ChrisinHK's blog

Beihai Park

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We had our first class today. It was a history and economy. I'm no good with economics so some of the information into one ear and out the other, but the history of the formation of modern China was interesting. Beihei Park is the place where the wall with 9 dragons is located. I had seen this work before in my art history book, and I wanted to see it in real life. In the middle of the park is a large lake surrounded by classical Chinese gardens. The interior of the buildings in Beihai are elaborately decorated with paintings of historical figures and animals. 
Then we went to some random waterfront shops. I tried haggling but I get too nervous sometimes. Haggling and bargaining in China is serious business and practiced like a sport. Depending on your tactics and resistance against paying the hugely inflated prices the merchants tell you their stuff is worth, you can get some things for a fraction of the original price.
Here are some haggling techniques I've used in China:
1) pretending only to have a certain amount of kuai.
2) Saying "tai gui le" (too pricey).
3) Walking away.
4) Naming a price.

They would much rather sell the item for any price possible than miss out on a potential sale, so these can guarantee you a good bargain if you find yourself in a shopping battle. In most stores, you can haggle, save for malls and bigger franchises. Some people found it fun, but I found it very tiring because of how aggressive the salespeople are here, so I simply stuck to stores that had set prices.

 

Tianenman Square

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We had a very full day today. First we went to a garden that led into the Forbidden City, went to Tianenman Square, and then the Beijing Opera House.

awesome dancing mustache guy

Chinese Paddle Martial Arts

The Forbidden City was massive, and packed with people. I believe that the Forbidden City was the most touristy place we've been so far, and it was furiously hot and the sun was brutal. Thus, I was felt miserable surrounded by people and felt as if I was melting.
Additionally, today was my first experience with the Beijing subway. As I expected, it was packed and busy. I feel as if the trains in Beijing are not as accessible as trains in Boston or Tokyo because of how deep underground one must venture to get to them. Fare is cheap though, 2 kuai, not even fifty cents US.
The train routes are pretty straightforward as well:

Beijing-map

I had curry pizza for lunch and then a bunch of us girls decided to go to a hair salon, so we went to one near the school which was pretty hip. Three of us got straight perms ($40!!!! in the US it's $300+ and in Japan it's $90), and one got her hair bleached platinum blond.
It was fairly similar to an experience visiting a hair salon in the US, but obviously we can't communicate to our hairdresser as easily. Even though we had a translator, of course we were worried that communication might be mixed up and they could mess up our hair, but everything came out perfectly fine and we all felt 漂亮 (beautiful) when we were done.

Touring the Summer Palaces

Entrance of the New Summer Palace

To celebrate the 4th of July, well, we couldn't really. But I did pick up a sweet Mao faced PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA sling bag for $3, and instead of bbq, I ate vegetarian noodles.

Today we went to the New Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace. We did a lot of hiking, there were endless amounts of stairs and by the time we got to the other side of the mountain, we were all sweating. But it was beautiful; the architecture, the foliage, the water ways, we took a dragon boat to the other side of the palace.
Then, we went to the Old Summer Palace, which was burned down by the British when they fought the Chinese in an opium war. The Old Summer Palace was still in rubble, but there was a restoration of the maze the emperor used for entertainment. Apparently, the walls in the maze were originally 2.5 meters, so it was taller than the average person. He would set his short maids into the maze and laugh at them when they couldn't find their way out. What a jerk. Anyway, the maze was a bit infuriating but in the end I got through it after tagging along with a bunch of Chinese girls that seemed to know what they were doing.

Speaking of Chinese girls, I met a real sweetie today. Since I could never remember her Chinese name, Zack and I suggested she gets an English nickname, since she said she's going to London in August and she tagged along our group because she wanted to practice her English. We gave her the name Victoria, or Tori for short. And speaking of short, she's my height and basically clung to me the entire day since the morning and I don't know why but I don't mind helping her with her English and she's been helping me with my Chinese. A lot of Chinese girls walk around holding hands, and Victoria kept walking really close to me and grabbing my arm. I thought it was adorable. I wish girls in the US weren't so terrified of being stamped as a lesbian if they were being friendly with another girl.

My legs are so sore now...

Beijing!

Currently in Beijing! This place is a hybrid of Washington D.C., in the wide streets and historical buildings and monuments, Las Vegas for the bright lights and huge billboards, and Arizona in terms of the weather. It's very warm here, but extremely dry. I can understand the Mandarin here a lot easier because Shanghai people speak with a strange dialect that I didn't learn. The plane ride from Shanghai was about two hours, and they flew pretty low that we could see the ground the entire time. China's really amazing, I looked down at one point and it was just mountains and valleys with winding rivers and zero human inhabitant. Then I saw some cities. When the plane landed, it flew right over a part of Beijing, very low to the ground, so we could see a lot.
Last night we went to a duck restaurant with the president of Beijing Jiaotong University. The duck was DELICIOUS. Wasn't the first time I've eaten duck though.
We also took a night tour in the bus.

Additionally, this skin care product line is amazing.

Museums and Nanjing Road

I still can't get over how amazing the scenery is here in Shanghai! The buildings are so huge and inspiring. Today, we went to three museums. We crammed in the time and it was hard to be able to look at everything. The first museum was a historical museum of Shanghai, which had many exhibits showcasing further development of the city and preparations for the World Expo in 2010. The second museum was an art museum with a great collection of very old jade, bronze ornaments, and tools. The third was a natural science museum, set up like a rainforest with animal models from all sorts of environments.
We ate at a Japanese restaurant, where I had gyoza and curried pumpkin croquet. The mall was an endless maze, and there was a dance contest going on downstairs, they were dancing to NSYNC.
Then the sky opened up and it was pouring for a while, with thunder and lightning. We waited in the bus for a while, waiting for the downpour to stop. Meanwhile, each person on the street had their own umbrella and it was a beautiful display of designs and colors.
We went to the shopping area, Nanjing Road. There's a big mall with lots of fancy, high end cosmetics and clothing. I needed to get some medicine for my face badly, the weather in Shanghai is so hot that it opens up my pores like a 24/7 sauna and the pollution is making me break out. But I feel like the pollution is not terrible because I have very bad asthma and I haven't had any issues with breathing yet.

And now I said goodbye to Tiny for a second time, with a hope I can meet her in Hong Kong next year.

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The Bund

Video Panorama of the Bund

We took a boat to see the views of Shanghai's famous harbor, filled with historical buildings of all sorts, mostly European. They were built at the end of the 19th century and the Bund was a very important financial hub of Asia.

Shanghai World Financial Building

compare!

Currently, the Shanghai World Financial Center is the tallest building in the world at 491.3 meters (but will soon be topped by the Burj Dubai at 807.7 meters).
We got to go to the top!
Taking a tiny technicolor elevator at super high speed to the top floor, we exited to the tallest observation deck in the world, where pieces of the floor were replaced by see-through glass and we could see the streets below.
It was a bit dizzying to try and step onto those glass tiles. It was pretty humid out, so everything was shielded by a white haze.

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Yuyuan Garden

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Does it look like a fantasy world? It's Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai, a 400 year old traditional garden located in Anren Jie. It was created by a Ming Dynasty officer named Pan Yunduan in order to please his parents.
It wasn't as crowded as I thought it was going to be in the gardens, but there was a great deal of other tourists. Tiny and I bumped into a really nice Australian family, and then we fed koi some cake.

Feeding the Koi

Shanghai Normal University

Shanghai Normal University (上海师范大学) is a famous liberal arts and teaching school located in Shanghai.

We are only guests for a few days here, but I wish we could stay longer. The campus is beautiful and the weather is really hot and humid though. I'm not a big fan of this type of weather. We toured the campus and met the president and some of the teachers at the school. They have a nice international students program too, but I don't think anyone from Bridgewater State has studied there.
Tiny is working on an internship in Shanghai Normal for part of the summer, which is lucky for us because otherwise she'd be in Hong Kong. I haven't seen her since she left from the fall-winter semester at Bridgewater State College. She was not only my Chinese tutor, but a good friend that lived right down the hall in my dorm and popped in every day. We taught her many things about the US, and she even slept over my house and my father took her out on his boat. We also took the train into Boston many times during the fall.
My Chinese Tutor from the spring semester, Lichee, is a native of Shanghai and we saw here there too.
Later today, we're going to visit the Shanghai Financial Building, and the Yu Yuen Gardens!

NIHAO FROM SHANGHAI

After a very long flight, I have finally landed in Shanghai. Yesterday, actually. But I went to bed right away so I didn't update.
I watched 4 movies on the flight: Beijing Bicycle, Kung Fu Hip Hop, Flowers in the Shadows, and Always Sunny on Second Street. The first two movies were Chinese, while the second two were Japanese.
Then when we landed, we had some guys in space suits take our temperatures with these forehead scanning devices- but they actually had to take my temperature again because I was dehydrated and may have been borderline due to not drinking my usual million gallons a day. They were checking for the H1N1 virus, aka Swine Flu.
Tiny was there when we landed, and she looks so cute! I missed her so much.
Then we took a bus to Shanghai Normal University and ate, and I just passed out while everyone went to a show. I had to rest.
It still hasn't hit me that I'm on the other side of the world again.

Here is some music for Shanghai, a song by Pinkberry. They're from Shanghai, if you'd like to hear what Chinese rock music sounds like. The original rendering of the band and title is 红色陷阱 - 小不点 (in case I romanized wrong, I believe this is the correct title, but Vox doesn't like Chinese files so I had to fix it).

Pinkberry - xiao bu dian

Pinkberry