china!!

April 24, 2007

Tuesday morning we arrived in Hong Kong. I didn’t get up for the sunrise, but did make it up just in time for breakfast around 8:30. I dragged myself half-asleep to the dining hall, had my cheerios and then on my way back to my room I hear over the announcements that the diplomatic briefing will be starting soon and that the Virginia Tech shootings will also be discussed. I’ve been awake about 10 minutes and this is the first I’ve heard about the incident. Tired, confused and very awkwardly, I raced to the computer lab to try and get on my e-mail and CNN.com to see what in the world had happened. I’m thinking about my friends and wondering if they’re OK and about a million other things. And then I remember my boyfriend went to go visit his boys and that he was at Tech this weekend. The one weekend in the semester he chooses to go. So I basically just start freaking out and buy a phone card ($20 for 13 minutes, sorry parents, emergency) and call Will and thank God, he’d gotten home a few hours earlier. And then I called my Dad because I needed someone from home to talk to. Racing around the world tires you out and you don’t realize how exhausted you are until your emotions start flying around and you can’t really think. It was great to talk to my Dad and it made me miss home a lot. The next couple days were difficult because I’m obviously not home and I don’t have my Virginia people and close friends to talk to. Everyone on the ship is sympathetic and very upset with the attack, but its different being from Virginia and having friends live at the school.

We arrived in Hong Kong on the 17th, I believe, and just went out into the city. I didn’t know that Hong Kong is split up into islands, and Hong Kong city itself is its own little island, appropriately named Hong Kong Island. We were ported in Kowloon and if we wanted to go to the island, we had to take a ferry over. Our first day we just explored our port area and the city on that side and it was very cool. Hong Kong is very wealthy. Our dock was connected to a mall, which lead to a bigger mall. They’ve got Gucci, Chanel, Burberry and every other expensive store right off the port and, just as in the states, those are the most deserted parts of the city. It’s all too expensive to shop in so none of the students bother to even check out those stores.

You know what Chinatown looks like? Well that’s what Hong Kong is. Signs written in Chinese characters, weird things being sold on the side of the street, lots of random stuff you don’t need, and of course, Starbucks. In the states you can go to any Starbucks and get free WiFi for at least 15-20 minutes before having to pay, but not in H.K. We tried finding a place with free WiFi but this Chinese-looking woman, who sounded exactly like an American, informed me that there isn’t free internet anywhere and kind of gave a chuckle as if to say, “H K is expensive, watch out.”…so we walked around the city, found an internet café, and then met up with Mia and Jenny for lunch. As we were walking around the city, this woman was just standing outside, tossed us a menu, and because we were hungry we just went for it. She took us inside and we had to take an elevator into the restaurant because it was a little hidden. When we got up there we realized that we were at a very nice restaurant that only the business men and women of Hong Kong knew about. The food was so delicious. We got noodles, chicken with vegetables and peanuts, shrimp dumplings, lots of fried rice and tea. After a lunch like that, you’ve gotta do something or else you’re body might throw a fit. We were so stuffed, but wanted to see the city so we walked around and eventually got to the Ladies’ Market where they had lots of cheap t-shirts, watches, knock-off purses, belt buckles and everything you can imagine. I picked up a couple of Football (or soccer) patches and am excited about them, but still not sure where I want to put them yet. I started to feel a little uneasy, so I headed back early and rested until we went out that night. We all put on our cutest and most handsome outfits and headed to the Hard Rock Café, for the third time this trip, and ate our nachos, salads and cheeseburgers. This is the first time that the 10 of us were able to go out all together. Port life is busy, so we finally all got together. But the Hard Rock, as usual, was very pleasing and I enjoyed my meal. De-lish. I love being in port -the food is always great wherever you go because its NOT ship food.

After dinner we went out. Alcohol is very expensive at bars and restaurants, but luckily there are 7-11s on every street corner and you can just pop in there, buy a very large Tsing Tao beer for 14 Yuan (>$2) and carry it around with you on the streets. It’s so cheap and easy, and the only place you can’t drink it is on the train. I’m sure everyone was looking at us as tacky-Americans, but it was a funny experience and definitely cheaper. We took the train to Hong Kong island (yes, we made it to the city!) and went to the bar street where we just wandered, hung out, had a good time and saw about 500 Semester at Sea students. When there’s only one main strip for bars, you can guarantee the bulk of the students will be there, many of them making fools of themselves. We hung out for a while, but headed out around 12:30 because we all had to wake up around 6 AM for our trips into the main land.

Through the semester, I went on 6 overnight SAS trips. That’s a lot. China was my final run with the team. We flew out of Hong Kong airport (which is huge) and into Beijing. We saw everything.
The Great Wall was amazing and beautiful. Caitlin and I decided to hike up versus riding the lift up. It was a little tiring and difficult, but didn’t take too long. We got really lucky with the weather because if it had been any hotter we would’ve been sweaty and gross, and if it was colder it just wouldn’t have been as enjoyable and provided such a great view. It was really incredible and it’s hard to believe that men created such a thing. It’s 6,000 miles long and took 2,000 years to actually complete. Amazing! Some people chose to spend an extra $150 to camp out on the wall overnight. That’s something I’d like to do next time. I can’t even imagine the view you’d get. We were fortunate enough to climb the wall in a place that let’s you take a Toboggan down. So after we did our walk and saw what we needed to, we headed for our ride. You get on this little seat and basically luge down a metal route that brings you to the base of the fort. It was awesome and you can only do that in certain parts of the Wall. I heard that kids on a different trip went to a place where you got to zip-line down, also very cool.
T’ien-en-men Square. We actually went out to dinner the night before and on our cab ride back, we drove through the square and it looks very, very cool at night. And it was deserted so it’s always neat to see a place when there isn’t anyone else around. The next day we actually traveled to the area and took our tour. It’s a very impressive area and basically, a huge square. There are a lot of political buildings that you can’t go in, but can see framing the area. They had Mao’s body on display in the building appropriately named, Maoseum, or something like that. Unfortunately, that was closed so we didn’t get to see his body. They sell his little red book and Mao watches everywhere. Caitlin bought 2 on the Great Wall. After we viewed the square we headed to…
The Imperial Palace or Forbidden City. When we arrived everyone was talking about Mulan and how this is where it took place. That’s my favorite Disney movie ever, so it was very exciting, but the city wasn’t as impressive as I’d hoped. There were thousands of people there, including a majority of Chinese tourists, so it kind of took away from the whole ‘incredible city’ feel. It was great to see, but not my favorite place visited. It’s a large area and if I were an emperor, I’d be OK with living there, but there was nothing that really made it stand out and get my attention except the fact that it was large. A lot of the best and most impressive buildings were under construction because of Beijing 2008, the summer Olympics. China’s gotta look good for the people of the world.
We also went to the Lama Palace. I have no idea what it is, but it was very pretty upon entering with lots of nice trees and flowers. The reason its so renowned is because it is home to the largest Buddha in the world. You can’t take any pictures to prove it, but he’s probably 4 stories tall. He’s a big guy.
The Temple of Heaven was my second favorite part of the trip. The temple was neat, but it looked just like the other places we’d been already. The surrounding park and garden was gorgeous. There were many Chinese men and women practicing Tai Chi, doing ribbon dancing, doing group exercises, singing, and there was also a young couple making out under a coat. There were little purple flowers everywhere and it was a large area, so you could look around and not see anything but trees and flowers and it was just beautiful. As we started to leave the park, you could see a playground off in the distance. James and I decided to check it out, and once we got closer we realized it wasn’t a playground, but an outdoor gym for older Chinese men and women. They had so many funny machines, but they were all in great shape! They had leg press machines, monkey bars, weird cardio/aerobic machines- basically everything you need to keep your body in shape at a tender age. It was so cool and even cooler to see.
Our last night we went to an acrobatic show. It was only about an hour and fifteen minutes, but these people were amazing. We had women contorting their bodies in all directions and holding themselves up by their teeth. They also somehow managed to stack 12 women on a bicycle, while one was still riding it around in a circle. She must have strong legs. The men were so strong. I can’t even describe what they could do with their bodies…it’s just something you have to see. I’m pretty sure they could’ve balanced me on their toe and walked down a set of stairs on their hands. Yes, they’re that good.
One evening we got to experience Peking Duck and it was sooo good. They give you a lot of food and you’re like ‘ok this is good, this is yummy,’ but then they bring you the duck and teach you how to fix it up and wow, its delicious. They gave us some special sauce and well, I ate a lot. I’ll definitely be going back. We have a lot of high-maintenance girls on this trip. Many of them are too scared to eat anything and complain and ask a lot of questions. A lot of the time you just want to slap them and ask them why they’re even here, but this one girl in particular was just annoying. She goes off about how she’s a vegetarian so she’s asking everyone what’s on the table and if its meat and blah blah. Then the duck comes out and she’s like ‘well I guess I’ll try it,’ and its just one of those things where you’re like WAIT…you’re a vegetarian. You’re not allowed to eat animals, that’s your whole deal. So basically I think there are a lot of girls here who just aren’t adventurous enough so they say they’re a vegetarian because they’re scared they’re going to get the bird flu or some other extremely rare disease.
We spent an afternoon at the crazy markets where you can buy lots of things for a cheap price (“pretty lady, pretty lady, for you special price! Come here!”) This is where the fake vegetarian girls thrive. I think they all came on Semester at Sea to just buy cheap things and take them home. Seriously. I spent probably $28 total. High five!

One of my favorites things about China was the availability of ice cream. They sell Drumsticks and Magnum bars on every corner and they only cost about 5-7 Yuan. Yippee. Walking all day makes you crave some delicious chocolate, especially when you don’t get served dessert at any of the meals you receive. I love ice cream and I miss it. It’s so easy and delicious, so it was fun to eat lots of it while riding around Beijing.
Beijing is huge! Nowhere in America (that I know of) can you drive for 2 hours and still be in the same city. We traveled for 2 hours to get to the Great Wall, and when I got there, we were still in Beijing. Very funny. Oh Chinese people.

More to come! I’ve just entered Kobe, Japan and will have one more port to write about.