David's Big Adventure in China

Hangzhou is a suburb city of Shanghai and is a nice city of 4.2 million people. It is modern and prosperous and is famous for the scenic lake (West Lake) that adjoins the downtown area. There are many western companies and restaurants located here. In a 20 minute walk I saw 3 KFC’s, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Dairy Queen, Pappa John’s and probably one or two more I’m forgetting about. I didn’t see it but I later learned that there is a Hooters in Hangzhou. The first evening there my blog buddy Carol came to meet us and took us to dinner at one of her favorite Chinese restaurants. Carol is Canadian, lives in Hangzhou and has been teaching in China for 3 years. I ran across her blog about 6 months ago and sent her a comment. She responded to my comment and we became e-mail friends. She answered my many questions about teaching in China, blogging and etc. It was great to meet her in person and she brought us a local travel booklet, a map and some handwritten tips on what to see and do locally. I will try to remember to add a link on the right under “my links” to Carol’s blog so if you’re interested you can read hers as well.

The second day in Hangzhou we followed Carol’s advice and visited Lingyin Temple but it was so hot I never made it inside the Temple. It was in the upper 90’s and humid so I was dripping wet with sweat. The pictures you see labeled Lingyin Temple are from the hills next to the temple and are considered part of the temple grounds. The temple was built in the year 326 and the carvings were made at various times after that up until the 1300’s. We visited some of the scenic areas around West Lake and sampled some local cuisine. After lunch we went to see the former residence of Hu Xueyan (a wealthy businessman) which was built around 1870 (see pics). Apparently he created a monopoly on the silk manufacturing in China and raised the prices very high. All the foreign buyers got together and refused to buy any of his products and his business failed very shortly after that. He lost everything including 3 of his 4 wives! We also visited some shopping areas which included some silk shops as this area is famous for silk. There were many other places that would have been worth seeing but we didn’t have enough time for them.

We are now in Xi Tang which is about an hour away from Hangzhou by bus. It is an old and small town and is famous for the old part of town and it’s canals. It was made more famous recently as they filmed a scene for Mission Impossible 3 here. The scene was the one where Tom went to save his wife. In the movie the scene is set in Shanghai but it was filmed in Xi Tang. We’re staying in a very old house that has been converted into a Chinese style B&B. From the bus station we took a bicycle taxi to near the hotel then we had to walk the rest of way. Check out the pic’s of the walkway to the hotel and the bed in my room. The room did not come with towels, toilet paper or sheets. Fortunately I had my silk sleep sack with me although that didn’t make the bed any softer. There was only a thin piece of foam on top of wood. The room did have hot water and a/c which made it tolerable and the room cost about $13. Xi Tang was interesting but I think it would have been better to stay in Hangzhou and see more things there. We left Xi Tang and took a 2 hour bus ride to Suzhou which is very similar to Hangzhou. Along the way part of the time we rode alongside the Grand Canal which dwarves the Panama Canal. It runs from Beijing to Hangzhou and I’ll try to remember to add some facts about it later to put it in perspective.

Suzhou is both an old town and a new town. It has a long history and has an old section of town but is mostly very modern and prosperous. Early this morning we went to see “The Humble Administrator’s Garden” which is on the World Cultural Heritage list. We went early because of the heat and were there waiting for the doors to open at 7:30. We were finished seeing the garden by 8:30 and I was already dripping wet. Even though it was only 8:30 it was really later than that by U.S. standards since China only has 1 time zone and in the East the sun comes up now by 5:00 and sets by 7:30. In Kunming where I will be living I’m guessing that the sun came up today about 6:30 and set about 9:00. The garden was nice (see pics) but not worth the price of 70 yuan per person (almost $10). Now that I’m living in China I have to think about the cost of things in terms of how much I’ll be earning. Then we went to see the Suzhou Museum just down the street and it was well worth the price of 20 yuan. It is a new facility that just opened last October and was designed by I.M. Pei who’s family happens to be from Suzhou. I’m not a big history buff or knowledgeable about crafts but I’m learning about Chinese history and the incredible talent of their craftsman. The museum showed many fine examples of this some dating back as far as about 6000 years. As part of the museum complex they have included the former residence of Zhong Wang Fu which is a very impressive complex. As an added bonus and almost worth the price of admission was the great air conditioning that keep the museum nice and cool. After a quick lunch of cold rice porridge with watermelon tossed in we went see the Silk Museum. Suzhou has a long history with the silk manufacturing and trade. The Silk Museum was worth a quick visit and I found the most interesting parts to be the machinery that was used in the past. Quite ingenious it was. We also visited a silk factory (see pic) which was pretty interesting. As part of the process they stretch the silk to about 100 times it’s original size. Well that’s it for my visit in Suzhou, next stop is Beijing!

Now for some odds and ends. I don’t if I have mentioned it before or not but I have not seen a fortune cookie since I arrived in China. It’s now been about 3 months since I moved out of my apartment in Oakland. In some respects I have kind of gotten into a groove of living out of a suitcase but on the other hand, I’m getting tired of not having a place to call home. As time goes by I’ve reduced the amount of things that I’m carrying around with me. I have 2 bags that I left with one of my teachers in Zhuhai and I have 1 bag that I left in Guangzhou. Some of those things are things that I’ll want when I get into my apartment. I’m kind of anxious to get into my apartment in Kunming and have a place to call home. I don’t really expect to do much cooking there as food is so convenient and cheap here to get out. There are 2 or 3 cafeterias/restaurants on campus very near where my apartment will be.

On July 20 we took a 3.5 hour bus ride west of Xiamen to Yongding County. It is a rural mountainous area famous for the earthen buildings there. Some of the oldest ones were built over 600 years ago and are still lived in today (see the pics). The construction is quite unique. They do now have electricity and some have running water and some still use the wells that were originally built. If you notice some crooked posts on the upper levels of one of the buildings apparently that was a result of a misunderstanding of the conditions of employment of the workers. They expected meals to be provided and when they were not they responded by installing the posts at angles. In one of the earthen building pics you see a couple ladies on the inside of the building, the leaves laying next to them are tobacco leaves as tobacco is one of the crops grown in this area. The first day there we hired a guide/taxi and he drove us around in his car to many places for almost 3 hours at a cost of $20. He then dropped us off at a local hotel in a small village. It was actually more like a B&B Chinese style. It was owned by a family with the wife serving as front desk clerk, maid, waitress, cook and travel coordinator. I assume the husband had some other job. The family lived there and the hotel had 8 to 10 rooms. The cost was less than $11 per night for the nicest room which was very spartan. No toilet paper or towels were provided but it did have cable tv, a/c and hot water. The toilet was a hole in the floor Chinese style but at least the room came with a private bathroom. It wasn’t really a B&B because we had to pay for breakfast separate which cost $.66 for two of us. We had dinner there which was much more expensive and cost almost $6 for two. Fresh meat is delivered daily by the local “butcher on a bike” (see pic). The meat is fresh as the chickens and pig were killed that morning. I took a look in the kitchen before we left and it certainly wouldn’t meet American health standards. If you get freaked out about food safety then you probably don’t want to travel much in China. I have taken the approach that if it doesn’t kill the locals then it probably won’t kill me either. I got a haircut and shampoo at the village salon and it cost me $1.06. My hair is shorter now than it’s been since I was a kid as I got my money’s worth on the haircut. Some of the earthen buildings we visited on are the world heritage cultural sites list. For the big round buildings it is typical for about 17 to 20 families to live there. The second day there we hired a motorcycle tour guide (arranged by the lady at the hotel) for about $11 and he drove us to many of the buildings for about 2.5 hours. There were 3 of us on a 125cc bike going up and down mountains on some pretty rough roads some of which were under construction (see pic). The roads and the homes in rural China seem to be in a perennial state of construction. The construction methods seem to be still pretty rudimentary. I didn’t see any power tools in use where they were building the bridge. The driver told us that two of the small villages we passed through which were only a couple miles apart spoke different dialects. China is still very regionalized and there can be difficulties communicating because of language differences. The people in this rural area were all very nice and friendly. They are accustomed to having tourists but don’t get a lot of western tourists. In the small village where we stayed it seemed that many people left their doors and windows open even if they weren’t home….like small town America used to be. To properly complete this luxurious tour of the hinterland we had a 4 hour bus ride back to Xiamen to catch our flight to Shanghai. It was not a very nice bus and the roads for the first 2.5 hours were very rough, curvy and with lots of elevation changes. There was at least one person with serious motion sickness. We stopped one time by the side of the road for a couple children to relieve themselves and later on the trip some parents sitting behind us but across the aisle allowed their roughly 3 year old son to pee on the floor. The only thing missing to make it a complete experience was livestock……lol. Once we made it back to Xiamen we found a restaurant for dinner and included in our dish was bamboo which looked and tasted a bit like potato. I’m writing this part from the airport in Xiamen waiting for our flight which has been delayed by over 3 hours. It’s now almost midnight and I really need a hot shower and a comfy bed!
We arrived at the hotel in Shanghai at about 2:00 a.m. It would be considered a 2 star hotel in the U.S. but it seemed like luxury to me. It cost about $25 per night and had all the essentials. Shanghai is not part of any province. It is an administrative region that reports directly to the federal government sort of like Washington D.C. There are 4 such regions including Beijing, Chongqing and Tianjin. On Sunday we toured some of the sites of Shanghai – Yu Yuan Garden, Chang Huang Miao Temple, the Bund area, Oriental Pearl Tower and the Shanghai Museum (see pics). I’m not really very impressed with Shanghai other than it’s size. It doesn’t seem like there’s that much here worth seeing. There are too many people and the people are not nearly as nice as the country people. It does have easy access to western food though and after 4 days of nothing but Chinese food I was ready for some. We went in a big mall and ate at Burger King. The mall also had KFC, Starbucks, and McDonalds that I saw without really touring much of the mall. I’m writing this at a train station while waiting for a train to take us to Hangzhou which is about 1 hour away.

First a correction: one of my astute readers pointed out that it probably wasn’t bamboo juice that I had to drink and you were right. It was sugar cane that was squeezed into a juice not bamboo. Other ... [Continue reading this entry]

I’m in Guangzhou now. It’s a very large city a 2 hour bus ride from Zhuhai and not far from Hong Kong so I can get some HK tv stations so there are more tv ... [Continue reading this entry]