MissHarmony

Busy-ness of Harmony's Jinan
2004-09-25 02:03:37 (UTC)

Summer 2004 Recap

As much as I?d like to review this summer?s
adventures in full detail, I just don?t see it happening.
Too many new adventures and ideas hit me everyday that the
thought of rehashing 2 months of touring and visiting
China and America is more overwhelming than I?d care to
deal with. So, I?ll just recap for posterity and then move
on.
June 13th through 23rd the Barks came to China.
They spent an afternoon in Hong Kong, then came into
Beijing. We played there for several days in the
sweltering heat and cooling rain before moving on to Xian,
the home of the Terracotta Warriors. Joanne joined the
group in Xian and we made a very quick trip of it because
none of us felt the place warranted more than a day and a
half. Next we all hopped on a 28 hour train down to
Guilin, ?the best scenery under heaven?. And it proved to
be worth its name, albeit a bit steamy. We took all the
forms of transportation one could find, cars, buses, speed
boats, river rafts, bikes, you name it. On the 23rd the
Barks headed for Hong Kong for one more night while Joanne
and I moseyed on to Kunming.
June 23rd through 29th was spent attempting to get
to Tibet, but only making it as far as Li Jiang (11 hours
north of Kunming by bus). The air was much more crisp and
lovely in these parts. We visited the little Stone Forest
to escape the crowds and high entrance fees. The sleeper
bus to Li Jiang was gnarly but thankfully the return bus
was luxurious, just the luck of the draw I guess. The Naxi
minority was responsible for the constant restoration and
upkeep of the old village in Li Jiang. Quite the tourist
trap but great for pictures and shopping, of which we did
loads. Snow Dragon Mountain, the first bend in the Yangtze
River, and Tiger Leaping Gorge were the major highlights
around the city. On the 29th we flew back to Qingdao and
had our last FengShouLi experience, which proved itself to
be as aggravating and amusing as always.
June 29th through July 1st Joanne and I spent our
last days in Jinan repacking bags, tying up loose ends,
buying last minute gifts and making our way to the Beijing
airport for our flights. Our parting was bittersweet, as
Joanne feared us not seeing each other forever, whilst I
knew I?d see her soon (whenever that was).
July 1st through August 4th played in Los Angeles,
San Diego, Somerset, Boothill, Rocklin, Caliente, Rancho
Palos Verdes, San Juan Capistrano visiting all kinds of
friends and family. I saw more family this year than I had
on my last visit home or during the many years prior.
Mainly, I relaxed, watched TV, baked cookies, BBQ-ed,
slept, ate junk food, ate health food, delivered presents
and shopped for things to take back to China. The true
highlight of my summer was spending so much time with my
sister. I haven?t done that since I moved away to college.
She is truly a cool kid, person, young lady and goofball.
Yup, she?s ?mg-uuud.?
August 6th through August 26th Willa and I
traveled up the eastern side of China by train. Guangzhou
was my port of entry, where my laptop was stolen right
from under my nose. But I guess, as a foreigner with a big
nose, it wasn?t so hard to do. C?est la vie. The heat in
Guangzhou was oppressive but turned out to be one of the
cooler places on our journey.

We headed to Hangzhou on a 21 hour train ride. West Lake
was the highlight but the sweltering heat made it rather
unpleasant, as did the hot air coming out of the ever-
helpful aunties we encountered. The lack of power in the
city, however, made the taxis more of a refuge from the
heat than even our hotel room or the movie theaters.

Our next stop was XiTang, a small old village with the
original architecture in tact, was no where near as
lovely, clean or touristy as LiJiang in Yunan. Our plans
to stay two days in this peaceful village were cut short
by the sheer nasty factor we discovered in our hotel room.

We moved on to Suzhou where we spent about 5 or 6 days
lazing about in our hotel room with occasional short trips
into the heat. Known for its many varied gardens we made
use of the bus system to take us around, but again the
swelter, the crowds and the foreign tourists galore made
our journeys not so pleasant. Our daily food adventures
climaxed when we discovered that the ?squirrel fish? was
just a fish filleted, deep fried and drenched in sweet ?n?
sour sauce, the specialty at all the shops.

We finally got to truly cool off on our deluxe bus ride to
Shanghai, but then we heated up again as we traipsed
around trying to find our hotel. Lovely place, once we got
there, right on the water front at the end of the bund
with all its swank hotels, old school and new skool
buildings and blaring billboards at every turn. We came,
we saw, we dropped our jaws at the impressive amount of
sex toys in the sex shop, foreigners on the street, shops
with overpriced junk, Mc Donald?s on every corner, crappy
& expensive food as well as the cheap & yummy food in the
least likely of places.

We happily moved our penny pinching selves onto the train
to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain). After a day?s tour around
Tang Kou we woke up at the crack to go to the mountain
before the hoards and we just made it too. This is the
mountain area that all the Chinese paintings you know and
love depict. Once you get away from the tour guides
screaming through their bullhorns and the hundreds of
sheep-like tourists the beauty of this place is stunning.
Plummeting cliffs with solitary pines perched mid-cliff
swimming in a sea of clouds making everything seem serene,
surreal and supernatural. Unfortunately, the wind and the
never-ending clouds foiled our plans to see the sunrise,
even though we?d traversed an unknown path through the
darkness of 4am up to the less used perch on the back side
of the hill.

We made a stopover into Nanjing for one night, which
didn?t terribly impress me. Then we moved on to Jinan,
home sweet home. After seeing all the folks, picking up
Jingjing and dealing with near tragedy trying to get her
on the plane, JJ and I made it to Guangzhou and our new
home.




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