Lane's Adventures

Let the WLC begin!

Back in the USA! Georgetown with Brooke until WLC!

Julie and I ventured out into the Shanghai heat and humidity around 10 AM. The subway was just two blocks from our hotel, so we headed from there to Nanjing Lu, which is a popular street for shopping, dining and parks. Along the first part of our journey, a French foreign student was glad to find us since she was lost trying to find our hotel. We helped her get on track to call a taxi driver, then Julie and I headed to the Bund along the river. On the way, we did some exploring on side streets and through residential areas, which was a nice change of pace. I’ll attach a picture of one of the residential side streets that we visited – that is China – not the commercialized and westernized streets of shopping and lights! The walk along the river led us to a couple of bridges that gave us great views of the Pudong side of the city, opposite the river. On we walked  along the Bund to the garden (see picture) where we enjoyed the most delicious dumplings that we’d had anywhere.

Another walk was going to take us across the river so that we could see the Shanghai Pearl Tower, which is (I believe) the fourth tallest tower in the world at 423 meters. Unfortunately, we were again misplaced and decided to do some shopping back on Nanjing Lu and hit the tower later.

Shopping was QUITE the interesting experience. We went to the “Underground Small Commodities Market,” which is a huge market of knockoff goods that’s below a souvenir shop. Julie had been there a month ago when they were in Shanghai so she had the connections (China’s all about the connections!). We visited “Lisa,” who took us behind a secret door and into rooms filled with many, many items of every kind. I picked up quite a few things, as did Julie. After we got all of our items, we drove a really tough bargain to get everything – which was awesome.

We found Bread Talk again (just happened upon it earlier in the day while helping the French girl, actually) – so we stopped to grab some breakfast food. Julie decided that she wanted to go back and rest, so we split and I headed to the Pearl Tower via metro (the metro is amazing here!). Views from the tower were great, and there was a good concert going on at the base.

On the return trip, I exited a strange gate from the subway trying to get to our hotel and ended up walking to the wrong Holiday Inn, so I a couple miles’ walk later, I arrived at our actual hotel. The walk was actually nice, save the dimly-lit streets of people harassing me to buy things; all good chances to see the real China instead of the touristy parts. I’ve got my suitcase packed and should be bound for Detroit and DC at 8:30 AM.

We awoke moderately early to grab our free breakfast, which was delicious, and headed on our adventure to the Simatai section of the Great Wall. We’d figured out the route from the bus station near the hotel to the long distance bus station, so we saved some money on taxis and experienced the efficiency with which residents are able to travel about. Most tourists don’t touch the bus and subway systems because they are too confused. The subway in Beijing, by the way, is excellent (as I expected). The bus ride out of the city took over an hour, and we bargained a car to the Simatai section. Unfortunately, we had five people in a four person car – which made for an interesting and quite uncomfortable ride in the back seat. Add a traffic jam caused by a fender bender and construction and make that 45 minute ride a little more than an hour. More confusion ensued as the driver thought that we wanted to go to a different section of the wall and then have him pick us up at Simatai. We explained that we didn’t have time. Anyway, we eventually made it there.

Simatai was amazing – especially since we took a lift and mini train up the long part of the mountain and climbed the steep part ourselves (we had the experience of the long climb from Dandong last weekend). Views from the wall were amazing – we saw no more than 50 tourists the entire time and the area was pristine; the untouched surroundings added to the austere, yet breathtaking wall.

Along the hike, we were joined (or should I say harassed?) by a bunch of ladies with fans and bags (of things which I knew they would try to sell with us). Their gig was to become “friends” with people climbing, offer to take pictures, and fan them, then ask people to buy junk at the top of the mountain for six times their value. Knowing this, we told them we weren’t interested, but they persisted. I was quite annoyed and  would have been content walking in peace and without people fanning me. Anyway, it was still gorgeous. We headed back down, purchased a few things (at the bottom) and crammed in the car. Fortunately, the car ride back was better, but I did see the first severe Chinese car wreck of the month – a car in the ditch totally smashed up. The Chinese drive like maniacs, but they are extremely good. It looked like this car had been run off the road by a track while probably passing on a curve (which is common and terrifying).

Our driver dropped us at the bus station back to Beijing, but we the ride was too long and Julie and I were sweating it that we couldn’t make it to the airport to check our bags in time for the 8:00 PM flight. As our luck goes, we were on course to miss the flight, so we made frantic calls from the hotel as soon as we came to collect our bags. Fortunately, we were able to cancel the tickets and get on a 10 PM flight (so we thought). Upon arriving at the airport, we had no tickets, but we did have an awesome conversation in Chinese with our favorite taxi driver. We taught him some English, too. Anyway, we were talking to a bunch of airline agents and finally a Chinese-Canadian woman helped us get on the 10 PM flight. We arrived in Beijing pretty late and got a good deal to our hotel, where we promptly went to sleep.

Last day in China – flew in to Shanghai last night and exploring the city now. Update coming soon, including pictures.

The rain in Beijing was relentless as we waited in the taxi line whilst we and our suitcases were drenched. Chalks up with the worst suitcase experiences in my book. Finally, at the hotel, we were delighted to have very nice rooms and to meet up with Dee. Breakfast together was great and we decided to head out on the day’s adventures around 10:00. First, we stopped at the acrobatic theater to pick up tickets for the evening, then we headed toward Tianamen Square. The square was magnificent and I was impressed by their ability to control crowds (peacefully) using blockades on the street and under passes to funnel traffic to a central entrance. The square was quite fabulous and seeing a sea of umbrellas was nifty. At the end of the square, we toured the Forbidden City, which was formerly the Emperor’s palace and government buildings that were off-limits to common folks.

Upon leaving, we decided to head to the market, which is essentially a giant shopping center filled with some less (of, a bunch of) than legitimate brand-bearing products. Shopping was a blast – we split up and I purchased a couple of things. It’s great to be able to use some Chinese to bargain with vendors because it’s easier to get a better starting price. The sales tactics are fierce, which is also incredibly fun.

Finally, we headed to the acrobatic show for which we had purchased tickets. The seats that we were given were awesome and the show was equally so. We took a bus back to the vicinity of our hotel and Ben and Julie decided to stay in while Jeremy, Dee, and myself headed to the night market – an assortment of strange food cooked aside the street. Saw interesting delicacies such as testicles, lizards, sea horses, snakes – but we ended up getting some lamb. Embarking on a two or three hour journey for a restaurant was fruitless in that we didn’t find the restaurant, but rewarding in that we got to talk to a bun of people and do quite a bit of exploring. Upon termination of our search around midnight (shortly after we were harassed by four bike-taxi drivers), we happened upon a nice restaurant wherein we enjoyed Peking Duck, noodles, and tea. Perfect way to end the night. Tomorrow, we’ll head out to another (steep) section of the Great Wall, then around town before Julie and I take off to Shanghai.

Wednesday was another typical, yet extremely busy day, so I didn’t have a chance to write anything. We finished up all of our classes, but as a result, we jumped from one thing to the next without breaks. Our tutors met with us for the last time and were very sad to see us go. They were also heading home for their summer break, which is about two months. We finished the day by perfecting our final presentation speech and PowerPoint and watching a movie.

Thursday was also very busy, as it was our last day. In the morning, we reviewed for the final test and practiced our presentation once more. Ryan Meyer from UC International came to Dalian to check out the university, so we also met up with him and had a huge lunch together. The presentation went off without a hitch and we all got A’s. The best part was at the end when we flashed the word “REMIX” on the screen and played a clip from a hip hop song that has “REMIX.” It’s more of an inside joke, but the reactions were priceless.

After the presentation Julie and I did our final written and oral tests and I started to pack my room. Unfortunately, I didn’t have adequate suitcase space to pack things that I had purchased – chiefly food and grocery items – so I had to kneel on my suitcase and zip it until the seams bulged (sorry new suitcase). Everyone was waiting to head back to Dalian, so I ran to the car and we made our way to Dalian’s Bread Talk, which didn’t quite measure up to the bread talk in Shenyang. Next, we went to an extremely nice traditional Chinese style restaurant to have a farewell and thank you dinner with the university officials. We were quite honored that the President, VP, Deans and various faculty graced us with their company. They presented us with very nice gifts (books of hand cut Chinese paper) and we had to give speeches in Chinese, which made me extremely nervous, thus mine was brief.

Immediately we headed to the train station where we got on our sleeper car to Beijing. The cabin which all four of us was in was extremely nice; the train was newer and beds and air conditioning made the ride extremely comfortable. I slept a good seven hours and we arrived in Beijing to the rain…

We just arrived in Beijing and checked in to our very nice Holiday Inn (and cheap!). Last night, we took a 12-hour overnight train from Dalian to Beijing, which was very nice with air conditioning and comfy beds. Unfortunately it was pouring down rain when we arrived and everything was soaked when we got in the taxi. At the hotel, I was very happy to meet up with Dee! I will write more later, but wanted to provide a quick update for the last couple of days. We were incredibly busy before departure and didn’t have a free second to write. Stay tuned…three days’ updates coming this evening.

Arrived in Beijing. Soaked. Met up with Dee! Yay!

This afternoon our tutors had exams, so Bi helped us with our final presentation. We decided on the pictures that we would show on our slideshow and finalized our scripts. (Then on to the hard part, trying to memorize the entire thing!) We had another painting class and focused on just drawing bamboo, which is way harder than it should be. Naturally, our teacher made it look really easy. It’s all about a light touch and how finely one can control the brush to create the desired effect with ink.

Finally, we had our first cooking class with Xiao Wen, our chef. He showed us how to make Jiao Zi (Dumplings). We filled some with pork and others with cucumber and egg (I thought the pork turned out the best). After a half an hour, we chowed down on our creations – they were quite delicious. Unfortunately, we didn’t see how he made the dough, as he had it prepared ahead of time, but I suspect that’s the hardest part. I’ll try to replicate them when I’m back home.

I ventured out for a walk around 9, trying to find the seaside. The park that I had mentioned in an earlier post was locked, so I walked through several apartment complexes and asked a guard if I could go down the street to the ocean. Finally I found it and there was virtually no one there and hardly any light pollution as most other beaches I’ve visited have. Very nice walk, but I headed back to finish work on my final presentation and getting ready for the test on Thursday.

Ryan Meyer, our UC International friend is supposed to be coming in town tomorrow to have dinner with us and talk about our experience with the program.