The Journey to JiuZhaiGou

Just after the carpet stopped

About an hour into the journey

After finishing work nearly a month ago I have been ready to leave Kunming for a  few days. Annoyingly I couldn't leave the city while my new VISA was being processed so as soon as I got my passport back I was booking flights to somewhere, anywhere. So I consulted my "to go to list" and picked a place that was do-able in a  week.

The view from the room

I picked JiuZhaiGou in Northern SiSchuan, one of China's original UNESCO heritage sites and one of the top 10 places to visit. I flew to ChengDu, a nice 1 hour 10 minute flight, and then booked a bus to JiuZhaiGou, a not so nice 10 hour bus journey. I had a few days to kill in ChengDu before my whole day on a bus, so I stocked up on audio books and bus food and headed out.

We were crammed onto a medium sized bus and started off on an epic journey into the mountains.

Looking for the showers

The road has recently been resurfaced so it wasn't bumpy but swingy would be an understatement. The road snaked round the bottom of gorges, along the side of the river and through 10km long tunnels and all the time I was getting more and more impressed by the scenery. I managed to take over 40 photographs just on the journey.

Once in JiuZhaiGou town, if a string of hotels and restaurants can be called a town, I set off to find the hostel from hostelworld.com. I walked into a beautiful hotel lobby and was fairly certain I had messed up and booked the wrong place. However, the people at reception had me details and I was pointed to the fifth floor.

The carpet stopped on the fourth floor and the fifth turned out to be the roof and the room I was pointed to, a shed/garage looking thing on the roof. The room had concrete floors and no heating so the electric blankets were just the best thing ever! The bathrooms were across the roof and we had to clamber over pipes and cables to get to some incredible showers, then again after ten hours on a hot and crowded bus any kind of shower would have been amazing. There were six of us in the room and we were all shattered having all just done the epic journey so we were tucked up in bed with a beer by about nine in the evening. Tomorrow to the park!

My last week of work

 So, after three and a half years working for Shane I finished my fourth contract and I decided to leave. I started work when there were only three teachers and four classrooms. When I finished working we had moved schools, had over 600 students, ten classrooms and nine teachers. The school has changed so much that flicking through the pictures from nearly four years ago and it was like looking at a different job. I loved my job and taught some amazing kids and worked with some brilliant people. However I am ready for a change and really looking forward to the next part of my Kunming adventure. I am going back to school and studying Chinese full time.

My last week was a huge ego boost, kids looking all sad all over the place and telling me that I was their favourite teacher (I didn't always believe them but it was nice to hear). I was given hundreds of gifts, most of them were not amazing but I was also given some beautiful presents, including a Jade necklace, some pictures, loads of tea, jewellery, stationary and a few dinners.

 The school took us out for a dinner which was a bust but was always going to be. We ended up with a Chinese table and a foreigners table and they refused to mingle. Never mind the food was amazing and on the school.

 Next stop is Chinese class for at least the near future. I will see how i feel in a few months.

One night in JianShui

After a short break from updates, due to iffy internet connections and banned websites, I have returned with the sequel to the much anticipated New Year's week away.

Like I said YuanYang is an amazing and beautiful place but there is nothing to do once the sun goes down. A few days in the hostel bar/cafe and I was ready for a change. So I went back to the bus station and jumped on a bus to JianShui. It's a small ancient city about half way between YuanYang and Kunming and the bus was much more comfortable than the direct one.

I arrived into JianShui in the early evening and jumped on a city bus to the old part of the town, turned out it was only 3 stops (about a 10 minute walk). Next stop was finding a place to stay. After being turned away from 3 hotels I was beginning to get a little nervous,  I had forgotten New Year is also a Chinese holiday so things were busier than normal. I ended up walking down a little side street and finding a slightly seedy looking hotel. Alarm bells were ringing when they said they didn't need to see my passport and with my key I could eat and drink for free in the downstairs KTV (karaoke bar). I found my windowless room and cleared out the big bugs who were perfectly comfortable in the bathroom and settled into a noisy night in bed. Regardless, I managed to have a good night in the bar with some Chinese Lady Gaga fans. As it turns out, I am lacking in my Lady Gaga song knowledge.

JianShui is actually a really cool place, its an old city that is actually old! Most in China are built just to look old but few are more than a couple of years old. JianShui has remaining city gates and parts of the wall, cobbled streets and parks. There is a chilled out vibe throughout the whole place and the newer parts just outside the wall are equally as nice. I spent several hours just wandering about perfectly happy and causing chaos. I don't think here had been any foreigners there in a long time.

About an hour outside of the city is one of China's longest underground river. I can't remember the exact record but its about a 3km walk along the river to a wonderful, tasteful restaurant and shopping center, it was similar to trying to sit in a light show. The caves were called Swallow caves as once a year the swallows leave their nests on the cave walls and fly south. So up jump some death defying Chinese guys and they collect up the nests for Birds Nest Soup a local delicacy. There were hundreds of little market stalls selling sugar equivalents which tasted something like how i imagine eating housing insulation to taste.

After a very quick stop in JianShui I jumped back on a 4 hour bus to Kunming and back to work. Only a few weeks to go.