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Published: November 24th 2008
My excuse for not getting blogs up in so long is that I have been designated a swim coach. Everyday I have to go swimming. It is exhausting and I have been getting home rather late. Fortunately after three weeks of this torture, we are postponing the next two weeks until the spring when it warms up.
This past weekend, I went to Shenzhen/Shekou for a teacher’s conference. Shenzhen is on the coast in mainland China right across from Hong Kong. The conference was on a Monday/Tuesday so I decided to go early on Friday right after school let out to see the sights. Sabrina, a Chinese teacher at our school, went with me. The conference started on Sunday for her so she didn’t get as much free time as me. We got in late on Friday so went straight to our hotel. We did go out for a little while. About five minutes from our hotel is a street called Foreigners Street that just has a lot of restaurants, bars and clubs. From the looks of Foreigners Street, there were lots of foreigners in Shenzhen. This impression quickly changed the next day when we went to other parts of
the city though. Saturday we went to see Splendid China in the morning and then Windows of the World. Splendid China is a place that has small replicas of all the famous things in China. It was gorgeous. The displays were all nice, but what I really enjoyed was the landscaping. We were at Splendid China for probably four hours and didn’t even see everything. We left because our feet were tired, we were starving and we wanted to have time to check out Windows of the World. Besides the displays, they also had performances throughout the day. Sabrina did not seem too interested in these, but I convinced her to go to one. If I went back, I would just go to performances all day; they had all kinds of traditional dances. We went to a reenactment of a war between two dynasties. I think it may have been when the Qing dynasty took power…I could totally be wrong though.
Next we went to Windows of the World. This place was awesome. They had mini replicas of famous things from all over the world. From the US they had the White House, the Pentagon, the Lincoln Memorial, Niagara
Falls and New York City. They had tons of stuff from Europe-Leaning Tower of Pisa, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, etc. They also had things from South America, Austrailia, Africa and of course Asia. Africa was cool because they had dancers playing music and dancing. I’m not sure the dancers were actually African, they looked Pilipino to me. We took lots of pictures. It was cool to show some of the photos to my students because there were replicas of structures they’ve studied from Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. They had the beautiful blue gates to Babylon and also the Tomb of King Tut. Not as good as the real thing, but it was still neat. Outside the tomb of King Tut, I was asked to take a photo with some random guy. It was at Windows of the World that I realized Shenzhen did not have too many foreigners. People screamed hello and stared at me worse than in Chongqing even. There was a group of students on a field trip that started yelling I love you at me for like two straight minutes! I didn’t even know what to do except laugh!
That night we met up with
Megan and Luke for dinner at a Tex-Mex restaurant. I realized how lucky I am to live in Chongqing rather than the coast. In Chongqing, most meals range between 20-50 RMB or 3-8 USD depending on the niceness of the restaurant. In Shenzhen my meals were 70-100 RMB or 10-16 USD. It is good to have western food, but I like saving money more! The hotel we stayed at was nice (probably a four or five star place) so they had a good western breakfast buffet every morning. I was pretty content with my food situation on the trip. Also the taxis are way more expensive in Shenzhen. They start at 13 RMB and then tick pretty quick! Chongqing taxis start at only 5RMB and tick up much slower. Although about a week ago Chongqing taxi drivers went on strike for higher pay. I guess they have to pay 200-300 RMB each day to rent the taxi and then pay for the gas. They pocket any profits. After three days of no taxis, the government met some demands. It is still unclear what demands have been met. Some people have told me rates will increase to 6RMB, while others have
told me the government is going to lower the cost of renting a taxi. So far nothing has changed so we’ll see what happens.
Anyways back to Shenzhen. The next day I took a ferry to Macau to meet Pam and Roy (my director and his wife). They spent the whole weekend in Macau and invited me to meet them any day. The ferry ride was interesting. It was a closed ferry (disappointing) and the inside looked like the interior of an airplane. The ride was extremely rough. Fortunately I feel asleep for most of the trip.
I met Pam and Roy at their hotel which was on the beach and absolutely gorgeous. There was deep blue tile decorating everything-it made me think of the hotel in Mama Mia. After meeting up, Pam and I went to the casinos-Macau is popular for this. They had The Venetian just like in Las Vegas. It looked identical just four to five times larger. They have the white statue guys. Pam threw some money at one and then we both had to laugh because after he did some moves for her, he turned around and winked at me. Oh being foreign
in China! We also went to the Four Seasons Casino next door. There was also the Wynn Casino same as in Vegas. Many more casinos are in the works-Macau will look like Vegas in a couple of years.
Next we went to Fisherman’s Wharf. This is still relatively new, but it will be awesome one day. They have a whole bunch of buildings of different themes such as Aladdin’s Castle and The Roman Coliseum. Each place has carnival rides/games and restaurants and such. Everything was new and pretty. It looks like it will be fun once it is finished.
Next we went to the ruins of St. Paul’s church. This church was built in the 1500s by the Portuguese. It burned to the ground ages ago, but the front wall was repaired. So really all that is there is a stone wall. However there were hundreds of people there. You could not even move it was so crowded! People kept getting mad at me for blocking their view. I was so confused as to how a wall could be so popular since there was apparently no story behind the church besides it burning of course-and also few Chinese
people are Christian and even fewer it seems Catholic. After asking around to locals in Chongqing, I think the church is popular because it is the sign you’ve been to Macau. Like the Eiffel tower is a sign you’ve been to Paris.
After the church we went to grab lunch/dinner downtown. The streets smelled wonderful-like sugar and cookies. You never smell these things in Chongqing. All you spell here is pepper and spices. The restaurant we ate at was both terrible and expensive, but I did enjoy walking along the street.
We had to head back to Shenzhen after eating because our conference actually started Sunday night. The conference was pretty good-it was over assessment. We had a keynote speaker and then we meant in smaller groups based on the level we taught. It was nice to speak with some colleagues that teach the same curriculum as I do and get some ideas on what they are doing in their rooms.
Monday after the conference ended for the day at three, the school had three school buses going to different parts of the city. I naturally chose the one going to a shopping center. You have not
seen shopping til you have come to China. This building was probably five or six stories tall and each floor had hundred of shops. I was in heaven. I am getting very good at bargaining. After they tell you a price, you literally have to cut that price in four or five and offer that amount. You also have to walk away four or five times and then they might finally come down. Most people in Shenzhen speak English, which is nice. I need to practice my Chinese to shop in Chongqing. Also the clothes actually fit me in Shenzhen where people are taller.
I also met a really nice girl teaching at a QSI school in Guangdong, China. We went out to eat Monday night at a bar on a cruise ship that got washed up on shore. We ended up sitting there talking for hours. I also had my first experience of a sixty-five year old man offering to buy me drinks. We both just stared at him-a bit shocked. In Shenzhen you do see a lot of really young Chinese girls with really old white men. You can draw your own opinions.
The conference ended
Tuesday afternoon and I flew home for school on Wednesday morning.
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monkey butler
non-member comment
It all looks so wonderful. I'm jealous!