Blogs from Sichuan, China, Asia

Today was awesome. We finally got some sleep and I woke up at 7am, which I'm sure you all know is pretty much impossible for me. I blame it on the jetlag. We got up this morning and as we left our apartment there were three women in red suits practicing tai chi with swords in the lawn outside. We had orientation in the morning and went over the schedule for our session. We are going to visit the panda reserve this weekend, but I found out it is about two hundred dollars in american money to hold a panda for thirty seconds....so I do not think I will be doing that. One of my roommates told me that there is a man who lives in the apartment next to us who trains pigeons, he literally ... read more

I'm still not really sure what day or time it is, I just know that I'm super tired. But luckily we get to sleep soon! Everyone I met is awesome, I really like the group of students that I'm with, and my roommates are great. The city is so much fun and the people are very nice. It's super busy, the driving is terrifying! The lanes are more like suggestions than regulations and pedestrians absolutely do not have the right of way. A group of students that are native to Chengdu took us out to see the city and get dinner. They were SO nice and so helpful, and literally some of the funnest people I have been around in a while. I got to try a lot of different Chinese food today, Japanese tofu, a ... read more

I leave tomorrow for Boston and then have my 6 hour flight to San Francisco in the morning! 10 hour layover and then i check in for my 14 hour flight to Hong Kong, which leaves at 4am Eastern Standard time. I plan on sleeping the entire way. When we land in Hong Kong we transfer to a flight to Chengdu which is luckily only 2.5 hours. Then we will be in Chengdu on the 17th!... read more

It has been 22 months since my last confession, er, blog. Sorry - work, life, laziness. I’m still in Shanghai. The World Expo has come and gone, metro lines have run riot under the city, shopping malls are on every street corner, new skyscrapers have been thrown up, bars and restaurants have opened and closed and opened again.Yes, the pace of this city is still dizzying. Arriving at Jiuzhaigou May Day Holiday, time to escape for a slower pace, nature and clean air - Jiuzhaigou National Park, famed for its spectacular valleys and clear blue lakes and Chengdu, home to spicy food, lazy days and pandas. A delayed three hour flight from Shanghai and we eventually arrived at Jiuzhaigou airport, some 3,500 metres above sea level. An altitude headache immediately started to creep up, on... read more

Today we arrived at 5.20 am in Chengdu - one of the larger cities in China - pop of about 14 million. We immediately set off for the hotel where we dumped our bags and then bacon and eggs ( western brekkie for a change) and coffee. Then off to the Giant Pandas Breeding Centre where we photographed the antics of these funny creatures - they were hilarious with their clambering up the trees and then falling off - especially the younger pandas. This afternoon we have chosen a rest and internet time before going to the sechuan opera ( Lucy) and Roman is going to a sechuan hotpot dinner - can't do everything!!... read more

The overnight train from Zhenyuan to Chongqing wasn't too bad at all. I had a 2nd class sleeper ticket which meant I shared the open compartment with 5 other people, all Chinese. The 15 hours went quite quick and I enjoyed most of the time trying to communicate with the others, which was pretty difficult. The train itself was good with food available, hot water for coffee and noodles, relatively clean squat toilets, and a spot to smoke between carriages. The lights were turned out at 10pm and I had a good sleep before being woken up at 4.30am just before we arrived at Chongqing. My idea was to board the first train to Chengdu, and I was told by the other passengers that I would have to catch a taxi to the other side of ... read more