So I went to China. Was it a sweet vacation? Yes. Why you ask? 1, China. 2, visiting my best friend since I was four or so, Andy and 3 - PAID VACATION. So I suppose this is my photo blog of China. Which just sounds really lame when you put it like that... Anyway, this is my very first picture. Just a bunch of Asians in an airport right? What makes this photo worthy, Evan? Um the lack of white people. Particularly a specific one - Andy. Due to lies by the internets, a kink in the tube no doubt, Andy was fooled into thinking my flight was 2 hours delayed. So basically, I was alone in Beijing with no Chinese and no way to contact my only familiar face in several thousand miles. And that, my friends is an instant worth photodocumenting. I was a bit nervous.
However, after some hilarious attempts at trying to pantomine "Intercom System" so I could page Andy in case he just wasn't at the right gate...I found my way to a computer and used the magic of google to get a correct cell phone number for him (the internets had lied to me too...) and call him. The adventure had begun! And there he is, strolling through the doors! Good to see you, Andy!!
After some travels and travails (including Andy our arguing a Chinese cabbie...in Chinese!) We make our way from Beijing to Shanghai..were we stay in a Hostel with this poster. No, I don't have any idea either.
The next day, we touristed around Shanghai - seeing the sights, taking way too many pictures of the sights, and generally having a grand old time. Here's a shot of the skyline across the river, from the aforementioned vampiric hostel. The famous Pearl TV tower, the can opener building of incredible height (set to be the tallest in the world, I believe), and the river separating our hostel from that part of the city.
Here's a close up of those two crazy tall buildings. What you can't see is Andy sprawled on the sidewalk to get this shot. Or the old lady behind him doing tai chi with a cool sword. Old women + swords = awesome.
After exploring the surface of Shanghai, we went underground into... the TOURIST BUND VISITOR SIGHT SEEING TUNNEL. Um. This is the descent into it. Picture something like Epcot...except about underground stuff (Lava! Dinosaurs! Water!)...but even more tacky. Pictures cannot possible capture. But I'll try anyway...
Lava!
Water!
...Ok enough of that. Anyway, the tunnel led to a few other exhibits. And hidden among them was this..the "first exhibition in 5000 thousand years" of its kind. Of what kind, you ask? I will not say. However it was guarded by a Hear/See/Speak No Evil monkey statue - so just know it was awesome.
Then of course was a night out on the town. See some sights, enjoy some food, make some friends, whatever. This is that same sky line after dark - you can't see much of the can opener because it is under construction, but believe me it's tall.
See? New friends? Yeah...I have nothing to say.
And old friends. Yeah. We coo.
The next day, we went to the park. These people were relaxing on a bench, playing their musical instruments and singing. Interestingly, they were not all singing/playing the same song. Nor were the song complimentary or similar in any way. Odd, but fun to watch. Later, we would see two girls have a similar musical battle via cellphone speaker - ah the generational divide.
Speaking of kids, these little ones were playing in the park on skates. They were exceptionally cute. One fell down.
Equally cute (or not) were these nice pig heads on the street. Yes, just two pig heads. Chillin on the street. Yup, I took a picture.
This is a cool shot because there's so much going on. An asian lion statue. A littered box of american cigarettes. A white guy txting. And said white guy is wearing a shirt that says "Foreigner" in Mandarin. Its kinda cool.
When it was time to leave Shanghai for Chengdu, we got to ride the MagLev. Some people chose to film the entire accelaration sequence (about 5 minutes), and I admit I took a lot of pictures. But I'll just post the top speed here - 431 kmh. That's fast. Really fast - and so smooth. How fast is that in a "real," "logical" measurement system - I don't know. I don't even know what it is in miles. Just fast.
After the maglev, we grabbed a plane to Chengdu, where Andy lives and studies. In the more rural areas of China, Sichuan kind of being one I suppose...not really but whatever, people aren't so good at planes and airports yet. For example, as soon as the plane touches the ground they are out of their seats and shoving to get to the door of the plane. Gives the stewardesses fits, lemme tell you. Turns out subways and planes are different. They also get very impatient waiting for their bags. Despite the cage trying to block this off, we in fact saw a guy look through the flaps to find his bag faster. He must have seen it, because he then got on the conveyor belt AND RODE ON THROUGH!!!! I was just a bit too slow to capture this magical moment - but it was awesome. Wow.
Andy's room in Chengdu. Giant country. Big apartment. Itty bitty room. Lots of french roommates (between that and the bad chinese plumbing it was kinda funky smelling...).
The best thing about his apartment is the balcony. Its several hundred square feet of garden and picnic table with a good view of the city. Rather than showing pictures of the view, I'm posting the dart board they had on the wall...I use the past tense as it was unfortunately unable to stand up to my ninja-like dart throwing abilitites...Man (board) down.
That night, we went to the Bookworm - a local hangout for expats, foreign students, and people who speak English. So, in the spirit of a bookstore/bar/cafe/library - Andy and I nerded out and played Scrabble. I won. 7 letter word - BUGLIST. You may be looking at that and saying, "Hmm...that doesn't look like a real word..." and maybe you are right...um I lie a lot when I play Scrabble - be forewarned. What? It's a legal word until someone challenges it...
We continued the nerdy trend the next day. We went explore in an awesome temple complex and found a group of old men playing chess! They were in a really cool temple complex - incense, dragons, statues, the works. And old men with Chinese chess!
See, incense? Dragons? Some sort of lady and the tramp donut/spaghetti/thing?
Then we met up with one of Andy's good friends, who works at the Panda Research Center. See her back! We walked around the Panda compound for a while and guess what we saw!!
Pandas!! Ok well these are little red raccoon panda things. They kinda look like foxes. Or red raccoons. But they are pandas!
Now there's a real panda! Isn't it cute! Yes. Yes it is. And boy can those things eat! And they are kinda lazy...In fact, pandas seem to have only 3 modes. This is eating.
Yup, still eating. Tummy Yummy!
Mode 2 - sleeping. It's that face plant kind of sleeping. The best kind.
This is one is tree sitting. It's very ewok. In fact, I think Pandas are actually ewoks. Of course, tree sitting is not the third Panda mode - it's just crazy cute. Anyway, I'm not showing any pictures of the third mode. They didn't show ewoks doing that, now did they! let's just say bamboo is a lot of fiber, and if you eat that much fiber...well you get it.
And that's what the Pandas have to say. Yeah. take that. Otherwise they'll blow the crap out of your imperial jungle walker things.
Later that day, I took a picture of a door. Isn't it nice? It was the door to a "Traditional Street." So they sold lots of tourist stuff and had some fountains and architecture.
Look a fountain! Ok it's a stone vat. But there's fish and money in it! And yes...asians throw paper money in fountains...
And see? Architechture. And those asian lanterns...
Sorry, that last one wasn't a very good shot of the architechture. There we go - now you can see it. Much better.
On the street there was a guy at a booth. For $1.25, you got to shoot a rapid fire crossbow. Apparently its a traditional Mongolian thing. yeah. That's my aiming face. It was suprisingly easy to aim...but you had to constantly resist the urge to just fire as fast as possible. Twang Twang Twang Twang!!
Later, we went to a real market - this is where Andy spends his official Fulbright Scholar Time. He's studying bargaining interactions in the pseudo antiquities markets - its pretty cool stuff. Not many white people.
I like asian doors.
Just kind of a cool shot of a corner of the market. That's Andy! Please note - his outfit may look the same as in previous pictures - but its definitely 2 days later. I think I brought more changes of clothes than he did...
Hmm..these stone troughs are everywhere! Real antique or fake antique? You be the judge! (Fake)
And here we have Andy in one of the flea market like stalls. This makes top 10 best pictures ever taken of Andy. The government spent millions of dollars researching signs to put around nuclear storage facilities that would last long enough and still be intepretable to future peoples - they could just post this picture. It pretty clearly says "Stay the heck* away from my lucky charms." * - censored by China. or something.
Later tha night, I made friends with a bartender. In exchange for a free drink, I taught her "the most popular western dance ever." The electric slide? The macerna? The bump and grind? Oh no - the white boy shuffle. Heckkkkkkkk yeah.
This is one of Andy's friends who just became a bartender at the same bar - he wasn't good at opening bottles yet.
And this is the girlfriend of one of Andy's friends (the manager of the Bookworm, actually). And she proved, once and for all, that leprachauns may be irish...but... um...darn she's cute!
And then...we went to Beijing. This is the entrance to the Forbidden City - Tiannamen Square at night. This was just at the beginning of the Tibetan stuff, so we couldn't actually get in the square at this point.
But, the next day - they let us in the Forbidden City! It's so huge.
This is an amazing jade carving/relief of many many dragons. It was really amazing. Eloquent, I know.
If I were super rich, revered, and owned a country I too would have super intricate ceilings.
And hopefully people would bring me cool things! This is some sort of map of the stars - I don't know how it works, but its solid gold and old and incredibly intricate.
And here is another cool dragon carving. If you look closely, the bodies going to a hole and the heads come out another hole on the other side...Ancient Chinese wormholes!!
And a picture of me chillaxing in front of the Lions guarding one of the inner gates of the Forbidden City. Wearing a duck tape shirt.
And then we had one final adventure - Climbing the Great Wall. It's just...amazing. It hugs the ridge of the mountain so that you can never be above it, and it just goes on and on. Truly awe-inspiring.
I really like this picture - the wall is so incredible.
After a few more poses like that, we began to actually climb the Wall. It's steep.
Really steep. And sometimes the steps aren't that great.
Steep + crappy steps = CRAB WALKING THE GREAT WALL!! I knew those years of martial arts training doing weird calisthenics would pay off...
So when I say climb the Great Wall - I mean it, yo.
Not everyone was hardcore enough to manage it on their own. These kids were actually pretty baller though. They were the only other people who hiked this whole section - but sometimes the girlfriend got tired. So her boyfriend carried her. Yeah. SUPER whipped.
Yeah...I'm not sure why I felt the urge to sprint up this section of the wall at a 30+ degree grade. But I did. I might have been singing Eye of the Tiger pretty loud too...maybe.
Victory! ADDDDRRRRIIIIAAAANNNNN!!!! wrong part of the movie, sorry.
So, later, Andy decided to play the part of the mongols attacking the Wall. He vaulted through this window of the guard house and came charging at me.
Mongol warriors used clubs - not just rapid fire crossbows, apparently.
Attack! Charge! Run away! This is up at one of the highest points of this section - where we paused to eat lunch.
Mighty Mongol warriors should watch their headsy-weds.
So we kept climbing along the Wall...and then we got to this section. We thought the asian couple wouldn't follow us down this rock climbing bit - but they did.
And then the path got really bad. In fact there wasnt much path - just Wall with loose rocks and scrub. And eventually we figured out why...we were supposed to stop walking way down at the bottom of that valley. So we sorta hiked a bit illegally. Ah well - it was an awesome view!
And finally, before we admitted defeat and went home victorious - we made our mark upon the Wall. These loose rocks had originally made some hearts and other junk like that - we co-opted them to spell the Chinese characters for USA! And, after all that, it was time to go home. It was an amazing trip - I had so much fun hanging out with my best friend and getting to enjoy an exotic locale with amazing sights made it all the better. Such a great time - hope you all enjoyed some of the pictures!
