China Smells

China was so much different than I had ever expected. WOW. I would have posted this blog sooner if it weren’t for communism… Every enjoyable internet site is blocked, google included.

The first day we docked in Shanghai and wandered around the city. The city skyline was unbelievable and looked almost futuristic. The architecture was amazing. Some buildings were very European while others very traditionally Asian. We came across a little street market that was intricately decorated for the upcoming new year. It is the year of the monkey, so there are little dancing monkeys EVERYWHERE. The market was super busy and packed. We ate at a sketchy food court where everything was either fried, had eyes, or both… I ate noodles and called it a day. The mystery meat lining the streets had me feeling skeptical about Chinese food, until we came across a cotton candy stand. YAY! I got the most amazing cotton candy I’ve ever had in my life (pictured below). The cotton candy distracted me from all of the pushing and the smell of horse manure (there aren’t horses, it just smells that bad everywhere). After the market we took a train to the infamous “science and technology museum” aka the train stop with the biggest black market. You could get designer absolutely anything for no more than 20 dollars. We spent all the money we had on us before heading back to the ship for a free dinner. At this point it is blizzarding, so we are ready to be “home”.

The next day we took a train to Beijing. On the way we passed through several towns that had huge apartment buildings but nothing else around them. It was super strange and felt like the hunger games. We figured they were to house the crazy amount of people, but I later learned that they were actually empty. In the old communist system people were promoted based on their districts standings, so they would start these huge building projects and then leave them empty or incomplete. Very weird. Coming from Japan, I expected China it to be clean and friendly, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Beijing was so dirty and rude. Motorcycles and cars have zero respect for pedestrians and are more than willing to run you over if you don’t move. After two hours of wandering we finally found our hostel and were reunited with all our SAS friends. That night we walked around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was interesting how China preaches Tiananmen as a place of peace and refuses to talk about anything that happened there. Our guy friends got mystery meat on a stick (the man making it called it “simple meat” whatever that means- pictured below) and we got a bunch of traditional desserts.

The next morning we woke up super early and went to the Great Wall. After a 2 1/2 hour bus ride we arrived to the “original” wall. Our tour guide lectured us on how the touristy part of the wall is actually man made for visitors and how this location of the wall was “secret”. He didn’t speak much english and really didn’t seem to know what he was talking about, but hey whatever, it was an adventure. He walked us up to the start of the hike and then left.. We were the only people as far as we could see, but it was amazing. The wall is so surreal. Some of the steps were no more than 2 inches and the higher up we got the colder it was. The steps were covered in ice and snow (it was 12 degrees at the bottom and according to my weather app felt like 2), so I was only able to walk for like 30 minutes before I lost all feeling in my toes, but it was definitely worth it. The view from the top was unbelievable. We could see miles and miles of the wall and there was surprisingly not very much pollution.

On Wednesday we took a flight to Hong Kong which was a nice change of pace. Hong Kong was way cleaner and nicer. I had no idea that Hong Kong was essentially it’s own little nation within China. They have their own language, currency, and even a different government system. For how enormous of a city it was, there was so much green space. The first night we went out to dinner in a really young lively part of the city. We got the best Mexican I have ever had in my life (we needed a break from the scary Chinese food). At night the skyline of Hong Kong is super colorful! The building are all lit up with different designs- it was so beautiful. The first full day in Hong Kong we went to the top of Victoria’s Peak to see the full skyline and the harbor. Hong Kong harbor is the deepest natural harbor in the world which is pretty cool. We explored the city that night and went to the famous ladies market in Mong Kong. This part of town was so overwhelming, over-stimulating and fascinating. There were huge flashing lights and every store imaginable. The streets were packed and everyone was rushing everywhere. We stopped into a Dim Sum restaurant, which is basically Chinese version of tapas, and it was delicious. They even had little dessert dim sum shaped like pigs! cute! Hong Kong food is WAY better than mainland food. The next day we went to the Giant Buddha. It was so so so huge. The head alone weighs five tons! From the Buddha we took a 360 cable car back to the train station that was on a different island. I didn’t realize Hong Kong was composed of so many little islands, but it was so cool to see the beaches from the air. The view was unbelievable.

China was definitely not my favorite place, but we did get to see and do a ton of cool things. Hong Kong was amazing, but mainland was very dirty and pushy. I guess if you like being rushed and honked at then mainland china is for you. Or if you like fried mystery food and the constant feeling of the government filtering through your stuff, then it’d be for you also. I, on the other hand, prefer more freedom and less grease.

Here’s my list of interesting observations:

1. No matter where you live, your clothes hang out your window. Even downtown Hong Kong had 70 story apartment buildings with clothes hanging out of every window. Also, clothes hang even when it’s below freezing.
2. Everything is priced more than you will pay. Bargaining is fun, but I hate that you are always being cheated- why can’t it just say the actual price?
3. Everything is red bean. RED BEAN EVERYTHING. EW!! McDonald’

s even has a red bean pie instead of an apple pie on their menu. Who would ever chose red bean over apple- idk.
4. The government is watching at all times. One of my friends had her service turned off for an hour because she was on snapchat. Another tried to take a picture of someone getting arrested and the cops swarmed him and made him delete the photos. If you email about anything controversial they will shut off your email- it happened to one of our teachers. SCARY
5. The Great Wall of China can’t really be seen from space (according to my not so reliable tour guide so maybe I’m wrong on this…)
​6. Even though China is super “globalized” parts of major cities like Beijing are still very under developed. Everyone drives around on bootlegged moped scooters with millions of things strapped on to them- dangerous. 

We got delayed a day because of rough seas, but we are off to Vietnam soon! I can’t wait to eat some authentic pho.

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