Yunnan, China

From a trip that took place early November, 2009:

My last major trip within mainland China was to Yunnan, with a group of ten other students. We organized it on our own with the “help” (but really pain in the rear)of sort of travel agency. For the most part everything went as planned, and the local guides threw in neat side trips that weren’t initially in our itinerary, which turned out for the best.

Our first stop was the town of Dali. It was refreshing to see an area of China that wasn’t dominated by skyscrapers, and instead agrarian and natural. Most of the Dali seemed to be untouched by industrialization and retained a quaint, old school air.

We visited the requisite local market (live roosters, mules, and pottery galore), before taking a boat ride in Erhai lake. Its supposed to be shaped like an ear (thus er hai) and the water was sky blue and calm. We were paddled into the middle of the lake to watch trained osprey plunge into the water and quickly surface with fish in their mouths. Its customary to sing traditional tunes when being rowed, but we thought it would be more fitting to share America’s crème of the crop music with Dali instead… in the form of miley’s Party in the USA via the flimsy speakers of an iPhone.

Our next stop was just west of Erhai Lake, at the foot of the Himalayan mountains. There stood the towering Three Pagodas, constructed in the 800s AD. The structured were built of white mud and brick, and have survived major earthquakes when all other buildings were felled.

We rode horses up into the mountains, not knowing the temperature dropped some 20 degrees and left us freezing, drinking hot coffee and tea and purchasing neon colored raincoats for warmth.

Next stop: Tiger Leaping Gorge, in Lijiang. The canyon is part of the Yangtze river, and at the end of our trek, a huge boulder sat in the middle of the river. Legend has it that a tiger had once leaped from one side of the river to the other. We dared each other to make the jump but thought it wise to not take the risk.

Stopped at a farmer’s co-op, just in time to engage in a little archery, and catch the sunset over a lake.

Spent the night in LiJiang old town, lit up to highlight the beautiful Naxi influenced architecture. Ice-fed streams vein through the city providing some natural background music.

Took a trip to yak meadow park overlooking jade dragon snow mountain. On sunny days, we would have a perfect view of the snow capped peaks… but we were less fortunate and instead were greeted with an empty field cloaked in fog.

the walk to and fro was still rewarding, passing many walkways saturated with wooden prayer cards and the like.

Snapped a few photos by the semi-famous bai shui tai, which normally offers startling clear blue water on a sunny day. We wash our hands three times in the water for luck, health and fortune, though none of the three has really followed me back to the states in black-swan amounts.

Final stop: stone forest in Kunming! Monumental stone formations, reflected in manmade pools and the like. We took the go-cart around the park for photo ops. Good stuff!

enormous pillars. look at how small we are!

Shanghai Regulars

reoccurring themes, motifs, people, etc during my stay in shanghai

mcdonalds. considered a luxury in china, burgers cost 10-15 kuai, which seems cheap (up to $2), but local meals of massive platters of rice and meat could be as cheap as 8 kuai

baozi boy! hands down my favorite. his parents owned the baozi store, this his name baozi boy. adorable beyond belief, and mischevous too.
the everlasting and ferocious beauties li bingbing and gongli in their ad for l'oreal. stunning

the kitty that greeted us at the school's convenience store
three ladies enjoying their afternoon in tianzi fang. they said their old neighborhood is too quiet and like to watch people come and go in the trendy artist distric :-)

Xi'An

from the last weekend of October 2009

Xi'An was one of the ancient capitals of China, formerly known as Chang'An. It was home to many of the high dynasties of China's peak, including the Tang dynasty. It's famous for the terracotta soldiers guarding the tomb of the first Qin emperor, for Hua'Shan, one of five sacred taoist mountains in China (though there are tons of mountain ranges that are sacred to one extent or another- for resembling brothers, sisters, monkeys, flowers, clouds, Avatar, etc etc). Like many other cities in China today, Xi'An is heavily polluted and a victim of traffic and poor urban planning under communist China, though its city walls and other ancient treasures are surprisngly well preserved.First Stop: Maosoleum of Qin Shi Huang! Estimated to hold over 8,000 clay soldiers, 500+ horses. impressive indeed, and a really incredible accomplishment by any means.
my best warrior pose!
Back in Xi'An city center: a visit to the drum tower, bell tower, and the muslim night market sandwiched between the gorgeous buildings.


Then.. hike up Hua Shan! Resembles the great paintings on rice paper of mountains and trees, absolutely stunning especially when the sun was out. it was popular to purchase locks, chain it to the fence, lock it, and throw the key away so your love would forever be captured on the mountain.

beautiful view!!

me, sitting on a ledge overlooking the valley

Back to the night market for shopping, food, greasy lamb soups, and more fun.

i like the smoke effect in the photo, steam from the buns they were selling (not pictures)
The Wild Goose Pagoda at night. built for Tang Sanzang, the monk that traveled 17 years to and from India to bring back Buddhist scriptures. he was the inspiration for the epic Journey to the West (which i am still reading, on chapter 83...)


The Great Mosque of Xi'an, one of the most famous mosques in China, first built around 700AD.


Biking around the city wall. fun fun! took about two hours, the city wall is complete and around 14 km long. looks so cool to see the ancient buildings and rooftops against the city wall

my butt started hurting an hour in.
another fantastic trip in china!

Gansu, 我的老家

from Early October 2009:

Gansu province was really unique, on the border of Tibet and Xinjiang. Actually, my grandfather is from there, and i have some of his characteristics. especially the large nose. It is on the Western edge of the Chinese Empire, and thus the area has a large population of minorities- especially religious minorities- muslims, tibetans, etc.

We went to the mogao grottoes, where the massive Buddha statue’s foot was as large as I was. Sadly, no pictures allowed. The Buddha caves were filled with statues, scriptures, and wall paintings. It was so magical to see these Indian influenced caves the earliest ones) with peacocks drawn in, as peacocks are exclusive to india. Some caves had a wooden ceiling painted on, and to prevent fire, and water patterns drawn in between the beams
grottoes
the ginormous buddha sat in that temple, his head more or less reached the top tier of the wooden beams. and the colors were so well preserved from hundreds, maybe nearly a thousand years ago.
paintings, similar to what were in the caves!

The desert:
Trekked two hours into the desert, the camels were fun and obedient, had an amazing dinner made for us on the spot, hiked up a sand dune. Watched a breathtaking sunset. Crawled/ slithered down the sand dune.


remnants of the great wall, on the western edge of Gansu. i coulda jumped over that if i wanted to...

We went to linxia to visit a muslim community. The kids were adorable, and some wore their shoes backwards. We visited a pretty grimy and dusty street market, but the people there were so warm and curious about the American way of life. They didn’t believe I was American because I wasn’t white! Haha it was so refreshing to see this totally different lifestyle of China, where most people didnt look Han Chinese but had larger noses, lighter hair, ruddy skin.
this guy was real tough with his HUGE sunglasses. i had to get a photo with him. a mosque in Linxia, reminds me of the great mosques in Istanbul and Iran
adorable boy that loved the attention he was getting from all of usselling tea in the street market. my mother says the man on the right looks shockingly similar to my grandfather

Then.. went to the Labrang monostary, a Tibetan complex of great significance. We spun the prayer wheels, went inside these lavishly decorated interiors with rich silks and fabrics, that burned yak butter candles.

monks in training running in the background. i really love this photo
prayer wheels

Finally made it to the sangke grasslands, visited a nomadic family and their horses and sheep and stuff. The kids were going nuts over a ball that we brought, and we left it for them to play with. Last we drovev a little further down, danced the Macarena with these teenagers/ 20 somethings, they taught us their dances and songs.