Wanderings in Guizhou Province

For the past few weeks, we have had some exceptionally cool adventures. Guiyang is the capital of the Guizhou province and the province is known for it's beautiful countryside. These past couple of weeks we have visited some pretty cool places.

During the Tomb Sweeping Festival we went to Xinyan with some of the Chinese and foreign teachers to Xinyan - a traditional village about an hour from Guiyang. One of the Chinese teacher's boyfriend opened a hostel and we went for the opening party. During the day we walked around the city and in the evening we had a fantastic bbq on the rooftop of the hostel. Some very cool highlights of the evening:

-Carl and I taught the game Mafia to about 10 Chinese friends...a pretty impressive feat.

-BEST BBQ FOOD EVER.

-Beautiful city - lots of new food and cool buildings


On the actual Tomb Sweeping Holiday we travelled with the school to Nanjing Big Valley. The valley was really beautiful - very green and lush. We walked about 3 hours through the valley then took a very sketchy gondola to get out of the valley....(you had to take a running start to get in). After that we ate traditional Guizhou food: river fish, some strange vegetable dishes, potatoes and of course rice.

Anyway it was a beautiful weekend and very cool to see some new parts of Guizhou. Check out our pictures to the right!

Chinese Cooking Lesson

Last night we had the opportunity to take a Chinese cooking lesson from one of our friends, Serena.  She invited us over to her apartment, a cute 2 bedroom on the top of her building with a fantastic roof top terrace.  She purchased all of the groceries but allowed us to help put some of the food together, a rarity in Chinese culture.  Usually when Chinese people host a dinner their guests do nothing.

We made jiao zi (boiled dumplings) filled with pork, ginger and onions.  It is quite an intensive process but really fun.  Ours did not look quite as good as Serena but we improved immensely.  Serena made bean hot pot, one of our absolute favorite Guiyang specialties.  She showed us how to flavor the soup and we helped prepare all of the vegetables, and meats to put in the hot pot.

A few other people came over after the cooking was done and we enjoyed the foods of our labor.  It was a fantastic meal and one we hope to be able to replicate when we come back to the US.  Unfortunately for you and us both we forgot our camera so no pics of the amazing spread we created and enjoyed last night, nonetheless it was a fantastic evening.

Happenings around Guiyang

Hey folks.

Check out some new pictures that we have taken in the past few weeks of our time in Guiyang!