http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Sichuan en-us Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:56:41 BST Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:56:41 BST So now it is the 2nd time to go to Chengdu but this time it was with different people and later in the year. Our schools had a 1 week holiday so we all took advantage of the cheap flights and went to the city which left me with the chance to revisit the things I didn't get to the first time. Day 1We arrived late the previous day and planed for our first day to visit the giant Buddah which had b http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-328146.html Day 1 We left Litang fo Kangding where we stayed at Sally's Guesthouse which was great value. We met some amazing people including some English people doing the world's challange and it had this great atmosphere about it. The town its self was interesting to say the least. In the middle of the town was this raging river which looked so fierce and you could hear it from all over the town. I can't r http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Kangding/blog-326695.html The rain had finally finished as we left Zhongdian and we started the hellish journey to Litang to see the Tibetean horse festival. And I think hellish bus journey is an understatement. I think the bus nearly went over the cliff side a million times on the sharp hill turns on the way to Litang. It was literally painful to watch and scary As we worked our way up the mountains all I could think of http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Litang/blog-326690.html Our last day in Chengdu involved nothing more than recovering from our massages and treating ourselves to the Sichuanese delicacy HotPot. For those who are uneducated in the ways of HotPot please see the text at the end of the blog Now anyone who has even met Dave will know of his love for this dish. Penny's first HotPot however nearly ended in disaster. A piece of beef slipped from the hol http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Emei-Shan/blog-326320.html Rolling through the livid green Sichuan river valleys heading into the mountainous heart of this ancient province. The valley expands and opens up unfolding as a flower becomes a wide view of low lands beside river scene all plastered green with mountains looming in the background. And small homeshaped blue tents in the foreground. We came into this small villagetown amongst this gorgeou http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/blog-325703.html Well here we are back in Shanghi after a wonderful trip up the Yangtze River. After the dam visit 18000MW geenration capacity we travelled through the three gorges they are spectacular. Half flooded now and the dam is finished but it will take years for the gorge to fill completely. The boat was interesting as they were recomissioning it while we were on board so the smell of paint was pervasi http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/blog-323786.html Chengdu fut en fait une etape sur la route du Yunnan. Plutot qu'aller directement en avion a Kunming nous avions prefere faire escale dans cette ville afin de profiter du paysage lors du trajet ChengduLijiang en train. La raison initiale n'a pas forcement ete justifiee dans les faits mais au moins nous aurons vu du pays.Nous arrivons donc a Chengdu apres 2h de vol. Il fait de nouveau une chaleu http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-313782.html After visiting Jiuzhaigou we tried to organise transport to the national park of Huang Long the Yellow Dragon a few hours north. Due to the lack of visitors resulting from the earthquake the bus up there had been cancelled and we were unable to locate any reasonablepriced private car. We had given up and were ready to leave the area the next day when back at the hotel we met a crazy Chines http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Huanglong-National-Park/blog-311166.html From Chengdu we took the bus north skimming the outskirts of the recent earthquake here in Sichuan. The road up north had just reopened about a week ago for foreigners and even though the road the bus was taking was far to the east of the epicentre of the quake the normal and much faster route going north went right through the earthquake region and was still closed for all traffic the evide http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/blog-311162.html I have arrived in Chongqing. I have no internet yet hopefully I will get it set up tomorrow. I figured I would write my second blog on word and upload it later so I donrsquot forget my thoughts. I will hopefully also be uploading some photos for you to see the city.So first off I am incredibly impressed by the city the people and my apartment The city is gorgeous. It is also unimaginably http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chongqing/blog-311093.html This is my first blog from my year long excursion to China. As a forewarning my grammar is likely to suckhellipI am a math major after all. I rarely write anything anymore. Hopefully this new habit of blog writing and teaching EnglishLanguage Arts at school will lead to my own grammar improvement.I am currently sitting in the Hong Kong airport which has free internet. It is 6am and my connect http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chongqing/blog-309952.html After twelve hours on the bus from Chendu through the earthquake region of Sichuan we arrived at the national park of Jiuzhaigou. Jiuzhaigou was the main reason for coming this far north from Lugu Lake in Yunnan but looking back it was well worth it. The UNESCO recognised park is famous for its crystal clear mirror lakes and its waterfalls and we spent the whole day wandering around this beaut http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Jiuzhaigou/blog-309416.html After the failure at Emei Shan Karen and I decided to spend a few days in Chengdu to get our bearings do our laundry and just generally enjoy the comforts of the city which we did. We also wanted to be in a big city to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games preferably with an international crowd. In the end we settled for the only Irish Pub in town. Even though the Opening Ceremony http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-309414.html To say it right up front The plan to climb Emei Shan failed completely. From Lugu Lake we took a bus across the border from Yunnan into Sichuan. The journey was a bit of a mixed blessing It went through some amazing and remote scenery but I was sick for about half of the eight hour journey due to the endless bends and the bad condition of the road. Unfortunately I was also not able to take an http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Emei-Shan/blog-309413.html more click In Sichuan Province After earthquake Wolong Panda Reseach in Wenchuan was damaged most pandas moved to panda basa in the City of Chengdu. Hi guys Don't worry about that no damage in Chengdu next month Torch Realay will be in Chengdu everything Organized pretty well.You know Sichuan Province is just near Tibet You can enter Tibet from Chengdu. In http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-305449.html A name brand worldwide.The most famous liquor band in Chinaand what more the most matterI mean what Chinese people care about most is drinking.Someone once said The Chinese people do everyhting carelesslybut drinking.If someone else invite you to drink you must drink as well.The westerns didn't drink in the same way that's because compare with Chinese they are very individual.Chinese drinking http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Yibin/blog-303036.html We left the Teddy bear hotel and we were given a ride to where the bus would pick us up it did this with out too much waiting which was nice. So we boarded the bus which was really empty there must have been only 15 or 20 other people on it but it was really nice as we had the back all to ourselves. However it wasn't long before the road surface became incredibly poor and it made the journey incr http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/blog-293835.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 May 30 2008 Chengdu China One of the crown jewels of the Chengdu Region has been their work in preservation of the endagered Giant Panda bear. On the outskirts of the city the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. This large park is an exquisite habitat for a successful breeding program for these endangered animal. As we arrived for our tour the President of the research center http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-281998.html May 29 2008 Chengdu China After all my experiences here in Chengdu I think it is the people that made the biggest impression on me the faculty and residents of the Ophthalmology Department our bus drivers the team members and the 9 or 10 million inhabitants of Chengdu. Most vividly though I'll remember the villagers surviving the earthquake. Simple rural peasants toiling in rice paddi http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-281991.html May 29 2008 Earthquake RegionXiang' E 215212378420065 We visited several specific villages to deliver the supplies we had on board. We focused on the children and the elderly first but distributed goods widely. The first village we visited was Xiang' E. This was the tragic site where the entire middle school collapsed on the students and teachers. So many were lost in this tragedy. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-281943.html May 29 2008 Earthquake Region Most of the blog entries have been pretty easy to write but somehow this one is a bit more difficult. First it is so difficult to capture and portray the devastation that we saw never mind the immense parts affected that we did not see. Secondly the human suffering is a timeline from the stories of the fear of the earth trembling for ten minutes to the pain http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-281922.html It seems like a world away from where we are now in India which we'll get to but here is a blog about Xian the last stop in China before we went back to chill out in Hong Kong at Lauren and Rob's while they were on the otherside of the world.Another overnight train from Beijing and we arrived in Xian an ancient walled city that used to be the capital of China. It now has 3 million people http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/blog-277196.html A lot of things have happened since my last blog entry not all good but I'll start from where I left off.We arrived in Kunming about 11 days ago to lovely sunny weather and made our way to the Hump Hostel which would be our home for the next couple of days. There was a great communal area in this hostel with a terrace that looked out over the square below providing a nice view of the city and http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-276644.html So thanks to everyone who expressed concern after this huge earthquake that struck Wenchuan 2776624029 County here in Sichuan. I am perfectly safe and was never in any danger whatsoever. I figured I would have to wait 'til LA to get to experience my first earthquake I'm totally curious to know what it's like to feel the freaking EARTH freaking MOVE and never guessed it one would strike l http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-276440.html Hi Everyone. We are still alive and well. Luckly we were on a boat on the Yangzi River when the earthquake hit so we didnt feel a thing although we were slightly worried that the Three Gorges Dam may collapse. We were very close to the epicentre.Unfortunatly right now we are in the centre of it all in Chongqing SICHUAN PROVINCE and trying to arrange transport out of here to Xian since the http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chongqing/blog-275970.html 1215 UTC 0515 Pacific 2015 China The adventure of this trip is still all virtual haven't even bought the air tickets yet but notable. Today a magnitude 8 earthquake is reported in Chengdu the nominal starting point for our summer trip. An online blog reports Sichuan ChinaMagnitude 8.0Origin time 20080512 062802.3 UTCEpicenter 103.19E 31.13 http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-275406.html