Sunday, April 27, 2008
Back from Xinjiang
My apologies for not leaving a note about my leaving for Xinjiang province for 10 days. Midterms had me really swamped, and I left immediately afterwards on Thursday. I have a few hundred pictures to sort through and a couple essays to finish tomorrow, but I will prepare an epic post to match my epic vacation.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Beijing Weekend
Hopped an overnight soft sleeper to Beijing, arriving Friday morning 6:45. I was pseudo-traveling with three girls from Nanjing--Shirlene, Lisa, and Bethany. They took a different train there and stayed in a different hotel. Also from Nanjing, Alex's girlfriend, Zheng Yu, flew to Beijing, but stayed in my same hotel. We would all travel back together on the same train.
Beijing University has this enormous lake with a 10+ story pagoda on one side. Totally blows Nanjing University Campus out of the water.
I went to visit my friend Alex from CIEE Nanjing last semester whose birthday it was on Thursday. I stayed in this large hotel/dorm complex where most foreigners at Beijing University are housed. Forgot my passport, so spent my whole morning (like 3 hours) finding a fax machine, the fax being too unclear, and then having my roommate scan and e-mail it to me. It was well worth the trouble and the 260 kuai to stay in such a convenient and well-furnished location. I've had some very bad experiences with Beijing hostels in the past.
Had lunch in the nearby Korean area, Wudaokou. We ate Korean food, for which my love is increasingly growing. I would eat again on Sunday at a Korean restaurant in this area. Despite Nanjings plethora of Korean restaurants, none stood up to the two I ate at over the weekend.
After lunch, we went back to campus and had a mini-campus tour. The weather was beautiful because they had recently launched a weather rocket, which made it rain, and cleared away the pollution for a while. The campus was also amazing, replete with this huge lake and pagoda, lots of traditional architecture, and the library where Mao Zedong began developing his ideology.
Alex, a bunch of his friends, and I went out to a Thai restaurant for this guys birthday. It was a huge meal and included plenty of seafood. Then, we went to smoke a hookah at a bar in Houhai, a bar district that encompasses this lake, meaning there were hundreds of bars. Sat outside, had a beer, pretty low key night.
The next day, got my train back finally figured out, thanks to the three other girls in town. Every ticket vendor was saying there weren't any tickets for Sunday night arriving Monday morning. This was possible since it was a holiday weekend. Everyone had Friday off for Qingming Jie, what I call the clean-off-your-family-tomb-and-burn fake-money festival. Turns out, they were just all too lazy to check and assumed there wouldn't be tickets. The three girls successfully purchased me a ticket at the train station (a 60 kuai cab ride away).
That afternoon, I ate lunch at a restaurant called Lush in Wudaokou, best known for being open 24/7. It serves western style food that you might find at like a Denny's, but slightly better than that of course. I ate with Alex, his gf, and Caroline, another girl from the previous semester in Nanjing.
That afternoon, Alex, Zhengyu and I went to the Summer Palace. Apparently, the summer retreat for the rulers is built around the largest man-made lake. Read the wikipedia page for more. Took a boat across the lake and saw the huge marble boat that was commissioned by Empress Dowager Cixi, who pretty much controlled China through her son in the 1800's. The funds were supposed to be used on the Chinese navy, and this among many misappropriations account for a lot of Chinese military weakness at the time.
Me, Alex, and Zhengyu in the gardens at the Summer Palace.
That night we went to dinner at a pizza place called Kro's Nest. The pizza definitely is on par with US pizza and is the best I've had in China. The large's were huge, think bigger than a big new yorker, probably like 36 inches. I nearly completed a half, the fullest I've been this semester to the point of discomfort. Well worth it though. We went across town to have a drink with Alex's friends who were at another Kro's Nest location by coincidence. From there went to the Sanlitun (pronounced Sanlituar in a Beijing accent) to this place called Blue Bar. They had a great patio on the roof, so we sat up there and had more drinks. Afterward, went to China Doll next door, but that wasn't much fun. Late night, returned home at approximately 5 a.m.
On Sunday, I checked out of the hotel and, after lunch, went shopping in Wudaokou. I bought a pair of shoes at Hotwind, which was long overdue. Cost like US$40, and were pretty sweet, plus I apparently get lifetime repairs on them(?).
To that point, I had had a pretty epic cuisine experience that weekend--I only at Chinese food once for breakfast the first morning. But our last dinner on Friday was the piece de resistance. We ate at a pretty upscale Japanese restaurant. I had a couple pieces of thick sashimi as well as a dozen pieces of four different sushi. Topped off to perfection with an Asahi.
Returned back on a 9:3o p.m. train that arrived around 7 a.m. Monday. Just enough time to cab home, take a shower and go to class.
Busy week, this Thursday I have a speech class midterm. I'll update with how it goes.
Beijing University has this enormous lake with a 10+ story pagoda on one side. Totally blows Nanjing University Campus out of the water.
I went to visit my friend Alex from CIEE Nanjing last semester whose birthday it was on Thursday. I stayed in this large hotel/dorm complex where most foreigners at Beijing University are housed. Forgot my passport, so spent my whole morning (like 3 hours) finding a fax machine, the fax being too unclear, and then having my roommate scan and e-mail it to me. It was well worth the trouble and the 260 kuai to stay in such a convenient and well-furnished location. I've had some very bad experiences with Beijing hostels in the past.
Had lunch in the nearby Korean area, Wudaokou. We ate Korean food, for which my love is increasingly growing. I would eat again on Sunday at a Korean restaurant in this area. Despite Nanjings plethora of Korean restaurants, none stood up to the two I ate at over the weekend.
After lunch, we went back to campus and had a mini-campus tour. The weather was beautiful because they had recently launched a weather rocket, which made it rain, and cleared away the pollution for a while. The campus was also amazing, replete with this huge lake and pagoda, lots of traditional architecture, and the library where Mao Zedong began developing his ideology.
Alex, a bunch of his friends, and I went out to a Thai restaurant for this guys birthday. It was a huge meal and included plenty of seafood. Then, we went to smoke a hookah at a bar in Houhai, a bar district that encompasses this lake, meaning there were hundreds of bars. Sat outside, had a beer, pretty low key night.
The next day, got my train back finally figured out, thanks to the three other girls in town. Every ticket vendor was saying there weren't any tickets for Sunday night arriving Monday morning. This was possible since it was a holiday weekend. Everyone had Friday off for Qingming Jie, what I call the clean-off-your-family-tomb-and-burn fake-money festival. Turns out, they were just all too lazy to check and assumed there wouldn't be tickets. The three girls successfully purchased me a ticket at the train station (a 60 kuai cab ride away).
That afternoon, I ate lunch at a restaurant called Lush in Wudaokou, best known for being open 24/7. It serves western style food that you might find at like a Denny's, but slightly better than that of course. I ate with Alex, his gf, and Caroline, another girl from the previous semester in Nanjing.
That afternoon, Alex, Zhengyu and I went to the Summer Palace. Apparently, the summer retreat for the rulers is built around the largest man-made lake. Read the wikipedia page for more. Took a boat across the lake and saw the huge marble boat that was commissioned by Empress Dowager Cixi, who pretty much controlled China through her son in the 1800's. The funds were supposed to be used on the Chinese navy, and this among many misappropriations account for a lot of Chinese military weakness at the time.
Me, Alex, and Zhengyu in the gardens at the Summer Palace.
That night we went to dinner at a pizza place called Kro's Nest. The pizza definitely is on par with US pizza and is the best I've had in China. The large's were huge, think bigger than a big new yorker, probably like 36 inches. I nearly completed a half, the fullest I've been this semester to the point of discomfort. Well worth it though. We went across town to have a drink with Alex's friends who were at another Kro's Nest location by coincidence. From there went to the Sanlitun (pronounced Sanlituar in a Beijing accent) to this place called Blue Bar. They had a great patio on the roof, so we sat up there and had more drinks. Afterward, went to China Doll next door, but that wasn't much fun. Late night, returned home at approximately 5 a.m.
On Sunday, I checked out of the hotel and, after lunch, went shopping in Wudaokou. I bought a pair of shoes at Hotwind, which was long overdue. Cost like US$40, and were pretty sweet, plus I apparently get lifetime repairs on them(?).
To that point, I had had a pretty epic cuisine experience that weekend--I only at Chinese food once for breakfast the first morning. But our last dinner on Friday was the piece de resistance. We ate at a pretty upscale Japanese restaurant. I had a couple pieces of thick sashimi as well as a dozen pieces of four different sushi. Topped off to perfection with an Asahi.
Returned back on a 9:3o p.m. train that arrived around 7 a.m. Monday. Just enough time to cab home, take a shower and go to class.
Busy week, this Thursday I have a speech class midterm. I'll update with how it goes.
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