My first Vietnam trip - Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

This was my first trip to Vietnam.  I learned from news and various media that communist Vietnam is also going through incredible market economy changes to modernize herself. I have many Vietnamese friends, and almost all of them or their parents came to America when the American and the South Vietnamese lost their war in the mid 70's. They don't like the communist regime.

I joined a 5-day, 4-night Taiwanese tour group, which cost me about $1100 USD with everything included. This tour uses Vietnamese Airlines and it has no mandatory shopping. The fees for Vietnamese visa and all meals are included.  The visa is on a separate piece of paper, and there is no trace of the visit on your passport. This becomes a common practice when visiting certain countries. The lodging accommodation was excellent with one night at Ha Long Bay Novotel, one night at the Indochina Sails Cruise Junk, and two nights at the Hanoi JW Marriott.

Indochina Sails Cruise Junk

Logistically, the flight from Taipei was very early, so that we managed to visit a couple of tourist spots in Hanoi before we took a 4-hour-long bus ride to Ha Long Bay in the afternoon.  The bulk of the travel on the road is of State Highway caliber at best and often goes through small towns.  It will be a quick 2-hour run in the future for this 200-kilometer trip when they upgrade to true Interstate Highway caliber roads.


Ha Long Bay is truly beautiful and is a mature karst and limestone landscape.  It is Guilin on the sea, but at a much larger scale.

Panoramic View from the top of Titop Island

Sunrise in Ha Long Bay

Early morning in Ha Long Bay

 

Vietnamese straw hat at the Boat Terminal

I had my Vietnamese straw hat before the bay tour.  It was handy and good thing to have for the weather in this region.  But it immediately conjured up the image of a Viet Cong from the Vietnam War era.


Like many developing nations, Vietnam had to balance the zealous development projects with environmental and ecological concerns.  This half-finished amusement park near the beach was an example that many of my tour group members felt unnecessary at all.

Half-finished amusement park near the Ha Long Bay beach

On our way to Ha Long Bay, there were many unoccupied resorts and buildings near the beach.  We were told that they were yet to recover from the 2008 economic recession because of over-development.

Unoccupied beach-front resorts and buildings

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam. It has more than one thousand years of history, and for the most part, it was dominated by the Chinese.  Hanoi was taken by the French in 1873. It became the capital of French Indochina in 1887.  It became the capital of North Vietnam in 1954 when the colonial period ended.

Spectacular telephone pole wiring in Hanoi's Old Quarter

Modern-day Hanoi is divided by a river.  The New Hanoi quarter was built in the last twenty years, and roads and streets are well planned with many new modern buildings and hotels. Old Hanoi quarter is the original Hanoi. This picture shows spectacular telephone pole wiring.

Typical tall and narrow buildings in Hanoi and suburbs

The architecture and style of the houses and buildings are heavily influenced by the hot and humid weather and by the French adaptation of existing Chinese structure. They are in general tall (high ceiling) and narrow.

Temple of Literature (Confucius)

Ancestral Workship Hall

Chinese writings are visible only in temples and ancestral worship halls. The Temple of Literature, aka Temple of Confucius, followed the Chinese civil examination system to promote study and to select government officials.
The Vietnamese pronunciation has very strong similarity to some of the southern Chinese dialects. Modern-day Vietnamese romanization/writing is based primarily on the Portuguese pronunciation system.  I was told that the grammatical structure is a mixture between that of Chinese and French.


The French brought in Catholicism to Vietnam. I visited the St. Joseph's Cathedral in the old quarter.  My old habit of looking for Catholic Church happens to be part of the tour :-)

Hanoi St. Joseph's Cathedral

Hanoi Hotel Metropole (Sofitel Legend)

The historic 1901 French colonial-style Hotel Metropol is charming and beautiful.  Our tour group had one of the lunches there.


Ho Chi Minh Museum is a place to see Vietnamese history from the North Vietnamese perspective.  The Ho Chi Minh mausoleum is next to the Ba Dinh Square. The tour guide said that there is an annual maintenance trip to Moscow in the Fall. This is quite unbelievable to me though. The communist party did not honor Ho Chi Minh's wish to have himself cremated. He was out of the country for 30 years, traveling and residing in many countries, until he came back to Vietnam in 1941 to lead the independence movement. I was fascinated to learn that he was in Canton, China between 1925-1927 at the Whampoa Military Academy, where he would presumably have been acquainted with many Chinese Nationalist and Chinese Communist pioneers. It was documented that he married a Chinese wife, Zeng Xueming, in that period.  But this is denied by the Vietnamese government to perpetuate the myth of his celibacy.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

We went to see a water puppetry show in a theater.  It is pretty interesting to think about the techniques required to perform with controlling sticks under the water.

We visited the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in whirlwind style.  It was best to do it that way, because the humidity level was quite unbearable for the June weather.
Vietnam has many small ethnic minorities, who need education and job training to keep up with progress in the whole country, and there is much to do.

Three-hour Ferry from Pingtan Island, China to Bali, Taiwan

This is to wrap up my crossing ventures from China to Taiwan by sea.  My last attempt was two years ago from Xiamen to Kinmen, and it was less than 30 minutes on a commuter ferry.

The Strait-Crossing Ferry

Most travelers fly from mainland China to major cities in Taiwan these days.  Crossings by ferry have only been available in the last few years.  I took a short ferry run from Xiamen to Kinmen a couple of years ago in July 2014.  That was symbolic, since Kinmen is still 100 plus miles away from Taiwan proper.  This ferry from Pingtan Island crosses the Taiwan Strait in 3 hours with a top speed at 39 knots (nautical miles per hour).

A five-kilometer-long bridge to the Fujian mainland was completed in November 2010. Pingtan Island is about 120 km from the nearby city Fuzhou, and it takes about 2 hours in bus/shuttle.  The destination Bali is a port at the Tamsui River outside of Taipei city.  There are bus and subway connections nearby.

Armed Guard at the Beijing South Railroad Station

After my business travel to Beijing this time, I took a high-speed train, G27, at 9:45am from Beijing on June 4, 2016 and arrived around 5:30pm in the city of Fuzhou.  The one-way ticket cost me 719 RMB (about 110 USD). June 4 is a particularly sensitive day in China these days, and the security was tight in the train station. The armed police/military was clearly visible in the Beijing South Railroad Station. Fuzhou is the provincial capital of FuJian, which is directly across from Taiwan over the Strait.

There is one ferry crossing from both sides of the Strait every day, you can find the schedules on these two websites [1] [2].  Use either site to book and purchase tickets for passengers with a will-call arrangement.  The Monday morning ferry run is at 9:00am from Pingtan, and the transportation is iffy if I tried to take that ferry from Fuzhou.  I decided to stay in Pingtan Island, and I used Airbnb app to book a hostel-like room near the beach. It was my first excuse to use Airbnb.

Fuzhou City Light

Fuzhou WuYi Square from Shangri-La hotel Window

I used my Shangri-La points to book the hotel in Fuzhou, which allowed me to have comfort and leisure before my comparatively rougher day ahead.  Fuzhou is quite a modern city now.  I took my limited time to see the city and its old quarters before I left for Pingtan Island around 3pm.  

Saint Dominic Cathedral

FuZhou local snack- mostly sticky rice based

As usual, I found my Catholic Church in the city.  Saint Dominic Cathedral is in the Cangshan district. Fuzhou was one of the earliest ports open to foreign trade in Qing Dynasty. 








The Lin Zexu museum was an interesting visit, as I came back to read a whole lot more about the significance of the First Opium War and the unraveling of Modern Chinese History. Lin was a Fuzhou native and was sent to Canton as the envoy from the Emperor in Beijing to enforce the ban on opium trade. 
The old town was interesting and layout of the residential clusters dated back to the Jin Dynasty around 300AD. I enjoyed some local food for lunch in the old quarters.

Lin ZeXu Museum

 











 

Deity in the unregulated Super Shuttle

The concierge at the Shangri-La hotel found the information for me on the Fuzhou South Bus Station that has hourly bus runs to Pingtan Island.  I took a cab to the Station and bought a ticket for 55 RMB. It turned out to be from an unregulated private super shuttle van.  They have ticket-selling stalls, looking quite official, at the alleyways before the entrance of the bus station.  I was mislead to buy a ticket from such stall.  When some gentleman came up to help with my luggage right after I paid for the ticket, I knew that something was not right.  Anyway, I could speak the language and decided to go along with it.  That was not the first time.  I had to wait a little for the driver to gather enough customers, and later the van had to stop at two places to pick up the last two passengers.  It was quite packed with a total of 8 people including the driver.  The driver wasn't too crazy in driving by the Chinese standard, and it was safe enough for the 2-hour ride.

He dropped me off at the Pingtan Bus Station.  I had to take another cab to my beach-front BnB place. Fortunately I had a Chinese phone number, and the driver could talk to the BnB owner to get me that. It was not easy and straightforward. Although the island is changing rapidly, Pingtan Island still is a big fishing village. The day was cloudy with light rain.  It was not a good thing to be left out in nowhere. They didn't use meters for the taxi ride and this was usually not a good sign for visitors.  I got to the place for 40 RMB.  

Pingtan Island Beach BnB - near Island Research Center

Pingtan Beach - near Island Research Center

The lodging itself was 21USD (135RMB) for one night.  It was a reasonable accommodation, including a clean room, a queen-sized bed, air conditioning, and a TV.  I rarely turn on TV in China except in major international cities and when I am feeling extremely bored.  The owner gave me the WiFi password; the Internet connection was quite useful.  The concept of "B and B (Bed and Breakfast)" is different in China and probably in many other places.  The Bed part is there from privately owned lodging facilities.  The Breakfast part is not translated and observed in this setting.  Fortunately I had an instant noodle package with me. With hot water, I could get by.  The instant coffee package from Shangri-La came in handy also for the morning. Food option were limited at the beach-front venue.  This beach was frequented by Chinese visitors for day-trip group outings.  A cookout at the beach and BBQ were available, but arrangements had to be made beforehand.  Otherwise, choices are limited and you also have to take food quality and hygiene standard into consideration.

Panoramic View of Pingtan Beach - near Island Reseach Center

Pingtan Ferry Terminal Ticket Office

I did not do much for the evening except talking to the owner and his family members at their dinner table. The owner is a young entrepreneur running a 6-room beach house. Both his father and grandfather are still fishing during the season. I recall that they said that May to August is their mandatory off season to leave the sea to replenish itself. I took a bit of rice congee as a courtesy for their invitation.  The rain stopped overnight.  I rose early enough in the morning to take advantage of the quiet and serene moment.  I took an hour or so strolling around the beach.

Pingtan Customs and Border Control

To be on the safe side, I asked the owner to order a taxi for me at 7am.  It was again a negotiated fare.  It went through multi-tier arrangement and ended up paying 90RMB for the 20-minute ride.  I was one of the first few arrived at the ferry terminal.  The ticket office was not open until 8 o'clock.  The customs/immigration/border-control facility was not open until 8:30am. I was early, and I eventually saw six tour groups either going to Taiwan or coming back from their mainland visits.

I pre-ordered my ticket online with a travel agent [1].  The transaction was reasonable.  The fare was 600RMB (about 90USD) and the service charge was 30RMB.  I had a piece of paper printed in Beijing to exchange for the actual ticket.  Basically it is a will-call transaction.

Ferry Boat middle Section

The ferry boat was about 1/3 full on my trip. It can accommodate 700 or so people with three cabin sections.  The ride was smooth this time of the year. 

Goddess Protecting the Ferry Boat in the Front Section

When it got to Bali, Taiwan, a shuttle bus took us to the customs/immigration office area.  
With my pre-trip research, I was planning to take the bus to Taipei City Center or take the subway from GuanDu/HongShuLin. Either way, I realized that I had to take a short taxi ride to Bali town or to the subway station.  I was quite tired and with a large luggage, I ended up taking the cab all the way to the city.  It was about 30 minutes and cost me 760NTD (23USD).

Arriving at Bali Port at the mouth of Tamsui River

This travel route still needs a lot of ironing out, and it is not yet ready for individual travelers, especially non-Chinese speakers.  I saw that about six tour groups from both sides of the Straits on this ferry. I think this is an interesting experience from both side of the Straits and might be less expensive as well.  The tour operators could arrange the lodging and transportation to bridge the gaps that are not convenient for individual travelers.

Waiting for Shuttle at Bali Port, Taipei

[1]  http://www.csf.com.tw/ocean/price.php  in traditional Chinese
     台北市龍江路96號2樓  02-25169779, Boat ticket from Pingtan -  电话：0591-23192222 传真：0591-24199222 ATTN. MS CHANG J
[2]   http://www.amoytrip.com/book-pingtan-taiwan-ferry.html in English