Steve, Shana and Li in China

Hong Kong, Our Style

2008-08-22T06:14:00.001-07:00

Mui Wo, Lantau Island: beaches, laid back atmosphere, small villages and a hotel with a pool. Who needs the real Hong Kong? We certainly didn't for the three days before starting a 5 day Wilderness Medicine course. We pulled Steve out of retirement to teach 9 students (representing 6 nationalities) who work for an outdoor education program based in Hong Kong. They got some of his jokes. Our 5 days at a YWCA facility was plagued by unbelievably loud groups. Some were school kids who ran around screaming. Some were college freshman here for leadership training ROTC style. They shouted, marched, chanted, and sang their school anthem endlessly. Li spent her days with a friend of the course sponsor. She got to central Hong Kong for a day at Ocean World while we dodged the zealous students. We got to end our course with a typhoon, so named Nuri. Though the rest of Hong Kong got a typhoon day and had no school, by the time we got up for breakfast all the transportation services were shut down for the day thus trapping our students here. So we finished the course and watched some big rain squalls and winds gusts, though nothing stronger than what comes down the valley towards our house in Lander. At dinner time we had the eerie experience of being in the eye of the typhoon and feeling the calm. Some of our students were able to make it home, others were trapped here for the night. Now the wind and rain have picked up again, but we hope the storm has moved inland tomorrow in time for our noon flight to Chicago.

So after 12 months this MAY be our last night in China...

16 Years Ago...

2008-08-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

we were 16 years younger and getting married. For my 40th birthday last year Steve gave me a year's trip to China, for his 40th this year I gave him a month in Japan, so for our anniversary we settled for dinner at a small seaside village restaurant in Hong Kong with fresh seafood, cold beer, friendly cats and US versus China in volleyball on TV. So far so good.

Olympic Observations

2008-08-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

Before listing the quirks we discovered it should be said that we were excited to be at the Olympics and had a great time watching sports we knew nothing about-quickly becoming expert commentators. We attended men's and women's gymnastics, fencing, wrestling, table tennis, beach volleyball, judo and water polo. The venues were well done with plentiful squatty potties and a surplus of volunteers. Visitors were well behaved and supportive of all the athletes with a bias towards extra "jiayo's" for the Chinese athletes. We learned water polo is a vicious sport, wrestling wins or losses can literally be determined by a random draw, and beach volleyball feels like a frat party.

We were, however, glad to get out of Beijing. Besides it being a big, hot, noisy city, there was a sense of tension that was discomforting. Perhaps it was the ever present police and armed troops or the endless security checks. Even more concerning was the inconsistency of these security checks at different venues.

We were also glad that we are healthy, heat tolerant and good walkers. We spent at least 2 hours each day on crowded buses or subways simply getting to the outskirts of the venues. From there add another one or two hours walking to or between venues and standing in security lines. We were frustrated at maps that showed a key subway station which was in fact closed and the lack of easy transportation between venues. Having spent a year in China we recognize that improvements that were no doubt made to the city transportation system, but felt that many people likely defaulted to taxis given the challenges of negotiating the public system even though all buses and subways were free if you held event tickets on that day.

Our biggest frustration was the food. The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) did well by their sponsors including McDonalds and Coca-cola. Outside food and drink were banned from any venue. Once inside the Olympic Green your only food choices were McDonalds (two of them, spaced widely apart) and snack stands featuring Coke, water, OJ, Fanta Orange soda, popcorn, chips, Snickers bars and a sugared fruit cup. If you spent 6 or 7 hours a day on the Green as we often did, food stress was a reality. The areas around the Olympic green were emptied for security reasons so leaving the area for food was not an easy or close option. The contrast between the health and fitness of the athletes and the horrid food choices available to spectators was laughable.

Overall though, our 5 days were memorable and successful. And now we can enjoy the close up action on TV with the rest of the world!

Qingdao Beaches-Lessons Learned

2008-08-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

The City of Qingdao is situated on the east coast of China. A former German enclave it is full of European architecture and food, mixed with modern Chinese zaniness. We have spent our week exploring various beaches. Here is what we have learned.

1. When facing the upcoming international spotlight, hosting the sailing/windsurfing portion of the Olympics and dealing with the largest algae bloom in history use your greatest resource-human labor. Qingdao has dealt with this potentially fatal blow to the sailing races, a sea thick with algae soup, by using thousands of people to clean the sea by hand. In addition to people walking the beach bagging algae, most of the beaches have tractors scooping the stuff into piles for easy removal. The battle wages with increased ferocity every time the tide comes in. Of course according to the government, the sea is cleaner than it has ever been (it doesn't look bad). And in the words of the young Olympic volunteers, "Don't believe the advertising, there is no problem." In other words, don't believe the western media. I have to say though the sea weed wrapping around your legs while playing in the surf is unnerving.

2. Beach number 1-no umbrellas or tents, no digging or drawing in the sand, no changing or urinating on the beach. Swim in the shark proof net. The bans against litter and smoking went unheeded.

3. Beach number 3, apparently all of the above are fine, but move when the tractor comes to scoop up seaweed or your stuff will be plowed up.

4. Shilaoren beach. If you wish to change in the VIP changing rooms, 50Y ($8). We didn't even price the regular changing rooms or the changing tents because it was too crowded. We're pretty good at changing under clothes on the beach. Given the number of men walking around in see through underwear we figured that was a minor infraction. 2Y to wash your feet in fresh water. 1Y to use the toilet. You could pay someone to hold your stuff. Who knows how much to park your car on the street, but when there's not enough room to park parallel to the curb, simply pull straight in over the curb. The bottom line is this, if you can charge money for it, someone will.

5. When taking Bus number 304 to get out of town be prepared to be sardined into a non-air conditioned bus, completely overloaded with hot sweaty people, and hope you don't have to shove your way out to get off. Even the cops shake their heads, but do nothing. All this luxury for fifty cents.

Sayonara Japan

2008-07-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

The countdown begins...

We spent a day in Hiroshima visiting the Peace Park, the Atomic Dome and the National Peace Museum. It was all quite impactful as you might expect, though you wouldn't otherwise know the city's history as it is quite a modern metropolis. Li asked good questions, but after a few hours she asked whether we could change the subject to something else. Fair enough.

The port city of Shimonoseki was our last stop in Japan. We spent a pleasant day strolling the aquarium learning about Blowfish from around the world. Poisonous blowfish, locally known as Fugu, are the regional delicacy. Apparently only 30% of the chefs who attend the 3 year training course to prepare the blowfish safely actually pass. The take home message is clearly not to buy any "cheap" blowfish.

Tomorrow we board our 27 hour ferry bound for Qingdao, China-goodbye civilization, hello chaos.

P.S. Japan Rail Passes Rock!

Temples versus Air Conditioning

2008-07-27T03:14:00.000-07:00

Some days it’s a draw, but honestly some days the air conditioning wins! The last week we’ve been heading south through Japan into Temple central. Between Takayama, Kyoto and Nara, there have been plenty. Our favorite was the large Todaiji Temple in Nara-the largest wooden structure in the world (though apparently only 2/3 its original size). We elected this as our favorite because of the enormous bronze Buddha that sits in the center. In addition to periodic destruction by fire, this temple has suffered indignities during earthquakes when the giant Buddha’s head has fallen off of the statue. We can only hope the monks weren’t actively praying underneath. Though Li had already obtained enlightenment in Nagano, we thought she should have a back-up plan, so she went for the “squeeze”. This hollow in large structural post provides enlightenment for those that can fit, which is apparently exactly the size of the Buddha’s nostril. Steve made it too, much to the amusement of the on looking crowd.

In Kyoto we did some geisha spotting (3 by our count, though we think two were fakes) and strolled the back alleys of old Kyoto. Our geocaching efforts brought us to an area of town full of “men’s clubs”. It was also our most expensive geocache ever since Li found the Yukata (lightweight summer kimono) of her dreams at a nearby Kimono store. She insisted on wearing her Yukata the next day to the monthly flea market where one could find endless treasures. We were amused how many pictures tourists took of her (never knowing that was our Chinese-Wyoming daughter dressed in Japanese clothes).

Yesterday we wandered around Nara-the former Japanese capitol. Nara is famous for temples (surprise) and deer. The deer have been treated as sacred for 1200 years. As a result they are lounging everywhere and tourists take many pictures and try to pet them. The vendors sell deer biscuits. Li insisted she deserved to feed the deer after being dragged through the temples and parks. After warning her the deer might be a little aggressive, she insisted. She was nearly stampeded by the deer that continuously bit me in the butt trying to get at the biscuits. The whole event took less than 60 seconds!

Today we head south to Hiroshima to see how much history we are ready to digest.

Eating Our Way South

2008-07-22T05:07:00.000-07:00

Our last night in Tokyo was also one of our favorite meals. The proprietor of our ryokan sent us to a small okonomiyaki restaurant (basically a bowl of ingredients you mix in an egg batter and grill at your table) making what we call "Japanese pancakes". Having done this twice before we considered ourselves somewhat expert. That is until we entered the 4 table restaurant with a hand written Japanese menu and a waitress who spoke no English. Luckily the family at the next table help us muddle through the menu and order the house specialty. As we drank draft beer to cool ourselves down the chef came over and helped us with our grilling. We were apparently fairly inept and needed continuous instruction. The chef helped himself to quite a few glasses of the house draft beer as well-so we were all in a good mood and well fed by the end.

After leaving Tokyo we went to stay with a fellow Lijiang teacher at her home near Hakone. Our conversations were a mix of English, Japanese, Chinese and French. Somehow we avoided making any crucial language mistakes-or so we think. Our first night at her house she pulled out a portable table grill and proceeded to cook us huge amounts of vegetables and meat. One piece of advice-mushroom-phobes should not come to Japan. It was all excellent, though the pig intestines were a bit "chewy". Her house lacks air conditioning so we spent our time there sweating, heading to the onsen, and sweating again as soon as we were done. During the days we went to Hakone to explore. Hakone is well set up as a tourist destination-we thought of it as the Amazing Race Part 2 (Part 1 having been the Chinese Consulate in Tokyo). In one day we were on trains, a bus, a ship, a gondola, a cable car, a narrow gauge railway and of course our feet. The food of the day was the bratwurst house Steve and Li discovered. For our last night with our friend we attended a neighborhood summer festival and drank sake with shaved ice and edamame. Steve charmed the old men (who invited him to stay and play golf) while Li admired the girls in their bright Yukatas.

The last two days we have been in Takayama. The dark brown wood buildings are strikingly reminiscent of the Berkeley hills. We opted for a local restaurant tonight and chose the recommended specialty. Small cooking braziers were placed on our table. Mine was topped by a large magnolia leaf heaped with small pieces of Hida Beef, onions, mushrooms and the local miso bean paste. I was instructed to mix and grill. Which I did. Then I ate and enjoyed! Except for the price, I could easily repeat the meal. Li's required similar cooking with help from her Dad. Desert consisted of local peaches and plums. You gotta love summer. Tomorrow we go to Kyoto-temples here we come!

We came, we saw, we survived!

2008-07-17T06:06:00.001-07:00

That applies to the city of Tokyo, Tokyo Disneyland and the Chinese Consulate. In case you didn't know, Tokyo in July is hot and sticky-thus so are we most of the time. We've ended up here for 6 days for the primary purpose of getting our Chinese tourist visas so we can get back into the country. To amuse ourselves while waiting we braved the crowds at Tokyo Disneyland. It is a replica of Disneyland in Anaheim-except of course the characters speak and sing in Japanese. Speaking characters is odd to begin with, but when you hear Japanese it is even stranger. Li only cried once, but I think that's par for the course for a hot, overstimulated child. The highlight of our day was watching her boundless excitement as we went through "It's a Small World". Of course we were also secretly proud that she could identify most of the nationalities in the ride. She also chose a souvenir with high breaking potential for us to tote around two countries. All in all a successful event.

Our Disneyland was the Chinese Consulate. We knew we had to to turn in our passports on Monday in order to get them back Thursday or Friday. After a series of subways and map checks we found the Consulate by following the long security line leaving the building. We had approximately 30 minutes before the Consulate closed for the day at Noon. It was a combination of 'The Amazing Race' meets Arts and Crafts. First, security check in Japanese and next all get into the elevator to the 3rd floor. Open to organized mayhem. Steve went to the left, to get a number. Shana went to the right, for the correctly positioned passport and Japan visa xerox copies. Li was the runner to move the passports to Steve for the number since Shana's line was slower. Then to figure out the copy machines and to keep all papers collated while listening for our number. Then on to gluing on passport pictures which we already had (so skipped the photo booth). Then our number came up and all our papers were accepted and we were given a time to return in 3 days. They did not want any of our documentation for our August Chinese housing or travels which we were warned to collect. Fifteen minutes later, we were done with that much time to spare. Celebrate by all going to Denny's.

Nagano and the North

2008-07-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for the mountains. At least that was our feeling as we spent 4 days in the Japanese Alps. Our first stop was Nagano and the Zenko-ji Temple. We made at least three cultural faux pas with our hostess at the shrine hostel, but that's what traveling is about! We also learned that most restaurants in Nagano close by 7! Luckily we snuck into one that closed at 7:30 for a late night dinner. It was nice to wake up in our tatami room in the 100 year old building that served as our hostel. After a morning of exploring we boarded a bus for Hakuba, one of the many small ski towns that dot the Alps. We landed in a lovely little hostel and armed ourselves with groceries and a bottle of local wine. The next day we took the gondola part way up the mountain and hiked a burly 4 miles in the mist. Periodically the clouds parted to give us a glimpse of the mountains, but it felt like we were being teased. At one point we came across a small graveyard. After the two snakes who were keeping guard disappeared we found two graves with ice axe heads cemented into them, though we couldn't quite puzzle together the story. That evening our WMI course translator from two years ago met us and we wined and dined at our hostel.

The next day she took us to a local high ropes course. She works for Project Adventure Japan and sweet talked the locals into letting us hop on the course at a reduced rate. It has been 20 years since I was on a high ropes course-the technology has certainly evolved! The course had a self belay system that allowed you to complete the entire course without a staff person on the system. We completed the course in about an hour with the requisite screams and profanity. Li was utterly fearless and kept urging her mother along when I took too long to complete an element. She was incredible!

Last stop in the north was Matsumoto Castle. A very cool 500 year old castle with three rings of moats. At one point our friend Missy commented on the gentleman wearing a striped shirt and plaid pants (something about fashion sense...) and indeed he ambled over and volunteered to be our English speaking guide. He was better as a guide than as a dresser. We biked around the town of Matsumoto, Li perched on the back of a bike on a chair cushion. After watching her on the high ropes course I didn't worry too much, that is until one of Steve's brakes stopped working...

Japan-How Civilized!

2008-07-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

We’ve decided to spare you all and experience our reverse culture shock in Japan. Our course hosts met us at the Narita Airport and spent the next hour helping Steve and Li buy train tickets to Nikko. My co-instructor Missy and I waved goodbye as they disappeared into the belly of the Narita train station. We had a semi-firm plan to meet in 5 days, no mobile phone and sketchy Internet. How big can Japan be?? Missy and I headed 4 hours north to Shirakawa where we taught a 2 day Wilderness First Aid course over 4 days to allow for translation time. For the first two days of errands and course set-up I couldn’t help but think, I am not in China anymore! From smelly, dirty Chinese squat toilets without toilet paper to immaculate restroom with heated toilet seats and bidets-what a contrast! I think my word for Japan is fastidious. Things are clean and efficient, the people are polite to a fault and everything runs on time. Astounding after the past year. Of course it’s as expensive here as the US, but since the bills look foreign, I don’t feel so bad about what I am spending!

Truly the best feature of Japan, however, is the onsen-the natural hot springs. We have been to an onsen every night in Japan except one. The people are also incredibly generous. Our students were respectful and attentive in class and partiers at night. In other words after two days of teaching we had been naked and drinking with our students (not at the same time)! The course went well and we did our best to flounder through Japanese formalities. We managed to connect with Steve and Li at the train station and after dinner at Denny’s (the menu looks a little different!) and some onsen time, we were all united at the course facility in the mountain.

Steve and Li spent time in Nikko and Aizu Watsumota. The main feature of their travels involved arts and crafts (of course) but they ate well and slept well and survived! After mailing 75 pounds of teaching gear to Hong Kong today we are off on our own to Nagano. Japan Rail Passes in hand we can go as we please through the country. Given how hot and humid it is in Tokyo, we opted to head north to the mountains!

The End! At Least Temporarily

2008-07-09T06:10:00.000-07:00

Our last two weeks in China were a whirlwind of packing, examinations, dinners and many farewells. For as much effort as we put into our finals, it is disappointing to know that our grades probably won’t actually count. In other words the students that we fail, will simply be promoted into the next class regardless. Then next year’s unsuspecting foreign teachers will inherit the same problems that we did. We had two official farewell dinners. Both times we were segregated into a separate table for the “western” teachers and refused the opportunity to mingle. Such heavy handedness was imposed by the Dean of the English Department. At least he did ask us to stay next year while were taking a departmental photo-three days before leaving China! We were able to spend an afternoon with our friend LuShan and her family. Her six year old daughter and Li entertained us with dance performances and songs for the afternoon. We had some great meals with friends and students and generally felt sad at the community we were leaving. The good news is that by the time we get back here again, most of our students will have graduated and we can visit them all over China.

One of the most memorable events of our departure was the goodbye party at Li’s school. We told her teacher we wanted to come by to take some pictures and bring a few small gifts. Upon our arrival we discovered three chairs waiting for us at one end of the room and the kids ready to sing and dance for us. We put WMI tattoos on all the kids and gave out treats. Li gave away many treasures, but ended up with about the same amount in return. There was a giant cake and lots of excited screaming, and of course some tears.

Most of our household items found good homes with students and other teachers. Nevertheless we ended up shipping 10 boxes back home (1/2 of which are gifts!). In China this involves stuffing a bag full of what you want to mail, handing it to the counter person, waiting while they look in every pocket and every book, and then cringing as they pack things poorly into boxes. It will be a race to see whether we beat our boxes home.

Steve started his 40th birthday with a burly 20 mile run and ended with a foot massage and mystery cake.

On the first of July we pulled out of campus in a taxi for the last time. Our flight to Xi’an was uneventful and we managed to forgo hotel food and find a local restaurant to drink a few beers and sit outside on a sweaty summer evening. Steve did eventually unplug our hotel room phone after the third call asking if we wanted a “massage”.

The Torch Made it and So Did We

2008-06-10T05:32:00.000-07:00

We felt a little sorry for ourselves having to get up at 6:30 and and catch a bus for our "torch duty", but then again, the students and non-foreign teachers from the College were on 5:30am duty! The days and weeks leading up to the Olympic Torch's arrival have been shrouded in mystery and speculation. Our class schedules have changed on an hour's notice, as of yesterday the College was still negotiating its role in the affair with the local government and of course the Torch route was secret. At first it appeared we, the foreigners, were meant to be show pieced by the local government for our loyalty to China and our support of the Torch. We all politely refused that honor, but nevertheless found ourselves on a bus full of foreign teachers and students from the two colleges in Lijiang and the head of the Lijiang Foreign Affairs Department (who knew we had one?). Instead of heading into town as we had expected, we headed north into Jade Dragon Snow Mountain park. We found ourselves lining a corridor full of traditionally dressed minority people (at least 1000) and students in matching t-shirts. Flags were ubiquitous. After our arrival we learned there would be a 3.5 hour wait. We had been told not to bring any bags or food for fear of "issues" so you can imagine how painful a 3.5 hour wait was with a tired, hungry, under-clothed 6 year old. Since we had expected to be in town we wore t-shirts and rain coats, fine for town, not good for the Park which is over 10,000' in elevation.

Eventually of course the excitement began. The buses bearing torch bearers dropped them off at their designated stations and we had a front row seat for the hand off of Torch Bearer #173 and #174. #173 was a big white guy, story unknown! After the brief event complete with drumming from the Tibetans and chanting from the Chinese we waited for another 1.5 hours until the Torch Bearers were reloaded in their buses and taken back down the hill. We made it home by 12:30pm in time for a nap.

In some ways the actual event was anticlimactic, but in other ways it was pretty astounding. The minority costumes were beautiful, the mountain a stunning backdrop, the actual torch hand-off occurred less than 10 feet from us and it is likely some of our pictures will make the local newspaper given the number of times we were photographed and interviewed.

Beijing here we come!

Around NW Yunnan in 5 Days

2008-06-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

5 days, 25 hours of driving, plenty of snacks and two moderately stir crazy children encompass the theme of our recent adventures. We traveled a large loop in NW Yunnan with our friends Molly, Bruce and Kaili Hampton, our ecoguide Lily and our tireless and always smiling driver Mr. Duan. Molly works for The Nature Conservancy (TNC)in Wyoming and was eager to see the work TNC is doing in this part of China with an eye to bringing donors at a later date. And, well, we came along for the ride. Li was ecstatic to have a long time friend and playmate (11 year old Kaili) to speak English with and to absorb some of the constant attention she gets as an adopted Chinese girl in a Caucasian family (Kaili is also adopted from China).

After a few days on our home turf in Lijiang and meals and presentations by TNC staff, we headed out of town towards Tiger Leaping Gorge. We had visited this valley once before, but this time we drove through the entire gorge on semi-maintained dirt roads with impressive cliff edges. The labor to build these roads is mind boggling. We walked down to the overlook of the famed rock the tiger leapt upon and declined the offers to be carried back up in a sedan chair-much to Li's dismay. That night we found ourselves at the Haba Snow Mountain Inn. The girls loved the huge beetles and caterpillars when they were in the garden, but didn't appreciate their company quite as much when they were in the room. Walking through the fields and houses in the village it is astounding to see how much firewood one household uses in a year-a reported 6000 pounds! TNC has been trying to help villages develop biogas programs to reduce fuel wood consumption.

The next day we continued north through Baishuitai stopping to visit the travertine terraces that reminded us of home. We discovered some wild irises and marveled at the leaves calcifying in the spring water that feeds the terraces. That afternoon we hiked through Pudacuo National Park-China's only National Park in spite of signs to the contrary. The park was lovely, but expensive and poorly promoted as a tourist destination.

After a night in Zhongdian and a morning of shopping for Tibetan knives we headed NW to the Botanical gardens. Bruce added new orchids to his list and Li took photographs of everything. After 90 minutes walking through the gardens her eyes were swollen and itchy. Perhaps she is not only allergic to Wyoming, but China as well. After a spectacularly steep drive in which we descended 4000 feet and survived a passport check point, we ended up in a small dusty Tibetan town called Benzilan. The highlight of our stay there was the hour Li and Kaili spent building sand and rock creations in the Yangtze River. In addition to negotiations at night about why our power was out we were serenaded by a man sounding like a lovesick hound dog at 1:30 in the morning. As always, Li and Kaili were fascinating to the locals and many people wanted to talk to us about them.

From Benzilan we took a "shortcut" along the Yangtze southwards. Imagine dirt roads, washouts, large boulders in the road and long drops to the river. Our driver whistled to keep himself calm. The scenery was spectacular and the remoteness of these Tibetan villages is amazing. Lander seems perfectly urban in retrospect. We passed about 20 kids walking back to school about 15 miles away. Fortunately we didn't blow a tire (I assume we had a spare) or get stuck in the mud and eventually made it back to the pavement. Li waited until this day to get carsick which is pretty good considering the driving marathon we did.

We spent our last night in Liming, a stunning village set amongst red rock towers and mesas. Whereas Haba Snow Mountain felt like Colorado and Benzilan felt like Wyoming, Liming was definitely Utah. There is an unusual red sandstone base here and houses are constructed from blocks of bright red. We hiked up to 1000 Turtle Mountain so named because the rock formation looks like 1000's of turtle shells. Our guide instructed us to take off our shoes to protect the sandstone-needless to say that was Li's favorite part of the trip! We happened to be in Liming on both Children's Day and the thrice monthly market day. Children's day was fun to see the local school kids in traditional Lisu, Naxi and Yi outfits. Market day was fun to watch the locals come to town from their villages and have a meet and greet. Many of their baskets were filed with alcohol to carry them over for the next 10 days. We were most definitely the only whites in town.

We left Liming reluctantly and headed back down the Yangtze towards Lijiang. We made one last stop in LashaHai to see our guide Lily's family home. TNC helped them build a biogas and solar system. Sitting in her courtyard eating walnuts and crabapples it is easy to forget how difficult the subsistence life of a farmer is. Lily works for an ecotourism company that is community owned and operated and tried to empower the local LashaHai villagers to celebrate their environment and create sustainable tourism.

Needless to say, starting back to school this morning was a rude awakening for us all. This was probably our last big adventure in Yunnan Province and we turn our minds towards completing the school year and two months of Asian travel this summer.

Earthquake News

2008-05-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Monday afternoon a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck a remote area to the north of us in Sichuan province. Though its effects were widely felt, we did not feel anything. My best guess is that it rocked the Sichuan plate and we are up on the Tibetan plate. The death toll is estimated to rise to 50,000. Students here are helping collect food and clothes for the survivors. Sadly the spring rains are here in earnest, hampering rescue efforts. It appears the international media is being allowed good opportunity to cover this tragic incident.

More Grandmothers!

2008-05-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

Li has had an exceedingly good Grandmother year. She recently entertained (or vice versa?) Grandma Marcia who interspersed vacation in Lijiang with work in Hong Kong and Guilin. Marcia got to experience the high class accommodations provided to teachers here and the intermittent access to hot water during the rainy season. We did a thorough job of traversing the old town, buying unknown vegetables in the market, using up many megabytes of camera card space and filling suitcases with souvenirs. Li enjoyed showing her the exercise field and building cakes of mud and organic material. Sadly we have discovered that Li is allergic to both Wyoming and Yunnan in the spring. Clover is a common denominator.

Thinking to give her the full experience, we loaded Marcia onto a bus bound for Dali complete with gory Chinese war films, poor air conditioning and windy roads. Li, who can always be relied upon for a good vomit fest during travel, obliged. But we arrived without mishap (thank to the judicious use of the driver's horn) and barged through the line of "helpful" taxi drivers waiting to take us to their favorite hotels. The Lonely Planet failed us however as I spent the night vomiting after eating at one of their recommended dining options.

The rest of the crew forged on and walked miles around the Three Pagodas (famous on every image of Dali including its beer) in the rain. As an antidote to the throngs of tourists the next day we took the gondola up Cangshan Mountain and explored Qingbi stream. It is akin to hiking in Yosemite. We were undeterred by the Chinese tourists who told us to turn back, the "road is not good" and found ourselves alone in the canyon with the mist around us. Li brought home 5 pounds of rocks, Marcia took many pictures and Steve saw a new bird. A good time was had by all.

The rest of the trip involved lots of walking, sightseeing and eating. Lucky for us, Marcia took home an extra suitcase of our things in what is just the beginning of trying to get ourselves out of here!

Baoshan, The Stone City

2008-04-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

The first of our three rounds of visitors have arrived! Our friend Iris managed to negotiate in country travel and successfully found the Lijiang airport. After only 36 hours in China we piled her into a car and headed off to Baoshan, the famed stone city. We chose a driver with a passenger car for this adventure thinking it would be a bit more comfortable than our usual brain jarring minivan rides. The driver is a friend of a friend and has been driving for 30 years (and he doesn't smoke!). Things were ok in spite of the drizzle that began as soon as we left Lijiang. We couldn't see much of the mountain we were circumnavigating, though we saw plenty of tourists in the ubiquitous red rental coats.

We thought it was a bit unusual that our driver didn't seem to be able to shift the car in gear as we wound our way up into the mountains on dirt road. Apparently he shard our opinion because he stopped the car and spent about 15 minutes fiddling with the gear shift and clutch trying to gear the car in gear, any gear! After many futile attempts he flagged down a ride and indicated for us to stay where we were, not that we could really go anywhere. Li explored the forest and we amused ourselves for an hour and half (I had to prevent Steve from dissecting the car with his Gerber tool) until our driver returned in a minivan. He indicated that the minivan would take us to Baoshan and he would be there tomorrow. Thinking bad thoughts about transmissions and having blind faith that something would work we piled into the minivan and bumped our way down the road towards Baoshan. Enroute we picked up an array of passengers including a woman who vomited the entire drive, which in turn encouraged Li to vomit. It's hard to blame them given the curves in the road and the precipitous drop offs. Remarkably we ended up at the Baoshan a few hours late and were escorted into our guesthouse in the stone city.

The village of Baoshan is perched on top of a stone mesa overlooking the Yangtze River. Rice and wheat terraces extend 2000 feet up valley and provide a spectacular backdrop to this landscape. We spent our weekend playing by the river, walking though terraces, taking photographs, eating and marveling at the livestock who have mastered going up and down stone steps. Each narrow alley in town offers places to explore. The only downside was "evil dog", a 10 pound mutt who charged at us repeatedly from his stoop. We were pleasantly surprised when our driver did indeed show up the next day with his car repaired. Our trip home was eventful only when the cops threatened our driver (who stopped in the middle of the road to let Iris and Steve take pictures). For any of you who know Iris, you will understand that all these things will be blamed on her.

Check out the pictures of Baoshan, it is truly a remarkable place!

The WenHai Ecolodge

2008-04-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

Lying a mere 5 miles from us (as the crow flies of course) over a formidable ridge is a truly sublime valley known as WenHai. Access is by foot, horse or jeep. We opted for two out of three and met our guide and his trusty horse xiao hu (Little Tiger) about 10 miles north of Lijiang in a small village called Yuhu. We ascended 2000' through blooming rhododendron forests trying to keep up with Li on Little Tiger and his owner Mr. He. After a few hours we were treated to the site of WenHai Valley. We feel fortunate that the seasonal lake which fills much of the valley floor still contained some water. Within a few weeks it will be dry until the rains come again. During the steep descent into the valley Mr. He became the horse as he piggy backed Li and let Little Tiger negotiate his own way.

We arrived in time for a late lunch prepared by Mr. He's wife. Given the number of cell phone calls he answered on the way we suspect she was keeping very close tabs on his progress. We stayed at a place called the WenHai Ecolodge. It is a village cooperative run by 59 of the 65 families in the valley's villages. Various contributors have helped to fund and organize the project from The Nature Conservancy to UC Davis to the Japanese Government. Each member family must contribute a yearly quota of work and in return shares the income. The lodge is a simple converted Naxi courtyard style house, but the food was good and the beds were surprisingly comfortable. We immediately made friends with the resident dog and cat. The Ecolodge earns its name for its use of human and animal waste in biogas to create methane for cooking gas. Food is grown on site and a solar collecting tank provides hot showers. A bed for one night and three meals runs about $18/person.

The Valley is part of a larger nature preserve and we spent the afternoon wandering the grassy fields among sheep, horses, cows and pigs. Li's aim improved significantly after an hour's practice throwing mud chips into the retreating lake.

This morning we again enlisted Mr. He and Little Tiger's help to head home (that is after Little Tiger was found since he chewed through his halter and headed down valley to hang out with his friends). Today we hiked south from the valley and emerged 7 miles later at ShuHe, a small village about 1 mile from our apartment. 3 showers (one apiece) and one large meal later we feeling moderately capable of facing work tomorrow. It was wonderful to get out and hike for a change-enough buses! Li looked like a real Wyoming cowgirl.

Shaxi-Quiet and Undiscovered

2008-04-06T06:43:00.000-07:00

As small and beautiful as our town of Lijiang is, we have come to realize how significant its tourism infrastructure is. The Old Town is flooded with "western" restaurants and full of Chinese tour groups dutifully following their guide who is holding a flag for visual identification. Most days we are glad to live a few miles north of the hubbub. We have been yearning to find someplace authentic and unaffected by tourism.

Of course authentic meant 2.5 hours by bus to the dusty town of Jianchuan and then another hour of excruciating bumps and potholes to reach Shaxi. Shaxi is nestled in a large valley full of rice and rape fields, and small villages. Its ancient market square still has the original town temple (guarded by two very large and very fierce looking red and blue gods) and theater. Every Friday the market square comes alive with Bai and Yi people. There is an animal market set up outside the town gates to accommodate the livestock trade.

We gladly stumbled out of our bright purple bus and followed a cobblestone alley to the first guest house we found. Our proprietor was a local Bai man who had 10 rooms in his traditional Bai courtyard house. As we were the only guests we got to browse through the vegetable selection to chose our dinner and hang out in the kitchen while it was being prepared. We spent a lot of time sitting in the courtyard drinking tea. Early the next morning I wandered around town with our two traveling companions taking pictures at first light. The town still boasts two of it's original gates and plenty of ancient architecture. Our host took us into some old courtyard houses and showed us into nooks and crannies. We spent a good part of the day on a 10K walk to an old stone bridge south of town. We walked through many villages and fields and answered numerous hellos. We finally found the bridge which is one of the original throughfares of the Silk Road (locally called the Tea Horse Caravan). Li played poohsticks while everyone else rested in the shade. We managed to cram into a minivan full of locals to avoid the 10K walk back and discovered the best cappuccino I have had in all of China in the market square. We drank coffee and watched kids running around playing.

The next day we returned to Jianchuan and wandered the old town which is also full of 200-300 year old architecture. Steve, Li and I stumbled onto a family making incense and watched the process while communicating in broken Chinese. Needless to say the entire process is by hand.

I thought I was getting to be an old hand at Chinese bus rides but I was still startled by the woman who loaded six 30 gallon burlap bags full of vegetables (the one nearest me was garlic) and three 40 gallon barrels of fish all into the aisle of our small bus. Emergency exit? Not. The aroma of fish and garlic combined with 2.5 hours of winding mountain roads was overpowering. Every time the bus took a sharp corner the fish buckets sloshed and splashed. I have never been so delighted to get off a bus!

Nevertheless Shaxi is a gem and still the real thing. Two nights lodging, two dinners and one breakfast for all three of us ran a whopping $17. Excellent cappuccino in the market square for breakfast-priceless!

Back in the Saddle

2008-03-17T00:31:00.000-07:00

Life seems a little tame after two months of travel and vacation. We are settling back into a work/school routine and feeling a little stir crazy in the beautiful weather. As we suspected, all of our classes were changed. Shana has 250 new students to get to know and Steve managed to escape teaching a single 8am class. Li is back at school and continues to play with (torment) her friend by waking him up during nap time thus getting them both in trouble. We have kept our recent adventures close to home. We prided ourselves on a 20 mile bike ride (on our one speed bikes). We biked through the new city being built south of town. The entire city is built and it is completely empty-quite eerie really. We attended the end of a local festival and enjoyed watching many of the local Naxi people enjoy a celebratory day. We have started dance lessons again, this time we are struggling to learn to samba. Luckily the teacher is tolerant, and nice to look at. We are watching the days go by to fast and eagerly awaiting our slew of spring visitors. You too could be one of them!

Xi'an, Soldiers, Snow and Pineapple Beer

2008-02-25T20:36:00.001-08:00

After a week at home we decided we hadn't exhausted our travel legs quite yet and headed to Xi'an for a week of hanging out. We found a wonderful hostel by the South Gate with our own 2 story Family Apartment. We visited the Terra Cotta soldiers. We learned random useful facts that may be helpful someday in Trivial Pursuit such as the mustaches of high ranking officers bend upwards and those of mid rank officers bend downwards. Regular soldiers apparently had to shave. We celebrated the Chinese Lantern festival on top of the Xi'an City Walls. We strolled along the enormous silk lantern displays (like floats in the US) and watched the fireworks all over the city. We think the window glaziers have a good business going since fireworks were being set off and exploding between two high rise buildings! Though the fireworks were lovely, by 3:45am we were a bit tired of them.

We managed to take advantage of other big city kinds of things while in Xi'an. We found an ice skating rink on the 6th floor of a shopping mall and after a few pointers from the handsome young "ice guard" Li was off on her own. We found a newly opened Science and Nature Museum. There were lots of good ideas at the museum, but after only 6 weeks many things were already broken! We found a huge kids park with giant cargo net climbing structures which Li attacked fearlessly. Steve chased after the pick pocket who tried to snag his GPS and wallet. We woke to wet blowing snow on our last day and braved the weather to try and find a western style grocery (we failed). Best of all Steve learned a lesson, pineapple beer is foul (Li liked it).

Sadly we also had to face two realities. We are half way through our year's adventure and our two months of vacation ends in another week and we need to get inspired to begin teaching again (all new classes, all new students). Poor us.

The Monasteries of Lijiang

2008-02-16T00:42:00.000-08:00

We decided to spend our week at home seeing new sights around Lijiang and in essence this became the Monastery tour. Most monasteries were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and are either in disarray or have been recently rebuilt. Some have just one Buddhist Monk, others have many. Some have been developed for tourism and others are tucked away and welcome a few stray visitors. Each one was different and it gave us a much better perspective of our "home" and our surroundings. One highlight was Fuguo Monastery. This monastery used to be the largest in the Lijiang Valley but was completely destroyed. It is now overseen by an 80 year old Monk whose favorite English expression is "Nice to Meet You". It sits high up on a hill which defeated us on bicycles months ago but which a minivan was able to negotiate. The monk warmly welcomes people into the second floor of his house with tea and incense and visitors' registers. It seems many people found their way to his home while biking up the hill in a rain storm. Li and Silas had their photos taken with this Lama and we all received blessings. Yufeng Monastery boasts a Camelia tree reported to have 10,000 blossoms in the spring, when we were there it was up to about 25. Wenbi Monastery was fascinating because we arrived during an active Buddhist ceremony. Li liked the Tibetan woman who took off her shoes to enter the temple and had on bright purple socks! There are many trails that offer hiking opportunities on the mountain and spectacular views of the Valley. Bai Ta Monastery is being built solely as a tourist destination (trap). We found Puji Monastery on our bicycles. After being told there wasn't much to see we hiked uphill on a well tramped goat trail and found a beautiful monastery with a rather taciturn 14 year old monk tending it. He was pretty adept at trying to extort money as well!

Chinese New Year

2008-02-16T00:23:00.000-08:00

Our decision to return to Lijiang With Katie, Sam and Silas for Chinese New Year proved to be a good one since the entire town was virtually shut down. Stores and markets were closed for three days, buses ran on sporadic and very unpredictable schedules and none of the restaurants near the college were (or are) open. We opted to celebrate with our own fireworks at the track on campus. Our friend Ellen left us a pile of personal explosives under our Christmas tree which we dutifully carried down to the field to set off. We felt tame with our sparklers, volcanoes and roman candles. I did have to look the other way when Steve let Li hold a multi-shot rifle style firework by herself. Needless to say there were plenty of other fireworks happening all around us. For our Lander friends, it is like the 4th of July for three straight days. Apparently the fireworks at midnight were amazing, Li and I managed to sleep through them, but Steve claims they were in all directions. When the town awoke again, people were cheerful and full of optimism for the New Year.

Jianshui or Caves and Confucius

2008-02-09T04:43:00.001-08:00

What can you say, our hotel was a 120 year old merchant's house with 14 courtyards a private pond and lovely wood carvings. The family got rich in the opium trade, and then lost all their fortune in the change of a political wind. One of the entertaining things was the period dress hanging in the closet in each room next to the intricately carved canopy bed and the computer. With some significant persuasive tactics, Katie was able to get her brother dressed up and photographed in a public place.

We were able to visit Swallows Cavern outside of Jianshui. The cave is enormous with an underground river flowing through it. In the spring tens of thousands of swiflets come here to nest, building nests on the roof of the cave from their spit. In the fall the locals come to harvest the nests and sell them to upscale restaurants for birdnest soup. For Li her experience was complete with a ride in a dragon boat on the underground river. For me it was watching the unroped, barefoot climber ascend and descend 150 feet of cave wall. For Steve it had to be either the shopping area a 1/2 mile into the cave or the "smoking rooms" which were simple little alcoves in the cave where you could sit with your cigarettes and watch the stalactites grow. Needless to say the key features were lit up by colorful lights and the trail was paved. As we have learned, very Chinese.

We rounded out our experience with a visit to an enormous 1000 year old Confucian Temple/School. It was so remarkably peaceful that we all thought we could be excellent students if we studied there. Li and Silas preferred sticks and leaves to historical placards.

Coming home from Jianshui we watched our bus driver masterfully fix the fuel line on our bus and smoke a full pack of cigarettes in 4 hours. That's talent.

Kunming and the Days of the Week

2008-02-09T04:39:00.000-08:00

We flew from Vietnam back to Lijiang to rendezvous with Steve's sister Katie, husband Sam and 15 month old baby Silas. Our days in Kunming were spent wandering the parks, lake and zoo. Our fondest memory of our stay in Kunming was the hotel which had a "days of the week" carpet in the elevator. Perhaps it was so endearing because I did indeed have days of the week underwear (as a child).

How to Eat Your Way Through Halong Bay

2008-01-30T03:50:00.000-08:00

Easy. You simply hire a private junk for a 4 day, 3 night cruise of Halong Bay. It sounded extravagant, but probably cost the same as a nice hotel and food in Hanoi for the same period of time. And it was awesome.

Halong Bay is often described as Guilin under water. The Bay is full of karst islands, secret coves, floating fishing villages and secluded beaches. Our junk was staffed by a crew of 6 for the 5 of us (our friends Bob and Naomi Klaw were with us). Good ratio. One crew member was our personal tour guide, another our cook. We knew we had made a good choice when we arrived on the boat and were immediately served a 6 course lunch of fresh seafood, watermelon juice and outstanding coffee. Each meal trumped the next. I suspect we consumed an easy 2000 calories at each sitting. In addition to incredible food, the assistant captain was a master vegetable and fruit carver and our table was always decorated with his creations-fishermen, hummingbirds, boats, etc.

We were able to see much of the Bay including caves, beaches (beautiful and isolated), small villages and temples. But simply cruising through the islands was magnificent. The pictures don't do the scenery justice. Had it been a bit warmer we probably would have spent all our time sitting on the top deck, but the picture windows by the comfy couches were a nice alternative.

This was absolutely a once in a life time trip on a beautiful boat with a cook we all wished to marry.

Hanoi and the Magical Mystery Tour

2008-01-30T03:42:00.000-08:00

All the research we did suggested that the "easiest" way to get from Yangshuo/Guilin to Hanoi, Vietnam was a train/bus combo. So we dutifully booked our package which included a 5 hour train ride, a pick-up at the train station and escort to our hotel, the hotel, an escort to the bus station in the morning, our bus ticket to Hanoi, and an escort across the border-all for $60/person. It all worked and included fun surprises such as having seats on the train next to where all the people came to smoke under the no smoking sign, a very traditional Chinese hotel with rock hard beds and squat toilets, a surly travel guy to help us, and 7 hours on a very comfortable bus to be dropped off in a random place in Hanoi. The countryside was beautiful and all the logistics went smoothly.

Hanoi is the most unbelievably crazy city we have ever been in. All the small streets and alleys are packed with motor scooters, pedestrians and cars. The traffic is like water and one feels like Moses parting the red sea when you cross a street. Just don't stop. Hanoi is a tourist/shopper paradise and has the infrastructure to support it. Shops quote you prices in dollars and people speak English and French. This part of Vietnam has the service industry down-it is so different than China. And we must say thank you to the French for leaving a legacy of wonderful pastries and unbelievably good coffee.

Yangshuo and Li's 6th Birthday

2008-01-30T03:29:00.000-08:00

On the web site the Riverside Retreat looked lovely, just 4km from Yangshuo with views of the Li River and flowers all around. Indeed it was lovely and FREEZING! The stone floors radiated cold. Luckily our rooms had heaters that brought the temperature up enough that you couldn't see your breath. You can imagine getting Li to take a bath was a challenge.

Luckily our host and tour guide Kate was gracious and accommodating. The first day our friend Bob Klaw and Steve went off exploring the town and surrounding area dressed for arctic conditions. Li was pretty sniffly so Bob's wife Naomi and I opted for spending time in the kitchen learning local dishes from the cook and massages from the masseuse who came to our hotel room. Mine was relaxing for about 20 minutes until Li came in having vomited all over during her nap! The next day we braved tourist alley and shopped in town. Most importantly we found fleece lined pants for Li that she would wear! Bob and Steve went to a local clinic to watch the medicine and were intrigued by one doctor and horrified by another. Both vowed not to get injured on this trip.

The next day we decided to go rafting on a bamboo raft on the Li River. Since it was Li's birthday what better way to celebrate than making her freeze on a boat on a river! But is is her river... A brisk walk through the rice fields to warm up and all was well. That night Naomi and I shivered in the kitchen watching the cook make dinner-that meant we could avoid eating the snails that Bob and Li devoured. Post dinner we celebrated with cake and a bottle of wine. Li didn't like the wine, but approved of the cake.

Yangshuo truly is beautiful and I can imagine it would be delightful to walk through the karst hills-in the spring!

A Visit to Li's Orphanage

2008-01-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Guilin today. The cold and rain is a bit brutal after a week at the beach in Sanya! Apparently we brought the rain. We had a single goal in Guilin-to visit Li’s orphanage and to view her adoption file.

Our adoption agency representative from 5 years ago was able to set up a visit to the orphanage and arrange a translator which all worked very smoothly. We went from the hotel to the Orphanage with our translator and met with two women who do all the babies’ files. The older one "remembered" Li, or was at least there 5 years ago. She remembered my mother visiting 2 years ago and I had a picture of them together. We met the man who named Li and learned that he meant for her middle name to mean "strong jade" (we were told precious jade originally)-that was great because most people can't translate the Chinese character for her middle name Yao. We saw the Playroom built by a charitable group called Half the Sky, one of the young children's playrooms and one baby room-all from the outside. We looked at Li’s file which had very little in it and no information we didn't know. We did take a picture of the only picture in her file, one we had never seen. The staff seemed content to see us but not overly excited. It seemed pretty routine for them. Our translator does adoption work in Guangzhou and was home in Guilin on vacation. He was young and nice. The whole tone was very easy going. We joked with the man who named Li (who must be 30 at tops) who drives the babies and runs errands etc. No one had any real emotional response. We drove by her finding place but in the past 5 years it has been converted from a hospital to an apartment building so we could only take pictures from the outside. We asked about her foster mother (who she was only with for a month and we never knew her name). We asked if she was still caring for babies. They said that they weren't allowed to give us a name and they had forgotten who it was and many of the foster families from 5 years ago no longer took kids.

I am not sure what we expected, but I think it was what happened. We learned a few tidbits, but nothing more. Li didn't feel any connection and we weren't allowed to go into any of the rooms with kids. We were definitely shown the model rooms. I think also being in China for 4 months has made so many things feel routine that there were no big surprises to be had. Perhaps if we had been with a group gearing up for this visit we would have been allowed to spend more time or actually go into rooms with babies, but they were certainly not offering us that opportunity.

We are glad we had the chance to visit and take some pictures. Perhaps we can return when Li is older and she may have a stronger response to the place she spent the first 10 months of her life.

Sanya and the $7 Massage

2008-01-16T04:52:00.000-08:00

Sanya is known as the "Hawaii" of China. Though we haven't explored to our usual extent, the 17km of white sand beach lined with palm trees makes a pretty good approximation. We found a great hotel right across the street from the beach complete with hot tub and faux roses entwined in the bedroom lamp. After 4 months without water Li has turned into a fish again has been braving the waves and playing in the ocean. Yesterday she surprised us both by swimming under water and scooping up a handful of sand complete with a starfish. Her surprise and subsequent scream resulted in a lucky escape for the starfish.

Sanya is apparently a pilgrimage location for Russians trying to escape the frigid north. Restaurants and shops here offer menus in Russian and cater to Russian tastes including borsht and oxtail soup. Most of the Russians congregate in another part of the city so we are not surrounded by too many overweight Caucasians in small swimsuits.

Last night I followed the advice of our hotel proprietor and went to the Jade Massage Saloon for a 60 minute foot massage ("for your health" he said, who was I to argue?). My family left me wearing pink slippers heading upstairs into the unknown. After being shown into a private room with an overstuffed armchair and ottoman a young, admittedly quite handsome, and very muscular man came in with a tub of steaming water. I mistakenly assumed he was simply the labor to move the water tubs around, but no, he was indeed my masseuse. Thor is really the only name that does him justice. Step one was a 20 minute neck and back massage while sitting on the ottoman and soaking my feet in water mixed with Chinese brown herb. Step two was another 50 minutes of foot massage, lotion, more massage, etc. Don't get too excited about the etc., "Thor" did not speak nor make eye contact with me the entire time. At the end of my session he removed the dirty bucket of water and towels, and then returned promptly with a new bucket of steaming water. Thereupon he proceeded to wash my feet and lower legs with clean hot water. It's quite an image to be sitting with your feet in hot water and have a lovely young man wash them. Anyway, for $7 it's worth another go round! Good for my health.

We will be sad to leave the slow, relaxing pace of Sanya, but there are more adventures to be had.

Xiamen the Seaside Town

2008-01-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

We have acquired a new pattern of seeing places, we call it the mystery tour. Each day we set out with a single destination. Each evening we realize we have walked 10K or so in pursuit of said destination and all the associated places it led to. It's much like surfing the web... We did it all in Xiamen: Temples, the University, the Island Guluangyu, the aquarium, the river, the birds, the fort, the beach, the flea market, the art gallery. Good thing we are handy with a bus map! Our friend Bea joined us for most of the week and as her Chinese is far superior to ours it was a great help! She, however, has no problem asking directions which makes Steve, map in hand, want to hide. As much fun as it is exploring cities, we are ready to stick with "Chinese towns". The verdict on Xiamen is, "Easy place to spend a week, expensive food, construction central." Next stop, the beach in Sanya.

Kunming or How Many Animals Can I Feed

2008-01-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

We spent two days exploring Kunming while waiting for the Vietnamese Consulate to issue our visas. We guess we walked about 10 miles in 2 days. Li’s legs are burly. Yesterday we fed birds and fish, today we fed rabbits. We are trying to avoid any animals that could be rabies carriers.

Being in a bigger city really makes us appreciate how peaceful life is in Lijiang. Driving, or more accurately being driven is unbelievably hazardous. We witnessed our first traffic fatality today. It is surprising we haven’t seen more. It’s not clear what the rules of the road are, but the bus drivers certainly abide by the “might is right” theory. There are usually only inches between cars, buses, bicycles, motor scooters and pedestrians. It’s not clear that there really is a “safer” form of transportation. Off to Xiamen tomorrow.

End of Semester Craziness

2008-01-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

Apparently our blog fan club has been complaining about our lack of recent entries. We will try and make up for our misbehavior during the next eight weeks of vacation!

The last few weeks have been full of end of semester responsibilities and hosting responsibilities. Our students diligently or not so diligently studied for their finals. A few of course emailed asking exactly what was going to be covered and when they were told that anything that was discussed in class or in the assigned reading could appear on the test they cried that was too much. Most of our students wouldn’t make it in an American College. Even they admit that high school was significantly harder than college.

In between finals we had the opportunity to host Jack and Jill in Kunming and Lijiang. First we got to see Grandma Jill give a talk at the Kunming Provincial Library. Li was excited to see her Grandma, though 90 minutes of astronomy talk was a bit much for her. We explored Kunming and Lijiang with them and celebrated Christmas in a low key way. Well it was low key except for the much anticipated Christmas Party (actually a misnamed Christmas show). This Party was thrown by the Dean of the English Department. Students had to try out to participate and there were many selective criteria. We were arm twisted into singing a rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The only one who really enjoyed it was Li who got to play Rudolph and wear red lipstick on her nose. We managed to leave the Party after an hour of loud music and flashing strobe lights. We couldn’t dodge a short television interview however and staff at the hotel Jack and Jill were staying at recognized us from the TV. Apparently the Party went until 11:30pm.

We did manage to visit the First bend of the Yangtze and Tiger Leaping Gorge with Jack and Jill. Though it meant 5 hours in a minivan, to experience these sights without other tourists was really remarkable. Grandma Jill also got to experience a New Year’s performance at Li’s school-I think she is glad she doesn’t have 35 grandchildren.

After hours and hours of grading (not helped by the fact that Li did not have school), we turned in our grades, turned off the water in our apartment to fend off disaster, and headed out of town.

A Typical Friday Afternoon

2008-01-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

This is a synopsis of a meeting we had last Friday. This meeting was called by the Dean of the English Department and all foreign and Chinese English teachers were required to attend as well as select students. Teachers who had regularly scheduled classes were forced to cancel their classes and required to schedule a time to make them up (note, the foreign teachers all have their finals next week).

The meeting was really a lecture by said Dean. The topic of the lecture was "Learner Autonomy". I should say that some of the ideas contained in this lecture were good, but they were self evident to anyone who is accustomed to a western style of education. The basic message was students need to develop personal responsibility for their own learning and teachers need to actively engage students in the learning process. Of course we had to sit through 40 PPT slides, each one containing two complete paragraphs of text, to get this message.

The lecture was held in a large auditorium style room. And as I have come to learn, the fact that the audience of 300 people were eating, talking, grading papers, reading books, and otherwise seemingly not paying attention is quite normal. The Dean nevertheless claimed he was in control and loudly read every single word on every single PPT slide pointing at each one with a large bamboo stick. Can you say power trip? He completely ignored the one individual who tried to ask a question, because, after all, it was his talk.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from his slides (note the fact that in spite of the presence of 8 native English speakers on campus he did ask anyone to proofread his slides):

"self-realizationist"
"self-discontented"
"Students abuse their privileges of independence and freedom, waste time at will."
"The students reflection shows their confusion about they can learn efficiently."
"Learning is the goal of teaching."
"Students should be dominated in the classroom."
"Arouse students..."
"Integrant and together cultivate..."
"However studying should occupy all of the free time on the schedule. It is important to set aside time for relaxation, hobbies and entertainment as well."
"If you as a University student fail to do an assignment, or miss classes, you should be disciplined by yourself or by the Department." (self-flagellation anyone?)

This last really highlights the experience here. We are teaching 20 year-olds as if they are in high school. We take attendance at every class. Monitors assess whether students go to class at night and the mandatory reading period at 7:30am. Students cheat freely and are supported by their teachers in copying things from the internet-even their senior thesis papers. These students have no experience with time management or work prioritization. You can fail 4-5 of your 9 classes in a semester and be allowed to continue. Each student in each major takes exactly the same classes, whether or not they passed the previous year's class in that subject. Their world revolves around passing the national exam in their subject area so they spend their time memorizing vocabulary and answering fill in the blank style questions. Foreign languages are taught by teaching separate classes in: Listening, Dictation, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Even the Dean acknowledged in his talk this was simply because this is how the textbooks are written and it is easier to assign teachers to classes that way, but it doesn't work. He didn't say anything about changing it however.

Welcome to China.

Art Openings and Pig Slaughters

2007-12-09T02:07:00.000-08:00

All in one day. We were invited to our first art opening (perhaps ever) in a nearby Naxi village. There is a small organization that offers a residence program for international artists who want to use the local environment as their subject. Today a woman named Emily was showing photography of minority culture love rituals and video of love songs that girls and boys sing to each other. This organization has rented a Naxi style courtyard house for the artists to live and work. In honor of her opening the local villagers slaughtered a pig ('tis the season). We listened to traditional music, ate grilled pig hot off the grill, looked at pictures and watched the locals drink Bai Jiu (local moonshine with the aroma of turpentine). After awhile we moved next door to the neighbors house for lunch where as far as we can tell the owners fed the entire village. Our table was covered in dishes using ALL parts of the pig. Li wandered around serving people baby tomatoes and watching the intense games of Mahjongg going on around us. A good time was had by all.

Fun Facts from China

2007-11-30T19:40:00.000-08:00

1. Li has her first loose tooth!

2. Each year in China 25 million trees are cut down to make 45,000,000,000 pairs of disposable chopsticks. Yikes.

3. For balance: In US, to produce each weeks Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be used.

The Little Bus That Thought it Could

2007-11-30T19:07:00.000-08:00

And we hoped it could. After Thanksgiving we decided to head to Zhongdian at 10,500 on the Tibetan Plateau. Zhongdian is famous for its large working Buddhist monastery, it's old town and the surrounding countryside. It is a slice of Tibet not actually in Tibet.

The first portent of adventure was when our somewhat rickety old 21 seater bus died while backing out of the bus station in Lijiang. This is not all that unusual, but we knew we had to climb 2,500 feet to get to our destination. It turned out to the be the first of about 15 unexpected stops during the next 5 hours. Some of our stops were designed to onload and offload passengers and things. At one point Li looked out the window and reported that they were onloading large marble slabs under the bus. No passengers arrived with the marble, so we wondered whether they were simply ballast. At another point we offloaded some passengers and their luggage, only later to discover that someone else's luggage had been offloaded by mistake!

We made at least two stops to pay money or report passenger numbers to an official. We aren't sure whether the passengers that get on and off at points other that the official departure and destination get reported or whether their fares are extra pocket money for the driver. Regardless, the driver was committed to filling every last seat on the bus.

At one point the driver stopped, opened the window right by Li's feet, reached inside the bus for a hose which he connected to a hose from a small house and started flowing liquid into the hose inside the bus. We wondered and worried since there was a man smoking a cigarette just outside where this liquid was spraying. We later decided that this was simply water that helped cool the engine during the climb.

The real fun began as we began chugging our way up the valley to the Tibetan Plateau. We were worried enough about driving on a road that was bounded on one side by a sheer cliff tumbling down 1000 feet to a whitewater canyon and on the other side by steep rocky cliffs whose metal cage retaining walls had been breached numerous times by rockfall. We drove by teams of workers without any protective gear diligently shoveling piles of rocks off the road. Not long into our upward climb the bus stopped. I would say it pulled over to the side of the road, but of course it didn't. The driver climbed out and headed under the bus. He emerged a few minutes later and ejected a passenger from her seat so he could find some tools. After a few more minutes under the bus he put the tools back, climbed into the driver seat and we set off again. There was a strong smell of gasoline everywhere. We deduced that maybe his first tank had run out of gasoline and he had to manually switch tanks to use his second tank. From that point forward we stopped every 15 minutes or so, under the bus went the driver, out came the smell of gasoline and off we went. After about the third or fourth time he emerged with a 5 gallon plastic jug of gasoline which he brought into the bus. After a complicated series of maneuver's he had a plastic syphon hooked up to the 5 gallon jug running into the engine and a passenger diligently keeping the gas jug upright. 30 minutes later or so when the first jug ran out, he went underneath, refilled it and off we went again.

Meanwhile, the tarp he put over the heavily loaded roof rack full of luggage kept unhooking itself and the metal grommets banged incessantly again the windows. Three times he "fixed" the tarp, three times it quickly loosened itself and flapped around threatening to crack our window.

Of course the entire time our driver chain smoked and talked on his cell phone.

After 5 hours we literally coasted into Zhongdian on fumes, at the scheduled arrival time!

Our weekend improved from there with visits to the Songzhangling Monastery, walks around the old town and a hike to the world's largest prayer wheel. No heat anywhere of course so we winter camped in our hotel room and drank lots of hot drinks!

Thanksgiving Without an Oven

2007-11-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

Let's see...Chicken with rosemary, sushi, blue cheese cauliflower soup, mashed potatoes, stuffing (not stuffed in a turkey), green beans, chicken soup, wine, apple crisp, sake, and local pastries rounded out our abundant dinner. We celebrated with friends from Japan, France and Germany. It's a bit trickier to create dinner with one burner, one electric hot plate and no oven, but we all seemed to manage. Li decorated everyone with hand made earrings stuck on with a glue stick. We looked beautiful.

Thanks to all our friends and family-we miss you!

Haikus Bridge the Language Barrier

2007-11-20T04:09:00.000-08:00

I have had great success getting my students to be creative with Haikus (given some good brainstorming structure). Thinking if my students can do it, my daughter should be able to. Here are her results:

Children
Love mommy daddy
Swing and jump on the playground
Nap with Little Cow

Silk
Running in silk clothes
Feel shiny, cool, beautiful
Thank you to the worms

Our First Visitors

2007-11-16T03:08:00.000-08:00

We felt so special to have our first visitors, even if we did have to share them with Heather and Patrick, the other foreign teachers placed by the Colorado China Council. Part of the overall program support provided by the Colorado China Council involves a personal visit from the Director Alice and her Assistant Ellen. Ellen and her husband taught in Lijiang two years ago. We met them and their 6 year old adopted daughter from China at their home in Laramie, WY this summer.

We were spoiled with some excellent meals and excellent company. Our eating highlight of the weekend had to be Ellen's birthday dinner at a vegetarian restaurant that got excellent reviews. The first task was finding the restaurant, the second task was convincing them to let us eat. All of the lights and light fixtures were missing and the restaurant was completely empty. We found ourselves seated in a beautiful alcove and the staff placed about 20 candles on our table. We ordered to the best of our ability and were most amused by the faux chicken feet made out of a tofu product. Steve bicycled by the restaurant today and discovered it had moved! I guess you take your lights with you when you leave.

In addition to eating we spent time wandering the markets, visiting Lashahai Lake (where Steve finally saw an Upupa Epops-a bird that has been on his life list-and Shana stepped into mud up to her waist), and debriefing the idiosyncracies of the Chinese education system.

We promise to treat all future visitors nicely, so come on over!

The Ice Cream Truck?

2007-11-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

A word of caution to those who associate the sounds of a singing truck with memories of summer ice cream treats. When you hear that sound in China, watch out for the locals coming outside to dump their garbage in the singing garbage truck. It still gets me every time.

Beijing 2008

2007-11-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

We found out this week that we are one of the lucky few who received Olympic tickets in the lottery. We did not get everything we asked for, but now possess tickets to some: Gymnastics, Wrestling, Beach Volleyball, Fencing and Table Tennis. We also managed to book lodging in Beijing (at 8x the normal price, pay in full please). We are also going to try for tickets available only to Chinese residents and foreigners living in China. We don't hold out much hope though. Apparently China's official purchase date was Monday. People were lining up all night to get tickets. Within a few hours of opening they had to close down sales around the country because the computer system was overwhelmed and crashed. They are working to fix it and will try again on Monday November 5. Even if we don't get more tickets, we are excited for the 7 events we will attend. The whole thing is going to be a madhouse!

Picture Site Address Update

2007-10-30T09:12:00.001-07:00

After an afternoon of frustrations with technology, we have modified our picture site address slightly. From now on you can use: http://picasaweb.google.com/sltsjp. Check out the new pictures from our Lugu Lake adventure.

Lugu Lake and New Brakes

2007-10-30T01:51:00.000-07:00

At least we hope the vans we rode in had new brakes. It is possible that they wore out their current ones on our 7 hour drive. Imagine bad shocks, poorly padded seats, multiple thousand foot cliffs, cobblestone roads with hairpin turns and, of course, no seatbelts, and you will get some sense of what travel is like in this part of China. About half of the road is paved which is convenient for the local farmers. It is harvest season and an asphalt road makes an excellent surface to dry your corn or hay. It also reduces things to one lane of traffic, but apparently this was only considered an issue by us. Fortunately we avoided serious mishap and spent a wonderful weekend at Lugu Lake.

Lugu Lake straddles the Yunnan/Sichuan border and is quite stunning. The locals are mostly Mosuo and Pumi-both Tibetan. We stayed at a wonderful guesthouse on a small island run by a family of three brothers. The two younger brothers enjoyed singing, dancing and beer, while the older brother was the responsible role model with his wife and two small children. A Tibetan monk was staying with the family as well. We spent many hours with them eating, drinking, singing, laughing and rowing across the lake. The language gap was significant, but nothing a good natured cheers! couldn't fix or a resounding "beautiful!". The brothers and monk were fascinated by our UV light water purifier.

Morning and evening meals begin with yak butter tea. We decided this was similar to drinking buttered popcorn. Li loved it. Both nights we ate barbecued vegetables, lake fish and yak meat under the full moon not 5 feet from the water. The brothers joined us for after dinner drinks and singing.

On Saturday we watched the sun rise from above our guesthouse and were treated to a traditional ride in the "pig trough"-a wooden canoe with all the maneuverability of a barge. We paddled out to a small island with a Tibetan temple perched on top and a lone monk, dog and cat in residence. Li and I hung out by the water for the rest of the day to the amusement and wonderment of the locals. Li built castles from rocks in the water and I answered the ubiquitous inquiries about yes, she is Chinese, no her father is not, yes she is my daughter. I really should learn the word for adopted.

Our trip home was delayed by an overloaded truck that got itself stuck in the mud on a hairpin turn. The apparently uncoordinated efforts (at least to us) to get it unstuck, deal with the line of buses and minivans that were backed up and avoid hitting one of the many gawkers was quite a feat. The other three stops we made were clearly to support the relationship the bus driver had with a local restaurant owner and with fruit vendors at a bridge delay crossing the Yangtze.

Pictures to be posted soon. Technical difficulties at the moment. Grrr.

Cha Cha in China

2007-10-22T02:32:00.000-07:00

To clear our minds of the incessant rain trapping us indoors, we followed a few of our students downtown to sign up for Cha Cha lessons. Why not? After two lessons we realize that the range of motion of our hips is significantly less than that of our tight-jeaned Chinese instructor and that our oblique muscles need some serious exercise. But the teacher is excellent and we have made incremental progress and can now hum the cha cha beat while walking to class. It really is a small world!

Thoughts and Activities

2007-10-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

Thoughts:

Many different ideas stream through the brain as the days go by. Also good advice is heard and should be recorded. I figure here is the best place since all those little pieces of paper seem to get misplaced.

A friend recommended that if we see something unique to take a picture of it then. The next time we see it, it may not seem very unique and almost appear normal. This is true especially as we start to travel the same roads and pass the oddities regularly.

I saw a shirt today that was interesting. Interesting because it was in English and that they were actual English words. Many of the clothing we see will have English sounding words but not make sense at all. The shirt said, 'An ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory." I should have taken a picture then, but am culturally aware enough to know that photographing a random woman's chest is not allowed.

We continue to be amazed at how poorly the local towels and sponges absorb water. I used to think it would be impossible to actually make a 100% cotton towel not absorb water. The sponges work if there is enough surface area to spread out the spilled water until it no longer exists, but Chinese sponges do not actually hold onto water. Our new analogy: Li is learning Chinese. Her parents are also learning and their brains are like a Chinese sponge.

Activities:

Returned to Baisha past weekend (10/14) and found those amazing frescos that we missed the first time. Visited a big temple that a local ruler built for his Mom. Do not know what he made for her on her next birthday. Timed the lunch and coffee while it poured rain. The streets were almost dry again for our bike ride home.

Earlier we posted a picture of Li next to the Chinese character for her name. Li's name has the same character as in our town, LiJiang, Beautiful river. Li means beautiful.

That is all.

Pandas, The Opera and a $2 Haircut

2007-10-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

We and about 500,000 of our closest friends chose Chengdu, Sichuan Province as our travel destination during the Chinese National Week. We were allowed to take 7 days off because we made up Thursday and Friday's classes the previous Saturday and Sunday (the entire country does this) which completely messes up which class is getting which lesson but no one else really seems bothered by this. National week celebrates the day China became a republic and adds the American "Day after Thanksgiving" element of a huge shopping holiday (remember, China is working on its market economy). Fortunately we found ourselves a nice guest house tucked in an alley to escape the hoards of people at the end of each day.

One of the undoubted highlights of our trip was a visit to the Panda Preserve. It's hard to understand why watching 4 large bears lounge against a log and eat massive quantities of bamboo is so enthralling, but it truly is, even in a downpour. I realize I can see that kind of mess made at breakfast time right in my own apartment, but somehow it is not the same. The seven baby pandas in a crib were remarkably helpless and darn cute.

As indicated in the title, we also found our way to the Sichuan Opera which combines acrobatics, elegant costumes, vaudeville, and some astounding musical solos on the Chinese Erhu (2 string)-which should put the players of 4 and 6 stringed instruments to shame. Li liked the fact that they gave a 4 inch cushion to sit on so she could see!

We decided to travel to LeShan one day to see the famed Giant Buddha since we couldn't quite imagine what 71m of carved godlike creature might look like. It's not that we didn't remember it was a holiday week, but our brains couldn't grasp the enormity of the crowds. We had a quintessential Chinese experience of "standing" in line for hours. As we discovered, the Chinese are incapable of waiting for anything. So though we were in a narrow line with metal railings, you had to guard your position fiercely lest the people behind you elbow their way past you to get a few spaces ahead in a 3 hour line! It was both amusing and annoying. So we simply began to rest our hands on the railing on either side of us to prevent people from pushing past us-this made us unpopular, but gave a brief respite from the constant shoving and pushing from behind.

Most of the rest of our week we spent wandering the streets of Chengdu and stumbling on adventures like the Chengdu Amusement Park. We went there looking for a geocache, which was no doubt removed when the overgrown bamboo was cleared away, but enjoyed ourselves on vomit inducing spinning cars and a log ride. We spent a lot of time in the parks people watching and holding tight onto our backpacks. Our map wasn't exactly to scale so we also spent a lot of time bribing Li to keep walking "just a bit more" to find a bus stop or a destination. She averaged 4-5 miles a day of reluctant walking. One day we ended up in the center of the city when the fountains began their dance choreographed to music under the watchful eyes of the Mao statue. Though there were hundreds of kids, Li was the only one soaked by the end of it. Her fatigue dissipated as she twirled and sang and jumped among the water spray, until the walking resumed that is.

We ate Sichuan hot pot, giant fruit cake, burgers at our guest house, and admittedly, drank some Starbucks (same prices as the US!). One night the owner of the guest house took us and two Danish families out to dinner at a local restaurant (8 adults versus 9 children, you guess who won). We saw Buddhist and Taoist temples. We all acquired a few new clothes and purchased the first Harry Potter book to begin reading to Li. And of course we people watched.

Shana got a haircut the day were were departing. For $2 I got a 10 minute head and scalp massage, two kinds of shampoo and conditioner, 4 "stylists" talking about what to do with me, a 45 minute haircut of incredible detail and precision, lots of photos taken by the stylists and more attention than I have ever had in a beauty salon. I may end up bald by the time I come home just to keep getting the scalp massages! Steve meanwhile, unwilling to give up more hair, read Chinese beauty magazines and watched the soap opera and infomercials on TV. Li watched the stylists.

The pictures tell the rest of the stories.

No vacation for another three months-it just doesn't seem right!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

2007-09-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night all of China celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival. Traditionally this day, which occurs on August 15 of the lunar calendar, celebrates the harvest. It is also associated with a legend about the beautiful Change E who drank a potion to become immortal and she flew to the moon where she lives forever with her white rabbit. The reasons she drank the potion vary depending on the legend, but they all revolve around the fact that her husband Hou Yi was never home and she was tired of being alone. It doesn't seem like it really helped her much as there is not much entertainment on the moon. Mid-Autumn Day is similar in many ways to our Thanksgiving. Families travel from far distances to their homes to be together, eat a large meal and then spend the evening outside making wishes on the full moon and eating beautiful mooncakes and fruit. Our small apartment is overrun with both items at the moment. If I only had an oven or sugar and cinnamon I could do something with 10 pounds of apples. We find the moon cakes hit or miss-a bit like Bertie Bots Every Flavor Jelly Beans. Sometimes you bite into one and it is sweet bean paste with an egg, other times meat other times mint. I have to admit to being a bit gun shy!

We celebrated the Moon Festival by venturing into the other old town and having dinner. After dinner we joined the crowds (many of them our students) dancing around the bonfire in the main square. It was part primitive and part U2 concert.

Happy Mid-Autumn Day, and we thought of you all under the full moon.

Don't Be Fooled by the High Heels

2007-09-23T02:17:00.000-07:00

When our liaison Barbara invited us on a hiking trip on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain we thought sure, what a great way to see the mountain and to get to know more of the Chinese teachers. How hard can it be? They wear stockings and high heels everyday and shade themselves from the sun with an umbrella. As we were soon to learn, Barbara is a hiking machine, even in a nice sweater with faux pearls on it!

Our party of seven took off from a small Naxi Village at about 8,800 feet. We were passed by a string of chain smoking Chinese tourists riding donkeys. Their guides, also smoking, seemed rather bored of the trek. There were a few resting places along the way where the horses and tourists could get a break from one another. We doggedly climbed our way through the forest until we were funneled past some small shacks where the locals demanded our 100 Yuan entry fee (each). Being local teachers helped cut the price a bit and Barbara's fluency in the local Yunnan dialect helped even more. After 5 minutes of heated exchange we paid 20 Yuan total-a far better deal than 700 Yuan.

From here we made our way up above treeline. Our next resting area was a small stone hut littered with garbage and used oxygen bottles. These small portable bottles are sold all over and are generally right next to the large surplus Army parkas that are rented to climb the mountain. At this point our party divided in its goals. Steve, Li on Steve's back, Barbara and I humped our way up some steep alpine terrain and called 13,198' (Just over 4,000m) our summit for the day. The mountain exceeds 18K. We were happy no one incurred grievous injury on the steep descent. Finally, after 9 hours of hiking, 9.2 miles and 3637' of gain, we have learned that looks can be deceiving. Never underestimate a woman in heels.

We also learned that the best thing to have for dinner after such a day is a recently slaughtered chicken in a pot of bubbling broth-also known as a traditional hot pot dinner. If you could get over the "parts" floating in the broth, it was wonderfully delicious. Barbara and our companion Judy both complained that they do not like to buy chicken at the market because they cut the feet off and they love the feet. They also both agreed that the stomach was by far the best part. We were generous enough to let them have those delicacies and the heart and the liver and...

Today, we rested.

The Jade Belt Walk

2007-09-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

We decided to test our language skills by purchasing bus tickets and heading south for the weekend. Luckily Steve managed to buy tickets for the right bus on the right day to get us to Dali on Friday afternoon. The bus ride was in and of itself an experience. Our driver must have been paid more to arrive early because he spent the three hour drive passing every car, bus or object on the road with great vigor and liberal use of the horn. Most of the time you couldn't tell if there was oncoming traffic in the other lane because of the sharp corners on the mountain roads-I suspect he figured we had the mass to win whatever collision we sustained. Li vomited twice.

We arrived in Dali in a downpour and the moment we walked away from the bus we were hounded by people trying to get us into their taxi or wanting us to stay at their guesthouse. This is ubiquitous in Dali. As foreigners we were magnets for people trying to sell us things. It was fairly unpleasant and made us reluctant to spend much time wandering the streets. After a 30 minute walk in the rain through town we found our quaint guesthouse and had a nice quiet meal and a well deserved rest.

Dali is nestled at the foot of the Cangshan mountains-a spectacular series of sharp peaks and steep valleys full of waterfalls. We were able to take a chairlift (Made in the USA) from town up to the Zhonge Temple on the mountain. From here we walked 10K along a path known as the Jade Belt Walk. I still cannot fathom how this path was constructed. The terrain is ridiculously steep and muddy. This walk took us in and out of the valleys. It was a misty day so the clouds played up and down the slopes and occasionally we would get a peek of Dali below us. At the halfway point we found a group of Chinese tourists at the Seven Maiden Dragon Pool. This is a series of seven clear pools set in the bedrock. The granite slopes are steep and wet, so steps have been chiseled into the rock to provide purchase. Nevertheless we saw a woman in three inch spike heels trying to jump across a small waterfall. She missed and was only kept from sliding down the falls by three people who caught her. We decided we should leave before more interesting things happened.

The hike ends at Qingbi stream which forms the "Grand Canyon" of the Cangshan mountains. Li walked all but the last mile! From here we took the Gondola (made in Austria) to the base of the mountain. After being pursued by a van driver for 10 minutes we walked down to another Temple 45 minutes away. This Temple is built around a large stone. Legend has it when Dali was being invaded the Goddess of Mercy turned herself into and old woman and appeared before the invading army carrying this large stone. The army panicked and retreated thinking that if the old women were this strong, the men must be ferocious. Needless to say we all slept well after a long day of hiking and exploring.

On Sunday we braved the markets and the hawkers buying some small pieces of local Dali marble. More interesting are the thick city walls which surround the old town and the gates that guard the entrance. The most prominent local ethnic minority group are the Bai people. Li was very excited to buy some traditional clothing as a souvenir and didn't seem to care as much as I did that it was white!

Our bus driver on the way home was clearly in league with our first bus driver, but Li only vomited once. Steve did have to help the woman sitting next to him who was very green and sweaty and was trying hard to avoid using the "motion sickness" bag he offered her.

We called the weekend a success.

Your Daughter is Beautiful, Only 100 Yuan for the Bracelet Please

2007-09-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

The theme of our last two adventures is the incessant aggressiveness of the local vendors trying to sell us everything from jade jewelry (which Li loves and wants) to pomegranates (which Li also loves and wants). Lijiang has become such a tourist attraction that a large part of the local economy is built upon the tourism trade, specifically the souvenier side of things. Though we are being increasingly recognized around our local shops as here for the duration, when we go into town we look just like all the other foreign tourists who couldn't possible live without scarves and bracelets. (That's not to say we won't end up with scarves and bracelets of course!) Li's insightful comment was, "I think that man wants you to buy everything on the table."

We spent many hours last Friday wandering the streets and alleys of the Old Town. Lijiang is divided into two distinct halves, the Old Town cobblestone lined streets made with traditional mud brick construction (that survived the 1996 earthquake remarkably well) and the new town which is a rapidly expanding sprawl of concrete buildings. The Old Town is full of delightful restaurants, guest houses and small shops. It is easy to wander for hours. Li is an immediate attraction to many people and we are becoming more adept at explaining that she is our daughter, she is 5 and she was born in Guilin, Guangxi. Li is usually very shy during these interchanges. One of the women merchants tried to coax her 6 year old son out of the back of her shop to say hello to Li and he insisted on hiding under a blanket and peering out occasionally. I guess we are not the only parents forcing our children to do things they don't like!

On the weekend we pedaled our bikes 5K to BaiSha, a small traditional Naxi village. Somehow we missed all the touted sites, like the BaiSha Frescoes, and instead found ourselves pushing our bikes along muddy tracks in search of an elusive temple. At one point we were "redirected" by two stern looking Naxi women, we were clearly on a path towards someone's home! We finally called a halt to our search when faced with miles of uphill switchbacks on our one speed bikes. We retreated back to the village and bounced our way along cobblestones through multiple small villages until returning back to our apartment. Having missed the main sights and having been unable to find the old landing field used by the Flying Tigers (my grandfather was a supply office with the Flying Tigers) we have decided BaiSha merits a return trip.

The Scent of China

2007-09-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

I think my enduring memories will ultimately be the rich and varied aromas of China. Some come from the restaurants, some from the streets, some from the people, but the most interesting ones come from the grocery store. I had to resist the temptation to buy garlic scented dish soap and hand lotion fragranced with the smell of sheep placenta. Yes, I sniffed it, and it didn't smell too bad.

Kindergarten

2007-09-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

Li is surviving and and perhaps even thriving in kindergarten. Monday, our "driver" picked up Li and Shana at the front gate of the University to take Li to school. Li was pretty nervous and broke down in tears during morning exercises with 200 kids shouting in Chinese around her. Shana spent the morning trying to get comfortable sitting in small plastic chair with Li and little cow on her lap. Lots of the little girls were vying for the opportunity to sit next to Li. Even the big rough and tumble boy wrestled a pear from other kids and brought it over to give to Li. She did loosen up during snack time, no surprise. We opted to leave right before nap time when she was in a reasonable mood-we didn't want to push our luck. Tuesday Shana and Li again were driven to school and Shana was able to leave Li in her classroom while she went to pay the bills. Approximately 9 hours later Li arrived at the front gate of the University riding in the front seat of the mini-van with no seatbelt. She was all smiles and happy. A big sigh of parental relief. Her driver in Mr. Zhou (Joe). He smiles a lot and we pull out our phrasebook to communicate.

Li's description of kindergarten included the following highlights:

Li says "I'm good. Today at Kindergarten I had a good day at school. My favorite part of the day is eating. I met Amy, Lucy, Linda. (English names)" She said that she spent nap time in a tent with a girl named Linda and they talked the whole time. The teacher kept telling them to go to sleep but they kept talking. We asked what they talked about and Li said "I don't know, she speaks Chinese." That somehow explains it.

Wednesday we decided to put her in the minivan by herself to go to school. She was scared and wanted one of us to be with her. Steve decided a little bribery went a long way so offered her some gum tonight if she went alone, she said she didn't want gum, he offered her some extra dessert, she also declined, then she grabbed his ear and whispered "money"! We think it stems from the little pockets on her pencil case that are just right for small change... I guess she's an American after all!

The Art of Bicycling

2007-09-03T23:29:00.001-07:00

I thought I knew how to ride a bike. But no one ever taught me the art of weaving in and out of buses and taxis. Some streets have what passes for a bike/cart/motorcycle lane, others, well, not so much. The taxis and buses are kind enough to honk at you shortly before they run you over. As Steve describes it, you simply begin into an intersection and then maintain your speed. If you change speed to avoid obstacles (like pedestrians) it throws everyone else off. The most challenging obstacles are the British style round-abouts. Two lanes of traffic constantly entering and exiting the circle mixed with people and bikes. Li thinks it is all great fun and sits on the back of Steve's bike in her child seat eating sun flower seeds and shouting "faster sled dog!". Shana appears to enjoy the chaos of the round-abouts in that periodically she will go around one and a half times. Li is ever watchful saying, "Where is Mommy going?" I think biking also has a little similarity to winter driving. There is a time to be plodding and a time to go for it, still with the a sense of overwhelming caution. It is also amazing to see the variety of bikes, loads and people pedaling around. I am not surprised to see a biker on a cell phone holding an umbrella while navigating the streets. I wonder what the locals would think about a stationary exercise bike.

A New Definition of Leadership

2007-09-01T06:19:00.001-07:00

Always on the lookout for ways to define leadership, we came across the following from Owen Fashion:

"We always keep the intonation of appearance, supremacy of quality and the self nobility, are all the distinctions of a modern leader's confidence."

One Week Ago

2007-09-01T03:19:00.000-07:00

We were frantically finishing our last minute packing enroute to Lijiang. It is somewhat surprising that after a week we almost feel like we have a routine. Unfortunately we cannot seem to figure out the inconsistent hours of the cafeteria and have eaten a lot of "ramen". You would not believe the walls of ramen at the store with interesting pictures. We have tried to avoid the ones with the pictures of chili peppers. We made our first foray to the vegetable market yesterday and bought some beautiful looking veggies. There were plenty we could not identify. We don't yet have the fortitude to buy whole dead chickens lying on plywood at the meat market. All the chicken dishes we have eaten include plenty of bone and gristle. We wonder how people would do here without some basic camping skills. The beds are about as soft as granite and without any hot water to do dishes we rely on our dilute bleach rinse. We are meeting more teachers, both Chinese and foreign. We stick out on campus so students and teachers routinely approach us to talk and a student we met in the store today helped us find a place to buy speakers. We will continue to update the Picassa picture site. We have added a bunch from our trip to the Black Dragon Pond two days ago. We didn't add the ones from all the men in their bright red skivvies bathing in the reservoir! Li is becoming quite skilled at the art of the squat toilet and loves the popsicles we found at the corner store.

Teaching the Old Fashioned Way

2007-09-01T03:09:00.000-07:00

When is the last time all of your students automatically responded "Good Morning" in unison? It's a bit disconcerting from adults! Our first lesson as teachers was to be careful how we dressed. Black pants show the chalk dust! Our students are eager and polite with mixed skill level. Steve chose to draw maps of the United States and our travels while Shana made her students write personal ads and letters to advice columnists. Both took pictures of all their students to begin the process of learning the names of our roughly 200 students. The English names chosen by the students are fascinating. Mixed in with the mainstream are names like: Eleven, Unique, Feverwort and Cinderella. Unsurprisingly, we both received the advice to slow down our speaking...Luckily we made it to the weekend!

We Made It!

2007-08-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

Though long, travel was remarkably uneventful. We were picked up at the airport by our gracious Liaison Barbara and driven the last 40 minutes to the Tourism and Culture College of Lijiang. As it is the tail end of the rainy season, the tops of the mountains have yet to reveal themselves, but the views are likely to be stunning in the winter. Our apartment is utilitarian and college cinderblock sterile. We have been sprucing things up with some fabric wall hangings, maps and a liberal dose of bleach.

Our first few days have been a whirlwind of setting up the apartment, tours around town and prepping for teaching. We are thankful for the number 11 bus which routinely takes us the 4 miles into town. The Old Town promises to be a wonderful place to explore and get lost in the maze of alleys and canals.

As predicted, we received our teaching schedules about 12 hours before classes were slated to begin. Today Shana found out that she begins teaching on Friday though she was originally told September 10. Our internet was finally connected last night and has made a huge difference in feeling connected.

Today's adventures included buying bicycles ($85 for two brand new one speed bikes complete with baskets and locks), buying a printer/copier/scanner, and a visit to the one yuan store (the equivalent of the dollar store, only one yuan is about 13 cents) and then biking back with all of our treasures.

We visited Li's kindergarten which she described as loud. It seemed quite nice and they will arrange for a driver for her each way. Kindergarten goes from 7:30am-7pm and includes three meals a day, numerous hygiene breaks and 2.5 hours of napping. We'll have to see how that goes!

So far I think Li's happiest moments have been the purchase of her new pink umbrella (giant with blue tulips), eating 2 foot long green beans and floating on a pool of water in a giant plastic bubble!

We'll post some pictures on the Picasa site.

Thank you for the bon voyage!

2007-08-07T07:38:00.001-07:00

Many thanks to all the friends who came to wish us a fond farewell last night at the Lander City Park (and even more thanks to the organizers!). We were delighted by the number of people who promised to show up on our doorstep in China. We have no idea in what style we will be able to host you, but we will roll out whatever serves as a red carpet. Bon Voyage!

How to send us mail and other goodies

2007-05-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

September 1, 2007-June 30, 2008

Steve Platz/Shana Tarter
LIJIANG TOURSIM AND CULTURE COLLEGE of Yunnan University
Yuquan Road, Old Town District
Lijiang City, 674100 Yunnan
P. R. China
sltsjp@wyoming.com

We have tickets!

2007-05-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

In spite of the credit card company's best efforts to thwart our travel, we managed to purchase one-way tickets from San Francisco, CA, USA to Lijiang, Yunnan, China. Purchasing one way tickets is not a true statement of intent rather an indication of the unpredictable nature of our year's schedule. Sadly, though we are flying on three different airlines, none of our mileage accounts will be credited for what will be a very long journey.