“Did you like China?”
“How was the build?”
“How was the food?”
“How was it getting around China?”
“How was it traveling on your own?”
So here is my attempt to satisfy everyone’s curiosity.
China Love
China passed with flying colors! Even though China previously had not been on my must see country list and my expectations were fairly low key, I loved every minute of it. I was blown away by the intoxicating views of Hong Kong from the Peak; mesmerized by the orchard covered mountains of the Guangdong Province; stimulated by the energy of the historic, sprawling, and chaotic city that is Beijing; and was pleasantly surprised to really like modern Shanghai. I regret not getting to cover more ground on this journey, but I think I was able to see enough to know that I will someday return.
Habitat Build
My last two posts covered this topic in more detail and can be found here and here. Overall, this experience is one that I am not likely to forget any time soon. I am proud that I pushed myself to do something completely out of my comfort zone and want to continue looking for opportunities near and far to give back to communities in need. I think global volunteer work is a fantastic way to see parts of the world that aren’t normally on my radar. I am hoping to do another volunteer trip later this year. I am open to other organizations and causes, so if you have any suggestions, send them my way.
Food and the Picky Eater
As many of you know, I am a lazy vegetarian and many friends expressed concern about what I would be able to eat on this trip. I too was curious about my food choices, but I went to China with an open mind and a rather large bag full of protein bars. Luckily, I am not a strict vegetarian given that meat, usually pork, seemed to find its way into all the dishes. I was happy to maneuver through the bits of pork mixed in with the rice dishes, extract the pork stuffed into chunks of tofu, and embrace meat juice as a much needed flavor kick to my steamed rice. I also became very popular with the guys on the build. Kyle, Hoa, and Gordon joked that they often made a point to sit at my table during the meals because there would be more meat for them. I guess I am a team player even when I’m not trying! Besides the meat, I made sure to try all the other dishes during our family style meals; including a fish dish that some people claimed was actually worms since they lived in the mud and I had my first snail; the same dish that caused Denise to exclaim, “you suck it where?”. The one thing I could have done without was all the animal heads that seemed to make its way to our table. I took my cue from Chelsea and would just give the lazy Susan a spin whenever I found a chicken head staring at me.
Getting Around
Navigating through the big cities of Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai was much easier than I anticipated. All three cities have almost identical clean, modern, and inexpensive subway systems. Best of all, the self-serve kiosks have an English option and were very intuitive. The subways were fast and efficient; though often very crowded with people cramming themselves in like sardines.
As someone who loves to walk, especially in a new city, I was able to cover a lot of ground in Hong Kong on foot and even took the ferry to Hong Kong Island one morning.
Beijing was an entirely other beast. The city is so vast and spread out that it is not really made for walking. Additionally the winter temperatures made it hard to be outside for any length of time. So I ended up doing a mixture of walking, the metro, and taxis. Taking a taxi in Beijing was always an adventure. Even if you had the address of where you wanted to go written completely in Chinese, taxi cab drivers would often kick you out of their cab since the language barrier was too much of a headache. One night when I was out with Michael, Denise, and Erica (the Boston crew from the build), we tried to go to a restaurant that had been recommended in Time Out. However, even when armed with extensive directions written in Chinese, we had to give up and just had the taxi driver take us back to Hotel G in defeat.
After a few days of this, I was pleasantly surprised to arrive in Shanghai and find that I could walk for hours exploring the city and not need to worry about using my non-existent language skills on the city taxi drivers.
Traveling Solo
As my first big solo adventure, I can say with great conviction that it was a resounding success. I felt safe at all times and was in my element exploring all that the cities had to offer. I usually relish time on my own and use it as a way to recharge, so I was surprised that I actually spent far less time on my own than I thought I would. The trip started out on a great note when I met three great people on my second day in Hong Kong. We met at an outdoor local bar in Soho over a few drinks and then proceeded to drink, eat, and dance until 5am the next morning.
In Beijing, I had the best of both worlds. I spent the days on my own scoping out the Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven, and climbing the Great Wall, and then would meet up with friends from the build, who were also traveling, for drinks and dinner in the evening.
However, after spending the better part of two weeks with people, I ended up hiding out and just doing my own thing in Shanghai and missed the chance to meet up with another friend from the build. Sorry I missed you Gordon!
So there you have it, the answers to all your burning questions!
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