Charlie in China

Home Again...

2010-06-10T19:43:00.002-06:00

My time in Beijing has come to an end. Two weeks ago, I wrapped up my term papers, packed up my stuff, said goodbye to friends and adopted family, and flew to Hawaii to visit my parents. I leave tomorrow for Fort Collins, where I start up my job as a computer Lab Manager for the College of Liberal Arts and prepare to take on my new role as an RA at the Global Village wing of Braiden Hall.

Having time to relax in Hawaii has given me the chance to kick back and reflect a bit on my time abroad and my plans for the future. But even with all the hammock time in the world and a bottomless glass of lilikoi juice, it feels like I'd need lifetimes to mentally sort out a whole year of life abroad. A few insights rise to the surface, though, and I'll share them on this, the last post of my Charlie in China blog:

1) Go Study Abroad. For people my age reading this blog, I absolutely recommend taking a semester or a full year abroad to study. I've come back to the United States with new perspectives on China, and its people, but I now know more clearly as well what it means to be American. Spending a long time outside of our culture lets you know what you miss, and what you don't, about your cultural background and your home.

2) While you're there, make friends. It almost goes without saying, but the relationships I made (with Chinese and laowai alike) touched me on a level unlike almost anything I've known. Special thanks go to our motley crv (<- Hanyu Pinyin joke, anyone?) at IES: Dana, Audrey, and Drew, thanks for helping make China so memorable in the ways only you three could have made it. It wouldn't have been anywhere near the same without you.

My Chinese friends, too, made my time abroad a wonderful and satisfying one. From my first meal out with Xiao Ye the week I arrived, to Will's dating advice at PBD, to my all-night karoake party with the university International Club, to my months together with Lili; all these memories have, in ways clear and hidden from me, helped make me who I am today.

3) Homestay. My time living with Shushu and the family was undoubtedly the most formative part of my experience abroad, and I strongly recommend anyone studying abroad to live with a local family. Talking over the stove with Shushu, learning the tricks of the Chinese culinary trade, and chatting about anything with him as we sat down to dinner all stand out as treasured memories I'll keep with me a long time. When I think back to the little facets of Chinese culture and the insights about everyday life he brought to the table, I'm overjoyed anew to have called that place my home.

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As I process the memories from my year abroad, I now start thinking ahead to what it all means in the greater context of my life. What kind of relationship will China and I have in the years to come? While nothing right now is set in stone, my tentative plan for the time being is this:

I should (hopefully) graduate this coming academic year, in the spring of 2011. That'll put me as a 21-year-old Bachelor of the Liberal Arts with proficient Chinese, zero college debt, and a bad case of wanderlust. What's a guy to do? I'm going back to China to look for work as a translator, teacher, or perhaps an RA at my study abroad program in Beijing, IES. From there, I hope to make myself a career blending my knowledge of Chinese culture and language with my native English ability and my interests in political science and development. But who knows? If China taught me anything, it was that you've got to be ready for change and excitement just around the corner.

This will be my last post on this blog. Thanks to all my readers who checked back to see what I was up to despite my absurdly infrequent posts. Continue to check out my Facebook page as I put up more pictures from my time in China. For those of you in Fort Collins and environs nearby, shoot me an email, give me a call, or hunt me down on campus if you want to hear some stories or just catch up a bit. Best wishes to you all, thanks again for reading, and;

Happy Travels!

~Charlie

Yunnan, Take II

2010-05-07T13:22:00.003-06:00

Not that anyone would really have noticed, given how infrequently I've been posting lately, but I leave in two hours for my second pass at China's southwestern province, Yunnan. I went last semester with my school, as well, but we're taking a bit of a different route this time and the group is much, much smaller. Moreover, while last time we were just traveling for the sake of traveling, this time we're actually having class (Tibetan studies) several hours a day while we travel. I'm very, very excited for this trip, and here's why:

The basic itinerary is to fly into the capital, Kunming, at around noon today. That same night, we take a short flight to Zhongdian, a.k.a. Shangri-la. We'll spend the morning wandering around Shangri-la (James Hilton would be so proud), and then take a bus that afternoon to a small Tibetan village and stay there for four days.

It's funny: that village has about 200 people in it, none of whom speak my language, and it's located thousands of miles from home. It seems strange that I should end up there again. I'm looking forward to the experience a lot, though. My Chinese has improved vastly since I was there last, and my knowledge of Tibetan culture and history is much better than it used to be, as well. So hopefully I'll get some more good chats out of our home-stay there.

When we leave the Tibetan village, we take Jeeps up across the border into Sichuan (though, to be fair, it's still ethnically Tibetan; the political boundaries have nothing to do with the situation on the ground). Here's where it gets cool: after we cross the border, we'll take several-day hikes around holy Buddhist mountains and go monastery-hopping. The three mountains we'll be hiking through in particular are actually viewed to be the mountain-y representations of bodhisattvas (Buddhist enlightened human beings who stay on Earth to teach dharma). Cool, cool stuff.

This is going to be a great trip, and the company we have on board is going to be half the fun. It's an energetic, intellectually-stimulating crowd; couldn't have picked 'em better.

When I get back, I'll have a week to finish the semester-long term paper on Chinese internet nationalism I've been working on for months, present before the jury of my peers, then hop on a flight back to the U.S.! I'm going to stop off in Hawaii to spend some time with my folks for two weeks, then I'll be back in Fort Collins to spend the summer making bank and climbing mountains.

Best wishes to all of you back home. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

A Portrait of Lu

2010-04-18T06:16:00.003-06:00

I wanted to dedicate a post to my home-stay family, seeing as they've played such a special role in my time here in Beijing. Specifically, I thought I'd try to paint a picture of my home-stay dad for you all. I've given little tidbits on him before, but he's such a great character that I would feel amiss if I didn't give you all a complete portrait of the man, the myth, the legend: Lu Chunhua.

He's a man by many different titles. To me, he's Shushu (uncle); to my home-stay sister, he's Ba (dad); and to everyone else, he's simply Lu Shifu (Master Lu). He works as a fix-it at the West Campus facilities department, specializing in electrical work. His office sits right next to the building where I take all my classes, so not only do I often have a chance to see him when I'm on a break from classes, but he's become something of a legend among my colleagues: he has a great habit of intercepting students on their way to class and asking them questions in his thick Beijing accent. While most don't understand him, they universally come away with an awesome impression of the guy.

My (real) dad can attest to this. When my parents came to visit last February, my dad got to meet with Shushu with me serving as translator. For the most part, I wasn't even needed. Shushu came right up and tugged on my Dad's jacket with the classic Chinese line, "天气冷！你应该多穿一点儿!", which means, "It's cold! You ought to wear more!" While this comes across strange translated, it really is a sign that the speaker cares about you and your health. He doesn't want you to catch a cold, don't you know. Shushu proceeded to launch into stories about my life in the apartment, cool sights near the university, and every bus route you could take to get there. I struggled to get across a lot of what he said, but the exuberant mood and good-natured humor he showed that day is a true snapshot of my daily life here.

Life for him is relatively routine. He gets up at 6:30 each morning to take the dog for a slow morning jog around campus, comes back, washes up, goes to the cafeteria for a breakfast of rice porridge, a pork dumpling and a hard-boiled egg, and starts work by 8 am. That night, he usually finds me already home, studying, and I call out, "叔叔，你回来了吗?" (Uncle, are you back?), to which he yells back a hearty, "回来咯!" (I'm back!). It seems like a bit of an overly-obvious question, but it really is a part of Chinese culture. These 'canned' phrases are a deeply ingrained part of everyday parlance, and I never, ever tire of it.

He walks the dog, and when he gets back, we make dinner. When it's done, we sit in front of the TV, watching the nation-wide broadcast state news, talking about whatever comes to mind; from politics to public parks, from the million varieties of Chinese vegetables to the students he's chatted up on their way to class. As the meal wraps up, he inevitably asks the question: "你吃饱了吗?" (You full?), to which I can honestly reply, "撑死了" (I'm stuffed). Same routine for the last six months, and I love it.

That he lives his life so simply hides what a remarkable facet of China he really is. He lived through the Cultural Revolution, when at 19 years old he was sent down to a communal farm north of Beijing to labor for a year. He's lived through China's economic 180 through the '80s, and made off OK from it: he got a stable, low-stress job, a good apartment, and a outward sense of fulfillment with how things are.

He represents, too, a piece of Beijing that goes under the radar for many Westerners living here. He raises songbirds, a truly classic Beijinger pastime that goes back to the Imperial days. With an accent thick as 酱, he's capable of a salty sense of humor, using words I will likely never hear my predominantly-female Chinese teachers say out loud. But most of all, he lives with a quiet vigor and compassion that I straight-up admire. He's a good guy.

Tianjin

2010-03-28T08:27:00.003-06:00

I've been back in Beijing from our trip to Tianjin for about a week now (pictures are up!), and it's been busy. Our semester is broken up into three 'blocks,' and we're coming to the end of one of those blocks in just a couple of days. This means papers and tests are due, and stress is high.

I'm fortunate, then, that Tianjin was such a relaxing and fun mini-vacation from Beijing. Lili and I got to explore a couple of the museums and traditional streets around Tianjin (albeit, at one point, in the middle of one of North China's famous sandstorms), ate some fantastic food, saw this, and had time to hang about and chat. Every day I got to know her a bit better, and I'm ever more conscious of how special she is. Despite having a really modest background in a small town in the dusty plains of northern Anhui, she's always been a bookworm, spending her money as a kid on translated works of Jane Austen instead of buying toys or snacks. Despite going to high school with a mixed urban-rural student body whose city-dweller classmates looked down on those from the countryside, she was elected president of her class. She got her tourism license in a record-setting one month, and is looking forward to finding work as soon as possible.

I learned quite a bit about her family background as well. When I asked her about why she had a problem with Japanese people, despite having a generally liberal and fair worldview of everyone else, she told me how her family was deeply affected by the Japanese invasion during WWII. But despite this, she's tasked me with introducing her to a couple of my Japanese friends in order to get past what she knows is a deeply-ingrained prejudice on her part.

It's clear, too, that she's an anomaly among her peers. She's not planning on getting married until her late twenties or later, valuing her career and life plans over finding a husband. In contrast, her younger brother, nineteen years old, just found a fiancée and will be getting married next Spring Festival. While I put no judgement either way, it does speak to the fact that she's already set out on a very different path from those back home.

And on a more personal note, during this trip together I learned that not only was I her first foreign boyfriend, I was actually the first foreigner she ever met.

But good things, as they say, must come to an end. She's decided that Beijing isn't the place to look for work right now, and she's decided to head south to Guangdong to try her luck there. I'm guessing that part of the reason she sprung this trip to Tianjin on me so suddenly was that she knew she'd be leaving in not too long. While it's too bad we won't be spending my last month or two in Beijing together, I'm excited for her prospects in southern China. In a way, I think she's making this move to go exploring; she still feels that she hasn't seen nearly enough of her mother country. I can't speak to the state of the job market down south, but I can only wish her the best, knowing she'll succeed by sheer force of will and her cheerful, good spirit.

And while I'm going to be seeing much less of Lili in not too long, I'm already starting to find other ways to fill the social vacuum that will open up when she's gone. I spent the last two evenings hanging out with a couple Chinese buddies of mine that I met last semester, Will and Tony. Hanging out in a locally-run pizza bar on the edge of campus, we talked about what is only natural given our age and gender: American gun laws, beer, and World of Warcraft. Some things, it seems, transcend cultural differences entirely.

As for what else has been running through my mind lately, the biggest concern floating about is, not surprisingly, about going home. Just over two months remain in my time here, and my feelings are really mixed. On one hand, going home is going to give me the opportunity to let me pick life back up where it left off back in Fort Collins; I'll see old friends that I haven't see for nine months or more, I may have a nice spot lined up in the CSU dorms as an RA, and I'll get to take some great classes back at CSU. But on the other hand, my identity has been become deeply tied up in my experience in China. Here, I can wake up each day and answer the question, "Why am I here?" with the simple and satisfying answer, "To learn Chinese." (I usually avoid the natural extension of that question, "Why are you learning Chinese?" Answer: TBA). But, really, having that sense of purpose each day, and reaping immediate, tangible rewards from learning each new character is extremely gratifying.

When I go back to the United States, I fear that in some way, I'll return to that same feeling of disorientation I dealt with my freshman year. But another part of me assures me that my experience here will stick, that I'll find a way to intergrate it into my new life back at CSU, and I'll be all the more prepared for graduation looming just over a year away.

活着

2010-03-13T07:49:00.002-07:00

I'm well back from my trip to Hangzhou and Nanjing with my class, and pictures are posted on Facebook. Overall, it was a pleasant, uneventful trip. I'd already visited most of the sites we visited in Nanjing, but Hangzhou was totally new to me. The West Lake, perhaps the most famous, most written-about lake in China, sits right in the center of the city, so we got the chance to take a nice evening walk around the lake and a brisk morning bike ride across the elaborately decorated causeways that span across it.

We also had the chance to take a hilly hike through the tea fields in the highlands above the lake. These fields produce some of the finest tea in China, though unfortunately we came before the picking season had arrived, so we only got to try the year-old stuff. Still very good though; I can see why it garners so much attention from those with a real taste for the stuff.

We were fortunate enough to have the Chinese lantern festival fall during our stay in Nanjing. People celebrate this lunar calendar holiday by crafting mini-hot air balloons out of paper on which they've written their wishes for the new year. Then they light a candle suspended within and let them fly away. We saw relatively few of those floating about, but they still made a pretty surreal scene. The (perhaps less traditional) but far more in-your-face event of the evening was the series of stalls and activities near the Confucian temple at the center of the old town. Stalls were everywhere selling ice cream, roasted mutton, congealed duck blood, fried doughy cakes, and candied hawthorne berries (糖葫芦). Combine that with the mad consumer flair to the scene (nearly everyone is wearing a pair of light-up teddy-bear ears, devil horns, or some other flashy five kuai bling), and you're in for a good time. As a case in point, my buddy bought this sick hat. It doesn't get much better than that right there, folks.

As for nowadays, things have been going exceptionally smoothly. Everyday I wake up at around 6:30 or 7:00 and take a light breakfast of dumplings, rice porridge, and a hard boiled egg at the cafeteria while studying my characters. My literature class of four students and one professor starts up at 9:30 and goes until lunch. At 1:30, our Chinese class of five students and one delightful Chinese teacher meets for two hours. After that, the day is mine! I study, I hang out with Lili (we watched the film 'To Live', 活着, the other day, and I can't recommend it enough), and make dinner with Shushu. Not bad at all.

It's funny that living here in Beijing has in some ways become mundane. That's not at all a bad thing, though. Living here really feels like living here; I have deep-rooted relationships with people here, a family that looks out for me, and classes I find very satisfying. And since my parents have moved out of my hometown, and I don't have a permanent address back in Fort Collins, I might as well call Beijing home. I like that.

Next weekend, it looks like Lili and I are headed out to Tianjin, a large city about an hour-and-a-half outside of Beijing by train. It's supposed to have some cool colonial architecture which sounds worth checking out. But, to be honest, I'm more relishing the opportunity to go traveling with Lili. She gets to practice her tour guide thing (sidenote: she has officially received her tourism permit, which is great for her work prospects!) and I'll have a guide and a friend to haul me around to see the cool sights and give me some perspective. And it's a great excuse to share some good memories. I can't wait.

Spring Festival

2010-02-23T19:35:00.005-07:00

Looks like the fifteen days or so of mad partying around Beijing have just about come to a close. Spring Festival truly was a sight to behold: half the city was completely shut down, as the out-of-towners that keep Beijing alive surged home to spend the holiday with their family. The other half, however, was a vibrant, loud, and upbeat scene that kept us entertained for weeks.

The highlight of these last two weeks was spending New Years Eve and the following day at Nai Nai's (grandma's) house with the rest of the family. There was eating, drinking, wrapping dumplings, and watching the terribly cheesy CCTV-1 'New Year's Party' (which featured comedy acts, magic tricks, and dancing minorities... eh...)

Really though, the way the Chinese celebrate their New Year is great. You spend all of New Years Eve preparing dinner for that night, then you stuff yourself with as much hotpot, century eggs, sausage, eggplant, fruit, and shrimp as you can. You proceed to roll yourself over to the couch, and just hang out with the family, watch television and chew the fat with the old folks. That evening, I got to know Shushu's family even better, and I've taken a real shine to all of them, particularly Grandma and Shushu's younger brother.

As it nears midnight, the fireworks and firecrackers that have been going off since 9am start to increase in intensity. Shushu and I headed outside to watch the action, and it was absolutely unbelievable. Each city block had a fireworks show that would have rivaled a small American town on Independence Day. Our housing block was particularly fortunate; our well-off neighbor busted 20,000 kuai (yeah, that's almost $3,000 American) on fireworks alone. At any one time, they had three large cases of fireworks going off at a time, sending sparks raining down onto parked cars and the foreheads of awe-struck passersby. It was absolutely incredible. I took video, but so far my ability to upload it onto Facebook has been met with little success. We'll see how it goes.

Around 1:00am, Shushu and I headed back to Nai Nai's house and spent the night there. We made a lazy day of it when we woke up the next morning, mostly wrapping dumplings, boiling dumplings, and then eating said dumplings. Still stuffed from the night before, I did my best and managed to pack away fifteen of them. Seeing this, Shushu said (as any good Chinese father would) "Zhong Shu! You didn't eat very much. Have some more." When I protested politely, saying I was already stuffed, he jokingly scoffed: "Fifteen?! I need to have at least thirty before I'm full!" That man's a champ, he is.

The whole family came back for dinner again that night, where we tucked into a big vat of hot-pot. For those who haven't had it, 'hot-pot' is where you throw lamb meat and myriad vegetables into a pot of boiling broth, then take it out and eat when it's just cooked through. I got some great pictures from this dinner, including one with me and Nai Nai shoulder-in-shoulder toasting the table.

Outside of family events, Beijing has a lot to offer during this season. The weather's just started to warm up a bit, so people flood out en masse to enjoy the festivities of the Temple Fairs scattered around the city. I ended up going twice; once with my classmates and once alone. We got to sample Beijing snacks, which included enormous sticks of roasted mutton, sweetened soybean juice, imitation fried tripe, and all sorts of sweets. It was also an excellent people-watching opportunity; I only wish I could have counted the number of normally expressionless Chinese businessmen now sporting ridiculous hats and other Temple Fair kitsch. The pictures on Facebook will mostly speak for themselves, with the exception of the following story:

I've always wanted to see the Chinese traditional puppet acts, in which very thin, colorful cloth puppets are pressed against a thin white screen from behind the stage. The light from behind the stage (either natural or from a lantern), illuminates the colorful puppets as they traipse around. At one of the Temple Fairs I visited, I happened across one such performance. But, admittedly, it wasn't totally what I expected. Sure, it had the dancing Ming dynasty warrior and well-coiffed beauty, but halfway through the act, a puppetized Michael Jackson appears on stage, hip-thrusting from one end to the other. It was incredible. Add to this the fact that the background music is "Nobody", a bouncy pop song from some South Korean girl band, and you're in for a hilarious event. Moving on from the stage to walk around a bit, I got the feeling that people were really letting their hair down and un-self-consciously having a good time. Not something you see everyday in Beijing.

Pictures from these last couple weeks are already up. If you have a chance, check 'em out here.

As for my plans in the immediate future, I'm headed out with my class to the southern cities of Hangzhou and Nanjing on an extended field trip. We'll be gone until Monday, checking out major museums and factories to get a feel for this area of China a bit. Although I already have been to Nanjing and seen some of the sites we're planning to visit, I'm looking forward to getting back and seeing them once more; Nanjing is a really vibrant, culturally-rich city that warrants more than one visit. Hangzhou (where we're headed to first, by train) is totally new to me. It's even farther south than Nanjing, so the weather looks like it's going to be very nice. As in, highs in the 70's. Can't say no to that.

As always, I'm bringing my camera, and I'll try to get pictures up when I return. Best wishes to all back home and abroad!

New Semester, New Year, New Blog Posts...

2010-02-12T07:43:00.003-07:00

I promised a blog post about two weeks ago, and it never came. But I've finally gotten truly settled down in my home-stay again, and we've had a break from orientation activities today, so I figured it was a good time to do some catch up work.

First, the new students for this semester have arrived, and I'm optimistic about almost all of them. For the most part, they seem to be a lively, upbeat and motivated group thats jumped right into the 'China' thing in which they've found themselves. I'm thinking they're going to help make this upcoming semester a pleasant one.

As for a record of my trip, I'm going to post my regular updates as I did before, and include some of my favorite stories as I have time to put them down. I've just gotten too busy to spend the time to put all those stories down on the blog in one blow. I hope you enjoy them.

Last, this weekend marks the Chinese New Year, so I expect to have many stories and pictures when I'm forced back into school on Tuesday. Tomorrow, the plan is to go to one of the many "temple fairs" that take place at the famous temple sites around Beijing. Included will be Peking Opera performances, mutton sticks, Beijing snacks, and great people-watching. When I get back home in the afternoon, my host family is taking me to Grandma's house, where we'll eat dumplings all day and night to welcome in the New Year. It's going to be a good weekend. And without further ado, here's the continuation of where I left off weeks ago:

Wudangshan, Part 1, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Chinese Funerals

Coming here was a bit of a split-second decision. As I was leaving Huangshan, the weather turned mighty cold and wet, and the weather forecast didn't look a whole lot better in western Hubei, where sits Wudangshan, but I felt drawn there, so I bought the tickets and left.

Most people go to this mountain for its tradition of martial arts. It has a wushu style comparable in fame to the Shaolin Temple in Henan, only instead of the bo staff as the weapon of choice as in Shaolin, they prefer swords. Cool, huh? So I guess that's why I went. But what I found was in many ways superior to the images in my head.

When I first arrived in the town beneath the mountain, the first thing I noticed was that this was a real backwater town, with merciless cabbies and lots of dust. But after renting a cheap room at a grimy, but quite passable two-story inn, I started hearing fireworks from the street. I went towards the sound, and began seeing the huge paper flower-wreaths local guests bring when they've been invited to a funeral. I stood and watched as each family hauled the brightly colored wreaths up an alleyway, towards the sound of karoake singing and loud conversation. One of the women passing by said, "Don't worry! Come on in!"

That's all the invitation I need.

Despite this, it's not the most comfortable thing going to a funeral to which you haven't been invtied. Compound that with the fact that you're obviously a foreigner, and you have trouble understanding the local accent, and you have a recipe for a kind of awkward experience. But by and large, people were extremely welcoming, and willing to answer any questions I had about the event.

The celebration took place in a large alleyway that led up to a rather large house at the end of the way. Along one bay of the alley, chefs were cooking enormous vats of soup, hauling five-foot diameter steamers filled with dumplings about, and yelling to clear people out of the way as they hustled another course up the alley to the house, where thirty or so tables (each seating ten) had been put up.

Along a second bay to the right, a professional-looking stage had been assembled, featuring singers belting out pop tunes, cheesy magic acts, and a strange, albeit fitting, performance in which professional singers don completely white outfits and wail about the death of "their" loved one. Who, by the way, was Old Mama Li.

In a lull in the action, I felt like it was time to go. I grabbed my stuff, and headed to the mouth of the alley, but stopped in awe as I saw, laid before me, the makings of a fireworks show like I had never seen. I believe I mentioned in my post from Suzhou about the self-contained firework-launchers-in-a-box they sell here. During the New Year, they had one. Here, they had sixty. All lined up in three rows, these things could bring down a small plane. This had to be one of the most dangerous, chaotic, but stunning fireworks shows I'd ever seen. Some of these fuse-operated boxes launched the traditional "flower" pattern, some shot salvos of five to eight that arched across the sky, and some just shot airborne flashbangs. During the show, I found myself lucky to be wearing a hat and glasses; I got pelted by falling shrapnel a few times.

This seemed like a good sign to stick around. Not long after the show, I was invited to join the revelers for dinner. I sat next to a few local businessmen I had met while watching the stage, and found ourselves neck-high in no less than twenty different dishes, all huge, all delicious. I'm afraid I fail to remember what those dishes were, since along with the food, was some decently potent baijiu, or local rice wine.

Now don't think that I came expecting to drink. But Chinese drinking culture down south is like this: with baijiu or a beer in your hand, you never drink alone. You toast someone, adding a good wish for fortune, or recognizing their accomplishments, and then you drink together. Well when you're the lone foreigner in a group of nine sturdy Chinese businessmen, you're in for a short night. I failed to keep count of the number of "Hey! To our foreign friend! Bottoms up!" that I got that evening. Nice guys.

I still do vividly remember shaking my hosts hand, and thanking him for such a wonderful evening. In return, he drunkenly (having been smashed since 7:00pm) blurted out, "Sure! Be sure to come back tomorrow!" I asked one of my business buddies what he meant. He replied, "On average, these parties go on for three to four days."

I believe them. That night, they continued to bombard the town with fireworks; once at around 11:00pm, and again sometime early in the morning. Even after getting back two days later from hiking the mountain, I still heard fireworks going off down the road.

I take one thing away for certain from this experience. Professional cryers aside, I want a funeral like that.

Huangshan

2010-01-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Writing now from an internet bar in Wuhu (Woohoo!), in central Anhui province. I’m here for the afternoon, waiting to change trains on my way to the Taoist holy mountain, Wudangshan.

First things first, I’ve finally got some pictures up! I have hundreds more, but I’ve found that uploading images to American servers from Chinese internet cafes is extremely slow, so I have to pick and choose the best to upload. Once I get back to Beijing, I’ll get every one of them stored on my Facebook page and link back to them here.

My time in Huangshan was interesting. I made a couple mistakes early on that limited my experience a bit, but learned a good deal in return. First, I decided to go up and down the mountain in one day. Biggest mistake of the trip so far. I only got a few hours up on the summit and didn’t see half of the things I wanted to. Regardless, the hike was beautiful; everything people say about Huangshan’s otherworldy terrain is totally true. I’ve posted a couple pictures to give you the idea, but the experience of being surrounded on all sides by totally vertical, razor sharp ridges that descend into mist, and climbing up pathways bordered by bamboo forests on both sides is a really special thing; one that pictures can’t do justice to.

It was a good time to do some personal reflection as well, once I got away from the throngs of gawking Chinese tourists (I love them, I really do. It’s just that by the 30th time you hear “Laowai! Hellooooo!” yelled at you, it’s started to get old). If you get off the beaten path a bit, you can go for an hour and not see a soul. That got me thinking about some things, which I’ll cover in a bit.

Second mistake I made was a good learning experience. Once I got off the mountain and exhausted my main goal for this leg of the trip, I found myself feeling listless and irritable. I couldn’t explain why. Sure, the hostel was frigid and the city I was staying in was kind of a drag, but that certainly wasn’t enough to stomp down my high from climbing the mountain.

What I found though, was that I didn’t have a group of friends to rely on in the hostel this time. Most people came to the hostel, stayed only long enough to get a bus to the mountain, and left. I couldn’t rely on a group of Chinese buddies to haul me along to some great scenic spot or bar. I had to remind myself that this trip I’m on is totally up to me to craft. Do I stay another day or not? Go to such-and-such village, or not? The initiative is on me at all times. That’s a kind of freedom I’m not used to, and it’s taken a bit of time to acclimate to.

I mentioned that I got to thinking about some deep stuff up on the mountain, and in reflection now, I see that my thoughts on the hill and my struggles of this feeling of freedom are interconnected: I’ve probably mentioned it before, but the idea that has led my life up until now is that our lives, for the most part, are what we make of them. Each of us is given a certain set of tools to work with; our education, family, and ultimately, a certain period of time before we croak. How we use what has been given to us is entirely our choice. It doesn’t matter if you’re a rice farmer in Anhui or a cube farmer in L.A., the way you rule your life is your choice. And in my mind, the key to life’s greatest goal, happiness, is found in employing those tools we’ve been given pursue what we want.

But therein lies the real kicker, huh? By and large, we have no clue what we want. Such a simple question, but so often difficult to answer. But I’ve found that once you know that you want something, you subconsciously move towards achieving that end. Just wish for it, and lo!, it is there!

Christ… and there I go waxing philosophical again. The point is: I’ve been thinking about what I want lately, and am starting to get answers. I hope that my time on Wudangshan will serve the same purpose. And at the risk of sounding totally arrogant, I hope that everyone back home has an opportunity to take some time and ask themselves the same question I’m grappling with. The results can only be good.

Sending much love back home! I’ll write again when I decide where I’m headed next.

Suzhou

2010-01-26T20:29:00.002-07:00

Hope everyone’s New Year has begun well! I’m writing from my hostel in the hills of southern Anhui Province, having arrived just this morning on a night train from Suzhou. I loved Suzhou, and I can’t wait to go back once I have an opportunity. It’s a unique little city, with some of the best people I’ve met in China.

What really made my trip to Suzhou so great was not necessarily that the city is so cool (although it does have it’s charms), but that I met the most fantastic people while I was there. It all started with my hostel. I was the only Westerner in my room, but I got very close with my roommates: a late-20’s woman named Phoebe, a mid-30’s computer technician named Lao Zhang, a recent college graduate from Shandong named Wan Zhen, an International Journalism major from Guangzhou named Irene, and a Korean exchange student named Ji Young. In our few days together, I really became very close friends with them. The experience I had was what it was because of them, so the following are stories that both reflects my time in Suzhou, but who they are as well

Wan Zhen: He was practically the first person I met when I came to Suzhou, and quickly turned out to be a loyal friend despite our short time together. He’s a recent college graduate from a finance school in Shandong. He came to Suzhou to look for work, and so was staying at the hostel while looking for a job. Having been around for a while, he graciously accompanied me, Ji Young, and a friendly pair of Texan girls also staying in the hostel (on a break from teaching in Korea!) to lunch. He took us to a beautiful, two-tiered wooden restaurant ten minutes walk from our hostel where we got piping hot bowls of duck noodle soup (that’s a bowl of noodle soup with duck, not noodled duck) and hot tea, all for under $2 American.

From there, he showed us to an opera museum on a well-preserved alley that runs parallel to Suzhou’s pastoral canals. The ‘museum’ was really more of a music bar, where patrons were given tea and sat at tables before a stage where two opera performers sang pingtan opera for two hours. The best way that I can describe pingtan is a combination of Beijing Opera and ‘Prairie Home Companion’. It involves two people on stage, a man and a woman, who exchange witty, slightly combative remarks back and forth, and then break into song every once in a while. Or, at least, that’s what I picked up from it. It’s not performed in standard Mandarin, but in Suzhou’s local dialect. While beautiful, it’s almost completely undecipherable to a Mandarin-speaker, let alone a student like me. That didn’t take any of the fun away from it, though. They put on a really good show, and the atmosphere was really pleasant.

My experience with Wan Zhen made me realize, too, how loyal and generous Chinese friends can become in such a short period of time. He spent a pretty big portion of his day showing us around, despite having other chores to do that day. Good guy.

Ji Young: She’s a Korean exchange student studying in Shandong Province, a linguist prodigy, and a good friend. We actually met in Nanjing by pure happenstance. We struck up a conversation at Sun Yat-sen’s mausoleum, and learned that we were both headed to Suzhou, albeit on different days. She is really a fascinating character; she’s learned English in Australia, has come to China to learn Chinese, and plans on picking up Spanish in the near future. When I asked her why she wanted to learn so many languages, her answer was only, “because I like them!” And she’s damn good at them, too. She’s learned in three months of Chinese study what I have in a year-and-a-half. We had a lot of fun strolling through some of Suzhou’s world-famous parks together, speaking Chinese. We laughed a good deal at our own conversations; we shared that language that only foreign-language students know. It’s a language that isn’t quite right, since our grammar still has so many problems, and it’s one that gleans humor from the little turns of phrase that are natural to the native speaker, but sound so strange when they roll of off foreign tongues. We’re planning on meeting once again this spring and to go to Qingdao together. She’s a good friend, and it will be nice to travel with her again.

Lao Zhang: My friend Phoebe described him aptly when she called him the RA of our dorm. He’s an older guy, a computer technician in Shanghai, but had a great, dry sense of humor. He’s the kind of guy that was quite willing to go to bed at 9pm, and laze around the hostel all day without a tinge of melancholy. Despite being so seemingly lazy and cloistered, he’s really well traveled, and gave me some great advice on where to travel once I get down south a bit. In accordance with his advice, I think I’m going to go slightly farther west than originally planned, making a brief sojourn into the minority province of Guizhou.

Irene: A pretty, stylish college senior from Guangzhou, but studying in Hong Kong, she was where the party was at. On New Year’s Eve, she took us to a fantastic bar north of the old town. It’s a refurbished, late-Qing era home, now carefully converted into a music bar. It still maintains the tall ceilings and dark, intricate woodwork characteristic of the architecture of the time, making it a real treat to visit. They also had great music, hosting a Filipino rock band to play rock classics to sound in the New Year. One of the strangest experiences I’ve had so far in China was a bar full of drunken Chinese locals and Westerners singing “Hey Jude” at the top of their ever-so-inebriated lungs in the last minutes of 2009. Irene was the source of great drama, too, telling off the band’s guitarist for dancing with another girl, and chipping in on a keg of Tsingdao for our table.

Phoebe: She was my closest friend on this trip. She was on a brief vacation from her job working HR at Microsoft in Shanghai, and came to Suzhou to see the sights. She and I went to a small town outside of Suzhou together called Tongli. It’s a very well preserved canal-town with a good number of museums and pretty scenes to relax over. One of the best parts of this day trip, however, had to be the Chinese Sex Culture Museum housed in the town. It used to be in Shanghai, but the authorities found it too risqué, and booted it a few towns over. I took few pictures within, but there is one that absolutely has to be seen to be believed. (Picture forthcoming).

We also went to the Suzhou Museum together, and she helped me realize how great classic Chinese culture really is. We strolled through the scrolls of centuries-old master calligraphy masters, and looked at the ancient jade work from the ancient state of Wu (whose capital was Suzhou). This museum was really modern, the translations were well done and accurate, and their exhibitions were very complete. It helped, too, that Phoebe acted as my “cultural interpreter” when we ran across something I didn’t get or needed elaboration. She was a valuable, loyal, fun-loving friend that I won’t forget soon.

Eh. Another really long post. Sorry to keep sending these without any pictures, but I have yet to find a computer in Huangshan that has the processing power to upload hundreds of pictures. Hopefully I’ll hit a gaming internet café tonight. I’m off to climb China’s most famous mountain, Huangshan, early tomorrow morning, so wish me luck and leg strength!

Nanjing

2010-01-26T20:28:00.002-07:00

Hello from Nanjing!

I’m writing from my second day in my solo trip through China, and I couldn’t be better. It’s amazing how easy and cheap it is to do what I’m doing; my room last night was $5 American, shared with four other students from the States and Israel. The staff has been friendly and helpful, and Nanjing is an incredibly navigable city.

I think I’ve found an excellent way of traveling about. The things I’ve seen already have made the wait for my passport so very worth it. A few highlights so far:

1) Strolling through the pedestrian area around my hostel. A renovated Confucian temple sits in the middle of a bright, pretty commercialized zone in the middle of the city. Though a bit on the kitschy side, it’s really lively at night, with snack shops abound. At just one such snack shop, in fact, I had my first pig’s foot. Not bad, really, though I’m honestly not sure how much I ate is actually digestible. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Along this same strain, while walking about last night, I found a long line of twenty or so Chinese behind a soft serve ice cream machine. I asked what they were queueing up for, and, praise be!, it was FREE. Apparently some local TV station needed footage of young people eating ice cream. Kind of funny though; they were taking special care to film a certain type of person (read: adorable Chinese toddler or foreigner) and the amount of ice cream you got depended on whether you were or weren’t that kind. So I got a lot of ice cream. They practically gave me a script, too. “Now, when we give you the ice cream, you say, ‘Oh YEAH! That’s GOOD!’” I did my best to deliver. They seemed satisfied. I hope this is the first step in my long career as the token foreigner on Chinese television.

2) The Nanjing Massacre Memorial. Not as fun as getting free ice cream by any means, but certainly worth the trip. This place is really fascinating. They have a standard walk-through museum with artifacts and pictures (all of which are heart-crushingly tragic), but they’ve also built a programatic walking path that takes this visitor through a dug-up mass grave, a meditation hall, an eternal prayer flame hall, and finally out into a new “Peace Park”. This park has a 100 meter-long reflection pool, at the end of which is a 20 meter-tall pedestral with an angel of peace holding a baby and a dove. At her feet are the enormous characters 和平, and below it, the translation: PEACE.

Anyone who goes to Nanjing really needs to see this place. Though deeply depressing, it tells an oft-forgetten chapter in world history. Over 300,000 innocent civilians lost their lives in one the most brutal acts of murder and rape mankind has ever borne witness to. It tells us an uncomfortable, no, horrifying truth we ought to remember; that humankind is capable of cruelty in the extreme, regardless of who they are or when they live.

3) To decompress after the Memorial, I went to a park by the biggest lake in Nanjing, and strolled through a bright, mustard-yellow Buddhist monastery up to a hill where I could look down onto the whole city on one side, and the lake and Ming-era city walls on the other. I learned at this point that the batteries I bought for my camera are total crap; they didn’t even have enough kick to turn the thing on. This has since been rectified, so expect pictures soon!

For those worrying about me traveling alone, know that I’ve found an independent but very safe system of travel. Buying train tickets and renting high-reputation rooms on the cheap all pose no issue anymore. I will continue to update this blog every few days and let you know what I’ve been up to.

Best wishes!

I'm Off

2010-01-26T20:28:00.001-07:00

At 10:00am yesterday, I finally got my passport back from the Public Security Bureau. At 3:00pm, I went to a local ticket office and bought a hard sleeper ticket to Nanjing for 279 kuai. At 4:00pm today, I hop on a train, and I’m off!

It was a weird feeling buying this ticket. I thought that it would be a simple task, given that I’ve had this project in preparation for months now. But despite the fact that this trip has occupied my mind continuously for the last two weeks, I still got a shock when I handed over the cash and got a ticket for the day after in return.

A couple of thoughts streaked through my head when he told me that the first ticket was for 4pm the next day:

“ohmygod, tomorrow? too soon. i still have to take care of things.”

Then my rational self kicked in: “No. No more waiting. You’re ready for this. Go.” I bought the ticket and walked out of the office, a bit dazed. It sounds like such a simple thing, I know, but actually putting a firm departure deadline was a big thing.

So there you have it. Lili’s going to see me off from the train station, which is pretty nice of her. It’s gotta be an hour and a half from her school to the station. I’ll arrive in Nanjing early at 8am Sunday morning, check into my hostel, and hit the sights!

On a totally unrelated topic, a quick blurb about Christmas in China. Christmas has become a really popular holiday here. It doesn’t have the religious connotation as much (see below), but I think it strikes a couple chords in Chinese culture, particularly among young people.

First, it’s foreign, which always adds a little something to a holiday. It’s like us celebrating Chinese New Year (good comparison, Ma). But, naturally, with that comes a ton of Christmas kitsch and terrible music in the supermarkets.

Second, it’s all about gift giving, which the Chinese love. Last night, a Chinese teacher, three locals at BeiWai, some Chinese roommates in the dorms, and several my classmates all joined in a White Elephant. This was totally new to them, but they dug right in. While they didn’t go for the stealing aspect of the event so much, they picked out the best gifts; my favorite was an old pair of prescription glasses someone didn’t want anymore. They ended up in the hands of the drunkest among us (a middle-aged housewife), who demanded that I take several pictures. They will be posted soon.

Lastly, I think it’s so popular here because of Korea. There’s a really big Christian community in Korea, and Korea has an enormous cultural influence on China. Korean television and fashion are what’s really hot among young people here. I have to imagine that the intermediate step of ‘Western’ to Korea and then to China makes it much more palatable.

I mentioned earlier that Christmas was largely framed within a non-religious perspective. I encountered a major exception two weeks ago. Lili invited me to a Christmas party held by her friends. I tagged along and took a seat as several girls went up to the stage, microphones in hand. They started singing Christian youth music. I swear, it was just like a southern Christian revival session; people raised their hands in testament of their faith, and sang about “Yesu” (sinocized ‘Jesus’). After the singing was done, a small, shy Chinese fellow got up on stage and introduced himself. I wasn’t listening much at this point, just watching the crowd from the sidelines. Suddenly his demeanor changed from a hardly noticeable middle-aged man in a black button-up to an energetic, active, well-rehearsed orator. It hit me. He was preaching. He carried on for a full hour and a half about the meaning of Christmas from a Christan standpoint, and did it pretty well from what I could make out. It was really strange to see his personal transformation on stage, as well as a whole group of Chinese people listening intently to a lengthy Christian sermon. Interesting stuff.

On that note, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas (or winter holiday of whatever religion to which you ascribe!) Expect updates from me from me soon.

The Great Migration

2009-12-09T02:12:00.011-07:00

My blog is moving. This blog host at Blogspot.com is actually blocked in China, but my laptop has a nifty workaround that I've used for the last four months. Since I'm not going to be bringing my laptop with me when I go traveling next week, I'm only going to be updating my blog from Internet cafes. This means no more fancy workaround for now. So, I'm moving my blog to another host until I get back. Reset your bookmarks, or whatever you do to keep an eye on my blog, to this new address:

http://charliechina.blog.com/

Pretty simple, just delete the 'spot' from 'blogspot' and you're ready to go. Until further notice, I'll be blogging from the Blog.com site linked above. I'd rather not, since they put ads on my page and I have much less control over the code. But you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

See you on the other side!

EDIT: The Blog.com blog above has been trashed. It was just too much of a pain to keep tabs on both. I've moved all the previous posts to this blog for your viewing convenience. :)

Teacher Charlie

2009-12-05T08:38:00.012-07:00

As I expected from my last post, that weekend did turn out to be adventurous. Not in the I-woke-up-without-kidneys sense as one might have guessed, but in the Hey!-I-have-a-girlfriend kind of way.

It's true, I've got a Chinese girlfriend... I think. It's complex, don't you see. After Sun Lili and I met at the Temple of Heaven several weekends ago, we've really hit it off. That weekend, we went first to the Great Wall and strolled the wall, arm-in-arm. The very next day, the two of us went to the Lama Temple and saw the sights. (All pictures here). It's a great arrangement for the both of us; we both love Chinese culture and history, we're both new to a lot of Beijing's sites since I'm American and she's from the south, and she can practice her tour guide skills while I practice my Chinese. It couldn't be better.

That is, it would be perfect if only she would stop trying to hook me up with her friends. Seriously, whenever we run across some of her classmates, she says, "Hey! She's pretty, isn't she?" That one's right up there with "How do I look in this dress?"

But despite the fact that she keeps gently pushing me towards other girls, I think we have a good thing going. A thing I'd guess I'd call 'dating'. If I sound ambiguous, it's because I've quickly learned that clarity is not going to be an underlying characteristic of this relationship. Between the obvious language difference (we conduct our relationship almost exclusively in Chinese), the cultural differences are palpable. For example, we've already had our first 'relationship' talk. She told me that she, like many Chinese girls, is pretty traditional when it comes to dating. From what I gather, dating is a serious precursor to marriage where she comes from. Not quite so, back in the States. So, by her books, we're not yet dating. We just hug a lot, go places together alone, and hold hands.

All kidding aside, this really is going to be quite the exercise in communication. My Chinese is nowhere near fluent yet, and that makes pursuing a Chinese-language relationship... interesting. It's time-consuming to get across what you want to say, but fortunately we're both patient, clever people. Sometimes it just takes a little rephrasing to get the job done. And more patience, lots of patience.

In other news, I've become a teacher. My Chinese friend linked me up with this job a couple weeks ago, and I can't be happier with it. I teach a group of eleven Chinese college students colloquial English. They're a bright group with a pretty solid English background already, so they come to this class to supplement their other, more formal English classes with some spoken English.

It's been a really positive experience so far. I only teach for two hours on Saturday afternoon, but I have total free reign on what I teach them and how I do it. So I bring in clips from TV shows and American/British songs (I feel like I'm doing God's work by introducing the Beatles to the masses). Last week's topic was common greetings (i.e. Hey! What's up!), and this week was 'dating'. The pay isn't bad, either. Each hour I teach, they hand me 150 RMB, or about $21.40 USD. That's going to really help cover my traveling costs this winter break. And the biggest perk? Despite me telling them many times that they ought to just call me Charlie, they often slip back into calling me Teacher. I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the ring of that a just a little bit.

Lili and I are headed to the Old Summer Palace tomorrow morning, so when I get back I'll have new photos to share. I hope everyone's holiday season has gotten off to a good start!

Long Weekend

2009-11-19T06:25:00.003-07:00

It's been way too long since I've posted. It's due in part to the fact that nothing big has been going on lately, and also because I've been up to my ears in homework.

But this weekend is going to be different. We've got a three-day weekend worked into our schedule, starting tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to making the most of it. Some folks here are using the opportunity to get outside of Beijing (I have a couple of friends who are going all the way down to Sichuan!), but I'll be sticking it out in the city, trying to catch up on the things that I've missed while holed up in my room working on my characters.

I got off to a good start on this plan just today, deciding that I wanted to go see the Temple of Heaven. It was a cold, hour-long walk from the subway station to get there, but because Beijing is relatively far north, and winter is coming about, the whole city is bathed in an orange, 'sunset' kind of light from 12:00 noon onwards 'till sunset at 5:00pm. This made it a really beautiful walk by myself, especially once I got inside the park (in which sits the Temple itself).

I've gotten the pictures posted on Facebook here, so have a look. To be honest, the Temple wasn't that spectacular up close. Strangely enough, it looks much more majestic and imposing from far away. The temple isn't the only sight to see, though; its just the northern-most of a number of religious sites devoted to ancestor and deity-worship generally dating back to the early Ming Dynasty. From there, you go south to another temple complex that sits in a perfectly circular wall, rightly dubbed the "Echo Wall", because if stand at the edge of the wall and yell down it's curving length, someone far away down the wall can hear you as if you were standing right next to them!

This is about the point that I met the companions on my trip. Just like at Fragrant Hills a month or two ago, I was walking by my lonesome when I got accosted by a couple of Chinese girls who wanted to speak English with me. One of them, named Sun Li Li, is going to a university to become a tour guide. She's a freshman from Anhui province, and hasn't had much opportunity to check out Beijing's sites yet, so the three of us got to meander around the park and enjoy watching people pray at the altars. She also has a biting sense of humor and, unlike almost every other girl in China, a knowledge of sarcasm. I feel lucky to have met the two of them; we've arranged to meet up again to go to another section of the Great Wall on Saturday. I'm hoping this isn't just a very elaborate plot to steal my kidneys.

On another note, I've begun doing research on where I'd like to travel during the winter break. I worked with my program director, Ai Laoshi, on planning a route, and he gave me some fine suggestions and lent me his Lonely Planet travel book for the weekend. The tentative plan is to either:

1) Train-hop down the eastern coast of China, passing through Shandong (Confucius' home), Fujian, and occasionally hitting some of the islands off the coast until I find myself in Hainan, the "Hawaii of China"; or,

2) Go down through central China, hitting Shanxi (whose capital is Xi'an, where the terra cotta army is), then down through Henan and Hubei, taking a detour into Sichuan, and then going through Hunan (Mao Zedong's home province) and Guangxi down into Hainan.

You'll notice that Hainan is playing an important role in both plans, largely because it's getting cold here in Beijing. It doesn't get much above freezing anymore, even during the peak daylight hours. It's good, then, that two weeks ago I purchased a bona-fide People's Liberation Army winter coat! Check the Facebook photos; I look great. Really though, this thing is thick, heavy, and wonderful. Great purchase.

I'll update once I get back from my adventures this weekend. Wishing everyone well!

Snow

2009-11-02T02:37:00.006-07:00

I got back from Pingyao, and pictures are up! A lot of similar ones have been tagged on Facebook already from my friends, but most of the pictures I host should have a story in the caption, so check 'em out.

Being in Pingyao was a really good experience. I was a little nervous that it would turn out to be kind of kitschy, given that I'd heard that it had become something of a tourist town, but it actually had a lot of merit.

First, it has one of the best old city walls anywhere in north China, partly because they were so poor during the Cultural Revolution that they didn't have enough money to tear them down like everyone else was doing. Second, Pingyao hosts the oldest draft bank in China. Sounds a little lame on paper, I suppose, but it's actually pretty sweet. One of the ways they would prevent fraud when printing bank slips was to embroider silk into the bank slip, making it really, really hard to counterfeit. I'm sure partly because of the financial success that the bank brought to town, Pingyao also hosts China's first armed escort agency, which we got to visit. There's a few pictures of us toying around with weapons the escorts were trained with, starting here. Lastly, Pingyao still has a lot of old temples, including Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian, several of which we visited during our ample free time.

Since I've gotten back, life's been relatively quiet. I'm getting a better and better rapport with my host dad. I'm deliberately making time for myself every week to cook with him at least once, if not a couple of times. We have some really good chats, and it boosts my Chinese really fast. I actually just talked with him last night about staying in this same home-stay next semester, and he was game for it, so that's got me settled with a good home next semester as well.

Yesterday, we got the season's first snow storm. My dad mentioned that it was record-setting early, so I figured it must be just one of China's weather phenomena this year. Oh the naïveté. It was seeded by the Chinese government to try and alleviate the drought that's been hitting this part of the country for the last decade. I guess I see the logic in it, but seeing as the Beijing authority doesn't turn on the heat in most homes until November 15th, I have to imagine that a lot of people are kinda chilly. I lucked out; Shushu mentioned that BeiWai has separate heating rules because so many foreigners live on campus. Don't want to give the 老外 a bad impression, I suppose.

I've also been having a music revival, lately. Why? Because all of it's free. And legal. Turns out that Google has a sweet deal with a bunch of record companies. Since piracy had become so rampant in China that no record companies were making money at all, Google approached them with a solution: provide all of their music available for download, free on a Google-hosted site, and at least come away with the advertising profit. Only caveat is that you have to be in China to be able to download. One of the very few times that China's internet users have an advantage over the rest of the world... For those who are interested, I've been on a Simon and Garfunkel kick, lately. Those guys were good.

Pingyao

2009-10-22T01:01:00.008-06:00

Hey, all. Sorry for not getting back to the blog sooner. I've been pretty busy this week, and it doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon.

"The Founding of a Republic" was no let-down. I'll admit that most of the cameos went straight over my head (I know, I really should be spending more time catching up on the Chinese soap opera scene...), but the performance wasn't bad (in a cheesy, overdone propaganda film kind of way). Here are the highlights:

1) When (I think) Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Soong May-Ling, visits the United States to plead with President Truman for financial aid, there is a fantastic scene in which she steps out of the limousine and climbs the steps to the white house. An African-American White House guard follows her with his eyes as she enters the building. When she leaves, he enthusiastically exclaims, in English, "Man! She's so hot!" ... You can tell that the director had political correctness in mind when shooting that one.

Oh, and in this same scene I learned that George Marshall, Truman's Secretary of State, had a British accent. Who knew?

2) Yep, sure enough, they mixed in Deng Xiaoping's reforms into Mao's monologues. Upon learning that all of the lowly petty bourgeoisie have fled a city recently taken by the Red Army, and worse, they've taken all of the cigarettes with them, Mao claims, verbitim, "We need the capitalists back."

All right, fair enough, while it's unlikely that Mao would have ever said such a thing, the petty bourgeoisie weren't the biggest of his problems, so I'll let it slide. And then he said something to this effect: "We don't know how to run the economy ourselves. That's where the capitalists come in."

OK. Come on. This is the guy that came up with the Great Leap Forward for Christ's sake. I don't think he'd be spouting free market theory at the dawning of the age of the Maoist planned economy. If I had to guess, I'm thinking that this scene's script was the one that the CCP had a hand in 'editing'.

3) This one's for you, Dad. The movie ends with Mao's famous phrase, "The Chinese people have stood up!", triumphant music, and with a greyscale Chinese flag fluttering in the wind. The hues gradually change until the flying flag is shown in full color and vibrancy.

Now, I'm as staunch an American as the next guy, but this scene ran shivers down my spine. It was pretty well shot, if a little (well, okay, very) overdone. It is, though, a real testament to the power of film as a political tool.

So this weekend, I'm off on another school-sponsored trip. This time we're off to Pingyao, a famous, well-preserved old town from the Qing era, located in Shanxi Province. I was just talking with a Chinese friend of mine who said that it used to be a really prosperous trade center back before the revolution, so I think it's going to have a lot to offer. Moreover, we'll be staying in an old, true-to-history refurbished Qing mansion and learning about their legal system. So that should be fun.

And unlike my trip to the Great Wall last weekend, I'm going to have fresh batteries in my camera, so I'll actually be able to take pictures. Grr... It's not a total disaster on the photo front, though. I got some of my friends to take some shots of me on the wall, so when I have time, I'll take them and link them here.

Wishing you all well!

Finding the Groove

2009-10-15T05:54:00.005-06:00

It feels like things are really starting to fall into place.

I just got back from grabbing dinner with my tutor. She's a senior Chinese major from Anhui province, and she's been a great teacher and a fine friend since we started meeting a month and a half ago. We usually meet for an hour, four times a week, and just chat. It's really good practice for my listening ability, which is lagging behind a bit.

Tonight, we decided to spend our tutoring time over a meal. We went to the student cafeteria on the east side of campus (where most of the Chinese students live) and had a great time. We spoke Chinese the entire time, and sitting down to eat with a bunch of Chinese students, I really felt like I was where I needed to be. It's a 'belonging' kind of feeling that I haven't felt in China before now.

Moreover, I'm slowly getting in with the Chinese students, toward the aim of hanging out with them more than my American friends. It's just too damn easy to hang out in front of the IES building and chat with the rest of the ex-pats. Luckily, a Chinese English major who I had talked to before expressed interest in grabbing lunch with me next week. He's part of a pretty solid group of Chinese guys with whom I think I would get along just fine, so I'm looking to getting in with them a bit.

This weekend is, like most weekends here, going to be busy. Tomorrow I'm going with an 'old' Chinese friend of mine (who usually lives out in the provinces but is in Beijing for a couple weeks) to see the new film called "The Founding of a Republic." I'm very excited about this. Not only do I get to see a State-backed movie about Chinese history (that a little counter-factually blends Mao's charisma with modern CCP economic strategy), but I also get an introduction by a local Chinese person to who all the hundreds of cameo actors are. Seriously; this movie is filled with every mildly famous Chinese actor in Hong Kong and the People's Republic. I've heard that Jackie Chan has a brief role. Even more incredibly, I hear a lot of these actors showed up free of charge.

On Saturday, about 30 of us are finally going to the Great Wall! We walk around one of the more touristy, popular wall segments on Saturday afternoon, and then after spending a night at a guest-house nearby, we get up a 4:00am for a morning hike along one of the largely un-renovated but extremely scenic parts of the wall. Very, very excited about that.

So, yeah. It's been a great week, and things are only looking up. Heh, speaking of which, Shushu just walked in and handed me a sesame pastry. It's been a good day.

同志们，好！

2009-10-06T03:51:00.011-06:00

Hello, Comrades!

It's taken awhile, but so begins my "National Day Holiday" edition of 'Charlie in China'.

I'm not sure how well it was covered in the Western media, but the Thursday before last was China's 60th anniversary. On October 1st, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China, so October 1st is the start of a reasonably long vacation every year for comrades young and old. This year, however, was a bigger celebration than most, marking the PRC's sixth decade.

In many ways, I got what I expected. We saw flawlessly made-up soldiers marching in perfect unison, and the ubiquitous nuclear-capable missile trucks that make for the most exciting of military parades. And, naturally, each province (including Taiwan, interestingly enough) drove an appropriately themed float for the civilian parade that followed.

However, one major difference between U.S. parades I've seen and the one on Thursday (other than the fembots, you can't forget the fembots) was that the people of Beijing were told specifically not to come. Instead, my family and every other family in this city of 13 million was told to stay home and watch it on TV. The 60th anniversary was truly a made-for-TV event.

One other thing struck my attention, and it's been rolling around in my mind ever since, somewhat due to the readings that our government teacher has been handing out. Near the start of the civilian parade, large trucks bearing over-sized pictures of the four most well-known Chinese leaders cruised through the parade route, surrounded by colorfully dressed, smiling people twirling banners. These lucky four were Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and China's current General Secretary/President, Hu Jintao.

Here's Deng Xiaoping on the parade route:

That got me thinking exactly how the official mechanics of power work within the Chinese state, and I thought I'd share what I learned.

Here's the quick analysis of Chinese government, as I've come to understand it so far from my government class. There are three pillars of power in China; the Communist Party (CCP), the State, and the Military (the People's Liberation Army, PLA).

The Communist Party: Effectively runs it all by filling government positions with Party members. It's led by nine senior party members, including Wen Jiabao and Hu Jintao (who is the General Secretary). It's thought that this group of 9 runs the country by consensus among themselves on what policies are the 'correct road'.

The State: Is run primarily by the State Council, a council of 50-or-so heads of government agencies and the Premier, Wen Jiabao. There is also a People's National Congress that is supposed to approve the state ministers and agency heads, but among Western media outlets, the PNC is still viewed as a rubber-stamp organization that is only recently becoming a legitimate forum for discussing state issues.

The PLA: The combined army, navy, and air force. I don't know much about it, but it's headed by the Central Military Commission, who's Chairman is also (I'll give you two guesses...) Hu Jintao.

It's clear that the State is dominated by the Party. This, of course, is by design, and CCP leaders have no shame in admitting it. However, particularly back in the late 1980's, there was a lot of discussion among the top leadership about the direction that the party should take both economically and politically. The economic reformers won out, spurring unprecedented growth in China for decades, but the political reforms (calling for greater separation between the Party and the State apparatuses) ended up, in many cases, failing.

What this little research project has suggested to me, is that while the State is often quite effective at carrying out its policies, there is a fundamental lack of institutionalization in the organs of the State. While checks and balances do crop up, it's from in-fighting within the CCP, not from inter-party or inter-branch conflicts like in the United States. Since reformers going back at least to the 1980's have been begging for more institutionalization, it's going to be interesting to see, as my research continues and as time goes on, whether it will start to materialize.

As for me, classes are going well, I've been making more and more Chinese friends here, and I've been really glad to get in touch with people back home from time to time. Wish you well!

UPDATE: I made it to Tian'anmen today to see the floats they had during the parade. This is the kind of event where EVERYONE wants their picture taken with you. After all, you're in a group of Americans wielding mini-Chinese flags and shouting "中华人民共和国万岁"! (Long Live the People's Republic of China). The pictures are all posted here .

MORE UPDATED: I also have the pictures from my hike at Xiangshan posted. They're all here.

Back from Yunnan

2009-10-04T07:34:00.008-06:00

I'm back in Beijing again after my couple-week long trip to Yunnan. Sorry it's taken so long to post; I didn't have internet access for a couple of days, but now all is well. My camera is jam-packed with great photos, and I've got all sorts of cool stories from the trip. However, upon re-read, I realize that this post is huge. Grab some tea, and take a couple meals and put them on your computer table, because this might take a while.

If you remember from last post, we first were to travel to Kunming, then to Dali, then to Zhongdian (a.k.a. Shangri-la), and lastly to the small Napa Village outside Shangri-la. Kunming was wonderful. I could really imagine myself working here someday, actually. The weather is consistently comfortable the whole year-round. Typically, the temperature is 80s-60s during the summer, 70s-50s during the winter. The town is really lively due to the presence the prestigious and beautiful Yunnan University and a growing influence in the realm of South-East Asian trade. We stayed in the hotel/guest-house on the campus of Yunnan University, so the area close-by is student-oriented (read: packed with bars). But other than places to get hammered, there are fantastic little restaurants and shops that don't look totally corrupted by rich tourists.

The first night there, a small group of us (including our adorable Chinese professors) went on a walk around the neighborhood and found a relatively well-known local park called Cui Hu, which translates to Green Lake (pics: 1, 2). It was Saturday night, so tons of local musicians and dancers were out performing (pics:1, 2, 3), each act about 20 to 30 feet from the next.

The next day, we were paired up with students from Yunnan University and set to roam the town. Our 'guide' was a soft-spoken and short female graduate student who run us through the park again and showed us a bit of campus. We got to talking, and she was partly responsible for building up a lot of confidence in my Chinese aptitude that carried my through this trip. Here are some of the photos we took while on our walk: 1, 2, 3.

That afternoon, we drove to the mountains at the edge of Kunmin, where there sits Xi Shan (西山). It's a relatively steep and well-known climb, partially carved out by Daoist ascetics centuries ago. On the route up, there are all sorts of cool statues and little shrines dedicated to Daoist deities. Pictures here:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.

That night, we hopped on a sleeper train to Dali. This was a bit of a strange experience. Each train car has about thirty 'rooms', which are really just three-walled partitions of the car. Each wall (other than the one that runs parallel with the train, which has a window) has three bunks: a lower one, middle one, and higher one. As things go, the ride was pretty comfortable, although damage to the train-tracks kept forcing us to stop every two hours or so on the 10 hour ride.

To be totally honest, I wasn't that impressed with Dali. It seems a lot like Estes Park back home. In Estes, there are fake log cabins that serve as storefronts, staffed by people in raccoon-hats selling kitschy tourist crap. Just replace the log cabins with buildings with glossed-green pagoda-style roofs, and the raccoon hats with traditional ethnic headdresses, and you've got Dali. Not a great an example here, but it gives you the idea.

I'm not being totally fair, here. Once you got off of the main drag, it turned out to be a really beautiful little town. Moreover, the afternoon we arrived, we rented out some cheap, rickety bikes and took a ride through the countryside (1,2,3,4,5). The day after, about half of our group drove out to Cai Shan, a historically-important mountain for the local Bai people who used to have Dali as their capital centuries ago. Very, very lush. It had that 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' vibe to it. When it comes to the scenery in movies like that, they really don't make that stuff up (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10)! And hey! It came with a number of beautiful fruit stands and larger-than-life Chinese chessboards. How could I go wrong?

From Dali, we bussed down to Tiger-Leaping Gorge, which is hands down one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. First we stopped at the upper narrows (1,2,3,4,5,6) and then wound our way through the gorge to our guest-house. It's a really cool place, this village at which we stayed. It's had the same, quite comfortable guest-house for the last decade (which provides spectacular views, I might add), but despite this, the town has remained remarkably free of tourists. Farming, and an itty-bitty tourist-oriented industry, is what keeps this town cookin'. This town, as it happened, also treated me to one of the most amazing meals of my life.

After we had gotten settled into the guest-house, Benji, another student on this trip who I would best classify as a combination of 'Harold and Kumar' and a 60's flower-child, came up to me and said, "Charlie, we're going to try and get dinner with a local family. You in?" I thought this was nuts. Who in the United States would host a group of four male foreign tourists who show up on their porch asking for food in exchange for money? With nothing to lose, however, we set off down a dirt path away from the public road on which we drove in. Soon enough, we found a small farmhouse with a woman in her late 20's inside. In my broken Chinese, I asked if we could have dinner with her. After making sure we knew there was a restaurant up the hill, she agreed. When I asked, she even let us come a little early to help make dinner!

These were some of the sweetest people I've met. They're ethnically Naxi, one of China's 55 non-Han minorities. The 20-something year-old woman we met (named Xia Chaoying) is a new mother; she had a 7-month-old boy strapped to her back for most of the evening. She lives with her husband and her mother- and father-in-law. When I asked, I learned that the family had been living in the same house for over 100 years! Grandma and Grandpa don't speak much (if any) Mandarin at all. They know only Naxi. Fortunately, however, Xia Chaoying spoke flawless Mandarin (due to the fact that she's part of the younger generation) and actually knew quite a bit of English from middle school and her days working in a tourist-oriented restaurant up the hill. Naturally, the food was fantastic, and with the backdrop mountains like these, and in the company of such fascinating people, it was an incredibly memorable experience.

Here are the rest of the pictures we took while hiking around the gorge: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18.

From Tiger-Leaping Gorge, we moved on to Shangri-La by bus. As I'd expected, Shangri-La was mobbed with tourists. A little unexpectedly, though, very few of them were white; most were Han Chinese from the east coast. Apparently the mystique behind Shangri-La carries beyond the West. The real pearl of this part of the trip, though, was the opportunity to stay with local Tibetans in their homes in a hamlet called Napa Village about one and a half hours from Shangri-La proper.

This was one hell of an experience. We were fortunate enough to arrive in Napa Village the day before a Tibetan marriage! The day of the marriage, we had a bit of business to take care of in the morning, and so unfortunately missed the ceremony itself, but from what I can tell, it was only about a half-hour long. The emphasis really lies in the reception afterwards, which my friends and I were glad to take part in.

A little background: Tibetan houses are huge. Which is a little odd if you think of how cold it gets there. They're really designed to hold large numbers of people for gatherings like wedding receptions. Moreover, Tibetan homes are also extremely ornate: beautiful woodworking, bright religious paintings on the wood paneling, and a shrine to the Buddha, decked out with fruit and colorful cloth, in every home. It is in this context that we found ourselves, munching on sunflower seeds and chatting with the locals. We learned that the marriage was between a local Napa villager, and a girl from one of the villages nearby. As we looked about the room, we saw about 50 to 60 people sitting and chatting at low tables around the room, which the immediate family of the bride and groom were sitting at tables in a horseshoe shape around a man dressed in a tall, furry hat and leopard-skin, giving a memorized, half-spoken/half-sung speech to the families. As the evening wore on, people came and went, particularly the bride and groom, who ceremonially eat dinner with their respectively families and away from one another.

But when the sun went down, the dancing began.

The form of the dance was as follows: You have two concentric rings of people, each with about 25 to 40 dancers. One group begins singing a traditional song and dancing around the circle to their tune. When they finish, the other group performs the same dance, only louder. It's a competition between the two sides that lasts all... night... long. They do not stop dancing until dawn of the next morning. Of course, we ended up bugging out at around 10:30pm, but seeing as they let us take part in the dancing the entire time, we felt like we had taken a lot away from it.

The family we lived with (it was me and five other guys in our home) was really interesting. The patriarch of the family of four is a government employee, working to help boost tourism to Napa Village. From our conversations with him and others, we learned that back in the day, Napa Village's biggest industry was logging. That turned out to be unsustainable, so with a little bit of government help, they've been reshaping Napa's image to be something of a 'dude ranch,' taking in foreigners to live with them a couple of days and see Tibetan lifestyles. When I asked whether this was seen as a good or bad thing, people generally seemed to be happy with the set-up. I think people really do like meeting people 'from the outside', and I'm sure they're more than happy to have that money flooding into the local economy.

Despite this, opinion of the government is not always the greatest. The family patriarch told me that he was really only a government employee because it paid the bills, and he really had no other alternative. He was surprisingly forthcoming with some of the sensitive questions I asked, justifying his loose-tongued-ness in that we were students. However, at one point, I asked him this question:

"Do you think China is becoming freer as time goes on?"

And he didn't say a thing. I asked if he understood my question, figuring I had spoken unclearly.

He said, "Oh, yes. I understand clearly. Very clearly."

But he still wouldn't answer. A pretty telling response on his opinion of freedom in Yunnan.

After living in the village for a couple days, we took small day-packs and hiked to the old Napa Village, back in the old lumber days. There are still a few people living up there, and I can absolutely understand why. Broad grassy plains run up to steep bamboo forests that top out in tundra mountain peaks. After we arrived and set up our tents, four ex-Boy Scouts, two ROTC cadets, and I hiked up to the top of one of these hills. A beautiful climb, the pictures of which are soon to be forthcoming.

Ai! Sorry for such a long, long, post. I just had a lot to say. My camera ran out of batteries soon after we left Tiger-Leaping Gorge, so I don't have many pictures of the Napa Village. I had my friends take plenty of pictures for me, so once they pass 'em off to me, I'll post them here.

Also, once I have a little bit more free time on my hands, I'll make some posts on the National Day celebration here in Beijing, and my trip to Xiangshan. Best wishes to you all back home and abroad!

Yunnan

2009-09-18T08:19:00.001-06:00

I'm getting my bags packed and I'm headed for Yunnan at 6:45 tomorrow morning. We hop on a bus to the airport northeast of town, and fly to the provincial capital, Kunming.(For some perspective, here's a map. Beijing is in the northwest, Kunming is in south-central China.)

The next morning, we'll be meeting some Chinese students who go to Yunnan University and hang with them for a while, and then we're off on a temple hike. That evening, we take a night train to Dali, which is due west of Kunming. We'll spend a few days in Dali, one of which is devoted towards hiking Tiger-Leaping Gorge. Very, very excited about this hike. Here's a more detailed map of Yunnan for further reference.

From Dali, we go to Zhongdian, up in the far northwest corner of Yunnan. This section shares a border with western Tibet, and so the population there is primarily Tibetan. This area, to give some background, has become internationally famous for taking on the name "Shangri-La," a reference to James Hilton's novel, Lost Horizon. Sichuan province tried to pull the same trick, but the bureaucrats in Yunnan got there first, and have been raking in the tourist dollars ever since.

But really, I'm told this area is beautiful, and I can absolutely not wait to get out of Beijing for a little bit. It's a great city, but even thinking about clean air sends shivers of anticipation down my spine.

We'll hang out in a village near Zhongdian, called Napa Village, where we'll be home-staying with Tibetan families for a few days, eating, hiking, and doing a bit of volunteer work on one of their roads.

Since I'm going to be out and about, expect infrequent updates from me. I will most likely be able to find an internet cafe around Kunming and Dali where I can post, but once I'm up in Napa Village, it's going to be all quiet on the northwestern front. However, expect fantastic pictures on the 1st of October, when I return to Beijing.

Cultural Perspectives

2009-09-16T07:56:00.006-06:00

I had an awfully good conversation with my Dad on Skype the other day, and I think that I ought to share some of the thoughts that arose from it.

How to put this? Chinese and Americans often don't understand one another very well. Intellectually, it's a no-brainer. But experiencing it first-hand has been interesting. For example:

I've started to make a group of Chinese friends. They're BeiWai students like me, only studying English full-time instead of Chinese. This is pretty convenient since we correct one another's pronounciation and can translate words we don't know for one another. One fellow, English-named 'Will', likes to talk politics, and, being who I am, one of the first things I asked about was Tibet. His response was interesting. He told me that the Dalai Lama was a power-hungry ex-slaveholder who had manipulated the Western media to his perspective. While I concede that we tend to see the Tibet issue pretty one-sidedly, his position seems somewhat extreme.

Anger at the Western media is not uncommon. I read a really fascinating article written by an award-winning columnist for the New Yorker Magazine about China's 'Angry Youth.' These are the guys that occasionally carry out attacks on Australian film festival websites to make political statements. One of these 'Angry Youth' makes a claim, the author told us during the lecture he gave a few weeks ago, that CNN actually takes orders from the U.S. State Department before it reports the nightly news.

My Chinese Government class has been informative along these lines as well. We learned that, particularly among the old Party hard-liners, the Korean War is regarded as a huge military success for the PRC. Despite around 400,000 or more military casualties for a war that ended in a stalemate, the "War to Resist America and Aid Korea" was regarded as a huge victory over American Imperialism. Some scholars argue that it gave future PRC leaders sufficient confidence in the PLA (People's Liberation Army) to challenge American power later. I find it fascinating that a war regarded as a lukewarm success in the United States is a point of pride for old-timer Chinese nationalists.

I think that these misunderstandings, or perhaps better phrased as 'differences in interpretation,' go both ways, however. Before I went, I got a lot of people telling me to be awfully careful about what I say, to keep a close eye out for the police, etc. While well-meaning, my experience so far has suggested that this advice is a bit more cautious than is necessary.

For example, I've had no problem discussing China's political problems with friends in a university park. Although the Internet is censored (or, as the Central Committee phrases it, 'harmonized'), anyone with a little Internet-savvy can get around it, no problem. In our classroom in a Chinese university, we talk freely about the political implications of the 1989 protests in Tian'anmen and the corruption of the current political regime.

I think the point is that as long as you're not making a serious disturbance (or doing drugs, or proselytizing), the government couldn't be bothered. I'm the first to admit that if I strolled out onto Tian'anmen Square with a 'Falun Gong' T-Shirt whilst espousing Tibetan independence at the top of my lungs, I'd get in serious trouble. But the perception that modern-day China is Stalinist Russia is unfounded for a number of reasons. However, on Saturday, I'm off to Yunnan, a rural, heavily minority-inhabited province, so we'll see how my own perspective evolves from there.

To Grandmother's House We Go...

2009-09-12T03:58:00.004-06:00

Today was big. I met Grandma.

One of the first things we were told when we signed up for a home-stay with a Chinese family was, "If the family offers to introduce you to Grandma, it doesn't matter what plans you have, you make time to see her." And how it pays off to meet Grandma.

We left at 9:00 am from our place in Haidian District, and drove about 30 minutes south to Fengtai, where Grandma, who I call 奶奶 (Nai Nai), lives. Her husband died some years ago, so she lives with Shushu's younger sister, who I call 姑姑 (Gu Gu). Nai Nai is adorable. She's an older woman (has to be at least 70), with the sweet-and-shrunken grandma look about her, but her health is fantastic. She climbs three flights of stairs to get to her apartment without stopping to take a breath.

And can she cook.

We had 肉饼 (rou bing), which are kind of like crepes, but stuffed thickly with salted pork, mushrooms, scallions, and unidentified herbs. After being wrapped up, it's fried in a wok, and served with a 糖醋 (sweet and sour) sauce that has a whole head of garlic floating on top. Later, they pulled the head of garlic out, peel it, and then you eat the cloves (which have been absorbing all that sweet sauce for an hour.

After we ate, I talked with Grandma about her flower box on the windowsill, since she seemed to take really good care of those petunias. She seemed pleased by me taking interest. One of the things about meeting Grandma is that you want to make a good impression; she is the matriarch of the family, after all.

Soon after, we piled into Shushu's car and drove to Ma Lian Dao, a street lined with tea stores. We walked about for a while, then went inside a four-story building jam-packed with 15ft by 15ft tea stalls. These are set up really well. You walk around the shop for a couple minutes, pointing out the types of tea you're interested in. For example, Shushu can't get enough Jasmine Tea. You then sit down at a nifty stone table that has a slight angle towards slots on the sides, where spilled tea flows out. Then they give you cups of tea. For free. It's a delicious kind of try-before-you-buy set-up. Shushu knows I'm not loaded, so he had us try the cheaper stuff, but it was fantastic! Better than most anything I've had in the States. I came away with a half-pound of Jasmine and a quarter-pound of Yunnan pu-erh, which is a delicious and slightly astringent red-colored tea from China's southern province of Yunnan.

All for $11.

I love this country.

On another note, here is my address for those who don't have Chinese characters installed on their computer. Just print this guy out, paste it on a letter, shell out 98 cents for postage, and send me a letter if the mood strikes you!

Wish you well! Off to make dinner with Shushu. It's 玉米粥 night!

Zoo and the Old Summer Palace

2009-09-10T08:16:00.004-06:00

太好了！Yes! Finally I have Chinese characters reinstalled on my laptop! It's hard to explain how much of a pain this was. But hey! Now I can read all the lurid messages my Chinese-speaking friends were leaving in the comments.

I'd also like to welcome all of the PHS students and staff now stopping in to visit my blog! Hope your semester's gotten off to a promising start, and I'm looking forward to reading your comments.

As promised below, I've gotten those pictures from the old Summer Palace and the Beijing Zoo up on my Flickr page. Here are the zoo pictures, and here are the old Summer Palace shots.

The zoo was pretty run-of-the-mill, except, of course, for the pandas. They were just about as adorable and lazy as I could ever have hoped. It's a bit ironic, actually: the names of their homes are the Asian Games Panda House and Olympic Games Panda House, despite the fact that these were, by far, the most lethargic creatures in the zoo. In a way, the Beijing Zoo really impressed me. I was expecting 'animal jail' given the PRC's previous environmental policies. But generally the place was well-kept, and the animals seemed to have adequate living conditions. The tigers were a sad exception. Really small pens, extremely close human contact, and obvious stress on the creatures, including one tiger clawing at the back door to get out... No good.

On Friday after class, a buddy of mine and I went to the old Summer Palace. This was the Summer Palace of the Qing emperors up until 1860, when an expeditionary British and French army marched in destroyed it almost entirely. What they didn't destroy, they left for the Eight-Power Alliance to annihilate when they came through to put down the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Not a shining moment in European or Chinese history, this.

To remind the Chinese of the 'national humiliation' at the hands of the Western imperialists, the Chinese government has not restored any of the previous buildings that once stood there. In their place are just the stone foundations, and a placard explaining what used to stand there. Needless to say, this place is kinda eerie. No buildings in sight (except for a food stand here and there), very few tourists, and a heavy fog all combined to form a pretty somber scene.

On a brighter note, this weekend I buy the few things I need to take with me to Yunnan the week after next! This is going to be a really exceptional trip. Yunnan is one of China's most southern provinces, backing up against Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar to the south, and Tibet to the northwest. IES has been working this program for long enough that our program director has built something of a rapport with the local Tibetans there. As such, we get to spend a couple of nights living in their homes and sharing meals with them. Very excited about this. Apparently, we're going to be doing quite a bit of hiking, too, which is just up my alley. Once I know more, I'll be posting again. Wish you all well!

EDIT: For those who want to send snail mail, you can send letters to this address. Both the English and Chinese addresses have to be on the letter, side-by-side, for it to arrive, since most mailmen from China don't speak English, and most American mailmen don't read Chinese...

IES Abroad Beijing
PO Box 138
4th Floor, No 7 Building
Beijing Foreign Studies University
19 North Xisanhuan Avenue
Haidian District
Beijing, 100089, China

_______________________________

IES Abroad 北京中心
北京海淀区西三环北路19号
北京外国语大学院7号喽4层（138 信箱）
邮编 100089

Mao & Me

2009-09-05T02:57:00.007-06:00

For those who have been following the blog for a little while, you might have noticed a change in my profile picture. Glance right, and you'll see me with Chairman Mao himself. Last weekend, IES took some of us down to Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.

Now, this was a strange trip for a couple of reasons. Through the course of about a half-hour's walk, we experienced a living slideshow of centuries of Chinese history.

We began the trip in the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall near Tian'anmen. It tracks the history of the urban development of Beijing since it was a capital by the Khitan Liao, Jurcheds, and Mongols, all northern steppe tribes. On the second floor of this museum are two pretty cool displays. To your right, you see a 25-foot long wooden diorama of the Forbidden City. On your left, a 150-foot by 200-foot scale model of the modern city of Beijing. These displays point out two things. First, you're pretty well awe-struck about how big Beijing really is. There's just a lot of Beijing to be had. But secondly, you see that the Forbidden City, a cultural relic dated back for centuries, still sits in the center of this urban sprawl. Its a real testament to the power of this icon that it, instead of high-rises, occupies the most important part of town.

We left the Exhibition Hall and took a walk to the legation quarter. This was the neighborhood where Europeans put in their own embassies during the 19th century as dynastic power became weaker and weaker following the Opium Wars. This spot is cool because each European nation's legation building was built in the home country's architectural style. So two-minutes walk from the Forbidden City, you can see French, British, American, Swiss, and other architectural styles all in a row down the street.

We then cruised on down to Tian'anmen itself. Apparently, when Mao built it, he had his engineers look up the size of Red Square, and make Tian'anmen Square slightly bigger, thus making it the largest public square in the world. Crafty guy, Mao. This place is a cool sight. When facing the iconic image of Mao over the gate, you look right and see the National Museum. Facing left, you see the Great Hall of the People, which is the Chinese Congress building. It can hold 10,000 representatives at one time. In the center of the square is the Monument to the People's Heroes, a calligraphy-laden obelisk devoted to those slain in the struggle for Chinese nationhood in the 19th and 20th centuries. And lastly, behind you stands a building colloquially named the "Mao-soleum" and accompanying statues. If you arrive early enough in the morning, you too can stand in line with legions of people from the provinces and shuffle by the preserved corpse of Mao Zedong.

It started to get a little weird at this point. Philosophically, I mean. Think about it: We're starting to walk under a gate built by Chinese emperors, adorned by the picture of a man who tried to destroy the Chinese identity associated with pre-Communist China, and what should I see to my left as I walk into the forbidden city? This. Modern Capitalism, meet Imperial China and Maoist Socialism.

Lastly, we walked through the Forbidden City. It's an enormous complex, and we only scratched the surface. Jeremiah Jenne, my history professor, gave us tidbits of historical data behind the sights as we cruised around. I'll be heading back there at some point.

The experience of walking through the Beijing metropolis, Tian'anmen, and the Forbidden City was definately an eye-opener in terms of understanding Chinese identity. It's more complex than one might think. Westerners are bombarded with stereotypes about what China is. We see Confucius, Chairman Mao, and Ke Kou Ke Le all on the same plate, and we see no way to really reconcile the obvious philosophical and cultural contradictions we're presented with. But that question's going to require another post later. This one's gotten too long anyway.

I got over to the old Summer Palace yesterday, and the Beijing Zoo today, so I'll be posting pictures of those soon. Hope everyone back home and abroad are well!

Food, mk.2

2009-09-01T07:06:00.004-06:00

Yes, another food post. I thought about fitting it in the one below (which you ought to read before this one if you haven't already), but that would have set a new record, so here it is.

Shushu is a food guru. I mean it. The food I've eaten here has blown me away. Totally different from any Chinese food I've ever had in the states. What I've learned is that the Chinese food we imagine in the little cardboard fold-up box is generally Shanghainese cuisine: lots of rice, lots of sweet meats. Beijing cuisine has more bread, more noodles, and tons of vegetables. I told him in broken Chinese the first night that I wanted him to teach me how to cook Chinese food. And he's gladly obliged. Here's the short list of works so far, and a picture to go with:

Liangcai: It's all sorts of squash, carrots and cucumbers thinly sliced, briefly blanched in oil and water and then put in a bowl with a sugar and vinegar dressing. It's topped by these really spicy peanuts the likes of which I have never tasted.

Chao Cai Hua: Chao means to fry. And Cai Hua is cauliflower. Put cauliflower in a wok with pork, oil, salt, ginger, and small red onion, and you're ready to go.

Meatball Soup: Ok. That's not the Chinese name. But it's still super tasty. You beat the crap out of some pork, and stir it with chopsticks while adding water until it forms a meat goo. Bear with me. Add chopped scallions, salt, and garlic to the goo and let sit. Meanwhile, put water on the boil and add salt and quite a bit of chopped cilantro. Once it's to a rolling boil, take spoonfuls of the pork goo and plop them into the boiling water. If you do it right, they form perfect little meat spheres in the water, which then becomes your soup. This dish has a really light, fresh flavor (due to the cilantro) which cuts the greasiness of the pork really well. This is a favorite.

Qie zi: Translates to eggplant. You have not eaten eggplant until you've had it in Chinese food. Seriously, fried in a wok with potatoes and onions, it's a nice, hearty (albeit somewhat greasy) part of the meal.

Bean soup: This was a strange one, but it's grown on me. In the morning, shushu takes all sorts of little beans, washes them, and puts them in a covered pot. They soften for the whole day, and then you eat them, water and all. Though bland-sounding, it functions like rice does in other meals; as a filling dish that gives you a break from all the rich flavors of the 'side' dishes.

Usually we make three or four dishes for dinner, including the filler dish of rice, beans, and/or bread. The eating style is cool, too. The dishes are brought out to the coffee table in the living room, and, with chopsticks or spoons in hand, we have at the communal dishes.

After about a half hour to forty-five minutes, he leans over and asks, "Chi bao le, ma?", which means "You full?" To which I respond, "Chi bao le!", which translates to, "Yes, I'm full.", but my tone of voice implies more of a "Christ, yes. If I eat one more grain of rice, I will explode." At this point, he grins, and triumphantly exclaims, "Chi bao le!" He too is full, and freakin' satisfied about it.

This house rocks. Go food.

Family

2009-09-01T06:09:00.002-06:00

I moved in with my Chinese family on Saturday and I couldn't be happier. My shushu (homestay dad) and ayi (homestay mother) are an older couple, my guess is they're in their early 50's. They're daughter is 20 years old, and lives in an apartment elsewhere in Beijing. They've had five study abroad students live with them, and they have a room really well suited to the purpose. A bed, dresser, clothesline (Chinese people don't use dryers), desk, and filing cabinet/storage unit. In a way, it feels just like home; small-ish, with plain decorations, good lighting, and a rock-hard bed :-).

Their apartment is pretty small, about 50-some square meters. They've got a bathroom, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a family room that doubles as the master bedroom. It suits me perfectly, though. Lots of opportunities to chat, a quite reasonably sized room to myself, a Western-style toilet, and a small but very servicable kitchen.

One great thing about the apartment is that it is really conveniently located. Whereas some of my friends have to ride the bus for twenty minutes to get to class, I literally walk down the stairs, hang a right, walk 100 feet, and I'm at the courtyard in front of the IES building where all my classes are.

Shushu is a seriously cool guy. From what I can tell, he manages all of the handimen on campus. Conveniently, his office is 25 feet from the IES building, so I often say hello to him on the way to class. He speaks barely a word of English, so that's made deep conversation a bit... difficult. But he's one of the most patient and joyful people I've met. He's glad to spend a full five minutes trying to explain the verb "to lose" in Chinese to me. Once I figure it out, he erupts in huge laughter. I can't describe how much I lucked out getting this homestay.

I haven't gotten to know Ayi as well. She works as an accountant off campus, and tends to work kind of late. She often doesn't get home until about 8:00, and by that point, Shushu and I have already made dinner, and I've got my nose in the books. But from what little I've talked to her, she seems just as friendly and warm as Shushu, if a bit less exuberant.

Ah, and I almost forgot Ding Ding. Yes, he's the dog. About one foot high, and a bit skittish, but very soft. He's even starting to get used to me. He barks less now when I walk into a room, and when I say his name, he trots on over to get pets.

While the homestay situation has been great, school, eh, not so much. I'm learning a lot, there's no doubt. But, God, this program is rigorous. Around thirty new characters a day, a dictation quiz first thing every morning, followed by four hours of Chinese study until noon. Needless to say that I'm not the only one who's having trouble adjusting to such a fast-paced curiculum. It's just going to take a bit more studying on my part, (and more flashcards) to get back on my feet. But it'll happen :-)

Food

2009-08-28T00:30:00.001-06:00

Those who know me at all will know how important food is to me. Large appetite aside, I think that food is a window into a foreign culture. And so far, China has not disappointed.

Here I am with two baskets and two bowls of soup. The soups are both wonton soup, and the baskets have baozi and jiaozi (both are types of dumplings). Baozi are the white round ones on the right. They look really laborious to make. The dough is a fluffy, sticky rice dough made through what looks like endless kneading. They're filled with anything; vegetables, pickled goodies, or meat, generally. These ones were meat, probably pork. Jiaozi are the yellower, half-moon shaped ones closer to me. Those are your classic pot-stickers; thin, pasta-like dough filled with meat and spices.

The restaurant featured in that picture is a new favorite. I came across it last night after accidentally traipsing across Haidian with my doppelganger, Ian. (Seriously, though. To those who aren't used to seeing foreigners, we probably look like a carbon copy of one another. Our fellow students didn't know we were different people until a few days into the program.)

Anyway, about the restaurant. Tiny place inside, but they're happy to grab the tables and move them into a little plaza outside, when the weather is nice. And the price can't be beaten. A bowl of wonton soup is about four kuai. That's less than a buck. All told, our two bowls of soup and two plates of dumplings? Twelve kuai, or $2 USD.

Haidian District

2009-08-27T07:11:00.004-06:00

A post from Lauren on my Facebook page got me thinking that it would be high time to describe where I am, and what Beijing is like on the surface.

First, Beijing is huge. I mean, really, really big. Geographically enormous. The flip side of that, however, is that the 13 million continuous residents there are quite a bit more spread out. The streets are busy, of course, but nothing like the endless swaths of people that you might expect from a country with 1.4-1.6 billion people.

Now, just because you don't see lots of people doesn't mean you don't know they're there. One telltale sign reminds you exactly how many people are cruising around Beijing. I refer, of course, to air pollution. There are days when I can't see even a half-mile down the road from the haze, and the sun is just a dim glow in the sky. People keep assuring me that it's just fog, but t'ain't no fog like I've ever seen. Now there are good days and bad days, to be sure. The first few days were bad days, but you could have mistaken today's pollution for that of Denver's. Really not too bad.

I live in a relatively sleepy part of town. It's called Haidian District, and is known for having a number of universities within its border. It's not exactly a wild-college-town kind of setup, though; there are a lot of gated apartment communities and little food stalls. It's also got some absolutely gorgeous parks. The one linked here was one I visited two days ago at around 7:30 am, breakfast in hand.

(This breakfast, to set the scene, was freakin' sweet. You take a freshly fried biscuit, cut it in half to make a pouch out of it, put in an egg over-medium, some chicken meat, sausage, and assorted mystery-veggies, and put it in a bag. All off of a street vendor for the equivalent of 81 cents.)

Back to the park. Like everything in Beijing, it's big. Wide green open spaces, dense bamboo forests, a stream running down the side, and a big lake filled with lily pads five feet tall and three feet wide. There were veritable legions of old people doing Tai Chi, a couple people fishing, and some few playing wooden flutes. Really quite pretty.

I move in with my homestay family the day after tomorrow, which I am really excited about. I should still be within Haidian District, but I'll be about 20 minutes walk from campus. When I have some nice pictures to share, I'll update this post.

Welcome to China

2009-08-23T20:43:00.003-06:00

First post from China!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this post in. Blogger, Facebook and Twitter are among the casualties from censorship here. Turns out, however, that a good VPN client can get you around it... :)

The flight in wasn't too bad at all, despite some delays. Got held up in LAX for two hours longer than expected, and when we arrived in Shanghai (a quick stop-over on the way to Beijing), we got held up for another three. These delays, however, did give me the opportunity to meet some great people. The woman on the left is Debbie Tao. She just got her MBA, and was headed back from vacation in the United States when we met. She lives in Beijing, somewhat close to my university. She gave me lots of good insight into where I might want to travel between semesters this winter. The fellow on the right is Wang Baiyu. He's 15, and was on his way back from vacation in the United States in celebration of his graduation from junior high school. He and I had a nice long conversation about Chinese internet culture and gaming. Our conversation on this topic led me to sing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" in the middle of a crowded Chinese airport. It turns out that the Chinese internet literati are indeed familiar with the Art of RickRolling.

I'm really glad to have met these two. Meeting such friendly and helpful people seems like an auspicious start to this project.

I'm off to lunch now, so the farthest I can catch up on the blog is Sunday morning, but more posts will follow when I get back.

Introductions are in order...

2009-08-11T21:39:00.001-06:00

Hey folks,

For those who don't know, I leave for China on August 21st to study there for one academic year. I'll be in Beijing, studying with an independent, third-party program called IES Abroad, housed at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. Most likely, I'll be living with a Chinese family a short bus-ride away from campus, but those arrangements aren't finalized until students arrive.

This is going to be my online journal/post-every-picture-that-I-take spot while I'm in China. I should begin posting regularly once I arrive.

Please leave (vaguely tasteful) comments on this blog; they'll be a nice reminder of home when I start to 想家 (feel homesick).

T-minus 10 days and counting...