China

Hi all, I’m way behind in my blogging- I think I left off early on in Vietnam, but I’m going to jump ahead to China! We docked in Hong Kong on April 3rd. a small group of us went out to explore the city. (I’d already been there a few years earlier to visit my friend Miho from SD). Miho actually met up with us in the afternoon so we had a tour guide to show us around. We walked around Times Square, went to Repulse Bay Beach, took a double-decker bus, and ended up back on the Kowloon side (where the ship was docked) for dinner and light-show viewing. Mason has a friend in HK too, Shobo, and she was so cute and treated us all to dinner. Then we all went out to the Lang Kwai Fong (?) district to experience the nightlife. The entire area was totally overrun with SASers but it was lots of fun.
The next morning my Beijing University trip to Tsinghua departed at 11am. Mason and I were on the same trip, which was probably the only reason we both survived it. We were able to entertain ourselves from certain death by boredom in the following ways: 1. Asian pictures. 2. Bucket-O-Noodles 3. Ass-less pants. I will explain. 1. You know how all Asians (I don’t want to generalize) put up their hands and make the peace-sign in all their pictures? Well- when you visit Asia you must do this also. Mason and I took every picture of each other, us together, and with random Chinese people and insisted upon the use of the peace sign. Regarding photos with random Chinese: various families would come up to us and ask us to be in what seemed to be their Christmas card photo with them. We accepted. 2. In the US we have this lunch item called Cup-O-Noodles (which I find disgusting). In China they have this as well, except its 5x larger, thus we titled it Bucket-O-Noodles. They sell this large meal in convenience stores and at most tourist destinations. At the Summer Palace Mason and I creepily took photos of the Chinese slurping their ginormous noodles- very entertaining. 3. Best of all: The assless pants. (or ass-less chaps as we like to call them). While trudging through the Forbidden City I noticed a child sitting on a fence and there was skin showing through his pants. I ushered Mason over and we giggled and thought the kid ripped his pants. Then- we noticed every toddler had this problem! They wear pants with big slits cut out of the crotch; their version of pull-ups or something- except opposite. We eagerly asked one of our University student guides about this and she said she used to wear them too and apparently it’s easier for the kids to “potty train” because they don’t have to pull their pants up and down. We’re still confused about whether this means they can control their bodily functions at this age or...not. Needless to say ass-less pant sightings and picture-taking made for hours of entertainment.
I’m glad we choose to use diapers in the Western world.
I do have one major regret in China: I didn’t buy and wear a face mask. I wish I had one to wear in every Asian picture. Bejing was constantly overcast- we were told later that 80% of the grey sky was smog, 20% fog. Everyone wears masks in Beijing to protect their lungs (supposedly breathing the air there is like smoking 8 packs a day.) Yep- big regret.
Some other adventures in China: As part of our university stay they offered Tai Chi classes at 7am each morning. We begrudgingly got up the first morning to check it out. It was freezing and we couldn’t stop laughing so we decided to sleep in the next 2 days. We spent one evening at the Silk Market in downtown Beijing. Basically it’s a big 4-story building with aisles and aisles of booths manned by extremely pushy salespeople. They sell North Face jackets, designer jeans, dresses, shoes, polos, t-shirts, and lots lots more for really cheap! But you have to bargain! This was the most thrilling experience of all. We did one walk-through of the shops then stopped at am ATM (where I accidentally got out $4,000 yuan instead of $400. Equivalent to almost $600- oops.) We found some really cute dresses (the labels say Chole and Marc Jacobs but I’m pretty sure they’re not real). The woman was asking for about $2,000 yuan. We countered by saying she already offered one of them to us for $100 yuan (we did stop by there earlier but I don’t think she actually said $100.) She was flabbergasted of course and we went on debating for a good 10 minutes- finally we got our two dresses and a coat for Mason for $200 yuan each ($14 US). We were thanking her and she told us in defeat, “you are very good bargainer.” This happened to us lots- some women would be so dejected after giving in to our low price and then pop back and say- “you are very clever!” Needless to say this was an extremely exhausting process but very fun! Some women on the other hand would get furious and when we named a ridiculously low price they would say, “are you joking?” “No! Be serious with me!” Like I said- so much fun.
Bejing is furiously preparing for the Olympics. They have built numerous new buildings and stadiums and infrastructure. Who knows what they’ll do with it all in a few months. Of course it’s a huge source of conflict for many (for me anyway) to decided whether or not to support to Olympics in light of the Tibetan issue going on right now and the numerous human rights violations that China is guilty of. China executes 3 times more citizens in one month than the rest of the world combined does in three years. And they execute for such crimes as: stealing a stick of gum, tax evasion, or killing a panda (and many many more). They are increasing patrols in their lethal injection vans to get rid of any undesirable people so as to cleanse the city for the Olympics.
I know of a few athletes (distance runners mostly) who have dropped out of the Olympics because of the pollution.
Our last day in China was spent in Shanghai. It was a miserable day though; rainy, windy and cold, so Mason and I trudged to the nearest grocery store to stock up on chocolate for the Pacific crossing (they had Dove!) and then to the Post office, and then back to the ship. The whole outing took about 30 minutes. (I’ve already been to Shanghai so I don’t feel too guilty.)