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Thanks Kim!
Any idea if it’s possible to do this on my own or do I have to hire an “adventure contractor”? like adventure-access?
I’m realizing now that this is probably a long shot question, but figured I’d ask anyways, surely there’s some sort of sub-section of Chengdu society that’s interested in distance running, seems like you can find pretty much everything else here.
Doesn’t necessarily have to be Chengdu either, I’m willing to travel for a good race. I know Yunnan has breathable air and a lot of great outdoor culture, so maybe they’re hosting some races?
In the US we call the people who work to make a profit by bringing into the country to work illegally under false pretenses “Coyotes”. Here the term seems to be “Education Agency”
They’ve got both, and it seemed like at least half of the people out there on singleplanks. I can’t offer any insight into the snowboard’s conditions, but the skis were in pretty good shape.
As of a week ago, there is snow at Taiziling, but it would be better if there was more. There were a few areas that were closed because of lack of snow, and that would’ve opened up more space for fun. As it was, it was pretty similar to skiing at some of the really small areas in the South Eastern United States.
I came across this today, which is very interesting to me: http://www.farwestchina.com/2015/01/see-xinjiang-winter.html
Great info squirrel… question, does Taiziling have hotsprings nearby for lodging?
I know I saw some listed on that TaoBao link, but it wasn’t really a selling point for me, so I didn’t really pay any attention to it. I was mostly concerned with the price/location part of it.
Also, I believe buying tickets online ahead of time would save money. Don’t know for sure if it’s the same thing, but paying there was like 340 RMB and online you can buy a 门票 for 200 RMB 差不多.
It’s also looking like you can get a hotel room at the mountain (one of the small buildings) for 4 (2 sets of bunkbeds) on that taobao page for 680 on weeknights and 1360 on weekends. when I first started checking things out, this wasn’t an option, must have been booked up, but that would save tons on drivers from MaoXian.
Been skiing at both Xiling (last January) and Taiziling (this week), and certainly agree that Taiziling is the better of the 2 options. It’s cheaper (need to look back at receipts and stuff for exact amounts) and easier to get to than Xiling, and the skiing is better.
Taiziling is more of a skiing destination than Xiling is, so if your desire is to take the kids to look at snow, throw a few snowballs, sled, etc. and maybe get a few turns in, then Xiling is where you want to go, but if you only want to ski or snowboard, I’d go to Taiziling.
Details:
http://www.taiziling.com/
http://ewly.tmall.com/?spm=a220o.1000855.w5001-3237075084.3.yJMT2N&scene=taobao_shopLocation: Taiziling is located on JiuDingShan, between WenChuan and MaoXian
Slopes: Taiziling currently has 3 bunny slope/magic carpet type areas and a quad chair that goes up to several runs (only one was open this weekend). To access the upper bunny slope or chairlift, you’ve gotta wear a helmet- 20 kuai to rent.
At top of lift there’s one long run that would be a green by US standards but is long/varied enough to be a good time. Never had to worry about too many people up there. There were some horses walking around which was cool too. If there had been more snow it would have been really cool as there were some areas that were closed but would have added to the fun combo.
Getting there: took a bus from Chadianzi to Maoxian. 64 RMB. Bus stopped at the turnoff that Dragon referred to in order to let people off. Drivers for hire were around there. I had to go on to Maoxian to check in to hotel though. Hired driver at Maoxian bus station to take us up to taiziling (400 RMB per car. price wasn’t flexible. but only 200 more to wait and come back down when we were done). Drive from Maoxian was 1 hour of switchbacks up the mountain. Pretty drive. Our drivers were local maoxian ren (Qiangzu) and called to a friend who bought our entry tickets for us at the local rate (50rmb/person instead of 70). Parking lot is right at the base of the slopes (no gondola/bus combo like at Xiling)
Lodging: Plenty of hotels in Maoxian for cheap. check out Taiziling’s Taobao page for help selecting/booking. Couldn’t find anything at the mountain, which apparently exists, but there’s gotta be just a few rooms. All the buildings at the ski area were small.
All in all a good time. Ended up getting the drivers to drive us back to Chengdu at 80/person, which was awesome because we didn’t have to deal with a bus or getting from the bus station to apartment.
You could totally make a great day trip out of it if you have your own car or arrange for a driver to pick you up early and drive you home when the slopes close.
I know such a service exists in American college towns, where tons of people drive and plan on drinking but don’t want DUIs. Wasn’t aware it existed in the real world
waifood looks awesome. great rec.
I’ve bought vanilla extract on taobao and from that broadway? grocery place around the corner from Mike’s. Not cheap, but that comes with the territory.
Baking powder at Hongqi? That’s huge news. I’ll have to go check at the one next door.
I know some expats who bake cookies on the reg. I’ll ask what they do for it, although I’m guessing they make their own dough.
Except for baseball (got an mlb.tv subscription) I watch all my sports on first row. The URL is constantly changing but I just type firstr… into my bar at the top and it autocorrects to http://www.firstrowsports.eu which then forwards me to the most updated one.
firstrow is usually your best bet, and doesn’t need any kind of VPN connection or anything. If your connection is real strong, you can watch stuff on a VPN on ESPN3 but it’s a crapshoot about whether you’ll have a better picture than on firstrow
Spending $11 Billion to not even expand? Sweet deal for the construction firms. I thought they were at least pretending to work on the whole corruption thing.
“The new Chengdu facility will have three runways, capable of handling 40 million passengers upon its completion in 2025, according to the paper.
…..
It could reach its designed capacity of 40 million as early as next year, according to some estimates.
I felt like every other person I met in Kunming was a foreigner. It makes sense too, because it’s a super cool town that seems super livable. In fact, I wonder why I don’t live there?
If it was easy to get a cab in Chengdu, I wouldn’t care whether or not uber existed here, but literally every time I’ve wanted to take a cab it takes at least 10 minutes for a cab to actually stop (they usually just drive by while waving their hands-even when the light is on) and they usually don’t want to take me where I’m trying to go or won’t run the meter and act outraged that I won’t pay 150 RMB to go 10 kilometers.
I’ve downloaded didi dache, but don’t really know how it works, so I just use it to look for places that cabs hang out. Do you have to talk to the drivers when you do it?
David, you’re really on the ball. Hey, David’s bosses, give him a raise!
I had all english options I think, must’ve been in October? or I was just able to figure it out, 姓名，地址，etc. are right up my vocabulary wheelhouse.
That’s what I did, left it blank. I didn’t have any wentis other than it showing up after the Amazon promise date or whatever. I contacted Amazon customer service and they apologized and refunded the $10 shipping, and told me what was going on – National Day backlog, which was a little bit annoying because that happens on the same day every year, so it should have been forecast that the entire nation would take a week off and it would affect my package, but it really wasn’t a problem and the guy I communicated with was super professional and actually told me what was up.
A couple days later I got an email from yall at ECMS and then it was all gravy. Pretty straightforward process, and it’s ballin’ that you can get a parcel shipped from like 8000 miles away at such a low price. I guess there’s a big enough demand for it to make sense to Amazon to fulfill those orders? Do you know their trans-pacific carrier is?
Tha’ts great info, thanks so much for your input David.
If I remember correctly, (it’s been like 3-4 months since I did it) the reason that I didn’t put anything in the CID slot was because it required an 18 digit shifenzhen number, and wouldn’t accept a US passport. There wasn’t any kind of laowai option. I could have totally missed it or mis-remembered it though.
I bought some stuff in the fall, and put my address in the box, but left the Citizen ID blank empty. I guess it got held up at customs, but I got an email from a customs clearing company asking for some info including the CID, but responded in both English and Chinese that I’m an American citizen, living in China, and as such don’t have a Chinese ID number. I think I attached a passport copy to the email?
My stuff got delayed, but the amazon customer service rep told me that it was due to 10-1 delays and backlog, rather than bad form filling out.
Hope this helps
Love that view on (Renmin Nan Lu near Jinjiang Hotel Metro stop looking north) where you can have the bedazzled Louis Vuitton storefront in the foreground and the Chairman in the back.
The past month has been rough, really. Even with plenty of sunshine, exercise has been undesirable.
A local chengduren told me that it’s because it’s wintertime which means low winds to blow that crap away, people who have cars are driving more (even short distances that in other seasons they might walk), farmers/peasants are burning more fires for warmth. Who knows if any of these are legit, but it’s interesting to think about.
A total guess on my end is that with Chunjie coming up, factories are working harder to get production up before the break.
It’s been really dry too, I feel like a good rain would wash some of it away (and onto our dongxi, but oh well).
