Last Day in Shanghai and Third Time to the Great Wall

I didn't do much on my last day in Shanghai. I checked out of the hotel and then went to Gary's dorm. While he was in class I walked around my old campus and took lots of pictures. I liked this sign that was along the Suzhou Creek, where there is a lot of construction going on. It says, "The future security and safety of our Mother River, helps us overcome the temporary difficulties together."

Here's the old fruit stand I used to go, but it has expanded and seems to be doing much better than it was five years ago. Check out the delicious, pre-peeled pineapples. The small ones cost about 5 RMB (less than a dollar Canadian) each.
Here is the ECNU motto, and below is the word, "EXPO" since Shanghai will be hosting the 2010 Expo.
The view out the back gate of the university has remained largely unchanged, complete with the people selling IP phone cards and the people selling street food.
One back gate building was knocked down the week I was there. There used to be an internet cafe and some small food stalls in that building...all the internet cafes I used to go to are gone. I guess so many more people have laptops now that they aren't doing as well?
Speaking of Expo, here is the mascot for the Shanghai Expo. It is named Haibao (meaning treasure of Shanghai I think) and is apparently meant to look like the Chinese character for person: 人...well, that character but with a curly lock of hair. Hrm. I don't really like this mascot very much. 
Here's the totally run-down, but lovely yellow old observatory on campus. I don't think it has been in use for a long, long time. 
And finally, a man fishing in the river/creek that runs through campus.
Since I've been back in Beijing I've felt a little aimless. I'm not very motivated to go to class, since there isn't much point, but I also am not all that motivated to go out exploring on my own. It's still a little chilly here too, which makes me even lazier. Today it even snowed a tiny bit!!

On Saturday I went on a school trip to the Great Wall again. This time it was to Badaling, one of the most touristy sites you can go to. The Jinshanling site last semester was WAY better than this trip, but I was still more than happy to be able to go to the Great Wall again.

Here's my old roommate Ruyun with Daxian (my classmate from last semester) and their friend. Some western tourists asked Daxian to take a picture with them because they found his hat so funny.
The wall itself was incredibly packed with tourists...so our progress was a bit slow. Thus, we amused ourselves with lots of photo posing.

I thought these guys were kind of funny and cute in their paper sun hats. The guy facing me is waving the Chinese flag and posing for a picture. 
When they saw me one of them asked for a picture together. Unfortunately he is blinking in the shot taken with my camera. He gave me a paper hat....which made me look like a super dork...especially in that pose I'm in. Remind me to dump that jacket when I get back home. Haha. 
Zoe was teaching us model poses...I really am bad at them. Here she is with a Korean classmate.
And with me. Zoe looks lovely...I look odd.
We have seen lots and lots of Chinese women using this exact post for their photos, so I had to try it out. I kind of like it...guess that's why I see people doing it all the time!
Zoe sliding down the railing:
The view. You can see the gigantic Olympics sign and slogan on the right. And you can also see how full of people the place was.
More cheesy posing.


One more shot with a random Chinese person who asked me to pose with her.
Saw some very old graffiti. I wonder where the person who carved this is now?
The whole group:
And finally, my attempt at a pose Zoe's Korean classmate uses a lot. Lalala.

Last Couple Days in Shanghai

After getting back very very late from Nanjing and checking into my hotel room on Friday night (I decided to stay there for the last three nights to make my life easier...and Gretty's boyfriend just came back to town so I didn't want to be in the way), I confirmed with Li Chao that I would be visiting him the next day.

He lives and works in Jiading town, north of Shanghai. He teaches Chinese to Han and Xinjiang people (at different levels, obviously). So on Saturday, after resting a bit, I made my way to Jiading. I waited a little while at the bus depot because Li Chao was running a bit late. It actually made for a few more interesting encounters.

I was standing there reading my book when a guy, maybe in his forties, came up to look at what I was reading. He was from Jiangsu province and most likely a migrant worker. We chatted a minute about it being an English book and the fact that he couldn't read it. I said I also can't really read Chinese. That was about it for our conversation.

About 5 minutes later a youngish guy came up to me and started speaking to me in somewhat broken English. He showed me a pen he wanted to sell me. He said the pen was also a USB and also a camera. I listened for a bit and then said in Chinese, "Well it looks nice, but I don't want it." I guess he hadn't considered that I might be able to speak a bit of Chinese so he was really shocked. I told him his English wasn't bad and said thanks, but I'm not interested. He seemed embarrassed and then said sorry and went on his way. 

I didn't realize it, but the older guy I had first spoken to was standing behind us and listening to the whole exchange. He said it was good I hadn't taken the pen from the guy because he was a con artist. 

Soon after that Li Chao came to meet me. We went to wait for a bus to his school campus. While waiting, a beggar came up and wanted us to give him money...I never really know what to do in that situation. Some people are so persistent and pushy and it makes me uncomfortable, but I also recognize that many of them are truly needy. So it's often very awkward. This man wouldn't leave us be, so eventually we had to get up and move away.

Jiading town looked very nice. There is an old town area which I would love to visit sometime in the future (if Scott and I can save up some money for plane tickets...or if maybe there's a conference in Shanghai at some point :)). We got off at the school where Li Chao teaches. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries right as I arrived, so I don't have any pictures. Li Chao took some of the day, but I don't have copies yet. 

We hung out and chatted and snacked. I was very happy to finally see pictures of his lovely wife Grace, who is working in Australia right now. I also got a brief opportunity to speak with her on the phone, as she called right when we were looking at pictures of her. Hopefully they can both come visit Scott and me in Canada at some point.

After chatting for a while, it was already getting a bit late. We headed out to get some food, but first we stopped by one of Li Chao's classes of Xinjiang students. I had such a fantastic time listening to the students first sing a song and then, as they got over their shyness (and I got over some of mine), they made a circle around me and began asking me questions to practice their English. They're all around 15 or 16 years old, and they were all so young and beautiful and so enthusiastic. We chatted and laughed together for quite a while, but eventually we had to leave if I wanted to be able to catch the last bus home. It was such a great experience and I felt so fortunate to meet so many wonderful kids! Once I get pictures from Li Chao I will post them on here.

After that we went for dinner together (at a 烤鱼 place where they seemed rather crabby that we didn't order a huge amount) and then I hopped on the last bus home. It was a bit of a long trip as I got caught in a rainstorm (including thunder and lightening, making me feel like I was going to be electrocuted haha) and by the time I got back to Gary's dorm (where I had left some valuables like my laptop) it was like I had showered with my clothing on. I was like a drowned rat or a 落汤鸡. I ended up taking a taxi from Gary's dorm back to the hotel and I got ripped off by the boorish, obnoxious cab driver who first pretended he didn't know which way to go, running up the meter, and who then gave me the wrong change. In the end he only stole about 3 bucks Canadian, but he didn't even drop me off at the hotel, so I had to walk even further in the rain. I was seething by the end of the night and wishing him very bad things. It was a relief to get back to the hotel and to get into some dry clothing.

The next morning, Sunday (the day I am writing all of these new blog entries), was my last full day in Shanghai. I was totally exhausted and all my clothing was still wet. I only brought one pair of jeans and one jacket since I have to carry all my luggage myself and didn't want to be overburdened. So I pulled on my wet pants, jacket and running shoes (Brrrr!!!!) and I headed out to meet Gary for lunch. 

After eating, his mom joined us and we all went to check out the Bund. Here they are on the subway as we head to Nanjing Dong Lu.

A huge amount of the Bund is under construction in preparation for the 2010 Expo. The Peace Hotel is completely hidden under scaffolding and that green stuff they wrap buildings in here. At least two other buildings were also covered.
The air was rather hazy today, so you can barely see the buildings in Pudong behind Gary's Mom and me. I was cold and damp and it was cold outside.....brrr.
It was very crowded with tour groups and other tourists. One great thing that has changed since the last time I was here is that they have removed the overpasses that used to be at either end of the Bund. This restores its appearance to be more like what it used to be. It will eventually become a pedestrian-only zone, which will be fabulous thing. Here are the crowds on either side of us:

Gary and his mom throwing some fen coins at turtles below for good luck.
I walked a little more with the two of them and then they went to meet with their relatives and I went to head back home. As I walked back to the subway I came across this old church. I have no idea if it's still in use. I couldn't go in to look and it seemed that it was partially under construction.
I walked up Nanjing Road a little bit and found that there are a lot of new buildings. I think one of the buildings that Scott's dad wanted us to look for last time (was it Sincere building or something like that?) is now gone and has been replaced by a brand new building. The road was utterly packed and I was exhausted, so I just went straight home. I picked up some food on the way and have just been resting since then. I've had such a wonderful time here in Shanghai, but I am looking forward to my own room in Beijing and to being a bit more lazy again. My train doesn't leave until the evening tomorrow, so I'll probably head to the dorm and hopefully go for a walk with Gary and a meal before I head out. 

Nanjing Trip

I have been in contact with a Chinese director I very much admire and when I found out the he would have time to meet with me, I was excited and nervous. He lives in Nanjing, so Gary very kindly agreed to come with me on a trip to that city.

Here we are on the train in the morning:
And everyone boarding the train:
It took us a while to find our way from the Nanjing train station to our hotel (thanks in no small part to the city map which seemed to tell us that there are two subway lines in the city, when in fact there is only one). Thanks to a group of very friendly guys we consulted, we found out which public bus would get us there and we then relied on that route the entire time we were there.

We first went to a small restaurant for lunch:
We ordered a meal of 皮肚肉丝面 which was very delicious:
Then we walked towards a bus stop to get to our next destination. On the way we saw this cute, funny baby sitting on its mom's shoulders. The baby is wearing split pants, which a lot of kids here wear, so that's why its bum is bare.
We first went to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. It was an interesting and at times sad experience. Here's a note of paper cranes left by students from a Shanghai middle school. The first line says, "The lessons from the past can be a guide for the future."
Here is an altar where people can burn incense in memory of those of were killed.
There is a wall with a list of name of people who were killed:
On the day we went, there were huge numbers of tour groups and also lots of students on class trips. Here's a picture of the huge line-up to get into the museum portion of the memorial.
At the end of the museum section there was a gift shop. It was selling books and other information, but it was also selling DVDs of TV series...I was a bit offended by the covers on the TV series, as they were pictures of Japanese soldiers with their chests exposed towering over Chinese women in their underwear. Given that the museum is intended to honor and foster respect for the victims of the massacre, I was really disturbed to see such casual eroticization of an incredibly devastating and traumatic event. 

I found it very interesting to visit the memorial, but the gift shop and a few other things bothered me and I hope that at some point they'll be changed and improved.

After the memorial it was already late in the afternoon, so we just spent the rest of the time walking around the city (as well as making a trip back up to the train station to buy a return ticket to Shanghai...we had forgotten to do so immediately upon our arrival).

Here's a couple of sweet doggies:
Some pictures from Nanjing's old town:
The dragons are obviously not old, they are new decorations:


I liked these guys sitting around waiting for customers:
On our way back to the hotel we spotted this kind of cute Chinglish sign:
The next morning we went to meet with the director. I was rather terrified. First we stopped by a lake to take a few more scenic pictures.




The meeting/interview was a bit awkward at first, given how nervous we both were, but in the end it went really well. I was so grateful to him for taking time out of his schedule to meet with us. He is a fascinating and accomplished person and I admire him very much. Here we are with him (you can see bits of his artwork in the background):

After the meeting we went to the Nanjing Museum where I took tons of photos, but I didn't always note the context of the image. The following two guys were on stone posts that apparently were used to tie animals to.

The outside of the museum:
They had lots of gorgeous lacquerware, but because we couldn't use a flash most of my pictures were too blurry. 
They also had a jade burial suit, which was pretty cool to see. It is from the Han Dynasty (206BC-221AD). It was found in the city of Xuzhou in northern Jiangsu Province in 1970. I was pretty excited to see it:
The museum also had some clothing...mostly from the Qing dynasty, but a couple pieces of fabric from the Ming. Here's a child's top from the Qing dynasty.
I learned that I love Ming Dynasty porcelain...I much prefer the simple solid glazes to the more fancy designs of the Qing Dynasty.
Also, Tang Dynasty earthenware is really amazing and I love the mixture of Chinese and Indian/Middle Eastern influences.
Here's one of a foreigner (well, non-Han ethnicity) from the Tang Dynasty.

This one was of a musician:
Gary was excited to see this part of the exhibit. Here's the description:
And here's one part of it:
In one room there was a display of sculptures by Wu Weishan. They were all historically or culturally important figures. Here's Laozi:
And here's Confucius:
And here's a view of the room:
Gary and I took pictures of most of them with the idea of looking up who everyone is, since we definitely didn't recognize everyone.
After the museum we had to start heading back to the train station. On the way we saw this lovely old couple walking hand-in-hand:
Unfortunately the air was rather hazy in Nanjing, so this picture of Zijin Mountain (Purple Mountain) isn't too clear.
And here we are back at the train station:
Where we were definitely not qualified to sit in the soldiers, babies and mothers waiting room. What an unusual combo.