chinese new years shanghai

Lets see where did I leave off....  After leaving the national park I made my way up to Yichang to see the three gorges dam.  The day I went to the dam it was really smoggy so it was hard to really see the whole dam but from what I could see it is massive.  I took a chinese tour to the dam (couldn't find an english one) so I can't impart any fun facts about the dam that you couldn't find yourself on the internet so here's a smoggy picture and a picture of the model of the dam.  Exciting I know!

thats a person in the bottom corner and the fuzzy dam in the background

Next I headed for Huang Shan which is a mountain just to the west of Shanghai.  I had to take an overnight bus  to the town near the mountain and ended up meeting a guy from korea on the same bus who I've traveled with for the past week to the mountain then on to shanghai.  The mountains were beautiful and again thank goodness for some guard rails because they like to walk you to places that over hang cliffs then carve stairs out of the rock and walk you down the cliffs.  we ended up hiking up the same day we arrived on the bus then stayed on the mountain for a night before hiking down.  it was really cold the second morning and foggy so for the first hour of the hike down all we could see was fog.  Thank goodness it cleared up and we could see the scenery because it was pretty amazing.  

Once we hiked down we caught a bus to shanghai and got in pretty late that night maybe 1 in the morning but the hostel was still open so we had no trouble getting a room.  Shanghai has been a pretty fun city so far of what I've seen and there are more europeans here then I've seen since I've been in china so I find myself picking them out in crowds and staring.  Pretty soon I may end up getting my picture taken with random european tourist just like people have been doing to me since I've been traveling.  I am already going to be in a lot of random photo albums here in china with various people who have stopped me on the street or in bus stations or anywhere really to get their picture with me.  Anyway yesterday I moved out of the hostel and over to stay with friends in Shanghai and its a really nice change of pace.  Im clean, my clothes are getting clean and I didn't realize until now that I haven't truly relaxed since starting traveling.  Learning the basics of surviving china can be a little stressful so its nice to finally take a breather.  

East Nanjing road Shanghai

Pudong district shanghai

zhangjiajie national park

I ended up staying in fenghuang for four days or so mostly because I needed a little break from buses but also because I finally met some english speaking people. Most importantly I can finally feed myself a little better. There is some great food in china. I never really thought of chinese food being spicy but it sure can be. I have been eating soup mostly, because its been so cold, but also some bbq meat on sticks at street markets and lots of rice. I know what your thinking and no I am not exactly sure what kind of meat it was on the sticks but I think for now I would rather not know, but it was all really good and spicy.

I left fenghuang a couple days ago to come here to the zhangjiajie world geopark. Its this crazy national park. Its kind of hard to describe but its kind of like a pointy grand canyon. Not as big as the grand canyon but impressive all the same. The pictures don't really do it justice but even when your here its hard to process the magnitude. There are these crazy walk ways you can take that literally hang over the cliffs. But there are gaurd rails thank goodness but its still a little hair raising. baby steps to the edge to take a picture.

There were also...wait for it............WILD MONKEYS!

And yes it was as awsome as it seems. Anyway the first day I couldn't find an english map so I just kind of wandered around and got a little lost. Not super lost because I knew where I was and the direction I had come from but when I got to this village I was gonna get a bus back to the beginning but it turned out I couldn't so I had to hike back 2 hours and make it before the buses stopped running on the other end. I made it plus I got to see monkeys. That afternoon I found a map in english and so today I was a bit more prepared. I hiked up this mountain in the morning... lots of stone steps then I hiked back down to see the monkeys again which I did. All in all I don't know how far I hiked but it was maybe 8 hours the first day and 6 today. China is kind of kicking my ass as far as fitness goes.

So tomorrow I plan on making my way up to Yiching to see the big dam so hopefully everything goes smoothly. Now Im off to find some food and then my bed. So here are some more pictures of the park for your viewing pleasure.

there's a walkway on the top left of the cliff in the trees

its a cigarette in the pigs nose!

Does anyone need a crossbow?

So I have been fumbling my way around china, most of the time going the right way but not all the time. Long story short Im in fenghuang now. Its quite a ways north of guilin and yangshuo.

long story long, I left yangshuo to head out of the city a little and went to ping an, which is near longsheng north of guilin. Ping an is a village surrounded by some crazy rice terraces (dragon's backbone rice terraces). Anyway I got there one afternoon and it was beautiful. I found a place to stay in the village then hiked around on these stone walkways around the terraces. But I didn't want to walk around too much because I had all next day and for however long I wanted to stay to see the terraces. So the next day it was rainy, super cold and foggy. Couldn't see anything. So I wandered around in the fog all day just trying to stay warm and not get lost, then drinking tea and reading until I went to bed. The next day it was the same weather so I decided to leave. One day of fog walking is enough for me.

So I headed out of town trying to get here to fenghuang. I took a bus to sanjiang to get a bus here and when I got to the bus station the lady just kept shaking her head no as if no buses at all go north. Luckily (or not, you decide) this lady behind me started helping me and she said you can go to, and she said the name of a town I didn't recognize, then you can catch a train to fenghuang. And I said great I'll do that. Turns out that town was liuzhou which is 4 1/2 hours in the wrong direction. Anyway I made it there and got an over night train to huaihua (7 hours) I got there about 4 in the morning. Then waited in a hotel lobby until light so I could find the bus station. Then just a short 2 1/2 hours bus ride here. That was yesterday. So Ill probably stay here a couple more days then on to zhangjiajie, north of here, to check out some mountains then probably to the three gorges dam then towards shanghai.

By the way this town does have oodles of charm just like my book says. Im gonna try and post some pictures, hopefully in some sort of order.

hong kong

yangshuo

ping an

fenghuang

sparkle tog take one

test test tog tog. Admirals tog earth date 01/04/09: well i survived hong kong new year! i stayed in the kowloon section of hong kong its just north of hong kong island across the bay. they closed off all the streets to vehicles so it was people everywhere. there are a lot of people in hong kong!

next I had a long few days trying to get to Yangshuo, which is north west of hong kong. luckily there were a lot of helpful people along the way. I think i ended up going the long way because it seemed like the most logical way but apparently not the most used tourist route. I didn't find many english speakers along the way but plenty of people willing to help. I stopped in wuzhou one night and when I got to the bus stop I had no idea where I was in relation to anything. so I walked out to the street to look at my map and within 2 minutes I was surrounded by about 15 people trying to help me find a hotel. finally two school girls walked me literally across the street to where I wanted to go. Being a non chinese speaking tourist makes me feel like a dingis a lot.

the next day was a very round about way getting here. I think my bus got canceled but i cant be sure. Anyway I had to go the guilin then back to yangshuo which was about 3 hours extra bus time. Anyway Im here, which was because of an andy recomendation (good call), and Im about to take some mandarin lessons tonight lets all hope, for the sake of allthe chinese people I come across that don't speak english, that some of it sticks.