Shanghai and Beyond

                Shanghai was so much fun! It is such a cool city with so much to see and do. We set out Thursday night for our 8PM flight and which was the emptiest flight I had ever been on. Texie and I were the only two in our row so she laid down and slept in the row behind us and I slept in ours and many others were simply empty – the airline lost a lot of money on that flight! Flying into the city was cool we could see all the ports, some city lights, and so many bridges. It looked huge! When we got there we had to take a cab because we narrowly missed the last airport bus by two minutes, the subway was closed, as was the bullet train (the second fastest train in China!) Our cab ride was ridiculously expensive. We had heard that Shanghai was expensive but we didn’t expect it to be that bad. Our cab ride, about half an hour and 40km away, cost us about 275 RNB ($44) which would cost about 100-125 RNB at the most in Chengdu ($15 to $20). When we got there our friend Jake was waiting outside our hotel. While we had enjoyed a 2.5 hour plane ride, he decided to take a 28 hour train ride on a hard seat in order to save money so that he could buy another suit or two while in Shanghai. The room and hotel were actually pretty nice. We had hoped to get another blanket or two from the front desk since there were 5 of us and only two full beds, but they wouldn’t give it to us. So instead we had to push the two beds together and someone had to sleep on the crack every night. The bathroom was nice but instead of having walls it had frosted glass which we quickly learned was actually see through. So when showering and changing we had to be strategic to keep our towel on as long as we could to prevent everyone else from seeing. One of the guys learned that the hard way but it was funny. 

                Friday we got up and at ‘em bright and early. Cheap good food was tough to find while we were there so we had some weird wraps from a coffee place for breakfast and then walked for a while to find the tailor street. Our hotel was right on the bund, the European street across the river from the city skyline. It was beautiful and really cool to see. The city is so westernized and is the second largest city municipality wise in the world, the largest in China (I think Tokyo is first.) However when we were walking to the Tailoring building we saw some random side streets and were taken right back into China. There were small streets with live animals waiting for customers, small fabric shops, and little shops. After a long walk and asking many people how to get to the market we finally found it! It was a bustling shop full of mostly westerners there to shop and get hand tailored suits, jackets, pants, etc. It was hard to pick the best shop but we went to the one with the most people and who were the nicest and gave us the best deal, making sure they could get it done in two days. I got a suit for the boyfriend after giving them his measurements he had sent and then after my roommate was looking at a cute coat, I ordered myself a navy blue jacket that actually turned out really well! That afternoon it started pouring out; sort of like Seattle… we just didn’t need an ark like you guys have the last few days. We took a few subways lines, there are 12 of them to try to navigate, and made our way to Nanjing Road – the big shopping road in Shanghai. It is a large street with people trying to constantly trying to sell you fake handbags and take you to their shops in small sketchy allies. We found a bargain market that we had thought was the famous one in Shanghai, but we quickly figured out it wasn’t. We all got some slight shopping done though. It was fun to go out and explore. After that we went back to the hotel to rest and try to figure out what we wanted to eat. We had hoped to go to the Hardrock Café but it had closed back in February. So then we went to a small jazz bar for happy hour by our hotel but they were extremely rude and we had the impression they wanted us to leave so we ate quickly and left. They were expensive and had really small portion sizes. After that we were still so hungry! So we walked the bund at night and saw the skyline which was beautiful, even though it was foggy and not super clearly visible. We walked along the waterfront and found a monument that looked like a miniature Washington Monument. It looked really cool with the skyline in the background but we never figured out what it was actually for. Then we found two of our boys at a pub down the street where we got more dinner since we were all hungry and watched badminton. None of us had ever been so involved and interested in a badminton match as we were that night. There was our group and two French men in the bar and that’s it, so of course the 5 of us crazy Americans were yelling at the screen and cheering away, making a scene as always. It was fun and we all got a good laugh out of it, including the two French guys. 

                Saturday was our shopping and exploration day and boy did we nail it. We went to the Pearl Market, the large bargaining market full of tea, knock off brands and all sorts of knick knacks and spent 3.5 hours shopping away. We bargained through with the stubborn Chinese to get the cheap prices we wanted! We could get any team’s jersey one woman had in stock for 100CNY or about $15 or $16, Purses for 150CNY or $24, tea, and all sorts of odds and ends.  It was a bit overwhelming at times and annoying getting nagged by random people as you are walking, but we all got some solid shopping done! We then had to wander all the way back towards our hotel to drop off all of our stuff and then we set out for an adventure again. We took the subway back across the water towards the financial district and wandered around. At the market we all got I <3 (heart) China shirts and wore them around all evening. So we set the camera on timer and took our “album cover American pop band” pictures which provided some great entertainment not only for us, but for people passing by. We walked around the extremely modernized portion of the city to the Financial Tower which has the highest observatory deck in the world, being on the 100^th story. The tower is the one that looks like a bottle opener and provided amazing views of the city. Once we got to the top we waited for 45 minutes for the city lights to come on and boy was it a beautiful site! The Financial Tower overlooks the main lights of the city, The Bund, and the river, which are amazing from 100 floors up! They have a transparent glass-floor walkway down the center of the floor that allows you to see the street down below which to be honest is a little scary. One of the craziest things to me is how far up you are and how small everything looks down below. I was honestly a little scared to walk over the glass for fear of it breaking or something, but I got over it eventually. Another crazy thing is the elevator. It takes a total of 25 or so seconds to go to the top – 474 meters up.

                We grabbed some subway, yes more western food, and headed for the second highest bar in the world, which turned out to be much classier than we expected. First of all it’s a maze to get there. One must find the Hyatt hotel, which is in the Jin Mao Tower, take the elevator to the 35^th floor, walk to the other side of the building, take another elevator to the 85^th floor, go down a hallway and take yet another elevator to the 87^th floor. Let me set the scene here for you. Texie and I were both wearing our I <3 China shirts with leggings and boots, the boys wearing jeans and their matching shirts, we were in one of the nicest hotels and buildings in the city, the wait staff were all dressed up, the lights in the bar were dim, candles dimly lit on each table, and everyone talked in a hush – we were not dressed right for this place! We expected it to be more of a fun kind of crazy bar, but boy were we wrong. The cover charge was 100RNB, $16, and included one complimentary drink consisting of tiger beer, rum and coke, white wine or red wine. When we asked to see the drink menu, the waitress kind of snubbed us off and told us they don’t have one and walked away. I think there might have been a lost in translation issue there, but needless to say they weren’t fond of us being there. We all ordered our complimentary drink and enjoyed the site of the city. After we finished our drinks we quickly got out of there, had they been nicer we may have ordered more drinks but since we felt like they didn’t want us there to begin with, we decided not to overstay our welcome. We wandered through the cities after making our way through the maze back down all of the elevators. Even from the ground, the city is beautiful at night! We went to the base of the pearl tower and then walked along the river across from the bund and took in all the lights from the European styled street across the water. 

                Sunday morning, Jake left bright and early to take his 28 hour train ride back to Chengdu, while the rest of us took the opportunity to sleep in. We finally got all of our lazy selves up prepared for whatever the day had in store. We packed up and left the boys in the room, expecting them to leave right away, while Texie and I went to go checkout. While we were checking out, Matt had the most embarrassing experience since we’ve been in China I think. Before we could officially checkout, the maids had to check the room to make sure that everything was okay, but they boys didn’t expect this, and they all got something that none of them had wanted. Since Matt had been staying in a room with girls for the past few days he always closed the door while going to the bathroom, but since we weren’t there he decided to leave the bathroom door open in order to “feel more free” – his words, not mine. But when he heard the room door opening he jumped up to close the bathroom door, not knowing that it was the maids. The poor maid was met with a 21 year old naked butt and Matt was met with a startled and probably scarred maid. It was a hilarious story to hear about because as soon as Matt said it, we could all picture this scene taking place, plus of all the people to have it happen to, it would be him. 

                We had the rest of the day free, so the boys decided they wanted to go back to the Pearl Market to finish some shopping they had forgotten about. We went back to the Pearl Market, explored through that area of the city, returned to the suit market, and then went back to the hotel to get all of our bags and went back to the suit market once again to do our final pick up of all of our stuf. It was a big long adventure considering the fact that there are 12 subway lines! We finally got all of our suit stuff figured out and took the subway to the MedLev station – the MedLev being the fastest mode of transportation to the airport, taking only 7 minutes and going 301 km/hour. It was so cool! The airport had no food, only a few expensive restaurants which was quite a letdown so we had peanut M&Ms for dinner as well as some weird plane food. We made it home safe and sound and it was great!

                Thanksgiving was so amazing! We were invited to the pastor’s house from church, whose family is from Edmonds by the way! There were about 20 of us with half being college age, 3 little kids under the age of 5, and a few parents. We played the game of Life, kept the little ones entertained, listened to Christmas music and hung out for a few hours. Around 5, we all gathered around the three tables put together to eat all of the Thanksgiving goodies! These goodies included turkey, chicken, rice (of course!), stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, jam, butter, corn bread, fruit Jell-O, green beans, green bean casserole and more! It was soooooo good! And being able to spend Thanksgiving around good friends and family in Christ was amazing, especially half way across the world. The electricity at the people’s house we were out had gone out, so they had to go to a friend’s house to cook all the food! Of all the days it could have gone out, it went out on Thanksgiving! It was such a nice gesture. After dinner we all wrote what we were thankful for on leaves and read them aloud then posted them on the tree, such a cute idea! Then we played Wii cow racing, tennis, and Wii Just Dance! It was so much fun and nice to hang out and spend time with everyone. Oh and there was dessert too! How could I forget? We had cookies, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. J As we were about to leave, we noticed how dirty the place was so we asked if we could help clean up, the parents hesitated but the son was quick to say yes, otherwise he would have been stuck doing all of the dishes. So we took to cleaning up all of the plates, putting things back where they belong and while doing dishes everyone busted out singing Christmas Carols, a perfect way to end the evening. It was such a blessing having Thanksgiving with so many people and being able to celebrate it halfway across the world. 

                This last week of school has been going well. Classes were pretty easy, I am a little nervous for my Chinese final, but the rest should be fine. Tomorrow I am going to Starbucks to study away. This past weekend was really fun! Friday night was our farewell dinner put on by the School of Overseas Education. People did performances, Texie and I did “You know you’re in China when…” jokes, one girl juggled, a guy did slam poetry, one guy danced, and a few people sang. It was really fun to hang out with everyone, say goodbye, and reminisce, but sad. Afterwards a bunch of us went out to the Shamrock Bar to go dancing. Girls got free drinks for ladies night and it was fun to go out and be with everyone! Saturday we woke up bright and early and went to our friends’ apartment where the boys cooked us breakfast. It was cozy with Christmas Pandora playing on the sound system, the boys cooking pancakes and French toast in the kitchen, and all of us hanging out! It was so nice to have a home cooked meal.  After we braved the Lotus Market to get some last minute gifts but Texie and I found it to be way too overwhelming so we left after only an hour and went to the “Ancient Street” instead. We shopped for a little while there to top off our Christmas shopping and came home with the intention of going to Starbucks to study for the evening, but instead got lazy, ordered pizza and watched the Dark Night Rises. It made for a much needed relaxing night which was nice. This morning we went to church which was so nice! I got prayed for twice and Texie, Joel, and I all started crying at the end when everyone prayed for us and we had to say goodbye. The rest of the day flew by; I don’t really know where it all went. I had to work for an hour which turned out to go better than I expected. The kids were really responsive and I only had one class today because my first class was all sick – probably from me. 

                Prayers would be much appreciated. Monday morning I woke up with a killer fever and sore throat. Monday night I was up from 230-430 throwing up and tossing and turning as I was curled in a ball freezing due to my fever. The fever went away by Thursday morning but I still have fatigue, a stuffy nose, and am coughing a ton. I think I have a sinus infection and am hoping to get in to the doctor before I fly out but China isn’t very efficient so I don’t have very high hopes. I am feeling a bit better but still not 100% which doesn’t make for a fun last week in China, so prayers are much appreciated once again!

              Speaking of flying out, I can’t believe I only have another week left! It almost feels like just yesterday I was stepping off the plane. I have had an amazing experience here in China and am so thankful for the opportunity to study here and do all the things I have done. It has made me appreciate so much more in my life and I have done so many things I never would have imagined I’d be doing. I am really starting to miss home though. I want to try to enjoy my last week as best that I can but I am starting to get really anxious to come home which is going to make it slightly difficult. Tomorrow is my last day of work, I have finals Tuesday through Thursday, one class on Friday then I am free! I want to say thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and has been there for support when I feel homesick or stressed. I am so excited to see everyone! My VPN, the thing that allows me to get on Facebook and Google, expires tomorrow, so this is the last blog post until I get home. Prayers for safe travel would be much appreciated as well. I travel from Chengdu to Beijing, Beijing to Vancouver and finally Vancouver to Seattle arriving at around 1:15PM on Sunday the 2^nd. I am a little nervous since I will be traveling by myself and am not fluent in Chinese, so I am hoping everything will just run smoothly on its own. Thanks again! See you all in a week! :D

Thanksgiving Family

Thankfulness Tree

Shanghai Skyline

Shanghai Sunny City Skyline

I <3 Palm Trees

Our Album Cover

Album Cover Take 2

Skyline From the Highest Observatory in the World

The Girls - Sally, Me, Louise, Texie, Emma

               

The Weeks are Flying By!

                The weeks are starting to fly by now, which coincidentally I am beginning to be okay with. While this has been an amazing opportunity and I am so thankful for the opportunity, I am really starting to miss home; the familiarity, the variety of food, the people, and just the general atmosphere.

                Though Christmas has come upon China!!! Last week we had Bible study at Starbucks and to my surprise they had peppermint mocha’s, Christmas cups, and Christmas music playing. It made me so excited! I literally jumped for joy! I was starting to get jealous of all the people with Christmas cups at home. I’ve only had Starbucks four times since I’ve been in China and two of those were in the last week and in Christmas cups. Bible study was amazing, but the Christmas cups really didn’t hurt either.

                Over the weekend we had a typical “college weekend” of sorts… or at least an SPU College weekend. Friday night we ordered pizza with the intent of watching Madagascar 3 and eating McFlurries. The pizza was amazing! The guy who owns the pizza place is from the US and is married to a Chinese woman and together they run their pizza store and it tastes like good ‘ol American Pizza. When Texie, my roommate, ordered the pizza she also happened to order cookie pizza which was amazing. So we ate pizza, put Reese’s (thanks mom, dad, and Emily for the care packages by the way!)  and cookies in our McFlurries, and watched Madagascar which was fun. Nice relaxing night. Saturday we slept in and did some homework. Then Texie and I became “tourists” for the afternoon. We went to JinLi Ancient Street, a small old ancient street in town that is a popular tourist site. Then we went to People’s Park (人们) which is the largest park in Chengdu, located in central Chengdu. There we found people dancing, singing, an orchestra, a celebration of Single’s Day, and postings. Single’s Day is a day celebrating all the singles in China and is a really big deal in China, so there were people celebrating everywhere. The postings were an interesting thing all on their own. There is a place in the park that is essentially a dating classifieds section. Parents post advertisements for their kids including age, good qualities, height, etc. and wait for a potential husband or wife to see the advertisement. If the person sees an advertisement that they like, they call the number and speak and meet with the parents who are sitting close by watching the people passing by. It was a fun adventure for the afternoon and it was nice to get out. I got yet another Starbucks drink, a treasured peppermint mocha. :D That night we got some food and went to Bookworm to study and be productive. Surprisingly that’s the most productive I’ve been yet – working on my resume, cover letter, and internship applications. (Which by the way I could really use prayer for!)

                Sunday night we went to church for the first time in a few weeks which was awesome! It makes our week every week. And coincidentally, the family who hosted church this week opened up their house for Thanksgiving which is a blessing. They wanted to especially focus on the college kids who have nowhere to go for Thanksgiving. We are really excited for it, even though it’s not our real families; we still get to spend time with other families and people on Thanksgiving. That afternoon we studied some more and that night we had a farewell dinner from our site director. She took us to individual hotpot that was extremely different than any hot pot yet. You choose your own soup ranging from shark head to mushroom to lily soup. Then you mixed your own sauce making it as spicy or sweet as you wanted. From there you boil your meet and vegetables in the soup and then dip them in your sauce. It was actually pretty tasty! But took forever since there were about 18 of us.

                Monday morning we went to our 3^rd Zumba class which is taught by one of our American friends here. She is a Zumba instructor in Texas so she decided to continue on here. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we all make our way over to the track and start Zumba at 6AM. It is a great workout and is actually really fun! This week we had two Chinese girls join us as well as two of our boys (they got free pizza from me and Texie out of it.) Then last night I taught my second class and boy do I admire teachers these days. My little kids are adorable, but they are a handful – especially the boys!!! They are fun though but after only two 40 minute classes I am always exhausted when I get home. Lucky for me though I do have a 19 year old Chinese Kindergarten teacher who helps me out which is a great help! She is able to explain to them in Chinese what I am saying in English as far as directions go.

                Last work went pretty well also. Getting there was a pain. I was tired and a little depressed because I was (and still am) simply ready to come home, which in turn put me in a bad mood. Then I tried to catch a taxi because my roommate sold her scooter to our friend and he was using it tonight, however there were no taxis! They were all full due to it being rush hour. So I did what any Chinese person would do and hopped on the back of some guy’s scooter; scooter taxis are very common, don’t worry mom, dad, grandma and Chase! It’s safe. When I got on the guy told me 30CNY and since I was in a hurry I didn’t argue, however he didn’t know where it was. So I had to give him directions in broken Chinese. Since he does this every day, he was a good driver. When we finally arrived, he told me that it was so far that I owed him 70CNY but I told him I didn’t have any and gave him 40CNY instead. It’s more expensive than a taxi but much faster because it can maneuver traffic. Work went really well! The kids were cute and my trouble child in my second class wasn’t there which made it better. I don’t think teaching is one of my gifts, while I love little kids, my patience runs out pretty fast. But the kids are so cute and teaching them helps me to get my mind off of things and puts me in a better mood. I then took the bus home which was interesting and had to walk a ways back to campus. I’ve never been almost ran over or hit by a car as many times as I almost did last night. One taxi in particular turned a corner, swerved straight for me, and then last minute swerved back. Other cars came really close to running over my toes – it was a real life game of extreme Frogger. But I made it back safely so it’s okay. J

                But I leave in about 17 days which is bittersweet, but I am ready. The next 3 weeks or so are going to fly by. We are going to Shanghai this weekend, next week is our last week of school, and then we have finals. Finals will be easy I think. I have two tests, two 3 page papers, a 15 minute presentation, and a 5 minute presentation which in comparison is much easier than finals in the states! Gotta run to the airport. Zaijian!

Beauty

The drive was beautiful!

As were the skies and the real clouds.

Every time I think that China can't get any more beautiful, I am proven wrong. This past weekend, The Three Amigos or “The Party People” as we named ourselves due to the fact that we explore China as much as we can (doesn’t make much sense I know), set out to Jiuzhaigou – a Tibetan and Qing autonomous region in the very northwest of Sichuan Province. Texie, Joel, and I set out at a lovely 6:45AM once again to go to the bus station to begin our journey. We have a tendency to get up really early on our trips for some reason. We have discovered that we wander in the dark more than we ever have before. Our bus left at 7:30 and we began the 8-10 hour bus ride. The bus ride sounded a bit daunting due to the fact that it was around 9 hours on a bus… close to the same amount I would sit on a plane to fly home. The first hour and a half I slept because I was absolutely exhausted. When I woke up we were in the middle of the beautiful mountains. The route the bus followed was in a small valley between mountains and followed a river the entire 9 hours. As we drover further and further we saw a variety of different mountains. The scenery changed from very green mountains, to plain desert looking ones as if we were in Nevada, then colorful trees started appearing on the mountains, and eventually they began to get very green once again. The river turned from an ugly brown color to a beautiful sea foam green color. Along the way there were lots of Tibetan style houses and women dressed in traditional Tibetan clothing, a few city walls and cities taking advantage of the popular route to Jiuzhaigou by creating tourist attractions, once functioning bridges that had collapsed due to landslides or earthquakes, and various animals such as yaks and horses. We even began to see clear bright blue skies and real puffy white clouds – both of which are very rare to see in Chengdu, especially real clouds. 

Prayer Flags are used by the Tibetan people.

 

The bus was full of people of all ages. In front of us was a couple consisting of a middle aged Western man and a small woman of Asian descent of some sort – they made for an interesting couple let me tell ya. There were three or so young men who were members of the Chinese military, one of whom was sitting next to me on the bus along with many older couples. Another guy sitting in our row was an older man who yawned louder than anyone I have ever heard and every time he yawned Texie and I couldn’t help but to laugh. The bus driver drove our bus like a sports car rather than a bus which made for an interesting bus ride. I already knew the driving here was crazy, but it was revealed even more on this drive. There are double lines and dashed lines meaning you can or cannot pass but these were not followed at all. Our bus driver, as well as many other drivers, passed cars or other buses on blind corners and hills, with many close calls occurring along the way. How does this work? Well, in order to let others know you’re passing on a corner you simply honk your horn several times so that others coming from the other way know you are in their lane. I have no idea how it works so effectively, but it does surprisingly. We almost got into so many accidents, but managed to avoid all of them and saw no others both driving there or back home. The crazy driving and uncomfortable seats made it a bit difficult to sleep, unless you fall asleep on the strangers shoulder next to you like I accidentally did, for a considerable amount of time might I add which I was told after we already got off the bus. Yes, Joel has proof that I fell asleep on the military guy next to me for a while and I apparently woke up and fell right back asleep afterwards. Luckily I didn’t find out until after we had gotten off the bus, but I was still embarrassed and never had a chance to apologize to the poor guy.

So since it was approximately a 9 hour bus ride you may be wondering about food and bathrooms. This bus was not like our fancy charter buses that we have in the states, instead it as a slightly sketchy bus that could have fallen apart or tipped over on a tight corner at any moment. In order to make up for that, we stopped about every 2 hours or so to use the bathroom and grab a snack. At one point we stopped for about 45 minutes for a lunch break at a gross and highly overpriced restaurant. The bathrooms were an interesting obstacle we faced. At each place we stopped they charged 1¥, about 16¢ or so. You have to bring your own toilet paper with you, which people typically carry in small tissue packages everywhere in China. The bathrooms were a bit rough and lacked in privacy. None of the “stalls” had doors, the toilet was a trench or hole in the ground, and the stalls were typically just small dividers that came about up to my hip between each “toilet”. At one point me and another woman were the only two in the bathroom and happened to stand up at the same time. When we did as we both are buttoning up our pants, she looked over, smiled, and said hello, something that is very uncommon and extremely awkward in the states, but apparently in China is very common.

We finally arrived in the small town of Jiuzhaigou around 4:30, after a 9 hour bus ride, and managed to successfully buy our tickets for the bus ride home on Sunday. We then had to find our hostel which proved to be a challenge. We didn’t have the name or the address in Chinese or Tibetan and many of the taxi drivers and people in the town didn’t speak Mandarin and if they did it was a very different dialect so they didn’t understand our Chinese for the most part. We finally got a taxi driver to take us to our hostel and made it there after he had to call our hostel several times to get the address. The hostel was a Tibetan decorated hostel with no heat, very thin walls, and was not very well known. IT was cute but extremely cold. Since we are in the mountains, it was even colder than it was back in Chengdu. The government doesn’t believe that the south gets cold enough to need heaters installed, which clearly they haven’t been to the south in the winter. Since we were still in what is considered southern China, it was absolutely freezing even though we were about 7,000 feet in elevation. Luckily our beds had heated pads, like we had up on the monastery at Emei Mountain, which kept us pretty warm while we slept. We also had a water boiler that we constantly boiled water on in order to provide a little bit of heat in the room and would hold glasses filled with hot water in order to keep our hands warm. We met a young American couple who met as foreign teachers in China and got married who gave us some advice on food and navigating the park on Saturday. We managed to find some decently cheap food after searching through several restaurants that were down the hill from our hostel. We then came back, played cards, laid in our beds and studied, and passed out nice and early because there was nothing else to do.

Fun facts about Jiuzhaigou:

• Jiuzhaigou means "Valley of Nine Villages" 
• It's on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau
• Composed of 3 valleys making up the Y shape
• It is on the highest tableland in the world between the Sichuan Basin and the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau 

SOOOOO many people!

Saturday morning we rolled out of bed around 9AM and caught a taxi to the entrance to the park. As students we got half off of our tickets which was awesome but we also had to buy bus tickets in order to use the bus inside the park which cost a total of about $31.50 for the two of those which by Chinese standards is really expensive but by American standards is pretty cheap when considered going into a large national park and entertainment facility. We had to buy warm hats because we underestimated how cold it was while we were there. We then accidentally got on the wrong bus that took us halfway to the tourist center which is the center of the park, which turned out okay. The park is beautiful with really high towering mountains, lots of vegetation, and beautiful lakes and waterfalls almost everywhere. Our first stop was a beautiful waterfall, one of the 4 main waterfalls in the park, and we were surrounded by people. It was so crowded and made the park a little less enjoyable at that point due to the fact that we were surrounded by so many people, getting pushed each way, that we couldn’t even see or take the time to look at the waterfall and scenery. We then walked for a decent distance along the roadway to the main tourist center, getting strange looks from bus drivers and other tourists along the way. It was refreshing to have fresh air, lots of vegetation, fresh and clean water, as well as just to walk for a while in nature. We passed several lakes and smaller waterfalls along the way. The tourist center was bustling with small shops and restaurants with people shopping, bargaining, taking breaks, and eating. We took a quick lunch break then continued on our way in order to see everything we possibly could since we only had one day.

The park is shaped like a Y with tourist center being at the cross. So after lunch we took the bus up the left side of the Y to the very tip to see the Multi-Color Lake. We gained about 1500 feet in elevation so when we got to the top it was even colder! The sun was bright and shining and there were almost no clouds in the sky which made for a beautiful view. Then we walked down to the Multi-Color Lake, a beautiful turquoise crystal clear lake. I have no idea how the water is so clear or what makes the lake so blue, but it was one of the most beautiful colors I have ever seen. The sun shone perfectly on the lake creating scenery like no other. Though many of the red leaves had fallen off the trees a few weeks before we had gotten there, there were still a few trees with all their leaves, creating a picturesque scene like none one would see in the US. We then took the bus back down and made our way up to the right fork of the Y, the more popular side. We began at Arrowhead Lake; a lake filled with brush and looks more like the countryside. Then we went to Panda Lake which is aptly named to due to the dark patches in the lake that have a “panda fur look”, the young bamboo that surrounds the lake, and the fact that it is rumored that many giant pandas in the area drink from this lake. There was then another two waterfalls as we walked through the boardwalk that weaves through the park. After a large amount of stairs we made it to the lookout along the roadside that looks out over one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It is said to be in the top 10 of the most beautiful lakes in the world and is named Peacock Lake or Five Flower Lake and it lived up to its name, it was absolutely beautiful! We made our way down to one of the largest waterfalls in China and the famous waterfall at Jiuzhaigou, Pearl Falls. It is named Pearl Falls because they though the small beads of water that bounce on the way down the falls look like pearls. It was huge!!!!! It was also very beautiful and not very crowded lucky for us. Our final stop was Mirror Lake. When we went to the pathway that went along the lake it was blocked off saying that there was a repair in process. But since China doesn’t really have any rules the three of us made the executive decision to go under the rope and walk along the roadway anyways. Just like we had thought, there were no repairs in progress and we think it was just to make sure everyone gets out of the park before it gets dark. Mirror Lake acts as a mirror, reflecting the mountains around it. Unfortunately it was too windy while we were there so we didn’t witness the beauty of the mirror but the scenery was still beautiful. 

The Falls

We left the park in the evening and went to the rows and rows of taxis to find one to take us back to our hotel, but we were rejected by at least 10 taxi drivers telling us that they didn’t know where our hostel was so they wouldn’t drive us. We finally found one to take us back, but it was a slightly frustrating and kind of a funny process trying to find one. We had the same evening as the night before – going to the restaurant, playing cards, and studying and all had an early night since we were exhausted from walking around all day.

The next morning our bus left at 7AM so when we left our hostel it was SOOOOOO cold. However it was a very clear morning and we were able to see hundreds of stars, even more than you can see in Seattle and it was amazing. We hadn’t seen stars in a while due to all the smog so it was a nice little treat to see so many stars. To our dismay, taxi drivers weren’t running when we left the hostel so we had to walk for a ways before we finally found one. The first two hours of our bus ride we were all frozen solid. It was so cold outside there was ice on the ground and the three of us were shivering for a few hours until we finally started to thaw out. Our driver on the way home was a little bit saner for the first half. But for the second half of the trip our drivers switched and our driver was once again crazy. We even picked up hitchhikers along the way and would drop them off along our route, something that is considered really dangerous back in the states at least in my opinion, but apparently it’s fairly common here. Luckily I didn’t fall asleep on a strangers shoulder, but I did have another awkward bathroom experience. Apparently it is 100% socially acceptable here in China to open the door while you are squatting to have conversations with people that are passing you in the bathroom and ask for toilet paper. As I was walking through the bathroom, a woman opened her stall door and started talking to me and asked for paper, all while she was peeing. It was a slightly awkward experience on my end, but I guess there’s no shame and no privacy here in China. 

The trip overall was a successful and we were glad we did it. Traveling and adventuring China is so much fun! We enjoy navigating and the adventure aspect, seeing as much as the country as we can. This upcoming weekend we are going to adventure Chengdu and visit popular sights that we haven’t seen yet. Today we bought plane tickets for Shanghai for next weekend. Originally we were going to train it, though the train is 1/3 of the price of flying, it’s 32 hours on a train versus three or so on an airplane, so all of us except for one guy chose the airplane option. It’s our last big trip before we head home. I only have 26 days or so left until I head home. The last weekend will be spent studying for finals, then we have finals, and next thing I know it’s time to go home. 

Last night I had my first job in China teaching English. I had interviewed with this place before but it went terribly and I basically wanted to cry, but then Monday the woman texted me asking if I can work and help out for the next few weeks. I went into it blindly and will be teaching two days a week for a  total of 3 hours each week for the next few weeks until I go back home which will be interesting. She gave me no preparation for teaching, no curriculum, and just told me to show up. It actually went well though! I have two classes each with three 3-4 year olds. They were absolutely adorable! The only catch is I get paid the week I leave to go back to the states but that's okay. It's pretty good pay as well for not having a teaching degree. The scooter ride there was an adventure due to it being decently heavy traffic and then coming home, the scooter almost died coming home. I barely got it home safe, I was honestly a bit worried that it wouldn't make it and I was going to have to walk it home. 

Well happy election day! We are watching, well attempting to watch on our extremely slow internet. It's weird being in another country for the election. 

Multi-Color Lake

Each flag has a prayer written on it and when it blows in the wind the people believe that they are in a sense praying and their prayers are being taken to the Gods.

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The sun peeking through the trees onto one of the waterfalls.

Five-Flower Lake -One of the top 10 most beautiful lakes in the world.

Pearl Shoal Falls

Nuorilang Falls

Our interesting lunch at the park...... Only good part was the plain potatoes.

Roommate love at a Five-Color Lake

The 3 Amigos at Five-Flower Lake