Shanghai Part 1

The Light Fellowship provided me with enough money to stay in a hostel here in Beijing for a few weeks until my fall semester starts. However, I knew since before HBA even ended that I wanted to leave Beijing and see other parts of China. So, a few days after my summer program wrapped up, I took a ten hour long train to China's economic capital, Shanghai!


My first impression of Shanghai was that it looked just like New York. The buildings and the lights were beautiful and the streets were clean. The taxi was also more expensive.

My hostel, however, wasn't in the center of the city, so I got to see some parts of Shanghai that weren't so cosmopolitan and modern. The streets here were smelly and dirty and there were brothels nearby. Not to worry, though - I hardly spent any time here at all. While I was in Shanghai I would head to the metro station first thing in the morning (I wasn't able to take the metros to "random stops" like I planned to, since you had to select your destination beforehand and pay according to how far you were going... sheesh) and I was able to see a lot of the city.

This is the Shanghai World Financial Center, which houses the highest observation deck in the world. The building was very modern, and I was even able to get a discount on admission by claiming I was 17. On the top level, I even met a French couple, and I offered to take a picture of the two of them "to be nice," although really I just wanted to practice my French and to have them offer to take one of me. These past few weeks alone have transformed me into a cunning selfish animal, I swear. I cut in line and push and shove just like the Chinese people now! I even spit on the sidewalk sometimes just because everyone else does it! I'm a beast!

It was a stunning view. And I was impressed with how futuristic the building was. Even the toilets were electronic:

What an interesting (but not unpleasant) experience that was.

Anyway I mentioned before that not all of Shanghai was modern, and that's definitely true. One day I was walking around trying to find Yuyuan Garden but instead stumbled upon an outdoor market with no other tourists. The people on this street sold frogs and snakes and pigeons alongside "normal" meats and vegetables. I even got to see a big fish hacked to death by a woman wearing Crocs.



This is me on "The Bund" on the last day! The Bund is basically the area line the Huangpu River. The eastern bank has futuristic modern architecture while the western bank has colonial European style architecture.

I'll write about my trip to the Shanghai 2010 World Expo in my next post.

Romeo and Juliet

Good Bye Beijing! Shanghai, Have You Eaten Yet?

"Have you eaten yet?" is how you say hello in Shanghai, apparently.

My train took 10 hours. It's very frustrating and inconvenient to have two enormous heavy suitcases. Especially because every single other passenger only had a tiny carry-on bag. What a pain it was to carry them around! Some taxi drivers even turned me down because my bags wouldn't fit in their trunk.

I'm finally in my hostel. My original plan was to go to a neighboring small town after my five days here, but I'm considering just going to Beijing afterwards because taking those suitcases onto a bus would be way too inconvenient.

Anyway I'm going to bed now so I can wake up tomorrow nice and early and take advantage of my little time here in Shanghai.

It's weird to think that I booked this hostel and took the train all the way here to Shanghai on my own. I've never been this independent. I've traveled a lot, but always in a group with an organized program. I've never gone all the way across a country by myself before. It's all up to me now for the next few weeks.

Make sure to read the post before this one!

Zaijian.

Shang Dang Shou Pian

Yesterday I decided to walk along the narrow hutongr (a traditional Beijing alleyway, and the most difficult-to-pronounce word in Chinese) near my hostel to find a place for lunch. I went into a dirty restaurant whose exterior was decorated like a Christmas tree, except instead of ornaments it had cages and cages of chirping birds. I don’t know why I chose this restaurant. I was also the only customer.

Anyway, after I sat down I ordered chicken fried rice. Then I jokingly asked the very young waitress (I think she was about 12) whether the prices on the English menu were higher than on the Chinese one.

“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”

So after she left I snuck up to the front and took a copy of the Chinese-language menu. Sure enough, the Chinese price for a plate of fried rice is 5 kuai, while the price for the same meal on the English menu is 16 kuai.

When the waitress came back I pointed this out to her and asked her what the difference was between the two dishes. She said “ummm ummm” and just left. I said, “You’re cheating me!” I was still smiling and joking at this point.

After I finished eating I got kind of nervous because I didn’t know how to handle the bill. I considered just leaving 5 kuai, the actual price of the food, on the table and just leaving. But I was also scared that the owner of the place might run after me and thought that probably wasn’t the best idea. Finally I asked for the bill, and a different kid came up to me and said the price was 16 kuai. I calmly said, “I think that’s wrong, I just read the Chinese menu and it says 5.” The kid acted confused and went to go check. After a minute I got up and “helped” him find it: 鸡肉炒饭 – 5 kuai.

He seemed “confused” and then he went to go “ask” his boss. When he came back, he said okay, okay, we’ll only charge you 10. I saw this as a kind of victory and coughed up the 10 kuai and left.

Afterwards I felt like a total loser. I was, and am, really disappointed in myself. Why hadn’t I argued more? They blatantly took advantage of me. Most foreigners who ate there would have never known the difference, but I was able to read the Chinese menu. I saw the huge difference in their prices. Never mind that 5 kuai is only equal to 85 American cents. Never mind that my meal would have cost me $8 in the US. Never mind that I happily paid 25 kuai for a burger later that night. The point is that I should have stood up for myself and demanded to pay the Chinese price, given that I had physical proof that they were cheating me. I mean, where did this new price of 10 kuai even come from?

I learned something that day, and that's to be a lot more assertive.

Freedom!

So HBA ended last Friday and since then I've been living in a hostel (actually, two different ones). I'm taking a train to Shanghai on Thursday morning, where I'll be for a week (in a $50 a night hotel - sheesh).

I'm not even sure what to write about right now. My last week of HBA was very sad. I'm definitely going to miss my teachers and classmates. On the last day of our program, we had a nice banquet, during which the teachers were only allowed to speak English to give them an idea of what the students have been going through this summer. Most of them were too shy to actually keep this language pledge, but most of them speak English very well so they had nothing to be embarrassed about. That night, we all went out for kareoke, and then to a cafe where we all chatted until 3 in the morning. I definitely plan to visit Beiyu's campus next semester and visit them.

The next day, I moved into a hostel. It was very stressful because I have these two enormous heavy suitcases with me. It was also my first time in a hostel. I shared a room with five other guys, and the bathrooms had no toilet paper or soap or towels and I did not like it. The next day, I had to move into a different hostel because at the time that I decided to extend my stay in Beijing, it was too late to extend my stay in the first hostel. Luckily, this one is a lot better. It's cleaner, the staff is friendlier and more helpful, it's in a better location, and I'm only sharing a room with three people now. Everyone at this hostel is one of those free-spirited travelers with no plan who just backpack around the world and don't have a job and just meet people on the road. That's a lot different from the kind of person I am. But this has its advantages - the hostel pretty much empties out during the day while everyone is out touring and exploring, giving me time to relax. It's nice not having anything to do.

On Saturday night I felt really lonely and stressed because it dawned on me that I'm on my own for the next three weeks. I started to regret very, very much not having booked tickets to go home before my fall semester starts. I even considered e-mailing Kelly, cancelling my Light Fellowship, going home, and starting me junior year at Yale. I even searched all over the ACC and Yale websites to see if it wasn't too late to do this.

However, the next morning I felt a lot better! I no longer feel lonely, because every day this week I've been meeting up with friends still in Beijing. One of my best teachers in high school, Mrs. Tambuscio, let me know that a former student of hers is working in Beijing right now, so I gave him an e-mail and we met up. He was really nice, and treated me to sushi (I ordered a really weird "New Zealand" roll that was topped with kiwi fruit and pop rocks). On Sunday night I met up with a Yale student who's doing the Princeton program right now, and some other Yalies who did a program in Harbin, China. We all went out for pizza. Then yesterday I met up with my food friend Jackie, doing ACC, and we went to Trivia Night at some fancy bar-bookstore place called The Bookworm. I also had dinner with one of my HBA teachers yesterday.

Anyway, greetings to everyone reading this. I'll update later with videos of my performances at Beijing Night, including the very well-received Romeo and Juliet skit. Zaijian.

My Trip to a Chinese Tea House and More

On Saturday night HBA took another group trip, this time to a famous Chinese tea house where we were treated to snacks and an awesome variety show. The acts ranged from traditional tea ceremonies to a really intense kungfu demonstration. I think this post will work better with mostly pictures:

In the above photo, two ladies are biting down on wooden candle holders (on which are lighted candles) and singing at the same time. Although they had to keep their teeth clamped shut, they still sang very clearly. Their song went something like this:

Up in the mountains lived two families, the Wangs and the Li's.
The Wangs had a handsome son,
and the Li's had a very beautiful daughter.
They were matched in January
and married in February.
They had a baby boy by March.
The boy began to walk in April
and was running by May.
In June he first called his father's name,
and he started school in July.
By August he was writing essays,
and he graduated from school that September.
By October he was a famous scholar,
and he finally retired in November.
The boy closed his eyes and died in December.
What a wretched life he lived!
He never even tasted dumpling soup.
Do you know what this song is called?
It's called "Burning the Candle at Both Ends."

(I thought it was a really nice song but also kind of sad.)


These ladies were just dancing to an R&B song. I don't think it was very traditional.


This is one of the tea ceremonies! Apparently, every kind of tea requires a different ceremony.


This guy changed his masks very quickly and very frequently. No one had any idea how he did it. Music was blasting on the speakers, and he just walked around the stage and every now and then would - BAM - move his hand slightly and he'd have a different face. It was pretty cool.


There can be no doubt that Chinese acrobats are amazing. The two girls in this picture had a very incredible routine, which included one girl standing on her hands and bending her legs to the front so far that she actually sat on her head. Amazing.

There was also a guy who made really cool shadow puppets. Uploading the video I took would take forever so I'll just link to this Youtube video of a very similar performance. You might have already seen it.


Speaking of Chinese Acrobatics, a few weeks ago HBA took us to another show. I never got around to writing about it. Again I'll let the pictures do the talking:




(The first three pictures were taken by a girl named Celia, who is also a second-year HBA student. I included them here because I really like them. I'm also stealing the following pictures from her. They are of the Beijing Opera. I didn't have my camera that day.)


That's a wrap.

My Busy Sunday: A Day of Many Firsts

As I said in a previous post, Sunday was a very busy day. Besides practicing for my three Beijing Night acts (I'll write about these after our performances on Saturday), I went to the Silk Market, an indoor marketplace famous for its very cheap clothes and souvenirs. I also went to a traditional Chinese massage parlor with some friends.

Silk Market
One of the Silk Market's distinguishing features is that the clothes there, although of good quality (for the most part), are all bootleg. The rub is that the price that the shop owners quote first is always sky-high compared to the products' actual value here in China. So, while the initial price might seem like a steal, you'd be a fool to accept the first offer. The shop owners want to get as much out of you as they can.

For example, I found some "Ralph Lauren" polo shirts that I thought were pretty nice. As is customary, the shop owner punched in her price on a calculator and showed me the screen: 140 kuai a piece. Luckily, I was with some friends, so haggling was a lot easier. I told her that I often visited the Silk Market and that I knew other stands where I could get the same shirt for much less. I told her I would pay no more than 35 kuai each. Of course, she acted shocked and said that was absolutely unacceptable. This went on for a little while, with her lowering the price little by little. The key to good haggling is being playful and sometimes flirty (playing the "cute foreigner" card), but also very insistent. They are also playful, and we were kidding around the whole time.

They also loved that we spoke Chinese. We got many, many compliments that day. (Actually, we got compliments on more than just our Chinese... it was impossible to walk through the marketplace without hearing "Spend your money here! I give you good price for being so handsome!" and "You are so handsome - buy Louis Vuitton purse!" every five seconds.) Anyway, our haggling worked. I only payed 35 kuai for each polo, which is equal to about $5.25 US.

At the end of the day, I had bought three "Ralph Lauren" polos, a "Burberry" button-down shirt, a tie, and a set of nice chopsticks for a grand total of $28 US.

If I hadn't bargained, I would have spent about $98 US.

Massage Parlor
My lower back has been bothering me on and off ever since my friends and I made a pyramid back in January. So I thought going to a Chinese massage parlor would cure me, and also relieve me of the stress of my studies.

One thing you should know is that Chinese massages aren't soothing, candle-lit affairs with classical music playing in the background. They hurt. My masseusse lady was pounding my back really hard and digging her fingers deep into my muscles. She even did weird things like pulling my ears and punching the bottom of my foot. Some parts felt really good, like the head massage (similar to using those wire things you can find at the mall). Other parts had me close to tears. Overall, it was a cool experience.

Afterward my friend Yasi and I tried "cupping" for the first time. This is a traditional form of Chinese medicine during which a masseusse uses a flame to suck the air out of small glasses. Then she puts the cups down onto your back, where they stick thanks to a vacuum effect. The masseusse covers your entire back with these cups. The suction created by the cups hurts a little, and you can't really move while this is happening because your muscles are too busy being sucked up by a glass vacuum. The whole idea behind this procedure is that it brings up the "bad blood" in your system and rearranges your "qi" or "energy" or something like that. It takes about ten minutes.

When the cups are removed, you have a large, dark circular bruise wherever there was a cup. The darker the bruise, the more problematic that area was. My bruises were a lot darker than my friends. My back actually looks really weird right now, like a mutant's or a reptile's or something. I was going to post a picture but decided against it because my mom might freak out if she sees it. But I'm fine, and I'll let everyone now in a few days if I feel a difference or not!