A Little Bit of Luxury Every Day: Shanghai to Hong Kong

We were living up the city life as our trip came to a close. Since we weren't spending money on a hostel, we splurged a bit on French bistro lunches, sushi, happy hours, and a wee bit of shopping.

In Shanghai, we visited the old "Jewish" neighborhood. Strangely enough, there was a big settlement of Jews here during World War II, and a whole area was designated for them, complete with delis and a synagogue. We still don't understand why Shanghai, it's a long way to come. Nowadays, these old tenements house working class Chinese, though we swear we could smell gefilte fish somewhere.



At a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art in People's Square, we stumbled upon a performance of the Fringe Festival. A really cool modern dance troupe from Beijing emerged from different spots in the park, telling stories and splashing around a makeshift pool.


We spent a fair amount of time doing this:


In places like this:

As for eating, we tried the traditional Shanghai steamed pork buns.
Hey! What do ya guys want? We got milk, purple stuff, Sunny-D, hot pork juice...yeah~!


We treated our kind hosts to the biggest f-in bacon cheeseburger we've ever seen. It weighed 1 kg (35oz) and was the almost the size of a pizza. The restaurant will buy it for you if you can finish it by yourself in an hour. We had trouble even with the 4 of us. Apparently only one person has accomplished this feat: a 55kg Chinese girl. Fancy that.


Of course, it's still China, and we still found plenty of chances to go the cheap route and take a break from the luxury. How could you resist the sheer brilliance of a nice cold reeb.


Sniffle, sniffle, our last stop, Hong Kong. Our longest train yet, 26 hours, though by now it felt like a piece of pie.


Hong Kong is the ritziest of all, for now at least. Fancy cars, swank townhouses by the beach, and posh restaurants that we avoided. And they actually have fines for littering, smoking, and spitting! It must be rough for the mainland businessmen who go there and have to put on the best manners. Even Aaron found it difficult after all this time to hold back his snot-rockets.



After 9 1/2 weeks going west to north to east to south, covering somewhere around 14,000 kilometers, we've arrived safely back in Taiwan. Things seem kind of strange: the taxi cabs look different, the food's not as diverse, and everything is oddly cleaner than before. We've been lucky, coming back in one piece without ever getting really sick. And we have confidence that when the poo hits the fan, we can now use any bathroom on the planet! (By the way, Aaron opposes that last exclamation point, but Julia is indeed quite fond of them)

We'll try to put some more pics on some Kodak website after we sort through them. In the meantime, winding things up in Taiwan, and thinking about when we'll head back to "home" home.

Zaijian, cyber biatches!

Shanghai, Part I: The Return of Western Toilets


Booming metropolis, never-ending construction, constantly changing. We were pretty happy to settle in with Jordan, an old buddy from Taiwan, who gave us shelter on his couch for a week.

As strange as it is though, we sorta missed the squat toilets. There's just something about em. (sigh)

After laying around watching movies and catching up with long-lost Western cuisine, we ventured out into the city. Shanghai has a huge aquarium, with the longest underwater pedestrian tunnel in the world.




Shanghai's skyline is pretty spectacular, you can walk along the Huangpu river and pass by the most modern, sexily designed skyscrapers in China. Here's Aaron next to the famous Pearl Tower.

Bet you've never walked on a waterfront and seen commercials floating by on a 25m screen. Look at that thick layer of smog that, unfortunately, blankets the city every day.


On the opposite bank (the West siiiide), lies the older part of the city. Lots of Art Deco...very Euro-style. Even cooler, the original banks and clubs have opened patio bars on the top floors for excellent night views of the city.
Here's the ever-famous Bund at night. What does "bund" mean? We still don't know...something German.


You can still find some spots in the city that haven't been developed (though not for long: they're surrounded by demolished buildings and construction zones). Here you can see some original architecture from the 1920s, but since the people here are pretty poor the city doesn't do much to keep it up. Or worry about where the displaced people will go. The disparity between rich and poor in Shanghai is pretty stark, more than we've seen in any city.


And finally...we know you've been waiting for it. Back by popular demand, there's just simply never enough...

til the Sweat Drips Down That Wall! skeet skeet skeet
Beijing things part deux

Over 2000 years ago, a Qin emperor decided to start the construction of a massive wall to keep out the big barbarians up north. It turned out to be one of the most asinine, ineffective undertakings in history (what? ridiculous expenditures? lack of foresight? no...not China...). There's a legend that the bones of thousands of dead laborers are buried within the bricks. And wouldn't you know it, that damn Genghis Khan supposedly bribed the guards and waltzed through with his Mongol crew.

Ah well, what are you gonna do? It's really f-in cool to see today. At least something good came out of it. Who knows? Maybe in a thousand years people will be venturing out to see the Great Nuclear Shield of America.

We went out to Simatai, a bit further than the usual tourist hub, and had an afternoon climb (literally) with the Great Wall almost all to ourselves.

Yeah! The wall, I totally rocked it man! Eh Eh!

At the top, we came across some soldiers preventing people from climbing farther and doing stupid things (the wall rests along the crest of a mountain). They were hard at work drinking beers, but we shared some oranges and had a good chat about Taiwan.


At Simatai, you can even zip line down from the Wall (to the parking lot). At $4.50, how could we refuse?


Later, we went to the heart of the heart of China, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Of course, Mao, along with hundred of soldiers, watches over to make sure everything's in strict communist order.

Hence, we got yelled at for taking the above pic (and some other goofy ones).


The Forbidden City is a essentially a huge maze of red walls dividing intricately decorated courtyards: a pleasure palace for the emperor to stroll about and "enjoy the moonlight" with his bevy of concubines.


But step out from the gates of the Palace and witness the juxtaposition of ornate imperialism with grey, rigid Communism.


We also had the chance to chill with a Taipei bloke, Ed, who took us out on the town. Frenchmen football-player antics, ladies on the bar in black leather hot pants, and Suzie Wong. Thanks for the good times, Edmundo!


Our last sight-seeing venture in Beijing was the Summer Palace, yet another playground for royalty. You can never have too many places for imperial debauchery with no commoners allowed.

These sights are beautiful, but they do help to explain the nationwide poverty that lasts through today. Up through the early 20th century, emperors/-presses squandered every yuan on marble boats and unworldly feasts while most everybody starved in the streets.

Nice sunset though.

Duckin' Out the Desert

Crossing over 3000 kilometers from West to East, we've hit "China" China. Writing from smack in the middle of Beijing, where we've been touristing to the max. We're jackasses and missed our train last night, so we have some time at the internet cafe.

So to back up a little (a lot)... a week and a half ago, we were in Hotan, southern ancient Silk Road hub. The Sunday Bazaar was wild and lived up to our expectations of erotica, we mean, exotica.


unless you like heavy petting zoos....

...in which case, we clearly mean both. The above sight at the livestock market was a tad disturbing at first: hoards of sheep being bound by the legs and having their nether regions (the Chinese would say "Wangs" and "Poons") crudely examined during presale. However, we figured it's probably no better than the caged and hormoned cows that we Americans eat but never have to see.

This 15 year-old spunky chick showed us donkey tourism at it's finest: taking us by cart through a desert to "ancient city ruins" (read: some rocks in the sand). At least the ride was fun.

From Hotan, we crossed 500 km over the harsh Taklamakan Desert--on foot.

No, just kidding, it was yet another million-hour sleeper bus for us.

Next stop: Turpan, lowest point in China that reaches 48 degrees Celsius in summer. Thank god for breezy October. Turpan is home to lots and lots of grape vines, more ancient ruins (this time a bit more intricate), and picturesque scenery surrounding the Flaming Mountains.

Back in Urumqi (the capital of Xinjiang province), we reveled in our last mutton kebab dinner. Pomegranate juice is a nice new discovery: great for the urinary tract too!

Weeeeee....flew to Beijing. Time for some history. Despite the hustle, bustle, rudeness, and smog, the sights have been damn nice and surpassed our expectations. It's hard not to be impressed when you're in front of massive structures that are hundreds of years old, huge, and incredibly ornate.

Here's a shot of the Temple of Heaven, where the emperor went to pray for good harvests on the winter solstices. Julia, on the other hand, was praying for a nice dinner.

Ooh ooh ooh...I think I smell duck.

And voila! A juicy, crispy Beijing duck sliced right at our table.

Mmm...so good, we had it twice in 3 days.

There's so much more to show from Beijing, and we'll have it up soon. Can't afford to miss a second train.

Rock the Kashgar!
Karakul, Kites, Kyrgz, and Camels


We flew from ChengDu to Kashgar, a city in Xinjiang Province all the way in the northwest. We immediately realized this was only China by name and military presence. Most people here are Muslim, speak Uighur (or some other Central Asian language), have body hair, and don't look "Chinese" at all. It's excellent.

Kashgar was a major trading center on the Silk Road for centuries, and it's still pretty happening today, donkey carts and all. It's essential to note, however, that we are not "donkey tourists", even though a douchebag frenchman insinuated that we were such.


When we went out for our first Uighur snack, we realized that, um, it's Ramadan! Well as salaam aleykum to ya'll too. Actually it's pretty cool being Jews surrounded by Muslim culture, and seeing how many similarities there are, straight down to the ritual hand washing. Still, when the sun went down, there was food galore: lamb kebabs, fresh out of the oven nan bread, and amazing melon (canteloupe is native to Xinjiang). No beer though, except guiltily guzzled down in Han Chinese restaurants. And how can we forget the bagels!! Here is Julia in New York Jew bliss:

From Kashgar we took a 3 day trip along the Karakoram Highway which links China to all the "-stan" countries. Spectacular glacier mountain views (we know, we know, so many mountains) juxtaposed with shifting desert hills. We were joined by a new Aussie mate, Scott, who happens to live 5 minutes away from us in Taipei--funny we should meet in Kashgar of all places.

Our first stop was Tashkorgan, an "autonomous Tajik region" (whatever that means to the CCP) and also home to an ancient stone city.

The local Tajik people are stunning--Elle magazine would give their left leg for this exotic new look.

We discovered en route that Tashkorgan was temporarily overrun by the cast and crew of "Kite Runner". Apparently the scenery in northwest China bears a striking resemblance to that of Afghanistan (where the story takes place). So we got to chat up the young Afghani stars-to-be while they practiced their kite skills in the sunset. The movie should be out some time late next year.

The next morning we woke up early to head to the border, armed by young Chinese soldiers who must be bored out of their minds in isolation at 5000m. Their excitement for the day must have been shouting at us when we crossed a few steps too far into the Khunjerab Pass.

And here was this Chinese guy's idea of excitement:

On the way back, we visited a traditional Tajik village. Despite all we had heard and read, we were instantly taken aback by the blazing red-haired, freckle-faced kids that greeted us. They could have been straight out of Ireland, but there they were in China. Amazing. We don't have a picture, so maybe you'll have to go see it to believe it.

Later we headed to our home for the night, a Kyrgz yurt village on the bank of sparkling Karakul Lake. We huddled around the yak-dung powered stove and drank bowl after steaming bowl of salty yak butter tea.

At one point Aaron got real hungry and tried to eat our friendly companion.

We're not trying to be braggy punks, but pictures don't even do it justice. And the starry night skies may have been the best we've ever seen.

We've just arrived in Hotan, another dusty spot with Silk Road history. Tomorrow heading to a massive bazaar. How much for this camel again?... Hao bazaar, how bizarre.