China Trip

Since I've been gone for a while, I figured it would be good to write a little something something about the trip. :3 *and collect the tears of people who are bored to death by it hoho*

I departed with my mum on May 18th, and it took around 13 hours direct flight to get to Beijing.
Just my luck, a kid 3 or 4 years of age was sitting right behind me, and had height just sufficient for kicking the seat repeatedly. =_=
As a result, I wasn't able to get a single second of shuteyes, and spent the whole time watching movies or drawing. (Yesman, Benjamin Button, Gran Torino, some shows off of discovery channel...)
By the time we arrived in Beijing, I was fittingly exhausted and ready to hibernate for a couple of days.
However, my mother's friend wanted to take us out for dinner, and to save "face", as the Chinese put it, I was dragged off to some restaurant despite the fact that every single one of my cells were attempting to curl up in fetal position.
After dinner, we walked around a street famous for its bars for 2 hours, of whom the name I cannot recall as I was legally brain-dead by that time.


May 20th
Spent the day in a hotel bed, sick.
My mother worries I have gotten the swine flu, since we saw a bunch of doctors heading to the back of the plane in Beijing in a most suspicious manner.

May 21th
Spent the day in a hotel bed, sick.

May 22st
Feeling a little better, we visit the forbidden city and take 100s of pictures like typical tourists that we are.
The crowd of people is impressive, and the architecture from the olden days, with painted door frames and tiled roofs are beautiful and quite inspiring.
I buy snuff bottles as souveniers, and most certainly not for opium.

May 23rd
We venture onto a plane for a 7-day trip in Sichuan. The first day, we arrive in Chengdu and roam around the city on ourselves.
Visited the Wuhotsu, a place related to Liu Bei from Sangokushi.
The food is incredibly cheap, and impairingly spicy. :'D
We go to the bookstore, and I purchase an art book by Amano Yoshitaka for cheap.

May 24th
Gets off a plane at Huanglong airport, 1000m above sea-level. We've arrived in Jiuzaigou, and the locale of the Zan tribe. (Related to Tibetan tribes, most inhabitants are said to hate the Chinese people with a passion. Though the tour guide is nice, he advises as to not go out at night.)
With the tour group, we go off to climb the 4000m tall Huanglong moutain.
Due to altitude sickness, we can no longer move after 2050m (3050m above sea level), and regrettably head down.

May 25th
We head off to Jiuzai National Park.
It's definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The place is extremely clean, and the water looks blue and clear so that you can see to the bottom and spy the tiny fishes swimming in the still waters.
This time, we take the bus to the top of the mountain, so the trip was made much easier and we were able to enjoy the scenery.
We also see the traditional homes of the Zan tribes, which were mostly rebuild after the May 2008 earthquake.

May 26th
Arrive back in Chengdu.

May 27th
Takes a tour bus out of Chengdu, to see the various mountains in the surrounding regions. Visited Leshan, and it's famous world's biggest buddha with magical fountains stemming from the back of his head.
It seems the monks have taken to building temples at the apex of moutains, so we climb to the top, where his head is situated.
Then we descend a deathly steep and long case of stairs in single file. (A sign says "please treasure your life" and it adds to my vertigo.)
By the time we reach the bottom, my legs have turned to jelly. OTL

May 28th
We climb another mountain, Emeishan, and visit the temple at the acme. In the duration of the tour, every guide spends hours trying to convince their group to buy things at the temples. (As they get commission) And we are left at the gift shop for 2 hours.
The weather is freezing and foggy, since it is about 2000m above sea level, and we walk around grumpily as the air condenses on our rain suits.
We descend the mountain, and arrive at another temple in which to buy things. (By this time things seem absolutely hilarious.)
Then, we are left to our own devices, and walk the mountain path to the exit.
There is a valley of monkeys on the way, and we go to interact with the wild creatures.
(Guide tells us not to take clear water bottles, not to rummage through our bags or pockets, and never say things in high pitch or make eye contact as not to engage the monkeys in battle. (LOL) Story has it, one of the monkeys in the past pushed a woman off a cliff, and that would not have been pleasant.
It takes my mother and I around 4 hours to arrive at the exit of Emeishan.

May 29th
Arrive back in Beijing. After dinner, we take a night train off to my home town Siping.

May 30th
Arrive at 5a.m., reached my grandparents house.
Discover I have lost 10 pounds in a week, and eat voraciously.

After that, I did not do much except stay around at my grandparents house. :'D (And eating back all the weight lost.)
At the internet cafe, I had the pleasure of making acquaintance with a poodle, and it would sleep under my computer.