Train Tales

In China, trains are a very popular way to travel because China is such a big, solid land mass and they are very cheap. I’ve ridden on trains in the US and in China, but it was only for an hour or two. I can tell you now that I do not like riding on trains overnight and it all calls back to be being too tall (it’s been pretty easy to stick to this theme without even trying).

Friday November 10th, we had a program trip to historical Xi’an. When I was in China last summer, this was another city we came to because this is where the Terracotta Warriors are. Friday night at around 5:30pm our train departed. We had one whole car to ourselves and then some other kids were in the car over. It was fun having all of us jammed into one car, but it was especially hard for me to get around. I think there were 10 sections of the car and each section had six bunks. I got the top bunk of our section and I was fine with that because I heard that it was a little longer. Well that person was wrong because it was the same as every other one and my feet were off the end by about five inches. I didn’t care about that though. What I found the worst to be was the bar that was installed to ensure I didn’t roll off the bed. When I laid flat on my stomach, my right arm was directly up against the bar and my left was against the wall. Anyway at 6:30am we arrived in Xi’an and started our Amazing Race (like the TV show).

Our first objective was to find out how to get to our hotel. This was easy and everyone even got there at the same time. We were all broken up into 19 groups of four and during the day we would go to different places around town and find answers to tell our teachers, so they would give us the next hint. I thought it was interesting way to get us out and about, but many other people really thought it was stupid because they didn’t want to be forced to go to certain places. We were able to go at a leisurely pace if we wanted and my group just went with the flow of the game. We finished 8th overall, so we won nothing.

During the game I got some of my best stares. My group members would watch people after we passed by them to see their reactions because in front of us they would just say something and stare, but after they passed they would start hitting each other in excitement. One little kid walked by and yelled out, “Mom! His shoes are so big!” Another funny one was when a girl started turning her head to the left as we passed by and then her boyfriend tilted her head back forward.

That night we went to the big pagoda where every night they have a big fountain show.




On Sunday, we went to see the Terracotta Warriors, which is kind of hard to talk about and nothing really spectacular happened anyway.





Afterwards, we went to the Hot Springs where the Emperor bathed. My friends and I walked around for a little bit and then decided to get foot massages. While we were getting them, my friend next to me had a nice, gentle girl and I had some middle-aged guy that was killing my feet with his knuckles. When I get massages I laugh a lot of the time from the energy coming out or something, so I was in a lot of pain, but I could only laugh. This got my friends laughing too, which got the masseuses laughing at us.

That night we had another fun 12-hour train ride, but this time I got the bottom bunk, which was relatively better. Luckily after we got to Beijing at 6am, we didn’t have to go to class.

Last Friday, we went to go see Beijing Acrobats and they blew our minds. Our group got there pretty early and we got front row seats. There were unicycles, bowl balancing, hoop jumping, pole-jumping, tight rope walking, etc. After the show ended we went outside and all the kids that were in the show were already in there bus to leave. We have no idea how they got all their stuff, got changed, and managed to beat us out the door and it will forever be a mystery.

Not Much to Report

I already posted a picture of my Halloween costume, but didn’t really talk about Halloween. Well there isn’t really too much to report because that night I was the only one with a real costume. Towards the end of the night some girls just put on some clothes that they bought in Indonesia or something over break. I definitely won the costume contest that we didn’t actually have though. While waiting to see if anyone would get their act together and get in costume I walked around trying to give away some of the bananas I bought. Eventually I just ended up teaching a bunch of people how to play Bang!, which is an awesome card game (thanks Nate).



Part of my costume was a Mohawk and I still have it because everyone tells me it actually looks cool. I still need to fix it though because it was made really quickly on Halloween. Also, that day my friends stole my electric razor, so I wouldn’t be able to shave this month because according to them it is No Shave November. I tried to give it back, but they begged me not to because we are always with each other and it would look cool to have a tall dude with a Mohawk and a (crappy) beard. Well I decided to agree because I don’t think the number of stares I get could possibly increase. I have to get a copy of contract I have to sign, so I can put it up here.

I’m glad to say I didn’t do anything this week except rest and play more Bang! now that everyone loves it. I’m finally caught up with everything now, so I’ll talk to everyone later.

Shanghai and Suzhou Part 2

Oh crap! I forgot to tell the chicken story. It can be found now as an addendum to the Yangshuo and Guilin Part 2 post.

Well the next day we were in Shanghai was Friday, October 27th. We took the morning easy and had to take care of some things until lunch. After that we went back to Pudong so we could go up the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. The Pearl has three different viewing platforms (the pearls) with the top one being 350m high. First we went to the second one, which has more information on what you are looking at. For example, it has a panoramic picture of all the buildings on the Bund and it names what each one is. There is also an outside viewing platform at this height. Afterwards, we went all the way to the top-viewing platform. This was the first time I had been able to get a good view of the city during the day, but it still went on and on forever. The lowest pearl is at 90m and is also outside. From the lowest pearl, you can take a glass elevator down to the entrance, so we decided to do that and apparently so did everyone else. They crammed at least twice as many people in this round elevator as they should have. I couldn’t move an inch and I felt bad for the little kid that was standing right next to me because I was definitely crushing him. Here are some pictures:


Here is a good picture of the Jin Mao Tower along with the Shanghai World Financial Center being built behind it (which will be taller than it).


Here is a nice smoggy view of Puxi.


The traffic is really bad in Shanghai also. Maybe it’s because they are hiring people who want to turn 6 lanes into 2, with the 2 being the only way to get your car to Puxi from the center of Pudong.


I just have a feeling that this driving range directly next to Jin Mao will soon have a gigantic building on top of it.


“Most expensive building in China and they can’t even get the trash cans right!” – My dad

After the Pearl, we went to the Yuyuan Gardens, which has a large bazaar area as well as the gardens themselves. Well when we got there we were disappointed to find out that they were just about to close. We then spent a little time walking around the bazaar before heading to dinner.

For dinner we decided to go to a Brazilian steakhouse that we always saw packed when we got off the subway. This place only had a buffet, but the waiters kept walking around slicing tons of meat off of giant skewers right on to your plate. They were bringing it so fast that I had to turn them away. To make this place even better they had the World Series on, which was the first American sporting event I had watched in China. There were tons of people waiting for our table when we were done eating so we left to go watch the end of the game at a sports bar. After the game we went back to the hotel for the night.

That Saturday we decided to make a trip to Suzhou to see the gardens there. Suzhou is called the Venice of China, but this was my second time there and I haven’t really noticed tons of canals. It took us a while to get there because the first train we wanted to get on only had standing room available, so we bought a ticket for the next one. After arriving in Suzhou, a man followed us from the train and just gave us a quick pointer on where to go to get out of the station. Before we knew it he was our personal driver. He told us he was a driver and that he had a taxi, but some other dude drove us in a regular taxi with the meter off while our guy sat in the front. The first place we went was the tallest pagoda in Suzhou. There were Buddhist monks performing rituals in the temple while we were there and lots of gigantic incense sticks.

When we were done there we went out to find our guy sitting in a van. He was so excited to have a van to take us around in, but he still wasn’t driving it. He wanted to take us somewhere, but we told him we wanted to go to The Humble Administrator’s Garden. I don’t know too much about it and gardens aren’t really my thing, so I’ve included the Wikipedia link along with some of our pictures.







After that we had to get back to the station for the last one back to Shanghai. When we got back to Shanghai we went to the same “Good Morning!” restaurant and they were most definitely saying it. We walked around on our hotel’s street for a while before heading back and going to sleep.

On Sunday, we flew back to Beijing, but not before having the worst cab driver yet. This guy was laying on his horn even when we were at a dead stop in traffic caused by an accident. We just couldn’t understand what was going on in his head. He would never let anyone in front of him, but when he would switch lanes, he would hesitate forever and then choose a terrible time to do it. I do think the sheer amount of cars causes the traffic problems in Beijing and Shanghai, but it wouldn’t be nearly as bad if everyone just calmed down a little bit. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, our Beijing cab driver drove slowly in the right lane and didn’t pass anyone at all.

Back in Beijing, my dad and I got unpacked and him repacked for his flight home on Monday. The next afternoon he was on his way, leaving me behind for the next part of my journey in China. Thanks again for coming dad even though it looks like I will be coming home for at least winter break now anyway. I hope the rest of my experience in China will be as great as the first quarter of it. Looks like I only have one smaller post to make to catch up to the present day!

Here's one last pic for you dad:

Shanghai Part 1

Well we knew when we were in Shanghai, the biggest city in China, when we took this picture of the taxi line at the airport on Wednesday, October 25th. After getting to our hotel we didn’t have much time before we went to dinner. We went to a nicer Chinese restaurant after walking around for a while. It was pretty nice, but it was funny when we walked in because all the waiters and other staff kept saying “Good Morning!” to us even though it wasn’t. We had to walk a little bit to get to our table so we heard a large number of them. On the way out of the place, they kept saying it, which got us laughing. I decided to teach them what they should say using Chinese, but it turns out the joke was on me. They were actually saying “huan ying guan ni” which is a polite way to welcome someone. I still think they were actually saying “good morning” as a joke because all the other restaurants we went to were clearly not saying “good morning.”

The only other thing we did on Wednesday was go to the 88th floor observatory area of the Jin Mao Tower, which is at the center of the rapidly growing Pudong economic district. Last summer when I was in Shanghai we went up there too, so I knew it was a cool place to go. The 88th floor gives a really good view at all the buildings going up in Pudong and Puxi (the east bank and west bank of the river).

Here’s a good picture of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower from Jin Mao.


Here’s the view down to the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which is the highest hotel in the world. It starts on the 53rd floor of the building.


Here are the two buildings used towards the end of Mission Impossible 3.


This picture of the tower from the ground is a little blurry, but I think it makes it look cooler.

On Thursday we went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, which is a really interesting look at the past and future of Shanghai. The center documents the history of the city and all of the different European concessions that ushered in its future development. The centerpiece of the center is a huge model that shows what the city is going to look like in 2015. The other areas of the center explained the plans to expand the airport, build a deep-see port off the coast, create suburbs, solve the traffic problems, etc. The whole building is really like a big piece of propaganda, but I think all of what they propose is feasible, unlike promises that are made in North Korea (see Ryuguong Hotel).

The Center was right near Nanjing Road, one of the biggest shopping districts in the world, so we decided to walk around for a while. We immediately started getting hounded by vendors trying to take us to their secret stashes of purses, wallets, watches, and DVDs. They were really easy to pick out, so we found that a good method to keep them away from you is to point directly at them before they start talking. My dad did want to find a purse for my sister, so we decided to walk down a back alley. Two people saw us and brought us into their store, which had a hidden door to a room with purses. They were too expensive, so we went to another store deeper in the alley. This next store had two other white people bargaining for purses. We ended up finding out that they were also from Minneapolis and were here buying up lots of purses and then shipping them back to the US to sell.

We followed Nanjing Road all the way east to the river, which brought us to the historic Bund. I don’t think there is like the Bund anywhere else in the world. The buildings are all from the concessions granted to western countries during the early 20th century. Almost all were banks and most still are today, but the owners are Chinese. When you turn around you get THE image of Shanghai, the always-changing skyline of the Pudong economic district. After taking some pictures we called it a night and went back to the hotel.

Yangshuo and Guilin Part 2

Here’s the next installment of our trip covering Monday and Tuesday, the 23rd and 24th. Monday we decided to rent bikes to ride south of Yangshuo into the countryside. There are tons of shops renting out bikes in town, so you just have to find the ones that are the least beat up for the best price. We also needed to find bikes that we could fit on, which was troublesome because every place had the same bikes to choose from. After finding two suitable bikes we went on our way. We weren’t even outside of town before it felt like my pedal was going to fall off at any moment. We decided to pull into a little guy’s motorcycle shop to see if he could fix it. He was asleep when we got there, but his daughter woke him up for us. He didn’t really do much except bang on the nuts with his hammer and screwdriver. It was a little better, but you can only expect so much out of China.

Our first stop on our bike trip was at the Big Banyan Tree. The Tree is a huge twisted tree that is 1500 years old. Near the tree there was a cool rock structure and a small minority town. Around the town there were lots of old ladies selling stuff. Almost all of them were selling these hand made sandals that were obviously too small for either of us. The ladies didn’t believe us when we said they were too big even though we showed us our feet. It was almost as if they were in denial that feet this big even existed. They got my dad to try them on and when they actually saw they weren’t even close to fitting, they all started cracking up. They didn’t let us leave peacefully though. My dad showed interest in some coins and all of a sudden all the ladies whipped some out and surrounded him. He bought some and we got out of there.

Next stop was Moon Hill. When we were almost to the park entrance, two ladies with coolers hanging over their shoulders started chasing after us. We tried to ignore them, but they started following us up the hill, which has about 1250 steps to the top. They kept following us and pushing us along. My dad said he probably wouldn’t have kept going up if it weren’t for the ladies telling him to because he was tired. The ladies told us that at the top they could sell us cold water and when we were sweaty they started fanning us off. While walking up we also noticed that everyone climbing the hill had a Chinese lady following them too. I started talking to them in Chinese and found out that one of them was 47 and the other was SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OLD! After hearing that we knew we had to finish. We reached the rock formation that looks like the moon, but the ladies told us to go up on top of it while they waited back there. The top of the hill really did have a good view. After coming back down they sold us ridiculously expensive water at 20 RMB per bottle, but it was worth it. When we got back down to our bikes, the ladies went turned into every other vendor in China and tried to sell us postcards and little trinkets. After riding back to town we ate dinner and spent the rest of the night walking around buying stuff.






Tuesday morning we had to take a taxi back to Guilin because we were going on a tour. We had another crazy taxi ride, but it was different than the rest I’ve had because this one wasn’t in traffic. From Yangshuo to Guilin there is a two-lane road that every tour bus and transport truck uses, so they get in the way of the cars. Our taxi driver spent almost as much time in the wrong lane as he did in the correct one because he passed so often. He once even passed on the shoulder because another car was also passing in the left lane at the same time. The worst part was that he was playing crappy Mando-pop (Mandarin Chinese pop music) the whole time and the speakers were right behind our heads. Anyway, he got us to Guilin on time.

After getting to our hotel we met our tour guide and driver, so we planned out the day. The first place we went was Yao Mountain, which is the tallest point in Guilin. Unfortunately it was pretty hazy out and we couldn’t see too far in the distance. We walked around there for a little while and then took the chairlift back down.

Next place we went was the tea research center where we got to wear funny hats, learn about tea, drink tea, and buy tea. I never like the tea we get at restaurants, but I really like some of the ones we tried and I burnt my tongue on one of them. After that, we went to the Peaceful Solitary Beauty Peak (or something), which is where the prince would come and meditate. China really likes things that go up, so there were more stairs and more views to take pictures of.

We didn’t do too much the rest of the night, so we made sure we were ready to head to Shanghai the next day.

Addendum: I forgot to tell a funny story about our cab ride from our hotel in Guilin to the airport on Wednesday morning. We went out of the hotel and there was a cab waiting in the parking lot already. When he saw our bags he said, “Airport – 100!” This seemed pretty steep because usually they just use the meter instead of a flat rate and we knew it wasn’t extremely far to the airport. Anyway, he opened the trunk and the first thing he did was pull out a LIVING CHICKEN and hand it to his buddy, so there would be room for our luggage. We didn’t even know what to say and it didn’t help matters when we saw all the chicken crap. He got all embarrassed and laid a bunch of newspaper over it. At this point my dad said he wanted to go ask inside how much this should cost. He went in and found out that it should cost 100 kuai and for some reason he decided to tell them there was a chicken in the trunk. When he said chicken, the lady said, “You want to… check-in?” This cracked my dad up, so he tried to explain it better and this time he started doing a chicken strut and flapping his wings. I’m glad us Americans can leave good impressions on these people.

The Beginning: Guilin and Yangshuo Part 1

My dad and I began our trip on Saturday, October 21st by flying south to Guilin, which is in Guangxi province (that money was for our plane tickets, which you have to use cash for). Our original plans were to land in Guilin and then take a taxi about an hour and a half south to Yangshuo and get a hotel there. From there we would travel back and forth to sightsee. Our plans changed after we talked to the tourist bureau in the airport. Our new plans were: stay in Guilin Saturday night, take the river cruise down to Yangshuo on Sunday, stay there Sunday and Monday night, head back to Guilin and stay there Tuesday night before finally leaving for Shanghai on Wednesday.

Saturday we spent some time resting and walked around Guilin. Guilin may be much, much smaller than Beijing, but it’s just as busy in the main districts. We walked down a walking only street that was full of stores selling all kinds of things and little stands selling local snacks. The food in the south is pretty different when compared to the food we usually eat in Beijing. They eat a lot more fish, especially in Guilin and Yangshuo because the Li River that runs through both cities has provided them with food for centuries. The snacks were really different though. Here is a picture and explanation going clockwise from the top left to bottom left: pig tail, pig foot, duck head, pig stomach (partially obscured), duck something (I think), duck feet, and giant pig ears. I found some cookies instead.

On Sunday we took the Li River cruise down to Yangshuo. The cruise is essentially why everyone comes to Guilin and is essentially why Yangshuo is even on a map (hmm, not the one up top). A scene from the river is featured on the back of the Chinese 20 RMB currency. The cruise is about four hours of looking at really unique landscapes and it’s hard to show in pictures. There were some interesting things too though. I found out that even on the water you can’t escape the vendors. As we were chugging along, vendors on bamboo rafts would line themselves up with the boat and when they got close they would hook on and board the boat. After a few minutes they would give up and try to hit the next boat. Near the end of the cruise there were also a bunch of kids waiting in the river with goggles on yelling something at us. It turns out they wanted us to throw stuff/money over the sides for them. I thought this was ridiculous because coins are rarely used in China and I can’t imagine what a tourist would have that they would want to throw over the side of a boat.







Well after arriving in Yangshuo we had to walk through the giant gauntlet of vendors while dragging our suitcases behind us. We also picked up a tourist guide, named Connie, who wanted to show us around. We just ignored her, but she stuck with us all the way to our hotel. After almost two hours of resting in our room we went out to look around the town and find dinner, but first we ran into Connie again. She was just waiting for us outside the whole time. We told her no thanks and went on our way.

The touristy part of Yangshuo is really interesting. There is a main street that is lined with shops selling stuff for tourists and lots of restaurants. All of the restaurants had essentially the same menus. All of them had western breakfast and coffee in the morning, western or Chinese food for lunch and dinner, and then turned into a bar/club at night. While my dad and I were walking along the street looking for a place to eat, we randomly found two of the girls from my CET program. They knew I was going to Guilin, but didn’t know I was going to be in Yangshuo. We ate dinner with them and talked for a while before heading our own ways. For the rest of the night my dad and I walked around and looked at some of the other stores along the street, before heading back to our room.

I’ll update everyone on the next two days in the next post.

Oh God! There are two of them now!

Time to travel back in time once again. This time our destination is Tuesday, October 17. I actually made a post this day, but it didn’t have anything to do with what I’m about to say.

Well today my dad came to see me because we were going to be traveling during my fall break the following week. I was kind of worried about his arrival after I remembered that he can’t speak Chinese and even if he has Chinese directions to his hotel, the cab driver might not know where it is. After he hadn’t called me for a while I decided to walk over to his hotel and ask if he had checked in. When I got there I found out he had just checked in, so I went up to see him. The reason he was late was because of the terrible traffic, which is unavoidable in Beijing. He had a good quote something along the lines of “You know all those people who think China is going to take over the world? Well their wrong because they’re going to be stuck in traffic!”

Anyway, the first day he was here I showed him around my neighborhood and brought him to a really dirty restaurant with really good food. After eating I brought him to this big square near my school that is crowded with people every single night of the week. The main attraction there is tons of people doing these weird lines dances to different songs. I’m not sure exactly how it works because each song has a different dance, but some people do their own dance to each song. There are also lots of people selling random stuff. We were watching a group of guys playing Jianzi, which is like hackie sack, but it’s made out of feathers and little metal washers. Soon we were playing with them, which of course drew a crowd, probably because we were bad at it.

That Wednesday, I decided not to go to class, so we could go do something. That morning we went over to the big foreigner district of Beijing called Chaoyang. All the embassies and lots of businesses are over there, so there are also lots of western restaurants. We headed straight to Grandma’s Kitchen, which my friends told me was very good. It was very enjoyable having my first real American breakfast since being here along with a milkshake and a Dr. Pepper after words. Afterwards, we went to the Silk Market, which is full of silk, fake clothes, and foreigners. My dad really hated being yelled at and grabbed by people trying to get him to buy stuff. He really did enjoy messing around with them though when he was actually trying to buy stuff. I was able to help him out using my Chinese too, which was fun.

For the rest of the afternoon we went to the Forbidden City, which I had already done last summer when I was China. It’s one of those must see things that I don’t really find too exciting. That was really the end of the day as I had work to do. I thought this picture was funny because they were doing construction on the main temple, so they painted a picture of it onto the scaffolding.

Thursday was another uneventful day for me because that Friday I had a midterm that I really hadn’t started studying for. My dad went to the Great Wall while I was in class (Thursday is my heaviest load), so he had some stories. My dad though the funniest thing was the guy who he paid to drive him to and from the Wall named Mr. Duo. This guy had a car that looked normal on the outside, but my dad said he couldn’t even count the number of times he thought this thing was going to completely die on the road. My dad really enjoyed the Wall, but was really disappointed to see all of the vendors that were allowed to solicit right on it. After he came back we went to dinner again, but I had to spend the rest of the night studying.

After my test on Friday, we went to a big market a couple blocks away from my school and spent most of the day getting ready for our trip the next day. I have a feeling these next posts are going to be plentiful, so I’ll end this one here.