Hey everyone! Time keeps flying here in China, it's crazy to think that I've been here for over three months already! The weather is starting to get colder and it's clear that winter is right around the corner here in Chongqing. I've been on a few adventures since I last updated you all so I'll jump right in.
Two weeks ago a few friends and I made a trip to Wulong a small ski town outside of Chongqing about 2 hours by train. Our trip was not without complications though as we accidentally arrived at the wrong train station 15 minutes before our train was due to leave. We luckily were able to run and take a cab and made it to our train with 2 minutes to spare. We arrived in Wulong and headed up the mountain to our hotel. Wulong was the sight where they filmed the most recent Transformers movie but don't hold that against it. Wulong is an incredibly beautiful area of steep cliffs and deep canyons. We spent two days hiking through these canyons. I wish I possessed the ability to describe how incredible Wulong really was. I'll try my best but know that I cannot do it justice. You have to take an elevator to the bottom of the canyon floor which takes several minutes just to make it several hundred meters all the way down. At the bottom of the canyon you're surrounded on all sides by sheer rock faces that are all incredibly beautiful and pockmarked with caves. The canyons go on like this for a long time all providing incredible sights.
Two weeks ago a few friends and I made a trip to Wulong a small ski town outside of Chongqing about 2 hours by train. Our trip was not without complications though as we accidentally arrived at the wrong train station 15 minutes before our train was due to leave. We luckily were able to run and take a cab and made it to our train with 2 minutes to spare. We arrived in Wulong and headed up the mountain to our hotel. Wulong was the sight where they filmed the most recent Transformers movie but don't hold that against it. Wulong is an incredibly beautiful area of steep cliffs and deep canyons. We spent two days hiking through these canyons. I wish I possessed the ability to describe how incredible Wulong really was. I'll try my best but know that I cannot do it justice. You have to take an elevator to the bottom of the canyon floor which takes several minutes just to make it several hundred meters all the way down. At the bottom of the canyon you're surrounded on all sides by sheer rock faces that are all incredibly beautiful and pockmarked with caves. The canyons go on like this for a long time all providing incredible sights.
From Wulong we made a trip to Fairy Mountain (about 30 minutes away) for a quick hike before we headed home. Fairy mountain was interesting because the entire mountain is covered in a dense mist which is both beautiful and a little bit creepy.
The week after Wulong the guys and I made our trip out to Chengdu about 2 hours away by bullet train for a rugby tourney. I had only been on one bullet train before this (from Valencia to Madrid with Danny Smith) but surprisingly this one was even a little nicer. This was the weekend of the Paris attacks since we have several French players on our team it was a bit of an emotional day as no one knew what was going on yet. You can probably see the black armbands worn by everyone throughout the tournament. It was really crazy to see something happening that far away immediately effecting us here. We won our tournament in Chengdu beating Kunming and ending in a draw against Chengdu. After the tournament we had a fun night with the other teams.
That was it for our big trips, we've also had some adventures here around Chongqing. After a tip from one of my students Justin, Scott, and I set out in an attempt to find the one Chicago style pizza place in CQ. After a lot of searching we finally found the place, the pizza was good but small and expensive. The only size deep dish they offer was 9' and that was about 160RMB or about 25$.
I only have 3 more weeks of classes before finals week here (which is also Christmas week). So the semester is rapidly winding down. However, a lot of adventures are still ahead. I'll be heading to Thailand with these guys just after Christmas