Travelers never think that they are foreigners - Mason Cooley

China!

Shanghai

The first day in China had me wandering in the Old Town section of Shanghai where the architecture matches up with what you would associate with China, as opposed to the Bund section we passed through which has a lot of European buildings. Old Town has a lot of shops and winding streets. But it also has a lot of people and is really dirty. It’s a definite change from Japan in that where Japan has no trash cans and people take their trash home to throw out, people in China will just drop it on the street when there’s a trash can a few feet away. For someone expecting something similar to Japan it was a huge shock.  Here you can also barter down prices, and you’re suppose to by 3/4 of most of the prices. You are most unquestionably a foreigner here; in Old Town a group of high school students ask to take a photo of me and my friends. With not of or for. This is the first of many Chinese families that will now have a photo of me in their albums, and I’m not even one of the blond, red, blue eyes or tall people in the group. The thing that made me realize we were in China was the crowds. It got to a point in the afternoon where there were so many people pushing in certain directions that you had no control over where you were going. I don’t think that I have ever been in a crowd that big. Plus it was the New Year meaning that most of the population was visiting family outside the city (with the amount of people I saw I don’t know if I believe that). Shanghai was pretty cool, and has a great skyline, but was so crowded and dirty.

 

Xi’an

The second day in China was the start of my SAS trip to Xi’an and Beijing. The first stop was Xi’an and after the flight we got to go try our hand at Chinese character writing, which was interesting to try. Then the highlight of the day was the dumpling dinner where we got 17 courses of dumplings to sample. Most of these dumplings were amazing. This also was the first of the lazy susan dinning tables. Seriously most big restaurants here have lazy susan’s at the table, to the point where I was so glad to have a meal where the turning of the susan didn’t have to be coordinated.  In Xi’an you can definitely tell it’s New Years here, more so than Shanghai. There were fireworks everywhere and people were lighting lanterns to let them float away. This city felt much more alive. People were out celebrating and lights were lit.

The second day here we saw the city wall and a mosque, which was really cool. The mosque was this weird combination of Islamic and Chinese it was beautiful. After this were the terra cotta warriors. They most amazing thing about them is that there isn’t a record of them. The first emperor built them for his tomb, anyone who knew of their location was buried alive, and then thousands of years later in the 1970’s a group of farmers stumble upon a head of one. The fact that so many could be hidden for so long is insane. You can’t get that close to the warriors, but they’re still an impressive sight. The biggest pit has about 6,000 warriors all with very detailed carvings. After we left the terra cotta’s we head to an orphanage for kids whose parents were in prison. It was weird to just go and visit and not do anything. This was the worst part of the trip, just going to see and not performing any kind of service. It makes me feel a little better to know that I am doing service trips along the way to make up for touring an orphanage.

 

Beijing

The next morning we headed out to Beijing and arrived there through the afternoon. Some of us tried to head to the pearl market and made it through the doors because they closed at 5 and managed to spend 30 minutes before we had to leave. Beijing had more life in it for the New Years than Shanghai too; there was more fireworks and more things to do.

Today we headed to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is huge, and there’s a picture of Mao front and center. It didn’t help that Revolution by the Beatles was stuck in my head.  The Forbidden City was beautiful, but because of a medical emergency with someone in our group we didn’t truly get to look around it. The best part was the gardens which we saw as we were leaving. For lunch we got to eat with a local family, one of the best meals I’ve had in China. It was cool seeing the inside of someone’s home. And for those of you who made fun of me not eating (with good reason) I’m really not positive on half the things I ate here. I know most of it was chicken and pork and vegetables but everything looks the same. The family also taught us how to make dumplings, which I am definitely going to try some time back home. That night for dinner I also tried Peaking Duck with the plum sauce and the wrap thing. It was delicious. So there!

The next day, and our last really one in Beijing began with a stop at a Kung Fu school. That was just intense watching these kids perform all sorts of craziness. But the real highlight of the day was the Great Wall. It deserves its spot as one of the wonders of the world and if you make it to China you need to see it. We went by cable car up and had about 3 hours to get to the place where you can toboggan down. (Yes, I tobogganed down the Great Wall!) Me and some kids went off in the opposite direction has far as we could before the path was blocked, and in the process climbed some of the most insane stairs of my life. One of my friends literally had to take my backpack and pull my up the last 3 feet before the tower. There was only about a group of 12 of us that made it that far and it was such an experience. It is so beautiful; the Wall goes on in both directions as far as you can see. This was my favorite experience so far.

China is different. You can tell it’s still a developing country by far, sidewalks are left unfinished, trash in the streets, and in the rural areas it’s even more obvious.  There are a good amount of poor, or at least what I saw was. It’s Communist but Capitalist, things that don’t work together in my opinion. They have guards everywhere and seem to love Mao despite everything. I just don’t know.

 

Hong Kong

Considering this was an international flight, it has its own currency (so colorful) and feels vastly different than China I think Hong Kong should be considered its own country.

We got back to the ship right around 2, and headed out to find lunch. Which may have been at a California Pizza Kitchen, but after a week of straight Chinese food let alone over 5 weeks without American food we felt it was well deserved. Three of us headed for the Jade market, where we may have made friends with one of the pearl ladies and stayed there for a while. This market ran into the Temple Street Night Market and we wandered through before making our way over to the avenue of stars for the light show. A really good day for getting up at 3:30 to catch a flight.

The next day we made our way to the Big Buddha and Victoria’s Peak, both or on separate islands and pretty far away from each other. But really the forms of transportation to get to and from these places are: walking, metro, cable car, ferry, bus, and tram. It was an interesting time. The Big Buddha is really huge and the view from the Peak is amazing. You could see the ship from the peak!

Hong Kong has become one of the cities I could live in. It’s a weird mix of Asian and European, and of Urban and Greenery. It’s also has a weird tropical vibe. But I loved this place, and will definitely make my way back here in some form or another.

 

It has been a crazy month with 2 days between constant travel in Japan and China. And I have another 2 days before we hit Viet Nam. People are starting to crash, but hopefully we’ll survive another week.