China Grand Finale : : : Beijing

So my trip has winded down and is now officially over. My stories didn't end when I left Chengdu though. I headed to the capital of China in Beijing for my last 4 days of my China trip. I'll do my best to give a little overview of what went down in those days.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6AM after finishing packing the night before at 2:30AM. So in the morning, I checked out of my room and got my 200 RMB deposit back and said some good-byes to Phil and Eva. I was really tired on the way to the airport but our van driver had a crazy techno mix on the radio so we all danced and acted crazy. The closer we got to the airport the more the excitement turned into sleepiness.

Everything at the airport went surprisingly smoothly. I was 6kg overweight but Kay paid for our total weight over so I had to pay her back later. The flight was surprisingly short at just 2 & 1/2 hours. I had some Sprite and couple Sichuanese style hamburgers that I had tried for the best time the day before. I didn't sleep as much as I wanted to. It took us awhile to get our baggage and move from the airport to the restaurant.

We went to a restaurant that was intended to be our introduction to Beijing cuisine. The food was good and reminded me of the type of Chinese food seen in America that is more sweet. After lunch we checked into our hotel. I roomed with Colin and really that was the only person I wanted to room with. It took awhile to check in and wait fo r




On my last day in Beijing and China, I had it free to do whatever I wanted. When we were in Tiananmen Square before, we weren't about to go the Maosoleum (the Mao Zedong Memorial). I really wanted to go see it because Mao's real body (supposedly) is in a glass coffin that visitors walk by like an open casket. Security was tight and the line was long but overall it was worth it. It was an eery feeling walking by someone I knew do so many things I didn't agree with but have such support from his victims. It was the same irony that foreigners can view in every aspect of China traveling. The guards were really just protecting the ignorance of the average Chinese person.



Following the casket-viewing, Colin, Erin, Joey, Chambers and I took a 2 RMB bus ride all the way to the Olympics area. Colin chatted with people on the bus all the way there and I just listened in from a distance as I thought about how much I time I had for everything before I had to catch a cab to the airport. We would arrive in the newly constructed district seeing the Olympic water facility known as the Watercube. This is where Michael Phelps took home all those gold medals and broke a bunch of swimming records. In the distance we could see the Bird's Nest where the opening and closing ceremonies took place. We paid an entrance fee to go inside and take all types of pictures in the two facilities. In the Bird's Nest, we were able to go down onto the field of the stadium. We saw all the "friendlys" and took some pictures with them. We started throwing a frisbee and no one stopped us. We started spreading out and just tossing when a small crowd formed around us snapping photos. Something about talented Waiguoren(foreigners) really just intrigues Chinese people.



I left by myself from the Olympic area because I was running out of time and still had a couple of things that I wanted to do. I took a taxi to ORTV's Beijing office where I toured the small office and chatted with the staff. There wasn't much to do there so I asked where I could quickly stop off before making my way back to the hotel and then to the airport. They directed me to Beihai Park which was nearby. Traffic made the taxi ride longer than it should have been so it also decreased the amount of time I had to walk the park before I had to leave.


I bought decently cheap park ticket and quickly started exploring. The park was really great with a lot of different areas and huge lake in the middle that featured an island in the middle with what looked like a stupa on top of its hill. I didn't have enough time to get to it but I swiftly walked around and snapped up photos. Running out of time, I grabbed a cab to my hotel and used the same cab to get to the airport. It was all so rushed I can't really remember all that happened. Traffic was horrible so I was a little nervous. My cab driver was cool and navigated us through the mess. It was my last taxi ride in China for who knows how long and it was so much like many of the other rides that I had taken. We chatted until all my Chinese ran dry. I can't get past a basic conversation. He helped me understand a couple new words like "terminal." I don't know how I finally came to the conclusion that the meaning of what he was saying was terminal but it moved the conversation on once I finally picked it up. It was really a testimony to the adventure I'd had this semester, along with evidence of my progress in Chinese. I came with only knowing a few Chinese phrases and I left finding out words like "terminal" without any translation.

Call me conversational

Last night when I was waiting for my dinner at a local jiaozi place, some old guy just started talking to me. Although his accent was ever so hard to understand, we still had a long conversation about China, America, and then even the Olympics. He really likes the American swimmer Michael Phelps. Every now and then he would start speaking in Sichuanhua and I would say, "Wo mei ting dong Sichuanhua." He would laugh and then talk in Putonghua again. In the conversation, I would often ask him to slow down - "man yi dian." It was a fun time for sure and reminded me how much I've learned here in China - Zhongguo.

Dujiangyan Charity Dinner

The charity dinner that I helped organize with a local health club and school went extremely well. I would not consider myself a stage performer, although some might argue, but I led a couple skits, did a beat boxing routine with a couple of friends and even danced...You'll have to see the pictures to believe it. The dance was probably the highlight. Four other guys and I performed a practiced hip-hop routine to a popular Nsync song. We practiced a couple hours for the four nights leading up to the dinner. Overall, the dinner went great. I was also auctioned off near the end of the night for giving basketball lessons. I sold for 200RMB(roughly a little more than $30 USD). I was glad for the experience though I stressed out a lot about the night and really wanted it to go well. There were some definite weak points, like the sound system at the hotel, but overall those were overshadowed. We were able to raise over 22,000 RMB(or about $3,000 USD). That's a lot for a charity like this in China. I'm proud of the help that the group offered and it was really a learning experience. I have to give a shout out to Emily Isenee for doing a great job organizing our group and giving me an opportunity to work with her on this task. Also, the leader of the health club and school did a lot of work getting support and finding us a place to put the dinner on. Thank you Xia Wei and Duan. Also, our PLU group kicked some serious butt on stage supplying most of the night's entertainment. Hao de!

A small river town called Lizhuang

(A part of my journal entry for November 15)

It is not a village by any means, but rather a small river town on the ominous Yangtze River. We stayed in the only hotels in the town right up against the river. We spent our afternoon exploring the town and attempting to interact with the local people. This attempt was not foiled by our inability to speak Mandarin, but rather their ability to Mandarin. The townspeople all spoke Sichuanhua, while the students and more educated people spoke some Putonghua(Mandarin). We sat next to the river and played Chinese card games while sipping on 1 RMB green tea. The glass was never-ending. Dinner was a unique blend of Sichuan cuisine and a flavor of local specialties; the most famous of all being a cast iron hot pot place squarely in the middle of the table. We ate next to the river but couldn't see it because the lights from our table where the only lights within close proximity. After dinner, some of us went to go find pool tables. The locals kept winning but liked to play us so we got to keep playing on the table. A curfew sent us all to bed early.

The Pearl of the Orient

Shanghai, one of the biggest cities in the world with nearly 20 million people. It’s so big that I can not even tell you for sure whether the city ends or not. I saw not clue to give me any idea. All I saw were buildings and people. It was a fascinating feeling to think that I was in China being in Shanghai. The city is the biggest and most modern I have been in. It makes Hong Kong look like a neighborhood and Taipei like an old man. I can’t believe that anything would make those cities look that way, but then again I had never been to Shanghai. The only thing that really made it different then being a big city in America was all the Chinese, although English was not absent.
So as you can imagine, my trip to Shanghai was pretty unforgettable. I awoke at 6:00AM on Thursday morning, November 6 to catch my 7:50AM flight from Chengdu to Shanghai. I was so excited I didn’t even feel tired. I think I woke up with an adrenaline rush. My flight was short at a little over 2 hours. Then I had the pleasure of taking the fastest train in the world called the Maglev, it runs on new magnetic technology. This is the first of its kind in the world and China is going to build one between Shanghai and Beijing.


I would be staying with at my friend Eli’s house, although he is studying in Chicago at Wheaton University. I met his mom at the Maglev station. His mom is Chinese, well American now, but grew up in Malaysia, Taiwan
, and Hong Kong. His dad is an American, white man who grew up in Pennsylvania. So Eli is the best of both worlds! I dropped my things off in Eli’s room, my room for now, and went to lunch at Eli’s favorite restaurant. I forgot the name… but we enjoyed the food and stories. I can tell they really love Eli. He’s also such a momma’s boy.

My personal adventure in Shanghai would officially start when I was dropped off at the Subway station. I had a slight idea of where I wanted to go and I had a map to take me there. I waded my way through a crowded river of people in the Subway station and somehow found myself on the right subway line heading to the heart of the city. My destination for Thursday was the People’s Park. I spent a lot of time taking pictures and gawking at the tall buildings. The weather was poor so I decided not to go up into any today. Instead, I explored the park and its close surroundings, even finding Nike Shanghai. I started talking with some Chinese tourists in their twenties and we all went to a famous tea house for famous tea ceremony and delicious tea. Hao he. It was really expensive though I don’t have a whole of money to spend to I just tried one.

After the tea ceremony, it was getting to be about dinner time so I took the subway all the way to the last stop then taxi the rest of the way to Showalter’s house. They live in the east part of Pudong, if you know the city geography at all. My dinner was sitting on the table when I got home. Then I studied Chinese and watched a cool Shaolin monks recorded performance that I had borrowed from a teacher in Chengdu. I wanted to get an early start on my Friday so I went to bed at midnight.

My day Friday was planned out a lot better than the day before. I ate breakfast at the Showalter’s house, then took a bus to the Subway station. I got off at the East Nanjing Rd. stop. East Nanjing Rd. is one of the busiest roads in Shanghai. It is known as a shopping street. I didn’t do any shopping but there was plenty of eye candy. I took some photos.

From East Nanjing Rd I headed straight for the famous Bund. The Bund is a road along the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The buildings were built by foreigners years ago in a colonial style. Now, the buildings still stand but for different purposes. The majority of the buildings are government buildings and banks now. One of most famous buildings is the Peace Hotel. Unfortunately I couldn’t go into the hotel because it was being renovated. While on the boardwalk, I started talking to a Chinese guy that is a middle school math teacher. His friend worked at a tea house close by so we went to pay her a visit. I got to drink as much tea as I wanted and as many varieties as I wanted all for free. It was great. Then he helped me map out how to get to Old Town (the old part of Shanghai).


I got to lost on the way to Old Town because it was decent walking distant that required turns that I seemed to miss. With some success through asking questions, I was able to find Old Town. Although it was much bigger than all the high rise buildings elsewhere in the city, I wasn’t particularly impressed. This is the China that I’m used to seeing. After walking through Old Town and taking more pictures, I decided to take a cab to my next destination. It was walk-able but harder to locate. I just wanted to save myself the trouble and paid 13RMB($2) for a cab.

My next destination was Xintiandi. This part of town was renovated to look like the old Shukamen houses in Shanghai many years ago. The Shukamen houses were very big and lived in by wealthier Chinese people. After many years, these houses became dilapidated. A group of investors bought all of them and renovated them to make Xintiandi a very trendy and modern area with shops and restaurants. They look like old Shukamen houses though.


I stopped by the Memorial site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This is the place where Mao Zedong and other important people founded the Communist party way back when. The house has been turned into a museum. I would stay the highlight was the wax statures of all the founders hovering over a table discussing things. Nearby the this memorial was a replication of an old Shukamen. The inside was furnished with antiques to make it look how the old interiors looked. I really enjoyed spending some time here.

Then at night, I took the Subway up to the Shanghai Circus stop. I bought a ticket to Chinese acrobat performance “ERA Intersection of Time” for 180 RMB. I got dinner Dairy Queen while I waiting for the show to start. I’ve decided that finding Chinese food in Shanghai is rare. The show was flippin awesome. I definitely made a good decision by going. Unfortunately I could take pictures during the performance. It was cool to see all the stunts, some involving trampolines and some just people climbing over people. Overall, it’s really hard to explain everything that went on. The show ended with 7 motorcycle drivers all driving at the same time in a huge metal ball cage. After the show, I made the long journey back the east side of Pudong. It was after 10PM when I got home.


The weather cleared up a bit on Friday so I went to the new area of town. Here is where a lot of the famous big buildings are towers are. They are working on building the world’s biggest building here. They are also currently working on developing the area along the river for the World Expo in 2010. This includes building elevated highways everywhere. Hopefully that will decrease the congestion.

I decided to go to the Jin Mao Tower first. The Jin Mao Tower was the third biggest building in the world when it was completely in the 1990s but it is now somewhere between 4 and 7 now. Also with all the big buildings being built, I have no idea where it will stand in the next couple of years. I do know that it is currently the second tallest in Shanghai because right next to it is the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is currently behind only Taipei 101 in height. I decided to go to Jin Mao instead of WFC because the entrance fee for Jin Mao was 60RMB and the entrance fee for WFC was 150RMB. That was enough to win me over. I also wanted to see the highest hotel in world which is located in the Jin Mao tower from the middle to upper area of the building. I got to see the lobby but was stopped by a security guard from going up any higher.

On my way to the Jin Mao, I walked with a Chinese guy studying to get his Masters degree in Shanghai. He had an interview with a company at the Jin Mao. After seeing the great view from the Jin Mao, I met up with him again for lunch. I wanted to go the huge mall called the Super Brand Mall. It was cool to talk with him and grab lunch. He paid for me and then he had to go back to school. I stayed in the mall and spent time exploring it.


There was an NFL China booth set up in the main part of the mall that was taking surveys to see how people in China like American football and if they liked the couple of NFL games that were aired on TV in Shanghai. To promote this booth, there was football tossing booth with a metal ring to throw the football through. I decided I would go down and through a couple balls through the hoop. When they saw that I could do it so well (actually make it and throw a spiral) they asked me to join the competition. I said ok even though I was pretty nervous. They had a microphone out and started attracting attention. A crowd formed and people watched as I threw 17 balls through the hoop in a minute (I was on my game) and won the competition. A couple of the other guys did a pretty good job but they just couldn’t make nearly as many as me. I got a free NFL shirt for winning.

In the afternoon, I spent my entire time at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. This tower is the fourth largest tower (not building) in the world. The TV Tower has a lot more to offer than I originally thought. It also has long lines and slow elevators. It was fun to have more views and also ride a roller coaster! But it was a very short rollercoaster but surprisingly good for Asia. After my time at the TV Tower, I made my way back to the east of Pudong to meet Eli’s parents for dinner.



We ate a Japanese and Korean restaurant. So I had sushi and Korean BBQ at the same meal. Then afterwards we grabbed some Coldstone ice cream (Yea, it’s Shanghai) and then went to Eli’s school to watch a school play. I was glad to see Eli’s school which was really nice, but don’t forget that it is an international school. Then we went back to their house to relax.

On Sunday, I had some time before church because church is in the afternoon. Eli’s dad is the pastor of the international church that only foreigners can go to. I took advantage of my time to go to People’s Square, but I accidentally went back to the People’s Park nearby. But I found something really funny, there are people’s parents out with profiles of their son or daughter trying to match-make them with someone else. It was like they were for sale. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. While I was looking at this, I as approached by some young Chinese tourists, again. They wanted to speak in English. We went to the same expensive but famous tea house as first day. Afterwards, I said good-bye to them so that I could go the Urban Planning Center. Here there is a giant model of the entire city. There are a lot of other things to check out as well. I didn’t have much time though because I had to get back to go to lunch with Eli’s parents before church.

I met them at the last stop of the subway station then we drove to near where the church is to eat. We ate at a western style restaurant where I ate a hamburger. We ran into some people from the church and Eli’s dad arranged for me to have dinner with them. Then after lunch, we went to the international church. It was fulfilling.

Then after church, I had dinner with some of Eli’s friends. All of their parents worked for big companies in Shanghai. The whole experience of church and the people really felt like home. It was so weird to think that I was in China. We also ate at another western restaurant but this one was probably overpriced but in America it would have probably still been more expensive. Then one of their drivers drove me to the Maglev station and I made the journey home.


Wow. What a great trip! I pretty much assumed Eli’s spot in family for four days! Not really but it was fun.
I stayed in his room, I played with his dog, I had dinner with his family and I even went a play at his old school. Shou! (As Eli would say!)

No Monkeying Around

So this last weekend was a crazy fun trip. We went out to an area called Emei. It's known for the famous Mt. Emei or Emei Shan. We left early Saturday morning and got back to our dorm late Sunday night.

Saturday featured us going to the largest sitting Buddha in the world. He is right next to water and carved right into a cliff. It's a crazy sight to see. His head is over 10m long. It was really interesting. The stone there is soft so carving is easy but at the same time, it is surprising that the carving would last for so long from the erosion.

Sunday feature us going into the National Park. We went up to the top of Mt. Emei but it really wasn't that impressive. We drove most of the way up and even hopped on a cable car.... Oh China. You just love to make everything tourist friendly. At the top was a giant stupa and a temple.

After lunch, we had the choice to go to a famous temple in another part of the park or go to the a monkey preservation area and see wild monkeys! It was an easy decision for me. I chose the monkeys. We had to really hurry to get there because it was 7km(about 5 miles) away. It really didn't feel like that long though. It was really worth the trip too. The area had a lot of wild monkeys that were actually pretty dangerous. There were a lot of hired park workers who hard sticks and sling shots to protect the "observers." They really didn't do too much though because the monkeys were running around like crazy. We could buy food and feed them too. However, the monkeys would steal anything that we were holding so it didn't take long for them to hijack all the food. Erin got mauled by a monkey and dropped the three packs of food that she bought. The monkey grabbed all the food and ran up into the trees. It was hilarious from my perspective but she was really scared after that. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty freaked out by the monkeys too. They were scary.

The path did a loop around the highly populated monkey area. There were two main bridges for the short path. The second bridge was guarded by monkeys. They wouldn't let anyone pass unless we gave them food. I saw a big monkey land on a guys back and just grab onto him. A park worker beat the monkey off with his stick. The man was lucky to not have been biten. I thought the same was going to happen to me when I didn't have food. Luckily, I passed freely. Eva was stopped by monkey who grabbed onto her legs and wouldn't let go. Monkeys are so quick and so strong and can really jump far. They are really funny to watch but at the same time can be very intimidating. I was so glad I made the choice to go see the monkeys though. They were definitely the highlight of my trip. I mean, how many people can say that they've seen wild monkeys?

Cooking /// KTV /// Hot Pot x2

So I've been really busy and even yet am writing this while I should be studying. I'm still alive, though my brain is being crammed with overloading information on a daily basis. I hope that my Chinese will improve through pure osmosis.

My studies have still been the biggest priority and also my biggest time killer. It's what I came here for. I'm making a lot of friends but still find it hard to practice my Chinese with them because they speak English to me.

Lately, a group of friends and I have been coooking a lot. It's so much cheaper than going out, not to mention a lot of fun. There is a little food market close to our dorm that we hit up for mostly just veggies(no meat there) and sometimes spices. I consistently use garlic and onion. We also go and get rice from the cafeteria. Overall, the meals end up costing only about 2-3 RMB or about 30-45 cents USD. It's amazing. It's helped me save money to buy cool things or take a trip(I'm going to Shanghai!).

Also, this last weekend was my first time to go to KTV. My PLU buddy Colin and I went out with a bunch of our Chinese friends to KTV(Karaoke). Here, you rent a room by the hour and can order drinks and snacks
to your own private room. We stayed for a couple of hours and had a blast. My friend Bayanna(he's Mongolian) sang a traditional Tibetan song. The girls were all very good. It made Colin and I look so bad.

Saturday night, my friend from Chinese class named Mendis cooked dinner for me. He's from Sri Lanka which is an island located off the coast of India. The food is very similar to Indian food but also similar to Thai food. Considering those are my two favorite foods, I loved it! He also made me Sri Lankan coffee and tea. A lot of the spices he uses to cook with came from home. Something that surprised me was that Sri Lankan people eat with their hands. I ate with a spoon this time but next time I'll be digging right in there with my hands.

For dinner on Sunday and Monday, I went to the .
Sichuan hot pot. There is already a post devoted to the Sichuanese hot pot so you can check that one out if you are curious. Let's just say that spicy oily food two nights in a row was not good for my stomach come today...haha. It's China though. It happens.

I'm buying tickets to go to Shanghai and stay with my friend Eli's parents. I'm leaving Thurs Nov 6 and returning Sun Nov 9. I've been reading up on Shanghai a lot and am really excited to go

Tibet Autonomous Region

So I’ve just finished up a week of vacation in Tibet with the rest of my study away group. It was a one of the best experiences of my life. I was so excited for trip. We did a lot of readings and had many lectures on Tibet for the trip so I knew a decent amount of information about the trip before going. Now, I’m struggling to catch up on my studies, along with my journal and my blog. The pictures on this blog are in no particular order. Also, any of these pictures can be clicked on to be seen at full size. Note, the situation in this area calls that I am careful with my political language and information. More stories are waiting for you when I get home.



Our trip started on Saturday, September 27 and ended on the following Saturday, October 4. We arrived in Lhasa on Saturday and drove to our nice hotel right next to the old market. It took about an hour to get to the city from the airport. We had a lot of free time to explore and shop. They there are so many little stalls selling all types of little things. Anything from prayer flags to hats can be found. I had a great time practicing my Chinese and working the vendors’ prices down. I was by far the best bargainer in the group. I’m really learning the art.


I don’t remember our exact agenda, but we spent a few days in Lhasa. In that time, we had a lot of free time to explore yet we still toured famous places as a group. Each day in the morning, we would take a tour bus to certain location and spend a couple of hours there. Usually, we were out until dinner. Then the rest of the night was ours.


In Lhasa, we toured the Potala Palace, the Drepung Monastery, Jokhang Temple and the Drak Yerpa. I know that these names might mean nothing to you, but I’ll briefly try to explain each one to you. The Potala Palace is most famous place in Lhasa. It sits atop a hill and can be viewed from almost anywhere. It used to act as both the political building and dwelling house of the historical Tibetan politician/religious leaders. In the old Tibet, the two went hand-in-hand.


The Drepung Monastery used to house 10,000 and was the biggest in Tibet. Now it houses 600. It is pretty much just a Buddhist-type university. The Jokhang Temple is a very famous temple located in the heart of the old market. We wanted to see the chanting practices that took place later in the night but we weren’t allowed to enter because we were foreigners.


The Drak Yerpa is a hermitage located about 50 miles outside of the city of Lhasa up in the mountains. We traveled up there to see some of the most simple-living Tibetans practicing their highly religious lifestyles. It was fun to be able to hike a little bit, although the altitude was really killing me. I don’t understand how they got all those statues and buildings up on those mountains. It was truly an extraordinary place.


I had a couple of highlights while in Lhasa. The first one was the shopping. I bought a lot of cheap clothing. The best pick-up was a read fleece I bought for merely 40 RMB or about $5-6 US. It is really nice and high quality. The second highlight of Lhasa was meeting up with my friend Lawrence. I met him via facebook through my friend Dave in Chengdu who I met via other friends who I met via friends in ORTV. It seems complicated but it’s really not. It’s just making friends. Anyway, he’s a doctor 28 years of age working in Lhasa for a non-profit called Touching Hearts. Lawrence is Malaysian but he studied in the USA.


I met with Lawrence with my friend Phil. Lawrence took us to a part of town that we wouldn’t have known about without him. It was really a Tibetan part of town and as modern as the rest. The place he took us to was a sketchy night market. According to Lawrence, we could get stolen TVs, cell phones, and just about anything else we wanted. We made our way to the back where the food was. He found his favorite spot. The small restaurant had all the food on display for you to choose before being cooked. We worked our way but to more daring dishes.


We ended with the entire skull of sheep: tongue, brain, meat, and even eyeball. It was hard for me to stomach, but I persisted. I have a video of me eating the eyeball but for some reason I couldn’t get it onto the blog. It was really just a good time and good experience. Before leaving Tibet, Phil and I would have the chance to meet up with Lawrence on our last night for coffee. It would turn into a trip to his apartment for conversation and we wouldn’t get back to the hotel the last night until almost 1 AM.


We hit the road out of Lhasa on Wednesday for a smaller town called Gyangtse. We only stayed a night. There trip there was a fun time. We got to see so much scenery and we stopped at many locations to bust out our cameras. We stopped at a very spiritual lake for Tibetans, a rural family’s farm house, and a giant glacier. It was all amazing scenery. The pictures all turned out wonderful but they really don’t do the landscape any real service. In Gyantse, we had the afternoon and night to ourselves. With a couple of friends,

I went up and explored a large abandoned castle up on the hill. We had a 360 degree view of the whole town. At night, we played pool at a small local place. The equipment and table were horrible but we still had fun. The whole town was closed up and most of the street lights were off as we walked through what appeared to be a ghost town at 10 PM.


The next day, we traveled to the very famous monastery there before hitting the road again for another town, Shigatse. This one was actually bigger, the second biggest city in Tibet next to Lhasa. We traveled to another famous monastery called the Ta Shi Lhun Po Monastery. I can describe these places more in-depth when I get home. It is very big deal for Buddhism. It also had a big market by it that we checked out. Later at night, I took it easy and studied my Chinese. I really needed to.


We returned to Lhasa for our last couple of days there. Overall, it was really just an amazing trip. Each day could be recorded into a book of its own. I really loved the scenery and wished that I could have more time to hit up the trails. Some things to note about Tibet that I neglected to mentioned, most Tibetans are Buddhist. Often times I would see people circling a temple or the Potala Palace with interesting prayer devices. They would swing the small ball around the stick as they walked and prayed. Also, almost everyone meal I had consisted of yak. It is one of the staple foods of Tibetans. It tastes similar to beef but more like buffalo. My favorite food in Tibet was a yak hamburger. Delicious! They also drink a lot of yak butter tea. I don’t like it at all. It tastes like pure melted butter. There is another tea that is famous for Tibetans called sweet tea. It tastes a lot like the Indian Masala tea. I just love it.



I would love to make my way back up to Tibet someday. I don’t know when. I hope that my next trip would consist less of large tourist bus travel and more of hiking. I really can’t complain though. I was in Tibet!

Sichuan Hot Pot

The other day, I went out with some of my Chinese friends for some real authentic Sichuanese hot pot. They were all really excited about it and so was I.

The pot was filled with a dark red liquid. It looked like blood. There were so many peppers in it that when I went to fish out some meat or veggies cooking in the broth, I would end up getting a lot of peppers. It's not a water that is used though. For the Sichuan hot pot, they use oil.

We had many different meats like beef and chicken, and also veggies like cabbage, mushrooms and cabbage. I also had the pleasure of getting to try to duck blood for the first time! not as good as it sounds...


The thing about the Sichuanese hot pot is that a new kind of spicy. I like spicy food and Sichuan cuisine has really redefined spicy for me. But the Sichuanese hot pot is even spicier! It's different though. Of course, my mouth is still on fire, my nose runs, and all of my pores leak buckets of sweat but this time the spice is more. The oil is SO hot that when it hits my throat I can't help but cough. I have no choice. It's just too hot. I have to wait for the oil to cool down for me to eat it. My throat closes up on the hot oil as if I'm allergic to it or something. Then of course my eyes tear and they all look at my like I'm going to die... haha. It's all good fun and a great experience. I really did enjoy it once I figured out how to eat it without suffocating!

Panda Research Center

The largest panda research center in the world is in Chengdu. They do a lot of genetic research, breeding, observations, and natural preservation. It was so cool to see so many pandas up close and have the opportunity to take so many pictures. It was definitely one of the highlights of my time in Chengdu.

99% of pandas diets come from bamboo, which isn't very filling. So pandas generally eat and eat and eat and when they aren't eating, they are sleeping. They are so cute though... Cute and LAZY! Because of that, they are also horrible at mating. This is one of the problems why there aren't so many pandas in the wild anymore.

There were red pandas there. I had never heard of a red panda before. They aren't bears though. They are more like a mix between foxes and cats. They are really fluffy and their faces kind of look like pandas. They also eat primarily bamboo like pandas do. They, however, are much more active than pandas.