Being Blessed in Beijing

Before school started in the fall of 2018 I decided that I would travel to Beijing and Xian. Every other time of the year I was unable to go (Fall there is too many people visiting, Winter pollution problem, Spring I was working) even though I was warned that it would be hot I was still surprised by how hot it actually was. Every day I drank at least 5 water bottles.

For those that don’t know, Beijing is actually next to a desert and the desert is increasing in size due to deforestation, pollution, and climate change so the summers may be getting hotter and drier soon.

Day One

To start, I began in one of the more famous places-Tienanmen Square. The line to get to Tienanmen square is insane, with hundreds of people lining up down two city blocks to get inside. Once you are at the gate you show your passport to the guard and place any bags you have through an X-ray. The government doesn’t like to talk about the riot that happened in the square and have actually banned books and movies on the topic from coming into China but I was surprised to hear English speaking tour guides talking about it freely to their groups.

Through the square you can enter the Forbidden City…or part of it. The Forbidden City is where the emperor, advisers, and his courtesans lived but it is split into several areas. The further most area is where the advisers lived, then the inner circles would be the courtesans. Those in the inner circle were never allowed to leave once inside. No men were allowed inside this circle as well as the courtesans jobs were to give birth to the heir and didn’t want any other man to possibly impregnate the courtesans. Since children died very easily back in the day the idea is that the more women there are to impregnate, the higher chance that there will be a living heir. In Western culture we usually view courtesans as dirty and gross prostitutes, but these women were usually chosen from elite or famous families. These women not only were to give birth but to also strengthen ties with the emperor and these elite families.  Their family’s status would increase exponentially if their child was chosen as the heir.

You can watch a famous Chinese TV show about it called Empresses in the Palace.

When I went to buy my ticket to get inside the inner circle of the Forbidden City I was surprised that by 10:00 am that all the tickets for that day and the next day were sold out. So the pictures you have are from the outside gate and the garden nearby.

Next, I went to Beihai Park which is a massive. It is 70 hectacres of land and 39 hectacres of water 

(Kelly, 2018).

While I was there I went inside a temple, several pavilions, and got to see “heaven.” In Buddhist temples they will sometimes have a recreation of what they believe heaven looks like. The one I saw was basically a small hill and in the past a person could climb on it and go through the tunnels and sidewalks. 

Usually the heavens will be surrounded by Buddhas or angels.

After that I went to the Lama temple otherwise known as Yonghegong Temple. There are several worshiping areas with their own special Buddha, painting, and carving that are in these temples and this one’s specialty was a statue that was made out of one tree and stood at least three stories tall. It was in the Guinness World Book of Records! After all that walking I had 24,000 steps recorded on my phone and was wiped out.

Day Two

My hotel, Swissotel, offered a tour package of the most popular places to see in Beijing and gladly signed up. A tour bus picked me up at 6:45 am and along the way picked up other tour members from other hotels. People from Germany, USA, and Ireland were all on the bus with me which was cool. A man from Ireland and I were the only ones that taught in China and everyone else was there for fun or short-term business.

We began the tour by going to a silk museum. At the museum (as our tour guide Murphey told us it was more of a store) we got to see the silk cocoons that the worms weave. If the worm dies inside the cocoon, then the silk is thrown into hot water and stretched out and the worm is sold to be eaten as a snack. Our group was handed a cocoon and told to stretch it out as much as we could, and we got about 5 feet in diameter without snapping it. Silk is the top export of China currently and most Chinese people will buy silk wedding clothes or silk wedding sheets.

The second stop was at the Sacred Way. The Sacred Way is the road that goes from the Forbidden City to the Ming Tombs. The tombs span several mountains and is the burial place of royalty along with important generals and courtesans. Our group only walked down the famous sidewalk that has several statues of animals and people. When the emperor or empress died, they were taken down the 7.3 km, or 4.5 miles, to their resting place. The Sacred Way was only supposed to be touched by the emperor so the servants carrying his coffin would lift the coffin with poles and walk on the darker sidewalk.

After the Sacred Way we headed to a Jade Museum (store). The Jade Museum had huge pieces of jade cut out in amazing shapes such as a throne, a ship, and animals. We learned about the different types of jade and how to tell real jade from fake. One way to tell if a piece is jade or glass is by tapping it and listening for a specific sound. Jade will sound higher pitched than glass. Another way is by scratching the piece onto glass; glass on glass will scratch but jade on glass will not leave a mark. If you ever go to China there are about a million jade shops, but many could be fake, so just be on the lookout.

Last, but certainly not the least, we visited The Great Wall! The Great Wall are actually walls with several different sections you can visit. (Zhou, 2018) You can read about them here. The part I visited was Mutainyu. If you ever want to visit the Great Wall the first thing you should know is that it isn’t going to be next to your hotel, all the walls are miles away from the city so it will take a few hours to drive out there. Once you arrive by car or bus you can either walk up to the wall or take a cable car. It costs extra to come and go by cable car but in my mind you get more time to be on the wall.

When I was walking along the wall I told myself I would make it to the next fortification but every couple of steps I met a person/couple and we got to talking. I talked to a couple honeymooning from Germany, sisters-in-law from USA, a couple on vacation who were from India but immigrated to USA, and a woman from Russia. I made it down one staircase but met a lot of cool people along the way.

Not to mention the wall is beautiful and at one point I stood on the wall and thought, “I can’t believe I’m really here. I am standing on one of the most famous places in the world. Hundreds of miles away from my hometown.” You really feel special standing on the wall.

Our wall is not very crowded unlike the Badaling wall. Our tour guide told us that Badaling is the most popular one but it also is shoulder-to-shoulder walking traffic the entire way. The German honeymoon couple told me that they had visited that wall the day before and thought it was a nightmare.

Gubeikou is another popular one for those who like hiking because it is covered in vines and is quite steep, however parts of it are condemned. This blogger went and liked it a lot.

If you would like to read on the history of the Great Wall, go here!

Our bus took us home and that is when I got a taste of Beijing rush hour. To go three blocks took us about 20 minutes so when we got a few blocks within our hotels we were told to get off. Half of the bus just got off at a subway station.

In my opinion, this was a wonderful tour and would go again! I wish I had another day in Beijing just to visit another wall or maybe get another chance to see the Forbidden City or try Peking Duck. Who knows, maybe I will get another chance someday.

Kelly. (2018, September 7). Beihai Park, Beijing. Retrieved from China Highlights: https://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/attraction/beihai-park.htm

Zhou, R. (2018, July 25). The Best 10 Sections/Parts of the Great Wall to Visit. Retrieved from China Highlights: https://www.chinahighlights.com/greatwall/section/

Dragon Boat Festival

So this last weekend in China was the Dragon Boat Festival. It is an event that remembers a poet and royal adviser Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan was famous in my province of Zhejiang as he lived and died in a neighboring province of Hunan. I bought his book of poems before moving to the area. His most famous poem is Li Sao (translated to Great Sorrow) which talks about how the emperor of China exiled Qu Yuan, and the poet fell into a depression that lead him to commit suicide by jumping in a river. People tried to row their boats out to save him but were too late. To prevent the fish from eating Qu Yuan they threw rice dumplings (called zongzi) into the river.

Here is Qu Yuan surronded by zongzi mascots. 

Now the sad event is commemorated each year with people having boat races with dragons on the front. Dragons are actually considered water spirits in Asian countries compared to fire breathing creatures like they are in Western countries and are supposed to bring luck. (See my post on Japan) People also eat zongzi, wear mosquito "perfume" bags, and some areas place mugwort plants above their doors. The event is also held on the summer solstice, so the date of the event changes every year (Fercility).

A cardboard cut-out of a dragon boat in my grocery store. 

Jiaxing has a three day festival so we got Monday off of work. On Saturday, my friend Evelyn and her boyfriend, Sunny, and I went to see the dragon boat races in Nanhu (translated to South Lake). Evelyn told me that in Taiwan the festival is different as the boats try grabbing flags that are placed in the water, but in our area they see who crosses the finish line first.

Afterwards, we went to the Nanhu park and went through a museum, bought perfume bags, went inside a pagoda, and ate zongzi.

The pagoda that we climbed all seven flights of stairs for. 

Baking pans with imprints on them so cakes have designs on them. 

 

A very large flag. 

Horse lanterns

Then on Monday my co-worker, Tracy, invited me to her family's house to eat lunch and watch Parent Trap with her kids (one of whom is my student). They asked me what I liked to eat and I told them I like pork and fried dumplings. Those super kind people made me those dishes and guess what, they are VEGETARIAN! So they made me pork just for me which is like...the nicest thing ever??

We also played UNO (I'm glad it is international) and after we ate we went to Nanhu again for another round of boat races but it was a little different. This time the boats didn't have dragon heads on them which disappointed the kids and it was super hot. The Tracy family went home after the races and I went to Yue He (translated to Moon River).

In Yue He I went to a few shops and bought a bayberry flavored tea. The shops in the area are kind of tourist-y where they sell beads, wood swords, a TON of jade, and a lot of items with the Chinese zodiac animals. While I was in Yue He I saw a pig, just hanging out! A bunch of people were taking pictures in front of the pig, and I even snapped a picture.

Remember these guys from one of my first blog posts?

I love you Moon River Pig.

 Citations

Fercility. “Dragon Boat Festival 2018.” China Highlights, 8 June 2018, www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/dragon-boat-festival.htm.

Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum

When I was looking on TripAdvisor on things to do in Shanghai I found one of the most popular museums to visit was a Jewish Refugee Museum. Naturally, this intrigued my interest. Why is there a Jewish Refugee center...in China?  How many people came? Also, wasn't China going through a terrible war at the time?

The museum offers tours in English and Chinese every 30 minutes. 

These are the answers I found at the Jewish Refugee Museum. First, China was going through a Japanese invasion at the time and a civil war. Many Americans are unaware but Japan during WWII was murdering, raping, and invading other countries beside the Pacific Islands such as China and Korea. You can read about one of the bloodiest massacres to happen in China here.

However, before the invasion China had agreed to take in refugees from foreign nations if needed, so Shanghai became an international city. (During this time America was denying refugees.) When Japan invaded China and had taken over Shanghai, they had to honor the agreement to be an international city so China took in over 25,000 Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi Germany. Our tour guide believes that this number could be much higher as some of the documents were destroyed. The documents were destroyed on purpose as Japan and Germany were allies at the time, and those who were protecting the Jewish refugees were afraid that the Japanese could see who was on the Nazi's wanted list and then the Japanese could deport those on the wanted list.

Wall of known names of those who immigrated to China.

Life in China was not easy due to the fact that the Japanese were in charge of everything. The Jewish people still had to live in ghettos and still had restrictions placed on them. There was even a Japanese officer who would hit any European who was taller than him in the stomach when they would walk by him. This officer was also in charge of giving out visas which he gave out sparingly. It is said that when the war was over and the people could go back to Europe, they would walk by this general and punch him. What goes around, comes around.

However, there were positives to living in China. Shanghai's conditions were still much better than if they were in Europe. The citizens in the Jewish ghettos could leave their houses when they wanted, go grocery shopping without showing their papers, and could make friends with the Chinese citizens who lived there. Not to mention, in 1907 (thirty years before the refugees came) a synagogue was already built by Jewish business owners who came to China for trade, so the people in this area could still go to Jewish religious services. The people also owned businesses such as convenient stores and restaurants and did fairly well for themselves. They named their ghetto "Little Vienna."

The museum is in the picture is three floors. The first is the synagogue, the second is a collection of items from the refugees, and the third is a history of how the Nazis came to power. You can see there is an umbrella and sitting area there, this was in front of a popular restaurant in Little Vienna that still stands but sells postcards now.

The restaurant that now sells postcards. 

The reason that the restaurant sells postcards is sobering. When WWII was over, the refugees sent letters and postcards back to their relatives in Europe to see if they survived and if they could live with them. None of them got replies. Every single one of the refugees postcards and letters went to people who had died during WWII. You could send a postcard to the museum itself to say how you felt about the experience, to yourself, or to whoever you wanted.

Behind the restaurant are two buildings. The first has a small movie theater and a collection of items such as visas, wedding photos, and pictures of buildings that the refugees owned. The second building has a mailbox, a map of the ghetto, and written accounts and paintings of the refugees experiences.

Jewish and Chinese families joining together for Chinese New Year.

The area outlined in blue was the Jewish ghetto

Where you can send postcards to the past.

One of the most important people to the Jewish refugees was a man named Doctor Ho Feng Shan. When Japanese officers refused to give out visas, Doctor Ho, who was a Chinese diplomat, decided to give out "visas for life." This was against orders but he knew that if he did not do this, these people could be sent back and killed by the Nazis.
In case you don't know, most visas only last for a limited amount of time. For my own visa, it expires once a year and I have to get it renewed. Doctor Ho knew that the Japanese could deny renewals of visas and have these people murdered, and no one knew when the war would end, so he decided to put himself at risk by giving out a guaranteed life saving visas to these refugees. Doctor Ho died in 1997 and saved 3000 Jewish lives. In the year 2000 he was posthumously given the "Righteous Among Nations Award" by the Israeli foundation for his work in saving refugees.

One of the people that was grateful for gaining refuge in China was Jacob Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld was an Austrian Jew that joined the Chinese army in fighting the Japanese army.

A powerful thought I took away from this experience was a poem written on a hallway ceiling from one of the buildings to another by Yehuda Amichai.

"God takes pity on the kindergartners

Less so on the school children

And will no longer pity their elders

leaving them to their own

And sometimes they will have to crawl on all fours

Through the burning sand

To reach the casualty station

Bleeding."

*As a side note, all plaques were written in Chinese, English, and Hebrew.

According to our tour guide, the poem was written about a boat full of children who were shipped out of Europe hoping that one country would accept them. No country at the time would and almost all the children died. Thinking of this makes me quite emotional, maybe because I am a teacher or maybe it's because I have actually visited Auschwitz. It makes me sick that no country in the world would accept little children who did nothing wrong but everyone was so afraid of the "drain" of refugees or were anti-Semitic or whatever that they let them die. We can see this happening in the world right now. 

You can read about American cases here

and a recent case (at the time of this publishing) where a boat was turned away here. 

It amazes me that a country that was going through it's own oppression and being murdered by the thousands was one of the few countries that would let refugees come in. It makes me think of a study that found that those who were poor, were more willing to donate and help than those who were more well off. This is because those who are not fairing well, understand how hard it is and are more empathetic towards others. 

I think of a high school class when I was student-teaching (shout out to Mrs. Wiarda) where she wanted to emphasize that the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. The Chinese population empathized with the Jewish people and were able to save over 25,000 lives. Doctor Ho Feng Shan grew up poor and without a father and then went on to save 3,000 Jewish lives. 

After the war, all the Jewish refugees left for their home countries, Australia, South America, and the newly created Israel. They were unable to stay as China was going through a civil war which lasted until 1950. 

A fascinating turn of events was the tour group I was with had Jewish family with us whose grandparents immigrated to South America to escape the Nazis. They told us a little about their own family history and another family in our tour group found that they were from the same South American city as them! I have no idea what that means or if they became good buddies after that but it was a weird coincidence. 

Who knows, maybe I have an old distant relative who was saved by the Chinese. (Turek is spelled Tuerk on this wall.) 

I think the largest take away for me is that I viewed the Holocaust as a European event but the fact that South America and China both helped Jewish refugees. The Holocaust was a world-wide event. I hope we others can see and empathize while genocides currently go on in our world today. 

Myths and Facts: Living Overseas

When Americans learn about China, we hear these crazy stories that we think are true. I believed them just as much as the next guy but found out they were myths! I thought it would be educational, so I am putting it in my post.

MYTH: Religion is illegal there! You will go to jail!
FACT: Religion is highly regulated here. There are churches in every city and some offer the service in English. The top religions in China are Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Basically the goverment figures out the population of the city and states how many churches can be be built in that area. What is illegal are underground churches without licenses and evangelizing. You can't tell random people about how dope your god is, you will get in trouble. If you wanted to walk into any church and convert to that religion, that is fine.

MYTH: People eat dog there!
FACT: There is a region that eats dog but it is frowned upon by many Chinese people. Dogs are the number one pet here! The people of the dog eating area says it is part of their culture while others think it is cruel. In my PERSONAL OPINION I think eating dog started to take care of the stray dog problem here. I can't go five minutes anywhere in China without seeing a stray.

MYTH: Everyone speaks English!
FACT: Teachers and business people speak English. That is it. Generation X most definitely do not speak English as during their childhoods the poverty was so bad that some didn't even finish middle school. Shanghai and Beijing will have the most English speakers but other than that, you are out of luck.

MYTH: There are a ton of Americans over there you can befriend!
FACT: I have seen a record of 20 different foreigners in my city thus far. In a city of 4 million I might be one of 100 foreigners.

MYTH: Bring chopsticks to restaurants, they won't provide them.
FACT: People got to eat, they have chopsticks, dude.

MYTH: White is the color of death, don't wear it!
FACT: Just like black is the "color of death" in America, we still wear black all the time. White lace is fashionable right now in China.

MYTH: You can only have one child in China.
FACT: It varies by region. My city can have two or three but rural areas can have up to six. The Y Generation is made of one child kids but Genertion Z do have siblings.

Do you have any questions about China or heard crazy stories about it? Feel free to ask below!

What I Miss About Home

My sister and I were talking on the phone and we discussed what we were going to do when we go back to the USA. Of course she is in Prague and I am in China so we want different things but there were others that we agreed on.

First, America really is diverse even in Nebraska which the most interesting thing about us is that it is filled with corn, our state mascot is a Corn Husker that is how much corn we have. However, in my city of 10,000 people we have a Chinese restaurant, Mexican restaurant, and Italian restaurant. In bigger cities like Lincoln or Omaha you get Ethopian, Portugese, Brazilian, Japanese, Chinese Hot Pot, and Polish food. There is so much variety to pick from!!
The number one food I miss the most is Mexican. There are a few Spanish restaurants in Shanghai and that is as close as I can get. I desperatly want a cheese enchililada with shredded chicken. Oh my gosh that sounds amazing.

There are also stores that China lacks. The one store I miss is Lush. I know that is very basic but LISTEN their Skin Drink moisturizer is the only thing that really works on my skin in the harsh cold Chinese winters. Plus the bathbombs smell like heaven. I just miss their products so much and plan on going at it when I go to America.
As a side note, when I went to Japan they did have a Lush store and I kind of went beserk in the store. I bought two containers of Skin Drink,  a giant bar of honey soap, and a lip scrub that was so amazing. I have already gone through the soup and one container of the moisturizer.

Another thing is that spices are really hard to find here. The only spices I found in my supermarket are the hot spicy kind. I can't find oregano, basil, curry, or even ginger! They only sell ginger root in most stores here which is ironic because in American-Chinese cooking there is a lot of ginger spice involved but in actual China it is hardly used. There is a foreign grocery store in my city called Metro that sells EVERYTHING. Ice cream, cheese, pasta, toys, and yes spices. After living here for almost 8 months I finally found ground cinnamon and ginger.

Other items that are hard to find include ovens, microwaves, clothes dryers, and butter knives. It took my co-worker several months of looking online to find a butter knife and she got me one as well. Have you ever buttered your bread with a sharp knife? It kind of sucks.
Most cooking in China is done over a wok or with a rice cooker. Refrigerators are even hard to find here since most people buy things that don't need to be kept cold. I am lactose intolerant so it wasn't a big deal for me but cheese, milk, and ice cream are rare and when they are available there might be two different brands to choose from.
Also, America is one of the few countries that doesn't hang dry their clothes. Everyone I know in America owns a clothes dryer and I have found zero people who own one in China or Europe. How do ya'll keep your clothes from going musty?

I go back to the states in about a month. After two months in America I will go back to China and get right back to teaching those cute kids. Before I go back to China, I think I will bring a few spices with me.

The Most Magical Place on Earth

Mickey Mouse, rides, and princesses, yes that is right, the most magical place on earth, Disney. Disney Land was first started in California and then expanded to Disney World in Florida. The success of Disney and its many buy-outs of brands (as of late, Marvel) has caused Disney's brand to thrive and expand all over the world including China! I have wanted to go to Shanghai Disney since I landed in the country and have been invited four times to go. After people getting sick, pollution problems, and schedules not working out I was finally able to go on labor day weekend to the Disney Land Park. Here is how it went and what I thought of it.

First, we (my co-worker Angel and I) bought tickets about two weeks ahead of time, and since it was labor day, the prices were higher than usual. The cost of a normal adult Disney ticket may be 200-300 RMB but when we went it was 450 RMB per person. They also didn't accept any coupons or group deals during the labor day weekend (Disney gotta make that coin).

Shanghai Disney is located near the international airport which is near absolutly nothing else and takes forever to get there by train or car. We got a hotel in the famous Jade Buddha district and then got a didi (Chinese uber) to take us to Disney which took about 90 minutes to get there. We arrived at 9:00 am and through our Disney apps tried to get fast passes and shockingly there were only a handful left for the day. All fast passes were sold out by 10:00 am and while the park was full we were never pushed or yelled at. In fact, I didn't even think it was that crazy packed when I compared it to the Japanese Universal Park. Through the app you could also see updated times about how long each of the ride's lines were, so we tried to hit up the rides with shorter wait times. We also reserved lunch at the Magic Castle.

First, we of course went to the castle and went through the Snow White experience. You walk into each room and it comes alive with the characters appearing through windows and walls that talk to you (in Chinese). When we went to the evil queen's lair you immediatly saw the black cauldron and could put your hands on it. It vibrated as she spoke and smoke erupted from it. They projected rats and spiders to crawl out of the cauldron which left one woman shrieking. There was the chest that the queen planned to put Snow White's heart in which really opened up and a green poisoned apple actually levitated out of it and changed to a delicous red apple and a heart. Then you could see the dwarves home and finally the kissing scene that saves Snow White. While in the castle we also took photos with the tile murials on the walls.

Next we saw the Marvel area which was just one building that had replicas of the costumes. Kind of a let down. In the future they are planning on hiring actors to walk around the area and take pictures with.

The rides and experiences we went on were Winnie the Pooh Honey Pot ride, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Tron, Alice and Wonderland Maze, Siren's Revenge, Shipwreck Cove, Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue, and Voyage of Crystal Grotto. I will say that I should have known that the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was meant for 4 year old children so that was my bad, but in my defense the picture on the app made it look really fun plus the wait was only 30 minutes. My favorite rides were Voyage of Crystal Grotto and Tron. The Crystal Grotto is a slow boat ride where you can see different Disney characters as water fountains that play music, it is low key but gosh it was magical. The only way we made it to the Tron ride (which was a 135 minute wait all day) was right after the firework show at the castle when the wait time was only 15 minutes. Angel and I ran there despite my hurt knee and her hurt ankle and it was SO DOPE. Seriously, look that ride up and go if you can. 

The Tron Ride

We also attended the Frozen Sing Along Show. Since we ate the three course meal at the castle we got fast passes to go to that show (that may be the only way you can get those but I am not sure). There was the look-alike cast on stage singing the songs in Chinese and in case you were wondering, the white characters were white. The rest of the helping staff were local Chinese people. However, all of the cast sings and speaks in Chinese. We will get to that later. While I could only hum along (because I didn't know the English words that well and didn't know the Chinese lyrics at all) I still had a fun time as the helpers threw beach balls into the audience and we could throw them around, the entire theatre's walls also were screens so the landscape would change with the music, and for the finale snow fell on us from the ceiling! Well, it was actually small clumps of bubbles but it really did look like snow.

The lunch we had at the castle was really good. First, they seat you in a lobby and when your table is ready you go off to a side room where a princess is waiting for you! Our princess was Aurora and she spoke to us English and told us to be her helpers to find her fairy godmothers. We took a picture with her and then could pay to download the picture through a code they gave us. We ate a three course meal with an appetizer, entre, and dessert. For my appetizer I got a crab cake with mangos, the entre was a lobster tail on noodles, and the dessert was a three piece chocolate set with ice cream, cake, and a cream. We also got these kiwi drinks called firecrackers that were sweet and refreshing. I will say that lobster is not that great in Nebraska (surprise surprise) but while it is fresher here, I wasn't too impressed but the rest of the food was really good. The staff was very helpful and spoke both Chinese and English. While we ate Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy walked to each table and we could take pictures with them. It was so nice!

The firework show was a ton of fun. They play music from all sorts of movies and project the films onto the castle. Fireworks and even flame throwers would go off in-time with the music. They played three Frozen songs (will that movie ever die?) but included music from Aladdin, Mulan, and Little Mermaid.

As mentioned before, all the white characters were actually white people. I was super curious as how they got there. Were they hired out? Were they exchange students living in China who needed a side job? Did they speak Chinese fluently? The answer is that these people are hired out from various areas like America, Britain, and Australia. To be part of the prince or princess staff there is an auditioning process and people who are hired have to have an American Midwestern accent when speaking English but also have to learn Chinese. I tried finding if the company provides room and board (I assume they do) but was unable to find it.
You can read more here.  

Some things I heard about Shanghai Disney before going, was that it was very dirty there. The negative reviews when the park first opened were all complaints about the litter but Disney stepped up their game and there are janitors everywhere. I do not know if it is a theme park thing or a China thing, but even though there were trash cans every 30 feet (no joke) people still chose to throw their trash on the ground or in bushes. At one point we saw a janitor sweeping in a bushy area getting all these wrappers and bottles out of the branches. Seriously, people?

A big difference between Shanghai Disney and California Disney according to Angel is that the Shanghai park is newer so many of the facilities are actually nicer than the US one. The Shanghai Disney is different than most of China as well because they have water fountains and western tiolets! With soap and hand drying stations! I really missed having those. The downside to the Shanghai Disney is that they don't have rides that I knew the US ones had such as Twilight Zone and Indiana Jones. They also didn't have the animal kingdom. The park may expand someday to have these rides and areas.

I would say that if you are interested in going to Disney, than definitely do it! Even though I didn't know what some of the rides were saying it was still fun to go to and a lot of the staff did speak English. I hope to go again someday!

The Train and I Both Agree, That Stinks

There are two entities here in China and perhaps other Asian countries that haunt me. They seem to pop out of nowhere and make me walk faster and hold my breath. These things are tofu and durian.

Well, to be more specific stinky tofu which is not a hyperbole, its literal English name is stinky tofu. There are actually dozens of types of tofu that Chinese eat daily which come in various ways like noodles, flat squares, or the stereotypical white blocks and are non-smelly. Stinky tofu is created by fermenting the tofu in a stew of vegetables and meats and leaving it there for a few months to age. It is served fried on sticks or in bowls and is blue/black/or brown and it smells like an open latrine.
When I was touring Hong Kong I would come across these food markets and was almost knocked out by this powerful smell. I literally thought people were relieving themselves in the streets. It wasn't until Halloween weekend when I was with my friends in Shanghai when they asked if I wanted tofu when I learned the truth. When we approached a food booth I stopped, it was that smell again! My friends started to laugh at me and told me that most foreigners hate stinky tofu and won't go near it. To this day, I still have not eaten it and will continue to not eat stinky tofu.

The other stinky food in China is durian. Durian is a fruit that has spikes on the outside of it and is bright yellow on the inside and is about the size of a basketball. It smells kind of like sour milk. I ate this by accident on two occasions, well kind of.
First accidental eating of durian was at a mall where a booth was giving out free candy samples. Since the store had mangoes on its stall I assumed it was mango flavored but it was actually durian flavored. It was eating a sock through your nose.
The second time was when I ordered ice cream and pointed to what I thought said chocolate and was surprised to get yellow ice cream. Thinking it was vanilla I took a lick and came back with a bitter taste. It was durian! I did eat all of it since the flavor was very much mellowed out, and could stand it, but would not eat again.

I am not the only one who thinks that the stinky tofu and durian are yucky. In China, you are not allowed to bring open containers of durian or stinky tofu on ANY public transportation. Can you believe that? The smell is so powerful that it is banned on trains, subways, and buses.

Despite their stinky nature, you can find durian cake, durain smoothies, and durian ice cream (like I did) in China and it sells okay. The same goes for stinky tofu.
To me, I liken it to Western cheeses. Some of our cheese literally smells like feet and purposely have mold on them to eat and people love it!

However, you will have a hard time finding me eating blue cheese, durian, or stinky tofu any time soon.