Don't freak out

Like my new tattoos? JOKING!!! These are marks that are left on your back from a traditional chinese body cleansing called cupping. After my last massage my friend Gabbi and I decided to give cupping a try. Well, she's had it done before and I said why not. It's sort of like a vacuum process. You lay on your chest and glass cups are placed on your back. The insides are heated with a match and then quickly applied to your back creating something like a vacuum. After you have all the glasses on your back you are covered with a sheet and left for about 5 or 10 minutes. The glasses then take all the "negative" air out of your muscles.  It puts your qi (pronounced CH-EE) in equilibrium. It's not a painful process. You do feel like their is a lot of pressure on your back, and you can feel the suction from each glass. After, the glasses are pulled from your back and you're left with these marks. Yes it does bruise, but it's not a deep bruise. I still have marks on my back and it's been three days. Each day they fade a little bit. When in China. . . 

Coming soon to a great wall near you..

Still Lijiang..

This is a photo from the last night we were in Lijiang. (Ive been back in Shanghai a while but I thought I would put this up anyway) This guy was wilding out..the club was crazy..Mad fun..

Gotta stay fly

6 months strong

It's been 6 months in Shanghai. Here are some things I miss. It's great being here in China but I think about NYC everyday. Sometimes all day. Those of you checking my blog know I bleed that New York blood. First I did it down in Baltimore for College which was crazy. I thought that was hard. Being in China is so great, but man NYC is where my heart is at. Where it will always be. Growing up in the city gave me the courage to do anything and it's part of the reason I'm here in China but...  I miss you.

Madness

On the way down from Tiger Leaping Gorge, we came across a car that had almost flew off the road. I don't know how this happened, but it was nuts. The Chinese dudes didn't seem too shaken up about it as you can see from the pics. Don't worry we didn't leave them stranded there. They had called for help and a truck had pulled up behind us with cables and stuff to help them out soon after we had gotten there. Scary!

Tiger leaping gorge

See the winding little road on the left of the picture. It was scary as shit to ride on that thing. I've got some crazzzzzy pictures about that for tomorrow...

These aren't tiger leaping gorge mountains(below). They are sister mountains of the yulong mountain which is no where near tiger leaping...just for the record..

Daily 5

I'll be putting up five a day until these photos start to drive me crazy

this is out of the van window at tiger leaping gorge

This is Old Town in the morning when we left for Tiger leaping

View of Yulong mountain. We were up at the top which was dope.

Our little green van. I really like this picture

Let it soak in

still more to come..

More more more

Pics while biking

First post of many. . .

First off let me say, I took like 500 pictures over the weekend, so picking and choosing the best ones to put up here is going to be a little difficult. These five are from the major places we went to in Lijiang.

This is me at Tiger leaping gorge. It's a surreal place. The mountains are glorious. Yes that is truly the only word that I can think of to describe what the backdrop looked like. 

The mountain shots like this with the snow are all from the top of Yulong mountain. We rode this little trolly car up the mountain. Me and heights don't mix so well but I had to thug it out and make it happen. You're in this tiny little car and are suspended in mid air as you travel up the side of the mountain. It's so cool. The views are incredible and once you get to the top it just gets better. This is the very top. There are glaciers that you can see behind me. Although there was snow and ice, it wasn't as cold as you'd think it was. Also the air makes you light headed, so it might have been really cold and my brain just wasn't telling me.

Our first day we biked to the neighboring town of Baixi (might have spelled that wrong). IT was about 10k to get there and on more than one occasion my obsessive compulsive mind thought to stop riding my bike and start running. Why not train for my half marathon here..enough said..I resisted. Here is big Mao chilling doing his thing.

Lijiang City

I'm headed to Lijiang this weekend. It has been called "Fairyland" and I am thoroughly excited. Ever since my sister and I tried to catch the little fairies  that lived in the rocks and only came out at dusk in cape cod in my youth, I have had a spot in my heart for the little magical creatures. I can now say this is a proud moment for me. hahaa. Anyway, the city is supposed to be great. Here is one of the attractions that I'm really looking forward to seeing. 

The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain:

A mountain formation movement that took place 65 million years ago and which created the Himalaya, known as the "roof of the world" gave rise to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. In the Southeastern part of this plateau and the northwestern part of the Yunnan- Guizho plateau, meandering mountain ranges tower to the sky and swift rivers roar in deep gorges, presenting magnificent landforms over an area covering more that 200,000 sq km. This area is the beautiful Lijiang Prefecture.  

Originally a square developed on the basis of a former country market, Sifang Street is now the center for business and other activites in Lijiang. Lined with shops on all sides, it bustles with activity all day long.

So...

I will have pics and stories when I get back Monday. Do yourself a favor and google image lijiang!