Shiqi China Dolls: China Chapter 3

Date wrote: March 3, 2013

So I have become more and more accustom to teaching. I am loving my students that I get to share this experience with. They are very different and unique but mesh so well with each other. Everyday with them is a new day that I get to grow individually, and get to learn something new from them about myself.

: Outside Time

: Oliver and I. He is an adorable twin. His brother is in the class as well.

: Toto, Anna and I

So a few girls and I decided to take our own adventure for a weekend and head to the largest zoo/safari in Asia. The Chimelong Zoo was an awesome trip for us.

Shaylin, Noelle , Hillary and I went to the zoo with just some small expectations of another zoo. But we got the adventure of a life time.. We were able to feed a baby tiger, ride an elephant, get kissed by an elephant on the hand, feed giraffes, go on a safari seeing wild animals roam around and see pandas! It was awesome!

We met up with another group through ILP and stayed the night in a hostel in the town. A hostel is a cheap hotel with many different tourists who come from all over the world looking for a cheap place to stay the night then travel on their way to another place. It is basically a bed and a shower for a really cheap price. We met some really cool foreigners there and we were able to meet up as a large district group for church the next morning where we were reunited with all of the girls from our group.

: Baby tiger

: Riding an Elephant

: Elephant Kisses

So we decided the safari zoo was a total success in China. We totally loved it and it was worth every penny and moment there.

We had a short week at school and had an actual vacation later that week. We were able to take off Thursday, and Friday from teaching. So our 2 ILP groups in our city took off to the Zhangjiajie Mountains.

We left Wednesday afternoon, running late for the train, praying we would make it to the station on time. We arrive running to find the platform to board, we make it and get settled for the long train ride ahead. We had planned on doing a sleeper train there and a hard seat on the way back. The sleeper train was great. For the most part, everyone slept the 14 hour way there and we hung out on our bunks. The hard seats on the way back were rough but everyone made it out alive.

Thursday morning we arrive at the Zhangjiajie Mountains and we couldn't believe our eyes. Our first stop was of the Zhangjiajie Mountains were the Tianmen Mountains. This was a smaller national forest with some of the top sights in the world.

We got on a huge gondola up to the top of the park where we hiked around the park and walked on the sides of cliffs. We were able to walk on a glass pathway called Skyfall. Which was on the side of a cliff..so you look down and you saw down forever. I got nauseas walking over the first little bit but got used to it. It was quite a view.

: Train Station-The journey begins..again. Avatar Style.

: Sleeper train-Breakfast time. Oatmeal, honey and peanut butter. Gettin it!

: Sleeper train-bunking buddies

: Skywalk- Glass path on the side of the cliff

: Skyfall cliff-looking down

We continued on our journey around the park and saw some pretty incredible sights of cliffs. Then headed towards the Stairway to Heaven...

: Cliff Side

The Stairway to Heaven has 999 stairs to climb up to. But before we climb up the stairway, we have to take a bus up to the monument. That bus ride contains over 99 turns.. We definitely got our work out and we got quite a view.

: Stairway to Heaven-Gorgeous

: 99 turns before the Stairway to Heaven..

: 999 Stairs to go.. Git-r-done!

After the Stairway to Heaven, we were pretty exhausted after our 14 hour train ride..so we headed back to our hostel and had a great night going over our memories for the day.

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn headed to the HUGE Avatar Mountains, where the Avatar movie was actually filmed..well the mountains from the movie were... We hiked up tons of more stairs and got to the top of one of the mountains, in the soaking rain. We went down the biggest elevator in the world and saw the most gorgeous view.

: Yep. Gorgeous. Avatar Mountains.

: We made it to the top..in the soaking rain..with smiles our faces!

: We did it!

We then proceeded with going down the largest elevator in the world and taking pictures with Asians at the bottom.. see if you can spot me...

: I spy me..

We kept planning out our plot to the rest of our adventures in the national park. We decided to go to the biggest cave in all of Asia. It was spectacular.