The Ancient and Dusty city of Pingyao

The city tower at night

Pingyao is a small city in Shanxi province that has made an effort to keep its old charm. The old city wall is still standing and inside the city all of the o.d buildings still remain. Stepping inside the city wall almost feels like going back in time, it's a very cool feeling.

The Emporer and Empress of Pingyao!

We stayed at a really neat hotel. It was an old courtyard that had been restored and made into the cutest hotel that had all the charms of old China, complete with a traditional style Chinese bed! It was such a charming little place and located inside the city walls which made it perfect for exploring the ancient city. Pingyao has made it very convenient by allowing tourists to purchase one ticket that gains you entry into many different ancient buildings in the old town including the city wall, various temples, old draft banks, and the old city administration building. We grabbed a map and marked off all the spots we wanted to see based on what we had read about and what looked cool on the map.

The one major downside to Pingyao was that there wasn't many options when it came to food. Virtually every restaurant looked the same and they were all extortionately priced for tea, three dishes, and rice (tea and rice at most restaurants come free with the meal) it was 200 quai! ( to give you an idea I would pay maybe 60 quai at most for the same thing back in Changsha). The price of the food made it really frustrating as there werent many choices. We did happen to find a really cool cafe that served both western and Chinese food at a half decent price but it seemed that every time we wanted to eat it was closed!

Another thing that was irritating about Pingyao was the air quality. As a Chinese citizen of 6 months I really shouldn't complain as I have gotten used to not having the air quality we have back home but here was bad. They used coal to heat everything and there were piles of coal on the streets. There was no filter so the thick black smoke created from the burning coal made our throats very very sore.

Enough of the negatives, as we really did enjoy our time in Pingyao, contrary to the former statements. There were tons of really cool old buildings rich in Chinese history. If you are a history lover then Pingyao would be one big playground for you! Here are some of the cooler attractions of Pingyao:

City Tower
The city tower costs a whopping 5 quai to go up and is the tallest building in the ancient city. It was really cool to see the view of the surrounding area, especially with the red lanterns strong along the streets

Temple of the city god

Temple of the City God
This temple dedicated to the gods of the city was so immaculate and one of my favorite temples I have visited to date in China. It was extremely well kept and there were so many halls depicting different elements of the Taoist religion. The one of the most interest was the hall that depicted Taoist hell. It was extremely harsh and as we looked we both noted how every religion seems to have a similar depiction of hell..interesting realization I suppose. Anyway, this temple was super cool and we enjoyed spending some time wondering orotund and admiring the works displayed inside.

Confucius Temple
I was pretty excited to go to the Confucius temple in Pingyao but I was unfortunately disappointed. It was off season in Pingyao and it looked as if the staff didn't care to take the time to dust off the large statues making them look a lot less attractive. It was a very large temple but it didn't have much grandeur to it.

Ri Sheng Chang Exchange Shop
This was One of the first banks in China and was really cool to wonder around and learn about how banks in China came to be. Basically silver was too heavy and too dangerous to lug around so a very smart man who obviously became very successful and wealthy decided to start a system where people could exchange their silver for notes. It was pretty cool to see the old asking system however much of the explanations weren't in English so it was a little hard to get a lot of information from it

Ancient Government Office
This place was super cool! This ancient government office had been around for a long time and was in use up until mid 20th century which made it even cooler! I think the coolest part though had to be the ancient prison! It was so cool to see the cells that old prisoners were kept in and to see the weapons of torture. Some of them were so cruel they made us cringe. Wandering around definitely gave us a better appreciation of the role of the government in ancient Chinese society and there were some pretty neat things inside on display.

I think for the most part, we had a great time in Pingyao but we felt we overstayed our welcome a little bit. Three and a half days was really too much time in Pingyao so we were extremely glad when it was time to board the train for Beijing... We were so ready to say goodbye to Pingyao and so sick of seeing the same restaurant over and over again.

The city wall

Sunrise At Hua Shan

Best sunrise ever!

Hua Shan was probably the coldest and most tired 24 hours of my life but also the most beautiful. We arrived in the town of Hua Shan shortly after 3 and made our way to the base of the mountain with the idea to cheat a little bit and take the cable car half way up the mountain so that we could at least get a few hours of shut eye before getting up early to make the rest of the hike up to watch the sunrise from the East peak of the mountain. We got on the cable car which took us to the North Peak where we decided to crash at for the night at a very basic and chilly hotel room (yes this is China, there are hotels on top of the mountain). We watched the sun set from the North peak then went to bed to get a few horrible hours of sleep. We were told the sun would rise around 5:30 so we set an alarm for 3 so that we could we ensure we made it up to the east peak for the sunrise (it's a long, steap hike up). We were up and heading out by 3:15 and made the chilly walk up. We were the only ones on the path for quite some time until we met a group of younger Chinese men who were climbing up for the same reason as us. We continued on up with them and made it to the top as it was still dark. At the top of the East peak, it was extremely chilly and there was a mercilessly strong wind blowing. We took shelter behind a large rock and huddled together for warmth but after a half hour of that and the wind cutting through to our bones, we decided to try and find somewhere a bit more sheltered from the wind as there was still no sign of the sun rising.

We walked a little bit down to the East Peak hotel, which shall I note if I were to do it again in the middle of winter I would of chose to stay overnight there so that we could have sat in a warmish hotel room waiting rather than outside in the freezing cold wind. We took shelter in a corner outside the hotel which honestly was still freezing. I have honestly never been so cold in my life and sat there shaking hoping to God the sun would make its appearance soon. It didn't and we sat and sat and waited. Nathan went to use the port-a-potty and came back announcing that since it was insulated it was actually quite warm in there. Out of desperation of warmth we decided that we would stand in the toilet and wait and hope to keep warm. Yes, you read right, the two of us stood in a port-a-potty for 45 minutes to stay warm. We stood there laughing at how ridiculous our situation was and I kept tapping my toes hoping they would unthaw. Once again, I feel the need to reiterate that I have never been so freaking cold in my life..I was starting to debate whether this whole endeavor was in fact worth it. Trust me when I say after what felt like an eternity, we exited the toilet and were pleased to see that the sky was finally starting to turn blue. We headed up to the top of the East peak to brave the wind and watch the sunrise.

There was not a single cloud in the sky and we had a front row seat to watch as the sun broke the horizon line to light up the world for the day. Sitting there watching I couldn't help but think that this beautiful scene is a daily event and how unfortunate it is we don't get the chance to marvel over it as often as we do.

We sat there, slowly but surely unthaw ing with every inch closer the sun got to rising over the top of the mountain peak and when it finally did, every single person up there shouted out in joy! The day was finally here and the beautiful sun was going to warm us all up! As the blanket of darkness was gone, we we able to get a proper glimpse at the scenery was around us and man was it breathtaking. We began to understood why Hua Shan was one of the five holiest Taoist peaks in China.... It was absolutely beautiful! Once the sun was fully in the sky, we set out to explore the various peaks, each just as stunning as the last then headed back down to have a much needed hour nap before making our way down the mountain. We headed down by foot this time to make up for not hiking the way up and man was it killer on the legs... By the time we made it to the bottom we had climbed up 1000m and down 1800m. Needless to say we we tired..but the day wasn't over yet!

Our "overnight" train ( a very light phrase) to Pingyao wasn't leaving until 11:30pm and since Hua Shan is a shady little town with nothing to do, we had to sit and wait in the train station with absolutely nothing around it but decreed dodgy shops for a very very long time. Of any train station to have to spend time in, this was the last one I would have chosen but there we were exhausted from the previous 24 hours and not being able to sleep. I at least had my book to keep me occupied but poor Nathan had nothing but a dead phone. He entertained himself by telling me the precise number of ceiling tiles on the roof. He was pretty fortunate that we were in a country like China which happens to be the most entertaining place to people watch and by the time we boarded the train he had observed quite a few comical stories to tell me.

We boarded our train at 11:30 and arrived in Pingyao at 6 am sharp. We thankfully were able to check into our hotel room and crashed hard.

Hua Shan kicked our butts and we were hobbling around with sore muscles for the next few days but it was totally worth the pain, sleep deprivation, and near hypothermic conditions. The photos I have are beautiful but they still honestly don't do the mountain justice. It was absolutely magnificent up there and we had an amazing time! It's going to be extremely hard to top that sunrise!

Xi'an

A tower atop the Xi'an city wall

The next stop on our China tour was Xi'an. I had alreaAdd captiondy been to Xi'an in October but Nathan obviously hadn't and you can't come to china and not see the world famous Terracotta Warriors. We decided we'd spend a few days in Xi'an, and I did to mind seeing as I loved the city the first time I visited. We saw some of the same things that I did on my last trip to the city but we also saw some new things as well. I didn't join Nathan to visit the warriors again as I was feeling very ill from a cold that had gotten the best of me. I'm kind of glad that of all times to not be feeling well on the trip, it happened when we were somewhere I had already been. I won't bore you with what ice already written about xian but I will tell you about the new things we saw and did.

Tomb of Emporer Jing Di
We flew from Guilin to xian and arrived into xian around lunch time. There is a tomb of a different emperor than the Terracotta Army that is out near near the airport and is hard to reach from the city so we decided we would go there on the way to the city. We had heard tons of positive reviews online about this tomb, some even stating that it was better than the warriors so we were pretty excited to see for ourselves. We had a hired driver drop us off and then wait for us to take us back to the city afterwards. He gave a little bit of background on the tomb which was nice as there wasn't much to be found inside the tomb.

As we headed underground and into the tomb, we were very underwhelmed by what we saw. Once again I think this goes back to the fact that we didn't have much background info to help us understand and appreciate the context. The tomb was filled with thousands of small figurines that looked almost like dolls. They were all missing arms because they were made of wood and therefore had rotten away over time. There was also the remains of old wooden chariots and thousands of figurines of animals. It was pretty cool to see but also very hard to see because the lighting was so dim. I think they were hi got preserve the artifacts but it must made it hard to make out what was in the pits

After lexploring the excavated pits of the tomb we wondered through the museum. Th ,used, would have been very helpful to enlighten us on the tomb and life of the empower but unfortunately there wasn't much information in English so we were left to use our imagination.

All in all we were left feeling a bit disappointed by what we had saw. The hype of it was so great and I felt it wasn't all that it was talked up to be. I'd say it is Xian's most underrated attraction for a reason but that's just my opinion.

The great mosque
Because Xian is at the very end of the silk route, there is a large muslim population living there. Last time I was in xian I had the chance to explore the muslim quarter but I didn't get to see the great mosque. I made it a priority this time around and was not disappointed. It was so old and so beautiful and interesting as it was built in a Chinese Fleming it was cool to see how the Chinese had adapted Muslim religion to suit their history. What made it even cooler though was that there were many practicing Muslims in the mosque.


Biking the walls
I had already biked the walls, but I had loved it so much the first time, i wasn't going to let Nathan not experience it! This time, for a change of scenery I suggested we go in late afternoon so that we could enjoy the sunset from the city wall. We got up and biked around and it was just as mesmerizing as the first time. The feeling of being up on that wall is amazing. You watch the city move beneath you but on the wall, it feels very peaceful serene. We made it all the way around and returned the bikes in time to go and sit down and catch the sunset. We sat watched the sun go down and the city light up as dusk fell. The wall was lit up by beautiful red lanterns strung all the way around and the many buildings atop the wall were lit up as well. It was so beautiful.

Our time in xian was very relaxing and we were sad to say goodbye again but also so excited for our next stop, Hua Shan!

The only unbroken warrior at the Terracotta Army

Horse and Charriot at one of the burial pits of Terracotta Warriors

Yangshuo: The Adventurous Tale of the Electric Scooter

This was before our battery died!

Days like this one are proof that everything happens for a reason.

Electric scooters are all the rage on China. They are a cheap and relatively environmentally friendly option over buying a car and for this reason, many Chinese people use them on a daily basis. As you can imagine the roads in China are bonkers. The rules of the road are opposite of what they are back home and some,times crossing the street can be a death wish, let alone riding a scooter around.

Because you only live once and Yangshuo's roads aren't as contested as in the city, Nathan and I decided to rent an electric scooter to take out a beautiful dragon bridge outside the town. We went to the scooter place and told the lady where we would like to go ( a very old bridge named the dragon bridge) and she assured me that see we would be able to make it there and back no problem so we hopped on the bike and headed out of town.

It was so exhilarating! I felt so free driving along a country road amongst beautiful karats with my hair blowing out the wind...sounds cheesy I know but it really was THAT sweet. Everything was fine we were loving whipping around at a decent speed and only had a few scares when there was a big truck speeding full force towards us. We were not even half way to the bridge when we started to notice that we were running out of juice on the bike and were not going to make it to the bridge. We stopped in at a village and luckily found a charging cable in the bike. We asked a local if we could use her electricity to charge up our bike and she hesitantly agreed, asking for a 10 quai fee. We sat and waited for half an hour and were sick of waiting, thinking the bike would be charged up enough to get to the bridge where we could charge it again while we hung out for a while. We hopped back on the bike and off we went.

But the charge didn't last for long and about 10 minutes later we were back in the red. Luckily we were very close to another small village so we coasted into town and looked for a place to try to ask to use someone's power. We noticed a small shop just of the main road and turned in to ask the owner for some electricity. I asked the shop keeper in the most broken Chinese but he understood what we needed and didn't hesitate to get us an extension cord and even offered for us to sit down with him in his shop and watch some tv. We sat and waited for a while and I got bored so I grabbed my camera and headed outside to take some photos.

I noticed a group of children playing and decided to approach them, As I walked up to the kids, they seemed extremely afraid. Probably because I was a foreigner and I am sure even though the kids had seen foreigners whiz past their village, I don't think they have been so close to one. I smiled and greeted them in Chinese asking their names and they looked totally shocked. They turned to each other and said, "the foreigner can speak Chinese" they started to be a little less shy and sure enough a crowd of young and old drew around to hear the foreigner speak Chinese. I had my camera in hand and started to take pictures of the kids. Some of the children were terrified of the camera and others warmed up to the idea. The way their faces lit up when I showed them the pictures I could tell that they had never seen a photo of themselves before. A few young boys were loving the pictures and kept urging me to take more as they made different faces and poses it was adorable.

Some of the village kids

I continued to play with the kids, running around chasing them or just chatting its them. It's crazy that even though a language barrier exists, I was still able to create a friendship with these young kids. They seemed so shocked and excited that a foreigner actually wanted to hang out with them. It was a special feeling to see the way the kids smiled when I asked them questions. I played and chatted with the kids and more came, curious to see the foreigner. They asked me to teach them English words or read thenEnglish writing on their clothing and were so excited when I gave them praise for saying a word right. None of them had English names so I decided to give them some names. This was so special for them and their eyes lit up with each name that I gave

Villagers of all ages came out to see the laowai speak Chinese!

Some time passed and I went to go check in on Nathan to see how he was doing. I sat down again and some of the kids came inside. The shop keeper was beaming from ear to ear watching and when I asked him if any of the children were his he proudly pointed to one of the boys, who I had named Tom. I had so much fun hanging out with the kids it was a really special afternoon. Even though our bike had died for the second time and there was no way in heck we would make it to the Dragon Bridge, I think the afternoon we had was ten times more special.

After a little while longer we decided that our bike was probably charged enough to make it back to Yangshuo so that we could return it. We thanked the shop keeper for is hospitality and pushed the bike out to the road to head on our way. I honestly felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz the way the kids gathered around us saying their goodbyes. We slowly made our way back to Yangshuo (we didn't wanted to waste precious electricity and have to stop again) and both Nathan and I were beaming from ear to ear and couldn't stop discussing the events of the day.

There were so many ways that that day could have played out and we should have been bummed out that we never did make it out to see the dragon bridge but to be honest I am glad we didn't make it. The experience that we shared with those kids was ten thousand times more beautiful than an bridge in the world. What we gave them that day was special. They are so used to foreigners buzzing through their small village and treating them as scenery and we got the chance to treat them like people and it was so obvious that they appreciated it a lot. It was such an amazing day and a true lesson that things always work out the way that they were intended to.

Yangshuo: Trek from Xingping to Yangdi

Beautiful scenery along the way!

Our next day in Yangshuo, Nathan and I decided to walk from Xining we were staying along the river banks 16 km up to another village called Yangdi. We were told it was a really awesome trail that passed through many small villages and was a good way to see the life around the river. We were definitely not disappointed..not only was the scenery absolutely stunning, the people we met along the way were very interesting.

The trail starts just outside of Xingping and goes along the riverside. The first stop along the way was at the scenic spot that inspired the image on the 20 yuan note.we stopped to take some photos and kept walking until we reached a pier where we had to take our first of three boat rides across the river. This one was easy as there was a ferry and a set price so we hopped on and made it across with no troubles.

The inspiration for the 20Y!

We kept walking along the river and walked through a few small villages. This area of China is considered an autonomous region, meaning that there are more minority people than Han Chinese. Because they are minority people, they are very poor. Seeing how these people lived was extremely eye opening. The houses were very basic and many of them we only half finished (we assumed the money ran out and they couldn't afford to keep building). The people farm the land around them in order to support themselves. All three generations of the family work in the field in order to get the job done. We met a few young girls who I spoke with and they were helping their parents pick fruit instead of going to school at age 8. Seeing the elderly people and the young both hard at work was quite the sight. The people appeared much older than they were, a testament to how hard of a life they had. It was honestly one of the most beautiful treks I have done. It was one thing to see the magnificent scenery from a boat on the river cruise but a completely different view point on foot retracing our trail. We not only got to see the scenery but also the life that the river sustains.

After passing through another village, we were met on the trail by an older, rough looking woman wearing a purple hat. She instantly tried to sell us things and we insisted numerous times that we didn't want anything she had to offer us, but she continued to follow us down the path. It got annoying so we decided to stop and take a rest and see what she did. We sat on the river bank and she stopped with us and sat a few paces behind us, one again trying to sell us goods. At this point we were pretty frustrated but there was only so much we could do so we continued along the trail, the crazy purple hat woman not far behind. We walked through some villages and she kept following. I told her that we didn't want her goods and that we didn't need her bamboo raft across the river but she didn't seem to listen. Now we were really annoyed and still couldn't get rid of this woman! She followed us all the way to the river side where we needed to catch a second ferry across the river. There was another woman there and I asked her where the ferry was she told me there was no ferry today. The purple hat lady was screaming at us to get on one of her friends bamboo rafts and at this point I had no patience left. I turned to her and said anything offensive I could in Chinese. I told her we didn't want the boat and that she was crazy and that I thought she should get on the boat and go away. She didn't like that very much but a few village kids that were around thought it was hilarious and started to laugh. The crazy purple hat lady started spouting off god knows what at us and thank god there was other people around because Nathan and I both swear she was crazy enough to have tried to kill us or something insane like that....this woman was batshit!

We decided to take the other woman's bamboo boat across the river and waved goodbye to the insane purple hat woman. We continued our walk along the banks of the other side of the river and it wasn't long until we had to cross the river again. This time was pretty funny as well. We knew there was supposed to be a ferry but a local farmer had followed us to the river banks offering to give us a ride for a price double what the ferry was. I told him that we would take the ferry and he said no there is no ferry today and we, believing him bargained his price down and hopped on his boat. As we were pushing off we noticed that there in fact was a ferry as it was just leaving the other side of the river. We groaned out loud and the man chuckled to himself knowing that we had noticed his white lie.

We made it to the other side and to the final village of our long walk, Yangdi! We breathed a sigh of relief knowing that we had made it and hopped on a bus to take us back to Xingping. It was a very eyeopening and comical day or I guess you could say, just another day in China.

The crazy lady in the purple toque!

Yangshuo: Moon Hill and the Water Caves

We nursed our horrible baijiu headaches off with some milk tea and American style breakfasts and rented some bikes to head out of Yangshuo to see the famous moon hill-a mountain with a huge moon shaped hole in the middle. It was a beautiful bike ride out as the country side around Yangshuo is absolutely stunning! There were many locals and tourists biking along the road as well as locals selling freshly picked strawberries on the side of the road.

After about 45 minutes of biking we had reached the moon hill cave and decided to hike to the top to check out the view. We reached the top in a record breaking 25 minutes and enjoyed the view of the surrounding jests and country side through the half moon shaped hole at the top. It was pretty cool and of course like everything in the Yangshuo area stunningly beautiful

After we came down the hill we grabbed some lunch at a little restaurant and decided it was time to head for the moon caves... Only one problem, we had no idea where they were. As I have already stated in the pasta, maps in China are absolute rubbish so we couldn't quite figure put where to go. It didn't help that there were two caves called the water caves in the area and we and already boughten tickets for one of them. After about an hour of cycling in circles and asking a few locals we made it to the water caves just as it was starting to rain.

The caves were pretty comical. Back home, if there was caves and you had a guided tour through them you would dawn a hard hat and a flashlight and get schooled in the different rock formations and all the science behind it. Well not in China! They had lots of colorful lights all over the caves to give it a very fairy tale like feel. The best part though was that our tour guide kept pointing out different animals that one could see in the rock formations. There was a turtle drinking water, an elephant, some more turtles, and a smiling Buddha. Everywhere we turned there was a new rock that looked like something different. I felt really bad when she would ask us to guess what we thought it was because we totally sucked at it. I think there was one rock formation in particular though that was quite hilarious. As we approached it, our guide said, "next we will see mother love and father love rocks. Look up and you will see mother love. It looks like many breasts on the roof of the cave. Over here you will see father love, and as you can see, it looks like well you know!" She was flustered and refused to say the word penis. Nathan and I thought it was so funny how embarrassed she was by the word. I don't know if the fact that they decided the rocks looked like penises or that she couldn't say the English word was funnier.

After we were finished with the Las Vegas of caves, it was time for the fun part and the reason we even came to the caves in the first place... The mud bath! It looked so disgusting as it was literally a huge pool of thick mud and we were warned that it was cold. It took a while to just dive right in but once we did it was so much fun. We had a mud fight and I of course lost. It was too cold to stay in long so we hopped out and moved on to the underground hot springs. They were pretty shallow but still a nice way to warm up after bathing in cold mud.

We biked back to Yangshuo just in time to have dinner and catch the bus back to Xingping. May i note that this was the only evening that we did catch the bus back. It was a very funny and relaxing day and by the time we got back to the hostel and showered up, it was time for bed!

Guilin to Yangshuo: the comical river cruise

We stepped off the train in Guilin around 9:00 am the next morning. We didn't plan on spending much time in Guilin, as much of the things to see and do in the area were based around Yangshuo. We thought it would be a cool idea to take a river cruise down to Yangshuo instead of taking a coach because we thought it would be more scenic and more fun. We found a ticket booth outside of the train station and I talked to the man in Chinese trying to figure out times and types of boats. We decided to take a smaller boat straight to Xingping (the small fishing village where we were staying ) to save us some time.

There are many instances in China where I wish I was fluent in Chinese and this was one of them. The ticket man escorted us to the side of the road and flagged down a coach and prompted us to quickly get on. The bus took us to a museum, parked. the bus driver pointed at a different bus and told me to get onto it. I tried to ask him why but I couldn't understand his answer so I just trusted that we would somehow make it on the river. We got on the empty bus and waited for the Cinese tourists and guide to be finished in the museum. When they were finished they hopped on the bus and I kid you not the woman picked up the coach microphone and talked in super fast Chinese for 20 minutes straight as we drove to the boat pier. It was so annoying and to be honest, I don't know how she did it as she didn't even take a break to breathe! I could only make out that she kept going on and on about Guilin rice noodles which I assumed were something special and then she moved on to talking about beer fish. Other than that I had no idea what she was talking about as she spoke way too fast for me to keep up and it was soooo hard to ignore her because like every other a chinese person, she seemed to think that even though she had a microphone she still needed to shout.

20 minutes later the bus stopped ad we could see that we were at the boat dock. The tour guide told us to go have lunch and meet back in a little bit.we were so happy to not have to listen to err anymore and prayed to God that she wouldn't be on our boat down the river or the peacefulness and serenity would be destroyed.

We were ecstatic when we were led onto a boat. Due to the mass confusion and bus switches we were scared we would never make it and we set out for Xingping down the river on a small motorized bamboo raft. The scenery was stunning! It was a bit foggy but cool because around every river bend more magnificent karats would appear in front of us. It was almost magical. As we boated along, the boat driver would point out different scenic spots to us and it was quite the challenge to try and figure out what she was saying and translate it for Nathan. Half way through our cruise we pulled up to another boat and the lady instructed us to switch boats. We were a bit confused but this is china and you just gotta trust that you will get where you need to go. We hopped onto the new boat and continued down the river. A little while later we were pulling into the port of a village and the man on the boat ushered us off and to a mini shuttle that would take us to Xingping. We whizzed through a small fishing village and pasts fields of fruit and even had to dodge a herd of goats on the way but we made it to Xingping!

It was a really cool way to travel to Xingping and definitely a lot more scenic than the coach that we could have taken instead. It was very neat to see that mountains from the river instead of from land. We checked into our hostel and had a little power nap before heading across the street from our hostel and up 12,000 steps that literally shot straight up to the top of a karst. It only took us 20 minutes to reach the top and man were we panting but the view was absurdly spectacular. On the top was a pavilion and looking out below we had a beautiful view of Xingping, the river, the mountains and a few other fishing towns scattered along the river banks. It was absolutely stunning! After soaking up the view that we worked so hard to see, we headed back down and got ready to head into Yangshuo to meet up with a few TTC friends and have some drinks.

We went to a really cool rooftop bar called Monkey Janes and drank beer and unfortunately had a few shots of Baijiu. It was a great first day in the Yangshuo area and the perfect start to what ended up being my favorite days of our trip!

Super Modern Shenzhen

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The first stop of nathan and I's journey through China was in the ultra modern coastal city of Shenzhen. I had to slip down to Hong Kong for a day to renew my visa and since SZ is right on the border it was a good place to hang out for a few days. Our first day there was my 21st birthday. We arrived mid day after taking the bullet train which travels up to 300km/hr and after checking into our hotel we took the bus out to Da Mei Sha- a beach just outside the city. It was so beautiful and not too crowded as it is "winter" in Shenzhen so most locals find it too cold to enjoy the sun and sand. It was a great way to spend the afternoon just hanging out and enjoying the nice weather- a great change from cold Changsha. Who would have thought that I would ever spend my January birthday in shorts on a beach!? That alone was awesome! After strolling along the beach and taking in the sights for a while we decided to head back into the city to an amazing Indian restaurant for dinner. The food was fantastic, the wine was smooth and it was a very cool place. Great way to spend my birthday! The next day I headed down to Hong Kong to get my visa done and Nathan explored a bit more of Shenzhen and found a quaint little park to hang out in. We took it pretty easy in Shenzhen as it is very new and there is not much to see there. It's pretty much just a big beautiful clean city which was a drastic change from old and grey Changsha. One of the nights we were there, we met up with a TTC friend and his friend that was .iving in Senzhen and had some drinks on a roof top bar. It was pretty cool. Our last day in Shenzhen we headed to a very interesting place called Splendid China. This place was such a laugh! It is a huge park full of miniature versions if all the different famous places around China. It was a pretty fun game to guess what everything was and was super hilarious. Only in China would someone pay money to see miniatures of things they could go see the big version of! Also funny to think that this was the main attraction of Shenzhen..come to Shenzhen and see everything there is to see in China miniature style! Oh China, never ceases to make one laugh! We made it to the train station just as our train was being called to be boarded and headed off in the direction of Guilin! We had a great few days in the border city of Shenzhen!

Left my mark at Dameisha!

21st Birthday in China

The office girls are amazing!

I was lucky enough to spend my 21st birthday in China and boy was it special! I had a train to Shenzhen the morning of my birthday so the evening before, the Chinese English teachers decided to take me out for a birthday dinner. They knew me well as they chose a delicious hotpot restaurant (hotpot is one of my favorite Chinese meals!) to have one last meal together. We all sat and ate until it felt like our bellies would burst and then when we were finished they bring out a cake and sang Happy birthday to me as I knew out the candles and made a birthday wish. I couldn't have asked for a better last meal in Changsha.

Birthday on the beach!

The morning of my birthday, Nathan and I boarded a bullet train bright and early for Shenzhen and after a few hours we had arrived in the sunny and warm city of Shenzhen. We took our things to our hotel and decided to try and find the beach. After wondering around for a bit we got on a bus and thankfully were headed in the right direction and made it there. The beach was gorgeous and not too crowded and I thoroughly enjoyed taking off my shoes and feeling the sand between my toes. It felt crazy to spend my birthday in shorts on the beach, I am used to freezing my bum off in -30 weather!

Once the sun had gone down We headed back into the city and ate the most delicious Indian meal ever..it was such a nice change from Chinese food and the owner was fantastic!

As it was my birthday, I couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic and think of where I was physically and emotionally a year ago on my last birthday. I had just dropped my classes at the u of l and had packed up my things to move home and here I am a year later in China with Nathan celebrating once again! It's been a magnificent year and I am so happy With the accomplishments I have made and the experiences I have had!

Cheers to being 21!

Some awesome hotpot

Letting go of a lantern with a birthday wish!

Saying Goodbye

The end of my time teaching at Shazitang Education Group has come to an end. These past 5 months have gone by way too fast and I can't believe it's time to say goodbye! I have had the time of my life here and gotten so close to lots of my students and fellow teachers so it's very hard to leave. I have grown so much not only as a teacher but as a person in general. I remember first arriving in China being able to count to 10, say hello and goodbye and a few other words and now I can speak to people and actually hold a conversation in Mandarin. I had no expectations as to what China would be like and was so nervous that I would be calling this country home but now it definitely feels like home and I am so sad to leave! It feels so strange to leave behind my students who's smiling faces and enthusiastic attitudes have brightened my days and the amazing staff of Shazitang that have been like family to me when mine was thousands of miles away. It is really a bitter sweet ending as I know that I have many more amazing experiences ahead of me but it is so hard to say goodbye to the people who have been my family and have made China home. China isn't perfect but overall it is an amazing and people country. The people are so kind and warm hearted and the food is absolutely amazing. I feel so lucky have been given the experience to work and live here. I will miss my fellow teachers and students very much.

Zai jen wo de zhong guo jia ren!

This is China

Our Chinese friends are like 15 year olds when it comes to cell phones

Matching mother-daughter PJ's just walking down the street on a Friday night

Chinglish!

This sweater worn by an 8 year old says sleep with me..teaching them at a young age!

future Chairman Mao (imitating many Chinese people talking photo with statue of  Mao Zedong)

The toilet on the 90th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center

My new hat and panda sweater! 

A Campfire in China

As an extra activity with my students about a month ago I showed my students one of Canada's favourite summer past times-having a campfire! We played some games and sang songs and even though we were inside with a fake fire and it was day time the kids still had an awesome time!