PANDAS!!! …and Other Cool Stuff: Spring Break 2012

Spring break has come! Only about a month later than everyone back in the U.S., but it’s finally here. With a week off for independent travel, I set off with two friends (Christine and Michele) to explore Sichuan Province in Southwestern China. We left campus at 2:30pm on Friday, and a 150 yuan taxi ride brought us to Pudong International Airport about an hour later. Our flight was considerably delayed and finally left at around 7:45pm, a full three hours behind schedule. I called the hostel upon arrival at around 11:20 to let them know we would be late. We then took a cheap local bus and short taxi to Chengdu Mix Hostel Backpackers (that’s actually the official name of the place…don’t ask). At check-in, we asked about the bus to Jiuzhaigou for the next morning. They immediately got nervous that we didn’t already have bus tickets and said we would be extremely lucky to get a ticket in the morning. We finally hit the sack (in this scenario, “sack” is a particularly appropriate word; these beds were basically a piece of plywood) at around 1:30am.

Incredible views on the bus ride to Jiuzhaigou

However, our rest was short lived as we woke up at 5am, took a cold shower, checked out (a mere five hours after checking in), and made our way to Xinnanmen bus station. The ticket office wasn’t open yet, so we wandered around until we finally found out that it was supposed to open around 6:20am. We then took our place lining up behind the gate. As the gate opened at around 6:15, it was as if from a scene from any family Christmas movie – people rushing the gate, sprinting to the ticket counter, and then pushing and shoving their way to the best possible position. The three of us played right along and ended up towards the front of the line. We were thankfully able to secure three tickets on the 8:20am bus for 146 yuan (about $20) each. We sat around in the station for about an hour and then go to board our bus. We are lead not to a bus, but rather a beefy-sized van at the back of the bus depot. Despite feelings of sketchiness, it seemed legitimate enough, so we got on and made conversation with the adorable old Chinese couple in front of us. Once the bus was full, and I mean full, we left the station at 8:15am for our theoretically ten hour journey to the magical land of Jiuzhaigou.

A quick introduction to Jiuzhaigou: Meaning “Valley of the Nine Villages,” Jiuzhaigou is a gorgeous national park known for its indescribable natural beauty. Situated in northern Sichuan, Jiuzhaigou is relatively close to the Tibetan Plateau and its native people share many cultural similarities. There are somewhere around 1000 indigenous inhabitants, all from about 110 families. These people practice an animistic pre-Buddhist religion called Benbo; and Jiuzhaigou is thus scattered with various stupas, prayer flags, and prayer wheels. This interesting culture, coupled with incredible natural beauty, makes Jiuzhaigou an incredible heaven on earth.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful. Despite the fact that everyone else on our bus seemed to know each other and proceeded to talk/scream at each other the whole time, the ride was rather smooth. We arrived in Jiuzhaigou at around 6:30pm, bought our return tickets to Chengdu, and checked into Migu International Youth Hostel. My Mandarin was immediately put to the test when I had to explain our confusing booking situation with the non-English speaking hostel receptionist. Because there wasn’t any one room available for our three days in Jiuzhaigou, I had to book three separate bookings in three different rooms. This took a while for the girl to figure out, be we eventually got things straightened out and moved into our six-bed dorm style room in the basement of the hostel. Definitely sketchy, but pretty decent for 30 yuan per night (less than $5). We ate dinner, checked some emails, and went to bed.

Jiuzhai Valley National Park (otherwise known as simply Jiuzhaigou) is an absolutely spectacular place. I honestly don’t think I can adequately describe its beauty. We spent two  awesome days exploring the epically huge park. Each morning, buses brought us to the top of one of the park’s Y-shaped prongs. We then hiked/bused our way down, exploring the various lakes, ponds, waterfalls, and forests that lay in our path. I think the best way to give you a sense of the park is to simply post a bunch of pictures. Enjoy!

Long Lake

Buddhist stuppas and prayer flags

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nuorilang Waterfall

The gorgeous Panda Lake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five-Flower Lake

Mirror Lake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One specific incident of note occurred on day one of our adventures in Jiuzhaigou. Many popular tourists attractions throughout China offer traditional style clothing that can be rented for about 20 yuan ($3) for kitschy photo ops. Following the resplendence of Long Lake, I had to take the kind old Tibetan woman up on her offer and deck myself out in Tibetan-style robes. I paid my fee and then Michele and I set off on an epic photo shoot. It was super fun and we got some ridiculous and hilarious shots.

Casually robing up

My kindgom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can work the traditional Tibetan garb

 

 

I look awkwardly natural in the picture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After two days of full-on hiking, we were all natured-out and awakened early Tuesday morning for the ten hour return trip to Chengdu. Again, there was nothing of particular note for this leg of the journey. At around 6:30pm, we arrived back at the clumsily-named Chengdu Mix Hostel Backpackers, checked into our room, at a quick dinner, checked some emails, and went to bed.

Me and the Chairman

Wednesday was our day for exploring Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province. Despite forecasts of rain and ominous clouds all day, we somehow managed to enjoy a rain-free, albeit it wildly humid, day. We first made our way to Tianfu Square, Chengdu’s city center and home to the world’s largest statue of the great Chairman Mao Zedong. The statue was certainly imposing; however, I must confess that I was a bit disappointing. Considering the fact that the glorious face of Mao graces the surface of every single piece of currency in this country and was adorned on the wall of nearly every household (up until about 10 years or so ago), I was expecting a bit more grandeur. That being said, the sculpture was still impressive. We moseyed around the square for a while and then made our way west towards People’s Park. Now you may be asking, “People’s Park? Well which one?” Haha, or you may not. But regardless, it would be a great question because I have yet to visit a Chinese city that does not have it own people’s park. In fact, China (or more specifically the Chinese Communist Party) loves to refer to the things of “the people.” From the “people’s republic” to the “people’s currency,” add the people’s in front of just about any noun and it immediately sounds more pleasant to the Chinese ear (or so the Party tells me).

An epic game of badminton

Chinese people love public parks. For those of you who have heard my stories or seen pictures/videos from my adventures at the Temple of Heaven public park in Beijing last summer, the scene is much the same. Chinese parks are the center of city life, especially when it comes to the elderly. Gossip, recreation, music, and even family matters are all done in public parks. With all this excitement, we spent a solid four hours or so just taking in Chengdu city life.

My new friend

Things got particularly interesting when a random old Chinese man walked up and started hitting me with his badminton racquet. Apparently that was his way of inviting me to play with him. I brushed off the webs of my rusty sports skills and started a pretty intense badminton volley with the old man. We went on like this for a good twenty minutes and had a great time. This is precisely why I love Chinese public parks so much. There are people dancing, opera (if you can call it that) being sung (screamed?), and taiqi being practiced everywhere you look. The best part is, these people always love to see foreigners. Especially because I can chat with them in Chinese, they love to spend as much time with us as possible. They always get the biggest kick out of me not only being in China, but also speaking Chinese and hanging out in their local parks. It was definitely an awesome experience.

 

Checking out the day’s offerings

However, Chengdu’s People’s Park got even better when we realized they had their very own “marriage market.” I had heard tale of these marriage markets in Beijing and Shanghai, but had yet to see one in person. Basically, these “markets” are just sidewalks lined with single-page personal ads.

This guy is 54 years old, has a stable job and salary, owns a home, and doesn’t smoke or drink. He’s looking for a dignified woman younger than 46, who has health insurance, social security, and no children.

Mostly attended by parents and grandparents, these marriage markets are the ideal way for meddling family members to ensure the successful marrying off of their son or daughter. It was definitely a sight to be seen. Reading through some of the ads was hilarious. From old men looking for women under 35, to young nerdy guys emphasizing their “amiable personalities,” the marriage market is a perfect example of China’s blurred line between modern and traditional.

After some tea and Chinese card games at one of the park’s traditional tea houses, we headed for the Tibetan Quarter in search of a restaurant lauded by a bunch of fellow travelers and guide books. After a longer than expected walk, a public bus ride, and more walking, we finally found Khampa Tibetan Restaurant. As per the advice of several friends, we ordered the fried yak meat (apparently an extremely common and traditional meat in Tibet). It was incredible! Seriously, so delicious! Who would’ve thunk yak meat could be so good?

Leshan Giant Buddha

On Thursday, we caught up on some much needed sleep and then journeyed to the bus station to catch a ride to Leshan, a city about two hours away from Chengdu famous for its incredibly large buddha. And incredibly large it was! Carved into the side of a mountain in 803 (no, I didn’t forget a digit, it really is that old), the Leshan Giant Buddha is the largest carved stone buddha in the entire world. [Actually, I'm just realizing now that at this point, my "Buddha Bucket List" is looking pretty good. Largest carved stone buddha at Leshan, check; largest seated buddha at Tian Tan in Hong Kong, check; and tallest bronze buddha in Bangkok, Thailand, check.] As far as the buddha in Leshan, it was commissioned by a monk in 713 in an attempt to pacify the uproarious waters surrounded the mountain.Miraculously, once construction was finally completed about 90 years later, the waters actually did calm down and became much safer to travel. Many hailed this as a result of the spiritual powers of the buddha, yet many scientists agree that nearly a century of rock and debris helped to change the tides and calm the waters. All that to say, this buddha is pretty spectacular; hands down the coolest one I’ve ever visited. After hiking up the mountain to reach the buddha’s head, we began our decent to its gargantuan feet. I quickly realized how grateful I was that no one with a fear of heights or claustrophobia was with me; the steps leading down were not only massive and uneven, but while one side of the wall constantly felt like it was caving in, the other wall seemed to get shorter and shorter, allowing me to realize how easy it would be for one slip to lead to my immediate demise. That being said, we made it down the buddha, took an obscene number of photos, and then began our hike back up. Seriously, the more time I spend in this country, the more I begin to understand how everyone’s so skinny. From dancing in public parks all day to hiking up ridiculous mountains/buddhas/monasteries/etc., these people don’t mess around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, our last day in Chengdu brought me to my most exciting and anticipated location of the entire trip, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. As the natural habitat to what’s left of China’s dwindling (i.e. nearly nonexistent) wild panda population, Sichuan is the logical location for the center of China’s giant panda breeding program. After the thirty minute bus ride out of the city center, we arrived at the research base at around 8am. With an ever so light drizzle and a cool breeze, the weather was perfect for panda watching (because when the weather’s too hot, the pandas all retreat to their plush, air-conditioned enclosures). This place was unbelievable! No where else in the world can you see pandas (adults and babies) so up close and personal. They are kept in huge, natural enclosures, which gives you the awesome opportunity to watch them behave as the would naturally. After a while of watching and picture taking, it was finally time for the greatest moment of my life…HOLDING A BABY PANDA !@$#!%$@#^%$@%$!!!!!! I paid my outrageous “donation” of 1300 yuan (about $200) and received my certificate, t-shirt, and DVD. I then put on my hospital gown, gloves, and shoe covers while waiting in line for my turn. Once I entered the back room where the panda holding takes place, I just about died. Right there before my eyes was an adorable seven month old panda being held by a random white girl! I got my camera ready and excitedly watches as the five people in front of me had their turn with the panda.

Snuggling with a panda!!!

Once the line reached me, I was told to sit down next to the guy currently holding the cub; the handler then proceeded to lift and fling the adorable bundle of preciousness onto my lap. The woman in charge of taking pictures for people then did exactly what I asked her to do and began snapping away at about a mile a minute (kilometer a minute?). I was absolutely in my glory! The panda was absolutely adorable; so soft and cuddly. At the end of my few minutes, it even latched onto my hand. I’ve never felt more at home and Asian in my entire life! Despite the rather steep price tag, I would do it again in a heartbeat; when else will I get the chance to hold and cuddle a panda cub?! Another check off the bucket list and one incredible life experience to add to the list of awesome adventures here in China!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then got up on Saturday at an ungodly hour, made our way to the Chengdu airport, boarded our flight, and finally made it back to good old Shanghai at around 1pm. I’m now broke and exhausted, but it was a phenomenal trip! We had a great time and it was wonderful to see a different side of this huge country. With only three weeks to go before I head home, I’m quickly realizing that my time in China is coming to a close. I still have so much left to see and do, so stay tuned for more updates!

Suits and Speeches

As promised, I have a few things to catch you all up on and wanted to get up one more quick blog post before I leave for Sichuan tomorrow afternoon.

A typical fake market shop

Before ever coming to China, I had heard wondrous stories of cheap clothing and tailor-made suits. Since I didn’t get a anything made last summer in Beijing, I was determined to get my piece of the emerging market, cheap clothing pie. So last Wednesday, I made my way via metro to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Upon arriving at the metro station, you immediately see why this area is considered Shanghai’s top “fake market.” From “Armani” shirts to “Rolex” watches, “Gucci” bags to “Ray-Ban” sunglasses, any and everything can be found at the science and technology market. Before jumping into the custom-made clothing waters, I had asked a bunch of friends for advice and suggestions based on their own experiences at the market. I received a lot of mixed feed back, but pressed onward and decided to try the tailor suggested by the friend of a friend. After giving her a call and receiving directions to her tiny stall all the way in the back of the K region of the market, I finally found my way to the cleverly named “Lisa’s Store.” I met the aforementioned Lisa and was immediately given three huge books of fabric swatches to look through. Already overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choices, I honed in on black fabrics and eventually found one that looked about right. She then started asking me a bunch of questions (in Mandarin, of course) concerning the specifics of the suit.

Sooo many choices

How many buttons? Number of slits on the back? Pleats or no pleats? Two pockets or three? and many others. At that point, I was even further overwhelmed and just praying that I answered the questions the way I thought I had. She then quickly scribbled down about fifteen different measurements. After that, we discussed price and I was surprised to hear her say the wildly reasonable price of 550 rmb (about $85). I was expecting a ridiculous price that I would then have to bargain down; however, she said that because I was a referral and the other guy was a faithful customer of hers, she would give me a good deal. Usually, that kind of language immediately pricks up my ears, but since everyone I spoke to and everything I read online suggested 550 to 650 as a good price point for tailor-made suits, I was satisfied. I paid 400 rmb up front, was given a receipt, and told to return in one week to pick up the finished product.

The finished product. I think it looks pretty decent with the power red tie.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon and I once again found myself on the metro headed towards the science and technology market. This time, my head was reeling with all sorts of possible outcomes for this suit endeavor. However, once I reached “Lisa’s Store” and tried on my suit, all of my fears were quickly assuaged. The suit fit perfectly, the quality seemed good, and I looked rather dashing if I do say so myself. As a side note, the trying-on process does warrant some description. After arriving, she showed me the suit, then opens her tiny back closet and said I could try the pants on in there. Thank God I’m a pretty hefty adult male and she’s a small Chinese woman, because otherwise I would have been convinced I was being kidnapped and sold into some sort of international prostitution ring. Thankfully, I wasn’t drugged and brought to a sketchy Chinese back alley where hawkers could bid on my sumptuous flesh! So hurray! The story ended well; I now have an awesome new suit, and it only cost me a fraction of the U.S. price.

"You buy the watch? Good friend price for you. High quality!"

Afterwards I continued to explore the market and ended up buying a bunch of random things, including: three nice “Hugo Boss” silk ties for 20 yuan a piece (about $3); two “Armani” dress shirts for about $15; three “Nautica” Polos for another $15; a gift for Rachel for 65 (about $10); and two pairs of “Oakleys” for 80 rmb (total, not each – $12). In China terms, I spent about 45 kajillion dollars; but in real life, I spent about $150 and left with a suit, some gifts, and a bunch of new dress clothes for my internship this summer. China’s a great place for thrifty shoppers!

The second thing worth mentioning in this post is the 演讲比赛 (or, Chinese speech competition) that [SPOILER ALERT] I participated in (…and destroyed!) this morning. Last week, our teachers told us about the competition and explained that we would be competing with/against the students from the other Alliance program at Fudan University. We were required to prepare a five-minute speech about 我眼中的中国 (“China through My Eyes”), and then the top two or three students from each level would advance to the second round where we’d be required to give an impromptu speech on a topic chosen at random. When writing my essay, I realized I had two possible choices: 1) Levy harsh criticisms on China and the Communist Party; or, 2) extoll the praises of China’s glorious rise and impeccable leadership. Always a fan of verbosity, I obviously chose the latter and wrote a five-minute speech that all but worshipped the ingenious foresight of Chairman Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening policies. [To all of my readers: Don't worry! I'm still probably the most patriotic person you know. I just enjoy performing as my uber nationalistic Chinese alter-ego.] After being edited by my teacher, I set out last night at around 5pm to put this thing to memory in preparation for today’s competition.

Harnessing the availability of my newly-acquired suit, I woke up early this morning to get all dressed up and review my speech for a few minutes. As a student in the 401 class, I was in the highest group and forced to sit through all the other levels before getting my chance to perform. This isn’t to say the other speeches were no good; in fact, many were quite exceptional, and it was great to see my classmates showing off their new Chinese skills. However, since I was desperately trying not to forget the speech crammed into my brain only about fifteen hours or so prior, I paid relatively little attention to the other speeches. As my name was called to take the stage, I went up, obnoxiously and communist-ically greeted the teachers and fellow students (“Honorable teachers, fellow comrades…”). I then proceeded to recite my speech. I didn’t do quite as well as I had hoped; I think the nerves threw me off a bit and made me take a few pauses to remind myself which portion of the speech came next. However, I was animated, my pronunciation was spot on, and I had a lot of fun. Surprisingly, upon completion of round one, they announced that I was one of the three students from my level (and only student from my program) chosen to move on to round two. With the pressure of representing my entire program, I chose a topic and was given the task of explaining a piece of recent news, and then giving my own opinions and comments. With only ten minutes of preparation before round two began, I frantically racked my mind for ideas. Why do I not pay attention to news while in China?!

Here’s a short clip from my speech. Definitely not perfect, but it was a lot of fun. Note: this was taken on a friend’s iPad. I, in fact, do NOT look like an oompa loompa in real life.

After the first years, second years, and third years all duked it out for first place, the three representatives from the fourth year level stood up and took the stage. It should be noted that one of the girls in my top three competition was a native Chinese speaker. She was super friendly, extremely animated, and spoke incredible Chinese. I still haven’t figured out how she was allowed to compete in the same category as me…she blew us out of the water.

Pretty intense flash drive

However, I gave my speech discussing Apple Inc’s recent stock gains that are largely accredited to iPhone sales here in China. This lead to me to a discussion of my own thesis research, and I finished up my speech feeling pretty good about myself. I was much better than the first girl (I say with utmost humility), and spoke with confidence, fluency, and enthusiasm. However, my dreams of victory were dashed as the cute little native speaker gets up and gives an incredible speech. It was no surprise when I was announced as the second place finisher in my category and received an engraved flash drive and certificate. Despite not winning, I was proud of the job I did and honestly couldn’t have hoped for much better since none of us had a fighting chance of beating the Chinese girl.

I’m now preparing for tomorrow’s Chinese class while packing for our week-long trip to Sichuan province. Congrats if you made it all the way to the end of this long and rambling post. I don’t think I’ll have much internet access for the next week, so have a wonderful week and I’ll come back with an update next week!

Sweet Tea and Dumplings, Y’all: A Tour of Southern China

I’m back! I apologize for the nearly three weeks of silence (that’s the first time you’ve ever heard me say that). I’m sure you have all been filled with pangs of sorrow and loneliness in my absence. Okay, well maybe not all of that, but here’s what I’ve been up to.

Last week (i.e. April 7-14), was the field study trip orchestrated by my program here in Shanghai. We did an epic week-long tour of Southern China, including: Guangzhou (or Canton for you old folks), Hong Kong, Macau, and Zhuhai. I can’t speak more highly of the planning and preparation that Wang Kai, our resident director, put into this trip. The entire week was slam-packed with activities, and I think we were really able to appreciate the importance and historical/economic/political significance of all the destinations within a relatively short period of time.

Canton Tower at night

After departing campus for Shanghai Hongqiao Airport (the secondary airport on the west side of the city), we passed through security and boarded the flight for Guangzhou. The flight was without any hiccups and we arrived in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, about two hours later. One of the main purposes of this trip was to give us the opportunity to not only explore life and culture in Southern China, but also to visit local businesses and enterprises along the way. Our first company visit was to Zhujiang Brewery, a major Chinese beer producer headquartered in Guangzhou. We endured a rather ridiculous presentation from one of the company managers, where we were fed endless company propaganda explaining the physical and mental health benefits of relaxing at the end of the day with a cold Zhujiang beer. We then toured the company’s in-house museum (I’m still unclear why this exists- not sure who is paying visits to this random museum) and production plant. It was quite interesting to see the automated assembly line responsible for dispensing and bottling the beer. Later that evening we had the chance to trek to the top of the Canton Tower, the world’s largest TV tower, and enjoy incredible evening views from the observation deck at 433 meters up (I don’t really know what that means- I still have no handle on the metrics system…God bless Amurica!).

Sacred Heart Cathedral

The next morning was Easter Sunday. After some internet searching, we realized there were few Protestant churches in the area and thus opted for Sacred Heart Cathedral, a gorgeous, historical church in the center of Guangzhou. Since all of the morning masses were in either Cantonese or Mandarin, we attended the 2pm service held in English…well, we and approximately 47 million other people. We hit traffic on the way and ended up arriving only about ten minutes early, so the place was packed. As the only English service, I was expecting it to be rather crowded, but this was straight up ridiculous. Despite my unfamiliarity with the rituals of Catholic masses; and the fact that the sound system made it virtually impossible to understand the priest (he might as well have been speaking Cantonese); and the fact that I was seated on a plastic stool in one the alcoves facing the back of the church; it was a pretty great experience. It was incredible to witness and participate in a service that combined the collective worship of people from literally every corner of the globe. Another wonderful experience to add to the books!

Garden at Chen Family Temple

Beautiful scenery at Lychee Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did some more sightseeing in Guangzhou, including visits to the Chen Family Temple (why don’t the Jones’ have a family temple?), Lychee Bay, and Shamian Island. That brought us to Monday, April 9th, when we boarded the Kowloon-Canton Railway from Guangzhou East Station and took a two hour train to Hong Kong. After checking into our hotel that, while perfectly adequate, was located down an alley in the Aberdeen section of the city (kind of reminded me of my ridiculous hostel experience in Vietnam- literally down a sketchy alley in the middle of Ho Chi Minh), we took the tram all the way up to the Peak for

City views from Victoria Peak

amazing birds-eye views of Victoria Harbor. It couldn’t have been a better day weather-wise, and I thoroughly enjoyed the visit. As a side note on Hong Kong, the city is absolutely gorgeous! People never seem to mention this, but Hong Kong is like a incredible combination of New York City and Maui. Because of its geographic location, Hong Kong is a global financial hub nestled between the gorgeous Victoria Harbor and lush green mountains. The only problem is, they don’t speak much Mandarin; the main languages are English and Cantonese (a Chinese “dialect,” yet completely mutually unintelligible from Mandarin). However, we all had fun listening to Asian people speak British-accented English.

 

Ringing the "bell" at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

 

The next day, we had the opportunity to visit the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which unfortunately sounds much more exciting than it actually is. It was definitely interesting to see where all of the financial action in Hong Kong goes down; however, the HKEx is the virtual opposite of New York. There is no excitement, no screaming, no papers flying. Rather, the “trading floor” is simply a circle of computers from the 90′s with astute middle-aged Asians looking at graphs and charts. There was simply nothing to see. Nonetheless, our tour guide was quite informative and it was still an interesting experience.

 

 

 

 

You know how much I love monks and technology!

 

Where's Waldo? Asian Tour Group Edition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View from Golden Bauhinia Square

Ridiculous views from cable car to Lantau Island

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tian Tan Buddha- why is this picture so awkward?

We then took our bus over to Golden Bauhinia Square, which was the site of Hong Kong’s 1997 hand-over from British to Chinese control. After a delicious dim sum lunch, we took a cable car to Lantau Island to visit the picturesque Tian Tan Buddha the resides atop the mountain. I’m telling you, Hong Kong is unbelievable; the views from this 360 degree cable car were mind-blowing. Upon reaching the mountain peak, we walked up approximately 38 jillion steps (in actuality, I

More gorgeous views

think there were only around 270; still pretty substantial) to reach the buddha. Later, we bussed to the Victoria Harbor Promenade to enjoy the “Symphony of Lights” show that takes place every evening. At 8pm sharp, the entire financial district lights up in a vibrant display of colors, lasers, and sound. Sitting on the edge of the dock with my bare feet in the water (of course singing Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay”) was a pretty great way to end a packed day of sightseeing.

 

 

Sunset on Repulse Bay Beach

Wednesday was our free day to explore Hong Kong on our own. I ended up heading out with about six other people, and we kept our pace quick to see and enjoy nearly every major area of the city. From Stanley Market to the Aberdeen fishing villages, Kowloon to the famous floating restaurants, we had a wonderful day. To make things even better, we topped our day off with a sunset on Repulse Bay Beach in Stanley. Speaking of the floating restaurants, I think they deserve some special recognition. Upon recommendation from my grandfather, who spent many a day in Hong Kong over the course of his several decades in the Navy, my group hit up Jumbo Floating Restaurant for dinner. Although rather pricey, the multi-course seafood dinner was hands-down the best meal I’ve had in China. With around ten different dishes of fresh seafood (all shared in the traditional Chinese family style), we were all stuffed and jolly by the end. Thus ended a fabulous few days in Hong Kong.

Jumbo Floating Restaurant

On the pier for the ferry to the floating restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Macau Tower

The next morning, we boarded a high-speed ferry for the 45-minute ride to Macau. Our bus then took us to the Macau Tower, Macau’s landmark skyscraper, for a splendid international buffet in the tower’s 360 degree top floor restaurant. I’ve always wanted to eat in one of these types of restaurants, so it was a really neat experience to do so while also enjoying delicious Western food (always a guilty pleasure when in China). After checking into our hotel, we had a company visit of the Venetian, the world’s largest casino. Despite its undeniable grandeur, it was definitely not as luxurious as the major hotels/casinos in Las Vegas. In fact, this happened to be a major theme throughout our visit to Macau. As the so-called “Las Vegas of the East,” I expected Macau to be an entire island filled with luxurious hotels, resorts, and tourist splendor; however, the island itself is surprisingly underdeveloped and lacks the natural beauty of Hong Kong. Obviously, the city center is filled with a ton of hotels, casinos, and glitzy

Being artsy at Puji Chan Yuan Temple- I really liked that spiral incense

lighting, but I was overall a bit underwhelmed by Macau. This is not to see we didn’t have a wonderful time. With the evening to ourselves, I went out and enjoyed a delicious Portuguese dinner and then gambled my heart away with a whopping 20 Hong Kong dollars (less than three bucks). Channeling Great Grandma, I played the penny slots and stretched my twenty as long as I could. I was pretty impressed with myself for lasting about an hour, and thoroughly enjoyed my moment of glory in the high-stakes world of Asian casinos.

 

St. Paul's Church

On Friday, April 13th, we visited the remains of St. Paul’s Church and Senado Square. As a former Portuguese colony, Macau has a distinctly European flair and thus a strong Catholic history. I think we were all a bit surprised, however, when we arrived at St. Paul’s only to find that it was just the front facade. Apparently it had burned down three different times, and they figured it wasn’t meant to be and just rebuilt the facade as a tourist attraction (heathens!). It was fun to walk around Senado Square and feel immersed in European culture while still in the heart of East Asia. That afternoon, we took a five minute ferry across the water to Zhuhai (back in the glorious

Hot Springs Resort in Zhuhai

Mainland!). As our final destination, our director splurged and booked us for the night at Zhongshan Hot Spring Resort. It certainly did not disappoint. Our rooms were large and luxurious, and outside was a tropical wonderland of pools, spas, saunas, and natural hot springs. It was the perfect end to a hectic week of traveling and we all enjoyed a evening of relaxation in the water. One note about the hot springs: they’re really really hot…like “no kids for at least five years” hot! But the transition from boiling hot spring to crisp pool was invigorating.

 

Me and the Chairman

The next morning, we all reluctantly awakened for our final day of sightseeing before returning home to Shanghai in the afternoon. We visited the Deng Xiaoping Memorial Park and climbed to the top of the “hill” (more like mountain) for pictures with my favorite Chinese leader. This park is the location where Chairman Deng made his famous remark: after urges from his doctors that he shouldn’t continue climbing the mountain, the 80-something year old man replied, “there’s no turning back now.” This quickly became a symbol for China’s reform and opening policies of the 1980′s and 90′s. Afterwards, we visited the Zhuhai coastline to see a seemingly random statue of a woman with a pearl. It was cool enough (Can you tell I’m beginning to have my fill of Chinese tourist attractions? Haha). We then took the bus to our final destination: Shijingshan Park, a park upon the mountain that overlooks the city center.

Random statue in Zhuhai

We took another sky lift-type device to the top and enjoyed the beautiful views. Easily the best part of this visit was the trip down the mountain via high-speed luge. Despite numerous safety concerns, I boarded the small luge and flew down the mountain! It was a huge rush and a great way to end our trip. We then bussed to the Zhuhai Airport, boarded our flight, and made it back to Shanghai at around 8pm.

 

All in all, this was an incredible trip! We all had an awesome time, enjoyed seeing another side of China, and grew closer as friends and classmates. Sorry for the “We went here. And then we went there. And it was cool!” nature of this post. There were simply too many things to talk about. Also, I apologize for the awkward formatting. Everything looks good when I’m writing and formatting the post, but I soon as I look at the preview, everything’s all whacky. I’ll post soon about my adventures this past week. And then next week, stay tuned as I ship out to Chengdu in Sichuan province for a week of independent travel!

Clown Feet, Church, and Country Music

Well since phlegm doesn’t exactly fit into the alliteration I was trying to achieve with my title, I guess I’ll give you this little anecdote up front. Starting on the Friday before Xi’an (i.e. a week and a half ago), I had been dealing with an annoying cold. Suffice it to say, three days, 30+ hours of train riding, and non-stop touristy delight was not exactly the best remedy for my plight. After catching up on sleep last Monday and Tuesday, I was feeling much better, but still congested and gross. So when it came time to take my Chinese mid-term on Friday, I thought it wise to pop a Mucinex. Terrible idea. I literally spent the subsequent two hours with mucus pouring out of my nose while making meager attempts to snort it all back up. And to make matters worse, I didn’t even have my trusty Kung Foo Panda tissues that I always keep with me. Now, you may be asking: Silly Nolan, why didn’t you just go to the bathroom and blow your nose? Well silly yourself because this wonderful land we call China, despite its best socialist intentions, does not believe in publicly supplying toilet paper in restrooms. As such, we’ve all been well trained to keep tissues with us at all times. I guess this time my lack of preparation got to me. It was a sad day for sanitation.

Ok, well sorry for the less than couth detour; on to more jovial matters…like clown feet! (P.S. My email app does not recognize the word “couth.” Sad day for the English language.) As many of you may know, I have been plagued (blessed?) with awkwardly large feet. Now in America, this is usually not much of a problem. However, for some reason when I was packing this January, I didn’t deem flip flops worthy of travel. Big mistake. Since the weather is getting much nicer here in Shanghai (but actually, it’s gorgeous right now), I’ve realized I have no suitable footwear options to accompany shorts. Boots don’t work, and I have just slightly too much self respect to wear cheesy loafers with khaki shorts. So this weekend, I ventured out in search of some flip flops. One would think that three solid years of nonstop, verging on obsessive study of this country would have rendered me conscious of the fact that Chinese people have tiny feet. But for some reason, logic evaded me and I ran around the surrounding areas of campus in search of shoes. It got to the point where I would just walk in and immediately ask to see the biggest shoe they had. Nothing. After a few hours of walking around, I gave up and returned home. I still haven’t looked in any of the touristy markets though, so maybe they’ll have something catered toward us big foreigners.

The church portion of my lovely title is just another small story. After being out of the city for two consecutive weekends, I was finally back in town and able to attend church yesterday. The service was good and nothing particularly noteworthy transpired, except for the nice little Asian man who made the announcements. Every Sunday after the first song, everyone sits down and one of the church members gives a few announcements before the service continues. However, this Sunday we were in for a treat. The man gets up and looks just like any other refined, well-dressed Chinese man in his mid-50′s, but with one rather hilarious exception: he had the thickest African accent I’ve ever heard. I’m not kidding you. This quintessential Asian man was speaking with a full-blown African accent. I literally did a double-take. I’m pretty sure he was either born in the grasses of the Serengeti or learned all of his English from a heavily-accented Nigerian. I really wish you could have seen/heard this because it was legitimately one of the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed. I kept looking around to see if it was just me or if other people were on the verge of cracking up during this poor guy’s announcements. I’m realizing now that none of this probably sounds all of that funny when written down, and I may just be coming off as racist and stereotypical, but believe me…you would have laughed too. Well, that was my exciting story for Sunday.

Shanghai Railway Station

As I mentioned in a previous post, the trip from campus to church is about 45 minutes, which gives me some solid music listening time. Yesterday, however, as I was walking through the busy afternoon foot traffic of Shanghai Railway Station in order to change to line three, I realized how awkward of a juxtaposition my situation was. Let me attempt to paint the picture. I was listening to my new obsession, the Civil Wars. Quick plug: they’re a country/folk duo who are absolutely mind-blowing; their voices meld together like nothing else and they’re able to create an extremely unique, relaxing, acoustic sound. I love them! Now, contrast that with a bustling underground pedestrian walkway during rush hour. Add onto that the fact that I’m in China, a country with a population of over one billion people; and more specifically, Shanghai, with a population surpassing 25 million. I’m no mathematician, but it seems like approximately 40% of Shanghai’s population is on the metro at any one given time, so that comes out to around 75 kagillion people. A bit dramatic, but it gives you an idea. I don’t know why it’s taken me two months and countless metro rides to realize this, but the contrast between laid back folk music and a Chinese metro station was just too much for me. I think it may have been a combination of this and the African Chinese man from a few hours earlier, but I just started laughing to myself in the middle of the station. Pretty sure if Chinese people didn’t already think I was crazy, they do now.

I apologize for the lack of exciting pictures this week. I didn’t have anything too earth shattering to say, but I thought I’d share some random thoughts. Just a quick public service announcement: it might be a while before I blog again since I’m leaving for our big group trip to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macao on Saturday. It should be an awesome trip, so I’ll be sure to give a big update once I’m back! Talk to y’all soon!

A Big Goose and a 2000-Year-Old Emperor: Adventures in Xi’an

See the triangle?

I mentioned a few posts ago that this has been a crazy two weeks, and I wasn’t lying. After the Chinese song competition last Friday, Allyson, Cong, Michele, and I packed our backpacks and headed to the Shanghai Railway Station for our weekend trip to Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi province. Xi’an, or sometimes referred to as Chang’an, is a major historical city and former capital of China. Together with Beijing and Shanghai, it forms a geographical triangle of cities in Northeastern China. Xi’an’s major attraction is the Terracotta Warriors, an entire life-sized army complete with soldiers, chariots, and horses that was buried with the remains of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China’s inaugural Qin Dynasty around 209 B.C. The army was discovered by several farmers digging for a water well in 1974. Since then, the sight has been an archeological goldmine, revealing countless priceless artifacts and relics from ancient China, causing many to deem it the eighth wonder of the world. Well you know me…I hear eighth wonder of the world, and I come running!

 

Shanghai Railway Station

The Shanghai Railway Station is impressively modern and unbelievably large; it reminded me of a mid- to large-size airport. We boarded the train at around 3:15pm and were off about 30 minutes later. China has a rather expansive rail system that extends to nearly every corner of the country, and most trains consist of four classes: hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper, and soft sleeper. We decided that for a 15 hour overnight ride, the hard sleeper would be most appropriate, so we bought tickets for 333 yuan (about $50). After hearing some horror stories from Chinese friends and other students about traveling on Chinese trains, I wasn’t too sure what to expect.

Not too shabby

However, the train was actually quite nice. The beds were in triple bunks and although definitely “hard,” they were honestly not much less comfortable than the beds at the university (Chinese people apparently don’t pay much attention to mattress quality). We have to put this in perspective though; my only other train experience was a 56 baht (less than $2) ticket on a seemingly 4000 year old wooden train, sitting on hard seats for 8 hours, listening to wild chickens and angry Irishmen while traveling from Bangkok to the Thailand/Cambodian border last summer. So, suffice it to say, this felt like living in the lap of luxury.

 

Pff, I could be an emperor.

We arrived in Xi’an at around 8am Saturday morning and had a jam-packed day of sight seeing ahead, so we immediately began looking for the elusive “big green bus” that one of the Chinese roommates mentioned makes cheap trips from the train station to the Terracotta Warriors (which are about an hour outside of the city). This is a common occurrence here in China; people don’t tend to put much emphasis on details or specificity when giving directions. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked a random person on the street for directions only to have them say “oh, it’s this way” while flailing their arms in some indiscriminate direction. We eventually found the green bus (or at least a green bus), paid our eight yuan ($1.50), and arrived at the site of the warriors about an hour later. The Terracotta Warriors were discovered in three main pits, and most remain there today; however, the site also has a museum with other artifacts found during excavation. We visited the museum first and then made

Real or fake?

our way to the pits. It was pretty incredible! Forget that the statues were still in impressively good condition, but the sheer enormity of the burial site combined with the knowledge that everything was more than 2000 years old created an awesome sight. It was such a cool opportunity to soak in the historical significance of this ancient discovery. We explored for a while, took far too many pictures, and I even bought my own little warrior figurine.

 

 

Mmmmm

Upon returning to the train station, we decided to look for a cheap hotel sooner rather than later. There were a few located right next to the station, so we asked around there. For the first time since I’ve been in China, a woman laughed and said that foreigners couldn’t stay at her hotel. She avoided the question of “why not” and instead insisted that we go to the nice international hotel across the street. I was a bit shocked, but laughed it off and moved on. We then decided to just head into the city center and look for a place there. Our taxi ended up dropping us off right near Xi’an’s famous Muslim street, so we seized the opportunity and walked around for a few hours. The street is home to a large portion of Xi’an’s Muslim population and consists of your ubiquitous cheap tourist souvenir shops as well as a smattering of delicious and not so delicious street food.

What a view!

Nothing mind bogglingly exciting happened there, so we hopped on the metro and went to an area a foreign woman we ran into suggested for cheap international hostels. Well, like most of my direction-based adventures in China, we were unable to find the location she described, but did find a tiny place that had two double rooms available. For 50 yuan ($8) per night per person, the place was a steal. That being said, it was also a dive…and I mean a dive. It was easily one of the most skanky places I’ve had the pleasure of sleeping in; but it was just for one night.

 

Epic water show

Finally able to relieve ourselves of our backpacks, we ventured back out in search of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (not to be confused with the Little Wild Goose Pagoda, which does indeed exist). We got extremely lucky and upon arriving at around 8:15pm, noticed a huge crowd of people gathering around the big city square that lies directly in front of the pagoda. We walked over and heard through the loud speakers that a water show was about to begin.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

As the music started and the fountains began flowing, my mind was immediately drawn back to the unbelievable 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. I’m not going to lie, there was definitely a moment when I envisioned myself carrying the Olympic torch, representing the U.S. in, I don’t know, maybe competitive talking? The show was absolutely stunning and was the perfect end to a long and tiring day.

 

Shaanxi History Museum

Due to our wildly successful first day in Xi’an, we had more or less exhausted the city’s major sites. However, Sunday morning, we headed over to the Shaanxi History Museum. As one of the cradles of Chinese civilization, Shaanxi is an extremely historical province and the discovery of the Terracotta Army in the 1970′s served as an additional boost to our knowledge of this fascinating region. One would think that a country with as rich a history as China would have boundless world-class museums;

Who knew there were camels in ancient China?

however, this is not the case at all. So many museums I’ve visited throughout the country are old, run-down, and lack the style and academic integrity of the best museums of the West. Shaanxi History Museum, however, is one refreshing exception. The museum was beautiful, well laid out, and rife with well-documented information. Also, as an additional plus, it is free for the first 4500 visitors each day. We spent a while marveling at the various sculptures, tools, and other artifacts, and then headed back to the main city center for lunch and to waste a bit of time before returning to the train station. We then boarded the train at around 4:30pm, left about 45 minutes later, and arrived in Shanghai at around 7:45am on Monday morning. We all had Chinese class at 9am, so a painstakingly slow cab ride back to the university left us with about thirty minutes to prepare for class. After a warp speed shower, I hastily reviewed characters for my quiz, made sure I had my homework (which was written in “special needs” handwriting on the train), and dashed off to class. A crazy weekend!

Who Will Be the Next…Chinese Idol?

I’ll get to Chinese Idol in a second, but I first wanted to tell a quick story about an expat family I had dinner with last week. So about five months ago, my grandparents were driving down to Orlando for a cruise. Along the way, they stopped at an Arby’s somewhere in Georgia for lunch. Being the friendly and (overly) outgoing people they are, they naturally made new friends with the other older couple sitting next to them. Now don’t ask me how they got to this point, but leave it to Mema to find out that this couple’s daughter is living in Shanghai with her family for a work assignment. She tells the new friends that I will be in Shanghai this semester and both parties exchange information and decide that I must meet the family once I arrive in China. Mind you, this was about five months ago, and Mema hasn’t talked of much else since. Well, to make a long story short, I finally got in touch with the lady and was invited to dinner at their house in the upscale Pudong area of town.

Example of the expat townhouses

So last Monday night at around 5pm, I left my doom and took the metro all the way across the river to Pudong. I had to take a second look when I first stepped out of the metro station; there was no way I was still in China. The streets were wide and relatively empty, there were no hawkers selling their wares, and most impressively there were trees and grass! After reassuring myself that I was still in the good old Middle Kingdom, I found a taxi, told him the address, and was promptly dropped off at a huge apartment/townhouse complex. After walking around, getting lost, and moseying around some more (believe me, this place was huge and didn’t exactly have the most logical of layouts), I finally found their townhouse. I went in and was greeted by the youngest member of the Thielman family, little 2-year-old Jonah, who immediately extended his hand for a formal handshake…sooo cute! I later met the rest of the family and learned that the couple has three high school aged daughters and three young adopted Chinese children. After chatting for a while, we had a nice meal of grilled chicken, rice, and vegetables. You don’t even know how nice it was to be speaking English, eating real food, and using actual forks and knives. We had a really nice time and spent most of the evening swapping China stories and talking about good sites for future travel. Since the parents had work in the morning and all three kids had school the next day, I left at around 8:30pm to return home to my still unfinished Chinese essay. It was a really eye-opening experience to see the inside of an expat community and hear what it’s like for an entire family to up and move to a country as fascinating and culturally unique as China. All that to say, thanks for the introduction Mema!

In other news, last Friday, we had our Chinese song competition. Since my program is divided into five different Chinese classes, each class was asked to perform a group song and then everyone was encouraged to do additional solos or duets with other students, teachers, or Chinese roommates. This all sounds well and good,but the problem was all in the details. The head Chinese teacher was extremely gung-ho about this whole thing and wanted to make it as legitimate as possible; however, save the small prizes for the winners, there was very little incentive to actually invest all that much time into the songs. To make matters worse, the other classes began preparing as early as a month ago. However, our teacher believed that since we were the highest class, we didn’t have to time to practice our song during class time; so, we all just kind of forgot about it and moved on. Fast forward to last Monday and we quickly realized we were between a rock and the Communist Party. We finally picked our songs and (theoretically) started learning them. Things got worse though when we realized about half the class was tone deaf. As a side note, another guy in my class and I had also signed up to sing a love song duet to my teacher. All this to say, Thursday night was a mad dash to learn songs, memorize lyrics, and figure out some semblance of choreography. When Friday morning came around, we somehow managed to pull everything together, performed well, and surprisingly only lost by 3/10 of a point. However, the real surprise of the event was mine and my friend James’ rendition of 你是我的眼 (You are My Eyes), sung in the most dramatic of fashions to my beyond embarrassed

A winning kiss with our teacher

teacher. Apparently, the other students and teachers all loved it and we won the solo/duet category. Our prize: a coveted 50 yuan pre-paid phone card (about $7). Despite the relatively high degree of stress involved in the preparations, the Chinese song competition was actually a huge success and a ton of fun; definitely one of the moments I’ll remember most from my time here in Shanghai.

Shaoxing, Xinchang, and Hangzhou

HERRO everyone!

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written. These past few weeks have been jam packed with classes, homework, Chinese songs, and traveling; so, I’ve been a little off my game. But here we go, let’s jump back in!

Me and Lu Xun

Last weekend (March 16-18) was a big group trip to some of the more traditional and rural areas outside of Shanghai. Our first stop was Shaoxing, the birthplace of Lu Xun (the father of modern Chinese literature). Since this was a group trip sponsored by my program, we all piled into a greyhound-style bus at around 7:30am Friday morning to begin the three hour bus ride south-west of Shanghai to Shaoxing. The bus ride was fairly uneventful, save for the Chinese-style rest stops along the highway containing bathrooms that would make even the strongest of stomachs queasy. We then arrived in Shaoxing, checked into our surprisingly luxurious hotel, ate lunch, and headed straight over to the site of Lu Xun’s family home. After the requisite group pictures, we met our tour guide who, much to the chagrin of 85 percent of our group, only spoke Chinese. Perhaps there were simply no English speaking tour guides available (this is a legitimate possibility; we were in a pretty obscure part of the country); but regardless, it was rather entertaining following a Chinese tour guide that only about five of us could understand and then translating for the remaining thirty or so people. The house was a pretty run of the mill traditional Chinese home, so we walked around, took some pictures, and left. We then drove to the city center to take a ride down the local river in little boats. It was interesting to see houses built up right along the river; and just as in the Mekong in Vietnam, the river is everything to these people: water, laundry, transportation, and last but certainly not least bathroom. Later that night, a bunch of us went out to explore the town and look for the local specialty wine, creatively named “Shaoxing Wine.” We eventually found some, tried it, and were ever so slightly disappointed to realize it tasted like a haphazard mix between soy sauce and cough syrup…yum?

 

 

The next day, we bused for about two hours to Xinchang, a tiny little town known for its Qianzhang Valley. After some impressive mountain rode navigation from our bus driver, we were dropped off near the base of the valley, where we then had to walk up and through a tunnel before entering the actual valley itself. All I can say is that it was absolutely gorgeous. It was the quintessential Chinese nature scene, complete with babbling brooks and bamboo forests. We spent the day hiking in and around the valley, and then got to eat lunch in a little farm house up on the mountain. It was an awesome day, and a much needed respite from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai city life.

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That evening, we drove another two hours to Hangzhou. Hangzhou is a former capital of the ancient Chinese empire, and its West Lake is popularly acknowledged as one of the most beautiful lakes in the entire country. We spent all of Sunday exploring the beautiful West Lake, trying the famous Longjing tea, and witnessing the “magical” powers of Tiger Running Dream Spring (it sounds prettier in Chinese). This clumsily translated “Tiger Running Dream Spring” is apparently the sight where a famous monk discovered pure and auspicious water spouting from the head of a tiger. The place is now a tourist destination where they try to sell you Longjing tea and overpriced “naturally pure” Tiger Spring water. We filled a bottle up ourselves and tried; I still haven’t fallen prey to dysentery, so maybe the water really does have magical powers after all. Afterwards, we filed back on to the bus and passed out for the three hour ride back to Shanghai. All in all, a pretty awesome trip!