China — Day 6: June 2019

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Our day started out in Donghan Village where we spent the night with a local family. While the immediate “village” was fairly small, the Donghan village apparently has a population of 50,000 people, and there were giant high rise apartments nearby. We were expecting a bit more of a rural/farm-type atmosphere, but it was still a great experience.

We visited an art studio in the village, just around the corner from where we had the “dance party” the night before. The “master artist” showed off some of her work — we were impressed by the various styles she was proficient in — did a short demonstration, and then we got to try our hand at papercutting, where we made “double happiness” designs.

From there, we headed to the Xi’an train station for our bullet train to Chungdu. The train was delayed due to weather so we ended up hanging out there longer than expected. Getting on the train was a bit of craziness, but once we got on it was an easy and smooth ride. There were a lot of tunnels, and in between we would get a few brief seconds glimpse of some amazing scenery (tried to capture pictures when we could). The nuclear reactors in the middle of at least one town we passed were unexpected!

We arrived in late and headed to our hotel — from what we saw of Chungdu at night it seemed beautiful — to get some rest for the next day’s visit to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding!!!

You can always go to the SmugMug gallery to view or download all of the pictures and video or order prints directly from SmugMug.