A funny thing happened on the way to the train station..

[I know it's been a while since I've posted anything about my travels back in January and February. You probably thought I forgot about it. Rest assured, I didn't. I've just been busy. Now back to posts on my winter break travels.]

In the last post about my trip, Leslie & I were in Hangzhou. Our plan was to travel from Hangzhou to Shanghai via the high-speed bullet train that connects the two cities, however we were only semi-successful in completing this goal. However, before we get to that, I have a funny little story about our cab ride from our hostel in Hangzhou to the Hangzhou train station.

As I mentioned, Leslie and I took a cab from the area our hostel was in to the train station. Since our hostel was located off a pedestrian street, we had to first walk out to a larger intersection with cars on it to flag our cab. After a short while, we were able to hail a cab, get in and let the cab driver know that we wanted to go to the train station. The driver, a woman, nods her head and says okay and takes off in the direction of the train station.

After driving a minute or two, we stop at a red light and the driver begins speaking to me. At first, I thought she was perhaps speaking to someone on the phone via a bluetooth or a hands-free device (that's what New York cab drivers are always doing), however after a split second I realize she's talking to me.

She asks me if I would mind and if we weren't pressed for time (we weren't), if she could stop the cab at the convenience store across the intersection so she could run in and use the restroom. She went on explain that at the train station, there's no place for her to pull over and run to the restroom. Since Leslie and I were in no rush, and I understood her urgency, I said it was fine (she also promised to stop the meter so we wouldn't be charged for her bathroom break).

During this entire interaction, the cab driver was incredibly polite and gracious. It just further shows how nice the people of Hangzhou were to use. However, since this entire conversation was in Mandarin, I can only imagine what Leslie first thought when the driver pulled over & ran out of the cab towards the restroom at the convenience store. After I explained it to her though, we had a good laugh.

It's definitely a good anecdote of our trip though.

Now back to the trains. Earlier, I mentioned that Leslie and I wanted to take the high-speed bullet train (the G train0 that allows you to travel a distance of roughly 190 km (118 miles) in a mere 45 minutes. However, since the train ticket agents we purchased the tickets from in Beijing weren't the most helpful nor clued-in of train agents, we ended up on the second-fastest train (the D train) that takes you the same distance in 1 1/2 hours, which is still impressively quick if you think about it.

D Train

Interior of the D train

Regardless, Leslie and I got to Shanghai just fine, despite a mess up about which Shanghai train station we were going to. (The previously mentioned clueless train ticket agents had said we were going to the Shanghai South Train station, but we ended up at the Shanghai Hongqiao Airport train station. Good thing Shanghai's metro system is very thorough.)

For those of you fretting about our missed opportunity, don't worry. Leslie & I made up for it by take the Maglev train, a high-speed electro-magnetic train that goes from Shanghai out to Pudong Airport, when we were leaving Shanghai. Although on our trip to the airport the train speed only climbed up to a "measly" 289 mph (465 km/hr), during it's fastest runs (which are normally in the afternoon), it can go up to 315 mph (507 km/hr).

Maglev Train

Shame on you PKU

Recently, Peking University (北京大学, or as it's more commonly known 北大) announced they were going to expand their program of offering "consultations" to students they deemed "problematic."

Included on the list of students that should receive such counseling are students who have academic problems, come from poor backgrounds, are addicted to the Internet and have "radical" ideas.

What exactly consistutes "radical ideas" is beyond me though. I thought college and  university was the best time for students to broaden their thinking and challenge their beliefs.

It's one thing to offer students support should they choose to seek it, it's another thing to single some students out as "problematic."

All I have to say is, Peking Univeristy, being the prestigious university you are, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

The Telegraph (UK): Peking University to screen students for 'radical thoughts'
China.org.cn (China): PKU to expand problem student consultations

For the record, I'm a student at Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学), not Peking University. It's probably a good thing too, or else I'd probably deemed a problem student as well. At least I can say I'm American and use that as an excuse.

Thank you, thank you

When I wrote the two earlier posts on marriage in China (read part 1 here and part 2 here), I didn't really think anyone was actually going to click through and read the entire thing (aside from my parents, who are semi-obligated to read this blog). However, as the responses I've received prove, I was quite mistaken.


So I just wanted to write a quick thank you to those of you who read those posts on marriage. A special thank you also goes out to those of you who took the time to respond with their own thoughts on the subject matter. Feedback is always welcome because it often gives me a new perspective to chew on.

Any comments you have on my posts are welcome. And if you prefer a less public forum for your comments, feel free send me an e-mail.

Also, look forward to more blog posts (and photos!) from my winter break travels that should be going up soon.

China, why must you make my life difficult?

Fine China. Block Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Blogger and other random sites you deem as a "threat." I don't agree with you, but I'm in your country, I'll play by your rules.

But, don't block my e-mail. That's unnecessary. Or make it practically impossible to load. That's just obnoxious.

Good thing there are ways around the Great Firewall.

Lovely

Meet "widespread dust's" meaner, grittier sibling, "blowing dust."

Note also it's blowing at 29 mph (~46.7 km/hour). And yes, you can feel/taste this dust in your mouth and lungs. Fantastic.

Clearly, Beijing's weather isn't very hospitable.

Ready, Set...Marry?? Part II

Marriage. I don't think I've given the topic of marriage much serious thought as I have this past year. Granted, this is perhaps at least in part due the fact that more and more people I know from high school and college are getting engaged/ married and the age gap between those I know who are engaged/married has become increasing smaller, or in some cases, non-existent.

Taikang Lu, Shanghai

Not to mention that I've recently celebrated another birthday (hello, 23) and while I'm still very young, I have to admit it doesn't sound nearly as young as when you say you're 20/21/22.

But mostly, I think the real reason why this subject has really pestering me lately is largely due to the environment around me. As I mentioned in the blog post before this, "Ready, Set..Marry?" China has quite the obsession with young people getting married, particularly before the age of 30.

Even in the classroom setting, this mentality has wormed itself into the curriculum. I remember last semester, the topic of marriage was often used in examples explaining grammatical structures and concepts. For instance, when explaining the term 连 (lián), which grammatically is used similarly to the word "even" or "already," our teacher used the example of "她连45岁没有结婚, " （tā lián 45 suì hái méi jiéhūn） which translates to "She is 45 years old and still hasn't married."

Another time, while trying to explain the grammatical usage of the word 才(cái), which is roughly used similarly to the word "finally" in English, our text book stated, "她35岁才结婚" (tā 35 suì cái jiéhūn.), which translates to "She finally married at 35 years old." Why the teachers and the textbooks couldn't come up with different examples using time or meals or anything else is beyond me.

Ready, Set...Marry??

Some days here in China, I feel like I'm living in the midst of a Jane Austen novel. No, not in the nightly-balls-and-parties-and-touring-grand-English-estates sense, but more in the you-must-get-married-by-X-age sense. As much as I love reading a good Jane Austen novel occasionally, living in a what I like to call a marriage-obsessed culture is a different story altogether. 

To call China a marriage-obsessed culture is not far-fetched. There is a lot of emphasis here on finding the 'right' person, getting married and starting a family, particularly on females here. In fact, the term for an unmarried woman over the age of 27 is 剩女(shèng nǚ) meaning leftover woman. No, I am not kidding, though I wish I was. (If you think 27 is rather young to be disparaging over a lack of husband, at least one of the articles I read on "sheng nu" alleged that a girl becomes a "sheng nu" at after the very young age of 25. Ack.)

The emphasis on marriage is so great that during the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year, many parents and singles headed to the temple fairs for the sole purpose of trying to find a potential marriage match. At the Beijing International Sculpture Park, an estimated 50,000+ people visited the park's love-matching event where parents and singles could consult relationship experts, find potential matches and look at the estimated 5,000 personal advertisements posted by other people looking for a potential partner.

Across town, a similar event at Ditan Park averaged 150,000 visitors per day to it's seven-day match-making event. Outside of the event, more desperate parents unwilling to pay the even entrance fee held signs touting their offspring's accomplishments in hopes of finding them a good match.

In Shanghai, the match-making fervor isn't limited to the Spring Festival. Every weekend, in People's Park in the center of Shanghai, parents gather craning their necks to look at papers posted on bushes touting a potential match's good attributes including background, education and physical traits, all in hopes that the next meeting they arrange for their son/daughter will lead to a good marriage.

The pressure to get married isn't just limited to the heterosexual set either. In Shanghai, in contrast to the open marriage market in People's Park, there is also a thriving fake-marriage market, in which lesbians and gays gather in hopes of finding someone to enter into a fake marriage with. 

Now that's something I've never seen forecasted before...

Who knew "widespread dust" was considered a weather phenomenea...

Good thing I don't have allergies.

US Passport Ownership by State

As I was going through the blogosphere the other day, I ran across this infographic on Gadling that breaks down United States passport ownership state by state. I thought it was interesting so I'm posting it here. I'm proud to say that I'm from a state where over 60% of the population owns a passport and not from...oh, let's say Mississippi.

http://blog.cgpgrey.com/how-many-americans-have-a-passport-the-percentages-state-by-state/

With saying that though, I do realize that passport ownership is also dependent on wealth and opportunity to travel abroad. If you have no opportunities nor the money to afford to go abroad, then there's no need for you to apply and pay for a passport. Despite what it may seem, there were plenty of Americans where going abroad is only a pipe dream.

So on that note, I'm grateful to have this opportunity to live abroad here in Beijing, even if it means dealing with squat toilets.

Quilted pajamas, the newest fashion craze?

As we were making our way to our hostel in Hangzhou for the first time after just arriving, Leslie and I noticed an older woman walking by dressed in a matching quilted pajama set. We thought it was a bit odd to go out dressed like that, but we figured she was probably just running a short errand and she was the only one dressed like that. After all, who are we to judge another person's fashion sense? (Not to mention, I've been guilty of running to the store in sweats in the past as well.)

However, before the day even ended, we realized this 'trend' was not limited to just one person. It was actually pretty common to see people walk around (men, women, old, young and children alike), do their shopping and errands in these quilted pajama sets. It seemed to be quite the trend actually.

I think in total, by the time we left Hangzhou, we counted somewhere between 30 to 40 different people wearing these odd quilted pajama sets. Forty may not sound like a lot, until you realize we were really only in Hangzhou for two days.

Although, I will concede one thing. Despite being a bit odd to where outside of the house, those pajama sets did look warm.  Here are some pictures so you can judge for yourself.

Old Hangzhou

Near our fantastic hostel in Hangzhou, was an older portion of the city where many older locals still resided. As we meandered through the area, we actually found a small food market area where all the locals go daily to shop for fresh vegetables, fruit and other edible items for that's day meals.

Whenever I travel, I love to browse around the local food markets. Markets always are the best place to observe the local life, so I was happy that we found one by accident in Hangzhou.

The market that we ran into in Hangzhou was half indoors and half outdoors. At this market, you could find anything you might need to make a meal--vegetables, fruit, meat, dried goods, spices, fish and live poultry.

Yes, I said live poultry. Chinese people like to get their food as fresh as possible, meaning it's best if you actually met the chicken you're going to eat while it's still alive. Much of the fish being sold as well at the market was also still swimming.

For me, coming from my Chinese background seeing all the live poultry and fish didn't really bother me. After all, this is basically the way it's been done for years in China and in the US, my parents still prefer to buy live fish as opposed to frozen fish to cook.

But for Leslie, I think she might have been a bit startled to see just how much freshness really mattered to Chinese home cooks. She was also quite interested to see the vendors selling all the different soy products from tofu to bean curd sheets to dried tofu.What can I say? Tofu is really what cheese is like to the West. While cheese in the West comes in many shapes in sizes, in China, the tofu possibilities are seemingly endless.

Pictures from the older part of Hangzhou shall now commence forth, including one of (the woman we dubbed as) the tofu lady.

 

Tofu lady

More pictures on Angela Photo Musings.