China Trip: Summer 2008

John's Photographs

2008-09-25T21:16:00.004-05:00

This is a link to the Photographs of John Stephany, my roommate on my trip to China.

What a great guy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/john.stephany

"Lost Photos"

2008-09-09T22:34:00.004-05:00

Ok, so I'm pretty excited! I lost (deleted) some of my photos from the very first days of the trip to China! Ugh...who knows how? I guess when I was cleaning up my laptop on the trip, they were deleted accidently!

Anyway, I kept looking for them, and could never find them on my computer with the other photographs! It was very disappointing! Then I ran across them on my picassa account, and they aren't the FULL size of the originals, but they are at least a good size...so...I've uploaded them to the second CHINA page. They are the FIRST 38 images on that page.

The ones I really wanted are the ones of our first morning in Shanghai, John and I walked around the block of our hotel, about 7am...and the city was coming to life! Loved it.
There were also photographs of the 400 year old TEA HOUSE that are part of this set.
(I think you can read all about that in the previous posts from July 5 in Shanghai).
(Click the picture to go to the page)

Photography Contest Finalist

2008-08-31T17:15:00.006-05:00

I submitted a photograph from the trip to China, to a contest that the Tennessean newspaper was running, and it was selected (out of around 1200 photos I believe) as one of the top 20 finalists!

That's pretty exciting. It's nothing huge, just a local contest, but my first one I've been in since I started fooling around with photography. The winner wins like $100 or something.

I'm just pumped one of my photographs made it to the Top 20. =)

If you don't mind taking 10 seconds and going to the following link to vote for my photo...

I'm PHOTO #1

...so easy to find.... I sure would appreciate it.

Feel free to fwd this to others that wouldn't mind taking a moment to vote!

My photo is of The Sacred Way, in Beijing, China.

The day it was pouring down rain, and of course seems to have added to the total aura of the place.

Thanks!
Paul

http://travel.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=TENNESSEANTRAVEL9906

ALSO...for those who haven't seen my pictures for some reason....you can go to
http://www.photoworks.com/members/paulbeavers

Nashville Dragon Boat Festival

2008-08-23T22:03:00.009-05:00

The opening ceremony was a CHINESE LION DANCE performed by the CHINESE ARTS ALLIANCE OF NASHVILLE. It was a mix of adults and children who have learned to perform the LION DANCE. It was very nice to see this performed down by the Cumberland River under the the shadow of the Titans stadium, and the Shelby Street Bridge.

Dragon Boat Festival is one of the most popular Chinese festivals which is traditionally celebrated on the 5th of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. The popular theory of the origin of the festival is that it was derived from the activities of commemorating a great patriot poet, Qu Yuan. Today the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated all over the world and not necessarily together with the Double Fifth Day observance.

My pics

Beijing Olympics

2008-08-21T21:35:00.007-05:00

Well, I've been able to finally get some work done on some of my other pictures from China.
Most of the pictures that I've posted prior to the last couple of weeks, were all edited and cleaned up while I was in China. So there were several hundred other pictures I haven't even really looked at all that closely since returning home, because school started back and I have been busy with getting that started.

I worked on some of the Beijing pictures tonight. There ended up being some pretty nice photographs of the Olympic venue...I was pretty happy with them (they were still working on these when we were there July 7 and 8), especially since I took all of them from the moving bus.

So click the picture here to go see some of the new uploaded pictures from the Forbidden City, and the Olympic Venue.

The Butterfly Song

2008-08-20T21:58:00.007-05:00

So one of the stories I didn't get much of a chance to write about on here (because it was toward the end of the trip and things were moving TOO fast to put it on here) was our train ride back from the Wudang Mountains. I mentioned it, but I didn't get a chance to post the video and some pictures.

Trains were the best way to travel while in China. They are better than airplanes because you can actually lay down, stretch out and relax. The train back from our last weekend trip from Wuhan, was a highlight of the trip in many ways. We were all in 3 stacked bed quarters. Six people to each "cabin" (although it was an open cabin). It was about a 5 hour train ride if I remember correctly. The first part of the ride was spent sleeping and having a good nap after all the climbing we did.
We also had to CLIMB over the tracks at the station to get to our platform...dragging our luggage and treasures we had found along the way with us. It was one of those moments on the trip where I just stopped and remembered that we were in rural China and how awesome it all really was to be able to experience such a thing.

Once on our platform (crowded in with all the other passengers waiting for the train) the station security with large sticks started blowing their whistles and yelling (in Chinese) for everyone to get behind a red line on the platform (so they wouldn't be smashed by the train). They didn't have smiles on their faces, and with the yelling and sticks/clubs...I made sure I was completely behind the line! Once on the platform, there was probably no more than a 10 minute wait...probably more like a 6 minute wait...for the train to arrive. As soon as it did everyone quickly jumped on dragging all their things with them.

We settled in and napped for awhile. Then John and Sharon, who were in the next cabin met a sweet family. One of the little girls...probably around 4 years old, kept climbing up the ladder to John's bunk to get a peek of him. After some time I went over and hung out with them and was showing the two girls and their mom some of the photographs I had taken on this leg of the trip.
One of the pictures was a butterfly (see posted here). The mom of one of the girls (the one in white) had the two sing a song about butterflies.

Here it is!

Second Set of China Pics

2008-08-18T19:30:00.003-05:00

I've started working on the second wave of photographs from China.
Click HERE to see them.

Great Wall of China VIDEO

2008-08-16T20:32:00.004-05:00

I took some time today to work on some of my videos from the trip.

This is a clip from our climb up the GREAT WALL OF CHINA.

It was something else! I'll let the video speak for itself!

Lots of HUFFIN' and PUFFIN'!

Jet Lag & O'Hare

2008-08-05T14:32:00.002-05:00

Two things that aren't fun.

Our flight back from China on American Airlines, no problem. We travelled all over China...flying, trains, boats...wild taxi rides...etc. Some of it was pretty crazy, we even were harassed a bit because of the missile incident...but the worst travel experience of the whole trip had to be at O'Hare airport in Chicago.

Not only did we miss our flight because the plane we had been on for 14 hours had to sit another 15 minutes on the runway before it was given the okay from O'Hare to go to a gate...we had to go through security at least 3 more times once in the airport (that's not counting the two parts of Customs we had to go through). It was bad, and we were sick of it by the time we made it to our SECOND GATE where we had to wait for our later flight that got us home an hour late...that's not that much time, unless you've been in China for a month!!!! Anyway O'Hare sux!

I also have really bad jet lag. I stayed up for 25 hours straight and was already a little sick from the trip...(which I still have a little of) and the no sleep didn't help. So jet lag has been rough. I stayed up yesterday trying to correct it, went and saw The Dark Knight in IMAX and that woke me up a bit...got my haircut (almost fell out of the chair)...oh and the guy next to me heard me talking to the guy cutting my hair about being in China...and asked me about it because he leaves to go there at the end of the month...my advice was take PLENTY OF TOILET PAPER.

So I got home around 4pm yesterday and crashed. I woke up around 9pm...stayed up until around midnight and took two AMBIEN. They worked. Knocked me out and I didn't wake up once until around 9am this morning. So I think by the time of bed tonight I'll take another Ambien and be ready to go and caught up on the sleep! Which is good...because tomorrow is my first day back to school.

Keeping in Touch

2008-08-04T05:06:00.004-05:00

Here is a WONDERFUL email from one of our hosts at Hubei University, Minnie! She was in charge of keeping us on task and on schedule and we loved her for it! What a wonderful wonderful host, just like all of China!
Dear All,

Greetings from Minnie at Hubei University. Hope you all had a pleasant flight.

It was so hard to say goodbye at the airport, but it was very nice to share laugh, tear and memory. Three weeks of time is only a flash in one's life, but it will keep in my mind forever. Your strong desire to learn about our Chinese history and culture, your enthusiasm and sincerity in experiencing the different culture, and your kindness and generosity to our students and staff have left us a deep impression. I thank you all so much for your coming to Hubei and for being with us in this hot but special summer. We wish we could see yo again in China sometime in the near future.

To keep contact and share the pictures, I signed up for this Gmail. The username is -------, the password is ----------. The student helpers have created a group of Fulbright Teachers that you can find and edit your information. And we will upload in couple of days the pictures we took in this three weeks to the Photo Album which you can find in the right head of the website. Also, it will be much appreciated if you could upload the pictures you took, so that we can share the happiness.

Take care and keep contact.

Best regards.

Minnie

First Set of Photographs

2008-08-04T00:42:00.007-05:00

While on the trip I worked on editing some of the pictures and having them ready to post on the blog. All of them didn't make it onto this blog, and some didn't make it to the PICASA site either because of the slow Internet service in China. I also simply didn't have time to go through all the photographs that I took, and then edit them.

I have now uploaded all the pictures that I edited on the trip. Some how I deleted the edited photographs for July 8, which was the Great Wall and Sacred Way days. So I'll have to get the originals and clean them up a bit (taking out some of the smog for instance...making them a little clearer...etc). I also some how deleted the edited photographs for July 18. Then after that date I don't have any edited photographs, so I'll be working on those first probably July 20, 25, 26, 31, and August 1.

I have no way of knowing how many photographs I took, and I'm sure not going to try and count them! ha ha. I know this, I took so many that I used up all the memory on my lap top computer TWICE on the trip! So I'm also going to be busy transferring all of them to my desk top computer at home! All that AND school starts back for me in 2 days! In addition to all of that I have a lot of video that I will need to download to the computer and THEN edit into usable segments. That will be very time consuming! So it will be a little while before they are all up and available.

China: An Untold Story

2008-08-03T00:23:00.008-05:00

So I just got home about 2 hours ago! YEAH!
China was amazing in every way you could think...but I'm so glad to be back in my nest!

So now that I'm back...there is a story I couldn't tell until now...after the story you will see why.

Earlier in our trip our group was on the bus for about a 5 hour drive to somewhere.
We pull over about half way for a rest stop. It was raining and we all ran to the restrooms (some of the nastiest ones on the trip...so it wasn't a long stay in those haha) and then some grabbed drinks...etc at the little store.

The tour bus next to ours pulled off before we did, and when it did right there on the other side of it, probably 25 feet away was a mobile nuclear missile!!!!! It was on a long bed truck launcher with camouflage draped over the whole truck...but the missile was just right there, no mistaking it. Of course all our jaws hit the ground. It wasn't anything we ever expected to see...especially at what equaled a rest area back here at home!

So anyway, we get loaded up everyone a buzz about seeing the missile...etc. About 20-25 minutes down the road a silver mini-van pulls up next to us then in front of us honking and motioning for the driver to pull over...it was bizarre. He finally does. Two of four men in the van (four that we could see) get out and board our bus. They are both in tourist clothing...Hawaiian shirts actually...and they do NOT look happy or nice. They speak quickly in Chinese to Dr. Kung and our tour guide then the Dr. Kung immediately turned to the whole bus and asked "Did anyone from the back of the bus take any pictures of the missile truck back at the stop?" John (my roommate on the trip), sheepishly raised his hand (he was in the very back of the bus), and said he took one picture. They immediately wanted to see it. So he went to the front of the bus and showed them the picture, and then they made him delete it. The whole time John is apologizing, and saying how stupid it was, he wasn't thinking...etc. Whatever was needed to stay out of a Chinese prison for 12 years or so...haha.(Can you believe it wasn't ME that took a picture?)

They then said something else to Dr. Kung...and then Dr. Kung asked if anyone else had taken a picture, because the men said there had been TWO flashes from the back of the bus in the direction of the missile.
(WHAT!?!??!?!?!! YIKES) One of the girls had taken a picture of one of the other girls in the back of the bus...but they didn't believe it. So they had everyone in the last two rows of the bus bring their cameras up and go through all their pictures, until they saw there were no pictures of the missile on any cameras.

I honestly thought at first when they boarded, that we were being robbed (sort of like the stories one hears about buses from Nashville going to Tunica, MS to gamble- being hijacked and robbing people going to gamble with all cash...etc)...it was crazy.

Then later in the day we were pulled aside again at a toll station. The driver had to get out and talk to the people there. I have no idea what happened there. They talked to him, and then he paid the toll and got back on the bus. Nothing else was said.

Needless to say...NONE of us spoke of it again and certainly didn't talk to people back home about it on the phone, or in emails or on blogs!!!!! HECK NO!!!! We didn't even use the word missile the rest of the trip...all I ever heard about it again was called the "incident with John and the camera." "THE INCIDENT!"

CRAZY!!!!!! So that's the untold story (until now) from China!

Last Night In China

2008-08-01T07:22:00.010-05:00

We got up this morning in the town of Wuzhen...we drove there after our tour of Suzhou. We first visited a leaning pagoda...like the leaning tower of Pisa...which is funny because Suzhou, & Wuzhen are compared to Venice, Italy because of all the canals. The little historical part of Wuzhen is like Colonial Williamsburg...but 1,000 years old and about 6 times larger...all along old canals. Oh yea...people still live there as well. It was really something else. Then four of us took a taxi to the night market which was pretty crazy, but a lot of fun.

Do you love this guy or what?

He was just watching us all walk by, from his window. We then drove to Hangzhou where we spent the night. We toured Hangzhou today and had a great time. We went to another Buddhist temple in Hangzhou, and it was really beautiful watching all the people walking around with their prayers and incense. There's something about watching anyone practice their faith that makes you stop and take notice. I tried to be as unnoticed with my photography as possible because of this. Many times I just held the camera in front of my stomach where it was hanging around my neck, and snap without putting it up to my eye...so that it didn't intrude on what was happening. The various Buddhas carved into the rock of the mountain were amazing!
We then travelled to a tea plantation and it was an amazing visit. We all loaded up on tea after a demonstration by our little guide there, "Grace." She was outstanding with her information about tea...it was her area of study in college. We then went to lunch and then headed to the West Lake for a boat ride, where we saw the THREE TOWERS in the LAKE (which you can see on the back of the 1 yuan currency). We then drove on a VERY BUMPY ride to Shanghai for about three hours. I do not like the roads here...it is like driving through Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Northern Texas all together!!!! BUMP BUMP BUMP, POTHOLE POTHOLE POTHOLE!!!

We are staying here tonight..(went out and took my final photographs of the trip at the BUND again). We actually saw blue sky in Shanghai today as we drove in...and there wasn't a haze of smog of the city...so I'm going to take some more pictures in a few minutes... It is really amazing how much better the pollution is today/tonight than a month ago. Unbelievable. Getting ready for the Olympics has paid off I think.

This will be my final entry for the trip until I return home.
The picture below doesn't even look real.
What an amazing adventure.

Goodbyes, and Suzhou

2008-07-30T10:09:00.013-05:00

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

2008-07-28T19:37:00.004-05:00

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

2008-07-28T12:19:00.008-05:00

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

2008-07-24T23:01:00.008-05:00

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

2008-07-24T19:21:00.006-05:00

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

2008-07-24T00:52:00.007-05:00

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

2008-07-22T07:21:00.004-05:00

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

2008-07-21T18:50:00.011-05:00

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.

Hubei University Day 6

2008-07-17T09:53:00.007-05:00

Today we had a pretty easy going day.
The morning began with a great breakfast, and then followed by our last History and Culture class. It was excellent, and became a little heated at times as we discussed Taoism. It was very interesting and it pretty much wore me out...but it was excellent information. The idea from Taoism of "leaving things alone" Zi ran wu wei "nature and inaction" or humans having minimum impact on the natural world, so that nature can take its course, brought up questions from some in our group of when do people step in to help others, say after a natural disaster...etc. It was a lively discussion with some very good ideas and thoughts.
My favorite part of Taoism is Zhong sheng yang sheng "live long but don't age." What an excellent way to view getting older.

I went out on my own during the lunch and rest period today. It was nice to get away and just ride the bus down the street a bit, eat lunch on my own, and I went and bought some Chinese children's books (baby books almost) to help with teaching Chinese speaking basics when I get back to school.

Our afternoon class was our second Chinese Art class. The best part of the art classes has been watching Mr. Hu Zhiyoung painting. He paints a little and then stops...looks at the painting and then waves his hand over the area he's picturing for the next strokes of his brush. It is almost like the wave of the pope when he is blessing someone...it is that sort of motion. He's visualizing what he's about to do. It is great stuff. Today we painted landscapes, mountain landscapes and then a bamboo scene. Mine were a little rough around the edges....but I saved them.

We left class and a small group of us 3 university students and 6 of our group went to see the movie THE RED CLIFF...directed by John Woo. It is about the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, which was around the time that Caesar was taking over Rome. It was EXCELLENT! It was in Chinese of course, with English subtitles.
We came home and packed for our two nights on the river cruise down the Yangtze!

Hubei University Day 5

2008-07-16T10:08:00.022-05:00

Today we had a field trip. We went to visit Wuhan Senior High School. It is an interesting school. The campus actually holds both the Wuhan Middle School, and the High School. The Middle School is made up of about 1,000 students and it is a private school, whereas the High School (grades 10-12) is a public school and there are about 2,000 students in the High School.
The campus was amazing. The students even more amazing! We first met in the conference room (that looked very much like the conference room at Hubei University...I'm starting to think this is a standard type of room in all places like universities or government meeting places....(probably fashioned after something in Beijing). Anyway, we had a few speeches, some introductions, and then a short power point slide show about the school. I asked to save the power point to my flash drive, that I keep with me at all times here....and have saved several power point presentations from various teachers...etc. We then went and met the students. Each of us had about 2 students to be our guides and to talk with us, and to ask us questions and to answer our questions. My two students were juniors in high school. The were delightful!

The spent more time asking my question than I did asking them questions... and I loved the fact that after they learned my name, they didn't call me "Paul" or "Bi Fei" (my Chinese name), or even "Mr. Beavers"...nope...they called me "Beava" YUP...you got it! "Beava"....I LOVED it.

The two on the ends were my two girls. Mickey to the left and Cindy to the right.
So all kinds of questions; "Beava, what do American students think about North Korea, what do they think about Japan, what do they think about South Korea?" "Beava, do American students get enough sleep? Do they worry about their grades? Do study another language?" "Beava, how do American students feel about the large earthquake here?" "Beava, who is your favorite Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, or Zhou Enlai?" "Beava, who is your favorite American president?"

WAIT A MINUTE!!!!! I couldn't come up for air...this went on for about 2 hours or so. Even when we all came back together in the auditorium and the head master was doing a Q/A period...they never stopped talking to me. They made it very clear that they didn't care for the head master of the school...and even let me know when some of his answers were "lies." Does their openness surprise you? Don't let it. This is China. Don't believe all you read in the western press. Sure there are some things that need improvement in China...lots of things...but human rights and freedoms are way beyond anything you have ever heard in the western press. I've seen and heard it first hand...these people speak their minds. This is NOT old COLD WAR Soviet Union communist control...this is something very different. These girls (Their names I forgot to mention are Mickey...or Li Danqing, and Cindy or Wang Xin)... were told by their teachers to be VERY frank with us when they spoke with us. It was a wonderful surprise...and again...it wore me out to be honest! They were talking all the way to the bus.... I have some great video of their telling me that they do NOT get enough sleep, they are pushed too hard by their parents and teachers, and they don't like it! At the same time, they know they need to work hard and do their best, because they plan to do great things and make great lives for themselves!

Even though we only spent a few hours with these kids, some of our American teachers actually teared up when we were leaving...it is very easy to understand why...they were completely charming and delightful kids. As we drove away, we followed the Chinese custom of continuing to wave until the kids were completely out of our site. I like that custom.
We then came back to campus and had lunch. Then a nice long hour and a half NAP! We were worn out from the visit this morning.
After lunch and the nap, it was time for our only class of the day...Chinese Painting. Our teacher was our old buddy from the first day at lunch, who sat with John and me and laughed at us the whole time. He doesn't speak a bit of English, but he sure could laugh with us! He is great! Mr. Hu Zhiyoung. We tried our hand at painting grapes and birds. Some of us did our own thing as well...so I have some bamboo added to my not-so-great attempt at birds....and I added a limb with pink blossoms to the birds as well.

The horse hair brush is very HARD at first, so you must use your teeth to break it up and loosen it for painting.

Wu painted the work below.

After that we went to dinner, and enjoyed another birthday celebration for one of the participants from Memphis, Deb! (the 2nd birthday we've celebrated). They bring out a HUGE cake with lots of candles on it...the cake is unreal....this cake had a hard chocolate top, and then white choc. wings coming up out of the middle...and birds all over it...then little chocolate nests with chocolate syrup inside all the little nests....it was something else). The birthday person gets a song, and then they say a few words, and then make the first cut into the cake...as soon as that happens the serving girls quickly grab the knife and start cutting the cake and serving it to everyone...starting with the birthday person!

We then went to the other side of the campus near one of the gyms and watched/participated the Chinese fan dancing. It was pretty humorous when all tried it, but outstanding when the ladies (of all ages) from the community who come out to do it (as a type of exercise I think...sort of like people back home do line dancing sometimes) for exercise. Everyone had a good time and a good laugh...and lots of sweat...with the humidity being about 85% we were all dripping wet!

It was an excellent day once again!

More pictures are HERE from the whole trip. More to come

Hubei University Day 4

2008-07-16T09:34:00.018-05:00

Today was spent in our second music class. We learned about various types of traditional Chinese music. We learned to sing a song in Chinese...a short one..."Jasmine Flower" or Mo li hua. It is a Chinese Folk Song or Zhong guo Min ge. We listened to several types of music from the traditional folk music to the Beijing Opera...which I couldn't stand...it is very high pitched and hurt my ears. But I did love the Chinese Xiqu which is called an opera, but is really more than that...it is more like a play with acrobatics, ballet and opera all mixed together.
The clip we saw was amazing. I'll post it here some time in the future when I get home and have a faster speed to upload.

We then had our first field trip to the Hubei Provincial Museum. It was very nice....a great complex that is less than 4 years old. A few of the spectacular things they had in their museum were the ancient bronze bells or Bian Zhong found in Hubei province...that are about 2000 years old. They were part of a massive tomb that archaeologists believe belonged to a nobleman of the Chu. There was also a set of the Bian Qing the hung stone tablets that are played like the hanging bronze Bian Zhong.

Another great part of the museum was the King of Yue copper sword that is 2300 years old, and still looks brand new. Scientist have study the sword and have figured out some of the mixture that made the sword, but still don't know why it is so well preserved. It is from the Warring States Period, and was found in a Chu tomb, even though it is from the Yue people. It is believed to have been a spoil of war since they Chu had conquered the Yue. There are records that mention the Yue, but nothing written by them and very little has been discovered of theirs that was part of the Chu. So they are still a bit of a mystery, although their craftsmanship seems superior to the Chu (at least from the things we saw in the museum). (The Chu were the most powerful state in the South...they were eventually defeated themselves by the Qin of the north who started the Great Wall.)

The other amazing thing we saw in the museum was the horse and chariots that were found in the massive tomb of an important Chu nobleman and his wife in what is now the town of Zao Yang. The chariots and the skeletons of the horses are in excellent condition. The horses were killed and then put in the tomb with the chariots. Bronze arrowheads have been found in the necks of the horses so even show how they were killed. There were 33 chariots and 76 horses total.

One other thing that was pretty interesting were the small jade animals pictured below. These small animals were found in the mouths of the dead in the tombs of the Chu nobles mentioned above. Jade is thought to fight off evil in the afterlife, so it is put in the mouths of the dead to help them in the next life. The jade of these small animals soaked up the blood of the dead so that you can see the color change in the animal.

After our tour of the museum, we enjoyed a performance that included the bronze bells and the stones...as well as many other of the ancient instruments we studied in our class. It was brief, but excellent. The large bells are really something else.

We then drove to the West Lake and enjoyed a beautiful walk around the lake.

After class today and the museum, we had free time for dinner on our own.

So a group of us went to PIZZA HUT! Western food was welcomed! Our server was one of the students at Hubei and she had made up her own English name, Lusika (lew-si-kuh). She was so sweet, and totally would not take a tip (a fee she called it) because she considered us friends, and you were NOT to take fees from friends.

It would be disrespectful.

We enjoyed being out seeing the life on the streets of Wuhan.

Hubei University Day 3

2008-07-14T06:10:00.025-05:00

Day three on campus was VERY humid and muggy...the air was so heavy and it made being outside very tough. So I stayed inside unless I was travelling from the hotel room to my classes or to a meal.

Our morning class was our first time with Chinese Traditional Music. The instructor was Ms. Zhou Liling (in Chinese the Zh has a J sound...so you would pronounce her name as "Joe" and it is her sur name...the Chinese put the sur name, or last name first and then your given name last). It was excellent. She shared what the various traditional instruments were and then showed a clip of video with the instrument being played.

The highlight was her performance on the Zheng (Jeng). She played a couple of traditional Chinese folk songs, and then she played Edelweiss from The Sound of Music. It was great. The instrument that I'm (not) playing is the Xiao (Sh-ow).
On the lunch break I dropped by the Post Office to mail 12 post cards....only people who sent me their addresses in a timely manner had one MAILED to them!!! They should arrive if all goes well and there are no mishaps around .....October...(seriously) haha. It will be a little Halloween present for folks.

Then, on day 11 of our trip...John (Stephany)my roommate from Memphis, and I had to make a run for it at lunch time and catch a city bus (1 yuan) to the McDonald's two bus stops away...we love the food here, but needed a WESTERN FIX!!!! It was sooooooo GOOD...of course like all the food here in China...it is served fresh...so the fries don't sit and get old and hard in the fryer like they do back home...so the FRIES were SOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!! I had a number ee (which is #1) large size and I wanted my Coke to be hen ben (which is icey cold!) YEAH ICE!!! (not a lot around here).

We then had our third lesson on History and Culture with Ms. Gu Ya. We covered a lot of territory in regard to Confucius...or Kong qiu as he is called in China. Excellent information.

I wrote many of the sayings and beliefs of Confucius out in Chinese script today...it was not easy, but certainly worthwhile. The big thing that stuck out to me was the idea expressed by Confucius back around 500BC... Ji Suo Bu Yu (pronounced "gee-swo-boo-yoo" which means "Treat others how you want to be treated." The "Golden Rule" 500 years before Christ....or Ke Ji (pronounced "kee jee") "Have Self Discipline." It was a great 3 hours of learning. My head hurt when it was over after trying to comprehend all she was saying (in Mandarin w/ an interpreter) and my writing it down in Ping Ying (the way I'm writing it here) and in the normal Chinese script...which I can't write here because I don't have the font on this computer. But the picture below gives you some idea of the type of things I was writing.

She wrote this on the chalk board in like a minute and a half. Sheeeesh.

We went out and found some local color tonight...I have some amazing pics....I thought I'd send this one we've found a place close by in a back alley near the school where there is NOTHING but energy..great food being cooked out in the open... The family that runs the place we go to drink is AMAZING...such gracious hosts...and just took us in as one of their own. I'll have more pictures of them all later.

Hubei University Day 2

2008-07-13T07:34:00.010-05:00

We began our regular work days in Hubei with a breakfast, and then off to room 301 of the International Studies building for out first (of three) Chinese history classes. This class was conducted by Ms. Gu Ya. The interesting thing about the history classes is that Ms. Gu Ya taught them all in Mandarin Chinese...to a room full of English speaking Americans. What a great experience...thanks to her interpreter "Alex" (each Chinese person chooses an English name for themselves...after they have been studying English) and our leader Dr. Kung.

The interpretation "drag" took some getting use to, and Alex was a little rough around the edges with his English, but over all it was a good experience. I still managed to take several pages of notes. It was interesting the way in which Ms. Guy Yu presented the information. There was a Power Point slide on the screen behind her (in English) with somewhat of an outline of the topic she was covering...but instead of it introducing what she was covering right then...it was something she would build up to toward the end of a particular section. Somewhat reversed. There was also some chronology skips in the presentation, and they were consistent so I think it was the style of teaching she uses on a regular basis that we are not use to in the West. Again all of this adding to a great experience first hand.

It was without a doubt interesting to hear a Chinese history teacher sharing her history with us from her point of view...and giving us information that I've yet to see in any of the many books I've read on China. For example...most everyone knows about the Chinese Dynasties and how the father would hand down the position of emperor to his son upon his death....but I've never heard of (and neither had any of the other teachers with our group) the "Demised System" which came before the Dynasty System...where the next BROTHER in the family would inherit the position of emperor from the older brother instead of just going from father to son. The Dynasty System began with the Xia Dynasty...around 2070BC replacing the Demised System.

So a big history geek like myself was loving the history study...especially the Ancient history.

After lunch we had our first Chinese language class conducted by Ms. Wang Ruoxuan.

She did an EXCELLENT job of jumping right in and teaching us the sounds of the Ping Ying (English phonetic writing of the Chinese language) and tones. She had a great POWER POINT that showed the way the TONES work, and the markings on words for the tones. It was really fascinating. We learned a huge amount in a small time frame with her. She was very patient with us.

After our second class, I walked around the campus a little bit on my way back to our room and took some pictures of the campus. Students were studying for examinations and a few stopped me along the way to practice their English conversation. Walking around the streets of Wuhan is somewhat like being a celebrity back in the United States, almost EVERYONE stares as you walk by...and are a little taken back when you smile and speak to them. They are very sweet when you say Ni hao! and usually will respond in English with "hello!"

After dinner John, Deb, Sharon, and I (some of my buddies from the group...that laugh and act as goofy as I do) decided to have an adventure and walk to Wal-Mart. It was a great walk and we had another chance to get out into the REAL China and experience the people and everyday life. Seeing mothers bathing their babies in small tubs on the sidewalk, men playing pool outside on canopy covered tables to just the people themselves enjoying the evening after a hard day's work.

I made video and will have to post some of that here when I return home because I don't have the correct cables with me for that...but it was unreal! First of all the place is ENORMOUS! It is FULL of people everywhere...the produce section and the checkout lines are just...a mass of people all pushing (but not in an offensive way really) to get their position in line. Controlled Chaos is the best way to describe it I guess. We were trying to find something in the store called "White Cloud" and couldn't figure out which box it was in (they all looked the same and were all written in Chinese) so I started trying to explain to the girls who worked there what we were looking for...of course they didn't speak English...and they were trying their hardest to help. I finally began a game of "Pictionary" drawing clouds on a piece of paper...they still weren't sure what to make of it...so I started point at the drawing and then pointing up...still no good....I said "sky" "up" "cloud"...then I moved from the "Pictionary" round to the Charades part of the night...haha. Needless to say it didn't take long for a crowd to gather, some 30 to 50 people all around the area we were in...to watch the "Crazy Americans" or waiguoren (foreigners) and they all began trying to understand and guess what I was doing. Finally a kid around 6 years old sitting in the front basket of his mother's cart got "sky" and yelled "SKY!" When I kept pointing to the sky and then my drawing of a cloud and then pointed at the worker's white shirt for "white"- he got it and told everyone what I was saying in Chinese..."Sky" and then they understood the drawing of the cloud and the white shirt...and took us straight to the correct box. (and being the ultimate sales people...they tried to get me to buy the 188 yuan box instead of the 15.8 yuan box...that I ended up buying) They were so helpful and everyone was so warm. Checkout was a crazy experience...and we finally made it out.

We then decided to catch the bus back to the campus, and played another game of "Frogger" to get across the street...without getting SQUASHED. (Not an easy task...crazy crazy stuff crossing streets in China) We made it on the bus (1.2 yuan for an un-air conditioned bus, and 2 yuan for an air-conditioned bus) we were going to take whatever showed up first...and it was the 1.2 yuan bus. We were packed in there standing the whole way...but it was still not considered a FULL bus by any stretch of the imagination. We laughed all the way back home...and then went to the room of my fellow Nashvillians for a birthday "celebration" as it was Ashley's 29th birthday. She had already been given a birthday party and cake by the university at supper and now we had a small celebration back in their room...sitting around and talking about all the craziness of the trip so far.
What an excellent day.

Hubei University Day 1

2008-07-13T00:26:00.004-05:00

We flew into Wuhan and were quickly checked into our rooms. We were exhausted. Our rooms are nice and have air conditioning, which is very much a luxury here! So again the Chinese are very good with treating their guests to the best they have, and we greatly appreciate it. We went to sleep to get much needed rest for the next day...our first day at the University.

Everyone we met in China (and before we got here) talked about how HOT Wuhan was...but I find it to be about like the temperatures in Nashville. There is high humidity, and low 90 temperatures. So it is very tolerable. Also...the university is on a lake, and so we get a nice breeze most of the time that comes off of it.

Our first day at Hubei University started with an Opening Ceremony and group photograph in front of the new library on campus. There were speeches by the president of the University Wu Chuanxi, and the Vice President, Yan Xuejun along with the director of the international office, who is really our host for the most part, Li Xiangkun. They welcomed all of us and then Dr. Kung had all of us to introduce ourselves, and then we went and took the photograph. We were then presented with gifts from the university, Hubei University Polo Shirts! They are very nice, long sleeved polo shirts with the university's logo on them. After the opening ceremonies a group of 8 university students gave us a tour of the Hubei University museum.

We had lunch, again outstanding! We spent time with members of the faculty that will be teaching our classes during our stay...the calligraphy professor, Mr. Zhou Houhong and the painting professor Mr. Hu Zhiyoung sat with our table...and although they did not speak English and we did not speak Chinese...we all understood laughter, and eating! They are jokers...both fo them...Mr. Houhong is more dry in his humor...and Mr. Zhiyoung...my favorite...has a big hardy laugh....hmmmm who does that sound like? He smiles a lot and loves laughing.... Then to our first class...an introduction to Hubei Provience, Wuhan, and Hubei Universtiy.
Dinner that night was outstanding and we had an excellent time, again spending time with our hosts...this time mostly our student escorts around the campus. All girls, and all speaking excellent English! They are all so sweet and reserved and helpful!

It was an excellent first day at our new home of three weeks!

Xian Day 2

2008-07-12T04:19:00.019-05:00

We began our second day in Xian by visiting the city wall....
which is 600 years old. We went on top of it and rode rickshaws...
we gave our driver a work out. We then went to the Shang Xi Museum of History. It was amazing. We had lunch and then we visited the Wild Goose Pagoda...which is a working Buddhist monastery. It has about 32 monks living there. It was very interesting. I enjoyed listening to the various song birds that were hanging in cages around the grounds.

When we finished we headed to the airport to fly out to Wuhan. We sat down to eat at a diner in the airport, where I asked for change for a 50 yuan bill. The young girls working there had been flirting a bit the whole time, and so when I asked for change...they said they could give it to me...then they said the couldn't...it was confusing...then in all the confusion I yelled out...."BUT, I'M AN AMERICAN!!" Everyone looked shocked at first...then saw us all laughing and had a good laugh about it! It was a high point of the trip, needless to say. haha.

Our driver of the rickshaw, earning EVERY yuan taking us around. (He was grunting the whole time...but as you can see in the picture, always with a smile)

Several scenes from the wall of Xi'an. (We are on top of the wall)

Several images from the museum.

Scenes from the Wild Goose Pagoda & monastery

Worn OUT at the airport in Wuhan...

Yes, "I'm an American...."

Xi'an Day 1

2008-07-11T06:54:00.015-05:00

We flew out of Beijing and took about a two hour flight to Xi'an. When we arrived in Xi'an we headed to the Terracotta Warrior Museum, which was about an hour from the airport.
One of the things we have really noticed are the different personalities of the various cities we have visited. Shanghai is "new and modern"...but also VERY polluted and very fast paced. Beijing is much more reserved, but at the same time very friendly. It is the seat of the government, so it makes sense that it would be more reserved.
Xi'an is what we would call "out in the sticks." I liked Xi'an the most so far....at least in regard to the people. They are very very simple people, but very curious about who we are. More on that in a moment.
For this post I am going to post the photograph and just explain what is happening with in or with the photograph. The first couple of pictures are the Terracotta Warriors, then some images from the Traditional Music and Dance from the Tang Dynasty (one of the Golden Ages of China), and then spending time on the streets of Xi'an, as the people were relaxing from a hard day of work...and singing, dancing, and laughing with each other in the city square outside our window. We joined them. What an experience.

Click the video to HEAR the singing in the park in Xi'an!

You can't really see much, but you can hear it. It was great!

Beijing Day 2

2008-07-09T18:42:00.022-05:00

The reception we have received from the people of China, has been unbelievable. They have been such gracious hosts, and are so excited to see us. From the street vendors yelling "HELLO, 5! 5!...5, yuan!...HELLO! How much? How much?" haha.... to the tour guides, to the workers at the restaurants and hotels...to the people on the street that stare at us along the way as we stare back...(usually both sharing big smiles once we realize we are both staring at each other), they are just warm, sweet people over all. There have been several times when something will happen that will all the sudden bring tens of not hundreds towards us as if we are some sort of celebrities...or we are drawn to hundreds and then somehow end up in the middle of all of them...again...as some sort of new thing from far away. It is all a wonderful experience. The children really tend to be so curious about us. The little girl in the picture above was in a bus next to ours, and she kept pressing against the window of her bus staring at all of us in some sort of amazement. I quickly snapped a picture and it caught her off guard at first, then after a couple of pictures taken...she flashed this mischievous smile at me. People wave at us from other buses all the time. Wanting us to wave back and smile....etc. Again it just wonderful.

Our second day in Beijing started out visiting a JADE FACTORY. Jade is becoming more and more rare as the mines aren't producing as much, and no new jade mines are being discovered.

In China it is a very valuable stone. Women and men both wear jade for good health and good luck. Women will wear their jade jewelry, such as a bracelet ("bangle") or ring on the left arm/hand. They do this because they believe that the minerals that have processed the jade throughout the jade's long life in the ground, is good for them...so they wear it on the same side of the body as the heart. The craftsmen of jade or also become fewer and fewer, as young people leave their rural homes and move into the cities. It is a skill that is traditionally handed down from father to son...etc. It is truly amazing.
We then visited on our rainy, foggy (yes fog not smog for a change) morning...the Ming Tombs.
They are designed with Feng Shui. Which deals with the harmony of a location. It is in a valley that allows mountains to guard it from wind following in and bringing bad energy in and good energy out...there are rivers flowing through the area that allow good things to constantly be brought into it...it was a beautiful place. The whole morning was much more relaxing because there were fewer people around...kept away by the rainy weather. It was nice to not have so many people around for awhile.

My favorite part of the Ming Tombs was the Sacred Way. This is a walk up to the Ming Tombs. There are several statues of various Ming emperors, and then there are rows of animals along the walk. There are two sets of each type of animal...dragon, camel, elephant...etc. The first two sets of the animals are standing...and then the second set of the animal is kneeling...this is to give the effect that as the emperor walked through the animals would see him, and then in the second set, they would be kneeling to him. It was raining pretty hard as we walked through...and there was NO ONE else there but our group. It was simply stunning in the rain, and so peaceful.

"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a great man."- Mao

We then went to lunch and headed to the Great Wall of China. We went to the Badaling part of the Wall. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Again we were there on a rainy, foggy day.

Beijing Day 1

2008-07-09T04:43:00.011-05:00

Wow...things are moving so quickly. I was posting about a day behind, and now one has become two...haha. Climbing the Great Wall of China will do that to you I guess. (More on that next time)
Beijing means "Bei"= North and "Jing"=Capital So NORTHERN CAPITAL

(Nanjing is the SOUTHERN CAPITAL)

So after taking the train to Beijing we arrived and hit the ground running, and didn't see our luggage until two nights later at our hotel...we didn't see our big bags on the train...

First stop was Tiananmen Square. (Which means "Gate of Heavenly Peace")The largest city square in the world. It really is pretty impressive. There were people EVERYWHERE! As you can see from the pictures...there is a lot of space from one spot to the next...so there was a lot of walking here. It was very hot this morning out there on all that concrete and it was hot.

We then went to the Forbidden City, where the last of the Qing Emperors were overthrown in 1911. It is amazing. (I'll use that word often on here)

After this we had another incredible meal for lunch, and then went to the Summer Palace, my favorite place of the day. The cool breezes next to the lake, made it very easy to understand why it was chosen as the place to be during the summer months.

We then made a short stop on the way to dinner at a wonderful little park in Beijing called the "Dragon Pool Park." There were dragons everywhere...and it was very peaceful in the late afternoon.

After another great dinner, we went to see a show somewhat like the Irish "River Dance" called "Kung Fu Legend." It was very exciting. We then crashed and called it a day!!! Time to get ready for the Great Wall the next day!

(Wait until you see THOSE pictures!!!!)

(More of THIS DAY's Pictures are HERE)

Train To Beijing

2008-07-07T16:55:00.009-05:00

July 7, Monday
Train from Shanghai to Beijing
(6:41 AM)

The day in Shanghai yesterday(July 6) was really HOT! It was a 15 year HIGH @ 104 degrees!
But we saw so many wonderful things. Breakfast was great.THE BEST BACON I've ever had...unbelievable. I also had an omelet and all kinds of great fruit. Breakfast also included CONGEE...a watery rice. There were various types of relishes that could go in it or sweet fruits...I put pineapple in mine. The breads were very good- I made toast from some kind of golden raisin bread, it was very good. My roommate John and I took a walk after breakfast around the block of our hotel...our very MODERN hotel.

What a difference a block made....going from our modern hotel to the what appeared to be "slums" of Shanghai...but what a great time to be walking around the area- early morning (7:30 AM) was a time of energy- people were out getting the day started...bicycles and scooters everywhere- bicycle bells ringing to get me out of the road- while taking pictures- so they wouldn't hit me...(lots of pictures of course). The girl in the butcher shop, the man brushing his teeth in the street... Shops of all kinds buzzing with energy and life in this city of 20 million people. The Chinese consider Shanghai to be their New York City- but twice the population. The pollution was rough...I had a tightness in the top left of my chest most of the morning. As the day progressed I became a little more use to it. The heat became what was on every one's mind- it was sweltering and of course the pollution didn't help. But even though it as so hot, it was interesting how much cooler it was in the shade...with a breeze constantly blowing...it kept it a bit cooler there.
We had a private coach for the day and it was very well air conditioned.

We spent the first part of the day in "Old Town" Shanghai- the highlight being the Yu Garden and the Old (400 year old) Tea House. (Again many pictures).

We then went to a SILK museum and saw how the silk in Southern China is cultivated- I got one of the silk worm's cocoons..and then bought a shirt, four pillow covers and a small purse for a friend of mine.

We then went to lunch and then shopping along Nanjing Road. I bought another friend a National China Basketball team jersey at the NIKE store. This road is their 5th Avenue.
My roommate John and I didn't do much more shopping there on Nanjing Road, we walked around taking pictures and visiting a mall (for the A/C)...to get out of the 104 degree weather.
While in the mall (8 stories tall), we played a video game at a large UPS/Olympics booth that was located in the center of the main floor of the mall. Our goofy American ways attracted (ok...my being loud and goofy while I played the video game) a bit of a crowd...some 20 to 30 people...cheering as I played the game. It was pretty funny. I won a prize of a small sponge volleyball with the Beijing Olympic symbol on it.
Our group left the shopping and headed to a Confucius temple...it was something else. The trees in front were full of paper "prayers" hanging in them. Others would then come along later after someone would hang one, and burn them...releasing them into the air/heavens. While there I purchased a personal stamp that had my CHINESE ZODIAC sign (The Ram/Sheep) carved on top, and then had my name carved in Chinese on the bottom.

We then went to an area that the French once controlled in Shanghai- the French Quarter. It was very modern and newly renovated. From there we went to dinner. All the meals have been AMAZING! We sit at a large round table of about 8 or 9 people and then there is a large "lazy susan" in the middle. All the dishes are brought out and put on this, and we spin it around and serve ourselves. They serve, bottled water, tea (hot), soft drinks, and beer with meals.

After dinner we caught a train to Beijing. The train station was a CRAZY mess...people shoving and pushing, and crowding around trying to make their train. It was crazy chaos. Then all the sudden some female official showed up (complete in hills and her skirt) and immediately shut down the escalator, and started yelling at people...etc. She had it in control in less than 5 minutes. It was something else.

Once on the train it was VERY nice. We slept in private cabins of four people. Each person had their own bed. I was in a cabin with our Chinese tour guide, and two other Chinese men who were not in our group. It was very nice, because the tour guide was off taking care of things (His name is Snow by the way), and the other two didn't speak English...and I certainly don't speak Mandarin...so it was peaceful and nice. I got nice night of sleep on the train.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES

First Night Shanghai

2008-07-05T07:59:00.014-05:00

Hey everyone.

Good flights over all. We had no problems with getting to our flight to Shanghai in Chicago, nor did our luggage. The captain on the plane even announced that the luggage from that plane made it on board and we were ready for take off! ha-ha. So all went well with that. I even had almost an entire row of 6 seats to myself ( I was at one end and one guy at the other end.) So that was very cool. I was able to actually lay down for part of the flight and sleep some. The Ambien did alright. Didn't totally knock me out...but it made the flight much much much easier.
It didn't seem like 14 hours (13 actually we arrived an hour early!!!)

Now...Shanghai.....

Wow what a hot, humid, steamy, smoggy, AMAZING city!!!! It is interesting. I tried to send you pictures here and to upload them to my photobucket site and the internet here wouldn't let me send through my google email...but MICROSOFT OUTLOOK from my school account will let me...WEIRD!
*(It finally let me upload pictures in the emails, and on this blog)Anyway...as you can imagine it is something else here in Shanghai. It is around 3:00AM here. I went to bed around 8ish PM here w/ some jet lag...and now can't sleep so you are getting this! ha-ha.

The meal we had last night was really good. Some sort of green beans, cabbage, lemon glazed fried chicken, and a lot of other stuff....(those were my favorites).

We have a GREAT tour guide. The local guide is very good as well.

Oh...the pollution...
you cannot imagine! Within a few hours of being here I could feel it...and the heat just adds to it. Itchy eyes...heavy lungs...ugh!!!! About what I figured it would be...but nasty stuff. You'll see the haze in the pictures...even at NIGHT. Nasty.

Other than that...I really like it. The people here (even in a larger city like Shanghai) are drawn to the Americans... We were taking a group picture earlier...and of course (as you will see when you see the group picture at some point) I'm in the front acting a fool....all the Chinese run up with their cameras and start snapping pictures of us....ha-ha. Sheeeesh. I'll close. Good stuff so far. I'm tired, but having a good time and it has been a really good start.

(1st picture Me with Shanghai skyline day shot, 2nd picture I took as we walked back from dinner..night skyline of Shanghai, 3rd picture is a street scene from Shanghai, 4th picture would be me on top of our hotel..the observation deck)

Where I'll lay my head

2008-07-01T11:51:00.017-05:00

(Click on the pics for more)
Our hotel in Shanghai

It is ROUGH...but someone's gotta do it! Sheeeesh.
We will stay here at the beginning of our trip and at the end.

Our hotel in Beijing...

Hotel in Xian

Hotel in Suzhou

Hotel in Hangzhou

Schedule & Itinerary

2008-06-29T00:13:00.020-05:00

(Most places listed here are LINKS to more information about the place)

Jul 04 Leave USA

Jul O5 Arrival Shanghai (D)
Arrival Shanghai, transfer to your hotel.

Jul 06 Shanghai — Train to Beijing (B.L.D)
Today’s sightseeing includes the Bund, Yu Garden, Nanjing Road or Xintiandi
Take evening train for Beijing leave Shanghai 20:00 PM
Overnight on train (soft sleepers/4 pax per cabin)

Jul 07 Beijing (B.L.D)
Arrive in Beijing 07:00 AM, meet and transfer to the hotel.
Today’s tour starts at Tiananmen Square, the landmark of Beijing, as well as a
symbol of the new China. Proceed to the Imperial Palace (Forbidden City), the
largest and most complete complex of ancient architectures. After lunch, enjoy an
afternoon tour of the lavish Summer Palace. This evening, enjoy Legend of
Kungfu Performance

Jul 08 Beijing (B.L.SD)
Today’s Highlights include a visit to the Great Wall, the most ancient and longest
structure ever erected by man. After lunch, visit the Sacred Way & Ming Tomb,
which houses the tombs of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD -1644 AD).
This evening, taste Peking Roast Duck Dinner

Jul O9 Beijing-Xian (B.LSD)
Transfer for your morning flight to Xian, the great ancient capital of the glorious
Tang Dynasty in the 7th century. Afternoon: we’ll view the astonishing army of the
life sized terracotta warriors that have been standing guard by the tomb of the
Emperor Qin Shi Huang for over 2,000 years. This evening, you will be treated
with Dumping Dinner & Tang Dynasty Performance

Jul l0 Xi’an-Wuhan (B.L)
This morning tour to Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Ancient City Wall & Provincial
Museum
Take evening flight for Wuhan

Arrive at Hubei University
Hubei Class Schedule and Itinerary Part 1

Hubei Class Schedule and Itinerary Part 2

Jul 30 Wuhan-Shanghai- Suzhou (L.D)
Transfer by university to Wuhan airport & take morning flight to Shanghai.
(E-ticket issued by CITS)
Meet at Shanghai airport and drive to Suzhou - “Venice of China”
Tour to Tiger Hill, Humble Administrator’s Garden, Grand Canal and silk factory

Jul 31 Suzhou — Wuzhen - Hangzhou (B.L.SD)
This morning, we drive to Hangzhou, admiringly called “Heaven on Earth” by
travelers. En route, we’ll visit Wuzhen — a famous ancient water town of the region.
Arrival Hangzhou, cruise on the beautiful West Lake. This evening, enjoy local
cuisine

Aug 01 Hangzhou-Shanghai
This morning, tour to Linying Temple and the famous Tea Village in the green valley. After lunch, drive back to Shanghai. Free time on your own.

Aug 02- Shanghai
Depart for home from Pu DOng Airport 4:10pm
Arrive in Chicago 4:50pm
Arrive in Nashville 8:10pm

Up The Yangtze

2008-06-24T18:55:00.002-05:00

I went and saw the new documentary Up The Yangtze last night at the Belcourt here in Nashville.
Tonight is the last night it will be there, but I'm sure it will be on DVD soon enough. It is well worth seeing. I enjoyed it very much. It was nice to see it before I leave next week on my trip.

One of the things I'd like you to notice while you watch the movie is the facial expressions of all the people involved. Their faces say much more than even their body language or their words.

Well worth watching.

Gifts for China

2008-06-24T17:14:00.020-05:00

One of the things we've been asked to do in our preparation for the trip is to get together something to use as little inexpensive "Thank you" gifts for various people we'll meet while in China. (Things NOT MADE IN CHINA!!!) That was not an easy task.

So I had several copies of pictures I've taken of Nashville made and I plan to give them out in little sets tied together with THANK YOU written in Chinese on them.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OF THEM.

Skin of Our Teeth

2008-06-23T08:58:00.004-05:00

Well, at this point in preparing for the trip....there are some interesting concerns!

The travel agent that booked our flights out of Nashville (everyone else is flying out of Memphis except for 3 Nashville people and one Late addition to the trip in Memphis), for some reason booked our flight (on American Airlines) for the 8:30AM flight out of Nashville. That will get us into Chicago O'Hare at 9:55AM. Our flight from Chicago to Shanghai is scheduled to LEAVE at 10:35AM. Um...now I'm not a math genius by any stretch of the imagination...but....uh... that is going to present a problem! ha-ha!

We now have the travel agent trying to get us all booked on the earlier flight of 6:00AM to Chicago.
I'm thinking that won't be too much trouble, and it shouldn't be full...since it is a 6:00AM flight on a holiday (July 4th). We'll see how it goes. I have a plan for whatever happens. If we have to stick with the original flight of 8:30AM then I'm going to pack two larger carry on bags, and just pay the $25 fee American now charges (don't get me started) and just let that be my luggage, with no worries about it NOT arriving in Shanghai with me. (there's no way they can get the checked luggage from the flight to Chicago onto our flight to Shanghai) It will (at best) be a day late...if not LOST somewhere out in airline luggage limbo! ha-ha

If we get the 6:00AM flight, then I plan to take the regular backpack I usually use, and a small backpack as a carry-on.

I have my last "China meeting" this Saturday, June 28th in Memphis. Should have more information at that time.

Meanwhile, China has a few preparations it is busy with too...

Earthquake in Sichuan

2008-05-13T21:19:00.004-05:00

How sad, and tragic for these people and their families.
Keep them in your thoughts.

Many have been concerned about my going to China after the earthquake last week. I appreciate the words of concern, but we will not be anywhere near that region of China. It would be like worrying about people in Nashville, when an earthquake hit Kansas City. It has an impact, but it isn't the area that was hit by the quake.

Shadow of the Silk Road

2008-05-04T11:20:00.005-05:00

In preparing for my trip to China, I have read several books about the country and people of China. (as seen in earlier posts) I have now ventured out to not just China, but to the region of Eastern Asia. With the book Marco Polo, I read more of the history of China during the Middle Ages, as well as the Silk Road during that time. I am now reading Shadow of the Silk Road which deals with the places/nations found along the old Silk Road(s) today. The British author Colin Thubron travels from X'ian, China to Anitoch (Antakya) in Syria.
X'ian is of special interest to me because I will be visiting there on my trip. It is the home to the "Original Emperor" The Yellow Emperor Qin (prnounced Ch'n), China is named after him. X'ian is also the location of the Terracotta Army that was discovered there around 1972. This is one of the places along with the Great Wall, that I am highly anticipating visiting this summer.

Hubei University

2008-04-24T18:55:00.013-05:00

My "home" for at least two weeks of my trip will be an apartment on the campus of Hubei University. The following images are what the university displays to students interested in applying to the University. So I'm guessing my accommodations will be similar. Looks very nice.
We will have INTERNET access while there, so I should have no problem keeping the blog going. Now, if I can just get over the FOOD thing.....haha.

Not sure I'll have much use for the Television....since I don't speak enough Chinese for it to make any difference. ha ha.

Panda Cubs

2008-04-24T17:49:00.003-05:00

How can you NOT look at these guys and smile? Amazing

Marco Polo

2008-04-20T16:36:00.013-05:00

As a person from the West, that is about to go and spend a month in the Far East...I can't help but feel a connection to one of best known of the earlier visitors from the West, Marco Polo. I have to admit I have always had a strong interest in Marco Polo and his journey. I guess my love of travel has pulled me to his adventure, and his story . I also find it very interesting that so many people still question that he actually made the trip all the way to China...but as much as I have read and studied about Marco Polo, it is very obvious he made the journey and fell in love with Cathay (the Medieval name for China) and the people there, not the least of which was their impressive leader...Kublai Khan. Marco most certainly was amazed and impressed with this most powerful ruler of 1271.

Having said all that, it is amazing how little information there is in "ONE PLACE" that deals with this story. (other than from Polo's own book of course...which is good reading as well) That is until recently. MARCO POLO: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen is my newest read in my preparation for visiting China. It does an excellent job of not only using Marco's writings, but also researching other sources from the time, and visiting the places that Marco visited. I am about 1/2 through this and it is EXCELLENT!

Another source, is from National Geographic. Mike Edwards and his photographer companion, Michael Yamashita traveled in the footsteps of Marco Polo and recorded what the current world is like along Marco's trail. They traveled 6,000 miles through 8 countries.

The slideshow is very nice.

The return home site can be found here.

There is also an online exhibit put together by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, that is interactive and has some good information.

In the Footseps of Marco Polo

Soaring World Food Prices

2008-04-17T18:37:00.007-05:00

The growing crisis of higher food prices (particularly of grains) throughout various parts of the world, is something that should be watched. The growing demand for cheaper fuels..(ethenol for example) had caused the price of grains such as corn to triple in the past couple of years or so. It takes the same amount of corn to feed one person for a year, that is required to fill one 25 gallon tank of an SUV. Where are the priorities...particularly in this nation. China certainly has reasons for concern as more and more of their 1.3 billion people begin driving cars, while others...many others are on the verge of starvation.

CLICK HERE

Before The Deluge

2008-04-07T18:15:00.008-05:00

The next book I am reading in my preparation for visiting China, is The Deluge: The Vanishing World of the Yangtze's Three Gorges by Deirdre Chetham. It deals with the impact of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. (The three gorges are Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge, and the Xiling Gorge)

Numerous towns and villages along the Yantzge will be flooded, displacing estimates of 1.5 to 3 million people when the Three Gorges Dam is completed (in 2011). Whole cities and villages have been rebuilt hundreds of feet above their original locations, sometimes on opposite sides of the river. This probably brings into play more millions (and billions) of dollars that will be required for this mass exodus of the millions of displaced people. This massive undertaking has already been compared to such Chinese creations as the Grand Canal, and the Great Wall. It is easy to understand the comparison as one looks out over the massive complex that makes the dam. When completed it will be the largest hydro-electric power station in the world, creating a total electric generating capacity of 22,500 megawatts. The dam itself was created using a model of the TVA system here in the United States. It was created as a means of flood control and drought relief as well as a means of producing hydro-electric power for the millions.

What will be the world's largest hydroelectric dam is under construction in the remote Three Gorges area of China's Upper Yangtze River. Of the nearly 1500 towns that will be submerged when the project is complete, the author focuses on a handful that she knows well from her experiences as a river guide and lecturer. She describes their residents involved in their daily affairs-working, worshiping, getting by-even as the flood waters ineluctably rise around them. In some cases, communities that have existed for thousands of years, whose entire histories and cultures are centered on the river, that have survived flood, famine, and war, will be forced to uproot themselves forever. Against this backdrop, the author also recounts the broader controversies and political deal-making that went into the decision to build the dam. This book had to be written now because in just a few years these people and their world will be gone. -From Library Journal

There is also an excellent NPR series on the Three Gorges Dam and the impact on the people and landscape in this area of China.

Chinese Lessons

2008-03-31T22:48:00.006-05:00

The second book in my study of China prior to the trip is CHINESE LESSONS by John Pomfret.

From the jacket cover....

CHINESE LESSONS: Five Classmates, and the Story of the New China is Washington Post reporter John Pomfret’s evocative recounting of the lives of his former classmates in the Nanjing University History Class of 1982. As one of the first American students to live and study with Chinese after the revolution, Pomfret saw the country as few Americans had. Leaving China in 1982, Pomfret returned for the Tiananmen Square protests and the crackdown of June 4, 1989. Expelled by the Chinese government at that point, he again returned to live from 1998-2005 as the Post's bureau chief in Beijing.

Pomfret uses the lives of his classmates as a vehicle for telling China's story, one of the most tumultuous the modern world has ever known. His classmates came from villages and cities; some were Red Guards; others were beaten by Red Guards; some siblings starved to death during the calamitous Great Leap Foward...

This book is almost too much to take at times. The unbelievable cruelty that was put upon some of these people causes me to stop and actually catch my breath. It truly is amazing what people, "everyday" people can endure.

Whereas Oracle Bones was something that dealt with the recent modern history of China (1990s-2000s), this book...although it does jump forward to the present, spends most of the time in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, opening up the Cultural Revolution of Moa and the incredible cruelty and many times stupidity of his reign, from an "insider's" view.

Worth the read!

You can also catch John Pomfret here on

Qing, Dragons, Red Lacquer

2008-03-30T11:06:00.014-05:00

Yesterday was our group's second meeting in Memphis. We met at the Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art. This isn't a very large museum, but it does have a wonderful collection of Chinese artifacts. There are many amazing pieces of jade and ivory carvings. Check out the mystery balls if you go, or the jade chains that are long chains made of jade that are cut from ONE piece of jade.
It really is amazing.

We learned some interesting facts about the imperial world of the Qing dynasties and about Chinese imperial dragons. I'll mention three things here that stood out.

First: The Qing dynasty is also known as the Manchurian Dynasty. It was the last ruling dynasty of China prior to the founding of The People's Republic of China. The Manchurian were horsemen that were not ethnic Han Chinese, so there are some differences in their rule.
One of these can be seen in the design of the imperial robes. If you look at the robes prior to the Qing (pronounced Ching) dynasty, they don't have cuffs on the robes. They are either flared out and large or they are just straight sleeves, like the image below.

The Qing/Manchurians were horsemen from the plains, and greatly loved and depended on the horse. It is thought that the cuffs on their robes, such as the previous image to the top left, were formed to look like the horse's hoof.

Also notice that both of these robes are yellow. That is the imperial color. You will also notice they have the imperial dragon on them(click the images for a more detailed view of the dragon). The imperial dragon is different from the other dragons, because he has 5 claws. Other Chinese nobles would have dragons with 2 or 3 or 4 claws, but only the emperor would have the five clawed dragon.

Below is the Qing Imperial Dragon. Notice the yellow background and the five claws.
Another interesting thing about the Chinese Imperial Dragon, is that he is made up of nine different parts. He is made from nine different animals. Can you find the nine different animals represented in the dragon?

Another interesting artifact is the red lacquer they use to create objects, anything from a chair to a writing set seen here. They take wood and build the base of the object from the wood. Then the red lacquer is applied many many times until it is thick enough to start carving into the shapes wanted in and on the object(again click on the images for more detail). It is really amazing when you think about the TIME involved in all of these artistic processes. Something that in today's world of instant everything seems virtually impossible, or something that would take at least one lifetime to create.

Chinese Zodiac & Chinese New Year

2008-03-28T11:25:00.013-05:00

The Chinese animal signs are a 12-year cycle used for dating the years. They represent a cyclical concept of time, rather than the Western linear concept of time. The Chinese Lunar Calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, and is constructed in a different fashion than the Western solar calendar. In the Chinese calendar, the beginning of the year falls somewhere between late January and early February. The Chinese have adopted the Western calendar since 1911, but the lunar calendar is still used for festive occasions such as the Chinese New Year. Many Chinese calendars will print both the solar dates and the Chinese lunar dates. (from the site http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/zodiac/zodiac.html)

I am the Ram.

Chinese New Year

Breakfast In China

2008-03-25T11:05:00.015-05:00

One of the main things that people mention when I tell them that I will be in China, is the food. There are those who have an adventurous spirit about trying new things in regard to food...there are the others that are a bit reserved about the cultural "divide" when it comes to the differences in diet.

I must admit if I have any reservations about China, there are two that stand out. One would be about pollution and the other about food. So I have been doing a bit of research on both. I believe that mentally preparing yourself for anything that might be a challenge is 95% of tackling the "problem." So research and knowledge ahead of time helps with this mental preparation.

The following link is one of those sites that is helping in this mental prep.

BREAKFAST in CHINA (and other meals)

Luckily I already have down the art of actually EATING (with chopsticks)...but for those who don't this video might be of some help.

How To Use Chopsticks

And for the cooks out there...
How To Cook Chinese

Peter Hessler

2008-03-24T16:54:00.005-05:00

In his new book, Oracle Bones: A Journey between China's Past and Present, Hessler, who has lived in China for the past nine years and is the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, looks at the country through a kaleidoscopic lens of history, archeology, language, and contemporary culture.The title Oracle Bones refers to the earliest known writing in East Asia, inscriptions from the Shang dynasty more than three thousand years ago. As Hessler follows contemporary events, he returns again and again to these fragile first records of history in China, exploring the tension between a nation's troubled past and its determination to look to the future. His narrative follows individuals who make their way through a changing China. By following these stories, and interweaving them with portraits of archeology and history, Hessler gives the reader a new perspective on the dramatic transformation of today's China.... (from WGBH public television in Boston)

FOR VIDEO: CLICK HERE

This is a link to a speech Hessler gave in Boston on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at
The Boston Athenaeum

You may also read TIME's Asian Journey that Hessler wrote about his journey back to Fuling, the setting of his first book RIVER TOWN.

Pinyin

2008-03-23T15:07:00.002-05:00

Chinese writing dates back at least 3,500 years. Chinese writing is a combination of phonemes and pictographs. The largest Chinese dictionary contains more than 50,000 characters, but only about four thousand characters are needed for everyday use.
There are many dialects in the Chinese language. A dialect is a form of language used only in certain places or among certain groups. Chinese people may not understand each other when they speak, but all Chinese people can read and understand the same written characters.
In 1958, China adopted the Pinyin system of phonetic writing. The Pinyin system uses Roman letters more familiar to Americans. Since then, Americans have been encouraged to change their pronunciation and spelling of Chinese names. Most Americans referred to the Chinese capital as "Peking." (pe-KING) We now know it as "Beijing." (bay-ZHING)

This site is yet another great practice tool for Pinyin. I have found it very interesting how many different sites there are like this for English speaking people. I think that itself is very telling.

Pinyin Practice Page

Mandarin Pronunciation Guide

2008-03-19T12:23:00.021-05:00

This site is very simple to use, and it will look up phrases for you and pronounce them.
How To Pronounce Basic Mandarin Chinese

Pronunciation Guide:

There are four tones, which are indicated by numbers or directional lines:

1 (flat), 2 (rising), 3 (dipping then rising), and 4 (falling).

"Q" is pronounced "ch"
"Qu" is pronounced "chree"
"X" is pronounced "sh"
"Zh" is pronounced "dj"
"Sh" is pronounced "ss" with your tongue curled toward the roof of your mouth
"I" is pronounced "ee"
"ao" is pronounced "ow"
"uo" is pronounced "aw"
"ie" is pronounced "eeyeh"
"ian" is pronounced "eeyen"
"ai" is pronounced like the letter "I"
"ei" is pronounced like the letter "a"
Beijingers end almost everything with "er" or "ar"

PLEASANTRIES:

Nihao or Nihao ma: "Hello" or "How are you?" Universal greeting.
Xie Xie: Thank you
Fu Wu Ren: Server. You might also hear "Xiao Jie," meaning waitress.
Man Zhou: Literally: "Walk slowly." Said in parting, i.e. safe travels.
Shi Fu: Literally: "Teacher." Used colloquially to mean "sir."
Zai Jian: Goodbye

SHOPPING:

Duo shao qian?: "How much?" In Beijing,
the regional accent might sound like Duor qian?
Tai gui!: "Too expensive!" Use for haggling.
Zhe ge: This one
Na ge: That one

DIRECTIONALS:
Zai nar?: "Where is it?"
Qu nar?: "Where are you going?"

Dong: East
Xi: West
Nan: South
Bei: North
Zhong: Center
Hai: Body of water
Men: Gate or door, used in a lot of street names
Wai: Without
Nei: Within
Guo: Country
Jing: Capital
Jie: Major avenue
Lu: Street or road
Hutong: Traditional alleyway
Zhan: Station or stop

FOOD:
Xiao chi: Snacks, usually something hearty,
like noodles or dumplings
Fan: Rice
Mian: Noodles
Bing: Pancake or crepe
Bao: Bun

Jiao zhi: Boiled dumplings

Thanks to National Geographic
for the above information in their
BEFORE YOU GO section.

Chinese Language

2008-03-15T19:39:00.018-05:00

One of the most difficult, and yet most interesting parts of this trip will be learning some of the Chinese language (Mandarin). We already started learning some phrases at our first meeting. I find reading them correctly when they are written phonetically for me in English...is not that hard. Trying to read ANYTHING in Chinese script...is another thing all together. Below is my first lesson.

THANK YOU=Xie Xie Ni
(or just Xie Xie)

The X sound tends to sound like the SH sound in English, but actually has more of a hard sound. It isn't the SH as in SHe....it is more the sound SH and then follow through with kind of a buzz sound. Sort of like an electric razor sound that follows...ha ha.
(Just watch the video below)

Ni is like (Knee)you can use it or not use the Ni for THANK YOU.
So Xie Xie Ni or just Xie Xie (I think that is the difference between THANK YOU and THANKS) The idea is the same.

Money & China

2008-03-14T10:11:00.005-05:00

Well, China is one place in the world where the dollar has a better value than in places like Europe (it is going to hurt this summer going to London...with the pound being 2/1 with the dollar....and the Euro in Paris 1.5/1 dollar.)
But in China the YUAN or RENMINBI converts to about 7/1 dollar. Thank goodness.

Time Difference

2008-03-14T00:17:00.005-05:00

The time difference between Beijing and Shanghai, China & Nashville, TN (CST) is 13 hours. So if it is 12 midnight on Thursday in Nashville, it will be 1:00pm Friday in Beijing. They are 13 hours ahead of Nashville. The WORLD CLOCK & DATE page is useful for converting time across the globe.

Excellent Book & Media

2008-03-13T23:44:00.003-05:00

As part of our preparation for our visit to China, we are expected to read and share with the group that is going on the trip a couple of books and/or articles that we have read about China. I have been searching across the internet for good books and articles and really any kind of information about modern China that could help me understand where I am going, and what to expect (as much as I can possibly do while I am here on the other side of the world for the moment).

I have just started reading ORACLE BONES: A Journey Through Time in China by Peter Hessler. Hessler lived in China for some time teaching English and working for The Wall Street Journal. He is now the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker and contributes to National Geographic. It is a wonderful read so far (I've completed the first two chapters and have started chapter 3).

I have also run across several great resources from NPR and PBS' NEWSHOUR program. From both of these I have already compiled several links for my students to use next year in our study of China. They can be found at my China Media Guide Portaportal site

A Visa for China

2008-03-13T18:19:00.000-05:00

To stay in China for five weeks we had to get a VISA. The organizers of our trip from the University of Memphis (specifically, Kristina Yvette Thomas) were going to send in all of the participants' passports together and get the visas all at once. Of course I had to be difficult and not be able to do that. I am taking a group of students to London and Paris on May 29, and the passports for China must be physically present at the Chinese embassy/consulate to get the visa...for my passport to go out with the groups scheduled deadline of mid-May, my passport would not have been back in time for me to have it for London/Paris....so....

I had to go through the process of getting my visa on my own. I didn't like the idea of having my passport in the mail anymore than it had to be. I initially thought I would have my friend that we will call "Mary" (you'll see why the false name in a moment)who lives in Washington, D.C. take my passport in to the Chinese embassy and get my visa for me. (Unlike your passport, you do NOT have to be personally present at the embassy/consulate to get the visa...just your passport and the money) "Mary" was in town for a few days at the beginning of March, I would give her the passport and the money required ($130)...she could get the visa...and mail it to me...this way only putting my passport in mail transit, one way! But alas...that wasn't going to work, because "Mary" is an agent for the N.S.A. and she reminded me after regretfully declining that it would not look all that good for a member of the N.S.A. to just walk into the Chinese embassy....which is equal to walking onto Chinese sovereign territory. It would almost LITERALLY take an act of Congress to get the okay for her to enter there...so I scratched that idea.

The next option was to use the service that the UM folks would be using to get all the other visas, which would require my putting the said passport in the mail twice.
Another small problem with this method also meant another $57 would be spent using this service, and paying the shipping. I used UPS to send all the documentation to the China Visa Service Center which is located in Houston, Texas of all places. Houston, Texas??? Yep, in addition to the embassy in Washington, D.C., there are Chinese Consulates in several large cities throughout the United States where one may acquire a visa (New York, Houston, Chicago, L.A.,and San Francisco). This service is a third party that charges around $60...(which also includes shipping costs) to get your passport, carry it in to the Consulate and get your visa for you.

There is a bit of a lengthy form to complete for the Chinese that must be submitted with an order form for the service center...etc. I filled all of this out and took it to the UPS store to send it out on March 3, 2008. In the process of all the above, I somehow failed to include a passport size photo of myself on the Chinese form/application...I realized this the evening of March 3. So I called the service the next day, and the lady there told me to just take a digital picture that was two inches by two inches with a white background (like a passport picture would have) and email it to them. I did that, sent it to them via email and all was taken care of with that process.

Today I received my passport with the visa pasted inside!

Just another point on this journey (before it even starts?) that excited about!

IBO & JTM

2008-03-13T15:19:00.005-05:00

A major reason I was interested in this trip, was due to our (John Trotwood Moore Middle School) new status (2007-2008 was our first official year) as an IBO Middle Years Programme school. We have been working towards certification for about five years now, and we are working to have more and more of an international emphasis in our school.

When the email arrived from Becky Verner, (Metro Nashville's Social Studies Program Assistant) explaining the opportunity, I decided this would be a great chance to enhance the program. I talked to my principal Jill Pittman about helping with some of the financial side of the trip, and she was 100% behind the idea of my going and doing whatever it would take to get me there. It has been amazing how much support she and the school have given me in this effort (um...even the sign below...haha).
It is also interesting that the other two participants that will be going to China from Nashville, are IBO teachers at Hunter's Lane High School, and I'm sure have similar goals for their school that I do with this trip.

I plan to not only bring back materials, knowledge, and ideas from China for the students, but also a chance to come back and share what I've learned with teachers in my school as well as in Metro Nashville Schools. This blog is going to be part of that. I hope to have this available to my kids and friends. It will also be a great chance to come back later and keep up with what I experienced in China.

Hubei University

2008-03-10T23:06:00.002-05:00

While we are in China, we will be staying in Wuhan for about 3 weeks. We will be staying on the Hubei University campus. Here is a little bit about Hubei.