Lost

One day, I went to attempt a monthly beauty routine when I took a wrong turn on an attempted walk home. Instead of turning around when I realized I took this said wrong turn, I decided I was going to just keep walking. No, I was compelled to keep going the way I turned. And I was quite glad that I took this wrong turn.

I'd been wandering the city for about an hour, looking at the buildings, and checking out the scenery when I'd come across this strange little market-place-like attraction. All of the buildings were white with stone gray rooftops, and stone elephants and lions guarding the front gate entrance. Confused, I went inside the place.

As I'd thought, it was an old market. It didn't look like anything was open, so it was a nice time to simply walk around and take in my surroundings. It was quite pretty. Despite being mostly stone, and the lack of water under the bridge making the place look barren, it actually was a very pretty place.

While I walked deeper into this mysterious marketplace, the buildings disappeared, and I found myself in a park so vast, and so serene, I did the one thing that I thought I would never do when wandering by myself in this city..... I turned off my iPod and listened to the silence.

I never thought I'd live to see the day where I would find a place so serene that I would take off my headphones and simply soak in the silence. There were trees! And beautifully placed rocks. There was also a huge lake where if you went further down, you could rent paddle boats and go all the way around this lake. Being that it's still February, though, it was closed. Which was why the whole place was silent, really. Everything was closed.

No matter what, it was still a beautiful sight. Standing on the deck while the sun was setting made for a great scene. If there was moonlight, I would've said that it looked like something out of an episode of Sailor Moon. Except it was sunset. And the last time I checked, there was no such thing as Sailor Sunset. It doesn't even make sense, really. But that's not the point.

The point is, I think I'll be getting lost more often. If I could find beautiful finds such as that park, which I have no idea how I ended up there, or what it was even called, then I could find other gems of this city. And I've got to find as many as possible.

Tianjin picture of the day!

I guess my hair is desperate to be a star...

The Valentine's Day Walk of Awesome

It was the night of Valentine's Day. Traffic was a mess, so I decided to go through my usual routine walk home, despite the fact it was pretty cold outside. I never had much patience for the bus.

Behind my work place, people were gathering like crazy to go down the Cultural street. At this time of night, lanterns were lit up like crazy. People were selling little hats and headbands that glowed in the dark. It explained why there was such a huge traffic jam. And why getting a bus would be virtually impossible.

So I started walking. Turned on my iPod to have Adelle playing. Her inability to keep up with turning tables my break from the world. I'd managed to get to 7-11 when, out of nowhere, fireworks shot up in the sky! They were everywhere I turned. Every five minutes, I was stopping to watch the fireworks, wondering how carried away people had to be on Valentine's Day.

When I saw the third man walk by with a bouquet of flowers much bigger than his head, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Here, I was thinking people went way overboard with Valentine's Day in America, but I'd never seen bouquets of flowers that were half the size of the people carrying them. And then fireworks on top of that? How else are you going to blow shit up to celebrate a holiday?

Then it hit me. Valentine's Day always brings out the most cynical and nasty of people. There's always the person that so hates this day, that they'll try to shit on anyone trying to enjoy it. (That was me, for a while.) Then there are the ones that are so demanding that they make their S.O.'s (significant others) stress out over what the perfect gift for them is.

And then there are those, like myself now, that find the silver lining in this. Gifts up the bum that couples give and take, apparently fireworks in China? And chocolate? Discount city for the single broke folks! How I never knew of this until recently in America, I don't know. I would've been a lot more pleasant in America around this time, that's for sure.

And then another thought. While Adelle now sang of finding someone like someone else, another thing hit me. (No, I did not pick Adelle on purpose!) I'm too awesome to roll my eyes on this day! Look at the scenario! I'm independent, enjoying life, enjoying my job, and a little too eager for half-off chocolate tomorrow, which China does do if you pick the right store.

If anything, those fireworks weren't celebrating all those couples out there making sure their loved ones get the best Valentine's Days of their lives. They were celebrating the awesome that glows from me! That's how it has to be! It came from my imagination after all. As Barney Stinson says, "Everyone's getting in relationships, getting married, and getting pregnant. I'm just getting more awesome."

And then I found out that the fireworks were the result of Lantern Festival and the last day of Chinese New Year. I'm still not clear if the Lantern Festival and the last day of Chinese New Year are on the same day all the time. Either way, it made my "I'm Awesome" epiphany sound extremely anti-climatic after that. Not as awesome without fireworks, that's for sure.

Tianjin pic of the day!

This is what happens when you're compelled to get lost in the city. 

Chinese New Year

Today marked the end of a very nice, two week vacation and the start of another work day. It was easy to tell that it was the first day back from work. Everyone was smiling and asking how their celebrations were, while trying hard to hide the tiredness and possible lack of motivation. In my case, I simply forgot to eat before I left for work, so I was trying hard to hide the fact I was starving. But with it being my short day today, I didn't have to wait long to get a nice, hot bowl of beef ramen. For cheap!

These two weeks were the Chinese New Year Celebrations. Those of you that have been paying attention to my youtube series as well as this blog know about my crazy-person rant about the fireworks. I won't get into that again. You never knew when they were going to light off, or how close you were going to be to them when someone lit them. If there was a chance of getting hurt, I'm sure you'd have been pushed away,  but for the most part, the people that saw you jump and scream were probably laughing at you. At least, that's what happened to me one night.

On sidewalks at different parts of the city, red wrappers still litter the streets from firecrackers and different explosives. Unlike America, China spends about two weeks blowing things up instead of that one day in July. Which was really cool. You never knew when you were going to get a nice firework show. My only complaint about it was that by saying you never know when the fireworks would happen, that could mean very early in the morning as well.

Then again, being up on the 30th floor allowed me to see fireworks in a whole new perspective. Instead of looking like they reached all the way to the stars, they looked like they were suspended in midair, like a magical explosion of glitter. It was like someone on the ground was shooting magic beams out of their hands or random weapons instead of shooting rockets in the sky.

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A couple notes about the next few posts.

1. For who knows how long, the posts will be about Chinese New Year, and probably the things I did.

2. Don't be surprised if a post that has nothing to do with Chinese New Year pops up in the mix.

3. Never trust USPS with international packages.

Tianjin photo of the day.

At the 798 Art District in Beijing. I'll talk about that adventure in a future post. 

The "Fa Piao" Loophole.

While enjoying a Chinese New Year Dinner with a couple friends, I noticed that CX asked for a fa piao. The waitress said something to him so fast that I couldn't catch what she said, but when she returned, there was a Coke on the table. 

A bit of a Chinese lesson before I continue with this post. In Chinese, "fa piao" means "receipt." 

In the Chinese tax system, when a business writes out a receipt, that's keeping a record, and they have to pay taxes on the amount of money that the business has made. CX explained that he learned from his mother that some places will go around that little obstacle and offer something for free so that they change their mind on the receipt. The customer is happy because he or she ends up with something for free. The business is happy because they don't need to write a receipt, therefore not needing to keep a record for the government to have them pay taxes. A win-win situation. 

Now, this doesn't mean that a foreigner can walk into a McDonald's and get the same kind of treatment. This is more for the small restaurants in China that do this. The big businesses, like KFC, wouldn't be able to do that because of the amount of foot-traffic in these places. They would probably end up losing money if they tried doing that. As for the smaller restaurants, it's hit and miss. 

Not every small restaurant will offer a person something for free. It's pretty much trial and error for what places will offer free stuff when you ask for a receipt. 

Tianjin pic of the day!

New Year Fires

For the past couple weeks, I've seen a lot of ashes on the sidewalks. As well as nicely built fires with people feeding paper circles into them. Seeing how this is Chinese New Year, I figured it was some sort of tradition that seemed interesting, so I took a picture of it. But because of what I learned about it, I won't be posting it any time soon.

Turns out those remains of a fire I keep seeing pop up everywhere are fires to respect the dead. People burn things like paper money or paper cut-outs of different things so that the ancestors can have everything they need in the after-life. Because of that, I'll never post the picture.

The reason? Taking a picture at funerals, funeral services, or of anyone honoring the dead, at least to me, is no different than taking a picture of the most recent turd you've just expelled and passing it around to your friends at a child's funeral. You just don't do it.

The only thing I get confused on with these fire piles is where to walk. The ashes aren't cleaned up right after the fire, so how far away from them must I be to show the proper respect? I have no idea. I simply hope where I'm at isn't disrespectful to someone's way of honoring the dead.

Tianjin picture of the day!

Thankfully, horribly polluted days like the one this picture came from are rare in Tianjin. Today has been quite clear. :) 

Being a Michigander, it seems fitting I'd be quite an expert skater. Doing all those figure-skating tricks and what-not. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. I'm maybe at a below-average level, but I can at least skate around for a little bit.

Or so I learned when I went ice skating with co-workers today. It wasn't my first time ever, but it was the first time in about five years. So naturally, I was a little on the rusty side when I got on the skating rink.

The one thing that I really liked about skating here was that you get forced to get off the railing and actually learn to skate. Not because there wasn't anything to grab onto in the first place, but because there's so many people. Some are standing in groups just talking while others have their phones out taking pictures. Some couples are out enjoying a leisurely skate, while some are going so slowly on the railings that they're afraid. Once you get better, you risk going around all these types. So you're decent in no time.

When you're done, you'll find yourself sore in places where you forgot muscles existed. Somehow, I've managed to get my thigh muscles sore. Still trying to figure that one out. But it's all right. Skating sounds like a nice thing to do whenever I have the chance. Though I'll always be shown up by the little kids that are learning figure-skating.

Tianjin pic of the day!

View outside of Joy City. :)

Joy City

I have found what has got to be the biggest mall I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I've never been to Mall of America, so I can't really compare it to that. But either way, it's huge. Very very huge.

It's a giant building called Joy City. One of the main entrances has a white Christmas tree completely dedicated to Hello Kitty. So little pink bows decorate the tree while Hello Kitty and penguins surround the tree. Not too far from it is a giant Optimus Prime. I think I only reached his knees, myself. That's just the entrance!

As you walked in, there are stores all around. The basement is home to an ice-skating rink. I've yet to go to the rink itself. I need to find some people to come with me. :) Also, the arcades! There's an arcade designed for older kids, teenagers, and adults, while an arcade meant for younger children is right next to it.

The building is also designed to look like giant domes from different parts of the mall. Hello Kitty still decorates the places like she's touring different parts of the world. On the different floors are also different Transformers. I think I saw Bumblebee fighting a cat Decepticon... If I remembered it correctly.

The stores looked a little on the expensive side, but then there was one place that sold me on the awesomeness of it... Cold Stone. That's right. There's a Cold Stone in Tianjin.

For those of you that have never had Cold Stone, it acts more like a cream than Ice Cream. It's frozen, like ice cream, but the texture of it is more cream. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if it was frozen yogurt. You order your sizes in Like It, Love it, or Gotta Have It. I go for the Like Its. Then they flatten it, and you can have whatever you want inside the ice cream. Sprinkles, oreo cookies, etc. It's amazing. I highly recommend people look on Google Maps to find out where the nearest Cold Stone is to them, and make a drive. It's a little expensive, but it's worth every penny. It's gotta be good if there's Cold Stones in more places than Beijing.

Tianjin pic of the day!

Turtles! Aren't they cute? I have no idea if they're meant to be pets or food. Probably pets, considering their size.