 I don't think that I have ever seen a more beautiful sunrise than the one that occurred as we pulled into the port of Hong Kong. Ridiculous skyscrapers loom over the waterfront and nestle up against the green mountains in the background. Immediately, I could tell that this was a city worth spending days exploring. Unfortunately, I only had about three hours. You see, weeks earlier I booked a flight to Beijing that left the day we were to arrive in HK. My plan: go with the flow and somehow find my way to Shanghai to meet back up with the Explorer before it left me behind. This being the case, I enjoyed a delicious meal of dim sum in a giant restaurant full of Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong, and then made my way to the airport via subway. The airport was by far the largest building I've ever been in, or so I thought… Much to our liking, there was a bar conveniently placed directly next to our gate. I decided to have a few drinks to make the next flight pass by more quickly. Before I knew it, it was nearly time for boarding. We walked to our gate only to discover that our flight had changed gates. Since Chinese flights close the doors 15 min. before departure time, we had roughly eight minutes to get to the new gate, which was on the other side of the massive goddamn airport! I sprinted for what must have been more than a mile, only to reach the gate and discover the flight had been delayed 30 minutes. After catching my breath, I sat and talked to the volleyball players of Team India. They were traveling to Guangzhou for the Asia Games, and they took up the majority of the seats on our plane. I had a short flight to Guangzhou, China's main airline hub. We were to have about an hour and a half layover here, before our two hour flight to Beijing. Because our flight was delayed, we figured the first thing we should do was find our gate The size of this behemoth airport put Hong Kong's to shame. What we did not account for was having to pass through Chinese customs. Since we were coming from Hong Kong (not officially considered part of China), we again had to present our passports to immigration. By the time I got to the security line, I had ten minutes to make it to my gate. By the time I was though, I had five. I immediately took off at full sprint down an awful hallway separated by a dotted yellow line, like a road. This time it seemed like two miles (although, if I could run a five minute 2-mile, I would have already been to Beijing for the Olympics a few years ago). By the time I reached the gate, I was covered in perspiration. Unlike the last flight, this one was not delayed and I barely made it. The gate attendants were literally cheering me on as I ran across the moving walkway towards the door. I found my seat, quickly ordered a rum and coke, and slept the whole way to the capital city. I arrived in Beijing sometime around midnight. Knowing I had no place to stay for the night, I figured I might as well make my way into the city and explore. Unlike the rest of the places that I had visited so far, it was cold here. I was far enough north to be affected by winter. Seeing as all of the signs were in Chinese and nobody spoke English, I hopped on a random bus that everyone else was getting on. The bus drove past Tienanmen Square before stopping in front of a government building. I got off and spotted a KFC in the distance. I wandered in and ordered a chicken sandwich. When I went to sit down, I noticed about 20 Chinese hobos sleeping at the tables. Apparently that type of thing is cool in China. I woofed down my sandwich and fries before resting my eyes for an hour. That's right, I slept in a Chinese KFC with a bunch of homeless people. I woke up and found my way to a train station. I bought a ticket for the overnight bullet train to Shanghai for the next night. I then hailed a cab and told the man to take me to the Great Wall. We arrived around dawn. Wondrous views of the Chinese countryside whizzed by as I rode the small gondola to the top of the wall. The sun had just risen and the November air was freezing. In every direction I could see the wall stretching off into the horizon. The walkway on top of The Wall twisted and turned up and over impossible mountains. Some steps were four feet high while others were less than an inch. Other sections were stair less but ridiculously steep. The shear immensity of the structure is overwhelming. The thing was built thousands of years ago, and is longer than traveling from New York to LA and back again. I spent the rest of the day exploring Beijing. I mulled around Tienanmen Square and saw the Forbidden City. It was hard to imagine thousands of people being massacred in the very square I stood–and not too long ago either. I saw the Olympic Stadium and the Water Cube before finally heading for the train station. I had a few hours to kill, so I sat and drank rice wine in the station lobby. It was at this point that I realized that I had been awake for 36 hours straight (minus the KFC nap). When the train arrived, I climbed into my top bunk bed and slept the entire eleven hours to Shanghai. If you are bumming it around Asia, overnight trains are a great way to get around and skip paying a hotel bill for the night. I spent two days in an awesome hostel in downtown Shanghai (five Euros a night? I think so). The city blisters with energy and lights. Hands down, the most incredible city skyline these eyes have ever feasted upon. The nightlife was incomparable. My friend made reservations months ago at a club named M1NT. It was the first time I was ever on "the list", and it felt strange. The place was on the top floor of a tall building. It featured two incredible DJs, a shark tank that spanned the entire length of the floor, and $15 drinks (thank god for plastic flasks). Other than going out at night, I rambled about the city via subway and ferries. I stoop atop the World Financial Center, the third tallest building in the world. We ate great Chinese food (which consisted of me pointing at some mystery Chinese characters on the menu, and usually enjoying my unknown meal). The late night street food was absolutely the best (try the pickled chickens feet, you won't be disappointed). I awoke one morning to find the big blue MV Explorer docked smack dab in the middle of downtown Shanghai. I felt as if I was seeing home again after years of being away. I packed my backpack and made my way to the boat on foot. Other SASsers slowly trickled in the rest of the day, returning from their own adventures through this crazy country. That night, I went out with my friends for one last blast in China. Definitely a night that I will never forget… The view of the skyline as I looked out of my cabin window at the end of the evening will forever be ingrained into the back of my eyelids, like those strange translucent shapes that form when you close your eyes after looking into a bright light for too long. China was an insane and exhausting adventure. The culture is as complicated as it is beautiful. I find it hard to describe the feeling of flying into a huge foreign city with no plan at all, no direction home, with nothing but what you could fit into a backpack. A place where nobody speaks your language and all of the signs are unreadable. If I were to make an attempt, I suppose I would say it was freeing, terrifying, and exhilarating. Although, that does not even begin to describe what it was like–a theme that I imagine will be reoccurring when I return home. Many people will ask me, "So Ross, how was your trip?" Let me apologize in advance for staring back at you in bewilderment, unable to vocalize the emotions bouncing around in my mind. Truthfully, it is impossible to understand what I have been through unless you do so yourself–perhaps a reason why the bonds that I have formed with people on this ship are so deep and powerful. This blog is a vain attempt to clue you in on how I have been living my life for the past three and a half months. However, I hope that you are getting some sort of idea of what this adventure was really like. I don't think I was ever as tired as I was when we pushed off from Shanghai. Before I could catch my breath, we arrived in Japan two days later. More on that when I can find the energy to continue. I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving. As bittersweet as it is that I am nearing the end of this journey, I am becoming increasingly excited to return home and see everybody. Don't be surprised if I greet you all with an extra long hug. I'll be in Hawaii in three days, but I'll try to tell you the story of Japan before then. Check back tomorrow night for my ramblings from the Land of the Rising Sun. Sleepless in China is a post from: Traveling China from Traveling China http://www.chinaya.org | |||
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