Good Day After All

This past weekend was kind of a let down. After having dinner with friends during the week and getting used to a new environment. I came down with a little bug, that combined with the heat and humidity, here in Shanghai, kind of put me in a bad mood. The highs have been between 95 and 97 but even worse the lows have around 87, still kind of hot. The humidity has also been high above 70%. So Saturday night when I finally ventured out in the evening I was grumpy.

But that was when things changed. I went over to Renmin Park and as I approached, I heard Brahms lullaby being played on wood wind over by the big fountain. So I went over there. When I got there I saw kind of a mini festival going on. The fountain was lit up and was full of kids in the water and everyones else talking with each other and watching the water. It was also cooler here due to a breeze from the ocean blowing across the water.

It was like a small festival; people were blowing bubbles for children to chase, and friends talking and relaxing with each othere. One group was launching a propeller toy that lit up when it flew. There was even someone flying a kite in the dark. It changed my mood completely.

While I leaned against a wall watching this little festival, a girl came up to me wanting to try her English out. For once I didn't feel like someone was trying to scam me and her parent who were near by seem to be happy that the Mei Gou Rin was being nice to their child. So I talked with her. Lucy was going into 7th grade and her pronunciation was good. She like school and discovery was her favorite class. Just as we began to run out of things to talk about the music and fountain abruptly ended. So I excused myself and finished my walk around the park feeling a lot better than when I started.

Here are some random photos of dinners.

Back In China

My flight was good, there was no major snags and I landed safe back in China. So far the only person I have seen is Dong Yan, she helped book my before I came, we got something to eat and went for a run yesterday, she is a great friend. I will get together with several people this Thursday. I am looking forward to that. There are many conflicts going on with me though. It is great to be back here but it doesn't feel as good this time this time though. It is hot and muggy here. Plus even more important to me I am really happy to see my friends in China, but now I miss everyone in St Louis. Of course in a year I will back in St Louis missing my friends in China. I guess I am never satisfied.

I am so proud of myself, I met some professors on the flight and ended up helping them catch the Maglev train, the subway and a taxi. I felt like a real world traveler. At least until I started walking to my hotel and had to get a map out to find the street my hotel was on. It was very embarrassing when I realized I was standing right across the street from the street I was looking for. Although I don't feel too bad since I had asked some people and they didn't know where the street was either.

I am hoping to post once or twice a week, so stay tuned.

New China Adventure

Stay turned for my next China adventure. I will be teaching English at Jiangsu Institute of Economic & Trade Technology. Tentative itinerary to follow.

Shangri-La (Zhondian County)

When I decided to go to China, one thing I wanted to do was visit a western province to see the contrast with eastern China. While I was trying to decide what province to tour, Yan, one of my friends in China suggested Yunnan. Her description of the province pretty much persuaded me to go there. Then when I was researching Yunnan I noticed an area call Shangri-La in the northern corner of Yunnan and I was hooked.

The name Shangri-La conjures up idealized, somewhat magical images from James Hilton's book, Lost Horizons, a place of eternal youth and tranquility. During my research though, I found out that there are many places in the Himalayans that claim this title, mainly for tourism reasons. The original name of this Shangri-La is Zhingdain County; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La But my imagination was already engaged, I didn't care if there were other Shangri-La's out there. This would be mine.

Well I don't know if I found Shangri-La or not but I did have a very good time. It also changed my concept of what Tibetan people are like. My view had been of a very austere people who dressed in layers of plain somewhat drab clothing and did a lot chanting with Buddhist monks. What I found in Shangr-La was historically and currently Tibetans are very diverse. The Tibetans here presented a nomadic culture, rich in song and dance. The traditional costumes were made of brightly colored silk and animal hides.

The highlight of my stay here was dinner at a common house. We had roast Yak, Yak tea and other local foods. Along with the food was a lot of traditional singing and dancing by local performers usually followed by the cheer "yasoo yasoo ya ya yasoo, yasoo yasoo yeah!!!" and the downing of a jigger of "wine". Actually the "wine" was 80 to 100 proof barley whiskey. Also as the singers sang, people would take these thin silk like scarves and place them around the singers neck.

The signing and was great as in much of Asian signing they would reach the upper reaches of the vocal range but their middle and low range was very melodic. The following link is of a Naxi singer but the singing is very similar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-b7heJYFpc&feature=related. The dancing was also fun. Here is a Youtube video I found if the same group http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvDrqVi9WpI&feature=related If the guy in the red coat looks like he is saving his energy, he is, in a solo performance he started doing barrle turns around the pole and went around the pole three timed doing these turns.

I even danced a couple of times during the group dances. During the last group dance I noticed another tour bus pushing their tour guide over towards me. So I took the hint and started dancing with her. She was a good dancer and I was having a great time until I noticed everyone had stopped dancing was watching us dance. Then I got really self conscious and stopped. I should have just kept on going.

There are some photos still to come.

Lijiang

Lijiang was one of the highlights of my stay in China. It was my base while in Yunnan Province, taking tour buses to different sight in the north part of the province. I stayed in Lijiang's Old Town which was restored back to its original state after an earthquake in 1996 destroyed much of Lijiang.

In restoring Old Town, they use materials and techniques of the traditional Naxi ethnic group which resides there. Most buildings are made of wood, they are two storied with a central court yard around which family life was centered. Intricate carved wood is use though out the house. The window screens on the houses are a lattice work of wood or even more impressively made up of carved birds, flowers and animals.

The layout of Old Town flows around three canals. The water is from the surrounding mountains and is crystal clear. The canals serve as the arteries of the city. They divide the town into sections and can help guide lost tourist through the maze of stone streets and alleys. Getting lost is all part of the package.


Lijiang is somewhat commercial but not to the point of loosing its authenticity. Most things sold are hand crafted and relate at least tangentially to the culture. The restaurants all seem to have some local dishes, which have some similarity to Sichuan cuisine.

My guide in Lijiang, Li Shuang, was the best guide I encountered in China. His English was good, his knowledge of the culture was great and he seemed to understand Westerns. In fact he had many ex patriot friends in Old Town. He very good at arranging my accommodations (see photos of my hotel) and making sure I connected with my other tour guides and transportation. The last evening I was there he took a Ming Huang, physicist living Oxford England originally from China, to one of the bars/restaurants.

The bars in Old Town are very interesting. Many have entertainment on the first floor and on the second floor the windows can be opened to the canal and street below. From these balconies patrons in one bar will sing a song to the patrons across the canal, who will answer back with a song. The songs get more out of tune and shorter as the night rolls on. This is due mostly to, some surprisingly good, 100 proof "wine".

Tiger Hill (Suzhou)

The second day I spent in Suzhou we went to Tiger Hill, with its millennium-old leaning Yunyan Pagoda. Tiger Hill is more of a history park rather than a garden. It has several historical memorials and at it's base is a small village that depicts the traditional scenes of ancient China. On the actual hill part is where the tomb of the founding father of Suzhou, King He Lu (600 BC) lies. He is supposed to be buried with his 3000 swords. The name Tiger Hill came about because a white tiger showed up just after it was finished to guard the tomb. To keep the exact location of the tomb a secret the 1000 workers were killed by a large flat rock, appropriately titled the 1000 Men Rock. The rock has red stains in it, supposedly from the blood of these men.

Mountain Villa at the bottom of the hill has several life size diorama depicting life of historical China. It also has some scenes of everyday life beautifully etched into both marble and glass. One of fun things that happened while on Tiger Hill was being asked to have my picture taken with some visitors who were from Nanjing. The only reason being was because I was a Mei Guo Ren, (an American). Later on in the Mountain Villa I ran into the same group, so we all shared a canal boat ride. Unfortunately I didn't find out until the end of the ride that the oars' person would have sung us a song for 10 yuan, just like a Vienna gondolier, only in Chinese of course.

Suzhou Gardens

My trip to Suzhou was very interesting I learned many new things about traditional Chinese aesthetics and history. My guide was Yueqin. She did not speak a lot of English and I speak even less Chinese but never the less with the help of a phrase book and a lot of pointing we were able to understand each other. In the end she was able to give me a good understanding about the design of these gardens. I got a lot out of this trip and I would really like to go back in the summer or fall, sometime, to see these gardens again with all of their greenery.

Yueqin was camera shy and wouldn't let me take her picture so I can only show you the gardens, not the guide. All I can do is thank her for doing such a good job guiding me.

The Chinese aesthetic is very intriguing. I enjoyed how interconnected everything was. The gardens moved you from light to shadow, from cool to warm or summer to spring, winter or fall. The layering of textures at times relax your thoughts then gently startle you awake with a surprise. Even though it was the end of winter and few things were blooming the shapes of the plants intermingled with the rocks, buildings, and stone pathways was beautiful.

Everywhere in the gardens it seemed that earth, water and space had equal importance. Even when on of these classical elements dominated the scene. To bad modern developers can't seem to grasp this concept. I hope you enjoy the slide show(There are more photos of Suzhou to come)