Spring Festival travel plans and VIDEO!

What's this? Two posts in one week? Wow.

Ok so, my school let me stop working on the 1st Jan so I've got all this lovely spare time! I've been writing blogs, editing and uploading videos, writing packing lists and many more thrilling things like that. What an exciting life I lead...

Where we will be travelling for the next 7 weeks

Spring Festival in China has started, so this means we get an uber long holiday to celebrate Chinese New Year and to travel! Jony, Jono, Tessa and I start by leaving the -20 degrees Kuitun (labelled 'I'), hopping on a train which lasts 39 hours to go to -3 degrees Xi'an (labelled 'H') for 3 nights. We went to Xi'an for a few nights on the language course and it was the best city I've ever been in, so we just had to go again!
Then we will go on a 19 hours train to get to Jiujiang (labelled C) where our fellow PT volunteer friend, Ella, lives. We will stay there for around a week where she'll show us the delights of her city and other cities nearby. Ella will then join us and we will all go to Guangzhou (labelled D) to explore. We don't really know anything about Guangzhou so it'll be fun trying to find things to do! Hannah from a city near us in Xinjiang, will meet us in Guangzhou and will join our group of travel buddies.
Then after a week there, we will get on a tiny little 15 hour train to Sanya (labelled E) where will spend 10 nights because it is the best place in the world. Sanya is known as the 'eastern Hawaii' and rarely drops below 25 degrees - even in the winter. So we are really looking forward to that! The hostel we're booked into is also the best one around apparently and every review raves about the friendly staff. If you want, look up 'Sanya Backpackers' - all you'll see is people talking about how amazing 'Chris and Linda' are! Apparently Chris gives you free tours into the rain-forest as well as taking you scuba diving and jet skiing etc. Also the hostel is a 5 minute walk from the best white sandy beach around, with warm, clear sea water... I'm rather excited for that. As you might tell...
THEN we will get a 36 hour train up to Shanghai (labelled F) where we'll spend Chinese New Year for 4 nights and then a 32 hour train up up up to Harbin (labelled G). Harbin is one of the coldest places in China (obviously apart from Kuitun...) but due to that, every year they hold the 'Ice Festival'. This is where hundreds of huge ice sculptures are made and at night coloured lights are shined onto and through them to create huge, shining, colourful statues. Look it up. I am very excited.
Then, because there isn't a train from Harbin to Urumqi or to Kuitun as it's just TOO FAR, we will take a 34 hours train back to Xi'an for 1 night (it's just so beautiful) and then a 39 hour train back home to Kuitun.
My birthday falls on the last train journey - so I will wake up on the train, spend the day on the train and go to sleep on the train... Not the best way to spend a birthday really but I'm allowing it seeing as the month or so before hand sounds like it's going to be pretty good!

So those are our plans for travelling! The trains are really long as China is pretty large believe it or not.. So it looks like we're going to spend a maximum of 5000 kuai (about £500) on transport and hostels which is pretty good going for an all-round-China's-best-cities thing. I will be receiving 3000 kuai from my school for my January and February pay soon so that can contribute to my spending money!

I will take a lot of photos and I plan on videoing bits here and there to make into another video when I get back. But for now, feast your eyes on my most recent video. It's a blog showing an 'average day' here in Kuitun. You might think that life here is exciting and non-stop adventure but to be honest, most days are pretty standard.. They just happen to be in China as opposed to England!
But yes, please give this a look as I'm pretty proud of it!
Click here to see 'A day in the life of China' on youtube - it will open in a new window, don't you worry.