Sichuan 5 and Final! Chengdu- The Capital City. 成都，四川

This is the last entry about my vacation...I will revert back to Beijing soon. I started and ended the trip in the capital of Sichuan, Chengdu. It is a pleasant city with a slow pace to it. I especially enjoyed the parks with the older people playing cards, chess and drinking tea all day long. Here are some of the highlights of the city...

Pandas- just around 1000 left in the world and most of them are from Sichuan, China! I went to the breeding reservation and even saw the hairless babies!


Sichuan Opera- it was a variety of plays, singing, face changing, acrobatics, fireblowing and instruments. Very cool!


The friend I stayed with while I was in Chengdu!


Let the locals order, and you never know what you are going to get! These are rabbit heads. (Sorry vegetarians)


Famous spicy roasted fish. Enough peppers to set your mouth on fire! But that is what this whole province is famous for.


A video of us on the first afternoon in the pouring rain riding a rickshaw. The two umbrellas proved useless and we showed up dripping. The rickshaw didn't even want money from us because we looked so pitiful!

Sichuan 4- The village of Songpan 松潘，四川

Different from the National Parks I went to, Songpan was a relaxing village with its colorful minorities and slow pace of life as its best assets. Settled in a mountain valley, most people went to stay there because it is inexpensive and in a central location for seeing other parks or going on a horse trek. I enjoyed meeting the locals, seeing all the animals wander around the street, and hanging out at the hostel.

This was a wedding that I watched...each friend presented the couple with a white scarf and put it around their neck to bind them together...


Being very close to Tibet, dried yak meat and yak butter tea are favorites in the area!


All of the older people sit around and talk all day if they are not playing Chinese chess, wearing straw hats to keep the sun out.


This charming man sat next to me on a bench because he was curious. He wanted to talk to me and see what I was writing in my notebook. We stumbled through the local dialect, but understood each other, and he agreed to a portrait!


Chinese chess. Rules vary according to the province, but very similar to Western chess.


Minority women also watching the wedding.


The streets don't just belong to cars, but to a whole host of animals. There is some patience and a lot of honking.

Sichuan 3 - Munigou Park 牟尼沟，四川

The third and final National Park I went to was Munigou. The least known, and only a couple hours of a hike, but it was still relaxing and beautiful. There were probably 10-15 other people in the entire park, which was such a relief after the last two places I mentioned. The water was again beautiful, and somewhat reminiscent of Jiuzhaigou. Just look at the fallen trees underneath the water!! (And I promise I did nothing to the picture to enhance that intense color!)


This is me with the three Beijingers that I went with! Although we met by accident we live within a couple of blocks of each other in the big city.

At the top of the mountain we got to rest, have a picnic, and put our feet in natural hotsprings!

On the way out of the park, we saw two Tibetans herding yak across the road. As I videoed it, he thought I might scare the yak and actually spit at me! He didn't speak Mandarin and I didn't speak Tibetan, but I'm not sure I liked his methods...

On the other hand, we met these two very nice locals that lived in the village nearby. We stopped to take pictures and they were naturally curious. We stumbled through Mandarin/Sichuanese, but we got our point across!

Sichuan 2- Huanglong National Park 黄龙，四川

On the way from Jiuzhaigou I met three people from Beijing who were looking for a person to add to their rented car and share the costs. Perfect! I spent two days traveling with them and speaking Chinese nonstop. One of the places we went was a national park called Huanglong or "Yellow Dragon." It is called a yellow dragon because calcified pools have formed all the way down the mountain, making what appears to be the scales on a dragon's tale. The scenery was completely different from Jiuzhaigou and also breathtaking!


The water came in all shapes and colors! Just look at the difference in colors in these two pictures:



Finally, as we were driving back to the village, we were stuck behind a large mountain that trapped air and made the whole area foggy. In 15 seconds, we rounded a corner and were suddenly in a different world overlooking these mountains. It was so sudden and beautiful that I had to remind myself to breathe. We got out of the car and played on the mountain tops like a scene from Pride and Prejudice! If you've been in Beijing for a while, this is just what you need.

Sichuan 1 - Jiuzhaigou National Park, 九寨沟， 四川

I'm back from my 11 night adventure away from Beijing! I went by myself to Sichuan province and saw the capital, Chengdu, a village called Songpan, and three national parks. I'm not doing this in order, but I had to start with my favorite- Jiuzhaigou. This park might be the most beautiful national park I've ever seen. It has everything- mountains, waterfalls, turquoise water, Tibetan villages, ancient forests, etc. As I hiked around the trails, scenes like this kept popping up...


As you can see, the water is all different shades of blue and green, and the fallen trees and stones beneath the surface are all visible. The Chinese have a saying that says once you've been to Huangshan you needn't see anymore mountains, and once you've been to Jiuzhaigou, you needn't see anymore water. At this point in my life, I'd agree, because I haven't seen more beautiful water! And with mountains and water, comes beautiful waterfalls...



The Tibetan minority and culture is spread throughout Northern Sichuan and the park. I met the Tibetan woman on the left who actually took me to her house in a village in the park and introduced me to her family! The boy in the middle is a friend I made on the bus on the way from Chengdu.

A few other interesting characters I met- (And Americans think they know what a cowboy is! Try riding a yak while shirtless with a wooden saddle!)


Of all the great places I went, this was my favorite, and my recommendation if you are going to Sichuan 四川!

Sichuan Province!

Whenever I go for more than a week without writing it feels like something is missing! The past couple of weeks I've been taking classes here in a small private school, mainly a colloquial conversational Chinese class. Besides school I've been meeting new Chinese friends and practicing the language a lot. It seems as if I've finally broken a barrier where I've made one or two good Chinese friends that have begun to introduce me to more and more of their friends. It took a long time to get here, and a lot of language study, but it feels good to have reached it. I can now say my friends group is half/half foreigners and Chinese.

We have to start back classes at the University of Business and Economics here in Beijing in two weeks. Since I have only seen Shanghai during the entire summer break, I have decided to take off to Sichuan province for an pre-school starting adventure. Here's where it is in the middle of China:

Famous for Giant Pandas, the spiciest food in China, and the most beautiful ladies. I will be staying with a Chinese woman, the friend of a friend, while I'm in the capital, and then travel a little. Look for lots of good blogs to come!

I thought since I've had a lack of blogs, I'd throw in a few pictures of new friends!




Talk to you soon from Sichuan!

Bird and Flower Market

I went with a Chinese friend yesterday to what is called the Bird and Flower Market, but is actually more like an "everything that's living" market. You could buy fish, birds, dogs, turtles, fighter crickets, snakes, kites, antiques, pipes, etc. I really enjoyed it because there was not a foreigner in sight except for me, and it felt so real compared to some of the other places in Beijing. I just wanted to share some of the fun pictures.

They had every type of bird imaginable, some with their own cages and others crammed like pigeons on a phone wire.

I loved this little old woman selling her fake antiques.


This man was selling crickets that you feed to other pets. One cricket per little wooden cage.

And these people sold more expensive, fighter crickets, that people bet on and fight in little underground arenas.

I highly recommend a trip to Southeast Beijing to see this little market. Any pet or accessory you need, it will be there.

Beijing Bowling.

That's right. We went bowling in China. It was the largest bowling alley I've ever been in, called Gongti 100, and we felt like we were not actually in China for the moment. We got to wear the funny looking shoes, give dorky cheers when someone got a strike, and then go dancing next door when we were done! A great night...but everyone has decided that we need to organize paint ball in the Beijing suburbs for the next adventure. Oh, and I even bowled FIVE strikes during the second game. Three in a row. I never had that kind of luck in the States!

Visitors to Beijing!

Right after I got back from Shanghai it was visitor time! Alex (IMBA) visited before going back to his internship, David (another IMBA) came with two friends, and then the following weekend Shaun (another IMBA) showed up for a few days. What a blast. We did a lot of stuff, and had a full house most of the time. At one point our apartment slept 6 people! Here's just a few shots of the fun and games...

Taking our guests out to our favorite restaurant in Beijing, owned by the Japanese woman in the middle! Excellent food, fabulous owner, perfect service, and always more free lunch coupons! What more could you ask for?

4 IMBAs posing with the Kung Fu actors...

All the boys around the table for a very elaborate brunch at our apartment...

Being a tourist with Shaun at the Temple of Heaven...


Karaoke Time!
We bravely took our guests for Karaoke with some Chinese friends of ours, to get their feet wet with a little Chinese culture. They had a great time, I hope. At least it looks that way from the pictures!

Me with Zhang Yi...a great language partner and friend!

Some people had to clap for themselves because no one else would....

One last silly shot...what's wrong with those people?

Any and all are welcome to come to Beijing! At least while we still have a plush apartment and an air mattress :-)