David: China Trip Day 14

So as you know Day 14 marked my final day in China. I'm back in the United States writing this now, and it's a little late because I'm still trying to adapt to this time change lol (China's time is 12 hours ahead so it feels like the morning right now). But anyway, we started off the day packing up all our stuff and went to a park not too far away from our hotel. We just relaxed, said our goodbyes to the new people we met, and headed to the airport for pretty much the rest of the day. I spent 15 hours total on planes on my way back lol. SUCKED, but I'm here and finally back. Saw two sunsets while I was traveling home and slept the rest of the way. China Trip x TKFV. To all the homies in China, thanks again for the good times. PEACE

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David: China Trip Day 13

To start off the day we went to the Temple of Heaven. When we entered there were all types of performances going on that we got to watch for awhile from opera to regular Chinese R&B. Which was weird again lol, but I can't understand it anyway so there's not much else to think about it. After all the performances we went to check out all the touristy things. The biggest one was the supposed Center of the Earth lol. There was a little circle in the middle of a big area that you could stand on and be at the center of the whole world. Of course I got up there and threw up my OKAY!! OKAY!! signs with my friend Michael. Only problem was that the photographer didn't get the platform in the bottom of the picture... which is the whole point. BUT I'll post it anyway for everyone to see. After the Temple of Heaven we left to go to the Pearl Market. Which is a giant shopping mall with jewelry (mostly pearls like the title says lol) and then a lot of knockoff items from iPhones to designer clothing. Pretty much anything you want you can get a knockoff of in China. And everything looks almost like the real thing lol. Tempting, but after shopping around the Pearl Market I went to a mall with our host Hu Jia and got a few things there. One very special present for a friend of mine when I get back too. When we were done we left to go meet up with the group at dinner. And after dinner we walked around this park area with a big pond, restaurants, bars, and stores and just hung out for awhile and enjoyed the rest of the night. And now I'm packing to leave for home. Staying till lunch tomorrow and then getting on a plane to head back to Vermont. There will be a Day 14 post when I get back home and there will be a return trip to this region of the world. It's been a good time for sure and I can't wait to come back.
TKFV x CHINA...yerrr


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David: China Trip Day 12

Today we spent our last few hours in Ji'nan saying goodbye to our hosts and visiting Baotu Spring Park. At the park we got our first taste of Chinese Opera... Which is a little weird for my ears, but it was cool to see something so valued in Chinese history lol. The music and loud screaming in a different language was a little hard for me to listen to, but it was pretty interesting at the same time. Besides that we walked around for a little bit, and the whole park is beautiful. There were little kids everywhere too... and there's something about the babies here that make you smile lol. Most of them are fitted with pants with holes in the back too so it makes it easy access to poop wherever they are. And literally where ever. We went to a Walmart afterwards to see what the differences were (the only thing really was that there weren't as many people to take pictures of to throw up on People of Walmart and also there were some weird foods everywhere) and there was a kid full out using that little hole in his pants dropping dookies on the Walmart floor while his mom watched... yup lol. After that episode we left for the airport and said goodbye to our fantastic hosts Mr. Xing & Andy... Oh and also our bus driver who couldn't speak a work of English. On our flight to over to Beijing I met a new friend named David Dai who works for a company called Tesco, which is a British international grocery and general merchandising chain... kind of like a Walmart in the UK oddly enough lol. Lots of Walmart type stores in this post today. But he told me a lot about himself and China. He was born in China, but studied at the University of San Diego and said he loved it there. Which was interesting because when I met Eric (Day 10 post) he was very scared about going to the United States because he thought he would be outcasted like many Chinese students that come to America. Besides his personal life though he told me a lot about food, drinks, and Chinese nightlife. Which was good to hear some new information, especially from an expert who deals with things like food and drinks for his job. When we landed in Beijing we headed to our hotel, relaxed in our rooms for a little, and then went to dinner... which has probably been the best dinner I've had all trip so far lol. I liked everything that was served. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and that's where I am now. Kinda tired so I'm going to end it here. Last full day in Beijing tomorrow.
Day 12... almost over.
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David: China Trip Day 11

We started the day saying our goodbyes and set off for Ji'nan, but on the way we stopped at Mount Tai. For those that don't know Mount Tai is one of the most famous mountains on the east coast of China. Instead of taking the 6 hour hike to the top though we took the transportation they had to the top lol. Yup, lazy Americans we are. When we were at the top we did the normal touristy things and took mad pictures of everything. And then we went to the very top of the mountain and had lunch at a hotel... which didn't end up being that good lol, but it's probably because I'm getting sick of all this Chinese food. I've been in a huge pizza and hamburger mood for a few days now. When we finished we walked back down to the gondolas and then took the bus back down to the bottom. Then we took off for the city of Ji'nan. When we arrived we checked into our hotel, which is ping pong inspired lol. They have one whole floor just for ping pong and all the rooms and elevators have ping pong designs on them. But after spending all that time looking around our hotel we headed out into the city to check out some of the nightlife. Our first stop was McDonalds though lol. The menu is weird, but they had McFlurrys so that was a plus. Afterwards we hit a mall to look around a bit and then we headed back to the hotel where I'm at right now. But I'm about to head back out again so I decided to do this now cause I doubt I'll be back for awhile. This is our first and only night in Ji'nan. Gotta make it last...
Ya digg! Day 11.
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David: China Trip Day 10

Today we started off with some touristy things. First we went to Confucius' Temple, then Confucius' Mansion, & ended with the Kong family cemetery (which is Confucius' family name). At all the spots we had a tour guide who explained a lot about the history of every place we visited, but at Confucius' Temple & Confucius' Mansion I met a new person named Eric (his Chinese name is Feng Lu Yao). We compared a lot about the United States culture and the Chinese culture, and he thought it was so funny that guys and girls switch boyfriends and girlfriends so often and things like that. He also laughed when we said we never ate heads lol. He told us there's one Chinese dish that's just fish heads. But the three things I thought were the most interesting was when he was talking about the huge test to get into college, the political views between China and Japan, and also how he's scared to come to the United States because many Chinese men and women are outcasted when they go there. The test they take to get in college determines what level school they'll go to and everything like that. You can't apply different colleges like you can here. You can only pick one and hope you score high enough to get in. Second was the political views, and I thought it was interesting when he said he respected the people but not the political views in Japan because many people in China hate all of Japan because of the history the two countries have had together. When we were at dinner there was a fly and one of the Chinese hosts called it a Japanese lady and tried to swat it... so that shows you what some older Chinese people feel towards the Japanese lol. The last I thought was pretty sad because I see a lot of foreigners outcasted here in the United States and he didn't know why. I didn't really have a good reason for him, but he seemed kind of frustrated that it is like that. Once we said goodbye to Eric though we headed over to the Kong family cemetery (where over 100,000 descendants of the Kong family are buried) and saw Confucius' grave. The whole cemetery was very beautiful. Afterwards we went to our farewell dinner presented by our hosts from Qufu Normal University. I tasted my first pig head which I didn't realize it was that till after dinner lol. Someone showed me a picture of there's from the other table and I couldn't believe it. Always so many heads at the dinner table lol. After dinner was done we said our goodbyes and thank yous and headed back to the hotel. And that ended Day 10

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David: China Trip Day 9

Today we started off the day going to one of the Senior Middle Schools aka a High School, named The Affiliated High School of Qufu Normal University, and sat in on an English class. It was funny listening and watching the class being taught since I understood everything, but all the kids were struggling to get everything lol. We did meet a lot of new people though and exchanged emails and everything like that. Everyone is a lot more shy though compared to high school students in the US. We were talking to some kids and all they said they do in their free time is study lol. They aren't allowed to even have boyfriends or girlfriends till they're in college and were so surprised to hear that we were allowed to in the US. Their school days also went from 7AM in the morning till 9PM at night... which is crazy. I'd probably shoot myself if I had to be in school that long lol. We walked into one study hall and kids literally had a foot of books stacked on their desks. Everyones also obsessed with basketball over here. One kid came up to me and said "I know black people can run and jump really fast and really high... do you play basketball? You look like Tracy McGrady!" I didn't know what to do but laugh lol but I told him I did and we all played basketball for awhile outside which was fun.

Today was pretty much spent at the school, which was good because I finally got a chance to rest a little bit and I met some new people from across the world. It also opened me up into seeing how different high schools are compared to ones in the United States. So overall it was a good day. And that's Day 9.

Word.

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David: China Trip Day 8

This morning we had a lot of time to ourselves so I decided to head out and check the town out in the daylight. I stopped at some stores and other street shops, but didn't want to buy anything so I didn't stay for too long. If you stay for too long the people working start to throw things in your face and different prices to buy things lol. Just walking into any store they always have someone following you around the whole time. But anyway afterwards we heading to Qufu Normal University to hear a lecture about Confucius, which was really interesting to hear the perspective of him from a professor over here. Once we finished that we went to a banquet held just for us where we ate and watched a performance by students from the school, which made a pretty good end to the night. But instead of going back to the hotel my friend Emily and I decided to go back out into the town for awhile. We ended up meeting some new people who could speak a little English which is always refreshing to hear every now and then lol. And to cap off the night I met some dudes that were already throwing up OKAY!! OKAY!! signs so I had to get a picture lol. One of them knew English too and we talked for a bit. And that's Day 8...

TKFV

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David: China Trip Day 7

Today wasn't too amazing at all. This morning we got up in Chongqing, ate breakfast, and then took a two hour flight to Ji'nan which was then followed by a 2.5 hour bus ride to Qufu (birthplace of Confucius). So our day consisted mostly of traveling and sleeping. Nothing too exciting. Qufu, however, is the smallest city we're visiting on this trip with a population of 500,000 (just about the population of Vermont). Today when we arrived in the city we ate a really good dinner, and I tried jellyfish for the first time... which was really weird and had the worst texture ever, but the flavor was good lol. They also had chicken feet but I didn't step close to that one at all. One of them still had a sharp nail on it and that put me away from that for good. Couldn't look at it at all lol. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and then took a little walk around the area to get a sense of where we are and what the city is like. I got these good Chinese gummies too so that was a plus. It was my first purchase in China too lol. And that pretty much ended Day 7. Nothing too crazy today, but what else can you expect from travel days. Tomorrow should be better. Yerr





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David: China Trip Day 6

**Sorry for the delay -- just took a little trip down to Keene State in NH to visit my homie Austin and his awesome friends.. so I have not been by my computer for a bit (which has been a good change of pace). But anyway, here's what has been goin' on on the other side of the globe.

Today was our last full day in Chongqing, and to start off the day we went to a Chinese middle school with kids ages 13-15. The minute we walked in we were swarmed... and this school has 6,000 kids so we were being treated like celebrities just walking through the campus. We were treated with a little performance done by the kids and then headed off to the basketball courts to participate in their gym class lol. All the instructions were confusing since the guy only spoke Chinese, but my new friends Zhang Shaosong and Xue Yongsong helped me out a lot to get passed the language barrier. After their gym class we headed off to check out some classrooms, which were so much different. I don't know if it was because we were there or not, but everyone is so much more interested in school over here lol. I asked some of them what they do in their free time and what I mostly got for an answer was studying. But I guess there isn't much else to do since this school was one of the best middle schools in Chongqing and the competition is crazy to get into this one. Just feeling welcomed home by English was enough to see that these kids were very well educated. After we said our goodbyes and left the school we headed to the Dazu Stone Carvings, which were carved 800 years ago. And these things were enormous lol, but the detail and perfection of every carving was amazing. We had a tour guide who spoke in broken English so it was hard to understand him... but what I did get was pretty interesting. Otherwise just looking at everything was enough. Once we finished our tour of the Dazu Stone Carvings we got on our 3 hour bus ride back to the hotel... which sucked. And that ended Day 6... Tomorrow Qufu.

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David: China Trip Day 5

Today was a bad day weather wise. It didn't stop raining, and on top of things it was our shopping day which was mostly outdoors lol. We started the day at the Three Gorges Museum, which was cool, but mostly everything was in Chinese so I couldn't read anything. We did get headphones and a little voice thing to listen to someone talking about the exhibits in broken English though. After the museum we headed to Ancient Street, which is pretty much what it sounds like. It's a cobble stone street with hundreds of different stores and restaurants lining the outside. We mostly ended up stopping and getting these fried dough pretzel like pastries, which I guess are really popular because there was a line passing 10 stores down the street (and this was all in the pouring rain). But other than that we stopped shortly at a few stores people pulled us into trying to sell us something, which happens every single time because we're foreigners and they know they can trick us into buying anything. After Ancient Street we went to Industrial Street in the business district of town. This was where all the normal stores you'd see in America were, but mostly high end like Burberry, Dior, etc. Didn't really have enough Yuan for any of those stores either so we moved on to dinner. And dinner was a pretty big cultural experience called the hot pot where you throw food into a boiling pot of hot spiced up water so it cooks fast and also burns your mouth like crazy because it's so spicy lol. But otherwise it was really good and wasn't too bad. When we finished with that we headed to the Yangtze River for a river cruise around the city. It seemed like every building had its own little light show going on with it and the whole city was lit up with different colors. It was cool to see everything from outside the streets though and get a sense of what the whole city looked like. And once we got off we headed back and that ended Day 5.




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David: China Trip Day 4

Today we left Beijing and flew to Chongqing, which has a population of 32 million people... yeah lol. We'll be here for the next 4 days and so far this city is like something straight out of some futuristic space movie I've seen. Everything is so much different than cities in the United States, but then again not many cities are as packed as this one. After resting for a bit at the hotel we went and checked out the General Stilwell museum (if you don't know anything about him check it out here). It was a really interesting exhibit and I learned a lot about Stilwell and the events during the time period he lived in. Afterwards we drove around town heading to our first dinner in Chongqing. We ended up going through a section of town which was pretty much a huge lively neighborhood with stores, restaurants, and everything on a small hillside. Once again some more stuff we'd never see in the United States... never thought one hill could hold so many people and places lol. Once we got to dinner we were all pretty much beat. We had our first experience with a whole fish at the dinner table too. Really was something picking all the meat off the fish when it's head is just there staring at you lol. But it was good so I can't complain. Day 4, yerr

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David: China Trip Day 3

It was a long and tiring Day 3. We started off at Tiananmen Square just walking around. It was crazy to be in the same spot where so many important things have happened. And it was funny to see the longest line I've ever seen waiting to put flowers on Mao's gravesite. If I were to compare it to anything it was literally 40 blocks in NYC of just people lol. HUGE. Right after that we went to the Forbidden City which was crazy. There were so many people and the architecture of the buildings were beautiful. Took us a little over an hour just to walk from one side to the other, but we were stopped a couple of times to take pictures with people lol. Everyone here seems to be fascinated by a bunch of Americans walking around, specially the blonde haired blue eyed girls in our group. Next we headed off to the Summer Palace, which was also huge. There was a lake there that was all hand dug and the palace was overlooking everything. We were lucky enough to hike up to the top and see everything from up there too. Everything we've seen so far from all these dynasties and Chinese history is so amazing to see especially after learning about it in school. But it truly is nothing without the actual experience and being surrounded by the Chinese culture. Everyone always stares at us because we're the minorities and stick out in a crowd easily, but at the same time everyone is so nice here. Not once have I seen anyone be rude. All smiles and pictures over here lol. It's really been a great experience so far... And it's only been three days. So many more to go.

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David: China Trip Day 2

Blogger was messed up last night so this is David's Day 2 post. Day 3 up soon.

Ah so I'm back with the second day to my China Trip. Today we went to the Great Wall of China in the morning and it was a workout lol. Going up there were a bunch of people trying to sell you various souvenirs, but when we finally got onto the wall it was amazing. It's cool going somewhere that you always saw pictures of or studied in school cause you never know how amazing the actual experience is till you're there. And let me tell you, it was crazy lol. I can't imagine how they built that thing. Just walking on it was tough, but aye.

Anyway leaving the Great Wall we went to the Olympic Village which was cool. Our guide, Cindy (who actually volunteered at the Beijing Olympics and saw the opening ceremony), told us it was forbidden to enter it... I don't know why, and I saw people on the other side of the fence when we were walking around, but I didn't bother to ask her. Either way it was a good time walking around that area. Plus I met some new friends again and took a picture with them throwing up the OKAY!! OKAY!! sign lol. And to end the day we had dumplings for dinner. So that's Day 2 in China.

Previous Post - China Trip Day 1

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David: China Trip Day 1

So I'm finally here and after getting up at 4AM Saturday, April 18th, for a long 13 hour flight I'm exhausted. I also found a huge problem when I first started using the internet too lol. China blocked Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger (aka my life) so now I'm stuck sending this email to Gray to post up on the site. But anyway Day 1... When we first landed everything was so overwhelming. Beijing has the biggest airport terminal in the world so we had trouble getting to where we were supposed to at first lol. But nonetheless we made it through, got on our bus, and headed to our hotel. When we got there we checked in and went straight to our rooms (btw it's 3 AM Vermont time while it's 3PM China time one day ahead... so I'm pretty screwed up) and unpacked all our stuff. Then we headed to our first meal in China, which was actually pretty good. I was afraid to see what types of things would be served, but it ended up being food I was for the most part familiar with lol. And at the end of the day I made a new friend from China who's English name is Michael. So that's Day 1. Probably the most boring day of our trip lol, but they'll be many more days to come. Still two weeks left. Yerrr



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