Merry Christmas!

Family meal.

Christmas in china was just the chaotic and unusual event I was expecting.

Xmas Dinner!

It all began with the weirdest dinner I have ever had, followed by the activity night and then a short holiday to Lijiang.

So dinner, or what we thought was going to be dinner, turned out to be; a turkey, an un-openable can of cranberry sauce and something  white and pasty in a jar of Miracle-Whip. Unfortunately we had no cutlery to carve the turkey with so we attacked it was some spoons, chopsticks and hands. Despite the limited variety of food and lack of cutlery the food was good, but was by far the weirdest dinner yet. This was followed by the activity night, which was a nightmare, but not quite as bad as I was expecting. There were 120+ kids spread between 4 teachers and 4 activity stations; songs, games, movies and arts and crafts followed by an all in the hall sing off mayhem! (which lived up to its name). The weekend was made even more hectic by the full day of lessons we had on the Saturday, of which I planned for about half a one, but don’t tell my boss.

My attempt at Artistic!

 Somehow we all made it through Saturday without too many temper tantrums and onto a train bound for Lijiang. One tedious overnight train later we arrived and made our way to ShuHe, a small village outside of Lijiang itself which, although pretty and graveyard quiet became tiresome.

My second Christmas dinner was in a Tibetan restaurant in Old Town Lijiang where we ate Yak in so many different ways that we must have eaten a whole one, but Yak in my new favourite meat so I really didn’t care.  

Just for you Mam.

The following day was spent drinking, relaxing, eating and aimless wandering about the labyrinth of endless and identical alleyways across the southern part of the town.

 Our final day was the highlight of the trip; we all piled into a mini bus and drove off over the mountains to the first bend of the Yangtze River (above), and true to its name it is an almost complete loop and the river is a nice blue-green and not the shitty brown of the Sichuan province part from last year. We stopped on the way at a viewing point from which we could see the Yangtze River down below and the magnificent Snow Mountain in the background, the place was amazing and amazingly impressive. (below)

Yangtze River and Snow Mountain (and me)

All in all a good and only slightly drama filled trip (no trip is complete without a Chinese person throwing a hissy fit and making everyone uncomfortable) in which I ate my fill of Yak and thoroughly enjoyed.

Next weekend is new year and I have 4 days off work, still trying to think of something to do, so stay tuned.