It's summer holiday! And that means travel.

Truthfully I've been getting stir crazy lately, what with most of the world closed or effectively closed because of the massive inconvenience. Which means it's domestic travel time! Not that I'm opposed by any means, there's a lot to see in China that I haven't. But to start, it's back to Yunnan to see the parents. 

Truthfully, there's not much to say about trips to Yunnan, because we don't really do anything. Go on errands. Eat. Sleep. That's about it. But honestly, that was exactly what I needed. It was a whirlwind of activity up until the day before we left. Ella was cramming for a teaching certification test. And I was helping her, taking care of life, and on top of that working a gig a friend recommended to me. Basically, I recorded videos in front of a green screen for a university in the US. So, sorry to those students, but I'll be the idiot welcoming them to Unit 1, and telling them all the exciting stuff they'll be learning in their MBA. Anyway, point being, the day after we arrived was the first full day I had off in a while, so doing nothing sounded really nice.

And that was it for about 4 days, before moving on to travel. Our first stop (with mom and dad) was Chongqing. Which, is a place people should be more familiar with. Everyone knows Beijing, Shanghai, and maybe Guangzhou (aka Canton). But Chongqing is a monster city as well, and actually the largest city in the world. That is kind of cheating though, because China defined Chongqing city as the size of Austria. So outside of the downtown core, a lot of the "city" can be pretty rural. Also, this has completed a stupid record, that by any measure of the most populous blank, I've been there:

Country - China
City proper - Chongqing
Metro Area - Tokyo
Area - Pearl River Delta
Densest City - Manila
Densest Region - Macau
Densest District - Mong Kok, Hong Kong

Chongqing is one of the 4 areas directly managed by the central government, the others being the aforementioned Beijing and Shanghai, as well as Tianjin. (I've not been to Tianjin, but it's pretty close to Beijing and has basically been its port as far as history goes. It doesn't have a great reputation for tourism, but maybe one day.)

Chongqing overall, I think is one of the coolest looking cities in China, and maybe the world. Maybe because Beijing and Shanghai are as flat as pancakes, but Chongqinq's massive hills make a big impression. Someone compared it to Hong Kong, which is fair but I don't fully agree. Hong Kong is hilly yes, but if there is a hill at most Hong Kong may turn it into a park or nature trail. Instead, Chongqing says "No reason why we can't build a 30 story building into the side of that cliff." It's a very twisty, vertical city, which gives it a Blade Runner sort of vibe. The insistence to build everywhere feels as if the only reason to build up is because there's no choice to build out, like a zombie apocalypse is beyond the border. It makes it a nightmare to get around, because a place that's 100 meters away on the map might also be 100 meters above or below you. So get used to stairs and having to take a super roundabout way to get wherever you want to go. As someone on holiday I loved it, like it was a puzzle to figure out, where you're rewarded with a neat coffee shop. But if I lived here it might get old fast. Still, having a local knowledge of "Oh, to go there, take an elevator in this building, get out on the 16th floor, then cut across this business's lobby" would be really cool, and make you feel like you're really part of the city.

Speaking of the city, there's a fair bit to do. And I was honestly a bit surprised by that, considering how many travel agencies there are around. I suppose most of the travelers are domestic. With our first day almost done, we only had time to go to Hongyadong, a sort of shopping center in a cave. Or I guess, a cliff with a cave they built a shopping center around? It's honestly really cool, and although touristy, really leans into Chinese architecture to look super neat. There's not much to do but take photos, shop, and eat, but it's unique enough to be worth it. 

With sleep and full days ahead of us, there was quite a bit on our list. The Chongqing Art Museum, which is not my thing but the entire Yang family are artists, so that's their jam. The building is my thing though, it looks like a house made of chopsticks. After was Luowen Temple, which I'm happy to say, is one of the 1% of temples in China you SHOULD see. It was super cool! They had a giant hall full of colorful statues in weird poses, so, check. It was just pretty overall, double check. And being in the heart of downtown, the contrast of "giant shiny building" towering over the temple was triple check. Definitely worth a visit.

After we took a car up to the mountains to see Chiang Kai Shek's mountain headquarters. History time - CKS was the head guy for the Nationalists, the group who ruled China until the Communists in 1949. They're the group still in charge of Taiwan. During WWII, Chongqing was the capital of China, after the Japanese took over Nanjing. CKS directed the war from here, basically just a little collection of cottages on the mountain. The Japanese never found him, so I guess he chose correctly. Honestly there's not much to see, but it's only a 20 minute taxi ride from the city, and is really cool how you can quickly go from crazy metropolis to mountain forest. And I do mean mountain, Chongqinq's high hills and low valleys give an amazing view on the way up, not unlike Hong Kong's Peak.

Another destination was Ciqikou, a traditional folk street with lots of shops and food. Similar to other places in China, they're kind of cool, but this one seemed more authentic than those in Shanghai, so it was worth a look. Along the way we took the metro, which has some unique things worth mentioning. One, it's a genuine bonafide electrified monorail. Second, and this is too cool, it has a station that is INSIDE an apartment building. I thought I'd be the only one that cares how weird and awesome that is, but turns out no, there were lots of people standing around talking photos. Supposedly the apartments above have a lot of sound proofing. As much as I like metros, I have to admit I would really like to live in this building. Like, imagine catching the elevator to a monorail? So cool. In fact, I liked it so much, I got two videos - one from the ground, one from in the train.

Speaking of things only I find cool, one day Ella and the parents were feeling tired, but I still had some energy. I went to The Flying Tigers Museum, which means more of history lessons! During WWII, a group of American pilots volunteered to come to China and help defend it. They had a base in Chongqing, and now there is a house-sized museum about them. It was really moving actually, and I think worth the trip, despite being light on memorabilia. While I was coming in, a foreign language student was coming out, and the museum curator wanted to have her ask me some questions after she found out I was American. Not about The Flying Tigers, I guess about me, because I don't think they got a lot of foreign visitors. Anyway, after the museum, I decided to climb up the mountain behind it. Actually this was part of the plan, because while not the tallest hill in the city, Erling is right in the middle of downtown, so I thought it would have a great view. But oh wow, what a climb! You didn't walk up the stairs, as so much climb them. About midway up the trail intersected with the road, and I decided to rest on a bench. And who did I see but the foreign language student, who insanely had a rolly suitcase she just brought up the same trail. She told me she is traveling with a friend, who she is meeting at the airport after climbing. And since she already checked out of her hotel, the bag is with her. I thought she was crazy for at least not taking a bus or taxi close to the top. But she and I were going the same way, so I helped her lug her stuff to the top. Fortunately it was along a road, so we could roll the bag. At the peak there was an old Australian embassy she wanted to see, but had no internet in climbing the 10 story observation tower. Her loss, because it was a cool view.

And that was about it for Chongqing. There was a lot more I didn't mention, some museums and historical sites, but none of them really stuck out as noteworthy. One of the last nights there we took a river cruise, which in typical Chinese fashion was pretty crowded and overbooked, but in the end we did get some nice views of downtown at night. Mom and I really liked it, at least. Anyway, we're keeping the travels going by taking a train to Chengdu, Sichuan province. Home to pandas, spicy food, and hopefully fewer stairs.

Well, where to begin. Let's start with the most important thing: it's our 3/7 year anniversary this week - 3 years since we were married, and 7 years since we met. Both are the same day, because we're cute like that. We spent the day going around the city together, and hoo boy, what a day. We left in the morning and didn't get back until bedtime. I even took a little nap at a coffee shop. Before that though, we got some amazing Thai food. This was a nice surprise, because up to now I have been immensely disappointed at Thai food in China. I've seen so many recommendations, like "this one is authentic, that one is authentic." I promise you, almost every one has been trash. Like, one place we tried had *sweet* basil fried pork. What the heck is that? That's like a bitter hamburger or a meaty ice cream. It just doesn't make sense. Thank goodness we found this one, because it has some of the best curry I've ever had, including Thailand. For the rest of the day, we walked around the city checking out the architecture, snacking around, just being a couple. We even stopped at Tian Ai Road, or "Sweet Love Road". It's a nice name, but there isn't much there. A ton of "X loves Y" graffiti that people wrote, right next to the sign that says "Don't write graffiti". For dinner we went to a Bulgarian restaurant, which I was excited for because I have never seen a Bulgarian restaurant before and had no idea what Bulgarian food is like. Turns out, it's pretty similar to Turkish food. But I like Turkish food more. Sorry, Bulgaria. I'm willing to give you another chance.

Another milestone is approaching as well, because in just a week or two will be the end of the semester. That also marks the end of my gig at this school. If I had not mentioned it before, I am moving to the school Ella works at now. We have a few friends who are already there, and it just seems much better run overall. Plus they're offering a higher salary, so it would be foolish to turn it down.

I'm talking too much, so here's a friendly stray cat.

My current school has been... fine. I don't think it's the worst I've worked at, but I'd struggle to say it was the best. Don't get me wrong, I'm still thankful for the opportunity, and I am convinced teaching abroad is one of the best jobs out there. But in truth, I've never worked in a place that I've been content with - see the previous blog for my thoughts on work. Still, I've never found one in the goldilocks zone -  there's always something that is annoying about them. They're often different things, so it's sort of hard to compare. For this one, their deal is that they're incredibly stingy. The way that affects me is by putting a lot of disincentives in the way - even things like getting poster paper involves paperwork, and yes, I appreciate the irony of that. I can understand wanting to reduce waste, but in reality I have been planning lessons and thought "This activity would be good to do, but the admin makes it not worth the trouble." And that sucks, for the kids mostly. Speaking of the kids, I've gotten quite lucky. In the past, I'd often see for example, ten different classes twice a week. This makes planning really easy, but at the same time with 300 students, I don't really get to know any of them. At this school I was seeing a smaller number of kids more frequently, and to help planning it's divided up with your co-teachers. The coordination can be a pain but it's probably better in the end, because I actually got to know my kids pretty well, and their behavior improved a ton compared to when I started. I will miss (some of) them for a while, but I guess I'm too emotionally cold compared to teachers who stay at jobs they should have left because of an attachment to their students. I mean yeah, they're cool kids. I'd be willing to help them down the road. But I'm ready to move on. This probably explains why I'm not interested in having kids of my own, because I hear there is no return policy for them - not even store credit.

But this is a travel blog first and foremost, so what travel have we done? To start, we went to the World Expo Museum. What is a world expo, you ask? Well that is a silly question, it's right there in the name. Shanghai had theirs back in 2010, and believe it or not, it was a really big deal. Probably not on the world stage, but for Shanghai it was. This was right after the Beijing Olympics, where China was all about the "show the world how amazing we are" thing. So the world expo marked a pretty big turning point for the city. In the run up they built a million metro lines, cleaned up all the street food, and basically turned it from a "lived-in, Chinese city" to a "world city". Of course this was before I had ever been here, but it's easy to imagine what it would have been like. I mean, I lived in Guangzhou, which despite being similar in population has a very different feel from Shanghai. Guangzhou feels like China, whereas Shanghai feels like Singapore, or Tokyo. I like them both, but... wait, I was talking about the museum.

So the museum is one of the pavilions leftover from the expo, and now it's basically just a collection of some of the stuff the countries were willing to donate. They have some very interesting things, and it is worth a look. But you get the impression from this big building it's going to be a massive exhibit, when in reality, there's not all that much. I wonder what the rest of the building is used for. Anyway, some very neat things, worth a look. The exhibit from Thailand was especially nice, it brought back some memories. This place sort of flies under the radar of tourist attractions in the city, and it's pretty centrally located. So I think it's worth stopping off in if you've got time.

The museum train keeps on rolling though, with the Minhang Museum and the Jewish Refugee Museum up next. The Minhang Museum is the district we live in, and it's fine. As you'd expect, it goes through what Minhang used to look like back in the day, along with some things discovered here. Surprise - it's pottery. I think I've gone on record that pottery at museums suck. News flash - everywhere has pottery. It all looks like brown pots. In fact this is the official record for this blog: Museum pottery sucks. Anyway, the museum is pretty small, but it did have some things that were pretty cool, like old musical instruments. Worth it for us to kill time on a Saturday but definitely not for any visitors.

The Jewish Refugee Museum though... wow. This should be at the top of Shanghai tourist attractions. Quick backstory, although you can probably guess, around WWII some Jews fleeing Europe ended up here. The museum talks about their crazy journey to get here, their life, etc.. And I know being a museum in China, they want to show their best side. But honestly, even after digging, I found that the Jews really were treated super well by the locals. There was a lot of community outreach and help to get them acquainted, and everyone seemed to get along really well. And then, shortly after they got settled, the Japanese invaded, so things went from bad to worse. But they weren't left to fend for themselves, the locals still shared what they had and were just solid people overall. So that's a nice story to give you a warm and fuzzy. Also, the museum itself is just fantastic. Really well done, with super high-tech displays that feel like you're in Minority Report. It can get a little dark at times, but still, can't recommend it enough. A+ experience.

Now to turn back to an anti-recommendation, I have to call out Jingan Temple. So, if you've ever been to Shanghai before, you know Jingan Temple. It's a big metro station, smack in the middle of the "foreigner" part of town, surrounded by malls and restaurants. Not exaggerating, I've probably walked past or under it a hundred times. But I have never gone in. One Saturday we were in the area with time to kill, so we thought "Why not? If it's in the middle of everything, it's got to be good, right?"

Not really, no.

I should really listen more to Past Mike, who has gone on record to say "If you've seen one temple, you've seen 99% of them." Jingan is a perfectly fine temple, but has nothing special to offer. And certainly is not amazing enough to charge 50 yuan ($8) a person. The fact that they charge anything at all is kind of weird, if they're a temple shouldn't they be supported by donations? Anyway, if you're in Shanghai, I would only recommend it if you've never seen a Chinese temple before and are super short on time. While not 100% Chinese, a much prettier, more interesting, and cheaper option is the Jade Temple, which is only 2 stops away. It has a bit of Japanese inspiration, but is still quite cool and peaceful, unlike the throngs of tourists that descend on Jingan every holiday.

For travel, I suppose that's it for the time being. At least until summer, where we have plans to travel around. Probably towards the center of the country, somewhere like Chongqing / Chengdu / Xian. I've never been there before, so they're worth a look. And honestly, there's not too many other places in China that I'm eager to check out. Xinjiang is one of them, but I've heard the bureaucracy is annoying during normal times, and with COVID it's on another level. So that may have to wait a bit. I'm also curious about Tibet. I've brought Tibet up a few times with folks during my stay in China, and the ones that have visited there all give me the same answer - it's just not that interesting. So while I am curious, it's gone down the list. If I was reaching for more places to go, it'd probably be Harbin, Guilin, Xiamen, and Dalian. By then I would consider myself pretty well-traveled in China, and hey, it will only take like 20 years to get there. Being married to a Chinese person, I bet one day I will get to that point. No rush though.