7
Location: China
Hello! Today we woke up to an extravagant Chinese buffet in our gorgeous hotel. After a long bus ride, we finally arrived at a Wu Tai Shan for a strenuous hike up the scenic “five terraced mountain” where we arrived at a Buddhist temple. At the temple, Tashi taught us about the fundamentals of Buddhism and its rich history. We had a great opportunity to barter at the shops as we slowly made our way back down the mountain for lunch. A major highlight of our day- and the trip was seeing Tashi reunite with his old teacher from Tibet after fourteen years. His teacher gave us beautiful Tibetan luck knots as a gift. After riding the bus for another couple of hours, we finally arrived at a noodle shop in Taiyuan for dinner. The traffic was morbid! Cars were everywhere, but we finally made it out alive.
Along with many delicious types of noodles (a famous delicacy in Taiyuan), we were treated to a great show by noodle makers. Finally, we tried to reach our hotel where were denied access because we were foreigners. However, our great counselors helped us to find a new hotel very quickly, and we’re very happy to get some rest after a long day.