Home from China!

After approximately 20 hours in transit, I finally arrived back in Minnesota this afternoon. I just finished unpacking (ie throwing all the clothes I had packed into a laundry basket to be dealt with later) and am now getting ready to crash. I've been awake since 5:45am Shanghai time, which in Minnesota time is 4:45pm on Wed May 5th. As it is now after 11pm, and my only sleep in the last thirty hours came in little naps on the plane, sleep is definitely overdue.

But never fear, there are more stories coming! Keep your eyes out at this blog over the next few days as I sort through pictures and put up more stories, especially from our time in Beijing and the last few days of my trip. A special thanks again to Carrie and Jeff for being the most amazing China hosts!

Looking west at the Pudong skyline along the Huangpu river in Shanghai

Riding in a rickshaw to the Summer Palace in Beijing

Hiking on the Great Wall in Huanghua, north of Beijing

Back from Beijing!

We had a whirlwind weekend in Beijing. We flew out late on Thursday night, and despite some issues with our tickets and a delayed plane, we finally landed in Beijing and got to our hostel a little after 1am.

Friday was our day to see the well-known sights of the city - Tianenman Square, the Forbidden City, Olympic Park. The weather was gorgeous and it was amazing to see the history along with modern Beijing. We ended the evening by browsing what Carrie calls "snack street," bustling alleyways filled with vendors selling foods on a stick - and not the MN State Fair variety, either. We saw live insects skewered through and deep-fried, along with octopus, seahorses, and other exotic creatures. (We had just had dinner so we didn't try anything...but I got a lot of pictures!)

Saturday was "Great Wall day" - we rented a private car and drove northeast of Beijing to a place called Huang Hua, or "yellow flowers." Despite the insane amount of traffic on the road (everyone was getting out of town on a gorgeous Saturday), we got to the town around 11am, had an early lunch, then headed up the steep hillside to climb the wall. Unfortunately we couldn't reach the wall from the path we originally chose due to the incline being too steep, so we took an off-road detour and came up on the wall a quarter mile or so away. Sadly we took the wrong turn (had we gone left we would have found the doorway leading into the wall), but we did find a convenient stack of boulders and with Jeff doing most of the hoisting, we all managed to clamor over the barricade and were on the top of the wall! (Which made us question the purpose of the wall...if we could scale it, what good was it at keeping invaders out?) The cuts and bruises were definitely worth it. We hiked for a while in one direction until the wall crumbled below us, then took a picnic and a nap before heading back to the reservoir where we started. We also took a jumping picture using the self-timer which turned out amazing (and will be updated on the blog later). We ended the evening at a lake in the northwest part of the city, where we ate outside on a lakefront patio and enjoyed live music and the warm fresh air.

Sunday was our last full day in the city so we decided to take advantage of our third straight day of beautiful weather and head to the Summer Palace. Upon exiting the metro we took a rickshaw to the entrance, which was enjoyable if not a bit ridiculous because the distance covered was only a few hundred meters. The Summer Palace was amazing to behold, due in part to the incredible crowds. There were people everywhere you turned. We finally found some green space far enough away from the entrance to enjoy our ice cream, then started heading back as I wasn't feeling well. We went to the Temple of Heaven park where we enjoyed more green space, ice cream, live music and dancing. (Chinese people love to sing and dance in parks, it appears.) We took a quick turn around the Temple building but did not go inside as our final stop for the evening was the Hongquiao Market (also known as the Fake Market) across the street. The Fake Market was filled with all the souvenirs you could imagine, as well as name brand knock-offs of bags, shoes, wallets, clothing, electronics, and everything else. I did a little souvenir shopping but was really feeling sick by this time (I blame our breakfast food, procured from a local vendor in the alley by our hostel) and so we wrapped things up and headed home. Carrie and Jeff got take-out from a nearby restaurant and spent the evening getting to know our fellow hostel-mates; I slept for the rest of the evening.

And today we woke up early and caught our flight back to Shanghai! The gorgeous weather followed us here, as it is 25 degrees Celsius (almost 80 F) and we are out to enjoy the afternoon.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are taking the train to Haungzho, and Wednesday is my last day in Shanghai - I can't believe it's gone so fast! I will definitely post more pictures and stories soon. And now, off to the park!

Day 5 - April 26 - museum and rain day

Short post today, as I uploaded some pictures on previous posts which took longer than expected. I'll come back and add more detail to this post, but here are some highlights from today:

--slept in and woke up to my first day of rain--went to the metro by myself, managed not to get lost, and took the metro to People's Square
--visited the Shanghai Museum and took tons of pictures of Shanghai art
--had lunch at a noodle restaurant and even managed to order something without meat
--met some young Chinese people also on vacation, who invited me to join them at a traditional tea ceremony
--got lost on my way back from the metro and spent almost an hour wandering around before being saved by Carrie and Jeff,
--who took me out to dinner at a Xinjiang province-style restaurant (we don't know the actual name, but it was delicious!)
Pictures below, details to follow!

Day 4 - April 25 - city from above

Today we decided to head into the city for another day of touristy sightseeing, as we had a second consecutive day of sunny weather. First we went to brunch at a place called Wagas, where I had a spinach egg and feta wrap, then split a pumpkin and chocolate muffin for dessert. We walked around Xu Jai Hui, including popping into a Best Buy to compare prices with its western counterparts.


Onward to a nearby park where we wandered among the crowds of families out enjoying the Sunday morning. We saw a bride getting her picture taken, and we ourselves posed with a large ceramic sculpture of HaiBao, the mascot of the Shanghai World Expo that's opening next week. He kind of looks like Gumbi.

Back on the metro to Century Ave, a long avenue that stretches along all of the financial towers on the PuDong (which is west of where we were walking yesterday). We decided to splurge and bought tickets to go up to the observation deck on the Shanghai World Financial Center. Our tickets took us to the 97th floor first, where we took many many pictures of the city, and also where we watched window washers strap themselves into a bucket and get lowered over the side of the 492m building. Then we headed up to the 100th level, which had a glass floor that we could walk on and see the city below us. It was freaky and cool all at the same time.

After stopping for a snack at Costa Coffee, we headed back to the Puxi (poo-shi) side of the river. Jeff went home and Carrie and I headed south to brave the Fabric Market. This is a warehouse type building with three floors devoted to various merchants selling fabric and hand-made clothing. Anything you could imagine being hand-tailored, they were selling. We admired shirts, skirts, dresses, even underclothes. But I wanted a winter coat and so we wandered around to a few stalls before finding two women that were willing to make the coat design that I wanted at a reasonable price. The coat is a chocolate brown with a round collar and assymetrical buttons - very unique and fun for my first China purchase! I'll pick it up next week and will post pictures (assuming it fits).

Now Carrie and I are back home after another long day. She's making dinner and I'm lounging around. We might go on a way around the neighborhood later tonight for a late-night snack, or I may crash early - it's been a busy few days! Tomorrow I plan to head to a park and maybe a walking tour of the French Concession...a neighborhood that has retained its roots of French colonialism for the last few centuries. And I hope to upload some pictures soon too!

Day 3 - April 24 - whirlwind tourist Shanghai

Miracle of miracles, I slept the whole night through and woke feeling quite rested around 9am. Carrie and I both cleaned up and got ready for the day while Jeff was at a volleyball tournament. First, Carrie took me to their school's security office to register me as a guest at the school for the week. Then we walked through their neighborhood for an early morning treat of a baoza - a steamed dumpling type thing filled with tofu and greens. Delicious. Next we walked by some local shops and headed to a wet market, where locals sell fruits, vegetables, and seafood. Carrie and I walked the aisles and even received free cucumbers from one of the merchants she buys from often - quite a treat! From there we headed to the Trust Mart, the Chinese version of Wal-Mart. We got a milk tea from a local cafe, then bought a sim card for my cell phone so I can call Carrie and Jeff on days when they're working.

We headed back to the school to meet Jeff. We decided to head out again for lunch at a noodle shop around the corner from their campus. Carrie and I shared a noodle dish and watched them make the noodles right in front of us - very cool. From there we hopped on the metro and rode to People's square. We headed immediately to Nanjing Road and walked along this famous shopping street, stopping to watch a full choir and orchestra sing songs about the World Expo, which starts here in Shanghai on May 1. We bought ice cream cones as we walked toward the Bund, a stretch of road that parallels the Huang Pu river with classic and colonial style buildings. The sidewalk along the river was open after having been under construction the last few months, and since it was a gorgeous day there were tons of people out taking pictures of the skyline in PuDong, where all the tall skyscrapers are.

We walked along the riverwalk to Yuyuan, or Old Town. The streets are narrow and all the shops have roofs like pagodas. We walked through the famous tea house and stopped for another snack. From here we took a taxi to a neighborhood called Tai Kang Lu, another area with winding narrow streets and many unique shops. We had dinner in TaiKang Lu, including a local Chinese beer, Tsingtao.


From Tai Kang Lu we walked to Xintiandi street, which was another shopping district. We admired the fancier boutiques and people dressed for the evening, and stopped at a French patisserie for sweet snacks before catching a cab back to school. Public transportation is widespread and very cheap here, but the cabs are also very reasonable and since we had been walking all day we decided to splurge on the ride home.

Now we are settling in for the evening so we can be ready for another busy day tomorrow! I'll try to post some pictures soon. In the meantime you can check Carrie and Jeff's blog for updates: http://hsinchina.blogspot.com.

Days 1 & 2 - April 22 & 23 - travel to Shanghai!

3:10pm Thursday April 22nd - my trip to Shanghai has begun! I left the Minneapolis/St Paul airport at 3pm on a plane to Tokyo, Japan. I had a seat on the aisle and was lucky that there was no one in the middle seat. The woman who sat in the window seat in our row, Alyssa (or Alexis?) was very friendly and we talked while waiting for the delayed flight to finally get in the air. The flight was very uneventful - we watched four movies, ate three meals, and napped off and on during the thirteen hour flight.

Our plane landed in Tokyo 30 minutes late and Alyssa and I said goodbye hurriedly as she headed to her connecting flight to Hong Kong and I went to my gate to catch my connecting flight to Shanghai. We got another meal on this flight - dinner of noodles and veggies along with some sort of cake for dessert. Despite more turbulence on this flight everything went well and we landed in Shanghai about 10pm local time on Friday evening, April 23rd. (This is 9am Minnesota time.) I was worried about getting through customs (having my visa denied was a recurring dream in the weeks leading up to my vacation), but everything went well and I when I passed through the international gates, I saw my friends Carrie & Jeff waiting for me! It was a relief to see them and to know that the long travel was finally over.

We took a cab to their campus. Because it was late we went straight to their apartment. I am staying in the room next door to theirs - I have my own bedroom, living space and bathroom, which is very luxurious. I gave Carrie & Jeff the presents I brought for them - ibuprofen and batteries (which they had requested), and a pound of coffee and a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Delicious! We all went to bed pretty soon after that. I unpacked my clothes into the dresser and settled into bed with a Shanghai travel book to read up on some of my "must sees" for the weekend...and promptly fell asleep! I was so tired from travel I slept the whole night - it was perfect. Tomorrow: see Shanghai as a tourist!

Getting ready

I'm headed to China! Good friends Carrie and Jeff Henning-Smith are spending the year in Shanghai and I decided to take the plunge and visit for two weeks. I'm spending most of my time in Shanghai, but we're planning a side trip to Beijing and potentially some day trips by train.

I'm not sure how often I'll have time to post, but I hope to keep updated on my adventures on this blog, and will eventually sift through all the pictures I'll take on my trip, and post the best of those on my Photo of the Day blog.

Carrie & Jeff are pretty good about posting to their blog, too, so you can always check out what we've been up to over there: http://hsinchina.blogspot.com/.

I've been making lists for weeks, and now it's less than a day until I leave and I'm still not packed. Luckily I have everything I need (and probably way more than I need) laid out on my bed, ready for my trip! T-minus 21 hours until departure!