http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hunan/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Hunan en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:07:20 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:07:20 UTC Wow so somehow i've neglected to write for almost a month. So where to begin Actually not very much has happened. I've fallen into the routine of class gt home gt Food gt sleep so between that there's been basketball and Chinese classes and stuff and that's about it. So anyway a few weeks ago near the end of the week we were so gracefully informed that the next week which was last we http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Shaoyang/blog-343288.html Celebrate the summer dive into the sea. Celebrate the feeling you and me. Take me to the ocean living it supreme. Take me to the hot summer dreamFirst let me get it out of the way and say that all the pictures that are posted in this update are from the last posting I made. That is these pictures are from National Holiday and not from this week.Ok now that that songs out of the way. Last http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Shaoyang/blog-335472.html Suuuuuuuup So yeah been a few weeks. Not much has happened. Been teaching etc which has been great. Been eating lots of authentic Chinese food which has been amazing. Other than that nothing exciting really. Playing basketball etc blah blah blah. So we got to National Holiday already. I don't know what this holiday is all about. All I know is that I get 7 days vacation which I don't http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Shaoyang/blog-331465.html Wasssssssup thugsSo i'm assigned Shaoyang Number 3 Middle School in Shaoyang Hunan. The number 3 crap doesn't really mean anything at all it's just the name. None of the schools really have creative names for the most part as middle schools or primary schools. But the school is a brand new school and they've never had foreign teachers before which is both good and bad. Bad in a sense that http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Shaoyang/blog-323293.html Waiting to leave the 15th of aug. Flying into Shanghai Pudong airport staying in the city for a couple days before taking a train to Changsha. Spending this week making sure I have everything good to go If anyone has any advice on what I should bring ex. medical supplies how much in travellers check or whatever I may need. I will be in China untill the end of the year and any advice is good a http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/ChangSha/blog-308085.html Zhangjiajie National Park is about six hours by train from Yichang on the Yangtze River and it is not yet on the map for western tourist. It is a big thing however for Chinese tourists as I was soon to find out. The area is renown for its magnificent karst landscape and as you can see from the pictures it is a truly amazing sight. Some of the solo sandstone peaks dotting the landscape look l http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Zhangjiajie/blog-295545.html You'd think the staterun railway system would get a native English speaker to check these kinds of things over before putting them up by the hundreds in trains. What do they take us foreigners to be.... horses http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Zhangjiajie/blog-293397.html Went out to the airport to fly standby into the southwestern part of China. They began by asking for full fare fair enough but I asked for the discount price. They dropped the price by 40 percent but this is China and you negotiate everything here so I offered less than half. The stern woman behind the counter replied with a harsh No. I prodded gently a little but she wouldnrsquot move s http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Guilin/blog-290534.html Getting from Yangshuo to Fenghuang was always going to be interesting. I did a little internet research on the matter and found a range of blogs warning of impossible connections language nightmares and neardeath experiences on the bus. Undeterred Chris and I thought we'd have a go anyway. Getting to Guilin an hour's bus journey to the north proved easy enough. Next stop Huaihua. We opted f http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-285834.html Fenghuang are mythological Chinese birds that reign over all other birds. The males are called Feng and the females HuangI leave Yangshou with yet another slight hangover and get to Guilin.. OF COURSE I HAAAAD TO miss the train by 10 minutes so booked into Flowers hostel again until the next day here I meet .....John as in John Candy look alike... American guy that lives in Beijing got chattin http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-285369.html Our plane landed at midnight in the city of Zhangjiajie and the local taxicabs had us by the throat. They were a collective mass no bargaining they wouldn't compete it was going to be 300 rmb to the hotel and they knew we had no choice in the matter. We tried to haggle it down to even 200 but they wouldn't budge. Reluctantly we tossed our packs in the trunk and got into the taxi. It would http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Zhangjiajie/blog-277504.html We are now in the town of Fenghuang. We arrived thismorning at 600am after catching a local bus from Yangshuo to Guilin 2.5 hours. We then had to get a bus from Guilin to Huaihua 14 hours along dangerious roads high up in the mountains. Finally we got another cramped local bus which passed beautiful rice paddies and old towns into Fenghuang 2 hours . We did all this using sign language a http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-274772.html After spending 6 days running around Hong Kong we were lucky enough to get our Visa on the second attempt at the Chinese embassy. Because of the Olympics the government are cracking down on multiple entry visas and visas lasting longer than 30 days so they can maintain tighter control on foreigners entering and exiting China. It has been a real painful process involving 2 full days sitting in http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Guilin/blog-272692.html I finally said goodbye to Fenghuang on Monday. Irsquod spent my last day taking it easy. The rain had descended on the town and there wasnrsquot a lot to do. I did get up early on Sunday morning and managed to beat the rain in time to climb to the top of a small hill to see the Heavenly King Temple Tianwang Miao There is a rather steep and at times slippery path which leads to the top but http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-255446.html My next destination was to Fenghuang in Hunan province. I knew that it was going to be a long journey there so I'd mentally prepared myself for one or two problems along the way. It started relatively easy by jumping on a bus from Yangshuo back to Guilin. I then had a short wait in Guilin as the rained drizzled down. It was then a ten hour train ride to Huaihua a small nondescript town in Hun http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-254308.html My next destination was to Fenghuang in Hunan province. I knew that it was going to be a long journey there so I'd mentally prepared myself for one or two problems along the way. It started relatively easy by jumping on a bus from Yangshuo back to Guilin. I then had a short wait in Guilin as the rained drizzled down. It was then a ten hour train ride to Huaihua a small nondescript town in Hun http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-254307.html snow disaster As the whole global ecosystem is deteriorating frequent natural calamities. Fire Draught and Snow Disasters comes one by one. After Draught Disaster Hunan was visited by the tremendous snow calamity in 50 years Last year. Massive crops and livestock died in snowstorms and few people died in rescue operations. The view upon our sight it's not Scenery it's calamity. It's sound http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/ChangSha/blog-253665.html It's been exactly one week since we left the cozy confines of Hong Kong and crossed into mainland China at Shendzhen. Under the stern gaze of the Chinese Police we nervously handed our passports and tourist visas to the immigration officer. At this point we had no idea what to expect...As we made our way through the Shendzhen train station we knew we needed to catch another train...most probably http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-236057.html Hello againThis is the continuation of our epic journey in China.The last leg of our journey before reaching Fenghuang was a onehour bus ride. It was during this jaunt that our luck really improved. We loaded onto an already packed bus and were ready to pull out of the station when a young lady signalled that she wanted to get on. I squeezed over to make some room smiled and gestured for her t http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-236032.html Yangshuo The YHA hostel was extremely comfortable and the staff very helpful we ended up staying 8 nights in the Senior Leader Hostel. On a couple of occasions one of the girls cooked us Yangshuo Fried Rice and a vegetable soupshe wanted to add it to the morning's breakfast and we were her ginny pigswe liked it and she added it to the menu.Yangshuo is a small town in the Guangxi Province surr http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-227583.html Dag allemaalDe treinverbinding KailiHuaihua tartte ons geduld en zoals we gevreesd hadden arriveerden we inderdaad te laat om nog een aansluitende bus naar Fenghuang ons volgende doel te nemen. 's Anderendaags 's morgens zijn we dan meteen vertrokken naar het busstation maar dat bleek geen garantie om vroeg in Fenghuang te geraken want de bus vertrok uiteindelijk pas tegen de middag. Het gaf http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-223683.html So I've been traveling through China for quite awhile and many exciting things have happened. However they decided to redo the blog website over the past 2 weeks making it almost impossible to access my account. Well the website is prettier now and I can finally finish updating you on what I was doing two weeks ago. I swear at some point I'll actually write about something that happened in th http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-221224.html Time in An Ren with it's one main road motor bikes lorry trucks passing through with incredibly loud horns beeping at everything and anything even if it's 200 meters ahead With my kind grandma neighbour and her grandson who bring me chestnuts by the bowl full weekly and just recent brought over freshly made Chinese pancakes To the kind lady who cooks us as close to a homecooked meal as we get http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Hengyang/Anren/blog-204137.html Abroad. Adv. at large in a foreign country.On my side of the world life is quiet relaxed manic surprising overwhelming fun nerve racking homely pure interesting old traditional fresh littered tasty and I am definitely attending the University of Life Many people in this tiny rural town have never seen a foreigner so our every move is watched with intrigue confusion and curiosity http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Hengyang/Anren/blog-204136.html Oh boy this is going to be a long one. We haven't placed an entry since leaving Beijing since then we've headed south west through China visiting TaiyuanPingyao Xi'an the Yangtze River Yichang to Chongqing Chengdu Lhasa Tibet WulingyuanFenghuang. OK since we can't write about everything we've experienced we'll give you the highlights of the things we loved most. Pingyao was a n http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Fenghuang/blog-195573.html I have been invited to teach in a small town in Hunan Province Chairman Mao's birthplace. My small town is called Anren. The students have never had a Foreign teacher and many people have never seen a foreigner. So I will not only be representing Australia but every Western Foreigner. I am sure my quirks mannerisms personality and character will be looked upon with a magnifying glass and http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/Hengyang/Anren/blog-193527.html Woke at 5.30 am heart filled with joy dancing around the hotel room bluebirds serenading me as I packed. Why the life filled with love and laughter I hear you all ask. Well today I am leaving YueYang's Sinopec compound and will be freed. William was so embarassed about the job not working out that he decided to treat us to a minitour of his university town only abaout two hours away. I w http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Hunan/ChangSha/blog-183082.html