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!

Qingyan Ancient Town

Hi everyone!

So this Saturday was so fun! The four of us went to Qingyan Ancient Town which is.. well an ancient town. It is a ways out from the city, along the countryside. It is a tourist destination, but most of the vendors are local ethnic minority groups selling hand-made things. Guiyang is home to many of these ethnic minority groups, the biggest being the Miao people. We plan on visiting other minority villages that are scattered around Guiyang because we hear it is really cool to see and experience their unique culture.

Anyway, we had to take 2 buses for a total of about 3 hours to get to the ancient town. We got off a couple stops too late for the second bus but luckily we were able to walk back to the right station! But the place that we did get off was pretty cool! There was this little lake full of lily pads and we walked down a little street market. Then we walked to the right stop and took that bus all the way to Qingyan.

It didn't look like much right when we got there because it is sort of in the middle of nowhere. It was fun to get out of the city though and see some Chinese countryside! The weather was cloudy and perfect too! As we kept walking through we saw a ton of shops full of awesome hand-made crafts! The first (of many) souvenirs that I bought was a little hand-made/ hand-painted doll. It's so detailed! We spent most of our time exploring these shops and stocking up on souvenirs / Christmas presents ;) And because of that, I won't tell you everything that I got, it's gotta be a surprise!

Looks like a statue right? Nope, real dude. He kept scaring people!

Creepy masked performers!

This guy was doing these carvings by hand! They were gorgeous! (Yes, I bought one)

Hand painted shoes. I think they were going for "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" but missed the mark... Haha Christmars...

We also got to admire some of the ancient architecture. There was this really cool look-out spot that looked out over some fields with the mountains in the background. So beautiful! And because it is a tourist spot, we got asked to have our picture taken many times... oh, the life of celebrities! ;) We also saw an American family walking around but we didn't really talk to them, just said hello.

There was a little band playing in that balcony

Everyone loves taking pics with the blonde one ;)

 Before we left, we all got kissing fish pedicures! These fish are also known as doctor fish or nibble fish, and they basically eat off the dead skin and bacteria on our feet. It was so hard to put your feet in though because it tickles! They just start going crazy as soon as you put your feet in. Eventually we all got over the weirdness of it and were able to keep our feet in for 30 minutes. The worst was when they tried to get between your toes, so weird! I'd say our feet ended up quite exfoliated! And we decided there is something wrong with Evan's feet because like 5 of the fish in his tank died.... oops. Haha it was such a fun experience!

We both finally got both feet all the way in!

What the heck are we doing?

We were all so exhausted on the the bus ride home! When we got back we decided to get dinner at a restaurant near mine and Lindsay's apartments. It was really interesting trying to order when the menu is all in Chinese and there are no pictures... but we managed to get some rice, yummy wonton soup and some beef and onion dish which was pretty good! The people there were so nice and helpful! The owner speaks some English and so does his wife so they talked to us for awhile. He got to know the China Horizons teachers from last Fall semester really well and talked about them a little bit. He taught us how to say the name of all our food in Chinese. He also tried to learn our names which was funny because he could say all of ours except Evans. I learned his name but now I can't remember what it is... Anyway, it was a lot of fun, we all talked and laughed together!

Today, Sunday, we had to teach :( My classes went okay though! After dinner tonight, Lindsay and I are going to watch the Women's broadcast and Elder Holland's BYU-I devotional since we missed church this morning.

Just 2 more days of school until our 7 day break!! Yay!