Just Here for the Pandas

Desert Oasis

2009-01-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

For out last trip, we decided to go someplace vastly different than anywhere else we'd been in China - Dunhuang. Dunhuang is in the far west of China in Gansu Province. It is a desert oasis which was one of the first stops on the Silk Route in China. Thus, there is a lot of history in this tiny town. The air is dry, but fortunately, the temperature didn't get high enough to keep us from doing what we wanted. We arrived early in the morning on the first day, and because it was overcast, we decided to climb MingSha Shan (Echoing Sand Mountain). It isn't a mountain at all though really, but a huge sand dune. If you look in the picture above, in the background are the dunes, and now you see why they call it a mountain. Climbing a sand mountain is not easy, and I would not recommend it unless you had a good view at the top. Fortunately, that's just what we had! The picture below shows just how high we had to climb. The road at the top of the picture is the same from the picture above. Once we reached the top of the dune, we had to sit and rest for a while. Mostly, though, we had to empty out our shoes.From the top of MingSha Shan, Crescent Lake looks like a sliver of water in the huge desert. You can see the "lake" in the picture below. Those little dots are people. At one time, the lake was bigger and the lake was a popular oasis for brave travelers through the Gobi Desert.
Thankfully, we didn't have to climb all the way down thanks to sand-tubing! Racing down the steep dunes is quite an experience. Sand stings your skin as you zoom down, and it's hard not to end up with a mouth full of sand. The next day we visited the famous Mogao Caves. The caves are important Buddhist relics. The discovery of several ancient texts in the caves was one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Due to the natural deterioration that occurs from sand, heat, and wind in Dunhuang, each cave is locked. However, visitors can join tours and visit a few caves.
Because of the need to preserve these caves, photography is not allowed. The picture above is houses the largest cave that contains an extremely large Buddha. If you squint at the picture below, you can see Darbie and I on the top row. Each doorway is an entrance to a different cave. The caves have vastly different murals that depict Buddhist art from several different centuries. Currently, many scholars are working at electronically capturing each cave so that they can be accessed over the internet. Unfortunately, this also means that the caves could be shut forever. After visiting the caves, we craved more adventure so we signed up for an overnight camel ride through the desert. We departed from a tiny local cafe to the house of our guide. It was interesting being inside his house. It was very bare, but they still managed to have it feel like a home. Little kids were running around helping their father round up the camels. We were called outside and met our companions.
Make no mistake about it, camels are not pretty. We loaded up and began our trek through the desert.
Darbie is the second from the right, and Jimbo and Kendall are first and second from the left. We rode for about two hours before reaching our campsite for the night. We decided to climb the dunes around us to see the sunset, but once we reached the top we saw a frightening sight. SANDSTORM!! It slowly moved its way toward us and before we knew it, we were engulfed in strong winds and sand. It finally settled down, and we were able to make our way back to the campsite for the night. Our tour guide had set up our very small tents, and was beginning our dinner of instant noodles. The moon rose from behind the dunes, and the stars have never been so bright. The tour guide built us a fire and sang us songs as he offered us baijiu. Sleeping was not easy (mostly due to Jimbo's snoring), but the morning finally came. We got to watch a beautiful sunrise as we ate our breakfast. The second day turned out to be a little clearer and we got some beautiful shots of the dunes. Darbie also shot the video below. Riding a camel is not always comfortable on the rear, and you can get the drift from the bounciness of the video.

After the camel ride, we were sore and dirty. So we went back to our awesome hotel, and relaxed. The picture below is taken from the rooftop bar. You can see the unique architecture and how close it was to the dunes.

It was finally time to leave Dunhuang, but not China quite yet. We stopped in Beijing for a couple of days and were able to see the completed Olympic preparations. Above, Darbie and Jimbo stand in front of the famous Watercube. The Olympic area was abuzz with excitement and activity as you can tell from the following video.

We were also able to visit a very unique area of Beijing. After getting lost for a while, we found an artsy neighborhood. The art was very modern, and a stark contrast from the Communist China of old. A graffiti wall was the entrance to the campus.
There was a lot of interesting art, some of it very critical of the government. It was refreshing to see that, indeed, there is personal expression in China after all. Marilyn Monroe even made an appearance (twice).

Above, is from a brilliant exhibit of replica terracotta warriors with colorful designs. As you can see, Marilyn Monroe is painted here.

After a brief visit in Beijing, we loaded the plane and left China. I don't think we'll ever forget many of the things we saw and experienced here. There is no doubt that we came away from this trip changed people, for the better. China will always have a soft spot in our heart because of it.

Thanks for reading,

DB & KM

Last Days in Huangdao

2008-07-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well, we are finishing our last day in Huangdao, China at the University of Science and Technology. Jimbo arrived two days ago from a 4 day bike ride along the eastern Chinese coast. Since then we have been busy introducing him to students and other teachers, climbing a mountain at the south end of our campus, introducing him to our town with shopping and local restaurants, eating lots of Chinese food, and he even got a trip to the local police station unaccompanied by either of us!

Below, Jimbo is tesing his free climbing skills on a local mountain a short walk from our school.

We reached the top! In the distance you can see our school campus.
The Torch Relay is arriving in Qingdao on Monday. They are very excited about it with lots advertising. Even you can be a torch bearer in the local bank!
When dad arrived on campus, he was outfitted in his full bike riding regalia. As soon as he arrived, I got a phone call from one of my students wanting to take pictures together. So Jimbo got to meet several students and plug JB Outdoors and bike riding at the same time. They still think its incredible that he rode that far! Below are two of my English major Freshmen students, Brad and Slinda. They asked if this kind of clothing was fashionable in the U.S.!
This is a classic Chinese pose by the lake at the University. We are posing with our student Joey who is a Mechanical Drawing major but took an English discussion class with both of us.
Our last night in Huangdao we had a wonderful Chinese banquet with the Tang family. We have tutored their son Patrick for the past year and we have become very close with them over that time. They are our liasons with the Chinese culture and dad met a kindred spirit in Lu, the dad over this meal. Below are all the boys toasting with traditional Chinese spirits called Baijiu and Jenny, the mom, and me.

Saying goodbye over the last week or so has been hard! We will miss so many things about China, but most of all our students and the friendships we have cultivated. But right now its still hasn't sunk in that we will be back in the U.S. in 1 week!

We are heading to Dunhuang tomorrow which is in Gansu Province in the Gobi Desert. We are going to see the famous Mogao Buddhist caves, sand surf, ride camels, and sleep in the desert. We will write more about that on our return to the US.

We just wanted to say thanks to all our loyal readers! We will post a final blog on our return.

DB&KM

Welcome to our neighborhood

2008-07-12T02:38:00.000-07:00

All done! We're basically just chillin' until Wednesday when Jimbo shows up. Since there's not much to report, we thought we'd give you another glimpse of the normal, daily life of a Chinese person (or, a foreigner living in China).

For some reason, if you walk down any street in China, you're likely to see at least one hair salon. I would guesstimate that hair "stylists" make up about 30% of the work force in China. The greatest part of the hair salons in China is that they go the extra mile - massages and all. Another entertaining aspect of the hair salons are the hair stylists' hair styles. The overwhelming majority of hair stylists are male, and their hair styles usually look like something you'd find in mid 80's MTV video. To demonstrate that point, check out below:
Yes, that's a girl, but there isn't much gender differentiation in hair style. If you're wondering what a shampoo and cut go for here, I bought 15 haircuts for 100 Yuan, which comes out to a little less that $1/cut. We don't want to bore you to long, because after all, we are talking about hair cuts here, but below is a video Darbie shot while I was getting clipped.

Close listeners might have been fortunate enough to hear Kendall's poor but adequate Chinese.
That's just one of the 10 or so hair salons on campus. Across the street is a very popular restaurant section of campus. Since it has gotten warm, it has become even more popular. We ventured over there to see what was up, and came across Kabobs! While there's no doubt that this meat has been sitting out for a while, and eating it is basically a gamble, kabobs never disappoint. They'll put anything on a spear, from bread and peppers to...
What are those? Chicken FEET! Which are really popular by the way. Darbie and I think it's because, compared with a lot of other measly Chinese cuts of chicken, the feet do have an ample proportion of meat. Here's Darbie with more!

So, if you come to China, ignore the inevitable diarrhea and painful stomach cramps, and eat a kabob! At least their good going in!

DB&KM

P.S. We're not lying about strange Chinese cuts of meat. To prove our point...

CHICKEN HEAD!!! At least it looks like the chicken went peacefully.

Bringing the USA to the PRC (People's Republic of China)

2008-07-05T03:32:00.001-07:00

We are happy to report that we have finished all our classes. The only thing we have left to do is grade a hundred or so exams. Chinese exams aren't like United States, however, they prefer a lot of multiple choice, matching, and true/false to essays.

During our time in China, we've managed to acquire a lot of stuff that we can't bring back with us. Darbie came up with the idea that we should have a yard sale, and we did just that. Our students had never heard of such a thing; so, it became a learning experience as well as a shopping opportunity. We told our students that a little bit of everything would be on sale anywhere from 1 kuai ($.68) to 3 kuai ($2.04). If you remember back to the Christmas extravaganza, our students love to build up our possessions in their head (they thought we would be giving them Nintendo Wii's and Gucci Purses for Christmas gifts), so the same frenzy whipped up again. So, even though the "yard" sale officially started at 10:00, we had students ringing the buzzer and dying to get in 2o minutes early. You can check out a few of the goodies below:
All the DVDs and books were gone within the first 10 minutes. Of course, any yard sale that Darbie's involved in will have fashionable clothes, and this one was no exception.
At 10:00, we pressed the buzzer and they all ran up the five flights of stairs to get first pickings. And they bought...
I love 007's (James Bond, the only guy in the pic) expression in this picture. He's absolutely blown away by something. And then more came, and bought...
Rummaging through the DVDs and books. They came up with some pretty funny questions too, like in Jesse's picture below.As you can see, he's already got a death grip on the badminton set, but he came and asked about The Old Man and the Sea. "I've heard that first editions are very expensive in America; is this a first edition book?" I told him sorry, and then he said, "Is it at least all in English?" I assured him that it is indeed all English, and is the original version of the book, just not the very first edition of the book. This is why we love of our students. Darbie also shot a video of the opening moments of the sale, and you can check that out too.

It was a lot of fun, and we learned one thing: The Chinese love yard sales. They just about bought everything out within the first half-hour. Students that hardly talked in class during the semester were coming up to us asking how much for this gravy mix, Iron Man DVD, or basketball. They would hand us the money for some thing or another and then ask, "What is this thing, and what does it do?" It was pretty funny, and from the looks on their faces, a highlight of their freshman year. For us, we made a total of 280 yuan which equates to about $40!

For most of the students it was the last time we'd ever see each other and so they gave us gifts. One class all signed the school's official t-shirt, while another gave us a photo album with all their pictures complete with special notes on the back. We were very touched by their gestures of appreciation. It was very similar to the end of a summer camp.

Now we're just trying to stay cool (yes, it's finally hot here) in our non-AC apartment, and bumming around for a little over a week until Jimbo bikes in and we whisk him off to the Gobi Desert.

There's still time for you, too!

DB&KM

Whoa, Nelly.

2008-06-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

We thought we should include this as a mini-update.

Qingdao has a large, green problem on its hands. Darbie and I were in Qingdao last weekend picking up some airplane tickets and visiting small "antique" street markets. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our camera along. I say unfortunately because, along the way we encountered the most disgusting/disturbing ocean event we've ever seen. It has just recently gotten hot in Qingdao (mid 80's), and the sun and heat have combined to give Qingdao a present, look below. Yes, that's the ocean. This gives new meaning to "rolling fields of green." The majority of Qingdao's coastline is covered in an algae blossom. And, it really, really stinks. This is, of course, where the sailing events for the Olympics are supposed to take place. The Olympic organizers have demanded this be cleaned up somehow. So, as we were riding on the bus along the coast, the road would back up all due to massive heaps of algae being scooped out of the ocean onto the roads. The stacks of algae were at least four feet tall, don't believe me? Here's an even taller one below.Yep, that's a large conveyor belt dumping algae into a giant, smelly pile. Besides not really having anything to do with all this algae, it doesn't look like they are really making a dent in it. I've seen algae in stagnant lakes and rivers, but never the ocean! Some part of us believes that pollution is playing a larger role in this than the government is admitting. The citizens of Qingdao are also down on the beach with shovels scooping up the tide. Let's hope they get this issue resolved soon.

If you're still interested, or just want to see more amazing pictures, check out this great article from the NY Times.

Stop polluting!

DB&KM

P.S. These pics are courtesy of AP Press. No, we didn't take a helicopter ride over the city.

Chinglish Illustrated

2008-06-23T03:40:00.000-07:00

During our time in China we've seen many, many signs that attempt to convey English messages. However, these signs are usually botched beyond recognition, and the signs end up being more funny than helpful. What you're about to witness is lovingly referred to as "Chinglish." Below you'll find a collection of some memorable Chinglish signs that we've encountered so far in our trip. This is only a small sample; Chinglish signs can be found everywhere here, even above the urinals - "Step Forward for Civilization"- reminding Chinese men the often forgotten fact that the urinal is there for a reason.

We'll start with some good attempts and get more absurd as we go along. First we have one of the most common Chinglish sayings: Indeed, when one is slipping, they should want to be careful about it. The most frequent error in Chinese sign is of course, spelling. Jimbo spotted this in Beijing:What's funny is that spelling errors and Chinglish can be found on official documents, national tv and print ads, and even in one of the most recognized and touristed areas in China, the Forbidden City.
Oooo, so close, but we were looking for "Imperial" there, sorry. Now we'll get to the signs that make you stop and admire just how bad or confusing they are. First up, we saw this sign as we were walking up a mountain:
We're guessing they wanted "Confirm Stones Ahead" which is pretty weird by itself, but anytime you forget to print the first two letters and decide to go with "nfirm" it takes it up a notch. Next is a classic over-translation trying to impress the foreigners.

In other words, don't go over the hand rail unless you want to die. Another Chinglish-ism is to choose the oddest word possible. For instance, instead of just writing "No Climbing" we have:Yet another good example is this trashcan that separated recyclables and non-recyclables.

But at least for the most part you can get some idea of what the sign is actually there for. However, the best Chinglish leaves a native English speaker baffled, like these signs below:I still have no idea what "steon" is supposed to be. But the next one takes the cake, and is in the running for the best Chinglish sign ever. WHAT IN THE WORLD? Some nights when I can't sleep I think of all the possible meanings for this sign, and I haven't centered on one logical translation yet. I guess it could just be compassion, but then that raises an entire new set of questions. It just dawned on me that I should get one of our students to help us translate this difficult (and disturbing) sign. We'll keep you updated on this situation. Perhaps what happened is similar to the example below. It is one of Darbie's favorites. It is a light switch in a hotel room, and apparently they couldn't decide whether they wanted to label the switch "reading" or "ceiling" light so they compromised.
"Ceding". Not all attempts at Chinglish are bad, some can be quite cute. We found the next one on a lawn in Sanya, and it is rather sweet.

Next we have evidence that it is possible, if not rare, to come across a well translated sign.

Perhaps you'd like to make up your own Chinglish version of this sign. Although it can never be as good as the real thing, here's my attempt:

"If you lve the munkeys extra very, accidentl must be prepared. Your ojbects gotten will be, take danger, and forelasting good harmony ."

Hope you've enjoyed this beginner's lesson on Chinglish. Some say it takes 12 years study to master Chinglish, and that even then one must keep up-to-date with new and developing trends.

I've saved the best Chinglish sign for last. This is displayed at the National Zoo in Beijing. Hope you enjoy.

Sometimes it's hard to resist reading Chinglish signs in a Yoda voice.

DB&KM

Passing Time

2008-06-13T03:34:00.000-07:00

With school winding down we've had to find some interesting ways to amuse ourselves besides playing ping pong. We've judged a 5 hour long speech and debate contest, attended as the VIPs to a series of English plays performed by the foreign language school (which interestingly enough was all in English with one Japanese play), been interviewed for the campus radio station on Father's Day and American college life, attended various lunches with the university hierarchy, proofread the dean of the foreign language school's new text book, and gone to the beach with some students.

We don't have many pics from the beach but here is a picture of the whole class trying their skills at the grill. They rented the grill and brought 3 cardboard boxes of raw meat to cook, no cooler or ice. Needless to say, we were a little nervous but it ended up being pretty good except for the random parts such as chicken hearts, feet, and necks. They asked us, "Do you not eat animal organs?" It was an adventure!

As for the rest of the time, Chinese students just call it "play" so we played soccer and other various games they invented. Here is a video of one of the more unusual games.

One of the other places we decided to visit recently is the local zoo. We have all heard of the horrible conditions of the Chinese zoos from the animal rights activists so we were more than a little nervous. One of the little boys that we tutor wanted to take us with his father so we couldn't refuse. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the Huangdao zoo is located in a valley between 2 mountains and is actually a pleasant area. The animals are given space to run around, well at least the big animals are. The zoo is small but contains all the normal animals for a zoo. Chinese zoos tend to like to build bridges above the enclosures so you walk above the animals and look down into their living spaces. There aren't a lot of animals but the favorite of the locals by far are the big cats. But just watching the tigers hang around and cool off is not enough for the Chinese tourist. There is a man standing next to the enclose with live chickens in cages that you can purchase to throw down to the fierce beasts and watch what happens. At first I was horrified, but its like a train wreck and you just can't look away. Luckily, these tigers were in a more playful mood. Watch for yourselves below.

But our favorite part of the zoo were the bears. These bears are remarkable and will do all sorts of tricks so you will throw them a piece of carrot. They stand, dance, and wave.

So after visiting this zoo, we were a little prepared for what we experienced at the next zoo we had to visit with the school. First we were surprised to see a large exhibit of white tigers. Aren't they supposed to be rare? They had at least 5 at this smallish zoo in the middle of nowhere. Then the most interesting part appeared. This interesting yet uninformative sign. Can you guess what's inside?

Inside you will find several hyenas, a leopard, and a dog living harmoniously. I don't know about peaceful aspect, but I sure felt sorry for the dog!

So Happy Father's Day dads! Sorry we couldn't take you to the zoo or the beach this year, maybe next year!

DB&KM

2008-06-06T00:36:00.000-07:00

I think Benjamin Franklin put it best when he said "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."Inspired by those great words, we recently set out for Qingdao's famous "Beer Street." Each August, Qingdao is home to the massive International Beer Festival featuring many different types of global brews. Beer Street is where it all takes place, and it is also home to the largest and most famous brewery in Qingdao, Tsingtao Brewery. (they are actually pronounced the same, just two different systems of the romanization of the Chinese language - complicated).

or...
Tsingtao Brewery was established by the Germans in 1903. The Germans were occupying Qingdao because every Western country wanted a piece of China in those days. When two German missionaries were murdered, that was apparently enough reason for the Germans to seize the town. The Germans brought modernity to the city (electricity, trains, architecture, beer), and then handed it and the brewery over to the Japanese (who are detested by the Chinese). The Japanese controlled Qingdao - and other parts of China - until 1945.

Enough history. Qingdao folks are very proud of their brewery. Each city/town in China is famous for something (even if it is pickled lettuce), and you might not be surprised that Tsingtao Beer is everywhere here. The brewery is available for tours, and its well worth the trip if you ever get to Qingdao.The brewery is pretty large. There are huge neon signs all along Beer Street, but above is my personal favorite. Earth is dunking into a big mug of Tsingtao, and the sign says something like "makes the world happy." The street outside the brewery is decorated with tons of beer-related paraphernalia:
I'm not quite sure what the purpose is of the large cans of Tsingtao in the pictures above. They are on a lot of the buildings in the brewery. Below you can see trash cans that look like beer kegs and benches in the shape of beer bottles.
Very prominent throughout Beer Street are these manhole covers with cartoon animals drinking beer. They have a different covers for each animal in the Chinese Zodiac. As you can see, Tsingtao Beer likes to get 'em young!
Last and most disturbing, the artistic beer bottle statues that look more like Salvador Dali's version of dancing male genitalia! Hooray!The inside of the brewery takes you through the history of the brewery. It has some really cool stuff like old Tsingtao brewery ads from the early 20th century. Some of the old German influence can still be seen, like these stained-glass windows.You also walk through the beer making process from step one to the packaging. But what brewery tour would be complete without the samples? They're also kind enough to hand out free peanuts!
One of the coolest rooms in the brewery is the packaging plant.
It got me really excited and reminded me of that show on Food Network, Unwrapped.* So, I pretended to be Marc Summers for a little while so that we could bring you this video.

Whoa! Mindy Mann shout-out, surely that warrants a comment! I think I still need a little work before my audition.

Lastly, one of the funniest exhibits at the brewery was one of those illusion-type rooms where you walk in and the floor is slanted. I guess it's showing you what you feel like after too many Tsingtao's. The best part is that they have a TV on the outside of the booth so that viewers can watch the people inside stumbling around. I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a Darbie video.

The end of the tour ends in the Tsingtao bar where they serve all ages, at least until they fall asleep. I'm not joking; looks like those cartoon manhole covers do the trick after all!

Does anyone still read this anymore? Don't worry, we're almost through here.

DB&KM

*Disclaimer: Kendall only watches the Food Network when he's with Darbie or his Mother.

A Day in the Life

2008-05-29T01:50:00.001-07:00

We thought it might be nice to take a break from all these travel blogs and give you a glimpse of how we live on a daily basis. It isn't very exciting by any means, but at least it might help you picture how or what we're doing here.

Our university, Shandong University of Science and Technology, is located in a suburb of Qingdao, officially called the Economic & Technical Development Zone. That means that all of the major industry (and polluters) get shoved out here, away from the beautiful, healthy city of Qingdao. Within walking distance of campus, there are some major factories like Haier, Hisense/Hitachi, Aucma, and Sannis. While you may not be too familiar with all of these names, they are giants in the world of Chinese retail, Haier especially. Hopefully, in the future we'll be taking a tour of one of these massive factories and bringing you some info about factory life.

But today's blog is about something very near and dear to us here in China, bus #6.

Bus #6 is our closest bus stop to get into town. The stop is right outside the north gate of the school. Unfortunately, the #6's are also the oldest, slowest, and dirtiest buses in the fleet. We don't go into town that much, at most two times a week, because of the commute. From our bus stop to our most frequented stop in town takes approximately 40 minutes. Now, that isn't that bad, it's just that there really isn't that much in town that warrants a 40 minute ride. Nevertheless, we have to make our weekly grocery runs, and the occasional night out, or visit KFC or Pizza Hut, so we anxiously await "big green" at our bus stop.

There isn't any kind of strict bus schedule, but buses are supposed to run in 10 minute intervals, though, usually with #6 it can be up to 20 minutes (making the commute a solid hour!). Also, notice the brown sky in the picture above. As the weather has finally started warming, the sky has taken on a filmy brown quality. Check out the picture from on the bus below.

That strange ball of light hovering in the sky is the sun at mid-day trying in vain to cut through the atmosphere. Hopefully, the last few days have been something of an anomaly and we'll get some clear skies soon.

Back to the bus! As the bus pulls up to the stop, a bus conductor yells out the window asking if anyone wants to get on. Not all buses in China have bus conductors, but a good majority of them still do. They walk up and down the aisle (if they can) and demand money. Our ride into town costs 3 yuan for the both of us. The conductor then tears off two seemingly meaningless pieces of colored paper and hands them to us. In the picture below, you can see the conductor doing her routine.

All buses have the automatic bus card system installed, but I guess having bus conductors ensures more jobs for the people. If Kendall were an uneducated Chinese man, he'd either want to be a bus conductor or a taxi driver, both seem like good, simple lives. Speaking of which, sometimes we do take taxis into town (only 20 minutes!), but we like to think we're truly living Chinese when we bus it. Plus, we're rarely ever in a hurry anyway, in fact, the bus is a nice place to study flash cards or mull over LOST theories.

Inside the bus it's pretty spartan. Each bus has a different seating design, but invariably they always have seat covers, because the buses have been in use so long the seats are very worn. In the picture below, you can visualize you're on the front row of seats, right behind the driver! As you can see, it's just as hi-tech in the bus as it is outside. The box on the right is the bus card validator-thingy. A lot of times, especially on Sundays, these buses get crazy crowded. There has only been one time that we've been on the bus when they've not allowed any more people to get on. So, sitting next to an open window is crucial. Also, if you're ever standing on a crowded Chinese bus, watch your wallet! Pick-pockets love to make a quick snatch and hop-off on the next stop.

Guess that's enough bus talk for today. We have a special surprise below. On the bus route is a moderate hill, but the bus is so old that it barely makes it up each trip. It isn't uncommon for the bus to roll backward while the driver slams into the next gear. Check out the people walking on the sidewalk at about the same pace as the bus. Each time we cross our fingers we don't have to get out and push.

Be back later,

DB&KM

Lingering around Luoyang

2008-05-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Well, we got to Luoyang around 6 in the morning, which is early, even for the Chinese. We checked into the hotel determined to just put our stuff down and head right back down, but we ended up crashing for more than a few hours. When we awoke, we went straight to Luoyang's most famous attraction, the Longmen Caves.

A long time ago, Luoyang was the capital for a few Chinese dynasties. Unfortunately, not too much of that history is still visible in the town. The Longmen Caves are an outstanding exception. Back in mid-first century when Buddhism was dominant, many artists started carving Buddhas into the cliffs. Eventually, more than 100,000 images and statues were carved. Each one is done in a cave, the size varies with the image. It is really impressive sight, check it out below.

I wish you could see that one a little bit closer up. There are a lot of them there believe us. Plus, the trees are covering a good portion. This picture is only one side of the river, the other side has even older carvings. I'm a big fan of smiling, happy buddhas, so I was happy to see this one.

The most famous "cave" is below. It attracts a big crowd, and it is magnificent. Rarely ever do we get to see works of art in China so beautifully preserved. Next, you can see the right side of the cave. It shows how well these images are carved, and also shows that you wouldn't want to tangle with a buddha's security.Unfortunately, not all of the caves are so well preserved. Some of the caves were vandalized by Westerners eagerly wanting to bring them home. A lot of these have been replaced, but some are still in museums throughout the world. The Cultural Revolution also left many of these statues headless or faceless as communist and Mao extremists came to destroy religion and relics. A lot of the statues look like the one below, of often times, worse. Our next matter of business was to visit a famous temple in Luoyang, called the White Horse Temple. It is recognized as the first Buddhist temple in China. It was also established in the 1st century CE when two Indian monks came riding into Luoyang on white horses with ancient Buddhist texts. We've seen a lot of temples now, and I've got to say, they don't really hold too many surprises anymore. Although the White Horse Temple is very similar to the rest, it has a beautiful campus with a lot of gardens. Above, you see Darbie with one of the horse statues that recall the white horses (though this one is grey). Below is a cool pagoda that was supposedly built to house the scriptures, though I'm fairly sure it's just empty these days. Last, Darbie has a deep love for circular doors. These can be seen in a lot of Chinese architecture, both inside and outside.

We had planned to go visit the famous Shaolin Temple, which some of you Kung-Fu buffs might know is the temple with the fighting monks. It is also the refuted home of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism. But, not having anyway to return to Qingdao besides hard-seat train (not an option) prevented us from visiting. Oh well, always something for next time we find ourselves stuck in Henan. After a lot of hassle and hustle and bustle, we ended up flying back to Qingdao on a leisurely 1.5 hour flight (a lot more convenient than the would be 17 hour train ride).

DB & KM

The Nightmare from...well, China

2008-05-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

As some of you might remember, we had planned to visit Luoyang as the first stop on our Spring Festival journey, but we couldn't get train tickets. A few weekends ago we had a four-day weekend and decided to take the train to a bordering province, Henan. Unfortunately, the school tried to keep us in the dark about our time-off. The students had let us know about a "sports meeting" (think elementary school field day) that was taking place on Thursday and Friday. All of the classes were to be cancelled. As soon as we heard about it we asked our contact person who's only reply was, "I don't know, I'll check." This daily routine went about two weeks and wasn't broken until about the day before we wanted to leave for Luoyang, when he finally chose to let us know that indeed, we didn't have classes. Begrudgingly, we thanked him while muttering unkind words about him as we walked away.

It wouldn't have been a big deal at all if it were not for the difficulty of getting to Luoyang, only one daily train leaves from Qingdao, and that train hits a lot of rural spots in-between. So, the day before I got us tickets to the train, the worst available - hard seat. We'd heard nightmare stories about hard-seat car train rides, but usually they took place around the overcrowded traveling of Spring Festival. The ticket lady made it seem like it would be easy to upgrade to a soft-seat or sleeper. So, somewhat optimistic we left for the train station and boarded. The train had an odd schedule, it left Qingdao at 2:00 pm and got to Luoyang around 5:00 am. But the worst thing we noticed was the name "hard seat" was quite literal. We remained optimistic because of the possibility of upgrading. Nonetheless, the hard seat, was more of a bench with an upright back and minimal padding, and about 3.5 feet wide. Check out the video below. The sun was still shining, and we were in pretty good spirits.

As you can see, car #14 was pretty crowded. It wasn't bad enough that all the benches were full, but China insists on selling standing room tickets. So, at all times, someone is standing over your shoulder. When people get off at a stop, usually more people get on. So, as the ride progresses, the cars get more jam-packed. We knew this happened, it's just that we didn't expect all this chaos on a Wednesday night!

At times, people even sit in the middle of the aisles. If you look toward the back of the picture, you'll see a bunch of guys just standing in the the thruway. That is the designated smoking area, though it usually just ends up wafting in the car.

Things went from increasingly bad to unbelievably worse when the students next to us allowed a family to sit down. The family was very, very backwoods (or backfields) China, and everything about them resonated it. I think we all expected the family to be getting off at the next stop, but it turned out they were there for the long haul. As the students realized this, the family began migrating their way toward the bench opposite us. And then...they slept,

And slept,

and slept.

What is that last picture of? Well, as you can see the little boy was sleeping on the bench with Dad. The mom decided to sleep UNDER the benches on the disgusting floor, with, yes with her 4-week old baby. From the picture, you can also see just how much room we had under and between the benches. The mom stayed down there for around 6 hours, which meant Kendall needed legs about 15 inches shorter. The smells, sounds, and aggravation made sleeping nearly impossible as it got later. This all led to a very unhappy and miserable Darbie and Kendall.

This all might seem pretty trivial, but there are more stories that would only frighten you. Did I mention how we were basically dehydrating ourselves so that we wouldn't have to experience the bathroom? During Spring Festival, when trains are even more packed, many people where diapers or strategically use bags and bottles. Yuck!

So we're NOT saying never take a Chinese train, just never take a Chinese train hard-seat for more than, oh 6 hours. Anything else, and you're asking for an exercise in patience, will, and sanity.

We actually did get to Luoyang, and we'll have that story next (it's a little better).

DB & KM

P.S. Beware! Immediately wake yourself up if you see this in a dream...

Last, but not least...

2008-04-28T00:44:00.000-07:00

Sanya! I'm sure that doesn't excite too many (ok, any) of you, but it was a welcome relief to the cold of the mainland. If you're looking at a map of China, Sanya is on the very Southern tip of China's largest Southern Island, Hainan. That is all to say, it was warm! Well, at least warmer.

Sanya was our first visit to a true Chinese beach town. Qingdao is also a beach town, but currently it's almost May and we're lucky to have a day in the 70's without cold winds. Anyway, we were surprised to find that it didn't have as much Chinese influence as it did Russian! Every language took a backseat to Russian in Sanya. Our only guess is that it is one of the closest beach resort areas to Russia, so many Russians come and start businesses aimed toward their compatriot vacationers. There's also a good chance that there's some Russian mob operations going on down there.

There are lots of big name resorts in Sanya (Hilton, Marriot, Crowne Plaza, etc.), but unfortunately all of them are in a more remote area of the island, so we decided to stay in the more active part, dadonghai, or big east sea. There were plenty of resorts here, though most of them are Chinese franchises. We were glad to see that there was plenty going on in the city at night. There were a few very good restaurants in town, and we frequented them daily. We even got to enjoy pancakes for the first time in China, yummy! We could buy literally any type of firework along the coast, even the huge ones that aren't legal in the US. Below, Darbie's displaying some of her sparkler skillz.

But the preferred Chinese firecracker is the M-80. They buy huge threads of them and set them all of at once, destroying anyone's hearing within range. The greatest part is that they just leave the remnants wherever. Check out the ground on the picture below. That's a lot of firecrackers. And those wrappers were everywhere, especially since it was the last night of the Lunar New Year Celebration - Lantern Festival.

There isn't too much to report about Sanya, because we mostly just sat on the beach. It was a gorgeous beach, though I'm not sure you'd want to travel around the world for it.
Above is a picture from the hotel deck. You can see just how green the coastline is. Lots of hills and palm trees dot the coast. The hotel was in a great location. The beach is horseshoe-shaped, and we were right in the center of of it. Below is a picture at night looking in the opposite direction. Of course, a lot of neon is present. A good deal of our entertainment came from just observing the people around us, or sometimes trying not to. For instance, Russian women are determined to wear skimpy bathing suits, no matter their size. I guess the same can be sad for Russian men (speedos, banana hammocks, you get the idea). But, as always, the true entertainment was left to the Chinese. Beach appropriate wedding attire for photos. The couple changed into 3 or 4 different matching outfits. The photographer made them do some hilarious poses.Naked baby alert! Naked Chinese babies at the beach are only outnumbered by grains of sand. Even those babies fortunate enough to start with bathing suits usually strip down by the end of the day.

And our personal favorite, matching family beach outfits! This is supposedly a Chinese tradition, and just about every shop had multiple patterns to choose from. But, in reality, I guess it's just as dorky as the picture below.I don't advise drinking coconut milk, especially when warm. It tastes a lot like sweat, AND it's a natural laxative. We didn't discover that until later. The rest of our time was spent just walking around, listening to large Russians sing karaoke on the shore, or Chinese cover bands perform the latest Gwen Stefani song. All that fun, and we didn't even catch malaria (or at least we haven't so far)!

Well, that completes our trip. We flew back to Qingdao and were once again greeted by bitter cold and strong winds. It's gradually getting warmer, and perhaps in a few weeks, we'll be able to wear flip-flops again!

Miles from Hong Kong to Sanya: 450 miles

Miles from Sanya to Qingdao: 1,983 miles

Total Miles Traveled: 9, 845 miles

Stay tuned, we recently got back from a hellish trip to He(ll)nan province. And soon, we'll be getting you more familiar with our home city, Qingdao.

DB & KM

Breaking the Piggy Bank - Hong Kong

2008-04-19T00:45:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was Hong Kong. I didn't really talk about the economic situation in Lhasa, which was very poor. There were thousands of beggars in for the New Year, when generous pilgrims are at their peak. Many of these beggars work as cattle herders in the countryside. They can be quite aggressive. There is an interesting cause-effect relationship between the many pilgrims in Lhasa aiming to gain positive karma, and the multitudes of beggars hanging around the religious sites. All that is to say we left Lhasa, a mostly impoverished city, and arrived that night in one of the most wealthy and expensive cities in the world - it was quite a day.

We caught a taxi (yes, they drive on the wrong side of the road) from the train station to our hotel and were quite surprised to see that people were out at 10 o'clock at night! Not only that, there were lights on, the city was clean, and alive! Like every big city, Hong Kong has different neighborhoods. We stayed in the Kowloon area, which is across the bay from actual Hong Kong island. Kowloon has most of the glitzy hotels and shopping markets. It also has the best view of the main island, as you can see below.

Hong Kong has one of the best, if not the best, public transportation systems in the world. There are buses, subways, pedicabs, taxis, trains, ferries, everything needed to get somewhere in a short amount of time. We were only a short subway ride away from the main island, so we hopped on and went to our first destination, Mt. Victoria Peak Tram. Hong Kong still enjoys most of the freedoms it had with the British since the handover to the Chinese in 1997. The Chinese yuan can be used, but Hong Kong has the Hong Kong Dollar. It has roughly the same exchange rate, but the currency is the coolest I've ever seen. It can't be burned!!

Here's a little example about how Hong Kong is crazy expensive. Kendall got almost all his clothes laundered by the hotel in Chengdu for 42 yuan. In Hong Kong, to wash a single T-shirt cost 40 HKD (remember, they're basically the same rate)!! The Peak Tram runs passengers up the side of Victoria Peak, and at one point, the tram is almost vertical. Below you can see the tram rushing past us.

To help out a little more you can watch the video below. We're going down the peak in the video, so imagine leaning forward a good deal, and you'll get a better feel.

The tram was built a long time ago by the British, and now operates as a renovated tourist attraction. They've built a shopping mall at the top, but the real treat is the view of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, there's rarely ever a clear day in Hong Kong, so here's the best we could come up with.

As you can see from the picture, there is a suprising amount of green in Hong Kong. Beautiful gardens and parks are scattered throughout the many neighborhoods. We enjoyed walking through parks and not having to pay! They're pretty strict about what goes on in their parks. Darbie was lying beside a fountain, and a park security guard told her it was forbidden. She decided to walk through the topiary maze instead.
We did a lot of walking through Hong Kong, we got to visit the Temple St. Night market where they have all kinds of souvenirs and knock-offs, the Jade Market where hundreds of vendors explain why their jade is the best, and eat all kinds of delicious food from a hole-in-the-wall fish and chips place to a Mexican fiesta complete with a Mariachi band. There really is too much to say about Hong Kong, it's an amazing city. Darbie likes to say that the Brits learned what was wrong about London and perfected it in Hong Kong. The city really is one of the best we've ever visited.
Above is the clock tower that stands near the piers on Kowloon. Below is the Avenue of Stars with a great background. The Avenue of Stars is a Chinese version of the Walk of Fame in Hollywood where everyone has stars in the ground. Not too many recognizable names, save Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

Hong Kong features a nightly lights show, and the Avenue of Stars is the best place to watch it. Once it gets dark the buildings across the bay on Hong Kong island put on a light display to music.

It's not quite Stone Mountain, but it is worth seeing. Also around the clock tower were giant Olympic Friendly Lanterns. Each lantern is a friendly performing a different Olympic sport. It was really impressive. Here's my favorite of the lanterns.
I'm not sure which sport Jing-Jing is representing here, but it's clear to see he means business. Below is shot of the lanterns all lit up. On our last day in Hong Kong we visited Hong Kong Disneyland! It was a lot of fun, though quite smaller than the real deal with less attractions of course. But, considering the good price, it's actually one of the best deals in Hong Kong. We got to meet a few of the characters in their festive New Year outfits. Another cool thing about Hong Kong Disneyland is that there is a special metro line especially for park visitors. They've even Disney-ized the train! There's just enough stuff to keep you entertained for one day, especially if you ride Space Mountain multiple times. We stayed around long enough to catch the fireworks show and then headed home. No, the castle isn't on fire. Unfortunately, Jimbo had to head out early the next morning, but we're pretty sure he had a good time on the trip. We had been a little skeptical about Hong Kong before we visited, now I would highly recommend it to any type of traveller. Although it may not be an authentic Chinese experience, it's definitely one that keeps you entertained.

Miles from Lhasa - Hong Kong: 3,685 miles

Total: 7,412 miles travelled.

DB & KM

P.S. Don't tell Darbie, but I met someone special, and I think she really likes me.

A Monastery on a Hill

2008-04-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

In all the excitement of the last blog, I forgot to mention our New Year's meal. Every new year, a local restaurant, Tashi, invites all the foreigners in for a free Tibetan meal. When we first arrived, we were greeted and given "Sweet Tea" which is not the sweet tea that the South boasts. Instead, it is some sort of milk, sugar, and tea concoction that is a lot better than yak butter tea. They were also pouring us generous amounts of chang, a potent Tibetan libation. Imagine the hardest apple cider you've ever had, and you'll get some idea of what chang is like. As we were waiting for the meal to start we had some conversation with some Australians. During our time overseas we've realized that if there's ever an Australian around at a party, stay close, because usually good, funny conversation will follow. Some (Kramer) would say the same about a proctologist. The real star of the night was the food. Our favorite was a local dish called bobi. It is basically a Tibetan soft-shelled taco - fried meat and veggies. The twist comes with the seasoned cream cheese that takes the place of salsa and sour cream. It was a really fun experience, and we were surprised and thankful for the generosity of the owners.

The next day we decided to visit one of the most famous monasteries in the world, the Drepung Monastery. The best, and cheapest, way to get out there is the mini-bus, so we flagged one down. We immediately noticed how packed the bus was, like most buses in China, but the Tibetans kindly made room for us. In the picture below, Kendall (who is taking the picture) is sharing the back seat of the bus with 6 or 7 people.

When the bus stopped, everyone got off and made their way up the long hill that houses the monastery on the top. There is a nice road winding up the hill, and we wondered why the bus didn't just take us there, but the walk gave us some nice surprises. At first, the monastery was just a dot on a hill, but as we got closer, we could see just how large it was. In fact, 7,000 monks used to inhabit Drepung. Here's a shot of the monastery couched between some even larger hills. We also encountered some wild life on our journey up the hill, most notably a yak! I don't know if you've ever seen a yak up close, but it doesn't look like an animal you'd like to tangle with. I got as close as I felt it would like, and then backed away as it stared me down. I can understand his nervousness; after all, since we had been in Tibet we'd tried dried Yak meat, drank Yak butter tea, bought trinkets made of Yak bone, and seen people clothed in Yak fur. There were also lots of sheep running around, and I mean a lot. Darbie's favorite one came to meet us half-way up the mountain.

The monastery is a multi-levelled beast to see in the thin air. We were even higher than Lhasa, and good breaths were hard to come by. The monastery wasn't beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, the sheep see to that. However, the history and significance of the landmark are what make it worth seeing. There are hundreds of shrines and rooms to visit, each containing images of various buddhas. The monastery charges photographers per room! Even the monks are enjoying the benefits of tourism. Thus, we don't have many pics of the shrines or temples, but really just go back to Tai'an or some other temple pics in our archive, and you can get a feel for it. Below are two pics of the monastery. The first is of a typical building in the monastery. In the second you can see just how far up we had to walk, and also how big the monastery is.

Throughout the monastery campus are prayer wheels, written mantras, and "buddhist graffitti". They often contain mantas with pictures of various Lamas or buddhas.

Here are some more sheep pictures. We're telling you these things are all over the place, doing whatever they like. There are a lot of thin alleyways in the monastery, and Darbie wasn't too pleased with what she met done one in particular.

Below is one of our favorite pictures of the entire trip.

I was a little disappointed because Tibetan monks are known for their unique debates. They challenge each other in debate, and it helps both monks to gain a better understanding of Buddhist precepts. We went to the "debating place" only to find it locked. I asked a couple of younger monks what was up only to find out that they do not debate during the New Year. Heartbroken, we made our way back down the mountain. There was another temple lower down the hill, dedicated to "the oracle." This sounded cool, but there was yet another 3 hour line to enter due to the New Year. So, we took some shots with prayer flags and hopped on a bus that was even more crowded. We would have taken a picture, but we weren't able to move. We even got some sun on our journey to the monastery.

Lhasa was a great trip, and we look forward to returning some day soon. If you're interested, be aware that not only must you have a Chinese visa, but also a Tibetan tourist permit. There are many agencies in Chengdu that can hook you up, but it takes time and planning, of course. For those of you that didn't know, you can take a train up to Lhasa. At one point it reaches the highest altitude at which a train can travel. They also provide passengers with oxygen along the way; pretty exciting, huh?

Miles Traveled: Chengdu to Lhasa - 2,042 miles
Total: 3,727 miles

DB & KM

Up on a Roof

2008-04-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

After our brief stay in Chengdu, we set off for our most adventurous and farthest destination, Lhasa. If you weren't familiar with it before, I'm sure the last month has informed many of you about the situation at present. It is a complicated situation, and the truth likely lies somewhere between the "Western Media's" portrait of Tibet, and the Chinese propaganda. Don't expect the problem to go away any time soon, but we can all hope that it doesn't escalate like last month.

Our trip to Lhasa began with an interesting start. We had a 2 hour plane ride over the Himalayas which provided some incredible views. Snowy peaks reached up through the clouds and really didn't seem all that far away. As the plane and crew prepared to land, we noticed the nose pull up and the plane begin to circle. Surely enough, an announcement in Chinese soon followed after which many Chinese and Tibetans moaned. Waiting on an English announcement isn't fun when your plane is surrounded by tall, rocky peaks on either side of the plane. It ended up that we couldn't land and had to travel all the way back to Chengdu, another 2 hour flight. We landed in Chengdu, sat on the runway for about an hour and a half, and then returned to the air, though we weren't assured that the outcome would be any different - luckily, it was. As we shuffled out of the terminal and got our bags, we got an introduction to the most difficult obstacle in Tibet, the extreme altitude (about 12,100 ft.). As we exited, we got another surprise, though it was more welcome than the altitude - bright, powerful, hot sun! I don't think many people know how warm, in fact, hot, it can get in Lhasa during the day. We were forced to shed our jackets soon after leaving the airport.

Many airports in China are annoyingly far from the actual city, and none are farther than Lhasa. A good hour from the airport to the city. To take our minds off our loud and needlessly reckless driver, we focused on the landscape. Most might be surprised to learn that Lhasa, and most of Tibet, is a desert. For those that have been to Death Valley in California, that landscape is strikingly similar. Interesting that the lowest elevation and one of the highest elevations on Earth feature the same terrain. The picture below is very typical of the Tibetan landscape - dry, rocky, and just the perfect spot for the ubiquitous Tibetan Prayer Flags.

We arrived into Lhasa on Lunar New Year's Eve, aka Chinese New Year's Eve. The Tibetans also celebrate the Lunar New Year, but they call it Losar Festival. A lot of the shops and hotels were closed as we entered the town, but we managed to find a hotel. Unfortunately, it didn't have an elevator and we were on the 4th floor. The bellhop gingerly ran our bags upstairs, while we trailed very far behind. It seriously took us around ten minutes to climb the stairs with lots of breaks to sit, thankfully Jimbo was there to give us climbing tips and techniques the whole way. Everyone advises not to do too much on your first day at extreme altitude, and we thought that it wasn't a bad idea. We parked at the first restaurant open, grabbed some snacks and parked ourselves back at the hotel. It was very easy to fall asleep that night, but we were all stirred by what sounded like World War III outside on the streets. China has no regulations whatsoever on fireworks, and every type, size, and noise was displayed on the street that night. Since coming to China, fireworks have lost some of their magic to us, since we see or hear them, well, everyday. Somehow we did manage to sleep, and made the decision to change hotels. Our first hotel was lacking an essential amenity on Tibetan nights - heating. They tried to appease us with portables, but even those were malfunctioning. So our first night and day in Lhasa was not awe-inspiring.

As we checked into our new hotel, the Gorkha Hotel, and started getting more acclimated, Lhasa began to open up to us. As we checked into our second hotel (outfitted in traditional Tibetan decoration), we met the amazing staff dressed in their cultural ensembles. They offered us dried yak meat and yak butter tea as we checked-in. I can honestly advise you in avoiding both. They do have something akin to funnel cakes that is a good treat, though. We were only on the second floor of this wonderful hotel, and it was a lot more inviting and closer to the action. Check out a picture of the digs. Above you can check out three happy little girls displaying the traditional wear for Tibetans. The girls wear the fuzzy hats, and the men wear cowboy hats. If you look closely you can see two Tibetan men in the background (wearing red). You can just how different Tibetans look from Han Chinese in the pic below.

As you can see, the style is intriguing, and the painting is ridiculously detailed. Here's another shot from inside one room, where we are displaying our New Year's gifts from the staff: A fruit basket and silk prayer shawls that serve the same purpose as prayer flags.

Because it was the New Year, there were a lot of visitors around, and a lot of Tibetans that had returned home from work in the mainland. The Tibetans are a very spiritual or superstitious lot, and many of the temples were jam-packed. Unfortunately, we were not able to enter the famous temples due to day-long line lengths, but that just gives us a reason to go back someday. The most famous landmark in Lhasa is the Potala Palace.

The first pic is the most famous place angle of the palace. It is a little surprising to find out that the Palace has a front lawn, and really isn't on a cliff (as you can see from the second pic). Nonetheless, the scale of the Palace is enormous. The palace was built in the 17th century, and was the seat of the Tibetan government, and of course the home of the Dalai Lamas. We weren't able to tour inside, but it is supposedly barren anyway. I've read that the Chinese do want to recognize it as a famous Chinese landmark, but not a Tibetan national landmark, so they have removed a lot of the palatial furnishings. From our hotel roof, we were lucky enough to get a glimpse of the Potala Palace at night. It is all lit up, and is truly beautiful. I had to zoom to get the shot, sorry about the quality.

The next famous site in Lhasa is the Jokhang Temple. While we were there the temple was abuzz with pilgrims. The temple seemed to permanently feature a line that completely wrapped around the square. The Jokhang is the oldest temple in Lhasa. Tibetans believe that the land used to be cursed, and recognize the land as a demoness. Before Buddhism could take root in Tibet, temples had to be built on certain parts of the demoness to pin her down. Therefore, there are holy temples all over Tibet said to be pinning down the demoness' hands or feet, but the Jokhang is the most holy because it was the last to be pinned down right over her heart. That is why Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world come to the Jokhang temple. As you can see from the picture to the right, fresh air can be a commodity in the center of the square as pilgrims toss offerings into the fire.

As you can see from above, the temple square is busy with activity. There are alleys all around the square, but one special one that leads pilgrims in a loop around the temple. Tibetans call this loop a kora. As they walk clockwise around the temple, over and over again, they spin prayer wheels, chant mantras, and hang prayer flags. The most dedicated pilgrims do the kora on their knees, or prostrating themselves along the way. To the right is the main alleyway. Vendors on the left, pilgrims in the middle, and a line of people waiting for the temple against the wall on the right. Below you can see some pilgrims in front of the main entrance of the Jokhang Temple. Pilgrims aren't the only people walking the kora, however, vendors line the alleys with all sorts of Tibetan "relics". All the vendors assured us that these were the real thing, and that they were very old. It is more likely that they were recently produced in Nepal and the vendors rub dirt on them. But that's all part of the fun.

There's also a more fun method to getting your prayers heard, by balloon! Many youngsters were out in the main square tying their prayer flags to balloons and letting them fly high into the Tibetan sky. Another popular method is the giant prayer wheel. Along the kora were a few small buildings that contained these giant, bronzed prayer wheels, which you can see a picture of below. They were usually very crowded with monks and pilgrims chanting as they followed clockwise with the wheel. The wheels are inscribed with mantras like Om Mani Padme Hum. Lastly to the right you can see some of the bling that sparkles atop the Jokhang Temple. There are many Buddhist symbols up top, and if you're lucky enough, you can go to the roof at the right time of day (we couldn't even get inside because of the lines).

We were lucky enough to have a great hotel location. There are tons of thin, little alleys that connect Lhasa to major points like the Jokhang Temple and kora. By the end of our stay, we could navigate these alleys and end up anywhere we needed to be. There is a lot of character to the alleys. Tibetans live, work, eat, and play in the alleys, and we got to be part of it. One fun thing we did in the alleys was go on a pony/horse ride! Many entrepreneurial Tibetans have horses lined up for kids and visitors to ride through the back alleys. We all hopped on a horse for a New Year's day ride. Check out the video below to see how it went.

Get a-long little horsie!

The next blog will be about our exhausting trip to the largest monastery in Lhasa, the Drepung Monastery.

DB & KM

Mission Accomplished

2008-03-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

We caught a bus back to Chengdu from Emei Shan. Chengdu is one of the largest cities in China. They are currently building a subway line in the main area of town, so traffic was a nightmare. Even worse, city buses changed their routes with no rhyme or reason, so navigating the city was a pain. Additionally, Chengdu doesn't have too much in terms of landmarks or sites to see. BUT, they do have one biggie on the city limits, the Giant Panda Breeding Research Center.

We'll get to that in a minute, but first some other pictures. By the time we reached Chengdu, we already had our fill of obscure city temples, so we skipped those. Chengdu does have some great areas of the city that are renovated to look like old China. They really pull it off without looking fake. Our hotel in Chengdu was a traditional Chinese hotel with courtyard, and in fact, the entire street was called the architecture street with tons of renovated old buildings. During the day, the staff or other guests would push the tables together for improvised ping pong games!

Chengdu also has a lot of great parks. It's common to see entire families out in the parks either at the kid "fantasy land" where all the little girls wear pretty elaborate princess crowns or the older members playing cards or fishing in the park ponds with bamboo poles for their lunch. Here are some pics that were taken in or around the many parks of Chengdu. The picture below is pretty funny too look at it, and of course, it has a funny story. Inside the People's Park is a fun-house set in an abandoned underground tunnel. We had heard that it was pretty tacky, and I don't think the fun-house even reaches that. Articles like the tiger(?) below point the way to the actual fun-house which is just a particle board maze shrouded in complete darkness. After each turn, a motion display of some type pops up and tries to scare people. Unfortunately, all of the displays are of the same or lesser quality as the tiger you see below with most not even working. The scariest thing was the thought of breaking our necks from the total darkness. That was 5 yuan down the toilet.

Chengdu is also famous for the giant Mao Zedong statue that salutes the main city square. In the background stands the Chengdu Science and Technology Museum; something that Mao would have supported, no doubt. Although, just opposite Mao (unpictured) is a street overruning with capitalist delights from Gucci, Prada, Rolex, etc. I don't think Mao would have approved, but maybe that's why they placed the statue there poised to shame any Chinese shoppers exiting the store. We were also lucky enough to partake in some great Western food in Chengdu. Tex-Mex!! It was our second attempt at "Mexican" cuisine, and it came of much better than the first. If you're ever in Chengdu or Shanghai, be sure to hit Peter's Tex-Mex (Sorry, no pics. We were more concerned with eating). There's really not much else to say about Chengdu, so bring on the pandas! The research center is a ways out of town. We decided to take off pretty early because the pandas generally sleep all day after their massive breakfast. The plan worked, and we got to see pandas of all shapes and sizes in action. They have different areas for the pandas based on their size, we decided to see what the big 'uns were up to first. We were greeted warmly.We were just in time to see the adult pandas eating. They eat a ton of bamboo, and once one started, we didn't see it stop. Pandas have a special thumb that helps them grasp and hold the bamboo. The peel off the leaves in, hold a bunch in their hand, and start munching. We've got a video of it, after the picture below.

After watching pandas eat for a while, we headed over to the sub-adult pandas. We saw a lot more pandas eating, but this time they were having a family meal.

They sit close so that they can prop up their bamboo on their nearest friend. Once again, we watched a lot of eating (and even some green pooing) and then made our way to the adolescent pandas (don't worry, they're next to last). The adolescents have a lot more energy. They had eaten, and were already out playing. Going down isn't as easy as going up. He held himself in this position before finally just tumbling to the ground. He was eager to get to his friend below so they could wrestle. Close to the adolescent pen is where they keep all the real panda cubs, affectionally called "the babies" by Darbie. I have seen a lot of cute things in my life, but upon seeing "the babies" I had to resist the urge to curl up into the fetal position and melt. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take pictures of the babies because they are afraid the babies would get scared. The cubs were very active. They are kept in little rooms with teeter-totters, balls, and climbing towers, and they happily play with all those things. They love to try to squeeze through things, and climb to the top of things, only to fall down to the ground and do it all over again. One room contained four or five babies that were about to be fed. They were amazingly playful with the workers, hugging their legs as soon as they walk in the room. They got very excited when they saw their baby bottles and each time they were given one they would grab it with two paws, shove it into their mouths, and instantly fall onto their backs in glee. Each time this would happen this would draw "awwws" and giggles from the small crowd gathered to watch. Remembering our dear readers, I broke the rules (and got busted), and took a quick shot when a baby panda came over to the window to greet us. He's waving.

After we managed to pull ourselves away from the cubs, it was time for Darbie to get better acquainted with a panda. She had to get sterilized and covered so she wouldn't spread her nasty human germs to the panda.I didn't miss this moment, and we now proudly present the world premiere of Darbie's panda holding video:

Here's a picture of Darbie and "Little Girl" in case you want to put it on a coffee mug, mouse pad or t-shirt.

Oh yeah, we saw some red pandas, but we won't spend too much time with them. After all, they're the lesser panda. They're pretty cute too, though, it is pretty nasty how they attack each other's tails. You can see a pretty nasty tail in the picture below.

Eww. That's why they are they lesser panda.

Miles Traveled: Emei to Chengdu - 80 miles

Total: 1685 miles

DB&KM

Meet the Monkeys

2008-03-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

On our way back to Chengdu, we stopped over to see Mt. Emei. The mountain, like many mountains in China, is famous for some unapparent reason. But, it is a UNESCO world heritage site, and truly one of the more beautiful spots we visited during our trip. The mountain is pretty tall, over 10,000 feet, so needless to say, we couldn't hike to the top in one day. We decided to take a bus to the mid-way point of the mountain, cable car up a little higher and hike back down. There's also an option to take a two hour bus ride directly to the top (which is supposed to be beautiful), but anyone that's been on a Chinese bus for 2 hours, windy mountain roads or not, knows that can be distressing.

Remember how I said China charges for everything? Can you imagine paying $120/person to visit a mountain?, well that's the case at Mt. Emei. That doesn't even include the bus ride up the mountain (another $45/person), the cable car to the middle ($30/person), or any of the monasteries, monkey food, etc. Some of you think, well it is RMB, but that's a heck of a lot for native Chinese. We got into Disneyland for about as much as it took to get to Mt. Emei. The mountain had a lot to deliver. When we got to our destination, we found ourselves once again in a Winter Wonderland.

If you look at the path behind Darbie, you'll see what we were dealing with. Packed snow and ice covered the trail. Not too big of a deal until we came to the stair portion of the descent. Our faithful readers will remember that the Chinese prefer concrete stair paths to hiking trails on their mountains; this presents a problem during the winter months. After slipping down a few steps, we were fortunate enough to find home-made Chinese crampons! Kendall was eager to slip some on since all he had on the trip were indoor soccer shoes.

Pretty hi-tech. But, they actually did the job; no more slips. As you can see, Kendall's foot is a little bigger than the Chinese average. As we hiked further down the mountain, the snow started to melt and disappear. We eagerly made our way to Mt. Emei's most famous attraction, the monkeys!These Tibetan Macaques are native to the mountain. There are signs all around the mountain asking visitors not to feed anything other than their special monkey food. We bought a few packs of the monkey food expecting it to last us a good while. Not so. As we entered the habitat where most of the monkeys reside and play, a monkey came over and took all three of our complete packets. We didn't even get to open the packets up for the monkey, he took care of all that (check out the picture above, excuse his junk). He shoved all three packets in his mouth, went back to his favorite spot, and started munching. We decided that we might need some more monkey food. Further up the trail a more aggressive monkey, clearly the monkey leader, took our replacement monkey food and growled at as for more. Thankfully, the mountain employs even more aggressive Chinese ladies with large bamboo poles. Here's a video, unfortunately after we just had a scary monkey confrontation, listen to the fear in my voice.

Needless to say, we didn't stay at the monkey exhibit as long as we had originally planned. After watching the ladies whack a few more monkeys, we left, not forgetting to watch our backs. We passed a lot more scenic places on our way down. Waterfalls, blue lakes, and streams all dotted the landscape of the mountain. Here are a few more pictures.

I had to put this picture in black and white, otherwise it would just be a very white blur. At least this way we are supposed to be that white. Below you'll see a pretty cool bridge over some very blue water.

Mt. Emei is the most beautiful mountain that we've been. I would love to return - if the admission ticket doesn't rise - and go all the way to the top where a huge golden statue sits. There are also many monasteries to visit, even the famous Crouching Tiger Monastery. After we were done with the mountain, we grabbed some food and bused to our next destination, Chengdu.

Miles from Leshan to Emei Shan - 21 miles

Total: 1605 miles

DB & KM

I like Big Buddhas and I cannot lie

2008-03-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

After the 1,000 Buddha cliffs, we turned our attention to the main attaction of Leshan, DaFo, which literally means Big Buddha. Because the Buddha is so big, there are many different ways to see him. We decided to take them all! It's said that Dafo was built because the three rivers that convulge around Leshan were very dangerous. A monk set out to build the giant Buddha so his presence would calm the river and protect travelers. No doubt, it worked (while we were there at least). The rivers were very stagnant. For our first view of DaFo, we walked along the Leshan boardwalk until, in the foggy distance, a giant head peaked out from behind a cliff. It was our first glimpse of how big this thing really is. We then headed to a tiny island that stands directly across the river from the big guy in an ancient ferry powered by an equally old engine and engineer pictured to the right. We sat so low in the water it was up to our shoulders! The rocks that make up the island are a plethora of colors, all chipped away from the rock when they carved DaFo many years ago. We saw purple, red, green, blue, and every other color you could imagine. Pretty, pretty, pretty big. The only way Dafo could be any more amazing was if he talked. If any country could make this happen, it's China (or Disney World). After viewing Dafo from afar, we had to get closer. We bused it over to the other side of the river and entered the park. There are some pretty cool sites before and after the Largest Buddah in the world. Take for example, the picture below. Darbie's riding the auspicious white marble tiger that lives in the cave behind.

First we started at the head and walked down the sheer cliff side on a tiny staircase carved into the side all the way to his equally giant feet. All right, because there's not much else to say besides, "You wouldn't believe how big this thing is until you see it with your own eyes," we'll let the pictures do the work here.

That really white spot is Kendall at the base of the Big Buddha. Just in case you haven't got it yet, we've got yet another helpful video (told you we had lots!).

After Dafo, came what has to be Jimbo's favorite moment of the trip. We were getting pretty hungry by that point and decided to stop at one of the many Chinese mom and pop restaurants a.k.a the local fishing village. After sitting down in a truly lovely riverside patio, we decided to order some sweet-and-sour fish. The cook relayed the information to his wife, who then brought out a very fresh fish, wriggling by a string attached to its dorsel fin, for our approval. After an astonished Jimbo said yes to the fish, she turned around whacked the fish on the ground next to us, and made her way to the kitchen. A short time later, the fish returned, as our lunch. We've got proof!

The proud cook and future consumers with the fish a-dangling. You can see the pure joy on Jimbo's face, and this is before the fish had the life whacked out of it.

Before and after aptly demonstrated. For those true animal advocates out there let us calm you by telling you, it was delicious.

After lunch we pedicabbed it over to another site to see the largest reclining Buddha in the world, which is carved into a mountain, a la Stone Mountain (without the Southern Pride laser show, unfortunately) for all our Georgian readers out there. Not quite as impressive as that landmark, but the rest of the park is kind of a Buddhist themepark with some pretty cool stuff. However, we were getting a little tired of seeing Buddhas by then, so you might be too. Instead, here is what might be the greatest video of our trip taken during the bumpy pedicab ride.

Here are a few more pics of various parts of Leshan. Below is Darbie next to a really cool bridge close to Dafo.

Ok, we couldn't resist, here's the giant reclining Buddha, or Kendall's preference "Stone Mountain Buddha." By the way, that's just the head and upper torso, it would be impossible to get the entire thing in one shot unless your in a helicopter.Darbie decided to walk into an ancient tomb that has graves inside. This is what happened when Kendall shut the gate behind her, pure fear (she's about to wet her pants)!

Wow, that is a lot of blogging for one little city. Leshan has some of the coolest sites and nicest people in China. We all agreed we would go back there again any time. While we were walking the boardwalk, Kendall happened to find some nice, rare Chinese graffitti that said it best:

PEACE!

Miles Traveled: Xi'an to Leshan - 609 miles

Total: 1584 miles

DB & KM

Leshan: Happiest little city in China

2008-03-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

Xi'an was great, but we were eager to move on to our second destination. Due to the demand for train tickets, we decided to fly to Chengdu, and then take a 2 hour passenger bus to the much smaller city. The bus stayed on a new, very smooth expressway which provided us with great views of the Sichuan (the province we were in) countryside. Terraced crops hugged the hills that guided the expressway to Leshan. Some might find it interesting that, as one travels further away from cities, it is true that buildings do get smaller and more sparse, but the Chinese there still live in apartments or shared buildings.

As we stepped off the bus at Leshan a hoarde of pedicab and taxi drivers assaulted all shouting "DaFo!! You Go?" We told them no thanks and shooed them away. Leshan is world famous for its Big Buddha (dafo). Most travellers to Leshan come on short daytrips, see Dafo, and depart. But, being advocates of slow travel, we decided to stay for a couple nights. Our first outing was, in fact, not to Dafo, but to another Buddhist attraction, the 1,000 Buddha Cliffs. The cliffs were in neighboring Jiajiang, which involved another hour bus ride, but they turned out to be well worth the trip. After a short taxi ride, we found ourselves in the most rural environment we'd visited in China, hands down. We kept to the path until we finally saw what appeared to be a ticket office (China charges for nearly every tourist attraction no matter how quaint or out of the way), and made our way inside the "park." We were greeted by a silent, pastoral landscape which is what it must have been to visit China only a few decades ago. Because of its location, there weren't many visitors. As we made our way down closer to the river, the cliffs and their carvings started becoming visible.

The carvings were impressive indeed. Little hollowed-out squares of varying sizes contained shrines to various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Hundreds of the carvings dotted the cliffs jutting out over the calm landscape and rushing river.

The carvings were everywhere. It seemed as if there was no point too daunting to the carvers. Some of the oldest carvings date back 2,000 years. Unfortunately, some of those carvings featured faceless Buddhas due to destruction during the Cultural Revolution. Thankfully, they were good enough to save me a seat and prepare my enlightened halo. The attraction does not take too long to walk through, nevertheless we found ourselves drawn into the beauty of its natural surroundings. So, we kept on walking. We happened upon a monastery, and across the path were fields where a water buffalo grazed with its calf. We saw a nice trail up the cliffs themselves. We followed, and the trail gave us commanding views of the scenery around us. We kept uncovering unexpected treats. As we got to the top of the cliffs and followed the trail, we were able to view a few farmers harvesting bamboo in rather treacherous territory. Above you'll see Darbie next to the river and fields that were across from the monastery which you can see in the following picture.

Below is a shot from the path that took us up the side of the cliffs. Not an easy climb, but well worth it.

If you look closely in this next, quick video you can see the farmers chopping down some bamboo. If you're having trouble finding them in the growth, look for the sterotypical Chinese filed hats made of straw.

We took our time walking around Leshan. It has a great boardwalk next to the river, and the town's beauty is enhanced exponentially at night when they turn on their street lights.

Although, it's most likely those were just there for the upcoming Spring Festival. The whole town was excited, and it seemed like the entire population was out walking the streets or parks. The people of Leshan are wonderful, always smiling and saying, "Hello!". Despite the cold, people were happy to out-and-about with each other. It is really similar to the Holiday season back in the States.

They even go caroling! We came across a community choir along the boardwalk and stopped for a listen. They read the music off the big screen behind the conductor. No notes or sheet music, but pure number sight-reading. This seems to be the preferred method in China. They were very nice, and tried to get us to join. Below is the remaining city wall of Leshan, not quite up to Xi'an levels. I had to get a picture of this guy. He was out doing what most of the other Leshanians were doing, chilling in the park.

Lastly, we came across a school where kids were doing their Spring Festival crafts. Instead of doing paperplate Santa Clauses, the kids write couplets. The Chinese hang these traditional good luck messages outside their doors around the New Year. Here's a little girl working on her couplet and demonstrating very good calligraphy skills. You wouldn't believe how fast she could do this.

I wish I could do that. Dafo is next!

DB & KM

The Terracotta Army

2008-02-29T02:14:00.000-08:00

Due to China's turbulent history, many great relics and sites have either been lost or destroyed. However, some of the greatest archaeological finds in the world continue to turn up in China. Most of these finds aren't as great as the Terracotta Army, but they are usually discovered in a similar fashion. As many people know, the Terracotta Army is a huge collection of soldiers, horses, carts, and weapons that was found completely underground in large pits, not even 40 years ago. Since then, archaeologists continue to excavate this vast area and find more and more relics. How did they find it? Look below,

Yep, what is probably the greatest archaeological find ever was discovered by some villagers digging a well. This sign is at the base of the largest pit at the excavation site. Here's Darbie and Jimbo to give you an introduction of the Main Pit of the Warriors.

I've heard a lot of tourists leave the exhibit pretty unhappy, and I guess if you're expecting to get to excavate one or touch one for yourself, I understand. However, it's hard not to appreciate the sheer magnitude of this discovery. The excavation site isn't actually in Xi'an, but about an hour down a long, bumpy road by bus. It was made even more pleasant by a man across the aisle that had to burp (eggy burps) every half-mile or so, yet our little Darbie persevered.

The army protects the tomb of China's very first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. He was quite busy during his lifetime, as he is the first emperor to unify China, as well as standardize its speech, weights, and measures. Of course, to do all these things (especially in 200 BCE) you kind of have to be pretty ruthless, and he was. He ruled, and many people died, by his sword. He made the capitol Chang'an (now Xi'an), and the city enjoyed a very rich city life because of it's political significance, and perhaps more importantly, because it was later the terminus of the Silk Road. Why did he want this huge army buried with him? That's a good question, no one really knows for sure. Although, there are two guesses, one side believes he was afraid of the afterlife (because of what he did during his lifetime), or that he fully believed that death would not end his reign as emperor, therefore he would need an army.

The excavation site has 3 large pits, though one was closed for renovation or excavation while we were there. We decided to save the greatest pit for last. Each pit was discovered held up by thick beams that supported roofs over the pits. Unfortunately, some of the roofs collapsed under the weight of the earth above, and this was the result.

Still pretty cool though, right? My personal favorite is when just enough happened to knock the soldiers head off, and leave a haunting Bed Knobs and Broomsticks-type soldier.

Originally, most of these soldiers were carrying weapons. For the most part, the weapons were made of wood that decayed over the thousands of years they were buried. If you look at the right hand of the soldier in the picture above, you can see where he once held a weapon of some type. Fortunately, a museum is also on-site that displays a few of the weapons unearthed. But back to Pit 2, the first pit we saw that had these.Well, what was the cavalry supposed to ride in the afterlife, centaurs? Plenty of horses have been excavated, and closer to the actual tomb of Qin himself, bronze horses and chariots were found. They are in the museum as well, and a picture of them can be seen below. (Sorry they are encased in glass covered in fingerprints). Check out how the chariot could block arrows.

The museum also explains how certain designs on each soldier display the soldier's rank and skill. The higher up the soldier, the fewer there are. It's sometime hard to see the different ranks from the pits, so the museum had some examples.
I believe the picture above is an archer, while the one below is straight, kung-fu fighting. You can clearly see the difference in their armor and hair styles, which all help indicate rank.
Ok, enough museum stuff. On to the biggest pit, aptly called Pit #1. As I wrote above, it's the first pit that was discovered, and it contains the sign marking the well. As you can see, it's huge and could easily contain a football field, if not two. Unfortunately, visitors have to walk around the perimeter of the excavation, but the next video will hopefully get in tight enough to help you appreciate the enormity and insanity of army. It also marks the first time you'll hear Kendall start the narration of a video by saying, "All right, so here...".

Here are some more shots from Pit #1, containing approximately 6,000 soldiers.
The observant blog reader will notice that a lot of the warriors in the pictures above not only have different faces, postures, and clothes, but that some also appear lighter. That's because, every one of these warriors was painted! You can really see this in the picture directly above. More horses, this time you can see how their mouths are open to accept the bit and bridle, all of which were once buried. Next to the horses is a charioteer, his hands out guiding the reigns.

Sorry about the quality of the shot, but above you'll see some reconstructed warriors. They take remains from the soldiers in the demolished pits and put them back together like jigsaw puzzles. Sounds like fun for a rainy day.

Talk about a great idea, a Terracotta warrior puzzle.

Miles Travelled:

Qingdao - Xi'an: 975 miles

DB&KM

Xi'an: The City for (History) Lovers

2008-02-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings! We're back from our Spring Festival travels, and we have a lot of stories, pictures, and videos to share. For the most part, we were very lucky and everything went smoothly during our journey. Here's our list of cities visited: Xi'an, Leshan, Emei Shan, Chengdu, Lhasa, Hong Kong, and Sanya. We'll be blogging about our trip in that order. So, without further delay,

Xi'an

Xi'an is most famous for its Terracotta Warriors. We knew we were definitely going to see them, but we didn't really know what else was going to entertain us while we were there for a few days. Luckily, Xi'an has plenty of fun sites to offer. I know many of you were worried that the bad winter storms would effect our travel, thankfully it didn't, but that doesn't mean we didn't see a lot of snow in Xi'an. Here's our first picture taken on the trip.

You'll notice that from here on out that we're pretty bundled up since most of outings were outdoors, and involved a lot of walking. Anyway, this is Darbie in the heart of downtown Xi'an. Behind her is the Bell Tower, but more on that later. Xi'an is one of the only cities in China that still has it's city wall in tact. The walls were built in the 14th century, and encase downtown Xi'an. We were able to walk on the city walls (through blizzard conditions), and it's almost unbelievable how thick and tall they are.

Darbie and Jimbo are standing outside the city walls, which are about 12 meters high (39 ft for the metrically-challenged). On the left is one of the many tunnels providing road access to the interior, they are usually jammed with traffic. Also, if you notice, we're standing on a bridge, which crosses over the moat that still surrounds the city walls.

Here, I'm on top of the wall looking down on what is one of the most appealing parts of Xi'an, ancient Chinese architecture in a very modern city. Our guide book says that people either love or hate Xi'an, and we clearly came down on the former. Darbie and Jimbo walking on the city walls. This shows just how wide the walls are, and they actually narrow as they get to the top! At the base, the wall is about 18 meters thick (60 ft). Also, you can see on the right that Xi'an was preparing New Year's displays with Chinese scenes. We saw many in construction on our brisk wall along the wall.

In the center of Xi'an is the Bell Tower that was mentioned earlier. The Bell Tower once functioned as an alarm clock, with all the bells inside struck at sunrise. Just down the road from the Bell Tower is its counterpart, the Drum tower where drums were beaten at sunset. We got to visit both, and while they aren't the greatest exhibits, they offer ceremonial music displays and great views of the interior city. For those of you interested in hearing the music, check out the video below.

For most of the trip, we were advocates of "slow travel." We walked if we could, stopped when we wanted, and ate wherever we felt like. A few memorable dining experiences took place in Xi'an. The local specialty is yangrou paomo, lamb meat stew. We had the local dish a couple of times, and I can endorse it as the epitome of slow eating. Once you've ordered it, the server brings out a bowl of bread which you then have to tear into tiny bits. She had to keep badgering us to tear it smaller and smaller, basically until your fingers hurt. Then they take the torn bread back to the kitchen and put the stew in, which is basically just lamb and noodles. While it isn't the tastiest dish, I can definitely see how a hot, filling dish is popular in winter. I was also pleased to notice that "The Real Deal" Holyfield had at some point visited Xi'an and had a bowl himself (begging the question whether or not there are little Chinese Evander's running around.).

Yet another cool site in Xi'an is the Big Goose Pagoda. It is touted as Xi'an's most famous landmark. The pagoda is really, really old (completed in the 7th Century CE), and is where China's most famous Buddhist monk Hsuan-tsang brought back Buddhist scriptures from India. They've also surrounded the pagoda with a pretty interesting temple, with some great Buddhist ivory, stone, and marble carvings depicting the Buddha's life. In front of the temple is a statue of Hsuan-tsang himself. Although they promise wonderful things inside the pagoda, there's little more to see or do than simply look out over the city, and even that can be less than great on a typical, smoggy day. Nevertheless, the outside of pagoda and its surrounding park and temple is worth the trip if you're in Xi'an. Contrary to what the pictures display, I don't believe the Big Goose Pagoda is leaning. Below you can check out two great Darbie pics. First, enjoying a nice winter scene in front of a Buddhist shrine in the park. Last, working on her graceful sword skills in hopes that she can one day become a Buddhist nun with amazing psychic powers.

In addition, we also hit the Shaanxi History Museum which contains a lot of great displays and exhibits, the Folk House which is quaint, historic house with little to offer, and the Forest of Stelae Museum which can get brutally cold with all those tall stone tablets and no heat. But do check out the museum inside and the side streets along the way. Here's a glimpse.

That's a less-than-brief look at Xi'an for you, and we didn't even cover the Muslim Quarter, an area of back alleys and side streets, which has loads of eating and shopping awaiting every tourist and as soon as we stepped onto it we were beckoned into the "secret" back rooms of vendors. Xi'an was a pleasant surprise, with a great blending of ancient and modern. I wish it was the prototype for every Chinese city, though to be fair, no city's history holds a candle to the history that has taken place in and around Xi'an. Visit and see for yourself!

What's that? Ah yes, the Terracotta Army will be covered in our next session, we don't want to exhaust our dear readers. But, to appease you, here's a great video of Jimbo's first hotpot meal. I think it was a memorable experience to say the least.

We're back, spread the word!

DB & KM

Good News, Bad News

2008-01-22T23:47:00.000-08:00

The Spring Festival is upon us! For those of you who aren't familiar with Chinese New Year, it is a lot like the hype surrounding the holidays in the US. There is a lot more buying, smiling, and traveling. The universities position their semester breaks around the New Year (or Spring Festival), so we are on break until the first week of March! This means that we get to travel all around China, and see some new stuff. Unfortunately, this means that there won't be any new blogs for all of you to read until we get back.

Jimbo is coming to meet us in Xi'an, but we've already had many adjustments to our travel plan. As I mentioned earlier, traveling is BIG around the New Year. In fact, I read that it's the single largest migration of people in the world every year. That's because the Spring Festival is the only time when many Chinese travel home to see their families. The Spring Festival is all about being with families and remembering the deceased. They eat a lot of dumplings, and watch TV. Each year, CCTV (think Chinese BBC), broadcasts a variety show with all the hottest and favorite Chinese celebs. So, literally, a billion-plus people tune in and watch CCTV on New Year's Eve. It has got to be the most watched program every year. Oh, I was writing about travel.

The most affordable way to travel in China is train. However, China doesn't allow train tickets to be bought more than four days in advance (10 days around New Year). You can only imagine the chaos this creates. Chinese people have trouble making an orderly line (or "queuing up" for our British readers) as it is, so when you pack in holiday demand, it gets pretty ugly - elbows necessary. Originally, we were planning on traveling first to see the Buddhist Caves in Luoyang, but there is only one train from our train station heading in that direction; so despite having signed up for tickets with a travel agency 3 weeks in advance (which doesn't really mean anything apparently), we didn't get the tickets. It went to the 500,000 other people that wanted to go to that one destination on that one day. Thankfully, it's pretty close to us, so we can visit later in the year.

Here's our travel itinerary for those of you so inclined:

Jan 24th: Fly to Xi'an. Highlight - Terracotta Army
Jan 30th: Train or Flight to Chengdu, Bus to Leshan. Highlight - Giant Buddha
Feb. 3rd: Bus back to Chengdu. Highlight - Darbie holding a baby Giant Panda
Feb. 7th: Fly to Lhasa. Highlight - Potala Palace, being on the "ceiling of the world"
Feb. 11th: Fly to Hong Kong. Highlight - Doing a whole lot before Jimbo leaves on the 14th.
Feb. 14th: Fly to ?? Possible options - Sanya (China's Hawaii), Harbin (China's Siberia), or Nanjing (China's old "South(nan) Capitol(jing)." Can you figure out what Beijing means? Good!).
Last week of Feb: Return to cold, windy, McDonalds-less Huangdao.

We shall return with many a story to tell.

DB&KM

PS: We will be checking our email when possible, so feel free to write!

Wiggles and Giggles

2008-01-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

Kendall and I were asked to make "sweet memories" by one of the university professors by going to the on-campus kindergarten these past few weeks. We innocently thought that it would be easy. Who wouldn't want to see tiny Chinese children playing and speaking baby Chinese? Well, things weren't that simple. We mistakenly thought we would just play with them and maybe sing a little bit. When we arrived, we are taken into the first tiny classroom crammed with about 25 very active 5 year olds. And I think everyone knows how 5 year olds are. They can't sit still for more than 30 seconds not to mention trying to keep their attention when they don't speak the same language. So with little preparation we began trying to teach them Itsy Bitsy Spider, Hokey Pokey, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Thankfully, some of them knew a few words of english and we had a piano player. They spent most of the next harried 30 minutes giggling, running around the room, and shouting "MY NAME IS" instead of singing but I think the kids enjoyed it. I can't say as much for the teachers. They had a few scowls on their faces when we left. Next we were huslted into the 3 year old class which was far calmer and cuter. They were all bundled against the cold but it was about 90 degrees in the classroom so all their faces were bright red. Sitting in their little semi circle, they watched intently as we taught the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider. Most of them retracted in fear as Kendall approached wanting to check their spiders (who is this strange looking white man?) but some as you see to the right were quite eager to show off. They really enjoyed Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes especially when we did it super fast. They got most of the motions until we got to Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose. We kinda lost them there. I think their favorite was the Hokey Pokey because they got to wiggle and dance around which 3 year olds are incredibly good at. Our favorite song to teach them though was If You're Happy and You Know It. We did lots of different emotions. Mad, sad, sleepy, hungry, excited and asked the kids what you do if you are feeling like this. My favorite by far was one adorable chubbster with one pigtail on top of her head who, when asked what you do if you are mad, immediately placed both hands on her hips and cocked one to the side. Even 3 year old chinese girls know that move.

Its sad to admit that we were more exhausted after teaching 1 hour of Kindergarten than after teaching a whole day of college students. Below you can check out my attempt to teach wiggling.

DB & KM

Straight to the Top!

2008-01-13T19:55:00.000-08:00

Lately we have had a lot of free time due to the semester winding down. As the Spring Festival break looms nearer, we have had to find new ways to entertain ourselves besides purchasing more pirated dvds. Since there is a small mountain at the south entrance of our school we decided to take a little hike and see if we could reach the top. From the picture below you can see the two peaks we were able to summit.

As we got to the foot of the trail, we ran into two elderly Chinese men who were determined to not let us climb the mountain. They kept pointing to a piece of paper, which after examining, was just a list. We put our names down on the list and the number 4, because the people ahead of us on the list had put some number down. They looked at our names, pointed at the number and began a discussion. Apparently, they were impressed by the number four, and we were cleared for climbing the "mountain." Also at the foot of the trail was a pretty little stream with lots of chickens walking around and drinking the water.

Oh yeah, it really wasn't that pretty. It was actually kind of disgusting, and I would NOT want to be eating those chickens after what they were eating and drinking! It was a pretty cool day, so we were appropriately bundled. The walk started as a nice leisurely stroll on a path, but soon became a pretty vertical ascent with lots of sliding rocks. After managing the loose terrain, we had to start shedding some layers, and we began to respect this "mountain." If you remember Tai Shan - the mountain we climbed in a trip in October - "climbing" it was just walking up a steep staircase. It seems the Chinese prefer these straight-to-the-top trails over the North American zig-zag trails. In other words, these trails can be really demanding, even for smaller mountains. Nevertheless, we braved the harsh trail, the "limited oxygen," and the "dizzying altitude" and finally reached the summit!
I'm a little confused as to the title of the picture above. It's either going to be "Darbie's Search," or "Conquistadarbie." Feel free to vote for either on a comment, or submit your own. The rocks on the top of the mountain are huge and a lot of fun to free climb. The rocks almost have a fake quality to them, like something you'd find at Big Thunder Mountain in Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Here's Darbie negotiating the sheer cliff face like the pro she is!

From the top of the mountain you can see the wonder that is Huangdao. On a really clear day, you can see all the way across the bay to Qingdao. It's definitely worth the trek. So, if you're in the Huangdao area and would like to go for a little climb, give us a holler.

DB&KM

Right outside the window

2008-01-07T07:21:00.000-08:00

Before winter came, students were always outside. Dorms are pretty boring for them here. No TV's, no computers, no video games, so they are always outside when the weather permits. Beside the apartment building is a gathering square where a lot of activities take place, from one-on-one badminton to giant association (club) fairs. A few months back, I was invited to sit with some of my students at the English Association's table. I was the funny-looking foreigner that would lure students into joining the association. I got to walk around the fair a little bit and witness pop bands playing for the pop music association, break dancers for the break dance association, students fighting robots for the robot-building association, amazing calligraphy made by the calligraphy association, and of course, stunt rollerblading by the rollerblading association, along with many, many, many more very specific student groups (numismatists, chess players, hair-stylers, martial arts, Beijing opera fans, etc.) .

Darbie took the opportunity to take some snapshots of the association fair. The pics also double as a fun game of "Where's Kendall?" Have fun!

Not a chance.

If you look really closely...

I can see me! Can you?

I'm the white guy in the center if you haven't found me yet.

I can only imagine the fun you had playing "Where's Kendall?" Thanks to the cold weather, and mostly the wind, the square is pretty lonely these days. Maybe in the spring we'll be able to bring you a follow-up of "Where's Darbie?" Though, if she's tan, it could be infinitely harder.

DB&KM

Mini-update

2008-01-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

Last week, we went to our local DVD store. It has become a bi-monthly trip for us, mostly because nights can get a little dull in Huangdao. For those of you that don't know, China has a HUGE DVD black market. Government authorities care a little about it, so they mainly have busts when they have nothing else to do. Our DVD store is actually a music store, and we are always escorted to a hidden back room to view the DVDs for sale. They choose to import/rip/copy the strangest selection of DVDs. Of course they have the blockbusters like Transformers, and most recently, I Am Legend. But they also have lesser-known indie movies or classics like Dr. Zhivago. I've mentioned that I teach a movie appreciation class, and Darbie sometimes shows movies to her listening class. Strangely enough, we've found that, on more than a couple of occasions, movies we have recently shown in class suddenly start appearing in the DVD store. We've brought some movies from back home like The Princess Bride and The Count of Monte Cristo. Both of these movies magically and randomly appeared in the DVD store exactly one week after their viewings; we had not seen either of these movies anywhere before we showed them in class. I like to think our students are black market bigwigs, and that Darbie and I are shaping the market.

But here's what I really wanted to share with you. We recently bought I Am Legend on DVD (it took a total of one week to get it from the US to Chinese DVD). Often the best part about these jiade (fake) DVDs are the jackets. Because there is not yet an official English DVD version to imitate, they usually have to create their own plot synopsis on the back cover. I give you the jacket description for I Am Legend:

Ignorant humanity, often disaster event setter of a bad example...

A big area virus suddenly erupts, the propagation velocity

quicklynearly nobody can prevent, nobody knew source of

the fearful viralstarts in where, only knew it does not

have the means irreversibleto stop, being unable to cure,

most importantly, it is artificialcreates.

You can only imagine how reliable the Chinese and English subtitles are.

Darbie and a hardened member of the tough Chinese black market

DB & KM

Christmas Miracles and Decorations

2007-12-27T03:59:00.000-08:00

First off, we hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We're happy to report that Santa Claus does in fact deliver to China. Thank you to all our friends and family who sent us Christmas cards and packages. Its wonderful to receive mail from home! We also received gifts of chocolate and wine from the administration and gifts from our students including but not limited to chocolate, tea, and Chinese silk scarves. The favorite gift to give in China is fruit. So we were bombarded with students giving us brightly cellophane-wrapped oranges, apples, and bananas. Let's just say there's a lot of fruit salad to be made!

Christmas miracles even happen in China. For example, remember that typhoon that hit our area way, way, back? Since then, our local Pizza Hut has been closed. Eventually, we all gave up hope that it would ever reopen. A few days ago, Kendall was in a taxi driving past the restaurant when he noticed lights and his head jerked to look in jubilation. It was a glorious scene that can only compare to the Who's getting ready for Christmas day in Whoville. He swears that he even heard the singing...Fah who for-aze, dah who dor-aze! Welcome Christmas, Come this way... A beautiful sight indeed. We decided what better way to spend Christmas Eve than at Pizza Hut with the other foreign teachers. We were pleased to see all the serving staff dressed in Santa outfits, and some fine decorations to boot. The restaurant even had a special "Christmas Party Pizza" with a special crust that is supposed to be like pigs-in-a-blanket, but came off looking more like the popular dog treats, "snausages". Needless to say, we politely refused the offer, and insisted that we wanted a regular American pizza. To appeal to the Chinese, Pizza Hut has developed some pretty strange pizzas. Therefore, usually at some point during our order our server will say, "You know that if you take the melon, octopus, and mayonnaise off the pizza it won't taste the same." Yeah...we know.

Before the holiday season has passed by, we wanted to share some holiday sights from around Huangdao. We think many of you would be surprised at the amount of decoration that goes on here around Christmas time. Granted, most of the decorations can be found in the shopping centers and hotels, but it's the thought that counts, right? The most impressive Christmas by far was in our local shopping center, Jusco. You can enjoy the picture below, and also catch it in the video below. Children would write wishes on the red and green snowflakes, and they would hang them on the tree. It is a little odd that they hung all the lights vertically, but it works (and it's probably faster).

Even Jusco's employees had the Christmas spirit as each worker was wearing a Santa hat. It went well with the continuous loop of Christmas music they played everyday. Many places played Christmas music. The problem was, their selections usually weren't too large. One of our favorite restaurants was the worst. We ate a meal while being serenaded by Jingle Bells over and over, which is probably one of the more annoying songs to hear in repeat. Jusco, however, never let us down. Kendall being the music lover was impressed at their selection. He remembers one time while walking past the larvae section (right next to the sushi) he found himself humming along to I'll be Home for Christmas. Jusco had a lot of Christmas spirit, you can learn a little more about it in the videos below.

A few nights before Christmas, Mr. Li (our waiban) from the Foreign Affairs Office took all the teachers out to dinner. Surprisingly, it wasn't a Chinese banquet dinner, but instead a Western-style buffet dinner. Huangdao has one outstanding hotel, the Golden Marina (although it is not on a marina). The hotel has several great restaurants, and we were all pleased to be eating in such a nice place. At first the sound of a buffet was not to appetizing but this had a great selection. Kendall had a roast beef sandwich for the first time in months, and we both had steak (grilled while you wait)! To top everything off, the desserts were really good. Sadly, Chinese desserts are either non-existent, or worse, appear ordinary but taste awful. This is especially the case for ice cream, which usually just contains ice shavings, sugar, and maybe some flavoring. Thankfully, the ice cream, while not perfect, was the best Chinese ice cream we've had. They even had tiny slices of pecan pie which reminded us of home. The Golden Marina had its own share of Christmas decorations. Inside the lobby was a little Christmas cottage. There is snow on the roof and deer in the yard, and if you look closely at the picture above, you can see the Olympic Friendlies playing in the snow. That's HuanHuan over Darbie's shoulder. Golden Marina's outdoor Christmas display was second to none. It featured many lights, and most impressively, the tall blue light tree.

In the last video Kendall will tell you about a popular game that took place in Jusco during the holiday season.

The week before Christmas they also started offering peanut oil as a prize. Large jugs of peanut oil can be found in every grocery in China. According to CCTV9 (the only English language channel), there is not only an oil shortage, but also a cooking oil shortage. The price has been going up, so the oil was a hot prize item because of the massive amount of cooking for the massive amount of people that migrating all over China in a little over a month - Chinese New Year!

Have a Happy (Western) New Year!

DB & KM

Christmas Variety Special

2007-12-23T05:48:00.000-08:00

We were asked to participate in a Christmas variety show with most of the other foreign teachers in the university. The show was on Saturday night, and evidently, it was the hot ticket of the night. Each teacher invited their students so we were expecting about 150-200 people. 30 minutes before the show began the 200 seat auditorium was full and all 300 of the programs were gone. This did not deter the people that arrived later, they just pushed in, and soon all the aisles were full of students. Unfortunately, we didn't charge for the event. Apparently, this was the first time any foreign teachers had performed a show for the students.

The event started with Mike Collier's (the "compere") speech about the meaning of Christmas, including a power point of the creation story which started with Genesis! As we expected, most people did not understand. Eventually, he made his way around to the history of Santa Claus. One of the more impressive parts of the show followed Mike's lengthy history lesson. The students from Pam Collier's (Mike's wife) class recited "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" by memory. You can see the video of the ending below.

As the students filed off the stage, the lights went down and when they came back up Santa Claus was on stage! 300 screaming, obsessed college students pushed forward in hopes of a single present from the jolly old elf (portrayed by Dan - you can see his pic in our last blog). It seems that the mixture of a giving, yet sometimes borderline commercial holiday with hyper-materialized, yet deprived young people, will create a mini-riot. Soon, Dan was on the floor with hundreds of college kids on top of him, grabbing his bag and ripping gifts out of his hand. All the foreign teachers ran to his aid, though we were a bit afraid he might have a heart attack! We all lined up like police officers at a concert with our arms outstretched trying to ward off the teeming crowd. Sadly, any time presents were mentioned, given, or even alluded to, the riots would begin anew.

Hopefully, the students also learned about Christmas fun that doesn't include presents. Like songs! Paul, a foreign teacher from England, and I were the musical portion of the evening. Paul plays an impressive guitar. We combined to sing "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and we also led two songs with all the other teachers and the audience - "Silent Night," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Chinese students LOVE music, and despite their shyness, can always break into song whenever, wherever; so the music was a big hit.

There were also student performances in the show. The German class sang "O Tannenbaum," completely in German and my speaking class sang "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer." Some of our other classes were jealous when they found out about their peers being featured, rather than them. Darbie's class kept coming up to her exclaiming, "What a pity that our class cannot participate!"

Each of the foreign teachers was given a role, either as leader of a game (i.e. charades, memory) singer, host, etc. To the right you will see some of Darbie's students who were picked to participate as a team in one of the games. For each game, the winners got to get a gift from under the christmas tree so naturally there was pandamonium whenever we requested volunteers for the games.

Thanks to the fact that we have foreign teachers from all over the world, the students also learned how Christmas is celebrated in their countries: Norway, Mexico, South Africa and Germany. Darbie read a Christmas poem complete with pictures on a large screen. After her successful reading, she also took it upon her tiny self to do much needed crowd control (remember Santa and the presents?). What an intimidating little elf!
Besides the rioting over 5 yuan presents, the Christmas show went pretty well. We ended with all the teachers singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and Santa gave his famous line, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" We thought the show was over, but in reality, it was just beginning. The students ran up to the stage and took turns taking loads of pictures featuring the foreign teachers, mostly with their cell phones. Most were our students, but we also took pictures with more than few eager strangers.

These are some of the girls in my speaking class. Shirley (back right) looks pretty angry that she's having to share camera-time. Meanwhile, Hillary is just about to enter Ice's nose with her "V" salute. We even managed to get a picture of ourselves! Here's our 2007 Christmas photo!

We should have one more before Christmas!

DB & KM

PS: Extra bonus video, click if you dare!

Ganbei!!

2007-12-18T21:06:00.000-08:00

For the past month we have been tutoring 3 men, Yin, Cwui (pronounced Twee), and Cheng, who work for an engineering company named Shan Yuan and are being posted in Nigeria in February. They expressed an interest in learning some English before they departed so our school assigned us along with 2 other foreign teachers (Dan Brown and Pam Collier) and 1 chinese teacher(Gavin) to instruct them as best we could for 6 hours every day. This proved to be quite a challenge but interesting as well.

During the doctor lesson, Kendall decided since they were going to be in Africa they only needed to know the essentials such as I have a fever, My stomach aches, and I have diaharrea. So of course the latter was their favorite phrase. A lot of class was spent role-playing, "Hello, I'm the doctor, what seems to be the problem?" Inevitably, the response would be, "I have diaharrea" (which interestingly enough translates into Chinese as la duzi, "spicy stomach"). During the restaurant role-playing, we discovered that they did indeed know a few words of English. In response to "What would you like to drink?" We always got, "I want whiskey!" No matter what other drinks responses we told them. It took them 3 weeks to learn "My name is....", but they picked up on beer and whiskey pretty quickly.

(Front Row: The two leaders, Dan Brown, Doris (she assigned the class to us))

(Back row:Cheng, Yin, Darbie, Kendall, Alex, Driver, Cwui, and Gavin)

Mercifully, the class ended last week, and they were nice enough to invite us to a banquet dinner in celebration of their efforts. As always, we brought the camera along. Banquet dinners are a unique and enjoyable experience. Upon entering a nice Chinese banquet-friendly restaurant, one is greeted by the large, over-populated staff, and undoubtedly, rows upon rows of aquariums holding what could potentially be dinner. Watch your step! It gets a little slippery in and around the aquariums when the restaurant is busy. The tanks include different types of fish, of course, but also crabs, lobsters, eels - you name it, they'll likely have it.

(Darbie, Cheng, Yin, and the Leader)

Instead of being a large, open dining room like a Western-style restaurant. Nice Chinese restaurants usually have a lot of private rooms, so their guests don't have to worry about what others think about their dining etiquette or behavior. The rooms usually have a sink (some even have a bathroom), and a large round table with matching lazy-susan. The hosts of the meal usually choose all the dishes, and the guests have no prior knowledge of what they might be until the fuwuyuan (server) places them on the lazy-susan, and wheels it around to the host to inspect and approve. At first, this was pretty scary, but now we've adjusted and actually enjoy the anticipation of seeing and trying new dishes. Most of the time, our hosts never fail to impress us with their selections. The average banquet meal usually consists of somewhere around 20 dishes for an average table size of 12. The dishes are always ridiculously large, and it isn't rare for a dish to not be completely finished (despite being shared by 20 people). As the dish is spun to your vicinity, dig in with the chopsticks and either go straight to the mouth, or your plate. The Chinese wouldn't have gotten the classic Seinfeld episode where George double-dips the chip. "You dipped the chip. You took a bite... and you dipped again. "

The dishes usually start with some veggies and a Chinese staple, peanuts in vinegar. This might sound revolting, but I can assure you, I never miss this dish when it is in my area, simply brilliant. After the appetizers, the real Chinese dishes begin their parade onto and around the lazy-susan. Our favorite for this particular meal was what appeared to be deepfried bacon and spring onion in what is basically a soft-shell taco. Other dishes that made appearances were sweet-and-sour fish (yes, the whole fish makes an appearance), Nanjing bread (the closest thing to donuts in China!), in-shell mussels, broccoli in garlic sauce, squid, and a host of other unidentifiable, but delicious, dishes. At one point the servers cleared our dishes and I thought the meal was over suspiciously early. It turned out that we were being presented with fresh plates, each with a large she-crab staring back at us (sorry about the picture above, the flash was a little overzealous). Our hosts instructed us on how to pop it open, but then left us to our own devices. I began to hear a lot of sucking and slurping, so I just followed suit. Darbie was a little turned off by the tiny hairs and the suspicious color of the innerds she was supposed to be sucking. It turned out to be pretty good, though it takes a little too much work. If Chinese cuisine does have an achilles' heel, it is their soups. Each meal typically consists of two soups, and more often than not, these are our least favorite dishes. The soups are very thin, watery, and end up tasting like hot, dirty water with spicy tofu or fish balls in it (not those kind of fish balls).

(The driver, Gavin Wang, Alex, and Kendall)

Chinese banquets are very loud, fun events. It is a time to celebrate, be with friends and family, and eat very good food. Another neccessity for banquets is alcohol. The most popular alcohol at banquets is a grain alcohol (55-65% alcohol) affectionally called, baijiu, or white liquor. Thankfully, they let us choose the drinks, and wisely, we stayed away from the potent libation. Instead Tsingtao and Great Wall Wine were the drinks of the night. At banquet dinners, it never fails that Chinese engage in drinking contests. This might come as a surprise to some of you that heard that is shameful to be drunk in Chinese society, but they say, the point of the game is to not get drunk. The contest consists of numerous toasts to friends, family, China, business, and the future. One toast might directly follow another. Sometimes it is hard to give a toast because another toast starts as another is ending. After each toast, the toast-er decides whether or not it is a ganbei toast. If the toast-er finishes his/her drink and says "ganbei!", then everyone else must too. Women are the only exception because they are considered ladies, but Darbie and Doris were even prodded to ganbei once or twice.

Our table successfully went through about 20 bottles for the evening which is surprisingly little for that size of a group. I contribute this to the fact that Cheng stopped drinking after the second or third toast and slyly poured tea into his glass. When foreigners are at the table, toasts are even more prevalent because each chinese man want to out drink the foreigner. But as everyone knows, Asians are not known for holding their liquor. After the third toast, the leader was as red as a tomato and couldn't set his glass down straight. Due to the multiple toasts, by the end of the meal the english was flowing more easily. The men began shouting english words for the things on the table. So a chorus of "Cup!", "Tomato!", "Beer!", "Tea!", etc. ensued all around the room, though they couldn't quite remember complete sentences.

As the meal came to a close, we thought the food had ended but to our astonishment we not only got platters of fresh fruit but also a bowl of noodles with eggs and no less than 3 kinds of dumplings. By this time, it was nearly impossible to even smell food without gagging we were so full. But out of hospitality, you must try everything. Of course, the chinese had no trouble finishing off the bowl of noodles with one big slurp and downing a few platters of dumplings. I will never understand where they put all that food and still remain so thin.

So with very full bellys, Yin's eyes swimming, and lots of red faces we exited the restaurant and a very pleasant evening came to a close. We did manage to get a video of the evening which gives you an idea of the english level of these men. It was too large to load onto the blog but click on the link below to get a taste of a chinese banquet for yourself. Warning: it may take a while to load, its a bit lengthy.

Enjoy!

DB&KM

http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=4709732&share_id=8841457811#s8841457811 , hopefully that will work for you. Sorry for those of you w/out facebook.

"Big" Problems

2007-12-15T03:37:00.000-08:00

For the most part, teaching has been a pleasant experience. However, as I'm sure all teachers experience, there are moments and interactions with our students that leave us scratching our heads, bitter, or worst of all, heartbroken. This blog will focus on one such heartbreaking experience.

In my Movie Appreciation class which I was assigned to teach with neither experience, nor materials (i.e., movies!), I show the students films and usually have them write about a simple topic that relates to the movie. A few weeks ago we were watching one of my favorite movies, Big. I asked the students to write about what they would do if they could be a kid again for a few weeks. The class enjoyed the movie, of course, and I thought it would be fun to read their essays. Most of the students' reports were what I expected, "I would play with all my old friends and toys," or "I would be better to my family," or "I would do it all different and not care what others think." However, a couple of essays were striking, and speak to significant social issues that China struggles with that go largely ignored. I wanted to share the most striking essay with you, not just because it's heartbreaking, but mainly because its subtle references to the looming social problems that China will have to face (on an enormous scale) in the future.

If I were a child

When I was a child, I hoped that I would grew up as quickly as possible. Now since I have been an adult, I'm envious of the pleasure that the child enjoys. I was brought up by my aunt, because my parents wanted a boy. However, I was such a lucky girl that my aunt loved me very much, as if I were her own child. I was the centre of my aunt's family, partly because her own child - my brother was ten years older than me, and partly because she ever wished she could have a daughter. There's no denying that I had a happy childhood. But sometime I feel upset at the thought of not living together with my own parents. If I were a child, I wish I was taken care of by my mother and I wish I had lived with my parents. My mother gave birth to me but didn't bring up me. If I were a child, I wish that I hadn't been sent to my aunt. Although I know its the conventional ideas that should be held the responsible for the case and it's not my parents willing that giving me to my aunt. I just wonder if there would be any differences, provided I was brought up by my parents. So I wish I could live with my parents if I were a child.

Unfortunately, this is a problem all over the globe, but especially in China. The one-child policy "forces" parents to make difficult decisions, and sometimes these decisions have alarming results and consequences. As China becomes increasingly prosperous, I will always wonder, "at what cost?" More concerning is the idea that millions of soon-to-be leading minds in China grew up in this harsh reality. This is only one of a hundred more reasons why China will be such a fascinating country to observe in the coming decades. Lastly, at the risk of sounding too "Christmas Shoes"-y at the holidays, stories like this one hopefully remind us of what we have, and who we should help.

I promise the next installments will be double the excitement and Christmas cheer to compensate for this sad blog. What can you look forward to? Chinese Banquet Dinners, Christmas in China, and especially, Darbie and Kendall's Christmas Variety Show featuring the Foreign Language Department! We'll have a lot of action (vids and pics!) between now and Christmas, so stay merry!

DB & KM

Saved by the Bell: The Chinese Years

2007-12-04T00:51:00.000-08:00

We have told you about the few wonderful and exciting trips we have taken but we have told you little about the thing we do most: be teachers. Since Thanksgiving, where we spent the evening having a feast of various Chinese dishes with our mexican and norweigian neighbors, we are only getting busier with the preparation for exams, new classes, and time spent with our students.

Chinese classes only have 1 exam at the end of each semester and this is averaged with the class attendance and participation score for a final score. So we have to create our own exams to give the students! You would think that as the semester was ending, the job of the teacher might get easier because you get into a routine. Not here! Kendall just started a new class last week as a part-time job at a community college in a neighboring town. He teaches a class of 70 students English once a week. His outline for the class: just get them to talk. So that has been an interesting new addition to the schedule. Also, 2 weeks ago we were both given a new class to teach of 4 men that work for an engineering company and are going to Nigeria in a month and want to learn english. They have never had english before so you can imagine what this class is like. In other words, we are being forced out of our comfort zone of well-spoken college students into the world of a foreign teacher. It has definitely filled our days more and more.

In addition to classes, we have been busy being the spokespeople for the foreign language school. We have attended english corners, english salons, we tried to attend a basketball game, and have had students drop in for conversations.

The english salons I think are one of the more interesting and embarrassingly entertaining spectacles of the foreign language school. The students are all broken down into classes. There are 3 classes of freshmen with about 30 students each in them. Each class takes responsibility to plan one of these English salons where they put on skits, sing solos and duets, and play games. My class hosted the first english salon so we were invited as honored guests as we were treated to these spectacles.

First to the right, we have Slinda who gave us a rousing rendition of Never Had a Dream Come True. Slinda is one of my better students. All the other girls are always remarking about how good her pronunciation is with an envious tone. You will notice the pink balloon in her hand. This is the students way of telling the singer they like their song. Similar to how we would give flowers to someone who has just performed. Boys give balloons to girls and girls give balloons to the boys. The more balloons you receive the better your performance.

To the left, we have Cathy and Lavender singing a duet. They really got into it with the swaying and snapping action. You have to realize that the whole time we, the teachers, are sitting in the front row of a classroom so we are about 2 feet from all the action and we have to be smiley and encouraging the whole time. They do give us water, sunflower seeds, and tangarines to snack on while we are watching. These are pretty common snacks in China, no milk duds or popcorn here.

After the songs, there are short plays. To the left, you can see Cathy as Cinderella with her fairy godmother and on the right several of my boys, including Brad and Metter, as the soldiers in Mulan. In the center, is an unidentified chinese play that appeared to have a pimp and his two gangsta women.

Of course during the break between each of these plays, there was more singing so that the actors could do a costume change and recycle each of the outfits for the next play. One of the most entertaining was Kendall's student Bloggs singing Imagination to extremely enthusiastic applause. Below, you can see that he has 3 balloons so he was extremely popular with the ladies.

All in all, this is one of the most amazing things I think I've seen my students do. They orchestrate a 2 hour long ensemble entirely in English. They sing all the songs, do all the games, and all the plays in English. This is the one time that you can really see their personalities too. They really have no embarrassment at all. Try to imagine 18 or 19 year old college freshmen in the US getting up in front of their whole class and singing in another language while everyone applauds or boos!

I'm going to leave you with my contribution to English Salon. They also play games throughout the evening such as putting an english word on the screen and and have one person describe it in english to a partner while they try to guess the word. But I had to participate in a sort of chain charades. One student sees the word and then acts is out to the other student and so on down the line until the final student guesses. So teacher Darbie had to participate. Good times.

Enjoy!

DB&KM

Qufu...finally

2007-11-23T22:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry to those who look forward to our little blog here, we've been busy and/or lazy the last couple of weeks, but we are still here. If I can remember correctly, I believe we left you with a nice big bowl of hotpot. That must mean you need to read about Qufu next. Here goes...

First off, let's work on our pronunciation! This is how you say Qufu: choo-foo. Leave those Q's for Latin-based languages.

Every city or village in China is famous for something. Usually it is some type of flower, delicious vegetable, or export (Ex. Qingdao - Tsingtao Beer), and Qufu is certainly no different. Qufu is the (disputed) home of the great Chinese thinker Confucius, or Kong(fu)zi to the Chinese. In fact, a lot of people in and around Qufu still have the surname Kong, and they are quick to claim Confucius in their ancestry. Here is a quick, and likely flawed, history of Confucius. Raised in Qufu (around 500 BCE), Confucius was well-educated and sought to be employed by emperors or local rulers, but never quite told them what they wanted to hear. He decided that he would instead concentrate on educating Chinese adolescents so that, one day, they would use his philosophy. Like many, Confucius' fame came after his death. There are claims of specific students, government jobs, and miracles, but as with most historical figures, it is hard to tell legend from fact. We do know that later empires saw the benefits of Confucian philosophy (such as knowing and staying within one's role and fitting into a harmonious society), and began implementing it. Jesuit missionaries brought Confucius back to the West where he is seen as a leading philosopher, and this popularity reinvigorated his status back in China. A guy named Mao came along and didn't care for him, but he died, and now it appears the Chinese are willing to celebrate his importance, though some are reluctant to celebrate his philosophy.

So Qufu takes advantage of this mystique and the beautiful village certainly has a lot to offer. It is a walled city, with very narrow (and crowded) roads. Street-vendors and shops are everywhere, but the city still manages to have a quaint appeal. Unfortunately, our stay in Qufu was all too short. We only got to visit the main Confucius Temple. The real treasures are supposedly hidden in the Confucius Forest, so we might just have to go back if time permits. We do have a few pictures to share, so enjoy!

As you can see above, the temple area is very lush with many different types of trees. I can't say the temple was anything greater than previous temples. Although, the insides of the buildings were usually more bare than a Buddhist temple. The tour guide would show us different buildings and relay a legend about who or what Confucius taught there. However, these building were built much, much later than Confucius, so basically, they act as monuments.

Another "must-have" for every Chinese temple is the Good Luck Tree that has been worn smooth from eager hands. However, these trees are much more important than all the others because Confucius planted these himself...uh-huh ;) There's the man of the blog himself, Confucius! This is the only idol or altar in the Confucius temple. Confucius isn't a Christ-like figure in case you were wondering. I think of this kind of like the Lincoln Memorial in DC. It is just a place Chinese can come and remember a great man. Of course, they do this differently then Americans would Abraham Lincoln, so one might see them bowing, burning incense, etc. Inscriptions of some sort and variety cover the stone wall. A classic gathering of knowledge and beauty. The Temple has these fantastic columns carved to look like dragons. The guide told us that these columns were much better than anything the emperor had in his palace at that time, so any time the emperor visited Qufu the columns were covered up and hidden from the emperor so that he would not lose face. I'm pretty happy that the emperor never destroyed them, because those columns are really beautiful, perhaps the highlight of the Confucian Temple. After we left the temple, we had a few minutes to kill so we walked down a street of vendors selling various Confucian trinkets. Every other vendor stand was selling "chops." Chops are Chinese stamps made out of jade or marble, and they have some kind of ornamentation on the top. The best thing about the stamps is that they can carve your name and Chinese name into the stamp. All the vendors had signs promising that "The Job is done in 5 minutes." We gave in, and 30 to 45 minutes later, we both had chops! Unfortunately, they are a little tough to photograph, but once we figure something out, we'll get it to you.

Well, that's our trip. We'll be telling you about our students, classes, and some funny moments in the next few blogs. Perhaps we'll even take you of a tour of our little suburb, Huangdao. I have to get back into shape, because this blog wore me out!

Happy Thanksgiving Break,

DB & KM

Stairway to Hea-eh-ven

2007-11-08T03:23:00.000-08:00

The next day in Tai'an we went to the mountain, Tai Shan (hey that rhymes!). Tai Shan is by no means a huge mountain, but I can honestly say it wasn't a pleasant journey up. The Chinese don't believe in tranquil mountain paths. Instead, they build steep staircases that wind up to the summit. As I was walking up the path I couldn't help thinking about which job would I want less: creating this staircase, or building the Great Wall? Staircase, of course. I was trying to remain positive, but around the 5, 458th step I was sure the Great Wall sounded like a better idea. Supposedly, Tai Shan has 6,666 steps from the base to the summit, but I lost count somewhere around number twenty. It was a great day for hiking, however, and that kept perspiration to a minimum. Despite being a large, stone staircase, the path really has some beautiful scenery. Though, it is mixed with the multitudes of restaurants and shops that dot the mountain. Which leads to another incredible thought: How would you like to own/run a shop at 1345 meters above sea level (that's only two-thirds the way up) where all your goods have to be brought up an insane amount of steps, hand delivered? There are roads, but most of the stores are far away from any, preferring the foot traffic of the mountain visitors. Thankfully, the shopkeeps are very passive and don't really care to annoy the trekkers. Although, about half way up the mountain there was a crazy, bearded man that was giving all the Westerners big, smelly hugs.

You might be thinking, "Why do people climb Tai Shan?" Good question. If you look in the guide books, they'll tell you that people climb it because its the most holy mountain in Daoism. But, if you ask the Chinese, they'll tell you that many important people have climbed it, and indeed they have. If I may return to many Americans' favorite revolutionary, Mao Zedong once said from atop Tai Shan, "The East is Red." It sure was. . .is, I mean! Just with "Chinese (capitalist) characteristics." But my favorite quote from atop Tai Shan comes from Confucius (Kongzi to the Chinese) who said, "The world is small." Someone should make a song about that. A handful of Chinese emperors also climbed Tai Shan. The mountain does indeed have a few temples, the most famous being the Azure Cloud Temple. In the good ol' days, sacrifices could be made to Heaven on top of the mountain. It was also believe that it is the first place the sun rose, so many people would come and worship at daybreak, and in fact, many people still do. There are hotels, restaurants, and shops on top of the mountain, but the greatest things are of course, the views. At the very peak of the mountain, another temple stands where Chinese couples go with padlocks and lock them onto a large altar. The padlocks represent their eternal love. . .awww. However, the temple is very small, so be prepared to throw some elbows while crowding inside (getting eternal love is never easy, after all). Mercifully, we didn't have to walk down the mountain. Tai Shan has nice, scenic cable-car rides up and down, so we hopped on one and enjoyed the view. I think enough has been said about the mountain, so here's some pictures:

Oh man, still a long way to go. If you look closely between the two ridges you'll see the staircase and a little bit of the main gate. All those dots are people.

Shoo! Just a little bit closer. The gate is the most crowded (and dangerous) part of the trail. A lot of jerks ride the cable car up the mountain, walk over to the gate, and take a picture looking like they just climbed the mountain. That's the main reason there's so many bodies there.

Finally! And what a beautiful time of day. If you look closely to the left of the pic, you'll see a large Chinese bell temple, and once again, some dots that are people. In the top right corner of the picture, a possible UFO (maybe this mountain really is holy after all).

Nothing says loving like an engraved padlock. Although, I doubt this would go over too well on Valentine's Day.

After a little rest and napping, Mr. Li took us out to one of the best restaurants in Tai'an. We got to try a very popular Chinese dish for the first time, hotpot. Hotpot is basically like fondue without the trendy setup. The table has hotplates built into it, and each person sits in front of one. The restaurant places a large pot in front of you, spicy or mild. Darbie wanted mild, but through a mix-up ended up going spicy with me. It was delicious. Just like fondue, you dump food,veggies, tofu, into the pot, let it cook, and dig it out with chopsticks and enjoy. It can get pretty steamy in the room, and there are a lot of runny noses, but I highly recommend the experience.

Your nose should be running already. I'm proud to say that I held this. I held it.

A super-steamy hotpot room. Those nice pink rolls are beef and lamb. Chinese love lamb. That nice couple you see to the left are our friends and neighbors, Fatima (from Mexico) and Joachim (from Norway). Next to them are the nice, and very British, Colliers. They crack us up with their vocabulary: smashing, quite lovely, cheerio, etc.

This is me and Mr. Li. How can you not love that face? Not his, mine! I hope our next hotpot meal isn't too far away.

Lastly, I want to include a video of some intense manual labor. I'm narrating during the video, so no explanation is needed. Note my "out-of-breathness."

Incredible.

Hope all is well wherever you may be,

DB is currently in the States with her family after her Grandmother's passing. I want to send along my thoughts to the Bryant/Duncan/Simmons clan. You can too if you want, at darbieb@hotmail.com

Foreign Affairs

2007-11-01T04:31:00.000-07:00

Mr. Li, our waiban (literally: foreign [affairs] office) administrator is a nice guy. He fields all our requests and usually responds very quickly. We get our monthly pay (all in cash) from him, and if we have any problems, we call him. Simply put, Mr. Li gets things done. So we were thrilled when Mr. Li let us know that the University was sending all the "foreign language experts" off to Tai'an and Qufu for the weekend. Supposedly, these retreats take place once a semester to various places of the Shandong Province. We were glad that the trip was to Tai'an and Qufu, because both of these cities were on our "to-see" list, and now we were able to see them for free! Friday morning, all the foreign teachers crammed into the rental bus, and we set off on the five hour journey to Tai'an.

Tai'an is a destination city only for the fact that it rests at the base of the most sacred of the five holy mountains in Taoism, Tai Shan. Tai'an (ty-an) just happens to be Mr. Li's hometown, and so we were treated to many of the best restaurants and cuisine. But our first stop in Tai'an was its mildly popular temple, the Dai Temple. We were treated to an English-speaking guide, which still makes me think about what the Japanese teachers in our group felt about this. Nonetheless, the temple was vast, and it took us a good while to get through it. The temple rests in the center of town, and was/is the place that pilgrims gather before climbing Tai Shan. There were a lot of interesting parts about the temple, despite its apperance, which is falling into disrepair. For example, there's a big fresco inside one of the halls that depicts an emperor climbing up Tai Shan with a huge army to become the God of the mountain. Technically, one isn't supposed to take pictures here (the fresco is already peeling), but I figured what can a no-flash shot hurt? I got a snapshot of one of the most intriguing parts of the mural showing one of the emperor's men releasing a rainbow out of a large pot. It could quite possibly be the oldest advertisement for Skittles.

Most of the temple-goers were elderly, but very active. Religion in China, of any type, generally seems to be limited to the elderly, and even this is usually just for superstitious or auspicious reasons (though who am I to say it's any different in the States in many cases?). Young and middle-aged Chinese adults believe in the Party, and/or making money. We'll have more on this when we can include conversations we've had with people and students about xinyang (faith). Going back to auspicious ritual, there's a popular ritual that involves walking around a sacred rock clockwise three times, then counter clockwise three times, all with one hand on the rock and your eyes closed. Then, with your eyes still closed, you walk from the rock to a special tree and try to touch the smooth part of the tree. Mr. Li pressured me to do it, and I gave in. I can't say I regretted my decision, but I will say it was a painfully long process (painful because the rock has some pointy edges, and walking around blind for that long with people crowding in is more than awkward). When I began it was just our group watching and enjoying the show. Evidently this changed quickly after I began, and when I finished and opened my eyes, I had drawn quite a crowd of elderly Chinese temple enthusiasts all having a good laugh at the waiguoren (foreign person). Glad to be of service. I should mention that if one succeeds in touching the special part of the tree (I did not, oops!), then a long, good life is assured. "Special" trees abound in Chinese temples. It is not uncommon for the bark to be smooth because so many hands have touched the tree. Below is a tree that holds rare and exquisite beauty:

See? These Chinese really know how to get the most from their ancient trees. Another staple of Chinese temples is a garden with "ancient" steles. Usually it's not hard to tell the older steles from the newer ones, because the old ones no longer have any legible inscriptions on them. That's because a lot of Chinese (and foreign) hands have come along and worn them off over time. So the newer ones are inset very deep into the stone to ensure that it never happens again. There are no shortage of the steles, and they usually are written in the many different forms of Chinese calligraphy. There are five different styles of calligraphy, but within each style there can be many different variations. To the Chinese, one's calligraphy says a lot about that person. The writing style reflects the inner and outer of one's being. So contrary to what you might think, the first character in the picture above is not scribble, but an intricately designed character (The top character is beyond my learning, but the next two are yi [one] and shan [mountain], but if any Chinese scholars are out there, please let me know.).

The temple also has some other notable sights like the mega-bixi (Darbie's favorite Chinese mythological animal). The bixi (bee-shee) is the turtle-like offspring of a dragon. The bixi has the head of a dragon, the feet of a hawk, the tail of a snake, and back of a turtle. In other words, it is ferociously cute. The bixi are created to hold and protect giant scripture stones (steles) on their backs. This was the biggest bixi we've seen to date, and accordingly, it is the luckiest. Touching the bixi all but assures you a rich, healthy, and long life. The last thing worth mentioning about the temple is yet another temple game designed in order to gain a good life. It involves throwing coins into slots or openings in a religious structure; yue duo yue hao (the more the better). This takes place in every Chinese temple I've been to, and fortunately for you, we've got a video for you to check out of me playing the coin game! The object of this game is to throw an "ancient" coin into the slot and make the bell ring.

Good things should be coming my way!

Whew, I wasn't expecting to write so much about the Dai Temple. We don't want to overwhelm you, so we'll milk this trip for all its worth in future posts. Tai Shan and Qufu are still to come!

Check out the Drabblecast Halloween Special at http://www.drabblecast.org/

DB&KM

The Olympic City - Days 4 and 5

2007-10-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

We are back from Qufu and Tai Shan, and we'll have blogs about the trip soon. But first, let's finish up our journey to Beijing. On Day 4 we decided to tackle the Beijing subway. It was much easier than we had expected. There are only five lines in Beijing, the last line opened right after we left. Of the four lines we were dealing with, one goes horizontal across town, one goes vertical across town, one goes vertical out of town, and one makes a loop, intersecting with the others. Thanks to our location, our destinations were really simple to reach. Beijing's subway is really old. Have you ever been in a subway where they have one person tearing tickets before you can go down to the train platform? That's how antiquated this subway system is; supposedly that is all changing before the Olympics, otherwise they'll need to hire some more ticket-takers.

So we hopped on the subway at Chongwen Station and got off at Yonghegong. Yong he Gong translates to The Lama Temple. For those of you who still don't know what I'm talking about, the Lama Temple is a well preserved Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing. Here's a helpful poem about lamas:

The one L Lama, is a priest

The two L Llama, is a beast

And I would bet my silk pajamas

That there's no such thing as a three L Lllama.

In other words, we weren't at a petting zoo. The lamasery (monastery for lamas) has been in Beijing since 1744. Before that, the buildings were the home of Emperor Yong Zheng. Because it was once the home of an emperor, the lamas enjoy some nice digs. The Lama Temple is kept immaculate (one of the few places that way in Beijing), and it seems that the Temple has plenty of cash flow. For example, every ticket (25 kuai/3 dollars) comes with a mini-VCD that you can pop into your computer and learn more about the temple. This is definitely not anything I've encountered at other temples.

Without going into too much detail (aka I might disappear), Tibetan and Chinese relations aren't great. Usually China gets most of the blame and Tibet gets the sympathy (a natural tendency to route for the underdog) from Westerners. However, both sides have a role in their current situation and icy relations. Nevertheless, the temple is a great and encouraging symbol of possibility in the capital city of the People's Republic.

This blog is already getting a little long, so I'll save Chinese temple descriptions for a future blog, and just give you what you really want, pictures!

Above, I'm rubbing a prayer wheel. Each wheel has inscriptions of some type (sutras, prayer, mantra). You spin the wheel, rub your hand along it, and the prayer is released. One might say the prayer or mantra aloud or silently in hopes of gaining compassion. Right is an icon, different icons, depending on the temple, are spread out throughout the complex. This is Skanda, he is protector of all the Buddhist relics. He's here to keep Maitreya safe. The Chinese don't discriminate with their praise, everyone receives love - as long as the deities, buddhas, spirits, etc. provide them with what they want.

Above, breathing can be difficult in a Chinese temple. Huge sticks of incense are offered in large fire pits. Top right is fat and happy Maitreya, the next Buddha. Below Maitreya, is another Tibetan deity, often called a wrathful deity. These guys and gals defend Buddhism and Buddhists from passion and evil influences outside and within. This is Mahakala, he won't hurt you. The greatest sight in the lamasery is a 56-foot statue of Maitreya made out of one piece of wood. Unfortunately, pictures aren't allowed, though I'm sure you can see it on Google.

After the temple, we crossed town and eventually made our way to the Beijing Zoo - along with every other tourist that happened to be in Beijing at the time. This place was packed. We headed to the Panda house, which was even more packed, got a look at a Panda, felt bad for the Pandas because the Chinese are always banging on the glass and being loud, and got out. If you're in Beijing during the offpeak season, the zoo would probably be cool, just not during national week. That night we took Jimbo to see his first, authentic Chinese acrobat show. While it didn't live up to the one we saw in Shanghai, it was still a good time.

The next day we got up and decided to visit the Beijing Underground City. Once again, pictures weren't allowed. The Underground City was created during the Cold War and is a series of weaving tunnels under Beijing. We got to walk through these cold, damp tunnels and it was pretty cool. Supposedly, one could walk all the way to TianJin (which is a good ways away, probably at least 70 miles) through the tunnels. If things had gone nuclear, the (select) Chinese could stay in the Underground City with the comforts of restaurants, libraries, and even movie theaters! We proceeded from the Underground City to view the City Wall Park. A well landscaped park which holds the only remaining part of the ancient Beijing City Wall. Pretty cool stuff.

Oh, then we went home via train (soft-seat!).

Here's a panda picture for being such a good reader:

Poor Chinese Pandas. Check out this recent article from the Beijing Zoo and what the Pandas have to go through: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21430375/

We'll be Back,

DB&KM

The Olympic City - Day 3: The Greatest of Walls

2007-10-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

Without a doubt, one thing everyone must do during their time in China is see the Great Wall. Chairman Mao said, "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man." Sorry ladies, guess the ol' Chairman wasn't a big fan of gender inclusive language. However, I have to agree with his sentiment. Walking along the Great Wall is one of those indescribable moments in life, but maybe we can help you picture just a bit of its transcendence.

Our wonderful hotel set us up with a driver, Yang (yahng), to take us to the Wall. There are many different places to see the Wall in Beijing; most are at least an hour or two from the city. We decided to stay away from the most touristed area, Badaling, fearing that it would be even more crowded because of National Week. Instead, we opted for a more rugged area called Huanghua. Even driving to the Wall was an experience. Along the way we passed through quaint mountain villages, and beautiful outlooks - something to whet the appetite. Yet, even beautiful scenery gets tiresome when driving up and down curvy moutain roads after a while. Thankfully, Yang notified us that we had arrived in Huanghua. As we gazed at the terrifyingly rugged section of wall, Chinese police officers started shooing us away (but not before a few well deserved pictures). After some confusion, and a few cigarettes, our driver let us know that we couldn't climb there today, but that he would take us somewhere else. So, begrudingly, we got back into the car and faced the long and winding road to Mutianyu.

Mutianyu is more touristy than Huanghua. For example, in Mutianyu, the path leading to the Wall is lined with vendors, restaurants, and hotels. In Huanghua, there is a dilapidated building with a vicious dog chained to it. In other words, both sights have their charms. We decided to take a cable car to the top of the mountain, which turned out to be a good decision. The Wall stretches along the very top of the mountains. The hike, while not impossible, would have been long, steep, and fairly demanding. The cable car provided us with some fantastic views, and got us to the wall with fresh legs. I cannot state how important it is to have fresh legs, because, the Great Wall is rarely, if ever, flat - quite the contrary. Most sections have very steep declines and ascents; in fact, after we got out of the cable car, we were greeted by at least a dozen people with sweat-drenched shirts (though it was a mild day). As I said before, being on top of the Great Wall on a clear day in the mountains is an indescribable experience. Therefore, I'll let the pictures do most of the work:

The wall snakes along the peaks of the mountain range. Sometimes it disappears into the lush forest, but not too long before bursting out again in a steep ascent. There are no handrails to help people along the Wall, yet the Chinese elders were out in force, making their way slowly but surely. The picture above right displays the watchtowers that would house the guards. From there, they could fire outside the windows, or climb to the top and hurl objects at their enemies. Below is a shot of the scenery outside one watchtower window.

Top right, Jimbo stands next to a canon positioned to nail invading Mongolians. Below that displays how steep the wall can be. The steps are different sizes, so you always have to watch your step. One wrong step, and you could be rolling on the Great Wall for quite a while.

As you can see from the picture on the right, the Wall goes a long way. It is also on the toughest and most unforgivable of terrains. Contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall is not visible to the naked eye from space. Although the Great Wall did successfully thwart a few Mongolian invasions, Genghis soon learned that bribery was the best method of getting past the Wall. Much of the Great Wall, especially in the tourist areas, has been renovated. However there are a portions of the wall that are crumbling and being overtaken by growth, as can be seen below.

We decided to head back down the mountain and get back to Beijing. We were making our way to the chair lift when a sign caught our attention: "Great Wall Toboggan This Way." After debating whether we should do it for about, oh, seven seconds, we eagerly bought out tickets and made our way to the sleds. Maybe it was the mountain air, but I will admit to being giddy before hopping on the sled. There was one lever, pull up to brake, and more importantly, press down to accelerate. It took us over ten minutes to get up the mountain on cable car, and it took us about five minutes to get down by toboggan. Along the way, some guards would shout things like "Slow Down," "No Camera," or "Waiguo..." (Foreign something in Chinese), while the others would be reading a magazine or sleeping (I liked them better). Once we reached the bottom some "Mongolian invaders" were waiting to attack us...with requests to take a picture for only 10 kuai. Jimbo agreed, and the rest is history (look a few blogs back if you don't know the picture).

Before heading back, we decided to shop around a bit, and ended up making a lot of Chinese merchants very happy. Some treasures from the day include: A Great Wall staw hat, painting, and some sweet "I Climbed the Great Wall" t-shirts! On the way back we decided to stop and see the Olympic venues. Of course, the stadium was still under construction, as was just about the entire block around it. Unlike construction sites in the USA, Chinese constructions sites are pretty open and we managed to snap some pics of the Olympic stadium lovingly coined, "The Bird's Nest." After some rest, we went to find the newly opened National Theater which is one gorgeous building. It was night, so we couldn't get any good pictures of it, but its worth a Google Image search if you're not familar with it. It kind of looks like a UFO landed in this big lake in the middle of downtown Beijing. If that doesn't make you want to see it, nothing will.

We are almost at the end of our Beijing blogs, but not quite. We still have another eventful day to report, so look for that soon. Also, we are lucky enough to be going to Qufu and Tai Shan this weekend. Qufu is the home of Confucius, and Tai Shan is the holiest mountain in China; therefore, we'll be a lot wiser and a tad more holy when we return next week.

Until then,

DB & KM

One last treat. It occured to me during the tobogganing that some of our readers might enjoy this too. You've got to love modern technology (that is if this actually works). Enjoy!

I don't know why I listened to that guy.

The Olympic City - Day 2

2007-10-14T23:37:00.000-07:00

The second day of our holiday we decided to do the ultimate tourist destinations of the Forbidden City and The Temple of Heaven. On entering the Forbidden City, Kendall left us and went to purchase tickets. On his return several minutes later, once more we had confirmation that you should never get in line behind Chinese tourists. They do not seem to understand the concept of a fixed price. So the 5 or 6 people in front of him all had to argue with the ticket lady, trying to bargain down the entrance fee. Of course there is yelling on both sides with the final answer of course being that they must pay the same price as all the rest. We are of the conclusion that they must welcome western tourists because we simply walk up to the window, hand them the correct amount of money and take our tickets. No questions, or bargaining, asked.

The Forbidden city is considered one of China's best preserved land marks. You can definitely tell that they have repainted and rennovated most of it. Below you can see the traditional chinese painting that covers all the eaves of any relatively old building across the country. They are quite fond of bright colors.

Entrance to the Forbidden City. We definitely understand now why it is called a city. The site is enourmous. It would take several days to explore the whole thing. I can see now why they never wanted to leave.
You would think that a national monument with thousands of tourists each year would have an interpreter that would be able to spell check the signs. But no....and the one below is one of my favorites...along with the switch in the hotel room to turn on the "ceding" lights. I suppose its a combo of reading and ceiling??

The Imperial Chariot. Imagine carrying that on your shoulders.
This huge marble carving is made out of 1 piece of marble that they had to deliver into Beijing on an ice path. It was the official road they could convey the emperor over while he was sitting in the sedan chair above. Just a bit of shameless advertising...JB Outdoors goes to China!
The Imperial Throne, well one of them. Apparently there are several.
One of the coolest things in the Forbidden City is by far the Watch and Clock museum. They have preserved over a hundred clocks given to the Chinese emperors during the 19th century mainly by England. They are quite extravangant and perfectly preserved. My favorite is the one below. Look closely and you will see the western gentleman who writes 7 different chinese characters with real ink at certain times when the clock chimes.

The moat surrounding the Forbidden city. All the dirt was taken across the street to create a mountain to protect the city from dust storms.

The entrance into the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is surrounded by a giant park where people simply come to practice tai chi and various intruments. We walked among the various buildings and took part in the Echo wall, which is a circular wall enclosing one of the prayer buildings. Kendall stood on one end and we stood at the other and we could hear each other as if we were standing right next to each other, well minus the screaming chinese tourists in between us. They didn't seem to understand that the concept is to whisper and see if your friend could hear you... The buildings all have round walls with square bases symbolizing heaven and earth. Below is a picture of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests which has 3 tiers of white marble surrounding it. Everything surrounding the Round Altar consists of something to do with the number 9, which is the imperial number because odd numbers possess heavenly significance and it is the largest single digit odd number.

We finished the day by scouring through the Pearl Market, a five story building selling everything from knock off purses to real pearls. The best part of our brief look around was when we tried to pass through the shoe section. The only way to describe it is as if we were trying to survive the gauntlet. Kendall was in front of me and dad behind. Once we entered the row of shoe sellers, women simply poured out to meet us. Kendall got bashed in the head a few times with some knock off pumas, I was shoved so much that I couldn't help laughing hysterically thinking "Is this really happening?" I looked behind me to find dad surrounded by tiny women shoving shoes at him, his face red from trying to hold in his laughter. We made a break for it and finally got to the end, with all limbs in tact. Though I still think Kendall might have gotten a concusion.

The Olympic City - Day 1

2007-10-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

As promised, the next couple o' blogs will be about our trip to Beijing - the capital of China. Beijing isn't too far from Qingdao, so we bought some high-speed train tickets and left early one morning. Thankfully, the train ride was pleasant and took a mere 6 hours. We also got to view some authentic Chinese countryside; not surprisingly, it was mostly packed with large farms. But, on to the good stuff, right?

The Beijing train station was conveniently close to our hotel. We dropped our bags and headed for the largest public square in the world.

For those of you who guessed Tiananmen Square, give yourself 200 points! The photo above shows the Gate of Heavenly Peace, also known as the building with the huge portrait of Mao. As you can also see, we arrived at the square around dusk, and were greeted by a Disney-like atmosphere that the square emanates at night. All the buildings are outlined with white lights like the one above. Another great surprise was a special botanical exhibit in the square aimed at getting the Chinese pumped about the olympics. There was a variety of flowers and arrangements configured to look like athletes engaging in various olympic sports. All of the athletes were standing in front of a Great Wall replica made out of flowers. It was really quite beautiful. At night, the exhibit was also lit which only increased its beauty. Tiananmen Square is also surrounded by many government buildings, and there are many monuments in the square itself - Monument to the People's Hero, and of course the Maosoleum. We decided to bypass these, but were slightly disappointed when we learned the Chinese Natural Museum was closed...until 2009 (how in the world can you close your national museum for that long, especially when you have the olympics coming to THAT city?)!

Tiananmen's charm lies in the people that flock to the square in support of their country. It was National Week, so believe us when we tell you, there were a lot of them. One night we walked to the square to hang out and were greeted by a claustrophobia-inducing amount of people packed into the square. Our first night in the square was our most pleasant. We were able to look at the flower exhibit in peace and watch the kites cut through the night sky. Beijing at night is different from many other global cities. First off, the city is expansive, yet there really aren't too many enormous buildings, especially around the Tiananmen area. Second, buildings don't stay lit all night long. If you look out over the city at night, you can tell the tourist areas, they are the ones that are lit up; the other areas remain dark, seemingly lifeless.

One area that is definitely not lifeless is Wanfujing Lu (Street). The street is Beijing's most popular shopping street and is lined with mall after mall. Fortunately, it also has Beijing's most praised Peking Duck Restaurant - QuanJuDe. You can't go to Beijing and not eat Peking Duck, it would be like going to Memphis and not having barbeque. The restaurant was very nice, and the food was hen haochi (very delicious). In true A Christmas Story fashion, the duck was brought out with the neck and head. Luckily, at QuanJuDe, they carve the duck for you. Another aspect that absolutely thrilled Darbie was the tea server. Usually, restaurants have a simple teapot from which the guests serve themselves; not so at QuanJuDe. A lady (perhaps a tea-pouring guru) walks around with a lengthy contraption serving tea. I wish we had video of Darbie's face the first time the lady refilled her glass. Fortunately, we do have some documentation, although it does not quite recreate the magic of their first meeting.

All this info for you, and this is only the first night! Instead of making you read one incredibly long post, we're going to break it up for you. Its kind of like how The Office really leaves you hanging with the whole Jim and Pam thing every season. We just want you to be thinking, "What in the world did they do the rest of the time they were in Beijing?" Plus, not too much goes on in Huangdao these days, so we need future posts. However we will leave you with a picture also taken on our first night in Beijing

One World. One Dream. Indeed. The Olympic Friendlies are hot, get on board now while you still can. And don't worry, at some point we will have an entire blog about just who these friendly pandas are and why they are so great.

Day 2, coming soon!

DB & KM

We're Back!

2007-10-05T05:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all of you that check the blog everday (ok, that excludes everyone), but we forgot to let you all know that we were going to Beijing for Golden/National Week! So don't fear, we are still blogging, we just have been away for a while. We'll have many, many upcoming blogs about our marvelous trip to Beijing, but first we want to catch you up on Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is more popularly known as the Moon Festival. While there are a ton of different stories that debate the significance of the Moon Festival, they usually revolve around Chang E, a woman who flew to the moon and can still be seen when the moon is full in mid-autumn. Oh, and a giant bunny keeps her company up there. The Moon Festival is similar to our Thanksgiving. It's a time to get together with family, drink some Tsingtao, and eat moon cakes (what else?!). For those of you not familiar with moon cakes, allow me to bring you up to date.

First off, as I know we have many readers from the South, moon cakes are not to be confused with Moon Pies, the delicious marshmallow treat (if only we were so lucky). Around or on the Moon Festival, moon cakes are customarily given to coworkers, friends, and loved ones. We were surprised when Mr. Li (our caretaker) presented us with a tin of moon cakes. Viewing the outside of a moon cake for the first time will likely make your mouth salivate; they look like quite a treat. However, biting into one will quickly reverse that bodily instinct. Moon cakes are often stuffed with quail eggs, red bean paste, dried fruits, ham, crushed nuts - you name it. Furthermore, most of these wonderful fillings are often combined (picture the fruit cake from Hell)! I don't want to make it sound too bad because the Chinese do love their moon cakes, and it is a special holiday for them to be with family. But, let me say that I don't think moon cakes will be making their way to the states soon (although, Haagen-Das and Dairy Queen - yes, there are DQ's here - are now making moon cakes).

Save your R.C. Cola for the real thing

Moon Festival was complete when Jimbo (Darbie's father) arrived later in the week with real delicacies (granola bars, dvds, lint rollers, books, etc); we were very thankful. After much hustle and bustle, we managed to get 3 tickets via CRH (China Rail-Highspeed) to Beijing. These adventures, of which there were many, will follow soon! Here's a sneak peek though:

We had to get this picture out as soon as possible

Stay Tuned!

DB & KM

2007-09-23T01:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you were concerned about us this week (shame on you if you weren't!). Super Typhoon (aka Hurricane in the West) Wipha showed up on Wednesday night! Granted, Huangdao (our little suburb of Qingdao) didn't get the full blast, but it was still a rather interesting day. It rained quite a lot while Wipha was here, and we had the flooding to prove it. The flooding wasn't limited to the outside however; it somehow made its way to the 5th floor as well (sideways rain and balcony doors to blame)! One might think that classes would be cancelled during a typhoon providing torrential downpours, flooding, and 75 mph gusts - one would be wrong. Thus, our brave Darbie made her way out among the, calf-high floods, uprooted trees and inside-out umbrellas to teach (it was my day off!). She wants me to note that it was much worse than 'Lake Lambuth.' To me, typhoon sounds much more fun than hurricane, and for Wipha, that holds true.

Saturday night we were told (not asked) that we were going to be the judges for an English-speaking speech competition. 12 students talked about what global citizenship means (rather, what they think it means). After their prepared speech they gave an impromptu speech usually based on a political cartoon, and last but not least, had to answer questions given by yours truly (being Darbie and Kendall. I'm not quite sure yours truly has a plural?)! Enjoy some excerpts from the prepared speeches:

-You don't have to accept but you have to respect. I am eating tofu; you are not. I have to respect that. You like cheese, I don't but I respect your cheese.

-...when suddenly a policeman appear and shout at you "Freeze!" Dare you move? You dare not, who knows, you may get shot!

-Let me end my speech with a few sentences from the song, Heal the World...

-For example, do not litter anywhere, do not split anywhere, do not pour wasted water anywhere.

-Thinking about the War-mart, lots of people know that it is an American company.

-Listen, 12 teenagers are using their hearts to show us the world full of love. Tenderly holding your face, let me wipe away your tears, my heart forever belongs to you, tell me you will never be alone, together we strive, together we dream, we treasure the same love in our heart.

We may laugh, but the students were very impressive. I can't imagine giving a speech in a second language. With that said, the "respecting cheese girl" won, which I didn't like too much, but then again, I have to respect her cheesy speech.

Chinese Moon Festival is coming up on Tuesday, and hopefully we'll have another blog around then to let you know about that (unfortunately it has nothing to do with showing your butt to strangers).

Splitting is a bad habit,

DB & KM

PS: Sorry, no real pics, but we've been spoiling you.

Peach of a Beach

2007-09-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

A weekend at Golden Beach - Jin Sha Tan. The weather is still warm here, but beach season is on its way out. Still people flock to the beach, not to lay out and get a tan, but simply to socialize. After a bus ride of around 30 minutes, we finally arrived. The beach area is surrounded by a well kept park complete with a mini-fair which you can see in the background of the picture below. The beach is wide, especially at low tide. The sand, from which it derives its name, is a golden brown and very wet and hard. A great beach for bocce ball, riding your bike, or renting an ATV!

The first part of the beach is surrounded by statues and umbrellas, tables, and tents for rent. There are people who follow you around the entire beach asking you to rent something. We started a feud between 2 women because we rented one woman's table (less than $3 American for the entire day!) over another that had been following us around. They kept shouting for about 15 mins after we had sat down and even shouted at us! But our renter ended up being very nice, and Kendall was quite pleased with himself because he was able to read the chinese characters she wrote in the sand.

Standing in front of the Sea of Japan. The water is a bit cold but very clear and clean (surprisingly).
I got quite a few stares when I took my cover-up off to lay on the beach. All the other girls were wearing full outfits (even playing in the ocean in nice pants and tops), while I was in what I feel is an actual bathing suit. We also got strange looks for bringing towels with us; apparently no one brings a towel to the beach....
There were a few girls wearing bathing suits like below with tops and skirts for bottoms. But most were in one pieces if they were in a suit at all. Full coverage is key.
One of the best ways to amuse yourself at the beach is to cover your friend or yourself with the wet sand as seen in the background below. Most of the kids, from toddler to about teenage years, prefer to do this completely naked.
Another beach activity is to climb the rocks jutting out into the sea and hunt for mussels, shrimp, and squid which they grill right there next to the water. They smelled good, but I'm sure you'd regret it soon afterward.

By far though, my favorite people watching moments were when the guys frolicked through the sand with their matching speedo boy shorts. That, or see-through boxers is the choice cool man beach outfit, no matter your size or stature!So after a day that consisted of watching men drive dune buggeys around trying to persuade us to rent them, being continually stared at and pointed at, being asked to take pictures with people (perhaps they believe we could be famous, but who knows?), seeing a lot of little naked boys, and having a generally fantastic people watching experience, I think the beach trip was a success!

DB & KM

All About Activities

2007-09-13T03:25:00.000-07:00

Folks, buckle up because we have one action-packed blog for you today with loads of photos. So without further delay, let's get started. Saturday morning was move-in day for the freshman. Unfortunately, move-in day means that music is played over the loud speakers all day long. After a while they got to the bottom of the playlist, John Denver, Rascal Flatts (I'm not saying either of these are bad - although Rascal Flats is - I'm just saying this isn't typical Chinese youth music.) and other interesting selections. Once the parents said goodbye to their kids, the military took over. The first week of school for freshman isn't really school at all, its military training!

Their training is mostly practice on how to march in formation. Sounds easy, until you realize that they are doing it from 6:30 AM until 6:00 PM. Yep, all day just marching and listening to drill instructors tell you that you got it wrong.

Sorry, Miss. You're going to have to do that again.

When the older students (that have already started class) have some free time from class and studying, we've been encouraged to find that they spend a lot of it outside. This is likely because they share cramped dorms, and really don't have any reason to be inside when they aren't sleeping. We walked around and took some pics of the students and their hobbies. We think you'll enjoy them.

As you can see, Ping-Pong is seriously popular here. I would estimate there are about 50 tables around campus, and that's just the outside tables. Personally, I like the shaded "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" tables in the trees. Oh! Another thing you're sure to see here are student surveyors. They are everywhere, and they are wild about surveying.

Martial Arts club practices in the afternoon. They often use bo staffs and samurai swords. Don't mess with them.

Coming in a close second to Ping-Pong in popularity is Badminton. Nets need not apply, here students just play wherever there's open space; even we have fallen victim to the Badminton craze!

Next we have two very popular sports at American Universities, volleyball and basketball.

So there you have it, Shandong students really get after it. I'm looking forward to bringing my game and my "special sauce" to these basketball and volleyball players very soon. While I don't know if they'll truly appreciate said "sauce," I do know they'll go crazy when I tell them I played with Bron-Bron back in my high school days and that he called me "Pippen." One last photo is waiting below, be sure to scroll down and check out the sweetest hobby on campus.

Are you ready for it?

Sweet nunchuck skillz dude, do you think you could teach me a move or two?

Until next time!
DB & KM

Babies and Bar Hopping

2007-09-08T00:42:00.000-07:00

The clothes in China have been interesting. Mostly the young people wear normal things but a few of my favorites are as follows. I was expecting the love of jeans even in the hot and humid weather. (The weather here is great by the way, warm but with great breezes) The girls love short skirts and shorts with leggings paired with shirts that have english sayings on them with most of the words misspelled. There is no hope of purchasing a cool shirt with chinese writing on it. They wear high heels everywhere even on bicycles and even though most of the roads in China are made either of very wobbly stones or just mud and dirt. So inevitably, I look very much the tourist in my flip flops (which they consider bath slippers). I especially love that the main use of umbrellas, which are for sale on every corner in every color, is as a parasol so they can stay as white as possible. The strangest looks we have received are when we are enjoying basking in the sun. The whiter the better and more beautiful. The boys have an inclination to wear their pants as high as their armpits as if they've watched Family Matters once too many and misunderstood Urkel's sense of style as a distinctly cool western fashion. Hopefully we will get a picture of this soon, its really a great sight. One thing that is going to take some getting used to is the underarm hair. Girls love to wear sleeveless and spaghetti strapped shirts and show off that little black tuft peeking out around their arm.

By far though, my favorite and the one I will never get used to is pictured below - crotchless baby pants. When we were looking at some ancient paintings we saw the children pictured wearing these kind of pants. I understand it then, no diapers. But now? Moms and dads just walk down the street holding their child (baby and toddler) with the front and back of the crotch wide open. At least its easy to distinguish the sex of the child. We sat next to one on the bus yesterday and all we could do was cross our fingers that the child didn't feel the need to relieve herself. Potty training in China mostly consists of teaching your child to squat on the side of the road which we have experienced many times. The practice doesn't seem to wear off once you know better and are able to feel embarrassement because we definitely saw a 15 year old girl taking a squat by a bus stop. I tried to get the baby below to turn around for a frontal view but I thought that might be a bit much.
The only shopping we have done so far is for necessities but considering the fashions we have seen thus far, I don't think we will be buying many things. Nothing is as cheap as I was expecting, mainly because the clothes that are decent are made by expensive western brands. Oh well, no need for a big wardrobe as everyone pretty much wears the same thing every day anyway.

The last 2 pictures are of our first experience with the night life with some of our fellow teachers. Below from left to right are Kendall, Paul (from the UK), Dan Brown (not the author, he's from Canada), Royale (as in Royale with Cheese from Texas), and Joachim (from Norway and our next door neighbor). An interesting and lively bunch. We went to an American owned restaurant where we got to have french fries and I accidentally ordered an entire bottle of wine. Gotta love the language barrier!

Next we ventured onto another American owned bar (Catch 22) where we partook in foosball and darts, then proceeded to a bar (Revolution) owned by an New Zealander. Pictured below is me with Brendan the owner and another English teacher from India whose name (Ujawal Jha) I will never be able to pronounce. All in all, a good night and I am sure we will be frequenting the establishments in the future.

Our experience with other "English Teachers" so far has been intriguing. Many own bars, restaurants, or other shady business ventures. Teaching English is almost a way to earn some quick, easy money. But, it never hurts to have friends that own bars, so no complaints here.

Who knows, maybe we will have a joint venture by the time we return home!

Til next time,

DB & KM

Back to School

2007-09-05T02:24:00.000-07:00

This is Shandong University of Science and Techonology as seen from our balcony on the 5th floor. As I'm sure you can tell from the photo, the university is really a beautiful campus. Mind you, its not the typical beautiful USA college campus (they let the grass grow longer here for instance), but Shandong University has a uniqueness about it. The campus is very spread out, especially when you consider there are 36,000 students here and at no time does it ever feel really crowded. The campus is also surrounded by mountains, which can usually be seen, although fog sometimes provides a cloak. We both have fairly easy teaching loads - 5 classes. Darbie teaches 3 listening classes, 1 oral English class, and one extensive reading Class. Kendall teaches 1 movie appreciation class, 2 Survey of English Speaking Countries classes, 1 oral English class, and 1 extensive reading class. So while we both will be busy with planning and preparing, we are both very thankful that we can usually enjoy 3 day weekends! The next picture is a view of the main gate which you'll see standing in the background. The building where we do most of our teaching is standing to the left there.

There are many man-made water features here, though we would recommend you stay out of the water. The landscape is also filled with many different types of flowers. There is a huge field of rose bushes, but the one pictured below is the prettiest. These flowers are just about as tall as Darbie, and in the background you can see the school clock tower.
There are also many different types of structures and statues decorating the campus. They include an area of about 7 statues of Western thinkers and scientists. Though, there are no plaques or info about the statues, so you have to guess who they might be. One of the most striking structures on the campus is below.
Once again, nothing that you'd find on a college campus back in the states. Through 2 classes, the students seem to be very well behaved and dedicated to their studies. They have English names (given to them in middle school) and some can be quite interesting/hilarious - Snoopy, Papaya, Echo are just a few. The average student here studies 9 hours a night according to one eager English student named Rainbow. At 6:30 each weekday, music plays over the loudspeakers around campus to wake the students. They also play pop music (from all over the world) around their other breaks (lunch, and after class). Unfortunately, it seems the selection is limited, and I've heard entirely too much Kelly Clarkson lately.

So, that's a little bit about the campus we're calling home for a year. Next time, we'll be sharing the apartments that are given to "Foreign Language Experts" at Shandong U. Here's a preview:

Oooo! Always leave them wanting more.

Until Next time,

DB&KM

Shanghai and Dry

2007-09-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

We are still alive.

And, we are in Qingdao! There is so much to relay to all of you, but I guess its best to start with an overview of our orientation week in Shanghai. After flying into Pudong Airport, we were responsible for getting ourselves and our bags (hen duo - Chinese for very much/big) to the Jiao Tong University Faculty Club. Fortunately, this wasn't too hard and we were able to sit back and enjoy a scenic ride. Taxi rides in China are always an adventure, as is any involvement with public roads for that matter. Lots of people + Lots of cars + Lots of motor bikes/bicycles + No real "rules of the road" = mass chaos, but it is pretty fun to experience once you get used to it.

Our first day of sightseeing took us to Old Town Shanghai (you'll see some pics below) After Old Town, I was fortunate enough to have my first Chinese Public restroom experience, or trauma (I'll leave it to your imaginations).

We don't want this blog to be boring or tedious to read through, so we'll fast forward (for now) and say that Shanghai was amazing, despite being a bit smelly and loud. We were fortunate to meet some great people during our orientation, and experience more of Shanghai. Here's a quick rundown of other things we were able to do: Eat banquet dinners (this deserves and will have its own blog) at a Uighur and an amazing vegetarian restaurant, visit Shanghai's (current) tallest building - the Jin Mao Tower, view the Shanghai Museum and The People's Square, browse the Shanghai City of Books, ride the always crowded subway, see a Chinese Acrobatic show, cruise the Huangpo River, hang around the Pearl Tower, observe the Jade Buddha Temple, and walk the famous West Nanjing Shopping District. It sounds like a lot because it was, especially with orientation classes in the mix. Now, we can relax for a little bit in Qingdao before classes start on Thursday (? we think).

We'll be able to blog at a little better pace now, thanks for hanging in there! Here are some Shanghai pictures. We'll try to post a full album of these on facebook sooner than later.

Cruising the Huangpo River

Chinese Acrobats

Shanghai's tallest building - Jin Mao Tower

Missippi Girl hanging out in Old Town Shanghai

More Old Town

More to come soon!

DB&KM

Blogs, what a joke

2007-08-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, some of you called for it, so here it is. This here blog will likely be the best way for you to keep up with the adventures and trials of Darbie and myself while we're in China. Once we actually get settled in Qingdao, we'll post our address (hopefully in Chinese characters). But until then, I guess our itinerary will have to suffice.

Friday: We leave at 7:48 AM.
Sunday (China Time): We arrive in Shanghai arround 5:30 PM.
Monday - Sunday: We are having our orientation during this week, so don't expect too much.

Have no fear, because once we get into Qingdao City and settle down we'll have one huge blog to share with everyone about Shanghai.

So, until we get to Qingdao City,

KM