HAIKOU, HAINAN PROVINCE (ISLAND)

I am back home in Shangqiu, so I will start putting some pictures and videos on this blog.




Every city in China I have visited has a People's Park. The two pictures above are from Haikou. People's Parks in China are almost always elaborate, well maintained, and I rarely use this word, beautiful. I think the same can be said for the primary parks in America. Because of the number of people in China, the parks here are very clean and well maintained. Very little rubbish (ah the affects of my exposure to the rest of the world is reflected in that word) and constantly changing floral.





I commented on one of the above pictures before, that poor cow. The other is of two Chinese children "celebrating" Christmas. (If I ever get another one of those "Let's keep Christ in Christmas mass emails it will be too soon.)



The top video was taken at Peoples Park and the man is singing Haikou opera. The other is of street traffic in Haikou. I am not posting one of me standing in the middle of a street watching traffic pass.

TTYL

A NICE DAY ALMOST FROM HELL

I must be relaxing when I call what you are about to read as being almost from hell.

I started out the day at Starbucks. I am predisposed not to like French people: I don't like that part of me, but it exists. I was relaxing and reading a map when a guy comes in and sits down by an exterior window. Two minutes later he bellows to the staff his order, when they do not understand he walks to the counter and tells them again. After telling them his order he loudly states he knows no Chinese and will not learn it. Then he recites the 3 words and/or phrases he does know. The first he says is that he does not understand and the second is no. Guess his nationality.

However, five minutes later two other men walk into the shop, by then I am outside on the veranda drinking my coffee, after they get their order they sit at the table behind me. Before they sat both of them said hello, interrupting a spirited conversation they were having. Guess where they were from.

With all good comes some bad, and I have seen the stereotypical Ugly American here. He is a former real estate (commercial) guy from the s.e. United States. He tries to make Chinese people eat in a western style and does not adapt his behavior to where he is at that time. And, he compares how much money he spends on mutual Chinese friends with the amount I have spent. UGLY AMERICAN PERSONIFIED (in my opinion).

After Starbucks I spent the day with a local who showed me the city. First, I think I could love Guangzhou! It is big, mostly clean and full of energy. But the day with this local was difficult.

I think he is afraid of everything unknown. If he had not taken that route before it was dangerous, the subway is dangerous and he walked very fast to avoid danger. I tried to explain to him that I had not seen the city before and we should slow down; two minutes later back at an 8 minute mile clip. Eventually, when it was not rude, I said I was going home, but went for a slow walk around the neighborhood, then back to my hotel.

My hotel is called 7 Days Inn. If you can, come here and go to the big cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong (but Hong Kong is expensive). My hotel in Guangzhou (and international and cosmopolitan city) costs $23.00 per night. It is like a Holiday Inn Express. The food is cheap, two people can eat on 20 U.S per day, And, if you plan, the airfare is relatively cheap. They (7 Days Inn) are sprouting up all over China. It is my preferred choice, no frills (well some have washers, all have breakfast and have Internet) and inexpensive. I am 100o yards from Shamian Island (a very ritzy place that used to house all of the embassies). I am also very near a port that brings in seafood.

I have learned that the fish does not come off fishing boats that dock here. The fish is shipped in via the Pearl River from the places where it is caught. Makes sense, but I deluded myself with the idea that the people that caught the fish delivered the fish to market. HA HA

I also learned that here, unlike Chicago, the restaurants buy their fish the night before and store it over night.

Anyway, I wondered around there tonight, for the second time, looking for dinner. The restaurants and kiosks do not sell cooked fish, seems those that handle and deal with it all day do not want to eat it (reminds me of working at Dunkin Donuts when I was 15, hated the damn things).

I am posting pictures I took tonight, less than two hours ago. The alligators are cool and the lights on the other side of the Pearl River are just as cool (though they are blurred).

TTLY

Terry

24 (almost) HOURS ON THE CHINA SEA

I am taking a ferry/ship from Haikou to Guangzhou. The trip is about 19. hours. It is the first time I have been on the open sea. I am on the China Sea. Currently the boat is rocking back and forth and side to side, however, I am not getting sick (must be all those years of bed spins from my friends Jager, Jose, Jack and Southern 1x), The sunset was great and the idea of being out here is even better.









My 7 days in Haikou were ok, not great just ok. One of my friends got sick and the other was typical Chinese, never thinks about the other person. But, it is also my fault for not speaking Chinese better. If I spoke ok Chinese I could have done more.

I am posting some pictures of the boat, harbor and sea. I will post more about Haikou (The Wugong Temple was nice) later.

This ship has satellite television, so I get 2 Chinese channels (on five different station settings).

I am listening to Traffic while writing this. It is the Low Spark of High Heeled Boys in honor of the gay Chinese couple shipboard. One is a flamer.

Even though it is very big, the ship rolls over the water, it feels like it moves forward in surges. I got good pictures of the sunset, but it is cloudy and I can't see stars. Will try later to see the sky,

Oh, I have a first class cabin (such as it is) all to myself. twin bunks, a sink, TV and couch, And, I got free dinner. I am not complaining, a student from school father has connections and I got it for free, saved me 300 RMB. Yea, I am happy.

I am going on deck in shorts, the Chinese people will look at me like I am crazy. Everyone has to be the same here in China. After October 1, in central to north China, they no longer have cold beer available. I am not talking about Beijing or Shanghai or Fuzhou, but the smaller cities that have not had the exposure to other ideas consistently.

The swells have picked up quite a bit. It is not making me sick but it is awkward moving around, don't know how sailors stay upright in a violently roiling sea.

I woke up at 3 in the morning and looked out the window and saw a bright moon in a mostly clear sky. I went on deck to look at the sky. Without city lights I was hoping the stars would look close enough to touch. The sky was full of stars and a couple of planets. The did not appear to be close enough to touch, but there were many many more than I normally can see. It was the first time in a long time I was able to clearly identify the Big Dipper and other constellations.


Now I will try to wake up at 6:30 to see the sun rise.

Sunrise was ok, nothing spectacular. Pretty, but when it came up there was a marine layer, so by the time it was visible it had been up a while.

Later we passed my many small islands. At first they appeared to be just rocks, as we got closer you could see green foliage. Some had antennas on it's highest point. One looked to be a resort. We are going through the Yangtze River to get to Guangzhou and there is a lot of activity by smaller ferries island hoping.

I forgot to mention that as we left Haikou there was what appeared to be a sail surfing competition about a mile off shore. It was pretty cool. If the pictures are acceptable I will post them.

We are to arrive in port at 11.30, 20.5 hours after we set sail.

TTYL

Terry

We are going to be 2 hours late arriving. I don't know for sure, but we may have been slowed by the weather on the China Sea. The small islands we passed were nearer to Shenzhen than Guangzhou. This is a heavily traveled water way. That makes sense because Guangzhou is a huge manufacturing center. I have been told that this is where New Balance, Nike and the rest of the shoe companies have their factories.

I have eaten two meals on board, both the same and both hit my stomach like a lead balloon. The lunch today seemed to be what was left from yesterday that they did not expect to serve, but because of the delay they served it to us. At least it was free.

We disembarked at 2:40 p.m. It was an interesting trip, but next time I will not do it alone.

Below is an image of the China Sea. If you look closely you will see a large island (Hainan) just south of the central part of China. There is a line drawn from the s.e. corner of the island to Guangzhou, that is the route the ship took.