China
I have now officially been to China. :)
How was it?
Well...I guess you could say my expectations for this trip were pretty high, since I've wanted to visit the country since I was old enough to pronounce the name of it. Unfortunately, not everything turned out to be as awesome as I was hoping, but I think that was the tour company's fault. Meaning, if I were to go back on my own (or with friends or whatever), I'd probably end up having the vacation I wanted. Ring of Fire had us up EARLY every morning and back at 11, 11:30 or so every night, between which times they were hustling us from site to site so fast that we were actually allowed very little time to explore. The places they picked were generally very cool, but after my Hong Kong/Macau/Cambodia/Thailand adventures last winter, I've come to think that exploration is the best part of going anywhere. Who wants to go somewhere just to see a view of something they could just as easily find on a postcard? But the Ring of Fire tour company, tended to give us an average of 20-30 minutes to explore a place that could've easily taken an hour or two. It was due to this that I ended up spending about 95% of the vacation with my sister (who could keep up with me), and barely had a full conversation with Dad, Scott, or Sue otherwise.
I've typed up a rundown of the rest of the trip, but it's straight out of my scribbles from the train ride back to Aomori. I don't have time to go back and edit tonight, so if you should choose to read it before I do so, there will probably be typos/things that don't make sense/etc. Read at your own risk. I'll send out an announce when I get my pictures up. By then this thing should be cleaned up. :)
Not sure how many of you know this, but the central point of the trip was, in fact, not to see China, but to view the solar eclipse that passed over southern China last Wednesday. This particular tour put us on the line of the eclipse path, where totality lasted for more than 5 minutes.
How awesome was the eclipse?
Well, everyone else on the tour would probably say that it was decidedly disappointing.
Why?
Long story short: It rained.
After a looooong meeting the night before that resulted in us determining 2 possible eclipse-viewing sites (in opposite directions that would each take 2 hours to reach) that we'd drive to by bus the following morning, depending on how the weather looked at one vs the other, we woke up at 4:30am and headed downstairs. The cloud-cover pushed our decisions to the last minute, so no one knew where we were headed until that morning, when the weather reports rolled in.
We get to the lobby at 5, and they tell us to sit tight, 'cause the reports are still uncertain.
THREE. HOURS. LATER. The tour guides announce that we would be watching the sky from...*drumroll*...the hotel's backyard. X|
So everyone hauled their equipment outside and started setting up their telescopes, lawn chairs, and other various equipment in the yard out back, nice and early, only to promptly rush back indoors when the rain started about 2 minutes before first contact. After sitting inside with the bags for a few minutes, I suggested to Erin that we go explore the hotel's backyard, rain be damned. So we grabbed an umbrella (big enough for 1, but not quite 2) and shuffled out of the shelter of the building. Over the next 20 minutes or so, we went squishing through the flooded grass, sloshing through puddles, and fighting to find a position under the umbrella that wouldn't result in one or both of us getting rained on. Didn't quite work. We both got soaked. And I don't know if this makes me one of those optimistic people that finds it annoyingly easy to have fun in the simplest of situations, but I think walking around in the rain was potentially one of the most fun things I did on the trip. (Also, we saw a frog. I was looking for a way to slip this in more gracefully, but to hell with it. FROG! :)
When totality hit a few minutes after we went back inside, the rain actually stopped enough for everyone to head back out onto the lawn and enjoy the night-in-the-morning. Still too much cloud-cover to see the corona, but the effect of darkness was pretty cool.
After the sky brightened again, the sun actually peeked through the clouds enough that we got a few decent glimpses of the partial eclipse. Some of my favorite pictures were of that almost-hole-in-the-clouds (I love the way my camera captures light).
~~~
Other cool stuff we did in China...lemme see if I can do this chronologically.
Sunday
Well, first of all, we only went to Shanghai, Jiaxing (for the eclipse), and Xian (where the Terracotta Warriors are). So I actually didn't make it up to Beijing (Tiananmen Square, Great Wall, Forbidden City, etc.), which was kind of a bummer. (I would've made it up if my contract weren't up in a week.) Anyway, we arrived in Shanghai on Monday and had an open afternoon as of...3pm. With some hassle, we managed to arrange for a tour guide and car to come and show us some of the sites, though it took them an hour to get to us (certain members of the group seemed to have a mysterious aversion to taxis that could get us around the city with a fraction of the cost and half the time, but whatever). In the meantime, we walked down Nanxing Road, which ran right behind the hotel, for a bit of shopping, where I bought my new favorite shirt EVAH. ^^
When the tour guide showed up, we set out for SWFC Observatory at the top of the tallest building in the world (Japanese-built, hehe ;), and Yu Yuan (Yu Garden...or at least, the old city around it, which is, for some reason, dubbed "China Town"). The garden was actually closed by the time we got there, but we did get to walk around the shopping area a bit (a bit...shopping time was strangely absent on this vacation). We also dropped by a pearl store, where the shop ladies taught us all about oysters and pearls. Very cool. I've actually been looking to buy a single black pearl necklace for a while now (like...years), so I finally found one. And Shanghai is apparently famous for pearls, so I found one with a story. :)
I'd be doing an injustice to the day if I didn't mention Robin, our tour buide. He was adorable. I guess I was the one in the group with the most questions, so by the time we left the observatory, it seemed like he was talking mostly to me. On the way down the escalator, he asked what we were up to the next day, and I had to watch his face fall when I said we had another tour arranged. "Oh," he says, "I thought maybe if you arranged with the hotel, I would be with you again, because I am very happy with you." Having thought me meant the five of us as a group, I got a firmer confirmation when we said goodbye at the end of the tour and he said something on the order of, "I am very happy to meet you. You are a very wonderful girl." ^___^ That kinda made my day. lol
In a way, it kind of reminded me of my experience with Tola, the guide Carly and I had in Cambodia. He was similarly enthusiastic about sticking with us after that first day. Carly theorized that maybe these guys get mostly newlyweds and whatnot, who make them feel like a third wheel and don't really ask a lot of questions (ie, foreigners who mostly just hire guides as a means of not getting lost). I figure it's gotta be something like that. Makes me kinda sad to think foreigners wouldn't take advantage of talking to a native guide beyond the stale facts of site after site. You can learn so much just by asking how someone learned English. By the time Carly and I said goodbye to Tola, we'd had conversations with him about everything from history and religion to politics and society. It was great. People are missing out.
Monday
On Monday, we met up with our Ring of Fire tour group and headed out to hit the major sites of Shanghai. In the morning, we hit the Shanghai Museum (underwhelming, IMO, but I'm not a big museum-goer), the Jade Buddha Temple (where we got a little lesson in Chinese tea ceremony--very cool), and Yu Yuan (again, but this time we got to go into the garden...would've been nice if we'd gotten to see it for more than a 20-minute breeze-through).
Our first Chinese food experience came at lunch. We filed into a big room with round tables (each with a lazy Susan), and proceeded to sample a dozen or so dishes laid out for our pleasure. Not gonna sugar coat it. The food was pretty bad, and so was the restaurant. Here I was, all excited to eat Chinese food again after the FABULOUS things I sampled in Hong Kong, and...it was awful. First, the servers ignored my request for something to drink until they'd used up every cold bottle of water in the house, and thus ended up serving me hot water. Then the food started coming out, each dish more disappointing than the last. AND they forgot to serve us rice, so Erin hardly got anything to eat for the whole meal. Finally, dessert was watermelon. This was a trend throughout the trip. Watermelon after EVERY. MEAL. Guess who hates watermelon? >:/
The food on the trip got better at a gradual pace, so that by the farewell dinner, the food was actually pretty good. It was only during those last 2 days, however, that I actually found it mildly enjoyable. That, in itself, pissed me off because it just proves that the tour wasn't picking our eating venues based on quality until it was absolutely necessary. I KNOW China can do better. :(
After lunch, things immediately started looking up. Right under the "restaurant" was a silk factory, where we got to take a tour and learn about the whole precess of silk-making, from hungry worm to fluffy blanket. Like the pearl shop and tea ceremony, this was a really cool stop. Hell, we actually got to spend time and learn something.
In the afternoon, we went for a Huangpu River Cruise and got to see...basically, a lot of the things we'd already seen, but this time from the water. Kinda "meh" on the cruise part, but at least we got to sit around and talk for a while after a morning spent rushing from place-to-place. That night (because we were running late somehow), we pushed back dinner and went to see a Chinese acrobat show first (essentially, a slightly less awesome version of Cirque de Soleil). The latter was pretty entertaining...there was this one guy that could do some amazing things with a jar twice the size of his head. Also, boys jumping through hoops. You can't go wrong with boys jumping through hoops. ^^
If I could change anything about that first day, it would probably be cutting the museum in favor of more time at Yu Yuan. That garden had some amazing stone structures and pavilions, little paths that led around corners into shady side-paths and away from crowds, bridges, statues, etc. Oh, and cicadas. Erin, Dad, and I played spot-the-cicadas in a willow tree whil we were all waiting for an old lady to get out of the bathroom. I would've really liked to spend more time there. *sigh*
Dinner that night was good, though. Erin was so jet lagged that she actually fell asleep halfway through the acrobat show, so we decided to split from the group and have dinner at the hotel. For anyone who's wondering, the Sofitel in Shanghai does an AMAZING buffet. Breakfast blew me away, and dinner was also pretty great. (Note: I don't count this in my assessment of Chinese food since the buffet was at least a half-and-half split b/t Chinese and Western food. Still. Good stuff. And we heard from the rest of the group later that the group dinner was awful that night, so yay for Erin's jet lag. ;)
Tuesday
First thing in the morning, we loaded up onto the bus and headed out of Shanghai to Sheshan Hill to visit Sheshan Observation Station (an observatory). You know, as I'm writing this I'm thinking that I must be a more positive person than I realize, 'cause while the artifacts in the observatory were not interesting at all, I managed to have a pretty good time running around the structure taking pics with Erin.
After the observatory, we all got back on the bus and drove a looong way to Jiaxing. From 3-5 we had a meeting about the eclipse the next day. After dinner, everyone headed to bed early (by "early," I mean approx. 10pm) in preparation for an early morning.
Wednesday
The eclipse, I have already covered.
After the eclipse (at about 10:30am *shudder*), we drove to Xitang, which is essentially the Chinese mini version of Venice. It's a town built around a series of canals, which give it a very quaint and authentic kind of charm. (Quaint, and also exotic enough to serve as the site of the climactic scene in Mission: Impossible III). We ate lunch at a local restaurant (the first one that really felt like a local restaurant worth eating at for the atmosphere and food), were given 10 minutes of exploring/shopping time, and then took a boat cruise through the canals back to the bus. It was still raining up until we got on the boats, btw, which had me looking like a drowned rat throughout lunch. But whatever. Local flavor and whatnot. ;)
Next, we headed aaaaall the way back to Shanghai to catch a flight to Xian. It was at this point in the trip that we met with the obligatory airport adventure, which materialized in the form a of a 3-hour delay. We passed the time by teaching 4 of our fellow group-mates a card game called Liverpool (a version of rummy). With seven of us playing (and loudly enough to reflect a bunch of foreigners at the end of a very long day), we got through about half a hand before our circle of card-playing gaijin started to draw a crowd. An actual. Crowd. It was hilarious. Once we had ten or so locals squinting down at our hands in a desperately curious desire to understand the rules of the game, I jokingly suggested we sing them a song to lighten the mood and entertain our growing fan base. Next thing you know, we're serenading the locals with a late-night karaoke rendition of "Don't Stop Believin'" (and other favorites). It was hilarious.
Hours later, we made it to Xian, loaded up into our new bus, and drove a long way to our new hotel, ultimately collapsing into our [SOFT] beds at 2am.
Thursday
Due to our late night, we earned ourselves a wee bit of extra sleep and set out for the "Terracotta Digs" at 9am. There's...not a whole lot to say about that part, since I think most people know what the TCW's are. But just in case, here's a quick rundown:
Emperor Qin was the man who unified China into a single city state (from I think 9 separate kingdoms). In those days, Chinese people believed they had another life after death, so when he was building his tomb, he included the army of terracotta warriors (each of which is unique and based on the features of the men in his lifetime army) to accompany him to that next life. However, since he was a somewhat unpopular ruler (killing off whole family lines to eliminate traitors, ruling his servants with an iron fist, and whatnot), after his death, his enemies stormed the site where the TCW's were buried and smashed them all to pieces (well, all but one--a kneeling archer), stealing their bronze weapons and chariots. The TCW's were then forgotten for centuries, until a farmer stumbled upon them while digging a well in the 70's.
So there you have it. We visited the big room housing a few hundred TCW's first, then watched an incredibly cheesy old movie depicting the story of the site, then saw a smaller dig site next door where a few more warriors were unearthed, and then visited a museum with 2 miniature chariots that were also found at the site. The coolest ones, to me, were the unfinished ones--half men of clay sticking up out of the ground, with various parts of their neighbors sticking out of them every which way. :3
It was a very cool stop, but the pictures (that I will eventually get posted) pretty much speak for themselves better than any way I can describe it.
Oh, we also got to see the farmer who discovered the TCW's. He was sitting at a table signing books outside the movie. I snagged a few shots of him before the crowd parted enough for me to see the "NO PHOTO" sign. Oops. *shrug*
After the TCW's, we had lunch, and upon finishing that, we got back on the bus to find the bitchy, waspy, know-it-all older American couple in the group demanding to go back to the hotel before we had dinner that night...which would mean skipping the jade factory and slicing up our time at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Anna, our poor tour guide, and for some reason everyone else sitting toward the front of the bus, seemed to bow in stunned silence to the crabby demands of this pair. By that point in the trip, I was pretty much fed up with both of them. So while they were prattling on about how seeing everything on the original schedule was "unacceptable" if they didn't get their afternoon rest, I used my hard-earned elementary school-teaching level voice and shouted up from the back to speak for what turned out to be the majority of the group.
Me: Alright, hold on. Who wants to see the jade factory?
Bus of People: *after a brief pause, all but 4 hands go up*
Me: Who wants to see the pagoda?
Bus of People: *same result*
Me: Who wants to go back to the hotel?
Bus of People: *three hands go up*
Me: Ok, so who's for sticking to the original schedule?
Bus of People: *all but he bitchy and elderly few raise their hands*
Me: I think we have our answer.
And thus it was, the wasps were silenced...for a little while.
So we went to the jade factory, where we learned (in a very limited period of time) all about mountain jade and river jade and the various colors of it, quality, etc. I got myself another necklace. Never been much of a fan of jade, if I'm being honest, but I respect it as a part of Chinese culture, and from that standpoint, it was actually pretty interesting. It's one of those things that was worth learning about in China, since we were there. And the necklace matches my new shirt, so yay. :)
After the jade factory, we went to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. This and Yu Yuan are my main regrets of the trip, as far as wishing-there-was-more-time-spent-there goes. The pagoda is an interesting shape and design (not at all like Japanese pagodas), and comes with an interesting history...
Apparently (or supposedly, as you might prefer), once upon a time, a bunch of monks at this temple were really hungry and wanted to eat some meat. So they prayed to the Buddha to send them some meat. Upon praying, out of a flock of wild geese passing overhead, a single goose fell down dead at their feet. The monks thought this was so sad and cruel that they vowed never to eat meat again. And thus was born the vegetarian element of Buddhism.
The grounds of the temple/pagoda were very pretty, littered with statues and garden paths and carvings that could've easily filled more than 20 minutes. But hey, we almost didn't see the thing at all, so I guess I should be happy. *sigh*
Dinner that night came with a music and dance show (some numbers of which were more entertaining than others). The unbridled camera flashes of the audience got REALLY annoying at some points, especially when they had special low lighting on stage to accent the dances. Everybody just needs to get my camera. That would be the solution to all this, 'cause then they wouldn't need flash to get a good picture. *nodnods*
Diner itself was dim sum (dumplings), all of which tasted far less fresh than I would've liked. Not once on this trip, in fact, did we find dim sum to rival that simple family restaurant Kathleen took us to in Hong Kong. And to think the food was what I was most looking forward to about this trip! *sigh* :(
Friday
Last day of the tour! We woke up early to head out to the Muslim quarter of Xian, and in it, the Mosque. I would've liked a little more time here, too, but at least it was smaller than the garden and pagoda. It was a very pretty area, built for the practice of Islam, but in (surprisingly, to me) in a very Chinese style of architecture. There was even a little school in session for kids to study the Koran. We got to peek in at the end of a lesson and catch the start of snack time (which was...corn).
For those who are interested, Xian's Muslim quarter is the result of Arabic merchants who traveled the Silk Road and ended up marrying Chinese women and settling down in China. Today, few of them understand more Arabic than is necessary for the Koran, but they are still actively Muslim.
We had to walk through the shopping streets and alleyways to get to the Mosque, which I really enjoyed. It was one of the few times that I felt we got to see the "real" China.
They gave us a little shopping time on the way back to the bus (again...really a little. The shopping time on this whole trip must've totaled something like 60 minutes), and then we headed to the old city wall of Xian that runs around the inner city. This was a bit of a consolation for the fact that I MISSED THE FREAKIN' GREAT WALL on this trip. With a little death-defying maneuvering, Erin and I got some good shots of each other leaning out over the side, then bought ourselves some ice cream and sat in the shade of a little refreshments kiosk for a few minutes.
(I began to wonder, as we were sitting there, what the ancient Chinese would think if they'd known that someday, 1500 years after painstakingly building that wall, a couple gaijin would be sitting on top of it eating ice cream. ^^; )
Our flight back to Shanghai was in the afternoon. Delayed for about 45min, we played another hand of Liverpool (again attracting a few spectators), then boarded the plane, where I taught Erin Othello (BEST. GAME. EVER.). That first game covered almost the whole 2-hour flight.
Back in Shanghai, we had 40 minutes to shower and make ourselves presentable for the farewell dinner. As I said, the food on the trip got progressively better after starting at a fairly low standard. By the goodbye dinner, the dishes were actually good. The selection also included a few things I'd been waiting for (Peking duck, egg tarts, lemon chicken, etc.). So that was nice.
We were actually scheduled to eat that night back at Yu Yuan, but since that was an hour and a half from the hotel, the tour coordinators elected to have it at a closer venue, and compensated for the change with a presentation by Claude. Claude was an astronaut with 4 space walks under his belt (2 to Hubble), and also the group leader of group A (we were B...of course). So he told us about his experiences in space, showed us some shots he took from the shuttle, tec. It was neat, but for some reason, Pat, the B leader, decided to follow up his lecture with a "fisheye camera" 180-degree video that she'd taken of the eclipse 2 days before. You know...the eclipse we all saw...or didn't see, rather...'cause it was CLOUDED OVER AND RAINING. So at 10:30pm on our last night, after a very long day, we got a replay of the clouds because some idiot in the audience heard what she had in mind and said "Ooh! I 'd like to see that!" (while all the rest of us were thinking, "You did see that, you fool! *facepalm*)
Saturday
This morning, we all got up to catch our flights and head our separate ways. I woke up at 6:30 with Erin and went to see everyone off from the hotel doorstep. As their flight was at 9:30 and mine at 12:10, I had lots of time to hang out in the hotel, but a few [overpriced] souvenirs for my eikaiwa people (who I forgot about until the night before), and watch a CNN clip about transgender operations (which was actually pretty interesting) before heading to the airport and meeting with the nice surprise of being in business class on the flight back to Tokyo (thanks, Dad! :). First time I was ever the first person off a plane!
It took me almost exactly 30 minutes to get from the plane, through immigration, baggage claim, and customs, then land in my seat on the train. I managed to change my Shinkansen ticket back to Aomori without a problem, and even had enough time to dash out of the station, grab some Starbucks (GRANDE Matcha Cream Frappuchino and Honey Lemon Cheese Tart P:), and get back to the train.
I've now been riding the Shinkansen for almost 3 hours, and I'm just about to run out of paper. Luckily, I think I've covered everything. The rest of the details of the trip can easily emerge as picture annotations. Now I'm gonna fold this thing up nice and carefully so I don't lose it before I type it up later. I'm so proud of myself for snagging this paper off the nightstand before leaving the hotel. Exactly 2 pieces--the leftovers of last night's tied Othello game. Go me. :)
~~~
Aaaaaaaand that's it. Took me a while to type this thing up, and I've got a lot of packing to do tomorrow, so there's no time to go back and proof it now. I'll do that...eventually. Be forewarned, should you read it before my proofs, that there are probably typos galore in here. ^^
How was it?
Well...I guess you could say my expectations for this trip were pretty high, since I've wanted to visit the country since I was old enough to pronounce the name of it. Unfortunately, not everything turned out to be as awesome as I was hoping, but I think that was the tour company's fault. Meaning, if I were to go back on my own (or with friends or whatever), I'd probably end up having the vacation I wanted. Ring of Fire had us up EARLY every morning and back at 11, 11:30 or so every night, between which times they were hustling us from site to site so fast that we were actually allowed very little time to explore. The places they picked were generally very cool, but after my Hong Kong/Macau/Cambodia/Thailand adventures last winter, I've come to think that exploration is the best part of going anywhere. Who wants to go somewhere just to see a view of something they could just as easily find on a postcard? But the Ring of Fire tour company, tended to give us an average of 20-30 minutes to explore a place that could've easily taken an hour or two. It was due to this that I ended up spending about 95% of the vacation with my sister (who could keep up with me), and barely had a full conversation with Dad, Scott, or Sue otherwise.
I've typed up a rundown of the rest of the trip, but it's straight out of my scribbles from the train ride back to Aomori. I don't have time to go back and edit tonight, so if you should choose to read it before I do so, there will probably be typos/things that don't make sense/etc. Read at your own risk. I'll send out an announce when I get my pictures up. By then this thing should be cleaned up. :)
Not sure how many of you know this, but the central point of the trip was, in fact, not to see China, but to view the solar eclipse that passed over southern China last Wednesday. This particular tour put us on the line of the eclipse path, where totality lasted for more than 5 minutes.
How awesome was the eclipse?
Well, everyone else on the tour would probably say that it was decidedly disappointing.
Why?
Long story short: It rained.
After a looooong meeting the night before that resulted in us determining 2 possible eclipse-viewing sites (in opposite directions that would each take 2 hours to reach) that we'd drive to by bus the following morning, depending on how the weather looked at one vs the other, we woke up at 4:30am and headed downstairs. The cloud-cover pushed our decisions to the last minute, so no one knew where we were headed until that morning, when the weather reports rolled in.
We get to the lobby at 5, and they tell us to sit tight, 'cause the reports are still uncertain.
THREE. HOURS. LATER. The tour guides announce that we would be watching the sky from...*drumroll*...the hotel's backyard. X|
So everyone hauled their equipment outside and started setting up their telescopes, lawn chairs, and other various equipment in the yard out back, nice and early, only to promptly rush back indoors when the rain started about 2 minutes before first contact. After sitting inside with the bags for a few minutes, I suggested to Erin that we go explore the hotel's backyard, rain be damned. So we grabbed an umbrella (big enough for 1, but not quite 2) and shuffled out of the shelter of the building. Over the next 20 minutes or so, we went squishing through the flooded grass, sloshing through puddles, and fighting to find a position under the umbrella that wouldn't result in one or both of us getting rained on. Didn't quite work. We both got soaked. And I don't know if this makes me one of those optimistic people that finds it annoyingly easy to have fun in the simplest of situations, but I think walking around in the rain was potentially one of the most fun things I did on the trip. (Also, we saw a frog. I was looking for a way to slip this in more gracefully, but to hell with it. FROG! :)
When totality hit a few minutes after we went back inside, the rain actually stopped enough for everyone to head back out onto the lawn and enjoy the night-in-the-morning. Still too much cloud-cover to see the corona, but the effect of darkness was pretty cool.
After the sky brightened again, the sun actually peeked through the clouds enough that we got a few decent glimpses of the partial eclipse. Some of my favorite pictures were of that almost-hole-in-the-clouds (I love the way my camera captures light).
~~~
Other cool stuff we did in China...lemme see if I can do this chronologically.
Sunday
Well, first of all, we only went to Shanghai, Jiaxing (for the eclipse), and Xian (where the Terracotta Warriors are). So I actually didn't make it up to Beijing (Tiananmen Square, Great Wall, Forbidden City, etc.), which was kind of a bummer. (I would've made it up if my contract weren't up in a week.) Anyway, we arrived in Shanghai on Monday and had an open afternoon as of...3pm. With some hassle, we managed to arrange for a tour guide and car to come and show us some of the sites, though it took them an hour to get to us (certain members of the group seemed to have a mysterious aversion to taxis that could get us around the city with a fraction of the cost and half the time, but whatever). In the meantime, we walked down Nanxing Road, which ran right behind the hotel, for a bit of shopping, where I bought my new favorite shirt EVAH. ^^
When the tour guide showed up, we set out for SWFC Observatory at the top of the tallest building in the world (Japanese-built, hehe ;), and Yu Yuan (Yu Garden...or at least, the old city around it, which is, for some reason, dubbed "China Town"). The garden was actually closed by the time we got there, but we did get to walk around the shopping area a bit (a bit...shopping time was strangely absent on this vacation). We also dropped by a pearl store, where the shop ladies taught us all about oysters and pearls. Very cool. I've actually been looking to buy a single black pearl necklace for a while now (like...years), so I finally found one. And Shanghai is apparently famous for pearls, so I found one with a story. :)
I'd be doing an injustice to the day if I didn't mention Robin, our tour buide. He was adorable. I guess I was the one in the group with the most questions, so by the time we left the observatory, it seemed like he was talking mostly to me. On the way down the escalator, he asked what we were up to the next day, and I had to watch his face fall when I said we had another tour arranged. "Oh," he says, "I thought maybe if you arranged with the hotel, I would be with you again, because I am very happy with you." Having thought me meant the five of us as a group, I got a firmer confirmation when we said goodbye at the end of the tour and he said something on the order of, "I am very happy to meet you. You are a very wonderful girl." ^___^ That kinda made my day. lol
In a way, it kind of reminded me of my experience with Tola, the guide Carly and I had in Cambodia. He was similarly enthusiastic about sticking with us after that first day. Carly theorized that maybe these guys get mostly newlyweds and whatnot, who make them feel like a third wheel and don't really ask a lot of questions (ie, foreigners who mostly just hire guides as a means of not getting lost). I figure it's gotta be something like that. Makes me kinda sad to think foreigners wouldn't take advantage of talking to a native guide beyond the stale facts of site after site. You can learn so much just by asking how someone learned English. By the time Carly and I said goodbye to Tola, we'd had conversations with him about everything from history and religion to politics and society. It was great. People are missing out.
Monday
On Monday, we met up with our Ring of Fire tour group and headed out to hit the major sites of Shanghai. In the morning, we hit the Shanghai Museum (underwhelming, IMO, but I'm not a big museum-goer), the Jade Buddha Temple (where we got a little lesson in Chinese tea ceremony--very cool), and Yu Yuan (again, but this time we got to go into the garden...would've been nice if we'd gotten to see it for more than a 20-minute breeze-through).
Our first Chinese food experience came at lunch. We filed into a big room with round tables (each with a lazy Susan), and proceeded to sample a dozen or so dishes laid out for our pleasure. Not gonna sugar coat it. The food was pretty bad, and so was the restaurant. Here I was, all excited to eat Chinese food again after the FABULOUS things I sampled in Hong Kong, and...it was awful. First, the servers ignored my request for something to drink until they'd used up every cold bottle of water in the house, and thus ended up serving me hot water. Then the food started coming out, each dish more disappointing than the last. AND they forgot to serve us rice, so Erin hardly got anything to eat for the whole meal. Finally, dessert was watermelon. This was a trend throughout the trip. Watermelon after EVERY. MEAL. Guess who hates watermelon? >:/
The food on the trip got better at a gradual pace, so that by the farewell dinner, the food was actually pretty good. It was only during those last 2 days, however, that I actually found it mildly enjoyable. That, in itself, pissed me off because it just proves that the tour wasn't picking our eating venues based on quality until it was absolutely necessary. I KNOW China can do better. :(
After lunch, things immediately started looking up. Right under the "restaurant" was a silk factory, where we got to take a tour and learn about the whole precess of silk-making, from hungry worm to fluffy blanket. Like the pearl shop and tea ceremony, this was a really cool stop. Hell, we actually got to spend time and learn something.
In the afternoon, we went for a Huangpu River Cruise and got to see...basically, a lot of the things we'd already seen, but this time from the water. Kinda "meh" on the cruise part, but at least we got to sit around and talk for a while after a morning spent rushing from place-to-place. That night (because we were running late somehow), we pushed back dinner and went to see a Chinese acrobat show first (essentially, a slightly less awesome version of Cirque de Soleil). The latter was pretty entertaining...there was this one guy that could do some amazing things with a jar twice the size of his head. Also, boys jumping through hoops. You can't go wrong with boys jumping through hoops. ^^
If I could change anything about that first day, it would probably be cutting the museum in favor of more time at Yu Yuan. That garden had some amazing stone structures and pavilions, little paths that led around corners into shady side-paths and away from crowds, bridges, statues, etc. Oh, and cicadas. Erin, Dad, and I played spot-the-cicadas in a willow tree whil we were all waiting for an old lady to get out of the bathroom. I would've really liked to spend more time there. *sigh*
Dinner that night was good, though. Erin was so jet lagged that she actually fell asleep halfway through the acrobat show, so we decided to split from the group and have dinner at the hotel. For anyone who's wondering, the Sofitel in Shanghai does an AMAZING buffet. Breakfast blew me away, and dinner was also pretty great. (Note: I don't count this in my assessment of Chinese food since the buffet was at least a half-and-half split b/t Chinese and Western food. Still. Good stuff. And we heard from the rest of the group later that the group dinner was awful that night, so yay for Erin's jet lag. ;)
Tuesday
First thing in the morning, we loaded up onto the bus and headed out of Shanghai to Sheshan Hill to visit Sheshan Observation Station (an observatory). You know, as I'm writing this I'm thinking that I must be a more positive person than I realize, 'cause while the artifacts in the observatory were not interesting at all, I managed to have a pretty good time running around the structure taking pics with Erin.
After the observatory, we all got back on the bus and drove a looong way to Jiaxing. From 3-5 we had a meeting about the eclipse the next day. After dinner, everyone headed to bed early (by "early," I mean approx. 10pm) in preparation for an early morning.
Wednesday
The eclipse, I have already covered.
After the eclipse (at about 10:30am *shudder*), we drove to Xitang, which is essentially the Chinese mini version of Venice. It's a town built around a series of canals, which give it a very quaint and authentic kind of charm. (Quaint, and also exotic enough to serve as the site of the climactic scene in Mission: Impossible III). We ate lunch at a local restaurant (the first one that really felt like a local restaurant worth eating at for the atmosphere and food), were given 10 minutes of exploring/shopping time, and then took a boat cruise through the canals back to the bus. It was still raining up until we got on the boats, btw, which had me looking like a drowned rat throughout lunch. But whatever. Local flavor and whatnot. ;)
Next, we headed aaaaall the way back to Shanghai to catch a flight to Xian. It was at this point in the trip that we met with the obligatory airport adventure, which materialized in the form a of a 3-hour delay. We passed the time by teaching 4 of our fellow group-mates a card game called Liverpool (a version of rummy). With seven of us playing (and loudly enough to reflect a bunch of foreigners at the end of a very long day), we got through about half a hand before our circle of card-playing gaijin started to draw a crowd. An actual. Crowd. It was hilarious. Once we had ten or so locals squinting down at our hands in a desperately curious desire to understand the rules of the game, I jokingly suggested we sing them a song to lighten the mood and entertain our growing fan base. Next thing you know, we're serenading the locals with a late-night karaoke rendition of "Don't Stop Believin'" (and other favorites). It was hilarious.
Hours later, we made it to Xian, loaded up into our new bus, and drove a long way to our new hotel, ultimately collapsing into our [SOFT] beds at 2am.
Thursday
Due to our late night, we earned ourselves a wee bit of extra sleep and set out for the "Terracotta Digs" at 9am. There's...not a whole lot to say about that part, since I think most people know what the TCW's are. But just in case, here's a quick rundown:
Emperor Qin was the man who unified China into a single city state (from I think 9 separate kingdoms). In those days, Chinese people believed they had another life after death, so when he was building his tomb, he included the army of terracotta warriors (each of which is unique and based on the features of the men in his lifetime army) to accompany him to that next life. However, since he was a somewhat unpopular ruler (killing off whole family lines to eliminate traitors, ruling his servants with an iron fist, and whatnot), after his death, his enemies stormed the site where the TCW's were buried and smashed them all to pieces (well, all but one--a kneeling archer), stealing their bronze weapons and chariots. The TCW's were then forgotten for centuries, until a farmer stumbled upon them while digging a well in the 70's.
So there you have it. We visited the big room housing a few hundred TCW's first, then watched an incredibly cheesy old movie depicting the story of the site, then saw a smaller dig site next door where a few more warriors were unearthed, and then visited a museum with 2 miniature chariots that were also found at the site. The coolest ones, to me, were the unfinished ones--half men of clay sticking up out of the ground, with various parts of their neighbors sticking out of them every which way. :3
It was a very cool stop, but the pictures (that I will eventually get posted) pretty much speak for themselves better than any way I can describe it.
Oh, we also got to see the farmer who discovered the TCW's. He was sitting at a table signing books outside the movie. I snagged a few shots of him before the crowd parted enough for me to see the "NO PHOTO" sign. Oops. *shrug*
After the TCW's, we had lunch, and upon finishing that, we got back on the bus to find the bitchy, waspy, know-it-all older American couple in the group demanding to go back to the hotel before we had dinner that night...which would mean skipping the jade factory and slicing up our time at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Anna, our poor tour guide, and for some reason everyone else sitting toward the front of the bus, seemed to bow in stunned silence to the crabby demands of this pair. By that point in the trip, I was pretty much fed up with both of them. So while they were prattling on about how seeing everything on the original schedule was "unacceptable" if they didn't get their afternoon rest, I used my hard-earned elementary school-teaching level voice and shouted up from the back to speak for what turned out to be the majority of the group.
Me: Alright, hold on. Who wants to see the jade factory?
Bus of People: *after a brief pause, all but 4 hands go up*
Me: Who wants to see the pagoda?
Bus of People: *same result*
Me: Who wants to go back to the hotel?
Bus of People: *three hands go up*
Me: Ok, so who's for sticking to the original schedule?
Bus of People: *all but he bitchy and elderly few raise their hands*
Me: I think we have our answer.
And thus it was, the wasps were silenced...for a little while.
So we went to the jade factory, where we learned (in a very limited period of time) all about mountain jade and river jade and the various colors of it, quality, etc. I got myself another necklace. Never been much of a fan of jade, if I'm being honest, but I respect it as a part of Chinese culture, and from that standpoint, it was actually pretty interesting. It's one of those things that was worth learning about in China, since we were there. And the necklace matches my new shirt, so yay. :)
After the jade factory, we went to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. This and Yu Yuan are my main regrets of the trip, as far as wishing-there-was-more-time-spent-there goes. The pagoda is an interesting shape and design (not at all like Japanese pagodas), and comes with an interesting history...
Apparently (or supposedly, as you might prefer), once upon a time, a bunch of monks at this temple were really hungry and wanted to eat some meat. So they prayed to the Buddha to send them some meat. Upon praying, out of a flock of wild geese passing overhead, a single goose fell down dead at their feet. The monks thought this was so sad and cruel that they vowed never to eat meat again. And thus was born the vegetarian element of Buddhism.
The grounds of the temple/pagoda were very pretty, littered with statues and garden paths and carvings that could've easily filled more than 20 minutes. But hey, we almost didn't see the thing at all, so I guess I should be happy. *sigh*
Dinner that night came with a music and dance show (some numbers of which were more entertaining than others). The unbridled camera flashes of the audience got REALLY annoying at some points, especially when they had special low lighting on stage to accent the dances. Everybody just needs to get my camera. That would be the solution to all this, 'cause then they wouldn't need flash to get a good picture. *nodnods*
Diner itself was dim sum (dumplings), all of which tasted far less fresh than I would've liked. Not once on this trip, in fact, did we find dim sum to rival that simple family restaurant Kathleen took us to in Hong Kong. And to think the food was what I was most looking forward to about this trip! *sigh* :(
Friday
Last day of the tour! We woke up early to head out to the Muslim quarter of Xian, and in it, the Mosque. I would've liked a little more time here, too, but at least it was smaller than the garden and pagoda. It was a very pretty area, built for the practice of Islam, but in (surprisingly, to me) in a very Chinese style of architecture. There was even a little school in session for kids to study the Koran. We got to peek in at the end of a lesson and catch the start of snack time (which was...corn).
For those who are interested, Xian's Muslim quarter is the result of Arabic merchants who traveled the Silk Road and ended up marrying Chinese women and settling down in China. Today, few of them understand more Arabic than is necessary for the Koran, but they are still actively Muslim.
We had to walk through the shopping streets and alleyways to get to the Mosque, which I really enjoyed. It was one of the few times that I felt we got to see the "real" China.
They gave us a little shopping time on the way back to the bus (again...really a little. The shopping time on this whole trip must've totaled something like 60 minutes), and then we headed to the old city wall of Xian that runs around the inner city. This was a bit of a consolation for the fact that I MISSED THE FREAKIN' GREAT WALL on this trip. With a little death-defying maneuvering, Erin and I got some good shots of each other leaning out over the side, then bought ourselves some ice cream and sat in the shade of a little refreshments kiosk for a few minutes.
(I began to wonder, as we were sitting there, what the ancient Chinese would think if they'd known that someday, 1500 years after painstakingly building that wall, a couple gaijin would be sitting on top of it eating ice cream. ^^; )
Our flight back to Shanghai was in the afternoon. Delayed for about 45min, we played another hand of Liverpool (again attracting a few spectators), then boarded the plane, where I taught Erin Othello (BEST. GAME. EVER.). That first game covered almost the whole 2-hour flight.
Back in Shanghai, we had 40 minutes to shower and make ourselves presentable for the farewell dinner. As I said, the food on the trip got progressively better after starting at a fairly low standard. By the goodbye dinner, the dishes were actually good. The selection also included a few things I'd been waiting for (Peking duck, egg tarts, lemon chicken, etc.). So that was nice.
We were actually scheduled to eat that night back at Yu Yuan, but since that was an hour and a half from the hotel, the tour coordinators elected to have it at a closer venue, and compensated for the change with a presentation by Claude. Claude was an astronaut with 4 space walks under his belt (2 to Hubble), and also the group leader of group A (we were B...of course). So he told us about his experiences in space, showed us some shots he took from the shuttle, tec. It was neat, but for some reason, Pat, the B leader, decided to follow up his lecture with a "fisheye camera" 180-degree video that she'd taken of the eclipse 2 days before. You know...the eclipse we all saw...or didn't see, rather...'cause it was CLOUDED OVER AND RAINING. So at 10:30pm on our last night, after a very long day, we got a replay of the clouds because some idiot in the audience heard what she had in mind and said "Ooh! I 'd like to see that!" (while all the rest of us were thinking, "You did see that, you fool! *facepalm*)
Saturday
This morning, we all got up to catch our flights and head our separate ways. I woke up at 6:30 with Erin and went to see everyone off from the hotel doorstep. As their flight was at 9:30 and mine at 12:10, I had lots of time to hang out in the hotel, but a few [overpriced] souvenirs for my eikaiwa people (who I forgot about until the night before), and watch a CNN clip about transgender operations (which was actually pretty interesting) before heading to the airport and meeting with the nice surprise of being in business class on the flight back to Tokyo (thanks, Dad! :). First time I was ever the first person off a plane!
It took me almost exactly 30 minutes to get from the plane, through immigration, baggage claim, and customs, then land in my seat on the train. I managed to change my Shinkansen ticket back to Aomori without a problem, and even had enough time to dash out of the station, grab some Starbucks (GRANDE Matcha Cream Frappuchino and Honey Lemon Cheese Tart P:), and get back to the train.
I've now been riding the Shinkansen for almost 3 hours, and I'm just about to run out of paper. Luckily, I think I've covered everything. The rest of the details of the trip can easily emerge as picture annotations. Now I'm gonna fold this thing up nice and carefully so I don't lose it before I type it up later. I'm so proud of myself for snagging this paper off the nightstand before leaving the hotel. Exactly 2 pieces--the leftovers of last night's tied Othello game. Go me. :)
~~~
Aaaaaaaand that's it. Took me a while to type this thing up, and I've got a lot of packing to do tomorrow, so there's no time to go back and proof it now. I'll do that...eventually. Be forewarned, should you read it before my proofs, that there are probably typos galore in here. ^^