Chinglish

All throughout China are signs written in very poor English. Most of them are very comicial, some leave you shaking your heads and others you are like what the hell!!

These are a few signs I have seen around time. I could post hundreds more... 

 This is outside one of the few Catholic churches. The fact that you need a sign to inform you about what to do in a church says something in and of it self..

 What water?

 Two random things posted on one.. Watch out your wallet may like to slide?

 hahahaha

 Naked flames???????

My friends and I always get a good chuckle out of them. We think its hilarious that they don't ask a native English speaker to make sure the English is grammatically correct. They always use Google Translate.

Recently I decided to download google translate to read some of the comments the girls have been posting on Wechat. (social app here in china that everyone uses since texting isn't free in China!)

Here are the direct translations of some of them:
-Meow star who is really an amazing animal
-Sister, this ice cream to eat today, let me jump dance white
-Two weeks did not how to cook, and today still vegetarian, shrimp are frozen for nearly one week, do not want to do, too much trouble, but also difficult to handle.

Seriously most of those don't make sense. I had one of my friends who is Chinese read the comments and she said that is what they literally say in Chinese.

Chinese and English are so different. Thats why at first when people learn English its very choppy and doesn't sound good. When they translate from Chinese to English it is just very literally. Only if you have been studying English for a while would you know to add the effects that make English flow.

In Chinese there are no his/her, no ing, no past tense, nothing that really sets are language apart. That is why most of the Chinglish signs are so funny.

Meanwhile the signs get the warning out... though still not quite sure what a naked flame is...

Garden Expo

Last week I went to the Garden Expo. I mean to write a blog post about it earlier but got busy over the past week!

All over Beijing have been these ads for the Garden Expo. I figured wow it will be great to go and see some green gardens!  So I ventured out to the edge of Beijing to see what I thought would be spectacular gardens. When we first arrived there I was less than impressed. They had little huts they called gardens there were merely gift shops with trinkets from those countries. (most likely made in China)

 Aside from the rest of the Garden Expo was ok. They had themed gardens. Here are some examples.

This is a European Castle with a European garden in the front. I wasn't impressed...

 This is an Arab Palace with a floating garden. The plants were fake.

 After moving away from the international section and getting into the Asian gardens things looked way better. They Expo people clearly knew how to create gardens from areas around China.


This is a Japanese Style garden.

 Random waterfall.

They also had random sculptures depicting they celebrate the world.








Overall the expo was interesting to go to. It was a bit disappointing I was expecting something like the Elizabethan gardens I have seen at home. (haha who was I kidding!)

Glasses City

One of the amazing things about China is the ability to buy glasses for very cheap! I can get a pair of prescription glasses for 15 dollars! I also can get a pair of prescription sunglasses for about 20 dollars. And these sunglasses are the fashionable ones, not the crappy expensive sunglasses you get from the eye glasses stores.

I have been able to get seven pairs of glasses and two pairs of sunglasses!
Here is the collection of glasses!

As you can see I own a lot of glasses! It is really cool, they make the glasses in the store!

 Now I will say that you are not getting the fancy lenses but honestly I can't tell the difference! All the stuff they say in the stores about oh you need all these because your eyes won't be able to handle it, really isn't true!

Being able to get all kind of fashionable glasses for 15 dollars is awesome!

Tianjin Eye

This past Tuesday and Wednesday I went to Tianjin to visit my friends Lauren and Marika. We had a lovely time together. It was nice just to relax and have a good time with friends. While I was there we started talking about what Tianjin is famous for: The Tianjin Eye.

The Tianjin Eye is basically a giant Ferris Wheel that is built in the middle of the bridge. As far as we know it is the only Ferris Wheel built on a bridge. It is a slow moving ride that gives you a birds eye view of the city! The smog wasn't so bad that day so it was  perfect day to go!

 In the Ferris Wheel car. As you can see we are side by side to the road!

This car took us up and around! It was nice and air conditioned and we had some great views!

View from the top! Overall it was a really neat experience to have! And I got to see what Tianjin is famous for!

Biking in the City

I am not a huge bike rider. I haven't really ridden a bike since middle school. In Pittsburgh riding a bike is not really something people regularly do. In Beijing, tons of people ride a bike. There are bike shops everywhere!

Bikes do not follow the traffic laws in Beijing. They do whatever they feel like. They go against traffic, through red lights, in between cars and people. Its a bit crazy. I never dreamed I would even step on a bike here, because well its insane!

Two of my friends here own bikes. My one friend also has a scooter as well. So today she invited me to go out and ride her bike while she followed along on the scooter. I thought sure why not. I hopped on the bike and immediately fell off when I tried to brake. (It was pretty hilarious not going to lie). I did some practice runs around her apartment complex and thought ok I am good.

My friends decided that I should be in the middle since I am not the strong bike rider.. I had told them up front I haven't biked in years so I wouldn't go that fast. It was very nice of them to watch out for me and to make sure I wasn't going to do something stupid. It was very sweet of them.

The ride itself was a bit scary. We were driving on the rode with the cars. Beijing is very bike friendly and has bike lanes, but naturally cars and pedestrian use these lanes for their own purposes.. So we had to zig zag around them. Since I am not the greatest bike rider I freaked if I got to close to things (we happened about 50 times on the ride). People literally just walked in front of you and you had to brake or swerve around them. (causing me to almost fall off my bike!) Cars dart in and out around you. Honestly it is a big game of chicken. Who has the biggest guts to go first. You can't hesitate or you won't go far. We were riding alongside the 3rd ring road (which is a major highway).

During this ride I realized I wasn't really scared of all the cars that were coming at me from various angles or even really the buses. It was the people, bikes and structures that were the most terrifying. Cars and buses do a fairly good job of watching out for bikes and maneuvering around them. Other bikes no, they do what is good for them. And people well people are stupid. They literally just walk around with their heads glued into their phones and walking at snails pace. They stand in the way so when you want to go somewhere with the bike you have such a narrow entrance.

In the end I made it to our destination and then back to my friends apartment. Would I do it again, yes.

"Natural" History Museum

Today I was going to head out to the YuanmingYuan ruins. However the weather was so nasty today! It was 100 percent humidity and the pollution level was up! So I decided oh I should check out the natural history museum in Beijing.

This museum was a joke. Each exhibit we went to was so fake, there seemed to be no natural. And the signs were all in Chinese so we couldn't tell if the history was accurate or not. (we were guessing not because the signs we did see where so funny and bad...)

 The first exhibit we saw was about five dinosaur bone statues.. They didn't look real at all... And naturally people were  climbing on them, stroking the bones..


The next was the dinosaur land exhibit. Literally it was a bunch of fake dinosaurs that moved a bit. The sign said dinosaur are roaming the basement...

This darling trex was on display for me to see! He was about to eat me...haha

 Next we wanted to find the aquarium. The aquarium contained ugly fish, sharks that I swore were robots, the history of fish. Such as the sign on the left.

There was so many fish in this tank! They weren't moving, they were just floating... It was kinda weird actually...

 There also was an African Exhibit. Apparently all of Africa is in harmony and they are a peace loving area. They also only showcased one tribe! The Massi tribe. They had these freaky African woman statues that looked lifelike.

Another exhibit that I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of was the animal exhibit. It was so freaky. It looked like they just killed a bunch of animals and then stuffed them. The eyes were so freaky, I couldn't take a picture!

They had the showcase of the history of plants. It was just a bunch of fake plants. Lastly we walked into this room which I am not quite sure what it was for. They had a giant statue of this bug attacking things though...

Thankfully this museum was only 10 kuai to get in. I won't go back again because it was so weird. It was a good laugh.

Taxi's

Before arriving in China I had been in a taxi a total of three times. All of these times I was with my family, and I certainly never had to hail a taxi before! In the movies it looks so easy. You go out to the curb put your hand up and a taxi appears! You jump in, the taxi guy puts the meter on and off you go. You can tell him quickly and efficiently where you want to go.

In Beijing getting a taxi is not that easy. Oh there are plenty of taxis. There yellow and maroon cars mock you as you wait for them. The light on the top that signs they are available is just a tease...

Whizz..there goes an avaliable taxi right by, ignoring your hand raised in signal to please pick me up (note its gotta be a floppy hand).... Here comes the creeper unmarked black taxi cab men.. taxi, taxi do you want a taxi.. or rickshaw rickshaw how about a rickshaw..  (a rickshaw is almost a little carriage attached to the back of the bike. The driver will take you short distances on it and charge you a crazy price) NO! I just want a taxi!

Phew here comes another taxi...whizz..and then stops two feet from you to pick up a local person! Grrr Taxi drivers in Beijing will always pick up a local person before they will pick up you. Many taxi drivers will ignore your call for the taxi and will continue  driving right on by! Some have even turned off their lights and then turned them right back as soon as they passed you.

Finally a taxi comes and picks you up. You get in and tell him in broken Chinese where you live. A lot of taxi drivers can't read so if you show them a paper with the address or location chances are they won't know. They will tell you to get out. They know the tourist areas but that's about it....

Finally in the taxi you make your way home. It happens to be raining outside this particular night and its about 70 degrees outside. The taxi driver has the heat on full blast in the car, and the window open.... That is not the biggest issue, driving in any sort of vehicle in Beijing is well damn scary.

The three lanes of traffic that are drawn on the road are optional, cars whiz in and out of lanes like no other. They merge without looking. The honk their horns non stop at you. The shoulder turns into another lane... they speed up right before you merge. Last night in the taxi alone I saw my life flash before my eyes about 4 times.

As you approach home, you think oh I know a faster way to get home, so you tell the driver to go straight. He goes straight, unfortunate for you he was trying to go sneaky way home. The sneaky way home is the way that will cost more money. Only you didn't realize that as you were sitting in the backseat a little tipsy and texting on your phone... SO he gets off and starts swearing and yelling at you in Chinese. Luckily you know where you are and point him to where you want to go. He continues to swear and yell at you in Chinese. You finally get to where you want to be but realize that oh wait you are on the highway.... The taxi driver slams the brakes on the car, swears at you some more and takes your money. You then get out of the cab and have to walk ten minutes to get home....

(true story this happened to me last night!)

So yes, getting a taxi in Beijing is no picnic if you are foreigner. But at the end of the day you will eventually get one...though he might not be the nicest person in the world..

Status Quo

At home I love going to thrift stores! I love looking at what other people don't want anymore and using it for myself. I can get it at a discounted price and have an awesome outfit! Its also great getting hand me downs from other people. People don't want a certain item anymore bam its mine! In China this idea is seen as almost an insult...

I was going through some clothes the other day I didn't wear or didn't want. I thought, oh I will take them to work and see if any of the girls (foreign or local) want the clothes. I then realized that was a big mistake once I got to work. The girls thought that was hilarious! They were like haha why would we do that. I told them we did that in America. They thought it was funny.  I had forgotten an important aspect about Chinese culture... Status Quo.

In China a person's status quo is very important. You want to be seen as a higher class person. This concept stems from ancient culture. As many people know, Chinese people want their skin to be white. Being white is a sign of being royal. In today's culture its almost the same thing. If you are brown it means you are working in the fields, you are not rich and can have an inside job. Girls will hold umbrellas, wear hats, and put cream on their faces to maintain pale skin. Yesterday at the beach someone got a bit darken in the sun and it was a major freak out!

 Same concept goes with clothes. If you were secondhand clothes it means you can't afford to buy new clothes. If you buy clothes at the market then it means you can't afford department store clothes. You need to show everyone that you are rich, higher class. You need to have a smart phone.  One of my friends here as a credit card bill that is so high that she can't almost afford her rent. But she wants to make sure she can afford material things so she looks upper class.

Same  goes at restaurants.  At home its usually one dish per person. I have been out with the locals and they have seriously ordered half the menu. You want to order a lot of food to show that you can afford it. They you are not pinching pennies!

It is polite to leave food on your plate, it shows that you are not leaving hungry. Rice is seen as a filler food, so you hardly ever order rice. Its a cheap filler food. Same with noodles. Its better to get vegetables and meat. It show you can afford to eat more of than that then filler food.

Status quo is very important in China. Keeping this thought in mind, I will nevertheless continue to mix my Western ideals into everyday life while respecting Chinese culture.

Water Cube

Typically on my birthday I spend the day hanging with family and just relaxing. This year since I am in China I decided to live it up! I headed over to the water cube at the National Aquatics Stadium to go to the Happy Magic Water Park with seven of my friends!

The National Aquatics Stadium was where the Olympic swimming events took place. Its where Michael Phelps won his gold medals!!!! They have converted half of the water cube into a water park. The other half still has the diving pool, the racing pool, and the warm up pool. The racing pool is still used for events, but the warm up pool is open to the public.

Then we all headed over to the water park! The water park had about 8 different water rides. There are pipeline rides, water slides, the tornado, toilet bowl, the lazy river, different raft rides. There also was a wave pool. The cost to get in was about 40 dollars, you rented a locker and then got a cool wristband that opened it. So no worries about keys or anything. When you walked out into the water park you had to go through a mini shower so that you are rinsed off.

The pool was crowded but not super crowded. It could have been a lot worst.

Naturally being in China, there were naked children in the pool, rude lifeguards, and no personal space.  The children in the pool were funny. Most people in China actually don't know how to swim. So the children had on life jackets, inner tube rings, goggles and were in an actual intertube. The water park provided life jackets for people to wear. At home no one would ever take a life jacket unless it was for a small child. Here almost every one had a life jacket on. As you can see in the picture there was lots of floatation devices in the pool. The pool also wasn't that deep either. About half the pool was knee deep. Towards the end you could get to the deep in, which was probably 2 feet of the pool. And the deep end was about 6 feet deep, not that deep.

Another interesting part of the trip was the lack of well safety in the water park. I decided to go on this raft type ride down a slide that was a lot of fun. My friend Amy and I pop on into the lazy river. We are going down. As we go down, life guards are throwing water in our faces from water bottles. Then we get to the end, the guy at the end is like wait to get out. He then proceeds to take are inner tube and flip us over. We are in waist deep water and I happened to be right next to wall. So I smack my head on the wall, and gulp down delicious China pool water. I was not happy. Number 1, you don't flip someone's tube in waist deep water, number 2 you dont do it if the person is near the wall 3. They weren't doing in to Chinese girls...

The rides were a lot of fun at the park. I typically don't go on water rides but after going on these I am now a believer in them!

The park was a lot of fun. Was it over priced yes, would I go again no. But I am glad I am did it and got to experience a water park inside an Olympic venue!

Details

Growing up my family went on lots of vacations. We enjoyed going to historical places, learning historical facts and packing as much as we could in one day. As an adult this love of traveling and seeing places has never gone away. I know people who live in Beijing and don't care about seeing the historical places. They are like oh its just another temple or palace, boring. They don't care about the history left behind. I have even know people who have lived here for a year and haven't been to all the places I have been. For me its easy, I love seeing things. I figure while I am in Beijing I will see all that I can see! To me each time I go to a place is another adventure, and another discovery waiting to be found. Going to the same place twice has never bothered me. I enjoy seeing things in a different light each time.

Last week I traveled back to the Summer Palace for the third time. Some would say, three is a lot. But I had a great time! I saw things that I hadn't seen before. I began paying attention to the detail and hard work that went into building these places. Up on a hill are these beautifully decorated buildings. They were designed for prayer to Buddha. The building has layers of intricate wood craving and painting on it. This wasn't something that was manufactured, not it was done my hand. (most likely by slaves... but still the attention to detail is inspiring)

On the ends of every building are a specific amount of lions to protect the building. The roof tiles are painted a beautiful shiny green. On the bridges are lion statues for every post. These are small things but all these details make a wonderful sight. Its stopping and seeing the small thing. The first time you go to a place, you wouldn't notice these things. But the second and third time you start to notice.

I recommend to anyone who travels, to stop and look at the smallest detail of work that is put into things. Then stop and imagine how much time and energy it took to create these wonders. The amount of people it took, they didn't go the lazy way about. They didn't paint the building all red, no they stopped took their time and made a awe inspiring building.

Retrospect

I have lived in China for 11 months. In 11 months I have gotten quite comfortable with the way of living. Yes, I miss home but the adventures never cease here in Beijing. At the beginning of October my adventure in China will end. I am sad to go but I know its time to move on. I will be moving to Prague for five weeks and hopefully staying there longer.

Many people have asked why I am leaving China. I don't hate China. China has been very good to me. China has helped me grow and see the world in a different light. One game that I like to play now is where is every at right now? Before I always thought narrow minded. I only thought about people in Pennsylvania and that time zone. Now though I have friends and family around the world. It is crazy to stop and think while I walk down the street in the middle of day people around the world are doing different things. And when I leave a place, nothing ceases it continues. At home the world goes on. I bet if I went back to Pittsburgh the same group of people would be getting on the 5:45 bus to get to downtown Pittsburgh. Just the same when I leave Beijing, the same people will be walking across the bridge to get to work at 8:30 in the morning.


But in all fairness, I know China is not home for me. I miss things that only a Western culture can cure. I miss religion. I miss seeing churches and having a religious society. People here are not Christian. There are very few churches around. I have seen maybe three Catholic churches in the time that I have been here. My work schedule does not allow for me to go to church on Sundays. That being said, the churches here have one mass in English on Sundays. There really isn't daily mass in China either. Christianity is frowned upon here. Only if you hold a foreign passport are you allowed in a church.


My health is not the greatest here in China either. I am a healthy young women back at home. In China I constantly have stomach issues, minor aches and pains. My throat is constantly swollen and sore (thank you pollution). I need to move to an area where the air is cleaner and I can restore my health. In the 11 months I have been here I have lost about 15 pounds. Every time someone sees me they are like did you lose more weight. I am not complaining I lost weight, but I know its because of the food. The highest rates of cancer in China are lung and bowel cancer.

I am very glad I moved to China. I am glad I got to see the world in a different light. This is an experience I will not forget! And in the next three months I am in China, I will be having more crazy adventures!

Weather

The weather in Beijing is so unpredictable. At home I would love to watch the weather forecast on t.v. I constantly was watching The Weather Channel or the new to get the weather. Here in Beijing the only weather forecast I have is the one on my phone. Sometimes the girls at work will tell me if its going to rain or if its going to snow but usually I have no clue.

Recently I have been watching the weather pretty intently on my phone. I have begun noticing that the weather is not accurate at all. One day it will say its 90 degrees, I walk outside and its only in the 60's and doesn't get warmer then that. It says its sunny, its cloudy and rainy. Its so unpredictable. One second the forecast says rain tomorrow, then two seconds later partly cloudy. Apparently there are no satellite weather forecasts here.

Today the weather said rain and it did actually rain. I went out into the streets to get out of the apartment. People are so funny here in the rain. Every single person has an umbrella. If you don't have an umbrella, the umbrella sellers come out in full force. They are really cheap (1.50 USD). The drainage system is not that great here. The water just puddles up everywhere. On the subway they have service announcements about rain.

They basically state:

Don't use your cell phones during thunderstorms.
In case of a mudslide, an announcement will made over loud speakers, drums will be pounded. You need to take your card out of your window that states how many people live there...
Don't drive you car in water that is 50cm deep.
If your house begins to show cracks, call a number and they will come rescue you.
The city will have pumps that will drain water into the drainage system, drive around it.
Don't dump stuff into the gutters, in could cause backup and flooding.
If you are going hiking, watch the weather forecast. IF you don't you could get caught on a mountain and bam a landslide happens.

It was really interesting to watch. At least they are watching out for the people in Beijing!  Basically in Beijing, prepare for anything. Open the window to check the temperature. Bring an umbrella, if the sky darkens and the wind picks up its going to storm.

Xi'an

My family came to visit me for the past ten days! While they were here, I worked and explored bits of China with them. I went with them to see sites that I have previously seen (Great Wall, Hutongs, Lama Temple and the markets). I also got to explore a new site with them...Xi'an.

Recently they opened up the bullet train to go to Xi'an. Previously they was only the over night train, or you could fly. But taking the train is always cheaper! My mom and sister wanted to experience the Bullet train so this offered the perfect opportunity. When we arrived in Xi'an we were greeted by my dad and our own personal tour guide. (My dad knows people so we got the royal treatment!)

After arriving in Xi'an we walked around this street named Muslim Street. It had all types of shops and restaurants where you could be tourist souvenirs. After this we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda. The Pagoda was built in honor of sackamoney (I know I spelt that wrong!). It was very hot in Xi'an (38 degrees C or 100 degrees F) so we didn't spend too much time at the Pagoda. Enough time to take some pictures and then go back to the air condition car!

 After the Pagoda we went to the Tang Dynasty Song and Dance show. The show was very interesting. People were dressed in the traditional costumes of the Tang Dynasty. They also performed dances and songs that were played during that time period.

 After the show we decided to walk around the square at night. The drum and bell tower were beautiful at night!

The next morning we started off early at the Ancient City Wall. The wall was constructed around the 1500's. It is the oldest surviving city wall in China. Xi'an was China's capital city for thousands of years. The city wall is 13 kilometers around the city. You can either walk or bike along the wall. We choose just to explore the section we were on!

 After exploring the city wall for an hour. We drove out to the Terracotta Warriors. Some back history about the Warriors. The Warriors were built as part of an underground city. Emperor Xin built in 210 BC. (Very old!) The Emperor wanted to make sure that he was protected in his afterlife. He built his mausoleum and surrounding the mausoleum he built armies of Warriors. They remained undiscovered until the 1970's when two local farmers found a piece of a warrior while digging for a well. Since then they have unearth 8000 warriors and have discovered 5 pits. Three of the pits are open to the public. They are still unearthing more warriors. One of the issues they have while working is the amount of dust and toxins in the air have caused five people to die of lung cancer. So they are very cautious about working in the Pits.Who knows how many warriors are underneath the ground. The mausoleum of Emperor Xin still remains unopened. He created his underground tomb to have hundreds of river of mercury. They can not open the tomb up for fear it would kill the people opening and also they are afraid all the treasures will be damaged. So they wait until new technology is available.