Day 96: April 9, 2013

     Materials class was kind of funny because out of nowhere we had a new teacher today and no one even noticed until like 5 minutes into class because she looked similar to our other teacher. She talks with a lot more inflection which is nice but I am not sure she teaches the material quite as well but she is at least decent.

      After class we all rushed back to the dorm to watch the NCAA championship game in Nathan and Tyler’s room. It was a really good game although Michigan kind of let it go near the end with so many missed free throws and then that horrible call on the shot block by Burke but it was still fun to watch. 

     After the game we were all pretty hungry so we decided to head back over to Big Mama Chef’s for some burgers. This time I tried the fried chicken burger, which was great, and the owners are so nice they brought us out some free french fries, peanuts, and green tea. Mathew stopped in to say hi and told us we have to tell him when we come so we can get special discounts but the food is already so cheap and they are so generous we would feel bad. 

     After we were all done eating we kind of went into a food coma and I laid around and blogged myself to sleep. I woke up for our dinner back at the Faculty Club in Xujiahui hosted by Professor Bajaj, which was really nice. I got to sit at a table with professor Groll who teaches at Purdue and had helped start this program. He was very interesting to talk to and since he is originally from Germany and travels all over the world, he has a lot of great stories. We had a very enjoyable dinner and then got back on the bus to Minhang. After dinner I blogged as much as I could until Tyler stopped by my room around 11:30 and told me to come hang out with Josh, Eliot, Carlin, Nathan, and Jess down in his room. With nothing better to do I agreed and ended up having a really good time. I never really get to see the guys from the other class so it is always fun to hang out with them when I get the chance. After loosing track of time and realizing it was somehow already 2 in the morning, I headed back up to my room to go to sleep.

Day 95: April 8, 2013

      So as usual the thermo test didn’t go quite as expected. At Purdue we are used to maybe 3 or 4 worked out problems and that is the whole test, but on this exam we had a section of multiple choice, True/False, and then one worked out problem. I never really do well with that kind of format so I just went ahead and started on the worked out problem and did the best I could. They used an assumption that we hardly ever use, which threw everyone off a little, but I did my best to at least get down what I knew even though I got stuck on a few things. I never know how the multiple choice and True/False go but hopefully I am a good guesser and I won’t do too horribly. 

     Everyone wasn’t exactly in a great mood after the test so everyone kind of just kept to themselves. I Skyped my parents which always cheers me up, especially since they will be here in just a few weeks! Everyone had already gone for lunch by the time I was done so I ran over to grab a pita pocket and Nathan happened to be standing in the line right next to me. We walked back together and then he headed to heat and mass while I recruited a group of people to go do something outside since it was a really nice day. There were only a few of us at first so we just kicked a soccer ball around but then eventually we got enough people to play some Razzle Dazzle. That was fun as always and then I contemplated going for a run but my stomach felt kind of weird so I just headed in for a shower. 

     After that I decided it was too nice just to sit inside so I took my computer outside to do some blogging. I ran into John and Adam who had just gone for a run and talked with them for over an hour and then realized the sun was behind the clouds so I headed back inside. After that I really just spent the rest of the night blogging and bumming around my room, appreciating my exams being over until finals (with the exception of maybe our online class).

Day 94: April 7, 2013

     After getting a decent night’s sleep I got up with full intentions of starting right in on studying thermo but then I remembered the Michigan vs. Syracuse game was on and I couldn’t resist watching. I watched alone in my room for a while and then joined Tyler and Adam for the rest. When it was done we all headed over for lunch and then it was actually time to hit the books.

      I studied all day until we all decided we needed a dinner break and that we wanted to do something other than the dining courts. We headed straight out of the gate and Nathan and John took us to a place they had been that they said was good. Most of us ended up getting what they called “beef stew” that was amazing and we also got some three delicacies to split as well. After a nice dinner we unfortunately had to get back to studying. Bryan and I made our crib sheets and crammed for as long as we could until we decided to call it quits around 1:00 to get some rest and hopefully have all the information soak in over night.

Day 93: April 6, 2013

     We all kind of slept in this morning to prepare for a long day of studying. I woke up to some maids cleaning my room, which was kind of awkward, so I just waited until they left and then headed to the lobby. I ordered the French toast for breakfast, which really hit the spot. It was really cheap for how much food I got and it came with fresh fruit, eggs, and sausage. I used my free instant coffee coupon and started right in on studying. 

Chengdu city

     I studied all day while Jess and Bryan did some blogging and Skyping. I took a little break for a little lunch of fried rice and then continued with the studying until it was time to grab some dinner and head to the airport. We walked towards the bus stop with a horrible map and somehow ended up right at the corner where we were supposed to be. We needed some food before a long flight and we searched around but nowhere really seemed to have picture menus. We ended up stopping a student and asking if he knew of a good restaurant that might have picture menus. He pointed us towards a place right by the bus stop that was called Beefsteak. We decided to just go for it and it turned out to have a really good menu. We all got these steak meals that came with a fruit bar, garlic bread, soup, noodles, vegetables, and an egg and all of it was delicious even though we are pretty sure it wasn’t quite the best quality steak. 

Bye Chengdu!

     After enjoying our meal we paid and just walked outside to catch the bus and got right on. After not too long we were at the airport with plenty of time to spare especially since our flight was running late. We all sat around and chatted in the terminal until it was finally time to board. Of course we sat on the tarmac for over an hour and then once we got in the air I couldn’t fall asleep so I just sat and listened to music. They made us put up our tray tables and such and then we continued to fly around Shanghai for another hour and a half, which was pretty frustrating but eventually we were finally on the ground. We had to get on one of those shuttle buses just to drive us in a circle and about 100 ft from where we got on but then we were finally where we needed to be. We rushed over to the cab line and got in one in a matter of minutes and then had a decent cab ride back to the dorm. Since it was around 1:30 we had to wake up the aunties to let us in but they were very nice because I don’t think they were actually asleep yet. With that we made it up to our rooms, climbed into to bed, and passed out.

Day 92: April 5, 2013 Now That is One Giant Buddha!

      We took it pretty easy this morning and didn’t even get out of bed until 10 and then we all packed up our stuff and went to check out. We turned in our keys and then they started saying something to us in Chinese that we didn’t understand so we just walked away assuming they were offering us food or something. Luckily one guy chased us down and saying bus and we managed to figure out that they were offering to take us to the Giant Buddha for free. They told us to sit down and wait and in a few minutes we had our own private car that dropped us off right at the entrance. It started to rain so we got out all of our rain gear and then got our tickets and headed inside. Bryan and Jess couldn’t have been more relieved that we weren’t going to have to see any more monkeys on this trip and then sure enough right as we walked in there were two monkeys right there. They blew right by them as fast and they could but I really wanted to hold one so I made them go back with me. For 10 yuan I got to hold him and take a picture, which was totally worth it. The little guy was all dressed up and super cute. Bryan and Jess warmed up to the idea as soon as they saw how nice he was and they too decided to hold him. With our last monkey encounter out of the way we headed further into the park to make our way to the Buddha. 

     We didn’t realize it at first but rather than just the Buddha there was actually a whole park with all sorts of sights so we decided to stop by as many as we could on the way to the Buddha. There were tons of cool artifacts and Buddha carvings that all were really pretty. At one point we made it into this open area and realized that there was nowhere to go but up which entailed walking up a 100 or so unbelievably steep steps which wasn’t exactly on our on agenda after climbing the mountain. We sucked it up and got to the top and were rewarded with a great view of the park and a really cool Buddha at the top. It also put yesterday’s hike into perspective since we could actually see how far we had gotten. The fog was totally deceiving on the mountain because we were amazed how high we had gotten in just a couple minutes let alone the 9 hours. We continued along and looked at all of the cool Buddhas until we had made it all the way to where the main attraction was. 

      We hopped in a line without much investigation and realized we were moving very slowly. After about 30 minutes we sent Jess ahead to investigate how long we had ahead of us and she came back not looking very pleased. She told us it wasn’t looking very good and that we had to weave through 2 other lines before we even got to the stairs that we had to walk down that were the length of the Buddha to get to the base. We realized we had a while and were getting really bored so we decided to start playing 20 questions. It actually turned out to be really fun, a great way to pass the time, and was pretty funny when Bryan would come up with the most ridiculous questions. We also made some friends in line who were probably just staring at us for the first 15 minutes of waiting and eventually when Bryan said ni hao they got up their courage to ask for a picture with us. From then on they were all over us giving us all sorts of snacks that their parents were handing up from the back. We talked with them as much as we could and then after not too long we finally made it to the stairs to the bottom. We had to do quite a bit of shoving if we were ever going to make it to the bottom and hold our ground so we made sure to “assert our dominance” as Bryan would say. The stairs were pretty packed but it was tolerable because we had a great view of the Buddha the whole way down. 

First view of the Buddha - the top of its head!

      It was seriously amazing to look at because it was just so huge. The size of one of the fingers was triple my size and it was just carved right out of the mountain, which was awesome. After about 2.5 hours total we finally made it to the base where his feet were. That really put things into perspective when you could look back up all of the stairs and see how far you had come and realize just how big the Buddha really was. We took tons of pictures including quite a few with random Chinese people as always and of course one with our friends from in line. After we had been starting at the Buddha for a quite a while and realized we had taken about 100 of the same pictures we decided it was time to leave.

      Unfortunately we had to climb all the way back up to the head, which was pretty disappointing, but we made it without too much trouble. After that we were on a mission to get out of the park and to the bus station as quickly as we could so that we could make it back to Chengdu in time for dinner with Ross and Miles.

      We went out of one of the exits and were bombarded by people asking to take us in their bike drawn carriages. We didn’t know if there was another way out of the alley but we ended up finding a girl who spoke great English and said that she was going near the bus station and would help us get there. We walked for a while until we found the main road and hopped on a bus. She told us to just get off at the last stop and the station would be right there. The ride was a little longer than we expected but soon enough we got off and were right where we needed to be. We walked inside the station and got tickets for the bus but had about 45 minutes to kill which was perfect since we hadn’t eaten anything all day and it was already 4:00. We found a little noodle shop across the street and just told them we had to eat fast and the noodles were up in a matter of minutes.  After scarfing down our food we headed back over to the station and waited for our bus to be called. In the mean time we all bought Snickers for the road and ended up talked with a few guys from New Zealand and Scotland. After not very long it was time to get on the bus and head on our way. I slept most of the time and before I knew it everyone was getting yelled at to get off of the bus at this random street corner. We just went with it and then tried to catch a cab to the hotpot restaurant to meet Ross and Miles.

     Once we finally got a cab we just gave the phone to the driver and had Miles tell him where to go and we got there without a problem. Miles was so nice and had been waiting at the restaurant so we would have a table since it was so busy. By the time we got there we already had our hotpot filled with 2 different styles, one with no spice and one with a little spice (which is a lot more than just a little to us). They asked us what we wanted to eat and we told them anything basic like beef, potatoes, noodles, and other vegetables. They took care of the ordering and did an amazing job. We had all sorts of things like beef, potatoes, noodles, cucumbers, seaweed, lotus root, and even pig intestines. They were surprisingly not bad considering everything you throw in the hotpot just comes out tasting like the spicy broth but the texture was pretty funny. Everything was seriously amazing and the amount of spice was about perfect for us since we have been building up our tolerance since we’ve been here. We had a great conversation over dinner and caught up with what they had been doing since we last saw them. Unfortunately they were wrong on the bus times back to Chengdu from Mt. Emei and ended up having to take a cab all the way back, which they said was kind of a mess. Other than that Miles told us more about his trip to Cambodia and we told them about some of our trips we have been on and decided that if any of us are ever in town near them that we would have to stop by and visit. 

     After an amazing meal Bryan, Jess, and I all agreed that we would pay for their meals since they had been more than helpful to us and had been seriously amazing. Before we could even bring it up they told us they were going to pay for us and we told them no way. We argued for a while and they suggested we just split it evenly but we insisted that we pay since they had done so much for us. We eventually pulled the guilt card and told them we would be offended if they didn’t accept our gift and they agreed only after making us promise that they could take us to this pedestrian street and buy us snacks. After a super traditional Chinese exchange we took care of the check and headed over to the bar and shopping street that turned out to be really cool. It had all sorts of cool little things like horse statues coming out of the walls and a wall full of nails that you could pull in and out to spell things. 

     We ended up coming across some gelato and decided we would get some and of course Miles insisted on paying, which I guess was only fair. We all got the cookie gelato and it was really, really good. Very satisfied with the taste in our mouths, Ross then offered us these traditional Chinese snack she had bought to bring back to her friends. We told her we didn’t want to take them from her friends but she pulled out a giant bag she had bought and insisted. They didn’t look so great as they looked like meat in shrink wrap but they told us it wasn’t so I went ahead and tried it. It was some kind of dried tofu I believe and it wasn’t terrible but definitely not my favorite thing. I made an expression like I enjoyed it and passed it along to Jess who later scolded me for making such a pleased face. Bryan and Jess thought it was gross so it got handed back to me and I just searched for a trash can to slyly ditch it in without them noticing. We continued our walk around until we stopped at this stand where this guy made these incredible sugar animals on sticks. Miles got us a dragon so we got to watch him make it start to finish and it was seriously incredible. He just took this sugar taffy and stretched it in all different ways until somehow there was a dragon and then he even painted it for a final touch. It felt wrong to eat it but we all took a piece after cracking half of it onto the floor. 

     After that we stopped into this little historical site that was pretty cool since Ross and Miles could actually tell us what it was. It was interesting because apparently you could rent it out for parties, which we thought was kind of funny. After that it was pretty late and about time to be heading back to our hostel. We thanked them both one last time and told them how lucky we were to have met such nice people. We got a picture with them and then said goodbye. They even gave us hugs, which is very rare for Chinese people, because they knew we would like it. They then put us in a cab to our hostel and headed back to their hotel. The whole cab ride back the three of us talked about how great they were and that we were so happy we got to spend time together and make some knew friends as earlier in the trip we were saying it is sad that we haven’t really made any true Chinese friends. Very happy we checked into our hostel only to be told we weren’t all going to be in the same room so Jess and I roomed with two random guys and Bryan roomed with three random girls. We all grabbed our laptops and took advantage of the wifi and after about an hour we called it a night.

Day 91: April 4, 2013 Monkeys in the Mist!

              Today was yet another early morning but we were all ready to start our day and do some hiking. We figured we needed a decent breakfast in us if we were playing on hiking for 5 or more hours so we tried to order some eggs and toast but the hostel insisted that they didn’t not have toast but they had garlic bread so we said that was close enough. Sure enough when they brought it out it was literally toast with chunks of garlic on it, but it worked. After we ate we checked out of the hostel, Bryan, Joe, and Catriona grabbed bamboo hiking sticks to fend off the monkeys, and we made our way towards the bus to take us to Wannian Temple which not very far from the base of the mountain. From there we started on our trek up the mountain, once again not even knowing what we were getting ourselves into. After hiking for only an hour we were all already sweating and our legs were already getting tired. Joe and Catriona were lagging behind and just decided to head back down and bus up to the top, but the stubborn three of us decided we wanted to stick it out.

 

      We made some Chinese friends to hike with which was really nice because it gave us something to distract ourselves from the gruesome hike.  We had a lot of ups and downs throughout the day, which was actually pretty funny. Every time we would stop and take a break we would talk about how far we would be able to hike and that we were making really good time and as soon as we started hiking again we would want to take it back. We went from originally planning on staying on the mountain one night and reaching the summit the second day to staying two nights so we could see more areas of the mountain to staying no nights on the mountain and just reaching the summit on the first day. The trek to the top was anything but easy; we hiked for about 9 hours and climbed thousands of stairs that totaled to be 21 km or over 13 miles in straight vertical stairs. Although it was absolutely exhausting we had so many fun adventures along the way. 

    First of all, we made some great friends that we seriously owe the world to. We met this guy and girl, Miles and Ross, while hiking who were probably two of the nicest people I have ever met. Before we even knew their names they were offering us Dove chocolate and Chinese gummy snacks. They were great hiking buddies as they were right on our pace and kept us entertained. We stopped for a quick lunch on the mountain, which was pretty awesome since we didn’t know if we would get to eat all day. Jess and I split a plate of eggplant and Bryan got some fried rice and potatoes. We talked with Miles over lunch and got to see all of his pictures from Cambodia that looked absolutely amazing. Just from seeing the pictures Bryan, Jess, and I have already made a pact to someday make it back to Asia and go to Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia.  

     After our nice little lunch break we continued our way up the mountain pestered by Bryan the whole way to ask people if there are monkeys ahead. When we got to the Elephant Bathing Pool, however, he had a pretty quick change of opinion. As soon as we saw the first monkey he instantly said that he didn’t like monkeys anymore and that he never wanted to see one again. I have to admit they were a little scary considering they were wild monkeys and we really had no idea what they were going to do. Bryan and Jess started freaking out when all of the sudden monkeys started coming out of the fog in all directions and surrounding us. We kept walking along only to see more and more monkeys. There was one monkey that was clearly the alpha male and I must say was pretty intimidating. He would make eye contact and show his teeth, which was pretty frightening. There were some really cute ones though especially the mom with her baby hanging from her stomach.

     I was set on getting a picture with one but every time I got close Jess and Bryan would freak me and out and tell me it was going to jump on me so I eventually gave up. We did get to see a few jump on other people’s backpacks which was pretty scary but they were really only interested in the food and water and if you hit the sticks and on the ground and make loud noises they eventually leave you alone. Miles told us that we might be threatening to them since we just look different than everyone else so we played it safe and didn’t try any funny business. We also felt pretty vulnerable because we were the only people in shorts and short sleeves and everyone kept telling us to put on more clothes because they are known to scratch people.  We just took our chances on that, and it turned out to be fine. After we made it past the monkeys we still had quite a ways to go up the mountain. 

     Some parts were better than others but most of the time we were pretty exhausted. Ross took the slow and steady approach and just hiked up the whole mountain without breaks and managed to never get tired. We weren’t exactly going very fast but we definitely still needed breaks so we still don’t know how she did it. After hours of hiking Miles asked someone how far away we were from the cable car that takes you the rest of the way to the summit and was told 30 minutes. Unfortunately that was not at all a close estimate as we hiked for a half hour and then Miles broke the news to us that is was going to be another hour or hour and a half before we got there. That is when we really started moving slow and were pretty ready to be done hiking. We could only 5 or so steps at a time without stopping and were really struggling. After pushing through we finally made it to check point F, which is where the cable car was supposed to be. Unfortunately the cable car is actually a little past F so we had yet another 30 minutes of stairs ahead of us before we could make it to the top. At this point we are absolutely drenched in sweat not to mention how wet we were from the misty fog as well. Luckily on the last leg we had a brief moment where the fog started to clear and we got a pretty good view down the mountain.  

     We made sure to get a group picture with Miles and Ross and then as soon as we were done we ran into Joe and Catriona. They had just gotten down from the top and said that the view was amazing and that all of the fog was cleared and you were above the clouds. With that we had some motivation to make it the rest of the way and after not too much longer we were in line for tickets to the cable car. Rather than the typical cable cars we have taken up mountains that hold around 4 to 6 people this was just one giant one that held up to 100 people which was pretty crazy. It was actually pretty scary because it moved at about a 70 degree angle and you literally could see nothing out of it since it was so foggy. Every once in a while you could see another car pass which was pretty scary because then you realized how fast we were actually moving. Of course once we got out of the cable car there were still more stairs to get to the Golden Summit with the famous Buddha on top. Unfortunately Joe and Catriona had taken the great view with them when they left because we could not see a thing.

     I walked maybe 20 feet ahead on accident and Bryan and Jess thought they lost me because the fog was so thick. I kid you not we got probably 30 feet from a 20 plus meter golden Buddha and we couldn’t even tell it was right in front of us. We could see a vague yellow tint in the sky but other than that we would have had no idea. We took a quick lap around a got a few pictures that are awful compared to Joe and Catriona’s and then went inside, which was pretty cool. With that we were about ready to be done with the mountain so we got back on the cable car down.

     On the walk from the cable car to the buses we had a really interesting conversation with Miles. He all of the sudden brought up Mao and asked our opinion of him. We have been told not really to talk about Mao but he told us that he knew Americans didn’t think of him like the Chinese people do. He even asked if we thought he was a monster. We decided we wouldn’t really candy coat it but kind of compared him to Hitler and how we would definitely consider Hitler a monster and we have just always been taught that regardless of how much you know about the subject. We said that Mao isn’t exactly the same in that people really don’t know nearly as much about him but that he definitely has a negative connotation. We explained that it partially has to do with the fact that he was a Communist leader which in general Americans do not support but also that we don’t like how many people died under his rule. He was very open-minded about it, which was pretty crazy because most people are not at all. Everyone else just thinks he is great and know nothing about all of the horrible things he did because people are just so sheltered from the actual facts. We then talked a little about the school system and how Americans teaching English aren’t allowed to bring up politics or anything like that to the kids or they will be fired. Ross didn’t even realize that Americans didn’t like Mao, which completely proved our point. The conversation wrapped up in perfect time for Ross and Miles to help us buy tickets for the bus down and then we just hopped right on.

     Unfortunately the man who took our tickets directed us towards the wrong bus and we ended up on the completely wrong side of the mountain. Ross and Miles talked with some people and they arranged for another bus to pick us up since it was their fault we were in the wrong place. While we were waiting I got a call from Joe and Catriona saying that our hostel we were planning on staying at was booked and so were all of the hotels they could find in the area. They had caught the last bus back to Chengdu and were going to stay in a hostel there and we really had no idea what we were going to do. We decided we could try to stay in Leshan which is a town about 30 minutes away where the Giant Sitting Buddha is. We originally were planning on coming back to the Buddha on Saturday but realized that would be really out of the way so it was worth a try to find a place there. Ross and Miles worked their magic and somehow managed to get us a private driver to Leshan for only about $3 and he got us rooms at a hotel. Relieved that everything was taken care of we attempted to relax on the bus down although it was pretty tough since you could see nothing the whole way down this winding and bumpy road. After a somewhat nauseating ride we were finally at the base of the mountain. We weren’t quite ready to say goodbye to Ross and Miles so we decided to meet up for a hot pot dinner in Chengdu Friday night. With that we hopped in with the private driver with four other friendly guys and were on our way.

     On the way we were instructed to get out of the van and for once we actually knew what was going on. We were at another CNG station like we were in Xi’an and had to get out so he could get gas. As soon as we got out our fellow passengers asked if we could get  a picture with them and of course we agreed. We talked with them and within 30 minutes they got dropped off and after another 15 we were at our hotel for the night. Walking up was kind of like a horror movie because it was pouring rain with lightning and the lobby was under construction, which made it look pretty creepy. We checked in and made our way up to our rooms only to pass 2 or 3 rooms on our floor with the doors open and they were just completely torn apart and were being redone. A lady followed us to our room and turned on our faucets, which was kind of weird but we just went with it. At this point we were all starving so we went on an adventure to find food.

     We pretty much seemed to be in the middle of nowhere so we just went to the place we could see across the street which was basically just a family's home. The menu was all in Chinese so we just asked for fried rice and gongbao chicken. They seemed a little confused but they just cooked us something right up and it turned out to be really good. It was pretty obvious that they kept it very simple for us since it was not spicy and just had basic veggies and such. The cook was so nice he even made us up a giant bowl of egg and tomato soup for free and was just so happy to have us and was so concerned that we enjoyed our meal. The family was really cute and had two little girls who were just adorable. We kept telling them to sit down and neither of them would and the littlest one just kept saying bu yao, meaning she didn’t want to, and running away which was hilarious. We tried to make as much conversation with the family as we could but our Chinese is definitely limited. We told them that we study in Shanghai and that we were in the Chengdu area to see the pandas, climb Mt. Emei, and that we were going to the Giant Sitting Buddha in the morning.  We eventually realized one of the older girls spoke pretty decent English, which kind of helped out. The cook kept offering us cigarettes as a sign of friendship but we all declined yet made sure to thank him for the offer. After we were done eating and talking we told them thank you so much for the food and asked how much it was. They kind of just looked around and said 100 yuan, which is very reasonable for the amount of food we got but then the cook said 90 yuan, which was nice of him. With that we said our goodbyes and crossed back across the street to the hotel. As soon as we got back we were all in dire need of showers so I hopped in. I once again fell victim to the shower, which was pretty funny. I was smart enough to point the spout away from me this time, which was clutch because it totally would have sprayed me but that wasn’t the only issue. I used the detachable shower head but there was no good place to put it. The way it was set up it was aimed horizontally at your face and if you raised it up the water pressure tilted it upwards so it would spray over the shower doors. I just held it most of the time but put it back in the holder to test out the overhead spout to tell Jess whether or not it was decent. It turned out to be awful so I flipped the switch back only to be blasted in the face, which actually just made me laugh. I could then barely open the door to get out but just came out of the bathroom laughing to Jess and told her good luck. With no internet we really had nothing to do other than make some notes for our blog and get a much needed good nights sleep after an absolutely exhausting day. Jess and I looked back on the whole day and decided we were very happy with it even though it turned out completely different from what we were expecting. It made it more exciting, we made some great friends out of it, and we were actually going to save time and money not having to come all the way back out to Leshan from Chengdu. Such a success.