I was very excited about going to Guilin to see the nearby rice terraces. I had seen amazing pictures and I was looking forward to checking them out for myself. The rice terraces of Ping An are over 600 years old, planted by the Yao and Zhuang minority groups. Longsheng is about two and a half hours away from Guilin. It's not far, but the drive there is tough we went down and up and around mountains. I wondered how tour busses get up the narrow road, Cherry told us halfway through, the people get off their tour bus and separate [View Full Entry]

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Our first day of Guilin, Cherry showed us around town. Guilin is not very big. We started out with Elephant Trunk Hill. The story goes that there was an elephant who was drinking out of the Li River and didn't want to go home, so it turned to stone so it could always be at the beautiful river and city of Guilin. There is a similar type hole in the rock in France, but it is man-made. Next we went to Fobo Hill, a scenic area named after General Fobo, who I am still unclear of who he really is. Cherry [View Full Entry]

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Because of our time constraint, CL and I decided to participate in a private tour of Guilin. We arrived Guilin late evening and as we exited the baggage claim, there was a woman waiting for us with my name on her paper. That was a first for me! Our tour guide's name was Cherry. Initially, I thought the tour company told me her name was Cheryl, then she introduced herself and I thought she said "Sherry", then the next day she wore a name tag, and it said "Cherry". Oops. We hopped into the car we would use for the next [View Full Entry]

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We headed out of Tangkou very early - 6:30 in the morning. We thought we could get back to Hangzhou before 11:00, but we forgot about the shady bus system. The bus made a lot of stops, picked up people on the side of the road, waited at the bus stations for a long time too. It was so annoying. I guess we got a non-express ticket. At the bus stations, hawkers come onto the coach to sell you anything from chestnuts to homemade onion pancakes, to souveniers. Thoroughly annoying because it was cranky from getting up early, the bus was [View Full Entry]

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Of course, there was too much fog and we didn't see the sunrise, despite getting up insanely early. We had overpriced breakfast buffet with disgusting coffee, and then checked out of the hotel to begin a days' hike. CL decided she needed to try the hotel cafe's coffee to last the hike. Still icky coffee, but better than breakfast's. I'm so glad she's a coffee addict. :) We explored more of the summit and finally saw some mountains. Still a little overcast, but at least we could see something other than mist and fog! The mountains are pretty and the entire [View Full Entry]

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We arrive the Hangzhou bus station and hop onto a full bus of passengers to Huangshan. We weren't exactly sure when or where in Huangshan the bus was going. A new expressway was built between Hangzhou and Huangshan, making the bus ride a bit shorter. I read online and in travel blogs that it would take around 3.5 hours. The bus driver said it would take close to 4.5 hours because we have to go the speed limit and we stop a few times to rest. That said, we were going to get to Huangshan a lot later than we thought. [View Full Entry]

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The start of "Scenic China Tour with Christina". Shanghai to Hangzhou to Huangshan to Guilin to Yangshuo to Shanghai. We started out to Hangzhou on Sunday and took the train from Shanghai. The fast train only takes 1 hour 30 minutes, departing from Shanghai South Station (44 rmb per person). I wish I took a photo of the train station. It's quite pretty and new. We got to Hangzhou and I guess a few trains arrived at once and the station was packed. The entire wide walkway was filled and we could hardly get down the steps from the platform. It [View Full Entry]

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CL and I ate street food for breakfast (red bean bun, onion pancake, etc.) with Starbuck's coffee and headed toward People's Square to visit the Shanghai Museum. We first took a walk in Remin Park. Near Barbarossa, there were teams of Chinese people gathered around with sheets of paper hanging on the bushes. We got closer and I made out a few words. I told CL that I thought it was something awful like a missing person, or it was a personal ad. I asked a nearby person and they said that they were matchmaking! Hilarious! There were all kinds of [View Full Entry]

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I am trying to pay for my trip to Xinjiang, which is organized by the Chinese Culture Club. A portion of it needs to be prepaid in order to purchase plane tickets, reserve hotels, etc. If you don't have a China bank account, the money needs to be deposited into the tour company's account. Anyway, it has to be at Bank of China, China's most inefficient bank. I think Bank of China is a free bank, so it is the busiest. I got a number at 10:40 am and I didn't get my turn at the window until 1:30 pm. Yes, [View Full Entry]

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In lieu of going to Guiyang I decided to go to Putuoshan, one of China's sacred mountains. Putuoshan is 25 minute taxi ride, 1 hour bus ride, and 3 hour ferry ride away! Someone from the travel agency bought my bus/ferry ticket and I found him to get my tickets. The guy was a little scary looking because he was very cross-eyed (I judge, I know). I asked how many people were on the tour and he said, "One." I freaked out for a second, thinking that I had to spend the day ALONE with the cross-eyed man. Then he told [View Full Entry]

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