V for Vendetta coming alive; UK plans giant database for all electronical communication

So, this blog has been in hibernation lately, but this piece of news was just too much for me to not write about.

We all know how happy the UK is about CCTV, but apparently they are now planning something very similar to China’s Golden Shield Project; that is a humongous database meant to tap all electronical communication in the country. This surpasses the Swedish FRA-law by miles, and the implications on personal integrity and freedom will be very dire. I can’t help but think of V for Vendetta.

How does the fight against terrorism justify a development towards a more and more totalitarian state? Let’s face the fact, the so called terrorists are winning the fight without even lifting a finger any longer. We’re having the work cut out for them.

Just something short

So yeah. I’ve been home for soon a week, and have posted once since I got back. What’s happened you may wonder, to induce this lack of everyday posting that I so zealously tried to keep up the last half-year? Quite frankly, Shanghai just made me realise that there’s more to life than writing a blog post every day. I’m sure as heck not quitting the business (don’t think you’ll get rid of me that easily), but the frequency of blog posts will be most likely be less than it has been previously, until I simply feel like doing every day posts again.

So take care, and I’ll see you next time!

Rules of haggling

So, I’m back in Sweden, and felt that perhaps a bit of summing up would be in place. One word: absolutelywonderful. The course surpassed my expectations, I’ve had a great time, I love Shanghai, I’ve done a tremendous amount of shopping, and last but most important of all, I’ve learned so much and feel that I’ve grown as a human being and gotten to know myself better than before. All in all, it was an invaluable experience, and I can’t wait until I get back to Asia again.

So, now that that’s been dealt with, I figured I’d make myself a bit useful to other people as well and put together some simple rules of thumb to keep in mind if you want to be a good haggler (I got seriously good at it):

1. Get to know the market. This is basic principle number one. Unless you know what stuff is roughly worth, then you’re gonna pay an overprice. A good way of doing this is to simply go into a supermarket or regular store with fixed prices (if such a thing exists) and see how much they charge for clothes, trinkets and the like. Another way is to simply probe the market, by starting to haggle but in the end not buying anything (if they drop the price really fast to what you’re asking for, then the price is still too high). After a number of different tries you’ll get a feel for what the lower limit for things is, and how much the price can vary. A third option is to simply start buying things (bargain as much as you can), and realise that you will pay an overprice the first number of times (but this basically always holds true if you’re new to bargaining (and you’ll feel you’ve made a great deal nonetheless)). But through practice comes knowledge, and you’ll quickly get a lot better.

2. Always be prepared to leave. This means that as soon as you feel that you can’t leave without actually buying whatever it is you’re haggling for, you will be paying too much for it. Starting to walk away (for real, not just slowly as if you’re waiting for them to call out for you; once I went 30 meters before the woman came running after me screaming “Okay!”) ususally makes them drop the price to what you’re asking for (unless the price you’re asking for is outrageously low (i.e they won’t make any profit at all)). Keep in mind that there are usually a lot of other stores that sell the same thing; this should make it easier to leave.

3. Lies are part of the game. The salesperson always lies (”Very good quality”, “Very low price”, “Special price for you my friend”), so why shouldn’t you? Claiming that you can buy something at home for the same price they’re asking for is always a good argument, or that another shop offered you even less (keep in mind these people will know the market even better than you do, so keep your lies feasible). If you’ve made some other similar purchases (especially if you’re still carrying them with you) you can always claim you got them cheaper than you actually did (or if you already got a really good price on them, that’ll at least help you drop the price here as well).

4. The more you buy from the same place (at once, or even if you go there several times) the cheaper you can get it. If you’ve made a good deal once and come back, they usually remember you and will be more willing to give you a good price this time as well.

5. Examine the product properly (even if you have no clue how to find out if it’s good quality or not). Not only will it help you find faults with it which might push the price a bit further, but it also makes you come off as if you actually know what you’re talking about, which gives you an advantage.

6. Be coldhearted. They will be playing with your emotions (keep in mind, it’s all an act), so make sure you’re not affected. This also includes comparing prices with western ones. If you do that, you’re screwed. You need to think like a local, and compare it to local prices, lest you’ll be paying too much.

7. Be prepared to spend time bargaining. I once spent half an hour haggling for three paintings before I got it down to what I wanted. Basically, the bigger the deal, the longer you’ll be able to haggle, and the better the price you can theoretically get.

I’m not claiming that these seven rules are all-encompassing (quite definitely there are many more, but these are the ones I could come up with, derived from my own personal experiences), but they will do quite a lot of good if you adhere to them. If anyone has any more nifty rules, feel free to comment.

Last weekend

Friday started with a regular class called ”Social Transition Pains: Chinese Confused, Lost and Disoriented?”, after which some of us (including me) went and had lunch at the muslim noodle place near campus. The course’s last lecture started with all of our presentations (which took like one and a half hour), and then some summing up of the week. Took it easy for a while, and then it was time for the farewell dinner at a sea-food reasturant. Got a tremendous amount of obscure sea-related dishes there, one of which was a whole fish with eyes and everything that stared at you sort of accusingly – somewhat disturbing. Dinner was followed by a trip downtown, to a bar/club called ”I love Shanghai”, which turned out to be very difficult to find (street numbers seemed to be completely arbitrary, and jumped like ten numbers at a time). Nonetheless, after some confused wandering about we managed to find the place, and I stayed there until 1 or so.

Got up early on Saturday since I felt that I had a lot of shopping to do. Went to Qi pu lu (Cheap road – yes, that is it’s actual name, and it made for an excellent haggling argument) and a pirate market with a Finnish and a Danish student, and got new none-squeaky Nikes (100 yuan), a pair of Timberland shoes (80 yuan), a pair of pants (50 yuan), new pair of Ray Ban sunglasses (since I lost the pair I got the first day in the taxi; 50 yuan), and a bunch of socks and boxers. All in all, very happy with the shopping. In the evening fair amount of students went to an Indian restaurant that had an all-you-can-eat-and-drink-buffet for 80 yuan, after which I simply went to bed (having gotten like 6 hours of sleep the night before).

Woke up early on my own on Sunday for some reason and started the day by packing my backpack, which turned out to be a lot more difficult than I had thought. All I can say is: I am very glad I did not find any good sweater to buy, because I most likely wouldn’t have been able to take it with me. At 12 I was supposed to meet up with a Chinese girl (speaking, to say the least, rather limited English) outside the hotel (she worked in the restaurant next-door), but it turned out that she’d overslept (until 12) and didn’t come until 12.40 (upon which I was about to leave, becase I was starting to think she wouldn’t show up at all). We took the metro and then a taxi to the Shanghai Zoo, which was a mixed experience. Parts of it were a lot like western zoos where the animals had pretty decent living conditions, but other parts of it were just small concrete rooms in which the animals seemed to be very miserable indeed.

Anyhow, after two-three hours there we were both properly hungry and decided to find a good restaurant. I proposed going to the Frensh Concession, so we got into a cab, but just after a few minutes I noticed a Teppanyaki restaurant (a Japanese restaurant chain; a lot of students had been there and said that it was superb) outside the taxi window, so we got out and went in there. It costs 150 yuan for all-you-can-eat-and-drink, and the concept is that you order raw dishes from the menu, which are then prepared by a chef right in front of you (so every table, which can serve like 10 people, has its own chef). Now, it may have been fairly expensive (very expensive by Chinese standards), but OH MY FUCKING GOD was it worth it. I swear to God, they served the best meat (and in general, food) I have ever eaten in my entire life. If they open up in Stockholm I’ll make friggin’ pilgrimages there just for the sake of the food. We sat there for I think two hours straight just eating more and more blissful food.

Upon leaving the restaurant one of the waitresses gave me a 1,8 liter Sake bottle as well (she said I’d payed for it, which I dunno, but heck if I’m gonna say no to something expensive that’s free), but to my great demise, I realised rather quickly that I’d never be able to take it with me. My backpack was filled to the brim and probably already over-weight (and the bottle weighed like three kilos on it’s own), I wouldn’t be able to take it as hand luggage since it’s liquid (God do I hate all these stupid, retarded flight ”safety” regulations), and sending it by mail would probably cost more than the bottle itself was worth. So ended up leaving it for the reception to give it to the Danish girl that I’d been shopping with the day before, and left a note saying she could do as she wished with it.

I was supposed to get up at 4 today in order to have some breakfast and a shower before checking out and heading to the airport (was supposed to meet another Swedish student going with the same flight at 5.30), but instead I got woken up by the room telephone at 5.50 by the Swedish girl calling from the lobby asking if I was coming down anytime soon. I (very) quickly packed down the computer and [necessär] which were the only unpacked things I had left, put on my clothes (I’m currently sitting in the plane with my t-shirt being inside-out), and ”ran” (running is difficult with a giant heavy backpack on you back, and a smaller, still rather heavy one up front) down to the lobby. Checking out went surprisingly quickly (checking in took damn near half an hour, and it had seemed to take just as long for some people when they were leaving), so we got into a taxi and headed to the airport. Once there I found out that I had a 5-kilo overweight backpack (they didn’t weigh my hand luggage, which probably would have been overweight by a couple of kilos as well), but thanks so some miracle, the lady merely said ”You have overweight”, but then simply let it pass anyway. For which I am eternally greatful, because the Swedish girl ended up with a 10-kilo overweight, of which she only had to pay for 3 kilos, but still ended up paying some 600-700 yuan (200-something per kilo – OUCH).

And now I’m on the plane, and about to eat whatever they brought me. In China it would’ve been damn near unedible due to spicyness; here it will probably be slightly strong at best. See you at home folks.

Even longer!

First, a note on laundry: Running seriously low on clean socks and boxers last Saturday already, I wanted to hand in my dirty clothes to a place that several students had recommended, not very far from here. So I walked there only to find that it was closed, in spite of the fact that it should’ve been open. I tried again Sunday morning, and actually finding it open I left my laundry there for 17 yuan (a heck of a lot cheaper than the last place which charged me 69, as well as another place that I just scouted which wanted like 200-something). Going there to pick it up on Monday, I once again find that it’s closed (mid-day), to my great demise. Mind you, the one pair of socks that I still had with me were starting to smell REALLY bad by this time. Luckily enough, I had actually purchased three knock-off Calvin Klein boxers from some street hawker (for 30 yuan) on the way home one day, so I was actually covered on that front. Thankfully enough, the place was actually open on Tuesday, so I was able to get some non-stinkin’ socks – yay!

Now then, after having eaten breakfast at the restaurant next-door on Sunday, I decided to take Metro line 8 into town (it would take approximately 20-30 minutes to walk to the station), but accidentally started following the wrong signs and ended up at Metro line 3 instead. So I went one station with that, and was going to change to line 8 there. I actually had to walk out of the station for that though, so while being out I took the chance (to be honest I just couldn’t really find the station for line 8 ) and checked out Hongkou Football Stadium and Luxun Park which was right next to it. It was really nice just walking around in the park and observing (i.e photographing) the Shanghainese residents, what with their singing, Tai Chi, instrument playing, and general socialising.

Eventually managed to find the station for Metro line 8, and went downtown. Having no clear goal in mind, I looked at the map and decided to check out something called the Spice Market. This however just turned out to be in Xintiandi, the place that I’d been some week or two ago whose name I didn’t remember when I blogged about it (the place that they’ve rebuilt to make it look like Shanghai from the beginning of the 20th century; it’s funny how that works actually, they tear down all the old stuff, and then rebuild it to make it look old). So I turned around and started walking towards the old town and so called antique market there (all stores basically sell the same “antiques”). On the way I went through a residential area where you could really see how many of the less-than-middle-class Shanghainese live, which was awesome.

Once I was in the old town (that is, the area of Shanghai built to look like it’s from the medieval China) I got a really nice six-piece chopstick set for 35 yuan, and then visited the paintings shop that I was in last time I was there (where I got two small ones and one large painting scroll for 100 yuan after a lot of haggling, and I wanted to do something similar). This time however I chose two large scrolls and one small one (and I think the big ones were even nicer than the one I got last time), and wanted it for the same price, something they were not too happy about. In the end however (that is, some 30 minutes later of haggling and starting to walk away a few times as well), I got them for 100, which was a great deal to be honest.

While I was there I also figured I’d see if I could pick up a katana for some cheap money (I needed at least one more for when I’m cosplaying at Kodachikon, as Roronoa Zoro from One Piece (am I geeky or what? xD)), so I asked a store keeper in another store that had some regular swords if he had katanas. “Aaah, samurai swords! Come this way!” He led me into the deepest parts of the store, where he had a really neat collection of katanas. I start looking at one of them, and then he asks “You like sharp?”. I reply, “Sure, I like them sharp”, upon which he moves away a cabinet covering the lower half of one of the bookshelves only to reveal a hidden niche of sharp, seriously nice katanas. The price he wanted for the real ones was however a bit over my budget (I’d have to pay up at least a 1000, and that’s including a lot of bargaining), so I settled for the replica I looked at first. Managed to get it down to 100 after some serious haggling, and also had him include the stand for the sword, as well as a cheap box to carry it in.

After this it was sort of cumbersome to walk around with all the stuff I’d bought, so I decided to head on home, and got on the 123-bus from People’s Square. On the bus I met a Chinese guy who studied in Canada, and we ended up talking for the most part of the trip back, and I’m actually heading out now at 20 in order to meet him for a beer or two at Pedestrian street, which feels really fun.

Monday started with a short Chinese class as usual, followed up by the first lecture of the day (”Topical Issues: Trade Friction, Currency and China Investing Overseas”). Had lunch in the school cantina, and then tried to work a bit on the group presentation we’re gonna do on friday (we’re doing it on Environmental Issues in China), but most of the time was spent trying to get the wireless to work (did actually succeed in the end). Second lecture was called “Chinese Human Rights”, and was the best lecture we’d had so far. Brilliant lecturer (from a Norwegian university, although he had a very Swedish-sounding name: Otto Malmgren) quite simply. This lecture was followed by a presentation of a company called BAAMM which apparently works to connect companies with students in order to mediate internships and the like. Presentation made by an elder Swedish man who spoke typical Volvo executive Swedish, but was still sort of interesting (although he did linger a bit too much on the technical details (”And here you can see the last five visitors to your presentation”) that we students simply take for granted).

Once that was over I had a quick meal, before heading out with a bunch of other students to an acrobatics show. It was basically like a circus, only without the animals. Really nice, although driving around with seven motorcycles indoors (while highly impressive) didn’t feel like the brightest of ideas (electrical motorcycles had been appreciated on my behalf at least).

Tuesday I actually managed to miss my alarm clock (i.e cell phone) completely, and awoke on my own an hour after the time I’d intended to get up. So I quickly put on some clothes and went to the Chinese class of the day, and then the lecture “Implementing Chinese Constitutional Rights – an excercise in Futility?”, held by Otto Malmgren, which was really, really good (although I was terribly hungry since I didn’t get any breakfast (1. no time, 2. I’d run out of muesli a couple of days before)). After lunch in the school cafeteria (after which I picked up my clothes at the laundry (yay! clean socks!) and took the shower I didn’t have time to take in the morning) it was time for “IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] in China”, which was pretty interesting, but most of it was spent talking about the Chinese legal system in general (which has been done already quite a few times) and not so much on IPR per se.

Once the lecture ended I headed out to the Fabrics Market with some other students, and picked up my tailor-made suit, coat, and two shirts. DAMN I look good in them xD Worth every yuan. Went to the pirate market I visited the first day after that, where I ended up buying jack shit, in spite of trying to find a good pair of sunglasses. That, and shoes (my Nike Airs are squeaking insanely much by now), are top priority on the shopping list now. Gonna have to get that on Saturday (as I most likely won’t have time on Friday) along with everything else that’s still on the list.

Yesterday morning the whole course got into two buses and was driven to a “traditional Southern-China town” called Zhujiajiao. The place was very much a tourist trap, but I went into photography-mode and shot like 200 images, many of which turned out really well, so I’m glad we went there. I also bought two t-shirts (40 yuan) and a fan (10 yuan; one of those classical-looking ones) there. In the afternoon every country went to it’s respective consulate (except for the poor Icelandics who can’t afford a consulate in Shanghai, and went to Glitnir Bank instead), which was quite interesting (they had IKEA-purchased ginger cookies and Daim; they were quite popular, I assure you). After the visit, I felt that I had to both start and finish my part of the group presentation, so I took the Metro back to the hotel and spent three hours or so (took longer than I imagined – I think I’m being a bit too ambitious) fixing it.

Today started with a somewhat interesting but mostly boring lecture called “The Population Factor”, which mainly consisted of statistics, statistics, and some more statistics (demography is really not my cup of tea). Today was also the day we (the group for the presentation which I’m in) were supposed to gather and try to coordinate our efforts into one Power Point presentation (I hate Power Point). However, I was the only one from my group who even showed up at the first lecture (the two girls had fever, and the two guys, I later learned, were simply hung over), so there really wasn’t much I could do during the lunch break.

For the second lecture (I never really found out what it was called, because the schedule just says “To be confirmed”, but it was held by an American, very dramatic and engaging journalist who held one of the best friggin’ lectures on the whole course) the Icelandic guy actually showed up (still hung over (don’t get me wrong though, he’s a great guy)), but he hadn’t really done his part anyway (much like everyone else; turns out that while I was back doing my presentation everyone else was out clubbing, damn typical =P) so there wasn’t much to do. We quite simply decided to coordinate our presentations on the lunch break tomorrow.

And now I’m gonna head into the shower, and then go to the pedestrian street in order to meet up with Jason (the guy from the bus). (Now if only Lightroom could finish exporting my 10 GBs of images into JPEG (it’s at 70% and has been going for an hour and fifteen minutes) so I can put them one of the student’s USB-stick (everyone wants my pictures from this trip).)

There is an overhanging risk this blog entry will be my last for this visit (that’s sort of depressing), but I’ll try to put one up on Sunday, if I have the time. Buh-bye!

Encouraged by the comments on the last post, here’s the (probably) longest post so far

Friday started as usual with a lecture called “Approaches to the Study of Chinese Politics and Economy” as well as summing up of week 2. Went and ate in the school cantina for lunch (made sure to stay off the chicken (I’ve basically made that a general rule down here, because for the most part they just chop down the whole chicken with bones and all), which made the visit a lot better than my first one; had some strange fried rice with sausage (thought it was beef at first)), and after lunch it was “Time for Self-study” according to the schedule, which for me meant making a pilgrimage to IKEA (”a study visit for how Swedish enterprises function in China”; no, that was obviously not what I was supposed to do).

Managed to find the giant blue and yellow building (it’s not very inconspicous so to say) fairly easily (although it did take quite a long metro trip), and for some reason it was tremendously fun just walking around among all of the Swedish-named furniture; felt just like home (everything looked precisely the same)! For the sake of Swedishness I also had meatballs and mashed potatoes (which I ate with chop sticks!) while I was there, which made me come to the conclusion that Swedish food is SO boring in comparison with Chinese, and that I much prefer the latter one to be honest. On the way out of the restaurant I also saw the most typical Swedish-looking family there. And the food market (while fairly expensive) was quite fun as well, and simply seeing a Herrgårdsost made me retract the previous statement on Swedish food, at least for some products. (Other products included: frozen meatballs, various types of jams, Marabou chocolate (didn’t buy any because it would’ve melted instantaneously) and Kalles kaviar.)

Once I felt that I had been nostalgic for long enough I decided to head out to Longhua buddhist temple which was fairly nearby. (The Kalle way of sightseeing: head out with one goal in mind, only knowing roughly where it is, and then start walking around at random (a map, but no guidebook) and hoping for the best; I always end up seeing really cool stuff that way.) Got to the temple after a rather long walk (30-40 minutes?) and went on a photoshoot. Felt a bit like a bothersome tourist, which I most likely was (although I tried telling myself I’m a photographer). Found a bunch of street cats and kittens there which were just insanely cute (the buddhist monks were kind enough to provide them with food). Temple was neat and all, but not nearly as impressive as the one we visited in Hangzhou last weekend.

Looking at the map I then decided to head down to the Botanical Garden, which seemed to be within a walking distance as well (depends on how you defince walking distance). I jumped into a tourist info office and asked them which was it was just to be sure (I was right), but the lady said rather promptly I should take the bus, because it’s a very long way to walk. Well, being me, I decided to prove her wrong.

About an hour of walking later I found myself at the gates of the garden. The whole place looked rather Soviet to be honest, with big, double cement squares making out the path/road inside, and from what I could see from outside the gates the place was really rather ugly and not very well cared for. It only costing 15 yuan I decided to head in anyway, and I must say, I was positively surprised (not in the way you might think). The whole place was pretty much like an abandoned amusement park (only it being a botanical garden). All of the trees, flowers, grass and other greenery was for the most part well cared for and made for a nice park to walk in (nothing special though), but all of the buildings and attractions that had once been were in a state of dissolution (literally).

There was a restaurant called Chris & Chris, that once upon a time was probably rather fancy, but which now was nothing but a collapsing building (I went inside and even went up to the second floor, but didn’t dare venture any further because it really looked as if the floor could decide to cease it’s existance under my feet), and the tropicarium which was actually open had paint coming off the walls in huge flakes. The rest of the buildings very much followed this general theme. I’ve got a crap load of photos from the place (I’ll prolly end up having more than 1000 photos from these three weeks), so you’ll get to see it once I’m back.

The botanical garden may have been falling apart (it was established in 1977, and I don’t think it’s been renovated for the last 20 years or so), but it was still really big, so I ended up walking around for two-three hours in there, after which I felt very tired and decided to head back to the hotel. Had lunch at the next-door restaurant (I’m becoming a regular there), and then went to bed.

Yesterday I was hoping on sleeping in, but this failed miserably when I woke up at 8 and couldn’t fall asleep again. The milk I’d bought for breakfast the day before (the store was out of half-liter packages, so I had to buy a liter) was as I’d suspected no longer milk, so I ended up having an apple and a banana for breakfast. Being in dire need of clean clothes, I headed out to a laundry place some other students had recommended, but this turned out to be closed for some reason. Went to another place, but they wanted 200 yuan so I quite promptly left. I might as well buy new clothes if it’s gonna cost that much to wash. On the way back I ran into some students that were going to Qibao (a small old-style village even further off than my visit to the Botanical Garden), so I decided to tag along.

After one long metro ride, one shorter one, one confused taxi drive (for being taxi drivers, they sure suck at finding their way in this city), as well as some confused walking about trying to find the place, in the end we did actually manage. The place turned out to be basically a narrow street with a nice facade and some really freakish food (how does a whole (but small) duck on a stick sound? Or testicles from an unidentified animal on a stick? And even some other food which we couldn’t even guess what it was?), but it was still kind of nice.

We then decided to go into the French concession, and after a failed metro ride (turned out we couldn’t change to a line we thought we could at one station) we simply took a taxi. Everyone now being hungry and grumpy we took the first restaurant we could find. The place looked like we’d walked into someone’s kitchen (which we probably had; it consisted of two small tables and some stools), and had an all-Chinese menu. I decided to try my luck, so I simply pointed at one item in the menu at random while everyone was trying to order some very basic dishes which we they had written down on a paper. I got mushrooms with green peppers and rice, so I must say I was positively surprised.

Everyone else then decided to head back (once we’d eaten) to the hotel, but I walked around the french concession for a bit instead. However, it did start raining rather soon, so I took the metro and then bus back to the hotel as well a bit later (on the way I purchased three pairs of knock-off Calvin Klein Boxers from some street hawker for 30 yuan in order to postpone the rather imminent lack of clean underwear). Got back around 20, had dinner at the next-door restaurant, and then went to bed because I felt really tired.

Today I managed to sleep until 12.20, which felt SO FRIGGIN’ GOOD. Quite frankly, it’s a blessing when you manage to sleep for that long here, because usually there’s always something that keeps you from sleeping in, if it’s not school then it’s you stomach being grumpy and in need of a toilet visit, or your bladder feeling full, or the neighbour-room TV being insanely loud (I suspect my neighbours are deaf. That, or just plaing stupid.), or the cleaning lady knocking on your door, or a variety of other sources of disruption.

And now, I’m gonna head into the shower, and then have another go at the laundry place. As for the rest of the day, I have no clue what I’m gonna do (much as usual with other words). Might end up at a pirate market doing some shopping.

Toodles! (I can’t believe two weeks have already passed, it’s gone by so quickly.)

See, not that long of an entry this time. STOP WHINING! >.<

Wednesday started with a lecture called “The Three Nongs: Rural Area, Farming Population and Agriculture” (basically the three things making out the backbone of the Chinese society). Had Korean for lunch (quite good, but I’m getting more and more convinced I don’t really like Korean food (prioritised Asian food list: 1. Japanese, 2. Chinese, 3. Korean (and I haven’t really tasted any other Asian country’s food properly, Vietnamese for example)), they have way too much kimchi (makes stuff insanely and waaaay too spicy (never thought I’d say that)), and also found an arcade hall! Quite a small one, but still (they have Street Fighter 2!!! <3)!

Second lecture was called “NGO’s in China Today”, and was the most useless, dreary and awful lecture we’ve had so far. It started off with half an hour of picture showing from some stupid roleplaying exercises, and then just got even more boring. The woman even spoke of NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organisations) and NPO’s (Non-Profit Organisations) as if they were the same thing. Honestly felt like the lecture would never end, but after two hours and fifteen mind numbing minutes it actually did.

Took the afternoon off, and then had noodles for dinner at the next-door restaurant before playing soccer with six other students. Very fun, insanely sweaty! I could literally squeeze sweat out of my t-shirt afterwards. Then basically headed to bed.

Today consisted of a short Chinese class, a lecture on “China’s Economic Success: a Miracle or not a Miracle” (very good lecturer), lunch at a muslim noodle place (it’s really cool watching them make the noodles by hand), a little bit of arcade playing (very cheap and very nostalgic) another lecture (”Chinese Business law”), and group discussions with Chinese students (interesting, but slightly forced). Played soccer again at 18, this time there were 12-14 of us playing, so it was a more proper game. The Swedish-Finnish team (against the rest, i.e Danish, Norwegian and Chinese) lost the first game, but we won the second one at least! Honour restored!

Couldn’t be bothered to go downtown, so just had dinner at the next-door restaurant again (I really like their noodles) with some of the other students, and now I’m basically gonna head to bed.

Nighty! (Got plans to make a pilgrimage to IKEA tomorrow, wish me luck!)

I just love this city

To continue where I left off last time, I headed down to People’s Square with a Danish student around 14. We walked around for a bit before heading into the old town and the ”antique” market they have there. I wanted to get some Chinese scroll paintings for my walls at home, so I checked out the first store that had some. Found three interesting ones, and wanted to get a feel for how much they’re actually worth, so I offered 200 for them (they wanted like 500 first). Got it down to this price in like a minute, and realising that this was still probably very much an overprice, I simply left and went to another store further down the street.

Upon leaving that store, I find myself facing the the same guy and girl that I was haggling with before, and they’re holding the three scrolls that I wanted, asking why I left so suddenly and if they had made me mad somehow (they’d make quite good actors). I figured this was a good chance to renegotiate, so I told them how I could get the same kind of paintings back home for 150 (complete lie), so I just felt that 200 wasn’t worth the price. They talked a bit to each other, and then reluctantly said ”okay, for you, special price (funny how it’s always special price especially for you), 150, okay?”. I quickly responded that if I payed 150 now then there wouldn’t be much point in me buying it here, because I’d still have to carry it halfway across the globe, in which case I might as well get it at home. I offered them 100, upon which the girl got seemingly rather honestly upset, but after some whining they actually accepted my price. “But you get no box!” said the girl. “If I’m supposed to get a box then I want a box, I need to carry them in something,” I responded. “FINE, YOU GET BOX!” she said, and marched back to the store with me behind her, telling me something like “You very smart” on the way. So yeah, I felt I got a pretty good deal there.

Wanted to see the Yu Yuan Gardens while we were in the old town, but got so hungry while looking for it (I think it was closed anyway) that we just found a restaurant and had ridiculously spicy noodle and beef dinner, after which we headed back to the hotel. We’d intended to join the students that were playing football, but they basically came back to the hotel at the same time as we did, so that didn’t really happen. Simply went out for some beers instead.

Yesterday started with 20 minutes Chinese class, and then an interesting lecture on the Chinese Stock Market. Had lunch at the pedestrian street, and then another lecture called “Political-Economical Perspective about China”. Also interesting, but I still had a ridiculously hard time staying awake during both of the lectures (that actually goes for all lectures so far). And that was in spite of me getting rather proper sleep. So I think I’m just gonna screw the proper sleep thing and sleep when I get home, because I’m near-sleep at the lectures no matter how I do it.

Took it a bit easy for a while after school, then went out to the lobby at 19 to see if anyone was there and up for dinner (not having a functioning cell phone is something of a social impediment). Turned out some people were heading out to a Carrefour store that had a lot of imported goods, and lacking anything better to do, I tagged along. To my great joy I managed to find Müsli (!), so I also purchased a small porcelain (using the word china is just too confusing) bowl and spoon just for the sake of it (as well as what I think and hope is Chinese tooth paste). Had dinner at the next-door restaurant when we got back (I really like that restaurant), and then spent the rest of the evening at a bar nearby.

Today consisted of a short Chinese class, a lecture called “Perspectives on epidemic prevention, adaptive wisdom, and the professionalization of China’s medical and public health services” (someone really must’ve had fun coming up with that title), a quick lunch, and then a bus ride to the World Expo 2010 venue for an ill-translated presentation by one of the higher persons in charge of that project. It probably would’ve been rather good if we’d only had a proper translator, but as it turned out, we didn’t. We were then driven to the Urban Planning Museum (they have a humongous small-scale model of a large part of Shanghai there, but that was about it for interesting parts), after which quite a lot of students (including myself) took a few taxis out to a cloth market where I ordered one suit, two shirts, and a coat (everything tailor-made), for 1450 yuan.

Feeling up for some more shopping, I joined two students in a taxi to the so called Cheap Street (just generally cheap stuff of varying quality as well as knock-off products) and bought eight t-shirts/shirts and four pairs of pants/shorts for like 350 yuan or something. I’m getting seriously good at this haggling business (it’s especially funny when the salesperson comes running after you screaming “okay, okay!” to the price that was completely out of question just a second ago). Got some dinner once I finished shopping, then took a bus back from People’s Square to the hotel (2 yuan compared to 40 for taking a taxi, so the 30 minutes extra it takes are worth it), where I’m now.

There’s a massage parlour just across the street where you can get an hour’s worth of Chinese person walking all over you for 20 yuan. I’m seriously considering going there one of these days.

Oh, and I absolutely love this city. Just walking around downtown after dark is absolutely superb. The lights, people, everything. It’s a megacity that has everything, to insanely cheap prices. And best of all, I feel completely safe walking around basically anywhere here.

Most likely just gonna eat some peanuts now and then head to bed.

Take care everyone, miss ya.

Whaddaya know, it’s been a week already

Honestly, I’ve eaten so much obscure and strange food here, most of which I haven’t even known what it’s been (nor do I now), that it’s a wonder I hadn’t been sick already when I was at the Norwegian-owned restaurant Salabim. I had a pizza at that place (yes, it was a good pizza), and let me tell you, the morning after was not a pleasant experience; for the most part it was spent at the toilet with a highly rebellious stomach. Also, it turns out I was far from the only one who got sick after that visit, so I’m sure as hell not going back there. This city is filled to the brim with good restaurants anyway.

Once I’d recovered myself that morning it was time for the day’s first lecture. Or pre-lecture more like it. Held by one of the course assistants, we had a 15 minute crash course in Chinese vowel and tone pronounciation. It sounded really funny when 35 Nordic people at the same time tried to mimic our teacher’s “aaaaaoooo”, “ooouuu”, “iong” and the like.

The actual lecture was on “Chinese Economic Policy” and was both good and interesting. Had lunch at a Korean restaurant, where chopsticks are even harder to use because they’re flat and not square. Trust the Koreans to make something hard even harder (overall I’ve got the whole chopstick thing going rather well though). Food was so-so, don’t really like Korean food to be honest (he says based on one dish). Second lecture was on “China’s Strategic Culture” and was quite interesting as well.

At 17 that evening (afternoon?) it was time for KARAOKE (hereon known as KTV, which is what it’s called here)! If you’ve seen Lost in Translation (and if you haven’t, then you really should), then you’ve got a rough idea of how it works. Basically, our teacher had booked us three KTV rooms at a rather fancy place downtown. All I can say is that it’s insanely fun! Take Singstar and multiply the funness of that a couple of times. Main issue when doing it with a group of fairly unknown Nordic people is to get people to sing. As we all know, Nordic people tend to require rather large amounts of alcohol before they can make asses out of themselves. So, being the able to make an ass out of myself without the use of alcohol, I bravely started singing once we’d had dinner (buffé is included in the price of the rooms, which we had booked from 17-22). A Norwegian girl joined me in the slaughtering (I probably did most of the slaughtering) of Backstreet Boys’ Everybody. And once someone had dared the first song the rest just sort of came naturally, and as the alcohol kept flowing in (mainly beer and a crapload of Bailey’s) people also started to show off a bit more, and also had more fun. And for your information, no, I still haven’t been drunk.

As for the songs, quite a few were actually rather bad covers by local Chinese bands, and the music videos were seemingly chosen at random from a highly limited list (many of which looked like intros to some bad German Tele-sex tv-channel (I’ll show you some images once I get back)), but this all just kind of added to the fun of it all, in a strange way. We ended up staying to 23, and I got home around midnight. End bill: 230 yuan per person (as opposed to the Politics and Society group who were there the day before and payed roughly a 100 less, but apparently they got wasted on beer and vodka instead of Bailey’s).

The next day we all met in the lobby of the hotel at 9 and walked to an on-campus gym where we got to try out Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Shi. Many people did not quite appreciate this after a night of rather hard partying, but I thought it was really fun, although I have never in my life sweated as much as I did then (need I mention that the place wasn’t airconditioned and that friday was the hottest day thus far?). I much prefer my Ju jutsu to the Shaolin (which felt mostly like an fancy-looking artsy thing than something practical), but the Tai Shi I really liked; might try it out at home (slow motion for the win). Being soaked in sweat, I headed back to the hotel in the lunch brake and had a shower before eating noodle soup at a next-door restaurant.

After lunch there was a lecture called “Summing up of week 1″, which consisted of some repetition of this week’s lectures, as well as quite a lot of new stuff on Chinese politics. At 17 we all met up the main gate of campus (by the giant statue of Mao) and were driven downtown where we went on a short boat trip on the river just as the city was going dark. Shanghai really is a lot prettier at night, what with all the lights and shiny skyscrapers and stuff. After the boat trip there was some organisatory chaos (it’s hard to coordinate larger groups of people), as some people were going to a club, other’s were hitting a restaurant first, and yet some others were just going back home. I ended up in some really cool small pedestrian streets filled with street cooked food and loads of people, together with a Danish student. We got some fried noodles (good) and rice (good), as well as some random meat (probably random roadkill, tasted really well though) and squid (not so good, way to sinewy for my taste, although licking it like a lollipop was rather good (but kind of gross in a way) on a stick and had that for dinner in the midst of bootleg shops and Chinese people.

I had planned on going back to the hotel after this, but ended up in the club with a bunch of the other students after all. Entrance cost 100 yuan and free drinks included (i.e, the two beers I had were really expensive ones). More than 50% if the guests there were westerners. But I had a good time anyhow, even if I only got to sleep for four hours since I had to get up at 6 the morning after because many people in the course (including me) were going to Huangzhou (very popular city for tourists).

After a three hour bus ride (most of which I tried to sleep, which was hard, because I was sitting in the front of the bus and the driver was really happy to use his horn) we ended up at a Buddhist temple in the woods/hills which was really beautiful, and after two-three hours there we went to Westlake, a very nice lake/park, where we had lunch and walked around for a bit (at one point I sat down on a bridge for a minute, and in that time two Chinese people just came up to me and had their photo taken next to me; this wasn’t the first time it happened (quite funny actually, although I suspect the blond and blue-eyed people in my course are getting a bit tired of it since they’re photographed a lot more than I am)). On the way back we went to a so called tea-ceremony, but it was basically just a live TV-shop thing where they wanted us to buy some really expensive Chinese tea and the like. Went back to Shanghai after that, and after a dinner down at a pedestrian street not too far from the hotel, I went back to my hotel and hit the sack around midnight.

Today I first woke up at 6 by myself, then at half past seven by the telephone ringing and some Chinese guy trying to speak Chinese with me, but in the end I actually managed to sleep till 11 which was incredibly nice. Decided to go to a laundry place (cost 69 yuan for 6 pairs of socks, 6 boxers and 9 t-shirts/shirts, but I really can’t be bothered to do it by hand any more) this morning, and had noodle soup for breakfast (lunch?). And now I’m going to dare the outdoor heat and go downtown.

Until next time!

Doings and goings of the past half week

Another thing I forgot to mention was that the sunglasses I bought were successfully forgotten in the taxi on the way home in the evening, to my great frustration. I’ll have to get a new pair before I leave at least (although it’s here that I kind of need them the most).

A general note on the weather is that is continues much in the same spirit as when I came here. Somewhat cloudy on occasion but mostly sunny and insanely warm and humid. Doesn’t feel quite as bad any longer though, so I think I’m kind of getting used to it; altough I’m still sweating copious amounts.

Hilarious note: In my shower there’s a sign that says “Caution: Wet Floor”.

Sunday was spent much like I wrote in the First day blog entry. Walked around campus for a bit, and then at 19 most people in the class (75 people in total) gathered in the hotel lobby, but thankfully split up into a few smaller groups before we hit the restaurants. The group of 12 that I ended up in was still rather large and slightly problematic to fit into a restaurant, but we managed and ended up around a round table where we got dishes served on a plate of spinning glass so that you just spun it around and took some of what you wanted. Ended the evening with some beers at another restaurant (Shanghai doesn’t really have much in the ways of pubs and bars, except for downtown where there are basically western prices).

Monday was first day of school. We met up in the lobby (I ate Chinese breakfast at the hotel (15 RMB (expensive, I can get a good friggin’ lunch for half that price), and were led by two course assistants to the university. The building where Nordic Centre is (and also where we have classes) is a giant 30 storey building consisting of two massive towers joined up to the 15th floor. They built it for Fudan’s 100th year anniversary. What can I say… Chinese people.. They’re special.

Anyhow, everyone registered and we first had two one-hour introductory lectures about the programme, after which we ate lunch in the student cantina. Much like a Swedish gymnasium cantina, only larger and more prison-like. Food was even less edible than Swedish cantina food (although really cheap, roughly 6 RMB (~6 SEK)), so Swedish youngsters really shouldn’t complain. The chicken thingy I ordered consisted of mostly bones. How does chicken spine sound? (A lot was actually edible, though maybe not great-tasting; I only had some bad luck ordering.)

Lunch was followed by a two-hour lecture called “Brief Sketch of Chinese History”, although it was more of a highlighting of certain events in Chinese history. It was interesting anyhow. The day ended with a dinner hosted by the Nordic Centre at a nice restaurant (loads of different kinds of food, a rumour has it there was snake-meat even (whatever it was it was very tasty)), after which most of us 75 people went to a club called Banana (one of rather few clubs in Shanghai, at least if you compare it percentage-wise to western cities; the whole pub/club thing didn’t really exist here until recently). The club owner was clearly not prepared to recieve so many people at once, but after several forced moves and some economic disputes (apparently they have a custom of buying tables, and not so much drink here) we managed to settle in. I left at around 22.30 in order to get some sleep before next day’s lectures (it had been difficult enough during the afternoon lecture to stay awake, in spite of it being interesting).

Didn’t sleep all that well and got woken up at 6 the day after by the TV in the neighbouring room. Had another Chinese breakfast (it’s strange (very difficult to describe), sort of expensive, but very practical, and I can’t really be bothered to fix anything else). First lecture (called “Brief sketch of Chinese politics”) by a Chinese professor was terrificly good. Had fried rice for lunch at a local restaurant (cheap and good), and then another lecture, this time on “Guanxi [social relationships] in Chinese Culture”. Not as good, but rather interesting. Had a hard time staying awake anyway though, although I did manage.

After that a few of us decided to head into town and do some more sightseeing. Had dinner at a French-like restaurant (their Pasta Carbonara wasn’t as good as mine) as well as walked around the French Concession (the settlement of the French population in the early 20th century, many of the houses still looking the way they did then) a place full of cool independent designer shops. Definitely gonna return and do some shopping there (although the prices are rather Swedish). Also walked around another area (whose name I can’t remember) which has been rebuilt to look Chinese architecture from the same time (I think) as the French Concession. Very, very cosy area. Ended the evening with a trip up to the top of Radisson hotel (google it, and you’ll see why) here in Shanghai, and had a (very expensive by Chinese standards) drink in the bar up there. There was a (lousy) band playing with two (large chested) female dancers/singers (who I just couldn’t help but laugh at when they danced) in outfits that made them look like they were from a Playboy magazine (they were only missing the bunny ears), and all-female waitresses with shirts tied up to show of their bare (slim) bellies. The place looked like it’d been designed and decorated by a drunk russian oil magnate. Needless to say, we felt rather undredressed walking in there in shorts and sweaty t-shirts. Also, it was built in a way that made the view really hard to see properly, even harder to photograph, which was a big let down. Nonetheless, it was quite the experience, and really fun to be honest, much probably thanks to the mere prospect of me actually sitting there, which I found to be hilarious.

After half an hour of taxi searching (honestly, sometimes you find a taxi immidiately, and sometimes it’s impossible to find a free one. Also, like I said in the first blog entry, the metro closes at ten, and whatever buses that are still going have mile-long queues by that time, so taxi really felt like the only option) we managed to get home, where it was time for me to do some laundry in the sink (first time ever might I add, to wash clothes by hand), since I was running direly low on clean underwear (one consumes like two pairs a day due to the frequent showers), and because the hotel cleaning service is just ludicrously expensive even by European standards. I had managed to purchase (what I think, based on the images on the back, was) washing powder in a store earlier in the evening. The cleaning didn’t exactly start well, because the first thing that happened was that I managed to spill out half of it’s contents on the floor when I shook it slightly. At the same time I also managed to get washing powder in my eye, so I had to take out my contacts first and then wash my eye (which I did in the non-drinking water from the tap without thinking about it) before I could even start the cleaning and washing. My eye is fine today though, thanks for asking.

I saved what powder I could, scooped the rest out of the way with a towel (leaving it for the cleaning lady today, I really didn’t have much of a choice), and started washing. Splashing occured, which in combination with the powder rest on the floor made it very slippery. Though I did in the end manage to wash a t-shirt and two pieces of socks and boxers. Dunno how clean they actually got, but hopefully they’re more clean than they were before the washing commenced at least.

Today started with yet another Chinese breakfast (I’m starting to get used to the oddities they serve (=everything)), and then an introductory lecture on Shanghai. The lecturer should’ve been a comedian, but the funness of it all really won’t be fun written down. I’ll tell you all about it when I get a chance though.

After a lunch at a Muslim Noodle place (small and shabby, but very cheap and good) and a coffee break (no, I’m still not drinking coffee) at the 15th floor in the Guanghua Towers (very luxurious) we got into two rented buses and headed of to the Shanghai Museum. No guide unfortunately enough, but it was a really nice museum with lots of different pieces. They covered everything from pottery and bronze working to paintings and sculptures.

And now I’m sitting here blogging, about to head into the shower and then I’m off to a Norwegian owned restaurant called Salabim, for dinner and a presentation of some sort. Sorry there’s not all that much in the ways of details, but I honestly don’t have time to describe and mention everything, this is long enough as it it. I’ll be more than glad to tell you all about it once I get back though.

Competition till next time: There’s a small waste bin right next to the toilet. Can anyone guess what it’s for?

Ending comment: I really like it here! (I miss you all though!)