Hua Shan - Part 5

Another round of photos from Hua Shan:


This is one of the best photographs I've ever taken. Andy appears to be floating on the ledge jutting out of the mountain.


Some instant noodles planters


This woman was struggling with the climb just before the North Peak


A map of Hua Shan. This helps me visualize the north, east, south, and west peaks a lot. It's easy to lose this perspective while on the mountain.


A shot from the lower part of the mountain


Me ordering/negotiating our dinner with the owner of the small guesthouse we stayed at near the North Peak. As you can see, I opted for Kobe Bryant-style leggings on this cold night.


Andy, me, and a middle-aged Chinese man going on a cable car down the mountain. As you can see, we were all soaked from being out in the rain all day.


These are a few Chinese guys I chatted up near the South Peak. The guy in the Texas Tech hat was very talkative. I still can't get over that he was wearing a Tech stocking cap.

Here is a video of us discussing beautiful women from all over the world:

Freezing in Sichuan

I saw Dickens' "Christmas Carol" at a theater yesterday. It was very enjoyable. Dickens' timeless classic reminded me of the importance of remembering the people who are roughing it this holiday season.

This holiday season, there are many reasons why we should not forget the victims of China's earthquake earlier this year. Actually, about 3.6 million reasons.

From Reuters:

BEIJING, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Quake survivors living in prefabricated housing in China's mountainous Sichuan province need 3.6 million quilts and the same number of cotton-padded clothes to survive the winter, state media said on Monday.

More than 80,000 people were killed in the May 12 disaster, with millions now living in resettlement sites surrounded by the rubble of their old homes and facing a colder winter than normal.

"Weather experts have forecast that temperatures in the quake-hit areas will be 0.5 degree Celsius to 1 C lower than usual. The areas are likely to get more rain, snow and frost too," the China Daily said, quoting provincial government officials.

Read On

If you would like to make a donation to an organization which helps China's staggering number of poor people, this is a really good organization I know of based out of Xi'an: The Yellow River Soup Kitchen.

Kickin' It Back in KC

After way too many hours on airplanes, I got back to Kansas City late Monday night/early Tuesday morning.

I've suffered a bit from jet lag, slept in until 4PM my first day back and I didn't sleep well last night, but overall everything is really nice back here in the US.

There's been snow on the ground since I got here. Has been a fun thing to play around with. My brother and I went and threw the football around the other night. Good fun.

I went out to my friends and my favorite bar last night. Friends of mine from many different time periods came out. It was a bit surreal to be out with my friends, people who I've grown so close to, when I hadn't seen them in such a long time. Though, I'm a firm believer in the idea that your best friends are the ones who you don't need to be in constant contact with to be close to.

Everything around Kansas City is pretty much the same I remembered it from when I was last here, sixteen months ago.

There's that whole financial systems collapsing thing which is new. People seem to acknowledge that something completely messed is going on on a daily basis, but are sure that things will be back to normal by the end of 2009 or by the beginning of 2010.

I hope they're right. I suppose that this is what America's punditry and intelligencia have been telling everyone here in America.

I'm just not that optimistic about the situation.

One of the things that living in a developing country has done to me is convince me that the lifestyle my family and friends enjoy in suburban/urban Kansas City just doesn't seem very sustainable.

This may very well be the gloomier and doomier side of my beliefs, but it is my first reaction being back and looking at the economic crisis through my experiences.

I'm Going to Kansas City...

In about 36 hours, I'll be back in my hometown of Kansas City. My flights and airport layovers - from Xi'an to Beijing to Newark to Kansas City - will total about twenty-six hours or so (fun!).

For my entertainment on the flights, I have Chinese to study, Catch-22 to read, and I've downloaded a bunch of free podcasts from the iTunes store. Hopefully these things will make my journey will be close to bearable.

I don't have too many specific plans for when I'm back in KC. I'd really just like to catch up with my family and friends, who I have not seen in person in almost a year and a half.

This will also be my first Christmas back in Kansas City/America in three years. That will be great.

Unfortunately, I can't bring my girlfriend fiancee, Jackie, back with me. Hopefully she'll be able to come sometime in the not-too-distant future though.

The following are a few of the food items I'm most looking forward to:







And of course:



Kansas City here I come!

The Top Ten China Travel Features from 2008

Chinatravel.net, probably the best China travel site on the internet, has unveiled its list of the top ten feature articles on the site from 2008. The list can be found here.

This is a very good collection ranging from a ridiculous story of camping on the Great Wall, to the ten most romantic destinations in China, to an absolutely stunning collection of photos from a professional photographer who captured pictures from every province in China.

Of course I'd be remiss if I forgot to mention that my article on China's rugged Xinjiang Province, entitled "Kashgar: The Far West of the Far East," was also included in the list.

I'm quite honored to be included in this collection of articles considering the quality of the other pieces.

The Next Paramount Leader of the PRC: Xi Jinping

After Obama won the US presidency last month, I had a long coversation with my adult "English Corner" about how and why Obama won. Nearly everyone taking part in the discussion was excited about Obama coming in and Bush leaving.

During the course of the hour-long conversation, I asked the students who will be the next president of China. I knew that Hu Jintao is in his last term and will be replaced in the next few years. Specifically, I was interested whether the next in line has been named or is clear.

I was told that the next president of China will be Xi Jinping.



Xi's biography, from Wikipedia, can be found here.

Here are some tidbits about the man:

- Although born in Beijing, Xi's ancestral home is in Fuping County, Shaanxi Province. The students I talked with said that his ties to Shaanxi (Xi'an's province) would surely benefit Shaanxi and Xi'an when he takes power.

- His father was purged during the Cultural Revolution, was sent to work at a factory, and eventually jailed.

- Xi was in charge of coordinating the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

- In 1987, Xi married the famous Chinese folk singer, Peng Liyuan.



His wife is widely considered more famous than her husband, one of the most powerful politicians in China. 2008 was one of the first years since its inception that she didn't performed at the CCTV New Year's Gala, which is viewed by an estimated (and unfathomable) 700 million people every year.

- US Treasury Secretary is a big fan of Xi. He said of him, "(Xi is) the kind of guy who knows how to get things over the goal line." I'm not sure if Paulson's endoresement means much to American people after the past couple months of bailouts.

One of the more interesting things my students told me was that they didn't know when Xi would take over and, current paramount leader, Hu would step down. My students told me that in China it will just happen one day with little advanced notice.

I should note that the students in my class were very enthusiastic about him. It may very well be that Xi'an and Shaanxi Province would stand to benefit from Xi being the Paramount Leader.

Hua Shan - Part 4

Below are some videos I took from Hua Shan in October:


From the South Peak. The wind up there was absolutely brutal. As you can see from my lens, rain was pouring down at that point. Probably not good for my camera, but worth the cool video.


From the East Peak. Great panoramic view.


This is from earlier on in the mountain before getting to the peaks.