beijing (part 1) : run, run, as fast as you can!

I'm back from Beijing and not really looking forward to classes starting. Hooray for jetlag again! Anywho, my adventure begins on Wednesday the 14th:

First morning back in China. Back in the city of my birth and to my grandparents… it’s currently 7:35am, and I just heard a rooster crow. The plane ride was relatively smooth, except the dude who was next to me kept on snoring. And all the Chinese guys kept on asking for rounds of beer…AGAIN. Oh, and not to mention a middle-aged Chinese lady kept on asking for rum….to go with her coke. Needless to say, she had the severe case of the Asian glow during the ride.  I struck up with a conversation with a guy from Michigan, who is going to Taizhou (near Shanghai) to teach English for a year. Rare to find someone who wants to go to Russia just as badly as I do. I got both of us through customs and find our next leg of journey. Since both of us were taking Air China, I got checked in and told him to go this place to get checked in the next day. He had a long layover – 15 hours. Afterwards, we sat down at Costa Coffee and had a much needed double-shot espresso.

So, I was just handed to what I thought was a scarf. Turns out to be fur…fox fur to be exact. At first I thought it was fake fur, something to play with. It was actually real fox fur… @_@ I’m actually pretty against real fur…..although I don’t think I’ve ever touched a dead animal--- makes me feel like Cruella De Ville. Apparently, my grandmother thought my sister would love it, which is probably true…except now I’m wondering if I can actually carry it with me on the plane. I can just imagine the conversation now:

Going through security….

Security dude:  “Er….huh….there’s something mysterious looking in that luggage…..

WHO’S BAG IS THIS?”

Me: “Er, that would be mine….”

SD: “There’s something in your luggage that looks like……A DEAD ANIMAL?”

Me:  “……”

SD: “Can you open your bag please?”

Me: “Sure”

*Opens bag….and promptly tossing the fox fur at him to scare the crap out of him….

---ends convo----

Right, anyways. Since I’m only spending one day in my hometown, I’m going to make the most of it. Might as well not be sleeping tonight, since I’ll probably be spending time with my cousin (and because we love scaring the crap out of each other). Great sisterly bond, eh? I still remember that conversation I had with her…

Cousin: “Hey…so I was wondering….”

Me: “…yes?”

Cousin: “When are you getting boyfriend/husband?”

Me: “…… uh. What?”

Cousin: “Yeah, I really want a brother-in-law”

Me: “….”

I’m actually pretty excited about this nonproliferation program in Beijing. I head off to Beijing tomorrow morning, and my aunt and uncle will be picking me up from the airport. My aunt is taking me to get a facial J. Can’t say no to that! So I’ll be meeting up with the rest of my classmates tomorrow evening. They will be all suffering from jetlag….and I’ll be comfortably not suffering from jetlag…OR NOT. I was looking forward to sleeping on the plane – and I did, but apparently, I need a lot more sleep than that to overcome my sleep deprivation. This is going to be so much fun when I get back to Monterey --- THE DAY BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS. 

It’s actually snowing lightly here….. and there’s still frozen snow on the ground. Kind of cool, eh? Cold, yes, but nothing I’m not used to.

On finishing my last trip to China last year, I did say, cheers to the next voyage. Well, here it is ---- May God grant this trip to be fulfilling, full of learning, and fun things. I also hope that all of us will be healthy and safe.

March 17th: So, I was supposed to get on the plane at 8h30 for Beijing and get there around 9h35, except our flight was delayed until further notice because of fog in both cities. Then one by one, they cancelled all flights to Beijing for the day except ours. So, another girl going to Canada and I feared that we would never leave, so we ended up taking a taxi to the train station and getting extremely lucky to find someone who helped us buy tickets and get on that train. It took 5 hours to get to the Beijing and my generous uncle and aunt came to pick me up. We had dinner and finally got to my hotel.

Beijing in the snow

March 18th

What a way to wake up this morning at 4am, still jet lagged and waiting for the sun to rise. Instead, I opted for some further bedtime and listened to music, as my roommate hasn’t arrived yet. Finally 2 hours later, I got up, got ready, got a call from my professor about breakfast and went to meet her and Angelica for breakfast! Oh, and apparently it snowed last night. I got to see Beijing blanketed in white snow; beautiful, light layer of snow, even the trees were covered in the cold flakes. At 7am, we went to KFC for their awesome, delicious breakfast. I spent a grand total of 17RMB on soymilk, porridge, fried dough, and egg tart. It was delicious. And after that, we stopped by a street vendor and bought some buns!

I almost ran a bit late after getting back to our hotel since everyone was supposed to meet downstairs at 8:30am. Although we had gotten back at 8am, I got caught up watching a super old Jackie Chan movie. After everyone convened downstairs in the lobby, we all gotten on the bus and started our adventure. The driver dropped us off near a Christian Church to meet another teacher who was Professor Dai’s classmate. The place we met was called Qianmen Tianjie. The teacher told us the point of meeting there was to show us the mixture of modern and traditional Beijing. Walking from Tianjie to the actual Qianmen, some of us were enticed by the street vendors selling Tang hulu (Sugared Hawberries). As we got closer to Qianmen, some of us also stopped by starbucks and had some much needed caffeine. I opted for a double-shot espresso, since caffeine makes me go to the bathroom like crazy.

Tim, being his usual crazy self

Tourist-ing

The trip through Qianmen led us to Tiananmen Square where some of us wanted to see Mao’s embalmed body, but they weren’t opened. The larger-than-life Mao portrait hung at the center of the building in the Tiananmen Square staring at the bunch of foreign people gracing him with our presence. We all did the tourist dance around the Tiananmen square and headed to the Forbidden Palace. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to the palace but I do remember it.  We entered the one of the biggest squares in the palace just before the Taiheguan. The paved streets are very intricate designed to hinder assassins from digging a hole from outside into the palace. The Taiheguan is used only about 3 times; once during the ascension of a new emperor, the emperor’s birthday and the emperor’s wedding. A bunch of us wandered off by ourselves because we keep losing our group. Luckily, I have a cell phone so we had contact with our professor so we were able to always get together. Although I had visited the palace before, having someone actually tell you the history without reading about it was kind of refreshing and I learned a lot more to add to my collection of knowledge on the Forbidden palace. Oh, and it was funny to walk around the city with foreign students. One Chinese guy accidently bumped into me and said “ sorry” in English. I looked at him and said, “ it’s ok” in Chinese. He was surprised and said he thought I was a foreigner. I was like, are you kidding me? Don’t I look Chinese to you? He said it was because I was with a bunch of Americans, so he mistook me for a foreigner. If I could make my face like this @___@, I would do it. Also, many people thought it was funny that Americans can speak Chinese. One would have thought that encounters with so many foreigners especially in a big city like Beijing, many Chinese people would get used it. But I guess one shouldn’t have so many expectations despite the fact that this is the country of my birth.

After exiting the palace through the Shenwumen, we went off on an epic search for lunch.

Lunch was an epic affair, in which we had spent 74 RMB for 4 people, we went to the hutongs, finally separating to meet at Gulou street at 5pm. Some of us went shopping and I picked up a few small things for my friends and myself. By the time it got closer to 5, most of us were cold and tired but definitely not hungry because there were so many street vendors that a few others and I couldn’t resist ourselves. I had so much food today that I possibly can’t stomach any more, much less dinner.

When all of us reunited at 5pm the Professors gave us 3 options; first was to go to the Bird’s Nest and the Water cube and actually see it. The second option was to pass by it by car and then go back to the hotel. The last option was just going straight back to the hotel. Most of us opted for the second option because we were just too tired to walk but wanted to see more of Beijing. Finally, we got back around 6:30pm. My roommate and I went straight upstairs and jumped on our beds. And now she’s taking a shower while I catch up on my blog posts. An epic first day. Tomorrow, we officially start our program. I hope that everyday is going to be filled with new things to learn, unexpected things to happen (good things of course) and challenges for me handle. 

And that concludes the first part of the trip in Beijing. :)

catching up part 2 October 24th, 2011

Today’s excursion took me to Zhaoling, located in Beiling Park. It is the tomb of the Emperor Huang Taiji who lived in the late 16^th century to the early 17^th century. Buried along with him is his wife, the Empress.  It was quite chilly today, the northern wind blew quite a bit. Though it was cold, I thought the weather was kind of refreshing, and the smell of said air made me feel like the coldness was running through my veins. It was quite invigorating.

Anyone who will ever have the interest to visit this tomb, the ticket for students is 30 yuan, about 5 bucks based on the current exchange rate. The entrance to this place looks like the entrance at Tiananmen square, or at the Royal palace in Shenyang, of course on a smaller scale. Once you enter, you just keep on walking street until you reach the statue of Huang Taiji. After that, you keep on walking straight until you reach the Sacred bridge, that means you are getting close to the tomb. There are several gates leading to the tomb. On the way towards the tomb, you’ll find several stone animals each symbolizing a certain trait. Once you enter 2 gates, you get to a place called the Square city, which is, well, basically a square surrounded by walls. 

Actually, it’s more of a rectangle more than anything else. On each side of the wall, there’s a turret, which is where the soldiers stayed and guarded the tomb. I thought it was pretty cool. You can walk up the stairs to get to the top of the wall, and get a full view of the entire place. To get to the tomb from the ground floor, you’d have to enter through the Daming Pavilion, in which after that, you’ll see the door to the tomb. Yep, you can’t enter, because the door has been sealed since Huang Taiji’s death.  But if you walk on the top of the wall, you can go on a circular path called the Crescent Point. It’s a huge mound; on top is a tree, as tradition requires it when someone of royalty is buried. This is called the Treasure peak. 

I’m actually quite surprised that all this wasn’t looted or destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, which targeted things like ancient artifacts and relics of China’s past history. Everything is pretty much intact. I really liked this place and enjoyed learning something new (especially in history).

Tomorrow, the plan to is to go Wuai Market with my cousin’s cousin. I…don’t think I’ve seen him since….1998, or maybe 2002. I don’t remember. I just remember the  two times I didn’t see him, he bought me a necklace in 2002, and a pair of earrings in 2006. Otherwise, I have no recollection of seeing him at anytime in the past decade. I wonder what he looks like now and if he changed (besides getting taller) from the photograph I have from 1998. Otherwise, the only memories I have of him was the two of us playing together as kids. There, they sell everything from clothes to jewelry to Chinese traditional items. I’ll have to get some stuff for people back in Davis and in Monterey as well. Maybe I should get an early start to Christmas shopping, since I have no desire to join in the madness on black Friday, or any madness for that matter.

The door to the tomb

I hate tourist groups. They’re very annoying, with their huge crowd of people. 

catching up part 1 October 23rd, 2011

Huge lunch party yesterday totally made me feel like I exploded from all the food. I think I had a massive food coma, which absolutely did not help my jet lag at all. I got home around 15h-ish. I believe I passed out on my bed around 17h-ish, waking up around 21-ish when my friend called telling me that we’re going shopping the next day. I stayed up for about another 2 hours just doing some stuff and reading before falling back asleep again. And this morning, I woke up around…4:30-5ish. I’m actually pretty surprised that I’m not dying from the lack of sleep at the moment (it’s 4:43pm). Good thing my friend invited me to dinner at 6pm. It gives me incentive to try to stay up and not sleep.

There were so many relatives yesterday that I absolutely do not remember at all. Most of them asked me, “ do you remember me” to which my response was “….no.” Or they’d exclaim to me, “oh my gosh! You’re so big now. I remember you were only up to here (gesturing).” To which my response was “….oh my gosh…” 

I really need to get back to running when I get back to the states, or else I feel like I’m going to explode soon from all this deliciousness.  To be fair, I am moving quite a bit, but I think I’m eating more than I’m moving.  That is definitely not the ideal situation for me. I’ve probably eaten more in 5 days than I have in a month.

And today…I went shopping today. I’m almost done buying the stuff on my list. But seriously I need to get back to studying. I haven’t really done any Russian stuff in awhile, except memorize cases. I’m done with the nouns, but I haven’t memorized the adjectives. Ideally, I’d like to memorize the adjectives by the time I leave China.  That way, I can get more learning done when I get back to the states. I’m sure my roommate would love to torture me with more Russian. Not that I mind, since Russian is like the only thing that can completely distract me from anything. I love it. Since I have that dinner tonight, perhaps I can get some studying done tonight, and hopefully, not fall asleep too early. I’m going to try super hard to get some studying done tonight.

In a week, I’m going to Beijing. Having not been there since 2006, I’m pretty excited to be getting there and seeing what Beijing has to offer. I’ll also be visiting my other relatives and staying with them. Those 3 days in Beijing will go by super fast, I know. So I’ll have to make the most of my time over there. I’d like to visit the Forbidden Palace again, and see Tiananmen Square.  I can’t wait to take some pictures over there.

Over the past few days, I’ve managed to talk to a few people, tax drivers, sales people and ask them 2 questions:

What do you think of China’s development, and whether or not you like it?

Do you think the wage you’re being paid can keep up with the inflation?

Most of the response I got was no, the wage can’t keep up with the rate of inflation. And on the subject of development, some said they think China is developing too fast, or too slow, or can’t tell. One person I asked graduated from middle school, but had no further education since then. Another person told me that he thought China is like Russia, and that Putin is doing a pretty good job managing the country. I was like….. wow. Seriously. Wow.  I mean, he did to some extent, but at what expense? I should ask more people about this later on.  

Last night, I was missing Lyon for no reason at all, and I was missing Lyon like crazy. Memories kept on running through my mind regarding the things I did, experienced and learned there. I can’t help but miss it.  It was my home for 9 months. 9 glorious months of dreams, wishes and hopes. I’d give anything to go back. I can’t stop thinking about the walks next to the Saone and Rhone rivers. I can’t stop thinking about the cobblestones in Vieux Lyon, and walking on it in 3-inch heels.  The tingling aroma of autumn, with a hint of coffee, while lingering past a café, is just a new sensation all together. Walking along the Saone River in the morning with the fresh farmer’s market, you could just smell the mixture of olives and cheese. The fresh smell of baguettes while walking past every boulangerie is to die for.  ARGH. I must stop thinking about this.

I have a week left to enjoy Shenyang. Let’s make the most of this.

ALL DAY, EVERYDAY

This jetlag will be the death of me. By the time I correct my jetlag here in China, I’ll be going back to the states. I have a feeling that the jetlag back in the states will be harder to get over. Last time it was, and I don’t really know why, but I just did. After blogging the last post, I went back to sleep for about an hour and half. My cousin kept inching her way over on my side, so that in the morning, she had ¾ of the bed, while I had ¼ of the bed.

After getting up, showering and eating breakfast, we set out to the Shenyang Royal Palace. It is situated in Zhong Jie, where some of the biggest shopping stores can be found. Overall, I thought it was a nice experience, though definitely not as big or fancy than the Forbidden palace in Beijing. But I really enjoyed the nice sceneries, the history (as I’m a huge history buff). They have a beautiful garden in there. My cousin said if she lived here, she’ll probably get so lost that she’ll lose her sanity. I said, you’d probably lose your sanity sooner if you lived in the Forbidden palace in Beijing. That would be a nightmare. I’d get lost left and right there, ALL DAY, EVERYDAY.

After that, I did some inline skating at the Indoor Garden in this huge mall next to the Palace. We ate cold noodles and went to do some more shopping. And later in the evening, I went to meet someone I found on couchsurfing! She’s a student at the Northeastern University here, so it’s super close to where I live. She speaks Russian :) I’m super happy. Haha.

I was going to come back and write all the post cards, except I fell asleep promptly around 8:30pm. Woke up once around 1am-ish and went back to sleep. It is by far the most amount of sleep I’ve gotten, which is probably a good thing.

Some pictures:

the toilets that the emperor Qianlong used

the garden in the back of the palace

chinglish, for your enjoyment. I'm sure the foot is forgiving

my cousin and I at the Phoenix hall

night view of a bridge in Shenyang

A colleague of my grandparents offered to speak Russian to me this coming week. I'm super excited for that. Today we're celebrating my grandfather's 80th birthday. More than half of the relatives coming, I don't even recognize. Oh gosh. It'll be excitng. Muahaha

jetlagged and content

It's approx 4:30am and I'm awake. Another blog post from the across the pond. Last night I spent the night with my aunt and uncle. Tonight I'm at another uncle and aunt's place.

I went to the bookstore yesterday. YES. I believe I bought 13 books total and I can't wait to get through them. I will probably buy some more books when I get to Beijing. And I bought clothes! Having only brought one pair of jeans here, I needed to buy some more so I went shopping with my cousin. One salesperson asked me where I was from:

Salesperson: " Did you come back from South Korea?"
Me: "... no"
Cousin: " No, she's from the states"
Salesperson: " OMG, let me touch you. I'm finally touching someone from America"
Me: "..." Thinking: please get off of me.

Lunch, an overload of goodness. This place is called Papa's:

I walked so much yesterday, but to be fair, I also ate a lot. Such as this:

And I bought something at this store called Tasty:

I bought something else to eat, since this was too cute to consume. I would have just kept on staring at it until it went stale.

I finally took the subway in Shenyang!

After getting to my aunt's house and having dinner, I fell asleep in front of the tv around 8:30 because of jetlag. That feeling...is like some heavy stone on your eyelid. Like you know you shouldn't sleep so early, but you can't control your own eyelids from closing. I vaguely remember my aunt draping a blanket over me. Finally around 12am, she woke me up again, telling me to go to bed. My cousin and I ended up talking and telling each other stories for the hour and half. Good times, not to mention funny.

Today's agenda:

Shenyang palace
Inline skating
Sight seeing
EATING

Oh, and HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY TO MY GRANDFATHER! Tomorrow will be the celebration.

I really should try to get back to sleep...so I can survive the majority of the day without caffeine.

out and about in Shenyang, China

Well, I made it safely to China after such a loooong flight. The flight from Vancouver to Beijing was delayed by about 40 mins due to some mechanical problem they had with the toilet system. There were a ton of Chinese people on the flight, and some of the guys got impatient waiting there. And they spoke no English. I got to interpret! Gave me a high afterwards, but I manage to sleep some on the flight. I would have slept more if there weren’t screaming toddlers, and the loud Chinese guys. They kept going back for rounds of beer. Oh boy.

I finally got to Beijing around 4:40pm local time, and went through customs, got my luggage, and meet my uncle there! Well, technically, I think he would be my….second cousin, but he’s older than me by 16 years, and I’ve always been calling him uncle. It’s been almost 10 years since I last saw him, but he hasn’t changed a bit. We checked in my bag for the next flight to Shenyang at 8:55pm, and went to eat at a restaurant, and had some coffee afterwards. I’ll be seeing him again in about 2 weeks when I get to Beijing to stay for about 2.5 days. It was great talking to him and stuff, but it’s weird to realize that when I was a kid, he used to pick me up and take me out to play every time I went to Beijing.

So, finally, after such a long day of flying, I arrived to Shenyang, where I was picked up by my generous aunt and uncle. I must have looked like a zombie, or at least someone who pulled 2 all-nighters. So I finally got home around 11:10pm. Totally passed out around 12:30ish, but woke up around 5:30am. JETLAG. UGH. 

So today. Being that I woke up early, I took a quick shower and had breakfast, where I PROCEEDED TO INHALE THE FOOD LIKE IT WAS LIQUID. So much good food. After that, I went out with my grandmother, and we walked around for a bit, and stopped at a supermarket, since I didn’t bring facewash, shampoo or conditioner. Then I went to the hair salon, where the guy trimmed my hair and permed it. Hey, at least I look a little bit older than, say. 15 years old. The person who did my hair this time also did it last year in June as well. He still remembers me, and was like, oh, you got prettier. I was like…..uh, thanks? I just remember him as the guy who told me I had enough hair on my head for 8 people. Ahaha. I almost fell asleep during the entire procedure. Hopefully, tonight I’ll be able to sleep right, and try to correct this awesome jetlag.

Some things I found funny today while on the streets:

I wore leggings and flats today. I’m sure I got a lot of stares from a lot people and a lot people commenting to me, “ … aren’t you cold?”

While on the parallel bars twice today, I got a lot of people saying: “…. Wow, you’re a pretty strong girl” I was like…..I think you should check out Andrea Khoo. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled. That or terrified.  

Anyways, there’s more stuff to do, and not enough time to do it! Hopefully, I’ll be able to get everything I want to do done, and see more things. I know the next few days will go by super fast, so I really want to take the time to enjoy the things here.

Some pictures:

Going through customs in Beijing

garden near where my grandparents live

random statue in the garden

green tea flavor oreos. Oh my gosh

again, in the garden near where my grandparents live.

Hopefully, I'll be able to update on a regular basis.

Until next time. Ciao!

once again, 3 continents in one year

So the countdown continues...14 days til China!

I'm super excited to be going by myself this time. For one, I can't wait to see my grandparents. Another, because I'm going myself, I finally get to explore my hometown, Shenyang. Ok, so I was born there, and lived there up until the age of 7, and have visited China a total of 4 times (extended stay). But, I haven't really been out on streets by myself. So this time, I'm doing an extensive research on my hometown and just being a tourist (without standing out, of course) I've researched places of attractions, good restaurants, cafés, clubs, and many other things. I'm going to ask my grandparents to get me a map of the city and a bus map. And finally, Shenyang has a metro system! It's not extensive yet, but still ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shenyang_Metro_2013.png

Places I will visit (more detailed description will come after I come back):

Shenyang Royal Palace (Gugong): Formally caled Mukden Palace and a UNESCO site! I visited this place once in 2006.

Zhaoling: tombstone

Fuling: tombstone

Mao Zedong's Statue: I'm sure I've seen this many times, but I can't remember.

Liaoning Provincial Museum

9.18 Museum

Shenjing Ancient Cultural St.

Xinle Museum

Royal Ocean World (outside of Shenyang)

Monuments and memorials

I live right next to the Northeastern University in Shenyang, so I will be jogging on campus, providing the weather is good. I think I'll have to go jogging based on the amount of food I'm going to consume in China. And now I can't stop thinking about the food there.

Speaking of food, there's a FRENCH restaurant there called La Bellevue! I can't wait to go try it out! Oh, and this place: http://www.queenwesting.com/ The pictures just makes you so hungry. I'm definitely going to try that out too.

Otherwise, I'll have my map and my legs. They'll take me far. I finally have a chance to explore my hometown and know it inside out (hopefully).

I know this sounds strange, but I want to bring back with me a packet of oreo halloween edition cookies. Since I missed Halloween in the states last year and it seems like this year I will too, but DANGIT, I'm bring oreo cookies with me this year. I'm contemplating on wearing some sort of costume, and maybe going to local elementary school and scaring kids. Just a thought, would be funny, but probably really mean. Ahaha. Actually, it would be funny to scare my cousin. We both scare each other, so.....I think that would be amusing.

In a little over a week, I'm turning 23. Time is going by too fast. I'm getting old.....

Until the next coffee break