up with the rest and headed back to the hotel.

After a nice hot bath and  short rest, we ventured out for dinner.  Anglamedo was a cozy restaurant with a lively atmosphere.  A group of locals at a nearby table even belted local ballads.

Tried another variety of local beer.  It’s good!

The food here was pretty tasty except for the rather bland chicken chop I picked.  My bad.

After dinner, we went grocery shopping again.  This time we bought face masks and I also bought a scarf.  We would be heading for higher altitudes tomorrow!

I woke up in the middle of night shivering.  The portable heater had stopped running.  It was another power cut.  I disturbed the reception but unfortunately, the guy did not know where the master switch was and advised me to try to get some sleep and wait until the morning.  J and I tried the row of swiches along the stairs just below our floor but none worked.  So we resigned ourselves to our fate and put on extra layers of clothings.  But it’s still too cold for a good sleep.

The girls gave us a wake up call at 7am (one of them lost a game yesterday night).  I asked if they had any electricity trouble.  They gave the affirmative but added that they still managed to sleep through without any troubles.  How?  With the extra blankets found in the wardrobe, it’s almost too warm.  So they didn’t even bother to leave the room for the master switches found along the stairs just above our floor.

Gals 1, Guys 0.

We booked Kyichu Hotel because it’s a safe choice.  But what I really wanted to try were the charming and atmospheric boutique hotels which were converted from traditional and historical Tibetan courtyard homes.  The power problem gave us a good excuse.

So we went hotel hunting at 8am.  There was only one moon in the sky.

The map from Lonely Planet showed the locations of the hotels in a maze of nameless streets in Barkhor old town.  But the map was surprisingly accurate if you follow it carefully.  The day’s activities were just beginning when we took to the streets.  Following three photos were courtesy of J.

From Kyichu Hotel, we visited the nearby hotels namely Yabshi Phunkhang, Dhood Gu Hotel, House of Shambhala and Shambhala Palace.  It was the winter season and vacancy was high.  Well, maybe except for Dhood Gu Hotel which was closed altogether during this lull period.  Yabshi Phunkhang, House of Shambhala and Shambhala Palace offered us rooms at 280RMB, 400RMB and 240RMB respectively.  What a steal I thought.  A room at these hotels go above 1000RMB during peak season.  We selected Yabshi Phunkhang for its convenient location and interesting heritage.

Lonely Planet wrote:

Architectural integrity is rare in Lhasa these days, which makes the four-year restoration of this mid-19th-century mansion all the more special.  The complex was built for the parents of the 11th Dalai Lama (yabshi is the title given to the parents of a Dalai Lama) and the collection of 21 large, well-equipped rooms linked by lovely courtyards and sitting areas is both stylish and very Tibetan.  There’s also a good restaurant, cafe and cosy winter bar.

Furthermore, at the same rates as Kyichu Hotel, we see little reason not to switch.

Walking back, we patronised the street stalls selling meat buns.   J and I paid 2 RMB each for a bun.  The girls paid 1RMB each at another stall.

Gals 2, Guys 0.

In any case, the meat buns were steaming hot and absolutely tasty.  Quite glad we cancelled our 40RMB hotel breakfast buffet.

When we got back to Kyichu Hotel, Dawa was already there waiting to take us to Potala Palace. We explained our wishes to switch hotels and we spoke to the staff.  They were very nice about it and all was okay. We would leave our luggage at Kyichu Hotel until we got back from Potala Palace.

After a 15 minutes walk, we reached the palace vicinity and spotted Tibetans doing the kora (pilgrimage circuit).  There are four main koras in Lhasa – Nangkhor (inner precincts of Jokhang), Barkhor (outskirts of Jokhang and old town), Lingkhor (8km old city route) and Potala Kora.  In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, kora is performed clockwise.  Bon adherents do it anti-clockwise though.

Potala Palace was once the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until 1959 when the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamasala in India.  Today, the awe-inspiring place is mostly a museum.  Read more about Potala Palace at Wikipedia.

Climbing the long flight of steps up the palace at Lhasa’s altitude was no easy task.  We frequently had to stop in order to catch our breath.

Click on photo for a bigger view

View from Potala Palace

At around 1pm, we got back to Kyichu Hotel and transferred to Yabshi Phunkhang Heritage Hotel.  Then, we visited Barkhor for lunch.

We liked the minced meat balls a lot.

We followed Dawa in his choice of drink.

After lunch, we walked to the Jokhang.   Jokhang was built by King Songsten Gampo to house the Buddha image of Mikyoba brought to Tibet by his Nepali wife Princess Bhrikuti.  At the same time, the Ramoche temple was built to house another Buddha image of Jowo Sakyamuni brought to Tibet by his Chinese wife Princess Wencheng.  But why was Jokhang aka Jowokhang which means ‘chapel of Jowo’ the site holding the Buddha image of Jowo Sakyamuni today?  Wu Zetian, an empress of Tang dynasty and founder of Zhou dynasty, was a devoted Buddhist.  When she learnt that the Jowo Sakyamuni image was in Ramoche temple, she wanted to get her hands on it.  To protect the image, the image was moved to Jokhang.

Prayer pole outside Jokhang.

It’s all real, I do not have imaginery friends.

As with Potala, we are not allowed to take photos inside the chapels of Jokhang.

After Jokhang, Dawa left us and we decided to earn some merits by doing the Barkhor kora.

It’s a nice walk.  There were shops selling tourist trinkets.  Oh, a small boy snatched a half-empty can of coke off my hands.

We went back to Yabshi Phunkhang.  We hang around the courtyard taking photos and checking the free wifi.

Our huge room.  I like it a lot even though it’s quite cold with just a portable heater to be shared between J and me.  But hot water was available and the hair dryer helped a lot.  We were the only guests in the hotel.

After a soothing hot water bath, we visited the supermarket for some grocery and stopped by a restaurant for dinner.

We had our first taste of the famed butter tea of Tibet.  It’s made from tea leaves, yak butter and salt.  Supposedly providing a lot of claroic energy, preventing charred lips and especially good for high altitudes, I tried to drink more.  Many foreigners do not like the taste but I found it acceptable especially when drank hot.

Next

Woke up early but there’s no glorious sunrise as it’s very cloudy.

For breakfast, we had some of the confectionary from Chengdu.  But as we wanted something hot, we visited the restaurant and ordered 1 set meal to share.

The train had reached the highest attitudes of the journey.  The railway’s highest point is at Tanggula Pass which is 5,231m above sea level.  Tanggula Mountain railway station, at 5,068m, is the world’s highest.

Click on photo for a bigger view

We played card games again and this time the losers had to prepare our lunches for us – cup noodles.

It’s time for another nap and we reached Lhasa station at 450pm.  Once out of the train, I felt slightly out of breath just after a short walk.  We were advised to take things slow.  That’s Lhasa railway station in the photo below.  The station was guarded by military and we met our guide Dawa outside the perimeter.  At 3500m nearer to the sun, it’s scorching hot.

We were driven to Kyichu hotel which was recommended in Lonely Planet and Tripadvisor.  Kyichu sounds Japanese but it is the Tibetan name of the river that runs through the city.  Kyichu means happiness.  We planned to stay here for 3 nights.  The hotel is conveniently located along Beijing road and is within walking distance to Potala Palace and Barkhor. Dawa left and arranged to meet us tomorrow morning.

Our bathroom look a bit run down.

But hey, why did the girls get a bathtub!

Some people advised us not to take a shower on our first day in Tibet as it’s easy to catch a cold.  But if we really wanted to take a shower, it’s recommended to do so in the afternoons when the temperature is not too low.  Since we had not bathed for a few days, we took the risk.

The portable heaters in our rooms weren’t particularly effective and we experienced a few blackouts.  However, credit must be given to the friendly staffs who came running whenever we needed help.

View from the top of Kyichu Hotel.  Maybe it’s not obvious to city folks like me who lives in a country with no mountains.  But towns are usually built in the flat valleys of mountainous regions.  Lhasa is no different.  It’s surrounded by glorious peaks.

View of Potala palace which we would be visiting tomorrow.

Dinner at Kyichu hotel.  We had Yak burger, cheese momos (Tibetan dumplings), Thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup), chicken pizza and local beer.  Food was pretty alright except for the chewy momos which took a fair bit of coaxing down our throats.

Yak is a pretty interesting animal.  Taken from Wikipedia:

Yak physiology is well adapted to high altitudes, having larger lungs and heart than cattle found at lower altitudes, as well as greater capacity for transporting oxygen through their blood due to the persistence of foetal haemoglobin throughout life. Conversely, yaks do not thrive at lower altitudes, and begin to suffer from heat exhaustion above about 15 °C (59 °F). Further adaptations to the cold include a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, and an almost complete lack of functional sweat glands.

Compared with domestic cattle, the rumen of yaks is unusually large, relative to the omasum. This likely allows them to consume greater quantities of low-quality food at a time, and to ferment it longer so as to extract more nutrients

At night, we continued with movies and card games before retiring early for sleep.  Little did J and I knew at that time that we weren’t going to get a lot of rest.

Next

“Did I snore?” I asked my friends.  They heard some snoring.  But they were quick to add that it wasn’t too loud.  Now, that made me really wondered how exactly loud I was.  One of these days I got to use a tape recorder.  I knew I sometimes snore when I was too tired.  An instructor once commented that a section mate and I played the fifth symphony throughout the night in the deep jungles of Brunei and he couldn’t get a wink of sleep.

Well, I hereby declare my deepest regrets to all the sleeps I have disturbed.

Not sure if this small boy with a sleepy look was one of my victims, I apologise to you anyway.

We passed the morning watching a retro vampire movie and playing card games.  I always enjoyed card games and used to pick up a new card game every few days at Yahoo! Games during a period of frenzied interest.  But three card games remained my favourite – Canasta, Hearts and Spades.  I prefer games that requires a higher degree of skill than luck.  A 70/30 ratio would be just nice I thought.  That’s why I also like word games like Scrabble.  I feel that these are very nice social games as they are complex enough to be fun yet do not require the players to focus so much that they cannot chat while playing.  An almost 100% game of skill like Chinese Chess would be very difficult for me.  Sure, I can have a good game with amateurs.  But I just do not have the intelligence to play it really well.  Anyway, I did not have much friends who enjoy the same sort of games as me.  Mostly, we just do Mahjong and Dai Di.  Not that I am complaining, we can’t expect our close friends to share the exact interests as us.  To quote from Haruki Murakami, there is no all-in-one friend.

For lunch, we made our way to the restaurant car.  We ordered some safe dishes at 107RMB.

As the train gained in attitude, oxygen was being released in small quantities to the cabins.  There were also oxygen connect points for emergencies.

The walkway along side the train are where people stretch their legs and talk to strangers.  If I can help it, I always prefer to take trains rather than planes or buses for long distance journies.  There is just something soothing and romantic about a train journey.  Ferries aren’t too bad as well.

Beautiful scenery

After lunch, we took a nap.  It’s a holiday afterall, let’s take things easy.  Later on, we played more card games and started to keep scores.  It isn’t much fun if there is no punishment for the losers right?   Well, it isn’t very fun when I turned out to be one of the losers.  It can be a trifle embarrassing and painful to have a big clip on your ear lobe while waiting for your dinner to arrive.  So I told the waitress to hurry and that we were in a rush for time (我们赶时间!).  With a look that’s a cross between puzzlement and amusement, the waitress informed me that the train schedule was fixed.  It’s not like I can rush off to anywhere by finishing my dinner earlier.  Everybody laughed.

Late night movie was Seven Years in Tibet.  Did you know that Brad Pitt and David Thewlis were banned from ever entering China because of their roles in the movie?

Next

For my friends’ entire stay in China, today was the only day where we had a self-organised trip.   The Tibetan tour, Sichuan Opera, Panda Conservatory and even the train and bus tickets were arranged by Sim’s Cozy.  Even though I usually avoided organised tours, I felt it’s a better choice when you have a group of people traveling together.  By joining an organised tour, the whole group can relax and need not worry about logistic details.  People have different preferences and not everyone thinks that finding one’s way around is fun.  If anything does go wrong with the organised tour, instead of blaming (silently or not) each other for poor organisation, the group can just place the responsibility on the tour agent and probably laughed it off as bad luck.  I think it makes for a happier travel group.

So why did I decide to visit Qingchengshan on our own instead of arranging one from Sim’s Cozy?  Well, I researched and found that visiting Qingchengshan is pretty straightforward.  I also thought my friends would find it fun.  There were a few other reasons for choosing Qingchengshan.  Even though I have used the term friends to describe our relationship, we didn’t really know each other well.  One can say that it was a travel group formed simply because the stars were aligned.  A self-organised trip to climb a physically demanding mountain with various uncertainties look like a good ice-breaking activity, a way to know each other better.  Oh, I also thought that it’s good exercise to prepare us for the higher altitudes.  We have a long train journey to ride out any sole muscles.  Okay, maybe I just want to find reasons for my hobby of mountain peaks collection.

So in the morning 650am, we boarded bus 27 to the train station.  Actually a staff at Sim’s Cozy told me to take another bus number but at the bus stop, I saw that bus 27 seemed to be going to the train station as well.  Since bus 27 arrived first, I told my friends that it’s the bus.  If it’s the wrong bus and we missed our train.. well, it turned out right and we reached the train station early.

At the train station, I distributed our train tickets.  These train tickets had our passport numbers on them.  After passing through the ticket checking and luggage scanners to the body frisking area, a great thing happened.  CC lost her train ticket.  She checked her pockets and bags but couldn’t find it.  There was a mass of bodies at the ticket checking and luggage scanners.  We weren’t sure if the ticket had dropped there.  Since the ticket was only 15RMB, we decided to just buy another ticket.  We headed to the ticketing office which was another building away and joined the long queues.  Time was tight but if necessary, we did not mind buying fresh tickets at a later timing for all four of us.  But China train system had some other ideas.  We cannot purchase another ticket in the same day for the same direction under the same passport.  We cannot request for a reissue of the ticket.  We cannot purchase a ticket less than 30 minutes before departure.  It’s all very complicated.  CC was very apologetic and asked us to go ahead without her.  Of course, we wouldn’t hear of it.  I really thought it’s fun to have such disruptions.  That’s why I said it’s a great thing to happen.

There were probably other ways to settle the problem but we decided to take the long distance bus from Xinnanmen station to Qingchengshan instead.  We didn’t know the bus schedule but we did know it will double the journey time.   Finding a cab that’s willing to go on the meter proved to be our next problem.  We tried 5 cabs before succeeding.   At Xinnanmen, we managed to purchase 4 tickets for the 915am bus to Qingchengshan.  See, things turned out okay even if we were slightly delayed.  Because of it, we even have time for some breakfast.  CC gave us a treat.

In the bus, a lady offered us a bypass route up Qingchengshan without the need to purchase the 90RMB entrance tickets.  She would charge us a small fee.  I have seen this happening in quite a few tourist spots around China.  I took up such offers when I was a poor student and it always turned out fine.  But we weren’t doing it today.

We reached Qingchengshan at around 11am. Qingchengshan is a Taoist mountain while the houshan (back mountain) is a Buddhist mountain.  I thought that’s pretty interesting.

I used to aspire climbing all the five great Taoist mountains (五岳) and the four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism (四大佛教名山).  But so far, I have only visited Tai Shan, Hua Shan, Heng Shan (Beiyue) and Emei Shan.

Taken from Wikipedia:

1 The Five Great Mountains

    1.1 East Great Mountain (Dōngyuè): Tài Shān
    1.2 West Great Mountain (Xīyuè): Huà Shān
    1.3 South Great Mountain (Nányuè): Héng Shān (Hunan)
    1.4 North Great Mountain (Běiyuè): Héng Shān
    1.5 Center Great Mountain (Zhōngyuè): Sōng Shān

2 The Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism

    2.1 Wǔtái Shān
    2.2 Éméi Shān
    2.3 Jiǔhuá Shān
    2.4 Pǔtuó Shān

Qingchengshan is also listed under another set of 4 Taoist Mountains.  So, another mountain off my list.

As the climb was not very easy on the legs and we were tight on time, we decided to take the cable cars.  But we also did not want to miss out the scenery on the walking trail.  So J the photographer hiked while the rest of us took the cable cars.

A couple seeking advice from the wise.

Dao or Tao represents Taoism.

Late autumn colours.

The temple at the peak

Guess what are they looking at?

We managed to catch the 445pm fast train back from Qingchengshan to Chengdu.  Sim’s Cozy had allowed us for a late check-out as our Lhasa train departs at 8:59pm.

Back at Chengdu train station, we took a pedicab back to Sim’s Cozy.  The ride was exciting in heavy Chengdu traffic.  We can smell the smoke and touch the vehicles beside us.

Sim’s Cozy provided a free taxi ride to the train station.  Before departing, they even gave us 2 bags of Beijing confectionary for the 44-hour journey.

It’s really nice to have 4 people traveling together as we can occupy a whole soft sleeper cabin.  Although Sim’s Cozy couldn’t make any promise, the fact that they delivered was what mattered.

Bought KFC for dinner on the train.  You didn’t know there is a KFC cabin on the Chengdu to Lhasa train?

While having our dinner, J played a video documentary of Qinghai-Tibet railway on his iPad.  It was very informative and  make the ride more interesting as we can understand the problems and appreciate the efforts that went into the construction of the railway line.

After the dinner, we played cards until 1130pm when it’s time for bed.  But before we, or rather I, snored the night away, we popped our acclimatization pills.  These are Acetazolamide tablets which would assist to speed up altitude acclimatization and relieve symptoms.  What it does is to force our kidneys to excrete bicarbonate, making our blood more acidic which in turn increases the oxygen level in the blood.

If I was traveling alone, I might not take the pills as I prefer natural acclimatization whatever that means.  But traveling with others, you have a responsibility to the group.  If I did not take any pills and suffered from altitude sickness later, it would affect my fellow travelers.  So I couldn’t really take such risks.  See, I am not quite the anti-social and self-centered loner.

Next

Woke up at 6am cold and hungry.  I walked around until I found my kind of food.  It cost 6.5RMB for 9 steamed dumplings.  Chinese likes to take Xifan (porridge) with some small dishes for breakfast but it is a bit bland for my taste.

The Chengdu map provided by Sim’s Cozy was very informative and banks within its vicinity were listed. I went to a ICBC ATM machine with Mastercard and Visa logos and managed to withdraw money from my Standard Chartered debit card without any issues.

At 9am, I took bus 99 to Mingjiang Bingguan at Ren Min Nan Lu where I intend to take bus 303 to the airport. I followed a lady carrying a luggage across the road where the bus station was located.  I paid 10 RMB and the bus left at 950am.

I was at the airport to pick up my first arriving friend, CC.  We did arrange with Sim’s Cozy for transport from the airport to the guesthouse.  But I thought it’s better I came along.

Anyway, I was early and took some random shots.

CC arrived on schedule and after a few minutes, a driver turned up with Sim’s Cozy sign.  The prearranged drive from the airport to Sim’s Cozy cost 80RMB.  One can also take the taxi directly outside the airport and it should cost around 50RMB.

After settling down, CC and I ventured out to Wenshu Yuan.  The temple dated back to Tang dynasty and is dedicated to Wenshu Budda, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom.  We wanted to try the vegetarian restaurant in the temple but unfortunately, it was closed for renovations.  The area around the temple is a rebuilt old town with cobbled streets of teahouses and shops.

Spotted the following at an alley while we walked from Sim’s Cozy to Wenshu Temple.  Should have given my business to this dentist instead.

We visited a crowded restaurant which offered a set meal of samplings of popular local dishes.

After the late lunch, we took the subway for one station to Ren Min Nan Lu for bus 303 to the airport to pick up our friend, CY.  I always thought it’s fun to try out different transports when visiting a country.

After picking up CY and again taking the prearranged car to Sim’s Cozy, it’s already 7pm.  We had booked an evening tour to Shufeng Yayun Teahouse to watch Sichuan opera.  Mention opera and some of us (me included) would think of singings in languages which we cannot understand.  However, the Sichuan opera we watched at Shufeng Yayun included other Sichuan traditional arts such as face-changing and shadow puppet.  As I understood from our guide, Shufeng Yayun has the best ensemble of artistes in Chengdu and we were very lucky to have the real masters performed during our visit.  Set in an open-air traditional teahouse at culture park, the place was also very atmospheric.  It’s quite an experience watching the excellent performances while drinking tea and eating groundnuts.  I only regretted not trying the ear cleaning service.

The show ended around 930pm making it too late for us to pick up J from the airport.  Since J is a guy, we let him take care of himself.

Anyway, it’s almost 10pm when we got back to Sim’s Cozy.  We had dinner at Sim’s and chatted while we waited for J to arrive.  When we walked back to the reception area at around 1130pm, J was there already.  I almost couldn’t recognise him as I have not seen him for quite a few years.  But he’s still the same easy-going guy and showed no signs of impatience over our late appearance.  His flight had landed at 1040pm and he took less than an hour clearing the customs and reaching Sim’s Cozy.  As he didn’t know we were in the restaurant, he had waited at the reception area for 20mins.

Now, the whole team had arrived.

Next

- Talmud

- Annabelle (Restless)

Slept a little late today but was still out of the hotel at 8am.  I stopped by a shop for a breakfast of hot steaming wanton soup.  Then I took bus 13 for a 15 mins ride to Grand Buddha site.

At first, I thought I will just be seeing a huge Buddha.  But it turned out that the Grand Buddha scenic area is big.  It actually houses a lot of other sights such as caves, temples, parks and a fishing village.

The Chinese character Fo shown below means Buddha.

There were quite a few tour groups and I hang around listening to their explanation of the various sights.  The guides even teach you how to pose for funny photos as shown in the photo below.  I thought it’s a great way to take interesting photos for keepsake.  But I am usually too self-conscious to do such things.

The 1200 year old Grand Buddha was built during the Tang dynasty.  The construction was led by a Chinese monk named Haitong.  He hoped that the Buddha would calm the turbulent waters and protect the boatmen at Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers.

The Grand Buddha stands at 71m tall.  His shoulders span 28m but our fingernails are about the same size.

There used to be a fishing village in the area but it was turned into rows of seafood restaurants and tourist trinket stalls.

The 90 RMB Grand Buddha entrance tickets included Wuyou Temple.  I had to cross the bridge and do a short climb to reach the temple.

Wuyou means No Worries.

My only plan for the rest of the day was to go to Chengdu.  So I spent some relaxing time playing with my new camera.

I got slightly lost after Wuyou Temple. Luckily, a nice lady walked with me for a distance before pointing out the directions to the main road where I can catch the return bus.

The bus stops in Leshan are quite informative.  I find the map especially useful as it shows which buses go to which location.

I checked out from hotel at 12pm and took bus 8 to Xiaoba bus station. Lonely Planet Guide book says that Xiaoba bus station is located north of Leshan centre.  But on my mobile phone’s GPS, Xiaoba bus station is actually located west of town.  Probably, our point of reference is different.  Anyhow, over at Xiaoba bus station, I paid 47RMB for a bus ticket to Chengdu.

I reached Chengdu Xinnanmen bus station at around 3pm. Then, I took bus no 28 to Sim’s Cozy.  Again, my Nokia phone’s OviMaps helped a lot.  I just have to match its map to that in the Lonely Planet to know whether my bus has arrived at the location.  Oh, the local bus ride cost 2 RMB in Chengdu compared to 1 RMB in Leshan.

Over at Sim’s, I got myself a single room at 120 RMB.  Walking pass the travel desk, I noticed a placard with the name Joy.  I walked over and introduced myself as the troublesome Singaporean who kept emailing her questions about the Tibet tour.  Joy gave a sign of recognition before smiling politely and saying that there was no trouble at all.

At 430pm, I left Sim’s and stumbled onto a dental clinic.  Realising I haven’t visited a dentist for quite a while, I went inside.  I told the dentist that I wanted to XiYa which literally means teeth cleaning.  But the dentist looked confused and I realised that he might thought that I was asking him to brush my teeth.  After some clarification, I was on the dentist chair.  I commented on the open concept of the clinic and he said the clinic had to attact the crowds.  We then discussed further about the difference between dental clinics in Singapore and China.   When I told him I have never seen any dental or hospital advertisements in Singapore, he asked how then would we know where to go?  I didn’t have a good answer to that.

Chao Shou. I had some good ones and some bad ones.  This belonged to the latter.

Nevermind, I compensated with the ever dependable street snacks.

It’s a 30 mins walk to the train station where I bought 4 tickets to Qingchengshan tomorrow. This time round, I remembered to take down the passport numbers of my friends.  Anybody knows the reason why we need to produce passport numbers (or identity cards for locals) for buying tickets of superfast trains?

For fun, I took the subway from the train station to Wenshu Monastery.

From there I walked back to Sim’s.

I like fan rooms because I can wash and dry my socks and underwears overnight.

Next

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learnt never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.

This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

I woke up early and moved off at 7am.  At 8am, I stopped by a stall for noodles and learnt from the owner that it has snowed twice in Emeishan this year, once in May and once in October.  It rained at Emeishan about 200 days in a year.  Well, it kind of explain why my wet foldable umbrella was constantly hooked at my side.

When I reached Jieyin Monastery, it was around 9am.  After that, I had to walk on the main road for a while before rejoining the trail to the summit. This is also the area where floods of tourists started appearing.

Sometimes crowds bring in with them a festive atmosphere but I rather prefer a serene mountain.

This is the cable car station at Leidongping which travels up to Wuyun.  I sucuumbed to fatigue and paid 65rmb for a one way ticket.

From Wuyun, it’s a short climb to Golden Summit.

It’s 3079m and I like to think  that I am acclimatising for Tibet.

These monkeys know how to unwrap food packagings and eat deftly with their hands.

Haha, no food no photo.

I descended and reached Leidongping bus station in time to catch the 11am bus back to Baoguo bus station.  At 1pm, I repacked my stuffs at Teddy Bear and joined a private mini-van which waylaid me.  I paid them 15 RMB to take me to a hotel at Leshan. I thought it’s a fair deal and the vehicle was spacious and comfortable.

By 4pm, I have settled in at Xiao Gong Zui hotel in Leshan which cost me 128RMB.  It is conveniently located at Binhe Lu which is near to the rivers and jetty.  I originally did not want to visit the Grand Buddha site and thought of just taking a tourist boat ride for some quick photo-taking.   But a few people I spoke to persuaded me that the Grand Buddha site is worth a visit.  I heeded their advice.

From my hotel’s rooftop cafe, one can see the confluence of Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers. If you have good eyes, you can try to spot the tourist boats hanging around the Grand Buddha site in the photo below.

I strolled around and find that Leshan is quite a nice place.  Not very crowded and plenty of street snacks.

The retired seemed to be having a great time playing cards and mahjong.

By evening, I was back at hotel and watched a movie titled Xi Feng Lie before reading myself to sleep.

Next

I woke up at 6am to a cold morning.  I packed two bags – one bag is to be stored at Teddy Bear which I will pick up after my climb and another bag which I will carry up Emeishan.  There are various entry points to Emeishan and thus various routes to take.   Here’s a good hiking map from Teddy Bear.  I would start the hike from Wuxiangang bus station and take the route passing through Hongchun Ping , Xianfeng Temple, Yuxian Temple, Elephant Bathing Pool and Jieyin Hall for the Golden Summit.  I would spent a night at one of these monasteries.  On the descent, I would take the bus from Leidongping back to Baoguo and depending on the time, head for Leshan.

Entrance to Qingyin Pavilion and the first of many B&W photos

Ebony Logs.  There is actually a Madame White Snake legend interwined with them, check it out when you are there.

There are many places to stay within Emeishan, some of them looks absolutely atmospheric in the natural and misty surroundings.

Fancy a stay here? Click on photo for a bigger view.

Various famous people have visited Emeishan. One of them was Emperor Kangxi as depicted in the carvings below.

While doing research for Emeishan, I have read about the infamous monkeys of Emei. They are known to be aggressive and there are signs warning tourists to avoid hiking alone in the paths of the monkey lords.

Luckily for me, I hiked through the Monkey Ecological Zone without seeing a real monkey.

I wore 2 layers of clothings because of the cold and I sweated profusely because of the climb.  This guy didn’t seem to have the same problems.

Hongchun Ping, looks like a very nice place to stay for the night.

But it’s still early so I continued my slow hike while enjoying the beautiful scenery.

At 1130am, I stopped at a shop for hot noodles and Mai Dong (energy drink).  By this time, my legs were getting very heavy and I wondered how I can last all the way to the summit.

I shot at random things while resting.

After what seemed like a long time, I reached Xianfeng Temple. The elevation was 1752m. I really have to stop for the day soon as my leg muscles were becoming very tight.

View around Xianfeng Temple (Click on photo for a bigger view)

Finally, I saw some threatening monkeys.  Actually, some of them were so huge that I prefer to call them mini gorillas.

Trying out the selective coloring mode of my camera but not yellow enough.

So I pieced the yellow leaves together to form my initials.

More nice scenery along the way.

I reached Yuxian Temple at 230pm and I was really worn out.  But when I requested for a room, the lady looked at me with surprise.  She informed that it’s just 230pm and I have more than enough time to reach Elephant Bathing Pool or beyond for the night.

Okay, I struggled on.

At 4pm, I reached Elephant Bathing Pool. Altitude here is 2070m. The name of the place does not inspire confidence but it turned out to be a rather nice place to stay for the night.  There are plenty of rooms available.

Vegetarian dinner at the restaurant here for 20 RMB.  I don’t remember ever having so many carrots in my life. But I dare not waste any of the food.  I thought it would be considered bad form.

The dorm room I had cost 40 RMB.  Bathing facilities are available but I was too cold and lazy to bath.  The bed comes with an electric heating mattress which I find sufficient.  The only other person in the dorm was a local eldery who was on his way downhill.  We discussed our hiking plans and he offered me some spicy beef jerkies which I have seen in supermarkets but never dared to try.  It tasted great!

Next

After a few weeks of arrangement, it’s finally time for the big trip.  As usual, it’s a mixed of feelings going on a trip which promised unknown places and unforseen situations.  Excitement yes, but also a bit of anxiety.

I woke up at 340am and rode to Changi Airport Terminal 3 on my Vespa LX150 where I would be parking my scooter for 22 days.  Yes, I am quite tight when it comes to paying almost SGD40 for a taxi ride to the airport.  After a short skytrain ride, I reached terminal 1 and checked in.  With some time to spare, I had a breakfast of Wanton noodles.  It might look okay on photo but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.  You can easily find better Wanton noodles in any food centers in Singapore.

As usual, I like to have a tight schedule.  My flight is due to arrive at Kuala Lumpur at 0725H and the flight to Chengdu is due to depart at 0915H.  As things have a habit of working out well, I managed through the customs with time to spare.

Here I am, enjoy a sandwich on the flight to Chengdu and reading Lost Horizons by James Hilton. As I mentioned before, I feel it’s important to read books about the places you are visiting to have a better appreciation and also to get yourself into the mood.

There are a few public buses outside Chengdu Airport.  Bus 303 departs directly outside the airport and brings you to the center of the city, near Tianfu Square Metro station.  As I need to get to the train station, after exiting the airport, I turned right and walked along the roads for around 150m for bus 300.  The bus journey cost 10RMB and took almost 1.5hr.

At Chengdu Railway Station, I queued up for train tickets to Emei only to be told that there were no seats left today.  I asked the staff about alternatives to reach Emei and she suggested bus.  I was about to leave when she asked if I mind taking a sleeping berth for the short train journey to Emei at 6pm instead.  I readily accepted and paid 75RMB.  I also tried to purchase train tickets to Qingchengshan but was told that I need to furnish passport information for all passengers for the superfast trains.  Nevermind, I will settle that when I get back to Chengdu.  I loitered around for the next two hours and bought a Unicom SIM card with data plan for 100RMB.

Even though I had a sleeping berth, I sat at a folding seat and chatted with a young Zhan Zhu policeman from Ganzi who’s going to Panzhihua for training.  Once we started discussing about China and its issues, an eldery passenger joined in the conversation but I could not understand half of his dialect.  So the policeman had to help in the translation.

The train reached Emei Station at 825pm.  I took a cab to Teddy Bear Hotel located at Baoguo Village, near the foot of Emeishan.  The simple room with private hot bath cost me 80RMB.

Street BBQed food for dinner before I call it a day.

Next

Tibet definitely deserves the attention. Once you stepped into Lhasa, you knew you have arrived at a mysterious destination with its own identity, which is quite unlike the feeling one gets when visiting other cities in China.  You just want to spend time trying to understand this beautiful plateau landscape and its people.

The term Tibet does not actually refer to the province, it refers to the whole Tibetan region which also includes part of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan.  The province whose border is often drawn up in maps is the Tibet Autonomous Region or TAR for short.  Therefore, TAR is the Chinese administration region while Tibet is the ethno-cultural region.  But people might not understand if I use TAR, so generally I stick to Tibet.

The current travel restrictions require foreign tourists to travel on a guided tour in TAR.  Tourists are also not allowed on the pilgrimage buses that plow the region so a private vehicle is usually included as part of the tour.   I have engaged Sim’s Cozy in Chengdu to arrange the tour.  Joy is the person who liaise with us.  She is extremely knowledgeable and patient with our requests.  The 7-day Tibetan tour they arranged cost around 10,000 RMB for the 4 of us (J, CC, CY and me).  They are not the cheapest but it’s worth the money.  The tour included and excluded the following:

Sim’s Cozy also helped to arrange the train tickets, air tickets and booking of the hotels we selected. For what I know, they did not impose charges for the additional services provided.

After the Tibetan tour was decided, I started filling up the gaps in my itinerary by first fixing the dates and entry/exit points.  My first and last days of the trip were easy to decide because I wanted to make full use of my job gap.  So this means I would start traveling the day after my last day at work and I would return home a day before I start my new job.  This gives me around 22 days to play with.  My friends’ schedules are also quite fixed as they can only get away from work for around 10 days and only after month end closing (the lives of accountants!).

This leaves me a 4 day gap and a 7 day gap before and after the Tibetan tour respectively.  It’s not a lot of time and I soon fixed my entry point to Chengdu (Sichuan) and exit point to Kunming (Yunnan).  Cheap air tickets certainly helped in the quick decision.  Now, I just have to reseach which places to visit.  Besides the usual Lonely Planet’s guidebooks and Thorntree forum, Chinabackpacker is an excellent resource.  Here’s a useful diagram of possible itineraries from Chengdu to Kunming taken from Chinabackpacker.

I originally considered many potential places to visit such as Songpan, Jiuzhaigou or Siguniang in Sichuan and Lugu Lake or Baishuitai in Yunnan.  But I wanted to avoid long bus journeys so I finally ended up with a rather leisurely itinerary which can be divided into 3 main legs.

Leg 1 (Sichuan, mostly around Chengdu)

Singapore > Kuala Lumpur > Chengdu > Emeishan > Leshan > Chengdu

Leg 2 (Tibet with friends)

Chengdu (Qingchengshan) > Qinghai Rail > Lhasa > Shigatse > Everest Base Camp Viewpoint > Lhatse > Shigatse > Lhasa > Chengdu

Leg 3 (Yunnan)

Chengdu > Zhongdian aka Shangrila > Tiger Leaping Gorge > Lijiang > Dali > Kunming (Shilin and Xishan) > Singapore

The Southwest China (Sichuan, Tibet & Yunnan) trip report is divided into the following pages:

1. Introduction (You are here)
2. Journey Day 1 (Singapore to Chengdu to Emeishan)
3. Journey Day 2 (Emeishan)
4. Journey Day 3 (Emeishan to Leshan)
5. Journey Day 4 (Leshan to Chengdu)
6. Journey Day 5 (Friends Arrival at Chengdu and Sichuan Opera)
7. Journey Day 6 (Qingchengshan and 44hrs Train Ride to Lhasa)
8. Journey Day 7 (Train Journey)
9. Journey Day 8 (Train Journey and Arrival at Lhasa)
10. Journey Day 9 (Around Lhasa – Potala, Jokhang, Barkhor)
11. Journey Day 10 (Around Lhasa – Norbulingka and Sera)
12. Journey Day 11 (Lhasa to Yamdrok Lake to Karola Glacier to Gyantse to Shigatse)
13. Journey Day 12 (Shigatse to Everest View Point to Lhatse)
14. Journey Day 13 ( Lhatse to Shigatse)
15. Journey Day 14 (Shigatse to Lhasa to Chengdu)
16. Journey Day 15 (Chengdu Panda Tour and Friends Departure, Arrival at Zhongdian aka Shangrila)
17. Journey Day 16 (Zhongdian aka Shangrila to Tiger Leaping Gorge)
18. Journey Day 17 (Tiger Leaping Gorge to Lijiang)
19. Journey Day 18 (Around Lijiang – Yulong Xueshan)
20. Journey Day 19 (Lijiang to Dali)
21. Journey Day 20 (Dali to Kunming)
22. Journey Day 21 (Around Kunming – Shilin)
23. Journey Day 22 (Around Kunming – Xishan, and Home!)

Because I just got a new camera (Sony Nex 3) which comes with some fanciful picture effects, please bear with me the numerous black&white and special effect photos you would see in this trip report.  For friends who want to see photos of us, do refer to facebook.

Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: This trip was taken in November 2011. The information is provided ‘as is’ with no warranties and confers no rights. If you are interested to know more, please add a comment and I will update the post with more details.

Next

Living and tourism in a foreign country perplexed and intrigued me.  I had doubts on communal living, household chores, winter, backpacking and local transports.  Thankfully, with great friends, we managed to do a lot of things together and have an extremely enjoyable time.

My friends and I frequently travel to places in and outside Beijing whenever we had the chance.  Maybe we were younger, but we had a lot of energy.  There were very few lazy weekends and very few dull moments, quite unlike the semi-comatose life I am leading now.  Those really were the days.

View from my apartment

Now that I am growing old and trying to relive these fond memories, I would write about my life in Beijing and the numerous trips taken.

Life in Beijing

• Our apartments and neighbourhood
• City
• Winter
• Food

January

• Tian An Men
• Simatai to Jinshanling Great Wall
• Skiing and Hot Spring

February

• Temple fair at Long Tan
• Tianjin
• Hengshan and Yungang Grottoes at Datong

March

• Taishan and Qufu at Shandong
• Forbidden City
• Marco Polo Bridge

April

• Jinshanling to Gubeikou Great Wall

May

• Badaling Great Wall
• Shanhaiguan Great Wall

June

• Houhai
• Jiankou to Mutianyu Great Wall, Bungee Jumping at QinglongXia
• Kongzhi Miao
• Shidu
• Liang Liang Miao

July

• Beijing > Xian > Chongqing > Yangtze > Guangdong > Hongkong