a weirdo in china, pt. 4: service mission

It was my second full day in China, and I had pushed my body to the very limit on the first, spending virtually all of it in 100-degree heat, stifling humidity, on unforgiving back alleys that threatened with treacherously unbalanced cobblestones wherever they didn't crush you in great throngs of humanity...

It was interesting, but exhausting, and I decided it was time to take it easy. I spent the morning helping with a service trip, where we entertained handicapped children by doing crafts activities together.

Unfortunately, there were not enough handicapped children (a sentence I never thought I would get to write), so I was relegated to taking photos on the sidelines. I tied no dyes.

On the walk to the service site, I started to get my first taste of the fascinating architectural specimens on display throughout Shanghai.

Truly a city of contrasts. *sage nod*

On the way back for lunch, I became acquainted with the Chinese penchant for bizarrely specific signage:

Presumably woodwinds are A-OK.

Lunch was large, flat noodles, very very yummy:

Though I did notice, right above the last table in the restaurant, the alluring visage of the business' fuse box!

I was wiped, so I retired to my room for a nap (but not before raiding the nearby supermarket a second time, to pick up everything I had forgotten the first time). This gave me some time, also, to contemplate just what the heck is this China thing, anyway?

You're kind of receiving these impressions as I'm still in the process of forming them, of course. There's a lot to take in. I have to sort through what I've heard in the past, what I've read in preparation for this trip, what I'm seeing here, what people are telling me here, and what I can try to intuit based on movies I've seen and other Asian countries I've gotten to know.

It's tricky.

The gist of it is, I think, (and this would be the most important thing you could EVER hope to learn about China), that looking for answers to questions about this monolithic entity called 'China' is a venture doomed to failure.

China doesn't exist.

It does, of course, as a land mass, and also a political entity, and possibly a broad, broad, oh-so-broad cultural grouping. But in a more specific way, in the way we often mean when we ask about the characteristics of such-and-such a country, or its people, like how you can say "Do you like French food," or "Are Germans punctual?" In this way, trying to ask or answer questions about China as a whole falls apart. Even a nation as large as America has culinary and cultural elements that are generally consistent across its breadth, in spite of all its regional variation. China...doesn't.

So, I'm very conscious as I explore that I'm seeing only one part of China. And sure, it's one of the most enormous, symbolic, and effectively representative parts. But it's still such a huge country that every day I walk past Chinese tourists standing around and gaping at just how alien everything is.

This is a strange place, in that respect, and others.

a weirdo in china, pt. 3: tutorial mission

So a new day dawned, and I dawned before it. That is to say, I was still extremely jet lagged, and my first full day in China started promptly at 3 A.M.

I lay in bed for a couple hours, then decided I wasn't doing myself any favors and set out to see the real China, which I defined as whatever parts of China I happened to wander past on my twenty-minute morning constitutional.

I didn't go very far, but I still saw plenty of bizarre sights. Men beating the heat with DIY crop tops. Half-awake people queuing for fried bread. And a fellow whose approach to street-level direct marketing was nothing short of revolutionary.

I think this one speaks for itself, unlike its subject.

I first formed an impression of Shanghai, then, as a sort of Fort Lauderdale with an economy. A quietly decaying place with an active nightlife, but not enough going on during the day to indefinitely justify its existence. And palm trees. But boy, was I wrong.

Shortly before 6 A.M., the city came to life. Noises, smells, and sights reverberated up and down the thoroughfares, and those arteries started pumping the lifeblood of traffic in greater and greater densities. People shouted to one another over the din, and the racket of it all was only matched by the intense, radiating heat of the newly-risen sun. I watched the city wake up, shake the sleep out of its eyes, and find its feet again. It was spectacular.

There's a little pond between these buildings, because why not?

Eventually I found my way back to my hotel and settled in to breakfast, which was a pleasing if blandly inoffensive assortment of Western and Chinese breakfast staples.

From there, I headed to Tianzifang, a neat collection of back alleys crammed with shops, art studios, and restaurants. I had a mojito, and also some fried shrimp, and the fork they gave me for the latter was, well, in keeping with the rest of my utensil life so far.

Tianzifang had a lot of quaint touches, but this one took the cake:

From there, it was on to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. On the way, I had a glimpse into Shanghai's checkered past.

The urban planning museum was really special for containing a scale model of the entire city of Shanghai. I couldn't fit it in one picture. I found my hotel. I couldn't find the Urban Planning Museum to look inside to see if I could find myself.

After that, it was time for lunch! Lunch was the amazing food known as SOUP DUMPLINGS.

Red:  spicy cuttlefish. Green:  shrimp. White:  pork. All:  delicious.

Dinner was also outrageously good. I managed to find some time to explore a Chinese supermarket as as well, but a deeper examination of that will have to wait for another day. Suffice to say that this day helped me start to form my fullest impression of China. What could that be? Read and find out!

a weirdo in china, pt. 2: intromission

I landed in Shanghai, and started my new life.

Customs was simple -- it was the first time in my life traveling internationally when the customs agent didn't ask me a single question. But I noticed, on my way to the baggage claim, that something was off.

The carpet was wrinkled. It was wrinkled in some way the entire run of the terminal. Something had gone wrong somewhere in interior decorating process. Somebody had dotted their i's, but perhaps not crossed their t's.

Otherwise, things were pretty normal. But let this act as a sort of foreshadowing of China in general.

I grabbed my bag and strolled out of the airport into the sweltering heat. I met the staff member picking me up, and we jumped into a waiting DiDi she'd ordered (a Chinese form of Uber). Surprisingly, it was a Mercedes-Benz SUV. Even more surprising were the pillows waiting for us in the back:

And on the dashboard, an array of miniature Iron Men.

After an hour ride to the hotel (a Holiday Inn Express), I tossed my bags down, showered, and got down to the important business I had come to China to accomplish:  eating everything.

The food was absolutely delicious, and fun to cook ourselves in the boiling soup stock. But when I reached for a lettuce leaf to eat, the teacher who'd brought me swatted my hand away. "Don't eat anything uncooked in China!" she warned me. I listened!

For dessert, I got a mini chocolate cake at a convenience store. Inside the package, I found my utensil needs met in a surprising way yet again.

That evening, the students were taken out for Western food, which was very tasty but not especially worth sharing here. I spent the evening chatting with some panelists who came to speak to us, and trying desperately to get my bearings while operating on a massive sleep deficit. But physiology caught up to me, as it will us all, and I hit the hay promptly at 8pm.

I slept on until about 3am, when I found that I had no choice but to awaken. And such adventures I had... but those will have to wait for another time! I was still finding my place in China. I had a lot of exploring to do. Destiny called, and I accepted the charges.

And there's a coconut vending machine in the lobby, which I still don't understand.

a weirdo in china, pt. 1: transmission

Okay, so it was eleven months.

I'm in China for two weeks for work. My job actually has nothing to do with China, except for when I support faculty and students who spend time here. But they needed some extra support staff for a trip, and opened it up to any interested staff members who wanted to travel. I applied, and was selected, and here I am!

But first, the story of my journey.

Now, the last time I traveled to Asia, I had my wife and 18-month-old daughter in tow. We hit up Japan and South Korea and while I had a fabulous time doing my thing in those places, there is really just no compensating for the exhaustive demands posed by a jetlagged preverbal toddler. The wife and I almost killed each other, and we look back on it as a pretty dark time, all things considered. The trip had some definite spectacular highlights, but it's hard to focus on those without all the lowlights.

So I kind of see this trip as a chance to experience part of East Asia as an adult in my own right. And while I wish my family could be with me, I definitely don't wish to spend 16 hours on a plane with someone who can't read ever again. The good news is, the wife is using this opportunity to visit Spain with our daughter (my mom is also going along to help her out), so the whole family is traveling the world in style!

In such style.

Pictured:  style containers

The flights themselves were actually pretty uneventful. I flew Cathay Pacific from Newark to Hong Kong, and then from HK to Shanghai.

The plane was an A350. Pretty snazzy!

I landed in Hong Kong at about 5am local time, and the airport was sadly pretty dead. I'd been looking forward to chowing down on some HK fare, but my options were limited to McDonald's, Popeye's, and Starbucks. I passed.

Just like home!

The inside of the airport was very nice, as they go -- which makes sense, for the third-largest passenger terminal in the world! I wound up walking the entire airport in search of an open convenience store, and though I was flummoxed, my cramped legs were glad for the extensive exercise.

But it was the views outside the windows that really took my breath away.

I was really disappointed I didn't have longer in Hong Kong. Two hours wasn't enough time to get out of the airport and experience some of the locale. My friend told me stories of when he lived there and would go for long walks on these very mountains. It's easier for me to imagine the sense of supreme tranquility that must suffuse those quiet hills, at least whenever the atmosphere isn't being punctured by the sound of a revving jetliner.

I'll talk more about my experience arriving in Shanghai next time. Spoilers:  don't look for any supreme tranquility here!