Well, I just returned from my 5+ week holiday. It began the 22nd of January and I started work again on March 1. I had a wonderful time and feel so lucky to have been able to see so many new things! It would take me quite a long time to explain all 5 weeks to you, so I thought I would do it in pictures instead (that's more fun anyways). I'll do my best to explain as much as I can under each pic and recap my journey with you. Enjoy :)
I began my trip in Nanjing, where I met up with my friend Tiffany. This town was very pleasant and calm, and steeped in Chinese history. The famous "Nanjing Massacre" took place here by the Japanese, and there is a memorial that I visited. These 2 pictures are from Purple Mountain, and the Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum. Mausoleums are as plentiful in China as cathedrals are in Europe.
The unbeatable white sand and sunsets on Boracay Beach, Philippines. This was my second visit to Boracay, and my first visit to the Philippines since my exchange there 6 years ago. It was so sureal being there again, and made me realize just how much I love that country. I feel like I had a special connection with the Philippines that I haven't felt with China so far. The people, the beaches, the culture, I miss it so much! Tiff, her friend Jake and I escaped the cold and spent 6 days here.
Back in the cold! Tiff and I went strait from the Shanghai airport upon our arrival to Suzhou, a small-ish town only an hour outside Shanghai. I loved it! It still has so much of the old Chinese architecture that was destroyed by the Communist party in most other parts of China. It's known as the "little Venice" because of the waterways, and it has beautiful gardens (behind me in picture 2).
Hangzhou, known as one of the most beautiful places in China. Apparently, also one of the wettest. It rained on us all three days we were there, which meant a lot of Starbucks visits and early nights. But it was fun to imagine how beautiful it is in the spring. This is a picture of the famous West Lake.
I met my mom at the Shanghai Airport after Hangzhou, and we flew to Wuhan to spend a few days. She got to see where I live, work, eat, etc. We also went to the Yellow Crane Tower (above) which is a tourist attraction that I hadn't seen yet. It was nice to have a bit of a break after traveling for 2 weeks, and before doing another 3!
We flew to Guilin, Guangxi Province (Southern China), and took a bus to the small but bustling town of Yangshou. This was once a village that got discovered by Chinese and foreign tourists for its natural beauty and outdoor activities. We stayed here for 5 days and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was nice to experience what old China might have been like in some of the 600+ year old villages, and see that China does indeed have natural beauty! Here's some of the things we did:
Night cormorant fishing. We rode in a boat beside the fishing boat and watched the fisherman fish with cormorants. He had a string tied around their necks so they couldn't swallow the fish they caught.
We spent 2 days bike riding through the villages, with our bike guide Melody, a local farmer woman. For 100 yuan (about $18 US) a day, she led us around all day, and even took us to her own village where her relatives made us lunch in their farm house (see pic above, probably the most authentic experience I've had thus far in China).
Bathing in a hot spring inside the water caves. The caves were cool and we actually got to shed our coats for most of the time, a nice change!
We took a cooking class too! First we went to the farmer's market, where we saw some of the most disturbing "meat products" I've ever seen, and then we went back to the cooking school and cooked and ate and cooked and ate. We learned to make dumplings, stuffed tofu and mushrooms, beer fish, Kung Pow Chicken, Chinese veggies, and eggplant. It tasted so nice I couldn't believe I made it!
We went to see a show that was directed by the same guy that did the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
A great Chinglish sign at Moon Hill
On the way to Ping'an, I came out of the bathroom to find these women hounding my mom after she bought something. Her line "oh yes, they're very beautiful but I just don't think I need any right now" didn't do much for convincing them. We had a good laugh!
Ping'an, a mountain village north of Guilin and Yangshou. It's famous for its rice terraces. This is a picture of some of the native women selling sweet potatoes.
The women in this village only cut their hair once when they're 17. They keep the ponytail they cut off to twist in with their bun. They wear their hair down until they get married, and then they wear it up. When they have a child, they add a bun in the front. This woman offered to take her hair down for us for 5 yuan, and she also has her ponytail twisted in to it.
We flew to Xi'an where we got to see the Terrakota Warriors, 8th wonder of the world! And boy were they! We really were in amazement.
Xi'an has one of the 2 panda reserves in China. These were the babies at the reserve and they were too cute!
The transportation of choice in China, sleeper train! We were pretty unlucky with getting train tickets with it being Chinese New Year, but we managed to score one from Xi'an to Beijing.
In front of Tianamen Square, the day we had to part ways. It was an unforgettable time!
I began my trip in Nanjing, where I met up with my friend Tiffany. This town was very pleasant and calm, and steeped in Chinese history. The famous "Nanjing Massacre" took place here by the Japanese, and there is a memorial that I visited. These 2 pictures are from Purple Mountain, and the Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum. Mausoleums are as plentiful in China as cathedrals are in Europe.
Next Tiff and I went to spend some time in Shanghai. We met up with our other friend Theresa there as well, and did things like biking, eating out, shopping, visiting the Bund and so on. It was nice to take it easy for a few days, as I didn't realize how tired I'd be at the end of the semester. Shanghai's a cool city, but was also a bit dead due to the nearness of Chinese New Year (everyone goes home to the countryside). Next stop, the Philippines!
The unbeatable white sand and sunsets on Boracay Beach, Philippines. This was my second visit to Boracay, and my first visit to the Philippines since my exchange there 6 years ago. It was so sureal being there again, and made me realize just how much I love that country. I feel like I had a special connection with the Philippines that I haven't felt with China so far. The people, the beaches, the culture, I miss it so much! Tiff, her friend Jake and I escaped the cold and spent 6 days here.
Back in the cold! Tiff and I went strait from the Shanghai airport upon our arrival to Suzhou, a small-ish town only an hour outside Shanghai. I loved it! It still has so much of the old Chinese architecture that was destroyed by the Communist party in most other parts of China. It's known as the "little Venice" because of the waterways, and it has beautiful gardens (behind me in picture 2).
Hangzhou, known as one of the most beautiful places in China. Apparently, also one of the wettest. It rained on us all three days we were there, which meant a lot of Starbucks visits and early nights. But it was fun to imagine how beautiful it is in the spring. This is a picture of the famous West Lake.
I met my mom at the Shanghai Airport after Hangzhou, and we flew to Wuhan to spend a few days. She got to see where I live, work, eat, etc. We also went to the Yellow Crane Tower (above) which is a tourist attraction that I hadn't seen yet. It was nice to have a bit of a break after traveling for 2 weeks, and before doing another 3!
We flew to Guilin, Guangxi Province (Southern China), and took a bus to the small but bustling town of Yangshou. This was once a village that got discovered by Chinese and foreign tourists for its natural beauty and outdoor activities. We stayed here for 5 days and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was nice to experience what old China might have been like in some of the 600+ year old villages, and see that China does indeed have natural beauty! Here's some of the things we did:
Night cormorant fishing. We rode in a boat beside the fishing boat and watched the fisherman fish with cormorants. He had a string tied around their necks so they couldn't swallow the fish they caught.
We spent 2 days bike riding through the villages, with our bike guide Melody, a local farmer woman. For 100 yuan (about $18 US) a day, she led us around all day, and even took us to her own village where her relatives made us lunch in their farm house (see pic above, probably the most authentic experience I've had thus far in China).
Bathing in a hot spring inside the water caves. The caves were cool and we actually got to shed our coats for most of the time, a nice change!
We took a cooking class too! First we went to the farmer's market, where we saw some of the most disturbing "meat products" I've ever seen, and then we went back to the cooking school and cooked and ate and cooked and ate. We learned to make dumplings, stuffed tofu and mushrooms, beer fish, Kung Pow Chicken, Chinese veggies, and eggplant. It tasted so nice I couldn't believe I made it!
We went to see a show that was directed by the same guy that did the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
A great Chinglish sign at Moon Hill
On the way to Ping'an, I came out of the bathroom to find these women hounding my mom after she bought something. Her line "oh yes, they're very beautiful but I just don't think I need any right now" didn't do much for convincing them. We had a good laugh!
Ping'an, a mountain village north of Guilin and Yangshou. It's famous for its rice terraces. This is a picture of some of the native women selling sweet potatoes.
The women in this village only cut their hair once when they're 17. They keep the ponytail they cut off to twist in with their bun. They wear their hair down until they get married, and then they wear it up. When they have a child, they add a bun in the front. This woman offered to take her hair down for us for 5 yuan, and she also has her ponytail twisted in to it.
We flew to Xi'an where we got to see the Terrakota Warriors, 8th wonder of the world! And boy were they! We really were in amazement.
Xi'an has one of the 2 panda reserves in China. These were the babies at the reserve and they were too cute!
The transportation of choice in China, sleeper train! We were pretty unlucky with getting train tickets with it being Chinese New Year, but we managed to score one from Xi'an to Beijing.
In front of Tianamen Square, the day we had to part ways. It was an unforgettable time!
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