When people talk about how China is developing at a very fast pace, I can now totally understand and envision what they are saying.  If I come back to Shanghai in five years, I probably will not recognize many of the buildings.

Travel along with me to view the city of Shanghai!

Venturing in a big city can be exciting and fun, especially seeing all the neon lights, but sometimes I need a break and enjoy the small town life.  Nestled in middle of a landscape of construction, there is a small town about 40 minutes by taxi from the city center of Shanghai call Zhujiajiao.  It is the Venice of China.  Boats roam through the town as Chinese people paddle them in the river.

A Chinese woman can be found to be washing her clothes by the river.  Chinese people are cooking in front of people.  Lots of Chinese handicrafts can be found throughout the town, including silk qipao, shoes, pillow cases, musical instruments, fans, etc.  I purchased a pair of beautiful flats for only 60 RMB which is equivalent of 10 US dollars.

Best of all, I had the boat to myself to enjoy the ride through the canals!  Gazing at the architecture and people was an enjoyable experience.

I will write details on the rest of the trip on the plane or when I get back to the States tomorrow.

But, the real reason I came to this place was to get a nice real high quality silk custom-made Chinese dress called Qipao.  I scoured through hundreds of fabrics at the market for the right fabric that made me say, “Ooooooo!  I gotta have that!”  I finally found the right fabric that made me drool – it’s royal blue with cherry blossom flowers.  I bargained with the sales and  “tailor” woman until I got it down to as low as I could make it.  Remember, high quality silk dresses in the States go for hundreds to thousands of dollars.  I got it, all custom-made, for USD$100.  The woman measured me and then asked me how I want the dress to look like in terms of where it should be buttoned and whether or not if I want a zipper.  It was a totally fun experience, especially for someone who is crazy about fashion.

We will be able to see the final results of both dresses on Wednesday, the day before I head out!  These two dresses will have wonderful stories to tell for years to come.  When people ask me where I got the dress, I can tell them about the experience of choosing the fabric to being measured to deciding the placement of the buttons to negotiating.

Next time, when I come back to Shanghai, I am going to bring a picture of a Valentino dress or jacket and have it copied!  LOL!

I also can’t forget to mention that, as I was the only westerner in the restaurant, I got many noticeable stares.  At one point, I turned my head around slightly, and I saw a man behind me snapping photos of me via his phone!  I wasn’t pissed.  I laughed.  People have the right to be curious about who I was and there is nothing wrong with it.  If only I could speak Chinese, I would share my story with them about what I was doing at this place.

A few hours after the wonderful feast, the world turned upside down.  I woke up after going to sleep for about an hour or two feeling completely nauseated.  I thought, “Oh no!  This can’t be happening!”  I became very ill with bad food poisoning.  There is no need for me to tell the details as that would be ‘too much information.’

Sophia assisted me to the hospital where they had an international travel clinic the following morning.  It was the longest day of my life.  I was in so much pain that every time I was standing such as in an elevator, I had to sit down.  My stomach, back, chest and head were all hurting so badly and I was constantly nauseated.  I felt like I wanted to shoot myself.  I was in complete tears and hysteria.  The doctors and nurses tried to calm me down by not only letting me know what they could do for me and that they were there for me, but also letting me know that I was the third foreign traveler with the exact same symptoms to arrive at the hospital that day!  I should note that I arrived at the hospital at 8 AM in the morning!

I was treated with antibiotics via IV at the hospital and sent home with pills.  I am now doing much better today than I was last Tuesday, but I am going to take it easy until I head to the next destination….

SHANGHAI!

Yes.  I made changes again for the umpteenth time.  After a lot of thorough thinking, even though Sophia and I don’t want to leave each other early, we felt that it is best for me to avoid visiting her in-laws who live in a rural area because god forbid I get sick again, getting medical help would be extremely difficult – it would take the whole day to get to the nearest hospital!  When Sophia mentioned this concern to me, I remembered why I should appreciate the health care my country, the US, has to offer – its advanced medical facilities that allow people to get medical attention as soon as possible, even utilizing helicopters.  When the shooting at Gabrielle Gifford’s meeting occurred last January, my friend from Brazil said to me, “What impressed me the most about the news coverage was how quickly these people were able to receive medical attention.  We don’t have this speedy care in many locations in Brazil.”

So, I will be leaving Haikou this Saturday morning and will be heading to Shanghai and staying with a family friend from the US until Thursday of next week when I head back to North America.

Garbage on the bus – disgusting!

At our first stop, we stepped on boats made of wood or materials that appeared to be made of bamboo.  These boats were not typical boats…they only had a floor and no walls to protect us from falling.  Cool!  I have to admit that I was excited to be sailing on a very exotic boat!  A Chinese man who was paddling the boat pointed to my bags and told me to give them to him because we were going to get wet.  Ok…but I want my camera to take pictures!  He insisted that it needed to be put in a bin to stay dry.  Then a moment a later I saw some water squirting and it looked like it was only going to get worse.  OK.  I wasn’t going to wreck my expensive camera for umpteenth time and so, I put it in the bin.  The next thing I knew, I was completely soaked by BIG water pumps squirting water at me and others!  My hair went from dry and straight to completely curly and dripping water.  To make matters worse, rain was pouring hard!  I had a long day head of me before I could get into a shower!  Ugh…

Then we headed to a beach where it was drizzling a bit, and the scenery was rather distasteful thanks to the weather that ruined it!  I imagine if there were sun, I would see glistening bright blue water with white sand.  Then rain poured down really hard again. Sophia and I were both standing by the ocean, holding one umbrella together as the wind gushed away.  Sophia screamed in hysteria wanting to get out of the rain.  I said to Sophia as we were standing in the rain, “If we were in Kenya and outside in the rain,  we’d be dancing and rejoicing in their country because it means the crops will grow and they will have food to eat! So, let’s enjoy the rain!”  Sophia looked at me like I was a total idiot, but I insisted her that it was true.  I understand that dealing with rain can get old, but I was trying to be positive in midst of this misery.

Then we had lunch at a random place where food looked gross.  I just ate nothing but rice.  This kind of meal, including dinner, continued throughout the trip except for the second night when Sophia, her husband, and I took off from the group and went to a Brazilian restaurant on our own.  I would call it Chinese-Brazilian because it definitely had some Chinese flavor.

Somewhere along the way, we made a stop at a coconut “factory” shop.  The reason I’m quoting “factory” is because the place claims to be a factory, but it’s really a big advertisement place trying to grab our attention to buy their products.  Then, we made a stop at a fish market, then at a gemstone place, then at a tea place, then another big random outlet shop.  We didn’t just stop and shop there.  We also had to sit through the lectures, listening to presenters promote the products.  Of course, I couldn’t understand a word, but just from observing and hearing Sophia’s brief translation, I got the gist that I was practically sitting in a live commercial show.  The scenes were rather quite a riot!  Sales people were holding the products throughout the show, telling us why we should buy their products and giving us deals.  By the time we got to the fifth commercial stop, Sophia raged out of the place and instead of watching the comical people trying to sell us crap, we watched Chinese people driving down the road.  In my own American eyes, it was more exciting to watch people on the road than at the commercial stop because the vehicles and people were so interesting and exotic.  Seeing four teenagers sitting on one motorcycle, a group of people sitting in the back of a trunk, and one man whispering to another man and staring at me in a car was all amusing.

I later learned that the purpose of these stops was that they were giving the tour groups money and therefore, that is what made our tour group cost so cheap – 200 RMB!  That is equivalent to USD $31 for three days, two nights, all meals included, hotel stays and a few admissions, such as to a couple temples and parks!

Speaking of visiting some temples, we visited a few Buddhist temples, and it was my first time seeing them.  It was a real eye opener for me to see religious sites other than Catholicism and Judaism.  When I first stepped in a temple and gazed at the interior design, I nearly had a heart attack.  I saw “swastikas” everywhere and said, “How can that be?”.  As a Jew, it was hard for me, at first, to grasp that this symbol was shown everywhere in the temple.  Then I remembered from my middle school history class my teacher telling us that the “swastika” is actually a very old symbol that has been around for thousands and thousands of years in Buddhism and represents happiness, good and long life, luck and good fortune.  I came to realization that the Nazis totally ruined the impression of an integral symbol in the Buddhist religion!

I had an opportunity to attend and observe a service.  In Buddhism, the religious teacher tells a fortune to each person or to each married couple after a service.  When it was my turn, Sophia stood next to me waiting to translate for me.  Sophia asked him, “Do I need to translate your fortunes for her?”  The religious teacher knew from my physical appearance that I am not a Buddhist and so, he said, “No, I know that she doesn’t practice Buddhism and so, I need to respect her beliefs.”   I was thankful that he was a wise man who recognized that there is a diversity of people who come from all walks of life.

Interior of a Temple

Rain continued to pour throughout the trip.  Sun barely peaked through the clouds.

We finally came back on Monday night, and I will tell the rest of the story in subsequent posts.

Anyway, back to what the original post should be about – Nightlife in Haikou!  I’ve never seen so many neon lights in one city.  I know that I talked about it in the last post, but I am still in awe of them.  I asked Sophia, “Isn’t it expensive to be running all these neon lights as they’re using a lot of electricity?”  She said that they like using the neon lights because they make the cities brighter and more comfortable to navigate at night.  Then I realized that in the US, even though we rarely use neon lights, we still use a lot of lights as many shops leave the lights on in their stores through the night even when they’re not open.  So, I am going to present photos of my observations, and I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Note the big jumbo TV screen on one of the stores!

Can you spot the KFC in the photo?

Jumbo TV on a building

Here also are some pictures of what Haikou looks like during the day. The architecture is not much different or thrilling as what I’ve see in Europe. It’s very ordinary and simple as I see in the US.