beware: super long update

Hey guys, sorry for the late update, but I guess I’m not as young as I thought. Jet lag has been kicking my butt recently. Anyway, on to Shanghai adventures:

(6/29): This was my second day in Shanghai, and it was pouring rain outside. I went to sleep at around 2am the previous night, hoping to maybe wake up and be done with jet lag for good. However, I woke up at 7am still feeling pretty tired but not able to sleep anymore. The cousin who traveled with me from the states was coming today by train. His flight went to Beijing while mine went directly to Shanghai, so he needed to take a train to get here. I didn’t know what to do with myself since we (my uncle, another cousin named Tianyang, and I) all woke up so early. We decided to get an early breakfast and explore the city before my cousin’s (Tianyi) train arrived at 11am. The hotel we’re staying at actually provided breakfast, which isn’t typical for most hotels in China according to my uncle. The breakfast food was definitely different. No cereal, no donuts, no oatmeal. Instead, the food’s all normal Chinese food your mom or dad would cook for you for lunch or dinner. They had pot stickers, bok choi, eggrolls, and lots of other yummy food. The hotel even had “gresh” apples! However, they lacked someone who could spell “fresh.” My favorite food from the diner was probably their fresh, sweet, and oh so soft buns.

After breakfast, we took a taxi to the main shopping street in Shanghai. Seatbelts aren’t required in the backseat of a taxi. In fact, they’re not even allowed because the backseat actually blocks the belt…yes, I was scared, especially with the way Chinese people drive…

It started pouring as we were walking to the shopping strip. My uncle quickly purchased a ghetto 10 yuan umbrella from a street vendor. The umbrella served its purpose though, and I was saved from the downpour. There weren’t many people outside since it was pouring, and the stores along the strip weren’t opened yet. I remember a shop owner just throwing an empty water bottle on the street when she was done with it. I couldn’t believe it at first, and I wanted to say something, but it’s common practice here in China. To make things worse, Shanghai’s actually one of the cleaner, if not the cleanest city in China. I really don’t want to see what my hometown is like…

As 11am approached, we took the subway to the train station. The subway here is pretty standard, very much like the one in NYC (Shanghai is VERY similar to NYC actually, just not as many tall buildings). The subways are crowded, but at least they’re clean. I actually don’t have many complaints about the subway system, even though it’s public transportation. The subway train somehow allows outside air to blow into the compartments. Inside, it just feels like strong, cooling breeze. It saves AC, and it feels great. While on the train, I saw a mother scolding her daughter under her breath. The girl was probably around 10 years old, and she had the saddest face on her face. Her mom would chastise her for something, and the girl’s head would just sink. Then the mom would turn away, huff a huge sigh of disappointment and look away. A couple seconds later, the mother went in for round two, and the girl’s head would just sink lower until I couldn’t even see her face. I felt the urge to tell the mother to stop, but I knew it wasn’t in my place to say anything. It wasn’t a very happy subway ride :(

The weather still didn’t let up when we got to the train station, so we took shelter in a cafeteria nearby. Two things surprised me while I was waiting. One, a delivery guy on a moped just drove straight into the cafeteria to deliver his package. I was shocked. I mean, people EAT there, and the guy had the nerve to pump exhaust into the place. I don’t know if the guy was just too lazy to park and walk in or if he was in a hurry. Either way, I just couldn’t believe someone would actually do that. Second, an elderly man walked into the cafeteria and began to change into dry clothes in front of everyone. I guess the old man changing wasn’t as bad as the moped, but it still startled me when I turned around to see a half naked old man in front of me. I snapped a creeper photo, but I think he saw me hahaha.

After we picked up Tianyi and dropped him off at the hotel so he can sleep, my uncle, Tianyang, and I went to tour Pudong, the business sector of Shanghai. The business side of Shanghai is pretty much what you expect it to be, lots of beautiful tall buildings, the famous Shanghai TV tower, and large shopping malls. I didn’t recognize a majority of the stores in the malls, but they had the big brands like Nike, Adidas, Disney, and Best Buy. Name brand items here are actually way more expensive than the US. For dinner, Tianyi’s swimming coach was treating us out to a Japanese buffet in one of the malls we were wandering around in. It was 150 yuan for anything on the menu, even drinks. Our party of six (coach, his wife, my uncle, Tianyang, Tianyi, and I) were put into a private room with six people who looked like they were in their early 20s. I don’t know what it was about the other people in the room, but they just gave me bad vibes. Anyway, the 12 of us all faced a chef that cooked delicious seafood right in front of us. The food was delicious, but unfortunately I wasn’t very hungry and did not capitalize on this opportunity. I finished eating pretty early and had to sit and wait for my uncle and the coach to finish chatting. We stared eating at 7 and we finished at around 11:30. By that time, I was exhausted to the point of falling asleep while sitting there. I didn’t want to be rude, so I tried to stay awake as best as I could. To make things worse, the restrooms in the mall were all closed by now and I reallllly needed to go. Fun fact: Some Chinese restrooms don’t provide toilet paper. That is my worst nightmare while I’m here…By the time I got back to the hotel, all I could do was just use the restroom, take a shower, and fall asleep in less than 5 seconds.

A side note on drinking and smoking in China: There’s no drinking age here. Teenagers drink all the time. In fact, it’s sometimes encouraged at large dinner parties. I guess I’m just surprised how downplayed drinking is in China. Back in the states, teens get people to buy alcohol for them and have to drink secretly. It’s something that’s looked down upon and against the law. It’s definitely not the case in China. Kids my age drink freely at restaurants and out on the streets. It’s a way of celebrating and a must when chilling with friends. Smoking is also the same, and it’s almost impossible to avoid it. Restaurants, airports, hotels, wherever, the smell of smoke is pervasive. I guess people here aren’t as aware of the health risks of smoking and second hand smoke. Even if they knew, I think they wouldn’t care and would continue to smoke. It’s kinda disheartening how little they care about their health. I’ll see people at restaurants eating the fattiest part of pork or beef. They smoke and drink in excess. They could care less about being sanitary. I’ve witnessed all of this in Shanghai, the cleanest city of Shanghai, and it’s only worse in other cities.

Another side note: Chinese people are extremely proud of their country. They will never admit that China is any worse than other countries, and they will constantly laud the government and the citizens for China’s rapid growth. In this light, the coach brought up an interesting point during dinner. He mentioned how Chinese people who borrow from the bank invest it wisely and do not waste it on extra spending. They’re constantly investing their money and earning more money. He criticized Americans for spending their money loosely and not investing all of their borrowed money. I guess hearing that rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t see anything wrong with spending money on experiences that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. What’s wrong with living a little and enjoying life? The only end result of investing for the Chinese is to earn more money. What do you do with more money? Keep on investing it? Where does it end? From my short time here so far, I’ve noticed Chinese people are very self serving and materialistic. They have no shame in anything that will put themselves ahead of others. It’s apparent in their mannerisms. While waiting in lines, if you’re moving just a tad too slow, they’ll quickly cut in front of you. If you’re standing in a crowd watching some sort of performance, they have no problem pushing you aside to get the best view. There’s no word for excuse me here, and people here probably won’t use it even if there was. Courtesy is hard to come by here. I can see Christianity really struggling here. Why should I serve others and humble myself? Why must I give up my desire for worldly items when they make me so comfortable? How can God help me be more successful? How can I be fully satisfied with God alone when I lack so much in my life? These are all questions I can see the typical Chinese citizen asking when introduced to God.

WORLD EXPO DAY! (6/30)

We woke up at 730am and left for the world expo at around 830am. Our original plan was to get there at 6am to get in early, but I really couldn’t wake up that early after such a long night. The expo opens at 9am. By the time we got there, it was already packed with people. The lines were already obscenely long and basically looked like a sea of people. There were sooo many people at the expo. Around 500k people enter the expo daily and the day I went was no different. Imagine Disney World, but with around two or three times the amount of people. The waiting time for popular exhibits like UK and China go upwards of 6 hours. The average waiting time for each expo is around 3-4 hours. Out in the 95 degree sun, I really couldn’t take it, so we went to some of the other exhibits that didn’t have super long lines like Urbania (a comparison of every major country’s daily life. They had a separate room for work, education, health, etc). We just took pictures of the other pavilions. Overall, I thought the world expo was very impressive. The architecture of the world pavilions was all very stunning, and I really wish I could have gone inside. The expo would’ve been so much more enjoyable if there weren’t so many people, but maybe I’m just asking for too much. I was fed up with the crowds, heat, and monster chafing (shoes and other places I’d rather not mention…) towards the evening, and I was ready to leave. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in one day. My feet were definitely feeling it after I got back to the hotel.

Aww moment of the day: After I rested a little while at the hotel, my uncle took me and Tianyang to experience Shanghai’s night life. The lights from the business sector are really pretty, and the streets are alive with street vendors and people. It was very reminiscent of NYC’s night life. While walking around, I saw an elderly security guard (probably late 50s) and a kid, who couldn’t have been older than 6 years old, playing soccer with an aluminum can. Seeing both of them thoroughly enjoy themselves with a piece of recyclable item put a smile on my face :)

7/1:

Today is my last day in Shanghai. It’s been a blast, and I’ve learned quite a lot these couple of days about Chinese culture and people. Stephanie asked if I experienced any culture shock in China. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve experienced quite a huge shock. I’m still not accustomed to the dirty streets, the semi-rude people, driving, and many other differences. I think China’s cool and all, and it’s great to finally see my family. However, I really do miss Houston.

For my last day in Shanghai, we decided to take it easy and just go shopping in a popular tourist area filled with cheap street vendors. Pictures will be on facebook later. We milled around the area for most of the afternoon and went back to the hotel before our flight. Fun fact: security guards in China are super hard core. They carry live automatic rifles and shotguns and wear Kevlar vests. I saw a couple of them when a worker was loading an ATM machine in a store, and a pair at the airport. I approached them to ask them for a picture in English (I thought they might let a foreigner take a picture rather than some average Chinese citizen), but was denied with a stern “no.” Sad day :( I arrived in my hometown at around 130am, and I was so ready to go to bed. I decided to stay at my uncle’s house that night. His apartment is located in a very peaceful gated community, on the 7^th floor of one of the buildings. There’s no elevator, so I had to climb allll the way up. I guess I finally got some much needed exercise. My grandparents didn’t come pick me up because they are very old, and they have an 8pm bedtime (you’re basically a kid again without the energy once you start getting that old). I had to wait until the next day to finally see them.

7/2:

Today, I woke up extremely early (730am) which means I only slept for about 5 hours. I don’t know why, but it’s been like this every day in China so far. I would go to sleep pretty late, but still manage to wake up really early. Could it still be jet lag? Anyway, I watched some random Chinese cartoon that involved sheep and wolves. One of the sheep had a pooped shaped tuft of hair. I call him poop-head since I can’t read his real name. After my aunt and uncle woke up, we went out for some traditional Chinese breakfast food, Chinese donuts and hot soy milk. It was delicious and cheap of course. My grandparents live in the same gated complex as my uncle and aunt, so we head straight back to my gramps’ place right after breakfast. My grandpa opened the door first, and I heard my grandma in the back of the apartment asking if it was me. Then I saw her wobbling over toward the door to greet us. I was surprised neither of us cried when we saw each other. She’s definitely changed since the last time I saw her. I guess the last image I had of her was when I was still 6, so seeing her after over a decade just shocked me. She’s much shorter than I thought she was, and her teeth have started falling out. Her hair still finally starting to gray a little (my grandma has had really dark hair until these last couple of years). She walks around like a penguin because her knees are bad. It pains me to see her hobbling around like that :/ I talked with her for the whole afternoon, mostly just me listening to her talk about how grown up I was. Even though I’m already 19, she still treats me as the 6 year old she used to take care of. It was a very relaxing day, just sitting there chatting with my grandma.

My grandpa doesn’t talk much, and he’s not fully aware anymore. He’s also deaf, so I have to repeat myself constantly. Even though he’s getting old and isn’t as responsive, some of his actions surprised me. For example, I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke. My grandpa knows this chose to smoke outside instead of inside. He’s pretty addicted sadly and smokes a cigarette every 15 min or so :x he would get up and leave the room every time. Also, he chose to sit at a different table and smoke when I went with him to get some noodles in the afternoon. Even though my grandpa doesn’t talk much, he knows what’s up. It’s all up there.

Alright, if you’re still reading at this point, then I congratulate you. It’s been an extremely long update because I haven’t had the time to just sit down and type. I don’t want to put it off any longer and let events accumulate so I finally decided to finish it at the expense of some sleeping time. I leave you with some more observations and probably a lot of typos throughout this post:

• this type of haircut is extremely popular here, but i hope it never catches on in the states. I would say at half of the teenage girls i've seen so far have this type of haircut or some variation of it: http://www.womensbeautylife.com/albums/Asian_hairstyles/Asian_straight_hairstyle_with_bang.jpg
• crocs are popular and look bad back in the US. they're still popular and look bad in China.