Travels

Our fall break lasted for 10 days which gave us ample opportunity to plan a wide-ranging trip around Southern China. Our plans were ambitious, balancing train times with flight times and hotels and possible altitude sickness; but in the end it paid off.

5 friends from the program and I began our first leg of the trip with what can only be called a jolt of chaos to help break our cycle of the previous exam week. Having left early so that we would not have to rush, we reached the Hangzhou train station only to realize a second before entering the station (with 40 minutes before our train would leave) that we were at the wrong station, and that we were meant to go to the Hangzhou South station. Now this second station is not a couple of blocks away, not even in Hangzhou actually. So, after a brave battle to secure taxis we headed off to the next station and after an even more panicked taxi ride, ran up stairs and down stairs and through the (wrong) terminal and finally made it on to the train literally seconds before it left. (Take that pessimistic taxi driver!)

I would rather have not begun a 36 hour train ride sweaty and panting, but alas. We reached Kunming, Yunnan to some beautiful weather and made our way around the city; ate a couple of great meals (with real cheese!), rode on a boat, bumper boats even (equipped with spray-gun), and a few of us joined in a middle-aged women's morning dance-aerobic routine. After checking out Kunming's night life for a grand total of 15 minutes (worth it), we headed to the correct station for our night-long train ride to Lijiang, Yunnan. It may have been that we were all grumpy in the morning, but none of us particularly warmed up to Lijiang and soon were on a 4 hour long bus ride on to Shangrila (Xianggelila). Shangrila is a quaint town tucked away in the high plains of the largely Tibetan north-west corner of Yunnan province.

We spent 3 days in Shangrila and had a blast. We did spent most of our time eating momos and other variants of Yak produce. It would be safe to say we have eaten, drank and smelled our lifetime's share of yak. (That yoghurt was particularly yakky). Shangrila is a beautiful place and the people are very warm. After the Hangzhou semester ends, I and a friend will be heading back to Shangrila for a week long course in Tibetan Tanka painting at an Arts academy. I look forward to heading back to place that already seems quite familiar.

We made our way back to Kunming after which we flew to Shenzhen. And after a painful few hours of waiting in lines we finally made it across the border to Hongkong where I stayed with a Middlebury friend of mine, Chris and his very hospitable family. It was interesting to be in a pseudo-Chinese environment where not many people speak Mandarin, it made me realize how much it really does help to have a working knowledge of the local language. (si kuai haishi shi kuai?!!: 4 bucks or 10 bucks?! can hardly make out the difference.) But at the same time, Hongkong is a very navigable, tourist friendly city. And the 3 days there went by quite quickly. Before we knew it we were back on a train, this time headed for our very own Hangzhou.

I think we got a break from studies just when we needed it and took full advantage of it. Overall I am glad we managed to visit so many very different places and met so many very different people. Very often, we think of China as this united, uniform entity. Yet in every town you pass through there is diversity that is being and that is to be celebrated; a local delicacy, a local accent, a new art form, a proud history or an age-old lifestyle.