Places!

In the last two weeks, I've been to some pretty awesome places: the Westlake area, the International Expo, Tianamen Square, and the Forbidden City. No Terra Cotta warriors. :( They were on the original itinerary, but got cut.

So! My impressions, and some pictures, in chronological order:

The Westlake Area

This is a GORGEOUS area! We took pictures with the Confucious statue (that were picture bombed) and then walked around some and took a boat tour. As beautiful as the area is, it's apparently not too much of a foreign tourist attraction, based on the number of stares we received. In Shanghai and Beijing, we haven't gotten that much attention and no one has asked to take a picture with anyone in our group in a couple of days (well, except for Katie today at the Forbidden City).

The Confucious statue at West Lake! Before we were photo bombed!

Not entirely sure why there's a bridge on an island, but whatever.

Dr. Watson.. he did one of these pictures on the Brazil trip, too. That's a VERY large Koi pond behind him.

The International Expo

Shanghai was NUTS about this thing. Everywhere you looked, there was Blue Gumby (or Haibo, as he's actually named). The expo itself was over a ridiculous amount of land that will apparently become the new business district when the expo is done. Most of the buildings constructed for the expo will be torn down to make way for new skyscrapers.

Security at the event was controlled by entrance times. You were given a window to arrive in and if you didn't get to the expo by the end of your window, your ticket was no longer valid (and they keep your money). So our window of arrival was 10AM - 11AM. We had 7PM reservations at the China pavilion. We had almost eight hours to kill in a park twice the size of the Magic Kingdom. After lunch (at Papa John's, in the Americas section) the group split into two and my group conquered about five pavilions including one that gave out beer in souvenir glasses.

My favorite was probably the Brazilian pavilion; the screens were omnidirectional touch screens! LOVED IT! The Chinese pavilion was interesting but since we were there so late in the day (and we were cold and hungry) that we didn't really appreciate it. Also, it was all in Chinese.

This is Haibo. Or, as we called him, Blue Gumby.

At the Netherlands, there were sheep you could move around and sit on. We all took pictures with this one!

Some of the pavilions at the Expo. The big fuzzy cube thing is the UK and the net is either France or Italy.

The inside of the Russian pavilion. It was sort of like what I imagine an acid trip is like.

Tianamen Square

I was probably not as impressed as I should have been. It was a huge square with a 'people's hall,' an obelisk, and a very large building for Mao's crypt. I didn't realize that the man was buried in a crystal tomb! Crazy! People were literally wrapped around the building - at 9Am - to see him. They did have some very large TVs that we were making vaguely inappropriate jokes about, though. I will note that I was shocked that we could clearly see the image.

Taken in Tianamen Square. Look at how hazy it is!

The Forbidden City

It was HUGE. It took us two hours to walk from end to end, without going into any areas of the city. I have a lot of pictures, but I realized towards the middle that a lot of them are going to look similar; I'm going to have issues identifying what they are. Also? The pollution here is AWFUL! There's visible haze EVERYWHERE~~

Forbidden City! Central building. I asked when it was last repainted. Answer: for the Olympics.

More Forbidden City! At this point, we were getting tired and cranky.

Bonus Pictures!

Some of the group... what's that vaguely hidden skyline?

THIS!!!!!

Mary & Amanda Time

Tonight Mary and I are taking some 'Mary and Amanda Time' and catching up with journaling and, in my case, online forms for internships.

This trip has been an interesting experience in terms of people, places, events, and things seen around town. That being in mind, this is the first of generalized summations. People up first!

People on the trip

I lucked out; the group of people I'm traveling with is pretty awesome. The majority of us (7/12) are first years-soon-to-be-second years, with two just-graduated second years, a lawyer, a PMBA, and the director of LSU's Flores MBA program. We've naturally broken into smaller groups: the picky eaters, the people that like to go out at night, the people that like to try weird things, etc. We've bonded over the imminent threat of someone getting the Big D and China's unique attachment to the "squatty potty."

People met on the trip

Our tour guides have kept it real. We didn't have too much time with our Shenzhen guide, Lynn, because we were only there for about forty eight hours. Our Hongzhou/Suzhou/Shanghai guide, Joyce, was a trip. Every time she wanted to address the crowd, she began with "Boys and girls,..." it was amusing at first, but annoying towards the end. She knew a lot about the size and history of the areas we were in. Our current guide is Jade, and she seems to be a lot of fun. We'll see how this works out. Our permanent tour guide, Linda, is hands down awesome.

Thus far, we've met a lot of managers, CEOs, and VPs, but it's interesting to note that the two most well received ones were the two that were Western-style educated and that have worked in the Americas. They were both charismatic and out going with a presentation style that was familiar. Ironically enough, both work for pharmaceutical-related companies. We still have four more days in Beijing, where we're meeting with more people, but I'm interested to see if we'll find any more people as well received as the previous two.

People in China

Okay, the Chinese people make me equal parts amused and equal parts frustrated.

The amusing:

• The staring. In certain places we've been (Shenzhen, Hongzhou, and Suzhou), people were completely taken in with us. They'd stop and blatantly stare or take pictures of our group as we walked by. At Westlake, a girl even crashed our picture. Outside of the Modern Toilet in Shenzhen, some people asked to take a picture with Katie and a picture with Will. At a gas station on the way into Shanghai, people on other busses stared as we got off for snacks.
• The public urination. I get that little kids can't always verbalize when they need to use the bathroom, or that they do so at an inopportune time. However, I'm always shocked and amused to see a mother tug her son's pants down in the middle of a busy street, aim her son at a tree, and let him pee there (or, as I saw last night, on the side of a building at a really busy intersection).
• The driving. Oh my God, traffic here in China need to televised and narrated by the same guys that do soccer. It would be HILARIOUS. The traffic signals all seem to be suggestions, and a left on red appears to be a completely legal thing to do. Either televise it as a spectator sport or use it in defensive driving class, but the Chinese are either the best or worst drivers anywhere on the planet.

The frustrating:

• The food. It's all swimming in oil and boiled. Let's bake something!
• The pushing. Pushing wasn't too much of an issue until the International Expo. I don't understand why people here feel it's acceptable to push in a line that is NOT moving and is going to the same place, regardless of time, to get the same unlimited resource. Or when we're walking on the sidewalk or through the airport and there's six inches between me and Mary and someone shoves right through.
• The bathrooms. I get that people think the "squatty potty" (someone please tell me the proper name) is cleaner than a Western toilet, but it's a redundant point when the bathrooms are covered in urine and smell awful. More on the bathroom situation later, but I will say this: we saw American Standard "squatty potties" at the Expo. Somehow, I don't think those things are up to the American standard.

That's it! Four more days in China! Tomorrow: all the really cool places I've been with pictures. Here are some from the last couple of days:

Pictures!

Since I haven't really put any pictures up, I thought I would rectify that situation. Today was a horrendously long (but really awesome) day that included something like ten miles of walking and very little nourishment. It's 11:26 PM and we just had McDonald's delivered since everything else is closed. That's right... McDonald's delivery. Anyway! Pictures below in collages because I'm a little too lazy to upload all of these pictures individually. :)

People!

From the top left and going clockwise: Billy rolled his pants up at the Shenzhen Celebrity Club during lunch because it was Louisiana hot and he was sweating, Lindsey trying a boiled yeast ball covered in honey and peanuts, Mary tasting a fruit in Sam's Club that required gloves, Richard giving us some egg-based custard from KFC, Dr. Watson on the Westlake tour boat (and all of the cameras!), Riley and Erica on the same tour boat, Will in front of the Confucious statue in Westlake, Jose at the Sam's Club, and Chad trying the same gloves-required fruit at the Sam's Club.

Things We've Done:

From the top left: Strolling through a mall during our free time (and while being tailed for SIX FLOORS) we spotted this advertisement in a KFC: a shrimp-filled chicken patty sandwich, the 'Times Square' of Shenzhen, all the beer we consumed at a little bar/restaraunt in Shenzhen for RMD $20.00!!, Mary and Riley at the Modern Toilet restaraunt (delicious pineapple fried rice), Mary's chocolate ice cream dessert at the Modern Toiley, and Erica on the bus to Suzhou from Hongzhou.

Suzhou:

Starting at the left and going top to bottom: Group shot in front of the Confucious statue (Asian people were taking our picture, too, and crashing it), a farmer's house along the freeway between the airport and the hotel, a dragon boat we thought was awesome, Dr. Watson, girls' group shot on a bridge in Westlake, Chinese man taking a picture of us (we get a LOT of stares, photo requests, and comments), a bridge on an island (I didn't understand why there's a bridge on an unihabitated island), koi pond, and another shot of the koi pond (but the branch got in the way).

SPICY! Dinner in Suzhou:

Joyce, Linda, and Richard (our resident Chinese guides and student) trying to order dinner for fourteen people, Will and Chad about to consume some Chinese liquor best described as gasoline, Jose and Mary about to take a shot of the same stuff, Katie with some chopsticks.... or maybe those were Jose's?, Lindsey and Katie before we got our eating on, Mary on the phone with Sprint for the FOURTH time trying to figure out why we can't text anyone, and finally: Erica with one of her first ever beers!! (She's a wine drinker)