I wrote this at the time and date written below. At that time I was writing for my family, they knew all the details and I did not need to explain. I will add in parenthesis the important details that I left out before.
February 21, 2008 at 5:30 PM:
In this column, I’m now in Beijing, sitting in my hotel, the Xi Jiao (pronounced shee jao). I have a big bed, bigger than the beds at Alyeska (ski resort in Alaska), and a very nice bathroom.
I have gotten a room in the dorms, which I will share with another girl. We have gotten along well so far (she and I had dinner together tonight and she paid). :)
But before I get ahead of myself and talk about all my time in Beijing, I have to finish telling you about Guangzhou.
I did a lot of exploring in the area around Oliver’s factory (my close Chinese friend). I took the housekeepers bike and took a little trip to the river that runs close by. I also rode by a graveyard, which was very different than ours.
There were two big, beautiful buildings in the middle, with rows of small trees and bushes. Behind and to either side were hills of what looked like little concrete walls in rows and columns. There was also a small monument for Chinese soldiers.
Edward and Aaron (other Chinese friends of mine) showed me a small island not far away. If I walked along side the river and over a beautiful, old stone bridge, I could walk all the way around a small island, full of houses and people, of course. I went back later to walk around the island, and realized it was going to take me forever to go around the island, so I turned back.
Saturday night, we did Karaoke with about 10 others from their factory. They have a place all covered with lights that has private rooms for karaoke. The rooms are really nice, each with a big couch and tables. You get fruit, peanuts, little fish, olives, tea and wine. There’s a big screen TV where the music videos and words play and a computer for picking the songs you want. A server is there the entire time to wait on you. I played a game with five dice in a cup. It’s the game they play on Pirates of the Caribbean Two. I forget what they call it. I did really well at that game. I beat almost anyone who played with me.
They had English songs to choose from, so I sang a few. Some of the Chinese were really good at the English songs. And Aaron has an amazing voice. He deserves to be complimented on that.
On Sunday, Edward and Aaron brought me to White Cloud Mountain. You paid 5 RMB per person to go up. There was a paved road going all the way up and over the mountain, but there were also side paths and steps. It was raining at first, but we had brought umbrellas. We walked by a steam that went over rocks, and over a bridge.
Getting to an old Buddhist Temple, we had to pay 5 RMB each, again. Edward said that the temple was probably over 100 years old at least. There were three big buildings, one behind the other and each a little higher on the hill. Inside each were shrines to the various gods all in gold and pretty colors. There were also big holders for incense. Dragons were perched on the roofs as protection. Two of them played with a ball. It was very pretty.
We then walked up what seemed like a million steps and came to about half way up the mountain. A man walking up ahead of us sang, what we thought were Tibetan songs, which was really pretty. There was a spectacular view of the way we had come, even though it was cloudy. There were a lot of people, some played hacky sack with a feather-adorned group of circular pieces of metal and rubber, and others took pictures. There was a big display of air filled dragons, coins and other decoration to celebrate the lunar New Year.
But the three of us set off for the top, and when we were almost there, we had to pay 5 RMB again! There were some teahouses on the other peaks and a military building. The very top of White Cloud Mountain was just as nice as half way, but could see less because of the clouds.
Once we came down from the mountain we had lunch and then walked through two campuses and took a quick boat ride across the river.
The campuses were very nice, much nicer than the one I’m at now (Beijing Language and Culture University) or UAA’s (University of Alaska, Anchorage) campus. We found a broken kite and Edward ran with it trying to make it fly. And it did not fly.
There were people flying kites everywhere and lots of kites stuck in trees.
That night we took a two-hour cruise on the Pearl River. It went from 8 to 10 pm and we got to see Guangzhou all lit up. Guangzhou really tries to show off at night. Each building has its own style of lights and the trees along the river have green lights and along the waters edge there are blue lights. There are lots of night cruises and each boat has its own style of lights as well.
The next day, I took the train to Beijing. Aaron brought me to the station and all the way onto the train. The crowd getting on the train was huge. And when the time came to get on the train, EVERYONE began moving toward the train. It reminded me of a herd of animals, only we moved more slowly.
Over all, the train ride was really nice. I saw lots of countryside, mountains in haze, old abandoned houses, dirt roads, farmland, little towns, and bigger ones. It was a joy to look out the window. It was long, but worth it.
The compartments had six small beds in each, but there was enough room. I met a girl going back to music school, who played piano. She thought it was cool that I played violin.
Now in Beijing, I will start school next week and be in the very lowest class. You have to know quite a few characters to be any higher, and I hardly know any characters.
And to put the thrift stores to shame, I bought a brand new warm coat for 14 USD. I think that’s a deal.
And another note, I remember mom saying that people have said that eating with chop sticks forces you to take smaller bites and eat slowly. Yeah right! People here eat faster than me and eat twice as much! And they’re all skinny! I don't know how they do it.
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