2014-08-28 00:19:48 +0800
Day 4 in China
Still no Internet. I went to Chunxi Road, the only shopping street in Chengdu I know by now, to look for free wifi. I headed for Häagen-Dazs first, assuming that such an exclusive place will definitely provide Internet connection. It turned out, that they didn’t even have their own toilet and one had to go to public restrooms, (!) and the cheapest things I could order were ice-cream desserts for 80 kuai and more. Then I went to McDonald’s and ordered a Tie Guan Yin for 19 kuai. I got Tie Guan Yin in a teabag (19 kuai!) and sat down to connect. I couldn’t. I could not connect to McDonald’s own network, and it turned out that I cannot connect to any website if my VPN client cannot connect to the VPN server first—and that is impossible! Most of these networks want me to log in first, so everything is redirected. Madness.

I don’t even own a travel guide, and I definitely didn’t do my homework well, because I don’t know what major tourist attractions there are. I will probably go and see all Buddhist temples, with emphasis on Tibetan Buddhism, and I will have to buy a good meditation cushion. I met my first Pole in the dorms today. It turned out he was going home the next day and gave me all of his stuff that he didn’t need, including a metal bowl, cloth hangers, cosmetics, cutlery, and even small pegs perfect for closing that bag of tea I bought yesterday. More people I met today: an Iranian, three Germans (two of them, a pair, I met in the Overseas Students Office; I even tried to speak some German with them but it felt like opening a beer bottle with a fingernail,) and my roommate, from California. He apparently knows the city way better than I do; he took me to a shop with Western products (at Norwegian prices,) a supermarket called “Trust” 好又多 (hao3 you4 duo1, literally something like “it’s good and there is a lot of it”, but it also sounds similar to 好友多 hao3you3 duo1, “a lot of good friends”, hence the English name,) and a small restaurant where we had fried bell peppers, gongbao chicken, and an awfully oily dish with bitter gourd (苦瓜 ku3gua1, supposedly very good for your health.)

2014-08-28 12:27:01 +0800
Day 4 in China
Update: I got to connect to the Internet in the Apple Store. I’m planning to go to a certain Wenshu Temple today.