China part 3 – Shanghai 3/24-3/26

Shanghai! Woooo!


Friday
We left our hotel in Suzhou at about 11:30 to catch a 1-hour commuter train to Shanghai. The commuter trains in China are nothing like those in Japan, or NY, or DC, or anywhere else for that matter. They are huge. I have no idea how long the train was; but it was freakin’ long. Each car had two stories, and they were all packed. We had reserved seats however, unlike in Japan, that didn’t mean anything to the locals who had boarded the train before us and claimed our seats. As we stood in the aisles with all of our luggage, we watched Anthony have very heated arguments with the people and eventually win us our seats back. It was the first and only time I saw Anthony lose his patience.

I passed the journey by reading my book and occasionally looking out the window. The train was dirty, smelly and hot. Where I used to be so aware of my surroundings and my environment, now I seem to have adopted the Japanese way of creating a bubble around myself to get through unpleasant, crowded moments (really, only those of you in Japan know what I’m talking about here).

Anyway, we finally arrived in Shanghai and we all took a number of taxis to our hotel to check-in and get ready for a walking tour of the city. We walked for about 3 hours through crowded shopping streets; along The Bund and the riverside with its unique skyline; through alleyways and markets bustling with local people and children; and into the trendy French Concession, with its cozy cafes and expensive restaurants, which provided a stark contrast to the other parts of China we saw. Anthony told us that if Beijing is like visiting China’s past, Shanghai is visiting the future. I’d have to agree with that. Here are some pictures from the walking tour.
Nanjing Road - the biggest commercial street in Shanghai

Skyline again. I like this picture cause the people look huge.

European-style architecture on The Bund - these buildings used to be American, Japanese and European banks and consulates before Communism

The group. Interesting mix, eh?

Typical alleyway of housing for Shanghai locals

Nanjing Road by night



After the tour, we were all pretty wiped out and very hungry, so we headed to a restaurant for a group dinner. It was during meals that the obnoxious, borderline alcoholic Ozzie woman was at her worst, and Kate and I ended up at her table. So even though the food was great, the atmosphere was quite strained, and I struggled to keep my mouth shut (you know me…).

Anyway, we wanted to take a night cruise on the river to see the city lit up, but we missed the boat. Instead, most of the group went to get Chinese foot massages. I, however, think foot massages are kind of gross and I had grown quite tired of the eclectic group, so I took a long walk back to the hotel and eventually retired to the room for some peace.

Saturday
On our last day in Shanghai, we met at 9:30am and walked to the Shanghai Museum. The museum is funded by the government, so it’s absolutely gorgeous, but in my experience a bit small for a national museum. Kate and I took about an hour and a half to peruse the exhibits of Chinese minority clothing and tools; artwork; furniture; jewelry and a dazzling exhibit of treasures from the Forbidden City. We then hit the museum store where Kate bought stuff like it was going out of style, and I didn’t buy anything (which I now regret a bit).
Outside of Shanghai Museum


We had the afternoon free, so we had originally planned to visit the two major markets – one for Chinese souvenirs and the other for designer knockoff goods. We got a bit lost on the walk from the museum, so we arrived at the Chinese souvenir market hungry, hot and a bit cranky. Since it was a Saturday, the place was absolutely swarmed with people. We searched in vain for a restaurant to sit down and have some lunch in, but no to avail. We settled on a McDonalds, which was, believe it or not, standing room only. After a less-than-satisfying standing-up chicken nugget lunch, we attempted to brave the crowds and bargain with the shopkeepers but ultimately our hearts weren’t in it, so we left. (This means none of you will be getting postcards or souvenirs in the mail, sorry). Instead of facing the same situation at the knockoff market, we walked to The Bund where we sat in the sunshine on the riverside and talked and relaxed for a bit.
Chinese Souvenir Market. I took this picture on Friday, when it wasn't packed. By Saturday, this entire road was filled with shoppers.


Before dinner we met with some of the group members and took the night cruise of the river which was quite gorgeous. The European style buildings on The Bund were lit up majestically on the left side and the right side was the more modern, Asian style architecture with dancing fluorescent lights and the Pearl TV Tower.


We headed off to the French Concession where we were to have our final group dinner. Anthony had chosen this restaurant with a completely random American Indian theme and a random band of a Chinese man and woman with keyboard guitars (yes, keyboard guitars!) covering famous American music from about 10 years ago. It was amusing, to say the least. Again, dinner was awesome and we even got two mini kegs of Budweiser (not enough beer for the Ozzie woman though). As the night wore on, group members started leaving to pack and rest up for our respective busy departure days. We had an early morning ahead of us, so Kate and I left around 11. We bid adieu to our awesome leaders and to the three people we liked (ahem), grabbed a taxi to the hotel, showered, packed and slept for about 6 hours.
Our leaders, Dragon, Howard and Anthony


Sunday
On Sunday morning, we woke up at 6am to begin the voyage back to Japan. We hopped on the subway at 6:30 in order to catch the first Mag Lev train in the morning. For those of you who don't know, the Mag Lev train from central Shanghai to the International Airport is the fastest train in the world. Maxing at a speed of 431 km/hr (268 mph), it takes about 8 minutes to get to the airport – a distance that takes 90 minutes to drive in good traffic. It was an exciting end to an exciting trip… when is Tokyo gonna get one of those.





Phew, now do I win the award for blogger of the year? Thank goodness for spring vacation at school, or this entire trip would be summed up with a paragraph and five pictures...

China part 2 – Xian and Suzhou 3/21-3-23

Tuesday
Our train arrived in Xian at around 8:30 on Tuesday morning. After about 12 hours on the train, you can imagine how ragged we all looked and felt. We walked about 15 minutes down a shabby street of shops and street vendors to where our bus was parked. We boarded the bus and drove into the city center.

Xian is one of the few remaining walled cities in the world, and it’s also one of the few cities in China that wasn’t attacked during World War II, or as the Chinese call it, The Anti-Japanese War. Because Xian was never attacked, its city wall and surrounding moat remain perfectly intact; Xian is referred to as the City of Everlasting Peace.
Street in Xian


We had a couple hours in the hotel to shower and refresh before Anthony took us on a walking tour of the city. Xian is Anthony and Howard’s hometown so they had a lot of things to say and quite a lot of pride for the city. First we walked through the Muslim Quarter of the city, past their markets and the Great Mosque. Xian has a very large Muslim population because of its location at the beginning of the Silk Road. We then found ourselves in the center square where the famous Bell and Drum Towers are.
The Drum Tower

View of the Bell Tower at night from our hotel window

We walked through a big shopping area, onto a street full of bars and cafes before stopping for lunch at a pseudo-Japanese restaurant. After lunch we walked to the City Wall, where for a small entrance fee, we were allowed on top of the wall which runs the 14km circumference of the city. Anthony left us there for a free afternoon of exploration.
Market in Muslim Quarter


Kate and I had planned to rent bikes to ride along the wall, but the day was a bit rainy (our only day of bad weather, by the way), so we decided to pass on that plan. We strolled along the wall for a while, but ultimately weren’t that impressed by the view it offered, so we eventually climbed down. We spent the rest of the day perusing the Muslim Quarter, buying random souvenirs for which I bargained with a vengeance with the hard-as-nails shopkeepers; we ended the day by visiting the Great Mosque.
South Gate of the wall

On the wall


The Mosque was beautiful. It was built in 742 and has been restored many times. Around 5 o’clock, all of the men (women can’t pray at this Mosque) emerged from praying in the temple in their white and black hats. The black hats symbolize the few men who have already made the requisite pilgrimage to Mecca. The men in black hats were few and far between. We learned that China is only allowed 200 visas per year to Saudi Arabia, so many Chinese Muslims, despite being financially and physically ready for the pilgrimage, must wait many years to get a visa to enter.
Courtyard of the Great Mosque



Wednesday
We met the group at 9:30 for the daytrip to see the Terracotta Warrior Museum (the 8th Wonder of the World), located about an hour outside of Xian. The museum is currently made up of three pits of warriors. Pit 1, at 14,260 sq meters, is the biggest and so far, the best recovered and preserved. It consists of 5 sections of about 6000 warriors, 5 meters deep, in battle formation, facing east. Pit 2 contains 1,000 warriors, 500 horses, and 89 wooden chariots. And in Pit 3 there are about 68 warriors, four horses and one chariot. They are not placed in battle formation and because of its depth and distance from Pit 1, archaologists assume this group was the command center for the others.
Life-sized warriors in Pit 1



The 8000+ warriors were built in the 200s BC to protect the grave of Emperor Qin Shi Huang in his huge mausoleum. Shortly after his death, during the peasant revolution, the grave was attacked and torched; the bronze weapons they held were stolen. During the fires, the wooden beams supporting the ceiling of the mausoleum collapsed, burying the warriors until the 1970’s when a farmer accidentally discovered them. He had been digging a well on his farmland and he discovered a piece of sculpted terracotta from one of the warriors. He alerted whoever-it-is-you-alert-when-you-find-a-world-wonder-in-your-backyard, and soon enough his farmland was turned into a major archeological dig site. He was actually on site at the museum signing souvenir books. I put down the 120yuan for the book, the signature and a little wave from the cute old man. Unfortunately, and understandably, no photos were allowed, but Anthony said that this man signs more signatures in a year than anyone else in the world. The site is still undergoing a lot of digging as the archaeologists discover more statues and develop better means of restoration. Anyway, it was awesome.

After the museum we headed back into Xian where we ate lunch at the Huiling School for Mentally Disabled People. The students did performances for us and we sang and danced with them for a while afterwards. It was lovely and very touching. I think I’ve learned a lot through working with children in Japan because I noticed that I was pretty much the only person who, despite language differences, could play and communicate with the students. Everyone else kind of freaked out and stuck with the English-speaking adults who could facilitate their communication efforts.
Kids at the school


Anyway, we then headed back to our hotel to pack up our stuff, headed to the station and boarded yet another overnight train. This time our destination was Suzhou.

Thursday
Our overnight train to Suzhou was significantly longer than the first one, about 15 hours this time. But because the train arrived in Suzhou at about 10:30, we were able to sleep in a bit, which was nice. Oh, and the toilets on this one actually flushed, so not so nasty this time. Yeah, I know you didn’t need to know that…

The weather in Suzhou was gorgeous – sunny and warm. So after a couple hours to refresh, we headed off on a walking tour of Suzhou. Suzhou is an old water town, with canals running through the city. Anthony told us that Suzhou is a pretty small city with a population of 5 million (yeah, 5 million is small for China). The city was bustling with families and young people walking around. The streets were chaotic with vehicles, pedestrians and motorized bikes fighting for space on narrow roads. The traffic in Suzhou really bothered me because drivers were very liberal with their horns and the motorbikes had only handbrakes with screeches that ran through your eardrums, into your body and rattled your bones. Oh, just thinking about it makes me wince.
Canals in Suzhou


After the guided tour and group lunch, Kate and I took off to a Taoist temple in the city center.

Then we hopped a taxi to Beisi Ta, Suzhou's North Temple Pagoda which was closed for restorations, unfortunately.

We ambled around neighborhood near the pagoda to get a glimpse of how the locals live and then made our way to the Humble Administrator’s Garden, Zhousheng Yuan which was built in the Ming Dynasty. The Garden was my favorite part of Suzhou. It was immaculate and quiet. It was so nice to be away from the sounds of the city, and because we went in the last hour, we didn’t run into many tourists.



At 7, we met with the group for a dinner for famous Chinese dumplings which were really nice. And then we went to the Master of the Nets performance at Wangshi Yuan Garden. This garden was started in 1140 and restored to its present layout in 1770. The performance was really great. It was a series of about ten 5-minute performances of famous Chinese stories, songs and dances with English explanations beforehand. I really enjoyed it because unlike Japanese art, which in my opinion is long and boring (think Noh, Kabuki), the Chinese art was entertaining, lively and short, ahem.
The garden at night


After the show, Kate went and bought a bunch of bootleg DVDs. I resisted the urge. And we went for a drink at a local pub with some of our traveling companions. The bar was randomly decorated with pictures of Marilyn Manson of the first floor and Mao Zedong on the second. The entertainment was provided by a Chinese dude covering Eric Clapton and random boy-band songs. Um, we didn’t stay long.

We returned for the hotel to rest up for the final leg of our trip, Shanghai…

China part 1 - Beijing 3/17-3/20

Friday
We arrived pretty late in Beijing between a delayed flight out of Tokyo, difficulty finding our driver in the midst of the insanity of the arrival lounge of Beijing Airport, the 45-minute drive into the city, and a bit of incompetence at the check-in desk. So by the time we finally hit our beds, we fell fast asleep.

Saturday
We met up with Kate’s friend from college, Julie, who is living and working in Beijing. She had offered to take us to lunch and show us a bit of the city. We hopped a taxi to a big market area (forgive me, I’ve forgotten names) where we dodged beggars and street vendors to a big bustling Chinese restaurant. So bustling, in fact, that we had to pay for our meals in advance. We each ordered a cold noodle dish with various vegetables and some kind of sauce, a delicious mild eggplant dish and a rather plain dish of broccoli and butter and the free Chinese tea.

After lunch, we headed into the market. The basement floor was a wet market selling live fish, seafood, and dried food and vegetables. The first floor was a maze of stalls of typical Chinese souvenirs. The second was a huge market for knock-off designer goods and the top floor was nothing but pearls and jade jewelry (“You want pearl? You like earring?). Random, right.

After the market Julie had to leave, but she suggested we head to the Houhai area on the river. This area is very popular with young people. The riverside was lined with bars and coffee shops. I imagine it’s very interesting at nighttime. Alas, it was mid afternoon, but it was still very busy. The weather was gorgeous so Kate and I just ambled along the river for awhile. Soon enough we realized we were kind of lost, so we decided to stop into a cafe for a drink with the hopes that that someone could point us in the right direction.


At 7:00 we had to meet our tour guide and our group for some paperwork and introductions to the people with whom we’d be spending the next 9 days in cramped quarters. Our guide’s name was Anthony. He’s this hilarious 30-something Chinese guy with fantastic English who proved to have patience beyond my comprehension. There were two trainee-guides along with us, Howard and Dragon (weird name). Our group consisted of a dumpy looking British couple (later nicknamed by Kate as Baldy and the Beast); an obnoxious, borderline alcoholic, 30-something Australian woman and her mom (the mom was nice); two random middle-aged American dudes – one a fat, ugly, compulsive liar from somewhere in California (Mr. D) and the other a random dude from Pennsylvania who kept saying he was from NY (Mr. H); a lovely 22 year-old British girl named Lucy and an awesome 40-something Australian couple, Pamela and Richard. Needless to say, it was an interesting group.

After the meeting, Anthony took us to a famous restaurant for Peking Duck. We walked through a maze of hutong, or alleyways, where the local people live in very traditional and very basic accommodation with no modern facilities, running water or private bathrooms. It was very interesting to see. As Beijing (all of China for that matter), is developing so quickly for the Olympics, most of the hutong are being closed down, and the local people displaced to make way for modern apartment buildings, shops and hotels.
Peking Duck roasting



Anyway, we ate the famous Peking Duck which was delicious, with beer, tofu, vegetable dishes and ice-breaking conversation. Mr. D cause some uncomfortable moments by questioning Anthony about Chinese politics and the Tiananmen Square massacre. It was very interesting because it hit me just how indoctrinated and uninformed the Chinese government keeps its people. I’m trying not to make judgments, just comments on what I saw. For example, Mr. D. asked Anthony how old he was/where he was when the massacre in Tiananmen happened. Anthony replied by saying that honestly, we would know more about it than he did. He was a student when it happened and the next day, in the newspapers, there was only a small sideline saying that some people had been killed, that the government had taken measures against unruly students who were shooting at soldiers, in an effort to prevent a mass uprising in the city. He also spent a significant amount of time telling us the virtues of communism. It’s hard for me to decide if he really felt this way, or if he has been trained to say these things to foreign tourists, or if the government has restricted information so much that he isn’t aware of other options. I don't know.

Sunday
On Sunday morning, we were up at 9:30, in our comfortable shoes with our water and snacks and warm clothes for the much-anticipated trip to The Great Wall. It was about a two-hour drive from the center of Beijing to Mutianyu, the section of the Wall that we were going to visit. Apparently, there are only certain sections of the Wall that tourists can visit (makes sense), and I’ve heard that Mutianyu is one of the better and less-touristy sites. Kate and I had elected to climb up to the wall, rather than take the cable car. The climb was about 45 minutes of panting and wheezing (just kidding… kinda) and removing layers, but we finally made it up. I’ll kind of let the pictures do the talking here, cause I feel like that’s probably more interesting that whatever I could possibly blab on about it.




I saw this man playing the flute on the climb down from the wall. Lovely.


After the trip to the Great Wall, we drove an hour and a half back into the city where we watched a Chinese acrobat show. It was so cool. Seriously, the kids (all junior high-school aged) in this show must have bones made of jelly or something. I highly recommend seeing one of these shows (Kat, Golden Week suggestion).

When we returned to the hotel, we had another group dinner at a Sichuan restaurant down the street from the hotel. After dinner, I showered and passed out.

Monday
On Monday morning, we met in the hotel lobby from where we took the short walk to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The thing that struck me about Tiananmen Square was the cleanliness of it. The ground was spotless, unlike the rest of China where the men hock loogies and spit every 5 minutes and young children squat and pee on the sidewalk. No lie. The other thing is the sheer size of it. According to Anthony, it’s the biggest square in the world.
It was a sunny day. The grey sky is beacuse of pollution

There's Chairman Mao. The Chinese can't get enough of this guy.

Little kid running with Chinese flag


We made our way to the Forbidden City where we took a tour which lasted about 3 hours. It was a very long tour and the City was quite crowded, but the weather was awesome, so it was rather pleasant. Again, here are some pictures.



We had the afternoon free until about 6pm. Kate and I made our way around the massive shopping street called Wangfujing and eventually settled into a hotel bar to rest our feet and have a few cocktails before dinner.

We met the group at 6pm, ate dinner, collected our bags and made our way to the train station where we got a night train to Xian, our next stop. The night train was very interesting. There were six beds in a cabin stacked with three on each side and about 12 inchese between them. Very cozy. And of course, Kate and I had the top bunks. But, the beds were clean and came with blankets and pillows so it was rather comfortable. My only gripe was with the toilets which were absolutely hideous, but I’ll spare you the details…
Kate in her bunk

Me climbing to mine



More to come later. And I'll be posting all 150 of my pictures to my fotopage this week.

I'm back from China. I have about 150 photos and a million thoughts to sort through. But fear not, a huge update is coming this week.

Here's a map of where I traveled in China.

Spring sneak preview

Last week was one of those gorgeous and elusive late-winter weeks where the sun comes out, the temperature rises, the winter coats come off, the mood increases. It was awesome. Until Sunday came. And it's been snowing ever since.
Give it up, Niigata!

Anyway, the weekend was a good one. Partially because of the great weather and partially because Chieh (Aaron's predecessor and my good friend) was back in Japan for his spring break from law school. Friday night, Kate, Kayvohn, Aaron, Kristi, Chieh and I went out in good old Maki Town. First stop was Samurai Star which has pretty cool decor and definitely doesn't look like it belongs next to a random convenience store in a random small town. The food is pretty good and the drinks flow (kinda) cheaply, so we hung around for a couple hours chatting, reminiscing, catching up and, uh, breaking cameras (ahhh, shit!).


After dinner we headed to Maki's local karaoke haunt, BanBan, which is run by a weird group of thuggish, yakuza-wannabe, blond haired teenagers in sweatsuits. And frequented by all their friends. Awesome. Karaoke was pretty sweet cause we snuck in all our own booze so when the thug employees came into our room we had to hide the cans - freshman dorm style! With Chieh in the house, we sang a lot of songs from last year that I had forgotten about. I kept being like "Ah! This is an Emily song!" "This is a James song!" "This is a Pearl Jam song!"　
なつかしかった！
I miss this guy!

I assume we're rapping

Some people didn't want to leave!

And others weren't so entertained...
lame!

Saturday was awesome. It was one of those days where everything just falls into place. Errol had free tickets to the Niigata Albirex game at Big Swan for that afternoon. It was my first game (shameful, I know) AND the weather was absolutely fantastic, so I was pretty excited.

For those of you who don't know, Albirex is Niigata's soccer team. Recently they've been upgraded to Division 1, so they tend to lose lots of games, but you'd never know it by their crazy fans. Seriously, you will never see so much orange at one time as you will during a home game at Big Swam. It's crazy! On Saturday we were playing Tokyo FC.

Funnily enough we found ourselves seated 4 rows behind Warrick, JP, Nuria and Luke. What are the odds?

Anyway, we settled into our free(!) seats with beers where I did lots of trash-talking and Kayvohn and I made up a song to the tune the Niigata's fight song about how lame Tokyo is. It was freakin awesome and went something like this:
"You Tokyo hitos,
You might have a big subway system,
But we don't even like Tokyo Tower,
It's just one big Eiffel Tower rip-off.
And it's shorter than Mt. Kakuda,
So suck my balls!"
Yeah!

And what was even sweeter was that Albirex actually won the game 2-0!

After the game, we met up with Phil, who just happened to be in Niigata too, and headed out for some dinner. We decided on yaki-niku (Korean-style barbeque where you grill your own meat at your table) and Errol negotiated our way into a 2-hour nomi/tabehoudai (all you can eat/drink). It was so so so delicious.


After that we stumbled over to a Canadian-themed (yes, you read that right) bar around the corner called Northern Lights. This place came complete with Canadian flags, hockey sticks, Canadian beer, a giant red Canadian pilgrim hat (see below) and a Canadian owner. Kind of surreal but pretty sweet at the same time. Next time I'm going on an empty stomach so I can eat the Canadian burger...
Kate and I. I'm still in my orange Albirex-supporter shirt!

Look Ma! I'm Canadian. Or, GW has finally pushed me over the edge...

We experimented with my camera and the self-timer mode. Quite amusing, I do say.



Sunday were going to head down to Tochio, a random mountain town that had a penis festival going on. I missed it last year so really wanted to check it out and confirm the rumors of a 6ft wooden penis that the women ride on through the town... Like I said before though, it started snowing on Sunday and I really wasn't up for a two hour drive. Here's the website though, if you don't believe me:

http://www.tochio.net/hodare/index.html

Anyway, instead of the penis festival, Kate, Kayvohn, Errol and I spent the day at Jonnobi Spa on Mt. Kakuda. The day involved hours of onsen, eating lunch and ice cream and lounging around in the towel outfits they provide. It was a really nice way to spend a snowy Sunday.

__________

And, in travel news:
Only 3 days till my China Adventure begins! Can't wait!