Guilin + Sun = Pure Awesomeness

(Mark)

Today we had sun for the first time this trip. It was awesome.

The day started at 7 AM, as we had to be picked up by Mingo at 7:30. Unfortunately, we were running a little late, partly because Alex lost his room key (50 RMB charge, but they found it for him). We then made our way to the airport, which we had been dreading since we first landed in Hong Kong. However, yesterday, Mingo told us that he would actually be ACCOMPANYING us through the airport and such, which would expedite things and make them much easier. He was basically our savior today, as he also helped us check our bags; Allison’s was the only one under 20 kg, but with Mingo’s help we were able to check everything without paying any extra charge. Yeah, Viz, we all got mad at you because there was no problem with the checked luggage, and they never even weighed our carry on. But don’t worry, we’re not mad at you anymore. We then made our way to security, where, after email address exchanges, “don’t forget me!”s, and hugs all around, we parted ways with Mingo. So yeah, we then went in shifts to get food; Lianna tried some orange-flavored Chinese muffins, but Alex and I just stuck with ham and egg sandwiches (hi viz- its lianna- I WAS MORE ADVENTUROUS THAN THE BOYS!!). The flight was SO short, barely even making it worth a flight… but it was certainly an experience—the Chinese are very loud on planes, and we saw a woman WAILING on her children. It was actually a little sad.

So, we soon touched down in Guilin, picked up our baggage, and found our guide: Ling, who calls herself Macy. As we stepped out of the airport, we were ecstatic to be able to see the sun for the first time since before we arrived in Hong Kong. Macy brought us to our hotel (which is SO awesome) so we could drop off our stuff, and then we headed out to the first of the day’s main attractions: lunch.

Lunch was amazing. They sat us down in a small room by ourselves, and brought us a bunch of preordered dishes. We took pictures and notes on what we were eating, and which dishes we liked. Our favorites were a beef and green peppers dish, and a pork with cucumber and peanuts dish. Allison’s favorite was the eggplant, but Lianna, Alex, and I didn’t even try it (unlike last year’s group, we HATE eggplant… it’s texture is just horrible. We tried everything else though. Alex and I took it a step further and tried Guilin’s renowned dishes: a special chili sauce (a pea-sized amount of which completely burned my mouth), and fermented tofu, which was just VERY salty.

After lunch, we headed to Fubo Hill. The hill was pretty cool, it was all decked out for the New Years celebrations and such. Traditional attractions included the giant iron bell (weighing about 200 kg), which was covered in Chinese characters, and the thousand-man bowl, which was a giant bowl big enough to make dinner for a thousand monks. The New Years stuff, however, included an AWESOME game: you stacked  7 thick disk-like things on top of each other, and used a mallet made of bamboo and cloth to knock the lowest disk out of the stack. If the tower falls, you lose. They were offering a prize if you could knock out five without the remaining two falling, but the most we could get was 3 or 4. We got some really good pictures though, and they gave us a prize, just for being westerners (we think). Then it was time to CLIMB Fubo! Lianna counted 316 steps along the winding path, but it was totally worth it. When we got to the top, we could see for MILES since it was so clear, basically including all of the city and most of the surrounding mountains. Speaking of which, I assume you’ve seen the traditional paintings of Chinese mountain ranges, in which they come to sharp peaks, one after another? Well, they’re completely accurate. The mountain ranges here are so amazing, and they completely surround the city.

After Fubo, we headed to Reed Flute Cave, renowned as the most beautiful cave in China. Words can’t do justice to its beauty, so just wait for the pictures (also, it’s a little late and I want to go to bed soon). Basically, it was full of stalactites and stalagmites, which were lit by multicolored lights from every angle. With a little imagination, the rock formations looked like lions, monkeys, feet, and many other objects and creatures. On the way into the cave, we were waylaid by hordes of street merchants, trying to sell everything from little whistles to books of pictures. A woman offered me two books of postcards for 10 RMB. I said no. She offered me three for the same price. I said maybe when we came back down. She offered me the fourth one she had, all for 10 RMB, so I went ahead and bought them. Turned out that ONE of the very same post card books would have cost 20 RMB at the gift shop, so I certainly got a good deal.

From the cave we went to Elephant trunk hill. It was basically a rock formation that looks kind of like an elephant with its trunk in the water. So we walked around there for a little bit, including walking right up into the hole between the “trunk” and “body.” There was also a Buddhist shrine (I forgot to mention the underground shrines at Fubo hill… they were pretty cool, they had live turtles and everything!). This shrine had a pool of water (where we saw the first LIVE fish), and a Buddhist statue that’s over 2000 years old. Yes. 2000. Older than Jesus. Owned. ANYWAY. After Elephant trunk, it was time to call it a day. We headed back to our hotel, trying to figure out what to do for dinner. Alex was disappointed when we got back, however, because the room’s internet wasn’t working. After calling the hotel’s head geek, he and Allison went out to get money from an ATM, and disaster struck. Alex and I have a vague memory of Viz telling us that “pins need to be four digits,” but at the time, she didn’t specify for debit cards, so we had no idea what she was talking about. Turns out, Chinese ATMs only accept pin numbers that are fewer than 6 digits. Mine is 7. Alex’s is 8. Guess what? WE CAN’T ACCESS OUR ACCOUNTS! So we can’t get money. We’ve resolved the issue by having our parents give Lianna a large amount of money that she will then give us. Or something. Hopefully.

So now it’s bedtime. Tomorrow we’re hoping for good weather as we’ll be cruising down the Li river, and we’re hoping to access money. For now, Wanan!

Guangzhou

(Lianna)

Hi all! We left Hong Kong today. It was a little scary. We could no longer count on people knowing English. We found our train okay at the HK station and got into Guangzhou. We all made it through customs in Guangzhou! It was very exciting! I was the first one through on this side, after being last in HK so I was very happy. Sorry I didn’t write much about the train ride, I slept through most of it.  But what I saw was really interesting. We saw people working in fields and some really nice apartments, and some crummy buildings. It was definitely interesting seeing the varying degrees of wealth. After getting to Guangzhou we met our guide, Mingo. He is very nice, we all love him.

First Mingo took us to see the Chen Family Temple/Folk Art Museum. That was really impressive. It was at one point a person’s house. It was so incredibly large (like a palace or castle, but better, because it had traditional Chinese style architecture, decorations,  and plants). We all imagined how awesome it would be to live in it, until Mingo pointed out that there would be no running water or heat. The artwork there was amazing. There were exhibits designated to bone carvings, silk “paintings”, and other really awesome things.

After the temple Mingo (our love) took us to Sun Yat Sen’s memorial hall. The building was incredibly large and colorful. Before going in we saw a huge statue of Sun Yat Sen. This was our first experience of the Chinese being amused by Westerners. People kept staring at us and taking our photos. It was quite amusing. We went into the memorial and there was history and photos and stuff.  I thought that was interesting. We saw someone doing hand paintings that look like brush paintings of Guilin. So impressive. I already knew this, but Mingo said the three most important people to China are Sun Yat Sen, Mao, and Deng Xiaoping. Hearing it from a Chinese person made me realize just how weird it is that the three most important men were so different; one being a nationalist, one a communist, and one a “communist” with capitalist ideas.

Mingo took us to see some really great sites. We went back to the hotel and parted with Mingo. He told us he would be taking us to the airport. We hadn’t realized this and were thus very happy to find out we wouldn’t have to deal with the airport by ourselves. None of us felt like going out for dinner, so we walked around the island. It was beautiful, with the French colonial influence. I thought it felt a lot like Florida. There were palm trees and pretty buildings. We ended up at a starbucks. And Italian guy was also at Starbucks, and I think we were the first Westerners he had seen in a long time (He is working in a small community outside of Shanghai).  So he joined us and we sat and talked for a long time, probably at least an hour. And that was pretty much the end of our night. 

I mean, these guys INVENTED gunpowder ... !

(Alex)

My first blog entry! This has been a long time coming, and I hope that all those who read it will enjoy! Quickly, just for those who care, I am having a great time! The guys are great and Hong Kong is amazing! Today we woke up a little earlier than anticipated. Although we had had what we thought to be an enormously physical day yesterday, few of us actually slept in. Li and I were the only two who were able to sleep the entire night without the aid of medication. Allison, who had had a rough night yesterday, took a couple of Tylenol, whereas Mark woke up at three, and just couldn’t get back to sleep. Various sleeping complications aside, we assembled rather sleepily in the dining room to plan our day before the firework display on the harbor that night. The food there was, as always, great, although the décor was a little gaudy. After settling on a plan for the day (and around four cups of tea on my part), we headed down to the subway, which never fails to amaze.  At present time I don’t really know how in depth the other guys have gotten concerning the subway system in Hong Kong, but the one thing that really stood out for me is the amazing accessibility and cleanliness of the subway. Also, they really, really are careful that you wont fall on to the tracks, with double-sliding doors and glass-lined stations. 

Anyways, we headed towards Hong Kong Island, hopped a connecting train to Lantau Island and exited at the Cable Car station to the infamous Big Buddha. Although we were initially afraid we had arrived to late to beat the crowds, we were pleasantly surprised to find the line relatively empty (no two hour waits here!). After paying around $100 HK each for tickets to the cable car (they jacked up the prices for Chinese New Year) we were off to view the city from the skies… with one slight hitch. Although it has been overcast since we arrived, we didn’t realize how foggy it was until we got above sea level. Roughly five minutes into the ride, the blue seas and impressive skyline faded away into oppressive, foggy, white mist. Literally fifteen of the twenty minutes we spent in the cable-car ride consisted of sitting in the car surrounded by fog. Depressed, we exited the car hoping for the best but fearing the worst. Entering Ngong Pong Village (the Buddhist village housing the temple and the giant statue), the mist lent certain mysticism to the atmosphere, simultaneously improving and detracting from the experience of our trip. Making our way through the village, people faded in and out of the mist, along with tranquil gardens and the occasional gift shop. Walking along a partially developed road, we arrive at the bottom of an imposing step of double stairs, with crowds of people moving up and down. The mist obscured our final destination, the Big Buddha. As we climbed up the stairs, we looked in vain for some hint of the famous statue. Finally, within a few feet of the top, this massive figure looms out of the missed, materializing in clarity before our very eyes. Although the finer details are lost in the mist, the size alone is enough to take your breath away. After a little waiting, the fog clears for long enough for us to take some pretty great pictures. After hanging around the top alcove with the Buddha above us, and even going inside the shrine to see some amazing Buddhist relics (including a shard of the Buddha which is apparently comparable to the Holy Grail in Buddhist mythology), we decided to hike back down to the monastery itself, where we had lunch. The initial confusion aside, we managed to redeem the lunch ticket we got at the top and had some great vegetarian noodles and sweets. The temple outside was also pretty sweet, with a ton of intricate carvings and gold inlays, and A LOT of incense and Buddha statues. Much of the temples more intricate details defy description, so keep an eye out for pictures to follow. The trip overall was a great success. 

After scrambling back to the hotel, we quickly changed for the night out on Hong Kong Harbor. Heading across the street to the Kowloon Hotel, we were told to wait for the tour guide Fred who would take us to the buffet we had planned and then to the dock for the boat cruise before the fireworks. But, Fred Ho never showed. Instead another guide, Ricky Martin (no joke), called out “Mr. Allison, group of four!” and we, in the words of Allison, “just went with the flow”. Feeling confused and slightly guilty, we boarded the tour bus heading to, we hoped, the restaurant. As it turns out, we were luckily right. The restaurant was great, with a ton of dishes to try, and some pretty interesting people to talk to. I can’t decide whether I’m embarrassed or annoyed that I ate far more than the other three combined (They’re all really slow and picky eaters). After leaving the restaurant, Ricky, who had by then become our personal hero, directed us to the docks where we would take the boat cruise around the harbor, culminating in the New Years fireworks display. Although Li and Allison were initially nervous about the rickety little boat that was moored when we arrived at the dock, it soon pulled away to reveal a far larger, more stable, boat in its place. We hopped on with the rest of the guests and were off taking pictures of the skyline at night for the last time. Then, the fireworks started. And when I say they were the best display I’ve ever seen, I mean it. I mean, the guys INVENTED gunpowder, so I would hope they where good with it, but this defied all explanation and description. So many boats flooded the small inlet where the fireworks were being lit that I was afraid on more than one occasion that we would collide with one and sink to the bottom before the show would end. I used up the remaining memory on my card taking a 8 minute video (to be posted on Facebook as soon as we have a reliable connection) of the beginning of the show, but apparently they ended up blowing up over 20,000 rockets and $5,000,000 HK worth of hardware. So yeah, the fireworks were epic. Taking the boat back, we said bye to Ricky and blearily stumbled back to the hotel. 

Which brings us pretty much up to date. OK. Now I am so ridiculously tired because I still haven’t fully adjusted to the time difference and feel that I have written way, way to much although Viz will be happy. Everyone is well, although also very tired. Sad to say bye to Hong Kong but excited for what’s to come next. Hope to write again soon, and hope for INTERNET at some point. Zai jian everybody, and hope to talk to you soon!!

World’s Happiest Party

(Allison)

Kung Hei Fat Choy! (Happy New Year)  Hong Kong is an amazing city…I love it here..We got an early start [Monday] and took the subway from Kowloon under the harbor to Hong Kong Island. The subway is so clean and easy to follow. We walked to the Peak Tram Station, there was no line and we got right on the tram and headed up to Victoria Peak. The weather was a bit cloudy – but the view was still very impressive. We decided to take our first official group photo..Oh, we have a team name…(with the help of Lianna’s father Greg  during our brainstorm at Logan) DS China Exchange 2009 will be officially called ObamaLAMA. Reasoning = every one in the group has a slight obsession to our new commander in chief…(Lianna did attend the Inauguration..) and the word lama is an acronym for all of our first names…and both words flow quite nicely together..to reinforce our name – there is also a large island just south of Hong Kong Island called Lamma Island..

Back to the peak..we wandered around the top in awe of the city…the contrasts between the lush green landscapes and the modern skyscrapers…Mark mentioned how it reminded him of Hawaii..There were adorable dogs everywhere!! Alex really wanted Haagen Das (spelling ?) but did not cave. We met this adorable tour guide named Arthur..he asked about our trip and was very impressed with our itinerary (thanks Becky!) As we were entering the gate to get back on the tram we came across a sign that said, to our amusement “Payments Accepted: Cash or Octopus” – Is octopus an actual currency in HK?   

At the bottom, there was a line for the tram that went around a corner and down the street—we beat the crowds!  We headed to H + M to meet my friends Geoff and Erica who live in HK. They both teach at an international school. They took us on a whirlwind tour of down town HK Island, desperately trying to find a restaurant that was open (everything is closed for the new year). We went up the world’s longest escalater system-- to an area called SOHO – with tons of great restaurants…any type of food you can imagine- italian, mexican, indian, american... We ended up going to this funky place that served everything from traditional  Chinese fare to pizza and breakfast!  At lunch Geoff and Erica ruined our joke by informing us that the “octopus” was the name of their subway card – like the Charlie Ticket or Metro Card (hi – and, dana, and mel ).

After lunch we took a double-decker bus (we sat at the top in the front = scary) to the south side of the island (where Geoff and Erica live). We strolled along a beautiful beach, and then along a promenade to Repulse Bay. Our first Buddhist temple!! Right on the water it was beautiful…and so colorful. We walked over a bridge that added three years to our lives. Then we headed to Stanley Market, an adorable waterfront shopping/restaurant area. Geoff, Mark and Alex went on an intense hunt for US to China adapter/converter but had no luck…Lianna was hungry so we sat down a water front snack bar type thing…everyone was getting tired..(we have not adjusted to the time change quite yet)..so we said good bye to Geoff and Erica and took a taxi to Star Ferry Pier!! I was very excited! I double checked that it was headed to Tsim Sha Tsui (thank you for the advice Terry and Rick).

It was 6:30 and we were not in the state of mind to conquer the crowds lined up 6 or 7 people deep for the New Year’s parade – otherwise known as the “World’s Happiest Party”. We headed back to the hotel with hopes to view the parade from the huge patio on the fourth floor of our hotel – but our hopes were quickly squashed by an evil security guard. We tried to go outside to watch it –but the route was blocked off to ticket holders only?? And we were all returning back to our jetlagged delirious stupor selves. So, we decided to watch from our hotel room (on the route but eight floors up)…it was kind of sad – but we had the television on so that we could hear it… It is the year of the OX!! – they are everywhere… Lianna and I really want to find some Ox ears! The parade ended and we went to bed…dreaming of small children dressed up as Ox on light up roller blades…

Hi Mom, Dad, Rachel, Becky and everyone else who is reading –including Periods 1,2,4,6, and 7!! 

love and miss you all,

Allison

 

Oxen on Blinking Rollerblades…? o_O

(Mark)

HELLO FROM HONG KONG!

So we touched down at the airport at 6:45 and made our way to baggage claim. The airport was so unnecessarily large…we had to walk for like ten minutes, then get on a subway type thingy that took us to baggage claim. Our bags came almost immediately (no, we didn’t lose any, despite Lianna’s fear), so we exchanged money and started heading out. As we got into the main airport, a random guy came up to us and asked us where we were headed. Turned out he was a taxi driver, and offered us a ride right to the hotel for 380 Hong Kong dollars (about 54 USD, divided amongst the four of us). So we went with him. And the ride was pretty cool. And he was really nice. When we got to the hotel, we tipped him an extra 40 Hong Kong dollars or so, later discovering that tips were supposed to be about 5. We certainly made his day.

After checking in, we headed to the night market (though we don’t think we went to the right one…?). Getting there was quite an experience, as we had to learn to ride the subway. You can only by a single trip ticket, and you need it to get OUT of the subway when you reach your destination. Allison thought she lost her ticket, it was bad… she’s still living in the subway. Like Charlie on the MTA. JK LOL, WE LOVE HER. The night market was actually kind of a let down (hence our doubts as to whether we went to the right place). It was pretty much just like any other market in any China Town. People were obsessed with remote control helicopters... one dropped and almost beheaded us. Except it was way too small. But I like dramatic effect.

ANYWAY. Then we were tired. So we tried to go back to the hotel. On the way, however, we encountered the rehearsal for the New Years Parade. We were pretty much in a delirious stupor, so we were just kinda wandering around when we stumbled upon it. It was pretty epic, with dancers, bands, large dragon thingys… When it began to get old, we headed out, but somehow ended up on the wrong side of the entrance gate, so that we could have just gone right into the stadium where everyone was performing. We decided not to though, which was an EXCELLENT decision, as we ran into “THE COOLEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN” (in Allison’s words). What was it? Little Chinese children, dressed as Oxen,* on flashing rollerblades. In Lianna’s words, it was “SOOO amazing!” Alex has a video of it that will hopefully be posted, and you can see the oxen and hear Allison and Lianna’s exclamations. You will laugh. A lot.

So then we went back to the hotel, and tried to get internet. It was quite annoying, there was a fifty dollah deposit, and we had to buy a minimum of fifteen minutes (at one dollah per minute). So Allison just checked her email, and sent the world’s worst and shortest message to our parents and Viz to say we were alive. You probably won’t see this post till we get to Guangzhou, as we don’t want to deal with that internet thing again, but OH WELL! So yeah, hi mom, dad, alex, steve, grammie, gramps, nana, anita and steve, pam, and anyone else who I may have missed due to my exhaustion. Mom, your brownies were awesome! Coming up next… to Hong Kong Island!

*It is now the year of the ox. The Chinese aren’t THAT weird. Usually.

Airports? Boring Blog entry

(Lianna) 

So we all got to the airport at 4 am… or should I say most of us got there at 4 am. I won’t name the late comer (I’ll give you a hint… he’s blonde). We were all extremely tired and the fact that we would soon be in CHINA hadn’t really kicked in yet. So we got on our plane and fell asleep… it was long. Unfortunately however, none of us slept very long. So Allison, Mark, and I played cards including an epic, hour-long, game of war. Alex, who chose to be separated by the aisle from us watched TV and listened to his ipod and did other such things. That flight was pretty bad: cramped, long, etc. First casualty of the trip? Allison left Twilight on the plane, good thing she wasn’t upset about it.

We got into San Francisco at 10am-ish. We found our gate, which happened to be 12 million miles away from the one we came into. Then we went by twos to get food. We could tell the plane was HUGE, but the gate was pretty empty. Bad sign about the economy? You could say that… but GREAT sign for us… I’ll skip the boring airport time.

We got on the plane and there was absolutely no one on it. Everyone on the plane, except those with babies and small children, got a whole row for themselves! Mark, Alex, and I each chose rows with 4 seats, which made seeping pretty comfortable (well, as comfortable as sleeping on a plane can be). Alex wanted to build a fort in his row, but he didn’t end up doing it, he was out for most of the flight. The flight attendants were SO nice and helpful and delightful and happy, unlike the mean ones going to San Francisco. We had asked for a meal to be left for mark if he was asleep and the flight attendants were so amazing that he got offered the same meal THREE times!! The food was actually pretty good for airline food. We had the choice of Chinese style chicken and rice or meatloaf, then they gave us Chinese noodles (very much like ramen noodles). Then for the “light snack” prior to landing we could have a soggy turkey sandwich or disgusting looking noodles… but the first two meals were good. The international flight, while 14 hours long was actually a pretty pleasant experience. We are all hoping that the flight going home will be just as good.

O and there were lots of really cute Asian babies on our plane, they amused us. One of the little boys had shoes that flashed bright colors! It was so exciting! You will see a trend in our blogs that we like blinking things, specifically blinking shoes. So, long story short… because I don’t know how I managed to make this blog about airplanes this long… we got here safe and, well… exhausted.

2009 Exchange Group has landed in Hong Kong!

The 2009 Exchange group departed from Logan airport at 6:15am Saturday morning, Jan 24.  Stay tuned for further postings!