All in all, China was pretty amazing. But that seems rather cliché, doesn't it? What else would you expect, really? That's like saying "living in Barcelona is amazing!". Claro - of course it is. But what's it really like?
I suppose I'll first mention that China was really a shock for me. I remember the first time E & I went to a non-English speaking country (Mexico - and not all that long ago!) and we had some serious culture shock. The culture shock was obviously a shock by definition, but also heightened because I thought I was pretty open & thought I would somehow be immune to culture shock. Since then, we've traveled more and have even moved to another country where we know very little of the language. Sure, it helps tremendously that ESADE is taught in English, but you know what I'm saying. Anyways, China was leaps and bounds beyond either of those two events (visiting Mexico or moving to Spain). I was with 41 other people that spoke English (38 other students, 2 faculty members, and one partner) and I felt very lucky to have this buffer against lonliness. I realize that being surrounded by so many English speakers detracts a bit from the whole Chinese experience, but on the other hand, I was on a school-organized trip, so there would be an inherent amount of distortion anyway. In China, (be prepared, I'm about to state the obvious), not only was the culture different, but the people look completely different, the language is pretty darn indecipherable, and the only two words I learned to recognize in the scripted language were "entrance" and "exit". I never even learned "bathroom". I did learn how to say "hi" and "thank you". (everyone says "bye bye", so that was a given). Other than the immense differences, there was also the Communist Party of China (CPC) perspective. We had several lectures that were sponsored and/or organized by ESADE. In Beijing, ESADE partnered with Peking University and in Shanghai they partnered with a tour group. Often I felt like I was getting the 1/2 of the story that the CPC wanted me to hear and not always the real McCoy. For example, we were told that a factory had a turnover rate of employees of ~5% and we were also told that the average age was 18-20. Now you tell me - how is that possible? There were moments of clarity, certainly, and I do believe that at least 1/2 of what I was told was true, but there was always a feeling of distrust. That may just be the bias of me and all other western visitors, but there you have it.
As far as Chinese food, it was suprisingly similar to Seattle, actually. I dislike Chinese food by and large, and this trip confirmed it. Everything is fried! Everything! (or at least has substantial amounts of oil in it) I tried pigeon and some unidentifiable seafood, but that was as crazy as it got for me. I was one of the lucky ones and didn't get Montezuma's revenge, so no regrets. Okay, okay I do regret those two meltdown situations that led me to McDonald's (true story) and Pizza Hut on 2 separate occasions. Que lástima.
As far as cities, Beijing was rich with culture and history with pockets of neat stuff all over. One of my favorites included the Hutong - a "neighborhood" of one- and two-story stone houses with no space in between them that run along alleys. The alleys can be as narrow as 3 feet and as wide as two cars (never wider). There are lots of markets along the streets/alleys with a growing mix of becoming touristy and yet still housing very poor people. We saw lots of "real people" there. :) Beijing also has the Forbidden City, of course, but I preferred the Summer Palace. On my list of things to do since I've returned is seeing the movie "The Last Emperor". I've been told this is pretty realistic and maybe the Forbidden City will hold more meaning after I've seen the movie. As far as just visiting, it feels like a big ol' complex of buildings that all look the same. I feel like such a westerner saying that - as though I must not be understanding something. I mean, it's the Forbidden City, right? I remind myself of the woman E and I overheard when we were visiting the Grand Canyon when she got out of her car, said "yep, it's a big hole" and then got back into her car, ready to leave. Just outside the Forbidden City is a wonderful park called Jingshan Park. If you climb to the highest pagoda, you really have a stunning view of the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square and get a much better grasp of just how big and amazing the Forbidden City is. We also had great tea there. :) The Temple of Heaven is near the Forbidden City and is also a nice city park. It took me a while, but I finally realized that the local Chinese either get a serious discount on the parks that tourist pay for (e.g., Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Jingshan, etc.) and/or it's free for them. Smart taxing system. I'd say the only drawback to Beijing is that it's just so spread out. Luckily, cabs are cheap, so it's easy to get around. One person tried the subway, but my feeling is that if I'm only going to be in a city for a few days and the cabs are cheap, I'd rather get around by cab and see the city while I get around than be inside an underground transportation system.
Outside of Beijing, we got to see the Great Wall at Badaling. Wow. The Great Wall is truly stunning, and even more impressive if you can get away from some of the crowds. After "walking" to the top of one of the gates, I realized why they have t-shirts that say "I climbed the Great Wall". I didn't realize it traversed the hills like it did and it's a lot like hiking up a mountain (except on stone, of course...).
Shanghai is much more westernized, and therefore somewhat more comfortable, yet also more sterile. Shanghai felt very rushed on the school trip, but the highlights included a trip to Zhujiajiao, a "watertown" on the outskirts of Shanghai. Apparently there are several watertowns on the outskirts of Shanghai. A watertown is simply a town built along a system of streams and/or canals. Zhujiajiao was pretty unknown for a long time, but they've recently opened the doors up to tourism and now charge an admission fee to tour the villiage. We took a short boat ride along their small rivers in small boats that seat about 6 and are powered by the man on the back of the boat rowing. The town was quite quaint with its bridges and small houses. Of course there was a market street with lots of tourist-peddling wares, but the salespeople weren't *nearly* as aggressive as the salespeople in the Pearl Market in Beijing. Other highlights included visiting the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, having a glass of wine on the 85th floor of the Hyatt, touring a GM assembly plant (automated assembly lines, while taking jobs, are cool to see in action!), visiting the Yu Yuan Garden (though getting there through the Temple Market almost doesn't make it worth it - too noisy/touristy), and a wicked cool Japanese restaurant named People's 7. A friend of a classmate's used to live in Shanghai and recommended this restaurant. When we arrived, by cab, of course, we were surprised to find a small hallway open to the street where the door should have been. At the end of the hallway were some steps and 9 round lights in the pattern of a telephone keypad. Very nice, but where's the door?? After much prying, we managed to slide open a door on the right, only to find a sign that said "Gotcha!". We cleverly deduced that the door must be on our left (since the lights in front of us made it highly unlikely that the door was behind the lights), but we just had no idea how to get in. We had a secret code of "64", but had no idea what to do with it. As luck would have it, someone came out of the secret door on the left and we happily entered. Only upon exiting did we discover that if you put your hand in the left-most middle light, the door slid open. How cool is that?!
If Shanghai is more western than Beijing, Hong Kong may as well still be a British province with some Asian influence. The land around HK was really beautiful and reminded me of Hawai'i since HK (an island) and some of the surrounding islands are rolly-polly green. For those of you not familiar with Hong Kong, here's a quick map:
There are pockets of goodness in HK, including Victoria Garden, the best organic restaurant in China where I got one of the best peanut butter & banana smoothies I can remember, and scattered Buddhist stuff. Disneyland is just outside HK proper (a short train ride away, on Lantau island and en route to where I went), so there's that, too. (yuk) I visited the tallest outdoor copper Buddha in the world and the nearby monastery and at their yummy vegetarian lunch. I also visited a little villiage on Lantau called Tai-O that claims to be "the Venice of China", though I think that's not very accurate... They did have houses on stilts, but that was the only real comparison I could find. Granted, I've never been to Venice, so maybe I'll change my mind one day if I make to Venice. All in all, I enjoyed Hong Kong for its ability to allow me to be comfortable as an English speaker and westerner and to still maintain some really neat cultural and historical aspects.
Some overall activity highlights:
- Visiting the Huiling Community Service Center for Mentally Disabled in Beijing (school-sponsored event). Something you wouldn't normally see on a tourist trip and pretty interesting. Apparently the CPC doesn't really support the center very much and so they rely a lot on donations and charging parents for assisting their kids (which can be 30 years old).
- Bike tour of Hutong
- Tea at Jingshan Park and seeing the Forbidden City from an overlook
- Tai-chi exercises as demonstrated by one of the top tai-chi and kung fu experts in China (a woman, btw)
- Great Wall
- Going out for a middle-eastern-yet-still-Chinese dinner at a restaurant in Beijing where, after a certain time (11pm?) they turn the lights down real low, turn on the disco ball, and everyone's encouraged to dance on the tables. And, you know, when in Rome...
- Zhujiajiao watertown outside Shanghai
- Big Buddha and monastery
- Peanut butter and banana smoothie
- Going home and realizing that "going home" was going to Barcelona and knowing that China helped make Barcelona homier