Old City

Today all 6 of us (Arm, Frank, Marissa, Matt, Nate and myself) went on a day trip to Old City I believe. We got there pretty early around 8:15 or so and just walked around the small shops waiting for Yuyuan Garden to open at 8:30. These Gardens were absolutely beautiful and huge you could easily get lost in them, which did.  With a student id they cost only 20 yuan to get in, however as Nate learned they check your ID at both the ticket booth and when ripping your ticket. Inside the garden there was a Chinese Band at 9:30, which was awesome we stayed a listened to that for a little wile and then went across the way for an early lunch.

One of my favorite rooms from the Garden, I don’t remember the name of it though.

One of my favorite rooms from the Garden

The group at lunch at Shanghai’s best Dim-Sun market, we had to go early because if you try and go any time after 10am you will be waiting in line for hours. The “market” has three flours; the first floor is take-out only and is good quality, the second floor is better quality but has only one flavor a day, and the third floor is the best. Since the middle floor only had meat today, we went to the third floor because Marissa is a vegetarian. The locals pointed us to the restaurant on the right, which was gorgeous we sat down looked through the menu and decided what we wanted only to find out that there is an 80 Yuan minimum a person, we quickly decided to go to the other one which had a 50 Yuan minimum a person. This second restaurant had a much less extensive menu, but the 5 of them were easily able to spend 50 Yuan a person, between drinks (Rice Wine, and Tea) and the Dumpling thingys. The coolest thing from the restaurant was the soup filled dumpling that Arm got.  Wile they all ate what was probably delicious (they attested it was), I ate a Lara Bar that I had packed from home in the States, and that a banana and peanut butter outside.

Cool soup filled dumpling Arm had.

Cool "Soup Filled" Dumpling

After lunch we ventured over to China’s best Tea House, which again was breath taking. Both Bill Clinton and the Queen of England have gone there so we knew it was a must. Only Arm, Marissa, Nate and myself got tea. I settle for a nice red tea coming in a 58 Yuan for the small pot, Marissa got Iron Goddess which was about 68, I don’t remember what Nate got, and Arm got a 138 Yuan cup of Tea (I guess go big or go home right). Out of all the tea’s Marissa’s was my favorite, mine was good too. The coolest part of the tea house was the snacks they gave us; fermented quail eggs and some sort of tofu where among them. Overall this was a pretty good time. This  is when my camera died, so sadly I do not have any photos for the rest of the day.

 

China's BEST Tea House

My favorite part of the day however was just walking around. I really enjoyed walking around the shops and seeing all the neat things for sale. However, for some reasons someone was not into that and only wanted to do things from the tourist book so we were a little rushed. One row that Marissa and I walked down was super  awesome. It was all hand made things; art from soda cans, paintings from fingerprints and the worlds smallest Chinese writing. We also walked in some temples, which we pretty neat minus the old women throwing elbows. After spending quit sometime in the old town we headed off to find another temple. We walked for what seemed like forever, down some back roads and finally made it back to a main road and went through one more temple. After this everyone but Arm called it a day and took the subway back to campus.

Getting onto our second transfer Frank dropped his backpack breaking the bottle of rice wine and spilling the remaining contents. If the aroma wasn’t bad enough, it smells like the strongest rice wine vinegar ever, it completely soaked Frank’s headphones and MP3 player. But lucky for us we are in the land of rice!! We ate a small dinner upon arriving back on campus, and then set out to find rice. We went to the school store, no luck, asked the German’s on our floor no luck, asked the front player is saving an MP3 player. The rest of the night we just kind of hung low and hung out in the dorm, and worked on Friday’s presentations.

Things I have learned so far:

1.      There are no napkins in China, there are wet naps but you must pay for them!

2.      A lot of places serve soup instead of drinks!

3.      Internet is awful, and we still haven’t gotten our own (we are using our Chinese partners)

4.      Cars won’t stop for anything!!!!!

5.      The Chinese really like the squat pottyies, and I should start carrying around toilet paper because 3 in 5 bathrooms don’t have any (like not even a dispenser)

I am sure the list is longer but I don’t remember right now (I’ll add to it everyday)