Happy Chinese National Day!

Hooray for 7 day holidays!

In case you were wondering, here is a brief description of Chinese National Day from http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/festival/national.htm

"October 1st, 1949 was the memorial day for the founding of the People’s Republic of China. One thing should be noted is that the PRC was not founded on that day, but on September 21st, 1949. The grand ceremony held at Tiananmen Square on October 1st, 1949 was to celebrate the forming of the Central People's Government of the brand new country. Later on October 2nd, 1949, the new government passed the ‘Resolution on the National Day of the People's Republic of China’ and declared October 1 to be the National Day. Ever since 1950, every October 1st has been grandly celebrated by Chinese people."

The week from October 1-7 is called the "Golden Week" and a lot of Chinese people use this time to travel. We noticed tourist destinations around Guiyang have been really packed and I'm sure our adventure to Chengdu will be pretty crazy as well, but hopefully worth it!

On Tuesday school was out early so around 3, Lindsay and I decided to head into town! For one, we were getting real sick of Chinese cafeteria food so we had to go get us some KFC. Secondly, we wanted to get our nails did! We have been trying to find a nail salon forever and could never find one. So Lindsay asked Sylvia about it and she said they're all over the city, but usually underground. What. So we were determined to find one! Well we weren't having much luck at first but then we were just walking around this little mall/shopping center type thing and boom! Nail salon! The bad news was that it was rather expensive... but the good news is that it was reeeally nice so we weren't worried about sanitation issues and also the ladies there were so sweet! One of them spoke pretty good English and was so willing to wait on us hand and foot (literally). I got a pedicure and Lindsay chose a manicure. They did a spectacular job and it felt so amazing! The lady talked to us (mostly to Lindsay cuz I was in the back getting my toes done) and she gave us the salon's phone number so we could call next time we wanted to come in. She also asked Lindsay to give her an English name when we came back! It seems odd because we barely know her but we like trying to decide what name to give her! She's a super classy lady so we are trying to think of good name to fit her personality. I guess her teacher in school technically gave her the English name, Daisy, but I guess she didn't like it or didn't feel like it was very special since the teacher assigned names to all the students. Anyways, I guess we'll have to go back and splurge again! I think it was worth it and would be totally worth it again ;)

Sorry, it's a little dark

Bad pictures of my beautiful toes!

On Wednesday, the four of us went to Tianhetan, which is this big park with some cool waterfalls and caves and such. We took good ol' bus 69 then had to transfer to another bus that took us straight there. It was a lot of fun! We saw some pretty waterfalls, got some street food, rode a zipline and took a boat tour through these suuuper cool water caves! The inside was all lit up with multi-colored lights that reminded me of the Willy Wonka psychedelic boat ride through the chocolate river! (Ok, not quite that intense... but you get the idea!) After the boats we got to walk around inside another cave, also lit up. It was cool but it was pretty crowded and felt a bit claustrophobic after awhile.. but mostly it was cool!

Dragon Lake

100-step bridge! (it was actually 188 steps...)

On the boat, heading to the cave!

Yep, going in that tiny opening...

It turned into a pretty intense race with the other boats!

Going back in!

This is where we got off to walk around inside

That tiny white spec near the middle of the pic is someone on the zipline!

Apparently if you swim in this pool, you'll become pretty!

Beauty pool waterfall

Dragon waterfall

We saw some Chinese men playing card games in this garden so we decided to take a break and play our own!

 So we had a little trouble getting back home.. It is a long story but basically we ended up riding the same bus between two stops a couple times before we realized what direction we needed to go. Oh well, we figured it out eventually! After that we were pretty hungry and craving something American so... we went to Pizza Hut! But in China, it is so much more that just a hut. It's a huge, nice, sit-down restaurant! Of course they had pizza, some normal toppings and some more exotic choices, but also pastas and salads and all sorts of stuff! We decided on a large supreme pizza (pepperoni, ham, sausage, peppers, onion, olives, mushrooms, pineapple) and holy moly, it was delicious! A bit pricey but definitely worth it! Lindsay and I also got some dessert cuz they just looked so good!

(We devoured that pizza before I could take a photo sooo yeah, just take my word for it; it was divine.)

On Thursday, the four of us met up with William and his family to go to Hebin Park which is just in town, near the Walmart. They have a really sweet family and it is always nice to have a chance to talk with them. The park is a little amusement park with all sorts of rides. While William and his wife took their son on some of the kid rides, the four of us went on this ride where you peddle these round bike things along a track. It was so crowded though so we waited in line for quite awhile. Then we did the Ferris wheel and were pretty much done. Lindsay wasn't feeling well and it was just too crowded and most of the rides were for little ones, so we decided to leave.

Ferris wheel fun

We found out William had already left and they went over to Walmart to pick up a few things. We met them there, did a little bit of shopping then William and his family took a taxi home. The four of us decided to continue our streak of American food so we stopped at the American Coffee shop for some food. Then we took the bus home! It was a pretty chill day.

We are leaving for Chengdu this evening so I will post about it when we get back! Hopefully our trip runs smoothly!