Apologies

Just a quick note to say I have been going back through old blog entries and adding some photos here and there and have noticed that I have made some typos and grammatical errors. I have changed those that I noticed on the spot, but I apologize for any other imperfections. It's also interesting to see how things changed so much between when I started writing this and when I finished. I guess I have grown and know that much more about Chinese culture now.

Last Days in Beijing

After Huangshan, I had less than a week left in Beijing. I was really sad but had an amazing last couple days. On the Thursday before I left I was forced by Alex and Carrie to go to this mixer. It was some networking thing that was sponsored (or something like that) by a bunch of universities. Personally I thought it sounded very elitist and I had no desire to go. However, I had nothing better to do, so I went. The bar was nice, but super stuffy and hot. They cleared the floor at one point and brought out a male belly dancer and then some martial arts performers. I couldn't see much, but it looked kind of interesting. The night ended up being pretty cool and we met some interesting people.

On Saturday night a bunch of us went to Karaoke for my going away party. I was a bit skeptical at first since I have never done karaoke and have refused to sing since I was in the chorus in grade school. However, we had an amazing time. We rented out a large size room and had 15 or so people there. I could not really find any songs I wanted to sing, but still had fun with the ones that everyone else chose. The room even came equipped with maracas and tambourines! We were there from midnight to maybe 3 AM? I am not sure. I am sort of sad that it was my first karaoke experience because I doubt I will have another one like that, unless I go back to China.

Monday night was my last night, so Alex and Carrie prepared a nice dinner for me and a bunch of friends that came over. Alex said it wasn't a going away dinner but a "Convince Ramune to extend her stay" dinner. I was in a really weird mood all day because it was really hitting me that it could be the last time I saw most of these people. I thought about staying and kept joking that there was a Ramune-mometer that would determine whether I would stay or not. For many reasons though, I had to come home.

Now that I am home, I am in a weird state and trying to figure out what to do next. Part of me thinks I should seriously look for a design job and part of me wants to save enough money and get back to China and look for something there so I can continue to travel around. Maybe it is time for me to explore my own country though. I haven't really seen much of America and it is a big place full of all kinds of different things. It was rough because I am not really an impulsive person, I try to think about everything I do, but when I was in the security line and on the plane, I really wanted to get off of it. I thought, they do it in the movies, what's to say I can't do it now. Be impulsive and follow your gut. I didn't and now am in Virginia wondering what is next. NY? China? Somewhere else?

I guess this concludes my blog on China, unless I find myself back there. My photos should be all up to date pretty soon. No more to write . . .

Climbing down Mount Huangshan

Around 3 AM, people started getting up and running around outside the rooms. The sound of hocking loogies and yelling and banging on doors filled the air. They had absolutely no respect or consideration for other people. The sun was not supposed to rise until 5:something, yet they were trying to wake everyone to get up and ready. No one in my room was getting up yet, but I figured I would wait for them to leave and then I would get ready. After attempting to sleep for another hour, I got up, grabbed my stuff and went to the hotel bathroom to wash up. It was only 4 AM and there were two women doing the same thing. In the bathroom I met an American girl who said that she paid $80 to stay in the "servant's quarters." The place was such a rip off. My camera battery was dying, so after I got ready I found an outlet in a hallway of the hotel and sat there while it charged. No one even looked at me twice, maybe this was a normal thing to do.

I went to see the sunrise but decided it was not worth it. The whole point of going up Huangshan one day, spending the night and coming down the next day, is to see the sunrise. The previous night the tour guide that was at the sunset told me there was a 30% chance that the sun would rise. I wondered if there was a 70% chance of apocalypse that I was unaware of, but I assumed he meant that the sunset would not be dramatic.

I began the long hike down the mountain. Lonely Planet says that it is best to take the Eastern Steps up and the Western Steps down, because at least the hard parts are all downhill. They don't really tell you how much uphill you have to do as well. This was by far the hardest stairclimbing I have had to do. I went to the top of several peaks, including the Heavenly Capital Peak, which is the steepest of the peaks. Unfortunately the tallest (Lotus Peak) was closed off. Going up the Heavenly Capital Peak I was on all fours most of the time. There were parts of the stairs that were at 80 to 90 degree angles and you had to hold onto chains to support your weight and not fall back. I do not normally get vertigo, but I could not look down without feeling like I might fall off.

The thing that was so frustrating was that I kept thinking I was almost at the top of the peak, but I would get to the top of the steps and there would be another section and then another section and so on. I think this happened at least seven times before I got to the top. At one point along the way (almost to the top), I was walking and a group of Chinese tourists said hello. I said hello kindly even though I really just wanted to get to the top and drink some water. Then one of them said that they were students from some Aeronautics University in Nanjing. They had seen me during their trip and wanted to say hello. They asked if I would take a photo of them and then they asked if they could take a photo with me. When I asked why, they said, "Because you are the hero!" It was quite amusing and I am not sure what made me "the hero," maybe because I had a ridiculously large backpack on and most people were sane enough not to carry so much up a steep mountain. Anyway, we took photos and then we all began the descent down the peak. It was pretty frightening.

Later on during my descent, I had passed some more workers bringing goods up the mountain. It was very bizarre but on at least three occasions when I moved to the side to let them pass, a worker would touch my thigh. One other time a worker patted his thigh and looked at me. I don't know what that all meant, but I felt somewhat violated. It was very strange. I wonder if they do this to everyone who lets them go by.

By the end of the climb down, my knees were shot. It took me around six hours to get down the mountain (including climbing up Heavenly Capital Peak). I caught a bus to the hostel and the owner helped me buy a plane ticket. Unfortunately I did not get a photo of the owner, but he had the strangest eyes. I couldn't tell if he was just nervous and did not want to look me in the eye or if his eyes were just pointing in totally different directions.

He helped me get to a bus that would take me to Tunxi, where I could then take a taxi to the airport. The bus was pretty budget and three different people were trying to speak to me at once. One guy asked me what I thought of Chinese people and at the time all I could get out was "They are nice." It was a bad time to ask because I was so tired of Chinese tourists that were following flags, hocking up loogies, waking me up at 3 AM, peeing in pots near my bed and having no consideration for other people I had had quite enough, but I tried to remain cool.

I made it to the airport five hours early and went to the cafe there. They had a variety of fried rices on the menu so I figured it would be good to put some real food in my stomach, since all I had been eating was snack bars for two days. The woman said that their pork fried rice was good. I sat down and then heard a microwave in the kitchen. I figured it was something else, until my meal came out. It was one of those cup o' noodles type containers, only it had rice and a rather foul flavored pork sauce in it. I paid 30 kuai for this crap. Like the economic room for 200 kuai, it was yet another disappointment. I ate the parts that were just plain rice and then went to take a nap on some benches in the waiting area.

It was pretty nice being one of maybe three people in the airport, just relaxing for a few hours, until a huge tourist group came in. Of course they were on my flight. The entire time until we got on the flight, they were taking photos of each other in the airport. I am sure I made it into a large percent of those photos and I am sure I did not look happy. I was so tired and could barely keep my eyes open and the last thing I wanted to be surrounded by was a bunch of tourists.

The flight was mostly painless and then I made it home and to bed!

Climbing up Mount Huangshan

I woke up on Tuesday by a knocking on the door. The owner told me to wake up so I could get ready for the bus. After I got ready, I went to the hostel office and tried to talk to him about what the plan was. I did not know if I wanted to spend one or two nights on the top of the mountain and I needed to buy a flight back at some point. He told me to go up, stay one night and come down and then fly back that same night. We had some communication problems, so he got on the grungiest computer I have ever seen (the keyboard was covered in cigarette ash and all kinds of weird grime) and used an online translator to communicate with me. It worked quite well to get the main points across.

He walked me to a bus that drove me and a bunch of Chinese tourists up to the base of one of the cable cars. So my hike began up the many stairs of Mount Huangshan. I went up the East Stairs, which were quite packed with tourists going both ways. There were so many Chinese workers hiking up and down the stairs with massive loads across their shoulders. They were carrying everything from vegetables to linens and towels to building materials and garbage. I guess everything that is on top of the mountain is carried up by cheap labor. It was really annoying me because there are three cable cars that go up to the top of the mountain. Would it be so hard to bring a load up and a load down once a day? Then again, I guess it gives people jobs, but I am sure they don't get paid nearly enough. Along with carrying heavy loads, it's not like they have the best shoes to support the weight and climb.

Initially I was really excited to hike up and listen to the sounds of the nature around me, however there was nowhere I went where I did not have to listen to numerous tourists chattering. I finally took my iPod out after I was stuck behind a couple who were playing music outloud on their cellphone. Argh!

I arrived at the top of the cable car area in two hours and then tried to look for a hotel or hostel to drop my stuff off. After looking at a couple of hotels, I found the Shilin, which had an economic room for 200 kuai ($25). That is ridiculous for an economic room, so I thought it had to be pretty decent. The next room up was a single for 1280 kuai ($160), and I was not about to do that. The woman at the front desk showed me to walk outside the building and up part of the mountain to another area where the economic rooms were. It looked like they were trying to hide these rooms from their regular customers. I found the rooms, that consisted of three bunk beds and a single bed crammed into a small space. It was around 10 AM and I was the first one there, so I chose my bed and attempted to take a nap. Unfortunately the mattress was a wooden plank with practically non-existent padding. I laid in bed for around two hours tossing and turning until I decided to give up and move on.

I left my bag at the front desk and began checking out the scenic spots on the top of the mountain. There were so many amazing places to see and luckily the farther out I went from the hotel areas, the less tourists I ran into. One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Huangshan was to see the mountains in a sea of clouds. Unfortunately I think that happens between October and May, and I must have come a bit too late, as there were no clouds that low. I was climbing up and down and up and down stairs the entire afternoon. Nothing is flat on the top of the mountain, so anytime you want to see something you have to take stairs. It was starting to get late and I found this one path I wanted to take, but it was entirely down stairs into a valley for 3.5 kilometers. What goes down must come up, and I was already pretty far from the hotel area. I went down for .5 kilometers and then decided to come up so I would not miss the sunset.

Lonely Planet mentioned that to avoid the crowds, Purple Peak was a good place to see the sunset. When I got to the top, there was only one other couple and their tour guide. It was one of those sunsets that looked like it would be very dull but then at the last second was amazing. I attempted to take some photos, but none of them came out quite right.

At this point I was freezing and needed to get back to the economic rooms. It was getting very dark and I needed food and water. I found a little kiosk and bought ridiculously overpriced water and a box of cookies for snacks. I managed to find my way back to the hotel in the dark and went to the shop inside the hotel to see if I could put my photos on a disc. I had already blown through all of my memory cards and the choice was either to pay to put them on a disc, delete photos or not take any the following day. I ended up paying an insane 200 kuai for two CDs! I felt like I was being ripped off at every corner.

I went back to my room naively thinking that I would be the first or only one in the room. The door was locked, so I found a housekeeping lady to open it. I turned the lights on and managed to wake up all six other people that were sleeping in the room. After apologizing, I quietly tried to get ready for bed in hopes that since I was so exhausted I would be able to sleep no matter what the conditions were.

An hour after I got into bed, a couple of the girls starts talking. One of them got out of bed, walked over to the foot of my bed (which was by the door), took out a pot and started peeing (and farting!) in the pot! I thought this was utterly disgusting, but thought to myself, "They must be civilized people, no one wants to sleep in a room with the stench of urine . . . do they?" About five minutes after she was done, another girl got out of bed and did the same, and then another and then another. Four girls peed in this pot that was less than a foot from my feet. EEEW! I was beyond repulsed and just wanted to get out of there. What boggles my mind is why no one would just leave the room and go a little ways to the bathroom. I had not used the bathroom, but I imagine it would be better than having to sleep knowing there is a bucket of pee in your room. I attempted to sleep and cover my nose, but was very unsuccessful.

Getting to Huangshan . . .

Before I flew to Huangshan, I tried to make arrangements for a place to stay the first night, since I was going to be getting in around 9 PM. I found a hostel and called to see if I could make a reservation. The guy spoke a teeny bit of English but it was minimal and my Chinese was certainly not enough to get across what I needed to. By the time we finished speaking I was under the impression someone would pick me up at the airport when I got there. He never asked my name or anything, but I guess he figured it would be easy to spot a white girl in a sea of Chinese tourists.

The flight was mostly painless, just a little turbulence as usual. When I got off the plane the guy found me pretty easily and took me to his van. This was all really sketchy as it was 9 PM, I was tired and there were three other people in the van, all people who worked at the hostel I imagine. How many people does it take to pick someone up from the airport?

The website for the hostel said that it is 6 kilometers from the airport . . . 6 kilometers my bum . . . I think it was more like 60, maybe even more than that. It was really dark and took us over an hour on curvy mountain roads (that we were speeding around no less). Throughout the ride, the owner of the hostel kept asking me questions on how to say words in English. It was like a private tutor session in the van. And like many Chinese people I have noticed, he giggled after everything he said in English. I wonder if it is some nervous reaction. I taught him how to say "airplane" and "airport," but he kept calling it an "airplane port."

We finally arrived at the hostel and I paid 50 kuai ($6.25) for a single bedroom with a bathroom . . . not bad. Unfortunately the water faucet was not working, so I had to use the shower head whenever I wanted to wash my hands or brush my teeth. The room was entirely blue, from the walls to the blankets on the bed. It was a little strange, but very comfortable. The owner (I never got his name), told me to be ready by 6 AM so I could catch a bus to the base of the mountain.

No Knees

I am back from Huangshan and am ridiculously tired and my calves and knees are screaming at me. Took lots of photos, so I am going through them now and will hopefully have them up soon. Will also write all about it today or tomorrow. I have less than a week left, so sad!

Off to Huangshan!

So for my last trip in China, I have chosen to go to Huangshan. Unfortunately Alex just started intensive language courses today (for ten weeks), so I am going alone. Ahhhh! I am super excited and scared all at once. I think it will be a good way to end my time here. This is what "they" say about Huangshan:

"No ordinary mountain is worth seeing after a trip to the Five Sacred Mountains; no Sacred Mountain is worth seeing after a trip to Mount Huangshan."

I bought a one way ticket, am leaving for the airport in fifteen minutes and then I think I am getting picked up to go to a Hostel near the base of the mountain. I hope. I tried calling this place and luckily the guy spoke some English but I will be pretty screwed if I run into people who do not speak any English. At least it is easier in person than on the phone. Anyway, the plan is to stay at the hostel tonight, then hike up the mountain with my bag and stay somewhere else, then I will see how things go and see if I want to come back down and fly back to Beijing that night or stay another night and then come down. Who knows. I will most likely be back by Thursday or Friday.

Ok, wish me luck and I am on my way. Check the link I provided above and then go to the bottom left where it says "Huanshan Photos." I really hope I see clouds like that. I have heard that they are normally seen between October and May, so I am on the edge. I will be very sad if I don't see them. When I think of China and Chinese art, this is what I think of.

Eeee! I am off!

Passport Photos and Thigh Pants

The other morning Alex had an interview at Beijing University for an intensive language course. I went with her because apparently Beijing University is like the Harvard of the East and has a beautiful campus. Plus, what else did I have to do? She needed to get passport photos but the Kodak near our apartment was unable to do them. After her interview we looked for another Kodak and found one. For some reason it was taking a while to take the photos and Alex asked if there was a problem. Apparently their camera was not working properly and it happened to be the exact same one as mine, which I had with me. While they were trying to figure stuff out with their camera, Alex and I had some fun taking photos with the fake ocean background they had on the wall. There was also this hideous photo of a little girl with pursed lips wearing red lipstick and holding a red phone. I guess this is the kind of photo you can take at this place. After not being able to figure out their camera problems, we offered them my camera for the photo since Alex needed it right away. They took the photos and we were off.

We walked around the campus for a while and then met up with Alex's old Chinese teacher who was really cool. Alex showed me this amazing clothing store that I am now obsessed with. I have a hard time finding clothes I like and this place was almost made for me. At one point though, I was in the dressing room and Alex said, "I found pants that you have never seen in your life. Seriously, you have never seen these before and you are trying them on." So I tried them on and they were the most unflattering pants in the universe. I don't know who wants their thighs to look twice as big as they are.

It was a simple yet fun day and we had a good time at the Kodak store. Who would have thought!

Back in Beijing

We arrived back in Beijing at around 7 AM and joined the masses that were also returning. We came to the apartment, did laundry, checked emails and went to "The Olive" for lunch. It's kind of funny how I have become sort of a "regular" there. The waiter came up to us and asked if we had been there before, when I said I had been he said he recognized me. I think he was trying to practice his English and how to be polite by asking us a bunch of questions. It was pretty cool.

After lunch we went to the Summer Palace. Unfortunately the sky was really "smoky" as the weather describes it, so the view was not that great. Even with the less than amazing view, it was still nice to walk around and imagine what it must have been like back in the day. We were lucky enough to see a musical performance in the old theatre. For dinner we wanted to do Peking Duck, so we found this wild Chinese restaurant. They had all kinds of weird things there. Turtle soup, sea cucumber and all kinds of things I can't even remember, but let's just say it was hard to find things on the menu that I was interested in eating. The Peking Duck was quite tasty as was the fried octopus (or was it calamari?). They gave complimentary desserts, so you can imagine I was excited. Eeeek! It was horrible! We ordered one of each since there were three of us (Carrie came as well). One was some tofu cubes in a liquid, another was some black jelly (we think maybe squid ink?) and then other was some kind of porridge. They were all equally foul.

That night Alex got back from her trip to Xiahe and so we all went to Alfa (a bar/club) to catch up. Kurt and I wanted to go to the Great Wall but did not know how to get there without paying a lot for a taxi. Julie has a driver that she uses and she told us that she would call him and arrange it. Sure enough the next morning, the driver picked us up and drove us out to Simatai. It was a very cloudy and misty day unfortunately, but Simatai looks amazing even in the fog. We heard that there is a tabogan at Simatai that you can take down, but we could not find it anywhere. My only thought is that Lonely Planet is wrong and it is actually on another part of the wall. We were pretty disappointed, but it was still an amazing day.

We took the cable car up so that we could spend more time on the wall. For good and for bad, we went on an uncrowded day. The good thing about it is obviously that there are less people, the bad thing is that the hagglers focus in on you and follow you the entire way. Luckily we managed to shake one off and enjoy the rest of our hike. We made peanut butter and nutella sandwiches for lunch, which I have now named "The Great Wall Sandwich" since I made it the last time I climbed the Great Wall. Kurt and I noticed that I put a ton more nutella and peanut butter on mine, go figure!

That evening we went to Red Rose, the Xinjiang restaurant, with Alex and Julie. They had belly dancing and a band and it was a good time until the snake came out. I totally forgot that the belly dancers sometimes bring a snake out, and Julie is deathly afraid of snakes. As soon as she saw it she freaked out and had to leave the restaurant.

The following day Kurt and I went to do some shopping at the market that had opened across the street and then I took him to the airport.

Shanghai and Hangzhou

The flight to Shanghai was pure torture. While in Kunming I said that I could not stand Kenny G and there was nothing worse, but I was wrong. Two words: Celine Dion. I had noticed the music of Ms. Dion seemed popular in China, but it is normally easy to leave a place that plays it. Unfortunately Shanghai Airlines really likes Celine Dion and plays it through the speakers for everyone to hear, regardless of whether you are wearing headphones or not, during take off and landing. The worst part was every time they turned it off and put it back on, it would start back at the beginning. So I had to hear four of Celine Dion's greatest hits on repeat. I can't remember all of the tracks, but there was definitely the Titanic song and the "I'm your lady and you are my man" song. BLEH! Vomitous. At least with Kenny G there is no screaming voice and you can sort of tune it out.

Anyway, the flight was pretty painful in that respect. We got to Shanghai and the weather continued to be pretty crappy and even rained for a day or so. On our first day we checked into our hotel and then walked to this other hotel to set up a tour for the following day. I wanted to show Kurt a small village since all we were doing was big cities. Alex and I had previously wanted to go to Hangzhou or Suzhou when we visited Shanghai, but did not get a chance. We booked a tour for Hangzhou for the following day. What a disaster.

Our tour group seemed pretty small, around 13 people, so I thought Hangzhou might not be too crowded. We got there and it was horribly packed. For one, I was so wrong about Hangzhou being a small village. I might have noticed something was off when I saw a large dot next to it on the map, indicating that it was a large city. Our first stop was this temple that was very cool and I was excited to see. I am sad that it was so crowded because we literally rushed in, saw the big Buddha and left. There are loads of Buddhas carved into the side of the mountain and we just walked right by it. We did get to see some monks playing music inside the temple and that was really nice and somewhat calming (at least for Kurt, not much worked for me).

After the temple we went to this park where we saw an albino peacock. We pretty much rushed through the park and to a crowded boat that took us out on West Lake for around an hour. It was so disappointing. I remember when Alex and I were looking for places to go we thought that West Lake would be beautiful and serene. Apparently it inspired poets, but it did not inspire me. It was pretty smoggy and crowded when we went. Even if it had not been smoggy, I don't think I would have been impressed. I guess I had much grander expectations.

We went for a Chinese lunch at this hotel. It was alright, but nothing amazing. I am not particularly thrilled with Chinese cuisine. I like a few dishes, but I will admit that I prefer American Chinese. Call me a stupid American, but I just find that at least the Chinese I have had has all been really oily and is not as healthy as I thought it would have been.

Our last stop on the tour was a tea village where they grow green tea. It was really interesting but it was so obvious they were sitting us down to sell tea to us. They took us to a room where they showed us how you drink green tea and told us that it's good for high blood pressure among other things. The woman sounded like a robot, as if she had been programmed and someone just pushed a button that said "English" and she spoke.

This was the first tour I had been on like this and now I know why I have avoided them for so long. During May Break it is especially bad because you have to rush through everything. I did not really get to enjoy anything I saw. We took the bus back to Shanghai and rested that evening.

Our first full day in Shanghai we went to the Jade Buddha Temple. I had heard it was pretty cool, however when we went there were banners all over with the day's date on it. We didn't know what they said, but we figured there was some big event. Sure enough, there was a huge line to see the actual Jade Buddha. We saw everything else at the temple but ended up skipping the Jade Buddha because the line was ridiculous. When we walked outside of the temple there were several severely deformed people begging for money. I remembered seeing a guy with no legs outside of a church in Cairo. He dragged himself around with his arms and I didn't think it got much worse. The people outside the Jade Buddha Temple had all kinds of problems I didn't really know existed. There were people with really skinny legs bent in weird positions that had to push themselves on carts. The worst one for me was one I barely even looked at. This person was being pushed around on a cart by a man because his head was so enormous and his body was too weak to support it. Literally I think his head was at least two or three times bigger than a normal head. It was really disturbing and sad and put a strange cast on the day.

After cheering up a bit, we went to the Urban Planning Museum. We probably would not have gone there had several people not told me how cool it was. They have the largest model of a city in the world. It was pretty cool to see. It is supposed to show what Shanghai will look like in the year 2010 (or was is 2020?). They also had this cool exhibit on Oslo, which I found pretty funny. I am in this fairly polluted city in one of the most polluted countries in the world and then I walk into a room talking about how Norway is so clean and perfect. It was sort of a tease. They had two pretty cool interactive features. One was a photo booth where you stand in front of a snowy background and then say "Ooooooslo" for the camera. They also had a "Water from Oslo" thing where you can drink the water. For all I know it could be fake, but it was a cool idea.

We took the tourist sightseeing tunnel to the other side of the Huangpu River and went up the Oriental Pearl Tower. That was a pretty hellish experience. We had to buy tickets and then got in a long line to get to the elevator. You figure you can see the line and you only have to wait for that. But when you get to the elevator you find out that you take it up to the middle and then have to get into another line to get to the top. Since we paid for the top, we waited again . . . What sucks is that it was a cloudy rainy day, so we paid for a pretty crappy view. We did get to see the Jimao Tower, which is the 4th tallest building in the world and the tallest hotel in the world.

On our last day in Shanghai we went to the Yuyuan Gardens. We went through a part I had not seen with Alex, so it was kind of cool to get a different view off it. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and trying to shop. We had walked down this pretty cool street the first day we got there and decided to go back to look for clothes. I did not realize how expensive the stuff was until we walked into these stores. There was a shirt that cost $1,000!!! I can see how a boutique in New York can charge something ridiculous like that for a wild shirt, but this looked like a regular shirt. It was just ridiculous.

That night we took the overnight train back to Beijing.

Kunming and the Stone Forest

Sunday morning we woke up early to fly to Kunming. It was strange flying back down there less than a week after I had already been through there. Kunming is supposed to be "spring all year" and have blue skies, however we only had a blue sky one day, and that was the only blue sky we saw while Kurt was in China. The taxis in China are pretty cool. Instead of having some long confusing number to identify taxis, they each have an animal (picture and name) and a number. For example our taxi from the airport was Cow 76 and our taxi to the Stone Forest was Butterfly 32. I think it is a great system and is also fun. We were trying to see how many animals there are, and there are quite a lot.

We got to our hotel, got ourselves together and then went in search of food. This is where you may lose all respect for me. We went to Pizza Hut. Yes, I admit it, our first meal in Kunming was at Pizza Hut. We were really hungry and it happened to be on a corner of our building. I remembered Pizza Hut in Cairo was quite different from Pizza Hut in the states, so I figured why not try. It was really good and the funny thing is that it is like a really restaurant in China and has much nicer decor than a Pizza Hut in the states.

Unfortunately it was raining on our first day there, but we decided to go for a walk anyway. We figured we could buy umbrellas somewhere on the way to the Green Lake, but we could not find any. We went to the lake anyway and found a little amusement park with all kinds of games and rides for small kids. After the park we were pretty much soaked, so we headed back to the hotel. A couple blocks away we finally found umbrellas, oy!

Our second day in Kunming we walked to Dian Chi Lake. On our way we passed by the West and East Pagodas. The East Pagoda had these beautiful fuschia flowers all over the place. It was quite a long walk to Dian Chi Lake and involved us walking on part of a highway where we were laughed at by almost every car that drove by us. The park was really pretty and the ponds in the park were a ridiculous shade of green. It looked like they were filled with some sort of neon olive green paint. We were quite stupid and did not wear sunblock on the one blue sky day we had. Unfortunately we both burned. That night we met up with Adina (she went on the Fulbright trip to Lijiang) who was hanging out in Kunming until her boyfriend came to visit. We went to this great Mexican restaurant (go figure) and I had a tasty pesto quesadillas!

Our last day in Kunming we hired a taxi to take us to the Stone Forest. I don't like how cities claim to have all of these big sights, and then when you get there, the sight is really two or three hours away. The frustrating thing is, I know there are buses you can take to the Stone Forest but with my minimal Chinese abilities I did not want to risk going somewhere else by accident. The traffic was so bad getting out of the city that at one point cars were backing up to get off of the highway.

The Stone Forest was really interesting but you have to go through a lot of touristy stuff and masses of people before you can get to the good stuff. It was so ridiculously crowded but we did manage to find some areas that were not as populated. We did not have a map, so we had a bit of a hard time finding our way out when we wanted to leave, but eventually found these Chinese girls who wanted to practice there English on us. When Kurt said he was from NY they said "It must be a beautiful place." They were really cool and giggly. They could have been making fun of us for all I know, but they sort of helped us find our way out.

On our way back to Kunming we were stuck in really bad traffic and it turned out a huge truck full of coal(?) had turned over and was blocking cars from going forward. I have no clue if anyone was hurt. We had to drive around the truck and it did not look good.

The following morning we had breakfast and then caught our flight to Shanghai.

Forbidden City and Apocalyptic Skies

Kurt arrived on his birthday after having traveled in Europe for several weeks. Luckily I was feeling better and was able to bake him a cake and show him around a bit on his first day. He did not have a whole lot of jetlag, but we kept the first couple days pretty light. Unfortunately the entire time he was here, Beijing was horribly polluted, so his first impressions were not so good.

The second day in Beijing we went to the Forbidden City and the Lama Temple. The Forbidden City was pretty cool, however the sky was nasty the entire day with all the thick pollution just hanging around. The Lama Temple was cool to see again, however it was more crowded and there were no performances.

The third day we pretty much stayed indoors because it looked like the apocalypse outside and we did not want to breathe it in. It was so disgusting outside, so we unfortunately missed out on doing anything too exciting. It was good to rest though since we had to leave early the next morning for Shanghai. I did take Kurt to Yashow, a shopping market with all kinds of clothing, shoes, bags, beads, Chinese goodies. Most of the clothing and shoes are fakes, actually I don't know if any of it is real, but some stuff is definitely better quality. At any rate, there were lots of people and everyone is trying to get your money and hassling you. It was a bit much, so we did not last too long. That night we went to dinner with Jen, the other roommate who I only knew for a couple weeks but got along really well with. We went to a Korean restaurant and had hot pot.

Lijiang Day 7 (0425) - Leaving Lijiang

I went to bed thinking that I would wake up feeling better since I was not staying in the same cigarette/leaky gas room, however I woke up feeling just as dizzy and sick in my stomach. I tried to get some air, Lily gave me lots of ginger tea with "local sugar" and I drank lots of water. I was unable to eat anything and thought I would fall over and pass out if I did not hold onto something at all times.

Unfortunately it was our last day and I had to go to the airport alone and fly alone for my first time in China while feeling like this. Lily was very kind and came with me in the taxi to the airport and stood with me until I went through security. My flight to Kunming was so hot and turbulent. My flight to Beijing was delayed an hour and I had to keep my eyes shut the entire time to try and not get any sicker.

I got home and went straight to sleep. I woke up the next morning still feeling dizzy, but was at least able to walk around without holding onto anything. It was such a bizarre feeling and I still don't know what was wrong with me. I spent that day getting everything in order before Kurt arrived, the following day.

Lijiang Day 6 (0424) - Hike in Liming/First Bend of Yangtze

Our last full day in Lijiang was amazing. We had been talking about what to do for this day all week and it was between seeing Tiger Leaping Gorge or going to Liming. All we knew was that Justin said Tiger Leaping Gorge is better to see on a three day hike rather than pushing it into one day, and we knew that Liming had "red rocks." We decided on Liming because it sounded interesting, none of us had been there and it was less touristy (which was very important to us). We grabbed something to eat and then sat in the van for three hours through the mountains and along the Yangtze River.

We arrived at Liming and began our climb up one of the peaks. Since the area is like one big park with a variety of mountains to climb up, there were stairs the entire way. Unfortunately I needed to use the bathroom on the way and found a squatter. I have been to some foul squatters, but this one took the cake. Apparently they were not getting a lot of tourists, so they saw no reason to clean the bathrooms or make sure the water was going down. It was an assault on all senses.

The climb up the mountain was amazing. The formations there were unlike anything I had seen. The colors were beautiful and I think it is now one of my favorite places I have been to in China. All along the stairs were wooden gutters that brought water down from the top of the mountain. The sounds of the water and the look of the trees reminded us (those of us who have played it) of the computer game, Myst. It was so serene and there were not many people around, so it made for an enjoyable experience, as well as a pretty rough climb.

It took us around 1.5 hours to get to the top. Near the top we had to take off our shoes to climb the rest of the way. This is when I discovered that I was a billygoat in a past life. I much preferred climbing on the rocks barefoot. I thought everyone would feel this way, but they did not. I cannot even describe how the rocks looked, that's why I am including photos. The color and the texture was beyond amazing. Adina pointed out that some of the formations looked like cakes with chocolate syrup dripping down. This might also have to do with the fact that we had been talking about chocolate cake quite a bit. We rested on the top for a while, ate some snacks and then came down.

Our next stop was in Shuge, to have lunch and see the first bend of the Yangtze River. We ate lunch at this great place where you go into the kitchen, look at all of their ingredients and tell them what you want! At first I thought it was weird because I didn't know what would happen if I said I wanted a potato. Did that mean I would get a potato on a dish? What they did was you would pick something (like a potato) and then they would mix it with other ingredients and then you would have a dish. It was probably one of the better meals we had during our trip, until I saw a fly in my rice. After lunch we went up to a monument for the Red Army to look out on the Yangtze.

We drove back to Lijiang and went to the Prague Cafe for dinner. This is where the trip went sour. We had been wanting to get Naxi sandwiches for a while since we thought it was a Naxi thing. Sadly, Lily told us it really isn't Naxi, it's more like a thing Westerners like to eat. At any rate, we all ordered them and they turned out to be like BLTs with ham, cucumbers and goat cheese. It was alright, but I started feeling sick pretty soon after eating it. The strange thing was that no one else felt sick and we all ate the same thing.

After hanging out for a while, we went back to our rooms and I noticed a horrible stench when I walked into Adina's and my room. It smelled like someone had smoked a pack of cigarettes in there. None of us smoke and none of us had been in there since before dinner, so it was really bizarre. Then I started getting really really dizzy and had to sit down on my bed. When I went to lie down I noticed that right by my pillow the smell was the strongest and it also smelled like chemical gas. I never felt this strange before and thought I was going to pass out. It was late, but we called the woman at the front desk and she came up with a can of air freshener. I was really unhappy with that because covering up a smell is not going to stop it from killing me in the middle of the night. I was really nervous about the chemical gas smell and so we had her look around to see if there were any leaks. Justin and Steve were staying in the room next to ours and they were closer to the gas tanks, but there was no smell in their room and the gas did not appear to have a leak. We never figured it out, but we moved to another room because I did not want to risk not waking up in the morning.

Lijiang Day 5 (0423) - Hike Back to Lijiang

Throughout the trip we had been changing our plans daily. Our guide, Lily, was very accommodating and dealt with our constant change of mind very well. Each night we would talk about what we were doing the rest of the week based on how that day had gone. On this day we had planned to drive back to Lijiang and then spend the day there seeing tourist sights and relaxing. Adina had the idea that we hike back to Lijiang since the previous day had consisted of us getting driven around everywhere.

Lily decided to go back into town and so did Steve (one of the Fulbrighters). We said our goodbyes to the family and the rest of us followed Lily's brother on another challenging hike through the mountains. This day was by far our hardest hike. We never stopped for a lunch break and I think we went farther than our previous hikes, although I am not sure. Lily's brother did not have anything with him. He did not drink water, and as far as I could tell he never broke a sweat or got exhausted. Initially we were going to find our own way back to Lijiang, but I am glad we followed him because I think would have gotten lost somewhere along the way.

We arrived to Suhe, a village not far from Lijiang and decided to take a van for the remainder of the trip. That evening we went to a Western restaurant that served mainly "Italian" food. Adina ordered a salad with ricotta and olives and was so excited . . . until she got the salad. It looked like a regular side salad, with some grated parmesan and no olives. Yet another example of how Western food gets twisted. After dinner we sat around and talked as if it was our last night together. Steve had printed some of his photos and handed them out. I really need to print my photos because it is such a different feeling to have a hard copy in your hands.

Lijiang Day 4 (0422) - Lashihai and Yi Village

Woke up after not having slept too well due to the cold and moths, and took a shower in a cement room with no light.

We spent the day around Lashihai seeing different things. We started by taking a van up to the top of this one mountain to a Yi Village (another minority group in the area). Unfortunately most of the people were out in the farms so we only saw a handful and they were not very willing to have their pictures taken. We walked up to the top of the mountain and saw the first bend of the Yangtze off in the distance. Lily ran into someone she knew and we went to their place for more tea. The wife had very long hair and was washing it in a bowl with detergent for almost an hour I think.

We took the van back down the mountain and it smelled like burning rubber most of the way. For lunch we went to this restaurant where we waited forever to get our food. Things seem to move very slowly, which is refreshing, but we were getting quite hungry. There were these really annoying Chinese girls sitting at a table near us and it was obvious they were talking about us. They also seemed to be interested in the guys in our group because they kept giggling and then their van followed us to our next destination . . . "canoeing." We were all excited to go canoeing on Lake Lashihai and then we discovered that "canoeing" means getting into a boat, wearing bright orange lifevests and getting pushed around by a Chinese man. A little disappointing, but we still had fun. The lake was surprisingly shallow considering how big it was.

After the lake we drove to a Tibetan Temple. We went at a perfect time when the monks were doing their chants and playing the loud vibrating drums. We walked through the temple and I could have just stayed there all day listening to it. It was amazing and the drums just filled me up. Outside of the temple there were lots of little children and again, they posed for many photos and made it hard for us to stop. They would keep looking at the result on the camera, and then would reorganize and pose again and again and again. All very cute and so happy looking. I need to print a bunch of my photos out and send them to Lily to give to the kids. She said that people come through and take photos, but no one sends anything back, so some people in the villages do not want their photos taken anymore. I hope not to give all of us foreigners a bad name, and return some photos.

When we returned to Lily's family's there was an American couple also staying there with their Chinese daughter, Bebe. She was really cute and so full of energy. Unfortunately a little bit too much at times. She does not speak Chinese and it had been a while since she had people to play with who spoke English, so she was running us all around the place on little adventures. One awkward moment was when we were eating and Bebe asked Adina about her adoption. Adina looked at the parents wondering what to say and then said "I don't think I was adopted, but my siblings do." During dinner we picked up some walnuts and were doing that thing where you play with two in your hands. I don't know how to describe it without showing it, but it's like what you do with those Chinese balls that make the little jingling sound. Know what I mean? Anyway, those stuck with us the rest of the trip.

Lijiang Day 3 (0421) - Hike to Lashihai

We woke up well rested after sleeping in the heated beds at the Ecolodge. Unfortunately I had not applied sunblock very well the day before and had two horn shaped burns on my face. The hike was much easier this day as we did not have to go up and down mountains quite so much. It was more of a straight shot to Lashihai, however it took the same amount of time, around 4.5 hours. It was amazing to see how dramatically the mountains changed as we hiked through them. The plant life varied so much between different altitudes and different sides of the mountains.

We passed this one lake on the way to Lashihai that had thousands of tadpoles right along the edge of the lake. The strange thing was that I didn't see many frogs. I don't know what happens once they grow into frogs, maybe the villagers eat them? That's one hell of a lot of frogs legs. We continued on and saw goats and cows feeding in the forests and then eventually made it to Lashihai where we stayed with Lily's family.

Lily's family lives at the top of the village, which I guess means they are doing pretty well. Their place was beautiful and had all kinds of flowers and vegetables growing. Their property was set up like others in the village, with three buildings facing each other like three sides of a square, and a courtyard in the middle. Each building is about the same, consisting of two floors, and no insulation. Lily's family had two guestrooms prepared on the second floor of one of the buildings. One room was to be the girls' and one was the boys'. Carrie and I ran up and like little kids we wanted to pick the better room for the girls. We were being so silly that we only noticed that one room had a square hole in the wall and the other had a closing window with glass. Naturally we decided that a room with a hole in the wall would be colder than the one with a window you can shut. Oh how wrong we were. Later that evening we noticed that there was no glass covering the holes in the one decorative wall in the room. So instead of one larger hole, we had an entire wall full of small holes that opened up to the balcony.

For lunch they fed us all kinds of treats. One of the stranger things was that they had apples from last year! Lily said that they put them under pine needles to preserve them. They looked just like regular apples, only slightly wrinkled.

After we ate, we walked around the village for a long time. We were invited to this one old couple's place to have some tea. They were a very cool old couple, but I couldn't help feeling a little sick every time I saw the old man stick his tongue through the gaps where his teeth had fallen out. They had dried a bunch of bean jelly (they make it gelatinous, but they also dry it and fry it), and then deep fried a whole mess for us. The first bite was ok, but I was getting tired of eating deep fried foods, so I tried to politely turn down anymore. Unfortunately they were very pushy and kept forcing us to take more.

We continued walking around town and went to visit the school. It was a very bizarre experience. Here was a fairly old looking town with cute homes, but nothing extravagant and then out of nowhere was this school that was all brand new with a very fancy entrance and amazing view (hard not to have an amazing view anywhere around Lijiang). We sort of suspected the Chinese government built it for some more devious reasons than just to give them a nice school. There were loads of children running around and as soon as they saw us with our cameras they would pose for photos. The weird thing was that every time I picked up my camera to take a photo, they would run away or reorganize themselves. It was like they were teasing me or something. The kids loved the immediate gratification of the digital camera because every time I took a photo, they would crowd around to see the photo and then pose for another shot.

That night we returned to Lily's family's place for dinner and then we got sucked into sitting in front of a TV watching some Naxi dancing/karaoke video until we went to sleep.

Lijiang Day 2 (0420) - Hike to Wenhai

The second day started off a bit rocky. I woke up and met Carrie and her dad for breakfast. We had to meet everyone in 45 minutes and thought we would have enough time to find a place and eat a decent western breakfast. We found one place and sat there for a long time while the waiter babbled on the phone or with friends. He looked like a wannabe Chinese surfer "dude" and certainly acted like he had been in the sun for too long. We waited for at least 10-15 minutes before he came by and then told us it would take half an hour to get our food.

We left that place and went to two other places before we found a place that said they would make our breakfast quickly. Seriously, how long can it take to fry up an egg and some toast!?!? Anyway, we waited and waited and it was getting closer to 9 AM, so we went to check on the food and they had not even started cooking! We left and just picked something up to eat on the way to the van.

We took a van to St. Joseph's Village and then began our hike to Wenhai. I am not sure exactly how far it was, maybe 15 kilometers? It was funny to see all of us with our totally packed large bags and then Lily had her tiny bag that was almost entirely filled with snacks for us! The views were really amazing from the top of the mountains. There is this one mountain in Lijiang called "Jade Dragon Snow Mountain" that looks like something from the Rockies or the Himalayas. It is strange because the surrounding mountains are much lower. Apparently several groups have tried to climb Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, but no one has succeeded in reaching the top.

Eventually we got to Wenhai and left our stuff at the Ecolodge, where we were staying. It was really random because the village was quite small, and then there was this little lodge with heated blankets! We got there and they fed us delicious Naxi food. I like it so much better than the Chinese we eat in Beijing. They have all kinds of potato dishes and yummy veggies. Unfortunately everything is always cooked in oil, but it all still tasted wonderful.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the town, visiting the school and seeing the animals. We had another amazing view of the snow mountain during sunset. After our walk, we returned back to the Ecolodge and had dinner. Since we were out in the middle of the mountains in a tiny village with no lights, we decided to go out and see the stars. It was amazing. I have not seen stars like that since I was at Neringa in Vermont!

After looking at the stars we went to bed with our heated blankets. They were almost too warm.

Lijiang Day 1 (0419) - Getting There

Carrie, her dad and I made it to the airport and on our flight painlessly. Unfortunately there was a lot of turbulence and the western breakfasts ran out right before me. I guess there are Chinese who prefer Western breakfasts to their own. Argh! The safety video was interesting and included such safety tips as: "Take off your shoes and any sharp jewelry if crashing" and "Get into bracing position." First off, if the plane is going down and there is chaos, I don't think I will be thinking about taking off my shoes and any sharp jewelry. Luckily I wasn't wearing any sharp jewelry, but that could have been a disaster if I was.

When we arrived at Kunming, we met up with Steve (another Fulbrighter), who was going to be on our flight to Lijiang. We had five hours before the next flight, so we left the airport and went to the nearest restaurant. Strangely enough, as soon as you walk out of the Kunming Airport, it looks like you are in the city, so it was quite convenient. The food was pretty tasty, however there was an older woman hocking up loogies onto the restaurant floor!!! I guess she thought that since it was being mopped, she could just spit on the floor. Nastiness. I am not sure if I have mentioned my disgust with hocking loogies yet, but it makes me sick. I can hear it a mile away. Hocking loogies indoors makes me even more disgusted!

After lunch we checked into our flight and went through security. The sign at the security entrance was pretty amusing. Here are the things you cannot take on the plane, exactly as they were written:
Guns&Ammunition
Truncheon
Controlled Dirks
Fireworks&Ammunitionk
Megnetic or Redioective Artieles
Radioective Artieles
In Flam Mables
Acid or Toxic Articles
Corrosive Avticles
Explosives

The flight to Lijiang was alright but we had a lot of turbulence (again). When we arrived at Lijiang we were all amazed at the scenery and we were breathing in the fresh air as deeply as possible. The sky was such a vibrant blue that the landscape looked unreal, like it was a painted set.

A driver took us into Old Town to our hotel, Fan Guan Guesthouse, where we met the other two Fulbrighters, Adina and Justin, and our guide, Lily. It was already evening, so Lily took us to a Naxi restaurant deep in Old Town called Mama's. The roads in Old Town all look very similar and there are many canals and bridges to cross, so it is very easy to get lost. When we got to Mama's, we ordered a bunch of traditional Naxi food, including a fish dish. Then we heard a flop and looked over to see the chef by a little pool of fish and one fish flopping around on the floor. It was there for quite a while until the chef picked it up and brought it into the kitchen. Sure enough when we got our food, our fish dish looked the same size, so I am guessing it was the same fish. Eek!

After dinner we walked around Old Town for a bit. All of the buildings had red lanterns, the roofs were lit up, there were koi in all of the canals, women singing to people in the restaurants, various meats and veggies on sticks waiting to be cooked right in front of you . . . it was all very fascinating and tickled every sense.

A couple of us decided to go to a bar because we didn't want to go to bed yet. We went to this one that was along the canal. There was a woman, dressed in traditional Naxi clothing, across the canal singing to people in the bar. These women are all over and are employed by the bars and restaurants. We noticed that she would sing to a table across the canal and then they would sing something back. We liked this one song she sang about "your legs are as big as hams," so we asked her to sing it to us. Then of course we had to respond and so since none of us know any Chinese songs, we sang "Row Row Row Your Boat" in a round.

After the bar we went to our rooms and had to pack for several nights away from Lijiang.

Back in Beijing and only Two Weeks Left!

I am back in Beijing after traveling around for a bit with Kurt. I know I am severely behind on this blog, but I did take notes on Lijiang, so that should not be too hard to update. Unfortunately I did not take notes on my travels with Kurt, so hopefully I can remember it all and write about it soon. Kurt leaves on Tuesday and then I have two weeks left in Beijing. I am sad and excited. I miss home, but I will also really miss China. I feel like there is so much left that I want to explore, but as of now it will have to wait for another time. Still need to come up with plans for my last two weeks, I hope I can fit in one more place outside of Beijing.

More photos and blog entries to come soon . . .