Shanghai and Nanjing

Sorry for not updating this more often, I have so mush to say that I don't even know where to start. I'll try to pick up where I left off in Shanghai.

After we went to the old tourist part of Shanghai (which was just one tourist shop after another trying to sell you crap) we walked along the river until we came to the "Bund sightseeing Tunnel". Basically it's a tunnel under the river to the Central Business District, aka The Bund, that is incredibly tacky. It's all lit up and you ride in these little cars and crazy music plays while lights flash. We rode that to the other side of the river and then went up in the Pearl TV tower. I think the Pearl TV tower is just a fancy tv tower that they added tourist attractions to to make money. There's a roller coaster and revolving restaurant in it. The tower it self is pretty cool looking and from the observation level you get nice views over the city. Unfortunately while we were there it was raining so the clouds made it hard to see very far. After the tower we went back to our hotel and I think I fell asleep (on a rock hard bed) immediately.

The next day we took a taxi to the train station and took the train to Nanjing. We didn''t know that we had reserved seats (since we can't read the ticket) but we figured it out eventually. We were some of the last people to get on the train and we got on near the back end of the train. After awhile of looking for open seat (there were none) someone explained the tickets to us. THe train hadn't left yet so we jumped out and ran as fast as we possibly could (we were all carrying our back packs) until we reached the 2nd car. We made it with about a minute to spare and then the train left. Their trains are super modern and comfortable. The ride from Shanghai to Nanjing is 2 hours and it was eye opening. Every square inch of land was farmed/gardened. There were piles of trash (huge-months? years? worth of accumulation) and people just live in shacks or building with no windows left. They just hang a sheet. It's winter here and very wet. Kar and I agreed that it looked like there had just been a war. There were also piles of rubble, mostly brick and concrete everywhere too. We also passed a lot of nuclear plants and to add to the eerie-ness it was so dark out at 2pm that it felt like the sun was down. Imagine the darkest mid-day thunderstorm you have ever been in. It was so creepy!

Once we got to Nanjing Kar realized that she lost her train ticket and they won't let you leave the station with out one. After about a 1/2 an hour or more of her trying to use a translation book to tell the guard what happened she just bought another ticket. While she was doing that I went to the ticket window to bug our night train tickets to Beijing. I asked the lady if she spoke English. She said some thing that was not English and nodded her head. I said "Beijing" and she made a motion to look like she was sleeping. I nodded (Yes, we wanted a sleeper car) and I wrote the date, in the chinese format)on a piece of paper and gave it to her. She still gave me tickets for the wrong day day and as I tried to explain the date people just kept crowding closer and closer. I could barely move my arms. I was getting very frustrated but apparently someone standing on top of me understood the problem and several people must have said "26" because she then showed me a calendar and pointed to the correct date. In the end we got what we needed.

We spent the remainder of that day in our hotel becuase it was pouring rain. We ate really good food in our hotel's restaurant and that was about it. I had black pepper beef.

The next day we split up (Me & Alex and Kar & Erica (her Cousin)) because Kar and Erica had to pick up Erica's little brother at the airport. He's doing an exchange and was in Vladivostok, Russia. Alex and I went to the Confucian temple and then we went to the Nanjing Library because it looked cool. We didn't do anything too exciting. Although, I did buy some souvenirs and I hate haggling over the price. It gets old very quickly. After that Alex and I had an hour to kill before we had to meet the other three so we decided to visit the hair salon near our hotel. We both needed hair cuts. It was a very cool experience. I take it they don't vut American hair very often. We came in and I asked "English?". The receptionist ran to get someone and he spoke broken English, but enough to get by. I asked the price and it would be 60rmb each, which is about $7.50 USD. I don't know if they always do walk ins or if we screwed up other people's appointments (there didn't appear to be anyone waiting) but they got to work on us immediately. A young girl washed my hair twice and then conditioned it. It took about 10 minutes. Another guy cut it while the only person who spoke English tried to figure out what we wanted. I just wanted a trim and so did Alex. Two people combed out my hair while about 5 others watched. Someone brought me black tea (which I like) and I was drinking it when my hairdresser took it away form me, looked at it, and then said something to someone and a girl came out with coffee and took away the tea. The haircut took over an hour but I really like it. They loved Alex's so much that they took a picture with him with their camera. Alex's looks really nice when he doesn't do anything to it but it was cut so he can put it in a fo-hawk and that's exactly what they did. There was so much gel and hairspray in his hair he slept on it and it still held.

That night for dinner the 5 of us went to a place where you order a soup base and then whatever kind of meat you want to cook in it. You also get a dipping a sauce. There was a lot of confusion over how to order but it worked out in the end. The food was pretty good too. I had a curry base with chicken and sesame dipping sauce.

The next day we all took a cab to the Olympic stadium in Nnanjing. We don't know what relation it has or had to the real olympics but it looked cool. It was pretty cold out so we didn't spend much time there. We also looked for Jinao Tower but couldn't find it. It's listed ona map so we went to that place but saw nothing resembling it. We then went back to the area of our hotel to find lunch. After lunch we tried to go to a few temples but it as about 5:00 so things were closing. We had to kill time until our trian left at 11:30 pm and we had checked out of the hotel (but they were holding our luggage). We found a coffee shop and avoided the rain there for about an hour and then decided to go back down to the confucian temple to see it all lit up at night. I shopped for souvenirs (I don't have any room left in my back pack) and we took a lot off pictures. Then Alex and I went off in search of food and wound up eating at a fancy restaurant and were very under dressed. I had these amazing fried potatoes (I took notes so I could try to make them at home) and Alex had hot and sour soup. It's becoming clear that we don't know how to order because they serve everything in the middle of the table and it's in huge portions. The food was still really cheap.

OUr night train was exactly what I expected. It was pretty much the same as when James and I took a night train in Poland. We arrived in Beijing yesterday morning. THey let us check into our hotel at 8am so we napped and then went exploring. Alex and I ate at a restaurant near our hotel and it was amazing but again, we ordered way too much. We both ordered different kinds of chicken and both were good. But they made us order more so he got dumplings (which were amazing) and i got buckwheat noodles and fry sauce. We just wanted but the chicken I guess you have to order sides as well. We then went to Tian'anamen Square and the Forbidden city. It was beautiful but annoying. You couldn't go 20 feet without someone coming up to you and asking if you need a guide. I tried saying in french that I didn't speak English and sure enough, the girl I tried that on spoke french as well. Ike, Kar's other cousin, tried Russian on a guy and he spoke that as well. One we were actually in the forbidden city it was better. I took a lot of pictures but none will ever do justice because the place is just huge! The painting and lacquer work is amazingly detailed and beautiful!

After that we went to dinner as a group and I got some kind of beef with green peppers, onions and garlic. It was really good. Alex's sweet and sour pork was really good too. I could have had bullfrog, brains, preserved intestine, pigeon, sea cucumber, etc. I'm not quite adventurous enough to try most of the things they have on the menu.

Today we're going to go see the Olympic stuff if the kids ever get out of bed. It's 9:40 and they're still sleeping. I get really annoyed about how much time we waste but I don't think my feet could handle a full day of walking anyway. Tomorrow we have a tour scheduled for the Great Wall and Ming's Tombs. In the evening we're going to a concert at the National center for performing arts.

I'll try to keep this more updated if I can. It's one of the advantages of getting up early, I can use the computer.