Post by Saskrock on Nov 14, 2010 7:37:52 GMT -5
I just got home yesterday from our China trip. Had a fantastic time lots of really cool things to see and do. Pretty tough rock collecting though, I was hoping to look for agates along the Yangtze river but the 3 gorges dam has flooded the shore line so its all under water or covered with plants. Downstream of the dam they had cement poured on both banks so its really more of a big canal than a river I did find one chunk of what I think is black jade though washed up into a pile of rocks on the cement. There are a lot of display rocks for sale but most of them are fakes. I saw everything from lab grown crystals to agate slices glued to another rock with filler around the edges to make it look like one rock. They are not really out to take advantage of people though because in China replicas or fakes are considered to be an art form. One of their most famous artists actually makes fake antiques. I did get one really nice pyrite for about $10 its about the size of two fists.
I couldn't get on this web site the entire trip because everything on the Internet goes through government censors and apparently we must be a subversive group .
Anyhow it was a great trip, lots to see and do and very inexpensive. I got a suit made for me for $90 and our average meal cost about $5 for the 2 of us with beer. The people were really friendly and it was surprising how many times we met people who had never met westerners and wanted to take pictures with us. Our tour guide said they commonly will get the pictures printed off and put them up in their house . The only things I didn't like were the smog which was so bad the one day that our flight to Guilin was delayed 2 hours because of lack of visibility, and the squat toilets which make the worst gas station bathroom here look pretty good. It took a little bit to get used to the pushing in crowds too, again this is a cultural thing pushing in a crowd is not considered rude so you just pretend its a game and shove your way in which works pretty well as your probably bigger than almost everyone.
I couldn't get on this web site the entire trip because everything on the Internet goes through government censors and apparently we must be a subversive group .
Anyhow it was a great trip, lots to see and do and very inexpensive. I got a suit made for me for $90 and our average meal cost about $5 for the 2 of us with beer. The people were really friendly and it was surprising how many times we met people who had never met westerners and wanted to take pictures with us. Our tour guide said they commonly will get the pictures printed off and put them up in their house . The only things I didn't like were the smog which was so bad the one day that our flight to Guilin was delayed 2 hours because of lack of visibility, and the squat toilets which make the worst gas station bathroom here look pretty good. It took a little bit to get used to the pushing in crowds too, again this is a cultural thing pushing in a crowd is not considered rude so you just pretend its a game and shove your way in which works pretty well as your probably bigger than almost everyone.