Since we had a 3 day weekend we went to Changsha, which is the capital of our province. It has 6.13 million people! The busiest street in town, called "Walking Street" was jammed packed, it looked like Times Square on New Years Eve. It was crazy but awesome. Turns out not all cities in China are disgustingly dirty and smelly like mine. This city was clean and smelled good although it was still really polluted. The second we got there you could feel it in your throat. It also had many western things, which is one reason we went! We had pizza and cheese for the first time in a month at Pizza Hut (Pizza Hut was so classy here, not like the crap ones in the states, they were even playing jazz music, oh and the pizza was actually good too), they had McDonalds, Subway, Walmart, Hagan Daz (which i have no idea how to spell), a million shops, Carefoor which sells imported food, and other awesome things that my city does not have. It was about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from my city, on a nice bus with a bathroom and a TV blasting Chinese movies and music.
Chewin on some chicken feet on the bus
In the Train Station
We stayed at 3 star hotel which was really nice and we only paid 140 for two nights, which is about 20 bucks! And we each got a gas mask in our room wahooooooo! Instead of having fire alarms you had to call the front desk to alert them there was a fire and then put on your gas mask and RUN! Typical China.
These boys were in high school and had really good English, they helped us find and book the hotel.
View from our floor (14th)the bus station
those aren't clouds, its pollution
Amanda and I
POSE!
One of the best parts of Changsha was the night life, they had great bars, and dance clubs and other foreigners! But it was very expensive to go out and drink unlike Yongzhou, about 30 for a beer, whereas here we pay about 6.
a great bar, with cute bartenders, a cute DJ, and great music
inside that bar
our cute bartenders
the DJ, he sang along to every song with us
some people we met in the bar bathroom haha
at the bar
at the club, bryce, me, kasey
the chinese men wanted to lift up bryces shirt... not sure why.. . maybe cuz hes a "whitey"
bryce bein a dancin man
ni hao!
bryce you are the man
dancing with the russians
We saw a Chinese Variety show, which was ok. They had some acrobats in it who were amazing! But then there were a lot of skits and singing and when you cant understand them its kind of boring. The only funny thing about it was watching all the Chinese people crack up hysterically. It was also 3 hours long which was wayyyyyyyy to long, we ended up leaving just before it was over.
All in all it was a great weekend and we are defiantly looking forward to going back soon.
selling bunnies, birds and guinea pigs
selling some food from his truck
one of the many parks
this was a famous movie star
yayaya for western food!
in Carrefoor, the grocery store:
hearts
dried chicken
pigs feet
mmmm beer
typical bryce
at the muslim restaurant... sooo good!
amanda and i and the lion
ally shopping
apartments
looks homey doesnt it?
antiques store
i love wall hangings
just in case you didnt believe me!
the boy behind the peace sign
antiques market... can you spot the foreigner?
which ones cuter? I'd say its a tie for ugly
MAO!
caitlyn and bryce
the old and the new
at the park
amanda, kasey and john
sleeping in the park
with the cherry blossoms or sakura! just like in japan!
super hero poses!
we swear it'll be the next big fad in china and take over the peace sign
i wish we had these in my city
pointing at some guy who wouldnt stop pointing at us, talking about us, and taking our picture
bryce doing his sexy pose
a pink jacket
yongzhou number 6 middle school ya baby!
and they even had a walmart!
a city of 6.13 million!!!
walking street where a million shops and a million people are
haha calvin klein
bryce fitting in
making cotton candy with a bike-awesome!
our last restaurant in changsha all the way on the left
2 comments:
i spent most of the summer this year in changsha (and a few other places, but changsha was home base) you have gotten some great photos of some things that i didn't even think about photographing until it was too late. i hope you don't mind if i save some of these for my own scrapbooks, haha. you got some great photos of Lieshi Park and the Walking Street. As a matter of fact, I was living in one of those apartments you captured in Changsha (staying with a friend of mine who lives in a campus apartment at Hunan Normal- which is across the bridge from downtown and just in front of Yuelu Shan). I really loved Changsha and I'm glad to see that you and your group seemed to have also! I really miss the place.
It's too bad that you didn't call me! I've been in the Changsha area for 3 years. Are you still around Hunan?
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