Archive for February, 2011

Bitten by the (Chinese) Travel Bug

February 20th, 2011 by Manda | 2 Comments | Filed in Travel

It has come to my realization that I have not done any traveling since arriving in Beijing this semester. I might have been in Beijing for only a month so far, but in study abroad speak, that’s a long time. Hell, I didn’t even manage to go to Pingyao during Chinese New Year (or anywhere else, for that matter). Unlike my friends studying abroad in Europe, who seem to be planning glamorous vacations to places like Italy, Portugal, and Austria, I have been spending my days in Beijing, doing the same old thing day in, day out.

Well, no more. I have spent the majority of today browsing good places to travel to in China that are affordable and can be done in a weekend, as my class schedule doesn’t allow me to travel on week days. It’s surprisingly hard to find places that are interesting and that I haven’t been to already, but I did manage to come up with a small list of cities I absolutely must visit before my time in China is up.

  • Tianjin
  • Fuzhou
  • Qingdao
  • Yantai
  • Dalian
  • Dali
  • Kunming
  • Lijiang
  • Lhasa
  • Urumqi
  • Nanjing
  • Harbin
  • Hohhot
  • Chongqing

Now that I have a list of places I want to go, it’s time to figure out when is the best time to travel. Then comes buying cheap plane/train tickets, booking hostels… oh, and finding friends to travel with! Any takers?

Tags:

Soul Searching

February 19th, 2011 by Manda | 6 Comments | Filed in Life

I’ve been a little scarce of late and when I have been around, my entries haven’t exactly been the most personal or insightful. This is because I seem to have fallen into a bit of a state that, well… I don’t know. A state that involves a lot of feeling discouraged and worthless, I guess. It’s complicated.

I’m not satisfied with where a lot of things are in my life right now. I need to fix this, but I don’t know how, because so much of this dissatisfaction stems from things that are out of my control.

I wish there was a button I could press and magically, everything would turn around.

Tags:

The Origin of the Chinese Zodiac

February 17th, 2011 by Manda | 3 Comments | Filed in Life

Since today marks the 15th day of New Year according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar1, I thought I would share this tale about the origin of the Chinese Zodiac. Happy Year of the Rabbit, everyone!

(more…)

  1. There are 15 days of Chinese New Year, much like how there are 12 days of Christmas. The 15th day, or the Lantern Festival, is a Big Deal and involves lots of lantern lighting and eating 汤圆. []

Tags: