So much for writing every day this weekend. I did manage to keep myself very busy. Despite the heatwave I was out and about biking and exploring and just not being at home. I would have gotten depressed. I did see some people mostly in the evenings, but during the day was just out and about doing my own thing. I even went to a lecture! I really liked it. I need to go to more stuff like that. And I also met someone, and need new friends, so there's that too.
So when I left you my sister was just arriving. She got in a week later than my parents because she was busy off the grid in Mexico with her boyfriend. Loser. So she got in, we ate dinner, went to sleep, then woke up super early and were off to Ningxia. Ningxia is in western China and it's China's 3rd poorest province which nobody ever goes to. It was a 4 day weekend in China so perfect chance to travel, but that also means miserable crowds everywhere. So my original plan of going to the most popular nature park in China had to be scrapped (that park being Jiuzhaigou, which I still really want to go to). But since that park is in Sichuan and I had to be in Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan) a couple days later for work anyway we had to stay near Sichuan. So I sent my sister a list of neighboring provinces, and Ningxia is what she picked. And I'm very glad she did cause it was new for me too, and, as mentioned, nobody goes there.
We flew into the capital Yinchuan, checked into the hotel, then went to eat. Then went for a walk. There really isn't much to do in Yinchuan, but there is a big temple with a pagoda, so we went to see that, then continued wandering around downtown. Nothing too special, I guess. The main things to do in Yinchuan are just outside town, so we'd hired a cab driver to take us around the next day. Our first stop was the Western Xia tombs. These are tombs of an imperial family that ruled a kingdom way back in the days before China was unified. They have these funky beehive looking tombs, almost like they had built pyramids that had just sort of crumbled over time. So we spent some time in the museum there and around the tombs before heading to stop number two: the Helanshan Rock Carvings. So if the Xia tombs weren't old enough, we were headed even further back. Like 8000 years. Basically there's a canyon with ancient rock carvings all over it. Literally everywhere. Thousands of them. Some of them are pointed out for you, but sometimes you'll just be walking and then see a bunch. Also, there are goats. And a (fake) waterfall (but it still looks nice). And they have the world rock carving museum where you can learn about rock carvings from all over China and the rest of the world, which was pretty cool. I feel like I should say more about these two things, but I'm not really sure what else to say. They were like 6 weeks ago, both very cool, nice outdoors activities that weren't too strenuous (good for the parentals), great weather, different from other things I've done in China... all around really great. But that's all I have to say. Then for dinner we went back to the hotel and I got my parents to eat sushi, and my mom liked it! This was a big moment. We will be eating more sushi together.
Yinchuan was the easy part of the trip. From there it was on to Zhongwei, a small city a couple hours south, just on the border with Inner Mongolia. We went there because it's the edge of the Gobi desert, and it's where the desert meets the Yellow River and you can do all kinds of fun desert activities, like dune buggies and sand sliding and camel riding and stuff. So the plan was to go to this one big desert theme park I'd read about, but when we arrived we found a cab driver who was really excited to take us everywhere and pretty much forced us into crossing into Inner Mongolia for the afternoon. But I'm glad we did, cause it was a great afternoon. He took us to this desert adventure park, with a quick stop on the way to see some ruins of the Great Wall. It reaches way out there, and we saw a couple pieces which would just look like grass covered hills to a regular passerby, but if you see the sign and get out of the car to really take a look, it's actually really old, ruined parts of the Great Wall covered in grass in the middle of a farm. And then was desert adventure. We did all those things I just mentioned and then we got taken into the Tonghu Grasslands to see an Inner Mongolian show. We arrived a bit early so explored the grasslands a bit. It's an interesting place. Just like everywhere else in the area they do all the desert activities, but then for some reason they also have a Texas saloon and a giant Transformer statue. Yup. No idea. China. So we explored those and then saw this show of Inner Mongolian dance and music and horse riding that was actually pretty awesome. I thought it would be some lame thing in the middle of nowhere, but instead it was a really awesome thing in the middle of nowhere with surprisingly high production value. They even had people flying in on high wires and stuff. And it's outdoors in the middle of the desert, so we were watching the sunset at the same time. After the show we went back to town and stumbled across a great restaurant on BBQ street. In the evenings this street comes alive with all kinds of makeshift restaurants outdoors, all making Chinese barbecue, so we picked a busy one, sat down and ate a ton. And we made friends with the locals. Just like every other 3rd tier city in China they get really excited about foreigners, but you add booze into the mix and they were particularly excited (and drunk) and super duper friendly and came and kept talking to us and buying us more food. It was lots of fun.
The next day we were off to Shapotou in the morning. This is the park that we came for. And it was fun and all, and great cause it had the desert and the river (and ziplines over the river! so fun!), but actually the previous day turned out to have been much better. It was just a quick morning stop before taking the train back. The train was the real China experience for my parents. We took a hard seat, and it was not the most comfortable or friendly or fun. But it's how most Chinese live here so I guess at least the family got to experience that. So we just chilled out for the evening at the hotel and were off early the next morning for Chengdu. But that'll be next time.
All we have left for today is music, and today it's Wye Oak. I've written about them before. You've heard them. They just put out their 4th album, Tween. It comes (rather quickly, it feels, but it's been over 2 years) on the heels of their 3rd album Shreik, which I did not enjoy. Shriek was weird. Which is sad because Wye Oak makes some gorgeous music. But I'm happy to report that with Tween, Wye Oak are back. The opening song (not the opening track, that's just like an intro) If You Should See is amazing. This is why I love Wye Oak, because of songs like this.
So when I left you my sister was just arriving. She got in a week later than my parents because she was busy off the grid in Mexico with her boyfriend. Loser. So she got in, we ate dinner, went to sleep, then woke up super early and were off to Ningxia. Ningxia is in western China and it's China's 3rd poorest province which nobody ever goes to. It was a 4 day weekend in China so perfect chance to travel, but that also means miserable crowds everywhere. So my original plan of going to the most popular nature park in China had to be scrapped (that park being Jiuzhaigou, which I still really want to go to). But since that park is in Sichuan and I had to be in Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan) a couple days later for work anyway we had to stay near Sichuan. So I sent my sister a list of neighboring provinces, and Ningxia is what she picked. And I'm very glad she did cause it was new for me too, and, as mentioned, nobody goes there.
We flew into the capital Yinchuan, checked into the hotel, then went to eat. Then went for a walk. There really isn't much to do in Yinchuan, but there is a big temple with a pagoda, so we went to see that, then continued wandering around downtown. Nothing too special, I guess. The main things to do in Yinchuan are just outside town, so we'd hired a cab driver to take us around the next day. Our first stop was the Western Xia tombs. These are tombs of an imperial family that ruled a kingdom way back in the days before China was unified. They have these funky beehive looking tombs, almost like they had built pyramids that had just sort of crumbled over time. So we spent some time in the museum there and around the tombs before heading to stop number two: the Helanshan Rock Carvings. So if the Xia tombs weren't old enough, we were headed even further back. Like 8000 years. Basically there's a canyon with ancient rock carvings all over it. Literally everywhere. Thousands of them. Some of them are pointed out for you, but sometimes you'll just be walking and then see a bunch. Also, there are goats. And a (fake) waterfall (but it still looks nice). And they have the world rock carving museum where you can learn about rock carvings from all over China and the rest of the world, which was pretty cool. I feel like I should say more about these two things, but I'm not really sure what else to say. They were like 6 weeks ago, both very cool, nice outdoors activities that weren't too strenuous (good for the parentals), great weather, different from other things I've done in China... all around really great. But that's all I have to say. Then for dinner we went back to the hotel and I got my parents to eat sushi, and my mom liked it! This was a big moment. We will be eating more sushi together.
Yinchuan was the easy part of the trip. From there it was on to Zhongwei, a small city a couple hours south, just on the border with Inner Mongolia. We went there because it's the edge of the Gobi desert, and it's where the desert meets the Yellow River and you can do all kinds of fun desert activities, like dune buggies and sand sliding and camel riding and stuff. So the plan was to go to this one big desert theme park I'd read about, but when we arrived we found a cab driver who was really excited to take us everywhere and pretty much forced us into crossing into Inner Mongolia for the afternoon. But I'm glad we did, cause it was a great afternoon. He took us to this desert adventure park, with a quick stop on the way to see some ruins of the Great Wall. It reaches way out there, and we saw a couple pieces which would just look like grass covered hills to a regular passerby, but if you see the sign and get out of the car to really take a look, it's actually really old, ruined parts of the Great Wall covered in grass in the middle of a farm. And then was desert adventure. We did all those things I just mentioned and then we got taken into the Tonghu Grasslands to see an Inner Mongolian show. We arrived a bit early so explored the grasslands a bit. It's an interesting place. Just like everywhere else in the area they do all the desert activities, but then for some reason they also have a Texas saloon and a giant Transformer statue. Yup. No idea. China. So we explored those and then saw this show of Inner Mongolian dance and music and horse riding that was actually pretty awesome. I thought it would be some lame thing in the middle of nowhere, but instead it was a really awesome thing in the middle of nowhere with surprisingly high production value. They even had people flying in on high wires and stuff. And it's outdoors in the middle of the desert, so we were watching the sunset at the same time. After the show we went back to town and stumbled across a great restaurant on BBQ street. In the evenings this street comes alive with all kinds of makeshift restaurants outdoors, all making Chinese barbecue, so we picked a busy one, sat down and ate a ton. And we made friends with the locals. Just like every other 3rd tier city in China they get really excited about foreigners, but you add booze into the mix and they were particularly excited (and drunk) and super duper friendly and came and kept talking to us and buying us more food. It was lots of fun.
The next day we were off to Shapotou in the morning. This is the park that we came for. And it was fun and all, and great cause it had the desert and the river (and ziplines over the river! so fun!), but actually the previous day turned out to have been much better. It was just a quick morning stop before taking the train back. The train was the real China experience for my parents. We took a hard seat, and it was not the most comfortable or friendly or fun. But it's how most Chinese live here so I guess at least the family got to experience that. So we just chilled out for the evening at the hotel and were off early the next morning for Chengdu. But that'll be next time.
All we have left for today is music, and today it's Wye Oak. I've written about them before. You've heard them. They just put out their 4th album, Tween. It comes (rather quickly, it feels, but it's been over 2 years) on the heels of their 3rd album Shreik, which I did not enjoy. Shriek was weird. Which is sad because Wye Oak makes some gorgeous music. But I'm happy to report that with Tween, Wye Oak are back. The opening song (not the opening track, that's just like an intro) If You Should See is amazing. This is why I love Wye Oak, because of songs like this.
Am I right? So good. This might be up there as one of the best songs of the year. There are two more on the list at the moment, one of which is already on the blog and one of which is coming soon. I'll let you guess which for now. Anyway, If You Should See is definitely the best, but the whole album is really great. I had read that the songs were all written between 2011 and 2016, so it made sense to me that this would be a return to the old days of Wye Oak. But as it turns out they were all songs which were written, scrapped and now re-worked and released, and most of them are from the pre-Shriek days. It makes so much sense. I'll play you another, but it's hard to pick. The closing track, Watching and Waiting, had a video released. But I think it's kind of poppy and not the other track I'd want to share. Then there's Trigger Finger, which is also great and apparently a single, but I'm not sure I want to share that either. Beautiful song, but a bit slow to follow up If You Should See. So I think I'm gonna go with No Dreaming, the track that actually does follow it. But go listen to the whole album. It's fantastic.
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