China, Part Two: Shanghai, Beijing & Xi'an

It's been really hard to get myself to sit down and write this post. We came back from China and jumped right back into school (literally the afternoon we got back) and since then, we've been busy getting back onto our feet! It feels like China was so long ago and I'm afraid I've forgotten a lot of what happened, haha. But here we go! I will just give you the highlights.

We planned the first half of our trip to be the standard 'touristy' cities: Shanghai, Beijing, and Xi'an. We started by flying into Guangzhou, crashing at a hotel for a few hours, and then grabbing the overnight train to Shanghai.

[Disclaimer: Despite how my first post sounded, and the story below, I want to put it out there that China was actually a really amazing experience! Yes, it was difficult and hard at times, but it was also beautiful, breathtaking, and overall we loved it! Hopefully this post will be a better representation of our trip; a bit more positive and will describe all the awesome things we saw.]

Keeping ourselves on a tight budget, we traveled through China almost exclusively by overnight train, which we knew wasn't going to be the most comfortable, but we were prepared to 'rough it.' However, I did not anticipate how bad our first night turned out to be. We slept on hard sleepers (which actually weren't bad at all) but in the big, yet crowded open area. [See photo above to see how close our quarters were]. For some reason, the concept of A/C in China is very different than in Thailand. Like they say they use it, but you can't feel it! Granted, China's weather was chillier, but once you cram a ton of people into a train car, the temperature goes way up. They also leave the cabin lights on next to the attendant's cubicles and in between cars so if you are close to the end of a car, you are out of luck. The light was blaring in my eyes all night, I couldn't put something over my face because I was so hot, and any time I would happen to doze off, I was woken up by the attendants' talking and banging noises through the wall. Basically I was sleep-deprived and super mad. In my frustrated daze, I stupidly placed my phone on the bedside table next to my head because I had set the alarm. Of course I woke up from a light sleep at like 5:30 am to our bunk neighbors talking not-so-quietly and I see that my phone was GONE. My stomach sank when I realized it was stolen from right under my nose. Because I was sleep-deprived, everything felt so much worse and I was not in a good place. But after shedding a few tears and talking it over with Jonathan, I regained my composure and decided this was not going to throw me off. We still had our whole China trip ahead of us and this unfortunate circumstance wasn't going to spoil it!


Shanghai

Shanghai was a great place to start. It is probably the most internationally-friendly city in China. It's very modern and has a great night scene. It's known (to the Chinese at least) as the New York City of China. I guess it's somewhat accurate. We only spent 2 days there, because although it is comfortable, there isn't much to see, tourist sights-wise. I mentioned in my previous post (here) that once we got off the train in Shanghai, we got onto the metro to the city center and try to find a place to unload our bags. We were unsuccessful for 2 and a half hours! Marching up and down streets, feeling so lost, ugh I made it a point to not let us fall into that trap again. We were lucky to land a hostel in the afternoon and we found a computer to make the rest of our bookings for the trip.

A block or two west of the Bund, there is this pedestrian walking street, which was awesome! We found some great places to eat and even an M&M store!

"The Great Wall of Chocolate"

There was also this little shop that made the tallest ice cream cones I've ever seen! Even though we were full from lunch, we just had to stop and get us some. And for some reason Jonathan wanted to stick the whole thing in his mouth...

For those of you who don't know what The Bund is, it's just a street overlooking the harbor (river, or whatever it is) but it's lined with old European-styled buildings and has a beautiful view of the skyline across the water. It is so beautiful at night as well because they light up all the buildings along that whole stretch! That's really the only thing of note to see in Shanghai, but it was so gorgeous we went there a few times. I loved it.

Another thing we did in Shanghai was see a Chinese acrobatics show. Apparently it's the "best" acrobatics show in China so we shelled out the money to see it. They sell it as a multi-media circus production, but I felt like it was an Asian version of Cirque du Soleil. It was AWESOME! Very entertaining and even though I've seen multiple Cirque du Soleil performances, this was very impressive.

At the end, they had 5 motorcycles come out and drive in circles inside this caged metal sphere. They started with one and then added one more inside the cage until they got to 5. I couldn't believe they could all fit in there, let alone drive in horizontal and vertical circles around each other going at like 50 mph! I really thought there was going to be a crash. And then, they brought out 2 more motorcycles! 7, wow. I literally did not think it was possible.

Our last day there we stopped at the Shanghai Museum. I don't know if it's actually the largest collection of Chinese artifacts in all of China, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. They have floors dedicated to statues, pottery, famous Chinese ceramics, calligraphy, paintings, and furniture. There was so much. And the best part was that it was FREE! That is like the only thing I remember being free in China. I'm really glad we went there because we were able to save money and skip out on the little museums we ran into throughout the rest of our trip.


Beijing

You can't go to China and not make a stop in Beijing. This is where all big sites to see are. I do have to say though that Beijing was the worst place in China (that we visited) for smoking and air pollution. All of our pictures here, and in almost all of China actually, have white, blown-out skies because of all the soot and smog in the air. It also didn't help that the hotel we stayed in constantly smelled of smoke, so much that I felt like it was coming through our vents at night. It was also a TINY room. Actually the smallest room I've ever stayed in my whole life haha. But we made it work! As you can guess, Beijing accommodation is a bit expensive, so we saved a lot of money there. And that's what backpacking is all about!

We spent four days in good old Beijing, and it was a perfect amount of time. Long enough that we saw everything we wanted to, but we got out of there before developing lung issues. (Actually I did end up catching a not-so-fun cold/cough in Beijing, but that may have not been pollution-related). The metro in Beijing is actually a fabulous deal so that is the way to travel around the city! In Shanghai and especially Hong Kong, the metro can get a bit pricey, but Beijing's metro was a flat rate of only 2 yuan! That's like 30 cents. FLAT rate. Once we spent 45 minutes on the subway going from one side of the city to the other and we only paid 60 cents for the two of us. So Beijing does have it's perks.

First stop was the Temple of Heaven. Now that is a great area. It is a temple, but the grounds are massive and it is basically a huge park. Green grass, trees everywhere, kids playing in the leaves, children pushing their scooters around and couples practicing their ballroom dance technique. It was a perfect outdoor, fall scene. I wanted to stay there forever! But we had much to see and do.

We made it up to the northern part and saw the Olympic Green, location of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Here's the beautiful building where the held the opening ceremonies and the famous Water Cube, where Michael Phelps broke the world record for most gold medals won in a single Olympics. It was fun to be there.

Then we capped off our first day with attending a Beijing Peking Opera. It was really interesting... the music is just SO different from what we expect to be opera. Basically no music, just percussive 'instrument' tools. It was really cool though. They did a lot of dancing and their costume/make-up was awesome!

Remember my story about the father who helped his kid pee in a trash can at Tienanmen Square? This is them! I didn't realize we caught them on camera before the act hah.

The next day we went to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City - which all takes a FULL day. We only walked around the square for a bit. They have a museum about Mao Zedong which we barely missed, it's only open for a few hours in the morning, which is weird. Good info: The Forbidden City is actually now called the Palace Museum so if you are looking for 'The Forbidden City,' on a map, you won't find it. I think The Forbidden City is a cooler name. And it really is a city. It is huge! We only spent a handful of hours there so we just saw the main halls along the center strip and then the inner garden. It is so impressive how old and expansive that whole place is. As you walk through the city, there are frequent rows of benches in front of the halls so you can sit and soak it in. There are times when you have to do just that. Stop, sit, and take it all in.

So this is what most of it looks like. A huge open area with a staircase up to a grand hall. Then you walk through it, go outside and down the stairs where you see yet another grand hall! You just keep on walking and walking and walking...

I just have to share this picture. Within many of the grand halls, there are ancient thrones and furniture set up inside, but you can only see it through one tiny door. Look at all of these people trying to squish their way to take a picture! I joined in once, but I felt like a tiny sardine stuck among squirming salmon trying to swim upstream. The lighting was even too dark for pictures.... haha oh the Chinese.

That evening we truly took part in the Beijing experience by having a Peking Duck dinner. Like I mentioned before, no one really speaks English (I felt like especially Beijing, how weird!) so even though we walked into a pretty nice restaurant, our waiters were a bit uncomfortable. We pointed to the picture of a full roasted duck while saying, "Peking Duck, please." They seemed confused, and then we were confused... maybe 'peking' duck didn't really mean a full roasted duck?? We didn't know any better so we just kept on pointing to the picture until they nodded and wrote something down. A few minutes later, 3 waiters all came over to try and collectively made the effort to tell us we would need to wait 50 minutes for the duck to cook. We didn't have anywhere to be, so we went for it! I was half-expecting them to bring out the duck whole, beak and all. But they brought out this smorgasbord instead.

The three plates that look like meat are actually duck meat, duck skin, and then the fat, with a little bit of dark meat. (You use basically the whole duck!) The waiters had to show us how to assemble the meal: you dip the skin in sugar, the meat and fat in the sweet chili sauce, stick them all inside a little tortilla, and add some cucumber strips dipped in this soy-based sauce. Wrap it and gobble it up! I was not super excited at first, but the duck meat was really good! After a handful of tortillas, I had to start leaving out ingredients because my stomach wasn't used to all the new tastes, but it was really cool!

And now for the highlight of our trip: THE GREAT WALL. That really is the perfect name for it. It is purely majestic, strong, full of power and just, great. Because it was a weekend, and I did NOT want to be stuck in the massive Chinese crowds, we woke up at 3:00 am and hired a taxi to drive us to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. We got there when it was dark, hiked up to the wall, and once we got to the top, found out we were all by ourselves. The entire Great Wall (at least this section) was empty. It literally took my breath away; from the stunning beauty and the quick hike so early in the morning, haha. We took SO many pictures and it makes me sad that I can't put them all on here! [Check out our flickr account to see all of our pictures - the link is on the tabs above.]

You know, just having breakfast on the Great Wall of China...

"Look at all the COLORS!"

We continued to hike along the wall. We wanted to get to the highest point in the section by sunrise, which we did, however we waited and waited and the sun never rose. I don't know if it was because of all the mountain mist or the pollution, or probably a combination of the two, but we didn't see the sun. It was more like the surrounding ambient light slowly got brighter. So that was a little bit of a disappointment, but I mean, we were alone on the Great Wall of China! We sat down, ate some croissants and egg tarts for breakfast and took it all in. As the sky got brighter, you could see that many of the trees were changing colors! I think that alone was my favorite part about China. They have autumn. Fall is by far my favorite season and that just doesn't happen in Thailand. Being up there on the Great Wall made all the struggles and frustrations of China SO WORTH IT.

If anyone has ever been to China, you know that Chinese tourists love taking pictures of Westerners. Sometimes they ask for one, sometimes they sneakily snap a quick photo on their phone, and sometimes they outright stand right in front of you and take a picture. This was definitely true for us. But it was so funny because as we were waiting for the sun to rise, we ran into a group and they asked to take pictures with us. We obliged - we stood for a couple of group photos, then someone would run into it and they would have to take another, then they wanted only half the group in the photo, and then the floodgates opened. Everyone wanted a picture with us by themselves or with their best friend or what-have-you. There were so many cameras and flashes, that I felt like a celebrity. Once they moved on, another group came down from the top of the wall and they did the same thing! And then another group! We literally had a line of people waiting to take pictures with us. It was nuts. So if you see random pictures of us on the internet, that is the story.

After getting back to the city, we took a nap and then went to see a Kung Fu show. It of course was very touristy, but we just had to see it! They had some cool moves on stage and it was entertaining.

Our last day in Beijing was a low-key one. My cold had come into full swing so I was not feeling that great, plus we were tired from the previous day. We slept in and took our time at the Summer Palace. We got sucked in at the 'floating market' right next to the entrance (we had to get our souvenirs!), so we didn't have too much time to search all of the grounds. They were pretty big too! But we enjoyed a restful day. Then without skipping a beat, we hopped on the overnight train to Xi'an.


Xi'an

Similar to Shanghai, there aren't too many things to see in Xi'an so we only spent two days there as well. When someone says, "Shanghai," people think, "The Bund." When someone says, "Xi'an," people think, "The Terracotta Warriors." Which is true. That's what brings people all the way out there. And they were impressive! I knew that there were thousands of them found and that they were life-size, but something I didn't know about the Terracotta Warriors was that each one was crafted to have a different face. They actually look like they have personality. I think they said there are hundreds of different faces you can find in their ranks. They also used to be brightly painted! If you go to see the Terracotta Warriors, make sure you stop and look inside the museum they have there next to the archaeological dig sites. It has really good information to help you appreciate the Terracotta Warriors, and it also has some of the warriors inside. When we went to one of the dig pits, they had a warrior in a display case and it was swarming with people trying to take a picture with it. Just go in the museum and you can get one all by your lonesome :)

Selfie fail. We couldn't get both the background and foreground in focus. Oh well, I'm sure you've seen pictures of them on the internet already.

Look at each of their faces. They are all slightly different. That's nuts!

Yeah, so you can see the archaeological dig pits where they are still unearthing (apparently) more of the warriors and horses and chariots. After they unearth them, they have to find all the pieces and reassemble them, like a horrible jigsaw puzzle where it's all the same color and your pieces can break at any moment. It's just so impressive how old they are, how many there are, and how detailed each one is. It was great, but then once you see it, you can check your box and go.

My favorite thing we did in Xi'an was renting a tandem bicycle and riding along the wall of the Old City. There wasn't much to it, it was just fun! The weather was great, you get to really get a feel for the city as you ride around its perimeter and you can see what the old fortifications and corner towers looked like. It was more expensive than I thought to just enter the top of the city wall, but if you have a chance to do it, it's worth it!

Alright, the China saga will continue (and END) in a couple of days when I can get to writing about the last three cities we visited. Hopefully it will be soon! There are already some things I want to write about that have happened since we got back to Thailand! Man, I gotta get on this...

China, Part One: the Chinese Culture

Wow. What to say about China? I don't know where to start. We were there for 3 weeks, and there is too much to say, so I think I will tackle this with a multi-blog post approach. Here is part one.

China was a beast. It was amazing, frustrating, beautiful, chaotic, pushy, breathtaking and so rich with history. I don't want to sound like our trip was horrible, because it wasn't, but it was definitely a rough ride at times. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the past China all got together and collectively decided to make their country next to impossible for tourists to travel around. I felt like a first time tourist - lost and completely taken advantaged of. Like we were locked into tourist traps, nickeled and dimed left and right, and left alone with no way to get information.

Oh man, and the people! We actually did meet some really nice Chinese locals (of which I will tell you more later), but if you have heard any stereotypes of the Chinese being loud, pushy, and dirty.... it's totally true. It really is a completely different world over there! Gosh, there is so much to tell. Before I tell you about our itinerary and the sights, let me give you a better idea of what the culture is like over there. We experienced so many strange and downright crazy things that I had to create a list of them! About halfway through our trip, I ran out of paper and forgot to write more down just because they were so commonplace after a while.

Here are 10 things we learned that will give you hopefully a good, yet small representation of what it was like for us to travel around China.

1. Nobody speaks English (or reads it).

If you are going to China, just expect nobody to speak English. Yes, you will run into some Chinese tourists who speak English, or if you are really lucky, they know they area and can give you information. But I can't tell you how many times we walked up to booths and offices labeled, "Tourist Information," (in English) and not one person spoke a lick of English. [This is even in nice hotels and train stations!] And I'm like, then why bother to have the sign in English?! I guess it shouldn't be that frustrating, but it was at the time. We were literally dropped off by the train into multiple cities and had no idea where our hotels were, how to get there, what to do, or anything.

I guess there just aren't enough English speakers who travel through China on their own for the Chinese tourism board to bother learning/teaching English. And I guess it is our fault that we expect the whole world to learn English. It's funny because we met a few Chinese people who were shocked that we didn't learn Mandarin before traveling. They were really floored haha. (And I'm like, I'm not going to learn one of the most difficult languages in the world just for a 3 week vacation...)

Sidenote: we got a tip that if you need someone who speaks English, look around for a young-looking person wearing glasses, because they are most likely a student and have learned English. And guess what, it worked! Like every time.

 

2. Book all of your accommodation ahead of time and get it translated into Chinese characters.

We didn't have any hostels or apartments booked ahead of time, because here in Thailand you get a much better deal if you just walk in. But that is NOT the case in China. We ended up walking around Shanghai for 2.5 hours trying to find a place that wasn't full and was in our price range. After finally finding a hostel, I found the nearest computer and booked everything for the rest of our trip - I was not going to do that again haha.

Going along with no one speaking English, the taxi drivers don't read the roman alphabet letters, and they won't even try to understand you when you say the street names. So you must get everything important translated for you before you go to China. It will save you gobs of time!

3. There are tons of people, and most of them smoke.

Especially in the big cities (most notably Beijing), everybody smokes! I honestly think that the people don't know just how bad smoking is for you. I feel like the rest of the world is scaling back on the whole smoking thing, where it is like glorified in China! The tobacco stores look like high end jewelry stores and parents don't seem phased by blowing smoke into their children's faces. It is actually super sad when you think about it.

It's true also about how polluted the air is in the cities. So polluted that we could look straight at the sun in mid-day because it was orange/red. Having the pollution there made the smoking worse. And I guess the smoking makes the pollution worse too. An unfortunate downward spiral...

4. Bad manners? The best way I can describe it is there is no difference between private and public behavior.

It's been said before that Chinese people don't have manners. And that is what it looks like! They burp and fart loudly, sound like cows munching their food, push people over like it's the apocalypse, shout at the top of their lungs while on the phone, and you can't go 10 seconds without hearing a horn honk or someone hawking a nasty lougie. It's ridiculous! It comes across to us foreigners as being rude and disgusting. But not for them. That's just how it is. I think they are just in survival mode, you know? They are constantly surrounded by SO many people! In order to get anywhere, they have to push and shove for their lives. Basically, traveling in China is a BATTLE. You must fight for everything, and it almost becomes a habit. I remember lining up to get onto the plane back to Thailand and found myself kind pushing people to keep my place, until I realized what I was doing and I felt so bad! Haha, I had to remember these were sweet and reserved Thai people that would give me space :)

In a nutshell, there just isn't any regard for other people or for public appearance. If an old man wants to listen to some music, he will crank up the volume on speaker phone, even if it is 5 am on an overnight train. If a little girl has an itch, she will drop her pants and scratch that itch to no end, right in the middle of the train station. If a lady has a problem with a merchant, she will scream, throw her fists and everyone around will join sides like a scene in "West Side Story."

5. If an epidemic broke out in China, everyone would die.

I had heard the warning before to always carry toilet paper with you, and I was prepared for that. But something I didn't know is that they don't have soap anywhere! Literally, the one and only public soap dispenser that I saw in all of mainland China was in the Shanghai Museum. So no toilet paper, no soap. What do these people USE?! Ugh, so I this is where the 'dirty' stigma comes from... well that and constantly throwing trash on the floor.

6. Relieving yourself is nothing to be ashamed of!

I'll never forget the way a father pulled his kid's pants down, picked him up, and carried him over to pee into the trash can... right next to the People's Monument in Tiananmen Square.

Oh man, so many funny bathroom experiences. Not only have I become super comfortable with using squat pots, but I have learned the hard way that sometimes using the toilet is a very public experience. Many times there are no stall doors, or if there are doors, they don't close all of the way and people yank them open every 5 seconds anyways. One time I was holding the stall door closed (because, you know...) and from the other side, someone started yanking. I held it firmly to signify it was occupied but then she abruptly pried it from my fingers, waltzed in and started changing the trash can liner. It was the cleaning lady! As she left, she turned and smiled at me. She had nothing to apologize for, that's just the way China is! Nuts.

I think train stations have the worst public toilets. They literally have troughs [see photo above] where you just line up side by side and go! One time I was waiting in line for the bathroom and we are lined up kind of in front of all the stalls (because let's be honest, they don't really make lines in China) where everyone was watching a lady relieve herself because there was no stall door. People weren't even trying to avert their eyes! She was just squatting there defecating and everyone was nonchalantly observing her efforts.

7. Chinese people really are friendly and outgoing.

Here in Thailand, it's the local culture to be afraid of 'losing face.' Not in China! I guess because the people have been trained to not be ashamed of anything, they are really outgoing. There was this little toddler who you could tell just barely started walking, he looked up at me and sort of stumbled his way towards me with this huge slobbery smile on his face! He came right up and put his little hands on my legs for support. He was adorable! Usually little kids are terrified of foreigners, but in China we were greeted many times with wide eyes, big smiles and excited demeanors.

At first you think all the Chinese people around you are rude and out to get you. But then once you start talking to one of them (who speaks English) they are genuinely friendly and super helpful! That's when I realized that for all of their behaviors that we find insensitive and annoying, it can all be chalked up to cultural differences. At least in our experiences, the Chinese people are a good-hearted people. It just doesn't always come across that way. 

8. Keep all of your receipts!

After paying for our first room, I had to unload a bunch of papers, so I threw the receipt of payment away and then when we tried to check out the next morning, they wouldn't let us leave! I didn't have the receipt and apparently it was a big issue. They had to call the cleaning lady to search through our trash for it. When it didn't turn up, they did end up letting us go, but the concierge was NOT happy about it. So make sure you keep all your paperwork, always.

9. Being invited by strangers for tea or coffee is a scam.

I had been warned about many scams in China, but I had never heard this one before. I'm not saying that everyone who invites you for tea is out to get you, but for us, that WAS our experience. Luckily, we had the honest response that we don't drink tea. Then they would change the request to coffee, where we respond we don't drink coffee either. This is when the person would get a bit frustrated and they moved onto alcohol, where you guessed it, we don't drink that either! Then in almost a panic they would ask, "What DO you drink?! Juice? Water?" The first time this happened to us, the desperation made us feel uncomfortable and on edge so we knew to politely decline. And then when it happened two more times in different cities, we knew for sure it was a scam.

10. Resorting to McDonald's is not as shameful as I once thought.

We've lived away from the States for 6 months now and yes, we have had times when we break down and have to have some Western food. But never McDonald's. Saraburi has a KFC and Pizza Company, the latter of which we do visit about once every 1-2 weeks. Also we occasionally grab some Italian or Mexican food when we are down in Bangkok for a weekend or something. But pretty much every day we eat local Thai food, either at school or our night market. And it's awesome! Thai food is delicious, fresh, and just amazing. Chinese food, NOT so much. I did find a couple things that I liked - Shanghai noodles, chow mein, that sort of thing. But the Chinese palette is just so different from ours! Like way different.

A lot of our meals were made from family marts and I do say this with shame ... McDonalds. I had never really been to that point where you can't find any food that will settle well in your stomach as well as satiate it. And when you get to that point, you are desperate. We saw a McDonald's and went straight in. Biting into a hamburger was such a relief at first, but then afterwards, we felt gross. Like just really heavy and all of our energy sucked out. Our dinners ended up being a cycle of first, Chinese food, (and if we had a bad experience), then buying snacks from family marts, then not feeling satiated and resorting to McDonalds, where we then felt sick and went back to Chinese food. Again, not every Chinese meal was bad, we did come across some winners but needless to say, we were SO excited to come back 'home' to Thailand. So it's true what people say about American-Chinese food being better than actual Chinese food, in my humble opinion. After multiple tries and fails with the local food, I didn't feel as guilty entering those blessed 'Golden Arches.'


This was more of the 'fill-ins' of our China trip: the things that happened in between seeing the sights, the stories and memories that you reminisce for years later. So I posted this first because I wanted to make sure they were documented somewhere. Jonathan is working on gathering all of our pictures, so I will be putting the "Part Two" blog post together soon! Part two being our actual itinerary - Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Zhangjiajie, Guilin & Yangshuo, and Hong Kong. The whole sha-bang!

Be looking for it real soon...