China

China / Travel — 2 Comments
22
Jul 08

Guilin to Yangshuo

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Tuesday, July 22nd Today we got up early for our big river cruise down the Li. The cruise was amazing. Just wait until you see the pictures (many posted after the jump, and we have exponentially more if you ever want to see them)! It also completed the range of every possible form of travel city to city in China for us. The cruise ended about 4 hours down river, through the karst peaks, in a much smaller town, Yangshuo. By the way, Chinese refer to Guilin as a small city; it is a city of about 5 million. Yangshou is about 600,000 (miniscule by China’s standard) and honestly has a real small town feel. Continue reading →

China / Travel — Comments Off on Xi’an to Guilin
21
Jul 08

Xi’an to Guilin

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Monday, July 21 Today we made a big move. We slept in slightly and then caught the airport express bus. The bus left from in front of a nearby hotel and we had to fend off many persistent cab drivers desperate for our fare. After waiting for a discount airfare (per the advice of our reliable friends at CITS) the only plane tickets left for our date were first class. They encouraged us to fly the next day instead, but the tour must go on. We enjoyed our first class treatment in lines, lounges and seating and it only cost the same as a U.S. coach domestic flight. This leg of the trip was noticeably different from our black market bus experience. Josh kept waiting for several people to pack in around him in his spacious seat. Continue reading →

China / Travel — Comments Off on Xi’an: Soldiering On …
20
Jul 08

Xi’an: Soldiering On …

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Sunday, July 20th Today will be a short blog (Josh is typing it). We had a good day. Did some “chores” to start, then had a nice walk through the city. Continue reading →

China / Travel — Comments Off on Pingyao to Xi’an
19
Jul 08

Pingyao to Xi’an

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Saturday, July 19 Cut to the chase. We made it!

We woke up extra early, checked out of our super cute Yide Hotel (Josh calls it a very well preserved, traditional courtyard house) and walked to the slightly shadier hostel that would actually arrange for us to hop on a bus in the middle of a highway. Our hotel would not arrange such illicit tickets for us and the workers there were concerned that this was our plan, but the only trains through Pingyao to Xi’an left at late evening and we needed a morning departure. I am actually no longer so certain that the hostel lady is truly a CITS agent. I think that Pingyao does not have a CITS office and she is maybe a helper – or a go between – or a friend of CITS – but really I think she is a Red, a man who knows how to get things, and we are Andy. Continue reading →

China / Travel — 2 Comments
18
Jul 08

Datong to Taiyuan to Pingyao

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Friday, July 18 We woke up early and headed straight back to the CITS office.  Thankfully, Josh felt a little more within himself in the morning and did not explode on the CITS guy.  When he saw us, he knew something was wrong and recognized his mistake when he looked at the tickets.  He ran us over to a bus ticket station and bought us tickets to a city called Taiyuan from which we could catch another bus to Pingyao.  We got the bus fine and slept some and saw some funny Chinese movies on it.  In Taiyuan, we had to take a taxi from one bus station to another, buy new bus tickets and get on the right bus to Pingyao.  This we managed reasonably well with only a little help and pointing and gesturing, but no English.  The second bus to Pingyao was more adventurous with not great roads the whole way and random passengers picked up and dropped off all along the highway.  No one seemed to think it was weird, so we tried not to either.  We finally arrived at Pingyao at about 3:30pm after 5 hour and 2 hour bus rides. Continue reading →

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