I don't know why this word popped into my head just now, but I realized that I never use this word even though it is sooo much fun to say. One could say that my blog tantalizes the readers by showing my adventures in China.... ahaha
One Tantalizing tale after the next...
Anywho, this tale is anything but tantalizing, I'm going to talk about my New Years (Chinese and Western). The Western New Years came first. It was HORRIBLE. I was separated from my friends, the club I had paid good money to go to was boring, cold and played bad music, my buzz wore off, I left with out seeing anyone on the countdown to the new year, I paid for an overpriced taxi ride back, I was really cold, and the icing on the cake....I left my keys inside my apartment so I was stuck sitting in a bar hoping that my roommate would come back soon while an annoying barfly chattered on about some kind of nonsensical subject. The start of the night was OK, one might even say 'just so-so' as the Chinese English speakers are taught to say. It just went downhill from there. :(
Chinese New Years--Now thats what I call a new years "Nian Kuai Le!!!" Even though most of my friends weren't here for the new years I still had a great time. I relaxed during the day and in the evening went down to a Hutong called Ho Hai (hope I spelled that right). This was fun because the entire city was in a festive mood. Fireworks and firecrackers could be heard from every direction. Ho Hai is also the home of somewhat a karaoke (KTV) and bar central. There is a lake in the middle of it all and on one side is the Ancient Bell Tower and the other is the Ancient Drum Tower. It was kind of cool to be celebrating a Chinese holiday in china in the shadow of these ancient buildings. I turned in early, in bed by 1pm but while out I met some new people and gained a new group of friends which was the nicest thing that had happened to me all winter.
February- Mother and Father Visit.
So my mom and dad decided to visit me and go to a few other places while they were over here. They started in the Philippines, visiting the Reinosos, went to Hong Kong to visit my sister Nicole, then came to Beijing. Of course, seeing as I'm known as their "Best Daughter", I know they had the best time while visiting me. I was finishing up work so I had their full and undivided attention, They stayed in Beijing for about 4 days and then we visited Xi'an and Shanghai
BJ- They went to the great wall and the Ming Tombs while I was at work, but I went to the Tian'an'men and the Forbidden City with them. The last day was some kind of cultural tour where we saw the bird's nest (Olympic Stadium), went to a Tea House and toured a Hutong (a traditional Chinese neighborhood) where someone actually cooked us lunch! It was the best Chinese of the whole tour, in my opinion. *Pictures below in order: Temple of Heaven (Tian'tan), Llama Temple (Yonghegong), part of Tian'an'men?, my mother and I at the Bird's Nest (Olympic stadium)
Xi'an - This was a good t"rip, we saw the terracotta warriors and some other random things including a cool night market in the center of town. We were in Xi'an for all of two days, whereupon my dad had decided it was the most dusty city that he had ever seen in his entire life! LOL! You should have heard him after we finished the trip, in the elevator (excited look on his face) "You just wait, when we get to the room, we are gonna have a conference to talk about what we just saw today" ahah I had no idea what my father was just about dying to express to us and as soon as we were settled in the room...."I wanna tell ya that Xi'an is SO DANG DUSTY! I mean WOW, it's gotta be the most dusty place I have Ever seen!" For those of you that know my father, picture him saying this with the most incredulous look on his face LOL! When I came back to Beijing, I was talking about him saying that to a lady who works for one of my companies (of course I imitated my father) and she could not stop giggling, she definitely got a kick out of it! (Below are terracotta warriors, and Xi'an drum tower lit up at night with the wall on the far right)
Personally I loved Xi'an I didn't think it was that dusty and dirty, I think that Beijing is a bit worse. It was a charming little city, little being 9 million people. It had an ancient outer wall that encased downtown and central Xi'an and also is the city closest to the site where the Terracotta Warriors were discovered. That was really cool, I might even venture to say cooler than the Great Wall.
Shanghai - Shanghai was really amazing, it seemed like an upper-class New York style Beijing. What amazed me when I got there was the simple fact that many more people in Shanghai have a sufficient grasp of the English language. You could try to ask someone something on the street but more often than not, they will answer you in English. Kinda nice, kinda strange. It was interesting to see the different styles in architecture because the history of Shanghai is much shorter than that of Beijing and Xi'an. Xi'an was the site of the first capital of China, and because of beliefs in Feng Shui, (Fung Shway? for literal pronunciation), the capital was moved to Beijing because it was believed to have more Feng Shui than Xi'an. Shanghai is only about 200+ years old, whereas BJ and Xi'an are many centuries older. I would say that Shanghai is a cool place to visit, but is wayyy too western and english oriented for my liking. I would much rather a more unique Chinese culture experience like in cities similar to Beijing. (Pictures below: Downtown Shanghai, the other two are pictures of a rich person's parent's summer relaxation palace/home)
[What also comes to mind is the fact that Nicole traveled to Sth America before I did but she stayed in the boring European Buenos Aires. I HATED Buenos Aires but loved the authentic South American feel of Santiago albeit a very different and strange hispanic feel. The same rings true for our current situation. She is loving the really western Hong Kong while I love the very Chinese Beijing. -She can be given the benefit of the doubt though because I have yet to visit HK]
Anywho, this is about all that I need to update you on except the minor happenings here in Beijing like: I just got a new job at a Design Institute as an English teacher (the entire school program teaches classes in English), my boyfriend should be due to visit, and OH YEA! I'm not coming anytime soon! See you around X-mas! Zaijian! Ending on a bad Chinglish sign, this was a sign in the Bathroom of a Ramada Inn in Shanghai, a How-To-Operate-The-Faucet Guide LOL WHA?
