Huangshan: Mountain Climbing in January

The first official stop on our loop through Southern China was magnificent Mount Huangshan in Anhui province.

Coming from the smog infested North, Huangshan was a welcomed difference, in addition to being 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer, I saw blue sky for the first time in a month.

We had six hours to spend on the mountain so we took a cable car before climbing to the peak.

The view from our climb got better and better!

Our climb even brought us close to some wild monkeys!

We were so high up the we ended in the clouds!

Huangshan was beautiful but I recommend spending more time there and definitely go when its warmer!

The Bumpy Beginning: My Hefei Adventure

There must be a quote somewhere by someone about a chaotic beginning being a good thing. But I can't think of any and google has been going haywire lately (got to love China!) so I'm using the few good moments to update my blog, post pictures, and reconnect with the friends and family I haven't been able to talk to much over the past five weeks. So I'll just quote myself:

"Early trouble reminds you that the good things in life are turbulent but worth it. Smooth sailing from the begining can render this realization too painful." ~Jessica Nestell

I know, too much. In college my best friend would always pull me back in when I went too far. I'm getting slightly better at acknowledging when I should stop, now that I'm living in China. So instead I give you a different quote, one that kept me going when times would get a little turbulent. I read this quote shortly before I left and it stayed with me:

"Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going." ~ Paul Theroux

I've been a tourist many times, now I'm an expat, but during this trip I was a traveler. And although we had an over-arching plan, on a day to day basis there were many times when we didn't know where going next.

The first day of our trip we were to take a train to Beijing Xi (West) train station then travel to Beijing Nan (South) train station to take a train to Hefei. Once we arrived in Hefei we would then take a bus to Huangshan. Now let me tell you how it actually happened.

We arrived in Beijing Xi with 2 1/2 hours till our next train. We figured the newly completed metro (yeah I gave in, ask somebody where a subway is and they look at you like you're crazy) would be the best means of travel. However the student I was traveling with wasn't too keen on the metro. We ended up taking a bus.

A little over an hour later we're told we have to get off the bus because we were at the last stop. We missed our stop by 20 minutes. Typical of Beijing, no taxi would take us. (Beijing taxis are infamous for refusing service to foreigners). So as we watch the 10 or so cabs we manage to hail drive off in to the distance without us, we waited. Finally a bus came and we sat nervously biting our nails, we had 35 minutes before our train left. We were 20 minutes away without traffic.

We got to the station with 17 minutes to get to our train. Miraculously there was no line as security, we got through and started to run. It was John, Katie, and I on a mad dash to gate 15. John knew the way so Katie and I followed, Katie narrowly made it past a woman trying to mop the floor. I wasn't so lucky, I went down, hard I might add with the weight of my 40 pound backpack landing on me. I made my way to feet as quickly as I could but I'd lost Katie and John.

I made my way to the gate, but they're not there. As I stood there confused the train ticket checker (do they have an actual name?) took my ticket and guided me through. I ran down the steps of the escalator expecting to find Katie and John waiting to get on. They were no where in sight. Flustered and unsure of what to do I stood at the door of the train. A woman who works on the train took my ticket and passport (I'm pretty sure this was in an effort to help me) and starts to wave me inside. My limited Chinese seemed to be frozen in a part of my brain I couldn't get working, the only word I could manage was pengyou (friend). As I attempt to stammer more (mainly repeating "wait" in English) I attempt to call Katie. Unfortunately for me my phone does this weird thing whenever I go to Beijing, it looses all signal and needs to be restarted. As I wait for my phone to reboot, the alarm goes off signalling the train is about to leave. Seeing my passport in the woman's hand I jumped on the train.

As the train begins to pull out my phone finishes rebooting and Katie calls. I breathlessly stammer out "tell me you're on the train." I remember holding my breath for her answer "what? you're on the train? I'll call you back."

Turns out gate 15 of Beijing Nan (South) station has two entrances. Lesson learned.

Katie and John ended up switching their tickets to a train five hours after the one I was on. With them not getting in til 7pm we would spend the night in Hefei and I got 5 hours to explore on my own. I could tell you that it was absolutely amazing and I loved it but in reality Hefei is best left as a transportation hub.

The best thing I found about Hefei was this sign, note that its in German.

Packing: Applied Tetris Expert Level

The thing about backpacking, is that you have one backpack (granted you get to chose the size) but that is it. You fill the backpack and that is all you can take for however long you need (in this case 5 weeks). In my case I also had to be ready to experience temperatures around zero up to eighty degrees. Fun times.

My Bags

Packing was an experience so trying at times that I must admit I forgot to take pictures of the process and end result. Looking through my pictures I actually have surprisingly few pictures of my bag and most of them are just of the straps. Sorry.

My suggestion for backpacking follows what I've read from many sources, pack what you think you need, then take out half. Its really easy to do laundry as you go. Even if your hostel doesn't have a washing machine its easier to laundry in a sink then you think. Believe me you don't want to have to carry all the weight and the stress of checking your bag for flights can be too much.

I highly recommend checking out this website before heading off. It helped me a lot, even if I didn't follow all of their advice I now know from experience I should have.

I'm Back!

春节快乐! Happy Spring Festival!

It's been a while, again. Unfortunately for me it has been getting more and more difficult to get access to the internet. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed being in Hong Kong and Macau! Such wonderful freedom! Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Since I last posted I went on a backpacking trip through Southern China ending in Hong Kong. Over the next few weeks I will post about my adventures.

Til then I hope you enjoy your last night of Spring Festival!

This is a picture of fireworks from my bathroom window.

Christmas is Coming!

Perhaps it's spending the past four years living at college and coming home for visits that makes living on the other side of the planet easier? Whatever it is, I expected this time of year to be harder for me, I expected soul crushing home sickness. Yet I feel fine, I feel excited! I have an awesome group of friends with whom I'll be spending Christmas with.

My Awesome Friends

Plus for the very first time, I have my own Christmas tree which I just finished decorating. Don't judge the decorations too much, remember I'm in China, not too much variety here.

My First Christmas Tree

My wonderful tree! It will be strange waking up on Christams morning in my apartment all alone, but I know I won't be the only one and with the comfort of my friends I'm positive we will make some Christmas memories we will never forget :-)

Plus, I've already decided what my Christmas present to myself is, a five-week backpacking trip through Southern China! Yay for long holidays.

Travel Plans for Vacation

The green line is our backpacking trip, the red line is our flight back (we don't have enough time to backpack the whole thing).

Happy Late Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in China was much more difficult than I expected. I'm used to large family gatherings at my Aunt's house, not teaching three classes. Luckily I have some awesome friends that made being away from home much easier.

In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving I got to teach all students about it, we even made hand turkeys! That's what they are all holding in the pictures!

It was fun being able to share my favorite holiday with people who had never experienced it before.

However the part that really made my Thanksgiving was being able to spend it with some great friends. As Thanksgiving is not a holiday in China we all had to work, so we had two Thanksgivings. The first one on Thanksgiving its self we went out to eat, the second the Sunday after Thanksgiving we cooked!

Western food on Thanksgiving!

Homemade Thanksgiving Baoding Style

This Thanksgiving I was thankful for the amazing group of friends I have here. Although I might not be able to spend my holidays with my blood family, I get to spend my holidays with my China family :-)

Happy Thanksgiving from China!

Mistakes

This past weekend was supposed to be awesome, a group of us traveled to Shanghai to see my best friend before he went back to the USA.

The trip started off with a train adventure from our "small city" to the great metropolis of Shanghai. Seventeen hours, two trains, a trip to a sex shop, and a strange baiju filled meal later; we were standing in front of Shanghai Railway station.

The trip started out great! After losing ourselves in the depths of a Shanghai black market we went out for a great dinner with the MCLA-ers of Shanghai. I'd post pictures to show our awesome treasures, but too many are USA bound for presents. So instead here are a picture of my awesome new shoes. 

Our second day started great as well, we found the Yuyuan Gardens after a long search. We spend time at a famous Shanghai tea house. Life was good.

That's when things started to take a turn for the worst; a trip to the brewery gone bad. I remember beer, Long Island Ice Teas, shots of SoCo, and being really happy. Then I woke up.

Drunk me said somethings that hurt people I care about. I don't know what I said, I don't know what I was thinking when I said them, but I know that I am so sorry and ashamed for hurting the people I care about. Most of all I really hope that one day we will all be able to see past this.