reflections

gotta say, i've been back for a week now, and i'm still loving it. might have to something to do with being unemployed and spending a week at my parents' place, where i have no responsibilities other than occasionally doing the dishes. and i loooove doing their dishes - it means i get to rearrange the kitchen utensils to my taste! hong kong feels like a dream and i absolutely cannot believe that i won't be going back to class in january. seems so strange to be looking for a job and thinking long-term instead of just looking for something interesting that will support my nasty shopping habit.
so, looking back on the past few months, i guess my only regret would be NOT buying those cool orange boots in the mirador centre in kowloon... i know orange is a hard colour to match, but the boots i'm seeing in canadian stores are u-g-l-y. boo. the best things about my exchange were:
getting to know dennis and rodrigo better
meeting the other cuhk students
kowloon
being know for my studiousness
helping others overcome their fears
appreciating the goodness that is vancouver
so, thanks to everyone who checked in here and followed me in my chinese adventures. a special hello to my aunty cindy and her family - i had no idea you were reading this, i need your email address!!!
i hope everyone had a great holiday season (just for you Dave, I didn't say Xmas!) and i wish you the very best for 2007! it had better be a good year - i'm turning 30! ahhhhhh!!!!

the looooove boooat.....

Got a decent sleep on the train (just like the one in ‘Nam!) and arrived in rainy Chongqing at about 7am. We had no hotel cause we were going to try to catch a boat down the river, so I dragged the boys off to the Hilton for breakfast. Decided to golocal 2nd class cause according to the LP, the only difference between first and second class was the number of beds and the three of us wanted to share a room. We were kind of dirty and really tired and I remembered Vietnam and how great it was to arrive at a high-end establishment in that condition. Had a beautiful breakfast, got the concierge to store our bags, used the travel agent and went out to see the city. First thing we ran into was a stage erected in the middle of downtown with a group of girls performing dance routines. It seemed pretty normal until I realized that they were selling Amway products! Seriously! They were even holding cleaning products as they danced! It was too much. Walked around a bit more and decided to eat some Chongqing hotpot. Famous for being spicy, this kind of hotpot is basically a pot full of spiced oil. And probably not new oil. Ugh. But delicious. We sissied out a bit and got a pot with two kinds, oil and broth. It was a great restaurant - we sat in inside and ordered, then the food arrived through the front door, straight from the alley....ew. I was a little worried that the food would make us sick on the boat… and in hindsight, good on me for being worried! Back to the Hilton for afternoon tea and lounging before our boat ride. Spent the afternoon dreaming about the Loveboat style adventure to come over the next couple of days. Private bathroom, TV, air con…. Luxury! We were so proud of how well we used all of the hotel’s services without actually being guests. When we left, the manager happened to be out front and thanked us for our patronage. Gotta say – next time you are in Chongqing, try the Hilton! The Hilton is the Hilton everywhere you go.
Made it down to the docks and started to get a bit suspicious about the boat ride. Rodrigo’s excitement was fading fast. The only boats that we could see looked pretty scary and the only people in the terminal were farmers. We crossed the street and stocked up on biscuits and cup noodles and finally tourists started to arrive. And as it was China, they even charged us extra to take the cable car thingy down to board the ship. Not much extra, just a little kick in the teeth.
The boat… oh, the boat… what can I say about the boat? As we boarded, I noticed a peculiar odour and some well-worn carpeting. By the time we found our room, disillusionment was sinking in. The smell in the room was stronger than in the hallway and I can only describe it as old upholstery combined with the sweat of the 1.3 billion people who rode the boat before us. Sick. I thought Dennis was gonna go overboard when he peeked into our private bathroom. Yeah, it was private, but when we ran the tap, the water came out of the pipes where they met the floor. Same with the toilet. The shower was the whole bathroom – but the floor was disgusting… oh my god. I tried so hard to keep it together – had to act like things weren’t so bad, like it was all gonna be funny after the fact. In reality, I was ready to lose it. Dennis went out to buy some beer and returned with a whole new attitude and three pairs of bathroom slippers. Then we discovered that the air-con was in fact only air-con and there was no heat on the boat. December. No heat. Not even an electric heater. And we could only get hot water in the shower once the boat had been running for an hour and a half. Not that we really wanted to shower cause it was so cold. And the TV really only played variety shows. Turns out when the Hilton man suggests International class, 5-star…. He means business. No wonder he looked so sad when we told him that we wanted to go local.
At this point I need to thank Dennis. Once he realized that we were stuck on the boat for three days, he really sucked it up and became the defacto leader of our ragtag crew. He figured out how to get up on the roof – for a mere 55 yuen, we could join the VIP club… he figured out where the restaurant was…. We could eat something other than cup noodles. Although, I must say that meals of cup noodle and instant coffee eaten huddled behind the exhaust pipe on the roof of the boat were some of the best times. I’m not sure we would have survived with our sanity intact without him. Tension between the three of us wasn’t too bad. I lost my temper once with Dennis and he told Rodrigo on me and then the whole episode quickly turned into a laughing fit. We spent a lot of time breaking down diplomatic relations between Chile and Canada and anticipating the locations of various fictional Starbucks outlets. Spent a good amount of time hitting the ceiling to ward off the rat we kept hearing inside the walls too. amazing.
The 3 gorges were amazing though. Huge cliffs tumbling right into the clean river, farms lining the banks where it wasn’t so steep. Fall colours. And all of it coloured by the knowledge that in 2 years, it will not exist in the same way. Once they finish the 3 Gorges Dam project and close the diversions, the water level will rise upwards of 20 metres along the river. The loss of agricultural land and displacement of 1.5 million people will change the area significantly. All along the river, there are white signs showing where the water level is expected to reach. In one especially poignant case, the sign was painted on the wall of a house. The water has already risen considerably, and there are trees with only the tops visible above the water and rods leading straight down into the river. We went on a few tours along the way – saw a ghost temple in Fengdu, a couple of tourist “malls” where I ate potatoes and noodles from sketchier places than I have ever been before and traveled up a tributary to see the Lesser Three Gorges. Almost worth the trip.
Another highlight of the boat trip had to be the grumpy couple. On the first morning, when we left the boat at 7am to go see the ghost temple, a man walked up to me and asked me about the boat. I tried to be upbeat, but all he could say was “It’s fucking dirty”. Later, when we saw him and his wife again, on the roof of the boat, Dennis was enlisted as a translator because the boat staff wanted them to pony up the 55 yuen VIP fee. (we gave up and paid, just so that we could leave our room!) The guy actually tried to get Dennis to translate “Fuck off”. I was kind of surprised that they survived the ordeal, but we saw them later on in the Wuhan airport, and they were in good spirits and off to Xi’an.
When we finally arrived near Yi Chang, we expected to have time to see the dam, and then go into town to catch our flights. Due to fog, terrible scheduling and our bad luck, just as we approached the dam, the boat turned, docked and we we shuffled immediately onto a bus into town. For the hour-long bus ride, Dennis slept, I thanked my lucky stars to have survived and Rodrigo shook his head sadly, repeating over and over "Damn the dam. I never saw the dam." At the Yi Chang bus station, we got a taxi driver who spoke English. He wasn’t super confident that we’d get off the ground, cause the place was completely fogged in. In fact, most of our journey down the river was foggy. We took the chance though, and discovered that all flights were cancelled other than ours and another to Chengdu. Spent a few hours on the internet, emailing our sorrows and looking at photos from the MBA gala. We also covered Pinochet’s funeral, having sort of learned of his death while on board the boat. At 7pm, they cancelled the flight to Chengdu. At 730pm, they delayed our flight. We were soooo mad! We knew it was only a matter of time before they cancelled it, but had to stay in the airport until then! When our flight finally got cancelled, we commandeered an English-speaking airport employee, as Dennis was figuring out how to get our money back for the plane tickets. The guy full-out told us that the weather would be bad again tomorrow and that we’d be better off hopping on an early bus to Wuhan and trying to fly out of there. He also booked us a hotel for the night and tried to help us with a taxi. Turns out the taxi drivers in that town understand supply and demand reeeeallly well. They all knew we needed to get into town and they all refused to drive us anywhere unless we paid 100 yuen. Dammit. But the hotel was good – had heat!!! And we managed to get on an 8am bus the next morning. By this time, Rodrigo had developed some skill at cell phone golf and I was no longer able to beat him down. Dammit.
As we were purchasing our tickets back, the grumpy couple walked into the airport. They looked so much happier than we’d ever seen them. Rodrigo almost caught a flight out within ten minutes of being there, but check-in was too slow. We had time for one last meal – beside the now not-so-grumpy couple, and then Dennis and I boarded a flight down South. I like Shenzhen, but I gotta say, I have never been happier to be there. When we arrived, it was rainy and getting dark and I just wanted to get out of China. Originally, I was going to stay in Shenzhen one night before crossing over to HK, but I gave up. Crossed over with Dennis, found a hotel in Kowloon with giant soft beds, English TV and a clean bathroom and called it a night. It was so good to be back.

big buddhas and polar bear swimmers

This was my big day!!! Seeing the great Buddha of Leshan changed my life. Well, not really, but it was kind of great. I needed to see it cause the New Horizons textbook we used in Japan featured a lesson about it… “The Great Buddha of Leshan is 71 metres tall…”. We took the bus two hours of town and I thought Rodrigo was going to die. We were on a mini bus with no working heat or television. Not the best bus ride. We stuck around Leshan for a few hours watching the polar bear swim club in the river, eating kung pao chicken and mapou tofu and generally wandering about. The bus ride back was a lot better – bigger bus and Jackie Chan movie! And we even managed to make it back on time to catch the overnight train to Chongqing. The only drawback of the day was the worst public washroom EVER! Leshan bus station – don’t use it! The highlight(?) of the day was walking into a restaurant and having the hostess shake the chef awake, then seat us at the table where he had been sleeping. Clearly a happening place.

Sichuan - oil, oil and more oil

In the morning, I ran down to Starbucks, grabbed a coffee and cabbed it over to see Mao. Much like Rodrigo, I sort of fell into line with a tour group and ended up in the mausoleum compound. I was the only visible foreigner and felt mightily out of place. Most people were very excited and rushing to purchase flowers to place in the entrance hall. No one is allowed to stop moving while in Mao’s presence, and when you first enter the room; his face appears to be glowing. It was quite the experience.
And then we rushed to the airport. The last I heard from Frederik, he got on a flight back to Hong Kong. I later heard that he missed his connection to the Philippines but made it the next day. Should see him tonight and get the full report! My bag was way too big for carry-on but I did it anyways. In the end, the flight attendant had to kind of shove it under the seat closest to the washroom. I was so worried the whole time…. When I arrived in Chengdu (the boys had convinced me to join the Yangzi river pilgrimage), my phone was out of money, I was all alone and couldn’t find the boys and I was grumpy as heck. I ended up spending an hour trying to figure out the phone in my room to call the guys and figure out a plan. Poor Dennis – I sure wasn’t very nice. In fact, I had to call back and apologize. It was so weird. I don’t think I’ve been that culture shocked since I left for Japan in 2003. I just kind of lost it for an hour or so. Got on the email, and then went out on the town by myself for a while and felt a lot better. Chengdu is famous for snacks, but I didn’t make it to any snack shops. I did, however manage to find a hot pot place with zero English speaking staff. I let them choose what to serve me - it ended up being a good variety of meat and veggies and only cost 10 yuen. There are a ton of bike cabs in Chengdu and I was happily being chauffeured around town when the realization struck that my little bike man was pretty old, pretty small and was probably hating every minute of hauling me around town. I got out and walked. Went to use the internet in the hotel – the front desk staff told me there was an internet café… turned out to be a big white room, completely empty except for one computer. Interesting. By the time the boys got back, I was worn out from being grumpy and decided to get a good sleep before a big day in the wild West.

congealed pig's blood...not a new fave

In the morning, Frederik went to visit the Wall at Badaling, Dennis relaxed and Rodrigo and I made a mad dash for Mao’s mausoleum. We thought we arrived too late and were taking photos in the square while being accosted by a little girl selling flags when we noticed a line forming on the other side of the building. When we ran over, the guards were shouting that it was the last group going in and that no bags or cameras were permitted. Rodrigo quickly tossed me his stuff and snuck into the lineup. I got some great photos of him confusedly following the crowds, then of a lady who was about two minutes too late and tried to get past the guards. Wow – they’re pretty fast when they want to be.
Dennis and Rodrigo left for Chengdu, and I stayed in town an extra day for exploring while the bellboy prepared my flight ticket. I decided not to go to Tibet alone, as everyone was worrying about me, and I was starting to get Beijing-lung. Left to my devices, I went wandering around Xidan, which is a lot like Mong Kok, ate a veggie crepe and used the business centre of a high-end hotel. During my time in Hong Kong, I developed a hobby of using 5-star hotel washrooms when out and about instead of public restrooms. Much cleaner and more interesting… So far, in HK, the best washroom is the top floor of the Peninsula – no surprise there. My hobby came in handy in china, where public washrooms are just plain scary. Ugh. I decided to have some lunch at a pretty little teashop, where the waitress convinced me to try a set meal with soup, dumplings and tea. I didn’t completely know what I was ordering and it was a bit of a nightmare when my soup arrived and appeared to be composed of big colon and liver. Even more of a nightmare when Dennis later explained that the “liver” was actually congealed pig blood, cut up into cakes. Ugh.
After I recovered from that ordeal, Frederik and I went to the Silk market for jeans and gifts. It was just like Shenzhen, but again, they called me “lady” instead of “missy”. Bargained like crazy, got some good deals, ate some pizza and then realized that Frederik’s ticket back to Hong Kong was missing. Never did find it… but did find out where the expats go out in Beijing. We went to a club/lounge named ‘The World of Suzie Wong” after the book. The name piqued my interest ‘cause Wanchai in Hong Kong is still called the Suzie Wong district…. In the end, I bought the book on the way to Japan, just to find out what all the fuss was about.

More KFC coffee...

The Summer Palace was beautiful, especially with a stomach full of KFC coffee! Ugh, I’m looking forward to home-cooked meals. It was sunny and cold, and Rodrigo, Frederik and I found real cappuccino on the palace grounds. We also found a building under construction that was shielded by tarps – not your traditional blue though; the tarps were covered in an image of the building underneath. Just like the real thing… A lot of the Beijing monuments are currently under construction in preparation for the Olympics. I have no idea how that city is going to handle the games. It would definitely be interesting to be there… At the summer Palace, old men use what look like mops with refillable water bottles attached to write poetry on the pavement. One guy could even write mirror characters with his right and left hands. It was amazing. And out on the lake, there were groups of fishermen chasing and spearing fish that they could see through the ice. The ice wasn’t completely solid around the edges and was making the most every wailing sound. I had read about that before but had never heard it myself.
The Forbidden City was amazing too – it’s enormous! I can’t wait to watch The Last Emperor again now that I’ve been there. By the time we had some cup noodle and headed towards the Square (right in front of the Forbidden city) it was freezing and we decided to come back to Tiananmen in the morning in hopes of seeing Mao’s body. After relaxing for a while back at the hotel, we headed back to Wangfujing for hot pot and scary food on sticks. There is a whole street of food stalls that cater to tourists… I think they are designed more for photo taking than for eating. Frederik ate some snake-type things, Dennis went for starfish and I ended up with what was supposed to be fried banana… but was actually just dough. I gave the starfish a shot too, but it was disgusting. Sadly, but fortunately, there was a homeless guy hanging about the stalls, so we gave him everything we couldn’t eat, and some beer to wash it down with. Frederik even bought him some lamb skewers as an apology for the other gross stuff. Across the street from the stalls was a restaurant with the best name – California Beef Noodle King U.S.A. – with a picture of a Mr. Lee… Interesting. After a drink at the Outback Steakhouse, Dennis was off to meet this friends and the rest of us went out to Hou Hai for drinks. Hou Hai was a cute little neighbourhood full of little boutiques, restaurants and bars surrounding a lake. We chose a bar with a foos ball table and some dice and went to town! I hadn’t played in 4 months and without Blind Goalie, my skills are less than impressive. Thankfully, the bar staff didn’t care about our skills and we made friends! I even managed to try Carlsberg Chill… not something I recommend.

Day 2 in the Capital

The next morning, we decided to head out to see the Great Wall. It’s something that I felt I had to do, but that didn’t hold a lot of interest. I mean, it’s a wall, right? I’ve seen walls, new and old. But holy cow – what a freaking wall! I have to say that Simatai was a highlight of my exchange trip. It was amazing. We hired a cab for the entire day for about $120 Canadian and packed ourselves and our KFC breakfast in for a long day of driving. The section of the Wall that we went to was about 2 hours out of town, though Beijing extends almost that far. We drove into the wooded mountains, past tiny little villages with goats and birds and poverty out to a 10km section of the Wall that sits on the top of a steep mountain ridge. We took a rickety cable car up the bottom half, and then discovered that the mini-train was not worth taking and hiked the rest of the way. Two local ladies accosted me on my way up, but I didn’t have the heart to get rid of them because they repeatedly called me beautiful… flattery really does get you everywhere. In this case, the nice ladies were content to sell me some postcards and bottled water. Sitting up on top of the Wall was amazing – you could see it meandering out into the distance. It really is an incredible display of power. Defensively, I can’t imagine it being that effective – I mean, the ridge it’s on is already really steep and the actual structure isn’t that tall. The boys went wandering around and I sat on the ledge taking in the view and thinking about life in general. While we were on the Great Wall, the rest of our class was at the Year End Gala, partying together one last time. Although all three of us were a bit sad to have missed it, I realized that I wouldn’t have given up the Wall, no matter how good the party was. When we got back, Rodrigo and I met up with Sammy and Joyce for some hotpot and our own little year-end shindig. It was so good to see the two of them, especially since Joyce was my first-day-of-school friend from back in the pre-Core. It all comes around… I had half-expected them to be all settled in and enjoying and understating china with no real issues. So wrong! We had the greatest night, comparing all of our strange adventures and experiences. Turns out, they don’t understand the system either. I think it made Rodrigo feel a lot better about living in Shanghai.
Frederik arrived that evening and went out for duck with one of Ivy’s friends. Then we all headed for bed, as we were visiting the Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square the next day.

HOME! HOME! HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS AND BEYOND...

am finally home in vancouver! i've finished writing up our china odyssey... here goes...



Day 1
We started in Beijing where the weather was sunny, crisp and cold. When we arrived at the airport, Dennis and I realized that we had no means of communication with Rodrigo and that he didn’t know our flight number, our cell phone numbers or the hotel information. That should be an indication of the planning that went into the trip. Anyways, we met up and headed into town. The drive from the airport was notable because we got our first view of the Beijing smog and because the forests we were driving though looked a lot like Ontario does – which makes sense, I guess, considering the latitude. And the airport had three terracotta warriors from Xi’an in it so I don’t need to go there now! See them! Check! Three is just as impressive as 10,000, I’m sure.
The hotel was good. I had my own giant room with a private bathroom on the first night, which was a nice change from PGH1. It was also right next door to Sogo (department store) so Starbucks was nearby. The staff at the hotel were great but it was kind of sad to have so many characters vying for the right to hire us a taxi or book our flights to Chengdu. One evening, four different hotel employees came to the door looking for Dennis to see if they could help us. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. There were also nearly always about nine people at the reception desk, ready to help out. I ended up staying in three different rooms over my four-night stay. My rooms were great, but Dennis and Rodrigo had construction going on next door and suffered a bit.
On our first night, we hopped on the subway to Wangfujing. The Beijing subway is really something… in Shanghai, the cars were humid and kind of smelly but in Beijing, the whole system – stations, trains, etc… is archaic. Tickets must be purchased from the booth and then handed to another lady to be ripped so that you can enter. The poor ladies looked so cold and bored but I guess it’s an effective way to create jobs for the 1.3 billion people (though I hear it’s more like 1.6) Wangfujing is a big avenue with loads of stores and people sauntering about. We ended up at Peking duck restaurant and between the three of us, took down the restaurant’s 182,051th bird (or something like that). They even gave us a card to commemorate the occasion.

mind the gap and hold the handrail

ahhh... it was nice to be back in hong kong after our chinese odyssey! i'm now sitting in the hk airport, very near to the benches where bill and i spent one gloriously ill night on our way out of 'nam... memories! china was great - loads of adventures, interesting toilets and of course, the life-changing Great Buddha of Leshan.
hit up my favorite dim sum AND hot pot restaurants yesterday and had to say goodbye to two of my favorite exchange friends. will be back on the 19th for one last night. looks like i need to mosey on down to the ladies market and buy a new suitcase. mine is in a sad state. it's currently sitting in dennis's room with broken zippers and clothes spilling out everywhere. i should be able to fit everything in my bags in the end though since some of my clothes are now garbage... i just couldn't bear to deal with my jeans with hems that touched the bathroom floor in leshan and the yangzi boat. more about that soon.
i've got a three hour flight ahead of me, which should be plenty of time to start writing up all the fun stuff from the trip. off to osaka! and home to vancouver in less than a week!

commodities with chinese characteristics

congrats to the sauder mba class of 2007! we did it! wish i could have been there for the gala, but was on my way up the great wall of china... you win some, you lose some. actually spent the day in the company of some of sauder's best - rodrigo, dennis, sammy and joyce! had a little hotpot party of our own. beijing was amazing - loved visiting, could never live there! highlights (i'll do a big write-up when i get back to hk) include: peking duck, great wall, our lovely little bellboy, scorpions and centipedes on a stick and the mao mausoleum. lowlights of the trip so far: pollution, an unfortunate order of liver and pig bum soup... that says it all!
in chengdu right now, in a strange room with nothing in it but this computer, recovering from a mystery meal and looking forward to meeting up with the boys again.

here i go again on my own...

ah. ahhhhhh.....
no more pencils, no more books!
off to beijing. little worried about the temperature. it's hovering around 0 degrees there. it's about 20 here and we're all shivering and wearing sweaters. i noticed it last week. the tourists are all in tank tops and shorts and the locals are bundled up like crazy. hope i can handle real winter.
am gonna miss my little room here, but cannot wait for my 4-star bathroom in china! yay for everyday low prices in the PRC!
will have limited access to a computer so there might not be much news for the next week or so. but i'm sure when i get back i'll have loads of adventures to report!

waiting for my grades...

DONE! and off to beijing in the morning...