Im going to China!

[PaiLumDreamer]

And let me tell you, im psyched. I got my Visa last thursday, which signifies the end of me getting everything together. Now all I have to do is wait until March, and Im out of here for 13 days.

:D

You can look at where we're going here:
http://holistictlc.com/community/travel/2006/glenn/index.htm

[SimonM]

Holy cow! How long are you staying? Where are you staying? What are you doing over here? If you are ever in Shanxi and need a guide look me up.

[SimonM]

Ok, never mind my questions. I just read the webpage. If you decide to stay on after your tour give me a shout eh?:p

[PaiLumDreamer]

Would if I could but I dont think it'll happen this time around. Im planning on going again in the summer by myself, so maybe then? :P

[SimonM]

Cool!

Have fun and a few tips:

1: Bring deoderant with you.
2: Only take licensed taxis and demand that they use their meters. It's the law. If they claim it's broken than turn it on yourself; it almost never really is.
3: Learn numbers in Chinese before you go. Also learn the expression Tai gui le. Lit: Too expensive.

[Ou Ji]

4. Learn the expression Bu yao for all the lookee lookee when you walk through the markets.

Of course since it's your first time you're going to buy pretty much everything you see.

[SimonM]

"Bu Xihuan" is another good one when some Xinjiang gentleman tries to sell you a spray-painted dog pelt.

Though one time one such merchant responded with "no you like it!"

[PaiLumDreamer]

I took three years of mandarin (but frankly, I cant speak that well at all) so I know a few phrases to get by.

I dunno how much ill actually be buying. Maybe shoes, clothing...I doubt there will be very much that I think I must have. Knick knacks dont really interest me.

I dont think Ill be taking many taxis either. Either we are going to walk, bus, train, or fly. And we're almost always going to be in a group.

[Ou Ji]

I dunno how much ill actually be buying. Maybe shoes, clothing...I doubt there will be very much that I think I must have. Knick knacks dont really interest me.

Until you see how cheap you can buy that stuff for. Plus the haggling is always fun.

[PaiLumDreamer]

Lol. I would probably be a sucker for weapons :P Maybe Ill get myself a nine section whip and finally return the one im borrowing. Or a rope dart~ Thats what I originally wanted to learn but we didnt have the dart. It was given away. :(

[SimonM]

Just take care that whatever you buy doesn't get appropriated at customs. What's the legality of chain whips in your jurisdiction? Legal, illegal or grey?

[PaiLumDreamer]

Im guessing Legal, since their hanging in our school. I would hope so, at least. :P Im not too sure about Texas, but then again...its Texas, right?

[SPJ]

Bring your own water and food while venturing out.

do not order something you do not know in a restaurant.

take a lot of pictures.

have fun.

Chen Du is the home of many Panda. a picture of Panda will bring many fond memories.

Food in Si Chuan is usually hot and spicy!

:D

[unkokusai]

Bring your own water and food while venturing out.

do not order something you do not know in a restaurant.



:D


Well, that's pretty boring!

[SimonM]

Gotta disagree with you slightly there SPJ.

If you want water get it from a bottle. The stuff in your hotel room (the drinking water, not the tap water) will be fine or you can go to a supermarket and buy a bottle of Wahaha or what have you. Don't drink tap water unless it's been boiled thoroughly and even then it's not too good due to heavy metals. IF you buy bottled water from a small vender check to make sure the bottle is sealed. Some venders will recycle bottles by filling them with boiled (or not :eek: ) water.

As for food though if I never ordered something I didn't recognize I'd never order food at restaurants at all; my Hanzi skills are not great. There are many amazing dishes in China and a lot of them come from the Chengdu region. I sincerely hope you get a chance to try Si Chuan Hot Pot as it is a lot of fun to eat.

It might help you to write a list of food words and then translate each word using babelfish into simplified Chinese. Watch out for bone fragments in Chinese food.

SPJ is right about the spice. Chinese food in general (at least in the north and the west) tends towards spicey and garlickey.

If you see Uyghur men grilling sticks of mutton over a charcoal barbecue buy a stick or two, they are absolutely succulent and at 5 mao a pop are dirt cheap. So far I've seen this in two different provinces out of two. I have it on good authority it is about as wide spread as Uyghurs though.

DO TAKE PICTURES.

[Becca]

Would if I could but I dont think it'll happen this time around. Im planning on going again in the summer by myself, so maybe then? :P
We go in July. I'm sure Sifu Galliano wouldn't mind if you joined us for the trip.:)
... Though I don't think I'll be able to make it this year.:(

[monkeyfoot]

Bring your own water and food while venturing out.

do not order something you do not know in a restaurant.


Im totally against that SPJ. I travelled through the whole of china/rural china for 2 months. Not once did I think of not ordering something I didnt know. Half the experience when in one of these back street shanti resturants is ordering something completely unknown. I had the most wonder plate of dog meat, *****, crickets to name just a few.

And as for drinks, I had no problems drinking the bottled drinks that are sold everywhere when you go out. I even drunk tap water sometimes (although I boiled it first).

All I can say is have a WICKED time. If you ever get a chance, visit WULINGYUAN middle china. They have a lovely quiet minority village right in the mountains....was absolutly beautiful. Also, GO TO A NIGHT MARKET. Some of the best food can be found here, and the meat on sticks is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO spicy! Also screw the taxis, have a ride in a tuk tuk, its the mostly hazardous to your health experience.

Oh and pack a lot of warm clothes. I was in beijing on 12th february and it was minus 9!

craig

[monkeyfoot]

I agree that foreigners have the advantage!

We were travelling from yiching to zhangzaijie and it was absolutly freezing. We had waited for our train in a massive hall with hundreds of other chinese people. When they opened the gates everyone went MENTAL. They were punching, screaming and throwing chairs at each other trying to get through first. We stood right in the middle of it all and ended up being some of the last to get through.

The train police noticed this and smiled in recognition to how calm we were (the english are pros at queing.....we dont push and shuv). So we got on the freezing train and ended up sitting on the damp floor. Wasn't even 30 minutes until the police came and took us into the staff area. They gave us some tea and let us sleep on the comfy seats in the warm carriage with them.

so yes....just one example of how nice they can be towards you.

And if you have a packet of ***s as a backup.....you can get anything.

craig

[chud]

Im guessing Legal, since their hanging in our school. I would hope so, at least. :P Im not too sure about Texas, but then again...its Texas, right?

PaiLumDreamer: I'm in Texas too (San Antonio), what city are you in?



When they opened the gates everyone went MENTAL. They were punching, screaming and throwing chairs at each other trying to get through first. We stood right in the middle of it all and ended up being some of the last to get through.

The train police noticed this and smiled in recognition to how calm we were (the english are pros at queing.....we dont push and shuv).


Craig: a friend of mine who travelled to China on business told me a similar story. He said that the concept of queue-ing up in a line and waiting your turn is apparently alien to the Chinese.
One of those strange cultural differences I guess...

[SimonM]

That's a yes and then no situation. Sometimes people will push and shove and once in a while someone will try to cut in line but I've seen plenty of orderly cues here in China too. If you go over to DavesESLCafe one of the big topics is Chinese cuing so you can hear plenty of horror stories.

[PaiLumDreamer]

[QUOTE=chud]PaiLumDreamer: I'm in Texas too (San Antonio), what city are you in?
[QUOTE]

Houston.


Also, everyone keeps talking about bottled water. Ive heard this whenever I read about China trips, but what is so bad about their tap water? Bad plumbing? Mercury for longevity?

As for the food, Im pretty sure we're going to all be eating together as a group (Unless we get some free exploring time. I honestly dont know how tightly we will be on a schedule. Even so, I can picture 5+ of us going out to eat together.) so ill just ninja some of everyone elses food :P Im not half bad with chopsticks!

[QUOTE=Becca]We go in July. I'm sure Sifu Galliano wouldn't mind if you joined us for the trip.
[QUOTE]

That would be good, too; depending on my money situation at the time I dont see why I wouldnt be able to not go. Would be interesting to see another facet of Pai Lum. I could compare notes and what not :P


I also would like to go by myself though. Ill probably have a few scouting tour trips or something, so I can try and get some decent contacts for the future. :P If I wanted to stay there for a bit I dont think it would be wise to get my own place-I need to get a good hold on the ropes. But traveling China is on the top of my "To-Do" list.


---

PICTURES.

Im going to be taking a LOT. Probably more video than pictures, though. I finally have a chance to use my video camera, and im going to rape that piece of hardware like its the end of the world. If its possible im going to try and stick it online so others can see what all I got to do.

Anyway, thanks for all the tips :P I should be taking notes.

[chud]

Give us a trip report when you get back. I'd be interested to see how much good kung fu you find over there. I'm sure there's still some, you probably just have to look.

Btw, what school do you train at in Houston? My brother lives there and is thinking of getting back into martial arts. I've recommended a couple of schools to him that I heard were good, but I'd be interested in learning where you train and how you like it.

[PaiLumDreamer]

I train south of the Houston area, actually. Its a Pai Lum Tao school down in ****inson.

If he doesnt mind a drive, he should feel free to come check us out. We can trade contact info in a PM if you want.

I suggest he comes on a monday and a thursday, so he can see how our kung fu class is run as well as how we fight. (Our thursdays are open fight nights. Even if he doesnt join hes free to come down and spar with us whenever. We could always use something fresh and different :P)

www.kungfuschool.com

Its a little bit of a dated website. I dont think its been updated in a while, so we have switched locations and whatnot. It can at least give him some of the info on the style (Or go to www.pailum.org)

[SimonM]

Also, everyone keeps talking about bottled water. Ive heard this whenever I read about China trips, but what is so bad about their tap water? Bad plumbing? Mercury for longevity?


Let's put it this way: even the poorest Chinese people will boil tap water before they drink it.

China has a huge, huge water shortage problem. There are just too many people for a country that is largely quite dry. Add into that a plethora of manure-fertilized mountaintop farms and factories spewing who-knows-what into the water and it's not precisely the worlds cleanest.

The safest bet is to stick to bottled water.

If I am out of bottled water and NEED tea/drinking water/noodle water I will drink tap water but I'll boil it at a rolling boil for five minutes first.

Trust me, follow these tips, or you might get quite astoundingly sick for a few days. It sucks to be sick on vacation. And remember that boiling water doesn't get rid of heavy metals so if you are going to spend an EXTENDED time in China (oh, like two years) it's best to make sure that the majority of your drinking water is bottled for long-term health reasons. ;)


About food: I like playing the "you order" game. I'll take my GF (or a Chinese friend) out to a restaurant. I'll chose the restaurat but once we get there I'll just say something like "get something with mutton in it" and let her sort out the details. Remember that if you are eating at a Chinese restaurant (whether dishes or hot-pot) you will be eating communally anyway. Plates are for catching the bits you drop and that's about it. Plenty of restaurants don't even provide plates!

When you eat hot-pot it is usually literally a big pot in the middle of the table and then you dump the ingredients you order in and all have fun fishing them out again. You each get a little bowl full of sesame sauce and you dip the cooked food into that before eating. Trust me you want to eat hot-pot, it is one of the most popular winter foods in China for a reason!

Meat wise (in the north) it's pretty tame. Mutton, Pork, Chicken, Fish, Rabbit, Duck, Snails, Beef. Roughly in that order as far as regularity of occurence. The south is a whole different game though! From what I hear they'll eat basically anything that moves down south. ;) Again watch out for bone fragments. And expect fat in your mutton and pork. Lean meat is a bit of a western thing.

Vegetables are numerous. There are dozens of types of edible mushroom (I LOVE mushrooms) and many different Chinese green vegetables including one of my very favorite: Garlic shoots. Eggplant is a common ingredient in this part of the country (not sure about others) as is potato, wheat (noodles and dumplings - mmmmm Yan Ro Jiao Tze..... Gaaaahhhhhhhhh), rice (as a "main food") and millet for soup.

Anyways regardless of where you go China is a Gastronome's paradise so don't be afraid to try new things!

[monkeyfoot]

excellant post Simon M

I absolutly love talking about china to people who have been there (not just the tourist places). I felt almost frustrated when I returned because I simply couldn't explain how different it is to western culture.....gahhhhh

lol
wish I was going

Craig

ps: although on a bonus, I am off to thailand with my partner on 6th april for 1 month....:D

[SimonM]

The funny thing is how easy it was for me to fit into China.

I mean I am under no illusions this is not a perfect place. Nowhere is.

But I was a bit of a square peg in a round hole in North America. Out here I actually have found it much easier to live a satisfied, happy, life.