Friday, October 21, 2011

Leaving China

May 20-21, 2011

Our last day of class was a half-day. After our last couple hours of instruction, we each received a course-completion certificate.
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For lunch, a group of us went to a restaurant called Big Pizza. It was kind of like a Chinese version of Cici’s, except with beer: all you could eat buffet plus all you could drink beer from their flat, dirty keg for about $7. Neither the food nor the beer were any good, but we had a blast and stayed for hours.
Big Pizza beer

The gang at Big Pizza.

Megan had a pirate patch as part of her treatment for Beijing pollution-induced corneal ulcer.

That night, the entire group of Americans headed downtown to see an acrobat show. A mixture of poor planning, tardiness, and bad traffic made us late. Since I wasn’t there for the beginning of the show and any introductions or instructions, I wasn’t sure what the rules for photography were, so I didn’t take any pictures or videos. The show was impressive and fun. My favorite part was when 13 women all climbed onto one bike and rode it around the stage.

After the show, Megan, Ashley, and I traveled back to our favorite streets near our old hostel by the Drum Tower. We hung out in some of our favorite bars and I did some last minute souvenir shopping. It was a great last night in China!
Ashley is angry that I'm leaving China.

I was very sad the next morning as I packed up my stuff to leave. Megan and Ashley were staying in China for a while longer, but I had to go home to start my summer job. I thought by the end of 3+ weeks I would be ready to go home, but I truly was not. I had such a great time and was disappointed I’d be missing out on the next leg of travel with my friends.

I had one last bit of Chinese excitement to deal with for my departure. After I climbed in my taxi, the driver asked which terminal I was flying out of. I didn’t know, and didn’t know I needed to know, since I’m used to American airports where the airlines/terminals are listed on big signs as you approach the airport. I ran back inside the hotel to ask the front desk which terminal carried Air China, and they assuredly told me Terminal Two.

After I was dropped off at Terminal Two, I made my way through the first security line with my big bags. Once I was inside, I looked and looked for the Air China ticket desk but couldn’t find it. I finally asked someone, and she told me Air China was at Terminal Three! She told me to go back out through security and take the bus to the correct terminal. I lugged my big bags (now extra heavy with both my souvenirs and stuff Megan and Ashley were sending back) outside and looked for the inter-terminal bus. And looked and looked, and was waved away from several bus drivers I tried to ask for more information. I thought I had left for the airport with plenty of time, but as the minutes ticked away I was getting more and more nervous. Perhaps my time in China was going to be extended….

Finally, a kindly porter came over to help me. We had some trouble understanding each other at first. He kept trying to get me to follow him, but I didn’t know where he was trying to take me. I finally figured it out, and he led me to the right area for the right bus. It was far away – back inside and downstairs and a long walk. I was so grateful! He got the biggest tip I’d given anyone yet in China.

I’m happy to say my Beijing-New York flight was a million times better than my New York-Beijing flight! No delays, no screaming baby, no middle seat, no puking neighbors. Flying should always be like this! I was able to read and sleep in peace, and just like that, I was home.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Chuandixia

May 17, 2011

We had spent some time thinking about what we wanted to do for our weekend between classes. We definitely wanted to get away from Beijing for a bit, so had made a short list of day or overnight trips that sounded fun. We ultimately settled on visiting Chuandixia, an old, charming village about 90 km northwest of Beijing in the mountains. Since the village is tiny, we decided we could see it all in one day rather than doing an overnight, although it was very tempting to stay the night since all lodging there is via home stays in the courtyard homes. In addition to the courtyard homes and beautiful mountain views, Chuandixia is touted for its well-preserved Maoist propaganda.

We learned the best way to get there was to hire a taxi for the day from one of the big transit stations in Beijing. After some back and forth haggling with a couple of guys at the station, we settled on a nice older man who agreed to take us for 300Y roundtrip. He had a friend along to ride in the front seat, so the three of us piled into the back of his little white minibus/van and headed out.



The drive was exciting and terrifying: our driver made record time, especially when we came to the curvy mountain roads. Once we decided to just ignore the fact that we might DIE, it was kind of like a roller coaster ride.



We made one stop at a scenic overlook of a large dam on the way.

As we approached the village, our driver pulled over and motioned for us to get out of the car. We complied, not really knowing where we were or why we were getting out, but whatever… and then our driver drove off without us! He stopped not too far down the road, and we figured out we were supposed to walk this little stretch for some reason. It was very confusing, until we reached the end of our little walk and the driver explained through hand motions and our limited understanding of Mandarin that the place we had just walked through had been carved out by water: it was just something cool and pretty he wanted us to experience.
What is going on?



So we got back in the van and shortly arrived in the village. As it turned out, our driver had family in Chuandixia, so he introduced us to them and then we were off to explore. We hiked a little trail that gave us a skyline view of the village, and then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the courtyards. There was a group of art students visiting the village that day – it was neat to watch them draw, and they were very entertained by our presence. We were a little disappointed in the “well-preserved” Maoist propaganda. There were a few Chinese characters painted on the sides of building, but nothing very flashy or exciting. Several of the homes were open for business – meaning we could sit down and the homeowner would serve us beer and food. We ordered some wonderful food by just saying a combination of things like “noodles”, “vegetables”, and “whatever you recommend.” It was a glorious, relaxing afternoon and we were reluctant to leave.
The village of Chuandixia

Chuandixia and mountains
Chinese art student at work


Courtyard lunch

Please don't put anything from this jar in our food.

Cheap Seats (minus Rob) in China!

When we got back to Beijing that night, we found a place to have the famous Peking Duck for dinner. Perfect Peking Duck involves infusing the skin with just the right mix of marinade and then frying it. It’s world famous, and apparently very difficult to find an excellent version anywhere other than Beijing. I tried it and liked it well enough even though I’m not big on skin or fried stuff in general. Still, it was worth the experience. The evening was a kind of sad, knowing we had to go back to school in the morning and that my time in China was rapidly approaching its end.
Peking Duck

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Summer Palace

May 16, 2011

Early on in the acupuncture course, we voted to move our “weekend” to Monday and Tuesday. The idea was to take advantage of our flexible schedule and plan touristy things on the week days when stuff would be less crowded. During my brief time in China, I hadn’t noticed a big difference in crowds on week days vs. weekends, but whatever. So we made it through 7 days of school, and finally our “weekend” arrived on Monday!

I enjoyed a lazy start to the day: slept late, tried to organize the messy explosion from my suitcase, sent a few emails, drank a few beers… Finally, in the early afternoon, we took off for the Summer Palace. It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed strolling around the lake, pausing here and there to just relax and take in the sights. I could definitely see the appeal of the area as a summer resort for Chinese royalty.
Chinese noodles

Relaxing at the Summer Palace

More relaxing at the Summer Palace

The Long Corridor
It was a windy day at the Summer Palace


Rickshaw!

After leaving the park, we hailed a rickshaw to take us to the nearest subway station. The three of us piled in the back was definitely a fun ride! We made a mistake in not agreeing on a fare beforehand, and our driver tried to massively overcharge us when we got off. Even granting him some extra for hauling all three of us, he was asking too much. We were helped in our exchange by a subway security guard, who was successful in running off the tourist-hassling rickshaw driver after we had paid him a much more than fair fare.



We decided to head towards the 798 Art District to see China’s version of SoHo.  When we got off the subway, we estimated we still had about 3km to travel to get to the district. We first tried to hire a taxi, but were turned off by the prices and decided to walk. This turned out to not be a great idea, as the street we were on became a major highway. We trudged along the shoulder, tired and hungry, and some of us who shall remain nameless stopped to pee in the bushes. We’d finally had enough of this form of travel when we came to a bus station. We boarded a bus that seemed to be heading in the right direction and got off at what seemed to be a stop relatively close to the art district. And then we trudged some more… it’s possible our estimation of distances had been off… When we finally arrived in the right area it was around 9pm and all the art galleries were closed as were many of the cafes – it was disappointing, especially after the several hours time we had spent working to get there. Proving that even in Beijing, it’s a small world after all, we ran into some of our friends who were finishing up dinner. So we ate and had a few drinks and decided 798 must surely be cooler in the daytime.