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.

Dali, Yunnan

Sunday evenings are great, especially when you have had a fun filled busy weekend. The chance to sit, relax and think about the weekends events with a big cup of tea is so gratifying, which is what I am doing right now.

This weekend, my roommate-Whitney, myself, and three of our friends from Kunming took a trip to Dali. Dali is west of Kunming, about 5-6 hours by bus and is surrounded by a stunning mountain backdrop, the Cang Shan (Jade Green Mountains) to the west, and Erhai Hu lake (the 7^th largest lake in China) to the east. Dali is home to the Bai minority group, who have inhabited the region for thousands of years. We used this trip as a nice vacation, to get away from the buzzing city life of Kunming and breathe a breath of fresh air.

We started the weekend bright and early Saturday by taking a chair lift ride up the Jade Green Mountains. The ride up the mountain was nice and leisurely, giving us plenty of time to take in the view and snap many photos. At the top there was a Buddhist temple, as well as a hostel and plenty of tourist knick-knack souvenirs. Three of us chose to hike across the mountain to another cable car lift about 10 km away, while the other two in our group chose to go back down the mountain and explore more of Old Town Dali.

The hike was absolutely beautiful and breathe-taking. It was a paved pathway on the edge of the mountain side, fairly safe but no guard rails or fences. I’m pretty sure in America there would have to be some sort of barrier with all of our safety rules. We could see for miles and miles, taking in Dali, the lake and more mountains off in the distance. It was great to take a few hours to spend time hiking and listening to the mountains from 4000m up. The silence was one of the best parts.

After our hike, we had a wonderful lunch in Old Town Dali at a quaint café. We decided for our afternoon activity it would be worth seeing the cormorante fishing on Erhai Hu. This is a traditional fishing method where fishermen train cormorante birds to dive down into the water, catch a fish and bring it back up. The fisherman ties a string around the base of the birds throat as not to swallow the larger fish and the fisherman can pull out the fish from the birds mouth. This method is sadly used today only for tourist attractions.

The rest of our weekend was filled with shopping, relaxing and eating. I never felt rushed and was able to tune out and enjoy a new place. Our bus ride home was quite an interesting way to end a relaxful weekend. The highway to Kunming is under construction and our bus had to take an alternate route. The road was a dirt road weaving around the mountains and old villages. It was quite bumpy and I spent most the trip pr-ying to not get motion sickness. Thankfully we all made it back safe and sound.

I continue with my language classes this week. I started at a school that teaches one-on-one in a nice and slow fashion. I focused on listening and learning the sounds last week, and this week I will begin to actually speak. The entire first week is simply listening, as many of the sounds are brand new to an English speaking ear. Please pr-y that I understand the complexities of a new language and continue to learn more about getting around Kunming while meeting new faces and making new friends.

Celebrating the little things

Here in China, where nothing is the same and I can’t read a single thing, I have to use different strategies to accomplish the little things in life. For example, buying shampoo and conditioner. How do I know which is shampoo and which is conditioner? I can’t read what the bottle says because everything is in Chinese characters. So I use the logic that usually shampoo has the lid on the top and conditioner has the upside down lid on the bottom. Small victory.

I have to learn the bus routes and roads by land marks, not by street signs. I can hop on the #1 bus in front of my neighborhood and take it down the street, across the train tracks, past the university, turns left at the movie theatre, etc. The #98 bus goes across the train tracks, past “Dona Donuts”, past all the cell phone stores, and into the city center. No idea what street it is on, but I recognize when I pass all of these things, I know to get off at certain points for certain things. Small victory.

Odd things to get used to in China:

They don’t throw toilet paper in the toilet but in a garbage can. The plumbing is not the greatest, so all toilet paper gets put in the trash instead of flushing it. Sounds gross at first, but I have gotten used to it.

No dryers. We either wash our clothes by hand or in a washing machine and then everything is hung up to air dry. Not a big deal, just getting used to putting on slightly stiff clothing at first.

Chopsticks. I was never very good at them at home, but when you use them for every meal, you get better pretty quickly. My hand muscles are also adjusting to the grip needed for chopsticks. Slippery noodles can be a challenge.

Using cash for everything. They don’t use credit or debit cards to buy things, only to take money out of the atm, so I am getting used to carrying a lot of bills around with me all the time.

Yelling for the waitress. The waitress does not come around unless you have called her, usually by yelling loudly across the restaurant. Sounds rude at first, but if you didn’t, you wouldn’t get any service.

The currency exchange. The current exchange is about $1 USD = 6.8 RMB. So when I went to Wal-Mart (yes they have Wal-Mart in China), I spent about 400 RMB, which sounds like a lot, but is only about $60.

So many motorbikes and bicycles on the street! The traffic is crazy and I could never drive in it, but the Chinese have it figured out. Lanes don’t really mean anything and stoplights are optional to some people. Motorbikes drive on the street and on the sidewalk and pedestrians are on their own. Everyone honks at everyone, but it works for them. I have not seen any accidents yet or many dents in cars. The bigger the vehicle, the more right of way you have.

More to come...

At the city center, Kunming

Sights around Jiangmen

A really cool art gallery we found in Jiangmen

Fun Chinese lanterns in Jiangmen

Our table at Hotpot Restaurant. There was a burner in the middle of the table and you ordered things to put in the pot of boiling broth. Delicious.

The Great Wall bottle of red wine we got at dinner

What a common road looks like in Jiangmen

View of Jiangmen from the English Center

I've arrived to my new home!!

"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown."

-Author unknown, excerpt from The Shack

I have arrived in China safe and sound. Thank you for all your thoughts and pr-yers for my safe travels and arrival. I flew into Hong Kong last week, July 7th and had the pleasure to spend a week in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, before coming to Kunming, Yunnan Province, which will be my new home. I had all the travel jitters of new smells, new tastes, new sights and new people. I love that part about traveling, the unexpected pleasures of life that present themselves in a completely different light. By seeing things in a new and different light, sometimes I feel like a new born baby, just entering the world with big eyes and a big smile.

I was in Jiangmen to get our English Teaching project started and on its way. CWEF had 7 volunteers come from to U.S. to teach English to Chinese English teachers and to Chinese children. It was great getting to know them and hearing all of their stories. A mother and daughter came together and I was touched by their story. The daughter, Suzy, adopted a Chinese girl from the Yunnan Province 4 years ago, so this is her second time to China, the first was to get her new daughter! Suzy's mother, Sandy, expressed to me walking down the street one day in Jiangmen she couldn't help but think what her grand-daughters life would have been like if she had not been adopted. It is amazing what G-d has in store for all of us and very exciting and scary stepping into the unknown, completely blind and following His will. The only thing I can do is trust Him and know I am in His hands.

I arrived in Kunming yesterday and am getting settled into my apartment which I love. It is very spacious and big, especially for China standards. I have two roommates, Whitney, the current Service Coordinator for CWEF (I will be taking her place when she leaves in December) and JJ, our Chinese roommate who speaks very good English. Today, Whitney and I went to Wal-Mart (yes they have Wal-Mart in China) to pick up a few things that I could not bring over in two suitcases. I have to rely on Whitney a lot right now mostly because of the language barrier. I know next to nothing when it comes to Mandarin Chinese, so Whitney is teaching me how to get around, buy things, bargain, etc. The next couple of days will consist of getting to know the area, the transportation, our office staff and meeting new friends and faces.

Please keep me in your pr-yers as I struggle to learn the language and adjust to Chinese life. I am thoroughly enjoying my time here and can only hope it will continue to get better. Pictures are soon to come!