The Olympics!

Well, I'm back in Qinhuangdao from Hong Kong and Taiwan. My time in Hong Kong and Taiwan was enjoyable, but not very eventful. I've got more about my time in China that I plan to blog about, but recently I've focused all my computer time on finishing a project that I'll be putting on my resume for when I apply for jobs. So blogging just isn't a priority right now.

The Olympics don't officially start until tomorrow night, but some of the events have already began. I went to the USA vs. Norway women's soccer game last night. Unfortunately, we lost 2-0, but it was fun to go. I'll be going to 3 different events in Beijing before flying home in 6 days!

What's Next?

Finals just finished last week, and many people are asking me, "what's next?" I'm not totally sure, but I do know some of what I'll be doing in the near future...

• On July 5th, I head to Hong Kong. I'll be there about a week. The main reason I'm going is to get a tourist visa so I can come back to China in August (since my residence permit expires July 15th).
• On July 12th, I fly to Taiwan. I'm going there to help out with an English camp.
• I'll return to mainland China on August 3rd, just in time for the start of the Olympics.
• I'll be attending several different events during the Olympics: soccer (in Qinhuangdao) and rowing, hockey and handball (in Beijing).
• On August 13th, I fly back to Seattle.

After that, I really have no idea...

One cool bit of news I found out today: the tickets I have for the August 6th soccer game is USA vs. Norway. I bought the tickets several months ago, so I'm lucky I get to see the USA in the one soccer game I'm going to :).

Also, there are a few other trips I took the last two years that I haven't had time to blog about yet, but I still intend to, just for the sake of completeness and so that I don't forget. So check back here in the future for those updates.

Winter Travels Wrap-up

I finally finished blogging about my travels this winter with that last post. (I know, I know--it shouldn't have taken me until 4 months after the trip ended to finish, but oh well). I posted this map in an earlier post, but now I've updated it to include a picture and a link to the blog post about each place. So for anyone who missed a blog posts, here's a good chance to catch up:


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Handan

Handan Picasa Photo Album

After visiting Rayleigh in Pucheng, Drew returned to Qinhuangdao to begin spring semester at his school.  I traveled to Handan, a city in south Hebei Province, where I met up with Mike (another ELT Edge teacher at my school).  We visited two of our students, Jeff and Angel. 

 

 

 

This is some famous old structure in Handan, called something like Cong Tai.

 

Angel and her family.

 

The streets of Angel's village.  They don't get many foreigners here, so everyone would just stop and stare at us.

The kitchen in Angel's home.

Angel's father is a doctor, who specializes in mending severed fingers.  This is the sign above the entrance to their clinic/home.  I guess it comes in handy so people know where to go when they have this problem...they can just hold their hand up, and say, "Yep, my hand looks like that, so I guess this is the place to go."

 

The artwork inside the clinic is a collage of photos of all the severed hands that Angel's father has mended.

Mike and I with Jeff's family at his home.

 

We played Mah Jiang one evening with Jeff's family.

 

I rode on the back of this motorcycle for about 30 minutes to get to where we could catch a bus back to Handan.

From Handan, I returned to Beijing, where I caught a train to Qinhuangdao.  So that's the end of my trip :).

Pucheng

After our time in Urumqi and Kashgar, Xinjiang, Drew and I needed to head back east, so that Drew could make it back to his school on time for the start of classes the next Monday (my classes didn't start for another week).  Our original plan was to take a train from Kashgar to Urumqi (which lasts 24 hours), and then take the train from Urumqi all the way to Beijing (which is another 48 hours or so).  We managed to get train tickets from Kashgar to Urumqi, but the train tickets from Urumqi to Beijing were all sold out, unless we wanted to stand for 48 hours (and you can imagine how we felt about that prospect).  We decided to see what kind of discount airfare we could get.  Urumqi to Beijing was pretty expensive (about 2,000 RMB or $300, if I remember correctly), but there was a flight to Xi'an for less than 1,000 RMB.  Xi'an is one of the main train hubs in central China, and there are lots of daily trains to Beijing (taking 12-24 hours).  Drew and I also know a student from a Xi'an suburb, so we called Rayleigh up to see if she could help us out and buy our train tickets in advance.  Unfortunately, tickets from Xi'an to Beijing were almost entirely sold out, but Rayleigh managed to buy us one of the last tickets left--a standing ticket on the slowest (24 hours!) train to Beijing.  The ticket was a train leaving two nights after we arrived, so Rayleigh invited us to come hang out with her family for a few days.  We spent February 14th and 15th in Pucheng (a suburb of Xi'an) with Rayleigh and her family.  This was still during spring festival, so we got to meet all sort of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

The ancient pagoda of Pucheng.

Drew and I with Rayliegh and her parents.

Rayleigh with her mom, two aunts and two cousins.

When we arrived in Beijing, Drew headed back to Qinhuangdao to start his classes.  I still had a week, so I headed to Handan to visit two students.

Uighur Music

In my last post, I mentioned visiting a musical instrument store in Kashgar.  Tim asked "what did the long-necked instrument sound like?", so I thought I'd share this video I took at the store. 

 

Kashgar, Xinjiang

Kashgar Picasa Photo Album

After spending a few days in Urumqi, Drew and I flew to Kashgar, landing in Kashgar on February 10th.  Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an "official" English spelling of Kashgar.  "Kashgar" is how it is spelled in my Lonely Planet guidebook, but I've also seen it spelled Kaxgar and Kashi.  Kashgar is only about 100 miles from the Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan borders. 

We had heard that the Kashgar Sunday market was a "must see", and since we arrived on a Sunday, that was the first thing we went to see.  However, when we asked our taxi driver to take us there, we wound up at this livestock market instead.

 

The Kashgar livestock market.

 

A local Uighar man.

 

Drew and I met Copper, a local Uighar English teacher.  He was very eager to practice his English with us, and took us around town a bit.

 

I'm not sure what animal these heads belong to.  But it still makes for an interesting picture :).

 

 

 

One of the highlights of our time in Kashgar was our visit to the local musical instrument store. 

 

 

Id Kah Mosque, built in 1442.

Inside the mosque.

Some local Uighar men praying at the mosque.

 

 

The streets of Kashgar.

After spending two days in Kashgar, Drew and I took a train back to Urumqi, where we caught a flight to Xi'an.