Goodbye Friends, Hello Family

So it's been a few weeks since I last checked in here. A lot & not very much have happened. After an incredible few days in Hong Kong I said goodbye to Karrin, Carrie & Travis and headed to Guangxi Provence - specifically Guilin and Yangshuo - for a week of travel by myself. The scenery was beautiful, the week relaxing but really nothing specific was memorable. For most of the week it was cold and grey - sometimes damp - and activities in these areas mostly involve exploring the landscape. I took a boat down the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo and saw some of the country's most famed scenery. The boat itself was crowded with Chinese tourists, but I enjoyed the 4 hour journey and managed to fill my camera with pictures.

Guangxi provence is renowned throughout China and the world for it's Karst landscape - cliff like hills rising quickly from the land. It is much like what I saw in Zhangjiajie/Wulingyuan but on a shorter scale. In Guilin I wandered about a number of Gardens, one of which had an incredible cave within one of the Karst mountains. I also enjoyed walking around the two main lakes in the center of the city at night. They were wonderfully lit up and included two pagodas and a number of stone bridges.



Yangshuo was a strange place. A small town, the area has been completely transformed into a tourist area. All restaurants have English menus and many are "western" themed. English is easily heard and vendors are aggressive in selling their goods. Though most of my time there was wet I managed to get one wonderful day in the countryside, biking along the Yulong river. It was great to get away from the cities and tourist centers - though vendors still pop up at intersections. During the week I also developed a cold. Without the others I felt comfortable in being lazy and though there was more that I wished I had scene the cool, grey days were not entirely unwelcome.


After the week by myself, I flew to Shanghai where I met up with my brother Matt at the Pudong Airport. For the past week we have been traveling together and we have another three weeks more. It was been both wonderful, strange, and difficult to have him here. These five months have been the longest I have gone without seeing any family- at school it would usually be about three or four weeks. Its exciting to have him here, to be able to share the country in which I have lived for five months and will continue to live for another five. Yet, at the strange time it is strange to connect people from home with my life and world here. I also feel a great amount of responsibility to ensure that Matt has a good trip. Though I have only been in China a few months and will be visiting mostly new places with him, I feel that I must play the part of "host." I know (some of) the language, he doesn't. I know (some of) the culture, he doesn't. I live here, he doesn't. When traveling with Karrin, Carrie, and Travis it was easier in someways because we all new what to expect, we all spoke some language, and we all were in a similar situation. After a week of travel and 3 cities - Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou - I've introduced him the chaos of travel here. Train and bus stations are loud, crowded and unorganized and taxi drivers will do their best to take advantage of you. Once you get away from that though, China really has some beautiful spots, interesting people, and endearing habits.

In Shanghai, we did essentially what I did in my last trip in October, but this time with more Museums. Our day and a half in Hangzhou - just an hour by fast train from Shanghai - was filled with enjoyable activities. We visited a silk museum, wandered about the famed West Lake, and ate a nice dinner our first day. The next we eventually managed to rent bicycles after some confusion and spent the day exploring Longjing village. Longjing village is known for its green tea and is among the most highly regarded an expensive tea in China. After peddling - sometimes walking - up hill we made it to the village where we were greeted by an older woman who asked us (in Chinese) if we wanted to have some tea. She seemed friendly enough and the price she offered was fair, so we followed her to her home from which her family runs a small tea house. The tea was delicious and we bought some to take home to friends and family. The tea came directly from the bag - the same from which we sampled - and she was kind and helpful in serving us the tea and showing us the area. Later that day we went to Linying Temple. Though we never actually made it into the temple (we explored the surrounding area a bit to thoroughly) the afternoon was really a wonderful experience. Leading to the temple are some 340 odd carvings of various Buddhist figures in the walls of the mountains. They have been there for centuries and many of the stones are highly polished from the thousands of hands that have used the rocks for support in climbing or touched the figures in religious acts.




After a full day, we woke early today to head to Suzhou, another city near Shanghai. Where Hangzhou is known for it's West Lake, Suzhou is known for its canals and gardens. Our hostel is on a beautiful, but quite pedestrian street that runs along one canal. We spent the afternoon visiting a Suzhou Opera museum and saw a Pingyin performance that included some singing and musical instrument playing and some "who's on first" type comedy. Though it was all in Chinese and we understood little, we enjoyed the show which at 4 yuan each including a few cups of tea was a steal. It was also nice because those at the show were all old retired Chinese men and women with no (or no noticeable) tourists.

After the show we walked to Humble Ambassador Garden, the largest of the gardens in Suzhou. It is a spectacularly constructed garden including a number of beautiful buildings. Like most gardens in China it included a large amount of stone sculptures and winding paths. We wandered about for a few hours, enjoy the beautiful weather - sunny and low 70s. For dinner we wandered the canal streets, picking up street for along the way. Tomorrow we are looking forward to visiting another few gardens and enjoying a lazy and relaxing day.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong was a fantastic experience. After having been in China for 5 months, it was fantastic to escape for a little bit. Though technically part of China, Hong Kong felt a world away. It was a treat to hear English spoken and understood by many, to see other westerners and not be stared at. The presence of western bathrooms though was most welcome. Also enjoyable was the ability to take a break from the common sightseeing of China.

We arrived in Hong Kong on the January 26th, also the lunar New Year, to find a quiet Hong Kong. Because of the Holiday, most shops and restaurants were closed. I have to say though, that it was nice to find a calmer Hong Kong than normal – it me to familiarize myself with the metro and layout of the city with out the millions of people normally bustling about. So, after making our way from the ferry terminal – we took an hour and a half ferry from Zhuhai – to our hostel we spent the afternoon walking about the SoHo/NoHo area. First we visited a temple. Though I have visited many temples during my travels in China, visiting this one was different. Normally, the temples are quite, calm and nearly empty. This day, however, they were swarmed with people visiting because the New Year. We didn’t stay long, however, because being there not as religious visitors felt a little intrusive. Also, we didn’t stay long because of the overpowering incense smoke – my eyes actually began to burn after being inside for less than 5 minutes. Walking about SoHo I fell in love with Hong Kong. SoHo is a mixture of boutiques, restaurants and art galleries set among narrow, winding and steep roads. Most places were closed, but Carrie and I enjoyed ourselves, surveying menus and deciding how we would support ourselves living there.

The next day, we all set out for the Botanical and Zoological Gardens. The hike up to the gardens was quite strenuous and a bit unexpected but the garden itself was a pleasant reward. Though it was a cloudy day, the gardens were colorful and wonderful to walk about. Besides fountains and plants outside, the garden also included a number of aviaries and cages with monkeys in addition to a green house filled with orchids. The variety of orchids was incredible.
After spending the morning there we found our way to Mid-Way to walk down along the world’s longest escalator (it only goes up). Along our walk down we ran into Andy and Phred, two fellow Skidmore graduates teaching in Dongying, who were riding the escalator up. They hopped off to join us for a drink while we ate lunch. We had hoped to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant that Carrie and Travis had been to on a previous visit but found it closed because of the holiday (Spring Festival technically lasts 15 days, beginning on the New Year, and the public Holiday is usually for the 1st 3 days). Instead we went to a small noodle restaurant without Andy and Phred, promising to email to set up a time to meet. After lunch we headed across the water to Kowloon to visit a few markets and walk about. We wondered through the “Lady’s Market” looking at bags, jewelry and Chinese trinkets, before making our way to what our book told us was a Goldfish Market. Really, it was a street with a number aquarium shops, though bags of goldfish did dangle racks outside the doors. We then returned to the hostel for a quick rest before making our way to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Hong Kong was putting on a large fireworks display that night in honor of the Spring Festival. Knowing that it would be over the water between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, we decided to treat ourselves to a night out at CPK for some western food and also a great view of the Show – the restaurant is right on the water and the perfect spot for watching the fireworks. While we waited for our reservation, we again ran into the teachers from Dongying, this time all of them. They had also gone to the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, though they didn’t have the foresight to make a reservation for the time of the fireworks. We spoke to them quickly before they ran off into the crowds in hopes of seeing the show. Just moments before it began, however, Erin and Dana appeared at our table. Phred and Andy had refused to slow down for them, so the two girls had returned. They sat with us while we ate and enjoyed the spectacular view.

On our 3rd day, Karrin and I made our way to Vivienne Westwood exhibit at ArtisTree which was co-produced by the Victoria & Albert in London. It was nice, after 5 months of sight seeing, to do see and do something that had nothing to do with China. The show was well done and made me wish that I had the money and the attitude to wear her clothes. After the museum, Karrin took a rest and I wandered about Central for a few hours. At 3pm we met up again with Carrie and Travis and decided to go to Stanley beach. Unfortunately the bus there runs very infrequently and we had just missed one. Instead, we decided to head to Aberdeen to see the harbor. Riding there on the double-decker bus in the top front seats was quite the adventure itself. Once at Aberdeen we took a Sampan boat through the harbor. The harbor itself was a strange collection of fishing boats in one area and then larger speedboats and private cruise ships in another. The view was beautiful and puttering about the harbor was wonderful. After the harbor we went to Central for a drink before a Sushi dinner. The next day was Karrin’s birthday, but she was leaving to go to Thailand to meet her aunt, so a birthday dinner on her actual birthday was not possible. We splurged that night on dinner, but had a great meal and celebrated Karrin.



We spent the morning of our 4th day standing –waiting of the bus, in line for the peak tram. We had decided that Karrin could not leave Hong Kong without taking the peak tram up to Victoria Peak. We were a little slow in getting out that morning and didn’t make it to the tram until almost 11am. Because it was still the holiday, many Chinese and their families were also visiting the peak so the wait in line was a little over an hour and half. Finally, we boarded the tram and made the steep journey up. The angle at which we traveled was truly remarkable. At the top we found a fairly good view. It was a cloudy day and a bit hazy as well but we still managed to get some good pictures of Hong Kong. We spent only a matter of minutes at the top because Karrin had to get back to make her flight.

We returned to the hostel, hugged her goodbye as she boarded her bus and then went to Stanley beach. The view from the bus there was wonderful as we wound our way around twisting roads. Stanley beach was beautiful. Thought it is only 30 minutes or so from downtown Hong Kong, it was a complete escape from the skyscrapers and chaos of the city. We ate a wonderful Indian lunch along the water and then went to the market in search of warmer clothes for Travis and Carrie who were heading a bit north next in their trip. We then returned home to the hostel for a quiet evening.


The next day was our day of departure. Carrie and Travis were both feeling a bit under the weather so decided to head back to Zhuhai a bit early that day, and I myself had a flight in Shenzhen to catch that evening. I walked about a bit by myself but decided to simply head to the airport early. I made it there with little trouble and curled myself up in Starbucks with a cup of coffee and a book for a few hours to pass the time before my flight. Over all, Hong Kong was a great trip, and I would be happy to return.