China 6- last bits and pieces

On my second to last night in Hangzhou a crew from CCTV (Chinese Central TV) showed up in our hostel. They asked a friend of mine, Yuping, and I to do a small spot for them the next day as part of a cultural heritage thing they are doing for Beijing 2008. I had to skip a shift of mine at the hospital, but they took us out to this swanky place in the mountains and shot 3 small scenes of me, the foreigner, and my friend Yuping, the translator, discovering the wonders of Chinese culture--it was pretty cheesy/phony. But it was really fun. Yuping and I had to make up our own lines--I don't know if they'll actually use the audio. And they paid me 200RMB/$25. They said it is going to be broadcast internationally before the next Olympics, so we'll see!

That night, Yuping threw me a little going away party. Hanging out with some friends and the staff I'd lived with for the past couple weeks was great. But I got so sloshed my morning departure to Ningbo was none too fun.

Taking a train ride here you can not only take in a lot scenery, but you can get a pretty good glimpse at where people live and work. Train rides also afford you a sufficient sample of the land to see that buildings--apartment projects, bridges, roads, etc.--are rising from the ground like mushrooms in fall: ubiquitously and quickly. Furthermore, it seems to me that China's infrastructure is superior to that of America. From the modern roads and highways (that all have seperate lanes for bikes/slower vehicles and street signals more advanced than ours), waterways, bridges, overpasses/underpasses, to the extensive rail system, China has invested heavily in its public transportation system--at what cost to individual wealth I do not know...

(hard to capture on camera)



Spent a few nights in a city to the east of Hangzhou, called Ningbo. I quite liked it. I found a $3/night hostel and made friends with a girl who worked there. She helped me find some of the more intertesting places and plenty of back roads to keep me happy. I much prefer the backstreets to the main streets--which are the same in most cities across the world, methinks.

I'm gonna miss how they speak and use the words 'jigga' and 'nigga'-- this/this one and that/that one. They use the word nigga like we use 'um' or 'like', saying it all the time and it cracks me up: ''nigga niggaaa, nigga niggaaa....;" their verbal buffer.

Finally figured out a reliable way to get what i wanted at restaurants: I would just go to a market and buy the vegetables I wanted, bring them to a small restaurant place and say 'stir fry noodles/rice with this' (chao mien tiao er jigga). I realized this only after a friend of mine bought me a few heads of broccoli after i told her i liked it but could not find much of it in restaurants; and of course i wasn't going to cook it myself when i could get someone else to for a 75 cent meal.

I made a day trip to an island near Ningbo, called Putuo Shan, that had been recommended to me by a couple sources . What was apparently an island of religious recluse, has become a tourist site/trap more geared to commerce than communion. For 8 hours travel (taxi, bus, boat and reverse) and 300RMB/$40, I'm not sure it was worth it.



Got one more ($3) massage--that I just have to mention. It was more like acrobatics than a massage, really. This little girl, maybe 5'4 130lbs, had me in the wildest positions: contorted around her, above her, hanging off her over the side of the table. It didn't exactly feel all that relaxing by massage standards, but, then again, I was moaning and laughing half the time.

Lastly, I spent a couple nights in Shanghai. Fortunately I had a contact with whom I could crash, for Shanghai is a long ways away from the cheap China we reflexivly think of. With over 20 million people, and the traffic/buildings/noise to prove it, I, again, reaffirmed my distate for large cities.

Nevertheless, only just getting out and about, I have not been able to escape the friendliness and generosity that the Chinese people have extended me. From sharing conversation and food in small restaurants to people chatting me up and taking me with them for tea, the Chinese people have impressed me.
I've had a great time in China and could easily come back some day.