she xian

the night before i was supposed to go to huang shan, i got a huge migraine in the middle of the night and couldn't even think about getting up at 5 and exerting myself the next morning. i went down to the reception and my hostel was kind enough to move all of my bookings to the following day. it actually worked out well that way because i would have climbed it by myself if i had gone that day, so i think it was meant to be.

i woke up late the following morning and had no plans at all. i felt 100% better though so i decided to rent a bike from the hostel and just ride around all day. i really wanted to ride out into the countryside but i was told that it was too far away. i wanted to give it a try anyhow, but i didn't have a good map so i wasn't sure where i was going. for a while i thought that i had made great progress in leaving the city but then all of a sudden i realized that i had gone in a gigantic circle. ahhhh! at that point i gave up my mission and started riding along the river so i wouldn't get lost. finally, i ran into the long distance bus station at the edge of town. i was pretty bored on my bike, so i decided that i would lock it up there and see if i could take a bus to a neighboring town.

i decided to take a minibus to a little city called she xian because it was only 30-45 minutes away. immediately when i got there, i knew i had made a mistake. i think other people were just as confused as i was about why i was there- a couple people looked like they were about to fall off their motorbikes when they saw me. i couldn't believe how ugly this little place was, mainly because of the amount of construction that was going on. i swear, the entire town was under construction, that might be the only job there. look how dirty the water is in the picture above. i wonder how many little cities are like this in china...

even the kids couldn't find another place to play!

but despite this, i still think there were some beautiful things there, like this old woman's ridiculous garden by the water (how do they do it!?), these ugly houses all crammed together in front of the water, and the oxen just roaming around. the bridge in the background kind of looks like something you'd see in europe :)-