travel by train

True to the title of my blog, I am now officially a China traveller.

I left my two-month home in Beijing on the 11th of August, backpack strapped on and ready to go. Along with our good friend and my roommate Xizi, John Speed and I boarded a bus to downtown Beijing, beginning the first leg of our journey south to Shanghai.

After a week of finding anything we could to occupy our time at Yuxiang Gardens, yet still under China Care's contract, I was ready to say goodbye to the children and staff I'd spent my seven weeks with and move along. Thus, leaving wasn't as hard on my heart as I thought it would be. Especially since I'll be on my way back to China Care to pick up a suitcase and say a final goodbye to my dear Beijing on August 26th.

Shanghai welcomed us in a wave of unbelievable heavy heat and crowds like I've never seen before. After our first real experience on a Chinese train with three lovely women as cabinmates, we arrived at the Shanghai station late the next morning. Starving, we managed to push our way onto a subway car (with our massive packs) amidst anxious travellers convinced they could all fit on the harder they shoved. I think I saw a little boy get stepped on. What an introduction to a city so teeming with people! We made it to our hostel right on the Bund, Shanghai's famous old port and checked in. Our roommates from England gave us a warm hello and we became fast friends, exchanging travel stories over dinner that night. Shanghai is so huge and overwhelming that 4 days is barely enough time to scratch the surface. On that note, I feel like my opinion of it is far from well-rounded, and would love to give it another chance one day. We took a night cruise on the Bund to see the buildings across the river light up the sky, toured Sun Yat-Sen's former residence, and visited the French Concession (all that remains with any hint of French is the architecture and a few French-named restaurants).

John Speed and I parted ways on Friday when he headed to the airport to meet his study-away group. I spent an extra night and followed him to Hangzhou on Saturday, in hopes of meeting him at his dorm 2 hours after my train pulled in. Luckily I'd made a friend in Shanghai who was also heading to Hangzhou. A really nice guy named Yone, from Tokyo, Japan. After a two-hour epic search (a story in itself), I found John Speed in the foreign students' dorm at Zhejiang University and gladly joined him for dinner.

My hopes for getting out of the city were pretty high before arriving further south to Hangzhou, which I pictured to be quaint and closer to the countryside. Just south-west of West Lake (Hangzhou's main attraction and the lake whose beauty inspired many a Chinese poet) are rolling hills and tea plantations. Not like the limestone cliffs of South China but close enough for this time around. West Lake is quite stunning and absolutely vast. An entire day of walking or cycling can't get you around the whole thing. I took a boat cruise out onto the lake, visited one of the pavilions, then landed on another shore before walking back to my hostel. The following day I took a trip south-west to Lingyin temple which houses an impressive 20-foot high golden statue of Buddha. It was nice to get away from buildings for a little bit.

I arrived in Xi'an just a couple hours ago with a friend I met at the hostel in Hangzhou after the longest, most cramped train ride I've taken so far. Following about 21 hours of sleeping on the top bunk in a tiny compartment I was glad to step outside. Arriving at train stations is usually the most hectic part of the journey because hawkers will come up offering taxi rides, taxi drivers don't always regard your hail, and most of the time, you just want to take off your bag and hop in the shower. haha. That's how it's been for me anyway. I'm checked into my hostel, thanks to a recommendation from my friends Anna and Joan who spent a weekend here back when they were in Baoji. It's fabulous. Tucked away on a side street with very clean rooms. Tomorrow and the day after, I plan on visiting the Terracotta Warriors and climbing Mt. Huashan.

After 2 nights and 3 days here I'll head to Pingyao for 2-3 days, my last destination before heading back to Beijing.

I'm nice and tanned, excited for home-cooked food (STILL) and will be very excited to land in Montreal and sleep in my own bed.

Until then, I'm drinking it all in. Love you all very much, and hope you continue to have wonderful sun-filled summers.

much love,
lb.

Picture yourself in China (And a few digressions).

I think the official countdown began when we saw our two first interns off this week. Joan left China Care at the crack of dawn on Monday after a 3-month stay. My dear Ysabelle left later in the afternoon, allowing us to come to the airport with her to say our farewells. I could very easily be fooled that we arrived only yesterday.

The Olympics start tomorrow and all of China is in a frenzy. Despite the tireless preparations that are happening in the city, Shunyi district hasn't be getting nearly as much attention, besides flower arrangements magically popping up on the sidewalk outside our complex, and lanterns and Christmas lights being hung from the trees. I miss having access to the news back home, since all we see on our television in the dining hall are torch relays (over and over and over again) and ads for things like orange juice that of course all the athletes drink to stay healthy. Ha ha.

Last night, we had dinner with perhaps one of the most successful 24 year-olds I've met who defines the meaning of you guanxi. Because of our native English speaking skillz, our group was asked to help one of our boss's friends participate in a city-wide "English-check" study at several branches of China's Ming Sheng bank. We split up into two groups and spent 4 days in total driving around Beijing with this woman named Vera Cui, Queen of Connections (re: you guanxi), asking scripted questions to bank tellers in English and seeing if they were able to help us without using Chinese. It made for some interesting encounters, and frazzled, nervewracked banking staff.

I digress! Vera grew up with a father involved in some foreign business so since childhood she's had plenty an opportunity to brush up on her English. As a result, she is the most renown English teacher (no foolin') in all of Shunyi! We saw her magic at work yesterday at this amazing Korean barbecue restaurant where she took us to dinner, when a group of non Chinese-speaking guests stared helplessly at the non-English menu. Vera saved the day and was offered a drink by her new British friends, but refused due to work obligations, of which involved greeting the Canadian Olympic team (YEE-AAAH!) when they arrived at the airport that night!

As this entry doesn't seem to have much flow to it, I will mess up the order even more by adding a wide array of PICTURES! The magic about those is that a couple sentences' description do the trick... Then the rest is up to you. So here I go with a few more depictions of my adventures here thusfar. The theme is: ... China. ha HA! Now anything goes.

I will begin with a portrait of Yuxiang Gardens, my China abode. We live in building 15 (not the one featured in the picture, but they all look exactly the same). The buildings look like they could be featured on some kind of artsy postcard with such a bright blue sky in the background ... But, don't be fooled! These perfect weather days are few and far between in Beijing. Next, a contrast...

EW WHAT IS THAT NASTY CLOUD OF GREY?!? ... s-m-o-g. That's right. Blanketing the entire city. Breathing in Beijing air is like smoking 70 packs of cigarettes a day. An example of how deeply I have come to appreciate non government-enduced blue sky and real undeadly clouds.

p.s. The building you can barely see in the background was errected in honour of the BJ Olympics. Ah, yes, the Beijing Olympic something-something building. Note the flame-esque tip...

On a lighter note! Making friends with the fruit sellers at Wangfujing Night market. A HUGE hit for tourists, and a place I didn't get to visit last year. Professional hawkers such as the ones featured above were yelling things like, "I love you! For Free!" I'm not sure what that can translate into. Who knows if they were selling love, but their candy-coated fruit skewers certainly weren't free. 10 big kuai apiece! A delicous 10 kuai at that.

I'm fooling you with these blue sky pictures... I swear it's not usually like this. A picturesque view of the Summer Palace from our motor boat ride.

This man was flying a kite made of garbage bags and sticks, that he painted an attempted menacing looking face on. I thought it was cute. The marble bridge he's standing on in the middle of the Palace grounds is a popular place to fly kites from. The winds are strong and the weather's fine.

Me getting friendly with a lion at the Temple of Heaven.


CHINA CARE INTERNS 2008! After many failed attempts, I'm not actually jumping in this one, to the dismay of my fellow interns. The story behind this is that early on, we decided that we would create a series of jumping pictures, taken in famous locations all around the city. Like, the Summer Palace for example. The best part is attracting loads of attention from passers-by...


Possibly the best picture ever taken in China. Ever.
Thank you John Speed.
Also, thanks to our subject who we found outside the Olympic Bird's Nest, shouting out the Olympic slogan and representing all the pride a Chinese citizen could have surrounding the starting of tomorrow's 08-08-2008 event.


Flowing with the masses into the Forbidden City with Mao's portrait looming.


So these are the hooligans I've been hangin' with these past 2 months! (Minus our dear Joan who decided to hang back that weekend). From left to right: Anna, Tim, Ysabelle, Callie, and John Speed.


A bit more of a close-up... Callie, John Speed, Ysabelle, me, and Tim. Missing our two to make seven on Wangfujing street.

There we have my great mish-mash of pictures! We took a trip to the breathtaking Great Wall this past weekend, so hopefully I'll get a couple of those up before I take off to Shanghai. My travel plans for the last 2 weeks are shaping up. Brief itinerary: Head to Shanghai on Monday with John Speed by hard-sleeper train, spend a couple nights in a hostel in the center of the city. Then head south to beautiful Hangzhou where John Speed will stay to begin his fall semester at Zhejiang University. From there I have 10 days to explore Xi'an, Pingyao, and another city that I haven't yet decided on before I head back to Beijing on the 26th or 27th. Homebound on the 28th, and so long China... aaahhh my heart will ache...

The next time I post will probably be from a different city. Before I begin my travels on Monday and say farewell to China Care, I still need to finish a mural I've been working on for the children's home and write a few newswires. T'will be a busy weekend. Tomorrow I see my good friend Olivia who's in Beijing after a month-long Chinese program in Taiwan. It'll be AMAZING to see a familiar face. I spoke to her on the phone to make plans and holey moley was it ever crazy to think how I'll be meeting a friend on the complete opposite side of the world. On the starting day of the Olympic Games! phew, hard to get my head around.

Sorry if I've rendered some of you partially blind if you've stuck with my novel-length entry... kudos! Stay in touch and I continue to wish you all a glorious summer.

love, hugs, and kisses,
lauren.