Fuzhou: Final thoughts

This morning was fairly straightforward: breakfast, check-out, taxi to the Apollo hotel, then shuttle bus to the airport. (Note: Our hotel staff said there was no shuttle service from the Min Jiang hotel, so don’t believe any website that tells you otherwise.) We had to check our suitcases because they were deemed too large for carry-on luggage, but good thing I kept everything important in my backpack anyway.

One rather disgusting-but-typical-of-China experience this morning: Dad went to the bathroom and I was waiting to check in for our flight. Ahead of me was a family with a young boy, perhaps 2-3 years old. He apparently reeeeally needed to go to the bathroom, so his mother took him a few feet away from the check-in line, pulled down his pants, and there he went, right on the tiled floor. I’m used to seeing families do that with toddlers outdoors, but at least they usually go over a drainage area, on grass, etc. This was just there! In a puddle! In a heavily trafficked area!

What bothered me (besides the public health issue of public urination/defecation) was that there was probably a bathroom less than 50 feet away, and there were a bunch of potted plants less than 10 feet away for sure, so it’s not as if there weren’t other options. The unfortunate cleaning lady came by a few minutes later holding a roll of toilet paper and shaking her head – she clearly knew what happened – she had to first dry the puddle, then sweep the wet paper into her handheld dustbin.

Other passengers seemed pretty nonchalant about the thing – one man wearing business casual stepped away from the first-class check in counter, then paused to recheck his boarding pass literally 2 inches away from the puddle. I’m sure others who saw this were thinking something about the crassness/provincial-ness of this mother, but as Dad said when he came back, it’s not my place to say anything, and it seems no one wants to take responsibility for anything in this country unless someone higher up complains first (e.g. trying to prevent people from wearing pajamas outside in Shanghai)

Anyway, Fuzhou has more or less met my (admittedly low) expectations: a business-focused city undergoing massive renovations with a few pockets of historical charm. The highways and roads are wide, well-paved, and tree-lined, but the architecture is dominated by indifferent business hotels and corporate buildings. It might be interesting to come as a jump-off point to Mawei or Wuyi Mountain, but the city itself is not worth staying in for more than two days, and even then only if you’re a serious scholar of Chinese history.

It's raining, it's pouring...

…but Dad and I are still trying to have fun in Fuzhou =P

This morning after breakfast, we decided to go walking around the “Little West Lake,” a smaller and less famous cousin of the one in Hangzhou. It started drizzling just a few minutes after we arrived, but luckily I came prepared with both an umbrella and my trusty blue poncho from Malaysia. The taxi dropped us off on the eastern side, and we simply walked over the causeway to the small islands in the middle, where there are umpteen pavilions, some gardens, and even a small amusement park (though none of the rides were running).

The gate where we entered the park

Willow-lined walkway (very much like Hangzhou!)

We ambled around, crossed another bridge, and found ourselves at the West Lake Academy, where Dad was pleased to find a bust of Lin Zexu (1785-1850), a Qing dynasty official who fought against the British in the Opium War. There wasn’t much left of the academy, just the central courtyard, a couple musty-smelling exhibit halls, a small garden off to the side, and a plaque marking where a Song dynasty temple had once stood. We walked around some more, occasionally stopping to take shelter in a pavilion when the rain became too heavy to see easily, then eventually found ourselves at the Fujian Museum. I had been expecting something about the province’s history, economy, geography, etc, but what we found was more of an art gallery, with an eclectic mix of pieces.

Lotus pavilion at West Lake Academy

Main courtyard of the academy

Dad in front of the Fujian Museum

Mural around the side entrance

Below: artwork from the Fujian Museum

Unfortunately, the museum was also tucked away in a quiet backstreet, so we had to splash through a couple blocks of deep puddles and pouring rain to find the nearest taxi stand, where we caught a cab back to the hotel to dry off. A quick lunch later, we were in a car on the way to the Mawei shipyards and former naval academy, where we met a Mr. Lin who took us on a tour of the historical museum. The facility is fairly large (the building was formerly used as a boatyard), but most of the archival material (e.g. photographs and drawings) is in a smaller space upstairs. The main hall downstairs has precisely 14 busts of historically important people (one for each column) opposite several sculptures of various tableaux.

Main hall of the shipbuilding museum

Bust of Zhan Tianyou, the "Father of China's Railways" and a Yale alum

One of several sculptures showing the ship-building process

It's still a functional shipyard!

Sculpture at the upstairs entrance

As impressive as this may sound/look, the reality is kind of sad. The museum is little-visited –our touching the busts left marks in the layer of dust and half the lights weren’t on upstairs – and Mr. Lin is probably the only person who is really passionate about preserving the stories of the shipyards. He was able to tell us about every single person who was represented in the line of sculptures, and he’s also written several essays/edited several books (he gave one to Dad as a gift). When he retires next year, it seems doubtful that anyone will be interested enough to take his place…

We next drove up the hill to the freshly-restored A-Ma temple overlooking the shipyards, as befits a goddess of the sea. The main courtyard was huge, even incorporating a stage for theatrical performances, and everything was beautifully detailed. According to the guide, some of the woodwork was actually Canadian maple, all carved by hand. Dad went around with a bunch of joss sticks (try lighting a match in pouring rain!) and burned paper money/firecrackers as well (they have a covered bin that you put the firecrackers in, so it’s slightly more safe).

Main courtyard

Stage on the other side

Central statue of A-Ma

Dad attempting to burn paper money in the pouring rain

Firecracker bin (those worked, clearly)

After that, it was an extra-long drive back to Fuzhou because the rain was coming down more heavily than ever. Every car and motorcycle created huge plumes of water, soaking all the poor pedestrians on the sidewalk, and the shallow gutters were not nearly enough to handle the downpour, so they simply overflowed as well. Some unfortunate police officers were at the worst intersections trying to direct traffic, but it’s kind of difficult to do so effectively when one hand is holding an umbrella. We finally made it back to Wusi Road and met Mr. Chen for a rather fancy dinner in a private room of his hotel restaurant. Sorry, no photos (that would have seemed weird/impolite), but it was quite good. From there, it was back to our hotel, where we dried off and now we’re going to sleep =P

Finally in Fuzhou

Today started rather abruptly when we all woke up around 6:40 AM…although we had planned to be out the door by 6:45. Oops. We still made it out in good time – Susan and Walter stopped by the bakery while Dad and I hailed a taxi, and we made it to the border gate by 7:10 AM. Dad joked about using the senior (65+ years) line, but hey, it got us through more quickly than Walter and Susan, who couldn’t pass as “companions.”

More trouble came when we hauled our suitcases over to the Gongbei coach station that I’ve used before to get to Guangzhou airport, only to find that the bus was leaving from ANOTHER station across the street and down the block. Dad and I rushed over there, making it with about 10 minutes to spare, but we were worried about Walter and Susan, who hadn’t shown up by 7:55, but the bus didn’t leave either. Around 8:00, a van pulled up next to us and they hopped out, so it was ok. It turns out that if we had waited at the first station, we too could have gotten the shuttle, but the station staff didn’t say anything about it.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful, minus a few people throwing up in the rows ahead of us, but there must have been something wrong with them because the ride wasn’t that rough. We arrived by 11:00, got slightly lost looking for the check-in counter, but then found the electronic check-in machines and printed out boarding passes. Susan and Walter went to gate 104 for their flight to Beijing, while Dad and I headed to gate 111 and just hung out there for a couple hours.

Around 1:00, however, things started going downhill again. We were wondering why things were so quiet – boarding was supposed to start at 12:50 PM for the 1:30 flight to Fuzhou. There was a plane outside the window, but mysteriously, it wasn’t connected to the boarding extension, it wasn’t being refueled, or anything. Suddenly, the gate sign flashed that the Fuzhou flight had been moved to Gate 103, so we rushed over only to find ourselves waiting for another half hour. Around 2:00, we finally boarded a bus that took us to the plane, got on, listened to the security features video, etc. After that, however, the plane just stayed put…and I dozed off =P

I woke up around 3:00 to find that the attendants were passing out food – noodles with chicken or pork, plus a small piece of cake, some dried fruit, and a choice of water or “liang cha” (cooling tea, with chrysanthemum, lotus, and a few other things). Apparently the delay was not because of problems in Guangzhou, although it was cloudy, but because of heavy rain in Fuzhou, so air traffic control wasn’t letting the plane take off. Everyone ate quickly and the flight attendants even had time to clean up before we finally started moving around 3:30, and we got to Fuzhou around 5:00.

Another 90 minutes later, we thankfully made it to the hotel via bus/taxi, which is where we are now. Dinner was just in the hotel restaurant downstairs for convenience, but the food was ok: tofu cubes stir-fried with young chives, another squash dish, and mushroom soup. They even gave us a bonus of two small zhong zi at the end, in honor of Duan Wu Jie (still kind of sad that I missed the dragon boat races in Macau, but oh well). As I’m writing this, Dad is watching something on TV about how to pick the best turtles for cooking, but he’s dozed off and I think I’m going to sleep early too. Good night!

Air Asia FAIL

For once, I'm blogging in real time, not post-dating after I've edited and uploaded photos. However, right now I should also be in the air on my way back to Macau. At the moment, though, it is impossible for me to be both online and in the air, ergo, I am not in the air as I should be.

The day started off well enough - I got a bunch of work done while hanging out with Joyce at her office (in the PEMANDU unit of the Malaysian Prime Minister's office, which is very nice). We went out for a late lunch, hugged goodbye at the airport entrance, and I checked in, went through security, etc. I even had time to stop at the airport McDonalds for a much-needed "Pineapple Passion McFlurry" (which must be a flavor unique to Malaysia or at least to SE Asia, because I haven't seen it even in Macau) and bought a jar of kaya with my leftover ringgit.

The first sign of trouble was when we got on the plane and it seemed, no, it WAS unusually warm. The captain apologized for the stuffiness: apparently the auxiliary power unit that normally powers ground AC was broken, but the AC should kick in again once the main engines were started. I took out my hand fan only to find that one end of the fabric had come unglued from the frame, but it was still usable enough to generate a slight breeze.

After another 10 minutes, however, we all started getting antsy, and the flight attendants at the front entrance looked worried. The captain also came out of the cockpit and looked out the front entrance, and then we knew something else must be up. I have no idea what this means, but if someone could explain this announcement, I would be much obliged: "The plane's nose oil is low...the plane's nose is lower than usual, so we can't close the door." Everyone got off the plane and we waited out on the tarmac for a while before being directed back to the (thankfully air-conditioned) waiting area while the plane was being repaired. That's where I am now...I can only hope the plane will get fixed and we'll be able to get off the ground in the next hour or so, so I can get back home before midnight -_-

EDIT: We got back on the plane a few minutes after I posted this, and finally landed around 10 PM. Photos below:

Uh, what's going on...

Everyone waiting around

On the road again...

As usual, I have lots that I want to write about, but very little time to sit down and type out my thoughts, never mind editing and putting in photos (even if I had my other laptop with Photoshop). After City Lights (the UM prom), I had to administer and grade the second exam for my students, grade their second speaking project, start checkout procedures, etc. On top of that, my mom and sister came to visit for over a week - they were perfectly cooperative when I said I had to get work done, but of course I wanted to spend lots of time with my family and show them Macau, right? A relatively new Facebook album documenting many of my wanderings is online, but there are lots of recent photos I haven't yet to sort through and upload (darn you, 200-photo/album limit!).

The main point of this post, however, is to note that I will be mostly traveling for the next 3 weeks, so if I'm in transit I'll try to catch up a bit on writing, then post intermittently when I get Internet access. Unfortunately, mainland China blocks Blogger, so I won't be able to get any of that online until I get back to the US in July. That said, here's the (rather hectic) schedule:

June 7-10 Ho Chi Minh City/Mekong Delta

June 11-14 Kuala Lumpur

June 15 Macau for a day; pick up Dad

June 16-20 Fuzhou

June 21-25 Beijing

June 26-28 Xi'an

June 29 Get back to Macau

June 30 Last day in Macau

July 1 Fly home via Taipei

Now, time to finish packing for HCMC/KL...see you all later!

P.S. I leave you with this soon-to-be-nostalgic photo of my sister and I with my EELC102 students at the end of the last class:

Strolling through Shanghai

Free breakfast was a fairly simple but tasty start – warm soy milk, fried dough sticks (油 條) and steamed buns. For more western tastes, they also had cereal, oatmeal, toast, and milk/orange juice. As in the lobby, the café décor is quite eclectic, including furniture ranging from basic wooden tables and chairs to brightly-patterned couches and giant leather recliner chairs. On the wall, several paintings capture scenes from daily life in Shanghai and some of the surrounding villages – I wonder if the owner or one of the employees did them. There are antique-looking lamps hanging from the wooden-framed ceiling, along with green and red striped swatches of fabric; strings of fabric chili peppers and small LNY lanterns share space with the kind of fake-autumn leaf wreath one could find at any Michaels. Through the intricate paper cut designs on the windows, you can see bamboo growing out in the tiny courtyard. Warm jazz standards are playing, perhaps to enhance the cozy morning ambiance.

Wall of caricature t-shirts

East/West breakfast: some sort of rice mixture, toast and jam, veggie bun, and juice

Best of all (in Susan’s opinion), there’s a café cat!

A cutie, even if he did start attacking the faux-fur collar on Susan’s coat

We spent the morning walking around the Bund area, which was frankly underwhelming because most of the buildings were either shut up (for renovations?), closed for Lunar New Year (so we couldn’t see the “stunning mosaics” in the HSBC building), or they we4re just like the historic buildings in NYC (they all are/were banks, so not surprising). Also, the riverfront views were completely obscured by tall barricades separating the construction from the road, covered in posters for the Shanghai Expo. Consequently, we couldn’t get into Huangpu Park either, except a brief glimpse at the Monument to the People's Heroes (below)

A cool frieze on one of the bank buildings

Custom House (duh)

One of the HSBC lions (not an original one; those are in the museum)

Pudong skyline (view from a bridge near the Russian consulate)

I saw the logo from down the street and was confused why Starbucks was calling itself Cova
(turns out it's a totally different coffee shop, just piggybacking off Starbucks' appearance)

From the Bund, we headed south toward Old Town, the historic Chinese area of Shanghai and a well-known place for food and souvenir shopping. Consequently, however, it was also jam-packed with people, so it became rather difficult to maneuver around all the sidewalk vendors, the occasional food cart, and just the large crowds in general. However, the architecture was gorgeous, and this was one of the few places we saw Macau-like LNY decorations as well =P

Old Town: like Senado, but on steroids

Charm-seller outside a temple

Mao's Little Red Book in multiple languages

Macau-like LNY decorations (sponsored by Pepsi?)

Some lovely paintings for sale

Printing woodblocks...these have got to be antiques!

For lunch, we stopped at the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai, clearly a place of great local repute as evidenced by the long line outside waiting for steamed vegetable buns, plus the crowds inside waiting for seats and service. Susan and I gave up on finding a place to sit and simply snacked on a couple steamers of tofu dishes while standing up. I know they don’t look that appetizing, but they were actually quite savory.

The restaurant front (can kind of see the crowds inside)

Some of the offerings (I never knew there was black corn!)

Our tofu snacks

While most of Old Town was hustle/bustle, at one point in our wanderings we went down a little side alley and found what felt much more like a slice of old Shanghai. You could still hear firecrackers and crowds around the corner, but down here it was quiet, with just a few elderly people walking around checking their laundry.

A step into the past...

Half motorcycle, half car?

Some unusual, um, laundry

Next, we headed toward People’s Square, where there’s the Shanghai Museum (among others) and a nice park. Unfortunately, the museum was closed by the time we got there, but it’s supposed to have one of the most extensive collections of Chinese artifacts, so it’s definitely worth a visit if you have a day. The outside is shaped like a ding, an ancient bronze vessel – even the character looks vase-like (鼑)

I like the tiled fan pattern

Radisson Tower and Samsung building

Right across from the museum is this big plaza with several cup-like sculptures, and I think the central depressed area was supposed to show a map of Shanghai. About 10 minutes after we got there, an announcement warned of eminent water and the fountain turned on, so I couldn’t get a closer look. There were a lot of families there, and several people were flying kites (one of them looked like Cthulu going to attack the museum heh). From here, you could also see the sun setting behind “Tomorrow Square” (aka Sauron’s Tower in my mind). Across the street from the plaza is the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center (with yet another statue of Haibao).

Little kids playing around

Cthulu attacking the museum?

Or meeting with Sauron?

"Please leave the center area"

One of the stranger surprises in Shanghai: when we went into the underground walkway to cross from the Urban Planning Center to the plaza, we found that it had been “developed” in a model of 1930s Shanghai, complete with antique cars and lampposts. I highly doubt 1930s Shanghai was actually this clean, but it was a cute idea.

Antique trolley car

The "1930s Shanghai" street

Blatantly ignoring the ropes...

From People’s Square, we headed to West Beijing Road for a quick dinner and the Yunfeng Theater acrobatics show. Dinner was at the “Always Café” a short walk away from the MRT stop, which came recommended by Lonely Planet . The food was kind of expensive but pretty good: I was craving something not-Chinese, so I just got a veggie quesadilla, which came piping-hot with sour cream and fresh salsa on the side.

Yum.

Finding the acrobatics theater was a little tricksy because we had to go down this dark side street that opened into a huge parking lot with lots of tour buses, so we figured we were in the right place. Our cheap seats (150 RMB, booked through our hostel) were all the way at the back and to the side, but the floor was sloped and there were two huge screens on either side of the stage, so we could still easily see what was happening.

The acrobatics show was alternately awe-inspiring and disturbing. It’s not like Cirque de Soleil where you know there are things like wires and nets to ensure the performers’ safety: this was the real deal. If someone fell in one of these aerial acts, they’d have at least a concussion, if not something more serious, and I’m sure the performers have had injuries in their training. The future doctor in me cringed at the thought of the arthritis/tendonitis/other musculoskeletal problems they probably have or will in the future. Susan also pointed out that most of these acrobats probably had no other form of education or training, so their post-performing job options were severely limited. Some girls also looked far too young to be on stage, much less doing mid-air splits on one hand.

Still, there was a lot to be appreciated in the show. Many acts were more about skill and teamwork than flexibility, like spinning plates, juggling hats, or piling 10 girls on to one bike. Ending with the “motorcycle ball of death” was more than a little hokey (they gradually added one rider at a time until there were 5 inside the sphere, the last one emphatically being a “Miss” instead of a “Mr.____” heh), but it was still impressive. I’ll leave you readers to form your own opinions from some of the photos below (eventually there might be video clips).

Pole-climber guys

Contortionist lamp-balancers

Yes, there are two girls actually walking on the others' heads

Playing with straw hats

This "aerial ballerina" looked like she was maybe 10 years old...

Trick bicycle riding

They actually played the Star Wars Imperial March when the curtain came up on this =P

After the show we just headed back to the hostel…tomorrow’s agenda: the French Concession!