China

Left for China to visit family after graduating from my masters. I was sick at the end of the semester and still had a pretty bad cough, so I was unsure of how the trip would go. Turned out alright in the end though so that was cool. After landing in Beijing, my uncle picked us up. I was exhausted since I couldn't sleep on the plane so I was hoping to go straight to the hotel and sleep, but turns out he had to pick up my cousin too, which ended up adding an extra 5 hours before I got to the hotel and I was completely sleep deprived. Don't remember much from that day except coming across an evil looking building which I later found out was some sort of tax office, fittingly.

Ended up doing nothing the second day; just trying to recover some sleep ended up taking most of the day anyway. Spent most of the time getting my VPN to work and grinding away on a dumb mobile game. On the third day, we went to the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas. While they were cool and all, I was much more impressed by all the monkeys they had there, though according to my mom, the monkey area used to be much more impressive and you could get a lot closer. Tickets to the zoo were an absolute steal at a little over $2 USD for full admission (minus the aquarium), so definietly a cool place to spend the day if you don't have other plans.

Went to the nearby Yuyuan Pond the next day just to walk around because it was close to the hotel. Didn't want to go too far since the forecast predicted rain, but ended up walking a ton in the rain anyway. There were a lot of water lillies here, though most of them weren't blooming because they weren't in season. Also lots of old people doing strange exercises, one guy crawling on the ground like a worm and another group swinging metal whips around. At least they're staying active I guess?

It didn't rain the day after, which really drove up the temperature, so we decided to go to the Summer Palace to cool down, but the temperature there was not much lower, though there was a bit of a breeze which helped. Entered through the north gate, by Suzhou Street which was built along a riverfront, and climbed around the mountain to exit through the main gate. Pretty relaxing there but not too much to see.

We left Beijing for Shanghai to meet up with my dad, who was there on business. Shanghai was actually really great; much cleaner than Beijing and the people aren't as awful. Also, being next to the ocean, there was a constant breeze which was a godsend. Went to see the Pudong CBD view from Waitan (the Bund), which is like the one touristy thing that everybody who goes to Shanghai does. Well we didn't realize it was the Dragon Boat Festival, which apparently is a big deal there, so it was crazy crowded. Cops came out in full force to control everyone, and in order to even reach the waterfront, there was a 4-5 block one-way line.

The view was something I'd seen a thousand times in pictures before, but it was still cool to see it in person. I kinda liked being pushed around by the massive crowds, added a festive feeling to it and reminded me how insignificant a single person is. Not really in a bad way, just an unfamiliar experience for me, living in the Bay Area, which has about the population density of a small suburb. As crowded as the waterfront and park and plaza were aboveground, the subway was surprisingly manageable. Sure it was still packed with people, but it felt like there was a lot more space compared to, say, riding a bus or subway in Beijing. Shanghai's a neat place, I'd like to come again.

Day 8, I hit up Century Park in Pudong. There was plenty of variety there and it seemed like a nice place to take your kids. We walked around the lakes for a bit before going to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower to get a view from the top. Being a festival weekend though, it was packed and I didn't particularly want to wait 3 hours and pay ¥200 to reach the top, so I just walked around the CBD area instead and cut the day short.

We then left Shanghai for Nanjing to visit my dad's family. It was hot and humid there so we didn't do much, though we did go to Bao'en Temple. Apparently it used to be a dump, but someone found some ancient artifacts of a building and the government bought out the land to build this museum. The relics they showed were pretty much all destroyed (otherwise I'm sure people would have found the site a long time ago) but the museum was really neat in my opinion. You kinda walk over glass floors and look down on the ancient building site while the walls and decorations were all modern, and I thought that mix of old and new worked well there.

Finally, the part of the trip I was looking forward to most, Huangshan. We were really iffy on coming here since they said it would rain the whole time, meaning you can't see anything interesting, but the forecast cleared up a bit so we decided to come after all. Turns out it was raining the day we went, oh well. Huangshan is famous for being above the clouds, and thus when you're on the mountains you're looking down at a sea of clouds. The problem is, when it rains, then you stand in the clouds instead and you can see maybe 2 or 3 meters ahead of you. Since we were already there, we decided to just make the best of it and go up anyway.

At the foot of the mountain, it wasn't too bad, but once the cable car started climbing, you literally couldn't see out the windows. We hiked to a couple of the peaks but couldn't see anything, so we decided to retreat to the hotel. Walked by a ton of porters, who carry all the supplies up the mountain on their backs. Seems like very hard work.

The rain cleared up overnight, so we woke up at 4 to see the sunrise, which is another one of the things Huangshan is famous for. Super crowded at the peak, but it was a beautiful sight. Since the rain was gone, we also got to see a ton of valleys with that "sea of clouds" and it was absolutely breathtaking. We actually got super lucky with the weather; on the first day we got to experience the mystical feel of the fog as if it were a cloud forest or something (disclaimer: I have never actually been to a cloud forest) and on the second, it was sunny out and we got to see the valleys and gorges. Some of the guides on the mountain were also saying that the fog that settles in the valleys is more beautiful right after it rains, so I guess we got the perfect conditions. Very lucky.

Ended the day with a hike into the valley, full of steep stairs carved into 100 foot drops that made for many precarious situations watching 70 year olds lean over the railing for a picture. Checking my Google Fit, it turns out that I actually took fewer steps on Huangshan than I did in Shanghai. Although I know I turned off cell service for quite a while on the mountain so it didn't seem to track that part. Who knows..

I enjoyed this trip a lot, partly because Shanghai and Huangshan were a lot cooler than most cities and I didn't have to go home soaked in sweat like I normally do when I'm in China. Also, usually when I go, I spend the whole time in a small part of the city and don't see too many interesting things, whereas I was able to get quite far from the city; HSR truly is a blessing. There's a lot of beautiful regions of China that I've never been to but would love to see, especially in the south and around Tibet, but I'll have to save that for another time.