China and Hong Kong

After only two short days at sea we arrived at the International Port Terminal in Shanghai, China on Tuesday February 16, 2010. Ported right in the Shanghai harbor, we could see the entire skyline right out our window – it was definitely an awesome view to wake up to in the morning. For the first time, we had an on ship diplomatic briefing on arrival day. A member of the Foreign Service working for the US consulate in Shanghai boarded the ship to discuss many of the issues facing Chinese-US relations. It was such an exciting time to be in China because so many important things were happening. Interestingly, during our stay in China, President Obama met with the Dali Lama – an action that has strained US relations with China. Congress has also recently approved a large arms package deal with Taiwan, which has only strained relations further. As China works to completely reunify all of the satellite nations surrounding the mainland, the US meeting with the Dali Lama, the figurehead for Tibetan independence, and providing weapons to Taiwan, has led to increased resentment of Americans and the American government. We were warned that people would not be friendly, to not engage in any sort of political confrontation, and above all – avoid any type of run ins with the government. (I found this to all be very good advice) Besides the political turmoil which was currently happening in China, it was also Chinese New Year! I really didn’t fully understand what a big deal Chinese New Year is until we were there. There were huge fireworks in the streets every night, big red Chinese lanterns hanging everywhere and just constant celebration. It is the year of the tiger.

After clearing customs around noon, we stepped off the ship right into downtown Shanghai. We immediately were in search for Nanjing Road, the old shopping district said to have incredible bargain shopping within old historic buildings. While Nanjing Road wasn’t too far from the port, the sheer number of people and cars made the walk seem like it lasted forever. As soon as we stepped off the ship I was completely overwhelmed. I have never seen so many people in one area in my life; we were basically just herded along the sidewalks as there was a constant flow of traffic moving in every direction. There are really no pedestrian walkways – and crossing the street was very scary. We were told to walk confidently and briskly across and the cars would just move around us. I ended up just making sure I followed a local. When we were walking anywhere people would just stare at us, take pictures and gawk at how out of place we all looked. But eventually we arrived at Nanjing Road. It’s a beautiful old street lined with knickknack stores, food vendors and traditional clothing shops. I’m not sure if it was because of the New Year or if it’s like that all the time, but moving through the stores was like constantly being in an overly crowded elevator. Really, there just wasn’t enough space. The body language and non-verbal communication of the Chinese took some getting used to. There is no such thing as personal space or waiting in lines. They push, shove, and cut lines – and it was strange to realize this isn’t bad manners, but just their way of life. But this shopping got exhausting pretty quickly so we soon were in search of lunch. During the New Year it is customary to eat Dim Sum for breakfast and lunch every day. Dim Sum is sort of like dumplings filled with different things inside. We found a wonderful restaurant on Nanjing Road and relaxed there for awhile. China was also our first country where we couldn’t drink the water. It took a long time for the waiter to understand we needed bottled water or canned drinks. I sort of felt bad turning my nose up to their water and ice – but I definitely didn’t want to get sick. We later visited an area of Shanghai called “the Bund”, known as the cultural center of the city. It was just a gorgeous area lined with New Years decorations and after the sun went down – the place where they set off all the nightly fireworks. We ate dinner at a Hot Pot restaurant near the ship. Hot Pot is basically like the Chinese equivalent of the Melting Pot. They brought us a huge pot of some form of broth with what looked like an entire lamb inside. This was just a little too much for me – so I stuck with eating the noodles and dumplings we dumped in on the sides. It was quite a cultural experience, but I don’t think I will ever eat it again. The next day we walked around and explored Shanghai further and prepared for the Semester at Sea Beijing trip that was leaving the next day.

The next morning we woke up at 5am to meet everyone for the large Semester at Sea trip we were taking to Beijing. This was my first overnight planned trip through Semester at Sea. It was nice not to have to worry about any travel arrangements and to have everything planned out – but I think it also took away from the cultural experience a little bit. We had an early morning flight from Shanghai to Beijing and arrived at our hotel in Beijing around 11am. The SAS trip had 97 people on it so we were equally divided into 3 charter buses. We met our tour leader Henry, the cutest and sweetest older Chinese man. It was nice to have Henry on the bus with us – he gave us great background information about everywhere we were going. That is definitely one of the perks of a planned SAS trip – I felt more prepared for everything I was seeing. We had lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant and ventured to the Temple of Heaven, a beautiful temple located in the center of a public park. We were given these toys with coins on one end and feathers on the other and were told to try and play a pickup game with the locals, sort of like hacky sack. Everyone wanted to play with us and it turned out to be an amazing way to connect with the people. Separated by a language barrier – this simple game was such a fun and special way to reach a level of understanding between such different cultures. After, we attended a traditional Chinese tea ceremony where we were taught about different teas, their uses and the appropriate times to have them. I enjoyed learning so much about it. Later, we spent the evening in a little village on the outskirts of Beijing. We had dinner at a family’s home where they had prepared their traditional meal for the 5th day of Chinese New Year for us. On the 5th day – families eat pork dumplings, green beans and rice. It was no doubt the best meal I’ve had on the trip so far. The father of the family taught us how to make the dumplings and gave us a tour of their home. Their family has lived in the same house for five generations – taking care of the elderly family members and eventually moving up in the family hierarchy. The house was small, but obviously their prized possession – I loved visiting there because it was such a nice contrast from the big lights and skyscrapers of the city. We took rickshaws back to our hotel, an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Maneuvering through tiny little streets in the pitch black of night while huge fireworks were going off in the background was unbelievable. Everywhere I looked there were little children setting off professional grade fireworks, the entire sky lighting up continuously. It was one of those moments that really put things in perspective – here I was sitting in a bicycle drawn buggy driving down the streets of Beijing during Chinese New Year.

The next day we awoke really early and spent our morning at Tiananmen Square and inside the Forbidden City. Being inside such a historic place excited me so much; I loved having the chance to walk through such an important world site. It was also interesting to hear Henry’s perspective of the Tiananmen Square massacre and his feelings about Mao Zedong. Henry did not plan on talking about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and when asked about it by a member of our group, he hesitated in answering for a long time. He briefly spoke that the students that protested in Tiananmen Square were rising up against corruption – not the actual government. He stated that the United States and other western nations blew the entire “incident” out of proportion and that it isn’t discussed much in China at all. It was then that I realized still how closed of a society China really is, and how different a country people like Henry live in. He glowed about Mao, saying that it is because of him that he was employed and even shared the expression “Oh my Mao” with us. (Like “Oh my God”) It was so interesting to hear his perspective and it was a showcase of the rest of the Chinese population. As we stood in front of Chairman Mao’s mausoleum, people showed such reverence, respect and love; I couldn’t help but be completely intrigued by what Mao had created in China. The building itself is overwhelming, the actual picture of Mao over to 20 feet tall. Entering the Forbidden City, we were escorted through courtyard after courtyard and building after building – it seemed to go on forever. Each building served a different purpose, a beautiful temple, dining area and sleeping quarters were all separated by huge walled in courtyards – all beautifully designed and decorated. The home of the Emperor for centuries, the Forbidden City was off limits to all regular people. Before the creation of the airplane – this compound was said to be the safest area in the world, completely impenetrable from the outside. I was amazed by the opulence, shear amount of space it took up and the years and years of history that this area held within its walls. We then had a quick lunch and traveled by bus for about two hours for our trip to a local orphanage. The orphanage was created by a man named Shi Qinghua about ten years ago after he felt a calling to help impoverished youth suffering from strained family dynamics. Many of the children who live in the children’s village have incarcerated parents, disabled family members who can’t care for them, or were just unwanted (mostly girls). We were given the chance to tour their classrooms, living quarters and playground. The classrooms were dirty, with only small wooden desks and a single chalkboard. There were usually ten children to one sleeping room, and the playground was a dirt field. But I really don’t know when I have seen happier children. They were all so excited for play companions. We spent the afternoon doing some cleaning and playing with the kids. On the ship, we have a program that knits scarves for kids we visit throughout the voyage. We were each able to take some scarves with us – the kids absolutely loved them. I was so touched by the entire experience. I was impressed by the life-changing effect Mr. Qinghua has on these children, and it made me hopeful for their future. While it was a hard afternoon, I left feeling happy that these kids will have a chance when they would otherwise not. Later, we had a traditional duck roast dinner at a local restaurant. Duck is the meal served on the 6th day of the New Year. All meals in China are served family style in the center of the table; they are placed on a “lazy Susan” or a turn table for easy access for everyone. There was an amazing spread prepared of rice and vegetables and the duck was served sliced already, I was really glad about this. We were shown how to put the duck meat, along with cucumber slices, rice and a sauce into thin rice paper and wrap it up like a burrito. It was delicious.

On our last day in Beijing, we finally ventured to the Great Wall! But first, we visited the Beijing International Kongfu School for a performance and short Kongfu lesson. About 12 Chinese boys between the ages of 12-15 preformed intense Kongfu routines – which included fighting each other and breaking stuff with their heads. After, they showed us the basic Kongfu steps – you have to be really limber to even attempt them. We then traveled by bus for about 3 hours until we reached the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. We had a nice lunch at the base of the wall then traveled by cable car to the top where we began our hike. Even though it was an overcast day, standing on the wall – we could see for miles and miles. The mountains were covered in snow, but it luckily wasn’t too cold outside. I can’t really put into words how I felt climbing the wall. I was amazed by the beauty of it, saddened by the loss of life it took to build, and overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all. All 97 of us just stood grounded for several minutes, taking it all in. The section on which we walked has been reconstructed for visitors, but even there the steps and walkways were so worn down by the millions of feet that have traveled on it. The way the wall contours with the mountains is amazing, I was impressed solely by the engineering of it. We spent the next three hours walking from where the cable car dropped us off to our end point; where we would toboggan down to meet our bus. I tried to soak in every second on the wall- the sights, smells and sounds. It was an incredibly special experience that I will look back on forever. At our ending point, we each took a small sled down a metal track back to the base of the wall. The ride back down took about ten minutes- it was like being on a rollercoaster we could control ourselves. We then traveled back to Beijing and made our way to a Chinese acrobatic show. The show was amazing, pretty similar to Circ de Solei – I now understand why China is always so good in the Olympics at gymnastics. They did flips, balancing acts and at one point had 17 people on one bicycle, which they rode around the stage. Everyone left the show completely floored. We then had our last dinner in Beijing and prepared for our early morning flight to Hong Kong.

We arrived on Hong Kong Island around noon. It was the shakiest flight I’ve ever been on – and the landing strip is basically a bridge over some water. The Hong Kong airport was like a city in itself. It took us almost an hour just to walk through it. Currently, Hong Kong is a Special Autonomous Region that is slowly assimilating back into Chinese control after being leased by the British for 99 years. Because of this, it is now considered a separate nation – so we had to clear customs and exchange all of our currency. Hong Kong is what I envision for the future of big cities throughout the world. It was clean, efficient, timely and so technologically advanced it amazed me. It was also amazing how different it was from Shanghai and Beijing – what a difference that S.A.R. title meant to the way in which people acted, treated others and went about their lives. We boarded a charter bus that took us to meet the ship, where I took a very long nap and tried to recover from some strenuous traveling in Beijing. That night, I met up with some friends who had gotten back from other trips and we explored Hong Kong and its famous night markets. At night Hong Kong is entirely lit up, the streets illuminated by endless lighted signs, window displays and shops. The skyscrapers put on a nightly light show and the entire city seems to just buzz with energy. The next morning we went to a beautiful pearl and jade market – where I watched jewelers actually open up oysters to get pearls out. There were some of the most beautiful stones I’ve ever seen, and the people loved sharing their stories about how they came to be jewelers, why they loved it and why jade is so important in China. In the afternoon, we explored the SoHo district of Hong Kong where little merchant shops went on for miles and miles. We later had dinner at a little burger pub hidden on a side street. While I felt a little guilty not eating traditional Hong Kong food, that was the best burger I’ve ever had – and might ever have.

On our final day in Hong Kong, we woke up really early and made our way to the largest Giant Buddha statue in the world. We took the Hong Kong metro to meet cable cars that would take us to the remote monastery way in the mountains where the statue is located. Now being a veteran foreign metro passenger, the Hong Kong metro system was the easiest and most efficient rail line I’ve seen. We easily found the right stops, which were all right on time. We reached the cable cars – and decided to take a “crystal cabin” to the top. The crystal cabins have a glass floor so we could see through the bottom the entire trip up. The cable cars were about a 30 minute trip, the entire trip was absolutely beautiful. As we got closer and closer to the statue we finally began to realize how huge it really is! We hiked up to the statue, up all 250 steps. The Buddha statue is placed in the Lotus posture, with six smaller female god statues around him paying their respects. It is roughly the size of the Statue of Liberty. Nestled in the mountains, we were standing in clouds – it was one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen. The Giant Buddha was such an awesome way to end our trip in Hong Kong. We then made our way back to the ship terminal – which was connected to a giant mall. I also learned that Hong Kong is basically just one big shopping mall, with every store somehow connected with another. It was definitely convenient to be docked so close to great restaurants and free internet access. Hong Kong was an amazing city that I think I definitely want to go back and visit. I loved the way the city was laid out, how efficient everything and everyone seemed to be and how content the people seemed with their lives. It was a big city feel without the big city stress that I think sometimes inhabits the fast paced world.

My experience in China and in Hong Kong was very different from that of Japan. I quickly learned how different these two nations are. I will never again lump “Asia” together as one homogenous place. The people were different; their attitudes, etiquette and social norms were so dissimilar it amazed me. We have an assignment for Global Studies where we have to identify three adjectives that define each nation by the end of our time there. Right away my first one was: crowded. The mass amount of people around all the time overwhelmed me; truly I am just not used to it. I did love my time in China though and appreciated visiting such an important nation in the world. I can better understand our cultural differences and realize their impact on our relations. Visiting the Great Wall will be a highlight of my life, but so will all the other things I saw – each one adding to my overall experience.