Part III - Nanjing

(Note: My camera was broken almost the entire time we were in Nanjing. I apologize for the obvious lack of photos.)

We get off the train.
The city seems nice.
Dozens of taxi's pass us.
NOT ONE WILL PICK US UP!
After about 40 minutes of trudging our way around Nanjing, Steve and I were FINALLY able to hail a cab. Our first impression of Nanjing wasn't quite impressive, even if it was based solely on the fact that we were tired from a 4 hour bus ride from Shanghai and couldn't find a taxi to bring us to our hostel. The bus ride was alright, by the way. 4 hours long. Watched one movie about two con men with English subtitles (score!) and another old Jackie Chan movie that was completely in Chinese, but still very entertaining! Irregardless, we finally made it to where our hostel was, and reunited with big ol' Dirk. The hostel was a nice little hideout in the middle of a massive city, right next to a large University campus. The hostel had a courtyard. It was quaint and very liveable.
First order of business? Find something to eat. Now, almost the entire time we were in Nanjing it was rainy and kind of dismal, unfortunately. However, the food in this city was some of the best I've had anywhere in China. There was a small, inconspicuous dumpling shop nearby our hostel that we made friends with fast. Best I've ever eaten in my life, hands down. Plus, the lao ban (boss) of the shop was a pretty cool guy who catered to us very well.
After a quick dinner and a completely unsuccessful attempt at trying to find the ruins of an old part of the city (we looked in the wrong place and found a park instead) we returned back to the hostel to relax for a bit. Steven, Dirk and myself being the charismatic young gentlemen that we are, managed to make friends with some of the other travelers we met in the hostel. Now, two of them were students (foreigners - one from the states, CT specifically, the other from England) at a Shanghai university. After chatting for awhile, and the fellow from Connecticut, Ryan, noticing that Steve and I were PC guys - we all had a weird moment. Ryan is actually good friends with one of my HOUSE mates throughout college (Mike Dodge) as well as a host of other kids from PC that I was good buddies/good acquaintances with! We all hit it off quick with the connection and became fast friends. The world is SMALL, huh?!
So Ryan was told by a good friend of his that there was a great Mexican restaurant called 'Behind the Wall' hiding near our hostel in Nanjing - so we set out on a journey to find said locale. After a lot of wrong turns and mistaken roads, we FINALLY found it almost directly across the street from where we started. And it was behind a wall. Go figure. The Mexican food was delectable. Such a treat. Again, I note, Nanjing - City of wonderful food.
Our next day was spent at the Nanjing Massacre Museum. It was a massive, free museum that was dedicated to the atrocities procured by the Japanese forces to the city of Nanjing during the Sino-Japanese wars in the 1930's-40s. It was so moving to the point where it's almost difficult to explain it in words. The museum was beautifully preserved and served as a chilling reminder of the darkness (killers) and yet light (those who aided) of humanity. I was particularly moved by a whole wing of the museum that was dedicated solely to foreigners who were in China at the time of the Sino-Japanese wars who refused to leave the country (under the heavy suggestion of their home countries) in order to do anything they could for the Chinese people under attack by the Japanese. Foreigners, doctors, nurses, priests, and humble volunteers, hundreds upon hundreds of them, lost their lives just to help a culture of people that wasn't even theirs to begin with. They just wanted to help. The honor that the Chinese gave these men and woman was astonishing to me. Truly graceful.
Alas, we only had a few days in Nanjing, and these ended up being our highlights. We also made it to 'Nanjing 1912' which is a part of town dedicated to oldy-timey restaurants, clubs, bars, and nightlife. It was interesting, but overall kind of expensive - so our stay in that part of town was noticeably short. Although... Dirk was able to find a club that reveled in his ability to dance with locals and get stared at by everyone else around us for awhile. Boys will by boys.
Oh - we also managed to sort out a plan for the rest of our travels. We decided that the best use of our time would be to see a more southern and rural part of China, since none of us had really experienced that sort of China yet. SO - we decided to hop the next bus out of town and into Hangzhou - supposedly a naturally gorgeous city to the south of Shanghai. From there, we would jump on a plane from Hangzhou to Kunming, Yunnan province. There, we could visit around to about half a dozen different possible destinations to check out. So it was decided, the plane tickets were paid for, and we hopped the next bus we could find to Hangzhou!

... But first, a quick note. On the way to the bus station, we managed to find a woman on the side of the road selling food. Now, this is highly common in China, since the Chinese love their snack foods, and it's a nice little industry, selling food. However, the type of food sold (commonly called xiao chi, or 'little eats') usually changes drastically depending on what part of China you're in. For example, they have these egg-bread, crunchy, spicy, tortilla things that they sell in Beijing. Delicious. In Harbin, they have Ice cream and tang hulu (candied chinese fruit on a strick) kind of everywhere. And so on. In Nanjing, the woman was making english muffins (sort of) fresh, off of her little cart, and cooking a full egg into the batter she cooked the muffins on to - then she added a ton of spices,sauces,pastes,and vegetables that I would never understand or recognize anywhere else in the world. And handed it to you to scarf. It cost less than 50 cents, and was quite possibly the most delicious thing my mouth has ever experienced. Ever. I wish I could explain this better, or had a picture of it. I'm still kicking myself for not having taken a picture with the egg-muffin lady. She's probably still on the bus station street corner... I'm tellin' ya. If anyone from a huge food provider or restaurant chain is reading this - there's your next huge sales pitch right there. Don't say I never did anything for you!!

Next Episode - Hangzhou.

Part II - Shanghai

Hey kids,

I apologize heavily for my slacking on writing, per usual. That said, here goes.

So, after Beijing, we bought a pair of tickets for Soft Sleeper beds to Shanghai. You might ask yourself - what the hell is a soft sleeper? I'll tell you. It's a single compartment in a very chic looking train set up for 4 people, basically two sets of bunk beds. The beds are rather comfortable, the furnishings a bit up scale, and all the employee's in the train are quite fashionably dressed (when it comes to Chinese taste, I guess). For the record, we took off on January 17 at around 6pm.
After about 10 minutes of milling around on the train, waiting for it to leave, Steve and I supposed that we were going to be the only two people in our quarters, since the other two didn't quite show up. However, things changed swiftly once two fella's basically flew into the room and jumped up into their bunks. They were two middle aged guys - an uncle and a nephew, we later discovered. The Newphew's name was Elton, a Chinese engineer who lived in Shanghai but had to commute often to Beijing for work... Whereas the uncle was named Robert - which aptly and quickly got changed into 'Uncle Robbie' for all intensive purposes. The guy was an absolute riot. Elton's English was broken, but quite understandable. A nice guy. Uncle Robbie knew very little English, but what he did know, he wasn't afraid to belt out as loud as possible so that we could 'clearly understand him. As for the rest of the ride, it was wonderfully comfortable, and we made solid friends with the train waitresses, Uncle Robbie and Elton. The culmination of the ride was Steve telling Uncle Robbie he had a friend that was a girl living in Shanghai (as he understand as 'girlfriend', of course), and that I had no friends like that in Shanghai. He thought about this for awhile, then asked where I was sleeping. I supposed that I would be on the floor at the apartment. I believe Uncle Robbie took this as I was on the floor, and Steve was in a bed with a lady partner. After letting this sink in for a bit, Uncle Robbie unexpectedly leaned over his bedpost, pointing at me incredulously saying, "Tomorrow.. you.. you.. you, SUFFER!".. "You sleep alone.. SUFFER!". It was easily one of the funniest things I've heard a Chinese person say to me, to date. God Bless that wild old Uncle Robbie.
Once we arrived in Shanghai the next morning, we were greeted outside the train station by Steve's good friend Lu Xuan, who promptly took us to the subway station that would eventually lead us to her apartment. She was gracious enough to let us crash at her place for the few days that we were going to spend in Shanghai, although she also needed to work during our stay. That in mind, she forewent being to work on time in order to make sure we were comfortable and situated at her apartment first. The Chinese level of hospitality is something I've never experienced before coming to this country and meeting the unbelievable people that live here. It's really a humbling thing to be catered to, just because you're a friend of a friend.
Although Shanghai is a hustling, bustling metropolis (and a really neat city), it isn't exactly all glitz and glamor. Lu Xuan's apartment was a bit outside the city proper, and more in a sort of 'chinese suburb'. The best way I can explain this is that, it was like living in a place that seemed like it was in a constant state of construction and re-construction, dust, people, and concrete. Not really too flattering a state of affairs. However, a short subway ride brought you back into the sophistication of Shanghai high rises and business architecture. It was a strange dichotomy to observe. Steve, considering his hate for New Jersey, refused to call the area that Lu Xuan lived near anything else but 'The Hoboken of Shanghai', which I guess is apt enough. Either way, it was gracious of her to give us a place to stay. Thanks again, Lu Xuan!
The time we spent in Shanghai was divided between Lu Xuan's apartment and 'Jin'an si', which is Jin'an temple, the subway stop that Lu Xuan and Tina (her best friend) worked near. One night we visited the famous 'Bund' of Shanghai with it's beautiful flashing lights of the city, and the reflection of said lights into the river running straight through Shanghai. We also managed to get ourselves to 'Window Too', a really fun bar that was extravagantly western. It felt a little like home. Oh, and on that note - Shanghai itself is extremely western feeling. Aside from the usual hordes of Chinese people around, the city has an overwhelming amount of western chains, western style, english language, and foreigners teeming inside of it. It was nice for a bit, but afterwards a little off-putting. I really enjoy Chinese culture, and it certainly exists in Shanghai, but something has been lost there, I think. Alas, it is still China!
To disprove myself a little, we also managed to find ourselves a temple (near Jin'an si, the name escapes me) to visit in Shanghai. It was thoroughly interesting at night - lit up like a giant, Chinese Christmas light decoration, and surrounded by throngs of people visiting the shops surrounding it, or just there for a stroll. By this time too, the Chinese Spring Festival was creeping up closer day by day, and each day more and more people were out being festive at night! It made for an excellent environment for a few young kids like ourselves to be exploring a beautiful city like Shanghai, and proved to make things more interesting basically everywhere we went.
As a note, Tina, Lu Xuan's good friend, was a huge help in Shanghai. She didn't speak a whole lot of English, but her friendly attitude, and helpful demeanor were awesome for the time that we were there. She taught me a ton of useful things to know in Chinese while we were there (for example, xiaoxin means 'be careful!' - an indispensable phrase to know when crossing the street in China) and was generally just a lovely person to be around!
After a few days of fun and excitement in China's largest metropolis, we said our goodbyes to the girls, and made way for the bus station early in the morning on that following Tuesday. It was sad to leave the unending possibilities of Shanghai, alas, we were heading into more cultural and beautiful places! Our next stop - Nanjing, to meet back up with Mr. Dirk Chilcote, and basically to plan out the rest of our vacation together, since nothing else (at that time) had been actually set in concrete.

Next Episode: NANJING.

Part I - Beijing

So, I've decided that if I try to write about my entire trip in one post, it'll end up becoming terribly dragging and probably get boring. The English language dreamed up paragraphs for a reason - it's easier to ready things in chunks. That simple note in mind, I'll write this little adventure out in blocks. I'm going to inevitably leave some things out, so if some of the experiences I write about are unclear (and you are actually interested in them) please let me know! Write a comment or shoot me an e-mail, I'd be more than happy to go into extensive depth about anything I write about, considering the fact that I am in China and am having a very lovely time!


THAT SAID! Here goes. So I left for Beijing around January 10th I believe - and took a hard sitter train from Tongliao to Beijing Central Station. I was on the train for about 13 hours, and made a few Chinese friends on the road. That's one of the delightful things about the Chinese transportation system when it comes to being a foreigner. More often than not, and more usually when you're on a train coming from or going to a remote location (i.e. Tongliao..) the Chinese people on the train seem to wonder what in God's name you're doing sitting on a train. This is only natural, and provides a foreigner trying to learn the language (like myself) with a perfect opportunity to beef up their Chinese language skills for a good 5, 10, or 13 hours straight, especially when you're by yourself.

I spoke with a mother and her daughter, a grandmother, some kids from the countryside, a student going back to Beijing, and a young fellow going to Beijing to begin schooling who had a Chinese book he had finished reading, and ended up giving me as a gift for speaking with him for a few hours. I was touched! The book, of course, is completely in Chinese characters, and a little hard for me to read.. Alas, the gesture was genuine, and actually gave me some further drive to study Chinese characters (known as hanzi).

After skippin' off the train and spending some time finding a taxi that wouldn't rip me off, I made my way to the hostel that Steve and Dirk were staying at, named 'Beijing Sanlitun Youth Hostel'. The Hostel was great, cozy, and had food and a bar. The perfect place to nestle down for about a week (which is how long I stayed in Beijing!) I met up with Mr. Steven Monahan that night, hugged it out, and met a few of the characters in the cast of people I'd be spending my time with. The first besides Steve was Dirk, a big guy from California who teaches in the same city as Steve - great guy. Also met his girlfriend Kristin, a lovely Chinese girl who teaches English in Beijing. And then Jing, a good good friend of Steve's.. Really good friend.. but that's a whole different story in itself. Hah.

The rest of our week was spent between me and Steve catching up with each other, talking about our respective Chinese homes, friends, lives, etc. It was great seeing the big galoot. We also managed to make it to a few western style restaurants and bars to splurge a bit. We were on vacation! The section of Beijing we were in was called 'Sanlitun', which is well known for it's bars and western appeal. It also houses the 'Worker's Stadium', where many of the world's most incredible athlete's performed during the Olympics. I came to the conclusion that a restaurant/bar named 'The Cro's Nest' has the best pizza in Beijing/China, and immediately became a Gin and Tonic drinker while around Dirk and Steve. It's the gentlemanly drink of choice.

A few days into our vacation, we decided to take a day off from the local scene, and to go and find ourselves the great mascot of ancient Chinese culture. Indeed my friends, we visited the illustrious Great Wall of China (changcheng) near Beijing. It was about an hour's drive outside of the city. Now, the way we got there was a laugh in itself. We found ourselves at the Beijing Bus annex, and tried to decipher some of the bus schedules (written completely in Chinese) in hopes of finding our way to the wall on our own, for a cheaper price than going on a tour. Alas, a Chinese businessman saw that we were a big lost in our endeavor, and offered us his services. By the end of it, we had secured a ride TO and FROM the part of the Great Wall that we wished to see for little over 100rmb each. And we had the pleasure of a private driver. To be honest, the entire experience was terribly awkward, and a little spooky. Handing some guy a wad of money and hoping that he actually drives you out to where you want to go is a bit harrowing to say the least. BUT, it went off without a hitch! We made it there, explored the wall thoroughly, took our pictures, went down "The Great Wall Slide", and made it back home to Sanlitun quite safely! It was all in all an excellent experience, and now, according to Chinese tradition, I can call myself a 'True Man' for being to the wall. The views were breathtaking, and the history was something truly to behold. I was ecstatic to visit such a wonderful landmark of human history. Plus - who goes to China and doesn't visit the Great Wall of China? I'd be laughed at back home!

From there on out, Steve and I decided that we wanted to see the financial charm of Shanghai, whereas Dirk elected to stay in Beijing for a few extra days with his girlfriend before taking leave of her to meet us at our third destination which would be Nanjing. Kristin was also kind enough to let us stay at her apartment for a few days instead of our hostel, since it was free to crash at her place, and was getting pricey for us to stay in the hostel. Plus, the night before in our 10-person room at the hostel, a Scottish fellow staggered into our room at 4am, completely drunk, and tried to climb into bed with an Irish fellow who was pleasantly sleeping until then. The outcome was a little volatile. Amusing, weird, awkward and loud are some words that come to mind.

After a day at the Beijing Train Ticket Office (which was a literally an EXPLOSION of people due to the Chinese New Year going on... everyone in China is trying to go somewhere else in China. The train stations in every single city we hit were MOBBED) we were able to secure some tickets to Shanghai in a few days. However, the tickets were the most expensive train tickets sold in China. They were Soft Sleeper tickets - something seldom heard of around China. Considering their price, I had always thought that they were like living in the lap of luxury for the hours between cities. I would soon find out if I was wrong or not!

Quick P.S. I must hand it to Beijing for having the most comprehensive and easy-to-use Subway system that I've encountered in all of China/the world. I don't speak Chinese, and I understood it immediately. It's very clean, easy to follow, and gosh darn it, Boston has a few things to learn from the way the Chinese set things up. Just had to get that out.

Next Episode: SHANGHAI.

I'm HOME!

Okay, for the record... I've been back in Tongliao for about 2 weeks time now. However, I've been lesson planning, getting my life back in order, and relaxing after a solid month and a half of traveling the better part of China. It was SUCH a wonderful trip, and I want to get my thoughts really together before I begin writing about my adventures/misadventures/fun/games/etc. in this journal here.

So I apologize for my recent lack of posting. It's on it's way. TRUST ME.

To tide you over in the meantime, however, I've posted up all the photos I took of my trip onto my photo website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rlabontee

HOWEVER. I must profusely apologize for the quality of my photos. My camera has been giving my problems since basically day one. Many of the shots come out pretty grainy, or rather blurry. This in mind, I ended up not taking as many pictures of my trip than I really should have. I'm going to try to beef up my photo gallery by stealing pictures from friends I had made along the way (and mostly steve) in the coming weeks. I'll let everyone know if that works out or not.

The stories are on the way! Trust me! Lookit those pictures for now!

Miss you, everyone! Ricky!