Spring break awesomeness

Whew! So it's been awhile since I've been in Shanghai. Just got back in this evening from our May break trip! (Basically, the equivalent of spring break =P). We actually left on Sunday and just got back so it's been a whole week...it feels like forever! I'm posting pretty late, which reminds me - my blogging times are off because my computer is still on California time. It's actually 2:30 AM on a Sunday morning so yeah...

Anyway, so we ended up going to Sichuan province for spring break. It was so PRETTY! China truly has so much natural beauty. We went with a tour group to see the highlights of the province so we also ended up meeting some local people. I now have a new "didi" (little brother, haha), a ten year old kid (he's the same Chinese zodiac as me!) who's pretty chubby but he's so adorable! Haha...

The tour went something like this:

Day 1 - Fly to Chengdu and check into the hotel. We ate a pretty nice restaurant across from our hotel...it was owned by a Taiwanese guy. But that's all.

Day 2 - 12 hour bus ride up the mountain to reach the Jiuzhaigou area. Yeah, you read right. Twelve hours. TWELVE. We then partied it up with the local mountain people, haha.

Day 3 - Jiuzhaigou. So pretty! Lots of lakes, waterfalls, mountain scenery, etc. but the water was so blue and everything is just so...NICE! I'm actually pretty surprised at how well kept the area was and I was happy to see that China really cares about preserving its natural wonders. The whole area is very clean and well kept.

Day 4 - Huang Long (Yellow Dragon) Valley. We stopped on the way to get a better view of the snow-capped mountains and then hiked for a few hours to see these special pools...kinda hard to describe so hopefully I'll get pics up soon. Unfortunately, it was kind of the wrong season so there was only water on the upper part of the hike. It was a bit sad because if there had been water in these other areas, I'm sure it would've been really cool...

Day 5 - Mostly driving but we stopped at this dam/ irrigation place on the way. It was alright...not to eventful.

Day 6 - Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Yep! We got to see the famous pandas of China! SO ADORABLE! Pandas are incredibly cute, oh man. At this place it was possible to pay 400 RMB to take a picture with a panda or 1000 RMB to hold a panda and play with it for about 4 minutes. One of my friends did this...a little ridiculous but worth it? I dunno...maybe. But I did pay 50 RMB to hold a red panda, haha. So cute! Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip... Then we proceeded to...

Leshan Giant Buddha. This is apparently the largest carved stone Buddha in the world, carved straight onto the mountainside. We had to wait in a line (yes, literally like a Disneyland line, that has rails and curves around) for about 3 hours before we could even hike down the mountainside to get a look. It is HUGE. I almost can't believe someone would just decide one day to carve a huge Buddha into the mountain. It's incredibly impressive. However, this was also the place where I really, REALLY got pissed off at these Chinese people for being such jerks. Geez...seriously, they need to relax, good grief! So I will now take a break to rant - a lot of Chinese people are rude jerks. I think I've become a meaner, ruder person after living here because after dealing with these people, you just have to assimilate or else you won't get anywhere.

Day 7 - Emeishan. Another Buddhist temple-type area but probably the cooler part of this place was seeing the monkeys, up close and personal. We were pretty much standing right next to these monkeys. The ones with the babies were super cute! But I did witness a monkey steal a water bottle from some lady's backpack and then bite it open...it was kinda freaky. After our monkey adventure we got on the bus and went to the airport to head back home to Shanghai. Ah, it feels so nice to be in the dorms again! Even though our beds are just a hard wooden board, it just feels nice to be wrapped up in your own blankets...

Spring break was super fun and it's a bit strange being back in "school" again, even though I have yet to go to a class. Next weekend I'll be headed to Hangzhou again because my mom is coming to visit me, YAY! I'm super excited =)