McDonalds... Understood even in Chinese.
"May umbai sop die son Chin" - This is a line in one of the Khmer songs that the children taught us, and the only song that we know in entirety. We sang it, and did the hand gestures, with the kids every day for a month, ad nauseam. That line translates to "Butterfly flies to China". When we were leaving and the kids asked where we were going, we would repeat that line, saying instead "teachers fly to China".
And fly to China we did... emotionally drained, a bit thinner than usual due to the all rice/soup diet, and with Mars feeling so sick with a cold that she didn't remember anything about the flight or the taxi to the hotel! We arrived in Shanghai very early in the morning, and were struck by how much the airport area looked like Toronto. As I wandered from our hotel to Nanjing Road (the main hub of Shanghai shopping and general business) I came upon a bunch of very old Chinese people doing Tai-chi on the shopping street, which was eerily quiet at 5:30 am. Watching the old man at the front in all of his concentrated poses was fantastic... so funny, in fact, that I forgot to take my debit card back out of the machine I was standing at. Amazingly, it was there when I went back for it 2 days later!
After a long sleep, we hit the street for our first dinner in China... and promptly demolished 2 Big Mac combos at the closest McDonalds. I make no apologies. It was fantastic, was exactly like home, and tasted nothing like fish soup! The next day we wandered around the city on our own, in a wildly unsuccessful attempt to track down a famous dumpling shop that was mentioned in a travel guide I read in passing. In our first full day in China, we were shocked to find that NOBODY spoke English. That includes the hotel staff and every cab driver, shop keeper, and local weirdo that wanted to take our picture. If you wanted to take a cab somewhere, you had to have the address printed in Chinese, or else forget about it. Hence, the non-finding of the dumpling restaurant! We did stumble upon the newly developed Pudong area, which has all of the iconic buildings that make up the Shanghai skyline. I had more McDonalds, this time with a weird street patty with unknown meat in it as an appetizer. That night we met our group, and were not pleased to be, yet again, the youngest ones there by a large margin. Having done the whole routine before, we promptly skipped out on most of the meeting and dinner, opting for a nice nighttime river cruise instead.
The next day, we ditched our group yet again, although not before we went with our tour guide to a pharmacy where they gave Mars Amoxicillin without and doctor's visit or prescription! We literally just rummaged through boxes of drugs before we found the one we wanted and bought it for dirt cheap. Most of this day was spent in the Yu Gardens in the middle of the city. We had (ridiculously expensive!) tea in one of the oldest tea houses in Shanghai. The zig-zag walkway of the house is popular with the Chinese people, as they believe that evil spirits can't turn corners. This must also be the reason why, then, that every Chinese person walking in front of you one the street is unable to walk in a straight line... bumping into you, random objects, and other people as they go along. We also took some time to window shop in the gorgeous and hip French Concession section of Shanghai... the "Yorkville" area of the city. Very nice! We met with the group that night to see a very entertaining Chinese acrobat show... they performed some pretty crazy acts, and it was quite entertaining... especially the finale where FIVE of them drove motorbikes inside a metal cage.
The next stop we went to was Nanjing. It is a city that is very significant in Chinese history. It also has one of the largest museums I've ever seen dedicated to the Nanjing Massacre. It was very poignant, but I'm not sure how many more brutal torture museums I can endure while traveling. The next morning, on our way to the Yangtze River, we stopped off at the tomb of Sun Yat-Sen. It was nice but rainy, and with a lot of stairs.
We all piled onto a boat that had an unpleasant old wet carpet smell, but the rooms were nicer than expected... that is until we tried to sleep and realized that it was like sleeping in a sauna. We spent 3 days and 2 nights on the river, exploring the famous and controversial 3 Gorges area. Although, due to the heavy fog, we didn't see too much of the actual dams. The boat was fun, and, of course, had a karaoke bar! On one of our smaller boat day trips, we passed many rock formations that had 200-year old coffins wedged high in the crevices. How freaking creepy is that??? Seriously, look at the photo below! We also saw the "Goddess" rock... check out the rock formation.. the lone rock that stands there really does look like a woman. Apparently, if anyone has the urge, it's a 8 hour return completely vertical hike if you want to go visit her! We did not. :)
And fly to China we did... emotionally drained, a bit thinner than usual due to the all rice/soup diet, and with Mars feeling so sick with a cold that she didn't remember anything about the flight or the taxi to the hotel! We arrived in Shanghai very early in the morning, and were struck by how much the airport area looked like Toronto. As I wandered from our hotel to Nanjing Road (the main hub of Shanghai shopping and general business) I came upon a bunch of very old Chinese people doing Tai-chi on the shopping street, which was eerily quiet at 5:30 am. Watching the old man at the front in all of his concentrated poses was fantastic... so funny, in fact, that I forgot to take my debit card back out of the machine I was standing at. Amazingly, it was there when I went back for it 2 days later!
After a long sleep, we hit the street for our first dinner in China... and promptly demolished 2 Big Mac combos at the closest McDonalds. I make no apologies. It was fantastic, was exactly like home, and tasted nothing like fish soup! The next day we wandered around the city on our own, in a wildly unsuccessful attempt to track down a famous dumpling shop that was mentioned in a travel guide I read in passing. In our first full day in China, we were shocked to find that NOBODY spoke English. That includes the hotel staff and every cab driver, shop keeper, and local weirdo that wanted to take our picture. If you wanted to take a cab somewhere, you had to have the address printed in Chinese, or else forget about it. Hence, the non-finding of the dumpling restaurant! We did stumble upon the newly developed Pudong area, which has all of the iconic buildings that make up the Shanghai skyline. I had more McDonalds, this time with a weird street patty with unknown meat in it as an appetizer. That night we met our group, and were not pleased to be, yet again, the youngest ones there by a large margin. Having done the whole routine before, we promptly skipped out on most of the meeting and dinner, opting for a nice nighttime river cruise instead.
The next day, we ditched our group yet again, although not before we went with our tour guide to a pharmacy where they gave Mars Amoxicillin without and doctor's visit or prescription! We literally just rummaged through boxes of drugs before we found the one we wanted and bought it for dirt cheap. Most of this day was spent in the Yu Gardens in the middle of the city. We had (ridiculously expensive!) tea in one of the oldest tea houses in Shanghai. The zig-zag walkway of the house is popular with the Chinese people, as they believe that evil spirits can't turn corners. This must also be the reason why, then, that every Chinese person walking in front of you one the street is unable to walk in a straight line... bumping into you, random objects, and other people as they go along. We also took some time to window shop in the gorgeous and hip French Concession section of Shanghai... the "Yorkville" area of the city. Very nice! We met with the group that night to see a very entertaining Chinese acrobat show... they performed some pretty crazy acts, and it was quite entertaining... especially the finale where FIVE of them drove motorbikes inside a metal cage.
The next stop we went to was Nanjing. It is a city that is very significant in Chinese history. It also has one of the largest museums I've ever seen dedicated to the Nanjing Massacre. It was very poignant, but I'm not sure how many more brutal torture museums I can endure while traveling. The next morning, on our way to the Yangtze River, we stopped off at the tomb of Sun Yat-Sen. It was nice but rainy, and with a lot of stairs.
We all piled onto a boat that had an unpleasant old wet carpet smell, but the rooms were nicer than expected... that is until we tried to sleep and realized that it was like sleeping in a sauna. We spent 3 days and 2 nights on the river, exploring the famous and controversial 3 Gorges area. Although, due to the heavy fog, we didn't see too much of the actual dams. The boat was fun, and, of course, had a karaoke bar! On one of our smaller boat day trips, we passed many rock formations that had 200-year old coffins wedged high in the crevices. How freaking creepy is that??? Seriously, look at the photo below! We also saw the "Goddess" rock... check out the rock formation.. the lone rock that stands there really does look like a woman. Apparently, if anyone has the urge, it's a 8 hour return completely vertical hike if you want to go visit her! We did not. :)
Happy Thanksgiving ladies!!!
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