Qingdao Weekend

Whew!  What a weekend.

To start, Friday:  My program sponsored a tour of the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area and the Binahi New Area.  Boy did I learn a lot!  Because much of the land in China is state-owned, and because much of the development in China is state-driven, the Chinese government has a history of going into an area and thinking: "OK, yeah, let's build a freaking huge city here".  Unlike in America, where demand drives development, in China, the state develops and then manufactures a demand by making more state agencies that fill the space.  They did this in Shenzhen, and more recently in the Pudong district of Shanghai, and it works surprisingly well for them. 
Touring this developing area is strange, however, because there are hundreds of these huge skyscrapers that have been constructed/are being constructed simultaneously-- none of which are occupied!  It was eerily similar of how my cities developed in the Sim City computer game I played as a child. 
A recurring theme that I have noticed of China and the Chinese culture is that the Chinese state is infatuated with putting on a veneer of development/wealth.  There are towering and modern skyscrapers everywhere, and yet there a hundreds living in the slums just hundreds of yards away from the base of the buildings.  Rather than fixing its actual internal problems, China likes to "save face" by appearing luxurious and growing to the rest of the world.  Every Chinese person that I have talked to has expressed these same sentiments.  Only as the citizens of China begin to fight more and more for a stronger voice in their government (which they are) will, perhaps, the state begin to provide services tot the people that raise the standard of living here. In the meanwhile, these metropolises will continue to develop under a manufactured demand and the rest of the world will stare in awe (including me).
Indeed, they have an entire center developed to showing tourists how awesome the Binhai New Area will be once constructed.  A huge, circular room contains a scale model of all of the exorbitant plans that the Chinese government has for this area.  We even were shown a short movie about all of the awesome things that are in store for the people of China.... I felt like I was watching something from Big Brother:  "Look at how good the government is to the people of China!!"  
To read more:  TEDA Wikipedia 
Binahi New Area

We also toured a facility for the manufacturing of instant noodles.  It was an interesting look into the automated process that occurs to produce food for millions around the world.  Afterwards was lunch at a traditional Chinese seafood restaurant. The waitresses were simply infatuated with us Americans; one specifically asked if she could have a picture with me.  I can't say I wasn't flattered; I felt rather important standing in front of a group of Chinese waitresses, camera phones in hand, wanting to take a picture!  My mom insists it was because of the simple fact that I am "ridiculously good looking"... To look at it more objectively, I think the Chinese people are fascinated by people that are: tall, blonde, and have a non-brown eye color.

Early Saturday morning eleven of my friends and I took a train to Qingdao.  This was a lovely city by the beach.  I spent Saturday exploring the marketplaces and back-alleys of the city.  My two favorite Chinese phrases are:  "How much is this?" followed by "Ha! That is too expensive"  Needless to say, my bargaining skills are improving daily.  We spent in the night in a youth hostel that had once been a church-- $6 a night.  On Sunday I headed east to the beach, and had my first look at the Pacific Ocean!  There were literally hundreds of little vendors set up along the boardwalk selling all sorts of trinkets. Souvenirs galore!  After lunch we toured the Tsingtao Beer Brewery.  See pictures on Facebook for details-- it was quite an insightful tour!  It wasn't until we were all safe and sound on the train back to Tianjin that we were able to call this weekend a complete success-- I had a terrible gut feeling that we might miss the train and miss classes on Monday!!

Now I am back for my second week of classes.  Nothing much to report on that end.  Today I went on a walking tour of the historic district of Tianjin.  I spent more time discussing the Chinese people their government's outlook on development and social policy.  I am about to upload pictures from the tour to Facebook.  Because China has a history of conceding areas of land to western lands (almost always unwillingly), there is an interesting mix of architecture in this city!


This weekend I head out on a hiking trip along the Great Wall!  Look out for a post early next week for details.  Thanks for reading you guys! Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend.  Time abroad makes me realize how fortunate we are to live in a country as liberating as America!

Done with Week One!

I am officially done with my first week of classes this semester, and it feels so good!

My plans for this weekend are as follows:
- Friday: Guided walking tour of Tianjin.  I am really excited about this, as Tianjin is the largest city that in the world that I had not heard of before this trip (maybe this speaks more to my ignorance, but whatever).  Today was really clear, so I was able to see far into the distance-- and what a city I am staying in!  Literally skyscrapers as far as the eye can see!  Highlights of the tour include exploring TEDA (the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area) and a visit at an Instant Noodle Impression Museum. 

 - Saturday:  Taking a morning train to Qingdao, which is said to China's "Most Livable" city.  It is known for its German brewery and beaches, so this makes sense to me!  My friends and I will return Sunday night, after staying the night in a youth hostel.

Because classes aren't really anything to blog about, I will mostly be updating on Mondays/Tuesdays after returning from my weekend excursions.  Everything in China is so fascinating to me because of how distinct it is from the society in which I have spent the past 19 years; I can only hope to recall a portion of everything that I learn/notice with you guys here!  Everything else will have to come out in my "This one time in China..." stories when I return.  As always, thanks for reading!

My Birthday Abroad

"So it is just now 8:30 PM here and I am in bed ready to fall asleep.  As the rush of experiencing an entirely different world fades away, I find myself utterly exhausted from not only jet-lag, but also a day of classes."

This was all that I typed out before I fell asleep last night.  The process of adjusting to an entirely opposite sleep schedule is quite tricky, as my friends and I have discovered!  So I did myself a birthday favor and crawled into bed early.

Classes went smoothly yesterday; there isn't much exciting news to report on that end.  However, what is exciting is the weekends that my friends and I have in store while we were over here this summer!!

June 1 - June 3:  Hiking along and in the shadow of the Great Wall
June 7- June 10:  Long weekend exploring Beijing
June 28-July 1: Long weekend in Hong Kong and Macau

Other, slightly smaller journeys include:
- Traveling to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Army
- Seeing the Three Gorges Dam and the Yellow Mountains
- (perhaps) traveling to Yangshuo County, a famous destination for backpackers

So yeah, I have quite a summer ahead of me! Thanks for reading you guys!!

Travels and Settling In

So here I am... in China!  I am not quite sure how or where to begin, nor am I sure how regularly I will be able to keep this updated.  But I will do my best to keep all of the pictures that I take uploaded to Facebook (so get a Facebook, Mom!).

So yesterday was a day of travel, and everything went quite smoothly.  My 13-hour flight from Toronto to Beijing took us right over the Arctic, and I was seated next to an interesting elderly Chinese woman.  I don't think that she understood the stewardesses very well, because even though she accepted every bit of food offered, she would sit looking at the food for a few minutes and then clandestinely slide her entire meal over to my tray.  Needless to say... I was confused yet pleased.  With spotty English, she would ask to get up every once and a while and would spend long periods of time looking out of a window at the back door of the plane.  She took it upon herself to wake me up in order to show me that we were now over the Arctic ice, and she dragged me to the window again when we were crossing back over to unfrozen terrain. Regardless, she was pretty much adorable, and came to give me a friendly hug as we parted ways at customs.

The trip from the airport to Tianjin was a little over three-hours, during most of which I slept, as it was too dark outside to take pictures. 

When all was said and done, I crawled into bed at around midnight local time (noon back at home) absolutely exhausted.  This morning some of my fellow students and I walked around Tianjin University with the assistance of local volunteers in order to get an idea of what exactly we had gotten ourselves into. And boy... did we get ourselves into something.  Almost every interaction with the Chinese world thus far has been a learning experience; everything about China seems so distinct and unique from the world that I am used to. Though I have neither the time nor the ability to recall each of these events (those of you back home have story after story to look forward to as I remember them), I know that my perspective after this trip will be forever changed.

Today I managed to:
 - Acquire Chinese currency
- Get a Chinese phone number and data plan (still working on jailbreaking the iPhone to make this work...  The slow internet at the hotel is not helping this process).
- Order an awesome mango green tea
- Pick up, though slowly, some helpful phrases to use when interacting with the Chinese people.



My classes start tomorrow... I don't think that there will be much to update on the blog, but if there is, I'll be sure to post on here.  Tonight some of my friends and I are hoping to nail down how we are going to use our three-day weekends out here. I will update on here what my plans are as soon as I know them.

I do miss home, but this (this = exploring a completely new world!) is a whole lot of fun.  Nonetheless, I am never above admitting how warm and fuzzy I feel when I get a Facebook message / e-mail from someone back home checking in on me... Anyways, hope everyone's summer is off to a great start!  Thanks for reading!!