Fuddland

For the record, here are the places I visited during my recent trip to the west of China:

• Yǜnnán (云南)
  • The city of Kūnmíng (昆明)
  • The county of Yuányáng (元阳)
    • The town of Xīnjiēzhèn (新街镇)
    • The village of Duōyīshù (多依树)
    • The village of Qìngkǒu (箐口)
  • Shílín ( 石林) — the Stone Forest National Park
  • Xī Shān (西山) — the Western Hills
• Guǎngxī (广西)
  • The city of Guìlín (桂林)
  • The Lí River (漓江)
  • The town of Yángshuò (阳朔)
• Hǎinán (海南)
  • Hǎinán Island (海南岛)
    • The city of Hǎikǒu (海口)
    • The Dàdōnghǎi (大东海) area of the city of Sānyà (三亚)

I also dipped my toe into the province of Guǎngdōng (广东) in order to catch a bus to the ferry port on my way to Hǎinán Island. And, okay, yes, I misled you in the title of this entry because one of the above isn’t really a province — Guǎngxī is technically one of the five so-called autonomous regions of China, like Tibet and Inner Mongolia, which means it has more legislative rights than a province, I think mostly due to having a higher population of a particular minority ethnic group.

I’ll be sharing photos and stories with you all over the next few weeks, but right now I’m hitting the books in swot-like preparation for the beginning of my Mandarin Chinese course which starts at 8.30 tomorrow morning at the local university. I’m actually looking forward to being back in the classroom after an extended break from learning!