6 Days In China And I Still Can't Use Chopsticks...

We ported in Hong Kong which has to be 10 times the size of New York City (or so it seemed…). There were skyscrapers in every direction and the city never seemed to end. I got off the ship for a few hours, had bowls of noodles for lunch at a restaurant where the Chinese patrons laughed at a group of Westerners failing with their chopsticks. One word that makes me happy: Starbucks! Yes, there were Starbucks and McDonald’s and KFC’s all over China. Don’t you just love globalization? (The worst was the Starbucks we saw in The Forbidden City in Beijing). After the brief time in Hong Kong, it was time for a big adventure with my friend Charlie! We gathered all our stuff in a large duffel and went to the Sheraton Hong Kong where we had been informed that a driver would be picking us up to drive us an hour outside of Hong Kong where we would meet up with his step-dad’s business partner, Michael Woo and his wife Kristine, in Shenzen to fly to Shanghai. The Woos were our guides for the next 6 days, which was just amazing… We arrived at the Sheraton and waited for 20 minutes, getting nervous that our entire trip would fall through right then and there. All of a sudden, a short Chinese man comes in with a sign that has our names on it! That was such a relief. When we met up with the Woos, they were extremely friendly and so much fun. I was nervous that it could have been awkward, but it wasn’t at all. We flew to Shanghai and checked into our hotel near “The Bund” area with all the skyscrapers and then explored the city and its nightlife. One of the bars we went to had a stage and there was a band performing. Michael, at one point, translated what the singer was saying in between songs: he was asking if anyone in the audience wanted to play on stage and Charlie immediately said he would. I doubt the small, 25-person audience in the room knew “When I Come Around” by Green Day, but everyone applauded and it was so much fun. Way to go, Charlie!

 

The next day we explored Shanghai and visited “The Bund” and some parts of the city, visited the City God Temple, did some bargaining and had amazing Chinese food and snacks. The morning of the 3^rd day we flew to Beijing and visited the Temple of Heaven and Tianamen Square at night, after having dinner at the QuanJade Peking Duck Restaurant. That was amazing, it was the restaurant that actually started the entire Peking Duck phenomenon. They have an actual counter on the wall to show how many Peking Ducks have been sold! Each night in Beijing, the Woos found friends from when Michael lived and worked there years ago, and their friends took us out to dinner each night. The dinners were fantastic, Chinese food that is NOTHING like the Americanized stuff that I won’t be able to eat anymore now that I’ve had the real thing! ;) 3 of the nights for dinner, we were seated in private rooms! That was so cool, even when Michael, Kristine, and whoever their friends were would talk the entire time and Charlie and I would be (literally) lost in translation, haha. The next day was incredible: we got up early and visited the Great Wall of China at a tourist area known as Badaling. It was freezing cold… and SNOWING!!! I bought gloves because it was so cold and climbing the Great Wall was an adventure. There were a lot of tourists, but it was so much fun. We had snowball fights as we explored the Wall and hid in the towers. The Great Wall was definitely a sight to see, even just driving next to it was cool. It was bigger (and LONGER!) than I expected, we spent a few hours there and I could have easily spent more. I am going to go back. After the Great Wall we visited the Ming Tombs where it started to rain and then hail. On our last day in Beijing we visited Tianamen Square and The Forbidden City which was gigantic. I don’t think I have EVER seen a larger concentration of tourists in one place at any one time, except maybe DisneyWorld. It was almost ridiculous, the tour groups in their matching baseball hats or shirts, and the guides holding up flags and talking into microphones and yelling at their groups. The Forbidden City was so huge and astounding, it was interesting to learn that it is being completely repainted and the ground is being redone for the 2008 Olympics. The place was so huge that even after spending 4 hours there, we could have easily gotten lost and spent 4 more and still not seen everything – and that was only the places that the tourists were allowed to see! That afternoon we visited the Beijing Silk Market which was 4 floors of anything and everything you could think of. I found myself in the shoe/purse floor where the knockoffs were some of the BEST I have ever seen. It was really fun to bargain and I was overwhelmed by everything that was there. Dinner was at a Mongolian restaurant where we had a lot of lamb and this green vegetable that I am convinced was some form of grass, but it tasted really good! During the dinner, a group of Mongolians dressed up in traditional garments came into the room and sang Mongolian songs and wrapped all of us in silk scarves. It was hilarious – unfortunately that was the night that neither Michael, Charlie, nor I had our cameras on us. Oh well! After dinner, we were taken out by Michael’s friend Steve and his girlfriend, who took us to a “Members Only” VIP club somewhere in Beijing. Low and behold, of all places, we ran into other SASers!! It was a group of 5 who were with Anna’s parents who live and work and Beijing. That was just about the most random thing ever, it just comes to show that there is NO avoiding Semester At Sea even in ports! The morning of the last day we flew to Qingdao, which was very much a suburban port city with not a lot to do… it was still very, very cold and I wasn’t that impressed with the city – I’m sure it’s much nicer in summer, though! We had our final lunch with Michael and then explored a local market for a while before getting back onto the ship.

 

And yes, after 6 days of using chopsticks, I failed miserably and still can’t use them! China was a very populous, very interesting country. The people were so friendly and I am very glad I did the trip independently. Without our awesome new Chinese friends, who we told to come visit us in America, it would have been difficult and we were lucky as we did not have any frustrations.

 

Japan tomorrow… our. last. port. I can’t believe it.