This time I decided to visit as many cities in China as possible in a short period
of time.
Therefore I arrived Hong Kong then entered China by train, to Guangzhou. This city
I visited before, it is very convenient but pollution is a real big problem here.
Shenzen is reachable by local fast intercity train. This train travel with up to 200km/h
and it is very modern. Shenzen is closer to the sea, air is much better and it is
full of IT industry.
Next I flew to Beijing to meet a friend coming also from Romania. After visiting the
famous taoist temple „White Cloud” or Bai Yun Guan in chinese, we took a sleeping
train to Shenyang, capital city of Liaoning province. Shenyang is a very important
industrial and transportation city. The first impression is that the city is a bit
crowded but one can find very nice food, especially at Korean style restaurants.
During the first weekend we took a short trip to Changchun, the capital city of Jilin,
the province north of Liaoning. This city is an academic city, with more space and
flexible architecture. Especially the parks are very nice.
After this next stop was in Dalian, main port of Liaoning province. A lot of industry
appeared in this city that is more elegant than Shenyang, especially in downtown.
Also the sea helps a lot with the air quality. However during this period of the year
I encountered both in Beijing and Dalian the dust storms coming from Gobi desert.
Sometime these dust storms reach as far as Japan.
After Dalian we arrived in Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang province, the turism
city of China, also one of the most important centres for silk. Here we visited the
„Ling Yin” buddhist temple, a huge one, built in a scenic area. Ling Yin stands for
Hidden Spirits. This city and the surroundings are worth for a full lenght vacation,
2 weeks minimum.
Next stop Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian province. This city is nicely placed between
mountains and the sea, and seems to be very clean and carefully taken care of.
Well, seems that all cities in Fujian have something nice to show for the visitor.
Next I visited Quanzhou, historically being the start (or end) of the silk road to
Europe. Also Xiamen is a very beautyful city, an island city with tropical vegetation
and nice environment.
At the end of the trip lies Shenzen, probably the most modern Chinese city up to date.
Lifestyle tends to follow Hong Kong lifestyle and business is flourishing everywhere.
Links to Hong Kong, my next destination can be by train, by metro (at the end of metro
line in Shenzen there is Chinese custom, then a 300m long bridge, then the Hong Kong
custom; after this one a train is available toghether with a combination of MTR for
any destination in HK city), or by ferry. I will take the metro link this time to
enlarge my experience. Maybe I will also post a short HD movie I will make with my
camera as reference how to do it…
Below is a very interesting taoist stone from Bai Yun Guan wall, with unknown author,
describing some advanced taoist practice. I suppose very few people really understand
it’s true meaning.