Blogs from Anhui, China, Asia - page 6

This past weekend I went to Huang Shan (the yellow mountain) and Huizhou in the southern part of Anhui with Peter. Every Chinese person I’ve ever met has advised me to go to this mountain. It is the gem of the Anhui province I suppose. Friday we took a 5-hour train down to Huang Shan Shi, a town about an hour bus ride away from the base of the mountain. We got to the hostel at about one a.m. and I realized I had forgotten my passport. The hostel attendant then said to follow him and I didn’t really understand where we were going. We walked up to the local police station where 3 officers sat at a table eating greasy take out. The attendant and officer exchanged some words I didn’t understand with ‘hu jiao’ ... read more

Well. I have finally arrived here safe and sound in Ma’anshan. Anhui University of Technology’s campus is BEAUTIFUL. My apartment set-up here is great! I have a bedroom, a sunroom, a study, a bathroom, a kitchen, and what I guess I would call a meeting room. It’s pretty well furnished and has one amazing component…. Air conditioning. Classes start up in the beginning of September and I had dinner with the Director of Foreign Affairs, the Dean of the Foreign Language Department, our Waiban and two department heads (one of the foreign language department and one of the Chinese department) last night. They all seem to be pretty nice and some of them enjoy alcohol quite a bit (rounds and rounds of baijiu were had). It seems like this week we’ll just be getting our living ... read more

Our journey has taken us further east to Tunxi. Surrounded by mountains and rivers, with tea shops on every corner and tea plants in every field the slower pace of life has been a welcome change and has given us the opportunity to explore the beautiful villages of the region. Of Particular note is Hongcun - which is famed for its unique irrigation system - while I know little of irrigation in practice it means that every street had a carved channel for water running down the side of the houses. Residents wash their clothes and their dishes alongside the ducks that vie for space. While there may be fewer ducks, the temples scatterered throughout red sandstone peaks makes Qiyun Shan, the mountain residence of taoists monks worth a mention. With all these places to see ... read more

If I were to tell you that I was in a very noisy, crowded place, shoulder to shoulder with people, in the early hours of the morning you may well think I was in a busy nightclub dancing away.....no no....I was on a train! Our journey began in Changsha with a one hour train to Zhuzhou. We had been warned when we purchased our tickets the day before that there were no seats left, so with little other choice, we were prepared for the worst. One hour was not too bad, David and I leaned against a chair and read our books, moving out of the way whenever someone needed to get by. This, was manageable... We had a short break in Zhuzhou, yet another town in China with over a million people and yet we ... read more

The main reason I went to Yellow Mountain was my friend Fran. She just turned 50 over the weekend (spent on the mountain of course) and it was her idea to go to the mountain during one of our long weekends. I heard that if you are in China you should definitely go to see it. We decided to take the bus there rather than fly since it was significantly cheaper- plus I have already taken a few flights this year, why not try something different? The bus left the Shanghai South Railway station at 7:58 am….only 4 stops away from my place. You would think that I beat my friends; Cynthia and Fran, who were coming from Pudong (the other side of the city) but unfortunately I was running out the door at the last ... read more