After Liz and Colin left Beijing, Alex and I found ourselves at a loss of what to do. There was no more herding around, sights to be seen or awkward situations to find ourselves in. Actually, none of that is true because we're in China and ambiguity is a way of life here. So much for not lying.
In an effort to lift our spirits, Alex and I made our way down south to Qingdao, a city of beaches (right, Liz?) and beer. It didn't take us long to realize that Qingdao was more of a "summer" town, which is much more enjoyable when it is actually hot. The town was far from hot- it was just as cold as it was in Beijing in addition to the crippling wind, not to mention our hostel was had no form of a heating system. Luckily for us, we had our own heating system- Alex's zero degree sleeping bag.
I won't even go into what we did (or didn't do) in Qingdao because of how depressing it was. We didn't even go to the Tsingtao beer factory.
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We made it back to Shanghai in an effort to do something productive while waiting for our contracts to be prepared. Our train ride here was another one of those "stories" that could only happen in China.
Because we were tricked by the cab driver into paying 40RMB for our cab fare to our hostel that was less than 5 minutes away (he didn't even have the decency to drive us around to make it seem like it was far away), I refused to take a cab to the train station. Our only other option was for us to take a bus (which is really not an option when one is carrying large backpacks) or to walk. So we walked. Qingdao is unique in the sense that there are actually hills in town, whereas a majority of cities are relatively flat. With at least 26 pounds on my back, a smaller backpack in the front (think of how marsupials carry their babies) and a camera bag on my shoulder and poorly made Chinese boots, these hills (nothing compared to Seattle, of course) were a bitch to walk. Of course, in true Chinese fashion, it goes without saying that we were hassled for hotels or whatever along the way. We have to love China!
There were two things of note when we finally got on the train. The first is that Alex and I were not in the same cabin, the second is that these cabins were full of rowdy children! Of course, Alex immediately became a local celebrity. After we arranged for us to be in the same cabin, the cabin that held only us and these kids, Alex and I decided to play a game of Scrabble. Alex, being the local celebrity, was immediately bombarded by curious 11 year olds. I'm sure if there was enough space, they would've lifted him up and had him crowd surf. Anyway, these kids had the opportunity to practice their English, while learning some new words that we played on the board. According to their leader, Li Gang (when I asked him if he was their leader, he said yes. All the kids kept asking him for advice or help or something), they were on their way to Shanghai to participate in a competition where they use computers to design airplanes. We could tell that they were from affluent families- some had PSPs or MP3 plays, most had fancy cellphones and they all had so many snacks and KFC for dinner (they were all a little pudgy, it was cute).
At one point, one kid was asking Alex what kind of food he liked. He asked things like "Do you like sausage" or "Do you like cabbage", which I thought were pretty cute and endearing.
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We rode the Maglev train (the only functioning train levitated by magnets!) yesterday. Unfortunately, the train reaches its highest speed -420km/hr- from 10 in the morning to about 6 at night, so Alex was a little disappointed by that. We still got to ride it at 300 km/hr.
Anyway, my fingers are really cold so I have to stop now. Something tells me that the only way to get warm in China is to be in the (real) south.
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