I had a great trip in Beijing. I took an overnight sleeper train from Wuhan. Basically the way the sleeper train works is that it leaves during the night, and you sleep on the train, and in the early morning it arrives at your destination. Top speed is 160 km/h. There are hard sleepers and soft sleepers. I got the hard sleeper, which was around 280 RMB one way (around $45 USD). Soft sleepers have softer beds, but they cost maybe 2x more. There are 6 beds per room, 3 levels. I got the middle bed. Here's what it looks like.
Not for the claustrophobic. Because the beds are so cramped, people usually hang out in the lower beds, or in the narrow hallway. Me and this other guy was just standing around the hallway for 10 minutes or so, neither of us saying anything. Then I throw in a "hey, I'm on this bed, which bed are you on?" in Chinese. And then it was on. His name is Yangyang, and he was going to Mongolia via Beijing to see his parents. Very cool dude. Anyways later on he brings over his friend, Mei Lu from another room. Thankfully, she could speak english. Mei Lu was going to Beijing to take some entrance exam for Beijing University. She wants to major in Piano and Music. Her english was really impressive, and she was enjoying her chance to practice her english with a foreigner for the first time. Another lady in our room got involved in our conversation and the 4 of us were carrying on and having a great time. I was teaching them Korean; they were teaching me Chinese.
Beijing was great. I walked Tienanmen Square, visited the Forbidden City behind it, and climbed the Great Wall. They also took me to a jade museum, enamel museum, and a silk museum (I think these museums are more like ways for them to get tourists to spend money). Then I took another sleeper train back to Wuhan on the same day. Overall, it was a memorable trip!
The day I got back, Yan Laoshi's niece (also named Yangyang) treated us all to all-you-can-eat hot pot dinner for being selected for a scholarship (she was 1st in her class)! Yangyang has been so kind in helping me with the Chinese translations, and also patiently asking all the weird and crazy questions I had about Chinese culture. Thanks Yangyang!
These are the go books I bought here. They're all in Chinese, but they were dirt cheap. These all cost about USD $30. In the US, one book would cost about $15-$20.
These are the gifts I got from Yan Laoshi's family before I left.
The writing on the fan is written personally by Yan Laoshi. He asked me what I wanted on it, and I asked if there was a short phrase about studying and self improvement. Yansen, Yan Laoshi's son, suggested 更上一层楼, meaning that you must climb higher to see greater horizons. You climb a little, see more, climb a bit more, see a bit more. In go, I should improve little by little. Each life-and-death problem I study, each new line of joseki I learn, each end game shape I analyze, I gain a bit more insight and I climb a little higher.
Overall, studying go in Wuhan was fantastic, and I'm so glad I did it. I now know what I need to do to continue improving my go. And I learned a lot about China and Chinese people. Based on the negative comments I had heard about Chinese people in China, I had biased opinions before going on this trip, but afterwards, I now think that in any culture or country, most people are good hearted. I think the differences in culture and beliefs is what may lead us to think badly of a particular group of people. For example, this guy cut in front of me at the airport. On the surface, he's a jerk. But maybe there's a part of the culture that I haven't considered. I don't know what that may be... maybe he saw a bit of an opening and decided to take it, if I wasn't going to? Or maybe he was just a jerk. Anyways, I think I've become more resistant to make sweeping assumptions.
Next 5 days I'll be chillin' in Shanghai. I have a tour in Hangzhou tomorrow. Then I'm doing a Shanghai City Tour, then Suzhou and Zhouzhoung, then Kevin Steely! <3
I miss playing my piano.
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