Frills, Frills, Everywhere

Since we're staying at a Chinese university with mostly female students, I've had plenty of time to observe the fashion statements being made by Chinese girls my age. As far as I can tell, there are two distinct syles among teenagers and college students here: ultra frilly, and ultra trendy.

The "ultra frilly" girls love to wear baby doll- themed dresses and skirts in pastel colors, with as many bows, sequins, ruffles, etc. as possible. I hear this is the current fashion in Korea, and it's rubbed off on the Chinese girls in Tianjin. Take for example my Chinese teacher, who is a cute, sweet, but nerdy young woman a few years older than me. The outfit she wore today (for the second time in three weeks) includes all components of the typical "frilly" look: a pale lavender chiffon dress with a satin bow in front, with a cream- colored, gauzy sweater-shawl and baby blue rhinestone-studded strappy sandals with little tiny heels. A ponytail tied tightly with a big scrunchie completed the look.

On the other hand, there are the super trendy fashionistas who look better for class every day than I ever have for a night out on the town. These girls favor tight-fitting skirts, pants and tops in bold colors. A Chinese friend I made last week falls into this category. When we met for lunch, I was wearing a polo shirt, shorts, and sandals... she showed up in a bright blue halter top with sparkly gold VERO MODA lettering, a short leather skirt, and high heels.

I haven't seen anybody wearing much make-up, and overly revealing clothing is non-existent, even amongst the fashionistas.

Updates on last weekend's Xi'an trip coming soon!!

Xi'an

I'm back at "home" in Tianjin after a weekend in Xi'an. The trip was a very busy one: from our departure on Friday at 6 am until our return to Tianjin around 1 am on Monday, the weekend was a whirlwind of terracotta warrios, shards of pottery on exhibit behind glass, and other such ancient things.

Xi'an is a smallish city by Chinese standards (about six million people) and is the traditional Chinese capital. The original city wall along with several beautiful old temples and towers in the downtown area are lit up at night, giving the city a festive feel.

I wanted to write about some funny and also frustrating observations I made this weekend. Scott's online journal (scottinzhongguo.blogspot.com) has a more detailed account of the trip itinerary. :)

Elderly people in China like to sing and dance together outside at night.
While walking around on our own Friday night, Scott and I stumbled across a large group of elderly Chinese gathered in a square in front of the beautifully lit city wall. Wielding decorated fans and brightly colored umbrellas, everybody marched around the square to the beat of a drum in a seemingly random series of steps. They maintained deadpan, serious expressions while weaving around and around, waving their fans and umbrellas. Nearby, there were several groups of people singing traditional Chinese songs together. Everybody was out, just enjoying the night air and the pretty lights.

Yesterday, I asked my Chinese teacher about this tradition, and she said the older people in Tianjin do the same thing. In fact, her daughter likes to tease her by asking, "Mom, when you get old, are you going to dance around with a fan, too?"

Chinese tourist attractions are not very attractive.
The terracotta warriors, or "terracotta warriors-horses," as our tour guide David kept calling them, were quite impressive. However, the way in which they were displayed was not. From what I've seen so far, the Chinese tourism industy makes no effort whatsoever to make attractions attractive. For example, the museum holding the terracotta warriors consisted of three stations, tantalizingly entitled "Pit 1," "Pit 2," and "Pit 3." Pit 1 had a great display of intact warriors and horses, standing in their long lines just like I had imagined them. Pits 2 and 3, however, had just a couple of dozen broken warriors and a whole lot of dirt. It really looked as if immediately after uncovering the warriors, all archaeologists were dismissed and the museum was opened the very next day.

Another stop on our trip were the Huaqing Hot Springs , the site of much merrymaking by a 700 A.D. emperor and his favorite concubine. The springs and surrounding grounds were beautiful indeed, but again, they just didn't live up to the potential that anyone with a little bit of tourism know-how would have been able to extract. The pools in which the emperor and his concubine used to bathe were on display, but they looked as if they'd just been left to their own devices for the past 1300+ years to mature into their current states: dried- up, dirty, and crawling with bugs.

Travel agencies like to draw their unsuspecting charges into tourist traps.
The tourism industry here is all about the guanxi (connections): the Chinese travel agent's top priority is not serving the customers, but instead taking them to expensive tourist traps in hopes of receiving kickbacks from their purchases. The entire day Sunday was spent visiting such places.

David (the tour guide) took us to a "jade factory," which turned out to be a government-owned store with ridiculously high prices (although, "just for us," there was a 40% dicount). Even including the the so-called discount, a small bracelet embedded with five small pieces of jade cost $2000; a chunk of fool's gold cost $100; and a Koko-sized jade sculpture of an elephant sold for $25,000.

A stop at a museum and a couple of hours later, David took us to yet another souveneir shop, promising it was "where all the locals go." Predictably, it turned out to be a clone of the first "jade factory" with one difference: this store boasted a 40% discount... again, "just for us."

The trip had a happy ending. Despite wide-spread frustration with his "guiding," David won back the hearts of most the group when he took us to a four- star hotel for a buffet dinner... which included custom-grilled steaks, perfect French fries, and American-style spaghetti. Ok- I take it all back- the trip was amazing! :)

Look, A Foreigner!

Last night I was meeting Scott outside of Century Mart to do some shopping. I stood there in front of the store, which is located at a busy intersection. As I waited, I watched hordes of Chinese people going by, riding bikes, talking loudly, hailing taxis, spitting, and going about their normal Chinese lives.

Then, in the distance, I spotted Scott making his way delicately across the busy street: a tall, slender, fair young man with a backpack and very large hiking boots. Even I couldn't stop myself from staring... I realized what the two of us must look like walking around the city. And then I started laughing. :)

It's the end of a fun weekend in Tianjin. Scott and I had originally planned to take the train to visit a section of the Great Wall located a couple of hours outside of Tianjin, but it didn't work out so we decided to spend the weekend exploring our home base.


Friday after class we played a little bit of tennis. Just as we were leaving, a Chinese student (his English name is Jackle) asked us to join in a doubles match with him and a friend. Between rallies, Jackle and I chatted a bit: I discovered he has a sister in Minnesota and he's visited Miami, which he called a "tropical paradise."


Later, Scott and I headed to Goubili, a restaurant famous for its dumplings. Goubili looks like a four star hotel: it even has a red carpet entry-way. The dumplings were a bit pricey, but they certainly lived up to my expectations! Dumplings are my favorite Chinese food so far. I've encountered two kinds, both delicious: baozi are steamed, large dough puffs filled with meat (usually pork); jiaozi are smaller, shaped like little burritos and are best when fried. I need to watch my dumpling consumption though... not exactly a healthy food choice!


After dinner we went to Cozy's Cafe in search of student drink specials. The rumored "special" turned out to be a 20% discount. I'm surprised at how expensive mixed drinks are in China; they cost considerably more than drinks in a college town bar: usually about $7 or $8 apiece. Anyway, Cozy's was fun because of the ghetto rap music they played... it reminded me of driving down Tennessee Street in Tallahassee!


Saturday was spent exploring. We walked about 45 minutes from campus to the Tianjin TV Tower and rode the elevator to the top (1197 feet) to check out the view. Then we enjoyed Cokes ("kele" in Chinese) inside the rotating restaurant near the top. After a semi-Western lunch at Hank's Sports Bar and Grill, we got on the bus (a ride costs 1.5 yuan, or about $0.20) to see what else we could discover. We walked around Tianjin University, a beautiful campus with elaborate fountains for several blocks inside the entrance, and went into a few of the mammoth shopping malls that seem to be everywhere in the city. After dinner and a movie at TFSU, we were beat.


Sunday was another adventuresome day. First we visited Cultural Street, which consists of several blocks of vendors and stalls selling upscale souveniers such as Chinese paintings, jade, pearls, swords, calligraphy sets, and so forth. I like Cultural Street particularly because the vendors aren't pushy; you are free to look at the merchandise without being harassed. This is a rare treat in Tianjin. Even in Century Mart or a Western-style mall, the moment I enter a store, the workers aggressively try to convince me to buy the most expensive items.

We walked along the river for a little while and enjoyed the attractive Romanesque- style bridges, reminiscent of those along the Seine River. However, this was definitely NOT a stroll through Paris... the sight of a man relieving himself in plain view beside the river, dozens of people fishing on the banks, and one man taking a leisurely swim through the gray, murky water to the other side shot that illusion right out the window.

Lo and behold, we spotted a Wal-Mart! Like flies drawn to the light (or American students drawn to the big yellow smiley face) we wandered in. Tianjin's Wal-Mart featured many familiar American brands as well as many odd-looking Chinese items. Watch out for falling prices! A couple of shopping malls later, we headed back to TFSU.

I really enjoyed my time out the the city; it gets easier every time I go out. But after a whole weekend of trekking through traffic, honking horns, smog, and staring hordes of people, I'm taking some much-needed huddle/ recovery time tonight in my dorm room.

Qi Yue Si Ri (Fourth of July)

Happy belated Fourth of July from China! Yesterday was definitely different from a traditional American Fourth, but I had a great day nonetheless.

After classes in the morning, Scott, my roomate and I decided to treat ourselves to Pizza Hut for lunch. Pizza Hut over here is an upscale dining experience, kind of like a very trendy California Pizza Kitchen. They had real bathrooms with toilet paper and soap, a pink "We Love Our Customers" sign on the back wall, and mixed drinks on the menu. I got a cosmopolitan and it was delicious. Anyway, the three of us stuffed ourselves with pepperoni pizza, American style. Then we headed back to the dorm to catch a Chinese calligraphy class (taught in all Chinese) and Tai Chi lessons on the soccer field on campus.

After Tai Chi, I joined in a soccer game with some Chinese students and some other study abroad kids. It was a lot of fun, even though I just kind of ran around aimlessly trying to look like I was doing something while at the same time staying as far away from the ball as possible. But, I do think the little guy with the Del Piero jersey was getting annoyed at my tight "man-on-man" defense.

Then, our school put on a really nice Fourth of July barbeque for us, complete with fried rice, beef kebobs, bean curd, and roast duck. They played loud heavy metal music the whole time- I think they were trying really hard to make it "cool" for us. It was so sweet, and the food was awesome.

After dinner, our study abroad group went to Bar Street, which is aptly named because it's where most of Tianjin's nightlife is located. We took over a place called Scooters- by the time I got there a little bit later than everybody else, by which time those crazy American students had guzzled the bar's entire supply of frozen drinks. We all headed to a karaoke/ disco bar next and sang Backstreet Boys songs together. A good time was had by all.

Today has been good so far. I had lunch earlier with my first real Chinese friend. Her name is Shawna, she's an English major and is interested in traveling and shopping. Her family lives in Tianjin and she's all ready to show me around town as soon as she's done with final exams.

Well that's all for now, more later!!

Delicious Chips, Anyone?

We have a nice grocery store nearby our dorm called Century Mart. They try really hard to make it Western-style: the store offers a wide variety of good for really cheap. You can get a 12-pack of 600 mL Tsingtao for about $4, a tennis racket for about $12, and hair dryers for about $10. They also have a lot of nice snacks, including familiar brands like Oreos, M&Ms, Lays, and Pringles. Today, while browsing the junk food aisle, I noticed some of the chip flavors for sale and thought some of them were pretty funny. The titles are just SO.... descriptive and APPEALING!!! And I quote:

Finger Licking Braised Pork Flavor
Sizzled Barbeque Flavor
Spicy Seafood Flavor
Crispy Roasted Chicken Flavor
Cool Cucumber Flavor
Thai Curry Crab Flavor
Crispy Drumsticks Flavor

AND... my very favorite one...

Italian Red Meat Flavor

Ups and Downs

Well, I've been living in Tianjin, China for a little over a week now. I've had many varied impressions of China since my arrival & with those impressions have come a wide array of emotions, ranging from smug self-satisfaction to down-trodden misery. Life here is such a massive undertaking that it makes the United States seem like a dream come true. However, in a strange way, I like it here: maybe because the challenge of getting by makes the accomplishment of everyday tasks makes me feel like a rocket scientist.

Anyway- a little about where I'm staying. Tianjin is a city of 10+ million people about an hour train ride south of Beijing. There are at least 10-12 universities here, and a lot of young people. Despite the city's size, the people are still pretty surprised to see foreigners walking along the street, especially tall blondes with big feet (yes, a lot of people have been staring at my feet).

I'm staying in the dorms at Tianjin Foreign Studies University. Before I got here, my idea of a dorm was Gilchrist Hall at FSU. Not a thing like my dorm here. At first I was shocked by the condition of my dorm room, but after talking to the Chinese students at the university, I realized that I was actually lucky to have air conditioning (the Chinese students have none) and only one roommate (they typically share a dorm room with 4 or 5 other students).

The city is a nice one. It's got a lot of European architecture and plenty of parks scattered around. I visited one last week that's just a few blocks away from the university. The large group of American students I was with soon attracted quite a bit of attention, and we were promptly invited to join a Tai Chi lesson with a group of elderly Chinese. It was quite amusing when they likened one "larger" African American young man to Ruben Stoddard and demanded that he sing for them (which he gladly did).

Last weekend we made a trip to Beijing with the group. Between Friday and Saturday, we visited the Ming Tombs, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square, and the Summer Palace. I especially enjoyed the Great Wall, and we were able to take a lot of good pictures (uploading them has proven somewhat difficult, however). It had rained in the morning, but cleared up by the time we got to the Great Wall, so everything was misty and had a very "ancient China" feel.

The official trip was over Saturday, but Scott and I opted to stay an extra night and take in some more of the sights. This was my favorite part of the trip. We managed to get ourselves around the city all day without once taking a cab (we even rode the bus SUCCESSFULLY several times!) and bought our train tickets back to Tianjin IN CHINESE with no trouble at all. I was pretty proud of us. After our first McDonald's since leaving the U.S., we wandered around Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City Sunday afternoon before heading back to Tianjin on the train.