Advertisement
And the crowd goes wild!
Boogie nights in Tianjin IMPORTANT NOTE: There are many fresh pics and a couple of videos on this entry to check-out!!!!!
DAY 1
Saturday was our first full day in China. I wrote about our breakfast and bike ride in "...and then we were in China...", so let's pick up after that.
I'm starting to appreciate the way this trip is beginning. Instead of hitting it full-on and trying to see every single thing I can on the tourist radar, we're sort of easing into it. Spending most of the first week of this trip in Tianjin is helping me get a feel for how things work here. Plus, we're doing things we would never be able to do on a typical tourist trajectory.
Pachi and I ran around downtown Tianjin yesterday with James and a couple of his Canadian buddies. The view from the train we took from Teda--the part of Tianjin where James lives--into Tianjin city looked to me like a microcosm of at least some of modern China: the urban sprawl of Teda with its high-rises and countless contruction cranes (I'm told 80%!o(MISSING)f them in the world reside in this country), past the ugliness of factory sprawl and the pools and rivers of green toxic gunk around them, disconcertingly close to rice paddies and rural land, and on into the next urban area.
Tianjin city is no great beauty, but it doesn't have to be in order to be interesting. For me, just taking-in the people and the environment they live in is fascinating enough. We strolled down the wide pedestrian street that cuts through downtown, full of humanity and commerce, with everything from street vendors to Starbuck's.
We came there to go to the 'beer festival', which turned-out to be just a slightly kickin' promo by what looked like the major import beer distributor for a swanky supermarket inside a multi-storied commercial center. To be a foreigner is to be a celebrity in certain situations here, and this was no different. This time, I took advantage of this and had some fun with it.
There were beer samples being given out by mostly cute beer promo girls--not quite the Bud girls, but just as well, lot's of pretty decent beers on display, a dude with a microphone and a crowd of a few dozen. It appeared as if they were waiting for the foreigners to show-up before the action could begin. As soon as we arrived, us four guys and a Chinese fella were drafted into their big moment, a beer-drinking contest that called on participants to drink a can of Tiawan Beer (the can looked generic and the suds tasted that way, too) through a straw, hands-free; the first one to finish wins.
This was like taking candy from a baby. I guess the MC said go, but I didn't realize it until about 5 seconds later. Thankfully, the competition was extremely weak, and with just a couple of power slurps, that lousy beer was reduced to foam, upon which time I spit the straw out of my mouth, picked-up the plastic cup in my teeth, tipped my head back and slurped the rest down while the others were trying to figure out what had just happened. I was, momentarily at least, a god.
I felt like Mean Joe Green in that Coke commercial when a little boy came up to me with his dad and told me in heavily-accented English, "You are incredible!" You would have thought I was Yao Ming after having won an NBA championship or something. I was awarded a goofy Heiniken hat (see this entry's pictures), to which I responded in loud voice, "Tiawan Beer: the greatest beer in China!" Something tells me The Party might have a problem with that, but I guess the minders weren't at the mall that day, or I might have created an international situation with my chugging skills and careless speech.
Next-up: a profession football-soccer match between a pro team from Tianjin and their counterparts from Melbourne, Australia in a brand-new, was-going-to-be-for-next-year's-Olympics-but-now-it's-not stadium here in town. The match was okay, the crowd was half-full and half-animated, and a drizzle just before the end of the match caused countlesss locals to abandon ship moments before the thrilling ending. James, too, got worried about a potential downpour and a taxi-less post-game scenario, so we left before the teams settled things with penalty kicks, advantage Aussies.
Later that night, we ended-up in a bar for mostly English-speaking ex-pats, oil workers, business people and English teachers, a rowdy bunch that seemed to relish the idea of being in a very comfortable and familiar environment with lots of other hard-drinking mates (Aussies seemed to out-number the rest, although no professional socceroos were sighted), where no one seemed to care if they acted the fool. I took it easy with the adult beverages and got beat in pool by a crafty Chinese chick who, typically, played by some goofy rules that allowed her to top her obviously superior competitor. The highlight was some over-served fellas dancing on the bar (it really is a beautiful world; check-out the video of it in this entry), which I'm told is a regular occurance at that establishment. After getting home at a reasonable hour, it was bedtime for Bonzo.
DAY 2
Our second full day in-country was equally random in a totally different way. Switching gears fast enough to strip a transmission, we spent much of the day at the Shine House, a home for severely disabled kids from kindergarden to 20 and a daycare where James regularly volunteers. Seeing, hearing, and smelling what I saw there would knock the ingratitude right out of any privileged westerner in need of a reality check, that's for sure.
God bless the people who run it and serve some incredibly needy kids who's parents have put them there because they nor the State can take care of them. We spent a good while with these children, about 20 of them who hang-out in a poorly ventilated room, wearing the humblest (and least-clean) of clothes, sitting on one mat and several cardboard boxes on the floor, shockingly unsanitary, drawing with markers and paper James brought and playing with broken toys and, in at least one case, a chunk of styrofoam. I can't even imagine what the lives must be like of the severely mentally and physically disabled kids who aren't 'lucky' enough to be admitted into the Shine House. Again, God bless the people who run this home, but the experience was both heart-breaking and a gut-check for me. I'm bothered, yet I can walk away; they cannot.
After coming home, Pachi, James, and I all had appointments with our host's personal massage therapist, a blind Chinese guy with thumbs of steel. What a treat! The dude knew about pressure points and massaged us one after another for over four hours, quite a feat.
After that, we met-up with another Canadian friend of James (I'm noticing a trend here) for a delicious shared meal of street food in a sweltering outdoor area where small-time vendors set-up some tables and serve happy locals (there are zero foreigners in these places) and great, home-style Chinese chow utterly unlike the remote bastard culinary third-cousin that often passes for Chinese food in the States. The food is almost reason enough to make the trip, and it seems like the more humble the establishment, the better (and, of course, cheaper) it is. James' generous and big-rolling buddy sported for the check, about seven bucks for food for four, three big beers, a water and a Coke.
We're just getting started, and I can't wait to share the new adventures that await us. Until then, enjoy the pictures and video I've attached to this entry as I attempt to make this as close to a full-sensory vicarious travel experience as I can. Chao for now...
--Shaun Hopkins
Advertisement
Tot: 0.157s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0924s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
ryan
non-member comment
Beer Bruiser!!
Hey Shaun, love the photos and entry so far. Glad you are having a great time. All is well on the home front. Nice day at twin falls yesterday, hoping that you can do all you want and that blessings and good chance blanket you. My love to you, the wife, James, and the Chinese people. Peace.