It's Friday! First week back on the job done, and it was mostly unproductive. Kind of what I wanted. And the week has been pretty good, though I did have a pretty serious "I hate China" night last night. But I think it's passed. We'll see.
Anyway, where to begin...
Just checked and apparently my last real blog post was before my family came. Shit. I have a lot of catching up to do. If the VPN actually keeps working, then maybe I'll write every day this weekend.
So I guess we start with my parents. They came for pretty much the entire month of June. Got in on June 1 and left with me on June 24 back to the US. And my sister came somewhere in there too. But I'll probably talk about that next time.
Their first week here was pretty easy, I guess. I had to work, so they just hung out and took it very easy. They went to the mall every day. That was about it. Silly parents. But they were happy so I guess that's what matters. I also sent them to a nearby temple and some restaurants and shops I thought they'd like, which they did. And I also worked from home a bit to have lunch with them, which was also nice. But the weekdays were not very exciting. Of course in the evenings there were dinners so they could meet my friends, at all of my favorite places. But they're not really drinkers so no bars or anything. Just dinners. Beers at dinner, they'll do that, but no partying or anything.
For the weekend I took them to Huangshan. I had my dad look into things nearby for a weekend trip, and that's what he chose. Which is a great choice, cause I loved it when I went like 10 years ago and totally wanted to go again. Although in hindsight it would have been nice and relaxing to spend the weekend with them in Shanghai, I'd much rather they get to see the country. They were already spending so much time in Shanghai doing next to nothing. So off to Huangshan we went. Huangshan is a mountain in Anhui province, not far from Shanghai. It's known for being the setting for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Just imagine the rounded peaks covered in pine trees and mist from Chinese paintings, and you'll know where we went. It's gorgeous. I've been to a lot of mountains in China and I think this has remained my favorite. It's just gorgeous. Our flight going there was pretty delayed, so we just went to the hotel the first night and hung out instead of doing the touring we were supposed to, then it was up early to start the 2 hour drive to the actual mountain.
You can climb all the way up the mountain, but a) my parents are old and can't, and b) I am not so old but also can't (well, don't want to. I probably could, but it would not be easy at all). So we took the cable car up, which was fun because it was super cloudy and we couldn't see anything for most of the ride, and then all of a sudden we broke through the clouds and saw the misty mountains and it was awesome. At the top it was pretty nice and clear, although the weather is always changing. So as we hiked to our hotel, up and down the stairs for a few hours, we kept alternating between seeing lots of mountains all the way down into the valleys, and seeing absolutely nothing. Eventually we made it to the hotel, rested up for an hour, and then continued on to the "Grand Canyon", which is supposed to be the best views of the mountain. Go figure, it was cloudy. But then my mother jokingly blew the clouds away, and it worked. This happened multiple times. Our guide was amazed. For her efforts (walking more than cloud clearing, cause that walking was tough on her what with all the steps) I bought her an engraved gold medal. You would think they'd gouge you for anything on the mountain, but it was only 10 RMB. What a steal! After that it was time to head back to the hotel for the evening, but with a quick detour to watch the sunset. Luckily that wasn't too cloudy, and it was pretty spectacular as you might imagine. Just mountains going off into the horizon, almost infinitely, and perfect views of the setting sun. Weird thing was the Chinese watched the sun until it went under the horizon, then ran off. For me, sunsets are all about watching the sky change colors once the sun disappears, and I'd say that applies to most Westerners. But for the Chinese, it is literally watching the sun set that matters. No clue why. But this time they were right, cause as good as the sunset was, the sky wasn't all that colorful afterwards.
The next day we climbed down the mountain (well, hiked back for another few hours and took the cable car) then got driven to Hongcun. This is one of many historical villages in the area, but this one is famous because it's the only one with water in front, increasing the aesthetic value according to our guide, and also because it was actually a set in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Like, they used the village as a set, not they built the village for the movie. I think the second reason is really why it's so famous, but that's just me. But it is really cute. You get to wander the alleys of this super cool, traditional old town and go in and out of old houses. It's really interesting. I'd actually love to go and see some of the less touristy ones in the area. And there's a ton. They're all over southern Anhui and northern Jiangsu. And it's not just the historical ones. As you drive through the countryside (which is pretty phenomenal in and of itself) even the new villages have maintained the ancient architectural style of the region. It's pretty great. Although honestly I have no desire to visit the new villages. I'm sure they're pretty shitty once you get inside. Anyway, Hongcun is great. Southern Anhui is great. You should probably visit if you come to Shanghai and have like 2-3 days. And you should definitely come to Shanghai.
Post-Hongcun, it was back to Tunxi, the city with the airport, to see an ink stick museum and the old town. My parents actually liked this part much more than I thought they would. The ink stick museum was actually an inkstick factory with a "museum" where they display things you can buy. Granted, the company is super famous and one of the oldest ones in China, and the ink stones and ink sticks are pretty amazing, but still. It's a shop, not a museum. Anyway my mom loved it. She did calligraphy. She used to do English calligraphy, so she was very excited to try it out with a brush, copying the Chinese characters off of a newspaper they gave her. And then we went to the old town, where we spent like an hour in a tea shop completely by chance. My parents thought they might buy some tea as a gift, and we ended up getting a whole big tea tasting thing with the proper tea preparation and everything, which was of course fun for my parents to see since they never had. And there were lots of really delicious Chinese snacks. Like maybe the best I'd ever had. A bunch of sesame stuff, and then all kinds of mushroom chips. Might sound weird, but it was so good. And I've never seen them before. Hopefully I can find them too, cause they were awesome. After buying a ton of tea and snacks, we wandered a bit more down the old street. Of course the street is old but the shops are all new and upscale. But the nice thing about Tunxi was that most of the upscale shops were Chinese handicraft, not like Louis Vitton or anything. And the handicraft was amazing. There really are a ton of amazing things being made in China, but sometimes they're so hard to find amongst all the crap, and this is the first time in a long time I walked into a bunch of stores and was just amazed by everything I saw. Whether it was calligraphy or wood carving or stone carving or clothing, it was all just phenomenal. It made me very happy with China. The stroll ended with dinner, and the airport and Shanghai. And that was it.
Then it was back to the normal lazy Shanghai times for my parents, plus dinner with me and my friends. The standout dinner for them was El Willy, one of my favorite restaurants that I took them to. If you come I'll take you too. And then my sister came on the Wednesday and the traveling started again. But I'll tell you about that later.
Jesus I wrote a lot. So I won't write a lot about the music. Here's the basics: Tourist has released his first album, U. Tourist is the solo project of one of the guys from Disclosure, so that's always a good start. The first song I heard, which was getting much love on my favorite (and the only good) LA radio station (it's all indies, no mainstream shit, don't worry) is Run. It also gets much love from me.
So that was great. Then I listened to the album and bought the album and decided that the next best song is Too Late. So now we're back on the 2 songs 1 artist format of old.
Anyway, where to begin...
Just checked and apparently my last real blog post was before my family came. Shit. I have a lot of catching up to do. If the VPN actually keeps working, then maybe I'll write every day this weekend.
So I guess we start with my parents. They came for pretty much the entire month of June. Got in on June 1 and left with me on June 24 back to the US. And my sister came somewhere in there too. But I'll probably talk about that next time.
Their first week here was pretty easy, I guess. I had to work, so they just hung out and took it very easy. They went to the mall every day. That was about it. Silly parents. But they were happy so I guess that's what matters. I also sent them to a nearby temple and some restaurants and shops I thought they'd like, which they did. And I also worked from home a bit to have lunch with them, which was also nice. But the weekdays were not very exciting. Of course in the evenings there were dinners so they could meet my friends, at all of my favorite places. But they're not really drinkers so no bars or anything. Just dinners. Beers at dinner, they'll do that, but no partying or anything.
For the weekend I took them to Huangshan. I had my dad look into things nearby for a weekend trip, and that's what he chose. Which is a great choice, cause I loved it when I went like 10 years ago and totally wanted to go again. Although in hindsight it would have been nice and relaxing to spend the weekend with them in Shanghai, I'd much rather they get to see the country. They were already spending so much time in Shanghai doing next to nothing. So off to Huangshan we went. Huangshan is a mountain in Anhui province, not far from Shanghai. It's known for being the setting for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Just imagine the rounded peaks covered in pine trees and mist from Chinese paintings, and you'll know where we went. It's gorgeous. I've been to a lot of mountains in China and I think this has remained my favorite. It's just gorgeous. Our flight going there was pretty delayed, so we just went to the hotel the first night and hung out instead of doing the touring we were supposed to, then it was up early to start the 2 hour drive to the actual mountain.
You can climb all the way up the mountain, but a) my parents are old and can't, and b) I am not so old but also can't (well, don't want to. I probably could, but it would not be easy at all). So we took the cable car up, which was fun because it was super cloudy and we couldn't see anything for most of the ride, and then all of a sudden we broke through the clouds and saw the misty mountains and it was awesome. At the top it was pretty nice and clear, although the weather is always changing. So as we hiked to our hotel, up and down the stairs for a few hours, we kept alternating between seeing lots of mountains all the way down into the valleys, and seeing absolutely nothing. Eventually we made it to the hotel, rested up for an hour, and then continued on to the "Grand Canyon", which is supposed to be the best views of the mountain. Go figure, it was cloudy. But then my mother jokingly blew the clouds away, and it worked. This happened multiple times. Our guide was amazed. For her efforts (walking more than cloud clearing, cause that walking was tough on her what with all the steps) I bought her an engraved gold medal. You would think they'd gouge you for anything on the mountain, but it was only 10 RMB. What a steal! After that it was time to head back to the hotel for the evening, but with a quick detour to watch the sunset. Luckily that wasn't too cloudy, and it was pretty spectacular as you might imagine. Just mountains going off into the horizon, almost infinitely, and perfect views of the setting sun. Weird thing was the Chinese watched the sun until it went under the horizon, then ran off. For me, sunsets are all about watching the sky change colors once the sun disappears, and I'd say that applies to most Westerners. But for the Chinese, it is literally watching the sun set that matters. No clue why. But this time they were right, cause as good as the sunset was, the sky wasn't all that colorful afterwards.
The next day we climbed down the mountain (well, hiked back for another few hours and took the cable car) then got driven to Hongcun. This is one of many historical villages in the area, but this one is famous because it's the only one with water in front, increasing the aesthetic value according to our guide, and also because it was actually a set in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Like, they used the village as a set, not they built the village for the movie. I think the second reason is really why it's so famous, but that's just me. But it is really cute. You get to wander the alleys of this super cool, traditional old town and go in and out of old houses. It's really interesting. I'd actually love to go and see some of the less touristy ones in the area. And there's a ton. They're all over southern Anhui and northern Jiangsu. And it's not just the historical ones. As you drive through the countryside (which is pretty phenomenal in and of itself) even the new villages have maintained the ancient architectural style of the region. It's pretty great. Although honestly I have no desire to visit the new villages. I'm sure they're pretty shitty once you get inside. Anyway, Hongcun is great. Southern Anhui is great. You should probably visit if you come to Shanghai and have like 2-3 days. And you should definitely come to Shanghai.
Post-Hongcun, it was back to Tunxi, the city with the airport, to see an ink stick museum and the old town. My parents actually liked this part much more than I thought they would. The ink stick museum was actually an inkstick factory with a "museum" where they display things you can buy. Granted, the company is super famous and one of the oldest ones in China, and the ink stones and ink sticks are pretty amazing, but still. It's a shop, not a museum. Anyway my mom loved it. She did calligraphy. She used to do English calligraphy, so she was very excited to try it out with a brush, copying the Chinese characters off of a newspaper they gave her. And then we went to the old town, where we spent like an hour in a tea shop completely by chance. My parents thought they might buy some tea as a gift, and we ended up getting a whole big tea tasting thing with the proper tea preparation and everything, which was of course fun for my parents to see since they never had. And there were lots of really delicious Chinese snacks. Like maybe the best I'd ever had. A bunch of sesame stuff, and then all kinds of mushroom chips. Might sound weird, but it was so good. And I've never seen them before. Hopefully I can find them too, cause they were awesome. After buying a ton of tea and snacks, we wandered a bit more down the old street. Of course the street is old but the shops are all new and upscale. But the nice thing about Tunxi was that most of the upscale shops were Chinese handicraft, not like Louis Vitton or anything. And the handicraft was amazing. There really are a ton of amazing things being made in China, but sometimes they're so hard to find amongst all the crap, and this is the first time in a long time I walked into a bunch of stores and was just amazed by everything I saw. Whether it was calligraphy or wood carving or stone carving or clothing, it was all just phenomenal. It made me very happy with China. The stroll ended with dinner, and the airport and Shanghai. And that was it.
Then it was back to the normal lazy Shanghai times for my parents, plus dinner with me and my friends. The standout dinner for them was El Willy, one of my favorite restaurants that I took them to. If you come I'll take you too. And then my sister came on the Wednesday and the traveling started again. But I'll tell you about that later.
Jesus I wrote a lot. So I won't write a lot about the music. Here's the basics: Tourist has released his first album, U. Tourist is the solo project of one of the guys from Disclosure, so that's always a good start. The first song I heard, which was getting much love on my favorite (and the only good) LA radio station (it's all indies, no mainstream shit, don't worry) is Run. It also gets much love from me.
So that was great. Then I listened to the album and bought the album and decided that the next best song is Too Late. So now we're back on the 2 songs 1 artist format of old.
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