Adventures in Guangzhou!

Though it's mildly embarassing, I must admit that the mention of Shanghai elicits thoughts of Indiana Jones for me before anything else. The Temple of Doom opens up with Dr. Jones in a Shanghai night club and I guess I saw the movie at a particularly impressionable time of my youth. While I didn't see "Short Round," I did see what is possibly China's most dynamic city. Ian is working in the city for a consulting agency and explained to me that you really need to see Shanghai in order to understand why China will be taking over the world in the next ten years or so. I didn't really understand what he meant until I got to the city.

If I thought Guangzhou was big, I was sorely mistaken. Shanghai is a collection of skyscrapers that goes on for miles and miles in every direction. It has an incredible skyline that is constantly expanding. The most amazing thing is that they managed to keep it interesting. Whereas in GZ all of the buildings look the same (i.e. are ugly), Shanghai has some very cool designs in the architecture. They also have trees and park areas where you can escape some of the madness of the city. Driving through the French Concession even makes you feel like you are lost among a group of historical villas.

So we got to the city after a quick two hour bus ride (sidenote- avoid the back seat whenever possible. We got tossed around quite a bit!) and headed to Ian's apartment to drop off our stuff. Ian and Carmen, another Wes graduate and PiA-er, share an awesome place right off the xujiahui metro stop. They have cool plants, a nice stereo system, and most importantly, a guest bed and couch! I was inspired by all of their plants and I think I will pick up a bunch for my place here as soon as I get paid next.

After hanging out for a bit we met up with Philip, Tyler, and Mal for yet *another* incredible dinner at a luxury restaurant. Feeling guilty, we had Ian tell Phillip that we wanted to pay tonight (Ian is fluent in mandarin). Ian conversed with him for a little while and finally turned to us to explain. Phillip isn't paying for a dime of the meal. His parents aren't even fronting any of the bills. No, no--the Chinese government is paying for the whole thing. Phillip epitomizes to me the concept of guanxi, roughly translated as prestige or connections. Basically your guanxi comes from your job, your family status, party membership, or simply having a ton of money. Regardless of the source, this is what gets you into the best restaurants when there are no tables. It's what gets you into a better university. It's what gets you favors from other important people. It's pretty much the most important thing to have in China and Phillip (via his family) has a TON of it. While it was a privilege riding on the coattails of this connection, I couldn't help feeling guilty. Ian and I were chatting on the way out from dinner about how there are roughly 900 million peasants in China that could have lived for months just on the cost of one dish we had that night, and yet the government is instead paying for a bunch of random foreigners to eat like kings. Once again, it is what it is. Being white over here opens up some doors that some native Chinese will never see.

After dinner we went to xintiandi, an upscale pedestrian walkway where there are fancy tea houses, bars, cafes, and a few music joints. It had some cool places, but it was definitely an area for rich tourists so weren't super excited about it. After that though we went out to a place called "Face" to hang out for the night. We enjoyed a laid back atmosphere of playing cards (Ian dominated in hearts) and sipping expensive drinks. Before we headed home, Ian took us to a famous strip of bars and we did some people watching as folks began to stagger out of the various establishments. There were actually quite a few westerners and English speakers which made me feel like I could have been back in Boston--an odd sensation. The kicker was that there was a pizza stand selling slices at which most of us took advantage. I opted for the Indian bbq stand though which is pretty tasty stuff. Mmmmm. Lamb with cumin...