My winter break has concluded. I start classes this coming Monday, March 1st (a global holiday).

Before I move into the rest of this post, here are the pictures from my last city, Chengdu.

I am not so great with words, but I know my travels in the past six weeks have left an enormous impression on me. Seeing so many different ways people live their lives, some with excessive material abundance and some with nothing more than what is in their one-room house.

Instead of waxing poetic about my feelings, I've tried to compose a small video that captures some of my inspiring moments during travel, both photographs and video. But be forewarned, this video is over 20 minutes long. It is probably not particularly interesting unless you a) know me  b) love china  or c) love traveling.

The winter travel plan was as follows:

1. Sanya
2. Zhuhai
3. Shenzhen
4. Guangzhou
5. Guilin
6. Yangshuo
7. Kunming
8. Chengdu

The travel map is here:

And here, in full splendor, is the twenty-twenty review of my 6 weeks off. 

Winter Travel from Daniel Nalesnik on Vimeo.

Kunming is the city of "Eternal Spring" - known for it's beautiful weather year-round and it's flowers. I visited the horticulture expo and saw flowers from all over the world - then took a cable car on top of a mountain to see the Golden Temple (built in 1602 during the Ming Dynasty).

Kunming is the transportation hub to the rest of southwest China - as well as having rail links to Vietnam, Burma and Laos. Between 2005 and 2010 the population doubled in size.

Although the guidebooks say there are many foreigners, I hardly saw any during my 2 day stay.

See my photos of Kunming here.

Originally planned to stay in Guilin for awhile, but Paul Lopez recommended heading to Yangshuo. I am so glad I did. I have never been to a more peaceful place on Earth!

Took a bamboo raft down the river to reach Yangshuo. It was "safe"...

The hills penetrate every area of the town. I biked along the river, read and studied along the way, and climbed to the top of their famous "moon" hill (picture with a hole in a mountain). I stayed here for 5 nights. You could stay here for weeks and never tire of the scenery.

One interesting thing I saw was a new housing development. There were about six different apartment types available. They each required 30% down, for a 20-year mortgage.. with DAILY mortgage repayments. This place won't see a housing crash or NINJA (No Income, No Job/Assets) loans any time soon.

See my photos from Yangshuo here.

"Guilin's scenery is the most beautiful under heaven," goes a Chinese saying. So beautiful, in fact, that the back of the 20 RMB note has a mountain and lake view from this very location. 

Here I tasted the local Guilin rice noodles (looks like wheat pasta, tastes like rice), and the by-now-all-too-familiar hot pot (boiling soup on the table, every ordered ingredient placed in and eaten directly from the bowl after cooked).

I climbed a mountain to take pictures of the city from above, and went into a cave to see million-year-history in the making. As beautiful as Guilin is, even here you can feel the West creeping in. A McDonalds on the street corner, cars beginning to flood the streets in an almost grotesque "these shouldn't be here" way.

See photos from Guilin here.

Caught a train to Guangzhou, another bustling city in the midst of rapid growth. The day and night markets here were splendid to see, thousands of people bargaining for items of daily use. Fake brands galore, real brand also available. One of my photos shows an example of brand stealing that I have often seen in China. For example, Pepsi Cola Clothing, JEEP Clothing, etc.

While meandering one of the busiest markets I saw a very out-of-place foreigner; a 50+ year old man, his brown wallet sticking two inches out of his back pocket. I quickly said hello and advised him to push his wallet deeper. He thanked me and we exchanged our stories. He was from North Carolina, in China trying to adopt a child. He was completely lost and looking for his hotel. I helped him find his hotel, for which he was very thankful.

Find photos of Guanzhou here.

After a very brief stay, I flew to Guilin (next post).