China (Part IV & V - Shanghai) - Pictures

Pictures from Shanghai. Enjoy!

China (Part V - More Shanghai)

DAY 10 - SHANGHAI 上海 (Dongtai Antique Market, 66th Plaza, Street Market, The Bund, Sichuan Restaurant)

Hopefully this will be the last of the China posts. Let's hoping. K, so we woke up early on our first free day so that we could make the most of our time. We started out the morning with our beloved hotel breakfast. I would seriously recommend this hotel if not for the breakfast alone! Seriously. Haha. We then took a taxi to Dongtai Road Antique Market, an outdoor market that sells everything from jewelry boxes to Communist-era posters to Maoist memorabilia....you name it. The catch is that mostly everything is fake, so buyer beware. We saw several items we liked, but then came the bargaining part. Chinese people are hardcore when it comes to this art, but I just get impatient after awhile. It was funny, b/c this one Chinese lady who we ended up buying things from twice, would say things like, "You my first customer, so I give you cheap.......We are friends, so I give you cheap........Ni sha si wo le!" ("You are killing me!"...referring to our best offer). It's hard to recall specifics, but it was just funny to hear the things that people will say in order to sell you something. We did, however, encounter some vendors who didn't seem to care if we left or not. Hmm...perhaps it was b/c we went early in the morning. Oh well, their loss!

After the Antique Market, Jeff and I thought we'd be adventurous and search for the French Concession on our own. Bad idea. We walked for what seemed to be ages, but we were still unable to find the place. We did pass by Huaihai Road, a famous upscale shopping area in Shanghai. We didn't stop and shop there, as we were intent on finding the French Concession. That never happened. We finally gave up and caught a cab to 66th Plaza, a mall that had been recommended by Vivian. Sadly, it just consisted of more upscale shopping, something not suited for our budget.

We got out of 66th Plaza and decided to just walk on the main street, Nanjing Xi Lu, not to be confused with Nanjing Dong Lu, where we went yesterday. Anyhoo, we stopped for lunch at this busy canteen area. Let me just say, not really being able to speak Mandarin in China can be quite a challenge for tourists. Ordering lunch for us involved a lot of pointing and broken Chinese phrases....pretty much just looking and sounding stupid. We ended getting pretty decent dishes, even though I had no idea what I paid for before they brought out our food. =)

We continued walking around that area when we discovered a street market behind the main road. Jackpot. This was DVD HEAVEN. They had the newest movies, ie) The Pursuit of Happyness, which was still in the theaters back at home! The best part was that all the DVDs cost about $0.50 each! Awesome. I bought the ENTIRE series of The West Wing in 8 discs for under $5!! Jeff and I just went on a DVD buying spree, grabbing anything that looked remotely interesting. We've since tested out many of the DVDs back here in Japan, and they are mostly of good quality! I remember Lynn told us that if you aren't satisfied with the DVDs, you could always bring them back to the street vendor and ask for you money back, as they're always in the same spot. Hmm...I wonder how that works. Like, "I want my $0.50 back!!" They also sold tons of brand-name imitation wallets and purses. Perhaps a cute-as Coach wallet and a men's Luis Vuitton wallet MAY have been purchased. Hehe. So anyway, I definitely understand China's HUGE piracy problem now. Why would ANYONE pay a million dollars to go to the movie theater when you can get a good-quality DVD for the price of a candy bar! The whole street market experience reminded me of markets in Thailand, but this was even better, as they had a MUCH wider selection of DVDs and they were cheaper as well!

After our DVD raid, we headed back to our hotel. When we came back out again, it took us over 30 minutes to hail a cab! It was as if EVERY person in Shanghai decided to take a taxi at that exact same time! It was quite frustrating, but we finally finally got one to stop for us. I asked the taxi driver to take us to "The Bund," and he couldn't understand me. How can Shanghai expect to host foreigners for their World Expo when their taxi drivers don't know what "The Bund" is, one of the most famous attractions in all of Shanghai!! Thank goodness I had also written down the Chinese character for "The Bund," or else we might've spent another 1/2 hour looking for a new taxi!

So we got to The Bund, this time with a night view, and took a million pictures. It was sooo pretty at night! Thank goodness for digital cameras! We walked around that area a bit, then decided to take a taxi to a Sichuan restaurant that came recommended in the little awesome free guidebook I snagged at 1221. Our taxi driver was young and cute! We hadn't seen any cute guys in Shanghai thus far, so we were totally excited about our cute taxi driver. Plus, he's young, so he played Chinese pop music during the ride. Woot.

After the taxi dropped us off, it took a bit of walking to find the Sichuan restaurant. We finally found it and went in. The waitress that served us was super-nice, as she totally helped us with everything, seeing that we couldn't speak Mandarin. We ordered a Sichuan hot-pot, and well, just imagine a pot of boiling spicy oil, b/c that's essentially what it was. Don't get me wrong, everything was delicious, but looking at that pot of oil just made me think how I could possibly regret our decision in the near future. Sichuan food is known to be very tasty, yet extremely spicy. Thinking of the chopped red peppers in our pot of oil, I think they lived up to their reputation. After we finished our yummy dinner, we walked around to burn off calories. We found a TenFu Tea Shop that was still open late at night! We went in, and bought ridiculous amounts of omiyage; I think we may have bought everything in the store! Haha. Anyhoo, afterwards we headed back to our hotel. Ahh....hotel, sweet hotel.

DAY 11 - SHANGHAI 上海 (Shanghai Museum, People's Square, Nanjing Lu, Xujiahui Shopping City, Nanjing Lu...again, and Xintiandi)

In the morning, after a most excellent breakfast, we cabbed it to the Shanghai Museum, which houses ancient Chinese art in many forms. We chose to go the museum by ourselves, since our tour was already over. I was quite proud of us, as we pretty much visited every collection on display. It was funny, b/c I overheard another tour guide telling her group that she'd leave them at the museum and pick them up after an hour or so. Um, what is the point of a tour guide then?! Haha. Oh yeah, it was here that we saw displays of ancient Mng and Qing furniture, which Jeff and I were quite the experts on, after our time in Beijing. ;-)

Shanghai Museum is located in People's Square, a large public square in Shanghai. It is the site of Shanghai's municipal government building. There was really nothing I found special about the Square, but it is famous, so I'll put that on the list of places we visited. Hehe.

People's Square led us right back to Nanjing Lu, where we roamed around and...well, just that I guess. We then took the taxi to Xujiahui Shopping City, where we hoped to find something to buy, as we seemed cursed in Asia when it comes to purchases. Xujiahui is home to 6 major shopping malls. You'd think with that kind of odds, we'd buy something, right? Wrong. We did see a Best Buy there which got us really excited, but once we went in and found out they didn't sell DVDs, all hope was gone.

After Xujiahui, we headed back to the hotel for our daily afternoon "rest." We then headed back to Nanjing Lu, where we planned to spend our New Year's Eve, as we saw posters for some sort of Chinese pop star concert to be held there. Yep, New Year's Eve in Shanghai....we were excited to see what the city had to offer. Crowds were already beginning to take form on Nanjing Lu, as it is a popular area to roam around for NYE? We decided to eat dinner at Haagen Dazs. Well, not dinner, just chocolate fondue. Hehe. Remember how I raved about the chocolate fondue at the Haagen Dazs in Seoul? Well, it turned out that chocolate fondue in Shanghai had little to be desired for. Everything looked great on the poster they had up, but little did we know that the chocolate would be luke warm at best! We asked them to heat it up and they sort of did, but it was still not nearly warm enough. Just imagine room-temperature chocolate fondue. What's the point, right? After a while, the chocolate started to harden, and it was difficult to even dip things in! After paying close to $30 for this (which is like $1 million in China), we were NOT amused, to say the least. Bleh.

After coming back out to Nanjing Lu, we saw many people trying to look over the massive wall that had been built in place to prepare for the concert to be held for the NYE countdown. People were standing on their friends' shoulders to sneak a peak. Parents would boost their children up and tell them to report what they saw. Chinese people are funny. Anyhoo, Jeff and I saw that a line had started at the entrance, so we decided to stand in line early as well, since we had nothing else better to do. We were waiting in line in order to get a good spot for the concert. However, we saw a bunch of other people standing on the side and NOT getting in line. We were like, "Why don't they just get in line?" After about twenty minutes of queueing, we began to realize that, "Hey, maybe we need a ticket in order to go inside??" Um, we are RETARDED. I asked a policeman and sure enough, we needed tickets, and tickets seemed to have already been sold out. Nice. We are so bright. =)

After that embarrassing incident, we decided to find a new venue to celebrate the coming year. We attempted to walk to Xintiandi and failed, and ended up just cabbing it there. Xintiandi was also packed, as many people, especially foreigners, occupied the various bars/restaurants in the area. Being the Americans we are, we decided to have KFC for dinner. Hehe. We both had a huge craving for KFC for reasons unknown, and it turned out to be soooooo good. I forget how good KFC can be! Mm mmm! We finally settled for drinks at a Brazilian restaurant for the countdown. It was nice b/c we also got to people-watch. Woot. It was amusing to watch people scramble to find somewhere to be at the last minute. Anyhoo, 'twas nice and chill and I was happy with that. There were fireworks too, as that's a must since Chinese people were the ones who invented it! Hehe.

DAY 12 - SHANGHAI 上海 (French Concession, Shanghai Olde Ye Station Restaurant, Xujiahui Shopping City, Pudong - Superbrand Mall, Vegetarian Restaurant)

Since we didn't get back till around 2am the night before, we slept in and skipped breakfast! Sad. We woke up, then attempted to find the French Concession again. We were successful this time around. Woot. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the French Concession 'cept some old colonial buildings, but our aim was food. Hehe. So we left, headed back to the Xujiahui area, and ate at Shanghai Olde Ye Station Restaurant, which was recommended in the guide we had. We were definitely in an upscale sort of restaurant, but it was still very affordable, as everything was considering we came from Japan. It was nice to eat and order as much as we wanted, w/o having to worry about costs.

Here is the condensed version of the rest of our day: We hung around the Xujiahui Shopping City, did some grocery shopping, then headed to the Pudong side. We ended up at Superbrand Mall. This was my kind of mall as it was mostly just full of restaurants! Haha. We ate dinner at this one vegetarian restaurant that was SO good. Mmm. We skipped the Jin Mao Tower and headed back to our hotel as it was super foggy so we wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway.

DAY 13 - Shanghai 上海 / Tokyo 東京

This was a traveling day. Enough said.

OK. I'm sure you are just as tired of reading about my trip to China as I am tired of writing about it. It was taken me almost 2 months to finish blogging about it! Ugh. I promise this is the end of it tho. I still have pictures to post, but that's about it. Even though I am soo done with writing about China, I must say that this is one of the most enriching trips I've ever been on. I learned so so much about China and the Chinese; I feel as though I've connected with my roots more so than before. I can't explain it, but I'd definitely recommend that you go there some day to see for yourself. K, I'm really done now. I still have yet to blog about my recent trips to Hokkaido and Hong Kong!

Japanese Language Proficiency Test

I took level 3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and recently found out that I passed! Woot! There are 4 levels to this exam (1 being the hardest). Although passing level 3 is hardly saying much considering I've lived in Japan for 1 1/2 years now, but I'm still happy I passed. =) You only need a 60% overall average to pass, but I was happy to see that I passed each section, although I expected to do worse on the listening and better on the grammar section. Anyhoo, it's something nice to put on my resume. However, I'm not sure I have too much confidence in the JLPT now, as I know what level my Japanese really is at. ;-) Oh well, it was nice to use my brain for once during my stay here! Haha. Yaay.

China (Part IV - Shanghai)

DAY 8 - GUILIN 桂林 /SHANGHAI 上海 (In Guilin: Reed Flute Cave. In Shanghai: Xintiandi and 1221)

Tour guide: Vivian (aka Wiwian)
Driver: ??

OK, it's getting harder and harder to write about this trip! It's tiring, especially b/c I tend to be too detailed! (And yes, I know that's an understatement.) Bah. K, here we go again.

On the eighth day, we woke up bright and early to visit Reed Flute Cave in Guilin, before heading to the airport. I'm too lazy to look up info for this, so here's what Jeff wrote....hehe.

Reed Flute Cave is "five kilometers northwest of Guilin (i.e. not far, since nothing is!). There are literally thousands of caves around Guilin, but Reed Flute is famous, as it is VERY large. It also has historical significance, as it has been used as a hideout for local people in times of war. During World War II, it was used as an air raid shelter."

Also, "Inside this water-eroded cave is a spectacular world of various stalactites, stone pillars and rock formations created by carbonate deposition. Illuminated by colored lighting, the fantastic spectacle is found in many variations along this 240-meter-long cave." By the way, the latter quote is not from Jeff's blog. Haha.

Anyhoo, they use artificial lighting to make everything more ....(fill in word here if you can speak English). I thought it was very pretty, yet fake-looking at the same time. The pictures turned out well tho! Again, every rock formation represented an animal or a fruit. Hehe. Anyway, it's good that we went early in the morning, as there weren't as many tourists around as there would've been if we went later in the day.

After the Cave, we headed to the airport. This time, we our flight didn't get delayed for 8 hours. Woot.

I really enjoyed our stay in Guilin. Guilin may have been the most optional of the four cities, but I'm definitely glad we got to go there as well. Ping acted like a realtor most of the time, saying how we should move to Guilin b/c it's "just like dreamland." I guess it is, in a way. I'd definitely want that kind of relaxed life-style for when I retire. I wonder when that'll be.

Continuing on. We were picked up by our new tour guide, Vivian, at the airport in Shanghai. Out of all of our tour guides, I'd say she's the most "city-like." She wore this red coat and had on make-up that struck me as very....(again, feel free to fill in the blank, as it is apparent I can no longer speak English.) Anyhoo, our driver had on these dark, ghetto-fabulous sunglasses which seemed very fitting as well. Yes, we had definitely arrived in Shanghai, the most modern city in China.

Jeff and I have learned to be wary of "facts" given by our tour guides, as they seem to contradict one another! Lynn had told us that Beijing was bigger than Shanghai, and Vivian told us the opposite. Well, according to Wikipedia, Shanghai is the largest city in China, with a population of almost 10 million people. Shanghai is often regarded as the center of finance and trade in mainland China. The whole city seems to be under construction. Seriously. Everywhere you look, you can see bulldozers and naninani. The architecture in Shanghai is pretty cool, b/c there's a lot of European influence in the older buildings, yet the skyscrapers are very modern-looking....sometimes to the point of tackiness, ie) Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Apparently, there is now a strong focus by city planners to develop more "green areas" (public parks) among the apartment complexes in order to increase the quality of life for Shanghai's residents, quite in accordance to the "Better City - Better Life" theme of Shanghai's Expo 2010. It'd be interesting to visit Shanghai a couple of years from now, as I'm sure it'd look entirely different from Shanghai today.

Shanghai also has sub-tropical climate, thus it was fairly warm while we were there. The climate in Shanghai reminded me of the climate in Hong Kong during the winter. Actually, these two cities are very similar to each other, as they are both modern Chinese cities with great skylines. Anyhoo, before I continue, I found this bit on Wikipedia to be quite interesting:

"During World War II, Shanghai became again a centre for refugees from Europe. It was the only city in the world that was open unconditionally to the Jews at the time. As a result, approximately 32,000 Jews, who like the other foreign communities termed themselves "Shanghailanders," settled in this fascinating Chinese city."

All of this info I've written for ya is from Wikipedia, and NOT from our tour guide, Vivian. On the car ride from the airport to our hotel, she did not tell us anything about Shanghai! I guess we were spoiled by our other tour guides spoon-feeding us historical facts about China. However, with Vivian, we learned that having a bad tour guide can leave you with a less-than-perfect impression of the people in the city. She wasn't horrible or anything, as both she and the driver seemed polite, but she also didn't really "guide" us either. We gave her the nickname, "Wiwian," which is uninspired, but appropriate, since Asians can't pronounce "v's" yet they still like to name their kids, "Vivian." Interesting, indeed.

Oh yes, being Chinese and all, Vivian asked Jeff and I if we were married, on the car ride to our hotel. We said, "No, we're just friends," to which she responded, "By 'friends,' you mean girlfriend and boyfriend, right?" We reiterated that we were "just friends," to which she finally said, "Oh, that's VERY interesting." That was her exact tone, if you can imagine. Oh, how it amuses me. Haha.

We finally reached our hotel, the Golden Riverview Hotel. Now, there's a story behind this, as Jeff and I jumped thru hoops to make sure we secured this hotel over another one, which didn't get very good reviews online. Anyhoo, I'm glad we chose to do so, as Golden Riverview Hotel is AMAZING. It's a 4-star hotel, as all of our hotels were, but this one just seemed to be a notch above the rest. First of all, you can't get away from the bell boy stealing your luggage and bringing it up to your room. We tried, and failed miserably, as he followed us up to show us our room anyway, resulting in us tipping him begrudgingly, as we are the cheapest people ever when it comes to unnecessary luxuries as such. Hehe.

After our short nap, we headed out for our first night in Shanghai. We went to the front desk to ask for directions, at which point they asked if we were taking a taxi, and we blindly said yes. This resulted in the bell boy following us out of the hotel and hailing a taxi for us, after which we had to tip him....yet again. We learned our lesson, and from that point on, we just said we were taking the subway every time. Hehe, you know, b/c we ALWAYS take the subway wherever we go. Haha.

We first hit Xintiandi, a rich, pedestrian-only area filled with foreign restaurants and expensive shops. It definitely didn't feel like Shanghai to me, tho at that point I didn't know what Shanghai should feel like? Anyhoo, there were many foreigners and young Shanghainese there. "The marketing of Xintiandi is mainly targeted towards overseas visitors, especially visitors from Hong Kong, who seek to experience the romanticised atmosphere of old Shanghai. As a result, prices in this area are high, even by international standards. Eating or shopping in this area is seen as a status symbol by affluent local residents."

We walked around the area, and soon discovered Aaron Kwok's HOT poster. (Picture to come later.) Anyhoo, being the FOB I am, Aaron was my Jr. high school idol, so it was definitely nice to see him almost naked and quite fit, even at the ripe age of 41! I swear he's a time-traveler. Also, I think Jeff's now even more hooked than I am! Hehe.

We also visited Uniqlo while we were in the area. Sad, b/c we both bought something there, even tho the prices were the same as in Japan...meaning it was super-expensive, comparatively. Oh well, I am loyal to Uniqlo and their so-so quality clothing. Hehe.

Oh, and how could I forget. I tried to buy a pair of boots at a department store there and encountered the WORST customer service EVER. This Chinese lady helped me and was really nice, but when I went up to the register to pay, this other lady told me that they won't accept my credit card b/c it read "PLEASE SEE ID." Well, I had my ID. That wouldn't do, she said. This is not a big deal by any means, as I could live w/o the boots, but she was just the BIGGEST B#### EVER while she was telling me how they won't take my ID....in Chinese. Well, she didn't really tell me as much as she was telling the other lady while giving me the dirtiest looks along the way. It was as if I was the one begging the store to sell me something! Her snide looks/remarks made me want to punch her in the face! Seriously. Shibakuzo!!

Anyhoo. After that, we took a taxi to 1221, a restaurant that came highly recommended on various online sites, and was even featured in the Lonely Planet. Once we arrived and entered the restaurant, it was as if we were in America. The place was seriously filled with gaijin (foreigners).....I could hardly see any Asians there! It was scary, as I wasn't expecting that kind of atmosphere....and it made me uncomfortable as well, not sure why. Maybe I've been in Japan for too long. Haha. Fortunately, Jeff and I were seated in another area, with a better mix of people. The food was good, but it didn't taste as Chinese as they claimed to be....it tasted more like fusion food I thought.

After dinner, the restaurant called a taxi to pick us up. Our taxi driver was seriously on crack. Seriously. He couldn't drive the taxi because it was stick shift! It literally took us 20 minutes to get out of the alleyway, and at one point, the drunk gaijin were laughing at us and helping push the taxi in the right direction! We were worried about arriving safely back to our hotel, but fortunately, we didn't die. Um, can just ANYONE be a taxi driver in Shanghai? Yeah, scary, indeed.

DAY 9 - SHANGHAI 上海 (Yuyuan Garden, The Bund, Huangpu River Cruise, Nanjing Dong Lu, Acrobatic Show)

The next morning, Jeff and I woke up to the BEST hotel breakfast EVER. It was a continental breakfast, and they had everything from yummy Muesli to banana bread to danishes to dim sum to noodles to fried rice to pancakes to cheese and crackers to fresh fruits to a wide selection of fresh juices....the list is endless! It was sooooo good, definitely the BEST hotel breakfast I've ever had! Also, the service was impeccable, as it was a nice hotel and people were literally right there when you needed anything. From that morning on, we looked forward to breakfast every morning! Hehe...I know, we're losers like that.

Vivian and our driver picked us up after breakfast, and we headed to Yuyuan Garden. Yuyuan Garden is located in the center of the Old City in Shanghai, and is considered to be one of the four finest Chinese gardens. The area surrounding the Garden was just packed with tourists. It reminded me of Asakusa in Tokyo. Just too many tourists and gaijin-catered vendors for my taste. However, they did have a Starbucks and a Dairy Queen, and so we MAY have each gotten a drink from Starbucks later on. We walked inside the actual Garden, and this was about the only time Vivian actually told us anything about Shanghai. After the tour of the Garden, we were given some free time. We just walked around to try and find omiyage (souvenirs) for people back in Japan. We found TenFu Tea shop, a tea shop chain that has locations all over the world. You can even find it in LA! Anyhoo, instead of tea, we bought these yummy dried-kumquats that were soo tasty! Mm mmm.

After we met up with Vivian again, we headed to lunch. Thing is, we ate sooo much for breakfast just a few hours earlier, that we could barely eat anything! But, it was on the itinerary so we did our best. We barely touched any of the dishes served to us. SAD. What a waste of food!

We were driven to The Bund after lunch. During the time we spent with Vivian and our driver in the car, I realized how the Shanghainese dialect is impossible to understand, and it also sounds a lot like French! Vivian actually speaks French, and she said that it's easy for Shanghainese people to learn French b/c the pronunciation is similar! Random. Anyhoo, I totally had no idea what they were saying the entire time. I mean, of course everyone in Shanghai can speak Mandarin Chinese as well, but they also speak Shanghainese just as often, if not more so.

We finally arrived at The Bund, a very famous waterfront area in Shanghai. The Bund stretches one mile along the bank of the Huangpu River and consists of some 52 buildings of various Western classical and modern styles. This was initially a British settlement; later the British and American settlements were combined in the International Settlement. It's truly quite beautiful; you should go see it for yourself one day! Anyhoo, we went on an hour-river-cruise on the Huangpu River, where we could enjoy Shanghai's famous skyline. One of the main attractions on the Pudong side of the river is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, a tacky, pink tower that is one of the key structures of the Shanghai skyline. Anyhoo, although it's not the most attractive piece of architecture, it makes for really good pictures! I think many people picture the Tower when they think of Shanghai's skyline, which does indeed look very modern, or at least aims to do so.

On our river cruise, Vivian just talked to us about random stuff, ie) the average salary in America, why she hates Japanese people, etc. So yeah, another tour guide expressing her hatred for the Japanese. Whoa, this animosity runs deep! Again, we didn't learn much about Shanghai on our cruise, as Vivian just made small talk with us. She did tell a funny joke that I can't remember now...but it was good!

Next, we were driven to Nanjing Lu, a pedestrian-only shopping street that is one of the world's busiest. I think we were given two hours to shop, then we were to meet up with Vivian again. Nanjing Lu would be an equivalent of Myeongdong in Seoul or Ximenting in Taipei. However, Nanjing Lu consisted mainly of shops which catered more to "local fashions." Sadly, that didn't really appeal to either of us. Once again, no luck with shopping for clothes in yet another Asian city! Sadness.

After two hours, the only thing Jeff and I bought was food. Haha. They had some yummy snacks there! Anyway, we met up with Vivian again, and it turns out that she had better luck than we did. She bought something! Um, being a tour guide in Shanghai just seems too easy. So after Nanjing Lu, we were driven to an acrobatic show. The show was fine and all, but the final act consisted of 5 motorcyclists driving inside one giant steel ring! Other than the fact that all of us there almost died from carbon monoxide-poisoning, it was nerve-racking to watch! How do they practice for such a show?! It's like, "Oops, I just crashed into the other motorcycle again." Uh, yeah. Too much for me to handle.

Once the show finished, we were taken to dinner at yet another Chinese hotel restaurant. After that, we were driven back to our hotel. There ends the "guided tour" part of our time in Shanghai. The next time we would see Vivian would be 4 days later, when she and a new driver were to pick us up and drive us to the airport. Sadly, Jeff and I didn't feel as though we'd be missing much without her "guiding" us around Shanghai. After we got back to the hotel, we just watched more BBC World. Woot for TV!

China (Part II - Xi'an / Part III - Guilin) - Pictures

I've finally caught up...somewhat. Here are pictures from Xi'an and Guilin. Enjoy!!

China (Part III - Guilin)

DAY 7 - GUILIN 桂林 (Li River Cruise, Yangshou, Elephant Trunk Hill, Fubo Hill, Seven Star Park, Foot-bathing, Minority Performance)

Tour Guide: Ping (aka "Like Dreamland")
Driver: ??

Guilin Park Hotel was very interesting; the decor reminded me of a Chinese restaurant. Seriously. I really felt like we were in a Chinese restaurant/love hotel. I say love hotel as well b/c there were condoms and other such amenities provided in our bathroom. Interesting. The place sounds sketchy, but it was actually pretty nice, plus the room rates were the most expensive out of all the hotels we stayed at! Anyhoo, we woke up bright and early on our 7th day in order to take a tour down the Li River. Ping and our driver (whose name we didn't know b/c we didn't hear Ping the night before, as she was talking at 5000 wpm) took us to the ferry for our tour.

Guilin is very picturesque and relaxing, to say the least. It is located in the Guanxi Province in Southern China. "Guilin" means "forest of Sweet Osmanthus" as there are numerous Sweet Osmanthus trees in the city. I've heard of Guilin before, since Chinese people always talk about how beautiful the place is. "Its scenery is reputed by many Chinese to be the 'finest under heaven.'" Guilin has a sub-tropical climate; it was much warmer there than in Beijing and Xi'an. Also, there are many ethnic minorities in the area, including the Zhuang, Dong, Yao and Miao minorities, which Ping told us all about the night before. In total, there are 56 minority groups in China, which only make up 8% of the total population, as the rest of China is comprised of Chinese "Han" people. Ping is actually a minority herself! She is of the Zhuang minority, and you could sort of tell from her facial features that she doesn't look very Chinese. I thought she looked more SE Asian to me. Also, the dialect in Guilin was difficult to understand, and Ping later told us that people from other parts of China have difficulty understanding them as well.

Being a tour guide in Guilin must be the easiest job ever. Seriously. Ping took us on the ferry, where we happened to be seated in the upper-deck VIP section. Woot. We sat next to a lone British traveler and across from a Asian Dutch family that spoke English, Dutch, Mandarin, Hakka, and who knows what else! They kept mixing their languages so it was amusing to try and figure out which language they were speaking! Hehe. Anyhoo, Ping and the other tour guides sat at the table next to ours. On the 5-hour tour, we just basked in the picturesque scenery on the Li River, took naps and ate.....same for the tour guides! They just busted out their snacks, chatted about stuff, and seemed to be having a good time amongst themselves. It wasn't like any of us felt ignored or anything, as they would come by to tell us about famous rock-formations-that-looked-like-so-and-so-animals, when we came across them. Other than that, they were getting paid to chit-chat amongst themselves, and take naps! How cool is that?? Haha.

The Li River reminded me a lot of Halong Bay in Vietnam. Actually, I felt more like I was in Vietnam rather than in China while we were on the river, maybe b/c of the weather. There are just many many rock formations surrounding the area. Since it was December, the water-level on the river was sooo low; I was surprised that we could even sail on it! Also, it was amusing, as Chinese people are really "creative" in that ANY shape or pattern on ANY rock resembles an animal or fruit to them. We passed by this one rock formation that had various patterns on it, and apparently, the shapes were supposed to represent 9 horses. I think I found 3. I guess I'm just not as imaginative as they are. Or perhaps, people in Guilin have even MORE free time than I do!! Now that's unheard of.

Oh yes, "Like Dreamland." That is the nickname we gave Ping. We actually found out her name is Ping on the river tour, as I tried to discreetly ask for her business card. Hehe. Anyhoo, at EVERY place we visited in Guilin, Ping would say something like, "Isn't this beautiful?? Just like dreamland, right??" Seriously...every place. It was VERY amusing to me and Jeff. Haha. We would just laugh silently every time Ping would say, "Like dreamland!" Hmm...it's not as funny when I'm writing it out, but just trust me, "Like Dreamland" was very entertaining. Also, Ping's greatest joy is napping. I seriously think she's somewhat epileptic. She would take naps at every opportunity she got. You know that I LOVE to nap, so that is just fine by me! Haha. Oh, and Ping's English was quite amazing; it was as if she's a native English speaker! Perhaps Cheeky Panda's hatsuon (pronunciation) sounded more American, but you could tell that Ping spoke English much less effortlessly.....like, she was thinking in English.

We arrived at Yangshuo in the afternoon. Yangshuo is a small town in Guilin and is surrounded by karst peaks. It's a beautiful little town, and again, many people refer to this place as "heaven." We only spent a short short time there, as we were only there to meet up with our driver so that we could be taken back to the city. Yangshuo is quite the tourist trap. There are many street peddlers trying to sell knick-knacks to foreign tourists, which there is an abundance of. Apparently, this place is quite popular amongst foreign backpackers. That seemed true just from the main street we passed by, which reminded me a lot of streets in Thailand that were catered to foreigners, with bars and pizza places, etc. Jeff and I decided that if we were to stay in Yangshuo, that street would've been our guilty pleasure. Hehe.

The ride back to the city took about an hour. Needless to say, Ping, Jeff and I took naps as we were driven back. When we got near our destination, Ping opened her eyes and said, "Time to wake up.......for meeeeeee." Hahahahahahaha. Gotta love her.

Our next stop was Elephant Trunk Hill. The shape of the hill is just like a huge elephant drinking water from the river with its trunk, so it is called Elephant Trunk Hill. However, at this time of year, there isn't much water to be had. It was pretty, but we only spent about 10 minutes there, as there's not much else to do once you get your snapshot.

Following that, we went to Fubo Hill, another one of Guilin's scenic spots. Fubo Hill reaches the height of 700 feet; half of it stands in the river, and the other half on land. Ping told us that it'd take about 10 minutes to climb up/down each way, and that she'd wait for us at the bottom. We arrived at the top, took a couple of pictures, then reached the bottom in less than 5 minutes. She was shocked at how quickly we finished. She asked us if we ran up there, and we said no. That's when Jeff and I realized that we tend to finish with things, ie) tourist sites, VERY quickly. Hehe.

Our next stop was Seven Star Park. We noticed how there is a huge age gap in Guilin, just like in Ota. We would see kids and older people around, but not many people our age. I guess it's a place where one might grow up, then leave to work in a bigger city, and come back to retire? At least I would. Btw, Guilin has a population of over 600,000 people. However, every city in China seems to be very densely populated, so this really doesn't make Guilin a "big city." Guilin is just soooo peaceful and relaxing; I can totally see myself wanting to retire in such a place. Just look at how much time they set aside for naps! Definitely a place for me. Hehe. Anyway, at Seven Star Park we saw many senior citizens playing cards, mahjong and just enjoying their surroundings. It was nice. Oh, and we also got to see a panda! It was eating a carrot!! Soooooo cute! Yaaay, we got to see a panda in China! Of course we also heard many "Like dreamland!" comments from Ping, considering the Park was so charming.

After the Park, we decided to try foot-bathing, something that Guilin is famous for. Ping took us to a foot-bathing place that was clearly catered to tourists, but at least it was nice and clean. I'd rather pay more to have a "clean" foot-bathing experience, than to end up at some sketchy place just to save a few bucks. Both Jeff and I opted for women masseuses. I actually wanted a woman masseuse, but not so sure about Jeff. Hehe. Anyhoo, they were very good and professional. They dip your feet in some sort of herbal water, then they just massage away. Both of us wanted to a "strong" massage, and that's what we got. It felt sooooo good and it definitely helped me relax! I could totally go foot-bathing every day! During the foot-bathing, my masseuse was very curious about me and Jeff, and tried to converse with me in Mandarin. It was good practice, yo! Woot.

After that, we went to a Chinese wedding, I mean, dinner. Our dinner was at a hotel, which also happened to be hosting a Chinese wedding that night. We were seated right near the wedding party, and it was funny b/c Jeff seemed to be the main attraction, over the bride and groom, who were standing outside greeting guests anyway so it didn't matter. Hehe.

After we finished dinner, Ping suggested that we take a walk, since we had a lot of time before the Minority Performance that night. Hehe, I guess we DO finish things very quickly, considering we missed 1/2 day in Guilin by being stuck at Xi'an airport the day before, then caught up with everything we were supposed to see in Guilin on that day, PLUS had extra time to spare. Haha. Anyhoo, we walked on a pedestrian shopping street, where we bumped into the British tourist that we were on the river tour with. Guilin is SO small. Seriously. It barely took us any time before we realized that we had already walked in a circle around the center of town. Nice.

The Minority Performance was quite impressive. The costumes and the set were pretty amazing. I really enjoyed the show! It was also nice that I actually understood what was going on at most parts, as Ping did a very good job of explaining the distinguishing features of each minority, the night before.

After the show, our driver took us back to our hotel. Jeff and I took a night stroll around Osmanthus Lake, which was located adjacent to our hotel. They LOVE neon lights in Guilin. Everything was lit up Chinese-style around their many lakes and bridges (which happens to be mini-replicas of famous bridges around the world, ie) Golden Gate Bridge, etc). The neon lights were magical; it almost felt like we were in Disneyland, watching the Main Street Electrical parade. Hehe.

K, I'll continue writing on the next post. I think I should hurry up and try to finish these posts about China, as I'm starting to forget things and I'm getting tired of trying to remember. Hehe. Plus, there's more to come, as I have trips planned for Hokkaido and Hong Kong in February. Woot.