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Tag: Golden Week

  • Golden Week in Yunnan: Oliver Sale, China – November 2018

    Dali Old Town

    ***黄金周***

    2018年10月1号是中国的国庆节，又名“十一”。为了欢度国庆节, 一个星期从一号到七号是国定假日，又名“黄金周”。我没有课，所以我跟一个同学去了云南省旅行。 还有是一个好机会练习汉语!

    我们坐了高铁从北京西站到昆明南站，十个小时。这个高铁线路是世界上的最长，二千七百公里！昆明是云南省的首都，是一个大城市，人口是七白万左右。我们在那里两天了。我们去了绿公园，云南大学，还有一些美术馆和博物馆参观。我们也发现了云南菜好吃极了！我们品尝地方风味比如：过桥米线（米线汤），煎乳饼，还很多羊肉。

    然后我们坐了公共汽车从昆明到大理，四个半小时. 大理比昆明小和漂亮多了！大理在一个大湖边的.第一天我们坐了出租车去湖边再游泳。大理也有一个好看的古城。第二天我们骑着了自行车到处转。我们发现了很多好吃的饭店和好玩的酒吧，虽然也有很多游人！大理的周围也有一些山。第三天我们爬最高的山了。从山上的风景很好看！我们可以看全大理和胡。

    Trying “going over the bridge noodles”

    ***Golden Week***

    The 1stOctober 2018 was theChinese National Day holiday, also known as “10/1”. In celebration, there was a week’s holiday from the 1stto the 7th, also known as “Golden Week”. I didn’t have class for the week, so I went travelling with a classmate in Yunnan Province. It was also a good opportunity to practise my Chinese!

    We took the high-speed train from Beijing West to Kunming South, taking 10 hours. At 2700km, it is the longest high-speed railway line in the world! Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan Province, a large city with about 7 million people. We spent 2 days there. We visited the Green park, the University of Yunnan and a few art galleries and museums. We found that Yunnanese food was extremely delicious! We tried local delicacies such as: “going-over the bridge noodles” (rice noodles in soup), pan-fried goat’s cheese and lots of lamb.

    Kunming Green Park

    We then took the bus from Kunming to Dali, which took 4 and a half hours. Dali is much smaller and prettier than Kunming. It sits on the edge of big lake. On the first day we took a taxi to the lakeside and went swimming. Dali also has an old town, so on the second day we rode bicycles around. There were lots of delicious restaurants and fun bars, although there were also lots of tourists! Surrounding Dali there are also several mountains. On the third day we climbed the highest one. The view from the top of the mountain was beautiful. We could see the whole of Dali and the lake.

    Dali Old Town

     

     

     

     

  • 黄金周到了！Golden Week is here! Daniel Osborne, China – October 2018

    10月1 号是中国的国庆节。为了欢度人民共和国的成立，大家都放七天的假，称为‘黄金周’。 我本来以为这个假期是一个会很好机会探索有些的中国远近驰名的景点，可是跟我的北京大学的中国的朋友聊天儿以后，快快地了解这个假期不是那么 轻松的！来到最受欢迎的地方的火车票几乎都卖光了，再说在名胜古迹里的人太多了。

     

    Huge statues at Genghis Khan Mausoleum

    因此，我和我的朋友决定去内蒙古。我从来没去过可是我很盼望探索鄂尔多斯：表面上，鄂尔多斯是一个比较奇怪的选择因为呼和浩特、草原、沙漠都是更有名的：可是由于两个原因而我们决定去这儿：首先，成吉思汗陵落坐落鄂尔多斯的南边。成吉思汗陵是蒙古文化的核心：虽然成吉思汗不埋葬在这儿，这个衣冠冢让我们理解成吉思汗的人生和古老的蒙古文化。

    Getting away from the hustle and bustle of Beijing

    其次，鄂尔多斯算是中国最荒凉的鬼城。15年以前，中国政府期望很多来自于中国的别的地方的移民移动到鄂尔多斯安顿不过他们还没前来。有巨大的大厦、精致的公园、非常宽的街道，可是人特别少，尤其是外国人 （除了自己以外，一个外国人我们都没看到）。逛逛在街道上，本地人都盯我们。在公交车站等候车，跟所有的好奇的陌生人聊天儿 – 让我中文进步得很快因为他们的口音跟北京人的完全不同！有趣的是，代沟是很明显的。对于四十岁以上的人，我们听不懂他们说的话，他们也听不懂我们。但对于比较年轻人，比较容易。

    另外，我也决定去大同，山西县，旅游。跟鄂尔多斯相比，大同一点儿也不同。大同有悠久历史：悬空寺、云冈石窟、大同城郭，这些家喻户晓的景点吸引来自五湖四海的游客。可是黄金周，人山人海！比方说，在云冈石窟，由于人群，看佛教雕像的时候， 它们的宁静的脸色不反映我们！然而我还是能享受工匠的艺术人才。总而言之，黄金周以后，我感觉比以前更了解蒙古文化和在中国的佛教的重要性，而且亲身到闻名遐迩的景点是一个求之不得的机会。

    ENGLISH:

    The 10th October marks Chinese National Day. In order to celebrate the founding of the People’s Republic, everyone has a holiday for seven days, known as ‘Golden Week’. I originally thought that this holiday was a great opportunity to explore some of the extremely famous tourist attractions in China. However, having talked with my Chinese friends at Peking University, I quickly realised that the holiday is not actually that relaxing! The train tickets to the most popular destinations were already sold out, and besides, the amount of people in these popular destinations would be enormous.

    The fantastic Buddhist statues and the accompanying crowds

    Therefore, my friend and I decided to go to Inner Mongolia. I had never been before and was really looking forward to exploring Ordos. On the surface, this might seem like a rather strange choice since Hohhot, the grasslands and the desert are more famous; however, there were two main reasons why I chose it. Firstly, the Genghis Khan Mausoleum is just to the south of Ordos. This mausoleum is the core of Mongol culture and although Genghis Khan isn’t actually buried here, this cenotaph allowed us to better understand his life and the ancient Mongol culture.

     

    人山人海… Datong: not quite as peaceful as Ordos

    Secondly, Ordos is considered a ghost city. Fifteen years ago, the Chinese government expected a lot of Chinese migrants from other parts of the country to settle in Ordos, yet they never arrived. There are huge tower blocks, beautiful parks and vast streets, but so few people, especially foreigners (apart from ourselves, we didn’t see a single other foreigner!). Whilst we wandered around, the locals all stared at us. When we were at bus stations waiting for the bus, we would chat with all of these curious strangers – it made our Chinese improve a lot since their accents are completely different from Beijing residents’! Interestingly, a generation gap was clearly evident – we could not understand people over the age of about 40, and conversely, they could not understand us. However, when talking to younger people, it was (relatively) easy.

    In addition, we also decided to go to Datong, Shanxi province. Compared to Ordos, Datong is completely different. Datong has an ancient history: famous attractions like the Hanging Temple, the Yungang Grottoes and Datong city walls attract tourists from all over the country. But in Golden Week that means that there are tons of tourists! For example, at the Yungang grottoes, due to the crowds, the Buddhist statues’ tranquil faces certainly did not reflect my own! It was all rather stressful! However, I could nonetheless appreciate the artistic talent of the craftsmen. In short, after Golden Week, I feel I now understand Mongol culture and the importance of Buddhism in China better than before, and to visit such famous attractions first hand was a great opportunity.

  • Travelling for National Week: Sinead O’Connor, China – October 2016

    每年十月從一號到七號, 為了紀念中華人民共和國的建立, 全中國都連續放7天的假, 這叫做國慶節. 對大多數的上班族而言, 這是全年兩次回家的機會之一 (另外就是春節). 當作留學生, 我跟一些同學決定去中國的西南邊, 享受了不一樣的風景, 同時也學了些新詞…
    重慶
    重慶是中國四個中央直轄市之一, 也曾經當過國民黨的首都. 我們去重慶前,對它的理解只包括這兩個事實, 但是到那邊之後才發現這個城市很有趣!在兩天以內, 我們坐 (站)了索道, 爬了山, 逛了洪漄洞, 但是最重要是吃的! 重慶的小面, 燒烤還有當然它有名的火鍋給我們留下了非常深刻的影響 – 以後一定要多多吃渝菜!
    瓜子
    我沒想到, 在我6天的旅程當中, 最少花了42個小時在路上. 我們在九寨溝度過一整天, 欣賞了它自然環境 (這是中國的一個非常漂亮的國家公園) .隔天, 我們 坐了14小時的大巴士到成都. 因為我以為它是乾的哈密瓜, 我買了一袋瓜子. 打開的一後才發現我買了中國人在路上最喜歡吃的零食!
    人山人海
    到了成都, 是我們第一次真正地理解 ‘人山人海’ 是甚麼意思. 為了看大熊貓, 我們很早起床了, 度過了一個美好的時間拍拍照, 慢慢探索動物園. 但到十點遊客團體突然來了, 我們能看的不再是熊貓而是人. 可是話說回來, 像我們老師跟我們所說的 – 如果住在中國, 因該體驗一下人多的感覺.
    總的來說, 我們這次旅行過得很充實 – 認識的人很多, 參觀的地方很多, 學的東西也很多. 現在我等不及春節的到來!

    ENGLISH:
    Every year, from the 1st to the 7th of October, in order to celebrate the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the whole country goes on a holiday – called National or Golden Week. For the many people who work in cities far away from their family home, National Week is one of the two times a year they get to return and see their relatives (the other being Spring Festival). Myself and a few of my classmates took advantage of this break from school to go travelling in the Southwest of China, visiting the cities of Chongqing, Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu, and learning a lot of new words along the way.
    重慶Chóngqìng – Chongqing
    Chongqing is one of four ‘directly controlled municipalities’ in China, meaning power is devolved to it from the central government in Beijing. It has a population of around 30 million, and was once the provisional capital of China under the Nationalists. Before we visited it, these facts encompassed all our knowledge of the city, but once we got there we realised there is much more to it than that. In the two days we were there, we visited a tourist street which was a cave carved into the cliffside, rode a cable car over the Yangtze and walked a mountain path with views over the centre of the city, however the greatest discovery we made was the food! Chongqing noodles, barbeque and most importantly the famously spicy hot pot left a strong impression on us – now we are trying to find the same style food in Beijing.
    瓜子 guāzi – sunflower seeds
    Before we left Beijing, I hadn’t realised that in my 6 days of travelling we would spend more than 42 hours journeying to places. After flying there the previous day, we spent an entire day in Jiuzhaigou (one of China’s most famous national parks), enjoying amazing natural scenery. Then, the day after we took a 14 hour coach ride to our next destination: Chengdu. I bought some ‘guazi’, thinking they were dried melons, but once I opened them I realised I had bought what turns out to be China’s most popular travel snack – sunflower seeds.
    人山人海 (rén shān rén hăi) – mountains of people, seas of people
    Travelling in Chengdu was the first time I really understood what this phrase means – an idiom describing masses of people being in the same place at the same time. Since we left very early in the morning to see the pandas, for a while we had a very relaxed time taking pictures and strolling around the park. However as soon as it got to 10am the tour groups descended and instead of seeing pandas, all we saw was people. But, as our teacher told us before we left for our national holiday trip, if are going to live in China, sooner or later you need to experience the crowds!

    We met a lot of new people, saw a lot of new places and learned a lot of new things (including some Sichuan dialect) during our journey – now I can’t wait for spring festival to go again!

  • Golden Week, China – Charlotte McGarry, October 2016

    每年在十月份期间中国人有一周的假期来庆祝庆节，叫 ‘黄金周’。很多中国人趁着这个机会到国内和国外各种地方去旅游。我们班的学生也不例外，同学们之间去了十个多城市在三个的国家。我跟我的同学恩诺去苏州和上海。

     

    我们参观第一座城市是苏州，江苏省东南部的一个地级市。该城市因漂亮的运河和花园而出名。

    我们花了整天沿着运河走，参观苏州最为优秀的花园，不停地吃各种各样的可爱小吃。最初我们打算花整个假期在苏州，但看地图之后而发现了苏州到上海的距离多么近我们 那一刻就决定绕路去上海。上海是中国文化和经济中心，比苏州繁华得多。我们参观了该城市大部分的名胜，如外滩，人民工场之类的。当初上海的热闹气氛对我有很多诱惑力但过了不久我们累了要命，花整天在这么挤满的城市 东奔西跑 让我们烦躁不堪。

     

    总而言是，黄金周去旅行是个不能错过的机会，让你自己体验中国各个地方之间的文化和语言区别以及玩的很疯! 不过我推荐去旅游之前要心理准备一下, 只有在中国黄金周去过旅游，才能真正地明白’人山人海’的意思！

    Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

    Every year in October, China has a week of holiday, called ‘Golden Week’ to celebrate its National Day.  A lot of Chinese people take this opportunity to travel, both within the country and abroad.  Us exchange students were no exception; between us, we went to over ten different cities in three different countries.  I went with my classmate Ellie (Ennuo) to Suzhou and Shanghai.

     

    The first city we visited was Suzhou, a prefecture level city in the south east of Jiangsu Province.  This city is famous for its canals and gardens.  We spent a whole day walking along the canals, visiting Suzhou’s excellent gardens and endlessly eating all types of cute snacks.  At first, we planned to spend the whole holiday in Suzhou, but after looking at a map and seeing how close Shanghai was, we in that moment decided to make a detour via Shanghai.

     

    Shanghai is China’s cultural and economic centre and is much more bustling and lively than Suzhou.  We went to most of the city’s famous sights, such as the Bund and People’s Square.  At first, I found the lively atmosphere in Shanghai to be enticing, but after a while we got really tired of it; spending whole days running around in a city this busy made us unbearably irritable!

     

    In conclusion, travelling in Golden Week is an unmissable opportunity – it allows you to personally experience the cultural and linguistic between different places in China, as well has have an excellent time!  But nevertheless, I recommend that before you go, you mentally prepare yourself – only after having travelled in China during Golden Week will you truly understand what ‘people mountain people sea’ (a commonly used Chinese proverb referencing a mass of people so large it extends to the mountains and seas) really means!.