Old China in the morning, party time at night

8/30

Woke up 5:45. Took a shower, got ready, got on our tour bus that would take us out two hours west of Shanghai to a smaller, older style Chinese town (I can’t recall the name). We went to a touristy type area where we looked around a very old Chinese village on a river and an older market street. This is where we learned of real poverty. The people must have immune systems of steel here. They don’t have washers and they have only, not too long ago, acquired running water. They wash their clothing in the river outside their homes, which is green and has garbage in it. There is garbage on the street, stray dogs, many beggars, etc.

A group of five of us took off away from the tourist area to the surrounding village. We saw live fish markets with all kinds of animals from live crab, some weird long nosed fish, to baby/adult chickens and ducks.

Here’s a story. So we were off on our own without Ying or Edwin (the Chinese speakers). We were able to communicate with a couple who were running a small noodle shop in the town. We pointed to what a man had and they made us all a dish of this awesome bowl of noodles. We got drinks, told the chef (who was practically in reaching distance from us) that the food was very good (pictured), asked how much (about 15 Yuan per person which included the drink ($2)), paid and then left. Myself and Rachel still had our Sprite bottles with us about a third full. We all waked around some more and were confronted with a Chinese midget. He spoke with us and we couldn’t understand. He held out a hand full of Yuan coins and then took Rachel and my soda bottles strait from our hands and walked away. We were stunned to say the least. People laughed at us and we laughed a little too before edging away. We figured later on that he wanted the deposit on the bottles caused he just poured out our remaining soda. Oh well, we weren’t that thirsty anyway.

The five of us ended up getting really lost and ended up on a highway. Had our large tickets with the tourist town we were at originally so we pointed to it to some people who thought our ignorance was hilarious. We got pointed in many different directions and 99% of what was spoken to us, we couldn’t understand. Different groups of people all pointed at one time or another in the southbound direction so away we went. We ended up after walking though large crop farms, huge duck farms, and the nearby highway (where the locals would honk at us for no reason) but finally made it back with plenty of time to spare.

Drew and I went and haggled at some shops, saw a cool kung-fu artist perform, Drew got a stamp with his name engraved in it (the man engraved it right there in front of us). We were a little late in getting to the restaurant for lunch but we made it, ate another incredible meal (although it was so hot none of us were really super hungry), then we continued with our tour guide (oh by the way, the tour bus had a tour guide with it who explained everything to us in Chinese and Edwin translated).

We were all very hot and tired but we followed the tour guide for another hour and a half through some places of the town that was significant Chinese history (although we didn’t know what most of it was about). The last stop on the tour was a distillery and how powerful the smell was! We were able to sample some of the liquor which made my inner ears burn even though I only had about a quarter shot. The distiller was filled, and I mean filled, with old pots all filled with wine and liquor (pictured). There were some kids touring with a group who took some interest in us so I got my picture with one of them (pictured) (I would have got one with both but the boy was very shy).

Got on the bus and I slept most of the two hour drive home (the heat and constant walking was so exhausting).

We rested when we got back, got in the nice cool pool… then were ready for another night on the town! It turned out that we split into a guy group and a girl group for dinner and we decided to meet back at the hotel lobby at 9:00. The guys went out with our beers (it’s okay to drink in public) to a very busy restaurant. Another great meal. Back to the hotel.

The girls weren’t around, we waited for half an hour and then left. All guys plus Jen. We asked around for directions to where a bunch of Chinese hangout bars were. They turned out to be quite a ways away so we took the subway for the first time. It was PACKED. I barely made it in. The doors closed against my back I was literally shoulder to shoulder with three people plus the door. The subway is quick though so we were to our destination in minutes.

Bars lined up and down the streets, most of them full of people. We stopped by the “Hello Bar” which was too crowded for us to find a place. We went to another bar where a more mellow live band was playing, had a drink, then took off. The next bar was full of people, very dark and very loud with techno music. We all couldn’t sit together let alone let the waitress know what we all wanted to drink (so incredibly loud!) so we soon left.

Our final destination was the Eighty Eight Bar (the number eight is a symbol of good luck and fortune in China cause the word eight sounds very close to the word fortune). It was an awesome bar with good music (not live), enough space for us all to sit at the bar (seven of us) and a staff of cute Chinese girls. We had a few drinks there and learned to play a dice drinking game (one of the waitresses taught Edwin and he taught us). After an hour or two we decided to head back to the hotel. The subway was closed so we caught a cab.

Got back, had another beer and chatted in the rooms, then went to bed at around 1:00.