Beijing Continued

Here we have a few pictures of the forbidden city and the temple of heaven as well as the imperial garden. The Forbidden city was a the imperial court built in the Ming dynasty. Its built on 15 layers of bricks to prevent enemy armies from tunneling under and its several walls deep. In other words, its secure. The Emperor would rule here with his 1000 concubines, each hand picked in a special chamber in the back of the palace. Some of the stone carvings present in the city were moved in the dead of winter on roads of ice made by servants who sprinkled water ahead of the caravan.

The temple of heaven was a special ceremonial ground that animals would be sacrificed to in order to produce a plentiful following season. Inside the main atrium four pillars stand to represent the seasons as the foundations of the earth.

Oh and that one picture of me is in front of the forbidden city with the iconic Mao portrait in Tianemen square. By the way, LOTS of cops strolling around there. Armed as well. Its an odd little area. But all in all the trip to Beijing was spectacular and very worth while. So adios amigos, I'll see you in the funny papers.

北京欢迎你! (Or Beijing welcomes you)

Well, I just arrived back in Shanghai from a four day trip to Beijing. Lovely city, much more historical and traditional than Shanghai. We hired a tour guide and visited four of the biggest tourist sites in Beijing: The Ming Tombs, The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, and The Temple of Heaven. I've included pictures of each plus a sweet picture of me on top of the great wall. We stayed in a nice international hostel that had, oh be still my beating heart, a Western Style breakfast. Scrambled Eggs, Ham, Hash browns, Toast, and good old fashioned black coffee. I may as well have been draped in the American flag, singing the national anthem. As an added bonus, I got to spend a substantial amount of time watching Chinese Television. There is no better way to interpret a culture than by what they watch. And this culture, HATES modernity. God as my witness, 50% of the shows on t.v. were period dramas of some sort set in China's far distant past. It's as if deep down every Chinese wants to be sitting around in silk robes, practicing calligraphy and dropping dudes with gnarly swords. That's as maybe, it was still entertaining.

The Ming Tombs were uncovered in an archaeological expedition in the 50's. The portion we visited consisted of an underground palace made of marble and stone that housed the Emperor and his two wifes. Pretty lush abode for a dead guy. The tomb wasn't explicitly lavish but beautifully constructed and sculpted. Amidst his burial grounds, the emperor lays below earth that houses trees that are over 500 years old. Its pretty remarkable to view a tree that has outlived empires.

As for China's ubiquitous Great Wall, that superlative is not hyperbole. This structure is, in the truest sense of the word, awesome. Its maintenance and construction has been a primary charge of emperors since the Qin dynasty, the first dynasty in Chinese history. It spans well over 6000 Kilometers or for those using imperial measurements, somewhere in the neighborhood of 4000 miles. It is a sight to behold. Good old Mao once said, as translated by myself, "If you don't reach the top of the great wall, you're not a real man." SO we trekked for about an hour up to the highest point we could see from our portion of the wall. Plenty of Chinese asked to take pictures with us so we obliged them as much we could. After one hell of a climb we visited an overpriced jade market and we home for the day.

I'm writing this entry rather late so I think I'll retire to more comfortable accommodations and regale you, my faithful readers, with tales of the forbidden city and other such marvels tomorrow.

Quick Update

Hey all, so we just beat ECNU in the traditional ECNU (the university I'm at) vs. CIEE (the program I am studying with) 5 on 5 basketball game. 48 to 40. Admittedly, while everyone here thinks I'm some sort of phenom, I'm actually not very good. But victory was attained none the less. By the by, the freaking love basketball here. Basically everyone's first question to me is do I play basketball. Well today I did and today we won. I'll upload photos from the game later.

Alright yeah, I'm running behind

Sorry about the lack of updates. In all honesty there hasn't really been much to blog about. Still going to various restaraunts, still burden with a ton of work. Although yesterday I went with my Chinese class to a KTV bar or Karaoke bar. That was pretty fun. They rent out little suites that are about the size of a hotel room. It was pretty packed in there. I don't really understand the fixation Asians seem to have with Karaoke. Back in the states, a ton of my Asian buddies and their parents love Karaoke. Oh well ce la vie.

I've finished making the preparations for a little excursion up to Beijing during our study break. We'll be taking a night train and staying in a hostel. Most of the people in the program will be going so that will be fun. I'll get to see all of the ubiqittous Chinese tourist sites like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

Being on the ground here has proven to me that China has a long way to go before it overtakes the economy of the United States, if ever. 700 million people in this country only make a dollar a day. The majority of the populus is still tied to the land, making their living on rice paddies. Oh sure there is plenty of money to be made here. This will be the next great burgeoning market. But for all of China's talk about its long history and long term views, their development strategies are remarkably short sighted. The stock market here is still piss poor. The Shanghai Stock Exchange looks like a tomb. And a wanton disregard for social infrastructure does not breed financial success. Not to mention the remarkable cultural barriers that stand between China's rise to modernity and its current, essentially third world, state. I mean I've seen guys on bicycles delivering goods that no one would dream of transporting in any but a truck in the states. Obviously I'm no great scholar of economics but I certainely know the basic. This market is still in its infancy. There is money to be made here but that money goes to overseas coffers. Hell their GNP is a 1/10 of their GDP. So let the reactionaries spout all they want about how you have 7 years to learn mandarin. A country that can't keep the sewers from overflowing when it rains (yes it stinks and yes it is disgusting) has a few issues to solve before it can become a global hegemon.

We hold these truths to be self evident

Firstly, for those of you not living in a commie country, happy forth of July. My apologies about the lack of updates but the work load has been both harrowing and consistent throughout the week. Rather than post several pictures about one topic I'm going to give you five slices of my previous week. We had an exam on friday which is updates have been few and far between.

On Sunday I visited a church within the consult section of Shanghai. Several of my friends here wanted to go to church so I decided to tag along and see what I could glean from a sermon. In order to enter the church, the Chinese government requires a foreign passport; no passport, no entry. Although we weren't checked for our passports at the door here, I've heard that in Beijing they will not admit you without you first showing your papers. The church itself looked to be catholic in origin, my personal guess is it was founded by Jesuits. The service appeared to be denominationally indifferent but the pastor has had some seminary training. Very ecclectic blend of people due to the internationalized location of the church. There were Africans, Asians, and Whites all gathered there. The experience was quite interesting.

We also went to the Urban Planning Museum. Now while that sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry, it was really cool. The museum lays out what Shanghai will look in the next 20 to 30 years. There were several maticulously crafted miniature versions of the city outlining Shanghai's future. The was also a vomit inducing 3D tour of Shanghai where you stand in a room filled with panoramic projectors as you fly through Shanghai. Yes, it is nauseating and your head will hurt, but it was pretty sweet as well.

Lastly this weekend we took a weekend trip to the city of Nanjing which is about a 3 hour bus ride. We got to see several pretty sweet sights. First we took a trip to the former presidential palace, founded when Nanjing was still the capital and China was a republic. The picture I'm including is a picture of Chiang Kai Shek's office within the palace. The whole place was maintained in the same art deco style that it was created in. While we were there we saw many military people touring the site. My guess is its part of some cadet program the Chinese military has, that they have their newest or in training soldiers tour the palace. Next we saw where Sun Yatsen, the founder of the Nationalist Party and the first president of china, is intured. As far as places to be buried go, Sun has a pretty sweet setup. His tomb rests upon the Purple Mountain within an elaborate Temple structure. Lastly we saw the defensive wall the surronds the city and visited a master painters shop within the fortifications. He creates these beautiful paintings within crystal spheres. They are absolutely beautiful.

Well, apart from mountains of work, that was pretty much my week. Now it's time for me to start studying but I bid you, my faithful readers, adieu.

P.S.
I have eaten the most disgusting thing I could imagine a deranged chef coming up with. Congealed Duck Blood. Let me tell you it tastes just like it sounds like it would.

That show was FREAKING SWEET

Man that was a blast. We got to sit up in the very front row. It was a stupendous time. I bought the dvd of the show for a 100 kuai or 14 dollars American. I realize that I have already expounded on this fact but everything is so damn cheap here, its wonderful. Each one of their acts came out and performed to some sort of appropriate music. There was one where somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 girls rode one bike to the William Tell Overture. There was also some funny vaudeville sort of acts that also performed. I'll post some pictures. One of my favorites was this straw hat dance they did to the tune of the Cantina music from Star Wars.

I also went looking for clothes with couple of friends at that labyrinthine mall. Basically, good luck finding anything in a store here if you are tall. Or have big feet. And common male waist sizes here are like 28 and below. Although a friend of mine told me about the fabric district where tailors will custom make shirts and suits for a song. She said that you can get a suit for 300 kuai which is essentially 42 bucks. I need to become a business man who travels between Shanghai and America and gets paid in dollars, considering the per capita GDP here is 1500 American. Ok well much love as always and harken back dear reader for more adventures.

My brain hurts

We started our language class on Thursday. Each class session is entirely in Chinese which, let me tell you, is pretty damn intense. But I feel like I'm not totally lost so I suppose thats a good thing. The last couple of days were filled with work. I realize that that's why we are here but it was still kind of a shock to start working in terms of academics again.

One aspect of this culture that I completely can not relate to is the innate reverance towards authority and age. I suppose as an American I'm taught from an early age that I'm independant and unique and while we were also taught that one should respect authority we also learn to question it. I A good example of this is what my one friend said her teacher said in her class. Her teacher mentioned that chicken skin was good for your skin but could not give any evidence to the fact other than princess in ancient china used to eat it. Personally authority means nothing to me except that they happen to be holding the biggest stick. For all the talk about the utilitarianism of China they are astonishingly withdrawn from logic. They are an anarchornistic people. Trapped somewhere between their western future and eastern heritage.

Anyway I'm getting ready to go to an acrobatic show so I'll have some sweet pictures next time I post.

Good lord

This city is absolutely amazing. Mind you, I coming from a relatively prosperous western background so I can spend money like its going out of style. Everything is so cheap here that it's hard for me to conceptualize Yuan as real money. I feel like I'm using Disney dollars. Privileges aside, so far this trip as been an absolute blast. I have too many pictures to show you all of them so I'm just going to post a couple at the beginning of this post.

On Monday or June 23rd for those keeping score at home, We had a tremendous amount of orientation events to attend. We covered Health, Safety, Academic Program, a brief over view of history in shanghai, and cultural issues. I think this program is going to be fantastic. We also talked amount culture shock and other such aspects. Oddly enough, amidst the chaos of crazed motorists and frantic pace of the city, I feel fine. I'm enjoying just seeing all of these new cultural concepts and ideas. Some people are homesick already but not I. I'm loving every minute of this.

The night of the 23rd we went to an amazing dinner hosted by the CIEE staff at a restaurant downtown. It was in that communal lazy Susan style of dining, where all the dishes are served on a rotating platter in the middle of the table. The tastes, textures, and smells were positively divine. We sat with the program director at our table. Everyone here is awesome. The staff are very helpful and every student I've met in our program is fun and adventurous. I feel that I will foster some strong friendships here and cherish my memories in years to come.

After dinner a group of us went out to a very nice hookah and cocktail bar. I shudder to think of what the cost of night where you get several drinks and chip in for a hookah would be back in the states, but here it translated to about 15 bucks. Next morning we had a placement exam to see what classes would would test into. I got into intermediate level 2 which is just where I wanted to be. There's also a business class about the evolving nature of international business in china in addition to our language class.

After the exam we visited the pearl tower, a monstrous sight seeing building and museum. We got to take some pictures of the view from the top as well as visit a bizarre little museum composed mostly of mannequins that look like the were dredged from some defunct Disney ride. There were also several amusing Chinglish signs which, while quite humorous, detracted from the historical experience. Additionally, some Chinese lady thought I was John Mayer and took a picture with me.

That night a group of us went to a Chinese pizza joint near our campus. Interesting fact: Pizza was apparently invented in China and exported by Marco Polo. Like everything I've eaten so far, it was fantastic. It was sweeter than one would expect however it's flavor was exquisite. After dinner, I busted out my dress clothes and we hit a fun little touristy club called I Heart Shanghai. I'll be honest, it was kind of nice to be able to order in English.

The next day we had our first day of our business class, which seems quite promising. The teacher is funny and it looks like he has a solid but not overly difficult curriculum planned. Well folks that about wraps it all up for my current escapades but I'm sure there will be more to follow. Best wishes and keep America rolling till I get back.

Romping through Shanghai

Here's a picture of our dorm

What a day we had yesterday! Firstly after diving into sleep last night at 10 pm, I awoke at about 5:30. I slipped out of the room on tip toes because my room mate was still sleeping and jumped into the shower. The showers here are great, good temperature and water pressure. These dorms certainly beat the crap out of the freshmen dorms back at Penn State. Even though United lost my bag, we were provided with some soap, tooth brushes, and tooth paste. I returned refreshed to my room and found that my room mate was awake as well. We decided to go out and try to find some breakfast since our first meeting wasn't until 8:45.

So at about 7:00 we meet up with a girl who was also from Penn State and headed off campus to find some food. We found another group of people out seeking nourishment so we combined forces and headed to a little hole in the wall noodle shop near our campus. And thus began my first foray into Shanghai cuisine. Here's a picture of my delicious but supremely salty beef noodles.

A girl we were with had pretty good mandarin skills so she was able to communicate what we all wanted. After our morning noodles, we headed back to the dorms to meet up with some of the CIEE staff to start our orientation. We talked about some of the basic goals and ideas of the program and generally outlined what we would be doing once the classes kicked up. Everybody that I've met in the program so far is very chill and fun. I suppose that it takes a certain kind of personality to decide to live in a relatively alien culture with minimal or no language skills. After several meetings, we gathered into groups and began a walking tour of campus.

Here's a couple of pictures I took while we were on the move. Notice the giant Mao statue presiding over the campus. Because he was SUCH a fan of intellectuals and academics.

After we hoofed it around the campus a little bit, we headed over to one of the host families houses for an authentic home cooked Chinese meal. By the way, the roads are pure anarchy here. People flying down the street hooking till their horns break, bicyclyists and motorcyclyes all but ignoring entirely any traffic laws, pedestrians jaw walking through 6 lane intersections. It's madness. Seeing how everyone drives like a hooligan its no wonder that china leads the world in fatal traffic accidents. But I digress. The homestay family cooked up one hell of a meal.



Now I'm unsure about what is authentic but I know that this stuff, whatever it was, was absolutely amazing. There was such a diverse array of flavors and textures. The taste were a little bit more subtle than American Chinese food but so much more savory. After the meal we got to watch some Chinese television. One particularly bothersome aspect that I noticed in the advertising was that nearly all the actors and actress looked Western. In several cases there were what apeared to be White American people in these commercials. I want to explore this cultural aspect of self discrimination in greater detail.

After the meal, took a train over to a gawdy monstrousity of mall located in downtown Shanghai. Here's some pictures of the 25 FLOOR mall.


Firstly theres a photo of the train station, second is the exterior of the mall, thirdly is a photo that is attempting but failing to show the scale of this leviathan, and forth is my new phone which I just bought with enough minutes for the program for 328 rmb or about 46 bucks. We also saw the nearest and nicest gym which had its own special floor in this joint. A couple of other guys and myself and probably gonna join up. Its a little bit far from campus but we can take a bus.

Afterwards we returned and everyone was planning what we were gonna do that night. A group of us, myself included, walked around downtown Shanghai. We ended up losing people in the shuffle of taxis and subways but people just sort of went their own ways anyway.







Here's a few pictures of our night. First is Nina and my room mate Ho-yeung as we were getting ready to go out in my room. The second is of me and our group as we explored downtown Shanghai. The last three are of this ridiculously swanky hotel called the Garden Hotel. We got drinks in the bar and relaxed in a lavish lounge complete with magnificent chandiliers and a singer accompanied by a pianist.


I was able to sip on a little old world comfort by getting a Mojito. All in all it was a great day and a great night. Well thats it for now but I'll keep all concerned abreast of my latest exploits.

22+ hours of travelling later...

What 22+ hours of sleepless travel do to a young man's face

Today I arrived in Shanghai after surviving 2 flight delays and knees so stiff I think they've started to rust. I had my first in depth chinese language experience on the plane to shanghai. The guy who sat next to me didn't speak a word of English. We communicated with my rudimentary Chinese and a series of nods and gestures. He was completely polite and wished me good luck in my future studies.

After touching down in china, having not slept more than 45 minutes, I cleared through immigration to the lovely relization that one of my bags didn't make it on to the plane. Thankfuly I had my clothes bag but any hope of using my toiletries that night was dashed. Outside the baggage claim I met with the CIEE welcome wagon. A couple of other students had arrived there as well so we small talked about universities and majors as we boarded a bus bound for the East China Normal University.

Here's a few pictures I took on the way to the school

The fact that I'm in a totally different country with a whole new way of life is just starting to sink in. There is a multitude of small aspects that really drive this home. Street vendors peddling whatever wares they trade, armies of bicyclists cluttering the streets. It is alien but enchanting all at once.

Well that's it for the preliminaries. Tomorrow we have a proper orientation and hopefully my bag will show up. Thanks to everyone who is supporting me, I love you all.