John's Photographs

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"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Great Wall of China VIDEO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LOVE YOU GUYS!

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

We LOVE MINNIE!!!!

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

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

Deb, Minnie, and Sharon

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

Last Day of Class at Hubei

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

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



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

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

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

Closing ceremonies tomorrow.

Wudang Mountain Weekend

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

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

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

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

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

by walking out on this ledge and burning the incense in

the little brass altar at the end.

A larger altar with incense burning.

Hanging with a friend.

Yin and Yang

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

More pics here