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Published: December 29th 2015
Hazy day for a trainride
The smog obliterated any view on the ride from 北京 Beijing to 上海 ShanghaiHey everyone!
So the family all made it to China safe and sound! We met up in 上海 Shanghai, where we rented an airbnb for a few days. I think everyone has been suffering from jet lag; they all tend to be asleep by 9 pm. That's early on normal standards, right? Because compared to my 2 am bedtime, it's super early. Anyways, apparently the area of 上海 that we stayed in was where mom's company's China branch used to be located, so we got to follow her as she tried to find the exact office. They had already moved locations, but I'm sure we managed to confuse the guy standing in the entrance area of the office building, as I'm sure it's not every day that he sees a family of foreigners going up the elevators to the office areas. I was even half waiting for him to stop us and tell us we were not allowed in that part of the building. It was a very strange experience, although I am sad to say it was not the last. It seems that following Mom into random buildings that we have no business in is turning into a pattern.
In addition to the office building in 上海, we have also already followed Mom into two different hotels, one in 上海, and one here in 杭州 Hangzhou. I guess she and Dad stayed in both of them at one point when they were in China, so she wanted to go in and do... something? I'm not sure, but it was weird and uncomfortable, in my opinion. It felt too "American touristy," and especially at the 杭州 hotel, we were obviously confusing the doorman, who even came up to us at one point to tell us where the restaurant was located, since we kind of just walked in and stopped in the entryway. It was a weird experience, and I really hope we don't have any more repeats during this trip.
Other than that, we have just been doing the tourist thing; in Shanghai we made it over to the Bund, although unfortunately it was a pretty smoggy day, so the view was pretty dreary. We did wait until dark to see the lights over the river, which were admittedly pretty cool, although the streetlights on our side of the river were too bright to take photos that did
the view justice. In addition, we visited two different gardens (considering it is winter, there were a surprising number of people in them), and just generally explored the city a bit.
On one of our trips out, we ended up in the People's Park. As we were walking through the park trying to decide where to look for dinner, we began seeing some elderly people just kind of hanging out, which is normal. What was weird, though, was that lots of them had out these old umbrellas with signs attached to them. I wasn't sure what it was, but as there were only like four elderly and a few umbrellas, I figured it must be some sort of organization thing, trying to raise money or something. However, it got pretty weird when we continued deeper into the park and stumbled upon an open square with at least 50 elderly people, all with umbrellas (or bags) pinned with laminated notices. It was not until I actually started looking at the notes that I realized we had stumbled upon the Shanghai Marriage Market (seriously, this is a thing. It even has a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_marriage_market). Basically, parents and grandparents of unmarried
men and women go to this park to try and find them marriage prospects. I'm not even kidding. Each sheet of paper listed the child (adult)'s name, birthday, education, height, and lots of other information that is apparently important in finding the perfect match for your child. My parents got a kick out of it once I realized what it was, and even more so when we rounded the corner again and found all of the men (husbands) lounging around and chatting, obviously waiting for the women to finish up so they could go home. I must admit, it does seem strange from an American perspective. Then again, America does not suffer from the "leftover women" phenomenon.
Anyways, we are currently in 杭州 Hangzhou, and although we had planned to stay in an airbnb here as well, it turned out to be much different than what we were expecting. Considering the price of the place, 5 minutes of hot water, no towels provided, beds with comforters not big enough to fit them, and an apartment on the fifth floor of a very old building (without an elevator) seemed like kind of a rip off, even on Chinese standards. Therefore,
we stayed there for one night and have been staying in a hotel on Mom's membership points for the duration of our time here. In comparison, this place is crazy nice (although truthfully it is a pretty standard hotel room). The downside is that we are all in one room, and I'm not technically staying here. Apparently in this area, only three people are allowed to stay in a room, otherwise you have to reserve two rooms. It's pretty strange, but my theory is that it has something to do with the One Child Policy, since most Chinese families wouldn't have more than three people anyways. Once I suggested that, Mom furthered it by suggesting that maybe it's another punishment, of sorts, for those families that have more than one child. Who knows? It just means that we can't all leave or return together, so we kind of stagger our entrances and exits. I feel like the staff has probably picked up on it, but I'm hoping that they won't say anything about it because my parents are obviously foreigners.
Tomorrow we will take a train to 義烏 Yiwu, where we will make a quick visit to my old
orphanage. I'm excited for this visit, because I think it'll be very meaningful to visit and kind of see where I'm from and all that. We'll see though. The downside is that the time they are open to the public is one hour in the morning so when you add travel time, we have to leave at 6:45 tomorrow morning.... T_T so early.
Anyways, I should go get some sleep before we have to leave... So until next time!
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Terry May
non-member comment
Happy Noodles
Hi Katie, Sarah, Bev & John, The Marriage Market description and photo are wonderful - I love it! We also enjoyed hearing about your stealthy comings and goings to fool the hotel staff - you guys are very tricky. Your blog makes me miss Xi Hu and Hangzhou all the more - the 'Noodles' photo especially. I look forward to hearing about Yiwu. Safe travels and many more Happy Noodles. Xin Nian Hao to all, Terry