Bamboo Forests, Hotsprings, and Lakes

I just returned from a trip to a Bamboo Forest/Mountains, Hotsprings, and a lake.  It was all awesome and unique.  Now, I'm dead tired, but it's only 10 PM, so I figured while I would be unproductive working right now, I might as well blog.  I am tired, so a lot of this post will probably be in pictures.  Let's see if we can set the record for most pictures in a post.  Ready go:

Bamboo Forest/Mountains:

After a four hour drive and lunch, we finally arrived at the bamboo forest.  It was a bit of a hike just to enter the park, but once we entered the park, it was an even further walk to get to the attractions.  The walk was pretty scenic though, and it looked a little bit like the above picture and this:

Finally, we got to the base of the park, which had a giant Buddha or Taoist statue.  There were two main attractions: seeing pandas and going to the top of the mountain.  You took a train sort of thing to get to the pandas and a gondola to get to the top of the mountain.  First, we went to see the pandas.  Pictures?  You bet!  Video?  We'll see if blogger, my internet, and my VPN can handle it.

Attempt at video:
FAILED!  You'll just have to hunt me down when I get back and ask for the videos.  Teaser: Kung Fu action.

We then went back down the tram/train thingy, and up to the mountain chairlift.  It was beautiful; some saying about 1000 words and pictures...

 

Too many pictures and too few words. Just the way I like it.

We arrived at the hostel, and it was actually pretty nice, more like a hotel than a hostel.  Not five star or anything, but a decent place to spend a night.

Shortly after arriving at the hostel, we went to the hot springs, and it was not what I expected.  I expected very natural hot springs, like a forest that you have to walk through to get to a natural hot spring lake or pool, with sand or rocks at the bottom.  Actually, the hot springs were part of a super luxury hotel, and the hot springs felt like a spa filled with hot tubs.  We entered and got to a locker room where we had a wrist band that acted as a key to our locker.  The attendants (it seemed like there were twice as many as needed) handed us fresh towels to carry from hot spring tub to hot spring tub.

The actual pools were totally relaxing.  They were not incredibly hot; most of them were 37 degrees celcius, which is like 99 degrees Fahrenheit.  A normal hot tub might be 105 degrees Fahrenheit.  There was a main area with a regular tub, three tubs containing either beds or chairs with jets.  One of them had little bubbles oozing from the bed that lifted you, and that was totally relaxing.  There was also an area in the center with three bed like things where cool water poured like a shower over your body.  That also felt awesome.  There were also a few other types of pools, including two with fish that eat at your skin and it's apparently supposed to be good for your skin.  Call me whatever mean names you want; I didn't go into those pools.

After, we relaxed, ate complementary fruit platters, sat on their comfy chairs, and watched Chinese movies.  Then, I went into the sauna, where I practiced the routine I learned at Agree Outpost Camp, where you spend 10-15 minutes in the sauna, then take a dip into cold water, and repeat this 3 or 4 times.  It feels awesome, and it also helps sweat out your mosquito bites.  By teaching this to other people, I quickly became the most popular person in the sauna.  Yay, Agree!  Also, I was shocked there were no naked men in the shower, because in the locker room, they pranced around with no shame.  Woo cultural differences.

On that note, I didn't bring my camera, so here is a website with pictures/information:
http://www.spawor.com/english/

This morning, we were up too early to go to the lake.  It was a pleasant day.  We took a ferry to two different islands where we were able to see and do various things.  First island had a waterfall.  Second island had a zipline over the water, which took us to a third island, which was really just for the zipline.  The highlight was definitely the zipline.  Really fun, and felt completely safe.  After waiting for around 20 minutes under the hot sun, it was my turn.  The guy hooked me in and I swung down (before he tossed me off the platform, which he did to anyone who seemed remotely uncomfortable).  I turned backwards for the camera, gave a "Go Blue," and relaxed. I leaned all the way back, not upside down, but horizontal, and swung my head backwards to see the rope on the bottom and water on the top.  Pretty cool vision.  Wish I could have taken a picture of it.

Pictures of the lake:

 

Finally, we left the lake and went for lunch.  The restaurant served a large pot of chicken soup with the whole chicken still in the broth.  It was awesome. The chicken was really tender and juicy, and the broth was super flavorful, not salty.  I didn't think to take a picture since I was hungry, so I must go deep into my archives to find this, from our cooking class. Most of these were gone before I had a chance to take a picture:

Venice of the East

Hey everyone.  It's been a busy past few days getting ready for and experiencing the aftermath of my exam.  (Note that I cannot recall what actually happened during the exam.  I happened to "forget.")

Moving FORWARD, and onto more fruitful topics.  This weekend I am going with the rest of the program (or most of the people at least) to a bunch of really cool places.  I also am planning other cool trips. My culture class just ended, so I only need to do EECS 280 stuff, leaving a lot of time for travel(!) In case you want to stalk me:


Day 107.45 Bus leaves campus to Li Yang City11.30 Arrive at Li Yang and lunch12.30 Nashan Bamboo Sea16.30 Dinner17.30 Hotspring22.00 Leave from hotspring to hostel Day 208.00 Breakfast08.45 Bus leaves from hostel to Tianmu Lake09.00 Tianmu Lake13.00 Lunch 14.00 Get back to Shanghai

Seems cool. After this, I will probably spend a week on my coding project for EECS 280 (It might take that long), and then I have more fun stuff in the works.

July 4th weekend: Maybe Xi'an.  I would say 20 percent chance.  Otherwise, it will be a fun weekend in Shanghai
July 12-16: Hong Kong.  No major details yet, but I am too excited for this.
July 19-21: Yellow Mountains with the rest of the program.
July 27th weekend: maybe Beijing?
August 5th: EECS 280 final
August 11th: Flight back to Michigan will induce the longest "day" of my life.

Now that I am done writing a guide about how to stalk me, which would be completely legal here, I will move on.

Zhujiajiao

Tuesday, I went with my friend Eric and his daughter to visit his hometown on the outsides of Shanghai.  His hometown, Zhujiajiao, is known as the Venice of the East because of its bridges and canals.  Built in the Ming dynasty, probably around 500 years ago, this still looks like a traditional village, which is quite cool.  We began with a boat ride through the main canal and into one of the smaller canals, 

A view from the top of the bridge of the main canal.

The main bridge in the town. It's amazing that it's still in basically perfect condition after 500 years.

We stopped near a building which happened to be his old high school.  Now it is a museum showcasing what it originally was, a mansion for the richest family in the village.  In fact, it sprawls over several acres and was quite beautiful:

We then walked around the town through a variety of narrow streets and by a plethora of vendors.  We stopped for a while for afternoon tea.  Eric and I switched stereotypical drinks, as I chose green tea and he chose coffee.  The tea was really god, but it was loose in my cup, making it a little difficult to drink without getting some leaves in your mouth.

We continued walking around and finally went to have dinner.  We sat by the river with a nice view of the main bridge.  There were a multitude of dishes from a simple chicken dish to a whole cooked fish.  There was a dish with snails and one that seemed like zucchini, which was really great.  There was also a soup with fish and tofu, which was also delicious.  Unfortunately, I don't have any food pics from the meal, so I'll leave another one from Qingdao: 

As the meal was coming to a close, it began raining a little bit, so we hurried out.  By the time we reached the car it was definitely raining, but by the time we left the town it was absolutely pouring.  The new Shanghai infrastructure was tested, for sure, and although it fared better in torrential downpour than Phoenix, there were definitely some large puddles covering the highway.

Today, I had my final paper and presentation for Culture. It all went pretty well.

Two Days in the City

It's been awhile since I've posted, and my last post was about Qingdao.  I am in the long process of catching up on a lot of work that has kind of built up for next week.  I have a midterm in my engineering class and two papers for my culture class.  Cannot wait until it's all over.  In the mean time, last week/weekend, I went downtown twice.  Once was for a Culture Class field trip: traditional Chinese cooking.  The other was just to do some touristy stuff.  Let's start with the field trip:

We began at the MTCM (Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine), which was decently cool.  Ancient history is not particularly interesting to me, but it was cool to see different artifacts.  I could not take pictures inside, so I have nothing to show here.

After this, we went to the cooking place, which was in the French Concession.  While one group cooked, we had a couple of hours to explore. We first went to a Chinese arts and crafts museum, which was pretty cool.  I could even take pictures:

Next, we went to the wet market, where the groups cooking fish were able to choose their fresh weaver and watch it be killed and gutted.  Sorry, no pictures of that.  Also, the wet market used to have live chickens, but does not anymore due to the recent outbreak of avian flu.  Some of the vegetables are different, and I was able to take pics.

Finally, we arrived at the cooking place and began preparing our food with the help of their chefs.  I was making garlic sword beans and kongbao chicken.  I began by mincing the garlic for hte sword beans, and then cutting an marinading the chicken.  All of the dishes were made in a wok, and all of the dishes, according to our culture teacher, used much more oil than would be used in a Chinese home.  Because of this, these dishes were restaurant style.  Hmmm..sounds familiar. 

You know whats next:

Me and my fishy friend (no, not the photo-bombing one)

The completed weaver dish

Garlic Sword Beans

Kongbao Chicken

That was about it for that day.  We continued wandering around the French Concession area and went to a restaurant where we relaxed a little bit before heading back to campus.

The next day downtown: Our plans were to go to the Propaganda Poster Art Center, have lunch in Xintiandi, go to the Urban Planning Museum, and then go to the Fake Market.  Surprisingly, we actually accomplished almost all of this.  Instead of Xintiandi, which is an upscale area with Western style restaurants, we had lunch in a food court near People's Square, which was disappointing, but I won't reminisce too much there.

The Propaganda Poster Art Center was really cool.  Although I am not a big fan of ancient history, more modern history fascinates me, and this Museum was a kind of hybrid between art exhibit and historical museum.  Located in the basement of a random apartment building near the French Concession, it was nearly impossible to find, but I am glad we did.  They do not allow photography, but they do have a website, and I also have a few souvenir posters and some postcards.  Not originals, not cheap, compared with everything else here, but these are really cool souvenirs.  Website: http://www.shanghaipropagandaart.com/

After lunch near People's Square, we went to the Urban Planning Museum, which is actually located inside People's Square.  It was a really cool Museum.  Between this museum and the Propaganda Poster Art Center, I received a well rounded history lesson about the last century + in China.   Pretty cool to see how historical, political, and world events shaped and molded Shanghai and the rest of the country.  

The Urban Planning Museum has a replica of the entire city located inside of one room.  It is really quite impressive, and I took pictures:

Back to studying, but it was nice taking a break and re-living two awesome days.

Qingdao Day 4

Finally, after a couple of busy days catching up on work after my Qingdao Trip, I can finish blogging about Qingdao.  On the final day, we explored the final part of the coast, where the 2008 Beijing Olympic Sailing events were held.  I might have said this before, but if a city hosts Sailing in the Olympics, it must be beautiful.  Also, as you will be able to tell from the pictures, it was a beyond perfect day, and before I get into the heart of this post, I will apologize if I overuse the word beautiful.

I think I posted this before, but it's worth posting again

We began the day at May 4th Square, which is near the downtown area and is a beautiful.  There is a giant red statue that makes for really cool pictures.

After this, we continued walking around the area and snapped a few more pictures:

European style housing right by the water.

Really cool looking bridge that I faild to get a better picture of than this.

After this, we went onto one pier that had all the flags participating in the sailing events as well as an Olympic torch.

Another favorite picture.  I am also very sneaky (Hello, Melissa Morof).

Eventually, we wandered into a very nice mall, and after that, we had a later lunch at Din Tai Fung, which is a fairly well known restaurant for serving dumplings.  Actually, there is apparently a location of this in Toronto, so if you have a chance to visit, I highly recommend doing so.  You know what's coming next:

Finally, we walked more towards the Olympic center area and snap more pictures there:

Mexico! Israel! and Greece?

Finally,  I would like to wish a Happy Fathers Day to the number one Dad in the world.  Thank you for giving me these opportunities to see the world.  Most of all, thank you for being just wonderful.

Edit: Apparently, I have one-upped my Mom and Sister, who chose to use these pictures of my dad from our ski trip in Utah:

Love You!!!