We were boarded by people in hazmat suits, it was crazy. They were using lazer guns to scan people's foreheads to see if they had a fever. If anyone was hot, they had someone follow up on them with an oral thermometer. It took about an hour for them to clear our plane as swine flu free. Then they let us off the plane... that's when the lineups began.
We lined up to go through inspection&quarantine, then customs, then to get our luggage, then there was a huge line to get out, then a line for the maglev. There's something to be said about travelling at 300km/h backwards across rural china. Then we lined up to get off the train, down an escalator. I was accosted by two chinese ladies trying to give me some adds. Then lined up for taxis. Finally at the hotel, no more lines. Apparently our hotel is too upscale, so it's not affordable by real people.
Then George and I get to our rooms and we're a little hungry. So we go out, there's a noodle joint right by the hotel, so we go there. Honestly, the restaurant is' about 15 feet deep by 10 feet wide. The guy is making rice noodles at the front, and tables are all over the place. To sit on you get a tiny bar stool, the kind kids use in kidergarden. I felt like a giant. We got noodles, really fresh (obviously since we watched the guy roll em out) and very tasty. It's like a vietnamese style Pho except there's curry spice in the broth. The bowl had more noodles than broth in it, and very little meat, but it was tasty. I couldn't finish, too much food for being that tired. Total price, 12 RMB for the two of us. That's a little under $2.
Sleeping was an issue, the hotel has no window, and the AC kinda sucks, 27 degrees celcius sucks. Apparently it gets better because the AC is just slow. Anyways, it was good in the end, I slept from 9pm to 6am... got up, went back to bed got up again at 7am... showered and went to breakfast. All you can eat buffet, very tasty, weird bacon, saussage, omelette, veggies... lol, steamed cauliflower said the name tag in front of the brocolli, no cauliflower in sight. Very tasty steamed buns, one veggy one meat, both tasty.
So walking around in china is also a challenege, here's what I've learned in the past 24 hours:
1) sidewalks are for appearance only, it's easier to walk in the street because, uh, well, for no apparent reason, but everyone walks in the street.
2) street signs and traffic lights only count for big intersections. When crossing anything but the largest intersections, slow down (if you feel like it), honk (this is almost mandatory) and keep driving. If someone is blocking your way you should stop or swerve to avoid them. If you can get in front of them and block them, then you have the right of way, because they have to stop for you now.
3) If you're stopped at a red light, people behind you are more likely to drive around you than to stop behind you.
4) Large busses ALWAYS have the right of way. No Exceptions, not even the police.
5) If you're big and white, people will give you more room on the street than if you're chinese. Probably because big white guys are less predictable and could potentially damage your vehicle more.
Lunch... Hunan style food is crazy spicy. Liu FanFan told me this about spicy food. Sechuan people are not afraid of spice and Hunan people are afraid of "not spice". Hunan food is crazy kick you in the pants spicy. But very tasty! For lunch I had Frog leg stew, a vegetable which probably doesn't have an english name, Spicy rabbit skewers, fermented tofu cubes aka. black tofu, delicious "pumpkin" soup (it was a squash, but not pumpkin, this was my favourite), spicy tofu, "bacon" fried rice, more soup (they gave us a free bowl after FanFan told them it was my favourite). All that greatness at a fancy restaurant for $26, crazy!
Work... the office is hot, I have a corner window desk... nobody has an office, the cubes are tiny... George, Fanfan and I are in a space the size of my cube back home. The people are very nice, Liu Qing helped me get all set up, he's awesome... looks like he's 18-19 but apparently he's 25.
To try out chinese coke, I go to the corner store "Family Mart", I buy 1 coke, 1 coke zero, and I got a frappacino thing for Autumn. Total cost 12.50 RMB (about $2), I pay with a 100RMB bill (I didn't have anything smaller). The cashier looks at me, says something in Chinese ending with "ma" which means it's a question. I shrug cus I have no clue, then she says 12.50 in chinese (I made out that she was saying numbers, I assume she said 12.50) then she points at the 100 RMB bill and gestures "smaller" I shake my head and say no. So she gives me a stack of 10RMB bills as change. I know that 20 and 50 RMB bills exist, but apparently corner stores aren't that rich. Anyways, chinese coke is weird, leaves a strange after taste. I don't like it. I still have to try coke zero though... maybe that's good. And pepsi.
Well, now we're headed to supper... cantonese I think. I've convinced the guys to stay away from spice for tonight.
This blog will be scattered and rambling because I'm jet lagged. And I'll get pictures up as soon as I have a cable to download from the camera, I think I may have left the camera cable back home... oh well, I'm sure the cable was made in china anyways.
Don't forget to try the breakfast things from the cart on the corner. They're kick ass!
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