handwritten on August 8, 2015
We were feeling adventurous this particular morning, so we took a walk outside. I believe we ended up in an open market that happened to be in a poorer section of Changsha. People were selling vegetables, fish, meat and fruits. Sadly, the people were selling their food next to heaping piles of garbage. Apparently this is where garbage is taken in the city of Changsha. Because of all the people, the garbage is piled up high.
Many of the buildings in this area were older and looked as if they were going to fall apart. Unlike in the United States where older building are either kept up for years or renovated, the older buildings in China are torn down to make way for new buildings. They do...
handwritten on August 8, 2015
Today was our final day in the mountains. It's amazing how quickly time goes when you are on an adventure. We woke up around 5:30 to get in line by six to visit another portion of the mountains. Luckily, we were at the front of the line. Thus, the waiting was not an issue. By 7:30, the man at the head of the line had cleared our passports and we were on our way up to the mountain top via the cable cars. The view was just majestic. The length of the ride was 25 minutes-a pretty significant amount of time and gives a clearer picture of just how high the mountains were in this particular area. One of our first adventures was to walk across a very long glass tile ledge. Basically, if you looked...
handwritten on August 6, 2015
We woke up this morning around 7:00 and walked downstairs in the lobby of our hotel for a buffet breakfast. I found this to be fascinating because it was set up like any buffet you may see in the United States. However, instead of the usual ham, eggs, bacon and so forth there were purple sweet potatoes, eggs, porridge, pork buns, dumplings and other such food varieties. I took many pictures of this buffet, and I will be sharing these at a later date.
Instead of traveling up the mountain today, we traveled down the mountain. This was slightly scary because the steps were so small. Not only did your calf muscles begin to shake after a period of time, but you were constantly thinking about...
handwritten on August 6, 2015
Although we had just arrived back from rural Changsha, it was time to embark on yet another adventure toward the land of Avatar also known as Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. We woke up early this morning (no time like the present) and ate a fried dough patty with meat and onions on the inside. Delicious. We then walked to meet our driver who would be taking us on our four-hour journey towards the mountains. On the way, we stopped at my first ever Chinese convenience store/gas station. There were a lot of overpriced snacks (very similar to...
handwritten on August 1, 2015
This fine Wednesday morning was one of my favorite mornings in rural China. We woke up around 7 o'clock and met a family member who was to take us around rural China for a tour. We traveled through the streets on a small trolley-like bus and first stopped on the side of the street to eat breakfast. This particular breakfast was my absolute favorite. We consumed a huge bowl of rice porridge and warm pork buns. After breakfast, we walked through a large concrete square which is generally where the people go to dance at night. In other words, it is a square of recreation and easy living. Past the square was a gorgeous park that had a beautiful view of the lake. There was also a small gazebo...
