Yellow Mountain

Ever since my family came we’ve been touring everywhere. We have been visiting a different city each day with a government sponsored tour. So in every city they take us sightseeing and then they start talking about some local famous product (brainwashing!) and finally they take us to a “factory” to buy where they do this whole show trying to convince you to buy. It’s very funny, Chinese are good at selling. So far we have visited Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing and today we spent the day in Huangshan. In the morning we went to the mountains, the views were amazing! To get there we had to take a 10 minute ride in the cable car. I imagined it would be a small car, but it was huge! About 100 people were squeezed into one car.

They have the locks like in Florence along the river

this is a double tree

You could pay 215 RMB to be carried

There were also a couple of hotels and restaurants up in the mountain so along the trails you would bump into men carrying tons of heavy stuff on their backs just like the picture above.

those peaks look unreal!

last days of CSP

Again time went by so fast, today was the last day of the program. We had a closing ceremony just now at an Uyghur restaurant. The last week was a bit stressful because of all the final projects and finals but it feels so so good to be done now! I’ve enjoyed the program very much and I’m extremely thankful for the opportunity to be here; it has definitely been a memorable experience. I thought that being Chinese and having grown up in part surrounded by Chinese culture, things wouldn’t be so different but I couldn’t have been more wrong! While here, I’ve also had the chance to improve my Chinese. When I first came, I knew some basic conversational words however that didn’t help since even if I tried saying them, people wouldn’t understand me. Now getting the right pronunciation has gotten a lot easier. And last but not least, I’ve met some incredible people, not only from China but also from Tech! I’m already looking forward to seeing them all again in fall!

I’ll share some pictures from the past days…

bowling with Jonathan, Sanjay, Daniel, Steve and Kevin

Another one of those funny Chinese to English translations..

SO ASIAN! (Daniel, James & Steve)

Professor Han Zhang speaking in the closing ceremony.

Of course we had to end the night in……….KTV!

I loved this! It’s like a waffle in the shape of a fish; inside it you could choose either mango, custard or red bean filling. I’ve tried all of them and they’re all  delicious.

Does this building not resemble our CULC back at Tech? This is a building under construction here in JiaoDa!

I’m still staying a couple more weeks in China before returning to Atlanta. My family came yesterday and now I’m touring with them around mainland for two weeks and then one week in Hong Kong. I can’t be happier to see them!! :D

Happy reading!

CSP tshirt

A couple of weeks back, CSP had a tshirt competition for the program. I submitted a design and I was so excited yesterday to finally see the tshirts printed out! What do you think? Check out this awesome video my friend Daniel did too! I think the video captures our experience in the program perfectly :D

three more days!!!!!!!!

Team BUZZ in China

On Saturday on behalf of GT’s Team Buzz a group of us volunteered to help out at a home for children with amnesia and autism in Shanghai. It was a truly beautiful experience. We took them out to the park and played a slightly similar version of duck duck goose. A terrible thunderstorm had us running back to the school, where we played a couple more games, some showcased their guitar talents. One of the kids called Yumiao showed me his computer game, he was so smart! Another really sweet kid was almost crying, he kept saying we were always welcome to come back and that he was happy we were there. I only wish I could speak more Chinese, I had so many things I wanted to say and ask!

On Friday I went out to lunch with a friend to a Chinese restaurant. There was a dish that had as English translation, You Are the One. However, in Chinese the name read, 請勿打擾 (Do not disturb). It also had three out of three stars rating and a thumbs up. The peculiar name and very good rating drew my attention to it. I tried asking the server what it was but she couldn’t really explain it. We didn’t expect anything bad so me and my friend ordered it. It was definitely NOT the ONE!!! Turns out it was a whole plate of stinky stuff!!! >< The odor was very strong like stinky tofu in the streets. You could see some grayish corners in the tofu. There was also fish, some clams and other green stuff. It was not a great meal but a good story to tell. So now you know, if you see a dish called You Are The One, you might one to reconsider if it really is the one :P

You Are The One aka Do Not Disturb

Oriental Venice

This weekend a friend from GT invited me and my roommate to meet her at Suzhou. The city is located in the south of Jiangsu Province and 42% of its area is covered by water hence it’s known as the oriental Venice. It’s was a very nice and relaxing weekend. Suzhou is definitely on the top of my favorite places so far. The city has a lot of its old buildings and meticulous gardens well preserved that make it a very charming place. It was like Yuyuan garden being the whole town.

with my friend Chu, her cousing and Yingbo

One of the streets we walked around, Pinjian Lu) was surrounded by canals over 800 years old!

Suzhou is one of China’s most famous place known for its silk. All along town there were stores selling silk. So in the afternoon after some sight-seeing we went to the Silk Factory. It’s amazing how they can make such elaborate fabrics from the filaments of silk worm cocoons. Each thread is so delicate and thin, the results are amazing! If real, the fabric is super soft and smooth. They told us one of the ways to distinguish between real and fake was to burn a piece of the fabric. The fake ones (made of polymers) usually melt and curl inwards like when burning plastics. Real silk should turn immediately into ash and should smell like burning hair. By this method you can easily identify fake from real silk, however, it’s probably hard to test it out when buying something!

I can’t believe how fast time went by! There’s only two more weeks to go before the program is over. So the next two weeks will be extremely hectic! I have midterms, finals, papers, presentations not to mention two whole novels to read!!!

cheap street

The other day I visited the Bund with some friends. The city in the background looks almost like a toy city. It must look even more spectacular at night with all the lights!

Thai food at Banana Leaf with Daniel and Paul

We also went to Qipu Lu, aka cheap street. It was miles and miles of clothes!! There was SO much, it was overwhelming! People constantly came over to ask if you wanted brand name purses, polos or shirts to follow them.

Paul, me and Daniel