No more students, no more books….
We’ve finally retired as ESL teachers! It was a great experience and there’s a lot we’ll miss about China but we’re too excited to care because we are off to Southeast Asia!
We’re currently in Bangkok and this is the projected plan:
Spend a few days in Bangkok.
We have a week booked at a private beach resort on Ko Tao Island.
We’ll then spend one and a half weeks in Chiang Mai, trekking through the jungle, going on elephant rides, and checking out the local villages.
Next we will head over to Cambodia to stay in Siem Reap and see the famous temples of Angkor Wat.
Then we will check out Phnom Penh to see the Killing Fields and various museums.
After that we will spend two weeks in a little town called Kampot and volunteer at a local community development project.
We’ll fly out of Phnom Penh to Hong Kong and spend three or four days there.
Then we’ll get to Shanghai, spend a few days, and fly to Vancouver.
We arrive in Vancouver February 6th.
Can’t wait to see everyone back home!!
December 19th, 2007
Sorry for not keeping up with the posts… yes we are still posting blogs about our summer trip.
I’ll keep this one short and sweet, even though this particular trip wasn’t all that short, or sweet.
We went to Songpan primarily to go on a horse-trek. We had heard only great things so we decided to check it out. We understood that, for a reasonable amount of money, you could go on a three day horse-trek with local guides who will provide you with tents, food, and even booze. We also heard that they will chill out with you around the camp-fires and sing songs while getting drunk. This all sounded pretty awesome to us.
I think the first problem with this trip is that we ended up going on a trek with the biggest group of people ever. Instead of a close and intimate journey with about 3-5 people, about 20 people came to Songpan to trek that day.
The second problem was I had warned Evan that I always had bad experiences with horses… ok just one bad experience. But I couldn’t imagine myself having fun while riding a horse in the mountains for three days straight. Combined with this problem, the guides decided to give me a HUGE horse, when I was hoping for a me-sized variety… you know, like a pony?
Anyway, the first leg of the trek was absolutely amazing. We ascended pretty quickly from the little town up into the mountains. We were basically among the mist and clouds. It was spectacular even though it was threatening rain. The guides sang to us in their local dialect while whipping our horses into shape every now and then. Evan’s horse kept eating, while my horse was obnoxious and kept biting other horses if they tried to pass it.
Halfway through the first day it was raining, getting really cold, and when we came to a steep downward slope we had to dismount to give the horses a break. They didn’t give us much time to run down the muddy steep slope, or to take pee breaks. We finished the first day in the early afternoon when we arrived to our camp base. Our guides set up tents, cooked lunch, and let the horses run around. The camp site reminded us of Canada, it was the furthest away we had been from any city.
The second day wasn’t so easy. We woke up barely able to walk. We rode horses for 4 hours the day before, and not being jockeys, we were naturally stiff. To make things worse, we didn’t have padding between us and the saddles. I attempted to stay optimistic because this day we were going to ascend Ice Mountain - a small glacier - the highlight of the trip. After a quick breakfast we began our longest journey ever. We stopped halfway there and our guides decided to slack off… they didn’t give us much food for lunch, found an abandoned cabin, lit a fire, and told us we had to climb the rest of the way on foot to Ice Mountain. They said it would take us about 4 hours. We reluctantly began hiking…
Being stiff, hungry, cold, and wet (it had been raining too), I wasn’t exactly happy about this whole situation. I also developed a migraine which didn’t help things. We made it pretty far by foot when suddenly our guides decided to do their job again and brought the horses. We continued on horse up to Ice Mountain, stopped for some photos, then began the long, arduous journey home. We spent a total of 8 hours on a horse the second day plus 2 hours walking. It wasn’t a fun day in any terms.
The third day was a happy one because we knew we were on our way back. Evan and I vowed never to go horse riding again. I also gave him that “I told you so” attitude the whole way home. Our legs were still killing us. By this time I couldn’t even get on or off of the horse. My guide had to heft me over. But at least it didn’t rain this time around, and we were descending so the air was getting much warmer. The clouds had lifted and we could see the scenery of trellised farms, tea fields, and scattered villages. We stopped for a break at a small monastery. When we saw the town again we were elated. We jumped off of our horses, and ran to our hotel room to shower and sleep on a bed.
The pictures might seem amazing, but just remember that we suffered great lengths to take them.
Kristy
Pictures coming later… much later 
December 19th, 2007
The trek to Langmusi was different for us because we rented a van for the day and spent our trip with some friendly travelers. We highly recommend traveling this way in China!
The cost of hiring a van (100 RMB each) was supposed to come with it’s advantages, such as stopping as often as we liked, and inclusive tours of the Ganjia Grasslands (famous in the area) and Tibetan Nomadic camp sights. We did get to stop as often as we wished, but the only tour we got was a stop-over at a sacred lake. By the time we parked at this lake a storm was collecting and the effect was an eerie atmosphere that looks pretty cool in the pictures. The other sights were spectacular as well. We saw mountains and valleys that were dark green and contrasted with a big blue sky (something we’ve been deprived of).
Also on our journey we came across many yak herds and Nomadic Tibetans on horseback. We also saw our first Tibetan dog, the breed that costs thousands of dollars back home. We can see why that is, they are gorgeous!
We were really happy to have taken the van trip, as it cut down on two hours traveling time and we had the opportunity to stretch our legs and take bathroom brakes. Once we arrived in Langmusi we were instantly reminded of Xiahe. It’s a lot like Xiahe but a lot smaller. It’s basically one street that’s lined with hotels, souvenir shops, and various restaurants with hilarious English signs, and surrounded by mountains.
We followed the main street along a stream and towards the mountain range. We were stopped by a monk who asked us to pay 15 RMB for a 3 day pass that will allow us to explore the nearby monastery, Tibetan village, mountain area, and the White Dragon Spring. This spring is the main source of water for the town, and seemed to be very sacred (however, lots of garbage floats along it). We began walking around the monastery and Tibetan village, which reminded me a lot of Hobbitville - maybe the monks turn into Hobbits at night.
We drank “eight-treasures-tea” at a teahouse as a storm passed over us. This tea contains 8 kinds of “treasures” such as various flowers, herbs, and some sugar crystals, and is overpriced. Once finished we decided to climb up a large hill with meadow-lands. I felt the urge to frolic in the meadow (I was happy to get back to nature) and we watched yaks grazing and vultures swooping.
A group of monks walked by us with friendly “Hello’s” through a path in the meadow, and we decided to follow that path towards a gorge. At the edge of the gorge was where the White Dragon Spring originates. After climbing down the gorge somehow, we explored it and found some caves. We went inside one and saw a Tibetan family: mother, father, and son. The parents seemed to be showing their child how to worship the Spring. They walked around in a circle, said a few prayers, and then picked up a large rock and dropped it into a pre-made hole. We weren’t exactly sure what was going on, but we decided to try it out and pay our respects to the White Dragon Spring. Evan was barely able to pick it up and struggled with it, wondering how the tiny, middle-aged Tibetan woman was able to heft it over her shoulder…
Langmusi, we quickly realized, had caught tourist fever. It was becoming well-known for it’s horse treks, increasing the competition against another famous horse-trekking town, Songpan (which was next on our itinerary). And Langmusi was famous for one trendy little restaurant owned by a Muslim family called Letitia’s. Letitia’s can provide you with the once-in-a-lifetime Yak Attack. This involves ordering a yak burger the size of a small pizza. You have the choice of ordering the small one, if you’re not ready to take the challenge, or the large. We ordered the small and it was bigger than any burger we’ve ever seen, and it was delicious! Letitia also served fresh apple pie, spaghetti, and many other western favourites.
On our second day, we were walking around town and ended up at some kind of temple. An older woman and her son soon joined us and began walking around the temple while chanting mantras. She urged us to walk with her and we joined them. We walked around this little temple about three or four times, wondering the whole time how long this would continue, when she finally stopped and invited us to lunch (so we think). We tried our best to say no, but we only know one phrase in Tibetan: “Tashi dele” (Hello). We managed to use charades and broken Chinese to let her know we had plans and couldn’t attend - which was true - and we felt terrible for missing out on a home-made Tibetan meal.
Along with our new Canadian and Russian friends, we managed a trip to a local hot spring about an hour’s drive through the mountains. We didn’t know what to expect and soon found ourselves at a small community basically built on the side of a mountain. The hot springs turned out to be an indoor affair, kind of like a Turkish bath. It even had separate sides for the men and women. Although it had the faint odour of rotten eggs, the pools were nice and warm like a hot tub. We spent about an hour soaking in the springs and as we were getting ready to leave, a woman demanded that we pay her some money for the use of the springs - which turned out to be only 10 RMB each.
Our third day in Langmusi was spent exploring the gorge and mountain ranges more extensively. We basically followed a horse-trekking route, but didn’t follow it the entire way. We met a Chinese woman who spoke English very well and discovered she was from the States. She was walking along with a Chinese couple and a young, humorous, energetic Llama. He wanted to talk to us and practice his English and also get our picture taken with him. We felt very honoured to meet a Llama, even though it wasn’t the Dalai Lama.
We really enjoyed Langmusi, and you’ll see why when you check out the gorgeous pictures. It really reminded us of Canada, with the alpine trees on the mountains and the clean air. We also had fallen in love with the Tibetan people who are very kind, welcoming, and generous. However, we were scheduled to leave for another town called Songpan where we planned to take a three-day horse trek. One that we will never forget…
Kristy
Summer Trip - Langmusi
November 15th, 2007
We’ve recently uploaded some pictures of our apartment. We figured you’d want to get a sneak peek of our living situation. It’s actually a bit bigger than we expected, but we’ve given up on making it “homey” with the water damage to the ceiling, the massive bugs we find every now and then, and the peeling paint covering the entire building. However, the furniture and major appliances came with the package, so we’re happy.
Apartment Photos
November 15th, 2007
I will interrupt our usual programming to update you on the latest happenings. In October, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Hallowe’en the best we could in a country that doesn’t observe either of these holidays.
Since we were the only Canadians around to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, we planned an elaborately delicious meal that we could enjoy alone, and not share with others. We made mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables, we bought a roast duck from down the street, and we were lucky enough to find a REAL apple pie in a Nanjing bakery during the October Holiday. We both missed our Moms’ famous stuffing and reminisced about Thanksgivings past. The apple pie didn’t last long, Evan had it for breakfast the next day.
Halloween was more of a challenge because we wanted to create good costumes, not only for the parties we would attend, but also so we could thoroughly confuse our students. Other than the tiny display of Hallowe’en odds and ends in the massive shopping centre in town, costumes were hard to come by. I finally decided to create a costume reminiscent of the Crazy Cat Lady from the Simpsons, and Evan found a way to turn himself into a mummy. (I ended up looking like a drunken housewife, and Evan transformed into a toilet paper dispenser).
A party was held at the apartment two floors below us and most of the foreign teachers showed up with costumes. There were two Greeks in togas, a cat, a serial killer, a U.S. army officer, a vampire, a mafia man, and a foreign teacher who didn’t really dress up but we decided he looked like Osama Bin Laden anyway. Even our supervisor showed up, sans costume, but seemed to enjoy how ridiculous we all looked.
On the actual day of Hallowe’en, I gave half a lesson on the history of Hallowe’en, told a scary story, and gave out candy. I arrived as a witch, and 30 cell phone cameras flashed away as I taught. My students knew a little bit about Hallowe’en, but only from watching American movies and television.
Our summer trip blogs are still coming. Next we have Langmusi, then Songpan, Chengdu, Leshan, Emei Shan, Kangding, and our 36 hour train ride back home to Zhenjiang. We’ll do our best to get them up as soon as we can. We hope you enjoy reading them!
Thanksgiving and Hallowe’en
November 7th, 2007
Of course, this post starts with another great bus transport story…
We had checked out the bus schedule and knew the only bus from Tongren to Xiahe left at 9AM. You cannot buy bus tickets the day before so we planned to get their early to make sure we got them. Unfortunately, as Kristy mentioned, we spent the night prior drinking with a fellow ex pat, so we overslept a bit (this was supposed to be a vacation) and didn’t get to the bus station until about 8:45. We went immediately to buy tickets but were told (repeatedly, and without too much kindness) that they were out. Surprised and angry, we watched the bus fill up with people. We were about to head back to our hostel when a Chinese guy grabbed us and pulled us outside of the bus station. We managed to communicate that he was also going to Xiahe, although we had no idea why he was waiting outside the station (along with 15-20 others). While we were debating what to do (we had no idea how long the wait would be, or exactly what type of vehicle we were waiting for) the bus pulled out of the station, drove past us, and then stopped. While we stared dumbfounded, all the people who had been waiting quickly piled on, and still confused, we did as well.
As it turns out, it is against the law in China for buses to have more people then there are seats. The written laws and how they are applied in practice often stare at each other across a void in China. Buses will not take on extra passengers in a bus station, but upon leaving the station (and I stress, upon leaving, as it is still well within sight of anyone concerned at the bus station) they will stop and make room for however many people wish to board. Most of them carry extra stools to serve as seats in the aisles. Then, just before arriving in the next town, they stop and all the extra people get off the bus at some pre-determined destination where taxis and motorcycles wait to ferry the extras into town. All this would take us the next several weeks to fully understand, but at the moment, we were just happy to be aboard the bus.
Xiahe itself was one of our favourite places in all of China. Although our first experience was being extorted by a taxicab driver (taxi cab drivers now rank next to politicians in my mind when it comes to trusting people) we had a fantastic time here. Xiahe is a Tibetan town and contains the largest Lamasery after the one in Lhasa. We only had to walk about 20 minutes in any direction and we were out of the town and in the mountains. We had our first brush with Tibetan hospitality as we stayed in an amazing Tibetan guest house run by a young Tibetan who had escaped to India following the Chinese persecution and learned English while in exile. We also had our first brush with Tibetan food, which wasn’t exactly as good as the hospitality (the highlight was cold yak butter balls…mmm).
The best part was our tour of the Lamasery with an English speaking monk as our guide. If I remember correctly, the Lamasery houses about 2000 monks and contains 7 colleges for them to choose from. We were even lucky enough to watch the monks studying traditional medicine pray. The monks ranged in age, some were as young as 7 or 8 while others had been there their entire lives. Our guide said he decided to become a monk when he was 12 years old. He also told us that the begging monks we had encountered were from poorer temples not located in major towns and cities. The new monks would often be sent to bigger urban areas to collect donations and bring them back to the temples.
The Lamasery was a popular site for pilgrimages and we saw plenty of Tibetan and Chinese nomads and rural farmers make their way into town to pray at the temple. The pilgrims would walk a route around the outside of the Lamasery complex and spin several thousand prayer wheels along the way. We were very disappointed to see a squad of Korean Christian missionaries setup shop along the pilgrims route the second day we were there. It seemed pretty disrespectful to us to try and convert people who had just traveled long distances to pray at a Buddhist Monastery. Not to mention that they were directly in all the pilgrims way.
We were planning to spend an extra night in Xiahe and bike to a sacred lake near town the following day. However, we had befriended a mother and daughter (some fellow Canadians) who had been following the same route through China as us and they had arranged a private van to take them to Langmusi - our next destination. Taking the private van cut the 9 hour bus crowded bus ride down to 4 hours, and meant we could stop where ever we wanted to take pictures. Also, buses weren’t turning out to be our best friend on the trip. So early the next morning we boarded the van with the Canadians and a couple from Russia.
Evan
Summer Trip - Xiahe
November 7th, 2007
We returned from the Nature Reserve at around lunch time, and were lucky enough to grab tickets for a bus that left within the hour. We quickly slurped down some really spicy noodles and ran back to the bus station to use the public toilet (there were no separate outhouses for men and women, and no stalls…). We then got on the bus, and, since in small towns like these the bus will not leave until it’s full, we waited for about 30 minutes for it to fill up. Finally we were on our way. It was only supposed to be a 3 hour bus ride so we were thrilled to get to Tongren and have a rest.
The bus happily went bustling down the road, we were so happy that we were almost singing, and then… the bus stopped. We were only about ten minutes outside of the town we had left. The bus driver took off, his “assistant” turned on the TV and some Chinese hospital show came on (Chinese ER?), and then HE left us. Evan and I sat for a while, thinking maybe we are waiting for more people to get on. 15 minutes passed… at the front of the bus there was a clock that would flash the temperature every now and then. We watched it climb from 38 to 45 degrees Celsius. We waited some more.
I got really angry then. Really, really angry. But no one else seemed phased, and continued sitting in the baking heat. Evan and I debated who would find out what was going on. Eventually it came down to me stomping into a restaurant, demanding who the bus driver was, using charades and English, and proceeding to scream at him “Shi er dian…. shi er dian!!!” (”12 o’clock…. 12 o’clock!) (the bus was supposed to leave at 12) while pointing angrily at my watch. In response, he and his buddies laughed. He kept showing me two fingers and mumbling something in Chinese. I was wondering, does that mean we won’t leave for another two hours, or that we will get there in two hours and he’s on his way once he finishes his meal?
Turns out the driver had a nice meal, drank some beers, and had a nap… two hours later we were on our way to Tongren. It was another exceptionally scenic bus ride involving yaks, mountain pastures and Tibetan cowboys.
Tongren was our first Tibetan town experience. It is actually another cross-roads town with Muslims, various minorities of Chinese, nomadic Tibetans, and lots of monks. We even discovered our first batch of “laowei’ (foreigners) but they didn’t seem too friendly. We found out later that they were missionaries.
Tongren is famous for a small active lamasery, called Gomar Lamasery, where monks are trained to paint thankgas. A thankga is a religious painting that usually portrays a Buddha, or other Buddhist deities. They are drawn using very small lines which makes them highly detailed. A small thankga takes more than one month to paint. We read in Lonely Planet that we could get a tour of this lamasery and even buy a painting.
We toured the lamasery after a well-needed night’s rest. We decided to take a motor tricycle thingy to get us there instead of a cab. It’s like a motorcycle customized with a wagon at the back. It cost us much more than the Lonely Planet said it would (why do we keep trusting that book?) and it was a chilly ride. I don’t believe we have a picture of it, but there are plenty of them around China. Evan and I often imagine riding one down the 401 during rush hour…
The lamasery was small but once our guide (a monk) opened some locked doors, we oohed and ahhed at the massive prayer hall where a Buddha sat in the center. I could definitely feel how sacred and spiritual this place was. It was a short tour, and most of it was spent on deciding what thankga to get. Afterwards we ventured across the road to another lamasery and wandered around the farming villages.
In Tongren we had our first experience of begging monks. We often wondered why they came to the town to beg for money when we could clearly see they had money, and a lot of it. It was in this town that we first came across monks with “bling”. They had gold necklaces, cell phones, and they drove souped up SUVs with pictures of the recent Lama hanging from their rear-view mirrors. They made quite a lot of cash selling thangkas. Ours cost 200 RMB, and they went up to 800 RMB. The lamasery also made much larger ones that were sold to other lamaseries around Tibet and the Buddhist world, some of which much have had astronomical costs due to their huge size.
Tongren was a pleasant place to rest. It is a small town surrounded by beautiful mountains, streams, and valleys. We even made some foreigner friends and spent an evening drinking beers and eating lamb kabobs on the steps of a bank with a guy named Mike from Chicago. We spent two nights, and almost ended up checking back into our hotel an hour after we checked out because of another bus catastrophe…
Next up: How we became semi-illegal patrons of the transit system, and the Tibetan town we fell in love with.
Kristy
Summer Trip - Tongren
October 17th, 2007
Next on our “to see” list was a nature reserve, as being true Canadians, we had really missed the Great Outdoors and had an itch for camping we had to scratch. To get to Mengda was a journey itself because of it’s location. From Linxia we took an early morning bus to a town called Xunhua. The bus ride was 4 or 5 hours, and covered a distance of about 20km (you do the math). Basically we went up one side of a mountain and down the other all on bumpy dirt roads. The highlight of the trip (and one that we would see many times again) was Tibetans grazing their herds of yaks on the high mountains plateaus. When we arrived in Xunhua, an old man was nice enough to walk us to the area of town where we could easily find a taxi. Not only did we find a lot of people there to help us get to our final destination, but had about 5 people were fighting over us!
Luckily, throughout the commotion of people attempting to get us into their cars, a man spoke enough English to persuade us that his friend could drive us there and back for 100 kuai in total. We made the deal and told the guy we wanted to be picked up the next morning because we planned to stay the night. Once all that was figured out, we were on a crazy car ride, going about 80 km/h on a narrow road on the side of a cliff. To our left were spectacular views of the Yellow River and mountains, and to our right was the cliff face. The driver weaved in and out of traffic around the sharp turns while singing to his favourite Chinese pop tunes.
Mengda Nature Reserve will always stick in my mind as the time when I completely lost trust in the authors of Lonely Planet (our China guidebook). This is what the Lonely Planet says about Mengda Nature Reserve: “The bus will drop you off at the turnoff to Heaven Lake, from where it is a 4km walk to the ticket office. From the ticket office, the road continues on for 2 km until the car park; from there it’s a final 800m stretch up to the lake.”
First of all, the bus took us to Xunhua from where we had to hire our car. Our driver was able to take us straight to the ticket office. From the ticket office we were given a typical Chinese tourism golf-cart ride to the actual entrance to the park. From there we had the choice of riding a horse to the lake, or walking. We thought, well it’s supposedly only 800 meters, why not just walk? But this was our first lesson, both in not to trust the book, and that every single Chinese tourist attraction will have countless stairs - not trails. I very quickly became angry when I realized I had to climb never-ending steep stairs with all our gear for MUCH more than 800 meters.
About an hour later, we finally saw people mulling around and the lake. The lake at Mengda is considered sacred for both the local solar Muslims and the Tibetan Buddhists and is a major pilgrimage route. One thing that surprised us most was the fact that the only wildlife we came across were goats and cows. It seems the Tibetans used the surrounding area for grazing. Another disappointment was the lake itself. It looked so inviting and we couldn’t wait to jump in but upon closer inspection found it to be infested with tiny shrimp-like, parasite-ish organisms.
The scenery was beautiful none-the-less, and we spent a considerable amount of time in the sun with our feet in the water.
The camping part came next. The guidebook said we could rent tents here and spend a night. It turns out, we had to speak to the Muslim family who seemed to live there and ask him for a tent. After MUCH confusion (our phrasebook does not contain the phrase ‘I’d like to rent a tent’, so we had to put our charades experience to good use) he agreed and promptly setup a tent for us on the concrete floor of his balcony. He did later move it to the grassy area in front of his house, but it was still more like camping in someone’s backyard.
We went for a walk around the lake and returned to our ‘camp’ around 5PM, when all of the other tourists were leaving. Apparently we were the only ones spending the night. As we sat down in lounge chairs overlooking the lake and prepared to relax and watch the sunset. The Muslim family quickly setup speakers and began playing a mixture of techno and disco music that would continue until we finally crawled into bed at around 9PM.
We awoke early the next morning, had some breakfast and walked back down to the main gate, where after a short wait, the golf cart returned to chauffer us back down to the ticket office. Our driver was suppose to arrive at 11AM to pick us up, but come 11:30 there was no sign of him so we grabbed another car and paid him the remaining 50 kuai to take us back (we did pass our original driver on the way back). We snapped some pictures of the Yellow River from the moving car, but they don’t do the scenery justice. Finally, we arrived in Xunhua and prepared to take a bus to our next destination, Tongren, a city famous for its Buddhist artwork. But that’s another story.
Summer Trip - Mengda Nature Reserve
October 14th, 2007
Just thought we’d take a break from the traveling stories to talk about what we’re doing these days. We’re back at teaching and at this point all novelty has worn off, most days we may as well be going to a job in Canada. We both have less classes this semester, which, coupled with the fact that as experienced teachers we don’t need to plan as much, means that we have loads of free time. Recently we’ve started buying every American TV show we can get our hands on (cost of 1 season runs from $0.80 to $3, and we almost didn’t buy that one because we thought it was too expensive!).
We’re not doing much else. We have our eyes set on Christmas in Thailand, as well as a few weeks in Vietnam, Cambodia, and possibly the Philippines. (and of course not going home broke.) So it’s been quite the transition from crazy daily adventures across China to a monotonous routine here on campus.
We now have a week off, thanks to October Holiday and the commemoration of China as a People’s Republic. October 1st is National Day, equivalent to Canada Day, and every single person in the country will be traveling somewhere. We decided to stick around, and stay far away from any train or bus station, until about mid-week, when we will spend two nights in Nanjing. Our main purpose in Nanjing of course is to relax, and stuff our faces with as much Western food as possible before we have to go back to 3 more months of Chinese food.
We discovered an amazing Italian restaurant called “Jack’s Place” that has real Italian food. We also scoured the city to find a tiny little deli and bakery that actually sells sandwiches… with cheese and pickles… for a low, low price of 20 RMB (including real coffee!!!).
Yesterday we were privileged enough to be invited to a “tour” of Zhenjiang and a formal dinner to celebrate National Day. We weren’t given much information but apparently they rounded together as many foreigners as they could, including teachers, business owners, investors, and stuck them into buses which would be escorted by police and driven around the city. The tour included a visit to the Number 1 Middle School, an “ancient” part of town and museum, an island in the middle of the Yangtze that was under development for a resort, and a product show featuring local products. Finally we were treated to an elaborate buffet dinner, which was preceded by speeches from the Major, head of the local Communist Party and everyone else who is somehow important in this city. The evening wrapped up with all the teachers from our university being taken to the local police station so they could film us all reading pamphlets and smiling (isn’t doing favors for people awesome!)
So ya, that’s our daily life.
September 30th, 2007
Around 1AM in the morning, we dragged ourselves to the train station, and waited in silence for our train. We’d taken hard seats before in China, they’re basically wood planks with a little padding, the worst part is that they don’t recline so you’re stuck sitting straight up while your butt slowly goes numb. Anyways, this train was completely sold out, which in China means that all the seats are full plus about an equal amount of people who have bought ’standing’ tickets. There was no air-conditioning and it was full of smokers. Suffice to say it was the longest train ride of our lives, but it was hilarious how uncomfortable we were compared to all of the Chinese on the train, who soon fell asleep in the most uncomfortable positions imaginable, snuggling up against each other. The coolest part was that as we were approaching Lanzhou and it was getting light outside, we passed these steep cliffs with flat terraces carved into them so people could plant crops. Beside all the terraces were thousands of small caves (many of which had electricity) where the farmers lived!
The best part of Lanzhou was our hotel. As the most polluted city in the world (and apparently one with an extremely high crime rate) they don’t see many tourists so the hotels were dirt cheap. We had a king size bed, luxury swede sofa, en-suite (we usually opted for communal toilets and showers) for about $14 a night. We ended up spending 3 nights in Lanzhou as the constant city hopping ever other day was taking its toll on us. We spent most of the time chilling in our hotel room. When we left the hotel, after about 1 minute on the streets we both had headaches, and our throats and noses burned from the air. Our hotel overlooked the train station, and every morning around 6AM we were awakened by the deafening sound of about 100 taxis pounding on their horns. It was a hilarious site to look out the window and see so many taxis crowding in from every direction and all trying to weave through each other without pausing to let another car go.
The second best part of Lanzhou was the food. Lanzhou has a large Uighur population (a Muslim minority in China) and we feasted on spicy, crunchy flat breads and barbecued mutton on a stick that melted in your mouth. It was also full of street merchants selling all sorts of crazy goods, from jewelery and pipes to bear and tiger paws, knives carved from bones (don’t know what animal) and other assorted animal parts.
After 3 days we took a bus to Linxia. Lanzhou was the end of the train lines for us, and despite all of our problems with trains in China, we soon started to miss them. But we’ll give details on buses later. Our Lonely Planet describes Linxia as a crossroads town; head east and you’re in China, westward lies the middle east and to the south is the massive Tibetan plateau. A very romantic description, but in reality it’s just another dirty Chinese city. It’s predominantly Muslim, and you can hear the prayer songs float over the city every few hours. It was cool at first, then less cool when it woke us up at 4AM. The coolness continued to decline as we realized at about 4:15AM that we were sharing our hotel room with rats. Our bus left at 6AM so we decided to spend the rest of our time in Linxia waiting in the bus station…
Evan
Summer Trip - Lanzhou and Linxia
September 21st, 2007
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