Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?

I just spent 6 incredible days in China and after only 2 more days I’ll be in Japan. Life is good! On top of that the entire world is celebrating our new president and I couldn’t be happier. China was the country I was most excited for; it had the most sites I wanted to see, but was a place I was fairly certain I would never travel to on my own without the opportunity of Semester at Sea.

China was the first of two ports, the second being Japan, where the ship docks twice in one country. Students have the option of getting back on the ship and traveling by sea to the next port, or remaining on land and making their way to the ship’s new location on their own. I didn’t want to waste a single day. We docked the first day in Hong Kong, and met back up with the ship in Shanghai. I spent a day in Hong Kong, 4 days in Beijing, and a day in Shanghai.

After a succession of third-world countries, Hong Kong was quite the sight. I think we had all forgotten what skyscrapers looked like. This was also the first port where I had absolutely no plans or even an idea of what to do. My friends and I just decided to explore the city. Some of them needed to buy train tickets, so we got that accomplished and then went for the all-important lunch; it doesn’t matter how early the ship is cleared, food is always the first priority because even with only two days at sea we’re all so sick of ship food. We found this hole in the wall Chinese restaurant where we were the only white people. Luckily the menu also had English, so we weren’t ordering completely blindly. I had some delicious noodles, but a lot of people were disappointed with the food this country because it bears so little resemblance to what we think of as Chinese food. After lunch we walked the streets looking for a market. Our map had sections marked as shopping, but it turns out these were all malls with lots of boutiques and designer stores – definitely not what we were expecting or interested in after weeks spent haggling in markets. We stumbled upon one little market in an alley, but that was it. At night we treated ourselves to a really nice dinner in one of the hotels overlooking the waterfront for the light show (all the buildings have neon lights that they flash in patterns). It was nice to have a fancy meal for a change, although I did love all my $3 meals; it was especially nice because the ATM only let me take out a minimum of 500 Hong Kong dollars (around $60) and I only had one day to spend it all! After dinner we got some Haggen Daaz. I can’t even begin to say how much I miss desert. The fruit we get in most of these countries just doesn’t cut it for me, and the ship’s deserts are lots of cakes with no icing, which is worthless.


The second day I left for Beijing. I went on a SAS trip to explore the city and also interact with some students from Tsinghua University, where we stayed. The first day was mostly travel – you have to put in a LOT of cushion time at the airport when you’re checking in 70 students all at once. When we arrived one of the students gave us a brief lecture on the sites we would be seeing that week; my one complaint about this trip was that 15 minute lecture was basically the only tour information we received the entire trip. One of the main reasons I signed up for big SAS trips was for the tour guide; this trip, I guess since it was arranged through the university, they just dropped us of at the sites and told us to meet back up in 2 hours. I really missed learning in-depth about the places I was seeing, because the tour guides on my other trips have been really informative. Anyways, after the lecture we went to dinner. All our meals this trip were family-style with a lazy susan. This first meal was special because we got Peking Duck, which was delicious. I’m becoming quite the chopsticks expert, although they still look at me like I’m doing it all wrong; it’s working for me though!

The third day started at the Great Wall! We climbed the Juyongguan section. So impressive. And so tiring! I didn’t even make it to the top of the section we were at, and I was exhausted. It’s so packed with people, and the pathways widened and narrow randomly (c’mon ancient architects, what were you thinking?) making it really difficult to keep a steady pace. Plus the steps are all different sizes, and, once again, giant sized compared to my legs. But the view is incredible. It’s autumn in China now, so there were lots of multi-colored leaves which was nice after lots of tropical countries. But it also meant it was freezing! We were not prepared for 50 degree weather coming from Vietnam. Even Hong Kong was in the 80s! I got stopped again to have my picture taken with a Chinese lady; lots of SAS kids had bought fur-flap hats with Communist stars on them that made them really popular to take pictures with, but I’m proud that I stood out without a silly hat :P Climbing back down was even harder. Our knees were jelly at the end, and our noses were numb. So of course we warmed up with some shopping, getting the requisite “I climbed the Great Wall” t-shirt.

After lunch, we changed our schedule around a bit and went to see the pandas! Now, I’ve seen pandas before, but never in China, which obviously makes them much cooler pandas. It was naptime for all the giant pandas; but of course, when is it not nap time for pandas, except when it’s meal time? They were so adorable though. After the pandas we went to meet up with some of the University students. This was definitely not what we expected. They took us to a basketball court where all the students were playing with their friends and basically said “Mingle!” Some guys tried joining a basketball game but ended up just taking over the court, which was embarrassing to watch. But it all worked out in the end and some students started playing basketball together, and they had other students come to give the non-athletic like myself tours of the campus. I got a tour from a freshman English major named Stella – her English name that we can pronounce and spell. It was really interesting to hear the differences between our school systems. Tsinghua University is one of the top schools in China, and has more selective admissions than MIT. So, you can imagine with no surprise that most of the students’ weekends are spent in the library. Stella showed us around her dorm; 4 students live in a room. Each wall has two beds with no space in between and desks and drawers underneath. They also share a common area with a room next-door, but it is a lot smaller than what we’re used to and still complain about. Plus they have to swipe their ID card and pay for water to shower! Stella explained to us the Chinese university admissions process; everyone has to take a test, their version of the SATs but much more difficult, that universities use to decide admittance. But there is another route, which she took, to just interview with the university, and if you get accepted you don’t have to take the entrance exam. Another interesting difference is their major is decided for them; after the interview the university tells students if they’ve been accepted, but they are only accepted if they study a certain major. Stella showed us around campus and then we met up with the rest of the group for dinner at one of the university canteens. The meal was definitely a cafeteria-version of Chinese food, aka not all that good. A lot of SAS kids went out at night because we had a surprising amount of free-time for an SAS trip, but I could never bring myself to go back out into the cold. And each trip inevitably ended with an hour driving around the campus because 1) the taxi drivers don’t speak English and 2) they had no idea where our guest house was. I was much happier snug under my comforter.

The fourth day we started the morning at Tian’anmen and the Forbidden City. The mass of people there was just incredible. Now I understand why Chinese tourist groups always have a leader with a flag – it’s impossible to tour China without one, and yes we too had a flag and our group still got separated. Walking through the square into the Forbidden City you pass through gate after gate, the first with the infamous picture of Chairman Mao front and center. The Forbidden City was the Emperor’s home for nearly 5 centuries, up until the Qing Dynasty. Now, it can’t go unsaid that the imperial Chinese architecture is absolutely gorgeous. But it is also very repetitive. Especially when the Forbidden City is just a series of gates and courts and palaces that are all very similar in design. Plus there was always a crowd at the blockades to view inside the palaces, and the Chinese are very pushy, so it was near impossible to see inside. After lunch we went to visit the Temple of Heaven. Again, you see one imperial Chinese building, you’ve seen ‘em all. Not that it wasn’t a neat place to explore also, just very similar buildings. The Temple of Heaven has some neat things inside. The Circular Mound Altar is a stone circle in the middle of a raised platform where the emperor used to make his prayers for good weather because he was closer to the gods there. In the next court there is the Echo Wall, a round wall that you can hear whispers from the other side of the wall resound. Unfortunately they have put up a barricade that makes it impossible to get close enough to the wall to make it work. The main building, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, is particularly impressive because it is made entirely out of wood, but with no nails. Quite a feat considering it is 125 feet tall. The highlight of this site was the old woman that came up behind me, looped her arm through mine and pulled me in front of a building to take a picture. No one’s ever around when these things happen to take a picture with my camera, though!

After sight-seeing, we went to the Silk Market for our shopping time. The name is deceiving, because this place sells everything under the sun, from your fake bags to your fake jeans to your fake jackets to your fake sunglasses to your fake shoes to your fake shirts to your pirated DVDs. And some real pearls thrown in for funsies. Some people went absolutely nuts in there. I was one of the reasonable ones, and I came out with a peacoat, a pair of knit Uggs, and two pairs of pearl studs. Bargaining here was intense; take my jacket: she started the price at $Y 2800. I ended up getting her down to $Y250, and that was mostly because I thought I would never be able to get her down to a price I could afford but she just wouldn’t let me leave. Once she started getting low enough for my liking and I actually started bargaining she kept saying “Oh, you so tough! You like Chinese! Why you so tough?” I probably could have gotten her even lower, but I am more than content. From there we went to the acrobatics show! It was so incredible. The things these people can do are absolutely mind-blowing. You had your contortionists and guys on balance boards balancing on top of other guys on balance boards. Ten girls riding on one bicycle. Tumblers jumping through rings. Plate spinners. And all of this done at a level you never would believe possible. Our jaws were to the ground the entire time.

Our final day in Beijing we went to the Summer Palace in the morning. The Summer Palace was built by an emperor who supposedly was jealous of the gardens of Suzhou and wanted one for himself, but if he came out and said that he wouldn’t be allowed to build it. So he played on familial respect and told everyone he wanted to build it in honor of his mother’s 60th birthday, and they couldn’t deny him. The grounds are quite the maze, and we got quite lost. It’s built alongside a lake, and one of the stand-out features is the Marble Boat, which, obviously, does not float, but has quite the presence on the lakefront. All of these Chinese historical sites are also used by the Chinese public as parks, so around each exit you see men playing hacky sack, women ribbon dancing, and, my favorite, dozens of Chinese men and women line dancing. After lunch was the moment we were all waiting for: the Olympic stadiums. I realize this might sound ridiculous after all these incredible historical sites, which we appreciated, but the Olympic stadiums just had an appeal for us that the others did not. Just over two months ago we sat around our TVs and watched incredible things taking place in the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest, and now we were there! And we got to go inside! All three big stadiums, including the National Arena where gymnastics took place, were located right alongside each other. The Water Cube was a lot smaller than I imagined. The two competition pools, for diving and racing, were actually in the same arena, which none of us ever expected. The racing pool was full of lights for a show, which was a bit disappointing, but the diving pool was full. Those were the only two pools besides the warm-up pool. The rd’s Nest, however, was just as big as it seemed, and I would know, since we had to walk almost the entire way around to get in. I got to sit in the stands, lie down in the middle, and put my feet on the track. Too cool. In the center they had all the costumes from the Opening Ceremony displayed; they look even funnier up close. It was just such a surreal moment being there. Now I can be tricky and say I was in Beijing in 2008! Afterwards we headed to the airport to fly to Shanghai. In Shanghai, everyone on our trip pretty much stampeded towards the buses so they could sit in the front and be first off and first on the ship. It was pretty embarrassing to watch them dart past Chinese families with their giant backpackers bags flying everywhere. I knew no matter what there would be a line to get back on the ship, so I was in no rush.

Today (well, technically yesterday at this time of night) I had an FDP that lasted literally all-day, from 7:30 am to on-ship time at 6 pm. In case I haven’t explained it yet, FDPs are short for Faculty Directed Practicum; they are trips that anyone can take, but are especially designed to go along with certain classes. Each student has to take 3 FDPs per class, some of which can be done independently, and write papers on them. This trip went to Suzhou, a town 2 hours outside of Shanghai. One day in Shanghai and I don’t even stay in the city! Suzhou is known for the silk industry, its canal system, and its beautiful gardens. The city is over 2500 years old. Our guide told us a Chinese saying is “In heaven, there is paradise. On Earth, there is Suzhou.” We first went to one of the campuses of Soo Chow University; they have five campuses in the city, and each one has different schools. This one had the schools of business and physical education. A student gave us a tour of the campus and told us a bit about the school, but her voice was so quiet I couldn’t hear most of what she had to say. Then we went to the Master of Nets garden. Chinese gardens were all private residences surrounded by mazes of gardens to seclude them from the surrounding city. One of the big aesthetic features were rocks – giant limestone rocks taken from the river, with naturally eroded holes and crevices. The funniest part was that when the rocks were stacked together to make sculptures in the gardens was before cement, so instead they used a paste made from sticky rice and egg whites! It has lasted for years, but now as repairs are needed they are fixing things with concrete. After lunch, we took a boat ride down the canal. It’s funny how many times I’ve ended up in a small boat in port when all my time outside of ports is spent on a ship. The canal area has recently been taken on as a pet-project of the government and the landscape around it has been renovated, so it is quite beautiful. And the old stone homes on the water are still preserved as well. From there we went to the Lingering Garden. I have to admit I was quite gardened out at this point; the gardens are along the same lines as the imperial architecture, for me. My mind can only take in so much koi fish, cypress trees, pagodas, and rocks. Our final stop was a silk factory. We saw all the stages of silk production: first the “silk worm babies,” as our tour guide called them. Then their cocoons, which they take before the moths have hatched and put in an oven to kill the pupae. Then they boil the cocoons to make them soft and they have this stick that they stir in the water to find the ends of the cocoons. They then put them in this machine that pulls the ends of the cocoons together, and then 8 cocoon threads are spun together to make one thread of silk. There is a separate process for double cocoons, when two worms make a cocoon together. Because the strands are intertwined, they cut these open and then, after soaking them to make them soft and pliable, stretch them out to make a fabric which is used to make quilts. It was very interesting to watch, but I can’t say I enjoy knowing what baking cocoons smell like. From there it was a two hours drive to Shanghai to be back on the ship in time for dinner.

The only reason I’m actually getting this blog done tonight is because I have to stay up until 3 am for my free internet time to arrange registering for classes, so I’m trying to make it a productive sleepless night. Just a short time until Japan! I’m going to cherish every moment and stuff my face with sushi, because after that will be a long, long time at sea with lots of homework and lots of meals of pb&j that I am not looking forward to. So instead I’m living in the moment and being excited about Japan! I’m also ignoring the fact that I’m going to freeze my little butt off in Japan – when packing all the tropical countries frazzled my mind to the fact that it will be winter in some of these countries, and winter actually means winter. Layers will be the key to my survival. My plan for Japan is going to Hiroshima the first day. The second day is still up in the air, but it will be spent doing something in Kobe I believe. The third and fourth day I’m traveling with friends to Tokyo, and we are going to Tokyo Disney one day. And the fifth day I believe we are going to go see Mt. Fuji and then make our way to Kyoto to meet the ship. I’m extremely excited, but I’m missing you all terribly. Everyone on the ship is feeling homesick; it’s like freshman year but worse. We all came into this thinking it would be cool because we’re used to going away to school, but it’s different. Even though I wouldn’t have gotten a chance to go home yet if I was back at school, it doesn’t matter. Not being able to talk on the phone regularly makes a huge difference. So you have no idea how much each and every one of your e-mails means to me.

Oh, and since the question was raised, I did not buy my plate in Cambodia – it was creepy and an awkward picture!