We have been in Shanghai for about two weeks now, but we only just today got our internet set up. It's amazing to realize how much we rely on and use the internet. Especially with being in China (the only way we talk with family/friends back home is through email and Skype). So we have definitely felt cut off from the world the last two weeks. Though I guess there has been some upsides. Example: less time spent looking at recipe blogs (yes, this is one of my favorite past times).
A lot has happened and there has been a lot that we have wanted to post about - Eric's week in Qingdao...moving here...apartment finding adventures...Chinese New Years...Valentines Day...finding a 3.5 kilogram container of ice cream at an amazing price at Metro (talk about heaven!)...buying and cooking with raw meat for the first time since being in China... but it seems silly to backtrack and post about everything now. And probably extremely boring to everyone who reads them. However, you may still get stuck with reading about half of these. :)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Day Six – Biking in Yangshuo
Wednesday 20 January 2010
8:00am Ride bikes to shore of Yulong River
8:30am Board bamboo raft for trip down Yulong river
11:00am Hike Moon Hill
12:30pm Begin bike ride to Dragon Bridge (遇龙桥)
1:30pm Ride through ancient town of Longtang
1:48pm Spend three hours wondering if we are ever going to make it to Dragon Bridge
4:30pm Reach Jinbao, decide that “no, we are not going to make it to Dragon Bridge.”
4:35pm Catch a ‘rescue bus’ from Jinbao through Baisha and back to Yangshuo
7:00pm Eat dinner with friends Thomas and Jessica
Eric: Despite a few disappointments throughout the day, our first day in Yangshuo was definitely a day to be remembered. It was a big change from the ethnic minority villages and rice terraces of the previous two days, but standing atop Moon Hill and looking out, I could not help but stand in awe at the beauty of this area. We had originally planned to ride our rented bikes up to the 600-year old Dragon Bridge, but due to a few wrong turns and maybe a few too many picture stops, we didn’t make it. In fact, we hardly made it half way. But the countryside was beautiful, and I have no regrets at all about making the trip.
Riding through the town of Longtang, I felt like I had taken a step one hundred years back in history. What amazed me about the town, though, was that although there was a stand at the front collecting tourist fees to pass through, the town was anything but touristy. On our left was the schoolyard where children were in class. Down an alley were the sweet smells of a meal cooking on a fire. At the end of another passage was a small girl peeking sitting on her doorstep. To us, this was a stop on our trek through the countryside, but to these people, this was home. I was thankful to be a witness to it, and I admire them for their work ethic, although I know that to them it is all that they know. If they don’t work, then they don’t eat, and it is as simple as that. The weather was beautiful that first day in Yangshuo, though, and we are glad that we got a long bike ride out of it.
Kiersten: Even though we did get lost (we seem to do that a lot!), I had a blast riding our bikes and wandering through the countryside. For one, it felt so good to be on a bike. But I mostly really enjoyed it because of all that we saw. We passed through a ton of little villages and I don’t think we saw another tourist while we were out riding. It was a great contrast from just earlier that morning when we went on our raft ride. We had been really looking forward to the raft ride, thinking it would be quiet, away from everyone- just us and the river and the mountains. Unfortunately, instead we encountered- even on the river- people constantly trying to sell us stuff. They had their own huge raft/stores that our boatman would inevitably stop at. (Nice as he was, I have my suspicions that he was in cohorts with them). So getting on our bikes and riding away felt so good- like we were escaping.
On our raft ride:
Our boatman.
Eric helping to lift our bamboo raft over one of the many little dams that we had to cross.
Off to Moon Hill!
The view from the top was gorgeous!
Things we saw on our bike ride:
Eric took a ton of pictures of cows. I can't tell you how many times we stopped suddenly because he saw another one.
This was in the village of Longtang that Eric mentioned.
I think we were already lost by this point.
But so beautiful!
Do you see the scarecrows?
Our first glimpse of Jinbao. A place never looked so beautiful to our tired legs.
Our 'rescue' bus!
8:00am Ride bikes to shore of Yulong River
8:30am Board bamboo raft for trip down Yulong river
11:00am Hike Moon Hill
12:30pm Begin bike ride to Dragon Bridge (遇龙桥)
1:30pm Ride through ancient town of Longtang
1:48pm Spend three hours wondering if we are ever going to make it to Dragon Bridge
4:30pm Reach Jinbao, decide that “no, we are not going to make it to Dragon Bridge.”
4:35pm Catch a ‘rescue bus’ from Jinbao through Baisha and back to Yangshuo
7:00pm Eat dinner with friends Thomas and Jessica
Eric: Despite a few disappointments throughout the day, our first day in Yangshuo was definitely a day to be remembered. It was a big change from the ethnic minority villages and rice terraces of the previous two days, but standing atop Moon Hill and looking out, I could not help but stand in awe at the beauty of this area. We had originally planned to ride our rented bikes up to the 600-year old Dragon Bridge, but due to a few wrong turns and maybe a few too many picture stops, we didn’t make it. In fact, we hardly made it half way. But the countryside was beautiful, and I have no regrets at all about making the trip.
Riding through the town of Longtang, I felt like I had taken a step one hundred years back in history. What amazed me about the town, though, was that although there was a stand at the front collecting tourist fees to pass through, the town was anything but touristy. On our left was the schoolyard where children were in class. Down an alley were the sweet smells of a meal cooking on a fire. At the end of another passage was a small girl peeking sitting on her doorstep. To us, this was a stop on our trek through the countryside, but to these people, this was home. I was thankful to be a witness to it, and I admire them for their work ethic, although I know that to them it is all that they know. If they don’t work, then they don’t eat, and it is as simple as that. The weather was beautiful that first day in Yangshuo, though, and we are glad that we got a long bike ride out of it.
Kiersten: Even though we did get lost (we seem to do that a lot!), I had a blast riding our bikes and wandering through the countryside. For one, it felt so good to be on a bike. But I mostly really enjoyed it because of all that we saw. We passed through a ton of little villages and I don’t think we saw another tourist while we were out riding. It was a great contrast from just earlier that morning when we went on our raft ride. We had been really looking forward to the raft ride, thinking it would be quiet, away from everyone- just us and the river and the mountains. Unfortunately, instead we encountered- even on the river- people constantly trying to sell us stuff. They had their own huge raft/stores that our boatman would inevitably stop at. (Nice as he was, I have my suspicions that he was in cohorts with them). So getting on our bikes and riding away felt so good- like we were escaping.
On our raft ride:
Our boatman.
Eric helping to lift our bamboo raft over one of the many little dams that we had to cross.Off to Moon Hill!
The view from the top was gorgeous!
Things we saw on our bike ride:
Eric took a ton of pictures of cows. I can't tell you how many times we stopped suddenly because he saw another one. 
This was in the village of Longtang that Eric mentioned.
I think we were already lost by this point.But so beautiful!
Do you see the scarecrows?
Our first glimpse of Jinbao. A place never looked so beautiful to our tired legs.
Our 'rescue' bus!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Day Five- Dazhai to Ping’an
Tuesday 19 January 2010
6:30am Watch sunrise from our mountain-top hotel room
8:00am Begin 4 hour hike from Dazhai village to Ping’an (stealing dog along the way)
1:30pm Catch bus to back to Guilin
4:30pm See Guilin in two hours
7:00pm Bus to Yangshuo
9:00pm Walk around Yangshuo at night, eat super yummy peanut-sesame sweet porridge
Kiersten: Yes, we stole a dog. But we didn’t mean too, really! He came quite of his own accord. He belonged to the hotel we had stayed at and as we started out in the morning on our hike to Ping’an, he followed us down the mountain. We didn’t think much of it, figuring that he wandered around there all the time. But he kept going! As we turned off on the path that left the Dazhai area and went through the mountains and rice terraces towards Ping’an, I began to get a little worried. We tried shooing him and stomping our feet at him. But to no avail. He would disappear for a few minutes, then he would either suddenly shoot past us from behind or pop up on the trail ahead. After we had hiked a couple of hours and passed a couple of villages, I began to throw rocks in his direction, hoping to get him to leave. Nope, didn’t work. We finally lost him maybe a half hour from Ping’an. I felt so horrible, worried that he wouldn’t be able to make it back home. But the last we saw him, he had made friends with another village dog so I can only hope that if nothing else, he was able to assimilate into another village. Thus ended our career as dog-snatchers.
Eric: After a three hour hike across the rice terraces and through the Yao village of Zhongliu, we arrived in the Zhuang minority village of Ping’an. I must admit, I much preferred the area of Dazhai to this new valley of terraces. While Ping’an’s rice terraces were beautiful, the views around Dazhai were much more majestic. Ping’an was also much more touristy, which was a sad change from Dazhai’s empty streets during the day and the happy sounds of children playing in the valley below heard from our hotel after nightfall. However, I still enjoyed this new area, and I learned a lot. As we crossed the top level of terraces, we came across a Yao woman who apparently had accepted the tourist atmosphere of her home and was more than eager to let down her long hair for a price of 5 RMB. It is the tradition of Yao women to grow their hair out long and wrap it into a turban style bundle on the top of their head. The larger the bundle, the more beautiful it is considered.
I admit that a picture with her was definitely part of my consideration, but the prospect of conversing with her about her life was what really made me agree to the fee. I didn’t ask her name, but as she undid the braids holding her hair up, I asked many other questions. She was forty years old and had only cut her hair once during her life. That was when she was eighteen. As her hair came down, she showed us three long strands of hair. One was the hair that was on her head. The second was the two foot strand that came off when she was eighteen. The third strand was not hers but added to make her turban wrap appear larger. I asked if it was painful having so much hair on her head. She responded that it was at first, but she has now been long used to it.
Soon after sunrise, in front of our hotel.
We're on our way! And, yes, that is the dog.
A small sampling of what we saw on our hike:
Four hours later...Ping'an!
We only spent two hours in Guilin, and half that time was spent being lost or being accosted by nice Chinese people wanting to practice their English with us, so not many pictures from there...
6:30am Watch sunrise from our mountain-top hotel room
8:00am Begin 4 hour hike from Dazhai village to Ping’an (stealing dog along the way)
1:30pm Catch bus to back to Guilin
4:30pm See Guilin in two hours
7:00pm Bus to Yangshuo
9:00pm Walk around Yangshuo at night, eat super yummy peanut-sesame sweet porridge
Kiersten: Yes, we stole a dog. But we didn’t mean too, really! He came quite of his own accord. He belonged to the hotel we had stayed at and as we started out in the morning on our hike to Ping’an, he followed us down the mountain. We didn’t think much of it, figuring that he wandered around there all the time. But he kept going! As we turned off on the path that left the Dazhai area and went through the mountains and rice terraces towards Ping’an, I began to get a little worried. We tried shooing him and stomping our feet at him. But to no avail. He would disappear for a few minutes, then he would either suddenly shoot past us from behind or pop up on the trail ahead. After we had hiked a couple of hours and passed a couple of villages, I began to throw rocks in his direction, hoping to get him to leave. Nope, didn’t work. We finally lost him maybe a half hour from Ping’an. I felt so horrible, worried that he wouldn’t be able to make it back home. But the last we saw him, he had made friends with another village dog so I can only hope that if nothing else, he was able to assimilate into another village. Thus ended our career as dog-snatchers.
Eric: After a three hour hike across the rice terraces and through the Yao village of Zhongliu, we arrived in the Zhuang minority village of Ping’an. I must admit, I much preferred the area of Dazhai to this new valley of terraces. While Ping’an’s rice terraces were beautiful, the views around Dazhai were much more majestic. Ping’an was also much more touristy, which was a sad change from Dazhai’s empty streets during the day and the happy sounds of children playing in the valley below heard from our hotel after nightfall. However, I still enjoyed this new area, and I learned a lot. As we crossed the top level of terraces, we came across a Yao woman who apparently had accepted the tourist atmosphere of her home and was more than eager to let down her long hair for a price of 5 RMB. It is the tradition of Yao women to grow their hair out long and wrap it into a turban style bundle on the top of their head. The larger the bundle, the more beautiful it is considered.
I admit that a picture with her was definitely part of my consideration, but the prospect of conversing with her about her life was what really made me agree to the fee. I didn’t ask her name, but as she undid the braids holding her hair up, I asked many other questions. She was forty years old and had only cut her hair once during her life. That was when she was eighteen. As her hair came down, she showed us three long strands of hair. One was the hair that was on her head. The second was the two foot strand that came off when she was eighteen. The third strand was not hers but added to make her turban wrap appear larger. I asked if it was painful having so much hair on her head. She responded that it was at first, but she has now been long used to it.
Soon after sunrise, in front of our hotel.
We're on our way! And, yes, that is the dog.A small sampling of what we saw on our hike:
Four hours later...Ping'an!
We only spent two hours in Guilin, and half that time was spent being lost or being accosted by nice Chinese people wanting to practice their English with us, so not many pictures from there...
Friday, January 29, 2010
Good news!
Eric just heard back from his first grad school today. He's been accepted into UC San Diego's Master of Pacific International Affairs (MPIA) program. We are definitely very excited. All the stress of the last couple months is paying off! We are still waiting to here from other schools but it is sure nice to know that he in at least one place! And at a school that we are very excited about! Yeah!
Side note: Eric proposed to me a year ago today. What a wonderful year its been! :)
Side note: Eric proposed to me a year ago today. What a wonderful year its been! :)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Day Four – A Farmer’s Paradise
Monday 18 January 2010
6:42am Train arrives in Guilin
7:30am Begin three hour bus ride bus ride to Longji rice terraces
11:00am Spend five hours hiking through rice terraces and hills trying to find our hotel (but not regretting a single step)
4:00pm Find our hotel (at the top of the rice terraces)
4:30pm Continue hiking and exploring
7:00pm Eat an amazing dinner of “mud chicken” and bamboo tube rice. Amazing!
Kiersten:
As our bus began to leave Guilin and climb into the mountains, I was in awe at how beautiful it was. This was our first time being in rural China countryside and after being in huge cities for months it was amazing to be able to look around and not see a single building. Once we got to the small village of Dazhai, which is as far as the bus goes, we got out and began to hike. We knew our hotel was at the top of a mountain, but exactly where, we weren’t sure. We had our trusty little map so we weren’t too worried. But, of course, we got lost. I’m so glad we did get lost though! We got so far off that it was just us and mountains of rice terraces stretching out all around us. We finally ran into a mother and daughter who were working in the terraces. As they heard us approaching, Eric heard them say, “what, is there someone all the way out here?!’ They offered to be our guide (almost everyone that we met was quite willing to do that, for a small fee of course) but I told Eric I didn’t want one. So off we wandered again. And we did make it to our hotel…eventually.
Eric:
The rice terraces were three hours in the opposite direction of the Guilin’s famed karst mountains, but in the research we had done previous to coming, we knew that it was a place we didn’t want to miss. In fact, we were so impressed by the things we read, that we planned to spend two days and one night in the area. We were not disappointed. All around us were endless hills, large and small, of terraced fields, and in their midst were nestled villages unlike anything I had seen before. For six hours that first day we climbed up and down their stone steps, marveling at what all that was around us. First through Dazhai, then up the back of a mountain, back down the front of it, through Tiantou, up to the highest point where our hotel was waiting, and then back down to see more, we hiked and hiked and hiked. But the hills and villages were too amazing to stop before dark.
What impressed me most that first day, besides the evident work that it took to build the thousands upon thousands levels of terraces, was the work ethic that was still being manifested in the lives of the locals, China’s Yao ethnic minority. We hardly passed one villager that wasn’t either leading a horse or hefting a load of branches. And, judging from Kiersten’s own attempt to lift a similar bundle, it is no easy task. We stopped one villager descending the mountain to ask her what the wood was for. She held her own bundle with one hand on her shoulder as if it weighed nothing. Her answer surprised me, and it made me admire the Yao people even more. The wood was for cooking, and a trip was made into the high parts of the terraces two to three times a day to fetch the wood. I know that there are people all over who are similarly hard-working, but it fascinated me that I was standing among a people who made things happen. It’s hard for me to explain, but I respected these people.
This was on the bus we rode up to Dazhai.
Overlooking the village of Dazhai.
People we met:
But, then...
...we're lost!!!
Having fun being lost:
Looking out from our hotel window. We had an amazing view!
Mud Chicken. Despite it's name, it was amazing!!
The family who ran the hotel eating around their fire.
More pictures:
6:42am Train arrives in Guilin
7:30am Begin three hour bus ride bus ride to Longji rice terraces
11:00am Spend five hours hiking through rice terraces and hills trying to find our hotel (but not regretting a single step)
4:00pm Find our hotel (at the top of the rice terraces)
4:30pm Continue hiking and exploring
7:00pm Eat an amazing dinner of “mud chicken” and bamboo tube rice. Amazing!
Kiersten:
As our bus began to leave Guilin and climb into the mountains, I was in awe at how beautiful it was. This was our first time being in rural China countryside and after being in huge cities for months it was amazing to be able to look around and not see a single building. Once we got to the small village of Dazhai, which is as far as the bus goes, we got out and began to hike. We knew our hotel was at the top of a mountain, but exactly where, we weren’t sure. We had our trusty little map so we weren’t too worried. But, of course, we got lost. I’m so glad we did get lost though! We got so far off that it was just us and mountains of rice terraces stretching out all around us. We finally ran into a mother and daughter who were working in the terraces. As they heard us approaching, Eric heard them say, “what, is there someone all the way out here?!’ They offered to be our guide (almost everyone that we met was quite willing to do that, for a small fee of course) but I told Eric I didn’t want one. So off we wandered again. And we did make it to our hotel…eventually.
Eric:
The rice terraces were three hours in the opposite direction of the Guilin’s famed karst mountains, but in the research we had done previous to coming, we knew that it was a place we didn’t want to miss. In fact, we were so impressed by the things we read, that we planned to spend two days and one night in the area. We were not disappointed. All around us were endless hills, large and small, of terraced fields, and in their midst were nestled villages unlike anything I had seen before. For six hours that first day we climbed up and down their stone steps, marveling at what all that was around us. First through Dazhai, then up the back of a mountain, back down the front of it, through Tiantou, up to the highest point where our hotel was waiting, and then back down to see more, we hiked and hiked and hiked. But the hills and villages were too amazing to stop before dark.
What impressed me most that first day, besides the evident work that it took to build the thousands upon thousands levels of terraces, was the work ethic that was still being manifested in the lives of the locals, China’s Yao ethnic minority. We hardly passed one villager that wasn’t either leading a horse or hefting a load of branches. And, judging from Kiersten’s own attempt to lift a similar bundle, it is no easy task. We stopped one villager descending the mountain to ask her what the wood was for. She held her own bundle with one hand on her shoulder as if it weighed nothing. Her answer surprised me, and it made me admire the Yao people even more. The wood was for cooking, and a trip was made into the high parts of the terraces two to three times a day to fetch the wood. I know that there are people all over who are similarly hard-working, but it fascinated me that I was standing among a people who made things happen. It’s hard for me to explain, but I respected these people.
This was on the bus we rode up to Dazhai.
Overlooking the village of Dazhai.People we met:
But, then...
...we're lost!!!Having fun being lost:
Looking out from our hotel window. We had an amazing view! 
Mud Chicken. Despite it's name, it was amazing!!
The family who ran the hotel eating around their fire.More pictures:
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