A little taste of home...

One of my closest friends from the States visited this past weekend. It was SO wonderful to see her and experience some good ole' western logic. The things you miss when living over here seem so peculiar-- but it was so refreshing having someone who understands your sense of humor and how you think, come to this county and see what you see every day.

My friend Abbie and her friend Leah came to China for a one week whirl-wind tour. They arrived off the plane at 10pm on Saturday, where I promptly greeted them in their hotel lobby for a night out in Beijing. Nothing quite like getting off a 14 hr plane flight and then being subjected to the Chinese nightlife. But I say instant immersion into insanity is the best way to rip that 'sissy western ideals' bandage right off! HAHA That night was so hilarious- Abbie nearly got engaged 3 times, I was forced to prop-up an Asian man named "Alan" while his friend chased down a street kid who stole 100 yuan, we all danced in a style that was a cross between eastern european techno and bizarro chinese fusion HAHA All in all, it was a fabulous night. Since it was after 3 am when we devoured our street cart hotdogs (these hotdogs are delicious and are all beef(i hope)) we decided it was time to head home. Abbie and Leah did have to be on the bus 3 hours later to begin their 'cultural' tour of china...I think walking the Great Wall slightly tipsy and hungover is the best way to see it anyhow :)

((sorry last post was done in the wee hours of the morning so there are a lot of run-on sentences and typos... fixed some of the typos but couldn't care less about the run-ons haha))

There is nothing you can not doooo in Chengduuuuu

(sorry the title sounds like it should be a song hah)

Last week was the Chinese National Holiday and everyone got to have a lovely 8 day vacation. There is nothing quite like witnessing the Chinese take a holiday though. I boarded the aircraft to begin my 5 day trip to Chengdu in the Sichuan Province. The plane ride had to be the strangest thing I have ever been a part of- there were passengers getting up and walking around during takeoff, people taking off their seat belts so they could peer out the windows during the landing, a lady diagonally from me throwing up because of the turbulence and some man with a video camera getting a shot of the only 'whitey' (that's what I have taken to calling myself over here) on the plane. It was insanity!

Since I arrived at the hostel late in the evening, I started my explorations of the city the following day. The town has started creating these 'old' shopping streets- meaning they were recently built but they did them in the ancient style. So, now I can pretend Starbucks is really a traditional drinking location and not feel guilty about drinking my green tea frappuccino :)
My next stop after a brief time travel back into 'old' china, was the "People's Park." This place was really amazing because of all the strange activities going on in one location. There were people joining sing-a-longs, old people dancing all over the place, people in boats on the lake colliding into one another, spun sugar candy making, and my favorite bizarre activity-EAR CLEANING. Yep, that is right, you can have a cup of tea at one of the tea houses and have your ears cleaned by a man and a tuning fork. It probably was one of the strangest things I witnessed and definitely did not want it done (though I was asked a BILLION times) because I did not see them clean their instruments from one person's ear to another's ear...GROSS

Chengdu is also home to the largest Mao statue. This guy definitely ate his Wheaties for he is a big one:

The following day was my trip to the Panda Breeding and Research Center. This had to be the best experience of my whole trip because for the low, low price of $150 you can have a 'baby' panda sit on your lap! Honestly, it was totally worth the money when you think what a cool experience it was- well at least I do, and that is all that matters haha
There is absolutely NO WAY, you would have been able to do something like this in the U.S unless you paid 10 times as much. It was so incredible and I am glad that I was able to spend one weeks pay on having a panda sit in my lap HAHAH
That evening, after my "panda high" I decided to go to the Sichuan opera. This is famous for its 'face changers', 'fire breathers', and shadow puppets. It was pretty cool and very entertaining. I spent the extra 5 dollars and sat in the "VIP" section haha which just meant that I could feel my eye brows being singed by the fire breathers (if you are interested in what this might have been like, check out the Travel Channels Samantha Brown's trip to Chengdu on like youtube).
On Tuesday, one of the other female travelers staying at the hostel and I headed 2.5 hours by bus to Mnt. Emei so that we would be able to 'climb' one of the 4 sacred Buddhist mountains. I put climb in quotations because we really took a bus from the base of the mountain to about halfway up (2.5 hours of winding roads, fog, and 2 accidents that we had to wait through), walked 1 mile of stairs, and then took a cable car from there to the top of the mountain. After 7 hours of travel, we finally made it to the top of this sacred mountain to look out on a lovely view of FOG! Yeah, we could not even see the famous golden statue at the top (we originally thought it was a weird smoke formation caused by the burning incense sticks) until we were right underneath it. Once we made it to the highest temple, we were constantly harassed by Chinese tourists to let them take their pictures with us...WHITEY ALERT! It was all so anti-climatic coming to this sacred place, that Sonja and I ran down the mountain to escape the paparazzi to only then be attacked my monkeys. These monkeys have now taken to stealing food from tourists. I witnessed one grab peanuts from a man wearing a poncho--taking the peanuts and tearing the poncho haha The funniest thing though, is if you are completely lazy, you do not even have to walk ANY part of this mountain (Sonja and I at least walked up a million stairs it seemed like). If walking seems like too much you can be carried- two men will put you in a jampan (sedan style chair) and run with you up and down the stairs! I was content with the fog, sore legs and feeling the altitude sickness that I did not want to ruin it by being carried and dropped down the steep steps haha

Like I said in my title, there is little that you can't do in this town (or anywhere in China really)...there is only a price that has to be negotiated ;)

The Great 'fire'Wall of China

As you might have noticed, it has been 3 weeks since my last post. This was due to the Chinese government systematically shutting down all of the free proxy servers. They did this to prevent communication to the outside world during their National Holiday. Any sites dealing with freedom of expression- blogs, facebook, etc- are all blocked because the government does not want people writing about China in any negative light. The government insists on controlling information and therefore many sites are blocked, especially any news sites that might not show China at its absolute best. Expats living in this country have no choice but to throw their fists up at Hu Jintoa (current leader) and buy an outside service.

I am now the proud owner of a VPN, which allows me to get on any site I want because I have an american IP address. The Great Wall of China was built to keep enemies from harming the people. The Great 'fire'Wall of China was created to keep 'bad' information from getting to the people. However, history repeats itself- the Hun army made it past the defenses of the Wall and so now Facebook has made it through the 'fire'Wall! muwahahahahah I attack* from within... (*dear chinese government, please note this is a joke- do not arrest me!)