Recap, and recent findings

Fun and interesting all around. When you're staying in Kunming, China, most people will tell you to go west to Dali, Lijiang, or Shangri-la. Following their advice I went to Dali and Lijiang. One of China's greatest landscapes, Tiger Leaping Gorge, is an hour or two from Lijiang, so I went there with the intention of returning to Lijiang so that I could go to Lugu Lake. Hiking the gorge so many people said Shangri-la is so beautiful and unlike Kunming, Dali, or Lijiang, so I changed plans and opted to visit Shangri-la before returning to Lijiang and setting out for Lugu Lake (and eventually Chengdu). Shangri-la is indeed beautiful, you're up high enough that the clouds are around you instead of above you. It carried a mysteriousness in its air, unless you're downtown or in the middle of a downpour. Those seem to be the same everywhere in the world. At the hostel I asked about places to go and after a nice chat with the receptionist I learned there is a northern way to Chengdu, full of wilderness, I wouldn't make it to Lugu Lake, but it would be as beautiful if not more. So yesterday I got on a bus and rode for 8 hours through windy mountain roads, muddy dirt and drop-offs most of the way. Got to Xiangcheng, slept, got up took another 4 hour trip to Litang (Lithang in Tibetan), and have been enjoying this city since. The architecture, language, and appearance of everything exudes Tibetan here. Apparently it was an old land/kingdom of Tibet, so it had retained much of its flair. The birthplace of the 7th Dalai Lama is enshrined and preserved just a 10 minute walk off the main street. There seems to be a much more heavy police presence here than any other city I've seen in China--small groups sitting on every other block doing nothing and one group of maybe 6 downtown with riot clubs and riot shields arrayed on the fence behind them. Tomorrow I'll be going to the large and partially ancient (supposedly much was rebuilt after a PLA bombing in the 40's or 50's) monastery and then Monday out to Kangding and more surprises. 

I wrote this and then tried to post it at various times in various places. I think it's going to actually go through now because I've made it to Chengdu and am guessing the reason it wasn't going through was China's firewall being nearly impenetrable if you're in a Tibetan region.

Many pictures are up! www.flickr.com/dcpetit, click on Albums for optimal organization. 

Big city, small city, old city; now no city?

This will be a short post, but I might not get the chance to post again for several days.  I landed in Kunming, went to two smaller cities (Dali and Lijiang) with old/ancient towns that, at moments, make you think you walked through a legitimate time machine. Tomorrow I'm getting up early and going to Tiger Leaping Gorge, where I'll walk more than 20km over the course of 3 or so days, staying at guesthouses along the way. Wish me luck!

Bearings in China

A good start to this trip. Landed late at 10:30pm, much confusion and difficulty getting to my room in town, but made it there smiling at ~1:30am. First question I got asked, "have you eaten, you must be hungry."

First day was a trip to The Golden Temple, a lush and stunning hill on the outskirts of town studded with 1600's stone and woodwork from the Ming Dynasty. Very quiet, peaceful, almost otherworldly. After a pleasant morning and early afternoon there, I bused an hour or so to get downtown and got to see the heart of the Yunnan province. Looked like most other large cities with much thought going into efficiency, a little into style, and almost none into history. I got home at 8:30pm and started struggling to keep my eyes open. I'll chalk it up to jet-lag and go to sleep for 10 hours. Goodnight!

Pre-departure discoveries

In my search for the cheapest way to get across the pacific ocean, I've discovered something quite odd. Plane ticket prices seem to go against intuition in a variety of respects. For example, when searching for "flights from SF to Hong Kong in October," I can find one for $250 that makes one stop in Shanghai. My intuition then tells me flying from SF to Shanghai must, necessarily, be cheaper, but when I change only one parameter so it's now "flights from SF to Shanghai in October" the lowest I can find is $290 and it makes a stop in Vancouver. Just to take it one step farther, I should look up how much a flight from Vancouver to Shanghai is in October (and find out where it stops along the way).

What a weird algorithm this must use. Yet, the thing to do mmustbe to find the $250 ticket going to anywhere that stops at where I really want to go before connecting.

A Final Post... for now...

This will be my last post for a while. My wonderful time as a foreign English teacher has come to an end, for now. I'll be heading back to the US. I was able to spend the Chinese New Year's winter break traveling around Thailand and Cambodia, two very beautiful countries, and even in the middle of February sweltering hot! Many pictures on Flikr. The pictures suddenly stopped about halfway through my trip because my phone was stolen. An interesting story, but one best over talking; unfortunately I have no pictures of Ko Chang or Shen Zhen because of it, though I should be receiving some shortly. Of the things I've seen in my time abroad, I can undoubtedly say that Angkor Wat was by far the most impressive. The size, extent, and level of detail were unparalleled.

If I can imagine you're reading this because you're interested in some ideas that I've had this whole year abroad. I have found life and lifestyles on the other side of the pacific tremendously diverse. The two places I'm most familiar with, Miryang Korea and Taichung Taiwan, were more different from each other than any two places I've seen in the US, and I imagine more different than the US is to England or even France or Germany. Exposing my ignorance, I'm willing to surmise that many of the differences arise from Korea adopting Confucianism (sometime around 1700 CE according to my old co-worker) completely, and then laying over on top of it Modern Industrial Capitalism sometime more recently. The two don't seem to go together well which has seeming made the older generation (50+ or so) slightly ostracized (but still respected in traditional ways). My vague understanding of Taiwan is that it too adopted Confucianism but it kept around (or perhaps additionally adopted later) Taoism and Buddhism. As Modern Industrial Capitalism started to flourish in Taiwan, it seemed to do so while keeping pockets of all of its old traditions (which are seemingly seen as one tradition) alive and well within the city limits and almost daily life. I don't know how, but I fathom that this has to do with Korea's civil war being much longer and actually taking place on Korean soil. I am happy to be returning, I have lots of plans, not sure of the path to accomplish them, but traveling indeed has made uncertainty a little more familiar.

It’s great to be back, I hope to see every single one of you soon.