Full Circle: China

Arriving in China at the port city of Qingdao, Michael checks in to the Welcome Guest House, where Mao Zedong once spent a month right before the infamous Great Leap Forward. Michael gets a massage on the streets of Qingdao and then visits a winery in the Laoshan Mountains, where he samples Chinese chardonnay. He then climbs Taishan Mountain, one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism. Catching a train to Shanghai, he notices how more modern Chinese trains have become since Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days in 1988. Arriving in Shanghai, he discovers a Harvey Nichols store. Michael also takes time out to dance with one of the locals. He also finds out that the Bund, the longtime economic heart of the city (even when he last visited), has been usurped by the Pudong area. Taking an inland route via the Yangtze River, he views the construction for the Three Gorges Dam and notes how a lot of area will be submerged after its completion in 2009. In the large town of Chongqing, he chats with a university graduate over lunch about modern Chinese society. From there, Michael heads south into Guiyang and then the land of the Miao people, a Chinese minority. Some people in a Miao village note that Michael is the first Westerner they had ever seen, as well as the fact he has a big nose. From there, he catches a bus to Pingxiang and Friendship Gate, on the Vietnamese border.