Road Trippin'

I'm so cool

For anybody who has been keeping tabs on my recent social media activity you may have seen that I bought myself a motorcycle. It was definitely one of my more interesting impulse buys and has led to some memorable experiences. Before I came here I had never driven one of those bad boys, so to say that I was faced with a learning curve in a place where traffic laws are virtually nonexistent, is an understatement. I was able to learn how to operate the bike fairly quickly but the real challenge is navigating the unpredictable traffic. Having a healthy respect for your vehicle and how fast it can go, for me, is the most important element of the experience. I'm sure I've given my parents some sleepless nights after informing them of my purchase, so the very least I can do is exercise caution. One lesson that I consistently get beaten over the head with here is that overconfidence is dangerous, and that becomes even more apparent when operating a motor vehicle. Just when I think I've completely mastered riding that thing, I'll see some tiny scooter with a family of four and a dog sitting on it run a red light and almost get into an accident and start yelling at the vehicle who clearly had the right of way as if it's their fault. So it's important to expect the unexpected.

With that being said...riding a motorcycle is BAD. ASS. I had driven scooters before but this is some next level shit. Before I didn't mind having to walk everywhere because I think it's a really good way to get a feel for your surroundings and become accustomed to your 'hood; but having the ability to transport myself not just around the city but also outside of it at high rate of speed is incredibly liberating. Armed with my new found freedom, I began taking rides to the areas outside the city that would last about an hour or so. The scenery around here is spectacular, I've posted a few pictures on Facebook but, when I look back at them, I feel that something gets lost in translation. One needs to observe these places with the naked eye to truly comprehend what these places have to offer. The more that I saw, the farther I wanted to go. I became interested in taking longer trips but I didn't know where to begin or where to go. Fortunately, through mutual friends, I was introduced to a couple of other expats (one Dutch the other Scottish)  who have lived here for awhile, have a good knowledge of the area, and are motorcycle enthusiasts.  I expressed interest in joining them on their next trip and they told me that I was welcome to come along, but they warned me that these trips would be long affairs. A typical trip for these dudes begins around 5 AM and lasts late into the

evening, usually covering 500+ kilometers (yea, I use the metric system now). The length of the trip seemed a bit excessive but I agreed to come along to see if it was for me. Since meeting those guys I have gone on two trips with them; the first one went by without a single problem and the second one was an unmitigated disaster, let's go deeper:

Trip 1: I could tell you each of the specific towns we went through but I doubt that'll mean anything to most of you, so I'll very generally say that this trip took us south. To give some scope on the trip, the farthest south of Guilin I had been previously is the town of Yangshuo; which we passed after the first hour, so this was truly uncharted territory for me. Our destination was the ancient town of Huangyao. After passing Yangshuo we continued through some incredibly remote country roads. This is the China that foreigners don't often see and I felt incredibly lucky to be able to take it in. When promoting China as a tourist destination foreigners are often given pictures portraying the fabulous wealth and development of places like Beijing or Shanghai much in the same way that the U.S. tends to direct outsiders towards places like New York or LA. I've been here for a little while now but this trip was the first time that I felt like I got a real taste of the area. Many of the places that are advertised as "authentic cultural destinations" often feel very contrived and you get the sense that the people working there are trying to play it up so that the visitors spend more money. But in these tiny villages out in the boonies of Guangxi province, these people didn't give a shit whether I stayed or went; they were too busy slingin' rice and other things of that nature. We were able to draw small crowds of people in the places where we stopped for water, most of them kids asking us where we were from. I started having fun with it and telling people I was from China and acting offended when they didn't believe me. What was shocking to me was that my friend was actually able to convince some people that we were from a faraway region of China. The tide of modernization certainly hadn't made it to these parts yet. I've heard stories of other white people

Boonies

going through villages like these and being asked if they were Japanese; because of their skin they certainly weren't from China so the only other answer must have been Japan. I can only imagine what it must be like for people living in these places their whole lives without seeing many visitors to one day witness a group of strange-looking people speaking a strange language show up to their town. But, even with extreme poverty and limited resources, you still get the sense that things in China are changing. It felt like every 30 minutes I had to switch lanes to get around a vehicle laying down blacktop in order to pave a road. There also seemed to be a heavy amount of construction going on in most places we drove by. There is a real tangible sense of development in this country, some places are just taking a little bit longer. The rest of the trip went by without any problems; we made it to Huangyao, took some pictures, then headed back taking a different route. We got back to Guilin at 10 that evening, a solid 17-hour day. I was obviously pretty tired afterward but I was galvanized by the experience and I couldn't wait to take another trip. We made plans to go again the next Saturday.

Trip 2: Even before the trip began it seemed pretty ambitious to me. The route would take us through the mountainous northern region of Guangxi and into the neighboring province of Hunan before looping around and heading back to Guilin, nearly 600 kilometers. But at that point in time I thought I was a badass and could handle anything so I was all-in on the idea. We met again at 5:30 AM and off we went. About an hour into the trip I realized that I had the sniffles; this condition would go on to manifest itself into a full-blown fever (complete with a sinus infection, full-body aches, and dehydration) by the end of the trip. Later on, we made a stop to take a picture of a cool-looking mountain ridge when my bike unexpectedly fell on its side, shattering my right rear-view mirror. This was something that I needed to fix as soon as possible; driving in China is unpredictable enough even when you have all the necessary devices. The problem was, at that point, we were pretty far away from civilization so I would have to wait a little while before I would be able to get it fixed. Then, shortly after we crossed into Hunan, I nearly ended an old man's life who decided to pedal his creaky-ass bike right in front of me at the moment I was passing him, even though he could clearly see me coming 100 yards away. We both came to a stop and he began yelling at me in some rough dialect of Chinese while I yelled and cursed back at him in English. We both soon realized that this nuanced discussion on proper traffic etiquette wasn't getting us anywhere so we exchanged a couple more "fuck yous" and racial slurs before going our separate ways. Eventually, we found a place where I could get a new mirror. After I got my bike fixed, a sense of optimism came over me and I felt that, despite my illness, it would be uphill from there...naive thinking. The return trip would take us through the Longsheng rice terraces with some of the most spectacular scenery in the area so I was excited to see that. A few hours went by without a problem until all of the sudden my bike broke down. We were about 200 kilometers outside of Guilin at that point and only had about an hour of sunlight left. I was so frustrated with the trip by that point that I even considered ditching my bike on the side of the road and riding on the back of one other persons' the rest of the way. One guy in the group had a tool kit with him and did some surgery and was able to get it started after about 30 minutes of effort. I knew that I wouldn't be able to stop until I got back to Guilin because it was unlikely that it would start up again. I braced myself for a sketchy ride back. It was completely dark by that point and the road home was windy and mountainous. To make matters worse, the wear and tear of the trip was causing my brakes to become less responsive; oh yea, and I had a full-blown fever...this really sucked. It was unfortunate that my situation and mental state were preventing me from appreciating my surroundings. On the way back, a monkey ran out in front of me before jumping on and scaling a rock face on the side of the road...and I didn't even care, I just wanted to be home. Eventually I made it but by that point I was in so much pain that I must've looked like Jordan Belfort on 'ludes as I climbed the stairs to my apartment.

So, apart from don't buy a second-hand motorcycle in China (especially when you know next to nothing about how they operate) and 18 hour bike trips make you feel like you dropped the soap in a prison shower, what did I learn from all of this? The answer may surprise you. I learned that, when it comes to travelling, bad experiences make good memories (provided that you are able to get through them unscathed). Since I've been here I've had numerous bad experiences: spending nights on dirty, smelly, crowded overnight trains, being stuck in the Shenzhen airport for an entire night as all hell broke loose in front of me, getting locked in a cab by a crooked driver trying to extort me, having to use a wooden board as a mattress in an apartment with no central heating or functional toilet, the list goes on. But I'm still standing, and my circumstances have improved dramatically; furthermore, when I think back on those times some thing weird happens: I smile and laugh. My second trip was a nightmare and that's why it will always be a fond memory of mine.

"Going Native" Experience of the Week

Opening up another bank account and seeing the woman behind the counter using an abacus.

Mandarin Improvement Sign

Being able to sit through an entire movie in Chinese without being totally lost on what was going on (was still a little lost though).

Funny Sign of the Week

This shirt being worn by a first grader at my school:

Now I'm not sure if the message on the shirt is indicating whether the wearer is the "juror" or the "murderer" in the scenario it describes, but this young tot appears to be happy either way. The amount of people I see walking around wearing shirts with words where they clearly have no idea what it says or means is enough to where it may be worthy of it's own blog post (Hmmm).

Reason Why I Like This Place

High quality massages are cheap (cue the happy ending jokes). But seriously! Getting a massage in the U.S. is usually viewed as a luxury service. Here it's like going to get a haircut. I have often asked my Chinese friends what they thought would be their toughest adjustment if they moved to the U.S. (besides the language barrier) and many of them said they would have a tough time without having access to regular, affordable massages. Massages here play a large medicinal role as well. Although some of the treatments seem pretty funky to someone with a western sensibility like myself:

Bamboo cups+fire=medicine?

Random Tangent

Food

Apologies for the long amount of time since my last post. For a while, I was experiencing some internet issues (see The Great Firewall if you feel like I'm being too vague). I eventually found a solution to my problem, but this setback, combined with general summer laziness, are my excuses for not posting more often.

But I'm back now! I'm in the middle of a two month summer vacation and I feel like this is the first time that I'm finally able to relax in my (not so) new environment. By this point, I'm firmly settled in to my life here (scary thought) and I finally seem to have a sense of familiarity about this place. While I am thankful for that, familiarity can be bad news bears for the creative process. This made thinking of a subject for this post a difficult task. I became frustrated as writer's block began to take hold, until one day I was given a gift...food poisoning. As I laid in my bed, in between my frequent trips to the bathroom to puke my guts out, I thought, "That's it! I'll write about food!" After a hellish three days, I was finally able to eat a full meal without sprinting the to bathroom immediately afterwards. I then decided that the time was right to start brainstorming about how to attack this subject.

Sweaty old man in a dirty kitchen dumping a bunch of shit
into a wok, drowning it with oil, and stir-frying the hell out
of it

When considering how Chinese food is made, the image in my mind is that of a sweaty old man in a dirty kitchen dumping a bunch of shit into a wok, drowning it with oil, and stir-frying the hell out of it. And in many places around here, that is exactly what happens (and it's pretty damn good). But, as with many things in a culture as old as this one, there is more to the process than meets the eye. A lesson that I've learned since I've been here is that you cannot define Chinese food under one umbrella (well maybe you can, I guess a tree with many branches would be a better metaphor here). While a lot of it looks the same (at least to me) there are very distinct regional cooking practices observed here. Chinese food can be split into eight distinct cuisines which are practiced throughout the country. The regional allegiance that people have towards their style of cooking is quite strong. Just about every native Chinese person I've met here has been completely convinced that the food from their hometown is the best in the country. All things considered, I'm still a newb when it comes to this stuff and I'm still learning the distinguishing tastes between the different cuisines, so I won't pretend to be an expert.

While I am proud to say that I have tried many different international cuisines, I wouldn't say that I'm a very adventurous eater. I'll find two or three dishes that I enjoy and stick with those. And I'm Ok with that. I'm already an official resident of this country so I don't feel like I need to start eating small octopus balls and drinking horse penis flavored baijiu (a real thing) while sucking down a pack of dirty cigarettes in some misguided attempt to prove that I'm "down" with local culture (that's what we in the biz would call "forcing it.") Instead, I've found that having a routine in a place where I am clearly an outsider has been beneficial to my overall mental well-being, even if it's something as small as eating similar food.  So, while there are a lot of dishes I could talk about here, I'll keep it short and limit the post to three categories: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:

1. Mifen (Rice Noodles)--This dish is what Guilin is most known for throughout China. By itself, it's pretty bland and uninteresting. What makes it good is the fixins' you put on it. There is some sort of stand or small restaurant selling this stuff on just about every street block.

On this I put beef, garlic, peppers, hard boiled eggs,
peanuts, and chives

2. Tang Bao (Soup Dumplings)--Hands down my favorite Chinese food. Most of you have probably heard of dumplings before and that's what these are; except there's soup and whatever meat or vegetable you want inside. Because this isn't typical food in southern China, I spent my first few months here unsuccessfully searching for a place that made them. I had pretty much given up until miraculously one of these restaurants opened a block away from my apartment. In an average week I eat there at least three or four times.

3. Xinjiang Muslim Noodles--Say what you will about the embattled Xinjiang region, those dudes can cook. These restaurants are pretty easy to point out. People from Xinjiang have Turkic ancestry and therefore have a more central Asian complexion and also speak a different language. I am unable to provide my own pictures of their food because it's Ramadan and those selfish bastards shut everything down for a month or so because of the whole fasting thing; leaving me without my fix. But, when they are open, these places are known for their noodles and lamb, my favorite meat. When I go, I order a noodle dish with lamb, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and a fried egg.

4. Fruit--They have great fruit markets here.

The Bad:

1. Stinky Tofu--I don't get it. I really enjoy regular tofu but this stuff looks like you took the regular stuff and left it behind a running exhaust pipe for an hour. Also, the smell is almost too bad to describe. It's like raw sewage mixed with BO; enough to make you lose your appetite. And it's not as if Chinese people think it smells good either. The word for this food in Chinese is "Chou Doufu" which means stinky tofu. Despite all of this, stinky tofu is a very popular snack around here. I feel lame for discounting something without actually trying it, but if the smell is bad enough to where you don't want to get within fifteen yards from where it is being made, I'm out.

Nasty

Animal feet--I say animal feet because it isn't just limited to one kind of animal. There is a woman with a stand right outside my apartment who sells pig feet; and in just about every convenience store chicken feet is sold in airtight packaging. It is also not uncommon when ordering a roasted duck at a restaurant to get its feet (and head and eyes) on the plate with the rest of its body. As somebody who enjoys eating hot dogs, I realize that I have most likely willingly put worse parts of an animal in my body. It's just that, to me, presentation goes a long way.

3. Fish--I've never been a big fan of fish to begin with, but if I ever had to I ate it; but over here, I do my best to stay away at all costs. The reason is that I don't trust the water that these fish were pulled out of. China's problems with pollution have been well-documented. The Li River is one of the longest and prettiest rivers in China; however, the section that runs through the middle of Guilin is filthy. It's a toxic shade of green with trash, raw sewage and who-knows-what-else floating downstream. Despite the obvious poor quality of the water, you see dozens of people on any given day fishing in these areas. Most of the restaurants where I eat are small, Mom and Pop places and I'm reasonably sure that they aren't receiving large shipments of product that have passed standardized health tests. Because of that, it seems pretty likely to me that they are getting their fish locally. Best just to stay away.

The Ugly:

Many of you have heard the stories about the Chinese eating dogs, and sadly, it's all too true. While it isn't a particularly mainstream practice, it does exist. This region, in particular, is known for that kind of stuff. I have had several conversations with people from different parts of China who tell me that the southern regions of the country have a reputation for eating just about anything. In addition to dogs this includes: cats, rats, bugs, etc. The so-called dog meat capital of China, Yulin, is only a couple hours south of Guilin. Every year they have a dog and cat festival where people go and buy these animals to eat. Needless to say, as someone who grew up in a society where people go to jail for that sort of thing, this whole practice is appalling to me. People have explained to me that the relationship that many Chinese people have with dogs is different from that of people in the west. Here oftentimes dogs are seen as livestock instead of a companion. As a meat eater, I can begin to understand that, but what makes me cringe is the method of execution. In China guns are illegal and the electrocution equipment often used by the big food distributors is expensive so less-humane methods are employed (for example beating an animal with a blunt object.) On several occasions since I've been here, while walking down the street, I've heard what sounds like dogs being killed. I have two dogs back home who I love very much, so this kind of thing is pretty rough for me to hear and I try to do my best to put it out of my mind. However, while I don't agree with this practice AT ALL, I stop short of doing something about it. The reason being is that I have no idea what these people's lives are like. I was raised in a privileged environment where I have never had to worry about where my next meal comes from. Because of that, I have always been able to be picky about quality and decide what I will and won't eat. That's a luxury that not everybody has. While China continues it's upward trajectory on a global stage, it is still home to over 1 billion people and there still is a lot of poverty (especially in this area). These are factors that lead to food scarcity. So while it's offensive to me that people would eat a dog I also see it as equally offensive for a wealthy foreigner with no perspective confronting a poor farmer and telling them to change their eating practices without providing them with any alternative. To me, I see consuming dogs as a symptom of a larger problem that China faces (AKA there's too many damn people!).

"Going Native" Experience of the Week

Our IV bottle

The waiting room

 I Had my first hospital experience, and thankfully I was not the patient. About a month ago I was playing a pickup game of soccer with a group of friends. While going for a loose ball my forehead accidently collided with the side of my friend's face. While I received nothing more than a bump on my head, my friend suffered a broken cheekbone (In my entire life I've never even come close to injuring somebody that badly). It immediately became apparent that we would need to go to the hospital. As you might expect in a country as crowded as this one, the ER was pretty chaotic. It wasn't really clear where we needed to go to sign in, where we needed to wait, or who we needed to talk to. At that point we weren't sure if he had a concussion or not, or what the extent of the injury was. To make matters worse, about 45 minutes after the collision, his nose started bleeding. We were desperate to see a doctor as soon as possible, but, given the heavy ER traffic, it didn't seem like that was going to happen for at least a little while. The triage nurse told us to get him an IV and go sit in the waiting room. Yes, you read that sentence correctly, WE were in charge of finding an IV. Meaning that we had to go to one end of the hospital to buy the bottle and then go back to the other end to find a doctor to hook it up. After about a two hour wait we were finally able to get somebody to examine the X-rays. It turned out not to be too serious (you know, except for the whole broken face thing) but my friend did have to fly to Thailand to get a plastic surgeon to realign his bone. In unrelated news, I haven't picked up a soccer ball since.

Mandarin Improvement Sign

Sometimes it's hard to be able to gauge your own improvement. Oftentimes it seems like everyday is the same but then, all of the sudden, you realize that things are a lot easier for you know than they used to be. I have a job where two nights a week I tutor a four year old. This job requires me to go to this kid's house, eat dinner with his family, and then do my best to teach him English. Nobody in his family speaks English so, when I first began, our dinner conversations were extremely limited; however, recently I've noticed that we are able to talk about a much wider variety of topics. Progress!!!

Funny Sign of the Week

In keeping with the food theme I've decided for this section to show pictures of funny food menu items. Menus are often where I see the most egregious mistakes because restaurants try to be descriptive about their offerings.

Honest pizza with fake ingredients

Interesting name for a restaurant

This description was next to a picture of a steak.
I have no idea what they were trying to say.

Cocktails? More like CockFAILS

Reason Why I Like This Place

I have transportation now:

At first I was a little reluctant to buy this. Driving here is much different than what I'm used to. Crossing the street is like a real life game of Frogger, the sidewalks are often seen as merely an extension of the road, and stop lights are simply suggestions; however, this bike has revolutionized my life here. Not only do I now have more access to places within the city, now I'm also able to take this on trips to the surrounding countryside. I've mentioned before how I need to take more time to appreciate the landscape outside the city, now I'm able to do that.


Random Tangent

Four years ago, my school created an international program geared towards attracting students from other countries in an effort to put Chinese and foreign students in the same classroom. In addition to a normal elementary school curriculum, this program offers an advanced language immersion environment which includes both foreign and Chinese language teachers and numerous activities throughout the year which are designed to give young kids a solid bi-lingual foundation in English and Chinese.

Recently I have undertaken the task of promoting this program so if you, or anyone you may know are planning on living in this part of the world and would be interested in learning more, check out our Facebook page here. This page is also useful for anybody who may be considering teaching in China or if you just want to see more of what my life is like here.

Hope everyone back home is healthy, safe, and Ebola free.


**If you have any ideas for future blog posts that you would be interested to read feel free to get in touch with me. I'm always finding new things to write about over here but if there is something specific that you want to know more about I would be happy to check it out. Certain subjects are out of bounds (politics, religion, territorial disputes, etc.)

Zhangjiajie

Two weekends ago (sorry I write slow) was the first time I've left Guilin on my own free will since I've been here (the others being visa runs). The destination of this trip was Zhangjiajie National Forest park in the northwestern part of
Hunan Province  (the province right above Guangxi). I had Monday off from school due to the Dragon Boat Festival so I figured it would be a good weekend for a change of scenery. I had been getting a little stir crazy from my daily routine here, so I figured missing out on a unique cultural event to go somewhere less populated and stare at some crazy looking landforms was a sacrifice I was willing to make. While Zhangjiajie has always been popular in China (it is the country's first national park) it has recently received worldwide recognition due to the movie Avatar (which I admit I haven't seen). The landscape of the alien planet, Pandora, was inspired by the landscape of Zhangjiajie. Adding to its impressive resume, it is also recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Needless to say, I was pretty excited for this trip. I also had two friends travelling with me...a new experience thus far.

Zhangjiajie is pretty far away and would require an overnight train to get there; therefore, our plan was to leave in the late afternoon on Friday and arrive early Saturday morning. We would then, after checking into our hostel, spend all day Saturday and Sunday at the park before leaving Sunday night. My Mom once told me that my thoughts going into a trip are just as important as the ones at the end, so, after we boarded the train, I took some time to jot a few of them down. In no particular order:

-Good God there's a lot of people in this country
-I hope the Xinjiang seperatists are on a bye week
-Hey, at least we're moving away from Thailand
-Southeast Asia certainly seems to be quite the powderkeg these days
-Melatonin or Baijiu?
-The countryside outside of Guilin is pretty spectacular, I should take more time to appreciate it
-I still can't get over how many people are in this country
-It better be colder in Zhangjiajie than Guilin (When considering the current weather in Guilin the phrase "hot as balls" comes to mind. Not only is it already in the 90s but the humidity is about 10,000% right now...brutal)

The hard sleeper section of our train was a bit dirtier than the trains I have been on in the past; but I figured that if that was the only part of the trip to complain about then I was in pretty good shape. I also had more reason not to complain considering that one of my friends wouldn't even have a bed to sleep on for the entire ride. Because we reserved our tickets so late, there were only two beds left with the rest of the vacant spots being essentially coach-level airplane seats. Knowing that there was somebody in my group that was in a significantly worse situation than myself made me feel a lot better...not the kindest sentiment I've ever had, but true nonetheless (plus we made it up to him by giving him the nicer of the two rooms we booked in our hostel). Our trip went by without incident (well...except for the joker who decided to lay down and fall asleep in my bed while I was hanging out with my friend in another car, but that issue was quickly resolved) and we arrived in the city of Zhangjiajie around 8 the next morning.

Once I stepped off the train, I noticed two things simultaneously:

1) It is much cooler in this place...thank God.
2) Is that fresh air I'm breathing? Yea, I think it is.

Despite being tired, I was already in a good mood as we headed to our hostel to check in. After we checked in, we changed and set off to find a ride into the park. Zhangjiajie is a fairly touristy area, so it wasn't hard to find someone willing to take us there. Standing in the middle of the city, it was hard to believe that we were anywhere close to one of the most famous natural landscapes in the country. There were some cool mountains but nothing I hadn't seen before. The cab driver spoke a rough dialect of Chinese, which, when combined with our limited language skills, left me wondering if we were indeed going to the right place. It was also quite foggy so there wasn't much visibility; however, during the 40 minute drive from the center of the city to the park, the landscape kept getting crazier which told me that we were heading in the right direction (any doubts I had were quickly put to rest when we began seeing Avatar movie signs for what felt like every other mile). Soon enough we arrived at the entrance of the park, bought our day passes, and walked in.

This park is enormous and it's not uncommon for people who visit to stay for a week. Since we would only have two days, we made it our mission to see as much of the area as we could, while also accepting that we wouldn't be able to see all of it. To make it easier to navigate, we decided that we should begin at the highest point and work our way down. In order to get there we took a bus up the mountain which then dropped us of at a station where we would take a gondola to the top. I was really excited to take the gondola but, after being on it for about five minutes, it soon became apparent to me that this was not the best day to take one. The weather that morning was really foggy so, once the gondola reached a height were we would theoretically be able to see all of the cool formations, we found ourselves literally stuck in the clouds. We couldn't see a damn thing, only whiteness. The visibility was so low that the station at the top of the mountain appeared out of nowhere and took us by surprise. We disembarked, walked around, and noticed that there was nobody up there, and for good reason. There was nothing to see. The fog was too heavy. At this point I started to become a bit agitated. As I walked around, I began hearing a voice in the back of my mind saying "Shit Jay, did you really just spend all that time and money to come up here to see this??" I didn't say any of this out loud, but something tells me that I was not the only person in the group feeling this way.

Behind me there is chaos

We quickly found a bus that would take us to another site. Due to the limited visibility, I was a little bit nervous about boarding the bus but at that point we really had no other option. We set off down the road and eventually the fog dissipated (this wasn't a gradual phase out, it was just one minute we couldn't see anything and then all of the sudden the clouds were gone). Cool, maybe we'll be able to see some stuff after all. The bus arrived at another site and we set off once again. Because the fog prevented some places from being visited, the areas where there actually was visibility, I figured, would have heavier tourist traffic than usual. Once we arrived at the scenic areas we realized that this was indeed the case. I've written before about how the concept of forming a line isn't something that is observed here and this place was no different. We were able to get some pretty cool pictures, but what these pictures don't show are the masses of people behind us pushing and boxing each other out all in effort to get to the front so that they can get a picture of themselves holding up a peace sign while standing in front of a rock.

QUICK ASIDE: Seriously, what is up with that? Why do Chinese people feel the need to hold up a peace sign in EVERY. SINGLE. PICTURE? I guess this is better than all those fake-tough white boys holding up gang signs while drunk at a party, but still, let's try to diversify a bit.

The sheer volume of tourists was gradually eroding our experience and we weren't sure where to go from there. Our luck soon changed when we came across a small stone path that was leading down the mountain. The path was pretty steep and wet so nobody was walking on it. We wanted to go to an area where there weren't so many people so we decided to go all Robert Frost on the situation and take the road less traveled. And guess what? It did make all the difference. The path took us to some clearings where we had great vantage points of the spires erupting out of the valley floor. As we continued on, the path began to get much more technical and we soon found ourselves climbing. We weren't sure where we were going but curiosity and hatred for large tourist groups spurred us onward. When we reached the end of the climb we found ourselves on top on one of the spires, Hell yea. This was the best view we had gotten all day, and what was even better is that we didn't have to share it with anybody. The several cigarette butts we saw strewn sporadically across the rock told us that we were not the first people to find this place; but at that moment, this space was ours. We even combined our first names (Jay, Michael, and Samir) to give the place its own name (Jamiracle rock). Aren't we creative?

Finding Jamiracle rock gave our trip the shot in the arm that it had been searching for up to that point. While standing on the edge we saw a large, traditional-looking building off in the distance. We decided that that would be our next destination. going back up was obviously a bit more difficult than going down, but we went beast mode and got it done. We found a path that would

take us over to the building and set off again. When we arrived at the building we found ourselves face to face.........with a McDonald's.

A McDonald's??? Are you F-ing kidding me? This was like a big middle finger to, not just the natural beauty of the place, but the overall culture behind exploring a national park. I couldn't believe it, corporate America had successfully infiltrated one of the most remote areas I have ever been. Ridiculous. Now........having said all that, did I eat there? Hell yea I did, I went to town. McDonald's is awesome and I wasn't in any mood to eat any of that local overpriced bullshit (I realize that people like me are part of the problem and not the solution). After a delicious lunch that consisted of a cheeseburger, fries, chicken nuggets, soda, and ice cream (and yes, I enjoyed every second of it while also realizing the hypocrisy of my actions) we set out again. We decided to get on the first bus we saw even though we didn't know where it would take us. This bus took us to another site on a different side of the park. The place where we got of proclaimed itself as being home to "The First Bridge in the World" (I'm not sure how official this title is but I'm sure it has been there for quite a while). At this point in the day the fog was gone, and there was even a little bit of sun. Even though there were a lot of people at this site as well, it felt less chaotic. We we got on a path which took us along the edges of the cliffs and gave us a great view

of just how dizzyingly high up we were.

I haven't done a good job so far in describing just how cool this place was. When I was much younger I was fortunate enough to see the Grand Canyon in person (I highly recommend doing that if you haven't already) and was absolutely blown away, so much so that that feeling has stuck with me more than a decade later. The reason I'm telling you this now is because since that trip all those years ago I have been lucky enough to see many cool things, but nothing has given me that same sense of wonder until I saw this place. Seeing these enormous formations shooting out of the ground towards the sky like rockets didn't make me feel like I was in another country, but another planet (Pandora perhaps?). We walked around for another two hours before we decided to call it a day.

Even though we decided that it was time to head back, we weren't exactly sure how to do that. We asked one of the park representatives what the quickest way to get back to the main gate was. She told us to take another bus to the site of "The Tallest Elevator in the World" (I think that title is actually official) and buy a ticket to ride it down. This felt like a money trap but we didn't really care. Apparently this elevator is a pretty big tourist draw so we figured we might as well check it out. When we got to the elevator I realized that this was the second most egregious example of overtouristization (yes, I made that word up) in the park besides the McDonald's (and we patronized both of them). Built into the side of an enormous cliff were two glass elevator shafts with buses at the bottom shuttling people back and forth. While the concept of the world's tallest elevator sounded intriguing at first, it became significantly less cool when I got on and realized that the ride was just that...an elevator (They even played elevator music for God's sake). Easily the most anticlimactic ten minutes of the day. Eventually we made it to the bottom where we got on another bus that took us to the front gate of the park. We then found a cab to take us back into town. We made plans to wake up early on Sunday so that we could get a lot of hiking time in so Saturday night was pretty uneventful.

While I certainly enjoyed our day on Saturday, what we did on Sunday will be what I remember the most years from now. The site of our adventure was Tianmenshan (translated as Heaven's Gate Mountain). While this mountain doesn't have anything to do with Avatar, it's spectacular in its own right. Overlooking the city of Zhangjiajie, it's easy to see why it's called Heaven's Gate. This area also made headlines in the extreme sports community in October 2013 when a large crowd of people watched as Hungarian wingsuit BASE jumper, Victor Kovats exploded himself at the base of the mountain after a parachute malfunction (sorry if I sound irreverent about it but that is essentially what happened). In lighter news, Tianmen mountain also made this list on The Chive.

Above the clouds

In order to get to the top, we would have to take another gondola. This one would begin in the middle of the city. Once again, the first few minutes of the ride was pretty cool before we ran into clouds. "Not again," I told myself, but then, something happened that I didn't expect...we rose above the clouds and the mountain was continuing upward. The Chinese tourists that shared the gondola with began shouting out in amazement. While I didn't make any noise myself, I think I shared the same feeling. The mist surrounding the mountain added to its celestial feel. We eventually made it to the top and found an observation tower where we took some more pictures. After that, we followed signs that directing us to a cliff walk. These signs took us to an area called the "Guigu Cliffs." The walk along these cliffs was the most

memorable part for me. The extreme height combined with the sheer drop of the cliff face was shocking. The path and the railings appeared to be structurally sound but I have a mild fear of heights which caused me to become a bit anxious. Still, I was determined not to let that affect my day so we pressed on. Eventually we came to a point on the path where a small skywalk jutted out over the abyss. I wasn't too excited at the thought of walking out there but I knew that I needed to do it. I took a couple of steps when,

The cliffs (the walkway is visible at the top)

all of the sudden, a large group of Chinese tourists in search of a new place to hold up a peace sign got on as well and began the whole boxing out routine. This was not a place to be testing weight limits or brushing up against people so I immediately hopped off and continued up the path. I took many pictures of this area but none of them were able to capture just how high up we were.

After the cliff walk was over, we had time to go see one more site. The next area was at a lower elevation with no direct route from our current location. In order to get there we would have to take a gondola back down below the clouds and then take a bus back up. The bus ride was pretty sketchy. The driver clearly knew what he was doing and he wasn't taking any unnecessary risks but there are just some places in the world that just aren't meant for roads. This road wound its way up the mountain along the edge of some pretty far drops. To add to the danger, the presence of the clouds made the surface of the road wet. We finally made it to our destination where we are confronted with a very long and steep staircase that makes its way up the mountain and stops at an enormous natural arch. We agree at the bottom that we would each go at our own pace and that we would just see each other at the top.

From the bottom, the steps looked pretty steep but, as I made my way up, I realized that they were

even steeper than I thought. Towards the top the steps in front of me were nearly level with my chest. If I was a bigger douche I could talk about how climbing those steps on a mountain called "Heaven's Gate" was a metaphor for life or chasing your dreams or some other bullshit; but I won't. I did, however, feel a sense of accomplishment when I reached the top...that is until I looked next to me and saw a middle aged woman standing there in high heels; I guess the lesson for the day is that some people like to make things unnecessarily hard on themselves. Still, if those heels could talk they would've said "Sit down Jay, you're nothing special for making it up here." We hung out at the top long enough to rest and take some more pictures before beginning our final descent down the mountain to the train station and back home.

On the final bus ride down the mountain I allowed myself to become more introspective about the whole experience.There are some situations here that, due to the fact that I am so far away from home, causes me to exaggerate my emotions toward them (Just adding the two words "In China" at the end of a sentence can make things sound crazier or more different than they actually are. Ex: "I climbed a mountain IN CHINA." "I went to a bar IN CHINA." "I rode a train IN CHINA"), but this was not one of those situations. This place was so unique and wild that I cannot possibly overstate it. The fact that it is in another country is just gravy after that. While my life over the past four months hasn't always been easy or fun it's experiences like this one that humble me and make me look at the bigger picture and realize how lucky I am. The world is an enormous place and I haven't even begun to scratch the surface when it comes to seeing everything there is to see; but, doing things like this makes me feel as though I am chipping away. Although I was physically exhausted when I returned to Guilin I was mentally rejuvenated.

"Going Native" Experience of the Week

It has been awhile since my last post so for this one I have two:

1) My school was nice enough to buy me a cake on my birthday which I took home...only to realize that I don't own a fork.

Let's do this

2) This past Sunday I went with my boss and her family to an area right outside of Guilin called Daxu. We planned on checking the place out a bit before grabbing some lunch. Daxu is a small area located along a river with two villages on either side. I wasn't aware of this going into the outing, but we were arriving on a special day. Once every ten years these two villages have a festival of sorts that serves as a symbol of their friendship. This festival included a dragon dance, boat races, and a large meal. There are many touristy places around here where I feel that the local people try to play up the traditional culture only to attract tourists, which can make things feel a bit contrived and fake. This experience actually felt legit and I was honored to be able to see it.

Funny Sign of the Week

A consistent source of entertainment for me here is seeing all of the people walking around wearing shirts with English words or phrases and having no clue what they mean. This leads to people wearing shirts like these:

The thing about it is that I know the Chinese could just as easily turn it around on westerners and make fun of all the people who get tattoos of Chinese characters without knowing what they say so I don't feel bad about laughing at this. This isn't even the funniest shirt I've seen. Over the past few weeks I've seen not one but two different people wearing a shirt that said "Pervert." Another time I saw someone wearing a shirt that just said "Student Loans."

Reason Why I Like This Place

I'll be able to watch the World Cup!

Random Tangent

This is a question that my Dad and I often debate and we still haven't come up with an answer so I would like to open it up to a wider audience and see if anybody can help us out:

Why is this man famous?

I'm intentionally not going to say who he is because I know that most of you will already know. But, after seeing him sing in the opening ceremony for the World Cup next to Jennifer Lopez and a slew of other sexy Brazilian girls I felt the need to reopen this discussion. It is clear to me that this man has hit the jackpot and probably lives a life that is much cooler than mine will ever be; what isn't so clear though is what he's done to get to this point. If you have any insight into this feel free to comment below.

Hong Kong Part 2/Shenzhen Airport Riot

This past weekend I had to make my second trip in 30 days to Hong Kong to renew my visa. My experience this weekend went from being one of the best experiences of my life to one of the worst within 24 hours. Let's recap.

Because my last trip lasted about 45 minutes I had asked my boss if it was OK that I took a little bit more time to actually visit Hong Kong this time around. She was kind enough to agree so I planned on taking the train down there on Thursday night and arriving around noon on Friday, then flying home on Sunday night in order to be back for school on Monday. My parents' friends in Hong Kong were in Barcelona for the weekend but were kind enough to allow me to stay at their apartment. Also, in the days leading up to my trip I was informed that the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament was going to be in town. For those of you who haven't heard of it, the Sevens is an international tournament that has become a mecca for rugby fans across the world. The scene in Hong Kong that weekend would be like if you combined the World Cup with Mardi Gras and condensed it into three days. Needless to say I was pumped. My Dad had gone to this tournament with his friends when we lived in Taiwan and had always talked about how it was one of the funnest experiences of his life, now I would be able to see it for myself.

As I set out for the train station on Thursday night I already felt like a veteran for this trip. I again had the hard sleeper, but I knew the drill this time and managed to get a decent night's sleep. I arrived in Hong Kong around 1 PM on Friday and made my way to the neighborhood of Happy Valley, the location of the apartment. When I arrived at my accommodations I was blown away. I was treated to a plush apartment which overlooked a horse track and had a great view of the Hong Kong skyline, certainly a step up from how I've been living these past few months. Oftentimes, living in Guilin, it has been tough for me to imagine what exactly my endgame is, so being in this apartment was great for me because it gave me a specific lifestyle to aspire to. The apartment was also very close to the stadium where the Sevens was being played so, after I settled in, I set out to try to find tickets. I was told that Friday, because it was the preliminary round, would be the cheapest day to find tickets from scalpers. Realizing that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I decided that I would do whatever it took to get myself inside the stadium. One of the aspects of this tournament that makes it such a party is the tradition of groups of people attending the matches wearing outlandish costumes. I wasn't exactly sure where the stadium was but I saw a group of about 15 people walking down the street wearing tuxedos and helmets like Daft Punk so I figured that they were most likely heading to where I wanted to go. I followed them and soon began hearing the noise from the stadium. As I got closer I began to see scalpers and I was able to buy a ticket for about 60 US, a pretty good bargain.

Hell yea

When I got inside the stadium I immediately went to the ATM. As I stood in line, I heard some Australian guy dressed as Elvis saying that he had saved up months' worth of paychecks to be here this weekend. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have stumbled upon a scene that many people have on their bucket lists. After I got my money, I made a pit stop at the concession stand where it soon became abundantly clear to me why Mr. Elvis had saved up so much money to be there. At the very cheapest is was about 12 US for a 12 oz of Carlsburg draught. Food was about the same. Going from a place where I could easily live on 30 U.S. a week to a place where that would maybe buy me one meal was quite a change of scenery. I saw that buying Carlsburg by the liter would only be about 3 US more so I decided that it would be more economical for me to go that direction, a very mature decision on my part (that was sarcasm, in case you didn't pick that up). After the concessions, I made my way to the famed South Stands. This is where I was told the loudest, drunkest, craziest fans would be. I didn't necessarily want to become one of them but I certainly wanted to take in the scene. I had gotten there early so good seats were easy to find, but as the night wore on the stands began getting packed. The costumes were hilarious. I sat down next to a group of people dressed as Spiderman with the Flintstones sitting behind me and the grim reaper sitting next to them. There were guys dressed up as playboy bunnies, mexican banditos, and sumo wrestlers. Let me say that this wasn't the first sporting event I had been to outside of the U.S.. My soccer fanhood has brought me to England and Brazil to see matches; but, While those matches were

exhilarating for me, the mood in the stands wasn't nearly as positive. The fans at those matches were very passionate but there was also a very tangible hatred for fans of the other teams. The Hong Kong Sevens was a much happier, partylike atmosphere. There was good-natured trash talk between people from other countries but everybody just seemed happy to be there. I ended up sitting next to some British guys who were giving me a hard time because I couldn't name a single player on the U.S. squad (calling me a "shit" American) but even they celebrated and gave me high fives when the U.S. scored. The only truly negative reaction I saw was when the Russian squad took the field, a man draped in the Ukrainian flag with about 4 beer treys perched on his head began booing loudly, pretty understandable. Many people throughout the stadium joined him (the U.S. got the second most boos but that's to be expected). While I still think American football players are far superior athletes (There's nobody that can convince me that Patrick Willis wouldn't be the best

Me and the Flintstones

rugby player the world has ever seen) I think rugby wins as a spectator sport. The continuous flow of action keeps you engaged and the tournament set up of seven players aside with two seven minute halves promised end-to-end action. You can also see who the players are since they're not wearing helmets or pads. Another cool wrinkle to the scene was that it was countries squaring off against each other, this was a first for me. You don't have to be a big fan of a particular sport to be a big fan of your country, so I didn't feel like a bandwagoner for being pumped after the U.S. beat Samoa or for being disappointed when they lost to Scotland the next day (I mean come on it's Scotland). Also, any contest where geopolitical events have an affect on which teams you root for and against is pretty awesome to me.

As the night wound down the English people next to me asked if I wanted to join them in going to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). LKF is a location in downtown Hong Kong where the majority of the fans who were not in the stadium would be. It's three roads shut off to cars and lined with bars on each side in order to create a massive block party. Initially, I wanted to join them but I soon realized that I had drank too many liters and eaten too little food and the version of myself who had entered the stadium was much different than the version that I was at that moment. I decided, since I wouldn't be going to the stadium the next day, I would save LKF for Saturday night. I told my mates (see what I just did there? I used mates in a sentence I'm so cultured) that I would not be able to join them and went home.

I woke up early the next morning and got some breakfast, very glad with my decision to head home early the night before. Even though I did want to partake in the festivities of the weekend, I realized that spending the whole weekend partying would be a huge waste of a great opportunity to

Cool Building

check out one of the most famous cities in the world. I decided that I would spend the day walking around the city gettin' my tourist on. From everybody I've talked to who has spent extended time in Hong Kong I've heard one recurring description of the city: "It's like New York on crack!" I understand how somebody might say that but, having been to New York a few times myself, I don't think it's possible for any place to be like New York on crack. I made it my goal to develop my own description of the place by the end of my stay. I only had about day and a half to develop this description so the opinion I have is hardly one of an expert, but I still took it upon myself to try. One of the first things you notice, having spent the past two months in mainland China, is how capitalism punches you in the face, I was not at all upset about this. You look out in the street and you see Maseratis and Lamborghinis driving by. People wearing expensive suits walking into huge skyscrapers with bank logos on the top, advertisements for various restaurants, tourist destinations, and shows. It was also a breath of fresh air to see restaurants that I actually recognized (I've never been so happy to see a Subway before). Because Hong Kong was owned by England for quite a while there is a heavy British influence as well. Despite it raining for most of the day I came to the realization that I loved this place. It's exotic but westernized enough for people like me to feel comfortable, it's a bustling city but has tremendous scenery, and it's relatively clean but not sterile. At the end of the day the description I came up with was this: It's a blend of New York and London condensed onto a small, tropical Asian island where eastern and western values have been able to find some sort of middle ground.

Ground zero

After spending the day walking around the city I returned back to the apartment and rested for a few hours before heading out for my night at LKF around 9 PM. As I got out of the cab and began following the throngs of people toward ground zero I saw a bar that was playing "Sweet Home Alabama" (I'm not even a big fan of this song I was just surprised to hear it in a place like that) and was showing the kick-off for the Manchester United v. Aston Villa match.  Because I am a big Manchester United fan and live in a place where sports fans go to die, I quickly decided that the party could wait and went inside. It was a fun atmosphere as a lot of people were really into the match. It was a good

Shoddy camerawork

way to ease myself into the scene instead of immediately throwing myself into the gauntlet. After the match I paid my tab and carried on down the road. Eventually I made it. I have never been to Mardi Gras (or the state of Louisiana for that matter) but I imagine the scene was quite similar. I found myself in the middle of a street jam-packed with people all of whom where in varying levels of celebration mode. It was definitely the biggest party scene I've ever been to and something that I won't forget. I made sure to walk around the entire area and check out different places. There's really nothing new to add about actual bars themselves because bars are more the less the same all over
the world. All I can do is throw out generic adjectives like "fun" "crazy" "wild" "epic" or "convivial." It was a great night though.

"The NAKED truth about BARTENDERS is that they only FLIRT WITH YOU for bigger tips"

The next day it was time for me to leave. My plane flight wasn't supposed to leave until 9 PM but I wanted to make sure that I gave myself enough time to make it through 2 long subway rides and a round of customs and not worry about missing my flight. I left Hong Kong around 1 PM and made it to the airport around 5:00 PM. I had hit the jackpot that weekend and was living a charmed life that clearly wasn't sustainable. Sure enough, my luck ran out in the airport in a BIG way...

My first inclination that there would be trouble ahead came on my way to the airport. Storm clouds began to form that were so dark it looked like it was nighttime, even though it was only 3 in the afternoon. It looked as though one hell of a storm was about to hit Shenzhen and I began preparing myself for the possibility that my flight would be delayed. When I got to the airport I saw an unusual amount of people crowded around the departure screen checking what times their flights would be leaving. I had a lot of time before my flight so I decided to sit down and grab a bite to eat. The restaurant was pretty crowded and people were sharing tables. I ended up sharing one with a Chinese person who informed me that the planes currently taking off were planes that had been scheduled to take off around noon, it was about 6:30 PM at the time so I realized that I was going to be sitting in this airport for awhile.  It was also around that time that the skies opened up. It was one of the heaviest storms I had seen outside of a hurricane. Water was falling in buckets and the thunder and lightning was constant. It became apparent to me that there was a big possibility that my flight would be cancelled altogether. I sat at my gate for another 5 hours before I was informed that my flight was indeed cancelled. No big deal, I had prepared myself for this possibility. I would just grab a hotel in Shenzhen and inform my boss that I would be back a day later than I originally thought. I walked back to the ticket desk to try to get on another flight and inquire about nearby hotels. The scene when I got there was chaotic. There were many people who were in the same position as I was who were attempting to do the same thing. I wouldn't call the crowd in front of the ticket desk a line because lines seem to be a foreign thing to China, it was more just a mass of people trying to fight their way to the front. People were trying to box out the people behind them while at the same time trying to push their way ahead of the people in front of them. People were getting separated from their groups and getting pissed off and yelling at each other. I wanted to yell out that life doesn't have to be this difficult. It would have taken just as much time to reach the front desk if we had formed a line and would have been much less stressful. Finally, I made it to the front where I was told that the soonest flight I could get was in two days' time. Not only that, but downtown Shenzhen had experienced flooding which led to a water mane breaking and a large number of the roads were under several feet of water. Traffic was said to be in gridlock and I was advised to avoid going down there at all costs. The only hotel nearby was completely booked solid as well. At that point I wasn't sure what to do, so I called one of my contacts back at CLI and asked him to check and see if there were any trains heading to Guilin. After looking he saw that there was 1 single ticket left for a train that was leaving at 5 PM the next day, but that it was for the most expensive section on the train. I told him I didn't care how much it cost and to buy it for me promising to reimburse him. Looking back, that was the biggest stroke of luck I could've had. Given the desperate nature of the situation, there's no way that ticket would have lasted another 5 minutes unclaimed. I now had my ticket home but I still had to figure out where I would be sleeping. Seeing as how hotels were out of the question at that point and the weather outside was apocalyptic, I realized that my best option would be to stay in the airport that night. It certainly wasn't ideal but the airport had plenty of food and restrooms. I left the increasingly anxious scene in the terminal and found a place on one of the lower floors where I would post up for the night. I wasn't happy about my situation but I realized that sometimes with travelling these types of things happen. It's pretty much impossible to find sleep on a dirty airport floor so I decided that I wouldn't even attempt so that hopefully I could sleep on the entire ride

My accommodations for the evening

home. Things were relaxed until about 2:30 AM...then all hell broke loose...

As I was sitting downstairs more and more people began gathering around the ticket desk and eventually frustrations started boiling over. I soon began to hear tons of shouting and angry voices which soon manifested itself into a full-blown organized protest. I ran upstairs to see what was going on and what I saw shocked me. A huge mob of people had begun shouting organized chants about wanting to go home with one or two ringleaders firing everybody up. People were banging on the walls and the counters and the whole building felt like it was shaking. Instead of "Occupy Wall Street" this was "Occupy the Plane." I felt that this behavior was absolutely moronic, anybody with common sense could look outside and see that these were no conditions to fly in. Airline companies have certainly been a source of aggravation for me in the past but they can't control the weather; furthermore, if they're cancelling a flight because they can't guarantee the safety of their passengers, that should be viewed as a responsible decision. The scene got increasingly out of hand and some people began acting as if they were about to faint. I felt that this was way overdramatic seeing as we were in a terminal with dozens of restaurants and convenience stores. I just wanted to tell everybody to go buy some instant noodles, a pack of cigarettes, and to sit down and shut up. What were they hoping to accomplish? Even if somehow the airlines caved and readied a plane, there is still no way in hell I would have gotten on it. As if southeast Asia hasn't had enough airplane drama recently. All common sense had gone out the window as the mob grew. I went back downstairs and saw that many people who were asleep around me had gotten up and joined in the protest. Eventually the situation reached a point where policemen with riot gear had to come in and stand in front of the ticket desk to make sure that nobody did anything stupid. When I saw how out of hand the situation had gotten, my initial shock and annoyance subsided and I just started laughing. I began thinking to myself how crazy my life has been. In 24 hours I went from sleeping in a plush apartment in one of the nicest neighborhoods in one of the most expensive cities in the world, to sitting on a dirty floor, eating KFC in the middle of the night and watching a group of complete dumbasses attempt to turn the Shenzhen airport terminal into Tahrir Square. I can understand uprisings over a cause (gay marriage, abortions, saving the trees) but these people were essentially protesting the weather. I know I'm belaboring the point but even after I've gotten through the experience, it's still amazing to me. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of what was going on, the reason being is that it's generally frowned upon for foreigners to take pictures or videos of public unrest in other countries. Seeing how tenuous my situation already was, and the fact that there were RIOT POLICE (wtf???!!!) there I didn't want to make myself a target of anybody's frustration. I managed to capture a short audio recording but that was it. I know I'm complaining about it now but, looking back, I think having a scene like that occupying my attention helped speed up the waiting process for me more than if it had just remained quiet. This madness went on until about 6:30 AM. I then figured that the train station would be open and decided to start making my way over there. The trip back to the station took about an hour and involved another long subway ride and a cab driver who extorted me for 200 RMB by locking his doors and refusing to let me get out until I paid him the money. We argued back and forth for a few minutes but at that point I was so exhausted and was in no mood to involve police so I paid him (I'm still mad at myself for doing that). I called the man a couple American expletives then exited the vehicle (There are some really shitty people in the world). I finally arrived at the train station and got my ticket. The good news was that I now had my ticket out of there, the bad news was that I still had about 10 hours before the train left. If I had more energy I would have used that time to go check out the city (the part that wasn't under water) but by that point I was so tired and over my trip I just went to the lounge and sat there until my departure time; I also did not want to risk missing my train in any way.

It really is a shame that I didn't go see more of Shenzhen. It's supposedly a really cool city and located in one of China's Special Economic Zones, where more capitalist policies are allowed. There's supposed to be a lot to do and a lot of job opportunities but, simply from my own experience, I've come to hate that place because (aside from witnessing a riot and getting robbed by a taxi driver) I've always equated it with just being a stop off point between mainland and Hong Kong. As I sat in the lounge, I felt more like a refugee than a train passenger. I was reading a book when I looked up at the TV and saw that the news was covering the story of the chaos in the airport from the previous night. This gave me a pretty good laugh (and to think that at one point I thought that Hong Kong would be the most memorable part of the trip). Eventually, at around 4:30 PM a woman walked into the room with a megaphone and told us that we were free to board. I found the megaphone to be a bit unnecessary since I was in an area the size of a classroom with about 6 other people, but whatever. I boarded the train and 13 hours later (only about 2 of which were spent sleeping) I was finally back in Guilin. By the time I got home, it had been about 2 days since I had actually gotten quality rest and I looked and felt like a zombie. I then realized that I had an hour to get ready for school. I took a shower, shaved, and then set off to go shape the minds of Chinese youth.

This trip was a great stepping stone for me. In one weekend I experienced the very pinnacle and rock bottom of travelling. For someone like me I feel that this was very important. As a tourist it's always great to be able to witness famous attractions and once-in-a-lifetime events but, along with the positive, one must also be aware that things don't always go according to plan and that you must have a high threshold for discomfort and inconvenience. For every instagram picture of a pretty sunset or a beautiful city skyline there is also somebody at that same moment sitting on an airport floor in a foreign country eating KFC wondering what the next move is.

"Going Native" Experience of the Week

I guess watching the Chinese news in the train station...not too much to report on here.

Mandarin Improvement Sign

I didn't realize this until I got back to Guilin, but my trip home was the first time I had gone a full day where I spoke more Chinese than English. It was still very broken on my end and it was often hard for people to understand what I was saying but I made it.


Funny Sign of the Week

Litter, recyclables and WHAT?

Sign above the garbage receptacles in Hong Kong.



Reason Why I Like This Place

Sometimes you don't know what you have until it's gone. After spending my trip bouncing between two bustling cities it was nice to come back to a place where things are a little bit more relaxed.



Random Tangent

Don't get too excited Redskins fans, we should all have learned that lesson by now...


Thanks a lot to everybody who has been reading this blog so far. My last post put me over 1000 total views...I guess I'll press on.