Greetings from China...again
Well I think I better update this again. I am back in China for what is my last month overseas. This time I decided to travel by myself which may not have been the right decision. Its good and bad. Good in the fact that I can do everything at my own pace (slow with losts of sleep ins!) and bad cause it can be quite lonely.
I'm in Xian at the moment which has so far been a little disappointing (the town at least). Its the same as any other Chinese city just with an old wall. Whats more the pollution is terrible 9maybe I'm just in a bad mood...I just came in on a 20 hour train from Shanghai and am also coming down with some sort of cold (which is even worse in the humidity and the smog...uk uk uk!) I'm heading out to the terracotta army tommorow but other then that have not idea what I want to do or even what city I want to go to next. If I want to try and make it to Japan next week I should head north towards Beijing. I have time to maybe do one town on the way, either Pingyao (which I have already been to but wouldn't mind visting again) or Datong (which is suppose to have spectacular Buddist caves carved into the rock but may be difficult transport wise). I definitely want to spend at least 4 or 5 days in Beijing and now I feel like putting that off for a bit cause my roommate won't be there cause he's still witing for a visa to study in the US.
If I don't go to Japan I have no idea what I want to do. I know Japan is expenisive and that I have been there before (but never when its been warm) but I am becoming rather annoyed with a lot of things about China, especially the language barrier. China can be very tiring.
One highlight though had been Shanghai. What an incredible place...fast, rich and going places. Maybe not much to do tourist wise (the Bund has almost the exact same feeling as the avenue of Stars in HK) but is definitely the most livable city I have been to in China...except for Hangzhou! Forget all the tourists (there are millions!) and the admission prices, that place is heaven on earth!!! The west lake looking towards the city was so beautiful it bought tears to my eyes (really!) and all the temples and shrines, it was like Kyoto but better. Definitley worth the trip.
Anyway I best be off and think about my immediate future.
Looking foward to seeing you all soon!
Matt
I'm in Xian at the moment which has so far been a little disappointing (the town at least). Its the same as any other Chinese city just with an old wall. Whats more the pollution is terrible 9maybe I'm just in a bad mood...I just came in on a 20 hour train from Shanghai and am also coming down with some sort of cold (which is even worse in the humidity and the smog...uk uk uk!) I'm heading out to the terracotta army tommorow but other then that have not idea what I want to do or even what city I want to go to next. If I want to try and make it to Japan next week I should head north towards Beijing. I have time to maybe do one town on the way, either Pingyao (which I have already been to but wouldn't mind visting again) or Datong (which is suppose to have spectacular Buddist caves carved into the rock but may be difficult transport wise). I definitely want to spend at least 4 or 5 days in Beijing and now I feel like putting that off for a bit cause my roommate won't be there cause he's still witing for a visa to study in the US.
If I don't go to Japan I have no idea what I want to do. I know Japan is expenisive and that I have been there before (but never when its been warm) but I am becoming rather annoyed with a lot of things about China, especially the language barrier. China can be very tiring.
One highlight though had been Shanghai. What an incredible place...fast, rich and going places. Maybe not much to do tourist wise (the Bund has almost the exact same feeling as the avenue of Stars in HK) but is definitely the most livable city I have been to in China...except for Hangzhou! Forget all the tourists (there are millions!) and the admission prices, that place is heaven on earth!!! The west lake looking towards the city was so beautiful it bought tears to my eyes (really!) and all the temples and shrines, it was like Kyoto but better. Definitley worth the trip.
Anyway I best be off and think about my immediate future.
Looking foward to seeing you all soon!
Matt
posted by Matt at Saturday, June 09, 2007
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