Packing for Shanghai

I should have been in bed two hours ago.  My flight leaves at 8:30 and I am getting up at 4:30.  Here are my parting thoughts.  Things to blog about: attitudes of Beijing/China, Hutongs, Markets, Hooters on Independence Day, Navigation, getting ready (not ready for the Olympics).  Good night and happy fourth!

Language barrier

Complications.  It was a bad day.  Language barriers can cause that.  After a long day of lounging in the air conditioning, avoiding the 98 degree heat, we made the move to get pedicures.  First bad move.  The greeting lady escorted us to a private room.  It looked more like a love zone than a place to get your toe nails painted.  We soaked our feet in boiling water.  A man scuffed the old skin off my feet with a disgusted look.  We paid our twenty kuai for the pedicure.  Then we were left for an hour to sit.  We tried to communicate to them using motions and simple words, but it was useless.  She spoke fast and our Chinese language was not enough to comprehend it.   Frustrated, we left.  

A similar situation occurred next door while at Bridge.  A cute cafe with sandwiches, pasta, and Italian desserts.   We waited again.  We had to wave down our waitress.  Our food was out.  Our ticket never came.  Two hours later we left, paying more than we intended and feeling wiped from misunderstandings. I need to study more Chinese.   

Climbing the Great Wall...

The first week has been tourist city.  We toured, in total, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace.  My favorite was a toss up between hiking the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.  The winding granduer of the wall was eye-catching.  I loved the physical aspect of climbing the endless steps. 

 To be continued...

Ice Cream

Ask my dad, he eats cereal everyday.  The same grapenut mixture for fourty years.  It rubbed off on me.  Everyday, no fail, I eat cereal.  This is how I start a good day.  Usually a mixture of Golean crunch, special k berries, granola, fiber one, and whatever wheat enriched cereal that may be on sale.  

In China, the closest I have gotten to cereal has been rice Cheerios.  It isn't the same.  The taste is a dryness that makes you stop after your first o.  The lack of milk or dairy products in general is also disappointing.  As a result, I have sought my dairy out elsewhere.  Ice cream.  The Chinese aren't particularly into desserts so this makes it difficult.  However, side street vendors with blue coolers can usually be found with cones and fudge dipped ice cream sticks.  Yesterday I divulged and ate a waffle cone at Baskin Robbins.  Espresso and cream with berry baseball nut.   

Some things just can't be sacrificed while abroad.

Travels

I am leaving July 5 my time, July 4 yours, to Shanghai.  I have always wanted to see the vibrance of a large Chinese city.  I am really excited for this three day journey.  I have booked airfare and a cheap 13 dollar hostel in the heart of downtown.  Before I leave the area, I am going to Suzhou.  It is notable for being the Venice of China.  I will have two fellow travel companions with me.  If you have any suggestions for Shanghai, let me know!

Silk Market

We wandered to the silk market yesterday.  I mastered the subway to get there.  Transfer lines at the blue and then take the red line for 6 stops, past Tiananmen east and west.  Pinyin doesn't trip me up anymore.  We live in where it could be considered the boonies.  Beijing is a large city.  The largest I have ever lived in, and yet, I feel comfortable here.  The staring doesn't bother me.  I, too, like to people watch to see the collage of characters surrounding me.  China offers a much better backdrop than Logan.  Most interestingly, babies' butts are exposed to avoid diapers.  They waddle around with their butt cheeks bare to the world.

An hour later of riding the subway, we climb the stairs out of the stop to look across the street to a six story building.  Banners on both sides announce to everyone their purposes.  Silk and Pearl Market.  Tour buses line up outside the expanded parking lot.  This is not what we imagined from the guide book's description.  

Inside is chaos.  Their are hawkers, as I call them, waiting and preying on passing customers.  "Hey lady, hey lady, come look at my clothes.  You know you want them.  Hey, where are you going?"  The name of the game here is bartering.  Never take their original, steeped, price.  They slide a calculator over to show you what they want you to take.  However, with minimal talking you can reduce that to 75 percent of that.  I made one purchase.  A gift for someone and I made the mistake of not bargaining further.  Walking away will make them angry and you will get your desired price.  

Even if you are not interested in an item at their makeshift cubicle.  They will poke and prod you with their speciality item.  Be that shoes, purses, jewerly, watches, and etc.  If you don't want to be harassed be sure not to make eye contact.  Otherwise you run the risk of being forced into a purchase or called a mean person.  

The most impressive aspect of this market is not the knockoff purses labeled Prada and Goochi, but the language skills of these hawkers.  Fluent in Spanish, Emily, a member of our group pretended not to speak English to see the vendor's reaction.  Her Spanish response was shocking.  Beside speaking English, Chinese, most can speak Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.  It is truly mind boggling that their language skills are being put to use at this market.  Outside, minutes later, the cab driver looks puzzled at the directions we give.  Many in the city are not to that level yet. I must give the hawkers a bit more respect.  Even if they did call me "Hey lady" and worse many times.  

Food

Dining out in China is a communal experience.  A great way to dine for an indecisive person like me.  Each person has a small plate and in the center of the table is a lazy susan.  The food spins, giving each diner a turn to sample a little of everything until eventually it all disappears.  I no longer have the guilt of wishing I ordered what the Jones' got  Our experience, however, has been quite wasteful as we have not adjusted our digestive systems to finish all the delicious and sometimes disgusting delicacies. Using my somewhat refined chopstick skills, I pluck away a little of everything.  Although it takes me a few attempts to successively manuver the food from plate to plate.  I force myself to try it all.  Even if it looks like the insides of my stomach. My taste buds are awakened to crunch jellyfish, juicy pork dumplings, and a a green something I never found out what it was.  And that was just day one.  We discover duck, duck brain, duck feet, duck skin with sugar, and duck eye.  Outside of that is so much more, sea cucumber, a slimy texture that is not favorable to me.  Chrysanthemum tea, a floral taste that smells just as good as it feels going down.  A plain salad with a tangy dressing, cooked spinach with a crunch spice, and seasoned spicy lamb.  Big bowls of eggplant noodles that disappear before all the dishes are carried out.  Mysterious meat that fills rolls of fried dough that usually never tastes like chicken.  I am reassured however that if dog is included it is listed on the menu.  A delicacy such as that is usually expensive and is chosen, not accidental.  Dining can be expensive, like a five-star restaurant in the United States or can be as cheap as a handful of kuai. Depending on the currency exchange and the decreasing value of the dollar, this is usually equivalent to one George Washington.  As a group of college students, we prefer to keep it thrifty.  Either way, I haven't left a Chinese restaurant hungry yet.