Picture Time

These pictures are from Beijing. And are some of the pictures that I promised of the Summer Palace and Forbidden City

He really likes the wall

There is some sort of Buddha at the top and its quite a hike to get there

Almost there

A rewarding view at the end, coupled with lots of sweat
eating popsicles on the Long Corridor, which happens to be the longest corridor in the world.

A priceless boat carved out of marble. Its not even a real boat.



Right in front of the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, aka Tiananmen Square
Forbidden City will be next.

Impressions on Taiwan

We landed in Taiwan at around 3:30 pm local time. Taiwan is one of Asia's "four dragons" aka the pride of economic Asia. The other 3 are Singapore, Japan, and China. Therefore its quite a modern country, if I may call it so.

We ate afterwards at the Zen Teppanyaki Grillto the treat of my aunt. The food was nothing short of spectacular to say the least. I'll try to elaborate tomorrow.

Grillin'

Since its late right now I'll just say that Taiwan is amazing judging by just the hotel services that we have experienced. I've been to Taiwan several times so I'm really speaking more so to Will Jesse and Ben. I'm sorry that I won't say much more than showing you how to contact us.

To reach us by phone call 011-886-33269900 which will get you to the front desk of the Monarch Plaza Hotel in Taoyuan. Ask for room number 1518 for Ben and I or 1512 for Will and Jesse.

Cheers

I'll probably write more in the morning as its getting way past my normal bed time.

-Andy

Events that are out of order

I realized that I didn't write anything about the Summer Palace or the Forbidden City. And for that matter I haven't posted pictures either. I suppose I can show a couple pictures now.
So we're going back to Beijing. Earlier I mentioned how Wangfujing is Beijing's glamour street. Well to the side of it is the endless row of foodstands that make up its infamous nightmarket.

They grill the meat, we don't eat it raw

He's eating lamb

Earlier we talked about the pomelo and the durian fruit. I posted pictures of the delicious pomelo but what about the durian? Have a look for yourself.

mushy.

I guess I have to put the Forbidden City and Summer Palace on hold again. Sorry.
-Andy

My Title is Hong Kong

Hong Kong (HK) is very humid, after all its situated in the tropics. Its hard to believe Hong Kong Island is a tropical island though. I guess some of it has to do with the fact that densely populated islands in the tropics are basically unheard of. When you think of the Caribbean, you think of palm trees and tiki bars. I’m not going to say that there aren’t any of those in HK, I’m just saying that perhaps the first thing you think of when you think of HK is “city”. And that assertion is for all intensive purposes true.

Picture taken somewhere near Kennedy Road, part of the financial district so therefore less dense.

HK self proclaims itself as “Asia’s world city”: and that might just be true to any uninformed tourist. Save for maybe Tokyo. Perhaps its true to say that HK is Asia’s World city. Just off the top of my head when I think of major Asian cities I probably would list them in this order: Tokyo, HK, Singapore, and once again nodding our heads to the uninformed tourist I would place Beijing over Shanghai – that’s only from their point of you mind you. That being said, Shanghai is certainly overshadowed by the city/territory of HK. However nothing would please the Chinese department of internal affairs more than Shanghai replacing HK by becoming the new economic center of China. And to give you my personal opinion, that is the direction that Shanghai is headed. And HK will simply become marginalized.

That being said, HK definitely has some kind of island charm that Shanghai lacks. To me, Shanghai felt deeply impersonal while the Beijing – especially the Hutong districts felt almost romantic and somewhat sleepy.

Just by throwing a cursory glance at HK, there doesn’t seem like there is anything to do. But don’t worry, we definitely found stuff to do in our stay at HK. Most people just come to shop. It used to be “really cheap” here but now it’s just “cheap” All of the Northern side of Hong Kong Island is dominated by designer shops which may be cheap by American/Western standards but since we’ve been to Beijing and Shanghai first, it just feels expensive. Allow me to explain the geography of the Hong Kong territory. The closest mainland city of relative significance is Shenzhen, one of the many modern instant cities that literally have sprouted out of farm-like villages in within 2 years. Chinese development is impossibly fast. Shenzhen is in the Guangdong province (Canton) and it forms the northern boundary with Hong Kong. The Hong Kong territory is an envelope that includes part of the mainland as well as a good number of islands. The northern most land is referred to as the New Territories, land that the British leased from China for 99 years. This region mostly just includes national parks which are very impressive, at least that’s what I gathered by looking at pictures.

Going south a little is the Kowloon peninsula (it means 9 dragons in Cantonese). The Kowloon area was until very recently the most densely populated city in the world. It’s still up there though. South of Kowloon is Hong Kong island, which is where Causeway Bay is located (we’re staying in a hostel at Causeway Bay). To the west of Hong Kong Island is the biggest island in the territory – Lantau Island which is where the Hong Kong International Airport, rated number 1 airport in the world by various independent sources. It was pretty awesome to fly into though, a lot of tropical looking water and tropical looking mountains. Its really its own kind of experience.

Native Hong Kongers list 2 things that are most-do's for new tourists. The first one is to take a peak tram up to Victoria Peak, one of the various names for the tallest point on Hong Kong island. The tram is essentially a one way trolley anchored by a two 2 inch thick braided steel cables. Today there is a cover to the red San Francisco-esque tram but the original tram was just a tin can. During World War II it was rumored that it was made out of cardboard. For people with an express fear of roller coasters this might not be the thing for you. It has steep inclines which nearly reach 30 degrees, which is actually steeper than you think it is. And you pass through a lush canopy of rainforesty like trees. At the top you are greeted by what is best described as a shopping mall, which is pretty much what Hong Kong is made up of: yes I mean to say that Hong Kong is comprised solely of shopping malls. At the top of this mall is an observation deck which commands a view past Hong Kong Island into Kowloon and even outlying islands. Its actually a lot less humid on top of the mountain than down in the urban jungle. Also at the top is the infamous Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum, something we opted out of seeing.


The second thing that the locals recommend is spending a day at the Ocean Park, one of Hong Kong's two amusement parks - neither of which we visited - there just wasn't enough time.a lif According to National Geographic Magazine, riding the Star Ferry across the harbor is one of the top 50 things to do in a lifetime. Not wanting to miss out on that we went to go check it out. At just 2.20 HKD (less than 0.30 USD) the ferry from Causeway Bay to Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui) is a steal and basically free for those of us accustomed to the rising costs of subway fees. Its a really cool feeling crossing the harbor in the midst of all the urban development. On the other side is Hong Kong's version of Hollywood's Avenue of Stars. I identified only 6 celebrities of the many listed. We then proceeded to our next destination.


Ngong Ping is the world's largest outdoor bronze seated Buddha. Which is such a specific category that skeptics may mock the title. Except that it actually is really cool. Normally you would take the subway (MTR) to the far side of Lantau Island aka the end of the yellow line, which we did, and then take a skyrail (cable car) over the mountains towards the monastery where it is near. However when we arrived there the skyrail was closed until further notice. Regrettably we had to take bus number 23 which was basically a bus ride which was over an hour long that looped around in the mountains. The view was nice though.

There's a monastery at the base of the Buddha. It's actually really big and it looks as if it is praying towards the mountains. Surrounding the Buddha are 6 minor deities praising him. The Buddha itself isn't very old, I think it is less than a century old but I'm not sure about that. The ride back was terrible though, the bus driver didn't turn on the A/C so the entire bus was sweaty and gasping for air by the end of the ride. In fact it was less humid and hot outside of the bus than inside. We felt like it was as if we walked into an airconditioned room when we stepped out of the bus. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.

We did other stuff too that I would like to write about but the internet is only half working so I think I'll call it a day at that. And then once we get to Taiwan tomorrow I can expect to have direct broadband access at which point I can add massive amounts of pictures.

-Andy

This post is from the night before the last post.

Shanghai is really a spectacular city to see at night. All of the buildings light up at night casting a colorful glow into the streets. Earlier yesterday I thought there were actually less touristy non-Asian people in Shanghai - I was wrong. We wandered through ritzy yet crowded shopping centers like Huaihai Rd. also known as the Old French Concession. A lot of the buildings there are built in a Parisian style, giving an odd contrast to the older buildings to the nothern and southern slums. There is always a skyscrapery skyline no matter what part of the city you are in.

We made our way to the Bund at night - which is the area of Shanghai that borders the Huangpu River by the left. By day the river is a murky brownish yellow but by night its a rainbow of colors reflected off of the new Pudong developement on the right side of the Huangpu River. Pudong represents the new coming of Shanghai, the city's hope of shaking off its dark nickname: "The Whore of the Orient" this name was derived during the Opium War, referring to the high prevalence of brothels, opium dens and related activities during the period. Ironically while we were walking down Nanjing Road - another shoppy road - there was one hawker who offered to sell me a "beautiful Chinese girl", at least I think that's what he said. Don't worry, I refused. They normally just offer to sell you a Rolex.

On the left side of the Bund remains the old European style buildings largely built by the Jewish American buisinessman Victor Sassoon, a statue of him stands in the Bund, but to the casual eye he looks a lot like Mao.

On the Right side stand modern buildings such as the Jing Mao Tower (which holds the title of the 5th tallest tower in the world and also claims that its Cloud 9 Bar is the highest bar in the world). But perhaps the most iconic image is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, a building that is truly one of its kind, you'll find pictures on the blog when I'm done with this.

There also seems to be a lot of Shrines to the City Martyrs, a spire that seems like it could come out of an alien planet. Reclining on a stone slab next to the Shrine seems pretty surreal with a seemingly ancient spire being loomed over by the totally futuristic Pearl Tower.

There are so many skycrapers overlooking the bund which seem to have TV screens for their walls - in other words there is a screen spanning the entire side of the building. They use these as billboards for advertisements and from time to time they show birds and Pandas flying around on them. Why? Because they can.

I finally got through the great firewall of China again

When I say today, I really mean yesterday.

Today we woke up pretty late, around 10ish, and received the plane tickets from Alex Vai’s mom who by sheer chance we ran into in a back alley in Shanghai.*

On the way out we passed a fruit vendor which was one of the few stores that happened to have pomelos in stock. A pomelo is a citrus fruit that can best be described as a mix between a grapefruit and an orange. It’s not nearly as bitter as a grapefruit but retains the zing of the orange. Our particular pomelo was greenish yellow – they normally have a yellowish rind. This is because the riping season for pomelos are typically after late summer. Nevertheless they are delicious.

Pomelo

Will also (foolishly) chose to buy a durian. Durians smell bad. I can best describe it as a stinking trash receptacle filled with rotting fruit with perhaps even a soggy leather boot topping the heap. They look spiky, hard, and dangerous from the outside but are yellowy and mushy on the inside. I decided not to eat any but the other three decided to delve further into the world of exotic fruits. The result, “it tastes like mashed potatoes and rotting flesh.” It looked gross enough from the outside. It’s a big fruit and they ate less than a quarter of it. It just wasn’t palatable. But it was rather humorous to watch Will dispose of it since the entire fruit was too big to be placed into the opening of the trash can. So he had to cut it into bits, much to the amazement of the rest of us and some other Shanghainese pedestrians.

Then we proceeded to walk around the city after realizing that we severely lacking in the fashionable aspect of life. We went to go shop for clothes in other words. Shanghai is superior to Hong Kong in the sense that it isn’t nearly as expensive, and it has a respectable selection to choose from.

We ate at a real restaurant this time, it was called Hangzhou Restaurant, we ordered a couple regional specialties, but I was a bit bummed when I learned that they were out of a particular dish that I was excited to order, mainly because it was one of the dishes on the menu that I actually knew how to order. Lunch was pretty good, and we left the restaurant satisfied and full.

On the way to dinner we passed another store that had some interesting shirts in them. I started smalltalking with the owner – a nice pleasant lady because I thought there was a chance that she would give us better deals. The prices were very reasonable to begin with anyways. She asked if we were foreign students studying at a local university (apparently there are a lot of those) and I said no, we were just Americans visiting the city. And then she asked me if I was born in China, and I said no, I was born in the states. And this is where I began lying. I told her that my mom was from Shanghai (in reality one of my grandmothers is from Shanghai). And then she started speaking in Shanghainese; I can only understand Mandarin. So I told her that I only understood Mandarin.

Speaking of Americans, the hawkers who plague the popular tourist attractions are unbelievably friendly. Sure they badger you into buying their fake Rolex watches or knockoff Prada handbags, but boy to they treat you like royalty if you tell them that you’re American. They will give you a thumbs up and say something like “I love Americans” That way you can walk off happy that they’ll give you a break, and both of you can walk off with a warm friendly feeling inside.

The way that hawkers great you is great, they spot you coming from 500 meters away, magically through a sea of people. Its almost as if they spot a long lost friend and they look you in the eye, might even point at you and say, “Hey friend, buy DVD, Rolex, shoes, watch?” Now there are a bunch of ways to try to shake them off and I’ll only offer two to you. One is that you ask them to sell you a bike. Who wouldn’t want something as practical as a bike in a big city like Shanghai.

Stacy, a fake name we made up for a hawker.

They’re pretty easy to store and get you around faster than walking. If you ever manage to get them to sell you a bike then hats off to you. Its really a win win situation. They sell you a product and you walk (or bike) off with something that might actually make your stay in Shanghai better. We tried to get them to sell us bikes but I don’t think they understood. The other way to get rid of hawkers is to buy dark sunglasses and a cane which are ridiculously easy to find in the roadside bazaars where hawkers lurk. You can just pretend to be blind, impervious to the things that the hawkers try to sell you. A foreign blind guy, preferably Italian, would be perfect, not knowing what they are saying in broken English nor being able to see what they have to offer.

We also went to the Pudong new area, travelling through the Shanghai MeTroRail, a freakishly clean subway system. The highlight there was definitely the observation deck on the Jingmao tower, the 5th tallest building in the world. In our travels we will also see the 1st tallest building in the world (the Taipei 101) and 2 other really tall buildings in Hong Kong.

The view from the top, I'd like to add more but it takes too long to upload.

-Andy

*just kidding, we arranged the meeting

A half update, since I finally got Blogger to work and there are no pictures

If I had to guess, blogger.com has been entirely censored. It's really hard to get through via anonymouse.org but actually now that I've masterred the art of beating the Chinese censors I think I somehow got it to work.

Anyways we boarded a night train last night from Beijing after we visited the Forbidden City and we were quickly enroute to Shanghai. I miscalculated how quickly we would arrive at the train station due to the MASSIVE amount of traffic. The traffic lights sometimes take upwards of 5 minutes to change from red to green. And they only stay green for half a minute. We arrived at the station with about 45 minutes to spare but we still had to fight our way through a mob that makes Yawkey Way look empty during a Yankees Game. I wish I could upload some pictures but the internet cafe I'm sitting in at this moment has all its USB ports blocked off. There's only 1 computer at our hostel and there's been a Spanish lady there all day.

But besides that we boarded the train safely with 20 minutes to go after we miraculously made it through the crowd. The train was pretty cozy, if by chance the computer frees up tonight I'll add a couple photos to the blog. Some of us were baffled by the concept of taking a dump what appeared to be a metal pan in the bathroom of the moving train. The metal pan is actually a squat toilet that empties out of the bottom of the train. Its actually healthier for the GI tract since all the intestines and such are aligned. There was actually also a toilet.

Driving towards the Bund (riverfront) in Shanghai is quite an experience with all the tall buildings rising up in the fog while upscured by fog. When I'm finished writing this we'll head out to the Yuyuan bazaar and get some food. Later we'll head over to the Shanghai Pedestrian Tunnel which will look like something you would expect from an acid trip, without actually ingesting it of course. Shanghai is as modern as it gets in the mainland, there really are skyscrapers everywhere. The taxi drivers are considerably more friendly, but I can't say that for sure since I've only taken one taxi here so far.

I'll see if I can contact Alex Vai's mom tonight since she is in possession of our plane tickets. I'll also try to write another e-mail later tonight if I can make use of our computer, or at the very least update the blog. I'm looking forward to exploring the "Paris of the Orient" although it still has a dark hue to its reputation, which I may or may not discuss later on. I expect to pick up a lot of antiques here and perhaps even might buy a couple gifts.

My mastery of the Chinese language is improving every day.

I'll try to add pictures of the Summer Palace and Forbidden City later tonight, which will be your late morning or noon. But let me reiterate that that is not a promise. Also, this is a message to Nick Grasso (rocky): Go back to Italy

-Andy

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-Andy

Welcome to Beijing

We arrived in Beijing - Pudong International airport at around 2:25 and after clearing customs we were picked up by a trusty looking guy, who I assume to be the hostel owner in a VW. We proceeded to drive straight towards the hostel. Beijing drivers are a bit on the aggressive side and tend to make heavy use of the horn. And you can expect them to attempt to pass the car in front of them at least 2 times a minute. A lot of Beijing is under construction in preperation for the Olympics and it is really amazing how much the city grows every day. There are rows upon rows of planted bushes lining the highway. And aparently city planning has made no subtle efforts to flaunt everybody with signs of famous Chinese athletes and people giving a thumbs up on the hundreds of 2008 Beijing Olympic signs.

A view from the doorstep of our hostel. This picture serves no justice of the liveliness of the area.

Our hostel is located in the Hutong area, which is a very traditional neighborhood setting. The streets there are pretty narrow compared to the other parts of Beijing and are paved with tile. All the buildings are at least 200 years old and it seems like a very friendly area. Its not that close to the main road so the sounds of traffic will not agitate. I've found that Hutong is a kind of place that really comes alive at night. There are a lot of foreigners of all ages here who eat at the various restaurants and bars that line the street

Right after we got here we went to the grocery store to shop for water and other various snacks. The food here is surprisingly cheap. A half liter, or a poland spring sized water bottle costs only .60 RMB, which is literally about 6 cents. An iPod shuffle goes for about 25 US dollars, a third of the cost back in the states. We got at least 6 bags worth of drinks and food for around 20 US dollars.

We've all been eating well and getting food is definitely not a problem. I've found out that Ben Will and Jesse havea low tolerance for spicy food. The first night we had dinner at a Szechuan resteraunt that was capped with a live performance by what can be best described as a firebreathing kung fu magic artist, seriously.

The performer. He somehow is abled to change the mask on his face without us noticing.

The hike can get really steep at points and sometimes, when the tiling is flat and not stepped it can feel somewhat like a slide. It's very tiring.

There's a lot of walking involved in Beijing. And today (June 13) we went to the Simatai section of the Great Wall. Its remarkably in good condition and all day starting from about 10:30 to 2:15, we hiked up a winding 9 kilometers. Its basically just a really old and really long stairmaster circuit, once again you can find pictures on the blog. Simatai is less crowded than the more popular Badaling section and that has its pros and cons. For starters there are less tourists, so the hawker to tourist ratio is much higher that means they have more time to bug you into buying a t-shirt or a picture book. I mean honestly, who would buy a picture book about a place we are at, especially if we're taking pictures right in front of them? The best way is to shake your head and say no.

the suspension bridge over the river

At the end of the hike there's a paraglide station where you can zip over the river. None of us were brave enough to do it.

The car ride back was about 3 hours long and we passed by a lot of farm land and rural houses. There are a lot of wild dogs running around. It really feels like the countryside. It's located outside of the Beijing municipality so technically we were in Hebei, a Chinese province. From time to time we'll see flocks of sheep walking around the forest. We'll also see a bunch of cattle in a truck. I have a complaint about Beijing and that is that there is a constant smog in the skyline. This is because of the massive amounts of air polution coupled with the seasonal dust storms. Air humidity doesn't help either. You will never actually be able to see the sun because the smog is so heavy. However the smog adds as a filter and allows for a relatively even backlighting.

After we got back at around 6:00 we went for a walk. Originally we thought that we would just get a bunch of meat skewered on a stick, roasted over a flame of course. Its pretty cool how they do it. There is just a hole in the wall where they light a fire and then stick the meat over the gril.Then we thought we would go for some fabled Peking Duck. Parts of Beijing certainly feels third-world but somehow we wound up at Wangfujin, an shopping area full of neon lights and modern looking signs.

Wangfujin, and its only just starting to crowd.

Inside the shopping center where we ate.

We wound up eating at a Sushi bar, where they place sushi on a conveyer belt and you can just pick at your leisure as the sushi swings around before your eyes (Will has pictures but he went to sleep). Originally we only went inside the shopping center where it was located because we wanted to go to bathrooms which had toilet paper. But then we were enticed by the conveyer belt. It took about 50 minutes to walk to there and on the way we walked around the Forbidden City by mistake you can see the Forbidden City pictures later, when we actually go inside it. It takes a lot longer than it looks. We took a taxi back to the hostel where I conversed with the driver in Mandarin. The language barrier is there, but its easily crossable even if you don't speak the language.

The internet here is pretty slow and its a pain to upload pictures. Hopefully Shanghai's internet will be faster.

The ride there

This is a saved document and I wrote this on the plane

Sitting on a plane for 13 hours can be pretty tiring. There's obviously a constant noise in the background that makes it almost impossible to sleep. Apparently Jesse has a high aptitude for sleeping on airplanes seeing that he somehow managed to immediately fall asleep after boarding.
I'm currently on the plane typing this in Notepad, since there obviously isn't any internet 11125 meters above the ground. Actually I'm going to expand that statement and say that there probably isn't any internet above the North Pole, which we are currently flying over, or rather just flew over for that matter. The time in Boston is 8:30 pm according to my watch, and remember that they are 12 hours behind in Beijing.

By the looks of it it looks like its pretty cold outside. The information display screen claims that theground temperature is -52 degrees Celsius. Yeah, it's completely white outside, save for the rare black spots dimpled on the mountains. But that was back when we were flying over Greenland, therearen't any mountains in the North Pole. Also there are cracks in the ice. Other than that its just an endless field of ice.

Siberia from the plane

We expect to see real land well before 10:00 pm EST. By now the monitor claims that to the west of uslies some kind of island off the coast of Northern Russia (note: in mother Russia, land gets glimpsesof you). And the plane is closing in on the northerncoast. After that we expect to get glimpses of "Mother Russia" and later on, hopefully the Mongolian desert. I'm guessing we won't fly over Ulaan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia. Last time I flew overMongolia all i saw was desert. And the occassional "settlement" that was basically just a dimple.

I'm not sure why I'm writing about the plane ride since this entry won't be posted until well after wearrive, and when all of you readers are long snugged into bed.

Once we land we plan on going straight to the hostel, Downtown Backpackers in case you forgot. Shortly afterwards we'll make a trip to the convenience store and buy a couple ammenities etc.Probably take a shower, and then meet with our super secret contact - aka my cousin. She'll fork over our train tickets in exchange for massive tributes and blood sacrifices. Then we'll go eat.

10:40 am BST (Beijing Standard Time) - Will just threw up. And now he's sleeping. Russia looked cold looked the same as the North Pole. Until we started flying over the mad crazy rivers.
Now the ground has thawed and we'll be heading into Mongolia within a couple hours.

Tiny preview of what is to come

I consider myself reasonably techno-savy and therefore I am proud that I have just downloaded a bunch of black and white city and subway maps of the cities we will be visiting.

First on the list is Beijing, the cultural capital of China. I predict that it will be very hot and humid once we land and it will probably take a moment to adjust to the climate. I recall the last time that I was there, the place was pretty crowded but clean nonetheless.

See? It's just a normal airport, just with a lot more Asians.

We'll see too many sites to name in Beijing and I don't want to spoil anything at this point. So I'll just move onto the next city. We proceed to Shanghai afterwards on board a sleeper train. Expect a ride filled with long deep conversations about life.

I don't feel like writing anything else except that we're also going to Hong Kong and Taiwan. You'll have to wait.

A little (somewhat pointless) statement of purpose

This "blog" if I may call it that serves a couple functions. The first of which is to ensure the readers that we are still alive. That being said I will try to update this page as frequently as possible; I can't promise to release a new post every day since it is entirely possible that I won't be at a computer religiously. So if you notice that this page hasn't been updated at the same time every day, it doesn't necessarily mean that we have been captured by a heavily armed group of rogue agents. Rather that scenario will only be a mere possibility at the least.

We'll add pictures to the bunch, provided that we have a memory card reader. And we'll also write feedback and cheesy comments etc.