March 9th, 2010 by Shane
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Maybe you’ve never really thought about it but, are bathrooms the same everywhere on earth? Of course not. So it shouldn’t surprise you that in China one must often squat to use the toilet. There are western-style toilets around, usually for the handicapped, or in western-style places, like hotels, KFC, McDonald’s, etc. I guess if you wanted to, you could probably manage to visit China and never use a squat toilet, but why miss out on the fun? Shortly before the 2008 Olympics and my first trip to China, my dad forwarded me a silly email, (clearly written by someone like this guy (not my dad)), ridiculing China for having squat toilets. I think my dad was trying to scare me or at least just jesting. Personally I wasn’t afraid of squat toilets per se, but afraid of using them incorrectly. Like what happened if I uh,..went to the bathroom, on my pants? That’d be a shitty situation. (har har!) Long story short, that never happened and I learned it wasn’t all that difficult, in fact now I’m totally okay with it. All it took a little practice, and remembering to bring a package of tissues with you wherever you go.
I had,in fact, considered writing a blog post about toilets in China, but this post from the Lost Laowai Blog covers it pretty well so I’ll share it with you.
March 4th, 2010 by Shane
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An early morning in Shenzhen, some dumplings for breakfast, and a taxi to the ferry station began our trip to Hong Kong. 
Upon setting foot on the ferry, I reminded Tyler, “you’re leaving China for a long time man”. “But isn’t Hong Kong part of China?” he responded. Well, yeah, it’s “part” of China, but in reality, it’s nothing like China. An hour later on a fairly empty ferry and we were waiting in line to get our passports stamped, granting us entry into Hong Kong.
After getting into Hong Kong, we left the ferry station, into the attached building, which turned out to be a mall. That was convenient I guess, we found an ATM machine so that we could get some Hong Kong dollars, since they don’t even use the same money as mainland China does. We had two options to get to the place we were staying, take a taxi or take the metro. The only difficulty was we weren’t exactly sure where we were, and couldn’t find any sign of a metro station nearby. So we eventually conceded to taking a taxi. It took a few tries, but finally we found a driver who knew where we wanted to go. It wasn’t easily noticeable at first, but oh shit, these guys drive on the other side of the road! Clearly Britain had been here before. The driver happily took across the harbor to Kowloon (a section of HK) and the place we were staying. Chung King Mansion, was the name of the place. Sounds pretty swanky right? Hardly. It’s actually a huge converted “project” building that has more than a dozen “guesthouses” some licensed, some not. As soon as we got out of the taxi there were quite a few middle eastern and Indian guys trying to help us with our bags, and get us into their guesthouses. We declined and walked through the lines of restaurants, net bars, and people selling random crap, this place seemed pretty shady, and on first sight, scared me a little that we were even staying here. Finally we managed to find the only one, out of 12 or so elevators that went where we needed it to. Upon arriving on the 12th floor and getting our tiny and expensive room, I actually felt rather comfortable. Looking online the night before, I had read many good reviews, saying that this guesthouse was pretty respectable and not too expensive compared to some of the others in the building.
» Read more: Hong Kong
March 2nd, 2010 by Shane
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Note: These posts are a little late, as I’m already back from my trip and started school again earlier this week. They’re late because didn’t have nearly as much time as I thought I would to post them while traveling. Now you know.
Guangzhou was the first stop on our tour of southern China. Getting off the airplane was nice, I didn’t need to wear my coat, and what’s this?
There was actually green vegetation outside! Something Tyler nor I had seen for at least a couple months. Since we were only in Guangzhou for about a day, we simply roamed around, checked out the Pearl River, sampled some of the good local foods (Egg McMuffins are nothing compared to the egg biscuit I had!) and in the evening went tor a night ferry ride on the Pearl, to see the beautifully lit up buildings and bridges.
The next day, about an hour train ride later and we were in Shenzhen, mere kilometers from the border to Hong Kong. We didn’t do a lot in Shenzhen because it’s mostly just a border city and shopping haven for those coming from Hong Kong to buy cheap goods. Not to mention, so much of the shopping and eateries were still closed for the Chinese New Year “golden week” (what they call their week long national holiday). Thus there wasn’t a lot to do in the city, but it was alright, we relaxed and had some really spicy noodles as well as some local beer while we planned on how to get to Hong Kong, as well as what we’d do when we arrived.
March 1st, 2010 by Shane
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The Year of the Tiger is here, and I was in Xi’an to celebrate with my Chinese family. Tyler and I rolled into the Xi’an train station at about 8:30 AM and immediately decided we needed to find some breakfast. Unfortunately, due to the holiday, this wasn’t the easiest thing to do as many of the street vendors who sell wonderful breakfast foods were shut down for the holiday. We decided to take a couple quick bus hops to my buddy’s favorite Hu La Tang place for breakfast. Hu la tang is a spicy beef-stew with a slightly slimy consistency due to the corn-starch added to it. We both enjoyed a nice bowl with bread and a bottle of bing feng (a local orange soda) for breakfast. Soon after we caught the 336 bus back to my school in north Xi’an. Upon arrival, we got settled, made up a bed for Tyler and showered before going out in search of some lunch.
Later in the afternoon my dad came to pick us up from my school and take us downtown to my grandparent’s home where we’d be spending the holiday. Along the way we stopped at a small fireworks vendor on the street corner. The amount and size of the fireworks was quite impressive! Sure, I’ve seen a lot of fireworks at warehouse sellers around July 4th, but these fireworks, they were huge! Apparently the biggest fireworks vendors are able to legally sell, at least in North Dakota, are 500 grams or less, due to safety concerns. Well, China has none of that. There were very large items for sale, many large canister-style munitions weighing in at 3000+ grams were for sale, for less than 200 Yuan (about $30). We bought a few big ones, and a large string of firecrackers for later in the evening.
» Read more: Chinese New Year in Xi’an
February 27th, 2010 by Shane
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Harbin Snow & Ice Festival
Arriving in Harbin was bittersweet. We were happy to be there but Marina was still very worried about what she was going to do about her missing ID card. How was she going to stay in a hotel, how was she going to do anything, how was she going to get back to Beijing? Not only that, but we didn’t actually have train tickets to go back to Taiyuan and Xi’an for Spring Festival yet. Of course I tried to comfort her, telling her that, no matter what, we’d be okay and I’d make sure she got home for Spring Festival either by train or plane. Of course, my word only means so much, considering I can’t really speak Chinese. She must have felt pretty stressed, since she’s practically babysitting two foreigners.
» Read more: Harbin & Yabuli
February 15th, 2010 by Shane
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After about 24 hours in Pingyao I awoke relatively early in the morning to head to the bus station. From there I was able to get on a bus for ¥25 RMB to Taiyuan. On the bus I chatted with a guy from Nanjing. He asked me the same typical questions, like why I’m here, where I live, where I’m from, etc. This guy told me he really enjoyed photography so he showed me a lot of his work, a lot of which was quite good.
Upon arriving in Taiyuan about 2 hours later I was greeted by Marina. I was pretty happy to see her because she had been in Taiyuan for a little over three weeks before I arrived. We spent a good part of the afternoon just walking around and seeing things in her hometown. A bit later on we met up with
Back to School
two of her friends (one of which we visited in Chengdu in November) and hung out with them as well. They showed me their high school, we ate some local snacks as well as a nice dinner and then went to a club for a few drinks. A very enjoyable day without all the touristy sightseeing.
The next morning I went to pick-up Marina outside her house so we could walk to the train station. There I met her mother who wanted to come out and see who this boy, her daughter was going traveling with, was. We didn’t really talk, but I said “hello” and shook her hand and 30 seconds later Marina and I were walking to the train station.
» Read more: Taiyuan & Beijing
Maybe you’ve never really thought about it but, are bathrooms the same everywhere on earth? Of course not. So it shouldn’t surprise you that in China one must often squat to use the toilet. There are western-style toilets around, usually for the handicapped, or in western-style places, like hotels, KFC, McDonald’s, etc. I guess if you wanted to, you could probably manage to visit China and never use a squat toilet, but why miss out on the fun? Shortly before the 2008 Olympics and my first trip to China, my dad forwarded me a silly email, (clearly written by someone like this guy (not my dad)), ridiculing China for having squat toilets. I think my dad was trying to scare me or at least just jesting. Personally I wasn’t afraid of squat toilets per se, but afraid of using them incorrectly. Like what happened if I uh,..went to the bathroom, on my pants? That’d be a shitty situation. (har har!) Long story short, that never happened and I learned it wasn’t all that difficult, in fact now I’m totally okay with it. All it took a little practice, and remembering to bring a package of tissues with you wherever you go.
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