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Published: February 4th 2009
“Welcome to Shanghai Pudong Airport! The current temperature in Shanghai is 50 degrees Fahrenheit with cloudy skies. ” As I walked up the jet way I ripped off my thick Eddie Bauer jacket, dropped my bags, fell to the ground, kissed the floor, and cried. Wow, let’s press the rewind button and find out what happened….
We woke up at around 7 in the morning to catch the metro to the Shanghai Railway Station. I definitely made the mistake of only bringing a duffle bag and a camera bag. If I could press rewind on life, I probably would have included a backpack in the mix (you’ll see why). Five of us (Me, Silas, Josh, Samantha, Mai) were walking to the metro station with loads of luggage all the way to the Shanghai Railway Station and by the time we got there, we were sweating our asses off. Luckily we made it onto the train on time, so timing was perfect. I was so happy to walk onto the platform to find my cart so I could put down my duffle bag. When I got into the cart I see a room full of hard sleeper beds. In China
there are different classes for trains just like there are different classes for airplanes. Soft sleepers are equivalent to first class which includes a locked room with 4 beds (sometimes a TV). Hard sleepers have 6 bunked beds in an open area with 3 beds stacked on top of each other on one end and likewise on the other. Luckily all five of us got middle beds. The hard sleeper cabin was full of Chinese locals and no foreigners. We got a lot of interesting stares because we were the only ones speaking English on the train. The first thing on my mind was “We’re going to have a very interesting 33 hr train ride.” When I traveled in China several years ago, I had a soft sleeper cabin which I could not get for this trip. Turns out that I had a better/more fun experience in the hard sleeper cabin than I did in the soft sleeper cabin. During the train ride, I played DS with Samantha and studied a little zhongwen. I ate in the dining cart during meals, and they were decent. I would say that it was better than airplane food, but worse than restaurant food.
The lights in the cabin turned off at 10, so I could not study anymore and had to go to bed. In the middle of the night, the Chinese family in my area decided to wake up at 3 am to eat ramen and chit-chat. I was not thrilled about that, so my iPod was the best cure. Out of the 5 of us, I was the last one to wake up (around 10 o’clock). During the last stretch of the train ride, we all decided to study Zhongwen together. Two other USACers were in a different cart (HoYoung and Michelle), and they stopped by a couple times. The Chinese people were laughing at us because we probably looked ridiculous quizzing each other on basic characters. While I was studying on my bed, three Chinese women came up to me and started talking to me and I did the best I could to communicate back. They asked me where I was studying at and where I was from, so I was able to respond back. One of the women got into it, and started helping me with pronunciation, which was really cool. I think the whole idea of pingyin interested
Little Fir Youth Hostel
Public sink. I heard Josh gag down the hall when he was brushing his teeth here.her because that’s the method foreigners use to learn Chinese.
When we arrived to Harbin, it was cold, but manageable. We rushed over to the ticket counter to purchase return tickets (unable to purchase return tickets in Shanghai). Unfortunately, all tickets were sold out until Feb 2. In addition, school started on the 2nd and that was not good news for us. After a couple days of contacting different companies, we were finally able to get a flight on the 1st. The only available seats left were first class. After that episode, we crammed into a taxi to get to our hostel. Our first reaction when we got to the hostel, was “holy shit…if we don’t like it here, we will find a nice hotel like spoiled little Americans”. Originally we reserved two rooms (one including 3 beds and a private bathroom for the men and another including 2 beds and a private bathroom for the women), but the front desk told us that they were not available and we would have to use the public showers/bathroom. In a nut shell, the hostel smelled like urine everywhere and the bathroom was wet everywhere with squatters as toilets. The showers
Little Fir Youth Hostel
Showered with some creepy crawlies were incredibly dirty with a lot of creepy crawlies. Our room had a dorm room set up with a TV that did not work, and it was in terrible condition. I was so glad that I brought my fleece sleeping bag (also came in handy on the train). Last summer I had King’s Lodge in Monterey Park, CA as the dirtiest place I’ve ever stayed at. Now I think Little Fir International Youth Hostel in Harbin, China wins by a landslide and makes King’s Lodge look like the Ritz-Carlton. After not being able to shower on the 33 hr train ride, we were desperate for a shower. Our rooms had slippers for us, but they were super dusty and UGH. I’m glad that I did not get warts or a fungal infection. We sucked it up and used the shower. My shower experience was very interesting. I had freezing cold water and flies and bugs showering with me. Thank god I brought my own soap and shampoo, because the hostel did not have any. Showering was a grueling process, but I made it out alive. We all agreed at dinner to get the hell out of there the next morning.
The other 2 USACers, HoYoung and Michelle were able to get a hotel and were able to get a room for us the next day. Originally, when we planned our trip we wanted to stay at that hotel; however, rooms were not available for the amount of people we had. HoYoung and Michelle informed us about a skiing trip that would take place at 7am the next morning for 220 kuai, so we decided to join them.
The next morning we checked out of the hostel at 5 in the morning and got a taxi to the hotel to meet up with HoYoung and Michelle. WE WERE SO HAPPY TO GET A NICE HOTEL ROOM…that problem was solved. Now the skiing trip…This was a sad day in which my Columbias and Mai’s camera were lost at battle, so this part is a tribute to those items.
The ski trip included free transportation, equipment, and lunch for 220 kuai. It sounds really good for college students. What we did not know was that the ride to the facility would be 3 hours and on the way we would have to get ski gear for a hidden fee of 120
kuai, and a lift ticket for 180 kuai. When we got to the ski gear place, Silas and I were the only ones on the bus who decided to not get the gear. I was already warm in my Eddie Bauer jacket, Quiksilver jacket, La Coste fleece, long sleeve shirt, long johns, underwear, jeans, and water-proof warm up pants. Everyone on the bus rented out gear and then we found out that we had to pay for a lift ticket. I was under the impression that it was a lift ticket to ski. Turns out it was a lift ticket to wait in a 2 hour line to go up a mountain on a chairlift and back. That was a complete waste. We ate lunch at around 4 pm for about 10 minutes, which only had a couple dishes for way too many people….we were definitely hungry afterwards. Right outside the restaurant was a small hill with a bunch of Chinese people falling everywhere. I’ve never seen so many skis and poles flying all over the place. The “lift” for that hill was a bar that you hold onto as it drags you up. The “ski lodge” was a room
Green Tree Hotel
Pay 30 more kuai and you get this full of benches and a place where you can get skis and boots. The equipment was crap, but you get what you pay for I guess. After getting skis and boots, there’s a messy pile of random poles that you pick out on the floor HAHA. Silas, Josh, and I put our shoes behind a bench since we could not put them anywhere else. Silas and I were able to ski down the slop in about a minute. On the second run we decided to help out our other friends who did not know how to ski. At about 5 o’clock (yes, only 1 fucking hour of skiing), it was time to go. We went back to the bench and Silas and Josh’s shoes were there except mine….FUCK. My Columbia’s were gone. At that moment, I did not know what to do…they were probably already on the black market. After looking everywhere, I had to buy these Napoleon Dynamite-looking boots for 100 kuai, so I could have shoes for the rest of the trip. My Columbia’s were the only shoes that I brought. Later Mai found out that her LCD screen broke so she was camera-less. On top of that,
Green Tree Hotel
Pay 30 more kuai and you get this we were scammed big time. The ski trip was definitely a waste and I lost more than I gained. On the positive side, like the motto I live by... “It’s not about what you do; it’s about the company and who you are with” (My own words from LA trip summer 2008).
The next night we went to Sun Island Park which had A LOT of enormous snow sculptures. I was blown away with how detailed the sculptures were and how large they were. Later that night I was blown away some more by going to the Harbin Ice Festival. The Harbin Ice Festival was an amazing experience. Just an entire piece of land (almost the size of UOP main campus), with buildings and structures made of ice and only ice. They were also lit up which gave them a sweet effect. On some of the buildings they had ice slides, so I rode one of those. The temperature at the festival was below 0 degrees Fahrenheit…FROZE MY ASS OFF.
This year was the first year that Disney put its hand onto the Harbin Ice Festival, so they had a Disney Harbin Ice Festival in the middle of
Green Tree Hotel
Pay 30 more kuai and you get this the city. The next night we decided to check that out and it was a lot of fun. They had a lot of Disney themed structures with character figures everywhere. The next day it was time to leave Harbin, so we got to the airport early and found a coffee restaurant to study at. We all had to check-in our luggage since most of us had liquid items. All I have to say is that this China Eastern Airlines flight was the best airline experience I’ve ever had. Our group took up the entire first class section. The service was great and the food was warm and tasty. In addition, the flight attendants were not old hags and they always had a smile on their face…just how I like it. After two hours and anxiously waiting to get back into Shanghai, the plane lands and on the loud speaker I hear…
“Welcome to Shanghai Pudong Airport! The current temperature in Shanghai is 50 degrees Fahrenheit with cloudy skies. ” As I walked up the jet way I ripped off my thick Eddie Bauer jacket, dropped my bags, fell to the ground, kissed the floor, and cried. Wow, let’s press
Green Tree Hotel
Pay 30 more kuai and you get this the rewind button and find out what happened….Actually I was just kidding about the bag dropping, the knees falling, the floor kissing, and the crying…but I did take off my Eddie Bauer jacket, because I was sweating my ass off ;-) Overall, my trip to Harbin was an experience to remember and I definitely had fun. Will I ever go back???? HELL NO…but I am GLAD that I had the opportunity to go.
Currently I am planning a trip to Tibet and a climb up to the base camp of Mt. Everest from the Tibetan side for spring break. We will see how that goes.
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