上海，杭州，南京

The answer is no.


I have not seen the Great Wall yet.

That's the second most popular question I get from home, and while I do indeed have a month break from school to travel, I opted not to go north to 北京 (Beijing) when it is winter. I kind of hate being cold. Instead I went East to Shanghai, Cixi, Hangzhou, and Nanjing. My sister is currently living in Warringah, Australia, and one of her roommates is a Chinese girl from Cixi, who is home for the holiday. So when I got invited on a trip that direction, I jumped at the chance to go visit and get to know her.

I went with a good friend and our first stop was Shanghai, where we spent two days wandering around, being completely lost, and having a grand time. The weather was remarkably warm for the beginning of our trip, so we walked all over that enormous city. After seeing all that Shanghai has to offer, Chunni (Sammie's roommate) and her dad picked us up and drove us to her hometown. We got to drive over the world's longest trans-oceonic bridge. Her mom cooked us a wonderful dinner where I made a fool of myself trying (pathetically) to eat delicious little crabs with chopsticks. We spent the evening getting to know her family--a difficult task with my very limited Chinese. The next day her and her dad drove us to Hangzhou which is famous for the beautiful Westlake. It was worth the trip, even in the winter, which is reputedly the worst time to visit. Even without leaves on the trees, I was enthralled by the view.

We spent a few days in Hangzhou and could easily have spent more time there I think, before getting on a train to Nanjing. The weather suddenly turned on us, and when we got off the train it was a balmy -3, and dropping. Nanjing isn't traditionally considered a tourist town by the Chinese, which made it much more interesting to me. We climbed "Purple Mountain," a hill where there is supposed to be a Ming Dynasty tomb (the only Ming Emporer not buried in Beijing) which we never did find. We went to visit the Massacre Memorial Museum from when the Japanese attacked Nanjing and killed over 300,000 Chinese. If you happen to be in that area, I definitely think you should see the museum, but it can be a bit overwhelming if you're like me, and violence makes you squeamish.

We spent the second New Years Eve eating dinner with a Chinese family, one of Sooraj's friends who showed us around Nanjing. She invited us to eat with them since every restaurant in the country (except maybe McDonalds--which despite being American does not interest me in the least) closes for the holiday. I marveled at the fireworks being set off in the middle of the street, regardless of cars. We hadn't taken into account that because of the holiday, all of the tourist sites we wanted to visit would be closed, so Nanjing wasn't quite as eventful as planned, but was still fun. We also mistakenly assumed that no one would want to travel on New Years day, since it's bigger than Christmas, and had a bit of a hard time finding train tickets home.


Our planned arrival date of Jan. 27th stretched into Jan. 28th. As I watched the fog-filled fields blur by Jack Johnson sang in my ear that he wished the old train would break down. Although I didn't disagree with his sentiment entirely I am glad his wishes were not granted for us. I heard some pretty terrifying stories of train trips last year, where people were stuck for 60 hours waiting for the snow to clear. So it was with a grateful heart that after two nights in a row of sitting up on a train and desperately wishing for some sleep, we finally made it to YiChang. I then proceeded to sleep until 6pm, effectively ruining any sleeping pattern I had. I am happy to be home for a few days where I can get fried rice for 4yuan rather than the 25 we paid in Shanghai, and it will be spicy enough to make me breathe fire. It's the little things in life...

"No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath."

-Through Painted Deserts