Catching up - Shanghai to Huangshan in 6 days...

Alright. Well apparently I can work this now. Arrived Tues evening, hung out in the airport for a couple of hours to wait for Les and Ashley on their Northwest flight. I was able to buy a phonecard from a random cleaning lady when the machine wouldn't take my 100RMB bills. (exchange rate is 8 to 1 or so) Then was asked to translate Spanish between an airport worker and a poor Spanish lady who couldnt find the friend that was supposed to meet her. Once they made it in, we managed to catch a shuttle bus and hike to our hostel (found it on the first attempt!) Definitely crashed hard that night.

Wed morning up bright and early and met Hannah Phares right outside the hostel!! I'd definitely been missing that girl. She took us around the area of her old campus where she lived back in January, fed us dumplings (very tasty), then took us to this marketplace where we learned to barter. It's a bit overwhelming at first being surrounded by people who want to sell you clothes, bags, and DVDs. But once you're used to them all yelling to get your attention it's really quite fun to bargain for cheap stuff. The trick being to always walk away. They have calculators so you can just alternate punching in numbers. Good times had by all. Then lunch at a nearby crepes place... come to think of it thats the last time I ate using real silverwear. I'm definitely getting mad skillz with the chopsticks.

Anyway, wed afternoon Hannah had classes and we wandered the city. First we took the subway across town to the Bund which is basically a riverside imbankment. Across the river is the Pudong or new district with skyscrapers far down the shore and Pearl Orient Tower. Walking south from there we found the old city and Lu gardens. It is somewhat touristy now with lots of mini stalls and people trying to sell you things, but it does have the traditional Chinese architecture with red wooden buildings and upturned eaves. Also the first place that people asked to have their pics taken with us. The obsession with white people here is absolutely incredible. Admittedly, theres not many of us, but the staring is just crazy. Everytime we pass a white person, especially now outside the 'big' city we feel like we should be high-fiving and saying go team! Hilarious.

Wed evening we met up with Les' school friend Tommy who is of Chinese heritage and comes over here in the summers. He took us up to the 87th floor of the Hyatt over in the Pudong district for a view of the city. Shanghai is full of highrises, but none even come close to that heighth. Up there you are above everything and can just look out and down on the crazyness. Then to a dumpling place for imfamous Shanghai pork dumplings which you have to eat by nipping the top, sucking out the soup, dipping in soy sauce, and attempting to devour the whole thing including pork ball inside without getting it all over. Then a Shanghainese restaurant where food is served family style. Interesting dishes included braised pork that had a layer of meat and a layer of very buttery melt in your mouth fat.... a delicacy apparently, and dates stuffed with rice flour and cooked to exploding. Met up with Hannah and girlfriends and went out on the town before crashing hard again back at the hostel.

Thursday we got up, packed, made our way to the train station (an absolute insane place where people just sit around outside) and caught the train to Hangzhou. There, a taxi to our hostel and we had some time to wander around. Apparently Hangzhou is kindof famous for its scenic location and is a popular chinese resort type town. It has almost a Lake Geneva sort of look, with the city on one side of theWest lake looking across the water to the beginnings of a beautiful mtn range. All around the edge of the lake are these beautiful landscaped tableaus made by some dynasty or another with names like 'oriels in rippling willows' and similar things that translate even worse. A very early night and we were up in time to walk around the lake more and see this huge pagoda before finding the bus station (an adventure that took us down some crazy back alleys - ramshackle huts on each sides with only bicycles and children and chickens running the streets) and catch a bus to Tangkou which is situated very close to Huangshan Shen, a famous mountain area.

Four hours on a bumpy bus through scenic mtns, with the shrill horn being used way too often, we made it and were dropped off in the village. The one guy in town who speaks English, Mr. Hu, found us quickly. Ran into some Dutch girls and a couple from the states and since they seemed fine and we didn't have many options we went ahead and helped his raquet. He did set us up at a nice place only 20RMB each and we even had our own bathroom. Although I think I have yet to sleep on an actual mattress here in China - only boards or boxes with sheets over them.

Saturday morning we began our hike up the Western steps. Literally steps up the entire mtn. Insane to think of the work that went into them as at no time during the entire hike did we walk on dirt - only stone, rock, concrete. We started at 9am thinking it would be a good 4-5 hr hike.... Took our first break at 9:20, absolutely dripping sweat as we realized this was going to be 14 km of steps up a mountain. We arrived at the highest point a little after 1pm, and after that at least there was some downhill movement. Found the hostel we were staying at at 3:30pm. What a hike! But it was definitely worth it for the absolutely gorgeous scenery. The one detriment of this entire trip were the chinese tour groups. They were everywhere, crowding, yelling, absolutely insane. It was ridiculous! I have no idea why they feel like they need a guide and to go in groups where yellow floppy hats just to walk up a mountain. Another thing, I have always kindof considered Chinese people as quiet- this is absolutely not true. They are as loud and perhaps even worse then the bad sorts of American tourists. It does not help that talking in Chinese always sounds like an argument and even when in coversation they have a tendancy to yell! Ack! too many people entirely... The hostel was one of the more ghetto I have stayed in, however we were able to pass the time by eatting a tremendous dinner at a hotel and then hanging out in the lobby for a couple of hours and using that bathroom before going up to bed.

This morning we were up around 3 or 4am to watch the sunrise which is the thing to do. We were there to get good seats and I must admit I have never seen one quite like this. When the sun comes up you can actually see the whole circle throught the mist of the mtns. Les was able to get some freakin awesome pics that I definitely plan to steal. After that it was just a hike down the mtn (only 7km or so) this time down the Eastern steps which are steps almost straight down the entire way. It felt so good to reach the bottom! Now we are back in Tangkou waiting for the afternoon bus to Nanjing where we are definitely splurging on a hotel room... I can't wait for a shower and bed!! Oh yeah and I only got a LITTLE sunburned!

Current plan - Nanjing, Suzhou, Shanghai for an overnight train to Xi'an, a few days there and an overnight train to Beijing....

testing from China...

okay, i wrote a whole little thing about what we'd done but apparently accidentally deleted it since i can not for the life of me figure out which of these buttons at the bottom means publish... so this is a test

Trippin...

Alright, so after an incredibly awesome party at our house last night (3rd times a charm), I'm now at a friends home in Indianapolis awaiting the flight out. I really thought 2 weeks would seem longer, but I definitely felt rushed to get ready. Ah well, bags are packed and I'm flying out tomorrow morning at 7am to meet Les and Ash at the airport before finding the hostel and more importantly finding Hannah in Shanghai! Then 2 wks to wander to Beijing before the work part of the summer starts in Bangkok. So I'll try to keep this reasonably up to date so my escapades can be noted... First real trip to Asia here I come!