Beginning of China Trip

So what’s been happening lately? Well actually a lot. At the time I’m writing this, I’m about 2 days into my trip. On Thursday night, we had our farewell dinner. We had hot pot. Not too special, but the fact that everyone in my lab was together was quite great. I will miss Yu Jianjun (my mentor), Nan Kai (the PI), Dr. Liu (another PI), Kevin (someone I took as my mentor haha), and Sun Yuanhua. At the dinner though, it was quite funny. For some reason or another, Nan Kai (my PI) asked me about the iPhone. So we got into a whole discussion that I got to say I was fully happy to talk about, since I guess I am an Apple fanatic. I don’t quite think that has anything to do with me having invested about $7k in the company. Anyways, it was also quite funny that Nan Kai and Dr. Liu both commented that I’m just like a kid. I’ve heard this many times, but I got to say that I take this with pride, since I’ve always thought that I should always keep my kid-like spirit kindled within me. As they say in the famous old Toys ‘R ‘Us song, I don’t wanna grow up. I’m a Toys ‘R ‘Us kid… So anyways, Friday was my last day at work. I actually came into work to finish on my final presentation that I’ve been working on for a week then, write a paper, finish some way overdue PRIME things, and see if I could get the job script that I’ve been working on for about 4 weeks finally working so that it would be finished when I got back to the U.S. But obviously, I didn’t get the job script working, and I just went home later rushed to clean-up my apartment and leave rather abruptly.

So I was quite happy to leave Beijing. I got to say, Beijing was driving me crazy since I always felt like it was a really boring city. Also, the beginning of my trip would have symbolized the beginning of my venture to what I would like to call my “home land” Shanghai. I will finally be able to understand people there, since learning from this experience, shanghainese is extremely different from regular-old mandarin. So I got to say, the prospect of backpacking across China is both daunting and exciting. In the middle of this trip though, the whole experience has been all but positive.

So Friday night, I took an overnight train to Xi’an to see the Terracotta statues. I got a 4-person soft sleeper going there. The people in the top bunks in our cabin were taking there son to college in Xi’an. Well, when the attendant lady came by to get our tickets, she laughed outright when I was talking to Lynn in English. Apparently, a lot of people do this when I talk in English, and I’ve never understood why. Anyways, the train ride itself was quite pleasant. It was hard to go to sleep at first, but when I got in the rhythm of the train, I was knocked out cold.

When we got to Xi’an, what was the first thing that happened? Well, I got hustled. A bunch of people just started following me and started trying to hustle me to try to go with them somewhere or something like that. I got to say, it was quite annoying. Another thing was that immediately I just started seeing a bunch of people puking all over the place. So what did this mean to me? Don’t eat the food there. Haha Getting back the story, Lynn and I just started walking around Xi’an looking to where we could drop off our luggage. Took us about 30 min. to make a loop back to the train station to drop off our luggage. I got to say that was quite funny. Then it took us about 15 min. to find how to get to the Terracotta statues. Took a bus there for 45 minutes. And finally … we go to the Terracotta statues! Walked around into the pits where they were unearthed. There were 3 pits. I got to say that I was quite impressed, especially in real life. Apparently, when the Terracotta statues were made, about 200 B.C., the Chinese had chromium plating technology to prevent corrosion of their metals. They said that when they found the pits, the swords were in near perfect condition. Then the statues were pretty cool … obviously. Here’s some pictures of me and the statues having some special time together.


Here's some pictures of one of the three pits of statues . That's a lot of statues. Don't you think?
After we went into the pits to see the statues, we had a lunch buffet there. The food was okay, but nothing special. The most important part … the food was safe and no puking. From what I noticed, most of the people that went to this attraction all came in large tourist groups. I thought that was quite interesting.

After the statues, we went to the train station to pick-up our luggage. On the way back to the train station though, we visited Egypt in China. Got to see the sphinx and a Gaza pyramid. Don't believe me? Well look, I can prove it!

We then went to the airport. The airport was quite nice. A pretty small airport, but nice enough. An interesting thing though was that at the gate, they drove us all in a bus to the plane. There was not walkway to the place. The plane ride I got to say was comparable if not better than a standard domestic flight in the U.S. Also, this was my first time ever flying in an Airbus place – specifically the Airbus 310 – which is made by a French company.

So when we got to Chengdu, there was an immediate difference in the city. First, the people that usually hustle you were actually nice. If you just tell them that you don’t want there service, they’ll usually go away. Second, the people in Chengdu were a lot better looking. Before coming here, everyone in Beijing told me that the women here in Chengdu were beautiful. I got to say, that when I heard this I was skeptical. But now, I can see what they’re talking about. Apparently, the facial complexions and skin tone in Chengdu are a lot better. It was ridiculous! And the people here freaking had style! Style in clothes I mean. Finally, some people with style! Third, no one really honks here unless necessary, and there were a LOT LESS cars on the road. People for the most part obeyed a lot more of the traffic laws here. Well, when we got to our hotel, and the hotel room I feel is better than my apartment in Beijing, even though it’s only a 3 star hotel. The full-size table that they have here converts into a mah-jong (shanghainese → moo-jang) table, which I thought was quite cool.

The next day, we went to Le Shan. Took us a 42 RMB bus ride to Le Shan for about 2 hours + what we didn’t know was a 1 RMB insurance thing . Then took a 1 RMB bus ride in Le Shan to the Da Fu (“big luck”), or what we foreigners would like to call the Big Buddha. It took 70 RMB to get in there, but I got to say that it was expensive, and nothing all that great.

While walking in the area, we got to see a lot of scenery. Like after it was raining, there were a bunch of these caterpillars all over the ground.
Here's a pagoda that they had in the park.
Here’s some pictures of me and the Big Buddha.

Sad to say, I wasn’t literally able to climb the Big Buddha like I would have liked. Also, the humidity was killing me! The whole time I was sweating like crazy, and I was never thirsty. I had to force myself to drink some water. And I got to see a bunch of these crazy caterpillars on the ground. They were just falling out of the trees after it rained.

Came back to Chengdu after that and ate the hot pot. The hot pot here was crazy! It was so hot! I eat a lot of hot food, and I got to say, that this was unbearable, but good nonetheless. After that, came back to the hotel room and here I am. Tomorrow, I go to see the pandas. Whoopie!