So it has been awhile since I wrote, and this has been primarily due to my extremely busy schedule and the fact that I have only 3 weeks left in Shanghai, so I’m more often out and about than making time to write my blog. But as I rather write than do my Chinese homework, I’ll catch up on some of the stuff I’ve been up to these past 3 weeks!
Chinese Medicine: Right after my mom left to return back to the US, I visited the foreigner’s hospital in Shanghai to address a stomachache I had had for awhile. The doctor decided that I needed to see a surgeon who determined through a CT scan that I needed to get my appendix removed. This all seemed very hasty to me, and not very indicative of the longer-term pain I had expressed. After all I had originally gone to the doctor to get a referral to their resident TCM (Chinese Medicine Doctor). So, I declined to get the appendectomy, but promised that if the pain progressed I would check it out more seriously. In the meantime I have been exploring Chinese medicine twice a week with Dr. Ko who I go to for acupuncture and herbal medicines. I really enjoy the acupuncture treatments I have been getting, and I have even done cupping a couple times (the back treatment that suctions glass cups on the back to pull out stagnant toxins). I have to say I feel like I’m Hermione from Harry Potter recently, due to the methods I follow to prepare my traditional medicine. I have to prepare a soup once a night that is cooked from many seeds and other herbs and something that resembles and smells like tree bark. It is actually a very complicated process that requires me to soak the medicine for an hour, boil it for exactly 8 minutes, simmer the solution for 20 minutes and add an ingredient halfway through, and then in the last 4 minutes throw in the tree-bark like substance and let sit until warm. And you can only guess how it tastes… There is a saying in Chinese that basically means “good medicine bitters the mouth” meaning if you want good medicine you have to drink nasty bitter soup! I do have to say I have a more firm belief in Chinese medicine. Besides the fact that the herbal remedies seem to be doing the trick, I have also had some very interesting experiences with Chinese medicine professionals that have offered me some insight. My first experience was during a blind-man massage when the masseuse pointed out to me that a tense spot in my foot signified I had a bad stomach, which is true. I thought this might be a fluke, but at a different place when I was getting cupping done, the doctor exclaimed that I must have a horrible stomach because the cup over my “stomach region” made a very dark mark on my back and pulled up a lot of stagnation. Regardless, I have very much enjoyed learning about the benefits of Chinese medicine after this whole ordeal.
Shanghai Fashion Week: Last week was Shanghai Fashion week, and I had the privilege of attending and helping at some of the shows. One of my friends that lives here works for one of the Bund buildings running a clothing store, so he had a lot to do for the events. After the first week of shows there was a masquarade ball that we got to go to, and that was a lot of fun, but I enjoyed seeing the different asian perspecitives that made this fashion week so unique. One night, I got to go to dinner with the designers before their show, and after hearing all about their collections and work, it was fun to be able to see it materialize on the runway.
Easter: I only realized the day before that it was actually Easter. Henry and I decided to make a day of it and went to the newly opened Bund for brunch and sight seeing. Afterwards we relaxed and enjoyed the day, but it was nice to be in an apartment with friends celebrating the holiday, even if that only meant watching movies and cooking dinner together. We had a very Chinese interpretation of Easter with lots of Chinese food for dinner! To celebrate my American roots I made sure to eat a couple peeps ☺
Putuoshan: Last weekend my program went to one of the four Buddhist mountains in China, Putuoshan. Although it should have been a very successful and fun weekend, there were many speedbumps that made it less desirable. First off, for a two day trip we spent about 14 hours on a bus there and back, which was pretty miserable. Secondly, our tour guide was horrendously overbearing and extremely unorganized. Besides that I tried to stay as positive as possible, but it was difficult. The mountain was beautiful and the weather was nice so those were pluses. Also it was cool to see some temples, even though I think I’ve seen about 100 now! We climbed over 1,000 steps to get to one temple way up high on a mountain, and it had some pretty views.
Sanya: In a moment of spontaneity, Henry and I booked a weekend trip to Sanya in the Hainan island province of China. It will be in the upper 80’s and lower 90’s degree wise, and it is supposed to be China’s Hawaii. I’m looking forward to this break two weeks before I get ready to make my journey back to California. Sanya isn’t known for many cultural aspects, but I’m looking forward to being back by the beach, and away from the city for awhile. Also it will be nice not to think about my classes for a few days before finals start and I hurry to finish all my papers. I’ll let you know how the trip goes after this weekend!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Spring Break!
The week after Chelsea came I had to prepare all my midterms and papers before Spring Break came the next weekend. I did get to have a little fun including catching up with a friend from elementary school, meeting some of Henry's friends from Harvard, and meeting more people from the EAP Program that also live in my building. However, I was also busy planning for my Spring Break and my mom's arrival, and this blog is dedicated to all the fun things we did over the break!
Friday after school and my Chinese midterm, I went home and got everything I needed to get done before my mom came. Then I went with Henry to get massages and after ate traditional Shanghainese food that was really yummy. On our way back I decided to stay in and go to sleep early so I could be rested to meet up with my mom the next day and also Amy who was visiting Shanghai for a day. I woke up on Saturday and finished a last few errands before heading downtown to People's Square. Henry, Amy, and I all met up for lunch at the Royal Meridian hotel downtown and caught up for awhile. Amy and Henry had a lot to talk about because they both have ties to the IUP language program in Beijing, so it was nice to be able to introduce them to each other. I didn't get to see Amy for very long, because her stay in Shanghai was for only a day, but it was great to see a good friend from Berkeley, and especially the person who most excited me about China before I came! I left lunch and took the subway to the maglev train that takes you to the airport. The maglev is the fastest train and it was actually pretty surreal to take. The highest speed it reaches is 431km/h and its crazy fast. All of the buildings, fields, and cars alongside speed by obviously faster than anything I have ever experienced. I arrived early at the airport, which was perfect, because my mom's plane had also come in early, but she still had customs and such to clear, so I did some planning for our week.
Finally I met up with my mama and we took a taxi back to my apartment. It was really good to see her after so long and we already had lots of plans for the evening, so we went home and got ready and relaxed a bit before heading out. This evening we were headed to the Shanghai Tang Fashion Show. Shanghai Tang is a popular brand in mostly Hong Kong, Shanghai, and London www.Shanghaitang.com, but they have some wonderful stuff that I would love to own if I had the money! Because I didn't put two and two together I had to request an invitation for my mom very last minute. I emailed the director and told her that my very artistically driven (true) fashion designer (false) mom was arriving that evening and would love to see the show. It turned out to be no problem, and when we got there, to our surprise, we were quickly escorted to the VIP room where we were given preferred seating and champagne to welcome us...all thanks to my wonderful designer mother! After the show, we collected our gift bags and walked down the Bund. It was such a beautiful, clear, warm night and Henry and I decided to show her the wonderful view from atop on of the night club terraces. Unfortunately the rest of the night was kind of depressing as I realized I didn't have my camera after I left the bar, and when we went back we concluded it must have been stolen. This is the reason I don't have any pictures for the first few events of this post. Luckily, all that was on there were a few from the fashion show and the view that night. After searching for a little we went back home and I introduced my mom to some of the late night street food that is popular around my area. We had a nice midnight snack and then went to bed!
Sunday we woke up and I introduced mom to the traditional Chinese breakfast of dumplings. We went to my favorite little restaurant that has about 6 spots to sit, and she was in love. After, we hopped in a taxi to head to Pearl, the shopping area that has the tailor I use as well as all the pearls, purses, clothing, dvds, and any other thing you could want. We spent about an hour getting clothes made or rather ordered, and in the end we had 8 men's shirts, a sports coat, 4 suits, and a gown on order. Next we met our family friend Janine for a lovely lunch at a Greek restaurant down the street and caught up before she took us to a few more of her favorite stores. Finally, we were done shopping, and I got to take my mom to one of my favorite places in Shanghai, Tianzifang. As I have written before, it is a hidden area of interconnected alleys with boutiques, art, and cafes, and I would spend most of my time here if it weren't somewhat far away. We looked around and bought a couple things all while taking lots of pictures, with my mom's camera of course! It definitely pays to have a photographer in the family, as you will see from the rest of the pictures in this post. After Tianzifang, we took the metro to Jing'an temple and ran into Henry who took us back to his apartment, so we could show my mom. We hung out there for awhile before going to my favorite Blind man massage parlour, where we enjoyed 2-hour massages that put us in a very relaxed state. We went home afterwards and ate yummy street food before watching a movie and falling asleep.
Monday morning we woke up early and went straight to the South Bund Fabric Market. This is a 3 level building with extensive aisle of purely fabric, clothing, designs, buttons, zippers, and anything else fashion wise you can think about. We got some silk pieces made and then spotted beautiful cashmere coats that we had them measure us for. This makes four deliveries of clothing that we will arrive after we returned from Beijing. After scouring only parts of the fabric market we went to Nanjing Lu Pedestrian street and walked around a little bit before stopping for my favorite dumplings. After lunch we headed to People's Square and the Shanghai Museum. We didn't have long to look around before we headed to the Jade Buddha Temple. I had already been there before but saw both the jade buddhas again and showed my mom their traditional medicinal tea ceremony. We bought some teas and then met up with Henry to walk around for a little bit. We left to go to M50 the warehouses turned art galleries on Moganshan Lu. We looked around for awhile and then caught a taxi to Jing'an Temple to see the temple and park that we didn't see yesterday after running into Henry. The park was very pretty especially after the rain early that week. Next we walked down Nanjing Xilu to a little boutique bar called Judy's and enjoyed happy hour while planning the rest of week out. At 7 we went to 1221 a Shanghainese restaurant that had amazing food. We dined in the "Party room" and enjoyed getting served tea from a 3 foot long tea spout! After dinner, we parted ways with Henry who was leaving for Beijing earlier than we were the next day, and we headed back to Fudan.
Tuesday we woke up and it was a little rainy, but we still headed out to Yu Yuan Gardens to get world famous dumplings and tea and see the pretty Chinese style gardens. It was raining, but the gardens were just as beautiful! We strolled around Old Town buying random Chinese things, and then headed home to pack for our Beijing flight that night. We packed and rested for a little while before heading to Pearl to have mom's clothes fitted. We had the fitting then ate a quick meal at an amazing Indian Restaurant before heading to the airport. Due to the rain, our flight was delayed a little bit, but we finally arrived and met Henry at our hotel "The Emperor." It was in an amazing location right outside the forbidden city walls, and we were very excited to get out and explore the next day. Our room was beautiful and we had an offical 5 minute tour around our room and all of its amenities. All the in room drinks (soda, beer, and water) were free, the bathroom floors were heated so your toes wouldn't get cold, internet, bikes, shoe-cleaning amongst other things...free. On top of it all it was a beautifully modern building with a rooftop bar overlooking the forbidden city. It couldn't get much better than that.
Wednesday, we got up and made out for Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We could walk to both from our hotel, so we set out first for Tiananmen and walked around there admiring the Mao picture and all of the security keeping watch. We next crossed the street to get to the Forbidden City, but there was a huge line! In true Chinese fashion we ignored the line and walked straight to the front. However, we realized that no one was going in and it was because a diplomacy meeting was taking place between the Afghanistan and Chinese government heads. Once the doors opened again, it was like a stampede and I had to push some people so mom didn't get trampled or pushed into the guard rail. Once we entered parts of the city were closed off due to the meeting but after a short while it all opened up. We walked around for awhile seeing a bunch of halls including the watch/clock tower that had many amazing pieces from London and Paris. We left and followed Henry's recommendation to go to a Muslim district to see the mosque and have traditional cuisine. We had an amazing hot pot meal and ordered far too much food. Next we toured the mosque quickly before heading to the Temple of Heaven to meet Sophie. It was a very cool temple and we roamed around a bit before heading back to our hotel to show Sophie and have a drink before dinner. We sat on the top floor bar and just chilled before heading to another one of Henry's old Beijing favorites Manzo. Manzo is a Japanese restaurant, and we had amazing sushi that surpassed the quality I have been used to in China and made me miss my sushi place at home! It was a lovely meal and when we left it was snowing! We dropped Sophie off to go back to her dorm and then Henry, mom, and I went back to our hotel. Even though I love the snow, I hoped it wouldn't ruin the weather the next day for our trek to the Great Wall!
Thursday morning we woke up early to catch our private car to the Great Wall. We hired a driver for the day to take us to all the sights we wanted to see that were spaced out throughout the city and beyond. Our first stop was Mutianyu on the Great Wall where we took a cable car up and hiked around the wall. We were so lucky, because it was a very clear day and blue-skied making it perfect for picture taking. There were very few people on the wall, which made it an even more surreal experience. It was truly amazing. There was definitely a lot of hiking on the wall, and our legs got super tired and sore after awhile. We decided to take the toboggan ride down, which was super fun, and an awesome way to end our visit on the great wall. Next our driver took us to the Olympic buildings: The Bird's nest and the Water Cube. It was cool to see where all the magic had taken place not to long ago, and it is very clear that Beijing transformed a bit after such an international event. In a more spontaneous move, we stopped at the hutongs to take pictures and see the old alleys and narrow streets that are characteristic of Beijing neighborhoods. We played on the state mandated exercise courses that was in the middle of the neighborhood. This is one of the things I deem most communist about China, and so you can tell there is hardly any visible communism left, unless you are following the latest Google China scandal. After visiting the hutongs we were finally dropped off at the 798 Art District. This is similar to the M50 district in Shanghai that was modeled after 798. 798 has so many warehouses filled with art, museums, shops, cafes, and restaurants. It is really fun and I could spend hours there. Unfortunately we were pretty tired, so we didn't spend hours there, but we did get to see a number of cool galleries before we went back to the hotel. We rested and ordered pizza for dinner then later when out to the night market where I ate more yummy street food and saw some crazy foods being sold such as worms, scorpions, starfish, and pig penis. It was very interesting...
Friday was our last day in Beijing and we started it by going to the Summer Palace. I never could have imagined how extensive it was, and it was another place you could spend hours without seeing everything. It is right on a lake and it was such a nice day that it was busy with a lot of visitors. We walked around for a couple hours then took a taxi to meet Sophie at her school. She took us to a Beijing duck restaurant next to her school for lunch, because it’s definitely something you have to do when you are in Beijing! Next we did another thing you have to do when you are in China: shop! We went to a 5-story market and did lots of bargaining for anything and everything. After shopping for awhile we went to a yummy Mexican restaurant for happy hour and dinner. We had a fun time and got to chat with the chef who was actually from Mexico. Afterwards we realized we needed to make a few last purchases so we went back to the market quickly before heading home. Mom and I had a very early flight the next morning so I organized for a cab to pick us up then went to bed!
Our last day was very mellow in Shanghai and we went out to dinner with Sophie's mom that night, which was great! Mimo left early the next day but not without taking my phone and keys by accident! Luckily for me, and by what way I do not know, she navigated the taxi driver back to give me them back before she took her plane home! Miss you alreadyyyy.
Chinese Word of the Day: 旅游 (lǚ yóu, pronounced lou-yo) trip, journey
Friday after school and my Chinese midterm, I went home and got everything I needed to get done before my mom came. Then I went with Henry to get massages and after ate traditional Shanghainese food that was really yummy. On our way back I decided to stay in and go to sleep early so I could be rested to meet up with my mom the next day and also Amy who was visiting Shanghai for a day. I woke up on Saturday and finished a last few errands before heading downtown to People's Square. Henry, Amy, and I all met up for lunch at the Royal Meridian hotel downtown and caught up for awhile. Amy and Henry had a lot to talk about because they both have ties to the IUP language program in Beijing, so it was nice to be able to introduce them to each other. I didn't get to see Amy for very long, because her stay in Shanghai was for only a day, but it was great to see a good friend from Berkeley, and especially the person who most excited me about China before I came! I left lunch and took the subway to the maglev train that takes you to the airport. The maglev is the fastest train and it was actually pretty surreal to take. The highest speed it reaches is 431km/h and its crazy fast. All of the buildings, fields, and cars alongside speed by obviously faster than anything I have ever experienced. I arrived early at the airport, which was perfect, because my mom's plane had also come in early, but she still had customs and such to clear, so I did some planning for our week.
Finally I met up with my mama and we took a taxi back to my apartment. It was really good to see her after so long and we already had lots of plans for the evening, so we went home and got ready and relaxed a bit before heading out. This evening we were headed to the Shanghai Tang Fashion Show. Shanghai Tang is a popular brand in mostly Hong Kong, Shanghai, and London www.Shanghaitang.com, but they have some wonderful stuff that I would love to own if I had the money! Because I didn't put two and two together I had to request an invitation for my mom very last minute. I emailed the director and told her that my very artistically driven (true) fashion designer (false) mom was arriving that evening and would love to see the show. It turned out to be no problem, and when we got there, to our surprise, we were quickly escorted to the VIP room where we were given preferred seating and champagne to welcome us...all thanks to my wonderful designer mother! After the show, we collected our gift bags and walked down the Bund. It was such a beautiful, clear, warm night and Henry and I decided to show her the wonderful view from atop on of the night club terraces. Unfortunately the rest of the night was kind of depressing as I realized I didn't have my camera after I left the bar, and when we went back we concluded it must have been stolen. This is the reason I don't have any pictures for the first few events of this post. Luckily, all that was on there were a few from the fashion show and the view that night. After searching for a little we went back home and I introduced my mom to some of the late night street food that is popular around my area. We had a nice midnight snack and then went to bed!
Sunday we woke up and I introduced mom to the traditional Chinese breakfast of dumplings. We went to my favorite little restaurant that has about 6 spots to sit, and she was in love. After, we hopped in a taxi to head to Pearl, the shopping area that has the tailor I use as well as all the pearls, purses, clothing, dvds, and any other thing you could want. We spent about an hour getting clothes made or rather ordered, and in the end we had 8 men's shirts, a sports coat, 4 suits, and a gown on order. Next we met our family friend Janine for a lovely lunch at a Greek restaurant down the street and caught up before she took us to a few more of her favorite stores. Finally, we were done shopping, and I got to take my mom to one of my favorite places in Shanghai, Tianzifang. As I have written before, it is a hidden area of interconnected alleys with boutiques, art, and cafes, and I would spend most of my time here if it weren't somewhat far away. We looked around and bought a couple things all while taking lots of pictures, with my mom's camera of course! It definitely pays to have a photographer in the family, as you will see from the rest of the pictures in this post. After Tianzifang, we took the metro to Jing'an temple and ran into Henry who took us back to his apartment, so we could show my mom. We hung out there for awhile before going to my favorite Blind man massage parlour, where we enjoyed 2-hour massages that put us in a very relaxed state. We went home afterwards and ate yummy street food before watching a movie and falling asleep.
Monday morning we woke up early and went straight to the South Bund Fabric Market. This is a 3 level building with extensive aisle of purely fabric, clothing, designs, buttons, zippers, and anything else fashion wise you can think about. We got some silk pieces made and then spotted beautiful cashmere coats that we had them measure us for. This makes four deliveries of clothing that we will arrive after we returned from Beijing. After scouring only parts of the fabric market we went to Nanjing Lu Pedestrian street and walked around a little bit before stopping for my favorite dumplings. After lunch we headed to People's Square and the Shanghai Museum. We didn't have long to look around before we headed to the Jade Buddha Temple. I had already been there before but saw both the jade buddhas again and showed my mom their traditional medicinal tea ceremony. We bought some teas and then met up with Henry to walk around for a little bit. We left to go to M50 the warehouses turned art galleries on Moganshan Lu. We looked around for awhile and then caught a taxi to Jing'an Temple to see the temple and park that we didn't see yesterday after running into Henry. The park was very pretty especially after the rain early that week. Next we walked down Nanjing Xilu to a little boutique bar called Judy's and enjoyed happy hour while planning the rest of week out. At 7 we went to 1221 a Shanghainese restaurant that had amazing food. We dined in the "Party room" and enjoyed getting served tea from a 3 foot long tea spout! After dinner, we parted ways with Henry who was leaving for Beijing earlier than we were the next day, and we headed back to Fudan.
Tuesday we woke up and it was a little rainy, but we still headed out to Yu Yuan Gardens to get world famous dumplings and tea and see the pretty Chinese style gardens. It was raining, but the gardens were just as beautiful! We strolled around Old Town buying random Chinese things, and then headed home to pack for our Beijing flight that night. We packed and rested for a little while before heading to Pearl to have mom's clothes fitted. We had the fitting then ate a quick meal at an amazing Indian Restaurant before heading to the airport. Due to the rain, our flight was delayed a little bit, but we finally arrived and met Henry at our hotel "The Emperor." It was in an amazing location right outside the forbidden city walls, and we were very excited to get out and explore the next day. Our room was beautiful and we had an offical 5 minute tour around our room and all of its amenities. All the in room drinks (soda, beer, and water) were free, the bathroom floors were heated so your toes wouldn't get cold, internet, bikes, shoe-cleaning amongst other things...free. On top of it all it was a beautifully modern building with a rooftop bar overlooking the forbidden city. It couldn't get much better than that.
Wednesday, we got up and made out for Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We could walk to both from our hotel, so we set out first for Tiananmen and walked around there admiring the Mao picture and all of the security keeping watch. We next crossed the street to get to the Forbidden City, but there was a huge line! In true Chinese fashion we ignored the line and walked straight to the front. However, we realized that no one was going in and it was because a diplomacy meeting was taking place between the Afghanistan and Chinese government heads. Once the doors opened again, it was like a stampede and I had to push some people so mom didn't get trampled or pushed into the guard rail. Once we entered parts of the city were closed off due to the meeting but after a short while it all opened up. We walked around for awhile seeing a bunch of halls including the watch/clock tower that had many amazing pieces from London and Paris. We left and followed Henry's recommendation to go to a Muslim district to see the mosque and have traditional cuisine. We had an amazing hot pot meal and ordered far too much food. Next we toured the mosque quickly before heading to the Temple of Heaven to meet Sophie. It was a very cool temple and we roamed around a bit before heading back to our hotel to show Sophie and have a drink before dinner. We sat on the top floor bar and just chilled before heading to another one of Henry's old Beijing favorites Manzo. Manzo is a Japanese restaurant, and we had amazing sushi that surpassed the quality I have been used to in China and made me miss my sushi place at home! It was a lovely meal and when we left it was snowing! We dropped Sophie off to go back to her dorm and then Henry, mom, and I went back to our hotel. Even though I love the snow, I hoped it wouldn't ruin the weather the next day for our trek to the Great Wall!
Thursday morning we woke up early to catch our private car to the Great Wall. We hired a driver for the day to take us to all the sights we wanted to see that were spaced out throughout the city and beyond. Our first stop was Mutianyu on the Great Wall where we took a cable car up and hiked around the wall. We were so lucky, because it was a very clear day and blue-skied making it perfect for picture taking. There were very few people on the wall, which made it an even more surreal experience. It was truly amazing. There was definitely a lot of hiking on the wall, and our legs got super tired and sore after awhile. We decided to take the toboggan ride down, which was super fun, and an awesome way to end our visit on the great wall. Next our driver took us to the Olympic buildings: The Bird's nest and the Water Cube. It was cool to see where all the magic had taken place not to long ago, and it is very clear that Beijing transformed a bit after such an international event. In a more spontaneous move, we stopped at the hutongs to take pictures and see the old alleys and narrow streets that are characteristic of Beijing neighborhoods. We played on the state mandated exercise courses that was in the middle of the neighborhood. This is one of the things I deem most communist about China, and so you can tell there is hardly any visible communism left, unless you are following the latest Google China scandal. After visiting the hutongs we were finally dropped off at the 798 Art District. This is similar to the M50 district in Shanghai that was modeled after 798. 798 has so many warehouses filled with art, museums, shops, cafes, and restaurants. It is really fun and I could spend hours there. Unfortunately we were pretty tired, so we didn't spend hours there, but we did get to see a number of cool galleries before we went back to the hotel. We rested and ordered pizza for dinner then later when out to the night market where I ate more yummy street food and saw some crazy foods being sold such as worms, scorpions, starfish, and pig penis. It was very interesting...
Friday was our last day in Beijing and we started it by going to the Summer Palace. I never could have imagined how extensive it was, and it was another place you could spend hours without seeing everything. It is right on a lake and it was such a nice day that it was busy with a lot of visitors. We walked around for a couple hours then took a taxi to meet Sophie at her school. She took us to a Beijing duck restaurant next to her school for lunch, because it’s definitely something you have to do when you are in Beijing! Next we did another thing you have to do when you are in China: shop! We went to a 5-story market and did lots of bargaining for anything and everything. After shopping for awhile we went to a yummy Mexican restaurant for happy hour and dinner. We had a fun time and got to chat with the chef who was actually from Mexico. Afterwards we realized we needed to make a few last purchases so we went back to the market quickly before heading home. Mom and I had a very early flight the next morning so I organized for a cab to pick us up then went to bed!
Our last day was very mellow in Shanghai and we went out to dinner with Sophie's mom that night, which was great! Mimo left early the next day but not without taking my phone and keys by accident! Luckily for me, and by what way I do not know, she navigated the taxi driver back to give me them back before she took her plane home! Miss you alreadyyyy.
Chinese Word of the Day: 旅游 (lǚ yóu, pronounced lou-yo) trip, journey
Monday, March 15, 2010
"Where are you from....the Temple"
This week, Chelsea came to visit me for her Spring break, and we had a crazy busy week filled with everything from sight seeing, eating, shopping, partying, going to museums, getting massages, and everything else China has to offer. She arrived late Saturday evening. I met her at my apartment after meeting up with some family friends for dinner at a western bar called Blue Frog. It was fun meeting up with family friends and being around a family again, especially with their two young boys, it was a great time. Once Chelsea arrived, we settled her into my apartment and planned what to do that night. All though she was jetlagged, we decided to venture downtown for some drinks and a special event at one of my favorite places on the Bund. We went to a small restaurant/bar called Citizen that was very nice but reasonable, and then moved on to Bund 18, or more specifically Lounge 18 for the event. However, Chelsea was pretty tired, so we made it a fairly early night and went home to get some sleep.
Sunday morning we got up early and took the subway to the Jade Buddha Temple. It is one of the Buddhist temples in Shanghai, and it has a massive Jade Buddha, hence the name. When we got of the subway, we took a rickshaw to the temple, which is my new favorite way to see the city. You can stare out the back and see everything around you, which distracts you from the fact that you are about 500% more likely to be hit by another moving vehicle than if you had taken a taxi. As we were leaving another driver asked me where I was from and in the mindset of trying to get to the temple, I thought he was inquiring where I was going, so I answered "The temple." When Chelsea asked me what he said I told her and I told her my response, and that explained why he just walked away! We got to the temple and explored a little. It was really beautiful and the jade buddha was unlike anything I had ever seen...so much jade. We drank tea in the temple and ended up buying the best tasting tea I have tried yet in China. After we had plans to go to the art district M50 (Moganshan Art), but before we tried the temple's vegetarian restaurant, which was extremely tasty. We met Henry and our new Chinese friend Vicky at the art galleries. Vicky is an artist, so she took us through the galleries and explained a lot of her favorite pieces. I loved these galleries, because they were all local artists and the location consisted of transformed warehouses used to house the art. Afterwards Vicky invited us over for tea and we got to see her own art, which was pretty amazing. On our way home we made a detour at Whisk, a primarily dessert restaurant and had amazing hot chocolate and other treats. Because it was Chelsea's first night, we decided to end the weekend with a massage near our apartments. It was a very relaxing massage until the three masseuses started telling us about their hopes for American girlfriends and made us laugh the rest of the time. We had a dumpling dinner at the food mall and then watched movies before going to bed.
Monday, I had class early in the morning, and Chelsea slept off her jetlag. After class, Chelsea and I went with my culture class to the Chinese Propaganda Art and Poster Museum. It was interesting to see the collection of old posters that the owner had acquired over time. It was a very small museum, and extremely tricky to find, but worth it if you are at all interested in Chinese Propaganda. We left and ventured to a park across the street. There was a restaurant I had heard about, so we went to check it out. Parts of the restaurant were only accessible by Chinese Communist Party members, and the waiters/hosts were most definitely secret service. We didn't eat here, but instead ventured to Henry's apartment downtown to find street food and shelter from the rain. Chelsea and I braved the rain to go to Jing'an Temple, a Buddhist Temple smack in the middle of one of the most consumerist areas. At one point you can stand 5 feet away from the temple whilst simultaneously standing 5 feet away from a huge mall. The temple was very beautiful and parts of it were being renovated, so we made it a short visit. Because it was "Women's Day" (I'm not sure if this was international or just a Chinese observed holiday) we went to go treat ourselves to buy one get one free Coldstone :) We then walked across the street to Jing'an Park where I showed Chelsea the small lake, and we beckoned school boys to take pictures for us, so we didn't have to set up a self-timer photo off a tree! Since it was cold and rainy, we headed to dinner kind of early and met up with Henry. After dinner we crossed the river to go up to observation deck of the Shanghai Financial Building. However, the ticket desk told us it would best to hold off, because it was so foggy that evening. So what did we do instead? Obviously took advantage of being women to get Henry buy one get one free Coldstone. We made a very serendipitous discovery that there was another coldstone inside the financial towers, so we ended the night well with more treats!
When I woke up on Tuesday I looked out the window to see what I thought was snow falling. I told Chelsea it must just be horizontal rain, but when I left for class I realized it was indeed snow! I think I was the only one in my program who was happy about this snow, as they are all from the east coast and are happy to escape their cold winters. After Chinese class, Chelsea and I went to Hongqiao to go to Pearl (a cool name for the Pearl Market apparently) where we got lots of shopping done, and tailoring arranged for Chelsea. The Pearl Market has everything from every sort of pearl and non-pearl jewelry, bags, tailoring, clothing, chinese goods, dvds...etc It's definitely a good place to go if you only have a short time to shop, and we left very happy. We had a snack at Blue Frog before going home to rest for a bit before going out for the evening. We started the night at our favorite all you can eat/drink sushi restaurant that has some of the best sushi I have ever had. Also I discovered that green tea makes a great alcohol mixer, and it is something I will have to try to adapt when I go home. Henry, Nicolas, Chelsea and I left after much eating and drinking to meet up with people from my program in Xintiandi. We went to club G plus where our friends had reserved a table. I had so much fun dancing, and the music was awesome, so that made for a long night out. Luckily I didn't have class early the next day, so Chelsea and I slept in the next morning.
Wednesday we slept in and took the morning to plan our day. Around lunch time we went downtown to Yu Yuan Garden, which is one of the most impressive Chinese gardens in the country. Around the garden entrance there are lots of small authentic Chinese ware shops and small eateries also amongst some starbucks and other out-of-place western joints. We ate at a small Chinese restaurant and had soup dumplings and hot and sour soup. The most famous soup dumpling place is at Yu Yuan, but the line is always so long, so we passed on it to save time. Once in the garden, we walked around all the beautiful Chinese buildings and enjoyed the Lotus pool and other ponds. Our journey continued to the river front where we took the ferry across to Pudong. The ferry cost 1 kuai for both of us together, which is probably the cheapest transportation I'll ever see again in my life. Chelsea and I were on our way to the Financial tower once more to finally see the view from above, and you would have never known it was snowing the day before, because the skies were clear and blue, and the weather was much warmer. There is a beautiful park along the river on the Pudong side of Shanghai that I never knew about, so we walked along that on our way to the tower. Once at the tower, we ascended the Shanghai World Financial Tower, which is the 3rd tallest building in the world, and tallest in China. The building is 492m tall, and it has a large gap in the top that makes it resemble a bottle cap opener. Because of the gap, you can climb to 474m and walk across a glass bridge looking down on the city. This is not exactly for those afraid of heights! We went to 3 different levels of vantage points and got some great photos. We took a taxi under the river and headed towards the Bund for a pre-dinner drink. More importantly we went to Bund 5's Glamour Bar, which has a beautiful view and trend atmosphere. Our waiter was wearing pink jeans! Even though it was somewhat early, we caught another taxi to the other side of town for dinner at Zapatas, a Mexican restaurant with Wednesday Ladies nights. They have special deals on meals and then free margaritas all night, so obviously Chelsea and I didn't object to finishing our meal and sitting around to chat for awhile. We got back early and before starting my homework, I accompanied Henry to the street food vendors down the street. I can never resist yummy street food :)
Thursday it was back to Chinese class, and then downtown again for more adventures. Henry and I took Chelsea to one of our favorite French restaurants called Lingo. After lunch, Chelsea and I went to the Shanghai Museum in People's Square and saw all of the Chinese art as well as an exhibit from the Uffizi museum in Florence. The museum was very cool, and I definitely appreciated all of the different forms of Chinese art. Next we walked down the pedestrian part of Nanjing Lu where cars are forbidden to drive. We looked around and did some window shopping before heading back in the opposite direction towards Henry's apartment. We decided to walk, which took us 45 minutes, but led us through the biggest shopping street in Shanghai. We passed all the beautiful high-end shops with their huge flagship stores. Once we met up with Henry, all three of us went to Bund 18 to see the opening of a new art showing. It was a great party with lots of beautiful art, beautiful people, and yummy drinks. I really liked the exhibit, and afterwards we went next door to Lounge 18 for dinner and drinks. Because it was ladies night, all the girls got dinner/drinks for free, but men had to pay 300 kuai (around $50). I feel like women can eat and drink free most nights of the week if they do their research. However, I never knew such a nice venue such as Lounge 18 had a weekly ladies night. The view of the river and cityscape alone is reason enough to come to the Bund restaurants and bars that overlook the scenery. We went home early, so Henry and I could study for the Chinese test we had the next day!
Friday morning, I got my test out of the way and then desperately needed a nap. Chelsea ventured to Pearl to pick up the clothing she had tailored for her then when she came back we set out towards Tianzifang. Tianzifang is one of my favorite places in Shanghai, because it reminds me of Europe with its small alleys closely connected cafes and shops. There is a lot of great stuff to purchase, and wonderful outdoor patios to sit and people watch. We spent a good part of the day here before going back home to rest before our last night out together. That night, we took Chelsea to her last meal at a Chinese restaurant specializing in Yunnan cuisine. Yunnan is the southern province in China Henry and I had just returned from so we were intrigued by the similarities in food. The restaurant, Lost Heaven, turned out to be wonderful and we all left very full. Our next stop was the opening a club/bar called Node in another area I like called Red Town. It is another artsy district that has a sculpture park and many warehouses that have been converted into art galleries. They had free drinks to commemorate the opening, and we hung around there for awhile. After the opening party we went to Barbie Bar for awhile and that is where the night ended. Chelsea and I went home and slept and prepared for her to leave the next morning. It was so great to have her here and I wish you could have stayed longer!
Chinese Word of the Day: 星巴壳：Xinbake (Sheen-ba-kuh; Starbucks)
Sunday morning we got up early and took the subway to the Jade Buddha Temple. It is one of the Buddhist temples in Shanghai, and it has a massive Jade Buddha, hence the name. When we got of the subway, we took a rickshaw to the temple, which is my new favorite way to see the city. You can stare out the back and see everything around you, which distracts you from the fact that you are about 500% more likely to be hit by another moving vehicle than if you had taken a taxi. As we were leaving another driver asked me where I was from and in the mindset of trying to get to the temple, I thought he was inquiring where I was going, so I answered "The temple." When Chelsea asked me what he said I told her and I told her my response, and that explained why he just walked away! We got to the temple and explored a little. It was really beautiful and the jade buddha was unlike anything I had ever seen...so much jade. We drank tea in the temple and ended up buying the best tasting tea I have tried yet in China. After we had plans to go to the art district M50 (Moganshan Art), but before we tried the temple's vegetarian restaurant, which was extremely tasty. We met Henry and our new Chinese friend Vicky at the art galleries. Vicky is an artist, so she took us through the galleries and explained a lot of her favorite pieces. I loved these galleries, because they were all local artists and the location consisted of transformed warehouses used to house the art. Afterwards Vicky invited us over for tea and we got to see her own art, which was pretty amazing. On our way home we made a detour at Whisk, a primarily dessert restaurant and had amazing hot chocolate and other treats. Because it was Chelsea's first night, we decided to end the weekend with a massage near our apartments. It was a very relaxing massage until the three masseuses started telling us about their hopes for American girlfriends and made us laugh the rest of the time. We had a dumpling dinner at the food mall and then watched movies before going to bed.
Monday, I had class early in the morning, and Chelsea slept off her jetlag. After class, Chelsea and I went with my culture class to the Chinese Propaganda Art and Poster Museum. It was interesting to see the collection of old posters that the owner had acquired over time. It was a very small museum, and extremely tricky to find, but worth it if you are at all interested in Chinese Propaganda. We left and ventured to a park across the street. There was a restaurant I had heard about, so we went to check it out. Parts of the restaurant were only accessible by Chinese Communist Party members, and the waiters/hosts were most definitely secret service. We didn't eat here, but instead ventured to Henry's apartment downtown to find street food and shelter from the rain. Chelsea and I braved the rain to go to Jing'an Temple, a Buddhist Temple smack in the middle of one of the most consumerist areas. At one point you can stand 5 feet away from the temple whilst simultaneously standing 5 feet away from a huge mall. The temple was very beautiful and parts of it were being renovated, so we made it a short visit. Because it was "Women's Day" (I'm not sure if this was international or just a Chinese observed holiday) we went to go treat ourselves to buy one get one free Coldstone :) We then walked across the street to Jing'an Park where I showed Chelsea the small lake, and we beckoned school boys to take pictures for us, so we didn't have to set up a self-timer photo off a tree! Since it was cold and rainy, we headed to dinner kind of early and met up with Henry. After dinner we crossed the river to go up to observation deck of the Shanghai Financial Building. However, the ticket desk told us it would best to hold off, because it was so foggy that evening. So what did we do instead? Obviously took advantage of being women to get Henry buy one get one free Coldstone. We made a very serendipitous discovery that there was another coldstone inside the financial towers, so we ended the night well with more treats!
When I woke up on Tuesday I looked out the window to see what I thought was snow falling. I told Chelsea it must just be horizontal rain, but when I left for class I realized it was indeed snow! I think I was the only one in my program who was happy about this snow, as they are all from the east coast and are happy to escape their cold winters. After Chinese class, Chelsea and I went to Hongqiao to go to Pearl (a cool name for the Pearl Market apparently) where we got lots of shopping done, and tailoring arranged for Chelsea. The Pearl Market has everything from every sort of pearl and non-pearl jewelry, bags, tailoring, clothing, chinese goods, dvds...etc It's definitely a good place to go if you only have a short time to shop, and we left very happy. We had a snack at Blue Frog before going home to rest for a bit before going out for the evening. We started the night at our favorite all you can eat/drink sushi restaurant that has some of the best sushi I have ever had. Also I discovered that green tea makes a great alcohol mixer, and it is something I will have to try to adapt when I go home. Henry, Nicolas, Chelsea and I left after much eating and drinking to meet up with people from my program in Xintiandi. We went to club G plus where our friends had reserved a table. I had so much fun dancing, and the music was awesome, so that made for a long night out. Luckily I didn't have class early the next day, so Chelsea and I slept in the next morning.
Wednesday we slept in and took the morning to plan our day. Around lunch time we went downtown to Yu Yuan Garden, which is one of the most impressive Chinese gardens in the country. Around the garden entrance there are lots of small authentic Chinese ware shops and small eateries also amongst some starbucks and other out-of-place western joints. We ate at a small Chinese restaurant and had soup dumplings and hot and sour soup. The most famous soup dumpling place is at Yu Yuan, but the line is always so long, so we passed on it to save time. Once in the garden, we walked around all the beautiful Chinese buildings and enjoyed the Lotus pool and other ponds. Our journey continued to the river front where we took the ferry across to Pudong. The ferry cost 1 kuai for both of us together, which is probably the cheapest transportation I'll ever see again in my life. Chelsea and I were on our way to the Financial tower once more to finally see the view from above, and you would have never known it was snowing the day before, because the skies were clear and blue, and the weather was much warmer. There is a beautiful park along the river on the Pudong side of Shanghai that I never knew about, so we walked along that on our way to the tower. Once at the tower, we ascended the Shanghai World Financial Tower, which is the 3rd tallest building in the world, and tallest in China. The building is 492m tall, and it has a large gap in the top that makes it resemble a bottle cap opener. Because of the gap, you can climb to 474m and walk across a glass bridge looking down on the city. This is not exactly for those afraid of heights! We went to 3 different levels of vantage points and got some great photos. We took a taxi under the river and headed towards the Bund for a pre-dinner drink. More importantly we went to Bund 5's Glamour Bar, which has a beautiful view and trend atmosphere. Our waiter was wearing pink jeans! Even though it was somewhat early, we caught another taxi to the other side of town for dinner at Zapatas, a Mexican restaurant with Wednesday Ladies nights. They have special deals on meals and then free margaritas all night, so obviously Chelsea and I didn't object to finishing our meal and sitting around to chat for awhile. We got back early and before starting my homework, I accompanied Henry to the street food vendors down the street. I can never resist yummy street food :)
Thursday it was back to Chinese class, and then downtown again for more adventures. Henry and I took Chelsea to one of our favorite French restaurants called Lingo. After lunch, Chelsea and I went to the Shanghai Museum in People's Square and saw all of the Chinese art as well as an exhibit from the Uffizi museum in Florence. The museum was very cool, and I definitely appreciated all of the different forms of Chinese art. Next we walked down the pedestrian part of Nanjing Lu where cars are forbidden to drive. We looked around and did some window shopping before heading back in the opposite direction towards Henry's apartment. We decided to walk, which took us 45 minutes, but led us through the biggest shopping street in Shanghai. We passed all the beautiful high-end shops with their huge flagship stores. Once we met up with Henry, all three of us went to Bund 18 to see the opening of a new art showing. It was a great party with lots of beautiful art, beautiful people, and yummy drinks. I really liked the exhibit, and afterwards we went next door to Lounge 18 for dinner and drinks. Because it was ladies night, all the girls got dinner/drinks for free, but men had to pay 300 kuai (around $50). I feel like women can eat and drink free most nights of the week if they do their research. However, I never knew such a nice venue such as Lounge 18 had a weekly ladies night. The view of the river and cityscape alone is reason enough to come to the Bund restaurants and bars that overlook the scenery. We went home early, so Henry and I could study for the Chinese test we had the next day!
Friday morning, I got my test out of the way and then desperately needed a nap. Chelsea ventured to Pearl to pick up the clothing she had tailored for her then when she came back we set out towards Tianzifang. Tianzifang is one of my favorite places in Shanghai, because it reminds me of Europe with its small alleys closely connected cafes and shops. There is a lot of great stuff to purchase, and wonderful outdoor patios to sit and people watch. We spent a good part of the day here before going back home to rest before our last night out together. That night, we took Chelsea to her last meal at a Chinese restaurant specializing in Yunnan cuisine. Yunnan is the southern province in China Henry and I had just returned from so we were intrigued by the similarities in food. The restaurant, Lost Heaven, turned out to be wonderful and we all left very full. Our next stop was the opening a club/bar called Node in another area I like called Red Town. It is another artsy district that has a sculpture park and many warehouses that have been converted into art galleries. They had free drinks to commemorate the opening, and we hung around there for awhile. After the opening party we went to Barbie Bar for awhile and that is where the night ended. Chelsea and I went home and slept and prepared for her to leave the next morning. It was so great to have her here and I wish you could have stayed longer!
Chinese Word of the Day: 星巴壳：Xinbake (Sheen-ba-kuh; Starbucks)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Back to School:
So, after Yunnan I have had a very busy week of relaxing in Shanghai, yet returning to classes and schoolwork. Because I week went by, I will try to catch you up as best as possible. Chelsea came yesterday, so I will definitely have a lot of updates throughout this week on our adventures!
2/26: After returning from Yunnan, I went came back and slept in very late the next morning. Afterwards I went for lunch near my school at the dumpling place we had dearly missed over the holidays. Then we went to a little shopping district called Xintiandi to do some research for our Culture class project on international brands and globalization vs localization in China. After our research, I went to the blind massage place to get a 2-hour massage, which I felt was long due after the 6 flights I had taken in the past two weeks. It was even more rewarding to pay only $12! At night I explored Jing'an temple park, and had dinner at a Indonesian restaurant called Bali Laguna. It is a beautiful restaurant located on a small lake in the center of a park. It reminded me a lot of Bali actually, and we had wonderful Indonesian curries. After dinner I visit City Shoppe, a local store with mostly Western products, where one might visit if they were homesick, and missing specific items from home. I went to bed early, so I could continue to catch up on sleep.
2/27: Today I woke up and went to a nearby cafe to finish my work for the weekend and write some postcards. I did some research on what to do for the night and found a concert that was playing downtown. The concert was 4 bands from Beijing, and one famous one I had heard of, which was the Indie Rock group Carsick Cars. A couple of us went downtown to a bar called Windows Too to have dinner and drinks and then headed over to the venue Mao Livehouse. The venue was in a very cool part of town called "Red Town" known for its sculpture gardens and cafes, and I will definitely have to explore around there later! The concert was very good, and all the bands were entertaining. The crowd was super trendy and kind of crazy as many mosh pits were formed throughout the duration of the concert, even when the music didn't really warrant them. The night ended a lot later than most concerts in the states do, but Shanghai is a city that rarely sleeps.
2/28: Today, on another assignment for my culture class, I went to a little area called Tianzifang. It's known as the "Soho of Shanghai" and it is a very hidden area consisting of little boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and cafes...basically where I wish I could always be! I looked around, took pictures and did some research of the area. I didn't really get to look into as many shops and galleries as I wanted, but I'm sure I'll be back very soon. We had lunch at a lovely little Japanese restaurant and then took off. I prepared myself to return to class the following morning, and took my new friend from Berkeley to explore the street food around our apartment for dinner. I'm definitely happy to be back home in Shanghai with all the familiar comforts I missed while I was in Yunnan.
3/1: Back to school today, but I still felt in an adventuring mood, so I decided to go downtown for the afternoon and evening. Henry and I had the impulse to stop at a Haagen-Daz for dessert and ended up getting an extravagant English High Tea meal. There were over 20 scoops of ice cream amongst other cookies, cakes, sweets, and fruit. It was the most intense dessert I have ever seen, and luckily we couldn't finish it all. After I shopped around while Henry got his hair cut and then we met up with friends at an Irish pub that has amazing specials on Monday nights.
3/2 : I had about 3 presentations and assignments to get done today, so most of my day was consumed with class work, but I was able to take a break and meet up with a friend from Berkeley to grab dinner at my favorite restaurant near campus. I love introducing people to my favorite places around our school, and in turn I usually hear about their favorites, which I then get to try. It started raining after dinner so we got soaked on the way back, but when I returned I ran into more students in my apartment and got to finally introduced to, so that was cool.
3/3: Today I presented all the projects that we had due, which included an overview of our trip to Yunnan, and every group had to introduce their topics in Chinese, even though it is our English language class, so that was interesting. Some students don't speak very much Chinese, so they answered the more simple questions, and it was fun to see how much everyone has progressed in terms of speaking Chinese. I resumed my routine at the gym, and was sad to see how exhausted I was after spin class, because I had not worked out in some time, minus the hiking and biking we did on vacation. I explored a new restaurant for dinner called Helen's, and found out it was brand new, but modeled after the famous one in Beijing. It is an awesome bar/restaurant that is solely filled with college kids from the area, and so a great place to meet people.
3/4: Tonight I made my way downtown once again to meet friends for dinner at a French restaurant called Lingo. It was absolutely the best restaurant I have been to since I have arrived, and such a good deal for the experience. The whole restaurant was filled with French people, and even the French guy in our dinner party scoffed that he doesn't like to come too often, because it is all French people! The restaurant is located near People's Square and People's Park, which is basically the Central Park of Shanghai, and it was beautiful at night. I can't wait for April and May when the weather is nice enough to enjoy the park at night.
3/5: It was finally Friday, and during our last class period today we had a "Karaoke Singing Competition" where every class sang a song, and then some solos and duets were performed as well. Our teachers were the judges, and it was entertaining to see everyone perform. At the end some of our Chinese roommates sang songs too, which was fun to have them come participate. Later that day, it was raining pretty hard so after a meeting with my director, I stayed in and got my work done for the weekend, so I could be ready for Chelsea to come the next day! That night I went back to Helen's with some people from my program, and then Henry and I went downtown to join our French friends for drinks and hanging out. We had previously planned to go to KTV (Chinese Karaoke) that night, but by the time we motivated to go, it was late and rainy, so I called it a night. I went home got my room ready for Chelsea to come stay, and went to bed, because I had a full day ahead of me the next day.
3/6: Today Chelsea comes and I have a lot to do in the meantime, but I'm very excited for her to arrive and hopefully her journey from the airport to my apartment isn't to arduous! Getting around in China if you don't know Chinese is fairly impossible. More on our adventures next time...
Chinese Word of the Day: 卡拉OK (KalaOK - Karaoke)
2/26: After returning from Yunnan, I went came back and slept in very late the next morning. Afterwards I went for lunch near my school at the dumpling place we had dearly missed over the holidays. Then we went to a little shopping district called Xintiandi to do some research for our Culture class project on international brands and globalization vs localization in China. After our research, I went to the blind massage place to get a 2-hour massage, which I felt was long due after the 6 flights I had taken in the past two weeks. It was even more rewarding to pay only $12! At night I explored Jing'an temple park, and had dinner at a Indonesian restaurant called Bali Laguna. It is a beautiful restaurant located on a small lake in the center of a park. It reminded me a lot of Bali actually, and we had wonderful Indonesian curries. After dinner I visit City Shoppe, a local store with mostly Western products, where one might visit if they were homesick, and missing specific items from home. I went to bed early, so I could continue to catch up on sleep.
2/27: Today I woke up and went to a nearby cafe to finish my work for the weekend and write some postcards. I did some research on what to do for the night and found a concert that was playing downtown. The concert was 4 bands from Beijing, and one famous one I had heard of, which was the Indie Rock group Carsick Cars. A couple of us went downtown to a bar called Windows Too to have dinner and drinks and then headed over to the venue Mao Livehouse. The venue was in a very cool part of town called "Red Town" known for its sculpture gardens and cafes, and I will definitely have to explore around there later! The concert was very good, and all the bands were entertaining. The crowd was super trendy and kind of crazy as many mosh pits were formed throughout the duration of the concert, even when the music didn't really warrant them. The night ended a lot later than most concerts in the states do, but Shanghai is a city that rarely sleeps.
2/28: Today, on another assignment for my culture class, I went to a little area called Tianzifang. It's known as the "Soho of Shanghai" and it is a very hidden area consisting of little boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and cafes...basically where I wish I could always be! I looked around, took pictures and did some research of the area. I didn't really get to look into as many shops and galleries as I wanted, but I'm sure I'll be back very soon. We had lunch at a lovely little Japanese restaurant and then took off. I prepared myself to return to class the following morning, and took my new friend from Berkeley to explore the street food around our apartment for dinner. I'm definitely happy to be back home in Shanghai with all the familiar comforts I missed while I was in Yunnan.
3/1: Back to school today, but I still felt in an adventuring mood, so I decided to go downtown for the afternoon and evening. Henry and I had the impulse to stop at a Haagen-Daz for dessert and ended up getting an extravagant English High Tea meal. There were over 20 scoops of ice cream amongst other cookies, cakes, sweets, and fruit. It was the most intense dessert I have ever seen, and luckily we couldn't finish it all. After I shopped around while Henry got his hair cut and then we met up with friends at an Irish pub that has amazing specials on Monday nights.
3/2 : I had about 3 presentations and assignments to get done today, so most of my day was consumed with class work, but I was able to take a break and meet up with a friend from Berkeley to grab dinner at my favorite restaurant near campus. I love introducing people to my favorite places around our school, and in turn I usually hear about their favorites, which I then get to try. It started raining after dinner so we got soaked on the way back, but when I returned I ran into more students in my apartment and got to finally introduced to, so that was cool.
3/3: Today I presented all the projects that we had due, which included an overview of our trip to Yunnan, and every group had to introduce their topics in Chinese, even though it is our English language class, so that was interesting. Some students don't speak very much Chinese, so they answered the more simple questions, and it was fun to see how much everyone has progressed in terms of speaking Chinese. I resumed my routine at the gym, and was sad to see how exhausted I was after spin class, because I had not worked out in some time, minus the hiking and biking we did on vacation. I explored a new restaurant for dinner called Helen's, and found out it was brand new, but modeled after the famous one in Beijing. It is an awesome bar/restaurant that is solely filled with college kids from the area, and so a great place to meet people.
3/4: Tonight I made my way downtown once again to meet friends for dinner at a French restaurant called Lingo. It was absolutely the best restaurant I have been to since I have arrived, and such a good deal for the experience. The whole restaurant was filled with French people, and even the French guy in our dinner party scoffed that he doesn't like to come too often, because it is all French people! The restaurant is located near People's Square and People's Park, which is basically the Central Park of Shanghai, and it was beautiful at night. I can't wait for April and May when the weather is nice enough to enjoy the park at night.
3/5: It was finally Friday, and during our last class period today we had a "Karaoke Singing Competition" where every class sang a song, and then some solos and duets were performed as well. Our teachers were the judges, and it was entertaining to see everyone perform. At the end some of our Chinese roommates sang songs too, which was fun to have them come participate. Later that day, it was raining pretty hard so after a meeting with my director, I stayed in and got my work done for the weekend, so I could be ready for Chelsea to come the next day! That night I went back to Helen's with some people from my program, and then Henry and I went downtown to join our French friends for drinks and hanging out. We had previously planned to go to KTV (Chinese Karaoke) that night, but by the time we motivated to go, it was late and rainy, so I called it a night. I went home got my room ready for Chelsea to come stay, and went to bed, because I had a full day ahead of me the next day.
3/6: Today Chelsea comes and I have a lot to do in the meantime, but I'm very excited for her to arrive and hopefully her journey from the airport to my apartment isn't to arduous! Getting around in China if you don't know Chinese is fairly impossible. More on our adventures next time...
Chinese Word of the Day: 卡拉OK (KalaOK - Karaoke)
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Spring Break: Yunnan
Wednesday morning Sophie and I woke up at 5am and got ready to go to the airport. We are both embarking on separate trips to the Yunnan Province in Southern China. I am going with my program, and she is going with friends from her Beijing program. My program has planned a 9-day vacation for us, and we will be visiting 4 cities: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, and Xishuangbanna. Although Sophie and I are both starting in Kunming, we are taking different flights (both at the crack of dawn), and we will only overlap in one city. The flight from Shanghai to Kunming was 3 hours, and we all slept through the entire thing. When we arrived in Kunming, we took a group bus to our hotel, which was located right in the center of town. Kunming is nicknamed the “Spring City,” because of its year round temperate weather. Unfortunately, it was a little chilly when we were there, but we will be returning to Kunming at the end of our trip, so hopefully the weather will be nicer.
The first thing we did was set out to explore and eat lunch. I ate at small food vendors as I walked through the streets. Because people are vacationing for New Year’s vacation, Kunming was very busy with markets and vendors everywhere. I walked around the Muslim district where there were many mosques and small eating places with interesting food. Yunnan is very interesting because it has many Chinese minorities residing within its borders. Every city that we are visiting is specific to a certain minority group, so we will be learning a lot about each group at their customs. For instance, in Lijiang we will get to see a traditional Naxi music concert. The Naxi minority is one of the most well known ethnic groups in China. In Kunming, they also have a specific bird and flower market, which was full of animals and plants as well as other wares. We decided to head back a little before dinner to nap and get ready. At dinner we got to meet the 9 students from Beijing that are studying through the same program in Beijing. We will all be traveling together for the duration of the trip, and both of our resident directors have planned full days for us the entire time. We had a Chinese meal in a restaurant that looked like it was straight out of a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon scene. The architecture was designed in older Chinese fashion, and I could picture a sword scene happening in the midst of our meal. We would have had front row seats. After dinner, we went to the supermarket to buy snacks for the bus rides we would have the next two days, and then had orientation to go over our itinerary. Our itinerary is very extensive, and most of our days are fully booked, and even our free time is usually scheduled until dinnertime. After the orientation, I went out and explored more of Kunming at night. It is a very small city, and it combines traditional Chinese aspects with very westernized buildings such as huge supermarkets (Carrefour) and malls. Earlier that day I had purchased DVDs of movies that are theaters now, and before I went to bed I watched part of the new Confucius movie.
Day 2: We woke up at 8 and left Kunming for Dali. The bus ride took around 5 hours, and most of us caught up on sleep and then learned a little about Dali history, and the Bai Minority group that is prominent there. When we arrived we went to a little village restaurant to have Chinese food, which in this region is a lot less sweet and oily, and has more dairy in it. Directly after lunch, we went to Lake Erhai and boated to a peninsula on the other side. There we saw Buddhist temples and took part in a traditional Bai tea ceremony. During the ceremony, we tried three types of tea: bitter, sweet, and spicy, and then heard a short singing performance. We learned about the headdresses the Bai women wear, and how different characteristics display a woman’s marital status. Single women have whiter coloring on their headpieces, which is call “snow.” Later that day, we saw many women wearing these, and joked that our guy friends could only flirt with the women wearing “snow.” We had to head back fairly quickly, because the wind was picking up and our boat ride over was already less than pleasant. Our hotel was a beautiful building done in older Chinese architecture overlooking a central garden, and it was peacefully tucked away behind a long market street. A large part of Dali is walled off so that no cars can drive through the market streets. We walked through the South gate to see all of the vendors and temples throughout the city. There was a street called ‘Foreigner’s Street” with many western restaurants and bars. We ate dinner at a restaurant with every food imaginable, and later I was looking through my China travel book and found that it was one of the two recommended restaurants in Dali, so we did a good job of happening upon that restaurant. We walked around a little more at night, but then it started raining, so we went back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep before our bus ride to Lijiang the next day.
Day 3: We woke up early in Dali to leave for a four-hour bus ride to Lijiang. The night before ten students had become seriously ill, so we all thought it had been food poisoning from lunch the day before, because it was the only common meal we shared. We made more stops along the way to Lijiang to accommodate the sick students, so we arrived later, which was fine because we did not have much planned to do that day. When we arrived, most of us rested, and then explored the part of town we were staying in. We stayed in “Old Town,” which reminded me of Venice, because there were no roads, tiny walking streets, and canals, although the canals were too small for boats. I went to a small café that looked out over the streets and read there awhile. Later, our group went to a traditional Naxi music concert. Having previewed this type of music prior to the concert, I knew I was not going to particularly enjoy it, but it was more impressive live. The orchestra including around 10 men over the age of 80 and each was recognized during the performance. In between each music piece there were long explanations of the history of Naxi music said in both Mandarin and English. The video below is a short sample of what the performance was like. I went back to the hotel afterwards, because the next day we had to wake up at 6am to go to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, where we would ascend to the 14,000ft viewing point.
Day 4: Today we woke up at 5:45am to go to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We got to the mountain around 7 and rented extra coats, because it was very cold. All of us looked extremely cute in our huge red parkas, but we were grateful when we got to the top of the mountain. To get to the top, we rode cable cars for 20 minutes. These were not ideal for those afraid of heights, because they went very vertically at many points, and obviously you could see all 14,000ft below you. Once we got to the top, it was pretty difficult to breath. Most of the Chinese tourists bought personal cans of oxygen, and our group had some if we needed to use it. There was a ton of snow that had freshly fallen from the day before, and it was a beautiful clear day, so we could see everything below us. We walked around a little before heading back down the cable car to the lodge. The day was so sunny, and the temperature was a lot warmer, so we ate lunch outside and took naps. At 2 we went to the Lijiang Impression Show. This show is a cultural demonstration of the traditions and lifestyles of the Naxi, Yi, and Bai minorities of Yunnan. It uses the snow mountain as a backdrop and has a cast of over 500 people and many horses. Zhang Yimou, who also directed the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, directed it and I found it very interesting. After the show, we all went back to the hotel, and I rested for a little before going to a exploring a little and going to a café. Henry and I met up with Sophie and her friends from Beijing for dinner that night and we went to a Swiss restaurant that was recommended in my travel book that had traditional food as well as western food. We had a good meal, however, the power went out in the middle and so it became a little more romantic with candles as our only lighting. We went and got dessert and talked a little longer before we parted ways.
Day 5: Unfortunately this morning I woke up at 4:30am feeling very ill and got sick multiple times. Our director told me other people had been sick as well even after the original few, so we began to think it was a flu or virus going around. I was pretty much out of commission today, and luckily we only had a short bus ride to the next town, so I slept the rest of the day. We had to fly out of Lijiang at 10pm, so we got to the airport, and even though I was feeling better, I hadn’t eaten anything that day, so I was taking it very easy. However, as we were boarding I made one last bathroom trip, and before I knew it, I had fainted! Luckily I told my director my plans to use the restroom before boarding, so she came to look for me, but when I woke up, I was very disoriented and sure I had missed the plane. The flight was short and I slept through it, and as soon as I got to the hotel I fell asleep.
Day 6: This morning I felt 95% better, but decided to stick around the city instead of doing the day’s activity in the extremely warm weather. We had arrived in Xishuangbanna, which is known as China’s mini-Thailand because it is one of the southern most cities in China, so even in February the temperature was in the 80’s. I walked around and saw some of the parks and enjoyed the sunshine. I sat down at a café that was recommended in my China travel book and had some of the best food I had eaten on my vacation. They had western, Chinese, and Dai minority food, and it seemed that the crowd was mixed enough to represent all of those cuisines. I sat and read my book for a bit, and decided I would come back later to use wireless internet. I returned to my room and took a nap while I waited for everyone to return from the village they had gone to. I really wanted to go with them today, because they were hiking and boating to a village, and then eating with a host family, and playing basketball against the local villagers, but taking it easy turned out to hasten my recovery, so I can be thankful for that! I brought friends back to the café I found for a pre-dinner snack, and then later we went for Thai food. When they say that Xishuangbanna is mini-Thailand they weren’t lying. The food was spicier and more authentic than any Thai food I have had in the states. Because my stomach was still recovering, I could only stand so much of the spicy food, but it was very tasty. I went to bed early, so I could get up and be part of the group’s adventures the next day.
Day 7: Today I woke up feeling amazing. My director was worried that I still shouldn’t participate, but I had been looking forward to hiking and biking in the rainforest the whole day prior. We started early and bused to the trailhead after breakfast. The first part of the hike was about two hours long throughout the tropical mountain, and then we stopped at an Aini Minority Village for a tea break. In this village they have a tea plantation that makes tea from an 800-year-old tree, and they served us in bamboo shoot glasses that they then gifted to us. The next part of our hike was for another hour until we reached a spot for lunch. Here our tour staff, who brought us lunch, met us and we sat in the mountain and ate while we rested. Throughout the hike we saw so many rice paddies and beautiful forests, and after lunch we finished the last part of the hike to the other side of the mountain. Once we reached the road, we had the option of taking the bus back to the hotel or biking down the mountain to another bus waiting at the bottom. Most of us opted for the biking option, and everyone who did was very pleased. It was one of my favorite things I have done since I’ve been in China. We biked 8 miles mostly downhill admiring the rainforest, waterfalls, and rice paddies along the way. The weather was warm, and it was the perfect way to end our day. We got back to the hotel and everyone had to shower before dinner. Dinner was at a traditional Dai restaurant complete with Dai traditional dances and dishes. In true Chinese fashion the performance was so loud that we couldn’t even talk amongst ourselves at dinner. After dinner we went back to our favorite Meimei café to get dessert and enjoy sitting outside in the warm night air. Tomorrow we will go back to Kunming for two last days before heading back to Shanghai.
Day 8: We woke up early today and checked out of our hotel in Xishuangbanna. Our flight for Kunming left at 10:30am and we had a very turbulent 40-minute flight. Once we arrived, we went straight to lunch, which included another performance, however, they haven’t been particularly entertaining. After lunch, we went to a teahouse, where we tried 5 different types of teas and learned about their medicinal values. A lot of people bought tea as gifts, and then we left to check into our hotel. We stayed in the same hotel as our first night in Kunming, so we new what we could find in the surrounding area. We decided to explore the Green Lake area around Yunnan University. It’s a beautiful lake in the middle of the city where people fly kites, ride boats, and picnic in the park. I’ve never seen the Chinese art of kite flying. Some flyers can get the kite so high into the sky that you can barely see it floating in the far distance. I found a café that was recommended in my book and enjoyed some tasty western food and coffee. There are a lot of American students in Kunming, and I met a few at the Salvador Café I was at. I caught up with friends from home, and researched for my spring break trip to Beijing. Later that night I watched Sherlock Holmes thanks to the China DVD black market!
Day 9: Today is our last day. We got to sleep in, but I woke up early to explore more around Yunnan University. We visited many little shops and cafes, and finally sat down for brunch. I met a fellow Southern California resident, and we talked a bit about our intentions in China, and it was nice to meet other Americans in such a random place as Kunming. The University really draws a lot of nationalities to the smaller town of Kunming. Our group met up for one last dinner before the Beijing group and Shanghai group parted ways at the airport. We had a great meal and celebrated two birthdays with Chinese birthday cake. We headed to the airport and hopped on our two and a half hour flight back to Shanghai, and now I’m home and happy to see my pillow and teddy bear right where I left them. I will miss the weather in Yunnan province, as it is currently raining and thundering in Shanghai! I had a wonderful vacation, and a very authentic experience in every city. It was great to have the addition of the Beijing group, and the trip was so well organized that we got to see so much in a short period of time. Now back to a busy fun-filled weekend in Shanghai to celebrate the end of a great Spring break!
Chinese Word of the Day: 云南 (Yunnan, literally means 'South of the Clouds')
The first thing we did was set out to explore and eat lunch. I ate at small food vendors as I walked through the streets. Because people are vacationing for New Year’s vacation, Kunming was very busy with markets and vendors everywhere. I walked around the Muslim district where there were many mosques and small eating places with interesting food. Yunnan is very interesting because it has many Chinese minorities residing within its borders. Every city that we are visiting is specific to a certain minority group, so we will be learning a lot about each group at their customs. For instance, in Lijiang we will get to see a traditional Naxi music concert. The Naxi minority is one of the most well known ethnic groups in China. In Kunming, they also have a specific bird and flower market, which was full of animals and plants as well as other wares. We decided to head back a little before dinner to nap and get ready. At dinner we got to meet the 9 students from Beijing that are studying through the same program in Beijing. We will all be traveling together for the duration of the trip, and both of our resident directors have planned full days for us the entire time. We had a Chinese meal in a restaurant that looked like it was straight out of a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon scene. The architecture was designed in older Chinese fashion, and I could picture a sword scene happening in the midst of our meal. We would have had front row seats. After dinner, we went to the supermarket to buy snacks for the bus rides we would have the next two days, and then had orientation to go over our itinerary. Our itinerary is very extensive, and most of our days are fully booked, and even our free time is usually scheduled until dinnertime. After the orientation, I went out and explored more of Kunming at night. It is a very small city, and it combines traditional Chinese aspects with very westernized buildings such as huge supermarkets (Carrefour) and malls. Earlier that day I had purchased DVDs of movies that are theaters now, and before I went to bed I watched part of the new Confucius movie.
Day 2: We woke up at 8 and left Kunming for Dali. The bus ride took around 5 hours, and most of us caught up on sleep and then learned a little about Dali history, and the Bai Minority group that is prominent there. When we arrived we went to a little village restaurant to have Chinese food, which in this region is a lot less sweet and oily, and has more dairy in it. Directly after lunch, we went to Lake Erhai and boated to a peninsula on the other side. There we saw Buddhist temples and took part in a traditional Bai tea ceremony. During the ceremony, we tried three types of tea: bitter, sweet, and spicy, and then heard a short singing performance. We learned about the headdresses the Bai women wear, and how different characteristics display a woman’s marital status. Single women have whiter coloring on their headpieces, which is call “snow.” Later that day, we saw many women wearing these, and joked that our guy friends could only flirt with the women wearing “snow.” We had to head back fairly quickly, because the wind was picking up and our boat ride over was already less than pleasant. Our hotel was a beautiful building done in older Chinese architecture overlooking a central garden, and it was peacefully tucked away behind a long market street. A large part of Dali is walled off so that no cars can drive through the market streets. We walked through the South gate to see all of the vendors and temples throughout the city. There was a street called ‘Foreigner’s Street” with many western restaurants and bars. We ate dinner at a restaurant with every food imaginable, and later I was looking through my China travel book and found that it was one of the two recommended restaurants in Dali, so we did a good job of happening upon that restaurant. We walked around a little more at night, but then it started raining, so we went back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep before our bus ride to Lijiang the next day.
Day 3: We woke up early in Dali to leave for a four-hour bus ride to Lijiang. The night before ten students had become seriously ill, so we all thought it had been food poisoning from lunch the day before, because it was the only common meal we shared. We made more stops along the way to Lijiang to accommodate the sick students, so we arrived later, which was fine because we did not have much planned to do that day. When we arrived, most of us rested, and then explored the part of town we were staying in. We stayed in “Old Town,” which reminded me of Venice, because there were no roads, tiny walking streets, and canals, although the canals were too small for boats. I went to a small café that looked out over the streets and read there awhile. Later, our group went to a traditional Naxi music concert. Having previewed this type of music prior to the concert, I knew I was not going to particularly enjoy it, but it was more impressive live. The orchestra including around 10 men over the age of 80 and each was recognized during the performance. In between each music piece there were long explanations of the history of Naxi music said in both Mandarin and English. The video below is a short sample of what the performance was like. I went back to the hotel afterwards, because the next day we had to wake up at 6am to go to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, where we would ascend to the 14,000ft viewing point.
Day 4: Today we woke up at 5:45am to go to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We got to the mountain around 7 and rented extra coats, because it was very cold. All of us looked extremely cute in our huge red parkas, but we were grateful when we got to the top of the mountain. To get to the top, we rode cable cars for 20 minutes. These were not ideal for those afraid of heights, because they went very vertically at many points, and obviously you could see all 14,000ft below you. Once we got to the top, it was pretty difficult to breath. Most of the Chinese tourists bought personal cans of oxygen, and our group had some if we needed to use it. There was a ton of snow that had freshly fallen from the day before, and it was a beautiful clear day, so we could see everything below us. We walked around a little before heading back down the cable car to the lodge. The day was so sunny, and the temperature was a lot warmer, so we ate lunch outside and took naps. At 2 we went to the Lijiang Impression Show. This show is a cultural demonstration of the traditions and lifestyles of the Naxi, Yi, and Bai minorities of Yunnan. It uses the snow mountain as a backdrop and has a cast of over 500 people and many horses. Zhang Yimou, who also directed the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, directed it and I found it very interesting. After the show, we all went back to the hotel, and I rested for a little before going to a exploring a little and going to a café. Henry and I met up with Sophie and her friends from Beijing for dinner that night and we went to a Swiss restaurant that was recommended in my travel book that had traditional food as well as western food. We had a good meal, however, the power went out in the middle and so it became a little more romantic with candles as our only lighting. We went and got dessert and talked a little longer before we parted ways.
Day 5: Unfortunately this morning I woke up at 4:30am feeling very ill and got sick multiple times. Our director told me other people had been sick as well even after the original few, so we began to think it was a flu or virus going around. I was pretty much out of commission today, and luckily we only had a short bus ride to the next town, so I slept the rest of the day. We had to fly out of Lijiang at 10pm, so we got to the airport, and even though I was feeling better, I hadn’t eaten anything that day, so I was taking it very easy. However, as we were boarding I made one last bathroom trip, and before I knew it, I had fainted! Luckily I told my director my plans to use the restroom before boarding, so she came to look for me, but when I woke up, I was very disoriented and sure I had missed the plane. The flight was short and I slept through it, and as soon as I got to the hotel I fell asleep.
Day 6: This morning I felt 95% better, but decided to stick around the city instead of doing the day’s activity in the extremely warm weather. We had arrived in Xishuangbanna, which is known as China’s mini-Thailand because it is one of the southern most cities in China, so even in February the temperature was in the 80’s. I walked around and saw some of the parks and enjoyed the sunshine. I sat down at a café that was recommended in my China travel book and had some of the best food I had eaten on my vacation. They had western, Chinese, and Dai minority food, and it seemed that the crowd was mixed enough to represent all of those cuisines. I sat and read my book for a bit, and decided I would come back later to use wireless internet. I returned to my room and took a nap while I waited for everyone to return from the village they had gone to. I really wanted to go with them today, because they were hiking and boating to a village, and then eating with a host family, and playing basketball against the local villagers, but taking it easy turned out to hasten my recovery, so I can be thankful for that! I brought friends back to the café I found for a pre-dinner snack, and then later we went for Thai food. When they say that Xishuangbanna is mini-Thailand they weren’t lying. The food was spicier and more authentic than any Thai food I have had in the states. Because my stomach was still recovering, I could only stand so much of the spicy food, but it was very tasty. I went to bed early, so I could get up and be part of the group’s adventures the next day.
Day 7: Today I woke up feeling amazing. My director was worried that I still shouldn’t participate, but I had been looking forward to hiking and biking in the rainforest the whole day prior. We started early and bused to the trailhead after breakfast. The first part of the hike was about two hours long throughout the tropical mountain, and then we stopped at an Aini Minority Village for a tea break. In this village they have a tea plantation that makes tea from an 800-year-old tree, and they served us in bamboo shoot glasses that they then gifted to us. The next part of our hike was for another hour until we reached a spot for lunch. Here our tour staff, who brought us lunch, met us and we sat in the mountain and ate while we rested. Throughout the hike we saw so many rice paddies and beautiful forests, and after lunch we finished the last part of the hike to the other side of the mountain. Once we reached the road, we had the option of taking the bus back to the hotel or biking down the mountain to another bus waiting at the bottom. Most of us opted for the biking option, and everyone who did was very pleased. It was one of my favorite things I have done since I’ve been in China. We biked 8 miles mostly downhill admiring the rainforest, waterfalls, and rice paddies along the way. The weather was warm, and it was the perfect way to end our day. We got back to the hotel and everyone had to shower before dinner. Dinner was at a traditional Dai restaurant complete with Dai traditional dances and dishes. In true Chinese fashion the performance was so loud that we couldn’t even talk amongst ourselves at dinner. After dinner we went back to our favorite Meimei café to get dessert and enjoy sitting outside in the warm night air. Tomorrow we will go back to Kunming for two last days before heading back to Shanghai.
Day 8: We woke up early today and checked out of our hotel in Xishuangbanna. Our flight for Kunming left at 10:30am and we had a very turbulent 40-minute flight. Once we arrived, we went straight to lunch, which included another performance, however, they haven’t been particularly entertaining. After lunch, we went to a teahouse, where we tried 5 different types of teas and learned about their medicinal values. A lot of people bought tea as gifts, and then we left to check into our hotel. We stayed in the same hotel as our first night in Kunming, so we new what we could find in the surrounding area. We decided to explore the Green Lake area around Yunnan University. It’s a beautiful lake in the middle of the city where people fly kites, ride boats, and picnic in the park. I’ve never seen the Chinese art of kite flying. Some flyers can get the kite so high into the sky that you can barely see it floating in the far distance. I found a café that was recommended in my book and enjoyed some tasty western food and coffee. There are a lot of American students in Kunming, and I met a few at the Salvador Café I was at. I caught up with friends from home, and researched for my spring break trip to Beijing. Later that night I watched Sherlock Holmes thanks to the China DVD black market!
Day 9: Today is our last day. We got to sleep in, but I woke up early to explore more around Yunnan University. We visited many little shops and cafes, and finally sat down for brunch. I met a fellow Southern California resident, and we talked a bit about our intentions in China, and it was nice to meet other Americans in such a random place as Kunming. The University really draws a lot of nationalities to the smaller town of Kunming. Our group met up for one last dinner before the Beijing group and Shanghai group parted ways at the airport. We had a great meal and celebrated two birthdays with Chinese birthday cake. We headed to the airport and hopped on our two and a half hour flight back to Shanghai, and now I’m home and happy to see my pillow and teddy bear right where I left them. I will miss the weather in Yunnan province, as it is currently raining and thundering in Shanghai! I had a wonderful vacation, and a very authentic experience in every city. It was great to have the addition of the Beijing group, and the trip was so well organized that we got to see so much in a short period of time. Now back to a busy fun-filled weekend in Shanghai to celebrate the end of a great Spring break!
Chinese Word of the Day: 云南 (Yunnan, literally means 'South of the Clouds')
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
