Xi'An Trip

So I know it’s been a while since I last made a post, so I wanna apologize for that. Anyway, this past weekend EAP took us (the remaining 40 students who are still studying abroad here in Beijing) to Xi’An, a city of 8 million southwest of Beijing by a 12 hour sleeper train ride. Here are the highlights:

1.Hanging out with other EAP classmates/friends.
Since half of us are studying at Beijing Normal University and half of us are studying at Peking University, we don’t get to see a lot of each other. So this trip was a real fun time to catch up with everyone. Although we’ve all known each other for only four months, building these relationships while experiencing China together has made us grow together really fast. Compared to the summer, when there were over a 100 students traveling together, this fall trip was little more relaxing with only 40 students and everyone already knowing everyone.

2. Terra Cotta Warriors
In 1974 a Chinese farmer digging a well outside of Xi’An discovered a few pieces of terra cotta (type of pottered clay, I think) that oddly resembled body parts. This simple discovery would lead to China’s greatest archeological find of the 20th century. It ends up being that this farmer came upon part of the tomb of an ancient Chinese emperor from the Qin dynasty. Back in the day, this Chinese emperor succeeded in unifying the Chinese people’s language (today’s Mandarin), weights and scales, and basically started the beginning of the China nation-state. However, he also was a pretty arrogant dude. You know how the Egyptian pharaohs would have their gold buried with them? Well this guy basically created a whole terra cotta civilization to take with him to “the next life.” After 30 years of digging and research, Chinese archeologists have discovered an 8000 warrior army (archers, infantrymen, horses, generals, etc.), black smiths, servants, and other occupations. The crazy thing is that each terra cotta person is individually unique with different facial features, and it’s said that the people who modeled for this terra cotta community were killed after their clay counterpart was complete. Also, the thousands of people who built all the tombs to hold these terra cotta people who were sealed inside the tombs once they were complete. Like I said, this emperor was a bad dude. What’s even crazier is that altogether this civilization is spread out over 56 square kilometers and in over 30 different pits. Chinese archeologists still haven’t opened up the emperor’s actual tomb, not wanting to harm the supposed painted-ceilings (also supposed to be booby traps surrounding the tomb). The terra cotta warrior army is the main thing opened to the public, and for good reason. Housed in 3 different warehouse-like buildings, this army still being repaired. Apparently after the king’s death an angry general went into the terra cotta army’s tomb thing and had his men break them all to pieces. So since the discovery in 1974, archeologists have been putting together each solider and horse piece by piece (they work at night after tourists leave, supposedly each one can take up to two years to put back together). Also, all the figurines were originally painted in bright colors, but once exposed to the air they lost all color and now just have the clay-like hue.

So that’s the history lesson. This was my second time visiting this museum (I came once in high school), but it was still just as good the second time around. The pits holding the army are huge; the largest one being a couple football fields long and one wide. The other two pits aren’t too shabby either. Anyway, one thing I did notice that was different this time around was the commercial development surrounding the museum. Walking back to our bus I was amazed at how many little shops and restaurants and coffee shops had been built on this promenade-like path. Then again, I wasn’t that surprised; this is development is happening all over China.

3. Other stuff in Xi’An
Besides the Terra Cotta warriors, Xi’An has the typical Chinese historical sites. A bunch of towers, pagodas, and temples. I’m sure they are full of historical significance, but they look like any other Chinese temple/pagoda/tower that I’ve already seen. We were also treated to a really nice dumpling banquet/ Tang Dynasty performance on Sunday night.
The classy restaurant/theatre catered basically to foreign tourist groups, but I was still surprised when a group of UCLA Alumni traveling together sat down in front of us. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to talk to them/ get a blank check for a scholarship.

So that was basically the Xi’An trip in a nutshell. Besides getting diarrhea Sunday night I had an awesome time. Also, as of that Sunday night I’ve officially lived in China for 4 months. Kinda weird to think that it’s been that long… also weird to think that I only 8 more weeks left. Anyway, for now it’s back to hitting the books and trying to stay on top of my studies. I’ll try to get another post this upcoming weekend. Enjoy the Xi’An pictures!

My Past Month in Beijing

So we got back to Beijing on September 19th and practically a month has already gone by. It's really quite mind-blowing that I've been in China for almost 4 months... which means I have less then 2 months to go. Anyway, life has been pretty interesting this past month, so here's a short synopsis (probably not the correct usage of the word but oh well):

We started classes September 22nd, and that first couple days of being back and then even the first week of school was a major adjustment period. Suddenly, BNU was real university, it was alive. Gone were the hundreds of security guards and fences from the Olympics; in came thousands of students (a lot of freshmen with the parents coming to college for the first time), and the campus was just bursting with excitement. Also, a couple thousand of new international students came. No longer were we (University of California students) one of the few groups studying at BNU; now we joined a couple thousand other international students from all over the globe in studying Chinese. A large majority of them are Korean or Japanese, but I think a total of almost 50 countries are represented on campus. A lot of them will get the undergraduate degrees here, so it's a little intimidating meeting other international students who are so good at Chinese. Some friends and I bought really, really cheap bikes (180 RMB... about $26) to bike across campus and to the local gym that we joined. It's basically the crappiest bike I've ever ridden, but it gets the job done, I just try not to go over big cracks in the road really fast (going over curbs is out of the question).

There are four classes that we are taking: Intensive Reading, Conversational Chinese, Newspaper Reading, and Listening Skills. I dropped Listening Skills so I'm taking 3 classes... it's about 11 hours of class a week. Doesn't sound too bad but it's a ton of work. Besides one other student, I'm the only Westerner; everyone else is Japanese or Korean or Indonesian... total of 16 students. We go to each class together and they are all really funny. It's really cool too that they don't speak English that well, so we all have to speak Chinese to communicate.

New Dorm Situation: So I'm now living on the east side of campus in a dorm called XinSong. It's about a 3 minute walk to class and a 5 minute bike ride to the west side of campus where most the dining halls are located. My roommate is this awesome Korean guy who doesn't speak English that well but has been studying Chinese for 5 years, so we primarily speak in Chinese to communicate. He's probably at church more than in our room, and it's been cool starting to pray with him (usually in 3 languages, Korean, Chinese, and English). He plays the guitar and sings really well so it's been an awesome blessing in that regard.

I'll try to take some pictures of campus this week and post them later.

Two More Highlights:

1. Beijing Midi Music Festival

So during the Chinese National Day Holiday (we got a week off of school, after going to class for only a week), I checked out this punk rock music festival that was on the outskirts of Beijing. It was by far my favorite Beijing experience thus far. I've been to so many Chinese historical and cultural sites that pay tribute to China's rich cultural history, but this punk rock festival was me experiencing part of the Chinese youth's present-day culture. Normally this annual festival is held in May and has 5000 or so attendees a day (it's five days long), but was delayed 'til October because of the Olympics and the day I went there was probably only 1000 people or so. The bands I saw put on really good shows, and the type of music was anything from British punk to heavy metal. Another stage had Chinese hip-hop. I felt a little giddy as I stood in this huge, wild crowd, the bass sound pounding through my chest. This show had all sorts of elements that can be found in an American show: mosh pits, crowd surfing, tight jeans, converse shoes, piercings, tattoos, etc. Basically, it was an awesome day getting to see a part of Chinese culture that I had never experienced before.

2. BNU Basketball League
A couple weeks ago a couple friends of mine from EAP (my California study abroad program) found out that BNU has an inter-school basketball league, meaning that each major in the university (chemistry school, business school, art, etc.) can form a team and compete for their major. So we formed a team and signed up under our Languages and Cultures College, and my friend got customized jerseys made for 50 RMB/jersey. This league is a big deal; we heard from a Chinese friend in the art college that they have try outs for new freshmen who want to play, and they all have jerseys made. Last night was our first game... and it was also the first time we had played together as a team (there are 6 countries represented on our team). I have to describe the game atmosphere though. The games are on the outdoor courts, and hundreds of students and bystanders surround the court to watch. And they aren't passive spectators whatsoever. They bring out the huge drums and wave huge flags and shout and scream and just make it an exciting atmosphere. There are also referees and scorekeepers. It really felt like a high school basketball game with the crowd and the excitement. We played the geography school, and they weren't bad at all. We got pretty lucky and ended up winning by one point with ten seconds to go. I could definitely tell we are going to have a target on our backs the rest of the season (5 more games then playoffs, which will be in the gym where the U.S. Olympic Team practiced in the summer). Our friends came out to support us and try to make a dent in the huge pro-Chinese crowd, and it was just a fun time. I don't have any pictures yet but our next game is in two weeks I think so I'll try to get some then.

That's all I have time I have right now, so just know that I'm alive and well in Beijing. Our EAP program is taking a program weekend trip to Xi 'An this upcoming weekend to check out the Terra Cotta Soldiers and other sites around the area. I'm really stoked, so I'll be writing about that in a week or two. Oh, it's technically October 18th here in Beijing, so happy birthday Yi Pa!

Shanghai (Two days) and then.... BACK TO BEIJING!!!

So we got to Shanghai on the morning of September 16th and it took a few minutes to realize that we were suddenly back in mainland China with all it's loudness and pushiness. Gotta love it. Shanghai also has a very convenient subway station, so we simply took a 10 minute ride from the train station to our hostel, which Kaitlin had booked in advance. This one was more like a hotel than a hostel; our 3 bed room had a loft and couch and the hostel served a free breakfast every morning (even had CEREAL!!!)...all for a simple 50 RMB ($7 US)/night. After showering and getting our stuff settled we (now just Adi, Kaitlin, and I) we took the subway to the famous Shanghai Pearl Tower and paid to go up and check out the city view. It was something like 200 something meters up there, and the view was incredible. It was a 360 degree view, and walking around the room made me realize how big of a metropolis Shanghai truly is... including the vast amounts of pollution. Next to the Pearl Tower they are currently constructing some skyscraper that when completed in a few years will be the tallest building in China. Compared to Beijing, Shanghai is much more shopping and business oriented and doesn't have as much of the historical or cultural tourist sites. There are tons of foreigners who live and work in Shanghai's financial and business sectors, and their presence was evident in certain parts of the city. That night we met up with our friend Kendra again at this amazing Japanese steakhouse. This restaurant had this deal where for 150 RMB it was ALL YOU CAN EAT AND DRINK! After looking through the menu once I was sold, got the deal, and starting ordering one of each thing on the menu, as did everyone else. It was the type of restaurant where everyone sits around the big stove thing (pardon my lack of culinary vocabulary) and the chef cooks the food in front of you. Let me just say that it was the best meal I've had in China. Steak, sushi, sashimi, vegetables, fruit, more meat, more sushi, more fruit, milk tea, more meat... we just kept ordering it all. All the cooks in the restaurant (most were in their early twenties) started to come into our little to see where we were from, and after talking with them a bit we said we should all hang out later. Soooo, after eating/ordering more food/eating/talking/eating for two and half hours, we went out with a few of the cooks to KTV (karoake). It was definitely the first time I'd hung out with the chef who had cooked my dinner, but nevertheless an awesome time.

The next day we basically wandered around Shanghai, not really having any desire to see anything in particular. I think we were so exhausted from traveling for 29 straight days that we just wanted to go back to Beijing and familiarity. It was like we were just killing time until we could get on our train the next night. We mad the most of it though and that night checked out Shanghai's famous shopping promenade, Nanjing Road, even finding a UCLA store in one of the high end malls. I knew UCLA had opened a store in Shanghai and Beijing but hadn't been to the Shanghai one. It was a little weird walking into this high-end store that sold nice shirts and slacks with the UCLA logo (they don't sell these types of clothes back at the real UCLA), and seeing the walls decorated with pictures of the campus. I'll admit I got a little homesick at that moment, but it was time to move on. Nanjing Road has tons of people who come up to you and say "you like bag? purse? DVD? I have--give you good price!" Since we were somewhat bored of walking through the expensive malls, we followed one of these people who took us to this back alley two minutes away, opened a thick metal door, and led us into his little shop that featured tons of fake goods: DVDs, purses, polo shirts, jackets, etc. We didn't buy anything at this place, but a half hour later we followed another lady who took us through a storefront into yet another secret peddled goods back store and let us walk around. Kaitlin and I ended up bargaining for a couple of "LaCoste" polo shirts, paing 50 RMB each; and I still think we over paid by about 20 RMB. The one thing you have to accept when shopping in China is that you could always get it for cheaper, but you also have to realize that when you spend a half hour haggling over 10 RMB, you're really haggling over $1.50. It's all part of the game, I guess. Anyway, we walked through Nanjing Road and soon ended up at the historic "Bund," a street of Shanghai that features several old European style buildings, built when the European powers split up Shanghai into their spheres of influence and set up different banks and such.
The Bund is also on the riverfront so we could see the bright Shanghai skyline. Now we only had one more day to kill 'til we could go back home in Beijing....

After eating 4 bowls of cereal and 5 pieces of toast for breakfast, I asked Kaitlin and Adi what they wanted to do. Both said, "Go back to Beijing," which got a laugh outta me. But we still most the day to 'til we could head to the train station, so we ended up going to this really neat part of Shanghai that was called the Shanghai ghetto. And I mean ghetto in the Jewish WWII since. Back in the 1930's and 1940's thousands of Jewish people escaped Hitler by coming to Shanghai and settling in this one part of town. There are still some of the original buildings that they lived in still being used as apartments (by Chinese people now) and plaques in a couple parks written in Chinese, Hebrew, and English. We even found a small but state-of-the-art museum (only a year old) that was originally a Jewish temple during the early part of the 20th century. Adi has Jewish heritage and can read, write, and speak Hebrew, so all of this was especially special to her. The museum's Chinese doorman even said hello to her in Hebrew, which totally made her day. I was thoroughly impressed with the museum and learned a lot about this part of Shanghai's history. We wandered around Shanghai the rest of the afternoon, checking out a few other museums (one was the Chinese Sex Cultural Museum... very interesting as well), and we ecstatic when we realized we should head back to the hostel and check out.

We were like little kids on the last day of school, just itching to get out and go home. The day we had got into Shanghai we had bought our tickets to Beijing, and since there weren't any hard sleeper tickets left, we willingly splurged a little more and bought soft sleepers. Hard sleepers and soft sleepers both have soft beds, it's just that hard sleepers are six people to a compartment in smaller beds and no door, while a soft sleeper compartment has only 4 people with bigger beds and a door. The train ride was the most peaceful we had had on our trip, and I went soundly to sleep, knowing that that next day I would wake up near Beijing.

It was around 7:30 AM that we excitedly rushed off the train with our huge backpacks not even seeming that heavy anymore, because we were finally home. Yes, I said home; after traveling across all of China we all realized that Beijing really had become our Chinese home, the place we were most familiar with and would willingly embrace as the place to be. If I wasn't afraid of getting some incurable disease I would have kissed the ground, that's how happy I was to get back.

In total, we had traveled exactly 1 month (August 19th- Sept. 19th), and, according Google's distance calculator, by the way the crow flies we had traveled 4650.591 miles. But we didn't fly like the crow: we took sleeper trains, sitting trains, cars, small vans, big vans, small buses, big buses, slow boats, fast boats, etc. So if you were to calculate the actual mileage by the roads and rivers we took, I'd say we easily traveled over 5000 miles. Not bad. We also spent 146 total hours on buses and trains and boats getting from place to place. That's about 6 days of the 30 day trip just getting tot destinations. But it's also a big part of the adventure. The map shows the route we took: we started at the top in Beijing and basically did a giant counter-clockwise loop. It was definitely the trip of a lifetime, and as I look back looking at all we did I'm still in awe. China is a beautiful country, and there is still so much that I haven't seen. But I'm pretty traveled out for now, so I can leave the big backpack and diarrhea medicine in the closet... for now.

Next I'll try to update everyone on what I've been doing here at school in Beijing the past three weeks.

Hong Kong

So after roughing for 3 weeks in mainland China we to Hong Kong, we had finally reached Hong Kong, one of the most interesting cities in the world, in my opinion. While now technically part of China since being handed over by the British ten years ago, Hong Kong still has, and will have, it's own economic and political system for the next forty years (agreement was for to have its own systems for fifty years after hand over). You still have to go through customs and immigration when crossing the Chinese/Hong Kong border, and it's conveniently located inside the Shenzhen train station (we also met up with our friend Alex from our EAP program, so now there were four of us). Hong Kong's ridiculously awesome MTR (subway system) also connects to the train station, so after going through customs we hopped on the MTR and headed into the city. My Great Uncle Gary and Great Auntie Rita live in Hong Kong and graciously opened their house to us for our entire stay in HK. This was my second time coming to HK, but, for my friends, seeing this gigantic, modern, westernized city for the first time... it just took their breathe away. For anyone who's never been to Hong Kong, it's just in a class of it's own. While it has it has it's obvious Cantonese (Chinese people from southern China) population and culture, it also has peoples from literally all nations who live in the same melting pot, bringing with them their food and cultures as well. A major financial and business metropolis, the money in HK is very apparent. I don't think I saw a car more than 5 years old, and most were BMWs or Mercedes or Porsches or Bentleys or...you get the point. The malls are full of high end brands, and for the most part things are much more expensive than China (they have their own money, the HK dollar). It's basically black and white difference from mainland China. People from on the left side of the road in HK and most Chinese speak English with a British accent (thanks for British education) and speak Cantonese (the other major Chinese dialect, completely different than Mandarin, so we couldn't use our Chinese here at all). The point I'm trying to making with all this is that it's a very interesting blend of cultures and people in HK that you just have to experience to understand. We spent 5 days in hot and humid HK and enjoyed every minute of it. Here are the highlights:

1. Seeing "The Dark Knight" in a movie theatre and eating REAL western food. So that first day in HK we were treated to awesome spaghetti, made by my aunt's house helper, Yanni, and then took off for this really nice movie theatre to watch the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight." I had watched the movie from a pirated DVD during the summer, but seeing it in a real theatre made it hundred times better. They also filmed part of the movie in HK, and so it was a little surreal walking out of the movie theatre and seeing the huge skyscraper in person that we had just seen on the screen. Later that night we headed over to SoHo, a trendy part of HK that has little restaurants featuring food from all parts of the world.... including burgers. I hadn't had a real burger in ages, so I convinced everyone that we should eat there and it was just heaven for my palette.

2. Hitting up the beach. On the other side of HK island there are some pretty nice beaches, so one day we just hopped on the bus and hung out at Repulse Bay for the day. It was like 95 degrees and humid beyond belief, but the water was nice and it was a relaxing time.


3. Making Chinese food. So on Saturday night my aunt and Yanni showed us how to make some traditional Cantonese dishes, and after watching them do their magic (we did the simple things. like peeling vegetables... I turned the stove on) for two hours we all enjoyed a Cantonese feast. After living in hostel after hostel and wandering around different Chinese cities for meals, having a real family meal was a real relaxing experience.

4. Church and Dim Sum. Sunday morning we went to my aunt and uncle's church and I really enjoyed worshipping God with other believers . My friends came along as well, for some their first experience in a church, and they said they were pleasantly surprised by the contemporary music things of that sort. After the service my and aunt and uncle took us to this really exciting restaurant for some dim sum. Dim sum is a Cantonese traditional type of restaurant where the servers go around the tables with little carts peddling one type of food. Each table has a card that the servers punch a hole in once you order their cart's goods, and at the end you pay however many holes are in your card. It's a really exciting atmosphere with all the carts going around and people talking to the servers to see what's in their carts, etc. Cantonese food is, in my opinion (and most people's I think), way better tasting and much healthier than other Chinese food, especially that of Beijing. In Cantonese cuisine most things are steamed and don't have all the oil that inevitably comes in Beijing food.

5. Mid-Autumn Festival. That same Sunday also happened to be the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, which is a celebration across all of China that originally had to do with bringing in a good harvest. The main tradition is eating "moon cakes" which are rich little pastries that usually have some kind of egg yolk or red bean paste in the center of a crust (Starbucks all across China had their own version, of course); the whole month before places were selling all types of moon cakes, and of all prices: 2 RMB to over 400 RMB (over $60, for six cakes). That night my friends and I took the five minute ferry across to Kowloon (the part of Hong Kong on the mainland) and watched the daily light show that features about 30 skyscrapers in HK's skyline that light up coordinated with music. We admired the local display of light lanterns (also a tradition of the Mid-Autumn Festival...I think), then headed back to HK island to head up the famous Victoria Peak Tram to see the skyline. When it's a clear night you can see all of HK from the top, but since it wasn't so clear for us we just had a nice dinner and admired the somewhat hazy view.

6. Cereal. I just wanted to say that every morning my aunt had milk and cereal for us, that itself is worth being a highlight of HK. Beijing has American brand cereal, but it's really expensive (like $7 US a box), and so I didn't up it up there. Eating cereal every day in HK was one of the best parts, easily.

We did some other cool things in HK (went to an amusement park, my friends saw a dance crew show, etc.) but i don't have enough time talk about everything. Basically, HK was a nice little break from mainland China, but soon it was time to continue our journey. So on Monday afternoon, September 15th, we headed to the train station to catch yet another overnight train (12 hours) to Shanghai, which would be the last leg of the trip.

My Current Address

Hey Everyone,

So I finally remembered to figure out my current address for my dorm on campus. They said we can receive packages, letters, etc, and to be honest I have no idea how long it would take to get from the States to here. My friend, Kaitlin, got a package from Wisconsin in a week but I don't know if that was express mail or not. But it doesn't matter to me, I'd love ya all no matter what anyone sent :) Note: the word in the address really is "apartotel"--the Chinese sometimes like to invent their own words sometimes when they translate Chinese to English...I would guess "apartotel" is combination of hotel and apartment. Anyway, here's the address:

No. 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Street
Beijing Normal University
Xinsong Apartotel Room 112B
Beijing, China 100875

I'll try to hurry up and update the blog to the current time soon....

Jared

Yangshuo

So we got to Yangshuo in the early afternoon of September 7th (had to avoid a herd of cattle on the freeway) via our temporary personal driver, Jordan, who also treated us to lunch (ate snails first the first time... they were fried so tasted pretty good). After dropping our stuff at our hostel we went back into town and rented some bikes. But before I continue some background info: Yangshuo is only an hour outside of Guilin and has become a huge tourist stop. It only has a population of about 300,000 people but it had the most obvious tourist presence (both foreign and domestic) that we had seen in all of China. They all flock to see the crazy landscape that the Yangshuo/Guilin area is known for: karst topography. I didn't even know what the words meant when I first read them in Lonely Planet, but they apparently mean what my pictures show: giant hills that look like tiny mountain ranges at time sticking straight up out of the ground surrounded by mist. Traveling around this area was so surreal...I felt like an ant looking up at giant, green boulders that just fell out of the sky and landed on the ground.
They weren't super big, but they were by no means small. Just look at the pictures. It was just one of those things where you look at it, tilt your head, and think, "How the heck did that happen?" Alright, so while the town of Yangshuo is really touristy if you go biking off the main roads around the river and farmland you'll be all by yourself and get to indulge in the beautiful scenery, which is what we did, of course. Oh yeah, and we chose to stay at this awesome hostel that was a bit out of town all by itself but was so peaceful, just an awesome location. One more oh yeah: keep in mind that the weather in Yangshuo was extremely, extremely hot and humid. So while we got to exercise a bit with all the biking and hiking and seeing amazing things... we were sweating from every pore while we were doing it. Alright, so here are the highlights from the 2.5 days that we spent in Yangshuo:

Sept. 7th: Renting bikes was so cheap (20 RMB a day), it made the experience even better. The first day we got into town was the last day we would all be together (Alice and Andrew had to leave the next morning to visit family and return to Beijing, respectively), so we did what they wanted to do. Caitlin, Alice, and I rode bikes while Adi, Andrew, and Kendra, another friend we met up with for a day, rented electric scooters. That first day we met some enthusiastic farmers who insisted we take pictures with them and their cow/water buffalo?, and then afterward asked for a small fee. The capitalist make-a-buck-however-you-can mindset apparently got to these locals. Afterward we declined all other picture offers from other farmers, no matter how interesting they looked (ex: woman carrying babies in baskets hanging from on pole on her back). That night we ate together for the last time at one of the many western bars in town, but faced a little trouble getting back to the hostel. There weren't any taxis for some reason when we wanted to get back, but plenty of young men on motorcycles willing to give us rides, so we bargained them down to 10 RMB/person, and off we went... without helmets (sorry Mom and Dad, I don't think I told you this... didn't wanna get your blood pressure too high). It was my first time on a motorcycle, and I'll admit that it was pretty fun, except that the entire time I kept on thinking about those 1990's commercials that smashed watermelons on the street to show what can happen to a person's head when they fall off a bike without a helmet. So yeah, I held on tight and tried not to think of possibly hitting a bump in the road and my head smashing into a billion fleshy pieces like those watermelons; sorry for the visual. We got back alright though, and, Dad, next time I ride a motorcycle in China I'll tell the driver that my dad works for the Auto Club and insists that I wear a helmet :)

Sept. 8th: Andrew and Alice left in the morning for the Guilin airport, leaving Caitlin, Adi and I to figure out what to do without them. My digestive system came up with the awesome idea of diarrhea again, but I took some medicine before it could get bad and ended up plugging myself up for the next 5 days. Problem solved. That afternoon we rented some bikes from the hostel and started riding up the dirt road up the river next to the hostel. It was such a scenic ride: going through small villages with the people playing mahjiang (a Chinese card/board game...hard to classify it) inside to escape the heat, passing by crazy hills on our left and right, going through farm fields, it just goes on. We were dying from the heat and decided to go swimming in the slow moving river. I walked straight into the cool water and reassured the girls that only small fish were in the river; I jokingly said that water snakes only lived in the Amazon River. That comment would come back to haunt me later. As we were swimming suddenly the partly cloudy skies just started to pour this warm rain. It was that moment that I just turned around and soaked in everything around me: here I was in southern China in this small river with the warm rain lightly hitting my face, and the surreal scenery around me... it was just one of those moments, ya know? We heard some thunder so we walked back to the riverside and just sat with our legs dangling in the water. As I was admiring the beauty of the pattern forming on the river's surface from the rain drops, I suddenly noticed a slithering dark shape right underneath the water's surface by my leg. Before I could jump out this giant long water snake lashed out of the water and bit my lower right leg......... just kidding. Sorry, I had to throw something in there to keep ya on your toes. I did see water snake while we were sitting down, but it was only about a foot long and it didn't bite any of us. It convinced us though that perhaps we get out and continue biking. While we were walking our bikes from the riverside to the dirt path we noticed that a local elementary school had just gotten out and all the little kids were walking home along the path. Most were probably so used to seeing tourists that we foreigners didn't even phase them (some tried making money by offering to take pictures with us for a small fee), but a few were curious and talked with us for a little bit. We continued on our way and after a couple more hours of biking eventually made our way back to the hostel (got to see the sunset on the hills on the way back) exhausted.

Sept. 9th: We had heard about this place called "Moon Hill" that was supposed to have the best view of the entire surrounding area, so of course we had to check it out. We set out from the hostel around 9 am on bikes and after a half hour got to the base of the hill. It was already extremely humid and, thinking that the climb wouldn't be that bad, we started up the hills steps right away. There were these older Chinese women (in their 60s and 70s)carrying small coolers of water that began following us up, trying to sell us water. At first they were really annoying, and I kept thinking, "Geez, I'm a healthy， 20 year old guy and already have a water bottle. There's no way I'm gonna buy water from these ladies." Forty-five minutes later it was a whole 'nother story. The steps were about the same difficulty as Huang Shan, but the humidity was so much worse that I almost felt like crawling up the final steps. I hadn't had a solid breakfast so that might have been a factor too. Moon Hill is like one of those arch like rocks in Utah, and we had made it to the base of the arch. After a few minutes of trying to regain my strength (there wasn't much to regain), I joined the girls as they began the 15 minute climb up to the top of the arch. By the time I got to the top of the arch I felt like I could pass out.. and considering that we were basically standing on the rock's edge with a straight drop down on both sides, it wasn't the ideal circumstance. I had never felt as physically weak as I did that that time, and yet all around me was just complete beauty. I tried to muster some strength to get my camera out and take a few pictures, but I'll admit I stole a lot of the girls' when we got to Beijing. Climbing down to the base of the arch I humbled myself and asked to buy some water from the ladies after having ignored them for so long.
One of them walked down with us to the base of the hill and, noticing that we wanted to get some lunch, offered to cook us a meal for the solid price of 10 RMB/person. She said she lived in the farmland and that her husband and died a long time ago so she lived with her daughters' families. Thinking that this could be an awesome opportunity to see some raw village houses and their lifestyle, we took her up on her offer. A 5 minute bike ride later we were laughing as we entered a through wooden double doors into a house with marble floors, a TV, A/C, oak furniture, and baby toys strewn across the floor. Apparently her son-in-laws were better than we thought. Despite the surprise in her living conditions, we thoroughly enjoyed the food she cooked us (eggplant, eggs and tomatoes, other vegetables, rice, no meat though--that kinda sucked), especially after the physical climb we had just completed. She began to watch her Chinese TV dramas as we finished eating and took off for the hostel. By now the sun was out in full force and combined with the humidity, it felt like biking through a sauna. We finally got back to the hostel, and after losing and getting my wallet back (kinda long story I don't have time for... almost had to take on a crowd of Chinese villagers to get it back; ask me in person if ya want the full version), we said farewell to our wonderful hostel staff and headed back into town to catch a bus to Guilin. Once in Guilin we found some food (after being kicked out of a restaurant for no reason... kinda random) and headed to the train station for yet another overnight train. This one was only 12 hours and would take us to a city called Shenzhen, the border of China and Hong Kong....

Guilin

So it was about hour 19 of the 20 hour train ride from Kunming to Guilin when Alice received a phone call from her dad back in San Diego, Calif. saying that "everything had been arranged" with his old business friend. "What do you mean, Dad?" Alice asked. He replied saying that his friend's wife and driver would pick us up at the train station, gave her the wife's number, and hung up. Having already booked a hostel in Guilin we were a little skeptical of trusting people that we, let alone Alice, had ever met. But after some discussion we decided to feel the family friends out and go from there. It ended being the best decision we had made in a while. Alice's dad's old friend and his wife graciously welcomed us into their very nice home and for the next two days arranged for all our transportation with his company driver (we quickly became friends with this young, friendly driver...giving him the English name Jordan), and booked all the necessary tickets with one of his secretaries. Guilin isn't too big of a city, but it does have it's fair share of big buildings that look really cool at night (we were treated to a river boat ride at night) and, of course, is expanding like crazy with apartment buildings. We visited some parks and caves in the city with our new "Ayi" (auntie), and tried Guilin's local cuisine: fish cooked with beer. It might have been some of this fish that got me sick. Our second day there I had the worst case of diarrhea I've ever had. Fortunately, Jordan bought me some Chinese pills and told me to take 7 of them (they were big pills too...bigger is better sometimes in China I guess). They ended up working after a while, though, and I got to enjoy our last night in Guilin watching the Paralympic Games Opening Ceremonies on TV in our hosts' home. Even though our next destination, Yangshuo, was only an hour outside Guilin with buses frequently going between both, our new auntie and uncle insisted that Jordan drive us...so on the morning of September 7th we left Guilin to go check out Yangshuo...one of most strangely beautiful places in all of China.

So I didn't take that many pictures in Guilin since most the time we were there I was preoccupied trying to find the nearest bathroom/hole in the ground. The first picture is from a local cave we visited. Nothing too spectacular but the Chinese love to look at rock formations in caves and give them funny names, like "Old Man watching the theatre." Second picture is of Alice and our auntie in their living room with her husband cleaning the the table. My friend Kaitlin took the third picture with her camera when I was about to take all the diarrhea pills..there are 7 of them in my left hand. Don't worry, the Yangshuo entry will have plenty of pictures to compensate for Guilin.

Shangri-La (Two and Half Days) and Kunming (10 hours)

So last time I left off we were getting into another shady mini-mini van that looked like it barely had 2 cylinders (joking) and a set of tires smaller than my childhood tricycle (joking again..well, then again, not really). My friends fell asleep almost instantly as our little vehicle began the long haul up another set up mountains. I couldn't take eyes away from the view, and when we got to the top I was again dumbfounded (I think that's a word) at our sheer height above the land far below the cliff. I realize I keep repeating how "amazed" I was at the scenery, and I'm sure you're asking yourself, "It must take very little to entertain this kid." And I guess I'll never really be able to convey the scenes that made me just wonder how it all came to be from God's simple desire, but they truly were jaw-dropping. I think what made this whole region even more mysterious were the swirling clouds that swirled around mountains and through the air, tempting one to just reach out and grab it. The province's name "Yunnan," actually translates as "Southern Cloud," (pretty sure on that), and now having gone there I can see why. Alright, so despite heavy fog limiting our driver's visibility to about 20 feet we made it out of the mountain range and started driving through flat farmland with obvious Tibetan households. Mostly growing wheat, these Tibetan farmers are actually relatively well off compared to the impoverished Tibetan tribes that live high in the mountains (we learned this from this eccentric American who'd been living in the area for 8 years, that's a whole 'nother story that I don't have time for). Anyway, these farmhouses were distinctly different from all other Chinese architecture and had colorful prayer flags adorning them. Don't get the idea that we were driving through a neighborhood of these things though; there'd be one every couple of miles and we'd see the inhabitants herding their goats or other livestock or working in the fields. Oh yeah, and also don't think that we were suddenly in Tibet; Shangri-la is the beginning of what people could call the Tibetan culture and is still more than a day's drive away (probably more) from the Tibetan border. Like I said though, the people, buildings, food, etc. in Shangri-la are distinctly different than all other parts of China. All the public buildings have signs that are both in Chinese characters and one of the more dominant Tibetan written languages (there are many, many different Tibetan minority groups, each with their own language). Anyway, the weather was pretty overcast and quite chilly, and as we stepped out of the van by our hostel I suddenly regretted packing only shorts and T-shirts. Before leaving Beijing I thought, "China in summer? Humidity, scorching heat, typhoons...no jackets or jeans needed." My bad. I figured to just tough it out for two days than buy a jacket...and besides, the one store that I went to find a long-sleeve shirt only went up to Chinese XXL, which was too small for me. China doesn't have a Big and Tall Store in Shangri-la yet. Anyway, I could go into more detail about what we did the next two days, but I'm gonna keep it short 'cause I start class again here in Beijing (we've been on a week break for Chinese National Day) in two days and I'm still only half-way through our trip. So this is what we did in Shangri-la:


1. Visited the famous temple (can't remember the name. I'd say once you've seen one Chinese temple you've seen them all, but this one was definitely Tibetan in style and thus way cooler. As we toured around it we could see intense construction going on to make it a bigger, cleaner, cookie-cutter tourist stop. The Chinese government has poured a lot of money into Shangri-la to make it more appealing to tourists (both foreign and domestic), and a lot of it was going into this temple. So we visited the temple. Check. Next....

2. Had tradtional Shangri-la hot pot (huo guo). If you've cheated and suddenly started reading my blog today (shame on you), then check out what I wrote about hot pot back in Chongqing to get an idea of what it's like. This hot pot in Shangri-la featured way more yak meat the ambience was definitely unique. The amiable owner graciously took a picture with us in front of the hanging yak meat that decorated the whole first floor. Ate yak while look at hanging carcasses. check. Next....

3. Went bike-riding through the farmland. We had heard the best way to appreciate the natural beauty of Shangri-la was to ride bikes through it. So we did. One of the friends I was traveling with had never learned how to ride a bike, but I told him rent a tandem bike with me and off we all went. It was really relaxing to just pedal through the farms (I tried dunking on one of the farm's basketball courts) and we eventually ended up at this quiet lake that featured more picturesque hills behind. The Tibetan farmers and kids that we pass were all friendly and cheerfully gave us their best attempt of "Hello!" as we pedaled by.




4. Froze my butt off. This is self-explanatory. Not really a highlight but I thought I would throw it in there to give you all a sense of how cold it was at night (for me, at least, coming from season-less Southern California).

5. Drank a cup of yak butter tea in old town; it made my stomach miss boring Western teas. Again, not really a highlight, but I just wanted to say that I tried yak butter tea. That's all.

So on the night of September 3rd we left Shangri-la by a night sleeper bus...yes, a sleeper bus. I'm sure you're thinking of those Harry Potter stories and the comfy, magical sleeper bus that he rode. Well, don't. Ours wasn't magical. It wasn't comfy. And I don't know how they could call it a sleeper bus, because we certainly didn't sleep that much. Forgive me for my bitterness...writing this entry is bringing up bad memories. Alright, so they weren't all that bad. We were actually quite fortunate to have gotten the one set of five beds that were all next to each other; I don't know what it would have been like if I had to get cozy next to a random Chinese person. At first we were really excited because the beds weren't that bad and we had pillows and blankets. But the ride was extremely bumpy and the bus so stuffy and hot that we didn't sleep well at all.
Luckily, what was supposed to be a 13 hour ride ended being a 11 hour ride ride and we arrived in Kunming, the huge city capital of Yunnan Province, around 7:30 am. Groggy and wearing clothes dirtied from dry sweat, we went straight to the train station to buy the earliest tickets possible to Guilin (we heard there wasn't much to do in Kunming, so we wanted to leave as early as possible). We were very fortunate to get hard sleeper tickets to Guilin for 5 pm that night, a mere 10 hours away, so that made us a little happier. After showering at a local hostel we began watching one of its movies in it's hang out room when Alice, one of the friends I was traveling with, said one of her dad's old business partners was going to take us out to lunch. So, we met this random family friend of Alice's (she had never met him), and he treated us to an awesome lunch that featured, among other things, deep fried leaves. Straight-up, on the branch and everything, leaves. They were actually really good, like french fries. So the rest of the afternoon our new "uncle" drove us around Kunming in his mini-mini van (it's a popular little car here in China), and then finally dropped us off at the train station early that night. I normally don't look forward to 20 hour train rides, but considering the fact that we hadn't had decent night's rest in couple days I was looking forward to this one. Having endured another Chinese train station stampede we found our bunks, and, after talking about the American presidential election with a random Chinese guy (he had showed us an article about Obama in his Chinese newspaper), crashed in our beds. Next stop: Guilin.