Pandas!

From the moment that we began to plan this trip we knew that Pandas would be involved. How could you possibly go to Chengdu and not see pandas? And why not take it a step further? Why not hold the pandas????? So on the morning of January 27th we left our hostel for the Panda Research and Breeding Center.

That's right you can hold a panda. The cost, 1000 RMB, steep I know but I saved from the moment I learned about it. You can imagine my heart break when upon arriving I learned that the price had risen to 2200 RMB. I didn't save that much...

A Panda Sculture to Welcome You to the Center

Not being able to hold the panda was a bit disappointing but how disappointed can you be when you get to see these cute pandas???

In my opinion pandas are the cutest animals on the planet. I'm so glad I had this opportunity to see them first hand!

Chengdu: A City of Spice

Traveling to Chengdu took us back through Hefei. Although China is filled with cheap youth Hostels Hefei, the capital of Anhui province doesn't have a single one. I suppose we could have looked for something cheap but most websites are in Chinese and don't offer an English option. Katie and I took this as an opportunity to splurge!

We shared a room at the Holiday Inn Express, it was almost like being in America.

As Katie and I enjoyed our time relaxing in our expensive hotel room (there were five channels in English!), I happened to mention that our flight to Chengdu would be my 38th flight. She looked at me like I was crazy. She proceeded to explain to me that no sane person counts their flights. I maintain this is normal. I mean, can anyone answer they question, why not count your flights?

Following my 38th flight we were in Chengdu!

Chengdu felt like spring, we got out of the airplane and for the first time in a long time had to take off a layer. Chengdu was were Katie and I were to reunite with our friends Lex and Katelyn, who we would be traveling with for the next four weeks.

Growing up I had never been to an airport as I had never flown. Sometimes my Dad would take business trips but he always drove himself and left the car in long-term parking. So from childhood I have romanticized airports, in my mind they have a mythical quality. Waiting for Lex and Katelyn after our flight landed I felt like I was in a movie, anxiously anticipating our friends before going out on an epic adventure.

Like most places on our trip we were in Chengdu for only a couple days, giving us little time to explore the great city.

The first thing that stuck me upon getting to Chengdu was the temperature (in the 50s Fahrenheit) and the different types of food. For instance there was numerous types of exotic fruit being sold on the street; pineapple, durian, and things I don't know the English names to. Then in restaurants there was spicy food spicier then I had ever tasted.

Looking back, Chengdu was probably our most "active" city during our trip, most likely because it was our first and we were so excited. For this reason I have trouble saying in good conscious what my favorite city was, how do you compare a city where you had food poisoning (I'll get to that later) to a city where you reunited with your friends? Ahh, but I digress. 

Largest Mao Zedong statue in the world.

 A common theme to our trip was seeing many of "the world's largest" this was our first one and we didn't even know it was the world's largest until after we found it!

Here my friend Lex is buying a ticket to Wenshu Temple.

Outside Wenshu Temple I tried my hand at darts, look what I won!

When planning for this trip one of the things I was most excited about was getting to see some of the ethnic minorities that live in China. As my Chinese "homebase" is the north and dominated by Han Chinese I saw this trip as an amazing opportunity for learning. Our days in Chengdu was my first taste of this learning.

Tongling: Visiting a Student's Hometown. Includes Baozi

Following our trip to Huangshan Katie and I went home with John to Tongling.

According to John, Tongling is China's smallest city with a population just over 500,000.

The weather wasn't on our side in Tongling and with relatively few things to do outside shopping we spent our time at the hotel and at John's grandparent's home.

Some of the best food I've eaten in China was at John's grandparents place. His family despite speaking no English and Katie and I speaking very little Chinese, treated us like honored guests. After finding out that my favorite Chinese food was baozi they made us a baozi feast!

Baozi is a steamed bun with a filling inside. John's Grandparents made us pork and vegetable filled steamed buns! I have eaten baozi in every city I've been to (in China) but no baozi compares to this baozi.

The Chefs!

Beyond the great food, visiting John's grandparents gave me a first hand view of how families live in China. When I told them that my family gets together (everyone at the same time) maybe twice a year (Thanksgiving and Christmas party) they were horrified. The family gatherings that I love and long for happen many times a week here. Families live closer, and even those who live further away seem to put a greater emphasis on the family unit. Seeing the family interact reminded me how much I love and miss my family and wish I would have been around for our holiday celebrations.

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.