Holidays! Part 1

Hello again! So, right now we have a break from classes for 5 weeks(5周). While everyone else is away visiting different countries(国家), Suzie, Alyssa and I decided to spend the holiday traveling in China instead. We'll be going to 5 different cities(城市); Xi'an(西安), Chengdu(成都), Kunming(昆明), Guilin(桂林), and Guangzhou(广州). Traveling through these cities will take 3 weeks, so for the other 2 weeks Suzie and Alyssa are going to Taiwan(台湾), while I am going to Beijing(北京) with my parents. Since we are still on holiday, I won't be able to tell you about the places I haven't visited yet, but I will tell you how it's been so far!

Xi'an 21/01-25/01

Xi'an was the first place we visited. If you've read my other blogs, you'll know that I have actually already been there, however, Suzie and Alyssa hadn't been. After we got settled in our hostel, we went off to the Muslim quarter, which was even better than I remembered. The dark sky made the lights of the quarter and the drum tower stand out and shine brightly. The Muslim quarter is full of colours and smells from different foods. I got souvenirs(纪念品) for family here as well as food from some of the hundreds of street food stalls.

In Xi'an we also visited the Bell Tower(钟楼) and Drum Tower(鼓楼). These two towers gave a good view of the city and had a traditional Chinese look about them. The drum tower had a performance inside where people dressed up in traditional Chinese clothing and played songs with instruments that I couldn't tell you the name of.

We visited the Terracotta Warriors(兵马俑) again and this time it was significantly less busy(忙). Last time I went was in the summer(夏天), so it was absolutely packed, but now that it's winter(冬天) there was hardly anyone there and I was able to get a good look at them. The warriors were as amazing as ever and it was nice being able to spend time there without being shoved about by a massive swarm of people.

We went to the Xi'an City Wall(西安城墙), which we walked along for a good couple of hours and had mini photo shoots along the way (Suzie of course brought her camera(相机)). The wall was beautiful to walk along and if you ever go to Xi'an, I would definitely recommend it. We never went around the whole wall since it is massive but by the time we found an exit we were so exhausted and couldn't wait to get back to normal ground.

Chengdu 25/01-28/01

When we went to Chengdu, we obviously visited the pandas(熊猫). I think I have more pictures(图片) of pandas than anything else in my camera roll. I can confidently say that they are the second cutest(可爱) animals I have seen with my own eyes (the first of course being my adorable, beautiful doggies). There are also way more pandas than I thought there would be. I thought there would only be a couple, but the place was actually quite big. Again, I definitely recommend visiting the pandas if you are ever in China.

We also went to a café(咖啡店) where I got a red(红色) velvet Latte. It’s kind of hard to describe what it tasted like but it kind of tasted more like sweet milk(牛奶) than coffee(咖啡). It was still really nice though and the latte art was pretty awesome.

For our last event in Chengdu we climbed Mount Qingcheng(青城山). This had to have been the most exhausting(辛苦) thing I have ever done. For some reason I naively thought it was going to be a path, but actually it was all stairs. I climbed more stairs that day than I have in my entire life. The temple at the top was nice to look at, however, because of the fog(薄雾), you couldn't really see the view from the top of the mountain.

Kunming 28/01-31/01

In Kunming the first place we went was the Stone Forest(石林). This was probably my favourite(喜爱) part of the holiday, most likely because the weather(天气) was really good in Kunming so I felt better about doing things outside. The stone forest was exactly what it sounds like. It was hundreds of huge stones that we walked and climbed between. There was a viewpoint that we went to that allowed you to see over the top of the forest and provided gorgeous scenery. I really do think this is my favourite place and that this was the place where we had the most fun.

The next day we went to see the dragon's gate. This was also a mountain, but we got a cable car (which was more like a ski lift) up and then worked our way up the part that was left. The way up was beautiful as we got to see the river(天气) from way up above. This mountain was also made of stairs, so I have once again upped my stair count. The actual dragon’s gate itself was very traditionally(传统) Chinese and very beautiful.

I also got yet another coffee but this time it was blue(蓝色) velvet instead of red velvet. I preferred the vibrant colour(颜色) of this one but in the end, they still tasted the same.

So that's what we have done so far. The rest of the holiday will be in next month's(下个月) blog so look forward to it!