Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang - my last trip in China

I was supposed to write this post a long time ago, but for different reasons it hasn't still happened.

Anyways, after a semester in China I wanted to end my Chinese experience with one last trip to a place I've never seen and to do it with some of my best friends. The destination had been on my 'List of places to visit' for some time already and since the others had  also been thinking about it, we decided to travel to Hunan province to see the Zhangjiajie mountains, which are often known as the Avatar Mountains. I mean you must know the Flying Mountains in the movie Avatar that you thought were definitely fiction? Well they're not really fiction, because the Zhangjiajie mountains look awfully like them in the morning when the sun is rising and the fog makes the narrow and tall mountain peaks look like they're flying.
Since we had a bit more time and we found a nice old town only a few hours from Zhangjiajie, we also stayed a few days in Fenghuang, which also turned out to be a pretty cool place.

Although the Golden Week trip we took in October was the perfect description of how sometimes you are so lucky during your trips, this one did not really turn out that perfectly, but we definitely saw some cool places and enjoyed our time. The only problem was that the weather was pretty awful and that made hiking not so pleasant. Just imagine hiking up the hill for a few hours to see the best view in the area, and then getting up there and only seeing the fog. Now add here about a hundred hungry and angry monkeys and you get the picture.

One other thing about Hunan province - the food is crazy spicy. And I don't mean Estonian spicy (we don't really eat anything spicy) but Chinese spicy. Everyone else besides me really enjoyed it, but I must admit that having extra spicy noodles with beef is not the breakfast that I usually dream of. Luckily they had baozi and jiaozi and as a huge cookie-lover I luckily had cookies with me all the time, so that probably saved my life.

Anyways, thank you Karianne, Jing, Tobias, Hidayah and Alex for an awesome trip :)

China: the finish line

Some people say that going abroad is a lesson for life and it will teach you how to get through life on your own. You will get to know your weaknesses and strengths and figure out how to be comfortable with yourself.

Coming to China didn’t teach me any of this.

The thing is, the only time I felt alone during this whole semester was the first evening when I got here and didn’t know how to use internet, where to get food, or how to manage to fall asleep in a really hard and uncomfortable bed. When I got up the next day to figure out administrative stuff, I met Soyeon. And then I met Robert. And then Karianne and Jing and all the other amazing people.

And I truly believe I was extremely lucky to meet them all, because they all taught me so much about life and helped me to keep my life balanced in an environment that was so different from everything I was used to.

I met people who are so similar and at the same time so different from me. People who left behind their lives to come to live in one of the most interesting countries in the world. People who are adventurous, spontaneous and are still looking for something exciting, something new.

I spoke to people who even at their young age have traveled more than most people do in their whole lifetime. I met people who were so motivating that they made me work harder and dream bigger. They taught me to be braver, more spontaneous and how to manage to keep my life balanced in a strange new country.

I honestly didn’t expect to get so close to these people in only such a short amount of time, but I did. I really do believe I found friends for life and even though I cannot knock on their doors anymore at any moment, I believe they will always be there for me.

My Chinese experience was amazing and even though I now feel even more that I don’t know enough about China, I have a way better sense of their thinking and their culture. I had conversations about the Chinese culture, politics and it made me see everything from a totally new perspective.

Thank you China, Beijing and Tsinghua University for treating me so well!

And moreover, thank you mom and dad for always being so supportive of me and helping me to reach my dreams! And big a big thanks to my sister and my friends and relatives for always being there for me, even when I’m thousands of kilometers away.

It feels good to be back home!

I will miss you all! 

And to all of my readers, I promise to write more about my latest trips soon and add lots of pictures!