Hey hey,
So I'm staying at the Jade Emu here in Dali and was pleasantly surprised to discover that they have VPN here, so here I am updating my blog again.
I have been traveling in Yunnan for around a week now and so much has happened it's hard to believe it's only been a week.
First off, it was quite the frustrating day getting from Hong Kong to Jinghong. Way more types of transportation in one day than I would care to have again. It involved a taxi to the metro, 2 transfers on the metro, going through customs, taxi to airport, flight to kunming, overnight bus to Jinghong.... whew! I had probably the hardest day of my entire trip on this day as all of these means off transportation took way longer than I calculated. When I finally made it through customs in Shenzhen, I only had one hour and 15 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave. A guy asked me if I needed a ride to the airport and I asked if he had a meter (metered cab) and he said yes. However, once we got to the car, it did not have a meter and I already told him I was in a huge rush to catch my flight so he knew I wouldn't have time to find the real cabs and wait in line. He said he could get me to the airport in 40 minutes and would charge me Y200 (which is crazy as a ride that long would really only be around Y50-60. However, I didn't have enough time to find something else so I agreed (after all, Y200 is about $30). But once we were on the road, he said to get me there faster, he needed to take the expressway which had a Y100 toll and handed me some paper in characters with the toll. Again, too late to do anything else so I am now paying Y300. Then I'm put into another cab (so he would not be there when I was getting dropped off) and I notice when we go through the toll, it is only Y50. I get to the airport 30 minutes before my flight but could not find my check in and no one spoke english and when I finally did, they had just closed the check-in for my flight. So not only was I royally ripped off, but I missed my flight and had to pay Y120 to book a new flight.
I was drenched in sweat and so frustrated at this point that I just started crying right in the airport, so a lady who worked there stayed with me until everything was rebooked and made sure it was all taken care of. I had to wait 3 hours for my new flight, but if my flight had been one hour later, I would have totally taken the cheap bus back to the train station, found that guy, made a scene and tried to get my money back. But, unfortunately, I did not have enough time so I begrudgingly had to let it go. and of course, I had the overnight bus to jinghong where I had to sleep next to a little girl with a cold who spent the entire night coughing and sneezing into my neck to top off the day. But I got there in one piece at least. So that is the story of my worst day in China and what a wonderful welcome back to the mainland it was.
However, Jinghong was gorgeous when I got there. It was really hot so I didn't have to wear a bunch of layers and felt a lot like Thailand (or so I'm told). I was there for the Thai New Years, which is also referred to as the water splashing festival. The first day involves dragon boat races on the river and at night, there are fireworks and people buy lanterns that they release in the sky and make a wish. The second day there is a carnival and a food pot luck, delicious! and the third day was water splashing day, which is when people all dump water on each other from 10am to 5pm and there is no escape if you venture out of your house. I had read an article by a western girl saying that if she was ever there for water splashing again, she would definitely bring goggles. If I were to do it again, I would bring goggles, a helmut, possibly an oxygen tank and a wetsuit. As not only a girl, but a western girl, I was drenched the entire day.
The streets were really fun. People would pass each other and spray water guns or trucks would drive by and throw buckets of water. Little kids were running around with tiny squirt guns and water balloons, but unfortunately we decided to head to the main square where all of the water was, and that is when Ayelete and I (my Israeli friend) entered a small version of hell. Circles of people would surround us and throw buckets of water in our faces and try to squirt us directly in the eyes with huge squirt guns. We couldn't breathe and my eyes were burning. We got to the outside of the crowd where we had established a meeting point with our Chinese friends and were still being bombarded. It got so painful that I developed the policy of "you squirt me in the face and I will hit you in the face with my bucket" which helped slow down some of the squirting because it was a dangerous affair. Our chinese friends told us later that even the local girls who were in the middle of the big crowds where in so much pain they started to cry and would try to escape but it's hard because you can't see. I'm telling you, it was intense. My eyes are still in the recovery process. I have a blood blister on my left eyelid, my right eyeball was red for days so I couldn't wear contacts and my eys have been oozy and crusty for a few days now. They say the more you are splashed the more luck you will have in the New Year so if I don't end up with permanent eye damage, I guess that will be my good luck.
We spent one more day in Jinghong so we went to the nature reserve. We paid to go to the elephant valley where you can walk a trail and hope to see some elephants. However, when we were dropped off at the top of the cable car, everything was roped off because the elephants were too close to the path. So apparently, if the elephants are close enough you can see them, it's too dangerous and you can only walk on the path when elephants aren't around. How very China. So we had to take the cable car straight back down. They also had cages with Pythons in them, since pythons are native to the area, and they had just put live chickens in the cages. Fortunately the snakes weren't hungry yet when I was there, but my heart really went out to the chickens. They would wander up to the snake and peck at it with their beaks and lay down next to the body. I was trying to imagine myself in this situation. The chicken probably thought, "well I've been put in this cage with this other creature, hopefully we can be friends and maybe we can work together to get out of here!" He will be bitterly disappointed at the outcome I believe.
After Jinghong, I made my way to Kunming where I hung out with a group of Israeli guys mostly. I saw the dragon's gate, bamboo temple and the Yunnan museum. On my last day, I went to the midget amusement park called Dwarf Kingdom, which was recently written about in the NY times. It was really pretty inappropriate as the majority of people there were kids on a school field trip, however, the employees (who are all little people) say that they not only enjoy having consistent work, but that they are happy they get to work together, so who am I to judge I suppose. They performed a variety show that included costumes, break dancing, etc. So bizzare and again, so China.
I am in Dali now and spent the day biking around to the three pagodas and through old town. It's very relaxing here and it's a nice break from the earlier craziness. Dali is very Tibetan so it feels quite peaceful.
This update has been really unnecassarily long, so I'm done. Perhaps there will be one more update before I leave here?? We'll see.
Miss all of you!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
A few things I've noticed
So here is one last quick update as I leave Hong Kong today to fly to Kunming. Here are a few tid bits about China that I find interesting......
- The men in China grow out their fingernails really long so that people know they do not do manual labor
- Almost all Chinese women dress really nice. For example, when we were climbing Yellow Mountain, I saw a woman wearing high heels and a sequin top. Granted, she definitely took the cable car but still. Even women in the country are wearing nice jackets and leather boots. When Peter was in Mongolia, he met a sheep hearder who had one nice Armani suit and wore it everyday with all of the tags still on it.
- The driving is ridiculous. At the end of the night in Nanjing, we took a 20 minute cab ride home WITHOUT STOPPING! He would fake turning right at red lights and then curve back straight and run through. Also, I was on a city bus and the traffic was bad so the bus just hopped the curb and started driving on the sidewalk. I'm glad no one was too busy listening to their ipod to get out of the way.
- Babies are always wearing 15 layers of clothing, but then they have a slit on the bottom of their pants so they can do their business anytime, anywhere. Parents just hold them out on the sidewalk and let them do their thing.
- There is no tipping in China.
- There are almost never shower walls. The entire bathroom is the shower so when you take a shower the toilet and the sink get soaking wet. Some sinks even just drain onto the floor and into another drain on the opposite side of the bathroom.
- You can order almost anything you want at any restaurant as long as they have the ingrediants.
- Chinese people don't generally go out to bars. They either do KTV (karaoke) or just go out to eat and drink as part of dinner.
- There is no deoderant here.
- Chinese people are loud. Way louder than Americans.
- When you go to shows (operas, etc), Chinese audiences talk, eat, read through everything.
- Chinese people do not cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough. This includes the little girl with a cold who slept on the sleeper bus next to me and kept coughing and sneezing into my neck.
- entire families can get around on one scooter
- when an older person gets on the public bus, someone always gets up and gives them a seat.
- the taxis here are so inexpensive it's amazing. A 30 minute cab ride will cost somewhere between 3 and 4 dollars.
- the little girls always have their hair pulled back into multiple pony tails and buns. It's so adorable.
- I've been drinking a lot of hot soy milk here and i really like it. They add just a dash of sugar and it's just delicious.
- When people ask me if I like spicey food, I need to stop saying yes.
- On bus trips that are not overnight, there are always constant action movies playing or this awful soft rock Chinese music. There is no relaxing.
- I really have not met many Americans traveling in China.
- Chinese people are generally very conservative in their dress. When it's hot, most people are still wearing pants and sleeves. Even during water splashing festival where everyone in my opinion should have been in their swimsuits, people were fully clothed in regular shirts and jeans even though they were getting soaked.
- Chinese women consider something called a double eyelid to be very beautiful. It's when you can see crease that most women apply their eye shadow under right under the brow bone. They even have a plastic surgery for it.
- Chinese women are very serious about their umbrellas when the sun is out. First off, China is so crowded, so it's a hundred times more obnoxious when the entire crowd is carrying umbrellas, especially because they are shorter than me so the umbrellas are always at face level.
There are so many other interesting things I'm sure I'll remember later.
Here are a few things I miss.....
- coffee
- bread
- cheese
- soft mattress
- thick pillows
- blue skies/sunny days
- privacy
- regular toilets w/ toilet paper and paper towels included
- raw vegetables
- the feeling of knowing for sure i'm not being screwed over
- doritos
- boneless meat
- fabric that isn't saturated with cigarette smoke. In general, just having no smoking areas
- the english language
- people telling me the temperature in farenheit
- friends and fam
That's all for now. Tsai Jian!
- The men in China grow out their fingernails really long so that people know they do not do manual labor
- Almost all Chinese women dress really nice. For example, when we were climbing Yellow Mountain, I saw a woman wearing high heels and a sequin top. Granted, she definitely took the cable car but still. Even women in the country are wearing nice jackets and leather boots. When Peter was in Mongolia, he met a sheep hearder who had one nice Armani suit and wore it everyday with all of the tags still on it.
- The driving is ridiculous. At the end of the night in Nanjing, we took a 20 minute cab ride home WITHOUT STOPPING! He would fake turning right at red lights and then curve back straight and run through. Also, I was on a city bus and the traffic was bad so the bus just hopped the curb and started driving on the sidewalk. I'm glad no one was too busy listening to their ipod to get out of the way.
- Babies are always wearing 15 layers of clothing, but then they have a slit on the bottom of their pants so they can do their business anytime, anywhere. Parents just hold them out on the sidewalk and let them do their thing.
- There is no tipping in China.
- There are almost never shower walls. The entire bathroom is the shower so when you take a shower the toilet and the sink get soaking wet. Some sinks even just drain onto the floor and into another drain on the opposite side of the bathroom.
- You can order almost anything you want at any restaurant as long as they have the ingrediants.
- Chinese people don't generally go out to bars. They either do KTV (karaoke) or just go out to eat and drink as part of dinner.
- There is no deoderant here.
- Chinese people are loud. Way louder than Americans.
- When you go to shows (operas, etc), Chinese audiences talk, eat, read through everything.
- Chinese people do not cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough. This includes the little girl with a cold who slept on the sleeper bus next to me and kept coughing and sneezing into my neck.
- entire families can get around on one scooter
- when an older person gets on the public bus, someone always gets up and gives them a seat.
- the taxis here are so inexpensive it's amazing. A 30 minute cab ride will cost somewhere between 3 and 4 dollars.
- the little girls always have their hair pulled back into multiple pony tails and buns. It's so adorable.
- I've been drinking a lot of hot soy milk here and i really like it. They add just a dash of sugar and it's just delicious.
- When people ask me if I like spicey food, I need to stop saying yes.
- On bus trips that are not overnight, there are always constant action movies playing or this awful soft rock Chinese music. There is no relaxing.
- I really have not met many Americans traveling in China.
- Chinese people are generally very conservative in their dress. When it's hot, most people are still wearing pants and sleeves. Even during water splashing festival where everyone in my opinion should have been in their swimsuits, people were fully clothed in regular shirts and jeans even though they were getting soaked.
- Chinese women consider something called a double eyelid to be very beautiful. It's when you can see crease that most women apply their eye shadow under right under the brow bone. They even have a plastic surgery for it.
- Chinese women are very serious about their umbrellas when the sun is out. First off, China is so crowded, so it's a hundred times more obnoxious when the entire crowd is carrying umbrellas, especially because they are shorter than me so the umbrellas are always at face level.
There are so many other interesting things I'm sure I'll remember later.
Here are a few things I miss.....
- coffee
- bread
- cheese
- soft mattress
- thick pillows
- blue skies/sunny days
- privacy
- regular toilets w/ toilet paper and paper towels included
- raw vegetables
- the feeling of knowing for sure i'm not being screwed over
- doritos
- boneless meat
- fabric that isn't saturated with cigarette smoke. In general, just having no smoking areas
- the english language
- people telling me the temperature in farenheit
- friends and fam
That's all for now. Tsai Jian!
Friday, April 9, 2010
A Little Look Back
So, as I have been unable to update you since Shanghai, I've decided to do a little recap on that start of my travels by myself. After Peter and I climbed Yellow Mountain (sooo beautiful), I started my travels through the countryside beginning in Tunxi. I went to the villages of Honcun and Xidi and since getting there was going to be super confusing (cause I would have had to flag down a bus with the right characters and known when to get off) I ended up going in a Chinese tour group.
Every place that is beautiful and worth visiting in China will be inevitably bogged down with Chinese tour groups. Almost no one in China travels by themselves and I'm not sure why. So first off, I woke up sick from the food I ate the day before but had already paid for the tour so I took some meds and was on a bus at 8am heading to the villages. Fortunately for myself, since I don't understand mandarin, I was allowed to wander the towns and just meet up with the group for the bus rides and lunch.
Although almost no one in my group spoke English, we were able to exchange a few words and some of the guys in my group saved me a seat at lunch where I got to try some new food (like chicken's feet) even though I was still feeling pretty queasy. So after the second village, we all pile on the bus for what I believed to be the return journey back to my hostel. Oh was I ever wrong.
First off, and I have noticed this about many Chinese tour guides, that it is also their dream to be just general entertainers. So on our bus ride back we were seranaded in Chinese opera by our guide. So, the bus rolls up to this building and stops and I know we are not back in Tunxi. We get off and I realize we are at a tea factory for a tea tasting and a drawn out attempt to get us to buy tea. After this, I believed we were finally going back to the hostel (cause I was still pretty sick) but no, wrong again. We pull up to a silk factory where we get a whirlwind tour on the making of silk followed by a long presentation in their show room of their products, including a personal (and super awkward) silk fashion show. And of course, you could only exit the factory through their enormous store.
I seriously don't understand how the Chinese put up with this when they travel but it's what they all choose to do. My guess is that many families are just being able to afford to travel and don't really know how to so it's easiest to be in a group and have it all mapped out for them. It takes a lot more effort to do these things by yourself. As I have explained to my friends here, there is a certain level of confusion involved in all aspects of traveling and seeing China, and the amount of confusion is directly correlated to the amount of money you are willing to spend. So if you want to save money and take multiple country busses and figure out how to buy tickets somewhere random for some other place entirely, then you have to deal with large amounts of confusion which is what I usually do. However, the Chinese people are so friendly and will help you in whatever ways they can so I've found that these ventures usually (not always) end in success.
Also, Chinese travelers have what I would consider to be a traveling check list. They are told that there are certain things they must do and see and they do not veer from that itenerary. Like, it is recommended that you see the sunrise on yellow mountain and I am not kidding, every chinese person on that mountain was up at 4:30am for the sunrise even though it was a really cloudy day. They also could not imagine that Peter and I might not want to see the sunrise, so we were woken up for it rather we wanted to be or not. But they do not take the time to linger somewhere or have a nice cup of tea and look out at the scenary. It's a very different idea of travel.
The next several country villages were equally as confusing and I am not kidding when I say I was the ONLY foreigner in these places and there was zero english. Which resulted in me having to spend a little more money. I hired a Chinese motorbike driver to take me around to all of the villages and scenic spots, had to negotiate hotel arrangements in mandarin and have had busses drop me off literally in the middle of nowhere more times than I can count. I've had to flag down busses, ask where they are going, backtrack and try again. It's really confusing because I thought I was going to fairly well touristed places but apparently not, because all of these places were far removed from the bus stops and took much searching and embarrassment to find. It was pretty fun and challenging and I felt very satisfied when I managed to do these things by myself.
It's been great though because with each very frustrating situation I have met at least one very nice and helpful person so it was quite rewarding. So that's it for now. I'm off to Lantou Island in Hong Kong to see the largest outdoor bronze seated Buddha (because there are a lot of biggest Buddhas depending on the circumstance) and will meet up with my Aussie friends tonight for some dim sum. The good life. I'll try to update again soon!
KO
Every place that is beautiful and worth visiting in China will be inevitably bogged down with Chinese tour groups. Almost no one in China travels by themselves and I'm not sure why. So first off, I woke up sick from the food I ate the day before but had already paid for the tour so I took some meds and was on a bus at 8am heading to the villages. Fortunately for myself, since I don't understand mandarin, I was allowed to wander the towns and just meet up with the group for the bus rides and lunch.
Although almost no one in my group spoke English, we were able to exchange a few words and some of the guys in my group saved me a seat at lunch where I got to try some new food (like chicken's feet) even though I was still feeling pretty queasy. So after the second village, we all pile on the bus for what I believed to be the return journey back to my hostel. Oh was I ever wrong.
First off, and I have noticed this about many Chinese tour guides, that it is also their dream to be just general entertainers. So on our bus ride back we were seranaded in Chinese opera by our guide. So, the bus rolls up to this building and stops and I know we are not back in Tunxi. We get off and I realize we are at a tea factory for a tea tasting and a drawn out attempt to get us to buy tea. After this, I believed we were finally going back to the hostel (cause I was still pretty sick) but no, wrong again. We pull up to a silk factory where we get a whirlwind tour on the making of silk followed by a long presentation in their show room of their products, including a personal (and super awkward) silk fashion show. And of course, you could only exit the factory through their enormous store.
I seriously don't understand how the Chinese put up with this when they travel but it's what they all choose to do. My guess is that many families are just being able to afford to travel and don't really know how to so it's easiest to be in a group and have it all mapped out for them. It takes a lot more effort to do these things by yourself. As I have explained to my friends here, there is a certain level of confusion involved in all aspects of traveling and seeing China, and the amount of confusion is directly correlated to the amount of money you are willing to spend. So if you want to save money and take multiple country busses and figure out how to buy tickets somewhere random for some other place entirely, then you have to deal with large amounts of confusion which is what I usually do. However, the Chinese people are so friendly and will help you in whatever ways they can so I've found that these ventures usually (not always) end in success.
Also, Chinese travelers have what I would consider to be a traveling check list. They are told that there are certain things they must do and see and they do not veer from that itenerary. Like, it is recommended that you see the sunrise on yellow mountain and I am not kidding, every chinese person on that mountain was up at 4:30am for the sunrise even though it was a really cloudy day. They also could not imagine that Peter and I might not want to see the sunrise, so we were woken up for it rather we wanted to be or not. But they do not take the time to linger somewhere or have a nice cup of tea and look out at the scenary. It's a very different idea of travel.
The next several country villages were equally as confusing and I am not kidding when I say I was the ONLY foreigner in these places and there was zero english. Which resulted in me having to spend a little more money. I hired a Chinese motorbike driver to take me around to all of the villages and scenic spots, had to negotiate hotel arrangements in mandarin and have had busses drop me off literally in the middle of nowhere more times than I can count. I've had to flag down busses, ask where they are going, backtrack and try again. It's really confusing because I thought I was going to fairly well touristed places but apparently not, because all of these places were far removed from the bus stops and took much searching and embarrassment to find. It was pretty fun and challenging and I felt very satisfied when I managed to do these things by myself.
It's been great though because with each very frustrating situation I have met at least one very nice and helpful person so it was quite rewarding. So that's it for now. I'm off to Lantou Island in Hong Kong to see the largest outdoor bronze seated Buddha (because there are a lot of biggest Buddhas depending on the circumstance) and will meet up with my Aussie friends tonight for some dim sum. The good life. I'll try to update again soon!
KO
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Thank you Hong Kong and you're internet access!!!
Hey all,
So blog has equaled massive fail as this is the first time I've been able to access my blog since the first week I got got to China. Ooops. Also, if I had realized it was going to take so long to upload pictures, I probably would have uploaded far more interesting photos than the ones on my blog right now. I think I'll try to put up a couple pics tomorrow. We'll see.
So I am in Hong Kong right now so this is the first time I've been able to access my blog and facebook because the chinese internet restrictions don't apply here. On that note, I would like to thank everyone for the facebook birthday wishes! I really appreciate it as I did spend my birthday by myself and was missing all of you. Still a good day, but not the type of birthday I'm really used to.
So here is a quick rundown of the places I have been so far.....
Shanghai
Nanjing
Hangzhou
Huangshan (Yellow Mountain)
Tunxi country villages
Wuyuan country villages
Wenzhou country villages (all of these villages are historic but are also filled with people still living a rural life out in the countryside. Which was weird because there were tour groups going through their quaint hometowns and now all of their halls and temples are filled with souvenier shops. Kind of sad really.)
Xiamen/Gulang Yu Island
Yongding (to see the Tulou roundhouses)
Guilin (hiked through the rice terraces)
Yongshou
and this morning, I finally arrived in Hong Kong.
Today has been a bit of a rough day. Let's go back a bit to put some things into perspective.....
So I was recently in Yongshou over the weekend, which was an amazingly active weekend and the town itself really is beautiful and very western friendly. On Sunday, we (Peter and myself) biked down to the water/mud caves, where you get a tour of the caves and then get to go swimming in a big mud pit and can then go to the hot springs to wash off. However, when we got to the caves, we all had to wait for the guides to eat lunch before anyone would take us through the caves and the electricity went out for about 20 minutes while we were in there, so the entire process took much longer than we expected. So afterwards, we had to bike back fast and grab some food quickly cause we had booked tickets for an outdoor show on the Li River, so no time to shower. The show was really amazing though. It was choreographed by the same guy who choreographed the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics.
So the next day, we got up and rented bikes again. We biked to the farmer's market, where we saw all of the animals for sale for eating, including already dead and skinned dogs. It was pretty bizarre. Then we biked to an old bridge a ways out of town and biked back through the countryside. This ended up being a far more challenging excursion than imagined as we were biking through mud pits and narrow paths with drop offs into rice patties. Very fun, but again very dirty.
After this, I caught my 12 hr overnight bus down to Hong Kong which was a horribly unpleasant experience. First off, I was too tall and couldn't straighten my legs (which were already pretty sore from all the biking), but the worst part was that I assumed we would be driving on pretty smooth highway, but of course not, cause it's China. So every few minutes we would hit bumps so large that i was literally thrown up off my bed where I was not even touching the mattress and this lasted all night. Also, around 4:30 in the morning we started arriving at different destinations so they would turn on all the lights and start yelling in mandarin every 20 minutes or so until we finally got to Hong Kong at 7am. I suppose it was worth it to save a few hundred yuan, but barely.
However, I did get to Hong Kong in one piece and it's very warm and nice here. I got a room and had the most magnificent shower, finally getting to wash off all the mud and sweat from the bike ride the day before. Throughout all of these experiences though, I have met some wonderful people from all over the world and have some friends to hang out with here in Hong Kong. I'm really glad that so many people are able to speak English (both Chinese and other travelers) or I would not have many friends. Really makes me feel inadequate.
So that's a quick run down of the last few days. It's been great and I would highly recommend Yongshou and Yellow Mountain to anyone interested in visiting China, but I think I have even more beautiful destinations yet to go. There is much more to tell, but I'll give some more thoughts on here before I head back into the China mainland abyss.
Much Love!
So blog has equaled massive fail as this is the first time I've been able to access my blog since the first week I got got to China. Ooops. Also, if I had realized it was going to take so long to upload pictures, I probably would have uploaded far more interesting photos than the ones on my blog right now. I think I'll try to put up a couple pics tomorrow. We'll see.
So I am in Hong Kong right now so this is the first time I've been able to access my blog and facebook because the chinese internet restrictions don't apply here. On that note, I would like to thank everyone for the facebook birthday wishes! I really appreciate it as I did spend my birthday by myself and was missing all of you. Still a good day, but not the type of birthday I'm really used to.
So here is a quick rundown of the places I have been so far.....
Shanghai
Nanjing
Hangzhou
Huangshan (Yellow Mountain)
Tunxi country villages
Wuyuan country villages
Wenzhou country villages (all of these villages are historic but are also filled with people still living a rural life out in the countryside. Which was weird because there were tour groups going through their quaint hometowns and now all of their halls and temples are filled with souvenier shops. Kind of sad really.)
Xiamen/Gulang Yu Island
Yongding (to see the Tulou roundhouses)
Guilin (hiked through the rice terraces)
Yongshou
and this morning, I finally arrived in Hong Kong.
Today has been a bit of a rough day. Let's go back a bit to put some things into perspective.....
So I was recently in Yongshou over the weekend, which was an amazingly active weekend and the town itself really is beautiful and very western friendly. On Sunday, we (Peter and myself) biked down to the water/mud caves, where you get a tour of the caves and then get to go swimming in a big mud pit and can then go to the hot springs to wash off. However, when we got to the caves, we all had to wait for the guides to eat lunch before anyone would take us through the caves and the electricity went out for about 20 minutes while we were in there, so the entire process took much longer than we expected. So afterwards, we had to bike back fast and grab some food quickly cause we had booked tickets for an outdoor show on the Li River, so no time to shower. The show was really amazing though. It was choreographed by the same guy who choreographed the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics.
So the next day, we got up and rented bikes again. We biked to the farmer's market, where we saw all of the animals for sale for eating, including already dead and skinned dogs. It was pretty bizarre. Then we biked to an old bridge a ways out of town and biked back through the countryside. This ended up being a far more challenging excursion than imagined as we were biking through mud pits and narrow paths with drop offs into rice patties. Very fun, but again very dirty.
After this, I caught my 12 hr overnight bus down to Hong Kong which was a horribly unpleasant experience. First off, I was too tall and couldn't straighten my legs (which were already pretty sore from all the biking), but the worst part was that I assumed we would be driving on pretty smooth highway, but of course not, cause it's China. So every few minutes we would hit bumps so large that i was literally thrown up off my bed where I was not even touching the mattress and this lasted all night. Also, around 4:30 in the morning we started arriving at different destinations so they would turn on all the lights and start yelling in mandarin every 20 minutes or so until we finally got to Hong Kong at 7am. I suppose it was worth it to save a few hundred yuan, but barely.
However, I did get to Hong Kong in one piece and it's very warm and nice here. I got a room and had the most magnificent shower, finally getting to wash off all the mud and sweat from the bike ride the day before. Throughout all of these experiences though, I have met some wonderful people from all over the world and have some friends to hang out with here in Hong Kong. I'm really glad that so many people are able to speak English (both Chinese and other travelers) or I would not have many friends. Really makes me feel inadequate.
So that's a quick run down of the last few days. It's been great and I would highly recommend Yongshou and Yellow Mountain to anyone interested in visiting China, but I think I have even more beautiful destinations yet to go. There is much more to tell, but I'll give some more thoughts on here before I head back into the China mainland abyss.
Much Love!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Rainy Days
Ni hao,
So I'm sitting here updating my blog rather than wandering the city because it is raining again and my plan for today was to go on a long walk down antique street to the bund and pudong. So it's really messing me up. I actually have not seen the sun since I've been Shanghai, although I've heard it does happen just apparently not when I'm around?? So the weather has definitely been a bummer. Maybe I'll check out another museum today or something.
However, even though the weather has been a bummer, I've been having a fabulous time. I checked out the Shanghai museum on Wednesday. They had bronze tools that date back to the 18th century BC and coins that would have been traded during the time of Alexander the Great on the silk road. Not to mention a lot of beautiful calligraphy and paintings.
Wednesday night, myself, Peter, his roommate and roommates girlfriend all went out to some open raquetball courts and played a little raquetball. Peter and I were feeling pretty confident in our skills and challenged a Chinese team to a game. Let me just say that everyone else who was there (all Chinese of course) were pretty intense about the game. We were fully expecting to be blown out but actually made a pretty good standing. We ended up losing 21 to 17 but let me just say that score was very unexpected by both ourselves and our opponents. Every time we scored we were so shocked there was a minor celebration. I think we represented the U.S. well. It was a lot of fun though and the guys we played against were a good time. We also ate some pizza that night which never tasted so good.
So yesterday, I went for a long stroll to Old Town Shanghai. Got to go into a daoist temple and see some of the ceremony. Haggled prices at the Old Town bazaar, which I was pretty proud about. I actually had a Chinese woman compliment me on my mandarin, which made me pretty happy. Even though I could only say a few words, but still. I also got to see the Yuyuan gardens in Old Town which were so beautiful. I'm going to try to put up some pictures or maybe just send a link to a picasa album or something. Then last night, Peter and I got some hot pot meals then went to a rhythm and blues bar on the bund. It's a cool ex-pat place where there's live jazz music every night. There were people there from all over the world so it was pretty wild.
So I've tried a few more interesting foods and am pretty proud of myself for branching out. Yesterday I had some jellyfish for the first time. It was pretty awful in my opinion. Not only is the texture really gelatinous, but the flavor was super intense and overwhelming. Yesterday I had some eel for lunch and then Peter and I tried some Chrysanthemum and edible tree fungus in our hot pots. They really weren't too bad. I also bought a pastry/cookie at a chinese candy store yesterday only to discover that it was a cookie stuffed with pork. I don't know why I was surprised. I've definitely had more meat here than I've really eaten before since I've never been much of a meat eater. What I'm really having to adjust to is the fact that there is a ton of fat on all of the meat. Normally in the states I just cut it off but I can't really do that with chopsticks so I've been stuck having to eat the fat to even get to the meat. It's been an adjustment.
So a few other interesting things I've noticed. There is a really high demand for work here since the population is so huge and there are so many migrant workers. So there are a crazy number of unnecessary jobs I can't believe people have to do all day. Like there is almost someone everywhere you go to open the door for you or great you. Someone will be hired to keep cleaning a small portion of the floor in a building so they just keep sweeping the same small area all day. There are numbers of people in every restaurant who just watch all of the tables and will constantly replace your dishes or refill drinks. I've had my plates taken away before I was done eating just because I think people were bored and just wanted to bring me a new plate. There are just a lot of unnecessary jobs here.
Also, in terms of the sidewalks, I feel like walking around here is like walking on a sidewalk full of little kids. Normally, in the states, when I notice a kid ahead of me on the sidewalk I try to pay attention if they are going to dart a new direction at the least second, suddenly step in front of me, or just run right into me cause kids tend to be pretty oblivious to the people around them. However, it's not like the Chinese are oblivious, they could just honestly care less that I'm there. I've always felt like the sidewalk sort of obeys the laws or traffic where you walk on the right side, pass on the left, people from buildings have to merge into the walkers, etc. But all of those rules are thrown out of the window here. People don't walk in straight lines but kind of meander around and will literally curve right into you. There are hoards of people sometime walking one direction that won't leave room for people walking the opposite directions. There have been many times when it's been me and one other person walking the opposite direction on the sidewalk and I feel like we make eye contact and if we both just continue on in a straight line we will get by unscathed. But there has been a run in almost every time. People just don't care much about personal space and if some of these things happened in NYC, it would result in a verbal confrontation at least. However, the fact that people just run into you is never meant to be rude, it's just the way it is because I've found that the Chinese are some of the friendliest people. Whenever I ask them what words are they try and tell me and really want to take the time to communicate with me. I've really appreciated it.
The last thing I've noticed, and not gonna lie kind of enjoy, is the fact that I am very exotic looking here. Since I am pretty average looking and as American as apple pie, I've never been thought of this way before and I am relishing it. It's awesome. People seem pretty fascinated by my curly hair and how tall I am. I've had a few people stop me on the street and take a picture of me or ask to have their picture taken with me. It's been fun to feel more unique.
So that's just an idea of what's going on here and some of the things I've noticed. I'm only in Shanghai through the weekend and will then head to Nanjing for the next week or two. I'm not really sure how long I'm going to be anywhere at this point. Everything is going to be last minute decisions I think. I've been having a great time though and have found China to be very hospitable. It's been a great start!
So I'm sitting here updating my blog rather than wandering the city because it is raining again and my plan for today was to go on a long walk down antique street to the bund and pudong. So it's really messing me up. I actually have not seen the sun since I've been Shanghai, although I've heard it does happen just apparently not when I'm around?? So the weather has definitely been a bummer. Maybe I'll check out another museum today or something.
However, even though the weather has been a bummer, I've been having a fabulous time. I checked out the Shanghai museum on Wednesday. They had bronze tools that date back to the 18th century BC and coins that would have been traded during the time of Alexander the Great on the silk road. Not to mention a lot of beautiful calligraphy and paintings.
Wednesday night, myself, Peter, his roommate and roommates girlfriend all went out to some open raquetball courts and played a little raquetball. Peter and I were feeling pretty confident in our skills and challenged a Chinese team to a game. Let me just say that everyone else who was there (all Chinese of course) were pretty intense about the game. We were fully expecting to be blown out but actually made a pretty good standing. We ended up losing 21 to 17 but let me just say that score was very unexpected by both ourselves and our opponents. Every time we scored we were so shocked there was a minor celebration. I think we represented the U.S. well. It was a lot of fun though and the guys we played against were a good time. We also ate some pizza that night which never tasted so good.
So yesterday, I went for a long stroll to Old Town Shanghai. Got to go into a daoist temple and see some of the ceremony. Haggled prices at the Old Town bazaar, which I was pretty proud about. I actually had a Chinese woman compliment me on my mandarin, which made me pretty happy. Even though I could only say a few words, but still. I also got to see the Yuyuan gardens in Old Town which were so beautiful. I'm going to try to put up some pictures or maybe just send a link to a picasa album or something. Then last night, Peter and I got some hot pot meals then went to a rhythm and blues bar on the bund. It's a cool ex-pat place where there's live jazz music every night. There were people there from all over the world so it was pretty wild.
So I've tried a few more interesting foods and am pretty proud of myself for branching out. Yesterday I had some jellyfish for the first time. It was pretty awful in my opinion. Not only is the texture really gelatinous, but the flavor was super intense and overwhelming. Yesterday I had some eel for lunch and then Peter and I tried some Chrysanthemum and edible tree fungus in our hot pots. They really weren't too bad. I also bought a pastry/cookie at a chinese candy store yesterday only to discover that it was a cookie stuffed with pork. I don't know why I was surprised. I've definitely had more meat here than I've really eaten before since I've never been much of a meat eater. What I'm really having to adjust to is the fact that there is a ton of fat on all of the meat. Normally in the states I just cut it off but I can't really do that with chopsticks so I've been stuck having to eat the fat to even get to the meat. It's been an adjustment.
So a few other interesting things I've noticed. There is a really high demand for work here since the population is so huge and there are so many migrant workers. So there are a crazy number of unnecessary jobs I can't believe people have to do all day. Like there is almost someone everywhere you go to open the door for you or great you. Someone will be hired to keep cleaning a small portion of the floor in a building so they just keep sweeping the same small area all day. There are numbers of people in every restaurant who just watch all of the tables and will constantly replace your dishes or refill drinks. I've had my plates taken away before I was done eating just because I think people were bored and just wanted to bring me a new plate. There are just a lot of unnecessary jobs here.
Also, in terms of the sidewalks, I feel like walking around here is like walking on a sidewalk full of little kids. Normally, in the states, when I notice a kid ahead of me on the sidewalk I try to pay attention if they are going to dart a new direction at the least second, suddenly step in front of me, or just run right into me cause kids tend to be pretty oblivious to the people around them. However, it's not like the Chinese are oblivious, they could just honestly care less that I'm there. I've always felt like the sidewalk sort of obeys the laws or traffic where you walk on the right side, pass on the left, people from buildings have to merge into the walkers, etc. But all of those rules are thrown out of the window here. People don't walk in straight lines but kind of meander around and will literally curve right into you. There are hoards of people sometime walking one direction that won't leave room for people walking the opposite directions. There have been many times when it's been me and one other person walking the opposite direction on the sidewalk and I feel like we make eye contact and if we both just continue on in a straight line we will get by unscathed. But there has been a run in almost every time. People just don't care much about personal space and if some of these things happened in NYC, it would result in a verbal confrontation at least. However, the fact that people just run into you is never meant to be rude, it's just the way it is because I've found that the Chinese are some of the friendliest people. Whenever I ask them what words are they try and tell me and really want to take the time to communicate with me. I've really appreciated it.
The last thing I've noticed, and not gonna lie kind of enjoy, is the fact that I am very exotic looking here. Since I am pretty average looking and as American as apple pie, I've never been thought of this way before and I am relishing it. It's awesome. People seem pretty fascinated by my curly hair and how tall I am. I've had a few people stop me on the street and take a picture of me or ask to have their picture taken with me. It's been fun to feel more unique.
So that's just an idea of what's going on here and some of the things I've noticed. I'm only in Shanghai through the weekend and will then head to Nanjing for the next week or two. I'm not really sure how long I'm going to be anywhere at this point. Everything is going to be last minute decisions I think. I've been having a great time though and have found China to be very hospitable. It's been a great start!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Here in Shanghai!!
Hey friends!!
Sorry I'm just now getting around to updating this thing, but as Fish so helpfully pointed out after I left for China, blogspot is indeed blocked here. Fortunately Peter has VPN so I can access blocked sites through the internet in Hong Kong. However, everything on my blog was showing up in Cantonese characters so it was really guess and check on how to write a new post.
ANYWAYS, this is my second and 1/2 day in Shanghai. I left NYC on Sunday at 11am and landed in Shanghai at 3pm, meaning a 13 hour difference. I only slept for one hour on the flight which kind of sucked but I still managed to stay awake and somewhat coherent until 8:30pm here in China. Which meant I was up until 7:30am NYC time which I'm pretty proud about considering I'm a girl who likes her sleep.
So the first night I walked around people's square and east Nanjing road (sort of similar to times square). Yesterday, I wandered around the less developed area of Shanghai right behind Peter's apartment, got a Chinese massage (which was incredible) and walked around the French concession. Today, I plan to visit the Shanghai museum and will be going to lunch with several Shanghainese who plan to order us some more unique Chinese foods. So that's a rundown of what I've been up to so far.
I have really been enjoying seeing what kind of food and snacks are available here. It's definitely been an adjustment as I've had pork (or what I believe to be pork) dumplings at every meal since I've been here. Also, if you're a vegetarian you'll definitely have a rough time as there are quantities of meat tossed into everything. I've also found it interesting that when you order water in a restaurant, it is served to you warm and in a hot glass. So that was pretty different.
So the weather here is supposed to be in the lower 40s and raining all week. so the weather has been kind of a disappointment. However, fortunately, when they say rain here, for the most part it just means extreme mist, which is way more manageable than rain but I go into the day with zero expectation of looking decent at the end of the day.
I've also been picking up more words and phrases in mandarin since I've been here. I can count to 100 and am able to say things like "not interested thank you". "how much does this cost", "excuse me", "what?", "good bye", "I don't understand", etc. I have actually made a couple of purchases all in mandarin and directed a cab yesterday on where to go with good enough pronunciation that he actually understood me. I'm trying to pick up a few more phrases and words every day. It would be really nice to be a bit more self sufficient.
So a few interesting observations here. Almost everyone gets around via bike, electric bike or mopeds. You see a lot of families piled onto one moped moving around. Also, unlike NYC, there is very little respect for pedestrians. Vehicles can turn right on red here, so even if you have a walk sign, you have to be careful not to get barreled over by a city bus. Even bicycles and mopeds might run you over on the sidewalk so you've always got to be on your toes.
Also, the spitting thing. One of my biggest pet peeves is spitting in public and it's multiplied by 100 here as opposed to NYC. I don't even see it that often as I'm constantly hearing the sound of spitting. Just something I'll have to get more accustomed to I suppose.
Also, one of the trademarks of Shanghai and something I've found to be really interesting is the stark contrast between developed areas right next to the poorer/older areas of shanghai. For example, you might see a high end retail jewelry store while across the street is a noodle shack where cabbies will pull over for a quick bite to eat with people laundry hanging above it. The build up is happening so fast here that it really seems somewhat haphazard.
Ok, well gotta run, I would have liked to put up some pictures but it's gonna take me a little while to figure out how to do it with everything being in cantonese. I'll try to keep everyone updated as best I can but we'll see how it goes since the site is blocked! Hope everyone's doing well!
KO
Sorry I'm just now getting around to updating this thing, but as Fish so helpfully pointed out after I left for China, blogspot is indeed blocked here. Fortunately Peter has VPN so I can access blocked sites through the internet in Hong Kong. However, everything on my blog was showing up in Cantonese characters so it was really guess and check on how to write a new post.
ANYWAYS, this is my second and 1/2 day in Shanghai. I left NYC on Sunday at 11am and landed in Shanghai at 3pm, meaning a 13 hour difference. I only slept for one hour on the flight which kind of sucked but I still managed to stay awake and somewhat coherent until 8:30pm here in China. Which meant I was up until 7:30am NYC time which I'm pretty proud about considering I'm a girl who likes her sleep.
So the first night I walked around people's square and east Nanjing road (sort of similar to times square). Yesterday, I wandered around the less developed area of Shanghai right behind Peter's apartment, got a Chinese massage (which was incredible) and walked around the French concession. Today, I plan to visit the Shanghai museum and will be going to lunch with several Shanghainese who plan to order us some more unique Chinese foods. So that's a rundown of what I've been up to so far.
I have really been enjoying seeing what kind of food and snacks are available here. It's definitely been an adjustment as I've had pork (or what I believe to be pork) dumplings at every meal since I've been here. Also, if you're a vegetarian you'll definitely have a rough time as there are quantities of meat tossed into everything. I've also found it interesting that when you order water in a restaurant, it is served to you warm and in a hot glass. So that was pretty different.
So the weather here is supposed to be in the lower 40s and raining all week. so the weather has been kind of a disappointment. However, fortunately, when they say rain here, for the most part it just means extreme mist, which is way more manageable than rain but I go into the day with zero expectation of looking decent at the end of the day.
I've also been picking up more words and phrases in mandarin since I've been here. I can count to 100 and am able to say things like "not interested thank you". "how much does this cost", "excuse me", "what?", "good bye", "I don't understand", etc. I have actually made a couple of purchases all in mandarin and directed a cab yesterday on where to go with good enough pronunciation that he actually understood me. I'm trying to pick up a few more phrases and words every day. It would be really nice to be a bit more self sufficient.
So a few interesting observations here. Almost everyone gets around via bike, electric bike or mopeds. You see a lot of families piled onto one moped moving around. Also, unlike NYC, there is very little respect for pedestrians. Vehicles can turn right on red here, so even if you have a walk sign, you have to be careful not to get barreled over by a city bus. Even bicycles and mopeds might run you over on the sidewalk so you've always got to be on your toes.
Also, the spitting thing. One of my biggest pet peeves is spitting in public and it's multiplied by 100 here as opposed to NYC. I don't even see it that often as I'm constantly hearing the sound of spitting. Just something I'll have to get more accustomed to I suppose.
Also, one of the trademarks of Shanghai and something I've found to be really interesting is the stark contrast between developed areas right next to the poorer/older areas of shanghai. For example, you might see a high end retail jewelry store while across the street is a noodle shack where cabbies will pull over for a quick bite to eat with people laundry hanging above it. The build up is happening so fast here that it really seems somewhat haphazard.
Ok, well gotta run, I would have liked to put up some pictures but it's gonna take me a little while to figure out how to do it with everything being in cantonese. I'll try to keep everyone updated as best I can but we'll see how it goes since the site is blocked! Hope everyone's doing well!
KO
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