moo

The train on a national holiday was insane. I spent an hour in the holding pen before being herded onto the train. If you ever got in the wrong line you would be hooped. There is no way out. It is one breathing, sneezing, fidgeting mass of humanity.

They open the gates 10 minutes before the train departs. You can tell when it's time - the herd shuffles closer, jostles for position, squeezes in just a little more. It didn't make sense why there was a need to jockey for position. We all have assigned seats. It became clear as I sauntered to train car #1 at the far end of the platform. We were all moving along at a reasonable pace. I was gawking around because I wasn't 100% sure I was going the right way or even on the right train. Slowly the herd starts to trot and then breaks into a full on run. Car #1 was still a long way off when I realized I could hear buzzers. I have 5 more minutes so I do what any reasonable herd animal does – break into a full out sprint to the end knocking down anything that stands between me and seat #51 There must be a reason for the panic and quite honestly I’m not going to look around to find out. I arrive just as some guy tries to take my seat. Jerk.

But I did it. I survived my first solo flight on a Chinese train. The train is very fast and very smooth. Electric I think. We are whipping through the countryside at about 200 km/hr. It’s another hazy day and the scenery is a little underwhelming. Lots of canola or mustard or some other yellow flowered crop.

But it was all worth because after four nail biting hours, Peter arrived at the hotel - 2 hours late. Peter landed with a hotel address only in English, which doesn't guarantee a taxi driver will be able to read it. But he eventually arrived so we had a beer and hit the city.

Shanghai pictures to follow. First I have to finish writing the final test and prepare for my last week here. Then I can go out to the pasture to feed for a little while, get in touch with my herding instincts before we do this all over again.

Shanghai baby

April 4th is finally here. After diligently crossing off 35 days on my little plantable calendar, the day I meet Peter in Shanghai is finally here. The first time I said "we'll meet in Shanghai" it sounded so funny. Who says that except in some ridiculous movie? But my bags are packed and I'm ready to take the D train (yes the D train) to meet my Petey in Shanghai. He's flying over the Pacific as I type, probably cursing the person in front of him because at this point you are sick of being confined to your seat.

When we planned to meet on April 4 I had NO IDEA that the entire country had the day off. In fact, they just made it a day off this year. Do you have any idea what it looks like when 1.3 BILLION people have a long weekend? I'm lucky I got a seat on the D train. It is Ancestor's Day. A day to burn money (or paper that you buy that looks like money) and offer food to your ancestors. It helps them in the afterlife from what I understand. I was actually at a temple yesterday where they were preparing for the big day. It seemed a little weird to offer up my apple to the tubby Buddha so I decided not to partake. The apples here are too good to let rot in front of a statue.








It's a big weekend planned for Shanghai. Peter needs to stay awake all day to get through the jet lag. It's a tough adjustment to reset your timing by 13 hours. I still feel like I've been assigned to a never ending night shift. Waking up a 4:00 am and shattered by 8:00pm. We have a trip to the aquarium planned, the Urban Planning Centre (don't knock it until you see the pictures), the Bund and Nanjing road at night and a tea ceremony. All with the other 20 million people in this area who are hitting the city for the long weekend.

And the other big news is I AM DONE TEACHING!!! I have one more week of classes but the students have their final presentation and exams. I did it. Phew!

Last night, Susan, the marketing teacher from NUFE, took me out for dinner. We had a wonderful meal just off of Hunan Road and then tea under the lights of here.


Good way to start the long weekend. Bring it on. 1.3 billion doesn't scare me (well maybe a little). The train station definitely scares me...

slender west lake

spring has sprung, the grass has riz...

a reply to comments:

I can't reply in the comment in the comments section due to the great firewall of China so I'll start my latest report with a couple replies.

Kent: Try as I might, I cannot muster the same horking sounds that my Chinese counterparts have perfected over the years so no retaliation is in my future.

For anyone worried about me getting arrested: I am keeping my opinions and most of my burning questions to myself. The student who sent me the email is talking to me again but keeps referring to China as "our China". It is starting to creep me out a bit. We may have to end our meetings soon. Needless to say, we do not talk about Tibet.

For the most part, the students here have no idea or no comment on Tibet. We attended a student night where students have an opportunity to practice their English. One of the profs reported that his group did not understand why we couldn't get into Tibet. I guess they are too busy studying.


And for an entertaining read, you should continue to follow the China Daily coverage and compare it to the Free Press or Globe coverage. It is an amazing example of how a few words can completely change the feel of a report on the same events. For example, China Daily report of the monks who rushed the reporters while on a guided tour of Jokhang Temple reads like this:


Organizers of the media tour, including officials from the State Council Information Office, did not interrupt the interview, letting it continue for about 15 minutes, the same duration as other on-the-spot interviews on the itinerary.


from the Canadian Press:

Officials tugged at the journalists to leave and shouted "Time to go." After the outburst subsided, the monks filed away upstairs.

Long live freedom of the press.


Now on to lighter things. We kicked off the weekend with a fabulous road trip a couple hours outside of Nanjing to the city of Yangzhou, home to Slender West Lake. The lake was created from a river by a group of salt merchants in an attempt to impress the emperor on his visit to Yangzhou. The emperor's commented during the visit that the park lacked a dagoba, a bottle shaped Budhist monument. So they built one of those overnight for the ungrateful sot. (my comment not Fodors). The lasting effect is this beautiful park with flowers and bridges and an odd looking white dagoba ( the Aladdin lamp thing in the background of the picture below).










The funniest part of the day began with the simple act of sitting on a rock to wait for my group to catch up. There were hundreds of school kids at the park on Friday. Most of the kids study English in school but rarely have the opportunity to practice so when this little boy wandered by staring at me in the typical manner I asked if he liked the flowers. Within seconds I was swarmed by the grade five class of Yangzhou Primary School.









We had a great conversation mainly centering around the theme of "how are you?" and "how old are you?"with a couple "where are you from?". While I was talking to the kids another crowd gathered to take pictures. It seems that one white person surrounded by school kids makes a great photo op for the average Chinese park goer as well. So once again I will be featured in a few Chinese photo albums as the token Westerner they saw in a park one day.

The rest of the day was spent templing (the verb form for viewing temples)




and wandering around a garden courtyard once home to some rich mucky-muck from the Qing Dynasty (we didn't get a very informative tour).







In other news: my suit fits so I ordered more custom-made clothes. You can't beat the price or the fit. One jacket and two pairs of pants, lined, light wool - $95 Cdn. I'm getting two pairs of capri's for $15 each. Yippee!

Today I am heading to the grocery store today to pick through the vat o' chicken with the other 6000 people shopping. Tonight is pot luck. I am going to attempt to make some lemon chicken. And somewhere in there I have to plan our alternative travel to replace Tibet. There are so many options.
... and I have work to do.

four down, two to go

Tomorrow will be the one month mark of my little adventure. I started crossing off the days on my Botanical Paperworks plantable calendar pages when I was feeling a little home sick. When March and April were staring back at me, untouched. It seemed like April 24th was a lifetime away. But here I am, more the halfway done my classes, one week away from seeing Peter and two weeks away from seeing the rest of China. Yippee! I did it. I'll be planting my calendar pages in no time. I can't wait to show Peter around my new home turf. I've been picking off the sights in my free time and saving some of the highlights for when Peter arrives.

Here are a few new sights:

Nanjing Museum: Not a very big museum given China has a 5000 year old history, but they managed to capture some pretty cool highlights. The two floors were partitioned into items China is known for - jade, pottery, weaving. The coolest thing was the oldest thing I have EVER seen.

They don't look like much. In fact, I believe Mom has something very similar from my pottery class days but these little vessels date back to 5000 B.C. 5-0-0-0 That's old. And what is neat about them is that they took the time to make pig faces. Usually you think of things that are 7000 years old to be purely functional. Not in this part of the world. Fashion and function are key. Here's a couple other pics from the Museum.

Jiming Temple: It is a working temple complete with scary gods, golden Buddhas, and a gaggle of nuns and nuns-in-training. The centre tower provides a spectacular view of the city including Xuanwu Lake, sight of the bicycle for two adventure.

We finished at the temple around rush hour so we decided to walk to our next destination - Blue Sky. It's an expat bar owned by an Australian and run by a Canadian. It is the place to go on a Saturday I hear. They have a restaurant too so I finally had a meal that I could identify, didn't have to pick bones out of and was certifiably toad free.

Rush hour in downtown is chaos. If your life wasn't being threatened from all directions I would even dare to call it magical. It is a perfectly choreographed dance. Problem is, we missed the rehearsal. The sheer volume of bikes alone boggle your mind. The picture really doesn't do it justice but you get a bit of an idea.

Tomorrow we are off to Slender West Lake. Saturday I pick up my suit. And Sunday is a blank page. More pictures to come.

tension rising

Things are heating up here in China. This weekend I got an email from student who approached me a few weeks ago while we were walking across campus. He asked if we could meet once a week so he could practice his English. We met once and had an interesting discussion that eventually made it's way around to how our two countries view each other. Canada is pretty much a non factor in China's eyes. At best we are this sparsely populated iceberg that isn't thought of beyond basic geography class, but more often we are just folded in with the US and Britain as "westerners". He asked what I thought of China. I told him I like the people but I didn't like the pollution and am not used to the crowds. He responded, "China is a developing country. The world needs to be patient with us."

Fair enough. They do have a lot of problems that come with an exploding population and economic boom. So we had a friendly discussion and made plans to meet again this week. Then I get this email from him:

"The terrists are terrible, they killed the people and destroy the shops ,banks , schools and so on . Another point I want to say ,some foreign media report

wrong fact ,for example:CNN BBC ....
I know you are in our China , maybe you learn the truth

Pls forgive me . I hate some foreign media ,terrists ,CNN BBC.... very much especial the American. I canot believe their action."

The "terrist" in this case are the Tibetan rioters. The media he is referring to is an article that came out in the China Daily about CNN and BBC doctoring photos and bending the truth about what is happening. I'm not going to link the article because that would link the media back to my blog but go check it out and read their comments. The article was published on Friday. Globe and Mail has a rebuttal article that you should also read. There is also a blog link in the China Daily article written by a couple of people who were in Tibet when the problems started.


I will refrain from too many comments except that I came to China with one view and I am learning how complex the issues really are. It's interesting to see things from China's point of view. It seems to me that having "westerners" voice their opinion about Tibet is a bit like China putting political and social pressure on Canada to embrace First Nation self-government. Maybe the two issues aren't alike at all but it is the best example I can think of.

The email has me a bit rattled. For the first time, I actually feel exposed to a general hatred that I only imagine is a form of racism. I can't tell if my Chinese friend was lashing out at me or just trying to give his side of the story. It makes me sad because last week we seemed to have a good chat. I don't want to be just another foreigner.


I also feel a bit uneasy after reading some of the comments in the China Daily article. I'm not in danger but I don't like the feeling of being lumped into a general "Westerner" category.  I wish I could have an open discussion with people here to get their side of the story but everyone is very guarded. So I will keep my mouth shut and take my seat in the nose bleed section to observe a piece of history unfold before me.

out and about

Wow, that week zoomed by. I was hoping to post again since the sun did come out and my mood picked up but I ran out of time. I still am working on the things I like. It's not that I can't think of any, I'm just collecting a few pictures and waiting for one last thing. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's a little photo shoot from yesterday. I took off for a little adventure in the morning - got lost, walked 5 km to get 'unlost' but saw lots of cool things along the way like this temple:

Complete with a street lined with flowering plum trees. Perfect. This is Jiming Temple and is home to Buddhist nuns. Nice digs ladies. I will be returning next week to tour.

The big trip of the day was to Yuejang Tower and surrounding parks area.

In the park beside the temple, men were practicing spinning these tops. I have no idea what they are called. They wrap the string around the bottom of the top and make it twirl. The whirling sound in the video is the sound the tops make. Pretty neat stuff.

They tried to teach me. The best I could do was keep it spinning on the string. You can see the tower in the background. We climbed to the top but it was a misty day (actually mist not just smog) so we didn't get a good view of the Yangtze River.

The other common activity in the park is cards and board games. The Walker clan would fit right in! It was a good day complete with lots of exercise. We're off to see the Nanjing Museum today. It is known as one of the best collection of Chinese artifacts in China including jade, pottery and embroidery (oh my). See ya!

disappointed

Latest news release: http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKPEK29814020080316

It seems that travel to Tibet has officially been suspended. The BBC reports that it may be up to 5 months before foreign travel will be allowed in Tibet. Why now? It's been 58 years of repression - what was one more month?

I cannot tell you how disappointed I am. I was even looking forward to the 18 hour train ride. We haven't heard from the travel agent yet. I guess that is next week's task. I know there are tons of other things to see but when you have Lhasa on the docket it's a bit difficult to find a suitabe replacement.

hmph...