Travel Account #7: Shanghai

At the Indian restaurant with the questionable food

Little did we know...

The Bund

Unfortunately, our story of Shanghai is a sad one.  Well, more anticlimactic than sad.  We boarded the fast train (with about five seconds to spare, as usual) around dinner time.  On the train, I started to feel that cramping pain under my ribcage that I remember from those bouts of whatever it was in September.  At the same time, C's nose started running and he said he felt like he might be getting a cold.  There must be something about the unnatural air on trains that induces illness.  By the time we got to our very cool, very artsy-kids-with-scarves-and-Macs hostel, we were both positively sick.  I don't know where he caught his, but mine, we determined was probably from the Indian food we had at a nice restaurant in a hotel before we left.  What a waste of money!  So I spent most of the night vomiting or rolling around being miserable, and he spent equal amounts of time awake with me or nursing his congestion.  It wasn't so bad though, cuz next to my mom, he's definitely the best person to have around when you're throwing up.  But the next morning we didn't get out until the afternoon, and I wasn't exactly feeling up to walking around forever, so we saw the Bund and a main shopping street and then had to go back and take a breather.

Nanjing Street (not Xintiandi)

Earlier, Dad had said we could use his credit card to have a nice dinner one time, and we had been saving it for Shanghai where we knew there would be fantastic restaurant options.  I had successfully eaten a lunch of noodles and broth, so I was confident I could handle dinner as long as we did western instead of some adventurous Thai or Japanese fusion place.  We went to this area called Xintiandi, a newish pedestrianized faux-quaint place with all kinds of tourists strolling on cobblestones and pretending they are really in Europe.  So we found an Italian place, the kind with Italian on the menu, and decided it was sufficiently expensive enough to warrant the use of Dad's card.  We drank shirley temples, which C really liked, and ate pizza and pasta and a lot of bread.  The waiters were all fawning, you know, with pepper grinders and classy English, and the owner came over to chat and asked us if we were in Shanghai on business.  Ah, yes, just business, me and my Mauritanian partner, and my American credit card, here on business.  heehe.  Do I look old enough to be "on business"?! It is nice to do that for fun, eat at a place like that, but actually me and C are so much more comfortable at the dirty mom-and-pop Chinese restaurants.  He is visibly uncomfortable being waited on like that, and probably in the presence of all these other stuffy people.  I at least know how to act like I belong.  But really I have no desire to be wealthy enough to feel entitled to eat regularly at fancy restaurants.  Or maybe I just haven't developed a taste for it.  I don't think I will, though. 
The next morning we got up, and after a time-costly misunderstanding between the two of us (about which I'll spare you the details, as it is just too frustrating) we had another relatively expensive meal at the "Vienna Cafe" that I saw in my guidebook.  The place was full and we had to sit at the bar, but it was lovely.  It was like being at a real cafe in Vienna, except the waiters had a funnier accent, and without the pressure of feeling like you had to speak German. 
Then we said goodbye to Shanghai, sorry we didn't see much of you! Next time! And we hurried to the airport, always hurrying! and flew to Shenzhen, took a bus to Zhuhai, and a cab to my apartment.  I was so upset all day about returning "home."  I had been looking forward to traveling all semester, and then it was over, and I was soooo dreading going back to teaching.  I made C sleep at my place that night, to put off my imminent separation anxiety, but after he left at 7 the next morning like he always does, I just didn't know what to do with myself.  That was the saddest I can remember being, in like, ever. 
I'll have to go back and spend more time in Shanghai, because dude, it was cool.  Anything a westerner could ever miss is there.  After living in Zhuhai, I would want for nothing in that city.  And we didn't even have time (or money) to shop! What a waste!  If someone ever tells you they spent time in China, and you ask where, and they say Shanghai, you can tell them that I say that is cheating.  And yes, I insist on being snobby about it.

Travel Account #6: Nanjing

Out of all the cities we visited, I think I liked Nanjing the best.  I guess this might have something to do with C being so completely thrilled to be there.  He studied Chinese at a university there last year, so he had some leftover friends and hangouts and nostalgia.  Nanjing means "southern capital" in Chinese (with Beijing meaning "northern capital") and at some point in history it was the capital for a while.  The city is huge, but not as overwhelming as Beijing, and with a big population of foreign students but not as much of an international presence as Shanghai.  It felt like a city with a lot to offer, big enough so that you wouldn't get bored, and with tons of interesting historical stuff, but not so comfortable or Westernized that you forgot you were in China.  C tells me all the time how when he first came to Zhuhai, he was so disappointed and would have flown straight home if he hadn't met me, and now I understand why a move from Nanjing to Zhuhai would be more than a little letdown.  The first day we went to the university because he was hoping to encounter a few old friends or teachers.  His dormitory building had a new Ayi, and he asked her about the other Ayis and the other foreign people living there.  The dorm building looked just the same as on our campus, but a little different.  The same in that it's an open building, with no sense of "inside" when you walk "in," pretty cold and grimy-looking.  Then we walked across the street to the main campus, which looks just the same as our campus, but a little different.  This campus was right in the middle of the city, with a main road running through it - sort of like what I expected SYSU to be like based on the accounts I received from the Chinese folks before arrival.  HAHA.  The Chinese campuses I've seen have a distinct look.  I like the aesthetic, sort of.  I like it in the way you like something that seems uninviting, but interesting, and which might be cool to experience for a limited time.  Kind of like post-tonal music theory.  Actually exactly like post-tonal music theory!  The campus is big and open, with buildings pretty spread out.  Surprisingly, considering how much the Chinese seem to enjoy screaming colors elsewhere, the buildings are totally colorless.  There are a few striking facades, the library with an imposing glass front or something.  It's like Tian'anmen Square style architecture.  1970s meets futuristic Tian'anmen Square style.  The classroom buildings are totally utilitarian, but not falling apart.  The dining halls are very cafeteria-like; there are definitely no cushy booths, fireside lounge chairs, cozy nooks, or atmospheric lighting, like us Skidmore folks are used to.  Overall stuff looks like it would be cool in the summer, but uncomfortable in the winter and slippery and drab in the rain.  There are also no cafes appropriate for real lounging, but a lot of strategically placed benches overlooking dirty lakes or tree-lined streets. 

Come to think of it, that is one thing I really feel the lack of on SYSU campus - comfortable gathering spaces.  The building that functions as a student center does not actually function as a student center because there is no "center" area with couches, or computers with hydraulic swivel chairs for common use, or rooms designated as study areas, or rooms with big tables for club meetings.  There is a bakery, where the international folks tend to hang, and they have reasonably comfortable seating but you can't plug in your computer so there's only so much hanging you can do.  There's also a milk tea shop, but nobody hangs around there.  The classroom building is absolutely uncomfortable, with tiled floors and a street through the middle that gives it that strange sense of openness. All clubs and organizations have their meetings on the ground floor, standing around in a corner.  As in, the Foreign Language Association members do not sit in a room with papers spread out across a table to do their business.  They stand in a corner of the teaching building, rain or shine or 99% humidity.  The students' dormitories are those same open-in-the-middle type buildings, so that you're never really inside unless you're in a room.  The rooms have four students, a slab of plywood as a bed, tiled floors, squatter toilets, and a sink outside on the balcony.  There are no lounges or study rooms here either.  My apartment is the same style, of course, but at least I have a big normal bed and an indoor sink and a western toilet.  And I can keep my room clean because I don't have three roommates.  The students can't even be comfortable on the toilet.  How do these people relax?  Where do they go?  If your room is uncomfortable, and so is the classroom building, and so is the dining hall, and so is the student center...where are you supposed to put your feet up?  Obviously there is a different standard for what is "comfortable" here, but...seriously?  I guess American public schools are the same, with lockers for your stuff, basic desks, cafeterias, bleachers in the gym, etc.  But a public school is a place that people go from 8-4, and then go home to their normal houses with normal (not bench-like) couches.  Then when you get to college, the conditions on campus change, because the campus is now your home and not just where you go for a few hours during the day.  But these students live here.  I LIVE HERE!  I cannot bring myself to think that Americans are pampered and spoiled in this regard.  The Chinese just don't know what they're missing.  And being a developing country is not an excuse.  It's not like there aren't ridiculous amounts of disposable products floating around whose energy could have gone into a non-disposable mattress instead. 
I got a bit off topic.  Our hotel was in the part of town called Gulou, or Drum Tower, and the "Drum Tower" is not a piece of old architecture but the 7th tallest building in the world.  There is nothing particularly special about tall buildings in China, and the one in Shanghai that we saw is taller, but I don't think I've ever actually been able to stand at the base of such a tall building and look up.  Our metro stop was right there and every time we passed I wanted to stand around and look for a minute.  Once at night we went right up to the foot, and to see the top of the building, you had to crane your neck 90 degrees so you're looking straight upwards.  During the day, you couldn't see the tippy top because it was up in the mist.  I don't know why I thought this was so cool.  I think I've never bothered to stand so close to a skyscraper and really think about it, and consider what would happen if a big gust of wind came and blew it over.  Like what it would look like, falling to the ground.  Eeee!!

An extreme example of my new favorite snack - mysterious appley fruits, candied, on a stick

With the rest of our time in Nanjing, we ate at some cute restaurants, learned how to say 'cauliflower' in Chinese at one of them, spent some time at the Confucius Temple section of town with a ton of people and markets (the usual), and went to the center of the city to stroll but ended up on a frustrating search for a reasonable cafe.  I know the pictures from this city seem the grayest and drabbest, but it was just crappy weather.  It didn't feel like a drab city otherwise.  Oh, and one night we went to this other university where C had some friends, and just showed up totally unannounced at some girl's dorm room.  I would never do that.  And she was obviously uncomfortable, wearing PJs, and her room was not in a state to entertain guests, but I couldn't convince C of the inappropriateness of just showing up like that, so whatever.  But she was happy to see him, and she had some friend over, so we all sat around and chatted for a few minutes.  The girl was from Rwanda and extremely pretty, and her friend, a jolly-looking smiley dude, was from Namibia.  Three Africans in a room with me.  Teeheehee.  I've never even met anyone from Rwanda or Namibia, or Mauritania, before this, and then I had them all at once! I accidentally said something stupid to the dude, because I didn't know that they speak English as a first language in Namibia.  He was probably thinking, damn stupid Americans, don't even know what other countries speak the same language as they do.  Whoops.
As Shanghai was going to be our last stop on our journey, I suggested we just stay in Nanjing for a few more days, because we would only have two days in Shanghai anyway and we were both really enjoying Nanjing and we were so tired. But C said, but we're so close to Shanghai, and there's that cool high-speed train.  And I did want to take the high-speed train.  So we went. 

Travel Account #5: Dalian, Yantai, Ji'nan, Qufu

Is this good advertising or what?

This was the gritty part of the journey.  By this time we were getting really tired, already both low on money, and were now in the downhomey parts where the going was tough anyway.  I knew Dalian would be nothing special, as my book says it's a summer beach resort town, but someone had told C it was nice and he had been talking about it all along, so we went.  It was a nice city, and he managed to hook up with some friend from Mauritania studying there, who took us into his considerably-nicer-than-ours dorm room and fed us snacks and put a space heater in front of us, which felt comforting.  We also met two very sweet (Arabic and English-speaking) girls from Egypt who pointed us to the beach and the foreign student part of town.  Although, something funny happened with me and those girls, which was that I couldn't bring myself to make conversation with them.  Like I wanted to congratulate them on the recent happenings in their country but I clammed up and felt uncomfortable the whole time we were with them.  C was like, what's wrong with you, they speak English! chat! and I was like...sorry.  Honestly I think I have so little experience with people from the Middle East - like, actually from the Middle East, not just sort of foreign but studying at Skidmore - that there is some part of me that thinks I will have to interact with them differently than with other people.  It's not true.  I dunno what was up with me.  Anyway:

Yes, these girls do have matching jackets and scarves.

Dalian was only slightly warmer than Harbin, though, and C was starting to pressure me into not having my daily flavored milk tea (in an attempt to save money), and we had stayed in a few really uncomfortable rooms, and taken that hellish train from Harbin, so I was starting to get grumpy.  And one of those days, I can't remember which, I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a bus, I think from the lack of multiple pillows and an uncomfortably hot room, and so I spent most of the day whining.  hehehe.  Those are the days that C realizes I'm not joking about my need for a midday sugary milky caffeinated beverage.  That need is just a constant in my life. 
So we didn't end up doing anything spectacular in Dalian, but it was a good place to be tired for a few days and not feel like you were missing stuff.  The city itself was really new and clean, and I'm sure it's beautiful during the summer. 
Then, even though I had been wanting to go to Qufu, our main goal was Nanjing, so we took a ferry to Yantai in hopes that the train station there would have tickets (because there were none from Dalian itself).  The ferry was more like a boat the size of a cruise ship, and was nice except that of course by the end we had that group of smoking Chinese men standing around us wanting to chat.  But before they assembled, a nice old lady with an accent I could understand helped me unravel the knots in my ball of yarn, and we had a nice lunch in the cafeteria.  (me and C, not me and the old lady). 
When we got to Yantai - which strangely reminded me of Binghamton - we went straight to the train station and asked about tickets to Nanjing.  Nope, not for that day, or the next day, or the next, or the next.  Then I had this faint recollection of another moderately large city a few hours West called Ji'nan (maybe?), and asked about that, and there were THREE TICKETS LEFT.  And they were somehow really cheap.  So we bought two of them, and then went outside to gather our thoughts, and I had a little panic that I had been mistaken about the name of the city, and had accidentally bought us tickets for some city not in the province we were in.  But, everything was OK, I had not been mistaken.  So then we hauled our bags and asses down the street to the bus station, because there were no trains left that day to Ji'nan.  We got on a 6-hour bus and made it to Ji'nan pretty late, and had to wander around for a while looking for a cheap hotel.  When we succeeded in finding a cheap hotel, I cried pathetically for a bit.  I'm American, you know, not Mauritanian, I'm not used to dealing with conditions like this, I'd rather use dad's credit card and stay at a reasonable place than suffer night after night, it makes me uncomfortable to wake up to a dark room because we have no window, etc. etc.  I really am easygoing about these things, and can stay just about anywhere for a night or two, but four nights in a row when we're already exhausted, and with a lot of difficulty in between, is pushing it.  I've never been much of a camper, inside or outside, you know.  But I wouldn't cry so much if C wasn't such a satisfying comforter.  He's the enabler. 
Our tickets to Nanjing weren't for a day and a half so the next morning we made up our minds to take a day trip to Qufu, which was supposedly only an hour away.  Qufu is this little town where Confucius was born and lived, and I thought it might be cute and peaceful.  Also the other Skidmore teachers are at the university there, so I sort of wanted to see what I was missing in Zhuhai.  It ended up being a rather failed endeavor, what with there being one train and one bus per day between Ji'nan and Qufu, and we only got to spend an hour and a half actually there.  Also it wasn't cute or peaceful.  It was just small and even dirtier than other places, with more adamant souvenir vendors.  But we were reasonably happy all through the frustration, so whatever.  And it had been on our itinerary, so I would have felt cheated if we didn't make it there when we were so nearby. 
The next morning we went to a grocery store and stocked up on all kinds of things to take on the train, because we didn't want to be hungry like on the last train.  And for some reason we thought it was gonna be a really long ride, like at least 20 hours.  I guess I hadn't properly finger-measured my map.  So we got on the train and were feeling all prepared, me with my sweatpants and contacts and knitting and everything, but then this dude told us it would only take 10 hours to get to Nanjing.  And we were like, mannnn, this time we thought we had it all figured out! But oh well, and we had a very pleasant ride until about an hour and a half before arrival when the crowd of smoking Chinese men started gathering.  And just as I was going to lie down and take a nap, too.  I got to hold some guy's baby for a minute, but the father's voice was so loud and offensive that I almost couldn't even enjoy it.  That baby is going to have a messed up sense of how loud one should speak in public.  During this talk-to-the-foreigners session I at least did learn the word for rabbit, after describing the word I was looking for by saying something like "the small animal. has big ears, likes to eat carrots." 

Travel Account #4: Harbin

 I had been thinking about going to Harbin even before I arrived in China, so it's weird that now I've done it and it's over.  It was cool, but...everything seems cooler on TV with Anthony Bourdain as your guide.  It was cold, but not anything I haven't felt during the coldest days of winter in upstate NY.  The town was fun, as there was a lot of Russian architecture and Russian restaurants.  It doesn't exactly feel like being in Moscow, though, you know.  Actually one weird thing about it was we had trouble finding places to eat at all.  The Russian (and any foreign cuisine) places are expensive, so we couldn't do that more than once, and there was a strange lack of the normal hole-in-the-wall cheapie Chinese restaurants.  I guess we ate a lot of bread.  And you'd think a city like that would have an abundance of cafes, so you could go in and drink something hot and warm up for a few minutes.  But this was not the case.  I'm always feeling the lack of cafes in this country.  Before we arrived C had been worrying about the temperature, what with being from the desert and all, but he was a good sport.  Here we go:

 

HAHAHA - C with back of an ice sculpture, chubby Chinese kid, and distressed-looking character

All around the town there were ice sculptures here and there, but the center of the craziness was Zhaolin Park.  We went at night to get the colored lights effect. There was a pretty hefty admission price to get in, whatever, and one building in the park had these sculptures which were entries in the international competition.  I could have looked at these all night but it was cold so we had to keep moving!



 

  

  

Wow! There were a few geometric sculptures, but most of them were like this.

Igloo! We went inside of this, where there were ice benches and you could order overpriced beer in ice mugs.

I have no explanation for what this is supposed to be.

                                         

In one corner of the park there was this random-looking building that people were walking into, so we walked in too, and it turned out to be one of those funhouse things they sometimes have at fairs.  It was so fun.  It took us about 15 minutes to find our way out of this mirror maze!






 The next day we walked around, checked out the history museum inside this cathedral, ate candied fruit on sticks but avoided the ice cream bars that many of locals seemed to be enjoying. That night we went down to the riverbank, because my guidebook said you could walk across the frozen river to Sun Island, where there were more sculptures.  But when we got there, we couldn't figure out how to make it across the river without paying a lot for an entrance ticket.  That seemed fishy.  So we just took a frosty stroll and indulged in some super tacky souvenir shops. 

St. Sophia Russian Cathedral

defrosting at a restaurant

Travel Account #3: Beijing

The first morning we met up with a few of the other American teachers who were traveling in Beijing too.  We went to Tian'anmen Square, walked around a bit, had an overpriced Japanese meal, chatted, etc.  I know Tian'anmen is historically significant but it just seemed like a huge flat area with a lot of tourists.  I had been worried about the pollution in the city, with all the hype about it being worse in the winter, but we had bright blue sunny skies. 










That night we went to this pedestrianized street that was really beautiful lit up for the New Year and marvelled at the Western-brand clothing store options.  In general, though, Beijing felt a little dead - I think most folks were probably sitting at home on the couch with a bowl of dumplings counting their lucky money.  It seems like that would be a welcome situation, as I am always complaining about the number of people everywhere, but maybe that's what makes China fun.  Without crowds and crowds of people, and without any quaintness to make up for it...maybe more of the dirt shows. haha.
The next day we took one of those organized tours to the section of the Great Wall that was farther away, and hence a bit more expensive, but supposedly better.  The tour also included visits to a jade factory, silk factory, tomb (or...something historical?), and tea house.  These places are not even shy about the fact that they are tourist traps, but if you just stick to your guns and don't buy anything, which we didn't, you get all this cool information for free.  Of course the other members of the tour included this Midwestern family of two pretty old parents and their middle-aged son, who was living with his Chinese wife somewhere in the south of China.  After these people talked my ear off the whole bus ride, blatantly complaining about living in China and the disorganization of the company where this guy was working, they proceeded to buy the tourist shit at every stop along the way.  They were also very interested in C, and both parties were trying to be friendly but they weren't really catching on to just how much English he doesn't speak, and for some reason I was feeling embarrassed to translate, so after a few awkward mini conversations, they just stuck to whining.

Anyway the Wall was very cool.  We had to take a cable car to get up there, which C has never done!! and it was the kind they have on ski slopes that comes up behind you and you have to sit down really fast, so that was fun.  It was pleasant weather, and not too many people, so we walked as far as we could before we were exhausted, but those were some serious stairs.  The view was nice but would be beautiful in Spring or Summer when stuff wasn't looking so dirty.

  And THEN came probably my favorite part of the whole trip: tobogganing down the mountain.  We look like we're on the same sled there, but we weren't - traffic was a bit backed up at that point.  I could have tobogganed down that track all day, yo. 

Then we ate dinner at a sweet Arabian restaurant with live belly dancers.  C goes crazy for this (the restaurant, not the belly dancers) which makes me happy.  I mean I was happy anyway because they had hummus. HUMMUUUUS.  I have a million pictures from this restaurant, on account of C liking pictures of himself in the first place, and being very excited to be somewhere with Arabic on the menu, but...I'll spare you.

cute phone

 The next day we went to the Forbidden City, a huge complex where the emperors used to live, that was off-limits to normal folks.  This bored me.  Maybe I shouldn't admit such things in such a public venue.

Then we went to a cafe that would be cool even in the states and drank ginger milk tea from a clear teapot.  I tell you this because the half hour we sat drinking the tea, before I accidentally spilled the last cup all over the table, was a highlight of the trip.





Then we went to one of those hectic underground malls to find a suitcase of some sort to replace the one whose straps were already torn.  Then...we saw this guy, batting away the throngs of little Chinese women trying to sell him "Gucci" handbags.  If he's not some famous American basketball player I'm gonna be really disappointed.  Anybody know?

That night we shelled out to go to a Beijing opera performance, because I thought it was important for me to witness, but it ended up being overpriced and lame.  Maybe the other tourists there didn't think so but the Chinese can't fool me on the topic of musical performance.  To begin with, the show was in some fancy hotel and not a real theater.  Lame #1. And the only other people in the audience were white tourists.  Don't real Beijingers go out to the opera? Lame #2.  Then, the performance started and there were no live instrumentalists.  WHAT THE HELL.  The vocalists were really singing, thank Confucius, but the rest of the music was all recorded.  I don't know if the Chinese think this is OK in general, or if they just try to pull that prank with the foreigners, but it is not OK with me.  Lame #3.  Also they had screens with subtitles so you could follow what was happening, but the girl pressing the button on the computer to change the subtitles, who happened to be sitting within sight, was texting on her cell through the whole show.  So all this dialogue would happen and the same subtitle would stay up, then she'd look up and flip through five at once. Lame #4.  Maybe I should write a letter of complaint or something to get it off my chest.  Other than those points of lameness, it was pretty cool.  I'll do impressions of the vocal style for anyone who asks.  I think I've got a knack for it.

 

The next day we were really pissed about the opera tickets, because we went to this temple festival and saw all these totally better performances for 10 yuan.  I mean, the instrumental music was still all recorded, but nobody was pretending that it wouldn't be. They also had the dragon (lion?) dance thing that I was going to die if I didn't see in Beijing.  It wasn't at a parade, like I was imagining, but it'll do.  For some reason I think in my childhood I associated China with this dance.  Like that is the symbol that has been assigned to China for much of my life.  So I was really excited to see it in real life.

This temple fair was insane - so many people packed into this park, carrying meat on potentially dangerous skewers and all these weird and useless-looking toys.  I didn't even see the temple.  I don't even know if there was a real temple in the middle of all those people.  We stood around elbowing people to get a better view of this stage, and watched the performances for a good while, then stayed just long enough to buy some snacks, but then started to fear we'd get separated or skewered in the eye and so left. 

After that we went to see the Olympic stuff, which I am not really interested in but C had been asking about it.  You can ice skate inside the bird's nest building, someone told us, but the ticket to get in was sort of expensive so we opted out even though I would have had fun watching him try to stay upright like a struggling lanky animal baby.  teehehe. 

Then, that night we took an overnight train to Harbin.  We had the "hard sleeper" kind - there is also the "soft sleeper" option - and I was sort of expecting to be uncomfortable but I was toooootally not prepared.  Looking back it wasn't that bad at all.  But it felt bad when we boarded the train.  We had top bunks (three bunks on each side of a doorless cabin) and it was rather difficult to get up there, and then when you did, you had no choice but to lie down because the space from the bed to the ceiling was too small to sit upright.  Oh, big deal, fussy American.  I know, but it was also way too hot, and the toilet was terrifying, and the ride was not smooth - rickety and swaying, in fact.  So it took me a while to calm down but after I fell asleep I actually didn't sleep too badly.  As per usual.  Just one of my superpowers. 

Beijing was so big, we could have easily spent two weeks there and not seen everything we were interested in.  We didn't get to the funky new art district, or the summer palace, or the Mao memorial thing, or many other things that I've already forgotten about so maybe they're not actually that important to me.  Overall I got a good vibe.  In terms of the major cities I've been to around here, Beijing felt the most Chinese.  Like even though there were all these non-Chinese food choices, and all these international stores, it definitely felt like China-China, rather than international-city-with-slight-Chinese-flavor. 

Travel Account #2 (#1 still to come): Commencement of Trek

First of all, in China during the New Year, especially if you don't speak great Chinese, and then if you have blond curly hair and are traveling with a partner who looks significantly unlike you, and especially if you are traveling to places outside the big cities and not normally on the tourist agenda, you can't just arrive somewhere.  You can't just go from one place to another and expect to arrive at your destination unscathed. 
So when I say we began our journey in Beijing, what I really mean is: I spent weeks ahead of time thinking of everything we might need to bring with us, buying supplies, packing, cleaning the apartment, etc; then the day before we left we went to the new high-speed Zhuhai-Guangzhou train station and bought tickets.  This was challenging as the station was very busy and we did not understand the distinction between the 40, 50, and 60 yuan tickets; the next morning, me and Cheikh disagreed over what time we needed to leave the apartment in order to make it to the train station on time. He never understands the amount of time necessary to get to places and as a result we are ALWAYS running with luggage trying to catch our bus or train or whatever.  So naturally we didn't leave enough time, hurried to the bus station, hopped on a bus, rode it for a while until we decided we really needed to get out and get a taxi cuz we were cutting it close, hopped out and into a taxi which charged us three times the normal price because it was the first day of Chinese New Year, ran to our platform, and caught the train with about 30 seconds to spare.  All this didn't bother us though because we were happy and excited; when we got to Guangzhou, we followed the signs to the metro and waited in line for 30 MINUTES to get a metro ticket to the airport - that's how many people were in the station - and took a really long ride to the airport; when we got there, we disagree about how to find our check-in counter despite the fact that I have been to that airport and can read the signs in English. He knows I always know what I'm doing but doesn't want to feel like I am always in charge, you know; we find our counter, check in, realize the Chinese hiking bag he was using was already about to fall apart; get on our plane; when we arrive at the Beijing airport, we know the address and metro stop of the hostel we had booked but are not sure how to get there; ask around until we find the shuttle bus that stops nearby; can't get a straight answer out of the driver about which stop to get off the bus; anger the other passengers as we try to discuss with the driver if this is indeed the correct stop; get off and get a taxi to our hostel; make it to the hostel, at which point C starts complaining about our shitty room with the shared bathroom; I remind him that he told me we should stay in the cheapest possible places in order to save our money so we can travel as long as possible; we have a little argument but get over it quickly and settle in.  Now we have arrived in Beijing.  I won't do that for every transit journey, but that was an example - and that was just the first, and between two major cities via plane!!

Recycled email to Dad

Yo pops,

Update - I am still alive and in good health.  I think this is a small miracle! Ha. We're in Dalian plotting our next move, as we are low on money and China is low on train tickets.  Yesterday we spent all day, 13 hours, sitting in an uncomfortable seat surrounded by so many people in the aisles that it was nearly impossible to get to the toilet.  Also we were definitely the ONLY foreigners on the train (possibly in Harbin at all) and people are just so bamboozled by our presence that we have to like talk to all these people.  Also people are allowed to smoke on the train, so it was hot and disgusting. It's not that the distance between our destination and departure cities was so big, but that the train freaking crawled and spent half an hour sitting at every stop along the way.  Also we were kind of expecting the train to have a dining car, since it was you know, 13 hours, so the only food we brought was a loaf of bread and an orange juice and some peanuts, but of course it didn't, and so halfway through the trip we were starving. We only got those train tickets because, after we waited in line at the train ticket window for half an hour in Harbin (which sounds simple but is actually an ordeal, with the amount of people in the station), we were informed that there were no tickets to Dalian left (and we were buying them two days in advance), so the next day we went over to the place where people are returning tickets they don't want, and joined the hoards of people shouting at each other until we found a lady returning two hard-seat daytime tickets to Dalian, which we bought off of her. LOL.  So the day after tomorrow we're going to try to get to Nanjing but we might end up being stuck here for a few days. Dunno.  There is not any English happening up here, as I think Western tourists don't normally come to these parts, and people seem to just assume we speak great Chinese, the way they spew out information to us at an average pace.  And then they seem confused when I say, "sorry, I didn't understand." They're probably like, "what the hell are you doing in Dalian if you don't speak perfect Chinese?"  Or maybe, "what the hell are you doing in the Northeast during Chinese New Year? We don't have time to deal with your language inadequacies right now!" Yeehaaaaw.  Me and C do not hate each other yet, either, but I seem to already have entered the bitterness-and-nagging phase of the relationship and we are starting to have the we-can't-actually-be-together-in-the-future conversations, so you can just chill out and worry about something else for a while.  

Also the ice stuff in Harbin was really crazy cool.  I have a lot of pictures.  It was really freaking cold though so we couldn't actually linger over the cool stuff as long as one should to fully appreciate it.  Before I knew I was coming to China I watched an Anthony Bourdain episode, I think with Canaan, where he goes to Harbin and I was like, dude, sweet, I should go there.  Then...I went there.  

Love,

Z

Adventures

Hello folks, I haven't posted in a while because I am trekking up and down the country, battling the hoards of Chinese New Year travellers.  I am currently sitting in a surprisingly comfortable hotel room in Harbin watching Gladiator on TV.  Hehe.  I feel sort of too tired to give a synopsis of everything I've done so far, but all is well and no major disasters yet.  Although, when we got in to Harbin we went straight to the ticket counter to get train tickets to our next destination, Dalian, and they are all sold out for the day after tomorrow AND the day after the day after tomorrow.  So...disaster might be imminent.  Or, at least, a terribly uncomfortable bus ride.  We got to Harbin on a sleeper train, in the "hard sleeper" bunks, which was even less luxurious than I had imagined it would be.  Ha.  Despite the fact that my aging camera goes through two batteries per day, there will be many (awesome) pictures to come, including one with some enormously tall black guy with an American accent wearing basketball gear, who has gotta be a sports superstar.  We just don't know who he is, but I'm sure he's somebody.
Yeah, I had better continue later because I just accidentally slept for two hours.  Now, out to brave the cold!