Monday, April 30, 2012

More Beijing

I am currently in my second Beijing hostel and will be moving into a third one tomorrow. We had some logistical issues with booking and to make a long story short it requires I stay in three different places so I can stay here until my train on Wednesday. If I stayed any longer I could become a critic on Beijing hostels.

Yesterday we did not end up making it to the summer palace or zoo but still saw some interesting things. We split up into two groups, me and Whitney went to the antiques market I mentioned in the previous post and the others went back to the silk market to buy more things. The market I went to was huge and is boasted to be the biggest in China. When I said the silk market had everything, it doesn't compare at all to this marketplace. It had everything from teapots, calligraphy paintings, and statues to cultural revolution memorabilia. Whitney was not so much on her game with haggling but still scored a teapot for a decent price. These people were harder to bargain with and I didn't manage to talk anyone down to a decent price for anything.

After the market we rested up in the hostel for a bit then I took Whitney to go eat hotpot. The Chinese patrons were amused watching us eat, Whitney is still working on her chopstick skills but she had managed pretty well here.  We then went to a part of the city where they have a neighborhood called a hutong. These neighborhoods consist of a series of narrow alleyways and low roofed houses, more Chinese styled architecture than the huge highrises everywhere else in the city. The alleyways we meandered around led to a park area with a lake. A lot of people were trying to fish in the dark and there were a lot of dogs. All the dogs I have seen here are extremely well trained, they always follow their owners and don't bark or wander off. They are all purebreds too.

Eventually we wondered to the Olympic stadium where a Mayday concert (they are a Taiwanese rock-band) was taking place so there was a huge crowd, especially since we got there right when the concert was ending. We got our pictures then shuffled with the crowd towards the metro which was closing in 20 minutes. It was so crowded that the metro staff set up a van outside the station to sell tickets so the crowd wouldn't be so compact inside the station. When we finally made it into a train we were packed in about as tight as possible with almost no space to move at all.

We also attempted to find the TV tower building but ended up just getting lost in the completely wrong part of the city. Since the metro closed we had to compete with a crowd to find taxi, going back and forth across the street to find the best position to stand.

Today we went to the great wall with a tour group. Before getting to the wall they take to on a shopping stop which was  jade factory where they want you to buy overpriced trinkets and jewelry. Next stop was the Mind tombs where the emperors of the dynasty are buried. Our guide told us the skeleton of the emperor was smashed during the cultural revolution when a lot of Chinese relics and historical sights were also destroyed in the ideological war against old ideas.

Finally we made it to the wall, traffic was really bad because it is labor day weekend here and everyone travels. We only got two hours to spend on the wall so I tied to make them count as soon as possible. Parts of the wall are rebuilt and not the original but I managed to make it to the old part of the wall that is falling apart and has trees and such growing on it. The whole wall is really an amazing sight with the mountains in the background. I wish I could have had more time to see it but I'm still glad we got there. On the way back we got stuck in so much traffic that we just asked for the van to stop and we took the metro back to our hostel.

This evening after taking a walk with Whitney around Tienanmen square I went out to explore the city on my own since the others needed to catch some rest since they have to catch their plane back to Spain really early in the morning. There is a hutong area at our new hostel that is interesting but also more developed. I took a second walk around the more main part of town and sat down in a square area where other people were also sitting. After I was there for 10 minutes a group of curious Chinese college students visiting from a neighboring province came over to try to speak with me. One is majoring in English and is in her first semester so was the easiest to talk to. I tried to use some Chinese as well. After they came up other groups of people either came to talk or to just watch. Most Chinese seem interested in foreign visitors but are shy about approaching you. By the time I left there were around ten people sitting around me, some my age and some past middle age just watching me or trying to talk. One girl wanted me to give her and English name but I didn't know what to say at the time.

On my way back to the hostel tonight some drunk Chinese dude put his arm around me and offered me a drink from his water bottle. He seem offended when I refused so I just took a sip to appease him. At least he opened it breaking the seal in front of me so I knew it was fresh and I got the first drink from the bottle. He told me I was is friend and welcomed me to Beijing and went on his merry way back home.

Overall the trip has been going well, I think I might like Shanghai a bit better but will comment on that later. The two travel companions Whitney are not very adventurous, especially with eating. They ate at McDonald's every day, so Whitney and I just went to places on our own to eat Chinese food. They were nice and everything, just not my favorite type of traveler when it comes to dining and such.

Since we are  4 people to a two bed room for the night I volunteered to stay out until 3am until the others wake up to get to the airport where I will then get the room to myself. So this entry is serving as a way to fill my time and record a few events.

I will be on my own for tomorrow and am not sure what I want to go see yet but I'll come up with something. It is bedtime for me now so if this is full of grammatical errors it is because I am not going to proofread this until later.

Sweet dreams,
-Michael

Saturday, April 28, 2012

MaoSoleum

I'm am currently ending my second day in Beijing and have enjoyed everything so far. (Pictures will all come at the end in a big update). As mentioned before I am traveling with Whitney and two of her fellow classmates, one of which is from Boston and the other from the Toronto area. Yesterday we mostly walked around and explored some areas, saw Tienanmen square and went to a little hilltop temple kind of place where you could get a nice view of the Forbidden City and Beijing as a whole.

Today was very interesting. In the morning we went to the Mao Memorial Hall, located in Tienanmen Square, which mostly serves as Mao's Mausoleum. Before going I looked it up to find out a little about it. There are a list of rules to prepare for before entering. There is a dress code, where you can't wear shorts or mini skirts and no hats; I donned my nicest communist red collared shirt and a pair of jeans. You can't bring any kind of bag or camera in. You also need to bring valid ID with you. They also pass you through a metal detector, after you already pass through one to get into Tienanmen square, and ask you to empty your pockets so they can check what you are bringing in. Frisking also occurs if you fail the metal detector. The memorial is kind of modeled after the Lincoln Memorial in DC. Similar building structure, square shaped with pillars and steps, and there is a big statue of Mao when you first get in.

But before you get inside, you go through the line, which can be more than an hour long but we got there early and barely had to wait at all. As you get further into the line you see people getting turned out because they had a bag or committed some other infraction. After security there are stalls to purchase flowers for a few RMB. The line splits in two on the way in, the building is symmetrical on the inside and outside so the only difference is if you walk left or right. When you enter you see the big Mao statue, his statue is sitting there with a pretty friendly expression on his face. I think it might have even been sitting in a cross legged position, but I cannot quite recall. There is a nice nature painting behind the statue, and in front of it are a ton of flowers of different colors. In front of the statue, but not too close, people lay down the flowers they bought into a receptacle placed for that very reason. Once entering the memorial everyone is dead silent and are kept continuously moving throughout the building.

After seeing the statue and moving into the adjoining hallway, ahead of me I hear a cellphone ring go off, quickly followed up by a man's scream. Suddenly I see two security guards silently carrying a man away, each guard holding one of the man's arms. They put a key card into some side door and carry the guy inside, swiftly and noiselessly shutting the door behind them. The look on the man's face just gave the impression that he knew he mad a huge mistake.

Following that incident, my group and I, as well as everyone else in the building, continued moving as though something crazy didn't just happen. Then I got into The Room. There is a large square of glass, inside there are two of the most serious looking guards on Earth, standing completely straight up, looking straight ahead, and not moving an inch. In the middle of the glass, encased in a clear coffin, is the embalmed corpse of Mao Zedong, lit up and draped up to the head in a red flag with the communist hammer and sickle symbol in the middle. You only get to walk to the side of it and get a side/top view of his face. It looked perfectly preserved, like he was just laying there with his eyes closed.

After seeing the Great Leader you take the back exit and walk down the stairs into a courtyard where they sell all kinds of Mao memorabilia. You then walk past the security gate back into Tienanmen square. At the back gate I saw a man perform a sort of kowtow to the building, doing a series of full prostrations and bows. I've read and learned that Mao was revered like a god by many Chinese during his reign of China when the communist movement was in full swing but didn't think he would be regarded as such today. Keep in mind this is not at all representative of China as a whole or even close to the majority. I just find what I observed to be notable.

Overall it was quite an experience, the square as a whole is an amazing sight. We also visited the Forbidden city today, the Lama Buddhist temple, and the silk market. The silk market was intense in a different way, it was more then 6 stories high of all kinds of vendors all of whom try to sell things to you simultaneously. When I say the market has everything it really does, food, tea, jewelery, purses, luggage, clothing, silk, sporting equipment, shoes, art, porcelain, everything any tourist would want and more. This is where I got to have my first haggling experience. I have been waiting until closer to my departure date to buy things at similar markets in Shanghai so haven't bargained yet. Though I actually did not haggle but sat back and watched Whitney since she was getting things I wanted anyway and could get a better deal by getting multiples (she also boasted about here excellent haggling skills). Thanks to Whitney we all got brand name 300usd headphones for only 300rmb per pair. They seem completely legitimate, I'm using them now and seem to be working as they should. Whitney was a pro, made all the right moves and set the right numbers at the right times, pretending she was going to walk away to pressure them into taking her offers. She kept saying things like "you're going to be mad" when vendors asked what price she wanted. I also got a Chinese flag for the dorm next semester for pretty cheap, again thanks to Whitney who also got one.

As I am sitting here writing this in the lounge area Whitney came out to inform me that she and the other two girls will be returning to the silk market and I should feel free to sleep in. One of the girls decided to sleep today after sight seeing instead of going to the market while Whitney and the other want to buy more. Whitney will be leaving the silk market earlier than the others and we will be heading to a place called Panjiayuan, which is a market for art and antiques. I am interested in this because they will have cultural revolution items like posters, pins, etc. and probably some other communist era items which I am interested in seeing and possibly haggling for. All of us will also be heading to the Summer Palace and probably the Zoo, with a plan to see architecture in the evening like the TV tower and the Olympic buildings. We are doing the great wall on Monday which I am excited for. I will be staying here until Wednesday so have a bit more time to explore than the others who are leaving Tuesday at around 5am.

As a detail is is labor day weekend here in China so many extra people are traveling the country, which has been noticeable in Beijing, especially in the metro and all tourist destinations. I'm expecting the great wall to be insanely crowded when we get there but I'll still be seeing the great wall so can't really complain.

The hostel we are at is pretty nice, we got a dorm style room with 4 beds so it is just us in the room. It is called the Beijing City Central Youth Hostel (in case any readers have Beijing plans), just paces away from the metro and across from the cities central train station.

That is all for now, I suppose I should get to bed and get rested up for tomorrow.

See ya,
Michael

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Food and Other Exciting Tales

It has been about a week since my last update so I am a bit past due. Not too much has happened since my last update, I have stepped up my studying as midterms approach and have a presentation to prepare for.

Over this weekend I did not do anything too interesting. I ate my first meal of American food since being here, two western meals in one day actually. I had waffles in a coffee shop while doing some studying and got a hamburger later that same day. I sometimes miss certain foods but I enjoy the food here in China, the only reason I ate western food is because the people I was out with chose to eat at these places.

Here are a few pictures of some of the food I have eaten lately:


They opened a new sandwich shop right next to campus that I thought I would try. It is the only place  have really eaten any proper bread here. Rice is obviously the principle grain here.



 There is a curry place that I have started going to that is close to campus. This was named something like seafood black curry.


Here are the waffles, nothing too exciting but they were good nonetheless.

                                         



These next three dishes are from I restaurant I have been visiting with my language partner.
This first one is an assortment of fried vegetables, they lit a fire under the dish to keep it warm at your table.

 This was an egg dish, just the whites with vegitables, that was served cold. Not my favorite but I still ate some of it.

 This last one was a very salty soup type of dish with fish and vegetables.


This weekend I visited with another Chinese friend who I met during the English Mission Town TA program I have been working every other week when they have sessions. We went to a restaurant that serves northern Chinese food. The different regions of China are all known for different types of food, normally northern food is a bit more spicy, there are also other differences that I cannot adequately explain at the moment. This first blurry picture is an eggplant dish with meat. It was my first time trying eggplant and I enjoyed it.


On the left here is a pork dish where the pork is seasoned/cooked with sugar and vinegar. It has a pretty interesting taste, mixed between sweet and savory.

 This was a sweet potato dish with meat. Pretty straightforward, again these types of dishes often have a flame lit underneath.


I actually did do something of interest today. I met with my friend and language partner, since I didn't ask if I could put her name in the blog so I will just tell you the English name she chose for herself which is Sandy. I met with her once last week and again today, we first met for lunch with her roommate. Sandy is a fourth year law student and her roommate is a fourth year psychology student.



After eating they helped me with some Chinese and then I helped them with English. I have been learning some Chinese slang terms from her but am still slow going when it comes to widening my vocabulary. I ask what a lot of things are called but always end up forgetting them. When it came to helping their English we just spoke about different subjects then I explained what a word or term meant when we come across ones they didn't know. It is a bit easier for them to learn since they are practicing the whole time we are speaking and they already have a built vocabulary. I also brought my computer with me so I could share my music collection. I thought listening to English language music might help her a bit and is also a good way to share culture. I mostly have indie bands and alternative rock on my computer at the moment though so am not sure if she will like it or not. I also had some random Jazz, which she said she was a fan of, so at least that might work out.

After we finished practicing and sharing computer files, they took me to a Chinese market that sold all kinds of fresh foods. There were a ton of vegetables and fruits there I have never seen.

The entrance was just in this seemingly random alleyway.







They sold live birds here. Some of them just kind of looked like pigeons to me but they also had ducks and chickens.



 In the background you can kind of see the man weighing the chicken on the scale to determine its price. He just grabs hold of it and plops it on the scale, didn't seem to put up too much of a fight.















 The floor of the fruit section was littered with wrappers everywhere. The whole place as a whole was a bit messy but really was not too bad considering how crowded it is at all times.


 That is Sandy on the left and her roommate on the right. She hasn't yet let me take a picture of her because she thinks that she is old or something even though I allowed her to take one of me. I did manage to snap this banana action side capture. I purchased some of these bananas as well.


 This one turned out really blurry but this is another fruit I have never seen.



Sandy bought some of these and let me try one. I have no idea what it is called.

 You peel off the outside to see the edible soft part.
 Inside of that is a hard core which you can also eat.

They go here once a week to purchase their groceries. This is just an exit onto a main street, an entrance more noticeable than the alleyway.


Next time we meet I think we are going to try to cook and possibly play basketball and/or Mahjong. I am excited because I wanted to learn how to make some real Chinese food while here. So we will probably revisit this market to get some ingredients.

Next weekend I will be visiting Beijing with fellow W&J student Whitney Sims-Rucker along with two of her Spanish classmates. I will be arriving by train and should probably make the arrangements tomorrow. So I am getting excited for that. I will be the only one in the group with a basic knowledge of Mandarin so should practice so I can try showing off  how adapted to China I have become (or more-so to not be embarrassed by how inadequate my language skill currently is).

One other piece of exciting news is that my Magellan project proposal has been accepted and my award granted. After my semester ends here I will be journeying to South Korea to research the Korean comfort women of WWII in a contemporary political context. I will be staying mostly in Seoul where surviving comfort women still protest weekly outside of the Japanese embassy. I know absolutely 0 Korean words to need to start familiarizing myself with some things.

I did promise to add an update about the propaganda museum but will get to that another time, so you're just going to have to deal with it.

Goodby for now.
-Michael