Due to no internet and laws against getting on certain websites in China (They can’t get on Youtube or Facebook!), this post below was done a couple of days ago-Monday morning.
It’s 5:30 in the morning, I am awake, and I am in China! The last two days have been extremely intense and eventful, in which case I’ll try not to make this journal too long. These first two blogs will probably be a little lengthy, because there is so much to talk about. I learn how to get them shorter at some point.
The plane ride was quite the trip. We flew out of Greenville to Chicago in an airplane with only three rows. While the flight was about an hour and fifty minutes, it passed by in what seemed like thirty minutes. Before landing in Chicago, I was able to see Lake Michigan, which I originally thought was some type of ocean from above. I never really realized how big this lake is or why I hear so much about it, but now I know; it is massive!
The ride from Chicago to Shanghai was a little different than I expected. Firstly, the plane was absolutely huge. The plane was Two-by-Five-by-Two for the seats, and by far the most powerful thing that I have ever heard or experienced. This plane was no joke. On the ride over there, we went almost completely north for a couple of hours. We flew clear over Alaska and were in the Arctic for quite a while. Whenever I looked out of my window, I saw thick layers of Ice with these huge cracks in it. For most of the ride, we flew over completely barren land. I should have been sleeping during this time, but I wasn’t. For the entire ride I didn’t sleep. I watched two movies (hangover twice!), two shows, read and outlined about 50 pages of work on Chinese business, read the bible, ate great food, drank some nice wine, and just chatted with the guy next to me. I had a window seat. It was a great time. Oh, and I never did get to see the sun go down until last night.
Upon arriving in Shanghai, we hopped on a tour bus for a little tour on the way to our hotel. The Chinese drivers are fearless! Everywhere we went, there were cars cutting off other cars, not using blinkers ever, and using their horns always. Just to give you an idea of how much they use their horns, I woke up at 2 in the morning last night to what sounded like rush hour traffic outside my window. Ha, I’ll explain more about their driving later.
The entire ride to the hotel, there were houses upon houses, apartment complexes upon apartment complexes, and basically buildings upon buildings. Everywhere I look there is a building. It is extremely clear that this is the most populous place on Earth. We then arrived at the hotel, went to exchange some money, and then went out to dinner.
On the drive to dinner, I was blown away. The amount of bicyclers on the streets and people on little mopeds is ridiculous. The most mind blowing thing about it is, they are completely fearless! They do not watch were they are going! I have seen what seems like bicyclers almost get hit, and that doesn’t include the walkers. They are just as fearless. They will walk across the street and seem like they don’t even look! It has to be experienced. I just can’t explain how many people that I feel like should have been hit. We were in this huge tour bus, driving down -little ally-ways and people would just cut in front of the bus like it was a bike. It is seriously unreal how fearless they are. It seems like there would be millions of wrecks a day.
Dinner was amazing. I had my first taste of legit Chinese food and loved it. The restaurant we were in had Lazy Susan’s at the table, which was a great upgrade. We had about 10-12 different food items at our table, so we stayed pretty busy spinning the wheel. We had the privilege of eating in this private room and having private dancers come in and show us how to get down. It was interesting. In the big restaurant lobby, which holds about 200 people, dancers were up on stage eloquently dancing and getting down with the Chinese music.
Last night was probably the most interesting thing thus far in China. We went out to go see the unbelievable popular skyline and walk amongst the mind-blowingly populous city. Firstly, the skyline is beautiful. Shanghai seems to love neon lights, so everywhere in this town things are lit up in vibrant colors. It gives this place a feel of intelligence and intricacy. It’s quite amazing to look at. What is even more amazing is the amount of people that were out on this boardwalk taking pictures of the skyline. The boardwalk must be a couple of miles long with wall to wall people taking pictures and hanging out. The city is poppin’ here on Sunday night! After walking along the boardwalk, we went a little deeper into the city. This was my favorite part of the night.
I’m sure you have been to some type of tourist attraction before, where you stick out a little and therefore get offered all of these items by street vendors? If not, Imagine random people coming up to you and trying to get you to buy things, and then multiply it by about 100. I’d say we had around 100 people try and get us to by their items last night. My friend Michael explains it well- “they are relentless!” That is exactly what they are. They take selling to a whole new level. They will do anything to get you into their store or to buy their little clip-on rollerblades. We walked for about 2 miles on this street. We stuck out like a sore thumb, despite us being completely surrounded by people. They still spotted us.
One thing China does well is counterfeit our American items. One guy came up to us and was trying to get us to buy some items, so we decided to follow him (this was the second guy we followed. We know when to back out if it is getting sketchy). We walked into this store with a bunch of Buddha artwork, and then went upstairs in the back of the store. He walked up the steps and said “follow me”. I started to leave because I didn’t know what was up there, and then about five girls came down from up stairs and spoke English to me and made us feel comfortable. So, we went up there and it was like a completely different store than the one below! So much nicer, and completely decked out with knock off purses, clothes, watches, DVD’s, and some other things. Michael bargained for two knock-off polos. This place is really interesting.
I left a bunch of cool things out, which I must do because I have too much to say. One more thing, we went on a journey with some guy last night to try and find beer. He first took us to his shop, then brought us by some sex club, and then finally understood that we wanted beer ha. It was 50 cents for a pint! We also met this cool girl from Holland that is traveling alone right now all through Asia. We are trying to get together today. It’s hard without a phone or internet connection.
Anyways, Shanghai is unique to say the least. It seems as if it is another planet and we are dealing with a completely different animal. Not many know English here, which makes it hard to hold a conversation, but it sure is fun! We just laugh and know that we don’t speak the same language. A laugh or smile is something that we all can communicate with. China is Amazing.
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