Goodbyes, and Suzhou

The kids who kept us on the straight and narrow in Wuhan!

LOVE YOU GUYS!

Well, our time at Hubei University came to an end. We had our closing ceremony. We all gave part of a thank you speech in Chinese...and most of us butchered it, but our Chinese friends LOVED the effort (and entertainment) of it.

We LOVE MINNIE!!!!

She was in charge of us while we were at Hubei!

John then gave a great speech about our trip to China and our time at Hubei. It was accompanied by my power point. Everyone seem to enjoy both. We then had a goodbye luncheon with lots of laughs and smiles, and a few tears. The next morning (July 30) we departed around 7:30am for the airport, with all our Hubei "keepers" (the students) along with us, lots more tears this time, and it was a hard thing to leave them! It was our home for 3 weeks!

Deb, Minnie, and Sharon

We then flew out of Wuhan to Shanghai and met our tour guide from the beginning of the trip SNOW. He took good care of us at the beginning of the trip, and it was very good to see him again. We made a 3 hour bus ride to Suzhou, the "Venice of the East." While here we enjoyed a tour of a wonderful garden, and then took a boat ride through the canals of the old town. We had a bit of shopping and dinner, and then came to our hotel pretty early. Two more days.

Last Day of Class at Hubei

Our last day of classes was pretty low key. We had a very good lecture in the morning comparing Chinese culture with American culture. We learned very vital information (some that a few in our crew could probably have used at the start of the trip..."don't suck on your chopstick" it is considered rude).

We then spent the afternoon running around taking care of things before we leave Wuhan. Several of us had gone to a local tailor and had clothes made...the prices were unbelievable (some got full hand tailored suits for $80...etc...yea...nuts) I had a vest made. It fit perfectly. As we were about to leave, the lady who had done our tailoring asked us (through an interpreter) if we could hang around for 5 minutes, a local television station was coming by to do interviews about why so many westerners use her shop...well OF COURSE we hung around...there was a HUGE crowd (go figure in China) when they got there...they had us put on our clothes we had bought..asked some different questions (in English). It was fun.



We then came back to the university and the last class of the trip was on making dumplings.

We had dinner and then an evening of bowling in the campus bowling alley. I suck at bowling in THREE HEMISPHERES!

Checkout that score...and um yea I fell.

Closing ceremonies tomorrow.

Wudang Mountain Weekend

This past weekend we made another trip off campus to visit the Wudang Mountains.
The mountains in many ways reminded me of a mixture between the Appalachian and the Rockies...but of course had their own feel all together. We enjoyed the cooler climate of the mountains! The train ride was great as well. I'll write more about that at a later time.

Right now I just want to show some pictures of the Taoist temples on top of the mountains in Wudang. You will notice some of the pics have what looks to be locks all over the place, they are locks that couples go to the top of the mountains together and lock their lock there as a commitment of their love. The closer to the top one gets, the more locks you see.

These were VERY steep climbs, much steeper than the Great Wall, or any of our other climbs to date...and one wonders how the monks hundreds of years ago, were able to build these places. It is Amazing!This photograph shows the "wish or prayer ribbons" you hang

them in gynko trees for good luck or for your prayers/wishes to come true.

Each spring people come here to give their first incense sacrifice,

by walking out on this ledge and burning the incense in

the little brass altar at the end.

A larger altar with incense burning.

Hanging with a friend.

Yin and Yang

Going into the clouds...it was pretty scary!

More pics here

Swords, Chinese Sports, & Acupuncture

As the countdown to returning home continues...

We had our second Kung Fu lesson today. Our professor Mr. Mei Lingqi gave us a couple of demonstrations of various techniques...including the following one with the sword...pretty cool!!

We were then given a tour of the entire gymnasium...which is a more literal term for them than in the US...where we usually mean a basketball court (this gym didn't even have a basketball court)...there were four of what we would call a GYM...in this gymnasium... one for TABLE TENNIS (ping pong)...it was huge...amazing! One for gymnastics...again...amazing...and one for the Kung Fu and shadow boxing. Then the upstairs of the gymnasium was an open indoor track used for track (all track events) and for indoor football (soccer). There was also a HUGE rock climbing wall...probably two stories tall at least.

You can see the rock climbing wall here...the top of it.

The one thing we can't get over though is that you can smoke EVERYWHERE just about in China...including the ashtrays sitting all around for your use after a workout...or while on break from a workout!

During our afternoon break I ran to McDonald's, did a little shopping, then did my own laundry in the bathroom sink for the first time! Then I did like everyone else in our dorm/hotel...I put it out to dry in the hallway windows...haha. All up and down the hallways you will see the laundry drying..."personal" stuff included....again 1.6 billion....changes a lot of things.

Then it was time for our second class of the day...Chinese Acupuncture... after the lesson we went to the lab and some of the crew had it done on them...I'm in pretty good health (and after the clinic visit the other day...decided I didn't need MORE Chinese medicine...sooooo I passed).

My roommate John was one of the guinea pigs

We also had our first REAL REAL REAL blue sky today...which is weird because we saw some of the WORST air quality last night on crossing the bridge at sunset...it was hurting our eyes it was so bad. So the blue skies and low humidity made it a very nice day in Wuhan!

(all images and video on this day's blog are by John Stephany)

Hubei Countdown...July 24

Things are starting to wind down here a bit.


Yesterday was a little different morning...we had our first KUNG FU LESSON!

KUNG FU!!!!! You got it! Ka POW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (cue the music....EVERYBODY WAS KUNG FU FIGHTING...ding ding ding ding ding, ding ding ding ding ding....THOSE CATS WERE FAST AS LIGHTENING...ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding!!!!!)

Be afraid, be very afraid

It was fun...and we all thought we would be soooooo soar today...but not so...at least I'm not...the instructor had us doing lots of stretches so that's good! We learned some basic Kung Fu moves...deflect and hit...etc. Fun stuff!

The afternoon class was dealing with Education in China, and I enjoyed it very much. It is very different in some ways, and very similar in some ways to the way things are done in the U.S.
Then John, Ashley, Alexis, and I made a RUN for it for dinner and somehow through a guide book John had...made our way across the river to a Belgian Cafe...we had....wait for it!!! Bleau Cheese FILLET!!!!! mmmmmmmmmmm!

Hubei Countdown to Home

10 more days!
I have to admit, I'm SICK of the CHINESE FOOD! But just like you would be sick of anything you had over and over and over again! Been making friends with the Pizza Hut here (which btw is a BIG TO DO in China....who knew?)

I was out of commission for about a day and 1/2 with my "bug" A lot of us think we got it on the stupid boat...I don't doubt it...it was a YUCK! I can't even explain it. Let's just say it wasn't the typical boat that they put WESTERNERS on...it was the one that the CHINESE ride...God love the Chinese riding those stupid boats.....But it was certainly living the REAL life here in China...now that it is over...I'm glad we did it..at the time...Sheeesh.

I didn't eat for about 2.5 days. So all the sudden all that weight I WASN'T losing...was lost. I lost about 7 pounds. I'll probably lose some more before then. I've cut back my meals to just BREAKFAST and then wherever I go (usually something small and fast and western) for dinner. No lunch. The heat that was supposed to be so bad here in Wuhan, never really arrived. So we've been happy with that. It has been VERY humid, and warm...like at home...but not the FURNACE they told us it would be. Our room is VERY air conditioned...more so than I run it back home....haha. So that's been a relief from the humidity.

Can you tell this is an "end of the trip" posting...with small list of complaints about things? haha.
It is still AWESOME over here though. We went last night to the Yellow Crane Tower...the big symbol of Wuhan...it is pretty impressive. They have this HUGE bell that you can ring w/ this LOG hanging next to it....some of the women on our crew went and rang the bell...it was pretty dang cool...you could here the thing all around. I've skipped classes the past two days to recover, and to make the POWER POINT (haha) for our closing ceremony. (I was nominated by our leader Dr. Kung...and my roommate John is the speaker...again nominated by Dr. Kung)...I just have to sit there and hit the "enter" key for the power point and let it run...while John does all the talking. We've been great roommates...he is a very nice guy and very very funny. He keeps me in stitches. Speaking of that...the Chinese have NO IDEA what to make of my laugh...it scares them at first...and then they can't get enough of it...they want to hear it over and over...sheeeesh. (wait...is it like that in America too?) grrrrrr.

Anyway...it is very funny when we are in a crowded market and we are walking and talking and I start laughing out loud about something and the whole place stops (um..remember it is a country of 1.6 billion...so there are no small markets) and turns to see what that LOUD NOISE is...haha. Good stuff. It isn't like they don't all stare at us the whole time anyway. In Beijing and Shanghai we hardly got any looks being westerners...but in Xi'an and Wuhan, and the other smaller (and that is relative to the sizes of Shanghai and Beijing mind you...Wuhan has 7-8 million people in it) they just stare...and stare at us...and don't try to hide it...jaws drop many times too....haha. If there's a crowd of us being silly and loud or something...it doesn't take two minutes for a crowd of 50 to 100 to be all around us watching. CRAZY! Last night we saw this cute dog on the street with his master and he's one of those little fuzzy Chinese dogs...with a semi flat face...he looks like he's smiling at you...it ROCKS...anyway we were stopping and playing w/ him and laughing at him obeying his master...and taking pictures...then all the sudden 50 people are crowded around....INSANE! (I of course love it) I think it bothers some of the women in our group...they don't understand that they are just curious and I think they feel like it is an invasion of their personal space....etc...which btw DOESN'T EXIST IN CHINA!!!! (again 1.6 BILLION people...u have to say that like Dr. Evil!) People don't understand personal space at all. So they are "right up in your grill" for any and everything...haha. People are constantly bumping into you...etc....and they don't even notice...and here I am saying 'excuse me...pardon me...excuse me...move out of my fricken way please" ...doesn't matter they dont know or care what I'm saying...so saying whatever out loud here ROCKS!!!!!

The KIDS are the fricken cutest things you've ever seen. We've all fallen in love w/ the kids. We can understand why Amercians come all the way here to adopt...SO FRIGGIN CUTE!!!!!!Yesterday one of the women that works here at the university brought her TWIN girls over they were like maybe 6 to 8 months old...OMG....both dressed in little over all outfits with PANDA FACES on them...haha.

After the Yellow Crane Tower visit yesterday we went to a 500 year old Buddhist temple. VERY VERY COOL. We lit incense and the explained the prayer routine for Buddhist prayers and for Taoist prayers. After that, then you go to another part of the temple grounds that houses 500 Buddhas! You start on the right and count the Buddhas for each year of your life. Then there is a number over that Buddah, and you go outside and get a golden card that tells you what that means for you in the next year. My fortune said

When you are honest

No Evil Can Effect You

When your family is happy

You can have a lot of fortune

and luck around you

After achieving these things
You will have everything you need

The saying above is Nan wu e mi Tuo fo

Hope you have good luck

I liked that one. Of course I couldn't read any of it, I had to go by what our university student keepers told me it said...BUT just to make sure they were just giving me some mumbo jumbo...I asked three different ones away from each other...and hey...they all told me pretty much the same thing! Haha. We love those kids btw, they are so amazingly helpful and sweet!

After the Tower and the Temple...I had one of the University Students that are sort of our keepers (Kevin..the group mascot) go with me to a tailor shop (everyone else had made the tailor shop visit while I was out of commission with my stomach issues...buying custom made shirts, skirts, suits..etc), but I went and I'm having a vest custom made. Sort of a gray tweed and dark gray silk back. Should be swanky...and I talked them down to 280 yuan from 330....so that is going to be about $45 for a tailor made vest.....some of the guys got suits tailor made for about $60-70!!!! Sheeeesh. It was a fun experience. And who the heck knows what Kevin is saying to them 1/2 the time...he's ADD!!!!! I can't say much...they kept having to get me to come back over and get fitted...I was distracted playing with the kitten in the back of the shop...HE WAS AWESOME...and cross-eyed...so I was messing with him...he was a spaz....haha Oops...distracted again....ANYWAY...

Anyway...we have some sweet sweet people being our handlers at the University! Kevin, Minnie (the leader of it all...and AWESOME), Wendy, Cindy, Evelyn...etc. Wendy was the poor soul who had to interpret at the clinic all of my body functions to the doctor...sheeeesh. Needless to say...we are close! They are all so sweet and fun.
China knows how to show hospitality. For example, the calligraphy professor carved each of us stone stamps with our Chinese zodiac on top and our name in Chinese as the stamp! FOR 20 of US!!!! WHAT? They do that sorta stuff for us left and right! It is awesome!

So THIS little guy's owner told us that he could OPEN and SHUT the door by himself....of course he can he's CHINESE!!!!!

More images from Wuhan HERE

Hubei University Days 7 & 8

Our first day back from the 3 Gorges visit was low key for the most part.
We had an economics class in the morning that dealt with China’s economy and where it is lacking, where it is excelling, and where it needs a boost. We had a pretty lively discussion in class comparing what is happening in China’s economy with the things happening back home in the US economy. The teacher was Mr. Wrong Qian and he was a little nervous in the first hour with us, but loosened up and jumped in with the discussion during the second hour. Dr. Kung appointed John and I to speak at the closing ceremony here at Hubei University next Tuesday...John will do most of the speaking and I'll be working on the power point for the presentation.
I think the boat ride (the heat, and the food, and all other things combined) took its toll on me. Montezuma’s Revenge finally crossed the ocean and found me. Not a fun thing!!! I went to class in the afternoon after working on China lesson plans (part of my agreement to come here was to create 5 lesson plans from what I’ve learned here) during lunch and our rest period. I made it through the calligraphy class which was great and I enjoyed it very much…but I felt pretty rough by the end of the class. (you can see me sweating in the pictures…with what was probably a low fever)…so I probably should have taken a nap instead of working on the lesson plans. Anyway…I made it back to the room and crashed…I skipped the evening out to the BUND down at the river front here, and slept all the way through the first class on Tuesday. I got up and go ready for the afternoon class which was our second calligraphy class. When I got there Sharon one of the teachers from Memphis told me she was waiting on one of our student helpers, Wendy to take her to the campus clinic, hopefully to get an IV to help re-hydrate from all the visits to the restroom (thank goodness we don’t have the TYPICAL “squatters” in our rooms at the hotel…but they are everywhere else….not fun…but funny). We go to the clinic and wow…wow…wow…what an experience.

(You can see the sickness setting in, in my eyes)
We get there and the sign on the door says 2:30-5:30pm OPEN…it was 2:45 and they weren’t going to be back until 3:00. So we are standing around waiting in the heat of the lobby…when a security guard comes up and tells Wendy something…we thought he was going to tell us we couldn’t be in that part of the building and to go back out to the front lobby and wait….NOPE. He had told Wendy that we could go down to his room where he lived and sit in there and wait, because it had an air conditioner and fan. Wow. That is such the Chinese way…take care of their guests.
So at 3pm everyone in the waiting room starts moving around, Wendy takes us over to a window where we pay 1.6 yuan for the two of us to get a ticket to see the doctor. We then go up stairs to a room with about 6 small cubicles on one side of the small room (almost like a small hallway) and on the other side facing the opening of the cubicles are seats for people waiting to see a doctor, doctors are in the cubicles. There are four doctors there when we arrive. We take turns seeing the doctor one at a time, but everyone in the room can hear and see what the doctor is doing…including the examining table at the end of the room. Sharon has to get up on the table and all the sudden everyone in the room is watching her…no privacy. Later when it is my turn they put me up on the table the room really starts watching as they undo my belt and pull my pants down a little bit, because they are sure that my symptoms some how mean I have an appendicitis and they are pushing and shoving on my abdomen. Sharon meanwhile had gone down to pay for a specimen cup to get a stool sample…yes she paid for it…then I guess because of all the pressure…she couldn't um…perform…so she got to come back up with her 2 yuan EMPTY cup and watch everyone watching me be examined. When it was all said and done (now remember she and I pretty much have the same symptoms) she is told to take some pills, and they say I have an appendicitis! Sheeeesh. Something was certainly lost in translation. So we went downstairs, got our pills (mine ended up being some sort of antibiotic, which is already working I can tell) and got out of there before I became the American guinea pig! Dr. Kung, and Minnie, as well as Alexis all came by to check on me and see how I was doing... So let’s hope this will be the last time I need to visit the Chinese hospital. I won’t complain about American medicine again.

After the antibiotic started kicking in I was ready to go eat...so Sharon, Ashley, and I caught the bus and headed to Pizza Hut...the same Chinese food over and over again has finally taken its toll. We get there and Matt and Kevin (one of our little Hubei University students that has sort of become our mascot on the trip) are there so we eat with them. We had a good time. Matt and I caught a cab back for 4 yuan (that's less than a dollar...something like $.75) and I headed to the room to take it easy....and let my meds work their wonder. Sharon and Ashley went with Kevin to meet another part of our group at a massage parlor. Let's hope tomorrow I'm feeling more like myself.

Three Gorges

We left Wuhan early Friday morning and headed to Jinzhou to visit the Jinzhou Museum. We then had lunch and visited the Jinzhou Ancient City Wall, we then headed to Yichang and had dinner there and walked around doing a little shopping with some of the local vendors on the street and in the alleys. Afterwards we took the bus to Maoping dock to catch our boat. The overall bus ride was around 5 hours long. It was not comfortable, but we survived and got there and loaded on the boat around 8:30pm. We spent the night on the boat as it headed down the Yangtze River.

The next morning we took a smaller ferry boat up into the Shennong River, a smaller tributary of the Yangtze. It was amazing how fast the water color changed once we got off the Yangtze with its milky brown color, from all the sediment moving down it, to the green...almost emerald green of the Shennong River. It was clearer and clearer the further up the river we travelled.
Shennong is named after one of the Chinese emperors.

The ferry boat went as far up the Shennong as it could, and the ride up that river was breathtaking to say the least, the huge mountains all around us, the hanging bamboo, the locals on their boats, the 2,000 year old "hanging coffins" in the openings/caves of the mountains along the river...were all so amazing. The coffins are made of cedar, and no one knows how the people who put them there were able to do it. They've carbon dated them, and they are over 2,000 years old. Cedar is the perfect wood for such a coffin, bugs don't like it and it is very very hard so it lasts a long time.

Once the ferry couldn't go any further up the Shennong, we departed it and transferred over to a small boat called a sampan that held about 17 of us. Each of these small boats had 5 trackers, one who was the captain, and one who was 2nd captain. The trackers take us up to the rapids/the shallows of the river (where now the water is crystal clear and you can see all the many colorful rocks in the stream) and then PULL the boatload of people by rope and pushing the back of the boat through the shallow parts of the stream. It was an unreal effort on their part. I bet we had at least 2500 pounds in our little boat alone...and they did it! They then took us through the rapids back down the stream and to our ferry. It was really something else.

The trackers are the Tujia people, one of the minority in China. They are singers, and even as they were pulling us up the stream they had their work song of sorts going to help get over the stream and back down the river. They were so friendly and as each one loaded us on and of the boat, they put out their hands and made sure they had a firm grip on your hand so that you didn’t fall or slip. It was an unforgettable experience. There is some concern that once the 3 Gorges Dam floods this area, that these people will no longer be able to do this job, and that the tourism will be gone. I hope that is not the case.

We made it back to our large boat by ferry, enjoying the scenery once again. Because of the heat we stayed inside most of the day and slept. The heat was unbelievable. In the evening it had cooled down considerably and we go off the boat and took a short ride to the White Emperor’s Palace, which was situated on top of one of these tall mountains. The bus rude alone was worth it…the driver hanging the curves, and dashing down the mountains…honking his horn at everyone along the route to get out of the way! It was our own personal roller coaster…and more than once we thought it might be the last ride of our lives! But, we finally made it to the Palace in once piece.

Once there it was a major climb up the mountain. There were innumerable steps that took us to the palace on top of the mountain. There were men below that would carry people up the mountain on a type of sedan, if you wanted to pay for it…but everyone in our group who went to the top did so of their own power. It was beautiful along the way, and of course there were people selling their goods again all up the stairway. Once to the top, it was a maze of ponds and gardens, I got lost from the rest of the group and all the many Chinese tour groups for a few minutes, and it was so peaceful. After being in China for 2 weeks, one thing that I missed was having somewhere to go for silence or at least a little quiet. There are very few places in the parts of China we’ve visited where that can happen. (1.6 Billion people remember) The pagodas and the monastic temples are the exceptions most of the time, and one can understand at least one reason someone would decide to go and be in that life to get away from it all! I spent time alone taking pictures and just enjoying not having to listen or speak to anyone for a few minutes. It was nice to get away for a few moments on that mountain top. I ended up in the living quarters of the grounds keepers on the very tip top of the mountain. They didn't pay much attention to me and after a few photographs I left.

Once I made it back down to the group we took the death wish bus back down, and as we walked trough the little village to get back to our boat, we shopped and fireworks starting going off from one of the mountains above us! What better place to see a fireworks display than in CHINA!?! It was great. Once back on the boat we headed to the top deck and hung out up there for a couple of hours as the boat chugged its way back down the Yangtze through the night of a full moon. Then bedtime.

The next day we visited the Three Gorges Dam, but it was hard to see much of it because of the foggy morning. Even though, it was pretty impressive. After this we made a brief visit to Three Gorges University a sister school of Memphis University, and then took the bus back to Wuhan, which was about a 6 hour drive all together, finally arriving back to our home away from home, our dorm room on the Hubei University campus.

More pictures are HERE.