Gross food

Really gross Beijing Street Food. Bugs, squid, snakes, cow stomachs. Yuck!!!

Hustling in Beijing

As soon as I got off the subway in Beijing I got lost. The map I had for the hostel was garbage and a sweet looking girl stopped to help me out. I knew instantly that she was running a scam, but figured that I could use it to my advantage. Apparently people will offer directions, friendship, etc as an excuse to get you you a tea/coffee house where  you are forced to pay crazy money or robbed. I let the girl and her friend guide me to my hostel (which I would not have made it to without them) and then made them wait while I checked in. I then walked them a half mile before insisting that we go get food/beer/coffee at a random place. The girl was so made that she started screaming at me: "how can you be so mean? I showed you to your hostel now get me some coffee where i want !" I said "sure as long as it is at this restaurant". She went crazy and screamed "FUCK YOU" and threw her water at me. I just laughed at her and went and got dinner. She is lucky that I am in China and not the States or else I would have acted much differently. It felt sooooo good to play a player.  Welcome to Beijing!!!

xi'an

Xi'an is pretty dirty and run down. My hostel is down a stinky back street but is awesome when you get inside. They have a huge hang out room, pool and table tennis room, a bunch of animals (fish, dogs, rabbits, birds, cats, and more). They even have live music and trivia.  Most people including myself only come here for one thing: the terricota warriors. I don't know how power mad you have to be create a 4000+ person clay army. The detail on the soldiers is pretty impressive. They only have a few hundred on display so I can't imagine what it must have been like to see them all together. Their second most famous attraction is the Big Goose Pagoda which would be a lot more impressive the air pollution wasn't so bad here (the Pagoda is not even that big and the top is still covered in smog). I think my favorite thing about xi'an is this noodle restaurant that serves one long flat noodle that fills the entire bowl. It tasted so good that I ate there twice.

Expo round two

I had to go back to the Expo before I left Shanghai. This time the weather was nicer so I had to wait in much longer lines. I waited almost to two hours to get into the UAE pavilion. It wasn't worth it. Lots of flashy nonsense about pearls and oil. I got into Iran's and it was surprisingly well done. They had live music and lots of Iranian food. The winner of the worst pavilion goes to North Korea. It was basically empty of people and artifacts. No music, no food, no art, no culture, no style and no line to get in. They did have lots of books written my Kim Jong Il for sale. I couldn't get into the China pavilion because I didn't know that it was reservation only. It looked pretty amazing though. 

Tongli

Took a day trip out to Tongli. It's about an 1 1/2 bus ride from Shanghai and a nice change of pace from a bustling city. I was a little worried due the horrific bathroom I had to use at the bus station. Everyone uses the same trough to poop in! They all squat over a long rectangular trough. There is no water in this trough either so you can see the guy in front of you's poop piling up. This is hands down the most disgusting thing I have ever done in my life. Anyway. Back to Tongli. I have seen it referred to as little Venice because it is built around narrow canals, but it reminded me much more of Vietnam. It is a major tourist spot in the sense that bus loads of Chinese flock to it everyday, but it still feels very genuine. The buildings look like they are falling apart and the locals walk around shirtless and disheveled  seemingly  oblivious to all the tourists (except for the ones selling snacks and trinkets on their porches). One of the buildings had a coy pond with the most fish I have ever seen. They would literally climb out of the water over each other to get food. Some of them were well over a foot long. The real reason I went was to check out the China sex culture museum, which had lots of ancient kinky statues and loads of info on the history of sex and marriage in China. I actually learned quite a lot. I am not going to post any pics from the museum because I know many of my students are reading (some of the statues are R rated or worse).  I spent the end of the day eating by the canal and watching some crazy guy mess with his giant trained black birds. Aside from the bus station bathroom it turned out to be a very pleasant day.

World Expo 2010: world cultures on acid!

Everyone has been complaining about the Expo around the hostel I'm staying at. They say that it is too crowded, the lines are too long, and you don't really get to see much. NONSENCE! This thing is spectacular. World cultures meets modern art/architecture/ meets Disneyland with a huge dose of acid thrown in. I went to the dream cube first which is made of recycled cd's and responds to the people around it and in it by changing colors! They have a theme pavilion that takes you through the history of civilization with huge reproductions of art and cities and digital video blasting in all directions so it feels like you are in a movie. I got into both the USA and Canada pavilions and Canada's killed ours (most countries were better than ours). The Chinese seemed to like it though.  Even though it is a "world expo" it is pretty much 99.9 percent Chinese (it is also where they have been hiding all the hot Chinese girls). I had some great beer at the Lithuania pavilion, and got turned into a dancing singing avatar at some crazy siemans corporate pavilion. I don't think it could have been more fun. It rained for about a half hour and that cleared out a lot of people, so I didn't have to wait in very many lines. Even with the rain there were still over 300,000 people there on the day I went!!! The next one is in Milan in 2015 and I think I will go (Italy's pavilion was huge). Definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far and that says an awful lot.

Shanghai

Shanghai is nuts. It seems fairly normal during the day, but as soon as the sun goes down the people start to flow out like a broken fire hydrant. The expo has been getting 400,000 or so people a day visiting and they all come out at night. The Chinese are not polite, so everyone crowds and pushes. The pollution leaves the sky line in a haze and almost instantly seemed to hurt my eyes and throat. The lights of city are blinding to the point that I could barely take a picture without it getting washed out. It is just as hot here if not hotter than in japan which means that I drip sweat all day.  I plan to go the expo in the next few days and that is supposed to be even crazier. So far I am loving it here. As soon as I saw the city at night I booked two more days. I can never get enough big city craziness and this is by far the biggest city I have ever been to (20 million +). 

CHINA!!!!

I made it! The boat took two days and made me seasick as hell. I'm glad I did though. Seems fitting to arrive in China on a boat. I am trying real had to get past the "great firewall" so I can blog and facebook easier. Shanghai is a madhouse. I have never ever seen so many people in my life. I'll get some pics up soon.