Hangzhou

Elinor and I fled the Wild Wild West for the peaceful banks of the West Lake in Hangzhou. We got in around 1 in the morning, and ended up booking a shady hotel. The place was kind of a nightmare, but as we were only staying there for a night we didn't care.

In the morning we headed to the train station to get a seat back on an evening train to Shanghai. Trains run from Hangzhou to Shanghai every 10 minutes. For whatever reason, on that particular Friday, the train station was a mad house. The earliest available train that they still had tickets for was at 8:41pm. We jumped on it and were on our way.



We had the cab driver take us to the Leifeng Pagoda. First built in the 10th century, the Leifeng Pagoda was famous for being the site of the remarkable Lady White Snake legend. This tale is unrestrained, to say the least, and I highly recommend y'all read it if you're interested in the extravagancy of Chinese folk tales.



However, the pagoda burned down in 1924 after an attack by Japanese pirates. From 2000-2002, it was rebuilt by the Hangzhou government. In the basement the remains of the original pagoda are available for viewing. The Leifeng Pagoda gave a great view of the surrounding West Lake and the city.



This is a really cool picture I wanted to share... so the brooms are hand made in China. And this particular woman just threw down her old broom, gathered some new brush and started making a new broom!!



In the afternoon, Elle and I just walked around, had afternoon tea, and mostly just talked and people-watched. It was a lovely day, despite the overcast skies. I can easily see how so many people believe Hangzhou to be the loveliest city. The West Lake, one of the largest natural freshwater lakes in China, provides a serene backdrop for the entire city.





We were back in Shanghai by midnight.

We have two weeks until Spring Break (and my 21st birthday!!). A couple of friends and I plan to go to Cambodia and Thailand. I'm hoping to combine some sight-seeing with trekking through the rainforests and finish with some R&R on a Thai beach. I'm very excited to visit Southeast Asia! Birthday cards are greatly appreciated and can be sent to my mom ;0)

Miss you all!! Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the facebook videos!

Love,
Meg

Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

Our group trip was to the Sichuan Province capital of Chengdu. As part of the program's practical learning aspect, we incorporate travel into our learning. Here's a few things I've learned:

- Chengdu is much more polluted.
- Sichuan accent is terribly difficult to understand. They're like the Cajuns of China :)
- One must always eat a pepper from skinny end to fat end. The fat end is spicier and so you can work up your taste buds to the SUPER hot stuff.

Tuesday, March 17

We cruised by the Giant Seated Buddha at Leshan Mountain.



Then we grabbed lunch at a Sichuan restaurant... for all you food lovers out there, get a look at this fish!



In the afternoon, we drove to E'Mei Shan or E'Mei mountain.



E'Mei Shan is a holy Buddhist mountain. We spent the afternoon at a temple and then a nunnery. Met some really kind old people, unfortunately the dialect is so impossible, that we had serious trouble communicating with any of the locals. Picture taking is a universal language. Our new friends were often happy to oblige.



I got in loads of trouble for taking this picture... apparently there's no photography in the temple... Whoops, my b! My secret to China, I pretend not to understand what they're saying when it doesn't behoove me to...



In case you needed to be persuaded from joining a Buddhist convent... here's one reason not to become a Buddhist nun (it's the bald one on the lower left):



The mountain was beautiful. The flowers are in bloom and it all makes for a beautiful back drop.



Very far from anything remotely Irish, we celebrated our Saint Patty's day that evening by taking a dip in the hot springs, which in reality is just a series of jacuzzis. I'm terribly sorry to report that there are no pictures. It's probably for the best, because I forgot my bathing suit and was forced to buy one on site. Needless to say, Chinese bathing suits are wholly unattractive, and I came out in a one-peice that was perhaps a size too small with an attached skirt that made me look like Minnie-flippin-Mouse. While I was nothing short of a riot, I'm glad there's no photo evidence that such a hideous get up ever existed.

Wednesday, March 18

CUTE ASIAN BABY!!!



Wednesday morning we drove to the other side of the mountain and embarked on the most brutal hike of my life. My calves are still screaming at me. It was a very neat park though, because a local buddhist tribe still inhabits the mountain. You can see in the background of this picture, they're growing tea.



Here, Elle and I sat to take a rest after all the climbing and we seemed to attract attention in our big sunglasses. We were soon swarmed by a group of girls who insisted on taking pictures with us and posing as if we were best friends.



We ate a vegetarian lunch at this cool mountain top restaurant. There was no warning for the incendiary pepper I ate. Sichuan cuisine is famous for spiciness, but the particular pepper ranks among the hottest in the world and I unknowningly took a chomp right out of the fat end. I swear I didn't taste anything for at least 48 hours.



From there, we headed to meet the monkeys. Here's a group shot of us in the Monkey Ecological Area... it's unreal how close they get to you. At first, the reaction is "Aww! A cute little monkey!" This adoration quickly fades into... "So that's how they gave us AIDS!" It's perhaps not that drastic, but the little buggers are dirty. ((I don't know if you can tell but his hair is literally matted in pooh!)


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So I see this cool little pagoda/gazebo thing. 'Wow, what a great photo op!' I think. I start traipsing off onto this plank bridge. All of the sudden, I hear Chinese people shouting behind me. Too late. I turn around and some hostile looking monkeys are making a b-line straight for me. What was supposed to be a nice picturesque shot, turned into a still-frame of me, besieged with horror. My glasses unfortunately cover the fear in my eyes, but you might be able to tell I'm screaming at this point. One of the suckers grabs hold of my jacket, (yes it's tied around my waist kindergarten style!) and I took off running so fast that he was literally shaken off. I quit monkey land shortly after that...



From there we began our decent down the most gorgeous part of the mountain to Wu Xian Gang.





Thursday, March 19

We went to the Panda Research Center in Chengdu. They're famous for their captivity breeding of the endangered species. Quite lazy animals, but definitely worth saving. In the afternoon, we mostly just walked around the city. We did manage to squeeze in massages :) It was quite a nice trip. Minus the monkeys.



Panda says WHAT?!



Elle and I boarded a plane late that night for Hangzhou, which is about an hour south of Shanghai. We were supposed to venture into some autonomous Tibetan regions, but the area is closed to foreigners right now due to political instability. The bus station refused to sell us tickets to the areas we wanted to go. The reasons for not allowing us to go are two-fold: 1) they do not want us serving as psuedo-journalists. 2) it is very unsafe to travel to those areas. There is much concern that a radical might hurt foreigners to gain more international attention. For us, it was a simple answer... fly home early to safety. We made a pit stop in Hangzhou for some sight-seeing.

Cruisin' Down the Yangtze River

Friday, March 13



We set out from Pudong Airport headed for Chongqing. The travel agency that set up the Yangtze River cruise for us arranged for one of their drivers to pick up the guys and I at the airport. We grabbed dinner (a spicy dumpling soup bowl popular in the Sichuan province), before heading onto the boat. We got settled in, and immediately caused quite a stir. It was a Chinese cruise ship, not a luxury liner that foreigners typically embark on. Everyone was excited to see some Americans! By the end of the night, I even ended up singing Chinese karaoke songs.



Saturday, March 14



Chinese people like to wake up really early!! Breakfast is at 5:30 am everyday. Needless to say we did not have breakfast the entire boat ride. At 7am we embarked on our first stop at Fengdu, the Ghost City. Many Chinese people actually believe this to be a haunted city, however, I didn't see a single ghost! There are some pretty creepy statues though. It was culturally interesting, for me, because it was the first time I'd ever seen Chinese culture suggest a hell... in fact the statues from approximately the same era as Dante Alighieri, depict a hell of torment that might have even made Dante's skin crawl.




The weather was so nice that we spent our days on the viewing deck, relaxing and taking in the scenery.



We sailed all day until our second excursion, which was a midnight stop at the Zhejiang Temple. A common phrase in China is, "you've seen one temple, you've seen 'em all." Generally, I try to reject this notion, but the more temples I see the more I come to understand it. This was no exception with the Zhejiang Temple. Especially when there are no tour guides to explain to you what everything is. Luckily we made friends with the only other foreigners on board, an American family living in Beijing.




Sunday, March 15

Early the next morning, an announcement came that we would be passing throught the first of the famed Three Gorges. The first gorge, Qutang Gorge was by far my favorite. It was a little foggy in the morning, but I feel like the fog only made it that much more spectacular.




Morning broke over the mountains and we were off on our final day of crusing. Our excursion for the day was into the "Lesser Three Gorges," which most people find to be more spectacular, because they are extremely isolated and much narrower. While I myself prefer the actual Three Gorges, the Lesser ones were not without beauty.



We passed by the second gorge, Wu Gorge, in the afternoon. If you'll notice in the picture, there's a giant plant in the middle of the floor. Chinese boats usually have a ton of plants on board. Apparently it's good luck to have many plants on your ship.



That night we checked into a hotel near the Three Gorges Dam and prepared to tour the next day. Alex, Evan, and I took advantage of the hotel's amenities and managed to get in a few games of bowling.



The next day we toured the Three Gorges Dam. It's massive to say the least. It was definitely created with tourism in mind though, there are several lookout platforms and unnecessary symbolism and decoration of the area.




From the dam, it was about a 3-drive to the small city (of 4 million) called Yichang, in Hubei Province. We'd gone almost half of the way back to Shanghai, but we had to wait until 10pm for the daily flight to Chengdu to meet up with our group. Our AWESOME cab driver, "Jack" took us to an amusement park in Yichang to kill the day. We did all sorts of fun things like rock climbing, zip lines, etc. It was located in this beautiful gorge.



In the afternoon, we headed to the Yichang Zoo and fired airsoft guns into the lake/trees.



We sampled some local foods before Jack dropped us off at the airport.