May 27, 2008
Rest of the Week
The rest of the week I'll be busy studying for our exam on Friday and taking care of some last minute things. If I have time I'll squeeze in one more blog entry before I go.
Posted by brianhe at 05:45 AM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2008
Shanghai
Shanghai was pretty much one of the most interesting trips imaginable. It started off pretty awful considering our original hotel was about 2 hours away from downtown and an hour away from any subway stop. All the kids whined enough and somehow we got switched to a different hotel that was much closer to real Shanghai and only a 5 minute taxi to a subway stop.
The full story would take me about 2 or 3 hours to type up, and I need to start reading for the exam since tomorrow I'll be out all day and Thursday I need to actually study. In a really quick nutshell:
Saturday:
-Went to Urban Planning Museum, which has a scale model of what Shanghai will be in 2010. It takes up the entire third floor of the building and is extremely cool.
-Walked around Renmin Park, one of the largest parks/gardens in the world.
-Dinner at a really awesome restaurant for a kid on our program & his twin brother's birthday (21 from Michigan, 16 from NYU who are studying in Shanghai)
-Spent the night at a club near downtown with all 37 people, the twins paid for tables and lots of alcohol. Good music too. Awesome time
Sunday:
-Went to the top of some of the tallest buildings in the world. Couldn't see much because of the awful smog.
-Walked around Old Town Shanghai and the Yuan Gardens (a meditation sanctuary)
-Spent the rest of the afternoon at a teahouse
-Went to dinner at a really good dim-sum place
-Spent the night walking around the Bund (Shanghai Skyline on the water) and at a bar on top of a tower
Posted by brianhe at 05:37 AM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2008
The Great Wall
Today we went to the Metinyanou section of the Great Wall, which is about an hour and a half outside of Beijing. It was extremely hot today (95 or so) which we assume deterred a lot of people from visiting the wall today, as it was not as crazy crowded as we were told it would be.
As with most sections of the wall, it takes a considerable hike to up to the wall. It was not nearly as bad as last week, but still took about 45 minutes. The heat made it awful though. When we finally made it on to the wall, it was quite amazing. It is mind boggling to understand how people could build a wall that twists and turns over mountain tops and goes on for thousands of miles.
Unfortunately, the pollution in the air really cuts back on how awesome it is to be on the Wall. If the air was clear, we would see lush forests and scenery for miles. Instead, we saw smog that limited our eyesight to about 100ft, if that.
After about 30-45 minutes on the wall, we had the option of walking back down, taking the cable car down, or paying 45RMB to take an alpine slide to the bottom - how many times will one get to alpine slide down from the Great Wall of China? The slide ended up being a lot of fun (and a lot quicker than walking). I took a 3.5 minute video of me going down and checking out the scenery.
Time to go eat dinner with some Michigan alums who live in Beijing, then go to sleep so I can wake up at 4:30am for Shanghai!
Posted by brianhe at 04:39 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2008
David Li & The Chinese Economy
This will probably be my only post that focuses on the academic side of my trip. Up to this point, all of our classes have been informative but nothing too interesting or that was real in-depth. Our afternoon class today was about the current status of the Chinese Economy and its future, taught by David Li – a former UM professor who now teaches at Tsinghua University and is an economic adviser for the government.
His lecture was unbelievably interesting and beneficial to understanding the past, present, and future of the Chinese economy. He unveiled the truths about the Global-China import/export situation, potential growth for China, challenges to the Chinese political and economic situation, and mega-trends of the Chinese future.
One of his most interesting points was the idea of mega-cities throughout the eastern coast of China and high-speed train networks to link them all together. These mega cities would have 100-million or more people in them (Beijing would have more people than most of Europe) and would curb China’s inevitable resource crunch. It was interesting to view cities as energy efficient compared to behemoth energy consumers.
Another interesting point was his view that the Renminbi would be an international currency in 15-20 years. Currently, the RMB is not open to free trade as the government is afraid of a massive bank run. However, once the Chinese allow for free trade, Professor Li predicts the RMB will account for 20+ percent of the World Bank’s reserves. I will either upload my lecture summary or a copy of the lecture slides sometime after I get back.
Meanwhile, apparently dust is being blown in from the dessert at the moment and the city/area is covered in dust. It’s extremely difficult to breathe and walk around as dust flies into your eye. I can feel the dust in my teeth – it sucks. Staying in until Shanghai.
Posted by brianhe at 06:02 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2008
No Blog Post Today
Nothing too interesting - had class, picked up my suit, ate dinner, hung out and went to bed.
Posted by brianhe at 06:03 AM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2008
The Hike
In a spur of a moment last night, I decided to join two of my friends on a hiking tour for today and convinced three other people to come along. The hiking trip was through a legitimate hiking company (if a company has a website that looks semi-functional, it’s immediately legitimate), cost $35, and would take us up and around some mountains about 50 miles outside of Beijing. We were going to see a temple, some ancient Fire Towers, a local village, and meet some locals.
Our trip was almost cancelled when our taxis got lost and we arrived at the meeting spot about 10 minutes late. Luckily the bus waited for us. I was surprised that a) the bus was completely full and b) we were the only people who looked under 25 on the trip. For the hour and a half bus ride, I sat next to and talked with Helmuth from Germany – a man who has lived in 12 different Asian countries, has been in Beijing for six years, and hikes almost every weekend. He was a really cool guy.
When we arrived at the park at 10:00am, we were given a short introduction to what our hike would consisted – an extremely challenging climb up the mountain, a two mile long walk along the mountain ridges, and additional smaller climb, around another mountain, and then down through a village. Our guide warned us about how tough the first stage of the hike would be and she certainly proved right.
After grabbing a walking stick and some additional waters and snacks, we set off on our adventure. Things started off relatively alright until we hit the first set of steps. In a nutshell, we climbed up steps for literally two hours straight – only taking two or three breaks for water and pictures. At times, the steps were so big that I had to raise my leg as high as it could go. We went up and up and up, climbing over 3,500 feet. At about 12:15, we reached the first “Fire Tower”. These ancient structures were built to be a network of warning signals in case the Mongols were starting to invade. They were quite cool, although nothing spectacular to look at. The scenery was spectacular. Unfortunately, the pollution made things in the distance really hazy and prevented any good pictures. We still got some great action shots though.
We ate a brief snack and decided to go on a bit further so we could eat lunch at a more scenic area. The next phase of our hike was pretty relaxing due to the flat trail. About 30 minutes later, we found a spot that overlooked a giant valley which led up to another section of the mountain range. Lunch was great – a PB&J sandwich, some 100-Calorie packs, and a protein bar.
An hour later, we came to the second part of our incline where we had more steps and another 600-800 feet of climbing. At the peak, we were at least 4,000ft above sea level. The rest of the hike was just some rugged downhill. We came across donkeys and horses, and met a child who was not accustomed to “foreigners”. He was cute.
When we reached the bottom, it felt so unbelievable to have gotten through the hike. I definitely didn’t expect to be able to do it, let alone do it, keep up with everyone, and not be too dead afterwards. How many people get to say they hiked up a mountain in China?
After we got back, we all watched “Into the Wild” – it’s about Emory students who in 1990 donated all his savings and goes to live in the wild. He ended up dying from eating a poisonous berry in Alaska, but it was an inspiring movie about just doing what you want and living free. This weekend was absolutely one of the best 48 hours ever and just barely loses to my weekend in Cairns, Australia.
Have lots of pictures, no time to add them right now
Posted by brianhe at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2008
Day Recap
I am going on a hike tomorrow up to a temple in the mountains and need to get some sleep. We did so much today during my first full day in Beijing and I don't want to skimp on details so I can get to bed. I'll expand on what we did when I get back tomorrow (and will give a recap of the hike). I also took some good pictures today and will include them in my blog entries. The dates/times for the blog entries correspond with the day they are about, not when I write them, so for my next blog posts please read May 17 and May 18 even though they will both be posted on May 18th or 19th. Anyways, the recap:
1. Walked around the Military Museum of China
2. Visited the Lama Temple (largest Buddhist temple in China). Offered incense and prayed to the largest buddha statue in the world (146 feet, all carved out of a single piece of sandlewood).
3. Spent over an hour drinking tea at a hole-in-the-wall tea house where we tried over 20 kinds of tea.
4. Discovered a side street full of about 30 vendors of Chinese antiques. Bought an original poster made in the 1960's of Mao Zedong giving a speech at the Capital.
5. Walked around Tian'anmen Square and the Capital building at night.
Wish me luck on my hike tomorrow!
Posted by brianhe at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2008
The Silk Market and Fung Fung
Note: This entry was originally written on & about May 16th but could not be posted due to internet issues.
In every Chinatown throughout the United States, the street corners are filled with people selling knockoff sunglasses, watches, purses, and DVD’s for relatively cheap prices. The tradition of Chinese selling knockoff designer items and inexpensive goods originated from Beijing’s Silk Market. Originally, silk traders would travel in from around the country to sell fresh silk and bargain with customers in order to sell their wares. Over the years, this market (still in its original location), grew to include a variety of other precious materials and items. Today, Beijing’s Silk Market is the world’s capital of knockoff items and cheap stuff as it sits in a eight story building with thousands of vendor stalls ranging from Polo shirts and Gucchi purses to hand crafted art to raw silk.
When I walked into the market, I was immediately overwhelmed with the sea of people and clothing that was for sale. It was absolutely amazing. As you walk, people yell at you to come look at their stuff and jump out at you to try to block your path. There was every single brand of stuff there, even fake iPod’s, Xbox’s, and Wii’s (all of which wouldn’t work if you bought them). Each floor had a designated focus – clothing, accessories, jewelry, art, etc.
My first goal was to buy a piece of luggage to carry home all the stuff I buy and try to get my suitcase’s weight down in case I get charged. We went downstairs to the luggage area and I picked out this Tumi rolling travel briefcase that fits some clothing and a laptop. I was so nervous to start bargaining with this girl, as I knew I did not want to pay too much. She started off at 1500RMB ($210) – I countered with 100RMB. It’s really hard to gauge what to pay because although it is cheap knockoff stuff, the luggage is still worth something. Bargaining with this girl was pretty awesome, and we went back and forth with numbers between 100-400RMB. Settled on 250RMB ($25), but I could have gotten less if I didn’t think I lost my friends.
From here, I ended up buying some chopsticks pretty cheap and two nice silk ties for $1.25 each (a silk tie is a silk tie wherever you go, such an amazing deal, wish there were more styles I liked). The best part of the day was with these two girls at a Polo stall. Me and my friend Seth went saying we did not want to buy a polo shirt for more than $5-$7 and figured that we could get it cheaper if we bought them together. We somehow ended up getting these two girls down to 30RMB($4.30)/per shirt for 4 shirts from 220RMB/shirt. The kids that went a day before could not get a Polo thess than 70RMB and when we walked up someone had just bought one shirt for 100RMB. After this sale though, one of the girls asked us if we could help her with her English. We spent an hour at this stall going back and forth between helping this girl with English and then learning Chinese words. It was so much fun….and the girl’s name was Fung Fung.
Posted by brianhe at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
The Subway's Pillar of People
Note: This entry was originally written on & about May 16th but could not be posted due to internet issues.
Class got out today at 3PM so we had plenty of time to get to downtown Beijing via the subway. However, we were going to a new place today and transferred to the Red Line at a new stop. When we got to the train, there were these women, who we assume worked for the subway (they had no uniform on), arranging us into single-file lines. This gave off the impression that each line would align with a door of the subway to get on. This was definitely not the case. Our pillar of people ended up in the middle of two doors, except the lines of people on either side of us had a door. My entrance into the car consisted of being smashed by the battering ram of people behind me. This train was the most crowded thing I had ever been on and was well beyond maximum capacity. It was so jammed that when the train started and stopped, nobody moved because of the density of people. Getting out was an impossible task that ended with me lunging out of the car like Superman. Crazy stuff.
Posted by brianhe at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2008
Need Some Sleep
It's real late and I have to wake up in a few hours and still have some homework to do. Quick recap of the day:
1. Class was pretty good today, especially the afternoon Chinese lesson. Actually learned some stuff.
2. After class, we went back into downtown again to get our suits fitted. My suit is amazing and fits perfectly. Going in the subway today was particularly painful on my lungs. It sucks so much.
3. Went to a hotpot place for dinner. A hotpot is basically Chinese fondue, where you get your own pot of a kind of broth you like. Then you order a bunch of meats, vegetables, etc, then make your own sauce. You cook everything yourself. Extremely tasty, although we didn't get enough food so I am still hungry.
4. Spent the rest of the night reading and taking notes. Sucks.
Posted by brianhe at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2008
Culture Shock #2: Surprising Street Vendor
After my extremely bad "meal" at KFC/Pizza Hut (don't ask...), we were walking back to our hotel down a fairly crowded street at about 9:45PM. As we were walking, the street was being transformed into a marketplace with tons of street vendors setting up their merchandise. It was mostly clothing and little art stuff, no DVD's or anything I would be remotely interested in. Except one thing...
We come up to this guy making loud chants and banging this stick. As he moves out of the day, we see a cardboard box that was moving. It took us a moment to understand what was in the box. Puppies. Those dogs were so damn cute and it is so sad they were either stolen or bred in a basement. We could have bought them all for about $50 then set them all free. Who sells dogs on the side of the street! 
Posted by brianhe at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)
The Summer Palace and Temple of Incense
Our first real sightseeing trip was this morning to go see the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is where the Empress lived and is where the Last Emperor was held captive by his mother in the early 1900's. Even on three hours of sleep, I was wide awake and ready to go.
The Summer Palace is an absolutely beautiful place. The architecture is what you vision for Ancient China and it is full of amazing statues, buildings, walkways, ponds, and attractions. It is extremely large and has a few pretty large hills on it. You can see most of Beijing from up top.
There was a path/hill that goes up to the Temple of Incense, a giant Buddhist Temple that houses a 400 year old statue of some crazy Buddhist icon that looks like Medusa. It was a real steep, long hike up rocks, stairs, a windy path, and through some tunnels. Really cool and a lot of kids turned back because they were scared or were too lazy to climb. It felt really good to get up there and was definitely worth it. I took a decent amount of pictures, but will wait to share them until after I get home. The picture here is of the Temple of Incense.
Posted by brianhe at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)
Lan & Banana Club Night #2
It's 2am and I have to wake up in 5 hrs to go to the Summer Palace, so I have to make this short. We went to this really fancy place for dinner which we chose (or one person in my group) chose because she felt it was a better place than just the touristy places in the guidebooks. Turns out she was completely wrong. It was this really trendy, overly luxurious place that was huge. Dinner wasn't that good, it was not that filling, yet was $30 (and I didn't have drinks). Pretty dumb considering food in Beijing is supposed to be dirt cheap and you can get stuff so much better. Kind of going to be my last night hanging out with this crowd.
The Banana club tonight just wasn't as good. Maybe because I was kind of bitter about dinner. However, the additional $3-4 taxi, another $5 cover, another couple of rounds of $8 drinks, and another evening listening to deafening Chinese pop, seeing blinding strobe lights, and dancing like a sardine was a bit over my limit tonight. Oh well.
Goodnight.
Posted by brianhe at 02:05 AM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2008
The Suit Store & Gugu
Today, I went back to the main shopping area with a bunch of people to get a custom made suit. It was pretty cool. They drape you in a bunch of different fabrics until you find one you like, then measure you, and then make the suit for you overnight. I picked out a navy suit with a light blue pinstripe. Very nice, and for 1450RMB ($215/$220).
Our cab driver on the way back was awesome. He kept pointing to everything and saying “Gugu”…which I think means “Go Go”. He made this gesture near Tian’anmen square, some other major buildings, and this huge arena looking thing. He also turned on the radio in the middle of the ride and it happened to be “Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna. The five us in the cab (including the cab driver) started to dance and he wanted us to sing. It was so much fun and we took some funny pictures.
Off to dinner and then back to Banana. Goodnight.
Posted by brianhe at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)
Steven, Lenny, and Banana
After an awful dinner last night, we invited two of the students from Tsinghua University to come back with us and go to out to the club. Steven’s friend had no English name yet and our group of eight named him Lenny. It’s pretty cool to give someone a name – it’s like naming a baby, without having to keep it (although Chinese babies are pretty cute, I’d like one).
On the way back from dinner, we stopped at a huge grocery store where we picked up some “supplies” for the evening. At about 10:15, we started pregaming in Tarun and Cory’s room. It was so funny to watch Steven and Lenny sip on beer and this weird hard drink we made. After about an hour of this, we decided to head out to Banana – supposedly one of the better clubs in Beijing.
When we got three cabs, two of the cabs knew where to go and the other one (the one I was in) only kind knew where to go. Nevertheless, when we got to the club, we were missing eight members of our group! We freaked out, and it turns out there is two “Banana” clubs in Beijing – CocoBanana and GTBanana. We were at the latter, while the rest were apparently at the former. About an hour after we got there, the res t of our group got there. Very relieving.
The club itself was pretty awesome. Crazy packed on a Monday, tons of Asians, fireworks, a spring loaded floor, and good music. When an American song came on (Sean Kingston – Take You There), only us knew the words and when the Asians noticed this, they cleared a circle around us while we danced. It was awesome. Got back at 3:00 to wake up at 7:30 for class. Good times.
Posted by brianhe at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2008
Niketown & Downtown Beijing
After lunch, half the group decided they wanted to go to Zoo and the rest wanted to go into downtown Beijing to shop (specifically to Nike Beijing, the largest Nike store in the world). We took the subway to the main shopping area in Beijing which is outside of Tian'anmen square. It took us about an hour to get there, with 10 stops and 3 different trains. Only cost us 2 Yuan (25 cents). I wish the metro was that cheap.
However, the real cost of going on the metro is the horrible air quality and extreme business. When we were transferring trains, we had to go through this corridor that you could literally see the dust clouding up the air. It sucked.
When we finally got to where we wanted to go, the warnings about being overwhelmed and being careful of traffic were understood. Tons and tons of people. The Niketown store really was huge, and they were out of my size of the shirt I wanted. The shoes were actually more expensive than in the states, which was odd considering they are made about a few hundred miles away for less than a dollar in labor.
The one shopping mall we went into was much bigger than anything in the US. It was eight stories tall...with each floor being the equivalent of a typical mall in the US. Out of control. The group of seven I was with decided we just wanted to take a taxi back home. The taxi ride took about 45 minutes...but cost a whopping 47RMB ($8 split between 3 people). That same taxi ride would have been 50-60+ dollars in the US.
Time to go get ready for dinner and going out!
Posted by brianhe at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)
Tsinghua University
This morning we had our introduction to the program and a tour of the University. We're "next" to the university, but it is still a 15-20 minute walk to where our class is. It is an enclosed/private University, very unlike UM, so there is a lot of grass areas and such. The buildings are huge and very modern looking.
Our "guide", Steven, who will be an exchange student at UM next fall, was really great. He broke us off from the other groups and took us to his dorm. I was shocked by how small it is - four people live in one room, all lofts with metal frames and 1" thick mattresses, a desk, and a small closet. Crazy. Also, they only pay 7000RMB (1000US) for tuition and dorm each year. That is also considered relatively expensive for China!
The highlight of this part of the day was our group photo. The photographer was this short little Chinese man who was a complete perfectionist. He was ordering us all around in Mandarin for about 15 minutes before he took the picture. It was funny.
Posted by brianhe at 05:16 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2008
Culture Shock in the Chinese Restaurant
For our first dinner, we went to the Chinese Restaurant in the hotel just to play it easy. It ended up only being about 17-18 dollars which was not so bad. The experience though was certainly worth the price.
Although the restaurant was very cultural and had nice decorations and was fancy, the "experience" was how we were served. Luckily one of my friends speaks some Mandarin so some of the language barrier was removed. It is amazing how you are served in China. First, we ordered beers since it is only $3 beer and it's safe. However, with any drink you get, including Beer and Coke, they serve it to the entire group like its wine. With some Tsing Tao local beer, they came over to me and presented the beer to me, asked for my approval, then poured it equally to all five of us at the table.
Then, when we got our food (which, by the way, is completely "family style"...it's rude to get a dish for yourself and they place it on the spinning thing in the middle of the table) they present it and then serve it to everyone. The waitresses and waiters all stand by a table to serve on you. They care about their service so much. There is no tipping in China (although at the hotel there is a 15% service charge) because they feel they should always do their job to the best of their ability and should not be provided an incentive to do more.
Meanwhile, the air quality really is as bad as it's made out to be, and I am having a tough time breathing and my chest hurts. Hopefully I'll get used to it.
Posted by brianhe at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)
Flight 'Round the World
Hello from Beijing! The flight to Beijing from China was not so bad, it went by pretty quick because of some Ambien. When me and my two friends got to our seats, we had a baby sitting in front of us and thought "Oh no...!". She was a cute little Chinese baby, who was very calm the whole flight and never made a peep. There were a bunch of babies on the plane and we had the best.
The biggest dissapointment of the trip was a tie between the surprise lack of power outlooks on the plane and our awful flight attendant. For the last three months I was under the assumption we were on a 777-200V2, which has AC power plugs in each set of 3 seats. We were on a 777-200V1, which only has the DC-Empower ports on rows 26 and forward. No go on power. As for our flight attendant, he was this large African American guy with dreadlocks, who was just mean throughout the trip. When dinner came around, I asked for the Cod...and he responds with nothing.....and I ask again....and then he goes "Beef 'o Fish?". Really? Can't respond to Cod?
Our personal TV's were not the cool ones found on Air France for example, which let you pick what movies you want to watch. It just had a set of 9 repeating channels. I watched the Bucket List though, which was a great (but sad movie). After that I popped my pill and went to bed for the next five hours and woke up with 5 hours left. Went by pretty slow, but nowhere near as painful as my flight to Australia in 10th grade.
When we got through customs and on to the bus a few hours later, the drive to the hotel was far from what I expected. First, the highways and buildings are all very modern. Tons and tons of high-rise living complexes, and a lot of stuff for the Olympics. Passed by Olympic Village and their amazing main stadium - fantastic architecture. Meanwhile, when we got to the hotel, I feel like we're in a sub-city of Beijing. There is very little congestion, not many people, not a lot of noises and tall buildings...and no risk of getting hit by traffic as there is a bridge to cross the street. I am sure I will see the real Beijing soon.
Posted by brianhe at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
