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Here are some pictures of my trip to Karen’s hometown, Gong’An, Hubei Province, China. It’s a relatively small county with about 1 million residents.
As the indoor heating system of all housing not in the North of China is not great, they have this nifty little electric gadgets to keep your feet warm.
Our hotel room with western style toilet and a mahjong table. Room 8888!!! (8 is a sign of fortune in China)
Typical playing with fireworks during Chinese New Year:
Chinese pedicurist are hardcore when repairing nails! Those are not my feet btw.
Me playing mahjong with the neighborhood’s most feared player, Karen’s grandma!
Typical meal on the left with 2 different hotpot and various other dishes. On the right, the Gong’An pizza which is cooked inside hot barrels (the pinkish thing is a pita getting cooked). Probably wouldn’t pass hygiene safety protocols but still good tasting nevertheless.
In-house meat and fish storing methods:
Inside the neighborhood:
Scenes from Gong’An downtown:
Our new apartment in Xujiahui. Between Grand Gateway and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 64 meter square, one room, one living room and one small bathroom.
We live in one of the buildings of this alley, with a conveniently fruit shop at the entrance.
About 10 minutes walk from our place is the center of Xujiahui with 4 big shopping malls and one big electronic market and one Best Buy. The third picture is inside Grand Gateway shopping mall with the decoration for the upcoming Chinese New Year.
In front of the main entrance to our alley is this cheap massage place where I got my VIP card 2 days before moving in. =)
If anyone in the neighborhood realizes that they don’t have clean underwear for the next morning, they can just wait for this guy to set up his rack each evening. With no package, straight from the rack, it’s “pret-a-porter” underwear.
This morning, I participated in the 2009 Toray Cup Shanghai International Marathon by running the half marathon (21.097km/13.1miles). 7 weeks ago, I had never run by choice before. I actually was not interested at all in running and thought it wasn’t fun. After training and running the half marathon, I still don’t think it’s fun! It’s mainly to keep in shape since I couldn’t do summer time sports anymore and there’s no such thing as winter sports in Shanghai. 7 weeks ago, I didn’t know if I had enough time to train to finish the half marathon but now that I’ve done it, I must say, it was kinda easy. 
Easy to finish but the difficulty lies in doing it fast, which wasn’t so much my priority as it was my first running event. I finished in 2 hours and 3 minutes, which placed me in 1929th position out of 4996 male participants in the half marathon. That’s good enough for me.
My training consisted of 3 runs per week: twice during weeknights for about an 45-60minutes and once every Saturday, trying to extend my run endurance by running longer than the week before. Those long runs went from 10km, to 13km, to 15km, to 17km, to 19k and finally the race itself. A bit surprisingly, not only did I run longer distance each week, I also ran at a faster pace.
As for the equipment, I already had some Nike running shoes but I bought Nike+ gadget to track my runs. One part goes into a special socket in the sole of the Nike+ shoes and the other part connects to my Ipod nano.
Not only does it tell me the distance/time/pace while I’m running, it also uploads the results to the Nike+ website where I can keep track of all my runs and progression.
Running with music helps a lot to keep it not too boring but having Nike+ also made running much more interesting. The website also had a specific running programming for beginner runners for the half-marathon that lasted for 12 weeks that I followed for the last 7 weeks. One bad thing about the Nike+ gadget is the default setting may not be precise for everyone. I never got a chance to run a known distance to calibrate the thing so I always used the default settings. Unfortunately, as I discovered during the race, mine was giving me distance bigger than the real distance which led me to believe that I was running longer and faster than real during all my training runs. After I finished the 21km race, my Ipod was showing me 23.5km.
The even itself had the full marathon (42km/26miles, 3500 participants), half marathon (6000 participants) and fun/health race (4.5km, 10000 participants). It started at People Square, the most crowded spot in Shanghai, then we ran along Nanjing Road, then Yan’an Road, then roads that I’m not familiar with that took me to somewhere not in the city center.
It was nice to able to run on the streets of Shanghai, even though some portions of the race were next to ongoing traffic. It seemed like some residents didn’t know about the marathon and got stuck watching everybody going by before being able to cross the street. Must suck to be them! Throughout the race, there was people on the side of the road not only watching but encouraging us. I never thought I would say this, but I actually appreciated the many 40 years and older Shanghainese women yelling at us! I saw a lot of group of them knowing about the event and preparing some drums or others to encourage us. They had drinks every 3-4km and taking a glass, drinking half of it, then throwing it in the ground while running is as cool as it looks during the Olympics. If it was hot weather, I would’ve splash one over my head just to feel awesome.
As for my race, I got to the starting line to warm up around 7am. At about 7:10am, it started to be full so I couldn’t really move anymore and was stuck there in the not so hot weather for 20 minutes.
At the start of the race, with so many people, we all started a bit slowly until everyone had a bit more space to hit their normal stride. The first 5km was pretty nice as we ran through famous Nanjing Road and passed through my district (Jing’an). It was nice until I saw a bunch of male runners go take a piss in the bushes at a park on the side. I thought it was totally disgusting and despicable until I needed to go badly myself. I feel ashamed but it was totally worth it. The first 10km was great and I felt like I could ran the full marathon but that feeling only lasted until oh, the 11km. My pace was getting slower even though I thought I was running as the same speed so I had to push a bit just to keep the same pace. That worked until the 15km where giving that extra effort was much more difficult and not so efficient. Then at around the 17-18km, I felt like they played a joke on all contestant by extending each kilometer to 1.5 kilometer. Each kilometer felt so much longer. Finally, I was able to give an extra effort for the last kilometer so that I wouldn’t look like a fool for the spectators and cameras at the finish line. I finished in style! All in all, I’m happy with my race. I managed to run at a faster pace and longer distance then my previous longest run. My only regret might have been that I forgot to eat a banana before my run like I usually do. I think I could’ve ran below 2 hours with that extra energy. Oh well.
Now let’s talk about Karen’s performance. Not her race, because she didn’t run, but her support for me during the race. It started well with her being at the starting line and taking pictures. The route did a U-turn of sort, which gave her a chance to see me again run but she failed to capture any pictures. Maybe it was like trying to capture a F1 car driving by, maybe I was jogging by too fast? Then, after that point, I actually managed to run faster to the finishing line then for her to reach the finish line through taxi/metro/walk. EPIC FAILURE KAREN! So to all my readers, that’s the reason why you don’t have pictures of me finishing the race in style. In her defense, there was a lot of traffic due to roads being blocked and she didn’t really know how to get there without taxi. She actually met another girl in the same situation as her while her husband was running the full marathon. pfffffft, women. Maybe next time, while we practice running, they should do practice session on how to get to the finish line by taxi. 
More pictures HERE.
October 1st-8th 2009
For the 60th year anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, Karen and I decided to celebrate by going to Thailand .
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s my recap in 59 000 words:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nambo/sets/72157622493108387/detail/
Enjoy!
Nam
What a nice short trip! The food, including street food, was very good for the most part. Besides kimchi and barbecue bulgogi stuff, we tried a few Korean staple food such as bibimbap (rice in hot pot topped with vegetables, meat and egg), japchae (similar to bibimbap but with cold transparent vermicelli) and samgyetang (whole chicken stuffed with glutinous rice). Seoulites are very friendly and it was much appreciated since we didn’t speak the same language as them. People speaking English were pretty scarce but luckily for us, some of them spoke mandarin fluently. More than once did our waiter go look for a mandarin speaking colleague, sometimes from the kitchen, to come help us order. The shopping is much better than in Shanghai but we didn’t find any plastic surgery centers that we here so much about. They have a university area (Hongdae) that pretty big and very lively on the Friday night that we were there. Public transportation is top notch with an extensive subway networks similar to Tokyo. Taxi rides are pretty cheap and they even have a public bus covering all major attractions spot around the city for tourist. Oh, and the internet there is blazing faasst! On the down side, Insadong, the supposedly cultural and traditional place to visit and Itaewon, Seoul’s international district were disappointing. Most likely because there are similar places like it in Shanghai.
Coming from Shanghai, I guess I appreciated some things more than tourist from other parts of the world. For example, the friendliness of the people encountered, the cleanliness of the air and streets and the lack of honking and cars/bus wanting to run over pedestrians. Overall a very nice city!
Pictures HERE.
Pictures can be viewed HERE.
Yunnan (south of the clouds) is a province in southern China, bordering Laos and Vietnam. I had never really heard about it but Karen wanted to go there so we did. Here’s brief recap of our itinerary:
Kunming, capital of Yunnan province:
Kunming was very unexceptional to me, except for the cross bridge noodle (guo qiao mi xian) which was a noodle soup resembling a Vietnamese noodle soup called bun bo. It was very good and that is why we went to the famous The Brothers Jiang restaurant 3 times in 2 days.
Stone Forest, one hour bus ride from Kunming:
I was told that this was a nice place if one likes rocks… and I guess I like rocks because I found it pretty nice for a 2 hour walk. We rented a local tour guide for 60rmb for 2 hours and she was well worth it. Maybe just due to being in fresh air and beautiful weather made it nice because it’s a welcome change from the conditions of Shanghai. Cost 120rmb per person.
Lijiang, 45 mins flight from Kunming:
I had now idea what to expect from Lijiang but I was surprised that it was so touristy. Lijiang Old Town, the place we stayed most of the time, is only tourist, foreign and Chinese. It’s just stores for tourists and restaurants and once you’ve seen a street, you’ve seen them all. For those familiar with Shanghai, it’s like 5 or 6 Yu Yuan glued together.
Naxi orchestra, Lijiang Old Town:
For our first night in Lijiang, we got tickets for the Naxi Orchestra, which was apparently a good attraction. I say apparently because it wasn’t. It was old people, some 80 years old playing music with ancient instrument older then them. Very cultural but not very good, especially for 120rmb. I’m not proud of it, but once the show started, Karen and I moved to more expensive seats like Chinese usually like to do. I felt cheap to do so… until I realized how crappy the show was.
"Lijiang impression" show:
After our dissapointment with the 120rmb rip-off that was the Naxi orchestra, we almost canceled our booking for Lijiang Impression which was 190rmb. 190 rmb for a tourist show?! There’s no way it could live up to that price was what I thought. Well, it did…almost! The show was on a beautiful days at the base of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, with the mountains in the background. It was performed by 500 locals of Chinese minorities with dancing, singing and even some horse riding. The price was still expensive but still worth it. Probably because it was produce by the same guy who produced the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony.
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain:
We hired a driver for the day to come here. She cost 120rmb for the whole day. The cost just to enter mountain area was 160rmb then we have to pay another 170rmb for round trip on the cable car. That’s 390rmb per person! Everything near Lijiang is very expensive! So after emptying our wallets to get in, we actually first have to wait an hour for bus shuttles to go to the cable cars, then wait another 45 mins in the lineup to get in cable cars before finally arriving at the top of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain at above 4500m of altitude where it’s covered with snow. Although nice, it wasn’t "I just spent 390rmb for a Chinese attraction" spectacular. Actually, that’s not including the oxygen bottles we bought in case we needed from being in such high altitude. We bought 3 at 60rmb per bottle and we ended using only one of them. Actually, only Karen used it as I didn’t need it. Once we escalated to the top with a 45mins walk and got our "we tried our best to make the most of 390rmb by climbing the stairs to the top" pictures taken, we got back down, waited another 45mins to get in the cable cars and that was it. Overall, it was nice but way overpriced, especially considering all the waiting time and maybe because I’ve seen similar mountains before.
Shangri-la 2 day tour:
For this tour, we were accompanied by a Tibetan tout guide and 20 or so Chinese tourists. We got to see a part of Tiger Leaping Gorge, Potatso National Park and Shangri-la. We also got to see how they subtly try to scam tourists everywhere. We visited a museum of Tibetan medicine in which we got a free tour guide and even a free palm reading by a tibetan "doctor" which was cool until the doctor offered us some of his medicine even though we were fine. Then for the walk in the national park, the tour guide strongly suggested to rent overcoats to keep warm and some oxygen to help with the altitude, which in the end, was useless for most people who got them. We also got to visit a Tibetan museum in which Tibetan monks gave us free reading of our palms once again and in the case of "sensing" some bad things for our future, encourage us to buy some things related to Buddhism in the range of a few hundreds RMBs to a few thousands of RMBs. Finally, at our last souvenir shop bus stop, the driver explicitly told us for every 100rmb purchased, he got 8rmb commission… but it was the "cheapest place to buy souvenir in the area", or so he told us.
Tiger Leaping Gorge:
We came back to Tiger Leaping Gorge, but at another section, for a 1 day trekking tour. The trekking lasted 3 1/2 hours and was one of the best thing that we did during the trip. Definitively recommended if the weather is nice.
I wrote mostly about the bad stuff and skipped the nice stuff because they’re better seen through the pictures HERE. Don’t be fooled by the text, all in all, it was a very nice trip.
