This is likely my last blog entry from my home in Xiaoshan.

My time remaining here is winding down pretty quickly (only a week and half left of work!), but there's still a lot to do in China. As I mentioned I'm popping on over to Qingdao (Tsingtao) and Beijing, along with a few other stops on the way. But before I headed off into the wild blue (red?) yonder, there was one city around Hangzhou I wanted to visit - Ningbo.







I didn't really know much about Ningbo prior. It's a pretty big city, a beach town, and our friend Sabrina lives there. Well it turns out its about 30 miles from the beach, and its starting to get chilly anyway. But even after two days there, it was one of my favorite cities I've been to so far - even if a weekend is all you need to see all the sights Ningbo has to offer.

For starters, we popped into our hostel around lunchtime. I might as well say "the" hostel, because it was the only one in Ningbo. It had average ratings, which definitely are true. It was a bit rundown, but it made up for it by being in an awesome location. Right on a lake, very convenient to the middle of town. I was pretty starving, so we went to a shopping district to find some breakfast. And oh, did we find it.








A Korean restaurant that specialized in waffles, if you can believe a thing exists. Upon walking in Gangnam Style came on the sound system, followed thereafter by Call Me Maybe. What was this Korean wonderland we were in? Why does my Belgian Waffle have a pound of cream on it? These are questions you should not ask.

Afterwards we went over to a tower that was pretty much the most narrow structure I've been in in my life. I could barely fit up the stairs, and it was probably 10 stories or so high. At the top was a tiny Buddah, which I guess I had to give him some cash.

Along the way back to the clock tower (lame, you can skip it), we passed a very large church. Not incredibly common for China, but they do have them. This church was built on top of a 7-11 and a buffet. Gotta love it.


Other highlights were a tea museum that was just kind of walked in to without paying, because the woman at the booth did not seem to care. After that night we went out to a bar that had some of the cheapest beer in China. It was called The Office and owned by a guy from Arizona. We got to watch CNN as the election results came in, while I ate a mushroom n swiss burger with a side of chili cheese fries. It was a very strange experience.

The next day was a pretty long romp out to a temple in the mountains. We tried a bus, but after that failed, resorted to a taxi. As the taxi driver is going out there, we come across the road - closed. So he drives through this tiny village in the middle of nowhere, asking people how to get to this damn place. The first guy didn't know, another pointed him in the wrong direction, and the third was clueless of its existence (seriously? It's a big temple right there on the mountain!) Anyway it was a nice diversion, as it was really far out there and pretty cool! We did get a bus on the way back, which passed through a bunch of rural villages. A quick dinner with Sabrina, and back to Hangzhou the next day.





 

Whew! It went by too quickly. The next adventure is to the lovely city of Qingdao far up north. I'm staying in a hostel that is an old observatory, and yes they still have the telescope. I can't imagine you can see much now that Qingdao is all huge, but maybe Mars/Venus if I'm lucky. As part of your room rate, the hostel also gives you two beers a day, unpasteurized, from the local brewery just down the street. I want to go to there.