Beautiful China, Part 2

(this is Part 2 of a series - for Part 1, click here)

 Again, we are going to start with mountains! There's just something majestic about them. Seeing mountains reminds me of [insert a profound realization about the nature of life that I cannot really express here] and I'll always keep that with me.

(Left) The flat mountain here is Maiji Mountain in Gansu Province. (Below) Taken from Maiji Mtn itself.

Although you can click on these pictures to make them bigger, something is lost when you take a picture of mountains which are surrounded by the early morning's fog. 

Although you can look at the picture and say, "wow...", it is a truly awesome thing to actually experience. Awesome as in the original sense of being full of awe. 

For me personally, there is nothing better than a combination of three things which I love most of all - mountains, cultural history, and China.

And Maiji Mountain gave me all three at once! Buddhist carvings dating back over 1000 years on a mountain in China! How about that?

As I walked along the side of this mountain, I was once again reminded that I was in China - sometimes I forgot that I was on the other side of the world in a country that I technically didn't belong in, but felt like I belonged in.

Sometimes it takes something truly foreign and unique to remind us of where we came from and how we got to where we are today.

When I think of something beautiful, normally I think of the mountains or somewhere far away from the city. But beauty isn't just about mountains and nature. It's about something that is stirred deep within you and reminds you of your humanity and your fleeting time on earth.


(Lanzhou University of Technology campus)

It's not limited to Tianshui, Lanzhou, Beijing, New York, Colorado, or any place.

Beauty is everywhere - you just have to be aware of it, I guess.

To me, the beauty of these places is that all of these places are special to me because I got to Rest. 


That seems to be something that's largely been lost on humanity. The ability to just rest and reflect on yourself. Now life is all about doing and planning, but rest and reflection have been all but forgotten.

(Lanzhou from Bai Ta Shan)

Sometimes you can find the most peaceful and beautiful spots in the unlikeliest of locations....would you care to guess where this is?




Downtown Beijing.

Yep - this is at the Old Summer Palace! It's not exactly downtown - it's north of downtown, but still.....it's in the smack middle of one of the biggest cities on the planet.


Who would've thought it?

Despite its location, it was a great place for introspection and soul-searching.

This was the point in time when I was nearing the end of my stay in China - I had maybe 1 week to go. It was the perfect time and place for me to rest and reflect in the disastrous humidity.

The world is a beautiful and wonderful place, and I've done my utmost to never foret it.

Just try and tell me otherwise.

What do you think? Feel free to leave comments and responses! No sign-up, just leave your name and your comment! I love hearing from you :)

My Favorite Pictures: Part 3

Another day of pictures, hopefully you like them! According to the views I've been getting, it seems to be a good thing :) As usual, click to enlarge and feel free to subscribe!

This is the Lanzhou University of Technology's kindergarten, where the young children of the LUT teachers go to school. This institution is talked about in my thesis, so I took a picture for posterity.

Lanzhou University of Technology during a February snow.

Lanzhou....my wonderful home for six months.

These guys are my brothers. I spent so much time with them that they became my family. This was a screen pic I took from a movie we all made together called "Struggle Story," which I am going to post a link to at some point. It is about the struggles four Chinese students face in trying to fulfill their dreams - a very relevant topic for a movie in China. The words at the bottom come from a song 我是一只小小鸟, "I am a Small, Small Bird", which is about someone who, like a small bird, wants to fly high, but cannot.  I miss these guys.

Lanzhou University of Technology's West Campus lake

Lanzhou University of Technology's West Campus entrance. Although I lived on their main campus, I spent nearly every weekend of the semester at this campus because the students at this campus are freshmen and sophomores and are generally more friendly and open than those on the main campus. No offense to the main campus. 

Typical market street just off the West Campus

People just selling their stuff - shops or just putting their fruit/veggies on a blanket on the street.

Fresh, fresh, fresh. Most Americans can only dream of this kind of fresh unless they regularly go to Farmer's Markets

A ruined walkway at the Old Summer Palace. No matter how grand and elaborate a place is, the onward march of time cannot be halted.

The Summer Palace, built around Kunming Lake in Beijing, is a maze of courtyards and walkways in the area immediately adjacent the lake. It is really neat, but you get to wondering, "Where the heck is the end of this thing?"

This is 苏州街, or Suzhou (Sue-Joe) street. It is part of the Summer Palace tour and is kind of like Venice :D

The street itself is a little disappointing. Sure, it is really cool to walk along the winding and water-lined street, but all of the places on the street are shops designed to get foreigners to spend too much money. Sure, there are cool things which you can only buy in China, such as authentic traditional instruments, authentic tailored silk clothes, special kinds of tea, etc., but I don't like to fall into those tourist traps, so I was a little disappointed.

It really is a beautiful street, isn't it?

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That is the end of today's post - tomorrow I will do something different. Stick around! If you've got any comments/questions/anything, feel free to leave one at the bottom! Also, feel free to subscribe if you're interested!

My Favorite Pictures: Part 1

Today, I thought I'd start a series of my favorite pictures and stories. I've got 10 for you to look at today and I hope you'll be interested! Please feel free to leave comments and to subscribe! Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Today we've got 9 from Lanzhou and the last one is from Beijing. I planned it to be a little more eclectic, but by the time I finished, I realized they were almost all from Lanzhou. Next time, I'll mix it up a little bit.

I was an exchange student (the 1st ever) to attend Lanzhou University of Technology. The university has two campuses and the 1st time I went to the west campus of the university, I met some total strangers and they invited me back to their rented apartment and cooked a huge meal for me and 3 friends I was meeting there. 

You can see that people do meals differently in China - all the dishes are the in the middle of the table and are shared by everyone, but everyone has their own rice bowl. It's a much more enjoyable experience than everyone spooning off onto their own plate. It's a group experience.

This was taken at a primary school assembly in Lanzhou, where I talked to some of the kids and did some games and all kinds of stuff. It was an "English Adventure Day", so they were desperately trying to find a foreigner to participate. 

It was an interesting experience - the kids put on short English language plays like Snow White and everyone did their best to participate, although it was hot that day and the sun was beating down on everyone for the whole 2-hour(ish) assembly. Props to the kids for putting up with it!

This is the 兰州理工大学运动会。The Lanzhou University of Technology "Sports Meeting" - it's kind of like the university's version of the Olympics. All the departments show up and parade in like in this picture, there are shows of martial arts, their ROTC (ish) program, music, and there are events like the hundred meter dash, tug-of-war, etc. It's a cool thing and I'd recommend anyone who goes to China to study to attend a meeting like this if their university holds one.

These are 3 good friends of mine (r to l) Zhu Jiacan (Mike), Xia Fei (Kevin), and "Suella" Zhang. They're all good people and really friendly and speak great English. We took this on the West campus of LUT.

This is from the time I tried Stinky Tofu. It was not exactly my favorite, as you can see...but the night market was a really cool place!!!

This is Eric, the son of one of my teachers. He's really cool and super hyper and super funny, but the only thing is that he gets angry when people speak English because he can't understand :( poor kid

My band!! Exchange Student Band - I was an exchange student, and Freddy and Janson are now exchange students in Chicago, and Christina is an exchange teacher. She was only in the band for one performance, so I guess it was E.S.T. Band for one performance. E.S. Band forever!

This is a pic of ZhongShan bridge (中山桥) in downtown Lanzhou. It was the first bridge built across the Yellow River in a Provincial level city in all of China! Cool! It's a little over 100 years old - super cool! A lot of YouTube vids that you will see of Lanzhou will feature this bridge.

This is a view of south-western Lanzhou - this bridge is the 七里河桥 Qi Li He bridge. At night, it's lit up with neon and it changes colors and it's is really, really cool! This was taken from the western part of the Bai Ta mountain, 白塔山.

This is one of my favorites from the whole trip - this is a jump back to Beijing. This was taken as I exited the Forbidden City's north entrance. The pagoda/pavilion/whatever that you see in the top center of the picture is the central pagoda/pavilion/whatever of Jingshan Park.

It's actually a part of Chinese fengshui. If you have a palace or importance building, it is good fengshui to have it surrounded by water (the moat of the Forbidden City), and then on the north side protected by a hill (Jingshan Park, created by the earth scooped out for the moat). The hill and water are supposed to protect you from demons.