Taiwan Travels!

Hello again! So sorry I haven't posted in weeks! 

Allie and I enjoying the first rays of sunshine we'd seen in months during a break in the Conference

After the Fulbright conference ended in Taipei in early March, I stayed on to travel with many of my fellow Fulbrighters. The conference ended on Thursday evening. Friday, I went to the National Palace Museum, which has one of (maybe THE?) the largest collections of Chinese artifacts. They have so much stuff that they can only display 10% of their collection at a time. The rest is stored in a vault hidden in the mountain behind it. Most of these artifacts were brought from Mainland China when the Nationalist government fled in 1949. Mainland China is still very angry about this, but in reality, a lot of these artifacts might have been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution if they hadn't been "stolen" by the Nationalists. The museum was packed with tourists, but we saw some great stuff. Surprisingly, all of the exhibits were exactly the same as when I was there two years ago during an IES trip that I took while living in Shanghai. Still, it was cool to see everything again, including the famed "jade cabbage".

The Museum from the outside

That evening was a big game in the International Baseball Tournament (or something like that...). Taiwan was playing Japan, which is a huge rivalry (Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule after the Chinese lost the Sino-Japanese War in the late 1890s until the end of WWII). Literally every TV screen in country was watching the game. There were crowds of people standing outside every shop, which turned their screens to face out into the street. Spoiler: Japan won.

Crowds outside our hotel watching the game

That evening I also met up with my friend Margaux, who is doing a Fulbright ETA in Taiwan (English Teaching Assistantship). Margaux and I endured a trying summer together in Mianyang a year and a half ago while teaching English there. This was our first time seeing each other since then, and it was great! We ate delicious indian food, and caught up!

Notice the amazingly drawn caricatures by Sophie in the background...Fulbright love!

After dinner, Sophie and I met up with Connie, Minami, and Sophia who all did IUP with us in Beijing. They are now attending another Chinese language program in Taipei that actually used to be affiliated with IUP before IUP moved to the Mainland. It was great to hear about what they'd been up to in Taipei, and to enjoy delicious cocktails at a swanky Taipei bar!

From left: Connie, Sophie, Sophia, Me, Minami

Saturday morning, Gordon, Mark, Allie, Meghan, Tucker (all Fulbrighters), and I headed down to the southern tip of Taiwan to Kenting. We hopped on a train, then a bus, and arrived on the sandy beautiful beaches of Kenting.

excitement for the ride! expect Gordon, who is annoyed that I'm taking a picture...

We stayed at a cute guest house just across the street from the beach!

After getting settled in and having a wonderful western lunch, we hit the beach! The first afternoon, we all escaped sunburn because it was late in the day. That evening we headed to Kenting proper where we had dinner, got 10 minute massages on the street, and explored the night market. Also lots of monopoly deal, the greatest card game EVER.

Sunday we headed to "White Beach", which is actually in Kenting National Park. All the boys thought it would be fun to ride scooters over there so we headed to the scooter shop, where we realized that only Tucker and I actually know how to drive scooters. Gordon's heavy handed gas approach was a fail, and Mark was too nervous to try so in the end, Tucker and I drove the scooters and everyone else cabbed. The scooters we drove we SO slow, averaging about 20 km/h but reaching a peak speed of about 50 km/h going down a huge hill!

White Beach was paradise. It was so white and sandy and picture perfect! Allie and I enjoyed delicious beachside cocktails while basking in the sun. I thought we'd stay at the beach all day, but everyone wanted to head back to do water sports at the other beach so we left mid-day (and sadly wasted some peak sun hours...). Sophie arrived in the afternoon, and we had another delicious lunch. By the end of the day, most of us, especially poor Allie, were quite toasted, as in burned beyond belief. We found some aloe growing by the side of the road, but it only made the sunburn worse for me (think lots of stinging and itching).

Monday morning we headed out for our next supposedly beautiful beach destination, Green Island. The train ride was beautiful:

View from the train

So after taking a bus and a train, we arrived in Taidong to catch the ferry to Green Island. Somehow, we overlooked the fact that Green Island only has 1 ferry a day during the off season, which leaves at 9:30am. We discovered this fact around noon when we arrived in Taidong. So instead of spending the afternoon lounging on the beach as I'd hoped, we went for a bike ride along the grey industrial beaches of Taidong in the 65F, drizzling rain. Connie also joined us in Taidong.

Taidong's beach. HUGE waves.

the bike path! actually really pretty and peaceful

That afternoon I went for a really nice run along another bike path that runs through the city. The only redeeming quality I found about Taidong were its bike paths and public parks. That evening we all just chilled out and played more monopoly deal of course.

Tuesday morning, we woke up early to catch the ferry to Green Island, which crosses almost 20 miles of open Pacific Ocean sea to get there. It was a VERY up-and-down, bumpy ride, which I found soooo fun. Because the ride is so bumpy, no one's allowed to go outside because they'd probably get thrown off. However that also means its a lot easier to get sea sick (the best cure for sea sickness is standing outside the boat watching the waves and the horizon). So 5/9 people in our group got sick, but not me! I wanted to even bigger waves. The worst part was hearing and smelling all the vomit. I put my headphones in and tried to breath through my sleeve so that I could just pretend that everyone next to me was not throwing up. Another Fulbrighter, Alison, also met up with us for the trip to Green Island. Once we arrived on Green Island, we stopped off at our hostel to drop stuff off. Turns out, it's basically a princess fairy tale hostel, complete with princes and princesses painted on the walls. Most of the rooms were entirely pink or purple, with lace and frills.

view from the hotel

Allie laying our pretty pretty princess bed!

view from the hotel 2

That afternoon we went for a hike up to the peak of the island. The hike was nice as the weather was cool. And unlike Chinese hiking, it was actually a trail, and not just paved stairs. We encountered a lot of scary big spider webs spanning the path, which was scary.

Lilly pads along the path!

We reached the top after about 1-2 hrs, and you could see the whole island!

It was really nice to get some exercise on the hike. That evening after dinner in the town that had about 2 restaurants open, we went to the hot springs, which are the only salt water hot springs in the world (or something like that, I don't remember...). It was raining while we were there, which made it even cooler because you could sit it in the hot water while the cool rain fell down on your head. There were a bunch of different pools that had different massages jets. We stayed there until we were thoroughly pruny.

Wednesday, everyone went to go exploring, except Connie and I. We instead went scuba diving! I am scuba certified thanks to a wonderful trip I took with my family about 10 years ago in Indonesia. Connie is not dive certified though so she did a "discovery dive", where they literally hold your hand and do everything (well almost everything) for you. We went with Eddie, a south african man who nows lives on Green Island. I did 2 dives with him, and Connie just did 1. Eddie and I dove together, and Connie had a different instructor. Unfortunately for poor Connie, the instructor didn't tell her about equalizing and the pressure changes that occur. So for the first 15 minutes, Connie was in a lot of pain, and just happened to swallow, which cleared her ears. But after she finished the dive, she had a bloody nose and had popped all the blood vessels around her eyes! It was really awful. We didn't go that deep, maybe 10M, but that's definitely enough to hurt! I had a great dive with Eddie. We saw lots of coral and fish, including lots of little Nemos (aka Clown Fish). I also saw the oldest living organism, a 12,000yr old mushroom coral! It was pretty cool. The second dive was just outside my hotel, where Eddie's dive shop is located too. It was much darker and kinda scary. There were lots of rock caves we explored, and even saw a sea snake! ah! I really didn't wanna go near the sea snake, but I had no way to signal to Eddie that I was terrified of snakes without looking like I was having a problem with my equipment, so I just had to meekly follow him as we swam after the snake! Once the dive was over, I was stranded by myself because everyone was out exploring, and I had no way to get around on my own. So I walked 1 hr to the "White Beach" of Green Island, which was just rocks and shells. So I sat on the rocks, drinking a beer by myself and just chilled out. Turns out, White Beach is the best place on the island to watch the sunset! It was beautiful! And a couple people came to pick me up so I didn't have to be alone for the sunset.

That night we went to the hot springs again. This time, we took them up on their offer of eggs to purchase when buying your ticket. So the hot springs are so hot that you can boil eggs in the water. You can actually walk down to the beach area below the springs, where the water is just naturally hot and bubbling. We boiled our eggs there and ate them. They tasted pretty normal to me.

Thursday we hopped on the only ferry back to Taiwan. Thursday was very windy and rainy, so it was not an ideal time to take te vom-ferry. Fortunately this time we all took a dramamine before so only 1 person got sick in our whole group. But there were definitely a few times when I thought we were going to capsize. The ship was big, but there were 30 foot ocean swells so we could have easily been toppled over into the shark infested waters. Scenes from Life of Pi kept flashing through my head, and I was looking around the boat for life jackets and life boats. That being said, it was SO FUN! We made to safely to the mainland, and Allie and I got on a train back to Taipei for our flights out the next day.

Friday morning, I headed to the airport, and flew to Shanghai via Beijing to meet up with Zan and Kate for a girls weekend, plus a Vassar networking event!

Overall it was a nice week of relaxation, but I really wish I had had more time on the beach. But oh well! Taiwan is a beautiful country, and I'm sure I'll be back again soon!

Post Ferry Ride- We survived!

Panels, Lectures, and 1 presidential meeting: Fulbright Taiwan Conference

March 4, I left Beijing for Taipei for a week long Fulbright Mid-Year Research Conference  Upon arrival at the airport, I had this funny feeling that my flight information was wrong. And sure enough, I was supposed to be on the 8:30am flight (I arrived at the airport at 11am). I had confused my flight information because my flight out of Beijing changed several times due to a combination of my schedule changes, and Fulbright policy changes with booking...so annoying. Luckily, Robin, another Fulbrighter, was there to calm me down and help me get on the next flight. Air China changed me to the 2pm with Robin, free of charge! It was my lucky day. And then, Robin got me into the United Lounge with her and we had a nice free lunch, and free internet! So great! We arrived in Taipei, and took a cab together to our really nice hotel (paid for courtesy of US Taxpayers, thank you!), Amba Hotel. After dropping off my stuff, a large group of Fulbrighters and I went together to a night market, one of Taiwan's famous culinary destinations. The night markets are full of fried food, fresh fruit, insects, coconut juice, bubble tea, and more! Small food carts line the streets as people wander from one shop to the next. Afterwards, we felt a little overloaded on grease, but still loved it!

Tuesday was our first official day at the conference. Each day consisted of panels, breakout groups, and a keynote address. The panels were on International Affairs, Domestic Taiwanese Governance, Religion/Gender/Education Issues, Public Health & the Environment, and Taiwanese Economy. While the panels were really interesting (and resulted in 2 great contacts for me), they were really long and took up a lot of time. The keynote addresses were definitely a highlight. On our first day, we heard a speech about Taiwanese Consciousness (What does it mean to be Taiwanese?). The next day the "Director of the American Institute of Taiwan" (aka the Ambassador to Taiwan, but we can't say that because America does not recognize Taiwan as a country) spoke to us about being Fulbrighters, his life experience in Taiwan, etc. And the highlight of the whole week- We met Ma Ying-jeou, the president of Taiwan!!!! You can watch the complete video of his speech here (and there are a few shots of me- I'm in a red sweater in the front on the right side) and read an article about it here. He was very eloquent and articulate. He emphasized Taiwan's role as a peacemaker in Cross-Strait relations, and the diaoyu islands controversy with Japan. It was great to hear him speak, and promote such pragmatic policies. Afterwards, he took questions for probably a half hour. I got to ask him about increasing women's role in government in Taiwan! Actually, Taiwan has the 4th highest participation rate of women in the parliament (33%!) because of a quota system that requires 1/3 of the parliament to be women. While that's a great accomplishment compared to most of the world (the US Senate only has 20% women), isn't it sad that "the best" we can do right now is still only 1/3? Anyways, President Ma brushed off the question by talking about how great Taiwan is already doing so that was still disappointing, but hey, I spoke directly to the President of a country (well, kind of country...?)! And then at the end he went around and shook everyone's hands!!! so awesome! Through the rest of the week, we also had many "breakout" sessions where fellow Fulbright researchers divided up based on the subject of our projects to discuss progress, challenges, and solutions so far. It was really helpful hearing what other people were doing, and being reassured that I'm not a total failure so far. We also brainstormed some great solutions and ways to help each other out throughout the year. By Thursday night, we were all exhausted from having our ears talked off. After a final buffet dinner (my personal favorite), we all began our vacation, which lasted another week in Taiwan!

Another wonderful weekend in Beijing!

On March 1, I embarked on a 2.5 week journey- first stop, Beijing! I decided to fly this time after my previous unpleasant train ride (see my blog post about trains in China). To get to the airport in Xi'an, there's a shuttle bus that leaves from the bell tower. Friday morning, I headed out to get a rickshaw to the bell tower and told him I was going to the airport shuttle bus. The driver insisted there was one from the train station, which is much closer to my house than the bell tower. So I agreed to give it a try. Upon arrival, I was swept into an unmarked van crammed full of random Chinese people also headed to the airport. Turns out it was not the official airport shuttle bus, but in the end, I made it alive and in one piece to the airport! While at the airport, I was repeatedly treated like a stupid foreigner who didn't speak Chinese, even though I kept trying to communicate in Mandarin! It was so frustrating because they don't really speak english either so they just yell at me in broken English...

Anyways, I finally arrived in Beijing and took the subway over to Zan and Kate's apartment in the hutongs. After some minor difficulty getting into the apartment, I dropped my stuff off and went grocery shopping for our small dinner party! Wayne and I cooked the recipes from our cooking class in December- Kungpao Chicken and Stir-fried Sichuan Green beans. They were delicious! And Rebecca made mac and cheese from a box brought from the USA! (This is the height of culinary excitement over here in China...). It was great to catch up with my best friends, almost like I had never left! And Kate had only just gotten back from 6 weeks in America so we were all finally reunited again! :)

That night, Zan and Kate had a house warming party. Unfortunately the neighbors got angry around 11:30pm so we all had to leave for a bar to continue the festivities. The next day, Zan, Kate, and I just relaxed at Zan's. That evening, I met up with Ruty, Dylan, and a few other friends at Kro's Nest, a great pizza place in Beijing. Then I met up with Chantal, one of Zan's close friends, for her birthday KTV! Afterwards, we went dancing at the fanciest club in Beijing, Spark. The next day, Zan, Chantal, Shu (Zan's awesome Chinese neighbor), and I went for a traditional Beijing style lunch, and then the Beijing Flower Market! It was so pretty and green. Of course, Zan was freaking out because she LOVES flowers. Chantal and Shu also bought some pretty things. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I couldn't buy anything since I live in Xi'an, but still fun to look around! Then Chantal, Zan, and I went for mani/pedis. Rebecca and I then went to our favorite spa, Kokoon at the Opposite House Hotel, the coolest and trendiest hotel in Beijing (in my opinion). To finish off a great day, Rebecca, Zan, Kate, Chantal, and I went to Apothecary (a trendy, fancy cocktail bar, complete w/ hand-chipped ice and a perfected "hard shake") for drinks, and then dinner at Carmen, a great Spanish tapas place.

The next morning I flew out to Taiwan for a weeklong Fulbright conference and then a week of Taiwan vacation! :)

Research, Research, Research...

Hello everyone! Now that Chinese New Year celebrations are officially over, the war-zone sounding fireworks are over and everyone has returned to work. And for me that means my first week of school! As part of the Fulbright, I (as a recent grad) am required to audit at least 1 class at my university, 交大. Yesterday I attended my first day of the two classes I am planning to audit. (Auditing, in case you aren't familiar with this term, means just listening and reading for the class. You don't have to do any assignments and are not graded.) The first class is called "Population and Development 人口与发展", which discusses the following aspects/problems of China's Population: aging & elderly welfare, gender ratio imbalance & related marriage/family issues, mobile population, and the one-child policy. While I think it'll be interesting, this class doesn't have anything to do with my actual topic (NGOs & Women's Political Participation) so that's frustrating. My second class is called "Public Policy Analysis 公共政策分析", which also isn't directly related to my topic, although there are some government policies designed to increase women's political participation (not that we'll be studying those necessarily). This class is taught by my sponsoring professor so it'll be good face time with her. And surprisingly,  I understand 70-80% of what the teachers said yesterday! That is, when I was paying attention...Have you ever tried to listen to 4 hours straight of graduate-level, extremely specialized Chinese in lecture format? Ya, I didn't think so...It's EXHAUSTING. But I bet my listening skills will improve a ton. I've already begun a vocab word list of words I hear in class that I don't know. :) I'm such a nerd.

Here's my school, beautiful right? so much grey...

In addition to classes, I have begun making progress on my actual Fulbright project! So now when I say I'm doing "research", I actually know what that means! Well, sort of...My plan as of now is to do a 1-3 case studies of different Chinese NGOs (not including the Women's Federation, because, let's be real, they're not an NGO) who are currently carrying out programs that promote women's participation in rural women's village committee elections. (Yes, China has a little democracy! Woah!). The question is finding these NGOs and getting connected to them. I have made one great connection so far- a woman who runs the biggest women's rights NGO in Xi'an! I went to her office today, and got 11 new books to read all about past NGO programs focusing on women's political participation. All in Chinese of course. So mostly right now, I'm reading, reading, reading. And trying to 攀关系 (use my connections)...

Other than classes and research, I haven't done anything particularly exciting since returning from the US. Most of my friends are back in Xi'an from their Spring Festival travels so I have friends again, yay! I have dealt with a number of apartment issues, including one day where my internet, electricity, and gas were all out (because I didn't pay/didn't understand how to pay my bills, oops!). And today I've had no water all day because of a construction accident that knocked out our water main so that means no dish washing, no laundry, no toilet, no shower...so convenient.

I leave this Friday for a nice long trip full of fun and work! I will spend the weekend in Beijing with friends, then fly to Taiwan on Monday for a Fulbright conference. After 5 days of all-expenses-paid in Taipei, some Fulbright friends and I will travel around the rest of the island of Taiwan (mostly likely to Taroko Gorge and the beach!). Then I fly to Shanghai for a girls weekend and a Vassar networking event! Then back to Xi'an mid-March. Talk to you then!

Go Snakes!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! You may be thinking, "dude, that was 6 weeks ago...", but the Chinese New Year celebration has been going on for the last week! When the "western" calendar New Year happened (1/1/13), people didn't really say "Happy New Year". Instead they would say "Happy 元旦", which just means "Happy New Years Day". It's more of a day of celebration, rather than the recognition of a new year. So during the past 6 weeks, people would still say "next year", meaning after Chinese New Year, or "last year", meaning before last year's Chinese new year. It got rather confusing actually. And this year is the year of the Snake, so all you babies of 1989- this is our year! I thought that was supposed to be a good thing, like my lucky year. But actually apparently it's bad luck so you really have to watch out. During "your" year, you're supposed to wear a piece of jade on a red string tied around your wrist, or some people who are really afraid tie them around their waist (you just wear it under all your clothes). I think I'll opt for the bracelet...

Starting February 9th, New Year's Eve, the entire country (well at least Beijing and Xi'an) is covered in red lanterns and creepy snake decorations. The lanterns are quite beautiful, even more so at night when they're all lit up! One of my American friends even said she wants to decorate her house for Christmas with Chinese lanterns next year. Another sign it's Chinese New Year= constant fireworks and firecrackers, which sound like gun shots or collapsing buildings. It's absolutely terrifiying. I feel like I know understand what it's like to live in a war zone. There's no regard for fire safety, although I haven't heard about any major fires...Also many stores and restaurants are closed for the holiday. Most people only have this 1 week off, but the actual New Year lasts for 2 weeks so some lucky government employees get two weeks. Think of Chinese New Year like our Winter Holidays...

So here is a collection of the best decorations from Xi'an:

The city gates on the historic city wall

Store Decorations

An entire street of lanterns

lanterns at night!

Most people's doors (and apparently underpasses too) are decorated with  two strips of red paper, which have wishes and blessings for the New Year.

decorations outside my house

small fireworks in the narrow space between two cars

Firecrackers. SO LOUD.

more fireworks

America, the beautiful

From January 28-March 9, I spent my entire 14 days of out-of-country leave time as determined by Fulbright in the good ole USA. I spent my first week in New York city, the greatest city in the whole wide world. After Beijing though, New York seemed like the countryside to me. Seriously, where are all the people? Why can I easily get on the subway during rush hour? Why aren't there people stopping in the middle of the sidewalks and milling about everywhere creating pedestrian traffic jams? It was very strange. But I still love New York and am totally planning to move there when I return to the US, unless I get some kick-ass job offer/grad school acceptance in DC (Other US cities, sorry you're basically out of the running).

During my New York week, I visited with several of my best Vassar friends, my best friend from high school who came all the way from Boston to see me, and even a few friends from a summer program I did in high school called Governor's Honors Program (GHP). (It's basically nerd camp) I enjoyed the culinary delights of restaurant week, including brunch at Norma's (a gourmet brunch place, try the pancakes) and dinner at Hospoda (beware, the beer is mostly foam. and they intentionally pour it that way, weird...). I visited the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) with my family to see The Scream by Edvard Munch. Turns out, if you buy a student membership for like $50USD, you get tons of deals and you can bring in guests for only $5! Love the MoMa. Another highlight of the week was visiting The Mount Vernon Inn & Hotel, a historic preserved hotel from the 1830s. It's run by the Colonial Dames of America, which means the tour was lead by a sweet old lady who clearly thought the origins of every brick in the entire building was of interest to us. My mom and I loved it, but everyone else was pretty bored about half way through. If you're into history though, this is a MUST SEE site! The tour is about an hour, and it's cheap (less than $10 I think). To appease my dad, we walked many miles all over Manhattan, despite the cold temperatures (although it seemed practically tropical compared to Beijing!). I of course also did some great shopping with my mom, and bought lots of spring clothes that I can't wear for months. Typical. Lastly, we hosted a superbowl party at my parent's apartment with SO MUCH FOOD. My mom and I have a problem of seriously over-ordering and over-cooking because we have a huge fear of not having enough food. And I think this party was the worst we've ever done. It was actually embarrassing how much food we had. Luckily my friends took home most of the food so there wasn't any waste! Given that almost every single guest had almost no interest in football, it was pretty strange that we had a superbowl party, but I guess that just goes to show the importance of football in American culture. Beyonce's halftime show was amazing. Good commercials too.

Then I spent my second week in Atlanta, my hometown. I got to spend lots of good quality time with my sister, her husband, and a few of my high school friends that were in town. Most of the week though was unfortunately spent going to doctors appointments. Overall it was a wonderful two weeks at home! Almost too good- re-adjusting to China has been difficult unfortunately. Not that I don't love China, because I do. But now that I officially know I CANNOT go back home until early November (although I'll probably stay and travel...I know, poor me) and I have 8.5 more months here, it was a bit overwhelming. Living overseas, despite my best efforts to keep in touch with everyone at home and follow the news & pop culture, I definitely feel disconnected from my home. I didn't even know about the Beyonce lip-singing scandal from the inauguration! But seriously, it can be hard. Luckily I have great friends here in China too that help make up for everything I'm missing!

America, I miss you already! But I know you'll be there when I get back. :) Thanks everyone for a wonderful two weeks at home!

The Smells, Sights, Tastes, Feel, and Sounds of a Sleeper Train in China

To and from Beijing, in order to catch a plane back to the US, I took an overnight "sleeper" train from Xi'an. Because America has the worst trains in the world (probably not actually, but in comparison to Europe and Asia...), most Americans don't get the chance to take an overnight train unless they're overseas. This recent trip was actually my first time taking a sleeper train in China, and it was...an experience. My trip there was perfect- so easy, so simple, very comfortable, and I made a friend! My trip home was not as great due to a loud snoring Chinese man next to me, and my continuing jet lag from my recent return flight to China. From Xi'an to Beijing (620 miles), you can either plane or train. The plane is "expensive" (as in, my one-way ticket to Xi'an from Beijing in January was $120USD), although there are some bargain deals out there if you look hard enough (my friend Thomas got a plane ticket for 120RMB, about $30USD). If you chose to train, you have 2 choices: 高铁 (high speed train) or the regular train. The high speed train takes about 5 hrs, and costs almost as much as a plane ticket (usually over 900rmb). To save money (and for the adventure), I chose the overnight train, which took about 14 hrs and cost 270rmb (about $40USD). I've decided to give you a 5-senses tour of my train ride. But first, let me set the scene:

When you first arrive at the train station, you are greeted by a grandiose building with european-style architecture (at first glance, you might think it was a palace or at least a government building). After presenting you ticket and ID are several security checkpoints, you go through the baggage scanner, which is maybe one of the most stressful parts of the whole experience. First, you disentangle all your bags off your body and put them on a large scanner (like what you see at a customs check at the airport). Then you and several vicious grandmas all push and scramble through the human scanner in order to grab your bags before someone steals them. (Note: I've never actually seen or heard of someone's bags being stolen right in front of them, but hey, it could happen) And of course people are milling about by the baggage scanner so the situation is further complicated by masses of people blocking your way. Then you make your way to the waiting room for your train, which never has enough seats so it's filled with people sitting on their luggage all over the room. When it's time for your train to board, everyone crowds around the boarding door and pushes (again, beware of the vicious grandmas), even though most people have assigned seats. (Note: Yes, there are some very unfortunate patrons who buy "Standing Room Only" tickets. For these people, I actually see the point of pushing to get on because they want to the best spots to stand in). Now the train ride begins...

Sights:

When you first get on the train, you walk down a long hallway to find your compartment:

I was in a "hard sleeper" compartment, which meant there were 3 beds on each side of the compartment. The 2nd and 3rd bunks don't have enough room to sit up so those 4 people end up either sitting on the poor bottom bunk person's bed, or- if they're lucky- they sit on the two small fold-down chairs in the hallway area (see above). Clearly the bottom bunk is the best place to be in this scenario (I know, I know, contrary to years of fighting for the "cool" top bunk as a kid). In between the two sets of bunks, there is about 2 feet of space where someone can shove a suitcase. Here's Allie and I on her bottom bunk: 

Notice the sad amount of space between the bunks, and the terrifying height of the top bunk:

To get up to the high bunks, there is a small ladder (or on my 2nd train, just 1 fold-down stair) to help you boost yourself up there. Needless to say, it can be treacherous with the lurching of the train and passersby in the hallway area. 

Another "sight" worth mentioning: the bathroom. Bathrooms on trains and planes are never pleasant, but these are some of the worst I've ever seen. Many people chose to enjoy instant noodles on their train rides (Note: ALWAYS bring your own food on the train. Even if there is a snack car, don't do it.), and when they are done with them, they usually dump the leftovers down the sink or the toilet. (The trash is usually full within 5 minutes of the 14 hr ride). The bathroom is a squat toilet, of course. So image trying to aim down that squat toilet, especially if you're like most foreigners who can't do the asian squat, amidst the back-and-forth jerking of the train. Ya, you get the picture. It's not pretty. 

Sounds:

-snoring: As mentioned earlier, my return train trip was haunted by the sounds of an old Chinese man sleeping in the bunk next to me. There was no escape. 

-the shouts of the cart ladies: More prevalent on my first train ride, the evening is full of ladies pushing carts of magazines, alcohol, toiletries, food, cigarettes, and more through the hallway, yelling to advertise their wears all the while. Most of the time, I don't even know what they're saying, but one thing is always certain- there voices are high and shrill. The carts themselves are also a bit rickety so you can hear them coming even before the saleswomen start their shouting. And every once in awhile, you hear the Chinese equivalent of an "ow!" or "hey!" when they cart hits an elbow or a knee. 

-the train itself: Because this is not one of the newer fancy trains, you can hear the constant sound of the train running on the rails. I actually kind of like the rhythmic humming, but it can get irritating for some people. 

-people's entertainment devices: Many Chinese people are so generous on the train that they don't bother with headphones while watching a movie or tv show, or playing a game because they want to share the lovely melodic songs of guns, dying people, annoying cartoon characters, exploding balloons, etc. with the whole train. Most of these sounds come from iPad's so they're not that loud, but still pretty irritating. 

-hacking: Yes, hacking up of flem in your throat...And you thought the sound was bad? Just wait until your bunk mate on the 3rd bunk spits their flem down onto the floor on your compartment...SPLAT! And there it stays until morning...

Smells:

-cigarette smoke: Like in most public places in China, cigarette smoking is allowed on Chinese trains. I think technically it's only in the bathroom/sink area, but the scent travels. I never truly appreciated the US's no-smoking laws until coming to China. 

-Chinese BO: Through my world travels, I have noticed that every culture, based on what they eat, produces a different body odor. In China, they smell contains hints of garlic, ginger, cigarettes, and onions. Very pleasant. 

-Instant Noodles: As mentioned earlier, Instant Noodles are a popular choice of train food. To me, it seems rather dangerous because you have to fill the plastic bowl/cup with boiling water and then precariously carry it back to your bed without scorching yourself. I prefer a simple PB&J or Subway sandwich when available. 

Tastes:

-sunflower seeds: Another popular past-time in Chinese culture is eating sunflower seeds. They take awhile to eat because you first have to crack them in your teeth, then pry out the tiny seed before eating. I generally don't enjoy working too much for my food (I don't particularly enjoy crab or lobster for this reason) so I tend to pass on the sunflower seeds. But when salted and covered in chocolate, I'm a big fan. On the train though, many people simply throw their seeds directly onto the floor. Charming. 

Hmmm, ya that's about it for tastes. Luckily, the train ride does not require a lot of tasting.

Feel:

-your bed & blankets: The only major difference between the hard sleeper and the soft sleeper is the comfort of the bed, and the number of bunks per compartment (soft sleeper's only have 4 bunks). The hard sleeper is pretty hard, but as far as Chinese beds go, rather typical. The thin "mattress" is covered by a single sheet, then topped with a dense blanket and a pillow. All of these items are probably not washed consistently, but that's just a guess...In general, the bedding is a bit scratchy so I prefer to use my coat to cover my upper body. I also found my pillow to be rather uncomfortable because I slept on my purse, backpack, and extra carry-on for security purposes. I'm sure the pillow itself isn't that bad. 

-cold: Most people chose to position their heads by the window/outside wall, which is rather cold. So get ready for a long chilly night. 

Despite all of the seemingly awful aspects of the train ride, I really enjoyed my first trip. I slept great and was only awoken at 8am because the train conductor assistant lady came and physically shook me awake to take my ticket. RUDE awakening to say the least. On both my train rides, the lights went out at 10pm and came back on at 7am to ensure a nice, peaceful 9 hours of sleep for everyone on board. 

And there's one gem that I most point out about my first trip down- I made a lovely friend! Allie (a fellow Xi'an-based Fulbrighter coming to enjoy a Beijing weekend) and I sat down on Allie's bunk, and began chatting as the train left. After several hours of sleep, Allie dosed off and the older (mid-50s) Chinese man sitting at the table in the hallway (so like 2 ft away from the bed) starting asking me questions about my research on women's issues. A father of a young 20-something year old daughter, he loved the work I was doing. He was very disappointed in the status of Chinese women today, and felt that Chinese women's position in society should have increased dramatically along with the country's economic growth. He of course wanted to know how women's rights in the US and "the west" compared to Chinese women's rights as well. This discussion then led into US politics. I told him  my opposition to the Iraq War (Note: Many Chinese people opposed, and even protested, against the US invasion of Iraq in 2002 because they saw it as an infringement of Iraqi National Sovereignty- a big concept in Chinese political culture) to which he surprisingly disagreed. Instead, he thought the US has a duty to "liberate", "free", and "rescue" all people suffering under an unjust government worldwide. He said, "The US is the only country powerful enough to undertake this mission. They have a duty, as the world hegemon, to be the world's policeman too." He made a very interesting, although I think too overly simple, analogy- "Imagine a few men with knives," (because guns are banned in China so that's not even a possibility) "come into the this train car and start threatening all the women and children. As a moderately strong man, I have a duty to defend these women, don't I? I could pretend to be asleep or simply turn my head and say it's not my responsibility  but that would be wrong, wouldn't it?" (Of course this was all in Chinese). And then we discussed other humanitarian interventions- Syria, Libya, Darfur...He totally respected and understood my perspective as well, but we had a vibrant debate over the US role in International Conflict. I also expressed to him that, of course, this was just my personal opinion, not that of the US government or even the majority of the US people. After almost 2 hours of talking, the lights suddenly went out. He gave me his card, and said he would love to continue our discussions back in Xi'an. As I was getting up, he also said "Thank you so much for talking with me. This is the first time I've ever truly interacted with an American, and it has really been eye-opening and fascinating for me to hear about your culture and your thoughts. It has made my day." AHHHH THIS IS TOTALLY WHAT FULBRIGHT IS ALL ABOUT!!!!!!!!! TOTAL NERD FREAK OUT!!!!!!! 

So in conclusion, the train ride has many inconveniences, but also many hidden gems. It is what you make it, but it'll certainly be an adventure!