That's nothing. I went to Lahore, Pakistan at this time two summers ago and it was HOT, plus most places don't have air conditioning. I just checked weather.com and it currently feels like 102 degrees at 12:45am!! Tomorrow's high temperature is 115 degrees!
Shanghai - new york style metropolis. A lot of walking time in the sun. Horrible summers, but have really fit people. Houston - surburbs galore, a lot of dirving in air conditioned cars. A lot more capable to tolerate the heat, but seriously, fat people everywhere.
The heat has broken, or more precisely I got the hell out of it. In Gansu province it's not that hot. BTW, if anybody gets the chance, the Bingling Si Buddhist caves near Lanzhou (which I had never even heard of till yesterday) are worth the trouble and expense, awesome:
Hotel business centers (nicer but expensive - for china) or smoky internet cafes (smoky & hot & full of chinese kids playing counterstrike). I did pick up a kick-ass PSB vest though today, but I'm pretty sure if I wear it I'll look like a bastardized village person. Oh yeah, I've got to say the smog is a bit of a mixed blessing, at least it drowns out the sun.
Is it where they shot the final scene in CTHD? (the scene that Zhang Zi Yi jumped down from the mountain).
So what are you doing in China again? I seem to remember that you wanted to go there to teach English, but not sure. Please keep posting pictures, I think they are very interesting, thanks.
That's Cang Yan Shan in Hebei province. Here are some pics: http://env.people.com.cn/BIG5/41895/42121/3460864.html This statue from Bingling Si is 27m high and as Sam mentioned, it's really worth the trouble visiting. When I was there, there weren't many visitors. Some Chinese tourists tried to sneak up the wooden stairs and the guard was very pissed. I thought he was going to beat up someone.
My sister taught English in China for a year and really enjoyed it. She was in a compound with other young, English speaking people from all over (England, the US, Australia...). She really didn't "teach" English. By the time the kids got to her they could speak English. They just wanted some time every day for the kids to speak nothing but English with a Native speaker. One of her friends was from Wales (we met her when the rest of the family toured China). She had the worst accent. I kind of feel sorry for the Chinese kids who had to listen to her. She was really sweet, however. She was told to watch what she said in her dorm room, however. She was warned it may be bugged....
I didn't realize it takes a cryptologyst to convert from celcius. If that's true, I'm screwed. I'm driving to Canada this summer and I'll never be able to figure out how fast I'm driving. Crap!
Now they charge a ridiculous 300 yuan (which I just wouldn't pay) to go up the stairs and see the top level caves - that is on top of the entry fee, the boat pier entry fee, and the boat fee, as well as the bus/taxi & guide out there. All in all it's like 700 yuan experience, which is fairly steep. It's kind of a shame that they make it so expensive because it really is a fantastic trip.
I'm currently in China now. I being here for almost 3 weeks. The first two days is hot, but right now, the weather is nice except the rain. I'm currently in Guangzhou area. I'm LOVING IT. Just LOVING IT................................
is that special price for foreigners? i remember they used to have two price tags at most of the attractions and the foreigners could be charged 10+ times more than the locals. not sure if it's still the case...
That's a lot of money and I think as qrui mentioned, it might be charged on foreigners only. Apart from the transportation, the site didn't look like it's well funded to be a tourist attraction. I don't know, maybe it's a blessing in disguise.
I suppose it is pretty expensive...and when you're on an extended trip those things can add up... ....but for the price of a NYC lunch, you should have climbed those stairs!!
Techinically according to the guidebooks its illegal in China to charge foreigners more, though i'm sure it still happens. The only gov't run place which charged more for foreigners was the Mogao caves in Dunhuang, which didn't really charge that much more, just 120Y vs. 100Y for chinese, ostensibly to cover the cost of french/english speaking guides. At Bingling Si and other buddhist sites, it's generally the Japanese tourists in particular (who are pretty fanatical about that kind of thing) that drive up the prices. They're prepared to pay any price no matter how unconscionably ridiculous for that kind of thing. bnb, I've been screwed over on paying way too much for stuff enough times in two weeks that I've got to draw the line (including today when I somehow purchased 3 Uighur knives at the bazaar for an exorbitant amount when I only wanted one). Although it's only a few dollars here and there, after a while it gets to be about the principle of the thing, it kind of sucks to be made a sucker all the time.
