China : Wuhan

March 6 -7, 2011:

Good Morning Wuhan! It is 7:30 AM here in China, and 6:30 PM in America. We started off the day with a trip to the Hubuxiang Market. The food was amazing, especially the hot-dry noodles, a dish unfortunately specific to Wuhan. The atmosphere was not one for a germaphobe, and not really the atmosphere for a vegetarian either. Today was the day when I realized that if you have blonde hair, everyone in China will stare at you.

Tree Socks

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Hubuxiang Market

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Colorful Sweet buns

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Famous Hot-Dry Noodle Man

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Squid

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

View of the Street

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Mikaela, Yoga, and I

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

After an amazing breakfast, we hopped on the bus for a tour of Wuhan. Our first stop was at the Guiyuan Temple, also known as the Temple of 500 Buddhas. The temple was really amazing. This is where I found my obsession for ceilings and chinese babies. I am also sure to have bad juju for taking pictures of Buddhas when I was not supposed to. After picking "our Buddha", mine being the one with the cat, we headed to our first chinese meal. It was an interesting meal. There was a lot of really good food, and a fish staring at me.

Lighting on incense

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

I'm going to have bad juju for taking this photo

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

My Buddha

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Yoga and I with the Big Buddha

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

First Meal

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Staring Fish

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

After lunch we went to a park on the banks of Yangtze River. Upon entering the park, there was a sign permitting practically all fun from being had. In the park we saw an amazing sculpted wall, and many statues. We then went to a Temple next to the park, and then the Hubei Provence Museum. While in the museum taking photos of ancient artifacts, Alex informs me that people are pretending to be taking photos of the artifacts, but really they are taking photos of me! We also were fortunate enough to see a performance of ancient bell songs. Then back to the bus for a quick stop by the HuaZhong Normal University, a high school of 6,000, to meet our host families.

Tree socks on Yangtze

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Linda and the nine tailed fox

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Ceiling in temple

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Tomb of Emperor

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Once at the high school, we meet our host students, Polaris. We take the twenty minute drive to her families apartment on the tenth floor in a high-rise community. We are served a traditional chinese meal of pigs feet, cow stomach, some sort of fish, a few other meat dishes, green beans, and rice. Myself not being much of an adventures eater nibbled on a little bit of the fish dish, a few bites of chicken, and lots of rice and green beans. Emily, being a vegetarian, did a lot better then I did, trying the pigs feet, cow stomach, and the fish. Polaris then showed us her families prized possessions, a dinosaur egg, a few pieces of beautiful ancient coral from the Yangtze River. That night Polaris, and her mother took us to the indoor/outdoor mall we had visited the night before. We spent our time walking around, getting coffee, playing with a very cute white fluffy puppy, and seeing the movie I am Number Four. It was a interesting experience, I started watching the movie as a "Non-American" seeing American culture, and as the movie progressed I lost the outside view and got sucked into the plot line. Once the movie ended and the lights turned on, I had forgotten that I was in China and I had this weird wave of realization come over me. We took a quick ride back to the apartment, and hopped into another solid bed, and had another "comfy" night sleep. Good Night Wuhan, Good Morning America.

Indoor/outdoor mall

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Chinese version of Jonas brothers?

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Emily, Polaris, and her mother

Wuhan, China

Photo:b.wisniewski

Fluffy pup

Wuhan, China

Photo: e.snyder

On Monday morning we arrived at HuaZhong Normal University to meet Steve's class of tenth graders. HuaZhong Normal University filled with the brightest 6,000 minds in China. We spent a little time getting to know the class of 30 excited students, then it was time to stand in front of 4,000 of the students during a flag raising ceremony. We were supposed to introduce ourselves saying “Ni Hao, Wuhan, Wo Jiao Blythe and I am studying Business at Champlain College." Luckily, the students were not informed of this introduction, and the students were dismissed. I do not think I will ever forget the feeling of close to 5,000 eyes burning into us.

Books on students desk

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Loyalty

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Half of the crowd of students

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Flag raising ceremony

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

China: The Beginning

March 4 -5,2011:

The adventure began Thursday morning at 7:15 AM in Burlington, VT and ended at 1:00 AM Saturday in Wuhan, China. I arrived at the airport at 4:00 AM Friday, after making the mistake to not go to bed the night before. (I was afraid I was not going to wake up and miss the flight!) After a bit of waiting around at the Burlington Airport, our the trip to China began with liftoff at 6:30 AM to Newark, NJ.

Newark Airport, NJ

Photo: b.wisniewski

Our airplane

Photo: b.wisniewski

After the hour and half flight, we had a four-hour layover until we got onto the plane for our fifteen-hour flight to Beijing, China. TAKEOFF! I felt like we were in the air for an eternity, luckily I had a window seat and was able to amuse myself by looking out the window. During the flight I watched a bunch of movies, ate really bad airplane food, took photos, and took a little nap... and there was still hours left on the plane.

Our flight path

About 6 hours into flight

Photo: b.wisniewski

Sunrise over Russia

Photo: b.wisniewski

Mongolian mountains

Photo: b.wisniewski

WE MADE IT! I couldn’t believe we were in CHINA! After going through customs, getting out luggage, and exchanging money, we were ready for our next flight to Wuhan. We had a quick twenty-minute layover, and before the plane took off I was asleep. After getting our luggage, we met up with Steve, and our tour guides Lily and Linda, and got on a bus for the hour drive to the hotel. Once at the hotel we checked into our room (150 REM/night, $20), and then left for a tour of Wuhan at 10:00PM.

Leafless trees

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

While beyond exhausted, it was amazing to see the city at night. On our little adventure, we walked through the new Spanish Street, the indoor/outdoor mall, got coffee and stopped at a street vender to get some amazing hot-dry noodles. There were a few things that really surprised me about Wuhan. One of the major things being all of the construction, everywhere you looked a new building was being built. A lot of the construction is due to the fact that Wuhan is a fairly young city, only about 20 years old. The other reason a lot of construction is happening is because the Chinese would rather tare down an old building and build a new one, then renovate an old building. One of the other things that was surprising to me was the diversity of buildings on the street. We would pass a construction site, then the housing for the migrant workers building the building, then a beautiful new outdoor shopping street. After all the traveling, and walking, all I wanted was a nice big cup of coffee! Unfortunately coffee is very hard to come by in China, but we found a Starbucks. (One of four in a city of 6 million!) Then the weirdest thing happened, I was able to order a grande latte with ease, but the man had to walk around the counter to see what I was pointing at in the case because he was unable to understand me wanting to order a bottle of water. ( We were told not to drink the water while in China, to use bottled water for drinking, even brushing our teeth.)

Indoor/outdoor mall

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Starbucks

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski

Once we returned to the hotel around 12:00 AM, we were told of our 7:30 AM wake up call. Emily and I turned on the TV for a few mins and Justin Timberlake appeared singing Sexy Back, then we feel right asleep. After traveling for about 32 hours and being awake for nearly 50 hours, it didn't even matter that the mattresses felt as if they were made of wood.

Hotel room

Wuhan, China

Photo: b.wisniewski