Western Sichuan Day 2
Our second day in Western Sichuan was full of adventures. We left our little hotel in Luding (泸定) in the morning. We had planned to sleep in a bit and relax in the morning, but when Jaye and I were at breakfast downstairs, the boss told us that the electricity would...
Drama Night with my Students
One of my favorite extra-curricular activities that my students can be involved in is something called Drama Night. The students are completely in charge of everything involved in Drama Night. They write and direct plays (or musicals!) and also act in them. Other...
Western Sichuan Day 1
Jaye and I had to get up pretty early today so that we would have time to get to the train station to catch our train. We had originally asked the same driver to take us back to the train station, but he ended up being busy the day we had to leave, so he found a...
The Most Beautiful Lakes in China: Jiuzhaigou
I love places of natural beauty, and 九寨沟 (Jiuzhaigou) is one of the most amazing places that I have visited in China (get used to hearing that because my next few adventures were all incredible. On Tuesday morning, Jaye and I woke up early so that we could go have our...
Du Fu’s House and into the Mountains!
I’m so incredibly thankful for friends who find interesting and fun things to do while we’re traveling. As you have seen from previous posts, Jaye is one of those people. She loves to explore, and as a Chinese, she has a lot of the historical and cultural background...
Chengdu Pandas and Dujiangyan
One of the things that I really wanted to do while I was in Chengdu was to go to a panda conservatory and see the pandas. The first time I was in Chengdu for just 16 hours (several years ago), we had time to go to a mall and see the giant fake panda climbing onto the...
Back to School: Teaching in China
The beginning of the semester is always fun as I meet my new students and run into old students. One thing I’ve noticed now is that as I walk around campus, especially during the times when the students are likely to be out, I almost always run into at least two or...
Exploring Chengdu (Sichuan opera and Chengdu Museum)
Before traveling to Chengdu, I spent my last morning in Chongqing visiting a park with another view of the city. It was green and beautiful, but by the time I left, it was also very hot. I was hoping Chengdu would be a bit cooler! Stone rope bridge For lunch, I went...
Fuling: Solo Adventure
I’d never understood the appeal of solo traveling until last summer when I ended up in Hawaii for a couple of days staying with friends of friends but on my own as far as sightseeing was concerned. Since I was in Hawaii for a friend’s wedding, I spent most of the time...
An Ancient Immigration Guild Hall and Yummy Food
Wendy was leaving in the afternoon today, but we still had the morning to explore the city, so we made full use of our time. After our normal breakfast of baozi, a steamed bun filled with pork or vegetables, we headed to the hospital with a staircase to the roof of...