China: Part 3
The last of the three basic "what I did" entries. After this I'll have a couple entries about random stuff I noticed. I've been having trouble uploading photos for the last few days so I went ahead and just posted this without them, but they'll be up at some point.
So we got back to Hangzhou. And the weather was warm, and continued to get warmer over the last three days. (Valpo felt so cold when I got back!) We finally got to spend some time at Xifu (West Lake). I wound up going there a few times. When people think of Hangzhou, Xifu is probably the first thing they think of. Everywhere else we went, people would say, "You've been in Hangzhou yet you haven't been to Xifu!?"
Sunday 3/8
We interviewed some people (mostly from Ningbo University, though we didn't go to Ningbo) one-on-one for a while, and treated them to coffee at Starbucks (of course there is Starbucks in China. There are also plenty of knock-offs). That was nice, the coffee shop had a good view of the lake, though it was tempting to just want to leave and go walk around the lake at last. Since it was a Sunday and there was fairly nice weather, people were everywhere. Every fifty feet or so there was a bunch at the lake's edge, and they were all occupied. Besides all the pedestrians, there were also tour buses which instead of honking to tell people to get out of the way played little ice-cream-truck-like tunes, only they sounded like they had more of a Chinese influence on the melodies than a Western influence. (The water trucks which clean the streets, though, play Western tunes.)
After the interview we split up a bit and I passed on going to another buffet so I could enjoy more time at the lake, because I didn't know if I'd get any more of it. Though cloudy, it was pretty, and in one of the pagodas, I found a group of amateurs singing Chinese opera! They weren't in costume and it was mostly a couple of old ladies singing and dancing (a little) as the others played their instruments. They had brought microphones with them and everything, so it was fun to watch for a few minutes. Other people would just walked through the little pagoda as if nothing was happening, other Chinese people stayed for a little while and whipped out their cameras even before I did.
Didn't have much time this day, so even though my classmate and I meant to check out a little old temple or palace of some sort, we passed on and got on a taxi back to the hotel, where Prof. Lin had arranged a group interview with a Chinese politics professor. His main point was that governments should have open communication. He also wasn't very optimistic about China and Japan ever having a good relationship, not only for recent historical reasons, but because of old attitude that China is better than "little Japan" (his words about how China would refer to Japan).
Then we had some free time, so Britt and I wound up just walking back to the lake. It was around dusk, but we took some more pictures. After all, the plum and peach blossoms were blooming! People were still enjoying the lake and having a leisurely Sunday. Some kinds were blowing bubbles from the bridges, some kids were roller-blading along the sidewalks (and having significant difficultly on the stairs). Couples were taking pictures of each other. And all at once that evening, everyone was trying to hail a taxi at the same time. It took us about half an hour before we could finally catch one, and even then, while we were waiting to get in, there was suddenly a crowd of girls in their twenties ready to try to take our taxi from us. We had some difficulty communicating with the driver, especially since we were going two different places, and he seemed a little irritated, but as I spoke a little Chinese to apologize that we weren't familiar with the city, he seemed a bit more forgiving. Still, that was one of the longest taxi rides I took the whole trip.
I had dinner with Prof. Lin, some other classmates, and a bunch of teachers from another university. We had Beijing Duck. It was alright. Afterward, I went to a giant bookstore next door and got a bi-lingual book of Tang Dynasty poetry before we went back to the hotel.
Monday 3/9
We went to Zhejiang University, the #3 university in all of China. Many people who aren't even affiliated with this university like pointing that out. The people on the campus would point that out, but they also liked pointing out that they had the largest school cafeteria in all of Asia. So, now I can say I've eaten at the largest school cafeteria in all of Asia. They served Beijing Duck there, too. At least, at the guests' part of the cafeteria.
Before lunch, though, we spent more time talking with groups of students. After doing interviews as usual, we had some more small talk. My family came up in the conversation, so I showed them a family portrait. What's funny is that people in China, although they would be surprised at the size of my family, were generally not as surprised as people I've met in the rest of the world. This group was interested, and one asked, "were you homeschooled?"
Imagine my surprise! Usually I have to explain what homeschooling is and that it's not the same as dropping out of school. So we talked a bit about homeschooling and how that would work and about how I attended community college before transferring to Valpo, and they were pretty interested.
After this university, we went to another university to talk to classes of students. The first class didn't seem to care much about the issues, and in fact, some came up to me afterward to tell me that they were sorry we might have wasted our surveys on them just because "girls don't care about politics, you know". Another class was more enthusiastic and the girls I interviewed there had a lot more to say.
On the way back from that school, we agreed to split up because only Britt and I wanted to go straight to shopping (which I hadn't done yet). They also knew we were both thinking of going to a famous temple the next morning, the only morning when we'd have free time. So on the bus ride back, they just kind of kicked us off the bus somewhere we hadn't seen before. Once we looked around a bit more, we figured out that it was around that temple, so we decided to try looking for it. Never found it, actually, but we realized that they dropped us off in the botanical garden. More specifically, in the magnolia and camellia garden~!
To top this off: they were all blooming and smelled wonderful! We had enough time before the lighting would get to dark, so we took some pictures, and then decided to find our way back to the lake inside, since we knew we could find a taxi from there later to get to the night market once it opened.
We walked around another part of Xifu, since it's a really, really big lake and it would take several hours to try to get around the whole thing. We took some more pictures, and one it started getting darker and the night market would be opening, we went to find a taxi. But that was only after accidentally wondering up a little stone staircase to an old building and pagoda view behind some other building, and then we found our selves inside of a gate and have to turn back the way we came. We walked pretty far and found a museum and stuff, but everything was dark over there and there were pretty much only expensive lakeside restaurants, so we quit there.
It was much faster getting a taxi that night, and the driver was more cheerful than the last one we had. The night market was relatively close by, and it was full of people. I don't know why or how, but a car had been parked in one of the walkways between the stands, and it was difficult for everyone when it tried getting out a bit later. Immediately someone tried selling me bootleg DVDs, and I was tempted to get NHK's Atsuhime drama, but thought better of it.
The people could be very persistent and many, like the ones selling DVDs, could speak very good English. Pretty everyone could shout something like "Hey lady, you like...?". Britt and I got separated early on, but we both figured it'd be easier to go at our own paces and then just call each other up when we were finished. There were a lot of shops selling jewelry, DVDs (for the same prices, I bet they were all cooperating), key chains, t-shirts, purses, fans and other Chinese-looking crafts, and... underwear. The Doraemon underwear amused me. A lot of places had the same goods. I'll bet that, since many do this to make their living, they buy things in bulk from very cheap sources before trying to cheat foreigners.
I started by only wanting to get an overview of what there was and what range of prices to expect. I discussed a few pairs of earrings and a asked about a hair piece at one table with a girl in her twenties, and I found her an interesting person--certainly I always felt better about buying from talkative salespeople instead of from old guys who would just shake their heads at any offers I made--and the salespeople were usually talkative. I could figure that if they were too cheerful to settle that I probably hadn't argued enough initially. Anyway, since that was the first jewelry table I looked at, I didn't want to buy anything yet, so I walked away saying "I'll keep looking. I'll come back" and she got a little frustrated and yelled "you won't be back!"
I looked around at about half the shops and asked some questions at some other jewelry tables (and found myself buying a pair of earrings because when I asked about a similar pair, the lady asked me "what price do you want" instead of giving me a price, so I didn't get to just get information! Anyway, they were nice and not too expensive) and surveyed what general things there were, but I decided that I still liked the jewelry at the first place best, so I went back, and said "look, I'm came back!" She was pleased, and we continued bargaining. I only wanted a pair of earrings or two, but she insisted on the ornate hair piece I asked about earlier. I kept insisting I really didn't want it, but she offered the hair piece and a pair of earrings to me (and a small sparkly hair thing thrown in for free) for half of what she originally said the hair piece cost earlier, so I wound up getting the hair piece after all. I don't have many clothes that will go with it, but it sure is pretty.
After I made the purchase (finally), we were all (but all, I mean me, the salesperson, and the two girls with her) very content, and with that out of the way they immediately started asking me where I was from and if I was an exchange student and stuff, and sort of motioned for me to crawl under the table to hang out with them. We had barely got past saying that I was a college student from America and I was only in China for a short trip when out of no where, she puts an arm around one of the other girls and says, "we speak Japanese!"
My immediate response was "本当！？ 私も！" and we hit it off from there. They more quickly moved the things under the table to have me crawl under and talk with the more quiet of the two (I later found out that they were sisters a year apart in age), who was thinking of studying in Japan next year. Yoh-san, who I mentioned a few entries ago, spent the next forty minutes or so talking (in nothing but Japanese) until Britt called saying she was ready to leave. Yoh-san followed me out to go meet up with her and ask if I could have a few more minutes to try and run around and find gifts for people (since I had only bought a few things for myself up to that point). Britt said that was fine and I went dashing back into the now more crowded market space, prepared to bargain much faster. I assured Yoh-san I'd be fine on my own and she went back to her table, and moved through the second half of the shops more easily, partly because I had already seen most of the stuff and partly because I wasn't looking for anything for myself anymore. There wasn't a very wide selection, but I hopped around and grabbed some things, using as much Chinese as I good and leaving as soon as I didn't like how the bargaining was going. Salespeople only chased after me a couple times, and I bargained with those ones more.
Britt called again, and I answered, saying "I'm sorry! I got caught up bargaining over fans, I'll just pick some out and go! I'm sorry!" and she replied that it was no problem, she just wanted to make sure I hadn't eaten yet because she had found some street venders who had some cheap, tasty food (no stinky tofu, though that was closer to where the market started). I finished up, then went to meet up with her and walk back to a busy street (by "busy", I mean automobile traffic. There was plenty of human activity at the narrow market).
There were a few vendors set up there, one was frying a variety of food on a stick, one was searing a variety of food on a stick, and one was roasting some corn on a stick. I went with the one who was searing food. When I asked what the meat on the stick was, he picked up three and said "chicken. You want three, right?" and put them on. They were lean slices, about a centimeter (at most) thick. I picked out some big mushrooms and what, in the dark, looked like asparagus. It made a pretty tasty, quick, satisfying dinner for only 8 kuai (a little more than a dollar). I ate the mushrooms first, then tried the "asparagus", which turned out to be chili peppers. I didn't finished the chili peppers, but the meat was really good. It was probably the best chicken I had for the entire trip. Granted, they eat more pork and beef than chicken, but still. I like chicken and it was good chicken.
It was easy flagging a taxi, and we told the cheery driver which hotel we wanted, and off we went. We drove around the lake on some bumpy bridges (by 'bumpy', I mean like bunny hills), and then got to a little hotel by the lake... it was a rather expensive one with a very, very similar name--still Xizi with the same characters, and altogether it'd still be translated as "Xizi Hotel" (or "West Child Hotel" if you want to get really into, but the "child" part doesn't really matter). We were a little flustered and couldn't say "it's a different Xizi!" and the poor driver looked flabbergasted. How could there have been a different Xizi Hotel? Fortunately, Britt had brought a business card from our hotel with a little map on the back, and he looked over it very carefully before saying something along the lines of "ooooh, I see." We did eventually make it and had to pay a bit more, but it's not as if Chinese taxis are very expensive to begin with.
Tuesday 3/10
Our one free morning. While packing my things that morning, I watched an American Idol style Chinese opera competition on TV. I knew one of the scenes they performed, and was pleased. Yoh-san rode out on a bus and then took a taxi to my hotel (I gave the phone to main desk to explain where the hotel was). She had brought some presents, and I could only give her my last couple Valpo freebies. I was so good about bringing things like postcards or dream catcher keychains as just-in-case gifts when I went to Japan and wish I had thought of doing that again.
Yoh-san and I didn't have any particular ideas where to go or what to do, so we walked to Xifu again. Again, I know! But it's a big lake and the weather was really, really nice that day, sunshine and everything. I even got a little bit of a tan. We went to yet another part of the lake, and had some people take pictures of us at a couple places. I was so stuck on Japanese that I would accidentally say "arigatou", but Yoh-san was just as bad saying quick things like "like this" and "one more" to our Chinese photographers in Japanese. It's wonderful when a foreign language becomes automatic. We also saw many, many young couples in wedding gowns and tuxedos out having professional photos taken by the lake. The brides had all their makeup on, but jeans underneath. Yoh-san explained that Chinese couples nowadays typically take their photos before the wedding, and that they were coming on a popular wedding season.
After walking for a couple hours, we got on a short bus trip for one kuai to go grab lunch at a cheap place she knew well. The bus was very crowded (was careful to watch my bag, as I always was), and was amused that there was a TV inside the bus playing a documentary about river otters. The restaurant was near where the night market had been, and it was a somewhat dirty (by American standards) casual little place, but the food was good and the service very very fast. We ordered a few items, and I got full quickly. Afterward, she needed to head back to her sister's place so they could make the few-hour drive out to her relatives' home.
People in Hangzhou were richer than most Chinese people, and in China people are either very well off or very poor. Yoh-san seemed to be in the upper portion, since she could afford nice clothes, a nice education at a college about a thousand miles away, and as I found very interesting, could afford to have siblings. When she told me that the girl the night before had been her older sister and they were a year apart, I told her I was surprised, because that didn't seem very common. She replied that it wasn't common for siblings to be only a year apart, most were a few years apart. I clarified that having siblings at all seemed a bit unusual, but while she acknowledged the one-child policy and said that most people don't really like it, she seemed just as resigned to it as everyone else I happened to ask. Given things I've read before, I think she was born around the time the government started getting more strict about the policy, although up until that point many people still went ahead and paid the fine for having second children. The fine got more stiff when they got more strict. Yoh-san's father past away when she was in high school, and her mother remarried later to a widower with a son--Yoh-san's schoolmate, actually--so now she has a brother and a sister.
Actually, one of the girls I talked to in Nanjing told me that she had a twin sister, but it sounds like they were adopted. She might have made a mistake with her English, but she made it clear that she has a twin. As far as the policy is concerned, twins are allowed because they're lucky. At least, that's what I've heard. I'm only so well-versed on what the exact rules of the policy are.
Anyway, Yoh-san and I parted at a street corner so she could get on a bus and I could get on a taxi. I got another cheerful driver, and knew right away to give him the business card/map for the correct Xizi Hotel-he didn't seem like he had ever heard of it before, either. We talked a bit about why I had come to China, how soon as I'd be going back, how I liked Hangzhou, how long I had been studying Chinese, and the occasional question to which I had to smile and saying "I'm sorry, I don't understand". It wasn't much on topic, but he asked, "have you ever been to Germany?" I thought I didn't understand him at first, but told him I had, and he seemed pleased. He had lived in Germany for five years, he said, and though he didn't speak much English, he started telling me about the differences/similarities between German and English and I told him all I remembered how to say was "Where's the bathroom?", and he laughed, and then we arrived. So ended my adventures in Chinese taxis.
I had a little time to check out the little toy stores right next to each other across the street, and they had some very random looking action figures, stuffed animals, pages of stickers and even wrapping paper. Those were funny because for the popular anime series I recognized, I could tell that they were mixing official images with fan art. I was tempted to get a little piece of wrapping paper with pictures of Chii, Sakura, and some kind of un-CLAMP-related fan character just because I found it funny, but I thought better of it.
We left from the hotel on another bus to go to the last college (Mingan's Alma Mater), where I only had five minutes to start doing an interview before I had to leave it to Mingan and head out with two other girls to talk to the final high school, which was right by our hotel. They had an elective class there, so the students who were gathered were already interesting in American culture and wanted to ask questions. We did that for a while, then when the class ended and we finished answering some other questions, a couple students were assigned to walk us back to our hotel (just across the street and down a block), but we wound up bringing a crowd.
We ate dinner at the hotel, and then got on a bus to head out to Shanghai, which took a few hours. We stayed at a very small five-star hotel in the French Quarter, "Old Shanghai". It was alright, but we couldn't see out our windows and the TV was too complicated to figure out, and the doors would beep constantly if you didn't flash your card to lock them every time you closed them, even if you were inside and dead bolted it or something.
Wednesday 3/11
I had no idea what to do in Shanghai, so I figured I’d go up in that tower and at least see the view. I was able to ask how to get there alright, and just used Chinese to find the subway station, get a ticket, and then get across the highway (it wasn’t too far from our hotel). It was crowded, as expected, with both Chinese and foreign tourists. So many foreign tourists go there, in fact, that there were three bronze statues together: tourists, two women in summer clothing looking up at the tower, and a man behind them with a backpack. They were quite obviously tourists, and stereotypical ones at that.
I would have gone up the tower, since I enjoyed Tokyo Tower and all, but admission to get to the highest point was 150 kuai. That’s only about $20, but I didn’t feel like spending that much. The aquarium near by was the same price, but I did find a wild insect museum which had plenty of other critters, too. That was only 40 kuai, and I was tempted to go both because it seemed amusing and because it’d be fun to answer the question “what did you do in Shanghai?” with “I went to a bug museum”. But I didn’t have too much time, so I went back to the subway station. When the subway back took off, an elementary school boy fell a bit, which caused his mother to fall back on me. It was only mildly awkward and his parents smiled and apologized and told their son to apologize to me, but he was rolling his eyes and didn’t bother much. I didn’t particularly mind because his parents, at least, seemed very nice. I smiled that it was alright, and as the ride went for a short time, I caught enough of their conversation to understand that they were scolding him, telling him that he has to be more considerate to foreigners. At that point I smiled and said “it’s no problem”, and the parents smiled and in surprise and said “oh, you understand!”
People seemed more surprised in Shanghai to hear me speak Chinese than any other place (besides classrooms, but we were already put on display there). Evidentially, most foreign tourists or business people there don’t speak much Chinese at all. But everyone used to dealing with the visitors had pretty English, especially for saying things like “Hey lady, you like Gucci? Rolex? Rolex! You like?”. The more reputable ones had much more of an English vocabulary.
On the way back from the station, I stopped in a cheap looking shop I saw while on my way earlier. They had lots of cheap little Chinese-looking goods and hair things and card decks and what not. Prices were posted, and they were much, much cheaper than most things at the night market were. In retrospect, I probably should have bought more there. I picked out only one hair thing, even though it was only about $4.20. Oh well.
The way the place was set up was that they had some individual venders set up behind counters, with one register upstairs in one store and one register downstairs for the vendors down there. You’d pick out your things, then the vendors would write it up on a pad of paper, then give you the paper to hand to the cashier. After you got the receipt, you’d go back to the vendor to get your things. One of the vendors automatically used some English with me, but when I asked where to pay in Chinese, she got a very surprised, but happy and thankful tone and expression as she said, “oh, you speak Chinese!”. It seemed like she meant to say “I’m so glad some people study some Chinese before they come to Shanghai!”.
I went back to the hotel and got my complimentary fruit platter. That was something very nice about China, the fruit was always very, very fresh. Britt and I talked over our watermelon, Asian pears and apple slices, and then we then we brought our luggage down to the lobby to wait for Prof. Lin. He was a bit late, so in the meantime one of the guys in our group mentioned a street vender he got some kind of meat-filled pancake from for three kuai each. I decided I’d go and get one, too.
The somewhat old, smiling lady had a little crowd of young Chinese professionals (or fancy hotel workers, I couldn’t tell with the way they were dressed) standing around, waiting as the lady flipped the little cakes on her griddle, and filled some plastic bags with three or four of them at a time. I watched, unsure whether or not there was a line. The people noticed and smiled, and the lady cooking them asked somewhat unclearly in Chinese, “would you like meat or vegetable?” and I replied, “one meat one”.
The ladies standing around smiled wider and commented on how good my Chinese was. It’s funny, in some places you only need to open your mouth and say one word and they’ll start praising your Chinese. In some of these instances, though, people seemed more impressed that I could simply understand whatever Chinese someone had just said. It’s one to spout our phrases someone could learn in a guidebook, but another to comprehend what’s actually going on, I guess.
The lady cooking them smiled and complimented me on my Chinese as well, and I asked how much for one. She then said “liang kuai” (two kuai) and immediately looked a little sad. I didn’t know if she had made a mistake, since Ben had bought them for three kuai each, so I repeated, “liang kuai? Hao,” and gave her only two of the kuai I brought. I got my meat pancake and went back to the lobby, where Drew (who had very good Chinese) was complaining that she had tried charging him three kuai when it was only two. So lucky me.
Prof. Lin arrived, and we got on the bus and went to the international airport in Shanghai. I rather like the airports in China. Each time we checked in, it was like there was no line, and security went smoothly. Even though they’d most likely have you on a pedestal as they waved the metal sensor around you, it never seemed like anyone was hurrying you through security like they do in America. It helps, probably, that they have you wait behind a yellow line and then tell you when to step forward and show them your boarding pass and then put your carry-on items on the conveyor belt and then proceed through the metal detector. The rules are pretty much the same as in America, and yet there are rarely lines, or at least not long ones. Granted, I only went through security at four Chinese airports.
There weren’t many people at that airport that day, actually. We had a somewhat expensive lunch/dinner while waiting in the airport (my last bites of bamboo were in that soup. I rather loved the bamboo). What I found funny was that they served Japanese food at that restaurant along with Chinese style and Korean style food and some sandwiches. Therefore, the Chinese girls working there stood at the entrance and advertised what kind of food they had in English and Chinese and then they tossed in the occasional “irrashaimase” (“welcome!” in Japanese).
We didn’t wait long to get on the flight, it was only about 25% full, but for some reason when we boarded, we had to go through about four people standing at different points to recheck our bags and reexamine our tickets. Since there weren’t many people (I should always fly international on a Wednesday!), I got the window seat and the seat next to it to myself, and while I didn’t sleep, I had a relatively comfortable flight back.
I shall still continue updating with a few more entries, so as to post the photos meant to be in this entry, and mention some random things I noticed and to talk a bit more about the food.
So we got back to Hangzhou. And the weather was warm, and continued to get warmer over the last three days. (Valpo felt so cold when I got back!) We finally got to spend some time at Xifu (West Lake). I wound up going there a few times. When people think of Hangzhou, Xifu is probably the first thing they think of. Everywhere else we went, people would say, "You've been in Hangzhou yet you haven't been to Xifu!?"
Sunday 3/8
We interviewed some people (mostly from Ningbo University, though we didn't go to Ningbo) one-on-one for a while, and treated them to coffee at Starbucks (of course there is Starbucks in China. There are also plenty of knock-offs). That was nice, the coffee shop had a good view of the lake, though it was tempting to just want to leave and go walk around the lake at last. Since it was a Sunday and there was fairly nice weather, people were everywhere. Every fifty feet or so there was a bunch at the lake's edge, and they were all occupied. Besides all the pedestrians, there were also tour buses which instead of honking to tell people to get out of the way played little ice-cream-truck-like tunes, only they sounded like they had more of a Chinese influence on the melodies than a Western influence. (The water trucks which clean the streets, though, play Western tunes.)
After the interview we split up a bit and I passed on going to another buffet so I could enjoy more time at the lake, because I didn't know if I'd get any more of it. Though cloudy, it was pretty, and in one of the pagodas, I found a group of amateurs singing Chinese opera! They weren't in costume and it was mostly a couple of old ladies singing and dancing (a little) as the others played their instruments. They had brought microphones with them and everything, so it was fun to watch for a few minutes. Other people would just walked through the little pagoda as if nothing was happening, other Chinese people stayed for a little while and whipped out their cameras even before I did.
Didn't have much time this day, so even though my classmate and I meant to check out a little old temple or palace of some sort, we passed on and got on a taxi back to the hotel, where Prof. Lin had arranged a group interview with a Chinese politics professor. His main point was that governments should have open communication. He also wasn't very optimistic about China and Japan ever having a good relationship, not only for recent historical reasons, but because of old attitude that China is better than "little Japan" (his words about how China would refer to Japan).
Then we had some free time, so Britt and I wound up just walking back to the lake. It was around dusk, but we took some more pictures. After all, the plum and peach blossoms were blooming! People were still enjoying the lake and having a leisurely Sunday. Some kinds were blowing bubbles from the bridges, some kids were roller-blading along the sidewalks (and having significant difficultly on the stairs). Couples were taking pictures of each other. And all at once that evening, everyone was trying to hail a taxi at the same time. It took us about half an hour before we could finally catch one, and even then, while we were waiting to get in, there was suddenly a crowd of girls in their twenties ready to try to take our taxi from us. We had some difficulty communicating with the driver, especially since we were going two different places, and he seemed a little irritated, but as I spoke a little Chinese to apologize that we weren't familiar with the city, he seemed a bit more forgiving. Still, that was one of the longest taxi rides I took the whole trip.
I had dinner with Prof. Lin, some other classmates, and a bunch of teachers from another university. We had Beijing Duck. It was alright. Afterward, I went to a giant bookstore next door and got a bi-lingual book of Tang Dynasty poetry before we went back to the hotel.
Monday 3/9
We went to Zhejiang University, the #3 university in all of China. Many people who aren't even affiliated with this university like pointing that out. The people on the campus would point that out, but they also liked pointing out that they had the largest school cafeteria in all of Asia. So, now I can say I've eaten at the largest school cafeteria in all of Asia. They served Beijing Duck there, too. At least, at the guests' part of the cafeteria.
Before lunch, though, we spent more time talking with groups of students. After doing interviews as usual, we had some more small talk. My family came up in the conversation, so I showed them a family portrait. What's funny is that people in China, although they would be surprised at the size of my family, were generally not as surprised as people I've met in the rest of the world. This group was interested, and one asked, "were you homeschooled?"
Imagine my surprise! Usually I have to explain what homeschooling is and that it's not the same as dropping out of school. So we talked a bit about homeschooling and how that would work and about how I attended community college before transferring to Valpo, and they were pretty interested.
After this university, we went to another university to talk to classes of students. The first class didn't seem to care much about the issues, and in fact, some came up to me afterward to tell me that they were sorry we might have wasted our surveys on them just because "girls don't care about politics, you know". Another class was more enthusiastic and the girls I interviewed there had a lot more to say.
On the way back from that school, we agreed to split up because only Britt and I wanted to go straight to shopping (which I hadn't done yet). They also knew we were both thinking of going to a famous temple the next morning, the only morning when we'd have free time. So on the bus ride back, they just kind of kicked us off the bus somewhere we hadn't seen before. Once we looked around a bit more, we figured out that it was around that temple, so we decided to try looking for it. Never found it, actually, but we realized that they dropped us off in the botanical garden. More specifically, in the magnolia and camellia garden~!
To top this off: they were all blooming and smelled wonderful! We had enough time before the lighting would get to dark, so we took some pictures, and then decided to find our way back to the lake inside, since we knew we could find a taxi from there later to get to the night market once it opened.
We walked around another part of Xifu, since it's a really, really big lake and it would take several hours to try to get around the whole thing. We took some more pictures, and one it started getting darker and the night market would be opening, we went to find a taxi. But that was only after accidentally wondering up a little stone staircase to an old building and pagoda view behind some other building, and then we found our selves inside of a gate and have to turn back the way we came. We walked pretty far and found a museum and stuff, but everything was dark over there and there were pretty much only expensive lakeside restaurants, so we quit there.
It was much faster getting a taxi that night, and the driver was more cheerful than the last one we had. The night market was relatively close by, and it was full of people. I don't know why or how, but a car had been parked in one of the walkways between the stands, and it was difficult for everyone when it tried getting out a bit later. Immediately someone tried selling me bootleg DVDs, and I was tempted to get NHK's Atsuhime drama, but thought better of it.
The people could be very persistent and many, like the ones selling DVDs, could speak very good English. Pretty everyone could shout something like "Hey lady, you like...?". Britt and I got separated early on, but we both figured it'd be easier to go at our own paces and then just call each other up when we were finished. There were a lot of shops selling jewelry, DVDs (for the same prices, I bet they were all cooperating), key chains, t-shirts, purses, fans and other Chinese-looking crafts, and... underwear. The Doraemon underwear amused me. A lot of places had the same goods. I'll bet that, since many do this to make their living, they buy things in bulk from very cheap sources before trying to cheat foreigners.
I started by only wanting to get an overview of what there was and what range of prices to expect. I discussed a few pairs of earrings and a asked about a hair piece at one table with a girl in her twenties, and I found her an interesting person--certainly I always felt better about buying from talkative salespeople instead of from old guys who would just shake their heads at any offers I made--and the salespeople were usually talkative. I could figure that if they were too cheerful to settle that I probably hadn't argued enough initially. Anyway, since that was the first jewelry table I looked at, I didn't want to buy anything yet, so I walked away saying "I'll keep looking. I'll come back" and she got a little frustrated and yelled "you won't be back!"
I looked around at about half the shops and asked some questions at some other jewelry tables (and found myself buying a pair of earrings because when I asked about a similar pair, the lady asked me "what price do you want" instead of giving me a price, so I didn't get to just get information! Anyway, they were nice and not too expensive) and surveyed what general things there were, but I decided that I still liked the jewelry at the first place best, so I went back, and said "look, I'm came back!" She was pleased, and we continued bargaining. I only wanted a pair of earrings or two, but she insisted on the ornate hair piece I asked about earlier. I kept insisting I really didn't want it, but she offered the hair piece and a pair of earrings to me (and a small sparkly hair thing thrown in for free) for half of what she originally said the hair piece cost earlier, so I wound up getting the hair piece after all. I don't have many clothes that will go with it, but it sure is pretty.
After I made the purchase (finally), we were all (but all, I mean me, the salesperson, and the two girls with her) very content, and with that out of the way they immediately started asking me where I was from and if I was an exchange student and stuff, and sort of motioned for me to crawl under the table to hang out with them. We had barely got past saying that I was a college student from America and I was only in China for a short trip when out of no where, she puts an arm around one of the other girls and says, "we speak Japanese!"
My immediate response was "本当！？ 私も！" and we hit it off from there. They more quickly moved the things under the table to have me crawl under and talk with the more quiet of the two (I later found out that they were sisters a year apart in age), who was thinking of studying in Japan next year. Yoh-san, who I mentioned a few entries ago, spent the next forty minutes or so talking (in nothing but Japanese) until Britt called saying she was ready to leave. Yoh-san followed me out to go meet up with her and ask if I could have a few more minutes to try and run around and find gifts for people (since I had only bought a few things for myself up to that point). Britt said that was fine and I went dashing back into the now more crowded market space, prepared to bargain much faster. I assured Yoh-san I'd be fine on my own and she went back to her table, and moved through the second half of the shops more easily, partly because I had already seen most of the stuff and partly because I wasn't looking for anything for myself anymore. There wasn't a very wide selection, but I hopped around and grabbed some things, using as much Chinese as I good and leaving as soon as I didn't like how the bargaining was going. Salespeople only chased after me a couple times, and I bargained with those ones more.
Britt called again, and I answered, saying "I'm sorry! I got caught up bargaining over fans, I'll just pick some out and go! I'm sorry!" and she replied that it was no problem, she just wanted to make sure I hadn't eaten yet because she had found some street venders who had some cheap, tasty food (no stinky tofu, though that was closer to where the market started). I finished up, then went to meet up with her and walk back to a busy street (by "busy", I mean automobile traffic. There was plenty of human activity at the narrow market).
There were a few vendors set up there, one was frying a variety of food on a stick, one was searing a variety of food on a stick, and one was roasting some corn on a stick. I went with the one who was searing food. When I asked what the meat on the stick was, he picked up three and said "chicken. You want three, right?" and put them on. They were lean slices, about a centimeter (at most) thick. I picked out some big mushrooms and what, in the dark, looked like asparagus. It made a pretty tasty, quick, satisfying dinner for only 8 kuai (a little more than a dollar). I ate the mushrooms first, then tried the "asparagus", which turned out to be chili peppers. I didn't finished the chili peppers, but the meat was really good. It was probably the best chicken I had for the entire trip. Granted, they eat more pork and beef than chicken, but still. I like chicken and it was good chicken.
It was easy flagging a taxi, and we told the cheery driver which hotel we wanted, and off we went. We drove around the lake on some bumpy bridges (by 'bumpy', I mean like bunny hills), and then got to a little hotel by the lake... it was a rather expensive one with a very, very similar name--still Xizi with the same characters, and altogether it'd still be translated as "Xizi Hotel" (or "West Child Hotel" if you want to get really into, but the "child" part doesn't really matter). We were a little flustered and couldn't say "it's a different Xizi!" and the poor driver looked flabbergasted. How could there have been a different Xizi Hotel? Fortunately, Britt had brought a business card from our hotel with a little map on the back, and he looked over it very carefully before saying something along the lines of "ooooh, I see." We did eventually make it and had to pay a bit more, but it's not as if Chinese taxis are very expensive to begin with.
Tuesday 3/10
Our one free morning. While packing my things that morning, I watched an American Idol style Chinese opera competition on TV. I knew one of the scenes they performed, and was pleased. Yoh-san rode out on a bus and then took a taxi to my hotel (I gave the phone to main desk to explain where the hotel was). She had brought some presents, and I could only give her my last couple Valpo freebies. I was so good about bringing things like postcards or dream catcher keychains as just-in-case gifts when I went to Japan and wish I had thought of doing that again.
Yoh-san and I didn't have any particular ideas where to go or what to do, so we walked to Xifu again. Again, I know! But it's a big lake and the weather was really, really nice that day, sunshine and everything. I even got a little bit of a tan. We went to yet another part of the lake, and had some people take pictures of us at a couple places. I was so stuck on Japanese that I would accidentally say "arigatou", but Yoh-san was just as bad saying quick things like "like this" and "one more" to our Chinese photographers in Japanese. It's wonderful when a foreign language becomes automatic. We also saw many, many young couples in wedding gowns and tuxedos out having professional photos taken by the lake. The brides had all their makeup on, but jeans underneath. Yoh-san explained that Chinese couples nowadays typically take their photos before the wedding, and that they were coming on a popular wedding season.
After walking for a couple hours, we got on a short bus trip for one kuai to go grab lunch at a cheap place she knew well. The bus was very crowded (was careful to watch my bag, as I always was), and was amused that there was a TV inside the bus playing a documentary about river otters. The restaurant was near where the night market had been, and it was a somewhat dirty (by American standards) casual little place, but the food was good and the service very very fast. We ordered a few items, and I got full quickly. Afterward, she needed to head back to her sister's place so they could make the few-hour drive out to her relatives' home.
People in Hangzhou were richer than most Chinese people, and in China people are either very well off or very poor. Yoh-san seemed to be in the upper portion, since she could afford nice clothes, a nice education at a college about a thousand miles away, and as I found very interesting, could afford to have siblings. When she told me that the girl the night before had been her older sister and they were a year apart, I told her I was surprised, because that didn't seem very common. She replied that it wasn't common for siblings to be only a year apart, most were a few years apart. I clarified that having siblings at all seemed a bit unusual, but while she acknowledged the one-child policy and said that most people don't really like it, she seemed just as resigned to it as everyone else I happened to ask. Given things I've read before, I think she was born around the time the government started getting more strict about the policy, although up until that point many people still went ahead and paid the fine for having second children. The fine got more stiff when they got more strict. Yoh-san's father past away when she was in high school, and her mother remarried later to a widower with a son--Yoh-san's schoolmate, actually--so now she has a brother and a sister.
Actually, one of the girls I talked to in Nanjing told me that she had a twin sister, but it sounds like they were adopted. She might have made a mistake with her English, but she made it clear that she has a twin. As far as the policy is concerned, twins are allowed because they're lucky. At least, that's what I've heard. I'm only so well-versed on what the exact rules of the policy are.
Anyway, Yoh-san and I parted at a street corner so she could get on a bus and I could get on a taxi. I got another cheerful driver, and knew right away to give him the business card/map for the correct Xizi Hotel-he didn't seem like he had ever heard of it before, either. We talked a bit about why I had come to China, how soon as I'd be going back, how I liked Hangzhou, how long I had been studying Chinese, and the occasional question to which I had to smile and saying "I'm sorry, I don't understand". It wasn't much on topic, but he asked, "have you ever been to Germany?" I thought I didn't understand him at first, but told him I had, and he seemed pleased. He had lived in Germany for five years, he said, and though he didn't speak much English, he started telling me about the differences/similarities between German and English and I told him all I remembered how to say was "Where's the bathroom?", and he laughed, and then we arrived. So ended my adventures in Chinese taxis.
I had a little time to check out the little toy stores right next to each other across the street, and they had some very random looking action figures, stuffed animals, pages of stickers and even wrapping paper. Those were funny because for the popular anime series I recognized, I could tell that they were mixing official images with fan art. I was tempted to get a little piece of wrapping paper with pictures of Chii, Sakura, and some kind of un-CLAMP-related fan character just because I found it funny, but I thought better of it.
We left from the hotel on another bus to go to the last college (Mingan's Alma Mater), where I only had five minutes to start doing an interview before I had to leave it to Mingan and head out with two other girls to talk to the final high school, which was right by our hotel. They had an elective class there, so the students who were gathered were already interesting in American culture and wanted to ask questions. We did that for a while, then when the class ended and we finished answering some other questions, a couple students were assigned to walk us back to our hotel (just across the street and down a block), but we wound up bringing a crowd.
We ate dinner at the hotel, and then got on a bus to head out to Shanghai, which took a few hours. We stayed at a very small five-star hotel in the French Quarter, "Old Shanghai". It was alright, but we couldn't see out our windows and the TV was too complicated to figure out, and the doors would beep constantly if you didn't flash your card to lock them every time you closed them, even if you were inside and dead bolted it or something.
Wednesday 3/11
I had no idea what to do in Shanghai, so I figured I’d go up in that tower and at least see the view. I was able to ask how to get there alright, and just used Chinese to find the subway station, get a ticket, and then get across the highway (it wasn’t too far from our hotel). It was crowded, as expected, with both Chinese and foreign tourists. So many foreign tourists go there, in fact, that there were three bronze statues together: tourists, two women in summer clothing looking up at the tower, and a man behind them with a backpack. They were quite obviously tourists, and stereotypical ones at that.
I would have gone up the tower, since I enjoyed Tokyo Tower and all, but admission to get to the highest point was 150 kuai. That’s only about $20, but I didn’t feel like spending that much. The aquarium near by was the same price, but I did find a wild insect museum which had plenty of other critters, too. That was only 40 kuai, and I was tempted to go both because it seemed amusing and because it’d be fun to answer the question “what did you do in Shanghai?” with “I went to a bug museum”. But I didn’t have too much time, so I went back to the subway station. When the subway back took off, an elementary school boy fell a bit, which caused his mother to fall back on me. It was only mildly awkward and his parents smiled and apologized and told their son to apologize to me, but he was rolling his eyes and didn’t bother much. I didn’t particularly mind because his parents, at least, seemed very nice. I smiled that it was alright, and as the ride went for a short time, I caught enough of their conversation to understand that they were scolding him, telling him that he has to be more considerate to foreigners. At that point I smiled and said “it’s no problem”, and the parents smiled and in surprise and said “oh, you understand!”
People seemed more surprised in Shanghai to hear me speak Chinese than any other place (besides classrooms, but we were already put on display there). Evidentially, most foreign tourists or business people there don’t speak much Chinese at all. But everyone used to dealing with the visitors had pretty English, especially for saying things like “Hey lady, you like Gucci? Rolex? Rolex! You like?”. The more reputable ones had much more of an English vocabulary.
On the way back from the station, I stopped in a cheap looking shop I saw while on my way earlier. They had lots of cheap little Chinese-looking goods and hair things and card decks and what not. Prices were posted, and they were much, much cheaper than most things at the night market were. In retrospect, I probably should have bought more there. I picked out only one hair thing, even though it was only about $4.20. Oh well.
The way the place was set up was that they had some individual venders set up behind counters, with one register upstairs in one store and one register downstairs for the vendors down there. You’d pick out your things, then the vendors would write it up on a pad of paper, then give you the paper to hand to the cashier. After you got the receipt, you’d go back to the vendor to get your things. One of the vendors automatically used some English with me, but when I asked where to pay in Chinese, she got a very surprised, but happy and thankful tone and expression as she said, “oh, you speak Chinese!”. It seemed like she meant to say “I’m so glad some people study some Chinese before they come to Shanghai!”.
I went back to the hotel and got my complimentary fruit platter. That was something very nice about China, the fruit was always very, very fresh. Britt and I talked over our watermelon, Asian pears and apple slices, and then we then we brought our luggage down to the lobby to wait for Prof. Lin. He was a bit late, so in the meantime one of the guys in our group mentioned a street vender he got some kind of meat-filled pancake from for three kuai each. I decided I’d go and get one, too.
The somewhat old, smiling lady had a little crowd of young Chinese professionals (or fancy hotel workers, I couldn’t tell with the way they were dressed) standing around, waiting as the lady flipped the little cakes on her griddle, and filled some plastic bags with three or four of them at a time. I watched, unsure whether or not there was a line. The people noticed and smiled, and the lady cooking them asked somewhat unclearly in Chinese, “would you like meat or vegetable?” and I replied, “one meat one”.
The ladies standing around smiled wider and commented on how good my Chinese was. It’s funny, in some places you only need to open your mouth and say one word and they’ll start praising your Chinese. In some of these instances, though, people seemed more impressed that I could simply understand whatever Chinese someone had just said. It’s one to spout our phrases someone could learn in a guidebook, but another to comprehend what’s actually going on, I guess.
The lady cooking them smiled and complimented me on my Chinese as well, and I asked how much for one. She then said “liang kuai” (two kuai) and immediately looked a little sad. I didn’t know if she had made a mistake, since Ben had bought them for three kuai each, so I repeated, “liang kuai? Hao,” and gave her only two of the kuai I brought. I got my meat pancake and went back to the lobby, where Drew (who had very good Chinese) was complaining that she had tried charging him three kuai when it was only two. So lucky me.
Prof. Lin arrived, and we got on the bus and went to the international airport in Shanghai. I rather like the airports in China. Each time we checked in, it was like there was no line, and security went smoothly. Even though they’d most likely have you on a pedestal as they waved the metal sensor around you, it never seemed like anyone was hurrying you through security like they do in America. It helps, probably, that they have you wait behind a yellow line and then tell you when to step forward and show them your boarding pass and then put your carry-on items on the conveyor belt and then proceed through the metal detector. The rules are pretty much the same as in America, and yet there are rarely lines, or at least not long ones. Granted, I only went through security at four Chinese airports.
There weren’t many people at that airport that day, actually. We had a somewhat expensive lunch/dinner while waiting in the airport (my last bites of bamboo were in that soup. I rather loved the bamboo). What I found funny was that they served Japanese food at that restaurant along with Chinese style and Korean style food and some sandwiches. Therefore, the Chinese girls working there stood at the entrance and advertised what kind of food they had in English and Chinese and then they tossed in the occasional “irrashaimase” (“welcome!” in Japanese).
We didn’t wait long to get on the flight, it was only about 25% full, but for some reason when we boarded, we had to go through about four people standing at different points to recheck our bags and reexamine our tickets. Since there weren’t many people (I should always fly international on a Wednesday!), I got the window seat and the seat next to it to myself, and while I didn’t sleep, I had a relatively comfortable flight back.
I shall still continue updating with a few more entries, so as to post the photos meant to be in this entry, and mention some random things I noticed and to talk a bit more about the food.