Chilling in Beijing

I apologize to my legions of fans for not keeping you all in the loop the last few days.  It’s hard to remember to blog when I feel like we’re at home, and there hasn’t been anything really strange/stressful/problematic to write about. Things have been quite smooth and worry-free, and we’re definitely not complaining. But do not fret, there’s a long post coming up.

We’ve been swallowing up the Chinese New Year festivities since arriving here. Just like the twelve days of Christmas, there are the fifteen days of Chinese New Year, with festivities starting on the eve of the New Year and special customs and traditions that are followed on each subsequent day, until the fifteenth day. Most of the traditions inevitably involve food, and of course Kevin and I have partaken in these celebrations as much as our stomachs will allow. We’ve sampled some pretty “interesting” things as well as cooking/eating  a homemade seafood feast that went from noon to 4PM.

Since we’re not in a rush to get to our next destination, we’ve either been led around by family to some nice places around the city, or exploring on our own slow pace. Today for example, we spent a good part of the day walking down this historic street where we sampled four different types of yogurt at four different shops. We haven’t spent too much time wandering outside though, because like the title suggests, it’s literally very chilly in Beijing. Being the northern most city we’ve been to since leaving Toronto, we’ve also had to pack on the layers in order to stay warm.

The cold weather hasn’t deterred people from setting fireworks though, which is an essential part of New Year celebrations. Traditionally, fireworks are set off to scare off evil spirits and bad luck so that the New Year can start afresh.  These days, it seems more like an excuse to set off gigantic sticks, scratch that – gigantic crates of fireworks that would make Canadian Health and Safety personnel lose their jobs. On NYE, when it’s almost midnight, neighbourhoods all over China set off super powerful firecrackers that set off car alarms. These firecrackers aren’t set off in open area parks, instead their placed in the middle of the road and the sparks bounce off the walls of apartment buildings. Meanwhile, empty firecracker shells whiz by your body and fragments fall into your hair. Sounds dangerous? Yeah, just a little. You look around and it’s like a war zone. There are BOOMS and BANGS going off everywhere, leaving the streets smoky and misty, as well as littered with debris. It’s all fun and games until someone looses an eye. So far so good though.

Happy Chinese New Year! Hope the year of the dragon brings everyone health, happiness, and prosperity!

Boxes of firecrackers ready to be set off

Firecracker war zone street

Too close for comfort in the balcony section

Sunny Suzhou

They say Suzhou (which is a city about 100 km east of Shanghai) is home to China’s most beautiful women. Although we were not able to prove said statement was true, we were treated to some of the best weather we’ve seen in China so far.

After a somewhat stressful last day in Hangzhou, we arrived in Suzhou looking forward to visiting some of the parks and gardens that the city is known for. The first morning in Suzhou, we stepped out of our hostel, not into a puddle, but into what is deemed to be “clear” skies in China. There were even parts of the day where we could see blueish sky. We got a late start to the day after sleeping in, and after feeding ourselves along the lively pedestrian streets, we headed to the biggest and considered by many to be the most impressive garden in Suzhou. We were quite camera happy as we strolled around the garden, even stopping to set up the tripod along the way.

The Humble Administrator's Garden, biggest garden in Suzhou

 Our nights in Suzhou were spent at our hostel café, where over a pot of tea, Kevin and would challenge each other to games of Gomoku. It’s a game that uses similar black and white stones and game board like Othello, but it’s kind of played like Connect Four, except you have to get five in a row. In other words, it’s Connect Four Plus One More. No, I didn’t come up with that, but it’s quite catchy. Although Kevin fought quite hard, it was still 3-0 for me after our three-night battle. But who’s counting?

We’re heading back to Shanghai tomorrow, but only for a very brief stopover before we board the plane to Beijing! I can’t believe we’re finally going to Beijing. We’ve known all along that we’ll be in Beijing for Chinese New Year, but thinking about that at the beginning of November seemed like it was eons away. And now that our tickets are purchased, and we’re leaving tomorrow, it seems much more real. A little sad too in a way, since that means our trip is on its last legs. But there’s no point in dwelling on that just yet. Our return tickets back to reality still aren’t booked, and I’m pretty content on having our heads up in our travelling clouds for a bit longer. 

Friends

The last three days of our Shanghai stint was made even more memorable because of the good food and conversation we shared with friends from across the ocean. We met up with Michael and Sainan after their trip to Sainan's home town. We knew that they would be in Shanghai from Jan. 8 to 11 way before, but because our plans were so unpredictable, we weren't sure if we'd be able to meet up with them. Luckily, it all worked out in the end and we spent three days doing a lot of walking, chatting, and of course eating.

Kevin enjoyed having an outlet to talk about his tech and research topics to someone who actually understood (thanks, Mike!), while I had someone to ooh and ahh at sights with me and talk about girly stuff. And we were both thoroughly ecstatic to have a Chinese speaker AND reader (thanks, Sainan!). Walking around the city was like the good ol' days when the four of us would go for weekend trips to somewhere, and the highlight our days would be the food. Except this time, we were on the other side of the world, speaking a different language. We're not sure when we'll see Mike and Sainan again...but a little birdie told me that it'll be sometime in August...this time in Toronto.


Kevin and Lily in transit is nice, but meeting friends along the way is icing on the cake. 

The gang at The Bund, Shanghai

 

Sleeping in the PVG

We arrived at Guilin’s airport around 9PM with plenty of time before we boarded our fight to Shanghai at almost midnight. The flight was packed and quite uneventful except for the exercises that the flight attendants led at the end of the flight. I felt like I was partaking in those early morning tai chi sessions in the parks in China.

By the time we landed and got our luggage, it was already 2AM. The taxi ride into the city would take another hour or so and about $30. So, we went from flying at 30, 000 feet to a new low – we slept at the PVG, which stands for Pudong International Airport in Shanghai.  Actually, it was more like we napped at a Burger King (which we read from previous research was a good place to crash since it’s open 24 hours and has wifi). When we got to the Burger King, we realized that lots more people had discovered our secret. Almost all the benches were already taken up with people on laptops, sleeping, or eating.  We had to settle for a hard bench and set up camp there. You should have seen us, we were definitely a sight for sore eyes. We slept hugging our big packs, while our smaller bags were strapped around our ankles or wrists, and using whatever layers we weren’t wearing, we used those to cover our bodies.

I couldn’t believe it, but I actually fell asleep. It wasn’t until Kevin nudged me awake to tell me that the security had come around telling people to leave if they weren’t eating anything. I looked at my watch – it was 5AM. Only another hour and a half before the metro starts running. When the time finally came, and we pulled away from the airport on the metro, it was great to see some sun shining through the morning mist. We hadn’t seen any sun for at least three weeks.  Good morning, Shanghai! It’s nice to meet you.

Kevin sleeping in style

Rain rain go away

We've been in Yangshuo for the last 4 days, thinking that we were gonna spend a few days here relaxing and cycling around the town taking in the sights of the mountains and the river. Well we definitely got top scores for relaxing, but in terms of seeing the sights, we couldn't see any of it because of the looming cloud and fog that was ever present.

On our second day we decided to take a boat ride down the famous Li River. The scenery here is so famous that it's on the back of the 20 RMB bill. However, as we set out that day, we knew we wouldn't see much since it was raining and super foggy. We were let off at one point to take photos. The guys there tried to get us to buy photos that could be develop right away, but we took a look at the "beautiful" background and chuckled.

This is what it could look like:

This is what we saw that day:

But our time in Yangshuo was still enjoyable in that the food here was quite satisfying. Rice noodles are their speciality here, and we definitely ate ourselves silly with it. It's hard to resist when it's so cheap, and the 24 hour place right next to our hotel was uber convenient. Kevin also found his favourite post-meal place. A bakery that made really yummy egg tarts. So, even though we're leaving Yangshuo with our eyes wanting to see more, our full bellies are leaving satisfied.