JC in the PRC

This week was a special one.  I was really fortunate to have an opportunity to join a delegation from Utah and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to visit Xining, Qinghai.  Qinghai is located in the far west of China, it borders Tibet and Xinjiang and has been in the news a lot this last week due to the devastating earthquake that hit southern Qinghai earlier this week.  Xining is hundreds of miles from the earthquakes epicenter and so the only signs I saw of the earthquake was at the airport where hundreds of military officials were sorting through food and other supplies which were being loaded into trucks bound for Yushu.

We were in Qinghai to formalize a new sister-state relationship between Qinghai and Utah.  And I have to admit that after the plane landed and we drove towards Xining I was really overwhelmed with a sense of familiarity because the geography in Qinghai is very similar to Utah.  It was exciting to be a part of the entire process and I got to meet some of the top people in Utah that deal with energy and environmental issues, which was really exciting for me.  Hopefully the partnership will result in projects that will bring development to Qinghai and jobs to Utah.

Qinghai feels completely different than any other place I’ve been in China.  The two major differences are that it feels much less crowded and the religious community is very active group.  Qinghai is home to many ethnic groups that hold fast to their religious traditions, including the Tibetan Buddhists and the Hui Muslims.  I’ve never meant any Chinese in Wuxi or Shanghai that have any interest in religious.  They are completely disconnected and don’t see any role for it in their lives.

We caught these boys hiding cell phones in their Korans during Madrassa

Not the biggest, but the most beautiful of the mosques I saw in Xining

We got to meet a living Buddha.  From what I understand, a living Buddha is a monk who has become enlightened, but still chooses to become reincarnated to help enlighten others.

It snowed the day we went to the monestary, which added to the mystique.

Yesterday I had a free day and hiked up to see some temples that are built into cliffs.  As I made the hike I felt like I was in Southern Utah and should be hiking to see some Native American ruins.  It was hard to wrap my mind around it.

Hitting the local market.  I got to be the interpreter.  A term I use very loosely, but my survival Chinese did come in handy.

I do really important things, like flip pages and point where to sign when documents are being signed.

Monday was a national holiday.  We took advantage and decided to visit Zhujiajiao.  A village filled with quaint shops, old bridges and canals just outside Shanghai.  Of course a couple million people had the same idea.  But on this dayit seemed to add to the magic.

The view from above

Fearless Captain

Love me some rice goo

My kekoukele (zero) add

We need a new Waldo. The game loses its appeal in China with the 6'5" white guy.

Dream Boat

They’ve got to find a way to keep 1.2 Billion people employed. I don’t know how many "earwax extractors" there are in China. But there are at least three within one block of my apartment.

There are a couple of other things about China that this picture does a good job of illustrating. Notice the run down dirty buildings and the really nice cars. That’s how it is here, I’ve never seen and ridden in so many Mercedes, BMWs and Audis, but every apartment I’ve been in is run down and dingy, even if the family is affluent.
The second is the girl giving the ubiquitous Asian peace sign. Can anyone explain to me why all Asians do this in pictures?

I hope my last post didn’t come off as depressing. That wasn’t my intention. I was just trying to be honest. It’s tempting when you blog to use it as an advertisement for the glamorous and exciting aspects of your life. Try to make yourself and your life seem much better than either are. I don’t want it to be that, but I also don’t want it to be a journal and will spare you from the very personal. I just want to give you a glimpse into my daily life in China, the good and the bad.

Enough of that.

Saturday some friends came from Shanghai to visit Wuxi. We went and saw Alice in Wonderland, which I highly recommend. Johnny Depp was brilliant as usual, the perfect combination of creepy and endearing. We went to a park and looked at the peach blossoms. I know it’s not cherry blossoms and the tidal basin, but peach blossoms and Lake Taihu are the best substitute I could find. Last Sunday after church we went to the park and flew kites so even though thought I missed the Kite and Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. this year. I felt like the tradition lived on. I apologize if the formatting/fonts are a little off. I can’t access my blog and so I have to email the posts.

Dinner was Chinese BBQ, an experience I highly recommend. The restaurant (I use that term loosely) has a selection of about 50 different meats and vegetables. You load up a try, tell your cook how spicy you like it and then everything is grilled in front of you and served on a skewer.

After the movie we browsed a market in downtown Wuxi. One of the many peach trees that are currently in bloom.

Peach trees by day.

I’ve had a complex since high school, that if I’m not doing something fun on Friday night, I’m a loser. I know it’s irrational and juvenile. These feelings persist even though I’m living in a city which lonely planet describes as "smoggy and characterless, with little to recommend."

On weeknights I am perfectly fine with my ritual of going for long walks while I listen to podcasts and study my Chinese character flash cards. Then I come back to my apartment and either read or watch a few episodes of Alias while I play Mahjong tiles or hearts on my computer. Weekends I feel different. If I’m in Wuxi on a weekend night I always convince myself that I need to try to meet people and I always end up regretting it. Tonight was no exception. I feel much less alone when I’m by myself in my apartment than when I’m in a bar surrounded by people laughing and getting drunk while I drink my milkshake and try to avoid eye contact. I never last more than twenty minutes, but for some reason I always think it’s going to be different.

90% of the time I am completely happy with my life in China. But it’s nights like tonight that my Utah summer can’t come fast enough. I do miss you all.

I feel like at least half of my waking hours in China have been spent on one form of mass transit or another. I looked in my purse the other day and there were over twenty train tickets between Shanghai and Wuxi. I counted last week that in the course of one week I went to the Shanghai Railway Station eight times and the last six nights I have slept in four different beds. The nomadic life I’ve been living here can be exhausting, but it has its perks. Yesterday we had really productive work meetings in Beijing, I’m able to maintain a semi normal social life in Shanghai. My "home" is in Wuxi where I have co workers who have adopted me as family, my own apartment, an office, and a alleyway restaurant where I am now a regular.

This is also one of the excuses I have for not posting recently. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. A snapshot into my different China worlds.

This is Lucy. She’s probably my favorite person in China. Her English is only marginally better than my Chinese, so communication can be an issue. But we laugh a lot together. Last week was International Women’s Day, which in China means all the women get to work a half day and then they go underwear shopping. How’s that for women’s rights? Lucy and I spent the day together shopping and laughing and then her husband treated us to dinner. The picture is from another night when she took me to a hot pot restaurant. These are very popular in China. Basically you order a bunch of raw meats and vegetables and then throw them in a pot of boiling broth to cook. Lucy thinks it’s funny to order things like pig brains and then make me eat them. I am not amused.

This is a typical dinner. For less than a dollar you get a fresh plate of stir fried vegetables, beef and noodles. No complaints.

Two weeks ago I had a work trip in Nanjing. Which was the capital when Chiang Kai Chek had control of China, before he fled to Taiwan. After our meetings we visited the old Presidential Palace.

We took a road trip to Hangzhou this weekend. This is our multicultural travel group. We had representatives from China, Germany, Canada, the Philippines and the US We rented bikes and biked around West Lake and climbed pagodas. My favorite part was at night we found a group of Chinese people learning new dances. We joined them and danced on this stage overlooking the lake. It was perfect.

The requisite cheesy tourist pictures. I will spare you from posting the one of the guys with their shirts off trying to look as hard core as the warrior behind us.

China should forget filing complaints at the WTO for the US dumping chicken feet, there is something much more serious happening. I believe CD warehouses and record labels have banded together to dump bad American music in China. The most egregious offender? Kenny G. His music is inescapable. Even if a store sells only a handful of imported CDs there is always a wide selection of Kenny G.

Here’s a list of China’s favorite cultural imports:

Fast Food: KFC
TV Show: Prison Break
Film: Avatar (A friend told me that people travel many hours to visit Wuxi because it is one of the few cities in the region that has a 3D IMAX theater. Tickets cost 150 RMB, to put that in perspective I can get dinner for 10 RMB, an hour massage for 68 RMB or buy a pirated copy of Avatar for 4 RMB)
Music: Kenny G

This last week was a big one for holidays around the world. President’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Fat Tuesday and I’m sure others I’m not aware of. In China we celebrated Chinese New Year. Which is actually called Spring Festival here and from what I’ve observed it means everyone in China goes home, watches TV, gets drunk, eats dumplings and lights fireworks. Last Saturday was the actual New Years Eve and it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. We spent the evening walking around the neighborhoods in Shanghai watching neighborhood fireworks shows. And this isn’t like your neighborhood fireworks shows in the US on the Fourth of July. All the fireworks I saw being launched would definitely be illegal in the US and they launched these fireworks just a few feet away from buildings, people, stores, high traffic streets. This was one of my favorite nights I’ve had in Shanghai.
One of the many sidestreet fireworks shows we watched

Earlier in the afternoon we went to Taikan Lu, one of my favorite neighborhoods in shanghai

Hello Shanghai. This is actually the best visibility we’ve had since I arrived.

See Mom, I do have friends

Today at church I heard prayers given in Chinese, English, Tagalog, Spanish and Korean from native speakers. Who knew Beijing was so cosmopolitan? Although from my observation, the ratio of chinese to non-chinese is about 10,000 to 1 here, so I can safely say it’s just the church in Beijing that’s cosmopolitan.

Also, to my snowed in friends in DC, if you find yourself needing an extra snow shovel, a piece of plywood is how the Chinese do it.

When I was in China last May, I loved the Great Wall. I think this was partially because my expectations were quite low, I just thought a stone wall wouldn’t be that fascinating. Also it took over 2000 years to build. Unfathomable. Google tells me that over 2 million people died during construction, I don’t know if I believe that.

I’m in Beijing this weekend and had a free day today and I wanted to get back to The Great Wall. I’m so glad I did. The experience was completely different than my experience in May. In May I went to the section that is the most popular with tourists, with a group of 30 people, and it was hot and crowded. Although I enjoyed the experience of seeing Chinese most famous landmark with thousands of Chinese. Some in high heels, old and young, I wished I had more time and less crowds. We only had two hours and I sprinted up and down with a few other students to maximize our time.

Today I went with a group of about ten other travelers to hike a touristy section. Because the temperature was below zero and there was a light dusting of snow, we were the only group on the wall. We hiked about 6 miles across some steep terrain and went through 32 watchtowers. I really started to regret my month long hiatus from working out at about watchtower 14. Despite the temperature and my weak lungs and muscles I was grateful for the quiet, the beauty and for the first time since I arrived, the cold.

I think this unrestored watchtower was my favorite.

This picture does not do the steepness justice.

I love it. I promise if you come visit me in China, I don’t mind going again and again.