Author Topic: I'm leaving for China in five hours!  (Read 23074 times)

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Offline TerraEsperZ

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I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« on: April 06, 2008, 08:45:46 pm »
I most likely didn't mention it to anybody here yet (unlike my trip to France which I at least told Revned while chatting with him) but I'm leaving for China in less than five hours!



I'll be gone for 23 days on a trip across most of China, beginning with Beijing and ending in Hong Kong. I sunk practically all the money I had into this trip aside from my retirement funds, but it will be a trip worth making. In fact, my mom took that trip last year and she really made me want to go to, and since she was willing to do it again since she enjoyed it so much the first time, I agreed to take the plunge.



I'll be sure to post pictures once I come back (as well as a few select pictures from my trip to France which I promised but never delivered; bad TerraEsperZ!) at the end of the month. Until then, keep mapping and stay happy everyone :)



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



Current projects: Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline Eggz

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2008, 09:31:57 pm »
Well have fun buddy! And make sure to stay away from any protests; we don't want you to end up in a foreign jail, especially not in China.

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This looks like a job for Science!

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2008, 10:10:25 pm »
Don't worry. In one of the meetings we had with the organizers, they took a moment to "re-assure" us that we wouldn't be coming anywhere any city where pro-Tibet protests were taking place, for our *safety* you know. You could tell that our guide didn't believe in the least that the protesters were a real threat to us, but was merely giving out the Party's official stance on the situation.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



Current projects: Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline Maxim

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2008, 03:39:46 am »
Don't believe what you hear in the West. Yeah, the police there are power-mad and the government really doesn't like people who argue against them, moreso when it's done in a way that gets a lot of foreign coverage, but in general they're also lazy (much like the police/government everywhere). There's reasonable religious freedom (so long as you don't start saying the priests/monks ought to run the country instead of the government) and having the majority of the country proudly atheistic is overall probably a good thing.



Fear the squat toilets more than anything else. Enjoy the trip, it's an amazing country.

Offline Revned

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2008, 12:57:53 pm »
Yes, you did mention it a long time ago. Have fun!

Offline marioman

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2008, 01:02:34 pm »
Have fun and stay safe.  And stay away from those Tibet protests.

Offline JonLeung

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2008, 12:14:32 pm »
I think you might have mentioned your trip at least once earlier.



Looks like I missed the boat (hopefully you didn't), but have a good trip!



On a side note, my mom got a phone call from a sister she hasn't seen in 40 years this past weekend.  One thing that was mentioned that my mom found surprising is that China has the Internet!  *Gasp!*  So if you do have a chance to say hi, that would be cool, but I'm sure there are enough things over there to keep you busy.



Don't eat any dog meat, that's just wrong.

Offline Maxim

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2008, 12:23:31 pm »
JonLeung Said:
I think you might have mentioned your trip at least once earlier.



Looks like I missed the boat (hopefully you didn't), but have a good trip!



On a side note, my mom got a phone call from a sister she hasn't seen in 40 years this past weekend.  One thing that was mentioned that my mom found surprising is that China has the Internet!  *Gasp!*  So if you do have a chance to say hi, that would be cool, but I'm sure there are enough things over there to keep you busy.



Don't eat any dog meat, that's just wrong.

Tasty wrong. (Actually I didn't order it, the item below was "dog skin" which just made me feel too ill to try.)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2008, 12:42:57 am »
I arrived a few hours ago, but I'm going to sleep soon. I've been up for the last 36 hours, and sleep is having trouble kicking in now that it's nighttime.



For now, I'll just say I had a great time. Not as great as I thought, since China is growing and modernizing itself so quickly that all that we associate with traditional China is slowly being demolished. In most big cities we visited, my mother had trouble recognizing some since in one year, suburbs extending as far as the eye can see  that consisted of small one-floor communal houses became seas of 40 stories apartment buildings. You couldn't take a look at the horizon without seeing at least 20 construction cranes at any one time.



That's not mentioning the shores of the Yangtze where they built the Three Gorges Dam (the biggest  one in the world), which meant raising the water level of most of the river upstream of it by close to 90 meters in total (still has 21 meters to go). Hundreds of little villages were flooded, and entire cities have been built (and are still being built) to replace them, turning fishing villages into rather big cities with hospitals, schools and everything. I've seen plenty of huge suspension bridges halfway completed while cruising down the river.



Seriously, most of China right now is one huge construction yard. It's nice in a way to see a people so willing to get up to speed and show the rest of the world what they can see. You can see a sort of exuberance in the innovative and aesthetically pleasing new skyscrapers in the big cities, as if it wasn't enough to just pile up cement and bricks, but to instead make a statement  that they want to make a better but also prettier environment. It's a welcome change from all the cynicism, pessimism and blasé attitude you can feel in most of North America right now, usually in small amounts but it's always there, lurking.



Of course, nothing is perfect. Poverty, while less prevalent than before, is still everywhere, especially in the countryside. In every big city, we got assaulted by people trying to sell us flashy junks, books, memory cards and copies of watches as soon as we'd get off the bus. Similarily, freedom of expression is still limited; I was never able to access anything more than Hotmail and Google China in any of the Internet cafes and hotels where I've been. But at least it's improving, as evidenced by the new cities with services along the Yangtze, the quickly growing tourism industry as well as the construction of bigger apartments for people, the introduction of things like life and health insurance as well as the large-scale renovation of old neighbourhoods and more freedom of expression than before. For example, one of our local guide was quite politicized regarding government policies, religions and such. She said that at least now they're at least allowed to talk about sensible topics and disapprove of their leaders, as long as they don't get too public about it. Baby steps, but we really weren't much better off in the first half of the century mind you.



Anyway, I'll add more tomorrow, with pictures this time. The food was mostly good though regular stuff and not anything fancy or gastronomical, apart from in Beijing, where I just couldn't get used to the general way they made their sauces and cooked their meat usually with skin and big slices of fat. Anyway, good night.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



Current projects: Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline RT 55J

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2008, 08:06:38 pm »
Nice to know that you survived your trip. :D

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Offline Rew

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #10 on: April 30, 2008, 09:52:16 pm »
Ah, sounds like a most interesting trip! That is rather sad in a way about such aggressive and quick modernization. But I suppose it makes sense with the most populous country in the world. Good write-up!



And good to see you back again, Terra! *whispers something subliminally about Mega Man V and Mega Man Zero* ;0)



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TerraEsperZ

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2008, 01:26:46 am »
Welcome to China!

If your journey will reach Shanghai, I'm glad to be your guide. Just add my msn~~

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #12 on: May 01, 2008, 02:13:37 am »
Thank you Sprays, but unfortunately I passed through Shanghai almost two weeks ago :)



And hopefully I didn't project too negative an image of your country because of my limited experience.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



Current projects: Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline Revned

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #13 on: May 01, 2008, 05:33:06 pm »
I'm glad you had fun, now back to mapping! :wink:

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: I'm leaving for China in five hours!
« Reply #14 on: May 01, 2008, 06:29:41 pm »
Already done; you couldn't keep me away if you tried. But not *exactly* for a game I'm supposed to be mapping; almost, but not quite. But it fits my long-terms plans, be assured. Hey, being cryptic is fun!



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



Current projects: Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)