Pictures will be the only way to recount this trip fairly. Suffice it to say I've never truly seen mountains before now. Also, I'm going to have to do this in parts if I want to keep any readers by the end.
For July 12 and 13
Friday July 12, began with finals for Chinese and history. I took my history exam early so we could catch our flight at 3:45 pm. I only packed one book bag full of thins a true survivor might need. In it I included a recently purchased cute little pocket
knife to fend off tigers (they're in Tibet, right?), tweezers (a website told me they were useful to pull out bee stingers), a flashlight, poncho (which turned out to one of those Asian ones designed to cover your arms when riding your bike through gridlock traffic in the rain--you'll have to see it to believe it), peanuts, a Chinese dictionary, and dirty clothes (hey, what's the point of clean ones?). Clearly, I was ready to tackle the world. Several people had told me to leave valuables, like jewelry, at home. Not wanting to have my fingers chopped of Gollum-style, I followed this advice. But I took it to a higher level. I also didn't bring my passport. See, I thought a copy of the important parts would be enough. But it wasn't. So Will had to jump in a cab with instructions to the driver to drive like a bat out of hell to get me my passport in time. (Later, he informed me the driver called me a dumb bitch. It happens.) Luckily, Mo and I had arrived early-ish, but it was going to be close and he (understandably so) informed me he would leave me Casablanca style with no qualms. He had already checked his bags when we discovered my little hiccup of a problem. Will did end up arriving with the passport just when Mo's ultimatum (3:15 pm) came. Saved! As I was making my way back toward the airport brandishing my passport, I realized I had handed my plane ticket to Will with a wad of cash to pay for his cab ride. Back I ran screaming his name like a cat in heat and got it from him before he caught another cab. Upon relaying this story to Mo, he told me he would have given up on me on the spot. We ran like crazy to the terminal only to find the flight was delayed by an hour. We killed time by doing what one can ONLY do in an airport--eat and balk at overpriced crap. As I was walking from store to store, a man came up to me and handed me my plane ticket. Apparently it had fallen out of my pocket. Perhaps it is good that I am not religious because at this point, all signs seemed to point that I was not destined to be on this flight. Episodes of LOST began to flash through my mind. Oh, at one point I also had two cute little girls teach me a game they were playing that turned out to be a punked-up version of paper-rock-scissors. But make it we did and we arrived at Kunming airport at about 8:30 pm. This was a problem though. Our transfer flight to Zhongdian was at 9 pm and Mo still had to pick up his bag. I ran ahead to find which line I was supposed to be in for my flight and finally gave up and begged the help of an info lady. She was a godsend and ran around with me giving me VIP treatment a la cutting lines to make it to my terminal. She asked if I was alone and a look of "Well, he's fucked" crossed her face when I told her no. Once I safely made it to the terminal, I called Mo for real-time updates (man I love being able to drop that in a sentence) on where he was. He said he was having problems with security since the counters to check bags close 30 min before the flight. He ended up losing his (real) knife and lots of water. They gave me a slip I could turn in to pick up mine later. By this point, a worried Chinese couple who spoke English came over to me and told me not to worry and that I was indeed in the right terminal, the plane hadn't left yet, and we'll stay with you and wait until your friend arrives. Added incentive here is that they are with extended family, and if I'm sure of one thing, the loyalty the elders would have would damn well keep that plane grounded. Mo came, we got on, and that concludes the transportation part of this saga.
I would like to take this time to note that despite my telling you all I was going to Tibet, I was mistaken. I know, hard to believe. Or maybe not. Some of you know my track record with geography. And lacking sense of direction. By Tibet, what I really meant was the northwestern Yunnan Province in southwest China (thanks Wikipedia). In all fairness though, Zhongdian, re-named Shangri-la by the Chinese gov't, is considered part of the Tibetan cultural region. Now, had I taken the time to apply for a permission slip thingy to get in to Tibet, I totally would have gone. But I have no regrets and fake Tibet, as I shall hereby term it, was awesome!
I made friends with the couple and asked them for advice on where to go in Zhongdian since they were on a real tour. Mo and I ended up not doing anything they were doing (it would have been rushed and super touristy) but we did manage to catch a free ride on their bus to Old Town in Zhongdian. Mo and I found a hostel, made friends with the charming owner, Becky, got recommendations on trips we could make in the amount of time we had. She also told us what buses in town could take us to Buddhist temples (super easy since there were only three to choose from). Then we settled down in what was, for me, my very first hostel bed. It was quite chilly. I can't quite remember what elevation we were at but it was enough to get us complimentary altitude sickness pillz on our second flight. So concludes Friday.
Saturday July 13 we got up early to make it to the bus station to buy tickets since it gets pretty competitive for seats during this season. There were two options we were flip-flopping over on what to do. Hike to a glacier and see some temples, all of
which we figured would be somewhat touristy. Or get a guide and hike into a mountain to the South. I wanted to see glacier since I hadn't seen one before and wanted the rights to casually drop it at a dinner party. Mo was leaning toward the mountain because it would be less touristy. We contemplated doing both as well, but we would have had to leave for the glacier RIGHT THEN, skipping some towns. I wasn't prepared to do that since I had brought no warm clothes on this trip (Beijing is hot as balls, thank you very much). I also needed to find a bank to play the money game again. We split off to think about it and I went in search for a bank. My phone didn't work so I couldn't contact Mo again and went to the station by myself and decided to by the second earliest bus out to Deqin for the glacier. I randomly ran into Mo later in Noah's Cafe, a cute little joint with some Western food a girl on our NU trip had recommended to us earlier. He informed me he had gone back to buy the same exact ticket and the trip was on! We met some interesting people in Noah's, talking with whomever we felt like talking to, and I got some pages on "Rainbow Gatherings" from this hippie chick from Spain. No, it has nothing to do with gay rights. Look it up yourself. Mo and I decided to explore Zhongdian and caught bus #3 out to the temple nearest our town. It was big, it was old, it was pretty, and it was very sadly commercialized to the point of being offensive. Mo was especially pissed, being someone who takes religion very seriously (he's Muslim). The monks walked around with cellphones and Rolex watches that blinded our poor eyes in the sun. You could pretty much roam wherever you wanted in this temple and one of my curious ventures brought me to a main dining hall right when a meal was being served. This was really cool. We went in and everyone one was sitting indian-style in row after row of floor cushions. Down the row in the middle of the room, the men were banging drums that were on top of poles (think giant lollipops) as a monk was walking through singing/chanting. Little boy monks were running about pouring soup in bowls while some of the sitting monks took out pouches and put some sort of powder in their soup. I felt wrong being there, watching this like it was a performance, and also felt conscious that I was the only one with another X chromosome in the whole place. Oh, at one point during the visit (this was in another part of the temple) I wrote down on a slip of paper a wish and put it under one of the many candles and a monk came over and prayed for me for it to come true. Not telling what it was for, but just in case it comes true, Mom, start preparing a stall that could possibly hold a pony, okay? Overall, I'm glad I went because it was very pretty and held a lot of history. It's inspired me to look into books on Tibetan culture and Buddhism when I return. The day was still young and we still had hot springs to look into. Mo, bless him, had done a little more research on the region and gathered from Becky that there was another temple, much less touristy, on the way to the springs. We got a private taxi for the rest of the day to take us to both. Our driver let another guy hop in for the company and off we went. The road leading to the second temple was horrendous and my behind was numb from all the bumping a good five minutes into it. At one point we had to stop and wait for them to pave a part of it! And by wait, I mean follow on the bumper the bulldozers who are "flattening" part of a mound of rocky dirt (in the middle of the road) that could *maybe* pass for gravel. The temple truly was tucked away in this village and we saw no other tourists the entire time. We saw no other people around this temple except for the monk himself. We were informed his understudy (there are only two people in this temple ever) was asleep. Our drivers prayed and then took us around showing us the rituals and traditions. Their complete lack of English skills and our complete lack of Chinese surprisingly didn't prove to be that big of a barrier. I gathered it is important to go clockwise around a temple and that doing things in multiples of three is very important. Our drivers even donated a dollar for all of us so we could all pray. Mo was a little weirded out praying for a different god, but I loved it. They had me light three incense sticks (and no, I could not take them for myself) and stick them in a little pot. Then they had us take a white sash and tuck it over a rope hidden beneath hundreds of other white sashes, in front of statues of Buddha or some colorful gods. Then they dipped a stick with what looked like shorter pieces of incense tied on the end of it, in a bowl of water and put it in our hand. We were supposed to take a sip of whatever water fell from the end of the stick onto our hand and then wipe the remaining water over our hair. I'm finding this very hard to describe, so I apologize. As we exited the room, we passed a huge pile of what looked like cheese or butter, in sacks or just out in the open. I gathered it was yak butter and they said it was used to make the wax in the millions of little candle goblets around the place. We went into another room and spun (three times, of course)this huge apparatus that I can only describe as an inverted rolling pin minus the handles. Then we left the temple and walked around the outside
passing thousands of little multi-colored pieces of cloth with Buddhist scripture? on it, strung up on anything that could possibly hold a place to tie it. It was the most beautiful thing I've seen. Erik, it was so peaceful, you would have loved it. There were kilns where pine branches were burned in the morning and lots of little piles of rocks, Mo later termed "Chinese-style Jinga." We finally concluded the informal tour by going down stairs, turning mini-rolling pins as we went by. I can safely say that temple was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The second fave part would be having to push our van "Little Miss
Sunshine"-style out of the "gravel" on our return trip since construction on the road, of course, was not yet finished, and our fearless and persistent drivers tried to forge the mound too soon. It's all good though. Everyone was in good spirits. And I think the workers were amused by me getting out of the van before it got stuck and taking a man's hoe from him to have a go at scraping mud off the side of the road. Hey, I was bored and now I can truthfully say my sweat is part of some road in fake Tibet.
From the temple we went on the the hot springs which were quite unimpressive. Hippie lady from Spain had warned us the outside springs looked like sewage water, so Mo championed for a private room. It was a glorified hot tub, but enjoyable nonetheless. I don't think I'll ever be interested in spending money on it again. Oh, by this time I had developed a splitting headache that I believe to have been a mix of altitude sickness and lack of food. Our drivers had really taken a liking to us, so instead of taking us back home, they drove us a little past Zhongdian so we could take pictures with the beautiful rolling mountains in the background. Then they made me a flower crown with the local purple wildflowers. Very nice of the fellows. Finally, exhausted from a full day of seeing things, Mo and I crashed. We had a six-hour bus ride to Deqin in the morning, after all.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
July 6 Part A
For July 6, 2007
Getting money still proves to be a hardship even with my shiny new card. From the treks to mutiple banks, I've gathered that the ATMs sometimes work and sometimes don't work. Fab.
It was imperitive I get the money today though, because I had plane tickets being hand delivered to me for my long weekend. I've decided to go somewhere but not exactly Tibet. It's the cultural region, not the autonomous part that requires a pass. I would love to be able to go inside Tibet and hike some of Mt. Everest, but I just waited too long to decide. Another time. However, according to Vivian, a girl on my trip, she said the place I'll be going is still beautiful and there is still plenty to do. She actually went on a 17-day tour that included backpacking through mountains and biking to temples, all of which were beautiful. I'm told there's also a hot spring. I'm beginning to think Asia might be home to some of the most beautiful places on Earth. It's so easy to be amazed and yet I'm realizing that the exclusive bubble in which I live and work in on a daily basis is not necessarily indicative of the rest of the world. If I really wanted this, I could get it but only at the expense of the (safe?) mass-produced desires/goals commercialism and my particular society has instilled in me. But I digress. I was only able to get 2000 RMB out before the spotty ATMs decided to suck at life. That left me in the red 2080 RMB for ticket person. I finally had to get Zhong laoshi to spot me the rest until I could make it to a bank and I now have in my posession two round-trip flights from Beijing to somewhere-in-Tibet with a layover in China somewhere. This will be fun. I'm not worried about not going with an established tour because Vivian said there are a ton of people hiking all the time. It should be easy to meet some one and tag along.
But in a nutshell, the first part of my day caused much frustration for many people.
Getting money still proves to be a hardship even with my shiny new card. From the treks to mutiple banks, I've gathered that the ATMs sometimes work and sometimes don't work. Fab.
It was imperitive I get the money today though, because I had plane tickets being hand delivered to me for my long weekend. I've decided to go somewhere but not exactly Tibet. It's the cultural region, not the autonomous part that requires a pass. I would love to be able to go inside Tibet and hike some of Mt. Everest, but I just waited too long to decide. Another time. However, according to Vivian, a girl on my trip, she said the place I'll be going is still beautiful and there is still plenty to do. She actually went on a 17-day tour that included backpacking through mountains and biking to temples, all of which were beautiful. I'm told there's also a hot spring. I'm beginning to think Asia might be home to some of the most beautiful places on Earth. It's so easy to be amazed and yet I'm realizing that the exclusive bubble in which I live and work in on a daily basis is not necessarily indicative of the rest of the world. If I really wanted this, I could get it but only at the expense of the (safe?) mass-produced desires/goals commercialism and my particular society has instilled in me. But I digress. I was only able to get 2000 RMB out before the spotty ATMs decided to suck at life. That left me in the red 2080 RMB for ticket person. I finally had to get Zhong laoshi to spot me the rest until I could make it to a bank and I now have in my posession two round-trip flights from Beijing to somewhere-in-Tibet with a layover in China somewhere. This will be fun. I'm not worried about not going with an established tour because Vivian said there are a ton of people hiking all the time. It should be easy to meet some one and tag along.
But in a nutshell, the first part of my day caused much frustration for many people.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Star Spangled bungee jumping
For July 4, 2007
"Can I be the one to push her?" ~what I imagine the bungee jump workers saying in Chinese as I was strapping in
Long Qing Xia was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. It was exactly how I imagined parts of China, actually. Gigantic rock mountains that go straight up in the air with green trees somehow clinging on for life to the sides and tops and blue blue water below. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The trip started bright and early at 5:30 a.m. because I thought we needed to catch the tour bus and I didn't know how often it ran. Imaginary bus #8 supposedly only ran from 6:30-8:30 a.m. (thanks again Jake!). To the credit of my sense of direction, we accidentally took the subway the wrong way for a bit, but finally wound up at the right bus stop where 919 (the slow bus which I was explicitly told to take, hah!) was waiting for us (us being Mo and Sasha). As luck would have it, a gorgeous guy named Ryan was sitting in the back by himself and we proceeded to become best bus buddies. Ryan, from MN, had come from Shanghai on business (he was the international director of a software firm) and was in Beijing until Sunday. He was unfortunately on his way to the Great Wall and couldn't be swayed to join us. He entertained me with stories of his world travels (ALONE!) and gave me more and more hope I could one day do that as well. The bus ride was at least an hour and a half, all for just 12 RMB a person.
At one point, I figured out the bus wasn't going to take us directly to Long Qing Xia, but the couple behind us said to follow them when they left. When we arrived at our transfer, we decided to break down and get a cab (it had to be a private taxi). The woman trying to sell it to us pulled the baby card at one point. When we finally got to Long Qing Xia it was 9 a.m. As we approached, the terrain became more and more beautiful, with giant mountains like I had never seen before, pastel outlines against the morning sky. We arrived at Long Qing Xia and the place was a mix between ultimate consumerism and raw natural beauty. Definitely a tourist trap (this is the 16th most popular place to visit in Beijing) we giddly hopped on the world's longest escalator which was in the shape of a yellow dragon and the adventure began. We caught a boat tour of Long Qing Xia (Xia = Gorge) and felt humbled by the sheer size of the mountains. We passed the bungee jump of doom and a tight wire with a person biking across carrying another person below in a swing. Once we landed ashore, we decided to hike to the Temple of Illusion. I've since decided it's name is "Illusion" because the fanciful idea I had of being in shape, especially after my skip up the Great Wall, was indeed, an illusion. We had to take several breaks and I thanked my foresight to wear a bikini top. On the way, we passed men in slacks and a woman in an all-black suit with high heels. HIGH HEELS people. Perhaps this is why the Chinese have survived for so long--they subject their bodies to torture. At one point during our ascent, we passed a path that led to a small temple-like building. I bounded past the sign that said "Do Not Pass" and met the people who bicycle across on the tight wire. I asked if I could be the person to ride on the swing deal below and they told me 100 RMB. Sasha and Mo forbid me to do it, but personally I thought it looked less scary than bungee jumping (no weightless feeling in your stomache!). I might add that this was NOT part of anything you could really do at this park, but one is allowed to do anything for the right price in China. It was much higher up than the bungee jump, for comparison's sake. When we finally made it to the top (I was the first one by the way!) we sang the National Anthem in honor of July Fourth. It was probably the most patriotic any of us have been in our lives--I loved the irony of the sitch, especially with a Communist flag flying below. Mo played his flute, Sasha vegged and I looked ow-ooout (10 points to the person who catches this reference). When we finally decided to haul ourselves from the haven of the temple, our next stop was bungee jumping. It was rather small, only 50 something meters above the water. I missed Mo, but came in time to film Sasha. Then the drama ensued with me pacing back and forth contemplating if I should go or not. I grilled both Mo and Sasha for second-by-second details on how they felt. Yes, you get that weightless feeling in your stomache--you're falling. It was way scarier than any roller coaster I've been on!! Their descriptions weren't convincing me. My histrionics provided entertainment to all of the workers for a good ten minutes. It took Sasha saying I'd regret not doing it and a big grin from the man who would take my money to go, to convince me. Now, the catch after you pay is that if you hesitate for more than three minutes, you forfeit your right to jump. And your 150 RMB. Sasha went up with me and Mo went below to film (I'm so glad I had both of them there to guarantee I couldn't bolt). Sasha said she'd count to three only once and as I contemplated whether I'd jump or kindly scream "Hell no" on three, I felt a mighty shove from behind and went tumbling down. The instructions on how to hold my arms during decent went quite to the wayside and I had my eyes closed for the first half of the fall but forced them open for the second and screamed as I saw the water rushing to meet my head. Before it did, I caught and the weightless feeling subsided a bit. From there my screaming of fear turned to screaming of, "What the hell was that?! He pushed me!!" and to "Okay, I want to get down now." The boat caught me below and I'd say it was all over in less than a minute. After that, we caught a boat to go back. Our last hurrah was to slide back down the mountain on little trolleys (easiest 20 RMB I bet this place makes) and concluded our trip at 3 p.m. It was an easy bus ride back and upon return, a group of us went to Grandma's Kitchen, one of the restaurants suggested in my magazine for good down-home American cooking where I gorged myself on a burger with fries and a Kaluah milkshake.
I must say this will be one of the most memorable Fourth of Jul(ies?) I will ever have.
"Can I be the one to push her?" ~what I imagine the bungee jump workers saying in Chinese as I was strapping in
Long Qing Xia was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. It was exactly how I imagined parts of China, actually. Gigantic rock mountains that go straight up in the air with green trees somehow clinging on for life to the sides and tops and blue blue water below. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The trip started bright and early at 5:30 a.m. because I thought we needed to catch the tour bus and I didn't know how often it ran. Imaginary bus #8 supposedly only ran from 6:30-8:30 a.m. (thanks again Jake!). To the credit of my sense of direction, we accidentally took the subway the wrong way for a bit, but finally wound up at the right bus stop where 919 (the slow bus which I was explicitly told to take, hah!) was waiting for us (us being Mo and Sasha). As luck would have it, a gorgeous guy named Ryan was sitting in the back by himself and we proceeded to become best bus buddies. Ryan, from MN, had come from Shanghai on business (he was the international director of a software firm) and was in Beijing until Sunday. He was unfortunately on his way to the Great Wall and couldn't be swayed to join us. He entertained me with stories of his world travels (ALONE!) and gave me more and more hope I could one day do that as well. The bus ride was at least an hour and a half, all for just 12 RMB a person.
At one point, I figured out the bus wasn't going to take us directly to Long Qing Xia, but the couple behind us said to follow them when they left. When we arrived at our transfer, we decided to break down and get a cab (it had to be a private taxi). The woman trying to sell it to us pulled the baby card at one point. When we finally got to Long Qing Xia it was 9 a.m. As we approached, the terrain became more and more beautiful, with giant mountains like I had never seen before, pastel outlines against the morning sky. We arrived at Long Qing Xia and the place was a mix between ultimate consumerism and raw natural beauty. Definitely a tourist trap (this is the 16th most popular place to visit in Beijing) we giddly hopped on the world's longest escalator which was in the shape of a yellow dragon and the adventure began. We caught a boat tour of Long Qing Xia (Xia = Gorge) and felt humbled by the sheer size of the mountains. We passed the bungee jump of doom and a tight wire with a person biking across carrying another person below in a swing. Once we landed ashore, we decided to hike to the Temple of Illusion. I've since decided it's name is "Illusion" because the fanciful idea I had of being in shape, especially after my skip up the Great Wall, was indeed, an illusion. We had to take several breaks and I thanked my foresight to wear a bikini top. On the way, we passed men in slacks and a woman in an all-black suit with high heels. HIGH HEELS people. Perhaps this is why the Chinese have survived for so long--they subject their bodies to torture. At one point during our ascent, we passed a path that led to a small temple-like building. I bounded past the sign that said "Do Not Pass" and met the people who bicycle across on the tight wire. I asked if I could be the person to ride on the swing deal below and they told me 100 RMB. Sasha and Mo forbid me to do it, but personally I thought it looked less scary than bungee jumping (no weightless feeling in your stomache!). I might add that this was NOT part of anything you could really do at this park, but one is allowed to do anything for the right price in China. It was much higher up than the bungee jump, for comparison's sake. When we finally made it to the top (I was the first one by the way!) we sang the National Anthem in honor of July Fourth. It was probably the most patriotic any of us have been in our lives--I loved the irony of the sitch, especially with a Communist flag flying below. Mo played his flute, Sasha vegged and I looked ow-ooout (10 points to the person who catches this reference). When we finally decided to haul ourselves from the haven of the temple, our next stop was bungee jumping. It was rather small, only 50 something meters above the water. I missed Mo, but came in time to film Sasha. Then the drama ensued with me pacing back and forth contemplating if I should go or not. I grilled both Mo and Sasha for second-by-second details on how they felt. Yes, you get that weightless feeling in your stomache--you're falling. It was way scarier than any roller coaster I've been on!! Their descriptions weren't convincing me. My histrionics provided entertainment to all of the workers for a good ten minutes. It took Sasha saying I'd regret not doing it and a big grin from the man who would take my money to go, to convince me. Now, the catch after you pay is that if you hesitate for more than three minutes, you forfeit your right to jump. And your 150 RMB. Sasha went up with me and Mo went below to film (I'm so glad I had both of them there to guarantee I couldn't bolt). Sasha said she'd count to three only once and as I contemplated whether I'd jump or kindly scream "Hell no" on three, I felt a mighty shove from behind and went tumbling down. The instructions on how to hold my arms during decent went quite to the wayside and I had my eyes closed for the first half of the fall but forced them open for the second and screamed as I saw the water rushing to meet my head. Before it did, I caught and the weightless feeling subsided a bit. From there my screaming of fear turned to screaming of, "What the hell was that?! He pushed me!!" and to "Okay, I want to get down now." The boat caught me below and I'd say it was all over in less than a minute. After that, we caught a boat to go back. Our last hurrah was to slide back down the mountain on little trolleys (easiest 20 RMB I bet this place makes) and concluded our trip at 3 p.m. It was an easy bus ride back and upon return, a group of us went to Grandma's Kitchen, one of the restaurants suggested in my magazine for good down-home American cooking where I gorged myself on a burger with fries and a Kaluah milkshake.
I must say this will be one of the most memorable Fourth of Jul(ies?) I will ever have.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Gourmet food = yum
For June 1
I love China. Today, China provided me with a four-course gourmet meal for about $14 US dollars. After our move (I like my new dorm much better--it has air conditioning), a group of us headed to SOHO to a wonderful little place called Time Cafe, featured in one of the many magazines I've collected. It was voted Best Lunch Set Menu by the editors of "that's Beijing." It was further than we expected but luckily for us SOHO is known for its amazing architecture so the cab ride turned into a lovely air conditioned tour of the city. One of the many things under construction are two leaning buildings which are ultimately supposed to come together; Will informed us it was an architectural feat that has never been attempted before. It should be amazing to see when completed.
But to the meal. We ordered red wine and, for me, started off with an asparagus salad with quail eggs and parmesan flakes. Then we got vegetable soup and bread with the most delicious spread I've ever had. I'm going to make it a life goal to figure out what's in it and replicate the hell out of it. Moving right along, for my main course I had halibut with zucchini noodles on a bed of mashed potatos in some kind of yummy sauce. Les, you'd like that. Most of the boys got steak. Paul, you'd like that. Desert was a very light vanilla flan-type sweet with fresh mango on top presented in champagne glasses. The portions were small (and of course beautifully presented) but added up to the perfect amount of making you comfortably satiated. Did I mention this was about $14 US dollars? Good food two days in a row. I'm going to be so spoiled when I get back to the states.
I also met my first sketchy Chinese person tonight. And it was a 'she.' I was biking back to my dorm when I stopped at a light. This woman approached me asking for Tsinghua Univ. in Chinese. I told her I was American and she proceeded to speak very good English. She said she was looking for Tsinghua so I told her I was going that way and I'd give her a ride. Shaky at first, especially with on-coming traffic not stopping for us, I thought for sure she'd abandon ship, but held on she did. She proceeded to tell me she was trying to find her boyfriend, somthing about 'together for five years but he didn't love her.' He called her from Tsinghua or something and she had had a lot of beer. Okay lady. Where does he live? Tsinghua is really big. Where are you going? Tsinghua is that way. I thought you didn't know where it was, but I live on North gate and I'll take you that far. There are lots of student dorms there, maybe you can find him there. What's your name? Caroline (I was going to give McFarland as my last name if she asked...). When we got closer, I told her I'd take her to my front desk so she could possibly find out more information and she declined, saying she was too shy. But let's talk Chinese and English to each other one day and what's your number? Oh, I don't know it off the top of my head (this is true). Well, here's my phone number and e-mail address. Call me sometime. Okay, sure. Good luck. I don't know what just happened. But it was creepy.
I love China. Today, China provided me with a four-course gourmet meal for about $14 US dollars. After our move (I like my new dorm much better--it has air conditioning), a group of us headed to SOHO to a wonderful little place called Time Cafe, featured in one of the many magazines I've collected. It was voted Best Lunch Set Menu by the editors of "that's Beijing." It was further than we expected but luckily for us SOHO is known for its amazing architecture so the cab ride turned into a lovely air conditioned tour of the city. One of the many things under construction are two leaning buildings which are ultimately supposed to come together; Will informed us it was an architectural feat that has never been attempted before. It should be amazing to see when completed.
But to the meal. We ordered red wine and, for me, started off with an asparagus salad with quail eggs and parmesan flakes. Then we got vegetable soup and bread with the most delicious spread I've ever had. I'm going to make it a life goal to figure out what's in it and replicate the hell out of it. Moving right along, for my main course I had halibut with zucchini noodles on a bed of mashed potatos in some kind of yummy sauce. Les, you'd like that. Most of the boys got steak. Paul, you'd like that. Desert was a very light vanilla flan-type sweet with fresh mango on top presented in champagne glasses. The portions were small (and of course beautifully presented) but added up to the perfect amount of making you comfortably satiated. Did I mention this was about $14 US dollars? Good food two days in a row. I'm going to be so spoiled when I get back to the states.
I also met my first sketchy Chinese person tonight. And it was a 'she.' I was biking back to my dorm when I stopped at a light. This woman approached me asking for Tsinghua Univ. in Chinese. I told her I was American and she proceeded to speak very good English. She said she was looking for Tsinghua so I told her I was going that way and I'd give her a ride. Shaky at first, especially with on-coming traffic not stopping for us, I thought for sure she'd abandon ship, but held on she did. She proceeded to tell me she was trying to find her boyfriend, somthing about 'together for five years but he didn't love her.' He called her from Tsinghua or something and she had had a lot of beer. Okay lady. Where does he live? Tsinghua is really big. Where are you going? Tsinghua is that way. I thought you didn't know where it was, but I live on North gate and I'll take you that far. There are lots of student dorms there, maybe you can find him there. What's your name? Caroline (I was going to give McFarland as my last name if she asked...). When we got closer, I told her I'd take her to my front desk so she could possibly find out more information and she declined, saying she was too shy. But let's talk Chinese and English to each other one day and what's your number? Oh, I don't know it off the top of my head (this is true). Well, here's my phone number and e-mail address. Call me sometime. Okay, sure. Good luck. I don't know what just happened. But it was creepy.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
For June 26, 2007
Thank you (or should I say xie xie) Tyler. I have now selected my new favorite coffee shop, CAVA Coffee, which is much less crowded and much less pretentious than Tous Les Jour (which according to Nancy is a Korean bakery). The familiar and much loved smell of coffee and cigarettes (10 points for the first person who names the band that did this song) wafted throughout the dimly-lit haven. Reggae played in the background and best of all, I had my choice of tables and all the wi-fi I could handle. The wait-staff and I will be on first name basis by the end of this program. The mango smoothie is to die for as well.
Tim and I explored a bit more of Wudaokuo and grabbed a snack of sweet dough. The treat was made before your eyes by a machine that constantly rotated as dough was squirted into little circular cast-iron molds. It came out with the dough in the middle still gooey and piping hot as is evident by the burn marks on the roof of my mouth. Like most Asian sweets, the taste was subtle. I've gotten used to thinking red bean paste is pretty sweet. Later Tim and I broke down and enjoyed some much-coveted pizza. Hey, we held out on being American (I almost said white, hah) longer than most, okay?
That's all for now. I needed a chill day to catch up on blog posts anyway. Send me your addresses so I can start doing the postcard thing.
Thank you (or should I say xie xie) Tyler. I have now selected my new favorite coffee shop, CAVA Coffee, which is much less crowded and much less pretentious than Tous Les Jour (which according to Nancy is a Korean bakery). The familiar and much loved smell of coffee and cigarettes (10 points for the first person who names the band that did this song) wafted throughout the dimly-lit haven. Reggae played in the background and best of all, I had my choice of tables and all the wi-fi I could handle. The wait-staff and I will be on first name basis by the end of this program. The mango smoothie is to die for as well.
Tim and I explored a bit more of Wudaokuo and grabbed a snack of sweet dough. The treat was made before your eyes by a machine that constantly rotated as dough was squirted into little circular cast-iron molds. It came out with the dough in the middle still gooey and piping hot as is evident by the burn marks on the roof of my mouth. Like most Asian sweets, the taste was subtle. I've gotten used to thinking red bean paste is pretty sweet. Later Tim and I broke down and enjoyed some much-coveted pizza. Hey, we held out on being American (I almost said white, hah) longer than most, okay?
That's all for now. I needed a chill day to catch up on blog posts anyway. Send me your addresses so I can start doing the postcard thing.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Models and Muslim food
Sorry this is a tad out of order. And make sure to e-mail me with requests on what illegal movies you want for Chinese souvenirs.
For June 25, 2007
"China is very layered." ~words of wisdom courtesy Tyler
Who would have thought I'd end up learning more about China than I will probably ever be able to gather (because of the language barrier and time) from a model and world drifter/traveler named Tyler.
I really expected today to be low-key. Classes were classes and afterwards I headed to Tous Les Jour, the yummy bakery with even yummier free wi-fi. I'm plugging away on homework when in walks this beautiful man in a suit that would have made headlines on Craig's List of "Missed Connections." Two girls from my program were also there and he ended up grabbing a free table next to them as I wished madly I was Grace and/or Marlene. They all ended up chatting a while about our program and about his modeling (I'm almost positive it's a habit of his to slip in that little fact when talking to females). At one point I sheepishly/awkwardly went up to him (i.e., crossed several yards of floor space) to ask him if he'd been here long and if so, how hard was it to get the Yangtze River and go white-water kayaking. Oh yes, I wanted to talk to him badly. When Grace and Marlene left, I decided to move base to his table, mumbling that people wanted my prime wall outlet table (they did, I swear).
Well, Tyler turned out to be a talker. And we covered many, many topics. He's lived in China for three years, Beijing for two, and works at a domestic advertising firm. He's originally from Seattle. He had his portfolio with him of ads he's been in (I don't know whether he helped produce them as well) and was in a suit because he had had an audition earlier in the day for a car commercial. I gathered he was Lutheran and has a younger brother. He also likes dirt-biking, skiing, scuba diving, has eaten poisonous snake and has his nipples pierced (hm, too much info that time guys?). Actually, it was interesting how I found out he was Lutheran. We found ourselves on the subject that I was adopted and he asked if I was religious based on that. Not to restrict his talents (or good looks) to simply modeling, he's also acted in the movie "Diamond Dogs" which he said would probably be a B-rate action film. Now, the cool part of this story was that it was filmed in inner Mongolia which many of my fellow classmates want to visit on their long four-day weekend. I asked him whether I should consider doing that as well and he said no (I figured--it didn't sound that cool). The one interesting thing he did discover while filming, though, was a stretch of land covered with dogs' feet--some with fur still covering them, some bare bone. His guess was that the locals ate the dogs then discarded the remnants in this elephant graveyard. If you're wondering about the legitimacy of the story (like I was), he has a movie on his silver RAZR to prove it. Actually, he discovered another interesting thing while filming--wild marijuana growing amongst vegetable gardens owned by the locals who didn't know what it was and cared even less. Like a kid in a candy shop, he said he took as much as he could stuff in is jacket/down his pants and gleefully smoked for two months. Tyler echoed Dave (guy from punk show) in saying pot was hard to find but hash was quite abundant. Being here longer than a month though, Tyler has found places notorious for the grass goodness. I'm sure I sounded quite sketchy asking which places they were exactly and can I take the subway there, but it's all with good intentions, I assure you. I believe the places that have that are ultimately places that have the kind of alternative culture I find fascinating and want to explore. A bit backward from how most people would typically react upon learning of such places I imagine, but what can I say. He also said (and he apologized for this generalization) it was a good bet that any black person you see around probably deals.
I also met his friend Amit (he was Jewish) who had taken a year off school in CA to come study here on his own. Like Tyler, he had started off at Tsinghua but hated it and had switched to Beijing Univ. of Science and Technology (I think). Unlike Tyler, he was still in school. And studied. I found out that in the year he has been here, he's been completely content eating from street vendors. Except for the vendors down the little alley I found. That has been the only time he's gotten sick and I certainly related.
By this point, it was getting rather late and I was almost done with homework so Tyler invited me to go with to a Muslim restaurant just down the road he had recommeded earlier. On the way he showed me some cool little coffee shops I never would have discovered on my own, a breakfast place with specials on the weekend until 11:30 a.m., a shady and completely illegal but reliable place to get money exchanged, and Wudaokou's Korea Town (apparantly it's a joke that Wudaokou is the Korea Town). We walked to what I believe was the Univ. of Science and Technology for the restaurant which was on campus. On the way, he entertained me with more stories of death-defying feats--he used to drive in China, see. That is, until he had his motocycle taken by the police. According to him, the majority of the vehicles on the road are illegal. They either have fake license plates or none at all. It's just bad luck when you get caught. Usually patrolling is stepped up after a news-making incident, but without fail, life gradually slips back to comfortable chaos after a while. Not to depart from the theme of the night, the restaurant we went to was completely illegal. It even told you up front that they did not give receipts. By far the most interesting thing I learned from the Ty was the random cash prizes one can receive from scratching off places on legitimate receipts. It's the government's way of promoting people asking for receipts and therefore forcing businesses to report for tax purposes. Of course, that incentive doesn't come anywhere near to stopping the widespread illegal business that goes down everywhere. Most places print fake receipts. Tyler only asks for legit receipts as a way to get back at a place for bad service. He gave his opinion that waiters never get any better due to the Communist system. People do not believe in tips here.
The restaurant contained the most diverse group of people I've seen in one setting so far. Our meal was very good--we ate noodles made from vegetables, an eggplant dish and lamb. At one point, Tyler saw one of his "friends" who he wanted to buy from and invited him to sit with us so as to not appear too crass just using him for drugs. Who says druggies aren't caring people, too? The guy turned out to be from Nigeria and has been here for four years studying Chinese. He even had a Chinese wife who sat across from him playing a game on a cellphone and looking/sounding very Asian while doing so. No, I can't explain why, but trust me, she was ASIAN. They'll officially get married sometime in the future before they die. The deal and exchange was talked about very blatantly in front of me but I suppose the majority of the people in the restaurant would not have understood what was happening anyway.
We finally parted ways with plans to meet again Thursday so he can take me to THE place to get illegal copies of any and all movies and tv shows (it's swanky--supposedly they're even in alphabetical order). From there, the 798 Artist Area is a hop away. He's going down to that area for business, so I plan to tag along and then check out some art galleries. Any requests for movies/tv shows send them to me via e-mail before Thursday at 3 p.m. my time and I'll do my best.
For June 25, 2007
"China is very layered." ~words of wisdom courtesy Tyler
Who would have thought I'd end up learning more about China than I will probably ever be able to gather (because of the language barrier and time) from a model and world drifter/traveler named Tyler.
I really expected today to be low-key. Classes were classes and afterwards I headed to Tous Les Jour, the yummy bakery with even yummier free wi-fi. I'm plugging away on homework when in walks this beautiful man in a suit that would have made headlines on Craig's List of "Missed Connections." Two girls from my program were also there and he ended up grabbing a free table next to them as I wished madly I was Grace and/or Marlene. They all ended up chatting a while about our program and about his modeling (I'm almost positive it's a habit of his to slip in that little fact when talking to females). At one point I sheepishly/awkwardly went up to him (i.e., crossed several yards of floor space) to ask him if he'd been here long and if so, how hard was it to get the Yangtze River and go white-water kayaking. Oh yes, I wanted to talk to him badly. When Grace and Marlene left, I decided to move base to his table, mumbling that people wanted my prime wall outlet table (they did, I swear).
Well, Tyler turned out to be a talker. And we covered many, many topics. He's lived in China for three years, Beijing for two, and works at a domestic advertising firm. He's originally from Seattle. He had his portfolio with him of ads he's been in (I don't know whether he helped produce them as well) and was in a suit because he had had an audition earlier in the day for a car commercial. I gathered he was Lutheran and has a younger brother. He also likes dirt-biking, skiing, scuba diving, has eaten poisonous snake and has his nipples pierced (hm, too much info that time guys?). Actually, it was interesting how I found out he was Lutheran. We found ourselves on the subject that I was adopted and he asked if I was religious based on that. Not to restrict his talents (or good looks) to simply modeling, he's also acted in the movie "Diamond Dogs" which he said would probably be a B-rate action film. Now, the cool part of this story was that it was filmed in inner Mongolia which many of my fellow classmates want to visit on their long four-day weekend. I asked him whether I should consider doing that as well and he said no (I figured--it didn't sound that cool). The one interesting thing he did discover while filming, though, was a stretch of land covered with dogs' feet--some with fur still covering them, some bare bone. His guess was that the locals ate the dogs then discarded the remnants in this elephant graveyard. If you're wondering about the legitimacy of the story (like I was), he has a movie on his silver RAZR to prove it. Actually, he discovered another interesting thing while filming--wild marijuana growing amongst vegetable gardens owned by the locals who didn't know what it was and cared even less. Like a kid in a candy shop, he said he took as much as he could stuff in is jacket/down his pants and gleefully smoked for two months. Tyler echoed Dave (guy from punk show) in saying pot was hard to find but hash was quite abundant. Being here longer than a month though, Tyler has found places notorious for the grass goodness. I'm sure I sounded quite sketchy asking which places they were exactly and can I take the subway there, but it's all with good intentions, I assure you. I believe the places that have that are ultimately places that have the kind of alternative culture I find fascinating and want to explore. A bit backward from how most people would typically react upon learning of such places I imagine, but what can I say. He also said (and he apologized for this generalization) it was a good bet that any black person you see around probably deals.
I also met his friend Amit (he was Jewish) who had taken a year off school in CA to come study here on his own. Like Tyler, he had started off at Tsinghua but hated it and had switched to Beijing Univ. of Science and Technology (I think). Unlike Tyler, he was still in school. And studied. I found out that in the year he has been here, he's been completely content eating from street vendors. Except for the vendors down the little alley I found. That has been the only time he's gotten sick and I certainly related.
By this point, it was getting rather late and I was almost done with homework so Tyler invited me to go with to a Muslim restaurant just down the road he had recommeded earlier. On the way he showed me some cool little coffee shops I never would have discovered on my own, a breakfast place with specials on the weekend until 11:30 a.m., a shady and completely illegal but reliable place to get money exchanged, and Wudaokou's Korea Town (apparantly it's a joke that Wudaokou is the Korea Town). We walked to what I believe was the Univ. of Science and Technology for the restaurant which was on campus. On the way, he entertained me with more stories of death-defying feats--he used to drive in China, see. That is, until he had his motocycle taken by the police. According to him, the majority of the vehicles on the road are illegal. They either have fake license plates or none at all. It's just bad luck when you get caught. Usually patrolling is stepped up after a news-making incident, but without fail, life gradually slips back to comfortable chaos after a while. Not to depart from the theme of the night, the restaurant we went to was completely illegal. It even told you up front that they did not give receipts. By far the most interesting thing I learned from the Ty was the random cash prizes one can receive from scratching off places on legitimate receipts. It's the government's way of promoting people asking for receipts and therefore forcing businesses to report for tax purposes. Of course, that incentive doesn't come anywhere near to stopping the widespread illegal business that goes down everywhere. Most places print fake receipts. Tyler only asks for legit receipts as a way to get back at a place for bad service. He gave his opinion that waiters never get any better due to the Communist system. People do not believe in tips here.
The restaurant contained the most diverse group of people I've seen in one setting so far. Our meal was very good--we ate noodles made from vegetables, an eggplant dish and lamb. At one point, Tyler saw one of his "friends" who he wanted to buy from and invited him to sit with us so as to not appear too crass just using him for drugs. Who says druggies aren't caring people, too? The guy turned out to be from Nigeria and has been here for four years studying Chinese. He even had a Chinese wife who sat across from him playing a game on a cellphone and looking/sounding very Asian while doing so. No, I can't explain why, but trust me, she was ASIAN. They'll officially get married sometime in the future before they die. The deal and exchange was talked about very blatantly in front of me but I suppose the majority of the people in the restaurant would not have understood what was happening anyway.
We finally parted ways with plans to meet again Thursday so he can take me to THE place to get illegal copies of any and all movies and tv shows (it's swanky--supposedly they're even in alphabetical order). From there, the 798 Artist Area is a hop away. He's going down to that area for business, so I plan to tag along and then check out some art galleries. Any requests for movies/tv shows send them to me via e-mail before Thursday at 3 p.m. my time and I'll do my best.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Shopping + music = sweet sweetness
For June 22, 2007
I feel like I've been here forever. Not because I've mastered the culture or language or anything, but today was a long day and it was spent constantly meeting people and doing things. I think I have at least four new contacts, some of which I plan to hit up. But that to come. I apologize that this will be a long post.
The game for today in Chinese class was Mafia (keep this in mind)! I was so glad I had played it before because the instructions were solely in Chinese. Didn't keep me from dying the first game, though. We don't have history class on Fridays, so determined to use the subway and see some music, I set out with Mo (my brown friend) and Tim. I purposely didn't know where I was going or what I was doing, but as luck would have it, the train we caught had a small group of English-speaking adults on it. Some were natives and some were visiting for some exhibition. They were off to Xidan, THE place to go shopping for cheap stuff and to hone your bargaining skills with shop owners over what in the end amounts to probably a dollar difference. I was actually told to go there by someone on the plane ride over. We decided to tag along--I mainly wanted to stay close to the Chinese female because I figured she'd be ruthless in bargaining.
Now, imagine an office of cubicles. Take away the walls of the cubicles and fill them top to bottom with your choice of: shoes, bags, clothes, gaudy accessories that makes Claire's look classy, etc. and you have Xidan. It was a consumer's wet dream. I was on the prowl for a bag. The Chinese woman successfully helped me bargain down a giant bag that will serve me well in carrying books and/or small children. It happened so fast that it was only after that I began to process the bag itself and worry whether it made me look Asian. Mo and Tim assured me it didn't. On my own I bought a lovely pair of white flats but according to Chinese woman, I paid a little too much. The golden rule seems to be if it's 200 RMB, don't pay over 40 RMB. Live and learn. Tim had wandered off on his own by this point assuring Mo and I he'd be fine. The adults needed to leave to meet friends for dinner and extended us an invitation, but Mo and I opted to find the music venue 2 Kolegas instead. The adults in the group were really very nice, especially Samsuri, a Malaysian man. In fact, he kept offering for us to come to his hotel on Sunday (our free day) and chill with him and swim in the pool. No Mom, I didn't consider doing this. Richard, a native who taught Chinese, also invited us to give him a call if we were ever near where he lived, which turned out to be very close to Yuyuantan Park, an amusement park. Richard gave us a recommendation on where to get famous Beijing duck and the Chinese woman drew us a map on how to get to 2 Kolegas in my handy little notebook which has become a collection of my musings, random phone numbers + e-mail addresses, and Chinese phrases that may or may not say, "Please tell me to get off the bus here. Thank you." The directions were pretty simple (so we thought) and the train system isn't hard to figure out at all. It's actually much cleaner than the L. The only problem we encountered was finding this damn bus 731 which no one on the street had heard of. But to be fair, it took me a year and a half to become comfortable with the bus system in Chicago--here I think it's even more confusing. And I have only been here for four days.
After wandering aimlessly 'North,' we broke down and got a taxi. I'm deathly scared of them ever since reading about how some corrupt taxi drivers will drive foreigners out to the middle of nowhere refusing to take them back to civilization until money changes hands. They're also known to drive circuitous routes to get more money. This guy drove for a long time leaving the city behind and I felt my attempts to look like I knew what I was talking about by mumbling random Chinese words here and there were falling short. We finally pulled up to a drive-in movie theatre and I was about to cry when I realized the venue was indeed there, BEHIND the theatre (just like it said in my magazine, in plain English). This was a neat area, best likened to a hamlet, complete with several nice restaurants, a coffee shop, and a mysterious business that read X Club across the front. All of this was centered around a small pond. Mo and I arrived way before the show (it started at 10) so we decided to check out the venue. The band, Lonely China Day, fresh from their appearance at the SXSW music festival in Texas, was inside warming up. Just like 13club and D-22, the venue was open and we were free to walk in and chill. I love that. I met the owner and tried to ask him for a recommendation on where to eat. Instead, he asked us whether we wanted food with meat or no meat (first time any person in this country has asked that question) and before we knew it, ordered take-out for us. At this point Mo and I just sat and watched the band (think Mogwai). I tried to talk to the owner but he unfortunately could speak much Engilsh (rather, I can't speak any Chinese) and he referred me to the band's rep. She ended up speaking quite a lot of English. Highlights of our conversation as follows:
Me: How big is the indie rock scene?
Band rep: Very small. People here prefer pop music.
M: Why is Lonely China Day 'indie rock'?
BR: It's the attitude. Maybe you listen to the songs and read their lyrics to understand.
M: What kind of things do they sing about?
BR: Everything. They sing about politics a little. (as in, the critiques are hidden within the lyrics)
M: Is it difficult being censored?
BR: Not important [to the band]. Maybe you live here 1-2 years and you'll understand.
The language barrier prevented me from finding out more about how artists regard the Ministry of Culture, but this is now my new goal. She also mentioned an indie music festival that will take place at 2 Kolegas July 7-8. Yes.
Our food finally materialized and Mo and I ate in blissful vegetarian hapiness as I took in the scene. The venue was small (about the size of Empty Bottle) with a modest bar. Photographs and painted geckos bedecked some of the walls. And finally, what bar is complete without a fooseball table and a unicycle? After we ate, we had a lot of time to kill before the show started, so we decided to explore. Mo wanted to check out X Club and upon entering, we were immediately offered free juice and water. I momentarily felt bad about taking their tasty beverages with no intent of buying anything, but only momentarily as I was quite thirsty. There was a counter with video cameras that were taking and loading people's picture onto computers. We tried to walk around, but were shooed away--I gathered there was a line (lesson 13 baby) and we left confused and positive some sort of illegal midget pornography lay behind the closed doors. We continued exploring and stopped in to the coffee place to grab an expensive cafe mocha (what kind of world do we live in where the beer is cheaper than the coffee?!) and play with the owner's dog. The cafe looked like the inside of their house (I never could tell whether it was or not) but we all had quite an enjoyable time speaking Chinglish to each other.
After coffee, we headed over to the venue. We saw a white couple sitting outside and we approached them rejoicing in the fact they could speak English. A bit stand-offish at first, they warmed up and we learned they were the owners of the premier indie record label Tagteam, in China. Lonely China Day was one of their seven bands and they were there that night to listen and support. Matt and Heike Kagler were pretty proud of themselves with the nice write-up in City Weekend (one of the many magazines I've stolen and stock-piled while here) and the fact that two of their bands (Lonely China Day and Rebuilding the Rights of Statues) had just finished a U.S. tour. LCD even had a NYTimes mention, according to Matt. I was excited to learn they had played a show in the Art Garage in Columbia and that Matt and I both knew Ben (of Band of Horses). And by know (for me at least), I mean saw him perform and wished we were friends. Unfortunately they did not know/remember Otis. That would have made the world way too small. I spoke with them about the Ministry of Culture--Matt said it was an overrated concern but Heike said they had had one encounter with the Ministry complaining about the frequent use of "fuck" in one of their band's songs. Apparantly they have to send in the lyrics. They were able to finagle their way out of it, though, and still released it from what I gathered. As for the Kagler's take on the indie rock scene: "It's growing. It's not a sub-genre anymore," Matt said.
When the show began, the audience was a little over 30 people. Shockingly (to me), about 15% were white! I have no clue whether that is the norm, whether it's due to the fact it was indie rock, or whether most of the white people were with the label. The show itself was a bit disappointing, especially after seeing them warm-up. There was a lot of synth and the drum set remained unused for about 90% of the show. Most of the time, there were only two guys on stage playing their guitars. Mo called it when he said it didn't feel like a live show. Later I learned from Matt that after the US tour, half the band quit and this was their first show with the new drummer. The band was in the market for a new bassist (Zack Beach? Want to move to Beijing?).
It ended late and we learned the trains stop running at 11 pm so we cabbed it home only for me to realize poor Maude, my 8,000 year old bike which I had left at the Wudaokuo train station, had a flat tire. It made for a musical ride home and a mildly amusing end to a great day!
I feel like I've been here forever. Not because I've mastered the culture or language or anything, but today was a long day and it was spent constantly meeting people and doing things. I think I have at least four new contacts, some of which I plan to hit up. But that to come. I apologize that this will be a long post.
The game for today in Chinese class was Mafia (keep this in mind)! I was so glad I had played it before because the instructions were solely in Chinese. Didn't keep me from dying the first game, though. We don't have history class on Fridays, so determined to use the subway and see some music, I set out with Mo (my brown friend) and Tim. I purposely didn't know where I was going or what I was doing, but as luck would have it, the train we caught had a small group of English-speaking adults on it. Some were natives and some were visiting for some exhibition. They were off to Xidan, THE place to go shopping for cheap stuff and to hone your bargaining skills with shop owners over what in the end amounts to probably a dollar difference. I was actually told to go there by someone on the plane ride over. We decided to tag along--I mainly wanted to stay close to the Chinese female because I figured she'd be ruthless in bargaining.
Now, imagine an office of cubicles. Take away the walls of the cubicles and fill them top to bottom with your choice of: shoes, bags, clothes, gaudy accessories that makes Claire's look classy, etc. and you have Xidan. It was a consumer's wet dream. I was on the prowl for a bag. The Chinese woman successfully helped me bargain down a giant bag that will serve me well in carrying books and/or small children. It happened so fast that it was only after that I began to process the bag itself and worry whether it made me look Asian. Mo and Tim assured me it didn't. On my own I bought a lovely pair of white flats but according to Chinese woman, I paid a little too much. The golden rule seems to be if it's 200 RMB, don't pay over 40 RMB. Live and learn. Tim had wandered off on his own by this point assuring Mo and I he'd be fine. The adults needed to leave to meet friends for dinner and extended us an invitation, but Mo and I opted to find the music venue 2 Kolegas instead. The adults in the group were really very nice, especially Samsuri, a Malaysian man. In fact, he kept offering for us to come to his hotel on Sunday (our free day) and chill with him and swim in the pool. No Mom, I didn't consider doing this. Richard, a native who taught Chinese, also invited us to give him a call if we were ever near where he lived, which turned out to be very close to Yuyuantan Park, an amusement park. Richard gave us a recommendation on where to get famous Beijing duck and the Chinese woman drew us a map on how to get to 2 Kolegas in my handy little notebook which has become a collection of my musings, random phone numbers + e-mail addresses, and Chinese phrases that may or may not say, "Please tell me to get off the bus here. Thank you." The directions were pretty simple (so we thought) and the train system isn't hard to figure out at all. It's actually much cleaner than the L. The only problem we encountered was finding this damn bus 731 which no one on the street had heard of. But to be fair, it took me a year and a half to become comfortable with the bus system in Chicago--here I think it's even more confusing. And I have only been here for four days.
After wandering aimlessly 'North,' we broke down and got a taxi. I'm deathly scared of them ever since reading about how some corrupt taxi drivers will drive foreigners out to the middle of nowhere refusing to take them back to civilization until money changes hands. They're also known to drive circuitous routes to get more money. This guy drove for a long time leaving the city behind and I felt my attempts to look like I knew what I was talking about by mumbling random Chinese words here and there were falling short. We finally pulled up to a drive-in movie theatre and I was about to cry when I realized the venue was indeed there, BEHIND the theatre (just like it said in my magazine, in plain English). This was a neat area, best likened to a hamlet, complete with several nice restaurants, a coffee shop, and a mysterious business that read X Club across the front. All of this was centered around a small pond. Mo and I arrived way before the show (it started at 10) so we decided to check out the venue. The band, Lonely China Day, fresh from their appearance at the SXSW music festival in Texas, was inside warming up. Just like 13club and D-22, the venue was open and we were free to walk in and chill. I love that. I met the owner and tried to ask him for a recommendation on where to eat. Instead, he asked us whether we wanted food with meat or no meat (first time any person in this country has asked that question) and before we knew it, ordered take-out for us. At this point Mo and I just sat and watched the band (think Mogwai). I tried to talk to the owner but he unfortunately could speak much Engilsh (rather, I can't speak any Chinese) and he referred me to the band's rep. She ended up speaking quite a lot of English. Highlights of our conversation as follows:
Me: How big is the indie rock scene?
Band rep: Very small. People here prefer pop music.
M: Why is Lonely China Day 'indie rock'?
BR: It's the attitude. Maybe you listen to the songs and read their lyrics to understand.
M: What kind of things do they sing about?
BR: Everything. They sing about politics a little. (as in, the critiques are hidden within the lyrics)
M: Is it difficult being censored?
BR: Not important [to the band]. Maybe you live here 1-2 years and you'll understand.
The language barrier prevented me from finding out more about how artists regard the Ministry of Culture, but this is now my new goal. She also mentioned an indie music festival that will take place at 2 Kolegas July 7-8. Yes.
Our food finally materialized and Mo and I ate in blissful vegetarian hapiness as I took in the scene. The venue was small (about the size of Empty Bottle) with a modest bar. Photographs and painted geckos bedecked some of the walls. And finally, what bar is complete without a fooseball table and a unicycle? After we ate, we had a lot of time to kill before the show started, so we decided to explore. Mo wanted to check out X Club and upon entering, we were immediately offered free juice and water. I momentarily felt bad about taking their tasty beverages with no intent of buying anything, but only momentarily as I was quite thirsty. There was a counter with video cameras that were taking and loading people's picture onto computers. We tried to walk around, but were shooed away--I gathered there was a line (lesson 13 baby) and we left confused and positive some sort of illegal midget pornography lay behind the closed doors. We continued exploring and stopped in to the coffee place to grab an expensive cafe mocha (what kind of world do we live in where the beer is cheaper than the coffee?!) and play with the owner's dog. The cafe looked like the inside of their house (I never could tell whether it was or not) but we all had quite an enjoyable time speaking Chinglish to each other.
After coffee, we headed over to the venue. We saw a white couple sitting outside and we approached them rejoicing in the fact they could speak English. A bit stand-offish at first, they warmed up and we learned they were the owners of the premier indie record label Tagteam, in China. Lonely China Day was one of their seven bands and they were there that night to listen and support. Matt and Heike Kagler were pretty proud of themselves with the nice write-up in City Weekend (one of the many magazines I've stolen and stock-piled while here) and the fact that two of their bands (Lonely China Day and Rebuilding the Rights of Statues) had just finished a U.S. tour. LCD even had a NYTimes mention, according to Matt. I was excited to learn they had played a show in the Art Garage in Columbia and that Matt and I both knew Ben (of Band of Horses). And by know (for me at least), I mean saw him perform and wished we were friends. Unfortunately they did not know/remember Otis. That would have made the world way too small. I spoke with them about the Ministry of Culture--Matt said it was an overrated concern but Heike said they had had one encounter with the Ministry complaining about the frequent use of "fuck" in one of their band's songs. Apparantly they have to send in the lyrics. They were able to finagle their way out of it, though, and still released it from what I gathered. As for the Kagler's take on the indie rock scene: "It's growing. It's not a sub-genre anymore," Matt said.
When the show began, the audience was a little over 30 people. Shockingly (to me), about 15% were white! I have no clue whether that is the norm, whether it's due to the fact it was indie rock, or whether most of the white people were with the label. The show itself was a bit disappointing, especially after seeing them warm-up. There was a lot of synth and the drum set remained unused for about 90% of the show. Most of the time, there were only two guys on stage playing their guitars. Mo called it when he said it didn't feel like a live show. Later I learned from Matt that after the US tour, half the band quit and this was their first show with the new drummer. The band was in the market for a new bassist (Zack Beach? Want to move to Beijing?).
It ended late and we learned the trains stop running at 11 pm so we cabbed it home only for me to realize poor Maude, my 8,000 year old bike which I had left at the Wudaokuo train station, had a flat tire. It made for a musical ride home and a mildly amusing end to a great day!
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