Category: Travel

7 May 2016 Friday Hangzhou

The rain came. I looked out after pre-dawn computer grind, and everything was a soft glowing wet gray-green, the reflecting pool glimmering and agitated, the tree trunks etched black with the wetness against the lacy greenery of the oaks, the world a gray-green balm. 

Today was Water-Awareness Day. In the Chinese bathroom, the water pipes gurgle. The water gurgles when you turn first on the sink facet. In America, water just falls out of the sink faucet. In China the water gurgles inn soft puffs. I don’t know if this is a kink in Chinese water engineering or just this hotel or a kink in my imagination, but indeed, the water gurgles. When you flush the toilet, it gurgles for a long time.  it is like having tree frogs in your bathroom

In the shower, the water gurgles as it drains out of the floor. The shower head is directly over head, but there is also a wand you can use. If you cannot figure out the system right away, as I could not, and do not see the shower head directly overhead, as I did now, you have quite a surprise coming, particularly when the water is turned to cold. Then the cold water gurgles on and away.

The day was filled with incomprehensible Mandarin and sometimes incomprehensible and sometimes interesting photos and delicious food and, certainly, interesting people. In the evening, we were invited to supper at Lingyin temple. No meat, but who cares. Such food! No wonder they elect to be Buddhist monks at Lingyin. I know I had black dates and mushroom soup, rice and green vegetables, and so much more, all subtly sauced and flavored. After eating too much, we went to a splendid room in the second floor where only the dignitaries are invited and had tea that aids digestion. Smart move. 

It turns out, we were in the very room in which the 20G conference will be held. The very room. If I can download them in time, photos follow. Carved chairs and elegant wood walls and ceiling. Full bushes of pink and white orchids and a charming statue of the Goddess of Mercy  I was the only non-Mandarin speaker, but occasionally someone translated what was discussed. Despite the marvelous food, young recruits from China, Japan, and Korea and elsewhere come and often go,  Getting up at four in the morning is burdensome – I can understand that. Disapproving parents refuse to visit even tbe renown LingIn Temple. Maybe after the the 20G conference, they will feel differently.

6 May 2016 Friday   Hangzhou, China

So it did not rain after all. All day, beautiful and sunny and not that hot as far as I was concerned. I was inside in this perfectly controlled manmade climate of beautiful space and high ceilings. Coming down in the early morning  into the great hall that is the reception area of Zhejiang Hotel is awe-inspiring.  Great beams arch high overhead against the glass ceiling and blue sky and behind the glass vertical walls on one side are terraces of rocks and greenery, and green in in the entries and burnished wood surrounding the reception desk. So much light and air. Somehow, in this beautiful building, with the space contained as it is, you are aware of space in a way that you are not aware of when you are outside in real space.

And it still did not rain My raincoat sitting in the backseat of Lori’s car is still not needed – if I have to go outside, which I will not, for the conference is fairly fierce. Seven o’clock breakfast. Eight o’clock presentations. Tea and lunch breaks, but it all goes barreling forward until supper at six in the eventing and then the same thing happens on Sunday, which is fine, but it will – with the exception of me – all be in Mandarin. Oh dear. At least  there will  or should be lots of pictures.

Frday was about siting at the computer, waiting on the computer, working on the computer when the waiting was finally over, and answering the door as maids and various other people came and knocked at the door.  Oh, the language barrier! And I only made it worse. But I figured it out before it got worser. For when, in the middle of my brilliant great thought being passed into the computer was interrupted by the maid wanting to change the bed, I forgot – not just my great thought, but my real place in the world outside me.. But really, a double king-size bed with all those double king-size sheets and four pillows and a duvet to boot, and I shower before I go to bed and I am not that big, and she comes to change the sheets! Unbelievable. 

Naturally, being an environmentally conscious, uptight penny-pinching WASP, I had a fit. Oh no, you don’t have to change the bed. There is a rush to find an English-speaking Chinese person I attempted to explain the uselessness of changing the bed. Another maybe better English-speaking person was called upon. A furor erupted. And as the turmoil increased. I got it. I said, “Never mind,” and I left it all. And I came to my senses. Here is the beautifully functioning organization, which gives work to a lot of people, people who put in their time putting clean sheets on clean beds, people who put i their time washing clean sheets and ironing them, people who put in their time picking up delivering and delivering by now very, very clean sheets, and I, Western practical me, wants to change all that. It’s the Missionary story all over – the bad parts of the Missionary story. Well, good for me. I got it. I said saijian and took a walk – not outside, too hot –  but better yet, went to lunch.

And oh, the food, At dinner, at the buffet – endless buffet –  they had oysters on the shell. And crabs’ legs, shell intact, and everything else you can imagine and can’t imagine as a Western person. The variety is endless and all delicious. A very nice place to hold a conference, even if it is all in Mandarin.

5 May 2016 Thursday    Hangzhou, China

An interesting day. I was up early and working and then hungry by seven, but nothing was open except a convenience store. I wanted an apple, but all that was available were nori-wrapped rice rolls filled with some kind of Japanese somethings and pickles. And did not that work out perfectly, because I was able to keep going on that meal for much of the day. If I had had my apple, I would have fainted away by eleven, which would have quite been disastrous, as the day unfolded. INtereting how beautifully things can work out without our personal planning.

The car service was to pick me up at 9:15, and at 9:15 I was ready. But no car service appeared – some kind of a mixup, and so much the better. I met a young Korean with similar problem, and we decided to share a cab. But then, he suggested we take the public transportation; he speaks Chinese and knows how to get around Shanghai. And so we did just that, and I had somebody guide me through that maze and carry my suitcase down the stairs to boot; there are very few escalators in China stations. We had a delightful time, talking about shared interests, and now I have a good contact when i begin the Korea work.

He also pointed me in the right direction to get the bus tp Hangzhou. I arrived in Hangzhou in the rain. My raincoat is in the backseat of Lori’s car. But I have an umbrella, and anyway, the rain stopped when I got off the bus in Hangzhou.  

A young graduate student currently studying in Tokyo, who speaks English and Japanese (he taught himself Japanese without using Pimsleur) along with his native Chinese, talked the only taxi driver there  – a most disreputable-looking man driving a more disreputable-looking cab – into taking me to Zhejiang Hotel (which it turns out is FAMOUS), which is where the Colloquium is being held. Oh my! Believe me, this is where the wealthy Chinese go -or at least one of the places. I had no idea he Colloquium would be held is such splendid surroundings. 

My room is much larger than Lori’s apartment. I have a bath and a shower, all new and spacious and upscale. Rich dark glowing wood.panels and trim and high ceilings and a bed that appears twice as big as a king. The flat screen TV is bigger than yours. A chaise lounge and a couch and side chairs, beautiful desk and and soft indirect lighting and towels as thick as sheepskin and some sort of manmade-material bathrobes with a $275 price tag (sorry – not as comfortable as the  much less-expensive, real-cotton bathrobes at the Rayfont in Shanghai), bath salts by the beautiful tub. I took a long hot bath and looked, but did not read, a Chinese newspaper delivered by a sweet faced Chinese lass. Lass? Young girl who looked twelve but was probably a woman of twenty five.

Dinner was an experience. I elected to go to the Chinese restaurant. The Zhejiang Hotel has both a Western restaurant and a Chinese restaurant, and everyone seemed a bit upset that I wanted to go to the Chinese Restaurant.

In China, there is none of this cordial greeting stuff and smiling and bowing. None of this “Welcome to our Hotel” and “What can we do for you” or “Please enjoy your stay.” Oh no, no. The receptionist or the concierge sort of glare at you, and if you ask a question  in English or bad Mandarin (or even good Mandarin), they laugh politely at you and reply in sometimes hard-to understand English, and you are on your own.

But this is not personal. It is just the Chinese way. At least they do not shout a you, as they do at each other. It is rather refreshing. It beats the excessive smiles of American broadcasting, and it lets you know where you stand. 

But I am in China! I can eat the best Western food in the world in Ashland. The menu was in comprehensible, even with the English subtitles, which told you what but no idea if things were small appetizers or full entrees. I had had such luck with noodles on the street mso I decided to do it again for dinner. Not to be recommended. Here is the money ad the posh and the upscale, but   

when I asked at the Chinese restaurant, “What do you recommend?” I received only a look of terror and puzzlement, and when I rephrased the question, thinning they did not understand the English, only complete bewilderment followed.

So I ordered noodles, which were about as good as the street noodles for many more times the price, in a delicious broth. How do you eat noodles in an upscale Chinese restaurant? 

My noodles were delivered to me in a good-sized mixing bowl with a fork plunged into the noodles. What do you do with a fork in a mixing bowel with noodles? You cannot wrap the noodles around the fork. Believe me, I tried. The spoon that came with the table setup was demi-tasse size. Finally, I just lifted up the bowl and slurped away. And the noodles I slurped a bit too. Nobody was in the restaurant anyway, except four Chinese – apparently hotel workers from the way they were dressed – slouched at the table,a each man silently studying his smart phone. The Chinese and whoever else was at the hotel were at the Western restaurant? or maybe not eating until quite late, as they do in Spain?

I still have to rehearse my presentation.  I hope everyone feels I am worth the price of this very expensive hotel room for five nights. And I forgot to describe the grounds that surround the Hotel – a rich green bank of trees and plantings that stretches the entire length of the bedroom wall and to the top of the tall ceiling in the window wall of this room.. Tomorrow, I will walk around and see them, not in the sunlight. Rain is forecast for the next few days At least I have waterproof shoes. If they can go in the washer, they can go in the rain.

4 May 2016  Wednesday  12:35 am   Shanghai, China

But it is really Wednesday, Or maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s Monday-Tuesday – since I lost a day coming here from Ashland – ii’s all a blur. The flight was fine; the food was terrible. the plane was cold. Delta is not what is used to be. I was happily picked up at the airport, and my room was available. But I realized I needed to stay in Shanghai for another night – did not comprehend that until i arrived here, and it took most of the next day – Tuesday? Wednesday? to book the room for a second night. Do not query why it should take hours and hours to book a room for one additional night. Do not even ask. Or why when I got on the elevator to reach the twenty-third floor, the elevator stopped at the twenty -first. so after innumerable trys and doing the same thing in the second elevator, I found the stairs – that took awhile – and climbed the stairs and came out on the twenty-fifth floor Not. I went back down and staired to the twenty-third floor and, after all that, discovered with the help of a kind non-English speaking person that you have to slap the roomcard over a very special place in the elevator if you want to go beyond the twenty-first floor. 

I knew that. Of course. A world traveler, yes, but I am slow to comprehend the nuances.

Traveling without  fluency in the language is no problem. You just have to allow an extra day for everything you plan on doing. 

But I did finally book a room – and a great room Great shower; clean, lovely cotton sheets and most comfortable bed and a great desk and good lighting and a flat screen TV that comes on the minute you put the room card in its slot – automatically turns on the flat screen TV, all the lights, the air conditioning, and I guess the hot water for tea.

Today – only now it is yesterday, Shanghai’s Wednesday took up a bit more of the morning than planned, while the rebooking for the second night of the room was confirmed. But confirmed it was, and out into a beautiful day, sunny and not too warm as yet and the bustle of Shanghai. But first to withdraw money. The first bank had ATMs that were not available to foreigners. The second bank did not take this foreigner’s card. The third bank would only let me withdraw 100 Qui RMB, but at least I could withdraw 100. But I had to wait for assistance from a n English speaking person, and after a long wait, i attempted matters myself. Then she came to the rescue and asked me why I only wanted 100 RMB. I could withdraw 500 and up to 2,000 on the same day. And she spoke English. Oh well.

I needed to take a photo of Southgate High School, the site of a school the Gambles had visited in 1908, located – where else, in the south area of Shanghai, but not so very far south these days. I had taken a photo earlier, but it had not turned out at all well, So I hailed a cab – none of the cab drivers speak English – and showed him the address in Kanji of Southgate School, which a very kind person had written for me in kanji -That is how you communicate with cab drivers. They all read kanji, but they do not understand fa oreigner’s attempt at Mandarin. Off we went to Southgate, but when we arrived, something was different, and he did not know what to do but he talked to two other interested bystanders in front of this different entrance to Southgate who told him what to do and then all three told me what to do and then finally the last two disappeared and returned with a rather chubby and amiable partially speaking Chinese lad who hinted at what to do and then we all found the other entrance and and the cab driver left and i took my photos  and I eventually found another cab driver who brought me back to the hotel and left me in its outskirts and after a half an hour I found my way back to the hotel.

The cab drivers seldom bring you to the exact address you give them, which I can understand. So many one-way streets, and to reach an exact address can mean miles of circling, and they do not have tine for that. They have to pick up the next customer as soon as possible

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Southgate photo secured, I wanted to visit a museum or see the French Concession which the Gamble saw in Shanghai. Everyone knows about the French Concession in Shanghai. It emerged after the win of the Opium War by the British in 1848. The Europeans – the French, the British, some Americans – came in and built beautiful houses and eventually infused Shanghai with the remarkable prosperity she enjoyed until the Japanese destroyed it all, but everyone knows about the beautiful French and foreign concessions that even the current-day Communist government is attempting to preserve for the viewing of money-paying tourists such as myself that who come and circulate money in Shanghai just to see these lovely historic nineteenth-century areas and homes,

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But I did not have my English Shanghai guide book. I could not get through the Chinese firewall to download any English language information on Shanghai, and the hotel where I am stayong does not have real English speakers, and goodness knows, they would not – did not know – about the French Concession area. But –  aha. At the MAC store, at the beautiful Apple seven-floors of Macs Apple store in the midst of a the Prada and Gucchi and incredibly expensive and explosively fashionable malls and over-the-edge high end retail stores 0 there at the Apple store, a bevy of highly educated English speaking young people, who know all sorts of things,because they are the kind of people Mac hires, would be.

So another taxi ride to the Apple store.Do not even think to go anywhere other than by taxi in Shanghai, even though the drivers only leave you in the vicinity of wheree you want to go. At least, it is in the vicinity, and Shanghai is sooooo big.

At the Apple store – lovely place – all white and clean and glass and stainless steel and spacious – an English speaker was produced. Smart, lovely young lady. Only been in Shanghai a week and three days on her new job, but a year inEngland after graduate work. But no, she never heard of the Opium War and 1848 nor of the French  Concession. She called an English-speaking colleague. equally educated. Equally bright and amiable. No. Never heard of the French Concession. How would the Chinese translate French Concession? Do not know None of us ever figured that one out, 

After calling the English speaking boyfriend of the second Mac worker, who called a another English-speaking person.  Etc. ETc. I decided to see what I could ofShanghai anyway.

Tt was a lovely day, and all around were trees, tall trees and blue sky and happy people, and so I just started walking. It really did not matter where you walked in this area. it was all lovely, much like Paris, with many older buildings in this very upscale area, which somehow the Communists never managed to destroy. 

Shanghai – in this part of town – wherever it was that i was in- has beautiful wide steets and wonderful tall trees and the boulevards are shaded  and so many plantings and also parks. 

I followed the road and passed the most over=the=top fashion shops. I think we are moving into another Baroque age- stuff on top of stuff. There is Eileen Fisher and after that there is infinite variety in color , embroidery, lace, frills, ruffles, overlays, decorative elements – something for every taste, but all very much overdone for my taste. All opulent and overblown and decadent, And people buying buying most of it. Even if they do not know about the French Concession.

I wandered on, and as I reached the slowing down of the fashion stores, I came into the food stores – Paris bakeries, and fried and all manner of fixing of all parts of what were living birds, fish, and animals. Perhaps you can see the encased in deep fried something the small open-beaked bird, sitting atop other closed-beak birds, all baked or whatever, along with the deep-friend chicken feet and various other parts of animals that Americans would never dream of eating, let alone looking at or discussing.

I came to a park named, in English – there was an English sign – the SQUARE PARK. And indeed, everything was square, but amidst the square aesthetic, lovely curving and wandering and circular paths and plots with plants. But all the bushes were cut square. Not an irregular twig jutting out anywhere. All bushes and plantings cut off to make ione flat, flat -topped square. The trees were not squared off, but anything less than six feet tall was absolutely flat and square. It went on for blocks, with smaller spaces and benches and pavilions arising on either side, – right in the heart of the City, The park not was not full of people.  Not many people at all. Everyone was shopping, I guess. 

Finall, very tired, I hailed a taxi,  and amazingly, the woman cab driver dropped me right at the door, and flat on the bed and to sleep.

I keep looking for Marnie when I go out and come in.. ,