13 Lessons in China

The next morning, we slept in and decided to skip the gross hotel breakfast. We packed up and went to Mcdonald's for brunch. We wanted to eat a late breakfast/early lunch and it was in the metro station so we didn't need to walk around with our bags. After eating, we took the metro to the Maglev, which is a high speed train to the airport. It doesn't run on tracks, but on magnets! It went 302 km/hr but can go as fast as 431 km/hr! It was a bit nauseating actually, because it rocked back and forth.

We arrived at the airport almost 4 hours early. We checked in and I didn't have the seat I had booked. I was super annoyed since I booked my flights in June! They ended up putting me in 51C. I got the aisle. and the first seat in the section so I had like 1.5 metres in front of me. Plus, there was no washroom on my side (I told them I wouldn't sit near the bathroom). It was nice, since my foot was still sort of swollen.
We puttered around the airport,wasting time. I tried to spend my smaller bills by buying some water and other treats for some kiddos at home. Then it was time to board.

The flight was good. I was able to watch 3 movies and listen to my book. I was so tired but I managed to stay awake. The food was decent, except the breakfast. My eggs were green and tasted way overcooked.

The flight attendant was great and when we landed in Vancouver, he searched the earlier flights to Calgary to see if I'd be able to get on. He told me it was pretty packed all day. I had only carry on, but had to wait about 45 minutes for Sarah's bag. We finally got it and when through security into the domestic terminal. Sarah went a different way to check her bag again. Once in the terminal, I headed to the Air Canada counter to ask about getting stand by. Sarah was on the 2 pm flight, standby so she headed to her gate and I headed to the lounge to relax. They put me on standby for the 3 pm flight but it was packed and I didn't get in. I tried to stay asleep, dozing a few times. Scared of snoring, I kept waking myself up.

When I finally arrived in Calgary, it was snowing! So ridiculous. I had the best sleep that night though, after being awake for over 27 hours.

Things I learned in China:
-Way less people speak English than I expected.
-The subway systems are amazing!
-China has no road rules! You can drive in any lane in any direction.
-Spitting/Hoarking is acceptable in China, outdoors or indoors (even on a bus).
-The sites all had shiny newness at the entrances, surrounding areas...making them seem not very old.
-They use squatty toilets...and don't usually have toilet paper, or soap.
-Sometimes the air is brown.
-They treat each other like family (most of the time). So if someone needs help, or you need to make space, or even if you want to sit in their seat and send them to yours.
-A lot of them had really bad teeth, making me wonder about dental health.
-Almost everyone I saw had a re-usable bottle for water/tea.
-They drink a lot of tea.
-They dress just like us (I don't know what I was expecting!).
-You can't use google or facebook without a vpn...which is a shock to the system!
-They usually eat family style.
-When they are tired of talking to you, they just say they don't speak english, even if they just had a conversation with you.
-Old people gather to exercise by dancing, or some other movement, or to play cards or dominoes, or Majong.
-It wasn't nearly as busy as I thought it would be...until Shanghai.

12 Zhujiajiao and all the other people....

We woke up the next morning and went to breakfast. Did I mention how bad it had been the day before? It was pretty terrible. Today was even worse. They barely had any food left and pretty much the only thing I was willing to eat was noodles. The eggs were grey, and there wasn't much else besides weird soup. There wasn't tea or juice, just "lemonade" which was hot water with lemon that just sat there all morning. Ick!
We headed to the subway station, which thankfully was nearby and caught the train to Line 17. Line 17 started below ground and then went above ground. It was nice to see the countryside go by. It's crazy how small Shanghai seems when you don't see the city before the fields. We arrived at Zhujiajiao station and followed the signs to the "Tourist Area".

They had all these great signs until the last turn. Thankfully we didn't go too far off track before we realized we needed to turn around. We wandered these awesome little streets with authentic food and found ourselves on a canal.

We wandered around for a few hours. I tried a giant egg roll, even watched it being made before it was cooked.

And contemplated getting rice wrapped in some kind of leaf. However, watching the women making them and seeing the raw meat put in kind of changed my mind.

When we first arrived there had been all these barriers set up and we wondered why. It was busy but not that bad. By the time we left, it was packed. We could barely move! And there were people lined up to get into the area when we walked out. (They have a limit to how many people can be inside the area at once).

We walked back to the metro station, about 3 km. Along the way, I stopped and got a sort of green onion cake and some sort of small donut like treat. They were both delicious!

When we arrived back into the city, we went to People's Square to catch the bus to the river. Part of our ticket included a ferry ticket so we went over to take that across the river. We lined up like cattle waiting to get on the ferry and then as soon as it emptied, everyone pushed and ran to get on the boat. Everyone wanted the top deck, including us! Once on the other side, we caught another bus to do a route of that side, called the Lujiazui. It was a short route but it was neat to see the modern buildings, a huge contrast to the other side we had explored already.

We caught the ferry back and caught a bus that took us to the end of the Bund.

From there we were going to walk to Nanjing Pedestrian Road since the buses were almost done running and it wasn't too far. It was neat to see some of the areas not so full of people, when we rounded a corner and were shocked to find a packed side walk.

When I say packed, it was one way and about 8 people across. People were spilling out into the road. Cops were there to give at least 1 lane to cars. It was crazy! We finally made it to Nanjing where we wanted to at least make it until night time to see all the lights!

We were also ready to eat so decided to spend the time searching for a restaurant. A lot of the places we went to had similar menus. They were pretty traditional Chinese foods, a whole chicken in soup, and by whole I mean head and all. Turtle was an option, pigs feet, tripe, and the list goes on. We sat down at one place and Sarah ordered Wonton Soup. I didn't see anything I wanted so we ended up leaving before they put the order in. We couldn't find anything to eat and Sarah couldn't wait so she decided to eat at an Irish restaurant. I sat with her and when she was done, I found a place that did Chinese Hamburgers which I had been wanting to try. It's pork, slow cooked, with some sauces, cucumber and all chopped up and put between two flat buns. It was delicious! By now it was dark, we saw the amazing lights of the street and then headed back to our hotel.

It's hard to believe how fast 2 weeks in China flew by!