The following three videos are from our hike through the rural area between Yangding and Qingping near Yangshuo. We took a bus to Yangding, a bamboo boat several miles down river, then hiked about two and a half hours to Qingping, looked around a bit, and took a bus back to Yangshuo for dinner.
Cory being weird.
It's a guy. And he fishes with birds. The guy uses Cormorants to do his fishing for him. Apparently this is really common among fishermen in the area. They tie a string around the bird's neck to be able to pull it in and so it can't fully swallow the fish it catches, then they make it spit the fish back out and send it out to catch more fish. The birds get fed at the end of the night.
Choreographed and directed by Chinese film director (and local) Johnny Mo, the local farmers, fishermen, schoolchildren and theater students put on this show every night. Next to the spectacular nature itself, this river show is THE best attraction in the area. These two videos can't possibly do it justice, but we took them anyway, so here they are.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Videos Part II
Ok, another set of videos, to soon be followed by actual stories about the trip by at least one (hopefully all) of us.
Our first night in Xi'an, we come across this troupe out on the street near our hostel. They weren't asking observers for money and all looked like your average folks from around the city. I guess they were just having a night out on the town...
A quick video from our tour of the terra cotta warriors site. Like a lot of the things we saw, pictures and videos don't really do it justice.
Xi'an has a nightly lights/water/music show that's free to the public. This is a bit of it.
They have neat kites too!
That's it for this update. More a written post and more videos to come.
Our first night in Xi'an, we come across this troupe out on the street near our hostel. They weren't asking observers for money and all looked like your average folks from around the city. I guess they were just having a night out on the town...
A quick video from our tour of the terra cotta warriors site. Like a lot of the things we saw, pictures and videos don't really do it justice.
Xi'an has a nightly lights/water/music show that's free to the public. This is a bit of it.
They have neat kites too!
That's it for this update. More a written post and more videos to come.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Video Goodness
Ok, so this is the first set of videos I've uploaded, ranging from Seoul before we left through our hike along the Great Wall of China. Enjoy!
Just before our trip to China, we stopped for some more sightseeing in Seoul. When we went to Korea's national war memorial, we found these guys drilling.
On our first day in Beijing (day 2 of our China experience), we walked down to Tiananmen square. It was certainly a strange experience. I looked up and down the (huge) street and easily recreated the famous "protester vs tanks" photo in my mind. Anyway, this video is basically a 360 view from inside the square.
We were in Beijing at the during the Lantern festival, which is the first major holiday of the lunar new year. I was tempted to buy some dry ice and join in the festivities, but decided against.
We took a series of three clips as we hiked along the Great Wall. The last one was meant to be the longest and include reflections, but the hike took longer than we anticipated (and we'd used up too much of the memory with photos) so the last is actually the shortest. Still, we hope you enjoy them:
Part 1/3
Part 2/3
Part 3/3
To be continued...
Just before our trip to China, we stopped for some more sightseeing in Seoul. When we went to Korea's national war memorial, we found these guys drilling.
On our first day in Beijing (day 2 of our China experience), we walked down to Tiananmen square. It was certainly a strange experience. I looked up and down the (huge) street and easily recreated the famous "protester vs tanks" photo in my mind. Anyway, this video is basically a 360 view from inside the square.
We were in Beijing at the during the Lantern festival, which is the first major holiday of the lunar new year. I was tempted to buy some dry ice and join in the festivities, but decided against.
We took a series of three clips as we hiked along the Great Wall. The last one was meant to be the longest and include reflections, but the hike took longer than we anticipated (and we'd used up too much of the memory with photos) so the last is actually the shortest. Still, we hope you enjoy them:
Part 1/3
Part 2/3
Part 3/3
To be continued...
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thoughts that have passed through my head since entering China. Part the First.
1. "This place smells like fish. Does this whole country smell like fish? I hope this whole country doesn´t smell like fish."
2. "This train is huge! I´m taking a picture!"
3. "OHMIGOSH I WANT A SEASHELL HEDGEHOG!!!"
4. "It´s conspicuously easier to get into the world´s largest Communist country than it is to get into my own home country. . ."
5. "Mmm, it smells like spices in here. Not like fish at all!"
6. "I miss Korean letters."
7. "Stalin should have let his moustache grow out. He would have taken a better picture."
8. "I like Chinese food."
9. "Chinese people are nice."
10. "Chinese money is way more colorful than American or Korean. Stylish."
11."Holy crap I´m in Beijing. Score."
To be elaborated upon later.
1. "This place smells like fish. Does this whole country smell like fish? I hope this whole country doesn´t smell like fish."
2. "This train is huge! I´m taking a picture!"
3. "OHMIGOSH I WANT A SEASHELL HEDGEHOG!!!"
4. "It´s conspicuously easier to get into the world´s largest Communist country than it is to get into my own home country. . ."
5. "Mmm, it smells like spices in here. Not like fish at all!"
6. "I miss Korean letters."
7. "Stalin should have let his moustache grow out. He would have taken a better picture."
8. "I like Chinese food."
9. "Chinese people are nice."
10. "Chinese money is way more colorful than American or Korean. Stylish."
11."Holy crap I´m in Beijing. Score."
To be elaborated upon later.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
We're here!!!
Qindao - We're here!!! We've been keeping notes on our observations. More to come when we have more than 10 minutes at a computer terminal.
Beijing- We've just arrived in Beijing. It's 6:30 and we were on a long train ride. Look for a story involving a boat, a German-Chinese city, a train and a day in Beijing (or as much as I have energy to type) in about 14 hours.
Beijing- We've just arrived in Beijing. It's 6:30 and we were on a long train ride. Look for a story involving a boat, a German-Chinese city, a train and a day in Beijing (or as much as I have energy to type) in about 14 hours.
Monday, February 2, 2009
A (slightly) more refined Itinerary
(Dates and times are in China Standard time, so GMT +8)
Tuesday, Feb 3rd: 15:30- Leave Gwangju for Seoul [Check]
02/05 16:30- Board a ferry bound for Qindao, China. [Half Checked.] We're sitting in the terminal, tickets in hand, waiting to board the ferry. It was an ordeal getting here though. Two taxi drivers at the station refused to roll down their windows or talk to us. Four more drove off when they found out that we were travelling in a group, and 2 just pretended not to recognize the directions (written in Korean) that we had taken down from the ferry company's website. Jerks.
02/06 am- Arrive in Qindao, look at the German architecture
02/06 pm- Board train bound for Beijing
02/07 am- Arrive in Beijing, check into Peking International Youth Hostel, begin poking around the city the size of Belgium.
02/11 pm- Board a train bound for Xi'an.
02/12 am- Arrive in Xi'an, begin searching for tombs and clay warriors
02/15 pm- Leave Xi'an by some mode of transportation heading in a general Southeasterly direction.
02/15 pm -02/20 am Make our way down to Hong Kong, seeing what we can see along the way.
02/23 noon- Board a Korean Air flight bound for Seoul/Incheon.
02/24- Becky returns to Hwasun
02-25- Josh and Cory return to Hwasun
Tuesday, Feb 3rd: 15:30- Leave Gwangju for Seoul [Check]
02/05 16:30- Board a ferry bound for Qindao, China. [Half Checked.] We're sitting in the terminal, tickets in hand, waiting to board the ferry. It was an ordeal getting here though. Two taxi drivers at the station refused to roll down their windows or talk to us. Four more drove off when they found out that we were travelling in a group, and 2 just pretended not to recognize the directions (written in Korean) that we had taken down from the ferry company's website. Jerks.
02/06 am- Arrive in Qindao, look at the German architecture
02/06 pm- Board train bound for Beijing
02/07 am- Arrive in Beijing, check into Peking International Youth Hostel, begin poking around the city the size of Belgium.
02/11 pm- Board a train bound for Xi'an.
02/12 am- Arrive in Xi'an, begin searching for tombs and clay warriors
02/15 pm- Leave Xi'an by some mode of transportation heading in a general Southeasterly direction.
02/15 pm -02/20 am Make our way down to Hong Kong, seeing what we can see along the way.
02/23 noon- Board a Korean Air flight bound for Seoul/Incheon.
02/24- Becky returns to Hwasun
02-25- Josh and Cory return to Hwasun
Friday, January 30, 2009
Dinner (sort of) and a movie
So as we said already, we are on vacation. The thing about this is that with all of our free time come laziness and unhealthy habits. For example, the following are the three courses of Becky's and my dinner tonight.
First, we have a piece of mom's fudge topped with some French Vanilla ice cream and a mini Reece's cup.
Next, a piece of pang-tueegee (think similar to a popped-rice cake thing) with peanut butter and strawberry jelly.
Finally, a big lettuce, carrot and green pepper salad with dressing on the side (because we were feeling guilty about the junk food.
In other news, Becky got her multiple entry stamp for her Korean visa yesterday, so she can officially come back after the trip to China. Also, Becky, Cory and I saw Valkarie yesterday. Decent popcorn flick overall, but I think I'm going to enjoy Inkheart more. I'll let them fill you in on their thoughts. Cheerio!
First, we have a piece of mom's fudge topped with some French Vanilla ice cream and a mini Reece's cup.
Next, a piece of pang-tueegee (think similar to a popped-rice cake thing) with peanut butter and strawberry jelly.
Finally, a big lettuce, carrot and green pepper salad with dressing on the side (because we were feeling guilty about the junk food.
In other news, Becky got her multiple entry stamp for her Korean visa yesterday, so she can officially come back after the trip to China. Also, Becky, Cory and I saw Valkarie yesterday. Decent popcorn flick overall, but I think I'm going to enjoy Inkheart more. I'll let them fill you in on their thoughts. Cheerio!
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