China’s Interior
“It seems to matter not the quality or amount of a night’s sleep. We are tired. It’s beginning to feel a marathon of the spirit. It is both the physical exertion of exploration but I believe more than that the mental/emotional exertion of days filled with frustration, misunderstanding, dashed hopes, and a perpetual string of things unexpected. Although constantly on our toes, we are continually off-balance. One moment leads to the other as opposed to one moment leading the other. It is a never ending chess match.” –Personal Journal entry, April 15, 2008
Personal Journal Entries: I wrote a lot on this trip — an entire Moleskine was filled with thoughts, simple here-to-see-this-and-there-to-see-that, and a lot of reflection. More than I thought upon reviewing the entries. And more of it negative than I thought I was feeling at the time. The trip was physically challenging. Four weeks of carrying heavy backpacks, staying in hostels, eating sparsely, utilizing squatter toilets, unable to drink the water, wearing dirty clothes, cold at times, constantly struggling with the language barrier, it was the adventure of a lifetime and one of great personal insight. Throughout the month I struggled with the lack of smiles and the absence of small kindnesses. Being born and raised as a Southern gal, a ready smile and a certain degree of helpfulness has been bred in.
“I am more susceptible to bad vibes than to good. I would like to say I ‘seem’ to be more susceptible, but that would just be being nice to myself and a waste of words. It’s been said that I go from shit-to-sugar quickly and I accept that as a compliment. The truth is my sugar-to-shit fuse is a shorter one. I am not proud of this trait and work hard to head it off. Much of the time I am unsuccessful. Point being I have become rather short on smiles as the days have worn on. There have been few smiles (but a lot of stares) directed towards us. Of course I could excuse my growing surliness on the fact my normal chipper attitude has had far greater pressure on it (from the great populace of China) than I have been able to singly exert upon them. But that’s just an excuse. I am a visitor on their turf and feel I should be ever-pleasant to be here. I will work on it for the remainder of my stay.” — Personal Journal Entry, April 18, 2008
My entries are chock full of wonderful human interest stories that filled pages. One in particular stands out involving a young Chinese man on his first plane ride with whom we shared the row of seats. With this one incident I journaled this revelation: “In the span of a only a day I’ve gone from complaining of the lack of kindnesses from the Chinese to the slap-me-in-the-face reminder that the best kindnesses ARE THOSE YOU EXTEND TOWARDS OTHERS.” — Personal Journal Entry, April 20, 2008
Just prior to this incident, I’d written: “…David, the Australian, said he was noting in his journal all the kindnesses directed towards him. He is a better human being than me. And his journal will be far scarcer than my own for that.” LOL!
Here’s a smattering of other entries: Driving in China: “I have been astounded at how things seem to magically fall away just as we are to collide with them. It is as if slow motion is invoked when anything gets within an inch of something else. I’ve tried closing my eyes but my curiosity gets the better of me.” — Personal Journal Entry, April 9, 2008
“We are one-half through our journey. It is everything I expected, hoped for, and more. There have been moments, even entire days of frustration, fear, exhaustion. But even in the midst of this discomfort, **** and I have reveled in the joy of discovering the unknown, overcoming the obstacles, and feasting our eyes, ears, touch, taste and smell on China.” — Personal Journal Entry, April 14, 2008
“For most of the trip, I’ve been excited, when I haven’t been scared. And **** and I have had quite a few laughs. Many at the expense of the Chinese people. Some truly unkind. Maybe we really are arrogant, American asses. Maybe we’ve just been straining for something to freakin’ laugh at.” — Personal Journal entry, April 19, 2008
“Confusion, sincere concern, unabashed fear, dread, panic…” — Personal Journal entry, April 11, 2008
China is known as Zhongguó in Mandarin. The character zhong means “middle” or central; the letter, guó means land, kingdom or country. An appropriate English translation would be “middle kingdom”.
Chengdu, Sichuan Province

Chengdu, Sichuan Province -- 14 days after my return home, Chengdu was hit by a 7.9 earthquake -- the worst in 3 decades. Tens of thousands died. Much of what we saw may have been leveled.
Leshan, Sichuan Province

Grand Buddha, Leshan, Sichuan Province. The 80 year project to carve a Buddha into the cliffs of Leshan in 713 A.D., resulted in the largest Buddha in the world. Sitting in an alcove of sorts, he guards boatmen at the confluence of 3 rivers. A World Heritage Sight, he's 71 meters high, 233 feet. His ears are 7 meters long!
Lijiang, Yunnan Province

Lijiang's old town is a World Heritage Sight and has been the base of the 286,000 strong Naxi tribe for the last 1400 years. They descend from ethnically Tibetan Qiang tribes and lived until recently in matrilineal families. There are strong matriarchal influences in the Naxi language. Nouns enlarge their meaning when the word for 'female' is added; conversely, the addition of the word for 'male' will decrease the meaning. For example, 'stone' plus 'female' conveys the idea of a boulder; 'stone' plus 'male' conveys the idea of a pebble.

"The traditional Naxi Orchestra was amazing. Being tired, I initially did not think I could sit there for an hour-and-a-half when we took our seats at 8:00 p.m. But the strangely beautiful music and the faces of the musicians (mostly elderly - many 80 and older) were captivating. Several of the instruments were original, very unusual in China. The owners buried the instruments during the Cultural Revolution in order to preserve them." -- Personal Journal entry, April 19, 2008

Guilin, Guangxi Province. The karst topography/lime formations along the Li River made me think we were floating down a stream running along the ridged backs of ancient dinosaurs. At any moment I expected our boat to be catapulted above the water as one decided to come up for air.
The day the picture below was taken was dreary. The light was drearier. So I played around with Photoshop and finally achieved a result with some degree of appeal. And this depiction is actually a decent representation of the images my mind registered that day.

[…] photo below on the Li River near Guilin China was taken with a $50 camera called a Diana. The Diana is a medium format film camera (now available […]
Pingback by Great Photos from Really Cheap Cameras — August 5, 2014 @ 7:30 pm
I chanced upon your site doing an image search for Karst topography, for no other reason than because its beauty is inspiring. I’ve been reading of your adventures for hours, captivated. Marvelous blog, beautiful photos, interesting thoughts.
Reading this, I just had to share a sleeper train story of my own. I spent 6 months in Paris during undergrad, and over Pacques, did a tour of eastern Europe with two friends. This would have been more than a decade ago now, way before the EU we now know. We have a cabin to ourselves, and settle down on our so-cozy bunks to sleep. About 2 in the morning, angry men are thundering on our door and screaming. In Polish, and by the by, wow, Slavic languages are good at conveying anger. Did I mention that when the conductor showed us to our cabin, he told us not to open the door for any reason because there were many scam-artists and bandits who preyed on stupid Americans? Did I mention that there were 5 (so help me, I swear, 5) chain locks and padlocks on that door? Well, we reluctantly unlocked the many locks and opened the door at last to find 3 men in fatigues and toting semi-automatics standing in the hall beyond. Still screaming at us futilely in Polish. Thank god ‘passport’ is the same in every language.
Turned out to be an innocuous border check. Although innocuous is a relative term, as two hours later they woke us up again to have another look-see, who knows why? We went through the same passing into the Czech Republic, and later back into safely EU-lands in Austria. In hindsight, it wouldn’t have been remotely so frightening if not for that conductor’s warnings about gypsies and bandits. Gypsies and bandits?!?
Maybe a piece of wisdom you have shared with us in your blog: the foreign may look menacing at first blush, but it need only be braved to become familiar.
Well, except when it isn’t. Dudes screaming in Slavic with huge guns on their shoulders? Seriously.
Comment by mcburnell — July 25, 2012 @ 9:12 pm
I knew you were adventurous from the first day i kept you, but I never dreamed it would lead to this. I can’t wait for more.
Comment by Phyllis — March 16, 2009 @ 2:46 pm
So you wondered WHAT I’d write, but did you wonder ALL that I would write? I’m really not finished yet but must move on to other trips, the latest trip, future trips… I’ve discovered a new outlet with which to document the China trip. It will be something more permanent than the web, along the lines of my journal, but complete with the pictures. You’ll be the first to see it. I promise!
Comment by Tammie — March 16, 2009 @ 2:05 pm
This post has a great feel to it. You’re quite flexible as a writer. I really dig the Yangshuo pic. Right after the trip, T and I were like ‘I can’t wait to see what she writes about this.’ You’ve not disappointed.
Comment by JJ — March 16, 2009 @ 10:27 am
Thoroughly enjoyed this entry, breathtaking pictures of a land hard to imagine without the help of writers such as you. I’ve never shared a land or a trip with a book the way I have this one with you. What an adventure, and I wait eagerly for the next chapter!
Comment by Clay Mama — March 15, 2009 @ 3:16 pm
WOW. Besides your exquisite photography, you are also a fabulous writer. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your backpack journey, as well as the photos. Thank you for those wonderful glimpses into your journal entries and the sharing of such a special adventure.
Comment by Cheryl — March 14, 2009 @ 4:23 pm
What a journey! While I’ve never even imagined what you saw, your journal entries, photos, and perspective allow me to feel and see… and feel… moments beyond my own experience. Wow! More please.
Comment by Pops — March 14, 2009 @ 11:37 am