Chiucifer's adventures in China: 2009

All right, quick update on what I've been up to since Christmas:

1) I got food poisoning (for the first time in my life!) a few days before New Year's and thus my New Year's Eve celebration consisted of trying to keep food in my stomach and laying on my bed. The weird thing is I didn't get it from eating at some hole-in-the-wall that exists everywhere in China; I ate at a pretty nice restaurant that I've been to many times. I stayed up all night throwing up (last time I threw up was when I was a kid)...I now have a new found respect for pregnant women and their morning sickness.

2) I had some ass today...yes, you read right, some ASS. I went with my Pops and one of his managers (Shoutout to Alpha Qian!) to visit some customers a few hours north of Shanghai. People see pictures of Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai and think that China is becoming very modern (which is true) but realistically, most of China is still very poor and sometimes you feel like you are in a developing or third world country. We had lunch with a few of our agents in the city of Yangzhou. I had a piece of meat from a normal looking dish and it tasted like beef. I found out a few minutes later that it was not beef but rather donkey meat. I couldn't stop laughing. Never thought I would ever try the meat of an animal that brays, but hey, weirder things have happened.

3) The following pictures are from a small town called Zhujiajiao, a water village on the outskirts of Shanghai formed about 1,700 years ago. One of my co-workers (Shoutout to Carol Shen!) is from there and suggested that I should visit. They call it the "Venice of Shanghai". It's actually very small but it's a very charming place.

View from the main bridge during the day...

People were lighting lanterns and letting them fly "into the heavens." Word's like "luck", "health," and "love" were written on the lanterns as a symbol of hope for prosperity in the coming new year.