Traveling

I will be away from Monday the 15th to Sunday the 21st.

Monday - Wednesday

Hangzhou and Suzhou

Thurs - Sunday

Beijing

Have a good week. I'll take some pictures and hopefully get some good stories!

JBiber

Month in Review and Chinese New Years

Temp: 3C - Partly Cloudy

Time: 3pm Sat

This post is a few updates with some thoughts on the first month in China.

Go Karts

Last night (Friday night) there was a small group of us interested in going out to the local indoor go kart business.  If you have ever been to Indianapolis' Fast Times, this is roughly the same thing.  The track had best times in the low 40sec area and it was 550m long.  The best carts were going in the upper 20s on average.  I say the best carts, because unlike Indy's track, the karts here are not all identical.  In fact, the karts are from a variety of manufacturers but apparently all use a Honda 4stroke 160cc engine.  This lead to many karts not being tuned properly and therefore a few "fast karts" emerged.  We bought three sessions at 8 minutes per session for about 22usd.  In Indy, the same amount of time (8 minutes x 3) would cost 60usd ($20 x 3).

The way the operation is run is a bit different.  First, the more obvious and interesting variation - the place serves alcohol.  There is a large bar that has viewing windows from above to watch the racers from while drinking.  The more risky drinkers will then go downstairs and drive - mostly because it is China and why not.  No one from out group was about to do this, but at the same time.. who knows what the future may hold.

The other large deviation from the policies of indy's kart track is there are ... no rules what so ever.  Aside from the obvious - don't get out of the kart, don't drive against the flow of traffic.. there is nothing that said no bumping like in Indy.  Clearly if you are allow to bump, you are allow to slam the crap out of each other and spin people out.  So that is what happened.  I have never been to a karting business that allowed this, but no one mentioned it once it started, so it escalated.  While the primary objective was to get the best lap times, the secondary objective is to screw over the other people on the track so that you can get the best lap time.  Needless to say, it was an experience.  The lighting was very poor so the video I shot was very dark.

Chinese New Year

February 14th is the Chinese New Year.  Today, Saturday, is New Years Eve.  We will be going out as a group to a fancy restaurant on Purdue's tab.  I am excited for just about one reason.  China is the world's manufacturer of fireworks.  I am told that there is no match for the fireworks that will be seen tonight through tomorrow.  If the expectations have been appropriately set, this will be the closest thing I will ever come to the sounds of a war zone.  I am also told there will not be too much partying going on because it is a very family oriented holiday.  It ties in with the very superstitious Chinese folk.  There is a large emphasis on luck around these parts.  For example, to have many fours a phone number is very unlucky because it sounds like death.  Sixes are good fortune and are associated with good business.  Eights are the luckiest number.  It is a very real thought process for the Chinese people.  The holiday for students is celebrated a week before and a week after.  This is the equivalent of Christmas around these parts or winter break.

ME 497K

This week has been a holiday for many students and teachers so we only had one class, the Purdue professor taught course.  This was the final week for this course because the professor will be returning to the US this week.  Each day we had five hour sessions.  Mon - Wed we worked on our final project then Thurs / Fri we presented.  Most all of the students are glad to have that class out of the way.

Valentine's Day

It may be of interest to some people to know that V-day is celebrated here.  The same superficial crap that is promoted in the US is carried along on this side of the ocean as well.  This year, I am told, is not as big of a deal because there is a bigger holiday falling on the same day.  Since the Chinese operate on the lunar calendar on a social level and the international calendar on the business level, many holidays appear twice.  One of our teachers said it is not a big deal that V-day is on the same day as CNY because there is another V-day later in the year.  Another note, the lunar calendar is not as long as the international calendar (<360 days).  Every few years, the Chinese calendar repeats a month.  Occasionally, there are two Mays in the same year, back to back.

One Month In...

-Expats

We are consistently told that talking to ex patriots is a waste of time in China because it is not part of the China experience.  I say the longer an expat has been around, the more useful information they can share.  We routinely have found very good information from the expats in China.  It has been part of the China experience just talking to these people and finding out great places to go visit. 

-Culture

The culture is very different from home.  As I mentioned above, there is a much stronger emphasis on luck.  There are other odd parts of Chinese culture that still continue to confuse me.  It has been an interesting experience to see how different it is in this way.  It has been a learning experience from the beginning.

-Frustrations

Many of the frustrations come from a gap in communication or understanding in general.  Chinese people never appear frustrated because they have been taught from a very young age to not show emotion.  That is a large cultural difference from back home.

Coming to China is not regrettable.  The only things I'd like to change are my knowledge of Chinese so that I could really get deeper into the culture and understand the world around me better.  That being said, it is difficult to be away from home and I miss a lot of friends and family.  I like hearing from all of you and know whats going on while I'm away.  Please keep in touch.  Though only a month has gone by, it is already starting to feel like I am running out of time to see everything there is to see in China.

JBiber

Happy Chinese Lunar New Years Eve (Saturday)

Happy Chinese New Year  (on Sunday)

Happy Valentines Day (on Sunday)

Good Luck America at the Olympics!!

Nanbei Lake and Super Bowl Weekend

Weather:  16C sunny with a hint of blue in the sky (hazy)

Local Time:  10am

Formula 1 Tickets

Friday afternoon, I came back from class and counted the money.  I had over 7400 yuan cash in hand.  Oddly, the preferred method of payment was cash on delivery.  They do not accept international credit cards on the website or over the phone.  I had a scheduled delivery time of noon to two and after about an hour the man showed up with the tickets in the lobby.  I was happy when he used the hotel's money counting machine rather than going through by hand.  I now have my ticket in hand and I am ready for the mid-april weekend.  Hopefully the weather is great.

Shanghai Vehicles

It sounds like cars must be less than ten years old.  The cars around here are rather usual.  It is quite common to see the big brands, Honda, Toyota, BMW, VW, and Chevy.  There are some local name brands as well that I'm not familiar with.  There is the occasional Porsche.  The most odd thing to many of the Americans around here is the luxury associated with the brand name Buick.  Buick is the luxury of China from what I'm told.  There are still Park Avenues being manufactured here, where as in the USA that car went out of production in 2007 or so.  That being said, it is not the same exact car as in America.  They have a newer body style and look quite nice.  If I come across a parked car, I'll try to take a photo.  Police use many kinds of cars, VW, Buick, and Chevy from what I've seen.  Taxi's are almost all VWs.  They are an older body style, but if I have heard the rules correctly taxi cabs are not allowed to be older than five years.

Knock-Off Markets

I didn't make it to the KOM this weekend, but some of my friends went.  The KOM is a place where they sell items with name brands that are not actually name brand items, this is where my PSA experience happened the previous weekend.  I called my friends in the morning and told them I would likely need some more athletic shorts and a better back pack for my upcoming biking trip.  I told them what I was willing to pay and kindly accepted the burden.  I was out looking for colts jersey's at the time (good game saints) when I got called about the shorts.  I got two pairs of tennis shorts for about 11 usd.  Not a terrible deal.  I also ended up getting a "North Face" hiking backpack for 13.50usd.  All items are quite usable, and I used the backpack on the biking trip the next day.

City Shop

I had a shopping list from the trip coordinator, and I figured that many of the items would be difficult to find at the local supermarket.  I had heard about an international type store not far, so I headed to City Shop.  Armed with my new backpack I was ready to purchase items, there is a charge for bags (.2 yuan per plastic bag).  I found some more cheese, I also was able to get some Munchies (Cheese Fix) as well as some American Lays BBQ.  I also found some gatorade and powerbars.  It was expensive, I spent about 36usd on what would have been 25-30 in USA but I was happy to have them on the trip.  That being said, the gatorade doesn't taste the same as back home.  There are chips in the Chinese supermarkets, but they aren't classic flavors that I'm use to.  I've tried many of these chips and found that the favors are strikingly accurate.  Roasted Chicken, BBQ Pork Ribs, Tomato and (something random), as well as shrimp and other very unpromising flavors.  Having some home style bbq chips is amazing.  I will enjoy food way to much when I get home.

Big Bang Theory

I brought along a few seasons of Big Bang Theory.  I am surprised to see how many engineers haven't seen the show.  It is one of my favorites these days.  Over the weekend there was a bit of a BBT party in my room.  About twelve of us crammed into my room and watched a few episodes from season one.  Those who hadn't seen it liked it a lot, those who had seen it enjoyed it.  I heard someone say, who would know you can make so many jokes referencing science and math - I thought of my friend Dave who will always try that pun or joke no matter how corny it may be.

Brasil Steak House

Saturday night was another one of the amazing experiences at the lovely B-BBQ.  A long story short, we went to the a bbq that was just about 20 minutes walk away and costs 99 RMB or about 14.50usd.  We were enjoying the all-you-can-eat protein fest.  I was with an adventurous set of friends so we tried some of the odd dishes.  I ate; grilled chicken, chicken wings, roast beef, steaks, beef tongue, duck, chicken wrapped in bacon,  sausage, flan, fruit bread, cooked bananas, garlic bread, lasagna, and other things I can't think of right now.  It was again one of the top meals of my lifetime.  Those restaurant are amazing and if you can find one it is completely worth it.  I feel fortunate that I was able to eat at one for only 15usd because normally they are much more expensive than that.

Nanbei Lake

On Sunday this weekend, marking one month since I left the USA, I went on a biking trip with an outdoors group I found via a website for weekend entertainment in Shanghai.  I knew going into it that the weather wasn't going to be the best, but I also knew going into it that I was the only male going on the trip.  I had high hopes that the six other women would be about my age, athletic, fun, attractive, and adventurous.  I wasn't too shocked to be greeted by an older group of women who were mostly all forty plus except for the guide who was probably in her late twenties.  The weather in Shanghai was a light rain and about 55F.  That morning, I walked to the meeting point in shorts and was passing folks with very large coats and very shocked looks on their faces.  Nanbei Lake is about two hours outside of Shanghai to the southwest.

The conversation on the bus was fairly basic at first for a group that was unfamiliar with each other, occupation, time in shanghai, and location were the dominate questions. (Teachers + business people, Canada;south Africa; France; Germany) After a bit of small talk I wanted to ask some useful questions.  I started by asking the expatriates if they were making local wages or international wages.  They talked about how they're making more than they would be making in their home counties because of the housing allowances, displacement fees, hardship bonuses, etc.  They noted it was a very good deal and they were able to live a lifestyle of luxury because of living in Shanghai.  I also brought up health care, to ask how the systems work in their home countries.  The general consensus was the socialized system is usually full of trouble as far as how long it takes to get care as well as a quality of care being generally lower than a private system.  They said that if you can afford to have private health care and if it is available in that country, it would be the way to go.  Better conditions, faster treatment, don't need to wait for an MRI where as with the social medicine plan it's possible that the MRI could take over a month to get.  We stopped at a rest stop and it was odd.  You can see a good example of the weather in the panorama.  It kept up with tradition of not caring to heat the facilities or have doors installed on the building.  I also very much enjoyed the translation of the signs at the rest stop.  (Above photos)  We continued on and got to the park.

 

I don't know really how much to describe about the park.  The weather was misty and cool.  We rode around the lake for awhile in the morning and stopped at some of the interesting places.  There was an island that had a Chinese Garden on it, it was connected to mainland by a footbridge.  It was a very nice garden.  The most unique and serene part of the lake was it was nearly completely still.  The reflections were unbelievable.  I have quite a few pictures but I don't want to spoil the fun by posting all of them.  I borrowed a 5 MP point and shoot camera to take on the trip, it fairly well.  The park was different than the American equivalent because despite paying admission there were definitely people living in there.  Houses, fruit fields, restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, small shops, etc.  It was very odd because at some points we were riding through back alleys of these small villages.  The residents all had their gardens to live off of and wild chickens and ducks.  It was a different experience.  We rode around quite a bit in the morning and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant.  It was nothing special, more chopsticks practice.

The afternoon started on the bike but then switched to hiking.  We went up at 200m tall hill and when we got to the top we could see all the misty fog we'd be walking through the entire way up.  We were quite literally in the thick of it.  Pictures of this location didn't really show anything other than about 250 ft of visibility.  As the hike continued the fog cleared a little bit.  We saw some bamboo growing and visiting some "scenic view" spots that were essentially worthless from the fog.  We finished the afternoon at a small fortified Daoist Temple.  It was interesting to see that very old building still being used.

Other quick observations: 

The highways have bumps from small elevation changes; over two hours this probably happened four times.

The highways have tolls, it could have been the one road we were on, but it was fairly expensive and multi stops.

There is an "I-Pass" type RFID system to pay tolls, if the car has the equipment installed.

They use worms for fishing here too.

Many quickly build structure use bamboo.  Even in Shanghai, bamboo is used to build construction scaffolding. 

Despite not many people being in the park as tourist, almost all the shops were open and staffed, begging for business as we passed.

Super Bowl

I did get to see game 44 in its entirety.  I even saw The Who over halftime.  Outside the US, the game was broadcast on ESPN apparently.  The commercials that were seen on CBS were not shown here.  I was happy to see the game, it was great.  I enjoyed almost all of it.  There were a few plays I would like to have not happened, but the Colts had a great season anyways.  I'm not that into The Who, and the last few games have left me wanting MTV's management of the Super Bowl again.  They haven't been allowed to manage it since the wardrobe malfunction.  I would rather hear new music and keep the generations that watch the Super Bowl together as a nation current with music, not fall into tradition.  I'm living where tradition is taken into account in nearly everything that is done.  It is a hindrance to progression.

These are my thoughts,

JBiber 

Mid-Week Update

Weather:  7C cloudy/smoggy

Local Time:  730pm  Thursday Night

Super Bowl Plans

I have been doing my research in this area for awhile now.  We originally booked at a place called The Spot about 30 minutes away by cab.  It was going to be kind of a distance to go, but the plus was we had a reservation for 26 people.  I continued looking for a better place and last night I visiting a local pub called Bulldog Pub, formally British Bulldog Pub.  The food was good, but more important I got to speak with the manager, spoiler alert - we booked here.

After my roommate and a friend of mine all finished dinner, we asked to speak with the manager.  He was a young "chap" from London who moved here a few years back and started this pub.  As we talked, I brought up the Super Bowl party he was hosting on Monday morning and asked how many people already had on the books.  When I told him I have quite a crowd, he was interested in our business and took us upstairs to show us his setup.  On the way up there I mentioned we were talking to another bar about watching the game over there.  He apparently has hard feelings for an ex-gf that works at The Spot because he was pretty keen on our business.  I proceeded with slight interest displayed.  We continued to talk and mention that we're really interested in the game.

He offered to waive the 100 RMB cover (which included breakfast) for the whole group and the second floor of his bar.  Many of us will still pay the 100 RMB cover, because it comes with a British style breakfast, but we have a projector all to ourselves and a 40" screen opposite that.  He's banking on the large group of american college students spending money on beer- a safe bet.  We will be leaving our hotel at 530 and will be ready for the game starting at 728am local time.

Formula 1

For the first time in my life, I will be attending a real Formula 1 race in April.  We decided that we wanted to grab a few tickets this week for the race.  The original plan was to sit in the grass along the straight away, but after a couple minutes of consideration - we opted for an upgrade to turn one grandstands.  It will be one of the few times in my life that I'll be going to a race like this, so I figured why not splurge a little and upgrade.  At the next campus, I will not have classes on Thursday or Friday, so - I will be able to attend practices, qualification, and the race over a three day period.  The race starts at 3pm on April 18th, look for me on television; I'll be the guy who does not know much about what is going on.

Museum of Arts and Crafts

On Wednesday, we visited this museum not far from campus.  Just as in all the previous field trips before, we had a large 40+ passenger a bus.  The only reason I bring this up is because this bus was fully electric.  It was my first time in a fully electric vehicle that was capable of highway transport, it was very quite if we were under 20 mph, silent.  Going faster had a hum - that's life.  It was still very cool.  The museum on the other hand wasn't that cool.  The most interesting part of this museum was that it was a living museum of sorts.  The art that was there was a mix of old pieces and pieces that were for sale by the in house artisans.  There were folks working on ivory, paper lanterns, silk stitching, and folks clay dolls.  It wasn't very large and didn't take too much time to see everything.  The picture above is completely stitched yarn, it was one of the cooler things I have seen that was done with yarn.

Vehicles in Shanghai

I'm not sure if this is a law of China or just of Shanghai, but I asked my culture teacher why there were not more beat up cars on the road.  She said that there is a law that cars aren't allowed to be more than 10 years old.  When a car reaches 10 years old, it goes back to the dealer who sold it or the manufacturer or something -- and they just junk it.  I'm not sure how true this is, it is just what my teacher told me.  If anyone finds out more on this topic, I'll happily post a correction!

Odd Classroom Event

We were sitting in the classroom waiting for class to start and it is very rare we have the lights on, but we did.  The Chinese are all about being conservative, to the point where the classes are taught in a room with no lights on and just the shades open on the windows.  This particular day, with the lights on - the teacher was trying to turn on the LCD projector for her computer.  The projector wasn't turning on.  She got closer and held her arm higher, but it wasn't evening indicating it was in standby.  The problem was the power supply to the classroom circuit breaker doesn't have enough power to turn on the projector when the florescent lights are on.  I find this kind of odd that a fully developed country doesn't have enough power in the class room to power both the lights and the projector.  They also don't heat the buildings.  It is not uncommon to have all the doors on the main level open to the outside, because there is no heat or air condition.  The classrooms have heaters in them, but they only are on when someone has arrive to the class to turn them on.. they're not automatic or programmable.

Contact

So I've decided that Skype doesn't work very well in this hotel.  I've switched back to my old MSN messenger @hotmail.com account.  If you're on Live Messenger, you can add me by looking for lion460.  Also, feel free to send me a text or use the gadget on the right side of the page to leave me a voice mail.  It does not have to be anything special, just a call to say hello and what is happening that day in the news.  I don't really get to check the news here, because the internet is filter and slow.  I am essentially disconnected.  Anyways - if you do use the gadget on the right, this is what will happen.  You'll type your name and phone number and hit call.  It will then call you and connect you to my voice mail.  I will check it and get back to you - be sure to leave an email address in the message!

Tonight there's a drinks special out on the town that many of the people on the trip are going to.  I'm on my way to join them.  Until then - keep in touch, thanks for reading.

Go Colts,

JBiber

Weekend Things

Weather:  6C "clear" aka ... smoggy

Local Time: Monday 1045pm Feb 1st

This weekend was a pretty poor weekend to try and be doing too much of anything outdoors.  The forecast for the week seems to match that same attitude.  Rain is expected to dominate the forecast keeping in the mid to upper 40Fs as a high.

Saturday

Knock-Off Market

I really only wanted to go to the knock off market to see if I could pick up some athletic shorts.  This didn't work out but it was still very interesting to see.  In tradition Shanghai style, the market is multiple stories tall in what was likely once a factory of some sort.  Each floor was roughly the size of 4 football fields worth of goods.  The basement is filled with shoes.  Since it's fake product, there's always something visible incorrect about them.  On of my favorite examples came on a pair of shoes my friend bought.  He got New Balance, and on one side the "N" is correct, but the other side the "N" the same direction.. making a mirror effect.  All of the shoes that have been bought have been reported to be painful to wear, but for less than 10usd, I think that should be expected.

As should be expected at any of these shopping areas, there are young men who are paid to try and lure you into the store.  One of the people I was with had been there the previous day and knew one of the sales men.  We dubbed them the Personal Shopping Assistant/Annoyance (PSA).  As soon as we had walked up to the factory sized building two PSAs recognized a group member I was with and began to "help" us shop.  They didn't specialize in the shoes area, but they patiently waited 30+ minutes as we browsed.  I believe these people are on a commission type of system with the stores they try and push you into.  They waited for us to be ready to go upstairs and once we got to the second floor they became much more pushy about where we should be going.  As Americans, we were not too inclined to be told what to do and where to go.  I especially don't enjoy this type of shopping experience, I don't like shopping as it is - the last thing I need is some guy telling me where to buy things.  I walked away from our group of eight and started browsing on my own.  I was farther than 80 ft before one of the PSAs noticed I'd wandered away.  He started down the hall way saying "Sir! Sir!" about every.. 3 seconds.  I didn't turn around despite hearing him and waited for him to tap be on the shoulder.  He wanted to know what I was looking for, but I wasn't about to tell him.  (If you haven't figured it out yet, that wouldn't change anything about their objective)

After a couple minutes he faded back to the larger group that was actually buying things.  I got to wander the second floor on my own for a bit.  I made it to a less crowded area and as I came around a corner there was a group of about nine PSAs and ALL nine began to say.. "DVD! WATCH! HANDBAG!"  I wasn't thrilled by this, though I used it for practicing my deaf act.  I continued to walk and ignore.  A rather persistent fellow kept on my tail for many minutes.  I met back up with the group and they had acquired a tail as well.  If you walk towards their shop and then pass it they'll leave you alone for a bit.

The second to last interaction with random PSAs happened with an older lady before we left.  Remember, these people are hired because they know a little bit of english.  We were taught in Chinese class that when they people bother us, just say "bu yao" (Boo ya-ow) meaning - no want.  I was with a few of the others and the girl I was with said no want to the older chinese lady.  She replied basically-- "no want? you don't know what you want, why would you say that?"  I then stopped walking and sternly but politely said, "You're wasting your time.  Please leave us alone.  I do not want that."  She mocked me, so I raised my voice a little bit, and asked her to leave us alone.  I wasn't yelling but speaking firmly.  I asked her which way to go she pointed and started to call someone.  We made two steps in her direction then did a 180 and left her in the dust. She clearly has never seen an NFL game.

Finally, as we waited to meet up with our group... we were approached by the last PSA of that area.  He started on his typical sales pitch, shirts, coats, shoes... I was just having fun messing with them as usual.  I began to repeat him.  As be said an item I pointed to it on my body.  He continued to repeat his sales pitch, I repeated him and pointed at other group members clothing as he mentioned it.  It just made him smile and leave us alone.

Fabric Market

It was the second day a row I went to the tailor area.  One of the girls got some pants tailored and wanted to try them on.  To make a long story short, they didn't fit at all for her, completely the wrong cuts.  They were going to try and fix it but she has very little faith.  I had a few more of my friends look at that Korean style jacket and we decided it is not for me.

Applebee's

We got dinner at Applebee's.  It was a good finish to a long day of being on our feet.  I ate like an American at an American restaurant.  I was overly full, as most Americans are, when I finished my meal.  It was a little cheaper, I got a soda/coke/pop/kele/pepsi and a burger for 8usd.  We all ate like hogs.

Tanghui VIP

I had found a club on a website for shanghai activities.  It seemed like a really good deal for something so unique.  15usd gets an open bar for the evening.  It works like most open bars in Shanghai, theres four or five liquors and five or six mixers.  Rum, Whiskey, Vodka, Gin - that kinda stuff.  We tried to get a booth at this place, but the expectation to get a booth is to spend 2000 RMB or about 300usd on alcohol.  We all had wristbands for a lot less so we didn't really need to spend anything like that so we waited and then got a table - I hope we didn't kick anyone off that table thought.  About fifteen of us went out that evening, and we were the only US citizens in the bar.  There was one other man from Canada and nearly everyone else was Chinese.  It was a lot of fun for us because we dominated the dance stages.  I got a lot of really good videos that evening.  Most oddly aside from the US dancing, was the opening act.  Apparently, it was a themed evening and there was an Avatar dance.  It was really odd - two folks danced on the bar doing splits and stuff.  I can't really describe it.  I initially wondered if we had stumbled into a gay club because there wasn't very much co-ed dancing going out, turns out thats just not the Chinese style.  There were women and men and it was full of very nicely dressed people, but the culture here is all about being reserved and disciplined.  Conservatism is a common theme, which isn't what you'd find at many American dance clubs.

Sunday

Nothing especially excellent happened.  It should be documented as the day I found a Brazilian BBQ within walking distance.  When I say "walking distance" I'm referring to the walk there, not the walk back.  If you're leaving a Brazilian BBQ, nothing is withing walking distance anymore, not even the car you drove there in.  It takes about ten minutes to get there.  It got me thinking, I wonder if there are any others in Shanghai that would be better.  I found online that some places highly recommend, what happens to be, the cheapest B-BBQ.  For 78 yuan or 11.40usd you get to part take in the all you can eat buffet.  If you're unfamiliar with the B-BBQ style, it starts with a small salad and maybe some soup.  Then you're given a coaster sized indicator colored red and green on opposing sides.  Green means keep it coming.  They'll bring out all kinds of meet to your table and just shave off as much as you want right at your seat.  Beef, Pork, Chicken, Fish, etc.. usually 15 kinds of meats.  When you're full flip the indicator to red.  This is a very good price for this type of eatery.  I am excited and I will report back.

Chinese Tea House

Our culture class took us to a local tea house.  It is a Chinese tradition to head to these types of establishments to get the best tea available.  It was an interesting cultural experience to see how seriously the locals take their tea.  Some of the prices were quite high, 100+usd per 500 grams.  Many teas were cheaper, few were more expensive than that.  I got the opportunity to taste many types of tea.  Different green teas, jasmine, many other flowers, mixes of flowers, black teas, and others I can't remember.  I do know I didn't find any of them particularly compelling.  I'm not a big tea guy.  If people like tea and want some, I've learn a lot about how to prepare it.  Never use water over 80C.  Let it soak for a minute or so, but no longer than three minutes before serving.  These instructions vary by variety, but it was all over my head and mostly not in English.

I want to let you know, this was suppose to be a short post - it wasn't; that is alright though.  Thanks for reading.

JBiber