Greetings once again from Nanjing!
Today is Saturday and I think my last post was Tuesday, so I’m afraid a lot of time has passed. Sorry about that! Nonetheless, there really isn’t too much to write home about. Well… I tend to drag everything out, so we’ll see how this goes. Without further ado I present “This Week.”
So as you recall, I was preparing for our field trip. We (16 students, 2 leaders, 2 adult hosts, 1 Chinese student guide, and 1 driver) piled into the 25-passenger van and headed out of Nanjing at 12:30 pm. The first transportation-related landmark we were to analyze was the beautiful expressway that was intended to blend into the landscape. In addition, we pulled off at a service area so we could marvel at how well it fit into its surroundings. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but the Chinese government is all about “going green” and being more environmentally friendly. While this sentiment is far from reaching all walks of life, it has definitely affected the philosophies of every agency we’ve worked with thus far.
A little later down the road, we stopped at another service area. This time, the focus was different. Instead of being green, we admired the building’s architecture: a near replica of London Bridge. Yes, at a service area. We were shocked. Ten minutes later we continued our transportation journey. Finally, by about 3:30 pm, we arrived at Huaxi (pronounced Hwa-she) Village, the self-proclaimed “best village in China.” While I personally question that statement, I found the village to be an excellent study of appearances. It is the first place in China I’ve seen single family homes, but they were aligned in a perfect grid pattern, each identical to its neighbors. In addition, we drove along a nice, touristy store front, but upon climbing an observation tower, we realized that the stores just hid a water treatment plant. Finally, they took us on a tour of the village greenhouses. It turns out that the quantity of vegetables grown there is insufficient for the village, so the greenhouse is merely kept for tourism purposes.
Oh yeah, did I mention the replica Arc d’Triumph, Sacre Coure, Great Wall, and Tiananmen Square? Hmmm… yeah, I thought it was weird too.
Leaving Huaxi, we backtracked slightly to Jiangyin, where we were spending the night. From an adjacent hill, we looked out over the Jiangyin suspension bridge, the 6th longest suspension span in the world. For comparison, the Golden Gate ranks in at 9th. Unfortunately, we did not cross the bridge since people (our hosts) were trying to get us to dinner. Sometimes I think transportation engineers just don’t understand how amazing such structures are. ;-) Maybe one day they’ll learn.
The following day, we rose bright and early to continue our road trip. Leaving Jiangyin at 8:30, we continued eastward. Our first stop was to visit the Sutong cable stayed bridge, the longest such bridge in the world. Because cable stayed bridges place loading directly on each tower, spans longer than 1 km have never been achieved… until the Sutong. Unfortunately, the smoggy sky made it impossible to see the opposite bank from the exhibition center, and consequently the bridge was partially masked by haze. Even still, it was remarkable to see how ridiculously high the towers stretched. Standing on the bank definitely provided a sense of insignificance. For clear pictures, see Wikipedia or Google. Else, you can e-mail me if you’d like a couple of my own pictures from the bridge.
Looking at a map, you will see that the Sutong Bridge is about three-quarters of the way from Nanjing to Shanghai. Thus, we had a long drive ahead of us once again. It was made even longer by the addition of yet one more stop: the Taizhou Suspension Bridge. Currently, the Taizhou Bridge consists of three half-constructed towers. Seeing a suspension tower rise from the earth adjacent to an impoverished community was a sight to behold – another strange technological façade. Upon the bridge’s completion, however, it will essentially be the world’s first double suspension bridge. Each of the identical main spans will stretch 1000m over the Yangtze with a pivot in the middle. Combined with an opening date planned for 2013, the Chinese are clearly on top of their civil engineering game.
Finally, we drove back via the Runyang Bridge. This bridge also features two spans, joined at the center of the river on a small island. The northern span is cable stayed and the southern span is the fourth longest suspension span in the world. We didn’t stop – just drove over and admired. So, in summary, we saw the current longest cable stayed bridge, the world’s 4th and 6th longest suspension spans, and the construction of the world’s first double suspension span (which will be the longest suspension in the world). It was crazy.
Ah Friday. Dragon Boat Festival. As I quickly found out, celebrations and activities are few and far between, sort of like our Columbus Day in the United States. Honestly, if our professors hadn’t told us it was a national holiday, I would have thought Saturday came a day early this week. Still, I tried to find some sort of fun to take part of. Sure enough, I purchased two zongzi- one was zhu rou (pork) and the other was jujube (Chinese date). Unwrapping the bamboo leaves was a challenge because the rice was so incredibly sticky, but the taste made the struggle well worth it. After eating my zongzi, I walked around Xuanwu Lake, the big lake at the foot of Purple Mountain. There weren’t any festivities, but many families and couples were out enjoying the sunny day. Children played on playgrounds and almost every park bench was taken. I guess it was great to see how the people here enjoy their time off, but it turned out to be quite similar to a holiday in the States.
And now, today. I began today by trying to track down a theatre in the center of town. I’ve been hoping to see some kind of musical performance, but nothing is listed online. Sure enough, I found the theatre, but apparently today was a “Cosplay” event – costumed roleplay. Therefore, every teen around the theatre was dressed in an anime-style costume. It was kind of interesting, but I deemed my search for a performance schedule to be impossible.
Continuing on my way, I went to the Zhonghua Gate. This gate was built in the 1430s as part of the Ming Dynasty city wall. The gate (which resembled a small fortress) has three partitioned courtyards and a sort of bunker area in the front. Each partition had an iron gate that could be dropped down at a moment’s notice to limit invaders. But even with multiple gates and a drawbridge, Zhonghua was where Nanjing fell to the Japanese in 1937. Oops!
While spending time at the gate, two pairs of people decided to begin conversations with me. The first pair was two guys who were about my age. I did not catch their names, so I’ll call them Mark and Robert here. Mark did not speak any English, but Robert said he had visited Boston in 2007, so his English was ok. He wanted to know where I was from and what I was doing. We took a few pictures and communicated as best we could. As we walked, we went into a room that displayed a raid siren. I asked them to explain the sign, but Robert’s English was not good enough. Just then, the second pair of people walked up: a guy and girl who also appeared to be my age. I didn’t catch their names either, so I’ll call them Joe and Lauren. Like Mark, Joe didn’t speak any English and Lauren’s English was very limited… so no one ended up explaining the siren. Oh well.
Anyway, Mark and Robert left and Lauren and Joe followed me to some of the other display rooms. I tried to ask questions about what I saw, but her comprehension – and consequently her responses – were confused and scattered. In spite of this, it was surprising that we were able to communicate using small phrases and words in context. I was impressed at both our diligence and patience in attempting to communicate. Best of all, they seemed to enjoy spending time with me, so we saw a couple more rooms and then I had to continue on.
Leaving the gate, I walked to the nearby Confucius Temple, which I heard is also called Fuzimao Street. You may recall that I have visited there already, but I chose to return to do some more shopping. I was quite successful too! As I was looking for postcards, however, yet another guy said hello to me. He introduced himself in Chinese and then said his English name is Luis. Ok, so I was really quite impressed with Luis’s English speaking. He connected his thoughts well and it seemed his only limitation was vocabulary. Even at that, however, his vocabulary was fairly advanced. Of course, he was totally enthralled to be talking to an American, so we wandered all around the temple for about an hour, talking mainly about differences between American and Chinese students. It was really interesting to hear about America from a Chinese student’s perspective. “I heard Americans…” “I heard students in America …” Most of the things he had heard were right on, too. It was clear he was enthralled by the idea of modernity – a very American idea. He even commented that China was too traditional for his liking. He wanted to know if I had been to Miami and New York. “New York is also called the Big Apple. Do you know why that is? I really like New York. It’s very modern.” I have no idea why NYC is the Big Apple. Is that bad?
He said he hopes to come to America some day after he graduates in accounting, perhaps permanently. I told him not to be so hasty because China has a lot of benefits too. Even though he doesn’t like the Chinese education system, I told him that was the reason why China was moving up in the world and America is not.
Well, I could talk a lot more about our discussion, but this is already an exceedingly long blog post. I can share more later if anyone is interested. So we bid each other good bye and exchanged email addresses. I returned to one last store and actually sat around and “talked” with the family that ran it. By “talk,” I mean that we used a calculator to show each of our ages, and then they shared some seeds with me. For my first test, they were curious if I could use chopsticks, so I picked up a seed on my first try! Whew! My second test was actually eating the seeds. These seeds were quite similar to sunflower seeds: oblong shell with almost no flesh. The coating was very tasty, but I was incompetent at cracking the shells open with my teeth. They could all crack the shells perfectly in half – I mangled six or seven and then gave up. We had a good laugh. At last, I bought what I was looking for and they gave me a bracelet as a gift of friendship. They wished me well, but I think they want me to come back again to say hello. Maybe I’ll master my seed eating skills first!
At long last, I returned to the hotel, wiped from walking about 13 miles in two days after spending about 10 hours driving in the two days before that. What a week! Anyway, I have a test coming up and a paper due Wednesday, so time to get back to work. Thanks for reading and I’ll write again soon!!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, May 26th 2009, 1:03 pm (Nanjing, China)
Ok, class. I’ve received some questions from you all, and apparently the assignment was harder than I anticipated. That said, you can turn it in for extra credit, but it won’t be graded.
On a more serious note, here it is Tuesday in Nanjing! I’m sad to say that we did not have Memorial Day off. Nor did we celebrate. Nor did we have fireworks. Nor did we go out to eat. In fact, I spent my Memorial Day studying for a test. But hey, this Thursday and Friday we will be celebrating a Chinese National Holiday, the Dragon Boat Festival. Reading up a little ahead of time, the Dragon Boat Festival features boat races to honor the spirit of water dragons, considered to be the most powerful dragons (and they provide water for crops). Moreover, the festival honors a 3rd century BC poet, Qu Yuan, whose counsel was rejected by a king. Qu Yuan threw himself into a river, and the villagers raced their boats around to try to find him before he drowned. Failing to find him, they threw rice into the water to prevent the fish from eating his body (I don’t understand that). To this day, one of the central foods surrounding the festival is zongzi – bamboo leaves wrapped around sticky rice with a sweet or salty filling. I’ve seen these in the grocery store already, and I’m really excited to give them a try this weekend!
This past weekend ended up being somewhat uneventful. On Saturday, we were planning to go to a soccer game, until discovering that the game was actually Sunday. Oops! So instead, we headed south to the Confucius Temple market. Like many touristy areas, there wasn’t really a temple as far as I could tell, but tons and tons of shops selling mostly identical merchandise. You’re supposed to barter for everything, but I didn’t remember that until it was almost too late. Thankfully, I only bought a few things and I intend to return at least once more before the end of the trip. I also had my picture taken with a statue I presumed to be of Confucius. It was a pretty jovial statue, so I gave it a high five.
On Sunday, we took a nice, slow start to the day (i.e. most people were recovering from a fun night out on Saturday) before heading to the 3 pm game at Olympic Stadium. The game was between the Jiangsu Sainty and Chongqing. The general admission tickets were 50 Yuan each, which is about $7. To better cheer for Jiangsu, almost all of us purchased blue Sainty jerseys, at a cost of 60 Yuan ($8.50)! The stadium was pretty cool, except it had an interesting mix of obsolescence and modernisms. A crisp, clear jumbotron displayed the score of the game, yet there was no game clock anywhere! The stadium’s capacity was probably around 50,000, although it was only one-quarter filled. At least there were crazy soccer fans though! A couple people from our group motivated the crazy soccer fans by whooping and hollering before, during, and after the game, so we had quite a fun time. Even better, Jiangsu won by a score of 4-0! The first two goals were scored in the first 15 minutes and the last two were scored in the last 10 minutes. Jiangsu combined good defense with a hail-mary style offense that worked remarkably well. As I said, we all had a great time and really enjoyed seeing the home team pull it out.
The only other item of note right now is that we’re getting ready for our field trip to visit some transportation-sites of interest. We leave tomorrow (Wednesday) just after noon, and we’ll return to Nanjing on Thursday afternoon. Depending how interesting the festival is at that time, I may or may not have the opportunity to post again before Sunday. Zai Jian!
On a more serious note, here it is Tuesday in Nanjing! I’m sad to say that we did not have Memorial Day off. Nor did we celebrate. Nor did we have fireworks. Nor did we go out to eat. In fact, I spent my Memorial Day studying for a test. But hey, this Thursday and Friday we will be celebrating a Chinese National Holiday, the Dragon Boat Festival. Reading up a little ahead of time, the Dragon Boat Festival features boat races to honor the spirit of water dragons, considered to be the most powerful dragons (and they provide water for crops). Moreover, the festival honors a 3rd century BC poet, Qu Yuan, whose counsel was rejected by a king. Qu Yuan threw himself into a river, and the villagers raced their boats around to try to find him before he drowned. Failing to find him, they threw rice into the water to prevent the fish from eating his body (I don’t understand that). To this day, one of the central foods surrounding the festival is zongzi – bamboo leaves wrapped around sticky rice with a sweet or salty filling. I’ve seen these in the grocery store already, and I’m really excited to give them a try this weekend!
This past weekend ended up being somewhat uneventful. On Saturday, we were planning to go to a soccer game, until discovering that the game was actually Sunday. Oops! So instead, we headed south to the Confucius Temple market. Like many touristy areas, there wasn’t really a temple as far as I could tell, but tons and tons of shops selling mostly identical merchandise. You’re supposed to barter for everything, but I didn’t remember that until it was almost too late. Thankfully, I only bought a few things and I intend to return at least once more before the end of the trip. I also had my picture taken with a statue I presumed to be of Confucius. It was a pretty jovial statue, so I gave it a high five.
On Sunday, we took a nice, slow start to the day (i.e. most people were recovering from a fun night out on Saturday) before heading to the 3 pm game at Olympic Stadium. The game was between the Jiangsu Sainty and Chongqing. The general admission tickets were 50 Yuan each, which is about $7. To better cheer for Jiangsu, almost all of us purchased blue Sainty jerseys, at a cost of 60 Yuan ($8.50)! The stadium was pretty cool, except it had an interesting mix of obsolescence and modernisms. A crisp, clear jumbotron displayed the score of the game, yet there was no game clock anywhere! The stadium’s capacity was probably around 50,000, although it was only one-quarter filled. At least there were crazy soccer fans though! A couple people from our group motivated the crazy soccer fans by whooping and hollering before, during, and after the game, so we had quite a fun time. Even better, Jiangsu won by a score of 4-0! The first two goals were scored in the first 15 minutes and the last two were scored in the last 10 minutes. Jiangsu combined good defense with a hail-mary style offense that worked remarkably well. As I said, we all had a great time and really enjoyed seeing the home team pull it out.
The only other item of note right now is that we’re getting ready for our field trip to visit some transportation-sites of interest. We leave tomorrow (Wednesday) just after noon, and we’ll return to Nanjing on Thursday afternoon. Depending how interesting the festival is at that time, I may or may not have the opportunity to post again before Sunday. Zai Jian!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009, 9:24 PM (Nanjing, China)
One week of class down!
So it's Friday evening and here I am writing a blog post. I guess I'll find something to do eventually- I think someone mentioned ping pong.
But before that, it's only right that I should update everyone on the week in Nanjing. We've had 5 classes, the equivalent of about 9 weeks of class during a normal semester. Our first test was Thursday and focused on questions regarding traffic in Nanjing. What is the background growth rate? 10-15%. Would light rail work on Beijing Rd (next to our university) and why? Determine the trip assignment for Hunan Road shopping area. It's actually been very interesting.
Dad will be proud because we briefly touched on Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements. Naturally, I remember writing a mock EIS for scouts... good times, good times. I've also enjoyed class because life in DC and travel to various international cities has given me a great perspective on modes of traffic. Peds, Bikes, subway, busway, bus lanes, light rail, heavy rail, street cars, cable cars, people movers (monorail!) etc etc etc... I wonder if I've seen it all?
Never fear, I have also done other things this week too. Since I don't remember what I discussed in Monday's blog (and blogger is still blocked), I'll just start there. Monday afternoon, we heard from Mr. Wei Xia, Vice Director of Jiangsu's DOT. One notable fact was that Jiangsu has the highest population density of any province in China, and consequently has 60,000 bridges and almost 90,000 miles of roads! In addition, the DOT here has adopted a philosophy that "A driver's mistake should not cost his/her life." I think that's a bold statement that goes beyond roadway design- can technology be developed to make up for stupidity? If so, is that foresight or dumb luck? In addition, can it be done without overdesigning a road or structure? I don't know, but it's an interesting idea.
Tuesday afternoon's guest lecture was by Mr. Huang Kai, Dean of International Students (I think) here at Southeast University. He spoke to economic development in the province, but more interesting was his travel experience. Since he earned his PhD in Connecticut and is a world traveler, I asked him what we should gain most from our trip or what we should tell people at home. In his response, he said that this is a time of globalization. He said to tell people to travel abroad and meet someone from another culture. And most significant to me, he said to come back to China. This made me recall a part of my trip to Ecuador in which the Maestro (construction supervisor) said, “Remember Ecuador. Remember the people, remember the country, come back again.”
So I really got to thinking, what do these two experiences have in common? Why should people in Ecuador and China want us to return? Is it that we Americans pump money into their economies? (well, yes, but bear with me..) Is it that they want us to have pity on their living conditions? Or maybe it’s something more meaningful. Maybe we provide a glimmer of hope that not all foreigners look down on these countries. How cool is that?! Here in Nanjing, the population is 99% Chinese. We have been asked on multiple occasions to be in pictures simply because we’re Americans. People point, stare and laugh at us. They shoot photographs when they think we’re not looking. Why is that?
Well let me examine the corollary. Pick any block of any street in any metropolitan city in the United States. I guarantee that during the busiest part of the day, you could walk down the street and count people of at least three different races. And people think there’s no diversity in the US! Those people should come to China! I went two days without seeing a foreigner as far as I could tell. So, maybe we as travelers do bring money into the economies of countries such as China and Ecuador, but we bring something else too. We bring the hope that there are people around the world who care to learn what life is really like behind the façade of government.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that governments don’t represent their people very well. Therefore, don’t read FoxNews, BBC, or your favorite newspaper and say, “Oh, the Chinese Communist party just restricted trade with the US; their people must be dumb.” It’s not true. Furthermore, don’t let the French (or anyone else) make judgments about Americans because of Bush, or Obama. How do you accomplish both? Go to China! Go to France! Go somewhere! That’s the only way to do justice to learning about a country.
Whew. That was a long soap box, but I think it was necessary. At any rate, after Tuesday’s talk, Mike and I tried out the city’s bus system by taking a trip to the Yangtze River Bridge. The bridge, with its one mile main span, was the first bridge to cross the Yangtze River and the first double deck bridge in China (if I’m not mistaken). The top deck (4 lanes + 2 sidewalks) stands approximately 200 feet above the water and the second deck (2 railroad tracks) about 120 feet high. In addition to the main span, the bridge has over one mile of approach ramp on each side of the river. Most stunning was the high quantity of traffic on the bridge. Trains ran every couple minutes. The lanes were constantly busy with cars, trucks, and mopeds. Even the pedestrian walkways served as (dangerous) travel lanes for mopeds, bicycles, and pedestrians. It was intense!
On Wednesday, our own Dr. Hummer gave an afternoon presentation on Unconventional Intersections which proved to be quite interesting! I think I’ve become a fan of the Median U-Turn (or Michigan Left Turn). Look it up on Wikipedia! Wednesday evening was devoted to studying, dinner, and studying. Sad!
Thursday afternoon and this afternoon were both very enjoyable. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit Nanjing’s Tunnel Management Center. Big room, lots of video camera monitors, people with buttons… you know the drill. Next, we took a quick run through Nanjing’s Urban Planning museum, where they had a 1:850 scale model of the entire city! The model filled up an entire room and the viewing was best from the second floor. In addition, the museum had a video with light display to point out Nanjing’s many highlights on the map. It was really REALLY cool! Finally, we took a boat ride on the mother river of Nanjing (an inlet off of the Yangtze). While on the boat, we enjoyed eating yummy lychee nuts (no one knew what it was… except me. I said, “It’s a lychee!” “A what?” “A lychee!!” Anyway, look it up on Wikipedia if you need to.), bananas, sunflower seeds, and tea (they drink tons of it here- it brings good luck). In the mean time, we listened to someone play the pipa (I had to ask what that was… so look that up on Wikipedia too)! It was really beautiful-sounding and I now want to hear more traditional Chinese music. From what I understand, however, it’s hard to come by since the Cultural Revolution (you may need to look that up on Wikipedia if you’re under 30) did away with a lot of that. ANYWAY, it was a fun afternoon!
Today, we went for a tour of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Mausoleum. Located on Purple Mountain, the mausoleum is located at the top of an epic 400-step staircase. It’s really interesting how Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (yeah, look him up on Wikipedia too) is revered like George Washington is in the States. Of course, the strange thing is that the Nationalist party he established in 1912 was the party overthrown by the Communists in 1949. Nonetheless, he is revered. His mausoleum was decorated in simple blue and white (Nationalist colors), and his coffin was carved in his likeness out of granite. It was really quite spectacular!
So, I suppose that’s about all for now. Tomorrow, we’re going to be soccer hooligans for the afternoon. I’ve never been to a soccer game as spectator before, but the game tomorrow is between the Jiangsu Sainty (Nanjing’s team; see Wikipedia) and Chongqing Lifan. The 3 pm game will be held at the Nanjing Olympic Stadium, on the southern side of town. I understand the Sainty is pretty bad, but hopefully it will be fun all the same. I’m interested to see what stadium food is like here in China. My guess is noodles and corn on the cob. Man, they love some corn on the cob on the streets. I haven’t had any yet, but tomorrow might be the day.
Next anticipated post: Monday or Tuesday.
Homework: Before next class (next post), look up the following terms on Wikipedia:
-Median U-turn
-lychee
-pipa
-Cultural Revolution
-Dr. Sun Yat-Sen
-Jiangsu Sainty
So it's Friday evening and here I am writing a blog post. I guess I'll find something to do eventually- I think someone mentioned ping pong.
But before that, it's only right that I should update everyone on the week in Nanjing. We've had 5 classes, the equivalent of about 9 weeks of class during a normal semester. Our first test was Thursday and focused on questions regarding traffic in Nanjing. What is the background growth rate? 10-15%. Would light rail work on Beijing Rd (next to our university) and why? Determine the trip assignment for Hunan Road shopping area. It's actually been very interesting.
Dad will be proud because we briefly touched on Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements. Naturally, I remember writing a mock EIS for scouts... good times, good times. I've also enjoyed class because life in DC and travel to various international cities has given me a great perspective on modes of traffic. Peds, Bikes, subway, busway, bus lanes, light rail, heavy rail, street cars, cable cars, people movers (monorail!) etc etc etc... I wonder if I've seen it all?
Never fear, I have also done other things this week too. Since I don't remember what I discussed in Monday's blog (and blogger is still blocked), I'll just start there. Monday afternoon, we heard from Mr. Wei Xia, Vice Director of Jiangsu's DOT. One notable fact was that Jiangsu has the highest population density of any province in China, and consequently has 60,000 bridges and almost 90,000 miles of roads! In addition, the DOT here has adopted a philosophy that "A driver's mistake should not cost his/her life." I think that's a bold statement that goes beyond roadway design- can technology be developed to make up for stupidity? If so, is that foresight or dumb luck? In addition, can it be done without overdesigning a road or structure? I don't know, but it's an interesting idea.
Tuesday afternoon's guest lecture was by Mr. Huang Kai, Dean of International Students (I think) here at Southeast University. He spoke to economic development in the province, but more interesting was his travel experience. Since he earned his PhD in Connecticut and is a world traveler, I asked him what we should gain most from our trip or what we should tell people at home. In his response, he said that this is a time of globalization. He said to tell people to travel abroad and meet someone from another culture. And most significant to me, he said to come back to China. This made me recall a part of my trip to Ecuador in which the Maestro (construction supervisor) said, “Remember Ecuador. Remember the people, remember the country, come back again.”
So I really got to thinking, what do these two experiences have in common? Why should people in Ecuador and China want us to return? Is it that we Americans pump money into their economies? (well, yes, but bear with me..) Is it that they want us to have pity on their living conditions? Or maybe it’s something more meaningful. Maybe we provide a glimmer of hope that not all foreigners look down on these countries. How cool is that?! Here in Nanjing, the population is 99% Chinese. We have been asked on multiple occasions to be in pictures simply because we’re Americans. People point, stare and laugh at us. They shoot photographs when they think we’re not looking. Why is that?
Well let me examine the corollary. Pick any block of any street in any metropolitan city in the United States. I guarantee that during the busiest part of the day, you could walk down the street and count people of at least three different races. And people think there’s no diversity in the US! Those people should come to China! I went two days without seeing a foreigner as far as I could tell. So, maybe we as travelers do bring money into the economies of countries such as China and Ecuador, but we bring something else too. We bring the hope that there are people around the world who care to learn what life is really like behind the façade of government.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that governments don’t represent their people very well. Therefore, don’t read FoxNews, BBC, or your favorite newspaper and say, “Oh, the Chinese Communist party just restricted trade with the US; their people must be dumb.” It’s not true. Furthermore, don’t let the French (or anyone else) make judgments about Americans because of Bush, or Obama. How do you accomplish both? Go to China! Go to France! Go somewhere! That’s the only way to do justice to learning about a country.
Whew. That was a long soap box, but I think it was necessary. At any rate, after Tuesday’s talk, Mike and I tried out the city’s bus system by taking a trip to the Yangtze River Bridge. The bridge, with its one mile main span, was the first bridge to cross the Yangtze River and the first double deck bridge in China (if I’m not mistaken). The top deck (4 lanes + 2 sidewalks) stands approximately 200 feet above the water and the second deck (2 railroad tracks) about 120 feet high. In addition to the main span, the bridge has over one mile of approach ramp on each side of the river. Most stunning was the high quantity of traffic on the bridge. Trains ran every couple minutes. The lanes were constantly busy with cars, trucks, and mopeds. Even the pedestrian walkways served as (dangerous) travel lanes for mopeds, bicycles, and pedestrians. It was intense!
On Wednesday, our own Dr. Hummer gave an afternoon presentation on Unconventional Intersections which proved to be quite interesting! I think I’ve become a fan of the Median U-Turn (or Michigan Left Turn). Look it up on Wikipedia! Wednesday evening was devoted to studying, dinner, and studying. Sad!
Thursday afternoon and this afternoon were both very enjoyable. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit Nanjing’s Tunnel Management Center. Big room, lots of video camera monitors, people with buttons… you know the drill. Next, we took a quick run through Nanjing’s Urban Planning museum, where they had a 1:850 scale model of the entire city! The model filled up an entire room and the viewing was best from the second floor. In addition, the museum had a video with light display to point out Nanjing’s many highlights on the map. It was really REALLY cool! Finally, we took a boat ride on the mother river of Nanjing (an inlet off of the Yangtze). While on the boat, we enjoyed eating yummy lychee nuts (no one knew what it was… except me. I said, “It’s a lychee!” “A what?” “A lychee!!” Anyway, look it up on Wikipedia if you need to.), bananas, sunflower seeds, and tea (they drink tons of it here- it brings good luck). In the mean time, we listened to someone play the pipa (I had to ask what that was… so look that up on Wikipedia too)! It was really beautiful-sounding and I now want to hear more traditional Chinese music. From what I understand, however, it’s hard to come by since the Cultural Revolution (you may need to look that up on Wikipedia if you’re under 30) did away with a lot of that. ANYWAY, it was a fun afternoon!
Today, we went for a tour of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Mausoleum. Located on Purple Mountain, the mausoleum is located at the top of an epic 400-step staircase. It’s really interesting how Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (yeah, look him up on Wikipedia too) is revered like George Washington is in the States. Of course, the strange thing is that the Nationalist party he established in 1912 was the party overthrown by the Communists in 1949. Nonetheless, he is revered. His mausoleum was decorated in simple blue and white (Nationalist colors), and his coffin was carved in his likeness out of granite. It was really quite spectacular!
So, I suppose that’s about all for now. Tomorrow, we’re going to be soccer hooligans for the afternoon. I’ve never been to a soccer game as spectator before, but the game tomorrow is between the Jiangsu Sainty (Nanjing’s team; see Wikipedia) and Chongqing Lifan. The 3 pm game will be held at the Nanjing Olympic Stadium, on the southern side of town. I understand the Sainty is pretty bad, but hopefully it will be fun all the same. I’m interested to see what stadium food is like here in China. My guess is noodles and corn on the cob. Man, they love some corn on the cob on the streets. I haven’t had any yet, but tomorrow might be the day.
Next anticipated post: Monday or Tuesday.
Homework: Before next class (next post), look up the following terms on Wikipedia:
-Median U-turn
-lychee
-pipa
-Cultural Revolution
-Dr. Sun Yat-Sen
-Jiangsu Sainty
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009, 9:00 pm (China)
Wow, almost Tuesday. I've been in this country for one week and it feels like it's been a year. Thankfully, Vienna was the same way. I guess there's a certain period of adjustment for these kind of trips that makes the first week seem like an eternity. I haven't even really done anything yet! Here's hoping each passing day is filled with more excitement and more notable experiences!
Today was pretty good. Apparently, we're taking the class (Traffic Engineering) with about ten or twelve Chinese students. Although they must have known what they were getting into, I feel bad for them- their understanding of English is good but not fluent by any means, so their understanding of class discussion is slow. In addition, there's a clear difference in standard of living. We all had laptops. None of them do. As an introduction, we were all asked to stand, state our hometown (yeah nation's capital REPRESENT!), and say what mode of transportation we use. Of course, we all have cars. They all have bikes. That made me feel kind of awkward. I don't know if I was ashamed or embarrassed or what, but definitely awkward. So since our notes are on the computer, Dr. Hummer asked us to intersperse and pair up with the Chinese students. My partner (whose full name was really long, but told me to call him Yuan) is really nice, but he had difficulty grasping what we discussed. Nonetheless, class went well and hopefully three hours of traffic every day won't be a drag.
After another *lovely* cafeteria lunch, we returned to the hotel for some relaxing before our guest speaker. The guest speaker was Mr. Wei Xia (pronounced "Mr. Sha Vey"), the vice director of Jiangsu province's DOT. The presentation was also given to a lot of Chinese students who I perceived were graduate students in their School of Transportation. Well, it was a cultural experience for sure. There were two simultaneous powerpoints: one in English and one in Chinese. Mr. Wei gave the presentation sentence by sentence in Chinese, pausing so his assistant could translate into English. It was interesting to hear their innovations in highway design, but the 2-hour lecture was pretty long for most of us!
So those are the highlights from today. Dinner was at a somewhat western restaurant, but I had chicken curry. And before anyone accuses me of eating non Chinese food- have no fear, I couldn't taste it anyway. Stupid cold. Oh yeah, don't worry about swine flu either, because my temperature is still 36.8!
That's all for now. It's only been a day since my last post, but the words just kind of came out, so why not have another one? I'm sure I'll post again soon! Bye for now!
Today was pretty good. Apparently, we're taking the class (Traffic Engineering) with about ten or twelve Chinese students. Although they must have known what they were getting into, I feel bad for them- their understanding of English is good but not fluent by any means, so their understanding of class discussion is slow. In addition, there's a clear difference in standard of living. We all had laptops. None of them do. As an introduction, we were all asked to stand, state our hometown (yeah nation's capital REPRESENT!), and say what mode of transportation we use. Of course, we all have cars. They all have bikes. That made me feel kind of awkward. I don't know if I was ashamed or embarrassed or what, but definitely awkward. So since our notes are on the computer, Dr. Hummer asked us to intersperse and pair up with the Chinese students. My partner (whose full name was really long, but told me to call him Yuan) is really nice, but he had difficulty grasping what we discussed. Nonetheless, class went well and hopefully three hours of traffic every day won't be a drag.
After another *lovely* cafeteria lunch, we returned to the hotel for some relaxing before our guest speaker. The guest speaker was Mr. Wei Xia (pronounced "Mr. Sha Vey"), the vice director of Jiangsu province's DOT. The presentation was also given to a lot of Chinese students who I perceived were graduate students in their School of Transportation. Well, it was a cultural experience for sure. There were two simultaneous powerpoints: one in English and one in Chinese. Mr. Wei gave the presentation sentence by sentence in Chinese, pausing so his assistant could translate into English. It was interesting to hear their innovations in highway design, but the 2-hour lecture was pretty long for most of us!
So those are the highlights from today. Dinner was at a somewhat western restaurant, but I had chicken curry. And before anyone accuses me of eating non Chinese food- have no fear, I couldn't taste it anyway. Stupid cold. Oh yeah, don't worry about swine flu either, because my temperature is still 36.8!
That's all for now. It's only been a day since my last post, but the words just kind of came out, so why not have another one? I'm sure I'll post again soon! Bye for now!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009, 5:00 pm (China)
Greetings family and friends across the world! Today’s blog is coming from the 11th floor of the Liu Yuan Hotel in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. It has been an eventful couple of days here in Nanjing as we have settled ourselves in and are preparing to begin class tomorrow.
On a government front, it has been very interesting. The day after posting my last blog, blogger was censored! I clicked on my bookmark and a blank page comes up. No text. No explanation. Just the browser’s telltale statement, “Done.” Youtube is the same way. On that note, I will be posting here via my girlfriend, who has excitedly volunteered to login and post my stories on my behalf. Thanks Kalli!
The other wonderful government-related item of the past few days is that Jiangsu province has reported its first confirmed case of Swine Flu. In accordance with provincial decree, we – dirty Americans – are required to take our temperatures every day until Tuesday and inform them if anyone is over 37.5 degrees Celsius. Yesterday afternoon, I caught a cold (ugh!), but thankfully my temperature reads a cool 36.8, 0.2 below normal body temperature. Nasal decongestants are working wonders too!
So enough about that. Let’s talk Nanjing. Arriving in Nanjing Thursday afternoon, I was immediately struck by two things. First, the city is very green. No, I’m not talking about recycling or clean diesel buses, but rather the shear quantity of trees that line every street in the city. The trees appear to be in the maple family, have solid trunks, and branches that reach out at 90 degree angles at about 7 feet high. If you made a strong-man pose with your fists angled outward, you would get a good idea what these trees look like. It’s very pretty. The other thing that struck me was the quantity of smog. At no time since arriving on Thursday have I seen a blue sky. The sky has been cloudy most of the time, but even with today’s “sunny” weather, the sky is gray and visibility is limited to 5 miles or so. It’s not pretty. If it doesn’t clear up at all, I may need to start looking at pictures of blue skies and puffy white clouds so I don’t forget what they look like!
The people here are indeed very nice. Thursday we had dinner with our host and student guides and Friday, they showed us around campus. They even put up signs all over campus and in the hotel reading, “We welcome the faculty and students of NCSU for civil engineering study abroad.” The warm welcome was very nice and helped us to feel right at home.
Since our meals in Shanghai, the food has improved drastically (or maybe we’re becoming accustomed to it)! We have had a lot more dishes that Americans would think of as Chinese- chicken or beef with noodles, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, egg drop soup, etc. Friday, we were on our own for dinner (the welcome banquet was delayed as part of the swine flu regulations), so many of us walked around looking for food together. Sadly, most of the group needed a break from Chinese food and stopped at KFC. Six of us, however, stayed the course and ate next door at a Chinese chain restaurant. I had spicy noodles and they were exceedingly good. I will definitely be returning there!
On the topic of food, my eating schedule looks like this: Breakfasts are provided by the hotel – buffet style with hot juice, toast, dumplings, noodles, cooked vegetables, and other apparent leftovers. Lunches will be in the school cafeteria as long as we can stand it. Imagine the quality of cafeteria food in the US with the menu choices of China and you understand how bad that could turn out! Finally, dinners will be whatever is convenient when evening rolls around. I assume Chinese, but that may not last too long.
So far, we have not done too much in Nanjing. Friday was spent touring the main and new campus. On Saturday, we were given a really broad tour of the city by bus. We drove to a number of sites, but due to the rain, we chose to stay on the bus. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store. That was pretty exciting. I noticed more American brands such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy, and Coca Cola but there were plenty of unfamiliar products too. One could buy fresh squid and eel in addition to a myriad exotic fruits and packaged goods. Employees were all over the store giving out free samples and talking over PA systems to convince shoppers how excellent the products were. In a promotion area, they were featuring Oreo wafers. Adjacent to them were some snack-sized yellow, white, and tan pouches. All the writing was in Chinese, but I decided to be adventurous. Thus, I picked up a yellow pouch and went to pay for that, a Fanta, and some chocolate-filled Koalas (lol- very yummy!). Once back on the bus, I opened my yellow pouch to determine what was inside. To my surprise, I found it filled with green, flat, leathery seeds. I bit into one and it was immediately apparent that I could not chew through the skin, so I split it in half with my hands. I asked our guide what it was and she said (after looking in an English-Chinese dictionary) it was a bean. Upon asking if I had to cook them, she said, “Yes. Fried.” We all burst out laughing. Sadly, I have no access to a pan and oil, so it looks like my leathery, tasteless beans are going to go to waste. No worries. I had fun.
That evening, I hung out with one of our guides, Jun. He bought me a Chinese Chess set as a gift and taught me how to play. It’s actually somewhat different than traditional chess, and it’s really fun! Afterward, we went to dinner in a sketchy hole-in-the-wall restaurant that a lot of the students like. Yeah, it was sketchy and somewhat unsanitary. I don’t know if I’ll do that again, but the noodles were pretty good.
Today, seven or eight of us finally branched out a bit by going to the Hongshan Forest Zoo. To get there, we walked to the Metro and rode four stops. The single Metro line here was completed only a couple years ago and a second line is in progress. To enter the Metro, the rider purchased a plastic chip from an automated kiosk by selecting their destination stop and inserting the appropriate amount (either two or four Yuan ~ $0.25-$0.50). Then, the rider passed through the turnstiles by holding the (apparently) magnetic chip against a sensor. To exit the Metro, the rider would insert the chip into an electromagnetic slot. It was really cool.
The zoo itself had benefits and drawbacks. It was surprisingly big and there was plenty of shade and interesting terrain to climb. The animals were also quite cool: three pandas, some Bengal tigers, ostriches, emus, peacocks, elephants, and a variety of others too. Unfortunately, however, we all realized that these animals were not being kept in the best condition. Water areas were very unclean. Plastic litter was in some animals’ cages. Most disappointing, however, was that most of the animals were kept in very small areas. As an example, the tigers (separated from each other) were each limited to an area less than the size of a hotel room. The poor gray wolf lay in its cage with significant chunks of its hair falling out. Even the birds were limited in their range of flight. Perhaps this was done to ensure guests would get to see the animals, or maybe there just wasn’t enough money to make larger cages, but either way, these cramped conditions were no way to house animals.
In any event, we had a good time in spite of becoming slightly depressed. Riding the Metro and walking the streets were fun, and I’m excited to do this more over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, tomorrow, Monday, is the first day of class. Class starts at 8 am and lasts three to three and a half hours. In addition, we will also have a guest lecturer tomorrow afternoon- Mr. Xia Wei, Vice Director of the Jiangsu DOT Highway Bureau, will be talking about Highway Construction in Jiangsu Province. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
On a government front, it has been very interesting. The day after posting my last blog, blogger was censored! I clicked on my bookmark and a blank page comes up. No text. No explanation. Just the browser’s telltale statement, “Done.” Youtube is the same way. On that note, I will be posting here via my girlfriend, who has excitedly volunteered to login and post my stories on my behalf. Thanks Kalli!
The other wonderful government-related item of the past few days is that Jiangsu province has reported its first confirmed case of Swine Flu. In accordance with provincial decree, we – dirty Americans – are required to take our temperatures every day until Tuesday and inform them if anyone is over 37.5 degrees Celsius. Yesterday afternoon, I caught a cold (ugh!), but thankfully my temperature reads a cool 36.8, 0.2 below normal body temperature. Nasal decongestants are working wonders too!
So enough about that. Let’s talk Nanjing. Arriving in Nanjing Thursday afternoon, I was immediately struck by two things. First, the city is very green. No, I’m not talking about recycling or clean diesel buses, but rather the shear quantity of trees that line every street in the city. The trees appear to be in the maple family, have solid trunks, and branches that reach out at 90 degree angles at about 7 feet high. If you made a strong-man pose with your fists angled outward, you would get a good idea what these trees look like. It’s very pretty. The other thing that struck me was the quantity of smog. At no time since arriving on Thursday have I seen a blue sky. The sky has been cloudy most of the time, but even with today’s “sunny” weather, the sky is gray and visibility is limited to 5 miles or so. It’s not pretty. If it doesn’t clear up at all, I may need to start looking at pictures of blue skies and puffy white clouds so I don’t forget what they look like!
The people here are indeed very nice. Thursday we had dinner with our host and student guides and Friday, they showed us around campus. They even put up signs all over campus and in the hotel reading, “We welcome the faculty and students of NCSU for civil engineering study abroad.” The warm welcome was very nice and helped us to feel right at home.
Since our meals in Shanghai, the food has improved drastically (or maybe we’re becoming accustomed to it)! We have had a lot more dishes that Americans would think of as Chinese- chicken or beef with noodles, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, egg drop soup, etc. Friday, we were on our own for dinner (the welcome banquet was delayed as part of the swine flu regulations), so many of us walked around looking for food together. Sadly, most of the group needed a break from Chinese food and stopped at KFC. Six of us, however, stayed the course and ate next door at a Chinese chain restaurant. I had spicy noodles and they were exceedingly good. I will definitely be returning there!
On the topic of food, my eating schedule looks like this: Breakfasts are provided by the hotel – buffet style with hot juice, toast, dumplings, noodles, cooked vegetables, and other apparent leftovers. Lunches will be in the school cafeteria as long as we can stand it. Imagine the quality of cafeteria food in the US with the menu choices of China and you understand how bad that could turn out! Finally, dinners will be whatever is convenient when evening rolls around. I assume Chinese, but that may not last too long.
So far, we have not done too much in Nanjing. Friday was spent touring the main and new campus. On Saturday, we were given a really broad tour of the city by bus. We drove to a number of sites, but due to the rain, we chose to stay on the bus. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store. That was pretty exciting. I noticed more American brands such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy, and Coca Cola but there were plenty of unfamiliar products too. One could buy fresh squid and eel in addition to a myriad exotic fruits and packaged goods. Employees were all over the store giving out free samples and talking over PA systems to convince shoppers how excellent the products were. In a promotion area, they were featuring Oreo wafers. Adjacent to them were some snack-sized yellow, white, and tan pouches. All the writing was in Chinese, but I decided to be adventurous. Thus, I picked up a yellow pouch and went to pay for that, a Fanta, and some chocolate-filled Koalas (lol- very yummy!). Once back on the bus, I opened my yellow pouch to determine what was inside. To my surprise, I found it filled with green, flat, leathery seeds. I bit into one and it was immediately apparent that I could not chew through the skin, so I split it in half with my hands. I asked our guide what it was and she said (after looking in an English-Chinese dictionary) it was a bean. Upon asking if I had to cook them, she said, “Yes. Fried.” We all burst out laughing. Sadly, I have no access to a pan and oil, so it looks like my leathery, tasteless beans are going to go to waste. No worries. I had fun.
That evening, I hung out with one of our guides, Jun. He bought me a Chinese Chess set as a gift and taught me how to play. It’s actually somewhat different than traditional chess, and it’s really fun! Afterward, we went to dinner in a sketchy hole-in-the-wall restaurant that a lot of the students like. Yeah, it was sketchy and somewhat unsanitary. I don’t know if I’ll do that again, but the noodles were pretty good.
Today, seven or eight of us finally branched out a bit by going to the Hongshan Forest Zoo. To get there, we walked to the Metro and rode four stops. The single Metro line here was completed only a couple years ago and a second line is in progress. To enter the Metro, the rider purchased a plastic chip from an automated kiosk by selecting their destination stop and inserting the appropriate amount (either two or four Yuan ~ $0.25-$0.50). Then, the rider passed through the turnstiles by holding the (apparently) magnetic chip against a sensor. To exit the Metro, the rider would insert the chip into an electromagnetic slot. It was really cool.
The zoo itself had benefits and drawbacks. It was surprisingly big and there was plenty of shade and interesting terrain to climb. The animals were also quite cool: three pandas, some Bengal tigers, ostriches, emus, peacocks, elephants, and a variety of others too. Unfortunately, however, we all realized that these animals were not being kept in the best condition. Water areas were very unclean. Plastic litter was in some animals’ cages. Most disappointing, however, was that most of the animals were kept in very small areas. As an example, the tigers (separated from each other) were each limited to an area less than the size of a hotel room. The poor gray wolf lay in its cage with significant chunks of its hair falling out. Even the birds were limited in their range of flight. Perhaps this was done to ensure guests would get to see the animals, or maybe there just wasn’t enough money to make larger cages, but either way, these cramped conditions were no way to house animals.
In any event, we had a good time in spite of becoming slightly depressed. Riding the Metro and walking the streets were fun, and I’m excited to do this more over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, tomorrow, Monday, is the first day of class. Class starts at 8 am and lasts three to three and a half hours. In addition, we will also have a guest lecturer tomorrow afternoon- Mr. Xia Wei, Vice Director of the Jiangsu DOT Highway Bureau, will be talking about Highway Construction in Jiangsu Province. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Ni Hao!
As I write this, I am on a bus heading from Shanghai to Nanjing. The trip will take us 4 hours, so I figured I’d be productive by getting some writing in. So let me fill you in on the trip so far.
*dreamy flashback sequence*
It all began dark and early Monday morning when Kalli and Mrs. Hulse took me to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. I entered terminal 2 at about 4:45 am with a few mini-bagels in my pocket and two stuffed bags ready to embark. After checking in, I headed to the gate, where I began to meet my fellow travelers. A couple of us played cards and I thought about how crazy it was that I was going to China! By 6 am, we boarded our flight to Chicago, and we were off. I was out like a light.
In Chicago, we had an awesome 3 hour layover (sarcasm intended). We sat around over breakfast and talked about assorted stuff. More cards. More anticipation. Finally, at 11:30 central time, we took off from Chicago on a Boeing 747-400. The pilot announced that we would be taking a polar route- 300 miles from the North Pole, down through Russia and Mongolia, then finally through China to Shanghai. Unfortunately, our group was scattered around the plane, so I did not really talk to anyone the entire trip. Instead, I took a Tylenol pm and was out for the count. 6 hours later, I finally came around, but we were only half way there! 13 hours and a half was a REALLY long time to be on the plane, but frequent snoozing helped pass the time.
So finally (after another couple hours of napping), we landed at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport! Even though the sun had never set, the local time was 1:30 pm Tuesday. Pulling into the gate, the pilot announced that quarantine officials had to take care of some business before we could disembark. Soon, men in Tyvek suits, goggles, and facemasks boarded the plane with their handheld laser thermal imaging units. They approached every person, pointed the handheld at their forehead, and took a reading. Thankfully everyone in our group passed the thermal reading even though one person was held because he checked “cough” on a swine flu symptoms form… he was soon released.
After clearing customs, we met our tour guide, loaded onto a bus, and headed into the city. The weather was in the low 60s, and even with the heavy smog, it was still cloudy and threatening rain. We went to dinner in an ornately decorated boat on the Huangpu River.
I suppose I will interrupt my story here to talk about food. Our four major meals in Shanghai were all really similar. We would arrive and sit down at two family style tables. In the center of each table was a large, circular, glass turntable. From out of nowhere, waiters and waitresses would bring all manner of plates and dishes of a wide variety of food. Vegetables, fish, chicken, bean curd (tofu), soup… and mystery substances. I suppose about one-third of the food I have consumed I haven’t been able to identify conclusively. Most of the food has tasted good, but there have definitely been dishes difficult to stomach too. Thankfully, since each meal has been family-style (lots of dishes spread around), I have probably already consumed over 50 different dishes. A lot of it has been fried, a few things served with head attached (fish, chicken), and there has been plenty of rice, eggs, and dumplings as well. So, because there has been sooo much food already, it will be difficult for me to identify particular items. As the trip continues, however, I will “identify” and describe a few specific foods that I really appreciate… or not.
And now, we return to our intrepid traveler… After dinner, we headed to a river boat cruise. Shanghai- a gray and seemingly drab city – came to life at sunset. All the sky scrapers had elaborate neon lights and I felt that we were taking a cruise around Manhattan! It was really a spectacular 30 minute ride, except we were all extremely jet-lagged. Thankfully, my pictures have and will continue to remind me of our boat around Shanghai. Finally, we took the bus to the Shanghai Swan Hotel. It was 9 pm (9 am EDT), but it felt like 4 am. I was soon asleep.
Yesterday, my roommate Kevin and I found ourselves wide awake at 5 am, ready to start the day. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and meandered around until meeting the group at 8:30. To begin, we went to the Shanghai Museum. This museum featured paintings, calligraphy, jade sculptures, ceramics, and currency from the area’s history. I was particularly fond of the calligraphy, which was extremely artistic. Too bad I can’t read any of it!
After the museum, we visited Shanghai’s Pudong TV and Radio Tower. The tower resembles a spaceship with a tripod base and a pair of giant purple spheres. The tower is comparable to the CN tower in many ways: similar height, awesome glass floor, lots of tourists. It was awesome. I realized I’m doing pretty well on towers. I’ve been up the Seattle Space Needle, CN tower, Washington Monument, Eiffel Tower, and now the Pudong TV tower.
Following the tower, we grabbed lunch and went to some ancient gardens and a market. The gardens were peaceful, but we somewhat rushed through them. In the adjacent market, we quickly learned that Shanghai is known for peddlers selling fake Rolexes and other cheap goods. They were everywhere… and I guess we kind of stuck out in a crowd of Asians. I saw a couple things I really wanted, but since bartering was the name of the game and lunch was starting to hit me pretty hard, I passed up on shopping. I hope I didn’t miss my best shopping opportunity for the trip! *sigh*
From the market, we went to dinner, where I poked around at some food and wasn’t feeling too adventurous. Finally, we ended the day by going to see an acrobat show – Cirque du Soleil style. It was amazing! Nonetheless, I was exhausted so our return to the hotel brought some much-needed relaxation.
This morning, we checked out of the Swan Hotel and went for some shopping on Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road reminded me a lot of the shopping street in Vienna. There were many big fashion stores, surrounded by a variety of food places. It was amazing to see how open the economic situation is. Companies such as Lacoste, Wrangler, Nike, Apple, Rolex, Brooks Brothers, Starbucks, KFC, Hagen Dazs, Sony, McDonalds, and others were well represented there and around the city. In fact, I haven’t seen very much evidence at all of the communist government that supposedly limits political and social freedoms. It will be interesting to see how Nanjing compares to Shanghai in this regard.
After spending time on Nanjing Road, we visited Shanghai’s Jade Buddha Temple. The temple was remarkably peaceful and quiet, so I enjoyed having the opportunity to look around. That said, I felt strange looking around and taking pictures of the temple, especially because it was being used by worshippers. Just like the churches in Europe, I wish photography and visitations were limited or prohibited, because tourism just doesn’t belong in a place of worship. But that’s their choice.
*end dreamy flashback sequence* So after lunch, we boarded the bus and hit the road. By the look of things, this part of the country is an unending terrain of concrete houses and distant high rise buildings. It seems to be mostly flat, but mountains in the distance promise some interesting terrain.
Well, we just pulled off to a service area, so I’m going to go get some water and maybe a snack. Next time I write, I’ll be in Nanjing! Talk to you again soon!
As I write this, I am on a bus heading from Shanghai to Nanjing. The trip will take us 4 hours, so I figured I’d be productive by getting some writing in. So let me fill you in on the trip so far.
*dreamy flashback sequence*
It all began dark and early Monday morning when Kalli and Mrs. Hulse took me to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. I entered terminal 2 at about 4:45 am with a few mini-bagels in my pocket and two stuffed bags ready to embark. After checking in, I headed to the gate, where I began to meet my fellow travelers. A couple of us played cards and I thought about how crazy it was that I was going to China! By 6 am, we boarded our flight to Chicago, and we were off. I was out like a light.
In Chicago, we had an awesome 3 hour layover (sarcasm intended). We sat around over breakfast and talked about assorted stuff. More cards. More anticipation. Finally, at 11:30 central time, we took off from Chicago on a Boeing 747-400. The pilot announced that we would be taking a polar route- 300 miles from the North Pole, down through Russia and Mongolia, then finally through China to Shanghai. Unfortunately, our group was scattered around the plane, so I did not really talk to anyone the entire trip. Instead, I took a Tylenol pm and was out for the count. 6 hours later, I finally came around, but we were only half way there! 13 hours and a half was a REALLY long time to be on the plane, but frequent snoozing helped pass the time.
So finally (after another couple hours of napping), we landed at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport! Even though the sun had never set, the local time was 1:30 pm Tuesday. Pulling into the gate, the pilot announced that quarantine officials had to take care of some business before we could disembark. Soon, men in Tyvek suits, goggles, and facemasks boarded the plane with their handheld laser thermal imaging units. They approached every person, pointed the handheld at their forehead, and took a reading. Thankfully everyone in our group passed the thermal reading even though one person was held because he checked “cough” on a swine flu symptoms form… he was soon released.
After clearing customs, we met our tour guide, loaded onto a bus, and headed into the city. The weather was in the low 60s, and even with the heavy smog, it was still cloudy and threatening rain. We went to dinner in an ornately decorated boat on the Huangpu River.
I suppose I will interrupt my story here to talk about food. Our four major meals in Shanghai were all really similar. We would arrive and sit down at two family style tables. In the center of each table was a large, circular, glass turntable. From out of nowhere, waiters and waitresses would bring all manner of plates and dishes of a wide variety of food. Vegetables, fish, chicken, bean curd (tofu), soup… and mystery substances. I suppose about one-third of the food I have consumed I haven’t been able to identify conclusively. Most of the food has tasted good, but there have definitely been dishes difficult to stomach too. Thankfully, since each meal has been family-style (lots of dishes spread around), I have probably already consumed over 50 different dishes. A lot of it has been fried, a few things served with head attached (fish, chicken), and there has been plenty of rice, eggs, and dumplings as well. So, because there has been sooo much food already, it will be difficult for me to identify particular items. As the trip continues, however, I will “identify” and describe a few specific foods that I really appreciate… or not.
And now, we return to our intrepid traveler… After dinner, we headed to a river boat cruise. Shanghai- a gray and seemingly drab city – came to life at sunset. All the sky scrapers had elaborate neon lights and I felt that we were taking a cruise around Manhattan! It was really a spectacular 30 minute ride, except we were all extremely jet-lagged. Thankfully, my pictures have and will continue to remind me of our boat around Shanghai. Finally, we took the bus to the Shanghai Swan Hotel. It was 9 pm (9 am EDT), but it felt like 4 am. I was soon asleep.
Yesterday, my roommate Kevin and I found ourselves wide awake at 5 am, ready to start the day. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and meandered around until meeting the group at 8:30. To begin, we went to the Shanghai Museum. This museum featured paintings, calligraphy, jade sculptures, ceramics, and currency from the area’s history. I was particularly fond of the calligraphy, which was extremely artistic. Too bad I can’t read any of it!
After the museum, we visited Shanghai’s Pudong TV and Radio Tower. The tower resembles a spaceship with a tripod base and a pair of giant purple spheres. The tower is comparable to the CN tower in many ways: similar height, awesome glass floor, lots of tourists. It was awesome. I realized I’m doing pretty well on towers. I’ve been up the Seattle Space Needle, CN tower, Washington Monument, Eiffel Tower, and now the Pudong TV tower.
Following the tower, we grabbed lunch and went to some ancient gardens and a market. The gardens were peaceful, but we somewhat rushed through them. In the adjacent market, we quickly learned that Shanghai is known for peddlers selling fake Rolexes and other cheap goods. They were everywhere… and I guess we kind of stuck out in a crowd of Asians. I saw a couple things I really wanted, but since bartering was the name of the game and lunch was starting to hit me pretty hard, I passed up on shopping. I hope I didn’t miss my best shopping opportunity for the trip! *sigh*
From the market, we went to dinner, where I poked around at some food and wasn’t feeling too adventurous. Finally, we ended the day by going to see an acrobat show – Cirque du Soleil style. It was amazing! Nonetheless, I was exhausted so our return to the hotel brought some much-needed relaxation.
This morning, we checked out of the Swan Hotel and went for some shopping on Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road reminded me a lot of the shopping street in Vienna. There were many big fashion stores, surrounded by a variety of food places. It was amazing to see how open the economic situation is. Companies such as Lacoste, Wrangler, Nike, Apple, Rolex, Brooks Brothers, Starbucks, KFC, Hagen Dazs, Sony, McDonalds, and others were well represented there and around the city. In fact, I haven’t seen very much evidence at all of the communist government that supposedly limits political and social freedoms. It will be interesting to see how Nanjing compares to Shanghai in this regard.
After spending time on Nanjing Road, we visited Shanghai’s Jade Buddha Temple. The temple was remarkably peaceful and quiet, so I enjoyed having the opportunity to look around. That said, I felt strange looking around and taking pictures of the temple, especially because it was being used by worshippers. Just like the churches in Europe, I wish photography and visitations were limited or prohibited, because tourism just doesn’t belong in a place of worship. But that’s their choice.
*end dreamy flashback sequence* So after lunch, we boarded the bus and hit the road. By the look of things, this part of the country is an unending terrain of concrete houses and distant high rise buildings. It seems to be mostly flat, but mountains in the distance promise some interesting terrain.
Well, we just pulled off to a service area, so I’m going to go get some water and maybe a snack. Next time I write, I’ll be in Nanjing! Talk to you again soon!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Preparations for China
6 days and counting!
Here are a couple business items:
-Due to the fact that we're beginning our trip with a tour of Shanghai, my first post will probably be Thursday 24 or Friday 25 from Nanjing (minus 12 hours, eastern time). If I happen to have internet in Shanghai, what a pleasant surprise that will be for everyone!
-China has internet censorship. Therefore, I may not be able to use blogger.com for my posts. In that event, I will be posting on an NC State blog that I have set up at the following address:
http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/wheresdannow
If both of those fail, I will post updates on facebook and send updates through personal contacts.
Now for packing...
Here are a couple business items:
-Due to the fact that we're beginning our trip with a tour of Shanghai, my first post will probably be Thursday 24 or Friday 25 from Nanjing (minus 12 hours, eastern time). If I happen to have internet in Shanghai, what a pleasant surprise that will be for everyone!
-China has internet censorship. Therefore, I may not be able to use blogger.com for my posts. In that event, I will be posting on an NC State blog that I have set up at the following address:
http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/wheresdannow
If both of those fail, I will post updates on facebook and send updates through personal contacts.
Now for packing...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)