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November 24, 2006
Preston
November might just be my favorite month. For the last two years, November has provided me with an unanticipated two week-long vacation in which to travel to new parts of China. It is the month of my birth. And it is also the month that includes my absolute favorite day of the year-- Thanksgiving. As I wrote about last year, Thanksgiving is one of those tough times to be out of the country. Even in a westernized country like Germany, a good friend of mine noted that "Thanksgiving here sucks--they don't give a crap," or something to that effect.
Well they don't give a crap in China either but luckily I am surrounded by a small but dedicated contingent of Americans who are willing to go all out for the best day of the year. Last year our meal transcended my greatest expectations, especially due to the tasty morsels of Norbert, our turkey imported frozen from Utah.
For a number of reasons, I was worried that we couldn't possibly reach the same level of excitement and satisfaction as last year. Isn't that always the case? When you do something the 2nd time around, it has lost the whole novelty factor. When you do something for the first time, you have nothing to compare it to and thus it's difficult to be disappointed. In addition, we didn't have the immensely talented Diana Lin to do the turkey so it was the first time on our own.
Despite my concerns, Thanksgiving was the incredible binge night that it should be. Though missing my family and my best friend's family's feast as is traditional back in West Hartford, Thanksgiving '06 was just as great as last year, if not better. Kelly took full control of Preston, our 14 lb. turkey imported frozen from North Carolina, and roasted a very tasty bird. I know very few expats in China who can claim two Thanksgiving meals complete with roast turkey, homemade stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, salad, various vegetables, fresh baked bread, homemade cheesecake, homemade pumpkin pie, and enough wine to drown several Chinese people. It was amazing.
Nick and I both lamented that the only thing that could have made it better (besides family) would have been American football. In a moment of pure genius, Nick contemplated trying to hire 22 Chinese people to play a game for us outside the window, but we figured it would take too much time to explain the rules. Maybe next year...
Thanksgiving also come right after my birthday which was a ton of fun. I brought in my 26th year along with most of my closest friends at a meal with tons of tasty Indian food. As fate would have it, Kelly and I actually share a birthday so it we were also celebrating her 24th. While many people have tried to convince me that I'm old or that I'm now in my late twenties, I'm not hearing a word of it. I'm loving twenty six so far and I can't really see it getting any worse. I have another eight months or so to explore China and the rest of southeast Asia before returning back to friends and family in the states. I really can't complain.
Of course there is the whole matter of what to do with my life once I return to the states. I've reached the point now where I really do have to address that issue directly as opposed to just in passing as an ethereal concept. As such, I now pose the following scenario to anybody out there in the virtual world reading-- you're 26 years old. You have two years of experience traveling around China. You have a decent handle on the Chinese language but you're still a long way from fluent. You have a masters degree in history and education but you're not sure you want to go back to teaching. You're not crazy about working for corporate America. You're a good problem solver but you get antsy sitting behind a desk for too long. What do you do?
If anyone wants to check out some pictures from birthday and Thanksgiving '06, click on the following link or click on the flickr badge to the right...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/72157594401684508/
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November 14, 2006
Vomit
After waking up late Monday and ashamedly watching another episode of Prison Break, I went out to lunch with all three of the Dalian fellows. We had a tasty feast of dongbei-style food and I went out again to explore. Dalian has two major aquariums and, after having so much fun at the one in Xiamen, I decided to get another dose of Chinese aquarium.
Located next to Xinghai Square, apparently one of the largest open squares in the world, the Sun Asia Ocean World aquarium is right on the water. I decided to look beyond the steep price tag and see what was inside the gaudy-looking walls. After handing over my ticket I was ushered right into a performance hall with water, fake pirate ship, swinging ropes, and a few other random props. After a couple of minutes the show started with loud music, flashing lights, and several actors.
I foolishly thought that I had picked the better aquarium, at least according to the Lonely Planet descriptions, but I immediately questioned myself. The show was totally over the top with ridiculous acting from the humans, and barely any exhibition of the dolphins. You'll forgive me if I wasn't entranced by the apathetic-looking "mermaid." I figured the exhibitions would be much better though and was excited to check them out.
Though the tanks were much much cleaner than in Xiamen and set up in a more visually pleasing way, there was hardly anything to see! There was a bare minimum of fish and a whole heckuva lot of cheesy "submarines" models and underwater kitsch. You do get to ride one of those moving conveyer belts that nudge you past sharks, rays, and random fish, but it didn't have anything terribly exciting. The one thing in the tank that blew me away was a rusting car. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to place an automobile inside a tank for fish, but the rust seemed to be enjoying their new home.
After the aquarium I went to check out the square itself which was quite nice. There is a big monument in the center to celebrate Hong Kong's return to the mainland in 1997. This surprised me a bit, simply because it seemed like something that had been around for longer. On a hill overlooking Xinghai was a castle just begging to be explored. I walked to the base of the hill and found about a hundred steps to climb. Not one to shy away from that challenge, I started the trek. The corner stone of the castle said "2000" and upon reaching the entrance at the top, I discovered it was a shell museum. A shell museum. In a castle. That was built in the year 2000. Weird. I found out after that apparently the shell museum is only one or two rooms in the place and that no one quite knows what else is up there. Bizarre.
I walked to the beach of Xinghai Park to watch the sunset and was disppointed that the enormous zipline there was closed. It looked like a ton of fun, but the trip was still worth it because of the sunset over the boats in the distance. I got back to the rest of the fellows in time to greet the Princeton-in-Asia Program Director, in town for the annual site visit. We had an excellent dinner together and then said goodbyes, for I was leaving early the next morning.
The plane ride was uneventful except for the fact that I went to the bathroom and discovered that the sink was full of vomit. So I went to the other bathroom. You know what? That sink was full of vomit as well. What gives? I'm not sure if it's bad luck following me around or a strange China-thing, but I see a lot of vomit in China. On the bus to the botanical gardens in Shenyang there was also a girl throwing up. Walking around the streets of almost any city in China, it's relatively common to see puke on the sidewalks. Plus during my adventure in Hunan Province last year, vomit was lurking around every minibus. I have no explanation for this phenomena whatsoever, but it gives me that much more reason to take my shoes off when I enter my apartment. Gross, but true.
So that was that. I'm glad to have gotten up to the cold northeast and gotten to know the PiA-ers up there. My list for must-see locations in China is steadily getting shorter and I'm excitedly trying to plan for the next excursion. How lucky am I?
For those wishing to see pictures, you can click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/72157594380790768/
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November 12, 2006
A Plethora of Squares
I headed out early Sunday morning to see as much of Dalian as I could. Not really knowing exactly where to start, I decided to head to Olympic Square to check out the stadium where Dalian Shide play, arguably the most popular Chinese football. There are signs of the team everywhere around the city which is pretty cool. It's not quite like someplace like Chapel Hill, NC where even the street signs and fire engines are tar heel blue, but I guess Dalian is close as it gets for China--there are football monuments everywhere and big signs in shops encouraging the boys. I'm a fan.
I wandered around the stadium and managed to sneak in a gate that wasn't quite locked. The field seemed really cool but I didn't get a chance to really look around too much because I immediately got shooed out by some official. Oh well. I went in search of a jersey to buy as a souvenir but unfortunately was unsuccessful--they only had extra extra large. Maybe I'm wrong, but who are they kidding? How many Chinese guys are actually going to fit into those?
From Olympic Square I walked east toward People's Square, formerly known as Stalin Square. This was basically just an open field by some government buildings. There were only a few people milling about, though I'm told it's a fun place to be at night. As I walked through, I wondered what prompted the name change. Was it changed back when Mao and Stalin broke ways, or was it something more recent? I'm not quite sure.
After a mediocre lunch, I made my way past Victory Square to Labor Park, a large park area complete with amusement park, fields, gardens, and some animal exhibits. I took a chairlift up the hill to the TV tower of the city and was rewarded with a wide sweeping view of the entire city. Viewing the panorama confirmed my impressions of the city--it is a brand-spanking-new city with nice tall buildings, open squares, and parks, good urban planning...and almost no culture to speak of. It seems like a great place to live and to raise a family, but also seems relatively soulless. One of the first thoughts when I arrived was that I could have been in any American city. I'm not quite sure what that says about American cities, but I don't really want to explore that issue quite yet.
Even better than the chairlift ride up was the promise of a "landslide" ride down. Dalian, much like the mutianyu section of the Great Wall, has an alpine slide! For those who haven't had the pleasure, you basically sit down in a little plastic thing with a lever in between your leg. You push it to go and pull it to break--gravity does the rest. I think I've been on about a dozen of these rides in my day, but the Chinese guys running it didn't trust me and so had someone go in front of me to make sure I made it okay. The problem with this is that he kept stopping and looking over his shoulder, presumably to make sure I hadn't fallen off or something, the end result being that I had to constantly slow down.
After walking through the rest of the amusement park, I decided to head to Friendship Square. Friends are always nice to make, right? Instead of finding any friends there, I found a somewhat bizarre orb-like sphere in the middle of a rotary. It was lit up with all these different colored lights and seemed like it should have been hanging from the ceiling of a disco. Not quite sure what it was doing there but I guess I shouldn't complain--apparently it exudes friendship.
Danny and I enjoyed a fancy German dinner and then headed back to the university where I decided to investigate the television show "Prison Break." I guess this show is moderately successful back in the states but for whatever reason it is HUGE in China. Almost every kid I know has seen it and loves it, especially the girls. Not knowing anything about it, I dove right in to episode one. It seemed like a ludicrous premise for a show, but for some reason I was pulled into watching the next episode. Next thing I know, I was six episodes in, hoping I wasn't getting dumber by the minute. I guess it's just one of those mindless guilty pleasures...
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November 11, 2006
Tourism
Waking up early to see the town, I headed out for the standard bowl of noodles to get my day going. After that, I went right back to the river to see the border from Yalujiang Park. In the light, the entire city looked quite a bit different, but the N. Korean side looked pretty much the same-- barren.
Next to the "Friendship Bridge" is the remains of the original bridge spanning the two sides, destroyed in 1950 by the good ol' U.S. of A. Though the Koreans have dismantled their half, the Chinese have corrected theirs into a museum of sorts. At the very edge on the land side is an amusing monument of soldiers heading off to war with the caption "For Peace." Gotta love it.
Walking to the very edge on the water side is sort of interesting because you can still see shrapnel and holes from the original mortars, bombs, and bullets. Once again, there's not much to see on the Korean side--a factory, an abandoned ferris wheel, a couple of random military buildings, and maybe an occasional local. I decided to take the obligatory "I'm at the Korean border" picture and asked a fellow tourist to help me out. I'm not quite sure if it was my bad luck or if a majority of Chinese people are simply bad at taking photos, but this was my worst of the trip (see my flickr site for proof). The guy took my camera and just took a photo at a 45 degree angle. No idea why. This was just one of many, as well. Traveling by myself, I had various other tourists take pics of me that all came out like crap. I just don't get it.
After gazing across the river for a while, I walked back to shore. I considered taking one of the speedboat rides to get even closer to the other side, but I opted against it. The PiA-ers told me that their students informed them of something bizarre. Apparently when the conditions are right and enough tourists are out, N. Koreans will swim out to meet boats in the river and Chinese tourists will "pet" the swimmers and give them a coin or two. Bizarre, huh? What kind of tourism is that?
The only other incident of note was when I poked my head into a souvenir shop. They have enough N. Korean kitsch to satisfy anyone but I wasn't really into it. One of the store employees was trying to push some N. Korean snack foods on me and tried to tell me that Sunkist Orange candies were from Pyongyang. I laughed and said they were American but she wasn't hearing it. Finally I took the package and pointed out the California address and she backed off, tail between her legs.
After a quick four hour bus ride, I arrived in Dalian, the most prosperous and modern city of the northeast. The city is surrounded by beaches on the outside, and massive skyscrapers on the inside. Pulling into downtime, it felt like we could have been in any new European or American city. It was somewhat strange. Luckily Dan was right downtime in Victory Square where I pulled in and so we met up and headed out to their school. The technological university where Dan, Danny, and Vanessa teach is a bit outside of downtown so I got to see a decent section of the city as we headed out.
After dropping my stuff and showering, Dan, Danny and I headed out for KBBQ. After dinner by the campus we headed back into the city to a place called "Noah's Ark," a popular bar with live local music. Very cool! I taught the boys how to play the dice game and did my best to boldly lie everytime. Danny had to teach the next day so he headed back early but Dan was free so we continued on to "2046," probably the one and only club in Dalian. It was loud, it was crowded, it was expensive, it had some questionable clientele, and it was a lot of fun.
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November 10, 2006
Friendship?
I set my alarm bright and early to catch the early train to Dandong, the major border city with North Korea. Sadly, the internet led me astray and I missed the train by about thirty minutes. And here I thought everything posted online was true! Having about three hours to kill, I ventured across the street to a nice-looking hotel and dropped ninety kuai for an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. I figured eating for three hours was much better than just sitting in the train station, and boy was I right. I don't consider myself a big breakfast person but sometimes bacon and eggs just hits the spot.
When I finally did get on the train, I was pleased to see that the only tickets left had put me in the soft sleeper section, the equivelant of first class for a short range train. There were two attendants constantly bringing around hot water, cleaning up garbage, and generally just making sure everyone was happy. While the regular hard seat cars were teeming with smoke, people, and noise, I stretched out with four seats to myself and a pleasant view of the rolling countryside.
I spent the six hours on the train daydreaming, drinking tea, napping, and reading. About an hour outside of Dandong was Fenghuang Shan--Phoenix Mountain. Having heard about this peak from the Jason and Vivian, I impulsively decided to get off the train and hike part of the mountain while it was still light out. Sadly I didn't have time to go all the way up but it was a cool walk/climb.
Catching the next ride into Dandong, I arrived a bit after sunset. I immediately decided that there's something about arriving in a new place at night that is strangely disconcerting. I felt like I couldn't get my bearings. I felt like everyone at the train station was trying to scam me. I felt like the buildings were all dimly lit for no reason. Of course none of these things were true, but the unknown of the darkness has a way of playing tricks on you. Either that, or the book I was reading was starting to get to me. The Historian is about Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Dracula. A good read, but perhaps not the best choice when traveling alone to new places.
I had planned on doing some of the sightseeing during the day and heading out in the morning, but after seeing Phoenix Mountain, I was forced to change my plans. I found a cheap dingy hotel for twenty kuai, and then walked down to the river--the physical divider between China and North Korea. The Friendship Bridge connects the two sides and serves as a crossing point for those with the proper papers. I thought this was funny for a couple of reasons. First, the bridge is all lit up at night with flashing neon, rotating spotlights, and overall gaudy decoration. This is funny enough by itself but then you look over and realize that it crosses the river and goes right into darkness for as far as the eye can see. As all of the PiA-ers told me, it's almost like the Chinese are saying, "Check it out over here--we're all having such a better time!"
Second, in the 24 hours that I was there, I didn't see a single person or vehicle cross the border. This isn't totally shocking except for the fact that there are relations between the two countries. Dandong itself has Korean everywhere--every storefront, restaurant menu, traffic sign, etc. all have Korean characters. Clearly somebody must be crossing, right?
Following the old maxim of "when in the town across from Rome, do as the people in that town think the Romans do," I decided to have Korean food for dinner. I gotta say, it was pretty darn good. I have no idea if there was actually anyone Korean involved in the production of my meal, but it seemed authentic enough to me. After walking around the river for a bit, I headed back to the hotel to bed.
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November 9, 2006
Slingshot
Waking up late again, I met Jason for lunch before heading out to do my final sight-seeing in Shenyang. There were a few things that seemed interesting in my guidebook, but one thing stood out the most--the Shenyang Botanical Gardens. Now, I have no major interest in horticulture, but the description in the book was intriguing, detailing "fifty bridges suspended across a shallow river that visitors try to traverse." I had almost no idea what this meant, but it sounded like it could be fun.
Finding the right bus was a minor challenge, but once again a friendly crossing guard pointed me in the right direction. While the book said it would be a 45 minute ride, I think it was more like an hour, traveling far outside the city. As I arrived, it felt like showing up to a party an hour after it had been broken up. The parking lot was empty, there was a bunch of garbage around the entrance, and the two people working inside the enormous ticket booth were both asleep.
It turns out the International Horticultural Expo had taken place there the previous month, and had ended a scant week ago. It was a bit creepy to walk through the grounds of this place alone when it was clearly built for thousands and thousands of people, but I persevered. Upon reaching my destination of the bridges, I was part confused, part impressed, part annoyed, and part excited. Basically there is a small recreation area, clearly built years before the Expo came to town, in which there are a bunch of bizarre "bridges" spanning a section of a small man-made lake. There were balance beams, rolling barrels, swinging bridges, wires, and random other concotions. I crossed a few of them, coming close to falling in. I wasn't afraid of drowing (the water wasn't very deep) but I was very self-aware of hypothermia--didn't seem like a great idea.
I still can't decide if it was worth it or not, but I left the more adventurous, exciting bridges untouched because I was by myself. That said, I was highly tempted by this one where you could sort of slingshot yourself across the water and try to grab a rope, but I decided against it. Being an hour outside of the city by myself, I figured falling and hitting my head most likely meant certain death and I just wasn't up for that. I think with the right people and the right weather it would be a cool spot to visit, but as it was, I was more confounded than anything else.
After a nice Sichuan dinner with the fellows and Vanessa, PiA-er in Dalian, Jason and I said goodbye to the ladies who headed off to Beijing for the weekend. Vivian was nice enough to let me stay in her place and Jason showed me one of the coolest inventions I've seen of late. There is some little machine called a slingshot, which apparently you can connect to a cable box in the states. This little device then broadcasts the cable to any high speed internet connection. I watched Sportscenter. Sportscenter!! Drooling with jealousy, I drifted off to bed.
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November 8, 2006
Resting
Rather than set my alarm for the crack of dawn, I opted to sleep until I woke up of my own accord. That's what vacation's all about, right? I read for a while, finishing my first book (Pearl Bucks's The Good Earth) and starting my second (Nicola Kostova's The Historian). It's very possible that I could be happy forever if you simply stuck me in a comfortable room with an unlimited supply of reading. Eventually I got up though, and headed out to explore.
In one of Shenyang's nicest parks there is a tomb for Huang Taiji, final resting place for the founder of the Qing Dynasty. The description in my guidebook sounded intriguing so I wandered off in search of the place. At first I was unimpressed, entering the complex. Not too sound too jaded, but it simply seemed like any bunch of old-looking Chinese buildings. But as I investigated further, the place really grew on me. There was a whole room detailing the significance of all the architectural features (such as the animal statues guarding the tomb, a la Ming Dynasty, and the tomb stone, which actually does not sit by the grave).
The tomb area is surrounded by fortress walls and guard towers, and has a cool tunnel under one of the main buildings. One of the most interesting things for me was that the bodies (the emperor and his family) where not entombed in any of the ornate man-made buildings. Rather, they were placed under ground in something called the Luminous Mound, a large circular piece of earth with a single towering tree at the top. Very cool.
The park itself was actually a great place to spend as well, as there were lots of trees, lakes, and benches. I ambled around for a while and eventually found myself staring up at the sky, at the dozens of kites. Now usually when I think of flying kites, I think of being in 3rd grade and running as fast as I could with string attached to a popsicle stick, in order to get a cheap, crappy kite to take off. This was the polar opposite. The guys flying kites there were all on the older side and had really nice kites with shoulder straps to stay in control when the kites reach the stratosphere. They brought chairs too sit down on. They performed small tricks. They even did their best to convince me I needed to buy one. Not from them, mind you, but just in general, because it's apparently the most fun thing you can do. Who knew?
One my way back towards the university, I stopped by one of the main public squares in Shenyang to see what is purported to be the largest Mao statue in the northeast. I can't make any judgements on that, but I can say that the thing was *huge*. What makes it appear even larger is the fact that it is placed above a surrounding group of statues that include passionate intellectuals, soldiers, peasants, and workers. Pretty wild.
Back at the school, Vivian and I headed over to see Jason give a lecture to grad students about the history of advertising in the U.S. Having worked in the industry for a few years, he was well-qualified to talk and I was excited to not only hear the talk, but also see the quality of students. Jason did not disappoint, having spent countless hours putting together a massive powerpoint. I learned more than a few things about branding and about different strategies, but the highlight of the lecture was probably in the section about spoof advertising.
Jason was explaining how customers have started to "fight back" and have created their own ads spoofing some of the more famous icons and slogans. He showed a number of examples, including one with a rather droopy cigarette hanging out of the Marlboro Man's mouth, with the caption, "Impotence." At this point he paused and asked the crowd, "do you guys know what impotence is?" He was met with blank stares. "You know, when you can't get it up." Blank stares. "I mean, can't get it up down there
After some decent hotpot, we headed out in the bitter cold to explore the Shenyang bar scene. I was quite impressed that they had a whole street near the university with small, cozy bars, some even with live music. Heading home after a fun evening, we were hit with a scary dose of reality as we passed by a dead body on the street, hit by a car. I won't go into the gruesome details, but it wasn't pretty. What was worse was that our cab driver just laughed and said it happens all the time. Does that make it any less wrong?
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November 7, 2006
The Circuit
As my students went off for a week and a half to learn how to farm in the countryside (no, seriously), I was given yet another opportunity for travel. I live a tough life--I do. Last I headed to the sunshine and scenery of southwestern China in Yunnan Province. This year I decided to head in the exact opposite direction--to Liaoning Province in the northeast of China.
It's easy to forget just how big China is until you go book an express train ticket from Guangzhou to Shenyang and you find out it'll take about 34 hours. My god. Lacking the funds to fly both ways, I swallowed hard and forked over a big chunk of change for the longest ride of my life. And, well, it was actually not nearly as bad as I thought it could have been. I basically got on at 10pm, fell asleep, woke up the next day and read for hours, went to bed, and woke up the next morning upon arrival. I've been on flights that were way worse. It was funny, too, because there was a group of professional basketball players in my train car so nobody cared less about me being the one white guy. They were busy staring at the 6'11" Chinese guy.
As I stepped onto the platform bright and early at around 6am, I was immediately hit with a rush of artic-cold air. In my mind I knew it would be cold all the way up there, but the reality was much more of a slap in the face. I glanced up at one of the digital displays outside the station and saw that it was -8 degrees celcius, easily the coldest weather I had felt in two years. Despite spending twenty four years braving New England winters, I had lost any and all ability to cope with the cold. I was FREEZING.
After finding myself a piping hot bowl of noodles, I made my way over to the PiA-ers at Northeastern University, a pleasant 40 minute bus ride across the city. I was welcomed with open arms and a heated apartment--exactly what I needed most, besides maybe a shower. Vivian and Jason immediately offered up anything and everything to me which was way beyond the call of duty. After we had lunch together, I headed out to explore.
Stop #1 was the old Imperial Palace, a compound similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing except smaller and with more Manchu architectural features. Despite the temperature, the sun was out and the skies were clear which made for a very pleasant walk around the grounds. Couple that with the fact that I was one of the only people there, and I loved it. The buildings were very interesting and seemed to have an air of intimidation about them, given the abundance of scary-looking lions, dragons, and monsters all around. I loved it.
After walking around for so long, it was time for a snack. I followed the advice of my guidebook and headed around the corner to a family dumpling restaurant that has apparently been in business for about 150 years. Needless to say, I ordered up some dumplings and they were spectacular. Not the best I've ever had, but it was super cheap. The waiter also made me laugh asking me funny questions in Chinese about myself and about America (does everyone in the states get a gun on their 16th birthday? do I think Shenyang is the best city in China? do people in America know how to use chopsticks?).
I have to say that Shenyang seems to be one of the friendliest cities I've been to in China. The bus stops don't post very clearly the routes so I found myself just asking people or having people come up and ask me if they could help. Wow! I'm guessing some (or all) of the help is because I'm a novelty being caucasian, but I don't think this happens in Guangzhou, and we don't have *that* many foreigners. I enjoyed chatting with each and every one of them.
I got back in time for dinner with the other fellows and we had some excellent Korean bbq, affectionately referred to as KBBQ by Vivian. It's always really interesting to me to hear about different PiA-ers' experiences since every post is so different. This was actually one of the reasons for my trip up north--because Shenyang and Dalian were the last two posts in China that I hadn't seen and I wanted to get up there to see what they were all about. This trip would complete the circuit! Jason and Vivian filled me in a bit over dinner and apparently Shenyang is a city that used to be the shining star of the region but has since deteriorated due to a decrease in the mining industry and government-sponsored production moving south (to places to Guangdong Province). There wasn't nearly the amount of construction in the city, which I suppose doesn't bode well for its future, but makes for pleasant living conditions. Though it is notorious for pollution, I venture to say that Shenyang had better air quality than Guangzhou. Hard to believe...
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November 1, 2006
Well, It's Not My Favorite
Though the temple was a very relaxing place to spend the afternoon, I had seen something deserving of exploration on the ride there. The temple is situated right next to Xiamen University, an institution of higher learning established almost entirely from the donations of overseas Chinese. This, too, felt a bit like the twilight zone as the campus was sparkling clean, the buildings looked like they had been transplanted from Stanford, and there were students sitting around playing guitar. Was I still in China? All signs point to no, but it was true.
The best part of the campus, though, was one of their auditoriums--a building up on a hill looking like something from the temple next door. The steps leading down from the main entrance of the auditorium lead to a gorgeous track & field, complete with about three different football fields. As I walked around the track, I was just itching to join in on a pickup game. The skies were blue, the grass was green, the surroundings were beautiful, and there was soccer to be played! Sadly, I was traipsing around in my flip-flops so I guess it just wasn't meant to be.
Heading back into town, we took in the scenery of some really nice beaches across from the west gate of the university. What a great place to go to school--a campus with amazing buildings and fields, clean air, and beaches right outside the gate! I'm somewhat amazed that the University isn't one of the top-ranked schools. Clearly it has the financial backing of some pretty well-off individuals, it has amazing facilities, and the location is ideal.
Back in the city itself, we decided to have a dinner of western food. Where do you find non-Chinese cuisine in a Chinese city? That's right--at the most expensive hotel you can find. We made our way to the Crown Plaza and sat down inside at an Italian restaurant. The sommelier immediately came to our table and offered up the wine list. This being a mini-vacation, we decided to splurge on a nice bottle of wine... that is until we saw the prices. I am consistently appalled at the ridiculous markup of alcohol in restaurants. But anyway, instead of getting one of the "fine wines," we decided to get the cheapest thing on the menu--the house imported wine. I asked the guy what he thought of it and with a look of mild disgust he responded, "Well, it's not my favorite." Gee, you think? Let's be real though, this is probably the guy who made it the house wine in the first place. He could at least pretend, right? Just to spite him I made sure I thoroughly enjoyed every drop from that bottle. Truth be told, it was actually pretty good, too.
After taking the ferry back to Gulangyu, we decided to walk around a little. As I mentioned, one of the Fujian's specialties is tea so tea stores are ubiquitous. Kelly decided to study up on teas a bit over the summer and was excited to sample the offerings there in Xiamen. For people who make it clear that they have the money to buy high end teas (or for anyone with white skin), tea stores will sit you down and brew some of their best stuff, enticing you to buy. Some places even bring out some snacks to help accentuate the flavors or cleanse your palate.
We were beckoned into one of the medium-sized stores and immediately offered a seat in order to taste their best type of wulong tea. Though I couldn't understand everything they were saying, I did follow along enough (thanks to Kelly's translations) to learn a little something. It turns out that traditionally you never serve the first pour of a tea--you let it sit in the cup for a few seconds and then you pour it right out. Each tea apparently has an ideal pour number in which the flavor and aftertaste will be the best, e.g. the 4th or 5th serving into the small cups. They took us through an entire pot, pointing out how the flavor evolves after each pour. Amazingly enough, they were spot on--it really did taste best on the 5th pour! After a small amount of haggling we purchased a small amount and were on our way.
The next morning we set out to do the only major sight left in the entire city--riguangyan, or "Sunlight Rock." This is the highest point on Gulangyu and as the saying goes, you haven't been to Xiamen if you haven't been to the top of the rock. Supposedly on a clear day you can see all the way to Jinmen, a small island off the coast of Xiamen that is apparently a Taiwanese property.
Before we even reached the summit, we came across a very cool little temple literally built into the face of the rock. Though there was no one worshipping there, it seemed to have a very divine and hallowed feeling about it. After a quick picture, we continued up the various stairs to the top. The view was pretty impressive, especially given that it's only about 100 meters up. On the way down we stopped at the Koxinga Memorial Museum, a hall in honor of Zheng Chenggong, the man who helped liberate Taiwan.
The story of this man is fascinating, as related to me by my PiA mentor, Professor White from Princeton: "Koxinga is praised in China as a national hero because of his bringing Taiwan into the national sphere as he expelled the Dutch from Tainan -- and much praised by Taiwanese (even independistas) because of his separation from the central gov't, nominally on behalf of the Ming against the Qing but actually very much in his own interest... This is beautifully ironic. Zheng was a multinational (his mother was Japanese) pirate king, fit for a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta except that he was very serious. He led, very forcefully, a seafaring South Chinese lineage of the kind that ordinarily had as little to do as possible with any Chinese or other central government. His sponsorship of Hokkien (S. Fujian) migration to Taiwan was indeed the factor that made that island part of China, but he had scant help from Beijing (certainly not from proper-thinking Confucians) for any such project."
Naturally this isn't emphasized in the museum at all, especially not at the enormous statue of the man outside the entrance to the hall. This is interesting, especially given that the very first plaque starts off saying that Taiwan has always and will always be completely Chinese. They revere the man even though he probably could not have cared less about Chinese nationalism. After all, when was the last time a pirate did anything for the sake of a government?
Kelly continued my education a bit in a different direction noting that according to Benedict Anderson's theory of "Imagined Communities," governments attempt to mold nationalism by means of three main devices: the map, the census, and the museum. This could not have been more apropos in this exhibit. I think this theory is very interesting not just for China, but for almost every government. I am in the process of helping one of my tutees write an essay about the comparison of Nazi Germany to the classroom in Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War." We talked about how Hitler created a contagious sense of nationalism and it makes me wonder how what Anderson would say about that. I guess I'll actually have to read the book...
And that was pretty much it. We had some great Japanese curry and then headed off to the train station. If you're interested in pics from the trip, check out the flickr link on the side of the page or click here http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/72157594351898482/
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