Final weeks

As each day passes I become closer to my departure for China. I've been recently attempting to prepare for this journey by talking to friends who have studied abroad before in China and elsewhere. The questions usually revolve around how did the trip go, would you go again, what did you like the most, what took the most getting used to, what is a MUST see. It came as not much surprise that the answers were fairly common and expected. The must see item is China is the great wall. One person, who has been to China, said that the Great Wall is amazing and Chinese architecture while is great -- tends to look very similar after awhile.  While that doesn't distinguish my ambitions for traveling around China when the opportunity arises, it may change some of the destinations.

Everything in China has a lot of history associated with it.  I hope it doesn't feel like everywhere is a museum and places are only to be seen.  The last person I know who went to China for an extended time said the people were the most enjoyable part of the trip.  Making friends, talking to the people, and learning about the country through the people was the experience that is most memorable.

The semester at Purdue has finally come to a close.  I have continued to power through the semester and the results are successful.  There is room to improve and the classes were difficult.  I look forward to learning all that I can while I'm in China.  I will be studying Mechanical Engineering while I'm there, but I'm most looking forward to studying the culture and growing in a worldly sense.

I started learning Chinese over the weekend.  I have been studying with Rosetta Stone.  It is possible that I'm not far enough into it yet to really have a firm grasp of how the program is suppose to teach.  That being said, after 6 hours of using the program, I feel like it can be miss leading at times.  The premise of each activity is be show a scene, and infer what it means while being told what it is in Chinese.  I have spoken with some folks who know Chinese and I haven't always been inferring the correct things with the pictures.  Though it is building a basic vocabulary of activities, colors, etc.  I plan on sticking with this through the rest of break for a least two hours a day.

Please share your thoughts.  I'll be gone in just about two more weeks.  Let me know if there is something in China that you would see if you would be going over there.  Also clue me into any good deals you know of, like - it sounds like silk items are very cheap in Beijing.  Another person said pearls are very cheap in a small city on the eastern coast.

Thanks
Jbiber

PS- I've added a Mailing List gadget on the right side of the page - near the bottom.  Please sign up if you're interested in being contacted while I'm in China.  I'll likely have some periodical to publish.

China: It's coming...

An article at gizmodo.com (link) shows an example of how different Shanghai is from Indiana.  Recently, I watched a Discovery video on Shanghai.  It was an interesting 45 minutes that highlight some of the things that don't match US culture.  The video was the last part of a four part series "Paul Merton In China."  It starts by highlighting the how Shanghai is really the leading capitalistic city.  It isn't that the socialism doesn't exist there, just that the culture is part of the fast paced world.  He likened it to the way New York City is always moving, vibrant city.  Continuing - A vibrant city famed for it's progressive thinking, independent women, and hedonistic lifestyle.

The video covers many experiences, night life, going out to eat, having a suit tailored, and visits many of the places china wants you to see.  There was also an example in the video of Paul traveling down the river to a trash dump.  There were citizens that (illegally) setup a small community.  They rummage through the garbage and find things that can be sold for money.  Eventually his camera man was spotted and was told to stop filming or face consequences.  These rummagers can make up to three times a taxi cab driver's daily pay, but the lifestyle is quite limiting.  There is no doubt that China has many different faces, it will be interesting to experience first hand.  It is very encouraging that Shanghai is leading the way on the emerging capitalistic way of life.  While there is some movement towards capitalism, there is still a very strong cultural standard that is encouraged by the Chinese government, such as the regulation of video games.

I need to watch the video again to complete my summary and will continue this at a later date.

Another video that I saw recently on the PBS website showcased the world's largest mall, recently built in China.  It's an interesting watch, part 3 of the Utopia series.  The mall was built.  It is larger than the Mall of America.  It is also nearly completely empty.  Only a few shops and very few people.  Definitely worth watching.

It will be an interesting place to visit.
JBiber