Summer Travels

My last week in Shanghai I got another email from my post on Expats.com about doing a language exchange. After several emails and text messages I met up with Judy at a subway station near her work. It was after six so she took me to one of her favorite restaurants. There was a wait to get a seat which usually is an indication of good food. I was not disappointed.

We had small side dishes of corn, greens, lotus root and a bowl of rice. The main dish was a large steel bowl of tender fish in oil with peppers and other seasonings. Though the meal could have fed 3-4 people we did our best to finish it off.

My Chinese was and is still far from conversational. She would teach me a few words and phrases here and there, but for the most part we relied on here significant English capabilities to learn about each other's background and culture.

Born in 1977, she is a year younger than me, but in China you are considered 1-year old when you are born, making us both 31. She is just old enough to be born before the advent of the One Child Policy and has a younger brother. The mother of a 23-month old son, she dislikes the One Child Policy, though she is not interested in having a second child any time soon. She and her husband live with his parents, allowing them both to work full time and rarely have to prepare meals. Her husband works as an IT manager and she is the assistant manager of a steel import/export company. Eventually she would like to open her own import export business.

In college Judy studied English, but she never had a chance to travel abroad and immerse herself in the language. As such she can read and write quite well, but there were times when our spoken communication broke down. That said we had lively conversations and I enjoyed hearing her perceptions of and opinions on the US and the world.

Whether it is the media, Bush, Clinton or Hollywood, big names and big institutions get much credit and much blame. For all the positive social changes popularized by Hollywood, movies and television have also exaggerated many negative stereotypes about people in the US. At one point Judy asked me about social interactions between men and women in the US, essentially questioning the impression that in the US people are very promiscuous. Is it true that people people meet, kiss and have sex on the first date? While this may be true for some people, it is far from the norm. Still this perception is common in many countries around the world, which can create awkward situations when romantic interests Americans do not progress as quickly as they do in the movies.

Judy was also curious why people in the United States are still prejudiced against women and blacks. That was a challenging question to field given language limitations and the significant variability in prejudices among people within the United States. In a nut shell, I tried to clarify that we all have prejudices and while the US has a long way to go as far to eliminate racial and sexual bigotry, we have also made a lot of progress, particularly in the past 60 years.

For me prejudice usually connotes racial bigotry, but feelings of prejudice or pre-judgement can easily apply to other groups as well. To be able to address prejudice on a societal level one first must be able to recognize it in one's self. I won't air my laundry list here, but I know that I harbor my fair share of negative opinions about some segments of American society. My opinions are part belief, part past experience and part lack of understanding for some points of view. As such I am inclined to pre-judge some people based on their political leanings or religious affiliation.

Interestingly Judy made no secret of disliking Indians and Japanese. She recalled an experience where she replied to a language exchange post similar to mine. The English speaker was a business man from India who was really looking for a Chinese girlfriend. This was not Judy's interest at all, and tarnished her view of Indians. As for Japan, the Chinese frequently protest Japan's unwillingness to apologize for atrocities committed against the Chinese and others during the World War II and Judy is no exception. Half teasing, I tried to give her a hard time for being prejudice, but she denied that it was prejudice at all. Unfortunately our language skills were not broad enough to explore the semantics of her assertions. While the prejudice in her remarks was blatant, I am sure her opinions and dislikes are more nuanced than she was able to communicate.

Since we did not connect until the very end of my time in Shanghai, we only met once. Since then we have exchanged a couple emails. I am in the middle of trying to explain the stereotype that Americans begin and end friendships as is convenient. In Asian countries and places where people tend to stay in the same place all their lives, friendships take a long time to build and are not lightly discarded. Examining the sources of American stereotypes is one of my favorite parts of these cultural exchanges.

Living across town from the University where Stacy went for classes meant that we didn't usually participate in the late night excursions of her mostly younger classmates. On the last day, after the final and closing ceremony, we ventured out for an evening of Karaoke at Party World. Finding taxi's for 30 people was a challenge and we were the last group to get into a cab.

We arrived at what looked like a hotel, with long lines of taxi's collecting and depositing passengers. We wandered into the lobby and were fortunate to have a Chinese speaker in out midst to help locate our party in the dozens if not hundreds of Karaoke rooms. While Karaoke in the states is usually found in bars, where everyone enjoys or agonizes through each singer, Asian karaoke bars are set up so groups of friends or colleagues can have their own private karaoke experience. We eventually found our group in rooms 392 and 393, busy selecting play lists, belting out classics and pouring the first of many rounds of drinks.

The rooms were sound proofed with one or two large screen tv's so everyone can see the lyrics. Smaller consoles in the room let you browse available songs and add them to the rooms play list. A large selection of English and Chinese songs were available. The videos accompanying the songs were rarely if ever done by the original artist and there were frequently amusing errors in the English lyrics.

Introverts though we are, eventually Stacy and I were coaxed to the microphone. Whether on the mic or singing along in the background, the belting out of lyrics and the clouds of cigarette smoke did a number on our throats. Despite raspy voices and a long cab ride home, we both had a great time. I imagine there are similar karaoke parlors in some of the big cities in the US, though I have never heard of them. If not, they get my vote for the next big thing.

This past weekend I discovered that my tourist visa was only for 30 days. Our stay in Shanghai will be 35 days, which means I have to apply for an extension. I went online and combed through the guide books for instructions on how to accomplish this task and found little information on the subject.

Passportsandvisas.com was perhaps the most helpful in terms of addressing Frequently Asked Questions...

After the fact I found the Lonely Planet forums to be a good place to look for a wide range of visa scenarios.

While the visa extension process reportedly varies from place to place, the procedure below is based on my experience in Shanghai (July 2007).

Where to go...
The Public Security Bureau (PSB) handles visa, passport and other registration issues. The Shanghai PSB is in Pudong, very close to the Science and Technology Museum which conveniently has a Metro stop along Line 2.

When to go...
Early. The PSB is open from 9:00 – 17:00, but most workers take a lunch between 11:30 and 13:30. I arrived at 11:00 and had to wait for over an hour – this turned out to be a good thing, because I needed to get a passport photo, fill out the visa form and make copies of my paperwork.

What to take...
1) Valid Passport and Visa
2) Original and copy of the certificate of check-in in Shanghai (this could be from your hotel or the police substation for the area in which you are staying)
3) Passport photo (available on the 1st floor of the PSB building)
4) Travel itinerary showing when you plan to leave China

What to do when you arrive...
Visa applications are handled on the third floor. On the first floor you can get a sheet of six (6) passport photos for $30 RMB. There are copy stations on each floor. One photo copy was $1 RMB. All signs inside the building are in English and Chinese, so it is not difficult to find your way around.

1) Take a Number
At the top of the escalator to the third floor is an attendant who will hand you a printed ticket showing your number in the queue.

2) Get an information sheet for your visa type
To the right of the ascending escalator is a counter with informational sheets describing the application process for each visa type. The sheets are printed in Chinese on the front and English on the back. (see below)

3) Fill out a Visa and Residence Permit Application Form
To the left of the ascending escalator is a waiting area and a counter to fill out forms. Fill in as much information as you can on the front. Sign, date and fill in your phone number on the back. For a visa extension, I did not have to complete items 6 through 10 on the back side of the form (see blank form below).

4) Attach your passport photo to the form
Glue is provided at the form counter to affix your passport picture to the visa form.

5) Wait
Keep an eye on the reader boards above the waiting area that show which desk to go to when it is your turn. If you miss your turn, you have to start at the end of the queue. Double check that you have filled out the form correctly.

6) It’s your turn...
Give your paperwork to the attendant. Assuming everything is in order, he/she will take your passport and paperwork and give you a receipt. The processing time for my visa extension was one (1) week. For more money I probably could have had it expedited.

7) Pick up your passport
Return to the PSB, take a number and pick up your passport (I haven’t done this part yet). My receipt indicates that I will have to pay $160 RMB for the extension.

Other Notes
Don’t let your visa expire. It is much more difficult to get a new visa than to get an extension of an existing one. There are usually fees involved for those who over-stay their visa.

Many suggest avoiding large cities, like Shanghai or Beijing, and small cities when dealing with the PSB. Mid sized cities tend to be much for friendly and helpful.

Another common warning is to not apply for an extension until the end of your current visa. Your extension begins from the date of application. Any remaining days on your original visa are lost. see lonely planet forum thread

For students, here is the Visa Instructions sheet...

I've just arrived at school for my second to last day of class! I can't believe how quickly time has gone by and I will miss my walks in the park. My recent favorite phenomenon is the systematic power washing of trees there and on campus. I'm not sure if there's more to this or if it just create jobs, but it sure stirs up a lot of dirt. We've been lucky to be here during a bit of a rainy season. Generally it is very hot and humid, but about once a week we get great thunder and rain storms. They bless us by cooling it down a little and dragging some of the moisture out of the air for a half day or so. It also agitates the cicadas into a lovely crescendo which I never get tired of listening to. Though they seem ever present, I still have yet to see a live one. One of our professors referred to this time of year as "Yellow Plum" season because all of the rain ripens the plums to a beautiful color and taste. She warned us this is only recognized in this small, coastal region, where the north and south winds meet the ocean breezes.

We were all able to get away this weekend for three days on a field trip to Hangzhou ("han - jo"), where the beautiful West Lake is located. This is where President Nixon met Mao Zedong in 1972 in a monumental trip which began the first bilateral discussions of friendship and cooperation between modern China and the U.S. At least President Clinton has also since visited Hangzhou since. Perhaps a Chinese retreat or Camp David of sorts.

On Friday we visited a tea farm and ate some fresh green tea.

The Chinese “eat a cup of tea” because they do not filter it and you end up eating a lot of leaves.

While that might sound bitter, the tea we tasted was head and shoulders above any green tea I had ever tasted and chewing the leaves was pleasant. Of course then they offered to sell us teas- including different levels of quality. The highest was the Emperor's Tea, the next highest (the one that we tasted) was Daughter tea. The third quality was called Daughter-in-Law and the lowest quality was called Mother-in-Law. Joe and I agreed the lower qualities were poorly named, but nonetheless we did not buy any in-law tea.

There were also a lot of temples and pagodas to be seen Saturday. And there were mountains and clear skies! We weren't sure they really existed after spending all this time where it is so flat it seems like you could see forever if it weren't for the smog.

The clear skies made way for a strong sun and incredible heat - the lows were about 35 degrees celcius (95 F) for all three days. Saturday night, about fourteen of us went out for tremendous Indian food (a buffet with a mango focus), followed by a river walk to where else but Haagen Dazs and Starbucks.

Sunday, after visiting the "elevator pagoda" (which had been rebuilt in the past several years so you did not have to walk to the top), we got back in the bus to come home. It was about a 3 hour bus ride, but the savvier Shanghainese take the hour and a half train to get to and from the city. It really did feel like a rest from the bustle, so it was ironic to discover that Hangzhou itself is home to 6 1/2 million people.

Many more pictures from our Hangzhou trip are posted in web albums.

All Albums

Individual Hangzhou albums
People and Places
Tea Farm
Leifang Pagoda
Liuhe Pagoda
Lingyin Temple

Yesterday we played tourist at the Jade Buddha Temple. Jade is a popular carving medium in China. There is a whole section dedicated to jade in the Shanghai Museum. The actual temple with its yellow walls and pagoda style eaves is encroached on all sides by modern buildings and streets.

Inside the temple is a courtyard with a shrine housing several large Buddha statues. The structure surrounding the courtyard contained several smaller Buddha figures as well as tourist shops and a vegetarian restaurant.

Despite a steady rain and flocks of tourists we saw several people take time to pray in the courtyard and inside the temple. Outside worshipers lit bundles of incense and proceeded to bow in the four directions of the compass. Inside, pads on the floor allowed the devout to kneel and pray to Buddha.

Small red globes were draped across the courtyard and underneath the awnings over walkways.

At one point I was invited up to the second floor of the gift shop where a nice Chinese man made a carefully scripted sales pitch for some incredibly beautiful (not to mention expensive) items carved from wood and jade. Though I didn’t see a price tag, one of the most spectacular pieces was a monastic scene carved out of a mahogany stump depicting at least 18 different Buddhist monks doing daily activities. Additionally there were animals, buildings, and even a dragon or two. Supposedly it took two monks three years to carve scene. Unfortunately they did not allow pictures in the gift shop.

In one of the side galleries next to a reclining Buddha was a booth selling Chinese Paper Cuts.

Not to be confused with the dreaded office war wound, Chinese paper cuts are elaborate images cut from a single piece of tissue paper. In the picture above, the red image on the left depicts the Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai. An image like that may take one to two days to create.

Stacy and I visited the temple with several of her classmates. We finished off our tour with a meal at the vegetarian restaurant. The university cafeteria has a buffet meal three times a day for the law students, but after a while the same sweet, oil heavy, Chinese dishes start to wear on the palate. We enjoyed a wonderful meal that included herb encrusted cashews, a ramen noodle soup with imitation pork, taro (a root vegetable) with broccoli and cheese sauce, sweet and sour tofu, and a few others.

After our meal we were talked into a picture in the court yard.

You can read more about the Jade Buddha Temple on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Buddha_Temple