of the trip for those who don't have facebook accounts.
may 17-19: tiananmen, forbidden city, planning museum
may 20-21: sports u, summer palace, olympic sites
may 22: some wall or something
may 23-25: temple of heaven, hutongs, day off
may 26-28: pku softball, ktv, nanjing rd, yu garden
may 28-29: boat tour, west nanjing, art museum
may 30 - june 2: amazing race, planning mus., lu xun, temple
june 2-4: the last and probably the best
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Saturday, June 2, 2007
monday 2
our second monday of the trip and our first full day in shanghai.
on monday morning, we visited the yu garden and walked through shanghai's china town. that's right, shanghai has a china town. in late imperial times, the city was divided up among western powers, and there was only one tiny section where chinese people were allowed to live. this is shanghai's china town.
the yu garden is an old residence of some government official, and it's at the center of a restored, old looking, very touristy area where you can buy a lot of antiques, authentic or not-so-authentic as they may be. you can also buy jewelry and knock-offs of designer bags and watches and an endless array of other touristy items.
the yu garden and the buildings in it are gorgeous, but it makes you wonder how such an imperial relic survived the hard-core communist days. apparently such places were just sealed off from the public for years. it and places like the summer palace and temple of heaven in beijing show how much the government takes advantage of these imperial relics for economic gain. it also demonstrates how little the party adheres in practice to its ideology.
after haggling and making some good deals on touristy crap, we went to the river for a cruise that showed us the skyline, and the insane amount of development on the river stood in contrast to the preserved, old yu garden. it seemed like there were as many buildings going up as there were already standing. shanghai boasts two of the very tallest buildings in the world. one is not yet finished, but it's construction is paused right now because the builders want to wait for a rival building in taiwan to be finished. that way, they can make sure that this building is definitely the tallest building in the world. another interesting thing about that building is that it is either owned or being developed by a japanese businessman, and that, combined with the original design that called for a hollow circle at the top of the building - reminiscent of the "sun" of japan - didn't fit well with the nationalist ideology so important to china's political stability. so anyway, the design had to be changed so that the building will now have a hollow square at the top instead of a hollow circle. it will look a lot uglier, in my opinion, but i guess those in charge don't care as much about aesthetics as they do about national pride. so yeah, lots of construction along the river, and a ridiculous amount of barges and ships getting loaded to bring cheap goods to the us and other countries.
on monday morning, we visited the yu garden and walked through shanghai's china town. that's right, shanghai has a china town. in late imperial times, the city was divided up among western powers, and there was only one tiny section where chinese people were allowed to live. this is shanghai's china town.
the yu garden is an old residence of some government official, and it's at the center of a restored, old looking, very touristy area where you can buy a lot of antiques, authentic or not-so-authentic as they may be. you can also buy jewelry and knock-offs of designer bags and watches and an endless array of other touristy items.
the yu garden and the buildings in it are gorgeous, but it makes you wonder how such an imperial relic survived the hard-core communist days. apparently such places were just sealed off from the public for years. it and places like the summer palace and temple of heaven in beijing show how much the government takes advantage of these imperial relics for economic gain. it also demonstrates how little the party adheres in practice to its ideology.
after haggling and making some good deals on touristy crap, we went to the river for a cruise that showed us the skyline, and the insane amount of development on the river stood in contrast to the preserved, old yu garden. it seemed like there were as many buildings going up as there were already standing. shanghai boasts two of the very tallest buildings in the world. one is not yet finished, but it's construction is paused right now because the builders want to wait for a rival building in taiwan to be finished. that way, they can make sure that this building is definitely the tallest building in the world. another interesting thing about that building is that it is either owned or being developed by a japanese businessman, and that, combined with the original design that called for a hollow circle at the top of the building - reminiscent of the "sun" of japan - didn't fit well with the nationalist ideology so important to china's political stability. so anyway, the design had to be changed so that the building will now have a hollow square at the top instead of a hollow circle. it will look a lot uglier, in my opinion, but i guess those in charge don't care as much about aesthetics as they do about national pride. so yeah, lots of construction along the river, and a ridiculous amount of barges and ships getting loaded to bring cheap goods to the us and other countries.
okay.
THURSDAY
we toured the hutongs, which are some of the older, poorer parts of beijing. my group biked around the city, and while it was hot, and the weather that day on weather.com called for "widespread dust" (no, i'm not kidding), and it took a long time, it was a good time. our groups were competing to find as many random things as possible on a list compiled by our professors. for example, some items on the list were to find the dirtiest public bathroom, the cutest kid, or a street that looked like baghdad. there are a lot of streets in the hutongs that look like baghdad because some hutongs are being torn down since they're not generally the beijing that the government would like people to see. anyway, it was hot, and biking in beijing traffic is always going to be an adventure, but after five hours and many collected pictures, our group felt a real sense of accomplishment for all we'd done that day. personally, i really enjoyed the fact that the trip helped me get a better sense of where things are in beijing.
but also, the hutongs are a part of beijing that tourists don't usually bother to check out, and they're still a large and important part of the city. a lot of beijing looks and feels not much different from the us, but the hutongs, with their old, crowded, one-level houses and poverty and extremely narrow streets really did seem foreign.
anyway, i don't feel like i can accurately do justice to the experience in words. it was a good experience on so many levels. we got to see a part of beijing that really seemed foreign, and it gave us a fuller picture of what beijing is like. the hutongs also presented a direct critique to the modern beijing portrayed in the beijing planning museum and by the beijing planning commission. also, i really enjoyed the satisfaction of having biked for four or five hours straight. i had walked the great wall a few days earlier, and i felt so fit after all the walking and biking. i'm not generally a big exerciser, but i enjoyed that exercise.
FRIDAY
friday was our day off. i spent most of the day updating this blog, which took a ridiculously long time (you're welcome, mom and dad! :) ). this was because of the time it took to upload photos, and it's also the reason i won't be uploading any more photos in china. maybe i'll add photos to these posts when i get home.
but anyway, there isn't much to talk about for friday because i spent so much of the day blogging. i didn't really feel obligated to spend a lot of time looking around the city because our days had been so full for a week and a half or so. but later in the day i did venture out because i wanted to force myself to actively explore the city on my own instead of passively following whomever i was with, like i had been doing. i also really wanted to see the progress on the cctv building, which, when finished, will be the tallest building in beijing and certainly one of the most stunning in the world. the building isn't yet finished, and it was starting to get a little dark when i got there, but i got to take some pictures. even though the building isn't done yet, the two rising columns that have been built so far do look really impressive because they aren't perpendicular to the ground or parallel to each other.
SATURDAY
we went to beijing university to play a softball game with some of their students. we were all a little apprehensive about what the final score would look like. we were all afraid that we'd be playing against the university's team and that we'd lose badly. the team we played did have a number of players from the official softball team, but it was mostly made up of amateurs like us. it ended up being a close game at the end, and we pulled off a win in the last inning. despite the fact that most of us had not played softball in a really long time/ever, and despite the heat, which was kind of ridiculous, we all had a really good time.
we had the rest of the afternoon off, and i wanted to use it to check out a rene magritte exhibit i saw from the bus on the way to beijing university, but by the time i had reassured myself as to the museum's location and by the time i had walked there, the museum was already closed for the day. this was really frustrating, because i was fairly certain i had biked right by the museum on thursday and somehow missed the gigantic rene magritte sign in front of it. if i HAD seen it, i could have gone to the museum on friday, our day off. but since we were leaving beijing early sunday morning, i wouldn't get the chance to see the exhibit. so anyway, i can't believe i missed out on that opportunity, and i was a little disappointed by that, so on the walk back down wangfujing, i stopped to buy some clothes, which were ridiculously expensive by normal beijing prices and not exactly cheap by us prices either.
that night some of us went to a karaoke club that is way nicer than most karaoke places in the us. in that club, there is a private room for every party/group with a leather couch and a big tv. so yeah, really nice, but the privacy undermines part of the fun of karaokeing, which partly derives from letting go of your inhibitions and singing horribly in front of strangers. also, that club had a seriously limited collection of songs we knew by us standards for karaoke clubs, but we still had a really good time.
SUNDAY
we departed for and arrived in shanghai. the flight was short and uneventful, although i did get a window seat, which was awesome. :D how to describe shanghai? well, it's even busier and more crowded and less green than beijing, although it does have some parks. shanghai developed at the same time, and probably faster, than many american cities. anyway, i'll show you pictures when i get back. and i'll update more later today.
we toured the hutongs, which are some of the older, poorer parts of beijing. my group biked around the city, and while it was hot, and the weather that day on weather.com called for "widespread dust" (no, i'm not kidding), and it took a long time, it was a good time. our groups were competing to find as many random things as possible on a list compiled by our professors. for example, some items on the list were to find the dirtiest public bathroom, the cutest kid, or a street that looked like baghdad. there are a lot of streets in the hutongs that look like baghdad because some hutongs are being torn down since they're not generally the beijing that the government would like people to see. anyway, it was hot, and biking in beijing traffic is always going to be an adventure, but after five hours and many collected pictures, our group felt a real sense of accomplishment for all we'd done that day. personally, i really enjoyed the fact that the trip helped me get a better sense of where things are in beijing.
but also, the hutongs are a part of beijing that tourists don't usually bother to check out, and they're still a large and important part of the city. a lot of beijing looks and feels not much different from the us, but the hutongs, with their old, crowded, one-level houses and poverty and extremely narrow streets really did seem foreign.
anyway, i don't feel like i can accurately do justice to the experience in words. it was a good experience on so many levels. we got to see a part of beijing that really seemed foreign, and it gave us a fuller picture of what beijing is like. the hutongs also presented a direct critique to the modern beijing portrayed in the beijing planning museum and by the beijing planning commission. also, i really enjoyed the satisfaction of having biked for four or five hours straight. i had walked the great wall a few days earlier, and i felt so fit after all the walking and biking. i'm not generally a big exerciser, but i enjoyed that exercise.
FRIDAY
friday was our day off. i spent most of the day updating this blog, which took a ridiculously long time (you're welcome, mom and dad! :) ). this was because of the time it took to upload photos, and it's also the reason i won't be uploading any more photos in china. maybe i'll add photos to these posts when i get home.
but anyway, there isn't much to talk about for friday because i spent so much of the day blogging. i didn't really feel obligated to spend a lot of time looking around the city because our days had been so full for a week and a half or so. but later in the day i did venture out because i wanted to force myself to actively explore the city on my own instead of passively following whomever i was with, like i had been doing. i also really wanted to see the progress on the cctv building, which, when finished, will be the tallest building in beijing and certainly one of the most stunning in the world. the building isn't yet finished, and it was starting to get a little dark when i got there, but i got to take some pictures. even though the building isn't done yet, the two rising columns that have been built so far do look really impressive because they aren't perpendicular to the ground or parallel to each other.
SATURDAY
we went to beijing university to play a softball game with some of their students. we were all a little apprehensive about what the final score would look like. we were all afraid that we'd be playing against the university's team and that we'd lose badly. the team we played did have a number of players from the official softball team, but it was mostly made up of amateurs like us. it ended up being a close game at the end, and we pulled off a win in the last inning. despite the fact that most of us had not played softball in a really long time/ever, and despite the heat, which was kind of ridiculous, we all had a really good time.
we had the rest of the afternoon off, and i wanted to use it to check out a rene magritte exhibit i saw from the bus on the way to beijing university, but by the time i had reassured myself as to the museum's location and by the time i had walked there, the museum was already closed for the day. this was really frustrating, because i was fairly certain i had biked right by the museum on thursday and somehow missed the gigantic rene magritte sign in front of it. if i HAD seen it, i could have gone to the museum on friday, our day off. but since we were leaving beijing early sunday morning, i wouldn't get the chance to see the exhibit. so anyway, i can't believe i missed out on that opportunity, and i was a little disappointed by that, so on the walk back down wangfujing, i stopped to buy some clothes, which were ridiculously expensive by normal beijing prices and not exactly cheap by us prices either.
that night some of us went to a karaoke club that is way nicer than most karaoke places in the us. in that club, there is a private room for every party/group with a leather couch and a big tv. so yeah, really nice, but the privacy undermines part of the fun of karaokeing, which partly derives from letting go of your inhibitions and singing horribly in front of strangers. also, that club had a seriously limited collection of songs we knew by us standards for karaoke clubs, but we still had a really good time.
SUNDAY
we departed for and arrived in shanghai. the flight was short and uneventful, although i did get a window seat, which was awesome. :D how to describe shanghai? well, it's even busier and more crowded and less green than beijing, although it does have some parks. shanghai developed at the same time, and probably faster, than many american cities. anyway, i'll show you pictures when i get back. and i'll update more later today.
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