Shanghai Pictures

Here are a few photos from Shanghai, where we spent 3-4 days. It was great weather, albeit SUPER hot, and we had fun exploring the city. :)

 ^ matchmaking boards in the park!

^ Walking along the BUND at night :)

Shang-shizzle

We've been in Shanghai for the past 2 days... so we've spend some time walking along the Bund, visiting the Shanghai Museum, reading in the park, eating Xiao Long Bao (only Josh, b/c I don't eat pork), and admiring famous/interesting buildings. This is probably the most civilised city in all of China, minus Hong Kong, which is pseudo-China (you still need a passport to get there from mainland China). We're happy that there's not *as much* spitting, peeing/pooing on the street (usually done only by children), and men smoking in public places. Tons of pushing and shoving still, but hey- it's China. We can't ask for everything.

Overall we're really enjoying the city. Pictures soon! Until then, enjoy this stock image. :)

Onward and Forward ---->>>

We finally left Beijing and have found ourselves in a small city named Suzhou (苏州). We survived a 14-hour "standing room only" train ride and a trek to find our hotel (which listed the *wrong* address online, might I add!) and we're finally able to lay our heads down to rest for a bit. Hallelujah! :)

I'll soon post some more photos from our time in Beijing...
Peace!

 ^ photo of Josh in the Chengdu Railway Station (taken last week)

^ on a pedestrian shopping street in Beijing. 

Hiking the Great Wall

Yesterday Josh and I, along with about 15 other backpackers from an assortment of countries, took a bus to a section of the Great Wall about 2 hours outside the city of Beijing. It was a beautiful day and there were hardly any other tourists there. We spent about 3 hours hiking on the wall, which was incredible. It's one of those things that you can see in a picture book but it's so much more incredible to experience it in real life.

Some parts of the wall were really broken and overgrown, which made the already-mostly-uphill hike a bit more difficult. It was a fun time, though, with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. Here are a few pictures of our day at the Wall. :)

 ^ our friend Leo from France

 ^ Josh taking some photos of the mountains. 

(Don't worry, the guardrails disappeared after the first 300 metres...lol)

^ Attention tourists: No peeing or pooping on the Wall!

^ many sections of the Wall are in disrepair

Beijing Shenanigans

We're in Beijing after a hellish 48-hour travel blitz... which included missing a connecting train ride due to heavy rains delaying the first train, and we ended up having to camp out at the train station for 7 hours before exchanging our missed sleeper tickets for standing room only from Sichuan to Beijing. Which meant standing for almost 30 hours. It was MIZ.

Anyway, we're here and exploring the city, which is chalk full of Chinese tourists (thank goodness my days playing rugby prepared me for the crazy crowds!) and things to see. We've met some really awesome people here at the hostel and have been out partying with them the past few nights.

And, like our other adventures in this country, it's all indescribable -- full of chaos, frustration, joy, meeting fun people, and experiencing things that surpassed all expectations (sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way). This crazy mess of an adventure is tiring but so incredibly fun.

Scraping and Cupping

Last night Josh and I decided to go to a massage place (I had gone the night before for a glorious 1-hour full-body massage... for 30 RMB, or 5 USD). Instead of getting a massage or pedicure, we decided to get "scraped and cupped" - something I've seen but always been a bit intimidated to try. According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), there are many health benefits of cupping. So, what exactly is cupping? Basically, your back is scraped and then glass jars are placed all over your back, using fire to create the suction.

Scraping (Chinese: 刮痧; pinyin: guā shā) - meant to scrape away the impurities in the skin
Fire Cupping (Chinese: 拔罐; pinyin: bá guàn) - for purifying the blood, according to ancient Chinese medicine

Here are some pictures...

^ the marks left after the cups are taken off... the bruises last for days!

A Smattering of Photos

HELLO FAMILY~~ Sorry I've been out of contact. Internet access has been sporadic due to traveling from the Yunnan province to the Sichuan province. We're now in Chengdu. I also appreciate all your prayers from last week when we were in Shangri-La and I was being spiritually attacked. Thank God that I was healed from my sickness and the oppression I was feeling. We're now safe and healthy in Chengdu, ready to head to Inner Mongolia tomorrow. 

Please enjoy the pictures below! :)

^ walking through farmland to see the lake in Dali, Yunnan

^ Fried goat cheese in Dali (old city)

^ the adorable little puppy at the hostel!

^ biking through the countryside in Dali...

^ friend I met on the bus to Shangri-La.

He's a Japanese nature photographer/writer. Really cool guy!

^ back in Kunming we had a vegan meal at a Buddhist temple

^ Tibetan decorations up on the mountain (Shangri-La)

^ lazy yak! haha

^ Tibetan nomad in Yunnan... We ate goat cheese and drank yak butter tea with a nomadic family for lunch. :)

Josh: "Y'all are delicious!"

^ this little goat looked like he needed a friend...

^ so I gave him a watermelon seed (or 60!)

^ which evidently wasn't enough. Dowwwn boyyy!

^ Josh at a lake (hiking up Shika Mountain in Yunnan, near the foothills of the Himilayas)

^ Joanna, hiking partner

^ with a Buddhist monk in Dali-- we ate at the vegetarian buffet EVERY meal.

^ flowers on the hike

^ view from the summit :)

^ our way down, by cable car (Thank goodness!)

^ Tibetan art

^ hiking partners

Me - Lyu (Bulgarian biologist) - Joanna (Chinese)

^ Tibetan art

^ Tibetan lady in Shangri-La, Yunnan

---- ENTER SICHUAN PROVINCE ---

(via sleeper bus hell and cockroach-infested night train)

^ Finally in Sichuan, eating "Ma La" spicy food!!

^ at the panda reserve in Chengdu

^ Eating bamboo... :)