Chinese Souvenirs: Iron Paintings
The US may not do anything for International Women’s Day (March 8th), but China does. There’s always something happening on that day. When I lived in Hefei in 2005, the local government held a big show at the park and asked the female foreign teachers from my school to perform a few musical numbers. As a thank you, the government gave them all one of these iron paintings. I got one, too, just for showing up with them. I’m that special.
The painting is of the welcoming pine from the Yellow Mountains. It’s one of the most iconic features of the mountain range, and yet… I don’t think I actually noticed it when I was there. Guess I missed out. I was told this painting was made from real iron from the Yellow Mountains, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.
Chinese Restaurant: Gil Wonton
Gil Wonton is a chain of wonton shops that’s easy to miss, because it’s always a small sliver of a building crammed in between a bunch of other stores. I wouldn’t say they have the best wontons in China, either, but the cute, yellow bowls are always a highlight.
In Chinese, wontons are called “huntun.” They are similar to dumplings but are chunkier and usually served in a broth. There is also a tradition surrounding wontons, at least in southern areas of China. They are eaten on the first day of summer as a way to ensure good health for the rest of the season. I had some today. I damn well better not get sick.
Celebrating Christmas and New Years in China
A post about garbage probably wasn’t the best way to start the new year. If it’s any consolation, there may have been a Christmas card in one of those trash bags. But let’s try again. Now that the big holiday season is over, I’m feeling more homesick now than ever before. That’s what happens when you miss two Christmas / New Years celebrations in a row.
Well, these holidays aren’t entirely absent from China. All the stores have some kind of Christmas decoration up, and most people even get January 1st off (though not Christmas day). The outer aesthetic of the holiday is still there. The problem, as a foreigner, is that this season has always been about spending time with my family. And exchanging lots and lots of gifts.
In China, acknowledging a Western holiday is just an excuse for people to eat at a fancy restaurant. Their definition of fancy, though, is typically the restaurants I avoid. So my foreign friends and I went out for pizza and pool on Christmas and Japanese food and karaoke for New Years. It was the most non-traditional way I’ve ever celebrated anything. It was still nice, but… next time, I want turkey and presents.
11-11 is Singles’ Day in China
I totally forgot it was Singles’ Day, which is easy to do, since virtually nothing is done to celebrate such a melancholy holiday. Somebody just looked at the date (11-11), noticed how many ones were in it, and decided to draw attention to single people, as if Valentines Day didn’t already do a bang up job of that. Chinese culture celebrates two Valentines Day, anyway, recognizing the Western February date and their own date (August 26th this year). Yeah, that’s a bummer for the guys, but flower street vendors sure do well.
Rafting through Zhanggong Cave in Yixing
I was a little low on things to do for Halloween. Visiting a cave, however, seemed like an appropriate activity. While Yixing is mostly famous for its teapots, there are also three caves in the area. Zhanggong is the least popular of the three, but we chose it, because… uh… why did we choose it, again? Zhanggong Cave is small, and most of the scenery inside is actually man-made. I could tell, because it was falling apart. The cheesy, colored lights don’t help the atmosphere much, either.
The cave is part of a larger park, and though it is the main attraction there (and the most expensive if you pay for everything individually), the other activities are what made the trip fun. They had two rafting “adventures” you could take, an hour-long drift down a narrow canal or a leisurely row in the dark underneath the cave. I’m glad I went, at least to see something besides another pagoda or temple (or DVD), but, overall, the teapots really are the best thing about Yixing.
P.S. The caption contest is closed, and a winner has been selected. Congratulations, Joe!
The Night Sky in Changzhou
Ooh, spooky. Hey, that reminds me. Halloween is coming up… and yet I’m still stuck in a country that doesn’t embrace trick-or-treating. This is the second time I’m going to miss the big holiday season, and it’s finally making me a little homesick. Don’t forget that the caption contest ends the day after Halloween. At least there’s always that to look forward to!
Nanshan Bamboo Forest in Liyang
National Day may not be the best time to travel to Shanghai or Beijing or Xi’an, but it’s a great opportunity to hit up nearby places of lesser interest. Like Liyang. There’s a bus from Changzhou to Liyang every 15 minutes, so there’s no rush to beat the holiday crowds. And in the forest, most of the tourists headed straight to the cable car, leaving us with a relatively quiet walk up the mountain.
I was here last year for the foreign teachers’ retreat, but I didn’t even make it to the halfway mark before having to head back to catch a bus. I almost had to do that again. The buses to and from the Liyang bus station stop running a little too early, which is the same problem my family and I rant into at Huanglong. We would have had to run through Huanglong to see it all. I did run through the bamboo forest to see it all. I guess the whole point is to come, take a picture, and leave to tell your friends about it.
Hey, guys, I saw some bamboo. Neener, neener, neener.
Yinqixing, Shanghai’s Indoor Skiing Dump
Avid snowboarders (and skiers, though I choose to recognize those wimps in parentheses) probably shouldn’t expect a lot from an indoor skiing area. In the case of Shanghai’s Yinqixing, it’s one short hill divided into three levels of difficulty that can be ridden top-to-bottom in 20 seconds. Watching the Chinese patrons, however, it was clear most of them had never gone skiing before and were just enjoying the thrill of “speeding” across snow and wiping out halfway down. But if they knew any better, they would know they were getting ripped off.
I was fully aware I wouldn’t be getting the full mountain and trees experience and was planning to have fun, anyway, but things started off on a sour note when we arrived and saw that the prices had been raised 40 yuan. Wait a minute! I had checked the website in the morning before heading out, and it said nothing about a National Day surcharge. That extra money was only there to take advantage of us, too, because the park wasn’t even fully-operational during this important week.
The cashier confided in us that the snow wasn’t very good, and the third (advanced) part of the hill was closed. This was what we came to Shanghai to do, though, so we bit the bullet and paid for an hour (138 yuan). The cashier was right; the snow was horribly slushy and shallow. The beginner’s part of the hill wasn’t steep at all, and the lifts to take you up were broken. The park didn’t get them running again until we’d already been there for 30 minutes (and after they started running, they kept shutting down every few minutes), meaning we spent most of the time lugging our skis up the hill. Man, I was so pissed off.
On Yinqixing’s behalf, they did warn us about some of these setbacks, but the broken lift pushed me over the edge. I don’t care if it is a major holiday, you simply cannot charge people extra when the equipment’s not working (and don’t get me started on the missing third tier, either). This is so typical of China. They’ll start construction on a tourist attraction, cover up significant parts of it, and still ask for the same (or even a higher) price. It’s unacceptable, and I let Yinqixing know that.
At first, the cashier didn’t care about our complaints and thought our request for a refund was ridiculous. “I told you about the snow,” she said. “It’s a national holiday. The lifts were working. The website doesn’t lie. Nobody else ever complains.” Then she called the manager and, thinking we couldn’t understand Chinese, vented her frustrations to him. I don’t think she even relayed the complete reason why we wanted our money back, but the manager, after three calls, finally agreed to refund 30 yuan each. Better, but I still wasn’t pleased with the park’s overall performance and vowed never to come skiing here again. I advise you to do the same.
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