trip update: Guilin

I meant to post this a couple days ago, but then I put it off because I couldn't get my photos to load on our crappy internet connection, but I thought I could make it work if I kept trying. I was wrong, and now we're not in Guilin anymore, but it's late and it's been a long day, so I'll have to tell you about Chongqing and post some photos another day. In the meantime . . .

I know my posts have been few and far between since we've been on this trip. I really meant to get some pictures up while we've been here in Guilin, but the internet connection here has left much to be desired. It seems to be a big problem--the connections at the hostels are too slow for me to get many pictures up in any kind of timely fashion. Maybe I'm just taking too many pictures--I think I have something like 700 so far. I'll try to include more travel stories when we get back to Tianjin, or someplace with a good reliable internet service.

Here's a short update, especially to put our mom's hearts at ease: we are in Guilin, safe and relatively healthy (I seem to have caught a cold somewhere along the way--probably when that kid on the last train we were on kept staring at us and coughing right in our faces without covering his mouth). Guilin is beautiful. It is known as one of the most famous scenic spots in China, with mountains, lakes, and caves everywhere--it was one of the earliest tourist spots in China, attracting tourists as far back as the Sui dynasty (581-618 AD). Yesterday we tried to take a count of how many mountains we've climbed in the three (now four) days we'd been here, and we honestly couldn't remember. Maybe six? Of course, they're kind of short mountains--actually, really weird, jutting mountains, that rise abruptly out of the city landscape--kind of like enormous rocks with staircases. My thighs have had some serious stairmaster-type workouts since we've been here. The last couple of days, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous and spring-like. I didn't even need a jacket yesterday, much less the long underwear I've been wearing for the past couple of months.

We leave tomorrow, February 1, for our next stop: Chongqing. It's north a bit, so I have a feeling it's going to be much colder than it has been here.

Unfortunately, I can't post any photos right now, due to unreliable internet connections. Once we're back in the land of reliable internet, I'm planning to create a photobucket account so, if you're interested, you can see all the pictures from our trip. More info about that soon . . . .

happy new year!

Tomorrow is the first day of the Chinese New Year. As I type, the fireworks are booming and echoing across Hangzhou. They are sometimes so loud, they sound as if they are being set off right outside our window. In fact, just a few minutes ago, they were being set off right outside our window. It was a bit terrifying--the hostel staff was lighting them right next to the building, and right under a tree. They didn't seem to be paying much attention to how close anyone was standing, or which direction things were shooting. I had visions of everything I'd brought with me (which, admittedly, wasn't much) going up in flames. Now the scents of coal smoke, new year popcorn, and gunpowder are wafting through the entire building.

We spent our New Year's eve bicycling through the West Lake area of Hangzhou. This is a beautiful city, kind of a resort town, to tell the truth, known for it's beautiful lakeside scenery and gardens, as well as its preserved historical sites and artifacts. We climbed to the top of a pagoda this afternoon, visited beautiful gardens, and cycled down lakeside paths. If the chain hadn't been constantly falling off the back gear of my bike the whole way, it would have been an idyllic day.

When we came back to the hostel, the staff was preparing a New Year celebration. We all made dumplings together, then ate them, as well as the plates of oranges, nuts, seeds, candies and chocolates the staff brought out to us. And then there was popcorn. And more popcorn. Then fireworks and more popcorn.

We've had no problems at all getting tickets to anywhere we want to go, despite all the hype about how difficult travel is during Chinese New Year. Tomorrow we plan to take a short day-trip to a nearby town called Wuzhen. It's kind of like the Chinese version of historic Dodge City, set up to recapture a particular time in history. We're just hoping everything won't be closed down due to new year celebrations. Then on Tuesday we leave for a 21-hour long train ride to Guilin. It will be a good chance to catch up on some much-needed rest, I hope.

I tried for over an hour to post some pictures of our day up here, but no luck. Grrr. . . . I'll try to get some up soon.

In the meantime: Good luck and good health to you all this new year! Xin nian kuaile!

we're in Hangzhou

So, Sally alerted me to the fact that maybe I didn't mention this before: Ben and I are traveling with a classmate of mine, Nathan. At our Shanghai hostel, we all shared a room. So, that's why there was a sleeping Nathan in our room in my last post. That's also why you might see some pictures with a strange American lurking around in them. Don't worry--he's with us.

We got to Hangzhou last night, and I can already tell I'm gonna like this place. Our hostel is right on the main attraction in town: West Lake. Our plan is to rent some bikes today and spend the morning biking around the lake. It will be fun, if the cold doesn't kill us. A cold front came in on Friday, which made it almost unbearable to be out and about on Friday and Saturday. I'm hoping for a bit of a warm-up today.

I've taken over 300 photos in the past week, so I obviously can't share all of them, but here are a few Shanghai highlights.


At Yuyuan Garden, in Old Town, Shanghai


Hot noodles!


On the Huangpu River Cruise


Monks at Jingan Temple


Stone lions guarding the entrance to the Shanghai Museum

travel update: Shanghai

Well, we made it to Shanghai, after one of the most uncomfortable train rides I've ever taken in my entire life. Our beds in the sleeper car were comfortable enough, but it was just about the temperature of the sun in our cabin. I woke up in the middle of the night, sweating and panting. I had to find a way to squiggle out of my long underwear without falling off of my narrow little bunk or waking up any of the passengers around me. Then I rolled up my jeans and shirt as much as was decently possible. It was still hot. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night.

Nevertheless, we've been having a great time since we got here. Shanghai is an interesting city--it has had a long history of Western influence, which is evident in the city's architecture and the people's attitudes here. We've been really busy since we got here. We spent the entire first day at the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai Art Museum. That night we were able to meet up with our friend, Jen K, who is ending her tour of China here in Shanghai, at a nearby bar for drinks.

Yesterday we visited a Buddhist temple, and took a boat tour of the Bund on the Huangpu River. Then last night we went with Jen's tour group to see the Shanghai Circus, one of the most incredible acrobatic shows I've ever seen. Imagine Cirque du Soleil times 12. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed in the show, so I wasn't able to get any pictures.

I've taken a ton of photos of other things since we've been here, but my camera and cable are up in the room with a still-sleeping Nathan. I don't want to wake him while I dig around in my bags for things. Not to worry, though--internet access is very available, so I'll put up some shots soon.

leaving on a jet . . . train?

Well, our bags are packed and we're ready to go--well, almost, anyway. Our train to Shanghai leaves tonight at 8:10 pm--it's 3:50 as I write--but we're planning to leave our place just a little before 6:00, so we have plenty of time to get to the station, grab something to eat, and make it to our train on time.

I'm currently trying to reduce my baggage. So far I have narrowed everything down to a backpack and a duffel bag, which I think is an impressively small amount of stuff, considering we plan to be on the road for more than three weeks, and we're going to be changing climate zones a couple of times. But Ben keeps looking at my luggage skeptically, so I guess that means I should try to narrow down further. Or maybe I should just try to pretend that Ben isn't looking at me. Ah, well . . . .

We're going to try to post blog updates and pictures as much as possible during the next three weeks, but don't worry if you don't hear from us for several days at a time. It won't be quite as convenient as usual for us to hop online and post an update. That said, it's not like we're leaving civilization entirely, so . . . well . . . we'll be in touch.

I think I mentioned before that we're kind of leaving our schedule up in the air a little bit, going where the winds blow us, so to speak. But in case you're following along on a map at home, so far we're planning to train overnight from Tianjin to Shanghai, then we'll be in Shanghai until about the 24th. After that, there has been talk of going to Nanjing if we can, or maybe to Guilin, but we will have to see about the ticket situation.

More to come . . . .

travel plans a-brewin'

Just an update on our upcoming travel plans: yesterday we went to the train station and bought tickets for the first leg of our trip. We were originally planning to take the overnight train to Shanghai on the January 19, but this is a crazy time for travel in China. It's Spring Festival (aka Lunar New Year) time, so pretty much half of the Chinese population is trying to get home for the holidays. There were no more tickets for the 19th when we got to the station, so we ended up buying tickets for the super-fast, super-luxurious train that leaves the evening of the 20th. We're pretty excited--our plan is to travel for about three weeks or so, hitting a number of cities and cultural/historical attractions. We've kind of outlined the different places we most want to see. At the same time, I'm thinking we may run into a number of snafu's along the way, since the ticket situation is so precarious. We're already planning on flexibility being the key word, though, so even if we don't get to go to all the places we most want to go, we know we'll be going somewhere. Next step: narrowing my three-week travel necessities down to one backpack.

not-so-secret (yet somewhat hard to find) treasures of the forbidden city

If you've never seen the Forbidden City (or Palace Museum, as it is sometimes called), a little bit of explanation may be required. In the Ming and Qing dynasties (about the 15th century to the early 20th century), the Forbidden City was the home of the emperor, his empress and concubines, his eunuchs, the many servants of the palace, and so on. The average Chinese person was forbidden to enter without special permission, thus the "Forbidden" part of the name. And it is truly a city unto itself. There are hundreds of buildings and courtyards, gardens, squares, walls and gates. When you go to the Forbidden City, you spend a lot of time in the open air, walking from building to building, exhibit to exhibit. It is massive--we were there for about four hours, and only visited about a quarter of the area on display.

While walking around the Forbidden City last week, in addition to the entrance fee, we paid a few extra kuai to take a look at a couple of special exhibitions. Actually we only intended to see one of them: the Hall of Clocks, a huge hall containing examples of clocks from the palace grounds, some of which were gifts to emperors, some of which were made by the Chinese. However, after wandering around following a vague map of the palace grounds for awhile, trying to find the Hall of Clocks, we mistakenly paid entry to the . . . what did they call it again . . . ? Something like the Hall of National Treasures? No, that sounds too much like a Nicholas Cage movie. I'm not sure what it was called exactly, but it sounded like the kind of place where the Hall of Clocks might be kept. Anyway, they had exhibits of jade, jewelry, and stone drums, as well as some really beautiful gardens and architecture. Here are only a few of the many shots I took of both of those special exhibits:



Relief of dragons from the Qing dynasty


Entry to the exhibit of ceremonial bells



Bells used during rituals and ceremonies



Ben and the dragon face off


Ben loved this big red door



Just a few of the European clocks on display



Enormous Chinese water clock from the Qing dynasty.



I don't know if these clocks look as cool in the photos, but they were really amazing in the display, incredibly detailed and intricate. Many of them were animated, or crafted to look like things other than clocks (like tables or birdcages).

trip to Beijing

We had a great time last week catching up with our friend Jen in Beijing. Ben was a bit under the weather (if you ask me, it was more than just a bit, but he was trying to pass it off like it wasn't so serious), so we didn't end up going to some of the outdoor attractions we originally planned to see. The good news is that Beijing is only a 30-minute train ride (and then a 30-minute or so taxi ride) away, so we plan to hit the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven in the spring, when the weather is a little more tolerable.

Here are a couple of impressions from this trip:

1.) The Jianguo Hotel (and its surrounding area) in Beijing is NICE. So nice, in fact, and so convenient, and so filled with Westerners, that at times I forgot I was in China. So, that was a little weird. This trip to Beijing made me feel a little bit displaced. I was certainly in a foreign place, but it didn't feel like the China I live in every day. For example, there was a Sizzler a few blocks away from our hotel. A Sizzler, people! But then I'd step into a subway, and there were people staring at us and giving us the stinkeye like always. Like I said, weird.


Ben in front of Silk Street, Starbucks cup in Hand


Hanging out with Jen in our room


View from our room's patio


Our luxurious accommodations

2.) January in Beijing is COLD! So cold, in fact, that I didn't mind so much when Ben wanted to stay in the hotel room and recuperate rather than walking around in the icy wind at the Summer Palace or venturing out to see some Buddhist temples. I see why winter is the slow tourist season, at least in Beijing. I also see why we might want to re-think our previous tentative plans to travel in any areas in the north later this month.









These are only a few of the very many shots we took at Tiananmen Square/Forbidden City, but I think these show how very cold and bundled up we were all day long.

Stay tuned for more on our adventures in Beijing . . . .

Ben, the Chinese popstar

Ben and I are in Beijing right now. We came to catch up with our friend Jen K, who is in China as a chaperone with a bunch of students from her school. We've taken a lot of pictures already, and will post more about our trip soon. In the meantime, here's a little story:

Yesterday, before we left to come to Beijing, Ben decided he needed to get a haircut. He generally gets his haircut at this little salon in our neighborhood. The people there know him now, so he pretty much just goes in whenever, no Chinese necessary, and they give him the treatment: wash and head massage, haircut, re-wash, blowout and style. The first time Ben went in there, they were pretty cautious with his head, because they weren't entirely sure what he wanted. When they finished that first haircut, they took a picture of his freshly styled head. The picture hangs on their wall, I guess as both proof of their fine work on his American head, and as a reference point for future haircuts.

The funny thing is, as time has gone on, the two hairdressers there have become increasingly brave and experimental with Ben's hair. Yesterday, the male hairdresser tried to convince Ben that he needed to try something a little different. And then he just went ahead and styled Ben's hair according to his suggestion:



It's just a little more Chinese-pop-star than Ben usually goes for.


In fact, it looks a little bit like this guy, who was on an ad at McDonald's.


Anyone see the resemblance?

well, that wasn't so bad

Since some of you have been asking, I thought I'd post a little update about my big final yesterday. It went pretty well. I must have studied the right things, because there were only a couple of questions that I had completely no idea about. Thanks for all the well-wishes, prayers, and votes of confidence. They must have done the trick.

Now I have just one more little 10-minute-long oral English final this afternoon, and then I'm free for 7 weeks. Woo-hoo! I can smell vacation, and it's making my mouth water!

time to call it good?

The past three days (erm, well, maybe 2 1/2) have been packed full of intensive studying, snacking, studying, coffee drinking, and yes, more studying. I think I have finally discovered what it means to over-study. I have reached the point where my brain is a big pile of mush, and all Chinese characters look like a scramble of swooshes, lines, and poky points.

Yep, I think I'm ready for my test.

Just 11 hours till test time. . . .

Chinese medicine

Ben woke up feeling lousy this morning. He has been feeling a cold coming on for several days, and today felt like it really hit him. Luckily, we were prepared for such an event. My Chinese language partner recently gave me a box of Chinese herbal medicine for colds, since I have been fighting a cold off and on for . . . well . . . it seems like forever. My language partner warned me that this stuff, which you drink from a little bottle through a straw, is very bitter, but sometimes you have to eat bitterness to feel better. He also told me that this stuff will cure all that ails you. When he gave it to me, I was already getting over my last cold, so this box of 双黄连口服液 (erm, I'm not sure how to translate that) has just been sitting on the table in our living room for the past week or so.

Anyway, Ben was feeling badly enough that he agreed (not without a little hesitation) to give this stuff a try. Note the crazy hair on Ben's head: that's a sure sign that Ben is feeling pretty bad. He's still in his pajamas with crazy hair at 1:00 pm.

This is a little scary . . .

but, okay . . . I'll give it a try.

How did it taste, honey?

Not done yet. Two bottles, three times a day.

Nope, second one didn't taste any better.

Whew! Thank god that's over!

Only 8 more bottles to go.

almost finished

The end of the semester is upon us. Today is Ben's last day of class for the semester. Tuesday was my last day of actual classes, but I still have two days of final exams to look forward to. Monday, January 5, is the big test day. That's the day I will have my written and listening exams. On Tuesday afternoon I have my final speaking exam.

In theory, I am studying like mad right now, reviewing everything we've covered all semester, and getting ready for those big tests. In reality, I have spent the past couple of days doing everything but studying. I did put in a few hours of work on Thursday, New Year's Eve. But yesterday, even though I started out with the best of intentions, I spent the whole day doing everything (i.e., eating at Zhou You's parents' house, shopping at the cool big bookstore, going grocery shopping, watching Men In Black, falling asleep on the sofa, etc.) except study. And if you thought I exhausted my options of "ways to avoid studying" yesterday, well, you definitely thought wrong. I've spent this morning facebooking, messing around online, doing laundry, putting cute little stickers on my laptop keyboard, reading the news . . . I've even considered actually cleaning our apartment rather than sitting down and studying. If you know me, then you know that means I really don't want to study.

On the one hand, I know it's because, after this long semester, I'm pretty much studied out. I'm ready for a break. On the other hand, I'm having a very difficult time convincing myself that studying will be a worthwhile undertaking. We've learned about 1000 new words this semester, and at least 80 new grammar patterns. There's no way I'll have time to thoroughly review everything we've studied, so then, how to choose what to review? How to approach it? If I don't already know it, it doesn't seem reasonable to think I'm going to know it before Monday.

I know, I know...I really just need to suck it up, stop messing around online, and just get to work on as much of it as possible. If only I can get myself to comply with what I logically know I need to do. I'll just keep telling myself, at least studying is more enjoyable than cleaning the toilet.