Making plans for Spring festival, which is the Chinese New Year, which is in February. Spring? I don’t know. The “mid-autumn” fest was in early September, which some people like to call “late summer”.
Alyssa might come to visit, which would be totally, completely awesome and I am super excited. We’re looking to go to Sichuan for spicy food, amazing tea, pandas, and Jiuzhaiguo, a spectacular scenic park. Then on to Xian for the obligatory Terracotta Warriors for a day. Then, of course, Beijing, for Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and the Great Wall. Alyssa wants to squeeze a trip in to Yangshuo as well; it all depends on how much time we have.
There’s still a short list of places that aren’t too far that I’d like to go on a weekend: Shenzen, Hong Kong (I don’t really want to go to HK, but I feel I should), Xiamen, and maybe some others. We also have a week in May, when I’d love to go to Mongolia. And in summer, maybe spend some time traveling Southeast Asia before going back to the States.
Too exciting to think about.
