I am back, but my mind isn’t

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.


[Title: "Stranger"]

Ep.15 I am back, but my mind isn’t.

Numbers about this trip…

Number of cities that I visited… 8 cities which are two cities less than it were originally planned. I travelled for 22 days, one day longer than it was originally planned.

Number of provinces I visited… 5 provinces.

The shortest time that I spent in one city: 6 hours in Shenzhen which beats 8 hours in Qingdao.

The longest time I spent in one city: 5 days in Hangzhou and Guangzhou

The longest train ride during my trip: 24 hours and 17 minutes from Hangzhou to Xiamen

The total hours of my train ride: 8+15+2+1.5+24+16+2+2+13= 83.5 hours, more than 3 days.. wow I didn’t realize that.

The total money amount that I spent on this trip: roughly 825 USD.

Number of people newly added on Facebook during this trip: Two. It’s Lynne (Noel’s friend) and Anna (a girl I met in Shanghai hostel).

Number of things I lost during this trip: Four. (Passport, Wallet, Flip-flop, and headphone)

Number of movies I watched during this trip: Three. (American Gangster on my laptop, Scent of a Woman in Hangzhou, and Dark Knight in Hong Kong)

The number of pictures I took: 949 (it’s after I deleted all bad pictures)


[In Shanghai]

Hangzhou: the City of West Lake and Tourists

Hangzhou is really close from Shanghai. It only took an hour and half to get Hangzhou from Shanghai. Hangzhou was much more developed than I expected. I just thought it as a city with a beautiful lake, but of course it was more than that.

Marco Polo, the famous Italian traveler, described Hangzhou as the most beautiful city on earth and is like paradise. It is certainly such a beautiful city. West Lake is what makes the city gorgeous. It is a huge lake. It took me more than two days to walk around the lake and see things around the lake. It was very peaceful.

The first night we met Vince from our program. He was doing his internship in Hangzhou. I had some problem that night, and was really mad at him. The reason was that I was too tired and he kept wandering. I regret getting mad at him; I was just too tired.

The Lake was so peaceful and lovely, but I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I can because I was having other problems. I had so many things to worry about such as my camera in Nanjing, I couldn’t enjoy it. I was sad about that. I guess to be happy, what you need is not earthly paradise, but is inner-peace in yourself.

I didn’t get much drama in Hangzhou beside I got mad at Vince. I met two Korean guys at the hostel; they were college students in Korea and travelling China. It was fun talking to them and to listen to their stories. Although this hostel at Hangzhou was one of the worst hostels I’ve been, the hostel always make you to meet new people and I like that.



[Shanghai, in the morning]





[yummy...]


[The Bund, at night]


[The bund during the day]

One day I watched “Scent of a Woman” the old movie with Al Pacino. I watched it a long time ago. It was one of my favorites. I recommend you guys to watch it so I don’t want to tell you guys the story, but the movie actually is about travelling and life. The movie reminded me of what I need to learn in this trip: life.

Unexpectedly, I had to stay five days in Hangzhou, because the reception desk of the hostel messed up my ticket purchase for Fuzhou. I booked it three days before, and the day before they told me they don’t have a ticket. Thus, I had to skip Fuzhou and just go to Xiamen instead. Actually I didn’t mind that but I didn’t want to stay in Hangzhou an extra day, although it is a very beautiful city. On the last day, I visited temples that are a bit far from West Lake.

Hangzhou is the city that is very well organized for tourists. West Lake is the major tourists’ attraction not only for foreigners but also for Chinese themselves. However, it was a bit sad because the city especially the lake side is overwhelmed with capitalism. There are so many Starbucks on the lake side and other fancy shops including Ferrari and Porsche dealer shop and other famous brand cloth shops. It is sad for me because it seems like that this beautiful lake is becoming a place only for riches like many beautiful beaches in California.



[Jinling]


[Watching Shanghai stocks, they don't look happy... it was before American crisis]





[Hangzhou, the West Lake]

September 4th, I am in Shenzhen train station waiting for my train to Guangzhou, which is my last destination of this trip. My 21 days trip is ending soon. I don’t want to lie; I want to go back to Beijing, but I am also a bit sad about it too. I had so much fun travelling China. I don’t know when I am going to have a chance like this one. So many memories … I don’t know what to say… oh, I know; it is speechless. Still five more days are left. I will enjoy the rest of my trip and write about it!









Xiamen: the City of Freedom

From Hangzhou to Xiamen, I had to ride train for 24 hours; yes twenty four hours. No, exactly it was 24 hours and 22 minutes. I got on the train 9:45am and got off on the next day 10:07am. Actually, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. This time I took the “hard sleeper” which means 6 beds in one section, three on each side. I was on the middle bed; it wasn’t that comfortable but much better than the hard seat.

For during these 24 hours, I slept a lot and read my book. Sometimes, I just look out the window and think about whatever (mostly about the rest of trip). I also wrote some parts of this essay, mostly Hangzhou part. I ate hamburgers from KFC that I bought before I got on the train. Honestly, it was very relaxing and refreshing; but 24 hours is actually longer than I thought.

After 24 hours of riding, I arrived at Xiamen train station. Xiamen is not a major tourist city. Xiamen is a small city; however it is well developed due to oversea Chinese and Taiwanese investments. It was one of the major trade ports during 18th century. Japanese and Western powers also had occupied the city temporarily. It has beautiful beaches and a small island, Gulang Yu, right next to it. Also, Taiwan is very close to this city.


[Marco Polo statue in Hangzhou]




The hostel in Xiamen was so nice. It is the best hostel I ever stayed. The interior and exterior of the building is very fine looking. It has a TV and bathroom in the room! I also could have a whole room by myself. The couple who manages the hostel is so nice, too. I just had a great time there. Too bad I stayed there only one night. There wasn’t much to see in Xiamen. I don’t know any of you guys reading my essay will visit Xiamen, but if you guys ever do, I absolutely recommend this hostel.

That afternoon, I reunited with Noel who left Hangzhou a day before. We went to the island of Gulang Yu. It was a charming island with some tourists’ attractions and beautiful colonial buildings. We spent few hours on the island and came back to the city. We also went to Xiamen University, which is established by oversea Chinese fund. The university was huge and very nice. It had a lake inside and blue ocean was right next to it.


[The lake was really beautiful]


[The temple in Hangzhou which has this mountain of budda statues]

On the next day, I walked around my hostel. I swam at the beach next to my hostel. At the beach, I lost my flip-flop. It floated across the ocean. I bought it four years ago when I just arrived at the States. I bought it at a Gap store. If you know me well enough, you should know this flip-flop, because I wear this almost every day during summer and sometimes in winter. I was really sad losing although I was planning to buy a new one soon. I think that my flip-flop couldn’t stand this communist China so escaped the mainland and crossed the ocean to a free country, Taiwan.

Besides losing the flip-flop, I had fun at the beach. No one was around, so I danced and sang. I did whatever I felt like. I actually felt free! How can you not feel free when there is the endless ocean in front of you? I don’t think I will go back to Xiamen ever again, but I wish I can go back.




[Noel and me in Xiamen. This is only picture that we took together]


[playing football with statues]


[goodbye my flip-flop]


[At Xiamen University which was gorgeous]







[This is the hard seat train (on the way to Guangzhou)]

Hong Kong: the City of Confusion

I took a train from Xiamen to Guangzhou in order to enter Hong Kong. Of course, it was the hard seat ride and for 15 hours. I thought it wouldn’t be bad because I already have done it. I was truly mistaken. It was the worst 15 hours of my life. No kidding. It was awful and painful.

Anyway, catching the train to Guangzhou was very dramatic. I entered the train station and I just lost the ticket in the station. Usually, you show your ticket when you enter the station, so I just had it, but one minute later it wasn’t in my hand. The train was leaving in 15 minutes. The only way to get on that train was to buy another ticket. No, I didn’t want to do that. 10 minutes before the train leave, I heard that the railroad office found a lost ticket: actually that’s a lie, I was so panicked that I even didn’t hear it, someone else told me about it. I got the ticket back and finally could get on the train. Now I think that I was really lucky. As soon as I got on the train, it was pouring and thundering crazy like in a movie.

I got on the train, and found my seat. However this old guy was sitting on my seat. He had a standing ticket. I couldn’t let him stand next to me. He was really old and wearing this shirt that was about to fall apart. So I had to let him sit on my seat. I decided to stand for next 15 hours, but fortunately there were other open seats. I could get back to my seat when the old guy got off 4 hours later. The train was packed and very hot, so I couldn’t sleep at all. It was awful. In the end, I didn’t sleep at all that night and got off from the train around 7am.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t the end of the journey. I had to transfer in Guangzhou to go to Hong Kong. Alas! Fortunately, the train was only 30mins later and It was the first class fast train. Let me tell you, it was the difference between heaven and hell: the soft seat and hard seat. After two hours of comfortable ride, I arrived at Kowloon, Hong Kong. And, it was the whole new world!


[Hong Kong]

I called Hong Kong “the city of Confusion”, because Hong Kong was completely different from the rest of China and that confused me a lot. When I arrived at Kowloon, I first had to exchange my RMB to Hong Kong Dollars. I took a cab to my hostel, and the driver sat on the right side; it was so strange. Hong Kong was truly different from the mainland.

The taxi driver couldn’t speak mandarin well. People in Hong Kong usually speak Cantonese and English, but some people can’t speak English too. It was so confusing for me because I didn’t know which language I should speak. I was used to speak Mandarin in other cities, but here I had to start with English and if they didn’t understand, I tried to speak Mandarin. Hong Kong Dollar also looked weird; it’s like a fake monopoly currency. My cell phone didn’t work in Hong Kong. Everything was so expensive too.


[omg, he is on the right side]





[The symphony of buildings]



[me, being stupid again]

Anyway, with all these confusions, I enjoyed Hong Kong a lot. I love metropolitan! The city was so busy and packed with different people—lots of foreigners in the city. Many of Hong Kong business men were well dressed and classy. I wished I was like them. I wished I was successful like them. But to be honest, I don’t want to be rich. I just want to be successful.

My hostel was on 13th floor of Manor Mansion. I heard that there are drug dealers and prostitutes living in the building. The building was really shady, however I enjoyed staying there. I met many international friends. I met a British, Japanese, Irish, American, and Malaysian. Everyone was from different country with different plans, but we all stayed in the same room and became friends.

On the second day, I watched Dark Knight! Dark Knight unfortunately was not showing in the mainland China. I guess Batman is an anti-communist. I really wanted to watch it, and finally could watch it in Hong Kong. I watched in the building that was in the movie (the tall building that Batman broke into in the movie). In HK, I could do many things that I couldn’t do in the rest of China, and I couldn’t do many things that I could do in the rest of China. Again, it was the whole new world.

I am looking forward to go back to Hong Kong, but not as a backpacker or student, but as a successful politician or something like that.












Guangzhou: the Capital of Cantonese

Before I go to Guangzhou, I stopped by at Shenzhen, the most affluent city in China with the highest crime rate. The city rapidly developed after it became the “Special Economic Zone”. I just wanted to see what the SEZ look like. It was just another well developed city like Shanghai or Guangzhou. It didn’t have much to see so I had to leave the city after 6 hours I got there. I was also suffering from zillion mosquito bites that I got from HK. So, I left Shenzhen and headed to the Capital of Cantonese, Guangzhou!

When I was in the States, I met many Cantonese. Cantonese are simply Chinese but don’t speak Mandarin. They are from the province called Guangdong also known as Canton. Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong. It has been the major trade port of China since 18th century.


Shenzhen is only an hour away from Hong Kong and Guangzhou is an hour and half away from Shenzhen by train. It was raining hard when I got there—very welcoming. My hostel was very nice but was hard to find so I had to wonder streets of Guangzhou in the rain.

The next day, I met Jinling again. I don’t know if you guys remember her. She is one that I met at the hostel in Shanghai. She was from Guangzhou, and I promised to meet here in Guangzhou. So, I met her. She took me to famous restaurants in Guangzhou. Also we went to Canton Fair also known as Guangzhou Export Import fair. I had lots of fun with her in Guangzhou. She was really helpful in every way. It was really good to travel with someone who knew where to go.

In the afternoon, Andrew Chang came to my hostel. I met him during the summer intensive program. He joined me for Guangzhou trip. I also met Alan Wong from Daily Californian who now works in the city near Guangzhou. It’s so weird seeing old friends from back home in China. Alan, Andrew and I went to this museum and Qingping Street market which is famous for selling exotic animals for food.





[Dimsum is from Canton]





[Jinling and Andrew, I don't know what they are talking about]





[Alan Wong, what a fotog]

And, that was when I lost my wallet. Yes, I lost my wallet in Guangzhou. It was raining hard and I was running around to get a cab. I don’t know exactly where I dropped my wallet, but I am pretty sure it was around that market. I lost my wallet which was a Christmas gift from a close friend. I lost my Cal id. I lost my BNU id. I lost my prom picture. I lost so many memories.

I was really sad about it, but couldn’t do anything about it. I just lost it, and that was it. I was really lucky to be with Andrew. If Andrew wasn’t there, I would’ve stuck in Guangzhou forever. I know I am careless and clumsy. People who know me will know this. How many times I almost lost my cell phone and wallet? How many times I lost my ATM card? How many times I broke my cell phone and laptop? Lotta times.

I know it’s bad. I know I should change myself and be more careful about my belongings, but I just can’t do that. I don’t even want to talk about how I lost my passport in Shanghai three days after I lost my wallet. That’s just me. I am just thankful that I am still alive. Life still goes on without my wallet, without my prom picture and without my passport. Life still goes on.

Despite the losses, Guangzhou was fun. Everything was very cheap and everything was delicious. I met many people there and went to many places. Guangzhou is where you can get everything you want. You can do shopping, sightseeing, having good foods, photographing, and more. Too bad Guangzhou is so far from Beijing that I can’t visit it often.

I left Guangzhou with Andrew and flew to Hangzhou. I took a train from Hangzhou to Shanghai. I stayed at my friend’s place in Shanghai for two days and took a train back to Beijing. I didn’t do anything in Shanghai for two days, because my trip was officially over when I left Guangzhou.


[Kitties in Qingping market, so cute...]



[My backpack which served me for the entire trip...it was SO heavy]

So this is the end of the story of me travelling around China. I am back in Beijing. It took a while to upload this episode. I am glad that I wrote the most parts of it while I was travelling because I am already forgetting what I did. I honestly don’t know how to end this episode. It was a long trip, lots of things happened over the last 3 weeks. I went to lots of places. Eight cities and five provinces. I saw most of China’s well known cities. I am not claiming that I saw everything in China. China is a huge country and there are much more to explore. However, I am sure that the fraction of China I witnessed during this trip will help me to understand China.

I am not sure I told you guys everything that’s important. I am not sure I did a good job of articulating my awesome trip. Just to make sure, I will tell you guys one more time. My trip was really exciting, awesome, meaningful, refreshing and fun! … but I am not sure I will do it again.

This is really it for my trip. Don’t be sad about it. The story of me living in Beijing is waiting for you guys. My new life in Beijing just has begun.


[Beijing, Beijing!]

Thank you for reading this super long post.