After what seems like an eternity of travel both in the last two weeks and especially today I’m home again. I can once again sit on the computer for hours on end and stress over lesson plans for classes in will be teaching in less than 48 hours.

As a quick cap, the trip was amazing. Tibet was truly a once in a life time experience and well Dali and Lijiang are just the top cities in China in my opinion. So if I all of a sudden vanish from Weifang, DON’T come looking for my in Dail I’ll never leave it again.

My hopes are to have the trip posted by cities and in the next few days. I have over 1000 photos to sort through so give me some latitude on this one.

Okay really just off to see Western China but hey to most here that is the extent of the world. I’ll be away from a computer for the next 15 days so no guilt trips for not updating!

June 30: Qingdao → Xi’an

July3: Xi’an → Chengdu

July 4: Leshan

July 5: Chendu → Lahasa

July 6: Lahasa

July 7: Shigaze

July 8: Lahasa

July 9: Lahasa → Lijiang

July 10: Lijiang

July 11: Lijiang → Dali

July 12: Dali

July 13: Dali – Qingdao

So after the 15th you may all start badgering me to update my blog but not a day before!

Sunday we drove to Yentai. The tour guide had scheduled a tour of the Wine Museum. I opted out and went to the Municipal Museum with a few others instead.

The drive from Penglai to Yentai was rather interesting. It is a wine area and as you pass the vineyards every so often you see a French Chateau, no joke. I wish I had gotten a picture to prove it. The Chinese love to imitate that’s for sure. It was so random, rundown cinder block homes, dusty vineyards, yup French Chateau!

Yentai has a very modern feel

The Community Center

The Temple of the Sea Goddess

The oldest Buddha statue I've seen so far

The old Yentai Hutongs

The trip was short and sweet. I would like to return to Yentai as there seems to be much more to see. There is a mountain to the south that is famous for its temples and pagodas. I have a few students from Yentai and hope to return this summer.

Qingdao University often does weekend trips for their foreign teachers. This last trip they were kind enough to open it up to anyone interested.

Penlai is on the North side of the Shandong Penisula. It is a city steeped in Chinese lore, this is the spot from which the Eight Immortals departed. As I’ve tried to research the Eight Immortals it has turned out to be your typical Chinese story, many different versions with little cohesiveness. The rough story from Wendy, Eight immortals who exemplified various attirbutes admired by the gods. They were made immortal with the intention they would hlep mankind devlope those attibutes. Antoher version, they were eight famous literary characters combined during the Yuan Dynasty. The few consistancies are their names, symbols and the fact that they lived and departed from Penglai.

The Eight Immortals

http://www.chinapage.com/8-immortal.html

Fishing Boats off the beach

Restored Pavillions

The Chinese equivelent of Alcatraz

This island lays of the north coast of the penisula. It was originally colinized as a prison for the empires worst criminals. The swim back is long and trecherous, it is believed only a few have made it. Durring one dynasty it reached maximum capacity and to clear space for new prisons the worst criminals were executed each month.

Where the North Sea and the Yellow See meet

The Fortress

This is the fortress in which the Eight Immortals lived. It was built as a defense against the invading Japanese and houses the temple of the Eight Immortals, the Sea Goddess and the Dragaon God.

The Bell Tower

Victoria and I

Ancient vessels recovered from the area

The City of Penglai

Luke and Charlie - the world's best Kids

Skype has revolutionized living abroad. I remember feeling cut off and isolated from my family while in Argentina. We could IM but it just wasn’t the same, video quality was bad and the sound was always distorted, and that was only on a good day.

Skype, don’t get me wrong has it’s quirks but it is light years beyond IM. Or maybe I just feel that way because of the people I am know able to stay in touch with. My family, number one of course but runner up is most definitely these two gorgeous bundles of energy above.

"Can you show my your funny face?"

After spending a spring with these two I was hooked. For those who know me I’m not much of a kid person. Okay I’m not a kid person at all, but these two are my exceptions. They have always brightened my day, and now that I’m in China with Skype they are still able to do that. Here are the pictures that have recently brighten my week.

I can hardly believe how much Charlie has grown. When we were talking she kept asking if she could come over to my house, ahh. Tug at the heart when I had to tell her I was still away, yes Kayte has a heart.

After Nick reminded her I was still in China she changed her tactics, “I want to go to China with you Kayte!” I miss you too Charlie.

Luke then practiced some of his Chinese with me, he’s been watching Ni Hao KaiLan. Charlie tried her hand at a foreign language but ended up with a Vietnamese greeting.

Look at those grins

Charlie is still learning to talk into the camera rather than the screen. When we high five Luke will go for the camera, and Charlie goes for the screen.

Thanks for the pep talk this week! Talk to you soon.

As I was searching around I-to-I’s Chalkboard (a network site for teachers through their program to mingle and share ideas) I came across a blog written by another teacher here in China. I thought the advice was truly inspiring so have posted a link. Now if I could just memorize, strive for and live each of these suggestions! But lets be honest if I did just that my sarcastic, ornery rants about China would end and my blog just wouldn’t be that fun or therapeutic to write. So I’ll stick to the ones I like and I’ll leave the rest to conquer in another country.

http://www.tefl-chalkboard.com/sasheen4/posts/751-the-only-foreigner-for-miles-and-surviving

Kelly and I landed safely in China yesterday. After 36 hours traveling I was relieved to finally get back to my apartment and pile my bags in the entry way, mind you half are still sprawled there as I dug through to get out the few things I needed. 

My trip home was worth all the trouble. It provided a much needed relief and a fresh start to the upcoming semester. With a roommate now and a new found determination to learn Mandarin it is already shaping up to be a great semester.

The trip began with me eating my words I gave the previous day to my friend Maria. When dropping her off at Bakersfield to head home I’d teased her about the Prop-Plane at the Airport. I’d never ridden in one and hoped never to have to. Everything comes back to bite you I’ve learned and sure enough before I knew it i was boarding a Prop-Plane to LAX. It was everything and worse I’d imagined!

Upon exiting the Prop-Plane my purse broke! I’d always made fun of luggage and bag stores in Airports, I mean come-on by the time you are getting onto the plane shouldn’t you already be packed!! But here I was stranded with a broken purse still facing another 24 hours of travel, I was willing to pay anything for relief! I found a tacky Hollywood bag at Hudson News and headed to my next gate to settle in for a long layover. Poor Kelly, we were to meet up at LAX and catch the same flight to Beijing together. She got stopped at every security check and pulled aside for further scrutiny. We tried to change seats to sit together but it was a full flight.

As they began boarding we ran to Starbucks for a last meal. Fiji water, blueberry scones and shrink-wrapped turkey sandwiches. I found my seat and was relived to find yet another window seat. I’m sticking with Expedia, since adding a window seat preference, that’s all I’ve scored on flights through them. I’m finally learning the trick to sleeping on international flights, oh another dozen and I should be a pro! Flights went smooth. In line after costumes I ran into the Sorensons, the BYU teachers from Jinan. I had ran into them going through security at LAX when flying home in January. We all had breakfast then headed to our domestic flights.

The puddle jump from Beijing to Qingdao was quick and James was waiting at the luggage carousel. It was intriguing watching Kelly’s reaction to Mainland China on the two hour drive home. I felt relieved to be done with flights and back into a normal routine. Qingdao to Weifang seems to be practically a Tulare – Visalia run most weeks.

James took us out to lunch before heading to the apartment. Lunch was wonderful. I’m thrilled to no longer be the novice with chopsticks, knock on wood. Kelly is reminding me of all my first experiences that have now become casual everyday events. Lunch was a usual conglomerate of vegetables, meats and tofus, chopped, diced and sauced up! With a hot bowl of noodle soup for the main course.

Once back on campus and in the apartment I finally felt I could relax after 36 hours of travel.

It’s good to be home and settled back in!

After we were thawed out and rested up we bundled up once again and headed out for the evening. As directions to the Ice Festival were rather hard to come by and even more difficult to decipher we opted to just take a taxi. Of the entire trip this was our only real hiccup but a large hiccup it was. The festival is an International event that was covered in the London Times, Boston Globe as well as many other national newspapers that we had looked at online, but no where in Harbin could you get a straight answer on how to get there, when it opened or how much it cost! Welcome to China!!

After trying for 45min (no joke) to flag down a cab one finally picked us up as a double fare. Double fares are ALWAYS a rip-off but when you are desperate and freezing who cares. I had a basic idea of the direction we needed to go but I soon realized that was not the direction we were headed. Thanks to Bonnie’s level head we remained calmed and sat back to enjoy the rather lengthy confused tour through Harbin.

When we finally approached the Festival I was overwhelmed with the sheer size of the sculptures or should I correctly say, ice buildings. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

11th AnnualHarbin Snow and Ice World

Buddhist temple

The lights just made everything magical

After a 20 min I couldn’t keep quiet about my freezing condition. I admitted my hands were about to fall off, Bonnie agreed and suggested sticking my hands in my mouth. I asked her to repeat the instructions, she laughed and promised it would work. Sure enough, I was a sight to see with double gloved hands crammed in my mouth but soon they didn’t feel like Popsicles about to snap in two.

Looking into the park was just fantastic.

Hindu God

Hindu Goddess

St. Basil's and the Great Wall

The Sphinx - those are ice slides descending from his shoulders

Chinese Pagoda

I've no idea how she got this icy but it was probably one of my favorite pics!

A steaming cup of hot chocolate!

We decided to warm up in one of the class boxes they had strategically placed around the park. My Camera fogged over when I pulled in out after freezing in the outside weather! As we were warming up we both admitted how cold we both were although we’d been afraid to admit it to the other. Haha. Some how our bodies did adjust to the cold and we stuck it out to the end.

Another Cathedral facade

Skyscrapers a must in China

No matter how many sculptures we went to the size never ceased to amaze me.

Bonnie got her picture with an arctic fox!

Bonnie’s mom had shared an article withher about the Harbin Ice Festival, in which a prominent picture was of visitors posing with an arctic fox. Bonnie was determined to get her picture and we were thrilled when we found the booth.

 

 

Looking out over the Park

It wouldn't be a Chinese Party without back up dancers!

In the center of the park was a large ice rink.

A Northern European Church

Nothing like walking on ice!

Angkor Wat

The Colosseum

A view from the top.

Can you recognize the bundle?

Our final stop was a larger than life Chess board.

We stuck it out to the end and both felt the fight with the coldwas worth it. We found a taxi driver at the exit who was looking for passengers and bargained our way down to 40 kuai for a return trip. It wasn’t until we got to the taxi that we realized yet again we were a double cab.

Once in town we stopped by a local resturant for a little piece of home.

We'd spotted this restaurant during the day.

Can I just say, I love traveling with Bonnie we were up and out the door by 8am. On the train we had listed, crosschecked and plotted our two days in Harbin.

Our list included:

• Saint Sophia (Eastern Orthodox Church)
• Snow Park
• International Ice Festival
• Pedestrian Shopping Street
• an authentic Russian Meal

The top half consisted of 6 layers!

Before leaving the hotel we had to put on just about everything we had brought. We quickly learned once you start getting dressed the clock starts, you have about 10 min to get dressed then outside to avoid heatstroke in all your layers. There was a drop of about 90* between the 70* hotel and the -20* outside!

I had brought just about every thermal item I owned!

The bottom half was five layers - two pairs of fleece lined stockings, thermals, track pants and last but not least jeans.

Our Hotel was close to downtown so we decided to walk to the Church first. As it was still early the view was breathtaking. The church was constructed in the corner of a large plaza. The snow was fresh and untouched, light flakes still dusting the ground.

Saint Sophia - Eastern Orthodox Cathedral

How could someone do such a horrific thing?

Not too many shots of us together, downside to traveling with only one other person.

After the church we headed for the Pedestrian Street and breakfast. We soon found both and enjoyed a hour of pastries and souvenir browsing.

Yumm...nothing gets you going on a cold morning like Hot Chocolate and an warm pastry.

Yes, I'm aware I'm the Christmas edition of the Michelin Man! Main Pedestrian Street.

Привет из России - Hello from Russia! Can anyone beat that mamuska doll?

Harbin Flood Monument

The steps down to the river become the bleachers for the community ice rink in the winter!

The main river in town turns into another road during the winter. INSANE!

Some times as a tourist you have to be a tourist.

Total tourists we payed Y100 to take a horse carriage across the frozen river. Although we had to have been the 1000th carriage this river I was still not completely comfortable crossing the river in a 1000lb buggy.

After getting completely ripped off at least the driver allowed us to take a picture together on the top of the carriage.

On the other side of the river we entered the Snow Park. The snow park is on an island in the middle of the river. Teams from all over the world come to construct HUGE snow sculptures. The annual winner get’s their sculpture immortalized in white concrete.

I was shocked by the smooth texture of the sculptures.

I love the fact you could climb on the statues.

How would the park be complete without the triple emperial arch?

The sheer size of these sculptures were amazing and the craftsmanship was stunning.

The details were just incredible. The face alone is about 9ft.

Beijing Olympics?

Traditional Dragon

Did you know your eyeballs can get cold? Yep its true, mine did.

This year's contestants.

Work in Progress, yes that's a tractor on a river of ice.

Pirates of the Caribbean

When in China, do as the Chinese!

Sorry Canada that's just weird

The crowning achievment for this year! Look at the size of this one!

We decided to save money and walk back.

After two falls in the park I wasn't about to chance these icy steps. Hey at least I provide the locals with entertainment!

One of the past times is ski chairs!

I pulled my Thermos out at lunch to find the hot water I'd poured in that morning had turned to ice after a few hours outside!

For lunch we had a hearty Russian meal, borsch and mashed spinach soup.

These are our stern Russian faces.

After 7 straight hours outside we decided to head back to the hotel for a rest before heading out to the Ice Festival in the evening. I’ve never appriciated heating like I did upon our return to the hotel.

Well if anyone asks where the Ice Queen lives, it’s Harbin, China. Somehow I got in my mind  I was up for going to the coldest place in China.

Bonnie was more than happy for a travel buddy so we began planning. Harbin is in the northern most province of China and is known for its Russian influence and its World Renown Ice Festival. Some how I managed to block out the weather warning on all the travel websites, winters annually reach 40* below zero which is were the Fahrenheit and Celsius scale’s meet by the way!

As we are both English teachers with a limit salary we decided to take the cheap route and call it an adventure. We got prices for the Hard Sleeper Trains, ¥620 round trip – what’s 26 hours on a train? Everyone has to do a long distance train trip at least once in China right?

To keep from rambling, purchasing our tickets turned into a fiasco! You can purchase tickets 10 days prior to departure, we waited to long. 6 days before, the hard sleepers to Harbin were sold out and we had to purchase soft sleepers which were about double the cost. Thanks to Wendy we got the whole mess worked out and tickets bought. We would have been in deep trouble if Bonnie and I had tried to figure all that out on our own.

So Sunday night we set out. I had a backpack, Purse, and Bag of food! We met up at the Train station and joined the masses waiting in the hall, we of course were the only foreigners and got all the stares.

And the Adventure Begins.

With found our compartment and to our surprise were the only ones in it at the Weifang Station. We figured we’d be joined at the coming station. Well we could easily tell why the tickets went from ¥300 for a hard sleeper to ¥600 for the Soft Sleeper. The Compartments are amazing.

Home-sweet-home for the next 26 hours!

There are four to a room. The bottom bunk is the communal bench during the day for two. The Compartment is closed to the hall which makes the room warm and private (Later on this was not an upside to the soft sleeper. )

I had the top bunk and Bonnie the bottom. I was surprised at the storage room too. The beds were your average Chinese bunk, and the duvets were to die for.

We stayed up and chatted until about 11pm then hit the sack. I was a little restless wondering at each stop if someone would come in at the next stop. I was quite relieved in the morning to find the other two bunks still empty.

okay so after 20 hours in a cramped cabin what were you expecting, prom night?

We spread out in the morning as it didn’t seem like anyone would be joining us! We settled in for a long day. I decided to go comfy rather than flattering, wrong choice it would turn out.

Around lunch time we had gotten too warm and had opened the hall door. Soon a stranger wandered in wanting to talk to the foreigners. We soon realized our Chinese was better than his English. Most Chinese will give it an honest shot but give up as soon as they realize the pointlessness of trying to converse with Foreigners who don’t speak Chinese. This guy only seemed encouraged by the lack of communication and before we knew it he had invited his friend to come join us for lunch.

Before we could say ‘不要 we had two Chinese Guys drinking Baijiu and eating Chicken Feet in our compartment, not the most appealing situation. There are those situations in life which make you eternally grateful for choosing an Alcohol-free life, this was one of them. As true Chinese, they were not picking up on the hints we were throwing at them by the time 3 hours had passed, that we would prefer lunch to be over. So we fell back on the Chinese love of nap taking and said we would like to sleep.

One of them seemed rather keen on Bonnie which was not reciprocated! We had a good laugh at that thought once they left and decided to take naps to kill time. Half way through my nap I heard Bonnie calling my name, when I turned over in my bunk one of the Chinese guys was back and standing right next to my head. Turns out he was really keen on Bonnie and had come back for a chat. Not what anyone wants to wake up to. After a rather interesting 15mins we got him to leave and decided to look the door rather than just close it.

Front of the Train station, this is kids stuff compared to the Festival.

As we stepped off the train in Harbin it was like hitting an ice wall. Warm lungs don’t like icy air! My lungs ached at first as they adjusted to cold. Instead of jumping straight into a cab we walked around the front of the station where small ice sculptures were arranged. The ground was complete ICE. I had opted for warmth rather than traction but soon began to question my footwear choice.

Lights are frozen inside and the color illuminates the entire block.