Exploring Eastern China

I fortunately had the opportunity to travel to Shanghai and the surrounding area for 9 days before our CWEF orientation at the end of August. Myself and two other Americans who teach English in Yunnan met at the Shanghai airport and headed into the largest city in China, Shanghai, population 15 million. We took the maglev from the airport into the city, a train that travels at over 300 mph! It took us 10 minutes to travel the distance it would normally take over an hour on the metro. We settled into our quaint hostel, preparing ourselves for the next day, when we were heading to the World Expo.

Shanghai and The World Expo

Being at the World Expo was a bit surreal. Not having heard much about the event back in America, the World Expo has been advertising around China since the 2008 Olympics. Shanghai basically revamped their city, building new metro lines, roads, hotels, etc. We went first thing in the morning to try and avoid as many long lines as possible. We went into the Chinese Province Pavilion first, to check out the different provinces and see our home province, Yunnan! Each province is unique making China very culturally diverse. The rest of the day truly felt like traveling around the world. To name just a few, we went into the Isreal, New Zealand, Peru, and Africa pavilions plus many more. It was an extremely hot day, above 100° F, so the length of the lines outside the pavilions determined a lot of which ones we went into.

The rest of our time in Shanghai consisted of Yu Yuan (Yu Gardens), The Bund, Renmin Guangchang (People’s Square), and my favorite, the Shanghai Museum. The museum had a painting and calligraphy section that I spent all my time in. My eyes were drawn to the traditional landscape paintings on long horizontal and vertical scrolls. The brush strokes, the ink, the paper, the mountains, the bamboo, the flowers, all so mesmerizing and beautiful. Needless to say, I am truly inspired to dust off my oil paints and brushes and get started on some Chinese landscapes myself.

Suzhou

Our next stop was Suzhou, a large city west of Shanghai, 2 hrs away by bus. Suzhou is known for its gardens, so we choose one out of the many, Zhouzheng Yuan (The Humble Administrators Garden) and spent several hours exploring the lush greenery, ponds and flowers. This garden was owned by a rich administrator and was very large and peaceful. It was a rather large tourist attraction so the garden lost some of its tranquil aspects to the crowds of tour groups, but I was able to sneak off into some nooks and relax next to some beautiful flowers and ponds.

Suzhou also offers some beautiful pagodas. We went to the Beisa Ta (North Temple Pagoda), climbed to the very top and looked out upon the entire city of Suzhou. It was interesting seeing ancient pagodas in the distance representing China’s past, and the tall, modern buildings and construction cranes representing China’s future, all together on one horizon. We also went to a silk museum and witnessed silk strands being extracted from the cocoons of silkworms. I really wanted to buy a whole silk bed set, but I don’t yet live that glamorous life.

Wuzhen & Hangzhou

On our way to the next big city, Hangzhou, we stopped in a small water town, Wuzhen. It was similar to Venice, Italy, with canals as streets, weaving around the small town, lots of bridges and boats transporting goods and people. Back on the bus, we headed for Hangzhou, known for its West Lake, one of the most famous lakes in China. It is actually pictured on the 1 RMB money bill. There we sauntered around the lake, taking a boat out to one of the islands, explored tea fields and a tea museum, hiked around the mountains and temples, and enjoyed the scenery and fresh air.

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain)

After Hangzhou, we took another bus to Huangshan, a place famous for its large mountains. I had heard this place was where many of the old artists went to paint traditional Chinese landscapes, but I was not prepared for how gigantic and stunning they were going to be. We took a cable car to the top and were instantly hit with large rock mountains and a view of the surrounding area for miles and miles. The images of the ancient scrolls I had seen at the Shanghai museum came rushing back to me as suddenly I was looking at the mountains in person. We hiked for most the morning and afternoon, trying to enjoy the natural scenery with hundreds of thousands Chinese tourists. I have never seen so many people on a mountain before. It was up on that mountain that I was reminded I am living in a country with a billion more people than the United States.

Overall the trip was really cool. It is always great to see different parts of the country you are living in, especially one as large as China. I was very happy to come home to Kunming and sleep in my own bed again. The best part was, I do feel like this is my current home, not just some place I am visiting.

Christmas in August & The Waiting Game

It’s Christmas in August here in Kunming! Receiving mail in China isn’t always the most reliable and not the most secure, so we have all our mail sent to our Hong Kong office. Then whenever anybody comes over they bring our mail, letters and boxes. Well, my supervisor flew in from Hong Kong for CWEF orientation this week and brought all of our mail. I got three packages! One was a box my mom sent over shortly after I left of things I forgot or felt I really missed here and wanted, along with some delicious goodies. (I am craving mac n cheese so much!) The next two are birthday boxes. The catch is, my birthday is not until August 31^st. So I am patiently waiting till my actual birthday to open these next two boxes. They are sitting in my room staring at me, whispering, “open me, open me”. I will stand strong and wait until next week, when I will have a wonderful mini Christmas in China, opening my birthday boxes.

Bamboo Temple

This past weekend, my roommate Jian Juan, took me to the Bamboo Temple up in the mountains of Kunming. We took a bus/van up the switchbacks which gave me a beautiful view of the city below and the mountains to the east.

The strong smell of incense hit me instantly as we entered onto the temple grounds. There were several buildings and courtyards, all housing different g-ds. Many of the alters had apples, bananas, and different kinds of offerings left for the g-ds. Many people were bowing down to each of the g-ds, burning papers/offerings, praying and reading about the history of the temple. It is hard to understand what the Chinese believe about Buddhism, where their hearts and minds are at and how much of their daily lives are devoted to this religion.

Talking to my roommate who is Buddhist, she told me that each g-d represents something different; wealth, work success, health, strength, school studies, etc. You can pr-y to the specific g-d for the area you need help in. I then explained to her that we, as Chr-stians, also pray for all of those things, but to one G-d, that we attribute everything we have and receive to our one and only G-d. We also go to church to feel closer to G-d, but that doesn’t limit our relationship with Him to within the church building.

My heart was saddened by physically being at the temple and watching the people bowing down to statues and paintings of multiple deities. There is a lot of work to be done here and I can only trust in Him to work in these people’s hearts so that they can see the true G-d.

I did have one funny moment at the temple. We were walking around inside one of the buildings looking at all the different statues that represented this one g-d. There were multiple signs that read “Quiet Please” so I was trying to whisper while talking to Jian Juan. All of a sudden a cellphone goes off. I turn around and one of the Buddhist monks pulls his cellphone out of his robe and starts talking on it, quite loudly. I just had to laugh to myself at this merge of ancient traditional methods and modern technology.

Please keep the people of China in your pr-yers as all they know is to bow down to multiple deities, that He may work in their hearts and lead them to His will.