Playing Catch Up October 6, 2010

WOW,

I hardly know where to even start, it has been a long and amazing journey that has brought me into Shanghai.  After Chengdu was close to  two weeks along rivers in small towns.  I first took a trip down the Yangzhi River to see the Three Gorges.  A natural national treasure.  Getting into this area of the country was beautiful and the landscape is so different then that of Northern China.  Lush and green everywhere I looked.  I also got my first glimpses of the tiered rice fields.  They travel up the mountains and are absolutely amazing.  How they even tend to or plant them remains a slight mystery to me but I really enjoy looking at them, and have taken a ton of pictures of this one aspect of rural life in China.  One day off of the river I went into “Ghost Village” which is a temple up on a hill that the local people would pray to different ghosts for different purposes.  In a nice change from Buddhas this temple and it’s grounds were full of statues and paintings of ghosts that represent different things.  Obviously some basics to pray to, fertility, love, money or health.  However it was the more obscure that I got a kick out of.  The ghost of punishment will guide a parent on the appropriate way to discipline and punish their children.  The ghost of temptation is who men can pray to if they are tempted to stray from their wife (she is a beautiful ghost, with a dagger and heart in her hand).  The ghost of intoxication, pray to if you have had too much to drink (and no this ghost does not look like a toilet).  This ghost can also be prayed to if you would like to find a place to drink with friends.  Ghost Village also had three steps you had to pass, showing you what was to come in the afterlife, where these same ghosts will judge you and decide if you would be a good soul or bad.  One of my favorite halls was the one filled with statues showing how to retaliate against enemies.  Devilish looking figures burning people, chopping off body parts, what appeared to be raping, shoving large groups into a fireplace.  Morbid yes, but if done with a sense of humor (as I did the whole day) this was just hilarious!

From the Yangzhi we headed south to the very small town of Fenghuang.  The village is built on stilts on the Yuo River, and is caught in a time warp.  Big to Chinese tourist, it is still pretty far off the Western Traveler’s route.  Here we spent two days poking around the village, eating great street food (night-time only and left much to be desired for food during the day), and watching life on the river.  This town looked like old pictures of China from another time.  Women washing laundry and beating against rocks, men with nets and poles in shallow boats fishing, quiet and serene.

Then we headed further south to Guilin.  Amazing Li River Valley.  If you were to pull out a picture of China with large carst mountains, rivers, mist in the mountains, chances are it was taken here.  This area was gorgeous!  It rained the whole time but did not matter.  It just made it that much more idyllic and I enjoyed the area that much more.  The greatest of the terraced rice fields is about 100 km outside of Guilin so we headed out in that direction.  The area is known as Dragon Bone Hill for the fields that just roll along the mountains.  I was able to see only a fraction of it, by the time we got that high on the mountain we were in the fog bank and it was pretty tough to see it in full.  However since I enjoyed these all along the trip, I was just excited to be there, and did get to see a portion of it so that is better than having not gone at all the way I see it.

Also made it into a remote area of the region where the Yao minority still lives pretty primitively.  The reason for seeing this town though is the women of the tribe.  They cut their hair only once in their lives, at the age of 18.  The hair is 2 meters long and they shape and wear it on their heads.  I know, it sounds odd to visit a village just to see some hair, but you have to, it is just odd.  They also weave in the ponytail of hair from the first part of their lives so that all hair is still a part of it.  All hair, yes, you see they even collect hair that falls out and weave that back in.  I am positive that National Geographic has been here, or if they haven’t they need to visit.  Different styles of hair mean different things, one style, unmarried and under 18 therefore not eligible for marriage.  One is after 18 and unmarried.  Another for the married woman without children and one for married with children.  Of course Beth and I and the guy we were hanging out with at this point were joking that they need the style for the unmarried woman with children, though of course I am sure that is not an issue in this town.

From the back roads and rivers we headed to Hong Kong.  Shock to the system in more than one way.  First readjusting to China noise.  Second, Hong Kong is China with training wheels.  Everyone, even the guy at 7-11, speaks English.  No need to get stuck with a pesky language barrier.  Took me a day or two to stop trying to speak Mandarin though out of habit.  Hong Kong reminds me of San Francisco.  There we are on the water, hills, financial downtown. You get over to Kowloon area of town and it even looked like China Town.  However it was a very cool and modern city.  Eating here was awesome.  After small towns with questionable food options (Guilin was the worst, you could get snake bile soup, the regions specialty) Hong Kong was a welcomed change.  Indian Food on every corner, so lots of good curry, thank you English colonization!  Cantonese Chinese Food is definitely different from mainland, but here is where you will find beef and brocoli or sweet and sour pork.  I however am really missing my Northern Chinese food at this point.  The highlight of culinary experience in Hong Kong was without a doubt Staci hooking us up at her restaurant’s Hong Kong branch.  First of all we were seated with a view of the harbor and a pirate ship!  Second, no one hovered while we scrambled to read a menu; of which we were given two!  We could take our time and finally order, delicious.  No one starred or pointed at the white girls eating, and the waiters did not watch us eat ever bite.  These are standards of eating in China, ones that I am so used to it rarely bothers me anymore until I realized what it was like to dine in peace again.  Here though I also cannot lie, the first couple of bites with fork and knife felt odd, no chopsticks.

Don’t get me wrong, we did more than eat in Hong Kong.  Vicortia Peak gives amazing views of the city and we spent almost an entire day up there.  Unfortunately the Hang Mo Temple that I had been looking forward to for months was under reconstruction and only a portion was up for viewing, somewhat disappointing but what I was able to see was nice.  Too bad that they were still letting everyone light incense in such a small space we had to keep going out to let our eyes relax about every five minutes.  As always a favorite activity is to just wander the streets and see life in the city.  It is a mix of modern and ancient.  You could be walking by the stock exchange one moment and make a turn to find yourself down a back alley with street with vendors and small food stalls, and I love it.

Now I find myself in Shanghai staying with my friend from the Lair, Brian, the amazing host and taking in the sights.  We have been to Old Town, architecture from the past filled with McDonalds, Pizza Hut, H&M, Esprit and all your other favorite classic Chinese sights.  Tomorrow we head out to the Expo and I can’t wait to see this exhibit that the country is so proud of.

With 5 days left in China I am just soaking it all up and loving the last minutes!

Chengdu September 14, 2010

 

This is not my favorite city in China.  There is not much here to speak of.  Two great day trips for sure, today hiked to see the largest Budda in the world carved into the side of a mountain in the town of Leshan just a little south of Chengdu.  However in the city itself there is not much to offer.  Stuck here one more day before moving onto the Yangzhi River and to see the Three Gorges.  It will take 3 days to get down the river, but the sights are supposed to be amazing.  If the air/weather in Leshan on a river is much to suggest, I hope it clears up a bit, but still should  be beautiful. 

The drive today through the countryside of  Sichuan was amazing.  It really is some of the National Georgraphic shots of China.  Green and lush. Hills cut by fields and tiered for miles and miles.  Water buffalo pulling a plow.  Men working the fields in a rice paddy hat.   The scenery around here is amazing and I am looking forward to the three days on the boat to just take it all in. 

That is right, I said 3 days on the river.  I am learning from the now infamous Thailand to Laos Mekong River experience of 2008.  I have decided to make my way along another major Asian River, but when two options were offered, speed boat or slow boat, there was zero discussion needed, I am taking the slow boat, and will enjoy every single day that I am on that boat.  For everyday spent on that boat is one I am not in a contraption that might splinter and kill me!

Hard to believe that I will be home in less than a month. Bittersweet is the best word for coming home.  I will miss China, I have had an amazing year!  However I am also looking forward to some comforts of California.  Of course talking today we joked that California, U.S, these are somewhat abstract and so different from this life that I am not sure  we remember them correctly.   Also a couple of  times since leaving Beijing, we have refered to Beijing as home, it will always have a special place in my heart now.

 

The utter chaos known as train travel September 12, 2010

In China train travel is the most widely used mode of long distance transportation.  It would then stand to reason that this would be an organized experience.  The only thing that is organized is the chaos that surrounds the experience.  Most train stations have four waiting halls.  You walk into a station, find your train number on a massive information board (all in Chinese characters) and proceed to the appropriate waiting hall.  There are usually about 5 trains sharing a single hall.  You cannot go to the platforms, you must make yourself cozy in these crowded, hot, dirty waiting areas.  About 45 minutes prior to the departure time, a surging of energy starts and you notice that your train number is being posted above two gates.  I am not talking about gates like you may find in an airport, rather actual gates, that are still locked.  Now people start to huddle and merge towards these gates for about 15 or 20 more minutes, until a ticket taker at each gate flings them open.  Cue pushing, elbows, trampling and all other activities of this nature as you and your closest couple hundred Chinese travel companions push your way through the gate (no line present).  Now it is a mad dash up some stairs and down to the appropriate train.  Why a mad dash you ask?  Well storage is limited on the train and if you do not want to be sleeping with a portion of your luggage on the bed or seat with you, then you had better get to the train and get it stored.  If you can’t read characters you have the added bonus of figuring out which seat/sleeper is in fact yours.  Finding the car and compartment easy, after that assistance is needed. 

Now the train leaves the station and the next order of business is ramen.  Almost immediately after leaving a station do passengers start going up the aisles to the hot water dispenser to get the water for their ramen.  SLURP SLURP SLURP.  Slurping noodles is an art form in China and the trains are the place to experience this art first hand.  After noodles is sunflower seed time in which seeds are eaten and shells thrown on the floor of the train.  If you are on a sleeper car the bottom bunk is open territory until the lights go out as long as you do not put your feet on the bed unless it is your bed.  Other favorite snacks on the long trains include chicken feet, crackers or cucumbers, but always always noodles!

If you are lucky you will get to meet some people who speak English and you can make friends with these Chinese who always want to know as much as possible about you, your travel plans and inevitably let you know that by not going to their home town you are missing out on the best of what China has to offer.  You explain that you would love to go there but you don’t have enough time.  This concept is a bit strange to understand and so they continue to tell you to go and finally somehow you are telling them, OK, you will add it just to appease them and move onto a different topic of conversation.  Usually these travel companions are very kind and make the trip enjoyable.  The best so far have been the 6 Chinese judges who spoke almost no English but wanted to hang out with us.  Thankfully the other girl in the compartment was traveling alone, and spoke amazing English.  She befriends us and them and becomes translator.  In all they were a blast!

Finally exhausted, and sleep evading you the night on the train you pull into a new town.  You would love to think that at this point you can go to the hostel check in and start the show.  Nope.  First you must go to the surging semi-lined up ticket hall and purchase your departure tickets.  In China you cannot purchase any sort of train tickets more than 10 days prior to departure date.  Further more you can only purchase the tickets in the city of departure.  So when we get to the window we have all of the possible trains available listed in a notebook and must hope that there are seats on one of them, as we are usually trying to buy tickets for 3 to 5 days later.  You would think that there could be a more effective way to book tickets like say, oh I don’t know, online for the country’s most useful mode of transportation, but no, this is China.

As I have said before though, the sooner one tries to stop figuring out a better more organized way of doing things, and just accept that this is how things are done here, the easier life in China can be.  So we don’t fight it we roll with it and play the game by their rules.

The trip to Chengdu was especially rough and arriving this morning I was mentally beat.  The solution, read about a ”mexican food” place here that won best Western Restaurant in town, great we think, lunch.  With a slushy like drink pretending to be a margarita I ate a “burritos” for lunch.  That out of my system it was comforting but not satisfying and I will be returning to my Chinese diet, which is fine, I am in Sichuan Providence now, home of the spicy food! 

Tomorrow we are going to the Panda Research Center and day after that out to Leshan mountain, to see China’s largest Buddha carved into a mountain and do a bit of hiking around there.  Also, crazy preachers from  Florida have made international news.

Six Shades of Beautiful (From the Train into Tibet Sept 2) September 10, 2010

I am standing on the train to Tibet looking out the window at a sunset as we climb the Tibetan Plateau.  The colors in the sky against black clouds and tundra like grasslands are breathtaking.  It has been so long since I have seen a proper sunset I almost forgot how beautiful they can be.  Whether it be from a mountain top or a beach, but all I have seen this year is the glowing balls through a haze of Beijing smog.  The sunset in these mountains is quite different from the view from Therapy.  There weren’t purples and pinks but the six colors of blues, greens and yellows were gorgeous.

And still the train moves further and further west.  We have been on the train for 24 hours and have 24 left to go before reaching Lhasa.  If the landscape of the last 2 hours suggest anything of that to come I will gladly spend another day on the train.  That said, I am tired of being on the train and can’t wait to get there!!

Lhasa, Tibet (Sept 5) September 10, 2010

Greetings from Lhasa.  It took 48 hours on a train to get here.  It took about 15 hours to adjust to the air.  It took no time to understand what makes this country so special or intriguing.  The train ride in itself was long and at times frustrating.  For example the team of 20 or so kids who shared the car with us.  The chaperones were in a different car.  Up the ladders, down the ladders, up the aisles, down the aisles over and over.  Not to mention these kids all smelled as though they hadn’t bathed in some time.  They thankfully were not going all the way to Lhasa.  After their departure the last 24 hours were quite different and I was able to enjoy the sunset as we made our way onto the Tibetan Plateau.  The next day was one beautiful sight after another as we climbed higher and higher.

Now I am here and have to give myself reality checks from time to time, Yes I really am in Tibet!  To be here there were many hoops and regulations; particularly obtaining a VISA and guide.  KongChok is great.  He indulges questions, shopping, and pictures.  He knows everything about this city and his history it really is his history too.  His family has been living at the Portola Palace for almost 250 years, he was born in the family home inside the gate!  They left here after being “asked” to leave in 1989 (read between the lines here!).   The Portola Palace was beautiful.  With every step through the halls you absorb the peace that has been central from the start.  Well 7th Century to be exact that was when it was built.

Today has been an amazing experience!  We traveled out to NamTso Lake.  This is the lake with the highest elevation in the world; 17,127 feet.  This is in fact only 30 feet below the Everest Base Camp’s elevation (and no, regretfully enough there was not enough time to make it all the way out there) and so I pretty much was at the top of the world today, physically and emotionally.   The colors of the lake were amazing, so clear and so many shades of blue.  So big, it extended all the way to the horizon.  The mountains surrounding were dusted with snow even this first week in September.

The 120 mile drive out showed the Tibet of my dreams.  Grasslands and mountains.  Yaks, sheep and goat herds.  All being tended by shepherds in traditional wear.  Tents for these nomadic people dotted the landscape.  Raging creeks and rivers throughout the hills.  It was better than any picture or image I could have imagined!

Everywhere I look are prayer flags.  Everywhere I walk I smell juniper incense.  This really is a once in a lifetime experience.

Yackety Yak September 6, 2010

Yak Burger. Yak Sizzle. Yak Curry. Yak fried rice. Yak Noodle Soup. Yak Butter Tea. Yak Dumplings. Yak Steamed Buns (bou dzi).

The Tibeteans like their Yak and so do I! For starters it is a much needed break from pork. Secondly it has been over a year since I’ve had good red meat (stopped trying somewhere around December). Thirdly it is a great flavor and lean meat with no fat. YAK YAK YAK YAK YAK

The Truth Hurts (written just before leaving Beijing) September 6, 2010

The energy of the new teachers has been great the last two weeks. Their excitement to be in China and start work is contagious and I have loved being their guide welcoming them to Beijing. They’ve been just as informative on things back home for me. So let me take the opportunity to thank my friends and family back home for lying and keeping me in the dark. Thanks, ignorance has been bliss. What I have learned these last two weeks is that the international news has severely down played the reality of the economy, job market and avaliable funds in America! I have been told the unemployment rate has risen to 13% nation wide and come October 11th I will be helping raise that number. I have learned that the state of California still has no budget, and will most likely be bankrupt by the time I get home. Just as I was learning this CCTV news airs an interview with our fearless leader Arnie and he says “the federal government screwed up and California has got the worst deal”. Really proud of that statement, he sounds brilliant!

Another thing I have learned recently? I don’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell of finding a job when I get home! Can’t wait. So what do I plan to do with all of the new found information? I am going to forget I heard any of it! Board a train for Tibet and travel China for 6 weeks. Live it up and deal with reality when I get home. Here my reality is seeing amazing sights and closing out my year abroad with a bang!

My Bags Are Packed I’m Ready To Go August 23, 2010

It is the last day of life in YiZhuang.  I am moving out of the apartment in the morning.  Then it is one week of living at the hotel where all of the new teachers have been held up for the last ten days and then I am off.  It is odd to think that in just 24 hours Simon, TJ and James will be replacing Beth, Mark and I, this has been my home and now I leave which means this year in Beijing really is over.  It has changed me, challenged me and will me with a stronger sense of myself and what I am capable of.

But there isn’t a lot of time to dwell on these things or be too sad about the end.  I am also only nine days away from Part 2 of my Chinese Adventure, Part 1 being over now and better than I could have ever hoped for.  My big suitcase and just about everything I own in China is being stored at Mark and Lindsay’s new apartment which I will be crashing at when I come back through Beijing before flying home.  Yesterday was the marathon day of final prep before the trip.

First off a note on Chinese Trains.  You CANNOT purchase tickets no more than 10 days before departure and can only purchase them in the city of departure.  This means you can hope for the ticket you want if you get there first thing in the morning on the first day available.  If not you are at the mercy of what is left.  After Tibet it is this second option that I will be using (not by choice of course but that is just how you do things in China, and after a year here I know that no use trying to reason it or change it, just go with it…TIC).  So fingers crossed everyone that we are able to get the tickets that we need as we work our way around China.

Yesterday was ten days until Tibet and so we woke at 5:30 a.m. and headed to the Beijing West Train Station (there are 4 stations just in Beijing) to be there as the windows opened to buy our tickets.  Permits in hand and Chicka our local friend on speed dial for translation issues we waited in line.

The trip there being three days we had decided to fork out for the soft sleeper of which there are only 50 to begin with on the train.  Get up to the window and are told “mei yu” (don’t have).  OK we will take a hard sleeper.  Can we have a lower bunk?  No, all that are left are the upper 3rd shelf bunks.  On the up side we saved some major yuan by getting these tickets.  Of course at this point we were not too concerned about the type of seat just getting the ticket was the priority.  Our permits are very specific what days we get there and what day we leave.  We needed to make sure we were booked on the train for August 31st!  Got back to the apartment at 10 a.m.  Pack, Pack, PACK!  Then move everything across the city.  After the move we treated ourselves to a good drink on the 65th floor of the Hyatt.  Having rained Saturday for 24 hours the view was amazing!  To sit and identify locations all around the city, reflect on the year here and look forward to the weeks ahead was a great way to spend the early evening.

It was a great weekend, and bittersweet.  The hardest part of the weekend though was knowing that Joan was walking down the aisle and I could not be standing beside her on one of the happiest days of her life.  I know that she and Mike will have a lifetime of happy memories to share, but to miss this one was hard.  Congratulations Ponie, you were in my thoughts here in China.

Tibet here I come!

Day 16 or 12 Days! August 19, 2010

Today is my sixteenth straight day of work. From Summer Camp Intensive to Expertise Orientation, I have been on the move. Thankful that they have medical exams (mine still ingrained in memory) this morning and I got to sleep in. It has been so much fun doing the orientation. They have stars in their eyes about China, and a great energy, it is fun to be around. Plus I handpicked the new teachers that will go to my school, making sure that all 5 were good so no matter who ends up with my kids they are getting a good teacher.

I am also twelve days away from boarding a train to Tibet and the amazing trip that branches off from there. I haven’t even had that much time to get really pumped up because I have been working so much, but every morning I wake up knowing that I am one day closer.

Even after a year here there is never a dull day. This morning on my way over to the little store to get some breakfast I walk through the square in my complex. There is a little pond and creek man made. A good 200 feet from the street, there is a car going over the cement and into the creek, I of course had to run and grab my camera. Today marks my one year, and still everyday offers me a reason to pause. Still I have to wonder where this car was going, and at what speed to drive around a fence, onto a walk way and around a tree to end up in this position but it started me off with a laugh, so I am thankful.

Sorry to have been out of touch lately, but clearly have been very very busy. On top of that, my computer gave the blue screen of death earlier this week! AGH, programs I wasn’t too crushed about, but the idea that all my pictures from this year may be lost was more than I could handle Sunday night. However last night I tried without much hope as I do each night and suddenly it turned on in recovery mode. I immediately called a savvy friend and we got it up and running everything in tact. I am so happy and back in communication with the world beyond China.

Have a great weekend, and a big congratulations to Nick and Brittany and their engagement (5th one since I left the country!). Another round of well wishes for Matt and Jess and new baby Keaton.

Oh Happy Day August 2, 2010

Tonight I was taken out to dinner by the parents of two of my students. I was thrilled to be learning that we would be having hotpot, as you know from my limerick I am a big fan of this meal. One of the families lived in New York for two years and so we are always talking about China vs. the US on many different subjects (as long as they aren’t too serious) and it is pretty fascinating to get her opinion of the US, as I am sure it is for her to hear my perception of China. I asked her if when she was in the States she was able to find hotpot anywhere thinking perhaps Chinatown might have some. Disappointingly she informed me that no, they did not find any. Damn. However the other mom told me that “Little Sheep” (a hotpot chain) was international now and had locations in the US. First thing I did when returning from dinner? Sit down at my computer and check it out, oh happy day! There are not any in SF, but Union City and San Mateo are the proud cities to have a Happy Sheep restaurant. As I have eaten at this chain a couple of times and found it to be pretty good I am very excited! Who is in for a night of great REAL Chinese eating? I really hope the complimentary manicure at the front is available in California as well as Beijing.