I Don't Even Like Politics...

Today started off dark and dreary, but ended up being sunny and beautiful!

The first thing I did today was go down Nanjing road, the Shanghai version of lake shore drive. There were stores lining the street selling watches, shoes, clothes…nike, adidas, lacoste. All fake, but people were selling them! I was hunted down a couple times by some store owners, “Do you like watches? Do you need shoes? Do you need shirts?” And they would walk with me for two blocks saying, “Come and just look at my store.” I can’t recall how many times I said “no thank you” while walking down Nanjing road.  

(Cathedral a block over from Nanjing Road)

While on this shopping street, there was a huge advertisement of Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls, and some Adidas shoes he was promoting. It was pretty cool to see a Chicagoan make his presence all the way over in China. Oh, and have I mentioned how much the Chinese love the NBA? They love kuh-bee (Kobe) and luh-boo-lawn Jah-mu-shuhh (Lebron James). They pronounce “Rose” as Low-suh…something about R’s and L’s…and the NBA has a huge advertising presence in China—they have these American stars promote the environment along with other Chinese products, especially Kobe Bryant (even more so than Yao Ming!)

(I can't understand any of the writing except for "MVP". I'm OK with that)

After walking around a bit, and getting hassled by store vendors, I started to make my way towards the fine dining establishment of McDonalds. While walking, a Chinese man stops me and asks, “Are you Christian?” My response naturally was, “Who’s asking?” He said that he was a Christian and he wanted to talk to someone who shared the same belief. As this man was following me to McDonalds, he started asking me questions about my political stance: “Who did you vote for in the last election?” “Did you vote Republican?” “Do you like Obama?” “Is your father a Republican?” “You liked the Bush family, didn’t you?” I started to have some doubts that this guy was a Christian, but maybe that was because the obvious purpose of him walking and talking to me was that he wanted to find out how Christians typically vote; and that he has a preconceived notion that all Christians are Republicans. I was a little bothered by this guy, but he was kind and after he was done asking his questions he went away…odd experience.

Soon enough, the sun started peeking through the clouds and I was able to take some cool pictures over the river. I explored a different dock, a less crowded one, and was able to see some new buildings.

While hanging outside, enjoying the pretty view, I posted up with my iPad and started reading John Piper’s Desiring God, a recommendation I had gotten from a friend (reading on the iPad is nowhere as pleasant to reading on a kindle, or paper for that matter). When reading nonfiction, I typically don’t like to read something that is very deep and makes me think after every paragraph; even though this book does that, I find it (so far) to be very interesting and enjoyable. From what I’ve gathered so far, the premise of the book is that our purpose in life is to glorify God by enjoying God. It gets waaay more complicated and in-depth, but that’s the general gist of it (a pretty cool perspective, and has some solid evidence behind it!).

When it got dark, I went exploring downtown and came upon the “snow” lights hanging down from the trees along the side of the streets. In one of my first blog posts I mentioned these exact same lights in Aruba and the square in Guangzhou, and yet again here they are—in Shanghai! (thought of you, Dad).

-Alex

Under the Sea

Lots of Rain = Indoor Activity Day

After all of the great weather that has come my way, today was the first major rainy day. So I did what most people do on rainy days—fun indoor activities! I checked out two of the major malls at Shanghai and went to the Aquarium, both of which were packed with youngsters.

 Turtle

 Sawfish

 Crazy huge Crabs

 Jellies!

 Penguins having fun

 Chinese Sea Dragon

 Blue Jellies

Ally-gator

 Taking a nap

 Love it

Hey, look who I found in the gift shop!

Even as a 20 year old, it was pretty fun to see turtles, sharks, and jellyfishes.

I debated putting this up or not, but it was too ridiculous to pass up on. I can’t believe that this would be a Chinese legend that people tell their children about...make sure to view it in fullscreen so you can read it.

In one of the malls was an Audi exhibition (or something like that).

I particularly liked this section of the mall, encouraging and “inspiring” young builders of tomorrow. Great marketing on behalf of LEGO.

Happy Saturday everyone!

-Alex

New Favorite City: Shanghai

I have heard that Shanghai is dreadful in the summer with just crazy humidity and the temperature maxing out at 110 degrees. Luckily, I was walking around today with 86 degree weather and a nice breeze coming off the river. Not only was the weather just perfect, the city of Shanghai is SO COOL!

I went exploring today on Shanghai’s main boardwalk, the Bund. The Bund consists of a bunch of European styled buildings, and they were constructed when Britain and other western powers came to Shanghai a long time ago. On one side of the river is the Bund, and on the other side is another densely populated area (I don’t know what it’s called but it is) the heart of downtown Shanghai. In the downtown section there is a huge TV tower, a bunch of skyscrapers, and some crazy cool malls. Different elevated bridges connect buildings together, making it easy for pedestrians to get by.

While walking, I saw about 5 electric-cars parked on the boardwalk, and they were designed in such a way that they became like ice-cream trucks, but for beverages. Below is a car vendor for Coca-Cola—and I got a 550mL water bottle for 1 yuan—for 15 cents! (How do you like that marketing, BPang?)

I continued walking along the boardwalk and came to a section that was called the “Bund Viewing Tunnel”. I was in my exploring mode so I went and checked it out. 55 Yuan later (8 bucks), I was in a cart going underneath the river in a tunnel that had crazy flashing lights. Below are just two pictures—it was nuts. Mom, if you are reading this, you would not like to go through the tunnel one bit.

After the crazy-lights ride, I came out of the tunnel and was on the other side of the river. In the cart with me was a guy named Chris that I had just met. Chris is from Canada but works in Australia, but was taking his winter vacation (cause the seasons are all screwed up in Australia…) in China for a bit. We ended up talking for a bit on the other side of the river and sat down at a Starbucks to talk over some drinks. Pretty cool dude.

While taking pictures on the river, we saw this adorably tiny McDonalds building. It looked big enough to hold about two or three port-a-potties. But this McDonalds vendor solely sold ice cream, which I thought was pretty sweet (no pun intended). There ended up being two of these right next to the river. Oh, and the Chinese love to hang out together over an ice cream or an iced-coffee beverage. Especially in the summer or in hot places, you see a lot of people holding an ice cream cone.

After Chris had left, I stayed on the Starbucks patio to read while enjoying the shade and a cool breeze. Sitting at that Starbucks right on the river was one of the more peaceful moments I’ve had in a long time. Earlier that morning I had finished reading my pastor’s book The Power of a Whisper—SIDE NOTE: Do you ever pick up a book, get real excited about reading it, read two chapters, and then don’t pick it up until 8 months later? Good, me too—and I remember reading a chapter last year about Bill (the pastor) recalling his experiences traveling alone across the globe while still being a teenager. I thought it would be suiting to reread that chapter due to me traveling alone, and I came upon a passage that I underlined and written in my journal a year ago.

In this passage Bill, at 16 years old, is traveling alone in Rio de Janeiro, sitting at a restaurant at a beach. He overheard a retired couple a table over from him say, “Honey, being here tonight, at this hotel on this beach, makes all of life’s efforts worthwhile. I mean, look at this! Copacabana Beach! The long hours at work, the overtime, the business travel….It was all worth it to be able to be right here, right now.” Bill was put off by that comment, because he was sitting at that beach—and 50 years later that exact same beach should be the goal of his time spent working? Bill felt that God was whispering to him, “How many checks will you need to pile up before you get it? If money fired you up, you would have used your last two bullets by now (talking about the money he had while in Brazil). Paychecks are never going to energize you, Bill. That is not who I wired you to be.” I had that phrase underlined, because I felt God was saying the same thing to me: “money and material items aren’t worth it—they don’t get you excited, Alex. I have something bigger in store for you.” As I reread this, those same feelings came back to me a year later in another country while traveling alone. How fitting? But this time, as I read this part of the chapter, I felt that that calling doesn’t apply to only me, but I think that calling is supposed to be for everyone.

Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Whatever you occupation may be, God wants you to work, in whatever capacity that may be, for Him.  Not that earning money and having a nicer income is a bad thing, but I don’t think God’s intention was to get people fired up and energized over money—but being energized that we can serve God and his people with that money, that we can get fired up about! Even more than just earning money, if you are working at an occupation where you come in contact with people, (probably 95% of occupations) then serve God in the relationships you have at work: love one another. Take a genuine interest in that other person: their family, their hobbies, their strengths and fears. Serve God right where you are. That sure pumps me up!

(You fly that China flag!)

After more exploring through the “heart of downtown” and seeing some cool buildings like the gigantic TV tower, I turned a corner and saw something I had seen on the internet…the outside of Shanghai’s Apple Store! It’s soo cool! The main entrance is a glass encased staircase that goes underground…and then you are in the store (which is pretty normal). The store is rather large for an Apple Store, if I do say so myself…and listening to Dave Barnes’ Little Lies on the factory-set iPod touches was pretty sweet…Dave Barnes having a musical presence in China—I had no clue.

Soon enough it was nighttime, so I got to take some pretty awesome pictures of Shanghai.

(The heart of downtown)

(The Bund)

Overall it was a sweet day. And I can say, just after today, that Shanghai is definitely my favorite city in China.

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