任是无情也动人

I hurt from 10 hours in the car...

Spent Thanksgiving long weekend in San Diego. Go to visit the famous Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, and Seaworld. Still copying over the photos and videos I took from my portable hard drive. I'll figure out the logistics of what/how to put up tomorrow, and then I will probably backdate the entries.

EDIT to add: I also have various videos which would be too much of a pain to upload at once. So I will just list the files here, and only upload the ones requested. Note that most of these will be posted in f-locked posts.
( list here )

Seaworld is like Marine world, in that there are shows with the animals performing tricks at set times, and there are a few water rides. I didn't do any of the rides since I can get that at Great America. I did attend the shows for the dolphins, seals, and orca and took some videos of the show segments.

Aside from the shows there's also a few aquariums, which was difficult to take pictures in as well due to the dark lighting and the fact that digital cameras can't seem to focus very well through glass onto small objects.

( Here are the ones I was able to get pics of: )

We were able to get to the zoo at about 1 PM and stayed until it closed at 5. Unfortunately, during the last two hours, a lot of the animals (mostly the mammals) all went to sleep, so it was difficult if not impossible to get pictures of some of them (like the polar bears, the grizzly, the red panda, etc.)

I did however get an inordinate number of monkey photos, largely cuz we got lost around the area of the monkey trails and spent maybe an hour getting back on track. -_-

( Anyway, the photos... )

Friday morning we visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Due to constraints on time (we also planned to hit the zoo in the afternoon), distance, and energy, we didn't do the Into Africa Tour, which is retrospect is kind of sucked. We did get to see the rest of the exhibits that we could walk to however.

( Some photos I took: )

It took us 11 hours to make it to San Diego, which is longer than it really should have, and all due to taking the scenic route (Highway 1 along the coast) instead of Interstate 5 all the way.

We did get a little lost in Salinas trying to get from 101 to highway 1, and then again in San Luis Obispo trying to get from highway 1 back onto 101. In the end, we found that the on ramp to 101 in San Luis Obispo was actually in the middle of a residential area, literally right in front of somebody's house. Man, those folks must have a hard time getting in and out of the house, especially during weekday rush hours; not to mention the noise.

Highway 1 was very scenic, very pretty. Lots of high cliffs and beaches. It was also very hard to drive (and I drove 80-90% of the entire way to SD) due to the up/downs/twists/turns. Nerve wracking at times, and not very conducive for the driver to enjoy the view off to the side, for fear of accidentally swerving off a cliff. Also, not good for anyone prone to motion sickness. I was getting a bit sick and I never get that while driving.

Took some photos and videos, but they all have people in it so I wont bother posting. We made it to our destination at about 6 PM.

( Pictures from Ling Shan (灵山) )

( Pictures of the Taihu Hotel (太湖饭店) )

( pics of the Thousand Island Lake tour )

( Read more... )

Note: I'm not including pictures with people in it out of privacy reasons.

( warning: graphics! )

Feels like it's been so long since I was last online... *withdrawal*...

Filled in the last few entries. This is probably the last entry I'll make before returning to the U.S.

Throat was kinda sore when I woke up this morning, though it got better after I got up. Did sneeze a few times this morning. Hope I'm not coming down with a cold on my last day here... =_=

My grandfather's birthday is on the 27th, which is after we leave, so we decided to celebrate today. As one of my cousins couldn't make it, and thus also no need to invite his girlfriend and my other cousin's boyfriend, we decided to just hold the reunion at my grandparents' place instead of eating out.

I won't go into the food except to say we all got stuffed silly. Afterwards there was cake of which pictures were taken.

After that, we all sat down and talked about miscellaneous stuff while waiting for the dinner to digest. After exhausting topics like work and economics, the discussion eventually turned to (recent) politics.

Apparently to them, it's more about the problems with Tibet than about the protests of the Olympics, though I suppose the latter is related to/caused by the former. I learned a new term: "藏毒". Long discussion short (we have parts of it recorded on video anyway), they were very vocal that the whole issue with the Dali Lama, Tibet, etc. was caused by western countries secretly backing them, and primarily motivated more by maintaining power over China than the ideology they claim.


...In a slight tangent, I really need to find out how to convert/edit the videos downloaded from the camera from the camera-specific MOV format to (reasonably sized) commonly readable video formats... Hrm.

Today we began the traditional preparations for our eventual return to the US - that is, buying presents for all the thousand and one people back home. Not to mention picking up all the stuff that friends/distant relatives are asking us to carry to the US for them.

For gifts, the obvious choice would be the Olympic mascots since this year is Olympics year. The official stuff comes from the post office, so I went there with my aunt early this morning to take a look at the prices. They range from about 22 RMB for a key/cellphone chain to 58 RMB for a fan. My aunt said there were pairs of Olympics chopsticks that were very pretty and for 20-something RMB, but those apparently were too popular and were already sold out.

Then, we went out shopping for real, with pretty much the entire household of women sans my grandma - there was me, my younger cousin, my mom, and my aunts (of my two cousins). Estrogen... level... skyrocketing...

Our first stop was Fuzi Miao (夫子庙), which is pretty much the grand the flea market of Nanjing, where you will find a lot of stuff for cheap (and/or fake :P).

Our first stop was a walk-by kidnapping from a teahouse. They had a bunch of girls outside advertising various teas. My mom needed to buy some kind of tea that my dad had told her to get him, so while she was busy finding those, the rest of us tried the various teas they pushed on us. I located the section for chrysanthemum tea - same as that I had when I was still rooming with cashew, so I bought a bag for 24 RMB. As I was leaving the place, they also forced on me a bag of jasmine tea for 10 RMB... and I am just an easy mark I guess. =_=

Then we examined several souvenier shops for (non-official) Olympics stuff, and did end up buying a bunch of keychain stuff to hand out in bulk to more generic contacts (like more distant co-workers). Mom bought four ceramic turtles for her male colleagues, against the rest of our advice that those guys better not know what "乌龟王八" means. ^^;

After picking up a few more pieces of souveniers, we drove over to a mall building for clothing. In general, the prices are much lower than those in Shanghai, but there also seems to be more coats and jackets than there were normal shirts and inner clothing for sale (which was I was more interested in). But anyway, with so many females present, I think we spent more time having people trying stuff on and then arguing about how stuff looks on who than actually buying stuff. *cough* I did end up with one pair of pants, one semi-coat, and one shirt.

It was near dinner time when we managed to make it home. My feet hurt like hell, but at least I got most of my presents done. Now I just need to buy some of the official Olympics stuff from the post office tomorrow for the closer colleagues I have at work (like the managers *cough*).

Got up bright and early this morning to get the VISAs from the Nanjing Entry & Exit Bureau, as that was where the officials in Shanghai told us we need to get our VISAs from (as opposed to the Shanghai Entry & Exit Bureau).

So of course the first thing the officials here tell us is that we should be getting our VISAs from the Shanghai bureau.

After much arguing (aka "explaining") back and forth with my mom, the official finally made a phone call to the province headquarters, who apparently gave them the go ahead to do the VISA from Nanjing (even if he kept saying we should be getting it from Shanghai).

We of course also filled out a form for increased speed in processing the VISA, and we were actually able to get the VISA on the same day. Before the lunch break even!

Possibly as a downside to that, the fee for two VISAs was 1900 RMB, which is almost $300 USD. Not sure if the price was high because of the faster processing or if that was the normal price. After all, getting our original VISA in the US was about $100 per person also.

Wonder how much we've been spending on this whole passport mess altogether... I think it might be upwards of $3-500 USD now...

Posting from a webcafe in Nanjing. In short, we got our passports yesterday and were able to get our exit VISAs today. More details will be forthcoming when I get a better chance to backdate more entries. For now, just want to let folks who've been following this journal know the good news.

Mom started calling the embassy starting at 8:30 (when they open) to get updates on our passports. No one picked up the phone. So she started calling them every 10 minutes or so, using all 4 phone extensions on the card we had for the embassy offices. Still no response. AU are can say is the service at the embassy either sucks, or they are busy with something - current political climate maybe?

Finally, when I checked our email again after lunch I finally saw the notifications for picking up our passports. The email timestamps were around 11:57 and I saw the emails around 12:20. We hurried to the Wuxi train station and managed to catch the 1:10 train to Shanghai, arriving at around 2:30. We got to the embassy at about 3 and were able to pickup the passports without any problems. Then we hurried back to the train station in hopes of catching the 3:45 train.

While we did make it before the boarding time, there weren't any seats left for the 3:45 动车 and had to make do with the next available one at 5:30. We spent the intervening 2 hours looking around the shops near the train station. Bought some clothing, hairpieces, and ornaments.

Now were back to Nanjing. Next step is of course getting the exit VISA Hopefully that will take only a day (best case scenario) and not five (worst case).

Did some circumspect questioning of my relatives. My grandfather, despite religiously following the CCTV news every night, has no recollection of news regarding political demonstrations in several major countries using the Olympics as an excuse to protest the thing with Tibet.

There was also a short snippet mentioned on the news tonight about some French government representative expressing that the Olympics shouldn't be politicised and France has nothing against China blahblahblah... From the words used by the TV announcer, it sounds like the whole shebang has been marginallized to the Chinese public as a few unruly disruptions of the Olympic torch ceremony by random kooks and radicals.

Something quite different from the news I was seeing in the US, where even the morning radio would often have something to say about the demonstrations on SF, France, etc. in conjunction with the typical American media view of the situation in Tibet.

This morning we headed out for a little sight-seeing of Wuxi. We drove out along the banks of 太湖 (Lake Tai) into the 马山 (Horse Mountain) area.

According to historical records, the land used to belong to a retired general during the Tang Dynasty, who was a good friend of the monk Tripitaka. After Tripitaka returned from his trip to India, he was invited to visit his friend. There, Tripitaka noted that one of the hills there very much resembled the sacred mountain he visited in India (灵山) and expressed interest in buying the land to build a monastery there. His very generous friend instead gifted him with the land to build the monastery.

That monastery was later burned down either during WWII or the 50s (I couldn't hear the tour guide clearly). Then in more recent years, reconstruction was begun on the hill now called 小灵山. The last time I visited this area in Wuxi, only the front gate was done, and the huge statue of buddha was under construction. Now, the front gate had been taken down/changed, the huge statue is complete (along with a lot of other things), and the only part that's still under construction is a school (for studying buddhism) somewhere in the back.

The huge statue supposedly has an elevator inside that goes all the way up to the eye level of the buddha statue. But only VIP visitors are able to get in there and be able to "look out the eyes of Buddha". Most regular visitors can only get up to the level of the lotus flower that the statue is standing on.

The other point of interest there is the huge fountain presentation of the "太子" statue. We got there in time to see one of the presentations and I was able to capture it on video.

Pictures are of course forthcoming once I get access to imageshack.


We left the place early as it started to rain heavier and heavier. For lunch, we just went to a restaurant nearby my aunt/uncle's place. We ordered some pretty tasty stuff: white shrimp (said to be a specialty from 太湖, roast goose (now said to be healthier than duck for anti-cancer properties), sea snail (海螺), crayfish, a multi-fruit & 锅巴 dish... Mm... (Have I made anyone hungry yet? Be glad I didn't include pictures. :-P)


Addendum @ 20:24 - just came back from dinner. My uncle had reservations (through connections) at a local five star restaurant/hotel 太湖饭店. I liked the crab paste (made with real crab instead of the imitation crap we see so often in the US), the crispy fried honey eel, the cuttlefish, and the white...somekindoffish (白鱼), said to be one of the three specialties that 太湖 is known for (白鱼，白虾，银鱼). Also had sea cucumber, which was a first even though I didn't find the taste especially of note. Am stuffed though.

Our party left Jiande early this morning and drove to Wuxi where my aunt/uncle (and other cousin) lives. The ride was fairly smooth - Chinese highways aren't too different from US highways (except for the drivers :P).

We arrived in Wuxi around 1 PM in time for a late lunch (late by Chinese standards). We ate at the most famous place in Wuxi for 小龙包 and I stuffed myself silly.

I'm now posting from their place where I once more have access to IJ. However I'm using their computer to post instead of my laptop because it's more complicated to move the internet connection cable here. So no posting images to imageshack any time soon either.

Also, no word as yet on the passports and it's already Friday. Our flight is for next Saturday and who knows how long the VISA will take. I'm crossing my fingers/toes/eyes/etc. for Monday...

We took a tour boat out onto 千岛湖 (Thousand Island Lake) today. Our tour covered the major southeastern islands in the lake, which are mainly scenic spots, as opposed to some of the islands toward the northwest area of the lake which are known for its animals (there's an island dedicated to monkeys, one to snakes, and one to ostriches of all things...)

The lake itself was formed sometime in the 50's due to the construction of a dam/reservoir/hydraulics station downstream. So technically it's a man-made lake. Now it's also a pretty famous tourist spot.

First island we visited was 桂花岛 (Osmanthus? Island), known for the flowers its named for. Unfortunately, they bloom around August, so all we saw was a lot of greenery. The rocky area near the beach, also known as 石林 (stone forest) was kinda cool, though also a death trap to navigate over.

Second stop was at 黄山尖 (Yellow Mountaintop). We took the tram up (and down) to the top where you can look down on a whole bunch of small islets (300 is the number claimed by the guide). Also according to the tour guide, when looking down from the view at the top, the islets sort of form the characters for 天下为公.

Third stop was 天池岛 (Heavenly Pool Island), formerly a quarry during the South Song Dynasty. There's a pretty pretty koi pond where the sales guy was saying that you have to pay to take pictures there. *rolleyes* There was also a rope bridge that charged 2 RMB to cross, supposedly for luck/longevity. *double rolleyes* Probably the only interesting thing there was the corridors with the different ways of writing 龙 (dragon) and the Song mural.

Last stop was 密山 (Secret Mountain), the main part of which was just a buddhist monastery. There was also a 财神 (god of prosperity) shrine in the back, which I don't think is buddhist, but whatever. According to the map, there were more scenic spots further up the mountain, but apparently we ran out of time on the tour, so we couldn't go up and look unless we wanted the ship to leave without us.

One more thing of note was that, in the lunch that was included on the boat trip, each table had a dish of 螺丝 (from the lake too, and pretty clean), which I haven't had in such a long time. Mmm...

Early this afternoon, we headed up the hillside to where the ancestral gravesite on my maternal grandfather's side is. There we engaged in the regular 清明 (Qing Ming) activities such as sweeping/clearing the area of overgrowth, burning incense & paper money, set fireworks (though that was a new one to me), etc.

Yes, I'm aware that the offical date for 清明 was on the previous Friday, but I figured the original plans were for us to be in Jiande by then and it's only due to the passports problem that everything was delayed...

The gravesite area is next to another river (forgot the name) and the scenery is pretty nice too. I played camerawoman once again and took various videos/photos that I will eventually put up.

On the way back, we stopped at a 亭子 next to the river. It was apparently built in honor of an ancestor for some politically related reason or other around the time of the cultural revolution. We also stopped at a small town on the way, which used to belong to the Zhu family prior to the cultural revolution that took it away from all the dastardly landlords. Not much of the past remains in the town however, since apparently much of it was rebuilt following a flood some time after the transfer of property to the government.

This evening, even more distant relatives joined us for a huge family dinner. I counted 19 seats, not including the two kids that were with us. The food was pretty good, though a lot of it a little too spicy for my (and my mom/aunt/grandfather's) tastes. Actually, I notice that food in general all over China, especially the more expensive/upper class kind, seem to have become more spicy... Is spiciness some kind of symbol of wealth that I'm not understanding?? o_O

(Also, I think I might be gaining weight from my stay in China... =_=)