Sunday, September 14, 2008
Final Thoughts on China
The whole country is kind of dirty and run down. Everything smells, and nothing seems sanitary. There are wild animals everywhere, and almost all food seems spoiled and inedible. The government is authoritarian, and oppressive. The people are crude and gross. The air is even more disgusting than the food and people. Despite all of this the country is kind of charming and has a rich admirable culture. Despite all of the apparent negatives about the country there are clearly many positives and is a place worth visiting and experiencing.
Our Final Night
Mike randomly ran into an old law school buddy of his. So, we invited him to go out with us for our final night. He did, and he brought along his "partner". We ended up going to this bar area in Hong Kong which was near the SOHO area that has the western restaurants. The bars turned out to be western as well. So, it was exactly the same as if I had gone out in Lincoln Park. There were also as many white people as there would have been in Lincoln Park, 
which leads me to believe that it wasn't an area of town that the locals hang out in. The only thing I did like was the fact that in one of the bars there was a sign posted that clearly showed that no dancing was allowed, which I thought was a great policy. 
After a short while we told Mike's friend that we were going to head back because of our flight the next day, and headed home.
which leads me to believe that it wasn't an area of town that the locals hang out in. The only thing I did like was the fact that in one of the bars there was a sign posted that clearly showed that no dancing was allowed, which I thought was a great policy. After a short while we told Mike's friend that we were going to head back because of our flight the next day, and headed home.
Lantau Island
Lantau Island is a small island off the cost of Hong Kong island. It is really pretty, and not nearly as developed as the main island. We arrived via ferry, and rented bikes. We rode them around all the different parts of the island (at least the ones that weren't too much uphill). It was both picturesque, and really beat down at the same time. We came upon a waterfall, and then later found a cave. We then headed to the beach, which was really nice.
After our bike ride we headed on a bus to see the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world. It was kind of impressive, but I think the giant Buddha we saw in Jinan was more impressive, and the temple thing has obviously grown very old. The nicest part of this island was the way back. We found a chair lift that took us home. This was just gorgeous. We were suspended above the whole island and were able to see everything. If anyone goes to Lantau I would say this is a can't miss activity.
After our bike ride we headed on a bus to see the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world. It was kind of impressive, but I think the giant Buddha we saw in Jinan was more impressive, and the temple thing has obviously grown very old. The nicest part of this island was the way back. We found a chair lift that took us home. This was just gorgeous. We were suspended above the whole island and were able to see everything. If anyone goes to Lantau I would say this is a can't miss activity.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong was a cool city, but it didn't feel Chinese and not just because of the political situation. The whole city was ultra modern. There were fancy boutiques selling the finest New York/European/Tokyo fashions. There were as many international restaurants, if not more, than in Chicago. The ethnic mix is ....well.....existant. So, it truly felt as if I was in a new and different country from the main land, much more so than Macau.
The coolest thing about the city is that there are walkways above a lot of the streets so that you don't have to worry about traffic while walking. While that's good, the best part is that in order to combat the uphill nature of the city they have installed escalators all over the place in side of these walkways. So one doesn't need to walk up hill. You can just take the escalator up the block.
Upon our arrival we were met at the hostel by an all Cantonese speaking staff. They looked confused and disorganised, and told us we were going to have to wait an hour or so for the boss to show up. I was a bit worried because I had booked in May, but had booked the wrong dates. While I emailed and changed the dates in early June I was worried that something had been lost in translation, and that there would be an issue. We decided that we would check out the town and come back to check in in stead of waiting for the boss to show up.
There aren't too many sights on the island, or the Kowloon peninsula. We began by just walking around the island, and checking out the SOHO mid level escalator area. This is kind of like expat row. This was the area of town that had all of the western style food. After that we headed back to our hostel.
At the hostel we were told to check in to a room with two beds. Now, obviously this was a little awkward seeing as there were three of us. We argued, but they swore that this is what we booked (I assure you it wasn't). The hostel was having issues talking to us because they didn't speak English. So, the hostel owners called HostelWorld.com to have them translate. Once on the phone we discovered that the issue was with HostelWorld's system error.
This was relieving because I assumed they would make it right. Well, I was wrong. They didn't at all. They refused to pay for a third room despite admitting fault. Things were looking pretty bleak and we were getting upset (more Mike and I, I think Jake was annoyed and would have just settled for the two beds). However, the hostel was able to recommend another one to us that gave us a three bed room for the same price as we had agreed to. Unfortunately the new hostel had a toilet in the shower, and a see through door, which made for awkward poops.
That night we headed up Victoria peak. It was very picturesque and well worth going. We were there for sunset and really enjoyed the view.
The next day we headed to the peninsula and checked out all the different markets. There was an entire market for just goldfish, one for just birds, one for just sporting goods, one for just women's clothing, one for just jade, and one called the junk market. All of the aforementioned markets were exactly what you would think. It was a place with shanty tents and booths set up outside selling just the specific item the market was named after. The bird market was a little strange, just because it was also a bird park where old men came to display there birds and discuss them with other old men who apparently love birds. The second most unique market was the night market, which was cool because it only is run after dark. It was cool, but kind of dirty. There were way more booths selling sex toys than I would have liked. The prices were also kind of high compared to the silk market of Beijing.
The coolest thing about the city is that there are walkways above a lot of the streets so that you don't have to worry about traffic while walking. While that's good, the best part is that in order to combat the uphill nature of the city they have installed escalators all over the place in side of these walkways. So one doesn't need to walk up hill. You can just take the escalator up the block.
Upon our arrival we were met at the hostel by an all Cantonese speaking staff. They looked confused and disorganised, and told us we were going to have to wait an hour or so for the boss to show up. I was a bit worried because I had booked in May, but had booked the wrong dates. While I emailed and changed the dates in early June I was worried that something had been lost in translation, and that there would be an issue. We decided that we would check out the town and come back to check in in stead of waiting for the boss to show up.
There aren't too many sights on the island, or the Kowloon peninsula. We began by just walking around the island, and checking out the SOHO mid level escalator area. This is kind of like expat row. This was the area of town that had all of the western style food. After that we headed back to our hostel.At the hostel we were told to check in to a room with two beds. Now, obviously this was a little awkward seeing as there were three of us. We argued, but they swore that this is what we booked (I assure you it wasn't). The hostel was having issues talking to us because they didn't speak English. So, the hostel owners called HostelWorld.com to have them translate. Once on the phone we discovered that the issue was with HostelWorld's system error.
This was relieving because I assumed they would make it right. Well, I was wrong. They didn't at all. They refused to pay for a third room despite admitting fault. Things were looking pretty bleak and we were getting upset (more Mike and I, I think Jake was annoyed and would have just settled for the two beds). However, the hostel was able to recommend another one to us that gave us a three bed room for the same price as we had agreed to. Unfortunately the new hostel had a toilet in the shower, and a see through door, which made for awkward poops.That night we headed up Victoria peak. It was very picturesque and well worth going. We were there for sunset and really enjoyed the view.
The next day we headed to the peninsula and checked out all the different markets. There was an entire market for just goldfish, one for just birds, one for just sporting goods, one for just women's clothing, one for just jade, and one called the junk market. All of the aforementioned markets were exactly what you would think. It was a place with shanty tents and booths set up outside selling just the specific item the market was named after. The bird market was a little strange, just because it was also a bird park where old men came to display there birds and discuss them with other old men who apparently love birds. The second most unique market was the night market, which was cool because it only is run after dark. It was cool, but kind of dirty. There were way more booths selling sex toys than I would have liked. The prices were also kind of high compared to the silk market of Beijing. We also saw a light show where the culture center plays music, and the entire skyline lights up and puts on a show to the music. It was kind of cheesy, but was cool, and impressive.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Macau
Macau was really crazy, but nothing like I had imagined. I had been told in the past that Macau was a seedy terrible place, and I really didn't find it that way. Of course compared top the rest of the world it's awful, and dirty and seedy, but compared to main land China it isn't too bad. The island has two different worlds. The casinos and the rest of the residential areas. The casinos are plush and great, while the other areas are terrible slums. The island has also kind of become too touristy. The old Portuguese area has just become a Mecca of touristy crap, so it's lost a lot of the appeal.We headed to the casinos the first night we got there, and yes, we wore the matching suites. We looked ridiculous, and everywhere we went people actually pointed and laughed at us. It was really awkward at first, but after a while you get used the pit bosses calling over people to look at us, and once they came they would burst out laughing. It was like a scene out of Dumb and Dumber. What made it more ridiculous is that we all had dirty gym shoes on, and were always playing at the lowest possible limits available. Overall it was embarrassing, but we got over it and ended up enjoying ourselves.
As far as our success went Jake won some the first night, but then lost about half of it the next night. I did terribly loosing each night, I very few winning hands along the way. I sat down to play black jack with 300 and placed 6 50 bets in a row and lost all 6. Mike won, but didn't really play. He would sit, play 2 hands. Win both and then stand away from the table. He's smarter for winning, but didn't really play too much.
That was about it for Macau. The Venetian and the rest of the casinos were cool, but not s cool as Vegas. The rest of the place was a slum, and we were laughed off of the island.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Shanghai
Shanghai has been really cool. Of all the places I have been in Chin so far it is the one I could see myself living in. think this may be because it reminds me of a more western style city with huge skyscrapers, but it truly is cool town none the less.
When we first got here we were bamboozled, and then went to the Bund, which is the scenic river front. This is a really cool place. It's like two lake shore drives on opposite sides of the river. All along both sides are either historical or really nice looking buildings, one of which is the famous Pearl Oriental TV tower (which we later went up). Later that night we kind of just walked around Nanjing Lu, which is the major shopping and late night stop for the locals. Its just this incredibly crowded condensed area, the likes of which don't exist in the states.
Our walk home wasn't without action. Jake having drank a bit too much baijiu (a locally made liquor) at dinner, drunkenly ran into a biker on the rode and knocked her of her bike. He then claimed it to be her fault and that she had a hit out on him.
The following day we headed to the old city of Shanghai. Its a cool area but too refurbished to be the old city. At this point its an area that is designed like it would have been an old city 1500 years a, but is now just full of tourist shops.
When we first got here we were bamboozled, and then went to the Bund, which is the scenic river front. This is a really cool place. It's like two lake shore drives on opposite sides of the river. All along both sides are either historical or really nice looking buildings, one of which is the famous Pearl Oriental TV tower (which we later went up). Later that night we kind of just walked around Nanjing Lu, which is the major shopping and late night stop for the locals. Its just this incredibly crowded condensed area, the likes of which don't exist in the states.Our walk home wasn't without action. Jake having drank a bit too much baijiu (a locally made liquor) at dinner, drunkenly ran into a biker on the rode and knocked her of her bike. He then claimed it to be her fault and that she had a hit out on him.
The following day we headed to the old city of Shanghai. Its a cool area but too refurbished to be the old city. At this point its an area that is designed like it would have been an old city 1500 years a, but is now just full of tourist shops. We then were walking around and decided to go into a button shop to get mike some buttons for the shorts we bought in Beijing. We went in, but they told us they wouldn't sew it on. So, I did what any sensible man would do. I sewed it on myself. It was strange, but I sewed it on right there in the store while everyone looked at me.
Following this we headed to Ohel Moishe (the former Synagogue of Jewish WWII refugees). On route our taxi drivers car broke down and he had to have us get out. It was odd, but kind of good because we ended up getting half way there for free. Once at the Synagogue we were greeted by people saying "Shabot Shalom" in heavy Chinese accents. It was a nice museum but nothing overly impressive. Apparently today there isn't a single functional Synagogue in all of China, and she estimated the entire Chinese Jewish population to b around 2000, 1000 of which are in Shanghai.At night we went to the top of the TV tower, which was a really nice view of the city, but kind of boring. However, there was a flight simulator, a roller coaster, and a movie where your seat sakes in the tower that was included in your admission. This was kind of fun and made the whole experience kind of fun. There was also a painfully large exhibit on the history of Shanghai, which was incredibly comprehensive, but may have been too big, because it took us nearly 3 hours to get out of there, and once we did we were exhausted and went to bed.
Today, we headed to an area full of Expats for a good western style breakfast (we are all getting sick of rice and noodles). Afterwards we walked through the ritzy former French Concession. Which is like a very trendy par of town. Almost like our Old Town or some areas of Lincoln Park.
We ended up walking for a few hours after that all the way from the far west side of the city to the Bund. Once there we got in a taxi and headed south to a fabric market. Tailors and fabrics are very cheap here, and we starting laughing about the possibility of the three of us going out in Macao in matching suits. Well, we bought three identical suits and three identical shirts. We are having them all custom made for us to fit perfectly. It should be really funny, hopefully funnier than our matching outfits at the wall. The best part was the price. For the whole get up we ended up paying around $65 each. Which is insanely cheap for custom made suites and a shirt (we'll see what quality we end up with).Tonight we are attempting, for the first time to go out to a bar or some sort of night life. We took a nap, and got up really late, so I hope we can stay up past 11 tonight.
Friday, September 5, 2008
I was shanghaied in Shanghai
We arrived in Shanghai and decided to go for a walk through the peoples square on route to lunch. When we finished our lunch we headed back via the same route. On the way three young Chinese people stopped us and asked us where we were from, and since we have been approached by numerous other people asking the same question we stopped and answered them. We have commented to each other in the past how friendly the Chinese people are, and how many of them will go to great lengths to help you and make you feel welcome. Because of this we assumed that these people were just very nice guys meant no harm. Soon after we were chatting (the three of them spoke English very fluently with little accent) and they invited us to go with them to a tea house. Mike and Jake said they didn't care either way; I, enamored with the opportunity to hang out with locals, agreed to go with them. Once at the tea house they flashed a menu in front of us, but too quickly for us to really read it. Jake insisted to hear the prices again, and all they would say was that they were students, and that it would be very cheap because they couldn't afford a lot either. At this point Mike and Jake claimed to know what was up. They even were whispering to each other that something was wrong, but didn't tell me, or do anything about it. I was still oblivious, and just thought we were having tea. We sampled a few teas, and drank maybe a thimble full of each one. After each type of tea Jake continued to protest and hear about the prices, after three types they stopped giving us tea and handed us the bill. At first they wanted us, the rich Americans, to pay for it all. Obviously, I refused. The bill ended up being 144 RMB each, plus 176 for one of the girls who bought some for her parents. Just for some perspective our lunch, which was complete with two courses, and in a ritzy part of town was 8RMB, so 140 is silly expensive despite it only being $20. At this point I'm still oblivious to the whole thing, I just thought that wherever our new friends took us was way over priced, but seeing as it was only $20 I didn't really care or bat an eye. I even asked them to pose for a picture with us.
After we paid they proceeded to walk us to the Bund (a touristy part of town). About three blocks into our walk they dropped us off claiming to have to meet up with a friend. It was at this point Jake told me I had been bamboozled. He was super angry. So angry he turned around and tried to find them. He did! Once he found them he told them he was on to them, and that they ripped us off. The three of them tried to protest and claim that they didn't, but Jake assured them he wasn't a fool. He told them he didn't want the money, and that he only wanted to tell them that he knew what was up and that they were all Assholes. 
Apparently two of them looked guilty and the other continued to protest when Jake just walked away. When Jake caught back up with Mike and I he told us what he had done. When we asked how he could be so certain they tricked us he said that he saw a sign in the hostel warning us about just such a rouse. Immediately Mike and I busted out laughing, because if he had read that sign why didn't he speak up when we were being lead to the tea house to begin with? We spent the rest of the evening agonizing over our blunder. And screaming "Rich" whenever anyone approached us (Note: Rich was the name of the guy who arranged our Great Wall trip and tried to screw us. We have now named all Chinese con-artists Rich).
In the end it really isn't too much money, its the fact that we were taken for a ride that bothers us.
After we paid they proceeded to walk us to the Bund (a touristy part of town). About three blocks into our walk they dropped us off claiming to have to meet up with a friend. It was at this point Jake told me I had been bamboozled. He was super angry. So angry he turned around and tried to find them. He did! Once he found them he told them he was on to them, and that they ripped us off. The three of them tried to protest and claim that they didn't, but Jake assured them he wasn't a fool. He told them he didn't want the money, and that he only wanted to tell them that he knew what was up and that they were all Assholes. 
Apparently two of them looked guilty and the other continued to protest when Jake just walked away. When Jake caught back up with Mike and I he told us what he had done. When we asked how he could be so certain they tricked us he said that he saw a sign in the hostel warning us about just such a rouse. Immediately Mike and I busted out laughing, because if he had read that sign why didn't he speak up when we were being lead to the tea house to begin with? We spent the rest of the evening agonizing over our blunder. And screaming "Rich" whenever anyone approached us (Note: Rich was the name of the guy who arranged our Great Wall trip and tried to screw us. We have now named all Chinese con-artists Rich).In the end it really isn't too much money, its the fact that we were taken for a ride that bothers us.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Jinan and Suzhou
We arrived in Jinan yesterday, and headed to the thousand Buddha Mountain. It was really cool, but took us like five tries to find the correct cave. Every mistake ended up costing us 5RMB, so it was a pricey hunt. However, it was well worth the hunt. Inside this cave was 20,000 hand carved statues of Buddha. 20,000 was the number quoted to me by several people, and by the brochure, 
I obviously wasn't able to check. The cave was spectacular, and not only had all of these statues of varying sizes, but also had elaborate paintings all over all of the walls and ceilings. Most of the stautes were life size people, or bigger. What made it even cooler was that the humidity in the cave was so thick that it created this haze all over, which combined with the darkness of 
the cave made this very creepy dungeon feeling that only added to the experience. I think I found this to be more impressive than the Terracotta Warriors. The sad thing was that apparently during the cultural revolution Mao wanted to move on past this era of Chinese history, so he ordered many of the statues destroyed. So, you could see that some of them were damaged, while others went untouched (apparently Mao's army didn't do too good of a job). Honestly this may be next to the wall as my favorite site in China thus far.
After the mountain we headed out of Jinan. Sadly, we couldn't get a train to Nanjing so we just went straight to Suzhou thinking that we would just add an extra day to Shanghai (I hope the Chinese Government doesn't read this). Suzhou was sold to us as the Venice of the East, and let me tell anyone who wants to visit, the person who told us this had obviously never been to Venice. The streets are dirty, and the air is terribly polluted. The pollution was so thick you could taste it in the air. If you look at the picture at the very bottom of this it has spots, not because of the lens, but because there are particles of pollution in the air that my flash reflects off of and makes those spots appear. Overall the air quality is just gross. The pats ways are filled with horrible people selling sickly ducks or frogs for people to cook. There are very few restaurants, and only one block of nice looking touristy area. Overall the place is a dump. However, there are canals, and some beautiful gardens. We went to one, and it was nice, overpriced, but nice. As for the canals, they exist, and you could go on a gonadal ride, but it's more dirty and poor than cool and exciting.
At night the city kind of came a live a little more. The one block which was nice along the canal was lit up by lanterns, and some other parts of the city were kind of nicer at night. The only issue was that the make shift taxi drivers kept trying to take the three of us to prostitutes. We were harassed by no less than 4 people on separate occasions trying to tell us they could take us to brothels. Obviously this didn't bode too well for the city in general. The nice touristy part also shut down at 9, which was odd. We were trying to have a late dinner along the canal, and couldn't because everything was boarded up at 9pm. In the end I would recommend this as a day trip from Shanghai if you want to come. Come around 4-5ish see a garden see the canal a little and get out of here; there is really nothing worth touring, and the pollution is disturbing.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Beijing Concludes
The past few days have been crazy!
Yesterday we went to Tian'amen square and the Forbidden City, which were cool. The whole think is kind of getting tiresome, because so many of the building look the same, so every temple/house we visit are identical colors and architecture. I get it, it's Chinese architecture, it has officially stopped impressing me. The only thing about Tian'amen square and the Forbidden City were the vast size of it. It was so huge that it seemed impossible for it to be one man's house.
Later in the day we went and got Beijing Duck, which was good except I accidentally took a bite of the head. The rest of the duck was very good, and served kind of in a musho style.
After lunch we went to the Temple of the Heavens, which was obviously similar architecture to everything else we've seen, except this was placed in a really beautiful garden, so it was nice to walk around. We were getting bored of all of the Chinese architecture, so we found actng as silly as possible helped pass the time
We then headed to the Silk Market, which was one of the most insane experiences of my life. People were yelling at me, and literally grabbing my arm and dragging me in there stores. The weirdest thing was the pricing. Everything sells for around 10% of the price. I bought sunglasses, and paid 30 when the original price was 360. So, we haggled a lot. Overall we found some cool stuff and were having a good time negotiating with people. We ended up buying matching shorts from this one lady who was not having as much fun in the negotiation as we were, because she started to yell at us, and told Jake he was slow in the head. However, the matching shorts are pretty funny.
Then, at night we went to a performance. It was one of these variety sows, which was cool, except for the comedy act. Not only do I not know funny Chinese current events, but I don't understand the language, so it was all lost on us.
Today we arranged for some guy, Rechrd, we met on the street to drive us to the Great Wall. Unfortunately he didn't show up, but he did trick us into going with this other girl, Crystal, who was our "guide", but didn't speak English. However, she was impressed, and made it know to us, that we were all wearing mating outfits. She first took us to a art factory hoping we would buy something, but were disappointed when we didn't. Then we went to the wall. This was really beautiful. We took like a thousand pictures, because it was really scenic, buy I don't think the pictures do it justice. The wall is one of those things that everyone should just go to at some point in there life. We all really enjoyed it, and were glad to have hired someone to take us to a remote part as opposed to the crowded area reachable by bus. After the wall She took us to a restaurant (we didn't ask to go), which was really expensive. When we said we were unhappy they really didn't look like they were going to let us go without ordering, and were confused why we wouldn't order this extravagant lunch, so we ordered some fried rice; ate it and left. Overall while the "guide" was awful, and clearly just wanting to make a commission off of us the whole experience was nice.
Later in the day we went to the Antique Market, which was a much more tamed silk market, but they still negotiated with you. Mike bought a ancient Chinese instrument, and I continued my tireless search for double sided silk embroidery to no avail.
We head out early tomorrow for Jinan, so we're calling it an early night tonight.
Yesterday we went to Tian'amen square and the Forbidden City, which were cool. The whole think is kind of getting tiresome, because so many of the building look the same, so every temple/house we visit are identical colors and architecture. I get it, it's Chinese architecture, it has officially stopped impressing me. The only thing about Tian'amen square and the Forbidden City were the vast size of it. It was so huge that it seemed impossible for it to be one man's house.
Later in the day we went and got Beijing Duck, which was good except I accidentally took a bite of the head. The rest of the duck was very good, and served kind of in a musho style.
After lunch we went to the Temple of the Heavens, which was obviously similar architecture to everything else we've seen, except this was placed in a really beautiful garden, so it was nice to walk around. We were getting bored of all of the Chinese architecture, so we found actng as silly as possible helped pass the timeWe then headed to the Silk Market, which was one of the most insane experiences of my life. People were yelling at me, and literally grabbing my arm and dragging me in there stores. The weirdest thing was the pricing. Everything sells for around 10% of the price. I bought sunglasses, and paid 30 when the original price was 360. So, we haggled a lot. Overall we found some cool stuff and were having a good time negotiating with people. We ended up buying matching shorts from this one lady who was not having as much fun in the negotiation as we were, because she started to yell at us, and told Jake he was slow in the head. However, the matching shorts are pretty funny.
Then, at night we went to a performance. It was one of these variety sows, which was cool, except for the comedy act. Not only do I not know funny Chinese current events, but I don't understand the language, so it was all lost on us.
Today we arranged for some guy, Rechrd, we met on the street to drive us to the Great Wall. Unfortunately he didn't show up, but he did trick us into going with this other girl, Crystal, who was our "guide", but didn't speak English. However, she was impressed, and made it know to us, that we were all wearing mating outfits. She first took us to a art factory hoping we would buy something, but were disappointed when we didn't. Then we went to the wall. This was really beautiful. We took like a thousand pictures, because it was really scenic, buy I don't think the pictures do it justice. The wall is one of those things that everyone should just go to at some point in there life. We all really enjoyed it, and were glad to have hired someone to take us to a remote part as opposed to the crowded area reachable by bus. After the wall She took us to a restaurant (we didn't ask to go), which was really expensive. When we said we were unhappy they really didn't look like they were going to let us go without ordering, and were confused why we wouldn't order this extravagant lunch, so we ordered some fried rice; ate it and left. Overall while the "guide" was awful, and clearly just wanting to make a commission off of us the whole experience was nice.
Later in the day we went to the Antique Market, which was a much more tamed silk market, but they still negotiated with you. Mike bought a ancient Chinese instrument, and I continued my tireless search for double sided silk embroidery to no avail.
We head out early tomorrow for Jinan, so we're calling it an early night tonight.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Beijing
I was able to meet up with Mike in the Beijing Airport, and we headed to our hostel last night.
Then, Mike was jet lagged, so we ended up going to bed around 11 or so. Little did we know we had the worst roommates ever in the hostel, and they treated our room like a party talking laughing and overall being the rudest people I ever encountered in a hostel.
When we woke up the thee of us headed to the famous Summer Palace. Historically it's almost identical to Versailles, but the facilities themselves are much different. It's this gigantic estate with a lake in the middle of it, and structured very similar to a Buddhist temple. We actually entered from the wrong side, and kind of made our way backwards through a forest to get to the gate. Once in side it was pretty cool, but no where near as elaborate as Versailles. We then rented a boat and took it out on the lake for a while. Overall it was really cool, but very similar to a lot of the different temples we've been to.
While in the Summer Palace we were trying to play a local version of hackie-sack. We were obviously terrible, and made fools of ourselves, but it was fun regardless.
In the evening Mike and I went to this Beijing acrobatics show, which was cool, but nothing you haven't seen at halftime of NBA games. It was also kind of dirty. It looked like this may have been a really spectacular show in 1983, but that they have failed to updated and renovate it. After we tried to meet up with Jake, but were very late due to the flag ceremony at Tienanmen Square. 
When we arrived it was too late to do anything too cool, so we just went to Lake Hou Hai and walked around a little. The lake was full of night life, and had a bunch of really cool things going on (like a pick up gymnastics competition between the locals).
Then, Mike was jet lagged, so we ended up going to bed around 11 or so. Little did we know we had the worst roommates ever in the hostel, and they treated our room like a party talking laughing and overall being the rudest people I ever encountered in a hostel.
When we woke up the thee of us headed to the famous Summer Palace. Historically it's almost identical to Versailles, but the facilities themselves are much different. It's this gigantic estate with a lake in the middle of it, and structured very similar to a Buddhist temple. We actually entered from the wrong side, and kind of made our way backwards through a forest to get to the gate. Once in side it was pretty cool, but no where near as elaborate as Versailles. We then rented a boat and took it out on the lake for a while. Overall it was really cool, but very similar to a lot of the different temples we've been to. While in the Summer Palace we were trying to play a local version of hackie-sack. We were obviously terrible, and made fools of ourselves, but it was fun regardless. When we left the summer palace we tried to go to the Olympic grounds only to find that we weren't allowed within 100 meters of the birds nest or water cube, which was obviously disappointing. So, we took some pictures through a fence and moved on.
In the evening Mike and I went to this Beijing acrobatics show, which was cool, but nothing you haven't seen at halftime of NBA games. It was also kind of dirty. It looked like this may have been a really spectacular show in 1983, but that they have failed to updated and renovate it. After we tried to meet up with Jake, but were very late due to the flag ceremony at Tienanmen Square. Once we finally met up with him we headed to a section of town called Xidan, which is like the big downtown shopping district. While we were there I bought a China national team Yi Jianlian jersey (which is awesome!), and then we tried to find ourselves dinner. Dinner turned out to be more difficult than we thought because there were so few restaurants in this area (which we all found odd). We eventually decided to go to this hotel and ask someone where to find something to eat. The woman at the desk was obviously appalled at our cloths, and told us to go to the 7th floor of that building. Then the guy next to her tried to show us the hotel restaurant across the hall, but the lady hit him and started to yell something in Chinese to him. We think she was saying we were too dirty to eat at there hotel. As we attempted to go to that 7th floor we realized it was closed, so we hit the streets again. We eventually did find a Beijing style hot pot restaurant. The Beijing style was good. Not as spicy as the Seczuan style, but still had enough flavor.
When we got back to the hostel Mike went to sleep, and Jake and I stayed up talking with two Italian girls (Lucy and Elana). They were harassing us about Pizza, and how Italian Pizza is much better, which is ridiculous because they had never even had Chicago style.
Well, Were off to tour the inside of Tienanmen Square, and other historical sites form the people's revolution today.
Friday, August 29, 2008
The Shaolin Monastery
The night was a bit uncomfortable in ZhenZou because Jake and I were accidentally given a room with only one bed, and by the time we arrived to check in all the rooms with two beds had been taken. Rather than leave and try to find a different hotel we decided not to forgo our deposit, and to bear it out (for 2 nights).
The next day (yesterday) we headed out to the Shaolin Monastery. On the nearly 2 hour bus ride out to the middle of the mountains of the Henan Provence, we met a nice man from Australia, and kind of palled around with him for a while. The bus we got on kind of screwed us, and forced us to purchase tickets to two other temples along the way, and stop in a restaurant for lunch. Overall it wasn't the worst thing, because we really didn't have anything to do yesterday anyway.
Once we arrived at the actual monastery the three of us (Jake, me, and this guy peter from Australia) were in awe. The facilities were spectacular. We first went to a very impressive kung-fu show where we were shown some of the amazing things that these men can do. And after words we toured the sanctuary, a building full of 500 different Buddhas, and this pagoda forest. Sadly my camera ran our of batteries, and I was unable to take pictures after the show. Luckily Peter said he would email me all of his, and I hope he does, because the whole thing was really cool.
The sanctuary was similar to others we have seen before, only cleaner, and grander. It was cool, but the best part was when we wondered away from the rest of the tourists and saw all the living quarters and training facilities of the monks. We even met some people who were training, one was a western guy from Ireland who was talking to us for a bit. Apparently people come form all over the world to train in the ancient art of kung-fu at the Shaolin Monastery.
After that we went to the pagoda forest. these stone pagodas were created as memorials to fallen monks. A thousand years ago when China was being invaded the Emperor would call upon the Shaolin Monks to defend the nation. We were told that up until the gun was invented on Shaolin Monk was equal to 20 other solders, and often a group of a few hundred Shaolin Monks would defeat whole armies. These pagodas were memorials to those warrior who died in battle, and amazingly there were only a few hundred of them to represent a thousand years of battles and wars, which is impressive. The other cool thing about this pagoda forest was that the monastery was invaded several times by different intruders trying to defeat China. Many of those invasions and the battles that ensued were located right in this forest, so they would fight in this incredible graveyard of stone pagodas. I don't have pictures now, and hopefully will get some soon but in the mean time find pictures of this on the Internet and imagine a battle of kung-fu warriors taking place there, it's really awesome.
Lastly we went to the hall of 500 Buddhas. This was pretty cool, but nothing out of the ordinary. It was exactly as it sounds a building with 500 different life size statues of different Buddhas symbolizing different things. It was cool, but nothing to to write home about, and certainly not nearly as cool as the Pagoda Forest.
The next day (yesterday) we headed out to the Shaolin Monastery. On the nearly 2 hour bus ride out to the middle of the mountains of the Henan Provence, we met a nice man from Australia, and kind of palled around with him for a while. The bus we got on kind of screwed us, and forced us to purchase tickets to two other temples along the way, and stop in a restaurant for lunch. Overall it wasn't the worst thing, because we really didn't have anything to do yesterday anyway.
Once we arrived at the actual monastery the three of us (Jake, me, and this guy peter from Australia) were in awe. The facilities were spectacular. We first went to a very impressive kung-fu show where we were shown some of the amazing things that these men can do. And after words we toured the sanctuary, a building full of 500 different Buddhas, and this pagoda forest. Sadly my camera ran our of batteries, and I was unable to take pictures after the show. Luckily Peter said he would email me all of his, and I hope he does, because the whole thing was really cool.
The sanctuary was similar to others we have seen before, only cleaner, and grander. It was cool, but the best part was when we wondered away from the rest of the tourists and saw all the living quarters and training facilities of the monks. We even met some people who were training, one was a western guy from Ireland who was talking to us for a bit. Apparently people come form all over the world to train in the ancient art of kung-fu at the Shaolin Monastery.
After that we went to the pagoda forest. these stone pagodas were created as memorials to fallen monks. A thousand years ago when China was being invaded the Emperor would call upon the Shaolin Monks to defend the nation. We were told that up until the gun was invented on Shaolin Monk was equal to 20 other solders, and often a group of a few hundred Shaolin Monks would defeat whole armies. These pagodas were memorials to those warrior who died in battle, and amazingly there were only a few hundred of them to represent a thousand years of battles and wars, which is impressive. The other cool thing about this pagoda forest was that the monastery was invaded several times by different intruders trying to defeat China. Many of those invasions and the battles that ensued were located right in this forest, so they would fight in this incredible graveyard of stone pagodas. I don't have pictures now, and hopefully will get some soon but in the mean time find pictures of this on the Internet and imagine a battle of kung-fu warriors taking place there, it's really awesome.
Lastly we went to the hall of 500 Buddhas. This was pretty cool, but nothing out of the ordinary. It was exactly as it sounds a building with 500 different life size statues of different Buddhas symbolizing different things. It was cool, but nothing to to write home about, and certainly not nearly as cool as the Pagoda Forest.
On the bus ride home we met a group of Israelis who were traveling after their army service. I think I surprised them when I listened to their conversation an then answered one of them in Hebrew when they asked another what time it was. They were nice, but fell asleep soon after the bus left, so I wasn't really able to chat with them too much.
After we arrived back in ZhenZou The three of us had dinner and went our separate ways. Hopefully Pete will shoot me those pictures, and if he does I'll try to post them.
I'm currently in the ZhenZou airport waiting to get my flight to Beijing where we will meet up with Mike (my brother), and continue our tour of the country.
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