The Difference is Staggering

Originally, I wasn’t going to go to China at all this trip. Logically, I don’t think I should have. HK$1020 for the Visa plus all the travel expenses…my wallet didn’t want to me to go. But Kelly, Zarina, and Cinja were going to Guilin for the weekend and most of my close friends here would be away over the weekend elsewhere, leaving me with nothing to do. So last minute decision, I went to China. And I’m so glad I did. While Taiwan and the Philippines were amazing fun, I don’t feel like they’ll be the stories I’ll be telling my kids. They were essentially partying in a different country, with traces of culture on the fringe. But China was an entirely new experience.

As soon as you cross the border into China, it’s a whole different world. If you’ve crossed into Mexico to Tijuana, it’s kind of like that. Except there really is no English and the shopping is better. Didn’t spend much time in Shenzhen (the border city) except to grab some food at McDonald’s before our overnight train. Even McDonald’s was different! You sit down and they take your order, there are more spicy food options since it’s close to Sichuan (I guess?) and the chocolate was different. The sleeper train was long, but not too shabby. Arrived in Guilin at 6am and immediately headed out hostel and out sightseeing.

We walked all through Guilin and it was nothing like I expected. I had heard it was a “small rural town” but in actuality it was a large city. Stopped at Elephant Hill, where we pretty much paid to see a rock with a hole it in and a bunch of elephant statues. You’d think that they had real life elephants there at one point, but it’s all manufactured to bring in tourists and their money for anything. Walked to nearby twin pagodas and opted to not pay to get in but walk along the riverside and soak it in. We came across a market on our way to our next stop and it was quite the experience. Fruit and spices covering every inch of table space, chilies upon chilies, and then came the meat section. Cages filled to the brim of ducks, chickens, quails, and pigeons, tables of pig legs, baskets so full of fish they could barely move. The smell became too much and I had to find refuge among the tea and spices area. Definitely an experience. We continued our walking tour of the city and stopped in at Solid Beauty Peak (an old walled city), Seven Star Park (caves that weren’t there, waterfalls that had dried up, and the saddest zoo I’ve ever seen), and more markets.

Somewhere in the day we tried to get lunch. This was the hardest part of our day as everywhere that had a menu with pictures was out of our price range, and everything that was in our price range had no English, no pictures, and no one to translate anything we said. Luckily, we had just learned some food vocabulary in mandarin that week! After ordering what we hoped was rice, beef, and vegetables, we waited at a small table inside the dingy little room that was an “eatery”. Our food comes and what do you know it’s delicious! And then the bill comes it’s Y6 (a little under US$1) each! Excellent start to our dining experience in China. The whole weekend was filled with amazing dishes, delicious meals, and dirt cheap prices. And here I was worried I’d be living off snack food like Pringles and Oreos the whole time.

That night we checked out Guilin’s night market. They close off half of the main street every night so hundreds of stalls can set up and sell their wares. We all ended up buying a good amount of stuff – I got a “Diesel” purse, a “Boss” wallet, and a belt for under US$12! After this we were pretty exhausted and decided we’d need as much sleep as possible before our 8am pick up for the boat to Yangshou.

Bright and early we’re off. Of course, before we get to our boat we make a pit stop at a souvenir shop, always trying to get your money. Talked with the only other English speakers on our bus and heard some cool stories about their travels in India. Traveling around for 6 months…not sure if I could handle it but it does sound pretty cool. When we finally got on our boat we had a bit of drama with seating and food, but it all worked out in the end. Talked with a Chinese man who had studied/worked in Canada and he helped us communicate with a few of the other locals. I’m sure he was just being nice, but he was impressed with our Chinese! The trip down the river was beautiful and impressive. It’s amazing what nature’s capable of, if we don’t destroy it.

A few hours down the river and we arrived in Yangshou, which is a cute little town, even if it is VERY touristy. We rented a taxi for an hour and drove around to see Moon Hill (another hole in a rock), rice paddies, and a bridge with an awesome view of the mountains and river. Didn’t really see much else of Yangshou because of the rain, though. Saw another night market, where I bought a nice handheld mirror, and then went off to see the Great Light Show. It was choreographed by the same guy who choreographed the opening ceremonies and it was amazing to see 600 people singing and putting on this show together. The show was outside and it started raining pretty badly, but I’m glad we stayed all the way through. It was definitely worth it!

The next day we had another early morning to catch a bus to take us to the Longji Rice Terraces. We stopped in at a couple villages along the way. The Yao Village is the Village of the Long Haired people. The women stop cutting their hair at 18 years old, and wear it a certain way to display their family status. They had a show where they let down their hair, but we weren’t about to waste the money on that. Instead, we explored the villages and got invited in by a local man to see his own home. While it looked sparse and rustic, it had hints of the modern day. They still smoke their vegetables by keeping them in the room above their fire, but they also had really nice Bose speakers and a satellite dish. I wasn’t expecting that. The last stop was the rice terraces and they were really impressive. We get off the bus and walk up to a café about half way up to grab lunch. The rain had followed us here so we were all worried we wouldn’t see anything in the mist. We finish lunch and decide to suck it up and trek to the top anyway just in case you can see something. As we walk the rain starts to let up, the further we climb the more the mist clears. We reached the top and it was just amazing. Rice terraces on every bit of ground available. The rain had brought with it clouds to frame our view. We stood up there soaking it in and taking photos for a while, and then just as we start to head back down the mist rolled in and swallowed everything in white. Lucky timing!

We head back on the bus and soon are back in Guilin, then back to Shenzhen. Zarina and I decided to stay around and shop, since this would be my only chance to do so because of my crappy double entry visa. Ended up spending way too much money on some things I don’t really need. Best purchase was definitely the 16gb flash drive I bought for US$10! Shopping there is hard work because they try to rip you off any way they can. Then headed back to CUHK for a long week ahead of studying and paper-writing before I could escape again, this time to Vietnam.

I’m really glad I decided to go to China. I doubt I will come back here any time soon, especially not to places like Guilin which are pretty unknown. Great trip - a fun weekend, a cultural experience, and some goodies to show for it. I’m looking forward to my next visit into China – Beijing!

Photos: Elephant Hill, chickens at the market, view of the river from a bridge in Yangshou, Cinja with one of the long-haired women, and the view of the rice terraces from the top.

Upcoming posts: Vietnam! Off to Beijing tomorrow, too!

2 weeks of classes and I’m already visiting another country

So we had a long weekend thanks to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Kelly, Cinja, Logan, Iga, Mark, and I decided to take advantage of this long weekend and go to Taiwan. Mid-Autumn festival is sort of like the Chinese Thanksgiving. It’s a time for families to come together, eat moon cakes, and reflect about their ancestors.

So Thursday, instead of going to class, we all hopped on a flight to Taiwan. The HK airport is the best airport I’ve ever been in. So much to do and everything’s so efficient. The flight was alright, over before I even got bored. We land in Taiwan and it’s sweltering heat just as back in Hong Kong but the air just felt different. Little did we know that was because a typhoon was coming.

We didn’t have much time that first day since we didn’t get settled until early evening, so we decided to just check out a night market and a bar. We thought about Karaoke, but the only ones we found were all you can eat buffet dinners and the karaoke room for 4 hours at time. We would have had to go while famished in order to get our money’s worth. So we just wandered the night market and looked around for a bar to hang out in and relax. Turns out the area we were in was a special school zone so there were no bars and no drinking outside allowed. We were told this right as Logan was drinking a Tall Boy, so he had to chug it right then. We eventually got out of the special district and found a nice “Irish” Pub. It had a dart board and fairly cheap drinks, so a good time was had by all.

Woke up early the next day to get a head start on fitting everything in before the typhoon came. Went to the Chaing Kai Shek Memorial Hall and it was deserted (like almost everything we saw that day), Martyr’s Shrine for the changing of the guard, National Palace Museum, and Taipei 101 for the view.

Chaing Kai Shek Memorial was a wide open courtyard with gardens and a couple large structures – one housing the large memorial statue and the below ground museum. His statue was so happy, not the typical stoic pose that I’ve seen in memorials before. Below the main hall is a museum that houses his old belongings of note - anything from his old Cadalliac cars to his porch seat. His body used to be housed here too, but earlier this year his body was moved to an older town. I think it was moved since the Taiwan feelings towards Chaing Kai Shek have soured a bit since he held power.

Then we headed to the Martyr’s Shrine, and luckily caught the changing of the guard. It was my group of CUHK exchange kids (US, Canada, Australia, Germany) and everyone else there was Japanese. The Martyr’s Shrine was built for all the men who died while fighting for the Republic of China, either against the PRC or against the Japanese invasion that occurred later. For every fallen soldier there is a plaque of wood on the wall. There are at least 2 structures where every inch of wall space was taken up by these plaques. The guards are not to move and guard both the main gate and the gate of the largest building within the field. The changing of the guard ceremony itself took almost 20 minutes. After the main guards were changed, in their walk back to the largest building, they did an impressive gun/drill demonstration. It was really neat, especially since we could be right up next to them. Then they changed the back guards and they did a gun/drill show again! As soon as the changing of the guards ended, all the Japanese tourists headed on to their buses and there were seriously less than 10 people there. It was nice to go to a tourist place and have it be deserted.

We went to the National Palace Museum as the last day trip stop. We had 2 hours from when we got there to when we it was closing, so we had to be really efficient. We ran through there – lots of Chinese porcelain and intricate jade and ivory work. Last stop of the day was Taipei 101 and while it was still a bit rainy, we had an amazing view of the city. Taipei 101 may not be the tallest building in the world anymore, but it still has the fastest elevator in the world! To go up 90 flights took less than 45 seconds!

The rest of the trip wasn’t as eventful as this first day, thanks to the typhoon. A lot of hanging out in the hostel and watching movies and Asian television. At night we would brave out into the weather and spend some time in the bars. A lot of places were either closed or deserted, but we found one that we liked and went to the few nights we were there. The best night was Saturday. Walked there during a lull in the storm to grab dinner and drinks. After eating, we decide we’ll just hang out and drink until another lull so we can walk back. More than 5 hours and NT$10,000 later, we cave and grab a cab back to the hostel. That night was just epic on so many levels.

The typhoon passed in time for us to check out the hot springs on our last day, which was very relaxing and totally worth the US$1.25.

Photos: Guy at a night market burning a candle in his ear, the group (minus me) in front of Chaing Kai Shek Memorial, the changing of the guard, Me in front of the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101. More are on facebook, of course.

Upcoming blog posts: Day trips to Big Buddha, Disneyland, Victoria Peak, and Causeway Bay. I’m also leaving for the Philippines on Thursday, so hopefully I don’t get rained out there too and have some good stories to tell.

Classes and living at CUHK A.K.A. Boring stuff.

First week of classes just wrapped up and I still don’t know my finalized class schedule. There’s been a whole lot of drama about classes here with all the exchange kids, and I’m no exception. So before coming here, USC Annenberg gave me a list of approved COMM courses for transfer. It was fairly long so it didn’t seem like there’d be any problem with taking 12 units here (which is what I need to take in order to be able to do my film minor and graduate on time). However, once we all get here, CUHK is literally only offering one of the courses on the list. So me and the other 2 USC Annenberg kids have been scrambling to submit alternatives that USC would accept. So far, I only have 6 approved units. If I can’t get one more COMM class, then I will have to drop my minor AND take 20 units in my last semester. Or stick around for a summer or fall course. This is definitely not ideal. If I can get just one more course, then I’ll be able to take 16 COMM units and just have to drop my film minor. I think that’s the best option because I don’t care too much about having the official minor or not. I took classes I enjoyed and that’s really all I need from that.

So yeah, cutting through this red tape has been shit.

Now on to the classes themselves: I’m taking International Communication, Psychology of Interpersonal Communication, and Mandarin 1. That’s 12 units here since each course is 3 units and Mandarin is two courses – one oral, one written. And man, the classes seem like a LOT of work. COMM and Psych each have 10-page research papers and 3 group presentations! In addition to the Midterms and Finals! Mandarin is all exchange kids so it seems a bit more chill, but it still has 6 quizzes and 8 dictations on top of the Oral and Written Midterms and Finals! This is going to be one crazy busy semester between all the work and all the traveling.

Also, it’s really weird how the classes seem so disrespectful. In COMM and Psych, there are only about 5 exchange kids in each and the rest is all locals. While the professor is lecturing and teaching, the kids just keep on talking at their normal voice level as if nothing is going on. Some exchange guys even told me how in one class, people were answering their phones in the middle of lecture and one guy was sitting on his desk with his back towards the professor so he could carry on a conversation with his friends better. I thought the conversation would die down after a while, once the professor got into the swing of things and they had caught up on each other’s summers, but they kept talking throughout the whole 2 hour lecture. And the professors don’t acknowledge it at all. They will just talk louder over the class roar without once asking them to quiet down. I don’t understand it.

That’s it for now. I’m off to Macau tomorrow – the Vegas of the East! – and just booked my flight ticket to Taiwan for next weekend, so this should be an exciting fortnight.