Vacation Adventure
Sis Arrives
So I moved to Shanghai! Hurray! Hard to
believe that it took four months to actually make it here, amazing. The move
was a bit hectic, but then again this is China.
I moved on Tuesday December 20th. That
day I left Shenzhen with my two very full suitcases, arrived in Shanghai in the
morning, headed straight to the office, picked up my boxes (with the help of a “moving
company”) and moved into my house. That night was the office Christmas party,
after which I did some unpacking.
Wednesday, December 21st. I feel
like I am dying. I can hardly breathe but I am at work and have to pick up my
sis from the airport. After about three hours of feeling miserable at work, I
finally go to the doctor. “Upper respiratory track infection” she says.
Antibiotics. Home. More unpacking and trying to find a supermarket (got lost
and walked for like an hour in the cold). Run to catch the subway to the
airport, do no realize I have to switch trains at some point. Lose 20 mins,
late to pick up sis, she is not happy, I can’t breathe. She sees I’m sick and
is not longer mad. We go home.
Thursday and Friday: go to work and leave
early (the bosses are out of town, and I don't have anything to do). Explore
Shanghai with my sis. We visit exciting places like “Carrefour” and “Tesco.” We
also do some touristy things like visit the Jing’An Temple and the Shanghai
Bund. Sis is fairly impressed.
Sat (Christmas Eve): Sis and I walk around
neighborhood. (I live in the old French Concession. It is quite nice.) We wait
for arrival of boy. Boy arrives. We all exchange gifts haphazardly around my 10
inch tree and with my three different poinsettias. It doesn’t quite feel like
Christmas but we are all happy to be spending it with good people.
Vacation has really started, we are getting
ready and excited for our whirlwind trip.
Beijing
Christmas Day: We wake up to get ready to
pack and make it to the train station. We are taking the Bullet Train to
Beijing. The station was actually much cleaner and easier to navigate than I
had expected (read: easier than any train station in Europe). We board our
train, and we’re off at 300 KM/HR. Train ride takes us through mainland China.
It is very grey and cold outside. There is not “Food Coach/Restaurant” on the
train. We are hungry. We arrive in Beijing. Take taxi to friend’s house. Friend
meets us. We drop stuff off at his house and head out for Christmas dinner at a
Spanish restaurant. Cheers to spending Christmas in China with friends.
The trip in Beijing was full of memorable
moments. We visited the Forbidden City and nearly froze. However, what was most
striking was the number of children still wearing split pants! For those of you
who are unaware, small children in China (between the ages of 1-3) do not wear
diapers. They were pants with a bit split down the middle so that if the mood
takes them, they can simply squat in place and take care of business. This
means there is a whole bunch of little stuff hanging out all the time. This is
moderately entertaining in warm weather, but in 1-2 degrees Celsius, it just
seems a mean. We also had the opportunity to visit the Great Wall and just get
to know the city. It was lovely.
Xi’an
Terracotta Warriors. Simply, amazing. The
city of Xi’an however, was very polluted… to the point where you could barely
see 15 feet in front of you. It was as if mist, fog, and all around ick had
just gotten together in the city. I now see the appeal of facemasks.
It was even colder than Beijing had been, so
we visited the warriors, by finding an un-marked bus that charged us 7RMB
(equivalent to about 1USD) for a 45 min ride out to the site. On said bus, we
were entertained by what I can only describe as a Chinese soap-opera turned
mystery movie (I still wonder how it ends).
Hong Kong
The last leg of the trip. New Year’s Eve in
HK. We spent the actual evening in the company of one of the Scottish Cultural
groups of the city and were surrounded by kilts, bagpipes and lots of dancing.
It was great fun.
In the city, my sis and I ventured up “the
peak” on New Years Day. It was quite the hike (particularly because we got lost
more than once and I’m pretty sure were in someone backyard at some point) and
we managed to make it to the very top. We also visited Kowloon, the Jade Market
and the Big Buddha.
Shanghai
Next thing I knew, our time was over and we
were back in Shanghai. It flew by but we had a great time and I am very
thankful to have spent the time with people that I care about. Now, I’m ready
to take on whatever this city (and country) send my way.
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