China 1

April 5, 2009

First of all… three days till my 21st birthday!!! WOOOOOO!!! I can’t believe I am going to be 21… I keep thinking about my birthday last year… and my birthday before that, and how different each one has been and how far away 21 seemed, and now a year has flashed by before my eyes and I will celebrating in JAPAN! We are going to the Absolut Ice Bar in Tokyo, and everyone is meeting us there.

I wish North Korea would stop sending missiles and stuff, because it is really cramping our style.

Now for China. Communism is crazy and China was crazy but I loved it and had an amazing experience there. It was my second favorite country, behind Thailand of course. But… I do expect Japan to top that list. We will see.

Pulling into Hong Kong was astounding. The skyline is like nothing I have ever seen before. No city in America can even compare to this, and they call Hong Kong “Little Shanghai,” which means Shanghai is even BIGGER. It was just crazy because by now I have been to a lot of big cities all around the world and all over Europe and all over the US, and nothing I have ever seen comes remotely close. Everything was brilliantly lit up, even in the morning light. Business signs brightly glimmered from almost every building, Panasonic, AIG, etc, all blinking and changing colors. Every, single, building was a gigantic skyscraper, as far as the eye could see. And… it was chilly out! China was our first cold country since Morocco, and I wasn’t even that mad about it. Other than the fact I had no clothes to wear in winter weather, and it was gonna be pretty cold. Win let me borrow his big sweater with lining on the bodice and I took a sweater to wear under it, and I ended up being fine, even too warm sometimes.

Unfortunately for me, I wouldn’t even get to hang out in Hong Kong. My group immediately got on a bus and headed to the airport for out flight to Beijing. It was sad, made even sadder when later everyone talked about how Hong Kong was one of their favorite cities yet. Oh well, that just means I have somewhere to go back to in China!

The drive through Hong Kong was beautiful, and then I was in another spaceship airport. Seriously, US airports are nowhere near as cool or architecturally advanced as almost every other airport I have been to. I am no longer impressed. The Hong Kong and Beijing airports were like huge, futuristic malls. I didn’t bring along my Hong Kong money because I didn’t realize, hey, you might want to buy something in the airport, so Lexi bought me a muffin and frappuchino, and she got back the SWEETEST 10 note bill ever! I was obsessed with it, so much so that she eventually gave it to me. It is purple and has all these sweet colorful designs on it that remind me of rainbows and ribbondancing. What a great friend Lexi is.

There were about 50 people on this trip, a pretty solid number, and we had a good group of people. I spent most of time with Lexi and Win and we had so much fun together.

Arrived in Beijing in evening time. Again, I am amazed by the size of the city, the size and shapes and lights of the buildings. Every single building in Beijing is like a magnificent piece of art. Everything is lit up, all of the buildings are illuminated advertisements, everything is rainbow right, shimmering, glimmering, moving, changing, catching the eye, drawing you towards it.

Our guide’s name is Jonathan and he speaks English pretty fluently. His jokes are a little long and hard to follow, but he tried anyways. Lexi and I settle into our room and then head out to dinner at a restaurant.

Dinner was interesting to say the least. Everyone had warned us that Chinese food would be terrible but I wanted to give it a chance anyways. The first thing I tried was absolutely terrible, and the second thing on the table I just couldn’t bring myself to try. I’m glad I didn’t because later I found out it was chicken feet encased in jello. Delicious! This meal was horrendous, but most of the meals I had after this, especially at the dumpling buffet, were pretty darn good.

A bunch of us head to a street with a ton of karaoke bars, all lined up one after the other. We settle into one and order some drinks. Soon Win, Kelly, and I are up on stage singing “A Whole New World,” which now holds special significance for us now. We were terrible, but amazing at the same time. We headed to another little bar and ordered the DJ to play “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga, the song I have now listened to on repeat nonstop since Thailand. It is pretty much the only song I listen to, actually. All of these bars were pretty dead since it was a weeknight, but we didn’t care, we got on that dancefloor and boogied.

Next morning, early wake up to travel to the Great Wall!!! The ride there was filled with sleeping, and I opened my eyes and all I could see were hills and mountains and a conspicuously long wall. A great wall even.

We began our trek up the wall. Lexi, Win and I were together pretty much the entire time. We took a lot of breaks to take pictures and laugh and breather, and we ended up making it to the very top in about an hour and twenty minutes, which meant we had forty minutes for our descent, which was honestly tougher than the climb up. We all had jelloid legs all the way down.

About halfway up the wall, an amazing thing happened. It started to snow! We all threw our hands up in the air and yelled with glee, “Snow, snow, snow!” All of the Chinese people laughed at us. We asked them how to say snow in Chinese and they answered something like, “Show-wah.” So we spent the rest of the time saying, “Showah showah showah.” It was great. It snowed again off and on for the rest of the time we were there.

When we got back down to the bottom Win and I saw a chain with hundreds of locks on it that we hadn’t seen before. Apparently all of the locks are put there by couples that have traveled to the Great Wall together, and when their love is locked on the wall forever, they throw away the key. Win and I purchased our own lock and had our names engraved on it, then we locked it on the wall and threw away the key! So our lock will remain on the Great Wall forever, a token of our Chinese love. We kept our love locked down, our love locked down, we got our love locked down, our love locked down.

After another nap, we continued our sightseeing at the Summer Palace. Google it. It was gorgeous and right on a huge lake. On our way out I made the best purchase I have made on the entire journey… a panda hat. It is amazing and I am going to wear it all over Japan and beyond.

Our last stop of the day was a distant stop to take pictures of the Bird’s Nest and the Watercube! It was so cool to see these buildings with my own eyes, after spending so many hours staring at the TV screen imagining what it would be like to be at the Olympics, to see these athletes compete, to stand where they stood. Win and Lexi and I decided we would head back to the area later to go up to the buildings and touch them and see them all lit up and have a moment of Olympic triumph.

Lexi and Win and I departed for a grand adventure on the Chinese subway system. It was only 2 yuan a ride, which is a fraction of a dollar. 7 yuan = 1 USD. The subway was so cool, there were so many fun things to take pictures of, including this huge image of the world all lit up. I found LA and threw up the sign for a picture. The subway was very easy to navigate and I always marvel at how universal English is and how hard most countries try to accommodate the language, while Americans don’t try at all to accommodate anyone at all.

If I had to describe Chinese people in one word, that word would be “aggressive.” And the women are worse. Nobody in China is scared to push you around a little if you are in their way, or in our case, if you are on the subway and they want to get in/out. The language is also very harsh and sounds like yelling 98% of the time. This one Chinese woman on the subway had a ton of stuff with her and got ready to exit the car, but the huge wave of people entering the car were not having it. The next thing we know, she is doubled over on the floor being pushed by everyone. We helped her up, but needless to say she did not get off on that stop. We geared ourselves up for the battle to get off at our right stop and pushed our way out with no problem, but that is probably because we are so tall compared to everyone else. In Tokyo they actually have hired personnel known as “pushers” to push you into the subway. Sweet.

We went to the Pearl Market first, and I spent a lot of money on very cool and very cheap gifts for all of my loved ones at home. I got my baby cousins some gifts I am very excited about, I can’t wait to show them! I probably bought the most souvenirs so far in China, and I expect to buy even more in Japan haha. Everything is just so colorful and cool… and cheap! Not that all of China was cheap… everything was very expensive and Japan is way worse.

Next we went to the Hard Rock Beijing to have some MUCH needed American food and meet up with some other SASers. The meal was 20 bucks, but it was worth every penny to bite into those nachos and that salad and that burger. Mmmm I miss American food so much sometimes. I texted Katie and let her know I was thinking of her. ☺

Finally we made our way to the Olympic sites. We got off one stop too far and so ended up walking about a mile back to the area, and when we finally got there… nothing was lit up. It was so sad, but even that disappointment couldn’t damper our spirits, as we were actually standing on hallowed Olympic ground. I tried to imagine the area filled with millions of people, athletes, fans, people from all over the world, Michael Phelps. The Bird’s Nest was huge and very impressive, but I wondered if people would think it was ugly in twenty years just like we think buildings from the 70’s are ugly. The Watercube was so cool, the outside just looks like a bunch of huge inflated bubbles. We took as many pictures as our hearts desired, and then it was already almost midnight, and we headed back to the hotel and into bed.

The next morning we were able to sleep in a little bit, then we headed to Tiananmen Square.

Some interesting facts about the level of censorship in China today… Greg wikipediaed Tiananmen Square while we were at sea, then again while we were in China, and the pages were completely and absolutely different. The Chinese page said no one had died, 700 people were injured, it was just a big accident. Obviously that is nowhere near the truth. Also on the day the incident occurred, the Red Cross issued a notice stating that thousands of people had died at the hands of the military. Within an hour this post was taken down and replaced with one where no one had died and people were only injured. As we approached the site, Jonathan our guide told us the subject was taboo and he couldn’t talk about it. My friend’s tour guide, however, told them that it had been an accident, no one had died, some people had been injured but it wasn’t a huge deal. The people in that bus were shocked that this Chinese person had no knowledge about what had actually occurred here at the hands of his own military. Brainwashed. The Communist element of the country was unavoidable, but I knew going in that was the way the country was, and so didn’t push taboo topics. Some of my friends did, however, and came out of the country with very interesting experiences and feelings of hopelessness and disbelief, as well as relief at their own freedom. But who knows how much our own government lies to us, really?

Anyways, the square is the biggest in the world, and it was huge indeed. The statues representing proud communists and symbols of their ideals were very interesting to me and I tried to capture some pictures without anybody arresting me.

We all got in line to go see the still-preserved body of Mao. This was definitely the creepiest part of the day. The line was huge and we all shuffled along. In front of the mausoleum lay hundreds of white flowers put there by people paying their respects to their dead leader. Inside, even more flowers, and finally… the perfectly preserved body of Mao Zedong. Laying there in a glass coffin. Bathed in yellow light. People bowing and paying respects. Creeeeeeepyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

We got out of there and explored the square. You would never think a gigantic massacre occurred there. That’s the thing about China… if you are a tourist, you will never know any downfalls of the country because everywhere you go is squeaky clean and catered directly to you, there are even “tourist orphanages” and “tourist retirement homes” that are strictly regulated, so that you see the good and great of China and communism alike, and never the dark side. And I did only see the good side. They do a great job.

I bought a Beijing 2008 Olympic hat for a dollar and popped that on my head as we entered the Forbidden City. Google it. On the entrance to the city hangs a huge picture of good ol’ Mao. I took a picture of a little Chinese boy waving the Chinese flag. I took a lot of pictures of Chinese children and adults alike, and I also took many pictures with them.

Never before have I been such a celebrity. The blondes got the worst of it, they were asked for pictures every two seconds, but Win and I were accosted as well because we are both so tall. We actually secretly loved it though, and I asked a lot of people to take pictures with me as well. My favorite people in the FC were the students in all matching track suits, a different color for each grade. Hilarious. I talked with them, or tried to anyways, and they loved us and took a bunch of pictures with us, always flashing the V for victory sign of course. The only ones we didn’t like were the ones that creepily took pictures of us right in front of our faces without asking us, and that happened a lot. I loved the children, though, they replaced Vietnamese kids as my favorite and I bet Japanese kids will in turn replace them haha. Chinese babies don’t wear diapers… they have holes in the bottoms of their clothes so their cute baby butts hang out in the cold winter air and they pop a squat wherever they would like. Charming. Wouldn’t that mean a lot more laundry/buying new clothes for the parents though? I didn’t quite understand it.

So we walked through plaza after plaza after building after building in the FC then head to another pretty yummy lunch. Oh this may be a good time to interject that the Lazy Susan is in full force in China and was utilized in every single restaurant I went to. Us individualistic Americans found it hard to cope with, however, as we all wanted our own food, our own portion, and we wanted it now.

Another interjection, the English translations on signs is HILARIOUS, one of my favorite things about China actually. My favorite one of all was posted above a hand drier in the bathroom that read, “This handryer has bad.” Has bad what? Does it also have good? If so, does it have more good than bad? Let’s hope so. My second favorite was one posted at the Great Wall that read, “Heart cerebral disease sufferer, ascend the Great Wall to please watch for.” HAHAHAHHAHAHHA.