I bin in Harbin

So here are the pictures from North Korea. The first few are from Dandong, the bridge is a random bridge that goes halfway across the river to North Korea and stops. The middle pictures on the boat are from a scenic area a few hours Northeast of Dandong, and the last few on the boat are from the trip to the North Korean mainland (almost). We were about twenty feet away. It was pretty cool. Also, in Dandong, they have a tower that shoots a giant laser into North Korea for some reason.

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=408950027/a=424203027_424203027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Well I got back to Harbin last night after 3 days in Dan Dong on the North Korean border. It was a fun trip and I'll give a full overview later.

Right now though our Harbin situation is a little complicated. In typical Chinese fashion HaGongDa University reacted to this H1N1 situation by cancelling class for two weeks. In order to avoid messing up our study situation, CET moved our fall vacation to next week, and everyone is just really confused.

So now I don't have class for two weeks, and can't really travel because we don't have time to make detailed travel plans.

On top of all of that, we're approaching the 60th anniversary of the Glorious People's Republic of China, which is a really busy travel time, and really difficult for foreigners to get around the country.

But I had delicious Pizza Hut pizza, so it's all good.

So I just ate lunch here on campus, at about 3 pm, which is about as far off of regular lunch hours as you can get. I walked into the one open cafeteria on campus and was greeted by darkness. Not one light was on. The escalators (yes, one of their dining halls has escalators) were turned off, and there was no movement. In America this would mean that the place was closed, but not in China. Out of a strong desire to save money (I assume), Chinese people are vigilant about wasted electricity. Our rooms have meters in them that show our monthly allotment. If you go over that you have to buy more. Anyway, I went to get some beef dumplings, which are 4 kuai for a dozen. For those of you not up on the exchange rate here, 4 kuai is about 66 cents.

Which leads me to the main point of this post. I cannot figure out the relationship between the prices of things here in China. In the US, I have very clear idea of what things should cost, and more specifically how expensive things are related to each other. But China's price relationships are just weird, which is compounded by the exchange rate giving me an advantageous economic position. For example, I went with my calligraphy teacher to by supplies the other day. We were choosing between two different brushes, one of which was 10 kuai, and another which was 18 kuai. According to my teacher, the 18 kuai was far superior, but the price was much higher. In my American my sense, the difference was only a dollar, but even to my China money sense it didn't make sense. A meal here is generally about 8 kuai, so why would he say that the higher quality brush was that much more expensive, particularly if it would last me a lot longer?

On that note, if you are going to come to China you have to develop a Chinese sense of money, at least to some extent. When I first got here, I was doing the exchange rate in my head and saying to myself, "Oh, that's only 3 usd, no problem!" This is a recipe for disaster. Sure, there are some instances when you can use this to your advantage, but you'll save a lot of money in the long run if you realize that you could be paying 3 kuai for the same thing you were going to pay 3 usd for.

That's all for now!

Here are some pictures! Of China!

The first is from a weekend trip to Zhongyang Dajie, a big pedestrian zone close to my school.

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=367893027/a=424203027_424203027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

This is from my trip this Saturday to a farm region southwest of the city called Yagou. We hiked a lot.

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=360112027/a=424203027_424203027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

This is my room/bathroom. Yes thats my shower. Also some of the noodles they gave us on the plane. And Beijing from the Airport.

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=367622027/a=424203027_424203027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

PS It turns out I can upload pictures really fast in my dorm, so I should be able to upload them as soon as I take them in the future. I have a few short videos I'll try to get up as well.