Good Times, China

November 24, 2011

Airport Issue #5. This time I’m following Norma. Because whatever Norma is bringing in, mine will seem insignificant in comparison. So Ani and I stacked up behind Norma in the line. Norma’s bags have continued to get bigger since our last trip. She just can’t seem to say no to the vendors or any semi-suitable Chinese man (I mean…she needs to put some use to her one year Chinese visa). So far, everyone has been able to make it on every flight without paying the extra baggage fee. But we heard this airport was notorious for being stingy. Since it was a smaller, less popular airport, it can make more money by charging passengers for extra weight in their luggage. Bigger airports already make a lot of money in other ways. 

So we prepared ourselves. I again, packed my check-in luggage with a lot of light weighted things, packed my carry on with heaver, and packed my heaviest items in Ben’s carry-on. So upon approaching the counter, Ani and I scurried behind Norma hoping that her suave skills would get her out of yet another sticky situation. Unexpectedly, everyone, except Brigitte, was overweight. Even with the slightest kilo overweight, the airline was going to charge. Norma was almost 10 kilograms overweight again. Ani was considerably overweight as well. Man, I guess we just ate way too much in China. Ben’s check in was overweight too. Oops! Most of my weight was in his empty carry on. Sorry Ben! And then I weighed my bag. Shockingly, I was almost spot on with 19.5 kilograms. I could not believe I made it on weight this airport round—especially considering everyone not really making the weight. I was so proud of myself until I realized that I technically had another suitcase that I pawned off of Ben. 

C, our spectacular tour guide, tried to work some magic with the airline employee. But it wasn’t working. They were charging. Thankfully, they only charged the people with the bags with considerable overweight. Those who were slightly overweight let off the hook. The excess baggage weight only cost about 20 USD anyways. Not too bad. We all happily left the airport terminal and walked to our gate. Ready for a next adventure in Shanghai. 

Shanghai—

Lost something. For some reason, I brought at least 5 different types of currency with me. They were all in separate envelopes that I stuffed in somewhat secretive spots in all my baggage. Every time I got to a hotel, I would put these envelopes all in the security box (along with my passport, birth certificate, diploma, social security cards, etc.). Yes, I brought a lot. This is what I was told to bring. When on the boat, I placed my valuables and documents into a security box. I was a bit rushed when leaving the boat so I grabbed everything from the box and left. It wasn’t until I started unpacking some of my things in Shanghai when I realized that I left two envelopes in that security box. I thought I checked well enough. But I was in such a rush, I must have not checked as well as I usually do. And I usually do.

I was very upset. I cried a little. I actually cried a lot. After finding all my envelopes, I realized I lost my Thai money and my Taiwanese money. Both envelopes had a couple hundred dollars each. I felt really stupid. I just lost a lot of money. Immediately, I talked to our new tour guide, Henry, about this unfortunate issue. He got the number for the boat and had the crew search for it. I knew it wasn’t going to show up. If someone were to clean that room and see all that money wrapped up in a rather accessible envelope, they would take it. I might as well have gift wrapped it with a bow. I didn’t have too much hope. But it was nice that Henry tried to help me out anyways.

Downtown.  Shanghai looks like New York City. After traveling through Chinese countryside and seeing the ancient looking architecture, it was such a strange switch from traditional to high-tech and modern. Buildings were tall, lean, and shiny. With an assortment of lights, the buildings themselves lit the night sky. The freeways and roads were blocked with jay walkers and a multitude of cars. People looked very modern. Both men and women were wearing the more fashionable attire (at least compared to Beijing) strutting their stuff around one of the most fashion-forward cities in Asia. Ben, Ani, Brigitte and I decided to explore the town at night. We went into a wine bar and met a French waiter/bartender. He spoke about six different languages. He was a bit strange. He couldn’t keep his stories straight whenever we asked him why he decided to come to China. I think it might have been a girl.

Wedding Season. During the day time, wedding pictures seem to be the craze. There were several couples elaborately dressed in wedding costumes all over the street, posing in front of important buildings or the island looking city.The wedding photos are particularly expensive here in Shanghai. I think I did a pretty good job for free. What do you think?

And me...definitely not getting married.

Parlez-vous français? We took a subway to get to the big shopping area of Shanghai. It was huge and had a lot of people around. After almost two weeks of traveling, we were done with annoying street vendors. They follow you everywhere and never leave you alone. They all have the same story lines and then get terribly upset with you if you don’t buy their trinkets. Right when we even stepped foot on the street, we were fighting off vendors left and right. After one would finally leave us, another would take his or her place. Some of them were trying to sell us these light-up roller skates. When would we ever need those in China or the States? Actually, Norma would probably buy them. But I was done with them and so was everyone else.

So we had a plan. Most of the vendors knew enough English to sell to us. They assume that we are English speaking Americans (which we are). But why don’t we use other languages to try to deter them? So Brigitte was up first since she speaks French fluently. A vendor approached her and started speaking English. Brigitte responded in French with an overenthusiastic and exaggerated tone. She tried to act interested in what the vendor was saying, but spoke very fast and very loudly. The vendor was so confused and intimidated since she didn’t expect Brigitte to speak French. The vendor quickly backed off and then ran off. We did it! We figured out how to chase away these pestering vendors. Brigitte tried this same strategy out with a couple others. But this time, it was Ani’s turn. Ani can speak Armenian. So she tried it out on the vendors and they did not want to approach her anymore.
 

The only language I knew well enough to have a conversation would be Mandarin. So that won’t work! But I know enough American Sign Language. So I tried it out. A vendor approached me and immediately, I started signing. Most of what I was signing made sense but not in the context of shopping or purchasing. I was signing phrases like how I felt sad and happy, some of my favorite things to eat, and how I liked his family and his blonde hair (his hair wasn’t blonde). And my favorite, I kept signing ‘my favorite sign was hiccup’. I even threw in some sexual signs as well. But he didn’t understand and he, too, backed off. Next, Ben tried Spanish. A vendor approached him and he attempted to use his Spanish. After speaking just a little, unexpectedly the vendor responded in Spanish. So Ben stopped trying. We were all done. So we continued to ignore the rest and headed out of the area.

Silk. Shanghai is known for having the most admired and most genuine silk in the world. Silk was actually invented or discovered in China. It is also one of the main products traded on the Silk Road thousands of years ago. In Shanghai, we were able to see the insides of a silk making factory. We learned the process it takes to create silk. First you boil a silk worm’s cocoon until the silk worm is killed. You have to make sure the silk worm is dead before taking its silk. To check, you will hear the sound of a hard pebble moving back and forth when you shake its cocoon furiously. Then their cocoons are placed into a machine that rips off their silk threads one by one until the dead silk worm is disposed of. Sorry. Was that a bit too morbid? The reason why you can’t wait until the moth is birthed, is because an adhesive type of liquid is excreted onto the silk causing it to become too tough for silk material. Now back to the process (a less morose description). One cocoon can have a miles’ length of silk string. So there is a lot that comes from just one. But in order to make even just one silk attire or bedding, hundreds of cocoons need to be used. After the silk threads are taken off, they are stretched out and placed on top of one another to create thickness. Silk is very difficult to tear so some of the workers can stretch the silk bundles as far apart as a queen sized bed length. Then this silk can be used for types of bedding, linens, purses, clothing, and more.

I Got Lucky! While roaming around the silk shop, I kept on beating myself up about losing all that money. Not like I should splurge on random trinkets anyways but I knew that it would be unwise to start spending money after losing so much. All of a sudden, Henry approaches me and tells me that the boat crew found both envelopes of money and that it was still sealed and untouched. I was so grateful I almost started skipping around the factory. I could not believe that no one was compelled to take the money. I was in disbelief. They were going to send the money to me. How lucky am I? I really lucked out.

Qípáo. Qípáo (pronounced chi-pao) is a fancy and formal Chinese gown for women. These dresses are usually made from silk. The better quality ones are made entirely from silk and usually use a higher class of silk. Qípáo was actually created in Shanghai during the early 1900’s and was worn by the elite of society. Now it can be used by all types of people from all over the world. Many airline companies would have their flight attendants wear a chi-pao on the plane. At the silk factory, there were hundreds of qípáos. Qípáos of all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes.

And I wanted one. I’ve always wanted one. They look so classic and they represent part of my own heritage. I know I would make my mom proud. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford it. I at least wanted a picture of myself wearing one. So I started roaming the area for qípáo and I found one that seemed both simple and elegant. I tried it on assuming that it wasn’t going to fit (or just hoping since I would be relieved not feeling compelled to purchase it). But it wasn’t what I hoped. It fit perfectly. And I did not want to take it off. I stood in the mirror admiring the form-fitting gown. But I kept on asking myself, when would I ever wear this? My mind scanned the limited amount of events that I could sport this type of attire. I might be able to wear it for a very special event. But I couldn’t think of anything else. It was 500 Yuan, which is about 80 USD. I couldn’t afford it but I haven’t gotten myself anything from China, in fear of not making it on my five plane flights. My decisions kept on wavering as I asked my group mates their opinions. They all liked it and tried to convince me to get it. But I was a good shopper since I always ask myself the question, “when will I ever use it?” So, I decided not to get it. If it were less expensive, then I would have snatched it up right away. If I wasn’t already overweight on my luggage, I might have gotten it. Norma had no problem with that decision though. Not only did we have to wait for her to shop, but when she walked onto the bus, she had several bags in hand. She bought several silk pillows, bed linens, extra silk souvenirs, and more. How on earth is she going to make it on her next flight?

Norma napping and purchasing at the same exact time.

Faux Silk. We all headed over to a shopping market in Shanghai. Right in the middle of the market was this beautiful garden that we got to explore. I don’t remember too much about the garden but we took some fun photos. I almost broke one of the garden’s doors when awkwardly posing in front of it. It was a bit disrespectful but I saw the opportunity. Then I explored the rest of the market area with Brigitte and Ben. First, we got fashionable face masks and sported them around the market. Ben was in search for a manly qípáo (or a chángshān), that was cheap but made of real silk. Good luck with that one! 

We went to several stores and all of the chángshāns he found were made of polyester. We finally approached one store that not only had a similar version of the chángshān he wanted originally but also had a similar version of the qípáo I wanted. So we tried them on. Mine didn’t really fit right though. I was sad. Maybe I should’ve splurged on the one at the factory. I was still interested though. It went from 500 Yuan to 250 Yuan. For a little, I was thinking about it. Ben could tell that his wasn’t real silk material. It was 400 Yuan, and didn’t even come with pants. Ben decided to get the chángshān anyways. I didn’t want to purchase the dress though. It wasn’t fitting and the price was too high anyways. The employee looked desperate as she kept on lowering the price. I still didn’t want it though. Then she kept lowering it and lowering it all the way down to 60 Yuan (10 USD). From 500 to 60, there must be something wrong with it. Later I found out that if the prices for a qípáo were that low, it was made mostly from polyester, not silk. Good thing I didn’t get it!

How to Open a Wine Bottle. I thought bringing over a 15 function Swiss army knife would be effective. But it did not perform well when I needed it the most. We all were going to celebrate our last time together (or at least their last time with me). They were all heading to Hong Kong together and most of them will see each other afterwards in the States. So in celebration, we brought out a bottle of wine. But, stupidly, we bought the wine without a corkscrew. So I came in with the save of the day, the world-acclaimed Swiss army knife. But this wine bottle’s cork was funky. With all the different tools we tried, it did not seem to want to be penetrated. Finally, after some back breaking, sweat dripping labor, we finally forced the screw into the cork. Now we need to get the cork out. We couldn’t get the cork out. We couldn’t get the corkscrew out either. This was definitely a process. We used a variety of knives to chip away at the cork.

We tried pulling the screw out of the bottle with man power (or several women). While I held on to the screw, Ani held on to the bottle. We pulled as hard as we could. Nothing. We tried again. Nothing. This time, Carol held on to me and Brigitte held on to Ani and we pulled. And still nothing. We looked silly and desperate as most of the group played tug-a-war with the stubborn bottle of wine. After some more tugging and more chipping, the bottle opened. Actually, we just pushed the cork in instead. Then we used a tea strainer to pour the wine (in order to avoid drinking cork). We finally were able to drink the wine, an hour later. We celebrated our time together, tried on Ben’s new chángshāns, and said our goodbyes.

Step 1: Chip away at the cork

Step 2: Tug-a-war

Step 3: Ask for help

Step 4: Give up and push the cork into the wine bottle. After, make sure you strain the wine.

Goodbye Brigitte, Ben, Ani, Norma, Nikki, and Carol. It was really great getting to know all of you and I can't wait to come back and bother you all in California. And I'll try not to buy pirated Disney or Warner Brothers movies while I'm here.

Thanks for the good times, China.


Want to see more pictures from my trip to China? Visit https://plus.google.com/photos/103535186598541974109/albums/5696349873789661585?authkey=CMiBsP__perrRQ