Thursday, December 27, 2007

Saunas in Hotel Rooms?

A lot has been done since last I posted from China. Three cities, a plane ride, a five hour bus ride, another 4 hour car ride, and a 30 minute gondola ride to a glacier. Oh, and I even made it back home. But here’s the first part of the story…

Kunming

We got to Kunming, Yunnan Province without incident, despite the fact that up until the moment we got on the plane we weren’t sure if our tickets were valid. Our flight was canceled twice on two different days, and then we got moved to another airline…it was all very interesting, but taught the valuable lesson to check on your flights in China. We arrived in Kunming to very clean air, and checked into our hotel room at the Greenland Hotel, only to find that apparently our room came retrofitted with a personal sauna. Seriously, it was in the corner of the room and had a tape player in which you could pipe in Tchaikovsky while taking a sauna. Doug took a picture lest no one believe us:

The next morning we got on a bus to head off to Dali. The pollution was so bad heading out of the city that you could see whole valleys disappear into hazes of smoke and toxic fumes. I was happy we were only passing through those areas. It is hard to believe that people live their whole lives in places so polluted that I can’t take a deep breath, and that in the 21st Century it is getting worse rather than better. In valley after valley we saw houses right next to toxic smelting plants and industrial wastelands. I wonder sometimes how people live past the age of 3 in these places. I’ve seen locations like this when working, especially in the coal areas of Ningxia, but I still find it hard to believe that it happens. Fortunately, we are able to leave it all behind and keep going. I only wish something could give me hope that the situation will get better for the people left in those valleys…

Dali

Doug and I have decided we’re not sure what we think of Dali. Our hotel, Jim’s Tibetan Hotel (http://www.china-travel.nl/english/guesthouse.htm), was FREEZING. I mean, the temperature outside was in the 60s, but inside our room it was about 50. Oh, and the water was heated by solar panel, so the 2nd day we didn’t have hot water…I am apparently a soft westerner because an icy cold shower in 50 degree temperatures is not my idea of fun.

However, the town had some very interesting aspects as well. Not the least of which is it appears to be heaven for anyone who wants to drop off the face of the earth and just hang out. There also seemed to be a large proportion of the westerners interested in…let’s just say alternative lifestyles…Like all small Chinese towns, it truly seemed like a different world, as if you stepped back in time a century or two into a place where buildings were made out of mudbrick and grey tiles with shops wares spread out for all to see:

On our second day in Dali we headed off to Cangshan to hike in the mountains. It was lovely to get out of the noise and craziness of most of China and up into the hills. We had a good 13km walk along a paved trail (there isn’t much in China that’s left to wilderness or even good old hiking trails), weaving in and out of mountain valleys where we didn’t see another soul for hours. I realized that it was the first time in a couple of months that I was surrounded by a completely peaceful environment. In all, a lovely place to be.

The last day in Dali I was pretty sick, so didn't do much more than relax and drink water. And then we headed out to Lijiang...

Monday, December 24, 2007

Bad Blogger...Bad Blogger

Ok, so I abdicated my responsibility to keep my posts updated through travels. When it took 20 minutes to upload 1 picture thanks to bad Chinese internet connections in Yunnan, I decided I would wait until I got back to Beijing. But due to some drama in the 2 days leaving Yunnan and leaving China, I didn't get to it.

So in short, Doug and I are back home in Washington, DC as of last night.

However, I still plan on updating about Yunnan (positives and negatives both) in the next couple of days, so if you want to hear about it check back...

Merry Christmas or Hannukah or Kawanza or whatever other holiday I'm forgetting!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Hotpot, Beer Fish, and Karst Scenery

Beijing:

So despite the fact that most people can’t remember a time that the international flights from the U.S. into Beijing were late, Doug’s flight came in 4 hours late on December 9th. As a result we only had one day to relax and hang out in Beijing before leaving for our planned travel. We had some cool dumb luck that it happened to be the first snow of the year that day, so we wandered about Houhai Lake for most of the morning around all the Hutongs (old courtyard house areas built ages ago). I took some great pictures of the iced over lake and snow everywhere, but as those are on the 35mm camera, can’t post them here.

Doug also had his first taste of really good hotpot. For those of you who’ve never had it, hot pot is a boiling pot of a broth (oil, white, spicy red, or two or more types, etc.), into which you dump a variety of meat and veggies and cook yourself then dip in yummy sauces (my personal favorite is the sesame). I’m convinced that I need to find a great recipe for hotpot and open a chain of restaurants in the states…it’s one of the best foods ever for a cold day/night.

Guilin (http://wikitravel.org/en/Guilin):

On Tuesday we took off for Guilin, Guanxi Province. Guilin is supposed to be beautiful with a lot of parks, karst peaks, etc. However, we landed in a haze of smoke from them burning off the rice after the harvest, and frankly the city was overrun by businesses catering to tourists, and prices were ridiculous. We did manage to find some excellent Pijiu Yu (Beer Fish), a local specialty, and it was absolutely delicious, eaten in a restaurant where we were the only white people.

But in the end we were very happy to hop in a car and head down to Yangshuo at 9am on Wednesday morning.

Yangshuo (http://wikitravel.org/en/Yangshuo):

We arrived in Yangshuo through a cool car drive out of the haze and into the mist. We had wanted to take the boat ride down the Li River, which is apparently THE thing to do, but the river is exceptionally low right now, and no boats can get through, as you can see here:

We got dropped at our hotel, the Magnolia Hotel, a real splurge in town at RMB 220/night (http://www.yangshuoren.com/magnolia_en.htm). Then we proceeded to find a great dumpling place, Dynasty of Dumplings, right around the corner for some yummy food. Then we managed to rent a couple of nice bikes from the folks next door to the hotel (no deposit necessary since we were staying at the hotel) and got out of town.

We rode down the road, fighting trucks and tour buses, out to Yueliang Shan (Moon Hill). It was quite the hike uphill on about a million stairs…I swear…there were a million. But I have to say, despite the panting and pain in my mildly sprained hamstring (from my Badminton match with my tutor), it was more than worth it. Here are a couple of pictures from the top:



We could have done more, but frankly we were more interested in finding a place to stop and relax over a beer than anything else, so we parked ourselves on the main drag and had a beer:

That night we found ourselves at an expat-friendly resto-bar called Kelly’s CafĂ©. I broke down and had some good ol’ American food cause I couldn’t help myself. We woke up this morning to much colder, but much clearer weather. We were pretty sore from our hike yesterday, so we rented the bikes again and decided to head out to the Yulong River on side country roads. We ended up getting sidetracked to take a bamboo raft upriver as far as we could go before it dried out. It was gorgeous, practically uninhabited, and perfectly silent, a rarity in China to say the least. I could say more but I think the pictures from our bike ride and boat ride speak for themselves:

We have enjoyed Yangshuo greatly, I think largely because we came on off-season and there were practically no tourists in town. I can only imagine how crazy it gets here in the summer, and much of what we loved would be crowded with people, taking away from the relaxation we’ve had here.

Tomorrow we head off to Kunming, and Saturday we have a 5-hour bus ride from Kunming to Dali in Yunnan Province...

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Last Night At the Family, Hello Luxury Hotel!

Hey folks. So tonight’s the last night I’m spending with the family, and tomorrow I go to check into the Westin for some R&R before Doug gets here. Thought I’d post some sort of summary of what’s past and what’s next.

Thoughts on the Experience:

Well, in the end I think I found out I was a bit less flexible than I thought in my lifestyle and my ability to drop my own ideas when faced with something different. One never wants to find out you are less tolerant and open-minded than you thought, but I guess it’s a good learning experience to know where your boundaries are.

For anyone who wants a crash-course in learning a foreign language, I would definitely suggest going to the country and living with a family that doesn’t speak English. It’s amazing how much the mind can learn if it doesn’t have a choice if it wants to eat or know where it can get water!

I missed home more than I expected, but also made some great friends. All my tutors have been especially great to get to know. The badminton match (see prior post) was brutal on my muscles but lots of fun. Whether or not I actually want to return to this house, they have been more than kind and have repeatedly told me that this is my house too now and anytime I’m back in China I must come see them. I knew from prior experiences that people in China are hospitable to a fault, and now I’ve experienced it in its largest form. Don’t underestimate the persistence of the head of households in China!

What’s Next?:

Doug and I are off to Guilin, Yangshuo, Dali, and Lijiang next week. From everything I hear they are beautiful places, and I’m looking forward to seeing something new. I will likely bring the computer on the trip so will probably post from there. Doug and I wanted to go to Dali ten years ago when we were students in China but didn’t have enough time to get there by train and back. This time we’re flying, so should be a little bit shorter.

Tomorrow this time I'll be out with friends in Beijing, celebrating the fact that I've at least managed to stick it out and learn what I can in the time I allotted myself. Only time will tell if it's worth it, but at this moment I can truly say I accomplished something.