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!