Summer Travel Highlights (Part 1: Qingdao, Xian, Yangtze Cruise)

I once had a teacher in high school who said the best thing about being a teacher is June, July and August. Although the Chinese school system only has a six week break during the summer (mid-July through August), I must say that I agree. Megan and I wrapped up our teaching responsibilities in the in the first few weeks of July an eagerly awaited the arrival of my family to start our summer travels. Our plan was as follows:

•        July 15: Arrival of my family in Qingdao.
  
•        July 15-17: Spend in Qingdao/Huangdao (smaller town where we live) to show my family the sights.
  
•        July 17-19: Go to Xian to see the terra cotta warriors and other sights.
  
•        July 20-23: Yangtze River Cruise, the Yangtze being one of the best spots to see the total eclipse of the sun on July 21.
  
•        July 23-27: In Shanghai, see the parents off on July 24 and explore the city ourselves for a few days.
  
•        July 28-August 5: Singapore to see our old stomping grounds.
  
•        August 5 - ???: We weren’t sure where we wanted to go, how much flights would be, and how far our money would take us, so we decided to wing it. Options: Chengdu (see pandas), Kunming, and/or Hong Kong.
  

With that itinerary to look forward to we had trouble focusing during our last few days of exams and grading. Finally, July 15 arrived and brought with it my parents, sister Rachel, and sister’s friend Paulina.

Here are some highlights from the summer.

Qingdao/Huangdao 青岛／黄岛 (July 15-17)

The highlight of the few days in Qingdao/Huangdao was the day Megan and I showed my family around Huangdao, the place we've called home for the past 5 months. It was great to show off our classrooms, eat at the places where we typically eat, and spend some time with them in our apartment. In the morning all the girls had a local foot massage while my dad and I hit some golf balls at the nearby driving range.  Even though a day was plenty of time to see the highlights of the area, I'm really glad they made the trip to China to see it.

The girls getting ready to enjoy their Chinese foot massage in Huangdao.

Eating in our own private room (read: cubicle) at one of our favorite restaurants on campus.

Dinner at our apartment.

The time spent in Qingdao was good also, however as it was peak tourism season the city was about twice as busy as usual. This put a damper on a few things, but we were still able to hit the highlights, including beer in a bag.

After polishing off a seafood lunch on Beer Street in Qingdao.

Posing in front of the famous pavilion that is on all Tsingtao beer bottles.

Xian 西安 (July 17-19)

With the maximum "Five-A" tourist attraction rating by the Chinese government, the highlight of any trip to Xian are the world-famous terra cotta warriors. Built over 2000 years ago, each of the roughly 8,000 warriors has a unique face modeled on the real faces of warriors in the Qin emperor's personal army. The scope of the project is awe inspiring, with rows and rows of warriors in formation.

The warriors were discovered in 1974 by a local farmer who was digging a well and found a terra cotta head. After reporting the discovery to the government the farmer was awarded with 20,000 RMB, roughly US$3,000, or 10 years earnings for the farmer. The farmer is still alive and every Saturday and Sunday visits the site and signs souvenir books about the warriors. We were fortunate enough to be there on a Sunday and my dad got a book signed by the guy. Very cool. I snuck a photo of the guy while he was signing it. He seems like he's enjoying himself, at the time we saw him he was enjoying a cigar at the end of a long pipe.

Xian has tons of interesting history and we saw and did a lot of other cool things. The second highlight was biking around the old city wall which surrounds the city, a must if you visit Xian.

Yangtze River Cruise 长江 (July 20-23)

If you want to enjoy the spectacular sights of the Yangtze River and the 3 gorges, the best way to do so is in a "floating, air-conditioned bubble," as my dad described our ship, the Century Sky. In a country obsessed with star ratings, the Century Sky was truly 5-star, complete with HBO in the cabins and a guys-want-to-be-him-girls-want-to-be-with-him cruise director, Leo. 

The first highlight of the cruise was the total eclipse of the sun, which we were fortunate enough to be in a perfect spot to see. On our second morning on the boat we went with the other cruise passengers to the White Emperor Palace, a pretty cool old palace on an island in the Yangtze. From there, equipped with our safety glasses to avoid "eye suicide", we were able to observe the moon slowly covering the sun. As the eclipse neared total, everything gradually grew darker, as if a giant dimmer switch on the sun was slowly being turned. The phenomenon was surreal. When the sun was finally fully covered a spontaneous cheer rang out from the crowd around us and we removed our safety glasses and for a bit over 4 minutes observed a once in a lifetime sight. Just awesome. 

The second highlight of the cruise was in the afternoon on the same day of the eclipse. We had an excursion into the "Little Three Gorges" on a side stream off the Yangtze. Not sure what to expect we set out on a ferry from main cruise ship down a smaller river. After an hour on the ferry we arrived at a dock with lots of small wooden boats that were rowed by local boatsmen. The boatsmen ranged from 20 to 80 in age and were all shirtless (until about 10 years ago they were completely naked). A crew of 3 or 4 boatmen would steer a boat of a dozen or so tourists through narrow streams with impressive cliff faces on either side. At a few points the water level would be too shallow and the boatsmen would pull the boat over the rocky stream bed until we reached deeper water. During the trip the boatsmen sang a local song for us, which we returned by singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". 

Lowlight of the trip: The Three Gorges Dam. If you are going to "flood the Grand Canyon" as my mom described the flooding of the Three Gorges caused by the dam, you should at least have a cooler looking dam. I had images in my mind of the Hoover Dam (though I've never been there), which looks pretty impressive with it's towering rounded face. While the Three Gorges Dam is undoubtedly a massive engineering project, it doesn't look cool. It was pretty boring to visit in fact. On the plus side, I touched it while our ship was going through the locks.

Photos aren't cooperating now. I'll try to get some up soon though. In the meantime check out Megan's photos on Facebook.