In Yiwu

This morning I arrived in Yiwu from the train, and Shuai and I immediately went to obtain a hotel room. We ate breakfast and soon after, Shane, the Hendrix alumnus who I'm indebted to for helping me out so much met us at the hotel. After resting for a while, we went out for what was to be my first view of Chinese business and the beginning of my studies into Chinese business style.

We went across the street to the wholesale market in Yiwu. Describing it cannot even come close to bringing this massive place justice. It is over 1km long, with 4 floors, all advertising items you can buy wholesale from factories. It's the largest wholesale market in the world and is very impressive. So, we went through and along the way, talked with some of the workers, and set up meetings tomorrow with 8 of them.

In these meetings, I will be able to learn about how goods from China are sold internationally, because nearly every factory in China has a booth set up in the market. Everything from plastics, to cell phones, to hair clips, to pool floaties. People from all over the world come here to buy goods, and after my interviews tomorrow, I will be able to explain this system of business much better.

I will get some rest now, because I need to wake up early to make it to meet an agent who assists foreigners in buying goods, and then I will be on my way to the wholesale market. I will post the results of my interviews on here. Until next time, zaijian.

A Vacation From Myself

In what I see as probably some of the worst news of the year, it appears that I will lose a bet when June comes to an end, unless a miracle happens. And the horrible result of this bet is I will have to grow facial hair for a month. I never have wanted to grow facial hair and never have. It's not something I look forward to either, but alas, it appears on the horizon so I have been doing some thinking about what kind of facial hair I will grow.

I can say for certain now that I don't want any type of goatee or soul patch. I'm leaning now towards the simple mustache, just because I can't even imagine myself with anything else. But, I'm up for suggestions. Let me know how I should ruin my face with hair that is bound to look like a puberty mustache.

In other news, tomorrow we will be returning to Guilin from Nanning. I've had a good time in both Nanning and Beihai, but it's time that I begin my work trip up to Yiwu, Shanghai, and Beijing.

I'd say the highlights of Nanning and Beihai have to be experiencing the Chinese way of eating and drinking, and of course swimming in the ocean, which is always fun. We also got to walk down the street in Beihai, it was pretty damn old and I'll post photos. Until then, Shuai and I are planning our train travels and I have to get out of this internet bar because the internet is super slow.

Nanning and Beihai

Well, I finally have obtained access to the internet since arriving in Nanning and now in Beihai. Shuai's family connections again appear endless. We arrived in Nanning to be picked up by one of his cousins living there. She took us out to eat where we met up with another cousin, and we were invited to stay in her husbands vacant apartment for free. They invited us out both nights to go to KTV and/or clubs, and we had a great time. His male cousin then invited us out to dinner at a restaurant where he knew the manager and again we went out to KTV afterwards. Then came Beihai.

Shuai, his cousin and I took a bus down and right as we got off the one of her connections and his driver picked us up in his car. From there we went out to a traditional Chinese dinner. A large group of important business men/government officials/me sitting around a massive table with a rotating center with piles of food on it. And copious amounts of liquor, wine and cigarettes. For the next three to four hours, all that went on was drinking, chain smoking, and eating. People were constantly walking around the table and toasting each other, and as is Chinese custom, everyone drank one by one with everyone. It was quite an entertaining evening and an amazing way to eat dinner. If only the Hendrix cafeteria was more like that.

After dinner, we were taken to our hotel that we got put in for free. Beach front and costs over 500 kuai a night. Beihai is beautiful and I'm sad that I'll be leaving tomorrow. But then I get to post more, so I'm sure my mass readership will be glad to hear that. Time to go out for the night, though.

Prices

And today, as I leave for Nanning in a few hours, I will just run down a list of prices for items. And remember: 1 USD=6.83413 CNY

-Bottle of water=1.5 yuan
-24 pack of beer=18 yuan (warning: contains formaldehyde and tastes worse than sewage water)
-750ml Bottle of decent Chinese beer=4 yuan
-Bowl of rice noodles and meat for breakfast=2 yuan
-Riding the bus=1 yuan
-Taking a motorbike taxi=2 yuan
-Taking a train (4 hour trip)=65 yuan
-750ml cup of milk tea=3 yuan
-Average taxi ride to anywhere in the city=10 yuan
-Average cost of meal at cheap but good restaurant=10 yuan
-A DVD (not bootleg)=20 yuan
-A DVD (bootleg)=6 yuan
-A ping pong paddle equivalent to the best paddles in the US=40 yuan
-Getting into public parks/tourist spots=20-100 yuan (But Shuai knows people to make it free)
-Packet of tissues to use at restaurants/toilets=2 yuan
-Electric Vespa-esque scooters=1000 yuan
-That really nice telephoto lens I want=5000 yuan
-Pay-as-you-go SIM Card=50 yuan

Now it is time to eat and prepare to leave for Nanning and Beihai. I'm not sure what type of internet access I will have there, so I'm not aware of what my posting frequency will be. Goodbye.

Panel

Well, tonight I will attend the panel at Guangxi Normal University, but until then I will just be relaxing at Shuai's home and heading out to the bookstore for the day. Probably going running at some point as well.

Sadly this means that I don't have to much to blog about. We haven't been to many new tourist areas that I can discuss, and I don't need to blog more about the nightlife here.

So I'll blog about Naicha.

Milk tea. Probably the most delicious drink I've had in a long time. It's milk, tea, and some syrup/sugar and it's absolutely amazing. I'm sure it's possible to find in the US and/or make yourself, and I would highly recommend it. Although here the cost is about 20 cents for a 12oz cup. Yum.

And that's about all of the boring news I have to announce today, except that Shuai and I will leave Wednesday for Nanning and be there for about 5 days. Hopefully then I will have more pictures and more pg-13 stories to post on here. Adios.

Music

So since I've been to China, the one thing I've been missing quite a bit is music. I didn't bring my massive harddrive to China so haven't been able to get new music, like the new Dirty Projectors album or the new BMSR album. It's quite sad and I really want more music.

Alas, I've heard quite a bit of music in China, in different forms. Of course I already mentioned KTV, where I knew a few Chinese songs and wondered the rest of the time who Westlife was.

But also, outside my window every morning, somebody somewhere plays Beethoven's 5th really loudly over a PA system. And someone else in an apartment across the way enjoys playing plenty of violin music through another set of loud speakers.

The loudest sounds coming through my window, though, are from the elementary school very near the apartments. The Chinese school system uses unison repeating of phrases/words as a way of studying, so I hear chanting from the elementary school a lot. Whenever I hear this, though, it always reminds me of the children chanting on Pink Floyd's The Wall.

When I'm just walking the streets, some people have speakers on their motorbikes that they will blast music from and stores as well love to play loud, danceable music.

Bars at night of course will play dance music, so I hear plenty of that as well.

So I've heard quite a bit of music here in China, but hope soon enough that I'll get to listen to some music I recognize.

Responsibility

A lack of responsibility for just about anything has defined most of my life so far. I mean, I'm responsible for my grades, but I don't really feel much pressure at all from that and don't feel like I have any heavy burdens of responsibility on my life.

Now I've been asked by Shuai's father to both participate in a discussion panel on the English language and possibly sing as part of an art performance. I am extremely honored to be asked to do these things of course and definitely want to participate, but for the first time in my life I feel like I definitely need to be prepared, ready and do a great job. I have no explanation why, but I'm definitely beginning to prepare for these things quite a bit because I want to make a very good impression for whoever may be listening to what I say/sing.

I will be busy preparing for the next few days to get ready for these things, and will also at the same time be visiting the Longsheng Rice Terraces and preparing to visit Shuai's other family in Nanning. It's quite an exciting time here and I'm glad for it.

On another note, I'm sad I will be missing Zach and Kylie's wedding, which is coming up very soon. I wish both of them the best and hope that the wedding is amazing and everyone there has a great time. Also, have a great time in Vegas guys!

A Milestone

So today, Shuai and I were walking through downtown Guilin on what he likes to call the walking street. There are plenty of vendors and shops to be found, and there are in fact plenty of people walking on it and no cars are allowed.

As we are walking, we see this older man begin to approach, which is pretty normal, as there are plenty of people trying to sell jade and other jewelry on the street.

He looks to be about in his 50s, he's dressed like he's living in Del Boca Vista, and he is carrying with him a tiny tattered umbrella to protect himself from the light drizzle of rain.

He starts off talking to me by saying, "hey, how are you?" This caught me off guard, as almost everyone trying to sell things only will say "hello" and/or the English name of the item they are selling, so this made him stand out from other vendors.

I respond by telling him that I'm doing good and try to offer him a jumble of Chinese words that just don't come out right.

He just smiles and responds, "Massage? Sex?"

I just laugh and quickly respond “不要不要”, which means "don't want, don't want". And at that point, it all made sense why he was carrying absolutely nothing in his hands to sell me. Shuai and I hurried off and he kept talking in Chinese for a little until he faded into the background searching for another potential customer.

And now I've finally reached a milestone where I've been offered a prostitute in China.

KTV

Last night, Shuai, Ning, Shuai's parents and I all went out to go see karaoke at a KTV bar. It cost us 90 kuai (about 12 dollars) to rent out a room for the night and go singing.

They started out by getting me to sing every song that I had learned in Chinese class haha, so after that I was forced to start looking for English songs that I actually knew. These included many Beatles songs, Wouldn't It Be Nice, Uptown Girl, YMCA, Stairway To Heaven (what a mistake), and Lost. It was quite an entertaining night to say the least.

The highlight of the singing, though, were Shuai's parents. They both have great voices and sang numerous Chinese love songs that contained separate male and female vocals. We ended up staying there for a little over three hours I think, and it was quite a pleasure whenever they went up to sing.

Afterwards, Shuai, Ning and I went out to go out some barbecue fish and then went to bed. KTV is quite fun and I look forward to showing off my singing ability quite often here in China.

Yangshuo and the Lijiang Cruise

Sunday, Shuai’s family, Ning and I took a trip to Yangshuo, a backpacker destination and small town near Guilin.

We took the bus to Yangdi and from there took a bamboo raft down to Yangshuo. Although the Lijiang was a little bit busy with other boaters/tourists, the view was absolutely amazing. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my life. We also got off the boat in the river and went swimming, which was quite refreshing.

We also passed by the large boats that foreigners usually take and costs 500 kuai. I don’t see the appeal at all of those boats, and felt like it was much better in the bamboo raft.

Once in Yangshuo, Shuai’s parents took the bus back to Guilin because they had work the next morning, but Shuai, Ning and I stayed for the night. In Yangshuo, the place is packed with tourists. I saw more Westerners there in one day than I had seen in my entire time in China from Hong Kong, to Guangzhou, and in Guilin.

I must say, I really don’t know any backpackers and don’t understand the whole backpacking culture, but they were all over Yangshuo and the results of that are restaurants all over offering pizza, foreign food, and everything is written in both Chinese and English, meaning Yangshuo wouldn’t be the best place for me to improve my language skills.

Accordingly, when we went to go eat beer fish (a local specialty), the price was insane and although it was good, wasn’t worth the price in my opinion.

The next day, though, we rented bikes and went out of Yangshuo. We went to the Yulong river, villages surrounding Yangshuo, and just out into the beautiful countryside. It was amazing and I felt like I got a glimpse of what old China may have been like.

All in all, the view was completely worth it to take this trip, and Shuai’s connections get us into any tourist park for free in the Guilin area, which is an amazing money saver. We are back in Guilin and about to head out and go to a KTV bar, so I’m ready to show off my Chinese singing ability.

PS. One day I will post pictures on here if I ever get any readers who don't me on Facebook haha, but that will only happen when Blogger isn't blocked.

Food

So last night, I went out with Shuai and Ning to eat some barbecue and a type of hot pot soup. We started off with a sizzling plate of barbecue that had everything from onions, carrots, squid, beef, peppers, and many other items. We also had a plate of delicious tofu on the side. Then comes the hot pot, and the only thing in the hot pot was chicken. I pick out my first piece of meat and notice that it still has the skin on it. I find out that all the pieces do and this is normal. It's pretty good so I keep eating until I grab one piece and bring it towards my mouth when I notice that I'm staring straight into the comb/mohawk of the chicken head. Shuai tells me that although he doesn't eat the head many people do. I go back to eating more normal pieces of chicken until I again grab a piece of out the pot, which is the neck. Quite fun.

I've eaten plenty of interesting things since I've been here. Pig penis, bamboo snail (still have no idea what this is), seafood galore, etc.

The most interesting place I visited for food, though, had to be the animal market in Guangzhou. As some people may know, yes cat and dog are eaten in China and Guangzhou is actually known for eating many strange things. But I mean, what I saw was pretty ridiculous. Bats and parrots strung up for eating. Bats and parrots...

Observations

What I've noticed so far about the bars in China is that A. they blast electronic/dance music constantly B. they have flashing lights no matter where you look C. everyone loves to play Liar.

Liar is played with 5 dice a person, 2 cups, and lots of alcohol. And the Chinese are very good at it.

Every single driver in China honks the horn at least once every time they drive. On the same note, it's not apparent that there are any traffic laws.

Street vendors and such near tourist areas know how to say water, ice cream and picture.

Since not many people drive and if they do, they usually drive little motorbikes, the streets are almost always filled with tons of people.

A meal is usually just plates of different things that you eat from, instead of just one entree.

And this place is tons of fun. Time to go swimming.

The Toilet Post

So I've gotten to Guilin and rested up last night and I finally feel like I'm past any type of jet lag and exhaustion. Not too much of importance has happened that is bloggable about so I'll just talk about the toilets in China.

When I first got in to China I landed in the Hong Kong airport. The bathrooms there were Western and just like any restroom you would find in the west, just cleaner.

I then got to my hostel. The bathroom still had a Western toilet, but was in a 4 foot by 2 1/2 foot space and you also took your showers in there. There was just a tiny low flow shower faucet you could move around and a drain. Quite economical.

The first train I got on was a bit different because it had a bidet. Luckily I didn't have to sit down to use the restroom because it would've been quite frustrating as the train was very bumpy. To clean up, you had to leave the water closet and get a bucket from the hand washing station, fill it up with water, and then pour it around the hole.

At the large train station in Guangzhou, which was as large as an airport, the bathrooms were also bidets and there was a large area with troughs you wash your hands in. Right near these troughs, though, is what appears to be private hand washers. So as I walk up to wash my hands, I notice someone else barely beat me to it and start filling up his bowl of ramen noodles with the boiling hot water coming from the faucet. Close call.

And on the train to Guilin there were more train bidets and Shuai's home has a bathroom like at the hostel.

And those are the toilets I've come across so far.

PBR in the PRC

So I just arrived from Guangzhou and I’m at Shuai’s home in Guilin. The trip was amazing and a great train ride.

I got on the train at 7 and saw the first Westerner I had seen in days. Turns out he is from Canada, his name is Elliott and he was a baller. After talking for a while, we both noticed a man drinking PBR. Naturally, we got very excited and went to search out a dining hall.

After about 7 train cars we found the dining car, and not being able to read anything on the menu, we just pointed at something that wasn’t too cheap or too expensive and ordered some PBR. After eating what turned out to be an omelet + rice, we continued to drink PBR for a few more hours until we finally passed out and woke up at 6:30 to get off the train at Guilin.

The city is absolutely beautiful and Shuai’s apartment is great. I look forward to traveling out into the country soon and exploring all these hills. And maybe some more PBR.

Heading Out

I'm about to leave my hostel in Hong Kong and it's been a fun but short stay. Went and got some noodles at a stand across the street last night because I was starving and got a beef dish/tuna sandwich for breakfast since it was the only item with a picture on the menu.

When I went to the restaurant this morning, though, it was quite full and no tables were empty so they began to put people at tables together. I got sat at a table with an old lady and about a minute after I sat down she told the waiter something in Cantonese and moved to another table, even though it was also full haha. I didn't really care but thought it was quite amusing.

Also, in Hong Kong, it doesn't seem to be a big deal to be a foreigner, you don't hardly seem them at all on the streets but only once have people pointed and squealed something I didn't understand haha. Although that may just be at me, not because I'm a foreigner haha.

Anyway, I'm heading to check out and leaving for the mainland. Will post in a couple days again.

Hong Kong Hostel

So, I just got into my hostel in Hong Kong, I haven't slept for 30 hours straight but waited an hour just to use the computer to contact my parents so they wouldn't send Interpol out after me and I am going to use this computer time for good. Anyway, to begin I flew 4 hours to Newark from Dallas and 16 hours from Newark to Hong Kong.

The flight actually wasn't terrible, unlike any other international flight I had been on, it gave you a selection of what shows and movies you wanted to watch and you could pause/rewind. So, I never even brought out my iPod and instead indulged on Fargo, Annie Hall, Citizen Kane, Dr. Strangelove, Dial M For Murder, North By Northwest, The Usual Suspects, Mad Men, 30 Rock and Law & Order.

I also thought I spotted a bottle of water with the label Moland Springs and even got into a conversation with the lady sitting next to me about my second button being too low.

Otherwise, this trip has so far been uneventful and getting to the hostel was easy enough. I wish I could post pictures from this computer, though, because this place is amazing. I look down from the 7th floor I am on and can see about 4 stray cats going through the dark alley. Clothing is strung up all across the open area and stretches all the way to the top floor. It's pretty amazing.

I leave tomorrow morning for Guangzhou and then take the overnight train to Guilin, so once I get to Shuai's home in Guilin I will post again.