Shanghai is somewhat disappointing. it's actually rather like my pre-conceived notion of what Beijing might be like, 10 yrs from my last visit to China... but it turned out that i found myself liking Beijing a whole lot more. Well, yes, i was mesmerized by the night view at the Shanghai tan1 (The Bund) last night... but other than that, it just feels like it can be potentially any other international city. it's very modern, you see quite a few ppl driving luxury cars... but dunno, it just feels like it doesn't really have much character. i tried to hunt down bits of old Shanghai, but the so-called 'old town/old city' seems rather fake. everything seems catered to tourists... perhaps my most enjoyable experience was looking at antiques at the antique market area.... where tog with those wares you really get to see some old residential buildilngs; the less glamorous bits of the city. but they seem to be disappearing... quite a lot of rubble near these older areas, i guess to make way for the new buildings. quite sad, really. and meeting Warner for dinner and hearing about his interesting encounters in the process of searching for old Shanghai posters for his research was of course another highlight. other than that, ppl really pushing you hard to get in/out of the subway trains, some really bad service at stores and the homogeneity of many areas just made me thankful in a way that i didn't plan to stay for a longer time. hmm dunno. perhaps 1.5 days here wasn't enough for me to really get an accurate picture of what Shanghai's like?

i thought i would be bored slacking 6 days in Beijing... but i was wrong... the past 2 days have been esp memorable =) i dunno why the typhoon doesn't spare any place i visit... when i was in Hong Kong weather was horrible apparently due to typhoon in Taiwan and yest there was supposed to be a thunderstorm in Beijing cos typhoon has apparently moved up here... but luckily it wasn't that bad... but we had to scale the great wall under less than optimal conditions... but still awed by it nonetheless. wind and rain made navigating treacherously steep slopes esp difficult, but also more memorable... u really really wonder how many ppl sacrificed their lives building this amazing wall...
today was one of the more interesting days. it really struck me how perhaps 99% of the tourists i've seen these past 6 days at major tourist attractions are Chinese. i guess from other provinces... the snaking line to enter Mao's mausoleum made me wonder if the Chinese really really still respect and admire him even decades after his death? also, to some extent, i still observed traces of communism all over. eg. people still call one another 'tong2 zhi4'... i could not believe that there was some loudspeaker voice in the square near the mausoleum advising ppl lining up to be quiet, to be respectful when filing past Mao's (apparently formaldehyde-filled) corpse...blah blah. and ppl holding loudspeakers to keep the crowds orderly... sigh there's so much i want to blog about but can't =P shall reserve till when i return from my trip. then in the evening, i took an interesting hutong tour on trishaw with Ting... our guide (i felt bad like we're ripping him off like that cos we paid quite little for like a 1.5 hr ride and he was this puny guy who had to zai4 us round sights and kept sweating profusely) I think these hutongs (dwelling units most Beijing folks used to live in) are SO interesting. many of them have been converted into shops/bars/touristy places already, but many remain real dwelling units for many ppl. they seem really cramped from the outside (can peek in a bit but like quite rude to go in to take pics cos after all they're ppl's homes) dunno. even though i can never imagine myself living in one, nor do i want to live in one, i really liked them...
what else? hmm food again i guess =P so far none of the eating places in Beijing has disappointed me... from Chinese fast-food, streetfare to more ex restaurants... everything tastes pretty good =) and i never fail to eat ice-cream everyday (cos it's so hot!!)... and they have yummy Walls and Nestle ice-cream flavors we dun find in Sg/US.... i esp like this orange-vanilla ice-cream that looks like our lime Split but tastes like sunrise....
mmmm ok talk too much already. setting off for Shanghai tmr... wonder what surprises await me? =)

PS: btw i can't access my blog in China, so i'm sorry i can't really reply to comments. but i receive them cos they get sent to my gmail...

Bargaining
initially i was rather enthusiastic about bargaining.... cos like u can actually feel a bit accomplished if u successfully sha1 jia4 and got something for good price... but there comes a point where something is actually very cheap already, yet you wonder if person is cheating you when he/she says he/she is not making a profit. and if u really think about it, u are already getting it for a good price, but yet u just want to make sure that u are not being cheated. then u start wondering if u are being too jian4 and not even letting person who's selling you earn a bit of money. like seriously i dun think reducing price by 5 yuan makes me lose out a lot but then perhaps 5 yuan makes a lot of difference to the seller... u wonder if you should be kind and let person earn some money or be totally selfish and minimize his profit. and you get tired of bargaining and u start wondering why you are bargaining to save that few yuan... and so i've decided not to really buy anything anymore unless i really need it or really like it. sigh dunno. hmm but some Chinese can really be quite li4 hai4 but rather jian4. like they want something, bargain bargain... then vendor dun want to sell but like dun care, ying4 ying4 only give seller the price they want to buy merchandise for, then walk away, leaving vendor to curse at his/her own bad luck...

Bargaining
initially i was rather enthusiastic about bargaining.... cos like u can actually feel a bit accomplished if u successfully sha1 jia4 and got something for good price... but there comes a point where something is actually very cheap already, yet you wonder if person is cheating you when he/she says he/she is not making a profit. and if u really think about it, u are already getting it for a good price, but yet u just want to make sure that u are not being cheated. then u start wondering if u are being too jian4 and not even letting person who's selling you earn a bit of money. like seriously i dun think reducing price by 5 yuan makes me lose out a lot but then perhaps 5 yuan makes a lot of difference to the seller... u wonder if you should be kind and let person earn some money or be totally selfish and minimize his profit. and you get tired of bargaining and u start wondering why you are bargaining to save that few yuan... and so i've decided not to really buy anything anymore unless i really need it or really like it. sigh dunno. hmm but some Chinese can really be quite li4 hai4 but rather jian4. like they want something, bargain bargain... then vendor dun want to sell but like dun care, ying4 ying4 only give seller the price they want to buy merchandise for, then walk away, leaving vendor to curse at his/her own bad luck...

visited Beida and Qinghua today. somehow after hearing how they are two of the most famous unis in China, i had rather high expectations of the campuses so actually i was pretty 'shocked' by what they turned out to be like, esp. Beida. i mean for example i didn't really expect to find a dimly lit bookstore with makeshift plastic fans in the middle of campus... there are some really nice bits, but also some really run down bits. somehow after a few 'surprises' the past few days... i didn't really know what to expect of each new place. some things are better than expected, while others astound me. for one, i didn't expect toilets to be still as 'open' as 10 yrs ago... yes, i'm still very mei yong, but i really felt uncomfortable when i stepped into the toilet in a bargain fashion building and saw ppl doing whatever they needed to do in cubicles with no doors.... of course, nobody cares to look at you, or rather, wants to, but it's still so uncomfortable... i mean in the end i had to use that toilet cos when u need to use toilet what else can you do... but it just made me realize how idealistic i was perhaps 4 months back when i thought i could tolerate less than satisfactory sanitary conditions to do com service in rural areas (which i expect would be much worse)
also had a rather amusing pseudo cab driver (cos technically he's unlicenced driver out to zhuan4 wai4 kuai4) who talked about everythign from the '89 Tiananmen incident to reasoning why it's ok and why Beijing ppl should spit on the streets (including live demonstration, twice spitting out of car window onto roads).... dunno. feel so much more drawn to way ppl here live, rather than the tourist attractions i'm "supposed" to and did visit.

yay jing is back so i have internet at home... =P i guess i still can't really get over how cheap food can be. on way to subway today walked past residential area and sat down in one of street stalls to have lunch... and whole meal only cost shu and i like 13 RMB or like around 3 Sing... and food was ok. pretty sumptuous restaurant meal yest evening also wasn't that ex....maybe 7 Sing each? but then even though we think things are generally cheap and ppl here can buy a lot of stuff... i guess it's actually not the case. was curious and asked waitress what her monthly pay roughly was? and apparently it's around 500RMB.... which is a mere $100 Sing... so like even though things are cheap, it's prob only cheap to us (cos we're used to paying more for food) and to other well-off local ppl but perhaps not to many locals....
also find it quite ashamed that i kept stumbling trying to converse in Chinese! like i have no clue what certain terms are in Chinese. then at restaurant some things look totally foreign. like though we're all Chinese (somewhat...) cultures are still very different. haha when i asked what this drink on the menu, xiao3 xue3 bi4 (Sprite), was, waiter gave me weird stare and had to bring me the can of Sprite...
also felt sorry for the poorer ppl cos like met quite a few kids/old persons collecting empty cans/ plastic bottles from passers-by... and saw some beggars in underpass who really look very ke lian. like ppl begging with kids with deformities... but sometimes really dunno if should give them money or not.