Rocko's World Tour: China

Off to china...my upgrade came through!

China has tons of little quirks that are different than the stuff we see in Canada

Welcome to beijing....traffic...honestly after driving in china I will NEVER complain about traffic again.

Laundry: when they do your laundry they shrink wrap it individually like it's....Branew! (tee hee)

They have everything in china - even Walmart

KFC is everywhere

even at the terra cotta warriors in Xi'an...(p.s this is at 8:30am at the terracotta warriors - later it was a massive zoo!)

Likely the most picturesque McD's in the world:

They have lots of methods of transportation:
Air (or bike...):

More Bikes - no one seems to wear helmets here, but then with the way the cars drive I figure a helmet won't save you.

Bus:

Subway (and this isn't even rush hour!):

Truck:

Taxi:

Boat:

and even Bamboo Rafts:

Wee beasties: So the number of wee beasties on a building determines it's importance. The Forbidden city has one roof with 11 of them so it's very important.

Here I am making this building more important...isn't that neat?

Carved figures and Statues: Apart from the wee beasties on the roof you'll find all sorts of statues and carvings around china.

What is everyone looking at?

People exercise, play games and dance in public:

This is a typical intersection in Beijing:

and this is how you cross a street in china (watch the lady in pink)

People people everywhere...

Shopping!
When you come to china you must shop, after all you are always their "first customer" or "a friend" and they always give you a "special price", of course you only know you got a good deal when they tell you that you're going to run them out of business and that you are a good bargainer. I find starting at 1/10th of the price is a good start - of course also thinking about how much the same item costs in china town given you a good idea. Most nicknacks cost about half of what they would cost in china town, but the starting price was twice the china town price.
Things you can buy - books, postcards(seem to only come in packs of 10), t-shirts, north face jackets (they even have the gortex labels), "100% silk" items that are usually not silk, "100% cotton" items that are usually linen, pearls (the quality really depends here if you want good stuff do your research beforehand, if you don't care then buy a few cheap ones for your friends), columbia sports wear, watches, fans, anything with a panda bear on it, painted scrolls, rice with your name on it - you name it, it's there. One thing to note, if you want "good stuff" ask for it - the "good stuff" is usually in the back. Want a "real" fake watch, then buy the stuff from the back, it will cost you more but it will be much better quality. Same for columbia sports wear, in fact it might actually be real...couldn't really tell the difference. Not so sure about the winter jackets but some looked pretty similar.

And of course everything here is...

You can also buy food pretty much everywhere...

This is the muslim quarter in Xi'an - THE place to buy food!

This is the Nightmarket in Beijing - if you hav a craving for weird stuff, this is the place to be

Of course there are tons of yummy restaurants
Dumplings by the forbidden city

Sweet and sour fish

Peking Duck

Bamboo Rice - it's self explanatory...rice cooked in bamboo :)

Nice view huh?

This is Ping'an - about 2-3 hours north of Guilin (depending on how crazy your driver is)

This is the view from the Li River Cruise (between Guilin and Yangshou)
How many horses do you see?

China has lots of pretty things to see
These pagodas are in Guilin

This is a small courtyard in Forbidden City

and of course - The Great Wall (we're at Mutiyanu here)

HI!

Getting there

Almost there...

View from the Top

If there is one thing to take away from china its the fact that china is a scale larger than anything you've ever seen before - well, if you're not from china, india or las vegas...
Everything in china is huge. I cannot stress how much I am not understating this.
This is Beijing airport Terminal 3 - kind of small isn't it?