Yunnan Trip Itinerary

Yunnan Province

February 11th - 25th

Temperature Information

Feb. High & Feb. Low

Kunming 64 42

Jianshui 54 36

Xishuangbanna 72 46

Dali 64 42

Lijiang 54 36

Zhongdian 40 16

Day 1 Feb. 11th

Fly from Beijing to Kunming

Check into Green Lake View Hotel

Theater Show

Day 2 Feb. 12th

Wake up call 6:30 am

4 hour bus ride to Shaochong

Learn Dragon Dancing

Party with villagers

Overnight stay with host families

Day 3 Feb. 13th

Wake up 7:00am

Hike Mountain

3 hour bus ride Jianshui

Free evening

Day 4 Feb. 14th

Wake up call 6:30am

3 hour bus ride Yuanyang

Hike rice terrace Fields

Hani song and Dance performance

3 hour bus to Lvchun County

Day 5 Feb. 15th

Wake up call 6:00am

10 hour bus ride to Menlun County

Free evening

Day 6 Feb. 16th

Wake up call 8:00am

Scavenger hunt in Botanical Garden

1 hour bus ride to Ganlanba

Overnight with host families in Manruandong Dai village

Day 7 Feb. 17th

Wake up call 8:00am

Visit monks at village temple

one hour bus ride to Jinghong

Rafting on Mekong River

Fly from Ganlanba to Dali

Walk to restaurant for Chinese New Year Eve Banquet

Day 8 Feb. 18th

Sleep in!

Free morning

Free afternoon

Free evening

Day 9 Feb. 19th

Wake up at 7:30am

Bus to Shaping Bai Market

Boat tour and Three-Course Tea

3 hour bus ride to Lijiang

Free Evening

Day 10 Feb. 20th

Watch sunrise at Black Dragon Pool

Pictograph class at Baisha Naxi Village

Basketball game with Villagers

Lijiang old town scavenger hunt

Free evening

Day 11 Feb. 21st

Wake up call at 6:30am

2 hour bus ride to Tiger Leaping Gorge

Hike Gorge

Take bus to Qiaotou Market

3 hour bus ride to Zhongdian County

Arrive at Huangshan Tibetan Village 10,000 feet above sea level

Party with Villagers

Over night with host families

Day 12 Feb. 22nd

Wake up at 8:00am

Bus ride to Songzangling Monastery

Lama chanting ceremony

Bus to see horse-racing

Free Evening

Day 13 Feb. 23rd

Wake up call at 8:00am

Hike mountain

Visit Tibetan Orphanage

Free Evening

Day 14 Feb. 24th

Wake up call at 6:00am

Fly from Zhongdian to Kunming

Free Evening

Day 15th Feb. 25th

wake up call at 5:30am

Fly from Kunming to Beijing

Monday Morning Super Bowl

Who gives a test during the Super Bowl, honestly? My Chinese teacher and a few others in fact. The Super Bowl started at around 7am Monday morning here. A few of my friends here skipped class completely to see the game. There are a few bars that were playing the game. My class started at 8 and ended at 9:40. I told the taxi driver to step on it as we weaved in and out of morning traffic to arrive just in time to watch the entire 4th quarter. Americans were all over the place and seating was limited. However, when the colts intercepted the ball and ran for a touchdown in the 4th a few seats opened up...weird? This bar catered to westerners and was kind of expensive. We ordered some nachos which were a good attempt, but far from what anyone was used to. It was a good time and we talked to a lot of American business men that were working in Beijing. I got back and checked out all of the commercials at http://www.youtube.com/superbowl it has a good way of ranking the commercials.

I like the "snickers- do something manly" and the "sierra mist- come over beard" commercials the most. Bud Light had some really funny ones too.

Snowboarding

I have found a few people here that like to keep busy. This past weekend we went skiing in the mountains just north of Beijing. We joined a group of about 40 Chinese students and bussed our way about 2 hours north of the city. The Chinese students sang karaoke the entire trip there and back. They just kept singing the same 10 songs the whole time, by the end I was at least humming along. Every now and then a song would throw in a "Yeah, Yeah, Baby".

We got there at about 10 am and pushed our way through the lines and onto the slopes. I rented a stylish green snow suit. I really only wanted the pants, it was about 50 degrees out and the shirt came off for a couple runs. Five of us snowboarded while two others skied. We were easily the best people there. I think Chinese people like to take dramatic falls. They aim straight for the bottom of the hill and about 5 seconds later a ski and pole explosion occurs. It was pretty humorous watching this. The mountain was pretty easy, but the ice kept us on our toes... literally. We mastered the same run each time and there were no lines to this lift, because no one there was good enough for that hill. All of us met at 4 and loaded up the bus. This trip cost me a total of about 200 yuan or about $25. There is also supposedly an indoor ski place in Beijing that we are looking to try. I have uploaded a few more pictures that can be seen at the following link.http://www.flickr.com/photos/85224480@N00/

Beijing World Cup

I am feeling the effects from yesterday's international soccer skirmish. I guess I am a little out of shape. Not quite in shape enough to contend with players from Denmark, Spain, Iraq, England, Germany, and a few more Chinese. The AstroTurf field can cause some pretty big rug burns on the knees. It was about 40 degrees and the smog from the city wasn't overwhelming. Most people brought their soccer cleats with them from home, but I was left sliding around in my street shoes. We played America vs. the rest of the world. Soccer vs. Football. We represented America well and pulled off a victory. It was a close game and I managed to sneak in a few goals. The sport will now be referred to by everyone here as Soccer.

Beijing Hikers

About 15 of us decided we wanted to get out of the city and do some hiking. I found a group online that goes hiking every Sunday. You can read about the hike we did and some others they offer at the BeijingHikers website. The hike was very intense and some parts were pretty scary. I may not be able to walk to class tomorrow morning. We were up in the mountains and climbed about 2000 feet. We were hiking for about 5 hours and covered 21km or about 13 miles. The weather was great and it was almost too warm to wear a jacket while we climbed. We passed a lot of coal mines and some very remote villages. The occasional mountain goat would cross our paths from time to time. It was a lot of fun and nice to breath some fresh air.

Kro's Nest

Last night about 30 of us headed out to a very cool pizza place that this American guy runs. Very cool place and very good pizza... lots of cheese! The owner, Kro is a young guy who sports a mohawk and speaks Chinese fluently. I am not sure what his life story is, but he seems pretty happy where he is. This will be a great place to come back to when I need a familliar taste.

Today, my roommate and I headed out into the city. We just started walking with no real plan or sense of direction. We made our way to the subway station and just got on the next train. We passed a lot of run down, poor areas in Beijing. Some areas of the city smell terrible, because of excess garbage just piling up along the streets. After getting off the subway we ventured down a street dodging traffic. Crossing an intersection here is probably one of the scariest things I've done. We walked through a large park and saw some men doing their tai chi. Then we made our way back to the subway and back to the University. This whole expedition with lunch cost me about $3.

Today was quite the experience. First I went to lunch with about 7 others. We used the pictures on the menu to order. In all we ordered about 10 plates of different food. The bill came down to about $1.20 a person. Pretty crazy. Also a 20 minute taxi ride costs about $1. The driving around here is intense. Lane lines mean nothing and traffic signals are more of guidelines.

The above picture was not taken by me, but this is where I went shopping today. It is a 6 story building that has all sorts of things. Silk kimonos, ties, rolexes, designer bags, custom made suits, gloves, belts, electronics, pearls, basically anything. (99% of the stuff is fake, but still its pretty nice.)

There are NO set prices, which means you must bargain. I bought a leather briefcase/bag for my classes here. They started the price at about 300 Kuai which is about $50. All you have to do is say tai gui le (too expensive) and the price slowly drops. It really drops as you begin to walk away. I got the bag for 90 Kuai or about $11. They are not afraid to grab a hold of you either. I had one chinese women pulling me to her store and another to the store opposite. It was pretty funny and it is a lot like a game.

My friend who is asian walks in front of me and they don't say a word to him. I guess I must look like a sucker. He is good at bartering and helped a lot of us, the chinese people got mad at him a lot for telling us we could still go lower. It was quite the experience and a lot of fun. Let me know if anyone wants anything while I'm here.

I'm Here

The flight was not too bad, watched 4 movies and the time "flew" by. I had a seat in the middle right in front of the drop down projector screen which gave my row about 6 inches of extra legroom. Most people slept on the plane, but I didn't. I went to sleep at 8pm and woke up early the next morning, no jet lag so far. We have a little shower in our bathroom that works well but gets everything soaked in there. I am on the second floor, which is good because there are no elevators.

The food is interesting and plentiful. They bring out a dish one-by-one and place it on a lazy Susanne that you spin. My chopstick skills need lots of work. My host student was trying to teach me, but had to give up. I figure by May, I will have it down. Believe it or not its not just rice. They serve a lot of meat with a variety of different sauces. It gets weird when they bring out the fish, but other than that I haven't starved yet. Everything is pretty cheap here, but I haven't had the chance to do any shopping yet.

There are crazy drivers here and the traffic is basically 24 hour rush hour. We went on a tour to Tienanmen Square, but our bus took so long to get there that we only had like 20 minutes to look around and snap some photos. I will be going back there at some point, to explore the Forbidden City. The bus then dropped us off at a lake where we did some weird ice skating. They had these chair that slid on the ice, pretty fun. A Chinese man kept making us race.

Check out my photos here

I will add photos as often as I can. The internet is a bit slow here, so it takes awhile to upload them. OK, time for my next dinner adventure.

In about 17 hours I will be on the other side of the world. I spent the night in a nunnery in Chicago with others who are attending this program in Beijing. Everyone is excited and we are all getting to know each other. Most people go to one of the many Loyola Universities around the US. My new roommate Chris, is from Michigan and goes to Saint Louis University. He and I will be sharing a dorm room at the University in Beijing. We are in an international dorm which is supposed to be the nicest dorm on campus. The other dorms cram 6-8 Chinese students in one room.

I also met another guy who goes to Marquette named Ben. It kinda felt like an episode from the Twilight Zone when I met him, because my friend Ben from Watertown, looks just like this kid and also goes to Marquette. He is going to Denmark for the semester and has a really entertaining blog. Check it out here. After dinner, we watched "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon". I hope they teach me some of those moves in my Martial Arts class.

I am writing this the morning of my trip, because I woke up a few hours ahead of schedule and was too anxious to get back to sleep. From here I eat breakfast, hop on a bus to the airport and then sail off for about 14 hours to Beijing. I have installed Skype and my name on there is colingillingham. I am 13 hours ahead of central time, so we will have to schedule our phone calls accordingly.

Stay tuned, because the next few posts will be pretty interesting. Hopefully, I can take some cool action shots and get them on here for you all to see. Zaijian for now.