Traveling the World

Shortly after we left the Wuhan train station, I pushed passed 3 cars of people to reach the 8th car to try to switch my tickets for a sleeper. Unfortunately for us, at this time of the year everyone and their mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, and baby are traveling. My only worry is we’ll be repeating the sitting business on other trains around China.

Guilin Train Station

We arrived at Guilin at 5:30am, our nerves shot from having slept barely a wink. We were instantly bombarded by touts and hawkers, so shot right past them and walked the distance to the hostel, which turned out to only be 10 minutes. The hostel we stayed at is called the Xiao Yang Lou International Youth Hostel, and for 35rmb a night, the place is great! The beds were big and comfortable, and the atmosphere was friendly, lively, yet quiet at night. All the staff spoke good English as well! To book a room, call them at 0773-2158398. They are located on Zhong Shan Nan Lu, a straight 10 minute walk from the train station if you turn left as you leave the station. The address is guang xi gui lin zhong shan nan lu 110-25 hao (广西桂林中山南路边110-25号).

Die Cai Mountain

As for activities, we only really had a day and a half before my friends arrived from Hong Kong and then we moved on to Yangshuo, so we relaxed and walked around. The biggest thing we did was take the tourist bus for 1rmb to the Die Cai Mountain. 10rmb to enter, this scenic area of the city provides a nice hike and shelter from the sun. If you’re lucky, you might meet up with an elderly man sporting a wife beater at the top, who will gladly take pictures of you!

Train to Guilin = 212rmb (paid for Lily) ($30.9)
Hostel in Guilin = 70rmb (paid for Lily) ($10.2)
Food in Guilin = 35.5rmb ($5.10)
Transportation in Guilin = 6rmb (buses/paid for Lily) ($0.80)
Activities in Guilin = 40rmb (die cai shan, paid for lily) ($5.80)
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Total for Guilin = 363.5rmb ($52.80)

Bus to Yangshuo = 30rmb (paid for Lily) ($4.37)
Hostel in Yangshuo = 70rmb (paid for Lily) ($10.2)
Food in Yangshuo = 55rmb ($8.02)
Transportation in Yangshuo = 5rmb ($0.72)
Activities in Yangshuo = 0rmb
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Total for Yangshuo = 160rmb ($23.31)

Train to Chengdu = 104rmb ($15.1)
Hostel in Chengdu = 60rmb (Melba paid for my first night) ($8.75)
Food in Chengdu = 62rmb ($9.05)
Activities in Chengdu = 100rmb ($14.59)
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Total for Chengdu = 326rmb ($47.49)

Bus to Emei Shan from Chengdu = 46rmb ($6.71)
Monastery in Emei Shan = 50rmb ($7.29)
Food in Emei Shan = 50rmb ($7.29)
Donation to Monastery = 30rmb ($4.37)
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Total for Emei Shan = 176rmb ($25.66)

Private Car to Leshan from Emei Shan = 30rmb ($4.37)
Activities in Leshan = 90rmb ($13.13)
Bus back to Chengdu = 45rmb ($6.56)
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Total for Leshan = 165rmb ($24.06)

Train to Xi’an = 209rmb ($30.51)
Hostel in Xi’an = 50rmb ($7.29)
Food in Xi’an = 101rmb ($14.74)
Activities in Xi’an = 155rmb ($22.62)
Transportation in Xi’an = 15rmb ($2.18)
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Total for Xi’an = 530rmb ($77.34)

Train to Beijing = 311rmb ($45.40)
Hostel in Beijing = 140rmb ($20.43)
Food in Beijing = 242rmb ($35.32)
Activities in Beijing = 100rmb ($14.59)
Transport in Beijing = 139rmb ($20.29)
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Total for Beijing = 932rmb ($136.03)

Train to Wuhan = 287 ($41.89)
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Total spent = 2939.5rmb ($428.58), My budget was 4500rmb ($656.93)

In the end, my friends paid for these things for me (thanks Alfred, Richard, and Melba!):

Hot Air Balloon = 480×2 (paid for Lily)
Black and White Panda = 1000
Red Panda (really a raccoon) = 100

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Look for my upcoming posts about Guilin, Yangshuo, Emei Shan, Leshan, Chengdu, Xi’an, and Beijing!

Next we struggled through a 25 hour train journey to Chengdu in which we had to sit the entire way. In Chengdu, we experienced a minority performance and were treated like royalty by the staff at the theater. We played with pandas and raccoons and ate spicy hot pot food. We hiked to the Fuhu Monastery and slept with the monks for a night and got to see their prayer service in the morning. We went to the world’s largest known Buddha at Leshan.

From Chengdu we went to Xi’an, a city filled with terrible pollution much worse than what I experience in Wuhan. It’s so bad that the 5 of us couldn’t breathe after riding rented bikes on top of the old fortress walls (Xi’an is 1 of two cities in China that has a wall still completely intact). In Xi’an, we also saw the Terracotta Warriors, which turned out to be quite boring for me. In Beijing, we went to the Forbidden City (another boring tourist trap) and took a bus three hours north of Beijing to hike up to a little-known and rarely-visited section of the Great Wall called Simatai.

After 16 grueling days of travel, I’m glad to be back in my new apartment. I went to my school and got my schedule and met my students and co-teachers. I’ll be teaching 2nd grade, which means my kids are 7 years old! My school is 3 metro stations south of my apartment, and the metro station is an 8 minute walk from my building. My other option is to ride the public bikes about 25 minutes, which I think is a much better option for my health! I’m excited to be teaching at a public school because it means I can be a real teacher and not just another white face being paid ridiculous amounts of money for no reason. Stay tuned to see what happens next!