http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/stephanieandcodyinchina/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from stephanieandcodyinchina en-us Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:55:11 +0000 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:55:11 +0000 As the days have been turning colder and the daylight scarce I assume many of you have wondered what ever happened to Stephanie and Cody in China Well wonder no more Its update time with all the gritty interesting details included. Here we go time to get excitedIn mid September Stephanie made it back home safe and sound battling Hong Kong hurricanes towing several hundred pounds http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-352964.html Near the end of June I found myself humming and hawing over what to do when my Chinese visa ended early this fall. I threw around a few options I could continue teaching English hopefully at a University this time become a student studying Chinese or travel somewhere else in southern asia a return to India being my first choice. I went back and forth and forth and back a bit unenthusiast http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Macau/blog-328702.html Here we are at the Beijing 2008 Olympics This first post will just be a quick one as we can't upload any photos from our camera yet but so far the Games have been nothing short of amazing.We arrived on the 18th and have already seen lightweight freestyle wrestling and men's beach volleyball semifinals. Wrestling was INCREDIBLE. If you happened to catch the men's 55kg you saw the 21 yearold A http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-314158.html One lazy day in Tiger Leaping Gorge Yunnan province we started planning our next adventures. As we consulted our guidebook and prepared to travel further south a nice British lad suggested we check out Xinjiang. Xinjiang the Chinese province that borders Russia Kazakhstan Kyrgystan Pakistan Afghanistan Tajikistan Mongolia and Tibet and houses the Taklamakan and part of the Gobi Desert http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Xinjiang/Hami/blog-311228.html PanzhihuaPanzhihua in southern Sichuan was described to us as an armpit of a city a necessary but very unpleasant stopping point on one's way from Chengdu to Lijiang in Yunnan province. After arriving in Panzhihua postovernight sleeper train we decided to give the city a shot. This was in part due to the fact that we dawdled a bit after breakfast who us and missed all of the day buses to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/blog-304380.html Our summer travels have officially begun On June 24th we packed up our apartment said goodbye to our bikes and boarded a sleeper train south. First stop the province we have been eyeing since before we boarded the plane for Hong Kong. Yunnan. We plan to travel the province for about a month going wherever the wind takes us with a definite stay in Tiger Leaping Gorge look it up After that http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-290764.html Dear Ms. HalfmannI heard that you'll not teach us next term so I write this letter to you.Now I can still remember after the first class you taught my classmates thought half a man half an animal Ms. Halfmann I'm sorry that's only a jokeI like you very much you are fantastic and you can make me happy all the time. Although unluckily you'll go I think we can keep contact by email. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-286490.html Wednesday June 25 2008The last two Sundays we volunteered with a organization called the Rainbow Project. This org was started by two expat women working for the NGO Ecologia and has a quickly growing number of expat and Chinese volunteers. So far the main aim of Rainbow Project has been to spend time with the children of Luo Shui a city where among extensive other damage a primary and middle http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-275400.html It has been 51 days since our last post. 51 days that have been jampacked and eventful.We'll give you a rough outline of what we've been up to but you'll find most of the details in the captions of our pictures one for every day you all have excitedly waited for this update a whopping 51 in totalWe began April with another trip to Qing Cheng mountain. This time using the whole weekend sleepi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-270471.html Simon says ...Well youll have to forgive me if this teacherfact post lacks the usual flowagocity and flourishes not to mention pics of vast countryside lion dancers and neonlit caves. Cody and I now find ourselves back in the daily routine here in Chengdu but the daily routine is still packed with surprises and revelations. These are just a little harder to pick out now that things lik http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-256188.html Spring FestivalWe woke up a few minutes before the sun on Feb.7 our first morning in the Kaifeng countryside in the province of Henan. The thermometer read 36deg F . . . in our bedroom. We made a mad dash from our mountain of blankets grabbed for whatever layers we werent already wearing and stepped out into a crisp silence unlike anything we have experienced in China thus far. There were http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-247213.html On Friday Jan. 18th we found ourselves back in Hong Kong with goal 1 being change Stephanies tourist visa to a work visa. After crossing the ShenzhenHong Kong border at Luowu we headed straight for the visa office where Cody kept our packs company outside theyre not allowed in the PSB FYI for two hours while Stephanie waited for her handed in her paper work and crossed her finger http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Kaifeng/blog-242610.html Last week Stephanie taught her last class for the term and Cody finished up his lessons officially beginning our winter holiday Since then weve been continuing to explore Chengdu finishing some last minute visa business and preparing for our upcoming travels.This week everything needed for changing Stephanies tourist visa L to a work visa Z was in order including the foreig http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-235428.html Sichuan province is where Szechuan seasoning which pops up on menus in the states was born. Sichuan cuisine like Szechuan pepper is known for its unique flavor and is famous throughout China and the world for being exceptionally spicy. It's said that there are over 5000 different dishes in Sichuan and we are working our way through them one plate at a time. Below is a compilation of pictures an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-233991.html Howdy amigos and Season's Greetings. What we've got here is a compilation of the many questions posed to us through comments and emails. Following each 'Q' is our shot at answering. There are quite a few so if you get to a topic that doesn't quite float your interest boat paddle on by. We hope you enjoy and please ask as many more questions as you can think of we'll try to get at them in the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-228678.html From now until June we will be officially residing in Chengdu We are writing this blog from our very own home computer in an apartment provided by the school Stephanie will be teaching at First a burning question Why did you guys stop traveling when you still had a month left on your tourist visaAfter arriving in Chengdu a cold reality hit us it is winter in China. This meant that going any http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-227756.html A few days before we boarded the 25hr overnight train from Guilin to Chengdu Nov. 28 we were tying to nail down a concrete definition of the word lost what it means to be truly lost. After some debate we decided that being truly lost is when a person has no idea where shehe is is not even able to locate herhimself on a map and has no tools to help figure it out. We exited the Chengdu train http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-227828.html Greetings from Chengdu here are the pics we were talking about. More to comeHappy Birthday Erica http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-224149.html More pictures are coming soon We promise . . . waiting for faster internet cafe Well here we are the People's Republic of China. A recap of the latest eventsAfter waiting for about 4 business days and a weekend in Hong Kong we returned to the visa office and picked up our tickets into China. It all turned out a little different than we had expected as we received L visas which allow us http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Guilin/blog-223079.html Day Three here in HK. To satiate your desire to know more about our quest for Cody's glasses none have been found yet at least not for what we frugal backpackers are willing to pay. Hong Kong is expensive compared to Mainland China and is packed with designer stores way above our spending limit. It is the most glamorous city either of us have ever been in and in some crowdsareas we look like http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-220289.html