Construction, Parks, and Museums

This may be weird to say, but some of these cities are starting to look the same. Not because of the Chinese characters on the buildings, or the fact that it’s really hot, but because they all look sort of similar. Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Tianjin are all fairly new and renovated, and are all continuing to have a bunch of construction to add more high-rises. The constant view of construction and being surrounded by concrete is starting to get old, so when I went to the park and the river today it was a change of pace—a breath of fresh air.

Benches line the sidewalks at the park. I went to the park right after lunchtime, so naturally it was time for the Chinese “ciesta” (nap). Individuals would find benches in the shade, and fully sprawl out on them! It was kind of funny, and I had a huge smile as I walked by the napping Chinese; but if I were in their shoes I think it would be kind of relaxing to take a nap in the shade on a hot day. Doesn’t sound half bad to me!

In addition to the park and river, I also went to the Tianjin Museum, where I learned all about the history of Tianjin. It turns out that Tianjin was China’s biggest port back in the early 1900s—so that hasn’t changed all too much. But being one of the biggest ports, Tianjin was used quite frequently to import opium into the country—people here are still kind of bitter about those darn Opium Wars…

The museum was fairly empty. Well, except for the 100 middle school students on a field trip. Besides the rooms being very noisy, I was bothered on 6 different occasions by groups of boys and girls wanting to take pictures of me. They were, supposedly, learning about the western influence on China at this museum, and the fact that I was there was just icing on the cake. Girls would giggle and eventually one of them would be brave enough to come up to me and ask for a picture. Then five more girls would run into frame while three or four cameras were taking pictures. And this happened six times…I started getting a little bit annoyed by the third wave of kids, but powered on through it. When the school group left I had about a fourth of the museum left to see, and boy that last fourth was a great change of pace!

(I found Ulysses S. Grant!)

At the museum, I came upon a section that was titled “Pioneers of Modern Science and Technology”. There were 10 or so Chinese men that were featured on this wall, and I noticed something similar about all of these men—they all received bachelor degrees from Ivy League schools (I included some of the pictures below so you can confirm this for yourself)! It seemed as if the museum was trying to promote the Ivies, or at least inspire students to work hard enough because if you can go to an Ivy league school you can be one of the next Pioneers of today’s science and technology! Haha!

After the museum, I went waltzing around downtown and came upon the shopping district from yesterday. A familiar place was nice. As I was walking around through the shopping district, I passed by one of the Nike stores and had to take a picture—I walked inside but they wouldn’t allow me to take one in the store. They had a display full of Nike Free iD shoes, and the color combinations they had were endless. I felt so tempted to go in and buy a pair of shoes just because the colors drew me in. Luckily I came to my senses and they told me I had to go outside if I wanted a picture, so I didn’t even bother coming back in (humph!).

In a previous post I wrote about how pairs of girls, and pairs of guys, hold hands in public. It’s totally acceptable, and it’s seen as a manly thing when a pair of dudes holds hands. Another A-OK thing to do for girls is to use an umbrella in the sun—or should I say: sunbrella. Much like Americans value skin-tone and color, the Chinese value the color of one’s skin a lot. Unlike Americans, the Chinese try to stay as pale and white as possible. A Chinese woman described it to me that they like to have “tender” skin, and the sun damages that. Because of this, it is very common to see girls use sunbrellas, wear large sunhats, or even wear long arm sleeves that cover their hands. Gotta keep that skin tender!

Tomorrow I will be leaving the city of Tianjin for Shanghai. I am ready to take on the second largest city in China (and no, Beijing wasn’t the largest one). Happy June 1st!

-Alex