So I am already two weeks into my Christmas vacation and things are going pretty well so far. I finished up the semester at Harbin well and I am looking forward to returning there in the spring. I feel like I will make a lot of progress with my Chinese next semester because I have established a pretty good foundation already. I have also decided I really want to immerse myself in the language, including not listening to english music and movies. Total immersion will probably really pay off in the end so I am going to give it a try.
I will do a little recap of what I have been up to the last few weeks. We took a train from Harbin to Beijing and the next day everyone from our program went back to America except for six of us who are returning next spring. Me and two others, Luke and Andrew, hopped on a plane to Chengdu in Sichuan province. Chengdu is a pretty cool place and we stayed there about 4 nights. The two biggest highlights included seeing the Giant Pandas in the Panda Zoo and the worlds largest Buddha statue engraved alongside a mountain in a small town called Leshan. The Pandas were pretty much what I expected, cute little animals and all that. The giant Buddha was amazing though. Built in the 8th century AD it was intended to calm the raging river. Ironically, because of all the rock that was carved out of the cliff, it did have a calming affect on the river and made it safer for shipping vessels. The carving is 233 ft. tall and is really an awesome sight, definitely one of the coolest things I have seen in China.
From Chengdu, the three of us took a train to Chongqing and spent about 4 nights there as well. A Chinese friend we had met in Chengdu recommended a place for us to stay that was really cheap and near the city center. The placed turned out not to be a hotel but an apartment building with an extra room. It was a little sketch and at first we did not want to stay more than one night. But it was only $20 a night for the 3 of us to share and it was in a really good location so we put up with it for the duration of our stay. I did not like Chongqing very much. For some reason I felt like everyone there was trying to cheat us all the time. The worst thing was when we took a bus to find some museum a little outside the city. We got off the bus too early and thought the musuem was still pretty far away. This lady told us she would drive us in her van to the museum for 20 kuai, or about 3 dollars. Since we thought it was pretty far and we were not thinking at the time, we agreed. The van driver then literally drove us for about half a kilometer and drop us off at the museum we wanted. That ride would have cost about 5 kuai in a taxi! So that really upset.
After a few days in Chongqing, Luke flew to Shanghai to visit his girlfriend there and Andrew and I stayed another night in Chongqing. We wanted to see the 3 Gorges Dam and started visiting some travel agencies to see if we could take a river cruise on the Yangtze to see the dam. It turned out to be a lot more expensive than I had envisioned. The attendant finally told us that we would have to take a bus to a city called Wanzhou, hop on a fast boat to Yichang where the actual three gorges dam is. She said she would also arrange a hotel and bus to our next destination of Wuhan. All of this for a total of 600 kuai a person, a little shy of $100. But I was very hesitant because we did not have any guarantee that all of this would work out. She did not give us any travel itinerary or confirmation that everything was as she said. Also, since I had felt that people in Chongqing were trying to cheat us all the time, I did not want to spend that much money on something and have it be a disappointing experience. But we decided to give it a shot and see what happens, at least it would be an adventure.
So we paid the lady and she told us to show up the same spot at 6:30 the next morning for our bus. We arrived the next morning and no one else was there. We wanted a little while and finally this guy out of the shadows appears, smoking a cigarette and tells us to follow him. We start to but again I have this bad feeling. After telling him we are not very comfortable about this situation, he just keeps repeating, dont worry, dont worry. So we hop on a bus for a few hours and arrive in Wanzhou and then get on the boat. The boat ride was about 5 hours long and had some pretty amazing views of the Yangtze River. I wasnt paying much attention because I was really engaged in the is books called "The Snowball Effect" by Alice Schroeder. It is basically a biography on Warren Buffet and was a very interesting read. Anyway, after a few stops we arrived in Yichang, site of the Three Gorges. When we got off the boat, another person was hurrying us into another bus to take us who knows where, we were assuming our hotel. This is the disappointing part. Our whole purpose of this trip was to see the dam and it was at the location where our boat docked at Yichang. As we were driving, we saw the dam pass by and were assuming we would be staying someplace near town where we could easily come back and get a better look at the dam. But our bus ride was over an hour long and when they dropped us off, another guy with a van was waiting for us to take us to our hotel. On the way we were asking him when we were going to see the dam and he said, "oh no problem, I can take you tomorrow for 150 kuai a person." We were not very happy. We told him our purpose of coming here was to see the dam and we had already spent 1200 kuai total. But this jerk would not budge on the price so we agreed. He then dropped us off at this crappy hotel that was freezing cold and told us to be ready at 7:15 am. That night Andrew and I would both upset and frustrated. It also sucked that it was so cold! We both wore our winter jackets and other winter stuff to bed and still was not comfortable.
The next morning, we were just too tired, and decided we did want to spend the extra money to see this stupid dam. We just wanted to get the crap out of this hell hole and hope Wuhan, our next city was better than this place. So we got our bus ticket and went on to Wuhan.
This trip was actually a good learning experience. I wont ever agree and pay a lot of money for something where the details are unclear. I also did not have a good feeling from the start and should have trusted my instincts from the start not to go along with it. But thats all in the past.
So now I am in Wuhan staying in a really nice hostel. The rooms are really nice and cheap and when we got here there was a bunch of other Americans sitting around watching a movie in the lobby. We hung out with them the next day before they left and it was cool to be around some other Americans for a change.
We leave Wuhan tomorrow for Shanghai. Our plan is to spend New Years Eve there and then move on to Nanjing. Im really looking forward to Nanjing because they have a lot of historical attractions that I am looking forward to seeing. Im also reading a book about the Taiping Rebellion in the 19th century and the rebels had made Nanjing their capital. So it will be cool to be in the actual place I am reading a history book about.
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so just a tip--chinese people like to rip dumb foreigners off because they can. so if you ever go to markets, a lot of time you can bargain prices and stuff (only in the ones where it's appropriate). the easiest way to NOT get ripped off is to have an asian with you. a lot of the market people will negotiate with you and if they are desperate for your business, you can play with them a little. for example, my dad and I wanted to buy some knockoff North Face backpack. We saw this lady sell one to this teenage guy for $50HK ($6-$7). When we asked her how much a bag cost, she said $150HK. So my dad was like "Am I not as good looking as that guy or something?" and she said "fine, I'll give it to you for $50 too" really quietly. other times we had to pretend to leave and not want it anymore, or say that someone offered it to us at the price of $50 and it was a little too much. it's the art of negotiating and making money. I think Chinese people really like both of those things.
p.s. I don't think you're dumb. just naive, but it was an adventure, and you learned things from it, so it was a good experience.
wow! you are having so many amazing adventures! I'm so so so jealous of you! even the craziness and the stress of not knowing what prices to pay and the details of where you're staying and wondering always if you're being ripped off or not! It turned out that those things lead to some of the craziest memories I had in India. Luckily it's not like you're getting ripped off for thousands of dollars, and it's not like you've put yourself in any really dangerous situations- so it can all be laughed about eventually.
Thanks again for sharing! It's so snowy and great in Alaska, and your adventures seem so far away! It's a great change of scenery for me!
ps- it's too bad you're not here to hang out! luke gets back into town next week and we are both going to be missing you sorely!
Jared! It has been great reading about your Chinese adventure. China is a country I am very interested in, I'm sure you can relate. Thank you for putting the time and energy into keeping all of us back home up to date.
Nanjing is a special city, I hope you enjoy it there. I'm sure you have heard about its connection to WWII and the Japanese invasion, there is a very powerful book on the events that took place but I warn you it is quite graphic. I believe the author is Iris Chang, it would be interesting to compare the city now vs. the description in the book...
Take care, be safe, and please keep writing!
Hello, Jared! I am Kitty from China; I worked in your Aunt Jane's lab before and now I still study in VT for my degree. I had lived in Beijing for years and travelled to a lot of places in my country before I came to US. In this winter break, I went to Florida and some small towns nearby Orlando. The Sea World in Orlando and Daytona Beach impressed me. I have gone to a few places since I was in US; and I expect that I can visit to every scene that I read from American novels and watched from movies during I stay in this country.
I believe that you are enjoying your Chinese trips and start becoming an "expert" (looks you have known how to bargain!). I would like to give a couple of small recommendation to you this time:
1. You have to go to Xi An in Shanxi Province. You must have known a lot of well-known stuff from "traveler handbooks"; they are amazing and expensive to watch; what I want to recommend to you is the "town wall". The town wall in this city keeps very good condition - the top of wall is wide enough for biking and price is very cheap. I remember it's only about RMB10-20 to rent a bike and you can stay on the top for one entire day. Even for a Chinese like me is shocked by it. You can imagine that millions ancient soldiers are fighting here and many battles can last for months even longer.
2. I believe that you should list Beijing in your schedule and have known a lot about this big city from various channels. I lived in the middle of "2nd circle" and "3rd circle" when I was in Beijing - you might have known that it is closed to main area of Beijing downtown. After you visit "Forbidden City" in downtown, you can look for a noodle restaurant in "Gan Jia Kou" street called "Old Beijing Noodle Restaurant". Take subway or No.1 or No.4 bus from Forbidden City station and stop by at "Mu Xi Di" station. Then try to find the "Gan Jia Kou" street. The noodle restaurant’s owner restores the "old time style" here: the decorating, the waiters' clothes, the service style, everything here recalls people's old time's memory. And the price is decent. You can have a good meal with only RMB40-50 or less. Waiters speak loudly to show their respect to guests - very interesting.
3. "Liu Li Chang" (English could be "Color glaze Plant") in Beijing deserves a look. Although in recent years, it's more and more like a stuff market, it's still a good place to observe Chinese culture. You'd better have an accompany with you since you now might not be familiar with Chinese arts, books, music instruments etc. It's nearby "He Ping Men", and you can take subway or No.14 or No.15 and stop by "He Ping Men" station. I often went there in weekends and sometimes can find out very good books which I cannot get in other book stores. Don't buy expensive stuff there unless you have a Chinese friend with you.
4. I strongly recommend you go to a street nearby Yong He Gong in Beijing (English could be "Lama Temple"). A lot of ancient architecture locate in the street including Confucius Temple. Many trees in these buildings are more than 600-700 years old. You know that China owns "the system of imperial examinations" for thousands years. This street can be regarded as a part of the record of the system. Those students who can survive from this system were kept their names in stones. If you read carefully, you can find out a few famous people's names from stones in certain temple.
Let me know if you like these places. I know that you are still a student (just like who I am in US); therefore I pick something special and not expensive for you. If you are also interested in luxury sites to know another side of China, I love to introduce too! :)
Have a nice trip in China!
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