U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

Huangshan / Yellow Mountain

A few of us had been talking about taking a trip one of these weekends so finally we got organized and planned a trip to Huangshan which means "Yellow Mountain" in Chinese. Yellow Mountain is considered to be one of the top sights in China because of the awesome scenery it offers. China uses a labeling system of one to five "A"s to rate their famous places of interest. There are not many "Five A" places so we were all pretty pumped to be able to cross another one off our list.

We (Sean, Jordan, David, Qin Chen, Zhen Zhen and I) decided to leave Friday night on an overnight train to arrive in Huangshan early Saturday morning. We planned to hike both days and stay at the base of the mountain Saturday night and take an overnight train on Sunday night to arrive back in Changzhou early Monday morning before class. We had a LOT of help from Qin Chen and Zhen Zhen in planning the trip including finding a cheap place to stay and getting sleeper bunks in the same cabin for the train rides.

We arrived at Huangshan at about 7 in the morning and took a bus to our hotel (Qin Chen and Zhen Zhen found us two triple rooms for about $4 apiece!). We had some hot noodles and then prepared for the hike. The unfortunate thing about 5A attractions in China is that they are outrageously expensive - the entrance ticket to Huangshan cost 230 yuan which is about $32 = insanely expensive for China. And that doesn't include lift tickets for any of the cable cars or other specific scenic attractions on the mountain.

We lucked out with the weather and although we were warned about the mountain being extremely cold, all of us ended up being quite overdressed and were constantly stripping off layers as we climbed stair after stair. The sun was out, the sky was blue and there were plenty of cool mountain breezes.

It was super fun and the views were awesome! I think most of all we enjoyed being out of the city and outside in nature and clean, fresh air. It was a blast traveling with such a fun, laid back and easygoing group. I wish the weekend could have lasted longer. More to come tomorrow . . .

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Wanderlust

In Mandarin: 旅遊癮 (lǚyóu yǐn)

According to my Mandarin teacher, the term 'wanderlust' can best be translated as 'a travel addiction or craving'. In the above translation, 'yǐn' has several meanings such as 'a strong impulse', 'a longing', or 'a desire'.

U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

Huangshan / Yellow Mountain

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