Around the World in 109 days
Um die Welt in 109 Tagen
04.05.-21.08.2008
China, 16.-26.05.2008 
Time zone: China = GMT + 8h
1 Euro = 11 Yuan (RMB)
Saturday, 17.05.2008
In the morning I arrived at Urumqi in Western China, moved into a quite
inexpensive but central hotel. Later I had a look around the city and a
typical, inexpensive Chinese lunch. I spent the nice, warm afternoon at People's Park.
Photo gallery: Urumqi
Sunday, 18.05.2008
In the morning I traveled West to Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake), a beautiful
blue lake at 2000 m elevation in the mountains. In the evening I was back
to Urumqi right on time to catch the 8:03pm night train to Liuyuan.
Photo gallery: Tian Chi
Photo gallery: From Urumqi to Liuyuan
Monday, 19.05.2008
In Liuyuan I joined some nice Chinese tourists (among them the really friendly
- and English speaking - Daizhengyong) in a shared taxi through the desert to
Dunhuang. There we had breakfast, then visited the impressive Mingsha Shan
dunes. After lunch we strolled a bit around the city. Then we visited the
famous Mogao caves before heading to the new train station and jumping on
the 9:25pm night train to Lanzhou.
Photo gallery: Dunhuang and Mogao
Tuesday, 20.05.2008
I dropped my luggage at Daizhengyong's friend's apartment in Lanzhou, had a
shower, then visited the city's sights (and tasted it's cuisine) with my
private tourist guide. In the evening we admired the lightened bridge and
buildings near the river and had a little karaoke party. Around 11pm we had
to say goodbye and I boarded the 11:22pm night train to Zhengzhou.
Photo gallery: Lanzhou
Wednesday, 21.05.2008
I arrived at Zhengzhou in the afternoon, had a look around the city, spent some hours online and at the train station before taking the 4am night train to Yichang.
Photo gallery: Zhengzhou
Thursday, 22.05.2008
Arriving at Yichang in the afternoon, I checked in at the Railway Station Hotel, arranged my boat trip for the next day and walked to the riverfront park of Yangzi River. On the way back I bought some local beer and spent the evening in my hotel room.
Photo gallery: Yichang
Friday, 23.05.2008
In the morning I went to the hydrofoil terminal upstream the 3 Gorges Dam (which was hardly visible due to the rainy weather). From there I left for a 5 hours boat ride upstream the Yangzi river, admiring the 3 gorges and the other landscape. From Wanzhou we took a bus to Chongqing, where I booked a room at Fuyuan Hotel near the railway station. Then I had some cheap but very delicious local rice dinner and slow internet before returning to my really comfortable room.
Photo gallery: The three gorges
Saturday, 24.05.2008
At 9:30am I took the train direction south-west.
Photo gallery: From Chongqing to Kunming
Sunday, 25.05.2008
After 20 hours in the train I arrived in Kunming at 5am, bought my onward tickets and jumped on the 7am bus to Shilin, 2 hours from Kunming, to have a look at the amazing stone forest of countless karst rocks spread over the hills. Fantastic!
Photo gallery: Shilin
In the afternoon I was back to Kunming and did some sightseeing.
Photo gallery: Kunming
And after that I took the 7pm night bus to Mengla near the Lao border.
Fotogalerie: Mengla
next: Laos
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