Just a random collection of thoughts that I have collected for the past ten weeks. Some of these ideas are interesting, some might be disgusting but all are a result of the things I have seen.
1. Dirty Ankles – No matter what I have done I always get dirty ankles here and I am not alone. It seems that everywhere you go the back of your ankles are always going to end up with grayish black grime covering it. Even with socks that climb your legs the grime still worms its way through and onto your ankles.
2. TP – Toilet Paper doesn’t have a roll in the center. You more likely to find it without a roll in the center than you are with. Also purchasing toilet paper with a roll comes with a price premium. Also as point to any potential travel there is never toilet paper or soap in any bathroom outside of the highest end of restaurants and hotels.
3. Milk - Milk comes in bags…yep plastic bags that you just shove a straw through and drink. It is a novel and interesting solution to how to store and carry your milk to and from.
4. Twinkling Street Lights – If you have the chance to look out at the stars you’ll notice that they twinkle back at you. This phenomenon occurs because of the dust and moisture in the air disrupts the path of the light. Well if you stand high on any building your likely to see the streetlights or the buildings twinkling.
5. Cranberry and Scotch - Sometimes you have to pay a premium for Cranberry juice and Scotch. I made the sacrifice and enjoyed a great but expensive night this past weekend. Real juice (not from concentrate) is hard to come by and always expensive. So next time you have some juice drink one for me.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Tainjin for the day.
How do you travel nearly 120 miles in only half an hour and never leave good old terra firma? Simply board a high speed train in the Beijing South station and enjoy the ensuing ride. This past weekend Alex and I decided that we need to breakout of Beijing and explore the greater part of China. We decided that the closest victim was the city of Tianjin located about a 120 miles to the east of Beijing.
To start our journey we need to get to the southern train station for the 9:10, 9:20, or 9:30 train to Tianjin. The only difficultly is that getting to the train station would take nearly 90 minutes by subway or 45-60 minutes by taxi. So we were left with the dilemma on Friday night of deciding when to depart for our day long adventure. We decided on the taxi, hey we are students and we could use the extra thirty minutes of sleep.
So at 7:40am on Saturday morning we departed Tsinghua for the southern train station. With bleary eyes and bundled bodies we headed out into the chill March air. As we fought for a taxi a middle aged woman approached us and asked if we could share one. Feeling kind we agreed to share the taxi with her that morning. Nothing really eventful occurred in our shared ride but it was interesting to listen to a complete strange spill before us her life story and eagerly listen to ours.
I was intrigued into how someone could show so much interest and concern for another stranger’s life. We rode together for roughly fifteen minutes and the time we spent together she was eagerly listening and always ready with a quick question or point. Perhaps I am wrong but I think that this is perhaps one of the key strengths of humanity. How something as simple as sharing an experience (abroad student) can allow a bond to form so easily between complete strangers.
Now that I got the philosophy lesson out of the way I can address our trip again. So when you arrive at the southern station you get the sense that the Chinese do not mess around when it comes to building grand public structures. I was expecting an old and decaying soviet bloc looking brick and mortar operation. A structure built for just function and for no other purpose.
What we did see was a beautiful arrangement of glass and steal mixed ever so elegantly to formulate a beautiful curved structure. When standing inside you feel an overwhelming sense of space, even with hundreds of people crowded around you there is a sense that you are alone. There is no doubt in my mind that the designers of this building understood the true complexities and purpose this building.
Through small mounds rising up through the floor we descended to the platform below to meet our awaiting steed. If you are ever in China you MUST ride on the high speed rail system. There is an indescribable feeling that occurs when you zip across the surface of the earth at nearly a quarter the speed of sound. It seems so surreal to glance out and watch the landscape change with nearly every blink of one’s eyes. At nearly 350 kph its not hard to image why the scenery changes so rapidly outside ones window.
When we finally arrived in Tianjin we realized that while our train ride was somewhat planned we had no idea what to do now. So what else could we do but grab a random cab and ask to go to the nearest landmark that we could find. With this in mind we headed towards the Tianjin TV tower. If you have ever seen the Shanghai Oriental Pearl tower then you know the general shape of the Tianjin tower. While the shape is similar it takes noting that Shanghai’s building is a beautiful collection of glass, steel, and concrete. The Tianjin tower is not even close to the Shanghai tower, it resembles a power-plant cooling tower with a saucer plate sitting on top. Its ugly plain and simple.
The rest of our day was spent wandering without a clue or care. It was about this point that the epiphany struck. We were so happy to be here in Tianjin for the simple reason that it got us out of campus and Beijing. It was that realization that was absolutely liberating and invigorating. It helped to keep the fire inside alive.
I wrote the original part of this post about 3 weeks ago but never got around to the actual posting. In that time I have been to Xi’an and Shanghai and it does help to keep me going. The more time I spend in China the more I need to travel and get out campus and the grind. The grind is 4 hours a day 5 days a week for class and the same cafeteria food. It is relieving to just get out of campus and live without the grind hanging over your head. Now that midterms are done with I’ll be sure to post more often. Thanks to everyone for all there support ….It officially the halfway point!
If your interested in the rail system feel free to navigate around here curiosity of Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Railway_High-speed
To start our journey we need to get to the southern train station for the 9:10, 9:20, or 9:30 train to Tianjin. The only difficultly is that getting to the train station would take nearly 90 minutes by subway or 45-60 minutes by taxi. So we were left with the dilemma on Friday night of deciding when to depart for our day long adventure. We decided on the taxi, hey we are students and we could use the extra thirty minutes of sleep.
So at 7:40am on Saturday morning we departed Tsinghua for the southern train station. With bleary eyes and bundled bodies we headed out into the chill March air. As we fought for a taxi a middle aged woman approached us and asked if we could share one. Feeling kind we agreed to share the taxi with her that morning. Nothing really eventful occurred in our shared ride but it was interesting to listen to a complete strange spill before us her life story and eagerly listen to ours.
I was intrigued into how someone could show so much interest and concern for another stranger’s life. We rode together for roughly fifteen minutes and the time we spent together she was eagerly listening and always ready with a quick question or point. Perhaps I am wrong but I think that this is perhaps one of the key strengths of humanity. How something as simple as sharing an experience (abroad student) can allow a bond to form so easily between complete strangers.
Now that I got the philosophy lesson out of the way I can address our trip again. So when you arrive at the southern station you get the sense that the Chinese do not mess around when it comes to building grand public structures. I was expecting an old and decaying soviet bloc looking brick and mortar operation. A structure built for just function and for no other purpose.
What we did see was a beautiful arrangement of glass and steal mixed ever so elegantly to formulate a beautiful curved structure. When standing inside you feel an overwhelming sense of space, even with hundreds of people crowded around you there is a sense that you are alone. There is no doubt in my mind that the designers of this building understood the true complexities and purpose this building.
Through small mounds rising up through the floor we descended to the platform below to meet our awaiting steed. If you are ever in China you MUST ride on the high speed rail system. There is an indescribable feeling that occurs when you zip across the surface of the earth at nearly a quarter the speed of sound. It seems so surreal to glance out and watch the landscape change with nearly every blink of one’s eyes. At nearly 350 kph its not hard to image why the scenery changes so rapidly outside ones window.
When we finally arrived in Tianjin we realized that while our train ride was somewhat planned we had no idea what to do now. So what else could we do but grab a random cab and ask to go to the nearest landmark that we could find. With this in mind we headed towards the Tianjin TV tower. If you have ever seen the Shanghai Oriental Pearl tower then you know the general shape of the Tianjin tower. While the shape is similar it takes noting that Shanghai’s building is a beautiful collection of glass, steel, and concrete. The Tianjin tower is not even close to the Shanghai tower, it resembles a power-plant cooling tower with a saucer plate sitting on top. Its ugly plain and simple.
The rest of our day was spent wandering without a clue or care. It was about this point that the epiphany struck. We were so happy to be here in Tianjin for the simple reason that it got us out of campus and Beijing. It was that realization that was absolutely liberating and invigorating. It helped to keep the fire inside alive.
I wrote the original part of this post about 3 weeks ago but never got around to the actual posting. In that time I have been to Xi’an and Shanghai and it does help to keep me going. The more time I spend in China the more I need to travel and get out campus and the grind. The grind is 4 hours a day 5 days a week for class and the same cafeteria food. It is relieving to just get out of campus and live without the grind hanging over your head. Now that midterms are done with I’ll be sure to post more often. Thanks to everyone for all there support ….It officially the halfway point!
If your interested in the rail system feel free to navigate around here curiosity of Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Railway_High-speed
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