The Magnificent, Splendid Huashan

After a night's rest in Xi'an, we headed out to go see one of China's five sacred mountains, Huashan. We took the subway, to a high speed train, taxied to the visitor's center, bought an entrance ticket, bought a bus ticket, and rode the bus to our starting point (phew). We could see the surrounding mountains, which …

Warrior Pose

Alex and I were both lucky in that our parents came to visit us this year. Alex’s parents came at the beginning of May, and we had a great time in Beijing! My parents came near the end of June and we got to do a bit of travelling outside of Beijing as well. To …

Different Walls for Different Days

At the top of most people’s bucket lists for a China visit is SEEING THE GREAT WALL. Which is awesome, no argument at all. But, what a lot of people don’t think about when planning a trip is that this awesome great wall is really long with different sections you could possibly see. So far, …

Hometown Heroes

So, fun fact, at my center I bear the title, "Social Coordinator." Basically, I set up a social event for the office once a month. Past events have included eating at new restaurants, picnicking in Olympic Park and (most recently) going to a soccer match. Here in Beijing, our team is Beijing Guo'an. Our colors …

The New Best Packing Tool

When my mom reads this she might scoff, but I really love organized spaces. I live by the mantra one can never have enough stuff holders and might subscribe to the buzzfeed organizational newsletter; don’t judge me. But when it comes to packing, organization sometimes gets thrown out of the window. You may have a …

The Un-Happiest Place in China

After sharing our mutual love of everything Disney, my friend Anna and I booked an early flight from Beijing and arrived in Shanghai Disneyland around 11:00 on a Tuesday for the first day of our two day pass. We were hoping that the threat of rain would dissuade people from coming, but we were mistaken. …

A Shanghai Weekend Getaway

While the weather is nice, we are trying to see AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! So, this weekend, we packed our bags and boarded a sleeper train destined for Shanghai. When we arrived, we hit the ground running and visited both the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. After that, we biked to the …

A Tropical Chinese Paradise

For our anniversary this year, we had decided on a trip. At first, we were thinking about Suzhou—a small water town outside of Shanghai with world famous landscape gardens. To make it even more attractive, we had heard you could rent a small houseboat overnight and drive upriver all the way to Shanghai--- AWESOME! So …