We go home tomorrow morning very early and I am about a half a day behind on my blog entries. Sorry, time and internet access have been in short supply – let me tell you. If I do not get it all in tonight, I will do it when I get back to the states. That is just the reality of how frenzied and fun this trip has been.
Thanks for reading… and don’t stop! There is more to come soon!
-Jason
After our trip down the Li river, we got to do something amazing. We took some open-air mini-buses (they were described as golf carts, but were more than that) out into the Chinese countryside. This was our first experience away from the Chinese cities and it was a real eye-opener. We were told that despite the wealth of the big cities, 60% of China’s population still lives in these rural areas, generally under developing world conditions.
We ventured into the rice fields, though we noticed there was not as much rice growing as usual. We were told that the farmers used to use every inch of land to plant rice, but now they use much of their ground to plant mandarin oranges, corn, and melons – which are less labor intensive than rice. That’s because there are not enough laborers to work the fields any more. Here is a beautiful shot Gary took of rice plants. Those little seed-like things coming off the plants are pods containing grains of rice.
The reason there is not enough labor for the farmers is that the young adults of the villages are fleeing to the cities where they get higher paying jobs. We saw a sign in a village advertising jobs in a factory for anyone aged 18 – 54. The rate was about $150-$250 dollars per month, an absurdly low salary to us in the West but way more than the $1000 or so dollars per year that a farmer makes. The result of all this is that we only saw two types of people in the village – the very young and the very old.
Speaking of the very young, Kathy took out some of her Twizzlers to share with the children of the village. She and I are known as the Candy Couple because we have been giving Twizzlers, M&Ms, and Sweet Tarts to everyone to keep spirits up. Anyway, the problem with our American candy is that Chinese kids don’t like it. Sweet Tarts and Twizzlers are an acquired taste, I guess. So, the kids flocked around Kathy to get a Twizzler and then some of them spit the candy out because the licorice tasted bad.
I have spoken several times about the wonderful camera being used by and photos being taken by Gary Weiner. I used my flash drive to get some of his best stuff over to my computer this evening and wanted to post a few of them for all of you to see. Some of these date back to our first day in China and some are from just yesterday.
Enjoy!
Jason with a common household pet in Beijing, a cricket.
Jason posing with one of the many watches he traded for on day one in Beijing.
Susan sits down with her new best friend, a Panda bear!!
The group listens intently as Xiao Fei tells us about the Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an
There are a LOT of Terra Cota Warriors!
The beauty that is the Li River cruise.
In some ways, much of China remains unchanged from what it was centuries ago.
I have looked at my pictures from today. I took more than 50. None of them… not a single one… do justice to the majesty of the limestone formations on the Li River. Art of the problem is that I am a very mediocre photographer using a decidedly basic camera. But most of the problem is that it is just really tough for a digital image to capture the awe-inspiring scope of these inexplicable outcroppings from the Earth. They are like Mother Nature’s fingers extending from the river banks into the sky.
We all gathered on top of the boat to get the best view we could and to snap as many photos as possible. I am hoping that Gary Weiner, who has a camera to die for, got some pictures that really do it justice. Of course, part of the problem was getting a good angle for a shot. There were other tourists on the boat and only so much room at the very front where the best views could be found. There was a German guy who staked out a position against the rail with a video camera who refused to move for hours on end. It was a bright beautiful day… I hope he got sunburned.
Here is a shot of Kathy, Ann, Art, and Skip along the side of the boat, probably waiting their turn to get up front and get a better view of the upcoming mountains. As you can tell, the side views weren’t too bad either ;)
In addition to the limestone outcroppings, the Li river cruise was fabulous because it gave us a peek at real life along the riverbanks in China. We saw plenty of what can only be described as Chinese peasants working in and around the river, in much the same way they have for generations.
We also saw their livestock, just cooling off in the river because it was a warm day (sunny with temps in the low-80s).
The Li River cruise takes about 4 hours and we probably could have done without the last hour or so of it. There is only so many times you can ooh and aaah at limestone outcroppings, you know?
Many of us eventually left the observation deck to hang out inside. It was another chance to relax and play a little bit of cards. Several folks on the trip play bridge – all of them are waay better than Kathy and I – and we have had a few fun games. Art, Pam, and Carol play most of the time. I think Elizabeth and Betty play a bit too. Kathy and I have been mediocre at best… I think we get a tad intimidated when playing with these life master folks ;)
Two quick notes…
First of all, it has not been easy keeping up with everyone’s names on this trip. The problem for me was not so much learning all the names as it was the fact that the names listed on passports and in our information sheets didn’t actually match the people all the time.
For example – we have 2 Garys on this trip… although one of them is actually named Skip.
We also have an Elizabeth who goes by Betty and a Mary who goes by Elizabeth (her middle name).
It does not help that we have 2 people named Lori and 2 named Anne. There are a couple unusual names too – Ildy and Samia are certainly not names you hear every day in America.
But, I’ve had it all figured out for the past several days, I think. Either that or I keep calling people by the wrong name and they are too nice to correct me.
Ok, second note… which has nothing to do with the first ;)
When we were on the Li river cruise, they had a bottle of what looked like a bunch of dead snakes preserved in formaldehyde. Wrong! It was snake wine. I am totally serious about this! Wine with snakes inside it! Who do you think was brave enough to take a taste?
Betty!!
Just kidding, she pretended to take a sip but did not actually do the deed. Samia actually took a glass of beer, that looked a bit like the snake wine, and pretended to drink it too, which prompted some German tourists to snap dozens of pictures of her thinking she was drinking the snake wine. Pretty funny!
Xiao Fei says snake wine is good for your liver.
But, my liver is just fine without drinking any of that stuff, thank you very much.
Xiao Fei is very proud of his home city. It is a beautiful place and we very much enjoyed learning about tit from him. Here is a pic of him passionately describing the city’s history to us atop the city wall.
He told us Xi’an was a city of about 50,000 people as recently as 50 years ago. Today is has more than 8-million. It is basically the size of Chicago. WOW!
And it ain’t done growing yet! As we drove around the city, from the airport to the Terra Cotta Warriors everywhere we went, we saw scaffolding and new buildings being built. Virtaully every one of them were new apartment buildings or condos. They are all cookie cutter identical to each other, mostly 20 or 30 stories high with dozens of units on each floor. Look at this picture the Susan Weiner took for a bit of an idea what I am talking about.
Can you even count all the apartment buildings in that pic? Can you imagine what that will do to traffic and infrastructure when thousands of people fill those apartments? The above picture was repeated time after time as we drove around the city. It is terrifying!
It is also a pity. Xi’an seemed like a wonderful place and we all really enjoyed it. I fear what it will become in a few years though.
Xi’an, the city we were just in, is surrounded by a wall. Without seeing it, you really can’t imagine how big this thing is. It extends around the city center for 17 km. It would have made for a really cool bike ride around the entire city, but we just did not have time for it. It looks a bit like the Atlantic City boardwalk when you are up on top of it, except it is a ton longer and it is raised about 30 or 40 feet in the air above the city. Here is a pic that may give you a bit of an idea what I am talking about.
We got to get a great view of it from the West Gate into the city, which remains 100% in tact the way it has been for centuries. The gate was actually the official start of the Silk Road from China through India and eventually into Europe centuries ago, which is very cool. Here is a pic of Kathy and I in front of the guard building on the West Gate.
Inside the guard building today is a gift shop that had some very nice art work in it. In a corner of the room, we saw a ping pong table amid all the fabulous works of art. I made the tremendous mistake of playing a bit with Xiao Fei. Ping Pong is the national sport of China and Xaio Fei had already told us he was really good at it. He’s a fabulous athlete, a championship runner and soccer player when he was in college. He just killed me at ping pong. I know I am not very good at it anyway, but he basically slammed back every ball I hit while laughing hysterically. It was fun and funny.
When w got done, I promptly challenged him to a game of basketball. He laughed and declined ;)
Recall that I mentioned a couple days ago that we had finally gotten past the issue of only getting one small glass of something to drink at meals? Well, we achieved another victory at a recent dinner… we actually got to eat Dim Sum!
Kathy had been asking about this for days. Frankly, every meal looked exactly like the one before it, with lots of heavy Chinese sauces and essentially the same dishes over and over again. Sometimes we would get Peking Duck or something slightly special, but even at those places, the rest of the meal was identical to all the others.
But, Kathy finally broke Xiao Fei down and he took us for Dim Sum in his native town of Xi’an.
Wow, was it good! Easily one of the top meals we have had. We just kept on popping these delicious little morsels into our mouths! It was really cool how they designed each Dim Sum to look a little bit like the food inside it. For example, here was the duck Dim Sum…
There was even a walnut one that came in a dough covering that looked identical to a walnut shell. AS an added bonus, some members of the wait staff had amazing Chinese outfits on. Here is what they looked like –
I knew what the Terra Cotta Warriors were. I knew we would be seeing thousands of them that had been buried for centuries and that they would all be lined up in this giant archeological pit. Intellectually, I was 100% prepared for what I would see. It should not have been any shock at all to me.
But it was…
The sheer scope of the excavation and the wave after wave of warriors are a wonder to behold. There are 3 buildings with excavations. The picture above is #1, which is by far the most impressive. Still, we could not help but also spend about a half-hour each in rooms #2 and #3.
The history of the warriors is an interesting one. They were built for Emperor Ching as an army he would have to use in the afterlife. Lisa Shepherd and I correctly figured out that the way they were built was by pouring mud into molds and then baking until the warrior was hard. But, the heads were done separately from the bodies by skilled artists who tried to design each head to be slightly different from all the rest.
Shortly after the army was built, the Emperor died and his son took over. The son was such a lousy emperor, the people revolted and overthrew his rule. When the peasants came across the warriors, they smashed most of them and burned the buildings housing the Terra Cotta Warriors to the ground. This picture of a horse shows how the pieces had to be painstakingly put back together before they could be put on display.
There was a flood, that buried all the pieces of the broken warriors and then, in the 1970s, a farmer found the head of one of them while digging for a well. The government stepped in and began the massive excavation that is truly one of the wonders of the world today.
So, in my last post I was talking about the farmer who found the Terra Cotta warriors after they had been buried for thousands of years. After he told the government about finding a head of a warrior, archeologists moved in and found a lot more. The Chiense government then seized the farmer’s land and moved him somewhere else. Xiao Fei asked us how much money the man got as compensation for finding this incredible piece of history (which now generates millions of dollars a day in revenue for China).
Ready?
Two dollars and fifty cents.
$2.50!!!
Even Xiao Fei agreed that the farmer got ripped off. Xiao Fei then told us a really funny story about the farmer. Obviously, the farmer did not speak English. A few years ago, Bill Clinton was coming to visit the TC Warriors and Clinton said he wanted to meet the man who had discovered them. So, the TC museum folks got this farmer and thought it would be a nice surprise to Clinton if they taught him some English so he could speak with Clinton. They tried to just get him to memorize a few phrases that they figured would naturally happen in a short conversation. They envisioned it would go like this –
Farmer – “Hello, how are you?”
Clinton – (any response – probably “fine”)
Farmer – “Me too.”
What could go wrong?
Well, the farmer got nervous, so instead of saying “Hello, how are you?” he spoke with a poor accent and Clinton heard him say, “Hello, who are you?”
Clinton’s response… “I’m Hillary’s husband.”
To which the farmer, as instructed, replied, “Me too.”
That’s some funny stuff right there!
As we leave Terra Cotta land, here is a picture of 500 or so warriors about to bend over and moon me.
Xi’an is a lovely city, probably my favorite so far. We saw one of the real highlights of the city yesterday morning when we visited the Wild Goose Pagoda, a famous Buddhist shrine and one of the largest pagodas in the world. We heard a long story about its history from Xiao Fei. It was built some 1300 years ago by a monk who is credited with bringing Buddhism to China. The Emperor at the time, I want to say it was the Tang Dynasty, agreed to build it as a memorial to his dead wife. Here is a group shot of all of us standing in front of it.
We saw all kinds of magnificent Buddhist shrines surrounding the pagoda. It was quite peaceful. Many of the shrines were recently built, which gave them less historic charm but more polish and beauty. When we got to the bottom of the pagoda, we found out that you can walk up to the top. Most of the group did not want to bother, despite being assured that it was a far, far easier climb than the recent one we took to the top of the Potala Palace in Tibet. Still, 5 of us braved the 260+ steps to the top of this 7 story building – Lori, Lori, Ann, Kathy, and me. I got a pic of the ladies on the stairs about halfway up the climb.
It was quite beautiful at the top – great views all across the city of Xi’an. Here is my favorite shot –
Next stop, the Terra Cotta Warriors!
Note: Internet connection remains a huge problem, which is my posting is massively delayed at this point.
Our final hours in Chengdu represented a real victory for us. The schedule called for us to go to some kind of “Water Park.” No, this was not a place with water slides and wave pools, it was going to be a demonstration of Chinese engineering and how they purify water and the such. Ummm, yawn! No one wanted to go.
In the past when we have tried to get Xiao Fei to make changes to the schedule, he has been pretty resistant. We can tell he wants to please us and work with us, but he has masters elsewhere who pay his salary and he needs to keep them happy too. Plus, folks in these Communist countries are used to following orders, not improvising and making changes on the fly.
Anyway, we wanted to go to the Chengdu Brochade museum instead of the water park. Brochade is a very complicated form of silk weaving using these gigantic looms that must be operated by 2 or 3 people at one time. It is an ancient art in China and people who knew about it said it was really cool. I don’t know how we convinced him, but Xiao Fei agreed to abandon the water park and go to the Brochade museum instead. Here is a picture of a Brochade weave of some pandas.
The texture and tightness of the weave is what really impressed me.
The museum demonstration of the looms and the art of Brochade went fairly quickly and it was very cool… but then we hit the gift shop and almost everyone on the trip put their plastic to work! We bought wall-hangings, scarves, wallets/pocketbooks, and all kinds of other stuff. It was just too beautiful to pass up. So, instead of spending the afternoon being bored at the water park, we contributed thousands of dollars to the Chinese economy ;)
Here is a picture of Kathy and Ann Wichman looking at some panda hangings. They were magnificent and we got one even though they were kinda pricey.
My next reports will be on the fabulous Xi’an Wild Goose Pagoda and the Terra Cotta warriors, which we saw today. It may be a day until I get those up as the internet in Xi’an has been terrible and my pictures are taking forever to go through. You simply must see the pictures from these two stops!
My friends at home, you do not know what you will miss until it is gone.
Please, I beg you, think of us here in China the next time you sit down on a toilet because you will be experiencing something that has become totally foreign to us.
For the most part, China is devoid of actual commodes. Instead, we get holes in the ground… often accompanied by a stench that is so pungent even someone with a bursting bladder cannot tolerate it long enough to get relief. Our days have become built around bathroom breaks at bathrooms that are tolerable to an American. We sometimes divert off-course to find a hotel or other establishment that has a public washroom the women on the trip can use (the guys, with our larger bladders and ability to pee standing up have not complained at all about the facilities).
You may wonder why I am writing about this, but I am completely serious when I say that this has, at times, been a major issue on the trip. We have gotten to the point where all bathroom facilities are rated on a 1 to 10 scale. Women often come back from a bathroom break announcing “it was a 3 or maybe a 4” so the other women can gauge whether to risk a squat. I am sad to report that there have been far more “2s” than “5s.” I don’t think we’ve seen anything higher than a 6 or 7 outside of our hotel rooms, that’s for sure.
In case any of you dare to wonder what a “2” could be, someone came out of a bathroom at a tourist place the other day and said, “DO NOT GO IN THERE! It is not even a hole in the ground, it is just a trench!” Actually, a trench is more like a 1.5
Xiao Fei told us a story about a woman on another tour who was using the facilities in one place that had a 60-foot hole that served as a toilet. The woman dropped her camera down into the hole. She went up to her guide and asked if there was any way to get it out. We all cracked up at that one. A little toilet humor is sometimes a good thing ;)
For our final meal in Chengdu, we finally got some real spice! The tour guides had been largely protecting us from the real Szechwan food, for fear they would rip our stomachs open or something like that. But, one time that came at our last dinner looked like the real thing.
It was a bowl of meat alongside what was clearly a bunch of red and green peppers of some sort. There were these puffy half-shells that came with it and you were supposed to put the spicy stuff inside the shell and then eat it… sort of a Szechwan taco ;)
For several meals, I had been the official taster at whatever table I was at, because I like spicy food and I have not had stomach problems at all – making me somewhat of a rarity on the trip. The long days of travel and activities combined with the constant barrage of rich Chinese food has really played havoc with many of our body’s systems. Lately, it seems we have at least 2 or 3 people at every meal who are just eating white rice or maybe not eating at all.
Anyway, I was the person designated to eat this little morsel shown above.
Wow, was it delicious! I loved it.
It also made my entire head burn, turned my cheeks flush, made my eyes water, caused my nose to run, and forced me to pound back several glasses of water followed by a few servings of rice (bland food following spicy is always smart).
So, I played it safe and only ate 3 of these delightful spice bombs. Mmmm, so good… but ouch, so painful.
By the way, we have had an important victory in the battle over food and drink lately. Xiao Fei (our guide) has agreed to let us have unlimited drinks at our meals. You may recall a couple days ago I reported that we were only allowed to drink one glass of water, Coke, Sprite, or beer at each meal – often from a glass the size of a toddler’s sippy cup. We still get strange looks from waitresses in restaurants when we dare to ask for a refill of our drink, but they begrudgingly provide us with as much to drink as we want. Xiao Fei is the best guide ever!!!
I know, I know… I have fallen behind the past couple days. Sue me.
Anyway, the day after the Chengdu Panda place, we spent a few minutes in the city’s flower and bird market. I was unsure exactly what this would be. I think the following photos do a good job of explaining it though.
Yup, it was just really a series of outdoor merchants who sold beautiful flowers and a whole bunch of different pets. It was fine, nothing too special, but not horrible either. We did not spend much time there, which was good.
One of the major takeaways from this trip has been the conflicted Chinese attitude toward Chairman Mao. I really thought they all saw him as this beloved figure who could do no wrong. Not quite.
Many Chinese we have encountered have openly talked about how messed up the Cultural Revolution was. Our tour operator Mark (his real name is Xiao Fei), has told us several stories about how his family, which was successful and educated, was declared as being “from black roots” when the Cultural Revolution happened and how their life and their success was basically reversed. Members of his family lost jobs and some were thrown in jail – simply for being successful in the pre-communist world.
At the same time, Mark and others talk with reverence about Mao. I sense that some small remains of the Mao Cult of Personality are still alive in this country. The other day, Mark went out of his way to show us one of only 3 remaining Mao statues left in China in downtown Chengdu.
The square that this Mao statue overlooks is a very pretty one and very busy with people. It has fountains spraying water and we could clearly see children playing there… beneath the watchful eye of their “dear leader.”
Like I said, I think the country is conflicted about this madman. They know he was at least somewhat insane and his ideas set them back, but they are also programmed to love him.
I do not blame the Chinese for their failure to understand our English. Heck, if anything it is our fault for not knowing the language of the country we are visiting. Still, the language barrier has made for some pretty funny moments on the trip.
We are in Xi’an now and had a funny such encounter with the front desk this morning. Kathy went up to check to see if we could get some kind of hotel points or frequent flier miles for our stay here at the MetroPark hotel. Here is the conversation –
Kathy – “Hello, do you speak English?”
Front Desk – “Yes, how can I help you?”
Kathy – “I was wondering if we could get any hotel points, perhaps Starwood, or frequent flier credit for staying here at the hotel.”
Front Desk – Silent, confused stare
Kathy – “Do you know what I am talking about? Does this hotel partner with any American hotels for points or benefits?”
Front Desk – “Ahh, is this what you mean?”
Front Desk then went over to another counter, opened a drawer beneath the counter, and pulled out a roll of Yuan coins (sorta like a roll of quarters).
Kathy stared at him dumbfounded. She then said, “No, thank you,” and walked away.
Ok, can anyone explain how the Front Desk got from “Reward points” to “roll of Yuan coins?”
Ann Wichman had another funny one. She called the operator to ask for towels. Here was her conversation –
Ann – “Can you send up more towels?”
Operator – “What?”
Ann – “Towels, to use when we are wet.”
Operator – “You want a bottle of water?”
Ann – “No, I want a towel. I am not thirsty. I need to dry off.”
Operator – “Ahhh, dry. Yes, hair dryer. I send one up.”
Another place where this issue comes up is when we encounter signs that are in Chinese but also feature an English translation. These signs often get certain idioms and translations just wrong enough to make them really funny. We have seen dozens of them and Ann Wichman has been collecting pictures of many of the worst offenders. I happened to come across this one on a bag of dog food in the pet market a couple days ago and thought I would share… enjoy!
A few more quick notes about the Chengdu Panda Center.
In addition to the Giant Pandas, they had some other cool animals. We saw several red pandas, which are very rare as well and look more like raccoons than giant pandas. I feel sorta sorry for them – they are pandas too but because they resemble a rodent more than a cute teddy bear, they get no public love and adoration. Woe is the red panda. Here is a pic of one –
In the afternoon, we gathered along the banks of a lake that was at the Panda Center to have a conversation with Prof. Bill about Richard Nixon’s history and how it contributed to Nixon’s bold and historic outreach to China. Bill is the former Dean of the History department at Duke so the dude knows what he is talking about. I wish I had taken a class from him when I was there (or that I had paid attention in class) because he is a fountain of fascinating information. His lectures are packed with historical facts and tidbits that just make you smarter.
The lake we sat next to was filled with goldfish (I think they were actually carp). They have been conditioned over time to come up to the humans on the shore in search of food. It is quite a scene. The fish are son densely packed up against the edge of the lake that they almost form a solid mass of fish. Some of them quite literally flop on top of each other out of the water. Here is a pic that does not do it justice –
Lastly, a quick mention about the children of China. We ran into several grade school groups at the Panda Center. The kids were so energetic and engaging! They saw us and immediately began shouting “Hello! Hello! How are you?” in almost perfect English. We were able to engage in only very limited conversation with them, but it was clear they were well on their way to learning English. Everyone agreed that they kids will be our bosses in the future. China is just too big and has too many resources – they will be kicking America’s butt very soon… they probably already are.
Anyway, the kids just charmed us to death. Here is a shot of Pam giving high-fives to all the kids as they wave at us.
The trip has been so busy, so filled with activities, we simply have not had time to do one of the things we really wanted to do in China… get some pieces of art to hang over our bed at home.
So, we carved out some time this morning to go to this huge antique/art market in Chengdu. I believe it is called the Wengshungwufeimupowhuy market, but I may be pronouncing that wrong.
It was a totally genuine market, full of Chengdu locals. I am certain we were the only English speakers among the more than 500 stalls of merchants and all the people strolling through the market. Communications were often a real problem, especially because Chinese art tends to be vertical (up and down) but Kathy and I were looking for something more horizontal. Try conveying that to a Chinese person who does not speak a word of English!
I would love to show you tons of pictures of Kathy and me looking at various pieces of art and haggling with local merchants, but I got so wrapped up in finding just the right thing, I completely forgot to take photos. By the way, we were joined on our art market excursion by fellow brave souls Betty, Ann, Arthur, Lorna, Carol, Elizabeth, and Pam. It was an amazing experience – a real genuine Chinese one – and I think everyone got some nice memories and mementos.
Here are pics of the two pieces we ended up buying. Now we just have to figure out which to put over the bed ;)
