Weird, gross, and crazy Chinese things

Now that were home, here are some of the crazy, gross, and common things you find in China, AKA, things I am happy we don't have in the United States. China is a very different culture and place than the U.S. and I liked a lot of things about it. But, as with everywhere, there were things I didn't like...

• The Food
• Snake head
• Duck blood on meals
• Chicken feet and head still attached to the body in a meal
• Scorpions
• Lemonade, this is hot water with think, concentrated lemon syrup
• Hot Chocolate (in places other than Starbucks) It is like the lemonade, but with chocolate syrup
• Toilets
• This is the same in England, no one has any idea of what a bathroom, restroom or men/lady room is. You call it a toilet, which for Americans is pretty inappropriate.
• They are holes in the floor
• "Squat Toilets"
• Beds
• The beds are hard as a rock (really)
• They are pieces of ply wood with a sheet
• Staring/pointing/pushing
• These are not rude or impolite
• Everyone does it
• Shouting
• No one talks, they shout
• Especially on the phone
• When we were in a hotel, a house keeper nodded politley to us, "good morning" then turned and screamed to someone 10 feet away from her.
• Barack Obama (this is good)!
• Good!
• Everyone, who spoke English or not, asked "Obama?" We nodded a lot and they were very happy.

Hong Kong: Sixteen

Today we went to Disneyland. To get to it, you have to take the subway and get off at the Disney line. This was fun because the windows were shaped like the Disney logo of the mouse head. Inside, there were little statues of the characters. The park is very small compared with the one in California. It had all of the same parts, but with half of the rides. The rides that were there, were the same as the one in California. What surprised us were the shops. Hong Kong seemed like the place to go shopping in the whole world, and the shops were minimal. We didn’t buy much of anything. My favorite thing there was not an actual ride, but an attraction. I had never seen a 3D movie before and they had one. The movie was a combo of some famous and well-known scenes in Disney movies. In the “Be Our Guest” song from Beauty and the Beast, the champagne bottles squirted in to the audience and water sprayed out. I also liked the Autopia ride. Driving around in a car on a track that over looks the park was has always been a favorite. When you go to a Disneyland park in the U.S. the food carts have popcorn, sweets, and little snacks. In the carts there, there are fish balls, squid tentacles, and other things that would not be anywhere near the U.S. parks. I really enjoyed the day and was happy to have gone to Disneyland Hong Kong. This was our last day in China, and the next day we went home. This was a great way to end our trip, going to Honk Kong Disneyland!
Lianne

Hong Kong: Fifteen

On our second day in Hong Kong, we went to Cat Street (that is its nickname). This is an old street with little booths, like a night market, and some nice-looking antique stores. Again, it was nice to shop without being followed. It was very relaxed and there was a variety or items to look at. After walking though, we came out on a street with a small old temple. We went in and saw more statues of gods and spiritual people. We had gone out on the water before, but decided we wanted to go on another ferry, so we walked to the ferry station. Never having in mind somewhere to go, we took random ferries that met our time limits. Being on the water, you could see much different views than on land. Instead of walking by the skyscrapers, you could see the whole buildings, all about fifty to sixty stories of them. In Shanghai, there were taller buildings, but in Hong Kong, there are more of them. Since we had been on vacation for almost the whole time and had had almost no breaks, we thought we deserved an early day. We pent it swimming in the hotel pool. It was a very nice pool overlooking the harbor. It was not at all like in Yangshuo, but we went to a public to a light show. Actually, we just took another ferry over to the Kowloon side again. Then music played and lights were projected onto the buildings in different patterns and colors. It was very cool, but also crowded, like everywhere in China. We had a short and our last day going around China. The next day we were going to Disneyland!

Lianne

Hong Kong:Fourteen

Our first day in Hong Kong was filled with many places, Victoria Peak, Kowloon, and many markets. To get to Victoria Peak, you have to take a trolleyish tram up. I thought that it would be like a gondola, but it was more like a small trolley. Victoria Peak has beautiful landscapes. There are some places where you can just walk on a path though the trees. The best landscapes are seen from high above on balconys that look over the city and water. The rest of Victoria Peak was shopping malls. A little background about Hong Kong, there is no place without shopping malls. When you go to a subway station you walk in to a Flatirons Crossing type mall. When you walk anywhere, you never touch the street level. This is the city of pedestrian overpasses. It is so confusing to try and get down. We have spent about thirty minutes trying to get down. I am not a fan of shopping, and so I didn’t enjoy the Victoria Peak. I just liked the landscapes. We took the tram back and went to Kowloon. Hong Kong is made up of many different pieces of land in China and islands. Right now, our hotel is on Hong Kong Island. We took a ferry to Kowloon which is land connected to china. It is about two minutes across the water by ferry. In Kowloon, we went to a fun little market and walked around there. We had more fun shopping here than in Guilin because it was much more relaxed. We wanted to find the Bird Market, the Goldfish Market, and the Flower Market. We luckily just walked into the Flower Market. It was amazing; they had so many different kinds and colors of flowers. Some I had never seen before. The most popular were the orchids. The stores had shelves and shelves of them in different colors, shapes, and pots. The next market we went to was the Goldfish Market. Again, it was like the Flower Market with things displayed. This time, it was all kinds of fish in tanks. I felt like I was in a mini aquarium. Most of the fish were goldfish, but there were also coy, parrot fish, and other fish with patterns and colors. The last market was the Bird Market. In stacks of about 10 cages high, were birds. There were so many different types of birds, including macaws, parakeets, and many others I don’t know the name of. It was just amazing how many birds, fish, and flowers were packed into a few blocks.

Lianne

Yangshuo:Day Thirteen

We went to Hong Kong that day, but not until the evening. Since we had time, we went shopping on West Street. This is a street to shop. There were many wonderful items and things to buy. We would have bought about ten times the amount we bought if we weren’t accosted. Shopping here was like shopping in Guilin, but worse. We were yelled at and followed/stalked by people wanting to sell us things. When we looked at something, we just kept saying “we’re just looking.” It didn’t make one bit of difference. “What price lady,” and “come back”, and “look at this, is beautiful. Buy, buy!” We also know there were lies told, because it was so obvious sometimes that it wasn’t true. For example, when we went, it was about 11 o’clock. Tourists, local people, and everyone else were shopping when we were. About five times, we heard, “you are getting a really good deal. You are the first customers.” Yeah right. Again, it was also very hard because how you got rid of people was to ignore them. They are talking to you and it is so hard to ignore them. One other thing that is hard, and you need to do it, is bargaining. You should start with a quarter of the asking price and bargain down from there. I don’t bargain well at all. Why can’t you just pay what they want? I usually bargain down about five Yuan, which is approximately 70 cents. To get to the airport, you have to drive down dirt, rural roads for a hour and a half. It felt like a long time, and I even fell asleep for a long time. The airplane was a typical ride and we got to Hong Kong at about 11 o’clock. The next day we went to Victoria Peak, Kowloon, different markets, and took a ferry boat.
Lianne

Yangshuo:Day Twelve

We got a late start. After finally finishing breakfast at 12 o’clock, we went to a place to get on a bamboo boat. These boats were nicer than the fishing boats, but just because of the seats. It was still a boat made out of bamboo with a person who punts. There were no boats with three seats, so we got two boats with two seats each. My mom and I took one, and my dad took another. The people who punted the boats were very friendly. The ride was about two hours long and very peaceful. We had been going for about ten minutes and the woman who was pushing our boat motioned us to take our shoes off. We wondered why, until we heard running water. Soon enough, we came to a place where people were on floating rafts ready to take our picture. We weren’t expecting it and it was a shock when we went down a small drop. That was one of the many rapids. I came to like them and was happy when we would go down another one. We also had a few parts when we came to a mud wall. When we came to those places, we got out and our punters hauled the boats up. It again was a shock when we teetered over a drop of about six feet. The punters would jump on the boat right as it was going down. The ride had beautiful scenery. The mountains were close by and the water was crystal clear. After the ride, we went and saw the Big Banyan Tree. It is what it sounds like, a banyan tree which is huge. The rocks in the foreground are about as big as a person. Right next to it was a small part of the river blocked off for people trying to punt. We tried it and it was not easy. It made us appreciate what the people had to do in our boat ride for two hours. Our hotel is in a little village and so we walked around it. There were many little stands and booths of things to buy. The sun was going down and so we went back. Tomorrow we’re going to go shopping on a popular tourist street, West Street.

Lianne

Yangshuo:Day Eleven

Today we took a boat down the Li River. The ride was very scenic and we were going along the Karst Mountains. The term, Karst, is describing what type of mountains they are. The mountains are the peaky mountains that are sometimes used as landscapes to paint and take pictures of. We think they are beautiful. The climate is almost tropical and the plants/trees growing on the mountain side are very green and lush. The boat ride was about four hours long and most of the time we spent standing on the deck watching the mountains go by. As I said before, people really want to sell you things. Below is the seating area with glass windows and comfortable seats. So, as soon as we get going, people come along side our boat and try to sell us tourist trinkets. These people are on traditional bamboo boats that they use to fish, sell, and travel. To sell their things, these people take a rope and hook it onto our boat to make the bamboo steady. To get them to go away, you ignore them. This is more difficult than you would think. In America, we are taught to speak to people who speak to you and it is rude to ignore them. Not here. When we got to Yangshuo, we took a taxi to our hotel. Yangshuo is a very rural place and a lot of farming is done. The farming is done in traditional ways. We saw people using water buffalo to plow and we have seen a lot of rice paddies. Rice paddies are the fields where rice grows. It turns out that our hotel was very green. By green, I mean environmentally friendly. When we got to our hotel, it was only about one o’clock in the afternoon. We took a stroll down the street and to a place where it said we could hike up to Moon Hill. The picture of a hole in the hill is Moon Hill. We joked that is was the Arch of China. The bad thing, is that we had followers on our hike. Two old women went along with us and tried to get us to buy their things. They came along ALL THE WAY UP THE HILL WITH US. We didn’t want them to come all the way with us. The hike was supposed to be a leisure hike and take about a hour and a half. I am not a fan of walking fast and up stairs on a steep hill. Just to see if we could get the women away, we went up and down the hill in about forty-five minutes. That night we went to the Light Show. This is an amazing show that was made and directed by the man who did the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. It was amazing. One of the parts was a bunch of men on their bamboo boats working with five red pieces of fabrics. The fabrics were about six feet tall and as long as a football field. There were also a lot of people with costumes that could light up. Synchro people, I think that Spain’s costumes might have been like this. The women, who had the costumes, would light up in a wave or make it seem like one person was walking among them. The next day we will be going on bamboo rafts on the Yulong River.

Lianne