Dynamic Tourism, China, Business

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I just finally read the Untemplater Manifesto (PDF download), which got me thinking about my own story and whether I fit the mold.  Some would say by virtue of the fact that I live in China (and moved there by choice) that of course not; however, I think it’s more complicated than that.

Through the end of college, I was on the templater path.  Through then everything was decided for me on the basis of the standard middle-class American lifestyle.  Played sports: check. Participated in Girl Scouts: check. Attempted to learn a foreign language: check.  Went to a good high school: check. Went to prom: check. Went to a top university: check.  Did I make any of these decisions? Really?  No, not really.  Although I did get to choose which university I went to, and I have to say, I made the right choice.

Then came college graduation and the first real decision of my life.  I’d been told, follow your passion. You have the world at your feet.  You can do anything you want.  Well they may say that and it may be true, but no one actually believes it.  And no one will actually give you the unconditional love and support to really do that.  Besides that, I had no idea what ‘my passion’ was.  I did, however, know that I had absolutely no interest in continuing down the template path and becoming a corporate slave and living a boring life.  I didn’t want to be average and I certainly didn’t want the average life of a just graduated young professional.  The idea of working for someone else my whole life, 2 weeks of vacation max per year, dating, marriage, kids repelled me.  I knew I would need out, sooner or later.

I chose sooner.

Within 3 months of graduation, I was on a one way plane to Shanghai, China with no further plan than 5 weeks of studying Chinese (on top of my 4 college semesters).  I came out to China hoping, like so many, to strike it rich, but mostly I came to just not live a template N. American life.

For the first 2 years or so in China, I studied Chinese, taught English, worked in a hotel, started a business, worked as a tour leader, traveled a lot, and networked a ton.  I was essentially the epitome of a young China-based job-hopping expat.  It’s not necessarily something I’m proud of, but it was a path, albeit a curvy one, I needed to take.

You may look at this and think holy cow, talk about a road less traveled; however, I’m increasingly doubting that.  Going out to China as a freshly minted college graduate, might seem unconventional, but even now it feels common.  Every week I get emails from people, ‘I want to come out to China and do _____’ (fill in the blank, usually English teaching) or I meet people like me 3 years ago, ‘I’m in China writing a blog, studying Chinese, I’m not sure what I’ll do next. ‘ The more I look around, the more I think, I’m on the same path as everyone else, or maybe I was one of the leaders on that path and now more people are following this ‘unusual’ path making it seem more common and mundane.

Then about 2 years ago I decided it was time to get some startup experience to build my knowledge base and learn that arena, so I joined a small internet company.  As time goes on, sometimes I look at my life and think, am I doing anything different than if I were in the States?  Company job. Commuting. Friends evenings or weekends. Looks the same. Seems the same. But certainly doesn’t smell the same.

What is different? I speak Chinese 70% of my day. I’ve done random jobs including modeling (something I always wanted to do), English conversation courses, writing bar reviews, etc. I went to the Beijing Olympics. I’ve been to almost every country in East Asia. I’ve met people from all over the world. I’ve organized tech events. I’ve seen the inside of China and its not always pretty. But perhaps most importantly, I’ve explored my passions and interests.

Moving to China may be the new in thing to do, and certainly takes guts, stamina, and patience, and with more and more people (trying to) doing it, it’s becoming more conventional.  However, the mere fact of getting away from the expectations of template American life, has allowed me to explore options, interests, passions, and what truly matters to me far beyond anything I would have been able to do in the US.  While I may not have ’struck it rich’ in China (yet), this experience to me is far more valuable.  Whether or not my life to this point has been a cookie cutter, having had the space to grow and develop means that into the future it definitely doesn’t need to be and I have the power and the wherewithal to manage that.

Now the challenge for me is to put that into an actionable plan.  But I know I’ll have the Untemplaters for inspiration along the way and I’ll keep in mind these lines from the Untemplater Manifesto:

You have to live one day at the time. You have to trust that as long as you bust your ass going after what you believe in, things will fall in place. The moment you start getting worried because you can’t see your future clearly is the moment where the claws of fear and boredom will get a hold of you again. In reality, no one can see the future clearly, but some think they can. Nobody knows what will happen, but the only difference is that untemplaters realize it, accept it, and make the best out of their time while believing in themselves and their vision.

Power to that! The Untemplater life awaits!

The Year in Review: 2009

January started out with a New Year’s Day flight from Phoenix to San Francisco, which included watching the USC Rose Bowl game as soon as I got off the plane in San Fran.  Then more game watching downtown with my awesome cousin Kelly and her friends.  The next day I grabbed my passport from Alec who I hadn’t seen since 2006, many thanks to him for getting my Indian visa.  That same day I caught my 1st transpacific flight of the year and headed back to Shanghai.

Back to work in Shanghai for a week, then birthday celebrations galore start.  I’m not sure how its possible but I managed to have 3 celebrations during the week of my 25th bday: dinner on the 13th with a few girlfriends, then co-party night with Sian, Sherry, and Yi, and finally birthday brunch.  Thanks for organizing that brunch, and every other one, Sherry!  This is was also the first time in 2.5 years in China that I really got on a work permit.

Late January, at the start of Chinese New Year, Sian and I headed off to India for a whirlwind 10-day trip around Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, and Jaipur.  India is an immensely fascinating country.

From February, as everyone got back to Shanghai from CNY, we started having more tweetups, including Twestival, where I met a lot of the people I’d only ‘met’ online, including @IrisJumbe and @PDKay.  At the SXSW Shanghai party at M1NT in late February I got to meet a lot more of my twitter friends, including those who don’t live in China and make better connections with them.  To round out February, I changed the theme on my blog to center around life-streaming, (which I’m now coming to hate…)

In March we had our first !talk! Chatfest and finally launched the open beta of the teaching platform.  Despite this, the !talk! situation was in somewhat of a flux, so after awhile I decided to work less hours there and spend more time on my multitude of other activities.  Since November of the previous year I was already teaching English a few nights per week.

With the start of spring, I still didn’t feel that my health had completely recovered from all the illnesses of the winter, so I decided I needed to take drastic actions (haha). For Qing Ming festival, I booked myself a week at a cleanse resort in Thailand.  It was a much needed flushing out of the system that kept me much healthier in the ensuing 8 months, especially compared to the previous 8.  Besides meeting some like-minded people during the detox, I also met some other awesome people at the #BangkokTweetup, some of whom have become really helpful to me recently.  This spring, I also got to connect with fellow Shanghai transplant Arizonan @Mark_E_Evans and another China-interested tweeter @lparsons, whose dream is to move to China–good luck to him.

By late April / early May, when the Dragon Boat festival rolled around, Jai, Allison and I headed to Seoul for a 4-day weekend.  They say Seoul is a city with no soul, but I loved it and think that’s in large part due to our excellent tour guide, my long time friend, Irene.  Check out the DMZ tour, really interesting, including a step into North Korea.  Literally the day after I got back from Korea, I did my first set of factories tours in 2009.  It’s amazing all the crap that gets produced in China!

In Late May, I spent a weekend in Hangzhou with Al & Jane, when they generously took me around to all their favorite sites and restaurants.  Tea plantations, China’s Grand Canal, Pagodas, and spicy wings, the spiciest food imaginable.  I was crying, literally.

As June rolled around I was just starting planning tech events for the Shanghai community and welcoming 妹妹 (little sister) for her summer in Shanghai.  Eliana arrived on June 3 to spend 5 weeks with me and exactly the day after she arrived, we set off to see the ‘real’ China.  The real manufacturing China, that is.  This was my second factory tripping of 2009.  It’s amazing all the crap that’s produced in China!

Around mid-June the Geeks on a Plane tour rolled through town to attend Shanghai Barcamp on June 14, and then celebrated the end of the trip with the Geeks and Glamour afterparty at M1NT.  It was awesome to meet entrepreneurs, VCs, and other twitter friends from the States including @DanMartell.

Throughout June and early July, Eliana and I went revisiting or exploring new parts of Shanghai.  And of course, we went to Beijing and saw the not-to-be-missed, Great Wall of China, Tiananmen, Forbidden City, and she went swimming in the Olympic Watercube.   I also got to see to see Ian, Leslie, Jeremy, and Jenny, and join yet another Tweetup to meet twitter friends in Beijing.  To check another place off my list, we took the train to the old walled city of Pingyao. At nearly the end of the trip, on the bus ride to the airport, my cosmetics case got stolen from my backpack A very sad day.  In this case, Eliana was the rock–thank you girl, I love you!

Just around the 3 year anniversary of my life in China, the internet went on lockdown in China and ever since then Twitter, Facebook, Twitpic, and since even earlier Youtube have been inaccessible, seriously hindering multimedia communication with the outside world.  Mid-July Eliana went home and I took my 2nd transpacific flight, this time to Vancouver.

On the bus from Vancouver to Seattle there was free wifi! And unrestricted access to twitter, facebook, youtube, which was like heaven until my laptop battery died and I realized my power cord didn’t work in N America… A busy 3 days in Seattle with my Dad and friends, Burt and Dawn: food festival, hiking Mt. Rainier, and the 4am launch of !talk! Marketplace for companies, but the weather was gorgeous, the food good and fresh, and the air clean and refreshing.

Next it was time to fly up to Alaska for my grandparents 60th Anniversary.  We went ATV-ing near Denali National Park, watched the sunset at 11pm, pet huskies, took the Denail Express train to Whittier, cruised on the Diamond Princess, went to Glacier Bay National Park, sea-kayaked in Ketchikan, went Geocaching, and had a good week of family time.

For the first week in August, I reconnected with friends from China now living in Victoria and Vancouver, including Heike, Brook, Scales, KK, and Danielle, and made other new friends through them, include Mariska.  The Pacific Northwest from Seattle, to Vancouver and the Island, all the way up to Alaska has truly spectacular natural beauty, clear blue skies, snow covered peaks, stunningly colored flowers, green trees and grass, fresh healthy foods, all enough to satisfy me with what often seems lacking in the grimy urban grey of Shanghai.  Catching up with friends from China who are no longer living there really helped me to get perspective on life there and what is most important.  Getting on my 3rd and last transpacific flight of the year to head back to Shanghai, I was feeling very refreshed and refocused with resolutions for my life in China.

Back in Shanghai, I jumped head first back into activities related to tech, work, events, and, from all my discussions with friends who formerly lived in China, recommitted myself to learning Chinese.  I found a private tutor to work with 2 times per week, started reading Chinese magazines and newspapers, listening to ChinesePod again, decided to more actively seek out opportunities to practice Chinese including looking for new Chinese friends, and eventually more Chinese shows and movies.  I am listening to countless podcasts on entrepreneurship, as well as lectures on world history and geopolitics to start brushing up my knowledge for the foreign service exam.

With my September trip to Hong Kong to see Coni, Brenda, Amjad, Daniel, Stanley, etc, and Stephanie (who I hadn’t seen in 5 years, since USC), I finally gave into pressure and got an iPhone.  Podcasts, apps, Chinese dictionary with handwriting, plus GPRS allowing me to be chatting to someone through Skype while walking down Nanjing Road, I can’t believe I waited so long.  iPhone convert, admitted.

By the time October holiday rolled around, my work permit was expiring, and still reeling from all the traveling I’d already done this year, with additional complications, I was compelled to spend China’s 60th Anniversary National Day in Shanghai, much to my chagrin.  (Randomly, I just realized the CCP was founded the same year my grandparents got married).  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I got to reconnect with another friend who used to live in Shanghai and was back for a visit: Matthias.  October and November were spent with friends who were in town visiting, including a week with that friend from Germany, Ian down from Beijing and his friend from USC, then in November Sean came back for a visit and the HSBC Golf Tournament, followed by Luke from Toronto (I met but hadn’t seen since 2006), who came to visit family and attend his sister’s wedding

In late October, USC opened their first office in Mainland China.  Also in late-October, I went to yet another manufacturing town, this one specializing in textiles for the Keqiao Tradeshow and also saw the canal town of Shaoxing.  A month later, Bryan, Vivianne, and I were off for a day trip to the Commodity City: Yiwu.  It’s amazing all the crap that’s produced in China! Since getting back to SH in August, my Chinese slowly showed signs of improvement after months of stagnation, I signed up to an internet dating site (thinking about it now, am I that desperate?), and I continued to spread myself over many different involvements.

For Thanksgiving, I met mom in the Philippines for my last international trip of 2009, bringing the total to 50 countries in 25 years.  Ten days in the Philippines renewed my health (after 2 brutal days of facing the Chinese hospital system just before the trip) and helped me to realize I was stretching myself in too many different directions.  This feeling was further brought home by another conversation in early December that’s been forcing me to take stock of where I am, where I’m going, recognize my passions, and figure out what I want out of life.  As 2009 draws to a close and I face yet another round of visa applications, I’m reading Think and Grow Rich (again) and Getting Things Done, and most importantly I’m reflecting on those issues and what they mean for me in 2010.  The most influential and memorable book I finished in ‘09 was The Go Giver–great book, go read it, especially if you do business or work in social!

Happy New Year!

Writing this made me realize there were a lot of photos from this year, I hadn’t yet put on Flickr, so if you didn’t click on any of the links above, go look at my photostream now, its been updated: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tofflerann/

Don’t forget, 2010 is the Shanghai Expo and among other reasons, a great opportunity to come visit me in Shanghai! I’d love to host you if you’re coming this way.

Check on the below chart, and the whole post from Gang Lu over at Mobinode.  Just like I mentioned in this post, Alibaba really is taking over the Chinese internet!

“Harmonize” is a very popular euphemism in China, as are its derivatives, “harmonious.” Consider this introduction to the Expo which uses “harmonious” no less than 3 times in 1 paragraph:

And if you’re a party cadre or the family member of a revolutionary martyr, you get discounted entry to Century Park (in English, no less, because you know, revolutionary martyrs only read English):

Then, of course there are just the misspellings (which has since been corrected),

and of course the seemingly mistranslated:

I always love an Unimaginative Journey and a Goodwill tour of Narcissus Queens…

However, I will give this one credit for the (perhaps unintended) play on the popular health food market in the western US (Trader Joe’s):

I hadn’t really thought about it…maybe I’m just that good at managing my time…or maybe I’m just not fully committed to anything…  I didn’t even realize it until my friend said something to me about it at lunch today: I do a huge variety of stuff here and I’m still trying to do more.  Here’s the list, I’m curious what you think…

(Nearly) Full-time job: italki
Part-time job: Talk English
Run my own business: Shop My Shanghai
My personal Blog (rarely): this one
New Tech Blog I’m starting with said friend: http://RedTe.ch
Study Chinese and prepare for HSK Exam (a priority)
Study for the Foreign Service Exam (target date: H1 2010)
Organize (mostly tech) events: Lunch2.0, BarCamp (soon to be more)
Create Content (besides above blogs) and connect with people online: Twitter & Flickr (@TofflerAnn), Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn

And yet I still find time to look for and evaluate new projects and business opportunities, hang out with friends, date, exercise almost everyday, read actual books offline, listen to lots of podcasts, travel quite a lot, and whatever else.  Am I crazy or is this actually all possible?  I just figured this was normal Shanghai expat life, everyone trying to do everything (except for those who drink themselves into oblivion, obviously).

So when people ask me, what do you do?, hence the hesitation. Also, probably the same reason I’m not sure when the last day I didn’t do some kind of work was.  Does checking and responding to emails count as work?

Tonight my Alma Mater officially opened its first office in Mainland China!!  In a great event, starting with the office open house and continuing with a cocktail reception and ribbon cutting ceremony, the University of Southern California did (as usual) a spectacular job heralding the opening of its Shanghai office!

Not only was the food good and the drinks free, but I also got to see many familiar faces in the Shanghai alumni group and from my college days long ago.  Perhaps the highlight was seeing my former boss, SVP of University Relations, Martha Harris.  I enjoyed meeting new USC people and re-connecting with many others.  I’m looking forward to renewed energy, enthusiasm, and participation in the USC Alumni Club of Shanghai.

The new USC office is located on the 27th Floor in the Chong Hing Financial Center on Nanjing West Road.  The ceremony took place at the JW Marriott, just across the street from the office.  The USC Global Conference starts in Taipei on Thursday.  USC will open other international offices in Asia within the next year, namely Seoul, South Korea and India.

A quick intro for those of you who don’t know, Taobao is China’s C2C internet selling platform, similar to eBay or Amazon.  It’s owned by Alibaba Group and all the online payment transactions for the site happen by your bank in combination with Alipay (also of Alibaba Group).  By the way, why does no one notice how monopolistic Alibaba Group has gotten in this area?

You can buy literally everything imaginable on Taobao from mobile phone recharge cards to patio furniture and shoes.  I’ve bought shirts, shoes, books, etc on Taobao.

Setting up an account is relatively simple if you can read some Chinese.  All you need is an email account, password, and the ability to navi-guess around the site in Chinese.  Actually buying and paying online becomes more complex, requiring a local bank account with either 一卡通 or 信用卡.  But this is how most of us get our salaries paid anyway.  If you can find a local friend to help you set up the link between your Taobao account and your bank account (through Alipay, of course) the first time, its pretty easy to just type in your PIN number whenever you want to buy something in the future.  Taobaofieldguide.com has a much more comprehensive and picture-oriented description of how to search and buy on Taobao.  They also offer to help you do it, for a small fee of course.

Feeling relatively confident in my Chinese reading ability and comfortable navi-guessing and shopping on Taobao, today I decided to try my hand at selling on Taobao. And ran into a Great Wall. To sell on Taobao, you of course need a local bank account linked to Taobao through Alipay (again), which since mine was already linked was easy enough.  However, you also have to verify your identity, and while this may sound simple, for a foreigner, it’s not.

First I tried pretending I was a local because I have a local bank account, yada yada, Not so fine.  You must input the ID # matching the person who opened the bank account.  In this case, it has to be the number of digits on a local Hukou ID card (If you don’t know what a Hukou is, this post probably doesn’t apply to you…).  Well since I’m not a local, I don’t have a Hukou so my bank account was opened with my Passport, which obviously doesn’t have the right amount of digits.  Fail #1

There is an option for Foreigners to sell on Taobao. So next I tried that: first line, OK.  Second line, please input your Guarantor’s name, ID number, phone number, etc, etc.  Uh…FAIL #2.  So as a foreigner selling on Taobao is much more difficult.

I guess they’re afraid we’ll list something super expensive, let some poor unsuspecting local buy it and transfer the money, and then leave the country with his money.  Granted, it could happen, but what’s the highest value item anyone’s ever bought on Taobao (without first seeing the item)?  Maybe 10,000RMB, maybe 100,000RMB?  So all of US$1400 or US$14,000?  Is that really worth it?  Fail #3.  That’s why banks, credit cards, et al have insurance and fraud protection.

Anyway, as you can see I was a bit frustrated with my Taobao selling experience today and I wanted to save other foreigners the same annoyance and waste of time.  And I’m sorry, I don’t know what happens after IF you get a Guarantor to validate your account.

It’s also interesting to note the differences between Taobao and eBay.  Taobao takes the money immediately from the seller’s account and holds it in escrow while waiting for confirmation from the buyer that the item has been received (or a certain period of time has passed) before sending the money to the seller.  eBay lets the buyer and seller decide between themselves how and when to pay and ship.

Can I further point out that since Taobao holds the money in escrow awaiting confirmation of item receipt from the buyer, that the whole paranoia of foreign seller runs out of town with the money is NOT very likely.  Fail #4

And that’s today’s Taobao 101 Guide.

I love cities, and I especially love them at night when they’re lit up and sparkling, dazzling my eye with their flickering lights and myriad of shapes.  So whenever I’m in one of those spectacular cities with the amazing view, I make a point to find the best vantage point in the city and go up there at night.  Some of my favorites are listed below:

Shanghai: Hyatt on the Bund, Vue Bar, 33rd Floor.  This hotel sits north of downtown and due to a particularly well placed bend in the HuangPu River, both new Shanghai (Pudong) and historic Shanghai (the Bund) are . Watch my video to see what I mean.

Bangkok: Banyan Tree Hotel, Moon Bar, Rooftop. From the Banyan Tree website, “The Moon Bar is one of the highest al-fresco rooftop bars in the Asia Pacific, offering a stunning venue with panoramic views” and I have to agree.

Hong Kong: 1 Peking Building, Aqua Bar, 29th Floor. This bar has a great angle and nice height from which to view Hong Kong Island.  The view from here is one of the most memorable and recognizable anywhere in the world.  Make sure you get there before they start turning off all the lights.

NYC: Arthur’s Landing, Weehawken, NJ.  The best view of New York City is actually from New Jersey.  Yes, that means you have to cross the river but the view is well worth it.

Where are your favorite city views? Do you have any for London? Paris? Dubai? Rio de Janeiro? Singapore?

Look inside any garment and there’s a good chance you’ll see a “Made in China” label.  Garments of all sorts, qualities, and brands are made in China.  Most of the garment manufacturing is centered around the Pearl River Delta (Guangzhou/Shenzhen) or Ningbo.  Despite this, and the tight watch designers keep on their production facilities, many people assume (sometimes rightly so), that its easy to shop for their beloved clothing brands right here in Shanghai.

Overruns, 2nds, and ‘it just fell off the truck’ do end up in Shanghai.  However, they are not easy to find: some hunting and lots of patience are required.  Recently I had a very satisfied shopping customer looking for specific brands, namely Banana Republic, LK Bennet, Reiss, Joseph, and Diane von Furstenburg.  We did manage to find a number of the brands she was looking for, at places besides the outlet malls.  While I never guarantee these are ‘real’ (whatever real means in this country), its worth taking a look.  Right?

For discount designers tucked away in small shops, try XinLe Road, ChangLe Road, HuaShan Road, JuLu Road, Maoming South Road and Fengxian Road.

For additional help shopping my shanghai, and the best prices, please contact me!

The list of my cruises thus far…

July 99 :: Alaska :: Celebrity Mercury
July 00 :: Greece :: Royal Olympic
July 02 :: Baltic :: Celebrity Constellation
December 02 :: L.A. - Mexico :: Carnival
July 04 :: Mediterranean :: Celebrity Millennium
December 05 - January 06 :: Mexican Riviera :: Celebrity Mercury
May 06 :: NYC - Canada :: Carnival
December 06 :: Caribbean :: Star Princess
December 07 :: Antarctica :: Antarctic Dream
December 07 - January 08 :: Panama Canal :: Azamara Quest
July 09 :: Alaska :: Diamond Princess

And that doesn’t even include Yangtze River cruises or other minor river trips.

I have done a fair bit of cruising, especially for my age.  And I thoroughly enjoy it, not to say their couldn’t be improvements, but it’s an all-in-one vacation that keeps the whole family together and yet the flexibility that allows us to do our own thing. I look forward to pursuing the rumors of a summer river cruise for our next family vacation.

Last month in celebration of my grandparents’ 60th anniversary, we did a 12 night cruisetour through Alaska. The itinerary is below.  Picture set is on Flickr

July 21st - Seattle/Mt. McKinley - Fly from Seattle to Anchorage. Scenic journey north to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge
July 22 - Mt. McKinley
July 23 - Mt.McKinley/Denali - This morning, continue by motorcoach to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.
July 24 - Denali - This afternoon, take the Natural History Tour into Denali National Park.
July 25 - Denali/Whittier - Transfer to the rail station and board the Denali Express for direct rail service to your awaiting ship in Whittier. - Set sail this evening. Departure 9:30 PM
July 26 - College Fjord, Alaska (Scenic Cruising) - Bob’s birthday
July 27 - Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska (Scenic Cruising)
July 28 - Skagway, Alaska - Grandma’s Birthday
July 29 - Juneau, Alaska - Don & Caren’s Anniversary
July 30 - Ketchikan, Alaska
July 31 - At Sea - Grandparents’ 60th Anniversary
August 1 - Vancouver, British Columbia

For my grandparents’ golden anniversary (50th), we did a 2 week Alaska cruisetour, meaning 1 week overland to Fairbanks, Denali National Park, etc and 1 week southbound Celebrity cruise of the Inside Passage.  That was in July 1999.

This past month was my grandparents’ diamond anniversary.  Can you believe that?  They’ve been married for 60 years!  They are 80 and 85-years old, and yet they still travel internationally with their whole family of 3 children and 5 grandchildren.

To commemorate 10 more years of my grandparents’ enduring love for each other and commitment to their family, we all went back to Alaska.  We did another cruisetour, this one with 4 days on land visiting Denali National Park and taking the Alaska railroad, and a 7-day southbound Princess cruise.

Seeing Denali almost unchanged from 10 years ago seems an appropriate symbol of the timelessness of my grandparents’ love.  The mountain and their commitment are both majestic in their beauty and awesomeness.

Congratulations, Grandma & Grandpa, and thank you for another wonderful trip together!

From the original Starbucks at Pike’s Place, Seattle

to the globalized (localized) version of Starbucks in Seoul, South Korea.

Pingyao 平遥, located in Shanxi 山西 Province (not Shaanxi 陕西, where Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors are), has been on my list of ‘must-see’ places in China ever since the list began. (Haerbin Ice Festival & Huangshan-Yellow Mountain are still on it).  So with a ready traveling companion and I already making the trip to Beijing, I decided to add in a stop over in Pingyao.

Pingyao is one of China’s many UNESCO World Heritage sites. It was the first banking center of China, with its heyday in the 19th Century.  The town quickly fell into poverty and therefore escaped modernization and development, which helped to preserve the city’s original structures.  Pingyao boasts its the only city with the original city wall still intact, and the only remaining original example of traditional Han Chinese architecture from the 18 and 19th Centuries.  (Compare Lijiang, which was built by Naxi Minority of China, and has been largely reconstructed–and expanded.)  While I won’t pretend to believe that Pingyao is all the original or that none has been ‘restored’, Pingyao still maintains its charm.  While we were there it was quiet, peaceful, picturesque, and often times we could be walking all alone down an ancient alleyway–something unheard of in China’s metropolises.

We took the 1163 overnight train from Beijing directly to Pingyao and we had pickup service waiting for us, provided by our hostel, Pingyao Zhengjia Int’l Youth Hostel (an HI Hostel, but no card required).  This hostel was excellent: very friendly staff (but almost no English spoken), set in a traditional courtyard house, exceptionally clean, social atmosphere, great value, and all around nice place to stay–it was rated 2nd Best Hostel in Asia on Hostelworld.com.

The nearest airport is in Taiyuan, provincial capital of Shanxi, which is 2-hour bus ride away.  To return to Shanghai, we took the bus to Taiyuan, then took a taxi to the airport.  If you arrive at the Taiyuan Jinan Bus station, the bus to the airport stops directly across the road.  If you go by taxi, put on the meter, then add 10kuai to the final fare, it should be about 30RMB.  Be careful, be careful, be careful on the bus.  There are some buses operating illegally around that region, and there are a gang of thieves who work the buses (and seem to have an agreement with the operators to turn a blind eye).  I was a victim of this.  This is now twice in <9 months I’ve had stuff stolen on a bus in China.  Take good care of your stuff no matter how large, small, or worthless–you’ll miss it when its gone, and it will be, if you don’t watch out.

Then entrance ticket to Pingyao Ancient Town is 120RMB and includes entrance to more than 19 different attractions, including walking on top of the city wall.  After about the first handful or so, most the attractions begin to look very similar.  Except for the wall, the temples, and the church, most of the attractions are courtyard compounds used for different purposes: long front wall, 1 gate, opens into small entryway followed by a courtyard with rooms on each side and a large room at the back, with another courtyard behind that and on each side. This pattern then repeats for the depth of the property and at each place.  It was a good method to prevent attackers and to maintain the inner sanctum of the business or family household.  Both businesses and residential compounds had this layout.

Perhaps the highlight for me was chatting with an elderly couple who had been married for 45 years and who were eager to chat and show us their courtyard house.  They were very proud of the fact that they had so many children who were now office workers in the modern city and had kids of their own–they had a grandson that was Eliana’s age.  They also insisted on showing us that they had modernized their house to have indoor plumbing, including a washing machine!

In the day and a half Eliana and I were in Pingyao, we saw a number of the Ancient Town attractions:

Residence of Lei Lutai
Yingxun Gate (End of South Street to climb the wall)
Qinhan Gate (End of East Street to get off the wall)
1st Armed Escort Ageny in North China
China Chamber of Commerce Museum
Ri Sheng Chang
Then lunch at DeJuYuan Hotel/Restaurant
Ancient Government Building
Fengyi Gate (West Street Gate)
Ancient City Building (at night)
Chenghuang Miao (Daoist Temple)
Bai Chuang Tong
Yong Long Hao Lacquerware Shop
and others…

Full collection of pictures from the Pingyao & Beijing trip on Flickr