A Visit to a Quant Little Village

After Zhenyuan, we had the pleasure to travel to a lovely minority village named Matang. This was quite the small village! In fact, I'm pretty certain we covered about every square foot of the place. We were quite the sight to see, as foreigners have a special look to them. The people were very excited to see us. But, I must admit that my favorite part was the adorable animals that we found there. Especially the pigs. Oh how I adore pigs. So cute! However, I did have a rather frightening experience as well. Let's just say that it involved a sketchy bathroom located between a pig pen and a shack full of manure. Yum. We also ate a delightful meal here made by the locals. (Don't worry, it was prepared quite a distance from the manure.) I don't have pictures of that, however. It didn't last long. Here is a glance into Matang:

I loved this little wheelbarrow. I found myself sketching the image one night when I was bored later down the trip. Didn't turn out quite this delightful. haha.

I loved the ivy climbing the building. It was hard to capture the image, but here you go!

There were about 50 dogs that looked JUST like this one. Can you say INBREEDING...? I guess it is a small village. Not too many options.

Not sure what these were, but they were hanging everywhere!

Purty bird!

So, you might think that my favorite picture would be a gorgeous sunrise on Yellow Mountain. Or a beautiful view of the Karst Formations. Or the Hong Kong skyline. But, you might just be wrong about that. This picture of my swine little friends is quite possibly my favorite picture of the trip. Strange? Perhaps. But, there it is.

Hey look! A cat.

And yet another door.

Well, there you are my friends. A view of Matang. Hope you enjoyed it.

The end.

Genuine Beauty

Today, let's discuss the city of Zhenyuan. If you are like me and unable to pronounce Chinese words, it is pronounced "Genuine" (thus the title...yay for puns.) Anyways, this was quite an enjoyable city. The city itself was smallish and quant. It reminded me of a mountain town with cobble stone roads and cute signs on the stores, etc. At night, there were lanterns and lights along the river that lit up. It was very beautiful. Near the city, we took a lovely boat ride on a big river through gorgeous canyons. It reminded me of an Asian/green version of Lake Powell. (If that makes sense at all...) I guess I should just show you.

The city itself was quite beautiful. It had a river running through it, with turquoise waters (a rare sight in China...) Here are some pictures of the city in daylight, and also at night when all of the lights were at their finest.

Here is the view from our hotel room. Beautiful!! But also cold...aka the heat didn't work. Aka the sleep was quite fun. Aka: woot! Just thought you might be interested in that fun fact. If not, sorry. Ok. I'm done now.

Yay! A tree AND a bridge. My fav.

There were happy little lanterns hanging off all the buildings!! (I thought I would point out the obvious, in case you were thrown by the glowing, red dots.)

The happy little lanterns in the dark. Purty sweet.

 

Happy, glowing bridge. Everything is so happy in Zhenyuan.



 Near the city, we took a boat out on the river. It was so pretty! It was a chilly boat ride, but totally worth it. The waters were turquoise, and the canyons were green and rocky. Love it.

Here is my favorite crew member of the boat. We called him "El Capitan." The crew insisted that we salute him. We became great friends along our journey. Ok. None of that happened. But, isn't he cute?!

Here are our friends that traveled with us in Anshun, Zhenyuan and Kaili. (From left to right: Tennk, Luna, David.) I love these guys!

One of my favorite pictures in Zhenyuan.

Look. I'm on a boat.

A waterfall!! (Almost as impressive as the ones in Anshun...)

Aww. How cute.

My special friend...

 

While we were on the river, we noticed a couple buildings high up on the rocky wall. We asked El Capitan about it and discovered that there was a little, remote village located on top of the hill. The only way to get to the village is by boat. David, Luna and Tennk kept asking the crew if we could go see the place. After much persuasion, they finally let us go! They told us that we might be the first foreigners to visit. I'm not sure if this is true, but I am choosing to believe that it was. Here are a couple pictures of the village!

We had to climb a bunch of steps to get to the village. Totally worth it!

They had some rice patties. Yum.

They had a miniature hot spring too!

Some of the houses

A door. I like those.

The gate to the village!

Well, that is a very summed up version of Zhenyuan/its surroundings. I hope you enjoyed it!
The end.

Waterfalls, Rainbows and Puppies

Hello again. The time has come to show you some more photos of my happy little journey. After Xi'an, we traveled to a city called Chengdu.  We spent a total of 1 day in this place. And honestly, it is not quite worth writing about. It was decent, but I have enough pictures to bore you with. So...MOVING ON. After Chengdu, we went to the city of Guiyang. This is a rather large city. We met three Chinese friends here. Their names are David, Luna and Tennk. They are quite lovely. They were so lively and hospitable. We went to three main places with our friends, and were also lucky enough to have a delicious dinner with David and his family. It was quite the honor!! The three places that we visited are Anshun, Zhenyuan, and Kaili. These are all cities near Guiyang. I have approximately 1 billion photos between these three places. So, I am going to split up the photos in three different posts. This one is dedicated to Anshun!

Anshun was a delightful place. The title of this blog is a bit misleading, however. There were sadly no puppies or rainbows in Anshun, but it was still quite incredible! It was full of waterfalls, gorgeous plants and even a cave! I loved this place. It was so breath-taking. Sadly, my camera died right before we arrived to Anshun. Therefore, I was forced to rely on the photos of my other teammates. Seeing as I'm a control freak and rather enjoy taking delightful snapshots, this was quite a challenge. But, it was good in a way. I was forced to take in the beauty and try to remember it on my own. It turned out to be a great experience! And, thanks to my friend Brett, I was still able to keep some of his awesome photos. I am going to include a couple to give you a sneak peak into the beautiful scenery. I am also going to attach a couple links to his blog, so that you can look at more pictures there! He is a great photographer, so you should definitely check it out!! Here are a couple teasers:

There you go! I told you it was beautiful. :) Now that I have wet your appetite, here are a couple links to Brett's blogs about Anshun. He has about 30 more photos!! Enjoy my friends.

http://www.photoblog.com/somewhereinchina/2013/02/11/20-in-20-anshun-part-1-chinas-largest-waterfall.html

http://www.photoblog.com/somewhereinchina/2013/02/12/20-in-20-anshun-part-2-chinas-largest-waterfall.html

That is all for now. Depending on my motivation, I will have a new blog VERY soon. Stay tuned.