Long time no see

So it’s been over a month since I last posted (oops). I vowed to keep the blog updated whilst I was travelling but that was clearly an ambitious pledge. But my holiday is now officially over and I’m back in TJ - back to teaching, back to regularly eating 牛肉面 and back to writing blog updates (I hope).

As I settle back into life in Tianjin, here begins a blog series I’m planning on uploading covering all my adventures and mishaps (and believe me there were plenty) during my Spring Festival travels. 

Hitting the road on day one of my travels

To make things a bit more digestible, here’s a quick overview of my travels in numbers:

• 37 days away from Tianjin
• 22 hours in one train sitting
• 10 leg bruises (approximately)
• 8 destinations in China
• 6 flights
• 5 destinations in Vietnam (7 including some brief pit stops)
• 4 mountains visited
• 3 boat/ raft trips
• 2 people crashed into on a bike (luckily, both left uninjured)
• 1 lost piece of luggage (still unrecovered).

Whilst I genuinely had a pretty amazing time during my winter break, it was a rollercoaster – definitely full of ups and downs both in the metaphorical sense and the sense that I hiked a few mountains. I was very conflicted about coming back to Tianjin. I wasn’t looking forward to early mornings and long days teaching too much, but I did like the idea of getting back into some kind of routine. I love travelling and have loved it for the past month and a bit, but I was also in need of some rest and a place to plant my feet in the ground again. Overall though, I’m really grateful that I was given the time to go and do all the travelling I did but it is really nice to be back.

Perhaps the best thing I discovered throughout my travels is that I actually really do love China. It’s not without its challenges and it never once occurred to me that I might miss the place but landing back in Guangzhou after two weeks in Vietnam was a relief. It was good to be back somewhere I was familiar with and felt like I belonged to. It was maybe the first time I thought of China as home.

Anyway, coming up keep your eyes peeled for further elaboration on all of the numbers above and more - starting with my first stop: Chengdu, Sichuan.