Kunming and Lijiang are two towns on the middle south of China. They are also a couple of the most beautiful cities that we have visited thus far. While Kunming was a mostly typical large-ish Chinese city, Lijiang is situated in a valley of stunning beauty in the northwest of the Yunan province.
Out of all the cities in China that we have visited so far, Lijiang probably had the most natural beauty that I’ve seen in this entire country. Here are some pictures to illustrate my point.
So another week of schooling ends and another trip to a Chinese city begins. This weekend we are all headed to Kunming, which you can find on the handy map:
Since I didn’t really know that we were going to take a trip to Kunming, I didn’t circle it in red beforehand. However, it is near the southern middle of China, to the west of Guilin. This means that it will be another hot, muggy weekend.
I’ll be taking the No Money shirt, and hopefully I can have a little more fun with that. As a bonus, maybe it will keep me from getting mugged.
Qingdao is a coastal city on the north eastern coast of China. It is also where the sailing events in the upcoming Olympics will be held. A good choice, as it’s a relatively clean (by Chinese standards).
Moreso than many of the Chinese cities we’ve been to so far, Qingdao has a very modern downtown. The wide avenues and modern skyscrapers did more to remind me of a modern American city than anything else that I’ve seen in the country so far. There are also some stunning views in this city courtesy of the coast.
Our class went to a traditional Chinese music concert last night and it was really neat. A traditional Chinese concert involves several instruments you don’t often see in america, such as an erhu which is a two stringed violin-ish thingy.
Clear enough?
Good. Anyways, the concert was very well done and the skill of the musicians was obvious. Here is a look at the small auditorium we were in while listening:
There are a couple more pictures in the gallery. I have a nice video of one of the songs being played, but it is too large to post on here, I will try to find a way to post it soon.
We just got back from our trip to Guilin. Guilin is located in the south of China, where it is nice and muggy. However, it wasn’t too bad when we went because it rained all the time. The locals said that the river was up 3 meters over normal, and I believe it. Unfortunately, that means that the river wasn’t its normal pristine self, but more dirty. Still, the scenery in Guilin is absolutely gorgeous, as evidenced by this picture:
Hey! It’s a map!
Today we set off for Guilin, which as you can see is located fairly close to Hong Kong in the south of China. It’s probably going to be hot and muggy, but I have heard much of how pretty the natural landscape in the area is.
As long as I can get a break from some of the pollution that we have here in Nanjing, it’ll be worth it. I’ll be taking a lot of pictures so look for those on Sunday. I will try and find a computer and update how the trip is going and what we have been seeing.
First off, be sure and check the pictures tab at the top right of the page in order to checkout all the new photos I just uploaded.
After a long week of classes, we all headed out to Xi’an this past Thursday. Xi’an is famous for its rich history of being the capital of several dynasties in China. Perhaps its single most famous landmark is the Terra Cotta Army, which is a whole mess of clay statues that were buried with some emperor in lieu of having his soldiers and servants killed and buried with him. Sweet deal for the servants.
Here in a couple hours we set off for Xian to see the Terra Cotta Army and several more interesting things. Sorry I haven’t posted about Nanjing yet, but I’ve been too busy with classes and such to really talk about it. However, I will say that playing basketball against some of the locals is a blast and I do it almost every day.
I promise to write a whole post on Xian and on the first week in Nanjing when I return on Sunday.
Hey, sorry it took so long for me to add these. But to make up for it, look at this awesome panorama of the Hong Kong downtown.
Pretty neat I thought. The density of Hong Kong is incredible. Especially when contrasted against all of the green on the hills. The valleys have a ridiculous population density, while the hills are pretty much oasises of trees and plants. It also helps to make the air a little bit more tolerable, but not much as Hong Kong’s air supposedly still ranks among some of the worst in the world.
Ok first off, I promise to post pictures as soon as I can. I planned on uploading them now, but the wireless internet connection here is spotty at best and slow when it does connect. So, I may have to wait until I get to Nanjing on Sunday to start uploading some pictures.
So far in Hong Kong we have visited some very interesting places. The first night here, myself and a couple of buddies visited the Temple Street Market and got propositioned by a prostitute. It was seriously almost just like the famous scene in Full Metal Jacket, but the lady was about 50 years old. After that unsettling encounter, we continued down the market street and saw the greatest cache of pirate and counterfeit goods I have ever seen. It was neat.
