Yosemite Trip Schedule

I just came back from Yosemite National Park and my heart is still lingering in the scenery of Yosemite. Here is our schedule. I hope it is helpful when you are also planning a trip to Yosemoite during spring break.

The trip lasts two nights and three days, from Saturday to Monday (March 14th - March 16th). The following schedule is very relaxed and we may add more activities when we have the energy.

Saturday:
7:00AM Go to LAX to pick up the car.
Link http://www.thrifty.com/
LOS ANGELES AIRPORT, CA, USA (LAX)
5440 W. CENTURY BLVD
LOS ANGELES, CA UNITED STATES 90045
(877) 283-0898

8:30AM Leave LA

12:00PM Fresno County Blossom Trail
Website: http://www.goblossomtrail.com/
Fresno County Office of Tourism
2220 Tulare Street, 8th Floor
Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 262-4271

This part is not worth an intentioned stop. Actually you can see many trees in blossom along highway #99.

1:00PM Continue to Yosemite Southern Entrance
The scenery along highway #41 is fantastic. You will see ranches, flowers and tree decorated hills.

2:30PM Mariposa Grove
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariposa_Grove
http://picasaweb.google.com/songkaiyuan/YosemiteNationalPark#5180785567499148434
In Mariposa Grove, we will see one of the tallest trees in the world: the giant sequoia. The road to Mariposa Grove is closed, so be ready for a hiking about 6miles.

6:30PM Go to our lodge
link: http://www.yosemitelodging.com/
http://www.yosemitelodging.com/studios.html
Yosemite's Four Seasons Office
7519 Henness Circle
Yosemite National Park, CA 95389
209 372-9000 / 800 669-9300

6:00PM check in & dinner & night life
We played a new board game, Bang!, this time. It is very interesting.

Sunday
8:00AM Get ready to today's activities

8:30AM Tunnel View

9:00AM - 5:00PM Yosemite Valley
The exact places and time depends on our interest. Here are some interesting places:
Bridalveil Fall
Merced River
Yosemite Village
Anwahneechee Hotel
El Captain (Hiking)
Yosemite Fall (Hiking)
Mirror Lake (Hiking)

5:30PM Go back to the four seaons lodge
6:30PM Dinner & night life

Monday
8:00AM Get ready to today's activities

10:30AM - 3:30PM Hetch Hetchy
Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy_Reservoir
http://picasaweb.google.com/songkaiyuan/YosemiteNationalPark#5180776427808741506

Hetchy Hetchy is sometimes called small Yosemite Valley. It is very sceneric. We will have a hiking there.

4:00PM Going back for LA
We can directly do back to LA along route 99 or if time avaiable, we may go to Highway #1
and finish our trip with the scenery of pacific coast.

11:00PM Home! Sweet home LA!

"Good Boy"

Here is my car, a Honda Accord of the year 2000. I bought this car about two months ago and gradually began to enjoy this big toy.

Many people are concerned my safety. Especially Laoyifu, who is an experienced driver, called me specially to teach me how to drive safely. His teachings includes: don't drive when you can't calm down; pay your full attention when driving; don't drive with a slippers on; and practice more before driving in freeway . I should feel guilty in regards to the last piece of advice because I mistakenly drove to the freeway on the very first day. I felt a little bit of scared at first; but fortunately there was a heavy traffic at that time as a result the speed was not that fast. I managed to leave the freeway few minutes later. Now I feel more comfortable when driving, both local and freeway, after two months' practice . I would like to thank all people who care about me. As far as now I am all right.

I have driven it to several places around Los Angeles, such as Santa Monica, Getty Center, Six Flags, Chinatown and Huntington Beach. It makes my world even bigger. I love it, good boy!

Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach 2007

MCB program at USC holds an annual retreat at Laguna Beach. This year we stayed in Laguna Beach from Friday evening to Sunday morning. Most time was used for presentations and poster exhibition. Only Saturday afternoon was free time.

We went to the beach first. You can see smooth sandy beach as well as rocky shore here. People surf or take a sunbath on the sandy beach. I cannot swim or surf, so I only walk on bare foot, feeling the sand moving under my skin. Looking west, the immerse pacific ocean shined under the afternoon sunshine. Lots of seagulls were flying above the sea and sometimes they landed on the beach. They were not afraid of people, leisurely walking near you.

There was more fun in the rocky shore. The waves constantly licked the rock. Many shells attached to the rock. We found a piece of rock, which is completely covered by shells. In some place, sea anemones quietly rest in small pools of water. If you touch them with your figure, they will quickly crouching their body.

Later we drove along Pacific Coast Highway to the downtown of Laguna. I bet Pacific Coast Highway is one of most beautiful roads in the world. With blue sea on one side and elegant Spanish-style cabins on the other side, no wonder our driver said:'it feel like playing Need for Speed"。 There are many galleries in downtown of Laguna Beach. I really like Laguna's artistic style.

A travellog to Huangshan

I have been to Huangshan last year and wrote a travel log, which I pasted in my personal homepage then. And now I intend to keep the homepage more concise, so I decide to move it here. I read it again, and recalled my travel in Huangshan. I wish someday I will visit again. Three day is too short to understand and appreciate Huangshan.

I will have a visit to Huangshan Mountain tommorrow with my classmates, I am very excited

2006-04-01

Now, I come back from Huangshan,just enjoy some of my photos--I will tell my experience in Huangshan another day.

During my travel to Huangshan, we visited Feicui Valley ( Valentine's Valley) in the afternoon on the first day. I was very excited to see the stone with Liu Yuxi's peom carved on it, because Liu is one of the poems that I like in Tang Dynasty.

This photo is taken in Feicui Gu . The boy in red is my classmates. And have you note the round stone behind us? That is the Dan in Chinese. In traditional Chinese culture, Dan is a pill that has magic medical power. It is claimed to be able to make people live for ever.

Feicu Gu is famous for its beautiful brooks, polymorphic stones and vast sea of bamboos( see what is behind me). Maybe you know about a Oscar-winning movie named Crouching Tiger Hiden Dragon, its scenery just behind me.

Brige of Valentines. It is said that when one passes the bridge of valentines, he should not look backward. Otherwise, he will meet lots of trouble when pursying his girl.

At last we arrived at the landmark of Feiccui Gu, the big character LOVE is five meters in width and six meters in height, with Sushi's handwritting as a model.

On the second day, we started off for Huangshan early in the morning. Our journey will include Baieling, Shixinfeng, Guangming Ding and Yikesong.

It is rather challenging to climb to the peak, so when we saw the peak of Baieling, we were all very excited and stop to take photos. We believed that we could get Baieling soon, however, it proved more tiring to cover the last distance especially after you had been climbing for nearly two hours.

At last, we arrived at Baieling, higher than 1700m above the sea level, which is just behind me in the above picture. It said that in winter there accumulates a layer of snow so that it looks like a goose ( Bai e ). Standing at the top of Baieling, I looked around...

After a rest and a simple lunch at Baieling, we visted Shixinfeng very quickly because the guide complain tour time was limited. However, I can bet the scenery at Shixinfeng is the most attractive. See the following pictures, pay attention the trees.

I took this photo at Beihai Hotel near to Baierling, one of the mountain of Huangshan. The background is a large picture of Deng Xiaoping, who climbed Huangshan mountain on foot in his seventies, really a powerful guy. I was mincing his gesture, feeling that I am also a great man.

On the way to Yingke Song. The background is Old Man Jiang Fishing.

These two picture were taken at Guangming Ding. We were lucky to encounter a snow there and forgot to take many pictures,--I recorded the scencery in my head.

The big stone behind me is Aoyu Stone, Ao means turtle and Yu means fish.

I also saw the most famous Yike Song, however the pictuer is not available at present for my friends havn's send them to me yet.

Nanjing Book Exhibition

I believe in the motto "Read ten thousand books and walk ten thousand miles". Thus my traval to Nanjing Book Exhibition is a great pleasure, for which I prefer to leave the urgent application process aside for a while. During my three days in Nanjing, I have the chance to learn about how a modern book supermarket works, how people in this trade think and do business . Also I meet unfamiliar yet interesting persons. What's more, We toursaw the night scenery of Fuzimiao and eat foods there. At last, we visited Zhonghua Men and Yuhua Tai. Here is a photo recording of our journey.

The great book exhibition is hold by Nanjing Xinhua Book Publishing Group. The main hall, located in the countryside of Nanjing, looks like a large stadium

From Nanjing

To be Continued

Travel to Shanghai

Last Saturday, I travel to Shanghai city. This is the first time I went to Shanghai. The Friday night is a exciting and long. I got up early and went to railway station together with Pen Jing, who would attend a audition.

We arrived at Shanghai at about three in the afternoon. My classmates Liu Ning picked up me, and lead me directly to Nanking Road. Nanking Road is a famous commercial district, full of shops, restaurants, and bars. There are many people on the road. We made a quick glimpse of the New world market. The goods are attractive but expensive.

As we are sightseeing, we talked all the time. I have not seen Liu Ning for nearly three years since we graduated from middle school. I used to doubt whether he might changed a lot these years. However, a short talk eliminate my doubt. He didn't changed a lot. He still had a lovely hasty temper.

At the end of Nanking Road, I could see the figure of Oriental Pearl Tower far from it. It is not as tall as I see in TV before. We quickly cover the last miles way and reached the Waitan. We walked slowly along the Huangpu River and looked at the Oriental Pearl Tower on the opposite bank of Huangpu River, which is the landmark of Shanghai. Maybe I am a little mature, so I didn't became excited as child. In fact, I had a feeling Shanghai is not distant and strange. I walked along Huangpu River just like I jogged along a familiar river in my hometown.

Evening came slowly. The Oriental Pearl Tower light lit on. We took a boat across the Huangpu River. This Pudong side of Huangpu River is quite different from the other side. There were many formidably tall buildings, but with few people. It is lonely there. And when we got near the approximaty of Oriental Pearl Tower, its exhibits its giantness. You need try to lift up your head to see its summit.

We came back to Shanghai Jiaotong University then.

The next day I myself went to Chenghuang Temple. It indeed has a small temple, but it is known for its crafts, pearls and food. You can find various goods there, such as paintings, wood crafts, pearls, sculpture, antiques and so on. It was a pity that I forgot to bring a camera, and what's more I had little money.

I spend my little money on food around Yuyuan. I bought a kind of small cakes called su. It is sweet, just as has been described as the features of Shanghai food. However, I found a kind of food called Ligaodong in a temporary clumsy market at the end of Shanghai Old Street. Ligaodong is icy, which complement the sweetness of su.

The third day in Shanghai is for work. And in the afternoon I made a short sightseeing of Shanghai Jiaotong University.