June 2010 Archives

Before the China trip I had no idea what the World Expo even was. Everyone kept talking about how exciting it was going to be that we were going to it, so I did some research online. Once I found out what it actually was, I was quite excited myself. We left the hotel at 7:00 AM to make sure we missed all the traffic so we could get there at a decent time. We got there and a ton of people were already waiting to get in. We stood in line for a good hour because the gates didn't actually open until 9:30 AM. Once we all got in we went straight to the USA building. It was really the only building I cared to go in. The line was very, very long, but it was moving quickly. Once we got up front there was an American woman who greeted us. We got inside and she started speaking in Mandarin while a Chinese lady was speaking English. It was quite funny and all the Chinese people would laugh when the American woman would speak. They told us we would be going through four different parts in the building; three of them would be watching movies. The movies were just people talking about America and our plans for the future. Barack Obama gave a little speech as well. The last part of the building was a display of all the large American companies. Wal-Mart was displayed, Dell, and Microsoft among many others. We got out of the building and it was already extremely hot and muggy out. It was going to be a long day at the Expo where 500,000 people visit each day! Sarah and I walked around all day and I took pictures of each building we passed. I couldn't believe how amazing some of the buildings were. So much time and planning must have gone into each one of them. They were absolutely stunning and now I understood why more money was spent on the Expo than on the Olympics. Overall it was a very exciting day, although I anticipated leaving early and to head back to the hotel. When it was time to go I didn't want to leave because there was so much to do and so much to see. I'm very happy I got to see the World Expo as it doesn't happen that often and I'll probably never get the opportunity to go to one ever again.

One of the things I was most excited about during the China trip was going to Shanghai. It is such a well-known city and is featured in a ton of movies so I couldn't wait to see it for myself. When we arrived I first noticed all the smog. In a city with 21 million people there is obviously a lot of pollution and it's too bad they never get to see the sun! I also noticed all the sky scrapers and how tall all of the buildings were compared to the other cities. Since the space was so limited they just kept building up and up. There were sky scrapers for miles and miles. I just can't imagine how much work goes into building one of those humongous buildings, they're absolutely huge! We also went to the World Financial Center building which is the tallest building in Shanghai and has the world's highest observatory. Waiting in line to go up was brutal and once we got to the observatory I started freaking out a bit. The floor had glass pieces in it and I was afraid to walk on them, thinking I would break through the glass and die. The building also had a slight sway to it because we were up in the clouds and this freaked me out as well. Waiting in line to take the elevator to get back down was awful too. I just wanted to get out of there and I felt trapped because we had to wait in line for so long then take several elevators to get back down. I'm glad we did go to the World Financial Center because I've never been in a tall building like that before so it was a first for me. It was also awesome to see the building whenever we were in downtown Shanghai and I could say, "Hey I was all the way up there!"

Our last day in Shanghai was a lot of fun, although it was hard to not think about the fact that we were leaving the next day.  I was very surprised at how easy it was to get around the city using the metro.  We took it to Nanjing road, a street full of shopping, where we smartly divided up into little groups and set a place and time to meet to head home.  (We all had learned over the course of the trip that trying to stay in a big group while shopping is not very manageable).  Nanjing road consisted of high-end retail shops with prices closer to those in the U.S.  There were, however, shops that were behind the big stores and in back alleyways that had cheaper prices as well as knock-off items.  I think it is very cool that little shops around the corners of huge stores can make it and be successful.  Once we were done shopping, I was excited to take the metro back to our hotel, but for some reason the stop we had arrived at was closed for maintenance, so we had to cab it back. 

I would have to say that making the decision to go on this trip was the best thing I have ever done.  When the trip ended I had a completely different perspective on things, and a huge appreciation for a different culture.  I had no idea how much the trip would affect me, but I now have the urge to travel more places and experience as many different cultures and countries as possible.  China has opened my eyes to so many new things, I am so grateful for having the experience that I did.

The flight back home was sad for many people and bittersweet for others.  I personally loved the trip and soaked in as much of the culture as was possible.  I tried to attend every activity and tried not to miss out on any adventure that was going on.  The travel day was hard on everyone in the group.  I know that a lot of people didn't go to bed the night before and then the travel day was just exhausting to the max.  The first flight was a bit scary with an older plane and a lot of turbulence.  But in the end we made it home safe and sound.  In the future, I am definitely looking forward to going back and possibly pursuing a career in international business.  Thank you all for such an amazing experience!  

Living standards in China are very different than in the U.S.  For one, most Chinese houses consist of one room.  In that one room they fit everything they own, which includes a bed, blankets, a table with small chairs, and all other necessities.  They do not have their own bathrooms they have a community water closet.  Also, no stove, they cook their food out doors.  In the U.S. all of these items would be located in one household whereas, the Chinese make everything more compact.  The U.S. is more wasteful and each household usually has more than they need.  It is incredible to see the differences in cultures and how each culture goes about their daily routines.

We went to a tea house in Beijing and got to try 6 different kinds of tea that were already pre-packaged. Although it was very cool to try this tea and to also buy some, it didn't at all compare to the fresh green tea I got to try in the mountains of Hangzhou. After going to West Lake we headed up the mountains to attend a tea ceremony. While driving we started noticing all the terraces in the hills where all the tea leaves were planted and growing. The tea house was situated right in the mountains with the terraces right out the backdoor. We got to see a man hand drying the freshly picked tea leaves by moving them around in a large bowl. We were told that this process can sometimes take several hours. We sat in a large room around a huge table while the lady taught us all about the tea. She had a basket of the freshly dried tea leaves and put a pinch in each of our glasses. Another lady came around and poured hot water into our glasses with three hand movements each time. In English this gesture meant thank you very much. So after she poured our water, we would tap on the table three times. We learned how good the green tea is for you, which is much better than coffee. You can also eat the tea leaves which I never knew you could do. It made sense now why everyone carried around a water bottle type thing with all these tea leaves in it. She also showed us four different qualities of the green tea. The earlier you pick it the better it is and thus the more expensive. The first batch picked is rated number one and would be used for the Emperor to drink. The second batch picked is rated number two and would be used for the workers of the tea house to drink; it was a family owned business. The third batch would be for the Chinese people to drink and the fourth batch would be exported to other countries. Although I don't think the tea has much flavor I still enjoyed it very much and think I will start drinking a lot more tea when I get back home. Green tea is good for so many reasons and would be a much better substitute than all the coffee I drink.

When I heard we were going to West Lake in Hangzhou I didn't really know what to expect because you don't really hear of many lakes in China. Joe, our tour guide, had told us it was a man-made lake so I thought it was going to be very small. It's also very strange to think of a lake being man-made because Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes. When we go to the lake I was amazed by how many people there were on a Thursday afternoon. Joe had told us Hangzhou was nicknamed "the leisure city" but it looked like all the people here were tourists just like ourselves. It took us awhile to walk to where we would board a boat to go on a 45 minute cruise around the lake. While out on the lake I could not believe how big it actually was. There were also two islands in the middle of it and you could barely see the city through the smog. I took plenty of pictures on the boat because it reminded me of being back home and enjoying a hot summer day on the water. Although you don't see any swimmers, water-skiers, wave-runners, or anything like that on the water. After the boat ride Sarah and I walked around to see the many different aspects of the park. We saw a pond with several thousand red crappies, peak hawks, a bamboo forest, and several other beautiful things. The park was just so serene and so full of nature; I could have walked around for several hours if we had the time. I can now see why Hangzhou is nicknamed "the leisure city" because if I lived there I would definitely go to West Lake as much as I could to hang out.

I have found that advertising in China is unlike any other country I have seen. Obviously advertising is a very important part of business marketing and you can see this through all the TV commercials, magazine ads and billboards as seen in the U.S.  In China this same practice occurs just to a different extent. For one when China wants to advertise something they do it big, especially in Shanghai. It is not unusual to see an entire side of a building lit up with different advertisements. Often a side of a building will act as a giant TV screen projecting different ads through LED lights. I was amazed when I first saw this mainly because we don't have anything like this in the U.S. The closest similarity would perhaps be Time Square in New York but still nothing lives up to extent to which china advertises. Besides the lights and glamour part of Chinas advertisement I also noticed that for certain events, like the World Expo, they advertise repetitively. While in Shanghai, everywhere you looked you saw something having to do with the Expo. Likewise with the 2008 Olympics china will advertise over and over again. ...

West Lake is a picturesque landscape in western area of Hangzhou City's center.  We were lucky to have the chance to visit there in our China study trip.  During the cruise excursion, we met lots of tourist groups from all over China and world.  I heard some tourist guides telling those stories behind the scene. 

Not only being famous for the scenic resort, West Lake is associated with many scholars and national heroes, thus embracing many aspects of Chinese culture.  Many stone caves, bridges and ancient buildings in surrounding areas are among the most cherished national treasures of China.  What interested me most is the Leifeng Pagoda, which can be seen during the cruise, due to those beautiful legends I have been told along me grew up with...West Lake is the pride of Hangzhou, and a favorite destination spot for the citizenry to escape the bustle and hustle of the modern city.  If by any chance, I can go back to Hangzhou, I will definitely spend one entire day visit West Lake again for sure!

When you look at all the experiences you have had at hotels in the US often times you will remember a lot of places that were unsatisfactory.  Well through my observations I have noticed that Chinese hotels have much better service than American ones.  In the US you will come across hotels that have sleeping front desk receptionists or at times they won't even be there, causing you to come back again later.  In China from the different hotels we have used, we have never had problems with the receptionists sleeping or being gone, even at 2 or 3 in the morning there will be multiple people working the front desk and greeting you with smiles.  I think this style of service has entirely to do with the Chinese culture and work ethic.  Another example of why I believe Chinese hotels offer better service is the fact that they respond to complaints much faster than in the United States.  We asked a room cleaner to come to our room because we were having problems with the internet and immediately they called people that could help us with the problem.  Within 5 to 10 minutes we had 5 people in our room trying to help us with our internet problem including people from the front desk.  They showed great concern with our problem and tried as best they could even with the communication barrier to help with the problem.  In the US if you had a problem like this I think it's safe to say that it would take a while for service to come. Also I do not think they would be quite as concerned as these Chinese people were for us.  Overall I think the Chinese are far better with their hotel service than Americans are with theirs.

In China I have noticed over the past month that there are very few traffic issues even in the larger cities.  This has amazed me because when China is compared to the US there is a huge difference between them.  Even in the Twin Cities with far less than a million people there are bad traffic problems at times.  Also I have noticed that there is almost always road construction being done around the cities and this is causing large congestion problems to occur.  In China I have seen very little congestion even with a city of around 20 million people.  Through our drives on the highways I have also seen very little road work being done which surprises me because in the city you can see a lot of different roads being worked on.  In the US you will see accidents quite often or people with car problems on the side of the road.  Also almost anywhere you are there is always a pull off lane on the side of the road in case you have car issues.  In China you very rarely see people with cars stalled on the side of the road or with flat tires.  The entire month I was in China I saw maybe 1 or 2 cars on the side of the road from accidents.  Even with these massive cities accidents are very low compared to the US. This low accident rate and road construction not being as bad as the US helps to make traffic not nearly as much of a problem as in the US.  Also the style of driving that people do in China helps with less traffic, what we may think is unsafe driving is actually normal driving in China and it helps to move more people on the roads faster.

Shanghai is a beautiful city. It is pretty developed. I noticed a lot of people in Shanghai speak English. I noticed that Shanghai was totally different from Beijing. I think Beijing is more traditional and Shanghai is more modern. I was surprised to see this because Beijing is the capital of China and as a capital of a country, I always expect them to be the most modern city. But, guess I was wrong.

Today we went to the World Financial Center in Shanghai. This building is apparently the world's tallest observatory. I have been to Empire State Building in New York and I thought the view from hat height was spectacular. I did not know how much better this height would be. It was a lot of waiting till we finally was able to go up. There were a large number of people there. Some of my friends were scared of heights. It was fun teasing them. Although it was a foggy day and we could not see the view properly, it still gave me an idea of how beautiful Shanghai looked from up above. I totally enjoyed the experience.

As we lined up to go, there were a lot of people waiting in line. We decided to cut through the line and pull the "American card". However in the process, I noticed something. Dr Li had told us in one of his lectures that Chinese people are very inviting to the people from different cultures but among their own culture, there are conflicts. I could see this because when we cut through the line, no one said anything. We were about a group of five. There was no word raised at us to tell us how it wasn't fair. However, when two Chinese people tried to cut the line, the people behind started arguing out loud. Although I could not understand the Chinese words, I basically got the point that the Chinese man was not really happy with the other two Chinese men cutting in. I was surprised to look how angry they got. I had stereotyped people in China not to show their anger and frustration, but instead they smile and keep the anger and frustration piled in. The angry voice of the man I saw today definitely made me rethink the stereotype and I learned to realize that people in China do show their emotions and do not hide them all the time.

Today, we went to see a theme park in China. When we were told that we had to spend about 3 to 4 hours there, I was disappointed. I did not know what the park would hold that would occupy me for so long. However, the real visit to this park was surprising. This park was definitely one of the coolest parks I had ever been to in my entire life. It had all sorts of things in there. There was a water game park where people got together to play games, lot of shops, a weird street which had the weirdest objects I could ever think of. It had a giant statue of Lord Buddha; there was a cave in it to. Once you go inside the cave you reach a point where you realize that the cave is actually moving. It is a scary and an unforgettable experience. At every point when you think that the adventures of the park are over, the park will itself lead you into a new one. We watched a dance show in this park too. The play was named Romance in the Song Dynasty. It was a love story between a guy and a girl. Although the words that they spoke were purely Chinese, I could get a gist of the story through the dance. I have to say Chinese people are the most talented people I have ever come across. The way they projected their show was amazing. They had a screen behind that showed a background and then they had people coming in and dancing. Sometimes, it would be so hard to tell if the background was real or not. There were times when the stage would open up and there will be a pond right there. The waterfall would also flow in the stage. Everything would look so natural. Every scene they showed, I had just one word in my mouth "WOW"! The ladies were really beautiful and the dance they performed was so perfect. At times I would feel the girls would fall off the ropes while dancing. They were just too perfect to be true. Even when they changed scenes they were so quick in changing the entire setting that it almost feel as if you are watching a movie. Chinese people have amazed me ever since the start of this trip. From starting from the Beijing show, to the peaking Opera and even the magician in the restaurant, they have performed beautifully. I keep wondering how they do those tricks on stage so beautifully.

As I opened my window today, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of this city. We had our room on one of the top floors of our hotel. The beauty of this town amazes me. We went on the boat ride. After the boat ride, we had been given time to explore the park by ourselves. While we were walking around, I came across some people who would rent some Chinese traditional costumes to the people who wanted to wear them and take a picture. I have always been interested in cultural dresses of different cultures. I was so excited to try one. I picked a beautiful red dress and put it on. The funniest thing about this experience was when I wore the cultural dress; there were a lot of people coming and taking pictures of me. This was kind of new to me. There were so many people who would pull me aside and want individual pictures with me. This went on for quite some time. I thought this experience was different because in United States, taking pictures of someone you don't know is a major thing. People in the US get angry about having strangers taking their pictures in public. They feel as if it is the invasion of privacy. They do not trust the other individual as to what are they really going to do with these pictures. Opposite to that, here we were in China letting strangers take our pictures without a fear in our head. I kept asking myself as to why this difference existed. Maybe it cause of the fact that China is from the eastern side of the world, the more conservative side. There was no way we were going to think that they were going to do something bad with these pictures. These pictures were just taken because they had not really encountered people from the other side of the world. They just want to have these pictures as a "nice" memory. This factor is totally different than from the incidences that we face in United States.

On our last day in Shanghai we all decided to go roam the street at the People's Square.  We took the metro for the first time.  It wasn't what I expected at all.  I thought it would be dirty and grimy with a lot of people and much crime.  There was none of that.  It was easy to understand and to get around.   We were able to find our way around all by ourselves, and that in itself is a major accomplishment in a foreign city where none of us spoke the native language.   

World Expo 2010 in Shanghai was a memorable experience for most people.  It consisted of waking up early and long lines.  On a more positive note the architecture was incredible and all of the countries really showed off their country in a very positive light.  They showcased their values and beliefs through their elaborate presentations and videos.  They also did a great job showing off the different cultural aspects of their countries just by the designs on their buildings.  All the buildings were unique in there own way and it was incredible to see the unity that was created through the world expo of all the countries coming together as one.   

People are everywhere in Shanghai.  It is basically impossible to get anywhere with out people running into you.  Literally they will run into you if you don't move, it is that highly populated. All I can really say about Shanghai is that it is a massive city that contains 20 millions people.  The city is huge and really the only place to go it up.  So there are immense skyscrapers all across the skyline.  The architecture is insanely beautiful and just adds to the uniqueness of the city.  Also, Shanghai is one of the most westernized cities so far in my visit to China it, is also very clean compared to all the other cities we visited as well.      

The Romantic Story of the Song Dynasty was a play in Hangzhou that absolutely blew my mind, I have seen numerous Broadway shows and this show was better times 5.  This show had fireworks, flying people, rain, waterfalls, and snow, everything you could imagine.  The costumes were ornate pieces of art and the actors and actresses wore them beautifully.  One of my favorite scenes in this love story would have to be when the two lovers die and turn into butterflies so they could finally be together.  They then go on to spin around in the air by a piece of fabric, and the girl hangs in the air by a mouthpiece connected to the guy.  Their performance was incredible.  I wish I could see it again.  It had to be one of the best operas ever produced.  

Bonding with the people here is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I can't even imagine trying to go this by myself, not knowing the language or anyway of communication.  It is great having Sabrina with us all the time because she can talk fluent Chinese and it makes it a lot easier to order food, and communicate with the locals.  She is amazing; I think I may be in love.  At first I had major culture shock when we all first got to Tianjin, I mean honesty, the cars will run you over if you don't watch out.  You will even get run over on the sidewalk by the electric carts and millions of bikes.  Although the work ethic here is pretty amazing!  One day you see roadwork and a closed off street and the next day, the street is paved and looks brand new.  Ethics here are so highly regarded and held to the highest degree, whereas, in the U.S. there is more of an emphasis on leisure activities.  

Went to the Chinese salon today!  It was fantastic and one of the best experiences at a salon.  I booked a facial yesterday and then went in for it today at 3 pm.  It took 1 hour and 45 minutes, absolutely fantastic.  They not only gave me a facial but also a back, neck, hand, foot, and head massage.  It was a good experience for me because Sabrina was right there with me communicating what they were saying.  It was so great; one woman worked on my face, while a different man came in and gave me a foot massage.  Then the boss of the shop came into the room and talked to us for a long while about many various topics.  I learned all about the school system and picked up on some more Chinese!  Overall today was a total success!

Saturday was a really fun day in Shanghai.  We started off at the Expo, which for me was very overwhelming.  We had to be there an hour and a half before doors even opened so that we wouldn't have to wait in line so long.  Once we got in, we headed straight for the U.S. Pavilion, because going there right away meant avoiding a long line later in the day.  I don't know if anyone else knew what to expect, but I was shocked to see how long the line already was at the U.S. Pavilion.  Once inside, I had the feeling of, "This is it? This is what people are waiting in line for at each Pavilion?"  I was not very impressed.  There were four different sections that had a short video clip of what the U.S. was doing towards the Expo's slogan of "Better City, Better Life".  For the rest of the day, I only went into one more Pavilion, because the lines were just way too long, and some at a standstill.  I was fine just wandering around the Expo, and looking at the cool buildings from the outside.  Overall, I thought the Expo was pretty cool, but there were just SO many people there, that it was almost hard to enjoy. 

That night, we went on a boat ride along the canal of downtown Shanghai.  I thought that that was a very cool way to end the trip.  The sky line in Shanghai is amazing at night, and seeing it from the water was one of the highlights of being in Shanghai.  I thought it was really interesting to see all the different ways people have found to advertise using the buildings and boats that are downtown.  All I could think about while on the boat ride was how I don't think any city I visit in the future could be as amazing and beautiful as Shanghai was.  

Today was our last time in Beijing.  We first went to the Temple of Heaven.  This was cool to see but we were all tired from all the sightseeing previous days, and the crazy party the night before.  After a little shopping and lunch, we took the high speed train to Tianjin.  This was the best part of the day for me.  It was really interesting to see the differences in train travel from Europe.  All the stations I have been to have been in old, historical buildings.  The station here looked brand new looking more like an airport terminal.  We also had to go through security which was also very weird to me, since I have never seen that in a train station before.  The biggest difference was that there were gates and a waiting area for the trains.  They check your ticket before you get on the train and you can't walk around freely to other platforms.  I thought that they would be more like every other train I have been on and they check your ticket when you are on the train, and you can roam around freely.  It felt more like an airport than a train station, and I think that I wouldn't like it if I had to travel by it frequently.  

This was our last day here in China and I would like to write about a few main observations that I have noticed over the last four weeks.

 The people here have been great to us.  From the people that we just met on the street to our friends at the university, everyone has been so kind.  I can not think of one bad moment in the whole trip where I felt that we haven't been treated fairly.  If anything, the people have treated us better probably better than we really deserve.  People sometimes would go out of their way to try and impress us.  An example of this is when we wanted to play table tennis and badminton at the university and we somehow met a high school student whose father works at the university.  He went way out of his way to try and reserve the room for us to play when we wanted to.  We ended up talking for at least 20 minutes and the whole time he was determined to get the room reserved for us. 

 The view of Americans seems a lot better here in China than other places around the world.  It seems like people like to see us in China, they want to learn more about us, and they don't have any negative things to say to our face.  When in Europe it seemed to be the opposite as people didn't really care about us and sometime I would hear some shallow comments about us because of our president at the time.

 Even though looking at the traffic and crossing the street feels so unsafe, I almost feel safer than I do at home.  I feel that even though they don't follow the rules as much and the roads are more chaotic, people watch out for each other more and are always willing to stop for others.  I might have just gotten used to this over the past four weeks, but I seriously felt very safe crossing the street and driving in cars.  We were in a taxi last night and it felt like I was on a racetrack.  None of us had seatbelts on but I didn't even worry about it.  At home I would have been so scared and would have buckled my seat belt immediately.  I feel like at home drivers feel that if you are in the way, it is your fault and you are reliable for yourself. 

 These are just some of the differences I have noticed. I could spend all day writing about the differences between the two countries.  I had a great time and I am already missing some of the small things about China.  

 This is the day that most of us have been looking forward to the most.  I did not know what to expect at all and had no idea what there would even be at the expo.  The World's Expo is an event that is held in different cities around the world once every few years.  We just happened to choose the right year, and now we have a whole day dedicated to exploring what each country has to offer.

 First thing that I noticed is the USA pavilion was unimpressive.  Maybe because I had such high expectations, but watching three different short films and then reading about corporations was not what I was expecting.  It seemed that the USA had no desire to impress anybody, but they just made a decently entertaining pavilion that could push people through the door at a faster rate than other pavilions.

 The next thing that I learned is that people here are not afraid to wait in long lines.  We wanted to go into the Germany pavilion but we asked how long it would take, and the guard said probably around six hours! We could not believe that people would actually spend their whole day in line only to spend probably one hour inside the exhibit. 

 Another thing that was quite obvious to me was the differences between rich countries and poor countries.  For example, Spain, Germany, England, China, Korea, USA, Sweden, and others all had very nice pavilions.  They designed them and made the architecture a key element of the pavilion.  Countries that are not so wealthy such as Iceland, Greece, and many other Eastern European countries obviously had less impressive design.  Most of these countries had a square building with the design printed on some material that stretched around the whole building. I thought that this was very interesting to see how different countries viewed the World's Expo and also how much they wanted to show off. 

 One last thing that I noticed was the overall interest in all people for all countries.  Everybody did have favorites and chose some of the bigger countries, but overall people showed an interest in every country.  People wanted to learn more about what each country is doing and how they are contributing to a "better city, better life."

Today was our first day in Shanghai.  We arrived in the early afternoon just in time for lunch.  After lunch we went to the Shanghai museum, the World Financial Center, and also a walk along the most famous shopping street in Shanghai.  This city is clearly the largest city that I have ever seen.  Many millions of people whom live here and skyscrapers that are spread out along the horizon.  I would consider myself a city person and this was really interesting for me to see.  Driving around the city I noticed that the highway seemed elevated along most of the city.  This is really interesting since the city is so large and this is how they dealt with large roads around the city.  Even though this road was elevated and had no stoplights, it still seemed to be full of traffic and slow moving.  It seemed like they need to add more lanes of traffic but there is just not enough room.

We went to the top of the World Financial Center, which is the third highest building in the world.  After many lines and a continued growth of impatience,, we were allowed to see the whole city from they highest point.  It is just truly amazing to see so many buildings and people all around.  Looking at the skyline and noticing all the cranes only shows that this city is becoming larger and will play an important role in business around the world.

Today we went to the Lake in the middle of the town and a park that was themed around the Chinese culture.  The lake was very large and there were many tourists.  One of the cool parts of this tour was on the boat when our tour guide randomly pulled out a one Yuan bill and showed us the picture on the back.  The next thing we know is that we are in front of this on the lake.  This was unexpected and interesting because this obviously has some historical value. 

The best part of the day was something that was also unexpected.  The only thing that we were told was that we were going to a show and there would be one hundred beautiful girls.  I really didn't know what to expect from this, and the last opera we went to was kind of boring. I had higher expectations than the opera but I did not have any idea of how great the performance would actually become.  The whole one-hour was filled with excitement and energy.  We saw some crazy effects, normal music (none of the clicking noises that was played in the opera for two hours straight), lots of choreographed performances by many people and some good stage design.  The show was entertaining for the whole one hour, and there were not any bad or boring parts.  I was very impressed overall and am glad that we went to this show even though I was very skeptical about going to it before.  This was one of the best shows I have ever seen and it was crazy to see this before my eyes.  The only disappointment I had with this show was the seating.  We were sitting far back, and the problem was that it was difficult to see the front of the stage because of other peoples heads were in the way.  An upgraded seating arrangement would make it more enjoyable for shorter people who cannot see over the heads of taller people.  Overall this was very entertaining and I was overly impressed by the size and energy of the whole show. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who has not seen it!

Friday was our first day in Shanghai, and I think we were all blown away by the sheer size of the city.  I was already amazed at how big Beijing was, but Shanghai has a much different feel.  That day, we visited the Shanghai World Financial Center, which has the world's highest observatory.  Basically, it is not the world's tallest building, or even the tallest building in Shanghai, but because the observatory is located 474 meters above ground, this is their claim to fame.  Due to the fact that this building is so famous and so well known, you would think that they would be very organized when it came to tourists.  This would be a false statement.  There was only one elevator that worked to take you up to the Sky Arena, and then only one elevator that could take people up to the Sky Walk.  After timidly walking around the Sky Walk (there were area's of glass floor, which is not very exciting for people who are scared of heights), we had to wait in a long line for the one elevator that worked to take us back down to the Sky Arena, where there was another line for the next elevator.  After going through all of this, and finally getting back down to the first floor, we learned from someone that there are actually 11 elevators that were working, but they are reserved only for emergencies and for the companies that are on the higher floors.  My first reaction was, "are you serious?".  This just seemed ridiculous to me, seeing as how the experience could have been a lot more fun if we hadn't had to wait in lines for so long.  I guess with so many people in Shanghai it should be expected, but it was surprising to hear that with all of the available elevators, they still just stuck to one.  I'm just glad I wasn't in line in the same place where someone got punched for budging, and another person puked.  I am glad that although I am not that fond of heights, I have still managed to ride the second tallest Ferris wheel in China, and have been 474 meters up in the air, on a glass floor none the less.  

I got a full body oil massage last night. Awesome. It was a nice way to relax after a long day of sightseeing.  We are traveling to Shanghai now, the three hour bus ride will be bittersweet.  I can't believe all of the things I have done here. Sitting on the bus, listening to music, and looking at the countryside out the window is giving me a feeling that I can't really describe. I can see and feel the landscape changing, I don't know how, but I can tell we are on our way Shanghai. Blogging is very difficult, I can only type a few words before I look out the window and start spacing out.   Never before has music had a literal meaning in my life, now it does. Surreal.

Today was an incredible day as we got to visit the Shanghai expo, a once in a lifetime opportunity. While the expo was great and I could go on and on about it, I want bring up something that I have been noticing all through this trip, especially at the expo. Basically every tourist destination we have visited there has been many tour groups filled with Chinese from around the country. All wearing the same hat and following a guide with a flag and more often than not a very annoying loud speaker. But there is one thing that all these tour groups share in common and that is they are old, not middle age old but at least 60 years and older old. I found this a little odd and started noticing it everywhere we went. It's hard to come up with an answer for this strange phenomena but the best guess I can come up with is that all of the younger would be tourists are busy working or taking care of a family, while people at this age are retired and have the time to finally visit the destinations they've always wanted to visit. I know that this seems kind of like a simple explanation but in the states you would see tour groups of all ages, most of them probably in the younger category.

We arrived in Shanghai today and I've got to say that this city is just obnoxiously big. Something that I've been noticing about Shanghai and the cities we visited around it is the type of dishes served in restaurants. Since Suzhou almost every meal has entailed some sort of fish dish. Not that I have a big problem with this since I do like fish, but seafood is something I can eat only once in a while without getting sick of. It's interesting because almost every meal had the same style of seafood too, we would be served an entire fish, along with some other seafood dishes such as muscles, fish ball soup, dried fish and different kinds of shrimp dishes. I suppose it is like this since these cities are fairly close to the ocean but I thought it was an interesting bit. 

Friday morning, we left Hangzhou and traveled about 3 hours by bus to Shanghai.  The view coming into the city was gorgeous.  As we were driving in, we were on a fairly high up expressway and therefore could see the Huangpu River and beyond to the vast Shanghai skyline.  We could also see a bunch of buildings from the Expo that we will be visiting on Saturday.  We saw the pavilions of Japan and China right away and the UFO shaped stadium.  It got me excited to visit but not so excited for the long waiting lines.  You could also tell right away how huge this city truly is.  With a population of 20 million people, it is China's largest city. After being here for 9 hours and a little interaction with some locals, I've noticed that a lot more people speak English than any other city we've visited on this trip.  I think this is due to the fact that the more English speaking foreigners travel to this city more often and also the fact (and probably the biggest reason) that the Expo is hosted here.  With five hundred thousand people daily there, it is the best time to hone in on one's English speaking abilities.

In Hangzhou, we are back in "tourist mode".  While it is fun seeing beautiful historical sites, going to the Longjing Tea Garden, and the Song City Show, I think most of us can't help but think about how much we would still be having in Tianjin.  In Tianjin, we were more than just mere tourists that people like taking pictures of (case in point for today, West Lake).  I love seeing the new sites, and I think it's fun when people ask to take pictures with me, but at the same time It felt like we were almost starting to fit in in Tianjin, and now we are back on the outside, the tour group from America.  There are particularly some things about the tourist aspect that are pretty annoying.  For one, I think we could all agree on how annoying the microphone/speaker system that most tour groups have.  When we are trying to talk or listen to something Joe is saying, all we can hear is the loud crackling voice of the guide that is next to us.  I think we all try to avoid standing by them now.  Another thing that I still have found hard to get used to is just how pushy people are here when we are waiting in line for something.  Yesterday, a lady behind me kept poking me in the back with her fingers, as if I could have been moving any faster in the single file line.  Something that I find pretty amusing is the aggressiveness of the bus drivers when they are on the road.  Our driver now, for Hangzhou, does exactly what he wants to do on the road, even if that means causing a huge traffic jam.  While some of these things seem annoying now, it is of course just all a part of the experience!

All I keep hearing from people in the group is "I don't want to go home".  I feel the same way.  It sounds bad in the sense that our friends and family are on the other side of things and excited for us to come back.  Eventually, we all would get extremely homesick and of course want to go back, but as of right now, I think we want to just continue this experience.  I, for one, had no idea what to expect in coming to China.  I don't think anything can really prepare you or give any accurate perception of what something will be like until you are there experiencing it for yourself.  One thing that I had not been expecting was to fall completely in love with China.  Of course, I wanted to go on the trip to see China, experience another culture, but then to fall head over heels in love with it is a completely different thing.  People visit places and say "yeah, it is really pretty there", or "I really enjoyed my trip", but I think it means a lot to say "I absolutely love this country".  One thing that has contributed to this newfound love is the students of Nankai University.  They took us in and showed us their culture, welcoming us eagerly and wanting to learn just as much about us in return.  If we had been here just to sightsee, just as tourists, this experience would have completely different.  I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the students, you have no idea how much you have affected us!

Tonight we visited a large shopping street for foot traffic only in Shanghai.  Initially we started off as a group of 8 but then Sam and Sabrina split off to return to the hotel.  Then, there was the 6 of us.  We knew that we wanted to haggle a little bit, but the stores on the main road of the center were upscale.  So, we followed a couple of men that said they had some products we could haggle in a side alley.  Normally, I would not follow two strange men into a back alley but this is China and that is where the cheap knockoff merchandise is located.  The haggling went well and we all returned to the main street with a few more presents for our family and friends.  We then split up into two groups of three and went off on our separate ways.  Nick, Eric, and I stopped to eat pizza.  We then hailed a cab and gave him the address to the hotel that we had not yet been to.  About 15 minutes into the trip, a cab passed us and an American, "Knee How" was bellowed.  To our amazement, it was the other group of three.  We had not planned to leave at any certain time and were quite astonished that in a city of 20 million, it was very easy to connect with friends.

After a few weeks touring in China and visiting an amazing amount of tourist attractions, we have had much experience with seeing how our group operates compared to the other hundreds that we have seen.  A main similarity is that we all follow something that stands up a few feet above our heads so we can find our party in the sea of tourists.  For the first week touring in Beijing, we followed a flower, but for our last days in Shanghi, we follow a yellow flag that says something about our guide Joe's hometown.  Thankfully, whatever guide is leading a group also speaks both the native Mandarin language and whatever the rest of the group speaks so there is no need for an extra person to translate.  The major difference between our groups is that we do not have anything to tie our group together, like the same hat or t-shirt.  In addition, our guide does not use a megaphone to tell us about the attraction we are seeing.  We are all thankful that our guides do not use megaphones as we all know how annoying this form of noise abuse can be. 

Punctuality is the characteristic of being able to complete a required task or fulfill an obligation before or at a previously-designated time. "Punctual" is often used synonymously with "on time."

According to each culture, there is often an understanding about what is considered an acceptable degree of punctuality. Usually, a small amount of lateness is acceptable; this is commonly about ten or fifteen minutes in Western cultures. In some cultures, such as Japanese society, or in the military there basically is no allowance.

Some cultures have an unspoken understanding that actual deadlines are different from stated deadlines; for example, it may be understood in a particular culture that people will turn up an hour later than advertised. In this case, since everyone understands that a 9am meeting will actually start around 10am, no-one is inconvenienced when everyone turns up at 10am.

In cultures which value punctuality, being late is tantamount to showing disrespect for another's time and may be considered insulting. In such cases, punctuality may be enforced by social penalties, for example by excluding low-status latecomers from meetings entirely. Such considerations can lead on to considering the value of punctuality in econometrics and to considering the effects of non-punctuality on others in queueing theory.

One of my true passions is fishing and I have been searching for fisherman on canals, rivers, and lakes the entire time I have been here.  I was excited to see that the Chinese do some fishing though it is not as popular as in the United States and almost every person I have seen fishing has been doing it from shore.  From what I know the Chinese do not have professional fishing like in the United States and they do not have huge tournaments and competitions for professional fisherman.  What I did think was really cool was a story that one of the tour guides told me about a man that fished with a straight needle on the end of his line and he said he would catch a fish with this needle.  Well this fisherman became part of the government after the emperor found out his philosophies.  I do not remember the entire story but it caught my attention.  The fish that most of these fishermen are fishing for are either a small form of a carp or another fish that looks like a large shiner.  Unlike in the United States where a lot more people are going towards catch and release the Chinese are mainly fishing for meals.  When you compare the equipment used by Chinese fisherman and American fisherman you will see that Americans use spinning or bait casting rods and reels that are specially set for different species of fish on the other hand since most of the fish caught by the Chinese are smaller in size and shore fishing is mainly done you will see many cane poles with bobbers used.  One thing I have noticed that I would like to point out is that the typical Chinese person at least closer to the East coast eats a lot more fish than Americans do.  They will eat at least a fish meal a week is what I was told by one student compared to Americans which is much less.

There are many differences from America and China on cleaning clothes; these differences have been seen over the past few weeks in Tianjin and the cities after it such as Wuzhen.  The Chinese have a tendency to clean some clothes every day unlike people from the United States that wash clothes once a week or put it off even longer.  The reason for these differences is that most Americans have washing machines and dryers so they can do many clothes with little effort and much less time.  Whereas the Chinese most times don't have a washing machine or a dryer and the few people who have washing machines do not have a dryer.  This means cleaning clothes takes much more time because they need to wash them by hand and hang dry which takes a couple days to do.  Room is an issue I found out personally while cleaning clothes because you can only wash so many clothes at one time and hanging space is very limited.  Putting off cleaning clothes for a week or more causes much more work.  I have found out that some Chinese do not wash clothes after wearing them one time because it takes too much time and is not necessary.   The reasons why Chinese people do not have washing machines or dryers is that they are very expensive and few people besides the upper class can afford them and also some refuse to use them.  One reason I think some people just choose not to use the machines for cleaning clothes is because they are not energy efficient and do not trust the machines enough.  In Wuzhen some people wash their clothes in the canal which really surprised me because the water was the same water that toilets flushed into.  I was told these were mainly the poorer people that did things like this and Professor Li was even somewhat surprised by this sight.  Another option is dry cleaners which is offered to people but this can be expensive for the common people and usually it's only the upper class that choose this option.  Few people in the US clean clothes by hand and often times this is reserved for the poorer socioeconomic class.  But same as China people in the US do not take their regular clothes to the dry cleaners and this would be for the upper class if at all.

I think that a bunch of us are realizing how difficult it is to really understand the cities that we have been traveling to. Many of them are bigger than we could ever imagine, and trying to form an opinion based on only being there for one or two days is nearly impossible. Its sort of like the saying "don't judge a book by its cover," I don't know how many times I am going to need to hear that before it sticks. Time and time again, that age old saying ends up slapping me in the face while I continue to make the same mistakes. We are leaving for Shanghai soon, and all I want to do is make the most out of these last few days here.

When we were told that we were to go to an island I really did not know what to expect. When Joe said that we could go out late to the bars, I thought of the area to be a developed island. This place was completely opposite than what I imagined it to be. Wuzhen was a peaceful town. It had a beautiful sight. The houses in this area looked traditional. I think they were government controlled to remain that way to attract the tourist. This town could give you a feeling of being in the olden times in the traditional Chinese culture. The part that I loved the most about this town was how people had to take boats to get around. There was not a single car there. Never had I imagined myself to be at a place with no cars. However, when you enter this island you would think that the people here are uneducated and liked living in a traditional way. However, I was surprised to see how all the waitresses over there knew really good English. The food and drinks over there was very expensive. This area's main business seemed to be tourism. Wuzhen gave me a wonderful feeling. It taught me how being simple in life is important. We all could be well educated, have good jobs and a wealthy lifestyle, but what is important and gives an individual peace is to live a simple lifestyle. This will keep us all happy in a long run.

Our train journey was very tiring. It was the first day in Suzhou and as soon as we were picked up from the railway station we were taken for some sightseeing. Suzhou is a wonderful city. It is very beautiful. As we drove through the roads in Suzhou, a thought passed my mind. I have studied in India for seven years of my life. I had always pictured China to be something of what I see in India. I think I thought this basically cause of the fact that they are the two biggest countries in Asia. So with this thinking, I had pictured China to be a place where garbage was lying everywhere. Where people threw the wrappers wherever they wanted to. Surprisingly, I did not see any wrapper lying on the roads. The people in China seem to be very cautious about cleanliness. As I look at the roads in Suzhou, I think of how develop and organized the traffic is. In India, we sometimes see cows walking on the street. This difference really surprised me.

We went to the boat ride in Suzhou. This boat ride was by far one of the most beautiful ride I have ever seen. The view in this place was spectacular. Our professor even mentioned that this ride gives us the same experience as a similar ride in Venice does.  As you gaze into the lights that surround you, this journey really makes you feel like you are in heaven.

I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was walk downstairs in the pathway that we always walk. On my way I met our cleaning lady. I looked at her and said "knee how".. like I always do. I passed by the Korean Restaurant where we use to eat almost all of our delicious meals, the dumpling place, the ATM machine, etc. I looked at the car that was driving in the side path. All these sights made me think, "This is my last day in Tianjin.. God only knows if I will ever come back here again! God only knows if I will ever be able to see these wonderful people again in some other part of my life. I have gained a lot of knowledge in this trip. Many of the things that I learned about China was not from the classes I took here. Yes, the classes helped a lot and provided me with a lot of insights onChina. However, the main things that I learned from this visit to Tianjin were through the friends I made here, through all the mistakes we made while communicating. I came to Nankai with some very brilliant students from my university. With these people, I have been able to learn and grow. I know I would not have been able to enjoy this experience alone. The goodbye that we had with some of our Chinese students was sad. They helped us through our luggage and hugged us as if we had been friends for such a long time. I felt as if I have known these people for such a long time. I do want to keep these connections. I hope we meet again and our relationship does not end here.

The last day in Hong Kong with my friends was amazing. We went to the Stanley Beach in the morning. As we hung out there, we saw variety of different people with different backgrounds there. There were people from everywhere. I could see people from India, Middle East, China, America, Spain, London, etc. The weather was beautiful. The beach was very well maintained. As I stepped in the water, I realized how clear the water was. There was no spec of dirt in it. Also, there was no dirt anywhere in the beach. After playing around and exploring the beach, we got hungry. My friends really wanted to eat sea food so we went to the sea food restaurant. It is really surprising to see how expensive the town is. Hong Kong is the most expensive town I have ever visited in my entire life. As we all were students, we tried to find the cheapest type of food to eat. We looked everywhere. There was nothing under $100 HK dollars. In Tianjin, we use to spend about 18 RMB for every meal and we got a great feast and we would be stuffed. But, in HongKong, even a 110 RMB would bring us very less food and we would still have to order for more. I realized it is very hard for a student to have a vacation in Hong Kong unless we know some of the cheap places there. My day in that beautiful city ended after we finished up our meal. I got back to the hotel and packed, all ready to hit the airport. The drive to airport was the hardest I have ever had in my life. This beautiful city got to me. Although I stayed here only for two nights, I did not get enough of it. I developed a special attachment to the town. I am so glad I made this visit. I definitely plan on coming back to Hong Kong for a longer period of time.

After I arrived Beijing, I had to take the bus back to Tianjin. In the Tianjin bus stop, a young guy came to me and asked if I needed a taxi. He looked like an innocent fellow. I told him the address that I wanted to go to. He looked at me and confidently said " long way- 50 RMB". The ride would genuinely cost only 8 RMB I was surprised how easily he could have fooled me if I did not know this town. I walked away from him and got another taxi and still paid 15 RMB. The local people here in an Asian country can easily fool the foreign people. That is the reason it is very advisable to act confident infront of the people while making a deal, even if we do not know anything that is going on. It is when the foreigners show one look of doubt or confusion on their face is when they can be easily fooled. I reached home safe. It also felt really good to come back to Tianjin... the town I will be leaving tomorrow L

The last day in Hong Kong with my friends was amazing. We went to the Stanley Beach in the morning. As we hung out there, we saw variety of different people with different backgrounds there. There were people from everywhere. I could see people from India, Middle East, China, America, Spain, London, etc. The weather was beautiful. The beach was very well maintained. As I stepped in the water, I realized how clear the water was. There was no spec of dirt in it. Also, there was no dirt anywhere in the beach. After playing around and exploring the beach, we got hungry. My friends really wanted to eat sea food so we went to the sea food restaurant. It is really surprising to see how expensive the town is. Hong Kong is the most expensive town I have ever visited in my entire life. As we all were students, we tried to find the cheapest type of food to eat. We looked everywhere. There was nothing under $100 HK dollars. In Tianjin, we use to spend about 18 RMB for every meal and we got a great feast and we would be stuffed. But, in HongKong, even a 110 RMB would bring us very less food and we would still have to order for more. I realized it is very hard for a student to have a vacation in Hong Kong unless we know some of the cheap places there. My day in that beautiful city ended after we finished up our meal. I got back to the hotel and packed, all ready to hit the airport. The drive to airport was the hardest I have ever had in my life. This beautiful city got to me. Although I stayed here only for two nights, I did not get enough of it. I developed a special attachment to the town. I am so glad I made this visit. I definitely plan on coming back to Hong Kong for a longer period of time.

After I arrived Beijing, I had to take the bus back to Tianjin. In the Tianjin bus stop, a young guy came to me and asked if I needed a taxi. He looked like an innocent fellow. I told him the address that I wanted to go to. He looked at me and confidently said " long way- 50 RMB". The ride would genuinely cost only 8 RMB I was surprised how easily he could have fooled me if I did not know this town. I walked away from him and got another taxi and still paid 15 RMB. The local people here in an Asian country can easily fool the foreign people. That is the reason it is very advisable to act confident infront of the people while making a deal, even if we do not know anything that is going on. It is when the foreigners show one look of doubt or confusion on their face is when they can be easily fooled. I reached home safe. It also felt really good to come back to Tianjin... the town I will be leaving tomorrow L

Hong Kong is a beautiful place. When I landed in Hong Kong, I did not know what to expect. I had pictured a city like Beijing to be awaiting me. However, it was very different. The airport of Hong Kong is built in an island. The island is apparently man made. The plane landed on the runway with a spectacular view. As I walked through the customs, I noticed the brilliant architecture that the airport had. The building was beautiful designed making it one of the beautiful airports I have seen. In the airport, I lost my luggage. I was frustrated and angry. However, this frustration and anger lasted only for a few minutes. The staff that helped me were extremely helpful. The easiest part of the entire process was the fact that they all spoke English. If I had lost my baggage in Tianjin, I would have a hard time communicating it with them. Even if I communicated it, I would keep thinking if they got my right message and my right directions. People in Hong Kong knowing English helps the tourists a lot. As I passed the city in the cab, I noticed how diverse the people were in Hong Kong.  There were people from everywhere in Hong Kong. The city reminded me of New York a lot. The city has spent a lot of money on establishing organized and structured ways to maintain the business of tourism. I went to the peak, the Victoria harbor and the bar street. The Victoria harbor had an event that shows the symphony of lights. Apparently, Hong Kong has a world record in having the most amazing symphony of lights.  The bar street was the coolest. I was surprised to see how most of the bars I went to, the staff had to check our ids to see if we were 21 plus or not. I thought this practice happened more in Unites States. I had never pictured another country to have the same system. The Lan Kai Fong was crowded with a lot of people. We could tell that the nightlife at this place was wild and fun. I enjoyed my day in Hong Kong. I  do think of it as one of the most beautiful city that I have ever visited in my life.

I am on my way to leave for Hong Kong today. I have to take the bus to Beijing and then a flight from there to Hong Kong. I am scared and nervous to be traveling alone. One of my friends from China told me that the bus stop in China does not have any signs in English. I was very nervous. It was then I told Sabrina to help me to take me from the hotel to the airport. It was then that I learned more about hospitality from the Chinese culture. Sabrina's parents were leaving town at 10 am. But still she gladly helped me to get to the bus stop. Not only did she drop me there, she made sure I had the right tickets. She asked all kinds of questions for me to the customer service representative. Even though I did not tell her to stay till the bus was boarding, she still recognized the nervousness of my face and stayed there with me till the bus actually left town. I did not know how to thank her. What she did for me today meant a lot for me. Even in the bus, the passengers that sat by me realized that I was from a different country and did not know the language. They still tried to communicate with me and ask me if everything was fine. This is not a behavior that I see every day in United States. "Hospitality" towards people is a great aspect of the Chinese culture. I am use to that kind of culture from being from Nepal. However, staying in America for over three years has changed my mentality a bit. When incidences like this happen, I get reminded of the values that were taught to me by my parents. China reminds me of those values everyday ever since I have been here.

One thing that I have really come to love about china is how each meal is presented.  The break down of the meal is like this; first you sit around a circle table where everybody is facing each other. Then the servers will bring out the starters which usually consist of small vegetables or other munchies, early on we made the mistake of thinking these were part of the main course and got too full too early. Tea is similar to water in the states, although you do not get a free glass of water in china you do get free tea. After the starters the main course begins, the style in which it is served took a while to get used to. The servers will bring out each dish one by one, so the whole table will begin eating one dish then another will come out and so forth. There will usually be 8 to 10 different dishes during a regular dinner that consist of beef, pork, chicken, fish and vegetables. The interesting part is that depending upon where you are in china the food will be different. Say you are in southern china the food may be spicy, but if you were in northern china the food may be milder and specialize in duck or something along that line. Each part of china has its own special dish or tastes to its foods. The best part was tasting the variety of foods in one city and traveling to the next and tasting something completely different. Last off you know the meal is ending when the server brings out a plate of watermelon. This is the final dish and is comparable to dissert. Every restaurant we have been to there has been a dish of watermelon.  Another part I loved about the meals in china is that they are family based. People will eat together in one place like one big family, whereas in America it is more expectable for families to either not eat together or take there food somewhere else. Gotta love china......

Transportation in China is unlike anything I have ever seen. In the states we are used to seeing cars, trucks, semis and motorcycles of all different types and styles but in china it's a bit different. Rarely do you ever see a bad car in china; most of the cars here are only a couple years old and are mostly middle to upper class name brands. Some of the most common cars you will see are Audis, Volkswagen and BMW's. For college students it is very rare to own a car and if you do it is because your family is wealthy. The most popular way to get around is by electric scooter and they are everywhere. In china they sell for around 2000 yuan which is about 300 U.S. dollars which means they are very cheap. The reason they are electric is because the government banned gas powered scooters to cut back on pollution. Although its against the law occasionally, you will still see people riding around on these scooters. Its amazing to see these scooters everywhere you are, driving anywhere they want, breaking any laws they want. I had the chance to drive one of these scooters with a fellow Chinese student and it was the most exciting terrifying thing I have ever done. Its one thing to drive in the U.S. but it's a whole other thing to drive in china...

Much like in America, tourism is very large industry in China. I was very surprised by the amount of people that were either part of a tour group or touring individually at all the locations we have visited. Obviously china has a very rich history and they pride themselves on keeping that history open to the public. China has done an amazing job of keeping all of their ancient structures in tact and at the same time showing them to tourists. While in china we have visited the majority of the most recognized structures in the world such as The Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace and the Olympic Stadium. Although while we were at these places I was surprised that there were not as many foreigners as I thought there would be. The majority of the tourists were either from parts of china or surrounding Asian countries. While at these sites it very typical to see 10-20 large tour buses lined up in the parking lot. During this trip we have been lucky to travel by bus and have a guide with us at all times. The guide is responsible for organizing the activities and explaining the history that is associated to the given site. Its funny because while at many of these places we are not the only tour group, many times there will be multiple groups and the guides will all have a different flag or stick to keep as a marker for the group members. Sometimes the guide will use a microphone to project their voice above the others which tends to get very annoying. Compared to America this sense of tourism is much different. In the U.S. tourism will be mostly individual in a family setting instead of in tour groups. Rarely do you see tour multiple tour groups with matching hats and a guide with a flag to follow the way....

This is not the first time that I have noticed this.  I first noticed this when living in Sweden, and now it is quite obvious again here in China.  Americans are fast paced.  We want things now and we are in a hurry to get places.  Walking anywhere down the sidewalks we are always passing other people.  I don't have a good explanation to why this is, but it seems that everywhere I go we are always in the biggest rush even if we have the most time available. It may be a bad habit since most of the time we are walking fast but we don't even realize it.  We are not trying to be in a rush but it is just how we walk.  We just seemed to be more rushed than other cultures where they value their time differently.  I feel really stupid when we are walking and we pass large groups of people.  We will pass them in any way possible, even if that means going off of the sidewalk.  I wish that I could control the speed I walk more but it is so difficult.  I try but it is something that I am just so used to doing.

I am sorry for all of our Chinese friends if it seemed we walked so fast when we were with you.  I know you told us that we were walking to fast but it is just hard to change our habits.  

 It seems that if you want to travel around China, tour groups are the way to go.  It seems that even the Chinese people travel in large tour groups.  I have traveled a lot around the US and Europe, and I found that traveling in large tour groups are not that popular, especially when traveling in your home country.  When we go traveling, we go with our family and friends. There are still a lot of tour groups, but it seems like there are more of them here.  

This trip is my first tour where we have a guide for most of the trip.  Previous trips we would do what we want, and when we go to a historical sight there would be guides that work there that would give us the tour.  I am so glad that our tour guide does not use the microphone and the speaker.  It is the most annoying thing and I think it also shows a lack of respect for other people who are visiting the sight.  It is loud and it sounds terrible.  If the tour group is too large and the guide can't speak loud enough, they should provide earpieces to the people so when they speak it goes directly to their ear and not to everyone in the place.  This would make the sights more quite and peaceful, and it would be a better environment for other tourists who want to enjoy the beauty without a terrible sounding voice in the background.  I do understand why they need to use a microphone though, but it would be nice if they would try to find other alternatives. The tour groups are nice though because you do learn more about the sights you see and they are organized for you.  I am very glad that we have one here and even more glad that he does not use a microphone! 

When I went up at 7am this morning, there was a ray of light penetrating through my hotel window.  It immediately gave me the great feeling of warmness after the whole night's raining.  Looking out of the window, the whole town was so tranquil and the leaves on the tree were waving in the breeze.  I stretched a little bit and felt really fresh because here came a new starting moment of the morning.

After breakfast, Amanda and I explored the whole island.  Wuzhen is a really beautiful place as all of my friends who have been there used to describe.  Unlike me, Amanda has very good sense of direction.  I basically just enjoyed the view, followed her lead and had no worry of being lost. J

I love those stone bridges floating on the wild water and delicate wood carvings on both sides of the pathways.  The canal of Wuzhen has its nickname "Venice of the East" and it is definitely very appropriate.  Many famous people used to live in Wuzhen, such as Mao Dun, the famous Chinese writer in Modern History.  We happened to find the mesume about him and got the chance to further know about this well-known writer.  

When taking the boat strolled down the picturesque canal, you will feel very relaxing and forget all of your vexation.  Besides the above, of course, I love those beautiful pavilions, which brought you back to decades ago, or centuries ago... I love the place!

Jasmine Suzhou is the hotel we lived in Suzhou. It looks like a five-star standard located next to the Suzhou traditional cultural street- Shantang Street.  It offers wide range varieties of cuisine in the morning.  In our only breakfast morning, I saw people with all kinds of nationality and speak different languages.  I always like the diverse environment and enjoy exploring a new place. 

Out of curiosity, I walked around the hotel and checked out everything that captured my attention. I found out the Café place, Tea bar and business meeting rooms.  Tulip Café and Tea bar offer a wide selection of food and drinks whether you are looking for a casual snacks or a full dinner.  And all these meeting rooms are equipped with audio and visual facilities catering to various meeting groups, with a wide range from 10 people in boardroom style to 350 in theater style.

We only stayed for one night and then left for Wuzhen. However, the hotel really impressed me.  No matter next time I am here for work or just pleasure, the hotel is on the top of my list to stay.

Ice Cream Marketing

Vendors love to tempt us with their yummy ice cream treats even though we are provided with three hearty meals a day.  Everywhere we go, someone is willing to sell us a cheap cold treat.  Most of the products are written in Chinese so we have to rely on other things to make our selections like pictures and colors.  At this point, we are very accustomed to ordering food based on pictures and colors.  It's not like they are any different from America, but back home I am very accustomed to reading the labels and having the colors be more of an afterthought.  Back to the icecream...sometimes it is very good and other times you are pretty sure that there is no way that what you are eating is considered ice cream.  The brown packages are almost always sure to contain chocolate something.  Pastels usually mean fruity but every now and then you will accidentally buy a green bean flavored snack.  Thankfully, if you end up with something really horrible, there are always a couple of others around to try how disgusting it is.    

Yesterday, we attempted to visit an amusement park.  We saw the roller coaster across the lake that we were visiting and as it was big and shiny, it drew us in like a bug to a light.  Joe, our tour guide, said we could fit it in to our busy schedule, so off we went.  The amusement park had other rides similar to Valley fair but maybe at a tenth of the size.  The only ride that we wanted to go on was the roller coaster.  When we arrived, we were dismayed to find out the the price was 60 Yuan.  At the beginning of the trip, this amount would be very easy for us to dish out, but after 2 weeks in Tianjin where we spent a lot of our money on food and entertainment, 60 Yuan is kind of pricy.  Joe tried to negotiate a deal that would allow us into the park to ride the roller coaster  only once but the park wouldn't budge.  From what we could see through the gates into the park, I was surpised at how familiar all of the rides looked.  Everything looked of similar quality and style to amusement parks in the United States.  I guess I wasn't expecting things that looked as solid and safe.  I believe that this idea stemmed from a trip my family and I took to Europe and visited an amusement park.  Things were a bit different in this park.  For example, we took a roller coaster ride and were surprised to find that the operator rode in one of the center cars.  This was because he was responsible for applying the breaks when the coaster took a sharp corner.  My thoughts as we were whipping around the tracks were more of 'What if this guy passes out?' rather than 'This is really fun!' so I guess I was expecting more of this attitude towards safety in Chinese amusement parks.  In Shanghai we might visit another amusement park so I might be able to experience the rides first hand.

Before going on this trip I had never been on a train before and taking a 9 hour train ride across China was going to be surreal to me. Taking the bullet train from Beijing to Tianjin was quite the experience for me as well. I could not believe how fast we went and in such a short amount of time we had gone 75 miles. Well when we had to take the 9 hour train ride from Tianjin to Suzhou, I didn't know what to expect. The students from last year had told us the cabins were so small you could barely fit all of your stuff in them. While we were waiting for our train another one had pulled up and we could see in the windows. It looked very old, very small, and not nice at all. We were all hoping that wasn't what our train was going to look like. When our train pulled up we were all very pleased because it looked very nice. Through the windows we could see a flower vase and tea pot sitting on a white table cloth. When we got inside it was a struggle for all of us. We had so much stuff and the hallways were very narrow. It took us a very long time to all get situated and in our cabins. I'm sure everyone was laughing at us because we had too much stuff to fit in these small cabins. Although there was storage underneath our beds, our suitcases were so big that they wouldn't fit. We had to put backpacks and small things under there. Allie and Amanda had to sleep on the top bunks with their suitcases on their beds! Once we all got situated we blogged in our beds and went to bed, well at least I tried to. The cabins were so hot that I kept tossing and turning all night. We couldn't figure out how to turn on the air conditioning but I remember waking up during the night and it finally being cool. It worked out well that our ride was during the night so we could sleep. We woke up at about 5:30 AM still exhausted but eager to see what was next on the itinerary. The train ride was exactly what I had expected and was a new experience for me to jot down. I don't think I'll be taking that long of a trip anytime soon though J

Silk Factory in Suzhou is home to the largest silk factory in China.  A woman gave us the story of the processes that caterpillars go through and then what happens after, to make the silk.  The process to get the cocoons takes about 60 days until they are ready to harvest the silk.  We then went to see the actual process, which was amazing because in the U.S. that would never happen with all the safety hazards and regulations.  We actually walked threw the manufacturing plant and were able to witness first hand everything they did with the silk and all the stages it goes threw.  Along with viewing their showcase we were able to attend a fashion show, with the different patterns and designs being sold.  It was defiantly one of the more interesting tours on this trip.  

Today we had a BBQ with the Chinese students that have been showing us around Tianjin and that have been attending class.  It was bitter sweet for everyone involved in the fact that we learned a lot about culture because they took us out all the time and told us what we should do.  It was sad though driving away from about 15 sad faces waving to people they will probably never see again. They are all so wonderful and amazing, not to mention so generous.  I will miss Tianjin and all the interesting people I met along the way.  It is sweet in the fact that we get to move on to seeing Shanghai, which I'm sure will be an amazing experience.  But also bitter in the fact that we need to leave the students behind, after they had given us so much.  Back to the BBQ, the Chinese students loved it!  We had a few minor glitches at first with charcoal not starting up.  But then the Korean restaurant saved us with charcoal that was already hot.  Everyone loved the cheeseburgers and chicken.  It was a great farewell.  

The Gardens in Suzhou had wonderful works of art.  The gardens were created to have one main focal point so that you do not get see everything in one gander.  The Chinese believe that the garden is boring if you can see everything in one glance, so they have a large rock or tree to draw attention.  There where many waterways with weeping trees and exotic flowers all over the place.  The grounds were covered in ornate stone patterns that held specific meanings and a lot of symbolism.  There was just so much thought and hard work put into creating such a beautiful scenic environment.  Serenity is the one word that would describe our visit there, I never wanted to leave.  It seemed like the perfect place to meditate.  I could have sit there all day in peace and harmony and would have been content. 

We took the overnight train to Suzhou from Tianjin last night, and for most of our group, it was to say the least, extremely interesting.  We arrived at the train station about 2 hours before our train lest and made our way to the courtyard of the huge building where the group waited outside for maybe 20 minutes and in those 20 minutes; we were by far the main attraction.  The Chinese people crowded around for many minutes of staring.  It started with a few watching from a distance, and then many circling around our group.  I took a video and then they even came closer.  One man asked where our group was from and I responded America.  He said that America was a great country and I responded with China is a great country.  He then translated this for the other men circling around us and then they all laughed.  After that the group become a bit uncomfortable so we headed inside.  It was a interesting experiance because the cabins we were in slept four and they were basically 8 x 5 feet in total.  In the end we made it, exhausted and tired at 6 A.M. 

On our last free day Saturday in Tianjin, Charlie, Amanda, Sarah and I took the bullet train back to Beijing for a fun day of shopping.  It was quite interesting getting around town with out native speakers.  Thank God, Sabrina was there to get our tickets for us or we would have never made it out of Tianjin.  We had a new experience at the market, and experienced new things, even more than the first time we visited.  This time, we actually made it to the fourth floor where there were high-end shops that were fun to pursue.  I also had a new experience in the bag area, where the women grab onto you and will not let you go.  Honestly, one lady pulled my black shopping bag almost to the point of it breaking.  I was in shock of these women and what they do for business.  Also they yell at you non-stop and chase you through the shopping area to come back and buy items from them.  Well, it was a very successful trip and everyone bought memorable items to bring back for their friends and family in the states.

At our orientations before we left for China, the students who went on the trip last year had told us that we didn't need any converters for the outlets. When we got to our first hotel in Beijing it was a struggle to get anything plugged in. I was about to freak out because my computer was going to die. Luckily I brought a converter that converts a two-prong plug-in into a three-prong plug-in. The three-prong was able to fit upside down in the outlet. Well then I was getting ready that night and plugged my blow dryer in. A few seconds later it started smoking because the outlet didn't have enough volts to power it. I needed a transformer, which I had never heard of before, but Erin had brought one. I had to throw my blow dryer away because it was now completely broken. Looks like I would be using the blow dryers that the hotels provided. My curling iron and straightener were two-prongs with one end being bigger than the other so they wouldn't fit. I had to buy a converter somewhere and was upset I didn't bring the one my mom had told me to take but I thought I didn't need one. When we got to the hotel in Tianjin we were having the same problem. Sarah and I went to Carrefour to find a converter and sat there for about 20 minutes trying to find the right one. We got a little power strip thinking it would work but it would only work for my three-prong converter I had on my computer cord. A few days later when we went back to Carrefour I bought another converter and this one was finally able to fit two-prong plug-ins with the one end being bigger. Finally I could straighten my hair and curl it, or at least I thought I could. My straightener quit working one morning half way through doing my hair because I needed a transformer for it. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't, which was very frustrating.  As for the group next year, I will definitely tell them they need to bring converters and transformers, especially the girls.

As soon as we stepped foot on that island in Wuzhen I couldn't wait to see where we were staying. Our bags were being taken care of for us and all we had to do was cross the little waterway on that ferry to get on the other side where there were long and narrow streets leading through various shops and eating spots, and even family dwellings.  Allie and I landed a spot in the building with another single room where Charlee would be staying and we walked into a big, clean, and somewhat empty entrance hall where winding, steep stairs without railings led up to our rooms.

The place was very quaint with the huge shutters open so that the windows were open wide and you could hear chatting in various languages on the streets below and in other villas across from us. As we opened our doors all three of us gasped to see our beds draped in mosquito netting. Of course I had seen this on the travel channel before and heard stories from a friend who studied abroad for six months in a sustainable community in India, though I hadn't actually slept beneath one before. I didn't really know what to expect with the bugs upon seeing these - but it made sense with the windows being wide open all day and night.

The afternoon and evening had been rainy so the bugs weren't actually that bad - maybe 2 or 3 mosquitoes flying around total that night. I did however, get freaked out by the giant spider outside our door that Allie and Charlee had a late night battle with - and lost. I made Allie tuck a towel under the door so that the spider couldn't come crawling in later looking for revenge. I also zipped up all of my luggage so that I wouldn't get any surprises later and I even tucked my netting all along by bed between the mattresses to be extra safe.

That island was so cozy with the rain and vacation atmosphere - I wish we could've stayed for longer. It was definitely a setting that I'll never forget - and will always have that perfect spot to compare the rest of my travels to.

Charlee: "We were told that in China you need documentation to show that you're married to be able to room together".

Allan (Friend of the coffee shop owner): "Yeah, maybe a hundred years ago".

Jue: "June 6 on the calendar is 6 - 6 which is lucky to the Chinese. Many people get married on that day".

Dr. Li: "This year is an unlucky year in the Chinese calendar. There won't be as many marriages as other years".

Apollo: "RMB is like saying 'U.S. dollar' where Yuan is slang - kind of like how you guys say 'buck'".

Martin: "Girls in China don't really drink or go to the parties - they mostly sit at home and watch TV or read books and magazines".

Me: "Why don't they just come along with the rest of you guys when you go out?"

Martin: "Well if they did stay out late and drink beer then they would be looked down upon by others".

Charlee: "Yeah - we did too".

Monica: "Fireworks are very commonly heard throughout the day on any day in China. They are for the celebration of things like starting a new business, moving to a new house, or having a baby".

Joe: "Silverfish are little tiny fish much like minnows - and they have no bones. We eat them quite a lot."

                Thanks for that Joe - I might've been a little freaked out by the tiny fish in the eggs at lunch today but they were really good.

Me (to Amanda while shopping for scarves): "Ooh I like this one - the red with that pattern is very China".

Salesgirl: "Everybody says that! Red is very China - you know red is a lucky color in China".

Me: "Everything shown to us is said to be lucky".

There's plenty where these came from - but this is all I can come with off the top of my head for now. I've really enjoyed everyone's various anecdotes throughout the trip.

We had a free day last Saturday to do whatever we wanted. Sabrina was headed back to Beijing for the night to stay with her husband who was on a business trip. Sarah, Allie, Amanda, and I decided to go back with her so we could shop at the market all day. We left the hotel at 9:00 AM and took two cabs to the train station. Sabrina bought our tickets, thank god she was there or we wouldn't have been able to do anything. We bought some delicious coffee at the train station, I got a banana mocha, then boarded the bullet train. It was a very short ride, 28 minutes, as we were very excited to get back there to shop! Sabrina got us a cab and told the cab driver which market to go to and she headed to go see her husband. We went to the Pearl Market again because it was close to the train station. This is where we had gone our last day in Beijing before we left for Tianjin. We did a lot of shopping and bought some really cool stuff for very cheap. Allie bought so much stuff she needed to buy another large suitcase to bring it all home in. On the basement floor of the market there were a few fast food Chinese places so that's where we ate lunch. Then it was time for some more shopping. By the end of the day I was getting so annoyed by the salesgirls because they would grab my arm and try to pull me into their stores. I yelled at a few of them saying, "Don't touch me." I just think that it's rude to grab onto a strangers arm but they must do it all the time. I was also getting frustrated because the salesgirls weren't being as lenient as they usually would be on the prices. They thought we were dumb Americans but truth is we know quality and we know what we should be paying for certain things. After all we had been here for over two weeks and had been doing plenty of shopping and haggling with other vendors.

We were all ready to leave by the end of the day but had some trouble finding a cab. All the cabs we found were private so they could charge us whatever they wanted. We needed a public cab that had a meter so our fare would be cheap. Finally we found one, stuffed Allie's suitcase in the trunk, and were headed back to the train station. Our departure was at 5:20 PM and we got there with time to spare. Finding a cab once we got back in Tianjin was also a struggle because we didn't know where to go. We walked all around trying to find a street with cabs on it and had no luck. Of course people were staring at us and taking pictures like usual. We were all getting quite annoyed because we just wanted to get back to our hotel. Finally we found a bridge and a huge crowd of people waiting for cabs. We walked a little further and got a cab right away so we didn't have to wait in line for one. We gave the cab our Hanting Hotel card and soon we got back to our hotel. The day trip back to Tianjin was very fun and I'm very glad we did it. I got many presents for friends and family back home and it was exciting to be able to venture out by ourselves in China. We were getting really good at this even though there were language barriers.

China is one of the few places that makes silk, they are the largest maker and exporter in the world of the product.  Silk production has been done for thousands of years in China and is a staple of their culture and compared to the United States has a much longer history than anything made there.  The Chinese take great pride in their silk products and Suzhou is one of their most famous places for making silk products.  The factory we visited has been using the same machines for over 30 years which if in the United States would have been replaced by now.  This is because the machines being used they feel are making a high enough production to stabilize the company, and if there is no need for a new process then why do it.  The Chinese are keeping up with fashion in the world with these silk products and they present the new and old styles of clothing for the users.  The prices of silk in China are fairly low and compared with the United States whose prices are high.  This is because much of the silk in the United States comes from China and there are taxes for importing and exporting.  I think it was amazing to see the silk production in process.

It was amazing today to see how Chinese construction progresses on buildings because the Chinese cities are growing at such a rapid pace it is astounding.  While traveling today I was amazed to see all the new construction going on in a place near Suzhou.  Compared to the United states where large scale buildings are being worked on one at a time in many places you could see on average 10 or more of these larger buildings/sky scrapers being built at one time.  Generally these large scale projects are being completed in newer parts of cities.  When you look around a lot of times the places you are at was not there 5 to 10 years ago because huge areas are being developed at a crazy speed.  How is this work being completed? I think this rapid progression has to do with the Chinese hard work ethic and has passed from generation to generation.  The breaks given to Chinese workers are generally less than American construction workers and along with having longer hours on the site they are able to get more done in construction than Americans.  One of their biggest advantages I have noticed is the massive number of workers they have.  When they are working on 10 buildings at one time they are all being worked on at once. I think this is amazing to think it is hard enough for a couple of buildings near each other to be built at the same time by the same business much less 10 or more.  Many of the workers they get come from the countryside in hopes of work. These workers are paid very little compared to the jobs that construction workers in the United States have with their fairly high wages.  Overall there are large differences in every aspect of building skyscrapers/large buildings between the US and China.  These differences could be looked into further because I think it is very interesting.

 Ben and I met two sisters last night who were also visiting Wuzhen. I can't explain how nice it is to be able to have a conversation with someone over here. Just discussing simple things about each other can be so enjoyable and fulfilling. It really did make my night a whole lot better. I have never seen a place like this before, the dreary, rainy weather adds to the beauty and calmness that is Wuzhen. A few of us shared a pot of tea early this morning in a tea house located directly on the river. It was like an old, antiquated four seasons porch. I don't remember a time I have ever been so relaxed or so happy. I don't think the atmosphere here could be replicated anywhere else in the world.

In the United States coffee is a mainstay and nearly every household has some form of it whether instant or home brew.   In China on the other hand coffee is not common in houses and not that many people drink it consistently.  But tea is just the opposite where not many people have it in the United States but nearly everyone in China has it.  Just as there are many, many different flavors of coffee in the United States there are many flavors of tea in China.  But when you go to the opposite countries for the same products you will have a hard time finding many flavors.  When comparing the two products to each other you can discover that tea is actually good for you while coffee is bad for your health.  SO why do Americans consume so much coffee instead of a healthier drink like tea, well I think it has to do with the amount of caffeine in coffee.  Americans use the coffee to wake up in the mornings or stay awake whereas Chinese use their drink for more leisure and enjoy the taste more.  What can be said or interpreted about this is that Chinese people get more sleep than Americans and are more awake during the day so that they do not need caffeine to wake them up like Americans.  I think it is interesting how they are so similar in a sense because we have special coffee houses just like the Chinese have tea houses.  Overall though, tea is much better for you than coffee and this could be the reason why the Chinese believe tea is good for helping people when they are sick since there are a lot of vitamins in the tea.  Maybe Americans should switch from the unhealthy coffee to a more healthy tea, yes there is more caffeine in coffee but do you really need it?

Visiting Wuzhen was one of the highlights of the trip so far.  I had no idea truly how beautiful and serene the Island would be.  When we first got there, I had expected that we were going to cross a huge river, or even a lake, to get to the island.  Instead, the ferry ride we took to get to the island was no more than the length of a football field.  I thought, "Why don't they just build a bridge?" but of course, that would take away from the experience.  Dr. Li added that they want to keep everything as natural as possible.  The island felt like something straight out of an episode on the Travel Channel.  All the buildings were original, and the paths were all laid in stone, no pavement.  While everything on the outside was very traditional, the inside of the hotel we stayed at was completely updated.  We had a new bathroom and even air conditioning.  One of the things I liked the most about where we stayed was how they served breakfast.  The landlords had a personal touch, and the food was very good.  This was a completely different feeling from the continental breakfast's we have had over the trip.  It would be hard to believe that there would be someone that wouldn't appreciate the beauty and serenity of the island.  It is a place that I want to tell all my friends and family to go, and I am so glad that I was able to experience it.  

On Monday, we arrived in Suzhou around 6:00 AM.  After having breakfast, we went straight to sightseeing.  We had heard that this city was thought of as one of the most beautiful in China, and I think that the places we visited that day definitely proved that.  The Zhouzheng Garden that we went to was huge and very extravagant.  It is hard to believe that just one family owned a garden of that size.  That is one thing that I think China has done a very good job of.  China has managed to preserve so many historical relics to share with the public; it is really great that they care so much about their cultural history.

One thing that was interesting about Suzhou was that while there were historical sites to visit like the Zhouzheng Garden, Tiger Hill, and the 7-Mile River, there was  also a lot of new construction.  The places we visited, like the Golden Chicken Lake, had a very modern feel.  Personally, I like the areas better that are more "gritty" you might say, like in Tianjin. Granted, if we had stayed in Suzhou longer, a more modern and cleaner city, I probably would have grown to appreciate it., but I definitely thought Tianjin had more character.  

On Sunday, we left Tianjin for Suzhou, and took the second fastest train in China.  Saying goodbye to the students from Nankai was of course very sad, so the overall mood was pretty somber.  While we waited to go inside the station for our train, we somehow attracted a crowd of people who surrounded us and were just blatantly staring.  While we were used to this when we first got to Beijing and were sightseeing, it was definitely strange to have such a close circle of people closing in on us.  Once we got down to where you board, we had to wait for a little bit for our train to arrive.  While we were waiting, the trains that were stopped at the station looked pretty old.  The sleeper cars did not have any doors, and everything looked very outdated.  I was thinking, "oh no, this for 9 hours?", but when our train pulled up, we were all pleasantly surprised to see a brand new train that looked very similar to the bullet train we took to Tianjin.  The inside of the train was even nicer, and felt extremely modern.  Each sleeper had four beds, and each bed space even had its own TV screen.  I had never been on a train that was that nice and so new feeling.  After leaving the station, a few of us decided to get some food in the dining car.  We unsuccessfully tried getting what looked like soup with rice and vegetables, but ended up being porridge, with nuts and berries.  Relying on pictures sounds like a good idea but really what you order could be anything.  I took this opportunity to try some tomato flavored Pringles, and they were surprisingly better than I thought they would be.  To top off our eating spree, we got a "Beijing Duck in a bag".  This was not something that we expected to be good, but I thought it was very satisfying.  Overall, the train ride was a lot of fun!

We arrived in Suzhou early this morning after a long train ride all night.  We first went to eat breakfast, went to Tiger Hill and then to Zhuozheng Garden.  After lunch we finally had the chance to check into the hotel and then we went to the canal where we took a boat down the small river. 

The thing that was interesting to me is when we were taking the boat down the small canal, I learned that most of the people who live on this beautiful canal are poor people.  The reason I think this is interesting is because it seems like this is a big tourist destination and a lot of people go here to see the scenery and have a nice ride down the river.  It was beautiful and if this was in the USA, I would assume that the people who lived in these homes would be wealthy and would love to live on a nice canal with tourists visiting frequently.  It seems that in beautiful areas around the country, people build nice homes and they want to live in the nice scenery.  In the US the place would be overrun with businesses and restaurants that cater to the needs of tourists.  It seems like this property would be very expensive and people would want to show off their property and all their money. I was honestly surprised when I didn't see a McDonalds or a Starbucks coffee in the area.  It seems like these two companies are in the tourist destinations all over the world.  This just seems like a shock to me because I expected the people who live on the canal to be wealthy and wanting to show off what they have to the tourists.  This is what it would be like in the USA and it is just a little weird to think that these places are where the locals do not want to live.

After three weeks in China already, Charlee and I just found out from one of our new friends, Jue, how to ask where the toilet is. Every other time that we had been out together we have been able to figure out where the bathrooms are from signs or people traffic - until one of our afternoons of hanging out at that coffee shop across the street from the Hanting.

Apparently, you don't have to say the Chinese word for bathroom or toilet (which would by extremely difficult for us to remember and pronounce correctly). Jue told us that WC means bathroom - which should have occurred to me after seeing signs for WC. Germans, the Swiss, and Austrians also use the term WC for bathroom - something that I became accustomed to during my trip there about five years ago. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that sooner. Now we know.

For those of you who carry a purse with you at nearly every second of the day, you know that there are basics that you always have in there - your keys, your wallet, cell phone, lip gloss, a pen, etc. After being in China for nearly three weeks, one of my new staples to always have in my purse is Kleenex or some sort of tissue. About seventy five percent of the time that you try and use a public bathroom here, the toilet paper is usually gone - if they had any to supply at all.

I haven't quite figured out why that is - I guess in a country as populous as China it would be very expensive for businesses and public restrooms to supply toilet paper - they would have to fund it somehow. If everyone expects to use their own costs would be minimal - you would only have to have help to keep them clean - which apparently, is another area where money is saved here. I'm not sure of any of this but if I miss anything from home, it's toilet paper.

Charlee and I have been frequenting a coffee shop across the street and around the corner from the hotel - they have the iced coffee that we've been looking for all over Tianjin and they even have guitars to play. Along with the best coffee we've found for a reasonable price is just a nice quiet place to hang out in the middle of this crazy city. We'll go to grab coffees and end up sitting there for a few hours while we write in our journals that attempt to record our crazy travels here, and I'll take small breaks to sit and play guitar and sing for a little, while Charlee hums along.

One of the times that we stopped in the café this week, the owner, this friendly,  quirky, and stout Chinese woman, gave me about 10 minutes to relax before she put the guitar in my hands herself and told me to play. Her English is very limited but it's much better than any Mandarin that I could ever come up with. She'll give us free tea or coffee drinks and the occasional beer while she taps along on her little tambourine, clapping and saying how she likes every song that I finish.

Before we were leaving on that particular day, she told us that she had a friend who would be playing there that night at ten and that we should stop back so we told her that we would try. We ended up following other plans and missed him, though she said he would be back that night when we went there to hang out the next day - so we promised we would come back.  I was expecting to go back to the café and see this guy play a small show, more or less, and as soon as we walked in I understood exactly what this lady meant for us to come back for.

The café must've been closed as there were only the owner, a friend of hers who only spoke Chinese and Italian, another guy who called himself Antonio who could speak some English, and Allan - the one she told us about. The four of them must have been sitting there for quite awhile, just hanging out before we got there - the table they were at was already filled with beer bottles and the ashtrays already overflowing with their spent cigarettes.

It turns out that Allan is an English teacher here and has also spent five years living in Germany and a year in New York City. They instantly invited us to sit and the owner went back to grab some American beers for us. Conversation flowed so easily between all of us - except for the language barrier, of course - though Allan and Antonio would translate for everyone so we were all a part of the conversation and song.  We all had so much to talk about whether it was music, Germany, our travels here so far, - anything and everything. We knew many of the same songs so as we passed the guitar around the table we would take turns singing along to each other's playing. I play a lot of American folk music and bluegrass, which they had never heard before and they loved it. I loved being able to sit around a table with warmhearted people and enjoy some beers and guitar playing - and singing.

At that point in the trip the only things that I was really homesick for were my guitar and the chance to sit down and sing for about an hour or two a day and release through music. Sitting around the table with those people that night was exactly something that I would have been doing halfway across the world in Duluth. Had my friends been running a coffee shop and met some interesting people who also play music, they would have done the same and invited them back to hang out and enjoy. It's amazing to me how generosity and open minds are a common accompaniment to music. Charlee and I sat with that little crew of ours until almost 1:30 in the morning and loved every second of it.

I've been spending most of this trip noticing blatant differences in the ways of life here, though it was incredibly striking to experience the exact same warmth from people and music that I was missing so much from home.