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.)

~ by koeus on July 20, 2008.