Spring Festival 2011-part 4--Yangshuo

Just south of Guilin is a popular city called 阳朔--YangShuo. Notable for being situated on the beautiful Lijiang river and surrounded by this unique, steep hills around and in the city.

Business really is a family affair, minus the parents.  These kids are totally accustomed to all aspects from selling to buying.

It's all about the red.  Red = luck so everywhere you go you can buy couplets, firecrackers, chili peppers (because they're red) and wall hangings covered with red.

And don't forget the mounds of candy.  I'm still not sure what it's all used for, but there's loads of it.  We bought a variety and found it was definitely hit or miss for our tastebuds.  We avoided the corn-flavored ones.

Chickens are sold live.  Fresh is important!  And what an age old technique, she uses weights and a stick to weigh the chicken to determine the price.

We went on a bike trip (as is standard for day 2 in Yangshuo) to the south to see the moon hill.

And we saw this really big tree.  Can't remember the name of it.  We got to the hostel and said we're here for two days, so the owner told us what we were going to do.  We said, cool, and kept going along.  See the blue dot--that's Annie.  The tree is unique in that as it's branches grow out the branch sends down a shoot that hits ground and grows roots to support the tree.

Views along the bike ride through a calm valley.

Clearly defined as free-range chickens! 

Mystical hills, calm roads, and orange trees along the side.  A great experience.

Something about this picture doesn't add up.

What a deal!  That long box is what I mailed.  Annie and I bought souvenirs along the way and mailed them home.  1/2 way across China to send that heavy box and the total is 17 yuan (or $3.)

At every city, Annie made it a goal to eat at a Muslim noodle shop.  The noodles are handmade in these shops and the dishes are delicious and really inexpensive.  Once we paid 12 yuan ($1.80) and were startled how overpriced it was due to being in a touristy area.

Can't forget that to spring festival belongs fireworks.  You can buy them everywhere and launch them off anywhere.  So we decided to take part!

Spring Festival 2011-part 3--Guilin

Proof.  Foreigners are often recruited to model for products simply because, well, they're foreign.  Here's a great example of what my friend, Annie, called "Frankenstein selling chewing gum".

Does this logo look like anything you might recognize?  Apparently this is a real and legit company.  It's ranked better than the complete knock offs that use Adidas's logo without the quality.

In China, on your year you should wear something red to bring you luck.  Learning this, I decided to buy something red in every city I visited.The most common, comically, is red underwear.  Every store has a large section of bright red underwear with the Chinese character 福 (fu=luck) printed on it.

Images of China.  Those supplies to the left are all on one small cart.

Again, another city is celebrating me, the rabbit! 

And for that celebration, they've finally made a bottle as it should be.  Do you think I could import that back into the US?

 

When my friend finally arrived after her 33 hour train ride (yuck!) we went to the dragon backbone terraces--rice fields in the side of the mountain that, from a distance, resemble the scales of a dragon's back.

Our hostel group that went to the dragon backbone rice terraces for the day (two Koreans up front, and two Americans currently teaching in Suzhou.)

We came as everything was covered in a sheet of ice, making the stairs very wet and the view unforgettable.  Due to the warm sun that day, each one of us suffered from an ice cube to the head due to it falling from the trees overhead.

In preparation for the spring festival, the members of the village (in the rice fields) butchered their spring pigs for the feast to follow.  I was also told that a week before the New Year (about this time), some religious families will have a meal (or just offer candies) to the Kitchen god so he will report to the emperor the family's good deeds.

As we climbed the hill, Annie found puppies and couldn't help but to stop and play.

What Annie has by her bedside.  Phone, in case someone calls.  Glasses, without which she's nearly blind.  And hammer.

In Guilin, the Lijiang river flows, which allows for the most beautiful views.  We arrived and were told we had to wait 4 hours because someone politically important wanted to take a cruise.  Thus, they cleared the entire river just for this person's passage.

The hill of 9 horses.  Looking at the side of this hill, a truly astute person can find the silhouettes of 9 horses.  (A Chinese person's description always continues with is "Mao was able to find all 9".)

The famous scene on the back of the 20 yuan bill.

And in true Chinese fashion, here is the exact view from the back of the 20 Yuan bill.  Note the stinking wire cutting completely in front of it.  Oh, China.

Sugar cane (and lots of it!) is a popular snack and way of making sugar.

Note the writing to the left, usually it reads "Zhong Guo You Ju", but I don't know what happened. here.

Spring Festival 2011-part 2--Hangzhou

As my friend had a school commitment after Yellow Mountain, I treked to the nearby Hangzhou.  It's home of scenic West Lake and is ranked with Suzhou as one of the two most beautiful places in China.

It, of course, is year of the rabbit--my year!  I figured it only fitting to join in a picture with the rabbits, as if it's a display basically celebrating me!

West Lake is to China as Mount Olympus is to Westerners.  This is the site of much Chinese mythology, so it is a very popular destination.

Fortunately, I visited in the dead of "winter" so I could see the lake at its most tranquil.  Friends went for national holiday in October and said walking around the lake was like walking in a funeral procession because it was so crowded it was so slow.

Don't let me forget, Hangzhou is also home to the incredibly wealthy.  Walking along the east side of the lake, you'll spot BMW, Maserati, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Porsche, Jaguar, and Ashton Martin (here) where you have to be invited to buy a car.

The site of my first actual Chinese conversation! I went to the restaurant next to the hostel for dinner and to study my Chinese.  The waiters, of course, noticed I was studying, so started up a conversation.  It went surprisingly well despite my limited language at that time.  Pictured with me here is Li Yang (same last name as me and also a rabbit).

东坡肉--dong po rou.  It's a local specialty in Hangzhou that a former general fed to his troops.  As is imperative in China, travelers must try the foods in every region (don't mind seeing the sites, as those are often 2nd in importance to the Chinese.)

A vacation in...January? Spring Festival's Beginning in Anqing & Yellow Mountain

(Over two months ago) I enjoyed the freedom that Spring Festival in China grants--5 weeks of paid vacation in the middle of the school year.  In honor of the two month anniversary of the adventures I decided to post the tales of the trip (okay, I'm a fraud; I finally got to doing this.  Collectively my friend and I had 1500 photos, a daunting task to sort and an easy one to procrastinate on!)

I spent the entirety of my trip with my friend, Annie, who works in the same company but works in Anqing in Anhui province.  We both wanted to travel, so we decided to jetset together.  I started by visiting her in Anqing because my work finished before hers.  Here we're in one of the few "western" restaurants in Anqing enjoying an Irish coffee, fitting for the leprechaun in the picture.

We planned to go to Yellow Mountain after my arrival, but a huge snow in Anqing stopped all the buses and trains, so we decided to have a massive on-going snowfight instead!

It took 3 hours to walk the 1/2 mile from the bus station to a cafe because, well, we got distracted with things like this.  Each of us took a turn shaking a tree, rolling in snow, making snowmen, throwing snowballs with security guards (What? They threw it first!)

Here, Any and Lucy pose at the Emerald Pond near yellow mountain. Annie's Chinese friend's niece, Lucy, is studying for the IELTS test (English Language test) and she joined us for the weekend to help us with traveling while we helped her with her English.

We made it to Yellow Mountain (after multiple traffic concerns that it wouldn't happen) and we arrived on a rather foggy day.  Here's the view from the cable car suspended high in the air.  Great view, huh?

This is a famous tree with the North Sea in the background.  Again, stunning. (note the sarcasm)

After climbing literally 2 km of stairs, we finally climbed above the cloud/fog level and came to some clear skies.  This is the excitement showing we finally made it to a place with sites!

Yellow Mountain is the most internationally famous mountain in China.  It is rumored to have inspired the floating islands in the movie Avatar.  Here you can see the mystical clouds passing through the surrounding mountains.

Atop a Yellow mountain peak.  You're probably thinking "WOW he put on weight and needs new clothes."  Well, that's simply due to the 7 layers of clothing I was wearing on this trip.  The hotels lacked proper heating, so we were all constantly in 5+ layers.

It being the middle of winter and a sunny day, the snow was melting down the stairs, but in the areas with no sunlight, like the Turtle's Cave here, the stairs were solely ice.  This was fine, but it wasn't so cool the second time when the bottom of the staircase instantly turned off and was an edge with a simple railing.  I don't like edges of high buildings.

While it is high, the views are spectacular.

Where does this path lead?  A beautiful view, yet slightly tainted with the anticipation of what is at its end.  The answer: stairs.  Chinese mountains are not like European mountains.  In Europe, there are slow winding paths to reach the top.  In China, it's a steep staircase straight up!

Here the most famous tree of Yellow Mountain, the welcoming tree.  As the branch reaches out from the stem it appears to be a someone bowing his/her head and extending a hand to welcome you to Yellow Mountain.