Nick in China – Archive

It seems like it was only a couple of weeks ago that i was sitting in my hotel room in Hong Kong getting ready to fly to Shanghai, and now I am back in a hotel, looking out at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport on the eve of my departure. The last week has been a whirlwind of schoolwork and last minute tourist-outings. I visited all of my favorite restaurants this week and included many pictures of my favorite dishes in my last album, The End.

On Friday afternoon we had a closing ceremony for the program, and I had to (or had the opportunity to, depending on perspective) give a short speech on behalf of our class (my class is pictured). Unfortunately I did not learn about this until after my Chinese final exam that morning so couldn’t really prepare anything and I ended up only being able to ramble out a few sentences in Chinese before switching to English to say something meaningful.

Today was spent packing and cleaning my room before going to South Beauty for dinner. South Beauty is a chain of high-end Chinese restaurants which have an incredibly tasty pork rib dish. After dinner I had to say goodbye to my friends (in the subway station actually) before returning here to my hotel room at the airport. I leave for home at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning (Sunday), stopping at Hong Kong and Taipei, Taiwan along the way.

Coming to China was definitely one of the best decisions I have made in a while, and I am happy to be leaving without any regrets about the choice or my time here. Although I would have liked to visit more places, I was still able to visit five provinces in addition to Shanghai and Beijing over the course of four months. And there’s always next time! (although I know that it will be a while before I return).

Thanks to everyone who has been reading my blog and looking at my pictures (I’ve posted almost 900 over the course of the semester!). I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all in person soon!

Only one week left! I have been swamped with coursework lately as the semester is winding to a close. My Capstone (major research project) is done, I presented this past week. But in the last week I still have a Political Science research paper, Society & Culture final exam, and a Chinese final exam as well. No need to worry about getting bored waiting for the time to pass!

A lot of people have been asking if I am ready to come home, and the short answer is yes. The long answer is that I think I am ready to come home because I know it is imminent and  also that I have exhausted my travel opportunities while here. There are more places I want to visit, but they will just have to wait for the next trip.

One of the most amazing things I have seen here is the speed with which local businesses open and close–literally overnight. The fifteen minute walk from my apartment to school is a micro example of the entire country right now…or at least I think it is. There are about two dozen restaurants along the walk, and at least half of them have remodeled, closed, or opened in the four months that I have been here. Even after a one week absence there are all sorts of new and exciting places along the route. And at the same time many places have failed to succeed and their owners have apparently moved on to something else. It is quite a contrast to the U.S. where it takes many months for something to be built.

I plan to write one more major blog entry in which I introduce some of my favorite foods that I have discovered, but I need to work to get more pictures of the dishes! But I did take some pictures of downtown Shanghai at night last week.
To end this post, here are some stats from the May 12 earthquake I got from www.chinadaily.cn.com:
45.55 million people affected in all
15.5 million relocated
1.3 million evacuated today due to possible flooding
367,854 people injured
68,977 people died
17,964 people still missing

This weekend I took at trip by myself to Hangzhou, which is about 200 km south of Shanghai, which takes about an hour and a half by train. It’s a city of more than 6 million, but feels a lot smaller as all of the tourist attractions are around Xihu (West Lake). Although it is not at majestic or clean as the lakes I saw in Yunnan, it is still beautiful. And it was hard to beat the 90+ degree temperatures on Saturday. I arrived mid-morning on Saturday and spent the rest of the day walking around the lake and taking a ferry boat to a couple of islands. The city was teeming with Chinese tourists because the Olympic Torch Relay was to be in Hangzhou on Sunday. There were also torch relay vendors everywhere selling t-shirts, flags, and stickers.

I was awoken on Sunday morning around 6 a.m. by chanting and singing from the torch relay spectators (the route was went right in front of my hotel). I went down a little while later and finally at about 8:30 a.m. the torch passed through. It was a really neat experience. I had never seen so much Chinese patriotism in one place. Unlike most parades though, there is only one star act and after a couple minutes of action it was all over.

On Sunday afternoon I climbed in the hills on the north side of the lake which had some great views. The weather was not quite as nice, but still t-shirt and shorts appropriate. Then on Sunday night I took the train back to Shanghai amid a torrential downpour.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week have been declared as official days of mourning following last week’s earthquake in Sichuan. This afternoon at 2:28 p.m., exactly one week after the quake, the entire country paused for three minutes of silence. Except the three minutes were not actually silent, as emergency warning sirens went off all over the city and cars were all honking their horns. It is hard to imagine more than 1.3 billion people all pausing at the same time. As part of the mourning, there is no public entertainment for the next three days, and the torch relay has been suspended. The torch was supposed to be in Shanghai on Tuesday and Wednesday, but will now not be here until later in the week.

The official death toll now stands at 34, 073, but could easily rise to around 50,000.

At about 2:30 p.m. yesterday a massive earthquake (7.9) struck the western province of Sichuan, which just north of where I was a couple of weeks ago. The official casualty numbers reported by the government, state media, and western media have been climbing since the event, and the current death toll is around 10,000. I was in my apartment at the time and did not feel the quake at all but news reports indicated that it could be felt in many of the downtown skyscrapers.

I have been reading quite a few news reports and many have actually praised China for being forthcoming with accurate statistics, which is a change from many past natural disasters. Lijiang, one of the towns I visited in Yunnan, was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake in 1996 that killed about 200 people.

Some news links:
China Daily story
New York Times story

Before this past weekend I had been living in Shanghai for more than three months without seeing many of the main tourist sites. I changed that this weekend though! On Saturday I went to the Bund and then took the “sightseeing tunnel” to Pudong. This tunnel has slow-speed rail cars which roll along as all sorts of crazy lights flash through the tunnel. It’s a true tourist gimmick, but makes for some pretty good pictures! Once in Pudong I went up the Pearl to get a view of the skyline from 267 meters. It was a fairly hazy day, but all of the main landmarks were visible.

Saturday afternoon and evening was spent working on my Capstone,  which is my major research project for the semester. My topic is the rule of law in China. I’ll write some more details about this soon. Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day and I went to the Shanghai Museum, which has a good assortment of historical artifacts. My favorite was the exhibit on historical currency in China. Check out my photos for some odd-shaped coins!

I am planning a solo trip this weekend to Hangzhou, one of the most beautiful cities in China, that is only a 1.5 hour train ride from Shanghai. I have less than four weeks left now!

I arrived back in Shanghai on Sunday afternoon following a whirlwind week of traveling through Yunnan province in the southwestern part of the country. I have posted dozens of pictures from all of the exciting and beautiful places I visited during the trip and will try to keep the narrative version brief. I have plenty of stories to tell everyone once I return though!

Leaving Shanghai
We were supposed to leave Shanghai at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon (April 26) but our flight had a mechanical delay and was finally cancelled around 7 p.m. China Eastern Airlines put us up in a nice hotel next to the airport and we finally made it to Kunming on Sunday morning.

Dali (photos)
Upon arriving in Kunming we met the Beijing Alliance students and director, who we were traveling with. After a quick lunch we headed straight to Dali which was about a four hour drive. In Dali we visited its ancient town, which essentially means a pedestrian area of town with cobblestone streets and many small shops and restaurants. Dali is on Erhai Lake (Ear Sea, as it looks like an ear). Erhai is one of the largest lakes in China, second largest I think. It reminded me a lot of Kenai Lake, as it is very long and narrow.

Lijiang and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (photos)
(photos of Lijiang ancient town–just added)
After one night in Dali we continued on to Lijiang, which is a fairly large city with the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain looming to the north. No human has ever reached the summit of the mountain, and this is attributed to the rapidly changing weather in the area, often changing multiple times in a single hour. In Lijiang the elevation above sea level is about 11,000 feet. From the base of the mountain we took a cable car up the mountain to an elevation of 4,506 meters (~18,783 feet). It was snowing on the mountain and the ride up and down had phenomenal views. At the base of the mountain we watched the Impressions of Lijiang show, which was created by three famous Chinese directors, most famous of which is Zhang Yimou. The show highlights the customs of many of the minority groups which live in the area against a backdrop of the mountain. Everything is on a truly massive scale, which hundreds of performers. Unfortunately it was a fairly cloudy day and the mountain did not peek out until the very end of the show.

Luguhu (Lugu Lake) (drive photos, Mosuo village photos, Liwubi Island photos)
About two hundred kilometers north of Lijiang lies Luguhu, which is a pristine mountain lake which has several Mosuo minority villages on its shores. In total, about ten thousand people live around the lake. Although the distance from Lijiang is not very far, it is up and over seven mountains on a mostly dirt road so the drive each way took about seven hours. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking throughout the drive, as my pictures hopefully show. Once we reached Luguhu we visited a Mosuo family’s house for dinner which was followed by a “village party” in which the locals performed their local songs and dances and also attempted to teach us. Interestingly, the Mosuo culture is matrilineal and all of the power lies with the women. Also, they have a practice called “walking marriage” in which polygamy is practiced, but in a very different form than is usually thought. I can probably explain it better in person than on paper. The next day we made the return journey back to Lijiang.

Mr. Xuan Ke and Naxi Ancient Music (photos)
In Lijiang we watched a performance of Naxi ancient music. The Naxi people are the dominant minority in the Lijiang area. We also got to meet Mr. Xuan Ke, who founded the group which is attempting to keep the ancient music alive. Mr. Xuan, 79 years old now, was a young symphony conductor in the early 1950s and was conducting one of the top symphonies in China before he was imprisoned by the PRC from 1957-78, a casualty of the Hundred Flowers campaign. After his release in 1978, Mr. Xuan had difficulty finding a job and eventually started the Naxi group to continue his love for music. The group is now over twenty years old, and as the pictures show, most of its members are getting quite old.

Kunming (photos)
On Friday night we flew from Lijiang back to Kunming. On Saturday morning we visited West Mountain, which had a good view of the city but overall was not too spectacular. In the afternoon we drove an hour or so outside of town to the stone forest, which can’t easily be described with words…which is why I post pictures!

Back in Shanghai
And finally I am now back in my apartment in Shanghai, which definitely feels like home after a week on the road. It is warm and muggy here now, which is probably how it will be for the next month or so. I don’t have any definite plans yet, but will probably take at least more more short weekend trip in the last five weeks I have here.

This week has been great, but this is the first time I have found an internet connection, and it is an awfully spotty one. I have some great pictures and wonderful experiences to write about, and I will post everything on Sunday once I return to Shanghai. Later!

The last few days have been absolutely beautiful in Shanghai, just in time to head out of town. This afternoon I am leaving on the Alliance-organized trip to Yunnan province, which is in the far southwest corner of the country, near Tibet. In that region it will likely be cold and rainy, but I am still really looking forward to seeing some more green scenery and mountains. We will be going to Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, and Lugu Lake, working our way higher and higher up into the mountains as we go. As long as I can find some internet I will post a few updates along the way!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Things have just been very busy here. I’m starting research on my capstone project, my topic is the concept of the rule of law in China, focusing on reforms in the last ten years. It has been interesting, but will be a lot of work.

This past weekend I went to Japan to visit Ashley, and the entire experience provided interesting perspective into the different societal levels in Japan as well as here in China. On Thursday afternoon on my way to the airport I stopped in Pudong for lunch. The Pudong area of Shanghai is full of skyscrapers for financial companies and I saw more foreigners walking around than anywhere else. I ate at Element Fresh, which is a restaurant that focuses on providing fresh, homemade foods. It appears to only be a chain here in Shanghai, but it would definitely do well in the U.S. I stopped in Pudong because it was on my way to the Maglev Train station, which is about the cheapest way for one person to quickly get to the airport, which is another 30 km past Pudong (and my apartment is about 15 km or so from Pudong). The Maglev train wisked me the 30 km to the airport in about 7 minutes, with a top speed of 431 km/h. I got some pretty good pictures of it this time around! Pudong is the most developed/western area of Shanghai, and possibly of all of China. The skyscrapers, clean streets, and ultra-modern Maglev train definitely qualify as atypical.

In Japan I got to see a lot of fun things with Ashley, one of the most fun was the Himeji Castle (pictured)which we saw on Friday. The castle site dates back to 1333 while the current castle was constructed in 1601. We climbed all the way to the top where the view of town was spectacular. Himeji is about a two hour train ride from Osaka along the coast, mostly through residential areas. On the way back to Osaka we stopped at Kobe and visited Chinatown there. It was fun, but not quite like the real thing! On Saturday Ashley and I had lunch with Taeko, Ashley’s language partner. We went to a sushi buffet where I managed to stuff myself with all sorts of tasty dishes (but none that were too weird!) Then we went to Kyoto and saw a few sights, including the Golden Temple and the city zoo. We were at the zoo at the very end of the day and most of the animals had already been put back in their “inside” cages, so we got to see quite a few big cats up close. For dinner in Kyoto we went to a really cute Mexican restaurant run by cute old Japanese couple. The enchiladas were actually pretty tasty! On Sunday we went to Ame-nura, the American Village in Osaka (sorry, I probably spelled it wrong). This area was definitely nothing like America, to me in appeared to be an area where Japanese style was taken to the extreme.

On the plane ride back to Shanghai on Sunday I was thinking about what I saw and did in Japan and how it compared to China. The two countries share a lot of commonalities, but at the same time seem to be a world apart in other areas. Japan is on the high end of Asian society, really to the point of surpassing western society in my opinion. The Pudong area of Shanghai is approaching the “west” while the rest of China is still trying to catch up.

On Tuesday another facet of this concept became apparent when we went on a field trip to a school for migrant children, also in Pudong. The Pudong area is a special economic zone, and has attracted factory development as well. There were not nearly enough workers in Shanghai to staff these factories when they were first being constructed in the 1990s, so workers flooded in from rural areas all around the country. The local government was not able to provide social services for these workers and their families as whole neighborhoods and towns developed around factory districts. The school we visited was started in 2002 and is privately run. It provides a chance for the children of these migrant workers to break the chain and climb the social ladder. I talked with a couple of ninth grade girls who spoke English slightly better than I speak Chinese (okay, maybe a little better than mine), and their families both moved to Shanghai about ten years ago from Sichuan. When talking to them I was surprised to find out that neither one had any real dreams or aspirations for what they wanted to be when they “grew up.” Instead they were just focusing on the present, and continuing their education. Children’s education is a huge investment for these families, costing them between 500-1000 RMB per semester ($75-130). Interestingly enough most of the kids at the school had siblings.

I hope most of what I said makes sense. I struggled trying to describe the obvious contrasts that exist between “typical China” (if it exists), the migrant neighborhoods, Pudong’s financial area, and Japan. In my opinion China might start to resemble “the west” more in the next 15-20 years, but will likely never reach the stage Japan is now at.

After four relaxing days on the beach (and one more photo album)we left the ocean behind to travel to another beautiful area, the Guilin and Yangshuo in Guangxi province (a few hundred miles inland, essentially due north of Hainan and Sanya). The Guilin area is known for its karst peaks, which are huge limestone rocks/hills that jut out of the ground around the Li River. On Thursday morning we cruised down the Li River and experienced some of the most lush, green landscapes in the entire country. Many of the peaks we saw along the cruise are named, and I identified some of them in my photo album of the cruise.

At the end of the four hour cruise we arrived in Yangshuo which is a small town in amongst the karst peaks that became popular with backpacking tourists several years ago and has become a popular jumping-off point for those who want to see the surrounding countryside. The town itself has “West Street” which is a pedestrian street about a quarter-mile long packed with clothing and souvenir vendors as well as western restaurants and small hotels/hostels. The first night we were there (Thursday), we had a great Chinese dinner and then went to a place called Drifters which was supposed to have really good apple crumble. Just as I walk inside I hear someone shout my name (STRAMP!) and it was my high school counselor, Mrs. Tilly, who currently teaches English in town. I knew that she was in town and had been corresponding via email to set up a time to get together, but it was complete luck that I ran into her that night. Oh, and the apple crumble was amazing! It was so good we went back again before leaving and I bought a Drifters shirt.

On Friday we rented bikes and set out into the countryside. After one wrong turn (which led us north instead of south) we ended up to the south of town and hiked up Moon Rock, which is a fairly large peak with a whole in it which looks like a moon (pictured). On a side note, the moon usually looks tilted here (crescent points down) which is how the rock looks. It was about a thirty minute stair-hike up to the top where we had a beautiful view of the countryside in all directions. We had lunch at the top and then climbed down and took a “country road” path back towards Yangshuo. This country road was actually more of a foot path in some places but it brought us through some absolutely gorgeous scenery (see the gallery!) It had been cloudy all day with a few light rain showers but as we were headed back into town it really started to rain hard and we were quite soaked by the end (picture).

Just as we got back to West Street I heard someone shout my name from a second floor restaurant and this time it was Megan, a friend from Gustavus who graduated last year and was currently teaching English in Liuzhou, about 3 hours from Yangshuo. This was not quite as much of a coincidence though, as I was planning to meet Megan after the bike ride. On Saturday Megan and I took a trip to the Longji Rice Terraces.

The Longji Terraces are about three hours from Yangshuo in a region inhabited by the Mao minority people. The terraces were first constructed and cultivated in the 13th century. They are carved out of the mountainside in an area with elevation ranging from 800-1180 meters above sea level. The Mao people are known for their traditional clothing and way of life as well as the long hair that the women have (they only cut it once in their lifetime). We saw a cultural “performance” by some of the local peoples, but sadly this is obviously a culture which has given up its traditional way of life in favor of the tourism ther business, at least in this one area. As we were climbing up the terraces every few minutes we would come across an older woman wanting a small payment in exchange for her showing us her long hair.

The disappointing part of the trip was that the weather was not cooperating and while on the terraces we were in the clouds the entire time. The area was still incredibly beautiful and green, but we could not experience the full affect of the views (photo album). Here is a link to a picture of what the view should be.

Even though the weather was not the best the visit to Longji was a great end to spring break. On Sunday we flew back to Shanghai and traded the beautiful green scenery for the gray of concrete…oh well!