Nikki (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} intothe_woods) wrote,@ 2006-06-12 15:12:00 |
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End of the Year Trip to Sichuan
Figured that since I've been home for over a week I would update with the (shorter than expected) trip my sister and I took after school ended.
More Pictures
No, the colour isn't edited...
More Pictures
My sister came in the Saturday after school ended. We started out in Beijing with shopping. Tons of shopping. I don't quite understand how we managed to spend that much money. It's always amazing how a place as cheap as China can be such a drain on your bank account. But it manages to happen every time. I wasn't in the best of moods because of everyone leaving, but I was happy that she was in town. And Brigette stayed and we left the same day, so it made it more bearable.
First thing I did (after shopping) was take her to the Great Wall, something you have to do while in China. There is a section close to Beijing, so we just went there. It's a very steep climb and very hot, so we weren't there to long. One of those Chinese tourist things: go, get a picture in front of it, and leave. Not completely, but almost.
First step of the actual vacation (for me anyway) was heading to Chengdu (capital of Sichuan). We were meeting up with a friend of mine (Brigette) and all the people she was showing around the day after we got in to town. The flight wa delayed so we didn't get in until 1am and we had a horrible time trying to find our hostel. But anyway, the hostel was actually really fantastic. I love the hostels in China, they are the best, lots of character.
Anyway, first real day of the vacation we headed to the suburbs of Chengdu to visit the pandas (which I've done before). It was a lot of fun. We got to hold a red panda, but not a regular one. The panda baby was 'Jing Jing', which is the olympic mascot, so they raised the price to hold it and the mayor was coming or something, so it turned out to be pretty impossible. It was disappointing, but couldn't be helped. Note: This day is the day my sister got completely fed up with eating Chinese food for every meal. We had Pizza hut for dinner.
Chengdu is a pretty gross city, so we only stayed for the one day to go see the pandas. We headed out the next day on a 10 hour bus ride to go to Langmusi, a national park. Left my passport at the hostel so we had to run back 30 minutes before the bus left. That was stressful. Wouldn't have been quite a problem since we were back 2 days later, but we didn't know that at that time.
The scenery was great, sometimes I the bus is the best way to travel because of the scenery. But also the most uncomfortable. Once we got in and got a hotel my sister broke down and desperately wanted to go home. We called out parents, her boyfriends, etc, and after a lot of thinking ended up arranging to head back to Chengdu after a day in the park and then fly back to Beijing so she could change her flight and go home early. I think the travelling was too much for her, maybe we should have just stayed in Beijing. Travelling on your own without having tickets to go anywhere or hotels to stay at is kind of stressful. That's probably what got to her. That and not being able to talk to anyone, which I went through for months. But for someone who doesn't like travelling, China is a big step.
So, went to Jiuzhaigou park the next day after getting tickets back to Beijin and everything settled. Can't say I minded heading back to Beijing, I get homesick too, just for Beijing instead of Texas...
She did enjoy Jiuzhaigou though, it was amazingly beautiful. The lakes were honestly iridescent blue and completely clear no matter how deep they were, I've never seen anything like it. And then just the forest and hiking, it was fun. There were tons of tourists there, and some Tibetan dancing at the front of the park, but once you get in and walk on the paths more than 20 meters you were away from all the crowds of the Chinese tourists who barely ever leave the bus, and then only walk far enough to take a picture. I wanted to point them in the right direction to get to Disneyland, but I restrained myself. But seriously, some of them had business suits or high heels on. It was ridiculous. Sam and I managed to walk around most of it and were there all day, it was fantastic.
Headed back to Beijing. I wanted to kill someone on the bus ride back to Chengdu. A few people actually. No coffee, a small child, the NOISIEST, LOUDEST people in the world right in front of us and surrounding us, and then the loud, noisy idiots wanted to listen to music. Horrible, awful, loud chinese music. I nearly went mad.
More problems: We got to Chengdu and China has this wonderful thing that you can't pay for plane tickets with a credit card and my sisters bank only let her get out a certain amount of money a day, so we were short money, running around for an ATM that we could take money out. It was a disaster. We ended up asking the hostel for a loan. It was stressful. Just something to add to it. And, obviously not happy about being in Chengdu, I hate that city.
It all worked out in the end and we made it back to Beijing. Did normal things while we were back. Took Sam to the Forbidden City, more shopping, Houhai, Lama Temple, massages, etc. Much more relaxing to travel around in a city I'm more familiar.
Went with Brigette and her group to the Qing dynasty restaurant down the street from our school. They have a Peking Opera performance during dinner. It's a lot of fun.
And that's the end of the trip with my sister. She headed back (bringing one of my suitcases with her so I could pack another one). I spent the remainder of my time there packing mostly, visiting a few of the sites I didn't get to see (being one, I'll post pictures later...ok, so this won't be my last post), just chilling pretty much. It took a ton of time to pack.
Well, since I'm going to need another post, I'll leave the rest for when I get the rest of my pictures online and get the camera of my sister and I at the Forbidden City developed. Wait up for me ;)
~Nikki
我想中国。
Figured that since I've been home for over a week I would update with the (shorter than expected) trip my sister and I took after school ended.
More Pictures
No, the colour isn't edited...
More Pictures
My sister came in the Saturday after school ended. We started out in Beijing with shopping. Tons of shopping. I don't quite understand how we managed to spend that much money. It's always amazing how a place as cheap as China can be such a drain on your bank account. But it manages to happen every time. I wasn't in the best of moods because of everyone leaving, but I was happy that she was in town. And Brigette stayed and we left the same day, so it made it more bearable.
First thing I did (after shopping) was take her to the Great Wall, something you have to do while in China. There is a section close to Beijing, so we just went there. It's a very steep climb and very hot, so we weren't there to long. One of those Chinese tourist things: go, get a picture in front of it, and leave. Not completely, but almost.
First step of the actual vacation (for me anyway) was heading to Chengdu (capital of Sichuan). We were meeting up with a friend of mine (Brigette) and all the people she was showing around the day after we got in to town. The flight wa delayed so we didn't get in until 1am and we had a horrible time trying to find our hostel. But anyway, the hostel was actually really fantastic. I love the hostels in China, they are the best, lots of character.
Anyway, first real day of the vacation we headed to the suburbs of Chengdu to visit the pandas (which I've done before). It was a lot of fun. We got to hold a red panda, but not a regular one. The panda baby was 'Jing Jing', which is the olympic mascot, so they raised the price to hold it and the mayor was coming or something, so it turned out to be pretty impossible. It was disappointing, but couldn't be helped. Note: This day is the day my sister got completely fed up with eating Chinese food for every meal. We had Pizza hut for dinner.
Chengdu is a pretty gross city, so we only stayed for the one day to go see the pandas. We headed out the next day on a 10 hour bus ride to go to Langmusi, a national park. Left my passport at the hostel so we had to run back 30 minutes before the bus left. That was stressful. Wouldn't have been quite a problem since we were back 2 days later, but we didn't know that at that time.
The scenery was great, sometimes I the bus is the best way to travel because of the scenery. But also the most uncomfortable. Once we got in and got a hotel my sister broke down and desperately wanted to go home. We called out parents, her boyfriends, etc, and after a lot of thinking ended up arranging to head back to Chengdu after a day in the park and then fly back to Beijing so she could change her flight and go home early. I think the travelling was too much for her, maybe we should have just stayed in Beijing. Travelling on your own without having tickets to go anywhere or hotels to stay at is kind of stressful. That's probably what got to her. That and not being able to talk to anyone, which I went through for months. But for someone who doesn't like travelling, China is a big step.
So, went to Jiuzhaigou park the next day after getting tickets back to Beijin and everything settled. Can't say I minded heading back to Beijing, I get homesick too, just for Beijing instead of Texas...
She did enjoy Jiuzhaigou though, it was amazingly beautiful. The lakes were honestly iridescent blue and completely clear no matter how deep they were, I've never seen anything like it. And then just the forest and hiking, it was fun. There were tons of tourists there, and some Tibetan dancing at the front of the park, but once you get in and walk on the paths more than 20 meters you were away from all the crowds of the Chinese tourists who barely ever leave the bus, and then only walk far enough to take a picture. I wanted to point them in the right direction to get to Disneyland, but I restrained myself. But seriously, some of them had business suits or high heels on. It was ridiculous. Sam and I managed to walk around most of it and were there all day, it was fantastic.
Headed back to Beijing. I wanted to kill someone on the bus ride back to Chengdu. A few people actually. No coffee, a small child, the NOISIEST, LOUDEST people in the world right in front of us and surrounding us, and then the loud, noisy idiots wanted to listen to music. Horrible, awful, loud chinese music. I nearly went mad.
More problems: We got to Chengdu and China has this wonderful thing that you can't pay for plane tickets with a credit card and my sisters bank only let her get out a certain amount of money a day, so we were short money, running around for an ATM that we could take money out. It was a disaster. We ended up asking the hostel for a loan. It was stressful. Just something to add to it. And, obviously not happy about being in Chengdu, I hate that city.
It all worked out in the end and we made it back to Beijing. Did normal things while we were back. Took Sam to the Forbidden City, more shopping, Houhai, Lama Temple, massages, etc. Much more relaxing to travel around in a city I'm more familiar.
Went with Brigette and her group to the Qing dynasty restaurant down the street from our school. They have a Peking Opera performance during dinner. It's a lot of fun.
And that's the end of the trip with my sister. She headed back (bringing one of my suitcases with her so I could pack another one). I spent the remainder of my time there packing mostly, visiting a few of the sites I didn't get to see (being one, I'll post pictures later...ok, so this won't be my last post), just chilling pretty much. It took a ton of time to pack.
Well, since I'm going to need another post, I'll leave the rest for when I get the rest of my pictures online and get the camera of my sister and I at the Forbidden City developed. Wait up for me ;)
~Nikki
我想中国。
