TravelBio

As summer approaches I'm trying to cross more and more off my bucket list. The Hangzhou Zoo isn't exactly at the top, but it is another place in the city I was curious about. I had heard mixed reviews: some said the animals were treated poorly, while others said it was worth the trip. A friend of ours mentioned off hand that he went to the zoo, and that it had been newly renovated. Joanna was unsure about going, but agreed to on his recommendation. On the Labor Day holiday (May 1st), Jason (the math teacher), Joanna, and I went downtown to check out the zoo. Overall I'd give it 2 stars out of 5. I wasn't expecting it to be great, and it certainly wasn't. I think part of the problem was that we went on a holiday. In retrospect we should have gone on a normal weekend, or better yet, a weekday. The zoo enclosures themselves were sub-par, but the main reason why I'd give it a poor review was for the other visitors. Before I get into my rant, here are a few pi...

If the third time’s a charm, what’s the fourth? In April I made my fourth trip to Hong Kong—having previously been in 2009 (during Semester at Sea), and twice in 2015. I love visiting new places, so why did I choose to go back, again? Joanna had never been, and the Pearl of the Orient was on her bucket list ever since she came to China over 3 years ago. Being such a cool and generous guy (wink, wink), I offered to take Joanna to Hong Kong as part of her birthday present. She shares her birthday with Christmas, which is convenient for two reasons: I’ll never forget the date, and I can kill two birds with one stone. Actually it might be a blessing and a curse, since I need to step it up on a doubly important day. With my friend Justin in Hong Kong in 2015 Joanna was back home over the holidays, and then I was in India, so we waited until spring semester to take the trip. She was obviously looking forward to it, and for my part, I was also excited. The first time I stayed ...

Every time I travel in China I better understand Shawn’s quip about Chinese people: individually, most are great people, but in large numbers, that’s another story. Well that second part might not have been put so diplomatically, but I’m paraphrasing here. Rocky peaks of Huangshan After a month back in Hangzhou I was ready to hit the road again. This time it would only be a short trip, to Huangshan Mountain, one of the top natural attractions in China. Huangshan translates into Yellow Mountain, although there isn’t much yellow to be found. Despite the misnomer the scenery is beautiful, with jagged peaks and lookout points galore. Most of my trips have been to cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, Xi’an—but I also want to see more of China’s natural beauty. At the beginning of April this year (the date changes based on the Lunar Calendar) China celebrated Qingming, or the Tomb Sweeping Festival. The holiday is traditionally a time when people travel back t...

By the end of February, after two solid months of traveling, I was heading back to Hangzhou. In those two months I managed to drive a rickshaw across India (and only crash it once), make my first visit to Myanmar, party on the beach in Cambodia, and take a trip down memory lane motorbiking in Thailand. I certainly love to travel, but by the time I made it back to China I was ready to stay put. Not forever—not even for more than a few months—but at least for the time being. As I write this it is nearly June, and in four weeks it is sayonara China. My plan is to head back to the US for my masters degree. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself just yet; there is a lot still to cover this spring. During my trip to Hong Kong in April; more on that to come in a later post! Since returning to China on the 25 th of February I have traveled to three other provinces and Hong Kong, and in a week will be off to Macau. Now that my time is running out here I want to see as much as ...