China 
2004 MY CHINA
seem strange but the best china or the People's Republic of China want its density (huge) want her story (little) I was fascinated when she came out as an idea of \u200b\u200bviaggione megagalattico viaggioni ... ... those who are studying at a table for days but with more certainty, the fact remains that in the end it was this country's many contradictions with the goal of the trip.
After several checks on the Internet we rely on a travel agency, too many problems in the first language and then later turned out to be little information or distorted information. We
in February 2004 and our journey will start in late April of that year with the tour operators and tour Mistral Panorama China (Beijing-Nanjing-Suzhou-Shanghai-Hanghzhou-Xi'an-Guilin-Guangzhou-Hong Kong)
PS: please note that the digital camera I had was a gift of pixels and then I knew nothing. ... and I say that the photos are two different things there are people who capture moments and ideas in a I unfortunately have other natural qualities, but if I live I would have to beg photo for a long time ... .. I hope I remember everything has been nearly six years ..... you sit comfortably side ... ..
DEPARTURE
The travel agent we had withdrawn the passports to be sent one month before the Chinese embassy in Rome for the controls (which will prove to be keen for the whole tour) and to see a great big sticker a page of passport with watermarks and a thousand tricks Commodities.
the day of departure we drink Genoa-Milan Malpensa airport in a beat flash, the flight will be a mxp Frankfurt and Frankfurt Beijing at night.
now I discover the kindness of the hostess from the short flight of Lufthansa-Frankfurt mxp then I wonder and enthusiasm for The long journey from Europe to the international terminal, everything tapiruan, it takes a good half hour and eventually form the group and we know the Italian-led tour of the mistral that specializes in China.
The aircraft of Lufthansa out of Frankfurt to Beijing is huge in the end saw my sleeplessness while traveling, walking on board calculation that we are almost 280 passengers. Yes and no sleep for a couple of hours, going eastward, and it soon becomes clear after about 8 hours we are in Beijing.
BEIJING
Day 2: Beijing disappoints me to skin, chaos, old barracks, Soviet-style apartment blocks, many military traffic smog and much more ... .. well we see where they are building for the 2008 Olympics and the local guide (we'll have one in each city) tells us that China might run too far this economic boom.
We visit Tiananmen Square, where many children play with kites, we see the old train station and the mausoleum where Mao's embalmed Mao Zedong is the same, it's a bit 'effect and actually does see the devotion that the Chinese people have for the general President of the Cultural Revolution.
Climb on the bus and go to a restaurant for lunch. Chinese food in China is divided between original and Westernized, very few exceptions of course we always eat the second which is very similar to what we eat in Chinese restaurants Italian. In the afternoon we visit
The Tibetan temple.
After a refreshing nap at the hotel we decide to leave before dinner but to our disappointment to the 19 closed all restaurants stay open a few and isolated, the barriers are raised in Tiananmen Square where soldiers are preparing for the night guard and I 's impression that even the lights of beijing decrease.
Day 3: Today we visit the Imperial Palace and the Forbidden City, very beautiful, but completely rebuilt, we will discover later that the war against the Japanese invaded China the same ground and began to focus almost everything, including temples.
in Beijing say that the highlight of sightseeing in addition to the Great Wall of China is just the Forbidden City where the emperor lived almost segregated for fear of attacks on his person because outside there was only death and misery.
the evening, our local guide offers to take us to see the show of acrobats and dancing in the Chinese form, even if the room is pretty full and I know exclusively Western is a show just for us.
Day 4: The Great Wall of China has always fascinated me, like a snake asleep now stretches for 6,000 km with a width of 10 meters, embattled and every 80 meters is built on top of a tower. A deployment of forces and material is to build it is to keep it is to defend it. Built in the third century BC by Emperor Shi Huangdi Oin, the terra cotta army of Xi'an, a perhaps slightly megalomaniac emperor, who thought that the walls could defend the empire from Mongol armies. The guide explains that it is not true that you can see the moon not because of the length, but for the lack of width.
Actually this piece about a mile outside Beijing is the only restored and is open to the 2000s style, that is, you see that is fake but oh well cheers to the wall.
In the afternoon we visit the imperial tombs of three emperors of the Ming Dynasty and the sacred way, a beautiful place full of green and relaxing with statues and temples, we needed after the chaos of recent days.
very striking to me was something impressive, I do not know is a fascinating place.
Day 5: Visit the temple of heaven faster. Here, the guide is lost on a Philosophical Discourse on Taoist and after three minutes exactly going to make me break and two photos.
then travel to Nanjing airport is part of the old capital of China.
NANJING
We have the time to take a walk in downtown skyscrapers where we welcome the pedestrian streets, many shops and lots of kids clothes with trendy haircuts last cry ... ... shops with high-fired rock music and lights that seem to be club. Some kid is an English school with courage and ask me where I come from, proud of my answer turns and yells something incomprehensible to the rest of the group, laughter and euphoria of knowledge takes the upper hand, I am bombarded with questions and struggle hard to answer all I leave with a door that I LOVE CHINA my rock star levels of popularity .... a shock compared to the regime in Beijing. We bust more than a little dinner on the top floor of our hotel with panoramic revolving restaurant while we eat that makes us see all the lights and the city at night. We decide to take a walk and end up in a small shopping center is closing, but seeing that, incredibly, the Director refers the closure and committed back in their place, poor things, we buy water, juice, ice cream, memory for digital cameras, some jeans a shirt and a pair of shoes identical to the puma.
Day 6: It is not that there is much to see in Nanjing, however, let us be done with the old town and down, an undefined museum where elementary school children look at us like we were aliens and a bridge over the Yangtze River that is not so blue.
Lunch in a typical Chinese restaurant complete with a cook who prepares us for the famous roast duck really good and so the station where we expect the waiting room of the 1st class and then the train to Suzhou. Here too, we understand that it is better not to tourists to see the poverty of the station where hundreds of poor Chinese took refuge and where they are often driven with whips by the military to show as little as possible and give an impression that everything is fine seems to be the categorical imperative.
On the train a lady in a gray uniform, followed by two uniformed military controls us tickets and we thank you, soon after followed by another in red uniforms in a military uniform sells ice cream (very good by the way) then we are attracted to a metal-plated a "spittoon" explains that the vast majority of Chinese have this bad habit of spitting always in fact came to realize it now Suzhou men women children and even spit in fact always in anticipation of the Olympic Games of 2008 Beijing information campaigns are doing to change this habit, and even in Shanghai, the throbbing heart of Chinese economy, modern city, full of Westerners have set up a task force of police who fined the people caught in the act.
SUZHOU
We get on the bus just outside the station and know the guidance of China Suzhou, to say the truth is a young girl and her manner of speaking, we understand that should not be much that is driving, however we try to make it look like his speeches always understandable.
Once we realize that the hotel entrance and across the hall is under renovation, our tour leader is not a little proud and a fight breaks out in Chinese Joint English-Italian and after 10 minutes of shouting and threats finally give us the keys.
Day 7: In the morning we visit the gardens, or rather the "ville" mandarins and nobles who have retired are locked up in beautiful villas with gardens, fountains and waterfalls to wait for the transition, to tell the truth I'm having a all the same and I honestly do not know what is original or classic carriages for tourists still visit the garden of the Master Administrator's Garden Network and the humble. After several pictures (where do the best of myself) and free time to throw us to the restaurant where all meals are taken, a dozen in all, and where more or less understand what we are eating.
the afternoon go to the countryside to the village of Tongli, is used to digest what we ate as a village because we are all waiting for .... the countryside with peasants bowed to crack your back to grow some vegetables, irrigation channels that are more like open channel, the final tour and tasting (declined) problem of a possibly illegal distillery of sake or something with barrels and tools where very dirty and the smell is the master. After dinner
output mass, the group is almost complete, we go for a ride along the lake and I must say that the place is really nice you are good and fresh in Beijing now has left us. We sit on the very nice wrought iron benches with the backs of manicured gardens is a starry night and I usually sentimentalist, watching shooting stars on a philosophical discourse on celestial bodies, astrology and star names. It 's late and we decided to return to the hotel where we stay a few more minutes for a drink at the bar of the same.
Day 8: After a hearty breakfast we will visit the pagoda named the tiger seems to tame the tigers in the past by the monks, very beautiful. After lunch we go to the train station waiting for us to Hangzhou where just gone up, fall asleep.
HANGZHOU
In three hours we arrived we have abundant time to exit the train station and we are beset by poor Chinese with walking problems that beg us, our local guide and we will get it raging not just to calm him down and make a collection of little money that we distribute a bit 'at all ... ..
The hotel is a 5 star and luxury compared to what we've seen a lot of clashes.
The city is very beautiful on the Yangtze River is called the city of towers and Marco Polo called it the Venice of the East. An ancient Chinese proverb states: "In heaven there is paradise and on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou" and our guide will be proud of.
The beautiful lake is located near the West Lake is ... according to legend, a pearl set in the Milky Way by a dragon and a phoenix Fell to Earth and became the West Lake, an inadvertent gift to the people of Hangzhou.
Lingyin Temple is one of the most famous monasteries in China. It was founded in 326 by an Indian Buddhist Monaco, whose Chinese name was Hui Li. He underwent numerous destructions and reconstructions. The only part of the temple escaped destruction during the Taiping Rebellion in 1861 was a splendid hall built in 1661 to house the statues of the 500 disciples of Buddha. Tragically, due to a fire all the statues were destroyed in 1936. During the Cultural Revolution the monks were expelled by the Red Guard and returned there in 1972. The two main temples are the Temple of Celestial Guardians and the Great Hall of the Buddha. In the first, the four corners, there are four statues of Guardians, made in 1932. At the center is a statue of Maitreya Buddha (from the 18th century) and Skanda (the main guardian of the Buddha and Buddhist teachings), camphor wood, dating from the Southern Song dynasty. The Great Hall of the Buddha is a huge building 33.6 m high with a triple roof. Inside is a large golden statue of Buddha, representing the timber in accordance dating back to 1956, which meticulously follows the original of the Tang period.
Day 9: Today several visits in random order .... short boat trip on the lake just started the West where the sailors pull out postcards pens playing cards buy buy short-General, the river in some places is enormous but we we enter a channel where the most genuine things that are floating excrement. Visit the park full of flowers Huagang a place where peace surrounds you, we also see a dozen elderly Chinese practicing Tai Chi, martial art practiced a lot.
The Pagoda of Six Harmonies, landfill ... The pagoda is an interesting combination of an internal part of brick, seven stories, and an exterior of wood with 13-story, octagonal, is 60 meters high Originally built in 970 with a height of 150 m as a beacon for the boats that sailed on the Qiantang River, was destroyed by fire in 1121. Reconstruction brick, took place in 1153, and in 1899 was added to the building exterior wood. The pagoda has 104 iron bells, one for each corner of the roof, playing to a minimum the wind.
Buddhist Monastery where the monks have come to pray. Terrible rudeness of tourists almost throw themselves into the picture. You visit the old pharmacy, trappolone for tourists remain two minutes I'm going to go out and play with kids that I teach without success to pick up their kite in the sky, the time I fly and I take in order to guide the Italian cazziatone the pharmacist and the Chinese part of the group .... but the smiles of children who greet me with his hand is priceless.
Travel in the hills of hanghzou you go to visit the crops of green tea. Whole hills where women tear the leaves put in baskets that hold back all day from dawn to dusk ... The green tea is not fermented, so the leaves retain their green color. The leaves are arranged on surfaces of bamboo and are exposed to the sun for several hours. They are then passed to the steam (100 ° C) for at least 30 seconds in order to inactivate enzymes. Here are various stages of drying (typically 4, for about 20-40 minutes each) that evaporate a large percentage of water contained in the leaves. Drying makes the leaves and mushy is interspersed by phases of folding or rolling .... Of course we will see that the old Chinese bent on a wak that hand warmer and dries to form the tea, then transfer to ritual and taste of tea with beautiful young ladies including carrying baskets with cans of green tea to buy here ... I give in and buy a few sets for gifts.
grand finale to a silk factory, the cultivation of silkworm cocoons to the choice of the best spinning equipment with expert hands where dissolved in hot water the cocoons and then taking the wires together to form the single wire cloth, tea break strict Green with factory manager who improvises a show with the best fabrics (great I must say) and how each visit to a factory for tourists with a grand finale in store smiles and prices coming down as no one buys.
This evening dinner is free and we find ourselves wandering around Hangzhou pretend-Italian ice cream parlor where we have dinner, or rather "cleansed" after nine days of Chinese food, a cup with five flavors.
SHANGHAI
Day 10: Transfer by air today in Shanghai between a greeting and the plane goes half a day.
arrive in Shanghai and now we realize that it is a modern city with skyscrapers and neon lights from a hundred floors spectacular, the heart of the Chinese economy presents itself to our eyes. This is a city in New York with traffic levels, which contrasts with the thousands bicycles occupying the lanes, the city where the tarot are all fake even the most well-known medicine, where thousands of Westerners live and work.
So between visits to the Jade Buddha and the city center we learn of a western district in the center and in the evening we decided to find an Italian restaurant (maybe the thing that is not more). With a pocket money to the doorman of our hotel we explain (other problem) to the taxi driver to take us where we are 4 taxi and departure is such a formula, each one chooses a different path ... and what the hell !!!.... we come to the neighborhood Western and shortly after arriving in any order other taxi ... cheers ... the hard core of group is compact we enter the pedestrian street of restaurants and each one fantasizes about what to get for dinner, there's even those who dream of the ravioli with meat sauce, but by turning turning we do not find the Italian restaurant and after a period of silence, I propose a Bavarian brasserie ... shin ravioli but will not be always the right effect.
The location is really nice and clean, there are boys and girls German Spaten beer and original orchestra typical leather shorts and I can not resist a plate of spaghetti alla carbonara is still very good ... it another couple of rounds of beer and we cleared fast .... well, the business ... we are in the right city. We pull
later, wow seems to be back in a city with the most modern, discard a club where kids scream karaoke songs in Chinese and end up in a local blues-jazz where we ushered past a queue of Chinese who do not take it so well ....
Day 11: Full day of sightseeing today with mid-afternoon free for shopping in Shanghai, we start the morning with the Yu Garden is a beautiful oasis of peace in the chaotic city to continue the old town now incorporated into the new one, a walk admiring the old houses and then catapulted into the Bund.
The new area as I said shows skyscrapers, swanky cars, taxis of all colors, roads and highways, elevated and super meters, but the corner in a big way, while waiting for the green light, I see a fast track for our type bus full of Chinese workers but by bike .... are a lot and I stop to watch the departure, a show a long snake of bikes that rotates.
We are often asked by brokers with a lot of back catalog to get in some shop to buy all the fake made in china and you can imagine, after several no, we agree to go through a catalog of bags last cry .... We in six lead us into the shop and then we get moving a shelf behind the shop where three people are starting to abuse us catalogs and shooting big bucks in the end no one wants to buy the air is getting heavier, but fortunately thanks and leave us out ... ..
the best deals are still made in a pedestrian plaza while we enjoy a good ice cream: rolex omega cartier pens mont-blanc-rayban sunglasses and even a bag lady bugs. Without full of tarot cards with pride back to the hotel to freshen up and rest a little.
After dinner tour organized on two feet with a visit (by bus) to shanghai by night. ... Like any self-respecting tour is always a visit by night.
Day 12: We spend the morning to yet another museum. The Shanghai is really great with different levels divided by dynasties. We have the time to enjoy a Chinese lunch in a fine restaurant and go to the airport to fly to Xian.
XIAN
We get to start well in advance this is not a little upset a couple of the group, I personally do not make me neither hot nor cold in fact I take this opportunity to look at a shop inside the airport are within Only, I get lost looking at different types of chocolate and I realize that they are surrounded by 5 store clerks who greet me well and want to help me ... .. I had already noticed how many orders s are there in the shops, in hotels short, it seems that since the Chinese are not many know where to place them and then put them to work in a number much higher than it actually would. In the end I buy a carton of cigarettes and a couple of chocolates and greeting pay.
The plane of China Airlines is a new addition to our group and there is some Chinese, we need a snack and then collapse.
arrive in Xian, which already is dark, the usual process to go out and we're on the bus with the new guide that greets us lights us up and around Xian and then we propose an alternative night: drink snake blood when killed in a a reputed or alternatively relaxing foot massage school in the city.
natural to choose the massage and after dinner it's off to the massage school. We enter
between two lanes of massage with bows and smiles make us all sit in a large room. Each has its own chair and a wooden bucket full of hot water. You start with the washing of the feet then there is the drying and then start the actual massage. ... Girls and boys who are all young and massage under the expert eye of the holder do their job. The massage lasts an hour and then I have to say that the feet are born again ... .. a tip is given to the satisfaction of course, we were good and we had no surprises, as often happens, that at some point comes out the seller of powders and various ointments ... not uncommon in the massage rooms.
Day 13: Xian is a city that oozes history, in addition to the famous Terracotta Army, Xian is the home of steamed dumplings, and also from here that the famous Silk Road, with 6400 km through Central Asia and Western Europe, allowing commercial and cultural exchanges between the Chinese and Roman civilizations. Provincial capital of Shanxi, Xian has a tradition so broad and exceptional as to make the most illustrious of the ancient imperial city and, as proof of this, there are many monuments to visit. Among the many temples that arise within and outside the city, the Grand Mosque is the only example of a mosque in the east and exits the classical Muslim capturing the influence of Chinese architecture: it is located in the picturesque district of Hui, behind a lively market. In ancient Temple of Confucius, you can visit the Historical Museum, where he exposed his Beilin, the Forest of Stele, a monumental collection of 2300 pieces where they played the classic religious texts. Do not miss the Wild Goose Pagoda, or the Big Goose: 7 floors high above the other, gradually getting smaller until you reach a height of 45 meters, was built in 707 AD and houses the sacred books of Buddhism. visit the ancient city walls. But the fame of Xian is due to the discovery of the tomb of Emperor Quin Shihangdi and his Terracotta Army: we dug a huge underground crypt where to be buried along with thousands of statues. The site was accidentally discovered by a group of peasants, digging, they saw the heads emerge. Subsequent excavations led to the discovery of more than 6000 pieces of statues depicting warriors, all different from each other both in expressions of the faces in both clothing and hundreds of horses and chariots of battle was definitely one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the last century.
the evening waiting for us in addition to the famous Mongolian lamb muffler, the muffler is the Mongolian consume other things, including vegetables, soybean curd frozen cetroli seafood, prawns and slices of chicken and fish in short, a mixture that will strain on our bellies. After you pass the steamed dumplings, there will a score all different and I must say that we leave the restaurant with a full stomach, so we decide to walk back to the hotel by a long walk and finding nooks and corners of life of Xian.
Day 14: This morning we visit the museum in Xian collecting other pieces of terracotta warriors and spare collection of Ming and Ching. Lunch at Chinese restaurant severe and so maintain the usual greetings and look forward to driving the call for boarding to Guilin. My usually takes me around inside the airport to buy a Corriere della Sera two days before the group saw no law except on rare occasions, an Italian TV channel in hotels.
GUILIN
wingless flight after a relatively quiet, we have a little 'dance, it is evening and the new drive after the presentation ceremony gives us the usual smattering.
This evening we decided to stay at the hotel bar as the accompaniment to the centerpiece of a talented pianist, we are a bit 'tired of cheap travel and often visits before being taken to narrow shops plucked tourists.
Day 15: Today we wake up early waiting for the tour by motorboat. Up the River Li to fabulous views, lush green mountains that are mixed to the river, caves and gorges that seem scolpiticontadini who busy themselves with the classic hat from rice fields submerged in water buffalo and of course the poor Chinese bamboo rafts with the approach boats and try to sell you something ....
These glimpses of Guilin have been painted, written and sung by top Chinese artists in past centuries to the present day.
Lunch is on board and of course will be offered the turtle soup with a "small" additional charge, denial, because I see in front of our boat as they kill and prepare the soup.
arrive at the pier to stop, there is a pit of tourists vanish all the beauty seen before, a score of boats are moored, and some still puffing black smoke.
A fisherman is photographed by hundreds of tourists, is sitting in his boat and has a long bamboo where four cormorants roosting in a long string tied to the leg and a ring on the neck. Fishing with cormorants is a classic East. The birds are excellent swimmers, the farmer sends them into the water and they go under and with dexterity catch fish which naturally can not swallow because the ring would prevent that ... these fish return to the surface with the holon in the mouth and swallowed half the farmer does nothing but get him on board and make him spit out the fish in five minutes ... the cormorants catch a bucket of fish ... awesome.
CANTON
arrive in Canton after a train trip that takes away all morning. Already by the train station discover a city for a bit 'more modern style almost Shanghai the beauty that the center is divided into three distinct areas, the French zone, and the little house with the oven baguette with the British area with houses and the old style windows and the area of \u200b\u200bChina with the fabulous market of Chinese medicine. Each neighborhood has its own native schools, the local classics of every nation and their own schools, we may even find a Catholic church cristina where we walk around the two candles and light it up ... ... we are in fact enough to south China is a hot humid unbearable turns every so often in mega style monsoon downpours.
At the market of Chinese medicine we see everything and more that I live is dry. ... Scorpions, grasshoppers, seahorses, turtles, beetles, shark fins and so on and so forth, the great thing is that Chinese buyers are numerous. The chickens are packed in wooden crates where they do not breathe the guts of the snakes (eat and bring in alcohol to make liqueur) are thrown in the street, we see even a truck with ice cubes that are sold and dragged street with large hooks.
From Guilin I carry a nagging sore throat that is unleashed here in Canton in fever, we are in the period of bird and begin to worry ... .. I'm really exhausted now we will have the big catamaran (from 200posti seats) and along the Pearl River leads us to HONG KONG. Although Hong Kong returned to China recently, however, we must do all the procedures as to leave China and this happens to me that while my group is waiting for the passport control I take this opportunity to go to the bathroom and freshen up from the sweat of fever, but when I leave my group is gone and there is no more a soul then drew my passport control note the details that do not know a word of English, and goes round and round the passport in my hands, I understand that something is wrong when it is called and an officer in uniform with 400 insignia and the official mustache type Viet Cong torturer rambo, can I show him the visa, but he leaves me with an abrupt gesture. ... and here I must say I have already seen in some Chinese prison where I could not even save Amnesty ... luckily check down the hall to our Italian guide who speaks Chinese and with a thousand excuses and shows reverence to the high official expiration date of the passport that did not ... .. the guide, as we cross the aisle gives me a dirty looks I whisper to him ... . ... I owe my life.
