Recap of China – Jan 12 – Jan 16, 2008

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Saturday, Jan 12 - After 2 days of being stuck in the fog, we finally arrived to Shanghai during the middle of the night. When I woke up, I didn’t know if we had made it or not, but I ran to the window and opened the curtain, and there was downtown Shanghai! We went through the immigration process, which consisted of the Chinese immigration port authority people coming onboard. They looked at our passports and verified we had the proper visas and that our picture matched accordingly with our face, and that was it! We started that process at 8:00am, and by 10:00am, I was walking the streets of China. And for the first time since I left home, it was raining. But not to worry, no rain was going to bring my joy down. It felt weird walking on land again!
I had decided the night before that I was going to try and make it to Beijing. There was a group trip that had been planned, with 56 people signed up for it. When it was canceled, I set out to go on my own. I found a friend, David from Mexico to come with me, and at breakfast, we discovered 2 others that were secretly planning to go, Leslie and Jenna. So we decided to join up together, and when we left the ship, we immediately went to a travel agent who could help us secure the train tickets. The walk there was easily more than a mile, but we found it okay, and had our tickets! Having that settled, we found a nice Chinese restaurant for lunch. Everything was good, except that I wasn’t fond of all the bones in my chicken. After lunch, we went shopping, where I bought a winter coat. It was cold in Shanghai, and we were told it would be freezing in Beijing. Finally, we made our way back to the ship, got everything packed, ate dinner, and then found a taxi for the train station. Communicating with taxi drivers in China was pretty amusing. They had no sense of directions looking at maps, so I did a lot of pointing as to which direction we wanted to go, or we tried to speak Chinese using guidebooks. Once at the train station, we found our train, and promptly departed Shanghai at 7pm. The train was extremely nice! We were in our own compartment with a locked door, and 2 sets of bunk beds in the room, designed for 4 people. They provided hot water for tea, slippers for your feet (although too little for my feet), clean sheets and pillows, and a view of the Chinese countryside out of the window. The 4 of us talked for hours, and finally turned the lights out at midnight.

Sunday, Jan 13 - At 6:30am, a train stewardess came around and woke everyone up. We had the option to buy breakfast, which we declined, and arrived at the station at 7:00am. Once in the Beijing train station, we found 3 others from The Scholar Ship, 2 Mexican’s (Rodrigo & Carlos) and a Moroccan (Mohammed). We had seen them the night before when we were leaving, and told them where we were going, and they immediately went to the train station and booked tickets and were on the train minutes behind us. The 7 of us bought our return tickets to Shanghai for that same evening, and then walked outside into the frigid world of Beijing. And man was it cold! -9 degrees Celsius we were told, which is 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Having no idea where to go, we started walking down the street looking for buses, hoping to find one to Badaling, the closest place where the Great Wall was. No one was sure what to do, so we asked a guy for help who spoke very little English. He ended up taking us down an alley to one of his friends who owned a van. We negotiated a price for the 7 of us, and off we were! The ride to Badaling took almost 2 hours, and you could see the wall miles before we got there. It’s amazing how it just fits the landscape. The area was very mountainous, and the thought of assembling all the materials at that altitude seems impossible, especially considering the technology of when they did it. And to think it goes on for thousands of miles across that terrain. Going to Beijing for the Great Wall alone would have been worth it. We walked a good ways up the wall, and looked back down on the wall and where we had come from. After many pictures, we made our way back down and reassembled. After only 2 hours, we were headed back to Beijing.
With some nice negotiating, we communicated to our driver that we wanted to be dropped off at Tian’anmen Square. By lunch time, we were there. And we were hungry. There were very few options for lunch, and the cold was unforgiving. We came across a KFC, and lunch it was! The original recipe was basically the same, but the gravy in the mashed potatoes tasted Asian. All in all, the Asian KFC was a good experience, and it was cheap and satisfying, so I was happy! From there, we walked into Tian’anmen Square. The place is massive. In the center is the tomb of Mao himself. We stayed there for a while, and gradually made our way to the entrance of the Forbidden City. We somehow lost the girls, but we had devised a plan beforehand of what to do in case that happened. We didn’t see them again until on the train at 7pm that night, so the rest of the day was spent by us 5 young men. The Forbidden City was an unusual experience. Looking at the thrones of many rulers from the past seemed contrary to the Socialist government of modern day China. I think it is safe to say that China is changing in drastic ways, and the new China is still figuring itself out. I wish I had known more about Chinese History before I went there, but it was still easy to appreciate. Once the Forbidden City closed at 4, we rode a bus around town just people-watching and seeing more of the city. We went back to the general area of the train station, and from there we had dinner, bought some snacks for the return trip, and mailed post cards from the post office. Once back in the train station, there were thousands and thousands of people in there. I’ve never seen such a high concentration of people in my life. And I’m not sure I saw anyone taller than I was. I think I always felt a general sense of safety in China for that same reason actually. We were giants there. ☺ At 7pm, we were back with the girls returning to Shanghai. After such a big day, we didn’t stay up talking so long on this night. By 9:00pm, the lights were off. I still had trouble falling asleep, but otherwise I slept for 7+ hours that night without even waking up.

Monday, Jan 14 - Just like the day before, a train attendant came around at 6:30am to wake us all up. Once off the train, we hailed a taxi and headed back to the ship. I had just enough time to take a shower and grab a quick breakfast, and by 8:00am, we were meeting in our groups to start school. School within a country is known as an AFP, Academic Field Program. Of the 6 countries we are staying in for a full week, we are required to do an AFP in 4 of them. The first country, China, was a mandatory AFP. After China, we get to choose which 3 of the other 5 countries to participate in.
Our AFP in China went as expected. The field of International Relations is not something the Chinese people seemed very interesting in talking about. They sent us to Fudan University, one of the 7 charter schools of The Scholar Ship. We listened to a professor speak about the harmonious society that China is trying to create. It was certainly very educational. And this idea of a harmonious society is not just propaganda, because the people really believe it and put this idea into practice. I guess living in a world where people are living on top of one another helps to create a mindset where everyone needs to share. Shanghai, with its population of 18 million+, efficiently does a lot of things, like traffic. Life runs smoothly in general. I came away from this place very impressed. China’s Socialist Republic is not doomed to fail. It will continue on, and even prosper in the years to come. I suspect the place will look drastically different in 20 years, just like it has radically transformed in the past 20 years. I really got the sense that I was in China during the middle of all its change.
After our morning lectures at Fudan University, and a wonderful lunch that the school provided for us, we were sent to the Socialist Party Museum. I can’t remember the official name, but it was the actual building where the members met in the early 1920’s to form the Republic. There wasn’t much to see really. It reminded me of being in Philadelphia, in Freedom Hall, in the room where the founding fathers forged together our country. The museum was located in the French Quarter, a nicer part of Shanghai these days. Across the street was the nicest mall I saw in China, and definitely the most expensive. We finally left the French Quarter, and headed back to the ship. That night, after dinner, I went with David, Candice from Canada, and Stephania from Iceland to find an internet café, where I was finally able to upload my pictures from Beijing. After that, we all had Chinese massages, which is the first real massage I’ve ever had in my life, and it was the fastest hour of my life! Where did the time go? Fully relaxed, no one said much on our taxi ride back to the ship, where I think everyone went straight to bed.

Tuesday, Jan 15 - The 2nd day of our AFP was less eventful. We got on our bus, and headed to a Shanghai museum of famous martyrs from the city. There wasn’t much in English to read for the exhibits, although they made efforts to put things in English, and we definitely appreciated it. But there were lots to learn from the pictures anyway by themselves. Shanghai is traditionally a center of revolutions in China, as many struggles have taken place here, hence lots of martyrs. Some of us finished walked through the museum faster than expected, so we left the museum and walked around the neighborhood around the museum. There was nothing touristy about this part of town; it felt like authentic China. From there our group headed to a famous restaurant in Shanghai for lunch, which was also great.
After lunch, we had a wonderful afternoon, where we finally got to experience parts of China we otherwise wouldn’t get to see as tourists. We went to the home of an elderly couple and talked with them about life. Seeing their home was a great opportunity. Obviously, their standard of living was a little nicer than someone living in poverty, but it was still real. After that, we went to a school and visited a kindergarten music class. The kids loved the attention, and put on a great little show for us. During one dance, they grabbed people out of the audience to dance with them, and naturally I got chosen. All in all, I think everyone had a great time there. We walked around the community center some more, we saw where the elderly people spend their free time, and we enjoyed a nice cup of green tea. All of this concluded our AFP, which wasn’t necessarily very involved as far as International Relations is concerned. Once back to the ship, and after dinner, I went with Candace to the Oriental Pearl Tower, the 3rd tallest tower in the world. We went as high up as we could get, and observed the business of the city below. In the river, we could see our ship. After the Pearl Tower, we went back to the ship and spent an hour in an internet café across the street from where the ship was docked. I can’t emphasize enough how nice it is to be in contact with life back home. ☺

Wednesday, Jan 16 - Because we lost most of our free time in China due to the fog, the administration agreed to shorten our AFP from 3 days to 2 days, thus allowing our last day in Shanghai to be a free day. I went with Candice and Stephania to a 10-story mall, which is just like any mall, just Asian-style. I don’t think I bought anything there, but after lunch, we left for an infamous “black market” of China. This certainly turned out to be quite an experience. I bought some DVD’s for $1, and a really nice watch. I negotiated for this watch for atleast an hour. I think the girls were getting tired of my negotiating. But that’s a part of the experience, right? We finally got out of there, and headed to a grocery store to buy snacks for the ship. My goal was to find Mountain Dew, and somehow I found it! They were selling them in individual cans, but I found a case of 24 underneath the shelf, and just took the whole box. I’ve only had 3 of them so far, I save them for special occasions. I haven’t eaten any of my snacks, I just like knowing they’re there if I want something. Our taxi driver, a new guy apparently, had trouble finding the ship, so I literally ended up pointing out to him which directions to turn. We arrived exactly when we were due, and unloaded our groceries and got back on the ship, thus ending our time in China.

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