Friday, June 30, 2006
Shanghai - Day 1
Ni Hao!!!
(This is Morgan writing) Greetings from Gotham City (or as the Chinese call it.. Shanghai). This city is huge. Up, down, around, lights, traffic, under, over, you name it. New York is its little brother. I seriously can’t figure out what the Chinese all gawk at when they come to New York. Mr. Kaplan and Mr. Earl describe it as an “architectural orgy.” It is just very modern. We arrived here after a slight delay around 11:30 and met our new tour guide, a male this time, Zhou (pronounced like Joe). We also saw the largest sports complex ever! INDOOR seating for 80,000. Now I assume this is Chinese 80,000 people, but nevertheless, still huge. Graham and Brett wanted to go kick their soccer ball around in there. No such luck.
At lunch we got to admire our food on the wall, swimming around waiting to be eaten. There was much debate on whether or not the fish in one of the tanks were dead, because they all seemed to be upside down, belly up and with their mouths towards the bottom of the tank. The general consensus was that they were just sleeping.. but do fish sleep??
Anyhow, we were then in for a surprise because Zhou arranged for us to do some more shopping at local Xiangyang Market, nicknamed “knock-off market” because of all the big name brands that you can get there, that may be (but most likely aren’t) the real deal. It so turns out that this was the last day this market was open because the city chose to shut it down to discourage the counterfeit market. Of course this was excellent news for us because that just meant better prices! Quite a few of our group did some major damage to their pocket books, although some people purchased suitcases for less than $12 USD.
Mom, John, and I got hot very quickly (It’s all outdoors and it being the last day and all, it was packed to the brim with people). Now you have to remember that the Chinese have very little sense of personal space, so they just pack themselves into these little alley ways all through the market and bump into each other all shoulder to shoulder. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I was about 2 feet shorter so I could move my elbow without fear of taking someone’s head off. After we found what we were looking for, we amscrayed for the main street (which wasn’t much better by the way) and started looking up and down at the shops there.
John was with us but had had about enough shopping... he was hot, tired of being stared at like a circus freak (my goodness they like blond hair here..) and then we found McDonalds. Mom and I suggested we go in there and get John a little taste of home, and his eyes lit up a little bit. I don’t think he wanted to get his hopes up until he saw the real deal. We walked in and ordered him a spicy chicken burger meal for $15.50 RMB and then upsized it twice for another $4RMB (for a grand total of $2.50 USD). We sat down and John opened up his burger and took one bite and just sat there with his eyes closed basking in the glory of American fast food.
If there ever was a time to give thanks before a meal, I think John found that meal. It was definitely a religious experience. I have never seen him savor every bite of food before in my life. And then the fries. And then the COLD soda. Have we mentioned that they Chinese never drink cold liquids? Yea, warm soda, and you can’t even put ice in it for fear of the dysentery. Unless you take it with a side order of Cipro I guess… But for John, he got the cold soda with the filtered water ice cubes and an air conditioned room to eat in. That child was sitting on a throne as far as he was concerned… On second thought, maybe we should have eaten at Burger King for the crowns… I think he will be writing to McDonalds to thank them for being universal and present in 160 locations throughout Shanghai.
After John’s spirits were lifted, we headed out for a Buddhist temple that was just gorgeous. We got there just in time to see the monks walk out and chant as some Buddhists walked out and placed paper representations of earthly things in a pot to burn and send to the heavens to be with those who have died before them. The paper things could be computers, cars, horses, clothes, TVs, and when they turn into smoke, they are carried up to heaven to be with a loved one who has died.
Zhou said that there are about 100,000 practicing Buddhists in Shanghai, but my mom said that this is a number put out by the government and is not accurate. She thinks there are more like 1 million Buddhists in Shanghai, which could be true, and they could practice in their homes. Inside the temple we saw several golden Buddha statues in the prayer room, and we saw people coming to pray as well. We walked up the staircase and saw the largest white jade Buddha in the world.
The Buddhists believe that once you receive enlightenment, you want for nothing, including earthly desires, so an enlightened person is more androgynous, and that is why many Buddhas look like girls, although they are boys. So this was the most beautiful man I have ever seen, not to mention he was carved from 1 giant piece of jade, and white jade at that. All along the ceiling above the jade Buddha were small gold Buddhas that hold sacred artifacts or bones of Buddhists. When Buddhists die, they are cremated, never buried, and often their ashes are placed in temples.
Once we walked through the temple, we got to sit and have tea at the teahouse. They had 10 different teas to try, and each one had a different purpose. The first one had caffeine in it and was a “pick you up” for the morning. It wasn’t bitter at all like coffee, but had more of a sweet flower taste to it. I enjoyed it very much. Then we tried a green tea which was more bitter, but they said it was good to detox your body, for instance after you’ve had a bit too much to drink, or even to detox your body of oily foods that may slow down your metabolism. Basically the same kinds of things that holistic food places in America say green tea does. The last one was a tea to relax you, and it was naturally sweet, almost like it had sugar in it, although the Chinese never sweeten their tea. All the teas were very good, and we bought some to bring back to the states with us, so you’ll all have to come over for a tea party! (and bring your tea cups cause we’re usually more of a coffee family).
After the temple, it was on to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. And let me tell you, the bathrooms are humongous! The shower is separate from the bathtub, so 2 people can get ready at the same time (if you are extra friendly with that person, or just have no modesty). And we were excited to find HBO on these TVs. The Chinese TV stations are a little weird… and not just because we can’t understand the language. Yesterday we found 3 men walking around with fake beards on a stage yelling and pointing at each other for about five minutes… Just weird.
So dinner was rushed because we still don’t have this punctuality thing down, but that was ok, because after dinner (which had REAL vanilla ice cream!) we went to the Chinese acrobatics show which was wonderful! These people were just amazing. One girl balanced chandelier-like things, one on each foot, one on each hand, one on her head, and one in her mouth and just contorted her body in all these positions and never dropped a single chandelier. Then later in the show, she balanced a wine glass on her head, then put a glass sheet on top of it, with 4 wine glasses on top of that, followed by another sheet of glass, 4 more wine glasses, and then another sheet of glass with a candle on top, and then placed a candle at each corner of each layer of glass. Then (while wearing high heals and a dress, mind you) walked up a ladder and stood on a glass table top, that was like a sea saw. She rocked her feet back and forth on the sea saw, then balanced a ladder on either side of the sea saw, and walked up the ladders. In high heals!!!!
And don’t even get me started on the guys that jumped through the tiny little hoops and threw each other dozens of feet into the air… we have pictures but they just don’t do it justice. And, there was a phenomenal sleight of hand magician who just pulled things out of all sorts of places and he must have had 30 decks of cards shoved in various places throughout his suit. Amazing! I’m going to have nightmares from all the stress of watching these people fall all over the place.
On our drive home, it was like an entirely different city. All the buildings light up at night, and there are just hundreds of sky scrapers all across the night sky. Each one is lit up differently too, and when you get to a free way interchange, there are neon lights below the road. It is just so amazing I can’t even describe it!
Well this post is getting long and we're running up a bill, so I’ll let you get on with your day and am happy to tell you that we’ll be seeing you in just a few short days!!!
Happy birthday Daddy and Justin!!!!!!!!!!
Love from China,
Morgan, Gwen, and John
P.S. We get to ride the Mag-Lev train to the airport in 2 days!!!!!!
(This is Morgan writing) Greetings from Gotham City (or as the Chinese call it.. Shanghai). This city is huge. Up, down, around, lights, traffic, under, over, you name it. New York is its little brother. I seriously can’t figure out what the Chinese all gawk at when they come to New York. Mr. Kaplan and Mr. Earl describe it as an “architectural orgy.” It is just very modern. We arrived here after a slight delay around 11:30 and met our new tour guide, a male this time, Zhou (pronounced like Joe). We also saw the largest sports complex ever! INDOOR seating for 80,000. Now I assume this is Chinese 80,000 people, but nevertheless, still huge. Graham and Brett wanted to go kick their soccer ball around in there. No such luck.
At lunch we got to admire our food on the wall, swimming around waiting to be eaten. There was much debate on whether or not the fish in one of the tanks were dead, because they all seemed to be upside down, belly up and with their mouths towards the bottom of the tank. The general consensus was that they were just sleeping.. but do fish sleep??
Anyhow, we were then in for a surprise because Zhou arranged for us to do some more shopping at local Xiangyang Market, nicknamed “knock-off market” because of all the big name brands that you can get there, that may be (but most likely aren’t) the real deal. It so turns out that this was the last day this market was open because the city chose to shut it down to discourage the counterfeit market. Of course this was excellent news for us because that just meant better prices! Quite a few of our group did some major damage to their pocket books, although some people purchased suitcases for less than $12 USD.
Mom, John, and I got hot very quickly (It’s all outdoors and it being the last day and all, it was packed to the brim with people). Now you have to remember that the Chinese have very little sense of personal space, so they just pack themselves into these little alley ways all through the market and bump into each other all shoulder to shoulder. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I was about 2 feet shorter so I could move my elbow without fear of taking someone’s head off. After we found what we were looking for, we amscrayed for the main street (which wasn’t much better by the way) and started looking up and down at the shops there.
John was with us but had had about enough shopping... he was hot, tired of being stared at like a circus freak (my goodness they like blond hair here..) and then we found McDonalds. Mom and I suggested we go in there and get John a little taste of home, and his eyes lit up a little bit. I don’t think he wanted to get his hopes up until he saw the real deal. We walked in and ordered him a spicy chicken burger meal for $15.50 RMB and then upsized it twice for another $4RMB (for a grand total of $2.50 USD). We sat down and John opened up his burger and took one bite and just sat there with his eyes closed basking in the glory of American fast food.
If there ever was a time to give thanks before a meal, I think John found that meal. It was definitely a religious experience. I have never seen him savor every bite of food before in my life. And then the fries. And then the COLD soda. Have we mentioned that they Chinese never drink cold liquids? Yea, warm soda, and you can’t even put ice in it for fear of the dysentery. Unless you take it with a side order of Cipro I guess… But for John, he got the cold soda with the filtered water ice cubes and an air conditioned room to eat in. That child was sitting on a throne as far as he was concerned… On second thought, maybe we should have eaten at Burger King for the crowns… I think he will be writing to McDonalds to thank them for being universal and present in 160 locations throughout Shanghai.
After John’s spirits were lifted, we headed out for a Buddhist temple that was just gorgeous. We got there just in time to see the monks walk out and chant as some Buddhists walked out and placed paper representations of earthly things in a pot to burn and send to the heavens to be with those who have died before them. The paper things could be computers, cars, horses, clothes, TVs, and when they turn into smoke, they are carried up to heaven to be with a loved one who has died.
Zhou said that there are about 100,000 practicing Buddhists in Shanghai, but my mom said that this is a number put out by the government and is not accurate. She thinks there are more like 1 million Buddhists in Shanghai, which could be true, and they could practice in their homes. Inside the temple we saw several golden Buddha statues in the prayer room, and we saw people coming to pray as well. We walked up the staircase and saw the largest white jade Buddha in the world.
The Buddhists believe that once you receive enlightenment, you want for nothing, including earthly desires, so an enlightened person is more androgynous, and that is why many Buddhas look like girls, although they are boys. So this was the most beautiful man I have ever seen, not to mention he was carved from 1 giant piece of jade, and white jade at that. All along the ceiling above the jade Buddha were small gold Buddhas that hold sacred artifacts or bones of Buddhists. When Buddhists die, they are cremated, never buried, and often their ashes are placed in temples.
Once we walked through the temple, we got to sit and have tea at the teahouse. They had 10 different teas to try, and each one had a different purpose. The first one had caffeine in it and was a “pick you up” for the morning. It wasn’t bitter at all like coffee, but had more of a sweet flower taste to it. I enjoyed it very much. Then we tried a green tea which was more bitter, but they said it was good to detox your body, for instance after you’ve had a bit too much to drink, or even to detox your body of oily foods that may slow down your metabolism. Basically the same kinds of things that holistic food places in America say green tea does. The last one was a tea to relax you, and it was naturally sweet, almost like it had sugar in it, although the Chinese never sweeten their tea. All the teas were very good, and we bought some to bring back to the states with us, so you’ll all have to come over for a tea party! (and bring your tea cups cause we’re usually more of a coffee family).
After the temple, it was on to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. And let me tell you, the bathrooms are humongous! The shower is separate from the bathtub, so 2 people can get ready at the same time (if you are extra friendly with that person, or just have no modesty). And we were excited to find HBO on these TVs. The Chinese TV stations are a little weird… and not just because we can’t understand the language. Yesterday we found 3 men walking around with fake beards on a stage yelling and pointing at each other for about five minutes… Just weird.
So dinner was rushed because we still don’t have this punctuality thing down, but that was ok, because after dinner (which had REAL vanilla ice cream!) we went to the Chinese acrobatics show which was wonderful! These people were just amazing. One girl balanced chandelier-like things, one on each foot, one on each hand, one on her head, and one in her mouth and just contorted her body in all these positions and never dropped a single chandelier. Then later in the show, she balanced a wine glass on her head, then put a glass sheet on top of it, with 4 wine glasses on top of that, followed by another sheet of glass, 4 more wine glasses, and then another sheet of glass with a candle on top, and then placed a candle at each corner of each layer of glass. Then (while wearing high heals and a dress, mind you) walked up a ladder and stood on a glass table top, that was like a sea saw. She rocked her feet back and forth on the sea saw, then balanced a ladder on either side of the sea saw, and walked up the ladders. In high heals!!!!
And don’t even get me started on the guys that jumped through the tiny little hoops and threw each other dozens of feet into the air… we have pictures but they just don’t do it justice. And, there was a phenomenal sleight of hand magician who just pulled things out of all sorts of places and he must have had 30 decks of cards shoved in various places throughout his suit. Amazing! I’m going to have nightmares from all the stress of watching these people fall all over the place.
On our drive home, it was like an entirely different city. All the buildings light up at night, and there are just hundreds of sky scrapers all across the night sky. Each one is lit up differently too, and when you get to a free way interchange, there are neon lights below the road. It is just so amazing I can’t even describe it!
Well this post is getting long and we're running up a bill, so I’ll let you get on with your day and am happy to tell you that we’ll be seeing you in just a few short days!!!
Happy birthday Daddy and Justin!!!!!!!!!!
Love from China,
Morgan, Gwen, and John
P.S. We get to ride the Mag-Lev train to the airport in 2 days!!!!!!
