Fall Break Part 2: More of Shanghai

So, on another morning I got up (relatively) early (maybe 9 or so) to go and check out the nearby 中山 (zhong shan, roughly middle mountain) Park. I didn't see any 空竹 (kong zhu) or 绸子　（chou zi, ribbon dancing), but it was still a nice walk. We met a Chinese guy playing the harmonica, saw a cute kitty (cute kitties ALWAYS attract girls, which this one did too, whom Jamie proceeded to thoroughly charm), and even saw some dancing. Apparently there was some kind of cultural and arts performance going on, 'cause there were people performing some kind of song and play thing, and a while later it broke out into social dancing, during which Jamie and Dave jumped in to completely dominate the middle of the dance floor. A few timid Chinese people even started to mimic their movements, trying to do the kind of 'mock Irish step dancing' that Jamie and Dave were doing. Just another example of how the Chinese people just need someone to show them how to be wild and crazy, and then they can do it too. Just a little situational motivation.

After getting some street food Shanghai's 包子 (bao zi, meat inside a covering of dough, commonly translated as 'dumplings') are huge! maybe three inches across! We hopped the Subway, and then a taxi to head to a travel agent's office to pick up our train tickets for Hong Kong, and then hit up the Shanghai museum. It has a nice collection of old pottery and sculptures, some paintings which I wasn't interested in, and a lot of old coins. The minority art was some of the most interesting stuff, perhaps because they packed the best of a dozen different cultures into one area. There were some REALLY cool-looking masks. After the museum we were hanging around ina nice little public square near the museum when a group of girls approached us. We started chatting, and then we starting walking together. They led us to a tea house, at which point Jamie and I both started to get pretty suspicious. Jamie asked to see the menu, and after a few minutes of insisting he got to take a look. With all they stuff as expensive as it was, we decided not to waste our time with what already seemed like it was gonna be a tea scam.


After this we wandered around to get some cheap food, and then over to a main road to meet some other friends who also came to Shanghai. We meet up with them, and the a few of us went down to the waterfront to reserve some tickets on a river cruise for us all, since that was something that Jamie really liked. The river cruise was cool, although we all wondered why the boat has StarWars: Episode 1 pre-production sketches inside... hmmmm. The view of both shores from night time was nice though.


There are a few events which have gotten muddled together, and I am not exactly sure which day they happened, but they are worth telling. First and foremost, on one day, I think it was one of the first days, we hit the bund (an area of Shanghai by the waterfront), and what appeared to be a communist-era monument. I am sure that we were terribly disrespectful to the monument, but it was so much fun. We climbed, jumped, and scrabbled all over it. Pictures on photobucket can give more details to that. After that, we walked North more, and had a terrible time bartering with a Uighur candy salesman. We wanted just a little bit of candy, and he charged is 60 kuai, a ludicrous amount! The argument was getting so agitated that a crowd was gathering to watch. We eventually just gave him half of what he was asking for, and took half of the candy he gave us. We walked farther north and found a hotel where we asked for a map, and if they knew of any salsa clubs, but they just thought that we were weird foreigners. Granted, we were a bit strange, but we just wanted a salsa club. These people couldn't help us though. Walking out of the hotel, I saw a shop accross the street with strange purple lighting on the inside. Staring at it for a minute, I realized there was a lady, standing inside the door. She motioned at me to come over to her, and then I got to get a bit of a suspicious at to what kind of place that was. I suppose the sign above the shop saying "Pleasure" something could have helped that judgment, but I just hadn't seen it. We laughed a lot, and I had a bit of an urge to go and talk to her, to ask her how many foreigners they get, and what it is like being in that business, just I didn't have the courage.

The sex museum was pretty disappointing all in all, but there were a few interesting pieces. There was one culture that was not only it that a basically impossible position to sustain, they are also on the back of a dragon. Most intense sex. EVER.

I had mixed feelings to find a store in Shanghai with the A in a circle logo. It was cool to see, but was also sad that it, too, has now been appropriated by a corporation. (for those of you that don't know, the A in the circle in a symbol for anarchism, a school of thought which I have been interested in for a while)

There are a few other events in Shanghai which are worth noting, but those will have to be in a different post. I need to go to my philosophy class, and then to a dress rehearsal for a Halloween performance this Friday, "Death Prom", featuring jugglers, dancers, and lots of other stuff. Wish me luck.

Also, if you actually read this, please leave me a comment so that I know you are out there. I'm mostly assumed that it is just my mom and dad reading this, but I would be excited to know who else is reading my adventures, so leave me a comment please!

Fall Break Part 1: Shanghai

So, it has been nearly a month since I wrote a blog entry. I think that I have pretty good excuses for this. I don't remember what my excuse was for the first two weeks, but the next week was mid-terms week, so I was busy studying, and the week following was VACATION WEEK! WOOO! Some fun stuff happened before mid-terms and vacation, like checking out a Buddhist temple for a weekend (I have a particularly fond memory of jogging up the mountain that said temple was on in the moonlight. Quite beautiful), but most of my mind at the moment is preoccupied with things a bit closer to the present, and I want to write about my fall break before I forget the details.


On Friday I had my Chinese mid-term: damn was that easy! I at least expected it to be longer than our regular bi-weekly tests, but it was both the same length (2-3 pages) and was pretty easy. I'd like to attribute that to my good study habits, but in all reality I got tired of studying a day or two before the test itself happened, so my preparation immediately pre-test time was minimal. After all, staring at a stack of 500 flashcards of Chinese words is pretty good motivation to go watch a movie or something. Anything to avoid another mind-numbing cycle of going through flashcards, really. Anyway, after the test, my roomie and I headed to the bank. This is because my account was running low and I wanted to check my activity to see if it was all correct. Unfortunately, there has been no errors or anything. I have burned through 1,000 US dollars already. Shit! Even in China where things are cheap, too many times eating out and too many taxis sure added up. That was disappointing, and I spent a little while mentally beating my self up over it. I decided that I would just use my credit card for fall break, and after that be super frugal. I plan to get a "job" in Beijing teaching English too, to add to supplement the 124 yuan in my bank account here in Beijing. But enough of money worries. On to the fun stuff.

Friday evening Jamie, David, Eric Swanson and I hopped on a train (soft seat) at Beijing Train Station, heading for Shanghai. I slept fine on the train, although it would have been nice if the overhead lights had been turned off. I finished my audio book of "Call of the Wild" while on the train, and we arrived in Shanghai the next morning at about 7. We hopped on the Subway to go to our host's place, and exited out of the wrong subway station (although it was just right across the street from the correct one) and spent about two hours wandering the streets first trying to make sense of the directions, then trying to locate the streets and landmarks, and finally being ecstatic when we managed to locate one of the streets he mentioned. When we arrived as Manfred's place, the door was closed, there was no doorbell, and no one came when we knocked. I was worried that it was a bust, but after a few minutes of knocking a skinny man in a towel came to the door. This was Manfred, and he had just gotten out of the shower. We soon met Shu Shu and Eric Xu, Shu Shu being Manfred's Chinese girlfriend (Manfred is Italian) and Eric being a Chinese-American who had just recently come to Shanghai, and was living with Manfred. We said some hellos, relaxed for a little bit, dropped our stuff off, and headed out. Eric was going to go out searching for a pick-up game of ultimate frisbee that he had located online previously, and when he invited us to tag along we were eager to go. We failed to find the game, but ended up spending the afternoon at Century Park in the Pu Tong area (eastern park of the city). We wandered around a bit, talked, and eventually settled on a spot of grass for napping, since the other guys were tired from having not slept very well on the train last night. I was fine though, so I spent a while talking to Eric about various things. It definitely bordered on being one of those "deep" conversations, and we talked about his travels and work, differences between Chinese and American youth, and teaching and performing. After a while I got up and started playing with my ribbon, and Eric gave it a shot too. The other guys woke up after a while, and we walked nearby to an interesting structure. I think it used to be the center support pole for a tent or something, but now it was just a big steel pole with some cables hanging from it... or at least that is all it would have been to a lesser mind. I saw the potential for play, though. With David's help, we invented "human tether ball." Swinging on these cords got the attention of some nearby Chinese people, and one or two guys gave it a shot, while some families and ladies took pictures and watched. Chinese people are normally pretty timid and shy, but when you provide them with opportunity and set an example for them it is surprising what wild things they will do! Eric was certainly surprised to see the Chinese people participating in our crazy little game of swinging from cable to cable. While leaving the park, in such a good mood from the human tether ball, Dave and I did a little leapfrogging, and got some good pictures out of it too.



We hopped on the subway and headed to downtown Shanghai for the Jin Mao tower, supposedly the tallest in Shanghai, but that info in our guidebook was false! We viewed it from a dozen different angles, and another building right next to it was at least a few stories taller. Nonetheless, we didn't know that yet, and Jamie and Dave wanted to see the top floor, the 88th. I didn't feel like paying the 50 kuai fee for getting up to the 88th floor, so I suggested we try and get to the bar on the 87th floor for free. After taking an elevator up to the hotel lobby, and then another elevator to a second lobby, and then a third elevator up to the bar, we were rewarded with a great view. We had a 10 minute wait (which was spent gleefully gawking out of the windows at the city far below), and then we sat down at a table and were shocked by the prices. I was all for leaving. After all, we had what we came for (the view), so why should be give them ludicrous amounts of money for their food and drinks? But, experiencing tyranny of the majority (not for the last time on this trip, I must say) we ordered a few drinks and a few desserts, ate a helluva lota free munchies which I guess came with getting a table, and enjoyed the evening view from the tower. After that though, we were hungry for some actual food, so we headed to a nearby mall and food court, ordered some fast noodles, and ate 'em up.

I'm a bit tired of writing right now, so I am gonna save the rest for later, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. I am interviewing a Chinese acrobat tomorrow, as well as doing my volunteering for the anti-desertification NGO at Beijing Agricultural University.