So, summer travel is over. Time to settle down and get back to work, right?

Nah... there is still time left, even though a giant deadline is looming large. Not only is the semester starting soonish, I'm also booked to do the final module of the DELTA. I've mentioned it occasionally on this blog for the past 4 years (oh god, we started that long ago?), but the DELTA is a Cambridge English teaching certification. This is literally the highest you can go besides a PhD I guess, which I have no plans on doing. Actually, starting this one, and knowing what the other two modules were, has been filling me with an unusual amount of anxiety. I'm going to be doing it while working, which I would only attempt because I'm taking it on a more spread out schedule, and I'm teaching the exact same classes as last year - so no need to prepare things again. Still, maybe as I get older, I have less and less desire to be back in school or do professional development. So I am eager to finish this one, only because, again, there's really nothing higher to aspire to. Not to say I'll never do another cert, but, certainly none as intensive I hope.

While there is a lot I need to get done before then, that is still 3 weeks away. So let's start by wishing Ella happy birthday! She wanted to go to the zoo, which I was also pretty keen on. We had visited the zoo once before, years ago, in the winter when my parents visited. Honestly, not the best time to visit, but then again, the middle of summer also isn't the best for different reasons. But still, with plenty of sunscreen and water, we set out, and saw some cute things... and not cute things. Of course pandas are often the main sight to see in China, but after Chengdu I doubt any other panda encounters could compare. And yeah, I was right. Go to Chengdu to see pandas if you can, because that is a pretty great experience. Pandas in other zoos just kind of sit there and eat bamboo. You might say, well, "what else would they do?" and fair point. But the ones in Chengdu were quite active and playful, so, yeah, that's a better than a zoo. I mean, look at this guy - kind of okay I guess, but just eating and chilling. Fine I guess, but do you know which panda is cuter? Red pandas. I'm going on record here, giant pandas are dumb bamboo trash bins. Red pandas on the other hand? Adorable cat bears. Science, I know you're busy with things like, curing cancer, but if you can find the time to make house red pandas I'd appreciate it.

Anyway, for dinner that evening we went to The Cheesecake Factory, which was incredibly indulgent as always. I know that may sound weird to many Americans, but getting a giant plate of things cooked in pounds of butter is not a regular thing in Asia, for better or worse (probably better to be honest). Stumbling home with a full stomach and a box of leftovers, I was still eager for a holiday somewhere else. But of course, with China being China, our choices were limited to the provinces that will accept us black sheep. In truth things are a little more open now, but we had talked about visiting this place when things weren't, so by golly we're sticking to it. It's not exactly a far away destination, the next door province of Zhejiang. Obligatory, "I've been there before." In fact, I lived there before. Zhejiang is the province the city of Hangzhou is in, my first home in China. Ella and I have been to Hangzhou before on a day trip, and although there is a bit more to see there, we decided it's probably not worth the time just to see the scattered sites that half of us have seen already. So instead, it was off to Ningbo.

Alright, actually, I've been to Ningbo before as well, although I have to go waaaaay back in the blog to find that entry. And to be honest I don't remember much about Ningbo. It was a quick day trip 10 years ago with some coworkers, and we had a local that more or less shuttled us around. As fast as China develops, a decade ago is basically the same as saying a century ago. I remember seeing a temple in the mountains. Nice at the time, but by now I've seen enough temples for several lifetimes. Now Ningbo is a town of 8 million, not far behind Hangzhou's 12. The first day we arrived we took a nap before heading out to see the night markets. The first, at the drum tower, is pretty nice with lots of food. It is small though, and seems to just be a place to eat more than anything. We then went to the South Bank walking street, which was architecturally a bit more interesting but pretty sleepy. Finally we went to Mr. Box, an eclectic art and drinking sort of area made out of shipping containers. Unfortunately most everything was closed on Monday, and we got caught in a downpour. We took refuge under a bridge until we found a place that had a sign, in English, that said "Barbecue and Beer". And just like The Sound of Music, ~these are a few of my favorite things.~ That BBQ and beer place would turn out to be one of the best kept secrets of Ningbo. It was Korean style where you cook at your table over hot coals, with cheap draft beer to go around. Now full of meat and beer, we went back to the hotel only to be given a complimentary cocktail for the night. Yes I will, thank you. After a night's sleep, we set out to see what Ningbo really had to offer.

I think our favorite thing was probably the Ningbo Museum, which was really well done and one of the better museums in China. I would have been happy with just that, but when we got there we saw their temporary exhibit was the dinosaurs of China. A big yes to that!! They had a lot of animatronic dinosaurs moving around, so I was beyond thrilled. I don't care how old you are, a roaring T-Rex robot is just pure happiness.

After being a little disappointed with the lack of Ningbo nightlife from the previous night, we took another shot and went to the Old Bund with low expectations. It turned out though, that this is where all the cool stuff was hiding. First it had an Art Museum which Ella of course liked. There is also a very nice looking church that was actually having mass when we arrived. That's pretty unusual in China nowadays, as most have been closed apparently for COVID reasons. After mass a woman talked to us a bit about the history of the place, which was nice. For me though, the view of the river and the packed bar street was the draw of The Old Bund. The bar street was really busy and full of cool places, even on a weeknight, so that was a pleasant surprise. We managed to find a bar owned by a very outgoing Italian guy who has possibly the largest, fluffiest, and most friendly dog I've ever met. Honestly, it was so fluffy I don't know where fur ended and dog began. Ella was thrilled to pet this fluffer, who was also eager to pose for photos. On top of that, the food and drinks were great and pretty inexpensive. Later the whole family came back, and the owner's daughter of about 3 years old gave the dog a big hug, and practically disappeared into a pile of white fur.

But we managed to see a few other places in Ningbo, like the Ningbo Bang Museum, basically about how Ningbo people are great businessmen and women. It was a very nice building and put together well, but hard for me to get excited about how one Ningbo native started the largest matchstick company in Asia. There was also Tianyi Library, which is the oldest library in China at over 500 years old, containing writing over 1000 years old - which I do appreciate, for example when I look at a badly weathered inscription and think "This is 5x older than my entire home country is." But practically nowadays it's just a little Chinese garden, which I have seen countless of. And unfortunately I'd say those were all the noteworthy sites in Ningbo. It's a nice place for a day, two days at most. And for us, it's pretty convenient to get to. However, it isn't really a destination in and of itself. Which actually, I want to sidebar and talk about for a bit.

 

 

 

 

I feel a lot of places in China I have described as "nice for a day or two". In fact, if I were to make a list of places that would fit that mold, it would probably be: Changsha, Haikou, Wuhan, Dongguan, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guilin, Quanzhou, Kunming, Xi'an, Chengdu, and probably several more I'm missing. I don't think China is really so unique in this, honestly Cincinnati, Colombus, and Cleveland would probably be described the same way, however I do think they have a uniqueness to them. Conversely in China, I think things are getting to be very samey, and I'm starting to get over it. I have seen enough temples, gardens, local art galleries, and provincial museums to last a lifetime. And most are not bad really, they're just... well, more or less the same (except for robot dinosaurs, of course). Part of the reason is just being limited to domestic travel for the time being, I'm seeing a lot of them together. But even if they were spaced out, I think if I put all my "Chinese temple" photos together without labels I would not be able to tell them apart.

So that begs the question why do it? In fact, after feeling a solid "eh it's alright" about Ningbo, and also after a few beers, I had a really long think about that on this trip. In the end, I think I have a pretty multi-faceted answer as to why I travel. The first is that I have a sort of completionist personality, so I want to "finish" seeing China, as ridiculous of an idea as that is. But even so, I feel we've done a bang up job so far. There's few people outside of China, or even within, who have been to more places in the country than we have. The second reason I want to travel is completely shallow, that I want to be wordly. If I meet someone from Ningbo, I like to be able to say "Hey, I know your hometown, The Old Bund is great." It's an instant way to appear as a cool person with stories, and also make an instant connection with the other person. The last reason is that I like to see/experience unique things. That's why I loved the bamboo bird pirate from Guangxi, because it's such a ridiculous thing that I'll remember for the rest of my life, and it's a good bar story.

This last reason is most important though, because it's the most inherently fun. That list of places in China earlier...none of them really had that weird, ridiculous moment, so unless I refresh my memory on this blog they'll probably all blend together and again, feel samey. So, what next? Do we keep traveling? And yeah, probably. Given the current circumstances, I don't think I can really change that. Normally I'd say it's time to shake things up and take a holiday to another country, but right now that's a very troublesome, expensive, and lengthy quarantine process. But who knows, it may get to that point. The other option is to leave China permanently, which I'm not opposed to, but then the question is to where? It's hard to beat the salary versus cost of living, not to mention the comfort of Shanghai. Then again money isn't everything. I don't think anything is going to change any time soon, but I do think after this lockdown, and the lack of exciting domestic getaways, it's time to keep my eyes open.

I have yet to see a wookie.

While Yangshuo is pretty well known in China, I feel "the place where they filmed Kashyyyk for Star Wars Episode 3" may be the fastest way to give people a picture of what it looks like. It's a small town about an hour south of Guilin, completely surrounded by tall, nearly vertical mountains. It's pretty interesting because you can just be walking around and then boom, there's a sheer rock wall as tall as, well, a mountain. It's almost like someone used the landscape tool in Sim City 2000 to just drag a square of land as high as it would go. It's a very unique looking place, so this entry is going to be a little more picture heavy than normal.

To start, the cultural center of the town is West Road. It's not particularly unique by itself, many Chinese cities have "old streets" full of shops and restaurants. This one has a more "Thailand" vibe to it though, full of foreign food and bars with live music - a rare sight in Chinese cities outside of Beijing / Shanghai, and really unheard of for a small town. We got some German food for lunch, and was a bit blown away to find a stream through the road, which ended into a waterfall near the river. I can see why this place has a reputation, because it is quite beautiful. And we're only getting started.

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we rented a bike to go out to Shi Li Hua Lang, which is like a national park known for a mountain with a hole in it. The ride there was pretty, but a bit nerve racking being Ella's passenger. Maybe it's how exposed I was on the back of the scooter, or the mood I was in that day, but I was really not loving it. Fortunately the mountain is beautiful, and is a nice 30 minute hike to the top. It reminded me of my mountain hiking days in Taipei, where you're always greeted with a wonderful view of the town below. Funnily enough, President Nixon walked the same trail during his trip to China in the 70s, and so they named it "Nixon Trail". Per the information, he asked if the Chinese made the hole in the mountain by shooting a missile at it.

 

Nixon was weird ya'll.

 

Another stop on the list was actually a village about 30 minutes away. Yes, we went from a huge city, to a smaller city, to a town, to a village. Xingping is not known by name, but everyone across China is quite familiar with it, as it is the site of the picture on the back of the 20 yuan note. (Then again, in ten years probably nobody will remember what a "note" is. Seriously, I touch cash maybe once every few years.) But regardless of why we're here, this is seriously one of the most beautiful places I've been. I don't know where in my previous Top 10+1 list it would fall, but it was really awesome and nice to see. After lunch, we took a boat up the river to take in some more views. Along the way, a guy in a bamboo raft came along side, suddenly boarded our boat, and offered the chance to take a photo with his birds for 5 yuan (~$0.80). I do not know why this dude makes his living this way. However, I do like photos of me in ridiculous situations, and "paid bamboo pirate a buck to hold his birds" has got to be up there. So, here's some photos of this place, along with, I think, one of the best photos I've ever taken.

 

The note in question.

 

The site it's supposedly from, with some liberties.

 

 

 

I really like this picture.

So this is the point where we were going to go home, but of course, something had to go wrong. Ella's health code suddenly changed to red for entering an area in Shanghai that day... which meant we were stuck. For anyone not familiar with China - you need health codes now to travel (and sometimes to enter places). Red means that you were in a high-risk area, as in an area with someone who tested positive for COVID. However, this was certainly a mistake, because A) Obviously, we were not currently in Shanghai B) We had not been to that part of town, or even that district, in even longer, and C) My code was still green, and we've never not been together. So inevitably, this meant bureaucracy and waiting a day for it to get sorted. A slightly annoying hiccup, but eventually, after filling out forms and waiting, it all worked out. That meant an extra torturous day of coffee and food in a very beautiful place. Could definitely do worse.