I am happy to say that I have safely made it back to Shenyang. After 10 days, 2 train rides, 2 bus rides, a 7-hour ferry, and some seriously cheap hotels, my trip has come to an end. Crazy how quickly it came and went. After my amazing time in Qingdao, I made my way to Yantai by bus, where I was quickly "kidnapped" by a taxi that took me to a "hostel" about a half hour outside of the city. The place was actually fairly nice, but it was empty and in the middle of nowhere. Luckily I was only staying for 1 night. So, I didn't really get to see Yantai, but I did have help at the hotel booking my ferry for the next day leaving around noon.
The ferry was interesting and a bit long. Luckily, I met an awesome Canadian couple who had recently arrived in China and hung out with them for the whole 7 hours. When I finally arrived in Dalian, an old student of mine (Murphy) that goes to university there met me at the train station to help me find a hotel for the 4 nights. The first two places (very cheap places) didn't allow foreigners to stay, so after a bit of a struggle we managed to hike up to the fifth floor of a small hotel that gave me a room for 60 kuai (about $9) a night. It was a private room with 2 small beds, which was nice, and I was happy to see that I even had my own bathroom. The only catch was that the shower didn't work, but the man who worked there assured me that it would work tomorrow (something I heard everyday until the day I checked out). Needless to say, I went without a shower the whole time I was in Dalian. Only 4 days, it could have been worse.
Dalian was awesome. My hotel was about a 5 minute walk from the train station, which is a chaotic bustling mess of people and markets and food and blankets laid out on the ground with random shit for sale. It was always dirty, full of people, crowded, loud, and a lot of fun. I spent the first day just wandering around on my own and checking out the city and some seaside areas. It was a good intro to the city, but the second day was the best.
Murphy and I got up very early and hopped on a bus to DiscoveryLand, an amusement park type place about an hour outside of the city. The tickets and transportation both ways only cost 135 kuai (23 bucks), and all day we rode rides, watched a ridiculously tacky parade, saw a couple shows, and got wet on an awesome water ride. The park was a bit smaller than the ones we are used to in the U.S. but it was still a great day. The rest of my time in Dalian was spent visiting a very peaceful and beautiful park, going to a very cool seaside area that had bungee jumping and random crazy rides, strolling along a Russian street which was really just a long street selling cheap Chinese/Russian crap, and wandering around by myself in random parts of the city. At times I have to admit that it got a bit lonely, since I am used to staying at hostels and meeting people, but I made the best of it anyway.
My last stop was Dandong, which I arrived at by bus around noon, on my birthday. Luckily, Murphy had made me a reservation at a hotel that was in a great location, and a nice old man walked me to the hotel since he could tell I had no idea where I was going, and even waited till I checked in to leave. Sometimes the random helpfullness and kindness of Chinese people really blows me away. This was the seond time I was walked to my accommodation, and this time it was raining. I think the old man felt bad for the stupid lost American without an umbrella who has the Chinese skills of a four year old.
Dandong is located right across the river from North Korea, and there is an entire park area that you can walk along to see the city. The weather wasn't that great and it was actually a bit depressing. The bridge that connects China to North Korea is located right next to the bridge that ths U.S. bombed during the Korean War, and you can walk on the bridge halfway between the two countries. I walked around this area for a while and noticed the stark difference between the Chinese side and the North Korean side (which seems desolate and empty).
I did manage to find this cool little restaurant that Mollie had recommended to me (and also gave me some money to go and treat myself to some nice American food/drink!), and had an awesome American style breakfast. It was a nice treat on my birthday.
After one night in Dandong, I made my way to the train station for a 5 hour ride back to Shenyang. I got home around 6:30pm, and it was so nice to catch up with my awesome roommates and just relax at home.
It was nice to get back to school and see all the students and other teachers, but the highlight of being home happened last night. We had a small party to celebrate my birthday, and Mollie and everyone else cooked spaghetti and garlic bread. It was a great meal, and afterwards I was told to go to my room while a surprise was prepared for me. When I came out, there was a cake waiting for me, and everyone sung happy birthday. We all circled around the cake with forks and spoons and devoured the delicious cake within minutes. It was awesome.
But, the best part was my present. Mollie put together a photo album full of the pictures of our time so far in China, and everyone wrote a nice note to me inside. It was very surprising and such a great idea (Mollie, you're awesome!)
Anyway, I have a ton of pictures of the last 2 weeks, and hope to have them loaded online soon.
I hope everyone's doing well back home, and I miss you all.
Much love.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Qingdao!!
It is 8:30am in beautiful Qingdao, and in a couple hours I will be piling onto a bus and heading off to Yantai, about 3 hours North. I was going to wait till I was back in Shenyang to write a new blog, but things have been so great lately and I have some quiet time right now so I figured I'd update real quick!
My 4 days in Qingdao have been amazing. China continues to amaze and surprise me by its contradictions and beauty, and just going outside can be an adventure in itself. I arrived in Qingdao 4 days ago after a 20-hour train ride a bit confused and overwhelmed by the train station. But, as always, luck was on my side and a nice Chinese couple who spoke some English offered to help me find my hostel. They actually ended up walking me to the door of my hostel, which was super nice because I am staying in a building that used to be an old observatory, so it's quite a walk to get to the top. It's also quite a view from the outside roof lounge. The hostel is awesome and clean and turned out to be a great way to meet other travelers (always a plus of traveling alone!)
My first night was spent eating a big Western meal at the hostel's restaurant because I was too tired to attempt the hike back down the steps into the city in search of food. It was great, and quite cheap compared to the price of Western food in Shenyang. I ended up meeting Greta this night, an 18-year old English girl from London who I ended up spending a lot of time with.
I awoke early the next morning and headed out on my own to explore the old town of Qingdao. The hostel is in a great location, and I soon found myself wandering around a cool market square filled with people. Not long after, I somehow ended up in a big, bustling fresh meat, vegetable, and fish market. These markets are always a pleasure to walk through in China because they are always full of people and interesting food items. After enjoying some random Chinese street food, I wandered back to the hostel for a quick rest, and ran into Greta. We decided to go exploring together, and jumped on the first bus we saw in search of some outside shopping markets. We actually found this weird, indoor market shopping area with random restaurants and people playing cool Chinese instruments. This place is hard to describe in words, but the ceiling was painted like a beautiful blue clouded sky, but it was dark and there were cool lights everywhere. It was odd because it was in the middle of the city and completely out of place. For dinner we decided to head back to the fresh market that I had been to earlier that day, and ate cheap delicious street food that consisted of some garlic-tasting bread, some unidentified fried green veggie balls that were delicious, and a "burrito" (which was actually a ton of vegetables with spicy seasoning stuffed inside what looks like a tortilla). Soo good, and so cheap. Later that evening back at the hostel, we met Isle, an awesome Chinese girl who speaks near perfect English, and ended up hanging out with her, playing cards and talking. It was a great first evening.
The next morning, the 3 of us decided to get up super early (5:45am), so that we could head about an hour and a half outside of the city to Lao Shan (which is a mountain). This day was amazing. The weather turned out to be great, and the scenery was beautiful. The mountain, which doesn't really look like a normal mountain, is right next to the sea, and hiking up to the top offered breathtaking views and a lot of funny moments. This mountain is famous because it is one of the places where Taoism was started, so we got to walk around a beautiful temple before climbing up hundreds of steps with thousands of Chinese tourists. There were many pictures taken (mostly of the two white girls with random Chinese people), and the start of a lot of inside jokes between me, Greta, and Isle. We ended up getting the bus back at around 3:00pm, completely exhausted. We treated outselves to a big Western meal at the hostel (which was a second for me!), and actually ended up going to bed pretty early this night.
Yesterday was our last full day together in Qingdao, and we decided to check out some local areas and see if we could find a good beach to hang out on. We ended up taking a ferry about 20 minutes to a place called Huang Dao. The beach that we were looking for ended up being a weird, really dirty rocky area overlooking the sea and a lot of industrial buildings. Not exactly what we expected, but this is China, and sometimes that happens! We still had a great time though, and found a nice little restaurant to eat lunch in. Our chicken and potato soup had chicken feet, weird organs, and even the whole head and neck of the chicken in it! It was awesome (don't worry, I didn't eat it, just played with it!) Last night was a great ending to my short time in Qingdao. We headed over to the business side of Qingdao (so different than the old town side), and went to this square with a cool red building that has some significant meanging that I still don't know (I should brush up on Chinese history, haha). This place overlooked the sea, and had a huge row of little seaside junk shops selling random jewelry and overpriced gifts. So great! The square was pretty crowded, and beautiful at night. They even had cotton candy, which was a nice treat for me! After walking a lot, we decided to head back to the hostel for our last night and had dinner at around 10:30pm. A good ending to a nice day.
So, now it's almost time to leave. Isle is already gone, and both me and Greta leave in a couple hours. I still have 3 more cities to see, and 6 more days to go before heading back to Shenyang (which I actually really miss!) This short trip is a good preview of the months to come when I start my real traveling through the Southern part of China, into Tibet, Nepal, India, and Thailand (if all goes as planned!)
I have been taking a ton of pictures, and shortly after I get back my new laptop should be arrving (yay!!) and I should be able to actually load the pictures onto my computer and post them online.
For now, I hope everyone is doing well, and I miss you all. I probably won't post again till I get back to Shenyang, so stay tuned for more!
To my Qingdao girls: I'm so glad I got to meet you both, and I wish you luck with everything you do! I know we'll see each other again eventually. Thanks for all the great memories packed in such a short amount of time! Keep in touch...Love you!
My 4 days in Qingdao have been amazing. China continues to amaze and surprise me by its contradictions and beauty, and just going outside can be an adventure in itself. I arrived in Qingdao 4 days ago after a 20-hour train ride a bit confused and overwhelmed by the train station. But, as always, luck was on my side and a nice Chinese couple who spoke some English offered to help me find my hostel. They actually ended up walking me to the door of my hostel, which was super nice because I am staying in a building that used to be an old observatory, so it's quite a walk to get to the top. It's also quite a view from the outside roof lounge. The hostel is awesome and clean and turned out to be a great way to meet other travelers (always a plus of traveling alone!)
My first night was spent eating a big Western meal at the hostel's restaurant because I was too tired to attempt the hike back down the steps into the city in search of food. It was great, and quite cheap compared to the price of Western food in Shenyang. I ended up meeting Greta this night, an 18-year old English girl from London who I ended up spending a lot of time with.
I awoke early the next morning and headed out on my own to explore the old town of Qingdao. The hostel is in a great location, and I soon found myself wandering around a cool market square filled with people. Not long after, I somehow ended up in a big, bustling fresh meat, vegetable, and fish market. These markets are always a pleasure to walk through in China because they are always full of people and interesting food items. After enjoying some random Chinese street food, I wandered back to the hostel for a quick rest, and ran into Greta. We decided to go exploring together, and jumped on the first bus we saw in search of some outside shopping markets. We actually found this weird, indoor market shopping area with random restaurants and people playing cool Chinese instruments. This place is hard to describe in words, but the ceiling was painted like a beautiful blue clouded sky, but it was dark and there were cool lights everywhere. It was odd because it was in the middle of the city and completely out of place. For dinner we decided to head back to the fresh market that I had been to earlier that day, and ate cheap delicious street food that consisted of some garlic-tasting bread, some unidentified fried green veggie balls that were delicious, and a "burrito" (which was actually a ton of vegetables with spicy seasoning stuffed inside what looks like a tortilla). Soo good, and so cheap. Later that evening back at the hostel, we met Isle, an awesome Chinese girl who speaks near perfect English, and ended up hanging out with her, playing cards and talking. It was a great first evening.
The next morning, the 3 of us decided to get up super early (5:45am), so that we could head about an hour and a half outside of the city to Lao Shan (which is a mountain). This day was amazing. The weather turned out to be great, and the scenery was beautiful. The mountain, which doesn't really look like a normal mountain, is right next to the sea, and hiking up to the top offered breathtaking views and a lot of funny moments. This mountain is famous because it is one of the places where Taoism was started, so we got to walk around a beautiful temple before climbing up hundreds of steps with thousands of Chinese tourists. There were many pictures taken (mostly of the two white girls with random Chinese people), and the start of a lot of inside jokes between me, Greta, and Isle. We ended up getting the bus back at around 3:00pm, completely exhausted. We treated outselves to a big Western meal at the hostel (which was a second for me!), and actually ended up going to bed pretty early this night.
Yesterday was our last full day together in Qingdao, and we decided to check out some local areas and see if we could find a good beach to hang out on. We ended up taking a ferry about 20 minutes to a place called Huang Dao. The beach that we were looking for ended up being a weird, really dirty rocky area overlooking the sea and a lot of industrial buildings. Not exactly what we expected, but this is China, and sometimes that happens! We still had a great time though, and found a nice little restaurant to eat lunch in. Our chicken and potato soup had chicken feet, weird organs, and even the whole head and neck of the chicken in it! It was awesome (don't worry, I didn't eat it, just played with it!) Last night was a great ending to my short time in Qingdao. We headed over to the business side of Qingdao (so different than the old town side), and went to this square with a cool red building that has some significant meanging that I still don't know (I should brush up on Chinese history, haha). This place overlooked the sea, and had a huge row of little seaside junk shops selling random jewelry and overpriced gifts. So great! The square was pretty crowded, and beautiful at night. They even had cotton candy, which was a nice treat for me! After walking a lot, we decided to head back to the hostel for our last night and had dinner at around 10:30pm. A good ending to a nice day.
So, now it's almost time to leave. Isle is already gone, and both me and Greta leave in a couple hours. I still have 3 more cities to see, and 6 more days to go before heading back to Shenyang (which I actually really miss!) This short trip is a good preview of the months to come when I start my real traveling through the Southern part of China, into Tibet, Nepal, India, and Thailand (if all goes as planned!)
I have been taking a ton of pictures, and shortly after I get back my new laptop should be arrving (yay!!) and I should be able to actually load the pictures onto my computer and post them online.
For now, I hope everyone is doing well, and I miss you all. I probably won't post again till I get back to Shenyang, so stay tuned for more!
To my Qingdao girls: I'm so glad I got to meet you both, and I wish you luck with everything you do! I know we'll see each other again eventually. Thanks for all the great memories packed in such a short amount of time! Keep in touch...Love you!
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