It’s time to be a tourist

Today I collected my passport from the Hangzhou Police Bureau after my application for a tourist visa as my Residency Permit has expired. The tourist visa is valid for 30 days from the date of application but they take a week to process so despite applying for it on the 24th June, it was only issued today, the 1st July and expires on the 23rd July. Add to that the fact that whenever you stay in a hotel in China you must have your passport it makes life a little difficult.

My 30 day tourist visa only really usable for 22 days.

With that out of the way it is time to be a tourist and see some of the sites of China. The only place in China that I really want to see and still haven’t is Guilin and especially Yangshuo just to the south of it. For those of you who don’t know anything about it here’s a little teaser. It is said to be one of the most beautiful areas of China because of its characteristic karst peaks that rise up on either side of the Li River. You may well have seen some of these images in picture books about China and it is so beautiful it is also the illustration found on the back of the 20 Yuan bank-note.

So tomorrow, Margaurita and I catch an overnight train for the 20+ hour journey to Guilin where we will spend 3 days and hopefully get to view some of the must see sites including the Elephant Trunk Hill.

Elephant Trunk Hill, Guilin (Wikimedia Commons)

After that we will head a little further south, probably on a river cruise, to Yangshuo for 4-5 days which is a smaller village and backpacker haven with lots of activities like biking, bamboo rafting, fishing with cormorants, rice terrace tours and more amazing views of the karst peaks rising up all around.

Karst peaks along the river (Wikimedia Commons)

Bamboo rafting on river (Wikimedia Commons)

Hopefully it lives up to these pictures and expectations. I probably won’t be posting much while travelling, I’ll be too busy trying to take as many pictures as possible of the landscape but rest assured there will be full reports on the trip with lots of pictures when I get back. Maybe even some more HDR images so stay logged on.

Read Full Post »

Sports Day and a surprise at lunch

We were told only a week before that the school was having its sports day (or days) last week Thursday and Friday. Not only that but we were on the teachers team number 5 and were to report to the canteen after classes that day to practice jump rope. Needless to say I was hopeless with my timing as was always the one ruining the rhythm with the group jump rope so it was decided I would be running. How far was still unknown.

We all know stretching is important

It wasn’t until our 2nd and last practice the day before that we found out the running option was in fact a 6 x 150m relay. Each runner having to run half way around the slightly smaller than regulation track. It isn’t too far but the nerves then started to kick in. I can handle losing in a 100m dash, but dropping the baton and disappointing 5 other team mates wouldn’t go down well. So we did a few practice hand off runs at jogging speed and that was it. See you tomorrow. Friday came and it was 41 degrees in the shade; the hottest day we’ve had this year.

Read Full Post »