Well Hello again! I am actually writing to you today from Los Angeles (I am out there for job interviews). When I last left off I was in Nantong. So no confusion ensues, between the period of June 10th and 20th I was living with a Chinese family, then I stayed a night in Yangzhou, then Shanghai, and finally went to Beijing until the 26th to stay with a friend of mine. From there I took a train to Tianjin where I have been studying. I will discuss these three stages post Nantong In this blog.
Yangzhou:
My last day in Nantong my friend Terry and I took a train to Yangzhou. It was about four hours away and cost 50 kuai (8 dollars), but the experience was pretty crazy overall. The train ride was eight people jammed into the bottom set of triple-decker sleeper cars while Terry and I held our bags and chatted. Meanwhile the other Chinese people, you guessed it, stared at me! When we got to Yangzhou we met Terry’s friend and grabbed some food that cost 17 kuai ($2.40) for all three of us. Then we went to a pretty famous garden park, Ge Yuan, and then to a hostel. The hostel was actually pretty awesome because Terry and I shared a double room, with air conditioning, for $6 each. The next morning we took a train back to Nantong and then I took a bus ride to Shanghai. But first, some interesting points:
- “Yanhua sanyue xia yangzhou” is an ancient saying in China meaning that in March you should come to Yangzhou for the hot prostitutes. Yangzhou was actually an ancient prostitution center and I think one could tell it pretty well from hanging out their for a while – very Chinese, a little trashy, with some highlights of intense beauty. For instance Ge Yuan Park was beautiful, but the area around it was scary, dirty, and disgusting. A little beauty and the beast!
- Knock off goods are awesome. I bought a couple shirts in Yangzhou that cost me like 20 kuai ($2.50) each and are “Ape” shirts. For those unfamiliar there is a Japanese apparel company known as “Bape” and their clothes go for around $150 per piece. Yah China! But I will say the only knock off item one should NEVER buy is electronic equipment. First, if you buy actual U.S. quality products it costs twice the U.S. price in China and if it’s not a true U.S. product, it doesn’t work. Believe me.
- Chinese schools graduate later than U.S. schools. This means they have longer class days and a longer schedule (I believe 18 weeks compared to 16 per semester). We were in Yangzhou for the graduation day and it was pretty cool. We talked to some of the students and found out a good place to grab some food before we took the train back. I had some baozi (round dumplings) for breakfast and some hot tea in 90-degree weather. There really is nothing like sweating for breakfast!
- The train ride back was one of the most interesting conversations I have ever had. My friend and I had a heart-to-heart conversation that was incredible. I will not divulge all the information in the conversation for my friend’s sake (and because the Chinese government might never let me back into the country if I say it). But let me say it had to do with social welfare, taxes, housing prices, and sexual repression. If you ever see me in person, I will further elaborate.
Shanghai (reloaded):
As soon as I got back to Nantong, my friend took me to KFC (which is way more delicious in China than in the U.S.) and then to the bus station so I could take a bus to Shanghai. The reason I wanted to go back to Shanghai was because it was a friend of mine’s 25th birthday and I said I would come to party – and her and all her friends were gorgeous Shanghainese girls. But that DID NOT seriously affect my decision to attend. Believe me?
The bus experience is a fun one. Imagine, I am the only white person on the bus and I am carrying a couple suits, 3 suitcases, and a long painting case. I must have looked like the stay-puffed marshmallow man! Once on the bus I was able to watch (read the characters for) a terrible Jackie Chan movie (The Medallion) that cut out halfway through. But probably the most interesting part about riding this bus was that it would stop on the side of road to pick up random wanderers, who would then pay the driver a little and he would drive them for a while. The driver would then drop off the wanderers somewhere before the bus station so as not to get caught transporting non-payers. Oh, the entrepreneurialism of China!
Once in Shanghai I got my first experience with the dreaded “black cab.” These boys are the cabs not sanctified by the government and thus extort as much money from people as possible. I knew I was getting into it, but I was lost and carrying a ton of bags. So a “friendly” lady helped carry my bags to a shady alley with a shady dude waiting there. They then told me I had to pay 80 kuai for the cab (approximately 11 USD) and another 10 kuai for the friendly lady’s services. Ouch! I found out on the ride back to the bus station that the cab fare should have been 23 kuai.
So I went to my hotel dropped off my things and finally made it out to Osteria (the place of party) and met with everyone. The coolest part about the party was that I hung out with a bunch of people, all of whom live in Shanghai. Thus this was not only fun but also great to develop new contacts! Some of the people I met spoke fluent Chinese, others not at all, but I noticed most were from New Zealand or Australia. Thus it was a nice blend of countries and languages – though mostly Chinglish.
Although I would like to not mention it is humorous to know that the night ended up me being boyfriend comforter to one of the Shanghainese girls ‘til about 3:00 AM. But then again her friend took me to the train station the next day, which was awesome! Nonetheless, not exactly the end of the night I had assumed but so is life! And from the occurrence I gained a new friend in Shanghai!
Beijing – again!
Well I left Sunday morning from Shanghai on the fast train to Beijing. The normal train takes about 24 hours, but the fast train takes 9 hours and only costs about 220 kuai (45 USD). So I grabbed all my bags and hopped on a train to Beijing. When I got there I used my newly purchased cell phone to get in touch with my friend, met up and went back to his apartment. Well, kind of. I actually called his cell phone and his mom picked up – who was in a nameless hotel somewhere in Beijing because someone on their flight had Swine Flu – and then she called Dan, my friend, via skype and then he called me. Luckily it worked out for me, but the sad part is that Dan’s parents were in China for 9 days and 7 of them were spent in quarantine… darn that Chinese government! Needless to say, they now hate China.
So here I was back in Beijing, hanging out in another non air-conditioned sweatbox. The major positive to this abode was that I was with English speakers who could also speak Chinese so I could both learn some Chinese and speak my native language – it’s the best of both worlds!
Interesting points:
- Chao Mian or fried noodles are actually hard to find in China. But there was a great place to find them in Beijing and they only cost 6 kuai. Booyah!
- If you get the chance to live with someone abroad for a short time make sure their trip is ending while yours’ is still going strong. Dan and his roommate, Dennis, gave me hangers, shampoo, speakers, a towel, and shower flippers all because they didn’t have room on the way back to the U.S. of A.
- Not really that interesting but I finished all my external reports for my first program. This then only left my 20-page research paper – which I would not start until Tianjin and turn in the day before my extension expired.
- BEIJING ZOO! This place was awesome. AWESOME. We saw pandas, Rhinos, Penguins, Lions, tigers, and bears – oh my! Really cool place that Dan and I went to for like 20 kuai. Probably the funniest part about it was that this beautifully scenic park allowed people to smoke anywhere and actually sold cigarettes there. Finally, we had a “hot dog” in the zoo that was oddly sweet tasting – the Chinese have an odd perception of American classics.
Well, from there I had a hilarious ride to Tianjin to start my final program. But I will let that start the next blog. This is because it is too (quoting my law professor, Dr. Herron) “Delicious!” to end a blog with. From the beautiful weather of West Hollywood, Zaijian.
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