Get some currency before you go and top up while you're there - just be aware that in remote areas it will be harder, if not impossible, to do so.
There are exchange counters at the international terminal at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan Airport, and money-changing facilities at the various border crossings. There are plenty of ATMs in Kathmandu, Pokhara and large towns, but not right out in the countryside. Visa and Mastercard are most widely accepted. Using an ATM attached to a bank during business hours will minimise the hassle in the rare event that the machine eats your card.
Changing travellers cheques can be difficult outside of the main centres. A back-up of US dollars is a good insurance policy but make sure you take small denominations, which will be easier to change.
Contemplation in China
I have an interest in meditation/contemplation gardens. I have visited several in Japan, where they are called "tea gardens". I understand that such gardens can also be found in China. Can you suggest in which area of China I would find a number of these gardens as I do not want to engage in a hectic travel around the country to find them? I would rather go for two or three gardens within a limited area, as that does not defy the purpose of peaceful travel and absorbing some of the spirit of another culture.
- Karl Lieffering
You are correct in thinking that tea gardens can be found in China. In fact, popular legend has it that tea-drinking originated there in 2737BC when a tea leaf fell into a pot of water being boiled by the emperor.
Since that fortuitous beginning, tea has become an important part of life in China, being considered one of the seven necessities of life along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar.
It is also closely connected with Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, which is how you get a link between tea, temples and the practice of meditation.
The custom of drinking tea spread to Japan sometime during the Tang Dynasty, 618-907AD.
Tea made its way to Portugal in the 1500s, with Britain getting its first taste a century later.
Sadly, tea gardens in many parts of China are shadows of their former selves. Not so in Sichuan, where the tea culture still thrives and you'll find some of the country's best remaining tea houses (chaguan) and tea gardens (chayuan).
Lonely Planet's new China guide lists a Sichuan Top10, featuring Shangqing Temple, a Qing-dynasty wooden temple near a Taoist mountain summit; Chengdu's River Viewing Pavilion Park with a garden boasting 150 varieties of bamboo and Tibetan Culture Dew in Kangding, a rustic Tibetan stone and wood building decorated with prayer flags.
Sichuan province is also home to the world's tallest Buddha, the 1200-year-old Grand Buddha carved into a cliff face in Leshan.
You can also find the quietude you're looking for in some of China's amazing temples. Divided between the Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian faiths, they can be found on mountain peaks, in caves, down side-streets, hanging precariously on cliff sides or occupying the centre of town. More than 200 are listed in the China guidebook, but really this is the tip of the iceberg.
