It's beginning to feel like I'll need to put "air travel" on my resume.
Our last stop in China was Jinan, which is up North, west of Beijing and had a different feel from the other cities. It feels more "real" China in the sense that it's a city without catering to tourists. Mountains and a "100 Buddha Park" are located here, it's a hub of Buddhism. I am beginning to realize that many Chinese cities have both an "old city" and a "new city", which is something we don't see much of in our "new" USA.
At this point, I realize I really love China. The people are so nice here and the mega-cities are incredible.
Two of our four-man crew are Asian, the other two of us are white. Nick and myself are a novelty, people stare at us and one little girl on the street said what all the people are thinking: "Look, white people"!
I actually love being the minority here because the people are so genuinely curious and openly friendly. Photo attached here of one such encounter:
The hotel staff are treating us like royalty and are doing everything they can to make my job easier, which of course I am thrilled about. The work here was very intense and our models were kind of..... ghetto. We asked all the models to bring their own clothing to supplement what I bring (I am doing both props and wardrobe on this job), but I had a difficult time outfitting them as one model turned up with Disney jewelry. I do not joke. DISNEY (She was 25, by the way). Hilarious.
The hotel assigned us a coordinator, Victor, who became a fast friend. When we asked for local food, he took us out to his uncle's restaurant which served traditional Sichuan cuisine. Yummmmmm! It has been so nice to taste all this Chinese food at the source!
Video here:
http://rebeccad.smugmug.com/Other/Jinan-Dinner/15035668_opkqT
After this nearly three week trip we are bonded and a very close-knit crew. Of course, we are busted and exuasted but hey, that's the price of adventure, right!?
I had to do some extra prop shopping in Jinan the night before our last shoot day. It was intense and fun trying to figure out how to communicate (The clerks were probably thinking 'Who is this crazy, flailing white lady'!?).Video of what I found AFTER shopping here:
http://rebeccad.smugmug.com/Other/JinanFountainVIDEO/15407478_eiLzY
The guys wanted to go out for a drink the last night in China, so we asked Victor where we could find "A mellow bar, not a club, just a pub". What we wound up with was A CLUB of course, they passed out glow-sticks, had amazing live karaoke performers, and a dude dressed in a red bull BULL COSTUME. There were at least 300 chandeliers covering the ceiling. Other people in the bar wanted their photo taken with us (example below) because we were a novelty! "Mellow" in China, I think does not exist.
Video here of locally "famous" karaoke singer at the club:
http://rebeccad.smugmug.com/Other/JinanClubVIDEO/15600650_AgaJZ
I'm sooooooooo happy to go home to Ryan and our house, it's been a long haul this leg. And part of me also wishes I had more time to explore. This job was a great way to get the feel of the country and to know where I would go back to.
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