As of the time I am writing this, I have been in my apartment now for a week (by the time this is posted, it will have been over a week). With no job yet to do and with many of the people I know here not currently in Beijing, it's been a rather quiet and sometimes lonely week. I've bought some things for the apartment, wandered around the area, slept a lot, finished the book I was reading as well as the season of west wing i was watching, and worked on learning Chinese vocab for two hours everyday. The one thing I have not done a lot of has been talking to people. (This is not inherently a bad thing, just an observation). I've talked briefly to any number of service people at restaurants and stores and had two longer conversations with workers at two of those restaurants. (at one, a young guy who was making the 串儿, or meat sticks, tried to sell me one made of some animal's kidney. thankfully, even though i didnt know how to say kidney - its 腰 in case you ever need to know - I didn't take him up on the offer). I've also texted and im-ed pretty often, and two nights ago, I had a rather long phone conversation with Camille (a high school friend currently in Southern China).
Otherwise, the one major exception to my week of "silence" was last Saturday when I met up with Jason (friend from college in Beijing for the week for job training). We picked a random restaurant near the drum tower and ordered what we knew to be way too much food, but we were both really hungry. Last year during my study abroad program, a bunch of us noted the alarming frequency with which things in China turned out drastically different than we expected. The end result could be good or bad and was obviously due to the language and cultural barrier, but we termed these instances "China moments." (I may have not remembered our exact phrase for them but close enough). My number of "china moments" seems to, so far, be drastically fewer this time around, but Jason and I definitely had one at dinner, possibly as a throwback to last year. One of the dishes we ordered was 饺子or dumplings, and they didn't arrive until much later than the rest of the food, so we thought they had been forgotten, which we were quite ok with considering the quantity of food we had ordered. But when they did arrive, they arrived in such large quantities that we almost fell over in our seats.
Jason: I'm sorry, we only ordered "yi liang" (the term usually given for a set of dumplings)Server: Oh, we don't count in "liang" we count in 斤 (term for 500g).
Jason/Jen: Oh!
We had ordered half a kilogram of dumplings! This would have been great, especially since the dumplings were so good, if we hadn't ordered 3 other dishes as well. Thankfully, we were able to unload much of our 500 g on three French guys who showed up at the restaurant shortly afterwards in need of translation help.
Thankfully, today I met one of the other teachers and my next door neighbor who had moved in the day before. In him, I get to see an exaggerated version of what I must have felt/looked like when I landed in Beijing for the first time a year a half ago (thankfully I had such a good support system then in the form of the program administrators and friends who spoke much better Chinese than I did). He's taken a year of Chinese but it was a conversational class, so he recognizes very few characters. I had forgotten what it felt like to look at a Chinese menu w/o pictures for the first time. Even with pictures, it is quite a daunting task, especially with the server standing at your table waiting for you to order. So I now have someone else to talk to, and I helped him order lunch and buy a cell phone. The other teachers should be arriving soon, and classes start on Monday, so things should pick up.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
EPGY: How do you measure four weeks?
I came to the EPGY program viewing it as a job, nothing more. The first meeting of the counselors at Stanford had left me with a very lukewarm impression, and the administrative issues with the program had been evident from the beginning. However, once you got past those persistent admin problems and the general chaos created because of them (especially during the first two weeks), the EPGY program was much more of an experience than a job, and i think most if not all of the other counselors and i got almost as much out of it as the kids did. Sure it was a job. During the first week, we literally worked from 9am until 11pm, and there was often a stack of papers to grade or research to do for Matt. And the trips to Silk Market did get tedious. Even so, it was definitely the most fun job I have ever had, and I learned a lot about what it's like to be a Chinese high schooler and what it would have been like to be an American high schooler in China without knowing much about the country or language.
Undoubtedly, the group of kids made the program amazing. Sure, integration was difficult at first, and there were more than a few moments when i wanted to knock some sense into a few of them. But by the last week and a half, it was evident that some sense of integration had been achieved and cross-cultural friendships had formed. Still, for me, it was the fun moments spent with the kids that I will remember. There was ping pong and capture the flag, chatting in Starbucks, our weekend addiction to mah jong, Karaoke, "chao er," truth or dare as well as a debate with a few of the Chinese kids - both in Chinese.
Then there were the other counselors/staff members. Working so closely together, even though it was only four weeks, I got to know all of them very well, and I couldn't imagine a better group. There was mafia and poker, fun nights out at hou hai and san li tun, gossiping like high school girls again, and wonderful (and wonderfully silly) conversations. Now we're all going our separate ways - some of us staying in Beijing, others returning to Stanford, others off to Paris and Tokyo - but I hope we'll see each other again some day. At times, the four weeks seemed to last forever, but now that they're over, it seems as if they flew by. I met so many amazing people, both among the kids and the staff members, and I made some great friendships, that I truly hope will continue.
Undoubtedly, the group of kids made the program amazing. Sure, integration was difficult at first, and there were more than a few moments when i wanted to knock some sense into a few of them. But by the last week and a half, it was evident that some sense of integration had been achieved and cross-cultural friendships had formed. Still, for me, it was the fun moments spent with the kids that I will remember. There was ping pong and capture the flag, chatting in Starbucks, our weekend addiction to mah jong, Karaoke, "chao er," truth or dare as well as a debate with a few of the Chinese kids - both in Chinese.
Then there were the other counselors/staff members. Working so closely together, even though it was only four weeks, I got to know all of them very well, and I couldn't imagine a better group. There was mafia and poker, fun nights out at hou hai and san li tun, gossiping like high school girls again, and wonderful (and wonderfully silly) conversations. Now we're all going our separate ways - some of us staying in Beijing, others returning to Stanford, others off to Paris and Tokyo - but I hope we'll see each other again some day. At times, the four weeks seemed to last forever, but now that they're over, it seems as if they flew by. I met so many amazing people, both among the kids and the staff members, and I made some great friendships, that I truly hope will continue.
"It is clear in Beijing"
As my plane from Shenzhen is about to land in Beijing, they go through the usual "thank you for flying with us," "wait until the fasten seat belt sign is off to get up," and local weather report in two languages. I was not really paying attention, as I was still half asleep, but then as they were giving the English weather report, the flight attendant said "It is clear in Beijing." Now, I did not hear the Chinese report, so I don't know whether they just meant to say " It's not raining," which is true, it wasn't. However, as I looked out my window, it was anything but a "clear" day in Beijing. There was the usual haze that encompasses the city on most days, and i had an inkling that in Chinese government think, "not raining" had suddenly become "clear."
There have been two recent NYtimes articles that relate to this story. The first is about the country's severe pollution problems (here). (now to anyone related to me who reads that story, Beijing isn't as bad as many other cities in China, and one year here won't kill me). The second is about the government's efforts to "beautify" the city in preparation for the Olympics (here), a project which includes getting rid of Chinglish, bad weather, and anything that could reflect poorly upon the city, and thus the country. I find this more than a bit 过分 (excessive), as its the imperfect things about China and Beijing that make the country so endearing to me. (minus the pollution - i would be perfectly happy if the government could solve that problem - actually solve it, not paint over it).
There have been two recent NYtimes articles that relate to this story. The first is about the country's severe pollution problems (here). (now to anyone related to me who reads that story, Beijing isn't as bad as many other cities in China, and one year here won't kill me). The second is about the government's efforts to "beautify" the city in preparation for the Olympics (here), a project which includes getting rid of Chinglish, bad weather, and anything that could reflect poorly upon the city, and thus the country. I find this more than a bit 过分 (excessive), as its the imperfect things about China and Beijing that make the country so endearing to me. (minus the pollution - i would be perfectly happy if the government could solve that problem - actually solve it, not paint over it).
Sunday, August 26, 2007
From the "Path of Wisdom".....to Craziness
August 21, 2007 - Day 3 in Hong Kong/Day 1 in Shenzhen
The great thing about hostels, even the one in HK that was lacking in basic necessities such as food, is that you meet young people from all over the world, which is particularly cool if you're traveling alone. The first night, I talked for awhile with two girls, one from the UK and the other from Greece. The second night, I hung out with three Aussies, a German guy, and two Dutch girls, and got up before 8am the next morning with two of the Aussies to walk the "Path of Wisdom," which we had all seen signs for on the path up to the hostel.
I'm not sure what it says about the pursuit of wisdom that the path was rather short, but it ended at a point with lots of tall, thin, pole-like pieces of wood with Chinese characters carved into them (see pictures on facebook). I'm sure the view would have been magnificent if the mountain hadn't been enshrounded in fog. It still allowed for some cool pictures. Anyway, after reading the tourist information, we learned that the characters were the text to the Heart Sutra, which is a holy text of Buddhism I believe. The text sounded interesting, but it was overshadowed in my mind by the fact that these wooden poles were created in 2002 if I remember correctly by some guy from Hong Kong who found the Heart Sutra interesting. He also layed them out in the shape of an infinity sign (yes, the math one that looks like an upside down 8). I was less than impressed by the results of my quest for wisdom.
I spent the rest of the day seeing other tourist attractions on Lantau Island. I saw the 天坛大佛, the largest sitting Buddha in the world. This Buddha was also created rather recently - the early 1990s - and while I'm very skeptical of tourist sites that I assumed to have historical significance that were created during my lifetime, the Buddha seemed more authentic, as it housed a relic of the real Buddha, donated from another monastery. I also ate at the vegetarian restaurant at the monastery on the mountain. While it was expensive, each person is given a ton of food - spring rolls, vegeatables, and tofu - all of which was delicious. Finally, I took a bus with the German guy and Dutch girls to a fishing village on the other side of the island (pictures also on facebook). We paid for a boat ride that promised us dolphin sitings that of course did not occur, but the ride was fun anyway, as the scenary was beautiful and they toured us through parts of the fishing village, which provide a great contrast with life on Hong Kong island and Kowloon, which are both full of high rises of expensive apartments and even huge houses if you go far enough out. The houses in the fishing village are built on stilts above the water but out of thin material which barely looks like it could stand a thunderstorm let alone a typhoon. Hong Kong may have a per capita GDP to rival most developed countries and an image of a cosmopolitan city, but that does not mean there was no one left behind.
My Peter Hessler Moment
After taking the light rail across the border to Shenzhen, I had what I call a "Peter Hessler moment." Hessler was a Peace Corps volunteer in the mid-1990s in central China, and he has since written a book about his experiences as well as another book about life in China. I measure the "China-ness" of my experiences by how many "Peter Hessler moments" I have. To me, he is the source of all wisdom for foreigners living in China; it was in his book that I learned that the people outside subway stops saying "fa piao" are asking for receipts that they can sell to party members who can get reimbursed for the receipts.
Anyway, I was sitting outside of the Shenzhen train station, trying to figure how to get to the hostel that I had booked. An older man sat down next to me and started asking me questions. Then he told me that his wallet was stolen and he needed to get back to Hong Kong. He didn't outright ask for money, and as I was pretty tired, I didn't even really catch on that that was what he wanted. He did ask to borrow my phone, which I let him do, but when I still didn't give him money, he said, "Oh you must not have much," and then finally left. Half a minute later, a woman who had been sitting nearby asked if I had given him money. When I said, "no," she said, "Good, he's a liar. He hangs around here going back and forth telling people stories to get money from them." The reason this is a Peter Hessler moment is that he mentions that on multiple occassions, he has had people tell him "Oh that was a thief," after the person leaves the vicinity. So while Chinese people warn him about thieves (or warn me about pian ren, or liars), they do so after ther person leaves, which is helpful...but not really.
However, the craziness that I refer to in the title does not refer to the guy at the train station, but a woman in my hostel room. I was warned about her by the third resident - a Chinese American from California. This woman is probably in her late thirties and planned to stay in the hostel in Shenzhen for a month, which was evident by the fact that she had basically moved into the room. The whole idea of staying in Shenzhen for a month is beyond me; Shenzhen is a soul-less city where Chinese migrants go for jobs that pay better than the ones they can find back home. I have now spent about a total of about 18 hours there and have no desire to spend more, even though the city does have a distinct influence from Hong Kong, in that the subways are clean and an almost exact copy of the HK MTR, people generally dress better, and are more polite (at least on the subway). Anyway, my only interaction with the crazy woman was brief, but basically confirmed what the girl had told me. The woman banged furiously on the door around 1:30am, waking me up because her key didn't work. She then preceded to tell me about one of the former residents of the hostel room, a Chinese girl, who this woman claimed was her one Chinese friend even though she had spent two years in China. Apparently this girl, used to boil water from the tap to drink, which appalled crazy woman, who claimed that no one in Shanghai boiled tap water to drink because they knew it was not safe. (I can assure you that there are people who drink boiled tap water in Shanghai, though they might not have been a part of this woman's ciricle of ex-pat friends. Furthermore, I survived five months last year of drinking 开水，boiled water, in Beijing). This whole one-sided conversation took place in a frenetic voice that quickly jolted me out of my sleepy state and made it impossible for me to go back to sleep for another half hour. Thankfully, I had to leave Shenzhen early the next morning.
The great thing about hostels, even the one in HK that was lacking in basic necessities such as food, is that you meet young people from all over the world, which is particularly cool if you're traveling alone. The first night, I talked for awhile with two girls, one from the UK and the other from Greece. The second night, I hung out with three Aussies, a German guy, and two Dutch girls, and got up before 8am the next morning with two of the Aussies to walk the "Path of Wisdom," which we had all seen signs for on the path up to the hostel.
I'm not sure what it says about the pursuit of wisdom that the path was rather short, but it ended at a point with lots of tall, thin, pole-like pieces of wood with Chinese characters carved into them (see pictures on facebook). I'm sure the view would have been magnificent if the mountain hadn't been enshrounded in fog. It still allowed for some cool pictures. Anyway, after reading the tourist information, we learned that the characters were the text to the Heart Sutra, which is a holy text of Buddhism I believe. The text sounded interesting, but it was overshadowed in my mind by the fact that these wooden poles were created in 2002 if I remember correctly by some guy from Hong Kong who found the Heart Sutra interesting. He also layed them out in the shape of an infinity sign (yes, the math one that looks like an upside down 8). I was less than impressed by the results of my quest for wisdom.
I spent the rest of the day seeing other tourist attractions on Lantau Island. I saw the 天坛大佛, the largest sitting Buddha in the world. This Buddha was also created rather recently - the early 1990s - and while I'm very skeptical of tourist sites that I assumed to have historical significance that were created during my lifetime, the Buddha seemed more authentic, as it housed a relic of the real Buddha, donated from another monastery. I also ate at the vegetarian restaurant at the monastery on the mountain. While it was expensive, each person is given a ton of food - spring rolls, vegeatables, and tofu - all of which was delicious. Finally, I took a bus with the German guy and Dutch girls to a fishing village on the other side of the island (pictures also on facebook). We paid for a boat ride that promised us dolphin sitings that of course did not occur, but the ride was fun anyway, as the scenary was beautiful and they toured us through parts of the fishing village, which provide a great contrast with life on Hong Kong island and Kowloon, which are both full of high rises of expensive apartments and even huge houses if you go far enough out. The houses in the fishing village are built on stilts above the water but out of thin material which barely looks like it could stand a thunderstorm let alone a typhoon. Hong Kong may have a per capita GDP to rival most developed countries and an image of a cosmopolitan city, but that does not mean there was no one left behind.
My Peter Hessler Moment
After taking the light rail across the border to Shenzhen, I had what I call a "Peter Hessler moment." Hessler was a Peace Corps volunteer in the mid-1990s in central China, and he has since written a book about his experiences as well as another book about life in China. I measure the "China-ness" of my experiences by how many "Peter Hessler moments" I have. To me, he is the source of all wisdom for foreigners living in China; it was in his book that I learned that the people outside subway stops saying "fa piao" are asking for receipts that they can sell to party members who can get reimbursed for the receipts.
Anyway, I was sitting outside of the Shenzhen train station, trying to figure how to get to the hostel that I had booked. An older man sat down next to me and started asking me questions. Then he told me that his wallet was stolen and he needed to get back to Hong Kong. He didn't outright ask for money, and as I was pretty tired, I didn't even really catch on that that was what he wanted. He did ask to borrow my phone, which I let him do, but when I still didn't give him money, he said, "Oh you must not have much," and then finally left. Half a minute later, a woman who had been sitting nearby asked if I had given him money. When I said, "no," she said, "Good, he's a liar. He hangs around here going back and forth telling people stories to get money from them." The reason this is a Peter Hessler moment is that he mentions that on multiple occassions, he has had people tell him "Oh that was a thief," after the person leaves the vicinity. So while Chinese people warn him about thieves (or warn me about pian ren, or liars), they do so after ther person leaves, which is helpful...but not really.
However, the craziness that I refer to in the title does not refer to the guy at the train station, but a woman in my hostel room. I was warned about her by the third resident - a Chinese American from California. This woman is probably in her late thirties and planned to stay in the hostel in Shenzhen for a month, which was evident by the fact that she had basically moved into the room. The whole idea of staying in Shenzhen for a month is beyond me; Shenzhen is a soul-less city where Chinese migrants go for jobs that pay better than the ones they can find back home. I have now spent about a total of about 18 hours there and have no desire to spend more, even though the city does have a distinct influence from Hong Kong, in that the subways are clean and an almost exact copy of the HK MTR, people generally dress better, and are more polite (at least on the subway). Anyway, my only interaction with the crazy woman was brief, but basically confirmed what the girl had told me. The woman banged furiously on the door around 1:30am, waking me up because her key didn't work. She then preceded to tell me about one of the former residents of the hostel room, a Chinese girl, who this woman claimed was her one Chinese friend even though she had spent two years in China. Apparently this girl, used to boil water from the tap to drink, which appalled crazy woman, who claimed that no one in Shanghai boiled tap water to drink because they knew it was not safe. (I can assure you that there are people who drink boiled tap water in Shanghai, though they might not have been a part of this woman's ciricle of ex-pat friends. Furthermore, I survived five months last year of drinking 开水，boiled water, in Beijing). This whole one-sided conversation took place in a frenetic voice that quickly jolted me out of my sleepy state and made it impossible for me to go back to sleep for another half hour. Thankfully, I had to leave Shenzhen early the next morning.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
"Elevator safety is easy to learn and easy to remember"
August 20, 2007 - Day 2 in Hong Kong
Because I chose a hostel far off the beaten path, I had to take around 1.5 hours worth of public transportation to get to the PRC's visa office (though I'm pretty sure I still saved money, if not time, by not staying on Kowloon). Hong Kong's public transportation system is the opposite of Beijing's (and of most cities') in that it's clean and pleasant. Like Beijing's, HK's city government is working to make its city clean, safe, and orderly past the point of ridiculousness. The hefty fines for smoking in non-smoking areas are great because of their effectiveness. On the other hand, when you're passing through an MTR (subway) stop, you hear instructions on elevator safety announced to you in three different languages. It's great that they don't want anyone getting hurt, but MTR seems to think that "Grandparents" can't handle escalators and should instead take the elevator. I saw many a grandmother and grandfather manage to take the escalator without killing themselves.
Once I arrived at the visa office, I spent a good 2.5 hours of my morning waiting to apply for my visa and hand over the hefty sum of money that Americans must pay to get a visa for mainland China. (The PRC uses reciprocal prices for visas, so because the US government charges so much for visas, Americans get charged multiple times more than citizens of any other country). Thankfully, even though it was past noon, I could still have my visa processed by 4:30.
Understanding without words
While wandering around Wan Chai (the area of HK where the visa office was), there were two moments of note. The first was on a second story passageway above one of the streets, I walked right into the middle of a F*l*n G*ng protest (fill in the vowels yourself). They had posters condemning the Chinese government and were passing out leaflets. I passed by hours later and they were still there. While the CCP has certainly been expanding its reach into HK's political affairs since 1997, the party has still have left the city's dwellers with a much greater degree of freedom than their mainland counterparts. Such a protest in China would have been broken up within two minutes. Additionally, I could get on to BBC news in the internet cafe without any problems.
My second moment of interest was more anecdotal and amusing. I had been on my way to McDonalds to use the bathroom when I had run into the protest. Apparently, many other women had the same idea, as there was a line of about 10 Chinese women of all ages when I got there. As we waited, them chatting in Cantonese, me standing silently, we all eventually noticed that not only was there no line in the men's room, but the men's room had two stalls, while the women's room had one. Seriously, who builds more stalls in the men's room than the women's? It really doesn't make any sense. At one point, when there weren't any men inside, the two older Chinese women start pointing and talking, and everyone begins to laugh, including me as I totally understood their plan without understanding any of their words. One went into the men's room while another guarded the door. When the second woman went in, a line of men actually did start to form. When she came out, I understood my first sentence of Cantonese, "不好意思," which had only slightly different tones than in Mandarin. (There's no direct English equivalent, though it's close to "sorry, I'm embarrassed.").
Because I chose a hostel far off the beaten path, I had to take around 1.5 hours worth of public transportation to get to the PRC's visa office (though I'm pretty sure I still saved money, if not time, by not staying on Kowloon). Hong Kong's public transportation system is the opposite of Beijing's (and of most cities') in that it's clean and pleasant. Like Beijing's, HK's city government is working to make its city clean, safe, and orderly past the point of ridiculousness. The hefty fines for smoking in non-smoking areas are great because of their effectiveness. On the other hand, when you're passing through an MTR (subway) stop, you hear instructions on elevator safety announced to you in three different languages. It's great that they don't want anyone getting hurt, but MTR seems to think that "Grandparents" can't handle escalators and should instead take the elevator. I saw many a grandmother and grandfather manage to take the escalator without killing themselves.
Once I arrived at the visa office, I spent a good 2.5 hours of my morning waiting to apply for my visa and hand over the hefty sum of money that Americans must pay to get a visa for mainland China. (The PRC uses reciprocal prices for visas, so because the US government charges so much for visas, Americans get charged multiple times more than citizens of any other country). Thankfully, even though it was past noon, I could still have my visa processed by 4:30.
Understanding without words
While wandering around Wan Chai (the area of HK where the visa office was), there were two moments of note. The first was on a second story passageway above one of the streets, I walked right into the middle of a F*l*n G*ng protest (fill in the vowels yourself). They had posters condemning the Chinese government and were passing out leaflets. I passed by hours later and they were still there. While the CCP has certainly been expanding its reach into HK's political affairs since 1997, the party has still have left the city's dwellers with a much greater degree of freedom than their mainland counterparts. Such a protest in China would have been broken up within two minutes. Additionally, I could get on to BBC news in the internet cafe without any problems.
My second moment of interest was more anecdotal and amusing. I had been on my way to McDonalds to use the bathroom when I had run into the protest. Apparently, many other women had the same idea, as there was a line of about 10 Chinese women of all ages when I got there. As we waited, them chatting in Cantonese, me standing silently, we all eventually noticed that not only was there no line in the men's room, but the men's room had two stalls, while the women's room had one. Seriously, who builds more stalls in the men's room than the women's? It really doesn't make any sense. At one point, when there weren't any men inside, the two older Chinese women start pointing and talking, and everyone begins to laugh, including me as I totally understood their plan without understanding any of their words. One went into the men's room while another guarded the door. When the second woman went in, a line of men actually did start to form. When she came out, I understood my first sentence of Cantonese, "不好意思," which had only slightly different tones than in Mandarin. (There's no direct English equivalent, though it's close to "sorry, I'm embarrassed.").
Friday, August 24, 2007
No food? In Hong Kong?!
August 19, 2007 - Day 1 in Hong Kong
This was my second trip to Hong Kong because of visa issues, the first taking place last June when I flew down to Shenzhen, crossed the border, spent a day and a half there, crossed the border again, and then took a train back to Beijing. I had a double entry visa and had to leave the country to activate the second 3 months of it. This time, I had to actually apply for a second visa, but first I had to find my way to the hostel I had booked. Last year, I had wandered around much of Kowloon and part of Hong Kong Island, so I decided I wanted to see a different island. I booked a hostel on Lantau - the island where the airport is - that is next to the Tian Tan Da Fo, the largest sitting Buddha in the world.
After asking many different people about buses, I finally got on the last bus up the mountain to my hostel. There were two others on there, a couple from Nanjing. The bus ride was 45 minutes up a road that is sometimes two lanes sometimes one, so there were more than one precariously close moments with vehicles driving in the other direction. However, the view is beautiful at many different points along the way, despite the dense fog. I trekked with the two Nanjing-ers up to the hostel, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. It was 7pm and I didn't bring food because I assumed there would be something near the hostel. Nope. It's on a hill, by itself, and the closest restaurant, a tea house, is barren (I never did see it open, though another resident of the hostel claimed he ate there).
Hong Kong is supposed to have some of the best food in the world, both in terms of variety and quality. Hong Kong dim sum and rice noodles are to die for, and yet, at around 7:30, I realized that I did not have any food. Not even a bag of chips or a bottle of water. I had ventured down the mountain slightly in search of food but was a little freaked out by the barren-ness and darkness of the place. Thankfully on the way back up, I met up with the two from Nanjing and felt a little safer walking further with others. When we hit the "town," if you can call it that (it's basically a tourist strip of souvenir shops and places to eat, which is why nothing was open), thankfully a single light was on, and we got a couple who ran a souvenir shop to make us 方便面(instant noodles). They did put eggs and bok choy in them, and I have to say, it was some of the best 方便面I've ever had.
An interesting anecdote that I learned from hanging out with the Chinese couple: you can usually get by with Mandarin in Hong Kong. I had heard not to try speaking Mandarin in Hong Kong unless you want to get laughed at. However, most Hong Kong-ers learn it in school and some speak it better than they speak English, for example the couple at the souvenir shop. I had moderate success with Mandarin - probably better success than I had with English the time before - with one exception. At a restaurant the next day, I tried to ask for a menu in Mandarin. The guy looked at me strangely as I repeated "cai dan" to him. The others at my table (it was a place where they seat you at big tables with other people) laughed and translated for me.
This was my second trip to Hong Kong because of visa issues, the first taking place last June when I flew down to Shenzhen, crossed the border, spent a day and a half there, crossed the border again, and then took a train back to Beijing. I had a double entry visa and had to leave the country to activate the second 3 months of it. This time, I had to actually apply for a second visa, but first I had to find my way to the hostel I had booked. Last year, I had wandered around much of Kowloon and part of Hong Kong Island, so I decided I wanted to see a different island. I booked a hostel on Lantau - the island where the airport is - that is next to the Tian Tan Da Fo, the largest sitting Buddha in the world.
After asking many different people about buses, I finally got on the last bus up the mountain to my hostel. There were two others on there, a couple from Nanjing. The bus ride was 45 minutes up a road that is sometimes two lanes sometimes one, so there were more than one precariously close moments with vehicles driving in the other direction. However, the view is beautiful at many different points along the way, despite the dense fog. I trekked with the two Nanjing-ers up to the hostel, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. It was 7pm and I didn't bring food because I assumed there would be something near the hostel. Nope. It's on a hill, by itself, and the closest restaurant, a tea house, is barren (I never did see it open, though another resident of the hostel claimed he ate there).
Hong Kong is supposed to have some of the best food in the world, both in terms of variety and quality. Hong Kong dim sum and rice noodles are to die for, and yet, at around 7:30, I realized that I did not have any food. Not even a bag of chips or a bottle of water. I had ventured down the mountain slightly in search of food but was a little freaked out by the barren-ness and darkness of the place. Thankfully on the way back up, I met up with the two from Nanjing and felt a little safer walking further with others. When we hit the "town," if you can call it that (it's basically a tourist strip of souvenir shops and places to eat, which is why nothing was open), thankfully a single light was on, and we got a couple who ran a souvenir shop to make us 方便面(instant noodles). They did put eggs and bok choy in them, and I have to say, it was some of the best 方便面I've ever had.
An interesting anecdote that I learned from hanging out with the Chinese couple: you can usually get by with Mandarin in Hong Kong. I had heard not to try speaking Mandarin in Hong Kong unless you want to get laughed at. However, most Hong Kong-ers learn it in school and some speak it better than they speak English, for example the couple at the souvenir shop. I had moderate success with Mandarin - probably better success than I had with English the time before - with one exception. At a restaurant the next day, I tried to ask for a menu in Mandarin. The guy looked at me strangely as I repeated "cai dan" to him. The others at my table (it was a place where they seat you at big tables with other people) laughed and translated for me.
Hello and Welcome
I am setting up this blog to satisfy requests for updates from both family and friends. I will try to update as frequently as possible with both stories and anecdotes about my life in Beijing as well as thoughts about China in general. You're welcome to post comments, but it's difficult for me to see them (because of the Chinese government's internet restrictions), so it's best if you email them to me (i'll also be more likely to reply).
I'm going to first post some updates from my trip to Hong Kong as well as on EPGY and moving into my apartment in Beijing, so for a week or so, they might not be in chronological order, but i'll most dates on the entries.
Hope you enjoy!
I'm going to first post some updates from my trip to Hong Kong as well as on EPGY and moving into my apartment in Beijing, so for a week or so, they might not be in chronological order, but i'll most dates on the entries.
Hope you enjoy!
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