Update

We are in Yangshuo, China right now. Outside of Guilin. Weather was amazing today and scenery was even better. went for an awesome bike ride along the Yulong River. Will probably spend the Chinese New Year here. January 26th. Try to post pics soon. check facebook if you're interested. GOD BLESS! love Dan and Amanda

Traveling Along

Hello- You'll be pleased to know that we are alive and well in Zhangjiajie, China. WHere exactly is that? I don't know, google it. Actually, it's somewhere below Xi'an, and above Guilin in center-south of CHina up in the mountains. THe scenery here is amazing and it's refreshing to see something more than just buildings, cars, and millions of people. In fact, the town/village, ghost town village we stayed in last night was smaller than TUolumne! but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning. We've been traveling for a week now with our friends Josh and Ashley, and Luke and his father Jon who flew out from the U.S. for the trip.

OUr first stop was Xi'an and we stayed there for 2 nights at a great hostel called the Shuyuan hostel. THe first day we rode bikes along the ancient city walls. It was a great way to see the city and get some exercise. The city is big and old and there were a lot of cool alley-ways to explore, especially in the Muslim district. We even found a place to try a Chinese-burger. pretty good!

Day 2 we checked out the Terracotta Warriors. It was mind boggling how many warriors there were and how detailed they are. Every single one was different and they estimate over 7,000 of these things were made! IT took 750,000 people to construct Emperor QIn's Mausaleum and the warriors. crazy! If I remember right they started building it for him when he was 13 and it took 40 years to finish it. they weren't done when he died!! anyway, it was amazing and a great experience. Day 3, Hua Shan mountain. one of CHina's 5 sacred doaist peaks and the tallest one. WE took a cable car to one of the peaks and then hike for a few hours to the top. the views were awesome! but it was bitterly cold. the granite peaks reminded us a little of Yosemite and one part of the trail was crazier than half dome's cables.

the place we stayed at in the village was a little shady though. ask us in person for that story. short version. wailing woman outside and no heat.

day 4- our first train ride. not bad. took us to Luoyang. finding a place to stay was a little tricky as we hiked around town for awhile. some people tried to scam us into staying in their dodgy hotel and the place we wanted had closed ----the day before we got there! i will say, we would be pretty screwed without Lonely Planet, or Luke-who speaks enough CHinese for us to survive.

SPent the day in Luoyang resting and recovering. Hua Shan wore us out.

Day 5- Met up with one of Ashley's student who is from Luoyang and got THE hook up. we had no idea that her dad worked for the gov., and that's the ticket for getting shmoozed in CHina. We didn't spend a dime the whole day. She took us, well, she had her dad's driver take us to the fanciest restaurant we've been to in China, possibly ever. Best meal in China for sure. 20 dishes or so, all amazing. rack of bbq lamb, bejing duck, etc, Chinese wine, etc...... spoiled for sure. Then we went to the Longmen caves(free entry). they were impressive. BUddhist carvings along the side of the Yi River, began in 460 AD or so. A lot of them had been damaged by people who took parts to sell them. SO a lot of heads were missing, but it was still amazing nonetheless, and some of them were gigantic. once again the Chinese displayed how amazing their craftsmanship and detail is. After that we got a little tour of the city (free ride) and then had dinner. an even fancier place, where we met Amy's mom, AUnt and some government guys. Pretty cool experience.

couldn't get train tics to our next destination from Luoyang, so our hotel manager contacted a friend and got us tickets out of an adjacent city. It's almost the Chinese Spring Festival here,so millions of people are travelling back home by train to be with family . WE've been really fortunate to get this far without major delays. Anyway, the tickets were out of the tiny town in the middle of nowhere, at a train station we could barely find. no one there had ever seen foreigners before. crazy. the train ride was 10 hours so we slept most of it in our bunks- woke up to some really beautiful scenery. along a river, almost tropical climate. orange trees and some large yellow fruit trees. got to the city, took a bus---after some serious walking and searching--to zhangjiajie village. had trouble finding accomodations with hot water and heat in general.it is cold up here in the mountains. although today was nice. had to bail on one place after the heaters crashed. got settled at another place, although pricier- 35$ u.s. is steep in CHina! oh well. today we found a cheaper place in another town that is bigger with more people and places to eat, etc. Visited an amazing cave today. Huge caverns and some really tall stalagmites. even took a boat ride inside the cave!! this thing was really, really, big. made Mercer caverns feel tiny.
tomorrow we will go into the park and check out the karst formations which look spectacular from outside the park. can't wait!!!
overall, trip is going well. be praying for us and we look forward to seeing you all soon!!
love dan and amanda
i'll try to keep you all posted on the

Year in Review

Well, another year has come and gone. The year of "the Ox" has arrived and the "rat" has died. You can plug in whatever you want for the rat, but the point is, we are moving on to bigger (Ox) and better things in 2009. For those of you who don't know, there are twelve animals for the Chinese calendar that rotate each year and they are as follows: Ox, Tiger (2010), Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Boar, Rat. You can find out what animal you are by going backwards from the Ox one year at a time. The Ox symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work, and hopefully prosperity will return to the U.S. this year and the economy will bounce back. However, if this is not the case the Ox also symbolizes the ability to endure any amount of hardship without complaint....so get ready.
So far our New Year in China has been a good one and I want to take this opportunity to a little reflecting and a little looking ahead (refracting?).
First, our Top 10 List of 2008 in China.
#10-Sticking out like sore thumbs and getting stared at wherever we go. It can be a little annoying, but it sure makes bus rides and walking around downtown more entertaining. Unless you're a moviestar, how often do you have random strangers run up to you and want to take a picture withyou?
9) Crazy food. I recently tried donkey tongue, fish eyes, and chicken heart. Mmmmmm.
8) Beijing. The Forbidden City, The Great Wall, The Summer Palace, and Tiananmen Square all in one city! A history nerds dream! (I recently received a single subject teaching credential in History and will be looking for a job when I get back. Please feel free to let me know if you know of any job openings! Seriously.....) I said in the last article I would write about our Beijing trip, so here's the condensed version. The Great Wall is, well, great. The Summer Palace is huge, and I'm sure it would have been nicer in the....summer. And the hostel was pleasant. And I got the flu.
7) Cheapness. The dollar still feels like it's worth something over here. A little over $1 for a bunch of bananas, some apples, and a bag of tangerines. An IPod shuffle for $10. We stayed at a great hostel in Beijing this last weekend for $7 a night and that was a little pricey! It's tough to keep your wife from shopping when things are this cheap. Our biggest culture shock is definately going to be readjusting to American prices when we come home. I don't think we're going to drive or eat for awhile after we get back.
6) Work schedule. I don't want people thinking that we didn't work over here. But.....we taught no more than 15 hours a week. That will be culture shock #2 when we return. "9-5. Are you kidding me?"
5) Dalian. A unique city in China that is quite modern, extremely safe, beautiful(at times), and now that we've been to Bejing, it feels like an immaculately clean and unpolluted haven.
4) Exploring. It's been a lot of fun going out into the city of Dalian without "Chinese supervision." i.e. Someone with us who is Chinese and can translate for us. Some of our best experiences have come from hopping onto a random bus and trying to figure out how to get places by ourselves. It's incredible how much you can accomplish with minimal language skills. We've explored a good chunk of the city just by figuring out bus routes and walking around.
3) Experiences. Too many to mention, but hopefully you've enjoyed reading about some of them.
2) Food. It's delicious. I've never been a big seafood fan, but apparently I've changed. Today I enjoyed a home-cooked meal of shrimp, scallops, squid, fish, oyster and some mystery meat. Thank you to our friend May and her father's amazing cooking skills!
1) Friends. The highlight of our trip thus far has definately been the friends and relationships we have formed. We have had the pleasure of meeting so many friendly and extremely generous people here that it is going to be difficult to leave them. If it weren't for the amazing people we have met here; neighbors, co-workers, students, etc., our trip here would be much less fulfilling and memorable. We hope we can continue our friendship with many of the people we have met here. And thanks to the internet and Facebook it's actually possible. If any of our Chinese friends are reading this, THANK YOU!!

As for looking forward, we leave to Xian in three days and can't wait to see some more of China. The country is massive and we've set up our trip to cut right through the center of the country. I'll do my best to keep you posted while we travel! Thanks for reading.
Chinese Phrase of the Day-
"Wo shuode bu hao"--- I don't speak (Chinese) very well.
pronounced- wa shuada boo how.