Can’t wait to get home. Whistler here i come!

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Our friendly cab driver was acting as a temporary tour guide for us. He explained the historical significance of this region. He took us on a tour of the East Lake (东湖) and dropped us off at the Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼). He waited for us while we spent about 45 minutes at the Yellow Crane Tower. The original tower was destroyed toward the end of the Qing dynasty. This new one is rebuilt back in 1985 and it’s not located at the original location.

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On our way to the Wuhan airport, the cab driver pointed us to some really weird-looking houses on our right. They were weird in the sense that most of them looked like they were not completely built. Most of them, i did not see any doors or windows. The cab driver told us that the farmers in those area do not grow plants, they “grow” houses. The reason behind that is if you have houses on your land, when the city needs to use your land for other development, they will not only have to pay for your land, they will also have to pay for any houses on your land.

I have been eating great the last few days. In fact, i have been eating really well since i have been here. In every meal, i have to say more than 80% of the dishes were new to me. The IBM reps in Wuhan invited us and the client for two consecutive nights. I learned something during the second dinner. If the person giving you a toast is in a higher position than you, you should always tip your glass lower than his when the glasses meet. I did not know about this until the second dinner. God knows how many people i had offended during the first dinner!

Do you know that there are Chinese cigarettes that cost $8 USD a pack ? I did not believe it until it was shown to me. Apparently, these cigarettes are only made for consumption of party officials and they are not easily available to the general public.

Updated 1/2/2006
Wuhan is actually a combination of three cities, not two. The city i left out is Hanyang (汉阳).

I was in Beijing back in July for about a week. That was my first ever trip to China. Now i am back again, though the weather is on the other extreme end now. Back in July, it was very hot and daily temperature was around the 90s (Fahrenheit). Last week, the average daily temperature in Beijing was in the 20s (Fahrenheit).

I am glad the Beijing Shangri-la has complimentary high-speed internet because i really do not like paying RMB 120 a night like what i did in July when i was staying at the Shanghai Hilton and the Pudong Renaissance.

On my return trip in the express train to Shanghai, i was sharing my cabin with a pretty girl (Sammy) from Haerbin (哈尔滨). She was quite friendly and told me about her desire to be a fashion designer in Paris.

On Day 8, i went to Jingshan park (景山公園). While getting ready to head for JIngshan park, i met Regis at the front desk. Apparently, his plan of going to a beach on the coast did not pan out so he is still in Beijing. I told him i wanted to check out one of the Hutongs (胡同) here. He told me there is one near the Gulou (鼓樓) and he said it’s easier to get there by the bus. I took bus #103 from the bus stop near the hostel. Taking the bus in Beijing is a pretty unique experience for me. There is a ticket conductor that sells you a paper ticket and each ride costs RMB 1. The ticket conductor also acts as traffic announcer, warning pedestrians and cyclists to move away from the bus – her microphone is hooked up to a loudspeaker outside of the bus.

One thing i noticed about Beijing, in almost all the public areas including buses, is that there are signs about the areas or buses being sterilized (消毒). Isn’t being cleaned and hygienic something to be assumed ? Is it really necessary to announce that everything is clean and sterilized ? It seems to me that being cleaned and sterilized is a main selling point for a product here.

One of the reasons why i took the bus instead of a cab is that earlier during the day, a cab driver wanted RMB 50 from me just to get to where i wanted. I got off the car immediately. It really pissed me off to see asshole like this trying to extort money from unsuspecting visitors to Beijing. Also, while waiting for a cab, a fight broke out right in front of me between two guys who were waiting for cabs. The shorter but bigger guy was pummeling the taller but skinnier guy. Just when i was about to try to step in to stop the fight, it ended. I guess the shorter and bigger guy won and he got in the cab first. This is so freaking ridiculous.

Anyway, back to the bus. Bus #103 took me right in front of Jinshan park (景山公圓). The only reason why i wanted to visit Jinshan Park is just so i could see the tree where the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty hung himself. The park itself seemed pretty decent except i did not stay there for long – my only goal was to see the tree.

After i got done with the park, i went out of the park through the west gate and had a late lunch at a nearby restaurant. Then i took bus #5 to Gulou. There was a sign that pointed me to the Hutong there. Right after i walked into the Hutong, i knew i made a big mistake going there. The area was so commercialized, it really looked like a tourist town. The Hutong was full of souvenir shops and bars. When i walked farther west toward Houhai (后海), on both sides of the lake was full of restaurants. What kind of Hutong is this? I left extremely disappointed.

After that, i went to a mall in Xidan (西單) because i was told one could get pretty good deals there. I stopped by a newly-opened tattoo parlor when i saw a sign about temporary tattoo. After seeing the previous work done by the tattoo artist (張小龍), i told him to put a temporary tattoo of a chinese dragon on my back. It was a big ass tattoo Being the first customer, he did another one on my right arm for free !

They (he and his girlfriend 劉麗) were pretty nice to me, i guess because i was the first customer. I stayed on and talked to him for a few more hours. After they closed the tattoo parlor at 2200, i bought them dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Ok, i finally had to go, for #2 that is. Because the stall was extremely narrow and small, it took me a quite a bit of time and effort, while trying to avoid the UFOs (Unindentified Foreign Objects) on the floor, to get myself in position. Just when i was ready to proceed with my “business”, someone came into the stall next to mine. Without going into all the graphic details, i could hear that he was unleashing some significant load. Oh yeah, for a while, he was making this grunting noise, which was followed by this sigh of relief. Really, i wanted to ask him to do a courtesy flush, as i would have done if i was making some serious brownies. But since most of the people in the hostel are not from the US, and it was very likely that the person at the next stall was not an American, and that he would not have known what “courtesy flush” is all about.

So my question is: Is there such a thing called “courtesy flush” in other cultures? Is it customary to perform one in a shared restroom? How do you say “courtesy flush” in Chinese, German, Korean or French?

We met Desiree (from Switzerland) near the hostel. We all decided to go to a well-known bar area in Beijing called Sanlitun (三里屯). This area looked just like the Clark Quay bar/restaurant area in Singapore. If you are sitting outdoor, there are people constantly harrassing you to buy stuff. We had to say “no” multiple times to get our points across. I don’t find this area as cool as described in most travel guides so i guess this is probably my first and last time there.

When i finally checked into my room, after waiting in line at the front desk for the really inefficient receptionists, it was already close to 1300. Since i did not have any Cat 5 ethernet cable and there was a Cat 5 jack in my room, i decided to get myself a patch cable. Back in Seattle, or anywhere in the US, i will know exactly where to go get it. But here in Beijing, no one at the hostel seemed to know what i was talking about. The “concierge” gave me a place to go to, even though she has never been there before, and told me to take the subway to Dong-si-shi-tiao (東四十條路) stop. Of course, just like the directions i received the day before to the Confucius temple, her directions failed me miserably. There was absolutely nothing around the subway stop she told me to get off. So i ran back to the subway station to get back to the hostel.

By the way, the subway stations in Beijing are not exactly air-conditioned. The only “air-conditioned” moment at the subway stations is when the subway train pulls into the station, bringing with it a slight breeze to those standing near the tracks. Ok ok…enough whining about the subway stations in Beijing. Any more complains about the Beijing subway stations and i will most likely get a comment from smelly asking me if i want “some cheese with go with that whine”

Anyway, when i finally got back to the hostel, i went up to the internet cafe and asked one of the staff working there. I should have done this in the beginning, instead of asking the “concierge” who has never been to any of the great wall tours offered by the hostel and yet was able to say which one of the Great Wall tour was better ! After finding out where i could get my patch cable, i went straight for the mall. I located the patch cable at the New World shopping mall and it cost me RMB 10. Now i could finally get free internet in the comfort of my own room

Oh yeah, about my room. It really brings back the memories i have during my first year in college when i was living in the dormitory. I am paying RMB 160 for my room, and even though there are two beds in my room, i have been promised that i would be the only person staying in that room. Because of the cheaper rate, i don’t have a private bath in my room. When i went to check out the shared bathroom, i had to wonder how i made it through my dormitory days back in college. None of the urinals are working. There are 4 stalls in each shared bathroom – two labeled “Western style” and two labeled “chinese style”. And they all don’t smell too good. If there is one thing i don’t like about this hostel, this is it. I think i can hold on to “it” for another day but i don’t know if i will be able to do it much longer. May be i should just find a nice hotel nearby and get my “business” over with .

One thing that i have noticed about a significant number of Beijing men, is that they can go topless at any moment, without any notice. I really believe that in order to be considered as a real Beijing man, you have to be able to go topless, roll up your shirt halfway, or roll up your shirt so that the bottom end is tucked at the neck. Almost everywhere i went, i saw men rolled up their shirts, exposing their significantly-sized tummies. I mean, after all the years of training by eating and stuffing themselves to near deaths, why waste the opportunity offered by a hot and humid day by hiding their proud achievements, right? After all, if i have a tummy that is as round and as taut as those that i have witnessed, i would go around showing it off too