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Location Date Guangzhou 1375138800 Lanzhou 1346108400 Xiahe 1344985200 Dunhuang 1343430000 Beijing 1340406000 Shanghai 1340406000 Xi'an 1340060400 Lijiang 1334185200 Chengdu 1334185200 Kunming 1334098800 Jianshui 1334098800 Yuanyang Rice Terraces 1334098800 Dali 1334098800 Beihai 1331683200 Nanning 
1330905600 Sanya 1327363200 -
Location Date Mon, 05 March 2012
1330905600 Sun, 05 February 2012 1328400000
The weather is still pretty cold and the air pretty soupy; there is more snow on the hills behind campus now than when we left, and we've had several days of steady snow – enough to stay around for a while. So much for winter being over when we got back. But the Spring Festival decorations are still up along the river and we enjoyed a long walk to look at them on the weekend.
We’ve had the reversal of the exodus pre Spring Festival – students trundling up the hill with their suitcases, tent city is back along the roadworks below us and the apartment building is filling up again. We’ve caught up with the other foreign teachers, stocked up the apartment and re-acquainted ourselves with the town. A new AVI arrived the day after us, and another new teacher popped out of her apartment when she heard English in the stairwell. An Indian Australian and an American – two more accents to add to the mix of English teachers here.
We’re back in Lanzhou after a fabulous, unbelievable journey through some of south western China. We had a great time and just loved the diversity in countryside, people, culture and food. We got a glimpse of the complexity of this country and a better understanding of who the students are and where they are coming from.
We warmed up and veged out on Hainan, then worked our way up through Yunnan and Sichuan back to Lanzhou. Particularly loved Yunnan, it’s so beautiful and varied. We’ll have to go back and visit some places we didn’t get to.
The weather was mostly kind to us and our travel arrangements worked pretty well. We travelled super light and I got very tired of the same two sets of clothing after five and a half weeks – but small bags certainly helped clambering on and off buses and trains and up staircases. We had a loose itinerary and went where our fancy took us. Our health largely held out (not counting Owen’s back) till a rather dramatic episode in the very last week when, one after the other, we were spectacularly ill.
Can’t resist recounting our journey as we lived it, so the blog will backtrack for a while.
- comments
Zig Always interesting news, Avenel........but what happened to Owen's back and what sort of ill were you both? Did you need medical treatment?It's great that you have time to visit other interesting places around China - you'll have photos galore to show us when you get back.We're looking forward to catching up with the Dymonds and Smiths next weekend at San Remo. You will be missed! We'll be toasting absent friends.We're off to Vietnam in April and also will be travelling 'light', but two sets of clothing is definitely 'super light'.Cheers to you both,Zig and Dino
avenel Sorry for not responding sooner. No medical treatment necessary - just the usual traveler illnesses. Owen developed a sore back half way through - I think because he's out of practice carrying a backpack. We sought out pharmacies selling disprin everywhere we went.