Rivers
- Thread starter sufi
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- cuomo hydronymy swamp thing
wild greens
Well-known member
Holidaying somewhere like China is pointless unless you know loads of people there who can show you cool underground weird places
What do you want to do be the token Westerner in Tiananmen Square oh lets look at some walls
What do you want to do be the token Westerner in Tiananmen Square oh lets look at some walls
shakahislop
Well-known member
personally speaking, i found walking around shanghai in 2008 a real rush. these residential neighborhoods getting eaten up by the onslaught of new towers. looking at people using and doing parks in a totally different way to what i was used to. night train to beijing, driving out through the beijing smog and going 'wow, that is pretty intense smog'. running round the streets playing catch with someone's sanitary towels with my mate 'panda' and some texan girl she knew. going to hooters. calling one another 'bitches' all the time. sitting on the back of a motorbike taxi with a beer in one hand and a fag in the other, at night, driving through the skyscrapers.
shakahislop
Well-known member
the most exciting thing though was the residential neighborhoods where it felt like i wasn't supposed to be, everyone staring, hand in hand with panda
wild greens
Well-known member
Shanghai is great i agree but i still think that the bog-standard chinese tourist experience would be a bit flaccid. Its only the subcultures that are interesting, i think. Good food though
How long were you there for, that's a bit earlier than me
How long were you there for, that's a bit earlier than me
shakahislop
Well-known member
not ages, only three weeks, and only in shanghai and beijing. never been back. hope i get to at some point, that would be great, but it's the other side of the world.
one thing that i think about every now and then: this was just before the 2008 thing and more importantly just before austerity. the british government PAID for me to go and hang out in china for a few weeks. i think i had to pay for the plane ticket and the visa. but they paid for the hotel, a three week course at a university there, they gave me a metro ticket, they gave me an envelope of cash for my food.
wild greens
Well-known member
A retired goalkeeper taking a taxi with a panda does seem slightly far-fetched
wild greens
Well-known member
I got sunstroke drinking on the banks of the guadalmedina once (had to google that one), to bring it back on track
That was great at the time
That was great at the time
sus
Well-known member
Yeah I think this is right. Knowing "underground spots" is cool and all, but there's always a very low-hanging fruit available, which is just "walk the streets. Watch normal people. Go into random restaurants." You don't need some mindblowing culinary or cultural experience. Just get a feel for the place, that's already a real step up from the tourist rotation
sus
Well-known member
I like the Auden lines about dialectic, how every force creates a counter-force, "How streams descending turn to trees that climb"