freezing that frame

I’ve been home now for almost a week and it’s been a rather hard adjustment. The jet lag being the worst part. I needed at least 3 days of almost constant sleep to get myself back to normal, and even now i still feel strange. Other than the physical part, it’s been hard getting back into my life. More so than it was when I came back from Europe last fall. Everyone and everything in China is constantly moving, so to slow down to the crawl that is my normal life in Connecticut will take some getting used to.

I’ve uploaded most of my pictures to flickr, you can see them at this link:

My Flickr Photos

Not sure what’s next, there are some vague plans to go to Mexico City in March. But before that Wolf Parade will be touring the states in November and I’m planning a short road trip to a few shows.

Thank you to everyone that came along on this journey with me. Off I go…

-m

Well folks, my trip to china is just about over. I am in Guangzhou right now, which is next to Hong Kong. I flew here this morning from Lijiang. But lets back it up.

I left Dali 3 days ago for Lijiang, taking a 3 hour bus that was the scariest bus i have ever taken. Lijiang is higher up than dali, and you need to go up and over some small mountains to get there. So the bus is going like 80 around these huge turns and also passing slow cars and trucks in the oncoming traffic lane. Sometimes he was passing cars as we were going around the turns, and he would tailgate the slow cars if he couldn’t pass. This means the bus was dangerously close to the edge of the road which had a straight drop down. Needless to say i tried my best to keep my eyes shut for the whole ride.

When we got to Lijiang i quickly got a taxi and had him take me to the area of the old town where my hostel was. Cars are not allowed in Lijiang old town, which is really huge and full of many little alley ways. Also Lijiang has water running through it so there are tons of canals with stone or wood bridges over them. Anyway, i got to the hostel and checked in and saw the horror that was my room. For this last week i was trying to live it up and i reserved only private rooms in the last two cities. In Dali my hostel was immaculate and completely lovely. Not so in Lijiang. My room was cold and damp and had mold all over the ceiling and the walls. The wall where my bed was appeared to be so wet that the plaster was actually wet and if you touched it your finger sunk into it. Apparently it had been that way for some time because the bed had been moved so much that it created huge holes in the wet plaster. On top of that, the toilet was of the squat variety. Now if i have to use a squat i will, but i don’t want to use one in my hostel. I haven’t had to at any hostel for the entire time i was in the country. So I slept there one night and checked out immediately the next morning. Oh did i mention they also only had hot water from 6pm-1am! I was not out of there fast enough!

At 9am i checked into the Zen Garden Hotel. What a difference. It was only a few feet away from the nasty hostel and cost way more, but it was worth it.Two nighs of luxury! I really loved it there, a big bed and a big bathroom (with hot water 24 hours a day!). They also brought my bag to me and brought it to he taxi for me when i left. So after checking in the room wasn’t ready so i just walked around the city. It was so great to see the city that early in the morning. The night before i went exploring and found a great little cafe to have dinner in, right next to one of the main canals. The next morning i went back to the same cafe for a long breakfast while i waited for my room. My room was on the 2nd floor and overlooked all of the old town, including the temple on the hill at the northern edge of the town. In the distance where the many mountains that are basically all around the town, including the huge Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

After some much needed rest (since i got no sleep in the wet, damp, and gross hostel) i went out into the town and explored the black dragon pool outside of the town. It is supposed to be an amazing site as you can see the Jade mountain in the distance and it reflects itself in the pool. But it was a cloudy day so I saw nothing, I met a couple from Richmond, Virginia at the hotel and we walked together to the black dragon pool park. Of course there was an entry fee. Everything in china has an entry fee. Sometimes you can get a student discount, but not always. The park was nice enough, i strolled around it even though it started to rain a bit. I split from the couple once we got back to the old town and made my way to a bistro that was in the guidebook. Oh on my way to Dali from Kunming i met a English teacher who was from Italy. He told me Lijiang was the best place for pizza outside of italy. This was a crazy idea i thought, but he was so right. I had the best pizza ever at the Well Bistro. It was also really quite there since it was after lunch time so i got to just relax and listen to the jazz they were playing.

That night i went to see the Naxi orchestral performance. The Naxi (pronounced Na-shi) are the local minority populaion and they had a huge orchestra before the cultural revolution, but it was forbidden to play the traditional music during mao’s reign. The leader of the current orchestra was jailed for 20 years just for being a musican. Anyway, the music was really lovely but they did a lot of explaining before each song. The orchestra was made up of mostly old men, some of which were in their late 80’s! The leader came out eventually and spoke great english, telling us that he had a stroke just a few months ago. He still played (the kora) quite well and introduced the orchestra and told some funny stories. I bought their cd afrer and he signed it for me, he was such a nice man and really funny.

The following day i arranged it with my hotel to have a driver take me to the jade dragon snow mountain and then later to the ‘impressions lijiang’ performance. I left at 8am and it took at least 2 hours just to get to the gondola that would take me up to the top. Now before i even got into the line for the gondola, i made sure to rent a parka and a can of oxygen. The gondola would take me to about 1000 meters below the summit, which was 15,000 feet above sea level! Once i got to the top it was all cloudy and i was sucking on the oxygen can just in case. I walked around and took pictures and video. There is a glacier at the very top of the mountain, but to get there you have to climb on the mountain since the wooden path there was being renovated. I started to climb but then i felt a little dizzy so i went back down. I went inside where the gondola was and sat for a moment, taking a bunch of oxygen in. I thought i was ok, so i got up to get the next gondola back down the mountain. As i made my way to the exit i felt so dizzy and just started crying and luckily the first aid area was very close so i just basically dragged myself inside and laid down on the couch where they gave me oxygen right away in my nose. I was crying just from the shock of it. After 15 minutes i was feeling better and made my way down on the gondola.

I was still feeling shitty so i asked the taxi driver if i could just sit in the car for a bit while we waited for the impression lijiang performance to open. I ended up falling asleep and he had to wake me up when they opened the ticket office. I had been looking forward to this performance specifically because it was directed by Zhang Yimou (one of my favorite film directors). He has put together many different outdoor performances all over china, but the one in lijiang is one of the original ones. You could actually see some of the same dances done in this performance in the opening ceremony of the olympics (which zhang also directed). The performance was amazing and i cant really describe it, but i will upload some videos when i get back. The performance was outdoors and it was raining a little bit throughout the 2 hours, so they provided everyone with rain coats and we sat on raised stones with cushions on them.

I headed back to the town after the performance and went to my hotel to relax. I met a lovely Israeli couple who where staying in the room next to me and we all sat on the balcony together overlooking the city and having tea. That night was my last night in town so i headed out to buy presents and have my last meal in town. I had hot pot soup right next to one of the canals. It was a nice way to end my 3 nights in Lijiang. I am so glad I chose to end my trip here, it is a really special city and I definitely saved the best for last…

____

So right now i am in milano. I meant to post the above yesterday when i was in Guangzhou at the airport, but my time ran out. It took 3 flights to get me here, the first from lijiang leaving at 8:30am arrived at gunagzhou at 12pm. Then i had a 6 hour layover in Guangzhou which was utterly painful. Thank god i found an internet place though! The next flight left Guangzhou at 8:30pm and arrived in Doha, Qatar at 12am. I quickly changed planes and got on my flight to Milano which arrived at 6:20am. I had great flights though and if you ever travel to anywhere in asia, check qatar airlines because i swear it is the best airline i have ever flown.

Tonight i am going out in Milano to meet Marcos friends and then tomorrow we are going to one of the local lakes. I want to also pass by the apartment complex that we lived in when i was a kid. We lived in Milano for a few years when i was like 5 and I haven’t been back to those apartments since. Anyway, my flight back to the states is on Monday afternoon., which is when it will all be officially over. I promise to post all my pictures and videos when i get back.

Love to everyone at home and thanks for reading…

-m

I am in Dali now and made it here after a 3 hour delay in my flight
from Kunming. When I got to Dali it really late and the taxi took a
long time to get to the hostel. Once I got there it was like a ghost
town. Everything was closed and I was super tired. So when I got to
the hostel it turned out they had sold my single room because i was so
late. So they offered me to stay the night for free in a 4 bed female
dorm room and then the next night i could stay 1/2 price in a single
room. It was a little shocking how kind the hostel people were. So i
got some rest and the next day got up early and decided to go total
diva style and hire a driver to take me to all the different parts of
the lake. Oh Dali is right next to one of the largest lakes in china
called Er’ Hi lake or ear lake, because it is supposedly shaped like
an ear. The town is also at the base of a huge mountain range that
stretches as far as the eye can see. It is just amazing. So I hired a
driver and picked all the cities around the lake that i wanted to see.
These two girls i met from australia (katy and haely) were also
looking to go to this market in shaping, so they gave me some money to
come with me in the car. Along with the driver came this amazing lady
who was to be my guide for the day. So, first we went to the shaping
market that happens only on Mondays and is so huge. The local minority
group, the bai people, were there selling their produce, meat, fish,
and so many other things. I bought a few things as well as some apples
and took some pictures with the local women. In the Bai culture women
are the head of the families, so there were literally like 2 men
selling things in the entire market.

After the market Katy and Haeley left and I went on with the driver
and guide to another town called Shaoulong. The road there was an
adventure, seeing the people working their plots of land, burning the
old corn stalks, and in the background was the lake and the mountain.
See the lake is huge, so these towns are like 30 min from each other.
It took 30 min to get to shaping from dali, and then another 30 to get
to shaoulong. At shoulong, the guide took me to the old part of the
town right on the lake and all around the area. She even took me to
this tiny little temple that was watched over by two of the oldest
women I had ever seen. Their faces so dark and tan from working in the
fields, and they were wearing the traditional clothes of the Naxi
people, another minority group in the area. They clothes are usually
only blue and white, while the bai people wear white with bright pink
shirts and these amazing head dresses that reflect 4 things: the wind,
the snow, the moon, and the flowers. In shoulong we stopped in the old
town area and i tried some fired potatoes with some sort of spicy
sauce that was made by a local woman, and the guide sat with me in the
old town right next to the lake looking out to the mountains.

I wanted to go on to another town on the east coast of the lake, south
of shaoulong, but the road was under construction and the guide called
the hostel to have them explain this to me in chinese. I was fine with
that so we went on to another town called xizhou. Before that though,
they took me to as Batik factory. You wont believe it, but Dali is
famous for tie dye. Apparently they have been tie dying clothes here
for many many years, and it is very popular. Batik is what they call
this process. So they took me to the factory which is literally like a
big house with huge pots filled with dye and the women tieing small
string around the fabrics to make the elaborate prints on shirts and
large tapestries. After the garments and tapestries are dry, the sew
in white thread around the designs. It is fantastic and of course I
was suckered in to buying a few things. I haggled and got a good price
I think.

After the batik factory i went to Xizhou and the guide took me around
the old city. Then they brought me to this very touristy house to take
part in a 3 tea ceremony. Basically they gave me a tour of the house,
taught me about the Bai people and their culture, and then there was a
performance with dancing and the 3 tea ceremony. The 3 teas have
something to do with purifying the body, and was the local way to
welcoming guests to your home. The dancing did not seem authentic at
all and was really just for show. I did end up having a private tea
service after where i was gently persuaded to buy some of the local
tea. Julia, if you are reading this, you would have been in heaven
with all this tea. We will have to have a tea tasting when i get back!

So after xizhou it was back to the hostel. Where i parted ways with my
lovely guide and gave her a big tip which she was so thankful for. I
met a bunch of cool people at the hostel, a couple from canada who are
really cool. I then went for a stroll on my own in the old town of
dali and the canadians saw me walking from the restaurant they were
eating at and came after me to invite me to join them. So I had a nice
meal and then went off on my own to see the old town all lit up at
night. I came back to the hostel after a few hours to just have a
snack and go to bed.

Today is my last day in Dali and I am sad to go. There is so much to
see here and I wish i had more time. I leave on a bus to Lijiang
around 3:30 today, so i am going to try to make it to the 3 pagodas in
town before I go.

I only have a few days left in this country and while i am loving my
trip, i am ready to come home.

love to everyone
-m

I uploaded more pictures – go to my flickr to see them:
my flickr page

I’ve been in Kunming for a few days now. I flew here from Shanghai 2
days ago. Kunming is in the Yunnan province, which is in the south
western part of China. The flight was more than interesting. I figured
the airport in shanghai would be a bit posh, and while that was truly
the case, it seems the people did not think so. I was sitting in the
waiting area, just relaxing before my flight, when a little girl just
decides it would be the perfect place and time to just squat and pee
right on the tile floor in front of me. Her mother does nothing to
clean up the mess after and just walks away like nothing happened. Now
you have to understand, kids pee in the street here a lot. In fact,
little kids don’t wear diapers because they have these special pants
with a slit through the crotch that allows them to just squat and pee
or poop whenever they want. I have seen so many kids peeing in the
street it is incredible. But in the airport, I was sure I wouldn’t see
that. I guess I was wrong. Then on the flight I was sitting next to
two very old people who decided a good snack to take on the plane
would be some crabs. So they proceeded to take out some boiled crabs
and just start cracking them and eating them right on their tray
tables, throwing the left over shells onto the floor of the plane. The
smell was unbearable, so I politely said no when they offered me one.
Crabs on a plane!

I arrived in Kunmig with no problems and got a taxi right to the
hostel. The hostel I am staying at here is truly a real hostel, with
co-ed shared shower rooms and 4-8 person rooms. I stayed in a 4 person
room with 3 other Chinese girls who were all very nice. My first night
i was so tired and i just stayed at the hostel and met some amazing
people, including a group of Italian boys who are studying economics
in shanghai and came to the Yunnan province for the holiday week. I
also met a Chinese boy named Sun who worked at a museum a few towns
over and came to Kunming to see their local museum. After long talks
and some much needed laughter i headed to bed.

The next day i made my way to the stone forest. The stone forest, or
Shilin, is about 75 km from Kunming, or about an hour and a 1/2. The
only problem came when the hostel people gave me the wrong directions
and I got totally and completely lost. I was so frustrated after 2
hours that i got a taxi to this big hotel that the guide book said
booked tours for people. When I got there the “travel agent”, who
spoke little English, was able to tell me which train station she
thought i needed to go to, but just not exactly where it was. She said
it was next to the train station. I get to the train station and i
look everywhere, finally finding it after asking another local hotel.
So 3 hours of searching for a train station, i finally get on a bus to
the stone forest.The forest was really amazing, with huge tall stones
creating this huge natural labyrinth which i climbed all through and
around. I climbed to the tallest part and the view of all the stones
was really breathtaking. Also in the forest were the local minority
population, the sani, who were dancing in their traditional clothing
and were also playing local instruments. After a few hours just
wandering around it started to rain a bit so i headed back to Kunming.
I got back and hang around the hostel for a bit, this time I met a guy
from Israel named Nir and watched a bootleg version of the dark night
with a bunch of people on the hostel’s tv.

Afterwards I went out into the city for a long walk to see some sights
at night. But I got lost again and all I found was Wal-Mart! Yes they
love wal mart here in china!! It was so huge, maybe 4 floors. I walked
past it to get to the noodle place and I just was shocked. At the
noodle place I tried these local noodles that are supposed to be
really good called ‘Acorss the Bridge Noodles’. There is an old fairy
tale that goes along with this name, but i can’t remember it. The dish
starts with hot soup and then you add meats, and vegetable right at
your table as well as the noodles. The last thing they add is an egg
right on top which cooks in the super hot soup. It was a little spicy
for me so I tried just a little. I guess this type of noodle is done
all throughout Yunnan, with different variations in other cities.

Today I leave for Dali. I am flying, which is a little silly since
Dali is only 6 hours or so away. But when I was doing my bookings I
saw the train was 8 hours so I decided to fly. I am interested in
seeing what Dali is like, and going to Ehri Lake which is supposed to
be really beautiful. Before I leave Kunming I am going to see some of
the city, like the green lake park and the two pagodas. I want to try
to get to the Muslim area of the city, but it is really cold here
today and I am not feeling 100%.

I want to wish my cousin Sal a very happy birthday. I wish I could be
there with all of you celebrating. Hi to all my family, I miss you
guys so much!

love ya
-m

We have been in shanghai for a few days now and it has been so crazy.
Yesterday was the 1st and it was the Chinese national day, and the
first day of a week long holiday (or golden week). So the city is
literally swarmed with Chinese people from all over the country. So of
course yesterday was our only day to really do any sight seeing, so of
course we go to the places where there are probably like 10 million
people. We went to the old town area and literally could not walk full
steps because we were completely surrounded by people. The old town
was pretty but it looked fake, and i read they rebuilt it recently.
Then we tried to go towards the yuyaun bizarre and garden and in the
middle of the huge crowd we see starbucks, like an oasis in the
distance. We stayed there for an hour or so to regain our strength,
and while there we met this lovely Canadian couple named Scott and
Shelia who are teaching English in soul, Korea. We became fast
friends and spent the day with them walking the gardens and trying to
walk next to the bund river across from Pudong. This was again and
extremely difficult experience just trying to walk what takes 10 min,
took more like an hour. Finally we made our way back to the metro,
which I have to say puts every subway/tube/metro that I have ever used
to shame. It is very efficient and there are tons of lines and the
trains come every 2 min. Only problem is that the trains stop running
after like 10:30pm. Anyway, once we got back to the metro Marco left
us cause he felt like crap and wanted to rest, but I went on with the
Canadians to Pudong and the financial district.

The Canadians had been there before so they showed me around and took
me up one of the tallest buildings in the world called the jinmao
tower. The hyatt hotel is in this building and so we went up to their
lobby, which happens to be on 85th floor and has the most amazing
views of the city and the river bund. So once we got to the lobby we
decided to check out the 87th floor which has a bar called Cloud 9 and
even more spectacular views of the city. We had some drinks then
decided to splurge and have dinner in the ritzy restaurant in the
hotel. We were there for like 2 hours and just had such a relaxing
time. The only problem was that I had promised Marco I would be back
at the hostel at 8pm as we had met some really incredibly kind Italian
girls at the hostel the day before and had made plans to meet up for
dinner with them. So I get back at around 10 from my lavish dinner,
only to find Marco loosing his mind with worry. I have no cell phone
here so there was no way for him to contact me and he was so afraid
that I was lost or was kidnapped or something terrible. I had totally
forgotten these plans after the first drink at the cloud 9 bar.
Thankfully he forgave me and he went out and i went to bed.

Today was Marco’s last day here so we tried to do as much shopping as
possible. We went to this market where they sell everything fake,
kinda like in chinatown. They had everything you could think of
there. When we tried to check out bags, they had these back rooms that
they would open up like a secret door and show you the really good new
stuff. One time they trapped Marco and I inside while they went to
see if they had other bags. I was looking for fake fendi’s for my mom
and all they had was the newest ones (sorry mom). But once one store
knew that was what I was looking for fendi, every store after was
calling out to me ‘fendi you buy’. I did end up buying some things,
but only after haggling down to less than half of the price they were
asking. This was so stressful and I was ready to get out and go to
the next place which was the french concession area. I don’t know the
full story, but there was a big french presence here. Therefore there
is a little french section, one of which is totally fake and basically
a mini outdoor mall like the ones we have in the states. We met up
with our Italian friends for a late lunch there which was lovely and
then it was time for us to head back to the hostel so Marco could get
ready for his flight.

So Marco left an hour or so ago for his flight back to milan, and I
leave tomorrow morning for Kunming. It will be interesting to be alone
after 2 weeks with someone. I just hope I will get along ok. I fly
tomorrow afternoon around 2pm so i am leaving pretty early from the
hostel to be safe. I am excited to be leaving this huge commercial
city and ready to see another part of the gigantic country. I totally
promise to upload pictures tomorrow when i get to kunming.

love to everyone…
-m
ps- i miss marco already!

We got in to Suzhou a few days ago, after a long overnight train ride
from xi’an. We were totally spent after not really sleeping much on
the train. We shared a 4 berth cabin with 3 other people. A woman and
her 5 year old daughter who called herself ‘mau mau’ and an old lady.
The little girl was so cute and wearing a ballerina dress over her
clothes the whole time. We played with her and taught her new words in
english. Marco and I had to sleep in the top bunks which was
definitely interesting. Once we got to Suzhou it was an easy cab ride
to the hostel. The best part was that the sun was out and it was a
really pretty day. But we were so tired we checked in and went to
sleep for a few hours. One thing to say about our room here, there is
no door to the bathroom. We have been staying in private rooms, and
usually they all have doors to the private bathroom in our room.
However this hostel just does not seem to believe in privacy.

After a long sleep we went to purchase our train tickets to shanghai
as the national holiday week starts soon and we didn’t want to get
stuck without train tickets.Then it was off to try and find one of the
gardens. Suzhou is famous for a few things. It’s canals and waterways,
and its gardens. There are canals everywhere, and one is even right
outside our hostel. The gardens are spread out all over the city, each
having something different. We set out for the Master of the Nets
garden, but when we got there it was closed. So we went back to the
hostel and just hung out for a while. Then we decided to go out again,
this time to a street recommended by the hostel staff which was
supposed to have pretty red lanterns hanging all over. We took the bus
very easily and got there with no problem. There are so many buses in
these cities it is unreal. But Suzhou definitely has more bikes and
electric mopeds than any other city we have been to. They outnumber
the cars for sure. Also Suzhou is really commercial. We are staying
next to a shopping street that is basically like las vegas, with lotts
of neon lights and shops and restaurants.

So after walking along the lantern lit street, we made our way back to
the hostel. On the way we met some american students who were studying
chinese at suzhou university. They were very nice and were only the
3rd and 4th americans we have met on this trip. All the other
foreigners we have met have been from canada and the uk or some other
european country. This morning we woke up super early to get to the
gardens. We started with the administrator’s garden which is
supposedly the largest in the city if not all of china. It was nice
but super crowded. There was really no place to just get lost or
really feel relaxed. It was just full of tour groups. Afterwards we
shopped for presents for friends and family, getting some really great
deals. Then on to the lions gate garden. Marco decided not to come
with me, so i went on my own. This was my favorite garden of the day.
It was full of these rock structures that you could climb on and walk
through like a labyrinth. Then there was a huge waterfall that
cascaded down into a large pond/lake below. It was really pretty and I
took a ton of pictures and a video.

After the garden we walked to the river and i saw there was another
garden (the east garden) i wanted to see that supposedly also had a
zoo inside. So I went and Marco opted to go to the shopping street.
Once inside i walked all around the lake, which had all these paddle
boats on it. They were shaped like cars which was really cute seeing
all these kids driving the boats/cars around the lake. Then there was
this part of the lake where people were catching fresh water crabs. It
was amazing how many they were catching. I went to the supposed zoo,
which was really just a few animals and nothing amazing. I guess
that’s what you get for 20 yuan (aka $3). I walked back on my own to
the hostel and met up with marco. We went out to dinner later on the
large shopping street and just walked around looking at all the lights
and stopping for bubble tea. It appears that Suzhou is the capital of
bubble tea. There are maybe 50 bubble tea places in just the one
shopping area alone. It is amazing.There is even one right next to our
hostel on the canal street.

So tomorrow we leave for Shanghai around 2pm. I will be sad to leave
Suzhou. I really love it here despite the large amount of people on
bikes who will run you over without even thinking about it. But I am
ready to see the city of Shanghai.

Hi to tina and crew, and my friends. Mom, you need to email me back!

love ya

We got to Xi’an a few days ago after a very interesting journey from
Pingyao. From Pingyao we were taken by a small golf cart to the edge
of town where the expressway was and where we waited for the bus to
pick us up to take us to Xi’an. The bus to xi’an was long and we
stopped several times at rest stops. On the bus with us was this guy
from the UK who had been traveling for 4 months and his accent was so
thick i could hardly understand him.

When we got to Xi’an we were met by a man from our hostel there and he
took us right to the hostel. The hostel was right next to these two
towers in the city called the bell and drum tower. The bell tower was
used to wake the city and the drum tower was rung when the day was
over. That night we just checked into our hostel and went out to find
some food. Xi’an is a very metropolitan city. Even though we were
within the city walls, there are a ton of shops and western food spots
like kfc and mcdonalds.

After dinner we spent some time in the travelers cafe in the hostel
where we met a couple from the uk who just got married and were taking
a 8 month trip around the world. There next train trip would be a
total of 29 hours!

So yesterday we saw most of the sites here. We started our day with a
visit to the terracotta warriors. It took about an hour on the bus to
get there plus a long walk through a park.The warriors are in 3
separate sunken pits, with pit #1 being the one with the most in tact
warriors. I took a lot of pictures so i promise to post them when i
get to the next city. After the warriors we went to the bell tower in
the center of Xi’an where we watched a traditional music performance
as well as woman performing a fan dance. Then we walked over to the
drum tower were we saw a traditional drum performance. Afterwards we
went to the most famous dumpling place in Xi’an called Dafachang’s.
But we made a mistake and went to the smaller restaurant where they
only served boiled dumplings. It was after we ordered that we figured
out that the big main restaurant was upstairs. Apparently the main
restaurant has over 60 different types of dumplings to choose from and
you basically have a 5 course meal of just dumplings. We may try to go
there today, but we are short on time.

After dumplings we made out way to the south gate of the city wall. At
this point it started to get super windy out and it was drizzling. The
city wall is so wide, much wider than the one in pingyao. I wish that
we had walked a bit on the wall, but the weather was crap and we
wanted to get to the next thing. So we walked to the small goose
pagoda, and by the time we got there it had closed. Then we decided to
just take a taxi to the big wild goose pagoda which was all the way on
the other side of the city.

The big wild goose pagoda is amazing. It is something like 9 stories
tall but the best part is it’s surrounded by a beautiful park. We
walked around the park and just waited because we knew at 9pm would be
this amazing fountain show. While walking around the park we bumped
into the guy who we took the bus with from pingyao and we watched the
fountain show together. It was a really incredible show with colored
lights and just so many fountains. I took a video that I will upload
when i get back.

After the show we went back to the hostel to find dinner. Our hostel
is actually right next to the muslim quater of the city. Apparently
xi’an has the largest chinese Muslim population in the country. The
muslim quarter is full of people selling food on the street, mostly
lamb or other meats. It is still Ramadan, so many Muslims were out in
the street eating since they fast during the day. We wanted to eat on
the street, but we were really scared since some of the meat that was
being cooked had been sitting out in the open air for what looked like
a long time. Instead we headed for the only thing open at that time of
night, mcdonalds. I know, what a shame. But we had been out in the
city for over 12 hours and were ready to just eat and go to bed.

So we headed back to the hostel and i had best sleep of the trip. So
today we leave for Suzhou on a train at 5pm that arrives there
tomorrow at 12pm. We are going to style, taking a soft sleeper car
which is basically like first class train riding. We hope. I am really
just hoping for good weather in suzhou since it is full of beautiful
gardens.

I am feeling a lot better today, my stomach is back to normal which is
good. The milk thing is not a big problem as the world thinks. I have
had milk with my coffee here in xi’an and the staff have assured me
that it is not from the company which has been making babies sick. As
for the people of xi’an, they are fast moving and very much city folk.

ok well love to everyone at home….see you in suzhou!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/inourhands/sets/72157607467778589/

We arrived in Pingyao last night after a really long and semi
frustrating day. We left Beijing around 11am and we were able to find
the long distance bus station to go to Taiyuan which is the biggest
city close to Pingyao. The bus ride to Taiyuan was 6 hours and I slept
most of the way. Once in Taiyuan we had to figure out how to get on a
bus headed for Pingyao. So we spent maybe 30 minutes trying to ask the
ticket office at the long distance bus station in taiyuan how to get
to pingyao, only to find out (through an English speaking friend which
a worker at the bus station called to speak to me) that we needed to
go to a whole other bus station. Luckily there was an offical taxi
there who did not rip us off, and we got to the other bus station and
were able to get tickets pretty easily. Once we got on the bus to
pingyao, we then had to wait until the driver had circled pretty much
the whole city for more passengers before we were on our way. We got
to Pingyao around 9pm and it was really dark. Luckily I had printed
out a map of the city and with my directional skill got us all the way
to the hostel without getting lost! We had to turn down a few dark
streets, some without street lights, but we made it.

Pingyao is a very old city. It is an official UNESCO World Heritage
Site. We got up pretty early after not getting much sleep since the
“bed” was really a slab of rock with a small pad on it. We had our
first ‘western’ breakfast at the hostel with eggs and toast and I had
a cappuccino which was actually very good. We then spoke with Bob, one
of the owners of the hostel, and we decided to let him arrange our bus
trip to Xi’an. He took care of booking our tickets for a small fee of
40y (about $6). He also arranged how we would get to the bus station,
as well as calling our next hostel to arrange with them when they
would pick us up at the bus station in Xi’an. So amazing.

The weather today in Pingyao was overcast and cool, maybe 60 degrees
out. The city of Pingyao is surrounded by an outer wall which has
entrances at the north,south,east, and west. So we started our day by
walking to the western gate and by purchasing some tickets to see all
of the sites in the town. There is a flat fee you could pay, but if
you’re a student you can get half off. So I showed them my old uconn
id and sure enough i got us both discounted tickets! So we were able
to climb to the top of the western gate and see all of the city. Then
we walked for what felt like forever to the southern gate. We walked
through the alleyways and used our tickets to see all the old homes
and temples throughout the city. We walked most of the city and
stopped for lunch at a random place where Marco tried a local dish
called lou lou which he said tasted like nothing. I had some soup and
some potato buns which i added to the soup and tasted pretty good. The
city of pingyao is famous for their beef, so we may try that tonight.

The city was full of tourists today, mostly Chinese people from other
parts of the city. We got a lot of stares again, as well as a few
people asking for their picture with us. The only thing I can’t get
used to is the pointing and laughing. I am trying my best to just
ignore it but after a while it gets to you. So I have started to stare
back, and this seems to work sometimes. Other than that, I am finding
that most people are kind and helpful.

So tomorrow afternoon we leave for Xi’an. Hopefully it will all go as
planned. I will try to post a few pictures tonight.