China!!!

From the 28th of April to the 10th of May, my friend Khanh and I went on an adventure to China! It was an amazing, frustrating, eye-opening, gut busting, unforgettable trip. I will try to encapsulate the experience in this blog, but I don’t think mere words can do the experience justice. You’ll just have to trust me. :)

Our trip began in Miyazaki City, where we caught a bus to Fukuoka, the largest city in Kyushuu. Then we flew to Shanghai. We had planned on meeting my friend from college, Elaine, at the airport. (I used to tutor her in English when she went to law school in Chicago). I hadn’t seen her in a year and a half, so it was awesome seeing her at the airport. After a long hug and excited greetings, we got into a taxi to drive to her place. My first impression of China was that it was BIG. Everything. The roads, cars, billboards, and buildings. It was the same way I felt when I went back to America for Christmas. After living in Japan for so long, where everything tends to be smaller, it was a bit of a shock. I also noticed that the sky was pretty smoggy from pollution. As we drove nearer to Elaine’s apartment, I was fascinated with her neighborhood. It seemed to be a convergence of the old and the modern. There was an abundance of new high rises and modern apartment buildings, as well as Western chains and restaurants. At the same time, there were older, more traditional residences with laundry hanging out to dry, people selling food in stalls on the street, rickshaws plodding alongside cars and bicycles, and people going through garbage on the curbsides. The traffic was nuts. Cars beeped constantly, people darted out in front of cars and taxis (which do NOT give people the right of way), and everyone seemed to be in a rush. It was all very overwhelming and chaotic.

Elaine’s apartment building was newer. Her apartment was gorgeous and really well decorated. Khanh and I were really happy to be able to stay there (and for free too!) That night, we went to a nearby restaurant with Elaine and my other friend from college, Summer. This was our first experience with Chinese food. We ate whole friend shrimp on sticks, lotus root filled with sweet, sticky rice, catfish in a really spicy broth, frog, and a beef and vegetable stew. All of it was really flavorful and spicy. I downed about 3 glasses of pure sugarcane juice, which was really really good. After our dinner, we headed downtown to the Bund. The Bund is a walkway along the Yellow River. On one side are colonial, Western style buildings from the late 19th century. This side of the street looks very European. On the other side, across the river, are brightly lit, fully modern skyscrapers. One building in particular stood out…the TV tower. It looked like an alien spaceship. Elaine told me that a lot of native people considered it an eyesore, but I liked it. The view at night was awesome. After walking along the Bund, we went to a rooftop bar with a great view of the city and had some martinis, before going to bed exhausted.

The next day, we had planned on going for a traditional Shanghai breakfast, but the restaurant Elaine had in mind was closed. Unfortunately, this led to us going to McDonald’s for breakfast…but at least it was cheap. We then took a really crowded bus to the Bund, and walked along the European side of the street. The buildings were gorgeous. I took a lot of pictures with Flat Stanley, who I brought along on the trip for a friend. We grabbed a ferry and went across the river to the modern side. We found a really nice park and spent a few hours there enjoying the view and people watching. We went to a dessert café and I had a really good mango/cream/sticky rice concoction. Then….it was time for our first experience on the subway. After walking past the TV tower and a bunch of other ultra-modern buildings, we fought extreme crowds to get on our train. The subway was really clean and efficient, but the number of people was shocking…even more so than in Tokyo. I really got a strong impression that China is becoming very economically powerful, very fast. Everything is in motion, and everything seems to be “growing.”

After we got off the subway, we went to the Shanghai museum and saw some pottery and art prints. By that point we were exhausted, and stopped for a late lunch….hot pot!!!! For those of you who don’t know, a hot pot is a traditional dish, where you have a metal pot over a small fire. This is filled with broth and some vegetables for flavor. Once the broth boils, you can put various raw meat, seafood, tofu, and veggies in and cook them right there. You can also create a concoction of sauces and spices to dip everything in. It was so good, but after we were done we could hardly move (this became a theme of the trip). I even broke my usual no red meat diet and tried some lamb (!!!!). My favorite food, though, was the duck meat. We returned to Elaine’s place, exhausted, and relaxed and watched a movie. Khanh and I went on a mini shopping trip that night, and I bought a couple shirts at Uniqlo.

The next day, we (me, Khanh, Elaine, Summer, and Elaine’s fiancée Rock) headed out of Shanghai to visit a water village (if you are familiar with Chinese films, water villages are often featured in them). A water village is exactly what it sounds like…a village built on a river. You can walk along the residences and shops and stop for food and souvenirs from street vendors. The whole place smelled like stinky tofu. If you’ve never experienced this smell, let me tell you that it is quite potent. I got used to it after awhile, but it wasn’t the most pleasant of smells (it’s similar to rotting garbage). Our first purchase of the day was cotton candy. We actually got to see it being made, which was really cool. It seems to appear out of thin air. It was delicious, but gnats kept sticking to it, which was kind of annoying. We also tried some of the stinky tofu (which tasted better than it smelled) and then got into a boat to take a tour of the town. The boat ride was my favorite part of the day, because we got to relax and take everything in. It amazed me that people actually lived on a body of water. It almost felt like a ride at Disneyworld; it was kind of surreal. After the boat ride, we stopped for lunch. Lunch was interesting…definitely not my favorite meal of the trip. We had eel, river shrimp (which had a really strong taste), a soup with whole fish in it (the head and eyes freaked me out….), tofu, some kind of greens, and chicken. My favorite part of the meal was the dessert, which was a sweet rice wine pudding. At the restaurant, I really noticed the difference between customer service in Japan and China. In Japan, people will go out of their way to be friendly and polite to you. In China, people are much more brusque and don’t seem to want to be bothered with going out of their way to help you (similar to a lot of places in the States, I think!) After lunch, we wandered around some more. At this point, the village had become rather crowded, and I started to notice how much people stared at me (the only non-Asian in our group…and I think the whole village). In Japan, I will sometimes get some curious glances, but etiquette dictates that people generally look for a moment and then look away if you make eye contact. China was the opposite…people would openly stare at me, even if I stared back, and turn their heads as I walked past. I had several people openly take pictures of me. At one point, a man on a motorbike literally stopped his bike and stared at me, but I joked that since he was cute, I didn’t mind. This was my first experience with open staring, and while a bit annoying, I wasn’t too bothered by it….yet. We stopped for tea in a really cute house with an open river view and a couple of dogs paddling around our feet, and then did a little more shopping. In China, haggling is expected, so I was able to get souvenirs and plum wine for really low prices. We then headed back into the city. We decided to see a movie (Rio), which was really cute, and then went for Dim Sum (dumplings) for dinner. I was still full from all the food at the water village, but I managed to force some dumplings down. Elaine and Summer then told us that they would take Khanh and I to their salon to get haircuts! This was a very interesting experience. Of course, I excited all of the people working there because of my Western hair and blue eyes. As my stylist was cutting my hair, about three other guys were standing around just watching, which made me kind of uncomfortable. They did a really nice job, though, and I even got a back and arm massage.

The next day was our last full day in Shanghai. We finally got to have our traditional Shanghai breakfast, which consisted of rice balls filled with meat, sweet dough sticks dipped in a sweet sauce (kind of like Churros), and warm soy milk. Elaine then drove us to one of Shanghai’s hutong shopping districts. A hutong is a really traditional Chinese courtyard, with several houses connected together around a central courtyard. There aren’t many more of these left in China…a lot of them have been demolished to make way for more modern buildings. I was quite amused on the drive there, because we went through some colonial neighborhoods, and some of the streets looked EXACTLY like Oak Park in Chicago….old mansions on tree lined streets. The shopping/hutong area itself was very trendy…along the crooked alleyways there were a lot of shops selling local art, cafes, and multiethnic restaurants. It reminded me a bit of Bucktown in Chicago…I definitely got a Chinese “hipster” vibe. There were a LOT of foreigners too (although I was still asked by a teenage girl to have a picture taken with her). We stopped at a really nice coffee shop, and then did some shopping. We went to an art shop with reproductions of famous Chinese prints and scrolls. The proprietor had a photo on her wall near the cash register with Jude Law. Apparently he stopped in a couple years ago!!! I bought a framed print of two cranes. We went to lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant, where I had Pho, or Vietnamese soup. Mine was filled with seafood, clear noodles, and a really spicy, flavorful broth. After our shopping, we headed to the Yu Gardens, which is another shopping/restaurant district, but with Chinese architecture. It was very touristy and very crowded. I was quite overwhelmed by all of the people, all of the yelling from shop owners, and all of the sights and smells. I did manage to buy quite a few more souvenirs, and haggle pretty well too. We then had dinner in a really famous restaurant (apparently Bill Clinton ate there). We had our first Chinese duck, which was really, really good. It was covered in a sweet, sticky sauce and filled with rice. After dinner, we went to a bar in a French neighborhood. Again, I had a weird sense of déjà vu, because the neighborhood reminded me so much of Lincoln Park in Chicago…really posh apartments, boutiques, and all Western style. At the bar I had sex on the beach….delicious. 

The next morning was our last in Shanghai. We went to a Buddhist temple near Elaine’s apartment. It was some sort of religious holiday, because it was really, really crowded. The incense was intense and people were kneeling and praying everywhere. The temple was really beautiful, but I did feel rushed because it was hard to stay in one place for too long. After checking out the temple complex, we fed some koi fish in a nearby pond and then prepared to leave. Elaine took us to the airport, and after a difficult goodbye we got on our 3 hour flight to Beijing. Khanh and I were a bit helpless when we got off the plane, because this time we didn’t have Elaine to help us and neither of us speaks any Chinese except “Hello” and “Thank you”. We tried to get a cab, but a really angry cab driver started yelling at us when I tried to put my (admittedly huge) suitcase in his car. Then we were approached by a shady guy with a large taxi (a van) that was ridiculously overpriced. After that frustration, we decided to just take the airport shuttle and then the subway to our hostel. This wasn’t too difficult, but when we got off the subway at Tiananmen Square, we had to walk to the hostel with all of our stuff. It was definitely not a short walk. Our hostel was in a hutong neighborhood. As we were walking, we were approached by two Chinese guys who said they wanted to speak to us in English. Having read in my guide that usually this means people are trying to cheat you out of your money, we walked away quickly. It was such a relief to get to the hostel, and it was really nice too. There was a really cozy sitting area in front, and a pretty courtyard/garden area. Our room, while clean, was really small, and I have to admit I was not really looking forward to sleeping there 6 nights. We were used to Elaine’s roomy apartment with our own separate beds, after all. But, I told myself to make the best of it. We had some curry and rice at the hostel (which had a kitchen and a good menu) and then relaxed, since we were too tired from the day of traveling to go out and do anything.

The next day was devoted to the Forbidden City (former palace and grounds of the Imperial family). It was really close to our hostel, so we were able to walk there. This really was an all day affair, as the grounds are huge. It wasn’t too crowded, luckily, because we went on a weekday. We started off by walking past the emperor’s official palaces and meeting halls, then moved on into the gardens and the halls reserved for the women and courtiers. It was quite stunning and colorful, and there was carved marble everywhere. The gardens were gorgeous, with indigenous plants and rock formations. Khanh was my tour guide, as she is quite an expert on Chinese history and culture (and I am certainly not). We walked around for about 6 and a half hours altogether. You really could get lost in there, and there were several times where we ended up in the same place we had been a half an hour before. The frustrating part of the day was that there really weren’t many good places to eat on the grounds, and we used up all of our energy walking and climbing. Luckily, we were able to find a decent café for a late lunch. We then walked out of the Forbidden City into the neighboring Tiananmen Square, where we checked out Mao’s mausoleum and the national museum. When we got back to the hostel, we met up with a really nice German lady and asked if she wanted to go on an expedition for Peking Duck with us. We decided to go to a famous restaurant recommended by other people in the hostel, and to take the subway there. Unfortunately, we did not realize that we were going in the heart of rush hour. It was so crowded, it was unbelievable. At the stop where we were supposed to transfer to another train, the train itself was already completely packed (no personal space whatsoever). As we pulled up to the station, we saw that the platform was completely, totally filled with people. I readied myself and when the doors opened, I aggressively pushed my way through. In the chaos, I momentarily lost Khanh and our new friend. I pushed my way through to the center of the platform and saw the German lady as the train pulled away….but no Khanh. It turns out that when she tried to get off the train, the incoming rush of people pushed her back on. After about 10 panicky minutes in which we searched for Khanh, she finally came back on the opposite train.

We walked to the restaurant and were told it was a 30 minute wait. We walked around the restaurant and looked in the kitchen (where we could see through a big window all the ducks being put into ovens) to pass the time, and we were finally seated. However, we then had to deal with terrible service. It took about 30 minutes and some pestering to get someone to come and take our order. Then it took ages to get our duck. But…it was totally worth it. The chef came out with the whole, cooked duck on a platter and cut it up in front of us. He chopped off the head and sliced it in half, and then sliced meat off of the duck. Khanh was brave enough to eat the duck brain, but I stuck to the meat. The meat was soooooo delicious…probably the best poultry I have ever had. It was so moist and tender, and we wrapped it up in thin pancakes with sauce and veggies. It was cheap as well (as is everything in China)…the whole meal ended up being the equivalent of 40 US dollars for the three of us.

The next day, we had initially wanted to go to the Ming tombs (of the emperors) but decided it was too far away, too expensive and just not worth it. I felt bad, because Khanh had really wanted to go there. After asking around and some hemming and hawing, we decided to go to the Olympic Village where the 2008 Olympics were held. The day ended up being not so great for several reasons. One, it took forever to get there by subway, and the subway was of course packed again. Two, the Olympic Village was not terribly impressive, and rather expensive. Plus, there was a lot of walking involved and we were still tired from the day before. The people working in the village were rather rude, and we are both used to Japanese overpoliteness. On top of it all, it was a gloomy day and the pollution was starting to get to both of us. I’m afraid we were both rather cranky and not in good moods. The only really good part of the village was going inside the Bird’s Nest, or the huge stadium where they held the opening ceremony and some of the games. This was impressive, and it was nice because we were able to sit and chill for a little while. After seeing the Nest, we decided to get lunch, but we had to walk for ages just to get to a McDonald’s, which was the only restaurant we saw there. I took out my frustration by ordering a McFlurry and chowing down on fries. We both felt better after eating, and decided to just go back to the hostel and relax. It was already late afternoon by that point. For dinner that night, we went to a Night Market within walking distance of the hostel, and this was really cool. There were probably 50 or so booths lined up along the street, with every kind of food imaginable….all kinds of meat (and all parts of the animals), whole shrimp and crabs, squid, fruit, corn on the cob, tofu, vegetable kebobs, fried ice cream, scorpions, silk worms, roaches, meat pies, snakes…I mean everything. Khanh was brave enough to try a snake and the silk worms…I stuck to tofu, squid, and fruit.

The next day was a marked improvement because we went to….THE GREAT WALL!!! We signed up with our hostel for a tour package which included a bus ride there and back. It was a really long bus ride (about 4 hours) with a stop at the most disgusting bathroom on earth (won’t go into details). But the Great Wall was just….amazing. We went on a 7 kilometer hike, up and down the mountains. Everywhere we looked, the scenery was breathtaking. The air was clean, the sky was blue (shocking after seeing smog for days) and the Wall was not crowded, so we were able to take our time with pictures and enjoy the views. We also were able to chat with some of the other people on our tour, who were all really nice. There were several parts of the Wall that were more “rugged” and actually pretty scary to climb up and down. It was definitely a physical challenge, and by the time we finished my legs were shaking….but it was a good shake.  On the bus on the way back, we ended up talking to a girl named Sara from England, who told us that she had found a Beatles tribute concert downtown the next evening. I was super excited by this and told Khanh that I was going, no matter what..haha. Khanh was a little hesitant at first, but decided to go as well. That night we went to the night market again and did a little shopping before going to bed exhausted.

The next day had a full schedule, which was difficult after the Great Wall the day before. We started in a park near our hostel, which was really great and one of my favorite parts of Beijing. Part of it was on a hill, and when we climbed up we could see the whole Forbidden City. There were many beautiful flower gardens and sculptures. But what I enjoyed most about the park was how lively it was. There were several groups of exercisers doing Tai Chi and yoga (I joined one of them for a couple minutes!) There was live music everywhere, including a cute little brass band. There were several groups of adults playing hacky sack, which I guess is really popular in China. It was just really fun to walk around and people watch. After the park, we took the subway to the Summer Palace, which was the “playground” of the Imperial family. It is comprised of extensive grounds near a lake. It was beautiful, but it was really, really crowded since it was Saturday. While I enjoyed admiring the views, temples, and architecture, it was very tiring and I was getting very tired of people staring at me. Khanh and I also lost each other for awhile which was frustrating. At one point we decided to separate because Khanh wanted to walk around the lake and I was too tired. I ended up finding a really peaceful glade (with no people!) where I was able to sit and relax. After the Palace, we went to our final sightseeing stop of the day, which was the Temple of Heaven. This was the official temple of the emperor, where he went for important yearly rituals. Again, the temple and grounds were beautiful, but crowded. After checking that out, we took the subway back to the hostel, where we changed and left for the Beatles concert. We took the subway to the station with no problems, but then had a hell of a time searching the chaotic streets for the venue. I joked with Khanh that if this were a task on the Amazing Race, we would be in dead last. I ended up being asked by a man if we were lost, and he was able to direct us there. When we got there, we were late, but they hadn’t started yet. Sara wasn’t there yet either. It was in this really cozy hipster bookshop/restaurant/bar, and the majority of the people there were foreigners. Khanh and I sat in the back and ordered food, and I ordered a Daiquiri and then a Long Island Iced Tea (I really needed booze at that point). The band was pretty good, though I was disappointed they weren’t Chinese…haha. Just some English/Australian guys. They started out by playing earlier songs, wearing the appropriate costumes and hairstyles. By the time Sara showed up, the band had already played a couple songs and I was tipsy. Sara and I decided to get up and dance and sing to the music (I should add that everyone else in the room was just sitting, looking bored and not singing along). This caused us to attract amused and/or annoyed stares, but we didn’t care…we had a blast dancing like hippies and singing our hearts out (Khanh was a bit embarrassed by us too, I think). At one point they asked us to come up and dance with them, but we giggled like teenagers and refused. It was soooo much fun. We were definitely “those girls.” After intermission, they changed into Sgt. Pepper costumes and did some later songs. We went up to them after the show and got a picture with them, and they said that they really liked our enthusiasm. Sara and I, both drunk, ended up continuing the concert in the streets by singing really loudly and embarrassing Khanh again. All in all, an excellent night.

The next day was our last day in Beijing. Khanh and I went to another hutong shopping district that Elaine had recommended. It rained just as we were finishing shopping and the district was a long walk from our hostel. We found a McDonald’s (I know, bad) ate lunch and attempted to wait out the rain in there to no avail. I then stood out in the now pouring rain and attempted to hail a cab…but they were all full. There was no subway station nearby. We had no umbrellas. We ended up buying one and decided to tough out the walk back sharing the umbrella. Probably because we were really tired, frustrated, and had to deal with a crappy situation, we ended up singing songs from musicals and dancing in the rain, and just let our clothes and hair get wet. At that point, after all the frustrations of Beijing, I think we just wanted to let loose and make the best of the situation. In retrospect, this was a bad idea, because that night, I felt the beginnings of a cold. We also went out that night (it was still raining) to go to the night market one last time and do last minute shopping. This was a really frustrating trip again, because the shop owners were rude, it was hard to find what I wanted, and I felt sick and tired. On the way back to the hostel, we saw a homeless couple lying outside of a building in the rain in dirty blankets. Seeing that really made me shift my perspective. Up until that point I was really annoyed with our situation, but at that point I realized how lucky I am for everything I have.

The next morning, I was fully sick with a nasty head cold (and stayed sick for about two weeks after). We woke up in the wee hours of the morning and took a taxi to the airport. The day was a blur. Our flight ended up being delayed, and then we had to make a random transfer somewhere in China. When we finally arrived in Fukuoka, I had this overwhelming feeling of gratefulness and just a sense of “I’m home.” The air was clean, people were friendly again, drivers were calm, I could understand a lot more of what people were saying…it felt really, really good. We just barely caught our bus back to Miyazaki, and finally returned home around 8:00 pm.

I definitely learned a lot on this trip…the chance to see a developing country and experience something totally different than Japan was great. The trip definitely had its frustrations, but I think it was totally worth it. That’s all for my adventure in China!!!