排名我最喜欢的中国地方

今天的文章是：排名我最喜欢的中国地方

 1. Shanghai 上海 上海是中国的纽约市。上海是中国的最大的城市。相关另外的世界大城市你可以发现很多外国人，外国饭，和外国印象。但是上海不只是一个外国人的地方。为了中国，上海很重要。看见陆家嘴你发现中国的巨大经济发展。上海的交通和教育也很发展了。上海依然有很美丽的小区。我最喜欢的地方是静安区和法租界。特别这样的地方你感觉上海不是大城市。总体来说，上海是中国的珍宝。 

2. Xinjiang 新疆 早今年我有机会去新疆旅行。让我给你一点背景。2010年我去上海东华大学留学一个学期。有一天我在篮球场。那天，我打得不错，觉得没有人是我的对手。可是一个参加了。在我完全的中国经验我没看的这么的篮球员。首先我觉得他也是外国人因为他的脸色不是汉族人。事实上他是维族人。我们四个月变成很近。我留学完成了以后回来美国，并我们5年没有见面。我去年去上海出差。我使用人人帐户联系他。我们好久没有谈话，可是我们还是感觉朋友是朋友。终于他决定去上海见面我。他的最喜欢的中国城市也是上海。他在上海上大学。可是为了他在新疆有很多机会，朋友，家人，所以他决定回新疆工作。我们在上海的时候，他邀请我来他的家在新疆和配他去开车旅行。他目前住在乌鲁木齐，可是他说我们可以看到很多不同的地方。实际上，他打算结婚他的女朋友。我参加了他的婚礼和配他回乌鲁木齐。我们也看一下吐鲁番，沙漠，天山天池，和火焰山。新疆太漂亮。人很友好。羊肉太好吃！最重要的是我的最好朋友之一在新疆；不只是朋友，他是我的兄弟。

 3. Chengdu 成都 选择第三个最喜欢的中国地方是比较难。我还有去了很多中国地方：北京，天津，苏州，武汉，桂林，重庆，西藏，广州，深圳。。。（我想那是完成了列表）。可是成都是我第一个中国城市那我住的。2008年，两个夏天在台湾后来是我第一次去大陆。我选择留学生的项目为学习中文，中国历史，和中国经济。所以我住在四川大学一个学期和享受四川生活。我最喜欢的活动是：1.吃麻辣火锅，2. 看熊猫，3.去爬山，4. 看一下很多小城市在四川的农村。中国越来越发展，中国地方慢慢丢传统的文化。成都当然是很现代，但文化依然真的本地的。 谢谢您阅读我的博客。你享受的话，请提供评论。

我的环境保护看法

(This is a Chinese post for those of you that can read Chinese. I know there are mistakes. I actually made a few changes on paper but remember that I've only been study Chinese for two years.)

我的保护环境看法很简单。我只觉得我需要提高我们保护环境能力。让我解释。

拿中国来说，现在很多外国公司进入中国的市场。很多公司用中国的工厂生产产品。这对中国的环境不好。 中国的污染越来越厉害，由此可见中国公司和中国政府都觉得发展是最重要目的。 还有，越是中国发展越是中国人的生活水平提高。中国的政府预计明年有更多汽车。他们的问题会增加了。中国政府和经济领导人并非忽视中国的环境问题。

这个问题并不是只中国的。每个国家必须处理这个问题。 最大城市有最厉害的污染问题和资源不足。为什么？很大的城市有太多了汽车。 大城市从来有贫富差距。富人可以随意决定用多少资源，所以这些富人浪费太多了资源。 这些城市有过大污染。比如洛杉矶，有这么多的汽车。 它们的空气非常不好。每个家庭有一些汽车。因为洛杉矶没有够的水需要盖一个人造的河流。这个河流从旧金山南流洛杉矶。洛杉矶还有不太多了树林。它们的气候很热。还有洛杉矶位于在一个山谷。它们的气候还有相当于沙漠一样，所以下雨很小。这两个原因是为什么污染不能散开。 洛杉矶是一个极端的例子，但是想像如果每个城市相当于洛杉矶一样。我会跳楼！

我觉得环境保护是每个人的义务。但是我觉得公司需要带路保护环境。保护环境是特别富人的义务。然后是社会的。然而很多公司不在乎保护环境。他们只受到最高的利润。社会怎么控制几个公司不在乎？有一些方法。

第一个方法，政府需要创造更严格立法，增加规定。现在公司的生产有太大自由。如果一个公司有污染，政府需要让它们付更多了税。如果税不够，政府需要关机这个公司。

第二个方法，赞美公司谁知道怎么用企业社会责任（CSR）。如果一个公司的生产法是很好的，给他们一些礼物，减肥他们的税，增加他们的自由，给他们政府的项目，什么的。

第三个方法，政府需要领导这个保护环境革命，这个绿色革命。现在世界经济系统不太好。投资绿色科技可以增加就业。还有这个绿色科技是长远而言便宜的。至少推销绿色科技的公司。因为美国是世界的最有钱的国家第一，美国的政府必须领导这个革命。

所以我们都可以看出来污染的问题太厉害。我们需要用更多努力保护环境。 普通人可以开始保护环境。人需要切忌塑料包，坐公共交通，不浪费资源，和想想我们的世界。

My Internship in Shanghai - Sherpa's

When people ask me what I want to do for my career in the future, I have trouble defining exactly what type of “work” I would do. I skate around the issue by saying things like, “I really like people” or “I can see myself in marketing because I have creative thoughts.” But in reality there is always one thing on my mind – starting a business. I think it’s the adventurous part of me that just revels in the idea of being an entrepreneur. Or maybe it’s the artistic side of me that just wants to create something. Or perhaps it is the logical side of me, after all most of the richest people in the world are business owners. Most likely, I think it’s the freedom that lures me to being an entrepreneur. There are no boundaries, and perhaps that’s what scares most people away.

In Shanghai this semester, I have been working directly with an American entrepreneur, Mark, who founded a company called Sherpa’s. Mark is a super down-to-earth chill boss. He moved to Shanghai about 10 years ago because the girl he loved got moved there for work. After working a few different jobs, including teaching English, Mark went to business school at one of the only English MBA programs in China. His MBA project was to write up a full business plan start to finish. Sherpa’s was his business plan. Basically, Mark saw that there are a lot of food delivery options in Shanghai, but very few for good Western food restaurants. As a busy foreigner, he and his wife were never in the mood for cooking and delivery options were limited to cheap Chinese food. That’s were Sherpa’s comes in. Sherpa’s filled this void by providing a bilingual call center service, a collection of Western restaurants and a team of couriers with scooters. Now Sherpa’s a multimillion dollar business and has expanded successful to Suzhou, Hangzhou, and working on Beijing.

This semester, I have gotten to ask questions about running a business in China and really pick his brain on various topics. For example, I asked Mark if he had to work with the government at all to make his business run smoothly. His answer? Nah. It’s more of a threat than anything else. There are so many rules in China that you literally cannot run a business without the breaking the law. The government has this established on purpose. They aren’t going to crack down on Mark’s business unless he gives them reason to. But if the government ever need dirt on him, it’s always there. This is a normal business practice. I've heard the Chinese government described as a sleeping anaconda in a chandelier. It’s obviously there, it’s obviously dangerous, and it is obviously doing a bad job of making people think it’s blending with the backdrop. However, it’s sleeping nonetheless and does not plan to attack unless it need be. (My program director has said that the Chinese government is a very old, lazy sleeping anaconda. lol)

Overall, my internship at Sherpa's is complete. I learned a great deal from my mentor and had a great time working in a few different roles. My CSR (Customer Service Representative) project was the largest of all my projects. It consisted of listening to CSR complaint calls to find where standards were not being met or where changes should be made. I had a lot of freedom with the project but was also told who else to bounce ideas off of ( CSR managers Aki and Cecily). I liked having sequential steps that included: 1) Getting familiar with CSR calls. 2) Identifying problems. 3) Brainstorming solutions and changes. 4) Implementing suggestions and 5) Testing the changes. The work could get very monotonous just listening to CSR calls but it had to be that way to understand the process completely. I had trouble finding the recorded calls in HelpClient that corresponded with the actual complaint in the DMS. So that was just added time but really not a barrier. It was a great experience to have and I will remember my time working in Shanghai forever.

Rural China

This last weekend was a fun time and a great experience to say the least. Starting at 10 pm on Friday, CET students took the subway to the Hongqiao train station in Shanghai to board a 6 hr train (12 am to 6 am) south to Lishui. Lishui would not be our end destination however as we boarded tour buses and spend the better part of the day riding through China's countryside and up into the mountains until we arrived at a little rural village. By western standards, this was poverty. By rural Chinese standards, this was a wealthy village. The village were we stayed is completely self-sufficient. They do however import a few EXTRAS into the town like cheap tvs, baijiu and Snow beer. They are able to do this because they grow a unique mushroom that is sold not just in China but also in popular in Japan. I usually don't like mushrooms (and by usually I mean never) but given that is was there "cash crop" I had plenty of mushrooms to eat for the next 24 hrs.

The town has a central dirt and rock (not gravel) road running straight through it (although it curves around the natural hills of the surroundings). Houses are close to one another but it seems that families enjoy a comfortable amount of space. The houses are big and very creaky with all the open floorboards and exposed wood. Sheet rock is hard to come by. There are ducks running around and sometimes just sitting there honking. Ducks have pink spray paint marking who owns them. The village has dozens of dogs running around. Down the dirt road their is a centrally located outhouse that is no more than a shed with a hole dug in the middle of the ground. There is no sign indicating the facilities as the stench gives it away from about 100 ft. I held my breath every time I passed it.

In the afternoon that we arrived, wiling participants took a grueling hike up to the highest point overlooking the town. We took in the scene with a fresh breath of air (yes, fresh air in China DOES exist! AND I found it!!!) and while posing for pictures with friends. I also realized that I forgot camera, damn. (thanks Keel for the pictures) The village seemed even smaller as my eyes scanned the mountain ranges and put into perspective all the years that this small village has endured.

When night arrives, the town's only streetlight reveals four small boys playing together. Their fathers (I'm assuming) stand chatting and grinning at the play of the young boys. I watched from the centrally located house where we ate our dinner. The boys saw me and were very curious but too scared to come close. At one point they even approached the bottom of the path to where I was standing. However, when I turned to see who it was they gave out a yell and broke like hell for the comfort of the older men.

Dinner was a mix of bamboo root, mushrooms, tofu, pig's blood and of course plain white rice. Pig's blood is one of the most unappetizing foods I have ever eaten so I fight through my dislike of mushrooms and endure the filthy taste. There is also salty pork but most of the pieces are just fat. I probably ate more fat in that meal than any one other meal in my life. For this meal, I was completely content with being not quite feeling full.

After dinner we are shown where in the town each of us is supposed to sleep. We are on the buddy system so Keel and I drag our backpacks and sleeping bags further down the road and into the guest house of another family. Keel and I are classmates in third-year Chinese. He goes to Bowdoin College but is from Minnesota. The night was going to be a cold one as the room was not incillated, cold November weather adn mountain altitude were all working against the forces of my wool socks, multi-layered clothing and sleeping bag.

After dropping our stuff, we headed back to where we had dinner to partake in the evening festivities. The Chinese Communist Party Secretary for the area was sure to show us good hospitality by offering boxes of Snow beer and baijiu. Baijiu literally translates to White Alcohol and is China's version of cheap, horrible vodka. It will literally burn a hole through a person. The party secretary seemed immune to it though. He was a short pudgy man who smelled of beer and baijiu. His eyes were yellow glazed over and he had a long forehead that seemed to run to the top of his head where his dark black hair once existed. He tries to make up for it by allowing the hair on the sides of his head to grow a little thicker.

And after that it was a merry night that I don't have time to write about right now! Hopefully that will hold enough suspense for the next blog entry when I write about staying overnight in a Daoist temple deep in the mountains up a pathway that looked like something out of Kung Fu movie.

Doing it Big at the Expo

So I finally had my chance to check out the World's Fair that is being held in Shanghai. I had heard that the lines are just horrible but really when I went it wasn't that bad. We stayed away from the really long lines like England, France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. The USA line was long too but we could skip it if we should our passports. America!



Outside the Egypt Pavilion - actually didn't go in this one as the line was pretty long.



Outside the UK Pavilion - line was also really long; like over a couple hours long. I thought seeing the outside was sufficient along with visiting less popular countries like Ireland, Norway, Turkey, New Zealand.



Norwegian Pavilion - one of my favorites. I really enjoyed this one and took great pride in my Norwegian bloodlines!



Inside the Spain Pavilion. This gigantic robotic baby was very popular with the Chinese crowds.



The Chinese Pavilion: the biggest and best (and probably the most expensive). I was not allowed to go in as a special ticket is needed with much time in advance. Luckily the Pavilion will still be on display when the Expo is over.

My *Busy* Shanghai Life

So I’ve been very busy lately (as I keep saying over and over again to anyone I talk to back home.) But honestly I really have been. Between 12+ hours of Chinese class a week, plus 15 hrs/week at my internship and then an additional econ class, I am really just stretched thin. But I still have been able to do some cool things lately and really enjoy myself at the same time. This trip has really been love/hate for me.

So here are some things that I have been up to lately:

- At my internship I have been given a project. I am creating a sales kit/package that we will use to distribute to restaurants that we want to add. Here is a little about my internship. The company is called Sherpa’s. It’s very well-known in Shanghai’s expat community. We are a food delivering company that only deals with respectable foreign restaurants or up-to-our-standard Chinese restaurants. I am working in the marketing department. My boss is pretty cool guy. He’s an American that started the company after going to business school in Shanghai.

- I have been playing basketball in my spare time quite a bit. Donghua University has an intramural league that separates teams by majors. I have been playing with the international trade team. I went off my first game and played well. I missed a game but we still won. And then last game I was all over the court but had trouble scoring. My defense and rebounding still helped us win though and that puts us in the championship game.

- I got to check out cool art district called Tian Zi Fang. It has a great nightlife and the art was pretty cool. The area is old style a lot of the upstairs are residential but artists and businessmen have turned the area into a little bar district as well. My roommate’s friend from back home was visiting so him and I went together and looked at the art. We also hit up a shaved ice place that was pretty good.

Pictures for Mom

I know everyone wants to see pictures but I probably wouldn't put these up if it wasn't for my mom. Enjoy!











This is a good friend of mine, Kasar. As you can obviously see Kasar is not your typical Chinese. He is a minority known as Uigher that is of Turkish descent. People often mistake him for a foreigner. He comes from Chinese northwest province known as Xinjiang. Do some research if you are curious. Maybe later on I'll blog about everything I know about Uighers.

I enjoy hanging out with him, and the activities are always fun. He is actually a fantastic basketball player to. THE BEST I have ever played with or against in China hands down. He whoops me every time.

I would love to visit him in Urumqi. Maybe next summer if I could somehow find a way. Urumqi is actually very developed while the culture and traditions are still very rich. I look forward to visiting someday.

Foreigners in China

Foreigner Culture

I have a problem with certain white foreigners in China, especially the guys. Young foreign men here get complimented at every opportunity and are treated like gods; the idols of society. It messes with their heads and pretty soon they think they are literally God’s gift to society and mankind. I realize I am a white man in China and therefore experience this phenomenon firsthand. Others in China face very different experiences; like a Chinese-American who doesn't speak any Chinese in China or limited Chinese. Somehow I am smart for being to speak small amounts of Chinese and he would be stupid not understanding every word.

How do I approach this? Treat ALL people with the respect they deserve as a person. Also, I want to dig deeper into the SETTLED expat community here. People who have been here for a while tend to be more like who they really are back home.

La Duzi *Disclaimer: this might be too much information for some of you.

Traditionally, my blog entries have been pretty surface level, where I’ve gone and what I’ve done there. This time around I thought I would occasionally sprinkle in some more in-depth detail on a few real events that are everyday life here. This one isn’t pretty in the least.

La Duzi. In Chinese, the way to describe diarrhea is la duzi. This literally translates to “pull out of the stomach.” First off, I think spicy butt would be more appropriate given the effects. Another thing, talking about having la duzi in China is not a taboo at all. In fact, people are generally pretty open about it. Following this trend, I’ll be open about my la duzi.

The other day I had ma la tang. Tang is the Chinese word for soup, la is the Chinese word for spicy, and ma is another type of spice that famously comes from Sichuan province. While studying in Sichuan (my last trip) I often had a lot of ma la hotpot. Basically ma la hotpot is a boiling pot of oil with the ma and la spices that is used to cook raw vegetables and meats. The ma la hotpot in Chengdu, Sichuan frequently gave me la duzi. In Shanghai however I have had more normal bowel movements in a week than I had in Chengdu in 4 months.

My first dose of Shanghai la duzi came from the lovely bowl of ma la tang (which I guess translates to “numb spicy soup”) shown in the picture. I was cheap. It was delicious. It was spicy. It gave me la duzi!

Maybe that was too much information for you. Now you understand my day to day life a little better. Well, I’ve got the runs… Oops!... I mean, I’VE GOT TO RUN!

I’m back

And that means this blog is also back in action. Pretty much anything older than this post is from 2008 or later when I was last in China or further back to my time in Taiwan.

Here we go, this is what it feels like to be back:

1. Although I’m not exactly experiencing “culture shock,” I definitely am rusty on this whole traveling in China thing. I’m also doing some major dusting off on my Chinese.

2. Little Things are coming back to me…but slowly. For example, I got into the taxi form the airport and as we started off I tried frantically to find my seatbelt. As we started weaving through traffic at speeds unsafe for the typhoon conditions, I realized that backseats of taxis often do not have seatbelts in China. Then I felt this uneasiness come over of being out of my comfort zone and literally worried for my safety, an element of travel that I had not felt since my first summer in Taiwan. It’s safe to say that I’m adjusting.

3. My roommate situation is good. Out of all the Chinese roommates, I am glad that I got the one that I did. He like to play basketball so that’s a HUGE plus. His English name is Phillip. I don’t remember Chinese names very well so Phillip will have to suffice.

4. I had my Chinese placement test today. Safe to say that it kicked my butt. But I did well enough on the oral section and should have no problem getting into the 300-level. (Right were I need to be and should be.)

Well that’s all for now. I’ll do my best to update this thing. Maybe add some pictures. And my Gmail account is working. Was it just me or did anyone else think that Google boycotted China?

1st Place Photo

I thought I'd share this on my blog. I entered this photo in the Landscape category for Pacific Lutheran University's study away students' photo contest. I took home the bragging rights of first place, a $50 gift card to Target, and a framed copy that will be hanging up in PLU's University Center.

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Title : : : Built on the Spiritual Axis
Location : : : Drak Yerpa hermitage, 50 miles outside of Lhasa, Tibet
Date : : : Somewhere between September 27 and October 4



Drak Yerpa is a Buddhist hermitage located up in the Himalayan Mountains about 50 miles outside of the city of Lhasa, Tibet. I traveled there to see some of the most simple-living Tibetans practicing their religiously dedicated lifestyles. There are over 80 Buddhist caves used for meditation. It was truly a place of peace and mystery.

China Grand Finale : : : Beijing

So my trip has winded down and is now officially over. My stories didn't end when I left Chengdu though. I headed to the capital of China in Beijing for my last 4 days of my China trip. I'll do my best to give a little overview of what went down in those days.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6AM after finishing packing the night before at 2:30AM. So in the morning, I checked out of my room and got my 200 RMB deposit back and said some good-byes to Phil and Eva. I was really tired on the way to the airport but our van driver had a crazy techno mix on the radio so we all danced and acted crazy. The closer we got to the airport the more the excitement turned into sleepiness.

Everything at the airport went surprisingly smoothly. I was 6kg overweight but Kay paid for our total weight over so I had to pay her back later. The flight was surprisingly short at just 2 & 1/2 hours. I had some Sprite and couple Sichuanese style hamburgers that I had tried for the best time the day before. I didn't sleep as much as I wanted to. It took us awhile to get our baggage and move from the airport to the restaurant.

We went to a restaurant that was intended to be our introduction to Beijing cuisine. The food was good and reminded me of the type of Chinese food seen in America that is more sweet. After lunch we checked into our hotel. I roomed with Colin and really that was the only person I wanted to room with. It took awhile to check in and wait fo r




On my last day in Beijing and China, I had it free to do whatever I wanted. When we were in Tiananmen Square before, we weren't about to go the Maosoleum (the Mao Zedong Memorial). I really wanted to go see it because Mao's real body (supposedly) is in a glass coffin that visitors walk by like an open casket. Security was tight and the line was long but overall it was worth it. It was an eery feeling walking by someone I knew do so many things I didn't agree with but have such support from his victims. It was the same irony that foreigners can view in every aspect of China traveling. The guards were really just protecting the ignorance of the average Chinese person.



Following the casket-viewing, Colin, Erin, Joey, Chambers and I took a 2 RMB bus ride all the way to the Olympics area. Colin chatted with people on the bus all the way there and I just listened in from a distance as I thought about how much I time I had for everything before I had to catch a cab to the airport. We would arrive in the newly constructed district seeing the Olympic water facility known as the Watercube. This is where Michael Phelps took home all those gold medals and broke a bunch of swimming records. In the distance we could see the Bird's Nest where the opening and closing ceremonies took place. We paid an entrance fee to go inside and take all types of pictures in the two facilities. In the Bird's Nest, we were able to go down onto the field of the stadium. We saw all the "friendlys" and took some pictures with them. We started throwing a frisbee and no one stopped us. We started spreading out and just tossing when a small crowd formed around us snapping photos. Something about talented Waiguoren(foreigners) really just intrigues Chinese people.



I left by myself from the Olympic area because I was running out of time and still had a couple of things that I wanted to do. I took a taxi to ORTV's Beijing office where I toured the small office and chatted with the staff. There wasn't much to do there so I asked where I could quickly stop off before making my way back to the hotel and then to the airport. They directed me to Beihai Park which was nearby. Traffic made the taxi ride longer than it should have been so it also decreased the amount of time I had to walk the park before I had to leave.


I bought decently cheap park ticket and quickly started exploring. The park was really great with a lot of different areas and huge lake in the middle that featured an island in the middle with what looked like a stupa on top of its hill. I didn't have enough time to get to it but I swiftly walked around and snapped up photos. Running out of time, I grabbed a cab to my hotel and used the same cab to get to the airport. It was all so rushed I can't really remember all that happened. Traffic was horrible so I was a little nervous. My cab driver was cool and navigated us through the mess. It was my last taxi ride in China for who knows how long and it was so much like many of the other rides that I had taken. We chatted until all my Chinese ran dry. I can't get past a basic conversation. He helped me understand a couple new words like "terminal." I don't know how I finally came to the conclusion that the meaning of what he was saying was terminal but it moved the conversation on once I finally picked it up. It was really a testimony to the adventure I'd had this semester, along with evidence of my progress in Chinese. I came with only knowing a few Chinese phrases and I left finding out words like "terminal" without any translation.

Call me conversational

Last night when I was waiting for my dinner at a local jiaozi place, some old guy just started talking to me. Although his accent was ever so hard to understand, we still had a long conversation about China, America, and then even the Olympics. He really likes the American swimmer Michael Phelps. Every now and then he would start speaking in Sichuanhua and I would say, "Wo mei ting dong Sichuanhua." He would laugh and then talk in Putonghua again. In the conversation, I would often ask him to slow down - "man yi dian." It was a fun time for sure and reminded me how much I've learned here in China - Zhongguo.

Dujiangyan Charity Dinner

The charity dinner that I helped organize with a local health club and school went extremely well. I would not consider myself a stage performer, although some might argue, but I led a couple skits, did a beat boxing routine with a couple of friends and even danced...You'll have to see the pictures to believe it. The dance was probably the highlight. Four other guys and I performed a practiced hip-hop routine to a popular Nsync song. We practiced a couple hours for the four nights leading up to the dinner. Overall, the dinner went great. I was also auctioned off near the end of the night for giving basketball lessons. I sold for 200RMB(roughly a little more than $30 USD). I was glad for the experience though I stressed out a lot about the night and really wanted it to go well. There were some definite weak points, like the sound system at the hotel, but overall those were overshadowed. We were able to raise over 22,000 RMB(or about $3,000 USD). That's a lot for a charity like this in China. I'm proud of the help that the group offered and it was really a learning experience. I have to give a shout out to Emily Isenee for doing a great job organizing our group and giving me an opportunity to work with her on this task. Also, the leader of the health club and school did a lot of work getting support and finding us a place to put the dinner on. Thank you Xia Wei and Duan. Also, our PLU group kicked some serious butt on stage supplying most of the night's entertainment. Hao de!

A small river town called Lizhuang

(A part of my journal entry for November 15)

It is not a village by any means, but rather a small river town on the ominous Yangtze River. We stayed in the only hotels in the town right up against the river. We spent our afternoon exploring the town and attempting to interact with the local people. This attempt was not foiled by our inability to speak Mandarin, but rather their ability to Mandarin. The townspeople all spoke Sichuanhua, while the students and more educated people spoke some Putonghua(Mandarin). We sat next to the river and played Chinese card games while sipping on 1 RMB green tea. The glass was never-ending. Dinner was a unique blend of Sichuan cuisine and a flavor of local specialties; the most famous of all being a cast iron hot pot place squarely in the middle of the table. We ate next to the river but couldn't see it because the lights from our table where the only lights within close proximity. After dinner, some of us went to go find pool tables. The locals kept winning but liked to play us so we got to keep playing on the table. A curfew sent us all to bed early.

The Pearl of the Orient

Shanghai, one of the biggest cities in the world with nearly 20 million people. It’s so big that I can not even tell you for sure whether the city ends or not. I saw not clue to give me any idea. All I saw were buildings and people. It was a fascinating feeling to think that I was in China being in Shanghai. The city is the biggest and most modern I have been in. It makes Hong Kong look like a neighborhood and Taipei like an old man. I can’t believe that anything would make those cities look that way, but then again I had never been to Shanghai. The only thing that really made it different then being a big city in America was all the Chinese, although English was not absent.
So as you can imagine, my trip to Shanghai was pretty unforgettable. I awoke at 6:00AM on Thursday morning, November 6 to catch my 7:50AM flight from Chengdu to Shanghai. I was so excited I didn’t even feel tired. I think I woke up with an adrenaline rush. My flight was short at a little over 2 hours. Then I had the pleasure of taking the fastest train in the world called the Maglev, it runs on new magnetic technology. This is the first of its kind in the world and China is going to build one between Shanghai and Beijing.


I would be staying with at my friend Eli’s house, although he is studying in Chicago at Wheaton University. I met his mom at the Maglev station. His mom is Chinese, well American now, but grew up in Malaysia, Taiwan
, and Hong Kong. His dad is an American, white man who grew up in Pennsylvania. So Eli is the best of both worlds! I dropped my things off in Eli’s room, my room for now, and went to lunch at Eli’s favorite restaurant. I forgot the name… but we enjoyed the food and stories. I can tell they really love Eli. He’s also such a momma’s boy.

My personal adventure in Shanghai would officially start when I was dropped off at the Subway station. I had a slight idea of where I wanted to go and I had a map to take me there. I waded my way through a crowded river of people in the Subway station and somehow found myself on the right subway line heading to the heart of the city. My destination for Thursday was the People’s Park. I spent a lot of time taking pictures and gawking at the tall buildings. The weather was poor so I decided not to go up into any today. Instead, I explored the park and its close surroundings, even finding Nike Shanghai. I started talking with some Chinese tourists in their twenties and we all went to a famous tea house for famous tea ceremony and delicious tea. Hao he. It was really expensive though I don’t have a whole of money to spend to I just tried one.

After the tea ceremony, it was getting to be about dinner time so I took the subway all the way to the last stop then taxi the rest of the way to Showalter’s house. They live in the east part of Pudong, if you know the city geography at all. My dinner was sitting on the table when I got home. Then I studied Chinese and watched a cool Shaolin monks recorded performance that I had borrowed from a teacher in Chengdu. I wanted to get an early start on my Friday so I went to bed at midnight.

My day Friday was planned out a lot better than the day before. I ate breakfast at the Showalter’s house, then took a bus to the Subway station. I got off at the East Nanjing Rd. stop. East Nanjing Rd. is one of the busiest roads in Shanghai. It is known as a shopping street. I didn’t do any shopping but there was plenty of eye candy. I took some photos.

From East Nanjing Rd I headed straight for the famous Bund. The Bund is a road along the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The buildings were built by foreigners years ago in a colonial style. Now, the buildings still stand but for different purposes. The majority of the buildings are government buildings and banks now. One of most famous buildings is the Peace Hotel. Unfortunately I couldn’t go into the hotel because it was being renovated. While on the boardwalk, I started talking to a Chinese guy that is a middle school math teacher. His friend worked at a tea house close by so we went to pay her a visit. I got to drink as much tea as I wanted and as many varieties as I wanted all for free. It was great. Then he helped me map out how to get to Old Town (the old part of Shanghai).


I got to lost on the way to Old Town because it was decent walking distant that required turns that I seemed to miss. With some success through asking questions, I was able to find Old Town. Although it was much bigger than all the high rise buildings elsewhere in the city, I wasn’t particularly impressed. This is the China that I’m used to seeing. After walking through Old Town and taking more pictures, I decided to take a cab to my next destination. It was walk-able but harder to locate. I just wanted to save myself the trouble and paid 13RMB($2) for a cab.

My next destination was Xintiandi. This part of town was renovated to look like the old Shukamen houses in Shanghai many years ago. The Shukamen houses were very big and lived in by wealthier Chinese people. After many years, these houses became dilapidated. A group of investors bought all of them and renovated them to make Xintiandi a very trendy and modern area with shops and restaurants. They look like old Shukamen houses though.


I stopped by the Memorial site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This is the place where Mao Zedong and other important people founded the Communist party way back when. The house has been turned into a museum. I would stay the highlight was the wax statures of all the founders hovering over a table discussing things. Nearby the this memorial was a replication of an old Shukamen. The inside was furnished with antiques to make it look how the old interiors looked. I really enjoyed spending some time here.

Then at night, I took the Subway up to the Shanghai Circus stop. I bought a ticket to Chinese acrobat performance “ERA Intersection of Time” for 180 RMB. I got dinner Dairy Queen while I waiting for the show to start. I’ve decided that finding Chinese food in Shanghai is rare. The show was flippin awesome. I definitely made a good decision by going. Unfortunately I could take pictures during the performance. It was cool to see all the stunts, some involving trampolines and some just people climbing over people. Overall, it’s really hard to explain everything that went on. The show ended with 7 motorcycle drivers all driving at the same time in a huge metal ball cage. After the show, I made the long journey back the east side of Pudong. It was after 10PM when I got home.


The weather cleared up a bit on Friday so I went to the new area of town. Here is where a lot of the famous big buildings are towers are. They are working on building the world’s biggest building here. They are also currently working on developing the area along the river for the World Expo in 2010. This includes building elevated highways everywhere. Hopefully that will decrease the congestion.

I decided to go to the Jin Mao Tower first. The Jin Mao Tower was the third biggest building in the world when it was completely in the 1990s but it is now somewhere between 4 and 7 now. Also with all the big buildings being built, I have no idea where it will stand in the next couple of years. I do know that it is currently the second tallest in Shanghai because right next to it is the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is currently behind only Taipei 101 in height. I decided to go to Jin Mao instead of WFC because the entrance fee for Jin Mao was 60RMB and the entrance fee for WFC was 150RMB. That was enough to win me over. I also wanted to see the highest hotel in world which is located in the Jin Mao tower from the middle to upper area of the building. I got to see the lobby but was stopped by a security guard from going up any higher.

On my way to the Jin Mao, I walked with a Chinese guy studying to get his Masters degree in Shanghai. He had an interview with a company at the Jin Mao. After seeing the great view from the Jin Mao, I met up with him again for lunch. I wanted to go the huge mall called the Super Brand Mall. It was cool to talk with him and grab lunch. He paid for me and then he had to go back to school. I stayed in the mall and spent time exploring it.


There was an NFL China booth set up in the main part of the mall that was taking surveys to see how people in China like American football and if they liked the couple of NFL games that were aired on TV in Shanghai. To promote this booth, there was football tossing booth with a metal ring to throw the football through. I decided I would go down and through a couple balls through the hoop. When they saw that I could do it so well (actually make it and throw a spiral) they asked me to join the competition. I said ok even though I was pretty nervous. They had a microphone out and started attracting attention. A crowd formed and people watched as I threw 17 balls through the hoop in a minute (I was on my game) and won the competition. A couple of the other guys did a pretty good job but they just couldn’t make nearly as many as me. I got a free NFL shirt for winning.

In the afternoon, I spent my entire time at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. This tower is the fourth largest tower (not building) in the world. The TV Tower has a lot more to offer than I originally thought. It also has long lines and slow elevators. It was fun to have more views and also ride a roller coaster! But it was a very short rollercoaster but surprisingly good for Asia. After my time at the TV Tower, I made my way back to the east of Pudong to meet Eli’s parents for dinner.



We ate a Japanese and Korean restaurant. So I had sushi and Korean BBQ at the same meal. Then afterwards we grabbed some Coldstone ice cream (Yea, it’s Shanghai) and then went to Eli’s school to watch a school play. I was glad to see Eli’s school which was really nice, but don’t forget that it is an international school. Then we went back to their house to relax.

On Sunday, I had some time before church because church is in the afternoon. Eli’s dad is the pastor of the international church that only foreigners can go to. I took advantage of my time to go to People’s Square, but I accidentally went back to the People’s Park nearby. But I found something really funny, there are people’s parents out with profiles of their son or daughter trying to match-make them with someone else. It was like they were for sale. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. While I was looking at this, I as approached by some young Chinese tourists, again. They wanted to speak in English. We went to the same expensive but famous tea house as first day. Afterwards, I said good-bye to them so that I could go the Urban Planning Center. Here there is a giant model of the entire city. There are a lot of other things to check out as well. I didn’t have much time though because I had to get back to go to lunch with Eli’s parents before church.

I met them at the last stop of the subway station then we drove to near where the church is to eat. We ate at a western style restaurant where I ate a hamburger. We ran into some people from the church and Eli’s dad arranged for me to have dinner with them. Then after lunch, we went to the international church. It was fulfilling.

Then after church, I had dinner with some of Eli’s friends. All of their parents worked for big companies in Shanghai. The whole experience of church and the people really felt like home. It was so weird to think that I was in China. We also ate at another western restaurant but this one was probably overpriced but in America it would have probably still been more expensive. Then one of their drivers drove me to the Maglev station and I made the journey home.


Wow. What a great trip! I pretty much assumed Eli’s spot in family for four days! Not really but it was fun.
I stayed in his room, I played with his dog, I had dinner with his family and I even went a play at his old school. Shou! (As Eli would say!)

No Monkeying Around

So this last weekend was a crazy fun trip. We went out to an area called Emei. It's known for the famous Mt. Emei or Emei Shan. We left early Saturday morning and got back to our dorm late Sunday night.

Saturday featured us going to the largest sitting Buddha in the world. He is right next to water and carved right into a cliff. It's a crazy sight to see. His head is over 10m long. It was really interesting. The stone there is soft so carving is easy but at the same time, it is surprising that the carving would last for so long from the erosion.

Sunday feature us going into the National Park. We went up to the top of Mt. Emei but it really wasn't that impressive. We drove most of the way up and even hopped on a cable car.... Oh China. You just love to make everything tourist friendly. At the top was a giant stupa and a temple.

After lunch, we had the choice to go to a famous temple in another part of the park or go to the a monkey preservation area and see wild monkeys! It was an easy decision for me. I chose the monkeys. We had to really hurry to get there because it was 7km(about 5 miles) away. It really didn't feel like that long though. It was really worth the trip too. The area had a lot of wild monkeys that were actually pretty dangerous. There were a lot of hired park workers who hard sticks and sling shots to protect the "observers." They really didn't do too much though because the monkeys were running around like crazy. We could buy food and feed them too. However, the monkeys would steal anything that we were holding so it didn't take long for them to hijack all the food. Erin got mauled by a monkey and dropped the three packs of food that she bought. The monkey grabbed all the food and ran up into the trees. It was hilarious from my perspective but she was really scared after that. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty freaked out by the monkeys too. They were scary.

The path did a loop around the highly populated monkey area. There were two main bridges for the short path. The second bridge was guarded by monkeys. They wouldn't let anyone pass unless we gave them food. I saw a big monkey land on a guys back and just grab onto him. A park worker beat the monkey off with his stick. The man was lucky to not have been biten. I thought the same was going to happen to me when I didn't have food. Luckily, I passed freely. Eva was stopped by monkey who grabbed onto her legs and wouldn't let go. Monkeys are so quick and so strong and can really jump far. They are really funny to watch but at the same time can be very intimidating. I was so glad I made the choice to go see the monkeys though. They were definitely the highlight of my trip. I mean, how many people can say that they've seen wild monkeys?

Cooking /// KTV /// Hot Pot x2

So I've been really busy and even yet am writing this while I should be studying. I'm still alive, though my brain is being crammed with overloading information on a daily basis. I hope that my Chinese will improve through pure osmosis.

My studies have still been the biggest priority and also my biggest time killer. It's what I came here for. I'm making a lot of friends but still find it hard to practice my Chinese with them because they speak English to me.

Lately, a group of friends and I have been coooking a lot. It's so much cheaper than going out, not to mention a lot of fun. There is a little food market close to our dorm that we hit up for mostly just veggies(no meat there) and sometimes spices. I consistently use garlic and onion. We also go and get rice from the cafeteria. Overall, the meals end up costing only about 2-3 RMB or about 30-45 cents USD. It's amazing. It's helped me save money to buy cool things or take a trip(I'm going to Shanghai!).

Also, this last weekend was my first time to go to KTV. My PLU buddy Colin and I went out with a bunch of our Chinese friends to KTV(Karaoke). Here, you rent a room by the hour and can order drinks and snacks
to your own private room. We stayed for a couple of hours and had a blast. My friend Bayanna(he's Mongolian) sang a traditional Tibetan song. The girls were all very good. It made Colin and I look so bad.

Saturday night, my friend from Chinese class named Mendis cooked dinner for me. He's from Sri Lanka which is an island located off the coast of India. The food is very similar to Indian food but also similar to Thai food. Considering those are my two favorite foods, I loved it! He also made me Sri Lankan coffee and tea. A lot of the spices he uses to cook with came from home. Something that surprised me was that Sri Lankan people eat with their hands. I ate with a spoon this time but next time I'll be digging right in there with my hands.

For dinner on Sunday and Monday, I went to the .
Sichuan hot pot. There is already a post devoted to the Sichuanese hot pot so you can check that one out if you are curious. Let's just say that spicy oily food two nights in a row was not good for my stomach come today...haha. It's China though. It happens.

I'm buying tickets to go to Shanghai and stay with my friend Eli's parents. I'm leaving Thurs Nov 6 and returning Sun Nov 9. I've been reading up on Shanghai a lot and am really excited to go

Tibet Autonomous Region

So I’ve just finished up a week of vacation in Tibet with the rest of my study away group. It was a one of the best experiences of my life. I was so excited for trip. We did a lot of readings and had many lectures on Tibet for the trip so I knew a decent amount of information about the trip before going. Now, I’m struggling to catch up on my studies, along with my journal and my blog. The pictures on this blog are in no particular order. Also, any of these pictures can be clicked on to be seen at full size. Note, the situation in this area calls that I am careful with my political language and information. More stories are waiting for you when I get home.



Our trip started on Saturday, September 27 and ended on the following Saturday, October 4. We arrived in Lhasa on Saturday and drove to our nice hotel right next to the old market. It took about an hour to get to the city from the airport. We had a lot of free time to explore and shop. They there are so many little stalls selling all types of little things. Anything from prayer flags to hats can be found. I had a great time practicing my Chinese and working the vendors’ prices down. I was by far the best bargainer in the group. I’m really learning the art.


I don’t remember our exact agenda, but we spent a few days in Lhasa. In that time, we had a lot of free time to explore yet we still toured famous places as a group. Each day in the morning, we would take a tour bus to certain location and spend a couple of hours there. Usually, we were out until dinner. Then the rest of the night was ours.


In Lhasa, we toured the Potala Palace, the Drepung Monastery, Jokhang Temple and the Drak Yerpa. I know that these names might mean nothing to you, but I’ll briefly try to explain each one to you. The Potala Palace is most famous place in Lhasa. It sits atop a hill and can be viewed from almost anywhere. It used to act as both the political building and dwelling house of the historical Tibetan politician/religious leaders. In the old Tibet, the two went hand-in-hand.


The Drepung Monastery used to house 10,000 and was the biggest in Tibet. Now it houses 600. It is pretty much just a Buddhist-type university. The Jokhang Temple is a very famous temple located in the heart of the old market. We wanted to see the chanting practices that took place later in the night but we weren’t allowed to enter because we were foreigners.


The Drak Yerpa is a hermitage located about 50 miles outside of the city of Lhasa up in the mountains. We traveled up there to see some of the most simple-living Tibetans practicing their highly religious lifestyles. It was fun to be able to hike a little bit, although the altitude was really killing me. I don’t understand how they got all those statues and buildings up on those mountains. It was truly an extraordinary place.


I had a couple of highlights while in Lhasa. The first one was the shopping. I bought a lot of cheap clothing. The best pick-up was a read fleece I bought for merely 40 RMB or about $5-6 US. It is really nice and high quality. The second highlight of Lhasa was meeting up with my friend Lawrence. I met him via facebook through my friend Dave in Chengdu who I met via other friends who I met via friends in ORTV. It seems complicated but it’s really not. It’s just making friends. Anyway, he’s a doctor 28 years of age working in Lhasa for a non-profit called Touching Hearts. Lawrence is Malaysian but he studied in the USA.


I met with Lawrence with my friend Phil. Lawrence took us to a part of town that we wouldn’t have known about without him. It was really a Tibetan part of town and as modern as the rest. The place he took us to was a sketchy night market. According to Lawrence, we could get stolen TVs, cell phones, and just about anything else we wanted. We made our way to the back where the food was. He found his favorite spot. The small restaurant had all the food on display for you to choose before being cooked. We worked our way but to more daring dishes.


We ended with the entire skull of sheep: tongue, brain, meat, and even eyeball. It was hard for me to stomach, but I persisted. I have a video of me eating the eyeball but for some reason I couldn’t get it onto the blog. It was really just a good time and good experience. Before leaving Tibet, Phil and I would have the chance to meet up with Lawrence on our last night for coffee. It would turn into a trip to his apartment for conversation and we wouldn’t get back to the hotel the last night until almost 1 AM.


We hit the road out of Lhasa on Wednesday for a smaller town called Gyangtse. We only stayed a night. There trip there was a fun time. We got to see so much scenery and we stopped at many locations to bust out our cameras. We stopped at a very spiritual lake for Tibetans, a rural family’s farm house, and a giant glacier. It was all amazing scenery. The pictures all turned out wonderful but they really don’t do the landscape any real service. In Gyantse, we had the afternoon and night to ourselves. With a couple of friends,

I went up and explored a large abandoned castle up on the hill. We had a 360 degree view of the whole town. At night, we played pool at a small local place. The equipment and table were horrible but we still had fun. The whole town was closed up and most of the street lights were off as we walked through what appeared to be a ghost town at 10 PM.


The next day, we traveled to the very famous monastery there before hitting the road again for another town, Shigatse. This one was actually bigger, the second biggest city in Tibet next to Lhasa. We traveled to another famous monastery called the Ta Shi Lhun Po Monastery. I can describe these places more in-depth when I get home. It is very big deal for Buddhism. It also had a big market by it that we checked out. Later at night, I took it easy and studied my Chinese. I really needed to.


We returned to Lhasa for our last couple of days there. Overall, it was really just an amazing trip. Each day could be recorded into a book of its own. I really loved the scenery and wished that I could have more time to hit up the trails. Some things to note about Tibet that I neglected to mentioned, most Tibetans are Buddhist. Often times I would see people circling a temple or the Potala Palace with interesting prayer devices. They would swing the small ball around the stick as they walked and prayed. Also, almost everyone meal I had consisted of yak. It is one of the staple foods of Tibetans. It tastes similar to beef but more like buffalo. My favorite food in Tibet was a yak hamburger. Delicious! They also drink a lot of yak butter tea. I don’t like it at all. It tastes like pure melted butter. There is another tea that is famous for Tibetans called sweet tea. It tastes a lot like the Indian Masala tea. I just love it.



I would love to make my way back up to Tibet someday. I don’t know when. I hope that my next trip would consist less of large tourist bus travel and more of hiking. I really can’t complain though. I was in Tibet!