Hello from Asia!
May/18/08 07:19 PM
We're in the middle of our first full day in Hong Kong today after three days in Beijing, China. It's been an eye-opening cultural experience thus far and I look forward to the remaining five weeks.
We landed around 8 PM in Beijing in the incredible new airport and first decided to venture out to get a late dinner. We stumbled upon a "Korean Barbeque" restaurant. We sat down at a table with a grill in the middle and after being handed menus, realized that the waiters didn't speak a single word of English, not even "hello". We were in for an adventure. The menu was just pages full of pictures of raw meats including chicken hearts, dog (they didn't mention what breed), cow brain, etc. We ended up getting chicken and beef (at least thats what the menu said it was) and never ended up with the water we ordered.
The next day we met up with our tour guide Sunny (thanks to our concierge Storm) who was to guide us around the city for the day in a tour bus. We first went to the Ming and Qing Tombs where 13 emperors are buried. A few of them were destroyed by the government during Mao's Cultural Revolution, so we only saw one. When entering the tombs we crossed the "barrier of life". When we re-entered the "real world" girls had to step over the step in the arch with their right foot first, while guys had to step over with their left foot. While doing this we were supposed to scream some Mandarin phrase signifying that we were leaving the world of the dead and re-entering to life. Then we traveled to a jade factory where we watched how they cut, polish, and figure different jade items and then were served lunch at a restaurant in the same building. Next, we were bused to the Great Wall of China, which was pretty impressive. It was in a really cool mountainous section of Beijing and snaked around the mountains as far as one could see. Finally, we toured a silk factory and saw the silk construction process from worm to bed sheet. All this, including transportation, entrance fees to the sites, and a full lunch, for $28 USD. We finished off the night at a Hot Pot restaurant, which was quite the experience. There everyone sits around a table where a huge soup-ish pot sits on a burner in the middle. The waiters bring out various raw meats, sauces, and vegetables that are all thrown into this pot and brought to a boil. The noodles in the pot begin small and thick and are stretched out by a waiter who dances around and whips the noodles around herself until they are stretched out and more like spaghetti. Everyone then scoops their share out of the pot and eats it with chop sticks. That night we went to a Karaoke place recommended by Sunny that was like nothing I've ever seen before. We all agreed that it would be a big hit in the U.S. We rented a private room complete with stage, TV, couches, neon lights, bar, etc. for something like $45 USD from 9 PM to 6 AM. It was a lot of fun. We left around 1:30 or 2, figuring that the $3 each wasn't too much of a burden to leave and get some sleep.
On the second day we were on our own without a tour guide, though the concierge Storm was always there to help us (he actually followed us around the city to places he thought we would encounter trouble). We first took the public bus to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen square was full of police, pollution, and cameras. There were cameras everywhere you looked, watching your every move. I have a feeling that if you made any sort of public demonstration you would be hauled off in an instant. The pollution was noticeable everywhere in Beijing, but especially in Tiananmen, as the buildings were all clouded and difficult to see. Most of us were coughing by the second day. The entrance to the Forbidden City, which served as one of the emperors former palace, was plastered with a huge picture of Mao and surrounded by Communist soldiers (dressed differently than the regular Chinese police that were everywhere), many of whom had red armbands around their right arms, eerily similar to pictures we've all seen of Hilter's guards in Germany. The architecture of the palace was very different, but intricate. The grounds weren't as nicely kept as the palaces in Europe, which was one of the things I noticed most while there. We then ate a quick lunch, which, for me, meant a stop at a pizza joint. I couldn't resist. After leaving the palace we entered the Zoo and quickly saw the Panda bears before hopping on a miserable boat ride where we were screamed at by a tour guide (not literally screamed at, she was just telling her story) on a speakerphone. They then ripped us off on a 30 won fee for entrance to the summer palace. We arrived at the Summer Palace of the emperor at 5:05, 5 minutes too late and 30 won poorer. Nevertheless, the palace, perched high on a hilltop, was a sight to be seen. We then took a cab to a Peking Duck restaurant, which we were told was a fancy Chinese restaurant. There was a stage in front of all the tables where kung-fu people and porecelin-doll-faced women sang and danced and performed traditional Chinese song and dance. The food was not that great and included a full chicken laid out on a plate in body form including the head. Needless to say, the whole chicken was pretty much there when we left.
We packed up that night and passed out from tiredness. The next morning we slept in a little and boarded a bus taxi from our hotel at noon and got to the Beijing Airport at around 1 PM for our 3 PM China Air flight to Hong Kong and arrived around 6 PM.
There's more to come...but I have to run to our first meeting with the program coordinator. I'll finish later. Good morning to the US, I guess. And good luck to all the B.C. High Class of '08 guys graduating today. I wish I could be there.
We landed around 8 PM in Beijing in the incredible new airport and first decided to venture out to get a late dinner. We stumbled upon a "Korean Barbeque" restaurant. We sat down at a table with a grill in the middle and after being handed menus, realized that the waiters didn't speak a single word of English, not even "hello". We were in for an adventure. The menu was just pages full of pictures of raw meats including chicken hearts, dog (they didn't mention what breed), cow brain, etc. We ended up getting chicken and beef (at least thats what the menu said it was) and never ended up with the water we ordered.
The next day we met up with our tour guide Sunny (thanks to our concierge Storm) who was to guide us around the city for the day in a tour bus. We first went to the Ming and Qing Tombs where 13 emperors are buried. A few of them were destroyed by the government during Mao's Cultural Revolution, so we only saw one. When entering the tombs we crossed the "barrier of life". When we re-entered the "real world" girls had to step over the step in the arch with their right foot first, while guys had to step over with their left foot. While doing this we were supposed to scream some Mandarin phrase signifying that we were leaving the world of the dead and re-entering to life. Then we traveled to a jade factory where we watched how they cut, polish, and figure different jade items and then were served lunch at a restaurant in the same building. Next, we were bused to the Great Wall of China, which was pretty impressive. It was in a really cool mountainous section of Beijing and snaked around the mountains as far as one could see. Finally, we toured a silk factory and saw the silk construction process from worm to bed sheet. All this, including transportation, entrance fees to the sites, and a full lunch, for $28 USD. We finished off the night at a Hot Pot restaurant, which was quite the experience. There everyone sits around a table where a huge soup-ish pot sits on a burner in the middle. The waiters bring out various raw meats, sauces, and vegetables that are all thrown into this pot and brought to a boil. The noodles in the pot begin small and thick and are stretched out by a waiter who dances around and whips the noodles around herself until they are stretched out and more like spaghetti. Everyone then scoops their share out of the pot and eats it with chop sticks. That night we went to a Karaoke place recommended by Sunny that was like nothing I've ever seen before. We all agreed that it would be a big hit in the U.S. We rented a private room complete with stage, TV, couches, neon lights, bar, etc. for something like $45 USD from 9 PM to 6 AM. It was a lot of fun. We left around 1:30 or 2, figuring that the $3 each wasn't too much of a burden to leave and get some sleep.
On the second day we were on our own without a tour guide, though the concierge Storm was always there to help us (he actually followed us around the city to places he thought we would encounter trouble). We first took the public bus to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen square was full of police, pollution, and cameras. There were cameras everywhere you looked, watching your every move. I have a feeling that if you made any sort of public demonstration you would be hauled off in an instant. The pollution was noticeable everywhere in Beijing, but especially in Tiananmen, as the buildings were all clouded and difficult to see. Most of us were coughing by the second day. The entrance to the Forbidden City, which served as one of the emperors former palace, was plastered with a huge picture of Mao and surrounded by Communist soldiers (dressed differently than the regular Chinese police that were everywhere), many of whom had red armbands around their right arms, eerily similar to pictures we've all seen of Hilter's guards in Germany. The architecture of the palace was very different, but intricate. The grounds weren't as nicely kept as the palaces in Europe, which was one of the things I noticed most while there. We then ate a quick lunch, which, for me, meant a stop at a pizza joint. I couldn't resist. After leaving the palace we entered the Zoo and quickly saw the Panda bears before hopping on a miserable boat ride where we were screamed at by a tour guide (not literally screamed at, she was just telling her story) on a speakerphone. They then ripped us off on a 30 won fee for entrance to the summer palace. We arrived at the Summer Palace of the emperor at 5:05, 5 minutes too late and 30 won poorer. Nevertheless, the palace, perched high on a hilltop, was a sight to be seen. We then took a cab to a Peking Duck restaurant, which we were told was a fancy Chinese restaurant. There was a stage in front of all the tables where kung-fu people and porecelin-doll-faced women sang and danced and performed traditional Chinese song and dance. The food was not that great and included a full chicken laid out on a plate in body form including the head. Needless to say, the whole chicken was pretty much there when we left.
We packed up that night and passed out from tiredness. The next morning we slept in a little and boarded a bus taxi from our hotel at noon and got to the Beijing Airport at around 1 PM for our 3 PM China Air flight to Hong Kong and arrived around 6 PM.
There's more to come...but I have to run to our first meeting with the program coordinator. I'll finish later. Good morning to the US, I guess. And good luck to all the B.C. High Class of '08 guys graduating today. I wish I could be there.
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