It's our second-to-last day in China, and the last real day. Based on some talk we heard about checkout last night, I got up at 6:00am to shower and get ready to go. We heard that checkout took 30-45 minutes/ room because they had to check to make sure we hadn't taken anything, however when we got down there an hour early it took us all of five minutes. We handed over our keys over, they asked if we had used the mini-bar, which had been locked in our room, and they said we could go. It wasn't all bad; we could at least enjoy a luxurious hour-long breakfast. Every morning they've served seasonal vegetables, which have been fantastic. My two favorites were a boiled cabbage dish and green beans served with "bits of real pork". It took me a while to realize they were beans, but boy were they ever good.
We took the bus to the train station and had a little over an hour ride back to Shanghai. I talked with Luke for a while about his Chinese language studies among other things, and then napped for the rest of the time.
Back in Shanghai we took the subway to our hotel, East Asia Hotel, where we stayed when we were here earlier. Pretty much right away we headed to the fabric market to pick up the clothes that some of us had ordered. When I tried on my coat it was quite small in the shoulders, but they said it could be taken out in an hour. I had them do that and wandered for a bit with Joe, looking for some fabric for the comforter he was going to have his mom make. He bought the inner part at a market in Hangzhou and needed a cover for it. We found some fabric for ¥30/m2 and I helped him barter it down to ¥21.5/m2 which is about $3.13/m2. I'm not sure what fabric prices are typically, but it seemed like a reasonable price. He got 8 m2, which seemed like quite a bit, but I guess you're going to need a substantial amount for a comforter. We tagged along with Kurt for a bit, who after an amazing bit of haggling, got a North face jacket for ¥230 from a ridiculous starting price of ¥1500. That lady must have been crazy trying to offer it for that much, but apparently she wanted to make it worth her while, because she told Kurt that the Chinese government doesn't allow them to sell North face coats. I'm pretty sure that's true, because the only other ones we've seen have been sold out of trunks of cars. After a while we met up with the group again. Their suits were ready at the same time my jacket was. It fit much better, though I was still skeptical that a suit would fit underneath it (I was relieved that it did when I tried them on back at the hotel). It wasn't as thick as Kurt's, but he paid substantially more for his. I'm quite happy with it. Quite happy indeed.
On the way out of the subway a Chinese guy and girl asked about our heights as we were passing them, so I turned around and told them that I was 2 meter tall (I'm not exactly sure, but 2m is convenient). I ended up talking with the girl and Joe with the guy for a while. They are students in Shanghai at some university that I wouldn't know, she said. She was studying Business English and he was studying Business Marketing. We talked for a bit about China, the U.S. and school; plans about after school and where she would like to visit in America. She talked about the tea performance, just like the three that I met in Shanghai earlier, so I'm beginning to think that it's a pretty popular thing to do. Apparently the ethnic minorities come to the cities and do these things. I didn't get the guy's name, but hers was Hu Xui Fang (Hu like Hu Jintao). We gave them our e-mail addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, bank account numbers and mother's maiden names then went on our way (actually just e-mail). It will be interesting to see if they contact us. I hope they do. It was very refreshing to talk to people with no agenda.
Back at the hotel I got a better look at my coat, with suit on as well. The other guys were happy with their suits and shirts as well. It was a good day in that respect. Now the challenge will be getting all of our things back intact and with weight and room to spare. We'll see how that goes tonight.
Supper tonight was in a restaurant in a fancy hotel overlooking the river that runs through Shanghai. There was good food and good discussion. We talked a bit about what was different/same/we like about China, what we thought God was telling us/what we would bring back and do differently. There were good ideas all around. Personally I said that the service here is different, with vendors tripping over each other to sell you things compared to the U.S. where it can be difficult to find a salesperson in some stores. For the second question I reflected on the use of resources in the U.S. and China. They have so much less, both superficially in terms of water and disparate wealth distribution, and in ideological freedoms such as political and to some extent religious. It seems like we should be able to do so much more than we are to help people and to advance our nation, and yet we were destroyed economically recently and have massive debt to foreign nations.
After dinner Joe, Derek and I decided to whet our adventurous sides. Instead of taking the subway back to the hotel and going someplace from there, we headed the opposite direction and walked along the river for a while looking for a bridge to get to the other side where our hotel is. We never found a bridge, but we did find a ferry which was awesome! It was filled with bikes and pedestrians. The fare was ¥0.5/person, which is absolutely insanely cheap (7¢!!!!). We readily paid it and headed across the river with a bunch of Chinese people. When we arrived at the other side we really didn't know where we were except that we were along the river, which eventually would lead us to our street. Following much of the crowd, we headed in a couple of streets and set off north. Eventually, after a couple of blocks and twists and turns I recognized where we were, which was really a miracle, since I'd only been in that place once before, coming from the other way in the daylight, and we really had only walked tangent to the intersection. In any case I was much more confident, so we kept going and cut into the city a little bit more to get away from the construction going on all along the river. Everyone we passed was headed home from work I'm pretty sure. There were many on bikes and quite a few walkers as well. Tonight was definitely a night of exploration and somewhat of uncertainty. Very fun though, and we saw zero Westerners during our trek. We did see a massive covered truck trying to make it through tight city corners. There was a man in the passenger's seat whose sole purpose was to yell at pedestrians and get cars to move so that they could get through. It was MASSIVE!
Finally the street we were on turned into Nanjing Road. We had been walking parallel to it along a dark street for a couple of blocks. By this time it was getting pretty close to 11pm which meant that most of the shops were closed. Since it was deserted we decided to go inside (after buying a Shanghai Expo mascot) and being harried by a beggar lady and a small child. It's kind of hard to ignore people asking for money like that, but it's often a scam, so we've been told just to ignore them like the Chinese do.
Tomorrow we'll have some time before we have to leave for the airport. I think I'll go out and spend the rest of my money then. It's the last night in China. I can't believe it's already here. It was a great trip and I've had such a good time. Good night from the Middle Kingdom and I'll see some of you tomorrow.
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