Chris and Mike

Ok so we made it to Qufu China¡£ It was a 11 hour train ride £¨overnight£©north of Shanghai¡£ Feeling a bit tire£äexhausted really since it was hard to sleep with the train fully booked and people talking on their phones£¬lights on and hard seats but we managed to get a bit of sleep and now we are here¡£It seems really cool¡£ I think we got a bit Shanghai-ed out after a week of going back and forth and nice to really get out into the guts of china¡£ We read that Qufu was the birthplace and deathplace of Confuscius but didn¡®t realize until now that it is his birthday in 2 days and they are having a huge celebration so that should be really cool if their celebrations are anything like they were in Taiwan¡£ So we are going to stick around here for 3 or 4 nights¡£ We found a descent hostel £¨10 NZ a night£¬ 7US£© a night with our own bathroom so Lucy is up doing her washing and we are using the computers £¨30 NZ cents an hour£© so these prices are feeling pretty good for the budget¡£Everyone seems a bit buzzed for the upcoming festival and overall really friendly £¨more like Taiwan£©and it feels more foreign£¬ like we are actually in China¡£ 

 

Some funny things£º

 

Yesterday we got our tickets to Qufu but it wasnt leaving until 9PM so we had another day to kill in Shanghai¡£ It was sunny and hot£¡We thought a river trip down the HuangPu would be cool£¬ or it seemed like the thing to do¡£ We were taken to this boat£¬ tourist boat£¬ with plastic chairs set up in lines down the middle of the deck and some tables and chairs by the rails¡£¡£¡£which is where you want to be to get the views of the buildings¡£ So we sat down but we were told that we had to buy something to sit there¡£ So everyone who sat down then just got up because you had buy like 6 beers to sit there¡£ So Mike and I¡¡went to the front of the boat to get some pix and slipped behind this sign but that was not allowed either¡£ So if you wanted to be by the edge you had to either stand or buy something¡£ I just really wanted to sit because my feet were tired but I wanted to be able to see so I grabbed one of the chairs from the middle and brought it to the edge £¨ just to see how long I got away with it£© yeah like 2 minutes later I was told Bu-wei £¨not allowed£© again¡£¡£¡£i mean it was just a chair I didn¡¯t think it was hurting anything but no no no¡£It was just a funny experience to hilite how different cultures have a differing mentality towards tourism¡£

 

The Shanghai harbour is the busiest in the world so there are heaps of boats going up and down and the Bund aread and across from that where the big Pearl Tower £¨the iconic sphere shaped building¡£ I think the cruise £¨ or tour£© would be a bit more exciting a night with all the building lit up and unless you are into looking at skyscrapers from a boat£¬ it could be a miss¡£

 

We made to sure to get the yummy steamed dumplings one last time for lunch and for dinner before we headed to the train we went to another little place where the guy makes hand pulled noodles¡£¡£¡£the kind where he just bangs them on the table and they seperate into thin noodles¡£¡£¡£pretty much like magic¡£ He also reminded me of Bruce Lee£¬ same sort of high pitch £¨wa-cha£© voice and just cool¡£ The Bruce Lee of hand pulled noodles¡£ I had Mike tell him¡£ Maybe it made his day£¿ or not£¬ could just be weird¡£

Oh and also did us up this awesome dish of cilantro£¨corriander£©stirfried with lots of garlic and some green peppers¡£¡£¡£¡£whoa£¬ awesome£¡ Never thought of cilantro and like a main vegetable but it is good¡£

 

And then onto the train¡£ It was long and sticky but I read an entire book and munched on skittles and cookies¡£ Now I am feeling sticky and it is really time to go do some washing¡£

 

I will let you know how the festival goes¡£

 

c and m

 

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Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha!
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