Summer in Beijing and Hong Kong

Pictures are of Hong Kong

Written: July 28, 2008


A few weeks ago there was a big thunderstorm in Beijing. It was Friday afternoon and it had been cloudy all day. My roommate and I were sitting in our dormitory. We weren’t doing very much.

Suddenly, we heard thunder! We don’t get thunder very often in Beijing so it caught us off guard. The thunder was really loud and soon we saw lightning and then the rain. The rain was strong with huge drops!

I had to go to the Subway (as in food!) that was next to the China Bank to meet the Korean girl that I tutor English to. It is a 15minute walk from my dorm. I could take a cab, which I decided to do, after seeing all the rain that was coming down. But when I had all my books in my backpack and walked outside with my red umbrella, I saw all the water that was poring over the stone walkways and grass. I was going to get really wet whether I took a cab or not.

I walked to the South Gate of school and tried to get a cab. But there was a traffic jam, and so much water in the street that I decided to go to the East Gate where there might be less water and try and get a cab there. But that was a mistake; I couldn’t get a cab and ended up walking all the way to Subway.

I walked through ankle deep water and wet grass, and my pants and shoes were soaked through. I also found out that my backpack is not waterproof. So my books got a little damp.

The teaching went well. I still teach her; I haven’t gotten fired yet. ☺

Just two days ago we had another thunderstorm. Actually, we have had quite a few thunderstorms lately. But this one is special.

I was in a cab coming home from a salon with two classmates. We had gone for a tan, in a tanning bed, the first time for us.

We had a really nice driver who talked with us, told us our Chinese was very good for only 4 months of study, and put English music on the radio for us.

Then came a crack of thunder. We all jumped. And then the taxi driver taught us thunder in Chinese. When the lightning came, he taught us lightning.

I got a phone call, and as soon as I began talking our driver began getting worried and kept telling me to get off the phone. As soon as I did he explained that I could get electrocuted through the cell phone. I’ve never heard of that before. I wonder if its true...

It rained for most of the evening, as it has done for the past few days. But the south of China is getting the worst of the rain. There is flooding and Hong Kong has also been having lots of rain and wind.

July 8, 2008

Now, I am in Hong Kong, in a hostel in Kowloon. It is hot and humid and over all I hate the weather. But shopping is good and I will go see some light show in the evening.

The train here was LONG! I don’t know how I survived it. I did meet a man from Hong Kong and a couple from Beijing. I spoke Chinese with the couple; the man from Hong Kong spoke English with me.

The scenery was wonderful. We went past mountains and the Yellow River. Rice fields and small towns that looked almost deserted. We stopped in Guangzhou for 45 minutes, but were not able to get off the train.

Tomorrow, I will take the ferry to Hong Kong Island and attempt to find a spa for a message. But knowing me, I’ll probably go in the wrong direction and never find it.

July 9, 2008

It is around 10 am now. I met the other people in my hostel room last night; two girls from Germany, a guy from Germany, an Englishman, an American, two Frenchman and three others that I didn’t officially meet. They are all here for a little vacation time and have seen a lot already.

Today is Wednesday and the government-run museums are free today, so I will probably join some of the people here in museum excursions. I guess my massage can wait until tomorrow.

Yesterday, when I tried to find the light show at 8, I went in the wrong direction. I don’t know what it is about Hong Kong but I can’t ever go in the right direction.

My hostel is on the 13th floor of the Mirador Mansion. There are lots of small shops and offices in the building. I left my hostel around 6 to find dinner and began walking in the direction I was sure was toward the water. I found a nice little fast food place to eat and then kept walking. But I kept passing subway stations, and I was a little confused because I thought the subway station next to my hostel was the last one before going over to the Island.

Then it began raining. I had an umbrella, but I was getting soaked, so I ran to the closest subway station. I went inside to get the subway back to my hostel; I had decided that it was raining too hard to go see the lights. Then I realized that I had been walking in the completely opposite direction.

A Club Party and Beijing Roast Duck

Written: June 2, 2008
And, I know, I did a terrible job on the costume. But lets face it, I wasn't really trying to look perfect, I just wanted to have a nice mojito. Or two.

Here in Beijing the temperatures are rising, the sun is out more often, and we students are dying from the heat. We study as much as possible, but mind you that isn’t very often because there is always something much more interesting to do.

For example, this weekend there is going to be a Superhero party at Vics (a club). Superheroes have occupied our minds for the past two weeks. We can’t possibly pay attention in class; it’s just not possible. Everyone needs a costume, otherwise it won’t be worth going, and this kind of party is worth participating in.

Today, some classmates of mine -from Holland, Korea, Arabia -and I went to the new Wudaokou market to shop for costumes. Aladdin, Jasmine, the girl from Kill Bill, and an Incredible were the costumes needed to be found. And we finally decided that I would go as Marilyn Monroe. OK, I won’t really be a superhero, but at least I have a character now (In the end, I went as Celene from Underworld).

Shopping in markets in China is hard. You try not to get ripped off by bad quality clothes, paying too much, etc. So when you shop you must always think on your feet, know when to bargain, know what price the clothes are worth, when to walk away in attempts to lower the price, and never, ever begin bargaining over something you don’t really want to buy, you may end up with it.

The five of us walked through four floors of little shops, looking for costumes. We found many Aladdin and Jasmine things; gypsy things. We tried on ridiculous pants. Ones that were really wide around the legs so they would look right after the ends were tied around the ankles. We found big belts full of hanging ‘coins’ and decorative shoes. But we didn’t find any appropriate white dresses for me and nothing yellow and no red suits. We did settle for a purple set of pants and a monkey and a maroon pair of pants and a coin belt.

Maybe tomorrow we will go out again for more costume material.

Enough about shopping. This week I tried the Beijing Roast Duck, Beijing Kao Ya (北京烤鸭). It was some of the best meat I have ever eaten!

I went with classmates of mine to a small restaurant in the middle of an old, dirty Beijing neighborhood. The taxi brought us to the edge of a big group of houses built of brick and stone. We had to ask three people for directions, but ended up at a tiny place in the corner of a neighborhood that would never be visited by foreigners except for the fact that it had a Roast Duck restaurant in the middle of it.

The place was filled with foreigners. We were brought to a room and were told that our three ducks, which we had already ordered over the phone, would be there soon. We could now pick side dishes and drinks.

Our side dishes arrived first, and then a fuwuyuan (服务员), waiter, brought in the ducks one at a time. He brought them whole, cut them into small pieces and served them on plates to our table. Then, you added a dark sauce, maybe a cucumber or onion and wrapped it all up in a small, very thin, pancake.

It was the most expensive dinner we have had in Beijing so far. It totaled over 1000 kuai for the nine of us. 1300 or so to be exact. But it was worth it.

My trip to Innner Mongolia - April/May 2008

This is another article that I wrote at the date below. I have not posted anything in a LONG time and that is because I am currently in China and sometimes have difficulties getting past a firewall to get to websites like blogger.com. BUT! I am back! And here we go again! :)

May 7, 2008

This article will be about my trip to Inner Mongolia, which was from April 30th to May 4th. By the way, Inner Mongolia is not part of Mongolia the Country and there are many more Chinese than Mongolians in Inner Mongolia.

A group of over 100 left BLCU (Beijing Language and Culture University) at around 7 P.M. on Thursday the 30th. We took a train to Hohhot, a city in the Inner Mongolian Province of China. The train ride was basically uneventful, except that I met a woman from India and Melissa (from Florida) and I had a very nice time talking with two girls from Indonesia.

When we woke up in the morning, mountains and villages and fields surrounded us.

We had breakfast in Hohhot and then boarded coach buses to the Xilamuren Grasslands. We drove through mountains and eventually came to rolling grasslands where we went to a local’s house and tried what was said to be Mongolian snacks. Most of it tasted a little weird to us, but the milk tea was popular. There were pieces of butter-like flakes -very hard, sweet bread, pieces of what tasted like very old cheese and some sort of cereal-like snack.

The house reminded me of the houses in Trebinje (Bosnia and Herzegovina), but these weren’t as clean and beautiful. There were cows, horses, chickens and a dog. Besides the brick house, there were the Mongolian style round houses with tables and chairs for sitting and eating. I think they were there mainly for tourists.

The grasslands were very, very windy. Our faces got really dirty because of the dirt flying with the air.

We had lunch in another part of the grasslands and were greeted by Mongolian-dressed people singing Mongolian songs and some alcoholic drink that I didn’t recognize. We were supposed to drink it too. Which I did, come on its a custom, and it tasted fine.

Next, we went to another part of the grasslands and watched a horse race and Mongolian wrestling, although neither were very authentic. Then, we all got a horse and went for an hour-long ride.

The ride was really amazing. The horses were small, like the ones at the Yellow River. They weren’t all good horses either. While everyone was getting on a horse, one of the horses spooked or something, because next thing we knew, it was jumping around and the boy on it had flown off and had hurt his ankle somehow. He was taken to a nearby clinic and was fine but could only hobble around for the rest of the trip. A woman from Japan fell off her horse when cantering and a Kevin from England was thrown when his horse spooked from his camera bag.

The ride went over the rolling hills of the grassland. I was able to get my horse to run a lot, which was really nice. There were small, short flowers on the grasslands and more dirt than grass.

An example of the Chinese tourist business: at the place where we rode, there were women with baby goats, and we took pictures with them and then realized that you had to pay five kuai (RMB) for it. Talk about getting owned.

That night when Melissa and I settled in our hotel room, we were much too tired to sing karaoke with some of the other students. We went straight to bed.

The next morning we had to get up at six to go to the Yinkenxiang Sand-Bay in the Kubuqi Desert and an arts and crafts factory.

The Desert was one of the highlights of the trip. Everyone knows that there is a lot of sand in the desert, but you never really realize it until you go to the desert. There were at least seven activities offered, a real tourist attraction. You could ride a camel or horse, 4-wheeler, take a sand surfing car, roll down a hill in a big blown up ball, or plastic ball, take a hang-gliding ride behind a car and sled down a monstrous sand hill.

Melissa and I, along with the two Indonesian girls, took the sand surfing car out into the desert. We didn’t go far, but it seemed we were in the middle of nowhere. All around us was hills of sand and small vegetation. The sand was really fine too. We picked handfuls and the grains flew through our finger and back to earth like water.

The sand surfing car was really fun as well. The driver flew over the sand and we almost felt like we were on a roller coaster.

Then, we took a half hour camel ride. We each got our own camels, which were all tied together, and led by a Chinese man. The camels were big and slow, of course, and we had a lot of fun with them. The camels were docile, especially when you compare them to the horses we rode. They were big and shedding all over the place. One camel licked Andina, one of the Indonesian girls, and she was disgusted.

We wanted to go hang-gliding, but didn’t have enough time, so instead, Melissa and I went in the blown-up, plastic ball. We crawled in and were strapped in across from each other. A man held the ball with a rope and guided us down the hill as we rolled over and over. We laughed and got sand in our eyes, mouths, ears, hair, and clothes. But it was one of the best parts of the desert.

Finally, we went down the huge sand hill on wooden boards. It was a little bit scary. You went REALLY fast, and felt like you were just about to go out of all control and fly to who knows where.

That afternoon, we went to an arts and crafts factory. Basically, we were taken there so that we tourists would spend money. But we saw some nice clothes and scarves.

We got to our hotel and after getting all the sand off of us, Melissa and I joined a bunch of other students for karaoke until midnight. Everyone left without paying and six of us were left with a thousand kuai bill. The next day we haggled everyone into paying their share. :) (We are learning the tricks of good bargainers fast!) But Diana, from Mexico, and I had had the time of our lives singing Britany Spears all night long.

The last day consisted of going to a temple in Hohhot and going to Datong to see some caves.
The temple was called Wu Ta Temple and the most colorful I have ever seen. It must have been kept well because none of the colors were faded. There was also an old, unpainted building. It had a small dark staircase you could take to the roof where there where pillars with carvings on them. I have never seen so many Buddha carvings in one place!

The drive to Datong took around five hours. Our guide liked to sing to us and make us sing. Most of the time, we did what we could to get out of participating. But this time, she got two Korean boys to go to the front of the bus and one sang a Backstreet Boys song and the other danced. When Koreans sing or dance, its always nice to watch, and I don't mean that in a nasty way!

The caves in Datong are called the Yun Gang Caves. They were very impressive. There were huge Buddhas, little Buddhas and some caves had carvings over every inch of the walls and some were painted and colorful. In front of one Buddha, that wasn’t in a cave, there were HUGE sticks of incense. I’ve never seen such big incense in my life. -And I need to correct myself, this is the place that has the most Buddhas, EVER!

But by now, most of us were ready to be back in Beijing. We had hot pot for dinner. They had blood with the hot pot. No one ate it, but a few others and I tried it. It really wasn’t too bad, didn’t taste like much at all. But I don't think it's something I am going to start buying for myself.

We had to wait until eleven to get on the train to Beijing. We pasted the time playing BS with Koreans and a hand game they taught us -it was a brutal hand game, you really get hurt! When we finally got to Beijing the next morning, I wasn’t up for going to class. Instead, I went home and straight to bed.

My trip to Shanghai and Nanjing in April, 2008

This article was, again!, written at the date below and for my family, but I have made just a few slight changes. I also decided to take all names out for now. This is because I think I should ask anyone before I put their name in my blog and it is sometimes hard to get in touch with my friends because they are in other countries and sometimes hard to reach. So, since I have yet to get replies as to how they feel about this matter, and making up fake names seemed not so great to me, I have omitted their names for now.

April 15th, 2008

It was very warm in Beijing yesterday, and it is today too. I think spring has really arrived.
I have been studying for the midterms that are April 23rd, 24th, and 25th. I will have to write an 80-character essay, listen to dialogues and do some sort of speaking. That means I have a LOT of studying to do.

Last weekend, I went to Shanghai and Nanjing. Two friends from my class went, as well four from another class. Two know each other from Holland, one is from Australia, one is from the U.S., one is from Germany but his parents are from Hong Kong, and one is from Iceland.

Shanghai is a lot like Beijing but it feels more international and there are quite a few European style homes and buildings. It rained a little while we were there and the sun didn’t come out much, but we got to see a lot.

We went to the Propaganda Museum, the Pearl TV Tower, crossed the river on a boat, saw Sun Yat-Sen’s former residence, walked the Bund during the day and at night and saw the Yuyuan Garden and the Old City.

The Bund is really pretty at night, almost as nice as Guangzhou. The museum was one of the most interesting I’ve ever seen. There were propaganda posters from 1949-79. A lot were about America. At the Pearl Tower, we were going to go all the way to the top, but my friend from Germany lost our group ticket, and so we only went to 263 meters.

But it was not a big deal. We got to see all of Shanghai and watch the boats on the river, and the new buildings under construction.

Nanjing was a two or three-hour train ride from Shanghai. I met a very nice Chinese girl on the train. We exchanged email addresses and plan to write each other from time to time.

Nanjing was really nice. It isn’t a huge city like Shanghai or Beijing. We took a lift to the top of Monk Peak -a very long way- and hiked down -also a very long way- and saw Sun Yat-Sen’s mausoleum. It was really big and impressive. You had to walk up a LOT of stairs to get to it. I also realized that McDonalds and Burger King are made out of somewhat more real food in countries other than America.

Monk Peak was my favorite place that we visited, besides the city wall. It was all wilderness, for the most part, which is what I like the best. Of course being from Alaska, I am a big hiker and this was just my thing. It was really hot and sunny, with lots of bugs flying around, but everything was beautiful. At one point we asked for directions and a very nice Chinese man showed us the way, and even came with us since he was going in the same direction. Talk about good opportunity to practice our Chinese! The trails ran between the trees and we came upon a lake with small, Chinese style open buildings with benches. A man even jumped in the lake to swim.

On another note that is completely off topic: Chinese Hot Pot is also really good, and fun to eat. You order small amounts of whatever you think you will like and you cook the food yourself in “soup” that boils in the middle of your table. It makes eating really entertaining.

We also walked the Old City Wall. The Wall is really big and a very nice walk. Of course, we paid a bit, but it was worth it. The rocks were not clean, grass was growing between them, making it much more romantic.

A film scene was being shot as we walked on the wall. Two people were walking along, talking, with a big mic above them and cameras ahead.

Being in Nanjing felt like being in what people call ‘real China’. The China that isn’t extremely international. There are less foreigners and not many commercial proceedings. It felt nice actually. I am not a big city person and Nanjing was very beautiful to me.

Our train back to Beijing was relatively uneventful. We played cards until midnight. I was the only one who could shuffle like a pro. hehe☺

At the Beijing Train Station, we were asked to present our tickets. Of course, the boys had lost theirs (they had been losing and forgetting things the entire trip). We searched and waited and searched some more. The ladies working there were not nice and no one spoke any English and none of us know enough Chinese to really say what we want. Finally, a man came over to us and told us to just go. The ladies weren’t too happy about that, but at least we were free!

We have unanimously decided that from now on, one of the girls must have responsibility of boy’s tickets at all times. The boys can never have responsibility of their own tickets anymore. Maybe it will keep them, and thus us, out of trouble.