This is already the third year that we celebrate the spring festival in hostel with guests from all over the world. It's always fun to have dumpling party in hostel as all the travelers really enjoy it. But in Spring Festival, we have a little bit more has to offer-FIREWORKS!

Spring Festival Dumpling Party started at 18:30, they all came down, and hostel staff moved the table and put them together a big table for making dumpling, while others came back from town for dumpling party.

As always, mix's residents used many wired ways to show their dumpling making skill, though not every dumpling looks like a typical dumpling, but in general, this time, they did great job, no dumpling like "Pyrimid", "Tofu cube" or "smiling face".

We bought some duck and chicken dishes with Chinese traditional "Baijiu", after "Dumpling Ceremony", we all handed up the cups filled in with "Baijiu" and bottom it up to cheer the "Chinese Spring Festival Eve".

Since to set fireworks within 2-ring road became forbidden, i had to drive out of 2-ring road to look for fireworks. We bought many near the "Sichuan Normal University" and after having dumpling, we all went to riverside to set fireworks while Chinese backpacker girls were watching Spring Festival Show in hostel and definitely they quite enjoyed it.

It's kind of dangerous to set firework in improper way but British guys seemed not scared at all, they set the crackers by holding in hand, and when it was exploded on their hand they were just excited, I said to myself fortunately the fireworks i bought were not those powerful kinds, otherwise... Anyway, we enjoyed a night of dumpling and fireworks together in this traditional festival.

They are: USA, GERMANY, SINGAPORE, THAILAND, KOREA, PAKISTAN and FRANCE. And Philippine, Spain and South Africa is likely to set up their consulate in Chengdu soon...

The direct flight from Chengdu to Osaka (Japan) is going to lunch in the end of March according to Chengdu local Tv News.

If you still have extra time and want to see Chengdu in all different angles, you may check out "Nong Jia Le", a name probably you can only hear in Chengdu-commonly regarded as a city for leisure-though I don't think pretty much so.

"Nong Jia Le" can be literally translated as "Farmhouse" and "Happy" where local Chengdunese happily spend time on weekend with their family by playing province-wide game "Ma Jiang", drinking tea, enjoying healthy food grown up from relatively unpolluted countryside, locals like to forget city for a while in a place not far away from city.

The biggest "Nong Jia Le" area that I'm going to tell you is located at outskirt of Chengdu some about 10 km east of downtown, most of people drive there but "no-cars" can also catch bus at "Jiu Yan Qiao九眼桥", sure, Taxi is another option.

This large "Nong Jia Le" area used to be farming land occupying more than 620 acre, but by selling the crop can be very difficult for people living in rural area to increase their income, so about 4 years ago when local government tried to boast the tourism economy, here became an experimental field. Farmers stopped farming, instead, they converted their houses into guesthouses, restaurants, tea houses as well as the flower planting base-the demand of flowers in market is getting higher, and It's certainly more profitable than selling crops.

Go there when weather is good, see hundreds of people playing majiang together under the shadow of trees or a farmhouse's courtyard, take a walk on ridge of field, specially in spring time, when flowers is booming.

It's also perfect to ride there by bike.

P.s: This large "Nong Jia Le" area is consisted by two "Nong Jia Le", one is called: "Xing Fu Mei Lin 幸福梅林" and another one "San Sheng Hua Xiang 三圣花乡". You can find buses head there at "Jiu Yan Qiao 九眼桥".

Just shortly stopped for couple of days, the cold air from north again coming back and attacking most of north and middle area of China. I opened the window this morning and found heavily snowing rarely occurring, and according to weather forecasting, snowing is gonna be last for at least 3 days.

The roads connect to Gansu and Shaanxi, from Chongqing to Guizhou have temporarily closed due to the frozen dangerous road, just in case you guys are going to travel by bus in those area, check out the latest weather condition before you go. But of course, it doesn't effect train, and by now, the safest way to travel around.

According to the radio morning report, most of highways have re-opened again, but from Chongqing to Guizhou is still suspended.

It's perfect time to see snow now in near by mountains now!

In previous posts, I suggested those who want to get to Cambodia to fly from Chengdu to Siem Reap, I tried on November but was told that flight had been suspended, and hopefully to be started again after spring of 2008. So, now travelers have to jump to Kunming to catch the plane to southeast Asia. However, if you insist to fly, you can still ask travel agency to arrange air ticket to Siem Reap, but need to transit in Kunming. And that's what I did.

In China's old sayings, "A Snow Year, A Rich Year", specially in Chengdu, a place hardly to have snowing, this year in early 2008, we had 3 days snowing continuously though not as heavily as in north.

Chengdu has long been a winter resort for locals and people from southwest China as the mountains surrounding Chengdu are pretty high, and every year, around this time, there must be some mountainous area snowing and some places quite heavily.

West and north Sichuan Plateau are not to be mentioned as some area have already been block by snow storm particularly  where the altitude over 3000 meters high. Meanwhile, some low altitude mountains close to Chengdu comfortably offer tourists a place to enjoy the winter activities or just simply enjoy the "white world". The best places are following (might be most crowded during this time):

1. Qing Cheng Mountain. A famous Taoist mountain west of Chengdu, 40 minutes ride, the closest place that Chengdu locals can see the snow.

2. Mt. Emei. about 2.5 hours ride south of Chengdu, there is a skiing ground opened to tourists during the winter. Also, a famous Buddhist mountain to climb.

3. Snow Mountain Xiling. Less than 2 hours ride, west of Chengdu, has long been the famous winter resort for Chinese. At the foot of mountain, there are many hotels built on the hotspring site, so enjoy a whole day long winter activities on the top of mountain, then back to hotel, relaxing in hotspring pool in evening that's pretty enjoyable. (Could be extremely crowded during this time).

Most of travelers head to Ulaanbaatar via Beijing, but you can also do it through Hohhot.

I got my Visa to Mongolia from Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia, northwest of Datong, Shanxi Province. It took roughly a week (Price was 650RMB, but it may be different depends on how fast you want to get it)through a travel agency (Mobile phone number: 13366278902). Travel agency bought me a train ticket to Zam Uud, the border town of Mongolia where i should upgrade my train ticket to Ulaanbaatar city.

Train arrived in Erlanhot next morning, the border town of China where the train bogies required to change in order to adopt the railway of Mongolia side. It takes about 6 hours. Meanwhile, we left train station, and checked in a hotel near train station, had a shower and breakfast. Train attendant suggested us to come back on train about 3 O'clock in the afternoon, so we took a taxi to a market where we can change the money (0479-7561638 phone number of the money exchanger in that market). It was 1 RMB for 147 Tugrik, I changed 3000 RMB, very quickly I became a rich man lol. Then I walked around the market, it is a big market, I met several groups of Mongolian people are bargaining in this market while some others are having business negotiation.

After check-out at hotel, we slowly walked back to train station, custom gate was still closed, so we had to wait for a while. After the custom checking, we came back on train, but for some reason the train didn't move until 6 O'clock around the evening. Finally the train moved, Mongolian custom staff started to check our Visa and bags on train, I saw a train attendant tried to hide some fruits boxes under the aisle, there are some spaces, i assume they didn't want custom staff saw that for some reason. Train stopped again in Zam Uud after 10 minutes, another turn of waiting. Train attendant found me to ask for ticket-upgrade, I forgot how much in tugrik i paid but not too much. Afterwards attendant gave us a cup with couple of bags of tea, we didn't use it at all but we were asked to pay for that (about 10 RMB/per person). Some people walked out for food, some just took a walk. I don't suggest you to walk far from train as one of my friend later got robbed by a group of Mongolian young guys outside the platform.

Another overnight train. Train arrived in Ulaanbaatar train station next morning about 12:00, platform is full of people, watch out the thieves around, and there are some cases that single female travelers got robbed. Many cars parking outside the platform, which is an unique thing in Mongolia that any car you see in the street could be taxi, because most of them do not have TAXI sign on the top of the car. The best way to get rid of the hassle in train station is to book the room ahead and most of guesthouses in Ulaanbaatar provides free pickup service.

Tips:
1. Prepare fruits and food for this long journey
2. Don't drink too much water when you come back on train in Erlanhot, cause you'll get locked on train for many hours without toilets available on train.
3. Robbery could happen in Zam Uud stop, don't leave far away from the train.
4. Book room ahead and ask for free pickup cause it's not quite safe near train station.

Thai Consulate, American Consulate, Korean Consulate and German Consulate.

After Chengdu lunched the direct flight to Siem Reap, now travelers can find direct flight from Chengdu to Manila, the capital of Philippines from next month. Since more and more direct flights lunched in Chengdu, traveling to Asia and Europe became easier day by day.

In China, thousands of bears live a life of torture on bear farms. The bears are “farmed” in order to extract their bile. Bears are confined in cages which vary in size from agonisingly tiny "crush" cages to slightly larger steel crates, all of which cause terrible physical and mental suffering. In addition to their captivity torment, the bears are subjected to painful & cruel methods of bile extraction that involve crude surgery to implant a steel catheter into the abdomen or the creation of a permanent hole in the abdomen known as the "free-dripping" technique.

Many bears die as a result of the unsanitary surgery and those that survive spend the rest of their lives suffering in extreme pain and depravation.

The Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus Selenarctos) is most impacted by the demand for bile acid - ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). This species of bear is more commonly known as the Moon Bear due to the beautiful yellow crescent on its’ chest. They are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Appendix I, the most critical category of endangerment. These bears are both trapped in the wild & bred in captivity for exploitation on the farms.

Bear bile is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, leading Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors now agree that it can and should be replaced by herbal and synthetic alternatives that are cheaper, more effective and readily available. So in addition to the inhumanity, the initial rationale on which this industry was built is no longer valid.

China Bear Rescue Centre

The China Bear Rescue Centre came in to being following the signing of an unprecedented agreement with the Chinese authorities in July 2000 to free 500 farmed Moon Bears. The sanctuary was established north of Chengdu. The China Bear Rescue Centre is an inspiring and exciting facility that gives the bears everything they were denied on the farms: health, freedom & happiness. These happy & healthy bears have tasty food, the pleasure of roaming in lush natural foliage or swimming in cool water and the freedom of choosing whether to wander off alone, or to be "on view" to admirers.

Upon arrival these pitiful, caged newcomers are given a medical by the Centre’s Veterinary Team now recognized as world experts in this field. All the bears required extensive surgery for their injuries, to remove the steel catheters and to fix their abdominal wounds. Surgery for each bear lasts between 4-12hours.

The sanctuary, features the pioneering design and development work of an internationally acclaimed animal architect. This is the first dedicated bear sanctuary in the world. It is an adventurous creation that combines a safe, but natural, home-from-home for the bears in Rehab Centres and bamboo forest, - but which also allows inspirational "up-close" visitor access in specially created "zones", where the general public can see a bear’s life!

Catering to their special needs is a professional team of on-site managers and workers, plus experts (including volunteers) who are experienced and qualified in working with bears and who ensure that each day is filled with interesting enrichment activities to keep them stimulated throughout the day.

Helping these bears - helps people as well. In addition to the Centre imparting “inspiration for humanity” on its visitors they also currently employ over 50 people on site, ranging from bear workers, security and maintenance staff, and gardeners. Cooks are employed to feed 185 bears and staff who give them their every day care. Local farmers have a ready market for their produce and several small shops have appeared around the perimeter of the Rescue Centre.

The Rescue Centre is scheduled to open to the public in mid-2005.

Why Support this Charitable Cause?

In addition to the obvious benefits for the Moon Bears, this project and the foundation are deserving of support and relevant to those living in Sichuan, reasons include:

*Well run charity with a high percentage of donation being spent on their programs

*Achieving positive outcomes with a win-win-win approach

*Geographically relevant

*Participation encouraged

*Enlisting volunteers to assist

*Defined project expansion upon reaching funding targets

*Clear goal to stop bear farming by the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Animals Asia’s approach for this project is worthy of mention.

To achieve the outcome of cessation of bear farming in China, they initially signed an agreement with the China Central Government to issue no more bear farming licenses enforceable across all provinces. They then set about encouraging bear farms to find alternate activities and help convince them by purchasing their bear farming licenses. They built a centre to help these newly freed bears. To change attitudes they enlisted the support of leading Chinese doctors and the Traditional Chinese Medicine Associations across the world to reject bear bile as a source of UDCA.





They operate campaigns in schools & universities in China to educate people about the cruelty and complete in-necessity of this industry. The local community is involved through employment & commerce.

They have created momentum for this outstanding cause by delivering win-win-win solutions, not problems.

Animals Asia Foundation

The Animals Asia Foundation, managed by professionals, resident in Asia, is committed to forging constructive solutions to the seemingly insurmountable problems which the animals face in today's changing environment.

Animals Asia Foundation is a Hong Kong-based government-registered animal welfare charity founded by Jill Robinson MBE in 1998. It also has charitable status in the UK, USA and Germany with donations being tax-deductible in these countries. It is a registered non-profit organization in Australia and has additional offices in New Zealand and China.

Upon reaching the fund raising target the American Chamber of Commerce and the British Chamber of Commerce collectively adopt one Moon Bear. Naming rights for the adopted bear can go to the winner of a “Special Raffle” for those that purchase benefit/field trip tickets.

For mor information, please visit the
Animals Asia Foundation web site here

For those who are going to stay in Mix Hostel during the national day holiday there is a good news that I should tell you. Which has been absent for many decades that the Kung fu arena contest will be held in near by Wenshu Fang Folk Street dring National Day Holiday.

This popular arena contest used to be called "Da Jin Zhang", the Kung fu maters from all corners of the country will present in this event, this is really a rare chance as this event seemed no longer existed for several dacades!

The time schedule for Kungfu Arena Contest:
1st-6th of Oct, 10:00-11:30 every morning, 15:30-17:00 every afternoon.

Some Kungfu maters may show you some stunts which hardly see in nowadays!

Today is Chinese traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, a relatively big festival for Chinese people. Usually family members will get together to enjoy dinner either in home or eating outside. Moon cake is never to be missed in this festival. This sweet stuffed thing symbolizes the "reunion", and also reflects the moon on sky as today the moon turns out the most round shape.

In the past, parks and temples held many activities for public, after having dinner home everybody went out to participate those activities, it was a great fun.

If you are looking for a traditional Mid-Autumn Festival night, go Wenshu Fang Folk Street near Mix Hostel, it will be very busy tonight. Starts at 19:30, the ceremony of Mid-Autumn Festival brings you traditional ceremony show of “Sacrifice to Moon ", traditional performances, games and snack exhibition.

Don't know where Wenshu Fang Folk Street is? Grab a FREE HOSTEL MAP from Mix Hostel. It's just around the corner.

While some travelers talking about the backdoor to Yunnan, I'd like to suggest you another route which actually more comfortable, leisurely however the beautiful sceneries will never be out of eye sight.

Backdoor to Yunnan from Sichuan means travelers travel through Sichuan and Tibet highway (mostly in and off the south route), you'll pass by Kangding (A geographical border between Chinese han and Tibetan), then most of travelers off to Tagong for several days (horse trekking, hiking or visiting Tibetan nomadic people). After that, travelers usually will come back to south route again and straightly heading to Litang where the cowboy like Tibetan walking around you, Litang built on 4000 meters high plateau, take precaution for high altitude sickness. From Litang, bus starts down to south direction, passing by Daocheng (the gateway to Yading National Reserve) to Xicheng. Stay overnight in Xicheng, bus set off to the end of your backdoor journey in Zhongdian, also named as "Shangri-la". On the way some parts of the road are in relatively bad condition, and the snow storm might occurred when bus crossing the 5000 meters' high pass.

The route I suggest is not very adventurous one but you'll see at least 4 different minorities. They are literally "Yi", "Mongolian Moso", "Moso" and "Naxi". You start you trip from Chengdu, take the night train to Xichang. You'll arrive in Xichang in the early morning, catch a taxi to long distance bus station. As I know the last bus heading to Lugu Lake directly departs at 8:30am, so try to be bus station before that time. Bus takes about 7 hours to Lugu Lake town via Yanyuan Town where bus stops for lunch.

Lugu Lake Town in fact is still some several kilometers away from lakeside where most of family accommodations can be found. You can expect some van waiting for tourists in Lugu Lake Town bus station. You can walk to lakeside or if your backpack is too heavy, share a van to lakeside.

Lugu Lake is located on the border between Sichuan province and Yunnan province, where the altitude is more than 3000 meters' high. At the Sichuan side, most of inhabitants are Mongolian, but they've already merged into Moso culture, so real Moso people call them FAKE MOSO, but i prefer to call them Mongolian Moso. As the tourism is not as developed as in Yunnan side, so Sichuan side is comparatively cheaper and more original. The most prosperous area at Lugu Lake is at Yunnan side Luoshui Town, bars, hotels, souvenir stores are fully packed there. Lige Island is a perfect balance in Lugu Lake. Lige Island is to the west side of the lake, a small peninsula stretches into the lake. Along the lakeside, more and more small hostels and guesthouses have been mushrooming, so you'll never feel bored.  Don't foret to get up early in the morning to take a morning sunrise photo, which is awesome!

You can find buses head to Lijiang (For Naxi culture)in Lige Island village or Luoshui Town.

Laura is our travel agent, today is her birthday, happy birthday Laura!

North Sichuan is generally in "Aba Tibetan Prefecture" where the majority is Tibetan but they are living along with "Qiang people" and "Hui" (Chinese Muslim). "Tibetan" and "Qiao" once had war in the past but now they really live peacefully and harmoniously together.

Songpan and Jiuzhaigou are probably the most popular destination for travelers, however comparatively Songpan is less spoiled than Jiuzhaigou. From Chengdu to Songpan takes 8 hours on bus, if you travel in summer raining season you might encounter the landslide particularly in the area of "Yingxiu".  Songpan town has been rebuilt because it had been destroyed by a fire several decades ago, so it looks quite new, and not as charming as some other old city like in the north China the "Pingyao City". Backpackers go to Songpan for horse trekking to ice mountain or some other area altitude over 3000-4000 meters high. Horse team arrange everything for you including tent, sleeping bag, food. On the way you have chance to camp in the wild, meet nomadic Tibetan family and check out the Tibetan Lamasery.

Jiuzhaigou national park is actually only 3 hours away from Songpan, but if you take the public bus, you can expect stopping somewhere to wait for more passengers to fill up the bus in case the bus is not full. Jiuzhaigou International airport is in fact not in Jiuzhaigou, It's actually located in Songpan, so even you fly, you still have to change a bus and spend several hours  to get to Juizhaigou.

If you are budget traveler, you'll be happy to know that more and more budget hostels have been mushrooming in expensive JIuzhaigou, get the hostel card or ask Mix Hostel to book the bed or room for you in advance.

Officially, tourists are not allowed to stay in national park, and you must go out of park the same day, but ticket is valid for two days excluding bus ticket. A bit confused? Actually the ticket for Jiuzhaigou is combined with National Park Ticket and Bus Ticket (Jiuzhaigou is big, you must take the bus to get around), in total it cost more than 300 RMB. (In high season the bus ticket is 90 RMB, 80 RMB in low season), that means you can use the same National Park Ticket to enter the park next day but you should have to buy the bus ticket again.

However there is a trick. If you insist to walk instead of taking bus, you can only pay the National Park Ticket which is about 220 RMB (Between NOV. to FEB is only 80 RMB). Then you need to walk for several hours to the second Tibetan Village which is called "Shu Zhen Zai", from there you can catch the bus and usually nobody will check your bus ticket. Also, most of secret lodgings can be found from that village, if you like, you can stay there  for couple of days, only thing you need to beware is that if you want to come out of the park, do it in afternoon not morning (It's not logical to come out of the park in morning, isn't it? ^_^)

Tip of one day trip to "Jiuzhaigou":
The National Park is in shape of "Y".  Catch bus at entrance all the way to the right top point of "Y" then walk down back to the intersection of "Y". From there change another bus to left top point of "Y". After catch bus back to the intersection of "Y" again then walk down to see all the tourist sites.

We then keep going up north. The destination we'd like to be is Langmusi, it's right located at the border of Sichuan Province and Gansu Province. We had been told that there was no bus heading to Langmusi from Jiuzaigou, but a guy who lived in the same hostel with us bought a bus ticket and that bus is surprisedly going to Langmusi (she told us that bus will arrive in Langmsi in two days). Bus actually goes back towards Songpan and then goes up from "Chuan Zhu Si". I checked the map of Sichuan, there actually is a road connects Jiuzhaigou to Zoige, but local told me that road is extreme bad with a lot of landslides, that's why bus has to go back a little bit then reach to another road which connects to the road to Zoige, absolutely it takes longer time.  So, we chose to hire a car which is 600 RMB/day. Driver found a short-cut, so we arrived in Zoige pretty soon (6 hours approximately), we left Zoige immediately after having a lunch in Zoige. On the way, the vast grassland seems endless, hundreds of sheeps and yaks were grazed there.

We arrived in a place where the road branched, we saw the signs hang on at roadside, right direction is to Langmusi, left is to Tangke. Because of the road construction, the short way to Langmsi is closed, so we had to run another direction and get a big round back to the road to Langmsi. We missed the "Flower Lake" which is at the middle of somewhere between where we were to Langmusi, but as a makeup, we'll pass by the "First Bend of Yellow River". Car finally arrived in Langmusi in dark. It took a whole day.

Address: Chengdu Tianfu Exhibition Center (South of downtown, on the way to Huayang)
Admission is required.

Ist Huang Long Xi International Ancient Town Festival is gonna be held in Huang Long Xi from 27th of Sept to 7th of Oct 2007. During the festival, you'll have chance to see many river activities inside the ancient town with dramatic special effect. You can also observe the fire dragon dance, releasing river lights and other traditional activities rarely to be found in today.

Women World Cup Kicks Off in Chengdu