A blog about my Summer of 2012 studying in China :)
A fb friend shared this note by Henry Rollins and I thought there was so much truth to it; it’s all my travels in a nutshell.
Like him I encourage you to TRAVEL; keep your mind open to new things, eat food you would have never eaten before, meet people whose life story seems to come from a movie script, see amazing sights, be adventurous!
It's been three weeks of non stop moving around! Actually I've been moving around since May and now I'm finally back to Atlanta. Now I just have to move into my new dorm but it feels nice thinking I'll be in one place for a while. Now I feel like I need a vacation from my vacations :P I'm not too eager to start classes just yet. Thankfully I still have one week left.
So where did I stop writing? While touring around China, our schedule was full from early morning to late night that's why I say now I need a vacation from my vacations :P I think I got more hours of sleep when in class.
I still have to write about Wuxi and Nanjing but I'll save it for later. After staying one day in Huangzhan (Yellow Mountain) we went to:
Zhouzhang: known to be one of the happiest cities to live in China. This city has one of the highest life expectancies. Our tour guide said it's because Zhouzhang people know to work hard but also play hard. 
Hangzhou: famous for its Longjing (Dragonwell) green tea, we visited the fields and learned about green tea's numerous health benefits. The tea is mostly produced by hand so it can be very expensive depending on the quality. 
After Hangzhou we returned to Shanghai in the afternoon. Early morning the next day we took a flight to Beijing. We were not too lucky in Beijing, the weather was against us. We spent three days there and most of the time it was raining. My brother and I also caught a cold and were sick half of the time. I revisited some of the places I had already been to and some new places as well, among them the summer palace, forbidden city, the temple of heaven, Ming tombs and the great wall. This time I got to see a more touristy area of the wall where the walls had been restored. To get to there we took a lift, to go down you had the option to ride the lift again or slide. Yes, slide down the great wall!! Unfortunately it was closed due to the weather :'(((( It would have been awesome if we could have done that. 
Our last stop before leaving mainland China was Zhongshan. This city is not a frequent tourist destination but we visited because it was the hometown of my great grandparents. For some reason, I expected a small town/village but Zhongshan was a very large modern city. It felt strange thinking my ancestors lived there. Zhongshan was also Sun Yat Sen's hometown. When he died he had two tombs. Because in that time Nanjing was the capital city of the empire, his clothes and personal belongings were buried in Nanjing. We visited the memorial when we were there for a day. However, because Zhongshan was his hometown he also requested his body be buried there. So in Zhonshan we also visited his memorial. Sun Yat Sen seems to have been a very bright mind! After that we visited a famous almond/green bean cookie factory that’s been famous for over 100 years. To this date, the cookies are still all hand made.
Our next stop was Macau. It was so odd in the beginning seeing all the signs in Portuguese/English/Cantonese. I had no idea what language to speak. The good thing was that Portuguese is very similar to Spanish so getting lost was not an issue. Afterwards some relatives we met told us that although Portuguese was one of the official languages, only a very small percentage of the population actually knew how to speak it. The great majority spoke Cantonese. In Macau we visited the many Vegas replicas hotels and casinos and the old parts of town. We also went to an Ice World exhibition at the Venetian. The temperature was -8 degrees. Although they provided coats, it was freezing inside by the end I could barely feel my toes. My camera's lens was frozen for two hours afterwards.
Our trip came to an end in Hong Kong where we stayed for five days. This was the place I was most looking forward to visit not only because I was eager to meet all my relatives but also because I had heard so many good things. Many of my friends from GT who went said HK had been one of the best parts of their trip. From Macau to HK we took the ferry which took about an hour. Then we checked in our hotel and that same afternoon we had a family reunion. I didn't know I had so much family in HK, I heard so many interesting stories and learned many more Chinese customs and traditions. The rest of the week we had a tight schedule since many had invited us for lunch or dinner. Even though we stayed for five days, our days fell short. What I loved the most about HK was how it had a little bit of both the East and the West. It was just the right combination. Of all the cities we visited, if I had to pick one to live in, it would be HK without a doubt.
I'm so incredibly grateful for having had the opportunity to visit China and travel so much. It's been an amazing experience learning about such a different country. But now it's back to work! Fall semester, here I come!
well that was a long post, the product of 15 hours sitting in an airplane…
Ever since my family came we’ve been touring everywhere. We have been visiting a different city each day with a government sponsored tour. So in every city they take us sightseeing and then they start talking about some local famous product (brainwashing!) and finally they take us to a “factory” to buy where they do this whole show trying to convince you to buy. It’s very funny, Chinese are good at selling. So far we have visited Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing and today we spent the day in Huangshan. In the morning we went to the mountains, the views were amazing! To get there we had to take a 10 minute ride in the cable car. I imagined it would be a small car, but it was huge! About 100 people were squeezed into one car.
Again time went by so fast, today was the last day of the program. We had a closing ceremony just now at an Uyghur restaurant. The last week was a bit stressful because of all the final projects and finals but it feels so so good to be done now! I’ve enjoyed the program very much and I’m extremely thankful for the opportunity to be here; it has definitely been a memorable experience. I thought that being Chinese and having grown up in part surrounded by Chinese culture, things wouldn’t be so different but I couldn’t have been more wrong! While here, I’ve also had the chance to improve my Chinese. When I first came, I knew some basic conversational words however that didn’t help since even if I tried saying them, people wouldn’t understand me. Now getting the right pronunciation has gotten a lot easier. And last but not least, I’ve met some incredible people, not only from China but also from Tech! I’m already looking forward to seeing them all again in fall!
I’ll share some pictures from the past days…
Of course we had to end the night in……….
I’m still staying a couple more weeks in China before returning to Atlanta. My family came yesterday and now I’m touring with them around mainland for two weeks and then one week in Hong Kong. I can’t be happier to see them!! :D
Happy reading!
A couple of weeks back, CSP had a tshirt competition for the program. I submitted a design and I was so excited yesterday to finally see the tshirts printed out! What do you think? Check out this awesome video my friend Daniel did too! I think the video captures our experience in the program perfectly :D
three more days!!!!!!!!
On Saturday on behalf of GT’s Team Buzz a group of us volunteered to help out at a home for children with amnesia and autism in Shanghai. It was a truly beautiful experience. We took them out to the park and played a slightly similar version of duck duck goose. A terrible thunderstorm had us running back to the school, where we played a couple more games, some showcased their guitar talents. One of the kids called Yumiao showed me his computer game, he was so smart! Another really sweet kid was almost crying, he kept saying we were always welcome to come back and that he was happy we were there. I only wish I could speak more Chinese, I had so many things I wanted to say and ask!
On Friday I went out to lunch with a friend to a Chinese restaurant. There was a dish that had as English translation, You Are the One. However, in Chinese the name read, 請勿打擾 (Do not disturb). It also had three out of three stars rating and a thumbs up. The peculiar name and very good rating drew my attention to it. I tried asking the server what it was but she couldn’t really explain it. We didn’t expect anything bad so me and my friend ordered it. It was definitely NOT the ONE!!! Turns out it was a whole plate of stinky stuff!!! >< The odor was very strong like stinky tofu in the streets. You could see some grayish corners in the tofu. There was also fish, some clams and other green stuff. It was not a great meal but a good story to tell. So now you know, if you see a dish called You Are The One, you might one to reconsider if it really is the one :P
