Backpacking through China, part 2
If you haven’t already, check out part 1 of my trip
Rule #5: Speak Chinese and get a hot local tour guide
Shanghai is beautiful, especially the Bund that connects Puxi with Pudong. At night the skyline at the Bund is extraordinary, with water in front of you and a glowing city in the distance. There is also Nanjing road, which is one of the largest shopping areas in China and is for pedestrians only.
We walked around Shanghai, saw Nanjing road, saw the Bund, then decided to go out and see the night life. We went home, cleaned up (shaved, ironed the clothes packed into our backpacks, showered), and went out to a club called Babyface. Clubs in China have small dance floors and lots of tables. Clubs will offer a table if you buy a bottle of alcohol (or offer alcohol if you buy a table), and the Chinese way is to sit down and play drinking games. We were traveling cheap, so we sat at the bar and ordered a couple of beers. We quickly spotted two hotties on the dance floor.
Now, I’m not the best dancer, although probably a little better than average, but in China I’m Michael Jackson. The average person’s idea of dancing here is akin to Carlton from Fresh Prince: a lot of bouncing, corny finger pointing, and stiff limbs (this has changed since then, but not much). We hit the dance floor and again we got a lot of attention. I’m not sure if we got attention because we are White (there were some other Westerners there), if we danced well, or just because Alex is a giant, but all I know is attention is good when trying to attract girls.
We danced on our own while different guys kept trying to pick up the girls in the middle of the room. After a bit, I grabbed Alex and lead him back to the bar and instructed him not to look at them. We were literally the only two that didn’t try to dance with them, and I was sure that they would sit down near us soon since they had been dancing for a while and had definitely noticed us. They were obviously alone, and girls that are alone don’t (usually) get a table, so they had to come back to the bar.
I was right and they came and sat right next to us. We pretended not to notice them, as girls love attention, but are not likely to be interested in guys that oogle over them (that’s for another post). They started staring at us and whispering to each other so I figured it was time to make a movie. I turned over to one of the girls and said “this place is boring, are there any interesting clubs in Shanghai?” (in Chinese of course).
They were blown away by my Chinese, which I shrugged off as natural. They were instantly interested in us and we left. They ended up taking us to multiple bars and clubs, then back to their apartment which had an amazing view of the city.
For the next 3 days we had personal local tour guides. We probably slept about 4 hours a night in our attempt to make the most of the nightlife, while not missing out on daytime sightseeing.
The benefits of making friends with a local and having them show you around are huge. They took us to places locals go, which is what we wanted. We ate every meal at places that locals would eat. We got to see the touristy areas with our own private tour guide. We went to the best and most affordable karaoke house in the city (which interestingly enough I was taken to again on my next trip to Shanghai).
The dialect spoken in Shanghai is so different than standard Mandarin that you couldn’t eaves drop if you wanted to. Whenever the two girls wanted to talk in private, they would just switch into their Shanghai dialect, and I really couldn’t understand anything. It’s really amazing that even young people all over China still prefer to speak in their own dialect. I doubt that Chinese will ever become as homogenized as English. I think this is a good thing.
After day 3 they were exhausted, so on day 4 (we stayed a little longer than expected in Shanghai), they decided not to meet up with us. We figured it was our cue to move on, so we went back to the train station.
Rule #6: Just say no in Hangzhou
Hangzhou is only a couple hours train ride from Shanghai and home to the beautiful West Lake, so we naturally headed to Hangzhou. The lake was great. We got on a little boat and drifted along. We ate at some local restaurant for lunch. Coming from Shanghai, the pace of life in Hangzhou felt like it was in slow motion. People seemed to take their time and nothing was crowded. The shopping areas were not bustling and noisy, but rather tame and flowed slowly from one shop to another – like a walk in the park.
That guy looks bored, and I'm too big for this boat
Then came dusk. While we were walking along the lake in a very affluent part of town, we were very casually approached by some Chinese men. They assumed we didn’t speak any Chinese, so they starting motioning to us with their hands. At first Alex and I were very confused, and then we heard it: “Sexy, sexy”? These were pimps. They didn’t look like what you’d imagine a pimp to look like with extravagant dress, and a cane; they were just short and plump middle-aged men.
We ducked into the nearest restaurant and decided it would be best to eat there until they went away.
We went clubbing again, and of course went to Babyface – it’s a chain and happened to be not only the biggest night club in Hangzhou, but also right next door to the restaurant we were at.
The girls in Hangzhou were not “shy” by any means. On the dance floor, we were quickly approached by two girls who asked to buy us drinks. We took a couple of shots and then went back to the dance floor with them. The girl I was dancing with turned and asked me “will you marry me?” Yes, she was serious. She had dreams of moving to America one day, and thought I would be the handsome knight to whisk her away.
Luckily, I had to pee. We got away from those two and headed to the restroom, thinking we were safe. As I was coming out of the restroom, I got jumped by a completely different girl, who was obviously drunk. She grabbed my arm and dragged me to the dance floor. I was a bit buzzed so I didn’t mind, but then she started getting really frisky. Out of nowhere came 2 of her friends to drag her away. They apologized and said she had had too much to drink. I thought, again, that I was safe, until 2 hours later the girl was back, this time without her friends, and wasn’t going anywhere.
We left at 7am. I took a good look at who could have been this determined, as I had sobered up and now could see with the light from the sun, and to my horror she could have been my mother. She must have been 40 years old.
She wanted to take us to eat Hangzhou breakfast, so we went to breakfast. The breakfast was really extravagant, and we had our own room in some high class restaurant downtown, not that anyone else was going to want a room then. Big private rooms are common in China to show off to your guests. Unfortunately for her, I wasn’t interested and could only think about the sleep I’d been missing for the past 3 days.
We parted ways, went back to the hotel, got our bags, and went to the train station. We were exhausted, but not as exhausted as we were going to be in 48 hours.
Stay tuned for Rule #8: ALWAYS double check your train ticket
Related posts:
- Backpacking through China, part 1
- Tips for Celebrating the Chinese New Year in China
- Dear Mr. Worry Wart (Is China Safe?!)
- 10 Reasons Why Eating Vegan in China is NOT Easy
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http://beyondbounds.org/2010/10/backpacking-through-china-part-1/ Backpacking through China, part 1 | Beyond Bounds Blog
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http://www.suzy.nu/ Suzy Lounge Bar
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http://beyondbounds.org/ Jason Sharp