China, short yet refreshing

Hello everyone! Today I start my blog away from home. I'm sorry I have not been in contact since I left, but in China many websites are censored by the government, such as facebook and youtube, and I also don't have phone. I hope you all are doing well and are having a good time back in the States.

Anyways, this has been my journey thus far:

Shanghai

On August 4th, after the 18 hour trip from Los Angeles to Shanghai, I arrived at the hostel in which I stayed a year ago on the way back home. During my stay here I hung out with my roommate, a Chinese guy named Zhang Xiang Lu. We are the same age so we got along very well. He went with me to many places in this huge city. Come to think of it, Shanghai is a lot like New York. There are so many people and no one really seems to notice each other. It is also very loud and a bit dirty in places.

I was actually supposed to leave the day after I arrived to Xi'an by train, but because I knew the train ride would be long and tiring, I decided to stay one more day. Me and Xiang Lu visited the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and NanJing Road. After a long day we returned to the hostel and then again went out to a famous bakery called Bread Talk with LangLang, a girl who works at the hostel and her two friends. It was really fun and I was lucky to be with a local who was able to speak English, otherwise I probably wouldn't have been able to make my way around the city as easily as I did.

The following day Xiang Lu took me to Shanghai Train Station to see me off. It was a bit sad saying bye to him. He was really nice guy.

The train ride from Shanghai to Xi'an was 24 hours :s Because it is a busy time in China to travel, there was no option for me to get a sleeper ticket on the train. A sleeper ticket is when you have your own bed for overnight train rides. Unfortunately, I was stuck with a hard seat, the lowest quality choice there is. Because the tickets for these seats are so cheap, these compartments are usually filled with China's working class and can be very dirty, stuffy, and overcrowded. Because I was a foreigner I kind of felt like I was a celebrity though haha. Everyone stared at me in surprise when I would get up to heat up my noodles or just stand up to stretch out, as though it was amazing I knew how to do these things! However the people were really nice as always. When it was time for me to get off, two guys helped me push through the huge crowd getting onto the train. I think I would've been stranded on the train without their help.

Xi'an

I was very happy to be back in Xi'an. It's a city I'm more familiar with and I was gonna be able to see Sally and the people from Shu Yuan Hostel again. Although many of the people from one year ago had already left, many were still there.

I am surprised that very rarely do I find Americans in the hostel. Most of the people are from England and other parts of Europe. I met some people who have been traveling for two years and even got married on their trip and I couldn't help but wonder without asking if they had any work or obligations back home. It's like they have all the time in the world to just do whatever they wanted!

Since I spent awhile in Xi'an I will just briefly describe it. During my first night me, Sally, and Aileen went to some small bakeries and night markets, play at the arcade, and walk around the city. I'm not sure why, but I'd rather go to super markets and small residential street alleys then go to huge tourist attractions like most of the other travelers here. I enjoy trying to live as a local. The next day Aileen left for Beijing so me and Sally saw her off at the train station.

The next couple days I hung out with staff from the hostel. We had a dance battle in the reception room (in tradition with last year) haha! On the last day, me and Sally went out for as much food as we could possibly eat. We had cold and spicy noodles with bread, the best JiaoZi (dumplings) in the city, sweet potato, and of course ice cream. I had a lot of fun with Sally. Even though I haven't known her for long, she really does seem like my older sister.

This city is one of the biggest in China, yet I don't find it to be as stressful as other cities like Shanghai or Beijing. I don't know if it's because I have friends here but I'm always sad to leave this city.

Jining, Inner Mongolia

I had another 20 hour hard seat train ride from Xi'an to Jining.......I don't think I can stand traveling by train anymore.

Yesterday morning I arrived in Jining. Ranran, her parents and baobao picked me up from the train station. We had dou jiang and you tiao (bread and sugar milk) for breakfast. For lunch all the kids got together and took me to mutton for lunch where we played some games to help them practice their English. I think I have been very lucky to have met nice people who are willing to take such good care of me. Later on at night we went to play pool and eat rou jia mo (Chinese hamburger). It seems like every all I do is eat.

Today I woke up late, bought some groceries, and finally got around to starting this blog. I look forward to spending the rest of the week in Jining! Hope everyone enjoyed my first entry!

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Part of trip: A Year Away from Home

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