Rain in Hong Kong

Monday, June 28, 2010--Hong Kong

I arrived at the library 5 minutes before it opened at 10:00. Everything was very organized. People in Hong Kong, due to the British influence, know how to queue (when compared to other Chinese). There were 3 nice queues waiting for the doors to open, so I joined one. Then when it opened, the library had both escalators going upward on all floors for the first 5 minutes. After that, they reversed one so that people could go either up or down.

I went to the library which is only about 5 blocks from my hotel to use their free wi-fi. The hotel has ridiculous prices for using their cabled Internet. While there, I saw my blog for the first time since leaving home. It was blocked in China because it is a part of the Google empire and Google and China are having a war to see who is going to control whom. Anyway, I had made all my posts by e-mail and had not seen them on the blog itself since leaving home.

When I finished, I returned to the hotel to leave the computer. Then I walked downtown with plans to see an art gallery and to explore. When I got about 5 blocks from the gallery, heavy rain began to fall. I ducked into a complex and ate lunch at McDonald's. I bought their barbecued chicken sandwich which was one of the worst sandwiches I have ever eaten. Instead of being a real breast as it showed in the picture, it was a compressed patty (chicken Spam?) which was difficult to bite and not very tasty or substantial. The rain was still falling when I finished that, so I went into a supermarket in the same building. There I found some Danish cookies that are a copy of Hob Nobs which I like. I bought a package and ate a few of them.

Finally, the rain slowed and I started making my way further toward the galleries. Two blocks later, it came down in torrents again. I was near a metro station, so I just went inside and caught the metro back to the hotel. This was the kind of rain that is not nice to experience and even makes trying to get to a museum or a gallery seem like a task that should be abandoned. In the hotel, I just read and watched TV.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010--Hong Kong

Finally, there is a day with the sun out. And it is my last day in Hong Kong. But the humidity is still 95% with clothes sticking to people and the skin of the boys playing basketball at the park glistening with sweat that will not evaporate.

Unfortunately, today still became a day of failure even with the sun out. First, I went to the Hong Kong Arts Center to visit the Pao Galleries where I had tried to go yesterday. It is a trendy art gallery featuring contemporary art and photography. Unfortunately, however, it was closed. There was no sign to indicate whether it was because they have no show at the present or because it was Tuesday.

From there, I explored the downtown area taking some photographs of the modern architecture as I worked my way toward the Star Ferry. I took the ferry across to Kowloon on the other side of the harbor. I walked past the Peninsula Hotel where I ate brunch the last time I was in Hong Kong (35 years ago) and up Nathan Road. I found the Louie Business Hotel where I had originally planned to stay before finding my present hotel, the Empire Hotel Causeway Bay, on wotif.com for only $4 more per night.

I wanted to see the Hong Kong Museum of History, because I like to see photos of what a city has been like over the decades. Hong Kong should be a city with a history that has been well documented. But I had another disappointment. When I got there, the sign said that it is closed on Tuesdays!

I just returned to the room, got my computer, and went to the library again. By the time I finished there, it was 17:00, so I returned to the room for the evening.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010--Hong Kong to Bangkok

I got away from the hotel early. The bus stop for the trip to the airport was just at the end of the block, and the bus arrived within 5 minutes or so. Then it took only 1 hour to get to the airport (versus the more than 2 hours it took in the rain when I arrived).

Since I got to the airport early, I decided to see if I could catch an earlier flight. They put me on stand-by and told me to return to the counter in an hour.

I was a bit hungry, so I was looking at the sandwiches and buns at 7-11. A young man asked me where I was from. We started talking, and we both bought sandwiches and went to sit together to eat them and visit. He was South Korean and not as young as he looked. He said he was 40, although I would have guessed 28. Anyway, he was a bit qwerky. I later learned why, but I liked him. He told me he is a bit of a genius (high IQ) and got a degree in mechanical engineering. He owns his own factory in China that makes children's watches. He's apparently a hands-on owner, because his hands looked like he works with them on the machinery. He also said that his hobbies are perfecting his golf swing and his baseball pitch. He seemed overly friendly while being quite sweet. Anyway, the hour passed very fast.

When I returned to the counter, they had a seat for me on the earlier flight. I had to rush, but I got there just as they were boarding. And that got me to Bangkok in mid-afternoon instead of late afternoon which is good because of the traffic congestion during rush hours here. I caught the bus and metro and was in my hotel room around 16:30.

My hotel still is not doing well. They have suffered since the fire they had 3 years ago (just 2-3 weeks after I had been here). It's quiet with few guests. And today I learned that it does not have Internet in any form for guests. Guess I won't return there when I come back into town later this month.

In the meantime, I am across the street using one of the cheap cyber cafes that has been here for some time. It won't be so bad not being able to use the computer in my room.

It was sunny with some rain clouds in the distance when I arrived and made my way to the hotel. Right now, however, I can hear thunder. I guess I have to make it back to my hotel in the rain. I didn't bring my umbrella, but it won't be a big problem.

Spending Update: During 4 days in Hong Kong, I spent $329.66 for an average of $82.42 per day. Since leaving Texas, I have spent $1802.50 over 56 days for an average of $32.19 per day.

Hong Kong

Saturday, June 26, 2010—Beijing to Hong Kong   I left the hotel at 9:00 and took the metro and the light rail to the airport.  It is a convenient, fast way to get there at a very reasonable price.  It took one hour.  Then it took only 30 minutes to check in, go through immigration and security, and get to the gate.  That was the only part of the day that went smoothly, though.   I had some leftover Chinese currency.  Since it is no good outside of China and cannot be converted outside the country, I paid to just accept the high price of getting rid of it.  There was a $7 transaction fee plus a bad exchange rate.  I converted it to Hong Kong dollars which may be enough to last me through my whole visit there.   In advance of my trips, I make currency exchange charts that will let me glance to see the equivalent value in dollars when I am spending money in another country.  I just keep one of these charts paper-clipped to my money.  While waiting at my gate, I put away my Beijing travel guide information and pulled out my Hong Kong travel guide.  Only then did I realize that I had failed to make a currency guide for the Hong Kong dollar.  I had the Hong Kong chapter inside a freezer baggie with all the sections for China.  And when I made my currency guides, I had made them to fit each country (as designated by a baggie with its name on the outside).  I just didn't think at the time about Hong Kong having its own currency.  Anyway, I used my waiting time to figure and convert the China guide to one for Hong Kong.  It worked well, since there isn't a big difference in the value of each currency in relation to the U.S. dollar.   Thirty minutes before my flight as I sat at the gate with a small group of other people wondering if we were traveling on a small plane, they announced a gate change.  We had to rush through the terminal where we found a wide-body jet already full of people.  Apparently they changed the gate after we checked in and no one thought about us until they realized they were missing about 25 people.    The airport was so busy that it took us almost an hour in line on the plane before we were able to take off.  The flight is only a 3-hour flight, so that added 1/3 more time to our trip.  Then when we got to Hong Kong, we had to circle before we were allowed to land.    As I had expected it was raining in Hong Kong.  I had researched ways for getting from the airport to town.  Everyone recommends a train, then a transfer to the metro system.  But there is a special bus which goes by many hotels and stops just 1 block from mine.  I decided to take it thinking it would be less hassle with the luggage due to not having to make the transfer to another mode of transport along the way.  Well, we got caught in a massive traffic jam in the center of Hong Kong.  It took us 1 hour to go just 4 blocks!  When I arrived at the hotel, I had been traveling for 2 hours on that bus!!  Normally, a trip would take about 45 minutes, but someone at the hotel told me that anytime it rains there a major traffic jams like that; otherwise, it would have been fine.   Putting everything together, I spent 11 hours today getting from my hotel in Beijing to my hotel in Hong Kong.  Such a long time to travel such a short distance!!  How I would hate to fly on a plane often.  And what a good advertisement it is for high-speed rail service.   The Empire Hotel Hong Kong Causeway Bay is a very nice hotel.  It is modern and stylish.  And the bed is soft!  In China, all beds are hard.  There, it is like sleeping on a piece of plywood that has only a quilt on top to provide softness.  Here, the mattress is thick and luxurious.    This is the first time I have been in Hong Kong for 35 years!  I am hoping the weather will cooperate some so I can see the changes.  The sun will be out Tuesday.  If I am lucky, Monday will also be a decent day.  But it is raining today and looks like it will be raining tomorrow, too.   Spending Update:  During 52 days in China, I have spent $1472.84 for an average of $28.32 per day.   Sunday, June 27, 2010—Hong Kong   The rain is still falling today, so I will stay in the area of the hotel and explore rather than go further out.  I hope it doesn't spoil all my days here.   The desk in the hotel has a plug for a broadband connection, but there is no wire.  And I do not have a wire myself.  Therefore, I went downstairs to ask if they had one I could borrow.  They actually had one they give as a gift to guests—a portable one that coils into a small plastic case.  And along with it came a small multi-card reader with USB hub for downloading photos from camera cards.  What a nice gift!   But then I came upstairs and tried to get on the Internet.  It is not free here!  In fact, they charge over $5 US per hour to be on the Internet.  That's a ridiculous price considering how little broadband coverage costs these days.  It just confirmed something I have always observed—the more expensive and fancy a hotel is, the more they tend to charge for every extra service.  It's strange how a $35 a night motel will let you make free local phone calls and have free wi-fi, and a $300 a night hotel will charge you for them!   I pulled out my guidebook and started reading.  Also as I have observed before, it said that Hong Kong, being a prosperous city where everyone has their own computer and broadband connection at home, has few cyber cafes.  However, it did list several places that have free wi-fi including the library which is just a few blocks from here.  Tomorrow, I will go to the library and use their free wi-fi service rather than pay the high prices here at the hotel.   My neighborhood is an interesting one with narrow streets and small blocks that are lined with small shops and restaurants.  There is also a nice market.  I passed a bakery with nice looking pastries and bought myself two for breakfast—one with pressed ham and an egg cooked inside it and another that had coconut and pineapple inside and a crumbly sugar mixture on the surface.  Both were good and in a dough that was a bit sweet.   It rained more in the afternoon, so I took a nap, read from my current book, watched TV, etc.  Then I went back out at 17:00 to explore some more.  There are many meet markets nearby with cooked meat—pork, duck, chicken, etc.  I bought some pork and a box of rice to go with it and brought it back to the room for dinner.  Then I stayed inside doing more of what I had done in the afternoon.  By 22:00 I was tired and went to sleep.

Last Days in China

Wednesday, June 23, 2010--Qingdao and Train   I stayed in the room until 11:30.  I updated the blog, read papers, checked the address of my hotel in Beijing (which ended up being in a completely different place from where Google maps showed it to be), etc.   It was cool and breezy outside.  This whole China trip has surprised me with the weather being cooler than expected.  I spent 5 hours in area malls and at the Olympic Sailing Center.  Much of that time I was reading from my novel.   I was a big worred about whether the bus would be crowded when I had to go to the train station.  Fortunately, I had no problem getting a single seat that allowed me to hold my bag right beside me.  Since I knew the trip from yesterday, I had no problem getting up and prepared for my exit when we were near the train station.   I continued to read from my book while waiting for the train.  Then a young man spoke to me.  He was waiting for the same train.  He is a student who has applied to study in the U.S. and was on his way to Beijing to take the TOEFL, the examination in English that foreign students must pass before being admitted to American universities.  He is a petroleum engineer and wants to get a master's degree from Stanford.  Like most Chinese students, he seemed serious and optomistic.   I've been dreading tonight, because all the beds in the sleeper cars were already sold out when I bought my ticket 5 days ago.  I had to buy a ticket for a seat.  Now that I am on the train, I am even more worried.  The seats are fixed upright and do not recline.  It is going to be a long miserable night in an uncomfortable seat and without enough leg room for me and the people sitting in the seats facing me.   Thursday, June 24, 2010--Beijing   We arrived at 5:45.  I was so glad to get here and get off the train.  I slept only a little off and on.  I would awaken and look at my watch to see that only 15 or 30 minutes had passed.  It was made even worse by the fact that they sold tickets to passengers without seat reservations.  The aisles had people sitting, reclining, and standing in them.  A man was leaning against the edge of my aisle seat.  It was an experience!  And NOT a good one.   I didn't want to go directly to my hotel at that time.  Therefore, I just sat in one of the waiting rooms at the train station reading my book until 7:00.  Then I caught the metro which required me to change trains.  Of course, it was rush hour time, but I followed my usual procedure of going to the last door of the last car when I have luggage.  Sure enough, even though the passengers were packed like sardines in most of the train, I was able to get in that last spot without a problem.   I was at the hotel by 8:00.  Although I couldn't get a "big bed" room which I had reserved, they already had a twin bed room available, so I took it.  I went into the room and slept until noon.    I remained tired all day, although I forced myself to go out in the afternoon.  I just went to the nearby pedestrian shopping street.  I bought a pork sandwich from a stall.  I watched people.  I went to a supermarket and bought some dried plums, some noodles, some beer, and some cookies.  Then I returned to the room.  I was in bed by 21:30.   Friday, June 25, 2010--Beijing   I slept for 11 hours last night!  It was so nice to have a bed.  Yet I was still slow getting up and out today.   I walked to Jingshan Park.  It's behind the Forbidden City and was part of that complex--a private park for the emperors.  It has a hill in the center of it with a temple on top and which is the best viewing point overlooking both the Forbidden City and Beijing.  Unfortunately, smog interferes with that view.  I took a couple of photos, but I am sure that little can be seen in them.  Mainly, I went to the park to finish reading my book.   Kangaroo by D.H. Lawrence was not as good as some of his other books.  I get the impression he wrote it mainly because he had been thinking of socialism, communism, and dictatorships and had ideas in his head that he wanted to put down.  The book is set in Australia just after WWI.  I bought it because it was on a list of books that were recommended because of their descriptions of places in time--sort of a list of books for traveling back in time.  I gave the book two stars out of 4.   After finishing the book, I was warm and thirsty.  I stopped at a supermarket and bought some yogurt and a Coke Zero.  I'm going to miss the red date yogurt here.  It is so delicious.  And a 450g (1 pound) bottle costs only about 60 cents U.S. I returned to the hotel and rested for part of the afternoon.   At 6:00, I went to the Howard Johnson Paragon Hotel which is across the street from Beijing Train Station (only 3 metro stops from where I am staying).  My friend Ib from Denmark had arrived earlier in the afternoon with the faculty of the school where he teaches and should have been there following a brief tour in town.  He wasn't there yet, but as I wrote him a note, he walked up behind me and surprised me.  We spent an hour visiting.   He explained that they are here for one week and will not visit anywhere else in China.  Then two days after he gets back to Denmark he will leave for Brazil (where he lived for many years before returning to Denmark last year) for 5 weeks.  We talked about what I have been doing and what the rest of my travel plans are for this year.  It was a nice visit with just enough time to feel good about seeing each other under such unusual circumstances--being in the same country on the other side of the world at the same time.   I'll spend tonight packing and reorganizing my luggage.  Tomorrow I will fly to Hong Kong.  I need to make sure my carry-on luggage will have nothing in it that will be a problem.

Exploring Qingdao

Tuesday, June 22, 2010--Qingdao   I left the hotel at 10:00 and went eastward to search for a nearby beach.  I found one, and it was swarming with brids and grooms, especially the rocky areas to the sides of the beach.  I know that every city has a special place for outdoor wedding photos, but on the rocks protruding into the water (and even standing sometimes in the water) seems like a strange one.  The wind was blowing the women's hair.  The bottoms of their dresses were getting wet and dirty.  The men looked too casual with their pants legs rolled up and their shoes off.  In an effort to make something special, I even saw a photographer hand a bride two hot dogs on sticks to hold during one photo!   The coast here reminds me a bit of the California coast.  There are long-needle pine trees and lots of ground cover/underbrush and rather steep hills leading up from the water.  There are large red stone outcroppings into the water.  The beaches tend to be rather small.  The city has a waterside walkway for over 40 km (25 miles) along the coast.  It connects the beaches and the sites such as the Olympic Sailing Center and the Yacht Club.  Along the route are also small pocket parks with lush trees and greenery.  It's pretty.   After spending some time walking and exploring eastward, I caught a bus downtown to the train station.  I wanted to make sure which bus to take tomorrow, and I wanted to know how long it would take.  From there, I walked back to my hotel along the seaside walkway.  It was a LONG walk taking me about 4 hours, especially since I walked part of it on beaches.    My favorite beach, I think was Number 1.  (The Chinese, since the Communist takeover, have named many things by number.  Before their move toward capitalism, even the department stores were named Number 1 or Number 2!)  It was the most crowded with people really enjoying themselves.  I saw a man giving another man a haircut there.  I saw several people getting pedicures at the beach.  One activity that seems to be popular is to cover oneself with sand.  Many people were doing that.   I saw something nice that I have seen before but have failed to write about so far.  At one pocket park, a group of men were playing a card game.  Hanging in the trees all around them were bird cages with the birds making such happy sounds.  It is common in China for people to take their caged birds to the park for a daily outing in the fresh air.    For some reason, I was craving bananas.  I stopped and bought some bananas before returning to my room.  I was really exhausted after such a long outing.  I tried watching the news in English.  It was strange.  I had watched that channel yesterday, but I could not find it tonight on my TV.  I used the auto-programming feature in case a maid or someone had deleted it, but it still didn't come up.  Wonder what happened?

Qingdao--Last Stop before Going to Beijing to Fly from China

Saturday, June 19, 2010--Dalian and on the Boat (Continued)   Just a few moments after leaving the hotel, the rain began.  I ducked inside a mall.  It ended later for the rest of the day, but I just stayed in the area around the mall.  I found a quiet bench on an upper floor and read in my current book.  Occasionally I would take a break and go outside to watch entertainment in the pedestrian area--a singer at a stage for LG Electronics, and dancers on a stage for a company selling pressure cookers.    I also had my book I had finished with me and kept watching for someone who might look like an English speaker.  Suddenly I saw a woman with short hair who looked to be around 60.  She was Canadian, and she and her husband have been living and working here for two years.  She was very happy to get the book, and I was very happy to get rid of the weight.   Finally, the day passed, and I returned to the hotel and got my luggage at 19:00.  I went across the street to get the bus to the port area.  Everyone there was so helpful making sure I got the right bus and knew where to wait for it.  The bus didn't leave until 20:00 even though the boat was scheduled to leave at 20:30.   It all seemed a bit confusing at the port.  We all unloaded and went into the large terminal building.  It became almost impossible to keep track of who had been on my bus or not.  I lined up to go through security.  Then I headed down the hallway trying to find where to go.  I saw a sign showing a boat that would leave at 20:30.  Fortunately, I checked by showing my ticket.  It wasn't my boat.  They sent me back to another area where I found people I recognized from my bus.  At 20:25, they let us through the doorway.  But instead of going to a boat, it took us to the ground level and another bus.  We rode it to a large ferry where we finally boarded at 20:30.  At 20:35, the boat started moving.  What a close call!   I was in a compartment built for 6 people with 6 bunk beds and a sink.  Men and women are apparently separated in different compartments.  Only three of us were in my compartment.  My ticket was for an upper bunk.  The other men insisted that I move to the empty lower one.  But I kept worrying that maybe someone else would be there with us and would find me in his bed; he could have gone to the dining room before coming to the cabin.  Fortunately, this never happened.   I decided I should go to the toilet before going to sleep.  It became quite a difficult situation.  The map of the floor on our door did not show where they were located.  I exited and went to the counter where there were several employees.  None of them knew the word, "Toilet."  I took a piece of paper and drew a male and a female figure side-by-side with a box around them.  They thought I wanted to change to a room for two people!  Finally, I took a woman back to my room where the men told her what I wanted in Chinese.  She asked, "WC?"  Finally, we understood each other and she directed me there.   Sunday, June 20, 2010--Qingdao   We came off the boat at 3:00.  We really only got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep before docking.  I had another bit of confusion at that point.  I had a ticket in my hand to take me to Qingdao by bus.  There were many buses there.  A man was saying, "Qingdao," so I showed my ticket to me and he took me to a bus.  I got on, but no one else seemed to have a ticket.  I began to wonder if there was another company with a Qingdao bus among them all and whether I might be on the wrong one.  Eventually, I got it confirmed that I was on the right bus.   Unfortunately, we did not leave immediately for Qingdao.  We went into the nearby city and sat at their bus station for 2 hours!  Then we made several stops on the way out of the city to pick up more people and then many stops coming into Qingdao to let them off.  We didn't arrive at the bus station in Qingdao until 10:00!   My hotel was no where near the bus station.  I caught a bus from there that I thought, from what my guidebook said, would take me at least half the way or more toward the area of my hotel.  Unfortunately, it only took me about 1/4 of the way before we came to the end of the line.  I started walking following my map.  I watched the bus stops, but there was no way for me to tell which bus number would go my way.  So I just kept walking.  Finally, at noon, after walking almost 6 km (3.5 miles), I got to the hotel.    I found my hotel only by its look.  The website for it was all in Chinese.  It is a business hotel that had been recommended to me by one of my Internet consultants I had contacted.  The first place I had chosen, he told me, was too far from the beaches and the nicer parts of town.  Knowing it would be difficult to find, I drew a sketch of the photo of the exterior to help me find it.  Otherwise, all I knew was that it was about 200 m (200 yards) from the Crowne Plaza Hotel which was shown on my map.  I got to the Crowne Plaza and walked around the neighborhood looking until I finally identified the building.  Fortunately, a businessman who spoke English well was checking out when I arrived.  He helped make sure I got the kind of room I wanted and that they understood that I needed the room for 3 nights.    I was so tired that I went to bed immediately and napped.  When I got up, I cleaned up and went out.  I met a young man from Shanghai who works for Hyatt Hotels, was here on vacation, and spoke English well.  After visiting for a while, he asked if I wanted to go to Beer Street to eat dinner.  It was his last night here, and he had not yet been.  And Beer Street is one of the major attractions here which is the home of Tsingtao beer.  The street is a very lively neighborhood lined with outdoor restaurants.  I agreed, and we took a taxi there.   Chinese tend to have feasts when they eat out.  I'm always amazed to see a single person sitting at a table with 3-4 dishes on his table that he is eating from.  Well, our dinner was similar.  Wesley just kept ordering and ordering.  We had bamboo clams, squid kebabs, chicken kebabs, barbecued fish, roased lamb and whole garlic cloves with cumin and seeds, scrambled "fresh collected" eggs, boiled peanuts with red onion and celery in a sauce, cucumber chunks with tiny dried shrimp in a sauce, and a spinach-like vegetable with garlic.  We drank a Tsingtao beer with the meal.  It was all tasty and good, but he got carried away with the ordering.  Fortunately, here in China you can take your leftover food home, and Wesley took more than half of what he ordered back to his room.   There was a street market in the neighborhood.  We walked off our full bellies by exploring it.  I lucked out.  I needed an adaptor for the electrical plug on my computer for use once I leave China.  One of the guys had various hardware/electrical items, and I found an adaptor with two flat prongs on the other side.  I can use it both in the U.S. and in other countries when I further adapt it with the set of plug adaptors I normally carry with me.  It cost only 50 cents!   Monday, June 21, 2010--Qingdao   They are remodeling the lobby of my hotel.  Fortunately, the workers do not show up before 8:00, but at that time, the hammering and banging began.  It continued throughout today until 19:00, so the workers have an 11-hour work day!   The "Q" when used as a western letter for the Chinese language is pronounced somewhat like "Tch."  Therefore, Qingdao is pronounced approximately "Tching-dow."  It is a booming city, and I am located in the newest, nicest part.  It is full of tall, modern skyscrapers and reminds me a bit of the Pudong area of Shanghai.  It is clean and modern, and each skyscraper is designed to be attention-grabbing, often with an elaborate top.   In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Qingdao was the site for all the sailing events.  The Olympic Sailing Center is just 3 blocks from my hotel.  I walked there this morning and explored.  It is an impressive complex ringed by all the skyscrapers of the area.  There is a sad aspect to it, though.  The map in my guidebook, which was published before the Olympics, shows a park in the area.  And there is still a small part of natural area to one side of the sailing center.  It's beautiful with red stones, hills and green trees.  The whole area must have been gorgeous before it was rebult as the sailing center.   I decided to splurge on calories today.  I was at a mall near the sailing center and noticed a huge crowd at McDonald's.  I had seen a sign showing a burger, drink and fries for 15 yuan (about $2.50 U.S.).  I thought I would enjoy having western food for the first time since May 6, so I ordered the special expecting it to be small versions of everything.  Well, it was a full Big Mac, a large drink, and a large fries for that price.  I blew the diet for the day.  But, even though I don't generally like McDonald's burgers, it sure was a nice change of taste!   It was a sunny, nice day.  I continued walking along the waterfront back toward the downtown area.  Many people were out doing the same.  There were small pocket parks along the route, and I stopped twice to relax in the shade and read for a while.  Eventually, I decided it was time to reverse my route and return to the hotel area.   Near my hotel is a large store called Justco.  I stopped there to buy some supplies for the room--noodles, peanut brittle, yogurt, and diet cola.  Then I returned to the room and the continuing noise of the reconstruction.  I stayed inside for the rest of the night catching on up on things.

Cool and Foggy (Smoggy?)

Thursday, June 17, 2010--Dalian   We really had pollution here today.  Part of the problem is fog.  But added to that is lots of pollution from vehicles to create a smog that was so heavy that I could not see the office building that is across the street from my hotel!  It's also somewhat windy and cool.  It's strange that the wind hasn't cleared out some of the smog.    I'm trying to get everything arranged for the rest of my visit in China.  The first thing I did today was go across the street to buy my boat ticket to leave here on Saturday.  I got a combination boat/bus ticket that will take me all the way to Qingdao, my next destination.  All I will have to do is go across the street at 19:30, take the bus to the port, get on the boat, and then get on a bus directly off the boat to continue to Qingdao.    After that, I explored a while.  I went to a big square on the other side of the train station.  I went through part of the large underground shopping area.  (Several cities here in the north of China are like Montreal or Houston with big shopping arcades underground due to the weather.)  Then I came back to the hotel to read and rest.  I fell asleep until the maid knocked on my door about 1:15.   I went back out while she cleaned the room.  I returned to the shopping area where I had been yesterday.  It seems to be the largest concentration of malls in town.  I looked around some, but I really wasn't interested in shopping.  I returned to the supermarket and bought some peanuts, Oreos, and noodles.  Then I returned to the room.  The weather just wasn't pleasant enough to stay out more.  Instead, I read, watched TV, got on the Internet, and just relaxed for the rest of the day.   Before going to bed, I decided to wash three shirts.  I did that and left them in the bathroom to start drying overnight.   Friday, June 18, 2010--Dalian   Well, I had a problem which I was afraid I might face today.  My next destination, Qingdao, is a major summer tourist resort.  Therefore, I knew I would need to buy my train ticket early for leaving.  I went to the train station this morning to buy it, and the sleeping cars were already sold out for June 23.  I will have to travel in a seat overnight on my trip from Qingdao to Beijing!!  Yuck.  I should have tried to buy it earlier.   From there, I went exploring for bath houses.  It is still cool and cloudy outside.  Yesterday, I researched local bath houses thinking it would be nice to spend some time in the sauna.  I had a list of about 4 places to try to find.  The first, near my hotel, ended up being in a 5-star hotel--not the kind of place I wanted.  (My hotel has a spa which would have been like that.)  The second place was in a neighborhood not far from the hotel.  It was an interested neighborhood with a nice fruit/vegetable market and vendors on the street.  However, the building where the bath house should have been was abandoned with all its entrances bricked up.  Lots of new construction is taking place all over every city in China.  Just across the street from this location, 3 huge new apartment buildings are in the final stages of completion.  So my guess is that this building as been sold for redevelopment of the block and the bath house is now history.   While there, however, I bought a "Chinese" Egg McMuffin for breakfast.  I wonder if McDonald's got its idea for Egg McMuffin from here in China, because the Chinese have this product that is a dough with an egg and a layer of meat inside.  The Chinese cook theirs in a griddle constantly turning them after they have slowly layered all the ingredients.  But I can imagine an executive from McDonald's coming here for a visit, having one, and thinking, "We could do something similar to this by using a bun, an egg, and a piece of sausage; and it would allow us to start making more money by being open for breakfast, too!"   I had to take the bus to find the next location.  I had already mapped it out on the computer and written down street directions.  On the way there, we passed some interesting neighborhoods with nice houses and buildings.  Once I got off the bus, I followed my directions exactly.  But where the bath house should be was a high-rise apartment building that was in the last stages of completion!  Another bath house lost to construction!   For the last one, all I had was an Internet blog entry by someone discussing having gone there.  It had a name and said it was in a hotel of the same name.  I had to return to the room to check more on it.  I wanted to first explore the neighborhoods I had come through, but my timing was not great; I was starting to feel a bit of drizzle.  I just caught the bus back toward town.  By the time I arrived at the hotel, it was turning into a light rain.  I came to the room and searched and searched for more information, but I could not find the hotel or bath house listed by that name anywhere.  I just gave up and stayed inside.   I finished reading An Unfinished Season by Ward Just.  It is about a young man who lives in a small town outside Chicago and covers his last summer before going away to college--a summer when his father's business faces a strike, when he participates in the debutante season, when he works as a gofer at a local tabloid newspaper, and when he falls in love.  It is set in the early 1950s.  I gave the book, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, 3 stars (out of 4).   Saturday, June 19, 2010--Dalian and Boat   I hate the days when I have night travel ahead.  It is always such a hassle to check out of the hotel by noon and then pass the hours until time to depart.  Today it is made worse by the cool, cloudy weather.  It rained during the night, but it has been dry since I got up.  I'm hoping it will stay dry until I catch the bus/boat tonight.  I have a new book I will start reading if the weather stays nice enough for me to sit at a park.   My luggage is much heavier with my computer and all its extras.  I wish I could unload some of it, but all of it is stuff that I need or want to keep.  The only hope is to keep reading my books and to get rid of them.  I will be looking for a westerner today to give away the book that I just finished.   I haven't lost anymore weight during the 3 days I have been here.  Guess it is due to the fact that I haven't been out walking much.  Hope the weather in Qingdao will be better.  It is a major beach resort in China, so it would be sad if it is cool, cloudy, and even wet while I am there.  Thank goodness I have the computer and the hotel will have Internet in case it is.

Moving to Dalian

Wednesday, June 15, 2010--Haerbin and on the Train   After checking out of the hotel at 10:15, I wandered Stalin Park again.  Then I took a boat to Sun Island.  It has galleries, a park, etc., and it is the center for the famous Ice Festival that Haebin has each winter.  There is an Ice Scupture Museum which houses some of the sculptures from past festivals.  I arrived there and had to wait.  They do not admit just one person.  They let me sit inside and gave me hot green tea while I waited for more to arrive.  Because the admission price is steep (about $15 including the protective clothing you must rent in addition to the almost $5 cost to get inside the park), they don't get lots of visitors.  After about 30 minutes, however, a group arrived, and they rushed me inside with them after I put on my protective leggings and a long overcoat.   The museum was fascinating, though.  There were huge ice sculptures from previous shows.  Colored lights made them even more marvelous.  I wandered and took photos.  The experience was spoiled only by the fact that they kept trying to get more money from me through special offers--the chanch to have my photo made, the offer of coffee or beer from an ice bar, the opportunity to go down an ice slide on an innertube, and the chance to buy offerings to leave for Buddha at an ice temple.    There were thunderstorms coming through when I left the museum.  I waited at a pavilion where others also came.  One large group wanted my photo, so I had it taken over and over with each one.   After the storms passed, the sun came back again.  I wandered through more of the park.  They have a very nice sunbathing platform where I stopped to read for a while.  I watched people on rides at an amusement park.  Etc.   Town was more crowded than ever when I returned in the late afternoon.  Hawkers lined the entire Pedestrian Street selling every trinket imaginable.  Everyone was buying, too.  But I was disappointed.  Everyone was on the move.  There was no entertainment to stop and watch.  So I decided it was time to leave Haerbin.   I returned to the hotel and got my luggage.  With plenty of time, I just slowly walked to the train station and still arrived with 3 hours to remain before departure.  There were many others already there waiting, though.  I have the impression that this holiday in China is equivalent to Thanksgiving in the U.S. when it comes to traveling.   When the train did arrive, it was 21:30.  There was little time.  After getting on, I went to the toilet and then got into my bed.  The lights went out at 22:00 for the night.   Wednesday, June 16, 2010--Dalian   Unfortunately, my compartment mates got up and were opening window curtains and talking at 4:30!  Around 7:00 when the women reclined again as if they would sleep some more, I was so happy that two of the men in the same compartment sat on the ends of their lower-berth beds and disturbed them!!   China must have one of the highest rates of allergies in the world.  So many people on the train, like me, had stuffy nasal passages and dry coughs this morning.  It's due to those horrible trees with cotton-like spores flying through the air everywhere.   Our train actually arrived about 1 1/2 hours late.  I didn't mind.  I wanted to go straight to my hotel, and 6:30 would have been a bit early to try to check in.  I didn't mind going at 8:00, and they had a room ready for me at that time.  It's a 4-star hotel, and I am on the 24th floor.  I got on the computer for a while, then I went back to sleep in bed for 2 1/2 hours.  It was so nice to sleep comfortably.  I even went into a deep dreaming mode!   This is the last day of the holidays here.  It is known as the Dragon Boat Festival Day.  I checked on the Internet and found an entry saying there would be Dragon Boat races here, but it didn't mention a time or a place.  I went downstairs to ask at the hotel desk.  No one seemed to have any idea that it was such a day or where or when races would be held!  But all over China, this is the day for Dragon Boat races--the 5th day of the 5th lunar month!  Strange.   I spent the afternoon exploring.  I went down the walking street where I had a nice, spicy sandwich.  I found the main square (actually a huge circle) which was surrounded by wonderful, old European-style buildings.  I eventually went to a park looking for where people might be.  Many were there, but nothing unique was happening.  I then went to a supermarket and bought some supplies for the refrigerator in the room--diet cola, beer, and yogurt--and a box of instant noodles to eat for dinner there.    Unfortunately, while I was out today I lost my section of my guidebook for Dalian.  I always keep the pages for the section I am using in a pocket on the back side of my shoulder bag I carry.  Sometimes I notice the pages working their way out of the pocket, but I have always caught it and pushed them back in.  I guess they worked their way all the way out today without anyone noticing (or they would have brought my attention to it).  At least I now have an orientation to the city in my mind.  I could have used the specific information about some of the places to see and go in town, however.  Guess I will do some research on the Internet now.

A Day of Accomplishments after a Night of Concern

June 12, 2010--Haerbin (Continued)   In the evening, I went to town as usual.  Where the Pedestrian Street meets the river, there is a large square with a tall column.  It has been closed for reconstruction.  Well, tonight the barricades were down and a stage was set up for entertainment to celebrate its reopening.  I arrived just 10 minutes before the performance.  I stood with the large crowd and watched various acts perform--dancing dragons, exercising women, kungfu performers, etc.  (I'm sensing that I have already written about this.  I cannot access my blog in China to see what I have already posted and what I haven't.  It's a Google blog, and they are all blocked due to Google's dispute with the government that led to its withdrawal from the China market.)   Sunday, June 13, 2010--Haerbin   I spent much of the morning at Stalin Park watching people.  The sun was out, and so were the crowds.  When it started getting warm, I went to Wal-mart to buy a diet cola and headed to the train station to buy a ticket for my night trip to Dalian on Tuesday.    When the sun comes out, it really gets HOT here, so I returned to my room, turned on the air conditioner and read and worked on the computer.  I finished reading The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard.  It is set in China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Britain and won the National Book Award a few years ago.  It's one of the best written books I've read in a while.  I'm sure some people have problems with it; I had to concentrate myself.  The author has her own special style of prose (unique sentence structure) that is not as simple to follow as most writing.  It's sparse, yet vivid.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 4.   Worked on the computer.  As a part of that effort, I tried changing the language and changing the home page.  It is so difficult to do anything when it is all written in Chinese characters, though.   Returned to town for another evening much like all the others.  Then I came back to the room and faced disaster.  Every time I tried to use Internet Explorer, I would get a window that required it to be closed.  I checked, and it looked as if I were connected to the Internet.  I could see the timer going showing how long I had been online.  And the wire was connected as usual.  I tried rebooting the computer and got the same problem again.  I turned the computer for for a couple of minutes and then restarted it.  Same problem again.  I had to give up.  Apparently something I did when trying to change things or some button I hit when it made me make choices related to webpages had created the problem.  I went to bed thinking I would take it to the shop tomorrow morning and hope that they would reinstall Windows or that they could reset Windows and Internet Explorer to their default settings.  But how would I communicate all of that?   Monday, June 14, 2010--Haerbin   The sounds of people setting up their stalls on the sidewalk for the morning market awoke me at 4:00.  I tried to go back to sleep after putting in my ear plugs, but I was worrying about the computer.  Finally, I decided to get up at 4:30 and try it again.  I was hoping for a miracle.   Well, I got one.  The computer came on, and I was allowed to go to webpages!  I was so relieved.  I vowed I would not try to make any further changes to Explorer while I was still in China unless I met a Chinese person who was a computer expert and could help me. Then I spent 4 hours writing e-mails, reading newspapers, etc.   The breakfast lady likes me and likes to make sure I get everything I should to eat.  If I don't pick up a piece of bread, she brings me one.  She always makes my bowl of porridge for me and sweetens and stirs it before bringing it to me.  What she doesn't know is that I always eat what I like the LEAST first to get it out of the way for the better things.  Well, this morning she noticed that I had finished the green vegetable (a little tough and stringy for me) and still had lots of everything else.  So she brought me more green vegetable!  I ate it.   Since I had no need to take my computer to the repair shop, I decided to try to get my sandals repaired.  I asked about a shop and discovered there was one at the end of the block.  I took my sandals there, and the man told me to have a seat.  He repaired them while I waited.  He used something like super glue to do it.  First, he pushed the strap back into place using a tool, then he put glue and held it in place.  Then he went around the soles finding all the loose places between them and the base of each shoe and putting more glue in each while pressing them together afterward.  I'm hoping the sandals will now last me through the rest of my trip.  And the total cost for the repair job was less than 50 cents, U.S.!   With that out of the way, I headed to Stalin Park again.  Every day as I have gone that way, I have passed a group of ladies at a corner sitting on paint cans and holding paint rollers in their hands.  They have signs.  I don't know if they are on strike or if they are protesting.  Possibly it could be for equal wages as the men get.  Or it could even be for the right to work as painters if that profession is currently restricted to men.  Anyway, they have been there on that corner since I first arrived over a week ago.    Today is the first day of a 3-day holiday in China.  It comes right after students finish their university entrance exams, and the last day of it is the Dragon Boat races.  Because of that, the park was even more active than it had been over the weekend.  More men and women were swimming in the river.  Many men were fishing.  Lots of students and elderly people were strolling.  A large group of elderly people were singing while being accompanied by 3 accordians.  (They started out la-la-la-ing to popular tunes which included Red River Valley and Old Black Joe.  Then they sang the words to Chinese songs.)  Children were taking in-line skating lessons.  Another group of elderly were performing tai chi.  Bubble blowers and pressure water guns were popular with the younger crowds.    Because I got up so early and had not slept well due to stress, I returned to my room in the afternoon.  I took a nap for about 2 hours.  Then I got on the computer.  As I finished within my e-mail, I noticed a recommendation on the page that I upgrade to Explorer 8.  Although I had vowed not to make any more changes that could be a problem, I hit the button.  Then I thought, "What if the directions are in Chinese that I cannot read and I hit the wrong button and create a bigger problem?"  Well, it was too late.  The download screen was there.  The directions were in Chinese, but they had an "R" on one button which I figured was short for run.  I hit it.  Then on the next screen, I did the same thing.  Then aother miracle happened.  The download was for the English version, and all the directions were in English!  When I finished, I not only had a better version of the program, I had one that had all words in English!!!  The whole computer is not in English, but most of what I will do will be within Explorer.  So having that in English is such a relief.   I took time to figure my spending update so far.  Then I headed into town feeling quite good about what had been accomplished today.  Due to the holidays, the crowds were massive.  I watched the sunset over the river and visited briefly with two young men who work here in a factory producing in-line skates, ice skates, protectors, helmets, etc.  Then I listened to some of the street musicians.  I returned to the room around 20:30.   Spending Update (not including today or the new computer I bought):  I have been in China 39 days and have spent $1041.66 for an average of $26.71 per day.

Cool, Cloudy Day

Friday, June 11, 2010--Haerbin (Continued)   It took me several hours on the computer today to catch up with things.  I had kept a long list of things I needed to do such as checking train schedules, considering hotels for reservations, writing e-mails, updating the blog, etc.  The afternoon was hot, so it was probably best to be inside in the air conditioning anyway.   In the evening, I went to the Pedestrian Street downtown.  The temperature had gotten more comfortable, and the crowds were out.  I mainly wandered among the places where there was street music.  There was a great singer/guitarist drawing a big crowd.  A quartet was playing nice classical music.  A Malaysian female singer and her partner performed pop songs on a balcony above the crowd.  And there was an area where couples were doing ballroom dancing to recorded music.    Saturday, June 12, 2010—Haerbin   The forecast was for light showers today.  When I got up, it was cooler and cloudy, but there was no rain yet.  I decided I would head out to do things and just plan to return when the rain came.  I felt a sprinkle or two at times, but the rain never came.  Therefore, I spent most of the day out on the town.   I began by going to the temple area, a part of town with a huge Buddhist Temple complex with multiple temples and a pagoda.  Many people were there praying, chanting, etc.    Returning to the center of town, I stopped at Wal-mart and bought some snacks—a diet cola, some chips, some yogurt, and a small package of cookies.  I decided to treat myself, since the store had a scale inside that I could use to weigh myself.  Since leaving 5 weeks ago, I have lost 20 lbs (9 kg).  I would like to lose that much more again before I return to Texas.  That would take me back to the size I was when I was in junior high school.  Losing half that much again would take me back to the size I was when I graduated from college.  It should be doable if I don't treat myself everyday as I have done today.   With my book and my snacks, I walked along Stalin Park (yes, they have retained the name even though everyone else is embarrassed to use it anymore), a linear park along the riverfront.  Many people were out—fishing, flying kites, singing, playing instruments, strolling, swimming, practicing rowing long boats, etc.  It was fun to see all the activity.  I couldn't believe how many people were swimming as cool as it was, but they were mostly older men who probably do it even in the winter!   I sat on the river wall and ate some snacks and wrote in my diary.  I was approached twice.  First, a man about my age bicycled up and started speaking in Russian to me.  He didn't know any English, so he left quickly when he learned I was not Russian.  Then two young men came up and spoke in limited English.  They were both Chinese language teachers who are here on vacation.  After they left, I found a quieter place and read my book while continuing to occasionally watch the crowds.   In the evening, I returned to the Pedestrian Street.  There is a big square with a monument at the end of the Pedestrian Street where it meets the river.  It has been barricaded up to now as part of the building of a new metro system which also involved rebuilding the square.  Well, the barricades were down and they were having a grand opening celebration on a stage.  I stayed to watch with a large crowd of locals.  They had dragons, they had exercising women, they had dancers, they had kung fu performers, etc.  It lasted 1 1/2 hours and was lots of fun to see.   From there, I went to listen to the Malaysian singer for about 30 minutes.  Then I realized I needed to return to the room to finish my snacks.

Days without Internet

Sunday, June 6, 2010--Haerbin (Continued)   In the afternoon I searched out the St. Sophia Church.  It was a Russian Orthodox cathedral in the past.  Today, it is a history museum with photos of Haerbin through the years.  It is also the most photographed sight in the city.  Like many places in China, there was a reduced admission fee for people 60-69 (half price).  Anyone over 70 usually gets into everything for free in China.   As I left the church, I heard music blaring.  Then I turned the corner and saw that it was from a fountain show.  Such shows are popular here in China.  This one was in a large square to the side of the church.  I jointed the crowd to watch and listen to the 15 minute show.    I got a pork sandwich and ate it on the street.  As I had done the previous night, I wandered the Pedestrian Street and stopped occasionally to hear music.  One of the most popular things to do on the street is to have an ice cream bar on a stick.  I bought one so I could see what it was.  It had the texture of a fudgesickle, but it was vanilla in flavor.  I imagine its popularity is due as much to the hot weather here as it is with the taste of it.   I met a young student while watching some street entertainment.  I noticed him looking at me a couple of times.  Finally, he asked if I spoke English.  He explained later that he was afraid I might be Russian, so he hesitated before asking.  We moved down the street to a quiet bench and sat and visited.  He said he was a chemistry major but that he had only done that to please his parents.  He works in a local factory that manufactures sporting goods clothing and shoes for Adidas and for Nike.  Like some others I have met, he said he would love to live and work in the U.S. which he called the "best country in the world."   Monday, June 7, 2010--Haerbin to Changchun   I was the center of attention at breakfast.  Everyone thought it was funny that I ate my bread and my boiled egg by holding them in my hand.  The Chinese seem to eat everything with chopsticks unless it is liquid.  Then I could tell that the lady who runs the kitchen told a story about me that made me laugh.  My guess is that it was about the fact that I got porridge and starting eating it yesterday without adding sugar; she had to come over and put sugar in it and tell me to stir it.    The train trip to Changchun was crowded and hot.  I was in an inside seat, so there was little room for my legs or my body.  Fortunately, it was only 3 hours long.   This is one town where I had no advance reservation.  From my guidebook, I had decided to try the Chunyi Hotel.  It's a heritage hotel built by the Japanese in the early 1900s to house their dignataries and officers who visited the city.  It was an impressive building.  My room was in the heritage part rather than in the new additions.  The lobby had huge crystal chandeliers, lots of marble, wonderful woodwork, and huge stained glass panels.  The hallway walls were made to look like Japanese paper walls by using stips of blond wood on the cream colored walls.  The light fixtures in the hallways were large ones with wood and alabaster.  My room itself had a beautiful light fixture handcrafted from wood and alabaster.  The room was light and very large with two full beds.  The bath was also light with lots of room.  It was a good choice for a hotel and was reasonable in price.   To explore, I walked about 6 km (3.5 miles) to the university area of the city.  The guidebook showed streets there with small eateries.  There were MANY students on the sidewalks, and the eateries were very crowded.  I stopped at one to get a chicken sandwhich that seemed to be popular.  Then I took the bus back to the hotel rather than walk the distance in the heat again.   I needed water really bad.  I went to a mall near the bus stop expecting there would be a supermarket in the basement.  Unfortunately, there wasn't.  I returned to the hotel and asked about a supermarket.  The young man working at the desk told me there was a Wal-mart just behind the hotel.  I went searching.  However, I could not find it and no one recognized the name of the store.  I returned to the hotel and asked him to write it out in Chinese characters for me and to show me on the map where it was.  Like many foreigners, however, he was lacking in map skills.  I think maybe because they know the local town from growing up in it and have few chances to travel that they just have never had reasons to learn to read maps.  Anyway, I went searching while showing the Chinese characters.  Eventually, two young boys walked me to the entrance.  I bought two large bottles of water, a large bottle of Coke Zero, 3 cartons of yogurt, some noodles, and some laundry detergent.   Back at the hotel, I laundered a pair of pants, a pair of shorts, and two pairs of socks.  That's all the line in the bathroom would hold.  Shirts need to be done, too, at a later date.   Tuesday, June 8, 2010--Changchun   This city has many buildings besides my hotel that were built by the Japanese.  Japan had its eyes on China for many years starting in the late 1800s.  In 1931, they finally invaded and made Changchun the capital of Manchuria until they lost it in 1945 after WWII.  They built many grand government buildings.  All are typical of the 1930s in their simplicity of style.  Unfortunately, most were built with a dark brick that is not attractive.    The hotel had a large buffet breakfast.  I had noodles, eggplant, cabbage, boiled egg, spicy pickled potatoes, fried bread, rice porridge, etc.  After that, I went to the bus station behind the hotel to buy a ticket for my trip to Shenyang tomorrow.  The train had been so cramped that I thought going by bus might be better for this next segment.    I tried to go to a cyber cafe only to learn that Changchun requires a residence ID to do so!  I checked 3 places.  All of them refused to let me use the computer.  Upset about it and with plenty of time, I decided to complain to authorities at the Public Security Bureau.  I explained to them that I had a passport with a Chinese visa in it, so I had another form of permission to be in China from the ID.  They weren't interested.  Then I told them that it would cost them in tourism if people cannot use the Internet.  I told them I would be writing to the various travel guides to let them know that this was a problem in their city.  Whether it was an effort to get rid of me or to try to help me, I'm not sure, but they wrote a note and told me to take it across the street.  I did.  It was a place with a sign indicating it was a foreign exchange student office.  I showed the note to the boss, and he shook his head no.  So I returned to the PSB to tell them so!   I told them that my family will become worried if I cannot use the Internet to communicate with them, and that it would likely result in the US and Chinese governments getting involved in having to try to locate me after a complaint from them.    The main reason to visit this city is to tour the Emperor's Palace.  It was never REALLY an Emperor's Palace.  The last emperor of China had been deposed by the nationalists in the early 1900s.  So Japan reinstalled the him in this palace as a puppet emperor to try to legitimize their occupation as an effort to return China to its proper rule.  The entire complex was built by the Japanese in the 1930s, and it is fully restored with original furnishings.  It is really quite interesting to tour.  The buildings reminded me of my hotel in style, and there were even some light fixtures that were similar to the ones in my hotel hallways.   Attempting to clean my sandals, they came apart on me.  I was hoping they would last through this trip, but I had noticed that the sole seemed to be parting from the partion where my feet rested.  They had gotten so dirty, however, that my feet would get dirty from wearing them.  I put them in sudsy water in the bathroom and squeezed and brushed (old toothbrush) them to try to clean them. Well, the strap came completely loose and came out at the back of one of them.  I am hoping a repairman can glue or sew them so that I can continue using them while on the trip.  It would be difficult to replace them, since most sandals are not as soft and would rub blisters on my feet.   Wednesday, June 9, 2010--Changchun to Shenyang   I didn't sleep well.  I had nasal drainage which was collecting at the bottom of the passage from the nose to the throat.  I think it is likely due to allergies rather than a cold.  There are many trees here with flying cotton-like spores in the air.  I don't know if the trees are cottonwoods, but what is in the air is much like what comes from them.   I'm a bit tired of Chinese breakfasts.  They are too similar everywhere.  Also, they all include Tang rather than real juice.  Yet the tang is so diluted that it is like hot water with just a hint of an orange flavor.  It looks the color that doctors would like one's urine to look rather than the dark yellow it (the Tang) should be.    Hotels here have you sign a credit card form for a deposit.  Everywhere I have been, they charge the correct amount at checkout and return the signed form for the advance.  My present hotel didn't do this.  I had to open my bag and show them what the other hotels had done.  They understood and looked for my signed form and returned it.  I doubt that they would have processed it, but I am glad I realized what was happening and handled it without leaving and then having days of worrying about whether the deposit form was being processed or not.   Well, the bus trip was as bad or worse than the train trip.  It took 5 hours to get to Shenyang--one hour of it just to get out of Changchun!  Yuck!   Frustration!!  I immediately went to an Internet cafe and encountered the same problem here as in Changchun.  I'm getting depressed thinking that I may not be able to communicate with home.  I'm scheduled to be here for 4 nights, and my next two stops of 3 nights each are in the same province.  That means I could go for 2 weeks without being able to communicate.  I tried several cyber cafes and got the same response.  In one, in fact, a man said, "Go home!"  I'm sure he meant for me to leave since there was nothing he could do for me, but his wording represented the feeling I had for what China would like for me to do.   Again, I went to the PSB office and told them the same things I had said in Changchun.  It did no good.   Depressed, I started trying to think of my alternatives.  Finally, I decided the best answer was to skip Shenyang and Dandong and return to Haerbin where I had last been able to use the Internet.  I went to the train station and bought a ticket for a fast train to go there tomorrow.  I thought I could communicate what has been happening and then continue with my travels knowing that everyone would not worry if they did not hear from me afterward.  Besides, I enjoyed Haerbin and there were things I didn't have time to do there.   Thursday, June 10, 2010--Shenyang to Haerbin   The train was a sleek, modern one that traveled at rather fast speeds--156 km/h (90+ mph).  It took us only 4 hrs. 20 min to get to Haerbin.  The whole time I kept thinking about how nice it would be to be back on the Internet to deal with the long list of things that I was keeping that needed doing/investigating:  making hotel reservations, searching train schedules, writing e-mails, updating the blog, etc.   I decided just to return to the same hotel where I had stayed before.  Sure enough, they gave me the same room at the same rate that I had before.  Then I went directly to the same Internet cafe where I had been before.  They pointed to a sign and said that I could not use the Internet.  I told them I had been there just a few days ago and showed them which computer I had used.  I told them I had a passport with a Chinese visa.  They looked at it.  Then they went to get someone else.  He came up and refused me again!   I was so depressed.  After all this backtracking by train, I still could not get onto the Internet!  I started thinking of alternatives.  One would be to buy a computer, but I had not seen any shops here in Haerbin, and I figured they might be more expensive here than even the ones I had seen in Nanjing with Wes.  I looked at my map to try to find a local university thinking that I could tell them I am a former professor and maybe they would let me use their computer.  I couldn't see a university on my map.  Therefore, I started looking for young people to ask about the location.  A young couple stopped, and she spoke English.  I told her my story and asked her where the university would be.  She wanted to know which university.  I told her any would be fine.  But as I explained my problem, she said, "Let's to to the hotel and see if they can help."  We walked to a hotel on the corner and she explained my situation.  The lady at the desk called someone, then she told the student that I should pretend to be a hotel guest and go back into the office.  There, a young woman got up from her computer and let me use it.  She stood by, so I only had enough time to write one brief message to be posted to the blog.   As I left the hotel, I knew that I needed a better solution.  The young students were still outside.  I asked them where a good place to buy computers would be.  They told me there was a place near the train station and wrote the name in Chinese characters for me.  I walked to the station and started asking for directions.  People kept pointing, and I kept walking.  In fact, the place was almost as far beyond the train station as I had been when I first started out, and the weather was HOT!    I arrived at the place at 16:05, and closing time was at 16:30.  It was like a mini-mall of electronics companies.  I stopped at a both selling lonMID brand.  The price was cheap, but so was the computer with a flower design on the outside.  I kept looking.  I saw the eMachines, the Acer, the Sony, the HP, and the Samsung brands.  I ruled out eMachines, Acer, and HP due to the fact that the first two were the same with different names and due to the fact that Wes' Acer and my old HP both have a problem with the cursor jumping while typing inside e-mail; it causes letters to be placed where they shouldn't be which wastes time.  The Sony was way too expensive.  The Samsung, however, seemed to be a good price.  It was about $360 with higher specifications than some of the others.  And that was with taxes.  In the U.S., I think it would sell for at least $350 PLUS taxes.  I decided to buy it, but the two ATMs that were in the area were both out of order which probably meant that all ATMs were offline at the time.  The shop was closing, so I told them I would return tomorrow.   I'm not sorry about being back in Haerbin.  This is one of the nicer cities to visit in China.  I will stay here a few days and see and do some of the things I didn't get to previously.  Also, I want to enjoy the Pedestrian Street some more.   I returned to the hotel at 19:00 totally exhausted from the stress of the past few days.  I had drunk a large carton (1.2 kg--probably about 1 1/4 liters) of yogurt with red dates while walking the Pedestrian Street.  I didn't need further food.  I read.  Then I went to bed just before 21:00.   Friday, June 11, 2010--Haerbin   The woman at the breakfast room was glad to see me again.  She used motions to indicate that I had left and returned, and I shook my head to respond positively.   Like most people in China, she is quite nice.  It's the government rules which make being here a problem at times.   I got cash from a neighborhood ATM and returned to the store and bought the Samsung computer.  I was surprised with all that came with it--a mouse, headphones with a speaker, keyboard protective sheet, cleaning fluid and cloth, etc.  That does make it a bargain compared to U.S. prices.  However, the language is Chinese for all the controls.  I need to get that changed.  It has an international warranty, so they said I could take it to a Samsung repair place in the U.S. and get the language changed during the year of the warranty.  I'll search and see if I can find a way to do it myself.  Fortunately, it has an English keyboard and types in English within my e-mail program and within Word.   I've spent about 4 hours going through the list of things I needed to do on a computer and typing this update for the blog.  I'm tired now, but what a relief it is to know that I will be able to be on the Internet now.  Every hotel where I have stayed has had a wire for broadband connections.  I still think it is silly that the Communists try to monitor Internet usage by limiting it to those who produce an ID card.  How afraid they must be of their hold on power.  And how sad it must be for Chinese people to have to worry about what web pages they visit, knowing that the government will have a list.  Now I better understand why Google gave up on the Chinese government and moved out of the country.  I will avoid traveling here in the future out of principle.  It's ridiculous that I had to buy a computer to be able to use the Internet!!

Back online

I have bought a computer and will update the blog later today and regularly now that Internet access will not be a problem.  Must deal with some business matters first.

Troubles Communicating from China

This will be a quick post.  I am being loaned a computer in a hotel for a brief moment.  China has implemented a new policy that people cannot use computers in cyber cafes unless they have a government ID.  They have new scanners which scan the cards electronically and then can follow every website that anyone goes to.  Tourists are not allowed to use cyber cafes.  I've been in 3 cities.  I even backtracked today to Harbin in hopes of using the cyber cafe I used here before.  But they have the new rule posted and will not let me use their computer again either.  I will not be able to make another post until I arrive in Hong Kong in late June.  I am fine and will be fine.  This is just another example of why it is best to live in a democracy rather than under communism.  Will figure out now whether to go back onto my schedule or not.  I will be in Dalian at the planned dates and in Qingdao.  The hotels there are listed on my blog, so it should be possible to call me there if there is any reason to do so.  Otherwise, I will be back online in Hong Kong at the end of the month.   Randy

Exploring Haerbin

Friday, June 4, 2010--Hailaer and Night Train   Because my train is at 20:30 tonight, I stayed in the room all morning.  I organized things, read, cleaned up, etc.  Then I checked out about 11:30.  The hotel let me leave my suitcase and backpack behind their desk until the early evening when I showed them via letting them see my ticket that I have a train to catch.   I wandered through some of the back streets of the city.  Unfortunately, Hailear is not a pretty city.  It is quite dirty, and the layout of the city seems to be a hodge-podge of construction at various angles and streets that twist and wind.  Also unfortunately, they let cars park on their sidewalks.  Not only does it make the place look messy and create problems for pedestrians, but the weight of the cars has broken many of the paving tiles so that the sidewalks are ugly and a mess.    I stopped at a supermarket.  While looking, I realized that yogurt sounded good to me.  I bought a 500 ml (1 quart) container of raspberry yogurt which was licensed for sale via a Danish firm (Hansen).  I drank it as I walked toward the river.    The day is a bit windier than it has been, so there were few people at the river at noon.  I continued past it and went to the park.  The shady space within the large statue where I had seen a couple yesterday was available.  I crawled into it and read and drank a cola which I had also bought.  I was really just passing time.   At 14:30, I headed for the river.  There was a totally different group of men there.  As usual, they were all interested in the hair on my legs and arms and my white skin when I removed my shirt to sunbathe.  They encouraged me to go into the river to swim, and one even offered me a swimsuit to wear and motioned that the water would only come up to my chest.  I refused by indicating it would be too cold with the breeze.   An unfortunate event took place while I was there.  A small dog who hangs out there was picked up by one of the men and dipped into the river.  At first it seemed cute as the dog shook himself off, but then I saw that he was shivering.  I had nothing to use to dry him off; my shirt would have to be worn all night on the train, so I didn't want it to have a dog smell.  But no one else seemed to be concerned about how cold the dog was.  Later, a man (I'm not sure if it was the same one) threatened to dip the dog again by holding him over the water and touching the tip of his tail to it.  It's hard to understand how someone could be so cruel.    I began writing in my journal, and about 5 of the men huddled around me.  Asians are fascinated with watching westerners write.  Also, they find my lefthandedness to be interesting.  While being that close, several of them took advantage of the opportunity to feel the hair on my arms and legs as others have done.    With nothing special to do, I returned to my hotel at 17:30, got my luggage and went to the train station.  I had some peanuts, some cookies, and some cola for snacking, so I didn't try to find a place for dinner.  I just sat and read until time for the train at 20:30.  In fact, I was so busy enjoying my book that I was surprised to see it was already 20:12 when I checked my watch.  I rushed to the door and exited to the platform which was filled with hundreds of people waiting for my train.   Apparently weekends are a big time for traveling here.  Almost everyone waiting for the train was making the 9-hour trip to Haerbin like me.  I guess they were going to the "big city" for the weekend.  Fortunately, when the train arrived, I had no problem getting space in the luggage rack for my things.  Many of the people were just carrying small bags, since they were making only a weekend trip.    Saturday, June 5, 2010--Haerbin   I had thought that the schedule for my train would be perfect.  We departed last night at 20:30 which meant that we would be going straight to bed.  That proved to be true as the conductor turned off all the lights at 21:30.  We were scheduled to arrive in Haerbin at 6:45, so I assumed we would sleep until just 30-45 minutes before that.  That's where things didn't go as well.  As I have written before, the sun is up here at 4:00.  Well, I was awakened at 4:05 by two men talking very loudly.  I was in the first compartment, and these men had gone between cars where it is noisy and were yelling to be able to hear each other.  I put my earplugs into my ears and tried to go back to sleep.  But a few minutes later, even with my earplugs, I started hearing loud exclamations by women.  I looked down to see my compartment mates playing cards.  Apparently they had been awakened by the yelling men.  And in their excitement about going to the big city, they could not go back to sleep.  Playing cards here is very animated with cards being flung down hard with a flourish.  And often there are loud reactions.  The women's voices were so pearcing that they were coming through my earplugs.  There was just no way to sleep later.  I pulled out my bood and started reading again until just before we arrived.   I knew it was a big early to go to my hotel, so I decided to stop at the ticket booths and buy my ticket for the 3-hour journey on Monday to my next stop.  After that, I headed out for my hotel.  The journey became more of an effort than I had expected.  My map in my guidebook shows only the major streets.  I would come to an y-type intersection that wasn't shown on my map and, due to the lack of street signs, have problems determining which way I was supposed to go.  Somewhere, I chose the wrong way.  I eventually discovered it and started asking for directions.  Fortunately, my reservation voucher for my hotel had the street address and the name of the hotel written in Chinese characters.  Every 2-3 blocks I would show it to someone and get a new hand motion to indicate whether I should keep going straight or turn.  Eventually, I made it to the hotel about 8:15.   I was surprised by the street in front of the hotel.  It was alive with activity related to a street market.  There were vendors selling clothing, meat, fruits, vegetables, etc., and there were portable kitchens making all kinds of breakfast foods.  I watched as I walked past it to the hotel.  Inside the hotel, they could not find my reservation, and they seemed surprised as I showed them my voucher.  At first, they wanted to rent me a room at the normal rate, but I showed them on the voucher that I had a set rate that was lower.  Someone who is in charge of reservations would be there soon, so I left my luggage and went to explore the market and find something to eat.   It was a surprise to find that the market was being closed down at 8:30 when I went back outside.  It has been a bustling place just 15-20 minutes earlier.  One of the food carts was being pushed to a side place just around the corner, so I followed it and a group of customers who still wanted to buy.  I waited while they made fresh patties to sell to us.  They are the size of Egg McMuffins.  I am not sure what the outside coating is--rice flour?  They cook a small layer of the coating in the bottom of a round muffin-tin type mold.  Then they had an egg.  Next, they put some bean paste.  Then they put another layer of the coating.  They keep flipping them so that they brown on all sides.  After they are cooked, they are sprinkled with seasonings and then placed in a plastic bag to sell.  I got two of them (which is what others were also buying).  They were very hot from the heat.  The eggs inside had the texture of having been poached until the yellows were mostly solid.  They were very tasty treats.   When I returned to the hotel, they had found my reservation and they had my room prepared for me.  It has all the basics--private bath, hot water, TV, a/c, etc.  But it is in an older European-style building and is a bit worn.  It's also the cheapest room I have had on this trip--$19 per night.  It is fine, and there are very tall windows letting in lots of light.   I was tired, so I decided to stay in the room and finish reading my book before going out.  It was Arthur and George by Julian Barnes--historical fiction that was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2005.  I found it very well written and a very interesting story about the lives of two men which intersected briefly.  I gave it 3 1/2 stars out of 4 and would highly recommend it to anyone who finds the synopsis of it interesting.   Haerbin is best known as the site of a huge ice festival in winter in which they even build an ice hotel where people can stay.  It is just south of Siberia in Russia.  It has lots of Russian architecture along its main shopping street, since many Jews left Russia in the early 1900s to come hear to escape the revolutions and the persecution they were experiencing there.  In fact, my hotel is in the old Jewish quarter where there are 3 old synogogues.    The city was also the site of a Japanese germ warfare experimental camp in WWII.  I decided to take the bus to there to see the museum in the afternoon.  I had not read about this camp before, but the Japanese were experimenting on the Chinese in much the same way that the Germans were experimenting on the Jews.  There were even ovens for burning the bodies of those who died from the experiments.  The museum was interesting, but limited.   I had just thought earlier in the day that I had gone a whole week without seeing a westerner.  I had seen a few Russians in Manzhouli, but they had lived just across the border and come there to shop.  Since I left Berlin, I had not encountered another western tourist.  That is so unusual.  As I have often said, even in the remotest part of the world I am likely to run into French travelers.  Well, there have been no French, no backpackers, no nothing!  Then as I entered the ticket office of the germ warefare museum, there was a young western man in line.  We immediately began talking.  He was Anton from Sweden and is studying Chinese in Beijing.  He had come here for a weekend get-away.  We went through the museum together and then returned to town on the same bus.  In fact, he was staying in a hostel in one of the old synogogues just around the corner from my hotel.  I told him I had two novels I had finished, and he said he would be very happy to have them.  He also told me his parents are coming to China later this month and have never traveled without being on a package tour.  I shared my websites I have used to find hotels with him, since they will be traveling for 3 weeks independently without him.    After Anton left, I decided to clean up.  I had not showered in the morning and the afternoon had been very hot.  I took a shower and changed into a fresh shirt.  Then I headed for the Pedestrian Street, a cobbledstoned street that, as I wrote earlier, is lined with wonderful Russian/European-style buildings from the early 1900s.  The street was alive with people.  I stopped at a snack street and bought a small chicken sandwich.  Then I just walked.  There were street entertainers drawing crowds, so I occasionally stopped to enjoy the music and watch the crowds.  I also went to a food store and bought more yogurt (this time with red date favoring), since I was still craving it.  At 20:00, the police came through and closed down all the street entertainment.  I don't understand why they did it so early, but it is apparently their normal procedure.  Without that, there was no need for me to remain in town.  I bought some water and returned to my room.   In addition to my craving for yogurt lately, I have been having occasional foot cramps.  I especially have them when I stand in one position for a while such as when I was listening to the street music.  My guess is that I am missing something in my diet that is causing them.    Sunday, June 6, 2010--Haerbin   I awoke to the sounds of the street market outside my hotel this morning.  I don't know if it occurs every day or is just a weekend event.  My hotel serves breakfast, so I went to it first.  There were various cold vegetable dishes, boiled eggs, bread, and rice porridge.  I ate a little bit of all of it.  I was surprised that there was no tea, however.   I explored the market starting at 8:00 and took some photos.  But just like yesterday, at 8:25 the stalls started packing up and at 8:30 it was all over.  Yesterday, there was another market on the street in the evening, but it was an eating market with small sidewalk cafes set up along the sidewalks.  It's an interesting neighborhood.   A front must have come through in the evening.  The air was cool and the skies were cloudy when I left the hotel.  I could see blue skies to the northwest, and by 11:30, they were overhead and the temperature starting to rise.  I walked along the riverfront.  Then I went down the Pedestrian Street.  I found this cyber cafe and made a stop.  This afternoon, I will explore an old Russian church and maybe go across the river to an island that is a popular park.  Tomorrow morning, I leave for my next destination, so I must see what I want to see of Haerbin today.