Trip to Guilin

Tomorrow Ben and I are headed on a one day trip to Guilin. We bought plane tickets and hotel reservations last week, and will leave Pudong Airport at 6 pm. We will arevie at Guilin at 8:30. Guilin is famous for its steep hills/mountains, which are distincitive to China. It is also the home of a large river and lake type situation, and is considered super awesome for nature and so on. We return Saturday night (our flight leaves at 8:40 pm. We have been told that it is too short of a time to see everything, but I really just want to see the crazy hills. I don't need multiple days to do so. The weather may or may not be good. We'll see.

I found a park in Shanghai where I can run (and avoid the ridiculous Chinese traffic- though not the staring). I bought a one time entrance for 3 RMB, but a month's is only 10. I tried to buy that, but was informed that I also need a picture. Luckily I brought about 15 more pictures to China than I needed, so I can bring that tomorrow on my run. It is a little park and is primarily sidewalk around a big man-made lake. Why pay to enter? Because the surface is no worse than the Shanghai roads and the crowds are less. Also, the loop is exactly 3 miles from my dorm and EXACTLY 1 mile around. Basically I can do any run exactly at its distance. Sweet.

Despite the Chinese claim to the contrary, racism is a big part of my daily life. I am stared at by all levels of Chinese people, from the street sweepers to the business men. It is pretty annoying, and when I'm running (a time when I am most aggressive, which many of my running partners over the years can attest to) I tend to respond with loud "SHENME???"s (whaaaat??). It tends to make the rubberneckers avert their gazes from me for a moment, just to stare at me after I pass. I often turn and throw up my arms in a "what the hell do you care" manner. It makes me feel better.

My language partners claim that "All Chinese are used to foreigners." I beg to differ. I was lucky enough the other day to have just completed complaining to a Chinese friend when a group of construction workers passed by with their eyes glued to me. It was so obvious and obnoxious that my language parter (who had just finished saying that I was mistaken about the staring) laughed, turned red, and said "I'm so sorry... I'm so embarrassed- I didn't realize..."

I don't blame them so much for staring- less than 3% of the Chinese population is of minority races, most of which are still asian- just not Han Chinese. I am a rare find, even in a business city like Shanghai. I really just resent the claim that the racism doesn't exist. It is extremely obvious.