I'm still testing my knee, so I visited Zhou "garden" (which isn't really a garden) and the Wenfeng pagoda, the latter being impressive but challenging to climb. I've been feeling quite lazy and completely worn down by the authorities at Nanjing University of Finance and Economics. I'm doing my best to leave, but they keep undermining every attempt. Anyway, here are some photos from the pagoda, located 12 km and three buses away from my campus: This is the view from the top, indicating that I live in a pretty remote area. I also went to Zhou garden in Lishui, the town where I catch the train to other cities (you'll notice I don't board the train in Nanjing, right? That's because I don’t actually live in Nanjing!). It’s not exactly a garden, but rather an antique house that was moved here from another province. The rest of the site was filled with Buddha sculptures, which were all quite overwhelming and impressive. I’m not sure where these sculptures came from, but it’s an impressive collection. There's also a vast assortment of antique wooden furniture.
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.
We spent two weeks in Changde. It rained nearly every day, which limited our exploration more than we had hoped. We enjoyed playing at arcades, engaged in Township (a game on our phones and tablets), and went go-karting three times. The go-karts were fully electric and located inside a mall. Logan and Lizzy have been playing Township for over three years and taught Jenny how to play during a two-day stretch of continuous rain. She enjoys the game because it allows her to garden digitally while we travel. They also introduced Lutao to the game, so now the entire family plays Township together.
It was excessively warm.
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.
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.
We spent two weeks in Beijing. The day after our arrival, we visited Chao Yang Park (Sun Park) and rented a duck boat. It was quite slow, but we enjoyed navigating it around the lake.
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.