Guilin - Walk in the Park

When September is about to end, almost all the China goes on holiday mode. Starting from 28 September with continuous holiday events. The big celebration starts on 1st of October, when China celebrates its National Day. The following week goes with firecrackers waking you at 6 in the morning, masses travelling, big dinners, etc.

In 2009 October holiday (to be precise, actually 1 week earlier) was for legendary horse trekking in Langmusi

2010 the plan was to trick the holiday masses once again by going for holiday just at the moment when most people were returning from their holidays.
Just a short (2,5h) Rizhao-Qingdao bus trip and a short (~2h) flight Qingdao-Hangzhou and another short flight (~2h) Hangzhou-Guilin. Total door-to-door traveling time ~11h and the holiday could start.

Guilin (Guangxi province) somewhere far South in China is the midpoint for 2 places to visit:
Longsheng rice terraces - fields engineered on the sides of mountains
Yangshuo karst hills




Local lady from the minority group sharing a bus with us, later on we actually stayed our first night in her house.







Longsheng terraces in fog.








Life is still very traditional, no high rising houses, many houses near village can be reached only by foot on small tracks.







Food, not served yet







Soon to be harvested






Morning fog







Not for everybody! Dog being prepared, burning of the last fur. Other dogs waiting their destiny in cages.
Market in Yangshuo town







Karst hills and rice fields








Lady walking her watercows








... or more like swimming them








One-eye, this model is still in production and very popular. With a nicely noisy and polluting 2-stroke engine.








Bamboo rafting. Most Chinese tourist groups come only for this attraction, not bothering to get to know the actual country life in this gorgeous corner of China.
This gave us actually an opportunity to get to see the place very undisturbed.







River scene with karst hills







Infrastructure scene with karst hills


Cannot wait to get exploring again....

Confucius rise and fall

Now it is the time to get to know everything in and around Rizhao. Qufu town (3h by bus) is the place where the thinker and philosopher Confucius lived few thousand years ago.
Most of Confucius wisdom is nowadays an important part of Chinese people' daily life (or at least it is good to refer to it), also most of Mao's doctrine was built on the same principles, even though Mao was against Confucius philosophy and tried to wipe it out during the Cultural Revolution.












Qufu is a rather small town, with its main tourist attractions - Confucius tomb, Confucius mansion, Confucius temple and the square shape city wall - freshly re-built /renovated. The other places inside the city wall still enjoy traditional lifestyle.











The graveyard, though the Confucius tomb itself is a busy place, all the rest of it is quiet with no hordes of tourist.
For some reason Chinese burial procedure tradition has been hidden - till now I have seen only Tibetan sky burial and some big tombs of emperors (Terracotta warriors) - but no real overview of Han Chinese traditions. This cemetery, still in use for Confucius family members, brings some light.












Small roof statues in cemetery













Big trees, something not that usual.













Street life, brothels










... and crickets sold right next to human flesh










West wall of Qufu, the brothels area









Some wise words on the wall in Confucius mansion, or maybe just "Littering prohibited"

RiZhao - home town nr 2

... after Shanghai.
If putting things on a timeline, then RiZhao became my home town already in July, 3 weeks before making the trip back to Estonia.
Though, the weeks in July and first week of August my home was a hotel. The hunt for an apartment started only after returning from Estonia. The long way of looking so-called fully furnished apartments (1 bed, 1 TV (usually enormous), 1 table) to finally finding a place that looked like a place to live, was not the shortest.
The contract negotiations even longer, but unfortunately Rizhao landlords like to make their (and of course mine) lives hard.
Finally on 9th of September managed to move into the new place.
Place is good:
- the main crossing of the town and only 7-8 min to work, if not getting stuck in traffic jams.
- No problem of early waking, car horns are taking care of this already at 6AM.
- Right down the stairs is a rather good bar, next to it a bar for billiard
- 5 min walk a fair market, at the entrance is a place to get your dog (fur and inner organs already removed)
- 5 min same direction is a local red lantern street.





July 1st, Packing in Shanghai. Finally (2nd week of Sept) all the boxes have arrived from Shanghai. At one moment it seemed already mission impossible, as due to EXPO there are additional rules for packages that transportation companies can carry - no batteries, no liquids, no powders - not so easy to remember what and where exactly is packed after 2 months and arranging this investigation remotely from Rizhao:)







Shanghai to Rizhao





Rizhao (Sun Shine City), the far one is the beach, closest water stripe is the man made lake for water sports, and the green is botanical garden that seems to be making space for new constructions.
Roads are wide and straight, as typical for newly developed Chinese cities.









Another view from the hotel








Walking on the wall - performance art in the factory








Main reason for relocating to Rizhao is the new factory. Small part of it on the picture. On a clear day the harbour can also be seen.

Back to Estonia 8-20 August

August was the month of being back to Estonia, something that was not really planned, but as Taivo took this sudden decision (or maybe just a late announcement) of taking Kerli as his wife, I got a good reason to get a reload in cool and hot Estonia.

Overview of the excellent time in Estonia with a short delay - moving back to China, search for apartment but mostly the tricky and blocked internet in hotel made accessing blogspot impossible till today.


As all this flying to Estonia was last minute decision, the most convenient option Finnair was not available with reasonable price. I got a opportunity to try Aeroflot and put my leg first time on ground in Moscow, even though according to plan only for 1h15min.
Photo in Beijing airport, the paper print under the screen is announcing a delay of boarding. Check-in told immediately that making to my connecting flight in Moscow will be impossible, but they can put me in hotel in Moscow for 24h to wait for next flight to Helsinki.







Moscow airport with forest fires, flight delayed, outside +37 degrees, inside no aircons.
Getting to hotel took a bit more time, even though I landed around 5PM, finally I was escorted with special security forces (as I had no Russian visa) to hotel at 1AM






Moscow airport








Forests in fire around Moscow







After the hot and smoky 24h in Moscow, Helsinki felt like homey Estonia.
The August 8 storm getting over Helsinki-Tallinn ferry.









Flying chairs on the ship deck









Viru Hotel and skyscrapers





All beautiful Tallinn from Viru Hotel roof. Never knew that Linnahall was planned to align exactly with Viru Hotel, impressive urban planning.







Kristel on her hunt for roofs of Tallinn








Viru Hotel roof floor was also hosting the special room for KGB agents to monitor and listen what was happening in hotel. Type writer still from that time.






Same type writer








Small roads, something to appreciate after 1,5 years of roads with many levels and neverending traffic jams.







Lakes with Pepsi color water Vanapagana Pühajärv










Potato paintings, the Kristel and GT art, though this particular is not from them.










Somewhere on the road from Türi to Tartu







Kerli&Taivo wedding in Viljandi

















Kerli's name flying away

















The man and his backbone







Metro Plaza - Tallinn developing, luckily old is also preserved. Nice result.







Modern metropol








Kopli, a place to go for a coffee! Not 3 year ago! :)







Interior of Boheem







Architecture of Kopli










Architecture of Kopli - red house in sunset light







Other interesting discovery - roof top cinema









Roof, cinema, headphones, silence, Madis







Tallinn