- Chinese people in faraway areas look different from each other.
- Drug stores play loud party music.
- People speak to you in Chinese even though you understand nothing.
- Taxi drivers do not like picking up foreigners.
- Leaving food is polite. It signals you got enough to get full.
- English translations are absolutely hilarious.
- People photograph you like you were some rare species.
- When you are alone, people are very friendly and helpful.
- Spitting and coughing is common activity.
- The word meaning a white person is "hello".
- People make their babies pee (and even poop) on streets.
- Schedules and opening times are surprisingly accurate.
- Chinese climbers reserve routes for ages to project on them,
- People hold onto traditions and superstitions.
- Local beer is week (< 3,3).
- Airport personnel do not mind overweight luggage.
- Pointing and acting is the best way to become understood.
- Traffic lines are unorganized but functioning.
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| Market day |
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| Giving autographs at Kailas store ;) |
I traveled in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces. I enjoying experiencing varying landscapes, foods and styles in the different places, that reminds me what a huge country China is indeed.
My first destination was Yangshou, one of Asia's must-visit climbing spots. The crazy city is full of Chinese tourists, making it busy and noisy especially during public holidays. I stayed at Climbers Inn, which is run by Lily, who means well but keeps missing things. Every morning climbers decide what crag they want to go to and share a taxi to get there. To get most out of one's climbing, it is quite important to pick crags with adequate grades and styles. I liked long, technical face routes the best. Unfortunately my climbing performance got a bit distracted by late mornings and wine drinking, and I ended up leaving before I had sent any of my projects.
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| Moon Hill |
Two flights and two bus trips (of which one was 12 torturous hours on bumpy unpaved mountain roads) took me to Dao Cheng. It is a small town at the Tibetan border, surrounded by snow capped mountains and influenced by its neighbor's culture. New bouldering areas are being discovered at high altitudes of 3600m - 4400m. We rode our bikes to the rocky hills and walked around them searching for potential boulder problems. Although the general rock quality was not great, we had fun identifying, naming and grading new routes. I missed making myself a route setter, though, since all my problems were too difficult for us to send.
Check out this video of Dao Cheng bouldering
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| Tibetan food |
I ended my trip in Liming, which is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. The village, that is basically just one street, is in the middle of majestic big walls. It is China's major trad climbing area with potential for hundreds of high class routes. Walk-ups to the crags were long and strenuous, and crack climbing was a whole new thing for me. I was happy to be with experienced climbers, who set up ropes and taught me jamming techniques. I definitely got motivated to learn how to place gear, to someday add trad climbing to my skills! To top up the experience, we did a via ferrata going up the mountains and inside a large cave.
The transfer spot was Lijiang, where I visited altogether three times. For me, it was a city of annoyances (running around to arrange my visa extension), chill-out times (wandering in the idyllic, maze-like old town and staying in boutique hostels) and cries (leaving behind my only true travel romance). From there I flew to Finland.
