Chengdu

Arrived in Chengdu at 5am one morning, watched a little of the market traders coming to life around the station, found the hostel I intended to stay at, left for a day trip to Leshan a couple of hours later, and later returned to the hostel. Mix Hostel in Chengdu is a great place to stay, at first appearance it is an ugly block building, but inside a lovely atmosphere, tastefully decorated and with a nice terrace on the top floor to sit outside in the warm evenings, although the piles of washing hanging everywhere to dry is a bit frustrating as whenever I left my room I kept walking into someone's trousers or towel hanging down from above.

It's a fairly large city and so bus transport was a necessity in Chengdu, this was complicated by the construction of a metro system, that results in some one way roads and the solution that buses follow a different route in one direction to the other. This left me hopelessly lost for a while on my first evening trying to get back to the hostel. I noted to get off at the first stop north of the river, but a few moments after alighting I realised this was a different street and completely lost my bearings for a while, confused by the route change of the bus. This was further confused by some friendly local who saw me looking puzzled at a map and tried to help, but he had no idea where I was either and in trying to help, made things worse ;)



Left: Performing Buddhist chants.
Right: Daci Si's tea garden.

I quite liked Chengdu, it has a nice atmosphere, a location convenient for travel to many interesting places around and generally friendly, relaxed people. As well as seeing the giant pandas nearby and visiting Leshan (twice - returned a few days later to extend my visa), I popped into a couple of nearby temples and also to the first 'Irish Bar' I have seen in China, (I never found "The Paddy Field" in Guangzhou) which gave the chance to watch some football and indulge in an excellent dish of sausage and mash. It wasn't all good though as it also meant being surrounded by noisy, drunk Australians for a couple of hours. Another evening I visited another ex-pat favourite bar, 'the bookworm', which I was taken to by TT, a Chengdu local who I met in Dandong some time ago. This place was a bit like a library in that it had bookshelves full of books all around, but was far from quiet as there was a horse race event and auction going on which involved lots more noisy Australians, can't get away from them!

No noisy Australians at the temples I visited thankfully, Wenshu Yuan was very close to the hostel and worth a quick visit as in one of the halls, monks and non-monks(?) were reading from Buddhist scriptures and performing chants. While the Daci si is a temple dedicated to the travelling monk Xuanzang, who at one time lived in Chengdu before starting his journey to India, from where he brought back Buddhist scriptures that introduced Buddhism into these parts. I have mentioned Xuanzang previously in my blog from a statue in Lanzhou, to artistic impressions in the Big Goose Pagoda in Xi'an where he lived much of his life, he was of course the subject of the books 'Journey to the West', dramatised in Europe as the TV show 'Monkey'.

A bit of a treat at this temple was a tea house in the back garden that I decided to try out, surprisingly for such a quiet place, I found it was packed with locals sipping tea and chatting, clearly one of the famous Sichuan tea houses which are a feature of Chengdu and Sichuan province. So I grabbed a table, chose some unknown tea, sat and read in the sunshine for a while as locals chatted away creating a busy atmosphere of relaxation. Nice place if you like to drink tea ;)

Also while in the hostel in Chengdu I learnt how to play some new Chinese card games with some Chinese guests from Kunming, Guangzhou and Xiamen. I wasn't sure what was going on at first and communication was a little tricky due to language barrier but I had some expert help from one of the players and soon became quite successful, beginner's luck of course ! Instead of playing for money, their payment for losing is that you get your face painted by the winner, this was the result.



See, I did quite well ! The guy on the right wasn't playing, hence no warpaint.

Yangtze River next..

I'll be on a boat for the next few days, so don't expect any updates for a while...

I'll add more when I'm back on land...

Sichuan: Home of the Giant Panda

Chengdu is the home of the very rare, endangered and beautiful giant panda. There is a research and breeding centre on the outskirts of Chengdu where you can go and see these beautiful animals in a reasonably wild and natural habitat.

The park has a number of giant pandas as well as some, unrelated, red pandas, ranging in age from babies to adults. It's best to get there early morning and watch them play around a little before breakfast time. Then at breakfast the park staff feed them bunches and bunches of bamboo which they sit and chomp on endlessly until they get tired and fall asleep. Jut watching them eat is fascinating as they lie half backwards, seemingly posing to the crowd as they rip the outer bark off the bamboo stalks before munching the remains. Great fun and if they hadn't all gone inside to rest after the breakfast I could have sat and watched them all day. They are such beautiful and cuddly looking things.

Left: Panda on the prowl.

Centre: Bath time.

Right: The red panda.

Something interesting for many travellers is the sign language used by people from different cultures to communicate a message when you cannot speak a common language. On my way to the panda centre I found a great example of this. I was at Zhaojue Si station looking for a bus to the panda research centre and was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of motorbike and rickshaw taxis who wanted to take me somewhere, anywhere, just to get a fare. I said I wanted to visit the giant pandas (Daxiongmao in Chinese, I had done my research that morning), but as is often the case, they reverted to sign language and started playing the miming game on me. They obviously guessed where a foreigner in that part of town was heading towards and started their little show. Now, without photos that I don't have, I can't vividly describe the pose, but basically, I learnt that day, that the way to mimic a giant panda when in China, is to hold your arms at your side pointing upwards, close to your body, with your hands close to your ears, let your hands relax at the wrist and fingers curl to point downwards. That and a cheeky grin and I gurantee you they will understand you want to go to see the giant pandas at the panda research centre ;-)
It's hard to describe in words, but it was so funny to see these drivers all together trying to imitate a giant panda with this strange action, in order to try a get a taxi fare. Top class.

Travel Tip: If you want to avoid the expensive transport tours offered by travel agents and hostels, take bus #1 (northwards) to Zhaojue Si station and then bus #107 or #532 both of which stop outside the research centre.

Dafo in Leshan

I arrived in Chengdu (成都) very early one morning and almost straight away left again! There's nothing wrong with Chengdu, in fact it's turned out to be quite good, I left because I went off on a day trip to Leshan to see the largest Buddha sculpture in the world!! Dafo (大佛), Big Buddha is indeed very big, 71m high and carved into a niche in the sandstone cliffs overlooking the river in Leshan, at the point where the Dadu, Min and Qingyi rivers converge.

There are two ways to view Dafo; from the Buddha park or from the river. First, from the Buddha Park you can look down on him from a ridge just above his head and then after climbing down steps in the side of the cliff's niche, from which there are many more good views, you arrive at his gigantic feet, from where you can gaze up at this gentle giant in awe of the enormous size. Secondly, you can view him from a little further away, by taking a river trip or ferry from the ferry port at the West bank of the river in Leshan town, either on a round trip, or to the port on the East bank of the river.

The Buddha park is large and you can spend many hours wandering around if you want to view everything that is there. There are a many sculptures (copies) of famous Buddhist sculptures from around other sites in China, a couple of temples, pagoda and lots of walking around paths snaking through woodlands.


Left: Dafo's ears are 7m long !
Centre: His feet are enormous (see people kneeling beside to compare size)
Right: View from the boat.

The steps down to Dafo's feet can get very busy if you arrive at the same time as a few groups of Chinese tourists, so patience can be required. This is especially true at some viewing spots, where every single one of them insists on getting a photo taken in a pose which gives the appearance that their hand is touching his ear, this of course can take many attempts depending on the photographer and subject, and can get irritating if all you want is a photo of Dafo, without any over-excited Chinese tourist in the foreground.

Travel Tips:
- Buses to Leshan depart from Chengdu's Xinnanmen station.
- Leshan now has a new bus station in the South Western part of town (both Rough Guide and LP are out of date).
- Bus 13 takes you from the new bus station to the ferry port and goes onto all three entrance gates of the Buddha park site. Take your pick!
- Last bus back to Chengdu was around 7pm!

Xi'an

I was actually slightly disappointed with Xi'an (西安), I had heard and read many positive comments but my feeling was that the city itself was (to quote a favourite term) 'nothing special'. I had visited previously in November and went to the one site that is worth visiting around Xi'an, The Terracotta Warriors. I returned to explore more of this city, see other sites and line it up as a possible candidate for a place to work.

Xi'an is a hugely important city in history, a capital of ancient civilisation when it was called Chang'an, it has been the capital of many Chinese dynasties and there is much to see and learn from historical times. In the city there are the Big Goose Pagoda, the Small Goose Pagoda, temples, ancient sites, drum and bell towers, a Muslim area with its 'Great Mosque' and the surrounding city walls, built during the Ming Dynasty. The wall is 13.7 km long, with ramparts built at 120m intervals all the way around, the wall is 12m tall and at the base measures between 15-18m thickness. Once on the wall you can hire a bicycle or be shuttled around on an electric bus, similar to a long golf cart. Cycling around takes around 90 minutes including stops to look and photograph whatever you find interesting. I didn't find so many interesting things to photograph on the way around, you have dull office buildings in some places, old crumbling or demolished buildings in others, busy roads most of the way around, only the wall itself and its towers are of real interest, but having said that, it's still worthwhile making the effort to cycle around.

One site of relevance to me in Xi'an is the starting point of the Silk Road, I was not aware of this memorial first time I visited, but when I found out it was there, I decided to check it out. Having travelled along the Silk Road from Khiva in Western Uzbekistan through to the eastern end at Xi'an, I felt it was a felicitous choice to visit and see the so called 'start point' (or is it the end point?) of this famous trading route.


Left: The starting point (or the end) of 'The Silk Road'.

Right: There are more terracotta soldiers in the street stalls than at the actual site!

There is of course so much to see in and around Xi'an and should not be overlooked by anyone on a first trip to China, but perhaps for me, it was just one pagoda too many, I felt at many sites, 'Oh another drum tower', 'another bell tower', 'yet another Taoist/Buddhist temple of same layout and design'. It's another busy Chinese city, the wall around adds some charm to it for sure, but when I heard all these other foreign people who had worked or stayed there say how wonderful it is, I wonder what it was that made it so good for them, did I miss something somewhere ? Perhaps. Or was it just they enjoyed it because it's quite modern, quite 'Westernised', there are shopping centres, boutiques, western food restaurants and coffee shops around everywhere and a 'bar street', the common name given to a street in a Chinese city that contains western style bars. Maybe that's what was so good for these people, the fact they could live a western lifestyle but in a Chinese city ?? Maybe. Then maybe I had created high expectations of the place that were not quite met, whereas as other places I visit with little or no pre-knowledge, often surprise me as being better than I had imagined...

Whatever it was, overall Xi'an is OK, just not quite what I had hoped and dreamt of, but don't let this put you off, don't miss out on Xi'an. After all, it is one of the birthplaces of ancient civilisation and does have nearby, in the Terracotta Army, one of the most famous sites in the world.

Left: Etching of Monk Xuan Zang whose story is told in 'Journey to the West' lived in Xi'an.

Centre: Big goose Pagoda and gardens.

Right: 'Bigo' (chinese pronounciation of beagle !) in the 7 sages hostel.

Ancient(?) Pingyao (平遥)

Pingyao is probably like nowhere else in China, nowhere that I have heard about anyway. It's an 'ancient' city according to tourist info, and the locals are proud to emphasize that the city walls and buildings are original and not rebuilt or renovated in anyway, just 'well maintained'. Most of this well preserved architecture is from 19th century, which is in real terms not really that long ago; I'm not sure what exactly the definition of 'ancient' is, though I always thought it hinted at something rather older than 200 years.

However, it is an interesting place to wander around and reminded me in some ways of Khiva, the ancient walled city in Western Uzbekistan. Though the architectural design is of course quite different, the layout and atmosphere of this small walled city has similarities; narrow, quiet, traffic free lanes, local homes hidden away down small alleys where old ladies hang out their washing and kids and animals run around chasing each other, tourist stalls and shops selling local arts and crafts, locals get on with their daily life, preparing food, washing, cleaning, repairing, playing cards, Chinese chess or just sitting around drinking tea. The town has a little buzz of life and activity everywhere you go. And in the evenings as the sun falls towards the horizon of the city walls, the town is illuminated with a wonderful orange glow.


Left: Archway by the Eastern gate of Pingyao.
Centre: Men sit around the streets all day, chatting and smoking.
Right: Communist Party magazine from the newspaper museum.


Left: Streets being improved constantly, by a strong female workforce.
Centre: Ying and Yang, the symbol of Taoism.
Right: Cycling is the best way to get around the city walls.

Pingyao's walls are 1500m long on each side, with four main gates one at each cardinal point. The walls surround a dusty little town, whose streets are constantly being dug up/replaced which generates a lot of dust and dirt all around, it didn't feel like the healthiest of places to walk around, which when you consider the pollution in many Chinese cities, is saying something.

I visited a number of sites, many are museums in old houses, home to exhibitions of different arts or places of historical interest, such as martial arts, ancient newspapers, the oldest bank in China and the home of its rich founder. Most are quite similar, courtyard, buildings, displays and seeing a few is enough. There are also a couple of temples, gate towers and the option to walk around the city walls which offer some nice scenes of life in Pingyao. Apart from the dust it's quite nice to wander, there are no vehicles within the old walled city, just bicycles and motor rickshaws which can run around the outside, there is no neon lighting here either! At dusk, the streets are lit only by the red lanterns that hang outside many of the local shops, cafes, guesthouses. Comparing again to Khiva, this was a difference, there the town descended into total darkness at dusk.

Outside the walls, this small city carries on much like any other, with food stalls in the streets selling mystery meats, water melons and pineapples on sticks, while cars, mini-buses, pedestrians, bicycles, motorbikes, motor rickshaws all weave in and out of each other in some seemingly chaotic fashion that seems to function quite well.

Last day I took a cycle ride to Shuanglin Si, a temple a few kms outside of Pingyao, on the way the roads were even dirtier and dustier that the old city. Dust/sand on the roads blown up by passing vehicles created a scene similar to a desert sandstorm, and, I was unfortunate enough to have a lorry full of sand drive by, scattering a large amount over me which made my head itch the rest of the day. Even if the pedal had not broken off the bicycle when I was a km or so short of the temple, making cycling pretty difficult, (have you ever tried cycling with just one pedal ?) and resulting in a long walk/ride home, it was still one of my least interesting and worst cycle rides ever !

New Quiz - WINNER IS........

DJ PHIL OLYOTT.

Well done Phil, top banana, I thought it was a bit tricky, but you got them all right first go.

Torborg, good try, but number 5 was not correct, Romania do use the Lei as their currency, but this was a Moldovan 10 Lei note.

Phil, your prize, a bag of fragrant chicken feet, will be on its way soon ;-)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Identify the country of each bank note below:

Rules: First entry with all 6 correct wins. If no correct entry by April 30th, 2007, the first entry with the highest score takes it. Click on comments section below and add your answer there.

If needed, click on each photo to enlarge, some are easy if you can read the cyrillic alphabet

Prize: Not sure yet, I will find something on my travels for you

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.

Wutaishan to Taiyuan

Wutaishan (五台山) is one of the four Buddhist mountains in China. Accessible via a long detour off the Datong to Taiyuan road, the route winds upwards through the mountains on its way to the pass at the Northern peak of Wutaishan and then descends into the village of Taihuai (台怀). There are five mountain peaks around here and the fresh air and alpine scenery in the mountains is a refreshing change to the polluted cities around. Many temples here survived the Cultural Revolution due to the remoteness of the village and they display some fine and ancient architecture in a village that has been a Buddhist centre since at least the year 58, during the the reign of Emperor MingDi. Taihuai is a quiet, peaceful place with monks wandering the streets, while tour buses hop around everywhere carrying groups of Chinese tourists from site to site.

There are too many temples to go into detail, but I visited a few, climbed up 1080 steps which I thought was just one or two flights, to the Dailuo Peak. There was a small temple just up the steps, which I was aiming for, but as I ascended I realised there were more and more and more steps and many, many people heading up this way because it turned out to be going to the Shancai Temple near the peak of the mountain. I could no turn back then, so carried on up with the occasional friendly companion who wanted to be with the strange, exciting foreigner.

Overall, the fresh air is nice, but apart from the temples in the centre, everything is far apart and it would take some time and effort to get to any of the five peaks, yet alone one of them. There is little else to see or do once you have seen a few temples, so after two half days in Taihuai, I felt it was enough and found a bus onto Taiyuan (太原) , a necessary stopping point to change transport before heading to my next destination, Pingyao (平遥).


Left: The white stupa at Tayuan Si, is the symbol of Taihuai village.
Centre: On the way up to Dailuo Peak, I found this man making stele carvings.
Right: Twin Pagodas at Shuangta Temple, the symbol of Taiyuan.

The minibus driver was a complete idiot driver, I have been in some pretty wild bus journeys before, but this guy was worse than any other I have experienced. Lucky I think I have grown accustomed to it and was not too bothered most of the time, but his regular driving on the wrong side of the road to pass cars waiting at a red light so we could just carry on and weaving in and out of vehicles on either side was a bit stupid. He was probably a driver grown up on computer simulations who cannot distinguish between games and real-life. But, we got to Taiyuan in one piece and was dropped at the train station. Train tickets are apparently notoriously difficult to get hold of for this journey, so I didn't try. There were no buses from the train station concourse area to Pingyao, none from the nearby long-distance bus station as it was not considered a long-distance trip and they in fact left from a station in Southern Taiyuan. I also could not find any shared cars heading that way, so I stayed a night there. This spare evening time gave me a chance to read something about Taiyuan and decided in the morning I would go and see its famous twin pagodas at Shangta Si (双塔寺 ,Twin Pagoda Temple).

It was worth the effort, it was a lovely sunny day and the temperature was good, it felt like Spring at last. The flowers and trees had begun to flower and meant the area with wandering verandas and pavilions was a colourful scene. I climbed the thirteen floors of one of the towers but sadly the view was poor, the windows became smaller with each floor you ascended, the inside of the tower became narrower, so the windows became gradually further away and on the thirteenth floor, there was a mini window at the end of a mini-tunnel, which I would have to have crawled a metre or two into to reach the small window and get a view. Good exercise but a waste of time. With the springtime weather I jumped into the town centre briefly and found the main square had a few drink/eating stalls so sat outside in the sun with a drink, first time this year it's been warm enough where I have been and how nice that is to do.

Actually managed to get a train ticket to Pingyao in the morning which was better that heading out to the southern station so was pleased with that and had an interesting journey chatting with an old man and a couple of young, cool, trendy Chinese, while surrounded by intrigued, or is it just nosey, onlookers. The train though was absolutely packed, especially around where I was sitting, seriously overbooked with wuzuo (no seat) tickets, so in the end was not so bad to get off when we reached Pingyao and I did so with a couple of new words added to my Chinese vocabulary.

Datong II & Yingxian's Wooden Pagoda

Next day I met up with Trevor who is teaching Beijing and who I met on yesterday's trip. We found a bus heading to Datong South station and after a 30 minute drive through various parts of this larger than I imagined city (that's the case with most Chinese cities though), we arrived in Datong South bus station, bought a ticket to Yingxian (应县), went to the bus and found it was already driving out of the station. Quick dash and we caught it up at the gate, which is usually easy in Chinese bus stations as they have to fill out some paperwork nonsense before leaving the station, which usually takes a minute or two. Yingxian is a small town, but home to the oldest wooden building in China, a wooden pagoda (应县木塔, Yingxianmuta), built in 1056 during the Liao dynasty. It was originally constructed of entirely wood, with no metal nails, but there are plenty there now. The wooden structure is a network of beams and interlocking brackets that function well, as the pagoda has survived seven earthquakes. The area around the pagoda is currently under redevelopment with new (but traditional style) buildings being built in front, housing tourist shops and restaurants, while outside of here and to the west and east, new high rise flats are being constructed replacing the old buildings that used to be home to local residents. On the way back to the station we again caused excitement amongst the staff of a restaurant where we went for lunch. They seemed wary and kept nudging each other to go and serve us, but we eventually, as is often the case received, the full service with all three or four waitresses taking our order while we tried to work out and communicate what we wanted.


Left: Giant incense sticks at Huayuan temple (look relative to building behind).
Centre: A dragon form Datong's Nine Dragon Screen.
Right: Bundles of money used for I don't know what. (see previous Datong item).

Back in Datong, we visited the city temples and the nine dragon screen. At forty-five metres long and eight metres high, this is the largest nine dragon screen in China. With nine different dragons detailed in glazed tiles, different colours and curling in different shapes, it is colourful and lively display.

Huayuan Temple originally constructed during the Liao dynasty in 1062, has two parts, which annoyingly means you also have to pay twice. The main hall in the upper temple is the second largest in China and these temples are unusual for facing East, as they were constructed by a sect that worshipped the Sun, Chinese temples generally face South.

Datong - Yungang Caves and Hanging Temple

Datong (大同) in northern Shanxi (山西) province was established as the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the year 398 by the Turkic Toba people. The Northern Wei people became Buddhists and during their reign built constructed the Yungang caves just outside Datong. A second period of capital status for Datong came in 907 when the Liao Dynasty made it their capital, this period created the Huayuan and Shanhua temples within the city and the oldest wooden pagoda in China at nearby Yingxian.
Datong is a dusty, coal producing city, which providing over 30% of China's coal. There are also lots of outdoor markets selling fruit, strange bits of meat and a surprisingly large amount of money. These notes look like perhaps old Dynasty notes, or maybe it's for Chinese monopoly, I really don't know and could not understand the explanation of what it was for. But it was strange to see at one night market, stall after stall selling nothing but this money, something I have seen nowhere else in China before nor since.

Yungang caves (Yungang shiku, 云冈石窟), whose construction began in 453, are a set of Buddhist grottoes carved into the side of a sandstone cliff. They are the first of the three major Buddhist caves in China, the others being the Lonmgmen caves in Luoyang and the Mogao Caves in Gansu. See my visit to Mogao Caves in Dunhunag, Gansu here. The caves were made by first digging out a section at the top of the cliff, then digging into the rock down to the ground and outwards. Craftsmen from India and Central Asia were involved in the work and this can be seen in some of the carving's foreign influences. There are around fifty caves in total, but numbers 21-45 were closed for repair, which is a shame, though these are supposedly the least interesting among the site. I saw twenty caves including the most famous of all, number 20, which sits in the open for everyone to see and because of its popular use in marketing of Chinese tourism has become known as "China's Minister of Foreign Affairs".


Left: Yungang Cave 20, "China's Minster of Foreign Affairs".
Right: Hanging temple at Hengshan mountain.

Next site was the "Hanging Temple" (Xuankong Si, 悬空寺) of Hengshan (恒山), which is one of the five holy Taoist mountains in China. Built on the side of a sheer cliff face and anchored with wooden beams into the rock, the temple does look rather precarious for sure. There has been a temple here since the Northern Wei Dynasty but the present structure is more recent. The temple was destroyed a number of times due to flooding of the Heng river below and so each reconstruction was built higher than the previous temple. Inside are halls containing shrines to all three major religions in China, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Originally a Buddhist temple, the other religions were later incorporated after the destruction of the temple as they believed that that would help to prevent future disaster.

Chengde's Mountain Resort

Here's a little more about Chengde I forgot to add to the earlier post..

Chengde in Hebei Province is a scenic summer resort about 250 kilometers northeast of Beijing. As well as the Buddhist temples (see previous post about Chengde) there is also the "Mountain Resort", which was also built during the Qing Dynasty. This rare scenic spot was discovered during a hunting trip and over the course of eighty-seven years the construction of a temporary palace known by the name "Mountain Hamlet for Escaping the Heat" took place, it was completed in 1792. The palace is enclosed by a wall over ten kilometers long, which rises and falls with the mountain ridges. It is the largest and best-preserved imperial palace outside of the capital and China's largest imperial garden, covering an area of over 5.6 million square metres .

Qing emperors often spent several months a year here during summer to escape the heat in the capital city of Beijing and the palace zone in the southern part of the resort was therefore designed to resemble the Forbidden City in Beijing. Many other scenic spots around the resort's lake area were copied from famous landscaped gardens in south China. For instance, the main building on Green Lotus Island, "Tower of Mist and Rain," (Yanyulou) is a copy of a tower in Nanhu Lake at Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province and some other features have been based on Hangzhou's famous West Lake.


Left: Building of the palace grounds.
Right: One of the apparently 90 towers/pavilions at Mountain Resort.

The resort is enormous and you can wander around it all day from spot to spot seeing gardens, lakes, streams, bridges, towers, pavilions, a stupa, wildlife, even a Mongolian yurt park. There are 72 designated 'scenic wonders' in the resort all named by Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong during whose reign the resort was constructed.

Near to the Southern entrance, I spent some time watching locals practicing tai-ji or Diabalo, a spinning, humming wheel that revolves on a string attached between two sticks. Some of the tricks on display were highly impressive, including flinging it back and for between people. Sadly, watching them has not enabled me to even get my damn diabolo even spinning yet.


Left: Yanyu house The "House of Mist and Rain" at Mountain Resort
Right: A bridge over the frozen lakes at the Mountain Resort