I've been spending the past few days hiding from the rain, studying, and reading. I decided to treat myself to lunch at a restaurant today called Larbre de Provence in Metro City. I always see the restaurant pretty crowded with people eating the lunch buffet. So I go for the buffet too (39 rmb per person) and I am seated. I get up to help myself. There's a bunch of cold salads and an assortment of Chinese looking dishes. I decide to take a sample of everything to decide what was good. I start eating my food and picking at the [View Full Entry]

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This list has been circulating on the expat sites and Facebook, etc. I thought I'd put it on my blog to share - since I've experienced 80% of it (sigh) and most of it is not exaggerated. People here actually do this stuff. It's hilarious what one can get used to! You know you've been in China too long when... 1. You’re at an expensive western restaurant and don’t even notice the guy at the next table yelling into his cell phone 2. You enjoy karaoke 3. You walk backwards in the park listening to a transistor radio 4. The China [View Full Entry]

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I was bummed I didn't to see 42nd Street (I love tap dancing). I seem to not know how to ask the right questions. I called the ticket office and she told me there were tickets available and just to come to the box office. I went there an hour prior to the show and of course they were sold out. At that point I think to ask, "How many did you have left today?" The lady said, "I think 4." Great. Oh well. Money saved. The tickets were 600 rmb. Perhaps I'll try the acrobatics show next week. So I [View Full Entry]

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There's a guy with a fruit stand that he cycles around. He is usually in front of the apartment complex every evening, and I buy fruit from him almost every time I see him. I've enjoyed the most delicious watermelon in China. It's filled with flavor and juice. You can buy a good sized watermelon for about 8 rmb, or $1 USD. Large Chinese pears are about 4 rmb or $0.50 USD. The fruit is quite inexpensive. However, I really like Hami melon, which is a cantaloupe-honeydew type melon. Last month I picked one out, and fruit man said it was [View Full Entry]

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No more ringing from my bicycle bell. I found a buyer! :) I bought the bike two months ago to ride to school, and since it's starting to rain and I'll be out of Shanghai traveling for the next month, I decided to go ahead and just sell it. I posted it on Shanghai Craigslist and found a buyer. I bought the bike and lock for 300 rmb and I'm selling it for 150 rmb. Not bad. I would have kept it longer, but honestly, I think bike riding in Shanghai is dangerous and unhealthy. I breathe in a lot of [View Full Entry]

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We woke up late and we got an even later start because I was obsessed with my water heater. I asked the landlord to fix a leak while I was away, but instead a new water heater was intalled. Hmm. Now there's a leak AND no hot water. I tried to figure out how to fix this Chinese appliance myself. No luck. It's fine now, after the landlord took another look. We had a relaxing day enjoying the city of Shanghai. I took Christina to Metro City's Megabite (food court). I love Megabite. It's cheap, convenient and there are so many [View Full Entry]

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We spent the morning in Yangshuo bike riding around the countryside. Thankfully we got an early start because it was quite warm outside! Cherry rented our bikes and we rode around for about 2 hours. Physical work for the tour guide! The bike ride was beautiful - more mountains. CL barely took any pictures that morning. I think she was definitely done with the mountains. The prettiest part was being so close to the mountains, and seeing them reflect on the Yulong River. It was so charming, peaceful and just picturesque. I liked Yangshuo more than Guilin. So if I could [View Full Entry]

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We had dinner on West Street and wanted to try a local specialty, "Beer Fish". The fish (a big one) was prepared with the scales on it. Big scales. Yuk! I asked the waiter why the scales weren't take off and he replied "That's how it's prepared". In my mind I insisted that the chef was lazy and made us scrape off the gross cooked scales. It was a bit diappointing. When I saw our driver and Cherry I told them about our beer fish and she immediately said that "oh, we eat the scales here" as if she knew what [View Full Entry]

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We embarked the boat from the Li River Cruise and walked down "West Street". Chinatown is to San Francisco as West Street is to Yangshuo. It's funny though; they sell Chinese souvenirs on West Street. I think that's like buying/selling BBQ, hot dogs, and baseball caps in Chinatown. Anyway, it's a cute touristy street with lots of stores, restaurants, and a few ice cream shops. :) We checked into the hotel (Paradesa Hotel) which was quite nice. It had a tropical/Mediterranean feel. The room was pretty nice - we got the "deluxe" room. I thought the tour standard was quite good [View Full Entry]

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Today we checked out of our Guilin hotel and headed toward the Li River for our 4+ hour cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo County. The river cruise is a popular tourist activity. The cruise ship was fairly nice - spacious and not crowded, air conditioning, first level was buffet/food, second level was seats/tables, third level was deck. All the passengers were tourists, specifically non-Chinese tourists. Cherry told us the boat we took was one of the nicest. It's called Guilin No. 1 or something like that. There were tons of cruise ships, rafts, boats on the river. Man of [View Full Entry]

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