Well, so much for keeping up a journal about my China adventures, I just got lazy. AGAIN! Let's see what I remember, just for my own memory's sake.
Huangshan: The Climb
We went back to Huangshan that last weekend of October (26-29th?), this time we took a bus that only took 6 hours! We arrived in the nearby city of Tunxi and were driven to the base city of Tangkou where we spent the night. We got up early and, with Mr. Hu's help, booked a hostel on the top of the mountain before actually heading toward the mountain. We got dropped off on the wrong side at first (Eastern slopes), the easy side that only takes 3 hours to climb up, it was already noon by the time we started going up the Western slopes. This mountain climb, was like.. 6 hours of stairmaster. All stairs, all the way up. It was quite an adventure/work out, after a while we had to rest every ten minutes so our legs wouldn't cramp up. But the views were amazing, the mountains, sky, NATURE were just incredible, completely worth the more difficult climb. We got to witness sunset on a cliff and took some cool photos. We finally got to our hostel at around 6 30pm when it was already dark, those last few km were a bit treacherous in the dark. It was rather chilly, and I certainly didn't pack for chilly weather, but it was doable. We then had dinner in a dark restaurant where we got to witness a shouting match between a tourguide and waitress, rather annoying, yet interesting, we just wanted our food. We did a bit of star-gazing and went to sleep early in preparation for sunrise. We got up at 4am and headed out to find a good mountain peak on which to witness sunrise. When we got to a relatively high peak, we were the only ones there and it was extremely cold, again I had only a sweater and jeans to shelter me from the cold morning. We sat there for about an hour and a half, then we saw a sliver of light in the distance and realized that there were too many clouds in the way and we couldn't see sunrise. It was rather sad, we stayed there for about 2 hours and decided to head back. We had a breakfast buffet at one of the larger hotels and a few of us headed down first. The descent was down the Eastern slopes and only took an hour and a half, but our legs were shaking the entire time because it was down stairs the entire hour and a half. Supplies are brought up the mountain on the shoulders of men, easily a hundred pounds worth of whatever (fish, eggs, propane, vegetables, water, etc) on each side and these guys are carrying them up stairs across their backs. I guess that 10kuai bottle of water was worth it then... After arriving back to Tangkou, we hired a car to take us to the village of Hongcun, a city where they filmed some of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. A very quaint and cute town with a lot of character and decent shopping (50kuai delicious tea!). We then went back to Tunxi, found a hotel, and explored their Old Street, which is just a street full of tourist shopping. The next day, we had street food for breakfast, a lot of delicious dumplings and a lot of sweet, oily sesame balls, so good and cheap. Then we got on the bus headed back to Shanghai, 6 hours later and we end our Huangshan trip.
Dalian November 2-5
The UC EAP mandatory field trip was to the city of Dalian, a special economic zone North of Shanghai, directly across from the Korean Peninsula, on a clear day, you can see North Korea. Very exciting because we got to fly their. The first day was a bit of a bummer, we got to see the building where the Russians and Japanese signed a treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War, where the Russians LOST. We then went to a battle field wrought with remnants of the War, lots of trenches, fortifications, machine gun stands, barracks, rather cool especially because the walls show bullet holes. The hotel we stayed at was very nice, much different from traveling individually where we only stay at the cheapest hostels that might or might not have showers.. The first night we explored the city and saw a bunch of people ballroom dancing in one of the city's many squares. Dalian is known for its squares, it has the biggest square in China, 4 times bigger than Tiananmen in Beijing (the second largest in China). The next day we were taken to Golden Pebble Beach where we finally saw a beach in China and rode a speed boat. The speed boat driver was insane, I literally got thrown across the boat when he decided to make a sharp turn at a ridiculously high speed. FUN! I'm pretty sure we visited some other things, but at this point I don't particulary remember. We ate really good Manchurian dumplings and this fried dessert thing with condensed milk, highlight of the meals. The next night we went KTV-ing, lots of fun. And the next night we went to a bar, not so fun and very, very expensive ~500kuai for a bottle of Malibu and there were go-go dancers and super loud music. Meh, an experience at a Chinese-style bar I suppose. The next day, or was it the day before, we went on a tour of the city of Dalian, which looks much like San Francisco or some other metropolitan city. We went to the very large square that contained a large open book structure that was really fun to run across. The square also contained carnival games and rides, reminded me of Santa Monica pier. There was a castle in the distance and a strange bridge, reminiscent of Las Vegas. We went to the castle thing and snuck into a tower that smelt of urine. We went to a fish market where I bought a big bag of dried kiwi, good stuff, they then took us to the Russian Street. Lots of Russian products (furry, leather hats; babushka(sp?) dolls; lighters; flasks, tasers, etc.). It was rather chilly in Dalian, but I overpacked thinking it'd be a lot colder. We saw a bunch of cool places and learned a good deal of history. Educational and fun trip. We took a plane back = more fun. Thus, the end of the Dalian Trip.
Next to come will be the Nanjing and Suzhou trip, I should really start my paper now. Only one more month left for this trip, it's gone by way too fast, but it's been so fun. Can't wait for more Shanghai shopping and the Beijing trip this weekend! Woot. Time is going by too fast! Last year of college 
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