Traveling Vagabonds-Shanglin to Chengdu

Hello Friends and Family,
We had a great time on our previous trip to 'Nanning's garden' a small village called Shanglin with a big lake behind it. We had some great and new food and saw some beautiful places. It was fun traveling with a group of other people. We didn't have to worry about finding our way around on our own or the language barrier as much, plus they were all friendly and told some great stories. Most of them are basically professional travelers/wanderers and have been many places.


Dalong Lake, or 'Big Dragon' Lake, a beautiful man-made resevoir


Just had to prove that we were there. This place was so surreal and beautiful, the pictures don't do it justice. It was like a dream and definitely the highlight of the trip


Quite the spot for a fishing hut!


The mountain river where we went for a swim, the water was clear and cool and felt great after a hot day!


On the trip, we heard about another trip this weekend to Sichuan province and its capital city, Chengdu. There is a slight chance we might even make it to TIbet! We'll see, but here's the itinerary for our trip that we leave for tomorrow night.

Eight Day’s Tour in Sichuan
Day 1:Sep.20th Stay:chengdu
You need to get to Nanning Wuxu Airport latest at 21:30pm, and take 3U8774 to leave Nanning for Chengdu, the departure time is 22:30pm, and it will take one hour and forty minutes to get to Chengdu international airport. Landing time in Chengdu is 00:20. We will have a bus to be picked up to the hotel.
Day 2: Sep.21st Stay:chengdu
7:30am, You leave from the hotel for Panda Breeding and Research Center to see lovely pandas; it takes about 40 minutes to get there. (You have breakfast in the hotel at 7:00am). You will have whole morning to be in the Panda Breeding and Research Center. Then around 12:00 in the noon, you leave Panda Breeding and Research Center for Wenshu Monastery to have lunch. (The vegetarian restaurant in Wenshu Monastery is one of four famous vegetarian restaurants in China.) And then, it’s a free and relaxed afternoon. You can walk around Chengdu.(My suggestion is: you can hire a bike to walk around, it’s very convenient to ride a bike in Chengdu and very cheap to hire it. You could go to Renmin Park to see what the living style of Chengdu local people is; the tea house is quite famous there. I believe you will have fun in the park)
6:00pm, you will be picked up from the hotel to have dinner; you will taste all kinds of Chengdu snack food in that restaurant. About 8:00 in the evening, you are arranged to go to watch the Sichuan Culture Show (It includes acrobatics, fire speeding, masks changing, hand shadow and so on) Around 10:00pm,you will be sent back to hotel.
Day 03: Sep 22nd Stay:Mt.Emei
You still have breakfast in the hotel, and then start from Chengdu in the morning, reach
Leshan at noon, after lunch sightsee the statue of Giant Buddha which is the biggest one of the world, Lingyun Temple, if possible, visit Dongfangfudu (A Buddhist scenic spot,35RMB excluded),then drive to Emei Mountain and visit around Baoguosi Monastery on your own, Overnight next to the gate of Mt. Emei.
Day 04: Sep 23rd Stay:chengdu
About 6:00AM,take the local bus to LeiDongPing Park, walk to JieYinDian Spot and change to cable car(40RMB excluded), go and enjoy the Golden Summit, sightseeing the cloud sea, FoGuang,etc. About 10:00AM,down to JieYinDian Spot by cable car(30RMB excluded),take the local bus at LeiDongPing Parking to WanNianSi Park, then change to cable car(40RMB excluded) to visit WanNianSi Monastery, and sightsee Qingying pavilion, the Strip Skyline and Monkey Mountain. Then take the local bus down to the gate. Around 19:00pm to 20:00pm, return to Chengdu, finish the tour.
Day 05: Sep 24th stay: Jiuzhai Valley
you still have breakfast in the hotel, after breakfast, drive from Chengdu to Jiuzhai Valley (about 10 hours drive), appreciate the Han, Tibetan, Qiang customs, and Diexi Haizi along the way.
Day 06: Sep 25th stay: Jiuzhai Valley Gate
Full Day Jiuzhaigou Sightseeing(lunch excluded)
After breakfast, take a bus to visit Jiuzhai Valley: Enjoy Changhai, Five-color Pool; Five-flower Lake, Pearl Shoal Falls, Panda Lake, Mirror Lake; Nuorilang Falls, Shuzheng Falls, Water Mill, Wolong Lake, Rhinoceros Lake, Potted Landscape Beach, and other marvelous spectacles. Guozhuang Dance Party with Tibetan Qiang style at night (own expense).
Day 07: Sep 26th
Jiuzhaigou-Huanglong (lunch excluded) stay: Mao County
After breakfast, you have two options, you have chance to revisit Jiuzhai Valley if you would like to, as it’s too large to visit all spots in one day. Or you could have free time to walk around Jiuzhai county,then in the after,,drive from Jiuzhai valley to Huanglong, to visit Huanglong, it’s about three hours’ visit. Then drive to Mao County to stay.
Day 08: Sep 27th
Songpan - Dujiangyan - Chengdu
After breakfast, drive back to Chengdu, you can visit Dujiangyan Irrigation System(90RMB excluded) if most of the tourists agree(or you may visit the spot yourself, then back to Chengdu international airport, then take night flight back to Nanning.

Should be an incredible trip, our first really big one. We will take lots of pictures and be sure to give you detailed documentation of hopefully exciting things to come. We will be radio silent for a week, talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

The Ancient City of Yangmei

Hello Friends and Family,
This Saturday we had a fantastic time visiting the ancient city of Yangmei. 30 KM southwest of Nanning along the Yong River is the five hundred year old village. The village has survived living much like they did the last four hundred years and many of the streets are still intact. After riding a roller coaster of a bus out through fields like looked like Nebraska cornfields, we reached the village after a ferry ride. We felt like we were at Disneyland with all of the stone and the palm trees and foliage. There were water buffalo, chickens, dogs and bearded lizards roaming the streets and it was a fantastic site to see. We roamed the city for about three hours, had bananas for lunch and came home. We had a great time and the village was really exciting to see. Here are some pics from the trip.


Our tour guides for the day: Evia, Fish, Lemon, and Summer. There were all very kind and we had a great time with them. They have even offered to take us other places around Nanning and we will probably take them up on it. It was great not to have to worry about how to get to Yangmei but to simply follow them.


This was the home where one of the first communist revolts was planned in the early 1900s.


An ancient symbol of strength and wisdom. On the sides are four 'xi lin' (pronounced chi lynn) mythical lion creatures. We stopped under this symbol and had a rest and ate some great bananas and revived our strength from walking so much.


The town of Yangmei is along the YongJiang (The Yong River) and reached it height in the 16th century as a port village. This pathway leads around the outside of the town, past scenic views and Tao and Buddhist temples.



A lot of fruits and vegetables are pulled around the town in carts like these by people or water buffalo. The fruit is a kind we have never seen before, kind of like a large lime or pear.



Ancient street signs inscribed in the rock.



Qing Dynasty Street. A street in Yangmei which has been left in its original condition and is three hundred years old.

We had a great time. THis weekend we are visiting Shanglin, a mountain village with lakes and caves to explore. We'll be sure to keep you posted. Until next time.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Weekend Trip to Beihai

Hello Friends and Family,
Our first trip in China was to Beihai. A city about 2.5 hours by bus south of Nanning on the Gulf of Tonkin. We jumped on a bus and headed for the beach. We arrived late on Friday night and had already had a hotel picked out on the bay side of the city. After the tax driver took us a couple of places, we convinced him to take us to our hotel. The hotel was nice, although we had to sleep in seperate twin beds! On Saturday, we spent all day at Silver Beach. A beautiful white beach filled with Chinese swimming, shops, places to sit and explore. We walked up and down the beach all day, enjoying the sun and the quiet and peaceful breeze. Most of the restaurants were seafood and were weren't feeling adventurous, so we went to a chicken fast food restaurant for lunch and dinner and ate Western Style! We watched the sunset and then went back to the hotel a little sunburned. On Sunday morning we got up and went to an island spit of restaurants with a view of the bay. We randomly selected a restaurant and, after pointing and picking, wound up with a decent meal. Check out the food blog for more! Here are some pics from our weekend:


Silver Beach. The 'number one' beach in Guangxi.


Kealy and her new blue umbrella. It kept the sun off of her beautiful white skin! The boats behind her were used for fishing.


The Chinese definitely knew how relax at the beach. There were jet skis, boats, volleyball and these tables set up to sit under.


Ah! Nothing like palm trees and white sandy beaches.


The Coconut Milk was a little warm, but authentic nonetheless!


This is supposed to say "Western Style Restaurant". Some English not so good.


This was the largest spider we have ever seen! Its web was between two trees. Probably six inches across in body. WOW!



This morning we explored a wharf with restaurants and tried a meal there.

We had a great time on our first trip in China. We are working through the communication barrier and we are learning tips as we go, like packing less so I don't have to carry the bags on my sunburnt shoulders. It is a work in progress but we had a very relaxing weekend.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Traveling China

Hello Friends and Family,

This blog will be set-up exclusively for our travels throughout the different parts of China that we hope to explore!

Ryan and Kealy Thorson