Subject: Trip Report #3 - Dali, Yunnan, China
From: "David Carlson" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 04:09:53 -0400

September 9, 2001     Dali, Yunnan, China

We've reached China.  The kids have had tremendous difficulty with the
concept that life could be different from what they know.  What do you mean
you can't leave the country when you want?  What do you mean the Government
owns everything and decides what you're going to do..  Communism is a
foreign ideology to them and Mark in particular is not very open minded
about it.

We spent 6 days wandering around Beijing taking in all the sights. well okay
some of them.  Saw the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Tientan, Beihai
Park, Summer Palace, and the Great Wall of China.  Had a fabulous Peking (ok
Beijing now) duck in Li Qun's Peking Duck Restaurant.. Both getting to the
restaurant through the Hutong area (very small narrow streets with tiny
houses) and enjoying the food were most memorable.  Also spent an evening
watching the Beijing acrobats, they were a younger group than the ones we
saw at Roy Thompson a year or so ago but just as good.  We had a driver for
two and a half days, recommended by a couple in Hong Kong, who was very
worthwhile.  We'll pass on his name if anybody is coming to Beijing.

I am writing this after having spent 2 weeks in China.  I now realize how
different all the places in China are and also how different the people are.
In Beijing I felt oppression, perhaps my imagination was running away with
me a bit, but there was definitely a different atmosphere in Beijing
compared to other parts of China we have now visited. People looked over
their shoulder, the military was far more present and people talked, albeit
quietly, about how terrible the government was.  People seemed dour, very
few smiles except when they saw our children.  Our children became
celebrities in various places, the Forbidden City in particular where they
must have had their pictures taken by at least a dozen different people. We
were asked by several people whether there was planned parenthood in Jianada
(Canada).  Our response was of course no, but it made us chuckle as for some
of us it takes a while to figure out what causes babies!  In China couples
are limited to one child with the odd exception for farmers who have a girl
and occasionally are granted permission to try for a son who can help with
farm work.

We spent 3 nights in a horrible hotel by the Train Station in Xi'an.
Heather cried herself to sleep on the second night, she was convinced bugs
were eating her but after both David and I each got up to shake out her
sheets and re-make her bed we didn't have lots of sympathy.  However, we did
promise the kids we'd try to get at least cleaner accommodation in the
future.  A travel agent at the airport booked the rooms and we paid not very
much - but it was a lot for what we got.  Oh well. we're learning . all
sorts of things.  Apart from the accommodation which we spent as little time
in as possible, we enjoyed the Terracotta warriors and Huaqing Chi (natural
hot springs created during the Tang dynasty for the emperors and their
concubines).  The Terracotta warriors really were incredible and the fact
that they suspect that there are many more underground warriors guarding the
Emperor's tomb is amazing. A well deserved Eighth Wonder of the world.  The
bronze chariots were also quite incredible.

Laundry .. well. getting clean clothes is not as easy as I originally
thought it was going to be.  I'm starting a book on laundry in different
places; Chloe's writing a book on toilets.  Having done quite a bit of
traveling before children, I know about toilets but they are definitely
something of a novelty to the kids... they prefer clean western toilets.  I
don't dare tell them at this point that we will probably be experiencing a
lot worse and that the bushes will be much better. The hotel in Beijing
(which was very nice) charged an arm and a leg for laundering service for
each individual item.  We went down the street to a place recommended by our
driver and they wanted 300 Yuen!  That's $60 bucks for 2 loads of laundry!!
We hadn't run out of clean clothes yet so decided to give laundry a pass and
would see whether it was cheaper to wash clothes in Xi'an.   On the first
day we arrived in Xi'an I asked the tourist office where I could do laundry
and she directed us to a room at the back of our hotel.  They too wanted to
count all the pieces but in the end examined a few things in the bags and
then said 200 Yuen.  The two bags were now a little larger than when we took
them to the place in Beijing.  Still thought $40 bucks was a lot, after sign
language and some assistance from the doorman who spoke quite good English,
I negotiated to have our laundry done for 100 Yuen ($20.)  Apparently coin
self serve laundry mats don't exist in China.  We may be resorting to
wearing our underpants inside out!

We spent a night in Kunmin in a most enjoyable neighbourhood.  Very lively
modern city with lots of greenery and little sign of any military.  Getting
money out of ATM machines has been hit and miss, some Bank of China machines
work, others don't.  Had to cash travelers cheques in Xi'an as the internet
seemed to be down everywhere.  The ATM at the main branch of Bank of China
in Kunmin accepted my card and doled out the maximum I was allowed, but then
promptly rejected David's card.  We found a second machine around the
corner, and after waiting for a woman to carry out many transactions as she
appeared to be limited in the amount she could withdraw each time, David was
successful at getting out the maximum of 2000 Yuen.  We wanted to stock up
on money as we were headed to Dali and didn't know whether we would have
access to either ATM's or banks that would cash traveller's cheques.  Our
one night in Kunmin was just a stopover, we took an express 5 hour bus to
Dali first thing the following morning.  However we think we'll spend a
couple of nights at the same hotel in Kunmin after doing a tour of the
countryside and visiting Dali and Lijiang in the province of Yunnan.

We have been getting two rooms, side by side, in most places we have stayed.
David and I share a twin, David's sure we've done this before, I'm not so
sure or have selective memory.  However rather than listen to the girls
fight at night, D and I have decided that after 20 years there's no
surprises, including our sleeping patterns, so we're managing just fine in a
twin bed.  Truth be known, we're both sleeping very well.

We've reached Dali, the kids are doing school work with David in the court
yard while I sit upstairs in our room writing this newsletter.  In 45
minutes we head out for dinner at a restaurant that serves a traditional Bai
dinner (8 course meal) on Sunday nights.  We are about to spend our second
night in a rather crummy hotel booked by a travel agent while in Xi'an.
Luckily we only booked for 2 nights so have scouted out other spots and
found a much nicer guest house for 2/3 of the price.  It's only 4 months
old, spotlessly clean and to top it off D. and I can spend the next 3 nights
sleeping in a room all by ourselves!  The kids will be in the room next to
us which has three beds.  We've enjoyed our day wondering around Dali.  It's
much cooler than anywhere else we've been to on our trip, which is a welcome
relief.  The Lonely Planet book says Dali is a perfect place to tune out for
a while and take a vacation from traveling, we intend to do just that.  Need
to get the kids through some school work.

Our website is fairly up to date with more details on our travels and
pictures.. http://www.canadiancarlsons.com

Not sure when you will receive this newsletter as we don't have Internet
connection in Dali.

Love from us all,