China so far, just journal not much deep stuff
grabbed some quick internet from the hotel…i thought china would be a place of granduer and internets, but so far have not found a single place with free internet…since im limited, this is just an introduction and my blog about china can be found in the “Read more”. these are the first three days:
so far, my impression of the expo can be summed up like this.
it’s like visiting disneyland, but there are tens of thousands of people and everyone ONLY wants to ride space mountain.
yeah, ill be MIA again after my internet expires in about 10 minutes, so email and fb will prbly be limited. just here to let everyone know i am ok (if anyone cares lol)
DAY 1 CHINA
Instead of going through all the hassle of airport stuff and the stupid things my bro and I did like take pictures of the terrible English, im just gonna mention some first impressions cuz I think these are the things I want to remember later on
First thing, the weather is terrible. Hot, humid, smells like smoke, and the ever present smog/pollution littering the sky everywhere we walk (this is in shanghai). It’s really a huge difference compared to America/California/palo alto where on most days it is blue and sunny and you can see green trees everywhere. In china, everything is gray, gray and more gray and there is no such thing as seeing sunlight or stars, except through the haze of smog.
Next, there. Are. So. Many. People….our education wasn’t kidding when it taught us that china is the most populated place on earth. The last couple times ive been here (2003, 1999) it didn’t feel this crowded at all. EVERYWHERE you go there are so many people jostling around going about their business. Yet they are generally not rude or impolite, this is just how they live, in constant contact with thousands of people everyday. Definitely something I won’t get used to easily. And omg, taxis here are so scary. If I were to drive on the highway in shanghai, I would prbly crash and die. People use their horns as a a courtesy safety honk to let people know they are coming, instead of beeping angrily.
Dinner was really nice. We went out to eat with my dad’s cousin, and omg, my dad’s aunt (my grandma’s little sister) is soooo cute. Theya re so similar and both are like 80 years old. Same ticks, same speech patterns, they even look alike. It was adorable when she was all bustling around trying to force us to eat watermelons and lychees, not much different than back at home haha. Yeah I wish I knew some of my family better but tonight showed me that family is forever. I haven’t seen my relatives in like 5 years yet we still get along and can have a good time. My Chinese improving also helped tremendously because I don’t have to sit around like a doofus and not say a word; I can actually listen and contribute. Improving my Chinese is definitely a goal to accomplish this trip.
DAY 2 CHINA
day 2 was pretty fun. Haven’t gone to the expo yet, but we took a tour in rural shanghai. First place we went to (by tour guide [this tour was so much better than the one we took at east coast]) was Zhang Zuo (I think…I have the name somewhere) it was a water village and there was a river running through it. Supposedly this river has been here for a long time (something like a thousand or so years) But the people…oh dear god. I think they were on vacation so there were SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. In one tiny little alley there were hundreds of people, and tens of tour guides, all with microphones yelling at their groups. It was mayhem. And then we went to a dingy little restaurant filled with smoke, and they were pretty bad….the interesting foods were this fish that got mad and puffed up a little air sac and these pork feet that were everywhere. We took a little boat ride around and bought some souveneirs, the guy rowing the boat sang a song, and it was pretty cute. Yeah, the people and the smoke were pretty unbearable. I don’t think I could live here for a long period of time.
The next place we went to was an old Buddhist temple and got our fortunes (not sure if this is the proper term) told. Im pretty open to these things because while I don’t believe in predicting the future, I think there is some merit in the monks being more in tune with nature and chi. This was confirmed because me and my dad went to one monk while john and my mom went to another. One monk told my mom that she and my bro should burn these three distinct candles. And then on the other side of the room another monk told me and my dad to burn the exact same candles for the family. Pretty cool. He told each of us something about our chi and how we should act for the best feng shui. (I won’t tell mine haha but I saved it in private so I have a record)
Then went to a little jade shop where we got jade bracelets for 300 RMB. The amazing thing is that we haggled the price from 18,000 RMB roflmao. I think the boss was going a little crazy when he dropped the price that much.
DAY 3 CHINA:
First day at the world expo. The people are crazy. It was ridiculous. We woke up at 7 am to go line up at the expo, and we were still behind so many people. Everywhere we went the people were SPRINTING to get to places. There was no sense of decency or courtesy anywhere. the main points were to get a ticket so we could visit the Taiwan pavilion so that is the first thing we did. We had to sprint about a mile or so just to get in line (luckily we got a ticket). All around, everyone was running and sprinting, pushing and shoving to get into lines. Imagine any zombie movie you have ever seen, and replace all the crazy zombies chasing a live human with crazy Chinese people trying to get in line to visit a building. people would wait for 8 hours in line just to see the Saudi Arabia pavilion…
The biggest problem I had with the expo, apart from the ridiculous amounts of walking and waiting in line just to see around 30 minutes worth of a building is the people. Almost 99 percent of the people I saw were local Chinese people. On occasion I would see a foreigner or a family of foreigners. This is supposed to be a world expo right? so why is everyone there Chinese and crazily trying to visit everything. It seems to me that their attitude defeats the whole point. The point of the expo is to encourage a better city and better life. What kind of life is it when everywhere is packed to the brim with people shoving and pushing with no regard for others? Sigh…
Putting aside the incredibly sore feet from standing ALL DAY, the Chinese pavilion and the Taiwanese pavilion were pretty cool. Once you get inside it is actually an amazing feat of architecture and technology. Giant movie screen, a “4D” experience. The Taiwanese people even gave these little souvenir cups and baggies. Very hospitable once you actually get in. but the experience of waiting and walking until your feet feel like falling enough is enough for a lifetime. Weve seen the best ones, and if we go back I think slowly ambling and appreciating will be much more enjoyable.
1 year ago • Notes