August 2009

The train sleep was good for most, but I kept waking up and going back to sleep when I realized it was still dark outside. The train station in Shanghai was a zoo. People are going in every direction and it took us a while to find that the taxis were underground. As we walked all around the train station, I was lugging my laptop backpack, big fan, and my big red suitcase, which had become a receptacle for all the leftovers. In addition to my clothes and toiletries, the suitcase was holding two rolls of paper towels, jam, peanut butter, the communist whisky and cans of beer. Another bag that I created held the prints I bought at 798, leftover fruit from the hotel, leftover anju, and a roll of toilet paper (just in case).

Shanghai soon became a cab adventure. We had to take two cabs to accommodate all the luggage. YK and Dad got into a light teal cab, and Hyun and I told our cab driver where the apartment was. We thought we could do the follow that cab bit because the cab was such an odd color, but we soon realized that there were light teal cabs everywhere. Soon the cab pulled alongside one, and YK and Dad were not inside. However, we found the apartment successfully.

Our new place was a three bedroom apartment that came with an empty kitchen and a daily nonstop jackhammer. Work is being done on one of the floors, but it is so loud it might as well be in the kitchen. Hyun and I each did a small load of laundry, which was very due. It was so nice to have clean clothes once again. I took a small nap as we waited for Jamyung, Euigyoo, and Hyangji to meet us at the apartment. Unfortunately for them, their flight was delayed.

After thinking about how we could fit seven people into this apartment, we soon realized that Jamyung, Euigyoo, and Hyangji would share the additional one bedroom that YK had reserved for two nights. After that, Jamyoung was going back to Korea and Euigyoo and Hyangji were going to join us in our apartment.

We started to walk around the neighborhood, and we noticed many differences right away between Beijing and Shanghai. The major difference was that although Shanghai was a much bigger city, it was a lot denser than Beijing. Most of the streets were closer to Los Angeles streets, but there were so many more bikes, electric bikes, mopeds, and motorcycles. Crossing the street, even with a walk signal could be hazardous to your health.

Also the amount of stares because Dad and I are westerners increased. As we walked, Hyangji and I had fun reading the terrible English translations throughout the city. Soon we reached the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. Shanghai is going to be home of the 2010 Expo. The whole city is under construction much like Beijing was in 2006 in preparation for the Olympics. This museum was basically predicting the future of the city. It showed a large number of buildings being created for the Expo, and what the city will look like. There was a huge diorama of the city as well as videos that show the city from a bird’s eye view. It was like a giant propaganda museum, but I was buying it. I think the next time I come to Shanghai will have to be in 2011, so I can see the giant red table building and the one that will look like a clam shell.

The theme of the preparation and total construction of the city is Better City, Better Life. They also have an Expo mascot named Haibao. He is a blue happy guy shaped like the Chinese character ren, which means “people”. Not only was he all over the museum, he is all over the city, next to the theme, on billboards, and being sold as stuffed animals all around the city. I think he looks like toothpaste.

Then we walked around the corner to a huge promenade area very similar to the big shopping area with the scorpions. This area was called Nanjinglu, and as we walked down this big street with all its trendy shops, I couldn’t help but think how beautiful it must be at night time.

We continued to walk around the city until we got to a bridge near the river. There we were able to see the famous Shanghai skyline. The tower with the red balls is the TV tower and the one to the right of it that looks like a bottle opener is currently the third largest building in the world. Thursday we went to the building right in front of it, so more about these two buildings later.

Since there were now seven of us, we had to take two cabs to get to an area called “Old Shanghai”. Jamyung, Dad, and YK jumped in one cab, while the other four of us got in the next. For the first time this trip we got lost. The cabs dropped us off in very different areas, and we had no idea how to find each other. I noticed that Jamyung, Dad, and YK were all wearing stripes, while the other four of us were wearing solids. We looked for the stripes, until Hyangji got a text from her mother. The whole time we were looking for them, people kept approaching us and asking us to buy “watch bags”, which were probably watches and bags. We didn’t buy anything. We were reunited a half hour after being dropped off by the cab.

Exhausted we stopped at McDonald’s and had a 2.5 Yuan cone (about 7 Yuan is a dollar). Then we walked around the historic area of Old Shanghai. It was beautiful, but it was packed. I struggled to pick which picture I should share. I chose this one:

The reason for the struggle was the man in the yellow on the left-hand side of the picture has the best comb-over I have ever seen. I found him after this picture was taken and called for my Dad to turn around so I could inconspicuously take this picture:

It was just now during this write up that I noticed that comb-over guy had not only made it into the previous picture of me, but a group picture I took of everyone else. I underestimated his sneakiness.

The walking continued to an area of shops much less preserved than this area. It also had a 2 Yuan shop. I bought chopstick rests to go with the chopsticks I bought myself in Beijing. We somehow managed not to get lost on the cab ride to dinner. We were brought up to the third floor where we shared the room with another party. We had fish, dumplings, seafood soup, pork, noodles, fried chicken and beer. When the bill came, more money was spent on beer than food.

Back at the hotel, I brought out my shot glasses and chopsticks (for the anju) and we finished the communist whiskey.

Diaries(1) (2) (3) (4)

Continuation from Beijing Diaries: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

August 2009

Sunday was the last day in Beijing and a travel day to Shanghai. Since we were traveling later in the evening, we decided that we needed an easy day and one that did not include massive sweating. Lunch was across the street, where we ordered corn noodle soup that never came. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the supermarket so I could buy my eighth shot glass, and YK could buy a can of Coke Light to replace the one from the mini bar that was consumed the previous evening.

Xuesong and Aihua picked us up and dropped us off at the Capital Museum while they went off to eat lunch. This museum was in a beautiful building and held all sorts of antiquities from old Beijing. We saw porcelain, jade, paintings, and calligraphy. YK and I bought ourselves shirts.

 

 

Then we went back to the foot massage place and had a repeat performance of the first night of the Beijing leg of our trip (pun intended). This time I had the guy that massaged YK last time and though the massage was great, I didn’t remember it being so painful. Also, this time we each ended up with a free pair of socks.

For those of you that don’t know, my Dad took Mandarin at SMC a while back. His Chinese comes in handy quite frequently, especially when ordering beer or paying for things. When he speaks Chinese, he usually shocks his audience because they don’t expect a westerner to know Chinese. However, the problem that dad then faces is they answer him back in Chinese, and then he does not know how to respond. It is still worth the shock value though.

Also, he figured out in this class that the words mother, scold, horse, the last name Ma, and when you make a statement a question are all the same word “ma” with different intonations. So, he asked Aihua how she would say, “Does mother Ma scold the horse?” and she said “ma ma ma ma ma” and then looked very surprised at the coincidence. She had never noticed it before. Dad showed me his flashcard later on and we learned that the word hemp is also a ma. He never did ask how to say “Does mother Ma scold the hemp horse?”

Post foot massage it was time for dinner at a place called Jinding Xuan, which was known for its dim sum. We ordered and waited for our dumplings and eggplant when I noticed that there were twin girls, probably around 12 years old, who were celebrating a birthday. How did I know? They were wearing crowns, and they had a cake. The mother had a camera and looked at me, so I offered to take a family portrait. They thanked me, and I went back to the table. Ten minutes later, one of the girls brought me a slice of cake as an additional thank you. We figured this was a birthday place because we saw two other cakes brought to tables. Everyone joked that I should offer to take their pictures too in order to get more cake.

We started to hear music from what we thought was a live band, but then over the loud speaker we heard, “It is rush hour, be mindful of your belongings”. I guess they have had problems with theft at the restaurant. Someone even came to YK’s chair and put a big orange slip cover over the chair to conceal her purse. Hyun pointed out that by concealing the purse in that manner, they were actually telling the thieves where the purses were.

Service was pretty good, but two dishes lagged, and we were given the option of waiting for the last two dishes or canceling them. Since we were in no hurry to get to the train station, we decided to wait, probably to the dismay of the waiter, who wanted to fill the table with a new group of people waiting outside. Soon three ladies in red started to bring art onto a stage directly behind Aihua, Xuesong, and Hyun. Right away, I noticed a hand painted giant fan. It turned out that there was a live auction for everyone eating dinner. As the auction began, one of the ladies spoke on a mike while the others held the art. It seemed like no one was listening. Xuesong was very interested and looked at the bid sheet and each piece of art intently. He ended up buying two scroll paintings, one of the monkey symbol of the zodiac (his father’s birth year) and another one I can’t recall.

A fan came up, but it had huge flowers on it. It was starting at 280 Yuan (almost $45). When the one I was interested in came up, I was afraid that would be the starting bid for my fan, however, instead of having a high starting bid, it was a flat price of 180 Yuan to the first bidder (less than $30). My hand shot up, and I bought the giant fan. Only four items were sold at the auction, and three of them were to our table.

The ride to the train station was short and we sat outside killing some time until we boarded the train. We chose a 10-hour overnight train, and the four of us had our own bed in a deluxe four-bed sleeper room. YK was in the bed above Dad, and Hyun was in the bed above me. We also each had our TV, though they went unused. Soon after the train took off at 9:30, we went to sleep one by one. I was last because I was typing out an update. We all awoke Monday morning in Shanghai.

Beijing Diaries(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

August 2009

Saturday basically started with lunch. Hyun, YK, and I went to No. 9 Café and had beef noodles while Dad stayed home and had a PB&J. We were instructed the night before to not even eat lunch because we were going to a buffet with over 400 items.

Xuesong picked us up and dropped us off at Jingshan Park, which is a giant park north of the Forbidden City. It is also where the last emperor hung himself. We climbed to the top where there were a little temple and an excellent view of the Forbidden Palace and the city. Unfortunately, the day was so grey that we couldn’t see much. Also, the place was packed with Chinese tourists, so the dancers and other performers that usually hang out at the park weren’t there.

Afterward, we hopped on a bus and went to Wangfujing, a major shopping area, which I had been to before. I went into the bookstore and bought Xuesong and Aihua each a Sudoku book to foster their new love of the logic puzzle. Also, we were happy to see that the food area was still there where countless vendors sold food on sticks. Last time I took a picture similar to this one:

Yes, those are dried seahorses on sticks accompanied by live scorpions on sticks. I had imagined coming across this vendor again and having to eat at least one of these “delicacies”, but we were walking around to work up an appetite for the buffet.

Near the food area are a large number of vendors that are more than persistent. Not only do they call you over and ask you to look at their wares, but they will grab you by the arm and pull you to their stall. I noticed all over a small copper statue of four faces of Buddha that I had looked at in Korea. At $40, it was more than I wanted to spend, so I was wondering how much it was here in China. Also, you have to haggle with them about the price. The guidebook says and my experience is that they inflate the price to at least 3 times what they want for it. My statue started at 400 Yuan and I bought it for 100 Yuan, or about $15. This was a lot cheaper than Korea.

We then spent some time in a large arcade and watched a guy set a new high score on a basketball shooting machine. We walked around to kill time and work up an appetite before we met up with Aihua and Xuesong and their two daughters, ages 3 and 5 at the buffet place. In Korea, the girls would be 4 and 6 because they start at 1 on the day they are born. I unfortunately never learned their names. We met up with them right in time because it started to pour, and during dinner, we were treated to a lightning storm.

This place put Vegas to shame. When we were told it had at least 400 items, it was not an exaggeration. We wandered up and down the rows of food that were from different nations. Everything was labeled in English, but many of the things were too odd for me to even attempt like cut up pig ear, lots of innards, and three different types of chicken feet.

One cool feature was that each table was given little metal clips, similar to binder clips that had the table number on it. Many of the dishes were made to order, and to order any of these dishes, one dropped a clip into the box in front of the food description or clipped it onto a board that had a list. One could get many different types of soup, pasta, rice, seafood or fish this way. The fish and seafood were presented whole on ice just in case you didn’t recognize it by name. The fish was so fresh that one of them was still grasping for air. Dad ordered udon noodles and a scallop and noodle dish (that took 40 minutes to get to the table) and I, eager to test out this ordering method, got soup similar to the lunch soup.

Drinks were also all you could drink, but the alcohol content was so low, that it wasn’t really worth it. The dessert spread was impressive, including a chocolate fountain and ice cream. Also, you could get tea based on your astrological sign. I was happy to see that the Gemini tea had chamomile in it, and it tasted great.

The two girls, who were dressed identically in blue dresses, were slow to warm up, but the older one has been using the website, so her parents were eager to show us the English she has learned. She did a great job with Hyun’s TPR, so it was clear she has a great understanding of the material that she has covered so far.

Eventually, the girls warmed up and were adorable. Regardless of the language barrier, play is universal. I started wiggling my eyebrows, which got smiles, and then we started playing with the food clips. As we were doing so, the older daughter lifted up the dress of the younger one and then pulled down her panties so her butt was exposed in the restaurant. I thought tears were going to be shed, but instead, both girls laughed hysterically, as did we all. The pantsing game went on for a little bit before the gag got tired. Later, when we were hiding the food clips and playing “pick the hand the food clip is in” the younger one put a bunch of them in her underwear, which again incited laughter.

Our buffet entertainment was a group of five dressed in country/western apparel complete with fringed leather. Oddly enough, they played contemporary easy listening songs. Our table was located in such a way that we could not see the band, so there was a TV posted near the table which broadcasted the band so we could watch them. The girls loved the band and spent a lot of time dance with them before they figured out the TV connection. Once they did, they took turns being on “TV”, or basically climbing on stage with the band and waving at each other while the other one watched the TV. The band had no idea. It was adorable.

Another thing worth noting was towards the end of the meal, the girls asked for some beer. Aihua gave the older one a sip, which led to a bitter beer face. Then the younger one took a sip. Not only did she not dislike the taste, she asked for more. She kept reaching for the glass a couple more times. “She really likes beer,” Aihua said, “and she’s been drunk before”.

Dinner concluded and I thought I heard one of the girls say in English “pee pee”, so I was shocked to see that I was the only one headed towards the bathroom. I used the bathroom and caught up with the rest of the people waiting outside for Xuesong, who had gone off with the girls to get the car. Right when they pulled off, Xuesong jumped out of the car as did his youngest daughter, and he pulled down her underwear and lifted her off the ground so her back was parallel to the street, and she peed right in the gutter outside of the restaurant. In the meantime, the other daughter hopped out of the car, squatted, and then peed right along with her sister. When you gotta go, you gotta go.

The eight of us got in the car and headed back to the hotel. The majority of the trip was filled with singing songs, mostly in English. Old McDonald and Twinkle Twinkle, were among them. Another song was in Chinese and as the older daughter started with “Tong fon da doo”; Hyun mimicked her verse for verse in his best falsetto and continued to do so for a very long time.

The leftover whiskey was brought out back at the hotel, while I quickly covered my portion of the teacher lecture to Aihua. I talked about classroom management and taught her the games as well. She was a quick study and seemed excited to implement them into the Campwww material.

We soon joined the boozers and talked for a bit while primarily Dad and I continued to play with the girls. We also learned that both Xuesong and Hyun had taken home some of the metal clips in their pockets. As they were leaving, Aihua laughed at something the older daughter said: “Foreigners are funny!”

Beijing Diaries(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)