Hehehe, well i suck at keeping blogs apparently.  Here it is a full year (almost) since I last put anything down and my position has changed considerably.  I no longer reside in Yangpu, but now back at home.  I returned in February to cold, miserable snow, and have since had jobs at a car dealership as well as three restuarants.  I am also a student, and I'm currently aspiring to make a bold move into the direction of pharmacy.  Despite all of these changes, I still believe I can recall precise details in exact order from that summer, and I'm pretty sure when its all said and done James will verify all of it.  So now that the formalities are out of the way, where was I?????

    Having returned mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted from our day at or on the way to the Great Wall, James and I came to the conclusion that we were the proverbial camels, invisible under a whole crap-load of freakin' straw.  We decided that this would be our last night in the capital, and to celebrate our exploits (and the fact that we were severing ties with the cousins and their leeching and buzz-killing ways) we were going to feast on Beijing duck.  Being that the actual name of the city is in the dish, you can get this stuff pretty much anywhere.  Huge billboards adorned the more popular duck joints, almost always with green backgrounds, blue writing (in English and Chinese, mind you), and pictures of roasted ducks with the colour balance never quite right, so the bird looks kind of purplish instead of a rich, yummy brown.  We chose one at random and took a chair.  Now I'm pretty sure we asked for the dish correctly in Chinese, but I'd also assume that as soon as the waitresses see an unfamiliar white person come in, they pretty much put us down for some quack as if by reflex.  The dish itself was magnificient - eat it if you get the chance.  If one were so inclined, one could purchase a duck in entirety, pre-cooked, wrapped in foil, placed in a nice folding box, and finally crammed into a pretty gift bag, just to take home with you.  It was really good, but I guess that's where I diverge from Chinese culture - I can't really imagine giving a vaccuum-sealed meal to someone as a souvenir.  I guess that's just me though. 
   
    So as we ate, James and I discussed our course of action.  I now realized that I neglected to mention that Zealot and his kin opted out of joining us for dinner.  Idiot One had purchased one of those packaged deals from the duck farm we'd stopped at, Idiot Two was doing whatever Idiot One told him to, as usual.  Zealot was convinced there was some sort of mould (???justaguess???) growing on one of his t-shirts, and was furiously hand-washing it in his bathroom sink.  We decided not to wait.  The two of us sat there over delectable duck and cold frosty Snow Lagers between us, considering our options.  The original trip itinerary called for us to stay in Shenyang for a few days because another, slightly more responsible cousin of Zealot's lived there.  This is about about a twelve hour train ride north-east from Beijing.  The day before, however, we were informed that Zealot's cousin actually lived in Dalian, about a four hour bus trip south from Shenyang.  Seeing as how Dalian looked a much nicer place and wasn't much further, we figured it only made sense to go where we had a free place to stay and spend more money on fun stuff.  Envigored by the prospect of starting fresh in a new city and cutting loose the unwanted human cargo, we walked out of that restaurant ready to conquer again.  We would go get Zealot and give him the breaks about ditching his cousins.  We bought him some new shirts on the way back. 
   
    The act of getting train tickets, while seeming simple to most with an even remotely well-adjusted personality, proved to be a taxing one for Zealot.  There was a ticket window right next to our hotel, so we all went together to see what our options were.  Except for the cousins - they didin't get to come.  James and I both noticed some apprehension on Zealot's part in taking on the physical task of standing at the gate and purchasing tickets.  We gave him simple criteria - soonest ticket possible, hard-bench seats to save money - but he couldn't do it without asking a million questions.  What if we wanted this, what if we went there instead, etc.etc.etc.  Finally he was able to untie the psychological knot that kept him from getting our point, and got the tickets.  We were leaving the following night, 8PM I think it was, or somewhere around there.  We checked out of our room and slept on the floor in Zealot's - again, we were frugal at times - and spent most of the next day kicking around the hotel room, once venturing out to walk around and get some eats.  Zealot and his cousins, about to be finally, mercifully seperated, went on a tour of Qinghua University, the most prestigious in all the land.  He got back pretty late, we were forced to cab to the station all in a rush, and needless to say tension rose high between all present.  We made the train though, and settled in on probably the most uncomfortable seats ever envisioned for three people, one person to my right and two on my left.  All around us people were getting comfortable, more people, then more still.  I can't give an accurate estimate as to how many were aboard that railcar, but the feeling it gave me was more that of livestock than of man.  It wasn't quite as extreme as those videos from India with people hanging off the sides and clinging to the roof (although to be fair I never did check up there), but it was tight, and it was cramped, and it was going to be like that for a long time.  The train lurched to a start, and we were ready for it.  Beijing had been a blast, but it quickly revealed to us that Zealot may not be the budding adventurer we'd hoped he would.  Regardless, those rails were taking us far away from the bad influences of the evil cousins, and we all seemed kind of antsy as we started rolling.  I couldn't help reading the sections of our travel guides about Dalian, trying to plan out all the stuff we could do and see while there.  I was completely pumped about everything that lay before me.  All of this, of course, was before the 12ish hour train ride.  At night.

Aright after the two month hiatus, I'm back at the blog thing.  I've been intensely busy at school, and it seems like I am always either lacking the needed time or motivation to get this thing done.  So now, I bring to you......

My Day (sort of) at the Great Wall
    Well after our forays to the Forbidden City and Summer Palace the previous two days, James and I decided to make our last destination in the capital that enduring symbol of Chinese pride, The Great Wall.  There are many different sections of the wall in the outskirts of Beijing's municipality, some of which have been developed into near-theme park regions, while others have ben neglected to the point of being almost unrecognizable.  We decided that we wanted a compromise between the two, not exactly buying into the whole cable-car ride to the top thing, but still wanting to feel like we'd seen the magnificence of the structures.  With the help of my trusty Lonely Planet travel guide, we settled on a section of wall that was a little further out of the city than most, and thus a little less overwrought with the teeming tourists ubiquitous to the monument.  Although there was no direct bus to the site, the guide gave detailed instructions on how to get there, so it was just a matter of getting on the right train, finding the right number bus, and riding it out for about an hour and a half.  This was also to be the first day that our three Chinese companions would be accompanying us on our siteseeing, but we couldn't really rely on them to make any decisions on what to do, so we had the whole thing completely mapped out the night before.
    We were to leave the hotel at 8:00 in the morning, have breakfast, get on the subway at 8:30, and be on our bus no later than 9:30.  The plan was airtight...... unless for some inexplicable reason, the Chinese slept in.  Now, take it from me, Chinese people for the most part LOVE to wake up early in the morning.  On a Sunday, I'm usually woken by the bustling of people outside at about 6:30, just like any other day.  After all, its hard to need a nap at 1:00 every afternoon unless you've already been up for at least 7 hours.  Also, the boys with us were the ones who, only two days before, woke up at 6 after a big night of drinking to find a new hotel.  Suffice it to say, we didn't plan for them sleeping in. 
    But sleep in they did.  James and I lost patience waiting at the hotel at about 8:30, and went to eat our breakfast.  It wasn't until about 9:30 that everyone had eaten and we were ready to get going.  When we told our friends of our intended itinerary, however, it was met with extreme distaste.  They thought our choice would take too long to arrive at, and had developed their own plan.  It turns our that these boys had their collective hearts set on going to the most artificial, commercialized, and therefore tourist-laden incarnation of the wall that Beijing has to offer.   Now, James and I wanted to experience some history, not just be one in a surging mass of flashbulbs and fannypacks, as was sure to be the case if we went to their choice.  What really made us angry, though, was that for two days we had been asking these guys which section they wanted to see, and they basically told us that we were responsible for making the decision.  Then the morning of, they act like they'd had this planned all along and couldn't believe we would want to dissent.  Most disgustingly of all, the exact reasons that James and I wanted to avoid this particular area - the cable-car, the incessant trinket shops, and all the other nuances that scream theme park/tourist trap - were the precise justification for their choice to go there.  Well, we were having none of this, and couldn't persuade them come to our preferred destination, so I pulled out the ol' travel guide again and we attempted to reach a compromise.  Finally we settled on a section that wasn't too far away, wasn't usually swarmed with tourists, and still managed to convey the authentic experience.  All we had to do was hop on the subway for a few stops, hit a nearby bus station, and we could be there by lunch time, leaving us with at least 4 hours of exploring to do.  Ideally we could have used more time, but at this point we would take what we could get.
    The subway went without a hitch, we found the bus station just fine, and we bought our ticket for the tour bus, and we were pumped and ready to go.  On the bus with us was an Israeli tourist named Rami - he had finished his service in the army a year before (what he did in the army he was not at liberty to tell us) and was going all over the world with the salary he had saved in his five-year tenure.   He was a real nice guy, and both James and I were very thankful later in the day that we had someone to vent to.  We were informed that the bus would be making ONE 45-minute stop at a tourist site en route to the wall, but this didn't really bother us at the time, as they also told us that our section of wall was not as far out as we had first assmed.  And  away we went.
     The 45-minute stop turned out to be at some dilapidated cultural museum - I'm talking missing letters in the sign, broken windows, and a concrete fountain in the parking lot that was streaked with rust stains from its fixtures and probably had worked in at least five years.  Admission to this dump was 30 yuan, which would be steep if you were given the whole day there, and was pretty much robbery for only a 45 minute visit.  Rami, James, and I decided to forego this sad-looking attraction and instead got to know each other a little better over a few beers in the parking lot.  Yes, it was 11:00 in the morning, but we really had nothing better to do, as this place was smack in the middle of nowhere.  Our Chinese buddies just couldn't resist the call of ticket window, and went inside.  When they emerged 45-minutes later, I don't believe I have ever seen three less excited people in my life.  They said it was boring and a waste of money, we told them that we had predicted that, we got on the bus and got back on our way to the wall...... we thought.
     It turns out there was a SECOND stop that someone had neglected to mention to us, at a duck farm.  Why a duck farm, you ask?  Well, Beijing duck is the main delicacy of the city, gobbled down by pretty much every tourist who visits.  We had planned to go out for duck that evening after the wall, so we weren't exactly thrilled about this unforeseen detour.  Basically, you get off the bus, get herded en masse through these tiny supermarket doors, where inside you can find Beijing Duck, pre-cooked and hermetically sealed in durable foil bags!!!  And thats it.  As we pondered what kind of kickback the bus driver was getting for this, we couldn't help but notice that Zealot's older cousin was going crazy for the ducks, buying two of the full meal deals (60 yuan each) and an assortment of other useless crap.  Of course, this is the same guy who had to ask his cousin to pony up for his food, hotel room, and pretty much everything else out of OUR travel fund, but hey, at least he's got those two delicious ducks to take home with him, right?  Total time spent *ahem* wasted at the duck farm - 30 minutes.
At least now we would FINALLY be on our way to see the Great Wall of China.
    Except that now we weren't on our way to see the wall, at least not yet.  We were told of a THIRD stop on our little adventure, this time for an HOUR AND A HALF at the historic Ming Tombs.  Now granted, the Ming Tombs are considered an important  histoic site and probably would have been worth seeing, but we were geared up for one thing and one thing only - THE FREAKING GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!!!!!!!!  Also, admission was 60 yuan (the same as the Forbidden City where we had the whole day) and for a scant hour and a half it just didn't seem worth it.  Only one member of our party- !SURPRISE! duck boy - felt it was worth it.  James and I spent the time as we did at our first stop, drinking beer with Rami in the parking lot.  By the time we got to leave, we had cracked quite the buzz, and it was almost 2:00 in the afternoon.  Remember, the only reason we were even on this bus was because it would have taken TOO LONG to go to the section James and I had picked.  The irony is sickening.
    So now we are for sure on the bus as it is headed toward the Great Wall.  We are told it is still about an hour until we would arrive.  Meanwhile, our bladders are punishing us for our alcoholic escapades earlier in the aternoon, and there is no toilet on the bus.  Recalling that the day before we had seen a young child relieving himself in a water bottle in the middle of Tiananmen Square, we realised what may be necessary.  Doubtful that the driver would pull over on the highway for a couple of half-drunk foreigners to take a leak, we became very thankful that we had saved our empty water bottles from earlier that day.  I'll spare you the grisly details, but we both managed to get the job done incognito, and neither spilled a drop.  When we finally arrived at the wall, we rushed outside to find the nearest garbage can lest anyone's suspicions should be aroused.  That taken care of, feeling refreshed and ready to tackle anything, we marvelled for the first time at the Great Wall of China.
    Let me begin by saying that pictures will never do this thing any justice.  Looking into the distance, following the magnificent structure as it snakes along the mountain tops seemingly into eternity is a breathtaking feeling.  Even more so because, just as at the Summer Palace, the air quality leaves something to be desired.  Despite the yellow fumes enveloping the area, you still can't help but be amazed at the structure itself.  Sometimes while climbing it the grade more resembles that of a ladder than a staircase, but when you get to the guard towers and you look out over the countryside it's all worth it.  This wall is really a testament both to the Chinese work ethic as well as to the respect they had for foreign invaders.  How anyone could get through some of those gorges and over those mountains and still have energy to attack I'll never know, as well as how anyone could get all those building materials up there.  Unfortunately, the wall is closed after 5:30 in the afternoon, so we only had about two and a half hours to climb up and come back down.  Once you are there, you just want to keep going, to see what lies over the next ridge, or what it looks like from the next guard tower.  Two and a half hours felt like a tease.  Still, we didn't dwell on the days prior events, as we just wanted to see as much as we could while we had the chance.  Our Chinese friends weren't so enthusiastic.  They climbed to the first guard tower (about half an hour) then just sat there for awhile, then went back and waited by the bus.  How you culd have so much apathy for something we thought was so incredible we could not understand.  When we got back on the bus, we asked them why they didn't go further, and they didn't even have an answer.  We were disgusted.  The whole ride home they slept, and James and I brooded over what could have been.  Our day at the Great Wall had been compacted into less than an afternoon, and we were both left wanting more.  That night we decided over a meal of delicious Beijing duck that the next day we were taking Zealot out of Beijing and away from his parasitic cousins. 

Well, if I had to describe this blog o' mine with one word it would certainly be NEGLECTED.  Sorry to anyone and everyone who's been waiting for an update, my life has been gogogo since the new school term began, what with classes, trips, power outages, tyhoons, and all that other stuff that seems to clog my free time of late.  I'm on holiday now so in the next few days I'm gonna try to completely inform all of you on my exploits and adventures during my two-month tour of mainland China, as well as let you know what's been keeping me busy since I arrived back in my little corner of Hainan.  So without further delay, I give you..........

Chapter 1: Shenzhen and Beyond
I spent my first month of summer holidays in the southern city of Shenzhen, living with my bestest buddy James and his roommate Mike, also a Saskatoon native.  They are both English teachers in the Shenzhen public school system, so naturally I was very curious to see how their working conditions compared to mine here in Yangpu.  Once they showed me, I was SHOCKED, to put it lightly.  While I have little to entertain my students with aside from charm and a chalkboard, every classroom of their's is equipped with a computer, internet connection, and projection screen.  This means they have access to an infinite amount of media ie: TV commercials, pictures, movie and TV clips, music, you name it.  They can also incorporate all of this material into glitzy Powerpoint presentations, which means they don't have to waste any time drawing crappy pictures and writing on the blackboard.  Frankly, I was just a little jealous.  I was able to tap into their teaching philosophies and methods, however, so at least now I feel like I have more of a handle on what I am doing inside the classroom. 
    Shenzhen itself is a thriving metropolis, abundant in traffic, 24-hour *ahem* hair salons (its amazing how all those women can cut hair at night with nothing but a red light to see by), and above all else money.  About 20 years ago, Shenzhen won a national lottery granting it the title of "Special Economic Zone".  This means it joined the ranks of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and a few other big cities on the fast track to intense financial and industrial development.  Prior to this event, Shenzhen was little more than a fishing community whose only claim to fame was being the closest thing in the PRC to Hong Kong (about 45mins by train).  Now, Shenzhen is a swarming hive of concrete, steel, glass, and neon lights.  Unfortunately, amidst all the commercial growth (Shenzhen is now considered the richest city in the country) little attention was paid to aesthetic appeal, and as a result Shenzhen lacks the kind of character or identity as you would find in more attractive urban centres around the world.  They have scattered the odd park and lined the streets with trees that seem to remind of how beautiful the rest of the city isn't; all these attempts just seem to highlight the artificial feel of the city rather than augment it.  It's not as bad as I probably make it sound, but if asked to describe the essence that is Shenzhen, all that really comes to mind is tall buildings and not much else.
    My time is Shenzhen was spent very lackadaisically, I'm afraid to say.  The hours during the day were often unbearably hot, and this effect was compounded by the pollution that I had not experienced in my tiny island village.  If we stayed home, we would play video games or frisbee in the garden of James' apartment.  If we went out we would walk around the nieghbourhood window shopping, or play soccer in the local park until the guards kicked us out.  Yep, here in China you can't play sports at the park, and they have several guards on site to ensure that no one forgets this fact.  One day we went to the water slides at the local amusement park, Happy(Crappy) Valley.  They were terrible - huge admission price, tiny and crowded locker rooms, tiny and crowded pool, and worst of all, only two working water slides that would be put to shame by almost any hotel pool offering.  After the disappointing swim, we headed across the road to another local attraction, Windows of the World.  At this park you are treated to scale models of any number of global landmarks ie: Sydney Opera House, Eiffel Tower, Pyramids, Leaning Tower of Piza, and of course, the Arc d' Triumphe constructed from beer cans.  Cla-ssy.  "See all the great landmarks of the world in one day!" says the publicity..... While I'm sure the real sites would easily outdo this scaled down version, it affords Chinese people who will probably never have a chance to visit the real thing at least the feeling that they have seen something close, so I guess the park has its merits.  When I felt like getting my consumer on, we would head to the mother of all markets, Dong Meng.  This is a two- or three-city block area chock full of stores, shops, and stands selling anything you could ever want and everything you don't.  There are several buildings five-storeys high that resemble human ant farms, and it even extends two floors underground that are much the same, and the entire area is always a teeming mass of humanity.  Surprisingly, most things are of fairly good quality; not surprisingly, it's all knockoffs, and the price is always negotiable.  Example: One day I was looking for new shoes.  I'd found a pair that I kind of liked, but not enough to get them right away.  I asked the clerk how much so I could comparison shop, and she told me 600 yuan, but because I was a foreigner I could have them for five.  I offered her three, which she accepted after some haggling.  Still not convinced I even wanted the shoes, I said I would come back later.  Before I could take five steps, the price was down to 200, and before I was out the door it was 100(about 16 Canadian dollars).  I stilli didn't want the shoes, but I'm sure if I persisted I could have gotten them lower than that.  Such is the excitement that is shopping in this country.
    I should mention that while in Shenzhen, James and I made a three day visit to Hong Kong.  He has a close family friend there, so we had a place to crash, and I had a hankering to go back after recalling the excitement of my 6-hour stop there en route to Australia.  A greater contrast there never was than between China proper and Hong Kong.  Hong Kong is all fashion, high-tech gadgets, and East-meets-West cultural convergeance.  China tries to achieve this, but always comes up slightly short.  Hong Kong is to China what apples are to oranges; both are fruit, but have little else in common.  EVERYTHING in HK is expensive, and I must say I was happy to return to the PRC, where my teaching earnings actually represented something substantial rather than a drop in the bucket.  We had dreams of doing some intense shopping while in HK, but those were quickly dashed after we realized that the rules completely changed once you go over that border.
    I guess the highlight of my time in Shenzhen came the morning of July 27.  A colleague of James' had offered to pay for our accomadation and travel expenses if we would travel with his newly-graduated son to Beijing and a couple other cities in the north.  While this sounds ridiculously generous, in China such kindness is not uncommon, especially to foreigners;  I will explain the details further in the next section.  Naturally, we jumped at the idea, but I could not commit right away because my contract in Hainan stipulated that I should teach a summer English class if there was enough student interest.  So all July I was on pins and needles, waiting for the phone call that would either liberate me for the chance of a lifetime or send me packing back to Yangpu a month early and a major opportunity missed.  Finally, that late July morning, I got the call that the students did not want a summer class, and I was free for the month of August.  As you may expect, my head nearly put a whole in the ceiling.  We scheduled our departure for Aug. 3, and began to plan our itinerary for going around the north.  First, of course, was Beijing.  Following that would be the cities of Shenyang, Dalian, and Qingdao.  After that, it would depend on the time and money we had left.  We were pumped - this was the adventure James and I had dreamed of when we hopped onto the plane to this country.  We felt like we could not be stopped.  Little did we know what the next month would have in store for us........

Tune in tomorrow for Chapter 2: Beijing and What Could Have Been

Well I gotta keep this brief cuz i need to get some sleep... I begin my smmer holidays on Tuesday, going to the mainland city of Shenzhen where I'll meet up with my good friend from Canada, James. I'll be staying for at least a month, depending on interest in the summer class here in Yangpu. If there are more than 10 students interested in studying with me in the summer, I must return at the beginning of August to teach a 20 day class.... if there isn't enough interest, I'm free to stay on the mainland until Sept. 1 when the new semester begins at my school. I've been insanely busy in the last two weeks with exams - I had to test 350 students individually, at 3 mins apiece, so this vacation is going to be much appreciated. I'm not sure wat net access will be like in Shenzhen, so don't expect too many updates here (not like I've been doing a very good job of it anyway) but I'm sure upon my return I'll have lots of stories and pictures, so be patient with me. I hope everyone's having a good summer back home (or wherever you're reading this) and I hope that everyone gets at least a few days of relaxation over the holidays... I know a lot of people are working, so try to enjoy yourself a little for me, ok? Also, I'll wish everyone an early happy Canada Day.... it's gonna be real nice to be able to celebrate one of my most favorite holidays with someone who actually feels the same pride and love of our great country. So with that I bid you all adieu, until I get the time to write something more.... Mike