23.11.2024 - 24.11.2024
This weekend, I was still feeling unwell and had an upset stomach, so I only visited a couple of rather dull museums. One featured a major exhibition on the Qipao, the famous Chinese dress that you likely know about. The Six Dynasties Museum appeared to be privately owned, as its artifacts and overall design were of much higher quality than any other museums I've encountered lately.
Posted by baixing
08:48
Archived in China
I'm still trying out my knee, so I visited Zhou "garden" (which isn't really a garden) and Wenfeng pagoda. It was impressive but tough for me to climb.
I recently had the amazing chance to visit the Great Mosque in Xi'an, China. It was genuinely an unforgettable cultural experience. Situated in the vibrant Muslim Quarter of Xi'an's downtown area, this mosque is among the oldest and largest in the country.
I was initially planning to stay in Nanjing and gain some weight, but I figured I should take advantage of my five days off. Since no one would help me transport my belongings to my new school until after the holiday, I decided to book a train to Chongqing. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, I thought I should probably arrange my return train to Nanjing. The management wants to send my things on February 5, but can you believe every train is fully booked for that day? So, I ended up booking a train for February 7, arriving in Nanjing on February 8. If they have an issue with it, they can just deal with it, I suppose. This meant I had to hurry and pack everything since I had no idea what the cleaning crew would do on February 5. I informed my boss that the bags were packed in my room, except for some laundry I did on the day I left (another mistake). I still haven't heard back from her about that.
One thing that surprised me about Chengdu was how similar it felt to Beijing and other major Chinese cities we had explored. While we experienced some interesting nightlife spots, the city overall seemed quite generic. I initially thought this might be due to my limited Western viewpoint, but Mei Ling concurred that Chengdu didn't truly embody Sichuanese culture. We resolved to venture beyond the city borders during our remaining days in Chengdu.
I was very let down by my location once more this semester. It took me 2.5 hours to reach the train station on the teacher bus and then 3 hours to return from the train station on the light rail. Not to mention the 1 km walk back to my apartment from the train station. It's just as bad as it was last semester, if not worse, because there are no longer any trees or stray cats. It's simply a vast dusty campus on flat ground, with a lot of wind and currently, the sun is quite uncomfortably hot.
This month, I've been extremely lazy due to my knee not feeling completely right and the inconvenient location I reside in. Traveling to the south end of the city requires me to take two light rail trains, which takes at least 1.5 hours. I live in Gaochun, south of the airport, so I first take the local rail to the airport, then switch to the airport train to finally reach the south end of the city. My tourist card now only has destinations on the north end of the city left, and I lack the motivation to visit more than one each weekend. Without further delay, here are the photos I took during the weekends in December.
23.11.2024 - 24.11.2024 15 °C