More China stuff, being back home

I've been back for about five days now, and getting accustomed to the daily routine again. I'm the only one of my travel companions who didn't either get sick on the trip or soon afterwards, and I'm hoping to keep it that way (am popping the Airbourne like crazy). I thought I had managed to escape jetlag, too (it helped that I was the only one of the four of us who had to come back and start a daily work routine right away), but two nights ago I woke up at 3:30 am and couldn't fall back asleep. This morning it was 5 am, which I think is an acceptable time to get up and start the day. All in all, it hasn't been too bad, and I'm looking forward to a normal, fun weekend (go Pats!).

I've uploaded a few new videos from China to Youtube. I have one of people skating and sledding on a lake in the Houhai area in Beijing. In the summer, the lake is full of boats:
But of course not in the winter. I'd never seen these kind of ice sledding before (Grace also blogged about this here). So cool!
Here's the video:


I also have some videos from the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City. We were there a week ago! (wow, it was weird to just think that) I was really taken by the Temple of Heaven. The grounds were beautiful, and even though we didn't get there in time to get the full effect of the morning tai chi exercises, there was still a ton going on in the park. We spied this older couple doing what I first thought was dancing, but then realized was a type of paddle ball game. Check it out:



A few more pictures from that day:
Tiananmen:
From the Imperial Garden in the Forbidden City:
We arrived at the Forbidden City with just an hour and a half before it was closing, so we had a somewhat abbreviated tour. Grace wanted to go to the Imperial Gardens first, because she had some photo research to do for her next book, so she was a gal on a mission, urging us to quickly walk all the way to the back of the grounds, which wasn't a short walk. Here's a video from when we finally can see the Garden:


Grace is still blogging away about China. I'll continue to post some pictures and videos. Let's keep the vacation high going!

Mellow Sunday and Off to the Summer Palace and the Great Wall...

**Pictures added 1/22**

Yesterday was fairly mellow. We worked out in the morning in the fancy gym in Chi-Chu's condo complex (it seems that only Westerners like to work out, the two times we've been there, there have been no other Chinese-looking people there), and then went to get Hong Kong style dim sum. It was basically the same as what you'd get in NY, but at this restaurant there were no carts being pushed around, you just ordered by checking off a checklist, which would have been really challenging if Chi-Chu hadn't been there, because I couldn't read most of the menu. I did manage to locate Xiao long bao (soup dumplings), but that wouldn't have helped because it turned out that they didn't have them that morning. But Chi-Chu ordered for us, and we stuffed ourselves as usual. Then it was off to pan jia yuan, or as Eveline called it, the Dirt Market. It was basically a huge flea market with antiques, silk, jade, and various other interesting objects, like reverse Chinese characters for a printing press, old Chinese instruments, scary looking ancient weapons, old silk scrolls and robes, etc. I helped Grace bargain for some stuff--it's fun to bargain when it's not my money!

Then we tried three times unsuccessfully to use a payphone to call Chi-Chu--the payphones were fairly decrepit looking, but I found out later that the reason the call wasn't going through was because I was dialing the wrong number. Oh well. Then we went across the street to a McDonald's (or as they say in China: Mai Dang Lao) to warm up with hot chocolate and coffee. I love seeing the different things they have on the menu--we got pineapple pie (they also had taro) and a cup of corn.

The cab driver on our way back to Chi-Chu's place was hilarious. He asked us where we were from and started chatting with us, pointing out buildings, correcting our pronounciation. "Di tie" with a deep 3rd tone on the "tie" (subway). He asked what we were going to see, and I responded "Da Chang" forgetting how to say "Great Wall." "Da Chang" he repeated, perplexed. "Wei shen me?" (Why?) Jen tried to explain in Chinese, and then he said, "Chang Cheng! Bu shi da chang!" and proceeded to make us repeat after him a few times. He told us that he was "Old Beijing" not "New Beijing" and that he had lived here his whole life, that his father and his grandfather were also from Beijing. Beyond that, he didn't know. He told us to all find jobs in China. He was an adorable old man, and at the end of the ride, refused our tip (China is not a tipping culture).

That night, Chi-Chu, Grace, and I went to Ding Tai Fong for dinner to get the xiao long bao we missed at lunch. So good. I loved the one in Taipei (before it got too crowded) and have never had the chance to go to the one in LA. They need to open up one in NY!

Back in Shanghai, we ended up getting a referral for a tour guide here in Beijing, Nicole. She's picking us up around 9 am to take us to the Summer Palace and the Great Wall. The Great Wall is the main reason I wanted to come to Beijing, and I'm excited. I think it'd probably be best if it stopped snowing by the time we got there, though...not sure if we'd fare well with a slippery climb.

To be continued...

more travel thoughts

I'm about to go to bed, but wanted to write a quick post. I just got back from a club with Eveline and Chi-Chu. Once again, the others were too tired to join. It's not that I'm not tired, too, but I suppose I have a slightly different travel philosophy than the others. I know Jen is exhausted from her intern year and wants this to be a relaxing and rejuvenating break. Grace wants to make sure she has time to blog and keep in touch with friends back home. I think it's also because I'm just used to going out a lot even when I'm tired from living in NY and having so much going on, so many fun things to do. But anyway, when I'm in a foreign land, I want to do everything possible, take advantage of every opportunity. I don't want to exhaust myself, but I want to try to achieve the right balance of tourism, everyday activities, relaxation, and nightlife. I like to experience what life would be to live like a local--take public transportation, walk around, check out grocery stores, hang out at night, etc. One thing I regret from my whirlwind European tour after college is that we hardly experienced any of the nightlife, preferring to see the sights during the day instead. But anyway, so far I've been pretty happy with the level of balance on this China trip so far. Every day is packed and different, but I'm not exhausted. I think I'll return to the States rejuvenated.

It was a really cool club called Yu Gong Yi Shan--I guess it used to be in another location and was much smaller, but has recently moved. There is a lot of live music there normally, but tonight was a fantastic deejay (Eveline knows him--I'll post a video later), and the laser/smoke machine effect was especially cool. Almost everyone there was a Westerner, which really didn't make the experience that different from going out in NY, although it was a good taste of what my life would be like if I lived in Beijing, and what the friendly and large ex-patriot community is like here. (I must say, not unlike Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And not, by the way, that I'm thinking about living in Beijing.) It was fun hanging out with old friends and dancing--I so rarely go dancing anymore, but I always have fun when I do. It was also a bit like worlds colliding, my Taiwan life with my NY life. My trip companions almost represent my whole life, actually--Grace and Ki-Ki being childhood friends (from 5th to 7th grade), Jen from 8th grade up and college, Chi-Chu from my time living in Taiwan after college, and Eveline from work and NY and the Randoms. There has been something very comforting about it all, actually.

******

One quick note about my Chinese language speaking ability--I've been pretty pleased with how much of my Chinese has come back, and how naturally it flows out. I feel confident that I could navigate this city on my own. However, my problem hasn't been with speaking and being understood, but rather understanding the answer/reply. But it's exciting to know that people can understand what I'm saying. I've started to get into bargaining, too. It seems silly to fight over the equivalent of one or two US dollars, but it's the experience that's interesting, and the challenge that I gain a sense of accomplishment from.

I also feel accomplished when I get the measure words right--different objects have different measure words. For example, if I want to say "three books" I would say "san ben shu," with "ben" being the measure word. If I want to say three tickets, I'd say "san zhang piao" with "zhang" being the measure word. Three tigers would be "san zhi lao hu," with "zhi" the measure word. There's the default measure word "ge," which you use for many things, and also if you're not sure what the correct measure word is, but I've always felt that using the wrong measure word was a sure sign of a non-native speaker. Native speakers just knows what sounds right and use the right word. I don't think I'll ever be considered a native speaker, but I feel that it's the little details that make a big difference.

Anyway, that all for tonight, time for bed. Wan an!

Getting here

I'm in Beijing! What follows is a fairly dry account of our first night in China. I'm jetlagged, and it's all I can muster.

I got to the Newark airport over 3 hours early, just in case. Ran into Grace and Ki-Ki randomly in the food court (I had left Grace a message, but she hadn't turned her phone back on after her Boston to Newark flight) where we hung out for a few hours and read guide books.

I so rarely have companions when I travel, so it was nice to have two friends to travel with this time. The last time I flew internationally (I think to or from Taiwan), my overhead light was broken so I couldn't read. This time, our TVs didn't work, so it was doubly nice to have company. We read, chatted, they knit, I played solitaire on my iPod, napped periodically, ate horrible airplane food including a "beef" and swiss sandwich where the meat was indistinguishable. I longed for the Asian airlines where the midflight snack they serve is ramen.

We waiting about 3 hours in the Beijing airport for Jen's flight to arrive from SF. We found a coffee shop to plant ourselves down and drink coffee and tea. My Chinese was somewhat enough for us to communicate, combined with the waitress's English. At one point, though, I tried to order "bing kai shui" (iced boiled water), which in Taiwan would get us boiled water that is then made cold, but she shook her head and said she couldn't do that, so I just got boiled water instead.

We sketched out a rough itinerary for Beijing. Really, I don't care what we see, I'm just happy to be here (although I must walk on the Great Wall--it's one of the things on my 'To Do Before I Die" list).

I bought a phone card to call Chi-Chu, which was a challenge. Can you believe I forgot how to say local and international? (then again, when Chi-Chu reminded me of the words later, I don't think I had ever learned them, or else had learned them as something else in Taiwan--many words are different here)

Jen arrived on time, and thank goodness her Chinese is more fluent than mine. I was able to answer when asked, "Ji wei?" (how many people), but Jen took over when it came down to figuring out if all of our luggage could fit in the cab, and telling the driver to call Chi-Chu when he couldn't find the address.

Chi-Chu's two-bedroom condo is luxurious, and thankfully has plenty of room for the four of us. He must have been somewhat overwhelmed by the sudden influx of estrogen.

The first order of business was dinner, and we decided on hot pot, and went to a place called Xiao Fei Yang and met Eveline there (Little Fatty Lamb, literally, although I guess their official English name is Little Lamb)--their specialty is lamb, so we got a ton of that, plus veggies, chicken, etc. I love hot pot, and the spicy side was especially yummy. All of the waiters stared at us throughout the meal, confused by our lack of Chinese skills. I got this in Taiwan a lot, too. How can we be Chinese/Taiwanese and not speak the language fluently? It's such a strange thing for the locals to understand. In Taiwan, my white friends would get such sympathy and help when trying to communicate, while us Asian students were treated with impatience.

We walked home in the cold, stopping by a supermarket to pick up some breakfast food, then back home to shower and wind down. Grace blogged last night here, complete with pictures! I'll probably upload all my pics after I get back and add them in later. We're off to Shanghai tonight on the overnight train--I'm looking forward to it!

Two days till China...

Well, it's been a whirlwind since the holidays, and now I'm getting ready to head off to China. For those of you who didn't know, I'm going to Beijing and Shanghai on vacation for two weeks with my friends Jen, Grace Lin, and her sister Ki-Ki. We're staying with my friend Chi-Chu who I've known since I lived in Taiwan, and are also visiting with my friend Eveline who's been living there for about a year and a half now.

I'm hoping to blog while there, but Grace has made a stronger commitment to blogging every day we're there, so check her blog daily to see what we're up to over there! And don't worry, I'll be taking a ton of pictures.

I'm off on Sunday...one day left to pack and prepare. If you have any recommendations on where to go, especially in Beijing (we're only in Shanghai for two nights and are taking a tour), post them in the comments section.

I'll be back in the States on January 26th, and then back in the office on the 28th. So again, if I haven't gotten back to you in a while...I've been a bit preoccupied, but hope things will settle down, at least until I travel again internationally at the end of March!

To meat or not to meat...

My friend Eveline moved to Beijing a few months ago, and started a blog a while ago to write of her adventures. It's quite entertaining--have you ever heard of the Mongolian spot? Want to see the cutest commercial ever?

But her most recent post beats them all. But as a warning: do not look at the pictures if you are squeamish or a dog lover. You'll be able to tell why once you see the title of the post.

Click here at your own risk.

Of course we've all heard about or joked about this before--Asians who eat dog. (Reminds me of Grace's post about wanting a cookbook to go with her book Year of the Dog.) When I was traveling in Canton, China 9 or so years ago, I saw a barbecued dog hanging in a store window. It looked just like one of those BBQed ducks, but its anatomy looked different...and upon closer examination we also noticed that the Chinese symbol for "dog" was printed on the window. But what's the difference, really, between eating different kinds of animals? One is not more or less wrong (morally) than the other, just because one animal we may consider a pet and the other a source of food, right? Although maybe there is a difference between eating fish versus birds versus reptiles versus mammals. Anyway, I've never been squeamish about meat. I eat meat on the bone, I eat whole fish, I've tried kangaroo, crocodile, rabbit, and deer. I think people who don't like to eat meat that looks like the animal it comes from are a bit hypocritical. But part of me wonders if vegetarianism will be the norm in the future. Part of me feels guilty for eating meat, mainly because I know I don't need to eat it. As I've mentioned before, I love tofu and vegetables and fruit and beans...I can go days without eating meat and not even notice. In fact, if I think back on the last two days, today I went without eating meat, and yesterday the only meat I had was shrimp. So yes--I could survive very happily as a vegetarian. But the thing is, every now and then I love a good burger, or fried chicken, or bacon. Mmm. Bacon. But maybe someday I'll make the plunge. I could live on cupcakes.

Oh, and Rita has a similar experience with Guinea Pigs in Peru.