Midnight to Sunrise

Hua Shan 华山

Hua Shan is one of the Big 5 mountains in China (N, S, E, W, Middle Yue). Within the mountain there are 5 major peaks (N, S, E, W, Middle peaks). We set off at midnight to reach the East Peak at 5am for sunrise.
We didn't see much of a sunrise due to the thick clouds that morning. But we still did manage to hike all 5 peaks before surrendering to the cable car at 10am.

Favs: probably the most adventurous hike I'm going to do in a while... not looking forward to scaling any 90 degree cliffs with rusty linked chain and gardening gloves anytime soon. :)
Least favs: no sunrise on the peak. But at least each day yields a new opportunity.

2000+ years in 2+ days

Xi An
As soon as you set foot into Xi'An, you first see cultural pride emitting from each plank of wood in the architecture and each word spoken by the locals. You don't leave without knowing: this was the first and longest capital of China.
The Big Goose Pagoda not only hosts the scriptures that Tang Shen obtained from India thousand years ago but also the second biggest musical waterfountain show in the world. Sparrows, not spotted elsewhere in the city, circled the pagoda day and night. Maybe they're there to guard the scriptures, or maybe they're just there for the show.

You always see the row and rows of neatly arranged Terracotta Warriors. I learned that this emperor not only wanted the world's largest army with him to rule the underworld, but also buried the sun, moon mountains and rivers inside his tomb too. He took with him a palace city with all his concubines who never bore children - 3000+ in all.

Xi An is the only city with an entirely entact city wall. On our last night, we "bribed" a guard to let us on the wall after hours. We were part of the black square that surrounded the old city, but was encircled by the vibrant new Xi'An. We were the lonely soldiers who patrolled the city wall that night. City lights lit our path from both sides. On that night, the city wall no longer protected the city; rather the now city embraces its wall.

City favs: Yes, children do need heroes to inspire them. But even the best superhero stories pales in comparison to the feats accomplished by our own ancestors. Look no further than our own history for the foulest villains and the most glorious stories of human triumph.

Least favs: Coming to Xi'An would make any Chinese person proud to be part of this rich heritage yet ashamed to know so little about it. The stories about China will never end, and so we keep learning and creating.

Thousands of Words

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll be succinct:
Zhang Jia Jie (3 Day tour)
Zhang Jia Jie is a national park in Hunan province. Basically the cities in that entire area is sustained by tourism only. People travel from all over to witness their mountains.

This is the typical mountain structure of the Zhang Jia Jie. Pillars of rock reach from the fog, as if they have already penetrated from earth's realms. Standing above the clouds you can't be anywhere but heaven, with the world's 2nd longest cable car as the gateway.

If you watch the fog for long enough, you start to wonder: is the fog evaporating from the mountains, or are the mountains floating with a trail of fog?And maybe these underground pillars of rock were the origin of the mountains. Perhaps they first penetrated through the caves and then through the clouds.

City favs: The majesty of it all strikes you dumb. Each person vanishes from minuteness, hypnotized such that one is no more than a worshipper of beauty, blindly pointing and shooting, hoping to capture a glimmer of her essence. All the while, knowing full well this is like capturing the ocean in a single spoonful.

Least favs: The entire well being of this community depended on tourism. Since the earthquake tourism in China decreased by 70 to 80%. Likewise, this city cooled down as well. Parts were like ghost towns - I felt like a queen - entire parks opened just for me?

2 Week Whirlwind

I think I've prolonged long enough my 2 week tour from Hong Kong to Beijing. It was quite an adventure that I shared with Allen. We got to see the full spectrum: 21st century city to run-down countryside, modern day architectural wonders to 5000 year old cultural relics. So now I will just share some of my favorite pictures:

Hong Kong
Had there not been so many Chinese people, I would have almost been fooled into thinking I was back in the US. The city is modern in every way, especially in it's pricing and addiction to brands. The following is a view from The Peak. It's not much more than a grassy hill with 60HKD trolly access. It is special in that it has one of the only Burger Kings in all of Hong Kong. It is rumored that people ride the trolly up just to get a taste of that classic Whopper meal.

One of the most famous tourist attractions is the 2HKD nighttime ferry ride during the light show. How could I miss it? City Favorites: great food! Allen, Floretta and I went "sweeping the street" in Wang Jiao. Basically, sweeping for street food ~ meats, seafoods, veggies freshly grilled on sticks, fresh baked pastries, freshly mixed noodles, freshly ground sugar cane juice (literally inserting a 5ft long sugar cane into a machine, then collecting juice from a spout).
City Least favs: I guess I was incorrect to assume that just because I was close to China, the prices of goods would also be close to Chinese costs. The only activities in the city were shopping, shopping and shopping. Normally, it is an activity I enjoy, but a student's budget can't afford goods in an I-banker's city.

We cut our stay one day short and skipped out our last night's hotel reservation for ShenZhen. Now that's where the real shopping started...

ShenZhen
City Favorites: watching my sister bargain. There's a saying in Chinese bargaining lingo, that for every price they call you have to go to the "half half price", or 25%. But watching my sister, she went even beyond that. It was like she knew exactly what price the buyers got the product for and let them earn anywhere between 1 yuan to 5 yuan. Absolutely amazing.
City least favs: too little time and too many wants. The only thing holding us back was the though of lugging everything to Beijing.

There's a time to play a king and a time to be the thief.

So I finally have internet after the acupuncture school, this time it's permanent. I've been slow in giving updates, but now I have the time and the means. They will come soon. But in the meantime, I think I'm learning my lessons quickly...

I live in a room with 2 other roommates. We knew the price of getting internet in our room was 100yuan/month. Being here for only 1 month, we thought it was reasonable to split it between the three of us. At the front desk we asked them to turn on our ethernet port in our room.
One lady asked, "how many computers do you have? It's 100yuan/ computer."
After exchanging outraged looks among the three of us, "No, we are only going to use one computer."
"Well if you pay 300 you guys can all go online" she said.
I couldn't believe she was trying to rip us off at the research institute. How shady are these people? Very adamantly, I said "No. We just want to connect ONE computer. "
She sighed, "Okay, that's 200 yuan."
"What?? No, we were told it's 100yuan. We're only here for one month!"
"It's 100yuan a month, and then 100 deposit"
My friend couldn't hold it in anymore. "Deposit for what?!?!"
"Deposit for the ethernet cable." She then proceeded to hold up a dinky, musty ethernet cable that companies would be embarrassed to hand out for free at career fairs.
"Well if we get our own cable, then we don't have to pay the deposit? Can you just turn on our ethernet jack? We're in room ***"
The lady hesitated for a moment, perplexed. "Let me ask." She proceeded to turn to another lady, whispered a few terse sentences and turned to us "Okay, just give us 100yuan then."
We handed over the money and took the decade-old cable. Something sketchy is going on... Discussing among ourselves, we remembered that we had given her our room number several times, but she never confirmed nor recorded it. She seemed perplexed every time we asked her to turn on our ethernet jack... Could it be that they didn't have the technology to turn on and off ethernet jacks by room? Could it be that we already had internet in our room this whole time? Could it be that they were trying to charge us 300 + 100 deposit ($67) to rent some ethernet cables for a month?!?!
We ran up to our room only to discover we now had access to a connection that took 5 seconds to load google.com!! Although we had gotten the price down from 400yuan to 100yuan ($13), that was still too much to pay for ethernet cable renting! Feeling angry and cheated, we went back down to the front desk, using the slow connection as an excuse, and demanded our 100yuan back.
We got our hands on another ethernet cable, plugged it in - and look - the same slow internet for "free." I guess I'm the thief now.

10+45=priceless

6/12/08
Waiting in the train terminal was painfully sweaty and I escaped to a little magazine stand in the corner for some room to breathe. I was proudly voluntarily buying, and planning to read, my first Chinese magazine! I finally settled on QingNian WenZai for it's market price of 10yuan, a magazine with stories for younger audiences. On the train I struggled through a biography on Condoleezza Rice. Then, as I started on other articles about the Olympics, progression of education and the job market in China, I noticed all the figures from late 2004. Flipping to the back, I discovered this magazine was published it January 2005. It is now only worth it's price in trash (at the going rate of 0.8yuan/kg).

06/14/08
After two weeks at home, I was eager to start exploring Hong Kong with friends (and Allen). I got to the airport early, got through security early, and went to look for my gate. I didn't see my gate at first, and asked this worker where Gate 6 was. She said, "Your plane doesn't take off for another 2 hours (which was true) so come sit in this cafe and wait. They'll come get you when you board!" I was lured by the red wood tables and blasting AC. Sitting down, I was handed no menu, but asked "Do you like watermelon smoothies, orange smoothies, coffee or tea?" "Watermelon smoothie please" I replied. That sounded good and I had two hours to kill. It's China, and here, I'm no longer a poor grad student. How much could it be?? I pulled out my 10yuan magazine and was determined to get my money's worth by reading it cover-to-cover. 30 minutes later, I noticed a guy paying for a pack of cigarettes with a 100 bill. Then another 45 minutes went by and the lady at the next table stated yelling because her two cups of water, with lemon, cost 29 each. Did I get tricked again? An hour and a half later, someone did come to get me to board my flight, but also handed me a 45yuan bill for my watermelon smoothie. For those who don't know, outside the FuJian International Airport, 45yuan will get you:

1. 45 ice cream bars, or
2. 27 liters of bottled water, or
3. One "Polo Ralph Lauren" sweater, or
4. Roundtrip train tickets to visit my grandparents in Nan Ping, or
5. A helluva good dim sum meal.

But here, it got me a little thirst quencher and a lesson to guard me for the rest of the trip. I'll keep you updated on further priceless encounters.

Contact me :)

My cell: 15010940828

China's country code: 011
Time difference from US: China is 15 hours ahead of Cali/AZ.