Hengshan （恒山）

Mt. Heng （恒山）is one of the 5 sacred mountains of Daoism in China. We arrived to a massive empty parking lightly covered in snow. The whole way up the mountain I couldn't help but think about how many people must be crawling over this place in the summer time. When we wee there I think we saw maybe 10 other people. We took our time and saw almost everything there was to see. We even hoped the gate and climbed the steep steps to the summit; the view was amazing. The mountains there are so bare and the air is so much better then Linfen. On top of that I was so happy to have nice light again. I did feel a little bad making our driver wait over four hours but I knew he wouldn't leave without his money and I wasn't trying to leave anything unseen. So in the end I guess I got my money's worth out of him.

Hanging Monastery (悬空寺)

First stop on our travels was Datong（大同）in northern Shanxi province. The first image is out our hotel window. I had wanted to see Hanging Monastery here for a long time so we set out early in the morning on a bus headed for Hunyuan county（浑源县）. There we were fortunate (or maybe unfortunate because I know I paid too much, but its the off season so options were limited) to be greeted by a driver willing to drive us the rest of the way. Altogether it took about 2, 2 and half hours to get here and probably spent only about 30 minutes climbing through monastery. It's really pretty small but it was still very interesting and especially great that it wasn't crowded or that we had to follow the clearly marked tour path. Mt. Heng（恒山）is really nearby so I renegotiated with the driver and he agreed to take us there and wait while we walked around. Pictures to come tomorrow!

Good company makes for good times

Welcomed in the new year with my girlfriend by my side. She traveled half way across the world to spend a few weeks with me before heading back to school. We hung out in Linfen for a few days before conquering the Northeast (pictures to come). I'd like to say a big thanks to all my friends at Swift Cycles for being so welcoming and lending her a bike. All pictures taken within the Linfen city limits.

Christmas Party

Another teacher and I organized a big Christmas party for a bunch of our students. We held it on Christmas day at a nearby Karaoke place (if you don't know karaoke is huge in China). We booked the two largest rooms they had and crammed over 300 people into them. The planning got to be a little stressful and the party was a little hectic but things worked out alright in the end. We had a Christmas tree (though it's a rather unusual looking tree), decorations, presents, drinks, cakes, hats for everyone and I played the part of Santa Clause.

Biking to Longsi (龙寺）

I'm behind on my posting so get ready for a new one every day. This is from back in December when I took a bike trip to Longsi (龙寺）directly translated it means "dragon temple". It's a pretty cool place on the edge Linfen municipality. That last image is of the pisser, and yes I used it, how could I not with such a sweet view.