| 85 in Feb |
[Feb. 9th, 2007|12:15 pm] |
It’s about 85 degrees F, I’m in a T-shirt and shorts, life is good.
I last left you guys in Qingdao. On Friday night I went to bar with Alice and her room mates. Then Alice and I went to a dance club but we didn’t stay too long. We still had fun though. On Saturday we ate Beijing duck and went to the seaside with one of Alice’s room mates. I forgot my camera and so we had to rush back to her apartment to get it before the sun set. The sun set, I took some pictures, we had our last chat, and then I went to the bus station. It was sad to go, I had a great time in Qingdao, but I had friends to meet in Shanghai.
I got into Shanghai at 6am. I then walked from the bus station to a hostel I knew about from last year. I checked in and then set out to find the seaport. It was really hard. On the map was the “new” seaport which I easily found, but it’s not finished yet and no ships go there. Even though I had arrived at the old seaport, it was well hidden, tucked away behind some buildings on a road that wasn’t on the map. But I eventually found it and met my friends. It was Scott, my next door neighbor from Alabama, his girlfriend Christy, Judd, another American from NJ, and Vincent, a boy from France who also lives in Lapita. I got them a cab to the hostel and showed them the banks and we all got settled in. Our first meal together cost us $5…for all 5 of us! But our day was about to get more expensive.
We walked to People’s Park to have a look. There a group of Chinese students asked us to take a picture of them. We did and then asked the same. We got to talking. They all came from Xi’an and were traveling for the Spring Festival. They then invited us to have tea with them. We gladly excepted not knowing what we were getting into. We got to the tea house and were seated in a private room. There was a huge tea poster on the wall explaining about tea and tea culture. There were about 20 pots of tea on the table. A guy who could speak English came in and explained to us the meaning to tea in China, how it relates to religion, life, health, and history. He told us that this time of year is a tea festival that happens once every three years. The tea starts in Yunnan (far south-west China) and is taken on horseback to all the major cities. The journey takes months, but to follow tradition the journey must be done on horseback. We were served 4 kinds of tea and given some tea snacks. I figured it would be expensive given the quality and the fact that it had traveled all of China on horseback, but I had no idea it would be 250RBM (about $30). My budget it tight and I don’t have the money to spend $30 on tea, but I did learn a lot and I did drink, without a doubt, some of the best tea in the world.
The next day we met up with a boy named Li Nan who is a student at Ritsumeikan but returned home to China for the New Year. He and his girlfriend took us around to some good places to eat and to the Shanghai gardens which were amazing. Later that day we met up with a girl named Nanxi who also is a student at Ritsumeikan but has come to Shanghai for an English class during the break. I told Nanxi that I was planning to spend the Spring Festival in Hunan and she said, half jokingly, “why don’t you spend it in Hubei?” her home province. I though about it for a minute and remembered that Alice is from Hubei and would be there for the New Year so I shot her a message and now I will be spending the Spring Festival with Alice and her family in Hubei. I am very excited about that, and she says her family is also very excited to have me as a guest. Chinese New Year, like Christmas or Thanksgiving, is a family holiday and isn’t much to see unless you are with a Chinese family. So I’m lucky to get an invite like this.
We split into two groups on Tuesday. Scott, Christy, and Judd went North to Beijing and then to Xi’an. Vincent and I, who have booth been to Beijing and Xi’an before went south to Guangzhou. The reason for this is that there is a Vietnamese consulate here. I don’t know why there isn’t one in Shanghai, but there isn’t. The train ride here was terrible. Our train had some problems and would go for 10 or 15 minutes and then stop for 40 or so. I don’t mind long rides, but I hate not moving and not knowing when I will arrive. We just sat there watching other trains go by. We finally got into Guangzhou around 11. We should have gotten there at 4 or so.
Yesterday was mad. We had to get my Visa, get a ticket out, and find a hotel (the hotel we had to settle for was 150RMB/nigh). We did all three! I have a Visa, we are going to Wuhan (in Hubei) to meet Alice on Sunday, and we found a place to stay for 80RMB/night! That’s $5 each. Now we will spend 2 days in Guangzhou having fun. This city looks awesome. Great weather, good food, tropical fruits, lots of cheap cheap shopping, etc. Now we are looking for stuff to do online. Well, that brings us up to now. Things are good, vacation has started. |
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