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October 31, 2005
Ladykillers
I have been continuing the mini-unit with my students on debating (in the talk show format) and have had some very interesting performances. Today I had two in particular that were noteworthy, the first being about Chairmain Mao. When the group first proposed this idea to me I really liked it. Besides the fact that I just read Kristof's review of the new Mao book and got excited about it, Mao is a fascinating figure. In addition, to be honest, I didn't think Chinese high schoolers had the wherewithal to criticize someone so heralded in their history. Isn't that the unwritten rule? The fact that they wanted to tackle such an issue was exciting for me. I had visions of an impassioned debate followed by sweeping class participation.
The more I thought about it though, the more nervous I got. There is a section in my contract that specifically forbids any disparagement of China, the Chinese government, Chinese history, or Chinese culture. It's also worded in such a way as to apply to whatever they want. Basically they can reprimand me for speaking about virtually anything, but I get the feeling they just want to cover themselves. I started to feel apprehensive about getting in trouble with the administration though and had a few daydreams about getting hauled away by the local police. I mean, stranger things have happened! I know for a fact that there is a file on me at the police station because we had to register with them upon arrival. I'm guessing that there are also a couple students responsible for reporting any polemical comments that I make because, so far as I understand it, that's s.o.p. with foreign teachers. Who knows.
Anyhow, their presentation rolled around today and I geared up for whatever might happen. The introduction was relatively tame and centered more around his great accomplishments than any negative traits. Once the "guest speakers" began giving their spiel though, I was almost in awe. The girl speaking out in favor of Mao started listing off how he brought China into the modern age and liberated the country from the evil and corrupt Nationalists. After a couple more minutes of this, the other girl began speaking. She started off with the soft stuff, mentioning how Mao had some fidelity issues and went through four wives. I was wondering if she'd stop there, but she slowly started listing off his policies on shutting down schools, destroying temples & museums, and creating a food shortage. Noticeably and decidedly absent was any mention of killing his own people.
Once again I decided carpe diem and push the limits a tad, without really incriminating msyelf. Sitting in the "audience" among the rest of the students, I asked the members of the group what they thought of Joseph Stalin. I pointed out that he was not only responsible for modernizing the country and increasing industry twentyfold, but also for knowingly killing countless millions of Russians. Without so much as batting an eyelash, they all denounced Stalin and his methods as inappropriate and unacceptable. Interesting. I wonder what my students would think if they were privy to a more complete history of Chairmain Mao.
The second noteworthy presentation was the highly anticipated talk show of who is more attractive, Steven or me. The students who designed this one happen to be some of the smartest and funniest kids in the class so I decided to give them the okay for the topic, under the condition that if Steven were in the room he wouldn't be offended. They titled the show, "Who is the true lady-killer, Steven or Ari?" I laughed. In the end, it was a really funny show. They had the two guys each taking one side and the girls in the group were audience members. After all was said and done, they decided that it was a tie and that we are both the highest level of "lady-killer." Heh.
On a completely separate note, I found out today that the faculty and staff of HSFZ will have a track & field competition in a little over a month. Oh boy. Howard, my supervisor and friend, informed me of this news with full knowledge that I ran in high school and college and that I have an affinity for competition. With a big grin, he began to list off the different activities and even asked if I wanted them to set up a 400m hurdles race. Ummm, no thanks--I'll pass on that one. I definitely have the date circled on my calendar and I am psyched for the races, but I'm also well aware of how long it's been since I raced on a track.
I decided to find out for sure and headed out to the track tonight in lieu of playing football. I did a quick 400m warm-up and decided to get right to it. Thinking back to my very first track practice back in high school, I can still picture Coach Butterfield's weathered face announcing, "100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m." I mean if I could do that without ever having run before, I could do that now, right?
That being said, I already feel self-imposed pressure to perform at a really high level when we have the meet. Besides my inherent competitive nature, I feel a strange sense of obligation to get out there and represent the U.S. against all of the Chinese here. It doesn't really make sense but I want to win in a bad way, to prove myself to the other teachers, to the administration, to the students, and to also to myself that I can still do it. Of course everyone told me that I was crazy to pack track spikes in my luggage before I left the U.S. so I took them out of my bag. Now I'm kicking myself!
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October 29, 2005
Howl
This weekend being Halloween weekend, Steven and I both decided to do a lesson on the holiday. While China does have some semblance of Halloween, it is entirely commercial and my students definitely had no idea where it came from. I had a whole lesson of different games planned out (Halloween crosswords, word-searches, jumbles, mazes, etc.) but then the technology gods decided I was unworthy. After I emailed all the files over to the copy center, I discovered that the Chinese computers didn't appreciate the format of my graphics. Tragic. Not to be turned away, I decided to turn to my iPod for inspiration.
A month ago I did a lesson analyzing the lyrics of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Now that would have been perfect. What else could I do? As I was cruising through my iTunes looking for another Halloween-ish song, I came across SteveSongs, the children's music of my good friend Steve Roslonek. Steve is an alumnus of Wesleyan University, the Spirits (my collegiate a cappella group), the Vineyard Sound (my summer a cappella group), and is one helluva talented musician. He has released 5 or 6 full length albums of original children's music, each of which receive regular play on my stereo, despite their target audience of primary schoolers. I still hold that if I had listened to SteveSongs growing up, I would be a *much* cooler person now. If you know his funk version of hickory dickory dock, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Anyhow, Steve wrote a song called "Werewolf" which is about a werewolf (surprise) that used to be a reaaaallly scary monster until he heard rock & roll music for the first time and was inspired to dance. Heh. The song has a scary-sounding introduction which happens to talk about Halloween so I played the whole thing for my kids. They seemed a little unsure of it at first, but once the beat kicked in they got excited. Afterwards we discussed the Celtic roots of the holiday and how it has evolved into modern day trick-or-treating.
After the first two periods of going through these motions, I was getting bored with the lesson. Halloween is so engaging and has so much potential for fun that I felt like I was wasting it. I racked my brain for a way to liven things up and found my answer once again in Steve's music. Having attended my fair share of SteveSongs shows, I know that there is an audience participation that goes along with the Werewolf song. Basically the chorus has three "howls" that correspond to different body motions, followed by a loud howl at the end. This was designed for American kids, ages ~7-12 but I figured I'd give it a shot. 3rd graders in America, 11th graders in China--pretty much the same thing, right??
So I went ahead and taught the Werewolf dance! Admittedly, they were a little hesitant to get up out of their seats. They were even more self conscious of howling out loud, but I pressed them to give it their best. Luckily, there was one student who has no conception of embarrassment and went all out howling. He unabashedly did the growling and claw movement too! I think that broke the ice enough and finally I got a chunk of the class to howl away. Thinking back now, I'm kicking myself that I didn't have my camera--it was hilarious.
Tonight I will be attending the "That's GZ" party, a Halloween bash for expats in the city. As I'm known to do, I waited until the very last minute to put together a costume. At this time, I'm debating between wearing my HSFZ football uniform and going with the old standby--a toga. Once again, I must tip my cap to Mr. Hayes, my high school latin teacher. Not only do I still remember the correct way to pronounce veni, vidi, vici, but I also remember how to make a pretty snazzy looking toga with only a basic bed sheet and a safety pin. You can never go wrong!
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October 26, 2005
The Grind
This week has been somewhat of a rude awakening back into the working world after a ridiculously fun weekend. Tired and hungry, I taught Monday with a half-finished lesson plan. Once again, I was pleasantly suprised to discover that sometimes the last-minute lessons turn out the best. I modified a plan from the PiA lesson book and decided to go with the idea of debate, via the medium of the talk show.
I took a page out of Hessler's teaching (from "River Town") and started off class by having my students discuss the merits and disadvantages of the United States space program. Specifically I asked, "Should the U.S. continue to spend billions of dollars on NASA?" While I could probably have gotten away with having them debate China's space program, I wanted them to make the connection and evaluate China on their own.
I got some very interesting (and somewhat disturbing) responses from my leading question. More than a few students responded yes, that America should continue its space program in order to assert itself as a world power. Others said that it was the best way for the military to control the world. Only a minority of the yeses cited technological innovation or scientific exploration as a reason for going up into space. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised with how many students noted immediately that it was incredibly expensive to send a ship up and that the money could potentially be used in other, more beneficial ways.
After this opening debate I introduced the concept of the talk show and split every class up into groups of five or six students with the task of creating their own 5-10 minute talk show to be performed next week. I gave them several suggestions for topics but offered complete freedom to choose whatever they wanted, as long as I gave my approval. The range of topics has been both wide and hugely entertaining. I have one group debating whether Hermione should get together with Ron or Harry Potter. Another is discussing the efficacy and necessity of their school uniforms. There is one group talking about the benefits and drawbacks of the Cultural Revolution.
One of the funniest moments of my teaching career came when one group proposed to me the idea of having a debate about who was more attractive- Steven or me. Naturally I was hesitant to give the okay on a subject like this so I pressed them for more information--how could they present logical arguments and reasons defending each side? After attempting to explain, one of the guys in the class offered the following bit of erudition:
The boys don't really care but the girls talk about it all the time. You see women are born to judge men, don't you agree?
I almost fell over laughing so hard.
Beyond teaching, we had another soccer match yesterday. I have a bit of a cold but of course I wouldn't miss the game. It was a hard-fought contest but we lost 3-2 to a group of future-teachers from the neighboring university. I hate losing. A lot. I was extremely disappointed, especially since I just missed a diving header that would have tied the game. A few weeks ago I was under the impression that our season was done but apparently I was wrong. I get the feeling that we will continue to have games all year since the weather never really gets too cold for some football. Basketball, on the other hand, seems to be tailing off and we have only been playing pick-up games now twice a week.
This weekend is Halloween and I find myself wondering, where has the time gone? If it's the end of October it means I've been here for over two months already. Wow. In some ways I still feel like I just got here and still have SO much to learn, do, and see. Another part of me feels like it's been years since I was in Boston and that I have managed to learn quite a bit since my arrival. My language study has gotten increasingly difficult lately as I have been trying to cram far too much information into my head. Not only do I still have to think about correct pinyin pronunciation, but I also have to remember the tone, the definition, and now the stroke order for the character. It's quite a task. Still, it's coming along and that is promising.
Steven and I watched "Dances with Wolves" the other day and I saw some amusing parallels to my experience here. The Sioux saw Costener as looking, acting, and speaking in a bizarre way. He was the one white guy in a land that was largely devoid of any others. Yet he gradually began to learn the language, dress the part, and even act as they did. The transition is slow but noticeable nonetheless. I think if someone were filming a documentary of my life they could also see a lot of the same advances and pitfalls. I find myself wondering, will people from home see a noticeable difference in me when we meet again?
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October 23, 2005
Wode Huoche! Qi Dian!!
Not surprisingly, we got somewhat of a late start on Sunday, given our rather long night on Saturday. I had grand plans to be up early to try all of Wuhan's many fabled breakfast foods, but alas, we missed the last breakfast foods by a couple minutes...or was it hours. Either way, I was disappointed but I still managed to have a bit of some "regan mian," Wuhan's famous hot/dry noodles which were quite tasty. I highly recommend them to anyone in the area.
I decided on two last sights to see before having to leave for home. The first was the Changchun Temple, a Taoist temple dating back to the Han Dynasty. I had never been to a Taoist shrine of any sort so I was excited to see how it differed from a Buddhist Temple. Not having studied Taoism, I'm not quite sure how much of what I saw was typical so my observations are probably not generalizable. That's okay. While clearly influenced by Buddhism, the ceremony I saw was actually very different from the Buddhism I've seen and studied. There was quite a bit more audience participation, so to speak, as everyone worshipping put on a robe and chanted along with the monks. They even joined in and circumambulated around with the monks playing various instruments. However, on the other hand, the main temple room had statues of the same four guardian kings as the Buddhist temples I've seen.
After watching the ceremony, we started out towards the exit and passed by a group of Chinese making a whole bunch of paper cranes. I really wanted to stick around and learn how, but sadly they just sort of ignored us and I felt too self conscious. Maybe next time. Before we actually left, I popped into the gift shop. Feeling minorly guilty for not paying an entrance fee (the guy just smiled and waved us in), I decided to throw some money their way and bought some prayer beads. I figure, can't hurt, right? I actually really like the concept behind the meditative benefits of the beads and will keep them around in case I'm inspired.
The next stop was a quick jaunt around Wuhan University. Located right down the street from where Mal and Tyler live and teach, the University was founded in 1913 and is known as being one of the four most beautiful campuses around the country. It was also the site of something called the "Wuhan Incident," a lengthy battle of sorts during the Cultural Revolution in which some members of the intelligentsia placed machine guns on top of the library and dug supply tunnels through the hill. I didn't see any remnants of the incident, but I did see a very beautiful campus complete with flower gardens, fields for football, old buildings, and a very active student population. It was a beautiful day and it seemed like every single student was either laying out on the grass or playing some sport. I was impressed.
Mal wasn't feeling all that well so we headed back to their apartments. I packed up my stuff and Tyler and I enjoyed some green tea over Shrek 2. I was sad to leave, but unfortunately work called. My train ticket was for 7pm and I figured I'd leave around a quarter to 6 or so. The train station was only about 10-15 minutes away so I figured that was a solid cushion of time. Normally I'd be right except for one small detail--I went out to grab a taxi to head over and for the first time in my China experience, I could not find an empty taxi for the life of me. In Guangzhou I don't think I've ever waited more than two minutes. In Hangzhou and Shanghai it was never more than five. The rest of the time in Wuhan it was also about five at most. For whatever reason, Sunday night was apparently rush hour for taxis and there was not an empty cab to be found.
I got to the main street outside the gate at about 5:50pm and raised my arm to hail a cab. It was futile. After 10 minutes I crossed the street and waited another 15 there. No luck. I walked down to the bigger street down in the direction of the station and was met by at least 5 other people trying to get taxis as well. I tried every corner without any semblance of acknowledgement from any driver. They really all had passengers! Around 6:30pm I'm starting to panic a bit. Think, Ari, think. I had no cell phone to call Tyler to ask Philip for advice. I decided it was useless to wait around any longer so I walked to the nearest bus stop.
I approached a group of 3 college-aged girls and asked them in Chinese if they spoke English. No such luck. In my broken Chinese I explained that I needed to get to the Wuchang Huoche Zhan (the Wuchang train station) but didn't know which bus to take. They walked over to the list and gestured that I needed to go to the next stop down. I explained in more broken Chinese that I had a train at 7pm and their look of shock told the whole story. One of them grabbed my arm and ran with me to the next stop to check the list. They started listing off the different buses I could take and happened to look over and see a bus that would work. They shoved me on and waved me off.
As I got on the bus I realized that it wasn't a regular city bus. It was a little smaller than a regular bus and there was some lady selling tickets. She asked me something I didn't understand and I responded with "huoche zhan," train station. This seemed to be a satisfactory answer and she asked for 2 kuai. I now faced the task of having to figure out where to get off the bus since I had no clue and have yet to learn those characters. I struck up a conversation with a mother and her daughter and in basic Chinese, explained that I needed to get to the train station but didn't know where it was. I also explained that my train was at 7pm (qi dian) and everyone around us began freaking out and pointing out the window to cabs. I proceeded to point at the passengers in the back seats and I think they understood my predicament. The woman selling tickets, initially quite solemn and bitter-faced, at once shouted up to the driver something along the lines of "hen kuai!" which more or less translates to "step on it!" in this context.
The driver immediately began to floor it, thank god, and we got closer and closer. I looked at my clock and saw 6:51pm. I was definitely pretty stressed at this point because technically they say that they close the doors to the train 10 minutes in advance. I've never actually seen that happen, but it is the written policy. As I walked off, the mother/daughter team told me to follow a guy who was going to the station as well. Apparently he missed my whole situation because as we get off he started taking a Sunday stroll in the direction of the station, explaining that there are two main doors and that I needed to know which one to go to. I grabbed his shoulders and shouted, "wode huoche! qi dian!!" which means "my train! 7pm!" and he immediately started running with me. I asked him to guess which entrance would be for the train to Guangzhou and he pointed me towards the center.
In my best 1999 sprinting form, I took off on a mission. I even hurdled a parking barrier in the parking lot (seriously). With my backpack on, I'm amazed I didn't clip it and lose a limb in the process. I ran to the door, prayed it was the right one, showed my ticket and the lady's eyes opened wide. I shouted, "wode huoche, zai nar?!" which means, "Where is my train?!" and they pointed me up the stairs. Luckily, I had chosen wisely once again. In true movie form, I ran up, showed my ticket, they closed the doors behind me, and 30 seconds later we were off. Naturally everyone else in my car had already set up all of their stuff and they all turned to stare as I stepped in panting and sweating like crazy. As if I don't stick out enough as it is! Regardless, I made it and I was pretty psyched. As I was attempting to problem solve on the bus for what I would do if I missed the train, I figured it wasn't the end of the world. That being said, I'm really glad I didn't have to deal with it. That night I slept directly on top of my bag, figuring I shouldn't push my luck. We rolled into Guangzhou Central at around 6am and I had just enough time to take the subway, switch lines, grab a bus, shower, check my email, and go teach a class. All in all, an excellent weekend that I will not soon forget.
Once again, if you'd like to check out pics from the weekend, feel free: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/1201189/
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October 22, 2005
Sight Seeing & Sound Fragment
We woke up early Saturday morning to go see the Yellow Crane Tower, the biggest tourist attraction in Wuhan. Bob & Lorraine, an older American couple also teaching English at the university, greeted us with buttered toast and tea for breakfast. What a treat! The tower overlooks the Yangtze River right near the Big Bridge, a feat of communist construction from 1957--the first time Hanyang and Wuchang were connected over the water for automobile transit. Given its notoriety and the good weather, I figured it would be a mob scene. I was pleasantly surprised though by the lack of tourists. There were certainly people there but it was far from crowded. I think the lack of hordes probably relates to Wuhan not being a major tourist destination as well as the fact that it wasn't a major holiday. Note to self--travel more in the off season...
The tower itself is stunning. Supposedly it inspired Li Bai to write a very famous poem about it many years ago and there is also a whole myth that relates to the crane. Very interesting stuff. There is an enormous bell which Tyler happily gonged right beside the tower and several other buildings to see on the grounds of the park. We walked around for the whole morning and part of the afternoon, just taking in the city sights. Climbing the tower helped me to get my bearings quite a bit in terms of the layout of the city. I did notice that for a city of 8 million (only ~2 million less than Guangzhou [heh, only]) it is decidedly flat. There are hardly any skyscrapers or any other ostentatious displays of money. Wuhan is a big ol' dirty city like GZ, but it has a *much* different feel to it.
After touring the tower we took an inadvertant trip across the bridge (no left turn? since when do cabbies ever follow traffic laws, especially in China??) and then headed back towards the university to get some lunch. Once again, I was floored. For the equivelant of about a dollar each, we all had two enormous trays of really good jiaozi (dumplings) and a tasty soup with or without noodles. The place was a little hole in the wall that certainly had its share of flies but man was it worth it! I was so inspired that I suggested we go back the next day.
The afternoon highlight was watching a movie and taking a nap. We all agreed that the Chinese system of having a daily nap time after lunch is excellent. I almost feel guilty because with the high school schedule, our afternoon break is from noon-2:40pm while the universities get started again at around 2pm. Anyhow, I hopped in my sleeping bag and was out for a solid 2 hours or so. We woke up and immediately headed out to dinner around 7ish. Once again, this is my kind of weekend- wake up, have breakfast, do some sightseeing, have a feast for lunch, watch a movie, nap, wake up and have yet another feast. What can I say? I probably don't even have to reiterate, but it doesn't take much to make me happy as long as there's food involved.
After dinner we met up with Philip, our tourguide and benefactor from the Hangzhou/Shanghai adventure. Not surprisingly, in the three weeks since I saw him last, he has gotten himself elected to the student government, helped organize their sports day, and still found time for his studies and a new girlfriend. This kid is going far, that much is certain. After another minor taxi adventure, we headed out to a place called Vox Bar.
There are apparently two cities in China that have an underground rock scene: Beijing and, yup--you guessed it, Wuhan. The large majority of Chinese people seem to prefer the cheesy pop that I abhor, but there are apparently enough people around generating interest in punk-rock and indie-rock to support this bar which is a good sign. I really felt like I knew some kind of secret password to a hidden world as I walked in. The bar is in the middle of nowhere and you would *never* find this place unless you knew where to go. Inside the bar was packed with Chinese and a smattering of internationals, all of which were going nuts for the opening band. I glanced over at the bar and saw a sign advertising 5 kuai beers. Now that's my kind of place! I also noted their business card which proclaims Vox Bar as the "Voice of youth, Voice of freedom...a REAL bar. REALLY!" Let me be the first to say that they are not exaggerating.
While the opening band was packing up and the main attraction, Sound Fragment, was getting set up, I met Wuhan, Chinese friend of Tyler and Mal. Wuhan (yes, named after the city) plays guitar for a hard core band and is super cool. He is incredibly welcoming, extremely hip, and surprisingly knowledgeable on all types of music, especially for someone studying computer engineering. He explained to me how Beijing has more bands than Wuhan but that the heart of the rock scene is in Wuhan. In excellent English he explained that in Beijing they dress the part but that in Wuhan they live it. Normally I would chuckle at a cheesy comment like that, but by the end of the night I believed it.
The minute Sound Fragment started playing, I was totally into it. They were a little Coldplay, a little Radiohead, a smidgeon U2, and a whole lot of contagious energy that the crowd fed off. I didn't understand a word of their lyrics (apart from the occasional "I don't have..." as well as a few numbers here and there) but it didn't matter. Talent is talent when it comes to music and these guys have it. Wuhan filled me in that they're really big now in the underground scene and that they came down from Beijing for the show. I was inspired enough to buy their CD which, while not quite as good as a live performance, is still worth a repeated listen.
After the band finished up, people continue to party to the DJ'd music. Around 2am, the owner jovially proclaimed that everyone should "get the %$#* out" and proceeded to join the 15 or so people left to get some shaokao. We walked down the street as a pack to some random alley and created the after-party right then and there. Over yet another feast, I talked to Wuhan about traveling and music and to some french guy about being a westerner in China. It was brilliant. Before I knew it, we were heading home at close to 5am. What a night...
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October 21, 2005
Unfathomable Enigmas and Such
I arrived in Wuchang at 10:15am about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and as I walked out to grab a cab, I marveled at the unpredictability of the Chinese rail system (i.e. 15 minutes early to Wuhan, 3 hours late to Hangzhou, you just never know...). I hopped in a taxi and, after telling the guy to take me to Wuhan University of Technology, I noticed that the starting rate was only 3 kwai--significantly cheaper than GZ. Off to a good start!
I got to the campus gate without a hitch and then set about the task of making friends with the nearest cell phone-toting college kid. Everytime I leave the Guangdong province I am reminded of how dependent I am on the cell phone and how frustrating it is to not have one. In reality it just makes me more outgoing though which is perfectly fine. I managed to find a friendly guy sitting on the curb who let me use his mobile after I butchered the Chinese phrase for "can I make a call with your cell phone." Lo and behold, I was in the right place and Tyler came to fetch me. After the grand tour of his apartment (awesome digs, I might add), we woke up Mal to head out and start my exploration of the city.
Step 1: get food. I don't remember reading anywhere that Wuhan is known for its food but it certainly should be. I will revisit this theme later, but right from the get-go (not to be confused with Geiko) I was blown away by the cuisine. For lunch we went a little bit upscale and hit up a restaurant down the street that had some excellent spicy beef, cauliflower, chicken, and rice. There was soup, there were unidentifiable vegetables, and there was local beer--everything you need for a good Chinese meal. I was geared up and ready to go after that!
Our first destination (after food) was to the East Lake. While it lacks the notoriety of Hangzhou's West Lake, the "Dong Hu" is still quite beautiful and has an awesome park that we explored for a few hours. Before we got there though, we got off the bus a couple stops early and just walked around for a little while. We got intentionally lost walking through some back streets on the hill by the lake and saw some of what I like to call "authentic China." There were run-down houses, people working the land, trash on the side of the road, and a public restroom that I wouldn't wish upon anybody. It's definitely a reality check and a reminder that most of China still has a long way to go in improving quality of life.
Back to the lake, we headed into Donghu Gongyuan (the park) to check out a bunch of the sights. We were collectively intrigued by the large map at the entrance that had a few idiosyncratic translations, crowned by a spot proclaiming to have an "Unfathomable Enigma of Nature." You can't go wrong with that. As we started walking in we noticed that most people were walking the other way towards the exit. Whether this was due to the slightly overcast weather or the proximity to dinner time we'll never know, but it made our afternoon so pleasant. We were some of the only people in the entire place! In a country where there seems to be a mob of people everywhere (and I really mean everywhere), this was a true rarity. Though we never encountered the infamous enigma, we did climb the watchtower gate, discover the alpine slide(!), play with the statues, climb the hundreds of steps up to the tower, climb the additional five flights to the top of the tower, light some incense, and then head out.
For dinner we went the street food route and had some shaokao, barbeque. There is a street by the back gate to the university that has dozens and dozens of different stands all making what looks like delicious food. You sit down at any of the outdoor tables, they hand you an order sheet, and you write down how many skewers you want and of what kind of meat or vegetable. We had an enormous feast and only spent around 8 or 10 kwai each (only slightly over a dollar). Wow. Now that's living! They love their cumin in Wuhan and I approve--all of the shaokao is doused with the stuff and it gives everything a nice kick. The more and more I experience China, I am finding more and more evidence that Guangzhou's reputation for having the best food in the country is greatly exaggerated. It's good, but so far I have had nothing here to rival the food in Wuhan (especially for the price).
After dinner, we met up with Serge (sp?), one of the other foreign teachers at the university. Along with his girlfriend, they both decided to help us experience the Wuchang nightlife. We picked a random bar and managed to finagle a deal on beers from a rather inebriated bartender. We played some of the dice game and chatted amongst ourselves, just enjoying the scene. As the night went on, they turned on the karaoke in the place and the Chinese patrons started to rock out. Suddenly we looked up and saw "My Heart Will Go On" on the television sets and the waitstaff handed us two microphones. Let me tell you--they LOVE that song here. I think I've heard it multiple times in every Chinese city I've been to. Seriously. Not really having a choice, we began to sing along with Mal taking the lead. Tyler and I did our best for Hotel California and a few others, but every 4th or 5th song was back to Titanic. By the end of the night I had had it with the tune but they kept playing it so we kept singing it. Tyler even recorded a beautiful rendition from about 2am that Mal should submit to American Idol :)
The following is a link to all my photos from the weekend. It includes shots from events I haven't chronicled yet so if you want to be surprised, hold off, okay? Hopefully they're better organized this time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/1201189/
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October 20, 2005
Woooohan!
So I found out this past Tuesday afternoon that I didn't have to teach any Friday classes due to a two day sports competition. I have no idea why they decided to take up 2 days of class for this but I was not about to complain. Despite the fact that I knew I'd miss the legendary opening ceremony to this event (it was built up by all the teachers), I decided it was time to head out and about once more in China. After having so much fun with Tyler and Mal during my last vacation, it wasn't a tough choice to head up to their place in Wuhan.
So Wednesday morning I headed out to try and buy myself a train ticket. I wrote down the few phrases I didn't know (tones and all) and wished myself luck. Walking up to the first place, I prepared for the challenge. I said my piece, waited for a look of recognition, got it (!), but then quickly became dumbfounded when they started firing questions back at me that I didn't understand. As I gave them a blank stare, they shooed me away. Strike 1. I walked up the street to the other ticket place and once again wished myself luck. I had a bit more success here as I got not only a look of recognition but also a schedule thrust in my face. Unfortunately I also received a number of questions I didn't understand and thus had to walk away empty-handed. Strike 2.
I tried not to be discouraged but I was running out of both time and options. Not to fear though, Meggie Lu to the rescue! My friend Meggie, having grown up in Taiwan, is completely fluent and a short bus ride away so I employed her help to get me a ticket. Wednesday evening I headed over and she helped me become mobile. I also figured out what they were asking me at the first two places- Wuhan is actually a city that is a combination of three major areas right across from each other on the Yangtze River: Wuchang, Hangkou, and Hanyang. They wanted to know which station in Wuhan I wanted! I called Tyler on the spot so figure out which one but unfortunately he was in class. Meggie and I guessed Wuchang for no good reason and it turns out that was exactly what I wanted! To quote Tyler, "You have chosen...wisely." The only bad part was that they had no hard sleepers left, only soft sleepers (which run about a hundred yuan more expensive). Oy. I bit the bullet though and decided I would roll up the country V.I.P.-style.
Thursday night after basketball and dinner, I packed up and headed over to the train station. While I left from the run-down Guangzhou Central Station during the National Day Holiday, this time I took off from Guangzhou East Station. What a world of difference! It's much newer, much nicer, much cleaner, much more organized, and much easier to navigate. I will admit though, it probably helped that I wasn't traveling on a day that 1.3 billion people were also going on trains. It wasn't nearly as hectic, hot, or stressful as the last time and it was nice to know how the system worked ahead of time.
I didn't know what to expect for the soft sleeper but I must say, I was disappointed. The only major differences are that there are only 4 beds per compartment (as opposed to 6) and that there's a door to the compartment separating it from the rest of the car. It was nice to not worry about my stuff getting stolen (it was inside with me as opposed to on the overhang across the way) but I still didn't sleep very well because the main lights never went off! In a hard sleeper, the lights to the whole car shut off around 10:30pm or 11:00pm but they never shut off on the way up. I'm guessing that maybe there was a switch somewhere where we could control it, but none of the other 3 guys made any effort to turn them off so I have no idea. My compartment-mates were also not nearly as friendly as the hard-sleeper crowd. One guy even made and received cell phone calls all night!
For the most part, the trip was entirely uneventful. I had a few random thoughts though: First, I was reading my Sandy Koufax biography and discovered a new meaning of getting immersed in a book. Tearing through the pages, I became entranced by the story and by Leavy's writing. Sidenote- I really respect Koufax and feel like I can relate to him quite a bit; It's not the Jewish thing as much as the fact that he worked very hard to earn people's respect and was fiercely competitive. Anyhow, reading about baseball in New York and Los Angeles during the fifties and sixties truly made me forget where I was. Consequently, I was shocked and completely caught off guard when a p.a. announcement in Chinese shattered this false sense of reality. I was almost disappointed to come back down to earth.
Second, the train made about 3 stops in the middle of the night. I woke up each time as we came to a jostling hault. The last time it happened I checked my clock and saw that it was a few minutes past 3:30am. Who plans on arriving somewhere in the middle of the night?? It seems a bit odd to make plans with someone and say, "No problem, I'll just meet you there at 4am." I guess the stops were just too minor to warrant their own line (or dropoff at a decent hour).
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October 19, 2005
China Wakes
I just finished the Kristof/Wudunn book "China Wakes," a modern history of China's international rise to power. This tome was written in 1994 by the married couple that was in charge of the NY Times Beijing Bureau during the late 80's and early 90's. They received the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and, after reading their first hand accounts of the event, it's no surprise as to why.
The book does a great job of illustrating various points through short vignettes and engaging character portraits. This method is great because they don't claim to be publishing truths; rather, they only write about (mostly) objective perceptions and personal experiences. I think this is incredibly important when dealing with China because it's such an unknown to any foreigner. Even speaking the language and knowing a fair number of native Chinese, Kristof and Wudunn were never 100% sure about a great deal of Chinese culture. This is both encouraging and depressing at the same time. On one hand, I don't feel so bad that there is still so much here that mystifies me. On the other, it tells me that even if I become fluent in the language and spend many years here, I will never fully understand my surroundings.
Regardless, the book was extremely informative. Parts of it are amazingly disturbing (e.g. the retarded Chinese man who was "eliminated" because the IOC was in town) and other sections are highly optimistic (e.g. the improvements in standard of living for peasants). Not surprisingly, the book meant quite a bit more since I'm here experiencing so much of what they write about. When he mentions the chaotic streets of Guangzhou, I can certainly relate. When she mentions the coming boom for Shanghai, I can verify it firsthand. I've decided to take a brief hiatus from China books though and have started the latest biography about Sandy Koufax. I mean who can resist a book on Jews & baseball?
In other news, there is an *enormous* dead rat outside my kitchen window. I noticed the other morning and it is truly disgusting. What Steven and I can't quite figure out is how it got there. We live on the second floor and the overhang is definitely inaccessible from the ground. This suggests that it fell down from a higher level but it seems to be in too much of one piece for that to be the case. The bottom line is that this is one of those "This is China" (TIC) moments. Our school is the equivelant of an Andover or Exeter in the U.S. and I just can't picture a rodent of unusual size hanging out by the kitchen window of the faculty there. Maybe I'm being naive.
Besides that, it's business as usual here. I did find out that I don't have to teach this Friday and I'm trying to figure out if I can organize a last minute trip up to Wuhan. Central China is supposedly remarkably different than the coast, so I would enjoy a look-see in those parts...
Posted by awolfe at 3:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 16, 2005
Syrian Chefs and Chinese Hipsters
I had an excellent weekend punctuated by a couple different highlights. First, this past Friday was Yale-in-China-Diana's birthday. The illustrious Meggie Lu, a Wash U. graduate and current guidance counselor, organized a big group of kids to go out for dinner and drinks. We went out to a place called the "Orient Express" (I think) which was actually a Syrian restaurant. It wasn't cheap, but they had an option for an all-you-can-eat buffet which I took full advantage of. The cuisine was not only a nice break from Chinese but also quite tasty on its own. There was really good hummus, tabbouleh, curry lamb, garlic seafood, and some sort of meatball & eggplant creation which was amazing. The best part of all--there were pickles! Real dill pickles! I had almost forgotten how much I missed pickles until I had a bite of one. Then it all came rushing back.
Not surprisingly, I was still filling up my plate when everyone was finished. I love eating and tend to eat quite a bit, especially when there's good food around. I felt a bit silly since everyone else had to wait for me, but by god--I was going to get my money's worth! Mmmm. Good food just makes everything better.
After the feast we headed back to Meggie's apartment for drinks and a home-made two layer frosted birthday cake. Yum! Diana seemed pleased which was great. I think I've asked Diana about a billion different questions about Guangzhou (and China in general) since this is her second year here and she has always been incredibly helpful and outgoing. In other words, she is one of my best friends here and she rocks.
To top the night off, we decided to head out for some good old-fashioned KTV--karaoke. This was my first experience going out for karaoke in China and it was pretty entertaining. Basically you rent a room with however many people you're with and you then have free reign to pick whatever songs you want and to order drinks and snacks. I sat back and listened to many different Chinese pop songs performed by the Yalies, and then Steven and I tried to represent the U.S. by picking a few English tunes. As I was going through the list, I saw a ton of random songs and wasn't really taken by anything until I noticed "Power of Love." Huey Lewis and the News?! Heck yeah! I got all ready to rock out 80's style, grabbed the mic, stood up, and was crushed to discover that their "Power of Love" was some bogus version done by a different band. Sad. I thought I could redeem myself from that debacle by singing "As," the old Stevie Wonder tune, but unfortunately their version was kicked up about half an octave and was clearly intended for a female vocalist. Oh well.
The most amusing part of the KTV experience was going to the bathroom. At one point early on Steven got up to go to the toilet and came back laughing about as hard as I've ever seen. I pressed him for an explanation and after much hesitancy, he explained that there was a man in the room giving massages. Well, it sure seemed a bit out of place but I figured that it couldn't be *that* funny. A little bit later in the night I decided to relieve the ol' bladder and Steven followed behind me. I heard him mutter something about a 50/50 chance before opening the door to the bathroom but didn't think much of it. I walked up to the urinal, unzipped my fly and glanced over my shoulder at the fellow working the room, apparently the masseuse. As I started taking care of business, the guy comes up right behind me and starts massaging my shoulders while I'm peeing! Well I started laughing uncontrollably because of the absurdity of the situation; On the one hand I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible but on the other, my laughter was slowing the process down, thereby making it that much funnier. I had heard of this phenomena of the pee-massage but I naively thought I would be able to avoid it. As Steven was chuckling at my predicament, he managed to translate a few of the phrases the guy was spitting out while massaging: "hey boss, looks like there are a lot of attractive ladies for you tonight," "seems like fun out there, huh boss," and "nice to relax with some beers and women, ay boss." I think that speaks for itself.
Saturday night was marked by a lack of any sort of backrub while urinating and by my discovery of an awesome jazz club. After a little bit of research I found a joint called the "Blue Note," which purported to have live music Thursday-Sunday nights. I decided to check it out and met a very entertaining Swedish women in the process. The place was pretty small and had a very welcoming vibe to it complete with comfy seats, small tables, an extensive drink list, and obscure indie movies from the 30's and 40's playing on a big screen behind the band. The quartet performing was pretty awesome and did a few of their own songs interspersed with some classics. It was the first real music I've seen here and I was definitely pleased.
There were a few random ex-pats in the bar but there was an almost equal number of Chinese. You could tell right away though that these weren't your average Guangzhou-ans. They looked like the pinnacle of hip with their clothes, hair, and demeanor. In other words, they were jazz cats to the core and it was pretty cool to see the similarities to the U.S. version of the same sort of person. I will definitely be going back to this place and someone else also recommended a different jazz club to me so hopefully I have much more to discover about the Guangzhou jazz scene.
I found myself wondering--how difficult is it to become a professional musician in China? As far as I know, the government doesn't provide any funding for musicians (especially of the jazz variety) so you're pretty much on your own. How do they get training? How much do they get paid for gigs? Is there a big underground scene of musicians attempting to make a living from their craft? I have no answers yet but I hope to find out in the next few months.
Posted by awolfe at 11:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 13, 2005
Day of Atonement
So yesterday was Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. I can't say I've spent too much time observing much of anything over the past few years, but if it's only going to be one day a year, this is the one. In a move of excellent efficiency, the powers that be decided thousands of years ago that Jews would have one day to atone for a year of wrongdoing--seems like a much better idea than the Catholic notion of confession. Every week? Who has the time! Anyhow, lo and behold there is a Chabad house here in Guangzhou so I decided to seek it out for services yesterday. For those of you not in the know, Chabad is an international organization of very observant Jews that seek to provide a place of observance for Jews around the world. Heading to Italy for Passover? No problem--just check online for the nearest Chabad. Hungry for a kosher sabbath meal in Beijing? No problem, just find the Chabad.
Chabad is nice because, so far as I can tell, they don't try to convert you into becoming a super-Jew. Rather, they are just happy that you're making any sort of effort. They provide the location, the materials, and the spiritual leader. Beyond that, it's up to you. So I copied down the address of the place and hopped in a cab right after my classes yesterday. For the most observant Jews, Yom Kippur is an all-day affair with services starting around 8am and not ending until around sundown. Keep in mind that you're also fasting for the entire thing. Ugh. Anyway, I rushed out to try and catch minchah, the afternoon service, and neilah, the concluding service. After some minor detours I found the spot and headed in just in time for the beginning of minchah.
In my insular thinking, I was expecting there to be a bunch of American businessmen there and maybe a couple of English guys. Silly me. A very nice man met me at the door and in hebrew asked if I wanted a tallis (a prayer shawl) and a machzor (a prayer book). My brain took a few moments to translate this, but I answered in the affirmative and the guy gave me his book and his tallis. I glanced at the translation of the hebrew in my hands and saw it was in French. Interesting. As I walked into the prayer room, I noticed that there were very few American-looking caucasians but rather a melting pot of various ethnicities. I saw prayer books in Hebrew/English, Hebrew/Spanish, Hebrew/French, and what looked like Hebrew/Norwegian. The majority of people there appeared to be of sephardic descent--Jews who can trace their roots back to the Iberian Peninsula. In other words, it was hardly Beth David, my parent's synagogue in West Hartford, CT.
It's been years since I had to use my Hebrew in any sort of extended fashion (I think the last time was ordering falafel in Paris) so it definitely took a couple minutes to clear some of the cobwebs away. My old Hebrew teachers from Solomon Schechter would probably be horrified at how much I've forgotten, but I choose to see the glass as half full-- I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the conversational Hebrew I understood and how I could even muster basic responses. What's really weird is that my first instinct when the guy handed me a prayer book was to respond, "xie xie," the Chinese for "thank you," as opposed to "todah," the Hebrew.
It was really comforting to be immersed in such a familiar environment. The Jewish world is apparently very small because despite the fact that there were people from all over the world speaking a multitude of different languages, we all managed to sing some of the same melodies to the herbew prayers. It was also nice to be slightly more competent with the language. Though I am making some progress with my chinese lessons, I'm still eons away from where I need to be. In the simplest terms, it was great not to have to think real hard about how to pronounce the words on the page. I also noticed that there are a number of grammatical similarities between Hebrew and Chinese. They're a world apart but apparently disparate languages can also transcend certain barriers.
After mincha we went right on to neilah, the concluding service. My family has the tradition of going to services for most of the morning and skipping out on neilah to break the fast with friends. This makes the day waaaaay easier because neilah is pretty tough. Whoever designed this service back in the day decided that you really had to some serious work for atonement because the concluding service is done entirely standing up (after a day without food). It's not easy. The very end of the service is pretty cool though because someone sounds the shofar, a ram's horn hollowed out and used as a musical instrument, with one long blast to signify the end of the holiday. I made it through and enjoyed a couple of pieces of cake provided the synagogue to break the fast. Not exactly my mom's kugel, but I'll take it.
I was planning on just heading home or finding a noodle shop around the synagogue for a meal, but a couple of the French guys in their late 20's found me before I left. They spoke almost no English and I don't speak more than two words of French so Hebrew was the common ground. I figured out that they wanted me to go out with them. Sure, I thought, always nice to make new friends. I foolishly assumed that we were going out for food, but it seems that these guys like to break fast over a few pints instead. So it was off to the "Cave Bar" where Carlsburg on tap is two for one before 9pm. Who am I to argue? I figured out that unfortunately they don't live in GZ but are only here for some business. Too bad, because they were a riot. I had to walk away after two beers though because otherwise I think I would have gotten far too inebriated to even make it home. Drinking on an empty stomach is not exactly the best idea in my mind so I went in search of noodles to end my day. All in all it was quite an experience and I think I will try to get back to Chabad at some point for another holiday.
Posted by awolfe at 11:29 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 12, 2005
What a Difference a Week Makes
I got back to Guangzhou and figured that it would pretty much be business as usual--teaching, footballing, eating, etc. Those things are all here but I am also starting to notice a multitude of differences piling up. I was only away for a week but just in my little neck of this enormous city, there is a new sushi restaurant open across the street, a new clothes store down the block, a huge new neon sign at the club down the street, and what appear to be a completely different contingent of people hawking goods on the streets.
The coolest thing about returning to the city though, is that for the first couple of days here, the skies were clear! I could actually look up to the sky and see blue! At night I not only saw the moon but also several stars! Now of course by today it's pretty much all polluted up again, but for about 48 hours there it was excellent. What accounts for the brief respite? So far as I can tell, enough people left the city that there were probably significantly fewer cars operating on the roads. In addition, any factories in the area probably shut down for at least a couple of days. It seemed like everyone in GZ was on vacation last week, yet stores and restaurants were all open so I don't entirely understand how it works. Maybe the people working got overtime? Who knows.
The final change here is the weather. When I was in Hangzhou it was legitimately cool. I wore pants everyday and was forced to borrow extra layers since I only brought t-shirts with me (gimme a break--it was a bazillion degrees in GZ when I left). Shanghai wasn't quite as cool but it was still pants weather. I was fully prepping myself to re-enter the sub-tropical climate here and commence full strength sweating; however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that in only 7 days the weather cooled down a bit. Don't read that the wrong way--it's still in the 80's everyday. The difference is that the humidity isn't quite as brutal and I don't feel like I have to walk through Hades to get to class anymore. It does wonders for my overall happiness too. When you're not wilting in the heat, things just don't seem as bad.
On a separate note, I had to give a lecture today for my entire school. Let me rephrase that--I had to give a lecture today at which the entire school was invited. For better or worse, there were several activities going on today so I didn't have a packed house, only about 50 or 60. When all was said and done, I was pretty happy with it. I find more and more that I really like public speaking as well. I think my time with the Spirits and the Vineyard Sound has lent me invaluable experience when dealing with large audiences. My talk was about applying to colleges and universities in America and about what a typical day is like once you're there. I exaggerated a little bit to make a few points (e.g., me up at 8am during my Wesleyan years? not a chance) but for the most part it was legit. There is some level of fascination with American culture, especially at the high school age, so I think I kept their attention for at least a chunk of it.
At the end of the speech I allowed for a question & answer session. I was expecting a few queries like "what do you eat in the dining hall?" or "how often do you have exams?" but no. Instead I fielded a question from the same person who grilled me about Tiananmen. I had to respond to the following:
"I've read that many of the top Chinese students with undergraduate degrees are recruited by the best universities in America to do post graduate work in the U.S., thereby creating a major loss of human resources here at home. What is your opinion on this and do you think it's ethical?"
I got paid again earlier this week which was nice (since I was pretty much broke). I had a major moment of reflection though as I recalled several conversations I had on the train back to GZ. Apparently minimum wage in China (i.e. for basic manual labor and even some waitresses, etc.) is right around 6 or 7 yuan an hour. That's less than $1 for sixty minutes of work. My salary is supposedly on the lower end of the pay scale for a foreigner as a native speaker of English, but I feel like I'm living like a king here. One of the guys I met on the train went to one of the best high schools in the city, went to a good university, has been working for proctor & gamble here in GZ for over 3 years, and still makes less than me per month. And this guy has to pay rent! I'm just realizing more and more how good I have it and it's somewhat conflicting.
I won't lie though. I did take a few bills from my wad and head out today to buy some speakers. I was inspired by Ian's apartment in Shanghai to pick up some good tweeters and a sub to hook up to my ipod and / or computer. It was an excellent decision too because I love the way these things sound and they can almost fill our whole apartment with a nice rich sound. Much like my realization about needing to be near water, I now also realize that music is inherently important to me. I love music and listen to something everyday so it's great to have a nice system to do that with. I think I will always make sure that I have some means to listening to music for the rest of my life. It makes me miss my surround sound system back in Boston. Hey 95 Oondeenay, you guys better be taking care of it! Next purchase for me: plants. Ian and Carmen's apartment is filled with some awesome plants and it really adds to the place. The question is, can I keep anything alive here with the Guangzhou air?
I am about to go to bed now and wake up for my first Yom Kippur in a foreign country. For those not "in the know," Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of atonement and arguably the single most important day in the calendar year. It is customary to fast all day to facilitate your focusing on what you've done wrong in the past year. Though I'm pretty far away from the Jewish world of West Hartford, CT (or even Boston, for that mattter), I decided to fast nonetheless. I'm not sure I really buy into any of the prayer or ritual of the whole thing, but I still find the fast to be a very effective purifying device. I think it's good for everyone to step back at least once a year and think about instances where you've harmed the feelings of others or generally done something wrong. So if there's anyone out there reading this that I've sinned against, I wholeheartedly apologize.
Posted by awolfe at 11:36 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 7, 2005
Homeward Bound
I went to bed Thursday night quite content after an incredible vacation, and at the same time somewhat annoyed to have to go back to Guangzhou. It's not that I'm not enjoying it here, but the chaotic nature of GZ can be pretty taxing, especially in comparison to the serene nature of the West Lake. That being said, I was looking forward to getting back to my new friends on the soccer and basketball teams as well as to the friendly confines of HSFZ. Home is home and right now that means the second floor of building one inside the school. It's actually a pretty sweet pad so I've got nothing to complain about.
Getting home is a completely separate story. First off, I should note that when I got my ticket before vacation, it was only one way. Apparently they don't really do round trip tickets in China so I knew I'd have to figure it out once I got there. Unfortunately, I was arriving in Hangzhou but departing from Shanghai and you can't buy tickets for different cities so I was in a bit of trouble. Much like traveling on the way up, everyone was going to be trying to get home at the exact same time as me. Great. Luckily, I took advantage of some serious guanxi one last time and had Phillip book my ticket when he got Mal and Tyler's tickets. Brilliant! He managed to secure me a top bunk hard sleeper which is exactly what I wanted. Gotta love the kid. Now you might be wondering, why was I leaving on Friday, putting me back in GZ on Saturday? Well it turns out that the Chinese vacation is exactly 7 days long--Saturday to Saturday. The weekend turns into normal weekdays and everyone starts working again as usual. I have to say that I am diametrically opposed to this policy. The weekend is for not working! Regardless, I absolutely had to be back in Guangzhou to teach at 2:50pm on Saturday. I wanted a ticket that would put me back around noon, giving me enough time to shower and get ready for class. Unfortunately the only thing available put me back at 2pm so I decided to chance it, rather than leave a day earlier. Given how long my train was delayed on the way up, I knew this was a pretty serious gamble but there's no way I was going to leave Shanghai early.
Given the craziness of the train station on the way up, I gave myself an extra buffer of time to make sure I found my way to the right room within the station. Silly me--I was expecting the madness of Guangzhou Central but I encountered a model of efficiency in the Shanghai Railway Station. It was modern, well-lit, had food shops, and most importantly sported an enormous electronic billboard showing where to go for each train. So it turns out I woke up early for no good reason. Oh well. Anyhow, I got on the train and was disappointed that I was not next to another attractive dancer. However, I did immediately make some basic conversation with the kid next to me who is a 26 year-old working in GZ. After a solid nap, I climbed back down and found a bunch of dudes from the compartment to the left all staring at me. Weird. It turns out though that they were all simply dying to talk to me and to practice their English. For the next 8 hours or so we talked about anything and everything: politics, traveling, history, sports, education, shopping, and international relations. It was really nice and I truly enjoyed getting their perspectives on the multitude of issues. They even helped me a bit with my awful Chinese which I appreciated. One thing about being a westerner in China is that everyone here greatly exaggerates language abilities. They kept saying that their English was terrible when we were obviously able to converse, whereas they kept complimenting me on my crude Chinese even though I know it's awful. I know all of about 15 words and do not have the ability to go more than one sentence at a time yet they think I'm a genius for saying "ni hao." This has been consistent everywhere I've been. I say "I speak a little mandarin but not very well" and they are absolutely wowed beyond belief. I think it's a cultural thing.
As 10pm neared (lights out time) I decided to leave my bag on the overhanging shelf instead of in the bed with me. I rationalized that everyone around me was far too friendly to steal my stuff. Just in case though, I used my mini bike lock to secure the pack to the rail. Needless to say, I slept *much* better that night with all the room to spread out. I woke up bright and early the next morning (with all my possessions still intact) and read for a few hours from the Kristoff/Wudunn book "China Wakes." It really is fascinating to read about the evolution (revolution?) of modern China while actually being here and seeing it first hand. Anyhow, I asked one of my new friends what time we were expected to arrive in GZ and they told me 11:30am! I have absolutely no idea how we got that far ahead of schedule but I was elated. My pants and collared shirt were all ready for me to go directly from the train into the classroom but I was lucky enough to have enough time to even shower. Plus I got into Guangzhou East Station which is infinitely better than Central.
Sure I threw together a lesson at the last second but that's okay--it's actually been just fine. However since we were on a Thursday schedule, Steven and I had to hold conversation corner during the last period of the day. I really wanted to just go to bed, but alas, I needed to fulfill my duties as teacher. One of the senior 3 students actually showed up to talk which was a first. This girl had Melissa and Sonja last year (the two PiA-ers from last year) and fell in love with them. I was happy to talk with her, but she put me on the spot with a question about Tiananmen. She wanted to know what I knew about the events from 1989 and what I thought about it. This is obviously dangerous territory so I stuck to the basics- some students were protesting that they wanted more representation and that the government used some violence in response. She went on to explain that the "incident," as it's referred to, is not even in her history book and that the only reason she knows about it is because her politics teacher told them about it. However, she told me that the teacher went into detail about how the western world greatly exaggerated the events and that they made a very big deal out of nothing. Wow. Especially after reading the section in "China Wakes" about those few days I was dumbfounded. Kristoff was there in the thick of things and saw troops fire and kill people right in front of him. It's really tough for me to think that this could have been a gross miscalculation by western media, especially given the history of media control by the Communist Party. What could I say though? I did my best to steer the conversation away from this and to something more mundane like Chinese food, but several other students wanted to put their two cents in as well. Oy. I basically backed down and didn't say much of anything. It was frustrating but I also don't want to ruffle any feathers here. So there you have it! A week's vacation and right back into the thick of teaching...
Just in case you didn't see my pictures linked from a previous post, here they are one last time. They are sort of in reverse chronological order (minus the first 6 or so) but it's all there. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96703995@N00/
Posted by awolfe at 12:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 6, 2005
The Finer Things
I got up Thursday morning after getting more than 3 hours of sleep for the first time all vacation and I felt like a million bucks. Vacation is great but sometimes it's difficult finding a balance between doing as much as you can and still getting a healthy amount of sleep. I kept reasoning with myself saying, "You have ~26 hours to sleep on the train. Don't waste time now!" Regardless, getting a solid 6 hours Wednesday night was fantastic.
Me, Christi, and Ian went out to meet Phillip, Tyler, and Mal at the Yuyuan Gardens, one of the oldest strictly Chinese areas of the city. We toured through the buildings and gardens and then went out to walk through the Yuyuan Bazaar (shopping area). The gardens were beautiful but I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible because it was tourist central and the place was overflowing with nothing but westerners. It was odd that I almost felt uncomfortable there surrounded by non-Chinese. Maybe it was more the fact that I don't really consider myself a tourist since I'm here for the long haul, but it annoyed me to hear them saying loud obnoxious things like, "These Chinese sure know how to make a garden!!" Regardless, it was nice but a little overwhelming.
Tyler, Mal, and Philip had to head back to Wuhan in the early afternoon so we had one final extravagant meal together. The highlight was some type of unidentifiable crunchy sea creature soaking in some flavored vinegar along with some cucumbers; either that or the dish that almost resembled the Kung Pao chicken you get in the U.S.--both were pretty darn tasty. After lunch we said goodbye to the three and parted ways. Even though it was only 4 days or so together, it was actually quite sad to have to bid them goodbye. I can't speak for anyone else, but I was getting used to the comfort of hanging out with a big crew of (American) friends and it was a bummer to see them go, especially since there's no telling when I'll see everyone again.
Ian, Christi and I weren't about to stop our adventures though. We immediately headed out to the Bund, the walkway on the Huangpu River. The Bund has aesthetic value but also some very significant historical sites including the British building where the Brits used to run the opium trade (noble, huh?). After walking around for a while we took a ferry across the river to the new Pudong area. The ferry ride was pretty funny because throngs of people all rushed on the boat and fought for seats even though the ride lasted all of two or three minutes. They even had a concession stand onboard! For those of you who know the vineyard, it reminds me of fighting for a seat on the chappy ferry--totally unnecessary.
Across the river is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower which is a big tourist trap to take the elevator up for the view. Instead of fronting the 50 yuan, we went over to the Grand Hyatt in the Jinmao Tower, the tallest building in China. The Hotel has a lobby on the 54th floor that provides comparable views for free. At first I was concerned that they'd find out we weren't guests and kick us out but I wasn't thinking--3 white people together must OBVIOUSLY be rich if they're in Shanghai so of course they are hotel guests. We took in the view for a bit and then headed up a few floors to a lounge/bar area and sat down for a drink and some dessert. The lounge has a view inside the hotel up to the top floor which, due to the spiral design, creates an optical illusion that it goes up forever. I ordered a dram of Glenfiddich and sat there enjoying my single malt along with some tiramisu and pleasant conversation. It was an excellent place to spend an hour due to the comfy couches and incredible mural on the wall. It's not often that you get to enjoy some of the finer things in life, especially with such good people, but this was definitely one of those times.
As we began to head back to Ian's we figured, why stop there? Right down the street from his apartment is a massage parlor that he and Carmen go to for foot massages. I was a little skeptical of the whole thing, having never gotten a professional massage of any kind, but the whole experience was pretty amazing. For the equivelant of about $4.75, they put the three of us in a nice room together on comfy lay-z-boy chairs and served us tea. Following the beverages they brought out a bucket for each of us filled with hot herbal water to soak our (somewhat gross) feet. After a couple minutes they instructed us to rotate to a different seat so they could give us back rubs. What treatment! After a few minutes of this they put us back in the recliners and put our feet up on the pads to get to work. Apparently each person is trained by a different master who advocates a distinct style. The lady working on my feet was trained in some sort of rhythmic style with a lot of clapping and soothing hits on my feet and calves which was great. I was pleasantly surprised! I'm not going to lie--I was nervous at the beginning and didn't know what to expect, though that relates in part to how ticklish I am. There were times that I was in pain from what she was doing but by the end I felt like I had a new pair of feet. It was incredibly relaxing and I think all three of us dozed off for a few moments during the hour.
After massages we headed back to Ian's a listened to some music for a while before heading to a noodle shop around the corner. It may sound crazy, but I was actually somewhat happy to get back to "commoner's" food and not have to worry about the exotic luxury dishes from the fancy restaurant. Give me some noodles in a spicy broth with some sort of meat and I will always be happy. We leafed through the Time Out Shanghai guide during the meal and decided on a few places to check out for the night. First we headed to Nanjing Donglu, roughly equivelant to the Times Square area of Shanghai. It was pretty interesting and had no shortage of neon signs. After hanging out in the park at the end for a while, we went in search of what was described in the book as a gay bar resembling a lesbian pool party. I don't know if Christi thought we were crazy or not, but I think the Wesleyan in both Ian and I just meant that we were psyched to see a bar with a pool inside, gay or otherwise. Sadly, it was not meant to be because we couldn't find it. All was not lost, however, because on the way there we stopped to listen to a middle-aged Chinese guy play acoustic guitar by the entrance to the subway. The guy wasn't exactly Stevie Ray Vaughan, but he played with great feeling and it was excellent to hear some live music. We were thus inspired to seek out more music and headed to a bar with a live rock band. As we walked in I was surprised to hear U2's "With or Without You." Was it a western band? Not a chance. These were four Chinese guys rocking hard and they were a ton of fun. They played a mix of Chinese and western tunes and I must say I was pretty excited to hear Coldplay's "Clocks." They even did a second set of reggae tunes which was pretty cool. All in all, an excellent night.
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October 5, 2005
Off to Shanghai
We woke up and said goodbye to Mal and Tyler who had Phillip and his driver escort them to Shanghai, VIP-style. Ian, Andy, Christi and I all opted to have a bit of a lazier morning and to meet them in the city later. Plus we wanted to take advantage of the Best Western breakfast one more time! Yes, it's all about food with me. After a number of omelettes and hash browns (they even had tabasco!), we headed over to Zhejiang University so I could pack up my stuff. Andy decided to do the responsible thing and stay in Hangzhou to study Chinese characters, but I joined Ian and Christi to catch a bus bound for Shanghai and Ian's apartment.
Though it's mildly embarassing, I must admit that the mention of Shanghai elicits thoughts of Indiana Jones for me before anything else. The Temple of Doom opens up with Dr. Jones in a Shanghai night club and I guess I saw the movie at a particularly impressionable time of my youth. While I didn't see "Short Round," I did see what is possibly China's most dynamic city. Ian is working in the city for a consulting agency and explained to me that you really need to see Shanghai in order to understand why China will be taking over the world in the next ten years or so. I didn't really understand what he meant until I got to the city.
If I thought Guangzhou was big, I was sorely mistaken. Shanghai is a collection of skyscrapers that goes on for miles and miles in every direction. It has an incredible skyline that is constantly expanding. The most amazing thing is that they managed to keep it interesting. Whereas in GZ all of the buildings look the same (i.e. are ugly), Shanghai has some very cool designs in the architecture. They also have trees and park areas where you can escape some of the madness of the city. Driving through the French Concession even makes you feel like you are lost among a group of historical villas.
So we got to the city after a quick two hour bus ride (sidenote- avoid the back seat whenever possible. We got tossed around quite a bit!) and headed to Ian's apartment to drop off our stuff. Ian and Carmen, another Wes graduate and PiA-er, share an awesome place right off the xujiahui metro stop. They have cool plants, a nice stereo system, and most importantly, a guest bed and couch! I was inspired by all of their plants and I think I will pick up a bunch for my place here as soon as I get paid next.
After hanging out for a bit we met up with Philip, Tyler, and Mal for yet *another* incredible dinner at a luxury restaurant. Feeling guilty, we had Ian tell Phillip that we wanted to pay tonight (Ian is fluent in mandarin). Ian conversed with him for a little while and finally turned to us to explain. Phillip isn't paying for a dime of the meal. His parents aren't even fronting any of the bills. No, no--the Chinese government is paying for the whole thing. Phillip epitomizes to me the concept of guanxi, roughly translated as prestige or connections. Basically your guanxi comes from your job, your family status, party membership, or simply having a ton of money. Regardless of the source, this is what gets you into the best restaurants when there are no tables. It's what gets you into a better university. It's what gets you favors from other important people. It's pretty much the most important thing to have in China and Phillip (via his family) has a TON of it. While it was a privilege riding on the coattails of this connection, I couldn't help feeling guilty. Ian and I were chatting on the way out from dinner about how there are roughly 900 million peasants in China that could have lived for months just on the cost of one dish we had that night, and yet the government is instead paying for a bunch of random foreigners to eat like kings. Once again, it is what it is. Being white over here opens up some doors that some native Chinese will never see.
After dinner we went to xintiandi, an upscale pedestrian walkway where there are fancy tea houses, bars, cafes, and a few music joints. It had some cool places, but it was definitely an area for rich tourists so weren't super excited about it. After that though we went out to a place called "Face" to hang out for the night. We enjoyed a laid back atmosphere of playing cards (Ian dominated in hearts) and sipping expensive drinks. Before we headed home, Ian took us to a famous strip of bars and we did some people watching as folks began to stagger out of the various establishments. There were actually quite a few westerners and English speakers which made me feel like I could have been back in Boston--an odd sensation. The kicker was that there was a pizza stand selling slices at which most of us took advantage. I opted for the Indian bbq stand though which is pretty tasty stuff. Mmmmm. Lamb with cumin...
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October 4, 2005
Wu Zhen, etc.
We woke up Tuesday and met up with Phillip once again to head out to Wu Zhen, an old village about an hour and a half outside the city. Naturally, he had hired a driver to escort us out to the site and to pay for us to get in. I'm not entirely sure why, but from Phillip's brief description of the town at dinner the night before, I was expecting a little hamlet out in the middle of nowhere where we would be glimpsing into the peasant life. Yeah, not so much. Before we headed out, we rendezvoused with Mal who we inadvertantly eluded all day Monday. Long story, but the moral is that everyone needs an operable cell phone when traveling.
Wu Zhen is comparatively well preserved as an old town, but apparently the word is out because there were thousands of tourists there along with us and that detracted from the overall experience. It was sort of funny too because this place was really in the middle of no where--we barely passed anyone on the road on the way out there, but once there we became part of the masses. It was set up a bit like a museum which had some interesting sites such as the clothes dyeing process, but overall I was just overwhelmed by the hordes of people. I did, however, enjoy watching Tyler learn how to weave from some old Chinese lady. Classic.
The best part of the morning was taking a boat ride down the little river beside the town. It almost felt like I was back in Venice amongst the maze of canals because we were on a gondola-like vessel piloted by one guy with a big ol' pole behind him. We got to see some very cool foot bridges and buildings along the way which was great. I could have stayed out there on the water for hours. After spending my four summers working on the vineyard, I really do feel a close affinity for the water. I think that no matter where I end up later in life, it will either be right on the coast or at least on a river or lake. There's just something soothing about being on water.
After yet another ridiculously good lunch we headed back to Hangzhou where Phillip said his parents had invited us to a tea house. A tea house sounds pretty standard, right? Wrong. We were taken to one of the most breathtaking tea houses in existence, on a side of xi hu away from all other people. We were not only one of the only people there and but also the only tourists--a welcolme respite from the madness of Wu Zhen. Hangzhou is known for its tea and we were lucky enough to enjoy one of the finest varieties at this tea house. After a few snacks, Phillip and his mom took us on a tour of the grounds to the house, pointing out various architectural features and how certain trees and views were framed by the walls and windows. It was truly beautiful and once again the mist and clouds added that extra element to the experience.
We thought the royal treatment was over but Phillip and his parents (along with a few of their friends) took us to one of the fanciest restaurants in the city, with a maze of mini bridges over the water by the lake. We had our own mini building to dine in, complete with windows on all four sides. The food was incredible (no surprise) and I sampled a few new dishes. Between this dinner and a few others, I tried fox (quite tasty, especially with the spicy sauce), duck tongue (kind of bland but with a weird texture), and fish head soup (yummy, but somewhat unnerving to stare at the eyes). They toasted us with some fancy red wine and I did my best to represent and gave a small toast to our hosts. What a generous family!
We made another trip to the Cool Bar and then later to some other bar/club where we did some dancing with a bunch of drunk Indian guys. It's funny how music and alcohol can help eliminate language and cultural barriers. On the dance floor, everyone is on a level playing field. Everyone except Andy, that is, whose dance moves far exceed everyone else (check out the pictures). The link once again (in case you missed it last time):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96703995@N00/
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October 3, 2005
VIP's and Temples
So we all woke up in the Best Western, one of the nicest hotels in the entire city. How did we end up there? Well, Mal and Tyler mentioned to someone in their school office in Wuhan that they were traveling to Hangzhou. The secretary put them in touch with good ol' Phillip, a freshmen at the University who happened to grow up in Hangzhou. She said they could travel together and possibly have him show them around a bit. Sounds harmless enough, right? It turns out Phillip is the son of a very important businessman in Hangzhou (dad) and the person in the provincial government in charge of all visas and passport issues (mom). Basically he's a VIP, or in the words of Ian Hanks, he's a baller.
Mal and Tyler had no idea they were getting put up in a hotel, let alone one of the nicest ones around. I should also mention that these hotel rooms were inevitably booked a day or so before arrival which is crazy, given that this past week is consistently one of the busiest tourist times in the entire year. Lets just say Phillip and his family "know" people and pretty much call the shots around the city. So we got up good and early and went downstairs to enjoy the hotel breakfast--a veritable feast complete with omelette bar, hash browns, fried rice, tasty noodles, some veggies, good breads, and the kicker-- orange juice! Needless to say, I had several plates. After breakfast, Andy, Christi, and Mal decided to go back to bed and/or do some errands while Tyler and I went with Phillip and his buddy Alexander to the Lingyin Temple.
Despite the fact that the Lingyin Temple has been destroyed and restored about 16 times since it was first built around 320 c.e., it still feels like a piece of ancient China. The temple is set up in the hills and with the overcast weather, the clouds and mist added to the antiquated feeling of the place. The couplet inscribed at the Hall of The Four Heavenly Guardians (huge scary looking statues) reads, "cloud forest Buddhist temple." That pretty much says it all right there. To date, the Lingyin Temple is the most amazing thing I have seen in China. The history, architecture, and natural beauty, in conjunction with the monks walking around in old religious garb all contribute to a magical vibe about the place. I found it fascinating how there was a beautiful temple followed by steps up to another beautiful temple, all with a Buddha representing something different. They even claim to have the world's largest indoor buddha, at somewhere around 60m high. My favorite though was either the one with the elaborate wood carving where people pray for marriage or the temple with the white Buddha symbolizing justice. Check out my pictures for some idea of what it was like, though even they don't do it justice.
Tyler and I felt a bit awkward since Phillip paid for the taxi, the bus, the entrance fees (not cheap), and all our food. We thanked him profusely and tried to pay but he refused. After a while we figured his parents had just given him a bit of money and he was in a generous mood. More on that later...
I had emailed Ian Hanks, Wes graduate and PiA-er in Shanghai to let him know I'd be in his neck of the woods but he replied that he was going to be in Bangladesh that week with a friend. Luckily for all of us, Ian's plans fell through due to some visa issues so he came to meet us all that evening in Hangzhou. So after four hours or so of exploring the temple and the grounds around the different buildings, we headed back into the city to meet up with Ian and to rally the crew for dinner. Phillip made a recommendation for a restaurant and we had a ridiculous feast once again, in an area that has a charming little pedestrian walkway with a bunch of shops. We walked around for a while, did some window shopping, and generally just took in the scene. I made my only real purchase of the break here and picked up a wood carving of a lion after some minor bargaining. I love the fact that I see lions everywhere in China, being my namesake and all. It's somehow comforting in a weird kind of way.
Though we couldn't get in touch with Mal, we headed out to a place aptly named the "Cool Bar." Here we tossed a few back with the locals and made some Chinese friends. A table of some random dudes invited us over and proceeded to make toasts every five seconds and shake our hands non-stop. It seems they were quite a few rounds ahead of us. Regardless, they were great and now I can say I've had drinks with a Mongolian and his passed out boss from the Sichuan Province. The only less-than-cool aspect of the Cool Bar was its bathroom. If I thought the WC on the train was bad, this put it to shame. I won't go into detail but lets just say that I couldn't even stand in there for more than about 5 seconds before fighting the urge to get rid of my dinner.
We headed back to Andy and Christi's place to chill out and get a couple hours of sleep before our early morning wake-up to meet Phillip for a tour of some village a few hours outside the city. My thoughts as I drifted off to bed related to how awesome the PiA-ers are and once again how lucky I am. I guess this type of experience draws a certain type of person to begin with, but all the fellows I've spent time with are so interesting, so smart, and so adventurous. What a great crew of kids to vacation with! Not only was everyone always up for trying something new or something "weird," but our conversations were consistently stimulating and amusing at the same time.
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October 2, 2005
Trains and Reunions
I woke up with the lights turning on (right above my head) and more cheesy Chinese pop music around 8am. Having left at 3pm on Saturday, I should have arrived in Hangzhou around 2pm, give or take a little while. I was counting down in a big since I had had my fill of the train and it's really mediocre food. I started counting down, thinking that I had less than five hours to go. As the train went along, I looked out the window on and off and saw more villages, more beautiful countryside, and also some major construction. They were building miles and miles (or should I say kilometers and kilometers...) of new train track and also various buildings along the way.
Most of the workers were wearing tattered clothing and the classic straw hat. Hard hat? Forget it. However, this is still a major step up from the beggars I encounter in GZ, most of which are missing a limb or two. Construction work is long and difficult, but it is a paying job that is needed in mass quantities around China these days. While a peasant is often forced to leave his family and village for an extended period of time, it makes financial sense and is thus very common. What a different world...
As I started walking up the car towards the infamous W.C., I stopped in my tracks to listen to the song on the P.A. system. It was a pop song that ripped off the McDonalds jingle (both words and melody) of "I'm Lovin' It" and made it into a full fledged pop song. Good lord. This is what the Chinese are taking from American culture? Couldn't they find something better? Regardless, I proceeded onward to the tiolet and was preparing myself for the worst. It wasn't exactly the worst, but it was *quite* foul in there. I tried to hold my breath, close my eyes (maybe that's what started the problem in the first place?), and be out as soon as possible. Luckily this was a quick pit stop and not a newspaper-reading session. For those of you who haven't used a "squatter" before, it is an experience in and of itself. The Chinese can do the squat quite naturally, but we westerners are just not built for it. It makes for a serious challenge! I escaped unscathed though, and with visions of a western toilet where you can actually sit.
One sidenote- the kid on the bottom bunk on my side had 3 cans of coke before noon. Is it me or is that just gross? I'm not a big soda drinker so maybe my opinion is colored by that, but it seems vile to brush your teeth and crack open a can of coke classic at 8am. Just sayin'.
I have no idea what caused the delay, but my 2pm arrival time turned into 4:45pm and it was not a moment too soon. If I had been on there too much longer I think I would have gone nuts. I was picturing the scene from the old Simpsons Halloween special parody of The Shining where Homer is off his rocker. He starts spray-painting "No Beer and No T.V. Make Homer Go Crazy." Go crazy? Don't mind if I do! Anyway, I get off the train into Hangzhou and take my phone out. Naturally, I discover that I have the Guangdong Province only model and can't call Andy, the PiA-er I was crashing with. Luckily the train had a public phone so I let him know I was on my way and headed over to the line for taxis.
First impressions: Hangzhou is much more clean and civilized than GZ. People formed a line for taxis and did not attempt to fight others for spots! The streets weren't covered in garbage! I didn't think the cab driver was going to kill me! It was quite a revelation. Anyhow, I got to Andy and Christi's building complex but couldn't figure out which building was theirs. Damn useless cell phone! I made friends with some random Chinese guy and luckily he let me use his phone to call Andy again and I found my way. After a satisfying shower and change of clothes, Andy and I met up with Christi and hopped in a cab to meet up with Tyler and Mal, the two PiA-ers from Wuhan. Along the way we caught up on the first month of Chinese adventures and just enjoyed English-speaking company. They also began to detail for me how Tyler and Mal are staying in a 5 star hotel, free of charge (MUCH more on that later).
We arrived at the restaurant which was right on xi hu, the famous West Lake of Hangzhou. As the old Chinese saying goes, "In heaven there is paradise, on earth Hangzhou." I had heard that this was an exaggeration, but I was impressed--the lake is beautiful! Sure there were a bunch of people, but compared to GZ, Hangzhou appeared both quaint and the epitome of natural beauty. As I took in the scene we all began to catch up and trade amusing stories. While we are all in very different areas of China, we are having somewhat similar experiences which is nice. We also ordered up a feast which just hit the spot. On my recommendation we tried the ginger and scallion frog on the menu and once again I was pleased. Who knew?
After the meal we retired to a dive bar called "West Town," or something like that. We caught up some more and partook in a number of local pijiu. We then went on to a place called the Reggae Bar which is exactly what it sounds like. After some more beer and more food, we went back to check out the infamous hotel where Mal and Tyler were staying. It turns out that it's a Best Western! A note of advice for everyone reading this- if you are ever in Hangzhou and need a place to stay, I highly recommend this place. The player piano alone makes it worth it. Anyhow, we hung out for a while longer and then crashed at the hotel. Might as well take advantage of such a luxury, right?
Okay, the following is a link for what should be my pictures from the trip. I gave up on Snapfish after 3 failed upload attempts so this is a new experiment. Anyhow, they are in reverse chronological order and include the entire trip so if you want to be surprised, you can wait to check em out. It may make you set up a free account and all that jazz. Try the slideshow option on the side...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96703995@N00/
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October 1, 2005
National Day Holiday
My first foray in domestic excursion was quite an experience. Everyone warned me that traveling on the Saturday at the beginning of the vacation was nuts due to the crowds, but I underestimated their warnings. From the moment I left the gates of HSFZ and walked to the bus to get to the subway to take me to the train station, it was literally wall to wall people. I didn't have to put much effort into walking because the crowd just surfed me along. Picture traveling the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but multiplied by 1.3 billion people. It's something like that. I would have been just fine weaving in and out of the mass, but I was handicapped by my somewhat large backpack. Add in the fact that it was approximately 300 degrees out and it made for an interesting start to the trip.
When I got to the train station, I was faced with my first real challenge of the trip. Let me backtrack a bit-- Guangzhou has two main train stations, East and Main. My ticket had me departing from Guangzhou Main Station which is quite a bit more chaotic than I expected. I seem to remember a guidebook describing it as a "seething mass of humanity" and that's pretty accurate. There was massive construction, poor lighting, TONS of people camped out all over the places, and a distinct shortage of signs (English or otherwise). I was sweating bullets and decided to take my pack off and rest for a few minutes before attempting to figure out where in the world I was supposed to go. Luckily for me, a kind college-aged kid came over and asked me in English if I needed help. I said yes, though my traveler alarm went off inside--is this guy trying to scam me?? Nope, he was legit and pointed me upstairs to the waiting room for my train. This was a large room overflowing with people and I was not lucky enough to score a seat so I threw my bag and sat up against a rather dirty wall. I had heard that the train would start boarding about 20 minutes before it was scheduled to leave, but 10 minutes before departure time, we hadn't moved. Was I in the right place? Should I be looking elsewhere? Some lady came into the room with a bullhorn and starting shouting out some information in both Mandarin and Cantonese which was completely useless for me. About 5 minutes before the train was supposed to leave, everyone got up and mass hysteria ensued. People were blatantly pushing, shoving, and attempting to get to the front of the line. I got down and dirty with the rest of them and elbowed my way into a better position in the slow-moving line. Eventually we migrated to a platform and got on the train.
Luckily there are assigned seats/beds on the train so the chaos calmed down quite a bit once aboard. I was in the hard-sleeper section which has six beds (two stacks of three) per each open compartment. I was happy to be on the top because my feet could dangle off the edge safely, however the lack of headroom was a bummer. Regardless, I wasn't in the best of spirits given how much I had sweat just getting to the train, and I was imagining a torturous twenty four-hour ride. It was also plainly obvious that I was the only white person on the entire train and I was getting some solid stares from everyone who passed by. When trying to figure out what to do with my stuff, I opted to keep it with me on the bed, decreasing the body space in half. I was worried about someone stealing my stuff as I went to the bathroom or got food so I decided to keep it on my person at all times. Paranoid? Maybe, but when you're alone, you kind of have to be overly paranoid. Either that or I've been watching too much 24 and will only trust people named Jack Bauer.
I grabbed one of the mini seats by the window and began to look at the scenery outside the city. Green--what a welcome change from the dirt of Guangzhou! It became pretty obvious right away that there is quite a bit of poverty outside. I had read about this but it's very different when you see it face to face. We passed by dozens of small villages with nothing but basic shacks and peasants working the nearby land. It's almost like traveling back in time, except for the fact that I was on an air-conditioned train compartment. I also saw a bunch of what I can only describe as water buffalo-like creatures hanging out in and out of various bodies of water. It was a quite a contrast from the Tianhe District in GZ (where I live) that contains the Grandview Mall, where a scoop of Haagen Dazs costs approximately one month of a peasant's salary. I could be wrong, but I think China actually has the largest disparity between rich and poor in the entire world. For the first time I caught a glimpse of this reality and it was startling.
It was a bit awkward to take in this scene while sipping my iced green tea, but such is the way of the world, I suppose. The experience was made even stranger by the fact that the train was playing really cheesy Chinese pop music (is there another kind?) the entire way. I guess that's a bit of an exaggeration; There were various announcements over the P.A. that I did not understand at all. This, of course, meant that I tuned them all out and instead day-dreamed in my own little world. I figured that if it was an emergency and we had to evacuate, someone else would take the lead and I'd follow. Luckily, it was a smooth ride the whole way.
A smooth ride, except for the fact that it took over three hours longer than it should have! I was starting to feel very isolated having not spoken a word to anyone and not understanding any of the announcements that presumably explained the delay. However, about 8 hours in, I met the girl on the top bunk right across from me and we proceeded to converse in crude English and Chinese. She was a rather attractive 23 year-old dancer from the Guangxi province and was going to visit a friend in Hangzhou. She would type English words on her cell phone and pass it over to me with a smile. Her questions/statements ranged from "you self?" to "I dancer enjoy." It wasn't exactly top level stuff, but I was responding with chinese phrases like "I am a teacher" and "I would like to drink some tea." We laughed quite a bit and this managed to entertain me for several hours. At night we even had a moment of teamwork to put a newspaper over the vent that was blowing frigid air directly on to us.
At 10pm they turned the lights off, and I spent about 20 minutes in the dark attempting to manuever my bag in such a way as to provide me with some space but also shield it away from the rest of the train. I settled with sleeping half on the thing and listened to my iPod until I fell asleep. What a beginning to my adventure...
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