other than Xianyang (Which is where I live) since I last wrote, so, I will write a few new posts here today.
Let's start with where I left off, my first week of teaching.
Monday, the day after the first weekend of school, evening Jim and I were off on our first adventure together to Lanzhou, China. This would be my first chance to take a train in China, which had me VERY worried. There are tons of stories about how cramped, crowded, and smelly they are. I actually found the over-night (we left around 10 pm) sleeper we were in to be quite nice. There was a nice breeze in our area (because I cracked the window), which was nice, but I still couldn't sleep much. I guess that I was just worried about the train crashing, or something stupid like that, but, I got enough sleep for our day trip to see the White Mountain Pagoda park and more of the city, as well.
Lanzhou is a city famous for their spicy beef noodles (generally handmade noodles on-the-spot!), smog, and pick-pockets. We recognized plenty of all during our visit, thought the smog was not too strong since it rained during much of our visit. When we arrived in Lanzhou, we quickly grabbed a taxi and ventured off to the area where the White Mountain Pagoda was. It was early, so we decided to get a pastry for breakfast. We found a nice large shopping area, which I will talk about later.
At this point, we have walked quite a bit, but we hadn't even started. We arrived at the area for the Pagoda, and it was very cool. It is a mountain littered with pagodas. 
There are plenty of pictures already online. Take a look at them if you have some time.
We crossed the Yellow River (One of the more famous rivers in China) on the first modern bridge ever made over that river, then took a tram (really taking our life in our hands there!) to the top of the mountain. We walked around the many pagoda's and even found a communist encampment (It was unbelievable. It looked like some old bombed out buildings, but people were still living in them!).
We saw temples from many religions like, Taoist, Confusionist, Buddhist, and others. They all had their own vibe. It was pretty groovy.
We made it down the mountain, (a many mile hike, and well worth it!) and had quite a few hours left, so we went to the HUGE Muslim mosque in the center of the city. It was pretty nice, and we were glad they let us in. They did follow us around for a while, and we were only allowed on the grounds, which were pretty cool.
We then went to a noodle house, which being in the city that originated the noodles we eat the most, is a necessity! The noodles were VERY good. I must say, they make them good everywhere in China, so the recipe must have traveled over time.
We had an hour or two, so we went back to the shopping center we saw earlier to people watch. It was there that we saw another famous Lanzhou happening. We watched a few pickpockets attempt to steal from a girl, but she was obviously smart and she swiped her hand as the thief put his hand into her bag. It was amazing, because I watched the whole thing!
Our trip back home wasn't quite as nice. We couldn't get a sleeper train, so we had to sit for the entire 9 hours back. Not fun! We did meet some cool people from Lhasa that I played cards with. They invited us to Lhasa, Tibet, and we will see if we can make it next Spring (It's a 36 hour train ride along the highest train in the world!).
There we go.... Please look for more blogs soon....
No comments:
Post a Comment