Traveling the World

We walked in the annoyingly misty rain up the mountain and passed an unbearable amount of Chinese tourists. After 15 or 20 minutes, we arrived at the Giant Buddha and took pictures. We were up until that point unaware of the several hour long line which forms at the head and slowly, I mean s-l-o-w-l-y works its way down the cliff of the mountain to the statue’s feet.

Everyone I was with immediately lost interest in the idea, yet I refused to budge from the line, as I’d paid almost an hour’s salary (quite a bit of money for a single thing here) to see the damn statue. After I explained that it’d be impossible for us to miss the last bus back to Chengdu at night if we waited in line, they reluctantly agreed to wait. As time passed, they became more excited, and I became less interested. It’s ironic that this happened, but who’s to blame a white Jew for not particularly caring too much about some statue of another religion, especially when it goes against my people’s beliefs to worship a statue.

Giant Buddha

During the ride, Richard and I were sitting in front of 4 Americans going to university in California: 2 Whites and 2 Asians. They were 2 males and 2 females, and they were talking about things I thought were funny back in college, but now honestly seem vulgar and childish. It’s weird how we grow up so fast without noticing it. Two hours later and 45rmb less, we were back at our hostel in Chengdu.

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!