Catch Up Time

Biking and Hiking on Tea Mountain (about a month ago)

We biked to Tea Mountain/Bamboo Sea weekend of Andrew's birthday . It is on a ridge not far from our house... It is about an hour ride to the gate and then about 10km along a windy road until you get to the place they filmed a movie called "House of Flying Dagger". There they have paths through a bamboo forest. it is very pretty as you get to walk along a rolling ridge top and explore temples, and other buildings.

Here are some of our favorite pictures:
PICTURES

I think we will run up a secret way towards the ridge for our long run this weekend... I am stoked...We are entered into the Hangzhou International Marathon in two weeks time... so it is time for some last minute brushing up on our running. It is taking place around a famous Lake in China called West lake (but apparently they name many lakes West Lake in China...so it is the one in Hangzhou City. ) This marathon is going to be interesting as we just decided this week that we are going to race and have not prepared whatsoever for it... I'm pumped.. My last marathon was the Vancouver Marathon in 2006.. I have done many ultras and trail runs since then but on the road it is just different... There is prize money though... so I banking on luck to do well and win back my money I will have spent on flights etc.

Chongqing City
We went to Chongqing for the weekend last weekend. We thought it would be fun to explore the BIG city for a whole weekend. We have been there for a couple of hours before for visa stuff and school related things but never got to really enjoy what the city has to offer.
We explored an old town of Ciqikou....We managed to take the subway and city bus there (yay for being like a local in China). In the process we had to buy a new camera as Andrew's managed to die that morning. Ciqikou is a cool place but it is full of Chinese tourists. We had fun checking out the Temple, enjoying coffee on the patio while everyone took pictures of us like we were part of the attraction of Ciqikou!
 We met a friend from school who lives in CHongqing for Indian in Jiang Bei District... It was nice to have something different! yay Naan bread! We then managed to catch a night cruise on the Yangtze and Jianlin rivers. It is a 1.5hour cruise with a whole load of Chinese tourists. There are plenty of lights, beer, and good times in general.
We also got to do a little shopping (I like the hole in the wall little shops... found a fun sweatshirt). We finished our time by heading to another temple hidden amongst the modern buildings of Downtown Chongqing.

Pictures of our time are below:
PICTURES

live, love, laugh,..DREAM!
lina