Today we went to the terracotta warriors' museum and the Bampo Neolithic Village. Since I'd been to the museum before, I pretty much just spent the time sitting around with Tracy. I got to tap into the vault a little bit. The village part I found interesting - an ancient matriarchal society in our very own China! How intriguing. Although we saw a few skeletons and remains of clay burial pots, it really was somewhat underwhelming. The exhibit next door, with a model village and hired actors reenacting the old days, seemed much more exciting... but ah, we weren't allowed to go to that. SAD.
A few photos to follow... we mostly sat/walked around under a very hot sun.
Following that, I spent a coupla hours editing stories before meeting Tracy for dinner (steamed dumplings) and ice cream (Haagen-Dazs macadamia nut!) and then playing pool with him, Elliott and Rio at the hall beside our hotel. Exciting!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Day 17: Xi'an (6/14/2009)
We're off the train!! Whoooo, whooooooooo! We had some stimulating discussions on the the train last night. Despite all, I slept well and my innards are back to mostly normal. You have no idea how nice that is.
Today has been a Tracy day. We were kind of tired and cranky from the travels, so after the hotel turned out to be more hassle than he wanted to handle, he and I took off for the Starbucks plaza around noon. Now, he may call the hotel names, but I personally can take just about anything as long as there's a clean bed, a/c, and Internet!! The toilet doesn't flush all that well :| (which isn't comforting in my current delicate state *ahem*), but hey, we're right near the roundabout. Which. Is. Awesome. Location, location, location... so yeah, I like it just fine. We had Haagen-Dazs for lunch (mango-vanilla-apricot for him, strawberry for me) and Starbucks to follow up (Americano and finger sandwiches for him, colucci sandwich for me). Lots of life lessons were handed down, and a much happier man and a slightly wiser girl went back to the hotel. We spent the afternoon editing, then he took Hudson and myself to Pizza Hut for dinner, where more life lessons and gossip sessions took place, although no bad stories about Tracy are allowed to circulate. All in all, pretty fantastic.
Now I'm tired.
Here are more pictures from the countryside back in Hebei province (I know, this is confusing).
Today has been a Tracy day. We were kind of tired and cranky from the travels, so after the hotel turned out to be more hassle than he wanted to handle, he and I took off for the Starbucks plaza around noon. Now, he may call the hotel names, but I personally can take just about anything as long as there's a clean bed, a/c, and Internet!! The toilet doesn't flush all that well :| (which isn't comforting in my current delicate state *ahem*), but hey, we're right near the roundabout. Which. Is. Awesome. Location, location, location... so yeah, I like it just fine. We had Haagen-Dazs for lunch (mango-vanilla-apricot for him, strawberry for me) and Starbucks to follow up (Americano and finger sandwiches for him, colucci sandwich for me). Lots of life lessons were handed down, and a much happier man and a slightly wiser girl went back to the hotel. We spent the afternoon editing, then he took Hudson and myself to Pizza Hut for dinner, where more life lessons and gossip sessions took place, although no bad stories about Tracy are allowed to circulate. All in all, pretty fantastic.
Now I'm tired.
Here are more pictures from the countryside back in Hebei province (I know, this is confusing).
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Day 16: Beijing, en route to Xi'an (6/13/2009) - In Which I Post Recent Photos
This isn't technically written en route to Xi'an, because, well, I would be on a moving and Internet-less train if I were actually traveling. The liberties I take with the English language are hiLARious.
We had our usual editorial meeting, blah blah, we packed and ran errands, blah blah, Tracy and I had some bonding moments over The Slowest Bank Transaction In The History Of Banks (that includes the last time he tried to change traveler's checks last week), and now we're all pleasantly gathered in the meeting room trying to while away the final few hours before our departure.
Okay, so in the attached photo, not all of us are around any more. Must you be so technical??
Later this evening, we will clamber on a soft sleeper train for a 14-hour trip to Xi'an. We will share four bunks to a little room within a segment of the train car. It will look a little bit like the bunk in which Renee Zellweger's character beats up her harasser in Me, Myself and Irene.
I will be praying fervently for a ceasefire from my bowels. (As per my Twitter update, their rumbling sounds exactly like the drum rolls from Charlton Heston's Ten Commandments)
The travels will be exciting, and the rest of this post is just conjecture by now so why don't you just wait for tomorrow's post already.
I'm really just here to show you some eye candy.
We had our usual editorial meeting, blah blah, we packed and ran errands, blah blah, Tracy and I had some bonding moments over The Slowest Bank Transaction In The History Of Banks (that includes the last time he tried to change traveler's checks last week), and now we're all pleasantly gathered in the meeting room trying to while away the final few hours before our departure.
Okay, so in the attached photo, not all of us are around any more. Must you be so technical??
Later this evening, we will clamber on a soft sleeper train for a 14-hour trip to Xi'an. We will share four bunks to a little room within a segment of the train car. It will look a little bit like the bunk in which Renee Zellweger's character beats up her harasser in Me, Myself and Irene.
I will be praying fervently for a ceasefire from my bowels. (As per my Twitter update, their rumbling sounds exactly like the drum rolls from Charlton Heston's Ten Commandments)
The travels will be exciting, and the rest of this post is just conjecture by now so why don't you just wait for tomorrow's post already.
I'm really just here to show you some eye candy.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Day 15: Beijing (6/12/2009)
This is a boring one...
I woke up at 5 a.m. with bad belly cramps. Went back to sleep by 7 after the pain subsided a bit.
I woke up at 8 a.m. for the meeting. Went back to lie in bed after.
Went to the clinic at noon to see what was up with me. Waited there for 2 hours until someone paid attention to me (although it was actually quite nice - Western-style and all).
Spent the rest of the day in bed after picking up my laundry and recharging my phone. Everyone else is out karaoking.
I sure hope I'm better tomorrow... this kind of travelogue is BORING.
I woke up at 5 a.m. with bad belly cramps. Went back to sleep by 7 after the pain subsided a bit.
I woke up at 8 a.m. for the meeting. Went back to lie in bed after.
Went to the clinic at noon to see what was up with me. Waited there for 2 hours until someone paid attention to me (although it was actually quite nice - Western-style and all).
Spent the rest of the day in bed after picking up my laundry and recharging my phone. Everyone else is out karaoking.
I sure hope I'm better tomorrow... this kind of travelogue is BORING.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Day 14: Beijing (6/11/2009)
According to my faithful Facebook updates, I've been in China for two weeks. Unpossible, I say! But more than that, improbable!! And yet it is probably true. Oh, well, that's that.
I finally bit the bullet and installed Hotspot Shield for its proxy bypassing abilities. And then in the process of doing so, realized that I already had it installed. D'oh. :| I am a dummy. (I always wanna spell it "Dumby," because it looks like it would be so cute) At any rate, I now have access to all the Firewalled sites in China! At least, such would be the general idea. In practice, the Internets is still slow as a snail on a hot summer day. ...I don't actually know if heat plays a factor in snail speed. I digress. The point of this paragraph was originally to point out that, well, my travel adventures belong on this site. I will have to update the past two weeks' Facebook notes here when I get a chance, but for now, the least I can do is to start posting my updates back here on Blogger.
I'm feeling mildly better. The bugs in my stomach are a little less ferocious! It could also be that I've been starving them, but they only bother me now when I eat. This won't be a problem for another few weeks, because psh, who needs food?
We actually had a very chill day today. After our morning editorial meeting, we were free until 4 p.m., when we visited the Wall Street Journal bureau. Again, swanky building - this time in the same building as a shopping center, whoo whoo. It's not like I actually did anything there besides pick up hygienic products like shampoo and lotion and soap with Tracy, but knowing it was there was half the excitement. Oh, I'm talking about the shopping, not the WSJ - which was highly interesting, although the room was very warm. I'm really enjoying all of these briefings we have. It's too bad we're not really allowed to talk about half of them. Suffice it to say, though, that I have come out of everything this past week with the following information...
To become a foreign correspondent in this day and age:
1) The financial news market booms while the rest of the industry crashes, so if you can get over your fear of business journalism, you will not have to worry that journalists are a dying breed.
2) Know the basics of journalistic writing. Think fast on your feet and learn the local house style as quickly as you can.
3) Have at least some working knowledge of how to illustrate a story visually. Multimedia experience is only going to get more valuable as time progresses.
4) Learn a foreign language, and learn it well. Most places will want you to be conversationally fluent and able to comprehend a basic news article. Bonus props if you can write in said foreign language. Obviously, this is exponentially harder in most Asian languages than in, say, Romance languages.
5) Bonus sprinkles on the top include a working understanding of economics/accounting/finance, science/math, and being well-read.
6) 10-15 minutes of research before any interview can only make you look better.
We may or may not go to a jazz club tonight. When I say "we," I make it sound like it's a group thing... but really, I just mean Me and My Stomach Bug. I think I will name him Fred.
I finally bit the bullet and installed Hotspot Shield for its proxy bypassing abilities. And then in the process of doing so, realized that I already had it installed. D'oh. :| I am a dummy. (I always wanna spell it "Dumby," because it looks like it would be so cute) At any rate, I now have access to all the Firewalled sites in China! At least, such would be the general idea. In practice, the Internets is still slow as a snail on a hot summer day. ...I don't actually know if heat plays a factor in snail speed. I digress. The point of this paragraph was originally to point out that, well, my travel adventures belong on this site. I will have to update the past two weeks' Facebook notes here when I get a chance, but for now, the least I can do is to start posting my updates back here on Blogger.
I'm feeling mildly better. The bugs in my stomach are a little less ferocious! It could also be that I've been starving them, but they only bother me now when I eat. This won't be a problem for another few weeks, because psh, who needs food?
We actually had a very chill day today. After our morning editorial meeting, we were free until 4 p.m., when we visited the Wall Street Journal bureau. Again, swanky building - this time in the same building as a shopping center, whoo whoo. It's not like I actually did anything there besides pick up hygienic products like shampoo and lotion and soap with Tracy, but knowing it was there was half the excitement. Oh, I'm talking about the shopping, not the WSJ - which was highly interesting, although the room was very warm. I'm really enjoying all of these briefings we have. It's too bad we're not really allowed to talk about half of them. Suffice it to say, though, that I have come out of everything this past week with the following information...
To become a foreign correspondent in this day and age:
1) The financial news market booms while the rest of the industry crashes, so if you can get over your fear of business journalism, you will not have to worry that journalists are a dying breed.
2) Know the basics of journalistic writing. Think fast on your feet and learn the local house style as quickly as you can.
3) Have at least some working knowledge of how to illustrate a story visually. Multimedia experience is only going to get more valuable as time progresses.
4) Learn a foreign language, and learn it well. Most places will want you to be conversationally fluent and able to comprehend a basic news article. Bonus props if you can write in said foreign language. Obviously, this is exponentially harder in most Asian languages than in, say, Romance languages.
5) Bonus sprinkles on the top include a working understanding of economics/accounting/finance, science/math, and being well-read.
6) 10-15 minutes of research before any interview can only make you look better.
We may or may not go to a jazz club tonight. When I say "we," I make it sound like it's a group thing... but really, I just mean Me and My Stomach Bug. I think I will name him Fred.
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