My last day in Xian started bad. My throat swelled up (polution? alergies? something I ate?) and I thru up in the cab on the way to the Shanzhi history museum. Then there was a 2 hour line to get in (The first line I saw in china, usually its just a mess of people pushing there way into someplace). On the line I met a college student wo wanted to practice his english (I was the first foreigner he ever met), so I waled around the (amazing) museum with him.
The next day my flight was delayed, so it took all day to get to Jiuzhaigao. I did meet a few nice people on the way, so that passed the time.
Today I visted Jiuzhaigao. It was expensize to get in (about $45 for each day you want to visit-in off season you get a 2 day pass for that price). I was told that this place would be extremely crouded but it was empty as far as I could tell (half as many people as last year). I met a nice couple from hong kong in the morning, and then went up one end of the Y shaped valleys (they went the other) and hiked down the valley. Half way down I met a very nice women from Xian (Who spoke great english) and her family and spent the day with them and then joined them for dinner. They were on a tour and one of the women on the tour wanted to know during dinner, since I didn't eat meat, how come I was so fat? I didn't have a good answer for that. Hopefully, in a few months I will be skinny... At the end of the day, I needed t get back to my hostel, but unlike most places they never gave me somethng with the address and name of the place on it. My friend tried to help with the cabs and was worried about me, so offered to drive with me and then come back (that was very sweet!) but I knew where the place was and just told the cab where to stop.
A few words on Jiuzhaigao. I think it is one of the prettiest places in the world. Stunning green and blue lakes. Great valleys surrounded by mountains. Awesome white water rapids. Nice (but somewhat fake) Tibetan villages (they are paid 50000 yuan/year by the chinese government just to live there which is more than the programmers where making in xian). A truely lovely place.
There is another park a few hours away which my friends from today were going to with there tour, and they invited me to come along. I decided against it since they were not leaving until mid-day, and I was worried about getting back. But I regret that decision. The People you meet in life are much more important than the details of the journey and I would have liked to spend more times with my new friend.
