7 Sided World

Black Hills

Mathew — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:04:56 +0000

A few pictures of a couple of waterfalls in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Deadwood, South Dakota

Mathew — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:04:55 +0000

I spent yesterday afternoon in deadwood and saw a little of the oktoberfest celebrations. I must say the wiener dog races were interesting…

Back Home

Mathew — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:57:44 +0000

I’m back home now. After three flights I landed in South Dakota in time to spend the 4th of July weekend with a few relatives.

Great Wall

Mathew — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:28:19 +0000

This is a unrestored section of the Great Wall about 2 hours outside of Beijing.

More Scorpion Shots

Mathew — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:15:31 +0000

Here are better shots of the scorpions and grasshoppers I eat in Beijing.

Kaifeng

Mathew — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:29:13 +0000

Luoyang City

Mathew — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:41:08 +0000

A few shots around Luoyang city. I went shopping for a few souvenirs and ran across a shop that sell nothing but large springs. Now if i only know what they were used for… my guess is agricultural equipment.

Longmen Grottoes

Mathew — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:17:08 +0000

I saw the Longmen Grottoes ouside of Luoyang (Wikipedia link) last week. The complex includes several hundred buddist carvings into the hill sides on both banks of the Yi River river.

Hua Mountain

Mathew — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:16:45 +0000

I visited Hua Mountain, 2 hours away from Xi’an by bus, this week. The mountain is one of the 5 holly Taoists mountains in China. I did not have time to clime to the top, but did make it part of the way up.

Xi’an City

Mathew — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:28:26 +0000

A few pictures from around the city of Xi’an.

Scorpions

Mathew — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:57:00 +0000

I ate a Scorpion for the first time today. It was pan fried and crunchy, but was actually quite tasteless.

Night Shots of Xi’an

Mathew — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:03:54 +0000

I took a few long exposure night shots in Xi’an. Here are the ones that came out.

Updated Travel Map

Mathew — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:10:40 +0000

Below is an updated map on locations I have visited this year. I have also started to add the places I will visit next.

This map can also be found here.

View Larger Map

This map lists the places I have visited during my travels.

Key
Yellow: Current location
Blue: Cities have visited
Purple: Locations I plan to visit next
Tree: National Park
Camera: Historic Monument or Ruin
Swimming: SCUBA Diving location

Terracotta Soldiers

Mathew — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:56:02 +0000

I saw the Terracotta Soldier’s Army outside of Xi’an this week. The army consists of about 8,000 clay solders with about 1,000 of them restored to their original condition. The others have been left how they were found; in pieces when the underground area they are kept in was burnt down by the pesents a year after the construction of the army. The fire caused the roof to collapase in and dirt to cover all the solders.

Pingyao

Mathew — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:16:06 +0000

Pictures from the ancient city of Pingyao. This city is famous as it is one of the few cities in China with it’s original walls intact. The old portion of the city looks like it is stuck in 1850.

Datong Pictures

Mathew — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:16:05 +0000

A few pictures from Datong. I will post the rest of my pictures to my main gallery later.

Olympics Stadium

Mathew — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:45:37 +0000

Here are some view of the new 2008 Olympics complex in Beijing.

Temple of Heaven Park

Mathew — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:02:07 +0000

Pictures from the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing.

Who said Motorcycles are Fast

Mathew — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:51:59 +0000

I saw this bike (okay, actually its a trike) outside of Tienanmen square in Beijing and had to take this picture.

Datong

7sided — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:23:18 +0000

I spent today in the city of Datong viewing magnificent and huge Buddhist sculptures at the Yungang Grottoes. Tonight I take an overnight train to Pingyao.

Final Day in Beijing

Mathew — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:01:31 +0000

Today was my last day in Beijing. I am going to Datong tomorrow. After this city, I may detour into Mongolia for a few days or head South to a city near Xi’an.

Here are a few more pictures around Beijing, including the Temple of Heaven park and the new Olympic Stadium.

Beijing Sights

Mathew — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:01:26 +0000

Yesterday I made it inside the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. The weather did not always cooperate (it started raining later in the day) but the sights were still interesting.

Beijing

Mathew — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:31:31 +0000

I arrived in Beijing yesterday. While it was misting and foggy all day, I was still able to make it to to a couple of the more famious places, Tienanmen square and the Forbidden City, and will continue exploring today.

On to New Places

Mathew — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:24:00 +0000

Today was my last day studying Chinese in Harbin. I am currently in Shenyang (a few hundred miles south of Harbin) and will board a train to Beijing in about an hour.

After visiting Beijing I plan on seeing may other locations, so check back here for more frequent updates then of late.

Also, I will not be on the Internet as often as I have been, so feel free to give me a call if you want to contact me. If you don’t have my phone number send me an email and I will give it to you.

Until then…

Construction in China

Mathew — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:13:42 +0000

While walking around Harbin recently I found about a 15 block area in the middle of town that was being prepared for modern apartment and office buildings. However, as the area already has buildings, they have to need to be torn down first. The scene was quite different from construction (or demolition) sites I have seen before.

Taikang

Mathew — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:58:21 +0000

Last weekend I finally got out of the city and went to a small town near Mongolia with a few friends. We stayed in a semi-traditional Mongolian tent a few miles out of town. It was nice to see the stars for once. The next day we went to a nearby lake.

Dragon Boat Festival

Mathew — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:44:21 +0000

Yesterday was a national holiday in China and I went to the main shopping district in Harbin to check out the action. (Information about the Dragon Boat Festival can be found here.)

Some pictures from yesterday.

Dinner

Mathew — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:04:19 +0000

I had dinner with a few classmates and two of my professors last week. Here are a few pictures.

Changchun at Night

Mathew — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:31:49 +0000

Here are a few shots of Changchun at night.

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Bike Ride through Jingyuetan Park

Mathew — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:49:02 +0000

We rented a couple of tandem bikes when we visited Jingyuetan National Forest Park last week. Here is a short video.

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Changchun

Mathew — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:57:19 +0000

I went to Changchun this weekend with a few friends.

Below are a few pictures of the city. All the pictures I took are located here.

Website Updated

Mathew — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:54:23 +0000

I just finished the process of updating this site to the latest versions of my blog software. The site should now look a little better for those of you using Internet Explorer to view it.

Also, updated the design of the links section on the left hand side of the main page to be uniform and hopefully stand out better.

Finally, I enabled full screen viewing of the movies on the site. To view them in full screen, click the black square with four little brackets around it on the bottom of a video.

Feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions on updates to make to the this site.

Chinese Opera

Mathew — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:29:13 +0000

Here is an eleven minute video showing clips from a traditional Beijing Chinese opera (京剧) I saw last week.

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Harbin Panorama

Mathew — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:38:17 +0000

Here are a few scenes of downtown Harbin viewed from across the river.

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Sidewalk Folk Dance

Mathew — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:55:14 +0000

Below are a couple of pictures and a short video of a sidewalk folk dance performed outside a local bank each weekend.

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Reading

Mathew — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:39:40 +0000

After two months of studying in China, I can read the sign shown below. I will leave it up to your imagination on if I can read the English or Chinese however…

Picture Source

Fireworks

Mathew — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:31:37 +0000

The building across from my apartment is currently under construction, but is almost finished. To celebrate the completion of the project, the construction workers lit two large string of firecrackers and lifted to to top of the building them up with cranes.

Here is the video:

San Francisco Skyline

Mathew — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:48:32 +0000

Below are a few pictures and a movie of the San Francisco Skyline I took last month.

The first two images were taken as the sun was rising.

This video was taken from an elevator in the St. Francis hotel in the Union Square district of San Francisco (located here). Each beep is indicates the elevator is a floor higher.

Travel Locations

Mathew — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:14:09 +0000

Here is a map listing the places I have visited. A large version can be found here.

Key
Red: Current location
Blue: Cities have visited
Tree: National Park
Camera: Historic Monument or Ruin
Swimming: SCUBA Diving location

Birthday Party

Mathew — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:02:33 +0000

Today was my birthday. I am now either 27 or 28. I say either because in the West you are zero years when you are born, but some places around here count your age from 1. I prefer 27 as it makes me seem a little younger

Here are a few pictures from a party my language class threw for me.

Traffic

Mathew — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:58:54 +0000

Here are a couple more videos of the traffic in the Daoli Shopping Distric of Harbin.

Harbin Pictures

Mathew — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:21:59 +0000

Below are a few picture taken around the city of Harbin, China.

More pictures can be found here.

In Harbin

Mathew — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:20:47 +0000

Today is my first full day in Harbin, China (map). The trip itself was uneventful, but very long. The overseas flight alone was about 13 hours.

I will post some pictures of my school in my next post.

Junior Achievement Bowling

Mathew — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:38:09 +0000

I attended a Junior Achievement Blowling event with several coworkers last night. I had a good time, even though my bowling scores were terrible!

More pictures can be found here.

Pillow Fight!

Mathew — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:19:11 +0000

I survived the the great pillow fight of San Francisco on Valentines day!

I have placed the pictures i took here.

Closeup fight

Overview

Sledding

Mathew — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:07:51 +0000

Here is a video of me sledding down a hill tonight. It was about zero degrees and was to cold!

Suprise Birthday

Mathew — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:04:25 +0000

New Camera

Mathew — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:48:33 +0000

I just got a new camera and have been playing around with it a bit. Below is a time lapse video taken while driving.

Cozumel Pictures

Mathew — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 03:23:58 +0000

Below are a few movies from my recent SCUBA trip to Cozumel Mexico.