2/11/2008

-Once again, I’m back in Beijing, this time after a slightly less frozen adventure in Taiyuan and Pingyao for the Chinese New Year! I return to find that most of the city is still on vacation for another week (slackers). This means:

1. I have no internet. We’re not quite sure what the story is, but it’s not here. I’ve heard that all the IT guys are on vacation, so nobody has fixed the internet after one of its routine breakdowns that happen once every 30 hours or so. Others say that the school intentionally cut off the internet because it interferes with the school’s wireless systems, if that even makes sense. There is also rumor that a giant beast invaded the server while we were all in Harbin, to only release its grip on the school’s internet after a so-called “chosen one” arises to slay it. Either way, I am stuck without internet in my dorm. Somehow the PKU campus wireless still works, as does the internet at our program directors’ offices across the street. I think once again we’re just getting the “American” service. If I do need to go online I can easily go to the SIS building across the street. The Study English Bar also has free wireless, and they give you delicious free drinks like kiwi tea! So it’s not actually that bad.

2. None of the cafeterias on campus are open. Well, that’s not actually true. There is one eatery I have dubbed “the rice house,” simply because every other campus food place is called the _____ house, and this place serves rice. And they do have many other things! The typical choice is a selection of stir-fry dishes that they will then dump a bowl’s worth of rice onto. Yet, in the morning they have baozi (delicious, delicious dumplings, bigger than regular Chinese dumplings with a thicker breading) and we were happy to find at lunch today that they also had jaozi (the regular old Chinese dumplings). The place is not bad, but I’m a little afraid I will tire of it soon. There are usually about 6 eateries in our immediate vicinity to choose from, plus the eight jillion random other ones spread about campus. And I miss the noodle house!!

3. The banks are not open. Well, that’s not true either. The only bank that is of any use to me is not open, that is the Bank of China. I went across the street to the Bank of Beijing to happily see it was open. Yet, for some reason, despite the many transactions they were obviously performing at the time, I was told I could not cash my traveler’s checks because “they were on holiday.” Oh well. It’s not like I spent all of my cash and don’t have a check card to get money out of an ATM. …wait, it is like that? Hm. In all seriousness, it isn’t much of a problem. Since RMB has such a low value compared to the dollar, it’s very easy to borrow money from friends here. It’s just a bit annoying to think I will have to do that for a whole other week.

-So you may have noticed I never finished retelling the Harbin trip. In a nutshell, we went to snow world the next day, it was fun but not as fun as ice world, we flew back home, and that’s the end of it. A few noteworthy events to mention:

1. While in the shower Saturday night in Harbin I noticed the phone was ringing. I was especially surprised because this was a bathroom, and what the hell was a phone doing there? Obviously I couldn’t answer it at the time, so I continued on with my business. Perhaps our room phone was located in the bathroom, or maybe you could call the bathroom phone from the room and my roommates thought that was the funniest thing in the world to do? Could be anything. Once I stepped out of the shower, the phone rang again, so I answered. A bunch of incomprehensible Chinese followed, until they realized I only spoke English, when they said “Beautiful girl?” …what? I was confused. “You want…beautiful girl?” HA! Ohhhhh. No no no no no was my response, and I laughed hysterically after hanging up. Although I was so curious as to what exactly would have happened if I’d said yes.

2. The next day we took a gondola to cross the river to snow world. It was fun.

3. That night a few of us decided to wander into the bright, flashy club across the street. There were so many lights, it had to be important! We were led to a table immediately. Hm, I thought, I’d never been led to table in a club before. Wait a minute, there are poles everywhere here. Wait a minute, a GIRL just walked out and started DANCING on that pole. Ohhhhh. I started to wonder what section of town we were in. Laughing, we quickly left, but not before noticing the menu. It listed items around the range of 5800 kuai…I’m not sure I want to know what that was.

4. The next morning I tried to watch the Superbowl at 7am, but no! The best we could get was espn.com’s gamecast, which is a sad, sad thing. The fact that the Patriots lost made up for it a little, and seeing a pot of porridge labeled “gruel” at breakfast made up for it a lot. Ohhh translations in China. How poor they are.

5. At the airport restaurant we were handed menus in Cyrillic. I guess we look Russian.

Ice World!

2/5/2008

-Ice world! We had made it. Words really cannot describe with justice the beauty of this place, so hopefully the pictures can do a better job. Even from the outside we were amazed. The entrance was set up like a giant castle, and a ten-foot high wall of ice surrounded the perimeter. I was actually surprised at how big it was. It really was an entire amusement park…made of ice.

-First things first, after the longest, coldest walk of my life, we needed to warm up and get some grub. There was a small shack/convenience store in the parking lot. All they had to eat were “just add water” buckets of noodles. But man, those were the best noodles I’d had in my life. =)

-We went in! Like I said, I cannot do this place justice with words. The place was filled with many buildings and sculptures, all of which had different colored fluorescent lights inside the ice. So the entire city glowed with color. The first station we stopped at had a set of completely accurate-looking, life-sized cars. I liked them a lot, and yet they still were probably the least interesting exhibit of all. Other buildings included a Forbidden City palace with steps going up two stories to the top, Westminster Abbey (or Notre Damne, I couldn’t tell), a Greek acropolis about five stories high with steps going up to the top, a Disney-like castle, and plenty of other buildings that were probably replicas of things I simply wasn’t familiar with. In the center was a 100-200ft high tower that flashed and changed colors in various patterns. A 10ft-wide orange and white walkway ran in a loop around the park. If you’ve ever played Mario Kart, it was basically the rainbow road. That’s right. Best of all, there was a five-story high ice luge made in the shape of the Great Wall. They sent us shooting down on a tiny plastic sled. I couldn’t believe how fast it went! They have a pile of soft snow for you to crash into at the end, and as soon as you do a big, burly Chinese man picks you up and throws you to the side, just as the person behind you comes flying in.

-Yea that’s another thing, this place could never exist in the states. It would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. They didn’t bother with any “handrails,” “regulations” or “safety.” On the luge alone, I don’t understand how somebody doesn’t get run into every five minutes. It’s really too bad that Americans have to be so paranoid and quick to sue people at the drop of a hat. This was an amazing park.

-So you may have noticed that an entire city of ice would require the place to be pretty dang cold. It was…and then some. How cold was it you ask? We never got an exact number because we never found any thermometers, but it was so cold that the batteries in my camera froze. At first I thought the batteries I used just ran out quickly, but when I put a brand-new pair in and it immediately said “low battery” and turned off, I realized what was happening. By the end of the night, I had to clasp the batteries in my hands for several minutes just to warm them up enough to take one, maybe two pictures before they froze up again. Within seconds they were unusable. I was bundled up enough that I didn’t feel all that cold, meaning I didn’t feel like my health was in danger by being outside. Some of our friends, however, were not dressed well enough to feel that confident, so we had to make sure to take a break inside every once in a while. Fortunately, they had plenty of heated cafés spread about the place, so we never had to worry.

-On our trip back we grabbed the first taxi driver we saw but made SURE to ask him how much ahead of time. He told us 80 kuai to fit all six of us in one cab, which isn’t even a good deal but at that point we didn’t care. We were cold, and that was good enough. Yet, when we finally got to the hotel the guy thought he could get away with telling us there was an extra “20 kuai fee.” No way, buddy. We threw 80 at him and got out, despite what he yelled at us. It seems like everybody tries to squeeze extra money out of us.

Frozen River Fun

2/4/2008 (cont’d)

-Our next job was to meander on over to the river, which we would cross and make it to ice world! I say meander because we didn’t really have an exact idea of how to get there. But since the river loops around the town, there’s only so far you can go before you eventually hit the river anyways. On our way, we got an idea of Harbin’s personality. First of all, it was just as crowded as Beijing, if not more so. All of the shops had people out front doing everything they could to attract customers. Some had speakers blasting rave music that you could hear several blocks away. Some had people singing with a microphone and speakers, or even just a guy yelling things into a megaphone.

-I also had never felt like such a target before in my life, but I suppose a group of six Americans is pretty hard not to spot in a place such as this. Everyone who saw us chased after us, saying “Hello!” followed by a bunch of Chinese that in some way was instructing us to buy things. The one cool thing about being hassled so much is it allowed me to bargain, something I hadn’t experienced yet in China. I remember bargaining in Guatemala, only barely knowing how to say numbers in Spanish. Now it was nice to have a quicker understanding of what I was saying and hearing, and I could even throw in a few phrases to make the bargaining more genuine. I felt a little too guilty to bargain the person down all that much, though, since I could really afford it more than any of them could.

-On our way to the river, I saw a funny-looking dog that I stopped to take a picture of. As I did, a woman came up and tried to get me to buy the dog from her. I’m pretty sure she was not the owner, as she kept on walking when I said no.

-The river itself was gorgeous! Tons of entertainment was set up along the “shore,” like snow tubing, an ice luge, skating, and of course, blaring music. People sat on horse-drawn carriages and dog sleds to take people across, and far off in the distance we could see a cable car taking people across by the sky route. We, however, decided to go the fun way and cross it by foot! The river was incredibly wide, maybe as much as half a mile. Very slippery at parts but most of it was covered in snow as well. At the areas of exposed ice, you could see it was frozen for at least a meter down.

-Once we made it across the river, we were eager to find this magical world of ice! But as we started walking, we realized the island was empty. Where were all the people coming to see the festival? This was a bit strange. The few people we could find to ask said there was no ice festival on the island and pointed us back to where we came from. No! This couldn’t be! Determined, we began walking towards the cable car line. Surely the gondolas were there to take people to the ice world. The one problem? It was getting dark, and with darkness came even more cold. I hadn’t really thought that could be possible at this point. It took us a good long walk to make it to the cable car let off point, where we saw bright green lights. Yes! This was it! No. Actually, this was snow world, an area of various snow sculptures. This was another cool attraction (no pun intended) that we were planning on visiting but not nearly as good as ice world. Plus, it was closed at night. Fortunately, there was still someone at the ticket booth who told us to travel down the road a bit further, but that we “should take a cab because it is far.” Somehow, though, there were no cabs in existence on this stretch of abandoned road. So we continued to walk, across a long bridge, and on to roads that seemed to be going further and further away from civilization. I began to get a little nervous about our situation… We were wandering blindly through Siberia in the dark with the temperature rapidly dropping, and we had no idea exactly how far we needed to go. This is the way bad things can happen. Then! Miraculously, we came upon a slew of taxis waiting in a parking lot, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We couldn’t believe or understand it, but we didn’t care! We all piled into a taxi van that took us quickly to ice world. It turned out to not be much farther away but still was further than we would have (or should have) walked.

2/4/2008

-It appears that whenever I write a post, I get suddenly cut off before I can really finish. Maybe I just type too slowly. Anyways, I’m now back in Beijing. It is almost hilarious how warm this place feels! A week ago I could barely stand to go outside. I had to bundle up in every way just to walk down the block to the market. But now! I happily stroll down the streets at night with no gloves or earmuffs, my coat unzipped even. No exaggeration, Beijing feels like springtime compared to Harbin.

-So yes, Harbin was cold. Ohhh so cold. My daily outfit included long underwear (top and bottom), warm pants, a T-shirt, a long-sleeved warmer shirt, another long-sleeved shirt, a fleece, and my heavy down coat. Of course I also had two pairs of socks, gloves, and earmuffs. I was still cold. The high is usually around 15-17 degrees, while the coldest part of the night is probably around -10. That’s right, below zero. A wee southern lad like me couldn’t even imagine such temperatures. Our first step out into the day was probably about the same as a cold day in the North Carolina winter would be…if you were naked.

-Our goals for day 2 were to see the St. Sophia church, then wander around town to the frozen river, which we would cross to find ice world! The church was very beautiful but rather small. Apparently it was one of the few Russian Orthodox churches that survived the liberation of Harbin by the glorious People’s Republic. Actually, I think the city became Chinese way before 1949, but I’m keeping that phrase there. Anyways, the church was no longer being used for religious services and was just set up as a museum inside. Still very pretty.

-One thing made me a bit sad. I had thought Beijing was polluted. Oh no no no no. Beijing at least has mostly transparent air. Harbin, however, has a thick smoky haze to it. The day seemed very foggy, but no that was just toxic gas. I could actually feel it in my throat this time. I guess that’s what the improved environmental efforts in Beijing are doing. They’re keeping it from looking like Harbin! Fortunately, the smoke did seem to clear out in the afternoon and we were able to even see blue skies.

-The town itself is pretty trashy. Part of it may be our less than cheery introduction to the city with the taxi drivers, but everything seemed rather dark and eerie. Buildings were all covered in some sort of black soot, and the streets were spotted with slabs of ice made from questionable liquids. We ended up walking through a pretty cool street market, though, with lots of trinkets and delicious-smelling foods. Despite the calls from my stomach, I refrained from buying any of the street eats. I’m sure I’ll end up eating some street food sooner or later, but I don’t really want to risk it away from Beijing. Before too long we found a tiny little soup shop with some scrumptious noodle/soup stuff! I’m not sure how much I’ve gone into detail over the food here, but one of my favorite things now is a meat broth with noodles, vegetables and pieces of meat (which are usually just to add flavor and have too much cartilage to actually eat). This was by far the best I’ve had so far in China.

First Night(mares) =)

2/3/2008

-Harbin! The land of magical dreams! Let me keep you updated on the comings and goings of our trip so far:

-First night. We arrived a bit later than expected, partly because of our plane being delayed 40 minutes and partly because we mixed up the time of our flight. We also showed up about a million hours ahead of time to make sure we got through the supposed hellish traffic of Chinese New Year, so there was lots of sitting around. Fortunately I brought my ipod so I was well entertained by watching UNC take out dook on their home floor in 2001. We ended up at Harbin airport around 12:30 am, quickly bundling ourselves up as much as possible before getting off the plane. I was already cold going through the walkway between the plane and the airport, so I knew we were in for some fun.

Before we could even make it out of the airport, a horde of taxi drivers descended upon us. Our group had gotten split up at the baggage claim, so I was trying to find the rest of my friends before any of us got into a taxi. The drivers, however, would have none of it. They were yelling, standing in our way, even grabbing our luggage to “assist” us, trying to make us choose them as our chauffeurs. We found the rest of our group at the exit, but still wanted to get outside and see the cabs before we agreed to anybody’s offer. We had already heard about unregistered taxis in Beijing who try to rip foreigners off. Fortunately, those can be clearly spotted because they don’t have any “Taxi” sign on the top, nor do they have the registration stickers on their windshield and dashboard. They basically look like normal cars. As we were walking towards the cabs, the first group of drivers still wouldn’t leave us alone. A couple actually began pushing us towards their cab, and I literally had to grab my suitcase from them to keep them from taking it for me. We found two cabs that looked legit (at least they looked like the legit ones in Beijing), but I was still nervous at how excited and eager they were to take us for a ride. We had the name of the hotel written in characters on a sheet of paper, so we had to show it to both drivers before either of us could go. The second driver went ahead and put my luggage in the trunk before we had even shown him where we were going. Fortunately, I was relieved to see stickers on his windshield and dash, so I was feeling alright. It was amazing already to see the culture change after leaving Beijing. Dr. Sun had told us to watch out in traveling to Harbin, that the people in the north are “not as nice” as in Beijing. Maybe this is what he was talking about.

Anyways, we’re riding along for about 5 minutes when we get a call from the girls in the other cab. They were making sure our meter was running because their driver hadn’t turned on his and just said “you’re both going the same place, so you’ll pay the same as the others.” Ours was running, so everything seemed okay, but still…that’s a little strange. We realized it was even more strange in a few minutes when our meter had already hit 60 kuai after driving for no more than 10 minutes. An hour-long drive in Beijing only gets up to about 75 kuai. This wasn’t right. We had assumed since he had a meter on that it was legit, but no. He apparently had a faster setting to put it on for the “American” taxi ride. Now it makes sense why each driver was so eager to grab us as their customers. The worst part was we couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Even if we had known enough Chinese to argue with him (which we didn’t), we couldn’t really say anything when he had a meter telling us the “correct” price. And if we refused to pay that much, what would he do? We were in the middle of cold Siberia, after midnight, in a town we don’t know whatsoever. Even Beijing seemed safe and sound compared to this place. We realized just how far away from home we were. Fortunately, the driver indeed took us to our hotel, and the price wasn’t TOO bad, at least not nearly as high as we were fearing it would be. 170 kuai for each cab (a little over $20). We could get over that.

Checking into our hotel took a little while, as nobody at the desk spoke any English. Fortunately, Hillary has taken up to 400 level Chinese, so she was able to do most of the talking for us. We were still, however, pretty paranoid that every step we took, somebody was going to rip us off. It was amazing, while waiting in the lobby two different cabs could see us through the glass and stopped outside. I had never felt like such a target. We ended up getting everything straightened out with the room and spent the rest of the night laughing about how everything was going to be a trick. We imagined getting into the shower, only to have a cage fall down around us, requiring money to exit. Our sleep was comfortable if short.

2/1/2008

-Today is Friday, a very IMPORTANT day. It is because we are leaving for Harbin tonight! *gasp* I’m still a little nervous as to how this whole thing will work out. We’re flying off on a plane to some mysterious land in the north where we supposedly have a hotel room booked. What will actually happen…I’ll have to wait and see.

1/30/08

-Laundry day! I figured after nearly three weeks it was about time, despite my total procrastination. I was hoping to put it off long enough that the problem would just go away, but apparently that doesn’t happen. Fortunately the washing machine is on our floor and the maids were right there to help me (read: do everything for me). I was at least able to hold the entire conversation in Chinese! There may not be too many linguistic intricacies in “I don’t know how to use this,” but I was happy with myself. Now I have time to kill while I play the waiting game.

-Wednesdays are my free day, meaning I only have my language class from 9-12 and then I’m free! It’s even nicer because, unlike home, there are very few ways I can waste my time. The only things I have to choose are sitting around twiddling my thumbs or accomplishing something.

-Today my accomplishment was to check out the “single’s bar” on the way to Wudaokao. No, I’m not trying to explore the dating scene of Beijing. Instead, I’m taking advantage of their need for English teachers! The guy who owns it, Pang, has set up a bunch of classes there for people to learn English or Chinese, and they are looking for native speakers of either to teach classes in the afternoons/evenings. A number of students from our program have already signed up, including my roommate, and they love it. They basically just hand you a book and put you in front of a class. And the staff is so appreciative! Apparently you get a free meal and all the drinks you want, in addition to the 100 kuai/hour. Because of the Spring Festival, I won’t get to start for about two weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes.

-You might ask, how could I possibly wait two weeks to start such a fun endeavor? Because Spring Festival will be AMAZING of course! Everyday I hear more sweet things about Harbin. Not only is it supposedly the “Paris of the East” but also home to the most beautiful people in the world, according to our language instructor.