During my time in China, another city that I got to visit was Changde. This is the hometown of a friend I made while studying in Japan. His family invited me to stay in their home, and he showed me around while I was there. One place that we visited was Wulingyuan, in Zhangjiajie. The tall, tree covered rocks in this park are thought to have inspired the setting of James Cameron's Avatar.
If you become too tired hiking here, you can pay to be carried to the top.
Another place that we visited was the Changde Science and Technology Museum. This museum was in a big, and interesting building. But when we went inside we found that only one exhibit was open. All but one floor were empty.
One of the days we traveled to a hill nearby the city. The photos above and below are from that trip.
While I was there I had a lot of good food. Above is a picture of some coffee me and by friend got. I got the drip coffee in the picture, and found it very good. Below is a picture of a meal my friend's mother made, and last is a picture of him after eating.
I got to visit an ancient capital of China, Xi'An, during my recent trip. When I went, I saw many pretty things at night. Above is a picture of two long kites flying over one illuminated building, and below is a portable telescope you can pay to look through.
One of the neatest things that I visited was the Xi'An city wall. The wall has been maintained and partially rebuilt, and so many people walk or bike on top. When I was in Xi'An the City Wall Lantern Festival took place. The lantern festival started at sunset, so in the photo above there are many people sitting at the top of the wall waiting for the lights to turn on.
Beneath is a picture from the city during the day, to compare with one from the festival at night.
Above there is a lantern in the shape of a monkey because this new year in the Chinese zodiac is The Year of the Monkey. In China monkeys are thought to eat peaches, and so instead of bananas, there were many peaches throughout the festival.
I think that the illumination of the buildings on the city wall near the gate was the most beautiful part of the festival.
Away from the City Wall, Xi'An was still very busy at night. Above is a picture of a street with a lot of street food and shops.
In Xi'An, and other places in China there is a food called Rou jia mo. I knew it as Xi'An Hamburger, though my friend in Xi'An assured me this was not the Chinese name. Below is a picture of a soup-like dish made from the hamburger, and the last photo is of me eating one of them. It was very good.
During the last few weeks I traveled around China. In addition to airplanes, I traveled on many different trains.
Above and below are pictures from the Changsha Railway station. It was built in 1917, and has a visibly older design. I especially liked the large torch on top of the clock tower. Also visible in the picture above is a KFC.
Beneath is a yard of the older trains used at some stations. I took one like this from the Changsha station.
Below are pictures of train stations that I went to when taking the high-speed train between cities. The stations are respectively the Xi'an North Railway Station and the Huashan North Railway Station. The north in both of these train stations' names is because both of them are in cities that have another train station for the older and slower trains.
Something that I thought was interesting was that although you can use either kind of train to get between many big cities, they are otherwise very different. One website says that traveling from Shanghai to Xi'An on the slow train costs about 30 USD, and takes around 19 hours. Traveling the same route on the high-speed train costs about 50 USD but the trip takes only 10 hours. The stations and trains are also different. The high-speed line uses new ones, but the regular trains can be much older.
While on the train, I heard a story about someone who would take a 50 hour train from Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, to Xinjiang in the very north west of China. I don't think I could do this route. The longest flight I've done was 13 hours and I think that's long enough for me.
Lastly, I took some pictures of the Shanghai Metro. Above is a picture of the train station, and below is a picture showing very high train tracks crossing an open area. From another photo you can see how from the level of the train, you can feel as if you are floating above the city.
Beneath a high road, or outside of the station, the perspective changes a lot. With massive elevated roads and trains, as well as different tiers of rail transportation it is easy to become lost inside the elevated world.
The final picture is of me eating what I believe was a fried squid, with a tiny fried octopus on top.
