Beijing Recap and the start of real classes

(Quite a different experience. I guess if you were pressed for time and needed to multi-task this style of bathroom might come in useful...)

Ni Hao from Chongqing! (Yes, that is the actual name of the city I didn’t just make that up.)

So until last Sunday I was in Beijing and it was an exhausting but breathtaking six days in the Chinese capital. In less than a week I experienced the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, a Chinese acrobatic show, the Paralympics, the rural version of the Great Wall, the tourist packed version of the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Pearl Market, the U.S. Embassy, and the sights, sounds, and tastes that come with walking the streets of Beijing.

From the list of places we visited above, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven all kind of blend together because of their similar architecture and history. The Forbidden City was obviously where the emperor’s from the Chinese Dynasties of old lived. The Summer Palace was where the Emperor would reside during the hot summer months because of its cooler climate. The Temple of Heaven, which is regarded as the most beautiful and elegant Chinese complex, was built to offer a sacrifice to “Heaven,” and was used by the Chinese people to offer animal sacrifices to “Heaven.” (That’s about all I gathered… it’s probably a little more complex than that.) All of these monuments (as well as walking through Tiananmen Square where the 1989 massacre took place) were exciting to finally see especially after learning about them in my junior high and high school history classes. I’ve posted some pictures below that show the beautiful Chinese artistic architecture.

The Chinese acrobatic show was also a treat. The performers’ incredible flexibility, balance, strength and aerial stunts were phenomenal and it became evident very quickly why the Chinese are always so good at gymnastics in the Olympic Games. Going to the Paralympics was additionally a big highlight of Beijing. We arrived at the “Olympic Park” about two hours before the track and field finals in the Bird’s Nest and therefore were able to walk around to look at the Water Cube, the Olympic Indoor Stadium, and some of the other artistic structures that were made to celebrate the occasion. And, since we were some of the only white Americans at the games, the group of eight people I rolled with was asked by dozens of Chinese people (primarily teenage and college-aged girls) if we would take pictures with them. This was hilarious and a bit awkward but it made us feel like celebrities so we were okay with it (see pictures below). =P The track and field events themselves were pretty exciting as well considering the Bird’s Nest was so packed that people were sitting in the aisles. An American won gold in one of the wheel chair races and when he received his medal the group of eight of us sang “The Star Spangled Banner” as loud as we could. This of course brought more attention to us but hey, it was the Paralympics!

Both of our trips to the Great Wall were amazing as well. The first time the 46 of us took a two hour bus ride that brought us up into the mountains into a small rural farming town where we hiked the 1,100 steps it took to get up to the wall itself. It was quite a climb in the warm 80 degree weather but the best part about it was that we were the only group there. And unfortunately words can’t really describe the “Great Wall experience.” The pictures below help, but just like any epic landmark you really have to see it for yourself. The second trip to the Great Wall was to a spot that was a large tourist attraction and therefore there were thousands of people (primarily Chinese) who were on the wall. Instead of having to hike up steps to get there, some brilliant engineers put in a gondola that takes up the mountain and drops you off basically on the wall. While this experience wasn’t as peaceful or secluded as the rural version, it offered a different perspective which was neat. However, I must mention that I had the scariest moment yet on the trip when I got separated from our group for about an hour because I was easily distracted taking pictures with the nice SLR camera a generous friend let me borrow for the trip. On most tours I typically can keep a healthy distance behind the group in order to try and take some cool shots, but this time I lingered a little too far back for a little too long and found myself looking at a sea of Chinese people in front of me and behind me without a white person in site. It didn’t help that our group had separated into smaller pods and were planning on reconvening at a distant location which I vaguely heard the directions for how to get to it (the wall splits into a few different sections so there are multiple routes down). In the end, after I scanned the wall for familiar faces for about 15 minutes I chose one of the routes, got down to the village where I thought we were supposed to meet, didn’t see anyone down there for over five minutes, was starting to panic a bit and pray a lot, and then thankfully had our Chinese tour guide come up from behind and tap me on the shoulder and tell me most of the others had headed back to the bus and I was the 5th to last person back. This experience reminded of another valuable lesson/rule about traveling which I am usually pretty good at – always stick with at least one other person especially when you’re on the Great Wall of China where no one speaks English and the hotel is over an hour bus ride away!

Besides going to all of these historical venues, we also went to the “Pearl Market” which is one of the largest knock-off markets in China. It’s basically a seven-story mall that has almost any knock-off brand of clothes, electronics, toys, luggage, shoes, etc. that a person would want. Plus it’s a place where you can bargain as hard as you want! For instance, I bought a classy looking stainless steel digital watch there where the lady originally asked 600 yuan (around $90) and bargained it down to 90 yuan or (about $13). (The exchange rate here is 6.8yuan/$1.) The vendors of course start with ridiculous prices especially with white Americans, but typically you can get the item you want for ¼ of the price or less. Besides watches, a lot of people from our group bought luggage, sunglasses, shoes, clothes, backpacks, and purses. I also picked up a pair of knock-off Nike turf shoes which a number of the guys purchased so we can play some pickup soccer games at the University. Three of us were able to buy our shoes together for 60 yuan each when she initially asked for 300 yuan per pair. It took about 25 minutes for the vendor to go that low but we saved a good deal of money and enjoyed ourselves in the process. One overwhelming thing about the market, however, is that since we are white tourists the vendors were constantly trying to get our business and even went to the extremes of grabbing our arms or trying to put items such as wallets or other merchandise into our hands to get us to buy it. This got a little uncomfortable at times but over all the bargaining game has been a lot of fun and most people got some great deals.

Finally, this past Sunday the 32 of us who are studying at Southwest University for the next 10 weeks flew to Chongqing and moved into the dorms. There were two options for living quarters. Either my roommate and I could live in a dorm with most of our group from SPU (26 students) or we could live in the International (Foreign Exchange Student) Dorm where there are people studying from all over the world including the 23 students from St. John’s University in Minnesota, and students from Bangladesh, Bosnia, Uzbekistan, Chad, Somalia, etc. to name a few. My roommate Kyle Foster and I chose to live in the International Dorm in order to get more of a cultural experience. And, while a part of me wishes that we were closer to our fellow classmates from SPU (the other dorm is about a 5 minute walk), I have already made some friends from Minnesota and many of the countries listed above. I should also say that the weather is hot and humid here. It was around 90-95 degrees the last few days but thankfully my time in New Orleans prepped me well for the heat! Also, it is supposed to cool down in the next 2 weeks and become similar to a Seattle Fall with a little less rain which sounds marvelous.

Finally I’ll just mention my schedule and briefly describe our classes. I have a Chinese business and economics class for about 3 hours on Mondays from 8:50a.m.-12pm. Our first day of it was quite long and the teacher is a small Chinese lady who is a bit hard to understand, but thankfully she uses powerpoint and we have 10 minute breaks every 40 minutes or so to stretch and move around. On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:50am-10:20am we have a Chinese history and culture class with this short, plump Chinese man who is probably in his early 40’s. His English is pretty solid and he is good at asking “Do you understand?” after he asks questions. He is also hilarious and quite animated so we are looking forward to the class. Lastly, on Tuesdays from 10:30am-12pm and Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:50am-10:20am we have an Intro to Chinese Mandarin class that is taught by a younger Chinese woman probably in her late 20’s who speaks the best English of the three professors and has taught Mandarin to English speaking students before. This should be difficult because the Chinese language is so foreign, but I am looking forward to it especially after two and half weeks of feeling helpless in public knowing little more than “Ni Hao” (Greetings/Hello), “Xie Xie” (Thank You), and “Bu Yao Xie Xie” (I don’t want it thanks).

Alright that’s it for now. Sorry for such a long post, I would have liked post earlier but we’ve just had a horrible time with the internet here and we’ve been so busy I haven’t had the time to write. I will update soon with more details about the living arrangement, classes, etc., and a summary of some of my early observations of the vast cultural differences here.

Kyle

PS – I recently added to my exotic food list by eating Peking Duck, Squid, and Quail eggs in the last few days. The duck skin was probably my favorite dish because it tastes like bacon and you dip it in sugar. The Squid was rather chewy but pretty tasty and the Quail eggs weren’t too different than chicken eggs. Who knows what will be next!


(One thing I should mention is that all of the houses next to our hotel was where hundreds of families lived and they didn't even have plumbing in their house so they had to go to the public restrooms for the bathroom and showers which smelled terrible and were obviously inconvenient. Learning this was a bit humbling and made me grateful for our goofy setup.)

Beijing Pictures!

This was one of my favorite pictures that was taken. It looks better when its bigger but you get the idea.


As you can see, this version of the wall was packed. Imagine getting lost in the tidal wave of people. Scary!

Here's a picture of about a third of the group that I took.





Our group atop the rural version of the Great Wall.








I was sitting on the top step here. The terrain was a little sketchy I must admit but we suffered no injuries.








It was a bit bright yet foggy when we were on the wall. This picture is from the top of the structure you can see two pictures above this.





The gondola we took at the "urban version of the wall." We were quite high.












If you look close enough you can see the Olympic Torch at the top of our hands. We stole this picture idea from some happy looking Chinese people.












The Olympic Torch at night on top of the Birds Nest




These girls had actually stared at us from afar with the intent to come and take pictures but were too embarassed to ask and started walking away. Therefore, we thought we'd brighten up there day so we ran up to them and asked if they would take pictures with us. They giggled a lot and loved it.









I was hoping to see this event but had to settle for a comical picture.












Inside the birds nest.








The Water Cube at night.








A wheel chair race.





Lining up for men's 200m. A few of these athletes had only one leg and therefore used those crazy looking metal/aluminum legs. They were quick!









The Temple of Heaven








The Chinese Acrobats - if you look closely you can see that two of the performers jumped off that platform onto the board which propelled the airborn performer up onto the top of the human tower. Pretty legit.








Spinning plates while doing crazy stunts.





Strength and flexibility aren't an issue for these guys.











The ceiling in one of the temples.












A statue inside of one of the temples. This was interesting because while I was taking pictures, other people were bowing before this "goddess" and praying to it or worshipping it.




The Chinese like their lions and other mythical looking creatures.

Shanghai Recap

(Another shot from the top of Lantau peak in Hong Kong.)

Hello from Beijing!

Wow how fast the time goes. While a part of me feels like I’ve been here for a month, I also feel the time flying by and so I’m doing my best to soak up as much as I can each day.

We arrived in Beijing yesterday around 3:45pm and have unfortunately found that our new hotel is quite a downgrade from the last one… The rooms are about half the size, quite dirty, have harder beds, and literally don’t have a bathtub or shower stall but instead there is a straight up shower head in the middle of the wall with a drain a few inches away from the toilet (see pictures). But before complaining too much I must admit that I had the absolute best Chinese food I’ve ever tasted for dinner last night. The Kung Pao Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork and pretty much everything else was phenomenal. Plus, the night life in Beijing is much more lively and inviting and the streets are much cleaner than Shanghai. So there are pluses and minuses to both.

Anyways, let me do a little reflecting on Shanghai since we just arrived in Beijing yesterday and haven’t done too much here yet. First of all, I have to mention that we rode this bullet express train from the airport to a more central location in the city (to give you some perspective of Shanghai’s size, we were told it is 20% larger than the state of Delaware!) that literally went 430 km/hr (see picture) or what we calculated to be 258 mph. This was quite a rush, and thankfully “the patch” that I have been using for flying hadn’t worn off yet so I had no motion sickness issues.

As I mentioned briefly in the last post, our group of 46 people went on a walking tour throughout the city to check out the sites and one of the famous shopping markets of Shanghai. (I have still yet to really pick up any souvenirs because most of it is just trinkets that I don’t need. However, if anyone has something you’d like me to look for shoot me an email and I’ll keep my eyes open for it.) This was a fun though tiring excursion and I regretted wearing my Reef sandals at about mile 3 of what was probably 6-7 miles of walking.

The “Pearl Tower” dinner ended up being pretty legit. It was a very similar experience to eating at the Space Needle, though I think it was a bit taller with a larger slowly rotating restaurant at the top. It was here that I had my second exotic food of the trip – escargot (a.k.a. snail). This was rather chewy and was thankfully stuffed with pesto which made it taste decent (a third exotic dish was the bbq goose I had a few nights ago! I wasn’t a fan.). Also, in order to get to the Pearl Tower and back we had to go underwater on a small trolley type “experience” called “The Bund.” It turned out being this really trippy five minute ride that had a light show going on outside the trolley in the tunnel (see pictures).

The next day was our “Shanghai company visit day” so we went to one of the largest semi-conductor manufacturers in the country called “Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation” or SMIC (really original huh?). There were two expatriates from the States who worked there and told us about the company, how they do business, and why they’ve decided to invest their lives and the lives of their families in working in Shanghai, China instead of the US. This was an interesting visit though it didn’t convince me to want to work in Shanghai. After this lecture we went to an upscale shopping mall for lunch where a group of us ate some good Thai food. Then in the afternoon we visited Microsoft – specifically the China Research and Development group which was also rather interesting and informative especially learning about how the company is combating piracy issues which are so prevalent today.

Saturday was our free day in Shanghai. Some groups went on a shopping extravaganza and visited the 101st floor of the “Bottlecap Building” which is the second largest building in the world, other groups went to the Chinese Communist Propaganda Museum, and myself and another large group went to the Wild Animal Park which is similar to the zoo but larger and according to the locals much better. And, while this park was epic for reasons I’ll mention shortly, it was also an incredible adventure getting there. The group of eight students that I went with ended up asking the hotel receptionists to write down the name of the zoo and the necessary buses we needed to get on to get there for us in Chinese characters on a piece of paper. Once we had that we walked 15 minutes to a bus station where we asked the locals as best we could what time the bus was coming. After about 10 minutes of trying to communicate with our English to Mandarin dictionaries, the bus we needed happened to pull up to the station and we all got on. And unfortunately words can’t really explain the absolute chaos that defines the public bus system here. All I can say is there is “always room for one more” so you end up getting about 60 or more people on a bus sitting or standing up against each other as the bus weaves through the sea of taxis, mopeds, and pedal bikes throughout the city. You also pay while you’re on the bus by giving a lady the right amount of money in exchange for a bus pass. We had absolutely no idea how this worked and it took us about 10 minutes to actually pay for all of us. Furthermore, we showed a few locals where we were going and all of a sudden we had nearly 10 of them on the overcrowded bus yelling all at once at each other trying to help us find the best way to get there. Eventually (it was about a half an hour bus ride) one of them who knew broken English and was getting off at the stop where we needed to transfer at ended up getting off with us and explaining to the next driver where we were headed. This second bus ride was over an hour and took us through some very poor parts of the city which was a cultural experience in itself. We finally got there and the entire 1.5+ hours cost us less than $1.50!

The Wild Animal Park itself turned out to be awesome. Needless to say we saw all sorts of animals. The panda’s and the ligers (a crossbreed between a lion and tiger which there are only 8 in the world) were incredible. The highlights were feeding these animals called “lemurs” who would grab chunks of banana out of ones hand or off ones head and climbing atop a full-sized elephant (see pictures)!

The ride back on the bus was very long due to rush hour traffic and I learned a very valuable lesson about traveling in foreign countries through this experience which is to always make sure you have emptied your bladder before getting on a bus during rush hour traffic. By about 45 minutes into our ride I was in pain and the bumpy roads and constant stops didn’t help. By around an hour and fifteen minutes in I was seriously considering either peeing in the water bottle in my hand or getting off the bus alone at a random stop in Shanghai to find a bathroom. My hopes got up when we finally reached the transfer bus. I spied a gas station and was starting to walk over when all of a sudden our connector bus arrived and the 9 of us piled on. I almost cried. It took another 35 minutes or so for us to get into a part of the city I recognized. As soon as we reached a spot where I knew we could get back, I told the group I was going to hoof it from there and thankfully 2 other guys got off with me. I frantically looked around for a bathroom on the street but when there was none in site I jogged over to a corner in the alley and took care of business as nonchalantly as possible for over a minute. Quite the experience!

That night a group of 9 of us ate at a traditional Chinese restaurant in the city. The beauty of food here is that you can eat well for around US$5. After dinner we went back to the hotel hung out for awhile and packed for Beijing.

Alright that’s all for now. I’ll update from Beijing in a few days after I’ve seen the Chinese Acrobats, the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Paralympics.

Kyle

The Shanghai Sights

A typical Shanghai intersection... well... when the bikes and mopeds were actually curteous enough to stop for red lights!




The beautiful bathroom at the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai. Marbel counter tops, glass shower stalls, etc.




Our bathroom in Beijing... As you can see there is absolutely no "shower stall" or bathtub. Just a freakin' shower head coming out of the wall. I took a shower this morning and had to change outside the bathroom because the water was 2 inches high everywhere! The price of engaging the culture I guess...




Our adventuresome experience on the Chinese metro.




I was a little stunned before eating the escargo.




Ligers, tigers, and bears oh my!


Eating with the ladies in Beijing - the best Chinese we've had yet!




This was a picture taken from inside the Bund. Pretty trippy eh?



There's Dr. LaBrie as he just got on the Bund trolley car.




Here were some cool looking masks being sold in the market.


This was a pleasant site to see though it looked a little out of place amidst the Chinese culture.




These little creatures were completely out of cages and were always looking for a snack in convenient places.

I never thought I'd ride an elephant. This was awesome!

Here's the pool hall where it cost about $1.50 to play for an hour.

Here's a picture of a few friends from the group walking through Shanghai on the famous Nanjing Road after dinner and pool.

Here's a picture of Shanghai at night with the Pearl Tower in the middle right.

Hong Kong Recap and Shanghai Intro

I don’t even know how to start to explain my experiences in Hong Kong but I’ll do my best to capture some of the most interesting parts. We arrived in the city at 11pm local time and weren’t to our hotel (the YMCA which over here is an actual hotel) until about 12:15a.m. After settling in, Andrew Aldrich and my roommate Kyle Foster and I went out on the street and walked around for about 45 minutes. Since we are Caucasian, and obviously tourists, we were immediately solicited by probably a dozen different people for “massages,” “suits” and of course “copywatches” or “rolex watches.” The locals’ favorite lines were “hello rolex?” and “hey buddy a suit for you?” This is something we have experienced everywhere we go night or day and we have learned very quickly to avoid making eye contact and to say “no thank you” or nothing at all even when the person continues to walk with us down the street. While we were out, Andrew bought some sketchy looking meat on a stick for less than a US dollar and we all had our first taste of authentic Chinese street vendor food. It turned out being really spicy but pretty tasty. After walking around for another twenty minutes or so we made our way back to the hotel where we crashed after 16 hours of traveling. Thankfully it was 1:30am so the jetlag wasn’t too bad though it took a few nights to get used to.

The next morning we went on a guided tour to some of the local gems around the city. We first stopped at a temple which was apparently a shrine where the Chinese people visit twice a year to pray to the “gods.” Their first visit is early in the calendar year where they “pray for luck” for the year. Then, they visit later in the year to thank the “gods” for blessing them that year. The temple was super smoky and I guess it is always that way due to the excessive amount of incense they burn as offerings. There was also a part of the temple where people would bring pieces of paper with food, water, and even a house on them because in their culture they believe that their ancestors are in the “spirit world” and need everything that someone would need on earth. Needless to say I disagreed with their theology but was fascinated to hear their beliefs. After we visited the temple, the 47 of us piled back onto our tour bus and took off to “the peak” which is a large shopping and dining area on top of one of the highest areas in Hong Kong that overlooks the city. To get to the top we took the “Peak Tram” which has been running for over a hundred years and goes quite fast up a very steep grade. At the top we walked around and took pictures. It was here that we all learned the importance of being on time to the group’s designated meeting place. One student named Ryan Scott ended up being 5 minutes late and so the bus simply left without him! He was therefore all alone on top of a mountain on a different island than the one where our hotel was located and was forced to navigate his way back to the hotel all on his own. No mercy! (We also ate at one of the nicest restaurants on the peak our last night in Hong Kong – I ate perhaps the best fillet mignon I have ever tasted!)

After taking in the view on the peak, our group headed the “Jumbo Floating Restaurant” which I believe is the largest floating restaurant in the world. Here we had a traditional Chinese meal where the waiters bring out multiple appetizers and then family style Chinese dishes. The food was delicious and the restaurant itself was beautiful. After lunch we went on a half hour boat tour of the fishing boats that were anchored in the harbor. We learned that fishing is dying out in Hong Kong because it is such hard work and few young people want to do it. It was here that I saw two beautiful Mastercraft wakeboarding boats so of course I had to snap a picture or two!

After this tour we headed to Stanley market which was similar to Pike place but with more nock off clothing and trinkets. Nothing really caught my eye but it was fun to walk around and watch people barter. On our way back to the hotel I learned about another pretty interesting belief the Chinese people hold. It turns out they are obsessed with dragons and believe they are the most powerful creature in the world. They believe in the dragon so much that there were huge condo buildings on the hillside overlooking the water (which would cost 2 million or more per unit) where there was a large square hole in upper middle part of the complex that was left open so that the dragon which “lives in the hillside” can fly through it and down to the water to quench its thirst. The people believe that if they take care of the dragon then the dragon will bring water to their land (more shoddy theology in my book but interesting nonetheless).

The next day (Sunday) was a free day for the group. About half of the group went to the island of Macau which is the Hong Kong equivalent of Las Vegas with casinos, clubs, and bars which wasn’t really what I was looking for. Another group of 6-10 people went to the Hong Kong Disneyland. And, while this sounded like fun, I didn’t feel like dishing out US$50 just to get in. Therefore, a group of 9 of us headed to the island of Lantau and climbed the second tallest mountain in Hong Kong!

It took us two separate boat rides and a half an hour bus ride to get there. It was an epic climb in the humid 85 degree weather and we were rewarded with a beautiful panoramic view from the peak of Lantau’s various bays and the surrounding islands.

While the ascent took about 2 ½ hours, the descent was only about an hour and at the bottom we were able to see what I believe is the largest Buddha statue in the world! This was awesome. From there, we had a 40 minute bus ride back to the MTR which is the public railway in Hong Kong that takes you virtually everywhere. It goes underwater too!

The next two days were jammed packed with lectures and company visits at Hong Kong Baptist University (where one of our professors had connections because he had taught there for 4 years back in the 80’s). Here we learned all about Hong Kong and mainland China – especially about the economy and the legal system. We also visited the U.S. Consulate, a Coca Cola plant, the Hong Kong Science Park, a jewelry maker warehouse and an insurance firm. Some of this stuff was interesting but on the whole it was much more fun to explore the city and try not to get too lost.

Then on Wednesday morning at 7am we left the YMCA and headed to the airport to fly to Shanghai. I ate a Popeye’s breakfast at the airport which had great southern fast food and reminded of New Orleans (I miss you guys!). I also of course got a few pictures.

While Hong Kong is heavily influenced by the West, Shanghai so far has been quite different and feels much more foreign. One of the biggest differences is the transportation and traffic here. There are millions of people with bikes and mopeds and they completely disregard the traffic lights which makes walking in big groups across an intersection an adventure every time.

Yesterday I had the most exotic meal yet – bullfrog meat. It was quite boney but actually really good and tasted just like chicken. Today we went on a walking tour of the city. 47 American’s walking through town definitely drew a lot of attention and the street sellers flocked to us trying to sell fake Rolexes and other cheap items. In an hour and a half we are heading to the “Pearl Tower” which is Shanghai’s equivalent of the space needle. I’m pretty excited and will definitely post pictures from the top when I get a chance.

Alright that’s all for now though there are a dozen other stories I could tell. I’ll try to write more this weekend. I hope all is well back in the States!

Kyle



Alright so these pictures are kind of in random order but you get the idea. (I'll eventually use flicker or some program where I can put more and larger pictures.)


Here is a picture from the top of Lantau peak. you can see the trail snake most of the way down the mountain.


Here is a picture in Shanghai of the "Pearl Tower" Space Needle



Popeye's at the airport! Yum yum.





Dr. Labrie and myself immitating the coca cola mouse






A picture from the Peak tower in Hong Kong

The Jumbo restaurant from a boat.

Fish drying on a fisherman's boat

The "Peak tram" started operation in 1888

The mountain we climbed.

The giant Buddha!

The "Peak Tower" view at night.

Andrew and I on the Peak Tower in our business casual attire.

The temple - those cone things are made of one long strand of insense that is always burning!

An altar for the "good luck" gods