The Hong Kong Post (part 1)

It's been a figurative and now literal whirlwind here in Hong Kong. Literally, Typhoon Jebi is roaring somewhere nearby, and there are typhoon warning signs up all over Hong Kong. Right now we're at a level 3. I think there are 8 levels. I think (I HOPE) that we'll be able to leave here tomorrow morning without incident.

Figuratively speaking, we've packed quite a bit into the past 4.5 days here on the island. I'll try to sum it up and provide some visual aids as I go.

This was the Maglev train in Shanghai that took us to the airport. 430 km/hour!

We arrived here on Monday afternoon, and the entire group was struck with the tropical beauty of the islands around the airport. We had left the cosmopolitan sauna of Shanghai and the rest of mainland China where we hadn't really seen the sky in days or weeks, and suddenly it was blue skies, fluffy white clouds, and green, mountainous islands. We felt giddy with excitement.

The first evening we improvised dinner at a local Chinese place, and our guide Nevan did his best to order food we'd like, but we still ended up with a (splayed) baby pig, chicken (chopped up so the blood from the bones was still there and the HEAD on the plate), and an entire ugly fish which we had watched a guy catch for us out of the tank behind the table. I've eaten more meat in the past 5 weeks on this trip than I have in the entire year prior to going, and I think I reached my limit that night. I really wanted to write a post about food here, but I never really pulled all my disparate thoughts together well enough. One thought I'll put here is that the Chinese are much closer to the unprocessed versions of their food than we Americans are. Overall, I think this is good...if you don't like it before it's all diced up and processed, maybe you shouldn't eat it. Having said that, it's still gross to have a cute little baby pig laid out on your dinner table.

OK, enough on the food. After dinner a few of us walked down to the harbor and took in the lights of Kowloon across the way. It was a really beautiful night, and even though it was in the mid-80's, it was about 20 degrees cooler than Shanghai, so we felt very comfortable.

The view across the harbor to Kowloon.

Tuesday was a packed day. We spent the morning at Hong Kong University (in a windowless room in tropical paradise...not that I was bitter about that...) listening to 3 different lectures. The first was about the history curriculum in China and Hong Kong schools, and how HK tries to maintain some independence and identity as it stands as a separate, but not entirely separate, entity from China. The second lecture was the most interesting to me. The professor spoke about language in HK. Most people here speak Cantonese, but much business is conducted in Mandarin or English, and schools are taught in all sorts of languages. The final lecture was about HK's government. To be honest, I tuned this guy out after he started showing us flow charts with the names of people in HK's Executive Council in 2003.

In the afternoon we visited our final school. It was a Buddhist secondary school, and the principal called in about 15 students from summer vacation to come and give us a tour. The principal was a really dynamic and charismatic guy who told us that HK's student population is declining. He seemed to say it was because of SARs in 2003, but that seems weird to me. I didn't think SARs had quite that big of an impact, but what do I know...

Our final lecture took me back to my college days because it was at the port. We learned all about the exporting industry in HK, which is basically how they make a ton of money here. Go supply chains! Hong Kong is the 3rd largest port in the world. Shanghai and Singapore hold the #1 and #2 spots, respectively.

After dinner on Tuesday we took the Star Ferry across to Kowloon just to say we did it and to see the city lights from a new perspective. It was fun to get out on the water for a short trip, and we shared a boat with a bunch of kids coming from the Anime Convention in the city. They were all dressed up as Anime characters.

By far the best part of my time in HK was Wednesday. Penn State friend, Cindy, is living here in the city not too far from my hotel. We had the entire day free, so Cindy and I made plans to hang out. I don't think I've seen Cindy for about 5 years because she's been living overseas, so it was so great to have a whole day to catch up in person. We started off the day (after coffee, of course) with a long and rambling hike over a mountain and down to a reservoir. The scenery was incredible, and I was THRILLED to get out of the city. Even better, I got to spend a few hours talking about just about everything with Cindy. In college we used to leave campus and go for "scenic drives" through central Pennsylvania, and we'd listen to Guster, and we'd talk about all of our BIG ideas and BIG issues with the passion of 20 year old college students. It was fun to redo that now on a "scenic hike" in HONG KONG (!) and have the same sort of talk from our new perspectives in our 30's. I hope we can do it somewhere else beautiful in our 40's and 50's and onward!

Our scenic hike

More scenery and the reservior

We weren't sure if the reservoir was green because it was so natural and fresh, or because of some weird pollution. You never know in China.

There were all sorts of butterflies around!

Butterfly party

We ended our hike with a taxi ride into Stanley where the rich ex-pats live. We walked through the market so I could say I did that, and then we had dim sum for lunch. Our next destination was the beach!! We walked along the coast out of Stanley to a more secluded area and we spent a couple of hours just relaxing. I can now say I've been in the South China Sea! Aside from the sort of loud group nearby and the container ships floating by in the distance, we could have been anywhere in Southeast Asia. It was great!

The beach!

We took a double-decker bus back to the city. It took two tries because I didn't have the right change. Why can't buses give change? It has stumped me before, and I'm sure it will get me again. We cleaned up back at Cindy's place and then headed out to the 62nd floor of a nearby building to have drinks in a rotating bar! It was such a great way to see the city! After our two happy hour drinks, (they love their 2-for-1 happy hours here that seem to last all night) we went down the hill, and by go down the hill I mean we took the elevator down and ended up down the hill, and ate dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Cindy and I used to frequent a Viet-Thai restaurant in State College where we'd make double and triple orders of spring rolls, so it was appropriate to have the real deal here in Asia. Yum.

The view from the rotating bar.

The night was winding down, but Cindy wanted to show me the party scene in the Lan Kwai Fong neighborhood, and then we rode the world's longest escalator in the SoHo area. I want to say more about the escalator and what I did today on my LAST day in Hong Kong and Asia, but I have to go to bed now so I can get up and go HOME tomorrow. So, this will have to be a part 1 post. More to come soon! Thanks for reading so much!

Last Day in China

Our last full day in China was mostly a free one. Running buddy, Caitlin and I decided to go for a big goal and run from our hotel to the Bund and back. I think the trip was around 5+ miles, but it felt a lot longer in the 90+ degree heat! It was fun to run down the iconic Nanjing Road and all the way to the river. Both Caitlin and Tim from our group are leaving for the States tomorrow while the rest of us head to Hong Kong. It's been fun to have a running and adventure buddy here, and I wish her best of luck in the Chicago Marathon in a few months!

After the run and breakfast, our group met all together at a coffee shop for our forth and final debrief session. We have one of these in each city we visit, and it's a time for us to talk about what we've learned and ask questions about the lectures. It's often a very rich discussion.

The rest of the day was free, and so we all headed off in different directions. By this time Caitlin and I had figured out that we travel pretty well together, so we decided to hang together for the day. We visited the Jing'an Temple which is just a few blocks away from our hotel. It is right in the middle of these tall, modern buildings, so it was a typically Chinese mix of new and old. The temple also boasts a 15 ton silver Buddha!

Yesterday, our guide Elene told us that there is a good sushi place near the temple in a food court. We quickly found that after visiting the temple. We really had intentions of eating sushi...until we passed the creperie selling mango/yogurt/whipped cream crepes. After the crepes, we then found peanut butter sandwiches for sale, and any thoughts of eastern food flew away. Oh peanut butter, how I have missed you!

Emboldened by our day with Elene yesterday, Caitlin and I decided to ride the metro across town to revisit the China Art Museum. We ran out of time when we were there a few days ago, and we wanted to see the first floor exhibits that we had missed. The metro here in Shanghai is safe, clean, and extremely easy to navigate. We spent an hour or so at the museum and then returned to our hotel.

I spent the afternoon relaxing and packing in my room before our final farewell banquet. Since Tim, Caitlin, and our Chinese guide, Kim, are not traveling on with us, it was an evening of celebrating our time together.

Tomorrow we are leaving Shanghai in style. We will ride the Maglev Train to the airport! It travels a marathon, 26 miles, in 7 minutes! According to Wikipedia, the top commercial operational speed is 268 mph, faster than any other commercial passenger train and faster than the top speed of any formula 1 racing car! Cool, huh? I guess it can actually go faster, but it's too expensive to operate at it's top speed. Go figure.

Here are some photos from the day!

A corridor at the Jing'an Temple

I thought these sculptures on the banisters looked like steamed buns!

The old and the new right on top of each other.

Happy Buddha

This is the 15 ton silver Buddha.

Lions at the temple 

Fancy chair--no I am not missing an arm.

This is one of the enormous elevators at the Chinese Art Musuem.

Peggy (L), our coordinator from Beijing, and Kim (R), our Chinese guide

100 Floors Up to the Top of the World's Largest Beer Bottle Opener

Today was a really fun day. We were paired up and led around the city by a high school student from Shanghai. Caitlin and I lucked out with our host, Elene, a smiling, city-smart, outgoing kid. She actually just spent last year doing an exchange program in Atlanta, Georgia, and next year is going to 11th grade in Nashville. Caitlin went to Vanderbilt, so it was great to make an immediate connection with Elene.

Anyway, of course the first thing we wanted to do was go to the top of one of the big buildings. Right now, for a few more months, the Giant Beer Bottle Opener, known by people who are not me as, the Shanghai World Financial Center, is the tallest building in China. Next door to GBBO is another building that will soon surpass it. It's the building that has all the cranes on the top of it in all my skyline photos. By the way, if you've been looking for a crane but can't find one available, it's because they're all in China.

So, we took the subway under the river to Pudong. (The other side of the river.) Here are some stats about GBBO:
Highest Floor we could access: 100
Elevator time to go from the -10th floor to the 95th: 60 seconds
Ears pop? Yes.
Meters above ground on the 100th Floor: 474
World's Highest Observatory? Check
Glass ceiling to stand on on 100th floor? Check
Number of times I got the chills when I stepped on the glass floor: Every time
Total height of the building: 492 meters
Cost for a person to go to the top of the GBBO: 150 RMB, or about $25
View=hazy, but spectacular
Number of really awesome souvenir beer bottle openers in the gift shop: 0.5

After the GBBO, we went to another mall (Shanghai has a ton of malls, and when the temps are above 100 degrees, it turns out that they are really pleasant places to be) for lunch. Elene ordered some great dishes, including a pineapple shrimp dish, a frittata sort of thing, and some good vegetable soup. Yes, soup on a hot day. I don't get it either, but it was yummy.

We left Pudong and traveled by subway again to reach the other side of the river. We walked around this area called Xintiandi where there are many European style buildings and shops. It's an area where you could forget you're in China if you wanted to. It was hot, so we ordered milkshakes, and we ran into two other members of our Fulbright group and their guides. We all hung out a bit, and then it looked like we might get another storm. Caitlin and I had been wanting to get pedicures, so we asked Elene if that might be a fun afternoon activity. She was excited to show us to a nail place near her home, so off we went. I picked a weird sparkly brown color, because things in China are very sparkly.

Elene then announced that we were going to her house for dinner, so we walked around the corner and up to her apartment. Her parents and housekeeper prepared a lovely little dinner for us. Elene's parents don't speak much English, so it was a little odd, but Elene was really excited to show off her apartment to us. Clearly Elene and her family are doing really well in China, and don't represent a typical Chinese family in terms of the size of their apartment, owning a car, and having a housekeeper.

It was a really fun day. Tomorrow is our last full day here in China! I can't believe it, but I'm excited to go to Hong Kong, and I'm also looking forward to going home. It's been a long time away. OK, some photos!

OK, remember how tall this building, the Oriental Tower, is behind Caitlin and me.

You can kind of make out the Oriental Tower out the window here.

Elene standing on the glass floor.

There's the Oriental Tower. The closer building is the Giant Bamboo Shoot (GBS), and across the river on the left is the Bund.

Throwing my Chinese peace signs

GBBO from the ground

Pedicure!

After dinner at Elene's house..Isn't Elene adorable??

Hot Town, Summer in the City

Well, the weather finally broke this evening as my body was quietly, but forcefully making its protest of this indoor AC/outdoor solar furnace routine I've been putting it through. Around 2pm the temperature topped out at 106 degrees and a storm finally broke open. Meanwhile, my scratchy throat from yesterday that had evolved into hazy sinus congestion was throbbing in my ears and face saying, "Take a nap! Take a nap!" Unfortunately I was in a futuristic media lab, and naps were not on the agenda (until later).

Let me back up a couple of days. We've been spending a lot of time visiting in the indoor sights of Shanghai due to this dangerously hot weather. It's a bummer, but there's nothing we can do about it. In the morning yesterday we visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Center. It was a very interesting museum about Shanghai's development historically, presently, and for the future. It was put together for the Shanghai Expo in 2010 I believe. The most interesting part of the museum was a model of most of the downtown of Shanghai.

Our hotel is closer to the far end of the room.

Arial view of the model. The part that sticks out with the tall buildings is the economic development zone.

After lunch in a restaurant in an underground mall, we went to the Shanghai Museum. The building itself is unique: it is shaped like a bronze bowl with handles. You see this kinds of bowls as artifacts in museums and also replica bowls in the lobbies of many buildings. I think they symbol prosperity. Anyway, the most interesting exhibit for me was the ancient clothing of the minority cultures across China. We had a long time at the museum, so many of us spent a lot of time roaming the gift shop. We all got a huge kick out of this book of photographs of terrible Chinese-to-English translations. If you ever want to laugh, go look it up on Amazon and look at some of the pages. It's called, Chinglish.

Yesterday evening we had our second river cruise of the trip. Unfortunately the Pudong Economic Development Zone, with all its iconic buildings, was not lit up for us last night. We think it is because of this crazy heat here; they don't want to use more energy while so many air conditioners are running at full blast across the city. It was disappointing not to see all the lights, but I guess I can't argue against the environmentally friendly choice.

Here is some of the gang waiting to board the boat.

Our ride for the evening

The economic development zone at sunset

From the boat--usually there are many more lights

The Bund all lit up

I think that spotlight was coming from a party boat!

A few of us got our fair share of neon lights because we decided to walk back from the Bund to our hotel via Nanjing Road. A few blocks of Nanjing Road are closed to car traffic, and that area is compared to Time's Square. It was certainly loud enough and bright enough!

Shanghai's Time Square

Today we visited the Children's Palace of the China Welfare Institute. The Children's Palace is the grand name for an after school and summer program center. We visited students in chorus class, art class, dance class, English class, and a computer class. The dancing in particular was cute overload. I could have hung out there all day!

Art class at the Children's Palace

You just can't get much cuter than this.

In the afternoon, during the height of my body's rebellion against this crazy weather, we visited the Shanghai Media Image Art center, AKA, the Super Future. The president, Dr. Sherwood Hu, greeted us, and was movie star smooth and cool. He showed us all around his workspace, which he said functioned as an office, lab, and exhibition hall. Dr. Hu has made films for Francis Ford Coppola, and also designed a 540 degree domed immersion-theater experience during the Shanghai Expo. It was really interesting to hear him talk about the problem-solving involved with filming in 540 degrees and then projecting into a dome. He was a very positive and inspiring speaker, but I couldn't help but thinking about the "parlors" in Farenheit 451. Dr. Hu spoke about creating these multimedia film experiences, and I had to balance the coolness of that with watching a young boy throw his plastic water bottle over the side of the boat and into the river last night with complete disregard for environmental impacts. China, and by default, the rest of the world, faces huge environmental challenges with all this development. My thought as Dr. Hu spoke about this new kind of theater was a a fear that if people can just manufacture any environment with this film technology, then does it mean people will have even less regard for the real natural environment?

Into the media future with Dr. Hu.

Anyway, during all this, and maybe because of the pressure build up before the storm, my face felt like it was going to explode. When the option of getting dropped off at the hotel or going back to an art district we visited a few days ago came up, I chose to go take a nap. I'm happy to report that I'm feeling many, many times better.

Tomorrow two of us are paired up with one student for the day. I'm hoping we get to go up to the top of one of the huge buildings! It should be a fun day.

Lost and Sweaty in Shanghai

Today was mostly a low-key day except for one very stressful hour this morning. Caitlin and I met at 6:30 for a run. Our goal was the People's Park, and I had scoped out the map to figure out our route there and back. We set off (at a brisk pace because Caitlin is fast) and quickly got to our first landmark: a sculpture garden. We took a turn or two around there before setting our sights on the massive People's Park. We found it a few blocks later with no problems. Then it was 15-20 minutes of looping through the park. We saw the usual: tai chi exercises, old people walking backwards, men "walking their birds," random small carnival rides, badminton games, etc. Then we thought we'd leave the park and run our final mile back to the hotel and then walk the final few blocks to cool off.

After what seemed like forever, but was only about 9 minutes, Caitlin's GPS watch bleeped, signaling that I could finally start walking. (NOTE: I should start running faster instead of shuffling along like I usually do.) Strangely, during our last mile, we didn't see anything familiar, and we passed over a large overpass and a waterway which had not been there on our outbound journey. In our sweaty, dehydrated, early morning haze, we didn't think anything of it. I thought we were headed west, back toward the hotel, and in a block or two we'd hit a familiar cross road. Well, about 10 minutes passed and nothing looked familiar. At this point, it was almost 7:30, and we were due to meet the group in the hotel lobby, showered and breakfasted, at 8:15. Caitlin pulled out her hotel key card and we figured that some of the Chinese characters on the card were probably our address, and we'd best start asking for help.

We walked up to the next man we saw: a typical man in China, sitting on his stool outside his shop, not wearing a shirt. We pointed to what we hoped was the address and made question-faces as best we cold. He pointed us back in the direction we had been walking and chattered away in Chinese, signaling the numbers 10, 4, and 7...they use a cool sign language for numbers here. OK, so we were maybe 10, or 4, or 7 blocks away?

At this point it we started to run again. Ugh. We proceeded to ask two more people for directions. One man pulled a Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz and pointed in two opposite directions. I'm sure he was probably telling us we could walk one direction or catch a bus in the other, but when you don't understand any Chinese, pointing in two directions doesn't help.

At 7:40 we asked another man, and he had a bit of English, and he told us we were too far to walk and needed to take the subway. Caitlin and I looked at each other, thinking, how are we too far away, we ran here! With still no real idea of where to go, no phone, no money, and limited time, we decided to hail a cab.

I'm sure our cab driver hates us. We got in and pointed to the "address," and crossed our fingers hoping that's what it really was. In my mind I was worrying that maybe it was some general address for a whole chain of hotels and our driver was going to take us clear across the city and we had no money to pay him or call someone for help. This fear was further inflamed when we got onto the highway. The highway! We had run for less than 40 minutes! We tried to ask the cab driver if the hotel was near or far, but he didn't speak English. So, we just held on tight and stared at our watches.

The thing with this Fulbright trip is, it's free, but you DON'T miss lectures. As the minutes ticked by, we had to start thinking that we were going to be the jerks who showed up late and drenched in sweat while everyone waited and worried for us.

Finally, we turned on to Shaanxi Road. Our hotel is on Shaanxi Road! Woohoo! We pulled up to the hotel and Caitlin sprinted up to her room to grab some cash while I sat uncomfortable and sweating into the guy's seats. At 7:59, Caitlin raced back out with some cash. As she shoved it toward the driver, I yelled, "Xiexie, xiexie, xiexie!" (Thank you, thank you, thank you!) and jumped out of the car. All that was left of us was two person-shaped sweat marks on his back seat.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I raced to the 4th floor, showered, and changed before sweeping through the breakfast buffet grabbing what I could in about 30 seconds. Hair dripping, still sweating, we made it into the lobby right on time. I forgot to grab a packet of instant coffee, and Caitlin forgot deodorant.

Later we looked at a map and realized that we left the park heading north rather than heading east, and that got us all turned around. We actually weren't too far from the hotel, but it was good that we got a cab because we definitely would have been late if we'd stayed on foot.

Lessons:

1. If you plan to run home on Nanjing Road, make sure you ARE running home on Nanjing Road.
2. It's not a bad idea to shove a $20 in your pocket when you're running in an unfamiliar city. Maybe you'll need it for a cab rescue, or maybe you'll have time to stop at Starbucks instead!
3. Sometimes having a little adventure before 8am makes the whole day a bit better.

We also had a great lecture today where we got to hear from actual teachers about their teaching practices. Shanghai leads China and much of the world in education, and these teachers were some of the top teachers in Shanghai, so these people knew their stuff!

We also visited an art museum in a crazy modern building. Then it was an afternoon in a shopping/eating district. Aside from the first hour and a half of my day, it was all pretty relaxing and uneventful.

Tomorrow is quite lecture-heavy, but on Thursday we have the night river cruise!

This is the China Art Museum. It is massive. I wish there was something in this photo to give it scale, but the entryway alone there is probably 2-3 stories high.

We're in Shanghai, and "It looks like a comic book!"

We've made it to our final city in China: Shanghai. Last fall I went to see the the latest James Bond movie shortly after I submitted my Fulbright application. In the movie there's a scene that takes place in Shanghai and in it there's a great aerial flyover shot of the city. I remember watching that and thinking, "Whoa. I might get to go there." And now I'm here! First, we start with a ridiculous translation from a sign on a revolving door:

Today we had a fairly easy day. I got up to go for an exploratory run around the hotel neighborhood. We are very close to a high-end shopping district, but not too close to any parks, so it was city streets for this run. By the way, China doesn't have different time zones (the whole, uniformity-one nation thing) so in Chongqing I got up to run practically in the dark, and here I'm getting up at the same time and the sun is out and blazing already.

So, run, then a visit to another temple. This one was called Yufo Temple, and it's famous for two huge jade Buddhas. We had some free time in the temple and a few of us went to a coffee shop to discuss our curriculum projects and some of what we've learned here in China. One way I can tell that Shanghai is more westernized is by their commitment to coffee shops and because of the lower frequency of what we've been calling, "squatty potties." Also there's a Belgian craft beer bar in our lobby, and I've seen at least 30 non-Asian people that are unaffiliated with our group today.

Temple offerings

Decorations at the temple

In the afternoon we visited the Bund. This is the area along the river where the old 19th Century architecture is located. It also looks out across the river to the economic development area, AKA, all the crazy high rises from the Bond movie. We were all marveling at the architecture as we approached, and group member Tim, summed it up by saying, "Yeah, it looks like a comic book." I agreed. It's not that it's cartoonish or tacky, rather, it is futuristic and sharply angled and LARGE. I can't wait to see it at night. We're going to take another river cruise on the Huangpu River which bisects the city.

Me, the Bund, and my wonky Chinese umbrella 

Like a comic book, right? See the one that looks like a bottle opener? It's to the left of the tall one under construction. I think I might get to go up to the bottom of the window part at the top!

The panorama doesn't really capture it.

Caitlin and Melanie indulge me by posing.

During our visit to the Bund we also walked up Nanjing Road which has even more shopping. This is also high-end and regular-end western shopping, but in China, due to taxes, all the western stuff is high end because of the cost. That part of Nanjing road is a huge pedestrian thoroughfare. Apparently it is also wild with lights and people at night as well.

After sweating through our clothes as we explored the Bund, we traveled to the relative peace and coolness of the Yu Gardens. This was the family home of some rich officials during the Ming Dynasty. It was full of ponds filled with carp, interesting trees sprouting from rocks, doorways cut in interesting shapes, and of course, Chinese-style architecture. It was a very relaxing place to walk around, but we didn't stay long.

Ice cream cone-shaped door

Yu Garden scene

Gulp

Why not? Well, there was more shopping to do, of course! We plunged out of the garden refuge and into the throngs of shoppers in the market just outside the garden. I've already bought another bag to carry home all the booty I've gotten. Some people have some pretty good Christmas presents coming their way! We ate a delicious dinner at a restaurant in the market place that our Shanghai guide, Ada, said is a place where important people eat when they visit Shanghai.

Old meets new. The building under construction in the back will be the tallest in China.

This was the building in the market across from our restaurant.

So, a great first day in Shanghai! Tomorrow we will visit a school and meet with more teachers before visiting an art museum in the afternoon.