The next day (Friday, 6/27/14) I was able to relax a bit and acually settle in. The morning was spent doing some proof reading and viewing a couple films on the environment in China.  After lunch at another noodle shop I was finally able to wander around the city on my own.  The area close by doesn’t have any flashy things to see, like many people might look for, but every corner, twist, and turn results in something strange and intriguing.  This part of the city (and many others) is also largely in disarray, the new can be seen right next to the crumbling old.

I have an intense, somewhat morbid fascination of urban decay so I couldn’t be happier as I explored the city.  I find things falling apart to have their own kind of beauty.  Within such areas you can find simple treasures, such as these:

 A somewhat hidden garden had many bonsai, or rather, pénzāi as they are called in Chinese.

An entrance to an apartment community.

As I wandered I kept getting odd looks of disbelief, excitement, annoyance, bewilderment, fear, curiosity, blank stares, and many more.  I had been warned that as a foreinger I would attract attention, but I didn’t think it would be that much.  According to Chinese cultural norms, strangers are ignored, sometimes to the point of what might be viewed as impoliteness to an outsider.  However, because Wuhu is isoloated from most foreign tourism, people like me can attract more attention then would be desired.  Apart from mild annoyance, I actually find the vast range of odd stares to be quite amusing.  However, it would be nice to be able to blend in.

I spent several hours wandering and came accross so many interesting areas.  I loved seeing how lively (and hazardous!) the streets were.

However, I looked everywhere for any sign that might have the characters 功夫 (Gōngfū), meaning Kung fu, and I found nothing.  I had been asking everyone I had met so far if they knew of any Kung fu schools in Wuhu, but no luck.  I had really been hoping to be able to train while I am here!  I wasn’t about to give up so soon though.

I returned to the office in time to meet my supervisor so we could go for dinner.  She took me to a Chinese hot pot place that specialized in Wuhu’s style of cuisine, mostly hot and spicy!  It was incredibly good.  We then went to massages, which are very inexpensive in many areas of China.  It was my first hour long massage and it was so nice.  The evening was pleasantly warm and not too humid so we went for a walk.  We came across a Tsingtao beer festival of all things, complete with a brightly lit stage and performers singing well known Chinese pop songs.  They even had beer can sculptures…

We lingered a bit and then headed back, finishing the night with a long conversation about cultural differences over a couple beers of our own.

Thursday morning (6/26/14) I was able to sleep in, but tried to get up quickly when I heard a lot of people moving around outside my door. As I stepped out to the common room threre were two older people standing by the doorway talking to my supervisor. They seemed surprised to see me and started asking questions in rapid Chinese. My supervisor explained to them that I was a student who was visiting but they didn’t seem satisfied. They left rather quickly after asking to see my passport.

Breakfast ended up being dim sum!  Which is a pretty standard Chinese breakfast.  I couldn’t have been more thrilled.

I was given some small booklets about the orgainization and a laptop to use while I am here.  Everything was in Chinese though!  Including the language setting for the computer.  I suddenly had a lot of vocabulary building to do.  I was excited to see that they have a type of tiger lily that grows in the the mountain areas close by, one of my favorite wildflowers!  this one is called 虎皮百合 (hu pi baihe), or “tiger skin lily.”

After not too long there was a sharp knock on the door.  When it was answered, two policemen entered and began interogating my supervisor.  They demanded to see my passport and didn’t seem satisfied with the claim that I was just visiting.  Yelling agrily, they told my superviser that we would need to go to the police station to fill out paperwork.  City regulations require documentation for all foreigners.  They left, and my supervisor filled me in on the things that I wasn’t able to understand.  While I am here for both an internship and tourism, my VISA is for tourism so we needed to emphasize that when we went to the station.  Non paid internships are a grey area, but now it seemed that they were definitely leaning more toward the black, especially because it’s for an environmental non government organization (NGO).  Environmental NGOs and their work are still a very sensitive subject in China, even though they were legalized in 1994.  Bottom line, emphasize that I’m a visiting student with tourists intentions and keep things simple.  The fact that I have I friend who’s hometown is in the nereby city of Hefei would help.  I had plans to visit her for sure, she was an exchange student at my school and we had a class together last semester.

When we left the office I got to the see the streets of Wuhu in the daylight for the first time.  I quickly realized that this was the kind of Chinese city I wanted to see, one off the beaten path, where I could observe the average lifestyle away from most tourism.  I snapped a few pictures as we waited to catch a cab.

These are a couple of pictures of the area accross the street from the neighborhood, there was an array of shops and a Tsingtao brewing factory.

Unfortunately the driver of the taxi we caught didn’t know where to go so she let us off not far from where we started.  We tried to catch another one but were unsuccessful.  Apparently it’s harder to catch taxis on rainy days.  My supervisor asked for directions from a random person and we continued on foot as the rain got heavier.  Pretty soon it was a downpour and even though we had umbrellas we were getting soaked.  We tried two police offices but they were both incorrect so one of the young policemen offered to take us to the right place.  After a short ride in the policecar we were finally there.  We headed upstairs to see the officer and fill out paperwork.  They wanted to see my passport, student ID, and take a picture of me.  Fortunately everything seemed to go ok and we were finally able to leave.

On the way back we stopped stopped at a tiny noodle place for lunch.  It was AMAZING!  I had a boiled egg, soy beans and 黄花菜 (huanghua cai, “yellow flower vegetable”) with my noodles and it was so good, especially on such a rainy day.  This noodle shop ended up being one of my favorite places to eat.

We returned to the offices and everyone continued working desks.  About mid afternoon we had a meeting to introduce the organization and staff to me and to discuss my participation.  The staff was composed of students and somewhat recent graduates, only a couple of which spoke good english.  The organization does environmental public education, river pollution monitoring, zero waste projects, and ecosystem research and protection in the nearby Huangshan area.  It was decided that I would help with some data collection near Huangshan, do some sharing about environmental NGOs in California, and help the staff with their English.  After the meeting there was more time to catch up on work items and then we all walked to a nearby restuarant for dinner.  By that time it had stopped raining so many more people out and about.  While walking down the street I got many weird stares and looks of surprise from various people.  It was rather amusing.  With my blonde hair and blue eyes I stick out worse than a sore thumb.  I wanted to take so many pictures of the surroundings but I didn’t have time.  Dinner was at a small chain restaurant where you could pick your food from a buffet and pay per dish.  It was good, but not too different from Chinese food back home.

Back at the office that evening my supervisor and I talked for several hours about why environmental NGOs (ENGOs) are still such a sensitive subject in China, and the local people’s attitude towards environmental issues.  The central government in China wants to have total control, and doesn’t like the fact that they can’t control everthing that ENGOs do.  However, they have the power to shut down these organizations at anytime, for any reason.  So even though ENGOs are working for many of the same goals as the government (better pollution standards, environmental protection, etc…), they still need to be very careful with how they hadle their affairs.  As for the general public, aside from the universal problem of people who don’t care about the environment at all, many people think that it is only the government’s responsibility to protect the environment.  They also feel that the only way that they can contribute towards improving environmental issues is if they have are rich.  For most, that will never happen so the organization tries to teach people about the things that they can do in their current situation, similar to many organizations back at home.

It got late, and after spending some time with the adorable resident cat, I went to bed.

The view from the balcony of the office

I woke up in the morning feeling like I hadn’t slept at all. Maybe it was because my card key didn’t work for accessing a pillow and blanket that were in a locked cabinet in the room, or maybe it was because the “matress” was incredibly hard, or maybe it was just because of jet lag. It was probably all of the above. At least I was able to get up on time. I headed down to the bar where they served breakfast, and ordered an omlet. It ended up being strange, but actually really good. Afterwards I spent some time exploring the hostel more. I found so many cool areas that I wished I had time to linger at.

An patio on the second floor

A view of the entrance courtyard

The deck on the rooftop, I couldn’t help gasping with delight.  I love rooftops!

The lobby

A very tired selfie before leaving the hostel

I made it almost to the metro station but then remembered that I had left my food at the hostel.  I rushed back to grab it, moving much slower than I wanted (thanks to my luggage), and then returned to the station.  I was now running much shorter on time, but I arrived at the Shanghai railway station very quickly.  However, I had no idea where the ticket office was.  My surpervisor for my intership had purchased a ticket in advance for me and I just needed to pick it up.  The station security staff was able to tell me where to go and I rushed accross the street in pursuit.  When I arrived at the ticket office panic struck, I saw for the first time the ridiculously long lines that I had been warned about for traveling in China.  I only had 40 minuets before my train left and things were not looking good.  I picked a line and proceded to wait… and wait… and in patient Chinese fashion polietly, but firmly push my way towards the ticket window so no one would cut in front of me (essential and normal for waiting in lines in China).  Getting the ticket took only a minuet and I was soon rushing back to the station with 15 minuets before my train left.  I power walked as fast as I could past security, the long corridors, the waiting room, and finally to the platform hallway.  I unfortunately I went to the wrong platform and had to frantically ask someone to point me to the right one.  Running as best as I could I made it to the right train just in time.  Incredibly frazzeled, I made my way through the crowded train car (lucky number 13!) and to my seat.

The ride was long and cramped but there were so many interesting things to see along the way.  Lush greenery, old buildings, skysrapers under construction, factories, villages, crumbling sidestreets…  The list goes on and on, plus it was raining on and off during the ride which gave the experience a plesently eeire feeling.

It was dark by the time I reached Wuhu, Anhui after the seven hour train ride.  My supervisor and her assistant met me at the station, she was much younger than I expected.  We then climbed into a taxi and headed to the office for the oganization, which is also where I would be staying.  The office was located on the 18th floor of a tall aparment building.  The floor was actually marked as 17A because 18 is considered bad luck.  Same with 14 so there were floors 13, and 13A instead.  The office was a reletively spacious apartment, dimly lit and a kinda grungy, but with a very homey feel.  A huge bookshelf lined the common room and pictures of flora and fauna decorated the walls all around.

Several people from another organization based in the nearby city of Hefei (the capitol of Anhui Province) were also visiting and we all walked to a nearby hole-in-the-wall restuarant for dinner.  The meal was sooo good, and the people were all very nice.  Introductions were done in Chinese an English, after which mostly Chinese was spoken.  I had a hard time understanding though!  When we returned I was able to settle in, take care of a few work items, and finally relax.