The travels of Justin

My train arrived in Tianjin on the Feb 20^th only 3-hours before my first class and I’ve been busy busy busy every since. Shanghai was a fantastic trip and is really an amazing city. Unfortunately the internet is slow as molasses again as students have returned and the network infrastructure can’t keep up with the demand; this means that I can’t upload pictures unless I can find several spare hours to hang out at a local net bar. It’ll happen, but you’ll have to wait if you want to see pics.

Justin on the Bund, in front of the world-famous Perl Tower

The TUT campus was feeling a bit lonely over the Spring Festival holiday. Other foreigners were returning to their countries while our friends and classmates had left the city to be with their families. The chance to enjoy a change of scenery — a vacation — was rejuvenating. Every teacher I know has told me to visit Shanghai to see what a real and modern city looks like. I hope if they read my blog they know how much I appreciate their advice. I can tell you from experience that the energy is the first thing that grabbed my attention. The pulse of the city can be seen in the street vendors hidden in obscure streets and the buildings that rank among the tallest in the modern world. I visited the museum (RMB$60, but reduced to RMB$5 for students) and let myself get lost in a great collection of artefacts, porcelain, and cultural relics.

A number of other travellers seemed disappointed that the hostel staff wasn’t more friendly, but my experience was just fine. I had been apprehensive about staying in the bunk’s where 8 strangers are sharing a room. Are my belongings safe? Privacy? Noise? All those risks are very real, but I was fortunate to be surrounded by a motley crew of interesting and friendly people. Many of us made friends and did sightseeing in groups during the day and assembling for big dinners often requiring a small section of local restaurants. At night, a few people hanging out in the sitting area outside the shared rooms would grow into a party that a few times lasted well into the morning. By 6 AM we could wander to the just-opened restaurants around the corner and enjoy a food I’ve come to love called 灌汤包 (Guàn Tang Bao) which is a steamed dumpling with a small bit of meat and filled with hot soup that might squirt out and burn you if you’re not careful. I’ve even found a restaurant in Tianjin that serves it. Yummy! I ate foreign food only once at a deliciously mediocre Mexican restaurant accompanied by an Irish guy who I’d met at the hostel and explored the downtown with. Having limited funds and having experienced Chinese markets for six-months I felt little interest in shopping despite Shanghai’s fame for its selection. I could easily spend more time in Shanghai really exploring all the interesting stuff it has to offer.

Maybe it seems to some like I’m on vacation by virtue of being in China, but the Shanghai trip was a true vacation (from the stress of studying) mixed with the fun of exploring. I feel more and more resolved to continue studying Mandarin Chinese to improve my written and oral language skills. Now that I’m in Tianjin, I have only 1 class for the first 10-weeks of the term giving me lots of time to study language. A good friend and I are doing a very serious language exchange — 4 to 8 hours every weekday — giving me a great opportunity to improve my vocabulary.

The real pay-off when studying language is the simple moments of actual communication. Tonight, Ryan and I wanted to study somewhere other than the dorm so went to Starbucks to read our Commercial Law textbook. The buses had stopped running so we grabbed a taxi home for RMB$17 (CAD$2.39). Feeling emboldened I started to make small talk with the driver and eventually discussed the mild temperature today, the height difference of buildings between Shanghai and Tianjin, and more. As we were dropped off at the school gate Ryan and I had a high-five for each other to acknowledge what felt like a huge accomplishment: holding a simple conversation that we could almost fully understand and contribute to.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 10:10 am and is filed under Tianjin, China, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.