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