The People's Republic of China

China was definitely one of my favorite ports. I had such a great time and it was one of those weeks where everything just worked out.

Day One: We began the China adventure in Hong Kong. I had only one day there so I wanted to make the most of it. We got off the ship and headed for the subway which was surprisingly easy to maneuver since we have gotten progressively more successful at figuring out directions. It didn’t hurt that this random English speaking guy kept popping out of nowhere to tell us where to go, it was kind of bizarre. Anyway, we made our way to a place in the city called the Lady’s Market which is an entire street lined with covered markets and shops. Everything was extremely cheap and it was a great place to improve bargaining skills. I am a master bargainer mostly because I am really indecisive. They tell me a price and I laugh and tell them the most I will pay and then they laugh and  keep saying prices as I shake my head no. Then they say “what’s your best price?” and I say “that was my best price that I said in the beginning.” Then they laugh again so I walk away and they chase me yelling “Lady, lady, okay fine take it.” And they push it at me angrily. Most of the time enough time has passed by that point that I realize I don’t actually need the thing I was bargaining for and it’s not even worth my maximum price so I say “no, I don’t want it anymore.” And then they chase me down a couple tents yelling. One lady got really pissed and kept slapping me so I ran away; they are not polite in China. So that was a fun time but eventually I really had to pee so I was looking everywhere for a bathroom but let me tell you they are scarce in Hong Kong. When you do find one, usually restaurant owners don’t let you use them. I spent a solid half hour looking and finally Pizza Hut saved my life.  We ate lunch at McDonald’s (cultural, I know) but literally all we had to choose from for the most part was fast food or really expensive restaurants and we didn’t want to waste time eating with only one day in Hong Kong. After lunch we went into a random hotel building which was really really tall and rode it to the 46^th floor and found a window to look out at the city. After we took some pictures we decided to find the subway again but as we were wandering looking for it we found this mob in the street of people screaming. We stopped on the other side of the road to watch what was going on and this one lady was literally going nuts on everyone else. She was screaming in Cantonese and was up in everyone’s faces. She was particularly pissed at this one lady and the men in the group kept pulling them apart. These women were like forty five years old. All the shop owners were poking their heads out the doors and a couple pedestrian’s were recording the fight. It was really intense. Things eventually cooled down so we continued on our way to the subway. We decided to go to this giant Buddha statue we had heard about outside the city. It ended up being really cool, the statue was actually giant. It was up on a hill so the view was beautiful. The entire area was just really relaxing and a much slower pace than in the city. We tried to ask why the statue was there and who built it and it turns out it was built in 2005 by rich people. That’s pretty much all that we were able to understand about it from the people who worked there, but it was still really awesome to see. The next day was our friend Jessey’s birthday so we were rushing back to the ship to meet up with a group to go out to dinner. Unfortunately, we missed the group because the subway ride was much longer than we expected. Not having cell phones is so difficult in port, no plans are ever concrete when it comes to meeting up with people. The three other girls I was with still wanted to go out to dinner too so we got changed and went out to find a restaurant. We ended up going to this beautiful restaurant called Spasso’s at the top of a skyscraper. We got to eat outside and the view was beautiful. It was such a good dinner; we had a lot of fun. After we ate we went to a bar across town that was on a street with a bunch of other bars so we figured we would probably be most likely to run into everyone else there. It ended up working out and pretty much the street was full of SASers and other people our age studying in the city.

Day Two: The next morning we had a flight booked through Global Citizen’s to Beijing. We headed to the airport around nine because the tour people told us that with traffic and stuff we should give ourselves four hours. We were at the airport and through security by ten….It wasn’t bad though because we were able to get on wifi and relax in the airport for a while before the flight.  By one we were on the plane headed to Beijing. When we landed the Global Citizen’s tour guide was waiting for a group of us so we got on a bus right away and left for our hotel. Our hotel ended up being in the Ghetto of Beijing, there was literally nothing around us. The rooms were also a little sketchy, we counted about four holes in the wall and there were no mattresses only box springs. We all decided to go out to get some food for dinner so we bundled up because it was FREEZING and walked towards the city. We ended up at this really authentic little restaurant where no one spoke English. We ordered off the menu by pointing at pictures. We tried to order Coca Cola but she kept saying “no no.” and pointing at peach juice.  We kept saying no, but we took that to mean they were out of coke. Finally we were like “Water” and she nodded like she knew exactly what we meant.  She came back with a jug of peach juice. We were like okay, fine. Then the table of locals next to us ordered and each of them got a can of coke. We were so confused. They eat very communally in China so every table has a lazy Susan in the middle. The food ended up being not too bad, very mysterious but not bad. We popped some Pepto before and after though just to make sure. After dinner we walked around a bit, Beijing is a beautiful city. It was so cold and late and we were all so tired that we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Day Three: The next morning we woke up early, had breakfast, and got on the bus. We first went to the silk market which is a really famous five story market in Beijing. I improved my bargaining skills a little more, everything was ridiculously cheap. The good thing about shopping at markets in China is that even if you are still getting ripped off in the end you feel like you are winning because the end price is about a tenth of what they originally priced whatever you are buying at. After the market we got on the bus again and headed for the Great Wall of China. The ride was long but SO worth it. I don’t even know where to begin in describing the Great Wall. It was amazing. We hiked about six miles of it which is nothing considering it is 4,000 miles long. Some of the part we hiked was rebuilt but other parts were basically crumbling from old age. The steps were so steep and it just winds on and on. We had a great afternoon and the entire time I was literally in awe. We watched the sunset on the wall and then hiked down to a little campground right next to the wall. It was already freezing as soon as the sun went down so once we got to our tents we bundled up, I literally had like twelve layers on. We ate dinner and hung out for the night. The tour company supplied free wine bottles so we pushed four of our tents together into a little tent town, crawled into our sleeping bags and talked and drank the wine all night. We didn’t get much sleep because it was literally probably ten degrees.

Day Four: At sunrise we hiked super fast back up to the wall which sucked but also thawed me out a bit and we made it just in time to watch the sunrise. It was so beautiful. We hung out for a while and eventually hiked back down, grabbed some breakfast, and got back on the tour bus. We drove back to Beijing to Tiananmen Square. There were so many people, literally lines upon lines to see Emperor Mao’s frozen body. We didn’t stay to see that but we explored a lot and then went through the gate to The Forbidden City. The city is so big, there are 9,999 rooms within the city and back in the day the emperor had 3,000 concubines who lived within the city walls with him. At one point Kelli and I actually got lost and separated from the guides just because of the mass amount of people so we spent about an hour being lost and then being found. Walking around was really fun and it was amazing to see all the old architecture.  After we were done touring the city we went to lunch at one of the most famous duck restaurants in Beijing but in my honest opinion it was actually pretty gross. It was family style again so we got to try a bunch of different dishes, one of them was a real mysterious meat wrapped in a leaf. Somebody said it tasted a lot like the dog they tried in Vietnam but I will not accept that I ate dog. Regardless, it actually tasted pretty good. After we ate we went to a traditional drum ceremony that they used to have daily to announce the closing and opening of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The ceremony took place in a tower that was 99 VERY steep steps to get up, the view was beautiful. When we left the tower we got in rickshaws and rode around the backstreets of Beijing and were brought to this guy’s house to sit and talk. He ended up being a Kung Fu master who actually trained with Jackie Chan. He had pictures and everything! His son is in Texas teaching Kung Fu. It was really cool talking to him and we got to hold some of his weapons. That night we went back to the hotel and were literally so tired we ordered Pizza Hut to the room (which was a process in itself since we don’t speak Chinese) and watched Mulan.

Day Five: The next day we woke up and traveled to the train station where we got on the bullet train and rode for six hours to Shanghai where the ship had sailed to while we were in Beijing. The in transit days were optional so we didn’t have to get back on the ship when it left Hong Kong, we just had to be there when it left Shanghai. The train went about 306 km/h the whole time, but it was such a smooth ride. We were able to turn the seat benches so about six of us watched movies the whole time and slept. It wasn’t a bad ride at all. That night we got back to the ship, unpacked our stuff, and went out to experience Shanghai. Getting around was just about impossible because no taxi drivers speak English so we ended up all getting split up in different taxis and then by the time we finally found each other we pretty much needed to focus on how we were going to get back to the ship. Luckily we found a driver who had a map so we were able to point to where we needed to go. It’s so hard because it’s not even like we could write something down or sound out their written words because all their writing is in calligraphy. That night when we got back we sat down and made a sheet for the next day that had all of the words we thought we might need translated into Mandarin calligraphy.

Day Six: The next day we woke up and got ready to explore Shanghai. First we took a taxi into the center of the city where we split a cheap hotel room between all of us to keep our stuff and to stay in that night. We walked around and took the subway to a place called the underground market. I was done shopping so I sort of just wandered around but they literally had everything in this market. It was impossible to walk down any aisle without being grabbed or having people yell at me, “lady you want a jacket, lady you want shoes, lady you want a bag!” Like there is no such thing as browsing in most of the countries we have been to, from the moment you enter a shop the owners are over your shoulder shouting prices and shoving things into your hands. It is actually really stressful but at the same time a cool experience. One thing I have learned on this trip is to be much more rude and firm, if you aren’t they take advantage of you. I have heard so many stories of people being like “yeah they wouldn’t let me leave the store until I paid this much and bought this thing they literally blocked the way blah blah” I don’t understand how that can happen. I’ve been told us East Coasters are infamous across the country for not taking any bullshit, I’m proud of it because It’d be a big issue for me if I felt trapped in a taxi because they are demanding more money than they originally agreed on or if I couldn’t leave a store because they told me no. I don’t argue and I don’t comply, I just leave. That’s what you got to do, if there’s one thing I’ve learned here it’s that you can’t argue because as soon as they engage you in an argument they have won. Just hand them the fair amount of money and walk away.  Anyway, so after the market we went to the French Concession part of town called The Bund which was a really fun place to just wander around. After the French Concession we headed back to the hotel and talked to the concierge guy, Jack, who wanted to be our best friends for real. He got us discounted acrobat show tickets so we got to go to an acrobat show across town. It was amazing! The things those people can do with their bodies is outrageous, it was an awesome thing to see. After the show we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed back to the hotel. Jack had done us another huge favor and called ahead to reserve us a table at the ‘most exclusive’ club in Shanghai called M1NT. We got ready and hung out and then left for M1NT, we normally would have had to pay $30 American to get in but because Jack called ahead we were able to get in for free. Just to clarify, Jack didn’t even come with us he just was doing us favors it was really nice. We stayed there all night and had a great time; the club was at the top floor of this huge skyscraper so the view was amazing. The best part was that being there was free because in the cover fee alcohol was covered but we didn’t have to pay the cover fee. It was awesome. We each had a paper with the address to the hotel written on it in Mandarin so we were able to get back to the hotel fine that night.

Day Seven: The next day I had an FDP to the Shanghai Art Museum so we took a taxi back to the ship early and I met up with my group for the FDP. The museum was really cool; they had artifacts dating back 3,000 years. China has such a long history, it’s impossible to even fully have a concept of how long ago that is and to think that even then people were making such intricate tools. Being there made me think of how long the human race has been around and lived peacefully with the earth and then in just the past one hundred and fifty years how much damage we have done. If people back then had destroyed the earth as we are now, there is no way we would be here. It is crazy to think about. But so anyway the museum was cool, it was kind of dry but I’m glad I saw it. After the museum we signed out and I went with a couple people to get some lunch and then we made our way to the Pearl Tower which is a huge tower in the city that has awesome architecture. It looks like something straight out of Futurama. Actually a lot of Shanghai looks like something straight out of Futurama; it is such an up and coming city. My friend was telling me about how she saw New York City and Shanghai and some other city compared from like 1930 and Shanghai didn’t really even start to become the city it is today until the 1990’s is really when it started to pop up. Now it has the largest Population of any city in China.

 

China was awesome! Probably my favorite port because of everything I was able to squeeze into the time we had there. The Great Wall was absolutely amazing. I must say though, China is a little messed up. The government is ridiculous. The internet is so monitored, there is no facebook, twitter, youtube, and you can’t even Google China or democracy. My friend was in the hotel in Shanghai skyping her parents and she was talking about how the people in China are brainwashed by the communism and boom the internet died. In Beijing my roommate was skyping and stared talking about the communism and bam she got kicked off the internet there too. They definitely monitor everything. In Beijing there were soldiers all on the streets but when we asked people why they were there no one knew or wouldn’t talk about it. We figured out later that a major political leader was kicked out of office or something and the government was afraid there would be a coup. Things were definitely sketchy at times with those sorts of things and the people definitely were brainwashed. We asked a bunch of people if it made them mad that they couldn’t search things on the internet and if they were mad they were kept in the dark about a lot of the things happening in the government and they all just responded that no they weren’t mad. I guess they sort of have to say that since you can’t speak badly about the government but it was so interesting experiencing it all.