Weekend in Shaoxing

Going to bed at 2:30 AM after Thanksgiving dinner and getting up to travel to Shaoxing was a bit of a struggle. Selina didn't wake up to her alarm so I had to run in and wake her up. We both threw clothes into a bag and headed down to meet everyone for our organized weekend trip. We ran into Tammy and Tran in the elevators and they asked if we remembered our passports. Selina and I looked at each other, sighed with resignation, and instead of getting out at the lobby we pushed the 14 button on the elevator. I held the elevator for Selina as she ran in for her passport and then she held the elevator as I ran in for mine. We were the last people on the bus and were met with applause from the rest of the group. We felt better when we saw that Maggie looked as tired as we were. Shaoxing is about a 3 hour bus ride from Shanghai so we slept the whole way there. We arrived in Shaoxing around noon, dropped off our stuff, and went to lunch. I was not a fan of the Shaoxing cuisine. They eat a lot of dofu and they really like the stinky dofu. It smells awful and tastes just like it smells. They also like fish a lot there because it's a water town. They have over 10,000 bridges in the city and about 5 million people. I loved the way the canals swept through the streets. It had a more authentic China feel than Shanghai does.

After lunch we visited two factories. One factory made shirts and the other factory made pants. There were rows upon rows of men and women sitting at sewing machines making different parts of clothing from pockets to collars. They said that they are paid based on how much they make in a day. We walked around both of the factories for a while and then we were given free time before dinner. Bill, Kyle, and I went walking through the residential alleys. The level of peace in the back alleys was incredible. You couldn't here a single car and there were families and children sitting outside their homes. We passed by a man dissecting a turtle for his dinner and we stopped to watch. It goes to show how China has desensitized us when we can stand there and watch him and ask if they eat the parts he was pulling out. He asked us if we wanted to stay for dinner but we respectfully declined. We met with the group and ate dinner and then Bill and I embarked further into the alleys in the dark. He made the remark that in the US you would never walk down alleys in the dark no matter what city you're in but Shaoxing we didn't feel threatened. As we crossed what I believed to be bridge number 6,581 an old woman with her grandchild stopped to talk to us. The little girl was the cutest kid I have ever seen. She found my hands fascinating because I had leather gloves on. As we stood there the lady asked us if we were a mother and a father to which we said no. She seemed convinced that we were because we liked playing with her granddaughter so we finally said that we had two children and that they were in America. Bill said we were on vacation and that's why they weren't with us. At this point the woman reached out and rubbed my stomach. She asked if I was "something" but I couldn't understand. I assumed she was asking if I was pregnant again and I nodded my head just for fun. She looked super excited and rubbed my stomach several more times. After she left, Bill and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. It was a very unexpected encounter.

After the bridge we headed over to the Shaoxing performance hall. We walked inside just to see what it looked like and a guard told us there was a Chinese opera being performed. He pointed to an open door on the side and said if we wanted to go in we could. We walked in and were shown to two seats. One thing I have noticed about any kind of performance here is that Chinese people talk through anything. Anywhere else you could never talk constantly during a performance but they definitely do here. Bill and I joined in and didn't stop talking until we left and not a single person told us to stop. We returned to the hotel and Selina and Maggie followed shortly after. At this point it was 9:00 and all three of us went to sleep. There was a KTV, Chinese karaoke bar, on the floor above and it sounded like it was in our room. This didn't bother me though and Selina said I fell asleep in less than a minute. It was a wonderfully uninterrupted and much needed sleep.

We got up on Saturday at 8:00, ate breakfast, and then took boats down the canals. It was really cool to relax in the boats and watch the locals go about their morning routines of washing clothes or making breakfast. We got out of the boats and took rickshaws to Luxun's old house. He is a famous scholar in China and literally everyone knows who he is. We saw where he used to live and where he went to school. After the house and school we had lunch and then climbed Screaming Mountain. It wasn't like climbing to the gazebo but we were all winded by the time we reached the top. There is a Buddhist temple being reconstructed at the top and it was the first temple that I have been able to take pictures in. The entire place was deserted except for two dogs walking around. The view would have been nice but it was really hazy. After the mountain we had the whole afternoon off so everyone went back to the hotel to take a nap. Kind of pathetic, I know. We went to dinner and then to mix things up about 8 of us went to an arcade with pool tables and a roller skating rink. We roller skated for about an hour and I'm proud to say I didn't fall once. My days of street hockey have finally paid off! Selina and Maggie were limping the next day from their wipe outs and they kept giving me looks of disgust because I was injury free :)

On Sunday we went to an old town just outside of Shaoxing and had lunch. We walked around more alleys and then got on the bus back to Shanghai. We got back around 3:30 and then spent the afternoon doing pretty much nothing. Overall the trip was really fun. It was great to have the whole group together on a trip once again. We don't get to see each other as a group very often because of our class schedules.

Tomorrow Bill and I are leaving for Beijing. We will get there around 7 AM on Friday and get back around the same time on Monday morning. It's an 11 hour overnight train and we got soft seaters instead of sleepers to save money. That'll be interesting :)