China Journals 1: Land of the Yellow People

Sunday; April 23, 2006

• The tourist group
• Ting from Shenzhen
• Hard sellers
• Food at last!
• Chilly cruise

Ok, this was a group tour by Honey Holidays. It was arranged to be an eight-day trip to China covering Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Xian. We left home at around 430am. Our flight to Shenzhen was scheduled at 630. At the airport, we got to meet the other members of the group. Our group was 27-persons big; 6 families with 3 to 6 members each. There were also 10 of us in the same age group, two of them anti-socials we never got to interact with the whole trip. These are the seven other peeps I got to talk to:

(from left: the author, edward, michael, carlo, francis, arol,
mark, dane, jam, jane, r-something, r-something and bianca)

1. Dane, 21, Ateneo alumni. MECO, poor tagalog!
2. Francis, 21, La Salle. CLA, AYOS LANG!
3. Bianca, 20, Miriam, Francis’ sis, master haggler
4. Jam, 21, UP alumni, MECO, Nestle, bungisngis
5. Jane, 23, UP din, Accenture, Jam’s ate, dyosa daw
6. Mark, 16, St. Stephen, RAGNAROK ADDICT
7. Arol, 18, La Salle, My sis, whatever (J/K)

We arrived at Shenzhen airport before 9. It was a smooth 2-hour trip. At the airport, we were welcomed by our local tour guide, Ting. She was around 27, petite, typical Chinese features, pretty good English accent. Shenzhen is a relatively young city. 25 years young. It is China’s economic zone; kind’da similar to Sta. Rosa. She led us to our bus and headed straight to the 1^st picture-taking destination, Windows of the World. It boasts huge replicas of the 7 wonders of the ancient and the modern world. The place was nice, but we never got to enter the theme park, ‘twas just a stop-over.

Next stop was a jade museum. My god! The museum guide was hooooootttt! Hehe! The tour only lasted for less than 15 mins. After that, a platoon on red-dressed ladies charged towards us. They have one thing in mind, sell us jade. Man, they were really impressive. The most persistent bunch of sales force you would ever encounter! Total damage: around 700 RMB. Bonus: 1 free cup of tea.

We scurried to the airport after that. Not quite understanding what Ting said, We assumed it was “You will have your lunch at the airplane.” So we all boarded the plane to Shanghai hoping to taste some delicious airplane entrée. The flight attendant first gave us wet napkins followed by a bag of nuts. Ok, appetizer. 10 minutes later, we saw them pushing the food cart again. Alas! Candies! Dessert! We then realized that Ting actually said, “You have lunch at the AIRPORT!” S-H-I-T!

We arrived Shanghai airport two hours later hungry as hell. A new tour guide welcomed us, Allan. He speaks better English but has a bit of an Aussie accent. We asked him how long does it take to reach the next destination, hopefully, a restaurant. Luckily, it really was a restaurant but after an hour of travel, the damage has been done.

Custard, tofu, steamed fish, pechay, chicken, meatballs, dimsum, more pechay; it was the most delicious meal I ever had! Or maybe it just because I was too hungry to be judging the taste of the food served. After dinner we had this river cruise. It was sooooo cold! I couldn’t feel that snot was dripping down my nose! But it was worth it. Shanghai by night was very beautiful! There were lights everywhere, a mix of old and new structures glowing with neon lights. After the 40-minute cruise, it’s off to the hotel.

Its actually a motel, Motel 168. But it’s different from the motel you green-minded guys know or actually privileged use. HAHAHA!