HONG KONG

I feel bad for mainland China. The fact that the mainland is compared to Hong Kong is really sad. Hong Kong surpassed everything the mainland had to offer by at least a thousand. For that matter it is economically, industrially, sanitarily, everythingly better and stronger. Though China has clearly emerged as world power and is industrializing at an insane rate, no matter what the mainland does to catch up, their best city will always have been developed by the West in the form of the British. This is clearly a biased stance but a very honest opinion. Hong Kong felt like home, for good reason, but it was just nicer than anything on the mainland. If I could live anywhere in China, I would hands down choose to live in Hong Kong.

Unfortunately by the time we arrived in Hong Kong it was 2 PM the day before we were supposed to leave. We had taken a 5:45 AM flight from Beijing that morning and I was exhausted. On top if it there was little incentive for me to leave the ship area because the ship was literally five steps away from an enormous shopping center with, drum roll please… free internet and bigger drum roll please… CPK! I was in heaven. There were stores from home, food from home, free internet, and western toilets. I had CPK for lunch and went on the computer trying to upload pictures to Facebook until my computer died. Unfortunately all my pictures were unable to load and are disorganized. Facebook stalkers- you are just going to have to deal with the chaos and not chronological pictures. Lunch and internet was quickly followed by a very long nap.

Ivy’s parents were in town (they are going to be with us in Vietnam and Cambodia as well) and took us out to dinner. We all automatically agreed on eating American food and went to this restaurant called Dan Ryan’s which oddly enough is based on a Chicago politician but has no chain in America but does in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. I had maybe the best cheeseburger of my life and could not have been more satisfied.

That night was the most amazing night out I have had since embarkation in January. After dinner we took the Star Ferry across the harbor to the main island of Hong Kong. We went to this main area that reminded me of New Orleans. Lots of bars and clubs with hundreds of people in the middle of the streets. It was like a giant Semester at Sea block party. It was just a solid solid night of bar hopping and socializing. We made it back to the ship by 2:30 AM and I was ready to finally sleep.

The next morning I attempted to venture into Hong Kong Island to explore it a little. However I am not sure if I mentioned this previously but I got a cold the last day in Beijing and was feeling very under the weather. This cut my Hong Kong exploration short and Jill went back to the ship with me. After napping for about an hour we met at CPK again and did a quick visit to H & M. As Sussman repeated for the majority of December, I got a shirt that would “be good for South Africa.” We unfortunately had to board the ship to refrain from receiving dock time.

It’s weird that I was only actually in Hong Kong for the night I went out but I still loved it. I definitely need to go back. In Japan it was Kyoto and in China it is Hong Kong. There simply was not enough time for me to experience Hong Kong in a mere twenty hours. It never crossed my mind until dinner in Hong Kong the night before I left to purchase a Hong Kong Flag. Due to my illness the following day I was unable to purchase said flag. So if anyone is going to Hong Kong any time soon- hint hint Mommy and Daddy, a 12 by 18 inch Hong Kong Flag would be much appreciated. Anyway this concludes my brief report about Hong Kong but my very long report of China. Two more classes to endure and then Vietnam and Cambodia in approximately 35 hours!

Oh and if someone knows any info about the NCAA investigation with Michigan football please keep me posted. I’m praying that they don’t end up forfeiting my senior year football season like USC is doing in basketball right now. Go Blue!

BEIJING

Apart from flying to Beijing and having lunch with the group, the rest of the first day in Beijing was “at our leisure.” I had the privilege of hanging out with my friend Sara Safan who is studying abroad there this semester. Sara only got to Beijing two days before we arrived and I am so happy that she agreed to meet me at my hotel and get lost together. She brought three more friends that were on her program and all of us decided to go walk somewhere. A big thing that I wanted to do in Beijing was go to the Pearl Market. The Pearl Market is home to four floors of cheap everything. The first floor was for electronics, the second contained clothes and accessories, and the top two floors were dedicated to the pearls. Since this was the only day that was not insanely packed, that afternoon was dedicated to going to the Pearl Market. The plan was to go to the market however our tour guide informed us that it closed early because of the New Year. Slightly depressed about not being able to go to the market, Sara and our small group decided to walk to the Temple of Heaven. Lo and behold along our walk we stumbled upon an OPEN Pearl Market. Needless to say we went in and I got everything I wanted- my panda hat, lanterns, fake marc Jacobs bags, etc. Jenny obviously went insane and purchased everything inside the store. After the nice surprise of going to the Pearl Market we continued to walk towards the Temple of Heaven but by the time we reached it, it was just closing. Regardless it was a great afternoon and it was nice hanging out with a friend from home. Thanks, Sar!

That night we hit up pizza hut for a non-Chinese meal. For the record Pizza Huts abroad are sit down restaurants. I ordered a cheese pizza and asked for the non-spicy version of the tomato sauce and was obviously brought plain cheesy bread. Anyway despite these American Food issues we proceeded to go out that night. The problem with not speaking English and going in multiple cabs is that the cab driver has an underrated amount of power. That being said out of the four cabs, two made it to the right location. One ended up at a club a ten minute walk away from bar street and our cab ended up at a random bar on bar street. I along with Ivy and two boys ended up at a random Japanese live Karaoke show bar. Luckily we figured out that everyone else was on the same block at another bar. The second bar was packed with SASers and a lot of fun- apparently Chinese like hookah too. We decided to meet up with the fourth lost cab that we left with initially and made our way to Club Mix. I however passed on that opportunity and tiredly cabbed it home with Jenny. It’s a good thing we did…

The next morning was the start of another very fun but very long day in Beijing. The morning consisted of touring Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Square was HUGE and I took some cool pics with Mao creatively placed in the background. Though Tiananmen was huge the Forbidden City was even bigger. The problem with being in an organized tour with 97 other people is that you are part of a group. It took us years to get through the whole thing. We kept passing through gates to more courtyards only to go through more gates and more courtyards. It was really cool and the architecture was gorgeous and awesome but in reality the half hour spent in each courtyard was unnecessary. My thoughts: if you are in Beijing you have to go to the Forbidden City but you do not have to spend absurd amounts of time in every courtyard that looks almost identical to the previous one. A cool fact about the Forbidden City that caught my attention was that it was built 70 years before Columbus discovered America.

Post the three hour tour of Tiananmen and the Forbidden City we went on three-wheeled rickshaw rides to a residential old-Beijing area to have lunch at middle-class families’ homes. Our large group was obviously divided among several families. The rickshaw ride was so much fun. Jill and I kept trying to convince our driver to “race” in Chinese which he did. It reminded me of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland. After walking down some alleys after being dropped off by the rickshaw driver we made it to the family’s home. Some cool things about the house: there was a rabbit in the bathroom, crickets that were caught for good luck in the dining/main room, and lots of food. This was the first time since being in China that I LOVED everything I ate and felt completely full after my meal. After we finished eating we were taught how to make dumplings and had a dumpling making competition. I will not be entering the dumpling making business and seeing as how I could not really use chopsticks to get the food into the dumpling dough I opted out of the competition. One day I will reenter it and be victorious.

By this time in the day we were all exhausted. For me though, the coolest part of the day was upon us. We went to the 2008 Summer Olympic Village which was amazing. I could not have been more thrilled or excited the entire time. Seeing the Bird’s Nest, for that matter going inside the stadium and sitting in the chairs was indescribable. It looked cool when I was at home in LA watching the games but trust me, it is way cooler in person. The interior of the stadium was turned into a type of winter-wonderland with real snow imported for sledding and different booths of games for children and families. The one unlucky thing about the Olympic Village is that the Bubble Aquatics Center is being remodeled and thus touring was unavailable. I would have obviously loved and died to see where Michael Phelps pulled it all off. At least I got the Aquatics Center in the background of some pictures… Apart from all the typical touristy things to do in Beijing- Great Wall, Tiananmen, Forbidden City, this was something that I really wanted to do and did not feel that I had to just because we were in China. I’m glad to report that it was awesome.

The tour proceeded to take us to a Silk Market. Note: this place was like being in a live infomercial. For a hot ten minutes we saw some cocoons and how the silk was produced and stretched. This demonstration quickly turned into the Silk workers telling us how much the silk duvets cost and how amazing they were. We were then able to shop around the silk market which turned out to be a disaster. Since our tour guide mistakenly told us the Pearl Market was closed the previous day the overwhelming majority of students missed out on the opportunity to buy countless knockoff, souvenir items. On top of it no one wanted to be in the silk market where duvets were being sold. Anarchy in the Silk Market soon commenced and the students won. We quickly left the silk market and had the option of being dropped off at the Pearl Market or going back to the hotel before dinner. Since I went the previous day and was exhausted I went back with a small minority to nap at the hotel.

After being in better moods and higher spirits as a result of alleviating a certain shopping desire or in my case a much needed nap, we all went out for a Peking Duck dinner. The only thing worth mentioning about this dinner was that midway through soup and some preliminary appetizers music started blaring and the duck carving chefs came out with their knives and started slicing away pieces of duck meat for us. I thought it was pretty comical and caught it on video. I would post all my videos but since I am paying for internet in terms of both time and data used a video would be too costly to upload. This blog is slowly becoming the most expensive blog in the world- at least I know my parents approve because they keep telling me to post. Moving on from my monetary online-ship expenses, I was too tired to go out that night and ended up chilling in a room with Rachel and Chelsea which led to us getting late night dessert. They were on a different SAS Beijing trip which overlapped with ours for two days.

What could there possibly be left to do in Beijing or mainland China? If the answer is not obvious I would recommend reading up on a certain 5,500 mile long wall built during the Ming Dynasty. The day of all days was upon us. We were finally going to visit the Great Wall of China. Might I add that Rachel went to the wall the day before and reported being flooded with emotion and shedding a few tears in honor of mankind in general. However this moment would not come for several hours. We first went to visit a traditional Kung Fu school. The students at the school ranged in ages from 16-22 and performed different Kung Fu sequences- sword, stick, body, and followed those by breaking various objects with various body parts. The scariest was a kid who had a spear placed at his Adam’s Apple and then walked forward with enough force to break the actual stick part of the spear. The whole time I thought I was going to witness a death. Once again this is all filmed on videos- videos that you probably will never see. We were then taught some Kung Fu moves and I must say that Ivy may or may not have been a Kung Fu master in her previous life. This proceeded to me dressing up as the butt part of the typical Chinese dragon costume and running around with Ivy who was the head and body part. That was a workout.

After this fun and slight detour we were on our way to lunch and the GWOC! Lunch was more of the same- lazy Susan, not being totally full after, and floor pothole toilets. It was then time for the Great Wall. This was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. We passed through shop upon shop of Great Wall and China souvenirs on the way to the gondolas. Ivy, Jill, Brooke, Jenny, and I somehow maneuvered to be in the first Gondola up to the top of the Great Wall. Once we were up there were in constant shock and awe. The “oh my god we’re on the great wall of China” feeling did not diminish at all. I of course felt obligated to the country of China to experience the Great Wall in my Panda hat. Two things about the panda hat: one, I am definitely going to be a panda for one night of Halloween next year and two, if you ever need to find obnoxious Americans in China look for a panda hat. Anyway the Panda hat is my new favorite hat and accessory. Pictures were taken, walls were rock-graffitied, and towers were climbed. I had been preparing for this day to be very cold and windy and I could not have been more wrong. We got extremely lucky and experienced fifty degrees sunny weather on the Great Wall in the middle of February. I’m telling you, my panda hat brought us good luck.

We were on the Mutianyu section of the wall and had the option of tobogganing down it. I could not have been more excited. Not only did I climb the Great Wall, I TOBOGGANED DOWN IT! I actually went pretty fast on it because I controlled my own speed- I regret not breaking the rules and videotaping the descent. Once we got to the bottom of the hill we were still in that shock of “oh my god we climbed and tobogganed down the great wall.” We proceeded to go to a coffee shop and buy souvenirs from the vendors. I got some postcards, a Buddha, two t-shirts (one of which is legit meant for a toddler, so if anyone knows of a baby that wants a great wall shirt let me know), a Japanese wall painting thing and a magnet. I still can’t get over the fact that I was on the Great Wall. Wow. I’m pretty sure this was the moment in the trip where I bbmed Jackie and informed her that she is going on the SAS Spring 2014 voyage whether she likes it or not.

To add to this already amazing day we had another typical Chinese dinner and went to an Acrobatics show that was amazing. Seeing fourteen girls all on one bicycle or a man stay on the outside of a rotating hamster cage type thing blindfolded was insane. Cirque de Soleil had a run for its money. One thing I definitely noticed was that there were some girls in the show who were said to be sixteen years old but were definitely way younger. Repeat of the 2008 Chinese Olympic Gymnastics team anyone? Regardless they were all very talented, potentially underage (maybe not for this performance but I’m still holding the Olympic grudge), but talented. It was about 12:30 before I got into bed to go to sleep and would be receiving a wakeup call at 3:45 to make it to our 5:30 AM flight to Hong Kong. Peace out Beijing.

XIAN

There were 98 people on the Xian/Beijing trip that consisted of a total of five nights and six days. I was on Bus B which really should have been called Bus A because our bus had the head tour guide and was the first to do anything and everything. We left Shanghai at 10:50 AM and I slept for the flight’s entirety. Compared to the intense city of Shanghai, Xian was much quieter and smaller. The airport was amongst agricultural fields and factories and about thirty minutes away from the actual city.

Before going to the hotel (it is a requirement that all hotels SAS use receive at least a four star ranking) we went to an art museum. Apart from seeing different Chinese art and styles we were taught calligraphy and got to practice it ourselves. Calligraphy apparently reflects the artist’s identity and personality. The characters are supposed to be delicate and created with extreme care. My characters reflected anything but delicacy. They were big and comprised from a lot of ink- if anyone wants to interpret my identity and personality from big, wide calligraphy strokes, let me know what you come up with. The one cool thing is that I got to keep my personal “I love you” calligraphy paper.

SAS divides up the rooms alphabetically but you are allowed to switch around rooms if you want. Jill and I made some switches so that we could room together. After having approximately twenty minutes to put down our stuff we were back on the buses heading for dinner at this famous dumpling restaurant. The restaurant was in the main heart of the city and by the Xian city wall. Everything was decorated and lit up for the Chinese New Year. People on the streets were setting off fireworks and illegal fire lanterns- I’m bringing one back to the US if anyone wants to set it off with me on the fourth of July. The dumpling factory consisted of bringing us any and every type of dumpling- chicken, spicy chicken, mushroom, veggie, pork, duck, walnut and then the seafood ones… I reported my eating success immediately to Jackie who was very happy to hear about it but kept urging me to try fish. One step at a time Jack, one step at a time.

After dinner we had the option of going back to the hotel on the buses or staying around the Xian city wall area and making our own way back. I was obviously asleep within the next forty minutes. A quick note about the hotel breakfast: they had both American and Chinese breakfast foods (French toast and noodles/dumplings) but more importantly they had those fried onion pancake things that are my favorite appetizer at the Xian restaurant in Beverly Hills. Needless to say I consumed a lot of them. We were on the bus by 8:00 and about to experience the most intensely packed day ever.

Stop 1: Xian City Wall

The city wall was cool because we were able to explore it on our own as opposed to solely trailing Jerry and Tony (our tour guides). We climbed up the wall, went into the watch towers, and I got to hit the huge gong to aware the Xian residents that invaders were coming. Chinese New Year is shortly followed by the Lantern Festival which is kind of like the Rose Parade in terms of lots of floats but instead there are lanterns. The Xian City wall had a lot of these lanterns which made the place very colorful and playful. The lanterns could be anything from flowers to tigers to mere decoration.

Stop 2: Muslim Mosque and Old Bazaar

We visited a Muslim mosque that was very close to the Xian city wall. In order to get to the mosque you have to pass through a bazaar that was like a mini version of the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem. Lots of street shops with lots of bargaining. It was pretty cold in Xian and since I lost one of my North Face gloves in Shanghai (that I would receive later on the boat’s lost and found :D), I bought a faux-north face pair at the bazaar for 30 Yuan or about $4. A lot of the shops were still closed up because of the New Year. The mosque itself was kind of small and consisted of one main temple and a large courtyard that was filled with praying Chinese Muslims. After the mosque we had about 20 minutes to explore the Bazaar more before going to the bus. My time was spent hastily purchasing a number four (chicken nuggets, medium fries, and coke) at McDonalds. You can never pass up McDonalds if you are unsure what the preordered Chinese lunch menu will consist of. This would be the first of about five McDonalds visits over the course of being in China.

Stop 3: Lunch

Lunch was good but more of the same. For that matter EVERY meal we would eat as part of the tour consisted of the same type of food- rice, noodle dish, different meats, soups, etc. Almost every restaurant had a lazy Susan table structure which is kind of annoying- by the time I received my picky eater chicken dish it had already gone passed everyone else at the table. That being said though I tried almost everything and liked a lot of it, I was never fully filled. Everyone always left meals still partially hungry. Snacks throughout the day were necessary. Oh, I also purchased my Chinese flag here!

Stop 4: Terra Cotta Warrior Exhibit

Apparently considered to be the eighth wonder of the world and one of the two things you have to see if you are in china (the other obviously being the great wall). The Terra Cotta Warriors were built during the first Qin Emperor’s reign and consisted of life size soldiers, horses, and chariots. Each statue is different than the next. Thus far three pits have been found that have the statues and estimates say that there are over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, 520 horses, and 120 cavalry horses (thank you Wikipedia).

Jill and I strayed from the group; we were tired of following a large group around, and went through the pits and artifacts museum on our own. The soldiers were very cool- bigger than me and very real looking. The first pit was the biggest and had rows upon rows of statues that filled a football field sized room. Lots of pictures, in fact too many pictures, were taken. Pits two and three were much smaller, newly excavated, and had fewer statues. Additionally there was a museum that discussed the Terra Cotta history and displayed different artifacts that were used to build the soldiers and up close statues. We had over two hours at the museum and Jill and I were done with all three pits and the museum in about half the time.

One thing that I have yet to discuss is bathroom issues in China. I have learned how to properly squat and pee in a pothole that is literally on the ground. If we found a “western” style toilet it was a big deal. In addition unless you want to drip dry (which is gross) make sure you carry around tissue/toilet paper. Toilet paper is a rare commodity in public Chinese restrooms. Apart from my own toilet difficulties the Chinese children had a very interesting form of relieving themselves. Little kids in China, mostly 2-5 year olds, have slits in the back of their pants legs. Note that diapers are only worn in winter because they are too costly to purchase year round. That being said I witnessed many little kids popping squats ALL OVER China, including the museum’s grass exterior courtyard, and peeing left and right. Like I said, sanitary issues are viewed differently than at home. I may or may not have taken a picture of a kid dressed up in a tiger suit, mid-pee…

The Terra Cotta Warriors are definitely worth seeing because of what they are and their history however one must take into account that you are going to a museum. I’m not sure what I was expecting, possibly a more up close interaction with the statues, but I was not expecting a museum type exhibit. I wish I spent more time really looking at the warriors but at the time I rushed through the museum because my mentality was that seeing ten rows of statues was the same as seeing two hundred…which is kind of valid.

Stop 5: Xian Orphanage

This was the highlight of my trip to Xian and possibly China overall. We visited an orphanage that was home to I think around 120 orphans, and located in the rural countryside of Xian. I had never been to an orphanage before (which I think is strange) and was really excited to interact with the children. This orphanage was not necessarily for full-out orphans (though many were) but was actually for children whose parents were criminals and in jail for very serious crimes. Essentially they are orphans because their parents are locked up, which is horrible. We were taken on a tour of some of the rooms where the kids sleep- think Madeline but with smaller cots and rooms.

We were being taken to some other area of the orphanage when I saw a couple small boys looking at us. Some of us immediately headed over to try and interact with the children. It must have been very overwhelming for a small amount of kids to be invaded by 98 English speaking SASers. I took a picture of a little boy and at first he was definitely scared of me. I showed him his picture on my digital camera and his face lit up. He LOVED my camera. From that moment on we were inseparable for the remainder of the orphanage visit. He would grab my camera (I kept the safety strap around my hand) and point and shoot at anything. I’m not sure if he had ever seen a digital camera like this before but it definitely made his day and mine. To see him enjoying something that to me was so ordinary was amazing. I have no clue how old he is, my guess would be around four, and I do not know his name. Being able to give so much joy to this little boy was indescribable. It was also kind of cool that we were able to interact like this without speaking the same language yet alone speaking at all.

The children had a show planned for us so we all made our way to a small auditorium (my friend of course held my hand and sat on my lap for the show’s duration). The CD player was initially broken and our tour guide asked us to perform the piece that we had prepared for them (that piece was obviously a stalling maneuver and until that moment had never been discussed). About fifty of us awkwardly went on stage and improved twinkle twinkle little star, row row row your boat, if you’re happy and you know it, and the itsy bitsy spider. What I learned was that we will do just about anything to please children. I could tell that some of the older orphans were annoyed. I probably would be too if I was constantly bombarded with foreigners. The younger ones however were in heaven. The orphanage visit was not on our original itinerary but I am so happy I got to experience it. I had such an amazing experience with my new little friend and am pretty sure that I am capable of loving any child. I’m hoping to visit a lot more orphanages in the upcoming countries.

Stop 6: Hotel for 40 minutes… quick shower

Stop 7: Dinner and Tang Dynasty Culture Show

We had a set menu but this time we were each brought our own portions. We sat at smaller tables in giant theater where the culture show would take place. Instead of eating during the show, we ate prior to it. My table was situated right in front of the stage so I had the equivalent of a first row seat. The show consisted of lots of different music, mask sequences, warrior sequences, dances, and colors. I was thoroughly entertained and very impressed. After the show we headed back to the hotel and had a small hotel soiree followed by McDonald’s late night. As I said, McDonald’s was a staple of my Chinese diet, not because I did not like the Chinese food but because I never felt full. We were up and out of the hotel by 8 AM the next morning to catch our flight to Beijing.