The Best 100 RNB I've Ever Spent.

Yesterday in Hangzhou it was 136,4875 degrees with 1,967,083 per cent humidity; perfect weather for a long day of outdoor sight seeing with crowds of people.

 My original plan was to do head to a temple to do a bit of hiking and walking around with a friend that I met at the hostel, so after breakfast, determined to persevere,  we headed off the bus stop that would take us to our destination.

Two blocks later found us standing at the bus station, sweating bullets, fanning ourselves with a map of the city. Five minutes after that we saw our bus pull up. A bus without air conditioning. A bus that was jam-packed with other sweaty tourists and crying babies. We looked at each other. No freaking way.

“I would kill for a swimming pool.”

“Agreed. I would literally do anything to go for a swim right now.”

After a bit of Google-ing and quick call from the concierge at our hostel, we managed to track down a 5-star hotel in Hangzhou that had an outdoor swimming pool that we could pay to use for the day. For 100 RNB (about $15 USD) we could use their facilities. Perfect.

Tanning and swimming are not very popular activities in Asia. Having tan skin traditionally is associated with working manual labor outdoors, and is thus, undesirable. Stores here are stocked with lotions and creams that have whitening products in them. Women walk around with umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun. So when we arrived at the pool, it was empty. Literally empty. Zero people. A huge pool, cabanas with lounge chairs, and a cloudless blue sky, situated on a rooftop far away from the chaos and noise of the city streets.

For 100 RNB, we rented ourselves a private pool on a rooftop terrace at a five-star hotel. It was a lovely afternoon.

Hangzhou in Pictures

 School’s out for the summer and I’ve started my travels in Hangzhou. Hangzhou is a major Chinese tourist destination, a couple hours south west of Shanghai. It is famed for the beautiful “West Lake” and its stunning scenery. Here are a few pictures from my time in Hangzhou.

Wow! That’s an Awesome Subaru!

Wow! That's an Awesome Subaru! When's the last time you heard somebody exclaim that without sarcasm? The answer you're looking for is "never."

 

Now let me be clear, (he-he), I have nothing against Subarus. I'll even go as far as saying that they seem like a fairly cool car… However, in no universe is the Subaru on the same level as a BMW, Mercedes, or Maserati. Except perhaps in China?

 

I was walking down the road and I had to do a double take at the luxury car display that was set up for Dragon Boat Festival; directly between the BMW exhibit and the Mercedes exhibit sat a lovely trio of hatchback Subarus. Z4. 6 Series Convertible. X5. 7 Series. S Class Convertible. Maserati GranTurismo. Subaru Forester?

 

Ummm… okay.

 

Upon further examination, it turns out that a hatchback Subaru costs roughly as much as a 5 series BMW does in China. And that's significantly more than it costs in the good old US of A.

 

Is the Subaru the next luxury brand car? Is this some bizarre import tax and brand positioning gone awry? Have I been abducted and transported to some bizarre alternate dimension? Perhaps I am just living in a village in China where bizarre and unexplainable things happen every day for no apparent reason....

My Daily Brush With Death

Every time I leave my apartment here in the village I am risking my life. If you’re confused, see my previous blogs on the traffic and driving here. My brush with death today came in the form of a scooter/bicycle collision only inches in front of me.

As I walked out of the school gates, I took the usual precautions. Look left. Look right. Look diagonally. Look up. Pray. Repeat. As I saw no traffic, I stepped bravely onto the sidewalk. The Chinese dude on the bike leaving the store next to me obviously didn’t see the scooter either.

BAM! Homeboy on a scooter materializes out of thin air and t-bones the guy on the bike, who goes flying a good couple feet.

I watch in abject horror as the driver of the scooter begins to yell at the biker. Which makes total sense of course; we were all on the sidewalk… Clearly a scooter has the right of way. And not the part of the sidewalk here that people use for parking where the culpable party could be debatable. Sidewalk that you have to go up 3 stairs to walk on. Which means that this guy had to make a concerted effort to get his scooter up there.

Thankfully everyone was okay. But it scared the hell out of me. And I was definitely awake before I had my coffee.

Four Seasons Clay Pot Rice.

I know I already blogged about Hong Kong, but this deserves its own blog. Four Seasons Pot Rice restaurant on Arthur Street in Yau Ma Tei is one of those places that you crave.

I have a few of those places scattered about the globe; L'As Du Falafel pitas in Paris, Doc's Beach House pizza in Bonita Springs, Ajo Als chimichangas and chips and salsa in Scottsdale, Edoardo's goat cheese salad in Grand Cayman, delicate-thin pancakes with maple butter from the Mandarin Oriental in Honolulu, Nutella and banana crepes from the Winter Park Farmers Market. And the oyster omelet and clay pot rice from Four Seasons Clay Pot Rice in Hong Kong.

The oyster omelet is a deliciously crispy duck egg omelet mixed with tiny oysters and green onions that is deep fried and served with a spicy chili sauce. The clay pot rice is just like it sounds… rice and your choice of meat in a clay pot that is baked over a fire and served scorching hot. You then carefully use your chopsticks to lift the lid and douse your rice with a bit of soy sauce before covering it back up to sit for a few minutes. The rice gets crunchy and a little burnt at the bottom. It's DELICIOUS. I mean really, really, really good.

If you are ever in Hong Kong, you must go there. You won't be disappointed.

Hong Kong in Pictures

Hong Kong has an energy. The moment you step off the plane, you can literally feel the city.

This past week, I took a break from the village to visit some friends in Hong Kong, do some shopping, and eat some great food.

Hong Kong has everything. Great food, enormous shopping malls, rooftop bars overlooking the harbor, and warm, sunny weather.

If you're hungry, you can find delicious Indian food, Thai food, American food, Italian food, Japanese food, Dim Sum, food from every region of China, diet coke with a real lime, street food, Michelin star restaurants, and everything in between.

If you're thirsty, take the elevator up to the 30^th floor of just about any building along the water and sip a glass of wine while you watch as every building on the harbor is lit up in a neon symphony of lights each night around 8 pm. (Plus, if you're at a bar, you miss the cheesy music that accompanies the lights. The guy who thought of the light show = genius. The person who picked the music that plays in the harbor during the show = not so much.)

 

If you feel the urge to shop you can swing by a market to do some bargaining on some cheap souvenirs or you can take a stroll down the Golden mile and spend all your cash (and max out your credit cards) at Chanel, Gucci, and Prada. Not to mention the hundreds of mega shopping malls scattered about the city.

 

When the city gets too much for you, hop a bus out to Stanley and chill out at a café along the water or walk the promenade along the beach.

If that's not enough to convince you of Hong Kong's awesomeness, the city is also home to a fair amount of westerners, most with adorable British accents. J

It's a lovely place. Without a doubt the most fantastic place I've ever visited. I think I'm going to try to find a job there.

Here are a few pictures from my week.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost.

I'm sorry I haven't blogged lately. I've been busy finishing up the semester at school. Today was my last day of teaching (middle school) for a while… I'm off for just over two months for summer vacation, which I plan to spend backpacking around China, so get ready for some epic blogs! Traveling always results in interesting adventures J

 

I still have my adult classes to teach on Tuesday's until the end of June, so I'm pretty much going to lay low in the village and perhaps take a few short trips until I'm done with that. I'm headed to visit some friends in Hong Kong June 14-16^th and likely to Nanjing for a couple of days before the end of June if the spirit moves me.

 

Of course, this is all subject to change at a moments notice, but here's my general plan for the rest of the summer:

 

The real adventure begins in July. Armed with my summer traveling bonus, a backpack, and the Lonely Planet guide to China, I'm taking a high-speed train from Shanghai to Beijing to meet up with some fellow English teachers for a whirlwind tour of China. Of course I'll start with the tourist thing and check out the requisite sites of Beijing: The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, The Summer Palace, The Great Wall, etc. and eat some Beijing Duck. I also hope to meet up with a few Rollins friends that live in the city!

 

The next few months will be a whirlwind of $5/night hostel dorms, crowded bus rides, street food, ancient cities, and overnight train rides.  From Beijing, I will head to Datong, Pingyao, and Xi'an to see some ancient walled cities, antediluvian caves, hanging monasteries, and of course, the infamous Terracotta Warriors.

 

After Xi'an, I'll take a train to Chengdu to check out the Giant Pandas (and hopefully get my picture with one) and indulge in some Sichuan hot pot. This region is known for its spicy food! Yay!

 

From Chengdu I'll head to the Yunnan province in the south to take a break from big city life. This province is known for its fantastic scenery. The plan is to check out the Stone Forest outside of Kunming, buy some tie-dye in the hippie backpacker haven of Dali, and go trekking through Tiger Leaping Gorge.

 

Following Yunnan, I will be off to beautiful Guilin and Yangshuo to do some bamboo rafting down the Li River, and biking  through the countryside amongst the rice fields and karst landscape.

 

After that, I'm off to explore Hangzhou, Suzhou, Tongli, Zhujiajiao, a region famous for ancient canals, beautiful gardens, lakes, and temples.

 

Mid-August will find me in Qingdao, home to Chinese Beer Tsingtao, for a few days at the International Beer Festival. After that, time and money permitting, I hope to take a flight out west to Urumqi, to check out the desert and maybe do some Camel riding along the Ancient Silk Road.

 

I'll be back in the village, exhausted and broke, by September first, just in time for the beginning of the fall semester.

 

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." – St. Augustine

Just The Facts Ma'am.

The past few weeks I've been working on my final exams with my students. The exam is as follows: a one minute speech on either (1) your best friend, (2) your favorite sports and hobbies, or (3) your summer holiday. All relatively easy topics that we've covered in my past classes.

 

I gave all the students a week to prepare and then we started the exam. Let me start by saying it was a bizarre experience. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I got was definitely not it.

 

Each student is assigned a number, rather than alphabetical order, which is not really possible with Chinese Characters. What I got was basically an assembly line of speeches.

 

In numerical order, the students obediently filed to the front of the class and began to recite, from memory, a highly unoriginal speech about their best friend Jack or Mary, which I later discovered was copied almost word for word from their English book.

 

"My Best Friend. My best friend is named Jack. He is the tallest boy in our class. He is almost 1.75 meters tall. He has short black hair and black eyes. Jack has poor eyesight so he always wears a pair of glasses. They make him look smart. Jack has a good sense of humor. He always makes me laugh. I never feel bored or unhappy when he is with me. Jack and I may not get to see each other often, but we will always be best friends."

 

"My Best Friend. My best friend is named Mary. She has shoulder length hair and bright smiling eyes. They make her look kind. Mary is a nice girl. She is always willing to give her seat on the bus to someone in need. Mary wants to be a social worker when she grows up. I think she will be a good social worker. She is a good listener and she always helps me with my problems. Mary can keep a secret. I think we will be best friends until the end."

 

I have 900 students. Approximately 95% of them recited some variation of this speech. I would bet big money that my speeches above are over 90% similar to what my students have in their English textbooks.

 

This is not only okay, it is expected. Even some of my best students recited this garbage (although their pronunciation and fluidity was far superior). Extra points to the students who attempted to insert their actual best friend's name into the mix.

 

After about 10 of these speeches I had to adjust my grading scale. 80 points for just attempting to speak (It's scary to stand up in front of a room of 50 people and try to speak a foreign language). 85 for reciting the best friend speech. Plus or minus points for pronunciation, length, and attempting to add original content.

 

Students who attempted the "Summer Holiday" or "My Favorite Sports and Hobbies" speeches unsurprisingly did much better… Likely because they must have been much more confident in their English skills to venture that far out of the box.

 

The Chinese education system is largely focused on the memorization of facts. Originality and creativity are not much of a concern. And these kids memorize a lot of facts. My average student spends about 10+ hours a day at school or at home studying. If there was an international contest on who could recite anything that can be easily memorized, the Chinese would win hands down.

 

Originality, creative thinking, and explaining these memorized facts in your own words is probably a different story. If the Chinese figure out how to teach their kids to think for themselves, the rest of the world will definitely be answering to them.