Home Away from Home

One of the best things about having the family in China is that I've gotten to enjoy a lot of the things I've missed over the last year, among them eating Christmas cookies, swapping music with Eric, and losing at Scrabble (Thanks, Mom. The world is at peace.).

But if the family is bringing a bit of home to me, it's even more fun to show them some of my favorite things about China and there's no better place to do that than Yangshuo, where I've spent much of my time over the last year. We've eaten at some of my favorite restaurants, relaxed in one of my favorite coffee shops, and even visited my favorite massage parlor.

A Christmas Spectacle

At an acrobatics show in Beijing last week, it was easy to forget that I was in China. Seeing a circus with my family? Yeah, that's pretty much Piper childhood 101 (Did I never mention the three years when we shared our house with circus performers?). Sure, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall were unusual, but it took Christmas Eve in Xi'an to get it through my head that, even though my family is here, we are not in America.

After about a week in bustling Beijing, we were glad to get to a smaller city (Xi'an is only the size of the Chicago Metropolitan Area. How tiny.) and spend a day visiting one of the best history museums in the country and wandering around the Muslim district. But when darkness fell on Christmas eve, the city transformed. People took to the streets in costume: glittering masks, light up santa hats, devil horns, Scream masks, witch hats, and blonde wigs. I don't know what people in Xi'an do for Halloween, but I'm pretty sure they'll be able to recycle their Christmas outfits when the time comes.

Beijing Reunion!

The family made it safe and sound to Beijing the night before last and we've barely sat down since. In the last two days, along with my Dragonfly friend Laura, we've hit up the Forbidden City and climbed the Great Wall. It's been surreal to see them again after almost a year!

Back on the Road, Back on the Blog

I first got to Hong Kong last September, expecting to stay for a few months. It's now been almost 16 (although I did spend one of those months at home). I've met awesome people, gone on wild adventures, and eaten a whole lot of eggplant; I'm so glad to have stayed as long as I did. 

What's most amazing to me is how fast it's gone by. There were some long days, but the months have been short. Over drinks not long ago, an old friend of my dad's warned that life is only going to get faster, that the only way to slow things down is to keep having new experiences.

My bags are packed and I'm ready to slow time down for awhile. This adventure will start with two weeks in China with my family. I can't wait to show them my Chinese skills (See guys! That education you paid for taught me something!) as we visit Beijing, Xi'an and Yangshuo, three of the coolest places in China. After that, Eric and I are looking forward to a couple weeks of roaming around Thailand. And after that? I'm not sure, but I don't have a ticket home yet! I'll keep you posted.

PS: I know I've been terrible about posting updates. What can I say? It's been a busy, work-filled fall.

Tianchi

Out of everywhere we've been, we expected Tianchi, a picturesque
mountain lake only two hours from Urumqi, to be the most touristy.
Although we did see overflowing parking lots and tourist busses, we
also managed to get away from it all and enjoy one of the most relaxed
hikes of our trip. AND we got to meet some really cute little kids.
Really, really cute.

The lake was so unbelievably blue that Lily couldn't resist jumping
in. She is immune to all differences of temperature and thus didn't
notice that the lake was also unbelievably cold. Freezing! I was
sitting onshore, feeling like a dry wimp, when two little girls
waltzed up and wanted to hang out. I was off the hook when it came to
getting in the freezing water (well, for 24 hours, anyway). Victory!

Kuqa and Salimuhu

The last few days have been both eventful and relaxing. Eventful because we've spent a lot of time in transit. Relaxing because when we aren't sitting on busses, we're sitting in hotel rooms. Well, or looking at priceless Buddhist artwork and hiking...

We left Kashgar about a week ago and headed to Kuqa, a dusty little town that just so happens to be near the 1,000 Buddha Caves--basically, an ancient monastery made of caves. Those ancient monks lived in style and the seven caves that are open to the public were more like art museums than bat habitats.

After that, we went to Salimuhu, a big mountain lake where we got to go hiking. This community felt more real than some other rural places we've visited. The people made a living through herding, not just touristing. Of course, that meant there was a huge road to scar the landscape and trash everywhere, but at least it was authentic. And outside of the town, it was truly beautiful.

Unfortunately, life in Salimuhu was more than we could handle, not because of the town itself but because we had a disagreement with the older son in the family we were staying with and decided he was too creepy for comfort.

We hightailed it out a day early, splurged on a nice hotel room, and stuffed ourselves with three different types of homemade noodles. No complaints here!

Kashgar

Kashgar is a conflicted city. The city is in China, but most of the population is ethnically Uigher and Muslim. I had a hard time talking to taxi drivers, because they didn't speak (or read) Mandarin. I often found that English was a more effective means of communication, at least for common tourist things like locations.

The conflict isn't just figurative; we arrived only a few weeks after a combination bombing/ mass stabbing rocked the city. However, we never felt unsafe and, for us, experiencing the differences betweeen Kashgar and the rest of China was part of the point.